The Field Between

We cover some updates regarding the attacks on free speech of pro-Palestine activists, and then get into a discussion about the longstanding effort of the US and Israel to position themselves, in opposition to Arab/Muslim-majority countries, as bastions of freedom for queer people. This has long been a tool for the dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims and a cover for further violence, we also find that a lot of the messaging from these places is very anti-queer.

Some of the orgs we mention donating to in light of the free speech attacks:

Palestine Legal: https://palestinelegal.org/donate

JVP: https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/contribute/?sourceid=1002270

We thought it would be good to reflect on what's happening in Palestine and our place in the struggle for justice by reading some poetry.

Before that, we provide a brief update on the Hasan Minhaj New Yorker story (Ahmed was right), the investigative work we did regarding the Frick Museum's canceled Islamic Art exhibit, and how anti-Palestine activists are threaten to undermine everyone's free speech rights.

We start off with some updates and follow-up from our last episode, and then transition to a hopefully fun and lighthearted discussion of Netflix's 'Love Is Blind.'

We talk about a week's-worth of discourse and media coverage of Palestine, starting with a blog post from Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg entitled "A lot of Things are True".

Then we focus on conservative narratives (Ben Shapiro, Alan Dershowitz, and Israeli government officials) and ones promulgated by liberals too (mostly just Biden).

We reference and use excerpts from Noam Chomsky's and Illan Pappe's 'On Palestine' to talk about the news.

If you are able, please donate to PCRF to help the Palestinian children and refugees who have been displaced by and injured in the escalating genocide.

https://www.pcrf.net

We recorded this a few days ago and, to be honest, I just didn't feel like editing this week. I hope everyone who has been glued to their screens despairing at the news can can still find time for love in their days, and to let their sadness and heartbreak lead them to collective action.

At the top of the episode we mentioned some resources for people looking to better understand what is happening to Gaza. I've linked a few below, and will update the list as we think of more.

Books:

On Palestine by Chomsky and Pappe: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/695-on-palestine

Several books by Norman Finklestein (linked below)

Documentary/Video

The Mayor, directed by David Osit: https://www.mayorfilm.com/

People/Orgs to follow:

Noura Erakat

Sana Saeed

Jadaliyya

Subhi Taha

Mohammed el-Kurd

Norman Finklestein

We give a brief Muslim man-o-sphere follow-up, and discuss University of Austin's job posting, NYPDs new subway robot, Bob Menendez stacking gold bars, and ask what the hell is going in Canada?

Our main discussion is about the New Yorker story exposing Hasan Minhaj's "emotional truths," and we try to have a fair and balanced discussion to decide: does he deserve death penalty? Listen to find out.

We talk about about various characters in the Muslim Man-o-sphere. Yasmine introduces the concept throug a paper written by academic Brittany Landorf.

Just a bunch of random stuff: degrowth economies, AI popstars, Tucker Carlson's interview with Larry Sinclair.

We are prepping an episode on the Muslim Manosphere, so stay tuned for that.

We hit a bunch of topics on this one: sexual currency, Fousey update, quick hit on Intisar Rabb's 'Doubt in Islamic Law,' airline safety, and a New York Times poll that shows people on both ends of the political spectrum agree that the United States is failing.

We cover a few random topics like the unhinged PragerU kids' curriculum featuring Christopher Columbus, the return of Fouseytube, and a letter Obama allegedly wrote as an undergrad that conservative conspiracy theorists will surely go nuts over.

Our main topic for this episode is about Wael Hallaq's 'The Impossible State,' and why Sharia governance is incompatible with post-colonial nation states.