Just so there is no confusion: when I write about Wahabi/Salafis, I trust knowledgeable Muslims on the issue. I don’t know anything more about them theologically than the Assad supporters who denounce them so vociferously as a plague on the body politic. I come from the Christian tradition & still can’t tell the difference between an Evangelical & a Fundamentalist & it’s been spelled out to me a hundred times, maybe more. Evangelicals play an important role in Zionist politics so you’d think I’d come to grips with the distinctions.
When you consider how the Wahabi scare is used against the Syrian revolution, Kashmiris, Rohingya, & others, you understand the importance in politics of not talking through your hat.
Came across this comment posted by Khurram Parvez on August 10, 2016. Doesn’t it just put all that alarmist rubbish about Wahabi/Salafi influence in perspective? Not just in Kashmir, but in Syria & elsewhere where those religious ideas are associated with head-chopping.
“In the street protests in Kashmir, Sufis, Shias, Sunnis, Wahabis, Jamaatis, Sikhs, less religious, non religious – everyone is participating. Yet apologists of Indian occupation & violence would say Kashmir problem is due to wahabization.”
Protest in Kashmir against forcible disappearance of mostly men & boys:
Among the most unspeakable crimes committed against humanity is forcible disappearance by repressive regimes. Hundreds of thousands have been disappeared in at least 50 different countries. It is a monstrous crime because the grief can never be resolved. In Kashmir, an estimated 10,000 men & boys have been disappeared since 1989. That is almost one person every day for 28 years.
Kashmiri activists, particularly the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) led by Khurram Parvez & Parvez Imroz, & the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) led by Parveena Ahangar, are playing a central role in exposing & opposing this crime not just in Kashmir but internationally through the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) led by Khurram Parvez.
It’s beyond dispute that Kim Jong-un is a Stalinist, repressive political figure. Is he insane, as the US claims? Not likely, & certainly not more so than Trump. Is democratic social change necessary in North Korea? Of course, just as it is in most other countries. But that is for the people of North Korea to resolve.
If the US is forced to pull its nuclear & military forces & arsenal out of the region, the people of North & South Korea can decide their own political fates without US repression. They will likely, in their majority, decide to reunite into one country under democratic rule. What keeps the region at a boiling point is US military occupation.
Let’s get real about the so-called threat of North Korea. For nearly 70 years the US has had thousands of military personnel, war ships, missiles, nuclear submarines surrounding North Korea. It is responsible for the division of Korea into North & South. It is the US that presents a sustained military threat to North Korea. So if they have developed a nuclear arsenal, it is to defend themselves against clear & present danger from the US.
Is it scary that they have nuclear capability? Indeed. Almost as scary as the nuclear capability of the US, UK, France, Russia, Israel, Pakistan, India, & China.
Actor Richard Gere is still getting praise & opprobrium for expressing objections to Israel’s most egregious human rights crimes against Palestinians when he toured the West Bank last March. He was in Israel to promote his film by an Israeli director & despite equivocations about how Israel would use him to legitimize itself.
Gere is a long-time supporter of Israel & since he’s around my age has had decades to inform himself if he’s serious about justice & human rights. What about we hold the praise till we see what Gere does now that he’s witnessed the apartheid conditions first hand? Will he speak out & honor the cultural boycott? Or keep double-talking & trying to play both sides of the street? Is it unreasonable to ask him to take a firm stand? Not at all, since he presents himself as a defender of human rights. You can’t make that claim if you do the equivocating thing about Israel.
There was a video posted on Twitter reportedly from yesterday’s hunt to kill operation at Tral in Kashmir. Indian soldiers were spraying lifeless bodies on the ground with bullets. Whether the persons were still alive or already dead, whether they were suspected of any crime or not, this constitutes several war crimes per person, including denial of due process, summary execution of “war prisoners,” &/or desecration of a corpse.
As stateless persons, Rohingya have a hell of a time finding a place to live where they are not subject to harassment, imprisonment, & extreme discrimination. It cannot be said the UN refugee agency plays a leading role in ameliorating that crisis affecting millions of people.
Does anyone in Canada have any special knowledge of options or ability to help sponsor a Rohingya refugee? Does anyone in any other country? In the past, I have sponsored immigrants but my income is no longer high enough for immigration standards & I have been rejected. Please let me know if you can help
