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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In India, Umar Khalid has languished in jail for four years without a trial after being arrested in 2020 for participating in an anti-BJP protest, making him a symbol of the wide-ranging suppression of dissent under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, meanwhile in the United States, a group of approximately 50 Black Muslim leaders have signed a statement urging Black and Muslim American voters to shun Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, and instead back candidates who support a ceasefire in Gaza, and in Scotland, former First Minister Humza Yousaf explains why he’s sounding the alarm over the rise of Islamophobia in the UK and other western countries. Our recommended read of the day is by Drew Nelles for The Nation on how Arab voters could very much swing the election in places like Michigan and how the Harris-Walz campaign should take seriously the concerns of the prominent voting block. This and more below.
United States
Arab Americans Warn Kamala Harris: Don’t Take Us For Granted | Recommended Read
There aren’t many places where Jill Stein can expect a rock star’s welcome. But on a September evening in Dearborn, Michigan, when Stein, the perennial Green Party presidential nominee and equally perennial thorn in Democrats’ side, delivered her stump speech in the cream-tiled atrium of the Arab American National Museum, the crowd’s enthusiasm belied her standing in the polls. Although she dutifully rattled off her platform—Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, an end to mass incarceration—there was little doubt why Stein, keffiyeh-clad and silver-haired, was in this particular room at this particular moment: to talk about Gaza. If any single event captures the herculean task Kamala Harris faces in persuading many Arab American voters to back her candidacy, it might be the one Stein was speaking at: ArabCon 2024. In a direct challenge to the Democratic Party, its theme was “No Voice Unheard, No Vote Unearned.” The prevailing sentiment, though, was best summed up by one panelist, the law professor Khaled Beydoun, who declared, referring to The Lancet’s recent estimate of the true death toll in Gaza, “I’m not a single-issue voter. I’m a 186,000-issue voter.” Trump’s odious racism and Islamophobia may have lulled Democrats into complacency. “The main thing is not to have your vote taken for granted,” one ArabCon speaker, the veteran Palestinian journalist Said Arafat, said onstage at the Ford Performing Arts Center. He described a conversation he’d had with a Democratic operative: “Basically, he said, ‘The Arab and Muslim vote is going to come to us. Are they going to vote for the guy who imposed the Muslim ban? Are they going to vote for the guy who gave Jerusalem to Israel, who gave the Golan to Israel?’ and so on. They take you for granted.” The numbers suggest that doing so would be a mistake. read the complete article
'Genocide must be our red line': Black Muslim leaders shun Harris for US president
A group of approximately 50 Black Muslim leaders have signed a statement urging Black and Muslim American voters to shun Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid for the White House and instead back candidates who support a ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel. The new statement, first reported by Middle East Eye, is the latest effort from Muslim community leaders - from imams to scholars, to activists to politicians - telling voters not to choose Vice President Harris in the upcoming November election over her unwillingness to commit to policy changes that would hold Israel accountable for its ongoing war on Gaza and now Lebanon, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese people. "Although some Muslim Americans have nevertheless argued that our community must support Vice President Harris because of her positions on domestic issues or their belief that Donald Trump might be even worse on issues like Gaza, we respectfully disagree with their conclusion," the statement said. "As Muslims obliged to uphold justice and as Black Americans whose ancestors experienced the worst of crimes, genocide must be our red line." It adds that "we simply cannot support a candidate who participated in a genocide and now refuses to lay out any plan to end that genocide". read the complete article
CAIR Condemns Anti-Muslim Tropes Endangering Muslim Candidates Amid Rising Islamophobic Violence
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned the use of anti-Muslim tropes targeting Muslim candidates for public office, calling them repugnant and dangerous to both the candidates and their communities. At a time when Islamophobic violence, hate crimes, and bias incidents are at an all-time record high, it is especially appalling to see the perpetuation of false and harmful stereotypes accusing Muslim candidates of supporting terrorism or extremist ideologies. These baseless and inflammatory accusations not only poison political discourse but actively endanger the lives of those who are simply exercising their right to participate in the democratic process. In a statement, CAIR Government Affairs Department Director Robert S. McCaw said: “Incidents of such dangerous rhetoric and anti-Muslim tropes place Nevada Muslim candidates and their communities in harm’s way. Using Islamophobic smears and falsehoods to undermine the legitimacy of Muslim candidates is not just an attack on an individual but on the democratic principles of fairness and equal representation. read the complete article
India
Four Years in Jail Without Trial: The Price of Dissent in Modi’s India
The family gathers around the laptop in New Delhi once a week. Sometimes, relatives dial in from north India, or even the United States. They wait for Umar Khalid, 37, an Indian political activist, to appear on the screen from jail. In early 2020, Mr. Khalid became one of the most prominent figures of India’s biggest and most energized protests in a generation, a three-month outpouring of opposition to government proposals widely seen as anti-Muslim. He was arrested later that year, and he has now languished in jail for four years without a trial, making him a symbol of the wide-ranging suppression of dissent under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It continues unabated even with Mr. Modi’s reduced mandate after elections in the spring. To silence opponents like Mr. Khalid, Mr. Modi’s government has increasingly turned to a draconian state security law that in the past was used only to quell violent insurgencies. Activists and other dissenters targeted under the law can be held in pretrial detention almost indefinitely. Some have died while awaiting bail. Even if they do move toward trial, defendants are often bogged down in years of legal battles. Mr. Modi’s government has worked to bend the judicial system to its will and wield it as a weapon against a range of adversaries. When the dissenting voice is Muslim, as in Mr. Khalid’s case, the hammer brandished by the Hindu-nationalist government comes down even harder, activists and family members say. Long before the protests, Mr. Khalid — who has a Ph.D. in history from Jawaharlal Nehru University, long an incubator of peaceful dissent — had been speaking out against anti-Muslim hatred. He was particularly troubled by the increased ghettoization in India’s capital, where Muslims had long received fewer benefits from the state but felt the arm of the law more forcefully. read the complete article
France
Outcry after prominent French mayor accused of 'appearing Muslim'
Senior French officials have rallied behind Karim Bouamrane, a prominent mayor of Moroccan origin, in response to remarks widely viewed as racist by a researcher who accused him of being “Muslim in appearance” and suggested his popularity stems from his refusal to comment on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This highlights deep divisions within France's left-wing parties, with some seeking to capitalise on the Gaza war to boost support among Muslim voters while others, including the socialist mayor, Mr Bouamrane, have adopted a more cautious stance. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is an explosive topic in France, which hosts the biggest Muslim and Jewish populations in Europe. The October 7 Hamas attacks against Israel and the ensuing Israeli military offensive against Gaza, and more recently Lebanon, have caused an increase in racist attacks. Mr Bouamrane responded by saying it was important to fight against stereotypes. “Muslim in appearance … this is how a researcher describes me and definitively disqualifies himself. The fight against essentialisation continues!” read the complete article
Scotland
Scotland's ex-first minister: Is the West safe for Muslims? I’m not sure | Humza Yousaf | Real Talk
“Is the West safe for Muslims? I have to say, I’m not sure” Scotland’s former first minister Humza Yousaf explains why he’s sounding the alarm over the rise of Islamophobia in the UK and other western countries. read the complete article