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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
@guardian
community affairs correspondent in north 🇬🇧 Instagram 📸:
@ainajkhan
. Prev:
@nytimes
. 📧: aina.j.khan@guardian.co.uk
Media & NewsLondontheguardian.com/profile/aina-k…Joined March 2011
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
Five years ago, I commuted between London and Bradford (a 4-5 hour coach ride) just for unpaid journalism work experience. The financial strain was soul-destroying. Today is my first day as the
@nytimes
International Fellow. It's humbling and beautiful knowing how far I've come.
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
What a surreal and strange day to wake up to hateful messages and @‘s from far-right Hindu supporters, and from a minuscule few journalists and male acquaintances sidling up to me because of going ‘viral.’ What a hateful, performative, inauthentic space the internet feels like.
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
The misery of freelance work combined with a cost of living crisis.
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Bethany Dawson
@bethanymrd
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I spoke to 3 people who have had their shifts cancelled tomorrow because of the Queens funeral. As a result, 2 have lost the budget for 2 weeks worth of food, and 1 has lot the cost of electric for a month. The UK is still in a cost of living crisis. businessinsider.com/queens-funeral
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
I was not “happy”
@SarahLGates1
. I was shocked the interview nose-dived so quickly, and smiled to mask my anxiety. My leg was shaking with adrenaline. No violent retaliation is justified. But this man deserved to be robustly questioned for the views he was so brazenly supporting.
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𑆩𑆳𑆬𑆴𑆤𑆵 Sarah L Gates
@SarahLGates1
·
She how happy the reporter is with her footage? Well done! Expect more hate crimes on Hindu temples. Because Hindu temples are where RSS Hindutva fascists go to pray so they deserve to be attacked and the Hindus all flushed out of town. twitter.com/ainajkhan/stat…
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
Some footage of my interview with helmet man, that snowballed into a shouting match with an RSS member. Compared to the palpable aggression and fear that hung around Leicester yesterday, this paled in comparison, although it is a concerning hazard of being a journalist.
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
There was a peaceful gathering of mostly young Muslims in Belgrave road today, but the anger was palpable, and anxiety hung on the mouths of local residents, who looked out their front doors with concern after a night of chaos they hope will not return.
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
Nearby, I watched an English woman hold back tears, as she scrubbed blood from her window sill with some anti-bacterial wipes. Remnants of yesterday’s violence when there was a stand off between a group of Muslim and Hindu men. Close by, a red car had had its rear window smashed.
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
A group of Muslim men had gathered in protest a stone’s throw away, there was around 50 police officers with high-vis jackets, helmets and batons, tensions were still running high. Her son gratefully shook Freeman’s hands with both of his own when Freeman left her at her doorstep
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
There is no doubt these men were not representative of the Hindu community. “We condemn the insensitive and utterly disgraceful acts on the streets of Belgrave and North Evington,” said a collective statement by leaders of Hindu and Jain temples, and community organisations.
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
We eventually all went our separate ways. I tried to listen. To question. But the accusations of bias, and the constant shutting down, it was hard to get a word in edge ways. I heard one of the men was later detained by the police.
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
I was also filmed, and I was refuted, very emphatically by one young British Hindu man in particular who also joined the discussion, and said that the fascist inspiration that underpinned the inception of RSS? It was not true.
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
If I were a white journalist, and not visibly Muslim, suffice to say I would not have faced this level of scrutiny. But it is what it is. It’s hard not to let your emotions get the better of you, when you’re attacked in this way, fortunately only verbally.
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
In short, I was accused of being a member of the Taliban, an extremist, playing the victim card. I was accused of not scrutinising Pakistan’s treatment of its minorities and fixating on India’s treatment of its minorities, of ignoring how Muslims are raping everyone.
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
Back to the interview. Another man joined the discussion, and very quickly, all three began shouting at me. It was an extremely uncomfortable position to be in.
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
A witness on green lane road where they marched, shared how these men swore at women peeping out of their windows and doors. There were some violent scuffles too. She has locked her shop door for fear of retaliation, after seeing this unfold on her doorstep.
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
The interview got heated when another man, an RSS member, accused me of bias when I shared concerns about yesterday’s impromptu marchers chanting “Jai Shri Ram,” a Hindu chant appropriated by extremists in India, that has now become synonymous with anti-Muslim hatred.
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
This man exuberantly professed how great and altruistic RSS was, a stone’s throw away from a statue of Gandhi that stands adjacent to a Hindu temple. The irony here being that Gandhi was assassinated by an RSS member (who the RSS claim had left by then).
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
He said India’s independence did not truly begin until Narendra Modi took office as PM, eight years ago, and that Modi’s leadership was the panacea for “jihadist Muslims” in India. Muslims were a problem in the U.K., helmet man said, pointing to grooming gangs in Rotherham.
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
It was a tense day of reporting from Leicester for me today. I interviewed a Hindu man wearing a motorbike helmet, holding an Indian flag on Belgrave road, the site of some of the unrest yesterday between a group of Muslim and Hindu men. Here’s what happened. 👇🏼
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
A contrast between the funeral optics of two Elizabethan monarchs, centuries apart. One whose life and death was recorded through drawings and paintings, the other, whose life was frozen through the camera lens, and whose last journey will be immortalised by the world’s media.
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Prof Anna Whitelock
@AnnaWhitelock
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Elizabeth I's funeral procession from Whitehall to Westminster Abbey was attended by 3,000 mourners and watched by about 200,000 spectators. On her coffin lay a lifelike effigy, dressed in her parliament robes. This is first ever visual record of the funeral of an English monarch
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
A statement by leaders of Hindu and Jain temples and community Organisations, said: “Leaders of the Hindu community are not going to tolerate such acts of aggression that undermines the relationships and unity within this city of Leicester.”
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
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Multiple witnesses and videos confirm a group of Hindu men were chanting, “Jai Shri Ram,” Hindi for “hail Lord Ram" or "victory to Lord Ram,” as they marched through a Muslim majority area in Leicester. This chant has become synonymous with anti-Muslim violence in India. twitter.com/Majstar7/statu…
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Aina J. Khan
@ainajkhan
Multiple witnesses and videos confirm a group of Hindu men were chanting, “Jai Shri Ram,” Hindi for “hail Lord Ram" or "victory to Lord Ram,” as they marched through a Muslim majority area in Leicester. This chant has become synonymous with anti-Muslim violence in India.
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Majid Freeman
@Majstar7
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Hindu mobs on Belgrave Road throwing glass bottles at the Muslims but narrowly missing police officers heads on numerous occasions. There is NOT a small minority of these Hindutva thugs. Theres hundreds of them. Will the Hindu community leaders continue defending them? #Leicester
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Aina J. Khan Retweeted
Sahar Habib Ghazi
@SaharHGhazi
“We demand that countries in the global north take ownership of the ecological crisis they have caused,”
@ammaralijan
An IMF report in 2020 found that globally fossil fuel subsides were $5.9 trillion. They are rising every year.
vice.com
Pakistan Lost $30 Billion in Floods. Should Rich Polluting Countries Pay Up?
“What’s happening in Pakistan demonstrates the sheer inadequacy of the global response to the climate crisis,” the UN Secretary-General said.
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