[This is a roundup of news articles and other materials circulating about Islam and reflects a wide variety of opinions and approaches. It does not reflect the views of the Critical Currents in Islam page or of Jadaliyya. You may send your own recommendations for inclusion in each week`s roundup to cci@jadaliyya.com by Saturday night of every week.]
Muslim-American Congresswomen Prompt Saudi Alarm
Voice of America
Saudi Arabia has labeled Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, Muslim Democratic Socialist congresswomen who have pledged to oppose US arms sales to any country that does not support equality and justice, part of a Muslim Brotherhood-led Islamist plot which threatens the kingdom’s strategic partnership with the US.
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How an old, far-right meme about Muslim ‘prayer rugs’ at the border became a Trump tweet
Washington Post
Despite the Department of State reports that there is “no credible evidence of terrorists entering the US at the southern border,” President Trump has used an unsubstantiated claim by a New Mexico rancher to assert a connection between terrorism, Islam, and border security.
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Philippines' Muslim region votes on new autonomy law
Al Jazeera
Nearly three million Filipinos from the country’s Muslim-majority southern region are set to decide on a new law which would place them under a substantially more autonomous regional government.
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Why Trump’s fearmongering about Muslims at the border misses the mark
The Washington Post
Responding to the President’s tweet about prayer rugs at the border, Randa Tawil wants to remind him that the Muslims who are in that region of the US have been there since the 19th century.
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4 charged in plot to attack Muslim community named Islamberg
AP News
Three men and a high school student were charged with plotting to attack the rural upstate New York Muslim community of Islamberg with explosives, authorities said Tuesday.
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Chinese Islamophobia was made in the West
Al Jazeera
China is using western counter-terror strategies targeting Muslims as justification for its Uighur concentration camps.
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Indian police arrest 61 Rohingya Muslims this week
AP News
Police in northeastern India have arrested 61 Rohingya Muslims this week for illegal entry, amid reports that more than 1,300 have recently crossed the border from India into Bangladesh.
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Najaf Shiites launch solidarity initiative with Sunni areas
Al-Monitor
Clerics and other religious figures from Najaf’s Hawza Illmiya, a prominent Shiite seminary, have launched the Dialogue for Social Cohesion in Iraq, a community cooperation initiative reaching out to western and northern Sunni governorates recently liberated from the Islamic State group.
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A warning from India for European liberals on how to manage relations with Muslim minorities
The Conversation
Oxford Professor Joerg Friedrichs points to India’s recent departure from a history of relative interfaith harmony as a warning to European liberals to balance the care for majorities and minorities rather than drawing lines of us and them.
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Meet Iran’s next, non-turbaned hardliner-in-chief
Al-Monitor
Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi, a graduate of Qom Seminary, is an increasingly popular public figure who uses his platform to attack the atmosphere at his alma mater as “not sufficiently revolutionary”.
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Voters Are Deciding Extent of Muslim Autonomy in the Philippines
Voice of America
More than 50 years of Muslim rebel violence, which has killed 121,000 and attracted the terrorist group Islamic State, came down to the ballot box this week. Voters in two cities and three other regions of the southern island Mindanao combined on Monday to ratify a law that creates the country’s strongest ever semi-autonomous Muslim region.
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Conflict erupts over properties surrounding Samarra shrine
Al-Monitor
Property owners around the Holy Shrine of Askarian Imams in Samarra, Iraq, are being pressured to sell their land below market value, according to Salahuddin Provincial Council Chairman Ahmad al-Krayem.
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‘More merciful than Yahweh’: Jack Miles on God in the Quran
Religion News Service
Religion News Service’s senior editor Yonat Shimron reviews Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and academic Jack Miles’ latest book God in the Qur’an.
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Muslim enclave that was foiled attack target urges justice
AP News
The leadership of The Muslims of America, who run Islamberg and other communities around the country, has demanded an end to what they sees as decades of misunderstanding and Islamophobia against the community.
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Preoccupied Western powers fall silent on human rights: rights group
Reuters
Global powers have become so diverted by populism and domestic discontent that they lack the capacity or inclination to defend human rights or even investigate suspected war crimes, global pressure group Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.
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Threatened with an end to Shariah divorce, Egypt’s imams work to save marriages
Religion News Service
In response to a rising divorce rate in Egypt, Muslim religious leaders in Egypt established a ‘reunification unit’ to bring couples together with counselors in hopes of reconciliation.
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As teachers get paid, learning returns to bombed-out Yemen school
Reuters
Its books have been looted and walls were blown out, but a school in war-torn southern Yemen is hopeful that the resumption of regular salary payments can keep teachers and children in classrooms.
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How Iran has moved to defrock ‘Instagram cleric’
Al-Monitor
Popular Iranian “Instagram cleric” Seyed Hasan Aghamirii, was defrocked by the Special Court of Clergy and sentenced to two years in prison for “insulting the sacred through ridicule; disturbing public opinion, resulting in insecurity in the beliefs of the people; and conducting acts and behavior contrary to that of a cleric.”
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Muslim groups condemn detention of Iranian broadcaster
Religion News Service
Civil and human rights organizations, including several Muslim civil rights groups, have protested the detention of Marzieh Hashemi, an American-born broadcaster for Iran’s state-run English-language Press TV; Ms Hashemi has been detained as a material witness in an unspecified case.
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With Fatwas and Blasphemy Claims, Cleric Emerges as a Force in Indonesia
Wall Street Journal
Vice Presidential candidate Ma’ruf Amin, a Muslim cleric who aided the prosecution of a prominent Christian for blasphemy, is on track to win the upcoming election with running mate Joko Widodo.
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Israel’s president hails interfaith dialogue
Al-Monitor
President Reuven Rivlin chaired a conference in France between rabbis and imams this week, and has become the one voice in Israeli’s government who is standing firm for religious coexistence.
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Minnesota mosque attack: 'White Rabbits' militiamen plead guilty
BBC
Two members of a militia group known as the White Rabbits have admitted bombing a mosque in Minnesota in 2017.
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'Landslide vote' for wider Muslim self-rule in Philippines' south
Al Jazeera
Voters have decisively approved an expanded Muslim-led region in the Philippines’ south, which is hoped will bring a measure of peace after decades of fighting has killed thousands and mired the area in poverty.
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Egypt launches international academy for preachers, imams
Al-Monitor
The Egyptian Ministry of Endowments has opened a new academy for training religious leaders in hopes of renewing and elevating discourse and eliminating extremism.
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Why Saudi Arabia hates Muslim women in the US Congress
Al Jazeera
It is no surprise to Professor Hamid Dabashi that the Saudi propaganda machine has come after US House Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
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Nike Asked To Recall Trainer That Appear to Have 'Allah' on Sole
Independent
No stranger to controversy, Nike’s new line of Air Max 270 shoes appears to have “Allah” written in Arabic on the sole as part of a stylized logo.
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Bahrain court upholds life sentences for opposition figures
AP News
“Bahrain’s highest court on Monday upheld life sentences for a prominent Shiite cleric who led the country’s now-outlawed opposition party and two of his colleagues after their earlier acquittal, continuing a crackdown on all dissent in the island nation.”
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Controversy implodes at Al-Azhar in the wake of PDA incident
Al-Monitor
Al-Azhar University’s Mansoura branch is under fire for their decision to discharge a female student for hugging a male classmate at the university after accepting his marriage proposal. The incident has sparked an outpouring of public support for her.
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France Has Millions of Muslims. Why Does It Import Imams?
The New York Times
Algerian novelist Kamel Daoud asks some important questions about the “funny” ways state secularism impacts France.
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Shia Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood: Could an alliance be on the cards?
Middle East Eye
The repression facing the Brotherhood in Egypt and several Gulf states, together with renewed sanctions against Iran and its allies, could herald an unprecedented political alliance
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Newcastle Islamic school leaders 'reach out' to vandals
BBC News
An Islamic academy in Newcastle, UK has called for dialogue with those who perpetrated acts of vandalism against it. Officials described their shock at what took place and gratitude for the overwhelming support of the community.
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AP Interview: Iraqi militia leader wants US troops to leave
AP News
Shiite militia leader Qais al-Khazali said Monday that he expects a vote in the coming months by Iraq’s parliament calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, underscoring the jostling for power between Iran and the U.S. in Iraq.
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They Created a Muslim Enclave in Upstate N.Y. Then Came the Online Conspiracies.
The New York Times
Holy Islamberg was intended to be a refuge, a serene environment to pray and bring up children. Residents have found that there is no such thing as a safe haven in the internet age.
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'Muslim ban': Two years on, Trump's order still destroying lives
Middle East Eye
Two years after President Donald Trump signed an executive order severely restricting travel from several Muslim-majority countries, the effects of the executive order that came to be known as the Muslim ban continue unabated.
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'My son was terrified': how to Prevent alienates UK Muslims
The Guardian
Britain’s “Prevent” anti-terrorism strategy is once again under scrutiny after a thirteen-year-old boy was questioned at school over affiliations with IS.
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Complicating hate speech matters
Immanent Frame
With a popular book which argues Islam is waging “civilizational war” against the West, Norwegian journalist Hege Storhaug is making a name for herself among those who fear global “Islamification.” Researcher Sindre Bangstad reminds us why “Western states and corporate elites’ support and funding of Islamophobia in our neoliberal times do ultimately matter more than hate speech and its legal regulation”.
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Two years after Québec mosque killings, Islamophobia continues to rise
The Conversation
Professor Jasmin Zine says the Québec City mosque massacre, the worst mass murder to take place in a house of worship in Canadian history, was a shock to Canada’s multicultural utopia.
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Why Sikhs don’t throw Muslims under the bus
Religion News Service
In response to misguided messages, columnist Simran Jeet Singh shares some thoughts on the anti-Muslim hate Sikhs endure and why he, along with many other Sikhs, continues to stand as allies to their Muslim sisters and brothers.
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Targeting the Muslim 'enemy within': The British government must come clean
Middle East Eye
If a programme needs to be based on deception, silence, and covert messaging towards the state’s own population, it is probably safe to say that it is part of the problem rather than the solution, writes Malia Bouattia in examining the UK government’s “Muslim problem” and flawed counter-terrorism efforts
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Quebec mosque attack: two years on, will security trump openness?
The Guardian
Two years after the Quebec city attack, the Guardian examines challenges that face Muslim communities and Islamic places of worship across North America.
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What are Muslim prayer rugs?
The Conversation
Professor Rose S. Aslan says her research indicates, “that Islamophobia often targets visible signs of Muslimness, such as modest clothing like headscarves, as well as prayer rituals and mosques. This time it is the prayer rug.”
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India's Rohingya shame
Al Jazeera
The Indian government has adopted attitudes similar to Myanmar’s towards the Rohingya, writes Ashley Starr Kinseth.
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Activists reject US resolution accusing Muslim congresswomen of anti-Semitism
Middle East Eye
Leading Palestinian- and Muslim-American rights campaigners have decried a proposed US House of Representatives resolution accusing Muslim congresswomen of anti-Semitism due to their criticism of Israeli policies, saying the measure amounts to anti-Muslim bigotry.
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Palestine, the Women's March, and imperial feminism
Al Jazeera
As Azeezah Kanji explains, much effort is made in the US to maintain that Palestine is not a feminist cause and erase the plight of its women.
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'It could have been us': Canadians rally on two-year anniversary of mosque massacre
Middle East Eye
Dozens of Canadians braved subzero temperatures and blistering snow to remember the six worshipers killed two years ago in the attack on an Islamic center.
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Angola’s Muslims long to be legally recognized
AA
Angola’s Muslim population is not officially recognized and faces challenges from tough government requirements, but local leaders say the tide may now be turning.
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Pakistan court upholds Aasia Bibi's blasphemy acquittal
Al Jazeera
Pakistan’s Supreme Court has upheld the acquittal of a Christian woman charged with blasphemy, standing by its earlier verdict that sparked days of protests, death threats, and nationwide chaos.
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A Black Muslim Hero: Othello Adaptation Explores Religious Roots of Shakespeare's Tragic Moor
Wisconsin Muslim journal
A new adaptation of Othello subtly reinterprets the tragic hero’s religious identity, presenting to audiences the possibility that the Moor of Venice was a closeted, practicing Muslim.
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America's First Muslims Were Slaves
Voice of America
Voice of America explores how Omar ibn Said and others brought to America as slaves were the first Muslims to leave their mark on our history and society.
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US militia members plead guilty to pipe bomb attack on mosque
Al Jazeera
“Hoping to scare Muslims into leaving the United States, members of an Illinoisan militia group rented a truck and drove more than 805km to bomb a Minnesota mosque, two men admitted on Thursday.”
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Why Israel is pushing for a reset in relations with the Muslim world
Middle East Online
Israel’s robust diplomatic efforts toward the rest of the Arab world may be designed to further isolate Palestine, writes Rashmee Roshan Lall.
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Sudan's protests: The revolt of the periphery
Al Jazeera
Journalist Reem Abbas suggests that t is the countryside, not Khartoum, that is now leading the political struggle for Sudan’s future.
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Democrat or Islamist firebrand — who is Tunisia's Rachid Ghannouchi?
Al-Monitor
“I bet on women,” says Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda (Renaissance) Party in this exclusive interview with Al Monitor. “My wife decides everything.”
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Quebec doesn't have a problem with Islamophobia, Premier Legault says
CBC
Quebec’s Premier says there’s no need for a day devoted to action against Islamophobia – because Islamophobia isn’t a problem in the province. Muslim leaders disagree.
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World Hijab Day promotes visibility, not meaningful progress
The New Arab
Let’s look forward to the day when World Hijab Day no longer exists, writes Ruqaya Izzidien.
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Iran’s seminaries debate financial independence amid budget cuts
Al-Monitor
The administration of Hassan Rouhani has cut funding for seminaries, and the Islamic Republic is facing questions about the future of their theological institutions.
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Maydan editors selected some of the most thought-provoking news items on issues around Islam, religion and public-life for you. Let us know what you have been reading. Drop us a line