As Syrian & Russian bombers continue to carpet bomb Idlib province, it is reported that in 2019 at least 1,182,772 people were forced to flee for their lives, including 216,932 just in November & December. In bombing attacks on Idlib & the adjacent areas, 1,703 people were killed, including 470 children, as well as 48 White Helmets, medical workers, paramedics, & humanitarian workers. At least 143 schools, 82 healthcare facilities, 23 bakeries, 8 water stations, 6 electricity stations, 136 mosques, 36 civil defense centers, 24 IDP camps, 42 service centers & 4 aid centers were also bombed.

In defense of the Syrian people against this slaughter, there has been only one small antiwar rally reported. The Assadist & Stalinist cult that usurped the international antiwar movement & identifies those Syrians displaced & killed as terrorists is waxing triumphal at the rout of the Syrian Arab Spring & by this have written their own epitaph. May they rot in hell.

Stand with the Syrian Arab Spring: demand the immediate cessation of bombing & the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign forces & mercenaries from Syria.

(Source of data is Syrian National Coalition’s Media Department. Photo of Syrian refugees from Idlib is from Syrian activist)

“Be Muslim, but not too Muslim.

Be mildly Muslim, Not wildly Muslim.

Bring poetry to us, Keep prayer at bay.

Bring Biryani to us, Keep slogans away.

Faiz is Fine,

Indori is Good!

But you musn’t cross the line!

Stay where you should.

When you wear that topi, team with funky glasses.

When you wear that kurta, be aware of the masses.

The hijab is cool, Cos the west says so.

But Namaaz in protests? A strict NO NO.

Here’s the recipe for secularism,

Read!

Abide!

Don’t come in the way of Pseudo Liberal pride.

When you take a step,

Say By your leave.

When you make a move,

Say May I please?

Say Aye Aye Sir!

Say Aye Aye Ma’am!

Aren’t you grateful, the government we blame?

We are magnanimous and kind and oh so nice.

We stood up for you,

Without thinking twice.

Now you listen and do what we say,

We are six years late, chose chaos in May.

But don’t you dare chide us on that ever,

Bow your head, be diplomatic, for God’s sake be clever.

Now come here buddy,

Here’s some templates to fill.

We will fight for you then,

And co-opt your win.”

~ The Proper Secular Liberal

–Papri Banerjee

Another Kashmiri solidarity group worth following:

https://www.facebook.com/kashmiraustralia/

On the custodial death in an Indian prison of 62-year-old Ghulam Mohammed Bhat, a Kashmiri freedom fighter.

This is a video about the murder in March 2019 of 29-year-old Kashmiri school teacher Rizwan Pandit & about the kind of beloved person he was. He was arrested by the Indian Army for questioning about a ‘militancy case’, was tortured & then murdered in custody three days later. According to the medical examiner’s report, “The blood loss in soft tissues due to multiple injuries was extensive internally & this must have led to irreversible shock. There was no blunt injury or damage to the internal organs. He had cuts & injuries all over his body. He also had a haematoma (a solid swelling of clotted blood within the tissues) in his left arm & eye. While ruling out a heart attack, the official said a “roller” may have been applied over his legs, causing the veins & arteries to rupture.

His family said Rizwan was murdered in custody & that his body bore torture marks: “Rizwan’s left eye had turned black & the left side of his face was swollen. There were severe injury marks on his thighs… cut marks & deep burn marks were visible on his thighs…There were stitches on his head.”

The state filed an FIR (a formal accusation of a crime) against Rizwan after they tortured & murdered him in custody. There has been no justice for Rizwan by prosecuting the Indian Army officials involved in his arrest, torture, & murder.

It is regrettable that the film would post tweets deploring the custodial murder by Kashmiri politicians Mehbooba Mufti, Shah Faesal, & Omar Abdullah since their collaboration policies are directly implicated in the injuries, disappearances, & murders of thousands of Kashmiris, including young children. There were many Kashmiri freedom & human rights activists & leaders who commented on the murder of Rizwan Pandit whose outrage is far more compelling than those three shysters.

“How dreams are shattered in Kashmir

Everyone wants to have life of pride & esteem, to make themselves so lordly they use all their resources. To reach that dignified status, not all people get that blockbuster of their desire. Some loose the race due to financial crisis, some befall under such circumstances from where time hardly gives them any opportunity to escape. Like most of the people, I too was born in a middle-class family & hardly got all the luxuries of life which children of nowadays enjoy. I grew up under such circumstances to which every person shall scorn. In the beginning phase of my life I dreamt to be a police officer to make my parents proud but as the days passed, my eyes started witnessing the brutal face of the world. The world, which seemed gorgeous till then, commenced to introspect my passion in early childhood. The obnoxious humor which life bestowed me in my premature age was the real face of conflict.

At night I snuggled under quilt with parents & tell them about my dreams but in morning life gives me the different version of it. We were roused not by our parent but strange & horrifying faces of men in uniform with gusty guns in their hands with weapon sealed body. The home, in which everyone enjoy his felicity of life, was turned to the hornet’s nest. Not only this doom was enough but I have seen these unknown, gruesome, sullen faces taking my father away & beating him with iron hand so many times without guilt or crime. The severity of life didn’t end here. I have witnessed my mother chasing these men in uniform with bare hands to release my father unscathed. So many lies have been flung by many renowned claiming that no evil doing has happened in Jammu & Kashmir in last 30 years. If any wrong has taken place, it has been dealt with iron hand. Those so-called conflict entrepreneurs who always justified Indian forces atrocities need to answer Omar (name changed) what was his father’s guilt? Who was killed by Indian forces without any crime.

What happened to those predators whose torture marks are still visible on my father’s body & have effected his health. What befell those security personnel who have beaten my mother when she was shielding us from military barbarism. What came out about those security personal who frightened my sister with bullets when she confronted them while my mom was being beaten. I still remember the moments how we were kicked out from our home bare-footed in the chilled & heavy downpour. The scream & holler of those octogenarian men, women & young ladies is still flashing in my head who were being beaten mercilessly by forces. What will happen to those, who have thrusted such a dreadful picture of my childhood to my mind. Who will return our childhood luxuries which we lost to conflict trauma. I can say that not only the circumstances around me have shattered my dreams but there are few persons who were very close to my heart have contributed it too. The queue of questions is too long but the answers seem repudiating.

Fortunately, I have got very little contributions of conflict but There are people whose stories are so heart-wrenching that to cobble them in words seems infeasible. The people who served Indian politics in Kashmir who claimed to be the real sympathizers of people were never the “mainstream politicians“. They never represented the emotion & aspirations of people, Rather they always stood to gratify their Delhi masters. They forced people to suffer peacefully & sometimes justified violence and atrocities against people by comments of Toffee’s & chocolate. To them, if they consider themselves the real representatives, they should have answered the shivering voice of those fathers who have lost their young ones when they needed them the most. Some lost them in such a terrifying way that after passing numerous years of their disappearance they are still aspiring the return of their son’s alive or dead.
They should answer the murmuring voice of Omar (name changed) who lost his father when he hardly knew the pain of losing him. “When my father was killed, I didn’t know how to react, but as soon as day passes I start feeling the burnt of orphaned age. I am thankful to those people who helped me to come out of that phase. Days bled into years but my wounds are yet to heal.”

There are people who are half-orphaned. Who don’t know whether their parents are alive or dead. And there are youngsters like Ahmed Bin Qasim son of Dr. Qasim Faktoo who is leaving the age of orphaned while his parents are alive & are incarcerated in different jails from their childhood.”

–Kashmiri Mubashir Naik

“From Israel to Iran and India, the ambition of building a nation-state as the homeland of people belonging to a particular ethnicity or religious faith, who happen to be the majority (or can become the majority after some rounds of ethnic cleansing), is the root cause of fascism.”

–Satyadeep Satya

These are 36 photos from protests around the world of women fearlessly confronting political repression. A notable absence is any photos of Kashmiri women. If you’ve ever faced a raised police baton, you understand just how fearless these women are facing live ammo & in the case of Kashmir, pellet guns.

https://www.indiatimes.com/news/world/36-powerful-images-of-women-protesters-who-are-leading-from-the-front-to-save-our-planet-503075.html?

Indian police are thrashing an old man protesting the citizenship laws legalizing the persecution of Muslims. You’d be forgiven if you mistook this as a photo from Kashmir where this has been the norm for decades.

(Photo via Salman Gour)

Despite the massive protests of Indian Muslims & their supporters against the citizenship laws & the brutal state violence against them, there are many still writing jeremiads about the political passivity of Indian Muslims. We read similar jeremiads about Israeli Zionists. If you’re an American activist, you could write entire volumes of jeremiads about the decades of lard-ass passivity & political collusion of US workers with the most egregious human rights crimes of our government, including violence against the Black community, genocide of Native Americans, & unending colonial wars & interventions.

Political passivity isn’t written in our human genes; it isn’t inherent to human society or to some human societies. It’s the road of least resistance when people are confused, afraid, propagandized & its historic causes must be analyzed lest we turn to cynicism & misanthropy about the future of humanity. Cynicism presupposes no possibilities of social transformation even under the impact of persecution & just being pushed too far too fast. Misanthropy presupposes no hope & no chance for the power of human solidarity against oppression. Simply put, it’s a political dead-end.

History has demonstrated over & over again that human societies once prostrate before tyrannous power do rise up en masse. The problem before them has always been the lack of leadership to build a humane alternative because so many had already succumbed to cynicism & misanthropy about the possibilities of a better world. Crises are a time for visionaries like Palestinians who call for a democratic secular state for Palestinians & Jews; like Kashmiri & Indian activists who include demands in the Indian protests for Kashmiri self-determination; like American activists who continue to link the economic demands of US workers to the struggles against war, racism, & the attacks on women’s rights & will accept no discounts on justice.