Tag Archives: Discrimination/Terror/Hate Crimes

Nationality + Migration, Religion + Belief

U.S. News | Somali Muslims

Muslims of Somali descent targeted in Kansas bomb plot
  • Three men were arrested on charges of domestic terrorism after a plot to bomb an apartment complex in Garden City, Kansas housing a large number of immigrant Somali Muslims.
  • The conspirators went by the name “The Crusaders” and had come under surveillance during an eight-month investigation by the FBI.
  • The failed plot comes amidst a wave of anti-Muslim attacks in the U.S., with 2015 and 2016 having had the highest number on record.

Read more:
“Attack on Somalis in Kansas thwarted, feds say” (CNN)
“3 Held in Bomb Plot Against Somalis in Kansas” (The New York Times)
“Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes Reach ‘Levels Not Surpassed’ Since 9/11: Analysis” (NBC News)

(Image Credit: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters, via NBC News)

Nationality + Migration

Kuwait News | Americans

Militant rams truck into car carrying Americans in Kuwait
  • An Egyptian national rammed a truck into a car carrying five Americans, with the Kuwaiti state news agency reporting the assailant had been carrying explosives.
  • While the Americans were unhurt, the attacker was transported to the hospital after sustaining injuries.
  • Authorities have claimed to have thwarted multiple attacks by the Islamic State in the country in the last few months after the deadliest militant attack in decades took place in a Shiite mosque in 2015.

Read more:
“Kuwait arrests suspected Islamist after truck attack on Americans” (Reuters)
“Kuwait arrests Egyptian with links to Islamic State after attack on US nationals” (Egypt Independent)
“Kuwait arrests Egyptian after failed suicide attack on 5 U.S. soldiers” (AP via Global News)

Gender

Peru News | Women

#NiUnaMenos demonstrations brings tens of thousands out in Peru
  • The campaign, which has ignited throughout Latin America, protests the high levels of gender-based violence women face, with a particular focus on women’s and girls’ vulnerability to femicide.
  • Peru’s women’s minister indicated that 10 women are killed per month in the country, with an additional 20 attempted murders.
  • A series of court rulings that gave reduced or lenient sentences to perpetrators of violence against women led to social media outcry, which has fueled the demonstrations that reportedly brought out more at least 50,000 in downtown Lima, including the President and First Lady.

Read more:
“#NiUnaMenos: 50,000 protest violence against women in Lima” (Peru Reports)
“Women in Peru protest against rising tide of murder and sexual crime” (The Guardian)
“#NiUnaMenos: así fue la marcha contra la violencia a la mujer” (El Comercio, in Spanish)

(Image Credit: Omer Musa Targal/Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Canada News | Indigenous

Killing of Indigenous man stokes racial tensions in Saskatchewan
  • Colten Boushie, a 22-year-old man belonging to the Red Pheasant First Nation, was shot and killed by a farmer while driving with four friends on private property near Glenside.
  • The shooter was arrested and charged with second-degree homicide, but First Nation leaders have accused the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) of releasing a prejudicial press release to bias public opinion against the victim.
  • A torrent of racist social media comments led the Saskatchewan premier to issue a warning that laws would be enforced to prosecute online hate speech.

Read more:
“Racial tensions flare in Saskatchewan after shooting of Indigenous man” (The Guardian)
“Racial tensions flare in Saskatchewan after killing of First Nations man” (The Canadian Press via The Globe and Mail)
“‘We are all in shock’: 22-year-old man fatally shot in farmyard, 54-year-old man charged with murder” (Saskatoon StarPhoenix)

(Image Credit: via The Guardian)

Nationality + Migration, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Turkey News | Gay Refugee

Gay Syrian refugee decapitated, body found in Istanbul
  • Muhammed Wisam Sankari’s violently mutilated body was found in the Yenikapi neighborhood of Istanbul on July 25, two days after he left his house in Aksaray.
  • Friends reported that Sankari had feared for his safety and that police and other officials had been slow to respond to concerns.
  • Sankari had also reportedly been raped in the months before his death and had been attempting to gain refugee status for resettlement outside of Turkey.

Read more:
“Syrian gay refugee killed in Istanbul” (Kaos GL)
“Missing gay Syrian refugee found beheaded in Istanbul” (The Guardian)
“Gay Syrian man beheaded and mutilated in Turkey” (BBC)

(Image Credit: via Kaos GL)

Religion + Belief

ClimateWatch | France

ClimateWatch
France, Post-Attacks

In the wake of the attack that left more than 80 dead during Bastille Day festivities in Nice, French Muslims have expressed fears of scapegoating for the violent crime and others that have erupted over the last two years in France. An attack that left a Catholic priest dead in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray further inflamed tensions in the country as the nation responded to its fifth terrorist attack in 2016. Fearing the ongoing state of emergency and retaliatory attacks against their communities, many French Muslims, who have been among the victims of these attacks, have made large public condemnations of the attackers and expressed solidarity with non-Muslim French neighbors and the counterterrorism efforts. Observers and commentators have offered analysis on what the recent attacks mean for Muslim relations in France and how the country can move forward as the country battles inequality at home and threats from abroad.

Nice Aftermath
Community Response
Political Response
France and Islam
Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

Iraq & Syria News | Yazidis

Thousands of Yazidis remain in captivity on anniversary of massacre
  • The U.N. reported that around 3,200 Yazidi women and girls are being held in sexual slavery and thousands of Yazidi men and boys are missing, many presumed dead.
  • August 3 marks the second anniversary of the Islamic State’s attack on Sinjar, Iraq, which left 10,000 Yazidis dead or enslaved in what observers have increasingly called a genocide.
  • Prior to the attack, Sinjar had been home to the largest Yazidi community in the world.

Read more:
“Thousands of Yazidis missing, captive, two years after start of ‘genocide’: U.N.” (Reuters)
“Yazidis Mark Second Anniversary of Islamic State Massacre” (Voice of America)
“Yazidi Activist Nadia Murad Speaks Out on the ‘Holocaust’ of Her People in Iraq” (TIME)

(Image Credit: Z. Yasar/Voice of America)

Gender

Argentina News | Women

Argentina announces new plans to combat violence against women
  • President Mauricio Macri announced the National Plan of Action for the Prevention, Assistance, and Eradication of Violence Against Women, a plan to combat the cultural roots of gender-based violence and support women through measures including the creation of a network of shelters.
  • The plan also includes the use of geolocation technology to ensure that aggressors are kept from physical proximity with their victims and a phone app that will allow threatened women to bypass dialing to access emergency safety services.
  • The measures come in the wake of a national campaign to combat violence against women that brought thousands to the streets in demonstration.

More:
“Plan to cut violence against women launched” (The Buenos Aires Herald)
“Cómo es el plan que presentó Mauricio Macri contra la violencia de género” (La Nacíon, in Spanish)
“Argentina announces new gender violence plan” (BBC)

(Image Credit: Getty Images via BBC)

Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

Afghanistan News | Hazaras

Bombing during protest in Kabul devastates Afghanistan’s Hazara community
  • A triple suicide attack left at least 80 dead and 231 wounded at a protest in the Afghan capital, with the Islamic State claiming responsibility for one of the deadliest attacks in the country since 2001.
  • The demonstration had been organized to protest an electricity route in the country and the perceived abandonment of the Hazara community by political leaders.
  • Afghanistan’s Shiite Hazaras have long been targeted in the country, including in recent decades by the Taliban and now the Islamic State.

Read more:
“Kabul Bombing Adds New Layers of Agony for Afghanistan’s Hazaras” (The New York Times)
“ISIS Claims Suicide Attack On Kabul Protest By Hazara Minority, Dozens Killed” (The Huffington Post)
“Kabul explosion: Islamic State ‘admits attack on Hazara protest’” (BBC)

(Image Credit: Adam Ferguson/The New York Times)

Health + Ability

Japan News | People with Disabilities

Mass stabbing attack at facility for the disabled in Japan leaves at least 19 dead, dozens wounded
  • The Tsukui Yamayuri-en care facility in Sagamihara, an hour west of Tokyo, came under attack in the early morning hours by a former employee.
  • The knife attack was reportedly the worst mass killing in the country in decades, with additional reports of as many as 45 wounded.
  • The attacker allegedly indicated an anti-disability motive upon turning himself in.

Read more:
“Man fatally stabs 15, wounds 45 in predawn attack at Kanagawa care facility, is arrested” (The Japan Times)
“Japan knife attack: 15 killed and dozens wounded in stabbing” (The Guardian)
“Knife Attack Kills at Least 15 in Tokyo Suburb” (The New York Times)

(Image Credit: via The Japan Times)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Brazil News | LGBT

Brazil sees sharp uptick in violence against its LGBT community
  • Nearly 1,600 LGBT people have been murdered in the last four-and-a-half years according to one advocacy group.
  • Despite Brazil’s reputation for tolerance, a growing evangelical population steadily amassing political power has led a conservative backlash to the country’s progressive legal integration and protection of sexual and gender minorities.
  • The homicide spike follows a general uptick in violence in Brazil, which has seen a 15% increase in homicides over the last year as the country has slid into recession.

Read more:
“Brazil Is Confronting an Epidemic of Anti-Gay Violence” (The New York Times)
“An LGBT Person Is Murdered Every 28 Hours In Brazil” (The Huffington Post)
“We Need to Talk About Anti-LGBT Violence in Brazil” (The Advocate)

(Image Credit: Lalo de Almeida/The New York Times)

Religion + Belief

Iraq News | Shiite Muslims

Islamic State attack on Shiite mausoleum leaves dozens dead
  • At least 35 people were killed and 60 wounded after a triple suicide attack near the Mausoleum of Sayid Mohammed bin Ali al-Hadi near Balad north of Baghdad.
  • Worshipers were marking Eid al-Fitr when a suicide bomber detonated himself at the shrine, allowing IS militants to storm in and shoot visitors and a second suicide bomber to detonate in the middle of the crowd.
  • The attack comes at the end of a global Ramadan that has been particularly bloody with attacks in Turkey, Bangladesh, and Iraq.

Read more:
“At least 35 killed in attack on Shi’ite mausoleum north of Baghdad” (Reuters)
“Iraq says Balad suicide blast is Isis attempt to stir up sectarian war” (The Guardian)
“Iraqi PM fires head of security after shrine attack” (AP via Al-Arabiya)

(Image Credit: Stringer/Reuters)

Nationality + Migration

Southeast Asia News | Indonesians

Three Indonesians kidnapped by Islamist extremists off coast of Malaysia
  • Three members of a fishing crew were kidnapped at gunpoint off the eastern coast of the Malaysian state of Sabah after their ship was reportedly boarded and the crews’ passports demanded.
  • Authorities have yet to determine who organized the kidnapping but suspect the radical Islamist group Abu Sayyaf and believe the abducted crew members may be held in the southern Philippines.
  • Abu Sayyaf executed two Canadians earlier this year and is still holding Japanese, Norwegian, and Dutch nationals.

Read more:
“Malaysia hunting for 3 Indonesians kidnapped by armed men off Sabah coast: Police” (The Straits Times)
“Armed gunmen kidnap three Indonesians in waters off Lahad Datu” (The Malay Mail)
“Gunmen kidnap three Indonesians off Malaysian state of Sabah” (Reuters)

Nationality + Migration

U.S. News | Emiratis

Emiratis warned against wearing national dress abroad after man falsely reported for IS allegiance in U.S.
  • An Emirati man in the U.S. for medical treatment was forcefully arrested in Avon, Ohio, after a receptionist at the hotel he was staying at called police to report that he was declaring allegiance to the Islamic State.
  • He was released once it was determined he had made no such declarations and received an apology from the mayor and police chief.
  • After the U.S. ambassador was summoned, the U.A.E. Foreign Ministry issued a statement advising Emirati citizens not to wear traditional formalwear for their safety while traveling abroad.

Read more:
“Emirati mistaken for Daesh: Avon police chief sorry” (Gulf News)
“‘They were brutal with me’ Emirati describes arrest in US after being mistaken for ISIL member” (The National)
“UAE tells citizens to avoid national dress while abroad after man held in U.S.” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: WEWS News Channel 5, via The National)

Religion + Belief

Iraq News | Shiite Muslims

IS bombing of predominantly Shia neighborhood in Baghdad leaves nearly 300 dead
  • A truck bombing ripped through the Karrada shopping district of central Baghdad, many of the victims children out with their families to celebrate the end of the school year .
  • The attack was claimed by the Islamic State, the fourth such global attack coordinated or inspired by the group within the last month (following Orlando, Istanbul, and Dhaka).
  • IS, a Sunni extremist group, claimed to have attacked Shiite Muslims, also taking credit for a second bombing in the predominantly Shia neighborhood of al-Shaab that left at least two dead.

Read more:
“Bombing Kills More Than 120 in Baghdad” (The New York Times)
“Nearly 120 killed in overnight Baghdad bombings claimed by Islamic State” (Reuters)
“Iraq: Baghdad bombings kill dozens” (Al Jazeera)

(Image Credit: Reuters, via Al Jazeera)