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SearchToday in Islamophobia: Joe Biden orders review of US domestic extremism threat. American Muslims welcome the end of Trump’s travel ban. In Denmark, a Turkish mosque is defaced with anti-Muslim slurs. Our recommended read today is by Ishaan Tharoor on the fraught “national security” logic Trump used to justify his travel bans. This, and more, below:
United States
Trump’s travel bans caused heartache and suffering. For what? | Recommended Read
Think about Afshin Raghebi, a 52-year-old man of Iranian origin stranded in Turkey after his application for a green card — and bid to be reunited with his American wife — was thrown into limbo by Trump. “The U.S., I loved that country. I still love it,” he told my colleagues. “They’re playing with our lives.” Think about Rand Mubarak, an Iraqi refugee whose father worked as a translator for the U.S. military in Iraq. Their family had fled their homeland to Egypt following death threats and believed they were in line to relocate to the United States given her father’s service. But by 2017, their hopes took a severe blow after Trump announced his ban and slowed refugee resettlement to a standstill. Mubarak’s father developed a heart condition that required specialized treatment in a U.S. hospital, my colleagues reported. But no special dispensation came, and her father died last year. read the complete article
Opinion | Finally, a president who takes white supremacist violence seriously
Psaki told reporters that the newly confirmed director of national intelligence Avril Haines, in concert with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, will undertake a “fact-based analysis upon which we can shape policy.” In addition, the National Security Council will build up its capacity to address and determine how to coordinate across government entities. “As a part of this, the NSC will undertake a policy review effort to determine how the government can share information better about this threat, support efforts to prevent radicalization, disrupt violent extremist networks, and more,” Psaki said. The NSC will also coordinate efforts to fight domestic terrorism across parts of the federal government and oversee a process to “focus on addressing evolving threats, radicalization, the role of social media, opportunities to improve information sharing, operational responses, and more.” read the complete article
Robert Saleh says being the first Muslim head coach in the NFL is a humbling experience
The Lebanese American said in his introductory news conference on Thursday it was "humbling" to be the first Muslim head coach in NFL history. "Especially back home, where I'm from, Dearborn, Michigan, there is a lot of pride so it's a very humbling experience," Saleh said. "When you look at an NFL organization and you look at the locker room, it's like the ultimate melting pot of different people and different races and different stories that get together with one goal. To be a part of that is special." read the complete article
WATCH: Oregon Man Destroys Portland Store in Anti-Muslim Rampage
Brian Christopher Miller is an Oregon man who was arrested after Portland Police say he unleashed anti-Muslim slurs and threatened a 68-year-old store employee during a rampage at a gas station caught on video. The 43-year-old Miller was charged with first-degree criminal mischief and third-degree robbery after the January 22, 2021, incident, according to Multnomah County court records. read the complete article
Opinion | The ‘Muslim Ban’ Is Over. The Harm Lives On.
The travel ban all but slammed shut the gates of the United States, which has accepted roughly three million of the more than four million refugees resettled anywhere in the last four decades. When Mr. Trump’s ban went into effect, about 14,000 of Dadaab’s 200,000 residents were at some stage of the process to come to America. A mere eight refugees from Dadaab were resettled in the United States in 2018 and 14 in 2019. Even refugees with life-threatening illnesses were denied travel authorization to seek care in U.S. hospitals. “Since Trump, resettlement is over,” Elias Ndonga, the principal at Mr. Ahmed’s school, told me. “The refugees have nowhere to go now. No resettlement, no work.” In the Kakuma refugee camp near Kenya’s western border, which houses roughly a quarter of a million mainly South Sudanese refugees, nine refugees took their own lives in 16 months after the travel ban. The spate of suicides so unnerved aid workers there that they reportedly began confiscating wire, battery acid and other potentially deadly objects. read the complete article
American Muslims welcome the end of Trump’s travel ban
For Ramez Alghazzouli, a Syrian immigrant who had been separated from his wife for a year due to the travel ban, the reversal felt like someone had finally removed the boulder sitting on his chest for years. But he said Biden’s executive action cannot undo the damage done by the ban, which critics decried as racist, senseless and inhumane. “The ban itself will be reversed, but no one can reverse our feelings and emotions and the time we lost while being separated from each other,” said Alghazzouli, who hopes his parents will soon be able to come to the United States and meet his baby. He said his mother’s immigrant visa is being held up due to the ban. “It’ll still be part of our life and history,” he said. “The Muslim ban is the nuke that we survived, but we are still suffering from its collateral damage.” read the complete article
India
Director of Amazon India Drama Cuts Scenes Amid Outcry From Hindu Nationalists
Hindu nationalists, including members of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., have accused Mr. Zafar of insulting Hindu deities and stirring up animosity between Hindus and Muslims and between upper castes and lower castes. Mr. Zafar said on Twitter on Tuesday that the show’s cast and crew had decided to “implement changes to address the concerns raised,” and since then, several scenes have been excised. But on Friday, some critics continued to drum up opposition, calling for Mr. Zafar to be put in jail. read the complete article
International
Pompeo's Xinjiang 'genocide' declaration presents Biden with an early China challenge
Pompeo's choice to make the Xinjiang declaration at the last possible minute, in an action that was largely lost in the drama of the presidential transition, has frustrated many researchers and human rights activists who have long argued for such a designation. "Don't credit rump Trump architects of chaotic China policy for eleventh hour gestures they first opposed for years," James Millward, a historian of Xinjiang, wrote in a Twitter thread denouncing what he said was Pompeo's "hypocrisy" on this matter. Millward pointed out that the Trump administration blocked multiple attempts by Congress to take action on Xinjiang, in both 2018 and 2019, as the President pursued a trade deal with China, while Pompeo sought to take credit for exposing atrocities that were brought to light by journalists and researchers "years before Trump flipped on his 'good friend' Xi." More than anything else, Pompeo's final shot across Beijing's bow seems to have been an attempt to bind the hands of the incoming administration. read the complete article
Canada urged to formally label China’s Uyghur persecution as genocide
The Conservatives are calling on the federal government to declare that China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity through its use of internment camps and forced sterilization for Muslim Uyghurs. Conservative Party MPs note that not only did the U.S. State Department under former secretary of state Michael Pompeo declare on Jan. 19 that China is perpetrating genocide but new U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said later that he concurs. Canada under the minority Liberal government has so far declined to take an official position on the matter. A House of Commons subcommittee in which the majority of members are from the governing Liberal Party released a statement last October declaring the persecution of the Uyghurs to be genocide, but this does not carry the official stamp of the Canadian government. read the complete article
Denmark
Turkish mosque in Denmark defaced with anti-Muslim slurs
A Turkish mosque in Denmark near the German border has been defaced with anti-Muslim slurs, an official at the place of worship said Saturday. Hurşit Tokay, the president of the mosque association, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that he left Aabenraa Mosque on Friday at 6 p.m. When he arrived at around 11 a.m. Saturday, he noticed the slurs insulting the Quran on the wall. The mosque, which operates under the umbrella of the Danish Turkish Islamic Foundation, was partially closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. He said mosque officials reported the incident to the police and that the authorities have launched an investigation and will examine the surveillance cameras in the area. read the complete article