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SearchToday in Islamophobia: More than 180 groups urge brands to stop sourcing from China’s Xinjiang region over fears of forced Uyghur labor. The NBA reportedly ends its relationship with a basketball academy in China’s Xinjiang province. Our recommended read today is by Aysha Khan on the passing of the No Ban Act in the U.S House. This, and more, below:
United States
Separated Muslim families, civil rights groups welcome House passage of No Ban Act | Recommended Read
On Wednesday (July 22), the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted to pass a bill repealing the Trump administration’s travel bans against several African and Muslim-majority countries and restricting the president’s authority to enact such blanket immigration restrictions. The No Ban Act, or the National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants Act, advanced with a 233-183 majority, with two votes in favor from Republican Reps. Will Hurd and Brian Fitzpatrick. The bill was first introduced in April 2019 by Rep. Judy Chu. Sen. Chris Coons introduced a companion bill in the Senate. A House vote on the bill was originally planned in March, but was delayed at the last minute as Congress shifted its attention to developing a pandemic response plan. The bill would repeal Trump’s various visa and entry restrictions on travel and immigration from Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Venezuela, North Korea and – since February – Nigeria, Sudan, Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan and Tanzania. “This is like lighting up a candle and showing the separated families like us who are living in the dark,” Alghazzouli told RNS. “This shows that Muslims matter and families matter. This shows people from these countries that they are American, too — that their religion is American, their names are American and they are not second-class citizens.” read the complete article
House Approves Repeal of Trump's Travel Ban Decried as Anti-Muslim
The bill, which passed the Democrat-controlled House 233-183, had initially been slated for action in March, before the coronavirus forced scheduling changes on Capitol Hill. The measure is unlikely to advance in the Republican-controlled Senate, where it has no GOP support. But the bill’s passage by the House still elated advocates who had long pushed for formal action against a travel ban that they see as discriminatory. “This is a historic moment for Muslims,” Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, one of the groups working in support of the bill, said ahead of the vote. Passage of the NO BAN act will “show Muslims, who have been banned and scapegoated by the Trump administration, that we deserve rights and dignity,” Khera added. The White House noted its opposition to the bill in March, saying in a statement that undoing the travel ban “would harm the national security of the United States” and that the ban has been “central to the Administration’s ongoing efforts to safeguard the American people against the spread of COVID-19.” In debate ahead of the vote, Democrats repeatedly blasted the travel ban that President Donald Trump first imposed in January 2017. They called it biased against Muslims, whose entry into the country Trump first suggested blocking during his 2016 White House run. read the complete article
John Lewis Gave the Next Generation of Activists Our Marching Orders. Let's Make Him Proud
When the Rev. C.T. Vivian and Congressman John Lewis passed on the same day, it was this thought that fired me up. I am blessed to be one of the thousands of activists who decide daily to get in Mr. Lewis’ favorite form of trouble: the good kind. We are strong in number. We fight the varied manifestations of oppression every day across the globe. We press for Green New Deals and for America to make good on its original ideals. We radically reimagine public safety and public health to prioritize care over punishment and fund wellness instead of violence. We protect the waters at Standing Rock and in Flint. We fight detention at Rikers and at the border. We take on anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. We say Black Lives Matter because we mean it—and we are unashamed to remind you that we mean all Black lives, the cis and trans ones, the disabled and abled ones, the women, the men, the gender-nonconforming and everyone who doesn’t belong to a binary. read the complete article
International
Canada should work with allies to impose sanctions on Chinese officials linked to Uyghur abuses: Bill Browder
The man behind the global Magnitsky sanctions campaign says Canada should work with other democracies to jointly target Chinese human-rights abusers responsible for atrocities against Muslim Uyghurs in the country’s Xinjiang province. Bill Browder, the U.S.-born financier who has led the international effort to establish Magnitsky-style laws around the world, said Ottawa should start by working with Britain to impose sanctions on the same Chinese officials recently targeted by the United States. The Trump administration announced sanctions earlier this month against a top member of China’s Communist Party and three other senior officials in response to rights violations against minorities in Xinjiang, including the Uyghurs. “Dominic Raab, the [British] Foreign Secretary, has not yet – I stress the word yet – announced Magnitsky sanctions [against Chinese officials] and I believe it would probably be easier to get him to do it if Canada were to do it in concert,” Mr. Browder told the House of Commons subcommittee on human rights Tuesday. The call for co-ordinated action comes as lines harden between China and the Western world. Speaking after a meeting with British ministers in London Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo encouraged other governments to push back against China. read the complete article
More than 180 groups urge brands to stop sourcing from China’s Xinjiang region over fears of forced Uyghur labour
More than 180 organisations urged brands from Adidas to Amazon.com Inc. to end sourcing of cotton and clothing from the region and cut ties with any suppliers in China that benefit from the forced labour of the ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim groups. While most fashion brands do not source from factories in Xinjiang, many of their supply chains are likely to be tainted by cotton picked by Uyghurs that is exported across China and used by other suppliers, the rights groups said in a letter. More than 80% of China’s cotton comes from northwestern Xinjiang, which is home to about 11 million Uyghurs. “Brands and retailers recognize there is a massive problem in the region, and that their supply chains are exposed to a grave risk of forced labour,” said Scott Nova, head of the U.S.-based Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), which signed the letter. “We are cautiously optimistic that there will be commitments (from brands to pull out of Xinjiang) in the future,” he added. read the complete article
Coalition Brings Pressure to End Forced Uighur Labor
On Thursday, more than 190 organizations spanning 36 countries issued a call to action, seeking formal commitments from clothing brands to cut all ties with suppliers implicated in Uighur forced labor and to end all sourcing from the Xinjiang region of China in the next twelve months. Roughly one in five cotton garments sold globally contains cotton or yarn from the Xinjiang region in northwestern China. There, authorities have used coercive labor programs and mass internment to remold as many as one million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other largely Muslim minorities into model workers obedient to the Communist Party. Camp inmates are forced to undergo job training, and some then take factory positions at little or no pay. “Many brands have known for years about the growing body of evidence around Uighur exploitation,” said Peter Irwin, a spokesman for the Uyghur Human Rights Project, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. “They won’t stop unethical sourcing practices unless they are faced with real reputational risk and the possibility that consumers will stop shopping from their stores.” Recent investigations by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Axios and others have found evidence that connects China’s forced detention of Turkic-speaking Uighurs to the supply chains of many of the world’s best-known fashion retailers, including Adidas, Lacoste, H & M, Abercrombie & Fitch, Ralph Lauren and the PVH Corporation, which owns labels including Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. read the complete article
NBA ends relationship with academy in China
The NBA has ended its relationship with a basketball academy in China's Xinjiang province, according to a letter sent to U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn. The letter, which was first reported by Sports Illustrated, was in response to a letter by Blackburn to the NBA that asked a series of questions about the league's relationship with China. In response to Blackburn's question about the academy in Xinjiang -- where reportedly roughly a million Uyghurs, a Muslim minority, are being held in what have been described as concentration camps -- Mark Tatum, the NBA's deputy commissioner, wrote: "The NBA has had no involvement with the Xinjiang basketball academy for more than a year, and the relationship has been terminated." read the complete article
Malaysia
Malaysian court overturns caning sentence on 27 Rohingya men
An appeals court in Malaysia has overturned a lower court ruling sentencing 27 Rohingya men to be caned, saying their refugee status affords them international protection from persecution. Collin Andrew, a lawyer representing the refugees, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday the sentence of caning imposed in June had been "set aside" by High Court Judge Arik Sanusi, and the refugees were ordered to be released to the United Nations refugee agency. "I welcome this honourable decision taken by the high court in promoting and protecting human rights," Andrew told Al Jazeera following the hearing. In his ruling, the judge also said the people charged were not habitual offenders, and had not committed any acts of violence, and as such, it was "inhumane" to impose a sentence of caning. read the complete article