Followups

* Naqba (Thanks, Gabe!) Al Jazeera has an interesting piece by a Muslim activist who argues against fighting the ban on the naqba on the grounds that there are more important battles:  “the face veil is not the same as the headscarf and banning new minarets is nothing like rendition, torture and the invasion and occupation of Arab and Muslim nations. The challenge now facing Muslim and non-Muslim European social activists is to win over a majority by NOT playing into the hands of the xenophobic Right.”

* BDS Although opposed to the UC boycott, divestment and sanctions proposal, Principled Opposition dismisses many of the arguments against it, in a balanced and intelligent piece. “Opponents of the bill say that it singles out Israel. Yes, of course it does. The purpose of the bill is to oppose, in a practical way, Israel’s occupation…. the argument that as long as there are worse crimes in the world Israel should be left alone is not only specious and disingenuous, it is quite dangerous. Are we then to understand that until crimes grow to the magnitude of Bosnia, Rwanda or even Nazi Germany we should be doing nothing about them? If there is murder committed in a city, does that mean the police should ignore rape cases until the murderers are all caught? The notion is absurd.”

* Thailand A fascinating and passionate piece from Znet about the extent to which Western Media distorted and denied the meaning of what was happening in Bangkok. “Early on it appeared that no one visiting the Red Shirts stronghold at the Ratchaprasong area in Bangkok could ignore the pleas of protesters for social justice. While the military coup against Thaksin Shinavatra remained one of the main grievances of the rebels, the issue was gradually fading, replaced by much more urgent ones. Thaksin’s images gave way to the red stars on the hats and jackets of defenders of the barricades. Most readers of Western media reports would have no clue that this was happening. Practically all talk about poverty and discrimination and arrogance of ruling elites quickly disappeared from dispatches of major press agencies. Expressions like struggle for social justice became completely self-censored by journalists in almost all English language publications and wire services.”