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SearchToday in Islamophobia: Jewelry ad featuring interfaith couple sparks outrage in India, even as Parama Palit proposes that hate speech on Indian social media is increasingly a challenge for the country’s foreign policy. In San Diego, U.S, Black Muslims work to expand voting access in jails. Our recommended read of the day is by Ali Harb Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar’s calls for a historic turnout of Muslim votes to defeat Trump. This, and more, below:
United States
'Out-vote the hate': Tlaib and Omar call for large Muslim turnout
Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar along with other prominent Muslim Americans called for high voter turnout from their community to push back against bigotry and defeat President Donald Trump in next month's election. Speaking at a virtual town hall meeting with Muslim officials and advocates hosted by Senator Bernie Sanders late on Tuesday, Tlaib said US Muslims will "out-work" Trump's "hate", recalling how protesters flooded airports across the country after the president announced his ban on several Muslim-majority countries in 2017. read the complete article
In San Diego, Black Muslims are working to expand voting access in jails
Jackson’s work as an inside voting organizer was funded by Pillars of the Community, a faith-based criminal justice advocacy group led by Black Muslims in southeast San Diego. Leaders of the group say they want to see an America without prisons. The first step to accomplishing that goal, Pillars of the Community’s founder Khalid Alexander said, is protecting currently and formerly incarcerated individuals’ access to the ballot. That’s why, during every election cycle for the past five years, the group has hired and trained a team of pretrial inmates to register eligible voters from behind bars. read the complete article
GOP Defends Amy Coney Barrett’s Religion But Stayed Silent When Muslims Were Under Attack
“If a Muslim woman was nominated to SCOTUS you would see Republicans lose their mind about her religious background,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) tweeted Monday. “‘Sharia law’ would be trending right now. Miss me with the pearl-clutching and all this righteous talk about religious freedom.” Though Democrats have largely steered clear of discussing Barrett’s religious beliefs, Republicans repeatedly brought up the issue anyway to suggest their colleagues across the aisle were bigots. “This pattern and practice of religious bigotry — because that’s what it is, when you tell somebody they are too Catholic to be on the bench, when you say they will be a Catholic judge, not an American judge — that is bigotry,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). “The practice of bigotry from members of this committee must stop, and I would expect that it be renounced.” read the complete article
United Kingdom
Tory Peer Says Conservatives Turn Blind Eye to 'Deep-Rooted' Islamophobia
Anti-Muslim bigotry and prejudice is deep-rooted and widespread in the British Conservative Party and it refuses to do anything about it because it is winning elections, a leading Muslim conservative politician has said. Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who used to be chairwoman of the British Conservative Party and was the first Muslim female minister to attend Cabinet briefings of top officials, told Newsweek in an exclusive interview that her party is in denial over the scale of Islamophobia within its ranks. read the complete article
20 Years of TACT: Justice Under Threat report
CAGE’s latest report, 20 Years of TACT: Justice under Threat provides an analysis of the use and impact of two decades of the Terrorism Act (TACT) 2000, which passed in to law on 20th July 2000. The report provides statistical and case evidence testifying to how TACT 2000, alongside successive counter-terror legislation, has led to the erosion of rights, the subversion of the judicial system through the increasing use of secret evidence, and the entrenchment of discrimination against Muslims and foreign nationals. read the complete article
India
Jewelry Ad Featuring Interfaith Couple Sparks Outrage in India
An Indian jewelry brand withdrew an advertisement featuring an interfaith couple after Hindu nationalists accused the company of “love jihad,” a pejorative used to describe marriage between Muslim men and Hindu women in India. The forty-three second ad, released last week, featured a pregnant woman in a sari, making her way through a luminous home to a garden prepared for her baby shower. The advertisement, since removed from Facebook and YouTube, was described by the jeweler, Tanishq, as a “beautiful confluence of two different religions, traditions and cultures,” reported the BBC. It was meant to promote a new jewelry collection called “Ekatvam,” a Sanskrit word that translates as “oneness.” read the complete article
Opinion | Online Hate Speech Is a Challenge for India’s Foreign Policy
India’s rising illiberal tendencies have been flagged by prominent influential policymakers in the West, denting its global image. Hate content proliferating on India’s online space serves to amplify them. Hate speech connected to India is not limited to specific minorities alone, but targets women and weaker sections as well. India’s strong patriarchal framework excessively glorifies “a vegetarian diet, extreme reverence of Hindu deities and the cow as the emblematic holy animal” apart from stereotyping “notions of gender and sexuality, moral policing of sexuality and its expression, and xenophobia.” read the complete article
India's Bilkis Bano: The grandmother who stood up to Modi
For three months, a small neighborhood in Delhi was the scene of the most visible protest against a new citizenship law that critics say discriminates against Muslims. Standing out among the protesters in Shaheen Bagh was Bilkis Bano, an octogenarian grandmother. read the complete article
China
China bans haj for Muslims who fail patriotism test
China has ordered Muslim citizens to prove that they are patriotic and law-abiding before they are allowed to undertake the haj, under a new law that it says will safeguard national security. Beijing said that it was banning private haj trips, with all pilgrimages now organised through the state’s Islamic Association. All pilgrims will be subjected to a vetting and “education” process and accompanied by officials to Saudi Arabia. Anyone who attempts to travel alone faces prosecution. read the complete article