Donald Trump proposes a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States“. The shift in rhetoric follows the shootings in San Bernardino, California. His proposed ban would also include Muslim tourists and citizens based abroad. In a press release, Trump cited growing hatred of the United States in Muslim communities. The localities of these communities are not contingent to Trump’s argument – only a perception of truth matters. Recent data from Pew offers added nuance. It found the countries with the most unfavourable views of the United States were Jordan and Russia. Positive ratings in Turkey had increased from 19 per cent to 29 per cent. In Lebanon, 48 per cent of its Sunni Muslim population had expressed favourable views of the United States. Its Shia population, had for the most part, expressed anti-American sentiment. Other polls from Pew point to a broad rejection of terror groups like ISIS and suicide bombing among Muslims across the globe. Pew data also found that many Muslim Americans want to assimilate into American culture. It’s also noteworthy that 81 per cent of Muslim Americans hold U.S. citizenship, including 70 per cent born abroad. Foreign-born Muslims take up a higher rate of [...]
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Relatives of Tashfeen Malik, the woman involved in what has been classified as a terrorist attack in the United States, have said that she became more hardline after her time in Saudi Arabia. Her hardline views, according to them, were developed when she lived in the country. Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik died in a shoot-out after killing 14 people in San Bernardino in California. Within the last 48 hours, the terror group IS has claimed the couple as their followers though investigators have suggested that there were no external links to the couple and that the plot to kill had been concocted by the couple themselves. Malik’s Pakistani relatives have suggested that her father cut off contact with his family in Pakistan due to a feud over inheritance and he moved to Saudi Arabia when his daughter was very young. Reuters has noted that school teacher, Hifza Bibi, the step-sister of Malik’s father who lives in the Punjab said: “From what we have heard, they lived differently, their mindset is different. We are from a land of Sufi saints and this is very shocking for us.” Time in Pakistan Ms Malik, 29, returned from Saudi Arabia to [...]
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The anti-Muslim backlash following the recent Paris atrocities is creating its own acts of solidarity. In Toronto, Canada, four high profile anti-Muslim incidents have made headline news. A Muslim woman was assaulted as she went to collect her children from school on Monday. According to police, two males pulled at her hijab and stole her mobile phone. The brother of the victim said she was punched in the stomach and face, called a “terrorist” and told to “go back home” during the assault. Metrolinx staff found anti-Muslim graffiti inside a bathroom of a busy train station. On November 19, a Muslim student at the University of Toronto, named Osama Omar, 21, was spat at as he waited for a streetcar in downtown Toronto. Omar wears a topi, or Muslim prayer cap. The perpetrator told Omar to take his “turban” off and attempted to punch him twice. In a Facebook post, he described how an elderly woman who saw the incident from across the street came over to ‘apologise on behalf of the man’. She told Omar not to see him as a ‘generalized representation’ of what society has become. At around 6pm on Wednesday, two Muslim women faced verbal abuse [...]
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Flier in Lesbos refugee camp filled with lies about Sweden/refugee situation. No comment from supposed signers. -SN pic.twitter.com/y4HnDeDerE — b9AcE (@b9AcE) November 7, 2015 A controversial flyer warning refugees against coming to Sweden is the work of the Sweden Democrats (SD). On Monday, the far-right party’s communication manager confirmed that party members are distributing these flyers in seventeen cities on Europe’s border. Under the headline of “No money, no jobs, no homes” the flyer argues that mass immigration made Sweden a hotbed for violent crime. It claims that Sweden ‘demonstrates the second highest number of rape reports in the entire world’. Others made a similar argument on the Gatestone Institute website in February 2015. But both miss the point. Rising crime figures do not suggest an epidemic, rather a shift in public attitudes, and policing methods. Take for example, in 2005, when Sweden passed a new sexual offences legislation. This change meant that incidents once classed as sexual exploitation are now classed as rape. In 2013, legislative amendments broadened the definition of rape to included victims deemed passive. The ease of alcohol and internet access are other societal factors police use to explain the rising incident levels. Comparing rape statistics [...]
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The Union for Reform Judaism in North America has adopted a resolution for transgender rights. This move continues a long tradition of supporting minority rights. In 1977, both the Union and the Central Conference of American Rabbis passed resolutions affirming “the rights of homosexuals”. As Trans Media Watch note: “[Trans] is an umbrella term, describing people who experience the need to present themselves as and/or who identify as other than the gender they were assigned at birth“. The resolution also supports the rights of individuals who define their gender outside of societal expectations and norms. According to the Office for Justice Progams (OJP), one in two transgender individuals are sexually abused or assaulted in their lifetimes. A high number of trans individuals are survivors of sexual abuse. Many live with these traumas and the fear of repeat victimisation. People of colour in LGBTQ communities also face disproportionate levels of violence. In 2014, The New York City Anti-Violence Project (NCAVP) recorded 12 transgender murders. All victims were people of colour. These communities experience higher rates of homelessness, poverty, and job discrimination. This increases their risk of violence. The NCAVP also found that “LGBTQ and HIV-affected people of color, LGBTQ youth and [...]
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Some of India’s most prominent scientists have signed a petition and returned awards to draw attention to India’s growing intolerance. The petition accuses the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of curtailing free speech and stoking Hindu nationalism. Signatories include Ashoke Sen, who won the Fundamental Physics Prize, the world’s most lucrative academic award in 2012. Pushpa Bhargava who founded the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad. D Balasubramanian, former president of the Indian Academy of Science. And Dr Vineeta Bal of the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi. The statement reads: “It is the same climate of intolerance, and rejection of reason that has led to the lynching in Dadri of Mohammad Akhlaq Saifi and the assassinations of Prof Kalburgi, Dr Narendra Dabholkar and Shri Govind Pansare.” Professor Malleshappa Kalburgi’s murder shocked India. Who would murder a “straight-talking, rationalist researcher of ancient Kannada literature”? As local media described him. One theory is that Hindu nationalists murdered him in response to his criticisms of idol worship. The founder of the right-wing Hindu group Sri Rama Sene, Pramod Muthalik, rejected any links to Kalburgi’s murder. He also threatened to cut off the tongues of writers if they continue to [...]
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Vandals daubed swastikas and anti-migrant slogans on Muslim and Jewish graves over the weekend in western Austria. The perpetrators targeted the graves and building of a Jewish cemetery in the town of Hohenems, near the Swiss border. Police sources confirmed that swastikas appeared on its walls. Swastikas and racist graffiti also appeared at a Muslim cemetery in the nearby municipality of Altach. Police are linking this case to an earlier spate of vandalism against a refugee hostel and Jewish museum two weeks ago. Swastikas appeared on walls of the Jewish district, including the Jewish museum. The phrase “Stop the asylum flood” appeared on a refugee hostel. Hohenems mayor, Richard Amman, had recently received a letter from far-right extremists. He is also in a legal battle over the disputed mayoral elections with a candidate from the far-right Freedom Party (FPO). The FPO had claimed victory with 43.3 per cent; but a runoff secured Amman’s election with the smallest of margins. Back in Feburary, swastikas were daubed on the walls of a Vienna mosque, as Austria prepared for its official Pegida-inspired march. Other recent incidents of Islamophobia and antisemitsm in Austria included an assault on two Jewish men, which included shouts of [...]
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The family of murdered Iranian-American engineering student Shayan Mazroei, 22, want authorities to consider it a hate crime. Craig Tanber, a white supremacist gang member allegedly stabbed Mazroei outside a California bar on September 7. Given his gang links and ideology, the family’s attorney Neama Rahmani wants a closer look at Taber’s motive. “Our clients lost their only child to a heinous act of racism and violence,” said Neama Rahmani of West Coast Trial Lawyers, the law firm representing the Mazroei family. “We will not rest until we obtain justice against those responsible for Shayan’s tragic death.” Witnesses claim that the suspect’s girlfriend described Mazroei as a ‘terrorist’ and said “f—ing Iranians” before Tanber attacked him. Investigators are not convinced that race was a motivating factor. “It’s not even close to have enough evidence to charge it as a hate crime. It is a murder, it is charged as a murder,” said Senior Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin. Shayan’s mother Shahzad Mazroei could not hide her tears at a recent press conference. A source told the New York Daily News that she had flown back from Iran after learning of his murder. She has lost her son, a promising student [...]
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Over the summer, Pope Francis apologised for the “Many grave sins were committed against the native people of America in the name of God.” “I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offense of the church herself, but also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America,” the pope said. But his decision to canonise Father Junípero Serra, on his first visit to the United States next week, has angered many groups. An online petition against the canonisation has gained over 10,000 signatures. Many of the counter voices are descendants of those colonised. For Ron Andrade, executive director of the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission, and of the Luiseño tribe, said Serra “decimated 90% of the Indian population”. Serra (1713-1784), was an ordained Franciscan priest and professor of theology by the age of 24. By 1749, Serra accompanied other Franciscans dedicated to missionary work in Mexico. He also preached, heard confessions, and assisted at Mexico City’s College of San Fernando. In 1767, Spain founded the first mission in California. Estimates put the Native American population at about 310,000; yet in under a century, that figure declined at a rapid rate, alongside cultural shifts. Spain’s [...]
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In a blow to Stephen Harper’s government, the Federal Court of Appeal found a ban on wearing niqabs at citizenship ceremonies unlawful. Three justices wanted to rule now so Zunera Ishaq could take her citizenship oath and vote in the elections that will decide Canada’s next parliament on October 19. Ishaq, 29, moved to Ontario in 2008 to be with her husband. She had agreed to remove her niqab for an official before completing her citizenship test in 2013. But objected to removing it during a public ceremony, as required under a 2011 rule change. “The government of Canada will seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada in the Ishaq case,” Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said in a one-line statement. Paul Daly, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law at the Université de Montréal tweeted: Very, very little chance leave will be granted. https://t.co/US9m5EKXd1 — Paul Daly (@pauldalyesq) September 16, 2015 Judge Keith Boswell argued that citizenship judges must allow for religious freedom when administering the oath. Boswell questioned the practicalities of a policy that asks individuals to ‘violate’ or ‘renounce’ tenets of their religion. The judgement brought tears of relief to Ishaq, her family, and supporters. [...]
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