Rally to Oppose War, Condemn Terrorism, & Fight Islamophobia, 4/9/11

     Saturday’s rally, organized by the United National Antiwar Committee and the Muslim Peace Coalition, had at least two things going for it.
     First, it was the most multi-dimensional of any of the protests I’ve attended, officially directed at ending the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya, and the Islamophobia that comes with them, but providing also a conduit for dozens of different focus groups to pool their energies, frustrations, and their commitment to action, from labor activists to feminists to teachers to environmentalists, and so forth.
     Second, and most important, it was warm outside
     This was not only a distinctive feature in my recent history of rallying (as earlier blog posts can attest) but also the first convincing proof that this God’s Own winter is ever going to end. To walk down Broadway short-sleeved, my sweatshirt tied around my waist, felt like an exercise in the impossible, and to do so in the midst of a teeming crowd, comprising activists from all over the country, Maine and Philadelphia not withstanding, made it that much better of a bargain.       
     The rally amassed at Union Square in Manhattan, then wove down Broadway to City Hall, where speeches continued for over an hour.
     Jerin and I arrived at the point of origin just as the crowd was mobilizing, arriving in time to catch the classically Big Apple juxtaposition of a black, dreadlocked rapper on the main stage providing an unintended soundtrack to a long line of Arab and South Asian Muslim men bowing their heads to Mecca. As if to give voice to the very bedfellows my novel seeks to conjoin, the rapper, ranting in defense of oppressed geographies, rallied the crowd to shout first “Palestine” then “New Orleans.”
     Striking, for both Jerin and me, was the sheer number of women who participated in the march, and how many of them proudly sported hijabs. Like Mona Eltahawy pointing to the face of Tawakul Karman (subject of an earlier blog post) and calling it the death of all preconceived notions of the complacent Muslim woman, so the abundance of young female activists marching the streets of New York to protest agendas of hate was a sight to behold, and to bookmark for future citation.
     For some photos that Jerin and I took of the event, click here.