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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the United Kingdom, a judge has ruled in favor of Jamal Hijazi, the Syrian schoolboy who was attacked by classmates, in his lawsuit against anti-Muslim activist Tommy Robinson who claimed Hijazi was a “violent aggressor.” In the United States, GPT-3, a natural language processing (NLP) model, has been found to hold “severe bias” as it overwhelmingly associates the term Muslim with the concept of violence, and in Canada some Canadian Muslims are expressing caution as the government holds its anti-Islamophobia summit, with one legal academic noting that government discourse is “overlooking the central role of the Canadian state itself — particularly in the context of the war on terror — in legitimising Islamophobia.” Our recommended read of the day is by Farid Hafez on Austria’s so-called anti-terrorism package, which severely curtails civil liberties and targets Muslim civil society. This and more are below:
Austria
How Austria is dismantling civil liberties under the guise of 'anti-terrorism'
Just days after the deadly attack in downtown Vienna on 2 November 2020, the Austrian cabinet agreed to broad new anti-terrorism measures. According to Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of the Conservative Austrian People’s Party (OVP), the measures were meant to target militants, in addition to the ideology that drives them - in other words, non-militant Islamists. But amid objections from the party’s coalition partner, the Greens, the bill dropped the term “political Islam” and replaced it with the still quite contentious “religiously motivated extremism”. Still, Austria’s integration minister made clear that the bill would target mainly so-called political Islam. When the “Anti-Terrorism Act” was first presented late last year, several institutions heavily criticised the bill. The European Center for Not-for-Profit Law argued that “the draft law is not in line with international and European human rights standards on freedom of religion, freedom of expression and freedom of association”. Amnesty International released a comprehensive critique, while lawyers, religious communities and NGOs uttered harsh condemnations - but with little impact. The law ultimately passed earlier this month. In sum, Austria’s so-called anti-terrorism package severely curtails civil liberties, putting at risk the freedoms of religion, expression and association. The goal, first and foremost, is apparently to target Muslim civil society. This is suggested by the governing OVP and the legislation it has put forward on “political Islam” or “terrorism”. But there is no reason to doubt that tomorrow, this legislation could also be used against any critical opposition to the established order. read the complete article
International
Progress or War: On Islamophobia and Europe's Demographic Shifts
While Europe's right-wing parties remain committed to the ridiculous notion that Muslims, immigrants and refugees pose a threat to Europe's overall security and unique secular identities, the left is not entirely immune from such chauvinistic notions. The right's political discourse is familiar and is often condemned for its repugnantly ultra-nationalistic, if not outright racist, tone and rhetoric. The left, on the other hand, is a different story. The European left, notably in countries like France and Belgium, frame their 'problem' with Islam as fundamental to their supposed dedication to the secular values of the State. Leftist politicians and intellectuals were just as eager as the right to prevent Ihsane Haouach, a Belgian government representative, from serving as a commissioner at the Institute for the Equality of Women and Men (IEFH). It was a repeat of a similar scenario in France last May when Sara Zemmahi was removed from the ruling party's candidates list for seemingly violating France's valeurs de la République—the values of the Republic. Indeed, they are all the outcome of an overriding phenomenon of anti-Muslim prejudice, coupled with a wave of racism that has plagued Europe for many years, especially in the last decade. Though Europe's official institutions, mainstream media, sports clubs and so on, continue to pay lip service to the need for diversity and inclusion, the reality on the ground is entirely different. Islamophobia must be seen within the larger context of the toxic anti-refugee and anti-immigrant sentiments, now defining factors in shaping modern European politics. read the complete article
Anti-Muslim incidents increased in U.S. during Israel’s assault on Gaza, spiked in Canada in 2021 – report
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has released a mid-year report documenting the state of anti-Muslim hate incidents in 2021. The national Muslim civil rights and advocacy group says that since the start of the year, it has received hundreds of complaints from chapters across the country, and more than 500 at its national headquarters, regarding anti-Muslim hate crimes, discrimination, immigration and travel issues, school bullying incidents and more. The new report shows major trends over the last seven months based on the incidents reported to CAIR. It also highlights 38 of the most severe cases of anti-Muslim hate during that period, including hate crimes, harassment, school bullying, discrimination, hate speech and anti-mosque incidents. Significantly, CAIR says it saw an increase in these incidents during Israel’s assault on Gaza this year. This spike in cases in May and June involved cases of vandalism and an attempted stabbing, and several physical assaults targeting Muslim women wearing the hijab. read the complete article
America treated the Oslo attacks as a fringe incident. Here's why that's been so dangerous.
Ten years ago Thursday, a white supremacist terrorist disguised himself as a police officer and brutally murdered 77 people — most of whom were children and young adults — in Norway. The attacks marked the start of an era in far-right extremism that would be all but ignored by U.S. and global counterterrorism authorities for years to come. We are reaping the consequences of that inattention now. The terrorist's rationale for the attacks — laid out in a 1,500-page manifesto — was rooted in extreme anti-Islam and anti-immigrant beliefs. He saw Norwegian political leaders as blinded to an existential threat posed by multiculturalism, which he argued was leading to the deliberate and orchestrated Islamization of Europe by Muslim immigrants. Although the attack was focused on Norway, it was strongly influenced by the American and global Islamophobia industry, as his scores of citations of anti-Islam activists illustrate. The world was shocked by the attacks. But in the throes of the post-9/11 global focus on Islamist terrorism, security and intelligence officials treated the Oslo attacks as a fringe incident, rather than understanding it as part of a broad and growing trend of rising white supremacist extremism. This pattern would hold for years to follow. The U.S. government even rebuffed efforts by its own intelligence and security officials to enhance its agencies' focus on white supremacist extremism. In the end, it would take eight years following the attacks in Norway for American and global terrorism experts and policymakers to start to take the threat of white supremacist extremism more seriously. read the complete article
Canada
Fifteen years ago we shrugged off anti-Muslim hate speech. Have we evolved?
Most of those who read Steyn’s words didn’t engage in anti-Muslim violence. When an individual, a so-called “lone wolf”, commits an act of violence after immersing himself in anti-Muslim speech, his action will often be attributed to his moral deficiency or mental illness. Steyn was embarrassed by the references to his work in an anti-Muslim manifesto produced by Anders Breivik, who in 2011 murdered 69 young people in Norway. He sought to distance himself from Breivik, describing him as someone “lost in his own psychoses.” But if a reader takes the claims of Steyn and other anti-Muslim writers, seriously what should they conclude? Steyn claimed in a mainstream publication that Muslims are an enemy within who are prepared to use violence to impose their faith on others. Breivik appears to have drawn the obvious conclusion from Steyn’s claims. When Steyn’s piece was published, anti-Muslim speech seemed to be an accepted (although not yet common) part of public conversation, even by those who thought it was mistaken and unfair. Since the dismissal of the complaint against Macleans, anti-Muslim speech has grown dramatically, spreading freely and widely on the internet. This speech has fuelled public intolerance. It has, almost certainly, contributed to discriminatory public action such as the requirement that individuals remove face coverings when taking the citizenship oath and the enactment of Québec’s Bill 21 that prohibits many provincial civil servants from wearing religious symbols at work. Anti-Muslim speech has also inspired acts of violence against Canadian Muslims, ranging from assaults on the street to the murder of worshippers at a Québec mosque and, more recently, the murder of a Muslim family in London, Ont. read the complete article
Canadian Muslims have doubt, cautious hope anti-Islamophobia summit will bring real change
Canadian Muslims expressed both doubt and cautious hope as the federal anti-Islamophobia summit is being held in the wake of a horrific vehicle attack on a Muslim family in London, Ont. Jasmin Zine, one of the speakers at the summit, has been researching Islamophobia for more than 20 years and has strong doubts that the government will deliver on tangible change. “The proof will be in the pudding if they are actually going to put some meaningful consideration and effort behind making recommendations actionable,” Zine, a professor of sociology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview. Zine and others have their doubts because they say there hasn’t been any government acknowledgement that its policies over the years have contributed to “a climate of Islamophobia in this country.” Azeezah Kanji, a community activist, legal academic researcher and writer, said government discourse is “overlooking the central role of the Canadian state itself -- particularly in the context of the war on terror -- in legitimising Islamophobia and the demonizing stereotypes of Muslims.” She also said some proposals involving policing powers at the summit could end up “backfiring on the very communities that they're intended to protect.” “There's been an emphasis on dangerously using expanded counterterrorism powers and expanded policing powers in the name of addressing Islamophobic hate,” Kanji said, referencing proposed changes to the Criminal Code to better penalize hate-motivated assault, murder, threats, and mischief; and provincial legislation barring white supremacist groups from rallying on public land. Kanji will instead be looking for government commitments to end systemic racism within state powers themselves. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Tommy Robinson loses libel case brought by Syrian schoolboy
The English Defence League founder, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was sued by Jamal Hijazi after an incident in a school playground in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, in October 2018. Shortly after the video of the incident went viral, Robinson falsely claimed in Facebook videos viewed by nearly 1 million people that Hijazi was “not innocent and he violently attacks young English girls in his school”. He also claimed Hijazi, now 18, “beat a girl black and blue” and “threatened to stab” another boy at his school, allegations the teenager denies. In a high court judgment on Thursday, Mr Justice Matthew Nicklin said the consequences of Robinson’s falsehoods had been “particularly severe” for Hijazi, to whom he awarded £100,000 in damages. The judge said Robinson had made Hijazi out to be “a violent aggressor” in the playground incident when he was in fact the victim. The activist used language “calculated to inflame the situation”, Nicklin said, ultimately causing Hijazi to abandon his education and forcing his family to flee their home. The teenager received death threats after becoming a target for the far right. Nicklin said the scars from the incident would “likely last for many years, if not a lifetime”. read the complete article
United States
Rooting Out Anti-Muslim Bias in Popular Language Model GPT-3
Zou, Abid, and their colleague Maheen Farooqi of McMaster University fed those exact words — Two Muslims walk into a — into popular language model GPT-3. GPT-3 is the largest and most sophisticated such resource in the field of natural language processing (NLP), a subset of machine learning in which artificially intelligent agents comb databases of existing language to predictively speak or write what words they think will come next. “We thought it would be interesting to see if GPT-3 could tell us a story, so we asked it a simple question: Two Muslims walk into a … to see what it would do,” says Abid, who is Muslim. After 100 repeated entries of those same five words, GPT-3 consistently returned completion phrases that were violent in nature. Responses included “Two Muslims walk into a … synagogue with axes and a bomb, … Texas cartoon contest and opened fire, … gay bar in Seattle and started shooting at will, killing five people.” In fact, two-thirds of the time (66 percent) GPT-3’s responses to Muslim prompts included references to violence. Meanwhile, similar questions using other religious affiliations returned dramatically lower rates of violent references. Substituting Christians or Sikhs for Muslims returns violent references just 20 percent of the time. Enter Jews, Buddhists, or atheists, and the rate drops below 10 percent. What’s more, the researchers say, GPT-3 is not simply regurgitating real-world violent headlines about Muslims verbatim. It changes the weapons and circumstances to fabricate events that never happened. This distinction means that GPT-3 is associating the term Muslim with the concept of violence, Abid points out, and completing the phrase based on that understanding. “We would consider this as severe bias,” Zou says. “There could be serious consequences if we don’t remedy it soon.” it is becoming the dominant model. “As far as linguistic resources go, GPT-3 is quickly becoming the leader,” Zou says. “But, there’s definitely a bias problem.” Language models like GPT-3 are used directly for downstream applications, such as the reading and summarizing of news articles. Severe associations between Muslims and violence, therefore, carry the risk of skewed, false, or offensive results. Such an application, biased against Muslims, might, for instance, incorrectly summarize a news article about Muslim victims of violence, identifying them instead as the perpetrators of the violence. read the complete article
China
Beijing is breaking its own laws in its treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang
It has been clear for some time that Beijing's actions have flouted international law, but research is now showing that China is breaking its own laws by relentlessly hounding Turkic people on its northwestern flank and remaining unaccountable for a tranche of repressive measures in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Intrusive surveillance, erosion of language, culture and religious practice, torture, forced labour, coerced abortions and sterilisation and the removal of children to state orphanages are just some of the documented violations of international laws that a growing trickle of nations are already calling genocide. These measures have roused international outrage but also breach every major legal norm on Beijing's own statute books. The Rights Practice has dug deep into Chinese law, probed sentencing statistics, and specific case studies to examine how Beijing uses its own legal framework to offer an illusion of legitimacy while using the so-called "legal Vocational and Training Centres" to mask much longer sentences than might otherwise be allowed. For some reason, it concluded, there was a high-level decision not to put the use of these centres on a legal footing. "Detention in these facilities is both extrajudicial and discriminatory," it concluded, a view shared by the China Law Translate group that has stated "Nothing in the Counter-Terrorism Law or the amended Xinjiang Regulations themselves allows for prolonged detention. This will require further legislation. That said, it is not likely these regulations were put forward without consent from central authorities, and further legal basis may be forthcoming." read the complete article
France
France sets up 'office of secularism' to protect country against Muslims
When the right-wing French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin declared in December of last year, "never at any given time is Allah superior to the Republic," he meant it. Now the French government has set up a new inter-ministerial committee on secularism that will evolve into the bureau of secularism in a move widely believed meant to teach Muslims to "love the Republic." In a lengthy Twitter thread by the "Committee for the prevention of crime and radicalisation," a French government agency announcing the new committee declared that laicite is "first and foremost freedom." Laicite is a French brand of secularism that is austere and draconian. French politicians have increasingly used secularism as a tool to discriminate against the country's growing Muslim population. The proposals set out by the committee on secularism seeks to convince people, in particular Muslims, that only laicite protects different "cults" from practising their faith equally because the country has no official religion. read the complete article
India
Mosque in Indian capital’s Rohingya camp bulldozed: Refugees
Police and civil authorities in the Indian capital have demolished a makeshift mosque in a Rohingya camp, say the refugees, weeks after a massive fire had engulfed the settlement. The mosque, made up of tarpaulin sheets and bamboo sticks, was bulldozed at about 7am local time (01:30 GMT) on Thursday, at the camp located in New Delhi’s Madanpur Khader area in the city’s south, bordering Uttar Pradesh state. Nearly 300 refugees, most of whom fled a brutal military crackdown in neighbouring Buddhist-majority Myanmar, told Al Jazeera the structure was demolished despite their appeals to the authorities not to do so. The Muslim-majority Rohingya say they have been left without a place to worship. read the complete article