News and Analysis (2/3/21)

Against Biden’s campaign promise, the current U.S. administration is planning to keep troops in Afghanistan despite the military intervention’s failure:

• Foreign Troops to Stay in Afghanistan Beyond May Deadline – NATO Sources (Reuters)
• Don’t Let Biden Sink Troops Back Into the Afghanistan Quagmire (Reason)

Remains of a mosque in Tiberias dating back to companions of the Prophet (pb\uh) show that “early Muslim rulers—who governed an overwhelmingly non-Muslim population—adopted a tolerant approach toward other faiths” over 1400 years ago:

• Israeli Archeologists Find 7th Century Mosque and Evidence of Tolerance in Early Islam at Tiberias (Informed Comment)

The main goals of the first female elected to head Britain’s largest Muslim organization are to “tackle Islamophobia, inspire other Muslim women to go for leadership roles, and encourage ethnic minorities to get COVID-19 vaccinations”:

• First Woman Head of UK Muslim Council Targets Stereotypes and COVID (Reuters)

“Muslim daughters have better chances of” surviving infancy.” BJP plans to implement Uniform Civil Code on the pretext of promoting “gender equality” is a sham as  long as Muslim women feel “threatened and under siege” by the majority community around them:

• Will the BJP’s Plan for a Uniform Civil Code Save Muslim Women? (Scroll)

The “situation normalises a state of affairs in which France’s anticlerical, secular establishment punishes individuality and religious difference, today especially that of Muslims”:

• How France’s Separatism Law Affects Muslim Working-class Women (TRT World)

The “social anthropologist whose research revealed the extent of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Iran, was found guilty of conspiring with hostile foreign powers in November 2020, among other charges”:

• Academic Jailed in Iran Pulls Off Daring Escape Back to Britain (The Guardian)

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says the U.S. retains “a robust presence in the Middle East to respond” despite the withdrawal of the USS Nimitz:

• US Moves Carrier from Gulf in a Sign of Ebbing Tensions with Iran (Aljazeera)

“A coalition of 180 rights group” is calling for a boycott on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics for “human rights abuses against ethnic minorities”, including Uyghur Muslims:

• Rights Groups Call for Boycott of Beijing 2022 Winter Games (Westport News)

“Israel’s duties under international law after more than 50 years of occupation with no end in sight far exceed just offering some vaccines when it has capacity, but rather providing Palestinians in the occupied territory with equitable access to the vaccine on par with what it provides its own citizens” — Human Rights Watch:

• Israel’s Decision to Give 5,000 Vaccine Doses to Palestinian Health Workers Is Woefully Inadequate, Rights Group Says (CNBC)

Johaer Jilani