In an incident reminiscent of the chokehold killing of Eric Garner by police in NYC, 46-year-old George Floyd was assaulted by a Minneapolis police officer during an arrest, held down on the ground for several minutes whilst handcuffed & with a knee on his neck whilst witnesses pleaded with the officers to let him up, & was choked to death. There is no indication George Floyd was involved in a crime, but even if he was, excessive force & brutality against an unarmed man are illegal.
As an aside, the Minneapolis Black community newspaper published articles by me in 2007 about police violence against Black youth. At the time, my carefully researched articles of several years blaming police for violence in the Black community were considered off the wall & were widely mocked by liberals & radicals. The prevailing view which I challenged was that Black youth were lawless & violent & involved in narco-terrorism. It was the same kind of propaganda used to justify violence against Palestinians. The articles enflamed the police chiefs of Minneapolis & St. Paul who came on a radio show to denounce them. Under pressure, the newspaper pulled my articles from the internet archives. The Black Lives Matter movement has proven beyond any doubt that the Black community is under martial law siege & its boys & young men endangered by police violence sanctioned at the highest levels of government.
May George Floyd Rest In Peace.

(Photo is George Floyd, May 26, 2020)

It’s clear that many Kashmiris still do not know about the international solidarity movement that emerged last August & September in response to India’s lockdown of Kashmir. There were hundreds of small & massive protests all over the world mostly initiated by Kashmiris in diaspora but attended by tens of thousands of others. Lina Ewald & I archived most of those events on FB so if you want to see their impressive political scale, please go to our archives for that period so you can see that your days of standing alone against colonial occupation are over.

Just days after China approached India for help in suppressing the democracy movement in Hong Kong, the CCP marched 10,000 Chinese troops into Ladakh facing off against Indian troops.

(Posted May 25, 2020)

This photo from the murderous 2016 military onslaught against the Kashmiri uprising shows the relationship of forces: soldiers in special forces gear armed with pellet guns, tear gas, & live ammo charging unarmed Kashmiri protesters. Confronted with this reality, do you really want to blither about stone pelters or even militants? Only a bone-headed nationalist could look at this photo & get on a high horse about injuries sustained by the occupying forces. Kashmiris have a right to defend themselves against colonial occupation by any means necessary.
(Photographer not identified but from JK Evening Mail blog dated 2016)

Many see Palestinian & Kashmiri stone pelters as provoking aggression from the occupying armies. Others of us consider them civilian defense guards to draw off aggression against unarmed protesters. As we know from repeated military assaults on worshippers at Al Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, including yesterday, Palestinian & Kashmiri protesters could march with their hands in the prayer position singing religious songs at the top of their lungs & the occupying armies would still violently attack them. As so many Kashmiris have pointed out, no distinction is made by Indian soldiers between an armed militant & an apolitical Kashmiri when it comes to dispensing violence. Whether you agree with stone pelting or do not, it is never the oppressed who are responsible for violence when they defend themselves against military aggression or even if they are just expressing fury at a stolen life. All condemnations for violence should be directed at the occupying armies.
This photo of a Kashmiri stone pelter is indistinguishable from that of a Palestinian stone pelter. This was taken during the Indian Army crackdown on the 2016 uprising when thousands of Kashmiri protesters were attacked, injured, & killed by pellet guns, tear gas, & live ammo.
(Photo by Mukhtar Khan/AP)

It’s probably true that young men & boys are the primary victims of pellet guns in Kashmir. Young men & boys are the primary targets of violence against Palestinians & against the US Black community. But in Kashmir, many young children & elderly in the vicinity of protests have also been struck & injured. Women play a central role in protests & are among those permanently disfigured & disabled. This is then 35-year-old Shakeela Begum from Sheeri who in 2018 was pummeled with pellets on her chest & face. Pellets entered both of her eyes, leaving her with only 10-percent of her vision. The life of working women is hard enough without the permanent health problems sustained from pellet injuries.
Stand with Kashmiris & demand India end the use of pellet munitions & demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all Indian forces from Kashmir.
(Photo by Camillo Pasquarelli)

In this photo, medical staff extract lead pellets from the shoulder of a pellet gun victim in Kashmir. In India, pellet guns are only legal for hunting, pest control, recreational shooting, & competitive sports. In Kashmir, they are used by the Indian Army to disable, disfigure, blind, demoralize young protesters. Thousands of Kashmiris–young & old, protesters & those sitting in their family homes–have been struck by pellets. In a 2016 Indian court action which ruled pellet guns were legal against protesters in Kashmir, the Indian Army admitted to releasing 1.3 million pellets in just one month.
According to the Indian Army’s defense of pellet guns, the protocol is to shoot below the waist–as if shooting young men in the legs, testicles, & butt was more humane–but they shoot straight for the eyes, face, chest & back of the young men. Pellet guns were introduced in 2010 under the tenure of chief minister Omar Abdullah, now playing a role as Nelson Mandela when by his own admission he was detained for several months in a posh suite unable to decide between staying in his pajamas or putting on sweat pants. Those Kashmiri boys & young men arrested for protesting are subjected to torture, including sexual torture, & are held in squalid, overcrowded prisons. Omar the fool actually offered advice on how to survive as a political prisoner when his advice could only be appropriate for someone on extended visit to a health spa. In a free Kashmir, he would be prosecuted for the harm he has done to thousands of Kashmiris permanently suffering from pellet munitions.
Stand with Kashmiris & demand India end the use of pellet munitions & demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all Indian forces from Kashmir.
(Photographer & date not identified; photo from Lightning Kashmir, May 25, 2020)

The grieving & fearless women of Nawakadal, Srinagar protest the destruction of homes, looting, & killing of their beloved family members & neighbors.

(Photo from Lightning Kashmir, May 25, 2020)

Boycott the brands which use Chinese forced labor of Uyghur Muslims.

https://muslimmatters.org/2020/05/23/this-eid-and-beyond-boycott-goods-made-with-enslaved-labor-of-uyghurs-even-if-it-is-your-favorite-brand/?utm_source=