Muslim Man Shot And Burnt Alive By Extremist Mob In Delhi
Extremist mob pulled Anwar Kassar, 58, out of his home, shot him and threw him into a fire in broad daylight. Anwar’s brother Saleem hidden by a Hindu neighbour, watched it happen from a third-floor window.
(Posted by Documenting Oppression Against Muslims–DOAM)
“We shall meet again, in Srinagar, by the gates of the villa of peace, our hands blossoming into fists, till the soldiers return the keys and disappear.”
–Agha Shahid Ali, Kashmiri-American poet (1949-2001)
These little kids at the Turkey-Greece border just a few days ago are what the refugee crises are all about. This photo was taken a few days ago when Greek border police supported by Frontex border patrol agents began forcibly & violently pushing refugees back into Turkey. Only a few hundred reportedly made it past the cordons of border patrol & Greece is already trying to round them up to deport them. These little kids, miserable & terrified, likely remain in Turkey, watching their fathers humiliated by being forced to strip, watching their mothers afraid for all of their lives.
We need to have internationally coordinated protests demanding the EU, US, & other countries open their borders for safe passage & asylum to all refugees with no exceptions, no exclusions, no arbitrary categories like economic or war refugees. No human being is alien to us.
(Photo from Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
This is the scene at the Turkey-Greece border where Greek border police, reinforced with Frontex border patrol agents, are firing tear gas, water cannons, stun grenades (which temporarily blind & deafen), & even live ammo at unarmed war refugees. There are nearly four million refugees in Turkey, most living without opportunities for a humane life. In 2016, Erdogan made an unsavory deal with Merkel on behalf of the EU to prevent refugees from moving on to Greece in exchange for several million euros. Now in some kind of maneuver, Turkey opened the borders to Greece without providing the necessary political pressure & support to make the passage safe for refugees. Erdogan is treating desperate refugees, including small children & those with disabilities, like some kind of game piece in a geopolitical strategy, not like human beings. It did not, or at least should not have come as a surprise to him that Greek & EU officials would respond with such ferocious savagery to the movement of thousands of refugees.
One expects this kind of barbarism from the Trump regime because he struts his white supremacy & xenophobia like a badge of honor. One expects this kind of barbarism from the EU since it has allowed tens of thousands of refugees to drown in the Mediterranean. But Erdogan, whose policies are consistently repressive, including toward refugees, likes to promote himself as a champion of the people. His barbarous policies speak louder than his duplicitous words.
There have been protests in Italy, France, & elsewhere against the assaults on refugees. There need to be internationally coordinated protests demanding the EU, US, & other nations open their borders to offer safe passage & asylum to all victims of war & genocide. No exceptions, no exclusions.
(Photo at Turkey-Greece border by Bulent Kilic/AFP)
Another article on China’s policy of forcible relocation & forced labor of Uyghur Muslims which cites some of the several companies which subcontract to those factories.
Vicky Valdez Gabay reminded me of this post from March 7th, 2017. The poem about war in northwestern Pakistan (part of the war in Afghanistan) is gruesome but this photo of children from the region is iconic in its beauty. It reminds us that women & children are always those who suffer most from war & genocide. Our antiwar principles are rooted in the protection & welfare of children, that they may inherit a world suitable for them to come of age in, to live & love in.
The magician and the boy from Waziristan
It was a stony winter morning covered in mist.
The half-awake magician answered the hurried knock
at the front door.
The boy, covered in dust and smell,
carried a big, bulky sack on his back.
It was made of coarse jute threads tightly interwoven.
A thin and flexible but armoured
metal strip looped around the mouth of the sack
to seal it.
The boy looked straight into the magician’s eyes.
“I come from far.
I remember watching you in the circus with my father.
You had cut a woman in half,
then joined her back.
They were all burnt to death after the bomb went off.
Only my mother’s body is not charred.
I bring her to you.
She is only cut in half.”
–Harris Khalique, a renowned Pakistani poet, writer, activist. Islamabad, March 2017
Waziristan is in northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan & has been subject to thousands of airstrikes, including by drones, since the US-NATO war began in 2001. Tens of thousands have fled the bombing & become refugees in their own country.
(The photo shows children of Waziristan playing & not the gruesome photos of those killed or injured by bombs.)
“If you can’t understand what it feels like being Kashmiri in India, everyday it feels like a Jew living in 1933-45 Germany.”
—Nasir Hussain (reposted from March 7, 2019)
Kashmiri #police #India
By Mir Suhail Qadiri
“Al Quds ” …2019 .(#Hoopoe the messenger)…Rollie Mukherjee did this work for the book Boys of the Cave by Zulekha Adam (though this work is not part of the book…other work was selected..)
A quite cogent analysis of the Turkey-Russia deal on Syria by Bilal Abdul Kareem. When it is delivered by bombers, always look a gift horse in the face. Turkey has long been involved in Syria & not in a good way.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-russia-syria-who-are-winners-and-losers-idlib-ceasefire?