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At 8:59 AM -0800 3/1/10, Eli Stephens wrote: > > >I am obviously NOT suggesting that this means that every "truther", >such as the ones on this list, are anti-Arab racists. I AM saying >such racism infests the movement. This is more of the same ad hominem nonsense that our esteemed moderator used to divert the discussion (along with Lause) in the first place. I have a suggestion to Comrade Stephens: write Lynne Stewart a letter asking her where she situates the more ominous forces spewing Islamophobic bile - those who backstop the insipid idea of crazy 'jihadis' and 'al qaedas' lurking deep within every Muslim, or those who have spent time unmasking the fairy tale that many (i.e., you) still bend over backwards to perpetuate (however obliquely). She can be reached at the following address: Lynne Stewart #53504-054 New York Metro Correctional Center 150 Park Row New York, NY 10007 The immediate outburst of anti-Arab paranoia following "the day that changed everything" - the profiling and the watch lists, terror warnings, spooky bomb plots, 'conspiracy' charges, underwear patsys, and the arrest of people like Lynne Stewart for cavorting with 'terrorists' - along with the new, Islamophobic lexicon of racist buzz-words (some of which, pathetically, we must endure here) like 'jihadi' and 'Islamo-fascist', came bursting forth with renewed vigor even as Building 7 spontaneously detonated into a heap of ash and collapsed into itself. Remember how the propaganda merchants actually STOPPED SHOWING ADVERTISMENTS FOR A WEEK in order to convince us how awful Arabs were? Think about that: demonizing Arabs (for that few days, at least) became more important to them than SHOWING ADS. Talk about missing the point: were the 'Truthers' responsible for this campaign, Comrade Stephens? Did the Truthers use anti-Islamic sentiment to invent DHS or to harass mosques? Or was that 'Jihadi' John Ashcroft? The MATERIAL effects of this racist campaign are present for all to see. And they have NOTHING to do with what's in the minds of a few ignorant '911' activists here and there and EVERYTHING to do with the crackdown imposed by those ready to seize upon this crisis from the moment the operation got the green light. The patsys were used as a means of drumming up anti-Muslim racism to such an extent that a holy crusade could be mobbed up and civil liberties could be clamped down. Mission Accomplished. For a while, at least. And it will continue to do so until we show enough courage to stop abetting this process in realtime (i.e., not with an obsession on "the day that changed everything", but rather through a critical examination of how that day REMAINS present, providing the necessary collateral for imperialistic and reactionary policies) and instead challenge the racist sloganeering and ignorant, magical assumptions force-fed down our throats that, nearly a decade later, STILL serves as the enduring justification for their occupation of Afghanistan. Solidarity, Shawn ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
