To all those in Iraq who endured a western backed dictator, then bombed and barricaded by the former backers of that dictator, only to be bombed and occupied once again, To all those Iraqis being killed and massacred by the mirror image of the colonial legacy of the region that is ISIS, To all those in Iraq who suffer through a corrupt, insular, selfish, and inept government that knows nothing but its petty seat in power, To all those in Syria, whose genuine cry for revolution has been hijacked, co-opted, muffled, and twisted to justify killing, torture, imprisonment, or worse of all forgotten, To all those in Syria, whose lives, dreams, and aspirations have become political bargaining chips of Assads, Saudis, Americans, Israelis, Qataris, Iranians, Turks, Russians … To all those in Afghanistan whose life is always a footnote in some other story, To all those in Afghanistan who are pawns in an oppressive debate about tradition and modernity, To all those in Palestine whose existence is denied in the past, rejected in the present, and a terrain for military operations in the future, To all those in Palestine who are the target of ritualized military assaults, To all those young Muslims in America and Europe who dare to question the world despite being the targets of the most sophisticated military, intelligence, and police mechanisms in the world, To all those young Muslims in America and Europe who are shunned, turned in, and informed on by the cowardly “elders and leaders” in their own community who are too busy making careers rubbing elbows with power, To all those kept in shackles and cages because they were simply deemed as superfluous by an exploitative political economy, To all those racialized bodies whose death and incarceration at the hands of the police become justifications for killing and imprisoning their brothers and sisters, To all those migrants who drown in the Mediterranean, die in the heat of the Sonoran Desert, or waste away in detention centers propping up throughout the world, To all those across the world whose lives are deemed as not worthy, equal, or necessary… There is no leader that seems worthy, no plan that seems ready, no movement strong enough, no idea sophisticated enough… Yet you are not defeated. Yet you are not giving in. Yet in spite of it all, you live. You stand in the frontlines of the violence of the 21st century Empire, a creature that is not confined to one state, an amalgamation of elites each flying a different color, which knows no borders, and no laws. I promise you, that in this sad state of affairs, and despite of it all, I will bear witness. I will use my voice. That we won’t let your stories, struggles, and humanity be drowned up by the noise of presidents, military heads, sectarian clergy, spokespeople, politicians, and talking heads masquerading as experts. We will write, we will speak, and most importantly we will remember what is happening to you.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 17:10:27 +0000
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