Tuesday, January 09, 2024

Support Local Independent Media Like Atlanta's "285 South" by Sophia Qureshi

R to L: Robert Redford & Dustin Hoffman in "All the President's Men (1976)"
R to L: Robert Redford & Dustin Hoffman
 in "All the President's Men (1976)"

How many great movies portray journalists, editors and publishers as heroic bulwarks against the corruption of the powerful? Did your high school social studies teacher tell you that the news media were the Fourth Estate, nearly equal in power to each of the three branches of the United States government?

Friday, December 08, 2023

Film: "A Town Called Victoria" by Li Lu

 
"A Town Called Victoria" by Li Lu aired in 3 parts on Public Broadcasting Service's Independent Lens beginning October 13, 2023. The film has a website.

The documentary explores the aftermath of a fire which destroyed a masjid in Victoria, Texas. The region's history and politics are exlored as factors in people's actions. Lest this point get lost in my musings below, the film is well done and worth watching.

------ Spoiler alert ------

Authorities determined the fire was intentional. After a co-conspirator came forward as a confidential informant, police arrested Marq Vincent Perez. A federal court later found him guilty and sentenced him to more than 24 years in jail.

Here's a Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice document discussing a recent appeal from Mr. Perez.

A recent local news piece discussed changes in the Muslim community of Victoria since the arson.

What do we learn watching this? We knew that the Global War on Terror, whether in the Bush the Small or Obama mode, caused individuals in the United States to target Muslims and those perceived as Muslim-adjacent as threats. 

It surprised some people that the perpetrator was a Chicano (perhaps Tejano?). I'm not sure why that's surprising. Being part of an oppressed group doesn't preclude practicing oppression (see Palestinian anti-blackness in Chicago), and many white supremacist-adjacent USA-fascist organizations have non-white participants. In addition, Hispanic as an ethic group blurs the distinctions among those who identify as white European settlers in the Americas, the descendants of enslaved Africans and the indigenous peoples of the continent. 

One Muslim in Victoria placed great hope in Beto O'Rourke's campaign for one of Texas's seats in the United States Senate. A clip shows Beto speaking to Muslims. In that speech, he suggested that the endless wars of the USA were causing problems. Was that a consistent theme for him during that campaign? Or did he only say such things in front of Muslim audiences? Why do Muslims have no home in either the Democratic or Republican parties?

What is the benefit of police and judiciary actions? On the one hand, Mr. Perez is restrained from further crime, although at great cost to the state, his children and his parents. Did his severe sentence deter others? Not likely. Do Muslims in Victoria feel safer? Probably. Do they feel satisfaction at his suffering? Maybe. Might some type of restorative justice have produced a better result? The film doesn't explore this. I again recommend Arjun Sing Sethi's American Hate: Survivors Speak Out.

It's clear to me that USA Muslims, like other non-white peoples, will continue to suffer hate crimes as USA imperial interests require demonization of targeted populations abroad. The only long-term solution is dismantling USA Empire & its twin, the domestic colonization process of racial capitalism. The Muslims in Victoria are committed practicioners of respectability politics. It works for them (somewhat), but it doesn't solve the problem, as many subsequent hate crimes have demonstrated.


I continue to be inspired by my memory one of the first books I ever wrote about in this blog, Sherman Jackson's Islam and the Blackamerican. I haven't read it in 20 years, so I might be misremembering it. 




Monday, October 30, 2023

Review: "Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood and the World" by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope

 

Let us respect the colonialist plunderers of old. At least they had to risk "cannibals" and malaria. Today's plundering colonialists risk bad sushi and paper cuts in hotel lobbies in Switzerland and Singapore.

Reading Tom Wright's and Bradley Hope's Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood and the World engendered in me the same nausea and disgust I felt after reading The Secret World of Oil by Ken Silverstein. Every dollar extracted from the poorer nations of the world is a dollar taken away from development efforts. And while Wright's and Hope's narrative takes advantage of the extravagence of Jho Low, the central character, to maintain the reader's interest, it matters not if the people who extract the money spend it on birthday parties, yachts and jewelry or actual productive business enterprises. It's all theft from the world's poor.

The looting of 1MDB is the subject of Billion Dollar Whale. Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak oversaw the creation and management of 1MDB, a sovereign national fund, and, through cronies and bankers, pilfered millions (tens, hundreds?) of USD. 

The best passage in the book is towards the end, on p. 371:


It contrasts somewhat with the pass that the authors on p. 229 provide to the bankers and accountants who facilitated and handsomely profited from this plunder:
Western financial institutions, from Goldman to auditors and private banks, had unwittingly helped Low get away with it, impoverishing Malaysia. (emphasis added)
When people talk about corruption, it makes actions like these seem like accidents. Liberals say thing like, "They took advantage of loopholes." and "Regulation must be strengthened." Radicals ask: what if the whole financial system is designed to continuously prevent capital accumulation for development in the Global South?

Listen to the Citations Needed Podcast Episode entitled Western Media’s Narrow, Colonial Definition of "Corruption". This link is free and has show notes, but requires a Patreon User ID. This link doesn't require a login.

P.S. 2023-11-27 - Another important lesson from this colonialst plundering is the centrality of military force in international finance. Can you image what the United States government would do if confidence artists stole money from powerful people in the United States and used it to buy assets in militarily weak countries? The United States would demand transfer of assets and punitive reparations under threat of economic sanctions and military attack. Some libertarian-types imagine capitalism without government coercion. That is clearly a fantasy, as, at the end of the day, capitalists rely on military and police to protect their capital.

Tuesday, October 03, 2023

Children's Books from Ruqaya's Bookshelf: Is It Time to Demand More from Muslim Children's Literature?

Ruqaya's Bookshelf's ordering and fulfillment process worked well. The production value in terms of binding, paper, copyediting, illustrations, colors and cover finish are good. Many of the texts use British orthography, so be prepared to help your young readers with that.

Monday, October 02, 2023

Book Given Away: "Calling for a Blanket Dance" by Oscar Hokeah

 

Would you like my copy of the novel Calling for a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah? Book given away. It's a good read.

Every once in a while I give away books here. Make sure you subscribe to receive blog posts as soon as they are published. 

Sunday, June 25, 2023

Film: "Bilal: A New Breed of Hero" by Khurram H. Alavi and Ayman Jamal

I watched Bilal: A New Breed of Hero by Khurram H. Alavi and Ayman Jamal on Peacock. It is produced by Barajoun Entertainment. Alexander Kronemer & Michael Wolfe of Unity Productions Foundation are also writers on the film.

While the movie never is explicit that it is a story based on Muslims' common understandings of events surrounding Bilal ibn Rabah رضي الله عنه, a leading companion of Allah's Messenger صلى الله عليه و سلم, Muslim families familiar with these understandings will recognize elements. For example, in the duel before a battle scene, one of the participants on the side of the "New Movement" carries a sword ending in two points, as is commonly believed about `Ali ibn Abi Talib رضي الله عنه.