The Example of Ilhan Omar

 

Swalwell: Finally. So I thought, we're going to hold someone accountable for anti-semitism. Surely it's the author of this tweet. Kanye, Elon. Trump… Don’t come here looking at us for anti-semitism. Look at your own damn mirror pic.twitter.com/dTYVinwsWZ

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 2, 2023

The one thing I loved about my Democratic party today was how they stood up for Ilhan Omar, who didn't do anything but be visibly a Black African Muslimah who said certain uncomfortable things out loud that a certain political party could with all the pettiness in the world deny access to the one committee where someone with her life experiences would be a complete benefit. These supportive people dropped so many receipts about the GOP it was like the trashcan next to an ATM. They cut up and brought up some real tea. They said who the extremists are. They called them out by name, and AOC brought her own persepective as a woman of color also derided and threatened at times by her "colleagues" across the aisle.

She still got bounced from that committee, but I think that the GOP made it clear it aways was about themselves, not her. They lockstep denied their colleague her place among them because it was politically expedient to be petty and bounce her. Not because of something she egregiously did a minute ago--but because of something she erroneously said years ago and had since atoned for. 

They made an example of her to prove their thin power-- that they could reject someone because of her identity. This tells me so much more about who they are than who she is. 

UPDATE: This is a day in her world. Because of her so-called colleagues,. Because the right is comprised of the religious wrong, who don't care if Ilhan Omar stays a living person or not.  That is what this pettiness leads to. No one deserves that. Ever. But this is the GOP in action. 

The Finsbury Park Mosque is A Great Example

First of all, my sincere sympathies to those affected by this heinous attack--the deed of Darren Osbourne was appalling and hateful, and a bad reflection on what we hope a well-blended diverse multicultural society should be. What stirs me, is that if there were no great-hearted people among the congregation into which Mr. Osbourne plowed his rental van, Mr. Osbourne himself might have been torn to pieces by an angry crowd. But he was not, because by and large, the mosque-goers were sensible and law-abiding folks.  They sought out the civil authorities to make sure he was remanded to the law--instead of taking the law into their own hands.

They did the right thing--but then again, this was the nature of this congregation.  These have been the "good guys". These have been the folks we're talking about as the moderate guys who speak out against extremism.

Which is not to say that this horrendous and unnerving act of bias and discrimination would be okay if it happened to anyone else. But it only goes to show that so-called "discrimination" is often blind and undiscriminating stupid violence, and we would all get along better if we...just did. Get along. Better.

The Land of Confusion

Things are different in Trump's America, especially for travelers. It looks like ICE and CPB alike are feeling newly empowered, although what they are supposed to be doing differently under the Trump Administration is still a bit blurry--but here are some things that simply don't seem alright at all that have happened lately:

Border Patrol Agents Stop Domestic Travelers at New York Airport  Now, CPB can explain that they were working with ICE to try to locate an individual asked to leave the country, but somehow, this sure looked to people caught up in it rather like they were being asked to sort out whether their "papers were in order". The law cited referred to persons or items arriving from outside the US--but this was a domestic flight. This really feels twisted, to me.

Deported With A Valid U.S. Visa, Jordanian Says Message Is 'You're Not Welcome'  This is not a good message to give to the world.

British Muslim teacher denied entry to US on school trip The last I checked, the UK is not part of the seven countries from which entry was supposed to be stopped, and this individual was not even a dual-citizenship holder. The only suspect thing was religion.  This is bigotry.

Australian children's author Mem Fox detained by US border control: 'I sobbed like a baby'  I have no explanation at all for why border control agents are harassing Australian children's authors. Had that call between Turnbull and Trump really been so rugged?

U.S. Nearly Deports French WWII Scholar en Route to Texas Symposium  I believe we could learn a lot from Henry Rousso, and see no reason why this scholar was suspect--except for being born in Egypt. Which accounts for what, exactly?

Muhammad Ali's son reportedly detained under Trump's travel ban: 'Where did you get your name from? Are you Muslim?'  This one is particularly shocking to me--the obvious answer to "Where did you get your name from?" when your name is "Muhammed Ali, Jr." is "My father," and this man's father was the most well-recognized American sports figure of all time! Also, this is someone who was born in Philadelphia and had a US passport--just like me! Except I'm a strawberry blonde with blue eyes and a last name that's is clearly ethnically Italian--stereotypically Catholic. This is racism.

Maybe things like these happened before and no one really concentrated on them because there wasn't the unifying stupidity of the Trump Administration's anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant intent. Given horrible stories we've had about TSA before Trump, I sort of wonder how TSA also might change for travelers. I'm headed for Italy in July with my citizen spouse and non-citizen, alien resident MIL.

I hope we are allowed back in.

There Was a Movement After All

As I write this, the results have not all come in yet, but I'm kind of tired and heartsick about the whole election and how it's shaken out even if somehow, by some miracle, Hillary Clinton does pull it out. The polls and the pundits were misleading, and it looks like the Trump campaign touched something in many Americans that motivated them heavily. It didn't motivate them on an intellectual level, but hit them in the gut. It told them that what they always thought was going wrong with America was the enemy, and they had a champion who would fight their enemies.

The enemy was change. Progressive change. Political correctness, multiculturalism, diversity. Hell, throw in the values of the uppity women who can't take a joke--those feminists who think talk of "pussy grabbing" as disturbing. A lot of progressives this cycle thought "Why don't we just be more progressive?" Sigh. Here's the problem. The Trump movement managed to take charge of a backlash against what the Obama Administration and so many of us fought for and got ahead of the demographic changes we thought would preserve those changes for the time to come.

What we didn't take into account--what the media didn't take into account, what the elites on the left never necessarily took into account, what a lot of activists never took into account, was that change brings anxiety. The anxiety we face now as progressives, and many of us as marginalized people, isn't unlike what some working class whites convinced themselves they were facing. Was that anxiety as rooted in reality? No. I truly don't think so.  The label of "economic anxiety" in light of the actual recovery under President Obama doesn't really indicate that the Trump voter had it so bad--

Only, here were all these POC's and queers up in their face, (not really up in their face, but it felt that way to them) trying to tell them that not being on board with accepting their equality was somehow bigoted or less-than. So here's what they did--they suppressed the vote all over the place to minimize the impact of POC voting. They used divisive language that aimed at using refugees, immigrants, Muslim-Americans, as demons so as to divide us, and they shrugged off women's and LGBTQA issues with non-specifics (although if you know who Trump's running mate is, you know we have all the reasons to be concerned on that score).

Now, the upshot of all this is--a lot of this is sheer bigotry, no question about it. Conscious/unconscious/subconscious--I don't care, and I don't like it. But I think the reason we were hearing this backlash framed as "economic anxiety" had to do with the idea that there had to be some payoff (other than psychological) for sticking it to "them"--the immigrants and all. Wouldn't pushing the heck back on them equal nice jobs and good pension plans for your deserving average 'Merican?

Of course the fuck not. The threat of Trump gaining the presidency is draining the value of 401K plans right the hell now. Is Trump pretending he's all rah-rah about the US's prospects against all our enemies foreign and domestic going to actually amount to actual successes? Why the hell would it? He is a total naif about foreign policy. There is no good reason to think he would be really good at this, his boasts about knowing more than the generals aside.

The media demurred from calling it all out as the con it was and is.

Now I could be mad that there was no better candidate that ran on our side in the primary than Hillary Clinton (sorry Bernie folks, but she did beat him in the primary on the basis of votes), and I could be mad that 25+ years of cable news did all they could to make her toxic by amplifying every "scandal" and never amplifying why those "scandals" were bogus. I could be mad about FBI Director Comey's feckless fuckery regarding the emails, but that wouldn't have even been a thing without the media's complicity. I could blame Clinton herself, for just not being perfect, but no feminist should ever, ever, hold a woman to a higher standard than she would ever expect of a male candidate, and I won't even start that.

Take Your Thoughts and Prayers and Shove Them

We are going to hear a lot about terrorism as more details about Omar Mateen's rampage on an Orlando, FL gay nightclub become known, but what I want to make clear about all of this is--thoughts and prayers are an insult. They are lower than shit. Because I sincerely question the "thoughts and prayers" of people who have been NRA shills and I sincerely doubt the "thoughts and prayers" of people who have never given a damn about the gay community--anywhere. But on social media, it's inescapable--people who don't give a shit taking a moment to selfie themselves with this tragedy by commemorating it with the old "thoughts and prayers". Like sending a perfunctory "thank you note" to the cosmos for gifting one with an opportunity to signify your biases by writing in the blood of your fellow human beings.

So, if you are a shitlord former presidential candidate who wants to take a minute a handful of months after appearing on a stage with anti-gay preachers who want a federal law to kill gay people to pretend that your stance against terrorism does shit for these victims, right here? Just take your thoughts and prayers and shove them. Your thoughts aren't worth anything and your prayers are against the very people who have been harmed. Do something positive. Learn about gay people and Islam. Or just get the fuck out of public life.

Or, if you are a dramatically reality-detached personality cultist, maybe congratulating yourself on being proved right that terrorism is a thing (when, no duh) is so extraordinarily grotesque that instead of merely "deleting your account", you should probably delete your entire run for the presidency. Maybe saying the words "Islamic extremism" and calling once again for a ban on Muslims in the US is ludicrous when you consider that Christians can be murderous against this particular population as well; and also that this Mateen wanker was born here and therefore couldn't have been barred entry to a country he was born in, and that US persons have been born here and convert to Islam and have no terroristic intent at all--like the late Muhammed Ali. Trump congratulates himself for a position wholly incoherent and untenable. And still and all--sometimes the wankers aren't even Islamists.

I am heartsick about these many victims of this horrendous tragedy, and I know the content of my thoughts, and, being without faith, I know the uselessness of my prayers. I will work and vote to do what I can to make sure that suspected terrorists and domestic batterers are not able to easily obtain automatic weapons, and I will always, always, be a voice against homophobia and Islamophobia. And I will be mindful that in life there are intersections of identity--Muslim LGBT people, for example. How do we ban them from coming here to be free (remember the US standing for freedom?) when they might face vicious threats to their existence often in their countries of origin?  How do we deny their existence when their home of origin is even here?

In the words of one the greats--"when the power of love overcomes the power of hate, we shall know peace." (On which great said it first, the jury is out--but I think it's right all the same.)

I don't think we need more thoughts or prayers--we need better gun policies and we need voices who speak out about tolerance and acceptance and not killing scores of people because you saw an act of affection between two men.  We need real action, not deliberate inaction, and local empowerment, not impotent talk.

Maybe some prayers and thoughts are decently offered, but they are not the answer to the great need for action we have.

Justifying Bullshit with Nonsense

This is how Trump's campaign in New Hampshire is *defending* Trump's plan to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. pic.twitter.com/BjxWJJZJYz

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 8, 2015

Back in 2008, we sort of had an economic fall that led people to see Barack Obama as an FDR-type of Democrat. I think in some ways, with equal if not worse opposition, he was certainly comparable. Nearing the end of his second term, we're seeing something else that should remind us of the 1930's, and how even here, racist fuckery has triumphed over our peculiar notions of this nation as being a a place to pursue dreams and a "melting pot".

Using the US' very dodgy decision to intern Japanese citizens during WW2, which we had never done with German citizens during WW1 or 2 or with Italian citizens or with Russians whilst Russia was on the Axis side, is explicitly racist. There is simply no other reason that Japanese citizens were treated differently. When the propaganda machine in the US to bolster the war effort got going, it was explicitly racist at times.

The San Bernardino Massacre was enacted by one person who was a natural-born citizen of the US and his foreign-born wife. Who is to say when and how they got radicalized? But they don't represent all or even most Muslims.

This is World Refugee Day

You should want to know about Muzoon, who is introduced to us by Khaled Hosseini, who is one of my favorite novelists--just brilliant, go and read The Kite Runner and  A Thousand Splendid Suns if you don't already know how good a novel can be.

It's easy for us westerners to talk about how sexist Muslim culture can be, but that a displaced girl like Muzoon can become an eloquent speaker for education and civil rights is outstanding (and that we also have Malala to compare her to.)

I want to read what she will have to say, and what the girls who are educated because of the efforts of young Muslim feminists like herself and Malala Yousufzai have to say regarding the society in which they live, and the ideas they have about molding it to their hearts' desire.

I support the access of refugees to expedited paths to citizenship and to access to means to practice their activism in this or any other recipient culture.

Eight in Ten of Those Alleged to Have Shot Malala Were Acquitted

Here is what we know:

But on Friday, when the court published its written judgment, it revealed that only two of the accused men, identified as Izharullah Rehman and Israrur Rehman, had been convicted and imprisoned, sentenced to life. The eight others had been freed.  

“They were released for lack of evidence,” said Azad Khan, the regional deputy police chief, adding that the government would probably appeal the decision.  

Mr. Khan emphasized that there was “no conspiracy or mystery” in the case and that the initial, mistaken reports of the convictions had stemmed from the secretive nature of the trial.  

Still, news of the eight men’s release offered an illustration of the problems facing Pakistan’s judicial system, where incompetence, intimidation and expediency can conspire to frustrate justice in even the highest-profile cases.

I suspect they are letting some of the people who conspired to  shoot Malala go because of politics.  If so, I think it's despicable.

Rep. Steve King is a Jackass

 When someone like Iowa Rep. Steve King says anything at all about anti-Muslim discrimination, you brace yourself. Is he for it or agin' it? I sort of think he's for it. But his latest pronouncement on the subject is that it simply does not exist.  Iowa Republican Steve King does not think that there has been any discrimination against people who are of the Muslim faith.  To his way of thinking, this kind of thing doesn't happen. And maybe he doesn't even think anyone is keeping statistics about this.

 

As with Gov. Jindal, his assertion certainly seems to run counter to certain current events. A plot to terrorize, if not massacre, an Islamic community in NY, was recently uncovered.

That's right. Some anti-Muslim propaganda-stuffed wanker who once made a legitimate bid for political office, was going to make a jihad against the quaint black Muslim community of Islamberg.

Sometimes I wonder if anti-Islam sentiment in the US is more than not race-based. I've discussed the idea of the Muslim-baiting of President Obama as being racialist at its core. But a lot of our homegrown practitioners of Islam come from the tradition of Noble Drew Ali and Wallace Fard Muhammad. They aren't Arab. They have nothing to do with US/ME policy.

I will not pretend I understand all the things about America and the way that lamp beside the golden door doesn't mean everybody. Of course native born Islamists and immigrants of the Book have faced discrimination. How asinine to suppose otherwise.

Rep. Steve King is Kind of Weird

You know who has two thumbs and thinks US Jews should be Republicans? That's right, Iowa Republican Representative Steve King, who thinks he isn't a racist, probably.

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) criticized "Jews in America" who, in an effort to align themselves with President Obama's stance on Israel, are "Democrats first and Jewish second," BuzzFeed reported on Friday.

King's comments were made during an interview on Friday with Boston Herald Radio about the members of Congress who refused to attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress on March 3.

"Well, there were some 50 or so Democrats that, that decided they would boycott the president's speech," King said. "Here's what I don't understand, I don't understand how Jews in America can be Democrats first and Jewish second and support Israel along the line of just following their President."

I think he's kind of weird to assert that Jewish people in the US are basically anti-Semitic and in lockstep with the obviously Muslim-influenced Barack Obama, as if the weird result doesn't somehow suggest that his math is actually bad, there.

Problem with Iowa Republican Steve King being a racist? Presidential primaries start in Iowa, so presidential candidates are supposed to kiss his sorry ass.  Unless someone can explain to me why presidential candidates don't have to kiss his sorry ass. Show examples. This might actually help the GOP if there's a way to fix a problem like Steve.



A story about 9/11 that should make people stop before they judge--

I don't support support religion, just people. And I am tired of seeing people getting maligned just for who they are or what religion they have--it isn't right and it isn't fair. I think the idea of fairness should be to look at people for what they do--to look into the content of their character by how they are living their lives, and not necessarily by what book they are reading from, any more than we would judge someone by dress or skin tone. I'll still call out Khameini and the bin Ladens and all that, but I don't think regular Muslim people should be discriminated against anymore than I'd blame all Catholics for the Pope's bullshit response to pedophilia in general and disparagement of condom-use in Africa (!) of all places and the crap way the Catholic Church seems to treat gays all the time. I know some Catholic people who are awesome even if they have a religion that appalls me, and I think this is true for Muslims too: I'd like them even if somewhere entirely else their co-religionists are pissing me off.

War against bad ideas by providing better ideas, people! But don't think you can win people over by attacking them personally! Even if I think this conflict is so obviously engineered as an election-year wedge issue, I still think some learning from it is possible. We can still try to Coexist.

About this mosque in the lower Manhattan area--

I'm not getting why the right has grabbed this as a big thing. McCain, Gingrich, Palin, Liz Cheney--people who are definitely right-wingish, not just the usual knee-jerk anti-Islamists like Daniel Pipes, Andy McCarthy, Pam Geller and that sort, have spoken out about this building, in a neighborhood that already has a mosque, that is not for the sole purpose of worship, and that actually does not have anything to do with 9/11 except for occurring in the same material universe. I mean, I have ideas about why, but I'm loathe to boil down a First Amendment battle over freedom of religion to mere tropes of bigotry and cheap publicity. Just because I darkly suspect that some people have decided to make a big issue of this is because they are utilizing distrust of "the other" and trying to look vaguely "crusaderish" in a fight against something they are making out to be worse and bigger than it is....

I'm cynical, what do you want from me?

That being said, I think these people are misguided--it's fine to have an opinion, to think something is in "bad taste", to voice displeasure. But to wage an ideological war over something you simply dislike where larger principles are at stake seems foolish to me. And I think freedom of religion in this country, even though I don't believe in any religion or particularly believe religion is necessarily good, is a positive thing. A phrase that stuck with me from Gene Robinson's invocation at President Obama's inauguration was the phrase "mere tolerance". Mere tolerance isn't always enough. Sometimes, you have to try a step further--understanding. If I tolerate--I hold you at arm's length. We are separate, and passably equal. But if I understand you? Then we have a dialogue where there used to be misunderstanding.

And in this situation, people aren't even being merely tolerant anymore. There are protests against not just mosques in the area surrounding the place where the towers fell, but throughout the country, and this I have to think is driven by distrust of "the other": people who may be different, culturally and ethnically; people perceived to be newer to this country--and so, less American. And that strikes me as being a horrible way to be. It is about being hateful, distrustful, and prepared to be offensive to people who themselves have not offended--who just are.

So when I see that the NY transit authority allows an ad like this:



which directly associates the people who did 9/11 with the people building the Islamic community center, I cringe. They are not the same people. At all. And I think making this mistake is very wrong.

But I've read so many good blog-posts that say what I want to express, but better, so here's what I've read and encourage others to:

Christopher Hitchens points out that the rhetoric of victimology and unreason are detrimental to the debate.

Jeffrey Goldberg points out that Faisal Abdul Rauf is a moderate Muslim whose ideas are actually dangerous to the cause of extremism.

William Saletan expanded on the theme that the us vs. them religious paradigm is pretty much playing into the propaganda of the terrorists.

Also, I'll note that a recent study suggests that acceptance as opposed to alienation, of Islamic communities, might be the a solid anti-teror move.

It isn't my business to defend religion, but I think it's everyone's business to defend people and their freedoms, and the right to worship and form communitites strikes me as basic. To slander people with the charge of terrorist connections with little basis is always wrong, and I think has potential to backfire.

And I can't even begin to address all that's wrong with pronouncements by the AFA's Brian Fischer, who if he wasn't real, I swear, an atheist blogger would have to invent him to personify the odd reasoning of the Christian Right). Or the claim by TN Lt. Governor Ron Ramsay that Islam is a cult.

Ayatollah Khamenei doesn't want to face the music--

Strange that I didn't get to this story the minute I saw it--

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said today that music is "not compatible" with the values of the Islamic republic, and should not be practised or taught in the country.

In some of the most extreme comments by a senior regime figure since the 1979 revolution, Khamenei said: "Although music is halal, promoting and teaching it is not compatible with the highest values of the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic."

Khamenei's comments came in response to a request for a ruling by a 21-year-old follower of his, who was thinking of starting music lessons, but wanted to know if they were acceptable according to Islam, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. "It's better that our dear youth spend their valuable time in learning science and essential and useful skills and fill their time with sport and healthy recreations instead of music," he said.

Music is an emotional and creative act. I think he is probably irked quite a bit with music that doesn't support his theocracy. I bet the young people that protested against the tilted table elections last year listened to a lot of music, you think? I suppose he probably doesn't care much for dancing either. If I were another sort of blogger entirely (like, one with an audience) I'd suggest inundating him with your surplus tunes--like mix-tapes from old significant others that you were gonna throw out anyway, or pop music you bought when you were younger that totally had a "Best Used by" date. It would be weird in a "Why is my mailbox so full of Gloria Estefan and Richard Marx CD's?" kind of way. Or copies of Footloose.

Instead, I'll just link to something like this:

Iran bans Dogs--yes, dogs.

Iran cleric says dogs "unclean" and not to be kept as pets

TEHRAN (Reuters) – A senior Iranian cleric has decreed dogs are "unclean" and should not be kept as pets -- a move aimed at discouraging Western-style dog ownership in the Islamic state, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Dogs are considered "unclean" under Islamic tradition but, while relatively rare in Iran, some people do keep them as pets.

By issuing a fatwa -- a religious ruling -- Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi has sent a clear message that this trend must stop.

"Friendship with dogs is a blind imitation of the West," he was quoted as saying in Javan daily. "There are lots of people in the West who love their dogs more than their wives and children."

If it wasn't for my generally failing to be religious in anyway, there would still be a big misunderstanding between myself and so much of Islam. I don't wear a lot. I'm kind of a feminist. And I would give up booze and bacon before I stopped loving dogs. And I really like booze and bacon.

But regarding the uncleanliness of dogs, I kind of understand. They are messy, nosy, humping, slobber-chopped nitwits at times. These are some of the things I like about them. For what it's worth, these messy traits I also find endearing in some people. In dogs, you'll also find qualities like empathy, loyalty, courage, not to mention affection and companionship. Those can be messy qualities, too, but I don't think I'd like people very much if we didn't have those qualities. The older I get, the more I come to the conclusion that I'm not interested in godliness, and even less so in proximity to cleanliness. But what endlessly fascinates me is the vast mess, the uncleanliness, of life.

In my canon, life formed in a veritible chaos--a primordial stew, that led to incredible variations of lifeforms worked out from just a sketchy collection of proteins. But from that warp of events that made us, one woof of a pattern emerged. The relationship of dogs and man is ancient and venerable. The assistance of hunting dogs in our history and guide dogs and police dogs today are a part of our ability to grasp that another species has intelligence, thinks, relates.

Are dogs sentient--do they have a sense of mortality, the passage of time? Do they feel sadness, regret, remember things?

I've had pet dogs. They seem to. Maybe the idea of "the unclean" is the "uncanny valley" extending out to, not just an artificial manlike construct, like an eerie robot, but the similacrum of our sentience we can sometimes see in dogs. They are unclean because they are too much like us, and living with them only makes it clearer. And that takes away from the idea that we are special, and specially made by God for a more spiritual end. (Although if you like, you might want to suppose all dogs go to Heaven. I don't, and maybe that knowledge bars me from the gates, too.)

I believe in dogs. I don't believe in Gods. And I get a little more out of petting a friendly animal than prayer.