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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Australia, organizations highlighting the impact of Australian Muslim civic involvement have faced increased political scrutiny after Labor senator Fatima Payman resigned due to Islamophobic hostility within the party, meanwhile in Germany, the government has banned the rightwing extremist magazine Compact, accusing it of whipping up “unspeakable” hatred of Jews, Muslims and foreigners while undermining the country’s constitutional democracy, and lastly, a new report from Amnesty International finds France’s ban on French athletes wearing the hijab at the upcoming Olympics breaches international human rights laws. Our recommended read of the day is by Baroness Sayeeda Warsi for The Independent on how racist comments made by JD Vance (Republican nominee Donald Trump’s running mate) demonstrate how Islamophobia has become part and parcel of everyday politics. This and more below:
United Kingdom
Trump's running mate JD Vance has insulted the UK with his racist ignorance | Recommended Read
The UK and the US have a special relationship. They are our most important ally in the world, and they should be our most trusted ally. What Donald Trump’s appointment of JD Vance as his running mate for vice-president has done is put that special relationship at risk. Last week, before he was announced to be running on Trump’s ticket, the Ohio senator gave a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington DC in which he described Britain as the world’s first “truly Islamist country” to have nuclear weapons, thanks to the new Labour government. I used to think that this kind of everyday racism displayed by Vance was the remit of crackpots in the extremes of the far right, those who believe in the Eurabian conspiracy theory which says that Muslims are intent on “taking over”. The fact this concept has now been mainstreamed by a man who would be the US vice-president could make life difficult for the Labour government. But this isn’t just political, it’s personal, too. It’s another reminder that casual Islamophobia has become part and parcel of our everyday politics. It sends out their message that Muslims are fair game and makes us feel insecure in our home countries. For a while now, many of my Muslim friends and family have been thinking about their plan Bs – their exit routes. This rhetoric coming out of the US further reinforces the fear and makes us feel like Muslims don’t matter. read the complete article
Fury over Trump’s vice president running mate JD Vance claiming UK is an ‘Islamist country’
Donald Trump’s choice for vice-president has provoked fury by describing the UK under Labour as an “Islamist country” with nuclear weapons. Author and Ohio senator JD Vance was announced as Mr Trump’s running mate on Monday, just two days after an attempt to assassinate the former president, who is challenging Joe Biden for the White House in November. Politicians from across the spectrum have condemned Mr Vance’s comments, with former Tory co-chair Sayeeda Warsi suggesting the special relationship between the UK and the US has “become no more than a racist joke”. Writing for The Independent, she added: “It bodes for really dangerous times ahead.” Labour MP Rosie Duffield said Mr Vance had made “obviously a pretty ignorant and racist comment”, while Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: “We need to call that out for what it is, it’s Islamophobic.” read the complete article
Labour rejects JD Vance ‘first Islamist country with nuclear weapons’ remarks
Senior Labour figures have rejected comments by Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick, JD Vance, that the UK could become the first “truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon” under the party. They were reacting to comments that were made by Vance, a junior senator for the state of Ohio who has been announced as Trump’s running mate, at a conference for US conservatives. Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, told ITV that Vance had said “quite a lot of fruity things in the past” and she looked forward to meeting him and Trump if they won the US election in November. The jibe is likely to be embarrassing for the UK’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, who has attempted to build bridges with Vance in recent months, comparing their impoverished childhoods. The Treasury minister James Murray said: “I don’t know what he was driving at in that comment, to be honest. I mean, in Britain, we’re very proud of our diversity.” Labour also found an unlikely ally in the form of Andrew Bowie, the shadow veterans minister, who said he “absolutely” disagreed with the claim that Labour would create an “Islamist country”. “I disagree with the Labour party fundamentally on many issues, but I do not agree with that view, quite frankly. I think it’s actually quite offensive, frankly, to my colleagues in the Labour party,” he told Times Radio. read the complete article
Australia
Labor ‘clearly afraid’ of backlash after taking Islamic community for granted, Muslim Votes Matter says
One of the new organisations seeking to mobilise Australian Muslims at the next federal election has hit back at “almost farcical” attempts to discredit the movement, insisting the Labor government is “clearly afraid”. Ghaith Krayem, a spokesperson for Muslim Votes Matter, said despite criticism from major party politicians and media, the movement was an “inclusive initiative that hopes to uplift representation for minority groups across the country”. “There are hundreds of volunteers who have put their hands up nationally to join our movement and not just from Muslim backgrounds, but from minority groups who have been marginalised by our government for years,” Krayem told Guardian Australia. Krayem, a former head of the Islamic Council of Victoria and former CEO of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, said Muslim Votes Matter was “independently funded” but he did not disclose details of donations received to date. Both Muslim Votes Matter and The Muslim Vote have been at the centre of fierce political debate after the Labor senator Fatima Payman crossed the floor to support the immediate recognition of Palestine as a state. She quit the party two weeks ago. In the wake of those developments, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said Australia should not “go down the road of faith-based political parties, because what that will do is undermine social cohesion”. read the complete article
Germany
Germany bans ‘rightwing extremist’ Compact magazine
The German government has banned the rightwing extremist magazine Compact, accusing it of whipping up “unspeakable” hatred of Jews, Muslims and foreigners while undermining the country’s constitutional democracy. In what she called a “hard blow” against the far right, the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, ordered dawn raids in four German states at properties linked to the publication, which is ideologically close to the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party and promotes its drive for power. Faeser said her ban against a “key mouthpiece for the rightwing extremist scene” was proof that the government was “taking action against the intellectual arsonists who want to incite a climate of hatred and violence against refugees and migrants and defeat our democratic state”. Faeser added: “Our message is very clear – we will not allow ethnicity to define who belongs to Germany and who does not.” read the complete article
India
Delhi Riots: Case Against 13 Muslim Women Reveals Singular Focus To Pin Violence On Anti-CAA Protesters
More than eight months to a year after hundreds of Muslim women gathered under a Delhi metro station to protest India's citizenship law in February 2020, a secret police informer claimed to have identified 13 of them without any explanation of how he did it. The more or less identical answers the police recorded in response to the questionnaire they gave the women suggest they accused them in a rioting case—one of many cases with specious evidence—to pin the Delhi riots on the anti-CAA protests and get statements against three women activists. Meanwhile, pleas to register cases against the BJP leaders who gave provocative speeches at the time remain pending. read the complete article
France
Hijab ban on France Olympic athletes breaches international human rights laws: Amnesty International
Amnesty International criticised the French government’s decision to ban women athletes representing France at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games from wearing headscarves in a report released Tuesday. The report stated that the prohibition breaches international human rights laws and said the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) response to calls for lifting the ban was “inadequate”. The report detailed that France banned religious headwear through national laws or sports regulations. The report emphasised that such exclusionary policies disproportionately impact Muslim women and girls and “cause humiliation, trauma and fear.” Amnesty International’s Women’s Rights Researcher in Europe Anna Błuś noted: Discriminatory rules policing what women wear are a violation of Muslim women’s and girls’ human rights and have a devastating impact on their participation in sport[s], blocking efforts to make sports more inclusive and more accessible … No policymaker should dictate what a woman can or cannot wear and no woman should be forced to choose between the sport she loves and her faith, cultural identity, or beliefs[.] The report states the IOC responded on June 18, noting “France’s prohibition on sports hijabs was outside the remit of the Olympic movement” and claiming that “freedom of religion is interpreted in many different ways by different states.” read the complete article
International
The Americans being held by Taliban to swap for Guantanamo Bay prisoners
Few Americans have gone against the advice but last week the US State Department confirmed that two men who did travel to Afghanistan and one who was already there have been arrested by the Taliban on seemingly spurious charges. A State Department spokesperson identified them as Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi. The Taliban have admitted to detaining only two of the men, Mr Corbett and Mr Glezmann. “Both American nationals violated the country’s law and discussion has been held with the US officials in this regard,” the Taliban said on Sunday. They are holding them, a Taliban spokesperson suggested, to exchange for Afghans imprisoned by the Americans in Guantanamo Bay. “We also have prisoners in America, prisoners in Guantanamo,” Zabiullah Mujahid said earlier this month. “We should free our prisoners in exchange for them.” read the complete article