New Kazakhstan controls spur Canadian uranium explorer exit

Blair McBride | March 5, 2026 |

A Kazatomprom uranium exploration site in Kazakhstan. Credit: Kazatomprom

Laramide Resources (TSX, ASX: LAM), one of the few Western companies to explore for uranium in Kazakhstan in recent years, is leaving the country as regulatory changes tighten restrictions on foreign participation.


State miner Kazatomprom (LSE: KAP) – the world’s top uranium producer – confirmed in late December the Kazakhstan government changed its Subsoil Use Code, giving the miner priority rights to exploration licences in prospective areas. Most projects must be done in joint ventures and the new law states that Kazatomprom gets at least 75% in them.

“This rule is going to keep any company from wanting to explore in Kazakhstan, not that there were a lot before either,” Red Cloud Securities analyst David Talbot told The Northern Miner by email. The changes amount to “de facto nationalization of the uranium industry in Kazakhstan,” he said.

Kazakhstan, historically integrated into the Soviet system with production largely directed to Moscow, now supplies much of the Western uranium market. Its move to strengthen state control over the sector through legal channels is a potential risk to supply that could support higher prices.

Laramide’s hopeful entry

In 2024, Laramide entered a three-year option agreement with Kazakh company Aral Resources to explore on more than 5,500 sq. km in the Chu-Sarysu Basin in southern Kazakhstan. The site is adjacent to Kazatomprom’s Inkai JV mine it holds with Canadian producer Cameco (TSX: CCO; NYSE: CCJ) and the Budenovskoye JV the state miner holds with Russia.

On Dec. 24, the Toronto-based explorer received the final permits to start drilling its 15,000-metre program. But two days later, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed into law the Subsoil Use Code changes.

“We had three rigs ready to go, basically on standby, we had all the people ready to go, we had the targets and unfortunately we never went out and drilled anything and had to walk away,” Laramide CEO Marc Henderson told The Northern Miner in an interview. The company announced on Jan. 20 it had ended its option agreement with Aral.

Henderson had heard rumours about the legal changes for a while and he realized last fall that the “dramatic decision” was going to be enacted.

“It would be like Newmont going to the US government saying there’s a lot of gold here, why don’t you ban everyone else in Nevada except us. Except [in this case] it’s not for gold, it’s something critical that the world needs, like uranium.”

Asked to specify which part of the law spurred Laramide to leave the country, Henderson responded with a scenario where the company made a major discovery and approached Kazatomprom about its interest in a JV to potentially mine uranium.

“We thought the range that we were going to end up negotiating would be 30% to 50%,” he said. “[But] they made it law that the new terms that they had to have were between 75% and 90%. That was just a completely different deal.”
Why the amendments?

The code changes are “essential for the systematic modernization of Kazakhstan’s subsoil use regulations,” a Kazatomprom spokesperson told The Northern Miner by email. 

“The revisions are intended to optimize the management of strategic resources, providing the framework necessary to reinforce Kazakhstan’s global market presence.”

Henderson noted that Kazatomprom revealed its dwindling reserves in an investor’s presentation deck. A January deck showed that its production resource base would peak this year, then begin a rapid decline in a few years, with complete exhaustion by 2057.

Credit: Kazatomprom

Kazatomprom board chair Meirzhan Yussupov suggested as much to the Central Asia-focused Kursiv business publication in December.

The amendments are needed, Kursiv reported, as higher prices could attract higher-cost producers, reducing Kazakhstan’s advantage and depleting its reserves.

In addition, Kazakhstan’s Atomic Energy Agency said it needs the underground use amendments so it has enough fuel sources for planned nuclear power plants, according to reporting from Radio Free Europe’s Russian service on Feb. 9.
Greenfield exploration loss

Laramide incurred no costs to leave Kazakhstan and for now plans to re-focus on its projects in Australia and the southwest US.

Still, Henderson thinks it’s a loss for global greenfield uranium exploration that one of the world’s most prospective jurisdictions is now effectively closed to Western investment.

“The uranium sector is woefully behind on greenfield exploration,” he said. “The prospectivity in uranium to find things of any scale is very, very small. And not all of those are jurisdictions where you want to go on vacation, or where you’re comfortable with the politics.”

Australia’s C29 Metals (ASX: C29) is another Western company that was exploring for uranium in Kazakhstan. It acquired the Ulytau project in 2024. But C29 announced it was ending operations there in late November after regulators rejected its application for exploration rights, according to Minex Forum, a U.K.-based mining conference platform focused on Eurasian markets. C29 did not respond to a request for comment from The Northern Miner.

How will producers fare?

Western majors like Cameco, France’s Orano and Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. and Kansai Electric Power could face similarly difficult conditions in Kazakhstan.

Cameco’s contract in the Inkai JV – in which it holds a 40-60 interest with Kazatomprom – ends in 2045. Orano is in a 51-49 interest arrangement with Kazatomprom in Katco, made up of the South Tortkuduk/Muyunkum operation.

While Kazatomprom said existing subsoil use agreements are unaffected, contract extensions or production increases would require Kazatomprom to hold at least 90% of the JV. Alternatively, the foreign partner could keep its interest by transferring uranium conversion and enrichment technologies to Kazatomprom and build downstream capacity.

Of the non-Western producers in the country, seven are Kazakh, two are Russian, two are Chinese and one is Kyrgyz. Most production projects are held in JVs.

“This is part of the ongoing expectation that Kazakh uranium will be increasingly destined for eastern destinations (Russia, China), and less available to the West,” Red Cloud’s Talbot said. “It would impact the Chinese, Russians, Orano, Cameco and others – essentially reducing their interest and production.”

A Cameco spokesperson said in emailed comments to The Northern Miner that the company’s subsoil use agreement in the Inkai JV is valid until 2045 and Cameco has transferred refinery and conversion technology to its partner.

“Foreign interests requiring a new subsoil use agreement or an extension of a current agreement will face the requirement to increase state ownership,” the spokesperson said. “While the change in legislation is certainly impactful more broadly in the market, our agreement remains in place for the next 20 years.”

Pivot to East, spot prices

Talbot noted that global production as such might not be affected by Astana’s legal changes, and he expects all long-term uranium sales contracts would be intact, “but future contracts would likely be focused to an even greater extent on Chinese and perhaps Russian customers.”

In terms of the uranium spot price, which soared about 33% from late November until late January, when it peaked at $101.55 per lb., Talbot suggested Kazakhstan’s policy change could play a bullish role.

“Uncertainty surrounding uranium security of supply is often a catalyst for rising uranium price,” he said. “This could be very good for uranium prices, and potential M&A as western producers scramble for future production.”

 

NexGen eyes summer 2026 build for huge Rook I uranium mine

Blair McBride | March 5, 2026 | 

The Rook I uranium project in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin. Credit: NexGen Energy

NexGen Energy (TSX, NYSE: NXE; ASX: NXG) said it will start construction this summer of its Rook uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan, the largest development-stage uranium deposit in Canada.

The C$2.2 billion capex build plan for Rook I comes on the same day the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) approved NexGen’s environmental assessment and construction licence, and just weeks after the regulator’s two-part hearing process concluded.  Located in the uranium-rich Athabasca basin’s southwest, Rook I is about 900 km northwest of Regina.

“Current expectations are for a four-year construction period,” Canaccord Genuity Capital Markets analyst Katie Lachapelle said in a note on Thursday. “We expect NexGen to release a detailed construction schedule in the near-term.”

The approval follows one of the most rigorous regulatory processes conducted for a resource project in the world, NexGen CEO and founder Leigh Curyer said in a release.

“This milestone is the result of the NexGen team’s steadfast and unrelenting focus over 12 years understanding and delivering our objectives honestly and incorporating a culture of excellence,” he said.

Top uranium producer

Rook I, anchored by the high-grade Arrow deposit, could produce almost 30 million lb. of uranium oxide (U3O8) per year over the first half of its 11-year life, according to a feasibility study published in 2021.

That capacity would make it the top uranium mine by output in North America, ahead of Cameco’s (TSX: CCO; NYSE: CCJ) producing McArthur River and Cigar Lake mines in Saskatchewan.

NexGen’s construction milestone also coincides with other developments for uranium players in the province over the past several weeks.

Denison Mines (TSX: DML) last week announced the start of construction of its Phoenix mine, Canada’s first in-situ recovery operation for the nuclear fuel. Last month, Paladin Energy (TSX, ASX: PDN) received environmental impact statement approval from the Saskatchewan for its Patterson Lake South project.

All three projects would rank in the top five largest operations in the Athabasca basin by reserve size if they become producing mines.

C$6.3B value

NexGen shares fell 3% to C$16.77 apiece on Thursday afternoon in Toronto amid a broad market decline, valuing the company at C$10.1 billion ($7.4 billion).

In a uranium spot price case of $95 per lb., Rook I has a net present value (at an 8% discount) of C$6.32 billion and an internal rate of return of 45%. The Arrow deposit hosts probable reserves of 4.57 million tonnes grading 2.37% U3O8 for 240 million lb. of U3O8.

Rook I uranium project gets construction approval

World Nuclear News

Friday, 6 March 2026

NexGen Energy has received the final regulatory approval for the Rook I uranium project in northern Saskatchewan, and will begin construction later this year.
 

(Image: NexGen)

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) decision to issue the Licence to Prepare Site and Construct the proposed uranium mine and mill came 14 business days after the conclusion of the last part of the regulator's two-part hearing process. The licence - which is valid until 31 March 2036 - covers site preparation and construction activities under Canada's Nuclear Safety and Control Act: operation of the facility would need NexGen to submit another licence application which would be subject to a future licensing hearing and decision.

Rook I is described by NexGen as the largest development-stage uranium project in Canada. Centred on the Arrow deposit, a high-grade uranium deposit discovered by the company in 2014, the project is in the southern Athabasca Basin, about 155 km north of the town of La Loche. The project is situated on Treaty 8 territory, the Homeland of the Métis, and is within territories of the Denesųłiné, Cree, and Métis.

The Arrow deposit has a resource estimate of 357 million pounds U3O8 (137,319 tU) in the measured and indicated mineral resources category, grading 3.10% U3O8. Probable mineral reserves have been estimated at 240 million pounds U3O8, grading 2.37% U3O8. A 2021 NI 43-101 feasibility study for the project envisages production of up to 14 million kilograms of U3O8 annually for 24 years.

The project received environmental approval from the Province of Saskatchewan in November 2023, and, with all approvals now secured, NexGen said it is set to begin construction. A final investment decision has already been made, and the team, procurement, engineering, vendors, contractors and capital are in place to commence construction activities with advanced site and shaft sinking preparation. Construction will officially begin in this summer, the company said, and construction is expected to take four years to complete.

NexGen founder and CEO Leigh Curyer said the CNSC's approval "represents one of the most rigorous and comprehensive regulatory processes undertaken for a resource project globally" and, as well as acknowledging NexGen's team, expressed the company's "sincere gratitude" to its Indigenous Nation partners, local communities, Premier Scott Moe and the Government of Saskatchewan, Government partners, regulatory bodies, and stakeholders who have contributed to the advancement of the project over the past decade.

"The world is changing fast, and NexGen's Rook I is now ready to be a significant contributor to global requirements for nuclear energy and Canada's role as an energy superpower. As global demand for reliable, clean, baseload nuclear energy continues to accelerate at an unprecedented pace, uranium is the critical fuel for powering industrial electrification and the digital infrastructure of tomorrow. Simply put, energy is the key to our global growth," Curyer said.

In February, Reuters reported that NexGen had held preliminary talks with data centre providers about securing finance for a new mine. Speaking to investors in NexGen's fourth quarter conference call on 4 March - one day before the CNSC announcement - Curyer said the first 12 months of construction is expected to cost around CAD300 million (USD219 million). NexGen is well funded to begin construction thanks to already completed equity raises and offtake agreements. Further offtake agreements are already in advanced negotiation, with contracts expected to be announced this year, he said, but the start of construction or production will not be dependent on those new contracts being in place.

"We know exactly what we're doing every day of that 48-month process, who's doing it, who's responsible for it within NextGen," Curyer said. "And as I said, once we're in that basement rock, the highest risk around cost and schedule has been mitigated."

Curyer told investors the company would issue a detailed construction timeline once the licensing process had concluded.

Canada and India Sign Landmark Uranium Deal Worth $2.6B

By Andrew Topf - Mar 04, 2026

• Canada is expanding trade with India as Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks to reduce reliance on the U.S. after 2025 tariffs, aiming to double non-U.S. exports within a decade.
• 
  
• Major energy and commodities deals were signed, including a 10-year uranium supply agreement between Cameco and India.
• 
  
• Canada and India are pursuing deeper economic ties, with plans for a free-trade agreement targeting $70B in bilateral trade.
• 
  

Ever since Donald Trump slapped tariffs on Canadian goods on Feb. 1, 2025, Prime Minister Mark Carney has been encouraging trade with nations other than the United States.

The former central banker turned politician wants to double non-US exports over the next decade.

Towards that goal, Carney met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Monday as part of a four-day trip to deepen trade and diplomatic ties.

The centerpiece was a deal between the Indian government and Saskatchewan-based uranium producer Cameco (TSX:CCO) to supply nearly 22 million pounds of uranium for nuclear energy generation between 2027 and 2035.

Also, British Columbia coal producer Elk Valley Resources — majority-owned by Glencore (LSE:GLEN) — will sell 1.2 million tonnes of coal to India worth hundreds of millions of dollars. (CBC News)

As reported by the National Post newspaper,

Emerging from a set of meetings with India Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in the day, Carney announced that a new $2.6-billion agreement had been struck between India and Saskatchewan that will see the Prairie province supply it with uranium, which India needs for nuclear power generation.

The 10-year deal, set to begin in 2027, is part of what the Prime Minister’s Office calls a new “strategic energy partnership,” which was one of the outcomes expected out of Canada’s renewed interest in working with India.

The uranium contract with Saskatoon-based Cameco was one of the 10 commercial deals, some of which were years and months old, that Carney’s office said totalled around of $5.5 billion that he touted as signs of a deepened relationship.

Many of them have to do with Canadian companies expanding into India and vice-versa.

The two leaders also announced plans for a new free-trade deal, where the goal is to double two-way trade to $70 billion over the next four years. Carney has appointed a chief negotiator and said he wants to see the agreement happen by the end of the year.Related: Trump’s Secret Weapon in the Rare Earth War

To that end, Carney’s office outlined how Canada and India signed five memorandums of understanding to commit to working towards deeper collaborations, with at least two dealing specifically with the areas of critical minerals and “diversifying supply chains.”

Carney has faced criticism at home for courting the Indian government, including inviting Modi to the G7 leaders’ summit in Alberta last year. During Carney’s trip to Delhi, Modi accepted an invitation to visit Canada. The Prime Minister’s Office reports that Canada and India have interacted more this year than in any of the last 20 years.

The diplomatic U-turn is welcome news to the Canadian business community, which likes the certainty of trade agreements.

Relations under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plummeted after he accused the Indian government of orchestrating violent crimes in Canada such as the killing of a prominent Sikh activist in 2023.

Some Indian diplomats were expelled from Canada, but India has denied any involvement in his death.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police subsequently alleged India was behind incidents of extortion, mainly in BC, Alberta and Ontario.

Along with uranium and coal, Carney also touted current and upcoming LNG projects in British Columbia that could help meet India’s expected doubling of population by 2040.

Related: Magnet Wars: How the U.S. Plans to Break China’s Grip on Rare Earths

“Canada is well-positioned to contribute, as a reliable supplier of the world’s lowest-carbon, responsibly produced LNG (liquefied natural gas) from our West Coast,” he said in his remarks, via CTV News.

The trade news on India came the same day that the Canadian government announced it has secured 30 new critical mineral partnerships, unlocking $12.1 billion in mining project capital.

Made at the 2026 Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) annual convention in Toronto, the announcement is the second round of partnerships and investments under the Critical Minerals Production Alliance. The first round was announced in October 2025.

The Canadian Press reported that Deals include up to $7 million to Greenland Resources' Malmbjerg project in Greenland, $9.1 million to Cyclic Materials Inc.'s rare earths elements recycling centre in Kingston, Ont. and $16.7 million for First Phosphate's Bégin-Lamarche demonstration and feasibility project in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Que.

By Andrew Topf for Oilprice.com

Canada and India strike agreements on rare earth, uranium

By AFP
March 2, 2026


India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) met with Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney in New Delhi - Copyright AFP Joe Klamar

India and Canada on Monday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi.

The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations.

“Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust, and positivity,” Modi said.

Ties effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi of orchestrating a deadly campaign against Sikh activists in Canada, accusations India rejected.

Carney’s visit — his first to India since taking office last year — is not only aimed to reset strained ties, but also to push efforts to diversify trade beyond the United States.

“There has been more engagement between the Canadian and Indian governments in the last year than there has been in more than two decades combined,” Carney said in New Delhi, in a speech alongside Modi.

“This is not merely the renewal of a relationship. It is the expansion of a valued partnership with new ambition, focus, and foresight, a partnership between two confident countries charting our own course for the future.”



– ‘New opportunities’ –



Energy-hungry India — the world’s most populous country with 1.4 billion people — has ambitious plans to expand nuclear power capacity from its current eight to 100 gigawatts by 2047.

“In civil nuclear energy, we have struck a landmark deal for long-term uranium supply,” Modi said, adding the countries would also work together on small modular reactors and advanced reactors.

Carney said they had agreed the launch of a “strategic energy partnership with significant potential” including CAN$2.6 billion ($1.9 billion) uranium supply agreement “supporting India’s nuclear ambitions”.

Carney added that Canada was “well positioned to contribute, as a reliable supplier” of liquefied natural gas (LNG), from its west coast.

“As India seeks access to critical minerals for its manufacturing, its clean-tech, and its nuclear plants, Canada’s resource base and world-leading companies position it as a strategic partner,” he said.

The two countries agreed last year to resume negotiations on a proposed free-trade deal, the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.

“Our target is to reach $50 billion in bilateral trade,” Modi said. “This is why we have decided to finalise a comprehensive economic partnership soon,” he added, saying it “will open new opportunities to invest and create jobs in both countries”.



– Defence deal –



Carney said he wanted to reach a deal on the “ambitious agreement” by the end of the year to “reduce barriers and increase certainty”, also said the nations were renewing security cooperation through a “new defence partnership”.

Canadian pension and wealth funds have already invested $73 billion in India.

Before Carney took office last year, Ottawa accused Modi’s government of direct involvement in the 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a naturalised Canadian citizen who was part of a fringe group that advocated for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.

Khalistan militants have been blamed for the assassination of an Indian prime minister and the bombing of a passenger jet.

India has repeatedly dismissed the Canadian allegations, which sent relations into freefall, with both nations expelling a string of top diplomats in 2024.

Ties improved after Carney took office in March 2025, and envoys have since been restored.

After India, Carney will travel to Australia and Japan — part of a wider push to broaden Canada’s economic partnerships.

Carney has made reducing Canada’s heavy reliance on the US economy a centrepiece of his foreign economic policy.

In 2024, before US President Donald Trump returned to office and upended global trade with a flurry of tariffs, more than 75 percent of Canadian exports went to the United States. Two-way trade that year exceeded $900 billion.

So far Trump has broadly adhered to the North American free-trade agreement he signed during his first term, and about 85 percent of US-Canada trade remains tariff-free.

But at the same time, Trump has also imposed painful industry-specific tariffs, and there are fears that if he scraps the broader trade deal, the Canadian economy will be hit hard.

burs-pjm/mtp

Canada’s Carney to mend rift, boost trade as he meets India’s Modi


By AFP
March 1, 2026


Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney greets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a G7 meeting last year in western Canada - Copyright AFP Idrees MOHAMMED
Abhaya SRIVASTAVA

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will seek to reset strained ties and push efforts to diversify trade beyond the United States when he meets his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Monday.

The talks in New Delhi are expected to cover trade and investment, clean energy, defence, critical minerals and artificial intelligence, officials from both sides have said.

A major focus will be reviving negotiations for a long-discussed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.

Speaking to business leaders in Mumbai on Saturday, Carney said the planned deal, which he was looking to seal by the end of the year, could double bilateral trade by 2030.

“This visit marks the end of a challenging period, and more importantly, the beginning of a new, more ambitious partnership between two confident and complementary nations,” he said.

Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi of orchestrating a deadly campaign against Sikh activists in Canada.

India’s foreign ministry said Carney’s visit marked a “significant step” in strengthening relations.

India is seeking to attract more overseas investments and says Canadian pension and wealth funds have already invested $73 billion.

Energy-hungry India — the world’s most populous country, with 1.4 billion people — hopes Canada can support its ambitious plan to expand nuclear power capacity.

– ‘Strategic partner’ –

“We can be India’s strategic partner in critical minerals for India’s manufacturing, clean tech, and nuclear industries,” Carney said.

“And India can help us double our grid with clean power by 2040.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is in India to boost trade between the two countries – Copyright AFP Indranil Mukherjee

Before Carney took office last year, Ottawa accused Modi’s government of direct involvement in the 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a naturalised Canadian citizen who was part of a fringe group that advocated for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.

Khalistan militants have been blamed for the assassination of an Indian prime minister and the bombing of a passenger jet.

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government further alleged India had directed a broader campaign of intimidation against Sikh activists across Canada.

India has repeatedly dismissed the allegations, which sent relations into freefall, with both nations expelling a string of top diplomats in 2024.

Strategic analyst and author Brahma Chellaney said Carney’s trip was “intended to close one of the most acrimonious diplomatic chapters between two major democracies in recent memory”.

“For two pluralistic democracies navigating an uncertain century, this may prove to be the most sustainable foundation of all,” he said on X.

Ties between New Delhi and Ottawa improved after Carney took office in March 2025, and envoys have since been restored.

– ‘Enormous opportunities’ –

“Building true strategic autonomy requires diversification, not isolation,” Carney said.

“It creates enormous opportunities for India and Canada to work together, to limit risks, to increase prosperity, and to build sovereignty.”

Carney has made reducing Canada’s heavy reliance on the US economy a centrepiece of his foreign economic policy.

In 2024, before US President Donald Trump returned to office and upended global trade with a flurry of tariffs, more than 75 percent of Canadian exports went to the United States. Two-way trade that year exceeded $900 billion.

So far Trump has broadly adhered to the North American free-trade agreement he signed during his first term, and about 85 percent of US-Canada trade remains tariff-free.

But at the same time, Trump has also imposed painful industry-specific tariffs, and there are fears that if he scraps the broader trade deal, the Canadian economy will be hit hard.

Carney is trying to boost commerce with Europe and Asia as a strategy to backstop Canada’s economy, should free trade with Washington collapse.

After India, Carney will travel to Australia and Japan — part of a wider push to broaden Canada’s economic partnerships.

burs-abh/mjw

“Lest We Forget”: Six Years After Delhi Violence

Mukund Jha | 24 Feb 2026

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At a remembrance meet, participants feel that justice remains an unfinished promise.

On 23 February, at the Press Club of India in New Delhi, survivors, lawyers, former judges, scholars, activists, and concerned citizens gathered under a banner that read: “Lest We Forget” to mark six years since the communal violence that engulfed northeast Delhi in February 2020. The carnage claimed 53 lives as per official figures while leaving hundreds injured and thousands displaced. Some civil society groups maintain that the number of persons killed is 54.

Organised by Karwan-e-Mohabbat, the event was conceived not merely as a memorial, but as a civic intervention. Moderated by Harsh Mander — former Indian Administrative Service officer, author, and long-time human rights campaigner — the gathering sought to revisit the events of February 2020 and assess where the pursuit of justice stands today.

Six years is a significant span in the life of a city. Buildings are reconstructed, shops reopen, governments change, headlines move on. Yet for families who lost loved ones, homes, livelihoods, and a sense of security, time has not resolved the central question: has justice kept pace with memory?

Revisiting February 2020

The violence erupted in late February 2020 against the backdrop of countrywide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and fears of a discriminatory National Register of Citizens (NRC). Tensions had been mounting for weeks. Protest sites such as Shaheen Bagh had become symbols of constitutional assertion. At the same time, inflammatory political rhetoric escalated.

When clashes began in northeast Delhi — in neighbourhoods including Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Chand Bagh and Shiv Vihar — they quickly spiralled into arson, vandalism, and targeted attacks. Homes were torched. Shops were looted. Religious sites were damaged. Fifty-three deaths were officially recorded. Civil society groups later documented an additional name — Asif — whose death, they argued, had not been formally included.

Multiple investigations followed. Hundreds were arrested. Yet six years later, the legal landscape remains deeply contested. Conviction rates in many cases are low. In others, trials have barely progressed. Allegations of investigative lapses, fabricated evidence, and selective prosecution continue to circulate in courtrooms and public discourse alike.

Memory as Democratic Responsibility

Opening the event, Harsh Mander framed remembrance as a constitutional duty rather than an act of nostalgia. “A democracy,” he said, “is measured not only by elections but by how it responds when its most vulnerable citizens are harmed.”

Drawing on his long engagement with survivors of communal violence — from Gujarat in 2002 to Delhi in 2020 — Mander emphasised that “Lest We Forget” carries institutional weight. Forgetting risks normalising injustice. Memory, by contrast, insists on accountability.

He stressed that justice must be understood in its full constitutional sense: impartial investigation, equal protection of the law, and meaningful rehabilitation. “Justice,” he said, “is not vengeance. It is fairness, transparency, and accountability.”

Citizenship, Fear, and Institutional Inversion

Former civil servant Deb Mukherjee reflected on the broader political climate that preceded the violence. He spoke of the deep anxiety triggered by discussions around a countrywide NRC. “It was a new experience,” he said. “Even after proving your identity, even after documents were verified, you could still be picked up and sent to a detention centre.”

He argued that the burden of proof had been inverted. People’s Tribunal members, he noted, had affirmed that citizenship is a fundamental right and that it is for the state to prove that someone is not a citizen — not for individuals to endlessly prove that they are.

Mukherjee recalled visiting Shaheen Bagh during the protests. He described being moved by a woman who declared: “We do not care what the government says. We are ready to assert our rights as citizens.”

He rejected portrayals of protest sites as anti-national. “Those spaces were marked by the Indian flag, the national anthem, and the Constitution. They were deeply constitutional spaces.”

He also raised concerns about hate speech. When a judge questioned why an FIR had not been filed in response to inflammatory slogans, that judge was transferred the next day. “Years later,” Mukherjee observed, “that ‘appropriate time’ to act still has not arrived.”

He noted that various reports — by political parties, independent lawyers’ groups, citizens’ committees, and the Delhi Minorities Commission — converged on one conclusion: the police had failed in their duties, and in some instances, there were indications of complicity.

Six years later, he said, many young people remain imprisoned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. “The use of UAPA here,” he argued, “has not simply been procedural. It has amounted to a travesty of justice.”

Due Process Under Strain

Former Supreme Court judge Madan B. Lokur addressed the gathering with a detailed examination of the legal process. He began with conviction statistics: many cases have been decided, yet acquittals dominate. In several judgments, courts have sharply criticised police investigations.

One grave allegation, he noted, is fabrication of evidence. Courts have observed instances where prosecution witnesses were not even present at the scene. Producing false witnesses, he said, “strikes at the heart of the justice system.”

Yet despite judicial criticism, accountability appears absent. “If there are no consequences for investigative misconduct,” he warned, “the deterrent effect is lost.”

He questioned the elastic invocation of a “larger conspiracy.” Could a handful of individuals destabilise a nation-state? “Is our government so fragile?” he asked. Without careful scrutiny, such theories risk becoming blanket justifications for prolonged incarceration.

Turning to delays, he cited the case of Umar Khalid. Six years on, charges have yet to be formally framed, though a voluminous charge sheet was filed long ago. It reportedly took over two years for the accused to receive copies of relevant documents.

“The presumption of innocence is foundational,” Lokur emphasised. “It is not the accused’s duty to expedite the trial. It is the prosecution’s obligation — and the court’s.”

He also referred to a widely circulated video showing a man being beaten and forced to sing the national anthem. “It took six years even to consider registering an FIR,” he said. “When those entrusted with enforcing the law are accused of breaking it, and no prompt action follows, public confidence suffers.”

Justice, he reminded the audience, must be blind. “No one is above the Constitution. If influential individuals remain untouched while others face prolonged incarceration, justice begins to look selective.”

Commission of Inquiry, Hate Speech, and Rehabilitation

Senior political leader Brinda Karat spoke next, outlining three central concerns. First: Why has there been no official Commission of Inquiry? After the 1984 anti-Sikh violence, multiple commissions were constituted. After Gujarat 2002, inquiries were held. “But for Delhi 2020?” she asked. “No official commission.”

Without a state-constituted inquiry, she argued, a particular “chronology” presented in Parliament shaped the entire narrative before cases were even filed.

Second: hate speech and sanction. Complaints were filed against political leaders for inflammatory slogans. Yet FIRs remain stalled, partly over questions of prior sanction for prosecuting public servants. “If hate speech is legally linked to violence,” she said, “that principle must apply equally.”

Third: compensation and long-term rehabilitation. Of the 54 families civil society groups track, most lost primary breadwinners. Many households are now female-headed. Karat described the work of a relief and rehabilitation committee that continues to support 64 children with scholarships.

Compensation, she argued, cannot be a one-time payment. It must include long-term educational support, livelihood rebuilding, and monitoring to prevent school dropouts.

She also proposed forming an independent “case audit committee” to review all decided cases and place findings before the public. “When justice shows double standards,” she warned, “social trust erodes.”

The Language of Outreach

Former Union Minister Salman Khurshid offered a reflective intervention. “You are here because you already understand these issues,” he said. “But what about the distant villages? What about those who do not share this vocabulary?”

He argued that the movement must develop a new language of engagement — one capable of reaching beyond familiar circles. Referring to his experiences during Jamia and Shaheen Bagh struggles, he suggested that constitutional language must be translated into everyday idioms.

He invoked Gandhi — not merely as a symbol of non-violence but as a practitioner of dialogue. “We have to find a way to speak across differences,” he said. “Otherwise, divisions harden permanently.”

He acknowledged that the “balance sheet” of the last six years appears discouraging. Yet he urged participants to learn from other movements — including the farmers’ protests — about building wider public consensus.

Survivors and the Human Cost

Documentary screenings during the event foregrounded survivors’ testimonies: a shopkeeper whose business was reduced to ashes; a father searching hospital corridors; women navigating widowhood and sudden economic responsibility.

Parents of the deceased, speakers noted, live with dual burdens — grief and ongoing responsibility for surviving children. Some families relocated permanently. Others rebuilt amid quiet mistrust.

Trauma lingers. Children face anxiety and disrupted education. Women heading households confront economic precarity in environments shadowed by fear.

In January 2025, petitions were filed in the Delhi High Court alleging that even previously announced compensation had not been fully disbursed. A court order directing payment within three months reportedly faces challenges. “Justice,” one speaker observed, “is not complete when an order is passed. It is complete when it is implemented.”

Where is justice?

As the evening concluded, there was no declaration of closure. Instead, there was recognition that February 2020 remains an unfinished chapter.

Infrastructure in northeast Delhi has largely been rebuilt. Markets bustle. Schools function. Life moves forward.

But justice, participants insisted, cannot be measured by anniversaries. It is measured by equal application of law, institutional accountability, due process, and meaningful rehabilitation.

Until that question receives a credible, consistent answer — for victims and for the accused alike — “Lest We Forget” will remain not just a memorial phrase, but a constitutional demand. Justice, six years on, remains an unfinished promise.

Trump could cost 150,000 truckers their jobs — and they're all from one minority group

(REUTERS)

Matthew Rozsa

February 26, 2026

ALTERNET

President Donald Trump called for Congress to pass the so-called “Dalilah Law” requiring commercial drivers licenses to only go to legal residents — and in the process continued the MAGA movement’s targeting of the Sikh community.

"Many, if not most, illegal aliens do not speak English and cannot read even the most basic road signs," Trump said during his Tuesday night State of the Union message. "That's why tonight, I'm calling on Congress to pass what we will call the 'Dalilah Law,' barring any state from granting commercial drivers licenses to illegal aliens."

From bus drivers and over-the-road semi-trailer drivers to RV delivery haulers, America has 3.5 million licensed truckers, and the American Trucking Associations trade group (37,000-members strong) supports Trump’s efforts to both enforce immigration laws and “ensure that only properly trained, fully qualified, and English-proficient drivers are behind the wheel of 80,000-pound commercial motor vehicles.” Yet Trump’s approach may also target a group that MAGA repeatedly puts in its sites — Sikhs

“Among the strongest critics of the measures are India-born Sikhs, who make up about 150,000 members of the trucking community, according to regulatory data,” reported USA Today’s Trevor Hughes. “Tens of thousands of Sikhs sought asylum in the United States during the Biden presidency, many of them crossing the Mexican border without advance permission.” The article also pointed out that for thousands of people “the crackdown on foreign drivers would cause them to lose their jobs and homes in one fell swoop ‒ many truckers live in their semis” and simultaneously increase “freight costs from American consumers.”

The White House has often singled out Sikh truck drivers, in particular a California-licensed Sikh driver named Harjinder Singh was involved in a fatal August crash in Florida that killed three people. Trump officials claim Singh was in America illegally and did not speak English well enough to qualify for his license. Sikhs For Justice, a US-based group, donated $100,000 to the victims in the accident Singh is accused of causing.

Others in the Trump movement have expressed prejudice against Sikhs. In June Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) misidentified a Sikh man as Muslim and argued that he should not have been allowed to pray on the House of Representatives floor because he is not a Christian.

“It’s deeply troubling that a Muslim was allowed to lead prayer in the House of Representatives this morning,” Miller said. “This should have never been allowed to happen. America was founded as a Christian nation, and I believe our government should reflect that truth, not drift further…”

Miller later posted a version that swapped the word “Sikh” for “Muslim.” Miller’s target was Giani Singh, a Sikh Granthi from southern New Jersey who had been “welcomes” to deliver the prayer by Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ).

FBI director Kash Patel has also been targeted by xenophobia. When he wished his followers a Happy Diwali on X (Diwali is celebrated by Sikhs, some Buddhists, Jains and Hindus), far-right Christian and white nationalists attacked Patel online. Diwali greetings were similarly attacked when expressed by Indian American Trump officials like former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon.

Carney on route to Asia to promote Canada trade as US ties falter

By AFP
February 26, 2026


Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney greets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a G7 meeting last year in western Canada - Copyright AFP Idrees MOHAMMED

Ben Simon

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was flying to Asia on Thursday for a three-country tour with a first stop in India, where he hopes to double trade to offset the damage of his country’s fracturing relations with the United States.

Carney’s India visit marks the latest effort to reset bilateral ties that effectively collapsed after Ottawa accused New Delhi of orchestrating a deadly campaign against Sikh activists on Canadian territory.

For Carney, the trip that includes stops in Australia and Japan is part of a broad effort to pivot the Canadian economy away from excessive reliance on its southern neighbor.

In 2024, before US President Donald Trump returned to office and upended global trade through a flurry of tariffs, more than 75 percent of Canadian exports went to the United States. Two-way trade that year exceeded $900 billion.

So far Trump broadly adhered to the North American free trade agreement he signed during his first term and about 85 percent of US-Canada trade remains tariff-free.

But at the same time, he also imposed painful industry-specific tariffs and there are fears that if he scraps the broader trade deal, the Canadian economy will be hit hard.

Carney has made boosting commerce with Europe and Asia cornerstones of his strategy to backstop Canada’s economy, should free trade with Washington collapse.

University of Toronto public policy expert Drew Fagan said Carney was wise to pursue other markets, calling for a strategy that seeks to do “more elsewhere, when there’s an opportunity.”

The prime minister has said he wants to more than double two-way trade with India by 2030, eyeing a target of Can$70 billion ($51 billion) by 2030.

Fagan cautioned that progress with countries like India cannot mitigate the damage of a US rupture.

“It’s not a solution. It’s not a replacement and it never will be,” Fagan told AFP.



– Transnational repression –



Carney left Ottawa on Thursday morning en route to Mumbai.

He is expected to meet with business groups in the Indian city over the weekend before heading to New Delhi for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a meeting that will be closely watched.

Before Carney took office last year, Ottawa accused Modi’s government of direct involvement in the 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a naturalized Canadian citizen who advocated for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government further charged India with directing a campaign of intimidation against Sikh activists across Canada.

India has denied those allegations.

Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand was asked Monday if Canadian concerns about transnational repression would feature at the New Delhi talks.

“Yes, that is always at the forefront of our minds,” Anand told reporters in Ottawa.

Carney’s hopes for trade growth with Australia and Japan are more modest, but his office said cooperation over critical mineral supply chains will be a priority.

Advanced economies have made a push to deepen critical mineral cooperation, especially in the processing of rare earth elements essential to power many high-tech products.

China currently has dominant control of rare earth supply chains, a concern that Canada highlighted throughout its just-concluded G7 presidency.

At dueling National Prayer Breakfasts, a religious debate over Trump's immigration policy

(RNS) — Trump told the crowd at the Washington Hilton, ‘I’ve done more for religion than any other president.’

President Donald Trump bows his head during the National Prayer Breakfast, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Jack Jenkins
February 5, 2026
RNS

(RNS) — President Donald Trump, speaking to a sprawling crowd at a National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on Thursday (Feb. 5), returned to his personal tradition of using the bipartisan convening as an opportunity to attack his political enemies along religious lines.

“I don’t know how a person of faith can vote for a Democrat,” said Trump.

In a more than hourlong speech, the president, a self-described nondenominational Christian, highlighted faith but spent roughly as much time lauding his administration, his Cabinet and himself while heaping criticism on others. At one point, he blasted Republicans who have opposed his policies, saying of U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, “There’s something wrong with him.”

The breakfast at the Washington Hilton was one of two prayer breakfasts that took place in the capital Thursday, continuing a split that began during the COVID-19 pandemic as negative reports came out about the Fellowship Foundation, the secretive evangelical Christian group that has coordinated the event for decades. Since at least 2022, the established breakfast has been held at the Hilton and another “reset” event organized by members of Congress at the U.S. Capitol. President Joe Biden tended only to address the event at the Capitol, but last year, Trump spoke at both.

On Jan. 7 of this year, the co-chairs of the Hilton event, U.S. Reps. Jonathan L. Jackson of Illinois and Ben Cline of Virginia, announced that there would be only one breakfast, suggesting the return to a single event had come at the urging of Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson. But Sen. Roger Marshall, a nondenominational Christian and Kansas Republican, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Catholic and New York Democrat, hosted an event at the Capitol on Thursday anyway, coordinated by a separate National Prayer Breakfast Foundation created in 2023.

The more sedate Capitol event featured Scripture readings and prayers from Gillibrand, Marshall, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Chaplain Margaret Kibben, with a keynote address from Senate Chaplain Barry Black.

Senate Chaplain Barry Black addresses a prayer breakfast in the U.S. Capitol, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington. (Video screen grab)

At the Hilton, the religious politics were more obvious, with speakers offering contrasting interpretations of the president’s immigration policies. In his remarks, Trump referred to a Jan. 18 incident in which protesters disrupted the Sunday service at Cities Church, a Southern Baptist church in St. Paul, Minnesota, where activists allege a local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a lay pastor, and the subsequent arrests of multiple protesters as well as two journalists, including onetime CNN host Don Lemon.

After Trump’s remarks, Jackson led a prayer that appeared to reference the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of Department of Homeland Security agents in Minnesota. “We pray that he would be mindful of the poor,” Jackson said, referring to Trump. “That he would be invested in the alleviation of suffering happening on farms in the Midwest, in the families preparing to bury their loved ones in Minneapolis.”

The audience at the hotel, which was largely receptive to Trump, also heard from President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador. Trump called Bukele “one of my favorite people” and praised him for allowing the U.S. to send people detained by DHS to the notorious mega-prisons in the Central American country.

Bukele, in his remarks, explained that the prisons were originally built to accommodate those imprisoned during his government’s campaign to eliminate gangs from the country. The rapid incarceration of thousands has sparked widespread allegations of human rights abuses in El Salvador, but Bukele attributed the effort to divine providence. “Our experience told us that it is impossible to have such big change without the intervention of God,” he said.

Bukele likened the anti-gang campaign to a spiritual battle, saying, “We won the spiritual war first, and that reflected in our physical world.”

President of El Salvador, Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez, listens as President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

But Trump also chastised Bukele during his remarks, saying he “sends bad people to the United States,” referring to immigrants.

In his speech, Trump addressed his own spiritual future, walking back a suggestion he made last year that he might not get into heaven. The president said he had been joking, saying he actually believes he “probably should make it.“

Paula White-Cain, an evangelical minister who headed the White House Faith-Based Office in Trump’s first term, said in introducing the president on Thursday that “no president in modern history, or perhaps all of history, has done more structurally, substantially and sincerely to elevate and protect religious liberty.”

Trump agreed, saying, “I’ve done more for religion than any other president.”

He also seemed to take credit at one point for defending Christians in other countries from persecution, a recent focus of the White House, before he was president. He singled out a woman named Mariam Ibrahim in the audience, noting that, in 2014, she had endured imprisonment and persecution in Sudan for her Christian faith, resulting in an international outcry for her release.

“I did that. I did that with one phone call actually,” Trump said of her successful release. “She had such support. It was so easy. And when I explained it to the powers that be, ‘Yes, sir, we will do it right away.’ I just wish I knew earlier.”

He didn’t make clear how he had become involved with the effort to secure Ibrahim’s release, or whom he had called. According to a 2014 article published by BBC, Ibrahim was already living in the U.S. by the end of that year, two years before Trump was elected to his first term as president. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.

Political topics were not entirely absent at the Capitol event, even if they were subtler. Near the end of the service, a prayer was offered by Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat who made national headlines last June when he was tackled and detained after attempting ask a question of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem at a press conference. After praying for members of Congress and members of the judiciary, Padilla prayed for members of the military and veterans.

“We thank them for their service and sacrifice in defense of our nation and our democracy,” he said. “May they recall Jeremiah Chapter 22:3, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place.’”

The dueling breakfasts came less than two weeks after around 100 clergy and faith leaders were arrested in Minneapolis while protesting Trump’s immigration policies, part of rising religious criticism of his administration. Several pastors have been shot with pepper balls and pepper rounds by federal agents while protesting the administration, and dozens of denominations and religious organizations have filed suit against the administration over the past year, many claiming that their religious freedom has been violated by the U.S. government.

Religious groups have also sued the administration over the president’s decision to virtually shut down the refugee program — including Christians fleeing religious persecution — to anyone other than white Afrikaners from South Africa, and others have alleged his administration is regularly attempting to deport asylum-seekers.

The events also came two days after House Speaker Mike Johnson weighed in on a theological debate with Pope Leo XIV. Asked during a press scrum to respond to the pontiff’s public criticism of Trump’s immigration policies, Johnson outlined a religious argument defending Trump’s approach to immigration, and later published a lengthy post on social media further detailing his position.

Marie Griffith, a religion professor at Washington University in St. Louis and former director of the school’s John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, said the dueling events, and the tensions over the mass deportation effort in Minneapolis, spoke to a “fracturing” of the U.S. religious landscape.

“You really see competing Christianities, diametrically opposed visions of what it means to be a Christian, of what is at the core of the Christian faith,” Griffith said.

While both prayer breakfasts still feature “evangelicals claiming proximity to political power,” she said, there appears to be division over what that looks like.

“Evangelicals attended both of those events, and so you’ve got people disagreeing about what this means in this moment to convey a Christian message, to call the president back to Christian values,” Griffith said.

At Mamdani’s interfaith breakfast, NY clergy condemn Trump’s immigration crackdown

NEW YORK (RNS) — During the event, Mamdani signed an executive order to prevent US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from entering city property without a judicial warrant.

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani shows an executive order after signing it during an interfaith breakfast at the New York Public Library’s midtown location on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (Video screen grab)

Fiona André
February 6, 2026
RNS


NEW YORK (RNS) — New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted his first interfaith breakfast at the New York Public Library’s midtown location on Friday morning (Feb. 6). For this year’s breakfast, local clergy joined the mayor in condemning the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.

During the event, Mamdani signed an executive order to prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from entering city property without a judicial warrant.

“ICE is more than a rogue agency. It is a manifestation of the abuse of power,” Mamdani said before signing the document amid applause. “In fact, there is no reforming something so rotten and base.”

Executive Order 13 will also prevent the federal government from accessing New Yorkers’ private data and create an interagency response committee on immigration, the mayor said.

During the traditional breakfast, Mamdani, who began building ties with local faith leaders during his campaign, made clear that he hoped to work with them to implement his affordability agenda and support the city’s immigrant communities amid ICE operations in the city. Throughout the event, speakers drew on various spiritual teachings to urge clergy to defend immigrant communities across the five boroughs.

During his 20-minute address, Mamdani referenced teachings from the Bible, the Torah and the Bhagavad-Gita, a sacred Hindu text, on the need for the faithful to care for strangers. The mayor, citing Deuteronomy 10:17-18, which speaks of God caring for strangers, commended the nearly 200 faith leaders in attendance to do the same.

People attend an interfaith breakfast at the New York Public Library’s midtown location on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, hosted by mayor Zohran Mamdani. (RNS photo/Fiona André)

“We can rely on our faith to offer an embrace of one another,” he said.

Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, noted that his own tradition was founded on a story of immigration: the Prophet Muhammad’s journey from Mecca to Medina.

“Let us offer a new path — one of defiance through compassion,” said Mamdani, after praising the example set by Minnesota protesters Alex Pretti and Renée Good, both killed by ICE agents deployed in the state.

After an opening musical performance by Qais Essar, Sonny Singh and Sukhmani, which drew on Sikh, Sufi and Afghan cultures, leaders took turns on stage, all denouncing the administration’s immigration policy as opposed to their faith teachings.

In her welcoming remarks, Aliya Latif, the newly appointed executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Faith-Based Partnerships, said NY clergy ought to mobilize as forcefully as clergy who have protested ICE operations across the country.

“Faith leaders have responded to this crisis with the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They have prayed with their feet,” she said. “Our latest test will be how we care for the most vulnerable amongst us.”

Rabbi Emily Cohen, senior rabbi at West End Synagogue in Manhattan, also applauded faith leaders who have taken center stage in the protest movement against ICE operations.

“Religion is often characterized as a home for the right, but I’m continually inspired by the religious left … by ordinary people who wear their faith not as a suit of armor, guarding against the other, but as a big coat warming us against an icy world,” she said.

Dr. Sheikh Faiyaz Jaffer, the executive director of New York University’s Islamic Center, said that as the Quran teaches Muslims to honor all human beings, he encouraged faith leaders to advocate for a just treatment of immigrants across the country.

“We are not called to a sense of personal piety but to a sense of moral courage,” he said. “Faith leaders and faith communities must be the voices of conscience, standing with the vulnerable, defending human dignity and reminding society that every single one of us carries this intrinsic honor.”

Attendees included congressional candidate and former NYC comptroller Brad Lander, New York Muslim Democratic Club’s lead counsel, Ali Najmi, St. John the Divine’s dean the Rev. Winnie Varghese and Clarendon Road church’s the Rev. Charles Galbreath.

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, senior rabbi at Park Avenue Synagogue, also attended the event. During the mayoral campaign, Cosgrove said he believed Mamdani posed a “danger to the security of the New York Jewish community” because of his criticism of Israel.

This year, major Jewish organizations withdrew their sponsorship of the interfaith breakfast, including the Anti-Defamation League, UJA-Federation of New York and the New York Board of Rabbis.

The event also featured prayers by a revered Buddhist master, His Eminence Gegye Yongyal Rinpoche and Queens-based Hindu priest Uddab Shastri. Imam Ammar Abdul Rahman, the Muslim life director at Fordham University, also prayed that faith leaders translate the day’s conversations into action.