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SearchToday in Islamophobia: Human Rights Watch issues damning report on China urging action against oppression and abuse. In the U.S, North Dakota lawmaker blames opposition for anti-Muslim posts, as Muslim groups denounce President Trump’s retweet of a doctored Islamophobic image. In India, anti-CAA protests rage on with women leading the fight. Our recommended read today is by Todd Green on the need to revisit Islamophobia in the age of Trump and Brexit. This, and more, below:
International
Revisiting Islamophobia: The Mainstreaming of Anti-Muslim Racism in the Age of Trump and Brexit
My desire to revisit and revise The Fear of Islam was driven by two factors. First, by almost every metric, Islamophobia had grown worse since 2015. I wanted to document and highlight these developments and to call attention to the mainstreaming of Islamophobia in Western politics, under the conviction that we can no longer afford to think of Islamophobia as existing only on the political fringes. Second, my own thinking on Islamophobia had evolved somewhat since the first edition. This wasn’t a radical change, but it did involve revising my original definition of Islamophobia, particularly in terms of Islamophobia’s relationship to racism. It also involved a greater concern for how the most conventional explanation of Islamophobia – the notion that Islamophobia is driven by ignorance of Islam – was not up to the task of explaining why hostility toward Islam and Muslims seemed only to be getting worse. read the complete article
Opinion | Capitalism and ‘Culturecide’
Westerners may think of Xinjiang as a distant and mysterious place, but in some ways it is not very exotic. Multinational corporations including Volkswagen, Siemens, Unilever and Nestlé have factories there. Supply chains for Muji and Uniqlo depend on Xinjiang, and companies such as H & M, Esprit and Adidas use Xinjiang cotton. We might ask: What is it about this remote place, to which the emperors of old banished criminals in lieu of sending them to prison, that makes it so attractive? read the complete article
United States
Torture secrets still being uncovered at Guantanamo
On Jan. 11, the United States marked a dubious milestone: the 18th anniversary of the prison at Guantanamo Bay. There are still 40 men there, largely forgotten by an American public who wonder how, in 2020, we can bring ourselves to hold people of color in camps without legal process. The answer is that we allowed three different administrations to escape consequences for the torture they admitted, but also to hide most of the story — to this day. read the complete article
North Dakota Lawmaker Blames Opponents for Anti-Islam Posts
The Fargo Forum first reported on the posts Tuesday, saying a post shared from Rep. Jim Kasper's account reads: “The whole world has one common problem(:) Islam.” “I don’t know how the hell it got there and I took it down immediately," Kasper said of the posts that appeared Monday night on his Facebook page. “It's political season and the time to do political tricks has started. It's a sad state of affairs this stuff has to happen." read the complete article
Muslim groups denounce Trump retweet of fake Pelosi-Schumer photo
"The image is a hodgepodge of anti-Muslim tropes and garb from many traditions including some that are frequently used to stereotype and attack Muslims," Madihha Ahussain, special counsel at the nonprofit group Muslim Advocates, said in a statement. "It’s disappointing but not surprising that the president would use his massive Twitter platform to spread this kind of harmful, ignorant, anti-Muslim bigotry. read the complete article
The Trump administration is seeking to demonize Iran. Hollywood has been doing that for years.
As tensions between the United States and Iran percolate — over incidents such as the killing of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian rocket response, the apparently accidental Iranian downing of a Ukrainian airliner, and President Trump’s announcement of new sanctions against Iran — some U.S. politicians have painted the country as a land populated entirely by anti-American fanatics. read the complete article
Myanmar
World Court to rule on emergency measures in Myanmar genocide case on January 23: Gambia
The International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ highest court, will issue a decision on a request for emergency measures in a genocide case against Myanmar on Jan. 23, the Gambian Ministry of Justice said on Twitter on Monday. read the complete article
India
In India, a firebrand's anti-Modi mantra resonates at nationwide protests
“The idea of India is under threat,” said Kanhaiya Kumar, a leftist politician from the northeastern state of Bihar, his voice rising in the cold evening air. “We will not stop. Let the government use force. Let them bring the police.” He paused. “We will rise to prove them wrong. Listen, Modi!” read the complete article
Shaheen Bagh protesters pledge to fight, seek rollback of CAA law
For the past one month, thousands of protesters - led mostly by hijab and burqa-clad Muslim women, many of them homemakers - have occupied a stretch of a main road near Shaheen Bagh, a working-class Muslim neighbourhood connecting the capital city to the satellite city of Noida. They are protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed last month that aims to fast-track the naturalisation of non-Muslim refugees from three neighbouring countries. read the complete article
China
Human Rights Watch launches damning report on China, urging action against oppression and abuses
This year's report opens with Mr Roth's damning essay on China's "global threat" to human rights, which he says, if it remains unchallenged, could "portend a dystopian future in which no-one is beyond the reach of Chinese censors, and an international human rights system so weakened that it no longer serves as a check on government repression". read the complete article
Why Aren’t More Countries Confronting China over Xinjiang?
Over the past three years, the Chinese government has implemented a highly repressive series of policies against Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic minority native to the country’s Xinjiang region. Uighurs live under unprecedented surveillance, their every move tracked through cameras and spyware-riddled mobile phones. read the complete article