https://www.change.org/p/facebook-stop-censoring-kashmiri-activists-on-facebook-reinstate-huma-dar?
Monthly Archives: July 2016
Got called a “foreign aggressor” running a hate campaign against India by an irate nationalist. I don’t love or hate India anymore than I love or hate the US. I’m not that attached to the nation-state.
It was the Roman writer Terence who said “nothing human is alien to me.” Marx & Tennessee Williams both used that phrase in their writings & I think it sums up why so many of us are concerned about human rights issues anywhere & don’t let boundaries get in the way of that. We refuse to accept artificial impediments between us or stand silent if others are being persecuted. Not from noblesse oblige but because we wouldn’t like it ourselves & we’re all in this together.
If the nationalists don’t like it, they can hunker down in their provincialism & suck it.
Dibyesh Anand, Naila Smith, Rollie Mukherjee, & myself are initiating a petition to demand FB honor the Bill of Rights & stop censoring Kashmiri posts. It will also demand the reinstatement of Huma Dar who has been locked out of FB without the apparent possibility of parole for posting about Kashmir.
Dibyesh and I have already been suspended but were reinstated after a few days. Huma has been given no time frame so it appears to be permanent.
Miko Peled, the Israeli champion of Palestinian rights, was locked out of FB a few years ago & the petition campaign to have his account reinstated was successful.
This will require thousands of signatures & we will be asking everybody on our friend list & anyone else who comes within ear shot to sign & share the petition. You are in serious peril of sanction if you do not oblige. It’s kind of a sign it or else situation.
It should be pointed out that the internet in Kashmir is still on lock down & there is a news blackout so our petition becomes one way for Kashmiri voices to be heard when powerful political forces are trying to silence them.
Petition against use of pellet guns in Kashmir
Little 5-year-old Kashmiri girl with 12 pellets still inside her body at the pellet injury ward of SMHS hospital in Srinagar.
A human rights crime which the UN is absolutely mute about.
Please sign petition against use of pellet guns in Kashmir:
https://www.change.org/p/pmoindia-hmoindia-stop-use-of-pellet-guns-in-kashmir?
Drumpf has been proven right that US elections are a rigged operation. Dozens of delegates at the Republican convention who opposed his candidacy are protesting publicly that they were strong-armed, shouted down, out-maneuvered, & denied a chance to oppose him in favor of some other rightwing bozo.
Facebook censors posts about Kashmir & locks out activists
Facebook’s censorship of posts about Kashmir, particularly those about the extrajudicial execution of Burhan Wani as well as videos of Indian army violence, is a serious violation of the US Bill of Rights which legally binds FB since it operates out of this country.
Lots of activists are making a big stink about it, especially on Twitter, but no major media source has seen fit to even mention it. If you google the issue you find it mentioned in a few Indian media sources including Catch News, Sikh Siyasat News, Indian Express; in Dawn, a Pakistani publication; & by two bloggers including myself & Dibyesh Anand. The only other media report is in IBTimes, an online publication which also owns Newsweek.
Those who have been censored by having posts, photos, or videos removed or who have been suspended should let me know so we can find a forum to discuss this problem of censorship & challenge its legality.
Photo is Kashmiri journalists in Srinagar today protesting India’s raids & ban on newspapers.
(Photo by Farooq Khan/EPA)
#FreeKashmir
There won’t be a word on this wall about Melania Dumpf’s shameless plagiarism of Michelle Obama’s maudlin speech. Except ROFL.
The delusions among liberals about Erdogan & the character of his rule
If there’s one thing the attempted Turkish coup is making evident, it’s the riot of delusions that so many have about Turkish president Erdogan & about the character of his rule.
On Twitter, a leading Palestinian supporter mocked the notion that Erdogan would conduct a purge if he survived the coup. As of yesterday, only three days after the attempted coup, he had already fired 24,000 teachers & 1,577 university deans & dragged in 7,500 alleged plotters. Will they face trial or just disappear in the gulag?
Others are lauding the survival of Erdogan as the “democratically elected” president when his 2014 election campaign was riddled with corruption charges from international observers. Many are completely ignoring his violence against Kurds, his repression of democracy protesters, his raids on newspaper offices & arrests of reporters, his unsavory agreement with the EU for accepting deported refugees in return for money.
Some Assad opponents are calling on Erdogan to militarily enter the war in Syria against Assad. The credulity is beyond tragic, not to mention foolish, since as the second largest force in NATO, Turkey is already involved in Syria in many ways, including allowing the US to use its airbases.
Some have been taken in by Erdogan’s support for Palestinians, most notably in the 2010 humanitarian Mavi Marmara flotilla to the Gaza Strip that was attacked by Israeli commandoes who killed several Turkish activists. Perhaps the deluded are unaware of the diplomatic rapprochement between Israel & Turkey brokered in 2013 by Obama where in exchange for an apology for the attack & $20 million in compensation Turkey would normalize relations with Israel. Maybe they don’t know that two days after Erdogan formalized the reconciliation agreement with Israel in late June 2016, Erdogan threw the organizers of the 2010 flotilla under the bus by publicly asking, “Did you even ask me before you set sail?”
There is an alternative to the autocracy of Erdogan & that of a military junta. That alternative is the democracy movement in Turkey. Standing against the coup does not mean standing with Erdogan. The distinction is not subtle & should not go over the heads of so many who support democracy in Turkey.
The photo is a billboard in Ankara, Turkey in 2013 with photos of Netanyahu & Erdogan celebrating Israel’s apology.
(Photo from AP)
Please take a moment to sign & share this petition about the murderous siege in Kashmir. It will take a hell of a lot more to end the occupation than a petition but the point of this is to educate & campaign widely about the character of the violence, to break the news blackout in media, & to build international solidarity.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfyD2T3580jh9pc-f1UtXkWxchdARSUXXQLDPw69z7l0kkgYw/viewform
This is an interesting interview by Usman A Khan Tahir in Pakistan Today with Kashmiri activist Muhammad Faysal. It takes up all sorts of political & historical questions about the struggle against the Indian occupation & for Kashmiri self-determination.