Article by Jonathan Cook

There has never been a harder time to do political and media analysis than right now. Each day, the western establishment unmoors itself further from reality. Its priorities are so inverted, so obscene, that the most appropriate response is ridicule.

The latest example was the reaction to violent clashes in Amsterdam before and after a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and the local team Ajax.

The ridiculous framing from western politicians, assisted by mainstream media outlets, was that the visiting Israelis were “hunted down” in what supposedly amounted to a “pogrom” by Dutch street gangs, comprising mainly youths of Arab and Muslim heritage.

According to this official narrative, the violence on Amsterdam’s streets was further proof of a rising tide of antisemitism sweeping Europe and imported from the Middle East. More, the attacks were presented as having disturbing echoes of Europe’s Nazi past.

Outgoing US President Joe Biden claimed the Israeli fans faced “despicable” attacks that “echo dark moments in history when Jews were persecuted”.

Israel, of course, helpfully stoked this idea by promising “emergency flights” to “rescue” its football fans – seeking to evoke memories of its airlifts in the 1980s of Ethiopian Jews to escape famine and reports of persecution, or possibly of the 1975 airlift of US embassy staff from Saigon.

Islamophobic Bile

The western media’s coverage of these events was as strangely deferential to these genocide-inciting thugs as the Dutch police’s handling of their violence.

Had visiting British fans behaved this way in Amsterdam, the police would have made mass arrests immediately.

Similarly, had British hooligans found themselves on the receiving end of violence in such circumstances, the British media would have shown little sympathy.

The clashes would rightly have been understood as ugly tribalism, a not-unfamiliar sight at football matches.

The difference here was that the clashes unleashed by the Israeli fans’ provocations had a much larger context than simple antipathy between rival teams. It was fueled by tensions surrounding horrifying events taking place on the international stage.

There is nothing shocking or especially sinister about Dutch fans, especially those with Arab or Muslim heritage, responding with their own violence to Israeli youths – some of them presumably fresh from military service in Gaza – trying to export their own genocidal anti-Arab and anti-Muslim incitement to Amsterdam.

All the more so when the Israeli fans were amplifying the bigoted, Islamophobic bile of leading Dutch politicians.

It should have been even less surprising given the wider context: that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were celebrating in someone else’s city the Israeli military’s genocide in Gaza, among Dutch citizens who don’t view Arab life as worthless or Muslims as “human animals”.

Sadly, that is exactly how the western establishment has viewed Palestinians over the past 13 months, as Israel has slaughtered them in the ever-shrinking concentration camp that is Gaza.

Paradoxically, it was left to an Israeli politician, Ofer Cassif, who belongs to the tiny Hadash party, the only joint Jewish-Arab party in the Israeli parliament, to bring some perspective.

He wrote on X: “[Israeli] fans go on a violent rampage, carry out beatings, tear up Palestinian flags in the streets as if they were an occupying force, and shout Nazi slogans in favor of the extermination of a nation [Palestinians], and then whine when the situation degenerates into complete chaos and violence returns to them like a boomerang.”

Continue reading on: The Middle East Eye

A growing number of hate crimes targeting Muslims and Palestinians in the US city of Chicago is raising concerns, according to an official at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Maggie Slavin, operations manager at the CAIR branch in the Midwestern US city, told Anadolu that there has been a 196% increase in hate crimes against Muslims and Palestinians in the city since last October, when Israel’s ongoing offensive against the Gaza Strip began.

Slavin said the incidents are occurring in workplaces, schools, and public spaces, with individuals facing consequences for expressing solidarity with Gaza and Palestine.

She highlighted that the Muslim American community is facing tight censorship. In workplaces, people are punished for expressing support for Gaza, and on campuses, students face administrative sanctions for advocating Palestinian rights, she added.

She said authorities’ response to the increase in hate crimes is “uncertain.” While some police departments are cooperative, she said, others require persistent advocacy.

On a recent attack on a Palestinian-owned cafe in the residential area of Uptown, she said the Chicago Police Department initially declined to classify the incident as a hate crime.

“We have to be absolutely relentless until that police department – until the authorities – agree with us that it was a hate crime,” she said.

Nabala Cafe, a Palestinian-owned cafe in Uptown that displays a Palestinian flag, was attacked last week.

Actual antisemitism threat to all minorities

The rise in anti-Muslim sentiment is also being echoed by the resurgence of federal surveillance. Slavin compared the current atmosphere to the era after the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.

“We’ve gotten a lot of calls about inappropriate interactions from the FBI or from federal authorities … This kind of feels like a witch hunt,” she explained.

When the FBI shows up at people’s doors, they are frightened and call CAIR to ask what to do, Slavin said. “We haven’t seen anything like that,” she noted. “That’s kind of a very scary new thing that’s happening.”

She expressed frustration with the misuse of the term “antisemitism” to stifle criticism of Israel’s policies.

“Actual antisemitism, the actual targeting of the Jewish faith, is a threat to us (Muslims), it’s a threat to all minorities,” she said.

“But when everything is thrown out as, ‘Oh, it’s anti-Semitic,’ ‘Oh, you’re being anti-Semitic,’ it just whittles that down to not being a serious thing,” she underlined.

What they are doing is “a legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies” and what Israel has been doing in Gaza and the West Bank, she said.

Killing of Turkish American activist was ‘targeted attack’

On recent killing of a Turkish American activist by Israeli forces in the West Bank, Slavin said it was no accident. Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was a vocal advocate for Palestinian rights, she said, adding: “We think that it was a targeted attack.”

“It just goes to show that even if you’re American, if you are Muslim, the IDF (Israeli army) do not care and will erase your humanity to the point of actually murdering you.”

Slavin said the Israeli army see nothing but resilience from Palestinians “who are experiencing this brutal genocide.”

Doing anything less than being resilient would be a “dishonor” to Palestinians, she said.

Source: Anadolu Agency

A group of women in the Netherlands staged a march on Mother’s Day in support of Palestinian mothers in Gaza.

They gathered at Binnenrotte Square in Rotterdam on Sunday under the banner “Mothers against Genocide,” marching through the city center and assembling in front of the Mother and Child statue carrying baby dolls wrapped in bloody shrouds.

Some mothers held demonstrations outside McDonald’s, Starbucks and Burger King outlets, highlighting the plight of mothers in Gaza.

They chanted slogans against Israel including “Stop killing mothers” and “Mothers against bombs.”

Emotional moments were shared after the march, with participants recounting the suffering of children and mothers in Gaza.

The rally speakers highlighted the right of mothers and children in Palestine to celebrate Mother’s Day, stressing their inability to do so.

Dutch mother Shirley Stout participated in the march along with her baby and expressed solidarity with mothers in Palestine.

“Every day, every hour, at least two mothers die there. Children die and are orphaned. They have lost their homes and security. How can we celebrate (Mother’s Day) here while mothers stand there with their dead children in their arms?” Stout said.

She also emphasized the duty to speak out against genocide and boycott those financing it.

“We are all human, we are all Palestinians, and they are all our children,” Stout noted, underscoring the need for everyone to raise their voices.

“They are all our mothers. This is our future. This is her (Stout’s daughter’s) future. This is for our children. All children deserve to live free rather than under occupation,” she added.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Police in the southwestern US forcibly removed a headscarf from a woman taking part in a pro-Palestine protest at a university, as shown in footage of the incident.

Footage from Arizona State University, which quickly went viral, shows the police forcibly removing the headscarf of a woman while she tries to cover her hair with material from her dress. The woman’s face is pixelated and not seen.

Azza Abuseif, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) Arizona, released a statement saying: “The First Amendment guarantees the free practice of religion.

“Police cannot suspend this right. We condemn the reported actions of ASU police and call for a full investigation into this incident.”

Stating that there are reports that the headscarves of at least four women detained in the demonstrations were removed, Abuseif said CAIR Arizona is looking into the incident.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The American writer and activist, Jeffery Shaun King, and his wife, Rai King, became Muslims on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan 2024, after delivering a declaration of faith, known as Shahadah, which was posted on the Instagram page Muslimi as well as on King’s official Facebook account. The American couple embraced the new faith under the guidance of US Muslim scholar Omar Suleiman, a friend of King’s for more than a decade.

“Together, we took Shahada and converted to Islam to start off Ramadan. It was a beautiful, powerful, meaningful day for us that we will never forget,” King wrote as he and his wife returned home from evening prayers at a mosque in Dallas, Texas. The American activist added that “we will begin fasting in the morning with over 1 billion Muslims around the world.”

While addressing the crowd, the 44-year-old donned a keffiyeh, a Palestinian head covering, and attributed his decision to the agony, suffering, and trauma that Gaza has endured over the last six months.

“It has touched me in the most profound ways to see people right now in the most dangerous, traumatic place on the planet still be able to sometimes look at nothing but rubble and the remains of their family, and still see meaning and purpose in life,” he remarked.

“Their faith and their devotion to Islam has not only opened my heart but has opened the hearts of millions of people around the world,” said King who has been vocal about his support for Palestine against Israel’s war on besieged Gaza, which has killed at least 31,112 people, mostly children and women, and wounded 72,760 so far.

Since October 7, King regularly shared posts on social media that highlighted the destruction in Gaza and called for an end to Israel’s attacks.

Shaun and Rai King’s Journey Through Islam

In an interview on YouTube, Shaun King shared the story of his wife’s journey through Islam, which marks a significant transition from her lifelong Christian faith.

“People often say like ‘Well Shaun, how did you come to this decision?’ For me more than anything else, it was just the consistent presence of Muslim friends in my life that really caused me to be inquisitive about Islam. It caused me to say how are they like that?

“Two of my best friends in the world are Sheikh Omar Suleiman and sister Linda Sarsour who was an activist in the United States. For the past 10 years they have been two of the most consistent reliable human beings in my universe, so I decided even a few months before I took Shahada, that this is what I wanted to do and so I started speaking to Shaikh Omar and others just to see what this would look like for me.

“When I traveled to Edmonton some brothers gave me copies of the Quran, and let me tell you what happened. A few months before that, in early November, I told my wife that I want to become a Muslim. My wife, who had been a devout Christian her whole life, told me: ‘Shaun, I will never become a Muslim.’ It hurt me a bit, because it made me think if I become a Muslim, it might drive a wedge in my marriage. I’m 44, I’ve been with this woman since I was 15 years old, so I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize my marriage.

“A few weeks later when I traveled to Edmonton, I shared [it] with some men including a local Imam there in Edmonton and the brother told me something that was so profound. He said: ‘Shaun, do not try to convince your wife to do this, it’s more likely that you will mess it up than anything else. But I do want you to trust that Allah will guide her heart.’

“When I got home from Edmonton, this is in early January, I laid both copies of the Quran on my dresser, not because I was like low key wanting my wife to find them, I just didn’t want them to get bent up in my suitcase, and I was so exhausted from traveling that I went to bed like at 8:00 p.m. When I woke up, almost 12 hours later, my wife had grabbed one of those copies, and through the night she had already read almost half of the Quran and when I woke up my wife said to me something that was so shocking. She said: ‘Shaun, I think we should become Muslims.’

“There’s a powerful lesson there. Like most Americans, most of what my wife knew about Islam, she learned from places that you don’t want to learn about Islam. If what you know about the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, you learned it from the news, if you learned it from movies, if you learned it from social media, it will be misinformation! And my wife, who’s a an intellectual and a voracious reader, the first thing she said to me was: ‘Shaun, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, is not who I thought he was!’ And she was just moved by his life and his example!

“And also, she thought that to become Muslim, it meant you no longer had any reverence for Jesus, and I think, most Christians think that, and it was actually quite the opposite! And when she saw that to be a Muslim still meant to have nothing but reverence and love for the Prophet Jesus, it changed her. And for the next 6 weeks, she and I were on a really beautiful private Journey to make this big move in our lives.”

Dr Rai King announced in an Instagram post her embrace to Islam, too: “This decision has been years in the making for Shaun and I both and was initiated by the deep kindness of our Muslim friends over the years. I’ve been so moved by the Muslim community’s devotion to living out their faith. So many have loved on and supported us through some of the darkest periods of our life. It has always touched my heart, but eventually made me want to know more about what made them so incredibly kind and loving.

“I said for many years that … I would never convert bc I was raised a Christian and loved the church. Truthfully, I still do and always will… After reading and studying for myself, the pillars of the faith and beliefs of Islam surprised me and I discovered that all people of faith have much more in common than we do apart. I see Islam simply as a way for me to more deeply and intentionally connect with God after so many years of feeling lost in my faith.”

King and his wife currently reside in New York with their five children, two of whom were adopted.

Civil Rights Advocacy

The controversial Black Lives Matter activist, Shaun King was the pastor of Courageous Church in Atlanta, Georgia, from 2008 to 2011 before becoming a full-time advocate for racial justice. For much of the 2010s he was a prominent figure in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Despite the challenges, King devoted his life to promoting social justice causes, particularly through his writing on civil and human rights, race relations, police brutality, mass incarceration, and law enforcement misconduct.

Over the past few months, he has increasingly focused on the Israel-Hamas war, leading fundraising efforts aimed at helping Palestinian families in Gaza and railing in social media posts against the Israeli ground assault that has killed more than 30,000 people.

He is among those who filed suit against Meta, the parent company of Instagram, which King has accused of banning him from the platform because he was “fighting for Palestine.” Instagram banned King’s account, which had over 6 million followers, in December.

“My heart is with my dearest friends in Gaza and I’m proud that we were able to provide meals tonight to thousands and thousands of families from the North to the South in Gaza and will do so every day of Ramadan,” King wrote in a Facebook post announcing his conversion to Islam.

Source: TRT World

]]> https://iric.org/renowned-us-activist-shaun-king-and-his-wife-embrace-islam/feed/ 0 https://iric.org/new-yorkers-gather-to-pay-tribute-to-gazas-slain-poets-and-writers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-yorkers-gather-to-pay-tribute-to-gazas-slain-poets-and-writers https://iric.org/new-yorkers-gather-to-pay-tribute-to-gazas-slain-poets-and-writers/#respond Thu, 15 Feb 2024 09:04:48 +0000 https://iric.org/?p=34811 Writers, poets and journalists shared poems and stories to pay tribute to 13 poets and dozens of journalists killed during Israel’s war on Gaza

Draped in keffiyehs and holding candles and flowers, scores flocked to Manhattan’s Washington Square Park, to mourn Gaza’s writers, poets and journalists killed by Israel during the war in Gaza.

Gathered around a circle of candles and flowers under the Washington Arch, members of the Palestinian-American community in New York City took turns sharing poems and anecdotes from Palestinian writers and poets. The event was organized by the Writers Against the War on Gaza (Wawog).

Among the nearly 26,000 civilians killed by Israel since 7 October, 13 poets and at least 74 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been confirmed dead, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) estimates 90 Palestinian journalists have been killed and three Lebanese ones, while the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has listed 119 journalists killed in Gaza.

Hiba Abu Nada, Refaat Alareer and Rashid Hussein

“We know all the devastating numbers, and we have gathered together and we have screamed and mourned and shut down business, and shut down this city and refused to turn away from our brothers and sisters,” Ilana Cruger-Zaken, a scholar at New York University, said in her opening remarks.

The attendees were then called on to recall how New York’s cultural institutions have whitewashed an ongoing “genocide”. Anne Boyer, former poetry editor of New York Times Magazine, resigned in November, citing “verbally sanitized hellscapes” and “war-mongering lies”.

The renowned New York cultural and community center, 92nd Street Y, cancelled a talk with Pulitzer-winning author, Viet Thanh Nguyen, for his pro-Palestine views. After several staff members resigned in protest against the cancellation of his talk, the center’s prestigious literary reading series was put on halt.

The first poem that was shared at the vigil was, I am unfinished business, by the Palestinian-American poet, Fady Joudah, followed by well-known Palestinian voices, Ghassan Kanafani and Mahmoud Darwish.

Late poet Rashid Husseni’s, Revolt Against Travel, drew cheers and applause.

“Nothing remains but for the revolution to begin its alphabet /Nothing remains but for crime to be murdered. Revolution is born in eyes that have no homeland, Revolution is born as a landless peasant, As a landowning cop, A land where all has been imprisoned,” were some lines from Hussein’s poem were recited.

The crowd paid tribute to beloved Gaza poet, Hiba Abu Nada, through her poem, I grant you refuge, written on 10 October, 10 days before an Israeli air strike killed her in her home.

For her debut, Oxygen isn’t for the dead, Abu Nada won second place in the Sharjah award for creativity.

Some of the works came from inside the Wawog community itself, including a powerful and particularly moving essay by Palestinian-American writer Sarah Aziza, which was written for her three remaining cousins in Gaza that she has not heard from in days.

Aziza’s family is from Gaza and currently displaced to Khan Younis in central Gaza.

“Watching our dust-choked bodies move, their limbs thinner by the day, I fill with wonder and bewilderment. How, I wonder – as in, how do they still have the strength? And – more provocatively – why?” Aziza shared.

The vigil concluded with the famous poem, If I must die, by prominent Palestinian professor, poet and writer, Refaat Alareer.

Alareer was killed by an Israeli air strike on 7 December, sending shockwaves across the Palestinian community.

Source: The Middle East Eye