Wednesday 20 July 2011

the "not all terrorists are muslim" edition

i seem to be suffering from the exhaustion of not having had a break this last weekend, coming off the back of a week of jet-lag. hopefully i'll be bursting with energy soon, but until then it's hard to write anything very meaningful.

last night we went to see the final harry potter, & really enjoyed it. i can't say i've liked all the films - no 4 really dragged & i wasn't a huge fan of no 7 part 1. but this one was good, although a little too full of action. there was a bit after the first hour when i thought they needed a little bit of calm, time to catch the breath. well, it's all over now and ended on a high.

a couple of links for the folk who trot out the "all muslims aren't terrorists but why is it that all terrorists are muslim" line (yes, i have actually had to listen to that line not too long ago). the first is this clip via facebook:



the second is this interview with a former tamil tiger on radio nz this morning (nine to noon, 10:10am). it's an excellent interview by kathryn ryan, that really gets into the complexity of issues around oppression and violence. particularly where ms de soyza speaks about empathising with the people while condemning the violence, because she knew them and could understand their cause. also when she talks about her path towards the tamil tigers because of the violence surrounding her, and the perceived hopelessness of her own situation. there's so much sadness, whichever way you look at it.

which is usually the case, where ever there is violence.

1 comment:

Freedom said...

I'm sorry but the Tamil Tigers are NOT terrorists. They are fighting for their independence against imperialists who have the full backing of the US government. Their being labelled as "terrorists" by the US state department and its allied governments is just a tactic in American extension of hegemony in the region.

I'd really ask you to engage with the Tamil community before you start making statements like this. Here are some links:

http://www.nztamil.org.nz/
http://ketehamilton.peoplesnetworknz.info/tamil_society_waikato_inc/topics/show/158-welcome-to-tamil-society-waikato-inc

It's true that the Tigers use violence to defend themselves but this is the violence of self-defense which is not terrorism, and the blame for this violence rests not on the defenders, the Tamils, but on the aggressors, the Sinhalese government.