How Very Inspiring.
This: Female bombers struck Kurdish political protesters in Kirkuk and Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad on Monday morning, leaving at least 48 people dead and 249 wounded in one of the bloodiest sequences of attacks in Iraq this year.
. . reminded me of a certain pledge uttered at the mutual-admiration meeting of "anti-war" activists and the well-known pacifist groups Hezbollah and Hamas in Cairo last year: James Clark of the Canadian Peace Alliance vowed that the Canadian peace movement, inspired by the Arab resistance in Lebanon and Iraq, would work with Muslims to defeat imperialism.
Vows of that sort also explain this past weekend's gatherings of anti-semites, 911 Truthers, and Taliban supporters among the Khadr family and their hangers-on. To read the press, you'd think the slogan-shouting parties were organized to protest Ottawa's lack of enthusiasm for the return of Omar Khadr to Canada - which, as the Khadrs themselves admit, is a place that serves merely as a way station, "a country of money and business," a "false civilization," and a "dirty swamp." But the demonstrations' main purpose was, as is always the case with these events, a propaganda exercise, because "you can use such incidents to educate and mobilise people" in the struggle against "Zionism" and "imperialism."
In broad terms, on the question of Omar and his return to Canada, I'm in generally agreement with these sentiments. But as for attending any rally organized by these manipulative and reactionary louts, I'd sooner put pins in my eyes.
I'm with this guy:
. . reminded me of a certain pledge uttered at the mutual-admiration meeting of "anti-war" activists and the well-known pacifist groups Hezbollah and Hamas in Cairo last year: James Clark of the Canadian Peace Alliance vowed that the Canadian peace movement, inspired by the Arab resistance in Lebanon and Iraq, would work with Muslims to defeat imperialism.
Vows of that sort also explain this past weekend's gatherings of anti-semites, 911 Truthers, and Taliban supporters among the Khadr family and their hangers-on. To read the press, you'd think the slogan-shouting parties were organized to protest Ottawa's lack of enthusiasm for the return of Omar Khadr to Canada - which, as the Khadrs themselves admit, is a place that serves merely as a way station, "a country of money and business," a "false civilization," and a "dirty swamp." But the demonstrations' main purpose was, as is always the case with these events, a propaganda exercise, because "you can use such incidents to educate and mobilise people" in the struggle against "Zionism" and "imperialism."
In broad terms, on the question of Omar and his return to Canada, I'm in generally agreement with these sentiments. But as for attending any rally organized by these manipulative and reactionary louts, I'd sooner put pins in my eyes.
I'm with this guy:
UPDATE: For a proper Marxist perspective on these sorts of issues - a perspective you don't have to agree with to respect - see today's essay by Sean Matgamna of the Alliance for Workers Liberty, which is against "homicidal religious lunatics," and against "duff 'anti-imperialism' . . . pacifism and hysterical appeals." Indeed: "International socialists should have no truck with it."
Elsewhere, AWL asks: "How many miles, exactly, separate the clerical-fascists in Tehran and the Bolivarian ‘revolutionaries’?"
posted by Terry Glavin at 12:13 PM
3 Comments:
Canada's abandonment on Khadr is especially disappointing. There is a petition to ask that the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, protect his citizens here: http://go.care2.com/15898432
Hilary:
Thanks, and yes, I signed. It was straightforward, and the preambular language was sensibly rhetoric-free.
Islam is the most imperialist regime around. Hasn't this twits heard about the goal of re-establishing the Caliphate.
Islam was spread by force, destroying any previous cultures they conquered, North Africa, Byzantium, Persia, parts of India and now Lebanon.
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