Wedge: Imperial[ist] morons sited!
Luke: Pick your targets and go!
Posted on 04/24/2002 9:58:53 AM PDT by suspects
GIVING PEACENIKS A CHANCE
Michael Graham
I admit it: The only reason I attended the April 20th pro-Palestinian rally in Washington, DC was to cause trouble. Put 75,000 fundamentalist Muslims, angry Arab Americans, ‘60s-liberal leftovers and tie-dyed, twenty-something neo-hippies in the same place, and the comedy potential is simply too great to pass up.
And so on Saturday morning, I parked my car a safe distance away and strolled toward the teeming masses near the Washington Monument. The first thing I noticed was that I had been the victim of false advertising. This was not a “pro-Palestine” rally. It was a “Down with Israel and George Bush” rally.
While the throng was thick with banners, very few of them mentioned the Palestine Authority and none—not a single one that I saw—mentioned the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. Instead, most of the messages were condemnations of Israel and Ariel Sharon. The most popular motif was mixing the swastika and the Star of David, a gruesome image for anyone but the most ardent Holocaust apologist. And just to make sure the point wasn’t missed, the crowd repeatedly chanted, “Sharon and Hitler are the same, the only difference is their name.”
There was no doubt what the crowd was against: The “racist” nation of Israel and the evil government of America and its terrorist leader, George W. Bush. One sign read “The Existence of Israel IS Terrorism.”
But what were these people for? Did they really support the creation of a new Arab Muslim nation led by Arafat? To find out, I waded into the crowd with my minidisk recorder and started asking questions.
To Amanda from Atlanta in her “Free Speech, Free Media” T-shirts, I posed the question: “Which non-government controlled Arab newspaper is your favorite?” When she couldn’t answer, I pointed out that there aren’t any non-government controlled newspapers in the Arab Muslim world. “Are you comfortable supporting the cause of a group of people who don’t believe in either free speech or a free press?”
“I, uh, really, uh…that’s a good question,” was the best she could do.
I asked the gay-rights advocate waving a “From Stonewall To Palestine: People Fight Back” sign: “Doesn’t it bother you that virtually all Arab Muslim governments outlaw homosexuality? That most of the people in this crowd think you should be stoned to death?”
“I hadn’t really thought about it,” he replied.
And of every woman protesting on behalf of creating a new, Arafat-led nation, I asked: “Do you really want to see yet another Arab Muslim nation where women have few if any political rights (Kuwait), are lashed for committing adultery (United Arab Emirates) or are the victims of female genital mutilation (Saudi Arabia)?”
Vanessa, a liberal feminist from Michigan answered this way: “That’s their thing, and I disbelieve [sic] in that, but it’s not just there. Women everywhere are captized [sic].” She went on to tell me that all Americans are “captized” too, but she declined to say by whom.
When I approached Amina and Amira, students from George Washington University, these college-educated Arab women had a novel response: They refused to acknowledge that any Arab Muslim nations restrict women’s rights.
I pointed out the obvious case of Saudi Arabia—where women cannot leave their homes without permission and can be beaten for showing too much skin in public. They snickered: “Saudi Arabia does not have a Muslim government,” Amira told me.
So the Saudis are, what—Lutherans? Amira had no comment.
As I worked the crowd, I was tailed by a group of Arab gentlemen who listened in on several conversations before finally confronting me: “Why are you asking these questions?”
I told them I wanted to know if the people waving their “free speech/free press/free love/free Mumia” signs understood that they were at a rally supporting yet another oppressive, theocratic, dictatorial regime.
“That’s none of our business,” said Khalid, a Moroccan now living in Massachusetts. “All I want is for the Palestinians to be free. This is all about freedom.” Before I could crack “Then they should move to Israel, the only place in the Mideast where Palestinians can vote,” he interrupted again.
“You know what, American’s government isn’t the best government in the world. Do you like everything your government does?”
“Of course I don’t always like my government,” I told him. “But unlike Arafat, when I say so, my American government doesn’t throw me in jail or kill me. And my government-approved Imam doesn’t write editorials for government-run newspapers urging Muslims to kill Jews.”
“That’s not killing Jewish people: It’s liberating Palestinians,” Khalid said.
“So, that’s what you call it!” I replied.
The two gentlemen, and several friends who gathered around, indicated that the conversation was over. So I crossed the street, but came back a few minutes later carrying a sign of my own making.
It read: “HEROES FOR PEACE: Gandhi, MLK, Arafat.”
It was, I thought, the perfect sign. It was parodying the Palestinian position, but without the obviousness of, say, “Suicide Bombers For Peace,” which might have earned me a bloody nose.
I took my insult to Dr. King and the nonviolence movement, and I marched among the peaceniks. I waved it, I shook it, I covered the rally from front to back. I pointed it at black ministers in the crowd and watched them read it. I stood next to “Down with Israel” signs and held it high. And I waited.
When would a peacemaker challenge this obnoxious argument? Finally, after half an hour, someone spoke up. A plump, middle-aged liberal with her “Visualize World Peace” button read my sign, then looked up at me and smiled. “God bless you,” she said.
No, I thought as I walked dejectedly back to my car, God help us. We’re gonna need it.
Michael Graham is afternoon talk host for WTNT AM 570 in Washington DC. His new book, “Redneck Nation: How the South Really Won The War” (Warner Books) will be released in October.
If they had 75,000 at that Palie Rally last Saturday, then we had 150,000 at the March for Justice (on 10/31/98) judging by the crowd visible to the cpan cameras. (FTR, I thought we had about 5000 at the MFJ.)
ML/NJ
Too bad he didn't find us at our rally.
Good work, Michael, you confronted the morons with their own stupidity. Too bad it will sail right over their heads.
Then again, I could be wrong - they just came to protest something, anything.
Wedge: Imperial[ist] morons sited!
Luke: Pick your targets and go!
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