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SearchToday in Islamophobia: In the U.K., Katie Hopkins is forced to apologise for wrongly linking mosque to attack on police. In the U.S, James Piazza writes on white demographic anxiety, and how it might be fueling support for torture of terrorism suspects. Our recommended read today is by Bhavya Dore titled “Hindu nationalists see Muslim jihad everywhere in India.” This, and more, below:
India
Hindu nationalists see Muslim jihad everywhere in India
The transformation of the term jihad — which in the Islamic Scripture refers to "struggle" or "striving" — into a specter of Islamic takeover began a decade ago in the southern states of Kerala and Karnataka, when Muslim men were accused of mounting an organized campaign to lure non-Muslim women into marriage and force their conversion to Islam. The alleged campaign was dubbed a "love jihad." Though local authorities investigating the rumors found no evidence of targeted conversions, the term quickly settled into the Hindu nationalist vocabulary, and the allegations have persisted to this day. As recently as February, the Hindu nationalist home minister was forced by a member of parliament representing Kerala to admit that no cases of supposed love jihad had been reported in the region. read the complete article
International
Opinion | China : Xinjiang :: India : Kashmir
The specific regions with Muslim majority populations in Kashmir and Xinjiang—the Kashmiri Muslims, predominantly concentrated in the Kashmir Valley, and the Uyghur Muslims in East Turkestan—have witnessed a particular form of political power as exercised by the two rising behemoths, India and China. This has included systematic human rights violations in the name of curbing separatism and terrorism. The political relationship of these regions with Indian and Chinese states respectively is indicative of important similarities and differences. The similarities are occasioned by the fact that these ethno-nationally different Muslim majority areas have become the focus of assimilation into the evolving Hindu majoritarian nationalism in India and Han majoritarian nationalism in China. Both India and China claim these territories as integral parts of their nation-states. read the complete article
Not Looking Away: A Focus on Genocide and Mass Atrocities
For years, reports have emerged that the Chinese government has systematically repressed the Uighurs, a minority Muslim group of Turkic origin living in the Xinjiang area of western China. At least one million Uighurs in China are in detention camps, and this summer a report offered evidence that Uighur women have been subjected to forced birth control and sterilization, drawing fresh concern and outrage from the international community. read the complete article
United States
Rihanna’s Lingerie Brand Won Praise for Its Inclusivity. Now It's Under Fire for Using a Sacred Islamic Text in a Runway Show
The show used the song “Doom,” a track by musical producer Coucou Chloe that samples a hadith, a sacred Islamic text. Now, after a weekend of criticism on social media, Coucou Chloe issued a statement on her Twitter on Monday, apologizing for the use of the samples and announcing that the song woHadiths are sacred texts in Islam that represent the traditions or sayings of the prophet Muhammad. The specific hadith audio in the “Doom” sample has been attributed to Kuwaiti preacher Mishary bin Rashid Alafasy. Rihanna and Savage X Fenty did not respond to requests for comment on the show. read the complete article
Anti-Blackness & White Nationalism: A Call to Black America
White nationalism, which emerged as a backlash to the 1960s civil rights movement, descends from white supremacy. It is not a system like white supremacy but rather, a social movement committed to overthrowing the US government to establish a whites-only nation. Its supporters seek to build political power to achieve that ideological vision by implementing extreme racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic policies. read the complete article
United Kingdom
Katie Hopkins forced to apologise for wrongly linking mosque to attack on police
The controversial rightwing commentator Katie Hopkins has been forced to publicly apologise to Finsbury Park mosque in north London after inaccurately linking it to a violent incident in May. The mosque had brought a legal action against Hopkins after she tweeted footage of five men attacking Met police officers, implying wrongly that the perpetrators were members of the mosque’s community. read the complete article
France
What explains Macron’s obsession with Islam and Muslims?
French President Emmanuel Macron has once again offered his unsolicited opinion on the purported ‘crisis’ within Islam. The comments by the French leader come on the back of previous attacks against the Muslim community in the country, with Macron earlier criticising members of the faith for ‘separatism’. "Islam is a religion that is in crisis all over the world today, we are not just seeing this in our country,” the French president said in a speech introducing a new law to strengthen France’s state ideology of militant secularism, known as Laicite. read the complete article