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İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي

@iyad_elbaghdadi

3 Jul

I was too used to looking at the present moment with a very narrow scope, kinda like using a slide ruler that covers +/- 2 years from now. Everything changed when I started to look at +/- 20 years instead. It's a reprogramming that took maybe two years, but it changed everything.

If you really think about it, 20 years isn't a very long time. In the scope of history, 20 years is a blink of an eye. Yes it's a significant chunk of a human being's life, but most people will live through three or four 20-year chunks. Strategically, it's enough time for a plan.

I used to carry out my work thinking I should stop things from happening in 1-2 years, or make things happen in 1-2 years. But once you're thinking 20 years this changes. You can wait for things to run their course. You can plan far ahead. You can take your time getting it right.

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İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي

@iyad_elbaghdadi

14 Jun

There's this interesting overlap between Muslim traditionists and right-wing conservatives who both dislike the social justice movement, critical theory etc because they want to preserve traditional epistemology (and whether they admit it or not, traditional power structures)

The present moment should be read within the context of the present moment. Borrowing the intellectual tools or classifications of another era in order to understand the present moment may be an interesting intellectual exercise, but is ultimately nothing more than that.

Our ideas are a reflection of our lived experiences. It is shortsighted and unwise to try to interrogate the ideas and their intellectual history only, instead of looking at the lived realities that have made certain different segments of the population adopt different ideas.

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İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي

@iyad_elbaghdadi

14 Jun

This morning I received a text asking me to book a time for my covid-19 vaccine shots. I selected the time but then I couldn't actually book, because it requires BankID which as a Palestinian in Norway I cannot have. *I cannot book my vaccine appointment because I'm Palestinian*.

Been trying to call by phone. Nobody answers.

I finally got through to someone. My vaccine appointment was cancelled. No word on when I'll get a callback for a new appointment.

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İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي

@iyad_elbaghdadi

13 Jun

There are many people in the West who view the existence of Israel in & of itself as more important than anything that happens to the Palestinians, and will continue to view our fate as being of secondary importance. Many of them simply cannot be convinced otherwise.

Yes some of this comes from religious dogma, but also, a lot of it is simply the deeply/emotionally held political instinct of a generation that grew in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust. They'd rather if Israel exists than doesn't exist, regardless the cost.

As hinted, this is generational. When you see that the older Western voters are, the more supportive they are of Israel (and vice versa), this is what you're seeing. The long shadow of the Holocaust, which was, I remind, a Western crime.

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İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي

@iyad_elbaghdadi

13 Jun

A short, sad story of the intersecting layers of oppression and grievance in the MENA: Afrin is a city in north Syria that until 2018 was majority Kurdish. In 2018 it was taken by pro-Turkish Syrian militant groups and subsequently most of its Kurdish population fled in fear.

Internally displaced refugees from elsewhere in Syria settled in the city since. Yesterday, a hospital was shelled, killing 13, including children. Kurdish militants were accused. They denied responsibility, but their supporters have justified the attack as against "settlers".

Oppression produces grievance that justifies oppression that produces grievance that justifies further oppression that produces more grievance, and with time the circle of grievance grows and the number of victims grow, and the trauma deepens and becomes intergenerational.

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İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي

@iyad_elbaghdadi

11 Jun

Confession: I am guilty of being unhelpful in debates and in valuing zingers over discussions, but when I look within I see that this is coming from a *profound* exasperation and frustration with endless discussion that does nothing to alleviate the pain that we are coming from

Instead, many of these "debates" center the opinions and objections and comfort of those who do not seem to give a damn about us. Nothing changes. Yes I'm sometimes "unhelpful" and unwilling to debate because my idea of what is or isn't worth debating has been changing.

I have limited time, energy, and mindspace to try to convince an endless queue of people that our lived experiences are valid, that we deserve dignity, that the current system is extremely oppressive and racist against us, that we've been screwed over, and that we deserve better.

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İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي

İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي

İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي

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