Deranged Islamophobia more than explains why Assad supporters advocate for the Burmese junta & vilify the Rohingya people as terrorists. But how do they justify their alliance in Burma with Israel which their anti-Semitism has made a bête noire in Syria? Oh what a tangled web we weave when we practice deception & social hatred as the bedrock of our politics.
Monthly Archives: September 2017
Since Twitter joined Facebook in censoring Kashmiri activists, there is a noticeable decline in posts. When Facebook clamped down, Twitter posts kept us informed. We have a free speech problem on our hands because social media has become a primary organizing tool for those suffering war, occupation, genocide. We can’t let it go to pot without a fight.
On the fateful equivocations of Human Rights Watch about the Rohingya genocide
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an establishment human rights monitor. It doesn’t accept money from governments but it certainly has connections to power & it has distinct conservative politics. This makes its work a mixed bag. On the one hand, it provides investigations & authority to charges of human rights crimes; on the other hand, it doesn’t outright oppose militarism in all its forms & this failing often proves deadly. It means in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, & elsewhere it won’t take a stand opposing war but only insists it be conducted according to international law. How do you bomb civilian populations with even an ounce of legitimacy under any kind of law?
This weakness in HRW’s politics is more than manifest in its several public statements about what they call the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya in Burma. It may to some degree explain the corruption of a guy like David Scott Mathieson who went from being a researcher on Burma for HRW (2006 to 2016) to an “independent analyst” in Yangon croaking for his supper by writing apologetics for Suu Kyi in the NY Times. In his article of January 17th, 2017 titled “The Lady & the Rohingya” he shows the same masterful grasp of equivocation as HRW. He also shows what a dirt-ball he is by making this statement: “Crude misinformation is disseminated at a prodigious rate by members of the Rohingya diaspora outside Myanmar, especially via the widely discredited websites Rohingya Blogger & Rohingya Vision.” That’s how you know he’s croaking for remunerations. So while Mathieson claims Suu Kyi is only “obtuse” in her justifications for genocide, Rohingya activists who do brilliant exposures of genocide are discredited. It’s a slippery slope from equivocation to collusion.
In their latest statement titled “Burma is Playing Politics with the Dead: Alleged Atrocities Need International Inquiry,” HRW takes up claims by the Burmese junta that ARSA–or as Burmese army officials put it, “extremist Bengali terrorists”–are engaged in mass executions of Hindus in Arakan state. It’s political child’s play to rebut claims that Rohingya are involved in genocide against Hindus when they’re fleeing from military & nationalist death squads. The only people who believe that kind of crap are deranged by nationalist, racist, & fascist loyalties.
So why did HRW go on to repeat their mantra that “While ARSA did attack over two dozen police outposts & an army base in late August–which sparked a Burmese military campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya population, forcing more than 400,000 people to flee to neighboring Bangladesh–no one has been able to independently verify the Burmese government’s most recent allegations”? See the problems with equivocation? Not only has no one been able to verify that Rohingya are executing Hindus but no one has been able to verify that ARSA attacked 24 police stations & an army base. That comes from the Burmese military which lies through its ass. But the worst part of this equivocation is that it more than blames ARSA for the genocidal onslaught when the junta organized it months in advance, when it was a continuation of what has gone on in Arakan state for years. Is there no place in HRW’s politics for Rohingya self-defense against genocide?
Photo is 25-year-old Kamal Hossain with his family, including his 105-year-old grandmother who he carried on his back to Bangladesh.
(Photo by Mahmud Hossain/Opu/Al Jazeera)
Image may contain: 3 people, child and outdoor
Some Zionists understand that Israel’s sale of arms to Burma to carry out rape, torture, massacres, genocide will damage the carefully manufactured image of beleaguered little Israel against terrorist Palestinians. Actually, the involvement of Israel, India, China, Russia, & other countries in selling arms to & investing in Burma (& Israel selling arms to India) shows the interconnection of the struggles of Rohingya to that of Kashmiris, Palestinians, Uyghurs, & others & makes collaboration in solidarity work all the more important.
CJ Werleman, a blogger who writes frequently about the Rohingya struggle against genocide, had an article titled “India’s Fake News Assault on Rohingya Muslims: What the heck is up with India’s new media?” Any Kashmiris like to answer that?
It’s a good article, worth reading:
http://www.thecjpost.com/2017/09/indias-fake-news-assault-on-rohingya-muslims/
Parveena Ahangar & Imroz Parvez to be honored as human rights defenders
“The two most influential human rights defenders from Kashmir, who have inspired and mentored me are being acknowledged by Norwegian Rafto Foundation, with a joint award. This award is an acknowledgement of the sufferings, resilience and persistence of the people Kashmir.”–Khurram Parvez
https://www.rafto.no/the-rafto-prize/the-next-rafto-prize-laureate
Another brief video about the use of pellet guns in Kashmir.
Watched “Legally Blonde” with Reese Witherspoon who played a brilliant law student who looked & acted like a Barbie Doll. I’ve known working class women like that in my life. First impression, they fool you & you judge them by style. Then you get to know them & they’re sensitive, intelligent, insightful, kind, rich in character. The good thing about the movie is that it wasn’t mean-spirited toward any of the women characters & showed us in a positive light. It was a fun movie & I don’t want to hear any trashing. So don’t go trying to bust my illusions about it.
Some of you may be interested in something my book club read titled “Hidden Figures” about the Black women mathematicians who were essential to the US space program. Actually they were the geniuses behind it even though white guys with crew cuts in NASA control rooms get all the glory. We all thought the book was dry reading & too much like a graduate school dissertation but the movie with the same title based on the book was a marvelous dramatization because it focused on three of the leading women who put those rockets in space. Personally I detest the militarization of space exploration but was fascinated by these women & the role they played despite the racism, sexism, & lack of recognition.
The great big fat lie that Rohingya are executing Hindus in Arakan state
Indian nationalists have gotten so much mileage out of the narrative of a Kashmiri Pandit (Hindu) genocide & forced migration in 1989 that they’re now using it against Rohingya Muslims in Arakan state. According to India Today & repeated by Reuters, the Daily Mail, & other media, masked men dressed in black presumed to be Rohingya are executing Hindus & burying them in mass graves, marching the women into the woods, removing their sindoor & bangles, forcing them to wear burqas & convert to Islam, then forcing them to marry Rohingya Muslims. All that while Rohingya are running from military & nationalist death squads. They’re taking time out from genocide to force Hindus to convert.
Even after Burmese Hindus flee to Bangladesh refugee camps, India Today & the Daily Mail claim Rohingya Muslim overseers keep them under close supervision to enforce the religious conversion–while at the same time standing in line for food, trying to get medical care for their infirm & injured, & trying to build shelters with tarps against the monsoon rains.
This is where Islamophobia shades into derangement. Burmese dissident in exile Maung Zarni said that “What is really scary is the Burmese military’s attempt to expand the circle of enemies against the Rohingya.” That’s exactly what’s going on here. That circle of enemies now includes Hindutva nationalists, fascists & Assad supporters, Bangladeshi officials, other government officials, & several media sources. But just as the circle of lies & enemies expands, so does the breadth of solidarity which can see through the idiocy & malignancy of these lies to stand with the Rohingya all over the world. When you recycle slanders used against Kashmiris for use against Rohingya, chickens can come home to roost. But the worst part of this is that the junta is given impunity for executing Hindus & blaming it on Rohingya.
Photo is Rohingya refugee arriving in Bangladesh. But is she really a Rohingya or a Hindu forced to convert?
(Photo from AP)