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SearchToday in Islamophobia: Myanmar’s military continues to persecute the Rohingya, even as the government issues an arrest warrant against firebrand Buddhist monk, Ashin Wirathu. An op-ed claims that the far right is here to stay, another seeks to open up a space for conversing about Islam. Our recommended read of the day is by Steven Waldman asking what we can learn from past attacks on religious communities to combat violence against Muslims. This, and more, below:
United States
What Past Attacks on Mormons and Catholics Teach Us About the Threat to Muslims | Recommended Read
What can we learn about the nature of the modern attacks on Muslims from previous attacks on Mormons, Catholics, and other religious minorities? First, in the past when Americans wanted to seriously undermine a minority faith they didn’t merely argue that it was an untrue religion but that it wasn’t a religion at all. Samuel Morse, the inventor of the Morse code and the telegraph, led attacks on Catholics in the nineteenth century by saying that “Popery” was less a religion that “a Political system, despotic in its organization, anti-democratic and anti-republican, cannot therefore coexist with American republicanism.” A few decades later, Mormonism was described in similar ways—“an immoral and quasi criminal conspiracy,” as the Kalamazoo Telegraph put it. Second, practitioners of particular minority religions could not assimilate, we were told. An editorial in the Missouri Commercial Appeal took this tactic in describing Mormons: “Their manners, customs, religion and all, [Mormons] are more obnoxious to our citizens than those of the Indians, and they can never live among us in peace.” To these writers, the Mormons were alien and dangerous. The next month the governor of the state, Lilburn Boggs, issued a rule that “the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated and driven from the State if necessary for the public peace.” read the complete article
Opinion | In month of Ramadan, a conversation about Islam | Opinion
One recent survey reveals that 60 percent of Americans have never met a Muslim. This disconnect can lead to misconceptions about this community, and sometimes even discrimination and hate crimes. In Paterson, we are working to change these misconceptions by holding high our Muslim neighbors and celebrating the diversity they bring to our city. To honor this faith tradition, for the first time ever, I hosted an iftar at City Hall. It was a beautiful gathering that brought people together from the Arab-American, Bengali-American, and Turkish-American Muslim communities, as well as non-Muslims who wanted to learn more and celebrate with their neighbors. read the complete article
Queer Muslims Are Still Rare on TV. One Writer Wants to Change That.
If Fawzia Mirza didn’t start seeing people like herself on screen, she felt like she “was going to die.” So the gay, Muslim actor, writer and activist, the daughter of a Pakistani immigrant, took matters into her own hands. Her 2012 short film “Queen of My Dreams,” made with her longtime collaborator Ryan Logan, imagined lesbian romance as a Bollywood epic, addressing her longing to feel represented in a media landscape where stories like hers remain few and far between. It also helped answer a question which had long been plaguing her: “Can you be queer and Muslim?” She explored the same question in her first script for television, for the fifth episode of CBS’s “The Red Line,” which aired earlier this month. In a pivotal scene, Liam Bhatt (Vinny Chhibber) and Daniel Calder (Noah Wyle) are approached by two white men in a gay bar. After they comment that Liam looks like a “Puerto Rican Adrien Brody,” Liam corrects them: He’s Indian-American, as well as Muslim. The men are confused: It’s not possible to be all those things and gay, right? read the complete article
Dozens Gather In Sunnyvale To Support Muslim Community Before Isaiah Peoples Court Appearance
Dozens came out in a sign of solidarity for the Muslim community Wednesday night, one day before a suspect who is accused of running over people he believed belonged to the Islamic religion is expected to find out whether or not he’ll face hate crime charges. The April 23rd crash has left many Muslims, including Zahra Noor, on edge in their own community. Noor said the fear is enough to keep her family, including small children, almost isolated. “I definitely don’t go out too much, you know,” she said. “Because of the religion, because the way that I look.” read the complete article
Myanmar
Myanmar's military is still committing war crimes against Rohingya
The Myanmar military units that committed war crimes against Rohingya Muslims in 2017 are still committing atrocities against the minority group today, according to a new report from Amnesty International. The report says the Myanmar military is guilty of committing new “war crimes,” including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture in its fight against ethnic Rakhine rebels. The report claims these offenses were committed by soldiers from the Rakhine-based Western Command, a military unit also implicated in atrocities against the Rohingya in August 2017. read the complete article
Arrest warrant issued for anti-Muslim monk Wirathu
A court in Myanmarhas issued an arrest warrant against Wirathu, a notorious Buddhist monk whose hate-preaching sermons against the Rohingya and other minority Muslims have stoked religious tensions. The monk, who once reportedly dubbed himself the "Burmese bin Laden", faces up to life imprisonment under the country's sedition law, which prohibits stirring up "hatred", "contempt" or "disaffection" towards the government. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Two Tory Councillors Repeatedly Made Anti-Islam Comments Online. The Tories Haven't Suspended Them
The Conservatives have said that two serving councillors who repeatedly made anti-Islam comments can keep their positions in the party while their remarks are investigated. BuzzFeed News can reveal that Nick Coultish, who was elected to East Riding council earlier this month, compared what he called “the tide of Islam” in the UK to the Nazis’ bombardment of Britain. “Britain withstood the Blitz and got up, had a cup of tea and got on with rebuilding the next day. We will stand against the tide of Islam,” he said. read the complete article
India
Modi says India's minorities are living in world of imaginary fear. Muslims disagree
While much of the country celebrated the stunning victory of a man who has promised economic reform and development, others, especially minorities and liberals, have grown increasingly concerned about the impact of the BJP's Hindu nationalist background on the country's secular fabric. The BJP has its roots in the right wing-Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) -- of which Modi is a member -- and many of its members are adherents of the Hindutva ideology that promotes a Hindu-first India. It's a stance that worries liberals and minorities, including more than 170 million Indian Muslims in a country of 1.3 billion people. read the complete article
China
China Is Allegedly Forcing Its Muslims to Break Their Ramadan Fast
Authorities in China are allegedly being big bullies and targeting members of the Muslim minority Uyghur community, who mostly live in the Xinjiang province, to break their fast before the sun sets. Forcing them to eat and drink with the threat of punishment not only violates Islamic rules of Ramadan, but is a brutal way to treat a community that is already under much pressure in the area. “It’s distressing, and it’s insulting to our dignity,” said Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, an advocacy organisation in Munich that defends the rights of the Uyghur Muslim minority. He claims that not only are restaurants being forced to open up during the day, but Muslims working in Chinese companies are also being harassed into eating and drinking during their lunch breaks. Even shops owned by Muslins have been told to either continue selling cigarettes and alcohol over the course of the month or face being shut down completely. read the complete article