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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the UK, several British Indian organizations have slammed the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, after he co-organized a Diwali celebration on Sunday with groups accused of having links to India’s Hindu nationalist movement, meanwhile in the US, Sen. JD Vance unleashed a slew of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rhetoric on an episode of the Joe Rogan podcast, saying it was “common sense” to exclude people with certain backgrounds from the United States, and in Canada, police in the city of London are seeking help in identifying a suspect in Saturday’s hate-motivated attack on a Muslim family in a downtown park. Our recommended read of the day is by Maira Butt for Religion Media Centre on how according to political analysts, disillusionment over President Joe Biden’s stance on Gaza has led to an exodus of voters who are reluctant to vote for Kamala Harris in next week’s election. This and more below:
United States
Muslim ‘heartbreak’ over Gaza could swing vote in some US states
US foreign policy is the decisive issue for American Muslims voting in next week’s election, according to the country’s leading Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has said that disillusionment over President Joe Biden’s stance on Gaza has led to an exodus of voters who are reluctant to vote for the Democrat Kamala Harris. Robert McCaw, CAIR’s government affairs department director, told a Religion Media Centre briefing: “We now have over 2.5 million registered Muslim voters across the country, many of them in key swing states. “There’s not enough Muslims in the US to swing an election, but we can definitely tip over critical races. We have key Muslim populations in [swing states] Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia.” Mr. McCaw reports that a survey conducted on more than 2,000 American Muslims revealed that humanitarian issues were their No 1 priority, followed by religious freedoms, and then kitchen-table topics including the economy or education, which were historically top priority for Muslim voters. CAIR’s statistics show that support for the Democrats before Biden’s resignation last year, stood at 7 per cent, with support for Donald Trump at 4 per cent. Third party candidates such as Jill Stein (the Green nominee) and her running mate Butch Ware registered the highest approval with about 40 per cent. However, by August those numbers improved for the Democrats with Muslim support standing at 29 per cent for Harris, neck and neck with Stein. The numbers siding with Trump stand at 12 per cent; 18 per cent of Muslims are undecided. Mr McCaw warned that undecided voters could be leaning towards Trump. Despite a history of anti-Muslim rhetoric and the “Muslim ban”, Trump has made a desperate attempt to heal those divides in recent days, with an appeal to Arab and Muslim communities. read the complete article
Santa Clara Unified being sued for alleged discrimination against Palestinian students
The Santa Clara Unified School District is being sued, accused of creating an anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim climate for students. The lawsuit is being brought by the Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. It is a civil rights lawsuit and calls for an investigation of the district. The district says it has not been served with the lawsuit so it cannot comment on it at this time. However it says, "Our schools are beautifully diverse, and we strive for environments where every young person and employee feels a sense of safety, welcome, and belonging." read the complete article
New York woman charged with pepper-spraying Muslim Uber driver as he prayed
A New York woman accused of pepper-spraying her Muslim Uber driver while he prayed at a red light has been charged with assault as a hate crime, prosecutors said Thursday. Jennifer Guilbeault, 23, is accused of the “anti-Muslim” attack on July 31, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Monday. She was in the back seat of an Uber with another person at 12:15 a.m. when she lunged toward the driver, 45, with a can of pepper spray and sprayed him in the face after he began praying in Arabic at a red light, officials alleged. The spray caused “burning, redness and pain,” the DA said in a release. A few minutes later, the driver called 911, and Guilbeault was arrested at the scene. Guilbeault has been charged in a New York State Supreme Court indictment with second-degree assault as a hate crime, third-degree assault as a hate crime and second-degree aggravated harassment. She pleaded not guilty at her arraignment Monday and was released with non-monetary conditions, according to court records. She is due back in court on Jan. 13. read the complete article
UPenn Senior Lecturer Examines Islamophobia and Other Long-Term Effects of 9/11
On September 23rd, in one of the first installments of the “Meeting the Moment” series of events, Haverford invited University of Pennsylvania Senior Lecturer Dr. Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher to discuss how 9/11 has influenced American foreign and domestic policy since its occurrence. Advertised in an email sent to Haverford students by Dean John McKnight promoting the four September installments of “Meeting the Moment”, this event provided an in-depth analysis of how 9/11 and existing American prejudices combined to influence the direction of American policy in the past two decades. Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher began her presentation with a timeline of significant events between 9/11 and today in order to demonstrate its lasting impact. She made it clear in her presentation that structural Islamophobia in the United States is not solely tied to 9/11, but rather is part of perennial fears of a greater “Islamic peril.” She emphasized the far-reaching dangers of Islamophobia, asserting that it affects not solely Muslims, but anyone perceived to be Muslim. This segued into an analysis of three distinct—yet often overlapping—forms of bigotry: Islamophobia, anti-Arab racism, and anti-Palestinian racism. Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher explained that Anti-Arab racism promotes stereotypes of Arabs as backwards and violent, and anti-Palestinian racism depicts them as terrorists when they resist occupation by Western powers. Anti-Palestinian racism, she clarified, also extends to those who support Palestine irrespective of race, religion, or ethnicity. She explained that these prejudicial attitudes are among the reasons why so many Americans support Ukraine but not Palestine, explaining that through a prejudice-warped lens, the 42,000+ Palestinian civilian casualties “are not worthy of our tears.” read the complete article
Five days out, Arab Americans are split on Harris v Trump: vote ‘strategically’ or ‘morally’?
Asked about how he expects his community to vote when Americans head to the polls next week, he says: “Everybody is confused about this election.” His No 1 concern is to “stop the war”, referring to Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza and recent attacks on Lebanon. The issue is top of mind for Arab American voters nationwide. Some polls suggest Arab Americans could abandon the Democrats in droves over the Biden administration’s support for Israel; elsewhere, advocates and community leaders are urgently organizing to prevent a Donald Trump victory, warning about impacts in the Middle East and on domestic issues such as immigration if the GOP candidate is re-elected. Before this year, Arab Americans were clearer in their preference for Democrats – at this time in 2020, Joe Biden led Trump by 24 points, and exit polls showed that more than 85% of Arab American voters backed Democrats in 2004 and 2008. Today, Arab American voters seem more willing to look past Trump’s ban on travel from certain Muslim-majority countries – and his vow to reimpose a ban if re-elected – as well as his staunch support for Israel. read the complete article
Some US Muslims struggle to find a candidate they can tolerate supporting for president
With the death and destruction in Gaza on her mind, Soraya Burhani agonized over how to cast her vote for president. “For us, Muslims, I see that there’s no good choice,” she said. With the U.S. handling of the Israel-Hamas war and conflict in the Middle East looming over the White House race, many American Muslim voters — most of whom backed President Joe Biden four years ago — have been wrestling with voting decisions. After U.S. support for Israel left many of them feeling outraged and ignored, some seek a rebuff of the Democrats, including by favoring third-party options for president. Others grapple with how to express their anger through the ballot box amid warnings by some against another Donald Trump presidency. For voters in swing states like Georgia, which Biden won in 2020 by fewer than 12,000 votes, the weight of such decisions can be amplified. When it comes to voting, “the responses are all over the place and it’s not really aligned to one political party as it has in the past,” said Shafina Khabani, executive director at Georgia Muslim Voter Project. “Our communities, they’re sad; they’re mourning; they’re grieving; they’re angry and they’re confused.” read the complete article
Bill Clinton criticised for saying Israel ‘forced’ to kill Gaza civilians
Former United States President Bill Clinton is facing backlash from US Muslim and Arab Americans after saying Israel has been “forced” to kill civilians in Gaza and suggesting the country was in the Holy Land “first” – before the Palestinians. Speaking at a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in Michigan, a crucial swing US state with large Arab and Muslim populations who the Democrats are trying to win over, Clinton said he understood people’s concerns about the bloodshed in Gaza, but said Israel had no choice but to inflict large civilian losses, even as it is accused of genocide in the International Court of Justice. “Hamas makes sure that they’re shielded. They’ll force you to kill civilians if you want to defend yourself,” Clinton said. Arab- and Muslim-American leaders slammed Clinton for antagonising communities whose votes Democrats have been courting in the razor-tight November 5 US election. Robert S McCaw, director of government affairs at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement. “Bill Clinton’s callous and dishonest attempt to justify the Israeli government’s attacks on civilians in Gaza was as insulting as it was Islamophobic.” read the complete article
JD Vance Says Anti-Muslim Policies Just ‘Common Sense’ In Joe Rogan Interview
Sen. JD Vance unleashed a slew of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rhetoric during a long conversation with podcaster Joe Rogan that aired Thursday, saying it was “common sense” to exclude people with certain backgrounds from the United States. Vance, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, spoke with Rogan for more than three hours, talking at length about the Trump campaign’s plans for the southern U.S. border while criticizing the Biden administration. At one point, Rogan described a “worst-case scenario” for people fearful of a state falling under Islamic law, pointing to a recent law in Minneapolis that allows mosques to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer. “That starts getting real weird,” Rogan told Vance. “When you have people openly saying our goal is … to outbreed everyone who is not Muslim.” “Scares the hell out of me,” Vance replied. “That’s what to me is so crazy … about some of the hyper left-wing reaction. Where you see actual religious tyranny is increasingly in Western societies where you’ve had a large influx of immigrants who don’t necessarily assimilate into western values but try to create, I think, a religious tyranny at the local level.” “And if you think that will happen at a national level, you’re [called] crazy.” Vance then lamented that those who want to exclude people from some nations — referencing the Trump travel ban on people from some majority-Muslim nations, an order that he has pledged to restore — were called racist. “Somehow it’s fundamentally racist to say, well, we don’t want certain people of certain backgrounds to be in the United States of America,” the senator from Ohio said. “No, it’s just common sense.” read the complete article
Abu Ghraib Torture Trial Against Virginia-Based Defense Contractor Begins Again
A federal case brought against a military contractor by three Iraqi men detained at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 went to trial for the second time this week. The plaintiffs accuse Virginia-based CACI, which was hired by the U.S. government to provide interrogation services, of contributing to the torture of detainees at the Iraqi prison. The trial is expected to last for four to five days. Following 16 years of legal wrangling — and more than 20 attempts by CACI to dismiss the case — the new trial began before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Wednesday, picking up the case a judge declared a mistrial in April; the jury was deadlocked after more than a week of deliberations. Disturbing images of smiling American soldiers posing next to abused detainees at Abu Ghraib shocked the world in the mid-2000s, but April’s proceedings marked the first time that an American jury directly heard claims brought by people held at the notorious prison. The three Iraqi men — a journalist, a middle school principal, and a fruit vendor — spoke in court via video conference earlier this year about their experience being threatened with dogs, subjected to electric shocks, and stripped of their clothing. It’s rare for people who sued the U.S. government over human rights violations tied to its “war on terror” to get a trial, as the Supreme Court has set precedent that makes it easier for the government to squash cases over alleged national security concerns. read the complete article
United Kingdom
London mayor criticised over Diwali event run with Hindu nationalist groups
Several British Indian organisations have slammed the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, after he co-organised a Diwali celebration on Sunday with groups accused of having links to India’s Hindu nationalist movement. One of the groups that organised the event was the Vishwa Hindu Parishad UK (VHP-UK), the British arm of an organisation that a UK government report found organised mass anti-Muslim violence with "all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing" in India. Hindus for Human Rights UK, an advocacy group, wrote to Khan to express its "dismay" at the Diwali celebration being organised "by a coalition of groups that perform, to varying degrees, a whitewashing or supportive function for the Hindutva (Hindu nationalist/supremacist) movement”. Rajiv Sinha, director of the organisation, said Khan told him in July he was aware of the issue. The VHP is a wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Modelled on 1930s European fascist organisations, the RSS is a Hindu nationalist paramilitary group whose supporters say advocates a nationalist ideology which upholds Hindu culture and values. VHP founder MS Golwalkar was an avid supporter of Adolf Hitler, calling his attempt to “purge” Jews a “good lesson” for India. A British Foreign Office report in 2002 found that the Indian branch of the VHP organised a pogrom that killed more than 1,000 Muslims in India’s western state of Gujarat. The letter to Khan, seen by MEE, was signed by several civil society groups, including Scottish Indians for Justice, the South Asia Solidarity Group, the Students’ Federation of India United Kingdom and the UK-Indian Muslim Council. read the complete article
Canada
London police seek help finding suspect in alleged hate-motivated attack
Police are asking for the public’s help identifying a suspect in relation to an alleged hate-motivated attack on a Muslim family in a downtown London park. London police say a man was with his family in a downtown park near King and Thames streets on Oct. 26, last Saturday, when an unknown man approached them, made “derogatory comments” to the man and assaulted him. Investigators on Thursday published an image of a suspect – a white man dressed all in black, including a black toque. The man who was attacked sustained minor injuries and didn’t require medical attention, police say. Police say the incident “has been determined to be hate-motivated” but didn’t provide any details about why the man was targeted. The investigation has been reassigned to the force’s hate crime officer, police said. The National Council of Canadian Muslims said in a post on social media that the family targeted was Muslim. read the complete article
Charges dropped against woman filmed pulling Pro-Palestinian protester's hijab
Crown prosecutors have dropped assault and harassment charges against a woman who pulled the hijab of a protester at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Ottawa in May, saying it needed to balance the public interest in prosecution and the reasonable prospect of conviction. As part of the reasoning given for withdrawing charges on Thursday, assistant Crown attorney Moiz Karimjee said the Crown considered a number of factors, including that the victim was chanting "From the River to the Sea Palestine will be Free," which he said could be reasonably inferred to be "a call for genocide of the Jewish people." Karimjee noted Hayfa Abdelkhaleq was chanting the phrase outside Ottawa City Hall on May 14 when Lorna Bernbaum approached her and pulled her hijab. Bernbaum was on her way to a celebration of Israel's Independence Day when she encountered Abdelkhaleq, who was waving a Palestinian flag and protesting Israel's assault on Gaza. Video showed Bernbaum, 74, giving the middle finger to the camera before she pulled down Abdelkhaleq's headscarf, revealing her hair. read the complete article
Germany
What is behind Germany's complicity in Israel's Gaza genocide
Two weeks ago, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock defended Israel's killing of Palestinian civilians during a parliamentary address. The UN special rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, swiftly condemned her remarks and warned that if "Germany decided to stand with a state that is committing international crimes, it is a political choice, but it has also legal implications". This incident is simply the latest example of Germany's enthusiastic support of Israel's campaign of extermination in Gaza. Many have rightly criticised Germany for its pro-Israel stance and repressive measures that include censorship, arrests of activists, police raids, banning the keffiyeh in schools, and crackdown on pro-Palestine protests, citing its historical guilt. More than a year later, Germany has remained at the "only...place [it] can be... Israel's side", as Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged after 7 October 2023. To understand why Germany would go to such lengths - even risking legal repercussions for its complicity - we must look behind its official claims and towards the actual driving forces behind its unreserved backing of Israel's slaughter of the Palestinian people. read the complete article