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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the U.S, a group of 30 Democratic members of Congress on Tuesday sent a letter to Facebook criticising the social media giant for allowing anti-Muslim sentiments to spread on its platform. Reports allege that the repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang has been ‘turbocharged by technology.’ Our recommended read today is by Peony Hirwani on India’s “love jihad” law, and how it is part of a broader trend of Islamophobia within the country. This, and more, below:
India
Modi is attacking India’s Muslims again – this time with the ‘love jihad’ law | Recommended Read
Love jihad is a Hindu right-wing conspiracy theory that claims Muslim men are marrying non-Muslim women in order to convert them to Islam. The new law, which gives the power to intervene in suspected cases, was agreed by the BJP led cabinet of Uttar Pradesh – the state that is home to the largest number of Muslims, in excess of 38 million. The idea first rose to national attention in India almost a decade ago and claims of “love jihad” conversions have spread throughout India and beyond, into Pakistan and even the United Kingdom. read the complete article
United States
Congress members demand Facebook take steps to 'eradicate' anti-Muslim bias
Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, who led the effort, said while the social media company celebrates its success, the platform has been used to elevate hate against Muslims, in some cases leading to violence and death, such as in the Christchurch shootings in New Zealand as well as in Myanmar where Facebook was used to incite violence against Rohingya Muslims. "Facebook cannot celebrate the success of its platform while ignoring its role in elevating the dangerous, deadly content targeting Muslim people," the congresswoman said in a statement. read the complete article
Canada
Third Black Muslim woman attacked in South Edmonton within a week, outside Southgate LRT
A young woman was attacked at the Southgate LRT station on Tuesday, the third Black Muslim woman to be attacked during the daytime in that area within a week. An email obtained by Postmedia, sent to community groups by the Edmonton Police Service, says the attack appears to be motivated by racism and hatred. A suspect was arrested and police are expected to release more information Wednesday. Last Tuesday, a mother and daughter, both of whom are Black and wear hijabs, were assaulted outside Southgate Centre. A man approached the women yelling racist obscenities while they were inside their vehicle, and punched the passenger door, breaking the window, police said. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Julie Burchill's publisher cancels book contract over Islam tweets
Burchill’s publisher, the Hachette imprint Little, Brown, said it had decided not to publish Welcome to the Woke Trials because she had used indefensible language when communicating with the journalist Ash Sarkar. Sarkar said Burchill “quite openly subjected [her] to Islamophobia”. Little, Brown said Burchill’s comments on Islam were “not defensible from a moral or intellectual standpoint” and they “crossed a line with regard to race and religion”. It added that her book had become “inextricably linked with those views”. read the complete article
Spain
Hundreds of graves reveal Spanish town’s secret Muslim history
An archaeological site in northeast Spain holds one of the oldest-known Muslim cemeteries in the country, with the discovery of 433 graves, some dating back to the first 100 years of the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. The finds confirm that the region, along the frontier between the warring Islamic and Christian worlds in the turbulent early Middle Ages, was once dominated by Muslim rulers, who were later replaced by Christian rulers and their history forgotten. The remains show that the dead were buried according to Muslim funeral rituals and suggest the town was largely Islamic for hundreds of years, despite there being no mention of this phase in local histories. "The number of people buried in the necropolis and the time it was occupied indicates that Tauste was an important town in the Ebro Valley in Islamic times," lead archaeologist Eva Giménez of the heritage company Paleoymás told Live Science. read the complete article
China
Uighur repression ‘turbocharged by technology,’ confidential documents show
A new list of Uighur detainees believed to be leaked from Xinijang suggests that China continues to use sophisticated data collection technology to identify and arbitrarily detain members of the Muslim minority, according to a recent report by Human Rights Watch. The group obtained a list of 2,000 detainees in Xinjiangs’s Aksu prefecture who were flagged by the Integrated Joint Operations Platform, a policing program that aggregates data about people in the region from a variety of sources, and flags those it deems to be a potential threat. read the complete article
I.C.C. Won’t Investigate China’s Detention of Muslims
The International Criminal Court has decided not to pursue an investigation into China’s mass detention of Muslims, a setback for activists eager to hold Beijing accountable for persecution of ethnic and religious minorities. Prosecutors in The Hague said on Monday that they would not, for the moment, investigate allegations that China had committed genocide and crimes against humanity regarding the Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group, because the alleged crimes took place in China, which is not a party to the court. read the complete article
As chief rabbi, I can no longer remain silent about the plight of the Uighurs
Last week marked the 72nd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948. On 9 December that same year, the convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide was also adopted. Both documents, which stand among humanity’s most vital legal and moral proclamations, are at risk of fading into the political periphery if we are not prepared to act upon them. The freedoms we enjoy, coupled with a perception that nothing we do will help, often create a culture of apathy. Time and again, history has taught us that it is precisely such apathy that permits hatred to flourish. The Talmud teaches that: “We are not expected to complete the task, but neither are we free to desist from it.” It is clear that there must be an urgent, independent and unfettered investigation into what is happening. Those responsible must be held to account and Uighurs able to escape must be given asylum. read the complete article