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İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي Profile picture
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8 Feb, 4 tweets, 1 min read
The moral of the story is that it's easier for Arabs to reach Mars than to have free speech or human rights or due process or rule of law. Also that the UAE regime will throw money at any project that can sciencewash its horrendous human rights record
As an Arab, I don't need a mission to Mars by an insidiously destructive dictatorship such as the UAE regime. I need the right to live, love, and speak freely with full human rights and human dignity in my native region.
The UAE regime has the blood of countless Arabs on its hands. It has intervened to prevent democratic transitions across the region, costing the lives and liberty of millions of Arabs. Sending a mission to Mars is a cynical attempt to turn the world's attention elsewhere.
"Arabs have reached Mars!" I'll celebrate when Arabs reach their own parliaments through free & fair elections. Otherwise I have no need for cynical projects that whitewash our own blood off our dictator's hands and faces.

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More from @iyad_elbaghdadi

İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي Profile picture
7 Feb
Stream of consciousness thread (caveat, I have no idea what I'm saying here but I'm gonna say it anyway)
Modernity isn't a set of ideas but rather an era unlike any other in recorded history, in that the rate of social change is so fast that tradition (i.e. "this has always worked for as long as we remember") is rendered unreliable
Before, tradition ruled supreme coz of its ability to predict & guide as to what would or wouldn't work. This inspired awe, but also programmed people to think a certain way. It had a collective long-term success rate that made individual opinion seem fickle and unimportant.
Read 7 tweets
İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي Profile picture
25 Jan
Who is this guy and why does he speak just like our old colonialists, who think they can "give" parts of our region to this power or that as if it's a cattle farm and not a community of human beings?
Whoever this person is, fuck him. I wish I could meet him in person, face to face, so I can tell him this to his face.
A reminder that during 2019 and 2020, over 700 young Iraqi nonviolent protesters were shot dead by snipers belonging to Iran-backed militias. The protesters were demanding a true working democracy in Iraq that is not under Iranian or US influence.
Read 4 tweets
İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي Profile picture
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
Read 7 tweets
İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي Profile picture
17 Jan
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.
Read 4 tweets
İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي Profile picture
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
Read 5 tweets
İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي Profile picture
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.
Read 4 tweets

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