Their parents joined ISIS. They were raised in the caliphate. Can they come home?
The Washington PostFor Belgium, France and other countries that saw some of their nationals gravitate toward Islamic State territory as it expanded across Syria and Iraq, the plight of children who have claimed to citizenship has ignited questions that would test the most Solomonic of judges.
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UK university unveils country's first sports hijab to encourage Muslim women to participate
The IndependentLondon’s Brunel University is the first in the UK to offer a sports hijab after it found that only eighteen percent of Muslim women are taking advantage of the University’s free sports program.
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Swiss burqa ban campaigner calls for ban on Muslim prayers in public
The LocalGiorgio Ghiringhelli has responded to social media complaints about Islamification in the Swiss canton of Ticino by launching a campaign to ban Muslims from praying in public.
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Chicago Cubs chairman meets local Muslim leaders after racist email scandal
Middle East EyeThe Cubs and the Chicago branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have announced a joint agreement to combat Islamophobia, bigotry, and racism, after leaked emails embroiled the professional baseball team in scandal earlier this month.
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Israeli Researcher Proposes New Explanation to Why Dome of Rock Was Built on Temple Mount
HaaretzIt has dominated the Jerusalem skyline for 1,300 years, but there is no single accepted explanation for why it was built.
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Islamophobia behind a far-right rise in the UK, report says
BBC NewsThe State of Hate report blames the 2017 terror attacks in London and Manchester for a “lasting negative impact” on attitudes towards Muslims.
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The Creeping Liberalism in American Islam
The New York TimesMustafa Akyol argues that far from spreading Shariah, as Islamophobes have suggested, America’s Muslim clerics are focusing on a more familiar trend: youngsters blending into American life.
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Prevent's work on far-right extremism does not make it worth saving
Middle East EyeProponents say the UK’s anti-terrorism strategy is successfully tackling right-wing extremism, but this is a red herring that distracts from its disproportionate focus on Muslims.
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Linda Sarsour reflects on the power and risks of being a Muslim activist
Washington PostThe Washington Post Magazine interviews activist Linda Sarsour, who co-chaired the 2017 Women’s March and is a board member of the Women’s March national organization.
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Tracing the history of Mozambique’s mysterious and deadly insurgency
The ConversationOne of the biggest problems, writes lecturer Eric Morier-Genoud, is that nobody really knows who the insurgents are. They don’t make public statements, so their motives are unclear.
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'Free pass for mobs': India urged to stem vigilante violence against minorities
The GuardianComplicity by local officials and police inertia mean dozens of vigilante murders of religious minorities in India have gone unpunished over the last four years, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.
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The fraught and unforgettable: How Malcolm X's legacy lives on in America
Middle East EyeSome credit the autobiography of the Black Muslim icon, who was shot dead 54 years ago, with bringing more Americans to Islam than the Quran itself.
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Exposed Chinese database shows depth of surveillance state
AP NewsDutch cyber-security researcher Victor Gevers found a compilation of real-time data on more than 2.5 million people in western China, updated constantly with GPS coordinates of their precise whereabouts. Alongside their names, birthdates, and places of employment, there were notes on the places that they had most recently visited.
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Jordan Expands Managing Body of Temple Mount to Stop Israel From Changing Status Quo
HaaretzAmman announced that it was adding seven additional seats to the Waqf council for the al-Aqsa compund.
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How would I deradicalize Shamima Begum? With Islamic scholarship
The GuardianImam Dr. Usama Hassan, a counter-extremism researcher, draws on his experience as a former recruiter for radical groups to help de-radicalize those like Shamima Begum, who was brainwashed by ISIS.
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In Milwaukee, Muslim girls’ basketball team courts a broader understanding
The Washington PostWith the state regional playoffs opening this week, the team from Salam School doesn’t quite fit the profile of a girls’ basketball powerhouse, but perhaps they are redefining it.
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Malcolm X at Oxford: 'They're going to kill me soon'
The GuardianJust before his assassination, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz took part in a debate at Oxford. Tariq Ali recalls their meeting, which left him in a state of shock – and is now the subject of a TV show.
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Hamas leadership woos Egypt's top imam
Al-MonitorAs Hamas continues efforts to bolster its relationship with Egypt, a Hamas delegation visited Al-Azhar headquarters this month. Led by the head of Hamas’ politburo, Ismail Haniyeh, the delegation arrived at Egypt’s highest religious authority to meet the grand imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb.
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Muslim group seeks congressional probe on terror watchlist
AP NewsThe Council on American-Islamic Relations has urged Congress to look into an FBI watchlist CAIR believes is riddled with errors. “This is wholesale profiling of a religious minority community,” said Nihad Awad. “To share private information of citizens and non-citizens with corporations is illegal and outrageous”.
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Alabama Woman Who Joined ISIS Can’t Return Home, U.S. Says
The New York TimesPresident Trump said Wednesday the United States would not re-admit Yemeni-American 24-year-old Hoda Muthana, who traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State and now wants to come home.
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Chechen religious leaders re-open landmark mosque in Syria
AP NewsReligious leaders of Russia’s republic of Chechnya have inaugurated a re-opened landmark mosque in Syria’s Homs, once the symbol of the rebellion against President Bashar Assad.
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In Detroit, one organization is schooling Muslims on racial justice
Religion News ServiceThis article profiles anti-racism campaigners MuslimARC. African American Muslims make up twenty percent of the US Muslim community, and Pew data shows that eight in ten of them see “a lot” of racism against Blacks and Muslims in the US.
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How to tackle Islamophobia – the best strategies from around Europe
The ConversationIn a new, pan-European research project, University of Leeds researcher Amin Essat Daas and her colleagues set about to devise a toolkit that can be used to counter Islamophobia. It summarises a range of the best methods and tools we saw being used to challenge Islamophobic thought and actions in Europe.
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Wary of Xinjiang backlash, China invites waves of diplomats to visit
ReutersChina is stepping up its diplomatic outreach over controversial camps in its heavily Muslim region of Xinjiang, inviting more foreign diplomats to visit as it seeks to head off criticism from Muslim-majority countries and at the United Nations.
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Israeli police arrest 60 fearing Al-Aqsa unrest
Al-MonitorIsraeli police rounded up 60 “suspects” in Jerusalem overnight and promised more arrests Friday, after what a spokesman said were calls for unrest at the city’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
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China Uses DNA to Track Its People, With the Help of American Expertise
The New York TimesThe Chinese authorities turned to a Massachusetts company and a prominent Yale researcher as they built an enormous system of surveillance and control.
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Rohingya: killings should remind all nations of their responsibility to protect victims of mass atrocity crimes
The ConversationAt present, more Rohingya Muslims live outside Myanmar than inside it, Maria Jellinek says there are no guarantees that those forced to return will not face the same violence and persecution that drove them away to begin with.
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Iran’s Khamenei moves to usher in new generation of revolutionaries
Al-MonitorIran’s supreme leader’s vision of a “Second Step of the Revolution” has led to increased emphasis and analysis of the role of youth in its implementation.
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The Salman Rushdie affair: Thirty years and a novelist later
Al JazeeraHamid Dabashi says the novel The Satanic Verses was assassinated on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1989.
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Is Libya's revolution anniversary cause for celebration?
Al-MonitorIf revolutions are judged by the progress they make and progressive changes they initiate in their societies, then Libya’s so-called “February 17 Revolution,” has very little to show for itself.
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The American Woman Who Joined ISIS
The New York TimesThey left to join the so-called caliphate and took an oath of allegiance to a terrorist group intent on destroying the West. Now they want to come home. What should the United States do with the American wives of Islamic State fighters?
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Why Pakistan should not take Saudi money
Al JazeeraJournalist Taha Siddiqui argues that Pakistan needs to rethink its decades-old transactional relationship with Saudi Arabia.
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Fears for Uighur comedian missing amid a crackdown on cultural figures
The GuardianAdil Mijit worked for a government arts troupe for 30 years, but his family fears he has been taken into a re-education camp.
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Hijab in Indonesia – the history and controversies
The ConversationThe hijab, a veil worn by Muslim women to cover their heads, has become more popular in Indonesia in the last two decades. History records that the hijab-wearing culture in Indonesia goes back to the 17th century. However, despite many Indonesian women wearing it, controversies surround the hijab.
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Will Uighurs upend Turkey-China relations?
Al-MonitorTurkey’s scorching condemnation of China on Feb. 9 over the treatment of the Turkic Uighur minority in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region caught many, including Uighur activists in Turkey, by surprise. Few expected such an outburst after Ankara’s prolonged period of silence despite China’s well-documented and ongoing repressive policies against the Uighurs.
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Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman Defends China's Use of Concentration Camps for Muslims during Visit to Beijing
Newsweek“China has the right to carry out anti-terrorism and de-extremization work for its national security,” the crown prince was quoted as saying on Chinese television.
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Israel releases top Muslim cleric arrested after al-Aqsa scuffle
The New ArabIsraeli police arrested and later released a top Palestinian Muslim official in Jerusalem on Sunday after scuffles around the al-Aqsa compound in recent days.
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Maydan editors selected some of the most thought-provoking news items on issues around Islam, religion and public-life for you. Let us know what you have been reading. Drop us a line at mediaroundups@themaydan.com!