Sunday, 12 June 2016

Post date: Jun 13, 2016 4:25:12 AM

Standing Together Against … Violence

It was great to attend an event in my neighborhood last night standing together with neighbors against violence in light of the recent slaughter of forty‐nine people, mostly gay Latino men, by a jihadist in Florida. Nevertheless, I was disappointed that there weren’t stronger and more explicit statements against terrorism. There seemed to be an avoidance by many of the word terrorism in preference to violence and hatred, and there were repeated statements that the attack had nothing to do with religion when in fact it was religiously motivated. There was also a statement by a representative from an anti‐Israel Arab organization that feel religion should not be criticized (i.e., have made statements in the past against freedom of speech), support the racist BDS campaign and advance the absurd “pinkwashing” libel against Israel, although he only addressed the issue at hand last night. However, a few speakers did make firm statements about home‐grown Islamists and condemning ISIL. My thanks to the organizers of the event, who tried to unite the community.

http://plus.google.com/+elyaqim/posts/AYA1XQMEJya

http://www.twitter.com/elyaqimnyc/status/742437263758393344

http://www.twitter.com/elyaqimnyc/status/742617834597928964

http://elyaqim.tumblr.com/post/145870199214/standing-together-against-violence

http://www.twitter.com/elyaqimnyc/status/742436672391024640

http://www.facebook.com/elyaqim/posts/10154260588309108