A new book argues most white US Christians worship a religion of whiteness

Michael Emerson and Glenn Bracey depict a Christianity that worships a white Jesus and a set of sacred symbols, including the flag, the cross and, increasingly, guns.

“The Religion of Whiteness: How Racism Distorts Christian Faith" cover and authors Michael Emerson, left, and Glenn Bracey, right. (Courtesy images)

May 21, 2024

By Yonat Shimron

(RNS) — In 2000, two sociologists wrote a book about the fraught efforts of white evangelicals to diversify their congregations to better address racial discrimination in the church.

Now, one of those authors, Michael Emerson, has teamed up with another sociologist, Glenn Bracey, for an update.

Their conclusions are grim.

In “The Religion of Whiteness: How Racism Distorts Christian Faith,” Emerson and Bracey suggest that as many as two-thirds of white Christians in the U.S. have elevated whiteness to a religion itself, one that rivals Christianity.

It’s a controversial claim, but one they support through interviews with Christian church leaders, many of them Black, about the state of race in the church, as well as a set of national surveys they conducted over the past few years.

Emerson and Bracey depict a Christianity that effectively worships the white race with a white Jesus at its center and a set of sacred symbols, including the flag (both the U.S. flag and sometimes the Confederate flag), the cross and, increasingly, guns. Though their churches may be slightly more racially diverse, this religion of whiteness strives to maintain whites at the top of the racial hierarchy as part of God’s ordained order.

Religion News Service spoke to Emerson, a fellow in religion and public policy at Rice University, and Bracey, an assistant professor of sociology at Villanova University, about their bold conclusions. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You’re not using the word “religion” metaphorically in this book. You’re actually saying there is a religion of whiteness. Explain how you mean it.

Michael Emerson. (Courtesy photo)

Emerson: This is hard for people to understand, but we’re saying we cannot make progress in our country on race until we understand the depth of what it all means. It is wrapped literally in a religion that has all the markers of the way we define religion. It’s a unified system of beliefs and practices that worships or sacralizes, not some God in this sense, but whiteness. Whiteness is the god. It declares that everything else that isn’t supporting whiteness is profane, it’s wrong, it needs to be shunned.

Bracey: And when we say whiteness, we’re talking about the dominance that white people enjoy over people of color. So it’s not as though someone is saying, ‘I attend the Church of Whiteness.’ It’s that they find themselves caught up in the worship of the dominance that white people enjoy.

As you say, this religion doesn’t call itself a Church of Whiteness. Why not?

Emerson: There’s a couple of rhetorical moves that are made so you never have to actually name it. One of them is that Jesus is white, and Jesus by definition is supposed to be for everybody. So Jesus is universal. So as long as Jesus is white and Jesus is universal, then whiteness is universal. And once you do that, you no longer have to name it, because that is truth. Anything else, is an argument against trut

You also point out that churches across the country are becoming more diverse.You mention that 20% of Christian churches are racially diverse, up from 6% in 2000. Doesn’t that argue against a religion of whiteness?

Bracey: So that’s a very good question. It’s important to note that 80% of the churches are still homogeneous. The difficulty is, the whiteness of the church can remain, even when the church is not entirely white.

White evangelical churches in particular have race tests to either exclude people of color or make sure that people of color will support whiteness in the way that the church wants it supported. So those tests, I call utility-based tests, to tolerate and support these performances of white dominance. Those race tests are working. They’re doing a good job of filtering out people who would disturb the worship of whiteness in those churches.

Describe how these tests work.

Glenn Bracey. (Photo by Kevin C. Brown)

Bracey: I went to seven churches across four different states, all majority white and evangelical. In one church, I was asked on my first visit to go up on stage and sing, even though I have no history of singing in churches. In another church, I was asked if I wanted to adopt a biracial baby because this child had a biracial family and the father who was white had left, and they were looking for someone to step in and be a father.

Other times, there were exclusionary tests and the exclusionary tests are really obvious and painful. I went to a Bible study, segregated by sex. So I was in the men’s group, the men’s group was about eight people including six white men and a Latino man and me. It was his first time as well. They introduced themselves by saying what their names were and what their favorite gun was, and how recently they had shot it. So they established a gun culture, dominance and a sense of threat.

And at one point, the host of the Bible study stands up and says, I don’t know what the name of my favorite gun is. I just know when I shoot it, it goes chink, chink, chink. So I call it my China gun. So, without saying anything overtly, there was a performance that let you know the space was dangerous for people of color. It was racially stereotypical and hostile. If you were going to stay, you had to be willing to put up with the kinds of behaviors that established this space as a very white dominant space.

You also did some surveys to better define the belief systems of churches that practice the religion of whiteness. How did you get at whiteness in those surveys?

Bracey: We have a set of survey questions that ask people, do you think the Bible should be followed under all circumstances? The people who say “always” are the only people that we then ask follow-up questions. The Bible says not to speak unwholesome words. And so it’s wrong to curse. The majority say you should not curse. But then when we ask things that are racially inflected — how to treat immigrants, how to treat racial minorities within the church —  then they abandon their Christian commitment to the Bible and show a commitment to something else. And that something else is whiteness.

Some Blacks have embraced this religion of whiteness. How do you understand that?

Bracey: A lot of people get involved with the religion of whiteness, not because they’re attracted to whiteness, but because they’re attracted to the authentic or the real. Because whiteness is considered real, they come to think that real Christianity is what white folks say it is. People are attached to dominant things. There’s a lot of psychological benefit, in addition to monetary benefit, from being a person of color in the religion of whiteness. People are constantly telling you you’ve done the right thing, you’ve broken from what they would say is the Democratic plantation, you are serious about faith, you put God before race. Frankly, that is enough to sustain a lot of people.

How is there a monetary benefit?

Bracey: I’ll give you an example. (Earlier in my life) a pastor took me to meet one of the Republican members, a Black Republican in our county and recruited me to run for office. And he said plainly, if you want to be a Black Democrat, there’s a million of those. But if you want to be a Black Republican, we’ll give you a lot of money and attention and air time. So there was a material offer put there.

How did you two scholars find each other?

Emerson: My earlier book, “Divided by Faith,” focused on white evangelicals. At that time, evangelicals were considered to be making a big change, bringing race into the conversation, advocating racial reconciliation. In the book I show there are particular ways of understanding the religion that actually makes matters worse. I argue these churches have three main religious cultural tools that they use: individualism, personal relationships and an antistructuralism that does not allow them to understand issues of race and racial inequality and what the solutions would be.

When we met, Glenn asked me, “Did you ever wonder if maybe it isn’t by chance that white evangelicals have these three cultural tools that just happened to not allow them to see what race really is?” I thought, “OK, I’ve got to work with this man.”

What’s been the response to your findings?

Emerson: I get two extreme reactions. I literally can hear crying in the audience, usually people of color, sometimes clapping, cheering and then some really serious questions: What is my motive? Am I a Christian? What has happened to me? These are coming mostly from white folks really who are very, very angry.

Bracey: If I am attending a church that’s practicing the religion of whiteness, they’ll obfuscate in the way that Michael described. There’s a “not me” syndrome happening. I would just invite people to think a little longer and see where their attachment to white Jesus is. How strong is it? Where would they find themselves in the book?

Sonya Massey said ‘I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.’ What’s the significance?

IT'S A CURSE AGAINST THE WHITE DEVIL POLICEMAN

Massey’s near-final words, said shortly before she was fatally shot by a deputy, have taken on a life of their own.

Sonya Massey of Springfield, Ill., with an unidentified child. (Photo courtesy Ben Crump Law)
July 26, 2024
By Kathryn Post

(RNS) — As video footage of the fatal police shooting of Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman who lived in Springfield, Illinois, circulates online, many viewers are memorializing her near-final words: “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”

Massey initially called 911 from her home on July 6, citing concerns of an intruder. The body-camera footage, which was released Monday by the Illinois State Police, shows sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson shooting Massey in the head following a brief exchange over a pot of hot water. Grayson has since been fired and charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery and official misconduct, and the U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into Massey’s death.

According to some faith leaders and scholars, Massey’s near-last words, spoken twice in an even voice to the deputies before her death, carry a spiritual and cultural weight specific to Black church communities.

“Every person raised in a certain kind of black church knows the power and gravity of those words,” Womanist biblical scholar Wil Gafney wrote on her website on Tuesday. “Those are the words to be said when facing the evil that has walked in your door and will soon take your life. It is not a prayer to save one’s life or for God to come down and prevent the flagrant act of violence to come. It is something between a benediction and a malediction, laying bare the wickedness of the soul encased in human skin standing before her.”

In an Instagram Live on Wednesday night, author Austin Channing Brown noted her own “churchy” background before providing context for the rebuke, which she said was not in any way a threat.

“Because white people think they have the corner market on what is normal, we are misinterpreted all the time,” she said.

Austin Channing Brown in an Instagram Live post. (Video screen grab)

The phrase has begun to take on a life of its own, becoming “memeified” and posted by faith leaders and others, including Essence Magazine, whose post about Massey and her parting phrase has been shared over 12,000 times on Facebook.

“It’s becoming, whether it’s on T-shirts or bumper stickers, that statement is flowing through everywhere,” said the Rev. T. Ray McJunkins, a pastor at Union Baptist Church in Springfield who has been serving as an informal liaison between Massey’s family and government officials.

McJunkins agreed that the phrase is a cultural one that’s especially common in Black charismatic church contexts. He said it’s typically invoked when something feels out of one’s hands, and certainly when there’s a sense of the demonic.

“We understand and we believe the Bible as it relates to there being power in the name of Jesus,” McJunkins told RNS.

Massey, who leaves behind two children, was a member of Second Timothy Baptist Church in Springfield. The Rev. Cary Beckwith, a pastor at nearby Springfield Grace United Methodist Church, was asked to officiate the July 19 funeral service, which included a sermon on Psalm 46 and a soloist performing Yolanda Adams’ anthem, “The Battle Is the Lord’s.” Several family members who spoke at the service remarked on Massey’s Christian faith.

“The darkness of that day cannot and will not extinguish the light of Sonya Massey,” Beckwith said to the packed funeral home. 

The Rev. Cary Beckwith officiates the funeral service of Sonya Massey on July 19, 2024, in Springfield, Ill. (Video screen grab)

Speaking to RNS, Beckwith provided his own explanation of Massey’s near-last words.

“For Sonya to say that I rebuke you in the name of Jesus, she, in that moment, saw something demonic in the eyes of that officer,” he said. “She felt something in her spirit that did not line up with the love of Jesus Christ.”
RELATED: White Christians think too many people see racism when it’s not there, new survey finds

Some news outlets report that Massey had been managing a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia with medication. Massey was several feet away from the deputies when she was shot. She was not in a position to harm them, Beckwith said. He added, her mental illness “was not justification for her leaving this earth the way she did.”

In the days since the funeral, Beckwith told RNS that local faith leaders have responded to the tragedy by “taking cues” from local community groups, including the local Black Lives Matter chapter and Intricate Minds, a grassroots harm-reduction organization, which have organized peaceful marches and community events.

At a news conference on Monday, Ben Crump, a nationally recognized lawyer representing Massey’s family, spoke to reporters after the release of the video footage. “Until we get justice for Sonya Massey, we rebuke this discriminatory criminal justice system in the name of Jesus,” he said. Crump has handled several other notable cases, representing the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin.

Malachi Hill Massey, 17, center, speaks at a news conference on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, at the NAACP headquarters in Springfield, Ill., about his mother, Sonya Massey, who was shot to death by a Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy on July 6 in Springfield after calling 911 for help. On the left is civil right attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the Massey family. On the right is Sonya Massey’s daughter, Jeanette Summer Massey, 15. (AP Photo/John O’Connor)

McJunkins, who co-founded the faith-based social justice group Faith Coalition for the Common Good in 2008, has been working behind the scenes in recent weeks, connecting Massey’s family with decision-makers and advocating on their behalf, particularly in conversations with Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell. Earlier this week, Massey’s father, James Wilburn, and others began calling for Campbell’s resignation following news that Grayson had two prior DUI convictions and has worked at six different law enforcement agencies since 2020.

McJunkins hosted conversations between Massey’s family and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton at his church on Monday (July 22) and is teaming up with the Department of Justice to hold a community listening session at the church next Monday (July 29).

“My community needs to heal,” said McJunkins, who added that Massey’s death has hit close to home for many in Springfield. “Whether they know it or not, we’re going through the five stages of grief. As a community leader and religious leader, I’m not doing justice if I don’t step up to bring the community together, to walk them through a grief process.”

Amid that process, McJunkins said, Massey’s rebuke will continue to be a focal point and a rallying cry.

AMERIKA

Rev. Barber’s new book demystifies poverty: ‘Black people are not the problem’

The civil rights champion believes he cannot be a moral leader and stand up only for Black people. Far more white people are poor and struggling, too.

“White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy" and authors the Rev. William Barber II and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. (Photos by Franklin Golden, left, and Pilar Timpane)

July 29, 2024
By Yonat Shimron


(RNS) — When Tim Tyson first invited the Rev. William Barber II to meet with a group of white residents of Mitchell County, in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, Barber half jokingly replied, “I knew you were gonna get me killed.”

Barber, a Black anti-poverty activist, knew that in 1923 nearly all the county’s Black residents were driven out of Mitchell County. Even in 2013, when the invitation was extended, the county had fewer than 100 Black residents out of 15,000 people, or less than 1%.

But Tyson, a historian who teaches at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, convinced Barber to trek up the mountain to meet a group of white citizens who were fed up with the state Legislature’s cost cutting, especially in public education.

What Barber found at an Episcopal church in Mitchell County were a group of like-minded working-class whites eager to hear his message.

“There were about 300 people there standing all along the walls and Rev. Barber just spoke to them from his heart and spoke from his faith,” said Tyson. “He got three standing ovations. People just wept. They were so touched.”

When it was over, the assembled crowd said they wanted to start a branch of the NAACP — even though they were all white.

It was then that Barber first realized he could not be a moral leader and stand up only for Black people. Many white people too are poor and struggling. In fact, they form the largest single demographic group of the estimated 40 million Americans who are poor according to the U.S. Census, which Barber considers an outdated and significant undercount.

RELATED: Thousands of faith leaders, union members, activists rally for poor

That trip up to Mitchell County convinced Barber that he ought to follow in the tradition of the biblical prophet Jeremiah, who was called to be a watchman. “The ancient prophets remind us that when we cannot see a problem, a watchman must sound the alarm.”

On Monday (July 29), on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, Barber kicked off a series of Moral Monday Prayers calling for for democracy, justice, voting rights ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

As he outlines in his new book, written with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, who is white, it’s time for poor Blacks, whites and other minorities to unite and fight for better living conditions.

In “White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy,” Barber and Wilson-Hartgrove urge an end to the political ploys that set poor Blacks against poor whites.

“White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy” by the Rev. William Barber II and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. 

(Courtesy image)

“The history of America, like the history of the world,” Barber writes, “is filled with stories of powerful people who’ve stolen from the poor and used their power to pit poor people against one another so the masses would not rise up against them.”

As an example, he notes how Republican politicians have portrayed government programs such as welfare benefits as handouts from hard-working white people to poor Blacks, even though more whites benefit from those programs than Blacks. Attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion programs are another recent example experts point to as conservatives trying to use racial resentment to undermine class solidarity.

“This is the longest power play in the U.S. South, certainly, but across America: to divide people whose interests are shared and whose needs are very painful and urgent, by race,” said Nancy MacLean, a historian at Duke University who has become an ally of Barber’s and whose work is cited in his book

At last week’s Republican National Convention, JD Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president and an Ohio senator from rural Appalachia, said his party would stand up for working-class communities like the one he was raised in and stand against the “ruling class” that had sold them out.

“We’re done catering to Wall Street. We’ll commit to the working man,” Vance said.

But experts like MacLean said it’s extremely unlikely that Vance can transform the free market economic policies of the GOP. Indeed, the signature economic achievement of former President Trump’s term in office was a massive tax cut, skewed largely to benefit corporations and the wealthy.

Barber’s aim is not purely partisan. He can be critical of Democrats too, for not talking enough about poverty and preferring to appeal to middle-class voters.

His focus in writing the book ahead of the 2024 presidential election, however, is larger. He wants to build a multiracial coalition that moves beyond the idea that poverty is a Black problem.


The Rev. William Barber addresses a crowd at a demonstration organized by the Poor People’s Campaign outside the U.S. Capitol on June 29, 2024. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)

As he has before, with his Poor People’s Campaign, he is calling for a “Third Reconstruction.” The first was the work of the Reconstruction era after the Civil War that guaranteed the rights of former slaves with the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution. The second was the Civil Rights Movement that ended formal segregation, dismantled Jim Crow and removed legal barriers to voting.

For Barber, whites uniting with Blacks to fight poverty is the work of the Third Reconstruction, informed by a deeply moral and Christian mandate.

Before talking to a group of white people up in Mitchell County a decade ago, he had them sing a hymn, “Blessed Be the Tie That Binds.” Reference to that hymn is repeated throughout his new book.

“In communities across the land, I’ve had the opportunity to see and touch the ties that bind poor people,” he writes. “These are my people, just as much as the multicolored ancestors my daddy taught me to remember. … I am a witness that every shade of America’s poor has a great deal in common.”

RELATED: Lincoln called for divided Americans to heed their ‘better angels’

Fighting deepfakes: Can laws be good weapons?

Janosch Delcker

DW

July 27, 2024

Germany is debating new laws to counter a wave of malicious AI-generated content flooding the web. But civil liberties advocates warn tougher rules are no silver bullet — and say they could have unintended consequences.

AI-powered deepfake technology blurs the boundary between what's real and what's fake

Himanshu Sharma/dpa/picture alliance

Whether it's politicians apparently making outrageous statements, criminals masquerading as confidential sources, or individuals in humiliating situations that never happened, new deepfake technology is making it easier than ever to create convincing videos, images or audio clips in which people appear to say or do things they never did.

"The threat that deepfakes pose to our democratic society is extremely high," Franziska Benning, head of the legal department at the Berlin-based nonprofit HateAid, told DW.

To address the problem, lawmakers worldwide are debating new regulations that would specifically target the publication and distribution of deepfake content.

After Slovakia, EU elections face digital threats  04:21

In Germany, the debate found new momentum with a draft law published in July by the Bundesrat, the chamber of parliament representing the 16 state governments. The proposal includes tougher penalties and a new clause for "violation of personal rights through digital forgery."

Provisions in German law that are currently used to target deepfakes predate the emergence of the technology. They range from privacy violations to copyright infringement.

That makes the legal situation "confusing and incomplete," said Georg Eisenreich, a member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) and justice minister of the southern state of Bavaria, who initiated the proposal. Adding a new offense to Germany's Criminal Code would create "more clarity," he said.

Striking the right balance

But not everyone is convinced. Advocates for civil liberties argue most violations related to deepfakes are already covered by existing legislation. They also warn that overly restrictive regulations could impede legitimate uses of the technology.

"The problem of deepfakes is real, but we cannot draw the conclusion that we need to tighten criminal law to the point where even non-criminal behavior becomes a crime," said Benjamin Lück, a lawyer with the Berlin-based NGO Society for Civil Rights, or GFF.

Russian propaganda: Deepfake videos tougher to detect  02:23

"There is a danger of criminalizing even socially appropriate behavior and the use of deepfakes for satirical or artistic purposes," Lück told DW.

The debate in Berlin underscores the challenges faced by lawmakers in regulating technology that blurs the boundary between reality and fiction: striking a delicate balance between preventing misuse and safeguarding civil liberties, including freedom of expression.

From early development to widespread misuse

Deepfake technology dates back to the mid-2010s when researchers began using "deep learning," an emerging approach in artificial intelligence, to create realistic fake content. Soon after, pornographic content featuring celebrity faces swapped onto other people's bodies began circulating online.

Since then, the technology has rapidly advanced, with new generative AI programs now allowing anyone with basic technical skills to create fake content.

This has led to various forms of misuse. For example: criminals use deepfake technology to commit fraud, such as impersonating CEOs to trick employees or business partners into transferring funds or sharing confidential information. Across the web,

deepfake technology has also been used by domestic and international actors to spread disinformation and influence public opinion.

Protecting victims of image-based abuse

The vast majority of cases, however, involve non-consensual sexualized deepfakes: fake images or videos in which people appear to be naked or engage in sexual activity.

"Women are particularly affected by this," said Benning of the NGO HateAid, which supports victims of digital violence. Previously, this image-based abuse targeted primarily celebrities. "Today, more and more private individuals are contacting HateAid," she warned.

Franziska Benning is the head of legal at the Berlin-based nonprofit HateAid

Image: HateAid

Spreading such sexualized deepfakes is already punishable under German law, but "whether the law has been violated depends on the individual case and legal assessment," Benning explained. Sending deepfakes in direct messages, for example, is a gray area, she added.

The Bundesrat aims to close such loopholes. Though the draft law is unlikely to come into effect in its current form, experts expect it to influence an upcoming cyber violence law that is currently being drafted by the German Justice Ministry.

Benning welcomed the introduction of a new criminal offense for deepfakes, as proposed by the Bundesrat. But she urged that it should even go further and also criminalize the production of non-consensual, pornographic deepfakes, even if they are not being shared. "That would be a big step forward for many affected by non-consensual deepfake pornography," she said.

'Not every deepfake needs to be criminalized'

Civil liberties advocates, however, caution that well-intentioned efforts to curb abuse could lead to the overcriminalization of deepfake technology itself.

"Not every deepfake needs to be criminalized," said Lück of the Society for Civil Rights. "When harmless words are put into the mouths of politicians and it's clearly recognizable as a joke, it's questionable whether you really need to go in there with a sharp sword and deem it criminally relevant."

How to recognize and avoid AI investment scams  04:36

Moreover, he warned that tougher laws will do little to address another significant threat posed by deepfakes:the fabrication of falsehoods about politicians or events to sow unrest or widen divisions in society. "No ban will prevent disinformation campaigns orchestrated by entire states," he said.

Instead, it's important to raise awareness across all sectors of society that anything seen or heard online might be fake, he added.

The use of deepfakes in satire or art will play an important role in promoting this kind of "media literacy," said Lück, warning that criminalizing the technology could backfire and hinder efforts to raise awareness about the risks of deepfakes.

"A blanket ban could end up making us less informed as a society," said Lück.

Edited by: Rina Goldenberg

Janosch Delcker Janosch Delcker is based in Berlin and covers the intersection of politics and technology.@JanoschDelcker
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HINDUTVA IS FASCISM

Hindu pilgrimage sparks anti-Muslim discrimination in India

Muslim shop owners are shutting their businesses along the Kanwar Yatra (pilgrimage) route rather than risk attacks.
Hindu pilgrims, known as Kanwarias, walk on the banks of the Ganges River in Prayagraj, India, July 2, 2023. Kanwarias are devotees performing a ritual pilgrimage in which they walk, clad in saffron, and carrying ornately decorated canisters of sacred water from the Ganges River over their shoulders to take it back to Hindu temples in their hometowns, during the Hindu lunar month of Shravana.

 (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

July 30, 2024
By Yashraj Sharma

MUZAFFARNAGAR, India (RNS) — Vakeel Ahmad was stirring spiced milk tea at his shop, Chai Lovers Point, lined up alongside a national highway in Uttar Pradesh, when the police pressed him to rename the stall.

Ahmad then called it “Vakeel Sahab Tea Stall.” Also spelled saheb, the term translates to a version of “sir” in Hindi but is a loan word from Arabic. It was not clear enough, he was told. He had to rename it “Vakeel Ahmad Tea Stall,” Ahmad told Religion News Service, using his last name “to make clear of my Muslim identity.”

Like Ahmad’s, thousands of eateries along a route that an estimated 30 million Hindu pilgrims are traveling this week have come under pressure to display the names of their owners and staff to help customers avoid certain food and beverage outlets. Devotees of Lord Shiva walk over 60 miles to collect water from the Ganges River and bring it home as an offering.

Soon, similar dictates emerged from other states ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. The two-week-long pilgrimage runs from July 22 to Aug. 6. During that time most of the devotees avoid eating meat, onions or garlic. Ahmad’s stall sells only chai and packaged snacks such as chips and cookies.

The order from the local administration sparked widespread outrage for its “bigoted nature,” said Nadeem Khan, the national secretary of the Association for the Protection of Civil Rights, a human rights group. Khan and other critics of the government called the order another step toward “apartheid” and the continued persecution of caste- and religion-based minorities in India.

Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, is governed by Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu nationalist leader of Modi’s BJP known for his inflammatory remarks against Muslims. Under his leadership, violence against Muslims in his state has surged.
RELATED: ‘Run or die’: Muslims left mourning as police raze another mosque in northern India

“The Kanwar Yatra used to be the time for our business,” said Ahmad, who took over the small business after his father’s death six years ago. “Now, the administration has completely given up on us, saying, ‘If the pilgrims attack you, it is on you — and you will have to deal with it.’”

On July 22, India’s top court paused the government’s divisive directive that would have demanded owners to display their names. The stay order came in response to petitions filed by human rights advocates.

That has brought little relief in Ahmad’s life, though. “I have closed the shop now because things are getting out of control,” he told Religion News Service, referring to the string of incidents of vandalism and attacks by the devotees as the pilgrimage proceeds.

“We thought we could withstand the pressure, but it is not possible anymore,” he said. “My family is incurring losses. Is this a festival?”

The two new signboards cost him $40, nearly half his monthly income.


Indian Hindu Kanwarias, worshippers of Hindu god Shiva, offer prayers after taking holy dips in the Ganges River, in Prayagraj, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

The controversy triggered widespread outrage on July 17 when the Uttar Pradesh police issued the directive in Hindi, saying that in the past, confusion over eateries had led to lawlessness and communal violence. In recent years, India has seen a spike in “cow vigilante” violence, in which Hindu mobs attack people, usually Muslims, alleged to have consumed or sold beef that some Hindus consider sacred.

“To prevent such recurrences and given the faith of the devotees … hotels and shopkeepers selling food items on Kanwar [Route] have been requested to display the names of their owners and employees voluntarily,” the police order said.

This did not sit right with Khan. The rights advocacy group filed a petition in India’s top court, a common tactic in India to request judges to block an order deemed unconstitutional.

“Once they start this segregation in the name of this religion, it will snowball far ahead of this pilgrimage’s route and seep into the other states,” Khan said. “Before we know it, it will be the new status quo.”

When he reached out to the impacted shopkeepers in Muzzafarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, Khan said, the owners were afraid to come on board with the petition. “They told us that it is just a matter of 15 days,” Khan recalled. “They said closing the shop for 15 days is better than having your home bulldozed.”

BJP-ruled states have increasingly targeted Muslim families by bulldozing their homes, which Amnesty International has described as deliberate “punishment to the Muslim community.”

The fear of repercussions travels far beyond this town, Khan noted, with thousands of families losing their livelihood due to both official and unofficial bans on beef sales.

An increasing number of Hindu pilgrims in particular are committing violent crimes against Muslims. In Muzaffarnagar, two rickshaw drivers were recently beaten and their vehicles attacked, while in a separate incident a Muslim driver was thrashed and his car vandalized. In other attacks, a security guard was beaten and a petrol pump vandalized. In videos of the attacks shared on social media, police were present but did not intervene.

“There is complete free hand given to Kanwardiyas (pilgrims),” Khan said. “We are falling short on institutions that have a responsibility to implement (the Supreme Court’s orders) while the police are acting one-sided.”

Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh police have also faced criticism for showering rose petals on the Kanwar Yatra and massaging the feet of pilgrims.

“Muslims have lost faith in the police, and therefore, they are shutting down businesses,” Khan said. “This symbolizes the collapse of the state authority in India.”

Apoorvanand Jha, a professor at the University of Delhi and a columnist who goes by his first name, remembers joyous pilgrims from his childhood in Bihar and Jharkhand, two states in eastern India, journeying on the long walks to the Ganges.


Hindu pilgrims, known as Kanwarias, gather on the banks of the Ganges in Prayagraj, India, July 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

“Now, the BJP government has given a very exalted status to the Kanwar Yatra and turned them into a group that is supreme and cannot be touched,” Apoorvanand said. “The police is compliant and some of the pilgrims behave as if they were placed on a pedestal and turned into a kind of semi-god.”

To him, the dictate to display names on signboards was “outrageous” — and pushed him to join other petitioners to the top court.

“The state apparatus is indulging in a majoritarian behavior, which makes it even more dangerous, and it should not be given a free pass,” he said.

The millions of pilgrims are seen as “vote-banks” by the lawmakers, Apoorvanand and Khan agreed.

RELATED: Modi’s anti-Muslim rhetoric taps into Hindu replacement fears that trace back to colonial India

In India’s recent national election, the BJP lost the parliamentary majority. It was a major upset for the party that had ruled since Modi’s rise to prominence in 2014. Today, the BJP retains control of the government through allies in the Parliament. A coalition of opposition parties campaigned over issues of social justice and a vision of India as ethnically and religiously diverse, aiming to contrast the BJP’s emphasis on maintaining a Hindu nation.

However, since the new session of the Parliament, human rights groups have questioned the silence of opposition leaders regarding the persecution of minorities, including Christians and Muslims.

“The opposition leaders believe they cannot afford to alienate Hindus,” Apoorvanand said. “But it is also a sad commentary on India’s Hindu society … that political parties think that a majority of Hindus endorse this violence — and you cannot criticize them.”

 AMERIKA

Experts consider H5N1 avian flu unknowns as state fairs loom

Stephanie Soucheray, MA

 

 

July 29, 2024

 

Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)

In the next 6 to 10 weeks, hundreds of state and country fairs will take place across the United States, and thousands of Americans will attend agricultural shows, walk through barns, watch dairy cattle be milked, and even observe an animal giving birth.

But veterinarians, public health researchers, and scientists are unclear to what extent—if any—the recent explosion in cases of H5N1 avian influenza in dairy cattle will affect animals on exhibition or pose a threat to human health. H5N1 is deadly to poultry, but causes mild to moderate symptoms in the bovine population. So far, humans who have been infected with H5N1 via contact with infected cows have also exhibited mild illness, but case numbers in humans remain low. 

For decades, Andrew Bowman, DVM, PhD, from the Ohio State University, the swine-human interface has been at top of mind at county, regional, and state fairs in the United States. 

“What we do at fairs kind of violates every tenet of biosecurity that we preach, and we do it on public display, and we charge the public,” Bowman told CIDRAP News. “As great as fairs are for agricultural education, they create situations with multiple species from different farms housed in one spot.”

Bowman likens state and county fairs to the Southeastern Asian live-animal markets, so often seen as epicenters for zoonotic spillover events. 

We act like that sort of thing doesn’t happen in the US.

“We act like that sort of thing doesn’t happen in the US,” said Bowman. “But it does happen on a different scale, and every county across the Midwest does the same thing.”

Focus on dairy cows is new

Bowman said that while every year poses variant flu risks linked to swine, something the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention monitors, this year will be challenging because H5N1 has now been implicated in 172 outbreaks in 13 states, with more than a dozen human cases in agricultural workers. All human cases have been mild, with case-patients recovering fully. 

“Are we giving the opportunity for H5 to reassort with endemic swine virus?” he asked. “We know we have fairly regular incursions of influenza in pigs and maybe it becomes a pig-adapted virus.”

Moreover, the transmission dynamics of H5N1 in cattle are still not clear. 

“We don’t totally understand transmission at this point, and don’t have great control measures,” said Bowman. It's clear to most scientists that milk and milking equipment plays a role in the current transmission dynamics, but respiratory spread between cows could also be happening, said Bowman.

Jim Lowe, DVM, the state fair veterinarian for Illinois and an associate professor at the University of Urbana-Champaign, will be watching for transmission dynamics when the Illinois state fair starts on August 5. 

Per protocols from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), all show cattle traveling interstate will be subjected to H5N1 testing 7 days before the fair starts.

Lowe said they will be following that protocol but mostly watching the animals.

“I don’t know what to think about it,” said Lowe. “We’re going to pay attention and that’s a big change for us, normally you don’t do much for the dairy cows.”

Milking parlors, stages, pose biggest risk 

Each state fair and fairgrounds has its own challenges, Lowe explained. In Illinois, beef and dairy cattle are shown days apart, and the layout of the barns has dairy cattle fairly separate from other species. But milking banks and stages, where multiple cows use the same milking equipment, are common in fairs. If transmission happens, it’s likely going to be there.

Last week, the University of Minnesota Extension service released guidance on cow exhibits, which recommends that people keep lactating cows away from public events such as fairs. Because raw milk is known to have the highest concentration of H5N1 virus, the Extension program is recommending that lactating cows not attend fairs. 

“Milking is often done in a shared parlor and may involve shared equipment, which is an efficient way to spread H5 influenza. Although closing the parlor seems like a logical control step, that strategy will simply spread the virus source since the lactating cow must still be milked, which is now likely to be done in the cow’s stall, and the milk must still be stored and marketed or discarded,” the Extension said. 

The Minnesota State Fair has already announced that its late-August event will exclude cows and calves from the popular Miracle of Birth Center, where visitors watch animals being born, and will limit lactating cows based on the recommendations from the Extension program. 

For now, Lowe is tentatively hopeful the late-summer timing of fairs will benefit from the current outbreak. He said most of the animals shown at major state fairs are likely a previously exposed population, as they have been shown at agricultural events since March.

Mike Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), which publishes CIDRAP News, said the H5 outbreaks in dairy cattle are part of a bigger trend in flu dynamics. 

“We are really in a period of human animal interface with influenza unlike any I’ve ever known in my career,” Osterholm said. "Since 1997 avian flu has thrown us curveball after curveball.”

Osterholm said if different fairs have different rules, it’s not out of incompetence. “It’s because people just don’t know what to do.”

Creating wind energy using planes, trains and automobiles?

Stuart Braun

DW

July 27, 2024

Wind farms are key to a clean energy future, but expansion in green zones faces growing opposition. Wind turbines on buildings, rail lines or airports could be a breath of fresh air.

Conventional rural wind farms need to be augmented with new turbines that harness city winds, including speeding trainsImage: Satish Bate/Hindustan Times/IMAGO


Investment in renewable wind energy, in tandem with solar, is fast outpacing power produced by fossil fuels like coal or gas.

But wind farms demand much more space than non-renewable power plants.

And it's becoming notoriously difficult to get planning approval to install towering wind turbines across rural landscapes. This is partly due to environmental protections, but also not-in-my-backyard opposition from local residents — often due to the aesthetic impacts.

Meanwhile, offshore wind projects require massive capital investment and are also facing backlash from coastal communities.

This wind farm flourishes in the Baltic Sea north of Germany, though the infrastructure requires massive investment

Fred Tanneau/AFP/Getty Images

Instead of tending toward wind infrastructure in pristine countryside or in coastal waters, could wind energy also be harnessed in more developed industrial and urban areas?

Such location solutions would help countries like Germany that need to quickly ramp up clean wind energy capacity to meet climate goals.

With only 0.8% of Germany's land area approved for onshore wind energy as of 2023, the government wants to more than double installations to 2% by 2032 to achieve its renewable energy targets.

Winds of change in Belgium

Wind farms are so far less common in urban locations, since buildings obstruct and slow the high-speed wind required to power traditional turbines.

Why the resistance to wind power in Germany? 04:36

In high-density regions such as Flanders in Belgium, the difficulty of gaining planning permission for wind projects on open land has long forced investors to seek alternative locations in industrial areas such as ports and highways or next to power lines.

A wind farm has been created on the Zeebrugge ship ferry terminal in Belgium, for example, where commuters cross the North Sea to the UK and liquefied natural gas tankers also dock.

The permit process for the five turbines "went smoothly," said Tom Hautekiet, CEO of the Port of Zeebrugge, in 2021 of upcoming additions to the industrial wind facility. He added that such industrial harbor areas are an "ideal location" for wind farms, and that the port's wind energy capacity now amounts to 200 megawatts.

Planning approval for wind turbines at Zeebrugge harbor was a breeze

James Arthur Gekiere/Belga/IMAGO

Wind-powered train networks pick up speed

Austria's national state railway has built what it says is the world's first wind turbine designed to generate power for electric train operation.

Located in the town of Höflein in Lower Austria, the 200-meter turbine feeds into the overhead electrification system and can power around 1,400 train journeys annually on the route between the capital, Vienna and the city of Salzburg.

The prototype wind turbine is just the beginning, said Austrian Rail, which wants to increase the share of self-generated electricity from renewable sources in the railway power supply to 80%.

This prototype is pioneering wind energy generation on Indian rail lines

Satish Bate/Hindustan Times/IMAGO

Wind turbines are also being installed along railway tracks so that the gusts of wind generated by passing trains can be used to rotate the blades.

Indian rail company Western Railway has installed five small wind turbines that use vertical blades along tracks in Mumbai to generate energy. Now in the development phase, the rail provider hopes to expand the clean power technology to lower its carbon footprint across its subcontinental train network.
Jet planes rev up high-velocity energy

At Love Field airport in the US city of Dallas, Texas, prototype turbines harness wind from passing airplanes and convert them into energy.

The clean energy tech startup, JetWind Power Corporation, is working with the airport to test the potential to harness wind gusts, not only from commercial planes, but potentially from jet fighters taking off from aircraft carriers as they pass a caged pod containing three turbines.

For now, the energy generated by the turbines is being used to power electric cars at Dallas Airport. However, the prototype is set to expand and harness high-velocity wind from fast trains, in addition to speeding cars on motorways.
Alternative turbine designs for city spaces

While wind turbines with horizontal blades remain the efficient way to harness large-scale wind energy on open fields, a new wave of narrower devices employ horizontal blades to catch the wind in built-up or compact areas.

Wind turbine 'trees' generate power even in urban areas  01:42

A French company, New World Wind, has accordingly created the Wind Tree that uses "Aeoroleaf" sheets shaped like leaves to noiselessly catch a stiff or weak breeze in urban settings.

Installed in a park, courtyard or on a street, the wind tree can power anything from offices to charging stations for electric cars.

Meanwhile, the omnidirectional, bladeless wind turbine dubbed O-Wind can harness winds from any direction.

The spinning orbs can be installed across urban buildings and infrastructure. The goal is to create clean energy within cities which, consume almost 80% of all electricity, according to the United Nations.

Edited by: Tamsin Walker


Stuart Braun Berlin-based journalist with a focus on climate and culture.

Will EU's normalization push with Syria help Bashar Assad?

Jennifer Holleis

July 27, 2024

Observers are critical of Europe's ambitions to improve ties and return refugees to Syria amid ongoing fighting. Would President Bashar Assad benefit from declared "safe zones"?

Some European countries are pushing for normalizing ties with Syria despite ongoing fighting

Image: AFP

For eight European countries, the time seems ripe to change their strategy toward Syria.

Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of Italy and Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece, Slovenia and Slovakia said they are willing to thaw ties with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

In a joint letter, they suggested creating the position of an EU-Syria envoy who would be tasked with reinstalling a Syrian ambassador to Brussels and designating 10 so-called "safe zones" within Syria's government-held regions to which Syrian migrants in Europe could be returned.

Although Germany was not among the signatories, one of the country's top administrative courts ruled this week that there "is no longer a general danger to all civilians from the long-running conflict in Syria."

Human rights observers have warned that Syrian forces continue to kill hundreds of civilians in opposition-held areasImage: Kasim Ramah/Anadolu/AP/picture alliance

Yet human rights observers, analysts and the UN top envoy for Syria have all pointed out that Syria is neither safe for the population, nor for returning refugees.

"Syria remains in a state of profound conflict, complexity and division," UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen told the UN Security Councilthis week. "It is riddled with armed actors, listed terrorist groups, foreign armies and front lines […] and civilians are still victims of violence and subject to extensive human rights abuses, a protracted state of displacement and dire humanitarian conditions."

'Renewing ties with Europe would boost Assad's legitimacy'

And yet, the European willingness to reengage with Syria — after severing official relations with Damascus as a consequence of Syria's government's brutal crackdown on protesters in 2011 which led to an ongoing civil war — is just the latest in a series of rapprochements.

In 2023, Syria was readmitted to the Arab League, a group of 22 countries that had also shunned Syria for some 12 years.

And earlier this month, Assad scheduled a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has for years been backing the opposition, which continues to fight Syrian government forces in the country's northwest.

PARTNERSHIP TO DESTROY KURDISTAN

Despite on-going fighting between Turkish-backed opposition groups in Syria's northwest, Erdogan and Assad will meet for talks

Image: Sana/epa/dpa/picture alliance

"Renewing ties with Europe would boost Assad's legitimacy as ruler and his claim that Syria is a safe country," Kelly Petillo, Middle East researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told DW.

"Only, Assad is far from being the winner [of the war] as Syria remains territorially and politically fragmented and it is absolutely not a given that the Assad regime will return to power all over the Syrian territory," Petillo added.

While Assad's forces have recaptured some 60% of the country with the help of Russia and Iran, the country's northeast remains under Kurdish rule, and the northwest is the last bastion of the Syrian opposition. In the first half of 2024, attacks by the terrorist group "Islamic State" in Syria have doubled.

As experts point out, normalizing ties does not only mean a political shift by other countries.

"It also requires diplomatic commitment by Assad as he is fearful of having millions of refugees returned who are opposing him," said Petillo, adding that due to the country's dire economic situation, it would also be also very hard to cater for these many people as a state.

According to recent numbers by the UN Refugee Agency, an estimated 16.7 million Syrians need humanitarian assistance. More than half of the population remains displaced from their homes, including some 5 million refugees living in neighboring countries and 7.2 million internally displaced inside Syria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has helped Assad to recapture some 60% of Syrian territory

Image: Louai BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images

Syria could see economic benefits

And yet, normalizing ties with Europe and designating safe zones for returnees would most likely also mean an end to Europe's far-reaching sanctions on Syria, which have been exacerbating the economic situation for years.

According to the latest Syria Economic Monitor by the World Bank, continued funding shortfalls and limited access to humanitarian assistance have further drained the ability of households to meet basic needs amid inflation.

In turn, "any initiative to improve the economic situation for the Syrian population is a step away from the ongoing economic and social collapse," said Nanar Hawach, a senior analyst for Syria at the International Crisis Group, an independent organization working to prevent wars.

Hawach is confident that a stronger economy would reduce the population's dependence on political entities or joining armed groups to make a livelihood.

Syria remains politically fragmented with ongoing fighting, and observers doubt Assad will regain control over the country anytime soon

Image: Bekir Kasim/Anadolu/picture alliance

However, the benefits of eased or ended sanctions would not be felt in the whole country. "If ties with the Assad regime are normalized, aid will go through regime channels only," said Petillo.

This would continue to exacerbate the situation in areas that are not under the control of the regime.

"We are already massively underfunded," Ian Ridley, head of office at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Turkey, told DW. "I saw the consequences of this a couple of days ago when I visited northern Aleppo [which is under the control of the opposition — Editor's note] and spoke to displaced people who are struggling with the withdrawal of services."

New EU approach with Syria needed

Julien Barnes-Dacey, director of the Middle East & North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said "the idea of safe zones without meaningful security guarantees shouldn't be acceptable."

"The regime has been unwilling to provide this," he said, adding that "we see Syrians going back and being disappeared and even killed."

Despite the dangers in regime-controlled areas, Barnes-Dacey does see the need for a European policy reset toward Syria.

"European policy is currently in limbo without any sense of strategic direction or ability to improve the situation," he said.

In his view, however, Assad is not going to make meaningful concessions. "So, this is about looking for workarounds," Barnes-Dacey added.

"It's about deploying the cards we have to wedge open some space for security and economic improvements for Syrians on the ground rather than forcing dramatic political change, which clearly isn't going to happen," he said.

Edited by: Rob Mudge

Syrians in Lebanon face mounting hostility 03:49

Jennifer Holleis  DW Editor and political analyst specializing in the Middle East and North Africa.