A very good article by Loubna Mrie, a young Syrian woman, about the Syrian Arab Spring uprising against the Assad dictatorship & the development of the counterrevolution involving paramilitary forces, Iran, Hezbollah, Russia, & the US-coalition. Who have decidedly not been heard over the voices of Assad propagandists & their guppies in the antiwar & socialist movements are the voices of the hundreds of thousands who rose up against a brutal dictatorship. In Assadist propaganda which is rooted in ‘war on terror’ rhetoric, they have been reduced to “Wahhabi jihadi terrorists.” In 2011, when the uprising began, hundreds of videos documenting the massive protests against Assad were posted to social media. But that is also when the fascist journal Global Research began its thunderous campaign associating the uprising with terrorism & began to openly express the Muslim, Arab, & Jew-hating that informs its politics. It remains the central voice of the counterrevolution today.
To all the exposés coming out about Morris Dees & the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), we should add that they spent a month specially training Israeli lawyer & rabid Zionist Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the founder of Shurat HaDin law center which engages in “lawfare” against BDS groups & Palestinian solidarity around the world. Shurat HaDin uses the same methods as SPLC of litigating organizations out of existence.
To my mind, we should not use the term ‘jihadi’ as it is used in ‘war on terror’ rhetoric unless we are mocking it. We should not legitimize its misuse & misappropriation in the service of vilifying Muslims or justifying war.
This Syrian child lost both his parents in US-coalition bombing in Baghouz under the guise of destroying ISIS. Still there are anti-Assad writers who call for ‘humanitarian intervention’ by the US to salvage the Syrian Arab Spring uprising. What do they not understand about counterrevolution in Syria, of which the US-coalition is fully a part? What do they not understand about US militarism & the so-called ‘war on terror’? If ISIS did not exist, the US would have to invent it to justify its barbarous wars.
The only principled demands are for the immediate cessation of Syrian, Russian, & US-coalition bombing & the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces from Syria.
(Photo from Moussa Al Hassan on Twitter)
The Syrian Arab Spring uprising has supporters in Russia. And a tough-minded lot they are since criticizing Putin’s policies can get you a stretch in the gulag.
The anti-Semitic psychos are already out blaming the Christchurch massacre on a Zionist plot. It’s part of what they call “The Zionist Master Plan & the Clash of Civilizations.” Palestinian solidarity has no affinities whatsoever with hatred of Jews & those who were attracted to it on that misunderstanding need to be isolated & excluded from it on principle. They stink up the movement.
Accidentally, I discovered that others have put me in Facebook groups I don’t agree with. Like the group “Friends who like Omar Abdullah,” the politician who introduced pellet guns to Kashmir. Don’t make you hunt me you down & block you. And don’t put me in these groups with sycophantic politics.
Protests today in Kashmir.
(Photo by Faisal Khan)