News and Analysis (10/2/20)

Israeli murdered an unarmed autistic man and made 442 people homeless during the pandemic, demolishing “389 … homes and other structures in the West Bank, the majority for lacking building permits that Israeli authorities make virtually impossible to obtain”:

• Israel’s Systematic Repression of Palestinians Continues During Pandemic (Human Rights Watch)

Over one “thousand academics and lawyers call on academic and government institutions around the world to cease subjecting those defending justice for Palestinians to censorship and penalisation” through the conflation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism:

• Repression of Speech and Scholarship on Palestine Needs to End (AlJazeera)

“[T]he Taliban’s choice of negotiators provides a glimpse into the movement’s vision for Afghanistan’s future”:

• Shadow Politicians, Clerics and Soviet-era Fighters: The Taliban’s Team Negotiating Peace (Washington Post)

“For the longest time, Muslims have held onto the view that they don’t see race, which pushes aside important conversations needed around anti-Blackness that exists in the Muslim community, which dismisses our struggles and also our achievements”:

• First Black Muslim Festival to Launch amid Anti-racism Uprising (AlJazeera)

Despite the author’s “largely nonjudgmental view of Noble Drew Ali (1886-1929), the controversial founder of the Moorish Science Temple of America, a forerunner of the Nation of Islam …, Ali emerges as a con artist of unusual audacity”:

• The Princess and the Prophet: The Secret History of Magic, Race, and Moorish Muslims in America (Kirkus Reviews)

Iran offers to mediate between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as Rouhani declares, “Our region can no longer take instability and new wars”:

• Iran Reassures Azerbaijan, Slams Rumours’ of Arms to Armenia (AlJazeera)

It “is unlikely that [Pakistan] will continue to moderate its engagement with [Iran and Turkey] in deference to Saudi Arabia”:

• Amid a Diplomatic Spat with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan Rethinks Its Foreign Policy (World Politics Review)

“In a consent order, Emirates said it doesn’t believe the violation deserves enforcement action but agreed to the fine to settle the matter”:

• US Regulator Fines Emirates $400,000 for Flights over Iran (Daily Independent)

“What a joy in these trying times to see that #MsMarvel (a Pakistani American teen superhero!) has cast its lead role, a young actress named Iman Vellani! I can’t wait to see the show!” — Mindy Kaling

• Comic Fans Celebrate Casting of Markham, Ont. Local as Muslim Superhero Ms. Marvel (CTV News)

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