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SearchToday in Islamophobia: Renowned historians repudiate myths fueling Islamophobia in India. Report clears U.K Muslim charity of allegations of institutional antisemitism. Hundreds of Rohingya disappear from Indonesia’s Lhokseumawe camp.Our recommended read today is on the anniversary of the Quebec city mosque attack, which remains the worst mass murder in a house of worship in Canada’s history. This, and more, below:
Canada
Remembering the Québec City mosque attack: Islamophobia and Canada’s national amnesia | Recommended Read
A halal grocery store owner, a professor at Université Laval, three civil servants and a pharmacy worker were slain by Alexandre Bissonnette. These men originally came from Morocco, Algeria and Guinea. The murder victims were: Ibrahima Barry, 39; Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42; Khaled Belkacemi, 60; Aboubaker Thabti, 44; Abdelkrim Hassane, 41; and Azzedine Soufiane; 57. Nineteen other worshippers were injured, including Aymen Derbali, who was paralyzed in an attempt to stop Bissonnette. The federal government has now announced that Jan. 29 will become a National Day of Remembrance for the victims of the mosque attack and that it will be used to promote action against Islamophobia. read the complete article
Victims of mosque attack to be honoured with national day of remembrance, action
The federal government intends to make Jan. 29 a day to honour victims of the deadly 2017 attack on a Quebec City mosque. Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault made the announcement Thursday, the day before the fourth anniversary of the attack. read the complete article
India
Renowned historians repudiate myths fueling Islamophobia in India
The webinar was organized on January 26, India’s Republic Day by Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), an advocacy group dedicated to safeguarding India’s pluralist and tolerant ethos. Prof. Mukhia, who spoke on the subject of “how Muslim was the medieval Indian state?” categorically asserted there was no historical evidence to suggest that the medieval Indian Muslim state was engaged in large scale conversion of Hindus to Islam. read the complete article
International
Report clears Muslim charity of institutional antisemitism
Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), a global organisation with an annual income of about £130m, was a “highly effective charity” performing “crucial humanitarian work around the world”, said Dominic Grieve, the former Conservative attorney general who led the independent review. “We found absolutely no evidence that the reputational issues that have arisen over the conduct of a few individuals has had any link to the way IRW carries out this charitable work,” he said. read the complete article
Australia, Like the Rest of the World, Is Watching the Rise of Authoritarianism in India
Australian government minister Simon Birmingham on an official trade mission to Delhi last year touted India’s rule of law as one of the nation’s strengths. These comments were made within days of the shocking attacks on the Delhi Muslim community. Birmingham stated that “the violence is a matter for India”, adding that “Australia continues to think that one of the things most valuable about India has been tolerance … to religious diversity”. read the complete article
United States
More Muslim Apps Worked with X-Mode, Which Sold Data to Military Contractors
At least five more Muslim prayer or similar apps worked with data broker X-Mode, which has sold location data to military contractors and by extension U.S. military intelligence, according to multiple technical analyses. The news comes after the office of Senator Ron Wyden obtained and published a memo which said staff at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) have been granted permission to query similar U.S. phone location data without a warrant five times in the past two and a half years. While the Muslim-focused apps have stopped sending data to X-Mode, the news still provides context on what sort of apps have been feeding data to companies that then sell information indirectly to the military. read the complete article
Reflections on the Muslim Ban on the Four-Year Anniversary
Nisrin Elamin was on one of those flights. A Ph.D student at Stanford University, she had been in her home country of Sudan, researching foreign land grabs (and local resistance to them). At the time, she held a green card in the United States. While abroad, Elamin had started to hear rumors of the Muslim ban. “My partner was here in the U.S.,” she says. “I was just worried that I would be separated from him, and decided to get on the next plane to try to beat the ban, essentially.” read the complete article
Indonesia
Hundreds of Rohingya disappear from Indonesia’s Lhokseumawe camp
Neither local authorities nor the United Nations could account for the whereabouts of the refugees from the stateless Muslim minority from Myanmar, who are feared to have enlisted traffickers to help them cross the Malacca strait into Malaysia. “We don’t know yet where they went,” Ridwan Jalil, head of the Rohingya task force in Lhokseumawe, said on Thursday. “But they’ll escape if they can find any hole to leave because that is their goal.” Thousands have since paid smugglers to get them out of Bangladesh, enduring harrowing, months-long sea journeys punctuated by illness, beatings by traffickers and near-starvation rations to reach Indonesia and Malaysia. read the complete article