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İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي

@iyad_elbaghdadi

18 Jan

Otherization is necessary to define the self. Ethnic nationalism requires & needs the ethnic nationalism of the "other", or else it can't remain coherent. Dueling nationalisms and cycles of violence are the same side of the same coin.

This is the problem that many ethnic nationalisms find themselves in - they fare very well, even prosper, when facing another nationalism. But they can't remain coherent when facing a progressive humanistic vision that transcends nationalism

This is why today's ethnic nationalists have to invent or exaggerate enemies. They *need* them to exist, or else their movement loses coherence. Think of how badly white nationalists want "antifa" to exist - but there are lessons from my own neck of the woods in the MENA

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İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي

@iyad_elbaghdadi

17 Jan

@BankIDNorge

This isn't widely acknowledged but bears repeating as Norway's financial sector leans more on @BankIDNorge. Palestinians such as myself aren't allowed one. And so we can't have an online identity, online bank account, or even buy things online. This is systemic discrimination.

Norway is routinely ranked among the world's most egalitarian societies. And yet as a Palestinian I experience systemic discrimination for something I didn't choose, which is that I was born Palestinian. Imagine being unable to make online payments in a modern economy in 2021.

I am "stateless", so it's nobody's job anywhere to center me. It is nobody's job to fix this and I have no right to "complain" since "these are the rules". And yet... Norway is the world's most egalitarian society where humans are treated fairly. I just don't make the cut.

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İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي

@iyad_elbaghdadi

16 Jan

Here's another stream of consciousness thread about something I normally don't want to talk about. How does it feel to know that powerful nation states want you dead? What kind of thoughts do you have to process and get comfortable with?

It doesn't feel like a death sentence, at least not in the short term, because I'm not cynical about my security and I take precautions seriously, and because Norwegian security services have been exceptional. But while it doesn't feel like a death sentence it's a possibility.

You start to think, how will they do it? When, and where? Will it be a bomb - I'd hate others to be hurt on my behalf. A bullet - that's fast, but you don't get to say goodbye. Will it be poison - you get to say goodbye but your loved ones suffer the pain of seeing you waste away

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İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي

@iyad_elbaghdadi

14 Jan

Lately when sitting in silence, in meditation or in prayer, I get this sense of detachment from the ego, as though Iyad is a false self that I'm inhabiting. As though I'm not really Iyad but I'm looking through his eyes

It feels like Iyad isn't essential and isn't really that important. He's a good ego but he's just an ego. He has his own story and so does everyone else and theirs are as valid as his. He doesn't get to pursue his story at anyone's expense, or they at his.

This detachment seems to be persistent. It's heightened when I sit in silence, but carries over throughout the day. It doesn't feel distressing or bizarre, like PTSD dissociation episodes. Rather, it feels warm, wise, and matter-of-fact, and leaves a feeling of deep gratitude.

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İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي

@iyad_elbaghdadi

13 Jan

What's the worst thing Trump can do in his last week in office?

Quick thoughts. Trump is many things but "brave" isn't one of them. He will walk back from incitement because he realizes the extent of his legal exposure. He had a plan and it failed, he knows he can't overturn the election.

That said his efforts will now turn to protecting himself. The worst thing he can do, in my opinion, is destroy evidence and/or deepen the grift by acting on behalf of other actors who he thinks can protect him (or that he fears have leverage over him)

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İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي

@iyad_elbaghdadi

13 Jan

I hold that all human beings everywhere are of equal worth and dignity and that my people are not worth any less or any more. To me it seems bizarre, even stupid, to hold otherwise. I reject all political visions, narratives, and policy agendas that are incompatible with this.

Some people are going to call me an "idealist" (as if that's a slur), or "naive" (when I'm pretty sure I'm smarter than three of them put together). I call myself a human being who understand who he is, who his people are, and who human beings are. It's not complicated.

It's not complicated, but what it entails is made complex by the terrible legacy we have inherited. We didn't choose the past and the past gave us the present - a world brimming with injustice and inequality and a world order that upholds it. Still, a reflection of human ego.

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