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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the U.S., Harvard’s dual presidential task forces to combat antisemitism and anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias will hold a series of listening sessions for undergraduate students over the next two weeks, according to a Friday morning email from the University’s Dean of Students Office, elsewhere in the U.S., the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is demanding action and an apology from the city of San Bruno after Muslim constituents were not allowed to break fast or pray inside San Bruno City Hall while attending a City Council meeting, and in India, during the holy month of Ramadan, a special iftar initiative in West Bengal is bringing Muslims and Hindus together to restore social cohesion and build mutual trust. Our recommended read of the day is by for CNN on how a court in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh on Friday has banned Islamic schools from the region by striking down a law governing madrasas, just weeks before a nationwide election which could see President Narendra Modi win a third term in office as Prime Minister. This and more below:
India
Court ruling effectively outlaws Islamic schools in India’s most populous state | Recommended Read
A court in India’s most populous state has effectively banned Islamic schools by striking down a law governing madrasas, weeks before a nationwide election that could further polarize the world’s largest democracy along religious lines. The Allahabad High Court in Uttar Pradesh on Friday declared the Madrasa Act of 2004 to be unconstitutional, according to a court order seen by CNN, while ordering the state government to move students enrolled in the Islamic system into mainstream schools. “We hold that the Madarsa (sic) Act, 2004, is violative of the principle of Secularism, which is a part of the basic structure of the Constitution of India,” the high court said in its order. “Since providing education is one of the primary duties of the State, it is bound to remain secular while exercising its powers in the said field. It cannot provide for education of a particular religion, its instructions, prescriptions and philosophies or create separate education systems for separate religions.” Madrasas provide a system of education in which students are taught about the Quran and Islamic history alongside general subjects like math and science. Some Hindus also send their children to an equivalent system known as Gurukuls, residential education institutions where students learn about ancient Vedic scriptures alongside general subjects under a “guru” or teacher. The ruling can be appealed in the country’s Supreme Court. read the complete article
India’s new ‘Islamophobic’ citizenship law threatens to further marginalize Muslims
The enforcement of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a controversial legislation that was approved by the Indian parliament in 2019, has exacerbated communal tensions in the world’s most populated country that prides itself on being the largest democracy. In 2019, the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi passed a contentious legislation that granted Indian citizenship to refugees from India's neighboring countries, excluding those who identify as Muslim, stirring up yet another controversy. The CAA aims to expedite the process of granting citizenship to individuals belonging to the Hindu, Jain, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, and Parsi communities who arrived in Hindu-majority India on or before 31st December 2014 from Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Described as "Islamophobic" by political observers, the CAA was first passed by the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) -dominated Indian parliament in 2019. Its implementation was, however, delayed amid protests, during which more than 100 people were killed, most of them Muslims. read the complete article
Iftars of ‘kinship’ revive Muslim-Hindu bonds in eastern India
New Delhi: During Ramadan, a special iftar initiative in West Bengal brings Muslims and Hindus together to restore social cohesion and build mutual trust, where it has been eroded by communal polarization along religious lines. Muslims make up nearly a third of the state’s 100 million population and have been present in the region since the 13th century, making significant contributions to Bengali socio-linguistic identity, literature and culture. The Bengal Sultanate played a dominant role in large parts of the eastern subcontinent between the 14th and 16th centuries, and under Mughal rule until the early 1800s the region became globally recognized for its textile and shipbuilding industries. For the past decade, however, the importance of history and Muslim heritage in the state and across India has been undermined, accompanied by tensions and riots ignited by majoritarian policies of the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, which rose to power in 2014. In 2017, incidents of communal violence between Hindus and the Muslim minority started to emerge also in West Bengal. That was when a group of Muslims and Hindus started the Know Your Neighbor initiative to promote social cohesion in Bengal. read the complete article
United States
Task Forces on Antisemitism, Islamophobia Announce Listening Sessions for Harvard Undergraduates
Harvard’s dual presidential task forces to combat antisemitism and anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias will hold a series of listening sessions for undergraduate students over the next two weeks, according to a Friday morning email from the Dean of Students Office. The task force on antisemitism also invited graduate and undergraduate affiliates of Harvard Chabad, a Jewish campus group, to a private dinner and discussion on their experiences with antisemitism on Monday. The efforts to solicit perspectives from students represent the first public push from the twin task forces, which got off to a rocky start after being launched by interim President Alan M. Garber ’76 in January. Garber’s appointment of History professor Derek J. Penslar as co-chair of the antisemitism task force drew national backlash over concerns that he downplayed antisemitism on campus. Late last month, Harvard Business School professor Raffaella Sadun resigned as Penslar’s co-chair over concerns that the University would not implement the task force’s recommendations. read the complete article
Muslim civil rights group demands apology after being forced to pray, break fast outside San Bruno City Hall
The nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization is demanding action and an apology from the city of San Bruno after Muslim constituents were not allowed to break fast or pray inside San Bruno City Hall while attending a City Council meeting. The San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a formal complaint letter to San Bruno Mayor Rico Medina on Thursday, expressing concern over the city’s actions on the night of March 12. Medina did not immediately respond to a request for a comment. Numerous Muslim constituents attended the meeting to advocate for the addition of a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war to an upcoming council agenda, according to a news release from the Bay Area organization. The meeting coincided with the second night of the holy month of Ramadan, during which many Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. read the complete article
International
Politics can aggravate Islamophobia, says prominent scholar
Politics can aggravate Islamophobia and Muslims have a role to play to forestall such hatred from spreading, according to prominent Turkish scholar Mustafa Akyol. He said politicians fuel Islamophobia when they espouse a “us-versus-them” narrative and inadvertently create among Muslims a hatred or prejudice against non-Muslims. He said he has observed such instances in many parts of the world, including Turkey. He said there was a need for a political and civil vision that defends Muslims against prejudice and injustice as well as builds bridges with non-Muslims by promoting mutual understanding and respect. “This will help treat both Islamophobia, as well as phobias among Muslims against other groups,” he told FMT in an interview in conjunction with International Day to Combat Islamophobia which fell on March 15. read the complete article
Uyghurs Bravely Resist Oppression Through Poetry
Barely a week has passed since Uyghur poet, Aziz Isa Elkun held forth on the Main Stage of London’s 53rd Book Fair, where 30,000 visitors crammed into the cavernous 19th century Olympia Exhibition Centre over three days, from March 12–14, to call attention to the persecution of writers and poets in his homeland. More than one thousand exhibitors from around sixty-one nations gathered to network, gain insights into latest publishing trends, and plan the future of creative content, against a backdrop of seminars and panels to address everything from writer’s block to banned books and human rights. As a member of English PEN, Elkun was one of more than one hundred speakers and panelists over the three days chosen to speak about the crisis facing Uyghurs in the loss not only of their culture and religion, but also their language, and the writers and poets who have been the bearers of their traditions and way of life down through the centuries. read the complete article