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SearchToday in Islamophobia: Rihanna apologizes to Muslim community for song with Islamic verse at Fenty lingerie show. A U.S Department of Labor report finds that China has arbitrarily detained almost 1 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. Our recommended read today is by Peter Guest on the rise of a quiet Uighur counter surveillance revolution. This, and more, below:
International
Returning the gaze | Recommended Read
Muharram Muhammad’ali hasn’t spoken with his family since his sister’s mobile went dead last year, but sometimes he calls his parents’ landline in Turpan, a city in the east of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China. Since the coronavirus pandemic spread to Xinjiang this summer, houses in the area have been sealed up, further isolating residents who were already all but cut off from the outside world. The line is always busy, but, he reasons, the fact that it is still in service means his mother is alive and paying the bill. read the complete article
Rihanna apologizes to Muslim community for song with Islamic verse at Fenty lingerie show
Rihanna has issued an apology to the Muslim community after receiving backlash for using sacred Islamic verses in a song played at her fashion show. The 32-year-old singer’s star-studded Savage X Fenty fashion show debuted on Amazon Prime on Oct. 2 and was praised for its inclusivity, featuring models of different sizes, races, and genders. But after the praise came criticism. Viewers took offense to a portion of the show in which models clad in lingerie danced to a song which sampled audio of someone reading the Hadith, the holy narrative of the Prophet Mohammad that is deeply revered by the Muslim community. read the complete article
United States
Subject of Project Veritas Voter Fraud Video Says He Was Offered $10,000 to Lie About Ballot Harvesting for Ilhan Omar
One of the men featured in the deceptive Project Veritas videos released last week purporting to show systematic ballot harvesting in Minnesota said that he was offered $10,000 to say he was collecting absentee ballots for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), local news outlet FOX 9 reported on Monday. According to the report, Liban Osman, the man depicted to allegedly be buying voters in the latest set of “sting operation” videos from the James O’Keefe helmed right-wing operation, is saying he was set-up by a local community activist with a history of making false claims. In an interview with FOX 9, Osman claimed he was approached by Omar Jamal—a Minnesota community activist Project Veritas has credited as the main source for its investigation—and was offered $10,000 to say he was harvesting ballots for Rep. Omar. read the complete article
Delayed Homeland Security Report Warns of ‘Lethal’ White Supremacy
The Department of Homeland Security warned on Tuesday that violent white supremacy was the “most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland” in an annual assessment that a former intelligence chief had accused the agency of withholding in deference to President Trump. The intelligence chief-turned-whistle-blower last month accused the department of blocking the report and directing analysts to play down the threat of violent white racism as well as Russian election interference to align the agency’s message with the president’s. But the final report appeared to do no such thing. read the complete article
Re-examining religious liberty with Tanvir v Tanzin
Today the Court will hear Tanvir v. Tanzin. The case involves three Muslim men who say that F.B.I. agents put them on the No-Fly List as a way of coercing the men into spying on the Muslim community. The Muslim plaintiffs believe that spying on their religious community violates their religious beliefs and sued the FBI agents under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a federal law protecting religious freedom. Under RFRA, they argued that the FBI forced them to choose between their religious beliefs and being subjected to the punishment of placement on the No-Fly List. The specific issue in the case is whether the plaintiffs can sue the FBI agents for money damages under RFRA. read the complete article
France
France's 'crisis' with Islam: A legacy of 200 years of colonial brutality
Official and unofficial Christian French radical extremism, legitimising itself under the umbrella of what the French ostentatiously call laicité, continues to increase its attacks on French and non-French Muslims. French Christian and so-called "secular" hatred of Muslims is part of everyday speech by the French government, the pundits, and the media. In fact, the normalisation of hate speech against Muslims not only legitimises the institutionalised discrimination to which French Muslims are subjected, but also incites violence against them inside and outside France, including the shootings at the mosque of Brest and the targeting of its popular imam Rachid Eljay in June 2019 and the attack on the mosque of Bayonne in October 2019 that wounded four. read the complete article
‘Stop stigmatising us’, French Muslims tell Macron
“Islam is a religion that is in crisis all over the world today, we are not just seeing this in our country,” Macron said during a nearly two hour speech in the northwest Paris suburb of Les Mureaux. Muslims across the world responded with anger, with many viewing the speech, which was centred around protecting the ideal of French read the complete article
China
China 'Arbitrarily Detained' 1 Million Uyghurs, Other Muslim Minorities, Labor Dept Report Finds
A new report from the Department of Labor found that China has arbitrarily detained more than one million Uyghurs—a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority in the East Asian nation, as well as other Muslim minories—and forced or coerced many to do work against their will. It is estimated that 100,000 Uyghurs and other ethnic minority ex-detainees in China may be working in conditions of forced labor following detention in re-education camps. (2) Many more rural poor workers also may experience coercion without detention. (3; 4) China has been included on the List of Goods Produced by Child Labor of Forced Labor (TVPRA List) since 2009," the report published Tuesday morning said. read the complete article