The Liars and the Truthtellers

The Liars and the truthtellers

My memoir “The Unlikely Social Justice Warrior” is finally out and available for purchase and in it, I thread together stories from my careers in the music industry, religious communities, and human rights spaces.  

I’d like to share a paragraph from a chapter of my book titled “The liars and the truthtellers" (page 137). I write:

“Western democracies that have championed international human rights laws, and numerous international conventions have shown their hypocritical human rights standards. It simply doesn’t apply to Palestinians. The general public, especially young Jews who have woken up to the ethnic cleansing process in the creation of Israel, are angry. I completely understand that anger. It is anger at the betrayal of our human values and rage by “how dare you do these atrocities in my name.” I felt the same rage at the perpetrators of 9/ 11 and ISIS. The difference is, these are terrorist entities and not democratically voted in by me or any Muslim, while the Israeli government is.”

I, therefore, have tremendous respect for anyone who calls out their own tribe’s human rights violations. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, is in a class on their own having recently published their report “Our Genocide”, declaring that Israel is commiting a genocide against the Palestinian people. This declaration comes nearly 2 years after the start of the genocide but it sets the stage for what we all know in our hearts to be right and just, challenging those who are still denying or even in support of the genocide. I encourage everyone, especially those who care about Israel’s policies, to study the contents of their website.

That includes my own representatives in Congress, California’s Congressman Brad Sherman and Senator Adam Schiff, who must be schooled about what it means to be complicit in supporting a genocide. The latter especially, having recently  stood proudly beside the war criminal Netanyahu in a photo op that will one day be shown in the history books depicting those who made the murder of 60,000+ Palestinians possible. These are our supposedly “liberal” lawmakers. 

This August marks  18 years of operation for Muslims for Progressive Values and moving forward we’re pivoting into a model that is more sustainable. We are focusing on creating more income streams by way of partnerships with talents in our communities, supporting their social entrepreneurship through MPV’s large platform and visibility. Here’s a list of what has been launched and what we’re working on. 

Inclusive Islam Curriculum, anchored in human rights for children to help the many progressive Muslim parents and especially those who are in interfaith marriages provide.

Interfaith Marriage Services: over the years we’ve married thousands of interfaith couples, without the conversion into Islam through our roster of imams and officiants. 

MPV Publishing: we’ve relaunched the MPV Publishing imprint. More details below!

There are more services and programming in the works including a music theater project, a resilient and empathy workshop, and a virtual mental health training for counselors working with LGBTQ+ Muslims. So stand by…

Onward and upward…

Ani