I write from Geneva, where I was invited to speak at the UN "Durban II" conference on racism and have just today been spat at by two Israelis. I found myself (unknowingly) on what turned into a "bash Iran" panel with a problematic Zionist agenda. The expectation, perhaps, was that I, being Muslim and gay, would sit and join in the Iran-bashing choir. In doing the opposite I did not make myself the most popular person in the room.
Later, two Israeli delegates spat at me. Surprisingly, an erudite Canadian professor and member of Parliament threw around a baffling and hard-to-explain term: "genocidal anti-Semitism". Only he knows what he means, I certainly do not!
Still later as the Iranian president walked into his press conference, clueless, young (all White by the way) UN workers stood and hissed, accusing him of "racism" (a term problematically applied in this case).
Today for the first time I was witness to the extent of power the pro-Israel , anti-Iran and anti-Palestinian lobbies wield, even here in Geneva.
Cleary Ahmadinejad made provocative comments which were in poor taste. But the complete lack of discussion of Israel's continuing genocide of the Palestinian people, its use of banned weapons of mass destruction like white phosporous on Palestinian civilians, the shameful loss of Palestinian life and its skewed ratio with the loss of a few Israelis are not topics of discussion here.
A greater dispatch will follow but let me very clear: the first day of this UN conference was not an Israeli hate-fest. Quite the opposite; Israel and its many lobbies in majority Caucasian countries (and sometimes mine like India) are loud enough to drown out the rhetoric of the humble former mayor of Tehran.
started this blog, 2007. today i am a guggenheim fellow, a much lauded filmmaker and author; creator of 3 world firsts: a jihad for love; a sinner in mecca (films) + 112,000 page book. visit parvezsharma.com but this blog is historically important; a partial on the road record; the world's first ever film on islam and homosexuality; fact = "islam trilogy" = 8 million plus eyeballs; yes, death, defying work, but re-taught me gratitude+ humility; karma backbones = dh; sd; at; hva; pa
4 comments:
Dear Barack,
God will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. Israel, a little spot in an ocean of Arab and/or Muslim countries, allows more freedom and goodwill to the Muslims in Israel who are launching rockets into Israel than all the surrounding Arab and/or Muslim nations who offer their Palestinian "brothers" not one piece of their vast lands. For someone espousing "love" you defend a very unlovely group of people and cling to a religion that relegates women to the role of chattel. Never have I seen Muslims demonstrate "love" beyond their own immediate family. Even among their family a father (or other male family member) may murder a daughter for various reasons - rape, fornication, conversion to another religion. There is constant conflict (war, murder, bombings) amongst the different varieties of Islam. Yes, poor Israel and poor Islamic nations but for different reasons.
"T" You're an idiot. You obviously haven't been to Israel and seen what the Israeli soldiers are doing to Palentinians and volunteer internationals. Israeli soldiers bulldozed over a young american girl who was simply protesting, by sitting, a Palestinian's house being destroyed. They murdered her, and they've murdered many other innocent human beings. The ratio of palestinian murders to Israeli murders is disgusting. For every one Israeli killed, there are over 6 Palestinians killed. Do some research before you start running your mouth.
Genocidal Antisemitism was what europe did to the jewish population. Genocidal settler zionism is what the Israeli state, its vicious settlers, and its compliant population are doing to Palestinians. They have nothing to do with one another. Thanks for going to Geneva, and trying to deal with all the bullshit!
T, stop spamming this blog! You've left the same comment on several posts having nothing to do with what you've written. So tacky!
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