Author: mara.ahmed

Sanders vs Warren – here are the receipts

Tana MAOgeau @StealYoRedBull:

In the 1990s, when Bernie Sanders beat an incumbent Republican and co-founded the Progressive Caucus, and was fighting for single-payer, Elizabeth Warren was a Republican working as a corporate lawyer for oil and insurance companies and giving speeches to the Federalist Society.

Since this blew up (thanks to Kyle’s RT) here are the receipts if you want them:

Warren was a Republican until 1996

Work as a corporate lawyer

Federalist Society (think Gorsuch, Kavanaugh) speech

an open letter of solidarity by jewish and muslim activists

after the hanukkah attack in nyc (late last year) and the surge in islamophobia accompanying american aggression and a possible war with iran, young jewish and muslim activists based in rochester wanted to raise their collective voice and recommit to solidarity. theirs is a solidarity rooted in a desire for justice and a political understanding of their respective struggles. in their view, solidarity is safety.

thank u Smriti Jacob and the Rochester Beacon for publishing our open letter. thank u Nate Baldo, Arseniy Justice, Tori Madway, Halima Aweis, Ian Layton, Hatun Guler, Fatimah Arshad, and Mawia Elawad for ur profound understanding of our world.

“In the wake of the December 2019 Hanukkah attack in New York City, Gov. Cuomo announced an increase in security including a $45 million grant administered by the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services for communications equipment upgrades. This is meant to assuage Jewish communities and make them feel safer.

But actual safety comes from solidarity, not greater state scrutiny and criminalization, which disproportionately impact people of color and vulnerable communities. Employing state forces as barriers between our fractured communities only furthers our fragmentation and contributes to future distrust and misunderstandings.

We, Muslim and Jewish activists based in Rochester, understand this and are committed to a decolonial understanding of our histories and struggles. We aim to stay invested in and show up for one another, and we urge all our diverse communities to do the same. Let’s band together against the rising tides of violence, in our country and across the globe. Solidarity is safety.” More here.

Anti-War Protest Highlights Link Between US Militarism and Climate Chaos

wonderful report by darien lamen in which he gives protestors the opportunity to voice their concerns and their reasons for being there, rather than framing the rally himself. thank u for ur important work darien.

Rochester-area youth organized a rally Thursday to oppose war with Iran. Many protesters highlighted the link between imperialism and climate change. Reporter Darien Lamen spoke with Hridesh Singh, Scott Wagner, Crescenzo Scipione, Mara Ahmed, and Emily Good. Listen here.

Thousands Take to Streets in More Than 70 Cities Across US to Protest Trump’s “Reckless Acts of War” Against Iran

there should have been a rally in rochester as well. a war on iran will not only decimate what’s left of the middle east, it will also escalate violence here at home. CAIR has released information that iranians and iranian-americans are already being detained at the border by US customs and border protection. war-related hate and paranoia will intensify racism, islamophobia, xenophobia and hate crimes against a widening circle of minorities and people already at risk. the state apparatus will go into overdrive with more policing, surveillance, detentions and curtailment of rights. this will affect all of us. the time to resist is now. more here.

When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family’s Forgotten History

Paola Garcia: For Massoud Hayoun, asserting his own Arabness is in itself a political act, one of solidarity and of retaliation: “In large part, I identify as Arab because reclaiming my place in a broader Arab world […] scares our foes who have, for so long, taught us to fight against ourselves,” he writes. “I am an Arab because that is the legacy I inherit […] My Arabness is cultural. It is African. My Arabness is Jewish. It is also retaliatory. I am Arab because it is what I and my parents have been told not to be, for generations, to stop us from living in portentous solidarity with other Arabs.” 

[…] Hayoun detests all forms of colonialism, including Zionism, and speaks harshly against it. He expresses a much-justified anger against Europe and the Western world for destroying and erasing a myriad of extremely rich indigenous cultures, dividing its peoples, and generally wreaking havoc all over the Middle East and North Africa.

He similarly resents and rebels against the imposition of a European version of history, the replacement of indigenous cultures by the colonizers’ values and ways of life, the devaluation of native cultures, and the mental colonization that tells the colonized that their conquerors are superior. More here.

opera for my film

today we recorded sections from arias by handel, vivaldi and strauss (in italian and german) at RCTV, Rochester’s Community Media Center with our brilliant soprano imani sewell and musician/sound design genius Darien Lamen. the music was composed by tom davis. can’t wait to hear the final mix. recording for #TheInjuredBody – a #film about #racism in #america

India: The BJP, rape, and the status of women

Rebecca Solnit, whose dream candidate is Elizabeth Warren, represents a kind of tone-deaf white feminism that boggles the mind. In 2014, she wrote ‘A Watershed Year For Feminism‘ in which she extolled India’s Narendra Modi for championing women’s issues with great effect. She characterized him deftly as ‘otherwise monstrous’ and linked to the genocide committed in Gujarat under his watch and with his support, but still found it palatable to write about him as a feminist.

It’s in line with her favorite presidential candidate toeing the American imperialist, propagandist line and describing Qasem Soleimani as ‘a murderer, responsible for the deaths of thousands, including hundreds of Americans.’ Remember the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and their imminent threat to American lives (why this ridiculous prioritization over human lives)?

If you want to learn more about how Muslim women were gang-raped, mutilated and burned in Gujarat (under Modi’s stewardship), pls feel free to google it. I couldn’t post it here because it’s simply too harrowing and sadistic. But here’s an analysis of the BJP (Modi’s political party) and the status of women in general:

‘A new group of secular intellectuals in India argues that the BJP’s real attitude towards women is based on a fascist communally-based politics in which women are seen not as individuals with rights, but as bearers of their community’s honour, to be protected or raped, depending who they are.’

To Ms Solnit and Ms Warren I’d like to say that feminism is nothing if it doesn’t embrace the rights of women of color, Muslim women, Indigenous women, women from the Global South, as well as the poorest and most marginalized people all over the world. Pls venture beyond your privileged, white American exceptionalism.

A new group of secular intellectuals in India argues that the BJP’s real attitude towards women is based on a fascist communally-based politics in which women are seen not as individuals with rights, but as bearers of their community’s honour, to be protected or raped, depending who they are.

More about the BJP, rape, and the status of women here.