When you call for US military intervention in Syria, including a No Fly Zone controlled by the US, you do not serve the Syrian revolution against Assad’s dictatorship. You legitimize US military interventions everywhere, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, & Syria. The historic, pitched political battles of the past 150 years have been against US military interventions which are every bit a part of colonialism & white supremacy. To not understand that, to hold out some imaginary hope for a humanitarian intervention in Syria is worse than magical thinking. It is a betrayal of black & brown peoples around the world who feel the scourge of US military, overt & covert, intervention. Get over your pipe dreams & stand with the oppressed.

Pretty scary when you consider all the Muslims facing war, occupation, repression, counterrevolution, & genocide these days. Even scarier when the progressive forces that would normally rally to their defense are mouthing the Islamophobic mantras of the so-called war on terror. When people start talking the Sunni-Shi’a-Wahhabi conflict stuff, as if it were a theological dispute, you know they’re talking through their nether regions. Most of us from the Christian tradition don’t know the theological differences between Catholics & protestants, let alone between Baptists & fundamentalists or Methodists & Presbyterians, & certainly don’t know anything about Islam. If there are conflicts between religious denominations of Islam, they are likely much more related to class & political distinctions which have been aggravated by US-European interference in Middle East politics. But this goes back a long way, long before ISIS or Al Qaeda made the scene. When I was in the convent in the early 1960s, a missionary priest told us one could tell the difference in Christian & Muslim kids–to the disadvantage of Muslim kids–just walking from one neighborhood to the next in Jerusalem. Yeah right. Those of us who stand against persecution of anyone for whatever reason reject this rubbish & have to be steadfast in opposing it. There are 2.18 Muslims in the world, about 25% of the world population, so we sure as hell don’t stand alone when we stand for justice.

Assad propagandist Eva Bartlett is in Syria, again embedded with the Syrian army but pretending she’s hitching her way around a war zone. Has she notified the Syrian & Russian air forces not to mistake her for a terrorist & bomb her as she thumbs her way around? Or is she more likely riding in an armored convoy like Beeley & Fisk? She’s joined forces with another Assad propagandist to answer the Intercept polemic by Mehdi Hasan titled “Dear Bashar al-Assad Apologists: Your Hero Is a War Criminal Even If He Didn’t Gas Syrians”. Someone should tell her that when you function as a ventriloquist dummy for Assad, you’re way out of your league taking on a masterful polemicist like Hasan. Neither Assadist responds to the several arguments made by Hasan but only attempt to discredit him & repeat that it’s Assad against terrorists. They don’t even mention that US regime-change thing. Bartlett claims she’ll be bringing us testimony to Assad’s popularity from residents in Ghouta but once again, only a fool would speak frankly to lowlife apologists who ride into town with the Syrian army.

Mehdi Hasan polemic: https://theintercept.com/2018/04/19/dear-bashar-al-assad-apologists-your-hero-is-a-war-criminal-even-if-he-didnt-gas-syrians/

Eva Bartlett’s pathetic rebuttal to Hasan: http://www.syriana-analysis.com/dear-mehdi-hassan-should-we-remind-you-that-you-work-for-qatar/

Israeli border policeman Ben Dery shot & killed 17-year-old Palestinian Nadim Nuwara on Naqba Day, May 15, 2014 at a checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah in an incident caught on video. Nadim was protesting the ongoing colonization of Palestine. Dery used live ammunition to kill Nadim in cold blood even though he was unarmed & presented no danger. On the same day, at the same place, & in the same circumstances, a 16-year-old Palestinian named Muhammed Abu al-Thahir was fatally shot in the back & his killing also was caught on video. No one was ever charged for the killing of Mohammed & in March 2016 Israel closed the investigation claiming there was no evidence. A third teenager named Muhammad al-Azzeh was shot with live ammo on the same day but survived. It is exceptionally rare for Israeli soldiers to be prosecuted for killing or assaulting a Palestinian so it comes as no surprise that Dery was just sentenced to 9 months in prison for “causing death through negligence & causing severe bodily harm.” It is the same impunity for human rights crimes that the Indian occupying army is provided in Kashmir.

By contrast, 17-year-old Palestinian Ahed Tamimi is jailed for 8 months for slapping an Israeli soldier & 13-year-old Palestinian Ahmed Mansara is serving a 9 & 1/2 year sentence for stabbing an Israeli teen in October 2015. In more invidious contrast, the Israeli soldier who executed 21-year-old Palestinian Abdul Fatah al-Sharif as he laid injured & incapacitated on the street in Hebron in March 2016, was sentenced to 14 months in jail but was given early release after serving nine months. The incident was also caught on videotape. But evidence doesn’t matter. The injustice speaks for itself.

May all these young freedom fighters prevail over Israeli apartheid & genocide.

Photo is Nadim Nuwara. May he Rest In Peace.

(Photo from various sources)

Omar Abdullah, the former Indian Chief Minister for Jammu & Kashmir who authorized pellet guns, is apparently making the rounds of prestigious American universities–Berkeley, Princeton, Columbia–getting all sorts of honorifics & posting about them on Twitter. Henry Kissinger has a warehouse full of such useless honorifics, including the Nobel Peace Prize. Omar can rake in those awards up the wazoo but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s a war criminal as odious as Henry–& that’s a pretty damning category to be in.

It might be noted that his honorifics aren’t making any headlines because they aren’t worth doodoo; one has to go to his Twitter wall to learn about them. But news of those Kashmiri protesters at Berkeley, including Kashmiri Pandits, did make headlines. You can use his silly-assed award from Princeton for toilet paper. It’s not good for anything else.

(Certificate from Omar Abdullah’s Twitter wall)

Following the Rohingya struggle is extremely important. The genocide crisis is by no means resolved & isn’t likely to be without constant international attention & political pressure. Bangladesh still plans to deport thousands to an uninhabitable island & the massive crisis of refugees has not been adequately addressed. Irish activist Micheal Clinton works with Rohingya activists in Ireland & his work is so respected that he has been appointed a representative to the European Rohingya Council. He maintains this Facebook wall which provides up-to-date information on the Rohingya struggle. You can also follow the posts of Rohingya activists on Facebook, including Ro Nay San Lwin, Imran Mohammed, Ziaur Rahman, Anayet Ullah Arman, Ro Rahmath Ullah, Kyaw Kyaw Win, & others, or Burmese dissident Maung Zarni, all of whom post invaluable information. It’s not a struggle or a genocide that we can make yesterday’s news.

On Twitter, there are several invaluable sites, including most importantly these two: Rohingya Vision on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RohingyaVision
Rohingya Blogger on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rohingyablogger

https://www.facebook.com/groups/worldsolidarityfortherohingya/

A Kashmiri boy at the funeral of militant Ishfaq Ahmad shouting freedom slogans: now we can see why children are so often injured or killed by “stray bullets.” Every new generation of the oppressed must be intimidated & cowed into submission. Or killed. Whichever comes first, by the rubric of the Indian occupying army.

End the occupation. Self-determination for Kashmir.

(Photo by Basit Zargar)

The Uyghurs are a Turkish speaking, predominantly Muslim ethnic group facing extreme persecution by the Chinese government. Uyghur activists report that over one million Uyghurs are detained in Chinese “re-education camps.” There has been almost no reporting on their struggle against persecution except by exiled Uyghur activists on social media. Pakistani journalist Usman A Khan Tahir has written several pieces about their persecution which involves all the anti-terrorism canards & vilifying inherent to Islamophobia. Like every struggle against ethnic & religious persecution & oppression, it’s a complicated issue but Uyghur activists are playing an important role in elaborating its character so that we may understand.

In addition to mass detainment, Uyghur mosques have been desecrated, demolished & turned into Chinese propaganda centers; Islamic symbols & Quranic verses have been replaced with pro-Chinese banners & flags. The Quran has been burned, some have been forced to eat pork, & anyone with a beard or hijab is labeled a terrorist by the Chinese government. Uyghur activists report that Chinese troops have walked pigs into mosques during prayer time, stopped prayers & forced those present to drink alcohol.

Islamophobia is the battle cry of the most reactionary & fascist forces in the world today so educating ourselves about the struggles of Uyghurs & other oppressed Muslims & rendering solidarity to their struggles is extremely important. It is of a piece with the persecution of Muslims across the globe. On Twitter you can follow Uyghur activists on: https://twitter.com/VoiceUyghur & https://twitter.com/UyghurCongress. Through those sites one will find many other links to Uyghur activists.

(Meme is from Uyghur Congress)

Palestinian journalist Ahmed Abu Hussein who was shot by Israeli snipers two weeks ago has just died from his wounds. Like the other journalists covering the Great Return March, he was wearing a clearly marked press vest. Like the other participants in the Great Return March, he was unarmed. He is the second journalist killed by Israeli snipers while 16 journalists have been shot, beaten, or suffered suffocation from tear gas. May he Rest In Peace.

Rallies in solidarity with the Great Return March have been held in some cities. The shootings of unarmed, peaceful protesters are a call to arms. There should be emergency rallies held around the world demanding Israel remove its troops & snipers from the apartheid fence with Gaza. Palestinians have a democratic right to fight against apartheid & genocide.

(Photo of Ahmed from Palestine Information Center)

This is 29-year-old James Shaw, Jr. an AT&T worker in Antioch, Tennessee near Nashville who was honored by state politicians for grabbing an assault rifle away from a naked gunman shooting up a waffle house last Sunday morning. The gunman had already killed four people & injured three & when he stopped to reload, Shaw wrestled the gun away from him. Shaw is honored as a hero because other patrons, including his friend, were hiding in a bathroom while he hid behind a door to unarm the shooter. During the award ceremony, Shaw, who said he felt “like a fish in a barrel” while the gunman was shooting, modestly told the award ceremony: “But I want you all to know, & I’ll say this again, I am a genuine person: I didn’t actually do it to save lives. I did it to save my life. In saving my life, I saved other lives. So that’s probably the greatest thing you could do.” His honesty & modesty endear him almost as much as his courage.

The shooter, Travis Reinking, is a young white guy so there there will be no investigations into any links to terrorism although this is his second arrest for carrying an assault weapon. The first time he was arrested was last year in a restricted area near the White House. Since he was naked under his jacket during the Antioch shooting & when police apprehended him after a 36 hour manhunt, he is thought to be mentally unhinged. He may not be linked to ISIS or Al Qaeda & the guy probably is unhinged but since the four people killed included three Blacks & one Latino in a predominantly Black & Latino suburb, shouldn’t it be investigated whether the crime was motivated by racism & white supremacy?

The question is raised because in September 2017 in the same Nashville suburb of Antioch, a Sudanese immigrant opened fire in the parking lot of a church, killing one woman, & then entered the church where he injured seven others before a church usher helped disarm him. The woman killed was white which enflamed white supremacist bloggers & led to the FBI & Department of Justice opening a civil rights investigation. So doesn’t it seem obvious that a civil rights investigation should be opened in the shooting at the waffle house? Shouldn’t they determine if the shooter has any links to white supremacist groups & if he was motivated by revenge & hatred?

Our condolences to the families of the four victims. Shaw has set up this GoFundMe page for families of the shooting victims for burial expenses & compensation:
https://www.gofundme.com/5g07bvs

(Photo is James Shaw, Jr. from Fox)