The Somali Ministry of Humanitarian and Disaster Management said Tuesday it sent the first shipments of aid to the drought-stricken regions of Hiiraan and Bakool.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Khadijo Mohamed Diirye told journalists in Mogadishu that a Drought Relief Committee recently appointed by Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble dispatched a cargo plane to Beledweyne, the provincial capital of the Hiiran region and to Hudur in the Bakol region -- one of the hardest-hit areas in the country.

She said aid will continue as the committee is planning to send another plane to Garbaharey, the Gedo region's capital.

The UN said Monday it allocated $17M to the worsening drought in Somalia.

Insecurity and conflict resulted in the displacement of 777,000 people in Somalia last year, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Agency said in a statement late Monday.

"Overall, more than 2.9M people are displaced within the country – one of the highest figures in the world," it said.

Most of the internally displaced live in precarious conditions and need assistance to survive.

The UN said Somalia's Shabelle River had reached historically low levels because of drought, forcing the agency to issue an alert.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said water levels in the river have reached historically low levels around the central city of Beletweyne, the provincial capital of the Hiiran region.

"Around 2 million people live in the riverine districts depending on Shabelle River for food production & livelihoods," FAO said in a statement on Twitter.

The drought has continued to worsen following a prolonged dry spell characterized by high temperatures./aa

The UN Human Rights Office on Tuesday said it is concerned about a member of parliament who is the deputy head of the Ennahda party in Tunisia and another unidentified person detained after they were kept in an unknown place for hours.

UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Liz Throssell raised concerns about Noureddine El-Beheiry at a UN news conference when she said developments in Tunisia over the past month had deepened serious concerns about deteriorating human rights there.

She said El-Beheiry and the other person were detained without authorization or explanation and remain under house arrest.

In a Dec. 31, 2021 statement, Ennahda announced that El-Beheiry was abducted by "security forces with civilian clothes and taken to an unknown destination.”

After the incident, El-Beheiry's lawyers filed a criminal complaint against President Kais Saied and Interior Minister Taoufik Charfeddine.

El-Beheiry was taken to some undisclosed places of detention for several hours, and his family and lawyer did not know his whereabouts.

He was subsequently put under house arrest, and then due to pre-existing health conditions, he was transferred to a hospital on Jan. 2, where he remains under guard.

- Echoes of past

"These two incidents echo practices not seen since the era of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and raise serious questions regarding abduction, enforced disappearance, and arbitrary detention," said Throssell.

No explanation was given why El-Beheiry was apprehended, she added.

"We urge the authorities to either promptly release or properly charge these two men in accordance with due process standards for criminal proceedings.

"We urge the Tunisian authorities to continue their dialogue with the UN Human Rights Office and other UN human rights mechanisms to ensure the reforms of the security and justice sectors that are so badly needed are fully compliant with Tunisia's international human rights obligations," said the rights official.

On Monday, Tunisian Interior Minister Charfeddine placed El-Beheiry and a ministry official under house arrest over accusations of issuing false identity documents to a Syrian couple while serving as justice minister.

One of the individuals was previously linked to terrorist cases committed outside Tunisian territory, said the ministry.

Ennahda party, the largest party in the now-suspended Tunisian parliament, termed the accusations against El-Beheiry as "politicized" and called for his immediate release.

El-Beheiry, 63, was transferred to Habib Bougatfa Hospital in the northern city of Bizerte after his health deteriorated due to his hunger strike in protest of his detention.

Saied ousted the Tunisian government on July 25, 2021, suspended parliament, and assumed executive authority.

While he insists that his "exceptional measures" are meant to "save" the country, critics have accused him of orchestrating a coup.​​​​​​​/aa

Although the US “global war on terror” which began after the deadly 2001 terrorist attacks was to a large extent concluded following the American army’s withdrawal last year from Afghanistan, the dark side of this 20-year policy, its Guantanamo prison, remains open.

The prison was established 20 years ago today in Guantanamo Bay, which the US leased from Cuba for the navy in 1903.

The US took a step that will be recorded as a “black mark” in the history of international law after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

Then-President George W. Bush established interrogation cells and prisons outside the jurisdiction of the judiciary so that those captured by US intelligence, mostly in the Middle East and Africa, for allegedly being involved with terrorism, under the name of “war on terror,” would not benefit from the judicial rights under US law.

Road to Guantanamo

While al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks in the US, the country invaded Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001 on the grounds that it was used as a base by the terrorist group.

People arrested by the US Army as terrorist suspects in many countries, especially Afghanistan, were transferred to interrogation centers at American bases outside the US and secret prisons established by the CIA to be interrogated through torture.

The Bush administration announced on Jan. 11, 2002 that they had established a prison to hold terrorist suspects at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

However, although Guantanamo is known as the only prison where terrorist suspects are held, the existence of torture prisons in many countries, especially Thailand, remained secret until 2006.

Nearly 800 people tortured in Guantanamo

Within one year after its establishment, 680 suspects were brought to Guantanamo prison, where those arrested in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other regional countries were subjected to various forms of torture.

According to the US Defense Department, to date, 797 suspects have been held at Guantanamo.

Images of daily life in Guantanamo, called "the worst prison in the world,” have been shared with the public in only a very limited fashion.

The status of the suspects, dressed in orange jumpsuits and sometimes black hoods, has been at the center of the Guantanamo-related controversy.

The international community, especially human rights groups, points to how the Bush administration opened Guantanamo to comfortably carry out torture, which is considered a crime in the US, and to prevent the prisoners from benefiting from the protections of US law.

In addition, the Bush administration's definition of detainees here as “enemy combatants” paved the way for their trial in widely criticized military courts.

Obama failed to keep his word

Announcing in 2007 that he would run for president, Barack Obama made the closure of Guantanamo one of his key campaign planks.

During his two-term presidency, from 2009 to 2017, Obama constantly emphasized that he wanted to close Guantanamo.

In a decree he signed a few days after taking office Obama ordered the prison closed within one year, but was unable to fulfill this order.

In February 2016, the last year of his presidency, Obama finally announced a plan for the closure of Guantanamo before the cameras at the White House, saying that he planned to send some of the remaining detainees to their own countries or to third countries that accept them.

But at a press conference at the White House in the last months of his term, Obama admitted that he was unable to close Guantanamo, claiming that congressional opposition stood in his way.

When Obama took office, there were 245 detainees in Guantanamo, and during his term he completed the trial of 204, extradited some to their own countries, and put some under the control of a third country, leaving the prison with a small fraction of its Bush-era population.

‘Taliban 5’ released during Obama era

The most talked-about Guantanamo issue in recent years was the 2014 exchange of US Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured by the Taliban after leaving his unit in Afghanistan, for five high-ranking Taliban members.

The Taliban members, also known as the "Taliban Five,” took critical positions in the Taliban interim government established in Kabul after the US completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on Aug. 31, 2021.

Only 1 person released during Trump era

Donald Trump promised that if he won the presidency in 2016, he would not close down Guantanamo but instead would, in his own words, “load it up with some bad dudes.”

On Feb. 18, 2018, about a year after he took office, Trump announced that he had signed a new presidential decree to keep the prison open.

While no new detainees were brought to the prison during the Trump era, after Trump's announcement, the Pentagon announced on May 2, 2018, that they had extradited a Saudi citizen named Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al-Darbi to Riyadh and that Darbi would remain in a prison in Saudi Arabia until 2027.

Darbi became the only detainee released from Guantanamo during the Trump era.

Will Biden shut it down?

Current US President Joe Biden stressed both during his vice presidency under Obama and during the 2020 presidential race that Guantanamo should be closed.

Since taking office last year, Biden has so far only released one Guantanamo detainee.

The Pentagon announced on July 19, 2021, that they extradited the last Moroccan citizen, 56-year-old Abdul Latif Nasir, from Guantanamo to his home country.

With the first release under Biden, the number of detainees in Guantanamo fell to just 39, but there are still questions about Biden's ability to close down this notorious prison.

According to Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby, two of the remaining 39 detainees have been sentenced, while military court processes for 10 others continue.

While 13 other detainees are eligible for extradition, 14 are subject to periodic review.

After the completion of the military court process, the detainees are then evaluated as to whether they are suitable for extradition.

It turned out that 85% of those released or extradited under Obama were not related to terrorism in any way, but it still took years for 197 detainees to be released from Guantanamo.

While most believe it may take a long time for Biden to release the remaining 39 prisoners, the US closing the notorious prison is also considered very unlikely, especially under the pressure of Congress./aa

Afghans in the US have demanded that the Biden administration lift restrictions on the Afghan banking sector and release financial assets belonging to the Afghan people.

The humanitarian situation is worsening in Afghanistan after the US withdrew troops from the conflict-hit country and the Taliban took control of the government by seizing Kabul on Aug. 15.

The US froze $9 billion in financial assets belonging to the Afghan central bank after the Taliban takeover and it said assets the government has in the US will not be available to the Taliban.

"Now, Afghanistan is in dire need. I hope they (Biden administration) release the assets of Afghanistan," said Bakhtar Aminzai, a former member of the Meshrano Jirga, the upper house in the Afghanistan parliament.

Aminzai made the remarks Monday to Anadolu Agency on the sidelines of a one-day humanitarian conference for Afghanistan in Washington DC.

He said the effect of frozen assets directly goes to "innocent Afghan people" who he said are suffering from the worsening situation in the country.

"I think America, American people and government will soon release the assets of Afghans and encourage charity organizations for helping Afghanistan," added Aminzai.

Abdul Subhan Misbah, chairman at Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief and Development (ACBAR), said 75% of Afghans currently live below the poverty line.

ACBAR is an organizer of the conference along with the Zakat Foundation of America -- a Chicago-based NGO that helps the needy in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

He also cited UN reports that said around 1 million children in Afghanistan could die from hunger.

"There is a crisis ongoing and this is all because of the sudden collapse of the government and failure of our leaders in the past as well as the international community," said Misbah.

He said the US put restrictions on the banking system and no aid organization is allowed to send money to Afghanistan for humanitarian assistance.

"The US is silent and we want them at least to solve the problem of sending money for humanitarian purposes," he said.

Mishab also urged the US and Taliban to resolve the conflict in Afghanistan as soon as possible, saying time is running out and the situation there becomes more urgent.

Halil Demir, the executive director of the Zakat Foundation, told Anadolu Agency that the world wants to help Afghanistan but the financial ways are closed and the US refusal to recognize the Taliban government prevents humanitarian aid from reaching Afghanistan.

"The banks are not ready for the help we want to give. This is the biggest problem right now. The lack of financial access to (banking) services is the problem of all of us," said Demir.

The US announced Tuesday more than $308 million in humanitarian assistance for the people of Afghanistan.

"This brings total U.S. humanitarian aid in Afghanistan and for Afghan refugees in the region to nearly $782 million since October 2021, and we remain the single largest donor of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan," National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement.

Afghanistan’s plight is one of the world’s most rapidly growing humanitarian crises, according to UN aid agencies.

The UN and its partners launched a more than $5 billion funding appeal Tuesday for Afghanistan./aa

The US has confirmed that it has decided to withdraw support from the EastMed gas pipeline project, which sought to transport Israeli natural gas to the European market via the Mediterranean Sea and Greece.

The US Embassy in Athens reiterated its commitment to connecting energy in the Eastern Mediterranean to Europe in a statement released on Monday, saying, "We are shifting our focus to electricity interconnectors that can support both gas and renewable energy sources."

Even though the statement said the US will support planned EuroAfrica interconnector from Egypt to Crete and the Greek mainland, and as well as the proposed EuroAsia interconnector to link the Israeli, Greek Cypriot administration, and European electricity grids, the news appears to have caused displeasure in Greece.

The Greek daily Avgi, which is close to the main opposition party SYRIZA, presented the development as a major foreign policy failure by the conservative, nationalist Nea Dimoktraia (ND) government in its Tuesday publication.

The categorical "No" from the US is only because of the EastMed plan's anti-economic and anti-ecological characteristics, as Turkiye has argued, and the tensions it causes in the region, the daily said.

It did not help Greece to be more "submissive and predictable" to Americans, it added.

Daily Rizospastis, the official newspaper of the Greek Communist Party (KKE), also asserted that the US saw the project as the primary source of tension in the region and hence withdrew its support.

The US has used Greece as a bargaining chip against Turkiye, the daily added.

Moreover, the leftist opposition party MeRA25, led by former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis in a statement accused both the incumbent ND and former SYRIZA governments of lying to Greeks on many foreign policy matters, including the EastMed gas pipeline project.

“We have warned for years that the project cannot be done because of financial cost, it should not be done because of the environmental cost,” the statement said.

The party also claimed that the US desire to promote its LNG in European markets would have prevented it from materializing.

It argued that the Greek governments had been deceiving the Greek people for too long, not only about the EastMed project but also about energy policies in general.

- EastMed pipeline project

Greece, Israel, and the Greek Cypriot administration inked an agreement in 2020 to build a 1,900-kilometer (approximately 1,200-mile) natural gas pipeline in the Eastern Mediterranean (EastMed) that would connect Israel, the Greek Cypriot administration, Crete, Greece, and ultimately Italy.

Many experts said the estimated natural gas transfer cost would be three times cheaper if the pipeline passes through Turkiye.

Though Ankara and Tel Aviv have expressed willingness to negotiate on such gas transfer via Turkiye, talks have never got off the ground.

Turkiye, which has the longest continental coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean, has rejected the maritime boundary claims of Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration, stressing that the excessive claims violate the sovereign rights of both Turkiye and the Turkish Cypriots.

Turkish leaders have repeatedly stressed that Ankara is in favor of resolving all outstanding problems in the region – including maritime disputes – through international law, good neighborly relations, dialogue and negotiations./aa

The Centre for development policy and practice (CDPP) has released a paper on ‘Development of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh – Policy implications,’ on January 9, 2022.   The paper goes on to highlight the poor condition of Muslims living in the most populous state of India.

The paper is a 76-page report that is based on studies about the condition of Muslims states that “as per the 2011 census survey, Muslims constitute 19.26 % of the total population in UP, but the community lags far behind many socio-religious categories (SRCs) such as; education, economic, employment, housing, landholding, access to credit and other development indicators.”

The paper also presents causes, effects, and possible interventions to arrest the worsening development of the Muslim community.

Education: 71.2% of Muslims above 15 years are illiterate, compared to the 58.3% national average. Moreover, only 16.8 percent of Muslims have education above the middle level and only 4.4 percent of Muslims have a university degree.

Employment: In terms of unemployment, there is a big gap in unemployment with other communities largely Hindus. About 36.5% of Muslims are employed in agriculture, 26.2% in manufacturing, 10.3% in construction, and 27% in services.

Representation in government services:  In government jobs, Muslims constituted 10.08% of OBC castes, compared to 65.48% non-Muslim OBC castes. The community constitutes 5.76% in Class A, 3.98% Class B, 1.73% Class C, and 5.75% Class D government jobs. In comparison, non-Muslim OBC castes constitute 80.92%, 82.83%, 82.55%, and 73.55% in Class A, B, C, D government jobs respectively.

Land ownership: According to the findings, 48.05% of UP Muslims were landless compared to Hindus who are less than 25.83%. Compared to 59.47% Hindus about 83.4% of Muslims owned land below 1 acre, on the other end, 0.80% of Muslims own 7.5-10 acres of land, whereas over 1.87% Hindus own more than 10 acres of land.

The report reveals that the average age of death was 6 years lower for Muslims, compared to forward caste Hindus.

The paper concludes that Muslims have not been able to share equally with other social groups in the fruits of development in Uttar Pradesh that have taken place in the country since Independence.

“A major reason for this situation is the low representation of Muslims in Government jobs and elected bodies like state assembly and Parliament, which deprives them of voicing their concerns and influencing government policies for their betterment. The limited access of Muslim youth to higher and technical education has also affected their work opportunities,” says the report.

The Centre for development policy and practice (CDPP) has recommended that “the government should take affirmative action for the betterment of the Muslims.” It is likely to bring out a detailed book called ‘Muslims in Uttar Pradesh’ on a later date.

Commenting on the CDPP report, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said, “The findings of this paper seek answers from the SP, BSP or BJP who have ruled the state for many years as to why they have deliberately pulled down the growth rate of the Muslims under their rule. This report is empirical proof that Muslims were not appeased under any rule rather they were exploited by the different governments ruling UP.  Muslims of UP certainly deserve better than this,” Owaisi said./ muslimmirror

Title is id. Title is historical past. Title is heritage. Title is tradition. There’s a whole historical past related to a reputation. While you change a reputation, both it’s about streets, villages, cities, cities or mountains and even roads, the entire historical past linked with the identify obliterates. In current circumstances occurred in India concerning the swapping of Muslim names of streets, roads, villages and cities, it’s perceived as an elimination of Muslim heritage, id and tradition and in addition the eradication of Muslim historical past that’s related to these names. It additionally means BJP Authorities is doing this in order to eradicate Muslim historical past to delegitimize Muslim inhabitants in India. It’s an act of instigating hatred in opposition to Muslims to flare up their feelings. BJP is redefining the that means of phrase ‘India’ or ‘Indian’ by restating what it means to be Indian. Such incidents could trigger a extreme harm to Muslim historical past with a view to deprive them of their historical past, their wealthy tradition and their traditions.

As town, Allahabad was based by the Muslim ruler, Mughal Emperor Akbar who deserves the credit score of building this metropolis. By these acts, it appears and it places a doubt that India is a pluralistic democracy; it was in Akbar’s regime however not now! Under no circumstances! In such a state the place prejudice and biasness is at its excessive stage, the place even names usually are not protected, how can we count on of minorities’ security, the place Hinducentric ideology is very at its peak. The highly effective Hindu nationalists are redefining, re-conceptualizing and re-contextualizing Indian historical past by the angle of Hinduism and RSS ideology.

The officers of Bharatiya Janata Occasion have modified the names of the a lot of the cities containing Muslim names which are reminiscent to Mughal Empire however now with their new names like Allahabad to Prayagraj which suggests “the Hindu pilgrimage web site”, Allahabad dated again to sixteenth century was a legacy of a Muslim ruler, Emperor Akbar. Now they’re Hinduising the Muslim names merely to get political positive aspects which represents a rising tendency of Hindu chauvinism in Indian politics. Since final seven years, Hindu chauvinistic politicians have been altering the Muslim names of the streets, villages, cities, cities, and even airports altering the names that reveal Muslim heritage. By committing these crimes of swapping the names, they’re making an attempt to re-write Indian historical past that’s significantly primarily based on the ideology of Hindutva. And it’s such a violent act that can liquidate all traces of Muslim historical past, id, tradition and heritage.

These days, RSS is so highly effective that it may possibly even wipe out the complete democratic system in India. Its members can gridlock the entire India by just one name. All these adjustments of the names are an try and reject the Muslim names that had been used from Mughal Empire until date. This wave of fixing the names is concerning the obliteration of Muslim heritage in Hindustan which could be very precarious for its unity and really hazardous for its solidarity and wholeness.

RSS is establishing its ideology and agency perception to root Islamophobia among the many Hindu plenty as its energy lies in anti-Islam stand. In so-called secular Hindustan, Muslims and Christians are thought-about non-Indians in accordance with RSS ideology of Hindutva. In current state of affairs, RSS goons usually are not solely going to take excessive steps to vary the Muslim names of the cities but in addition going to obliterate Muslim inhabitants. This name for Muslim genocide which is rising louder in Modi’s regime in India and his silence endorses this assertion. It has flared-up Muslim group in India dedicated to combat in opposition to Hindus. If the state of affairs stays the identical, the ethno-social and political circumstances will go to a degree of no return the place every thing will probably be destroyed; come what could. This name for mass homicide of Muslims in India because it has instigated outrage in Muslim group, if began; it could annihilate the entire India the place its solidarity will probably be at stake. Indian administration has turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to this genocide name.

We’ve already seen the heartrending historical past of an inter-communal violence in Gujrat when Modi was chief minister again in 2002 and the Gujrat administration had develop into completely a puppet within the fingers of those RSS barbarians the place these hooligans had been busy in killing Muslims brutally. After these identify adjustments, a pogrom will probably be adopted precisely on Gujrat, and Burma Mannequin the place 1000’s of Muslims had been brutally killed by the violent Hindu mobs with the intention of expelling the Muslim minority in India. Not solely Muslims but in addition Christians are in shock and usually are not saved by the fingers of those RSS goons who’re committing an act of organized destruction and violence. With the obliteration of Muslim names, they’re additionally exterminating the minorities together with Muslims, Christians and Dalits. The place is the secular standing of India the place the RSS hooligans are wandering at giant with none worry of being captured?/ allaboutpaki

Why Are Muslims In Bad Shape, Time To Introspect: Maulana Mujaddidi

Maulana Fazlur Raheem Mujaddidi, Rector of Jamea Tul Hidaya, Jaipur, and Chairman, Abdul Rahim Educational Trust, while pointing out to decline of Muslims in all walks of life said: “We need to know why we are in such a bad situation.”

Maulana Mujaddidi said this while addressing the annual function of English Medium Imam Rabbani Public School here recently.

Citing an example, he said that our education and culture was so prominent that King George II of England had sent his family’s daughters to the caliph of Turkey so that they could learn the culture that was prevalent there at that time. He said that the nation which was so high at that time and its standards were so high why did it fall so low in every field. He said that we have created high quality experts in all fields and yet this community has become backward.

Sachar Committee Report

Maulana Mujaddidi, citing figures from the government and the Planning Commission (now known as Niti Ayog), said that the government’s figures show that Muslims are lagging behind their compatriots in every field of human development. He said that according to the Planning Commission, the Sikh community was in the best position among the minorities. In the current situation, he said that those who have money would prosper. As the economic condition of Muslims is very bad they cannot get higher education. Therefore, the Sachar Committee Report had made several recommendations to improve its educational and economic conditions.

He said that this is why our forefathers dreamed of modern education along with religious education and our father Shah Abdul Rahim Mujaddidi laid the foundation of Jamea Tul Hidaya in Jaipur wherein computer education is imparted along with modern religious education.

He said that the dream of our forefathers was to establish a system of religious education which would provide employment. Therefore, he arranged modern education along with religious education, which provided an opportunity for the students of ‘madrassas’ to benefit from it.

He said that Imam Rabbani English Medium School was established in 1996 which has become an effective means of harmonizing the youth of today with the pace of learning. Children’s memory also needs to be sharpened. At the same time, he said that besides Imam Rabbani Public School, there are four schools.

Maulana Mujaddidi said that along with this came the idea that Muslims could not be made a part of all-round national development unless they were adequately represented in government offices and civil services. With this in mind, Crescent Academy was established at Delhi where 175 children have so far successfully competed and are doing their duties in various senior government positions of the country.

Dr. Samra Sultana, Vice Chairman, Abdul Rahim Educational Trust, said that if women have enthusiasm and determination, they can leave their mark in every sector. Referring to the Sachar Committee Report, she said that there is a dearth of education among Muslims and its dropout rate is also very high. He said that this is the condition of the community whose religious book started from the word “Iqra” (Read).

Maulana Habib-ur-Rahim introduced Maulana Mujaddidi to the guests. Leading participants in the program included Chief Secretary of Government of Rajasthan, Chairman Rajasthan Minority Commission, former Health Minister Nawab Sahib Durru Mian, Dr. Bushra IPS, school principals and city elders./ indiatomorrow

 By Arjun Appadurai

The recent calls by members of the BJP-RSS combine, in Haridwar and in Delhi, for the large-scale elimination of Muslims, indicate that the dog whistle of Islamophobia has now become a foghorn. The silence of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah about these unprecedented calls for full-scale armed war against Muslims can be read in one of two ways: as signs of their sense of impunity and confidence, or as signs of their sense of precarity and insecurity. I make a case here for the latter argument.

My argument is not the familiar instrumentalist argument about the Uttar Pradesh elections and the BJP’s concern about being humiliated in its sacred heartland. I believe we are witnessing what I call genocidalism, which stems from a deeper logic which afflicts all xenophobic nationalisms. This logic is connected to the relationship between nationalism and violence, and to what Marx and many Marxists identify as “the treadmill effect”.

I have argued elsewhere that the relationship between nationalism and violence is both intimate and two-way. We are accustomed to thinking that nationalism can lead people to kill and die in the name of the nation. When nationalism becomes extreme, its believers also become extreme in their readiness to kill or die for the nation. All nationalism contains the germ of suicide-bombing. And the idea that only Islam spawns jihadis is one of the great lies of our times. Every Hindu, Christian or Jew who is willing to implode or self-immolate in the hope of achieving the status of martyr and soldier together, is part of the inner logic of nationalism, even if an extreme version. A committed army, police force or commando outfit minus the constant trumpet of nationalism is impossible, or toothless. We do not need to say much more about the road from nationalism to violence.

With the arrival of the modern formula of the nation-state, group violence takes on a new function, which is to provide the fuel for the very idea of attachment to the nation. The main place in which we can see this is in the formation of modern militaries, which use training, rehearsals and actual warfare to produce the sense of attachment to the fiction and abstraction of the nation. Loyalty to the nation is hard to produce, since the nation is, for most people, abstract, fictive and remote. Dying and killing for the nation are sure ways to produce loyalty for such an abstraction. These acts often draw on the vocabulary of honour, sacrifice and purity which are deeply woven into all nationalisms.

It is in and through violence, both official and unofficial, that the sense of the sacredness of the nation is renewed, revived and restored. The recent theatrical displays by Modi and his acolytes in sites such as Varanasi, are also ways of renewing the always finite supply of sacred fuel for the machinery of nationalism. So too is the effort to rebuild central Delhi, to rewrite history in textbooks, social media and official propaganda, and to brutally subordinate subaltern populations, such as those of Kashmir. In all the places in which the Indian armed forces are involved in violence against Indian populations (in the tribal belt, in Maoist areas, in the North-East, in every single border state), violence has a utilitarian function (the imposition of state-sponsored order) but it also has a spectacular or theatrical function, which is to ensure that nationalism is not forced to go on life-support.

The digital media today is the guarantee of the widespread and near-instantaneous circulation of these local performances to the national stage. But this is not a simple cycle, since it tends towards a critical moment of self-contradiction, which is what we are seeing today in the Hindutva calls for organised genocide of Indian Muslims.

We can look at what I call genocidalism in the same way as these thinkers, especially Marx, looked at the treadmill effect in capitalism. Genocidalism is that moment in the history of genocide in which the production of violence has to be massively ratcheted up to keep up the minimal required level of nationalism. Genocidalism, like capitalism, is systemic, totalising and extractive. It demands full attention, full commitment and full participation from the largest possible number of people. Like capitalism, genocidalism mobilises and exploits a large number of workers who are tasked to keep up the daily production of violence, and benefits a small class of entrepreneurs and managers who envision, design and benefit from the treadmill of violence and can be seen as the profit-making class of genocidalism.

Modi’s India has now entered into the phase of genocidalism, the most advanced stage of nationalism. This stage, however, requires the open fuelling of the genocidal machine, even in the face of critics at home and the likely horror of critics abroad. It reveals the manic workings of the nationalist machinery in India, which can no longer be content with sporadic, spontaneous or localised episodes of violence. It needs systematic bolstering and mobilisation. It requires public policy, either from the state or from those very close to it.

The Haridwar Sansad of December 17-19, 2021, in this regard, offers a strong parallel with the infamous Wannsee Conference of January 1942, when the Final Solution was made into official Nazi policy. The fact that this and subsequent calls to general war against Muslims were organised by men and women in saffron makes a good deal of sense, since the sadhu-akhada side of the BJP-RSS machine has been steadily playing the role of outfits like the Waffen-SS under the Nazis, and has emerged as the tip of the spear consisting of various thugs, mobs and militias seeking a centralised leadership. Though some FIRs have recently been filed against the key figures in these events, the fact that both Modi and Shah have been silent about these remarkable public statements is a sobering index of the official legitimacy of genocidalism in India today.

If I am right that the new genocidalism represent a moment of panic and anxiety at the highest levels of the BJP-RSS machine, and not a moment of complacency or gloating, it also reminds us that the Indian drama today has two major elements which are not defined or exhausted by the aim of militant Hindutva to turn Muslims into India’s social dead. The anxiety comes from two other major forces which have shown that they are not part of the Hindutva consensus: the representatives of India’s farmer communities who broke Modi’s resolve to repress them in and around Delhi for almost a year; and the vast numbers of India’s Dalits who are angry, politicised and increasingly subjects of a revolution of rising expectations throughout India. A conservative estimate of the total number of these two populations (anti-regime farmers and anti-Hindutva Dalits) has to add up to at least 300 million Indians today. This massive number shows no signs of bowing down to the current regime or of exiting quietly from the political stage.

It is this 300 million that is the target of the Hindutva hysteria about India’s 200 million Muslims. The logic here has a lot to do with the treadmill effect at the heart of today’s genocidalism in India. On the one hand, the campaign to terrorise Muslims by calls for their genocide is a signal to farmers, Dalits and other resisting groups to be careful, lest they also become objects of genocidalism. The other prong is a recruitment strategy, to draw members of these groups into the Hindutva umbrella by giving them active roles in the new genocidalism. This dual strategy is intended to regulate the speed with which the genocidal machinery needs to be ratcheted up, while also providing some of the labour needs for the genocidal project wherever possible.

Let me return now to my reasoning for seeing the new genocidalism as a sign of desperation in the ruling regime and not of a swollen sense of impunity or of a new level of arrogance. Modi and his regime still need and crave the approval of the West and of other political powers that set store by human rights, especially the human rights of those who are being targeted for genocide. Modi has so far managed to retain some credibility in these circles, unlike many other xenophobic autocrats. But that free pass is at risk. In these circumstances, for this regime to allow its supporters to make open calls for genocide against Muslims shows that their commitment to genocidalism now trumps their interest in their image in the eyes of opponents, both internal and international. This is an index of desperation.

The UP and Punjab elections, and subsequent state elections, are certainly relevant to the timing and locations of the new genocidalism. But they are not the bigger or the whole story. The regime itself has made a massive wager against any need for a truly independent legislature, judiciary or press. In order to make this wager work, the regime and its supporters have doubled down, by making genocidalism its open political platform, hoping that enough Indians will support this wager. This is a desperate wager. It might also be the dawn of hope in this darkest of our political nights. / The wire

Nearly three dozen charities and foundations funnelled more than $105m to "anti-Muslim" organisations, according to a new report by a major US Muslim civil rights group.

The report, published on Tuesday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), found that between 2017 and 2019, 35 of the largest charitable institutions and foundations it reviewed had poured $105.8m into a network of 26 groups that have been known to peddle anti-Muslim sentiment.

"It is no secret that the Islamophobia Network remains hyper-active and well-funded," Huzaifa Shabaz, Cair's national research and advocacy coordinator, said in a statement.

"Today, more than ever, the philanthropic community must establish clear policies to prevent funds from going to hate groups and implement educational initiatives for staff and board members to help them understand the extent of anti-Muslim bigotry."

The financial data was obtained through each charitable institution and foundation's publicly available tax documents for 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Fidelity Charitable, one of the organisations mentioned in Cair's report, told Middle East Eye that its "grants are recommended by donors who have donor-advised fund accounts at Fidelity Charitable".

"These do not reflect the views of or represent an endorsement by Fidelity Charitable, a cause-neutral independent public charity," the spokesperson said, adding that it ensures grants are only given to charities cleared by the Internal Revenue Service.

A previous report by Cair found that 1,096 organisations were responsible for funding 39 so-called Islamophobic groups between 2014 and 2016, with those groups having revenue of at least $1.5bn.

The Muslim civil rights group defines the Islamophobia network as a decentralised group of organisations and individuals that "share an ideology of extreme anti-Muslim animus" and work together to encourage negative public opinion and government policies towards Muslims and Islam.

Its latest report helps to add to the decades-long money trail tracking the funding of anti-Muslim sentiment in the country, and further shows the connection between this network of Islamophobic groups and mainstream, prominent American philanthropy.

The report comes on the heels of a major scandal last month, when an executive director at one of Cair's state chapters was fired for reportedly sharing information about the organisation to "a known anti-Muslim hate group".

Several weeks later, Cair announced that it found another informant, who had been spying on an unidentified mosque in the US.

The news sent shockwaves throughout Muslim communities across the country, who had already been reeling from the past two decades of being the subject of US government surveillance, including the use of informants./Muslim Mirror