Gazan medical officials report that the number of injuries today at the Great Return March from live ammunition & tear gas bombs has risen to 363, including two journalists & 14 paramedics. Since the Great Return March began three Fridays ago, they report that 34 Palestinians have been killed & over 3,000 injured. One of the journalists shot by Israeli snipers today named Ahmad Abu Hussein was wearing a clearly marked press vest & is reported in critical condition.

Israeli military chief Avigdor Lieberman said “There are no innocent people in the Gaza Strip.” If by innocent he means willing to accept apartheid, genocide, colonialism, Lieberman speaks gospel truth. If by innocent he means unarmed, we can judge for ourselves from Friday prayers at the Great Return March today.

End the occupation. Self-determination for Palestinians. Support BDS.

(Photo from Great Return March on Twitter)

Day after day, there are multiple funerals in Kashmir for those killed by Indian troops. Yet one Kashmiri after another is using social media to demand justice for Asifa. That would be the very essence of solidarity.

#JusticeForAsifa

Mir Laieeq on outrage about the use of India’s national flag at rightwing nationalist rallies demanding the release of those who abducted, raped, brutalized, & murdered 8-year-old Asifa:

“Indian flag has always represented devastation, massacres, rapes, torture and maimings in Kashmir. So ‘liberal indians’ spare us the sanctimonious outrage against the use of this godamn flag by thuggish rape supporters. The flag has not been brought into disrepute but it’s true colours are now clearly visible and you don’t know where to hide. Go to hell.”

“Alas! Yet another day in Kashmir breaks with scenes of relatives mourning dead bodies and fire engulfing houses and shops.
This time it is Khudwani Kashmir.”

–Zafar Iqbal

Burn all your law books
And dead bolt all the courthouses.
Abandon all the lawsuits
And let go all the adjudicators.
And you people,
Stop charitying support -support
and stop requesting justice –justice
Because, in human world
support can’t be taken in charity
and justice can’t be requested for.
Since,
we are not humans to them.
And we are Kashmiris to them,
Muslim Kashmiris to them.
Prime time terrorist Muslim Kashmiris to them
And She was
A Girl.
A Muslim Girl.
A Poor Muslim Girl.
A Tribal Poor Muslim Girl.
A Kashmiri Tribal Poor Muslim Girl.
A Prime Time Terrorist Kashmiri Tribal Poor Muslim girl.
Justice like Justice can’t exist in our world.

–Zafar Iqbal

Once again I’ve been accused of speaking in the oracular voice, cocky & intolerant of differences just because I have so many readers. What I think they mean is that I don’t speak in the diffident voice as befits my social status. Most of my political life, & in fact in my family, I’ve been in a minority & am entirely accustomed, if not also uncomfortable, with it. A FB discussion is not really the place to resolve political differences, like on the death penalty, so if you belabor an issue we disagree about it’s likely that adrenalin will start pumping on both sides. That’s not my intolerance acting up again. It’s my impatience with running in circles. I am not the least bit cocky for having so many readers but am in fact immensely grateful.

We now know the gruesome details of the abduction, gang rape, & murder of little Asifa Bano last January in Jammu. From the fields where she was abducted, she was taken to a nearby Hindu temple & brutalized & gang raped for several days. Police have arrested eight men for the crime & say they have forensic evidence to prove their guilt, including DNA. Two of those arrested are policemen who accepted bribes to cover up the crime.

Asifa’s family are members of a Muslim oppressed caste living in Hindu-majority Jammu. Their community began protesting almost immediately because they knew their demands for a fair investigation would fall on deaf ears in a region where Hindutva nationalism is emboldened. There were also solidarity rallies in Kashmir demanding justice for Asifa. This monstrous crime against a little girl is a political crime involving gender, ethnic, religious, caste, & class oppression. Because of its savage character & the role of social media, it has received widespread international coverage & condemnation. To counter this, Hindutva political forces in Jammu mobilized by holding protest rallies, including one where high ministers in the government from India’s BJP (the rightwing ruling party) addressed the nationalist crowd gathered to defend the perpetrators. Hindu nationalist lawyers from the Jammu bar association, claiming Hindus were being victimized, protested to prevent charges from being filed in court & reportedly threatened a Kashmiri woman lawyer handling the case.

Now articles are appearing about the rise of communalism in Jammu & Kashmir, about the ‘fueling of religious tensions’ between Muslims & Hindus, as if they were primitives going at each other over theology. That’s like saying the conflict between the Nazi party & Jews or Roma was communal conflict. What is left out is the power relationship between Hindutva nationalists who run the Indian government, including the state of Jammu & Kashmir, & Kashmiri Muslims who are under occupation or oppressed castes who face the extremes of caste violence–like the gang rape, brutalization, & murder of a small child.

The extreme rightwing in India will use this incident to incite violence against Muslims, including Rohingya refugees living in Jammu, & against oppressed castes. Demanding justice for 8-year-old Asifa Bano has become part of opposing anti-Muslim pogroms in India, opposing the occupation of Kashmir, the defense of oppressed castes, & the defense of Rohingya refugees. They are all of a piece in the matrix of Muslim & caste oppression in India.

This photo is Asifa’s mother grieving over her child’s belongings. Charges have been filed in court but that’s still a long long way from justice. Until this small child gets justice in the prosecution of the eight men, this mother’s grief is our grief.

There’s a petition circulating calling for the death penalty for those who raped & murdered little Asifa Bano in Jammu. That’s the sentence given to the man who raped & murdered 7-year-old Zainab Ansari last January in Pakistan. Don’t we all want such monsters to be punished maximally? My objection to the death penalty isn’t just the amorality of taking someone’s life in vengeance but that it is foolish to hand such a right to repressive governments who will use it against the most vulnerable & oppressed, not against the most savage criminals. What separates civilized people from savagery is the rule of law & not letting our emotions run roughshod in the courts. So of course, I want the perpetrators jailed for the rest of their worthless lives but I would never sign such a petition sanctioning the death penalty. We uphold the highest standards of human conduct even in the treatment of the worst criminals.

Say what you like about rightwing nationalism, it does introduce new concepts to politics. Like the concept of a “Sharia Bolshevik” from an Islamophobic Indian journalist–though you could be forgiven if you thought it came from Fox News. She defined it as an apologist for Islamists. She didn’t define what an Islamist is but what do you bet it means Wahhabi head-chopping terrorist?

Several Kashmiri friends prompted me to update what is going on with the case of Asifa Bano, the little girl from an oppressed Muslim caste who live in the Jammu, predominantly Hindu, part of Jammu & Kashmir. Rape is always at heart a political crime involving gender, class, caste, ethnicity despite being treated in the courts as a personal crime. Little Asifa’s case highlights that reality. Thanks to the prompting, I am preparing an update on her case.

Please like & share this FB page to stand with this sweet child in her family & community’s demands for justice.

https://www.facebook.com/justiceforasifa/