#but you know. when you’re the only muslim in a group and you’re the only one who has to go through several rings of fire while others don’t

[cornerihaunt]

.

[sissa-arrows]

If you’re a Muslim woman and wears the hijab the west tells you you’re submissive and weak and oppressed.

But if you’re a Muslim woman and don’t wear the hijab the west tells you it’s the proof that you’re actually not a woman but a man pretending to be a woman.

I have a wild idea… how about the west go fuck itself deep enough to choke on their own racism and white supremacy?

An other one said men supporting Imane is the proof that she is not a woman. The only men I’ve seen showing tons of support for her are Algerians and the reason they support her is because when we have the world against us Algerians stand with each other. Cause you know we have a little something called solidarity, we owe our freedom to Algerians who put aside their disagreements to form one single group against the oppressor. So when non Algerians attack us we form a group to protect our own. Even Algerian men who are conservative and don’t approve of her boxing because she is a woman will support her because she is Algerian first.

[edenfenixblogs]

How do you know if you’re antisemitic?

Well, if a Jew telling you you’re antisemitic won’t make you believe it, here is a guide to help you figure it out yourself.

1. Do you think Jews, en masse, are ACTIVELY REPLACING/ATTEMPTING TO REPLACE some other group — especially a somehow more deserving group? (For example, White people, Black people, African people, Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, indigenous people, etc.) Do you feel there are JUST TOO MANY JEWS IN A GIVEN LOCATION?

2. Do you think Jews are PRETENDING TO BE SOMETHING THAT THEY ARE NOT? (For example, White, PoC, “Real” Jews, Indigenous/Native, an Ethnic Minority, Devoted Citizens of [YOUR COUNTRY] etc.)?

3. Do you think Jews are CONTROLLING OR ATTEMPTING TO CONTROL SOME INTEGRAL ASPECT OF SOCIETY? (For example, the government, media, banks, business, medicine, etc.)

4. Do you think Jews that you criticize are UNIQUELY BLOODTHIRSTY OR GENOCIDAL — especially when hoping for personal achievement or cultural supremacy? (For example, trying to stage a global war so they can control the world; using/consuming blood of Christians and babies to do satanic rituals; sexually seducing non-Jews in order to contaminate bloodlines and erase other pre-existing identities; immigrating to a new location with the intention of murdering those who already exist there; desiring to murder Arabs, Muslims, or Palestinians in their homelands by means of genocide in order to control a region at the exclusion of other ethnicities, etc.)

5. Do you think Jews are APPROPRIATING A PRIVILEGE THAT THEY DO NOT DESERVE AND THAT DOES NOT BELONG TO THEM? (For example, freedom, wealth, power, whiteness, G-d’s favor, a safe home in the Levant, Arab land, colonial power, representation as a minority group, etc.)

6. Do you think Jews at large or the specific Jews you disagree with and who wield power in a way you disapprove of CAN BE COLLECTIVELY LABELED? (For example, might you call them slaves, vermin, insects, dirty, scheming, communists, fascists, Nazis, satanic, Zionists, scum, etc.)

IF YOU ANSWERED YES TO ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS YOU ARE AN ANTISEMITE. This is literally textbook antisemitism. If you answered, well yeah but only “the Jews in Israel” or “the ones who vote for Bibi” or the “ones who moved to my town/country/region” or if you saw something on one of the lists and think “well no fair! That one is actually true,” your exception isn’t exceptional. You haven’t found the one true bad thing that Jews ACTUALLY are. It’s not some conspiratorial propaganda to equate reasonable beliefs with hate. You’re just hateful. Some part of you hates Jews. And you have to confront what that part of you is and you have to destroy it if you want to engage in any conversations that impact Jewish welfare anywhere in the world.

One way to start deconstructing is to ask yourself “Why do I feel this way?” “From whom did I learn to think this way?” “Who in my life approves and supports me thinking this way?” “Am I comfortable telling a Jewish person I feel this way in person?” “How do I think a Jewish person will feel/What do I think a Jewish person will think if I tell them this?” “Do I care what they feel or think? Why or why not?” “How would I feel/what would I think if someone felt this way or thought this way about me or an identity I value deeply?”

[twoelectrichearts]

I know that this may be hard for some of you to comprehend, but there are lots of people who don’t view Noah, a Jewish person, as a horrible human being for believing in the self determination of his people in their indigenous homeland. Jews are indigenous to that area whether you want to accept it or not. It’s just a fact based in archaeology and documented history. I’m not even going by the religious text. And based on the severe antisemitism throughout history, and the rise in antisemitism going on right now, I completely understand why Israel has the need to exist. It’s the one and only Jewish State in the entire world, and it has about half of the entire Jewish population, which is only around fifteen to sixteen million people on Earth. That’s an incredibly tiny percentage of Earths population. Also, there are plenty of non Jews who live there as well. Around twenty percent are Arabs, almost one fourth of Israel’s entire population. To put that into perspective, only around two percent of Jews live in America. You can hate Noah for being a Zionist all you want, but that would also mean you hate the majority of a marginalized, minority group of people. Go ahead and accept only a small fraction of Jews. Please let me know about another marginalized group where you only accept a small percentage of them. Since you’re anti Zionist, that would mean you believe Israel should cease to exist. That must also mean you’ve been calling for every Christian, Muslim, etc. state/country to cease to exist as well, right? Because there’s waaaaaayy more than just one of those. Or are you just calling for Israel to cease to exist? If so, calling for only the Jewish state to cease to exist is definitely antisemitic. I’m not going to call for Israel to cease to exist when I’ve never done that to any other country before. Should governments change? Absolutely. I loathe Netanyahu. Criticizing Israel’s government isn’t antisemitism or anti Zionism. Plenty of Israelis, Jews, and Zionists hate the Israeli government. Plenty of Israelis, Jews, and Zionists want a two state solution. Kamala Harris is calling for that and believes that Israel has the right to exist and remain a Jewish, democratic state. I’ll definitely be voting for her this November. Also, I’m a woman, Mexican, disabled, and bisexual. I’ve gotta look out for me and my people as well. Trump getting elected again would be a living nightmare for people like me. So you bet I’ll be voting for Kamala. Anyways, keep hating Noah and believing he’s some awful human being along with the majority of Jews. He’ll be just fine without the support of someone who doesn’t accept the majority of his people. Please block me if you’re antisemitic and hold Israel/Jews to a standard that you don’t hold to any other country or marginalized, minority, and indigenous group of people. I want nothing to do with you.

[demigoddessqueens]

Hello! Can I ask how the Vox Machina would react to a female muslim reader who wears the hijab? Even her as their S/O if you feel comfortable. English is not my first language so please excuse any mistakes. I love your writing!

Oh of course! 😄

a/n - I myself am not Muslim nor wear the hijab so I am open to any and all feedback

Masterlist 12

So for starters, I can see you hailing from the areas of Marquet and/or Ank’harel. Exandria is vast and diverse in its cultures, and they are not one to judge for differences.

Given most of their vices, you become a better influence for the group. Seeing you take time not to indulge so much rubs off more than they would admit.

Even when the worst of your most vicious enemies are rid of, seeing you perform dua does strike at them, especially Percy. He wishes he could have met you during the worst years when he was away from Whitestone.

Will always go out of their way to accommodate to dietary needs for you, even going alcohol-free

Of course you always have to look your best darling! The most beautiful fabrics for your hijab and a kaftan

Vex hears you pray and it reminds her of the guiding light that was her mother. A reassuring she needs when self-doubt creeps. Vax hears and sees you and he feels safe, calm and accepting of his future with the Raven Queen. He’s glad there’s another he can share his sentiments and feelings with.

Pike and Keyleth have grappled with their doubts and insecurities with following the Everlight and the Aramente trials before but you’re a reminder to them they can take that time for themselves. Keeping to what they believe and follow will be there, but to live a life and enjoy what has always been in front of them.

Grog has his fair share of philosophical questions here and there, which he is glad you make the time to answer. It’s refreshing that someone listens to what he has to say.

At the rooms you each have at Whitestone, Percy caters to your tastes and decorates your rooms to your liking. Whatever it takes to remind you of home.

If you’re good at textiles and artwork, then calligraphy has a soft spot in their armor and along their clothes designs .

Also, it becomes a rotation of each party member to come into your rooms to learn more of your language. It feels like an intrusion to hear you and your s/o speak privately to each other only in a dialect you both know.

Sometimes they’ll hear you singing, asking what those songs mean and if you could teach them. Mostly Scanlan just likes to pretend he’s learning because it’s an excuse to hear you sing, giving him courage to come to terms with his daughter.

And of course, the affectionate nicknames for each other! Say habibi and they turn redder than a tomato

Your relationship and dynamics can pretty much be summed up in the words of Nizar Qabbani:

Not everything in the heart can be said, so God created sighs, tears, long sleep, cold smile and shivering hands.

I throw my passport in the sea, And name you my country, I throw all of my dictionaries in the fire, and name you my language

[acti-veg]

is it actually wrong to be Islamophobic? and by this i mean "disliking Islam". NOT saying "all Muslims are terrorists" or we should treat Muslims badly in any way. but to dislike the religion - not the people? are there not lots of verses encouraging violence in the Quran? (this is a genuine question - i don't know the answer)

It is perfectly fine to challenge or dislike any belief system, religious beliefs are not unique in any way in that respect. However, when you ‘hate’ an entire religion you’re not really just challenging a specific belief; because religions are extremely diverse, representing a fairly wide group of belief systems that may only share some key common features. One person’s Islam can be very different to another’s. Those who hate Islam as an entire religion tend not to know very much about it, in my experience.

There are certainly passages that can be interpreted as violent in the Quran, as there are in the Bible, but the Quran and modern Islam are not the same thing. Religious believers negotiate with scripture for meaning, and apply it to their lives. You can interpret ‘violent’ passages as reflective of the specific struggle that was happening at the time that the Quran was written, you could view it as a spiritual battle, or as encouraging violence against non-believers more generally.

If you are violent, your Islam will be violent. If you are a pacifist, your Islam will be peaceful. If you took a moderate Muslim from an affluent area in East Sussex and asked them to speak to a militant Islamist from an impoverished community in Kabul, they’d barely even recognise each other’s religion as being the same as their own. They may both claim that the other is not a ‘real Muslim,’ yet you’d hate all Islam on the basis of the behaviour of one of them? Or based on the text they both hold as sacred?

To view a religion as essentially just words on a page, or Muslims as a homogenous, unchanging group is a very narrow and inaccurate view. All religions are organic belief systems that change depending on the historical period, the cultural context, by mosque and even by individual. When people say they ‘hate’ Islam, when asked why, they usually break into criticism of Muslims as an entire people, which is Islamophobia. Or, they just point to specific lines in the Quran, which is fine, but very reductive and simplistic. At that point you’re just criticising a book.

People who ‘hate Islam’ generally don’t have a good grasp of what it is they even hate, and that goes for a lot of the more forceful critics of religion more generally. They haven’t studied the Quran, they haven’t engaged in Muslim culture, they haven’t really even talked to Muslims about what their beliefs even are. They read some out of context Quran quotes on the internet, or a few lines from someone like Ibn Kathir, and they think they understand the entire religion well enough to declare that Islam is violent. Religion is complex, they’re not just dead texts, they’re lived beliefs that are coloured by perception, culture and history as much as any other belief is.

What Islam is for most people is just what they have heard about it, and that is usually negative coverage from media sources. Even for you, I’d question why you are specifically focusing on the religion that the media has told you to hate, rather than any other religious or political ideology. That isn’t a criticism of your character, none of us are immune to propaganda. I’d just encourage you to reflect for yourself just how much of this thinking comes from your study of Islam, and how much comes from negative representations in the media.

[jewish-sideblog]

a two state solution is racist. there is no way an occupying colonial force deserves the land of those it colonized ever, especially if the people whose land was stolen are still alive and want to go back to it. a one state multinational secular palestinian state is the ONLY solution.

About 50% of Israelis, accounting for about three and a half million Jews, are ethnically Mizrahi. I’ll save you the trouble of looking that word up because you’ve clearly never heard it before. They’re Jews that never left the Middle East. Plenty of them never left the land that became the Mandate of Palestine in the first place. The rest were forced to emigrate to Israel by neighboring Arab countries. Where do you want them to go? Hamas certainly won’t let them keep hanging out.

The rest of the Jews in the country are diasporic. Which means Jews who were violently uprooted from their homelands in 70 CE. And 132 CE. And 617. And 717. And 1066. And 1099. And 1465. And 1834. And 1929. Plenty of those dates refer to times when imperialist Muslim caliphates tried to destroy Jewish presence in their ancestral homelands to replace them with Arab Muslims. One of those dates refers to a time when Palestinians mass-murdered and ethnically cleansed indigenous Jews. Do you know which ones are which? Do a little research and find out, instead of just parroting propaganda.

You’re totally right. There’s no way an occupying force that’s killed and displaced native peoples deserves to rule over the land it’s colonized, especially if the people who’s land has been stolen are still alive and want to return to it. That was one of the foundational ideologies of early Zionism when the land was ruled by… Turkey. Not Palestinians. Not even Arabs. Turkey.

Colonial rule can be avoided when two indigenous groups with equally valid claims to the same land stop butchering each other for land grabs, nationalism, and dominance. So either a joint rule, or a two-state solution.

And where are you calling from, America? Next.

[radfemsiren]

(As an ex Muslim ) Liberal Muslims are like Rose from Get Out to me . Idk how to explain it . It's like the bully pretending to be kind. At least I know the deranged ones hate me .sorry for the weird rant ❤️

No it makes sense lol, yea a lot of liberal Muslims are genuinely nice people trying to live with an ugly religion. So instead of confronting the bad parts, they remain ignorant and find excuses, so they can maintain their niceness. And for most people, religion is like politics and not something critically thought about or engaged with, just on the back burner and used ritualistically for big life events like weddings or funerals. They are Muslim in name only, like most Christian’s and Jewish people, and are actually pretty agnostic with their beliefs…

But there’s another group of liberal Muslims I can’t stand, and it’s the ones that are very religious, that do engage with the faith a lot and have no excuses for pushing misinformation. They do dawah and actively spread lies to make Islam seem better, and then only when someone is in too deep do they reveal the ugly parts of the faith. They are just as misogynistic as the openly hostile ones are, but they use passive aggressive comments and arguments to get their way.

“You look so much more beautiful in the hijab habibti, just put it on! It’s so empowering to not be objectified. You’re a feminist right? Modesty is respecting a woman, don’t you know Islam gave women rights? 1400 years ago there was no hope for us, Islam actually made a lot of changes 🥺”

Riiiight, 1400 years ago they were worshipping hundreds of gods besides Allah, I guess he can make a hardline law and punishment about that, but not age of consent for even the “best of men” Muhammad 😒

[acertainmoshke]

New Intro Post!

(If you’re mostly a Doctor Who or Batman blog I probably followed you for my side blog @presidentdisastraofgallifrey and you might be more interested in that one than here)

Including full details for all my WIPs was getting long, so I've decided to make an abridged version with links to full intros

Updated: 11/01/24

General tag list (ask to be +/- for any or all works): @ashirisu

Published work

7 Days for Fae: A low-stakes realistic middle grade story about an autistic girl learning to accommodate her own needs, making a new friend, and helping her aunt understand that having a nonbinary parent isn't that big a deal. MC is also physically disabled and her new friend is ADHD-coded.

Available now as a paperback from Amazon or Booshop.org, and in paperback or ebook form from Lulu.

In Progress

Cracks in the Stone: A steampunk high fantasy following a royal bastard prophesied to save the kingdom when all they really wanted was to have a normal life. Set in a kingdom with an entirely different gender system, MC is physically disabled, important side character is intellectually disabled. No one is white.

Word count: 27,746/150,000

Story intros: Legends of Halara series, book 2, book 3, book 4, book 5, book 6

Character intros: Ko'a, Nalki, Azja, Sunka, Lila

Tag list: @amielbjacobs @starsoughtfrost @rbbess110

Cold Iron: A dark urban fantasy set in the 50's about two adult changeling siblings on a quest to release from captivity the humans they replaced as infants. MC is autistic and both are trans.

Status: first draft done (85,039 words), second draft in chapter 16

Character intros: Shaka, Kris, Maggie, Zuri, Cassie, Sparrow

Tag list: @stesierra @amielbjacobs @ettawritesnstudies @the-inkwell-variable

Emerald Outpost: A sci fi thriller following a team of spies sent on a nonsense mission as punishment, only to discover that they might be the only ones who can save their planet as well as their enemies'. MC is Jewish and bi, the rest of the main cast includes a gay Muslim man, lesbian Latina woman, aro ace Latino man, and Black bi trans woman.

Status: zero drafted through chapter 1

Future/Hiatus Projects

Title TBD (Cold Iron book 2): A dark urban fantasy set in the 80's following the same characters from the first book and their new found family in underground queer culture as they investigate the mysterious disappearances of changelings with no one to miss them, people the authorities won't look for.

Stage: Planning

Character intros: Shaka, Kris, Maggie, Cassie, Sparrow, Vick, Mal, Megan, Jun

To Die Among the Stars: A dystopian sci fi in which people no one is supposed to miss—the poor, mentally ill, outcasts, and inhuman—are quietly stolen away to experiment on. But each of those people left behind someone who cares, and they won't rest until they've unraveled the mystery and saved their families. All of the 5 POV characters are disabled and/or mentally ill, and 2 are trans. The group is also racially diverse.

Word count: 19,569/85,000

Dragonfly Wings: A middle grade fantasy about a changeling girl who is taken back to faerieland but finds she no longer knows how to stop masking as a human. MC is autistic-coded.

Falling Petals: A historical story covering 100 years and 4 generations in a family that loves each other but is living in a world they don't fit into in very different ways and find themselves hurting each other instead. Entire family is Jewish and all 4 MCs are autistic-coded (except for the last one who is able to realize she's explicitly autistic).

After the War: An urban high fantasy following a war between the human and elfen countries, as people struggle to return to a peaceful normal after 30 years of violence. Werewolves, vampires, and mers were unwillingly affected by a conflict that wasn't theirs. No one trusts each other. But they have to move on somehow. Basically everyone is physically disabled and traumatized.

[phantom-of-the-memes]

It’s just so hilarious that ring-wingers in Ireland will suddenly become queer and trans “allies” when it comes to religious bigotry.

You defend people of other religions in Ireland, and they come out with “yeah but “x religion” (mainly muslims) are homophobic/ transphobic, and would attack/ kill you given the chance”. Or that these religions are harassing and forcing people to believe in their God.

Which is just so hilarious, because anyone can see, not just queer and trans people, that it is white Irish Christians doing this to us. In my (and many friends I have asked) experience, it has only ever been white Irish people calling me slurs, harassing me, following me, making me feel unsafe. When I see a group of young white Irish lads, that’s when my alarm bells ring and I cross the road. You will only find Christian preachers on the streets of Dublin with the megaphones, shouting that you’re going to hell and that gay people and abortions are of the devil.

This isn’t to say that nowhere in the world do non-Christians participate in this. I’m just specifically talking about in Ireland. Since it’s such a big “gotcha” move right-wingers try to pull. Which just fails seen as how we know that it’s people like them that make our lives difficult.

Also, in all my experience with Muslims in Ireland, they have all been the most accepting and lovely people. And also some of them are queer or trans themselves, because duh!

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Hi!

I hope that you had a great week and that the long weekend is going great!

Sorry I’m sending you an anon ask, I don’t like doing it because I would rather have a debate around this, but as often with unpopular (one might say controversial in some space) opinion, I know I may be branded as someone I don’t feel I am.

My question will be about the laïcité in Quebec. To sum it up, so you can have a good idea of what my position is before asking you my questions, I don’t not support the full laïcité, French-style, like I don’t support it in hospitals, public administration, like if you want to display your religion as a doctor, I think that you should be able to, as long as it doesn’t interfere with your job (i.e. refusing to practice an abortion because of your religion is not ok, in my opinion).

But for the schools, to be transparent, I am a teacher near Montréal, I teach in secondary, and I’d be inclined to agree with the laïcité of the public school. All of it. I feel like the school system should be a safe space for all kids, and by letting religion, and religious practices inside a public school, we are failing at this mission. I don’t care if you are religious, the job of a school and a teacher is to teach you, regardless of your personal beliefs. Like if you’re a Christian and you don’t want to believe in evolution, well that’s your choice, but you’re still gonna learn about it because this is the reality of our world, and your beliefs system shouldn’t interfere with that. And I don’t want, as a teacher to have to put disclaimer in front of all my classes.

So my question is: why are people (especially left leaning people) so against it? Because education is usually one of the center piece of the fight for tolerance and acceptance but I feel like we’re failing at providing a safe space for kids that grow up in extremely religious household and that would like to get out of it but don’t because of family and peer pressure.

I am not stupid, so if the answer is : because it disproportionately target people from specific faiths that may have to wear visible clothing (i.e. Muslim and Jewish), I guess you are right, but I think it is more important to provide a safe space for kids that want to escape religions.

I may have a bias, as I grew up in a very religious household (evangelical Christians) and my dad was a pastor so I never really had a say in it. I got out of it in the university, but I really wish the public school system would have helped me get out of it sooner.

If you read all of it, I hope I didn’t bother you too much with what could basically be my life story at this point. Thank you!

PS: as you can guess my first language is French, and I really am not an English teacher so sorry if my broken English is awful to read.

"Just as a preface, I'm not the usual person who answers the asks, I'm one of the two people helping the usual admin run the blog while they recover from injury. This is important because I'll be addressing some of my experiences growing up Muslim in Quebec, experiences that the admin is not trying to speak to and is leaving for me to address. First off, I do want to note you're speaking from the perspective of the privileged group causing religious oppression as opposed to the receiving end. As someone who was growing up 'Christian' trying to escape religious impositions from your father, you're not in a situation where your religion is being oppressed and suppressed systematically, nor are you suffering under presumption your religion is inherently violent. This is why your comment on your opinion being "unpopular" makes no sense. Your opinion is not unpopular, it is in fact supported by the CAQ and their adherents. Second, the left does not support this because the interests of the right in making such laïcité laws was never to protect children from religious imposition. When I went to private school, where those rules were strictly enforced only onto Jewish and Muslim students but not to Christians wearing cross necklaces (although ostensibly those rules applied to them too), the result wasn't anyone's religious beliefs being protected nor was anyone tolerated, as I was bombarded by homophobic harassment and bullying from our Christian peers and accepted by my Muslim peers. The result was alienation of the Muslim and Jewish students. You should remember that is the original intent of this legislation is not to protect anyone's rights but to remove them. They are telling Muslims "Leave your religion at the door, or you're not a part of society." This is the practical impact of this legislation, and nothing else. You are harming more students than you are 'saving''. Additionally, your worry that Muslims having a prayer room somewhere in the building is a religious imposition on other students, in your imaginary likely atheist ones, is based in islamophobia. The idea that parents can somehow enforce their children to practice at school just because there is a room that allows them to literally makes no sense either. Your concerns are misplaced." "Removing Muslims' ability to have a room to pray in at their school does not remove any mechanism by which parents can use to force their child to perform religious duties they do not want to do. But what it does is continue the operation of an increasingly hostile and alienating system in Quebec that wants Muslims to know they're not welcome in their own country. Would you seek the outlawing of abortion because many men force their partners to undergo them when they don't want to? No? Why? Because it's a basic human right to have access to that service. And just because people impose it on people in their family as part of their abuse doesn't mean it should be removed as an option for everybody, the majority of whom want to use it for legitimate and sincere reasons."

[sissa-arrows]

French Israeli piece of shit: Wanna know why the Arabs don’t protest and break and burn shit in Israel like they do in France? First Arab who walks by gets beaten up. Even the nice Arabs. The peaceful ones with nice corner shops. We beat them up, broke everything did a carnage. It’s the only language the Arabs understand, they think that as long as you’re not in the streets to kill them you’re weak and they can do whatever they want. The war, what we’re doing in Gaza hasn’t been done in a long time. What we’re doing in Gaza… you know what we’re doing. Not a single Arab in Israel is moving not even their ear unlike 2021. Not a single burned tire. Nothing because they know that Israelis, including the leftists, if they do anything we will catch them and hang them to a traffic light.

People in the conversation: That’s good!!!

The same piece of shit: I can send you pictures of Arabs taped from head to feet. Their face, their eyes everything.

Mila a piece of shit: I absolutely want to see this.

A third piece of shit: If you want Mika I have really nice ones from the army.

Mila the piece of shit: I want to see it.

The two pieces of shit who have pictures: Sending you the pics in DM.

Mila: *laughing*

Come again and tell us how “Israel” is nice and how the “Israeli Arabs” are not mistreated. The thing is the three people who were talking are easily identifiable. We all know who they are know their names and faces. Mila is even invited on TV regularly to pretend to be a victim. But none of them was arrested. Let’s pretend a group with white supremacists and Muslims who can easily be identified because they are known and use their picture and full name on social media was calling for the murder of Jews? Do you think for one second it wouldn’t be all over the news and the piece of shit would be in police custody already? But hey it’s just anti Arab racism so nothing to see here. They are just celebrating the death of Palestinians. Fuck Zionism. Fuck every single person who stand with “Israel” in any form or shape even the “neutral” ones and both siders. You’re a piece of shit and I have absolutely zero respect for you or even any empathy.

(The two guys in the conversation are Zionist Jews the girl Mila is a white supremacist. A couple years ago when she was 17 and nobody knew her she insulted Muslims during a live video, idiots answered by insulting her cause she is queer. And she became a symbole in France they started using her to show how the Arabs are savages and saying that blasphemy is a right in France. They didn’t listen to us when we were like “Nah she didn’t insult Islam she insulted Muslims that’s not blasphemy that’s racism” and now years later after being told her behavior was perfectly okay multiple times including by politicians and the medias, she is casually calling for the murder or Arabs and asking for pictures of dead Palestinians.)

[edenfenixblogs]

New Pinned Post: How This Blog Approaches The Conflict

I am not normally a politically-focused blog. I am normally a personal blog that enjoys fandom and occasionally processes my own past trauma. As this war goes on, I am finding that it is against my personal ethics and morals to stay silent when I have the ability to educate and remain more patient than most. (My patience is not endless. I’m still human). So, while disinformation/misinformation, and propaganda abound on all sides. I feel like the best way I can help lower the temperature is to put my skills to use.

Primary Political Goals:

1. Emphasize humanity above all and use verifiable information and good faith education and discourse to reduce tension.

2. Do my absolute best to move the conversation away from polarizing, accusatory discourse that forces Jews, Muslims, Arabs, Israelis, and Palestinians to play a desperate game of defense and toward a shared mutually beneficial peace that honors each grouped indigeneity culture, and connection to their ancestral homeland.

3. Demonstrate and emphasize both Jewish-Muslim solidarity and Israeli-Palestinian solidarity.

Primary Blogging Goals:

As a diaspora Jew, my primary goal is threefold

1. Educate about antisemitism and Islamophobia—including calling it out and explaining it to the best of my ability.

2. Elevate responsible, verifiable voices—regardless of religion or nationality—and information to the best of my ability.

3. Demonstrate effective activism and provide insight and encouragement for other to find their most effective way to contribute to fostering peace.

Elaboration:

1. I have the most experience with an understanding of antisemitism. I am more of an expert in antisemitism and have more ability to identify and educate about it. That said: I will not tolerate any Islamophobia or racism and if I don’t have the ability to educate about it, you will be blocked. If I have the ability to educate about it, I will do so and give you the chance to read about it and adjust your behavior. If you do not do so, I will block you.

2. This does not mean equal representation of all nationalities and religions. It means the best informed and most reliable voices AND the voices I personally have the best ability to vet, verify, and substantiate. This will often mean Jewish voices and Israeli voices. This is me staying in my lane, not choosing to suppress any voice. I will not elevate purposefully divisive, tokenized, or uninformed voices. This does not mean that I won’t elevate Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab voices as well. I will. But my primary goal here is responsibility. To do that, I have to stay in my lane.

3. I am most effective as an educator on this matter, a guide to finding reliable peace-oriented voices, and an example of patience. There’s a great desire among many to protest or create videos detailing their opinions and stances. Not only is this primarily performative—especially among non-Muslim/non-Palestinian goyim—it has the potential to be extraordinarily damaging to Jews both in Israel and in Diaspora as well as to Arabs, Muslims, Palestinians, and South East Asians worldwide. If you truly desire to help and not just feel like you’re helping, the best thing you can do is follow the lead of much more experienced activists with a demonstrated track record of effectiveness and good faith in their areas of expertise. As I stated: mine is primarily education and greater than average (though not limitless) amounts of patience. If you want to donate money or engage in more direct action and aid, I suggest finding pro-Palestinian Israeli voices and peace oriented Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian voices as well as organizations with experience in this conflict that do not rely on eliminating any population or erasing anyone’s connection to the Levant. Follow their lead on that matter. If you are only just engaging in this conflict for the first time due to current events, you likely do not know nearly as much as you think you do about any of this. Being uninformed and spouting disinformation has actual dire consequences that can get Jews, Muslims, Palestinians, Israelis, and Arabs killed. It is vital that you’re responsible in your engagement on this matter. Learning dogwhistles and how to spot bad faith arguments is a must. And to be effective, you should spend more of your time learning than you’re doing protesting or arguing. This is a 2000+ year old conflict. There is a lot to know and understand. And there are a lot of people willing to prey on your newcomer status and manipulate your existing beliefs to use you as a pawn to further their bad faith aims. The only consistent, trustworthy principal is to trust those who repeatedly affirm their goal as peace and shared prosperity and who reject any form of demonization based on ethnicity or religion. This is not a game. This is not the west’s fight. This is a conflict between two horribly oppressed, traumatized, and nearly exterminated ethnoreligous groups.

I am begging you to think, listen, and learn before joining the fray.

Note: I also don’t claim to be perfect. If I mess up or reblog something that causes unintended harm (which is very easy to do when engaging in discussions and activism about this conflict), I will say so and issue a correction. There’s no need to be hostile in informing me about this. Just message with your concern and I’ll evaluate from there.

Additionally, I will not interact with Hamas apologists. Hamas is a terrorist organization.

Anyone trying to make me feel like this is an Us vs. Them situation will be blocked.

[pettytiredandjewish]

Hey, I just want to say congrats on all the hard work and advocacy you've done. People who can't climax without looking at a photo of a dead Middle Eastern child are one of the most spat upon and derided groups, and it is so brave how you have chosen to step up to advocate for them ❤️

And it’s so brave that you’re hiding behind anon. How about you come off anon?

It’s funny that you’re saying this because it’s you people that really have a weird and sick obsession when it comes to middle easterns and honestly POC as a whole. Y’all love to post and share horrible graphic images from war torn countries (especially images of the wounded and dead). Then y’all add captions about said images but frame it in a way where it makes y’all the “main character”. You do know that doing that is so disrespectful. Y’all are being disrespectful to the dead and their families. Maybe stop making the war about yourself- especially if you’re not Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, or middle eastern in general. I could go on but we all know that you will not listen.

I’ve said this before but this war- it’s not a fucking game where we pick a side and root out teams. It’s a fucking horrible war. People on both “sides” have died. But the thing is- Israel is trying their best to prevent civilians from getting caught in the crossfire. But it’s kinda hard for them to do that when hamas is happily k*lling everyone. That includes their own citizens too. We all know they don’t give a fucking damn about Palestinians. They’ve made it known multiple times. Most of the civilians that were killed in this war- Hamas did that. But y’all are ignoring that. Hamas has control over their news media and are pulling the strings in other news media too. Y’all are falling for their propaganda and it’s disturbing. Hell when some of their “claims” have been revealed as lies (surprise) y’all literally turned a blind eye or pulled the fake news card. If y’all really did care for Palestine- hell even the Middle East in general, y’all would idk not support and root for terrorist organizations. That fact that y’all are rooting for them and calling them freedom fighters is just fucked up. I honestly could go on but would you even listen?

Honestly the pro Israel groups actually cares more about Palestinian civilians then you pro pal/ anti Zionist groups. Which shows that it wasn’t about the Palestinians in the first place. The majority of y’all are just using this war as an excuse to go fully unmasked as a Jew hater. We all know that. Y’all can try and deny it but when ever you guys say “those evil Zionist has control over blah blah blah” we know know what you really mean. We ain’t stupid. Is the Israeli government perfect? Hell no. But the citizens are not their government. They are not to be blamed for what is going on. They are also victims of this war. All they want is their loved ones to be released from being held hostage by Hamas. They also want the bodies of the deceased to be returned to so that they can be properly be put to rest- so that their loved ones can find some closure. But not only that- they want Hamas (a fucking terrorist organization) to be stopped once and for all. Hell if Hamas is gone- Palestine will be fucking free.

I could keep going but I know it will just be cricket noises for y’all. I’m tired and exhausted. And to be perfectly honest? I can honestly say that I don’t give a flying fuck if you don’t like what I said. It’s not my first rodeo with dealing with you people and it won’t be the last ( because y’all probably get off by harassing random Jews on the internet). So good bye and F yourself. I’m gonna go relax and enjoy the rest of the night.

[baelpenrose]

Project Praetorian 41: New Arrivals Part III: Commonality

Micah talks religion with Mark and Molly, and Mia works on language barrier issues. As I do not speak spanish (though ironically @writing-with-olive does) we wound up telling the sequence from Mia's perspective, with the note that everyone else speaking "broken" English from Mia's PoV is a translation convention.

Beta read by @canyouhearthelight and @writing-with-olive TW For kidnapping in flashbacks. Historical note for anyone who doesn't get the in-joke in Mia's flashback: the US Government has a long and sordid history of using Central American and specifically El Salvadorian cartels as mercenaries to do the CIA's bidding.

Micah

Getting off the VTOL was a relief - his dad had been an engineer, even if the obvious accent made it hard for him to get work at any of the really big firms, and Micah had had to hear about the dangers of that kind of air transport more than once when his dad had held up a newspaper and talked about the Osprey. “Another crash! Rotary blades on the top and a jet engine! How did any company allow this out of R&D?”

He hadn’t been riding in one of those - thus why it had landed instead of crashing - but his father’s general distrust of VTOL craft in general had left an impression. And that Nazi asshole who wouldn’t shut the fuck up about his panic attack the whole trip hadn’t helped, even as he’d tried to stay calm by counting the stitches on the seatbelts.

At least Jared hadn’t found out he was the product of a mixed-faith marriage. He’d suffered racial slurs, he’d suffered Islamophobic ones, and he shuddered to imagine how much worse it would have been had Jared known he was half-Jewish. 

Then he was introduced to the people he’d be joining, heard the last name of the leader of the kids, and realized he was going to find out any minute - hopefully with violent consequences for Jared. 

The group of new arrivals was split up, and Micah found himself being pulled aside by the boy introduced as Mark Ascher, along with a redheaded girl introduced as Molly Harper. 

“Hey. So, welcome to Palatine base. You’ve probably been stuck at Aventine for a minute, and…actually, before we start, did they do any testing on any of you there? I know they have facilities there, Echo’s testing started there.”

Micah felt a surge of fear. “Testing? What…what are they testing for?”

Mark blinked. “Okay, that’s a no. They did not. We’ll cover that later - oy vey, at this point I’m gonna buy a camera on my next leave - make an orientation film.”

Micah looked between them and Molly glared. “I think that’d be…kind of a dick move. I don’t think I’d have adjusted as fast if Vergil hadn’t given me the tour.”

“Fair enough, but I never know where to start with this…”

Something clicked for Micah. “You’re not a New Yorker, right?”

“Bite your tongue. I’m from Boston.” 

“That’s what I thought, but you cursed in Yiddish, so I thought I’d check. Salaam.”

Recognition flashed in the other boy’s eyes, changing him all at once from a young man trying to be older and harder than he was to match responsibilities he never wanted to the kind of boy Micah wished he’d known more of in school - clever, quick to laugh, and easy to talk to. “Muslim?”

Micah nodded. 

Mark gave Micah a fast hug. “A relief to have someone else here who gets that at least. Now, I know that Kosher and Halaal are not exactly the same thing, and I have been working to keep kosher on military rations, but you came at a good time - we just got a lot more freedom to operate on our own, so you’re not dealing with the crap I was where it was something I more or less only kept on holidays because I didn’t have a guarantee of eating if I stuck to it consistently.”

“Holidays?”

“Oh, right. Uh. We don’t get them. Not just us, though, for once, I’ve been here for almost three years now and we didn’t get Christmas off from everything sucking. It’s a very nondenominational suck. Oh, talk to Leon, she’ll help you find some ways to keep your traditions while surviving here. All in it together and we do mean ‘all’ in it together. Which means you’re probably going to be asked to explain Eid, both of them, I had to explain Purim and Rosh Hashanna. The results of the whole detachment trying to celebrate each other’s holidays is…I mean it’s often hilariously bad but it winds up giving it more of a home feel than not bothering. And don’t expect help from the higher ups.”

Micah felt a strange mix of warmth and horror at the casual description of a lack of recognition of holidays of any kind. 

Molly suddenly asked a question. “Hey, actually, I have a question since I know Muslims have a holiday where they fast for a month and Lent is coming up…”

Micah spoke first. “My faith acknowledges exceptions for health reasons, I don’t know about yours…”

Molly shook her head. “I don’t have to give up all food, just meat from animals on land, and something else. Also from blood in general. The church used to enforce a ban on carrying arms during Lent.”

Mark took a breath. “I…I want, so badly, to not immediately reverse myself, but I am going to strongly suggest that our job itself is a health reason to not fast - I don’t think you can do a month only eating at the beginning and end of each night. I mean, I barely make it through training on Yom Kippur each year and that’s one day without food or water. I’m not saying you can’t, I am saying, before you decide, train with us, then decide if you can do that while fasting. And remember that combat is much, much worse.” 

He turned to Molly. “And…yeah, sorry. No. There’s no holiday any of us can skip a mission for. If it happens during Lent, or Yom Kippur, or Ramadan, or the High Holidays, or any other day when we are absolutely not supposed to be spilling blood, then…taboos get broken because we are keeping each other alive, and we’re too short on hands to have anyone sit out. I’m sorry.”

Micah felt a thrill of fear. “So. You keep saying ‘combat’ - what are we fighting? I saw a bunch of UN flags at Aventine. Are we going to be turned into supersoldiers to deal with terrorists or lock down nukes, or..?”

Mark looked at him, then doubled over laughing. Micah felt hurt, and Mark kept going, slowly taking a breath, then spoke. “Okay, okay, sorry, sorry, just…that’s what we thought for the longest time, just. Okay. no. The actual answer is so much dumber. No, see, we actually straight up get super powers, and we’re fighting aliens. Yeah, really.” 

Micah started laughing. It was a joke, it had to be a joke - but Molly’s face was deadly serious, and he slowly stopped laughing. “You’re for real. This is…”

“Yeah. Go figure.”

Micah sat down. “Alright, so…” 

“They’re real. I got scooped after an alien scouting party attacked Tanglewood music camp and wiped out my family and killed my best friend. I was the only survivor.”

“That was a fire, wasn’t…” Micah trailed off as he realized how stupid he sounded. No, obviously not. Obviously that would be the cover up. “Ya Allah.” 

Echo was calling to Molly, and Molly ran over to them, Micah noticing the tears in her eyes. 

“She lost everyone she loved in her first contact. We had another battle we were ready for and we beat them, pretty soundly but we’re…” Mark leaned back on the bench, tossing chicken and beans onto Micah’s plate. “It’s terrifying.”

“What’s the testing?”

“I’m going to explain and you are going to leave the swearing or the appeals to HaShem to the end because if you do it every time I say something awful we’re gonna be here a while.”  

Micah nodded, the ghost of a joke failing to cover the menace implied by Mark’s story.

“So. We get injected by some vile chemical that causes mutations. Before it can give us turbo-cancer or whatever, we strip down to underwear or completely, depending on how much of this we’ve already done, climb into machines that look like sealed MRI machines but are not, which then proceed to blast us with radiation from all over the spectrum. This breaks down the mutagen while also mutating you harder and in a more useful way. The reason you don’t get clothing later, we figured out, isn’t that it gives Koleth a clearer read, or that it blocks too much of the radiation, and I can’t believe we ever believed that, no. It’s actually that once you’re far enough along, they have to hit you with enough radiation at a weird enough frequency that clothing will catch fire. By then you’re changed enough that it doesn’t do anything but change you. They did not tell us this, by the way, Echo found out while poking around the scientists’ computers while she was breaking a captured alien machine. I do not know what this says about our ability to survive nuclear fallout so do not ask. I am terrified we will have the opportunity to find out.”

“Allah yahmina, what is this place?”

“Official answer: Imperator’s Palatine Base. Unofficial answer: The best argument I’ve yet encountered that my people are wrong and that hell is in fact a thing.” 

“How are you this calm about it?” Micah felt vaguely faint.

“You get used to it.” 

Mia

She hadn’t slept properly since those mercenary assholes had gotten a bag over her head and taken her north. She still wasn’t sure how or why they’d picked her, but from what she’d gotten out of the mercenaries - who were locals, when she’d screamed at them - they’d told her that the blood tests she’d gotten in the hospital had showed she could be helpful.

She didn’t know what the hell that meant, but she knew she had to get home, back to her mother, back to her brothers. She’d struggled to try to escape, but been told if she kept going she’d be knocked unconscious.

She remembered the mercenaries taking her to someone they clearly answered to, asking him if he wanted to keep her for other sale for a few days, and him shaking his head. “No. Some rich white American asshole already paid us a hundred thousand for her - with another hundred thousand promised if she’s undamaged. Apparently she’s got some rare gene that some fucked up American research firm wants to experiment on and they’re paying top dollar for test subjects.”

She had been kept in a dark room - though fed surprisingly well, apparently the cartel was interested in getting paid for the ‘undamaged’ part - and once she’d realized she wasn’t going to be sold to a brothel, assaulted, or shot because she was apparently already paid for by people who were capable of paying the cartel too much to throw her away, she started using it. 

By swearing up a storm at her captors and spitting on them every chance she got. 

Thus by the time she was dragged out of a warehouse, she had been gagged, and two white assholes were talking to her captor, offering him a suitcase - and shoving her onto a boat, which went a certain ways off the coast before she was put on a helicopter.

She remembered seeing her city - her country - fade away in the distance.

She’d been surrounded by assholes who refused to speak her language, except the man who had apparently commissioned her kidnapping by the cartel, who introduced himself as August Gideon, who spoke it fluently and kept up an eerily polite tone.

“Ms. Orellana, I apologize for the roughness of your arrival. As you know, your country has a history of being a bit politically unstable due to a criminal element who are easily made into efficient proxies for outside actors. Our organization is funded by the UN security council, and we have access to most of the UN data bases, even the ones they swear are strictly confidential. You see - that hospital you went to a few months ago, to get your tonsils out? They tested you, like most patients, with a gauntlet of basic blood work - and one of those samples, as of eight months ago, is determining if someone is a Praetorian candidate. Among other things, I no longer have to collaborate with Stricken about the most effective ways to bribe blood samples out of donation or hospitals.” He gave a wan smile. “You came back with a positive test. Which is when we engaged the mercenaries who picked you up and turned you over to us.”

“What did you want from me? What the hell is a Praetorian candidate?”

“Project Praetorian…you’re now in the custody of an organization called Imperator. You’ll find out the rest from your compatriots, day after tomorrow - you were the last to arrive of this wave, and you’re all being transported together to the other facility. I have a plane to catch back there tonight, I’m afraid.”

“Why not ride back with the rest of us?”

“I have business I have to attend, and an important briefing to provide.” 

***

The four she’d been stuck with at the base were incapable of speaking to her, so she’d been stuck gesturing at herself and saying “Mia,” asking for their names and getting “Kimmy,” from a girl in a wheelchair, “Micah,” from a quiet, nervous looking boy with Gideon’s complexion but the gentle presence of one of her brothers, and “Jared,” from a boy who looked at her like something to scrape off his boot.

The ride on the chopper had mostly consisted of Jared apparently antagonizing Micah - Mia didn’t understand what was being said but she understood the tone - and Kimmy taunting him back. Rapid-fire English that she couldn’t follow but that she knew was probably important to understand.

When they landed and people were presumably introduced, she stood there, asking if anyone spoke any Spanish - and got a response from one dark, gorgeous girl who pulled her aside and spoke, haltingly but with some degree of fluency. 

“My name is Echo and yours…”

“My name’s Mia, it's really good to meet you. I’ve been stuck with no one to talk to because no one understood what I was saying for ages and I don’t actually speak English. So, what is this, what’s going on? What is a Praetorian candidate? Who are these people?”

Echo blinked, slowly, and then said. “I am not that strong in Spanish now. Praetorian is a thing where they do crazy science to us - it hurts. Gives us weird powers, like a comic book.” 

Mia unwrapped that in her head - Echo wasn’t totally fluent in Spanish yet, or spoke a different kind, but she was trying. Praetorian was a program of some kind where they were having experiments done on them, which gave them…superpowers? Echo had to be saying that wrong, Echo seemed smart.

“What do you do here, Echo?”

“I work with computers - hack into them. Jonathan is…” She shouted for Jonathan to do something in English and Jonathan casually lifted an unused table. “Strong. Like a comic book. The crazy science changes us. They teach us to fight too. We’re supposed to be…” Echo broke off and said something that was obviously a chain of curse words in English.

“Supposed to be fighting aliens. One minute.” She shouted for someone and a girl came over, the same age as Mia and red-headed. Echo chatted with her fast, and the redhead looked between them, then said something in Spanish back, also a dialect that was more formal than Mia really spoke but was something her churchgoing aunt would have gotten much more easily. Molly had a rosary, a simple one, but it reminded Mia of her grandmother’s.

“I’m Molly,” she started, “And…I only really know Church Spanish,” she said, waving the rosary. “So I do not know how much I can say about our lives here - beyond that we may have been kidnaped by the devil. But if you want to talk about your family, I can understand that - we had a few Latin families at our church, we were supposed to be able to talk with each other, all of us, about important things.”

Mia nodded. “I have brothers back in El Salvador. And parents. They have no idea where I am.” That started hitting her for the first time. “God, I’m never going to see them again, am I?”

Molly lunged forward and hugged her. “I’m sorry. My parents are dead, died when the aliens first appeared. The others talk a big game about being a new family and hopefully the ones with living parents see their families again, and…I don’t know, Leon and Curtis are talking about ideas for the rest of us if the war ends before we’re adults.”

Mia nodded. “So, Echo - and Molly. What’s the deal with the kids who introduced us?”

“Mark - the skinny one? He’s kinda in charge, and the guy who spoke is Xavier.” 

“Xavier spoken for?”

“Not officially,” Echo replied, glancing at Shiloh in the distance. 

Molly followed her gaze. “I wouldn’t recommend it.” 

Mia let the other two girls guide her to a table and sit her down, shoveling food on her plate and eating with them, slowly fumbling through Spanish with them and starting to get through a smattering of English, some of which she’d gotten in school before she’d had to stop going to start working. Picking it back up with them was helping, a bit, but suddenly Molly started. “Right. She needs ASL too.”

Echo cursed in not only English, but Spanish, and her phone let out a series of beeps that might have been her using powers to curse in morse code. 

“Right - actually, might be easier, different grammar.”

Mia looked between them, and then Molly stood up in shock.

Molly

The conversation had been going well with Mia - honestly the new girl was really pretty and Molly was glad she spoke enough Spanish to make her feel welcome, but then something insane happened.

Shiloh had been over by Kimmy, and was putting hands on Kimmy’s back. The paralyzed girl started screaming, then bit down on her shirt, before Shiloh stepped away for a second, leaving Casey holding Kimmy’s hand as Kimmy writhed in pain, then Shiloh had come back, and begun doing - whatever they were doing again.

And it hit Molly what she was witnessing. Shiloh was trying to repair Kimmy’s spine. 

Shiloh. A person that, as much as she hadn’t admitted it, she hadn’t talked to much, been alone with the least of the Praetorians - by design. Their anger, their weird gender stuff, had always made Molly nervous, went against what she’d been taught.

Shiloh had given someone back his eyes during the battle, healed burns, restored wounds. Molly had seen that, but that had been rational, Molly had thought, or at least, as rational as anything could be in a world where aliens had come down from the sky, gunned down her parents, and she was now a superhero-supersoldier supposed to be fighting them.

But this.

Kimmy stood up, leaning on Casey, as Shiloh slumped, taking deep breaths and huge bites. 

Kimmy took a few steps forward, eyes filling with tears, and laughed maniacally.

Shiloh had just performed a straight up miracle. It wasn’t just healing a broken bone or restoring a wound, Shiloh had just made a cripple walk.

She heard Mia gasp behind her as she crossed herself.

“Even here, that’s…that’s crazy. That’s…”

Molly’s world spun as she saw Kimmy take slow steps and turn around of her own accord. 

“Holy shit.”

“Welcome to Praetorian. That’s our healer, Shiloh. Going completely beyond the impossible.” 

Beyond the impossible. 

That was one way to put it. 

Molly picked up a huge platter of food and carried it over to Shiloh in absolute silence then set it down in front of the deaf healer, signing for them to eat as she did so.

Shiloh gave her a quiet nod, and continued to watch Kimmy, a smile of satisfaction and quiet pride on their face.

[aronarchy]

(@/eviltothecore13 on 10/10/22 in the replies of this post):

Please, please, stop saying “the homeschooling movement” as if there’s one homeschooling movement across the whole world! this post is so US-centric… there are parts of the world where the majority of homeschoolers are not religious at all. I was homeschooled in the UK after my parents took me out of school because of the abuse I suffered there. We are not Christian or religious at all.

My best friend at my homeschool group was Jewish, taken out of school by his very left-wing mother after he experienced horrific antisemitism as well as bullying for being autistic. Most of the rest of us were not particularly religious, there were a couple of Muslims, and yes a handful of people who were to some extent Christian but that wasn’t their motivation for homeschooling. My parents never hit me. My teachers at school thought they should have done.

Was it ideal? not in every way, no. It costs money, it’s not accessible to poorer families or to families where both parents are out at work all day, and seeing different people every day at various groups and classes but never seeing any one person more regularly than once a week does make it harder to form close friendships (then again, it means you don’t end up inescapably trapped with the same bully every day.)

But we were a group of people who had tried the school system, public and private, been mistreated, been traumatised, had the schools try to blame it on us simply being “bad kids,” and found our parents were our only allies and the only people still willing to even TRY to give us an education. It was a rural county. If you got a bad reputation at one school it would follow you to the next because everyone knew each other and teachers gossiped about their students.

Whereas the homeschool group and the tutors there welcomed you whether you were autistic, ADHD, dyspraxic, dyslexic, dyscalculic, atheist, Jewish, Muslim, a POC, GNC (to my knowledge no-one was out as queer, but only because we were all young and figuring it out and we were in a homophobic area in general—the environment was certainly far less homophobic than school though, and definitely none of my friends who did go to school were out as queer at that age either)

It can be horrible. If the parents don’t have the child’s best interests at heart, if they’re authoritarian, then it can indeed put a terrible amount of power in their hands. If the parents are like mine, who listen to the child and respect them as a person, who consider it their JOB to listen to their child’s wishes and do their best to make them happy, then it gives far more power to the CHILD than the school system does.

If I disliked a tutor or a textbook or anything about my education, I could discuss it with my parents and we’d find a way to change it. It is MUCH harder to do that in the school system—believe me, as someone who tried to express my problems with teachers who abused me to the school system MULTIPLE times and NEVER got the school system to fire someone or even to put me in a different class.

And you say “the homeschooling movement” when you seem to only mean the American Christian one… I’d never heard of the HSLDA before this post, they’re NOT A THING over here, apparently they’re a “Christian organisation” which immediately makes me distrust them, but homeschooling here has NOTHING to do with that movement, please stop acting as if the American experience is universal!

I suffered infinitely more from the stigma around homeschooling (from other kids: “so, why can’t you go to school? is there something wrong with you? are you [r-slur]?” “oh you're homeschooled? I bet you don’t even know the alphabet, I bet you’re stupid”—I took the same GCSE exams as every schoolkid while I was homeschooled and got all A*s) and from feeling like I had to be perfect to prove that stigma wrong than from anything to do with homeschooling in itself.

If I ever have children (which I don’t currently plan to) or ever find myself in a position of responsibility for a child, unless our school system and government has been radically reformed, I could not in good conscience send them to school to go through what I did when I was at school.

And even if under one government things improve… the next could fuck it up again… we used to have Section 28 banning schools from teaching kids that being queer was at all acceptable… imagine if that was brought back…

If an oppressive government comes into power, and the schools are suddenly teaching kids “people like you [your families, your friends, etc] don’t deserve human rights,” I think there needs to be a way for children to still get an education outside of the school system (though let’s face it, an oppressive government would quite possibly make homeschooling illegal anyway, the Nazis did).

Children should not be faced with a situation where their ONLY way to get the qualifications needed to go to university, get a job, etc is to go through an oppressive and abusive school system. They need to have the choice of whether to go to school or not, not be forced to go somewhere that abuses them with no alternative.

.