Amidst the growing incidents of islamophobia and anti-Muslim violence across the globe, the Combatting International Islamophobia Act passed in the US House of Representatives is a crucial step towards monitoring acts of Islamophobia. Representative Ilhan Omar along with 30 other lawmakers introduced this bill in October 2021.

Following the passage of the legislation to create a special envoy to combat Islamophobia, Ilhan Omar wrote on Twitter: “The passage of this legislation in the House of representatives is a huge milestone for Muslims around the world and a powerful signal that Islamophobia cannot be tolerated anywhere.”

The Act allows the Department of State to officially document Islamophobic acts around the world and issues related to them. The Act further seeks to establish a Special Envoy that will head the monitoring of acts of Islamophobia. The Act will also seek to include in the existing Congress reports about Human rights, the acts of Islamophobia in the form of physical harassment, media, governmental and non-governmental attempts to justify and/or propagate Islamophobia and hate crimes against Muslims. 

The press release by Representative Ilhan Omar’s office pointed out several countries where Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate crime is at an all-time high, including India.  It read: “There has been a staggering rise in incidents of violent Islamophobia incidents worldwide. Whether it is the atrocities being committed against the Uyghurs in China and the Rohingya in Burma, the crackdowns on Muslim populations in India and Sri Lanka, the scapegoating of Muslim refugees and other Muslims in Hungary and Poland, the acts of white supremacist violence targeting Muslims in New Zealand and Canada, or the targeting of minority Muslim communities in Muslim-majority countries like Pakistan, Bahrain, and Iran—the problem of Islamophobia is global in scope.”

The Ministry of External Affairs in India was quick to respond to the press release and called India a vibrant, secular democracy. It is crucial to note that with the Hindu nationalist BJP holding the office of power in India, anti-Muslim violence and Islamophobia are at an all-time high. Anti-Muslim violence, including the acts of mob lynching, media propaganda, and the passing of draconian acts such as CAA, NRC, and NPR have doubled the sufferings of Muslims over the years. In such a condition, it is vital for India to have its own law against Islamophobia that is carried out, not only by individuals but also by the state machinery.

Speaking to Maktoob, Political Anthropologist Sharib Ali said that India needs an anti- islamophobia law that pays attention to the context of hate against Muslims in India.

“Unlike the US and Europe where phobia of Muslims has emerged from fear of outsiders and aliens, the Hindutva project in India seeks to politically construct Muslims as outsiders. This is why the word hate is so common in India as opposed to the ‘phobia’ of the global north. We need a law that documents hate against Muslims- expressed in physical, verbal, or symbolic forms against Muslim citizens, in public, media, or digital forms. The SC/ST atrocities act is a great example. The law needs to have provisions for institutional action against perpetrators as well as documentation attacks starting from districts to the national level,” Sharib said.

It is further important to note that, while the Act passed in the US is a crucial step, it further needs to criminalize Islamophobic acts. In India where Anti-Muslim violence has increased two folds since 2014, an Act against Muslim hatred and Islamophobia, on the lines of the SC-ST Atrocities Act, that documents and criminalizes any form of anti-Muslim hatred is vital, added Sharib.

Sharing his opinion on the Combatting International Islamophobia Act, Supreme Court lawyer M R Shamshad talked about the indiscriminate application of existing laws.

He says: “Changing the legal mechanism with the change in time may be necessary. However, more important is to maintain rule of law based upon the existing legal provisions. Even now, if laws are applied dispassionately, most of the issues can be addressed. The application of laws in our system is discriminatory. A small issue may become like a matter of national emergency on the other hand on many serious matters cognizance is not taken by the system. Hence what would you do with a new law if it is not applied in a fair manner?”

Talking about the need for a similar law against Islamophobia in India, he mentioned that the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Supreme Court, both say that on the information of cognizable offense, registration of FIR is ‘mandatory’.

“Is this being followed? Considering the fact that discretion of the officers concerned is used on discriminatory basis; this discretion has to be the least coupled with the accountability of the officials concerned,” Shamshad said.

A 25-year-old Muslim woman from Araria, Bihar shared, requesting anonymity, the horrific incident of attack on her father by Bajrang Dal Activist and how his calls to the police went unanswered because of his Muslim identity.

“This should be underlined. The motive behind the crime, anti-Muslim bias, should be documented,” she said to Maktoob.

Sweden granted citizenship to at least 27,340 to Syrian migrants in 2021, the country's migration agency said on Friday.

According to a Swedish Migration Agency report, 85,000 people were granted Swedish citizenship during the year.

At least 4,067 Somalis and 3,471 Eritreans also received Swedish citizenship.

A migrant with a residence and work permit in Sweden is entitled to naturalization within five years.

Following the influx of migrants to Europe in 2015, the number of Syrians getting residence and work permits in Sweden increased to around 150,000, the report said./DS

According to a new study, the pandemic, far from reducing anti-Muslim hate crimes has accelerated some of the worst narratives against Islam and Muslims.

A new report on Islamophobia in Europe has warned that hate crimes against Muslims in the continent have "worsened, if not reached a tipping point," over the last two years.

The pandemic resulted in relatively fewer physical attacks on Muslims and their places of worship, but that didn't result in less hate speech. Instead, according to the authors, there was an increase in online hate speech, which has longer-term implications for how Islamophobia is tackled across the continent.

Enes Bayrakli, one of the report's co-authors, described the increase of online abuse directed at Muslims as a "significant trend."

"This is worrying because online narratives don't stay online and can create a climate for physical attacks to occur in the real world," said Bayrakli speaking to TRT World.

A report in 2020 looking at online trends of Islamophobia found ubiquitous examples of fake news, which included themes that Muslims were super-spreaders of Covid-19, that mosques were covid vectors or that pandemic rules were applied more leniently towards Muslims out of fear of being accused of racism.

Such fake news stories represented an intersection and a development in narratives against Muslims that are common themes amongst Islamophobes.

Mainstream media outlets also contributed to the idea of linking images of Muslims to the pandemic and therefore legitimising negative tropes about Muslims and the pandemic.

Another important feature of this year's Islamophobia report is the cover image depicting the French President Emmanuel Macron.

When asked why this was significant, Bayrakli said that "Macron has become the face of institutional and structural Islamophobia in Europe. His policies are directly targeting, discrimination and criminalising Muslims in France."

There are few countries in Europe where Islam and Muslims face as much scrutiny as they do in France.

"There are of course other politicians in Europe who are following the same policies as France," says Bayrakli, but France is applying "Islamophobic practices at the state level in dealing with their Muslim minorities," he added.

This week alone saw two mosques attacked in France against a backdrop of rising anti-Muslim rhetoric from the countries political establishment, which increasingly frames Muslims as the threat within. 

France has closed down more than 17 mosques for violating vague "security laws" or not having the right "safety standards" in the last two years. An additional 89 mosques are also under surveillance.

According to this year's report on Islamophobia, France's systemic pressure on Muslims has resulted in unprecedented "increasing number of police searches, threats of eviction, as well as mosques and school closures, including the dissolution of a humanitarian NGO and a human rights organisation defending Muslims in France against racism and discrimination."

When put together these actions, the report warned, "threatened the fundamental freedoms of Muslims."

Other findings in the report

While in many countries in Europe, Islamophobic crimes went down, according to this year's Islamophobia report, Germany bucked the trend.

More than 901 Islamophobic crimes were committed across Germany in 2020, 146 of which targeted mosques and 48 of which targeted people. At the same time, anti-Muslim social movements organised their rallies despite the pandemic.

The report criticised many European states for failing to report Islamophobic incidents as a separate category of hate crime.

"The recording of anti-Muslim/Islamophobic crimes by the police as a separate category of hate crime is essential to uncover the real extent of this problem and to develop counter-strategies to combat it."

Muslims in Austria also faced another difficult year, with hate crimes more than doubling to 812 reported incidents.

According to the report, the Muslim community in Austria has also faced another challenging year.

Earlier this year, Austrian civil society groups came out strongly against a "state-directed racist and Islamophobic campaign", which saw authorities raid countless Muslim homes in 60 raids in November of 2020.

The raids were carried out at the behest of the then country's right-wing Interior Minister, Karl Nehammer, resulting in heavily armed forces violently breaking into homes early in the morning.

The government hailed the raids as a success. However, the lack of results has cast doubt on the aim of the raids in a country that has increasingly seen an increase in anti-Muslim rhetoric./TRT

Turkey sent 21 truckloads of humanitarian aid from Sanliurfa province to its Operation Peace Spring zone in northern Syria with the help of international aid organizations and Kuwaiti philanthropists, the Sanliurfa governor’s office said Thursday. 

Turkey continues to send aid to both the zone and Syria’s Tal Abyad and Rasulayn districts, which were recently cleared of PKK/YPG terrorists, the statement said.

Speaking at a ceremony marking the delivery of the aid with the support of the international aid organizations Ataa and Al Rahme as well as Kuwaiti philanthropists, the province’s Deputy Governor Abdullah Abid Oztoprak said Turkey will continue to stand by the oppressed and the victims.

"We are witnesses that our Kuwaiti brothers and sisters have always helped those (in need) in Syria. Since the first day, they have been on their side,” he said.

Representatives of the Ataa and Al Rahme associations also thanked Turkey for the convenience and support provided by the philanthropists in delivering their donations to Syrians.

Trucks sent to the needy in Syria have basic food supplies such as stoves, firewood, blankets, diapers and cleaning supplies as well as children's food, flour, oil, sugar and pulses.

Syria has been ravaged by a civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced, according to UN estimates.

Since 2016, Ankara has launched a trio of successful anti-terror operations across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018) and Peace Spring (2019).

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​/aa

Police in the northern French city of Calais clashed with migrants Thursday morning as the officers stood at the ready, securing an area that is often an exit point for asylum seekers fleeing through the Channel Tunnel to the UK 

Fifteen of the officers were hospitalized after the fight, according to French news outlet France Bleu.

While one encampment was peacefully cleared near Calais Regional Hospital earlier in the morning, 60 gendarmes and officers of the CRS -- France’s special mobile French police force -- found themselves attacked by a group of 100 migrants while they stood guard in the Turquerie Zone, a locale where migrants try to gain passage to the UK by jumping into trucks making the journey.

One bystander described the hour-long brawl as one of “incredible violence” and even “a scene of war” with many of the migrants hurling bags of stones and other heavy material at the officers. Police responded with fire from defense bullets and tear gas.

Some migrants were injured in the fighting, while a number of officers suffered wounds and one officer a broken leg, according to France Bleu.

The morning raid at the camp near the hospital included the seizure of 30 makeshift shelters, with police refusing to allow the migrants to gather their belongings. The moves are further attempts by the city and the government at controlling the migrant population.

Calais has been a hotspot for migrants from war- and conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and Africa to seek safe passage to the UK, with the situation growing increasingly unstable over the past three decades.

In mid-November, protesters marched in support of asylum seekers both in Calais and in the southeastern commune of Briancon, where migrants pass over the border from Italy into France seeking asylum or to venture further north.

The Pas-de-Calais prefecture issued a press release Thursday saying “these operations aim to put an end to the illegal occupations in Calais and have the objectives of avoiding the reconstitution of a large unhealthy encampment and of removing migrants from the mafia networks of smugglers.”

The statement said the prefecture also “strongly condemns this violence and gives its full support to the injured police and gendarmes.”/aa

Germany’s Defense Ministry on Thursday said they are investigating a video showing a soldier making threats against the government to revoke anti-coronavirus measures and mandatory vaccination for troops.

“The video contains threats against the constitutional state which is unacceptable,” the ministry said in a statement on Twitter, but did not give any further details about the ongoing investigation.

In a widely circulated video, a man who identifies himself as a junior officer and dressed in a military uniform, gives the government an ultimatum to revoke its anti-coronavirus measures, and threatens to take action with his comrades if their demands are not met.

Germany's military has faced a series of far-right incidents in recent years, and dozens of soldiers were suspended for their ties to right-wing and extremist groups.

The government introduced tougher restrictions this month and made vaccination compulsory for some jobs, including healthcare staff and military personnel.

German health officials have been warning that the number of omicron cases is doubling every two to three days, and that the new coronavirus strain is capable of causing a massive fifth wave of the pandemic at the beginning of January.

The Robert Koch Institute reported 42,770 new daily coronavirus infections and 383 fatalities on Thursday, but also noted that the numbers are incomplete due to the holiday reporting irregularities./aa