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SearchToday in Islamophobia: Resurfaced video shows Marjorie Taylor Greene trying to force Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to retake their oaths on a Bible. Muslim Council of Britain elects Zara Mohammed as its first female leader. Our recommended read today is by the New York Times Editorial Board, who write about Marjorie Taylor: “Ms. Greene is correct that the Republican Party is facing a serious threat from an unhinged mob. She should know; she’s one of its leaders.” This, and more, below:
United States
Opinion | If Marjorie Taylor Greene Isn’t Beyond the Pale, Who Is? | Recommended Read
The Georgia freshman is best known for endorsing QAnon, the right-wing movement convinced of the fiction that Donald Trump is a messiah sent to defeat a cabal of Satan-worshiping, child-abusing, deep-state villains. But this is just one of the bizarre lies she has peddled. Her greatest hits include promoting the conspiracy theory that blames the 2018 Camp Fire wildfire in California on a space laser controlled by a prominent Jewish banking family, suggesting the Obama administration used its MS-13 “henchmen” to murder a Democratic National Committee staff member and floating the idea that the Clintons had John F. Kennedy Jr. killed. She has dabbled in 9/11 Trutherism and contended that various school shootings were false-flag operations. She also traffics in racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim talk. read the complete article
‘I'm So Exhausted': Some Muslims Hopeful, Others Uncertain After Travel Ban Lifted
“I won! I won!” Al Zabidi cheered. He borrowed money to finance his trip, bought clothes for his new life in America and packed souvenirs for friends there. With no U.S. Embassy in Yemen, he made a grueling journey to Djibouti for his visa interview. But there, after he had been initially approved, his luck ran out: “CANCELLED WITHOUT PREJUDICE,” read the bold, black, all-caps stamp on the unused visa in his passport with a Trump administration travel ban on several Muslim-majority nations, including his, in place. “My family pinned their hopes on me. ... My mother wept; this saddened me the most,” he said. read the complete article
Opinion | Biden’s removal of the 1776 Commission report is not enough
Based on its report and membership, though, we can read the 1776 Commission as a declaration of war on critical historical education and even academic freedom generally. Had Trump remained president, it might have been a rare commission report generating actual policy along the lines of his executive order banning federal agencies from running diversity sensitivity training. Thankfully, Trump’s successor, President Joe Biden, dissolved the commission within hours of his inauguration. read the complete article
Facebook’s New Oversight Board Is Deciding Donald Trump’s Fate. Will It Also Define the Future of the Company?
The end of April will be a turning point for former President Donald Trump. That’s when he will learn whether he can regain control of his Facebook and Instagram accounts—and direct access to nearly 60 million followers on two of the world’s largest social media platforms. It’s not publicly elected officials who will make this call, nor a judge, nor even Facebook itself. Instead, it will be the 20 members of the Facebook Oversight Board, a little-known panel of lawyers, journalists and former political leaders from 18 different countries that Facebook established less than one year ago. read the complete article
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene video: Obama secretly a Muslim, Clintons killed JFK Jr., Pentagon attack on 9/11 is questionable
Greene casually unfurled the cascade of dangerous and patently untrue conspiracy theories in a previously unreported 40-minute video that was originally posted to YouTube in 2018. It provides a window into the warped worldview amplified by the freshman Republican congresswoman from Georgia, who in the three months since she was elected has created a national brand for herself as a conservative provocateur who has proudly brought the hard-right fringe to the Capitol. “Yes, I do believe he is a Muslim,” Greene said of Obama. “And, yes, Valerie Jarrett is too.” read the complete article
France
France's Le Pen, at record high in polls, proposes hijab ban
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen Friday proposed a ban on Muslim headscarves in all public places on Friday, seeking to build on a record recent poll putting her almost neck-and-neck with President Emmanuel Macron.The hijab policy, which would be contested in court and would almost certainly be ruled unconstitutional, saw the 53-year-old return to a familiar campaign theme 15 months from the country's 2022 presidential election. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Muslim Council of Britain elects Zara Mohammed as its first female leader
In a statement, Mohammed said: “My vision is to continue to build a truly inclusive, diverse and representative body; one which is driven by the needs of British Muslims for the common good. “Being elected as the first female secretary general is quite an honour and I hope it will inspire more women and young people to come forward to take on leadership roles. They are the future of this organisation and our society.” read the complete article
Muslim boy, 4, was referred to Prevent over game of Fortnite
However, transcripts of a conversation with a club worker reveal that the reference to weaponry was linked to Fortnite. The child’s mother believes that if her boy were white and not a Muslim he wouldn’t have been considered at risk of radicalisation. In the first (anonymous) interview from a parent of an under-six referred to Prevent, she described her upset at police turning up at the family home at 10.30pm. “It could have gone really wrong. I worry armed police could have come to my house and, you know, arrested the parents, with social services getting involved.” read the complete article
Myanmar
Aung San Suu Kyi's Party Urges Myanmar to Resist Military Coup in
Earlier on Monday, Myanmar’s military, called the Tatmadaw, said it had taken emergency control of the government for one year in part due to the military’s claims of voter fraud in the Nov. 8 election, which it lost badly. The announcement came hours after Suu Kyi, and other leading figures from the ruling National League for Democracy were detained by the military in coordinated early-morning raids. read the complete article