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SearchToday in Islamophobia: As Uighurs find themselves in concentration camps, China targets other religious minorities within the country. A new study reveals U.S bias toward Syrian refugees. Muslim communities in Germany battle growing Islamophobia. Our recommended read today is on Europe’s far right, and why it is supporting the Indian government when it comes to Kashmir. This, and more, below:
International
Why Europe's far right supports India on the Kashmir issue | Recommended Read
The "personal" trip was organised by two think tanks - the Delhi-based International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies and the Women's Economic and Social Think Tank ( WESTT), based in Brussels. The trip ended with a press conference in which they commended Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's fight against "the global menace" of terrorism. The visit was led by self-proclaimed "investment business broker" Madi Sharma, who recently wrote a column titled: "Why demolishing Article 370 is both a victory and a challenge for Kashmiri women." Analysts say the behind-the-scenes efforts reveal a small part of a much wider apparatus employed by the Modi government as it pursues a Hindu nationalist agenda. "This was an unofficial visit fostered through non-state interactions," said Eviane Leidig, an academic at the Center for Research on Extremism in Oslo. "This is how Hindutva (the Hindu supremacist ideology) operates in India - through a vast apparatus of different organisations, think-tanks and advocacy groups. This decentralised structure allows the government to distance itself from being actively involved in Hindutva mobilisation efforts and divert attention from its involvement." read the complete article
United States
Opinion | Trump Won’t Let My Grandmother Come to My Graduation
In fall 2016, in anticipation of my sister’s college graduation, my family sent a formal invitation for my grandmother to apply for a visitor’s visa to the U.S. The process of obtaining a visitor’s visa, especially for an Iranian citizen, is onerous. It generally takes several months to a year and includes travel to a neighboring country to meet with a consular officer. (There has been no U.S. embassy in Iran since 1979.) Little did we know that even embarking on this process would become effectively impossible. read the complete article
In Trump’s Twitter Feed: Conspiracy-Mongers, Racists and Spies
The president is also awash in an often toxic torrent that sluices into his Twitter account — roughly 1,000 tweets per minute, many intended for his eyes. Tweets that tag his handle, @realDonaldTrump, can be found with hashtags like #HitlerDidNothingWrong, #IslamIsSatanism and #WhiteGenocide. While filters can block offensive material, the president clearly sees some of it, because he dips into the frothing currents and serves up noxious bits to the rest of the world. read the complete article
The 2020 Muslim vote: Are there any cultural divides among American Muslim voters?
"It doesn't take much to notice that the entire country, politically, has changed," says Hussam Ayloush, Executive director at CAIR – Los Angeles Chapter and Executive Board Member at California Democratic Party. "They [the president and his administration] have used Muslims and other minorities as punching bags. Muslims feel they need to be more engaged. "He's made our job of mobilising Muslims a lot easier," Ayloush adds. Muslims account for 1.1 percent of the US population, yet their voter turnout is relatively low – only 63 percent of young Muslim adults reported being registered to vote, compared with 85 percent of all young adults. Although US Muslims are still not as engaged as other communities, numbers show that they are indeed on the rise. In fact, the uptick in candidates and voters could hold the key to some of the swing state election results. read the complete article
China
In China, every day is Kristallnacht
In western China, the demolition of mosques and bulldozing of cemeteries is a continuing, relentless process. In a cultural genocide with few parallels since World War II, thousands of Muslim religious sites have been destroyed. At least 1 million Muslims have been confined to camps, where aging imams are shackled and young men are forced to renounce their faith. Muslims not locked away are forced to eat during the fasting month of Ramadan, forced to drink and smoke in violation of their faith, barred from praying or studying the Koran or making the pilgrimage to Mecca. read the complete article
How China’s economic expansionism is contributing to Muslim persecution
In 2013, China’s incumbent president, Xi Jinping, traveled to both Indonesia and Kazakhstan as part of his mission to layout what would become the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): a plan to encourage “peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit” spanning 60 countries in Asia, Europe, and Africa through investment and infrastructure development. Shortly thereafter, Amnesty International published their annual report on human rights in China. The report contained evidence that, in spite of the new image China was aiming to project to the world, internal authorities continued to “clamp down on peaceful expressions of cultural identity,” specifically referring to the internment and repression of Uighur Muslims. The Chinese government, as a paragon of modern economic development and oppressor of freedom and human rights, finds these two visions of its image converging at the centre of its campaign for economic expansion. While transgressing boundaries of sovereignty in a quest for economic supremacy in the East, President Xi Jinping has been allowed to continue such Muslim persecution due to the response, or lack thereof, by other predominantly Muslim countries in the region. Consequently, the BRI and its large regional influence is inherently tied to the unjust criminalization of Uighur Muslims in China. read the complete article
Emotion recognition is China’s new surveillance craze
Emotion recognition was the crime prevention buzz-phrase on everyone’s lips this week at China’s largest surveillance tech expo, held in the southern tech hub of Shenzhen. The technology, which is being rolled out at airports and subway stations to identify criminal suspects, is the latest development in crime prediction systems in the world’s largest surveillance market, which already relies on facial and gait recognition, eye tracking and crowd analysis. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Sajid Javid condemns magazine column suggesting Muslim people should be deterred from voting
Chancellor Sajid Javid has denounced a column in news magazine The Spectator suggesting that elections should be held on Muslim holy days in order to deter them from voting. The column, by right-wing controversialist Rod Liddle, was also criticised by the magazine’s own assistant editor as neither “funny or worth writing”. Liddle was also branded "racist and misogynistic" by Labour MP Rosie Duffield, who he dismissively described in the article as “sobbing and oppressed”, in an apparent reference to her decision to speak out about her experience of domestic abuse. read the complete article
Rod Liddle Condemned For 'Anti-Muslim Propaganda' In Spectator Column On Voting
In an article published in the Spectator on Thursday, he wrote: “My own choice of election date would be a day when universities are closed and Muslims are forbidden to do anything on pain of hell, or something.” His comments, which extended to a proposition that preventing the Muslim population from voting “would deliver at least 40 seats to the Tories”, have been condemned as discriminatory. read the complete article
Germany
German city declares "Nazi emergency"
A city in eastern Germany has declared a "Nazi emergency" to tackle the rise of the far-right. Dresden is the capital of Saxony, which is considered a stronghold of the far-right movement. "'Nazinotstand' means - similar to the climate emergency - that we have a serious problem. The open democratic society is threatened," local councilor Max Aschenbach, who tabled the motion, told BBC News. Dresden's city council approved a resolution Wednesday night to 39 votes to 29 to pass the motion that declared "anti-democratic, anti-pluralist, misanthropic and right-wing-extremist attitudes and actions, including violence in Dresden, are occurring with increasing frequency." read the complete article