Saffiyah Edoo
In 2025, there are very few world events that take place on one side of the world without the other one learning about it. As the sun takes it slow spin around the globe, news follows close behind, which is why since the past couple of weeks, a majority of the world’s attention has been shared between the ongoing genocide in Palestine, by the unpunished Israeli government and the murder in broad daylight of Charlie Kirk, right wing political activist, who made his name through his conservative organisation, Turning Point USA. We are, today, savvier than we were when the attack on the Twin Towers took place in 2001, which is why, for the most of us, the prompt capture of his alleged attacker raises a few eyebrows.
The world events that have unfolded over the past twenty years and their aftermath, including the dismantling of the justifications given for the unnecessary wars launched, have turned people cynical if not created downright hatred for those who consider themselves as the police of the world.
The greatest case in point today is the genocide taking place in Palestine, committed by the Zionist government in Palestine. A retaliation which supposedly started because Palestinians took Israelis as hostage, has in fact become a catalyst and the reason to justify a plan that has been laid since more than four decades ago. That is the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Zionists, to take over their land, so that the latter can reign supreme on a land that has been usurped through barbarity and unprecedented inhumane attacks.
But today, the world no longer buys into the narrative that is spun by the Zionist-controlled media, or the self-righteous USA, whose politics, per the words of its own politicians, is almost state captured by the Zionist roadmap for the creation of Greater Israel.
The murder of Charlie Kirk somewhat seems to be a piece in this puzzle. Per podcasts of the deceased’s friends, he had started to question the legitimacy of the Zionist ethnic cleansing and was put under highly significant pressure to change his ways and fall back in line. Somebody like Kirk is hugely significant in the strengthening of the American right-wing ideology. White, with a blonde, blue eyed wife and kids, deeply religious, it was no wonder that his organisation benefited from the support of American conservatives and counted the President and the Vice President of the USA among his friends, which explains the degree of coverage given to his death and subsequent memorial.
Anyone remotely interested in the issue could not have missed the grand memorial of Charlie Kirk which took place the weekend before last. Akin to a great political rally, it seems that the organisers pulled all the stops and spared no expense to almost make a martyr out of the deceased: a chock-full venue, livestreamed, with evangelical musical performances, eulogies by eminent right-wing personalities, including the President and the Vice President. But the most visually “remarkable” performance was that of the deceased’s wife, Erika Kirk. Dressed to the nines, carefully made up, timely emotional, looking up the skies, dabbing her eyes, she spoke about various things: how she believed in “submission” to her husband, how she forgave her husband’s alleged killer, finding the courage to keep moving forward, doing all of that by largely drawing on her faith. The response to her eulogy was wildly positive, with reports of a great surge in church attendance and people (re)turning to religion.
Hypocrisy
This is highly ironical. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, and during the attacks launched on Afghanistan, much was said, by the Conservatives, on the need to liberate Muslim women from the patriarchal society, where men dictated women’s lives. While this might have been true for those living under the Taliban rule, the issue was extrapolated to the Muslim community as a whole, branding Islam as this scourge that needs to be eradicated, for it can only produce fundamentalists. For years, the media as well as the entertainment industry perpetuated the image of the submissive Muslim woman, needing to be liberated, despite the many assertions from Muslim women themselves of the contrary. Today, the very same Conservatives are celebrating what seem to be the same values and lifestyle as Muslim women, when it is promoted by the likes of Erika Kirk, and by extension right wing Conservative Christians. A look at the many American influencers on social media will show the extent to which this promotion has seeped into popular culture.
The Ongoing Nakba
On the other side of our attention remains the ongoing genocide in Palestine. As the genocide reaches its second year, a significant number of European countries have recognised Palestine as a state. It would seem that hundreds of thousands of people, more sensitive than certain Western state leaders and their Arab counterparts, taking to the streets periodically, has had an effect.
While some of the very architects of the genesis of this issue, going way back to the early 20th century, per Ilan Pappe’s excellent book, A Very Short History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, have changed their stand, it still remains to be seen though, how this announcement translates into concrete actions, and how they can even begin to try to remediate the decades of misery, horror, torture, rape, usurpation, and systematic ethnic cleansing that they had started.
The potential nomination of Tony Blair to run the transitional government in Gaza is certainly not it, especially in the light of his wish to end “two years of war, misery and suffering” without the mention of the ethnic cleansing taking place. Trump’s “Board of Peace”, with a 20-point plan for Gaza, blessed of course by the Zionist Prime Minister, as unveiled at the beginning of the week, once more is testimony to the blatant support of the USA to the Greater Israel roadmap mentioned above. In true American fashion, Trump wants to decide for the fate of a country, with his allies, completely disregarding the very people in question.
The contemplations above bring us to the question asked at the beginning: what if? What if for the past twenty years, our attention has been diverted by fearmongering on Islam, only to make insidious way for radicals of other faiths, namely Jewish extreme right and Christian extreme right to be normalised, because they are not Muslims, hence acceptable? What if, through Charlie Kirk’s memorial, we have just been privy to the most elaborate scene set up for a potential woman presidential candidate, wife of a “fallen soldier” given that she has taken over the role of her husband in Turning Point USA, hence having an already solid base to work for the next three years?
What if this may be the most resounding slap on the face of the liberals, that the first woman president might come from the right? What if fundamentalism, so very scorned when it pertains to Islam, even warranting for legal crackdowns but accepted when it comes to Christianity, Zionism, and Hinduism is truly what will shape the powers of tomorrow? What if we have just witnessed the beginning of Margaret Atwood’s Gilead and all that it entails ?
