Paul MacAlindin: “Weʼre fighting a war not on love, but with love” - Gay Times
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Paul MacAlindin: “We’re fighting a war not on love, but with love” 17:48 17th June 2016 by GT Comments
LIFE > OPINION © Paul MacAlindin
Paul MacAlindin, former conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq, explains why solidarity between LGBT and Muslim communities is essential in the aftermath of the Orlando gay nightclub shootings. We are at war. It started with the 2003 invasion to cripple Iraq, gain control of oil, and strengthen our Middle Eastern intel. The trouble is, we were so successful that our current enemy, the so-called ‘Islamic State’, has installed an entire ideology and war machine on the back of it. The effects of the recent mass murder in Orlando which claimed 49 innocent lives have been felt by the LGBT community worldwide. And yet, on that same day, Iraq Body Count reported 97 Iraqis killed by violence, such a common occurrence that it’s no longer deemed newsworthy. As one of my Iraqi translators said, ‘The terrorists don’t care who they kill; they just want to destroy as much as possible’. As a community, we are a minority with all the wisdom and experience that entails. Many of us have survived a personal arc from fear and persecution to pride and equality. We have lessons to share with Muslim minority communities, whose hands have been marked with our blood spilled by an act of hatred from one mass murderer. Remember how our toughest opponents used AIDS as a smear strategy to bring down our battle for equality? Those of us who survived have learnt a lot. If we allow ourselves to be divided against our Muslim communities, then we shut out any possible dialogue and break down the democratic society that protects all our rights to debate respectfully or fiercely, and non-violently. We may not share the same blood, but we are united by it.
http://www.gaytimes.co.uk/life/40049/paul-macalindin-orlando-fighting-war-not-love-love/
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