NEW DELHI: A divisive citizenship bill has been signed into law in India, a move that comes amid widespread protests in the country’s northeast that could force the cancelation of a visit by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Two people were killed and 11 injured on Thursday when police opened fire on mobs in Assam state torching buildings and attacking railway stations. Protesters say the law would convert thousands of illegal immigrants into legal residents.
The new law lays out a path of Indian citizenship for six minority religious groups from the neighboring countries of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Indian President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the bill late on Thursday, signing it into law, an official statement said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has planned to host Abe at a meeting in Assam next week as part of a campaign to move high-profile diplomatic events outside Delhi to showcase India’s diversity.
Japan’s Jiji Press reported on Friday that Abe is considering canceling his trip. India’s foreign ministry said it was not in a position to comment on the visit which was originally planned for Dec 15-17.
A movement against immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh has raged in Assam for decades. Protesters say granting Indian nationality to more people will further strain the resources of the tea growing state and lead to the marginalization of indigenous communities.
Japan has stepped up infrastructure development work in Assam in recent years which the two sides were expected to highlight during the summit. Abe had also planned to visit a memorial in the nearby state of Manipur where Japanese soldiers were killed during World War Two.
Critics of Modi’s Hindu nationalist government say the bigger problem with the new law is that it is the first time India is using religion as a criterion for granting citizenship and that it excludes Muslims from its ambit.
The law seeks to grant Indian nationality to Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs who fled the three Muslim-majority neighboring countries before 2015.
The Indian Union Muslim League party has petitioned the Supreme Court saying the law was in conflict with the secular principles of India’s constitution that guaranteed equality to all without any regard to religion. No date has yet been set for the hearings.
The party said the law is “prima facie communal” and questioned the exclusion of minorities such as Rohingya Muslims who were just as persecuted as other faiths listed in the law.
Indian president disregards protests, signs citizenship bill into law
https://arab.news/wta35
Indian president disregards protests, signs citizenship bill into law
- The new law lays out a path of Indian citizenship for six minority religious groups from the neighboring countries
- The law seeks to grant Indian nationality to Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Sikhs who fled the three Muslim-majority neighboring countries
FGM reports add to scrutiny of Somali community in Minnesota
CHICAGO: The US state of Minnesota has reportedly seen a rise in instances of female genital mutilation, or FGM, especially among the growing Somali community.
More than 260,000 Somalis live in the US, with nearly 100,000 of them settled in Minnesota. About 50,000 Somalis live in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, represented by Somali American Rep. Ilhan Omar.
UN data shows that nearly 98 percent of Somalia’s female population aged between 15 and 49 have undergone the procedure.
The controversy over FGM in Minnesota has only added to the dark cloud of alleged fraud that is hanging over the state’s Somali community. US President Donald Trump made this subject a major part of his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, calling the fraudsters “Somali pirates.”
State and federal investigators have said Somalis in Minnesota have been implicated in the theft of billions of dollars in state and federal funds intended to support childcare, food programs for families and seniors, and healthcare and mental health programs. Officials contend that this has resulted in the loss of up to $9 billion in funding over many years. In his State of the Union speech, however, Trump said the fraud has cost American taxpayers as much as $19 billion.
Muslim leaders are speaking out against the practice of FGM. Imam Kifah Mustapha of the Orland Prayer Center, one of the largest mosques in Illinois, said FGM is not representative of Muslim religious practices and is not required by Islam.
“There is nothing in Islam that says it should be done as an obligation. There’s no such thing,” Mustapha told Arab News.
“It is not something that Islam urges parents or families to do for their children at all. It is not practiced at all in most Muslim countries. It is not something Islam urges people to do or obligates people to do. We know that most Muslim countries now even prohibit it, they don’t allow it anymore.”
Congress first banned FGM on girls under the age of 18 in 1996. However, a 2018 federal court ruling struck down that law as unconstitutional. President Trump toughened the law and signed the Stop FGM Act into law in 2021, imposing a penalty of up to 10 years’ imprisonment for anyone convicted.
Forty-one US states, including Minnesota, have enacted their own laws banning FGM. The nine states that have failed to adopt bans are Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska and New Mexico, all states with small Muslim populations.
Minnesota was one of the first states to pass an FGM law in 1994. State Rep. Mary Franson has been fighting ever since to strengthen its enforcement. She recently told the media that cultural secrecy makes FGM “exceptionally difficult to detect” in tight-knit communities.
Somali-born activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an author who survived FGM and has spoken out against it, has publicly described the lasting physical and psychological damage that she experienced. Hirsi Ali has called for a strong legal response.
Hirsi Ali was on Sunday quoted as saying: “Female genital mutilation is violence against the most vulnerable — children. It causes infection, incontinence, unbearable pain during childbirth and deep physical and emotional scars that never heal. Religious or cultural practices that deliberately and cruelly harm children must be confronted. No tradition can ever justify torture.”
In 2018, the UN Population Fund released a report showing that nearly 70 million girls will undergo FGM between 2015 and 2030.
