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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the U.S, a deputy mayor steps down after calling Islam a cancer, as Congresswoman Ilhan Omar suggests Trump is terrified of her “intersectionality as a woman, immigrant and Muslim.” Our recommended read today is by Darren Byler titled “How Technology liberated China’s Uighur minority– and then trapped them.” This, and more, below:
China
How technology liberated China’s Uighur minority—and then trapped them | Recommended Read
I did ethnographic research with Han and Uighur migrants for more than 24 months between 2011 and 2018 in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, in northwest China. When I first began my research in the region, smartphone use was not that tightly controlled by the police. But by 2018 it had became common knowledge among my Uighur interviewees that if they did not carry their phone with them or failed to produce it they could be detained. Smartphones became a common feature of daily life for millions of Uighur villagers. At the time, the way Uighurs used them was unique. In other parts of China, the Chinese language was used in social media communication. Uighur uses Arabic script—radically different from the character based Chinese—and acted as a form of coded speech that state censors couldn’t understand. I found that Uighurs used smartphones differently than other internet users. On traditional internet sites that required text-based communication, Uighur web users faced tighter forms of censorship since state authorities viewed them as potential terrorists. They were viewed this way since Uighurs had long protested the way their briefly independent nation had been subsumed by China and their religious practices were restricted, lashing out violently at times. read the complete article
Opinion | The People’s Republic at 70
As China marches forward, what does its future hold? There have long been fears that China’s crackdown on Uighur Muslims would mean increased persecution of Muslims across the country. Recent reporting shows that those predictions may be coming true: Authorities have cracked down on the Hui, China’s largest Muslim minority, instituting sweeping religious and linguistic restrictions. Muslim countries around the world have remained silent. read the complete article
United States
Deputy mayor steps down after calling Islam ‘a cancer’
Lou Reiner resigned as deputy mayor of Raritan Township this week after the township committee publicly condemned a post he shared on his Facebook page that called Islam a cancer that “must be treated with radiation.” In addition to accepting Reiner’s resignation from the deputy mayor role, the committee also passed a resolution censuring Reiner “for his derogatory, discriminatory, and offensive public statements" and requesting that he consider resigning from the Township Committee altogether. read the complete article
Ilhan Omar says Trump 'terrified' of her 'intersectionality' as a woman, immigrant, Muslim
She's a woman, she's an immigrant and she's Muslim -- and that "intersectionality" of identities has President Trump "terrified," U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., claimed in a television appearance Wednesday night. Omar, a member of the "Squad" of far-left congressional Democrats, made the remarks on the late-night comedy show, "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee." "Why do you think that the president focuses so much on you?" Bee asked. "I think he is terrified by any women who are practicing 'Shine Theory,' who have each other's back," Omar responded, referring to a concept of mutual empowerment developed by American businesswoman Aminatou Sow and journalist Ann Friedman. "But for me, I think he is terrified at the fact that I sit on the intersectionality of many identities that he really despises: a woman, an immigrant, Muslim, refugee, and Punjabi in one beautiful package." read the complete article
International
Opinion | Surrender acts and lynch mobs: The real-life consequences of inflammatory language
Following this column, hate crime monitor Tell MAMA recorded its biggest spike in anti-Muslim hatred in 2018. Reported anti-Muslim incidents went up from eight the previous week to 38 the week following publication, and 22 of those were directed at Muslim women wearing the niqab or other kinds of veil. Between 5 and 29 August, 42 per cent of Islamophobic incidents reported to Tell MAMA directly referred to Boris Johnson or the language used in his column. read the complete article
Opinion | Will Fascism Return to the Far Right?
In my book, The New Authoritarians, I have argued that we are in a post-fascist moment. In other words, that fascism remains a despised tradition and that the most successful recent movements on the Right have been those which have acknowledged fascism’s unpopularity and based their politics on more recent events: on 9/11 rather than Hitler or Mussolini. Here I ask whether that shift within the far right is permanent, whether a far right which has turned away from fascism might turn back in years to come. The leaders of the converged right and far right are well aware that the dominant values of our time remain hostile to fascism. This piece approaches the question of whether under the next generation of leaders on the right, the direction of travel might yet be reversed. This question is approached in two ways: first, historically, through a study of the street movements of the far right and in particular the British English Defence League (EDL) and its successors, and then politically, by asking what the far right loses from the subordination of its fascist element. read the complete article