Latest news with #intersectionality
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Barbara Kay: How Islamists hijacked leftist oppression narratives
In March 2008, revelations surfaced of past anti-American and antisemitic rhetoric by Barack Obama's longtime pastor and friend Rev. Jeremiah Wright, including Wright's accusation that the U.S.'s own terrorism helped motivate al-Qaida's 9/11 attack. Knowing his political credibility depended on it, Obama abruptly severed ties with Wright. Post-inauguration, Wright blamed 'them Jews' for Obama's continuing frostiness. Seventeen years on, Zohran Mamdani, newly-elected Democratic contender for New York's upcoming mayoralty race, appears to have (correctly) calculated that public allyship with an imam who lionizes Hamas, reviles Jews and Christians, and encourages anti-American pedagogy would not be a political liability in America's most Jewish city. Apart from smartphones spreading an oil slick of disinformation across Gen Z, strongly supportive of Mamdani, what explains such a momentous change in our political culture between the two campaigns? Principally, the symbiotic merger of three already active ideological streams that swelled into an impassable river: multiculturalism (all cultures equally deserving of respect), Islamism (Islamization of the West is inevitable) and intersectionality (all oppressed identity groups must stand together against a common enemy of white imperialism). Islam is a religion, not a race. Nevertheless, the merger allowed the Muslim Brotherhood — Islamism's C-suite in the West — to exploit the ideological overlap to align Islamist claims for oppression with Black Lives Matter, bestowing 'racialized' status on Muslims. The crossover permitted Islamists to promulgate false notions that are widely accepted as true: that 'brown' Palestinians are the world's most oppressed people, that 'white' Israel represents a uniquely evil form of colonialist oppression meriting violent elimination ('Globalize the Intifada') and that Islamophobia — a trope popularized in 1994 by a Runnymede Trust report, but almost invariably associated with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation — is, allegedly, a far greater problem than the actual global scourge of Islamism-driven terrorism. Since then, combatting an alleged 'Islamophobia industry' has been a principal focus of all Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated advocacy groups, as well as some academics and political actors. Their campaign of 'perception management' to ensure a reflexive, society-wide association between Muslims and victimhood has succeeded. I plucked the strikingly apt trope 'perception management' from journalist and Muslim Reformer Asra Nomani's enlightening 2023 book, Woke Army: The Red-Green alliance that is destroying America's freedom. In it, Nomani argues that the partnership between the hard left (red) and Islamism (green) exploits America's freedoms to wage disinformation and propaganda campaigns against critics of political Islam. Politicians and mainstream media learned over the years that it was easier, following news of jihadist violence, to acquiesce to the shibboleth that the 'religion of peace' had been 'hijacked' than to endure accusations of Islamophobia by insisting on more objective terms like 'radical' or 'political' Islam. A former Wall Street Journal reporter, Indian-born Muslim Nomani was a friend and colleague of Daniel Pearl, the WSJ's South Asia bureau chief who was kidnapped and publicly beheaded in 2002 by rabidly Judeophobic al-Qaida operatives. Pearl's gruesome death galvanized Nomani to political activism as a Muslim 'Reformer,' a Muslim who supports an interpretation of Islam that is compatible with human rights, gender equality, religious (or atheist) pluralism and secular governance. Irritated by her criticism, Muslim Brothers' machinations drew Nomani into a world of grief orchestrated by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), nominally a 'civil rights' organization but in Nomani's account, 'a front for an extremist form of Islam.' But she persevered, and Woke Army is, therefore, not only an enlightening exposé of the Muslim Brotherhood in America, but the absorbing story of Nomani's personal near-martyrdom and eventual triumph. To silence Nomani, CAIR foot soldiers cooked up a years-long character assassination campaign through 'the deadly underbelly of cyber jihad' — specifically Loonwatch, a GoDaddy website that protected their users' anonymity. Her foes there labelled her a 'Zionist media whore' amongst other slurs, and accused her of being funded by Israel. In 2018, Nomani responded with a defamation suit that halted Loonwatch harassment and permitted her to subpoena internet service providers for the real identities of 48 'John Doe' anonymous stalkers, most of them outed in Woke Army. The 'perception management' campaign found low-hanging fruit in left-leaning political leaders. President Obama, who flinched at Black anti-Americanism and antisemitism, was eager to please on the equally phobic Islamist file. When CAIR issued a statement Nomani described as advocating for 'separating the brutal actions of ISIS from the faith of Islam,' Obama obliged, she writes, with his government agencies giving in to pressure to scrub terms like 'jihadist' and replace them with 'extremist.' Although Nomani's research treats Islamism in the U.S., her themes map neatly onto Canada. Following the Islamism-driven 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Justin Trudeau, asked to identify the bombing's 'root causes,' reflexively saw, heard, and spoke no Islamist evil, responding: 'there is no question that this happened because of someone who feels completely excluded, someone who feels completely at war with innocence, at war with society.' The Muslim Reform Movement, in which Nomani and Canada's own heroic Raheel Raza play prominent roles, has been stalwart in its resistance to Islamist bullying, but their members are in a David-and-Goliath relationship with what Nomani describes as Muslim Brotherhood's well-funded machine. They get worn down by what Nomani's young son articulated as a 'terrorism of the mind.' It would help if politicians cold-shouldered Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups and instead elevated Muslim Reformers' public status, seating them 'above the salt,' so to speak. Active pushback against institutionalized Islamism is in motion in the U.S. But in Canada, alas, 'perception management' rules at the desk where the buck on a threat to our cultural health is supposed to stop. kaybarb@ X: @BarbaraRKay National Post Adam Zivo: With Iran defeated, Israelis look for peace in Gaza Colby Cosh: Mark Carney's unstable environment
Vogue
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue
'Existence Is Resistance': Rio Uribe on the Urgency of Pride, Both LGBTQ+ and Latinx
Rio Uribe, of Gypsy Sport fame (now simply named Rio), has been keeping himself busy. In addition to managing his own label, he's been working for Chrome Industries, the utility apparel manufacturer, as its creative director. He also started a market in March, a community event in Los Angeles where he hosts budding designers and gives them the opportunity to introduce—and sell—their work to a wider audience. In the years since Uribe broke out, he's become one of its most vocal advocates for inclusivity and a shining example of the importance of intersectionality. This Pride month, in the face of a U.S. administration that is targeting the community and with immigration raids as a backdrop, actions like his have become more important than ever. Uribe has been working with Chrome for almost a year, but this Pride capsule marks the first time he's co-signed the product as opposed to designing in the background. 'The brand is very much inspired by commuter lifestyle, so I decided to take that and, because I live in LA, take a slower approach and do a lowrider take, where you're just cruising, just chilling,' he said over the phone. The challenge, Uribe said, is that lowrider Chicano culture is not a cipher for queerness, but quite the opposite due to its emphasis in traditional Latino masculinity or 'machismo.' 'I was like, let's disrupt that a little bit and show that there are queer people in those communities as well.' Photo: Guicho Palma Photo: Guicho Palma Uribe's timing in highlighting the Mexican-American community in Los Angeles could not have been more acute. 'It's very sad and scary what's happening,' he said in reaction to the immigration raids targeting the community. 'I don't have any family that was affected this time, but my dad and other family members have been deported in the past few years for other reasons,' he said. 'Migrating into this country the 'right way,' or whatever you want to call it, can be easy for some people, but there are so many shady immigration lawyers in California who disappear with people's money, it's a very common story.' This is, in part, the reason why Uribe has also kicked off his market initiative: to activate his community and leverage their collective resources. Some of his vendors have pulled out because they're afraid of being raided by ICE agents, he said, so he's doubling up on security and staff. 'My approach is always to still find the joy and find the creativity in the moment and try to keep people on that wavelength,' he explained. 'I think there's enough tragedy and despair out there, but how do we make this a conversation about unity and creativity?' Uribe is trying to flip the script: 'We need more places to exist because existence is resistance, and just being creative, making music together, making fashion together, that's also a big way to protest,' he said. That's the spirit of Pride, too, to make oneself seen and heard.
Washington Post
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
The axis of weaponized antisemitism: Russia, China, North Korea and Iran
Michal Cotler-Wunsh is Israel's special envoy for combating antisemitism and a former Israeli legislator. I'm old enough to remember when Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term 'intersectionality' in 1989. There was great excitement at the potential of promoting justice by identifying and working across differences to overcome interlocking systems — ones that operate in tandem, even if independently — that affect marginalized groups.
New York Times
13-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Live Updates: Senator's Treatment by Federal Agents Deepens Clash Over Trump Tactics
At a protest in St. Louis on Wednesday called 'March to Defend Immigrant Rights,' participants chanted, 'From Ferguson to Palestine, occupation is a crime!' invoking unrest in Ferguson, Mo., over police brutality in 2014 and Palestinian freedom. The scene encapsulated how the left's decades-long embrace of intersectionality — the concept that all oppressed people are linked — gives the protest movement large numbers of supporters but also can create a cacophony of messages. The forces stirring action on the streets this week have been led by labor groups. And many protests, including those in Los Angeles, have continued to focus on workplace raids. But the voices at other protests are mixed, an echo of the wide array of progressive forces that have animated every anti-Trump protest this year. Those earlier actions have been coordinated affairs, planned in advance for weeks by large groups like MoveOn and Indivisible, which have helped keep actions focused on concerns like cuts to Medicaid and Social Security, the power of billionaires and immigration policies. But in this week's spontaneous actions, the many interests from the broad base of anti-Trump activists came to the fore, including more explicit support for racial justice, Palestinian freedom and socialist politics. 'In this moment we must all stand together,' said Becky Pringle, the head of the National Education Association, the largest individual union in the country and one of the groups that sprang into action as the protests emerged in Los Angeles. Local chapters of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a Communist Party offshoot of the Workers World Party, have also played a leading role, working with local leftist groups to post information about new demonstrations from California to Maine. The group's concerns are among the mélange of causes animating protests that were born out of workplace raids to round up illegal immigrants. Palestinian supporters have shown up at protests in Chicago, New York and elsewhere. When the St. Louis march ended on Wednesday, various groups took the opportunity to rally support for queer rights, Black Lives Matter and tornado relief and cleanup efforts. The St. Louis march was promoted on social media by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Voices for Palestine Network, Black Men Build St. Louis and the Ecosocialist Green Party. 'St. Louis is a small city, and a lot of the people that care about organizing for human rights tend to all work loosely with each other through an unofficial coalition,' said Kaitlyn Killgo, one of the activists. The presence of many different causes can dilute the message of any one protest — and risks appearing to general observers like a gathering of far-left activists. This issue is a familiar one for mainstream Democrats. While parsing their losses in the 2024 election, they have debated whether they diminished their appeal to the public by treating all causes as equally important. Community networks have galvanized protesters in other cities. When Laura Valdez, a civil rights activist in San Francisco, saw the video of ICE agents detaining a prominent labor leader in Los Angeles, she believed that immigrants and activists faced a new level of danger. 'This was a four-alarm fire,' said Ms. Valdez, the executive director of Mission Action, an advocacy organization for low-income and immigrant communities. 'We needed to activate.' The video of the labor leader's arrest was taken on Friday. By Monday, Ms. Valdez and Mission Action were participating in one of dozens of protests that sprang up across the country in response to the Trump administration's immigration raids. The rapid appearance of people on the streets of so many American cities was not a coincidence. Mission Action and other left-leaning organizations were able to mobilize quickly because they have spent all year protesting President Trump's policies; several gatherings attracted hundreds of thousands of participants. Their networks were primed. On Monday, the Austin, Texas, chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation posted on social media: 'Emergency protest: solidarity with LA! We'll see y'all tomorrow at the state capitol to say 'ICE out of our cities! Stop the deportations!'' That same day, the People's Forum, a New York City workers' rights organization, told supporters that there would be a protest the following day in solidarity with Los Angeles. 'We refuse to be silenced! The people of New York City demand ICE get out of our communities, stop the deportations, and stop the raids.' On June 10, the Maine chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation put out the word on social media: 'Emergency Protest. From LA to Bangor: ICE Out! June 11 — 6:30pm. Pierce Park.' Reaction to the Trump administration has brought a broad swath of progressive groups in close coordination, with leaders often speaking multiple times a day about how various policies are affecting their communities. 'Ultimately, this comes down to workers' rights,' Ms. Pringle said. Mr. Trump's desire to remove undocumented immigrants from the country has had an especially galvanizing effect among left-leaning organizations. The coalition of centrist Democratic nonprofits and far-left national and local organizations that stood together during the first Trump administration splintered over whether to support Palestinians after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas. In addition to coordinating anti-Trump protests, progressive groups have been working to educate immigrant workers, students, educators and religious leaders about their rights and to connect them with mutual aid and legal assistance. When ICE agents began entering workplaces in Los Angeles late last week, that network went on high alert. 'We could see that the government had decided it would be more effective to apprehend hundreds of people through workplace enforcement rather than having several agents try to go after one person at a time,' Ms. Valdez said. Image David Huerta, the president of the Service Employees International Union of California. His arrest helped catalyze the protests. Credit... Philip Cheung for The New York Times And then came the arrest of David Huerta, the president of the Service Employees International Union of California, as he recorded a video of the immigration raid. The service employees union and other national and local union leaders began to talk about how to respond. They supported the idea of public opposition. Other unions reached out to the SEIU to ask how they could help. Following the SEIU's lead, they decided that the best course of action was to bring public attention to Mr. Huerta's arrest and to denounce Mr. Trump's decision to use federal force to quell protests. 'Labor is everywhere,' said Ms. Pringle, whose organization was in touch with the SEIU. 'The three million educators in the National Education Association are in every congressional district and community.' The California Teachers Association and other progressive state organizations committed to push out messaging and encourage citizens to protest, a pattern that was replicated across the country. Since Friday, and following the deployment of the National Guard, a broad coalition of organizations has called on the public to join demonstrations in downtown Los Angeles. They include Unión del Barrio, a grass roots group with volunteer membership that describes itself as revolutionary and anti-imperialist, and Local Black Lives Matter leaders. 'This is our fight. This is our fight,' Melina Abdullah, a co-founder of the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter, said in a recent video on social media. 'For both moral and strategic reasons, this is a Black fight.' In New York City, protests have coalesced outside the federal immigration headquarters in Lower Manhattan this week. But they have typically morphed into a stew of left-wing causes, with Palestinian calls for liberation and Occupy Wall Street chants overtaking the group's message against deportations. A large rally that began at 5 p.m. on Tuesday drew hundreds of demonstrators, including immigrant New Yorkers who said they were rallying on behalf of parents, friends and relatives who were undocumented. They marched to chants of 'Abolish ICE,' and carried yellow signs, in English and Spanish, that said 'ICE out of NYC.' But by 10 p.m., as much of the protest had dissipated, a splinter group of about 100 protesters remained, some wearing tactical looking outfits and kaffiyehs, appearing more intent on taunting police officers and causing disruption with sporadic chants of Palestinian liberation. At a protest this week in Chicago, many protesters also wore kaffiyehs and carried signs supporting Palestinians. Some of the loudest chants heard downtown were targeted at U.S. policy in Gaza: 'From Palestine to Mexico these border walls have got to go!' The spontaneous protests that erupted this week are a preview of what is to come on Saturday — a long-planned, nationwide protest against the Trump administration called No Kings, scheduled to coincide with the president's birthday and military parade. Several prominent progressive coalitions planned No Kings, including MoveOn, Indivisible and 50501. There will be no event in Washington, the site of Mr. Trump's parade. Organizers want to draw attention to the president's many opponents throughout the country. In addition to the flagship march that will take place in Philadelphia, organizers said there will be No Kings marches in at least 2,000 cities and towns, in every state in the country. Miram Jordan contributed reporting from Los Angeles, and Julie Bosman from Chicago.
New York Times
12-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Live Updates: Lawmakers Enraged After Senator Is Pushed to Floor and Handcuffed
At a protest in St. Louis on Wednesday called 'March to Defend Immigrant Rights,' participants chanted, 'From Ferguson to Palestine, occupation is a crime!' invoking unrest in Ferguson, Mo., over police brutality in 2014 and Palestinian freedom. The scene encapsulated how the left's decades-long embrace of intersectionality — the concept that all oppressed people are linked — gives the protest movement large numbers of supporters but also can create a cacophony of messages. The forces stirring action on the streets this week have been led by labor groups. And many protests, including those in Los Angeles, have continued to focus on workplace raids. But the voices at other protests are mixed, an echo of the wide array of progressive forces that have animated every anti-Trump protest this year. Those earlier actions have been coordinated affairs, planned in advance for weeks by large groups like MoveOn and Indivisible, which have helped keep actions focused on concerns like cuts to Medicaid and Social Security, the power of billionaires and immigration policies. But in this week's spontaneous actions, the many interests from the broad base of anti-Trump activists came to the fore, including more explicit support for racial justice, Palestinian freedom and socialist politics. 'In this moment we must all stand together,' said Becky Pringle, the head of the National Education Association, the largest individual union in the country and one of the groups that sprang into action as the protests emerged in Los Angeles. Local chapters of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a Communist Party offshoot of the Workers World Party, have also played a leading role, working with local leftist groups to post information about new demonstrations from California to Maine. The group's concerns are among the mélange of causes animating protests that were born out of workplace raids to round up illegal immigrants. Palestinian supporters have shown up at protests in Chicago, New York and elsewhere. When the St. Louis march ended on Wednesday, various groups took the opportunity to rally support for queer rights, Black Lives Matter and tornado relief and cleanup efforts. The St. Louis march was promoted on social media by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Voices for Palestine Network, Black Men Build St. Louis and the Ecosocialist Green Party on Instagram. 'St. Louis is a small city, and a lot of the people that care about organizing for human rights tend to all work loosely with each other through an unofficial coalition,' said Kaitlyn Killgo, one of the activists. The presence of many different causes can dilute the message of any one protest — and risks appearing to general observers like a gathering of far-left activists. This issue is a familiar one for mainstream Democrats. While parsing their losses in the 2024 election, they have debated whether they diminished their appeal to the public by treating all causes as equally important. Community networks have galvanized protesters in other cities. When Laura Valdez, a civil rights activist in San Francisco, saw the video of ICE agents detaining a prominent labor leader in Los Angeles, she believed that immigrants and activists faced a new level of danger. 'This was a four-alarm fire,' said Ms. Valdez, the executive director of Mission Action, an advocacy organization for low-income and immigrant communities. 'We needed to activate.' The video of the labor leader's arrest was taken on Friday. By Monday, Ms. Valdez and Mission Action were participating in one of dozens of protests that sprang up across the country in response to the Trump administration's immigration raids. The rapid appearance of people on the streets of so many American cities was not a coincidence. Mission Action and other left-leaning organizations were able to mobilize quickly because they have spent all year protesting President Trump's policies; several gatherings attracted hundreds of thousands of participants. Their networks were primed. On Monday, the Austin, Texas, chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation posted on social media: 'Emergency protest: solidarity with LA! We'll see y'all tomorrow at the state capitol to say 'ICE out of our cities! Stop the deportations!'' That same day, the People's Forum, a New York City workers' rights organization, told supporters that there would be a protest the following day in solidarity with Los Angeles. 'We refuse to be silenced! The people of New York City demand ICE get out of our communities, stop the deportations, and stop the raids.' On June 10, the Maine chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation put out the word on social media: 'Emergency Protest. From LA to Bangor: ICE Out! June 11 — 6:30pm. Pierce Park.' Reaction to the Trump administration has brought a broad swath of progressive groups in close coordination, with leaders often speaking multiple times a day about how various policies are affecting their communities. 'Ultimately, this comes down to workers' rights,' Ms. Pringle said. Mr. Trump's desire to remove undocumented immigrants from the country has had an especially galvanizing effect among left-leaning organizations. The coalition of centrist Democratic nonprofits and far-left national and local organizations that stood together during the first Trump administration splintered over whether to support Palestinians after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas. In addition to coordinating anti-Trump protests, progressive groups have been working to educate immigrant workers, students, educators and religious leaders about their rights and to connect them with mutual aid and legal assistance. When ICE agents began entering workplaces in Los Angeles late last week, that network went on high alert. 'We could see that the government had decided it would be more effective to apprehend hundreds of people through workplace enforcement rather than having several agents try to go after one person at a time,' Ms. Valdez said. Image David Huerta, the president of the Service Employees International Union of California. His arrest helped catalyze the protests. Credit... Philip Cheung for The New York Times And then came the arrest of David Huerta, the president of the Service Employees International Union of California, as he recorded a video of the immigration raid. The service employees union and other national and local union leaders began to talk about how to respond. They supported the idea of public opposition. Other unions reached out to the SEIU to ask how they could help. Following the SEIU's lead, they decided that the best course of action was to bring public attention to Mr. Huerta's arrest and to denounce Mr. Trump's decision to use federal force to quell protests. 'Labor is everywhere,' said Ms. Pringle, whose organization was in touch with the SEIU. 'The three million educators in the National Education Association are in every congressional district and community.' The California Teachers Association and other progressive state organizations committed to push out messaging and encourage citizens to protest, a pattern that was replicated across the country. Since Friday, and following the deployment of the National Guard, a broad coalition of organizations has called on the public to join demonstrations in downtown Los Angeles. They include Unión del Barrio, a grass roots group with volunteer membership that describes itself as revolutionary and anti-imperialist, and Local Black Lives Matter leaders. 'This is our fight. This is our fight,' Melina Abdullah, a co-founder of the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter, said in a recent video on social media. 'For both moral and strategic reasons, this is a Black fight.' In New York City, protests have coalesced outside the federal immigration headquarters in Lower Manhattan this week. But they have typically morphed into a stew of left-wing causes, with Palestinian calls for liberation and Occupy Wall Street chants overtaking the group's message against deportations. A large rally that began at 5 p.m. on Tuesday drew hundreds of demonstrators, including immigrant New Yorkers who said they were rallying on behalf of parents, friends and relatives who were undocumented. They marched to chants of 'Abolish ICE,' and carried yellow signs, in English and Spanish, that said 'ICE out of NYC.' But by 10 p.m., as much of the protest had dissipated, a splinter group of about 100 protesters remained, some wearing tactical looking outfits and kaffiyehs, appearing more intent on taunting police officers and causing disruption with sporadic chants of Palestinian liberation. At a protest this week in Chicago, many protesters also wore kaffiyehs and carried signs supporting Palestinians. Some of the loudest chants heard downtown were targeted at U.S. policy in Gaza: 'From Palestine to Mexico these border walls have got to go!' The spontaneous protests that erupted this week are a preview of what is to come on Saturday — a long-planned, nationwide protest against the Trump administration called No Kings, scheduled to coincide with the president's birthday and military parade. Several prominent progressive coalitions planned No Kings, including MoveOn, Indivisible and 50501. There will be no event in Washington, the site of Mr. Trump's parade. Organizers want to draw attention to the president's many opponents throughout the country. In addition to the flagship march that will take place in Philadelphia, organizers said there will be No Kings marches in at least 2,000 cities and towns, in every state in the country. Miram Jordan contributed reporting from Los Angeles, and Julie Bosman from Chicago.
