America’s Right Wing: YES to Quran-burning, NO to Flag-Burning

Originally posted to Islamaphobia Today, May 14, 2011

 

 

When LSU graduate student Benjamin Haas planned to burn the U.S. flag to protest the clamping down of civil liberties and the right of due process for “students and suspected terrorists alike”, an angry mob of over 1,000 people came out to stop him.  Haas “sustained physical and verbal taunting”and in fact received numerous death threats.  Had the police not been there to protect him, Haas might have been seriously hurt.  (Haas backed down from burning the flag.)

 

Here’s a video of the despicable mob (hint: any time you see Americans wrapped in the flag chanting “USA! USA! USA!” more often than not they are war-mongers):

 

The Martin Luther King You Don’t See on TV

[This originally appeared on Common Dreams]

by Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon

It’s become a TV ritual: Every year on April 4, as Americans commemorate Martin Luther King’s death, we get perfunctory network news reports about “the slain civil rights leader.”

The remarkable thing about these reviews of King’s life is that several years — his last years — are totally missing, as if flushed down a memory hole.

What TV viewers see is a closed loop of familiar file footage: King battling desegregation in Birmingham (1963); reciting his dream of racial harmony at the rally in Washington (1963); marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama (1965); and finally, lying dead on the motel balcony in Memphis (1968).

An alert viewer might notice that the chronology jumps from 1965 to 1968. Yet King didn’t take a sabbatical near the end of his life. In fact, he was speaking and organizing as diligently as ever.

Almost all of those speeches were filmed or taped. But they’re not shown today on TV.

Why?

It’s because national news media have never come to terms with what Martin Luther King Jr. stood for during his final years.

In the early 1960s, when King focused his challenge on legalized racial discrimination in the South, most major media were his allies. Network TV and national publications graphically showed the police dogs and bullwhips and cattle prods used against Southern blacks who sought the right to vote or to eat at a public lunch counter.

But after passage of civil rights acts in 1964 and 1965, King began challenging the nation’s fundamental priorities. He maintained that civil rights laws were empty without “human rights” — including economic rights. For people too poor to eat at a restaurant or afford a decent home, King said, anti-discrimination laws were hollow.

Noting that a majority of Americans below the poverty line were white, King developed a class perspective. He decried the huge income gaps between rich and poor, and called for “radical changes in the structure of our society” to redistribute wealth and power.

“True compassion,” King declared, “is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”

By 1967, King had also become the country’s most prominent opponent of the Vietnam War, and a staunch critic of overall U.S. foreign policy, which he deemed militaristic. In his “Beyond Vietnam” speech delivered at New York’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 — a year to the day before he was murdered — King called the United States “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” (Full text/audio here. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2564.htm)

From Vietnam to South Africa to Latin America, King said, the U.S. was “on the wrong side of a world revolution.” King questioned “our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America,” and asked why the U.S. was suppressing revolutions “of the shirtless and barefoot people” in the Third World, instead of supporting them.

In foreign policy, King also offered an economic critique, complaining about “capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries.”

You haven’t heard the “Beyond Vietnam” speech on network news retrospectives, but national media heard it loud and clear back in 1967 — and loudly denounced it. Time magazine called it “demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi.” The Washington Post patronized that “King has diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people.”

In his last months, King was organizing the most militant project of his life: the Poor People’s Campaign. He crisscrossed the country to assemble “a multiracial army of the poor” that would descend on Washington — engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol, if need be — until Congress enacted a poor people’s bill of rights. Reader’s Digest warned of an “insurrection.”

King’s economic bill of rights called for massive government jobs programs to rebuild America’s cities. He saw a crying need to confront a Congress that had demonstrated its “hostility to the poor” — appropriating “military funds with alacrity and generosity,” but providing “poverty funds with miserliness.”

How familiar that sounds today, nearly 40 years after King’s efforts on behalf of the poor people’s mobilization were cut short by an assassin’s bullet.

In 2007, in this nation of immense wealth, the White House and most in Congress continue to accept the perpetuation of poverty. They fund foreign wars with “alacrity and generosity,” while being miserly in dispensing funds for education and healthcare and environmental cleanup.

And those priorities are largely unquestioned by mainstream media. No surprise that they tell us so little about the last years of Martin Luther King’s life.

Recent events in Florida’s Capital

[This was originally posted on the Tallahassee Socialist Organization’s blog]

By Mike C

There were a few events of interest in Tallahassee in the past week or so that should be noted:

Egypt Solidarity Demonstration 2/5/11

About a week an a half ago, a small crowed comprised of many TSO members stood at the Capitol to show their support for the Egyptian revolution.  The demonstration was a last minute call for a rainy day and was well received by those driving by on the crowded intersection of Apalachee Parkway and Monroe St.

The demonstration was covered by the newspaper of the Florida A&M University, the FAMUAN:

It was a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon as protesters assembled on the Capital Lawn carrying handwritten signs reading, “Freedom in Egypt” and “We Support Egypt.”

Local residents and organizations held a solidarity rally to express their support for freedom in Cairo.

Anti-government protests, demanding economic and political changes, began in Egypt on Jan. 25.

Since then, tens of thousands of people are filling the streets of Cairo and other cities and have called for President Hosni Mubarak to resign after 30 years in power.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” a famous quote by Martin Luther King, Jr., helps to define one of the many reasons why American protesters are voicing their opinions.

“It should affect us all as Americans because it is what a truly American concept is about putting in a democracy,” said Alla Hadi, an Egyptian-American attending Florida State, whose family, and friends that are worried about what is going on in Egypt.

“We have to voice our support.”

This demonstration was held the same weekend as demonstrations across the country, from California, to New York City, Washington, DC. and South Florida all held similar events, as well as other Southern cities like New Orleans. (For more information on other demonstrations, check out the ANSWER Coalition’s article)

Public Hearing on Racist Immigration Bill 2/7/11

On February 7th, a public hearing was held to discuss the possibility of the introduction of a bill similar to the now infamous  racist “SB1070” Arizona law that promotes racial profiling.  As the Florida Progressive Coalition Blog reports, 90 percent of the speakers at the hearing were opposed to the prospect of such a bill with only 2 people speaking in favor of it during the entire event.  Folks came from all over the state to voice their opposition to the bill as well as people from Tallahassee.

Here’s one example of the opposition voiced during the hearing:

Pro-Choice Action 2/17/11

Last but certainly not least was the recent visit to the Florida State campus by a group that attempts to equate abortion to genocide.  Florida State students organized a counter demonstration to show that groups that go around attacking womens’ rights are not welcome on their campus and that opposition will be loud and heard.  Chants like “When choice is under attack, What do we do? Stand Up, Fight Back!” were heard in a busy section of the FSU campus while those promoting their anti-choice message were attempting to spread their message of hate.

While the group that was traveling by may seem like a fringe group in its message, their visit to Tallahassee comes at a time when abortion rights are under attack by the Right-wing in America (including attempts to limit access, attacking Planned Parenthood).

The pro-choice counter-demonstrators outnumbered those anti-choice by dozens, and stayed until the anti-choice folks packed up for the day, opposition to their second day is expect as well.  The student newspaper is also expected to run a story on the event.

Rally for the Brave People of Egypt, New Orleans, Louisiana

By hastenawait

Hundreds took to the streets of New Orleans yesterday to march in solidarity with the revolutionary peoples of the Middle East and North Africa. A rally was held in front of the steps of the federal building before protesters began winding down the streets of downtown New Orleans.

 Protesters not only challenged dictatorships in other parts of the world and U.S. imperialism – many made the connection between the inspiring struggles going on elswhere and what is happening here in Louisiana, the South and the United States. The signs which read, “New Orleans, walk like an Egyptian,” and “Egypt -1; Tunisia – 1; New Orleans, ?” distilled this popular sentiment. Among others, chants of, “One solution: Revolution!” could be heard echoing through the streets of of the Crescent City.

Murfreesboro vs. Islamophobia

[this post originally appeared on the Solidarity Website]

 

— Jase Short and Andy Woloszyn

WHEN THE MUSLIM community in Murfreesboro, Tennessee sought a permit to build an expanded Islamic Center, local bigots saw an opportunity to exploit the same “moral panic,” invented by the Tea Party, the Christian Right and much of the corporate media, that would also emerge in New York around the so-called “Ground Zero mosque.” The amalgamation of racial, ethnic, religious and national identities into a demonic Islamic “Other,” has been spreading throughout the United States as well as Western Europe.

It was in this context that forces in middle Tennessee — representing some of its most reactionary elements such as real estate mogul and neo-Confederate ideologist Howard Wall — signed on with the national Islamophobic campaign, expecting an easy escalation of anti-Muslim sentiment across the area.

It‘s a condition of the Religious Land Use Act and Tennessee’s zealous equivalent (passed, ironically enough, as an agenda item of the Christian Right), that there is precious little legal space for county planning commissions to bar — for any reason at all — a permit for land use by a religious institution as long as it meets certain legal criteria. The case of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro’s (ICM) purchase of land for an expanded Islamic Center, serving their growing congregation (several hundred families), was no different.

The Rutherford County Commission approved the permit for construction by the ICM without any controversy. Controversy arose at the following County Commissioner’s meeting in May, when hundreds opposed to the construction of the new Islamic Center packed all three floors of the County Courthouse to register their absolute opposition to the rights of Muslim Americans in our county.

This involved elements from the Wilson County Tea Party, forces involved with the Tea Party campaign of Lou Ann Zelenik, and congregants of the World Outreach Church (WOC) — a massive facility in Murfreesboro whose services often end up shutting down the flow of traffic in town. The role of the WOC (especially via its pastor Alan Jackson) is especially ironic as one of the “mainstream” reasons oft cited by the opposition is that the mosque would result in traffic jams.

In the midst of this meeting — which was extended in order to allow as many speakers as possible time to spout ignorant and vitriolic slander against their fellow citizens — it became clear that the public face of opposition to the mosque had been established: Kevin Fisher.

The fact that Fisher, by most accounts, was the only person of color at any of the mosque opposition’s events led to many questions as to why he surfaced as their leader. Fisher — a committed fundamentalist Christian whose idea of an “interfaith” service involved only an interdenominational invitation — also raised many eyebrows after it was discovered that his ex-wife had converted to Islam upon leaving him.

Whatever the reasons for this choice of spokesperson (one cannot help but entertain the idea that a Black spokesperson was chosen in order to fend off accusations of racism), Fisher announced in the local paper, The Daily News Journal, that he would be leading citizens to march on July 14th through the town square in order to present a petition to the County Commission calling for a reversal of its approval of the ICM’s paperwork.

In spite of all the racist discourse about Muslims and people from the Arab world, Fisher maintained a strict party line at this point: this issue was about due process; the citizens who live on Veals Road were not given proper notification by the authorities (or so he claimed to the exasperation of the county’s legal representatives, who time and again pointed out that no such notification is required due to Tennessee’s state level variant of the Religious Land Use Act); tests should be conducted by the relevant authorities on the environmental impacts of the graveyard planned by the congregation (apparently because the lack of use of coffins presented an environmental hazard…); and so forth.

These pretexts were all familiar to us in Tennessee: “if they move in, my property value will decline” is ultimately the main argument for informal segregation that has been used following the Civil Rights movement.

Mobilizing for Religious Freedom

Upon reading the article announcing this march, members of Middle Tennessee Solidarity formed a Facebook group called “Middle Tennesseans For Religious Freedom” (MTRF) — we consciously chose “freedom” in order to avoid the liberal “tolerance” perspective — and called for a meeting on the Middle Tennessee State University campus by all interested parties.

More than 20 people showed up to this initial planning meeting and it was decided to plan a counter-rally on the square the day of the mosque opposition’s march. Activists from local environmentalist, LGBT, civil rights, interfaith and other progressive groups gathered together to form a united front for a coordinated fightback against this wave of Islamophobia. We were determined that, if nothing else, we should make it clear that not all citizens of this county are propelled into the streets by a call to hate.

After many phone calls, press releases, flyers, door-to-door drives and phone-banking, MTRF managed to hold a second meeting with 70 members present. A good portion (80% or more) of the meeting was comprised of local (and some Nashville) residents over 30 years of age — a significant fact, since the opposition regular critiqued MTRF by saying we were youth hired and paid, apparently by the distribution of marijuana, by the Islamic Center or by some left-wing shadow organization. It was here that the organizers planned a counter-rally for July 14th.

Many local activists with lots of experience told us we were fighting a losing battle. We would never be able to pull out enough people to adequately respond to the bigots’ numbers; people would not be able to sustain a campaign over time that involved multiple mobilizations; we did not have the knowledge, expertise or experience to properly defend the Islamic community; we were presuming to speak for the ICM (in spite of their representation at our meetings and our seeking their approval for all of our actions) in a manner that perpetuated white privilege. Our experience on the 14th would show these positions to be unfounded.

Most stunning of all, not an insignificant minority of “liberals” expressed concern with any defense of Islam as it was a “backward” religion that oppressed women and homosexuals.

July 14: “Murfreesboro Coexist”

Roughly 15 organizers of MTRF met on July 14th before our counter-rally to discuss last-minute logistics. “Murfreesboro Coexist” was written across a number of posters to be held up by a group of citizens when the opposition’s march approached the courthouse.

It is interesting to note that this slogan, and the images of people holding up the signs, eventually became the MTRF’s icon. The easily recognizable reference was consistently photographed at subsequent events and made national (and even international) news. A key to our success was encapsulated in this ability to communicate on a level of symbols.

When we approached the meeting location, a group larger than anticipated was already forming in the middle of the square — in fact, some of the organizers were contacted by shocked employees of the local Democratic Party campaigns couldn’t believe belief such numbers could be turned out for a progressive cause. Organizers immediately began rallying the crowd as several news teams converged on the location. The local police were few in number at this event and fairly cooperative.

Kevin Fisher and the rest of the ICM opposition marched about half a mile from a local school. This particular event was their only specifically designated rally and would prove to be their largest public showing. Our counter-rally met them on one side of the courthouse in silence, as voted and decided upon at the community meeting, while the opposition sang “America the Beautiful.”

The attitude of the anti-mosque protestors was restless and somewhat aggressive as several members of the march heckled our side; yet we kept our silence in the face of their vitriol and met them around the other side of the courthouse.

Several key members of the opposition’s leadership presented their petition to officials in the courthouse. The code of silence agreed upon by our group slowly deteriorated as the two sides began exchanging words. Breaking the silence drastically altered the feeling of the counter-rally.

A number of arguments ensued, but MTRF organizers were able to monitor and enforce a safe space between the participants. The confrontation culminated in the opposition singing “Amazing Grace” as MTRF responded, louder and in chorus, with “the Star-Spangled Banner.” Our organizers decided shortly after to instruct the counter-rally to turn their back to Kevin Fisher’s group and march out in silence and dignity before the situation devolved into unnecessary conflict.

Continuing the Struggle

After July 14th the ICM issue remained on the lips of city residents and became the number one news item for every major media outlet in the area. The counter-rally was not only an impressive show of force but a statement that much of Murfreesboro was unhappy with the town’s current image. MTRF almost immediately decided to organize a presence at the next County Commissioner’s meeting on August 12th.

Kevin Fisher’s group turned out significantly fewer people than the previous month, but many of their leaders and benefactors were present including local real estate giant Howard Wall.

MTRF organizers failed to investigate how to register for public notice and didn’t realize that speakers were prioritized on a first-come, first-serve basis whereas the opposition knew from its previous experience. Ten citizens spoke — nine were members of the opposition and the tenth spoke about an unrelated matter.

Though we turned out a significant crowd, our lack of a voice at the meeting appeared as a defeat in the eyes of the public. Coupled with the recent red-baiting that was flung at MTRF by local talk radio, this public setback significantly impacted the activists’ morale.

The mosque opposition, however, was dealt a blow just before the County Commission meeting: the defeat of Tea Party candidate Lou Ann Zelenik in the Republican primary for Tennessee’s 6th District, although by a very narrow margin.

With the loss of Zelenik’s campaign the wind was somewhat taken from the sails of the mosque opposition: the single issue that propelled Zelenik’s candidacy from her previous position (far behind in the polls) seemed to be discredited with Zelenik’s defeat. Whatever the residents of the county thought of their Muslim neighbors, it did not seem as high on their agenda as it had previously seemed.

This was the context of the sudden and dark turn that the whole affair took at the end of August when some unknown arsonist(s) (shades of the 2008 burning and swastika-tagging of an Islamic Center in nearby Columbia, Tennessee) set fire to construction equipment at the future site of the Islamic Center on Veals Road.

Organizers of MTRF quickly responded with a candlelight vigil the following Monday, as a way for the community to publicly condemn the crime and gather in solidarity with their Muslim neighbors.

The numbers present amazingly rivaled the crowd organized back in July, and the rally itself also marked the largest presence of media at any MTRF event. Speakers at the vigil included a Catholic priest, a rabbi and a Neo-Pagan priestess.

Kevin Fisher’s group had zero presence in response (though Fisher condescendingly made a comment about holding candles for “broken farm equipment” a few days beforehand). At the end of the vigil, however, organizers learned that a group of bigots had been circling the square in a truck and were arguing on the outskirts of the courthouse.

Participants were warned of possible aggressors, but the event dispersed without much more than a few heated debates — all of this occurring with a backdrop of federal agents, national and international media and the largest police presence the town had seen since the Civil Rights Movement.

Bigotry Defeated

With the defeat of Zelenik and the public relations disaster of the arson, things turned bleak for the mosque opposition. At the final County Commissioner’s meeting held September 16th, MTRF spokespersons would secure a majority of the time slots for speaking. The opposition had called for a rally, but MTRF activists who went to their convergence site to report on their numbers informed organizers within the meeting that fewer than 10 people had shown up, and subsequently dispersed.

At this point it became apparent to everyone involved that, at least in the contest of the streets, our side had won. The contrast of the failed opposition rally with the powerful speeches given at the courthouse — for the first time on the public record — drove home a realization to the organizers that has become increasingly rare on the left: the sensation that we had won this battle.

Following these events, multiple mainstream  churches held public meetings in support of the ICM. The Imam — now with the support of mainstream clergy — was no longer afraid that his presence in public would harm the ICM’s efforts. The opposition has now turned to a dead-end legal strategy (the point of the court case is to rule that Islam is not a religion), and the community’s wounds are beginning to heal.

MTRF’s  efforts effectively galvanized multiple interfaith events and other public shows of support for religious liberty and respect for our Muslim neighbors. While organizers realize that the situation here can rapidly change (especially with escalations of the wars against predominantly Muslim countries), we know that there is now a solid force to fight any future threat of Islamophobic scapegoating.

Our small grassroots network took on a megachurch, the local Tea Party apparatus, various national Zionist organizations, the ridiculous assertions of Pat Robertson on the 700 Club, death threats and the general climate of ignorance and reaction — and we won, at least for now.

ATC 150, January-February 2011

Atlanta Georgia: Rally to Defend Dissent, Support Julian Assange & Celebrate WikiLeaks

Activists in Georgia stand up for the right to dissent, while challenging the stereotype that Southerners are politically passive and reactionary.

George Galloway prevented from Entering U.S., addresses Louisianians via Skype

 

 

 

By hastenawait, December 14, 2010

　

The Muslim Legal Fund of America is a non-profit organization which has existed since 2001. It supports legal cases across the country which impact civil rights, freedoms, liberties and principles of justice in America, particularly where Muslims are concerned. The organization focuses on important cases which affect the Muslim community and public policy. Their decisions about which cases to take up, therefore, are strategic.

Last night the MLFA hosted a benefit dinner in Kenner, Louisiana . Kenner is a smaller city that borders New Orleans. The benefit was intended to raise funds for the organization’s work and to raise awareness about ongoing injustices facing Muslims in the United States. Around 100 people attended, with the majority being Louisiana Muslim community members. A handful of non-Muslims were there as well.

Speakers included Adulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-born New Orleans businessman who has achieved a degree of fame because he rode out hurricane Katrina and then went around rescuing people in his canoe. For his good work he was arrested, labeled a terrorist and imprisoned for 23 days.

The daughter of Shukri Abu Baker also spoke. Baker was the president of the Holy Land Foundation, which was the largest Muslim charity in the United States. In the aftermath of September 11, the Bush regime charged the organization with supporting Hamas in Palestine. The organization was subsequently shut down and Baker is now serving a 65-year prison sentence, essentially for providing charitable aid to victims of the ongoing genocide in Palestine. All of the speakers gave powerful and moving presentations.

The keynote speaker was former U.K.-parliamentarian and long-time activist, George Galloway. Galloway is known for his activist work in support of Palestine. He is a founding member of a charitable organization called Viva Palestina, whose mission is to break the blockade of the Gaza strip by bringing badly-needed aid. For these activities, he was denied entry into Canada from March of 2009 until October 2010. He has not, however, been officially blocked from entering the United States.

You can imagine the surprise of the audience last night when it was announced that Galloway would not be speaking with them in person, as he had been denied entry into the United States over the weekend. He was supposed to be traveling the country for a multi-city speaking tour, but was told by airline officials that he would not be able to enter the U.S. because there were problems with his visa.

Undeterred, Galloway instead addressed the crowd in Kenner via the computer program Skype. A laptop was hooked up to a projector, and a live video could be seen on two large screens in a convention room of the Crown Plaza hotel, where the event was held. During his talk Galloway stated that it is not clear whether his being denied entry was the result of a technical or bureaucratic glitch, or whether it was a political measure carried out in secrecy. He explained that efforts were made to resolve the situation throughout the weekend, but that nothing came of it.

 

 

 

Galloway addressing audience in Kenner, Louisiana

 

The main body of his talk concerned human rights violations carried out by the U.S. government against Muslims worldwide, and particularly the grave humanitarian situation in Palestine, which has resulted from Israeli-U.S. imperialist settler policies.

Because his being denied entry to the U.S. may be an instance of political repression (and we know that this is not unlikely) he reiterated his resolve to not be silenced. He said boldly : “Nothing will stop me. Not the government of what they call Israel; not the government of Canada or the U.S.” He continued: “I cannot be silenced…I hope the U.S. government understands that. We live in the age of Skype, YouTube and Facebook. There will always be a way for me to speak.”

He went on to describe his speaking visit to New Orleans last year. He said that New Orleans is a city which he loves deeply, and that he has every intention of visiting it again, and speaking to New Orleanians again. He vowed that he would fight to get back into the United States and that this event would be rescheduled.

When speaking about the Muslims, solidarity activists and charitable workers who have been the target of political repression in the United States since 9/11, he argued: “Anyone of you as I look around this hall could be the next one to hear the knock on the door, to be unjustly accused…even because you’re doing charitable work for a country that has been wiped off the map.” He was referring to Palestine.

Galloway’s provocative statement that he “cannot be silenced” because “we live in the age of Skype, YouTube and Facebook” is particularly pertinent at this time. People have been talking about the political implications of the digital revolution since it began, just as people in other eras discussed the political implications of other media and technological shifts. But in the wake of the WikiLeaks revelations and other events this year (such as FBI raids on anti-war activists) the contradictions implicit in this social revolution are perhaps clearer than ever – and they are certainly heightened. These contradictions are increasingly characterizing the contemporary world, and, broadly speaking, they boil down to this: the new digital media open up the way for new democratic transformations and unprecedented levels of openness in public institutions on the one hand; on the other, they open up possibilities for frightening forms of surveillance, opacity and authoritarianism. A resume of U.S. government activities since the Bush administration should leave no doubt about the latter tendency.

At one level these contradictions are overdetermined by another prevailing social contradiction which is inherent to capitalism, and that is the contradiction between massively-socialized production and economic life generally, on the one hand, and private ownership on the other. (The struggles over intellectual property, file sharing etc. all take place within the trajectory of this contradiction.) At its base, this contradiction is about who has power in society and who does not.

It is increasingly clear that the new digital technologies make governments, corporations and other powerful entities newly powerful but at the same time newly vulnerable (just look at the attacks on the websites of Visa and MasterCard by “hacktivists” following the latest round of leaks by WikiLeaks). The same is true of the people who are resisting the powerful. For example, these technologies make it easier for governments to spy on activists, but they also provide the means of organization for those activists. It should be noted, in regard to the 2010 FBI raids on anti-war activists, that because of social networking sites like Facebook, an organized response was beginning the very day that the raids were taking place. Within hours there were videos on YouTube. Press conferences, demonstrations and the like were all in the works.

Galloway’s appearance via Skype last night highlights the liberatory dimension opened up by these technologies. Whether the U.S. government is in fact preventing him from entering the country, or whether there was a technical glitch does not change this. The fact is that his lack of physical presence did not prevent him from addressing Louisiana community members. He was not prevented from speaking.

Wikileaks Rally at CNN Center (Atlanta, Georgia)

Time: Wednesday, December 15 · 5:00pm – 6:30pm

Location: CNN Center, corner of Centennial Olympic Park Dr. and Marietta St. , ATL, GA

Defend Julian Assange and the right to dissent! Information about global, imperialist, governmental corruption has been disclosed from diplomatic cables leaked to the public by WikiLeaks. This information brings new light to the war abroad, and at home. On September 24th, the homes of seven activists and an anti-war office were simultaneously raided by the FBI. In total, fourteen activists from Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan …have been handed subpoenas to testify before a federal grand jury. These activists and many others came together to organize the 2008 anti-war marches during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

These are attacks on dissent in general, and free speech in particular and it is our duty to respond!

We will be meeting at the corner of Centennial and Marietta St. in front of the CNN center.

At 5:30, there will be a public reading of selected WikiLeaks cables.

Let’s show em who’s boss (we are). Be there!

EL PUEBLO UNIDO JAMAS SERA VENCIDO.
THE PEOPLE UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED.

George Galloway to visit New Orleans

 

George Galloway is a British politician, author, broadcaster and former Member of Parliament. He is the founder of the Respect Party and is a peace advocate. He is most known for his outspoken views on Palestinian rights. Mr. Galloway is an avid supporter of MLFA and is coming to speak about important issues affecting you. Don’t miss this opportunity to listen to a world-renowned activist speak about his experiences on the front lines of the fight for peace, liberty and equal justice for all.

Monday, Dec. 13, 2010, at 6:00 PM

Crowne Plaza
New Orleans Airport
Salons 1-4
2829 Williams Blvd. 
Kenner, LA 70062

The Muslim Legal Fund of America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization that supports legal cases across the country which impact civil rights, freedoms, liberties and principles of justice in America. MLFA is comprised of staff, volunteers and supporters from all walks of life who have one thing in common: the belief that treating people unfairly because of their religious beliefs undermines the core values that make America great.

The Mosque Controversy and Tolerance

By KurtFF8

I originally posted this on an Alternet Blog I created the other day:

There has been quite a bit of controversy over the proposed community center/mosque that is “right by ground zero” in the media lately, it’s gotten to the point where after Barack Obama decided to come out and defend the right to build a Mosque in the location, the White House had to come out and defend the fact that Obama is a Christian and prays daily.  The White House continues to be on the defensive against the far-right of America (their apparent favorite group to try to appease).  Although the far-right is gaining steam with more and more conspiracy theories introduced to the main stream by folks like Beck (a recent poll suggests that 46% of the GOP thinks that Obama is a Muslim)

So this controversy has made it “to the top” and has turned from a local issue for one city to a national debate.  However, the framework of this debate is a sad site to see.  Top Democrats (Howard Dean, Reid, etc.) have come out in opposition to this community center in an apparent attempt to continue the Democrats turn to the right.  Even those Democrats like Pelosi and Obama who have supported the right for it to be built, have also made it clear that they don’t want to comment “on whether they support it being built or not specifically” but just that they support “the right” for it to be built (this emphasis is theirs).

Those who have come out to support it, do so for reasons that are just as ideologically loaded as the bigots who want “no more mosques” in America.  The common line is that we should be preaching “tolerance” in the US.  We want to demonstrate that “we’re better” than intolerant nations like Saudi Arabia, goes the line of the tolerance promoters (which to me reeks of American Exceptionalism).  But is promoting tolerance problematic?

Absolutely.  The idea that we should just “tolerate” groups like Muslim-Americans or “Illegal Immigrants” contains in it the idea that there is something uneasy about these groups, yet we are going to “put up with” them to achieve a moral high ground.  Such idealism doesn’t come from a genuine attempt to help to change the status of the most marginalized of this society to become less marginalized, but instead is the notion that we should treat “the Other” well.  This doesn’t challenge their position in society in the least.  This “anti-tolerance” stance, of course, comes mainly from the Slovenian philosopher (and intellectual “rock star”) Slajov Zizek, who has written extensively on the problems of “liberal tolerance.”

Perhaps we should try to promote tolerance to those who are the most “intolerant” in society: the far-right.  Their intolerance is obviously quite problematic: based on xenophobia, bigotry, etc.  But does that mean that we want to promote the idea of “we should tolerate the ‘Other’ groups of society” in general?

This kind of logic leads to comments like Howard Dean’s on Muslim Americans:

There’s a growing number of American Muslims. I think most of those Muslims are moderate. I hope that they’ll have an influence on Islam throughout the world, because Islam is really back in the twelfth century in some of these countries, like Iran and Afghanistan, where they’re stoning people to death.

This is based on the idea that “we can promote an Islam that fits American culture throughout the world” which is just as imperialistic as the overt hawks who are trying to promote war in places like Iran.

Instead of preaching the idea that we should tolerate groups that are considered by some to not be “mainstream,” perhaps we should be building real solidarity with the most marginalized of society.  After all, those are the groups that need to be on board to build a real alternative to the insane system we currently live under.