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SearchToday in Islamophobia: China’s envoy to Australia labels Uighur internment camps “fake news” even as the European Parliament passes a resolution condemning Beijing’s crackdown in the region. In India, the government shuts down internet in the capital Delhi as protests draw thousands against the recently passed Citizenship Amendment Act. Our recommended read today is by Wai Wai Nu on Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s fall from grace. This, and more, below:
Myanmar
Opinion | Aung San Suu Kyi was my Idol-- Now she is defending my people's genocide | Recommended Read
I can still picture my grandmother who only spoke her ethnic language, Rohingya, praying for Aung San Suu Kyi and for her to help deliver us democracy. I remember as a six years old girl, my father showing me secret photos of Aung San Suu Kyi he kept hidden, at great personal risk, between the pages of his book and explaining how inspiring she was. read the complete article
China
Uighur Muslim internment camps are 'fake news', says China envoy to Australia
China's ambassador to Australia held a rare press conference Thursday to defend his government against charges of human rights abuses, espionage and political meddling which have frayed relations between the major trade partners. read the complete article
European Parliament Passes Resolution Condemning China on Treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang
The European Parliament on Thursday approved a resolution condemning the mass incarceration of Uyghurs in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and reiterating its call for unfettered access to the region for independent journalists and international observers.The resolution was approved a day after the parliament presented the 2019 Sakharov Prize—its top human rights award—to the daughter of jailed Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti for “fighting for the rights of China’s Uyghur minority” in the XUAR, where authorities are believed to have detained some 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas in a vast network of internment camps since April 2017. read the complete article
India
There’s Finally a Backlash to Narendra Modi’s Islamophobia
The most significant—and horrifying—accomplishment of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s five years in power has been the mass normalization and institutionalization of Islamophobia on a level hitherto unseen. Having stoked historic anti-Islam animus during their election campaigns, organized social media trolling campaigns against Muslim critics, harassed Rohingya refugees, and set up detention camps for newly displaced noncitizens, Modi and his Hindu nationalist devotees in the Bharatiya Janata Party have carried out their supremacist agenda with ruthless efficiency (and this doesn’t even get into the street violence, the rising hate crimes and lynchings that their supporters are enacting at the municipal level). What the government is doing here isn’t totally new: Tensions between Hindus and Muslims date back centuries in the country, and despite founding Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s dream of a secular India, there has always been an undercurrent of Islamophobia in the nation’s politics. read the complete article
India’s Government Tries to Silence Protests
Thousands of people nationwide marched against India’s new citizenship law again on Wednesday, in part in response to alleged police brutality against student protesters. The law, passed a week ago, creates a path to citizenship for religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan—but excludes Muslims. Critics say it is part of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s efforts to marginalize India’s Muslim minority. read the complete article
Citizenship Act protests: Three dead and thousands held in India
Three people have died in India and thousands have been detained amid demonstrations against a controversial new citizenship law. A protest ban has been imposed in parts of the capital Delhi and throughout the states of Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. The new law offers citizenship to non-Muslim illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Critics fear the law undermines India's secular constitution, and say faith should not be the basis of citizenship. read the complete article
France
Will a united front against the far-right transform French politics?
While outrage from Muslims and communities of colour over growing racism and fascism in France is nothing new, the mobilisations and attention that the latest demonstrations received were important. For too long, it has felt as though the impact of violent, state-sanctioned repression by police, the normalisation of Islamophobia by politicians, journalists and commentators, including the passing of Islamophobic laws, and the unwillingness of mainstream left-wing parties and groups in France to extend a modicum of solidarity towards Muslims, left little hope for countrywide action against Islamophobia. read the complete article