Muslim Identities & Cultures

To the Biden administration,

For 15 long months, people from every walk of life took to the streets, pleading with you to stop the genocide in Gaza. Poll after poll showed that the overwhelming majority of Democratic voters wanted a ceasefire, but you ignored them. Every day, for 468 days, we bore witness to the lifeless bodies of children on our screens, casualties of the weapons you supplied. We begged you to end the bloodshed. Instead, you dismissed our cries, sending billions more in weapons to fuel the slaughter.

While the world watched in horror, you collaborated with Silicon Valley to censor and shadow-ban Palestinians who dared to expose the grim truth. You gaslit the public from podiums, smirking as you demonized the very people being massacred. Those of us who demanded justice were labeled terrorist sympathizers, while snipers targeting small children were painted as victims. Young people calling for a ceasefire on college campuses were vilified, even as you funneled untold billions to your friends in the weapons industry, all without a congressional vote.

And still, until your very last day, you sent even more money to Israel—funds to steal more loved ones from Palestinian families who have already lost everything. You set a new precedent for the future—a grim and horrifying one. But in your arrogance, you also awakened the consciousness of millions, if not billions, who now see clearly the truth of what is happening. They know your legacy is written in the blood of innocents.

You left the American people to suffer, ignoring the pain and poverty from Appalachia to Los Angeles, because your thirst for blood eclipsed everything else. You showed us who you are, and in doing so, you made it clear: you and the fascists waiting in the wings are two sides of the same coin.

We will never forgive, and we will never forget. Your legacy will not be whitewashed, as our media has done with other genocidaires like Bush and Cheney. The history books will not absolve you. And you will be held accountable.

This International Women's Day, we are honored to have hosted powerful feminist voices from Palestine, based in the occupied lands and in exile.

The panelists highlighted how their experiences of the occupation tie back to our shared struggle for liberation from forces of patriarchy and colonial feminisms.

We thank you for joining our open classroom to learn and share our commitment to centering Palestinian voices and perspectives, especially during the genocide committed by the colonial forces of Israel in Gaza. Support us in our mission to continue providing anti-colonial education, rooted in justice-centered pedagogy, for everyone by donating to Teaching Palestine: https://donorbox.org/teaching-palestine

You can watch the full open classroom on our YouTube: tinyurl.com/2935drsj
Facebook: tinyurl.com/m8wmyrkf

Rabab Ibrahim AbdulhadiF4JP: Feminists for Justice in and for Palestine Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return CoalitionPalestinian Feminist CollectiveRight to Education Campaign - Palestine حملة الحق في التعليم

Please attend this series of Teach-Ins and help publicize the same. Educating ourselves about the ongoing genocide is the first step to stopping it, and never allowing it to happen, anywhere in the world.

“Gaza: Genocide and Resistance”:
Teaching Palestine and Feminists For Justice in/for Palestine

The first session will be held Wednesday, November 15 from 11-1 PST/9-11 pm Palestine. Each of the following forms provide information on co-sponsorship, participant registration, and panelist/speaker:

Co-sponsorship form: https://forms.gle/n7hy7DH7VcC1jus77

Panelist/speaker form: https://forms.gle/5WzBkNVzQM5BkAWn8

Participant form: https://forms.gle/7n7HDmHsZqDMCMMw8

“Gaza: Genocide and Resistance”:
Teaching Palestine, F4JP: Feminists for Justice in and for Palestine , and Palestinian Feminist Collective

The first session will be held Wednesday, November 15 from 11-1 PST/9-11 pm Palestine. Each of the following forms provide information on co-sponsorship, participant registration, and panelist/speaker:

Co-sponsorship form: https://forms.gle/n7hy7DH7VcC1jus77

Panelist/speaker form: https://forms.gle/5WzBkNVzQM5BkAWn8

Participant form: https://forms.gle/7n7HDmHsZqDMCMMw8

While reciting the Fajr Azān on a loudspeaker, the muezzin of a Pulwama Masjid, Kashmir was stopped by Indian soldiers of 50 Rashtriya Rifles, who forced him to chant Jai Shri Ram, “in rhythm, like Azān.” Ditto in the Jamia Masjid, Pulwama. While beating up worshippers and “stomping on the heads” of those who resisted.

This is what occupation by “democratic” India means in Kashmir.

After this, what “democracy”? What India? What forgiveness?

Major accused of forcing worshippers to chant 'Jai Shri Ram' at Pulwama mosque Former chief minister Mehbooba M***i was the first to flag the issue and she publicly named the troops of 50 Rashtriya Rifles

Here's the statement addressed to National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) to bring them to accountability w.r.t. their President's visit to Israel, crossing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement (BDS) Movement picket line. Please sign, forward, and also get your organization(s) to endorse.

Kudos to Critical Ethnic Studies Journal for hosting this on their excellent blog. Thanks to everyone who contributed in any way!

"Preamble: The following statement was first crafted in December 2022 by feminist scholars and activists committed to and under the auspices of Feminists for Justice in/for Palestine (F4JP). It is now being released in June 2023 with some revisions following a long, difficult and still unresolved process trying to make the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) more accountable to F4JP, Palestinians, other Indigenous peoples, and marginalized communities and movements from multiple colonial contexts. In specific, the statement was spurred by the need to hold the NWSA leadership accountable for crossing the academic picket line in clear violation of the organization’s 2015 resolution committing to solidarity with Palestine and the movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel. Many of us who worked on the statement have long histories of being part of the NWSA, and remain open to participating in its board and future conferences provided that there is a genuine attempt to pause and reflect on Zionist and colonialist practices – such as colonial tourism – that contradict the organization’s feminist solidarity commitments. Rather than be seen as a break-up announcement, this statement is an effort to insist on accountability, transparency and unflinching solidarity from the largest and oldest women’s studies association in North America. We urge NWSA to take up the Zionist-legitimizing event, which we discuss below, under accountability in particular, and unambiguously define settler colonialism, white supremacy, Zionism, Islamophobia, Orientalism, Brahminical-Supremacy, casteism, and other violences as structural issues that require ongoing education, vigilance, self-reflection, coalition building, cross-sectional conversations and an unwavering commitment to building an ethos of transnational solidarity. We are guided by Audre Lorde’s reminder that ”Survival isn’t some theory operating in a vacuum. It’s a matter of my everyday living and making decisions.” (A Burst of Light 1988, p.60) We are writing here, putting our words into the public realm, because our survival and liberation for ourselves and our communities cannot and must not be brushed aside as a simple mistake, an oversight, a lack of consideration, an endnote, an errata."

http://www.criticalethnicstudiesjournal.org/blog/2023/6/16/join-feminists-for-justice-infor-palestine-to-call-on-nwsa-to-honor-the-academic-picket-line-and-reaffirm-its-unwavering-commitment-to-palestinian-liberation-amp-feminism-including-bds?fbclid=IwAR0uSTCjlSdRavQPPNBq65d7jHXxN10iuW1nfPyJjavyPYKsGE-qoGkh5Jc

Join Feminists for Justice in/for Palestine to call on NWSA to Honor the Academic Picket Line and Reaffirm its Unwavering Commitment to Palestinian Liberation & Feminism, including BDS. — Critical Ethnic Studies Contact: [email protected] Preamble: The following statement was first crafted in December 2022 by feminist scholars and activists committed to and under the auspices of Feminists for Justice in/for Palestine (F4JP). It is now being released in June 2023 with some revision

Decolonial Cafés — Decolonizing Sexualities Network Decolonial Café 2021The DSN celebrates its tenth anniversary with transnational discussions on decolonizing sexualities Two Weekends. Seven Panels - March, 20th-21st and March, 27th-28th, 2021Online eventFor security reasons there will be no audience questions. Thank you for your understanding.Even...

For the first time after the abrogation of Article 370, the Government of India has given its clearance for use of forest land for non-forestry purposes in Jammu and Kashmir for construction of a multipurpose project of ‘geostrategic and national importance’.

Documents in possession of news agency Kashmir News Observer lay bare that GoI has given approval for non-forest use of 680.1 hectares of forest land for construction of Ujh multipurpose hydro-electric project in district Kathua of JK.

This was the first project submitted to GoI’s Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) after the abrogation of Article 370.

The FAC observed that “the project is of national importance which provides geopolitical strategic advantage in form of more effective use of water of Ujh River”.

In a first, GoI gives clearance to ‘use of forest land for non-forestry purposes’ in JK | Free Press Kashmir Ujh Multipurpose project gets clearance of forest panel Srinagar: For the first time after the abrogation of Article 370, the Government of India has given its clearance for use of forest land for non-forestry purposes in Jammu and Kashmir for construction of a multipurpose project of 'geostrategic....

“Now I have nothing,” Wani said. “My soul has been torn into two halves – one lies with my son’s grave in Sonamarg.”

The three youths that the army claimed were militants and killed on December 30 have been buried in Sonamarg, kilometers away from their hometown.

The day of the encounter, at around 4 pm, after identifying the bodies of their sons, the families were also refused permission to take the bodies home for burial. Instead, authorities took their corpses to the remote area in North and lowered them into graves that remain under army surveillance.

Speaking to TheWire.in Wani said that his family were following the police vehicle in which the bodies were taken to Sonmarg but they were not allowed past the third checkpoint near Gund, a village in Ganderbal.

“I pleaded with the policemen there to allow us to perform the last rites of our son but they didn’t budge,” Wani said. In desperation to catch one more glimpse of his only son, Wani, along with his wife, started out on foot for the destination which was 30 kilometres away from the checkpoint.

After they walked for nearly 4 kilometres, their car, which had been stopped at the checkpoint, was allowed to proceed after multiple pleas from other relatives. The duo then boarded the car and reached the spot.

The funeral was attended by nearly 30 men including some locals on the road and later, only a few family members were allowed to bury them. “Their graves were dug with bulldozers, not as per the rituals and later, after placing them inside the graves, we filled the graves with soil with our with hands,” Wani said. “It was already dark and we were doing this with mobile torches as they did not allow us to have any light installed there,” he said.

Incidentally, Ahmad’s brother, a policeman, who had buried many militants at the government-designated graveyard in Sonamarg this year, laid his younger brother to rest in the same graveyard.

In Kashmir, the families of hundreds of persons, who have been killed in fake encounters, are still awaiting justices. Most of the incidents had been reported during the first armed insurgency of Kashmir in the 1990s.

'Now I Have Nothing': Families of Kashmiri Men Killed in 'Encounter' Reject Army's Claims "How it is possible that he could have arranged for a weapon and reached Srinagar in such a short time?" asked the uncle of a youth who was killed in an encounter on Wednesday.

IMPORTANT READ:

“The latest order (released Oct 26) practically opens up all of Jammu and Kashmir to every Indian citizen, removes every restriction that prevented large landholdings, allows the Indian armed forces to take over land wherever they desire, and gives sweeping powers to the government to take over any land and property for “industrial” use and bring in big businesses to set up their shops.

This order repeals 12 state laws and amends 14 to further the agenda behind the abrogation of J&K’s special status and its bifurcation into a pair of union territories, ruled directly by Delhi through its handpicked lieutenant governor.

The modification of the J&K Development Act has serious consequences. While it removes the restriction that only a permanent resident or state subject can acquire, buy and own land in J&K, the order adds a new provision that any region in J&K can be notified as a Strategic Area and excluded from the purview of the J&K Development Act.”

By Muzammil Jaleel

Opinion: New Land Laws Put All of Kashmir up for Sale — by Muzamil Jaleel In this opinion piece featured in our Acquaintance section, Muzamil Jaleel argues that the October 26 order repealing and amending a series of J&K laws rolls back over 70 years of reforms that previously empowered the region’s Muslim majority.