Today in Islamophobia

Today in Islamophobia: Democratic presidential candidate, Michael Bloomberg defends his post-9/11 surveillance program targeting Muslims in New York, as a fellow candidate, Joe Biden hires a new Muslim outreach coordinator, Amit Jani, who appears to be an avid supporter of India’s PM Narendra Modi, an advocate of Hindu nationalism. In Germany, the highest court upheld the banning of headscarves for Muslim trainee lawyers in court. Our recommended read today is from the Washington Post, explaining what has led to the current situation in India today, as Hindu nationalist mobs continue to attack Indian Muslims, who are also facing increased discrimination due to government policies. This, and more below:  

India

The Citizenship Law Behind India’s Sectarian Violence | Recommended Read

Back in 1947, India’s constitution writers envisaged a secular state where all citizens were equal before the law. But the rise of Hindu nationalism has been testing that ideal. Since Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014, hardliners in his Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, have become increasingly emboldened in promoting the dominance of its Hindus, who form 80% of the population. A restrictive new citizenship law is the latest in a string of moves to worry the country’s 170 million Muslims following Modi’s landslide re-election in May. Protests that broke out late last year have turned deadly. read the complete article

'We lost a brother': Hindu, Muslim families in Delhi share grief

Saddar-Ud-Din had been waiting for his son's body at the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital since Monday evening. His 32-year-old son Mohammad Furqan was killed by Hindu mob in the Kardam Puri area of northeast New Delhi. "Hindus and Muslims have been living in harmony for decades in the area. I've not seen such a situation in decades. This is like 1984 when Sikhs were massacred. Today it's the Muslims," he said. The death toll on Thursday climbed to 34 in the worst religious violence to have hit India’s capital in decades, with the police, in many instances, accused of siding with Hindus and against Muslims. The violence was triggered a day after BJP leader Kapil Mishra warned Muslims to end their sit-ins in Maujpur near Jaffrabad metro station or face his supporters' wrath. "Three days' ultimatum for Delhi Police - clear the roads in Jaffrabad and Chand Bagh. After this, we won't listen to you," he declared in a video posted on his Twitter account. Solanki said that he has been living in Mustafabad, a Muslim-dominated area, all his life and also said he had never experienced any animosity between the Hindu and Muslim communities. "I've never seen any problem between Hindus and Muslims in our area. We always lived in communal harmony but I can tell you with guarantee that the rioters were not local Muslims. They were outsiders," Solanki said. One, Mohammad Shahbaz Alam, cried and hugged his friend, Vikas, over the loss of Solanki. "We were not just colleagues. We all were a family," Alam told Al Jazeera. "In this Hindu-Muslim politics, we both lost a brother in Rahul [Solanki]," said Vikas, as tears rolled down his face. read the complete article

Hindu man saves Muslim neighbours from torched house, fighting for life

There were moments when few people came out of their way to support those in need and offered help in every difficult situation. In one such case, Premkant Baghel, a Hindu man, saved his of his six Muslim neighbours from being burnt to death when an angry mob set their houses on fire, reports India Times. read the complete article

The Citizenship Law Behind India’s Sectarian Violence

Back in 1947, India’s constitution writers envisaged a secular state where all citizens were equal before the law. But the rise of Hindu nationalism has been testing that ideal. Since Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014, hardliners in his Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, have become increasingly emboldened in promoting the dominance of its Hindus, who form 80% of the population. A restrictive new citizenship law is the latest in a string of moves to worry the country’s 170 million Muslims following Modi’s landslide re-election in May. Protests that broke out late last year have turned deadly. read the complete article

UN Rights Chief Highlights Concern Over CAA, Anti-Muslim Violence, Police Force

In its update to the Human Rights Council on rights concerns and its progress across the world, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights highlighted both Kashmir and the Citizenship Amendment Act. The latter and the violence into which the capital city has descended as a result of it was described as a cause for “great concern.” read the complete article

Germany

Germany upholds headscarf ban for trainee Muslim lawyers

Germany's highest court on Thursday upheld a ban on headscarves for Muslim trainee lawyers in courts, finding that the requirement of maintaining religious neutrality was justified. The Federal Constitutional Court's ruling came after a Frankfurt-born German-Moroccan legal trainee filed a challenge to Hesse state's rules. In the western state, trainees who keep their headscarves on are not allowed to take on tasks in which they may be seen to be acting as representatives of the judiciary or the state. This means for instance that headscarf-wearing trainees are not allowed to sit on the judges' bench as they observe proceedings like other trainees, but would need to follow the process from the floor. read the complete article

United States

An Interrogation Program Worked Out on the Fly

C.I.A. personnel at the Salt Pit nonetheless chose to train on at least two prisoners, according to recently declassified accounts. About five trainees took turns slapping Mr. al-Baluchi, spinning him around and slamming his head into a wooden or cement wall, so a supervisor could observe and “then certify class member as interrogators,” said a report on the training session read aloud during testimony in the war court. Those accounts and others — which emerged in two weeks of recent testimony by Dr. Mitchell and his partner in developing the interrogation program, John Bruce Jessen — provide new details of what went on in the secret overseas prison network established after the 9/11 attacks. They showed that the interrogation program was more a test lab for unproven techniques than a well-regulated system, with rules made up or broken on the fly and its day-to-day operations afflicted by internal rivalries. Across four years, the C.I.A. moved about 100 prisoners through 10 different sites from Afghanistan to Thailand, Poland, Morocco and Guantánamo — and kept them almost entirely in isolation and always out of reach of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which visits detainees and advocates their humane treatment. read the complete article

CSUSB, Palm Desert cancels Anti-Islam Class after strong Complaints

A class taught at California State San Bernardino’s Palm Desert campus is receiving tough criticism and being called Anti-Islamic. The Council on American-Islamic Relations in Los Angeles is now asking for an explanation and an apology. NBC Palms Springs spoke to CAIR-LA and the university to see what will be done moving forward. A PowerPoint slide during class claimed Arabs are not moral people, calling them liars and cheaters. A student then reached out to a civil rights and advocacy group on American-Islamic relations. “We wanted to bring their attention to the fact that this is happening. we ask them for a quick apology, a cancelation of this circus that claims to be a class and for a clear clarification of their vetting process,” explained Ayloush. And when we asked if the professor would be teaching classes here in the future, there was no clear answer. read the complete article

'We're Supposed To Do That': Bloomberg Defends NYPD's Spying Of Muslims After 9/11

In an interview that aired Thursday on PBS NewsHour, Bloomberg explained the New York Police Department's secret monitoring Muslims as an intelligence-gathering tactic that was part of a larger effort to keep America safe. "We sent to some officers into some mosques to listen to the sermon that the imam gave," Bloomberg said. "We were very careful. And the authorities that looked at us said, yes you complied with the law. But we had every intention of going every place we could legally to get as much information to protect this country. We had just lost 3,000 people at 9/11. Of course we're supposed to do that." "There were imams who publicly at that time were urging the terrorism," Bloomberg continued. "And so of course that's where you gonna go. That does not, incidentally, mean that all Muslims are terrorists or all terrorists are Muslims. But the people who flew those airplanes came from the Middle East." The police surveillance program was aimed at places of worship, cafes and schools where Muslims frequented. In one instance, an undercover officer accompanied 18 Muslims students from the City College of New York on a whitewater rafting trip. The program became the target of multiple lawsuits, which resulted in a settlement deal. A court never declared the program to be legal, but in settling the suits, neither the city of New York nor the NYPD admitted any wrongdoing or violations of the law. read the complete article

Meet Joe Biden’s Muslim Outreach Coordinator: A Supporter Of Narendra Modi And His Islamophobic, Hindu Nationalist Agenda

Despite presenting himself as a liberal counterweight to this virulent wave of Islamophobia, Joe Biden has hired as his Muslim outreach coordinator, Amit Jani, an avid supporter of Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist agenda. In the midst of Modi’s decades of Islamophobia, Biden’s Muslim outreach director, Amit Jani, has heaped praise on him. On the night of Modi’s election, Jani was in India, and posted a photo of himself wearing a BJP shirt on Facebook with the caption: “Loved the energy and jubilation throughout the state on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s victory in the Indian national elections! Proud of Deepti Jani[Amit Jani’s mother] for all the work you did during the campaign.” Amit Jani’s name appeared on the flyer for an August 21st event celebrating the removal of Article 370, opening the door to Modi’s annexation and communications blackout of Kashmir. Jani was listed on the organizing committee for the event. The keynote speaker at this celebration was Kailash Vijayvargiya, the National Secretary-General of the BJP, Narendra Modi’s political party. Vijayvargiya once claimed that Shah Rukh Khan, a famous Indian Muslim Bollywood actor is an “anti-nationalist” who “lives in India, but his heart is in Pakistan,” after Khan remarked that India is going through a period of extreme intolerance for religious minorities. read the complete article

International

India rejects criticism by OIC as Erdogan slams 'massacres' of Muslims

India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday rejected criticism from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) over recent communal riots in New Delhi that have left at least 33 dead as irresponsible and inaccurate. In a Twitter post on Thursday, the OIC called on the Indian government to protect Muslim minorities across the country. “The OIC condemns the recent and alarming violence against Muslims in India, resulting in the death and injury of innocent people and the arson and vandalism of mosques and Muslim-owned properties," said the tweet. "It expresses its sincere condolences to the families of the victims of these heinous acts. In response, Raveesh Kumar, an MEA spokesperson, said India was taking all measures to contain the violence and restore normalcy. Kumar added that the OIC has made insensitive comments in the past and has tried to comment on India's internal affairs. read the complete article

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