“First you tape our mouths shut, and then you ask us our opinions….”
(From Toronto For Kashmir)
Houston, Texas #StandWithKashmir vigil, October 27th, 2019.
“What do we want? Azadi!
Say it loudly – Azadi
It is our right – Azadi!
We will snatch it for ourselves – Azadi!
The fragrant one – Azadi!
More precious than life – Azadi!
Oh! Almighty grant us – Azadi
For the sacrifices of martyrs – Azadi
If I become a martyr, write on my shrouds – Azadi”
–Azadi anthem posted by Wamiq Bashir Janwari
“Below shall be the principles that will guide our Azaad state with respect to minorities:
1) Hindus/Sikhs/Christians/Buddhists will not be asked to prove their loyalty to the state.
No one shall be asked to stand in the cinema for the national anthem.No will be asked to hate India in order to prove their loyalty towards Kashmir.
2) Hindus/Sikhs/Christians/Buddhists will not be asked to choose between their religion and their country.
Hindus/Sikhs/Christians/Buddhists will not be asked whether you are Hindu//Sikh first or a Kashmiri first?
3) Hindus/Sikhs/Christians/Buddhists will be free to support their favorite sports player and their favorite sporting team.
You can paste the poster of any player on the walls of your room or on your car. It’s your choice, state won’t have any opinion on it.
4) Hindus/Sikhs/Christians/Buddhists will be free to practice and preach their religion.
All religions will be equally respected. State will not interfere in the religious matters of minority communities.
5) Hindus/Sikhs/Christians/Buddhists can eat whatever they like.
It won’t be the business of state to dictate what to eat and what not to.
6) Hindus/Sikhs/Christians/Buddhists can fall in love with anyone.
State will not tolerate hate propaganda against minorities like “love jihad” and vigilante groups like anti-Romeo squads will be outlawed.”
–Faris Hamid Bazaz
According to a 2017 UN report, a million children have been orphaned by the Syrian war. Some dare call that liberation from terrorism. Others would call it a genocide.
Assadist grandstander Cindy Sheehan held a national antiwar march in DC this past Saturday. Only one-hundred people showed up. Even the little group of ‘retired’ FBI, CIA, & Pentagon officials who lead the moribund antiwar movement didn’t make an appearance since their work is completed: the destruction of the US antiwar movement. Proving once again that you cannot build antiwar actions by supporting the Assad dictatorship & Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians. An international antiwar movement must be rebuilt rooted in principles & committed to democratic functioning–something Assadists, Stalinists, & government agents have absolutely no concept of.
Unlike Assadists after the Kurds switched to alliance with Assad, we did not have to walk back or delete posts in support of the Turkish genocide & which war mongered against the Kurdish people as Israeli stooges & ‘contras’. We do not agree that the military alliance with the genocidal Syrian regime is a solution since it involves an alliance against the Syrian Arab Spring. The Idlib model is not a liberation model but a genocidal one. Whatever maneuvers & alliances the Kurdish leadership makes to avoid genocide will not solve the problems of Kurdish self-determination. That struggle was set back considerably when they did not forge unity with the Syrian Arab Spring. The unholy alliance between the Kurdish leadership & the Assad regime will necessarily involve a massive scale of suffering for Syrians, Kurds, & Turks & deal a catastrophic blow to the Arab Spring.
Indian occupying forces are here arresting an 81-year-old protester in Srinagar. They’ve kidnapped, tortured, sodomized, or disappeared 13,000 young boys so why would they be respecters of old age?
End the occupation! Release all Kashmiri political prisoners!
The Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, is hardly the vanguard of progressive American political thought but this editorial on Indian repression against Kashmiris is dead on. What it reflects is that there are many politicians & media around the world who worry that India’s blockade in Kashmir might boomerang against the Islamophobic ‘war on terror’.