#aziz 2021

[burningblake]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DASHA! — for @payidaresque

[msanikamathur02]

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 21 February 1965, el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, better known as Malcolm X, instrumental speaker and activist of the US civil rights and Black power movements, was assassinated while preparing to address a crowd of supporters in New York. Formerly a member of the Nation of Islam (NoI), Malcolm X publicly split with the organisation due to issues such as NoI leader Elijah Mohammed failing to approve action to respond to police attacks on Black Muslims in Los Angeles. Instead he founded his own mosque, as well as the secular Organization of Afro-American Unity. Already a target of both the police and FBI, NoI activist Louis Farrakhan also declared Malcolm to be "worthy of death". On February 21, Malcolm stepped up to speak at the Audubon ballroom when he was shot. Mujahid Abdul Halim, a NoI member from New Jersey was apprehended fleeing the scene with a clip from one of the murder weapons, and admitted his participation in the killing. However, two other Black Muslims from the Harlem mosque were subsequently arrested and convicted of the crime: Khalil Islam and Muhamad Abdul Abdul Aziz. This was despite a lack of evidence and the fact that they, and Halim, protested their innocence. In an effort to win the freedom for Islam and Aziz, Halim even filed affidavits naming his four co-conspirators – all from the New Jersey mosque. But prosecutors repeatedly refused to reopen the case. After the case gained new attention following the 2020 release of a Netflix documentary series on the murder, Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr agreed to review the case. The review revealed that evidence suggesting Islam and Aziz were innocent had been withheld from the defence, in part following pressure from FBI director J Edgar Hoover. Their convictions were eventually overturned in November 2021. More info, sources and map on our Stories web app: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9371/assassination-of-malcolm-x https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.1819457841572691/2215199071998564/?type=3

[thewisecheerio]

Elden Ring is anti-war propaganda that is directly relevant to things happening in the world right now.

All the spoilers. All of them. And additional content warning for discussions of genocide and war, and mentions of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Also big thank you to @starofancunin for asking a really good question about Queen Marika's motivations, which helped me better structure some of this post.

So in the base game, we knew that God Queen Marika committed a bunch of atrocities against other races. We thought this was just a bid for control in the base game, because lords war--even in our world--over things like power and territory and resources and racism. That was a perfectly fine motivation from a story perspective. But there were a lot of lingering questions about why she wanted that power in the first place.

What we learned in the DLC is wild. At some point in your wanderings, you come across where Marika is from. And you learn that the people she started her war against--the Hornsent--were killing her people first in really awful, gruesome ways. Her genocide seems to have followed another genocide.

Art by Halima Aziz. Follow here: https://www.instagram.com/palestinianartist/

So the order of events seems to be something like this:

1) The original sin Hornsent genocide Shamans (Marika's people) in the form of Jar rituals.

2) Marika's first choice Marika, tired of death, decides to seize control to stop this and sets off to become powerful enough to do so.

3) Marika's ascension She becomes a god and returns home to take control.

4) Death of the Shamans While she was away, all of the Shamans--all of her people--have been killed, kidnapped, or gruesomely tortured. The game tells us no one is left in her home town when she gets back.

5) Marika's second choice She decides on revenge instead.

6) The war of revenge begins Marika starts a war against the Hornsent, and brainwashes (at least some of) her children into soldiers to help her carry it out.

7) The war's sphere of violence grows The war doesn't end once Marika (or rather, her child on her behalf) has decimated the Hornsent. She starts decimating a bunch of other nonhumans (e.g. misbegotten) most likely in a bid to maintain control and "order" (that word you keep using, Marika...I do not think it means what you think it means). Because of course people are rebelling against what she's doing. And if they rebel, they need to be quelled, right? They're disrupting law and order and must be put down. It doesn't matter whether their dissent is a direct response to her violence; it's disorderly and must be controlled, of course.

8) Marika reverses course A long time later, Marika comes to eventually regret what she's done, likely due to the fact that her own children are either in the act of rebelling (see Ranni, Rykard, Mohg, Melina, Miquella) or are outright killed (Godwyn). The part of her personality that was always about healing--the part of her that bathed her (empty) village in gold healing light as a passionate tribute--reasserts control. So she forms a 4D chess plan to try to overthrow her own order. This is the base game's story in which the PC is tasked with stopping this nonsense on her behalf, since she can't do it herself for Plot Reasons.

9) The PC sets out to stop a new cycle of violence Either after or during that storyline (depending on player timing), the PC is sent to the realm Marika came from to learn all the history in 1-7 and stop another threat from repeating her mistakes (even if the big bad is probably, maybe, technically well-intended).

"When Family is the Only Shelter", painted during the assault on Gaza in 2021, by Malak Mattar. Follow here: https://www.instagram.com/malakmattarart/

So at the end of the day, Elden Ring criticizes the idea that genocide (or just plain war) as a "solution" to a past genocide isn't going to work, but rather will just perpetuate a cycle of blood. Marika's people had something absolutely fucked up happen to them, yes. But genociding them back didn't bring her people back. In fact, it directly led to a bunch more violence against (what became) her (new) people and other previously uninvolved races.

Someone characterized Elden Ring's cycle as "An endless trail of old women weeping over the bodies of their dead children", and yes. It's a good statement about the game, but also about cycles of violence. We know Marika wept over her murdered village. Subsequent to that, we meet Grandam in Belurat weeping over her people. And finally we see Marika weeping over her dead child in the base game.

Vincent van Gogh's "Weeping Woman", 1883

I am immediately reminded of parallels to how Israel is reacting to Palestine. The story was written before the most recent events, so I don't think that's intentional; rather, I think it's just that war follows the same old predictable patterns.

I hear a lot of people suggest that Israel is wholly in the right in the most recent assaults because they were "attacked first" (and sure, they were, if we arbitrarily start counting from 2023), and that therefore their retaliatory genocide is okay. The point, though, is that it's not an actual solution and probably much more complicated than that. Genociding back someone who attacked you (even multiple times) isn't actually a solution in our world, just like it's not a solution to Marika's problems. Such violence doesn't bring their lost children back, and it doesn't lead itself towards a true peace (or "true order" in Golden Order lingo). If anything, it breeds more bad blood and more violence--and we see that play out in the DLC where one of the surviving Hornsent literally sets out to get revenge again, starting a 3rd cycle of violence.

In fact, the long-standing oppression of an underclass of people followed by a vengeful genocide is more likely to make them rebel with violence than to join you--as we have seen play out both in the game and in Palestine's relationship to Israel. Would people actually be attracted to Hamas's violence were there not decades of discriminatory policies against Palestine? It's worth asking. After all, most people are not violent by nature, but by circumstance.

Art by Hadil, follow here: https://www.instagram.com/hoist_thecolors/

The PC's job in Elden Ring is literally to try to find a solution, in the form of 1 of 6 endings. And I find it fascinating that the default ending where you do nothing but seize power in your own name is called the "Age of Fracture" and hints that nothing has really changed except that you're in charge now. The world is still fractured. No one is unified. Violence is still going to happen under your (lazy) watch, because you predicated your reign on violence--just like Marika. It suggests that if you don't actually come up with a creative solution to the problem to ensure everyone is treated like humans (or sentient beings anyway), then the PC themself is also perpetuating the same cycle of violence in the name of power or "order". It directly criticizes revenge substituted for restorative justice as a means to peace.

No, I do not know the solution to Palestine and Israel, because I am not some brilliant political scholar. Nor did I know what the "best" ending would be for Elden Ring. Breaking the cycle of violence is *incredibly challenging*, and I'm not the scholar to do it. I'm just some gamer seeing parallels in this magnificent work of fiction to our world, and think its criticisms are timely, relevant, and well-constructed.

[payidaresque]

Pride & Prejudice (mini-series, 1995) Aziz (2021—2022)

[azizcentral]

SIMAY BARLAS as Efnan Payidar in Aziz (2021 — 2022)

[campgender]

from Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again (2021) by Katherine Angel

But the uses to which critics such as Roiphe and Kipnis put their misgivings about campus consent culture are telling. They acknowledge the injustices and injuries that women encounter, but suggest that the solution to these lie in an idealized figure: the strong woman who can overcome it all – who can shrug off injuries and be tougher; be, frankly, less of a baby. Their critiques express perfectly, in other words, a confidence feminism.

For these critics, ‘grown’ women know how to move on from the inevitable ups and downs of sex, instead of crying assault. The trope of ‘bad sex’ does important work in these conversations. Young women are encouraged, Kipnis argues, to deploy bureaucratic measures ‘to remedy sexual ambivalences or awkward sexual experiences’. For her and her peers, sex, ‘even when it was bad (as it often was)’ was ‘still educational’. Journalist Bari Weiss expressed a similar stance in her response to allegations against comedian Aziz Ansari in 2018. The allegations, published in an account on babe.net, provoked a furore (not least because the apparently rushed publication of the story seems to have fallen short of standard journalistic methods, such as giving Ansari the right to reply). ‘Grace’ (a pseudonym) told of feeling pressured into sex, and of trying to give signals – verbal and non-verbal – of not being keen, which she alleges Ansari repeatedly failed to respect. For many, her story resonated as an example of an entitled and bullish man, intent on acquiring sex, with little interest in the woman’s pleasure (or even perhaps his own?). For others, Grace was expecting Ansari to mind-read, and had failed to make clear either her own desires or her lack of enjoyment: she had failed to say yes enthusiastically, and failed clearly to say no. There is, Weiss wrote, ‘a useful term for what this woman experienced on her night with Mr. Ansari. It’s called “bad sex”. It sucks.’

Weiss acknowledged that women are socialized to ‘put men’s desires before their own’. But the solution to this problem is not, she claimed, to resent men ‘for failing to understand their “nonverbal cues”. It is for women to be more verbal. It’s to say, “This is what turns me on”. It’s to say “I don’t want to do that.”’ Weiss admonished ‘Grace’ in finger-wagging terms: ‘If he pressures you to do something you don’t want to do, use a four-letter word, stand up on your two legs and walk out his door.’ Similarly, Kipnis, on Jessa Crispin’s Public Intellectual podcast, laments the fact that students ‘can’t get over’ thirty seconds or fifteen minutes of bad sex. And Meghan Daum, in the Guardian, wrote about a gap between many women’s public support of #MeToo and their private conversations. ‘“Grow up, this is “real life”, I hear these same feminists say.’ There are strong intimations here of weak, wounded children versus confident grown women, and it’s clear who we’re supposed to want to be.

[takintiliyim]

Şehit Piyade Teğmen Duabey Onur ÖZTÜRKMEN

25.11.2022 | Kuzey Irak

''Bu dünyada bir nesneye, yanar içim, göynür özüm, Yiğit iken ölenlere, gök ekini biçmiş gibi.''

Kara Harp Okulu 2021 devresi Anafartalar taburunun şanlı şehidi.

İyi ki geçtin bu dünyadan. Aziz ruhun şad olsun.

[eretzyisrael]

Adeel Mangi is not a victim of “Islamophobia,” “bigoted smears” or anti-Muslim discrimination, as Timothy Lewis’s recent Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed asserted. The real reasons bipartisan senators, Jewish organizations and others oppose confirming Mangi as a federal appellate judge (one step below the U.S. Supreme Court) are the following:

Mangi was until recently an advisory director and repeated donor to a viciously antisemitic, anti-American, pro-terror organization—the so-called “Center for Security, Race and Rights” (CRSS) at Rutgers Law School; Mangi evaded questions and improbably professed ignorance about key matters (including antisemitism, terrorism and Middle East issues) that are likely to come before the federal appellate court; and Mangi has absolutely no judicial experience.

It is absurd to claim that a bipartisan group of senators oppose Mangi’s confirmation because Mangi is Muslim. The Senate overwhelmingly confirmed another recent Muslim nominee for a federal judgeship: Zahid Nisar Quraishi.

The majority of appellate judicial nominees have years of prior judicial experience and a record of judicial decisions that can be vetted. In public statements and letters, leading Jewish organizations involved in combating antisemitism, including: our organization, the Zionist Organization of America; Americans Against Antisemitism; StopAntisemitism; Students Supporting Israel; and the Coalition for Jewish Values (representing over 2,500 rabbis) noted that it is dangerous to elevate Mangi to a lifetime Court of Appeals judgeship when he has no judicial record to examine, which is not even to mention his alarming CRSS involvements.

Among other horrors, while Mangi was on CRSS’s Advisory Board (referred to as its “brain trust”), CRSS celebrated the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks’ 20th anniversary by hosting terror-affiliated speakers, including Sami Al-Arian, who was convicted for funneling funds, goods and services to the designated terror organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad. CRSS also hosted a group whose officials have connections to Al-Qaeda and Hamas networks, the notorious antisemite and anti-Israel propagandist Rashid Khalidi, and Israel-bashing BDS groups and leaders including Jewish Voice for Peace, Peter Beinart, Khaled Elgindy and Marc Lamont Hill (who was terminated by CNN for antisemitic comments).

Furthermore, CRSS’s website posted a resource guide listing and linking to numerous antisemitic, anti-Israel, BDS and terror-linked organizations, films, books, journals, “educational resources,” websites, podcasts and reports.

CRSS’s website also included CRSS Executive Director Sahar Aziz’s open letter praising and justifying Hamas terrorism and denying Israel’s right to self-defense while Hamas launched 4,500 rockets at Israel in May 2021. Aziz recruited Mangi to the CRSS advisory board. The Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest New Jersey stated that “Aziz has regularly and consistently promoted vile antisemitic propaganda” on social media and elsewhere.

In addition to his own donations and services, Mangi obtained donations from his law firm for CRSS.

During his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Mangi repeatedly refused to condemn viciously antisemitic, anti-Israel CSRR events and statements by reciting this mantra: “I do not have the expertise or factual background to express views regarding the complex history of the conflict in the Middle East, which is irrelevant to my potential work on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.”

Of course, condemning antisemitism and antisemitic Israel-bashing does not take expertise; it just takes courage. Moreover, antisemitism and Middle East issues are highly relevant to potential cases on the Third Circuit, including cases seeking remedies for antisemitic attacks and harassment on college campuses and city streets; cases regarding antisemitic boycotts; and cases brought by victims of Hamas and other terror groups under federal victims of terrorism and victims of torture statutes. Mangi is unfit and unqualified to fairly judge these important matters and should not be confirmed.

[books-to-add-to-your-tbr]

Title: The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities: New Stories About Mythic Heroes

Author: Rick Riordan, Carlos Hernandez, Roshani Chokshi, J.C. Cervantes, Yoon Ha Lee, Kwame Mbalia, Rebecca Roanhorse, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Sarwat Chadda, Graci Kim

Series or standalone: standalone

Publication year: 2021

Genres: fiction, fantasy, mythology, anthology

Blurb: A cave monster, an abandoned demon, a ghost who wants to erase history, a killer commandant...these are just some of the challenges confronting the young heroes in this highly entertaining anthology. All but one of the heroes previously starred in a popular book from Rick Riordan Presents. You’ll be reunited with Aru Shah, Zane Obispo, Min the fox spirit, Sal and Gabi, Tristan Strong, Nizhoni Begay, Paola Santiago, Sikander Aziz, and Riley Oh. Who is the new hero? Read Rick Riordan’s short story to find out.

[standupcomedyhistorian]

Today (12/16/23) is the 10th anniversary of one of my favorite comedy specials—

what.

Yes, it's been a whole decade since Bo Burnham graced the world with his YouTube special (and now major comics are following his model lol). While people think of what. as a Netflix special, Bo's plan was to distribute it freely via the internet on 12/17/13 (and he took a pay cut to make it happen!).

Here are some other fun facts about Bo's second comedy special:

1. The trailer is filmed in the Ruhm, Bo's guesthouse and studio that makes an appearance again in Make Happy and in a little special called INSIDE 😉

2. This comedy special was Bo's first professional collaboration with Chris Storer (creator of The Bear) after they met on Adventures in the Sin Bin and it marks Bo's first time directing. They would go on to co-direct Make Happy together and Bo's obviously directed MANY items since, including his incredible story about a teenage girl called Eighth Grade!

3. Bo begins the special wearing three pairs of pants—two red ones and one black pair—a white tee, a dark gray hoodie, confetti in one pocket, a pack of playing cards in his OTHER pocket, and his mouth is full of water. Damn, that's a lot of stuff! 🤯

4. But he doesn't have the water IN his mouth for the stool scene! That was spliced together with the live performance footage (and pretty seamlessly, clearly, since folks asked him about it online).

5. The song Repeat Stuff has a brilliant music video that accompanies it. And the girl that Bo murders at the end is none other than the Vice President's stepdaughter! That's right, Ella Emhoff is Kamala Harris's daughter through marriage, and she is a famous model and artist.

6. Speaking of that music video, the exterior of the house Bo breaks into at the beginning is Bo and Lorene's own home at the time. And that house was used in The Nightmare Before Elm Street franchise (a fact the realtors emphasized when selling the place in 2021—I would have focused on Bo's studio personally haha).

7. The music video also has a cameo from one of Bo's friends, Paul Scheer, as the manager! I actually met Paul at a Human Giant event back in the day, and he was very nice (along with Aziz Ansari and Rob Huebel).

8. While Bo released his special entirely for free, he did have two other items that were for sale at the time—the what. CD (recorded in Madison, WI, thus he says "Get on my level, Madison" in Sad) and his book of poems Egghead. I own the poetry book, obviously, but I cannot find the CD for sale anywhere.

If you or someone you know is willing to sell their copy, PLEASE DM me! It's the only item he put out that I don't own in some capacity—and I would love to complete the collection! 🥰

9. Egghead is amazing in both its print and audiobook versions. In fact, the latter is like a whole separate comedy special and well worth the price to hear Bo reading so enthusiastically and with different hilarious voices. Highly recommended...and I have a kid-friendly list of poems here if you're interested.

10. Finally, what. features two of my favorite subversive bits: Andy the Frog and the Fishing song.

I was thinking a fun video idea would be to create a Bo Burnham "Kids Show" with all of his darkest routines that seem like they came out of a demented Sesame Street (so like Wonder Showzen haha).

Here's the potential order:

-Disney Lessons (Words Words Words)

-what. Intro (starting with "melted into childlike wonder" to Lizard)

-How to Make the Perfect PB Sandwich

-A Slow Joke

-Andy the Frog

-The Squares poem

-Fishing in the Park

-How the World Works (can include Outtakes Bo and Socko as well)

-YouTuber Thank You

Anyway, I just think that would be hysterical if any editor wants to take a crack at it. Please give me credit tho! ✌🏼🐔

[nadaaselmi]

Hello, I am Nada Salma from Gaza City, one of the most upscale and famous areas in the Gaza Strip, Al-Rimal neighborhood. I used to live in a quiet house filled with love and tenderness between my father, mother and sisters. My father worked all day to provide for our needs, and my mother worked to raise my younger siblings and take care of them (Zeina, Fatima and Abdul Aziz). Fate and destiny came and the young man Bilal proposed to my family, so my father accepted and we got married on 12/18/2021 We lived happily, comfortably and in love, as Bilal is my first love and my husband for life, and he will soon be the father of my children. My happiness increased and God blessed me with my first child a year after my marriage, he is a “boy” and because Bilal is the eldest son in his family, we decided that the baby’s name would be after my husband’s father “Amir”

We were blessed with the prince on 4/2/2023. It was one of the most beautiful gifts from God. We were a small family living in love, stability and security. Bilal worked as a lawyer in a law firm with his friend. He worked all day for us. He was a man who took responsibility for his home with all sincerity and love. We had dreams together and wishes that we always strive to achieve. We face difficulties together, we are happy and sad together, and we overcome all of this alone and with each other. With our love, we overcome a lot and a lot. We were together. We did not own a house. Our house was rented. We all dreamed of buying an apartment, building it and designing it together. I was doing my work every day as a mother, wife and university student.

Until the calamity of October 7 befell us and fate had another opinion. The war began to change and shatter all of our dreams. It came and broke our hearts, broke our limbs and obliterated the dreams.

On the morning of October 8, 2023, the Al-Watan Tower in Al-Ramal neighborhood, where my husband and friend's law office was located, was destroyed. My husband's office and his friend's office were destroyed. They lost all of their possessions. Their computers, papers and money were gone. The tower was completely leveled, but the tragedy did not stop there. We lived through nights of continuous shelling and gunfire that did not stop throughout the day, and artillery shells that fell on the houses next to us. The tragedy was here in the afternoon of November 7, 2023. At exactly 2:51 p.m., the house we live in was bombed. While we were inside, I was preparing lunch for my little boy, Amir, whose heart was filled with fear. In order not to feel afraid, I gave him his bike to play on, but everything changed in seconds. My child’s joy with his bike turned into screams.

And crying (my child Amir was seriously injured) his head was bleeding and blood was covering his face, we were unable to see him clearly or deal with his injury, the house became fog from the missiles, so I took my child who is not more than 7 months old to my husband to deal with his injury "Bilal Amir was injured" But my husband was shocked, he did not know how to deal with it, we did not know that the targeted house was our house, we did not know what to do or how to treat him with first aid, we tried to get out of the house, but the door of the house was closed from the severity of the explosion, we tried again, it did not work, then my husband broke the door and told me to go down the stairs quickly before the second missile came and bombed the apartment, he gave me my child and took me down the stairs while he was searching for our official papers and belongings in the apartment, I did not go down the stairs more than 5 steps and here was the shock, the missiles rained down on us, a red light, I realized at that time that the missile was falling on us, I hugged my son and protected him with my body and hid him with my clothes, then I do not know what happened, I did not wake up until I At the hospital, on the X-ray machine, I will never forget what the doctor said: “A fracture in the last two vertebrae in the back, the right leg has three fractures, a fracture below the knee. Be careful, young men. Her back is broken. My eyes are swollen. My beautiful face has second-degree burns. My father was carrying my child while he was crying and he was hungry. I could not feed him and I was overcome with tears for my son. I did not know that he was still alive. I held my father’s hand. “Please do not bury my son without me saying goodbye. This is my first joy.” Everyone around me was crying intensely over my injury and the injury of my little son. I was asking people about my husband, Bilal.

"My first love, where is Bilal?" I look at them all crying when I ask him Bilal was injured but his injury is serious they did not want to tell me that he is dead, which made the situation more tragic when I was in the hospital Al-Shifa Hospital the occupation forces were penetrating the beach and the medical equipment was not available and the medicines were not available then the hospital administration decided to transfer me to Al-Ahli Al-Maamoudiya Hospital because the occupation tanks were approaching the hospital and the shells were raining down on us this evening the doctor (Fadl Naeem he is an orthopedic consultant) came I asked them doctor please do the operation tomorrow morning he said to me why I told him that I have a small child who is not more than 7 months old who needs milk and care and attention and the tenderness of a mother my son is injured he told me that he cannot do that there are many wounded waiting in the operating room and that I was added to that list after days of suffering and increasing pain the nurse came and told me to prepare for my operation tomorrow morning I underwent an external platinum operation to treat some fractures and then I was discharged from the hospital because the hospital is unable to meet all the needs of the patients and there is no more space I went to my parents' house. I did not know about the loss of my husband after my health condition stabilized. I was always asking about My husband, my family told me that his remains were recovered. My husband was martyred and his identity was unknown because there was no body. I could not comprehend that my husband, who was 3 meters away from me, had lost his life. He was my partner in life and my first love. We used to do the impossible together. The days passed very hard. I am still stuck in northern Gaza, which has been suffering from a shortage of medicines, siege and starvation for 10 months. There are no painkillers to relieve my pain or even food to strengthen my bones. Our area was threatened several times, but I and my family could not leave because of my injury, which prevented me from walking or even sitting for 8 months. The occupation shells were at the door of our house and the planes were flying daily over the windows of the house and the aerial bombardment did not stop. I lost my husband and my house and now I am suffering from severe injuries, me and my young child. With a heavy heart, I ask you to help for my young child and treat his injuries.

@apol @appsa @buttercuparry @malcriada @palestinegenocide @orbleglorb @sar-soor @akajustmerry @annoyingloudmicrowavecultist @feluka @sayruq @tortiefrancis @flower-tea-fairies @tsaricides@riding-with-the-wild-hunt @visenyasdragon @belleandsaintsebastian @ear-motif@kordeliiius @communistchilchuck @brutaliakhoa @raelyn-dreams @troythecatfish @theropoda @tamarrrra @4ft10tvlandfangirl @queerstudiesnatural @northgazaupdates2 @skatezophrenic @awetistic-things @baby-girl-aaron-dessner aaron-dessner @nabulsi27

[anarchistettin]

he family of civil rights leader Malcolm X marked the anniversary of his 1965 assassination on Tuesday by announcing plans to sue the FBI, New York Police Department, and CIA for $100 million, claiming they concealed evidence related to his murder.

For more than half a century, the circumstances surrounding the notorious assassination have been shrouded in mystery, fueling long-held conspiracy theories about possible government involvement. Two men who were convicted of murdering Malcolm X in 1966 were exonerated in 2021 after serving decades in prison—and the New York District Attorney admitted that the FBI and NYPD at the time withheld evidence.

“For years, our family has fought for the truth to come to light concerning his murder,” Ilyasah Shabazz, a daughter of Malcolm X, said at a news conference at the site of her father’s assassination, which is now a memorial.

The civil rights leader was 39 when he was assassinated in 1965 at an auditorium in New York’s Washington Heights neighborhood. Three gunmen shot at least 21 times, as Malcolm X’s four children and pregnant wife ducked for safety.

At the news conference on Tuesday, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump said: “It’s not just about the triggermen. It’s about those who conspired with the triggermen to do this dastardly deed.” He claims that government agencies had factual and exculpatory evidence that they concealed from the family of Malcolm X and the men wrongly convicted of his assassination. Crump alleged that high-ranking U.S. officials conspired to kill the civil rights leader, repeatedly referencing J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director who died in 1972.

Ilyasah Shabazz (C), daughter of African-American activist Malcolm X, speaks alongside civil rights attorney Ben Crump (L) and co-counsel Ray Hamlin (C, R) during a press conference in New York on February 21, 2023 at the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, formerly known as the Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X was shot dead at 39 on Feb. 21, 1965.

Timothy A. Clary–AFP via Getty Images

What we know about Malcolm X’s assassination

Malcolm X was a controversial figure for many Americans—both white and Black. Unflinching when it came to calling out the realities of anti-Black racism, and famously referring to white people as “blue-eyed devils,” he spoke about the need for Black empowerment. He argued for the creation of a Black separatist society, and was a highly visible figure within the Nation of Islam.

In March 1964, Malcolm X announced that he was leaving the Nation of Islam over disagreements with Elijah Muhammad, the group’s leader. He was assassinated a year later as he was preparing to give a speech about the mission of his new group, the Organization of Afro-American Unity, at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City on Feb. 21, 1965.

When Malcolm X took the stage to begin his address, an apparent dispute broke out among the audience and a man ran onto the stage, approached Malcolm X and shot him. Two other people then ran up to the stage and also fired. The civil rights leader was shot a total of 21 times.

What we know about the men convicted of his murder

In the more than half a century since his death, what actually happened that day has remained the subject of controversy and conspiracy theories. One man who was shot by a bodyguard and captured, Thomas Hagan (a.k.a Talmadge Hayer and Mujahid Abdul Halim), confessed to the killing and was imprisoned for 44 years. But since his 1966 trial, he has maintained that the other two Nation of Islam members convicted in the murder were innocent: Norman Butler (a.k.a Muhammad Abdul Aziz) and Thomas Johnson (a.k.a Khalil Islam). Hayer did not name any other culprits at the time of the trial.

There was no evidence linking Butler or Johnson to the crime. Butler had an alibi for the time of the murder: He was at home resting after injuring his leg, and a doctor who had treated him took the stand during the trial. Nonetheless, all three men were found guilty in 1966 and sentenced to life in prison.

In 1977, Hayer named four men who were members of the Nation of Islam’s Newark chapter who he said had begun planning Malcolm X’s murder in May 1964. He said that he was approached by two of the four men, who told him that Malcolm X should be killed. They later met with the other two men and discussed how they would commit the assassination, he said.

“I had a bit of love and admiration for [Nation of Islam leader] the Honorable Elijah Muhammed, and I just felt that like this is something that I have to stand up for,” Hayer later said, according to Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, a 2011 biography of Malcolm X written by historian Manning Marable.

But for decades, the new information about the other four alleged conspirators went nowhere. The District Attorney’s office did not reopen the investigation until a 2020 Netflix documentary series Who Killed Malcolm X? and efforts by the Innocence Project renewed public interest in the case and prompted Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. to review the convictions.

Evidence unearthed by Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, a Malcolm X historian and scholar, and investigative journalist Les Payne made a compelling case that the actual killers were members of a Newark mosque, rather than Malcolm X’s former Harlem mosque associates Butler and Johnson. In November, a judge dismissed the convictions of Butler and Johnson after Vance acknowledged that “it was clear these men did not receive a fair trial.” New York City was ordered to pay $26 million to the pair to compensate them for their wrongful murder convictions.

What we know about theories about allegations of CIA and FBI involvement

In addition to the unfair trial, some historians have argued that various agencies including the FBI, NYPD, and CIA were actively involved in the assassination attempt. Experts have said that these agencies viewed Malcolm X as a dangerous Black radical figure who needed to be brought down. Others have suggested that they did not need to plot to murder him since he was already a target.

Nonetheless, Malcolm X was under near-constant surveillance by federal and local authorities—as were many civil rights activists. The FBI first opened a file on Malcolm X in March 1953, and closely monitored him over the next decade using surveillance and informants. On June 6, 1964, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover sent a telegram, which later became public, to the FBI office in New York City that said “do something about Malcolm X.”

“Both the NYPD and FBI failed to disclose to prosecutors that they had undercover officers on the scene,” historian Zaheer Ali, the lead researcher for Marable’s biography Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, wrote for TIME in November 2021. “They decided instead to protect their assets; there seemed to be a desire to wrap up the investigation quickly. What paths of inquiry were avoided or cut short as a result? If these two men were unjustly convicted, then who else was unjustly allowed to roam free?”

Crump, the lawyer representing Malcolm X’s family, said on Tuesday that their lawsuit will allege that government agencies were involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Malcolm X. The New York District Attorney’s office has already acknowledged law enforcement’s failings in the case, saying in 2021 that the FBI and NYPD did not honor their obligation to disclose exculpatory evidence to prosecutors and the accused, including “information that implicated other suspects; that identified witnesses who failed to identify defendant Islam; and that revealed witnesses to be FBI informants.” The office also said at the time that FBI records suggested “that information was deliberately withheld.”

According to Crump, these comments from the New York District Attorney’s office—combined with the city’s $26 million settlement—are what opened the door for Malcolm X’s family to build a case against authorities. “If the government compensated the two gentlemen that were wrongfully convicted for the assassination of Malcolm X with tens of millions of dollars, then what is to be the compensation for the daughters who suffered the most from the assassination of Malcolm X?” Crump asked.

[burningblake]

So this is what I have been working on for the past two months:

By request of my dear bestie @payidaresque <3 (It's the first time I write for a friend as opposed to writing for a general audience and it was pretty amazing!)

Here's a snippet of the story:

A late summer wind swept across the yellow flower fields that spread around Edip Payidar's estate. It carried the smell of distant rain and a soft chill, heralding the arrival of the colder seasons. 

Efnan thought that she would soon have to retrieve the blankets from their summer storage. 

For now, though, the weather was bearable enough for her to feel comfortable in her cerulean dress with its short frilled sleeves and white ribbon belt, as she lay among reminiscences of her mother, her hands behind her back, head turned towards the dipping sun. 

Or, at least, as comfortable as she could get.

She lowered her gaze, a furrow shaping between her brows.

She needed her. Now, more than ever. That's what you always say, Efnan, a voice in her argued. And indeed, in all her life, there hadn't been a time that she hadn't craved her mother's presence less than vigorously. But still, it was different now. 

Slowly, with a gentleness she had only recently discovered in herself—only since a few days ago, in fact—she shifted her weight onto one hand, and brought the other to her stomach.

Almost immediately, her face lit with a smile. 

"Look at all these flowers, huh? The poor things, they'll only have less than nine months to enjoy their beauty, because afterwards, they will have you to compete with. Little unfair, isn't it? Since you've already won?"

Her smile grew wider, her fingers smoothing the folds across the material of her gown, as she rubbed her belly. 

"Efnan, kuzum —" 

The voice came abruptly behind her. Her hand flew away from her stomach at once, but it was too late. 

Azime gasped, and then she shrieked . Before Efnan could do anything to reverse the moment, the housekeeper was running to her, kneeling on the ground beside her, taking her hand in hers, and crying . 

"Aye, my Efnan, what happiness you've brought me! You're going to make old Azime a grandmother so young! Aye, kuzum …"

"Shh, Azime, keep quiet!" Efnan hissed amidst the older woman's rambling, her eyes moving frantically towards the enormous estate behind her.

Aziz could be back any minute. 

Azime kept on her stream of joyous exclamations, until Efnan anxiously placed her palm on the other woman's mouth. She held her friend's gaze pleadingly. 

"Please, Azime, I haven't told Aziz yet."

After a moment, the older woman drew back from her hand, a chastised expression on her face. 

"Ah," she said in a loud whisper, also glancing towards the house. "Forgive me, my Efnan," she said, then smacked her own hand. "Oh, silly old Azime almost ruined the surprise her ladyship prepared for Mr. Aziz!" A smile glowed on her face. "Oh, he's going to go insane, Efnan!" 

Efnan's gaze moved downwards, unable to hide the guilt that shaped there. The other woman slowly fell quiet, her brows knitting in concern, as realization sank in. 

"You're not planning to tell him, are you?" The judgment in her voice was not at all subtle.

[payidaresque]

aziz (2021—2022) / safir (2023—)

[azizcentral]

MURAT YILDIRIM as Aziz Payidar in Aziz (2021—2022)