On Apr 18, 2007, at 9:24 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> On 4/17/07, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>> Saadia Toor (Cornell University)
>
> It's worth listening to what Saadia Toor says about Iran,
> Islamophobia, and Western LGBTQ human rights activism. You can listen
> to what Toor (as well as Kourosh Shemirani of Qiam) has to say about
> them at
> <http://outfm.org/images/stories/2007/03/070312_100001outfm-dst.mp3>.
> Note her emphasis on the importance of anti-imperialism.
She says at the end of the interview that the best thing that Americans can do to "help" GLBTQ people abroad is to fight to change the policies of their government. As I recall, Cde Cox would argue that imperialism is not a policy, but part of the deep structure of capitalism, so fighting imperialism is a meaningless concept. That aside, she's completely right about this, and I couldn't agree more. Note that she didn't say anything about phantasmic identifications with Islamist parties and governments. Which is no surprise, since when pressed to identify as Muslim by the interviewer, she refuses, saying "I'm a Marxist, a Communist, and so I'm against organized religion." That would not go down well with some on this list, starting with you.
That is a very good program, by the way; happy to hear such a fine hour on WBAI.
Doug