The sordid politics of Assadists: misogyny, racism, contempt for the disabled

Assad supporters are incensed the NY Times published an article by Syrian revolutionist & citizen journalist Lina Shamy titled “I Went to Aleppo to Study. I Left in a Convoy of Refugees.”

Leith Abou Fadel, the founder & CEO of Al-Masdar News, posted this pitiful objection yesterday: “She’s not even from east Aleppo……there are no universities in east Aleppo……dafuq were you doing in east Aleppo?”

If you rely on news from Al-Masdar News, you might want to carefully vet it since in the article & in the title, Shamy clearly says she is from Idlib & moved to Aleppo to study at the university in western Aleppo. So Fadel probably never bothered to read the article before he set out to discredit it.

The worthless objection by Fadel has been liked & shared many times by Assadists who fetishize their paranoia about fake news but didn’t have the elementary integrity to read the article before they mocked it.

When you read their comments, you can see that those who identify as progressives & socialists but also identify with Assadism are taking a divergent political path leading toward a politics of Muslim-hating, anti-Semitism, misogyny, racism, & contempt for those with learning disabilities. That’s a well-worn path from which there is no return. And may we say, good riddance to them.

These are comments from the wall of Fadel & Beeley, which not a single person raised objection to:

–“Maybe she’s talking about how she went to east aleppo to study & practice about “how to be a jihadi sex toy”!!!”

–“She studied head chopping & prostitution”

–“I didn’t know there’s a school for sex jihadi”

–“She’s the new MOSSAD agent playing character for the jue-wish shekel war fund”

–“She was probably there to give bilal abdul kareem a blowjob”

–“She majored in How to blow a salafi 101.”

She was also called a whore, terrorist bitch, & harlot bastard. One attempted to demean her as “retarded.”

Sometimes you unfriend people just because you have no idea what they’re saying all of the time & you don’t know if it’s because you’re dumb or they’re pretentious. So you go with the latter.

Lina Shamy, Syrian revolutonist & citizen journalist in NY Times: “I went to Aleppo to study; I left in a convoy of refugees.”

Aleppo from NYT article byL Shamy Jan 20 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/opinion/sunday/i-went-to-aleppo-to-study-i-left-in-a-convoy-of-refugees.html?mwrsm=Facebook

This article in today’s NY Times is by Lina Shamy, who Twittered reports from east Aleppo throughout the murderous siege by Syrian & Russian warplanes. She is one of those citizen journalists who Assad propagandists like Beeley, Bartlett & others attempted to discredit as associated with Al-Qaeda. She was evacuated in December when the Syrian army took over & continues to report from Syria. You can follow her on Twitter at: Lina shamy@Linashamy.

This is the account of a Syrian revolutionist. You can choose to hear her authentic voice or you can choose the inflammatory vilifications of paid propagandists. The distinctions between the authentic & the venal are not subtle.

(Thank you to Usman A Khan Tahir for this article)

A boy & his sheep in Kashmir

Srinagar Kashmir from 2012

Came across this photo I posted in 2011 from today’s Facebook memory wall. In early 2012, FB deleted over 300 of my posts, most of which were about the Arab uprisings (which were glorious to witness), the Palestinian struggle, or the Haitian earthquake.

The only reason I didn’t lose this post is that on January 20, 2012, a Facebook friend reposted it. Kashmiri friends were already badgering me to study their struggle & write about it but clearly from the brief caption I had not yet done that & referred to Kashmir as “a disputed area embroiled in military conflict between India & Pakistan” & the location of the photo as “Srinagar, India.”

Deepest regrets to my Kashmiri friends for the truancy in educating myself but deepest gratitude also for not giving up & badgering the hell out of me till I took your struggle seriously.

The really delightful photo is a little boy & his sheep in the outskirts of Srinagar. He’s likely involved in Intifada now.

(Photo by Mukhtar Khan)

Trump’s inaugural fiasco

Trump just finished an inaugural address entirely bereft of what Bush, Sr. in 1987 so crudely called “that vision thing.” It was straight out hyped-up crude nationalism & included a declaration of war against “radical Islamic terrorism” which means continued reliance on Muslim-hating to justify wars.

He was followed by Franklin Graham to make sure we know this godless punk will be reigning over a Christian nation. There wasn’t even a nod to ecumenism–politically or religiously. It was the most factional inaugural in the past several decades & was deeply disturbing..

It was a call to arms for human rights & antiwar activists.

In just an hour the benedictions for a godless punk & chorale groups singing anthems to America have proven the US is still God’s chosen country. With the drones to back that up.

Trump is now sworn in as US president. ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter here’ comes to mind.

The women’s marches can have any political content we give them

There’s a lot of cogent criticism about the politics behind the women’s marches on Saturday that will be held all across the country. If you read the unity principles & check out the signers it’s obvious that conservative Bernie Sanders & Democratic Party forces are behind it; there are sure no wide-eyed radicals.

There are no demands proposed for the march; the unity principles are an expression of sentiments. The glaring omission in the call is that there isn’t a single mention of US wars. That’s a whopper of an “oversight.” But predictable in a Democratic Party event.

The political intentions of the organizers aren’t really of the moment. With possibly tens of thousands of women marching in the US, we can give those protests any political content we want & carry placards & banners that make political demands, including most importantly “No to US wars.”

As an aside, it should be noted what Democratic Party forces are capable of mobilizing if they want to–which they almost never do. There are those whose politics rotate around hating on the “Dem-libs,” as they call them, who will refuse to march so they aren’t unwilling pawns of Hillary Clinton. Get over the sectarian crap.There are bigger fish to fry than paranoia. Make some demands, put them on a placard, & find the march nearest to you.