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SearchToday in Islamophobia: Trump stokes fear among Somali-Americans in Minneapolis, as a study identifies religious bias against refugees. The Nobel committee comes under criticism for its award to Peter Handke, who has been accused of denying the Srebenica genocide. Our recommended read today is by Dan Jones titled “What the far-right gets wrong about the crusades.” This, and more, below:
International
What the Far Right Gets Wrong About the Crusades | Recommended Read
The crusades – the long series of wars fought between 1096 and 1492 under the direction of medieval popes against a wide range of enemies of many different faiths, including Sunni and Shia Muslims – have long been fascinating to the extreme right wing, both in the United States and elsewhere. The square-limbed crusader cross, often accompanied by the Latin phrase Deus Vult (God Wills It – a catchphrase shouted by warriors during the First Crusade in 1095 -1099AD) is a symbol often spotted on white supremacist marches. Crusader memes, such as an image of a Knight Templar accompanied by the caption ‘I’ll see your jihad and raise you one crusade’, are popular on hard-right talk-boards and Facebook pages. read the complete article
'A troubling choice': authors criticise Peter Handke's controversial Nobel win
Twenty years before Peter Handke would become a Nobel laureate, he won another title. In 1999, Salman Rushdie named him the runner-up for “International moron of the year” in the Guardian, for his “series of impassioned apologias for the genocidal regime of Slobodan Milošević”. The Austrian playwright, whose Slovenian heritage had inspired in him a fervent nationalism during the Balkans war, had publicly suggested that Sarajevo’s Muslims had massacred themselves and blamed the Serbs, and denied the Srebrenica genocide. Seven years after Rushdie’s scorching condemnation, in 2006, he would also attend war criminal Milošević’s funeral. read the complete article
China
‘There’s no hope for the rest of us.’ Uyghur scientists swept up in China’s massive detentions
No one outside the Chinese government knows where Tashpolat Tiyip is. No one knows exactly what charges have been filed against him. The only thing that anyone really knows is that in April 2017, as the geographer and former president of Xinjiang University in Ürümqi prepared to fly from Beijing to Berlin for a scientific conference and the launch of a research center, he disappeared without even a phone call to colleagues or family. Six months later, a Chinese propaganda video emerged saying Tiyip was one of 88 scholars who had “deeply poisoned the minds” of students by approving textbooks with too much content from Uyghur sources—the ethnic group that makes up about half of Xinjiang province’s 24 million people. The video calls Tiyip and three other Uyghurs “two-faced” separatists before announcing their sentence: death, with a 2-year reprieve. read the complete article
Finally, some consequences for China’s concentration camps
At last, the Trump administration has placed sanctions on some of the most significant government and business organizations enabling and executing China’s campaign to eradicate the culture and language of more than 1 million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang province. The administration says it has also blocked some Chinese officials who are carrying out the repression from gaining visas to the United States. These measures were necessary, overdue and must be sustained as long as China puts the Uighurs and other Muslims in concentration camps. read the complete article
How Companies Profit From Forced Labor In Xinjiang
Erzhan said he still does not know why he was taken. Like others detained in Ghulja, the “micro-clues” (微线索 wēi xiànsuǒ) of his “pre-terrorist extremism” were likely the fact that he possessed a passport and had traveled to Kazakhstan, one of 26 Muslim-majority countries on a Chinese state watch list. In any case, over time the grueling routine began to change his mental state. He said: “The first two months, I thought of my wife Maynur and my three children. Some time later, I only thought about food.” According to the general manager of the glove factory, Wang Xinghua, speaking in state TV interview released in December 2018, “With the support of the government, we have already ‘recruited’ more than 600 people.” One of these 600 government “recruits” was Erzhan, who had arrived from the camp less than a month before. Continuing, General Manager Wang said that since the founding of the new factory in 2017, “We have generated more than $6 million in sales. We plan to reach 1,000 workers by the end of this year. We plan to provide jobs to 1,500 people by the end of 2019.” read the complete article
United States
Study identifies religious bias against refugees
The study shows that religion is the most powerful source of discrimination. When you hold constant national origin, religion matters more than gender, age, fluency in English or professional skill. "On a scale of 1 to 7, among otherwise completely identical refugees from Syria, Muslims are rated a full half point lower," said UC San Diego political scientist and co-author Claire Adida. In addition to showing that anti-Muslim bias prevails across the board in the U.S., the study also shows that it differs across subgroups: The bias is weakest among those who self-identify as non-Christian, non-white and Democrat, compared to self-identified Republicans, Christians and whites. read the complete article
Trump's visit stokes fear, anxiety among Somalis
Trump's visit also spurred anxiety and fear for many Somalis here. The nation's largest Muslim civil rights group and local Somali-elected leaders were sounding the alarm about the long-term implications of Trump's visit, suggesting it could spark a fresh surge in hate crimes in Minnesota — home to the nation's largest Somali community. "We're also definitely concerned about his anti-Muslim and anti-Somali language," said Jaylani Hussein, who leads the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which had urged Muslim-Americans to join protests Thursday. read the complete article
Canada
People's Party won't take action against N.S. candidate who called Islam 'pure evil'
Maxime Bernier's People's Party says it won't take action against one of its candidates in Nova Scotia who called Islam "pure evil" and "not compatible with democracy" in numerous social media posts. Sybil Hogg, the PPC candidate for Sackville-Preston-Chezzetcook, made a series of posts on Twitter and Facebook with anti-Islam statements within the last year. The posts include a response in March to a 2017 tweet from former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, sent after the minister visited a mosque just days after the deadly Quebec City mosque attack. Hogg's response: "Islam is pure evil. Islam has no place in Canadian society." read the complete article
Bloc leader apologizes for candidates' Islamophobic and racist social media posts
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet apologized Thursday after media outlets uncovered a number of Islamophobic and racist social media posts by candidates running for the sovereigntist party. The apology is almost certainly in response to articles published Wednesday in the Globe and Mail and Thursday in the Journal de Montréal that documented numerous posts, tweets and shared links on Facebook and Twitter by: Caroline Desbiens, a candidate in the Beauport riding; Lizabel Nitoi, running in Marc-Aurèle-Fortin; Valérie Tremblay in Chicoutimi–Le Fjord; and Claude Forgues in Sherbrooke. read the complete article