#the Arabic message is meant to say

[cjhern1109]

🎉 Happy Birthday @shorukarts, congrats on turning 19 🎉

And oh! Hope you like my little Arabic message, thought it would fit. But sorry if it isn’t correct, it’s my first time writing Arabic 😅

Anyways, I wish you a wonderful day and a happily celebrated birthday with your loved one!

~ CJ the Possum 🥳💜

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a message from Yahya Sinwar (the Hamas leader inside Gaza) was passed to Hamas leaders who live outside of it, and the essence of that is not to worry, because Sinwar believes they have Israel exactly where they want it. In other words, when Hamas is estimated by Israel to have at least 12,000 of its terrorists killed, and despite the fact that they could stop the death of Gazans by releasing the Israeli hostages and surrendering, Sinwar doesn't see any issues with where the war is at. I think the most important part is this: "According to the report, Sinwar also told the Hamas officials that the terror group is prepared for Israel’s expected operation in Rafah, the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city, and is relying on the high civilian death toll reported by the Hamas-run health ministry to cause enough global outcry that Israel is forced to withdraw" (my emphasis). At what point do people realize that they are serving the interests of Hamas' mass murderers, kidnappers and rapists?

A few days ago, I wrote about the attempt to allow aid trucks into northern Gaza directly from Israel, instead of bringing it to the south, and waiting for Gaza-based elements to deliver it to the north. This means an escort of Israeli soldiers is accompanying the trucks. This is the route the aid trucks cross:

Today, these aid trucks were stormed by a huge crowd, and according to the IDF, many people died from pushing and trampling (at the link you can see aerial video footage of the stampede), not an unheard of phenomenon when a huge herd of people all rush in at the same time. On top of that, some Gazans were also advancing at the soldiers securing the aid trucks. The soldiers felt undr threat, and they opened fire at those charging at them, but according to their estimate, this accounts for only 10 of the dead. Still, you can count on the anti-Israel crowd to adopt a narrative that, immediately and without investigation, calls this a massacre and blames every single death on Israel, not on Hamas, which started the war that made even aid supply into a dangerous and complicated situation.

Here's a reminder that even in the middle of the war, when no one is paying attention to it, Israel continues to demolish illegal homes built by Jews. But you're never gonna hear about it, not even during more normal times, because it doesn't fit the anti-Israel narrative, so anti-Israel sources will only ever tell you about it, when Israeli demolishes illegal homes built by Arabs.

As threats to British Members of Parliament (MPs) are rising due to threats from the anti-Israel crowd, the UK has allocated bodyguards to some of them, along with 31 million pounds designated for the security of British democracy. If some of the most powerful people in Britain are that scared, what do you think Jews there are going through? Indeed, today we heard that 72 million pounds are meant to help secure Jewish centers and institutions in the UK. The problem is that until the root of the problem will be tackled, this is just taking care of the symptoms, instead of curing the disease.

Israeli security forces have stopped two Palestinian cousins, one 17 years old and the other 29 years old, from carrying out an independent terrorist attack. I refer to such attacks as independent in order to point out that they're not a part of some greater plot, unlike every single terrorist attack on Oct 7, which were all interconnected, and rocket attacks since, which are launched as a part of the war that Hamas started waging against Israel. However, some of these attacks ARE connected to Hamas. Apparently, these two cousins contacted Hamas in Gaza to get help in committing their intended crime.

This is 59 years old Michel Nissenbaum.

He made alyiah on his own from Brazil when he was 13 years old. Friends say that coming to Israel saved him. He worked in hi-tech, as well as a tour guide, and volunteered with Bedouin kids. Here he is with one such group:

On Oct 7, Michel heard that the Re'im IDF base was under attack from Hamas terrorists. Knowing that his granddaughter was there, visiting her dad, Michel decided to go there and get her out. While he was making his way to the base, he stopped responding to messages. His granddaughter was rescued from the place hours later, but Michel himself had disappeared. He's believed to be kidnapped in Gaza, but his family is scared, because he wasn't spotted in any of the pics or vids released by Hamas.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[hero-israel]

What they said.

And I could have put another 4-6 similar messages in here, I can tell what is weighing on peoples' minds. Though we are outnumbered, it is not hard to see through the lies of our enemies. We just need people who will listen to us.

"Every accusation is a confession" was never more true than in claiming JEWS want to kill off ARABS. The briefest review of regional demographics - WHO has actually wiped out WHOM - makes that instantly clear. Mahmoud Abbas said his family fled their home in Safed in 1948 because they were sure the Jews would try to get revenge for Arab massacres in 1929. In 1967 when Israel took the West Bank, Arabs in Hebron were so afraid of reprisals for 1929 that they flew white bedsheets from their windows and piled their weapons outside their front doors.

There is no such thing as a "genocide" that is true for Palestinians but false for white people. And while most of the time, posting about hypocrisy and double standards isn't going to make a real-life change, this is one time where I'd really like people to point it out, to demand answers from those who correctly identify the Alt-Right as lying. We should also request clarification on whether all warfare involving urban bombing is automatically considered genocide (spoiler: it isn't, but this time Jews are involved, aha!).

Desmond Tutu was notorious for insisting Jews forgive the genocide that had actually been committed against them and also that they be constantly condemned and judged for the potential genocide they were always just about to commit. It is not even meant as a statement of fact - just a way to put us in our place. As David Schraub put it:

For thousands of years, for much of the world, part of the cultural patrimony enjoyed by all non-Jews -- spiritual and secular, Church and Mosque, enlightenment and romantic, European and Middle Eastern -- was the unquestionable right to stand superior over Jews. It was that right which the Holocaust took away, or at least called into question; the unthinking faith of knowing you were the more enlightened one, the spiritually purer one, the more rational one, the dispenser of morality rather than the object of it. To be sure, some people were better positioned to enjoy this right than others. And some people arrived onto the scene late in the game, only to discover that part of the bounty they were promised may no longer be on the table. Of course they're aggrieved! The European immigrant who never owned a slave but was at least promised racial superiority is quite resentful when the wages of Whiteness stop being what they once were. Similarly, persons who lived far from the centers of Christian or Muslim power where Jewish subordination was forged are nonetheless well aware of what was supposed to be included in modernity's gift basket. They recognize what they've "lost" as acutely as anyone else.

Every definition of "genocide" rests on intent; you cannot accidentally do it. That's what both the U.N., Genocide Watch, and basic common sense say. The militia going door-to-door to torture and massacre all the children and elderly is genocidal intent. "The missile launcher built into your house just fired at us, we will now destroy it, you have 5 minutes to evacuate" is not.

I have no idea what is coming next in Gaza, how long it will last or how bad it will get. Godforbid, if the death toll gets another zero at the end, it may become impossible to get people to see it as non-genocidal, regardless of what is empirically, definitionally true. But if people are going to cite sources and moral authorities, let them stick with the boundaries they have introduced.

[givemearmstopraywith]

This may be a bit of a dump question but I've always wondered about this and I thought I could ask this from you since you seem to know more about it. I hope that's okay! Are the translations of the bible and their differences very important? Are the messages that the writings send us that different from each other depending on the translation?

it's very important. translation is an art, like anything else. from a semitic language like hebrew or arabic, it's difficult and often impossible to fully capture the meaning of a word in the original text using english (or any other language). in judaism every stroke of every letter is thought to be an emanation of God: he is the words themselves. the quran is the word of God exactly as it was transmitted to the prophet. so abrahamic religions, bar christianity, place extraordinary important in literal meaning, because you encounter God not only in the meaning of the words but in their very essence, their form and shape.

scriptural translation has always, always been fraught with problems. for instance jerome, developing the vulgate, encountered exodus 34, where moses encounters God face to face and is transformed with rays of light. the hebrew word for this transformation is קָרַ֛ן, and jerome translate it to "cornuta," horns: for centuries afterward moses is depicted in art as having horns, like a goat, because of this mistranslation. it may be that jerome meant "glorified" rather than "horned," based off his later commentaries and use of the term by previous exegetes, but the fact remains that outside of the theological sphere this single word, translated to a western language, stripped back meaning tragically. even to the extent that it propagated harmful stereotypes about jews.

or consider the use of the word "atonement" in english translations of the new testament: katallage, used in romans 5:11, is translated as atonement, but it actually means "reconciliation" or "restitution." in fact, jesus never speaks of atonement. in the old testament the word translated to atonement is כָּפַר, "kaphar", which means "covering." in 1 peter 4:8 we are told, "love covers over a great number of sins." how different would christian understandings of atonement be if we translated "kaphar" as "covering" and not atonement? forgiveness for wrongdoing becomes not something we offer to or beg from God, but something to which we submit, because the action is removed from us, humble as we are, to the great forgiver- the great lover.

i say all this to contextualize the difficulty of translation to begin with. but in the sense of critical pedagogy, every translation of any religious text is subject to the bias of the translator. a good translator is conscious of their bias and seeks to remove it from their work. but christian scripture has an agenda. it is not only something we read for a personal relationship to God but something that is used to dictate right behaviour, as a means of social control, something that develops culture. if a person translating a text has this in mind, they can construct the meaning of the text towards what version of a society or culture they feel is "right," based on their personal and invariably biased understanding of a text. this is why i dislike the kjv translation and never recommend it. the kjv is a product of its time. it is not a good translation of the bible: it is old, but it is not the oldest english translation, and its meaning is absolutely skewed. this is difficult, because many evangelical christians believe the kjv is the absolute word of God, and they are already wrong, because no translation will ever be absolute truth: it is only translation.

words are a limiting system. when we try to capture the essence of something like a god, we are limiting him to our vocabulary.

i always recommend the nrsv because it is version i use for scholarly work. it isn't beautiful but it is as close to a "correct" translation as you can get. but i always supplement my reading with other tools: the jewish annotated new testament is wonderful, for instance, and biblehub has detailed interlinear translations of different translations and the original text. but i am also aware i will never be able to fully comprehend the depth and beautiful of scripture until i learn hebrew and greek, at minimum. but this should not discourage anyone: scripture is meant to be read. but it has to be read actively, critically. God wants you to swallow his words, but he needs you to chew them first.

[eretzyisrael]

Times of Israel reports:

In his first public message since the massacres of October 7, Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar on Monday remained defiant, while grossly inflating the terror group’s achievements in the war. Sinwar falsely claimed that the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, had “targeted” over 5,000 Israeli soldiers and officers, and killed about third of them — that is, over 1,500. The actual figure of IDF deaths is one-tenth of what the terror leader alleged. According to the IDF, 156 soldiers have so far been killed in the ground operation in Gaza. Over 300 members of the security forces were killed in Hamas’s initial October 7 onslaught. The terror leader also gave inflated claims of the number of Israeli soldiers injured in the war, and the amount of Israeli military equipment that has been destroyed. He claimed that around 3,500 troops were seriously wounded or disabled, whereas that figure according to the IDF stands at less than 200. He further said that Hamas had completely or partially destroyed 750 Israeli military vehicles. While the IDF has not provided official figures, the commander of the IDF Technology and Maintenance Corps, Brig. Gen. Ariel Shima, said in early November that very few IDF vehicles had been severely damaged beyond repair, and that most vehicles that are hit return to fighting.

Al Jazeera published Sinwar's message, and then deleted it. It may be because it was not meant for the public but only as a message to Hamas' political bureau, and Al Jazeera follows Hamas' instructions to the letter.

Certainly no one is reporting that the statement was a hoax.

While the statement has been widely covered in Israeli media as well as Arab media, the liveblogs of mainstream media have not mentioned it as of this writing. Nothing in the New York Times or CNN's liveblogs of the war. Also nothing at NBC or AP, all of which are updated several times a day.

Isn't it newsworthy that the leader of Hamas is Gaza not only breaks his silence, but his message is filled with obvious falsehoods?

If you cannot trust what he says - even when he is reporting to his own superiors abroad - how can anyone trust a word that is ever released by Hamas to the media or the public, ever?

Could it be that the media is reluctant to share this message because it shows that its "he said, she said" reporting where Israeli statements are treated with skepticism while Hamas' statements are given respect hs utterly misled their audiences?

Maybe they will cover the statements, but it will sure be interesting if they mention that Sinwar is obviously lying. 

[akajustmerry]

Obviously I don't know Sarah Snook or her beliefs so I'm not necessarily trying to defend her, but I feel like most likely didn't view the post in that specific way & just reposted it for the overall "Palestine and Israel children shouldn't die" message. I agree that calling Palestine a state rather than a nation was bad, but nothing about the post actually States that the conflict is "random" by saying it's a nightmare or that Israeli and Palestinian children are being treated the same or that Palestinian adults should be dehumanized. Of course it's okay to talk about how these posts can have red flags that might not be immediately clear, but I think jumping to say Sarah Snook symphathizes with Israel or what they're doing when the only thing she's shared on the matter (that I know of) is a surface level one-sentence post about how all of the children should be protected. Again, it's fine to criticize her, but Israel symphathizer is like. a Very Serious thing to call someone without context for what they said. I assumed she outright posted Zionist beliefs or support for Israel rather than share a post that probably doesn't even look bad to someone who isn't completely familiar or looking for potential biases or red flags.

it's amazing how I took time out of my day to use my platform and break down all the ways that post sarah shared promotes harmful ideas....and made it clear that regardless of what her beliefs might be, these were the problems with that post...all of which I did for free, as an Arab deeply effected by all the "discourse" around this topic. and you take it upon yourself to come into my inbox with the "ifs ands buts"??

listen to me very carefully, I don't care if celebrities make one or a thousand posts. They're people with massive platforms and, if they choose to share any information, they have a responsibility to ensure that information is accurate and minimises harm. There are people in the world who literally get their news from celebrities. There will be people who Sarah snook making that post might have been the first they heard of what's happening. Anyone with a platform where they're followed has a responsibility pertaining to what they share.

And if you are a celebrity who shares a post that equates the suffering of Israeli kids and Palestinian kids, I'm going to assume you have sympathy for Israel because only someone that does have sympathy for Israel would share a post that makes out the suffering of the occupier and occupied are worth considering in equality. There's no context, as you say, that explains that away.

I get why you sent me this. maybe you don't want to consider that a celebrity you like has values that make you uncomfortable. But process that discomfort on your own. I'm an Arab. I have family in Lebanon. I have Palestinian friends. I don't have the luxury of not taking even a iota of sympathy for Israel for what it is. I don't care how it looks to uninformed people. You think it's a serious thing to say that someone sympathises with Israel? You're right, it is, which is why I said it and meant it.

[spider-xan]

What’s the beetle

Okay, so I've decided to answer this in good faith, more for the benefit of my mutuals and followers than anything bc I suspect this was meant to be bait given that (a) I never once said the title of the book in any of my recent posts, yet anon knew exactly what I was talking about (which means you already know what the Beetle is, don't you, anon?), and (b) at least two other people received this exact same anon at the same time and there is a clear pattern to who received these messages, though I seem to be the only POC who got this.

Anyway.

The Beetle is gothic horror novel written by Richard Marsh that was published in 1897, which is notable bc that is the same year that Dracula was published - but while the Beetle is obscure and Dracula is a major pop culture phenomenon today, it actually outsold Dracula back in the day; the plot is similar to Dracula in that it is a xenophobic and racist reverse invasion story, this time featuring an Arab villain who turns into a beetle and uses mesmerism (similar to hypnosis) on a British man whom he sexually assaults to help him get revenge on another British man; (as a side note, I think there has been confusion about the villain being Muslim, but as far as I can tell, he seems to worship the Egyptian goddess Isis); there is a reveal at some point where the villain, an Arab man, turns out to have a vagina, which is both transphobic and Orientalist; (I think people get why it's transphobic, but the Orientalism is in Eastern men being 'feminized' as a negative comparison to Western men being 'masculine' as part of the broader idea of the Orient being 'decadent' and 'feminine'); the book is also very badly written, at least by modern standards.

I have no problem with people reading the novel bc ofc consumption is not endorsement and reading 'problematic' (I hate that word, it's so fucking vague) books isn't inherently a reflection of personal morals, and there is value in studying a novel like the Beetle for its historical significance (and how not to write a novel) and what it says on a Doylist level about important topics like colonialism (specifically the British in Egypt), Orientalism, gender, popular tropes during the Victorian era and what they say about Victorian society and its social anxieties at the turn of the century, etc.; for all of its faults and bigotry, there is a lot of thoughtful commentary to be written about the book itself on a meta level.

However, what does and did make me uneasy last year was the fandomization and memefication of the book, which is part of a larger phenomenon I won't get into right now, and fandom analysis often focuses more on Watsonian analysis, especially of characters like real people; I'm not saying you can't have fun or that you need a racism disclaimer on every post or should self-flagellate if you're white, but there are some books where fandomizing might not be the best way to engage with the material or certain aspects of a book - like, joke fanart of an Arab man as an animal molesting a white man is a really weird way to engage with the Arab man as a rapist and animal tropes (definitely Orientalist in at least two ways), especially if you are white and not the target of that kind of racism (like, quick, why is it funny to you?), and I saw very little grappling with how maybe there should be context provided for why that shit is racist, in stark contrast to how Dracula Daily did frequently discuss the bigotry in the novel.

Like, maybe I guess people thought the racism was so egregious, everyone would get it, but as we saw from DD, a lot of people genuinely don't know these things, and that's how you get serious racist, xenophobic, and Orientalist tropes that do very real harm to actual people - we're seeing this happen right now where Orientalist beliefs about Arab men being violent rapists and the idea of Arabs being a threat to the Western world are being used to justify violence and genocide - either being glossed over bc it's not fun or treated as a joke; and I'm not saying the Beetle is responsible for current geopolitics, but while fiction is not reality, fiction can reflect, affect, and reinforce beliefs that shape reality, and it's naive and denying the power of literature to act as if that isn't true.

Anyway, all that to say that I just think people should be a little more sensitive and thoughtful about how they engage with the novel instead of jumping immediately to irreverent fandomizing and memes, especially with what's going on in the world right now.

[destinyc1020]

SNL/ NBC will not apologize, SNL was created by lorne michaels a known zionist and someone who has actively sent funds to the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) in addition SNL has a long history of demonizing people of colour pafticuarly arabs/ brown people post 9/11 and have never once apologized for those skits.

Timmy apologizing would maybe ease some of the heat but to me it wouldn't mean much the damage is done. Timothee has kept silent and the first time he says anaything in relation to the genocide in palestine is with a joke is nasty and beyond disgusting. Like to undermine the deaths of palestinains by perpetuating zionist narrative where they have justified the killing of palestianians b/c they are hamas and making light of it is sick.

If that man cared he would have declined to do the skit, its not hard but his lack of self awareness of the situation, the fact they thought it was funny Idk its poor taste and an apology from him now would feel to disingenous. I feel it would be an apology fpr the backlash not for the harmful message that the joke perptuates about palestinains, the undermining of their deaths and an insult to palestinian liberation.

You have a platform and you could of used it to uplift palestinians rather than doing that he opted for joke meant to punch down.

Thanks Anon for your input 🙏🏾

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

The Malaysian government revealed its plans to counter Islamophobia by distributing copies of the Quran translated into several languages, setting aside more than $2 million in its 2023 budget.

Malaysia spends $2,000,000 USD to counter ‘Islamophobia’ by distributing copies of Qur’an worldwide https://t.co/dpBtgXhab1

— Megh Updates (@MeghUpdates) March 5, 2023

This would be the first time the country embarked on such a plan under Malaysia’s new prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim. Twenty thousand copies produced under the project would be sent to Sweden, where a far-right Swedish-Danish activist Rasmus Paludan lit the Quran on fire while staging protests.

After attending an event called “International Forum on Islamophobia” held in Malaysia’s administrative capital Putrajaya, prime minister Anwar Ibrahim told the media that the 10 million Malaysian ringgit (equivalent to 2.2 million US dollars) set aside from the program is meant to foster greater understanding of Islam.

“We will print 20,000 in Swedish – and other languages too – for the purpose of better understanding,” the prime minister told reporters. “Why it has become an issue is because those against Islam never read the holy book. …. So, we have to go back to the text or at least the translation to save and enlighten others about the deeper meaning of the religion.”

I wish they had spent this money on proper education.

— Harshal (Indian) (@HarshalMagar7) March 5, 2023

Anwar believes the translations, distribution, and publication of the Quran in several languages would show maturity and wisdom on Malaysia’s part amidst growing anti-Muslim sentiment worldwide.

“Yes, we must protest, but it is also important we must give our understanding and do our utmost to ensure the message of the Quran is alive,” Anwar said, according to local media sources.

Sweden’s ambassador to Malaysia, Joachim Bergström, welcomed Anwar’s plan announcement.

“I am personally delighted that the Al-Quran, this globally important text, will be more accessible in my native country and in Europe,” Bergström said.

“I even own several copies. I have spent many years of my life living and working in the Muslim world – including as Sweden’s special envoy to combat Islamophobia between 2016 and 2021 – and I am convinced that knowledge and dialogue are the way to promote understanding and peace.” Bergström added.

Couldn't they just e-mail everyone?

— OneTwoMany (@OneTwoMany6) March 5, 2023

Although this would be the first time Malaysia would distribute copies of the Quran worldwide, it’s not the first Muslim-majority country to do so. In 2000, Saudi Arabia spread 138 million copies of the religious text to several countries, the most recent being Kenya in 2022, which received 30,000 copies of the Quran.

But only some in Malaysia are convinced with the plan, with some Malaysian netizens saying it would be a waste of resources and it would be better to spend the money on other social programs.

What a waste of money , could have been used to feed the poor

— $AY MY NAME (@LenaMeraNaam) March 5, 2023

A hardline Malaysian Islamist group also expressed skepticism of the plan, insisting that Malaysia should take harsher measures against Sweden, such as boycotting Swedish goods.

==

This is obviously a waste of money, but there's a nugget of a good idea in there: translate the quran into Malay. Since Arabic is not an official language of Malaysia and few people speak it, encouraging them to read it in their own language would do the country a world of good.

[abigailfantasy]

Hey sleepy how are you feeling.

I know you're wondering why it's morning even though you were just at a club in Miami. Well let's just say if a pretty lady way out of your league buys you a drink, she isn't trying to sleep with you lol.

Don't freak out, it's been a couple of months. We took your ID and traced every part of your identity. Legally you are now dead, every institution your part of, your bank, your driver's license, etc has been closed. You for the most part are a ghost. Well the old you anyways.

Let me explain

We took the liberty of reconstructing you to my specific desires. We first began by pumping a steady stream of estrogen into your body as well as putting hormone suppressants for that pesky testosterone in your body. We made sure not to massage your muscles so you have atrophied quite a bit. We wait a long time before we add breast implants. We waited on you and we found that your body naturally developed perfect double D tits, like you were always meant to be a girl. We couldn't leave you malnourished so we have a feeding tube with foods and supplements that specifically made your skin smoother and more vibrant, we also saw another side effect that your ass became incredible.

We then began to laser off all your hair, trim and manicure your fingers and feet. We let your hair grow out long and we maintained it. We began subliminally playing messages in your brain to give you more feminine thoughts and desires.

For surgery we gave your vocal cords a nice scraping so now its incredibly high pitched. We also reconstructed your face to become more feminine. The most exciting surgery you had was a vagina replacement surgery; we found a transman that wanted a penis and we gave them yours, he now has a fully functional penis and testicles though he was a little sad at how small the penis was, but was still glad, you now have a fully functional vagina and womb, also a plus its a virgin womb. Sadly your organs began to die in your medically induced coma, so now you can't process any meat, luckily you can still get protein by eating eggs and cum, the perfect meal for a feminized slut.

To do all this cost us nearly 500,000$, it was long and arduous but I fully expect to get my money back plus more. From now on you owe the company femcorp that money with interest. You can't declare bankruptcy on these loans either, and they will follow you no matter where you go in the world. If you need to be extradited out of America we will take you to a private island where we can do whatever we want to you. So be a good girl and listen.

You are now a fuckdoll model for femcorp. Your identity is that of a beautiful Arab woman. You will go to parties and clubs and find and fuck the richest men you can find. You'll quickly learn the hunks aren't that wealthy. Your a piece of property, a tool for generating money. You will become the best asset we have I know it.

You will learn to strip tease and dance. You will take daily sex lessons in oral, vaginal, and anal sex. You will study every kink and desire a man has. You will learn to walk and talk in the most seductive way possible. You will become a dominatrix and a submissive slut. You are nothing but a tool for sex.

P.S. you can get pregnant now, so don't be to slutty

You may ask yourself why I do this. Well I like looking for lonely pathetic porn addicted losers with small cocks. Men like you take girls in porn most vulnerable moments that destroy our lives and reputations and jerk off to it. So I wanted to turn you into the object of your desires and make you feel vulnerable and isolated like I did.

So go out slut enjoy the perks of your new life of whoredom. You are going to suck a lot of dick and take a lot of dick in your new pussy and your sculpted ass. You are going to make me money till you become an old ugly used up whore.

[matan4il]

So one of the people I followed reblogged a super disgusting post on Palestine, saying the problem didn’t start on October 7th but in “1948 when the Arab-Palestinians were displaced”—so, you know, cool that they decided to try and shift the blame from rapists and murderers to innocent Jews—and then said they don’t support Hamas but yet include “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free”

For now I’ve just unfollowed them, but I’m wondering if I should reach out to them and at least let them know that “from the river to sea” is actually referring to a Jewish genocide.

I kind of feel like, with that much hatred, it tends to be a lost cause and it just becomes extremely upsetting.

(On The plus side, even though I’ve had to unfollow a bunch of people, I’ve also been introduced to a lot of cool blogs and cool people once I started actively seeking out pro Israel posts :) )

Chrissy, I'm sending you hugs!

Argh, of course. I love the people who claim to be anti-Israeli, because they're supposedly against ethnic cleansing, but then at the same time, they repeat a slogan advocating the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel.

I'm also never going to be over how people keep providing Hamas with justifications. I don't remember ever having learned about any massacre or genocide in human history, like the Nanjing massacre, or the Rwanda genocide, and responding by looking for the justification for it. It's victim blaming, pure and simple. It's so deeply vile.

Honestly, I salute you! I think most people on Tumblr who haven't been actively reblogging these awful posts, have scrolled by them, ignoring how de-humanizing they are. I'm glad you didn't.

I feel like it really is up to you. You're right, it could be incredibly upsetting. I tried reaching out to... I think three people. People who I thought were intelligent and/or caring, and there was a chance that they might listen. One didn't respond to my message at all. The other two, their comments were nasty. But I think on some level, for me personally, I'm not sorry I tried. One reason is that I would have probably felt worse if I hadn't, and the other is that it meant I was no longer sorry to lose whatever we had (which I used to think was friendship. Now I know that it wasn't, so it doesn't feel like a loss at all). But what they said WAS upsetting, so what's true for me is not necessarily what's right for others.

You gotta figure out if you think this person can be reached, and how to approach them if they can be, or if you're good with talking to them even if they turn out to be nasty...

Don't hesitate to tell me what you decided, if you feel like it! Either way, I'm here to support you! And absolutely, it's been beautiful to see how many of us have come together, and got to know each other following these attacks on our people. I even got to meet in real life a new friend, who I met here!

All the love to you, hon! xoxox

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[bellamonde]

Iran Kurdistan - We are all Iranians

I wanted to address something that I have been seeing on social media and answer some of the messages I’ve been getting (clearly from Islamic Republic defenders). This has made me so angry. And let me be clear, this is meant for the supporters of the Islamic Republic.  

Kurds do not want to separate. They are not sacrificing their lives to free Kurdistan, they are sacrificing their lives to free Iran. The chants in rest of Iran is “Mahabad, Kurdistan, a model for the whole of Iran.” The message is clear - Iranians do not believe the regime’s claims that people of Mahabad want to separate and are terrorists. They support Mahabad in their fight to free Iran. And remember, Islamic Republic wants to claim that Kurdish people are terrorizes and separatists to justify the horrifying crackdown and massacre that’s happening. They have cut off Internet in west of Iran. However, people are accessing internet via Iraq’s Kurdistan.

Let me repeat, Kurds do not want to separate.

I’m a Kurd. My grandfather was from Sanandaj and was a staunch nationalist. I grew up in a family that loves Iran and is proud of Iranian culture. Do you know how most Kurds name their kids? They open the Shahnameh and pick a name. That’s why so many Kurds have old Iranian names like Keykhosrow, Faranak, Giv or Tahmoores. I grew up being told that Shahnameh took place in Kurdistan (not sure if it’s true). All my life, I was told that Kurds are the indigenous people of Iran, that Iran belongs to Kurdistan because we Kurds are the first and last line of defence for Iran. 

I know Iranians know this; they don’t see us as anything but fellow Iranians. Whether growing up in Iran or amongst the diaspora, I never felt anything but love from my people. And when I say my people, I mean the Iranian people. When I look at Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey, I am so grateful that Iran’s Kurdistan was never lost to foreign powers. We Kurds are not Turkish or Arab, we are Medes, ancient people of Iran. 

An Iranian-Kurdish woman died and the whole of Iran rose up in anger. This is because in Iran, we are all Iranians. Kurd, Turk, Balouchi, Arab, Fars, Lori - we are ALL Iranian. And this frightens the Islamic Republic. For almost 44 years, they’ve tried to separate us, to pit us against one another. But it hasn’t worked and it will not work. We are all Iranians and we celebrate and embrace our differences. 

And for those who complain that Kurds carry a different flag. Let me explain what the Yellow in the middle represents. It represents the Sun, the source of life and light of the people. The Sun is an ancient symbol for all Iranic people, and the twenty one sunbeams in the Yellow represent March 21, Norooz, the most sacred day for all Iranic people. This flag represents the very essence of being Iranic, it represents our culture and our civilization. 

So, to all the supports and defenders of the Islamic Republic, no Iranian believes you when you say Kurds want to separate. Your fear mongering will no longer work. We are united and we will stay united. We all fight for the love of Iran. Your propaganda has no sway. 

[ahaura]

i agree with your post with the three bullet points and it's something a lot of people from my community need to be hearing. but there's one bit im having a hard time with due to things i've seen online.

specifically the "the idea that palestinian liberation = carrying out a genocide on israelis is nothing more than baseless, racist, orientalist fearmongering" bit. the issue is that i keep seeing people online effectively calling for this or an ethnic cleansing of people who have already been refugees, saying they wouldn't blame palestinians if they forced everyone off the land / that all israelis must unhouse themselves or be complicit in genocide / that what happened on october 7th isn't a tragedy in any way, shape or form.

im leaning into antizionism more and more and undoing the rhetoric i was raised with, but that last bit gets me. i know people, people very dear to me, who easily could've died that day.

do you really think the liberation of palestine as led by hamas wouldn't necessitate a massacre dwarfing oct 7th, and would end with a state where people of all religions can actually live side by side without intimidation or violence? if so, id really want to hear how/why you think that's possible. this isn't meant to bait you - i really do want to understand some of the povs im having more trouble with and grow from it. thanks, and take care of yourself.

hi, i addressed many of these points here.

+ there is this from Mohammed Zraiy from Dispactches from Gaza:

MZ: We are human—we don’t want to kill, we don’t want to die, we just want to live. Destiny so willed it that when deciding which land to colonize (to use Herzl’s frame), the early Zionist fathers chose Palestine instead of the other lands they were considering stealing (to use Ben-Gurion’s frame). For 75 years, agents of this settler colonial project have been working to ethnically cleanse us from our lands, and couldn’t care less even about international law that is biased in Zionism’s favor, let alone about human rights (or, as the colony’s government described us, “animal” rights). A people under occupation has only three options: To resist, to resist, and to resist. It’s the settler colonization of Palestine that I wish had never happened, not our reaction to it.

MZ: Unlike what they’ve been told, we’ve never had a problem with Jews. Jews have been part of the fabric of our society way before the establishment of Israel. In fact, Jews escaping European persecution found refuge in Palestine. Gaza had a Jewish quarter. They were living peacefully, not with Arabs but as Arabs, right up until 1948. The establishment of Israel didn’t protect Jews; it caused the divide and danger. The solution is to roll back and dismantle the colony. My message to the colonizers who left their home countries to occupy our lands is simply to go back home. As for those who were born here, my message is: You are secondary victims of this colonial project. You are being used to occupy other people’s lands, and your Jewishness is being politicized for colonial means. Meditate carefully on the examples of South Africa, Angola, Algeria—they may not apply wholesale to the settler colonization of Palestine, but they hold lessons for you. Today you must make a choice: Either support this deadly colonial project, or side against it by supporting the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a democratic state that liberates Palestinians, as well as Jews, from Zionism. A state that will honor the right of Palestinian refugees to return and compensation and that will welcome and protect its Jews as citizens of Palestine. This transition from Zionism to democracy will not cost anyone’s life; it will cost you your colonial privileges, and will free you—and us, its primary victims—from colonialism.

[202204985caic2324]

Biden tells Israel ‘You’re not alone’ but will he extend the same message to Muslim Americans?

Tragically on the 14th of October 2023 Palestine-American 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume was murdered after he was stabbed 26 times by the landlord of the property he and his family were living in. His Mother was also injured in the attack and suffered over a dozen stab wounds that meant she was unable to attend her own son's funeral.  

This attack has been regarded by local police as a “senseless and cowardly act of violence.” and is now being investigated by the Department of Justice as a hate crime. 

This attack is a horrifically violent example of the Islamophobic attacks Muslim Americans have suffered for decades. In the days,  months and years after 9/11 Muslims increasingly found themselves as the victims of anti-Arab and Islamophobic attacks. According to the FBI hate crimes against Muslims rose 1617% from 2000 to 2001 with some victims being beaten, attacked or even held at gunpoint for even being perceived as Muslim. 

For many Muslim Americans they feel as if time is limited before attacks like the ones that were seen in the aftermath of 9/11 become common in response to the Israel-Hamas war. It is also important to mention while Muslim Americans are fearful of violent repercussions as a result of this war Anti-Jewish sentiments are also on the rise as well as the risk of violent retaliation.  

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, Andrew Miller,  has stressed in recent interviews that the Biden administration has no intent to “stoke anti-Arab sentiment” and that the administration is taking the safety of minority groups “very, very seriously”. 

Despite these reassurances many Muslim Americans feel abandoned and let down by Biden, specifically Muslim voters in Michigan which was a key Swing State in 2020. Rep. Alabas Farhat, a democrat representing Dearborn which includes one of the largest Muslim and Arab American communities in the country, is already mobilising voters to leave the top of their ticket blank when they vote next year. He says “It’s never too late to do the right thing” but also warns Biden and Democrats “do not be surprised if there are consequences for your actions.”

[bintadnan]

WHY ARABIC?

Scholars have often explained that Allah made it in Arabic because the original audience was Arab – this is based on reading the plural pronouns “you” here as referring to the Arabs who were being addressed directly. Of course, it was necessary for them to hear the message in their language. But there's a larger question here: Allah knew that when He says “so all of you understand”, and we read this in 2020 as a global community, it is not just the people of Makkah and Madinah who need to understand, but “all of you” in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, America, and across the planet. Isn't this a book for all of humanity? So how come it’s in one language? It’s not my fault that I'm Asian, or somebody else's fault that they're European, or somebody else's fault that they're African. Should it have come in different languages and dialects for each group of people?

This is actually a deep question. The answer, for me, is a few things. First, that Allah prepared the Arabic language for the final revelation. The story begins with Isma'il (as) as you can find in the books of Seerah… but basically, Allah chose the Ka'bah to be in the desert, in an isolated place with no natural resources whatsoever until the coming of the Prophet ﷺ. So the Arab people were just herding sheep, and taking their camels across the desert for trade, but they were isolated, and the great empires of the world – such as the Roman Empire and the Persian Empire – nobody was interested in the Arab lands to extend their empire, because what are they going to do in the desert? What are they going to get from it? Trees? Agriculture? Are they going to get gold? Oil hasn't been discovered yet. They're just left alone, to their own devices, and their language becomes isolated for the most part. They do pick up some words from Persian and Greek, and when they do trade here and there, they pick up words and they incorporate them into their language, but not like what happens to the great international languages. Ironically, an easy example of the opposite nowadays is Makkah: when you go for Hajj or Umrah, and you visit the marketplace, you've got some Senegalese guy selling the prayer rugs and he's selling it to some Indonesian woman and he's telling her words in Urdu and she's responding in Bahasa Indonesia and he's speaking back in some mixture of English and Urdu. When cultures mix, language changes and deteriorates. You didn't have that phenomenon in pre-Islamic Arabia. They are isolated for the most part. When they go out at night, they just look at the stars because they’ve got nothing on earth to look at.

The upshot of this is that they became very imaginative people, and their language full of imagery and expressiveness. In fact, if you look into the etymology of the word “Arabic” عربي one of its meanings is to express yourself and all of your feelings in the most elaborate way. Arabic is a very expressive, rich and loaded language. The word عربة also meant a river that's overflowing. This is why they also used it for a guy who's got too much in his stomach and about to throw up; they use it for that too, why? When something is so rich, it's going to overflow. When you become a student of Arabic, one word in Arabic has so much meaning it's like a river gushing and overflowing, that's what it feels like. Allah made this language that way.

Here’s another remarkable thing about Arabic. ‘Umar (ra) said تعلموا العربية فإنها تزيد في العقل, “Learn Arabic because it enhances your ability to think.” That’s interesting, since ‘Umar was an Arab talking to Arabs; but during his rule, Islam was becoming internationalized, and Arabic was deteriorating already. When this happens, our ability to contemplate the richness of the words of Allah deteriorates. When Muslims took this duty seriously, Arabic became the language of the believers wherever they were. We didn't abandon the other languages, but rather the Persian kept Farsi and mastered Arabic; the Indians kept their local languages but mastered Arabic. Wherever Islam landed, Arabic went with it. So, Arabic was no longer the preserve of the Arabs. You consider the German language for the Germans, Urdu for the Indians… but the Arabic language is for the people of the Quran. It no longer belongs to an ethnicity. In fact, many of the most remarkable works on the grammar and rhetoric of the Arabic were written by non-Arabs, such as Sibawayh, Zamakhshari, Fakhruddin ar-Razi. The pivotal works in Tafseer that we lean on to understand the grammatical nuances of the Quran are non-Arabs, one after the other. And this is not to denigrate the Arabs, as those non-Arabs came to the Arabs and internalized it: وَآخَرِينَ مِنْهُمْ لَمَّا يَلْحَقُوا بِهِمْ in the spirit of “others of them that haven't yet joined them” (62:3).

By Nouman Ali Khan (read the full explanation here).

[sophsicle]

I'm interested to know more about your hc to write Mary as a hijabi in KYD. I'm curious why you chose to have her go by a Christian name when there is a very similar Arab name? Additionally, smoking weed is considered haram by most Muslims except in medicinal circumstances, so it's interesting that she would be doing that considering she's devout enough to wear hijab. As an Arab, ex-muslim, I'm thrilled to see this representation in fanfic but I'm also confused if we're meant to see her as a practicing Muslim or not.

Hello lovely!

Yeah great questions!

So, I’ll say that the name is an oversight on my part, I was so caught up in the Marauder world where Mary is always just Mary that it didn’t occur to me to look for an Arab counterpart but it totally should have, and I'll see if there's a way for me to address that maybe later on in the fic! As for the smoking, this version of Mary is very much inspired by someone I know in real life who is a pot smoking lesbian who wears a hijab and has a very interesting relationship with religion and culture that I don't think I've ever really seen represented and so I thought it would be interesting to write a character like that. However, because we haven't had a Mary POV or really any development of her character at this point or any discussion on her religious or spiritual beliefs I feel like this was maybe not the best way for me to introduce this character because it is absolutely not my desire to be disrespectful in any way shape or form. So I've gone back and re-edited the chapter to take all the smoking references out of it! Thank you so much for this message I really appreciate it! And if you have any desire to be a sensitivity reader for Mary in this story please let me know because that would be incredible (but of course no pressure or anything I just want to put that out there in case you would be interested)! Again thank you for bringing these points to my attention!