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SearchToday in Islamophobia: Delhi riots victims and their lawyers allege police pressure to drop cases. Sri Lanka sticks to cremation of Muslim Covid-19 victims despite uproar. Our recommended read today is by Imrul Islam on the chain of irresponsibility, hate, and unaccountability that led to the attack of the U.S Capitol on January 6. This, and more, below:
United States
All the president's yes-men | Recommended Read
There is no doubt who we must blame. But in thinking about responsibility, we should cast our net wide, if only to glimpse the depth of the problem. Since 2017, Republicans have exhibited a distinct lack of a backbone in the face of Trump's antics; marching in lockstep to oppose impeachment, failing to condemn his endorsement of white supremacist violence, and backtracking on previous promises to oppose pushing through a Supreme Court nomination within months of a election. In so doing, they offered Trump the privilege of demagoguery. read the complete article
Trump's aiding Capitol violence as world watches shows U.S. is now exporting extremism
President Donald Trump and every politician who parroted the falsehood that the election was stolen bear tremendous responsibility for riling the supporters who disrupted the counting of the Electoral College vote confirming Joe Biden’s win. But the culpability doesn’t end there, just as the flames of hatred and violence on display in Washington on Wednesday are not the full extent of America’s extremist problem — and, increasingly, the world’s. read the complete article
Opinion | Stop Calling For Unity, I'm Not "Coming Together" With Domestic Terrorists
Over the last four years, the only thing the Trump presidency has done efficiently is embolden racists, white nationalists, and QAnon believers. Whether they voted for him in 2016 or 2020, they did so for policies bred from hatred. They voted for a man who accepted endorsements from neo-Nazi groups, pledged to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, called for rollbacks of federal healthcare protections, initiated the "Deploy or Get Out" policy, tried to start a "Muslim ban," attacked Roe v. Wade, rolled back existing LGBTQ+ protections, and did everything wrong when COVID-19 hit. read the complete article
The U.S. Capitol raid exposes the myth and pathology of American exceptionalism
“Crazytown” is not a one-man phenomenon, however: consider Trump’s 74 million votes, Republican conspiracy theories, Ted Cruz-led Senate shenanigans and the assault on the U.S. Capitol by those who’d come to Washington to disrupt the congressional endorsement of the election results. The departing president should be seen as the avatar of American attitudes and behavioural predispositions, both widespread and deeply rooted. read the complete article
India
Delhi riots victims, lawyers allege police pressure to drop cases
The office of a prominent lawyer fighting the cases of some victims of the February 2020 violence was raided in New Delhi last month, with legal experts calling it an attack on client-lawyer privilege. Mehmood Pracha, 56, says he was targeted because he is working on cases that might link Home Minister Amit Shah, the closest aide to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to the worst violence the Indian capital had witnessed in nearly 40 years. Pracha claims the Delhi police – controlled by Shah’s office – raided his office at the minister’s behest. “The raid was solely for the purpose of destroying these materials so that I cannot expose the role of the home ministry, the Delhi police, and RSS and BJP cadres,” he told Al Jazeera, referring to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological mentor. “My assassination is also a part of their design,” he said. read the complete article
A Day in the Life of a 'One-Man Hindutva Army' in Uttar Pradesh
Besides working to stop “love jihad” in his home state, Uttar Pradesh, Chauhan runs a cow shelter called Pracheen Sidh Peeth Shri Shri Gau Devi Mandir Gaushala near Bharatmata Chauk Numaish Camp, Saharanpur. He spends hours collecting fodder for the cows, as well as carrying out an awareness campaign in the mornings, driving a tiny e-rickshaw. Inside the vehicle, he has installed a small temple. read the complete article
United Kingdom
7 times Tories cosied up to Donald Trump despite the warning signs
Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, said Trump’s comments “directly led to the violence” by his supporters in Washington. She told the BBC: “So far he’s failed to condemn that violence, and that is completely wrong.” Ms Patel’s condemnation was notable partly because it is so rare. In the past her fellow Tory ministers and backbenchers have cosied up to the President to win his favour - despite warnings at the time about his character. read the complete article
Myanmar
Rohingya Arrested in Myanmar Just for Traveling
The Rohingya – mostly women as well as children reportedly as young as 5 years old – were apparently bound for Malaysia. They sought to escape Myanmar’s longstanding oppression of the group. Rohingya are effectively denied citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship Law so the government considers them “illegal” aliens, refusing to issue legal documentation that would allow them to travel within the country. read the complete article
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka sticks to cremation of Muslim Covid-19 victims despite uproar
Sri Lanka's government insisted Friday on the cremation of all coronavirus victims, rejecting international pleas and recommendations from its own experts to allow the Muslim minority to bury their dead in line with Islamic custom. The government first banned burials in April amid concerns -- which experts say are baseless -- by influential Buddhist monks that burying bodies could contaminate groundwater and spread the virus. The World Health Organisation has said that there is no such risk, recommending both burials and cremations of virus victims, but the Sri Lankan government has refused. read the complete article
China
Chinese Diplomats Claim Uighur Concentration Camps Promote ‘Gender Equality’
The Chinese Embassy in the United States tweeted Thursday that China’s Uighur detention camps “emancipated” the minds of women incarcerated there. The embassy’s official account wrote, “Study shows that in the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uygur women in Xinjiang were emancipated and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines. They are more confident and independent.” Since 2017, the Chinese Communist Party has detained at least a million Uighurs, members of China’s Muslim minority, in vast “reeducation” compounds in the Xinjiang province. read the complete article