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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the U.S, 170 Muslim candidates were on the ballot this election cycle across 28 states, a record high. In Bangladesh, authorities start moving thousands of Rohingya to Bhasan Char, which has been called by human rights organizations as “an island detention center.” Our recommended read today is by Anan Patwardhan, an Indian filmmaker and vocal critic against the BJP government. This, and more, below:
India
India’s Leading Documentary Filmmaker Has a Warning | Recommended Read
Over four hours, “Reason” documents how the world’s largest democracy has plunged into a majoritarian abyss since the Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., came to power in 2014, and Narendra Modi was voted in as the prime minister. With testimonies from witnesses to mob lynchings, stories of college students driven to suicide by intense right-wing ostracism and interviews with Hindu nationalists willing to defend the frequent murders of journalists and activists, Patwardhan contradicts the narrative that the B.J.P. routinely projects to the country’s 900 million voters: a story where, under Modi, India is at last starting to fulfill its potential, more than 70 years after independence. A week before the parliamentary elections last year, 16 clips from “Reason” were anonymously posted on YouTube. Watching them I grew afraid, not just for the fate of the film at the hands of the Censor Board but also for Patwardhan. read the complete article
'Love jihad': Indian states want to pass laws to prevent interfaith marriages
Currently, marriage laws between India's majority Hindu population and minority Muslims are being drafted in five states, all of which are led by the right-wing, Hindu nationalist, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). All of them seek to ban something that doesn't actually exist: "love jihad," an Islamophobic term referring to a purported phenomenon in which Muslim men marry women of other faiths — especially Hindu women — to convert them to Islam. Some right-wing Hindus claim that this alleged "conversion" results in a threat to women's safety, citing tragedies like the reported murder of a Hindu woman last month by a young Muslim man as proof of "love jihad." read the complete article
United States
Biden’s policies on immigration
Biden has pledged to stop work on Trump’s border wall, to change the nation’s approach to immigration enforcement and to again welcome refugees seeking protection from oppression. But experts warn that some shifts could take time amid bureaucratic overhauls and staffing concerns, and it is likely that any new wave of immigration to the U.S. southern border would provide an early test of the Biden administration’s approach to an issue that has been central to Trump’s presidency. read the complete article
Muslim Americans ran for office in record numbers in 2020
Taking a step up on the ladder of political mobilisation, 170 Muslim candidates were on the ballot this election cycle, running in 28 states and Washington DC. Of the 170 candidates that ran, at least 62 won their elections, another record high since the organisations began tracking Muslims running for political office. In 2018, 57 candidates were elected to office. read the complete article
Undoing Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’ could take minutes, but results could take months or years
Biden, who, like others in the Democratic Party, thinks the ban serves a racist agenda rather than a national security purpose, has said that such bans are “morally wrong,” and his administration plans to do away with them within his first 100 days in office, meaning the U.S. government posture could change by spring. Because the ban was introduced via executive order, Biden can undo it in the same way, experts said. New guidance could go to consular officers and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in a matter of days. read the complete article
Changing Virginia county faces discrimination charges over Islamic cemetery
The increasingly diverse county that sits 44 miles south of D.C. voted blue in last month’s presidential election for the first time in nearly half a century. And the giant Confederate battle flag that towered over Interstate 95 from one resident’s property was recently taken down, with the county’s Republican-controlled Board of Supervisors quickly enacting a measure that would keep any flag from flying that high again. read the complete article
International
Opinion | Are We All Complicit In Modern Day Slavery?
The Coalition to End Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region, a coalition of civil society organisations and trade unions, reported that many of “virtually the entire apparel and footwear industry” are complicit in the forced Uyghur labor. According to a recent report published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), there are strong indications that some 80,000 Uyghurs have been forced to work in factories that form part of the supply chains of at least 83 global brands. The report suggests that these companies have been using forced Uyghur labor in their supply chains. The majority of the named companies have not addressed the accusations, whether to reject the accusations or explain their due diligence procedures. read the complete article
Kosovo
Kosovo ethnic divide eases as Muslim cares for elderly Serb
The younger son, Slobodan, lives in council-provided housing in nearby Kamenica town with his paralyzed wife. He rarely visits Dicic. But now, she feels she's got a new son. It's all the more remarkable because Fadil Rama, 54, comes from the other side of Kosovo's bitter ethnic divide being a member of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority and a Muslim. “I have three sons, not two,” she says, lying in bed with two blankets to cover her in her tiny home in Vaganesh village, 45 kilometers (30 miles) east of the capital Pristina. “Fadil is the other one, bringing me food and taking care of me,” she says, leaning on one elbow as she caresses Rama, who lives less than a mile away in the ethnic Albanian village of Strezovce. read the complete article