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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Canada, nearly a decade after being shot several times in an Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec City, survivors are focusing on small wins after the brutal attack of January of 2017, meanwhile at an international conference hosted by the Israeli government in Jerusalem, European far-right leaders claimed that antisemitism is a “imported phenomenon” blaming immigrants and Muslims for the problem, and lastly in the United Kingdom, according to a new report out by the Women and Equalities Committee, Muslim women are ‘disproportionately likely’ to face hostility and abuse, with harassment occurring in everyday situations. Our recommended read of the day is by Nesrine Malik for The Guardian on U.S. President Donald Trump’s targeting of the Somali community, noting that their multiple identities (Black, Muslim, and immigrant) render them targets for racism, Islamophobia, and anti-immigration sentiments. This and more below:
United States
‘Political thunderstorm’: inside Trump’s attacks on the Somali community | Recommended Read
This week, distressing scenes continue to unfold on the streets of Minneapolis, as confrontations between US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and protesters intensify. Behind the headlines, there are communities, in the US and beyond, for whom this is a generationally traumatic moment. I spoke to Somali experts and activists across the diaspora, in Mogadishu, and in the state of Minnesota, which has the largest Somali community in the US. The picture that emerged was of anxiety but also solid resolve. For almost all of his second term, Donald Trump has been fixated on Somali Americans, making derogatory comments about both them and Somalia, linking his opinion of them to justify anti-immigration policies in general, but particularly in Minnesota, a state that is home to more than 100,000 people of Somali descent. He appears to be particularly personally exercised by Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who is of Somali origin, and who has exchanged barbs with him, taking his revenge on her entire demographic. So deep is his hatred that when Omar was attacked this week by a man who sprayed her with an unknown substance, Trump responded by calling her a fraud who “probably had herself sprayed”. But the broad reason for picking on the Somali community, according to Prof Idil Abdi Osman, at Leicester University, is that it is convenient. The shift towards the right in Europe and the US, she told me, constitutes a “political thunderstorm” that “Somalis have become absorbed in” because “they become an embodiment of the kind of communities that Trump can easily target and use as a scapegoat – that is convenient for the populist narrative”. read the complete article
The Case Against the Department of Homeland Security
The renewed calls to abolish ICE are an understandable reaction to an intolerable reality. ICE has become dangerous and unaccountable by design under the second Trump administration, with its deportation quotas, dehumanizing rhetoric about immigrants and extrajudicial pronouncements that agents have “absolute immunity.” The assault on Minneapolis has demonstrated what can happen when that toxic mix of incentives is unleashed on a community. ICE has operated more like an invading army than a force for public safety. But the rot goes deeper at the Department of Homeland Security, the behemoth that controls ICE, Customs and Border Protection (C.B.P.) and myriad other federal agencies, from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the Secret Service. Since its founding in 2002, a combination of organizational flaws and mission creep has allowed D.H.S. to evolve into the out-of-control domestic security apparatus we have today, one that views the very people it is supposed to protect as threats, not humans. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, politicians sparred over how to balance security and liberty, as if they sat on opposite sides of a scale. Our obsession with security — aided by politicians determined not to appear “weak” and Supreme Court decisions that empowered the presidency — has obliterated that balance. As it has in other countries, the pursuit of security paved the way for the consolidation of power. Now, Minnesota has neither security nor liberty. read the complete article
Canada
9 years after mosque attack, paralyzed survivor says Quebec secularism laws hinder progress
Nearly a decade after being shot several times in the Islamic Cultural Centre in the Sainte-Foy neighbourhood of Quebec City, Aymen Derbali is focused on the small wins. He can move his fingers on his right hand, make his own coffee and is now strong enough to grab his laptop. Derbali was paralyzed from the chest down after a gunman opened fire in his mosque on Jan. 29, 2017, killing six men and injuring 19. Derbali had been near the mosque's entrance when the gunman opened fire. Rushing toward the shooter in an attempt to destabilize him, he was shot several times, but still tried to get back up. Nine years later, he’s focusing on his family, community and advocacy — particularly at a time when he says Islamophobia is surging in the province in the wake of several pieces of legislation reinforcing secularism in Quebec. “Fighting Islamaphobia, this is my duty,” he said. “I have to raise my voice.” He says the secularism laws introduced in Quebec over the past few years under the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government undermine efforts to foster understanding. read the complete article
Montreal vigil marks Quebec City mosque attack anniversary as Islamophobia persists
Organizers of a vigil in Montreal to mark the ninth anniversary of a mass shooting at a Quebec City mosque that left six people dead and 19 wounded say they are speaking out about racism at a time when Islamophobia is high in Quebec. “We’re still at risk for it to happen again,” said Jawad Kanani, a board member of Muslim Awareness Week. A number of activities were planned as part of Muslim Awareness Week in the city, including a late afternoon vigil to mark the anniversary of the Jan. 29, 2017, attack. The weeklong initiative was created in the aftermath of the shooting to address what organizers describe as a lack of understanding about Muslim communities. Samira Laouni, a co-founder of Muslim Awareness Week, said the annual vigil honours the victims and those injured while also standing against Islamophobia. “We want to keep our memories alive,” Laouni said. Kanani said the vigil comes at a time when many Muslims in Quebec continue to feel unsafe. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Abuse targeted at Muslim women is ‘damaging’ lives and having a ‘corrosive effect’ on community cohesion, WEC warns
Following the first of the summer riots, the Women and Equalities Committee examined the impact on increasing tensions on women in Muslim communities across our country. The report is part of the Committee’s wider ongoing inquiry into Community Cohesion, and the committee found that rising online, verbal and physical abuse and discrimination faced by Muslim women is having a ‘deeply damaging impact on individual lives and a corrosive effect on community cohesion’. Muslim women are ‘disproportionately likely’ to face hostility and abuse, the report found, with harassment occurring in everyday situations, including in shops and on public transport. Such freedom-restricting harassment, both from direct experience and the fear of experiencing it, leads to self-censorship and a withdrawal from participation in public life, WEC’s report ‘Discrimination, harassment and abuse against Muslim women’ cautioned. Online abuse, particularly on social media platforms, is a growing concern, the report said, as it called on the Government to review whether the existing legislative framework, including the Online Safety Act, is fit for purpose in tackling it and whether penalties on those who breach regulations are tough enough. read the complete article
Muslim family living in fear after pig’s head left on their garden gate
A father of two has described how his family have been left traumatised after a pig’s head was left on the gate of their family home in Stockport. CCTV footage shows two masked men approaching the house at around 1.30am on the morning of January 9. They unwrap a package containing a pig’s head, which they then attach to the spikes of the gate in the front garden. Camran Butt says they have been left shaken and that, as parents, he and his wife fear for the safety of their young children. Rabia Butt said: "I still feel very anxious, very nervous and often wake up in the night looking up at the cameras just in case anyone’s outside. I don’t think we’re going to rest until they are caught." read the complete article
International
Ignoring their Nazi past, European leaders use Israeli anti-Semitism forum to scapegoat migrants and Muslims
Austria, a country with a documented role in the Holocaust, is now promoting the claim that anti-Semitism in Europe is largely an imported phenomenon. Speaking at an Israeli government-hosted anti-Semitism conference in Jerusalem, former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz alleged that Europe faces a wave of “newly imported anti-Semitism” driven by migrants and left-wing groups. According to Haaretz, Kurz referred to the phenomenon of anti-Semitism as “totally new” and warned of an alliance between Muslim migrants and progressive movements such as “Queers for Palestine”. He previously governed in coalition with Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ), a far-right group known for its Nazi origins and controversial history. The FPÖ emerged in 1955, initially drawing much of its support from former National Socialists (Nazis) after World War II. Its first leader, Anton Reinthaller, had been a senior officer in the SS, Adolf Hitler’s paramilitary organisation, and other early members were former Nazis. Kurz’s remarks were echoed by Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats, a party founded by neo-Nazis. Åkesson claimed that anti-Semitism was “accepted” in Sweden by the political left and blamed immigrants for promoting hate. Hungarian EU Affairs Minister János Bóka described anti-Semitism as stemming from cooperation between “radical political Islam” and the “woke movement”. Belgian MP Sam van Rooy, from Vlaams Belang, a party with fascist roots, claimed Muslims were replacing Jews in cities like Antwerp. Polish MEP Dominik Tarczyński of the Law and Justice party advocated for “zero illegal migrants” entering Europe. read the complete article
Netherlands
Protest held in the Netherlands over police violence against 2 Muslim women
A protest was held Thursday in the Dutch city of Utrecht against "racist violence" after a police officer recently assaulted two Muslim women, hitting one with a baton and kicking the other in the stomach. A group of people gathered in Vredenburg Square to protest the incident, which occurred Monday in Utrecht. Protesters criticized the police, saying this was not an isolated incident and argued that racist violence takes place "systematically and repeatedly." The rally also called on Dutch police to apologize to the victims and public and to ensure that such incidents will not happen again. read the complete article