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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In Myanmar, 30 Rohingya have been arrested for traveling inside the country. In China, satellite images show destruction of Muslim graves and burial grounds. Our recommended read today is by Mehdi Hasan titled “Dear Ellen: The Problem with George W. Bush is not his beliefs. It’s his war crimes.” This, and more, below:
United States
Dear Ellen: The Problem With George W. Bush Is Not His Beliefs — It’s His War Crimes
In an extended monologue, Ellen explained that she is “friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have. … Just because I don’t agree with someone on everything doesn’t mean that I’m not going to be friends with them. No one is suggesting that she shouldn’t be pals with a conservative or a Republican. Bush’s beliefs are irrelevant here; his actions are what matters. He was one of the most destructive presidents in modern American history; a man who has never been held to account for a long litany of crimes, misdeeds, and abuses of power committed during his two bloodstained terms in office. The reason “43” should be treated as a pariah is not because he is a Republican or a conservative, but because he caused the deaths of thousands of innocent people and tortured hundreds of others. Ask the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The so-called war on terror launched by Bush in 2001, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, has since killed around 250,000 civilians in those three countries, according to a landmark Brown University study in 2018. Remember the 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians massacred by U.S. troops in Haditha in 2005? Or the Shinwar massacre in Afghanistan in 2007, in which U.S. Marines “tore down a six-mile stretch of highway, hitting almost anyone in their way – teenage girls in the fields, motorists in their cars, old men as they walked along the road”? Or the more than 100 Pakistani children killed by 51 CIA drone strikes authorized by Bush between 2004 and the start of 2009? Is it any wonder, then, that Bush’s own former counterterrorism chief accused of him committing war crimes? read the complete article
Revere Official Accused of Anti-Islamic Social Media Posts
Revere city councilor George Rotondo Jr. insisted late Tuesday his online posts "are not what they are being called" and said the allegations were "totally politically motivated." But Jetpac, a political action committee that supports Muslim candidates for public office, and the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations called for an investigation of the posts. The two groups want to know if Rotondo is using city resources to promote what they say is an Islamophobic and anti-immigrant agenda. Jetpac and the Islamic council say Rotondo has posted links several times to "propaganda" by discredited anti-Muslim groups such as Jihad Watch and a YouTube video that describes Portland, Maine, as "overrun" by migrants from Africa. read the complete article
Man Charged With Hate Crimes For Allegedly Beating Women And Yanking Hijab
A San Diego man, Kyle Allen, was charged with hate crimes this week after an unprovoked attack on three Muslim women in which he slapped them and pulled on one of their hijabs, police said. The women, who are between the ages of 20 and 30 and live in the San Diego region, weren’t seriously hurt in the attack on Sunday. All three were wearing hijabs as they walked in the city’s Little Italy neighborhood when Allen, without provocation, intentionally barged into one of them, police said. The situation quickly escalated, with Allen allegedly telling the women to “go back to their own country,” and slapping and beating them, police said. read the complete article
International
Top US diplomat keeps up pressure on China over Muslim Uighurs
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that China's treatment of Muslims, including the Uighurs, in western China was an "enormous human rights violation" and that Washington would continue to raise the issue. "This is not only an enormous human rights violation, but we don't think it's in the best interests of the world or of China to engage in this kind of behaviour," Pompeo said. read the complete article
Muslims across Europe face 'new kind of terror' rooted in white supremacist ideology: Report
According to the European Islamophobia Report, nationalist, populist and far-right movements have increased their influence across the European continent and, where they have achieved power, they have undermined the rights of minorities in general, singling out Muslims in particular. The policies and rhetoric of governments, of the kinds seen in 2018 in Italy, Austria, Hungary and Poland, has eventually led to violence against Muslims, the report outlines. “Finally, the xenophobic and anti-Islam climate fostered by far-right governments paves the way for physical and terror attacks against Muslims or people who might be taken to be Muslim,” it said. read the complete article
China
Then and now: China's destruction of Uighur burial grounds
China is destroying Uighur graveyards where generations of families have been laid to rest, leaving behind human bones and broken tombs in what activists call an effort to eradicate the ethnic group’s identity in Xinjiang read the complete article
India
Opposition to Modi isn’t just about anti-Muslim violence, Indian Christians say
“As an Indian Christian who grew up in this city … I stand here disgusted that a man who is responsible for persecution against religious minorities, violence against Dalits and so much more evil is standing in that stadium,” Philips, an organizer with Azaad Austin, declared into a megaphone at the South Asian American-led protest she helped coordinate against the rally on Sept. 22. “You are celebrating a man who has a singular view of what India is: a Hindu state. That view is violent, and you aren’t celebrating us.” From mob violence to anti-conversion laws to clampdowns on churches, the effects of rising Hindu nationalism under Modi have left India’s estimated 28 million Christians — who at 2.3% of the population make up the country’ third largest faith group — fearing for their future, too. read the complete article
Canada
Syrian Restaurant Closes Permanently Amid Death Threats by Racist Trolls
Soufi’s was supposed to be an immigration success story, not just for the Alsoufi family, but for all of Canada. A New York Times profile in 2018 tied the Syran restaurant, located on Queen Street in Toronto, in with the boom in Syrian immigration, and its popularity as proof of Canada’s overall tolerance for the 50,000 Syrian refugees Justin Trudeau had famously welcomed. But now, just over two years since Husam and Shahnaz Alsoufi opened its doors, Soufi’s is closed, with the proprietary family citing death threats against them as the reason why. The alleged threats began after Husam and Shahnaz Alsoufi’s son, Alaa Alsoufi, was identified as one of the antifa (which stands for anti-fascist) protesters at a speaking event for right-wing, anti-immigrant politician Maxime Bernier. Bernier is the founder and leader of the People’s Party of Canada, which espouses ending “multiculturalism” and “open borders” as part of the platform. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Opinion | Reforming the Prevent strategy won’t work. It must be abolished
This week the Guardian revealed that counter-terror police across the UK have been running a secret centralised database containing the details of the thousands of individuals who have been referred to Prevent, the government’s counter-radicalisation programme. Many of them, on the government’s own terms, were unworthy of referral – but fell victim to an increasing climate of suspicion. It has gone through many guises since 2003, but whatever rhetoric it couches itself in, Prevent continues to inflict harm on the lives of individuals and create an environment which weakens political participation and threatens any form of dissent. read the complete article
Myanmar
Five-year-old boy among 30 Rohingya arrested for travelling in Myanmar
Myanmar faces calls to release 30 Rohingya men, women and children arrested in September while trying to travel from Rakhine state to the city of Yangon. A total of 21 Rohingya face up to two years in jail under Myanmar’s Residents of Burma Registration Act, which stipulates that citizens must be in possession of “registration cards” to prove their identity. The act has been used against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority, who are denied citizenship of the country and are officially stateless. Nine children travelling as part of the group were sent to juvenile detention centres. A five-year-old boy’s fate is yet to be decided, activists said. read the complete article