Headlines 08/07/2016

Headlines

• New Wave of Attacks on Muslims in America

• Muslims Report Discrimination in Prisons as Fear of Extremism Grows

• UK Conservative Leadership Election Polls and Odds: Gove Out of the Race

• Pakistan Builds Checkpoints, Plans Fence on Afghan Border

Details

New Wave of Attacks on Muslims in America

As ISIS steps up its attacks abroad, Muslims are increasingly being targeted here in the U.S. The United Arab Emirates has even warned its citizens traveling in the U.S. to avoid wearing traditional clothing. In Avon, Ohio, body camera video shows police moving in on 41-year-old Ahmed al-Menhali at a hotel. A staffer claimed al-Menhali was on his cell phone acting suspiciously, so she texted her sister to dial 911. "Hi, my sister works at a Fairfield Inn. She is a desk worker," the staffer's sister told the 911 operator. "She said there is a male in a full head dress with multiple disposable phones pledging his allegiance or something to ISIS." Police searched and questioned al-Menhali, but found he had done nothing wrong. As he was released, he collapsed. The city's mayor and police chief issued a public apology. "It is a very regrettable circumstance that occurred for you," the police chief said. "You should not have been put in that situation like you were." The American ambassador to the United Arab Emirates also expressed regret over the situation: al-Menhali, an Emirati national, was wearing a traditional white kandura, or ankle-length robe, and headscarf at the time of the incident, according to the Associated Press. It's the latest in a string of perceived anti-Muslim incidents over the past week in the U.S. In Florida, 25-year-old Taylor Anthony Mazzanti was arrested for allegedly punching a man in the face and the head outside the mosque attended by Orlando shooter Omar Mateen. In Minneapolis, two Muslim men were shot on their way to a mosque.

That suspect is still on the loose. In Brooklyn, New York, surveillance video shows two Muslim teenagers assaulted outside a mosque over the weekend. But the New York Police Department says the incident may have been a fight over a female.Back in Cleveland, Julia Shearson is with the local council on American-Islamic Relations. "We've documented a dramatic, unprecedented increase in the number of attacks - both against property and against the Muslim community," Shearson said. In a statement, Marriott Hotels said it deeply regrets the incident and will be "following up to discuss diversity and inclusion training" for personnel at The Fairfield Inn where the incident happened. [Source: CBS News]

Thanks to the likes of Trump and other politicians, bigotry towards Islam is sweeping America. America’s promotion of secularism and pluralism abroad appears increasingly hollow, especially as the US faces unprecedented problems related to Islamophobia and race relations at home. This duplicity will surely undermine America’s standing abroad and blight the mantle of western civilization in the eyes of people around the world.

UK: Muslims Report Discrimination in Prisons as Fear of Extremism Grows

Over the past year, a spate of headlines has warned of the threat of Islamist extremism infecting the prison system, with claims by senior politicians that high security jails have become terrorist training camps. However, new research has found no evidence to support this, and warns that a preoccupation with radicalisation is warping perceptions of prisoners’ behaviour and relationships.

Similarly, ex-offenders contend that institutional Islamophobia results in prison officers perceiving Muslim prisoners who adhere to their faith as inherently suspicious. The number of Muslims in prison in England and Wales has more than doubled in the past 12 years to just over 12,000 in December 2015 (about 14% of the prison population). But this is not attributable to either the growth of the UK Muslim population (4.8% are Muslim according to the 2011 census), nor terrorism offences.

Bill McHugh, justice director of not-for-profit criminal justice consultancy, PublicCo, suggests the rise is down to magistrates’ ignorance of and prejudice towards Islam. “I used to see families in court who felt it was the offender not the offence that was being judged,” he says. “They’re associated with terrorism when they’re up for shoplifting.” Only 130 Muslim prisoners – just over 1% of the total – are convicted Islamist terrorists. Last year the justice secretary Michael Gove commissioned a review on how to tackle extremism in prisons, amid concerns that 1,000 Muslim inmates were at risk of radicalisation. Ryan Williams, a religious studies academic at Cambridge University’s prison research centre, who has examined the role of Islam in three UK maximum security prisons, says concerns about radicalisation often reflect a failure to understand prison culture and its impact on inmates’ behaviour. In a draft paperpresented at the Canadian Sociological Association annual conference, last month, he wrote that there is a muddling of “issues around extremism, religious identity, and the specific conditions that bring about certain interpretations and enactments of Islam. Within prisons, everyday Muslim practices of praying, reading the Qur’an, or even reading commentary from Muslim scholars about God’s creation and evolutionary theory can raise concerns over extremism.” The findings reflect research by Maslaha, a social enterprise that works to improve conditions in Muslim communities, in the UK and internationallyand the Transition to Adulthood Alliance, which looked at the experiences of young Muslim men incarcerated in lower category prisons and young offender institutions in England. A group of Muslim ex-offenders from Leicester in their early 20s interviewed for the report, Young Muslims on Trial, published in March, say their friendships and the everyday practice of their faith were misinterpreted negatively. Tell Mama, an organisation that monitors anti-Muslim attacks, which usually deals with 40-45 reports a month, says it received 33 within 72 hours of the Brexit result. And police logged a fivefold rise in race-hate complaints including Islamophobic incidents in the following week. Amad believes the inflammatory rhetoric around Islamist extremism in prison and wider society has overshadowed the positive impact Islam can have on offenders’ rehabilitation. “I remember seeing people in custody [who] on the outside would be the most gangster person ever and they’d come to custody and they’ve grown a big beard on their face. They’ve got a prayer hat on all the time.

They’ve become like a model citizen because they’ve found religion. ”Ministers and commentators who believe prisons pose an Islamist terror threat sometimes cite a landmark 2011 study of Whitemoor high security prison, where more than 50% of prisoners are now Muslim. It identified tensions relating to extremism and radicalisation, and found conversions to Islam were high. But comparatively little attention has been paid to the other findings, such as Muslim prisoners reporting feeling alienated and targeted, and faith offering them meaning, hope and dignity. The researchers, led by Alison Liebling, professor of criminology and criminal justice and director of at the University of Cambridge’s prisons research centre, found that religion appealed to many prisoners serving long and often indeterminate sentences where restrictions had been placed on meaningful activities.

Responding to the latest research, a Ministry of Justice spokesman says: “Islamist extremism is one of the biggest threats facing this country. The MoJ and National Offender Management Service are already taking forward urgent work in this area.” He adds that a summary of the findings of the Gove-commissioned report will be published “in due course”. [Source: The Guardian]

UK’s Islamic extremism is a media fueled frenzy intended to tarnish the entire Muslim community in Britain. The real threat to the UK’s cohesiveness is secular fundamentalism, which is at war with all of religions not just Islam.

UK Conservative Leadership Election Polls and Odds: Gove Out of the Race

Justice Secretary Michael Gove has been knocked out of the running to be Conservative leader, leaving Home Secretary Theresa May and energy minister Andrea Leadsom as the final two contenders. Gove was backed by 46 MPs but it was nowhere near enough to beat Leadsom, who had the support of 84 colleagues. May was way in front, with 199 votes, more than both of her rivals combined. The final choice will be made by party members. Gove's loss came after a poll showed that the party risked losing support with him at the helm. Forty-one per cent of 1,000 Tory voters questioned by Survation said they would be less likely to vote for the party with the Justice Secretary in charge, with only nine per cent saying they would be more likely to do so. The result illustrates why supporters of May - who is also the bookies' favourite, with odds of 1/5 - wanted Gove to be her challenger rather than Leadsom, says the Daily Telegraph. Leadsom's odds slipped after the first round of voting put her a distant second to May, says Business Insider. This morning, punters were being offered odds of 4/1 against her winning. Gove was a longshot at 14/1. "Although front-runners have historically struggled to win this contest, the early signs are that political punters expect Theresa May to prove an exception to the rule," a spokesman for bookmaker William Hill told the site. But the support of MPs will not be enough for May, who can only win if the rank and file back her as leader. Earlier this week, Tory grandee Ken Clarke, in a seemingly unguarded moment, let slip that he thought she was a "bloody difficult woman".

Commentators were quick to point out the epithet would do her no harm with voters, who elected a "bloody difficult woman" – Margaret Thatcher - three times in the 1970s and 1980s.

Early indications are that the British establishment is rallying around May who never supported the Leave campaign. This implies that a U-turn on Britain exiting the EU is being seriously contemplated.

Pakistan Builds Checkpoints, Plans Fence on Afghan Border

Pakistan plans to fence its long, porous border with Afghanistan after construction of checkpoints at all established crossings is completed, a top government adviser said Tuesday. Tariq Fatemi, a close aide to the prime minister on foreign policy, said in Islamabad that “border management mechanisms” were being implemented not to close the frontier but to facilitate "an orderly and documented" cross-border movement, and to ensure safety and security of the two countries. “For this purpose, we are establishing proper, well-organized and professionally manned check posts," Fatemi said. "We also intend eventually to have the Pakistan-Afghanistan border fenced.

We believe that good fences make good neighbors. It is the absence of a well-defined border that is at the root of many of our problems.” Pakistan has been constructing checkpoints at several locations on the 2,600-kilometer border, known as the Durand Line. Activity at the main Torkham crossing this month triggered deadly clashes between border forces of the two countries. The fighting left several soldiers dead and dozens more wounded on both sides. The latest and previous border tensions have all stemmed from Afghanistan’s historic opposition to the 1893 demarcation by former British rulers of the Indian subcontinent. Pakistan, however, maintains it inherited the frontier after gaining independence from Britain in 1947 and believes the Durand Line is an international border. [Source: Voice of America]

Building check posts to shore up the porous border and prevent terrorist attacks on Pakistani mainland is bound to fail. The problem is America’s permanent presence in Afghanistan and not the porous border. Unless the Pakistani leadership recognizes this, terror attacks will continue. The only real solution is to unify Pakistan and Afghanistan under a single political system— Khilafah "Caliphate" Rashidah upon the method of the Prophethood-- only then will both countries be free of western interference and enjoy peace.