Every once in a while I have to restate that I don’t run a debating society. One reason is because in 53 years of activism, I haven’t persuaded any boyfriends to move to the left of the Democrats or a single person in my family to move to the left of–dare I admit it–Donald Trump. I once thought leading a virtuous life combined with my ardor for socialism would persuade at least one of them to stop with the crappy politics & ‘come to Jesus’. But I just wasted years when I could have been sinning up a storm. That’s how bad I am at persuading people.

Another reason is that my wall is a solidarity wall, not a debating society. If Zionists, Assadists, anti-Semites, Islamophobes, Hindutva nationalists were a reasonable lot & one could engage in useful discussion, okay, I might consider changing that. But the best of them are lost souls & the most of them are vituperative & hateful. I don’t delete their comments & block them for reasonably presenting deranged ideas but because they swear at me & call me names & there is nothing to learn from that, not even insights into abnormal psychology.

That’s why you can’t hijack my posts & use them to talk rubbish about Palestinians, Kashmiris, Rohingya, Uyghur, refugees, immigrants. I don’t mind disagreement but only within the framework of solidarity.

“there is curiosity in Kashmir about what india is up to, but no panic, we have seen the worst and survived the worst. Only people who are panicking are the collaborator politicians and their followers who are sensing their shops might be closed for long. Whatever their designs are, we must stand firm, united and take care of each other. We must not forget that “God has power over all things” <3″

–Mir Laieeq on the deployment of 88,000 more Indian troops to Kashmir

Even when you account for the massive underestimates & outright lies by the US Pentagon about the number of troops it has deployed in other countries & even when you take into consideration the unknown numbers of Russian, Iranian, US-coalition, Israeli, Hezbollah forces & mercenaries added to ISIS irregulars in Syria, nearly a million Indian soldiers in Kashmir (with a population of 12.5 million) shows the immense scale of the occupation which makes it the most militarized region in the world. Especially when you know that there are nearly as many Indian soldiers in Kashmir as there are soldiers in either the US or Russian army.

Catholic media is reporting that Burmese Cardinal Charles Maung Bo accompanied by the cardinal from the Philippines visited Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. Of course they’re reporting the visit as a mission of apostolic mercy when Cardinal Maung Bo is compromised with genocide up to his eyeballs. He has an affable relationship with Suu Kyi & with General Min Aung Hlaing, the architect of the Rohingya genocide. At the height of the genocide in 2017, he appeared at a public ecumenical prayer fest called by Suu Kyi & the generals & never uttered a word of protest against the genocide. He later asked Pope Francis not to use the proper name Rohingya when he shamefully paid a state visit to Suu Kyi & the generals in November 2017, also at the height of the genocide. There are photos of the Catholic clergy in Burma scraping & bowing to Suu Kyi like feudal servants. If Cardinal Maung Bo is visiting Rohingya refugees, whose proper name he refuses to say, it is as an emissary of Suu Kyi & the generals, not as an emissary of Jesus.

What happened to the church of saints & martyrs that all Catholics are raised to respect as their history? If Cardinal Maung Bo is afraid to speak out against genocide in Burma, he should hop a plane to Rome & speak out against the slaughter of Rohingya from the balcony of St. Peters. That is the commitment to humanity required of spiritual leaders.

This photo is Cardinal Maung Bo having an affable meeting with the military architect of the Rohingya genocide, General Min Aung Hlaing on August 21st, 2017. At the same time, five other Burmese Catholic bishops were meeting with military officials to discuss “inclusiveness & cooperation for the political affairs & peace making process,” as the General’s office reported it.

(Photo of the cardinal & the general from General Min Aung Hlaing’s office)

According to Palestinian trade unions, the poverty rate in Gaza is now 80-percent with a 55-percent unemployment rate for a population of 1.8 million. Staggering, catastrophic, genocidal, & entirely due to Israel’s blockade that has turned Gaza into what is called an ‘outdoor prison.’

Build BDS. Rally for a free Palestine.

Yesterday, 280 companies (28,000 troops) of Indian soldiers were deployed to Kashmir on top of the 10,000 deployed last February, the 40,000 for the Hindu pilgrimage last month, & the 10,000 just days ago ” to strengthen counterinsurgency operations & law & order duties.” The Indian government is offering no explanation for the deployments but according to the Hindustan Times, the troops are being deployed “in vulnerable spots” of Srinagar & the rest of Kashmir. All major entry & exit points have been taken over by the Central Armed Paramilitary Forces, a division of the Indian military with several different kinds of soldiers who function as police, border patrol, counterinsurgency, surveillance, & occupation.
Kashmiris are uncertain what the additional deployments mean since there have been increased hunt to kill operations for the past few years where under the guise of hunting down armed militants, civilian protesters are shot at & assaulted, homes are invaded, vandalized, & razed, livestock are killed. There is already the highest ratio of soldiers to civilians in any region in the world

These excessive deployments are a provocation & a threat to Kashmiris. It’s reported that many have begun panic buying probably in expectations of the curfews India imposes for months at a time & in fear of the ubiquitous troops. Children are put in even more danger & certainly sustain more emotional trauma.

Stand with Kashmiris by educating others about their struggle against colonialism & occupation, by organizing forums & panels about their struggle, & by organizing public rallies demanding the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all Indian troops from Kashmir.

(Photo of Indian troops in Kashmir by Waseem Andrabi/Hindustan Times file)