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SearchToday in Islamophobia: The Biden administration on Monday renewed genocide allegations against China for its repression of Uyghur Muslims and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang, while the UN Human Rights Council unanimously adopts a resolution on the “Human Rights Situation of Rohingya Muslims and other Minorities in Myanmar,” and in Canada, residents in Saskatoon’s Eastview neighborhood are planning an anti-hate march after a recent attack on a local Muslim Man. Our recommended read of the day is by Mariam Khan on how the Muslim community of New Zealand has labelled the premise and perspective of the film titled “They Are Us”, based on the events of the Christchurch attack, “exploitative” and “insensitive”. This and more below:
International
Muslims are still misrepresented in film and TV, so how do we change the script?
The Muslim community of New Zealand has labelled the premise and perspective of the film titled They Are Us, based on the events of the Christchurch attack, “exploitative” and “insensitive” and a petition has been signed by almost 75,000 people. The petitioners write: “We, the undersigned, call for the following actions to ensure the film They Are Us does not go ahead, as it sidelines the victims and survivors and instead centres the response of a white woman." In the grand scheme of things, representation of Muslims in film and TV is minimal at best, with much of it flitting between white saviourism, terrorism or or oppression narratives, whether it’s a Muslim woman whipping off her hijab in Netflix’s Elite or the plot twist of the BBC’s Bodyguard where the terrorist turns out to be an unsuspecting Muslim woman. They Are Us, from the little we do know about it, fits into the former category. Because, while the victims of the attack were Muslims, they have become a backdrop to the response of a white woman who simply did her job as an elected leader and showed compassion when dealing with the terror attack. The emphasis upon Ardern’s story shows that Muslim narratives aren’t deemed worthy on their own without a white champion. It also tells those within the community that their narratives and lived experience and identity aren’t valuable. The representation of Muslims is stuck in the rock and hard place of Muslims wanting to be represented on screen outside of stereotypes but also (and fairly so) being unwilling to engage or invest within the industry for longer than a moment of controversy because they don’t believe things will improve. Change is being made by those behind the scenes and even those in front of the camera; just look at Riz Ahmed, who recently launched a initiative for Muslim inclusion in media. read the complete article
US cites China, Myanmar, Ethiopia in genocide report
The Biden administration on Monday renewed genocide allegations against China for repression of Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in its northwest Xinjiang region. It also warned Eritrea, Ethiopia, Myanmar and South Sudan of possible further sanctions for ethnic cleansing in conflicts they are involved in. The administration sent the messages in the release of the State Department’s annual report to Congress on genocide and atrocities prevention, which calls for the federal government to outline steps it is taking to prevent and halt such actions abroad. The report said the U.S. continues to believe that China’s actions against the Uyghurs constitutes a “genocide.” That finding was first announced by former President Donald Trump’s administration, as was a determination that Myanmar was engaged in “ethnic cleansing” against Rohyinga Muslims in its northern Rakhine state. read the complete article
UNHRC adopts resolution emphasising justice and repatriation of Rohingyas back to Myanmar
UN Human Rights Council unanimously adopted a resolution on the "Human Rights Situation of Rohingya Muslims and other Minorities in Myanmar" today, calling on the international community to continue providing humanitarian assistance until they return to Myanmar. The resolution also emphasized bringing all responsible for torture, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against Rohingyas to justice, while also acknowledging the ongoing criminal proceedings in the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice. The resolution also reiterates the authority of the UN Security Council to determine what to do in such a situation, while also requesting the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to submit a report to the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly on the progress made in implementing the recommendations of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar. It also called for a panel discussion in the Human Rights Council on "the root causes of human rights violations and abuses against Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar." read the complete article
United States
There Are 11,073 Muslims In Federal Prisons But Just 13 Chaplains To Minister To Them
Muslims, the third-largest faith group in federal prisons, are significantly underrepresented among the chaplaincy, according to a Department of Justice inspector general report released last week. Currently, 6% of federal prison chaplains are Muslim, while 9.4% of inmates identified as Muslim. As of March 2020, 199 of the 236 federal prison chaplains, or 84%, were Protestant Christian, even though that faith group makes up only 34% of inmates. There were no more than 13 Muslim chaplains in the past six years working at federal prisons — and that number remains today, even though the number of Muslim inmates has grown during that time, to 11,073. The needs of the federal prisons' Muslim population are underserved without chaplains, Muslim leaders say. Because most religious services have to be led by a chaplain, not having Muslim clergy means the services get canceled. When Muslim chaplains are employed, they also make sure Muslim inmate read the complete article
Young Muslim entrepreneur's hijab designs are some of the first to be sold by a major retailer
Hilal Ibrahim began dreaming of making hijabs more accessible to women of all cultures in high school, and now her luxury designs are available as some of the first hijabs to be sold at a major fashion retailer in the US. The 26-year-old began her company, Henna and Hijabs, in 2017 to do what others had not: make hijabs, traditional head scarfs commonly worn by Muslim women, that were accessible to everyone using sustainable materials. Her fashion hijabs made their appearance in 16 Nordstrom stores across North America this month, including the Mall of America and online, according to a statement from the department store. The pieces start at $45. Ibrahim told CNN that hijabs in retail are a new concept, and without them women and young girls had to rely on buying scarves that may be too sheer or too small for their intended purpose. She wanted to change that and allow all women looking to use a hijab to walk into a mall and buy one off the shelf. read the complete article
Why are White evangelicals embracing an anti-democratic movement? Because they’re panicking.
White Christians have been holding their numbers in terms of their share of the U.S. population, but not for the reasons one might expect. As the Public Religion Research Institute reported in its annual survey released last week: “The slight increase in white Christians between 2018 and 2020 was driven primarily by an uptick in the proportion of white mainline (non-evangelical) Protestants and a stabilization in the proportion of white Catholics.” Most striking, and most significant for our politics, "[s]ince 2006, white evangelical Protestants have experienced the most precipitous drop in affiliation, shrinking from 23% of Americans in 2006 to 14% in 2020. That proportion has generally held steady since 2017 (15% in 2017, 2018, and 2019).” I asked Robert P. Jones, chief executive of PRRI and author of “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity,” if the decline in evangelical affiliation was related to the increasingly political nature of churches belonging to the denomination. “In a word, yes,” he said. “It’s clear that White evangelical Protestants have been losing ground among young people. As they have shrunk over the last decade, their median age has risen from 53 to 56, compared to a median age of 47 in the country overall.” It is not hard to figure out why they are losing young people and shrinking as a result. “The positions that White evangelical churches have become known for as they have become more politicized — opposition to same-sex marriage, opposition to abortion, a denial of climate change, anti-immigrant sentiment, anti-Muslim sentiment — are all strongly out of step with the values of younger Americans,” Jones observed. “And White evangelicals’ unequivocal embrace of [former president Donald] Trump also has them at odds with younger Americans. While White evangelical Protestants voted 84 percent for Trump in 2020, only 35 percent of Americans under the age of 30 did the same, according to Pew’s validated voter study.” In short, as White evangelical churches turn into MAGA political clubs, many who otherwise may have found a spiritual home with them have fled because they are alienated — if not horrified — by the politicization of their faith and the abandonment of values such as inclusion and empathy. The price of politicizing religion is therefore bad not only for our politics (by heightening polarization and converting policy disputes into existential crises) but also for religious communities that chase away potential adherents. read the complete article
Canada
Anti-hate march planned after attack on Muslim man in Saskatoon
People in Saskatoon’s Eastview neighbourhood are planning an anti-hate march on Tuesday night after a recent attack on a Muslim man. Muhammad Kashif was attacked by two men in the alley behind his house in Eastview last month. He was stabbed, taunted with racial slurs and had part of his beard cut off. Michelle Lee-Klaassen is one of the organizers of the march. “When I found about (the attack) I just felt sick to my stomach,” she said. “We have small children and I know Mr. Kashif does as well, and we just felt terrible as parents and teachers and people in our community and we wanted to do something.” Lee-Klaassen said the group has printed hundreds of fliers promoting the event and has been dropping them off door-to-door, while taking time to speak with neighbours about what happened. “Some people didn’t know that the attack had occurred. Others had expressed that they themselves feel fear for their families after that attack happened in our community. We’re really just hoping to bring visibility to the diversity of our neighbourhood and come together and just show support, that hate doesn’t belong in our neighbourhood,” she said. read the complete article
India
Sulli Deals: Indian Muslim women offered for sale in ‘auction’
On the night of July 4, Afreen Fatima participated in an online forum about the persecution of Muslims in India. No sooner had she wrapped up her session than her mobile phone was flooded with messages, informing the 23-year-old student activist that she had been ‘put up for sale’ on a fake online auction. And she was not alone. Photographs of more than 80 other Muslim women, including students, activists and journalists, had been uploaded on an app called “Sulli deals” without their knowledge. The creators of the platform offered visitors a chance to claim a “Sulli” – a derogatory term used by right-wing Hindu trolls for Muslim women – calling them “deals of the day”. She said that the incident came on a day a Hindu far-right man called for the abduction of Muslim women at a gathering in Pataudi, about 60km (31 miles) from New Delhi. “I was just so disturbed; I couldn’t sleep,” she said. Prominent journalist and activist Rana Ayyub, who has been at the receiving end of vicious sexualised trolling for her outspoken views, said that this was and is done “systemically” to target vocal Muslim women. “The way they [Hindu far-right groups] sexualise you is the only way they believe they can shame and silence Muslim women online. We are supposed to be ‘oppressed’ in their books – so they think, ‘How dare we speak out for ourselves?’” Ayyub, who is a columnist for the Washington Post, told Al Jazeera. read the complete article