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SearchToday in Islamophobia: Trump’s ‘stand by’ remark in the first Presidential debate puts the Proud Boys in the spotlight. In the U.K, a poll finds that almost half of Conservative party members believe Islam is threat. Our recommended read today is by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess titled “Today’s America reminds me of 1990s Bosnia and Herzegovina.” This, and more, below:
International
Opinion | Today’s America reminds me of 1990s Bosnia and Herzegovina | Recommended Read
The other day a shocking photo came across my Twitter feed. It showed a masked young man proudly holding his AK-47 while wearing a “chetnik” – Serb nationalist – insignia. Serb forces wore the same insignia while eradicating Bosniaks during the genocide in the 1990s. I cringed not only because I was one of those Bosnian Muslims, but because this time, the young man was not from my past but from the present. He was not a bearded Serb soldier in 1990s Bosnia and Herzegovina, but an American man standing in front of a manicured lawn on a United States street in 2020. He was not wearing a soldier’s uniform, but a cheap Hawaiian shirt. read the complete article
Will Facebook Sit On The Evidence Of The Genocide Against The Rohingyas?
The Gambia’s application to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia followed a 2018 admission by Facebook that it failed to prevent its platform’s use to “foment division and incite offline violence.” Facebook admitted that it “can and should do more.” Its admission was posted in response to a report which recommended that Facebook “preserve and share data where it can be used to evaluate international human rights violations, and that the company publish data specific to Myanmar so that the local and international community can evaluate progress more effectively.” read the complete article
GIFCT: Possibly the Most Important Acronym You’ve Never Heard Of
GIFCT stands for the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism and represents a novel approach to governing the internet by centralizing content moderation in a single entity, whose decision-making is based on collaboration between the tech sector and governments. Although this industry-led effort began in response to ISIS’ use of social media and was ostensibly intended to focus only on terrorism, its remit has already expanded. And governments like what they see. read the complete article
United States
Biden’s ‘inshallah’ during US debate dubbed ‘historic’ on Twitter
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden cast doubt during Tuesday night’s debate on whether US President Donald Trump would ever release his tax returns. “You’ll get to see it,” Trump said repeatedly as moderator Chris Wallace pressed him to commit to a firm timeline. Biden retorted, “When? Inshallah?” While the Arabic language phrase translates to “God willing,” it also has colloquial connotations of ambiguous commitment. Social media users were quick to react with humour at Biden’s “inshallah” remark, with many Twitter users posting their reactions instantly. read the complete article
‘Inshallah’: The Arabic ‘fuggedaboudit’ Biden dropped to blast Trump on tax returns
“When?” the Democratic presidential nominee interjected. “Inshallah?” Suddenly, many Arab American viewers (and plenty of others) were collectively doing a double-take on the Internet. Did Biden — yes, the 77-year-old, gaffe-prone, Roman Catholic native of Scranton, Pa. — really just use “inshallah,” arguably the most ubiquitous phrase in Arabic? Hours later, his campaign confirmed to NPR that it was true: Biden had in fact used the phrase — which literally and seriously means “God willing” in Arabic and Farsi — but can also take on a sharp, sardonic tenor that has led the writer Wajahat Ali to call it the “Arabic version of ‘fuggedaboudit.’ ” Following the debate, some celebrated Biden’s word choice as a savvy way to attack his rival. Others called it a fabricated act of pandering. But nearly everyone seemed to be in agreement over one thing: their surprise. read the complete article
Trump aides struggle to defend Proud Boys remarks at debate
White House and campaign aides on Wednesday struggled to clean up President Trump's comments a night earlier in which he declined to explicitly condemn white supremacy, instead directing a far-right group to "stand back and stand by" during the first presidential debate. Multiple Trump surrogates faced questions about the remarks during cable news hits, where they downplayed his calls for the group to "stand by" and pointed to the president's past denunciations of white supremacists. Multiple Trump allies have argued that Trump has on multiple occasions condemned white supremacist groups. The president has in fact done so, including in the aftermath of a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, last year, but he has typically only denounced them after being repeatedly coaxed to do so. On the debate stage on Tuesday night, however, Trump stopped short. read the complete article
India
32 acquitted in razing of India mosque that set off deadly violence
An Indian court Wednesday acquitted 32 people who had been accused of crimes in the 1992 demolition of a 16th century mosque that sparked Hindu-Muslim violence in which 2,000 people were killed. The verdicts Wednesday come amid increasing anti-Muslim sentiment in India that critics say has been stoked by the BJP-ruled government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Four senior leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, were among the defendants in the trial, which languished in India’s sluggish legal system for almost 28 years. Seventeen of the 49 defendants died of natural causes during the trial. The four BJP leaders were accused of making inflammatory speeches that incited tens of thousands of their followers who had camped out in the city of Ayodhya ahead of the attack on the mosque. read the complete article
Where Are the Jobs the Centre Promised J&K After Revoking Article 370?
In August last year, when the Government of India revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and divided the state into two union territories, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address to the nation, said the move would usher in a new dawn in the region. He went on to say that days of sufferings for the people of J&K were over, and his government was committed to fill up all vacant job posts. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Half of Conservative party members believe Islam is threat, poll finds
Almost half of Conservative party members believe Islam “a threat to the British way of life,” according to a poll which has reignited concerns over Islamophobia within Britain’s ruling party. It found that more than one-third of card-carrying Tories believed that Islamist terror attacks reflected a widespread hostility to Britain among the Muslim community, and nearly six in 10 thought “there are no-go areas in Britain where sharia law dominates and non-Muslims cannot enter.” read the complete article
China
Beijing’s crackdown on religious minorities takes aim at 10,000 Muslim Utsuls
Expanded surveillance, bans on Arabic scripts and limits on the size of mosques are now being applied also to a little-known minority of around 10,000 Utsuls living on the southernmost island of Hainan. Earlier this month a ban was announced on the Islamic veil, or hijab, in schools and government offices, sparking fierce protests from pupils and their families at schools and in Utsul neighbourhoods, a community worker told the SCMP. read the complete article