Tag Archives: intellectuals

Ideology + Affiliation

Afghanistan News | Religious Scholars

Religious scholars in Afghanistan one of Taliban’s most frequent targets
  • Over the last 16 years of war in the country, hundreds and perhaps thousands of ulema have been killed, although official numbers are difficult to track.
  • Taliban members surveil sermons to monitor adherence to Taliban interpretations of sharia, both courting and threatening scholars to buttress their power across the nation’s provinces.
  • Religious leaders note that the targeting of scholars is driven by anxiety over scholars’ influence on communities, a desire for ideological control, and the suppression of criticism.
Read

“Taliban Target: Scholars of Islam” (The New York Times | May 2017)

“Religious scholar shot dead in eastern Afghanistan” (Andalou Agency | May 2017)

(Image Credit: Jim Huylebroek/The New York Times)

Ideology + Affiliation

Turkey News | Advocates & Critics

Turkey halts activities of 370 NGOs as “purge” continues
  • Following the failed coup attempt of July 2016, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has banned the activities of hundreds of organizations, including human rights and children’s organizations, arrested opposition lawmakers, and shuttered more than 100 media organizations on charges of collusion with terrorists.
  • Of the suspended, 153 were allegedly connected to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen (whom Erdogan has accused of masterminding the coup), 190 with Kurdish militant group Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), 19 to far-left militant group DHKP-C, and 8 to the Islamic State.
  • More than 100,000 in the military, police, political administration, journalism, and academia have lost their jobs and tens of thousands have been arrested, prompting condemnation from human rights monitors and warnings from foreign governments.

Read more:
“Turkey halts activities of 370 groups as purge widens” (Reuters)
“Erdogan Renews Putsch Purge With Targets in Media, Academia” (Bloomberg)
“Erdogan’s ‘One-Man Regime’ Sacks 10,000, Closes Kurdish Media” (teleSUR English)

Ideology + Affiliation, Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

Global News | Uyghur Muslims

Uyghur activist wins prestigious human rights award
  • Chinese scholar Ilham Tohti, famed as a moderate bridge between Uyghur and Han Chinese cultures, was awarded the Martin Ennals Award, a human rights prize awarded by a jury including representatives from organizations such as Amnesty International.
  • Tohti is a prominent advocate for Uyghur rights and visibility, including drawing attention to the oppression of Uyghurs by the Chinese government in Xinjiang.
  • The Chinese government sentenced Tohti to life in prison in 2014, accusing him of ties to terrorism and promoting dissidence in the country.

Read more:
Ilham Tohti 2016 Martin Ennals Award Laureate for Human Rights Defenders (Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders)
“Ilham Tohti, Uighur imprisoned for life by China, wins major human rights prize” (The Guardian)
“Chinese Uighur wins prestigious rights award” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Andy Wong/AP, via The Guardian)

Gender, Ideology + Affiliation, Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity

ClimateWatch | Turkey

ClimateWatch
Turkey’s “Purge”

The recent attempted coup by a faction within Turkey’s military has left the country in the throes of uncertainty, further increasing citizens’ and human rights watchdogs’ already pronounced concerns about the future of civil liberties in Turkey. Ground zero for the attempted overthrow of the government were Ankara and Istanbul, home to journalists overrun on the air by military forces and ordinary citizens called into the streets by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan via FaceTime.

Daylight illuminated the deaths of nearly 300, the wounds of the 1,400 injured, and the beginning of a so-called “purge” that has further endangered groups already vulnerable under Erdogan’s regime: political critics, journalists, and intellectuals. Women, too, found themselves targeted amidst the instability, and Turkish Kurds worry that the aftermath will further heighten anti-Kurd sentiment.

But the coup attempt and retaliation are only the latest in Turkey’s security woes. Terrorist attacks in Istanbul and Ankara, conflict with Kurdish militants and pro-Kurd advocates, ongoing intimidation and blackouts of journalists and political dissidents, and a regional refugee crisis have upended the tenuous stability in the country secured through a 2013 ceasefire with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). While the restoration of Erdogan’s government was seen as a victory for democracy, Turks and observers alike fear what measures Erdogan, already intolerant of dissent, will take in its wake.

Here is a look at coverage of the destabilizing security situation for at-risk communities in Turkey: Continue reading ClimateWatch | Turkey →

Ideology + Affiliation

Turkey News | Press Advocates

Three press rights advocates arrested in Turkey
  • Erol Onderoglu (Reporters Without Borders), Sebnem Korur Fincanci (Human Rights Foundation of Turkey), and Ahmet Nesin (author) were charged with spreading terrorist propaganda.
  • Now held in pre-trial detention, the three guest-edited an edition of Ozgur Kundem, a pro-Kurdish rights newspaper subjected to multiple investigations and lawsuits as part of the government’s crackdown on Kurdish separatist groups and their supporters.
  • President Tayyip Erdogan has come under international fire for his campaign against critical journalism in Turkey, which has seen journalists imprisoned, television stations taken off the air, and publications seized and shuttered.

Read more:
“Turkey arrests raise further concerns over press freedom” (AP via The Guardian)
“Reporters Without Borders representative, two others jailed in Turkey” (Committee to Protect Journalists)
“Turkey arrests three prominent press-freedom campaigners” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Religion + Belief

Bangladesh News | Hindus

Hindu teacher attacked as Bangladesh cracks down on Islamist militants
  • Ribon Chakraborty, a college math teacher, survived a machete attack by three assailants in his home in Madaripur.
  • The government reported that the three attackers were a part of the banned group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
  • More than 11,000 have been arrested across the country in the last week, including political dissidents, as security forces have begun taking extensive action to combat the targeted killings of minorities that have left more than 30 dead since 2015.

Read more:
“Hizb ut-Tahrir men hacked Madaripur teacher” (Dhaka Tribune)
“Bangladesh Hindu teacher’s attacker killed in shootout” (Reuters)
“194 Held in Bangladesh Mass Arrests May Have Militant Ties, Police Say” (The New York Times)

Nationality + Migration

Iran News | Dual Citizens

Canadian-Iranian arrested in Iran as detentions of dual citizens continue
  • Homa Hoodfar, an anthropology professor at Concordia University in Montreal, was arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Tehran.
  • Her family indicated that she had been detained and transferred to Iran’s notorious Evin prison on unspecified charges following extended interrogation.
  • Iran, which doesn’t recognize dual citizenship, has imprisoned a growing number of dual nationals traveling from abroad in recent years under allegations of espionage and foreign collaboration.

Read more:
“Canadian-Iranian professor arrested in Tehran by Revolutionary Guards” (The Guardian)
“Arrest of Homa Hoodfar in Iran Shines Light on Dangers for Dual Citizens” (The New York Times)
“Concordia University prof jailed in Iran’s Evin prison, family says” (CBC News)

(Image Credit: Amanda Ghahremani/Associated Press, via The New York Times)

Ideology + Affiliation, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Bangladesh News | LGBT

LGBT magazine editor murdered in Dhaka home as killings continue in Bangladesh
  • Xulhaz Mannan and a visiting friend were hacked to death by a group of youth posing as couriers to gain access to Mannan’s home.
  • Mannan was the editor of Roopbaan, Bangladesh’s only LGBT magazine, and a USAid worker.
  • The murders are the latest in ongoing attacks against minority intellectuals and follow the detention of LGBT activists attempting to march in Bengali New Year festivities.

Read more:
“Editor of Bangladesh’s first and only LGBT magazine killed” (The Guardian)
“LGBT magazine Roopbaan editor hacked to death” (The Dhaka Tribune)
“LGBT activist among two hacked to death in Dhaka” (The Hindu)

(Image Credit: via The Guardian)

Ideology + Affiliation

Bangladesh News | Intellectuals

Professor murdered in northwest Bangladesh as attacks on intellectuals continue
  • Rezaul Karim Siddiquee, an English professor at Rajshahi University, was found nearly decapitated near his home after neighbors heard screams and alerted his family.
  • Siddiquee is the latest in a series of attacks by fundamentalist militants against academics and writers with progressive leanings.
  • Three other professors at the university have been murdered by fundamentalists since 2004.

Read more:
“RU Professor Rezaul Karim hacked to death” (Dhaka Tribune)
“Bangladesh Police Suspect Islamist Militants in Professor’s Killing” (The New York Times)
“Bangladesh professor hacked to death by Islamist militants” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Md. Abdullah Iqbal/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images, via The New York Times)

Ideology + Affiliation, Nationality + Migration

Egypt News | Foreign Intellectuals

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Italian student found dead in Cairo after writing article critical of government
  • Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old graduate student at the University of Cambridge, was found dead alongside a road outside Cairo with cigarette burns and other signs of torture on his body.
  • Regeni had been conducting research on Egyptian labor rights and had written an article criticizing the Egyptian government’s anti-union stance and lack of press freedom for Il Manifesto, a left-wing newspaper in Rome,.
  • Italy summoned its Egyptian ambassador to discuss the situation, requesting a joint investigation to determine the cause of the student’s murder, which Egyptian authorities have ruled an accident.

Read more:
“Italian student Giulio Regeni found dead in Cairo ‘with signs of torture’” (The Guardian)
“Italian student Giulio Regeni’s body found in Egypt” (BBC)
“Italian student killed in Egypt criticized Cairo govt. in articles” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Twitter photo, via The Guardian)

Ideology + Affiliation

Morocco News | Dissident Intellectuals

Moroccan professor faces charges for government criticism as hunger strike ends
  • Maati Monjib, a writer and professor of political history and African studies, is charged with receiving foreign funds with the intent of undermining Moroccan institutions and national security.
  • Monjib ended his hunger strike after the government lifted the travel ban placed on him, though he has indicated that he will resume should government harassment continue.
  • Monjib faces up to five years in prison for his work with the Ibn Rochd (Averroes) Institute and the Moroccan Association of Investigative Journalism (AMJI), which received funding from Netherlands-based human rights organizations.

Read more:
“Moroccan intellectual suspends hunger strike, faces charges: lawyer” (Reuters)
“Maroc : l’historien et militant Maâti Monjib cesse sa grève de la faim” (Jeune Afrique, AFP)
“Maroc: Maati Monjib dénonce le harcèlement des autorités” (RFI)

(Image Credit: Stringer/Reuters)

Ideology + Affiliation

China News | Academics

2,000 march in silent protest against rejection of Hong Kong professor for top leadership position
  • In a controversial decision, University of Hong Kong law professor Johannes Chan was rejected for the university’s pro-vice-chancellor post.
  • Supporters viewed the denial as an encroachment of the Chinese government and Hong Kong’s chief executive on academic freedom in Hong Kong, with some calling for a judicial review of university governance structures.
  • Students, professors, and staff gathered in a massive silent march through the HKU campus before student leaders and academics spoke out against the decision.

Read more:
“Thousands protest at HKU to defend academic freedom” (Hong Kong Free Press)
“Hong Kong Academics in Silent Protest Over ‘Political’ Row Over Top Job” (Radio Free Asia)
“Hong Kong university protests over academic freedoms” (ChannelFree Asia)

(Image Credit: Hong Kong Free Press)