Monthly Archives: October 2015

Religion + Belief

UK News | Muslims

British government’s new counter-extremism strategy draws criticism from Muslim civic leaders
  • PM David Cameron and Home Secretary Teresa May released the UK’s new counter-extremism strategy, with measures including studying discrepancies between Sharia and British law, new broadcast regulations, increased movement restrictions on suspected extremists, and pressuring internet service providers to remove extremist material.
  • The strategy also involves a wide-scale review of the public, non-profit, and for-profit sectors to suss out “infiltrators” who attempt to gain access to platforms to disseminate extremist ideologies.
  • While officials allege the new measures target all forms of extremism, Muslim civil groups including the Muslim Council of Britain criticized them as poorly formulated and discriminatory, arguing they alienate the Muslim community and tip over into “McCarthyist” territory.

Read more:
“Counter-extremism: May targets ‘all those who spread hate’” (BBC)
“Government launches hunt for extremists across public sector” (The Guardian)
“Muslims condemn Britain’s plans to combat extremism” (Reuters)
“‘One Nation Counter-Extremism Strategy’ Risks Further Undermining Fight Against Terrorism” (Muslim Council of Britain)

(Image Credit: Luke MacGregor/Reuters)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Bosnia and Herzegovina & Serbia News | Bosnian Muslims & Serbs

New Bosnian War indictments continue search for justice decades after historic ethnic conflict in the Balkans
  • After having been arrested on warrant from Serbia, Bosnian Muslim former commander Naser Oric pleaded not guilty to the murder of three Serb prisoners in 1992.
  • Meanwhile, Djordje Ristanic, a Bosnian Serb official from the war, was indicted for war crimes including the murder, torture, and robbery of hundreds of Bosnian Muslims and Croats.
  • Ongoing legal efforts at both the international and national level to prosecute war crimes from the Bosnian War–including genocide, ethnic cleansing, and persecution–have led to recent arrest and convictions of both Bosnian Serbs and Muslims (Bosniaks).

Read more:
“Bosnian Muslim ex-commander denies killings of Serbs near Srebrenica” (Reuters)
“Serb charged over wartime crimes against hundreds in Bosnian town” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Zoran Lesic/Reuters/Pool)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Canada News | Indigenous

First Nations leaders take on Big Oil over massive proposed pipeline in Canada
  • First Nations leaders have joined environmental activists in opposing the proposed Northern Gateway, a 731-mile tar sands pipeline stretching from central Alberta to the British Columbian coast.
  • The pipeline has become a political battleground as PM Stephen Harper has vowed to make Canada an “energy superpower,” while Alberta’s premier has been enlisted by pipeline company Enbridge to negotiate with First Nations leaders.
  • Eight First Nations have taken the issue to court in what became the longest case heard before Canada’s federal court of appeals, claiming a faulty approval process, negligent environmental impact studies, and encroachment on First Nations’ rights.

Read more:
“Indigenous Canadians take leading role in battle against tar sands pipeline” (The Guardian)
“First Nations’ challenges of Northern Gateway pipeline to be heard in court” (The Globe and Mail)
“Northern Gateway pipeline battle could set tone for future government, aboriginal relations” (The Canadian Press via The Vancouver Sun)

(Image Credit: Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press, via The Vancouver Sun)

Ideology + Affiliation, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Israel News | Eritrean Refugee

Eritrean refugee mistaken for Palestinian, killed by Israeli mob
  • Haftom Zarhum, 29, died of injuries from being shot and beaten by a mob who mistook him for a Palestinian attacker at a bus terminal in the city of southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
  • Video footage shows individuals attacking Zarhum, the latest victim in a tide of violence that has seen 44 Palestinians and eight Israelis killed to date.
  • The actual Palestinian assailant had been killed after stabbing an Israeli soldier, stealing his rifle, and opening fire in the bus terminal, injuring 10.

Read more:
“Eritrean mistaken for Palestinian shot dead in Israel” (Al Jazeera)
“Hunt for Israelis who killed Eritrean man falsely implicated in bus attack” (The Guardian)
“Netanyahu calls on Israelis not to pursue vigilante justice” (The Times of Israel)

(Image Credit: Dudu Grinshpan/AFP/Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Sweden News | Black Swedes

UN report finds increasing “Afrophobia” and discrimination against African-Swedes
  • A new UN report countered Sweden’s diversity-friendly image with data on discrimination faced by African-Swedes, who make up 2% of Sweden’s 9.6 million people.
  • In addition to discrimination in housing and employment, a national crime study found that hate crimes against people of African descent increased by more than 40% between 2008 and 2014, with a fifth of last year’s incidents involving violence.
  • Sweden has come under fire for several measures anti-racism advocates argue undermine their work, including removing the word “race” from the country’s Discrimination Act and the country’s failure to own up to its role in the transatlantic slave trade.

Read more:
“Sweden’s liberal reputation tarnished as race attacks rise” (The Guardian)
“Sweden’s liberal image is a mirage that hides a very ugly problem” (Quartz)
“Afrophobic hate crimes on the rise in Sweden” (The Local)

(Image Credit: Anders Wiklund/AFP/Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Ideology + Affiliation

Montenegro News | Dissidents

Violent clash between police and demonstrators at opposition rally in Montenegrin capital leads to calls for investigation
  • Fifteen demonstrators were detained during a demonstration in Podgorica organized by the Democratic Front, Montenegro’s main opposition bloc.
  • After protesters reportedly tried to break through police barriers and began hurling bottles, police began using tear gas and beating demonstrators.
  • Several hundred had rallied after police dismantled the tents set up by the Democratic Front three weeks ago following large protests calling for the resignation of PM Milo Djukanovic’s government.

Read more:
“Montenegro to investigate police use of force at anti-government protests” (Reuters)
“Montenegro Police Break up Anti-Government Protest” (AP via ABC News)
“Thousands Protest Against Government In Montenegro” (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

(Image Credit: Stevo Vasiljevic/Reuters)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Israel News | Arabs

Several Israeli cities effectively bar Arab laborers from their jobs in schools as violence in the country grows
  • Several municipalities including Tel Aviv, Rehovot, Hod Hasharon, and Modiin-Maccabim-Reut prohibited school staff including maintenance workers, cleaners, and construction workers (most of whom are Arab) from going to work during school hours.
  • To date, 41 Palestinians and seven Israelis have been killed in recent weeks as cycles of revenge killings, protests, and state-driven violence continue.
  • While Arab-Israeli politicians and NGOs denounced the restrictions as illegal and racist, the Interior Ministry called for respect and equality without reversing the restrictions.

Read more:
“Four Israeli cities, citing security, ban Arab workers from schools” (Reuters)
“Israeli Towns Move to Ban Arab Workers From Schools” (Haaretz)

(Image Credit: Moti Milrod/Haaretz)

Gender, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Argentina News | Transgender Women

Argentinian president calls for investigation after murder of trans activist
  • Trans rights activist Diana Sacayán was found dead in her apartment, the victim of a fatal stabbing that police believe may have been perpetrated by an acquaintance of Sacayán.
  • Sacayán had led both the International Association of Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals (ILGA) and the Anti-Discrimination Liberation Movement (MAL) in Argentina, and had been personally issued her new national identity card with her correct gender identity by President Cristina Kirchner.
  • With Sacayán’s death the third for transwomen in a month, President Kirchner called for local police and national security forces to investigate as a part of a broader push to tackle the high rates of gender-based violence in the country.

Read more:
“Matan en Flores a una dirigente trans de una puñalada” (La Nación, in Spanish)
“Hallan muerta a la activista trans Diana Sacayán en Argentina” (teleSUR, in Spanish)
“Argentine President Demands Inquiry into Trans Activist’s Death” (teleSUR English)

(Image Credit: La Izquierda Diario, via teleSUR)

Religion + Belief

Indonesia News | Christians

Conservative Islamic youth group attacks Christian churches in Indonesia’s Aceh province, leading to injuries, one death, and locals’ flight
  • The group, known as the Aceh Singkil Islamic Care Youth Students Association (PPI), set fire to two churches in a Christian village in the Aceh Singkil regency for reportedly being unlicensed houses of worship.
  • One in the attacking group was reportedly killed after a third Christian congregation defended their church, and there were conflicting reports of masses of locals fleeing for neighboring regencies.
  • The Aceh province is Indonesia’s most conservative, having implemented Sharia law and allowed for a decades-old agreement in Aceh Singkil limiting Christians to one church and four houses of worship in the regency.

Read more:
“Thousands leave Aceh after church burning” (The Jakarta Post)
“Churches attacked and one man killed in clashes in Aceh, Indonesia” (BBC)
“Indonesia deploys troops to calm religious unrest in Aceh province” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Hotli Simanjuntak/The Jakarta Post)

Health + Ability, Ideology + Affiliation

Armenia Feature | Mental Illness & Misattributed Identity

Armenia’s Mental Health Problem

Taking the hard tack of institutionalization to handle its citizens with mental illnesses, Armenia has found itself subject to numerous human rights inquiries and accusations from some of the institutionalized claiming false imprisonment. Institutionalization has been wielded in disputes, taking advantage of faults in the legal process that deny those accused of being dangers to themselves or others the right to defend themselves. A condemnation of treatment practices promoting the weaponization of mental health diagnoses, the Guardian‘s report on the defects in Armenia’s mental healthcare system highlights the danger that comes with marginalizing people with mental illnesses.

Read more:
“‘They locked me up and left me’: Armenia’s outdated mental health laws” (The Guardian)

Additional coverage:
“Armenia: Report Details Psychiatric Hospital Abuses” (EurasiaNet)

(Image Credit: Emma Grigoryan/The Guardian)

Nationality + Migration

Interregional News | Jamaican

US-based Jamaican writer wins Britain’s top literary prize
  • Novelist Marlon James has become the first Jamaican writer to win Britain’s prestigious Man Booker Prize.
  • He captured the award with his work A Brief History of Seven Killings, an epic crime novel weaving together multiple stories around the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in 1976.
  • James’s first novel, John Crow’s Devil, was published in 2005; he currently lives in Minneapolis and teaches at Macalester College.

Read more:
“Marlon James, Jamaican Novelist, Wins Man Booker Prize” (The New York Times)
“Marlon James wins the Man Booker prize 2015” (The Guardian)
Amazon: A Brief History of Seven Killings

(Image Credit: Bryan Derballa/The New York Times)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

France News | Intersex

French court rules in favor of establishing third gender option for intersex individual
  • A French court has for the first time allowed for the establishment of a third gender option for an individual’s legal status, ruling in favor of a 64-year-old intersex individual to change their status from male to “neutral gender.”
  • The judge ruled that the gender assigned to the individual at birth was “pure fiction” and that the creation of a third option was not the recognition of a third gender, but of the impossibility of ascribing binary gender to individuals who present with both male and female sexual characteristics.
  • A 2011 legal memorandum outlined administrative guidelines for intersex newborns, allowing for a one- to two-year deferral of gender assignment on a newborn’s birth certificate if the child presents as intersex, while Europe’s main human rights authority recently spoke out against surgical gender assignment for intersex newborns.

Read more:
“Une personne de «sexe neutre» reconnue par l’état civil” (20 minutes, in French)
“Le sexe « neutre » reconnu pour la première fois en France” (Le Monde, in French)
“French court recognises third gender for first time” (France24)

(Image Credit: Luca Sartoni, via Le Monde)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Slovakia & Czech Republic News | Roma

Slovakia and the Czech Republic criticized for poor efforts at integrating Roma citizens
  • The Council of Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner highlighted educational segregation and high drop-out rates in Slovakia as evidence of the failure of Slovakia’s anti-discrimination measures.
  • Many Slovak Romas live in squalid conditions in illegal settlements, with only 17% entering secondary education according to a 2010 UN survey.
  • A report by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance also pointed to ethnic segregation in Czech schools as inhibiting integration and lowering opportunity for Czech Romas.

“Although Slovakia’s anti-discrimination framework is comprehensive, it provides a differing degree of protection for various vulnerable social groups and must be reformed to close all protection gaps.”

Read more:
“European human rights watchdog slams Roma segregation in Slovakia, Czech Republic” (Reuters)

Nationality + Migration

Libya News | Tunisians

More than 50 Tunisians return home from Libya following abduction
  • Security sources reported 55 Tunisians were released and returned home following coordination with Libyan officials.
  • The Tunisians had been abducted from northwest Libya in retaliation for the arrest of a Libyan official on a UN-coordinated visit in Tunisia.
  • Tunisians in Libya have been vulnerable in the country’s instability, with 10 having been abducted from the Tunisian consulate before being released.

Read more:
“Dozens of Tunisians freed in Libya a day after being kidnapped” (Reuters)
“Dozens of Tunisian workers held by gunmen in Libya, families say” (Gulf News)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

UK Feature | LGBT British Asian

At the Intersection: Queer & British Asian

The UK has made major strides in LGBT political rights in recent years, but the social acceptance of gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals has struggled to keep up. DESIblitz takes to the streets to survey British Asian perspectives on their community’s evolution regarding LGBT rights. Tackling religion, education, and the factors at work in the cultural politics of immigration and integration, interviewees present the complexity of acceptance and homophobia in British Asian families.

Read more:
“Is being Gay acceptable in British Asian society?” (DESIblitz)

(Image Credit: via DESIblitz)