Thread by @mobbiemobes

[Thread]
A review of #Islamophobia in 2020:

The #COVID19 pandemic exacerbated Islamophobia around the globe. From #India to the U.K., #Muslims were accused of spreading the virus & evading lockdown orders.

For #Muslims, the environment meant not only being disproportionately impacted by a deadly virus but also facing targeted discrimination from those in power:

foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/28/ind…

Islamophobia in #India in 2020:
Politicians & right-wing media continued to promote anti-Muslim rhetoric & tropes, while Indian Muslims & rights activists protested against discriminatory legislation (#CAA), which rendered Indian Muslims 2nd-class citizens.

2020 began w/ police brutality. In an attack that horrified a nation, mobs of #Hindu nationalists attacked students at @JNU as the police stood by.

Videos showed students bleeding from the attack & police ransacking rooms and beating students

time.com/5760597/what-h…

In #UttarPradesh where protests against discriminatory legislation continued, police were accused of firing into crowds, beating #Muslim bystanders, raiding & looting Muslim homes while shouting Islamophobic slurs, & detaining & torturing Muslim children
theguardian.com/world/2020/jan…

Women were at the forefront of anti-#CAA resistance. In #ShaheenBagh, the protests began with a small, peaceful sit-in and candlelit vigil by local women. “We are fighting for our rights, our children’s rights. Our existence, their future.”

time.com/5765702/india-…

In February, mobs of Hindu nationalists (incited by a #BJP politician) went on a rampage in Muslim-majority neighbourhoods in Delhi.

With tacit approval (& even participation) from law enforcement, mobs attacked Muslims, their homes, & their businesses. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

The violent assault was driven by anti-Muslim animus. During the 3 days of violence in Delhi, at least 14 #mosques & a Sufi dargah were burnt by #Hindutva vigilantes.

scroll.in/article/955713…

The #Delhi pogrom resulted in the deaths of over 50 individuals with hundreds left injured, the majority of whom were #Muslim:

interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2020/delhi…

A viral image showed the brutal assault of Mohammad Zubair: "“The blows kept raining on my head, hands and back...They were shouting "kill the bastard #Muslim" & #jaiSriRam. There were many others men who stood by who did not come to save me.”

theguardian.com/world/2020/mar…

In March, PM #Modi gave just a 4-hr warning to 1.3 billion citizens as India plunged into a lockdown in the face of #COVID.
Images showed migrants labourers walking hundreds of miles to reach their villages. Many died on their journey's to reach home.

nytimes.com/2020/03/29/wor…

Conspiracy theories flourished alongside the spread of #COVID in the world’s largest democracy. Right-wing media and SM users promoted false information, often tying the deadly virus to #Muslims, accusing them of spreading the contagion: newslaundry.com/2020/04/01/cor…

In separate incidents, 2 pregnant Muslim women were denied healthcare due to their religion. Numerous hospitals segregated patients based on their religion, & a video of a doctor referring to #Muslims with #Covid19 as "terrorists" was shared widely.

english.alaraby.co.uk/english/commen…

Hashtags like #coronajihad, images equating Muslims to the virus, & falsified videos were rampant across social media. An @Equality labs report found tht tweets w/ #CoronaJihad had appeared nearly 300,000 times & potentially seen by 165 million ppl time.com/5815264/corona…

Speaking of SM, a @WSJ report found that #AnkhiDas, #Facebook’s top public-policy executive in #India, opposed applying hate-speech rules to #BJP politicians & Hindu nationalists groups tht had been flagged internally 4 promoting/participating in violence aljazeera.com/news/2020/8/15…

In August, nearly 30 yrs after Hindu extremists tore down #BabriMasjid, sparking riots that killed thousands of Muslims, #Modi fulfilled a campaign promise to his Hindu nationalist base by laying the cornerstones of a Hindu shrine on the very same spot. npr.org/2020/08/05/899…

In September, #Amnesty International ceased operations in #India following sustained attacks from the government. The human rights group’s departure from the world’s largest democracy demonstrated the BJP-led govts targeting of civil society space.

nytimes.com/2020/09/29/wor…

Towards the end of 2020, the anti-#Muslim conspiracy theory of “#LoveJihad” went mainstream as a number of Indian states introduced legislation intended to stop forced religious conversions.

time.com/5915579/love-j…

Such legislation will not only further marginalize #Muslims but also undermine women’s agency and rights.

aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/…

Speaking of legal discrimination, August 2020 marked 1 yr since the revocation of #Kashmir’s autonomy by #India’s Hindu nationalist govt. For much of 2020 Kashmiri’s remained under at internet blackout & regional lockdown.

aljazeera.com/news/2020/8/4/…

Stripping #Kashmir of its special status has allowed Indian authorities to carry out policies aimed at pushing Kashmiri Muslim nomads from their lands and bringing about demographic change in India’s only Muslim-majority region.

aljazeera.com/features/2020/…

The most alarming example of democratic backsliding has been in #India, where the rise to power of the Hindu nationalist #BJP has led to the hardening of authoritarian tendencies, & a sustained attack against a historically vibrant civil society

caravanmagazine.in/politics/the-e…

#Islamophobia in #India in 2020 was a deadly state-led campaign. The #BJP aims to either drive out Indian Muslims, render them 2nd-class citizens, or eliminate them. The BJP embraced authoritarianism & enabled the shocking violence that occurred this year

foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/18/one…