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SearchToday in Islamophobia: Financial Times criticised over its investigation into Macron letter. U.S. Olympic committee rejects calls to shun Beijing 2022 games. Our recommended read today is by Joseph Hammond on a new report from the United Nations that highlights growing Islamophobia and excessive surveillance of Muslims in countries around the world. This, and more, below:
International
Islamophobia on the rise, according to United Nations report | Recommended Read
The rise of Islamophobia has been driven in part by local conditions in individual countries and regions in which underlying issues such as class and ethnicity often also played a role. The rise of far-right groups is another factor driving an increase in hate toward Muslims. “We welcome the recent report by the United Nations describing Islamophobia as reaching epidemic proportions,” said Erum Ikramullah, a research project manager at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. “These new U.N. findings are in line with ISPU data, which consistently find that American Muslims are the most likely faith group to report facing religious discrimination, at about 60% over the past five years.” read the complete article
'Boycotts Don't Work': U.S. Olympic Committee Rejects Calls to Shun Beijing 2022 Games
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has pushed back against calls to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics over China's human rights record. Beijing is set to host the 24th edition of the Winter Olympics between February 4 and February 20 next year, becoming the first city in the world to host the Summer and Winter Games—it played host to the 2008 Olympics—as China welcomes the Winter Olympics for the first time. read the complete article
France
Financial Times criticised over its investigation into Macron letter
Issa said Bobigny, a town of just under 55,000 with a number of low-income housing estates and a large Muslim population, was typical of those areas commonly described as banlieues, which Macron was trying to stigmatise in the letter as being “breeding grounds for terrorists”. She said she was particularly concerned that the brief closure of a school in the area last October had been used to create Islamophobic propaganda. Ines Medioune, a lawyer acting for the school, said there was no question of it doing anything illegal, confirming that “classes were mixed, and some girls wore a simple headscarf”. Medioune accused the interior ministry of orchestrating a “communication operation” aimed at providing fabricated evidence for Macron’s claims about Islamist separatism. read the complete article
Myanmar
Court hearing due for Associated Press reporter in Myanmar
Thein Zaw, 32, was one of nine media workers taken into custody during a street protest on Feb. 27 in Yangon the country’s largest city, and has been held without bail. His hearing Friday comes at the end of his initial remand period, and his lawyer, Tin Zar Oo, said ahead of it that she expected the court to schedule another hearing. She plans to submit her power of attorney as Zaw’s lawyer and perhaps try to apply for bail. read the complete article
India
India’s degraded and downgraded democracy
So it didn’t really come as a surprise when the latest Freedom House democracy report degraded India from “free” to “partly free.” The report noted that the government and “its state-level allies continued to crack down on critics during the year, and their response to covid-19 included a ham-fisted lockdown that resulted in the dangerous and unplanned displacement of millions of internal migrant workers. The ruling Hindu nationalist movement also encouraged the scapegoating of Muslims, who were disproportionately blamed for the spread of the virus and faced attacks by vigilante mobs.” The report’s conclusion is a scathing indictment. “Rather than serving as a champion of democratic practice and a counterweight to authoritarian influence from countries such as China, Modi and his party are tragically driving India itself toward authoritarianism,” the report says. read the complete article
New Zealand
Decrease in Islamophobia but still room for improvement since Christchurch attack
It is one of many examples of racism she and her late brother faced prior to the attack, which was especially bad following the 11 September 2001 attacks. "That was the time when we experienced true Islamophobia. In school people knew that we were Muslims, [they were] bullying, even people saying, 'you come from the country where you kill people'," Al-Umari said. But following the Christchurch attack, Al-Umari said there had been greater awareness about Islamophobia and racism. "Any jokes previously about me being originally foreign, my religion or being Arab, they've all stopped because everybody is aware that this is not okay," Al-Umari said. read the complete article
United States
Opinion: Biden should open the door for Trump-denied diversity visa winners
On Monday, the department announced that people from the banned countries whose visas had been denied or rescinded prior to Jan. 20, 2020, (a year before Biden took office) could reapply, but would have to pay a fresh round of application fees to do so — hundreds of dollars, depending on the type of visa sought. Those denied after that date could seek a review of the government’s decision without going through the process again. But winners of the “diversity lottery” — a pool of 50,000 visas a year set aside for immigrants from countries that historically send few people to the U.S. — affected by the ban are out of luck because of a quirk in immigration law that requires lottery winners to obtain their visa within the fiscal year for which they were selected. Now those folks have no recourse other than to again try their luck in the lottery — or pursue refugee status, also a long shot. read the complete article