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reading-writing-revolution · 3 years

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Heather Cox Richardson:

December 9, 2020 (Wednesday)

Today’s big story remains the loss of our neighbors to Covid-19. Today, our official death count passed the number of those killed in the 9-11 attacks. On that horrific day in 2001, we lost 2977 people to four terrorist attacks. Today, official reports showed 3,140 deaths from Covid-19, the highest single-day toll so far. Hospitals are overwhelmed, our health care workers exhausted.

As the country suffers, Trump has launched a new approach in his attempt to steal the 2020 election. While he has previously insisted that he actually won, and that his “win” must be recognized, this morning he tweeted simply “OVERTURN.” Republican leaders have ducked the question of Trump’s refusal to acknowledge Joe Biden’s win in the election by saying that the president has a right to challenge an election through legal means. Few of them commented on this new attack on our democracy.

Instead, the Republican attorneys general of seventeen states supported a lawsuit Texas has asked the Supreme Court’s permission to file against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, suing them over their voting processes. A majority of voters in those four states voted for Biden, thus giving him their state’s electoral votes and the presidency. The states that want to sue are all Republican-majority states. They are hoping they can get the Supreme Court to allow them to sue, and that it will then agree with their complaint and throw out the votes from those states so the Republican legislatures there can then choose their own electors and give the win to Trump.

Astonishingly, this argument comes from the party that claims to oppose “judicial activism.”

The states that have declared their support for Texas’s lawsuit are: Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia. They are essentially asking the Supreme Court to disfranchise the majority in the United States and to let them put their chosen president in the White House. This assault on American principles is breathtaking.

Trump has also filed a motion to join Texas’s lawsuit in his personal capacity as a presidential candidate. His lawyer says that he “seeks to have the votes cast in the Defendant States unlawfully for his opponent to be deemed invalid.” Tonight, at a White House Hanukkah party, Trump told the crowd that with the help of “certain very important people, if they have wisdom and if they have courage, we are going to win this election.” The attendees chanted “four more years.”

Legal experts say this case is a non-starter. University of Texas Law Professor Steve Vladeck writes, “It is lacking in actual evidence; it is deeply cynical; it evinces stunning disrespect for both the role of the courts in our constitutional system and of the states in our elections; and it is doomed to fail.”

But the fact that Republican leaders have accepted, rather than condemned, this attempt to overturn a legitimate election says they are willing to destroy American democracy in order to stay in power. On CNN tonight, former Ohio Governor John Kasich, a Republican himself, called the lawmakers supporting Trump’s attack on democracy “morally and ethically bankrupt.”

Republicans might be stoking attacks on our electoral system because they know the courts will shut them down. After all, Trump’s lawyers are currently 1-51 in court, and it is unlikely the Supreme Court will take up Texas’s lawsuit. So siding with Trump is a cheap way for leaders to avoid alienating his voters when they will want those voters in 2022.

But they are playing a deeply cynical and wildly dangerous game. Yesterday, the official Twitter account of the Arizona Republican Party asked followers if they were willing to die to overturn the election, then posted a clip from the film “Rambo” in which the main character is threatening someone’s life, saying “This is what we do, who we are. Live for nothing, or die for something.”

Today, talk show host Rush Limbaugh told his listeners that they are, in fact, still a majority but they are plagued with “RINOs” who are selling them out. “I actually think that we’re trending toward secession,” he said. “I see more and more people asking what in the world do we have in common with the people who live in, say, New York? What is there that makes us believe that there is enough of us there to even have a chance at winning New York? Especially if you’re talking about votes….” (New York City has more people than 40 of the 50 states.) He went on: “There cannot be a peaceful coexistence of two completely different theories of life, theories of government, theories of how we manage our affairs. We can’t be in this dire a conflict without something giving somewhere along the way.”

The theme of civil war, and of America tearing itself apart, was one pushed hard by Russian operatives in 2018. On Twitter, “Civil War” trended today. An actual civil war is highly unlikely, but the unwillingness of leaders to stop this language is already leading to death threats against election officials. The longer they permit it to go on, the worse things will get.

Republicans are working to undermine the incoming Democratic administration in other ways, too. Last week, Attorney General William Barr announced that he appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham as special counsel in October to investigate the FBI agents who worked on the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. While the law about special counsels says they must come from outside the government, Barr claims to have found a loophole in that rule. Durham can be fired only for specific reasons such as conflict of interest or misconduct. Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) applauded the appointment and the continuation of the investigation.

Today Biden’s son Hunter told the media that he has just learned that he is under investigation by the Department of Justice for tax issues, although CNN suggested it is a much wider financial investigation than that, and that it began in 2018. The Justice Department is also investigating a company related to Joe Biden’s brother James. While the DOJ is supposed to be independent of the president, these investigations echo Trump’s own calls for such investigations. Immediately Representative Ken Buck (R-CO) called for a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden, and tonight, Trump tweeted that “10% of voters would have changed their vote if they knew about Hunter Biden…. But I won anyway!”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told Fox News Channel personality Laura Ingraham today that Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) should be “removed from Congress” after an Axios report that a Chinese intelligence operative had worked to ingratiate herself with California lawmakers between 2011 and 2015. The operative targeted a number of politicians, including Swalwell, and she fundraised on his behalf, but there is no evidence she broke any laws. In 2015, FBI officers alerted Swalwell, who immediately cut all ties to her. He was never accused of any wrongdoing. The operative left the country unexpectedly during the FBI investigation.

Although the Axios story was about Chinese espionage, right-wing media is aflame with attacks on Swalwell in what seems an attempt to discredit a Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Don Jr. tweeted that Swalwell “was literally sleeping with a Chinese spy,” an allegation that is nowhere in the story, although the story mentions that two unidentified midwestern mayors had affairs with her.

The White House appears to be trying to sabotage the Biden administration not only by keeping the Biden team from information it needs, but by tying its hands and slowing it down. The day after the election, the Trump administration proposed a new rule requiring the new Department of Health and Human Services appointees to review most of the department’s regulations by 2023. The rule would automatically kill any regulations that haven’t been reviewed by then. This would mean that, just as the new administration is trying to fight the coronavirus, it would be slammed with administrative paperwork. The department’s chief of staff denies the unusual move is political, saying that a review is necessary because one hasn’t been done for 40 years.

Now that the transition process has finally started, Trump loyalists are blocking meetings, or sitting in on them to monitor what is being said, especially at the Environmental Protection Agency. At Voice of America, Trump’s appointed head, Michael Pack, has refused to give meetings or records to Biden’s team. For their part, Biden’s transition folks are avoiding fights in order to get whatever information they can.

Republican senators are also signaling that they intend to delay confirmations on Biden’s nominees, although in the past 95% of Cabinet nominees have had hearings before an inauguration, and 84% of those were approved within three days. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), for example, questioned the experience of Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra. Becerra is the Attorney General of California, and he sat on the House Committee on Ways and Means, which oversees health issues, during his 24 years in Congress. “I don’t know what his Health and Human Services credentials are,” Cornyn told The Hill. It’s not like [Trump’s HHS Secretary] Alex Azar, who worked for pharma and had a health care background.”

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howwelldoyouknowyourmoon · 4 years

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Missing Pieces of the Story of Sun Myung Moon

by Frederick Clarkson September 8, 2012

The reporting and punditry in the wake of the death of Sun Myung Moon has left a lot to be desired. Even long, seemingly comprehensive treatments of Moon's life and empire, such as the one that ran in The New York Times, did not delve deeply into Moon's profound far right and criminal involvements; antidemocratic politics; or even the mysterious sources of foreign cash for The Washington Times, and extensive political operations in the U.S. for decades, let alone the Moon organization's broad, insidious affects on American culture and democracy. There has also been some embarrassingly credulous material published about the nature of life in the Church itself, and some odd, unsubstantiated pooh poohery about the problem of cultism.

Of course, history lives, despite the best efforts of some of us not to notice.

Here are a few things from my own knowledge that merit far greater, and better attention than they have generally received so far.

No report that I have seen has gone very deeply into the role of the Moon organization in the Koreagate scandal of the 1970s. A Congressional investigation exposed a massive covert operation and influence buying effort by the government of South Korea against the U.S. The Korean Central Intelligence Agency, (KCIA), some of whose operatives were top leaders of the Unification Church. The church itself was revealed to have been crafted by the KCIA into a "political tool." A notable exception to this unfortunate trend, was a remembrance by a staffer on the Koreagate investigation, published in the MinnPost. The article quotes from a book by Koreagate staff director Robert Boettcher, Gifts of Deceit: Sun Myung Moon, Tongsun Park, and the Korean scandal. For details on the investigation, see the conclusions of the Report by the House Committee on International Relations, October, 31, 1978.

One of the architects of the "New Right" of the 1970s and beyond was Richard Viguerie. He was best known as a direct mail entrepreneur. Much less well-known is that one of his first clients was a front group for the KCIA and the Moon organization called the Korean Cultural Freedom Foundation. This group, ostensibly about anti-communist education, was broadcasting KCIA propaganda radio programming into North Korea and Vietnam. Viguerie has had many Moon front groups as clients over the years, and when his businesses foundered in the 1980s, the Moon organization purchased his office building for ten million dollars. (I detail some of this history in my book, Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy.

In 1987 I published an expose in Extra!, the magazine of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, on how top executives of The Washington Times and its parent company [NWC – News World Communications], were current or former KCIA agents:

Three NWC executives are not only top Unification Church officials, but have also had high-ranking posts in the Korean CIA (KCIA). Sang Kook Han, a "personal assistant" to the KCIA director in the early 1960s, later served as South Korea's ambassador to Norway and Panama. In 1984, Han was installed at the Washington Times, precipitating the resignation of editor James Whelan. Currently senior vice president of New World Communications, Han is described by Whelan as the "de facto publisher" and "inspector general" of the Times.

Kim Sang In, another NWC executive, was KCIA station chief in Mexico in the '70s. There, according to U.S. congressional investigators, he functioned as the "control agent" for Tungsun Park, who bribed U.S. officials to gain favors for the South Korean government in what became known as "Koreagate." Congressional probers disclosed that illegal espionage operations linked to Koreagate were carried out by the Unification Church at the behest of the KCIA.

Bo Hi Pak, the president of NWC, served as liaison to the U.S. intelligence community while posted in Washington as South Korean military attache in the 1960s and early ’70s, according to the Koreagate inquiry. Pak is also president of CAUSA (Confederation of the Associations for Unity of the Societies of the Americas), the political arm of the Unification Church. CAUSA was instrumental in providing aid to the Nicaraguan contras.

Although I wish the paper had gotten into it more, The Washington Post's epic coverage of Moon's life and empire offered a few telling details about the way that the Moon organization has intervened in our domestic politics and foreign policy.

During the height of the Nicaraguan civil war in the 1980s, the Washington Times led a fundraising drive on behalf of the contras, a rebel group that sought to overthrow the country’s leftist government. Another church-linked organization, the American Freedom Coalition, paid for a direct mailing to 25 million households that criticized 1988 Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis.

What the story does not mention is that Richard Viguerie was an officer of the American Freedom Coalition and did direct mail for the organization. In Eternal Hostility, I discuss how the AFC was, between the collapse of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, and the creation of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, the leading political organization of the Religious Right; for example, spending millions of dollars printing and distributing presidential candidate scorecards tilted to favor George H.W. Bush over Michael Dukakis in 1988 -- among many other campaign activities.

While the issue of religious freedom is much in the news lately, Moon and his supporters who were waving the bloody shirt of alleged violations of religious freedom to advance their interests in the 1980s. Moon was convicted of tax fraud and served 13 months in federal prison. (I wrote about the case and the subsequent bruhaha at the time, and later in Eternal Hostility.) Moon was shown to have been specifically advised by his attorneys to keep his personal and church accounts separate. He didn't. He diverted contributions intended for church purposes to his personal use; and later supervised the production of a false books. He is a convicted felon. But you would not know that to read most of the accounts of his life.

The Moon organization has played a pivotal role in underwriting vast political and media projects in the U.S. But the sources of the funding has always been mysterious, although every investigation has shown that most if not all of the funding comes from foreign sources, primarily Japan. This includes as much as three billion spent to underwrite the The Washington Times alone over the past 30 years.

Former Newsweek and Associated Press investigative reporter Robert Parry has published a vast amount of material on this, including Moon's involvement with military dictators and drug cartels in Latin America and the Japanese Yakuza.

Parry reported:

But Moon's relationships with drug-tainted gangsters and corrupt right-wing politicians go back to the early days of his Unification Church in Asia. Moon's Korea-based church made its first important inroads in Japan in the early 1960s after gaining the support of Ryoichi Sasakawa, a leader of the Japanese yakuza crime syndicate who once hailed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini as "the perfect fascist." In Japan and Korea, the shadowy yakuza ran lucrative drug smuggling, gambling and prostitution rings.

The Sasakawa connection brought Moon both converts and clout because Sasakawa was a behind-the-scenes leader of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party. On the international scene, Sasakawa helped found the Asian People's Anti-Communist League, which united the heroin-stained leadership of Nationalist China with rightists from Korea, Japan and elsewhere in Asia. [For details, see Yakuza by David E. Kaplan and Alec Dubro]

In 1966, the Asian league evolved into the World Anti-Communist League with the inclusion of former Nazis from Europe, overt racialists from the United States and "death squad" operatives from Latin America, along with more traditional conservatives.

For more on the World Anti-Communist League, see the book Inside the League, by Jon Lee Anderson and Scott Anderson. For a serious discussion of the role of cultism in the Moon organization, see Combating Cult Mind Control, by Steven Hassan.

The Moon organization has undermined American democracy for decades, and helped to make the conservative movement what it is today. The cult totalism that made ordinary Americans into zealots for a messianic Korean with a fascist political agenda and ties to the people who brought us World War II, is not something to be taken as lightly as seems to be fashionable among some of those who have been asked to comment on the life and death of Sun Myung Moon. As always, there is a battle going on for the narrative of American history, and the role of the Moon organization is part of it.

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Frederick Clarkson September 9, 2012 at 08:20:30 PM

“We are so disconnected from history. Even recent history of great consequence. It is just astounding to me. I had written a great deal about the Moon organization over the years, but was otherwise occupied when Moon died. I figured that much of this would be well covered elsewhere, and I was shocked when it wasn’t.

On reflection, I shouldn’t have been Progressive publications do a somewhat better job than they used to in covering these things, but the mainstream media does much less well.

Progressive political conferences do not much discuss current trends on the political and religious right, let alone how it connects with eye opening understandings of our own history. And I have had people I know and respect adamantly insist that they should not.

I really did not anticipate having to write this diary. But here we are.”

Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy

“I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

– Thomas Jefferson, who was attacked by the religious right in the election of 1800. These words are engraved inside the Jefferson Memorial.

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“Moon’s Law: God Is Phasing Out Democracy” by Frederick Clarkson

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NPR: Church and State: ‘Eternal Hostility’ with Frederick Clarkson

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Reclaiming and Renewing Religious Freedom in the 21st Century

https://www.dailykos.com/blog/Frederick%20Clarkson/

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RESCUING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM with Frederick Clarkson

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Money and Power and Moon’s Washington Times by Rory O’Connor

Investigations into the Sun Myung Moon / Hak Ja Han organizations

The Tragedy of the Six Marys website

#Frederick Clarkson #Sun Myung Moon #Religious Right #Unification Church #Family Federation for World Peace and Unification #Hak Ja Han

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antoine-roquentin · 5 years

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For over a year a team of taz reporters has been trying to find an answer to the following questions: Is there a right-wing underground network in Germany in which opponents of the government connect, radicalise, and prepare themselves for armed struggle? Does this network have strong ties to German state authorities, such as the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution – Germany's security agency that is tasked amongst others to safeguard against threats to the national democratic order? Or even to the highest ranks of the German Bundeswehr?

During these investigations, we met so called „preppers“. Preppers are people who stock up on foods like preserved vegetables. We also looked at the inquiry of the Federal Prosecutor’s office whose officers had believed that they had discovered a right-wing terrorist group in Northern Germany. We were able to go through secret telegram chats and were able to speak with men who had been ordering books from far-right publishers – but who nevertheless saw nothing wrong with their declared nationalist German Völkish worldviews.

When we published our first larger text „Kommando Heimatschutz“back in December 2017, we did not yet know the true identity of the person behind the pseudonym Hannibal. We had learned that Hannibal was held to be the administrator of a nationwide chat-network of so called preppers. At that time, we had reasons to ask ourselves if there could be a possibility that „Hannibal“ is an officer serving actively in the German Bundeswehr and moreover, that he may have directly helped to build an underground network from within the German Army. Today we know much more.

We are now aware of Hannibal’s true identity.

André S. was born in 1985 in the city of Halle (Saale), which, back then, was still part of the communist GDR. He became a member of the KSK, in the South West German town Calw. He is also founder and chairman of an association in which elite German combatants meet. It has a postal address in Dormagen, North Rhine-Westphalia. We also know his surname. Due to his personal rights, we are withholding his full name here.

After one year of investigations, our research leads us to a single conclusion: In many parts of Germany, but also in Switzerland and Austria, groups had been formed that tried to establish what could be seen as a state within a state. Members of these groups are policemen and soldiers, reservists, civil servants and members of intelligence services.

Once they receive a sign, once “Day X“ has arrived, they wanted to be ready to take up arms. That “Day X“ was discussed frequently in their chat-groups. Some of their plans are shockingly explicit. The German news magazine Focus called it an “Underground Army“.

We see different groups that are interconnected like a web, and our research revealed that the individual threads, again and again, led to one single individual: Hannibal.

Who is this Hannibal? How could it be that nationwide extremist cells appear to have been administrated from within the Graf-Zeppelin Barracks in Calw? How is it possible that Hannibal appears to have been warned by the MAD?

Dubious Civil Servants

It is late August in 2017: Officers acting on behalf of the General German Federal Prosecution search homes and offices in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, East Germany. They also search those belonging to a police officer and an attorney. The allegations: Individuals were suspected to have planned the apprehension or „liquidation“ of politicians and other people associated with the wider German political Left. The investigations are still ongoing today.

There is something curious about these raids. Public prosecutors did not entrust this job to civil servants of the North of Germany. There is no state police involved. Not even the state-minister for Interior Affairs of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was notified until the very last moment, just before the raids were about to be carried out.

The raided attorney and police-officer in question did not act alone. Other men were supposed to have been part of this group, for example, a member of the German Special Police (Spezialeinsatzkommando – SEK) as well as a former soldier. In 2017 he still headed a company of the reserves preparing for an assignment at the G20 Summit in Hamburg in July 2017.

These men are all part of a broader group from northern Germany that is ready for national catastrophes such as blackouts, heavy storms, or severe food shortages, any situation really, during which the German State could no longer provide for the safety of its citizens. They usually got together in different online chat-groups. One goes by the name of „Nordkreuz“ („North Cross“), another by „Nord.Com“. Their members discussed vaccine shortages and troop movements in Eastern Europe.

A third group is merely called „Nord“ („North“). The man that supplies this particular group with confidential information and internal reports from the German Bundeswehr is Hannibal. His messages create a feeling of belonging to an inner circle and of enjoying privileges due to the provision of knowledge labelled as confidential and secret.

The fact that groups like these grew in autumn 2015 is certainly no coincidence. It is the time when the migration policy of Germany became a central national topic of debate, no lesser so inside these chatgroups. Members started to discuss, how to fight the official German migration policy.

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radfemandreadaly · 5 years

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The news that Jorg Haider - the Austrian fascist leader - spent his final few hours in a gay bar with a hot blond has shocked some people. It hasn't shocked me. This is a taboo topic for a gay left-wing man like me to touch, but there has always been a weird, disproportionate overlap between homosexuality and fascism. Take a deep breath; here goes.

Some 10,000 gay people were slaughtered in the Nazi death-camps. Many more were humiliated, jailed, deported, ethnically cleansed, or castrated. One gay survivor of the camps, LD Classen von Neudegg, has written about his experiences. A snapshot: "Three men had tried to escape one night. They were captured, and when they returned they had the word 'homo' scrawled across their clothing. They were placed on a block and whipped. Then they were forced to beat a drum and cheer, 'Hurrah! We're back! Hurrah!' Then they were hanged." This is one of the milder events documented in his book. So the idea of a gay fascist seems ridiculous. Yet when the British National Party - our own home-grown Holocaust-denying bigots - announced it was fielding an openly gay candidate in the European elections this June, dedicated followers of fascism didn't blink. The twisted truth is that gay men have been at the heart of every major fascist movement that ever was - including the gay-gassing, homo-cidal Third Reich. With the exception of Jean-Marie Le Pen, all the most high-profile fascists in Europe in the past thirty years have been gay. It's time to admit something. Fascism isn't something that happens out there, a nasty habit acquired by the straight boys. It is - in part, at least - a gay thing, and it's time for non-fascist gay people to wake up and face the marching music. Just look at our own continent over the past decade. Dutch fascist Pim Fortuyn ran on blatantly racist anti-immigrant platform, describing Islam as "a cancer" and "the biggest threat to Western civilisation today." Yet with two little fluffy dogs and a Mamma complex, he was openly, flamboyantly gay. When accused by a political opponent of hating Arabs, he replied, "How can I hate Arabs? I sucked one off last night."

Jorg Haider blasted Austria's cosy post-Nazi politics to rubble in 2000 when his neo-fascist 'Freedom Party' won a quarter of the vote and joined the country's government as a coalition partner. Several facts always cropped up in the international press coverage: his square jaw, his muscled torso, his SS-supporting father, his rabid anti-Semitism, his hatred of immigrants, his description of Auschwitz and Dachau as "punishment centres". A few newspapers mentioned that he is always surrounded by fit, fanatical young men. A handful went further and pointed out that several of these young men are openly gay. Then one left-wing German paper broke the story everybody else was hinting at. They alleged Haider is gay. Rumours of an Indian waiter with "intimate details" of Haider's body broke into the press. The Freedom Party's general manager Gerald Miscka quickly quit, amid accusations that he was Haider's lover. Haider's close gay friend Walter Kohler - who has been photographed showing off a holstered pistol while Haider chuckled - declared his opposition to outing politicians. Haider - who was married and has two children - kept quiet while his functionaries denied the rumours. The revelation that he died after leaving a gay bar suggests these rumours were true.

On and on it goes. If you inter-railed across Europe, only stopping with gay fascists, there aren't many sights you'd miss. France's leading post-war fascist was Edouard Pfieffer, who was not batting for the straight side. Germany's leading neo-Nazi all through the eighties was called Michael Kuhnen; he died of AIDS in 1991 a few years after coming out. Martin Lee, author of a study of European fascism, explains, "For Kuhnen, there was something supermacho about being a Nazi, as well as being a homosexual, both of which enforced his sense of living on the edge, of belonging to an elite that was destined to make an impact. He told a West German journalist that homosexuals were 'especially well-suited for our task, because they do not want ties to wife, children and family.'" And it wouldn't be long before your whistlestop tour arrived in Britain. At first glance, our Nazis seem militantly straight. They have tried to disrupt gay parades, describe gay people as "evil", and BNP leader Nick Griffin reacted charmingly to the bombing of the Admiral Duncan pub in 1999 with a column saying, "The TV footage of gay demonstrators [outside the scene of carnage] flaunting their perversion in front of the world's journalists showed just why so many ordinary people find these creatures repulsive."

But scratch to homophobic surface and there's a spandex swastika underneath. In 1999, Martin Webster, a former National Front organiser and head honcho in the British fascist movement, wrote a four-page pamphlet detailing his 'affair' with Nick Griffin. "Griffin sought out intimate relations with me," openly-gay Webster explained, "in the late 1970s. He was twenty years younger than me." Ray Hill, who infiltrated the British fascist movement for twelve years to gather information for anti-fascist groups, says it's all too plausible. Homosexuality is "extremely prevalent" in the upper echelons of the British far right, and at one stage in the 1980s nearly half of the movement's organisers were gay, he claims.

Gerry Gable, editor of the anti-fascist magazine 'Searchlight', explains, "I have looked at Britain's Nazi groups for decades and this homophobic hypocrisy has been there all the time. I cannot think of any organisation on the extreme right that hasn't attacked people on the grounds of their sexual preference and at the same time contained many gay officers and activists."

Griffins' alleged gay affair would stand in a long British fascist tradition. The leader of the skinhead movement all through the 1970s was a crazed, muscled thug called Nicky Crane. He was the icon of a reactionary backlash against immigrants, feminism and the 'hippy' lifetsyle of the 1960s. His movement's emphasis on conformity to a shaven, dehumanised norm resembled classical fascist movements; Crane soon became a campaigner and leading figure in the National Front. Oh, and he was gay. Before he died of AIDS in the mid-1980s, Crane came out and admitted he had starred in many gay porn videos. Just before he died in 1986, he was allowed to steward a Gay Pride march in London, even though he still said he was "proud to be a fascist." The rubber-soled friction between gay fascists and progressive British gay people sparked into anger in 1985 when the Gay Skinhead Movement organised a disco at London's Gay Centre. Several lesbians in particular objected to the "invasion" of the centre. They felt that the cult of "real men" and hypermasculine thugs was stirring up the most base feelings "in the very place, the gay movement, where you would least expect them." And this Gaystapo has an icon to revere, an alternative Fuhrer to worship: the lost gay fascist leader Ernst Rohm. Along with Adolf Hitler, Rohm was the founding father of Nazism. Born to conservative Bavarian civil servants in 1887, Ernst Rohm's life began - in his view - in the "heroic" trenches of the First World War. Like so many of the generation who formed the Nazi Party, he was nurtured by and obsessed with the homoerotic myth of the trenches - heroic, beautiful boys prepared to die for their brothers and their country. He emerged from the war with a bullet-scarred face and a reverence for war. As he put it in his autobiography, "Since I am an immature and wicked man, war and unrest appeal to me more than the good bourgeois order." After being disbanded, he tried half-heartedly to get a foothold in civilian life, but he saw it as alien, bourgeois, boring. He had no political beliefs, only prejudices - particularly hatred of Jews. Historian Joachim Fest describes Rohm's generation of alienated, demobbed young men humiliated by defeat as "agents of a permanent revolution without any revolutionary idea of the future, only a wish to eternalize the values of the trenches." It was Rohm who first spotted the potential of a soap-box ranter called Adolf Hitler. He saw him as the demagogue he needed to mobilize support for his plan to overthrow democracy and establish a "soldier's state" where the army ruled untrammelled. He introduced the young fascist to local politicians and military leaders; they knew him for many years as "Rohm's boy." Gay historian Frank Rector notes, "Hitler was, to a substantial extent, Rohm's protégé." Rohm integrated Hitler into his underground movement to overthrow the Weimar Republic. Rohm's blatant, out homosexuality seems bizarre now, given the gay genocide that was to follow. He talked openly about his fondness for gay bars and Turkish baths, and was known for his virility. He believed that gay people were superior to straights, and saw homosexuality as a key principle of his proposed Brave New Fascist Order. As historian Louis Snyder explains, Rohm "projected a social order in which homosexuality would be regarded as a human behaviour pattern of high repute... He flaunted his homosexuality in public and insisted his cronies do the same. He believed straight people weren't as adept at bullying and aggression as homosexuals, so homosexuality was given a high premium in the SA." They promoted an aggressive, hypermasculine form of homosexuality, condemning "hysterical women of both sexes", in reference to feminine gay men. This belief in the superiority of homosexuality had a strong German tradition that grew up at the turn of the twentieth century around Adolf Brand, publisher of the country's first gay magazine. You could call it 'Queer as Volk': they preached that gay men were the foundation of all nation-states and represented an elite, warrior caste that should rule. They venerated the ancient warrior cults of Sparta, Thebes and Athens.

Rohm often referred to the ancient Greek tradition of sending gay solider couples into battle, because they were believed to be the most ferocious fighters. The famous pass of Thermopylae, for example was held by 300 soldiers - who consisted of 150 gay couples. In its early years, the SA - Hitler and Rohm's underground army - was seen as predominantly gay. Rohm assigned prominent posts to his lovers, making Edmund Heines his deputy and Karl Ernst the SA commander in Berlin. The organisation would sometimes meet in gay bars. The gay art historian Christian Isermayer said in an interview, "I got to know people in the SA. They used to throw riotous parties even in 1933... I once attended one. It was quite well-behaved but thoroughly gay. But then, in those days, the SA was ultra-gay." On June 30th 1934, Rohm was awoken in a Berlin hotel by Hitler himself. He sprang to his feet and saluted, calling, "Heil Mein Fuhrer!" Hitler said simply, "You are under arrest," and with that he left the room, giving orders for Rohm to be taken to Standelheim prison. He was shot that night. Rohm was the most high-profile kill in the massacre known as 'the Night of the Long Knives'. Rohm had been suspected by Hitler of disloyalty, but his murder began a massive crackdown on gay people. Heinrich Himmler, head of the Gestapo, described homosexuality as "a symptom of degeneracy that could destroy our race. We must return to the guiding Nordic principle: extermination of degenerates." German historian Lothar Machtan argues that Hitler had Rohm - and almost all of the large number of gay figures within the SA - killed to silence speculation about his own homosexual experiences. His 'evidence' for Hitler being gay is shaky and has been questioned by many historians, although some of his findings are at least suggestive. A close friend of Hitler's during his teenager years, August Kubizek, alleged a "romantic" affair between them. Hans Mend, a despatch rider who served alongside Hitler in the First World War, claimed to have seen Hitler having sex with a man. Hitler was certainly very close to several gay men, and never seems to have had a normal sexual relationship with a woman, not even his wife, Eva Braun. Rudolph Diels, the founder of the Gestapo, recorded some of Hitler's private thoughts on homosexuality. "It had destroyed ancient Greece, he said. Once rife, it extended its contagious effects like an ineluctable law of nature to the best and most manly of characters, eliminating from the breeding pool the very men the Volk most needs." This idea - that homosexuality is 'contagious' and, implicitly, tempting - is revealing. Rohm is venerated on the Homo-Nazi sites that have bred on the internet like germs in a wound. They have names like Gays Against Semitism (with the charming acronym GAS), and the Aryan Resistance Corps (ARC). Their Rohmite philosophy is simple: while white men are superior to other races, gay men are "the masters of the Master Race". They alone are endowed with the "capacity for pure male bonding" and the "superior intellect" that is needed for "a fascist revolution." The ARC even organises holiday "get-togethers" for its members where "you can relax amongst the company of our fellow white brothers." So it's fairly easy to establish that gay people are not inoculated from fascism. They have often been at its heart. This begs the bigger question: why? How did gay people - so often victims of oppression and hate - become integral to the most hateful and evil political movement of all? Is it just an extreme form of self-harm, the political equivalent to the gay kids who slash their own arms to ribbons out of self-hate? Gay pornographer and film-maker Bruce LaBruce has one explanation. He claims that "all gay porn today is implictly fascist. Fascism is in our bones, because it's all about glorifying white male supremacy and fetishizing domination, cruelty, power and monstrous authority figures." He has tried to explore the relationship between homosexuality and fascism in his movies, beginning with 'No Skin Off My Ass' in 1991. In his disturbing 1999 film "Skin Flick', a bourgeois gay couple - one black, one white - are sexually terrorised by a gang of gay skinheads who beat off to 'Mein Kampf' and beat up 'femmes'. He implies that bourgeois gay norms quickly break down to reveal a fascist lurking underneath; the movie ends with the black character being raped in front of his half-aroused white lover, as the racist gang chant, "Fuck the monkey." I decided to track down some gay fascists and ask them directly. Wyatt Powers, director of the ARC, says, "I always knew in my heart racist and gay were both morally right. I don't see any conflict between them. It's only the Jew-owned gay press that tries to convince us that racialism is the same thing as homophobia. You can be an extreme nationalist and gay without any contradiction at all." One comment board on a gay racist website goes even further into racist lunacy. One gay man from Ohio says, "Even if you are gay and white, or retarded and white, YOU ARE WHITE, BOTTOM LINE! Instead of letting the white race go extinct because of worthless races such as the Africans or Mexicans popping out literally millions of babies a day, we have to fight this fucked up shit they are doing. They are raping our country." It's true that racism and homophobia do not necessarily overlap - but as Rabbi Bernard Melchman explains, "Homophobia and anti-Semitism are so often part of the same disease." Racists are usually homophobic. Even after reading all their web rantings, I didn't feel any closer to understanding why so many gay men ally themselves with people who will almost always turn on them in the end, just as the Nazis did. Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has a sensitive and intriguing explanation. "There are many reasons for this kind of thing," he says. "Some of them are in denial. They are going for hyper-masculinity, the most extreme possible way of being a man. It's a way of ostentatiously rejecting the perceived effeminacy of the homosexual 'Other'. These troubled men have a simple belief in their minds: 'Straight men are tough. Queers are weak. Therefore if I'm tough I can't be queer.' It's a desperate way of proving their manhood." 'Searchlight' magazine - the bible of the British anti-fascist movement, with moles in every major far-right organisation - offers an alternative explanation. "Generally condemned by a society that continues to be largely hostile to gays, some men may find refuge and a new power status in the far right," one of their writers has explained. "Through adherence to the politics espoused by fascist groups, a new identity emerges - one where they aren't outcasts, because they are White Men, superior to everyone else. They render the gay part of their identity invisible - or reject the socially less acceptable parts, like being feminine - while vaunting what they see as superior." But there's another important question: will fascist movements inevitably turn on gay people? In the case of the Nazis, it seems to have been fairly arbitrary; Hitler's main reason for killing Rohm was unrelated to his sexuality. From my perspective as a progressive-minded leftie, all fascism is evil; but should all gay people see it as inimical to their interests? Is it possible to have a gay fascist who wasn't acting against his own interests? Fascism is often defined as "a political ideology advocating hierarchical government that systematically denies equality to certain groups." It's true that this hierarchy could benefit gay people at the expense of, say, black people. But given the prevalence of homophobia, isn't that - even for people who don't see fascism as inherently evil - a terrible risk to take? Won't a culture that turns viciously on one minority get around to gay people in the end? This seems, ultimately, to be the lesson of Ernst Rohm's pitiful, squalid little life. The growing awareness of the role gay men play in fascist movements has been abused by some homophobes. In an especially nutty work of revisionist history called 'The Pink Swastika', the 'historian' Scott Lively tries to blame gay people for the entire Holocaust, and describes the murder of gay men in the camps as merely "gay-on-gay violence." A typical website commenting on the book claims absurdly, "The Pink Swastika shows that there was far more brutality, rape, torture and murder committed against innocent people by Nazi homosexuals than there even was against homosexuals themselves." Yet we can't allow these madmen to prevent a period of serious self-reflection from the gay movement. If Bruce LaBruce is right, many of the mainstream elements of gay culture - body worship, the lauding of the strong, a fetish for authority figures and cruelty - provide a swamp in which the fascist virus can thrive. Do some gay people really still need to learn that fascists will not bring on a Fabulous Solution for gay people, but a Final Solution for us all?

Johann Hari is a writer for the Independent newspaper. To read more of his articles, click here.

#LGBTI #gay #fascismo #heteropatriarcado

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Friday, March 19, 2021

Asian anxiety about Atlanta shootings (NYT) The slaying of six Asian women among eight people killed in shootings at three Atlanta-area spas on Tuesday left Asian communities in many Western countries shaken, after a year that has seen a spike in racist attacks and threats against people of Asian descent. The South Korean Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that four people of Korean descent were among the victims. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was already in Seoul on a diplomatic trip, said Wednesday that he was “horrified by this violence” and offered “deepest condolences to the families and friends” of the victims.

IRS will delay tax filing due date until May 17 (AP) Americans will be getting extra time to prepare their taxes. The Internal Revenue Service says it’s delaying the traditional tax filing deadline from April 15 until May 17. The IRS announced the decision Wednesday and said it would provide further guidance in the coming days. The move provides more breathing room for taxpayers and the IRS alike to cope with changes brought on by the pandemic. The decision postpones when individual taxpayers must file their return and when their payment is due. The IRS said taxpayers who owe money would not face any further penalties or interest if they pay by May 17. The new deadline also applies to individuals who pay self-employment tax.

Troubled US-China ties face new test in Alaska meeting (AP) The United States and China will face a new test in their increasingly troubled relations when top officials from both countries meet in Alaska. Ties between the world’s two largest economies have been torn for years and the Biden administration has yet to signal it’s ready or willing to back down on the hard-line stances taken under President Donald Trump. Nor has China signaled it’s prepared to ease the pressure it has brought to bear. Thus, the stage is set for a contentious first face-to-face meeting Thursday. Difficult discussions are anticipated over trade, human rights in Tibet, Hong Kong, China’s western Xinjiang region, Taiwan, Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea, and the coronavirus pandemic. Just a day before the meeting, the U.S. announced new sanctions on officials over China’s crackdown on pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong. In response, the Chinese stepped up their rhetoric opposing U.S. interference in domestic affairs.

Cycle of retribution takes Bolivia’s ex-president from palace to prison cell (The Guardian) It was November 2019, just days after Evo Morales had abandoned Bolivia’s presidency and fled into exile, and the country’s newly installed interior minister was making no effort to hide his glee. “Any terrorist should spend the rest of their life in prison,” Arturo Murillo gloated during an interview in his recently occupied chambers, vowing to put the runaway leftist behind bars for the next 30 years. “It’s not about whether you’re an ex-president,” the pugnacious hotelier-turned-politician insisted. “In fact, it’s even worse when it’s an ex-president. An ex-president should be sentenced twice over because people trust in their president.” This week, an ex-president was indeed jailed in Bolivia—but not Morales. Instead, it was Murillo’s former boss, Jeanine Áñez, who found herself languishing in a La Paz prison cell after being seized by security forces early on Saturday. “We’re seeking a 30-year sentence,” Bolivia’s new justice minister, Iván Lima, announced, as Áñez was accused of terrorism and sedition—the very same charges Murillo had levelled at Morales. The imprisonment of Áñez, a Bible-bashing conservative who became interim leader after Morales fled under pressure from the military, was met with jubilation by some. Others, however, described the arrest as an alarming development in an already profoundly divided country.

E.U. unveils vaccine passport plan to enable summer travel (NYT) The European Union on Wednesday launched a closely watched effort to create a joint vaccination passport for its more than 440 million citizens and residents, embarking on a tightrope walk between economic pressures, discrimination fears and concerns over Europe’s slow vaccination progress. Supporters hope the “digital green certificates” will be ready by June, which could help to salvage the European summer tourism season and even serve as a model that could be extended to the United States and other countries. But E.U. countries lag far behind the United States in vaccinations, which has raised concerns that the passport plan could be launched prematurely. The passes are expected to be digital or paper documents for travelers to prove that they have been vaccinated, that they recovered from the virus or recently tested negative for it. In many cases, this could free travelers from quarantine obligations. Those privileges could eventually also apply to Americans or British citizens traveling to continental Europe, given that all vaccines approved in the two countries are also approved for use in the European Union.

Russia recalls its ambassador to the US after Biden says he thinks Putin is a killer (USA Today) Russia has recalled its ambassador to the United States to discuss relations with Washington, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said Wednesday. The move came after President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin would “pay a price” for Moscow’s interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In an interview with ABC News, Biden was also asked if he thought Putin is a killer. “I do,” Biden responded. The president did not elaborate on the “killer” question or on what costs the U.S. might impose on Russia over election interference. The diplomatic tiff comes amid rising tensions between Washington and Moscow. On Tuesday, U.S. intelligence officials released a report concluding that Russia tried to denigrate Biden’s candidacy in the 2020 election. The declassified assessment said that Putin authorized the election meddling, which sought to help former president Donald Trump’s re-election bid.

Myanmar construction magnate claims cash payments to Suu Kyi (AP) A Myanmar construction magnate with links to military rulers claimed he personally gave more than half a million dollars in cash to deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a broadcast on state television aimed at discrediting the ousted civilian government. The statement by Maung Waik could pave the way for more serious charges against Suu Kyi, who has been detained since the Feb. 1 military takeover while security forces increasingly use lethal force against a popular uprising demanding the restoration of democratically elected leaders. The military has already tried to implicate Suu Kyi in corruption, alleging she was given $600,000 plus gold bars by a political ally. She and President Win Myint have been charged so far with inciting unrest, possession of walkie-talkies and violating a pandemic order limiting public gatherings.

Myanmar faces growing isolation as military tightens grip (Reuters) Myanmar faced growing isolation on Thursday with increasingly limited internet services and its last private newspaper ceasing publication as the military built a case against ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Western countries have condemned the coup and called for an end to the violence and for the release of Suu Kyi and others. Asian neighbours have offered to help find a solution, but the military has a long record of shunning outside pressure. Large parts of an economy already reeling from the novel coronavirus have been paralysed by the protests and a parallel civil disobedience campaign of strikes against military rule, while many foreign investors are reassessing plans. The U.N. food agency warned this week that rising prices of food and fuel could undermine the ability of poor families to feed themselves. “Whatever happens in Myanmar over coming months, the economy will collapse, leaving tens of millions in dire straits and needing urgent protection,” historian and author Thant Myint-U said on Twitter.

Combat Drones Made in China Are Coming to a Conflict Near You (Bloomberg) A dozen years into its fight with the Islamic insurgent group Boko Haram, Nigeria is getting some new weapons: a pair of Wing Loong II drones from China. The deal is one of a growing number of sales by state-owned Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC), which has exported scores of the aircraft. The United Arab Emirates has used AVIC drones in Libya’s civil war, Egypt has attacked rebels in Sinai with them, and Saudi-led troops have deployed them in Yemen. The company’s drones “are now battle-tested,” says Heather Penney, a fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, a think tank in Arlington, Va. “They’ve been able to feed lessons learned back into their manufacturing.” Nigeria is getting AVIC’s second generation of Wing Loongs—the name means “pterodactyl”—which can fly as fast as 230 mph and as high as 30,000 feet, carrying a payload of a dozen missiles. Since 2015, when AVIC introduced the newer model, it’s produced 50 for export and an unknown number for China’s People’s Liberation Army. And it’s working on even more advanced aircraft, such as a stealth combat drone with a flying-wing design similar to that of the U.S. B-2 bomber. The drone program, combined with deliveries of fighter jets, trainers, transporters, and assault helicopters, has propelled AVIC into the upper ranks of the global arms trade. In 2019 it sold military equipment valued at $22.5 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), placing it sixth in the world, behind five U.S. companies. AVIC’s drones have two big selling points: They’re cheaper than comparable aircraft from producers in the U.S. or Israel—the other primary manufacturers—and China doesn’t much care how they’re used, says Ulrike Franke, policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

As 4th Election Looms, Some Ask: Is Israel’s Democracy Broken? (NYT) Israelis will vote on Tuesday for the fourth time in two years, in a do-over election for a do-over election for a do-over election. The seemingly endless loop is the most prominent symptom of the polarization that has paralyzed Israeli politics since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began to be investigated for corruption in 2017. Mr. Netanyahu has refused to resign. That decision has split the country, almost down the middle, and divided voters less by ideology than by their support or antipathy for Mr. Netanyahu. The polarization has been exacerbated by Israel’s multiparty system, which virtually guarantees that no single party will win an outright majority in Parliament, forcing the construction of wobbly coalitions with disparate small parties. Now, even the right-wing coalition that kept Mr. Netanyahu afloat for 12 years has fractured, mainly over question of the acceptability of a prime minister under criminal indictment. In the last three elections, Mr. Netanyahu did not win enough support to form a stable government. But neither did his opponents, which allowed him to remain prime minister, first in a caretaker role, and then, for the past year, as the head of a fragile coalition. Polling suggests that next week’s vote is unlikely to break the deadlock, leading many Israelis to brace for yet a fifth election later this year.

Clubhouse: the new social platform that is frightening Arab regimes (Le Monde) A month ago, the up-and-coming app Clubhouse took the Middle East by storm. In just a few days, the latest gem from Silicon Valley had already earned its place in the crowded market of Arab social networks. Since this audio chat platform only runs on iOS for the moment, its use is restricted to iPhone owners, i.e. the relatively wealthy classes. But in these circles, especially in Egypt and among the ultra-connected youth of the wealthy Gulf States, followers for this new app started to grow rapidly. In these countries where social pressure and official censorship stifle dissenting voices and non-conforming opinions, Clubhouse provides a unique breathing space. In these virtual rooms, where anyone can initiate a discussion on a topic of their choice, or join an ongoing conversation, Arabs are rediscovering a taste for free speech. As the powers that be have not yet found a way to lock down this new network, the three great taboos of the region (sex, politics and religion) are openly discussed. In a sign that the application scares autocrats, the Sultanate of Oman announced on Sunday that the country had blocked Clubhouse, following the footsteps of China, who blocked it in February. In the Emirates, discussions have not been accessible for several days, which is interpreted locally as an act of censorship without saying so openly. Fans of the platform can bypass the jamming with a VPN, but in doing so, they risk breaking the law: The use of such software is strictly codified in the UAE.

Yemeni rebel offensive threatens camps of those who fled war (AP) Already displaced once in Yemen’s grinding civil war, Mohammed Ali Saleh fled with his pregnant wife and their three children to central Marib province last year to seek refuge in a region that has known some relative peace and stability because of well-protected oil fields nearby. But now the fighting is moving toward them again. Iran-backed Houthi rebels are pushing to capture the province from the internationally recognized government to try to complete their control over the northern half of Yemen. If they succeed, the Houthis could claim a strategic win after a largely stalemated battle in almost seven years of fighting. The sounds of war terrify Saleh and his family. “It’s a nightmare we are experiencing every night,” he said from a camp for the displaced that had previously escaped violence.

#headlines #news

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nedsecondline · 6 years

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Woman imprisoned for converting to Islam tells Indian Supreme Court: “I want freedom”

WTF! Religious fascism and sexism alive and well in India sanctified in courts! "In 2016, Hadiya, a 24-year old woman from a Hindu household who was pursuing training in homeopathic medicine, converted to Islam. Several months later, she married the man of her choice, Shafin Jahan, a Muslim from her home state of Kerala. Hearing news of his daughter’s conversation and subsequent marriage, Hadiya’s father filed a police case alleging his daughter had been the victim of “love jihad.” Six months ago, the Kerala High Court ruled in favor of Hadiya’s father, declared her consensual marriage null and void, and placed Hadiya — an adult woman — in the custody of her father. Hadiya had been held against her will at her father’s house since May until this past Monday, when the Indian Supreme Court, after finally allowing her to speak, ruled that she could return to her medical college — under the condition that the college’s dean be appointed her “local guardian.”"

On Monday this week, a young Muslim woman faced the Indian Supreme Court, finally allowed to speak after being imprisoned for converting to Islam and marrying a man of her choice. After months of petitions, news coverage, and speeches from everyone but her, she said laid out her demand clearly: “I want freedom.”

In 2016, Hadiya, a 24-year old woman from a Hindu household who was pursuing training in homeopathic medicine, converted to Islam. Several months later, she married the man of her choice, Shafin Jahan, a Muslim from her home state of Kerala. Hearing news of his daughter’s conversation and subsequent marriage, Hadiya’s father filed a police case alleging his daughter had been the victim of “love jihad.” Six months ago, the Kerala High Court ruled in favor of Hadiya’s father, declared her consensual marriage null and void, and placed Hadiya — an adult woman — in the custody of her father.

Hadiya had been held against her will at her father’s house since May until this past Monday, when the Indian Supreme Court, after finally allowing her to speak, ruled that she could return to her medical college — under the condition that the college’s dean be appointed her “local guardian.”

Feminists across India have been protesting the court’s treatment of Hadiya, and the case has inspired serious debate about women’s autonomy, state persecution of Muslims, and the politics of conversion in contemporary India. I’ve been covering Hadiya’s story here at Feministing in the context of these debates, but it’s not just an Indian controversy. Hadiya’s story sheds light on issues — state regulation of women’s bodies, Islamophobia, and racism — important to us in the United States as we continue to protest American state violence against Muslims worldwide.

“Love Jihad”

As the Hindu right has ascended in India, so have allegations of “love Jihad.” The panic over this non-existent, alleged conspiracy whereby Muslim men seduce and then “forcibly convert” Hindu women, has spread from right-wing propaganda to state investigations policing interfaith marriages between Hindu women and Muslim men. Hadiya’s case has been taken up by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) under an anti-terrorism framework.

The stereotype of Muslim men as sexually violent threats to the “purity” of Hindu women has a long history of India and is pronounced in the rhetoric of the Indian right. The Indian government has also used stereotypes about the aggression of Muslim men to deny the agency of Muslim women. For example, while the right-wing government cynically championed the recent Indian Supreme Court verdict against triple talaq (a form of instant divorce previously allowed to Muslim men under Indian law), it was actually Muslim women’s collective power which had brought about the decision.

As numerous feminists have pointed out, the painful irony of the Hindu right’s supposed championing of Muslim women is that these are the very politicians and organizations responsible for horrifying, and deeply misogynist, anti-Muslim threats and violence. The ruling party in India, the right-wing BJP, is known for using anti-Muslim hate speech, including one BJP party worker’s grotesque threats that Muslim women’s bodies should be disinterred and raped.

This is sadly not an empty threat, considering the widespread sexualized atrocities committed against Muslim women in the 2002 Gujarat riots, a series of brutal anti-Muslim attacks in which current Prime Minister Narendra Modi was likely complicit. A recent sting operation revealed right-wing Hindu leaders bragging on tape about spreading the myth of love Jihad and using false allegations of rape to terrorize Muslim communities and violate women’s autonomy.

From Family to Court

While all people over the age of 18 are legal adults under the Indian constitution, the legal system has often been a tool of maintaining patriarchal control.

Numerous Indian feminists have critiqued the social conception that a woman is the ward of her father, who passes her to a husband of the family’s choice. Local caste governing bodies, known as khap panchayats, are often criticized for upholding patriarchal control and limiting women’s constitutionally-entitled right to autonomous citizenship. But the legal system, too, is complicit, with recent decisions about rape reinforcing the idea that women cannot be raped by their husbands or deserve rape for pushing socially-defined boundaries. Furthermore, regulations of women’s autonomy and mobility are highly tied to religion and caste, with most honor killings actually being a murderous response to intercaste unions.

In Hadiya’s case, the Kerala High Court violated Hadiya’s rights by citing the”Indian tradition” of patriarchal family control, rather than abiding by the Indian tradition of robust constitutional protections for women and minorities.

The Supreme Court’s decision to allow Hadiya to return to her college is heartening. Still, it’s disturbing that the Court even allowed Hadiya to be imprisoned by her father in the first place; that it’s taking seriously allegations of “mental kidnapping” and “indoctrination” rather than accepting that an adult woman has the right to choose her religion; and that it took months for Hadiya’s voice to even be heard in court.

Most disturbing of all is the fact that, even after returning to her college, Hadiya may still not be permitted to meet her husband. The Supreme Court has placed her under the guardianship of the principal of her college, who has stated to the media that he has the power to decide who she meets — and he is unlikely to permit her to meet her husband. Meanwhile, the college’s housing, like many such dorms for women across India, has draconian rules, including mandatory 10:45pm lights out and only 1 hour daily access to cell phones.

As feminist group Pinjra Tod (“Break the Cages”) writes, this is one more example of how women’s educational institutions in India often reinforce patriarchal authority by severely restricting women’s mobility.

“I need the freedom to meet the person I love,” Hadiya said about the restrictive hostel rules. “I’m asking for my fundamental rights.”

“I want to remain true to my faith”

For many sitting reading about Hadiya’s case in the United States, it’s easy to dismiss the proceedings as the distant happenings of a “Third World” country where women’s rights aren’t as “developed” as in the United States. This, of course, is baloney. The regulation of women’s bodies is a fundamental form of political control across contexts, apparent too in American Islamophobia.

Appeals to white women’s supposed “purity” has long been a tactic of American racism. We see it in the historical use of alleged sexual sleights against white women as justifications for the lynching of black men. Most recently, we saw it in Dylann Roof’s use of white femininity to justify his horrific, racist 2015 murders.

We can see a similar sexualized racism against Muslim men today, as politicians appeal to sensationalized tales of sexual violence to fuel Islamophobic and anti-immigrant sentiment. And of course, anyone who witnessed the American Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is familiar with the racist and infantilizing claim (sometimes perpetuated by feminists) that Muslim women need the American government to save them. Just as right-wing Hindu groups campaign as champions of Muslim women while also sponsoring violence against them, the American government has historically “championed” Muslim women’s rights—while enabling abuse of them at home and dropping bombs on them abroad.

In the war for cultural supremacy, women’s bodies are made into battlefields. That’s why it’s even more important to listen when women like Hadiya, whom an entire state machinery has attempted to silence, speak. Try as her father might to prevent Hadiya from speaking in open court on Tuesday, and despite the uncertainty of her future, Hadiya’s voice rang clear.

“I have endured mental harassment and been in unlawful custody for 11 months. I want to go back to my college and continue my education��I want to remain true to my faith, ” she told the court in Malayalam, translated by a lawyer. “I want freedom.”

Cover photo: Hadiya with her stethescope; from social media

#Women

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caveartfair · 7 years

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Justice Department Moves to Seize Basquiat, Picasso Works in Widening 1MDB Scandal—and the 9 Other Most Important News Stories This Week

Catch up on the latest art news with our rundown of the 10 stories you need to know this week.

01 On Thursday, the Justice Department filed for the seizure of works by Pablo Picasso and Jean-Michel Basquiat allegedly purchased with stolen money from the 1MDB fund.

(Bloomberg)

The complaint seeks the forfeiture of $540 million in assets—ranging from paintings to an Oscar won by Marlon Brando—procured with stolen money from the Malaysian development fund 1MDB. The filing expands on seizure motions brought last year by the U.S. government, which estimates that $4.5 billion of 1MDB money was used illegally by public officials and others tied to the fund. Jho Low has previously been ensnared in the probe, with allegations including that the financier purchased $137 million in art with 1MDB money. The two works in Thursday’s filing by the Justice Department—a $9.2 million collage by Basquiat and a $3.3 million Picasso—were given to Leonardo DiCaprio by Low for use in a charity auction. Representatives of the actor, who signed a note with Low absolving him of any potential liability, say he is in the process of returning the pieces and is cooperating with authorities. The government is also looking to seize a photo by Diane Arbus as well as the rights to films financed with money from 1MDB including the The Wolf Of Wall Street and Dumb and Dumber To.

02 A strong edition of Art Basel in Basel opened to VVIPs on Tuesday, with sales reaching into the seven- and eight-figure range.

(Artsy)

The fair welcomed 291 galleries from 35 countries, as well as the art world’s elite collectors, who were reaching deeper into their pockets this year than they have for at least the past two editions of Art Basel in Basel, Artsy’s Alexander Forbes reports. “People are in the mood to buy,” said Eleanor Acquavella, as the ink dried on a sale of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Three Delegates (1982), for $15–20 million. Many of Art Basel in Basel’s galleries commented on how global the crowd of patrons has become. Hauser & Wirth partner Marc Payot said he had seen a rise in Chinese and Japanese collectors. “Even more now, Basel is the fair where, internationally, curators and collectors really come,” he said. Philip Guston’s Scared Stiff (1970) sold from the gallery’s booth, fetching around $15 million, and demonstrating that private galleries are increasingly competing with auction houses for top works. White Cube director of private sales Mathieu Paris said that collectors were making decisions much more quickly than they had at the past two years’ fairs. “I really have the feeling that the market is back,” he said.

03 Artist Khadija Saye has been named as a victim of the fire that swept through London’s Grenfell Tower on Wednesday, killing at least 30 people.

(via The Independent, The Telegraph, and The Guardian)

“Where is Khadija Saye?” asked Labour MP David Lammy (who knew Saye through his wife) in the pages of The Guardian on Thursday, the day after a fire swept through the west London tower block. Saye, whose work is currently on view at the Venice Biennale, went missing after the fire broke out. “I have heard nothing since her Facebook post from 4am on Wednesday reading: ‘Please pray for me and my mum. Just tried to leave, it’s impossible.’ I fear she may have perished in the inferno on the 20th floor,” wrote Lammy, who confirmed her death on Friday. The death toll from the Grenfell Tower fire sits at 30 as of Friday afternoon, but authorities say that figure will rise significantly as more remains are found; they also caution that some victims may never be identified. The fire has prompted outrage among residents, who say their concerns about safety following renovations were ignored by the local council. Kensington and Chelsea, where the tower is located, is the richest constituency in England on average, but is also marked by drastic inequality, with Grenfell providing social housing to less affluent residents. The public and opposition politicians have also rounded on the Conservative government’s handling of Grenfell Tower, both before and after the fire, blaming a regime of austerity and greed for the disaster. “Don’t let them tell you it’s a tragedy,” wrote Lammy. “It’s not a tragedy, it’s a monstrous crime. Corporate manslaughter.”

04 In a significant reorganization, Daniel H. Weiss has been named President and CEO of the the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

(via the New York Times)

At a meeting Tuesday, trustees of the museum voted unanimously to appoint Weiss—previously President and COO—to this new position. The change will give Weiss power in determining a replacement for Thomas P. Campbell, who resigned from his position as director and CEO in February. This new leadership structure is a sign that “fiscal responsibility now trumps artistic control” at the museum, the Times reports, as Weiss would now oversee the director role, which manages programming. The museum has dealt with a number of crises in the past months, including a halted multi-million-dollar expansion project and a deficit that could balloon to $40 million. These factors are largely regarded as the impetus for Campbell’s departure. Those close to the Met’s decision told the Times that the museum sought to retain Weiss as a stabilizing force as leadership continues to distance itself from Campbell.

05 Former MoMA president Agnes Gund has sold a $165 million Roy Lichtenstein painting to found a criminal justice reform charity.

(via the New York Times</a>)

In January, Gund, president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art, sold “Masterpiece” (1962) for $165 million including fees. Gund will dedicate $100 million from the sale to starting the Art for Justice Fund, a charity aimed at criminal justice and incarceration reform. Gund says she was prompted to organize the fund out of concern for her grandchildren, six of whom are African American, in the wake of cases like the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin. “The larger idea is to raise awareness among a community of art collectors that they can use their influence and their collections to advance social justice,” Darren Walker, Ford Foundation president, told the Times. Together with the Ford Foundation, which will help oversee the fund, Gund is asking other collectors to follow suit in order to raise another $100 million over the next five years. Current donors include Whitney chair Laurie M. Tisch, American Express CEO Kenneth I. Chenault and his wife, Kathryn, and philanthropist Jo Carole Lauder.

06 After controversy erupted over a performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar that depicted the titular figure as Donald Trump, the NEA quickly denied any ties to the show.

(via the National Endowment for the Arts)

Mounted by Shakespeare in the Park, the play depicted the violent murder of the Trump figure. Despite defenders citing that the overall message of Julius Caesar is against political violence, outrage from conservatives prompted the private sponsors Delta Air Lines and Bank of America to pull their funding. After Donald Trump Jr. tweeted asking if any public money went to the show, the National Endowment for the Arts quickly posted a message to its website. “No NEA funds have been awarded to support this summer’s Shakespeare in the Park production of Julius Caesar,” the statement read, “and there are no NEA funds supporting the New York State Council on the Arts’ grant to Public Theater or its performances.” The declaration comes as the agency is being targeted for elimination under the President’s recently released budget.

07 A Manhattan mural by artist David Choe has been vandalized following backlash related to comments the artist made bragging about a sexual assault.

(via Hyperallergic)

The mural, finished less than a week ago, is located on the corner of Houston Street and Bowery in the Lower East Side. Owned by Goldman Global Arts (an extension of Goldman Properties), this particular wall has been home to a series of rotating murals by high-profile street artists since 2008. When it was revealed that Choe would be next to paint the wall, critics protested the decision as a tacit acceptance and promotion of rape culture and sexual assault. On a podcast episode in 2014, Choe described an incident where he forced a masseuse to engage in oral sex. Although Choe later said he had misrepresented the story—calling it “bad storytelling in the style of douche”—he has also discussed and joked about rape in multiple public forums. On Monday, the graffiti group Big Time Mafia spray-painted the letters “BTM” in black across the recently-completed mural. It is not yet clear whether this was a response to Choe’s alleged past or simply an act of vandalism.

08 Historian Sarah E. Bond has received death threats over an essay about race, beauty, and classical sculpture.

(via Artforum)

Titled “Why We Need to Start Seeing the Classical World in Color” and published on Hyperallergic, the piece discusses how, in antiquity, sculptures that today appear as white marble would have been painted different skin tones and colors. Bond writes that as white supremacist groups and others explicitly mobilize these ancient sculptures as epitomes of pure whiteness and ideal beauty, more effort should be made to correctly depict these sculptures as they originally would have looked: covered with colorful paint through a technique known as polychromy. But after several right-wing publications responded to the piece with incendiary headlines like “College Professor Says White Marble Statue Promotes Racism,” Bond began receiving threats. “They viewed the piece as ‘liberal professor says that all white statues are racist,’” Bond told Artforum. “And that is clearly not what the piece is about.”

09 A temporary theater constructed in the middle of one of Rome’s most prominent archaeological sites has prompted criticism.

(via the New York Times)

The 3,000-seat structure was built to house a rock opera based on the life of Emperor Nero, which will run for three months this summer. True to the source material, the theater is situated atop the ruins of a temple on Palatine Hill, land that Nero absorbed into his estate following a fire that burned Rome to the ground. The setting has angered some conservationists. “This may not be the first grave abuse perpetuated [sic] against Rome’s monuments, but it is certainly the most serious, both for the size of the structure,” a former caretaker of the city’s antiquities wrote last month. Other critics denounced the increasing commercialization of historic sites across Italy. Producers of the show, however, noted that their rental fees (plus a percentage of ticket sales) will go towards underfunded restorations.

10 Seven countries have severed ties with Qatar, endangering partnerships between cultural institutions across the region.

(via The Art Newspaper)

Part of a continuing diplomatic crisis, a number of nearby nations—including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates—are blockading Qatar because of its alleged support for terrorist organizations. In the past, Qatari institutions such as the Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Islamic Art have worked successfully with other museums, both public and private. A representative from Sotheby’s Doha office expressed concern that the boycott will restrict art’s ability to travel both in and out of Qatar, making it more difficult to organize exhibitions. However, others were more optimistic. “If political relations were severed for any period of time, the close family connections across the region would act as a continued link,” a Doha arts professional told The Art Newspaper.

—Artsy Editors

Cover image via Wikimedia Commons.

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