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SearchToday in Islamophobia: Rohingya refugees refuse to return to Myanmar, as a Muslim teenager has her hijab pulled off in Dublin. An op-ed shines light on Mike Pompeo’s extreme views on Muslims, another looks at the role of mainstream media in fueling the UK’s Islamophobia crisis. Our recommended read of the day is by Ellen Halliday titled “Uighurs can’t escape Chinese repression, even in Europe.” This, and more, below:
China
Uighurs Can’t Escape Chinese Repression, Even in Europe | Recommended Read
China wants to silence its critics, and so it confronts Uighur activists who live beyond its borders. The EU’s border provides little extra protection: Uighurs in Germany, Finland, and Belgium also report being contacted by Chinese authorities. They say they are asked to spy or to reveal sensitive personal details including their home address, workplace, and national ID numbers. The offers, even if refused, breed distrust. Their friends, they are told, have accepted. read the complete article
Myanmar
'Not without our rights': Rohingya refugees refuse to return to Myanmar
Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner, Abul Kalam, said on Tuesday that only 21 families out of 1,056 selected for repatriation were willing to be interviewed by officials about whether they wish to return. None of the families said they would go back, with several saying that they would not return until they were given citizenship by Myanmar. Kalam said the mood in the camps in Cox’s Bazar where about 1 million Rohingya refugees are sheltered was calm and cordial. “There has been no chaos like in the past. They have gone to the officials for the interviews and talked freely. This is very positive, they now understand the situation better,” he said. read the complete article
Citizens of nowhere: one million Rohingya still without rights, status or justice
Promised their own autonomous state in return for helping Britain during the World War II (which never happened), the Rohingya have a history of being resented by the Burmese/Myanmarese people. More recently, stripped of citizenship under a 1982 law which deemed the Rohingya as Bengali, they now find themselves stateless, as Myanmar and Bangladesh refuse to acknowledge them as citizens. read the complete article
United Kingdom
How mainstream media fuels the UK's Islamophobia crisis
Islamophobia has hit crisis levels in the United Kingdom. This is the only conclusion one can draw from a recent poll, which found that nearly two-thirds of members within the ruling political party believe Islam to be a “threat to Western civilization”. As improbable as it is to believe, the findings get even more alarming: 43 percent of Tory members oppose the idea of a Muslim leading Britain, and more than half believe the anti-Muslim conspiracy theory that there are parts of the UK governed under Sharia law. These negative views about Muslims, amounting to institutionalised Islamophobia, did not form in a vacuum. They have been shaped and nurtured by mainstream media coverage that has become increasingly hostile towards adherents of the Islamic faith, because peddling fear and loathing of a foreign “other” helps to sells more newspapers. read the complete article
Detention of Muslims at UK ports and airports 'structural Islamophobia'
Muslims are being detained at ports and airports for up to six hours by law enforcement using controversial counter-terrorism powers so disproportionately that the practice has become Islamophobic, according to human rights group Cage. The organisation added there is growing anecdotal evidence that Muslim women are being forced to remove their headscarves when stopped, even though the rate that such stops lead to a conviction is 0.007%, according to Cage’s analysis of 420,000 incidences. read the complete article
Birmingham mosque attacks: Man charged with 'religiously-aggravated criminal damage' after Muslim places of worship targeted
A man has been charged with attacking five mosques in Birmingham in the wake of the Christchurch terror attack. Arman Rezazadeh, is accused of religiously-aggravated criminal damage over a string of vandalism in March. Police said the 34-year-old, from Handsworth, was originally detained under the Mental Health Act but has been deemed fit to face legal proceedings. He will appear before Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on 12 September. read the complete article
United States
Mike Pompeo Has Extreme Views on Muslims — and Liberals Don’t Seem to Care
Shouldn’t every media profile of Pompeo acknowledge how he smeared a minority community on the floor of the House of Representatives? Shouldn’t every news story about the secretary of state’s latest hawkish statement on Iran, for example, note his own deep-seated Islamophobia? Shouldn’t every analysis of his close relationship with the president mention, say, their shared prejudice toward Muslim Americans? Isn’t it a disgrace that 16 Senate Democrats voted to confirm Pompeo as CIA director and six voted for him to be secretary of state? The pass given to Pompeo by the New Yorker is only the latest glaring — and depressing — example of the way in which, to borrow a line from the British Conservative politician Sayeeda Warsi, Islamophobia still passes “the dinner table test” here in the United States. read the complete article