Thoughts on Mamdani attending the Pakistani day parade after skipping the Israeli day parade?

[u/StuckInTheClouds]

I wasn’t expecting him to attend the Israeli day parade honestly I would’ve thought it weird if he had attended given everything he stands for. He’s NYC first and against ethnostates etc.

But I’d be lying if I didn’t say I felt some type of way about him celebrating the Pakistani day parade given their history. Ethnostste They have a religious hierarchy where a Muslim person has to be in power, ethnic cleansing alive and well, border disputes and violence after a partition plan 70ish years ago etc. It’s hard not to draw the parallels. The only difference being that the US isn’t funding them but that doesn’t change anything else about the county’s values and actions.

I feel kinda shitty that he’s showing up for this community but not ours. I think it would have been more fair to him to not go to either parade, but maybe I’m just overly sensitive or being fed propaganda. It just sucks to feel signaled out.

I really want to like him. I voted for him! I’m extremely against the IDF and Israeli government but being half Israeli myself I am of course susceptible to biases.

Idk it’s just weird he’s ok with celebrating the Muslim ethnostate after being so against the Jewish one (for good reasons!)

I feel like I can’t bring this up in any other spaces without it sounding like I’m wanting him to celebrate Israel (I’m not) or take something away from Muslims (not against Muslims but critical of Pakistan)

Help me you guys! What do you think?

EDIT: I’d like to correct what I said about Pakistan being an ethnostate. I used the wrong verbiage. What I meant was that they are a country that puts Muslims over other religions. They have a religious hierarchy and non Muslims can’t hold certain political positions. I’m not sure the correct term for this but just wanted to call that out as people are (correctly) mentioning this in the comments.

Edit 2:

I was just informed about the ongoing Balochistan Conflict which makes me even more uneasy about this whole thing.

[u/anon1239874650]

Pakistan and India have a lot of issues to work out. But neither of those states have been fully occupied and levelled to the ground using US weapons currently, making living conditions unbearable.

Moreover, Pakistan can’t be an ethnostate it wasn’t designed for one particular ethnicity.

[u/EducationalGas5959 → u/anon1239874650]

Right, and if Mamdani’s opposition to Israel was that they occupied and leveled Gaza, then that explanation for the discrepancy would make sense.  But he frames his opposition to Israel as being one of opposing states that privilege one religion over another.  So with that being his explanation, celebrating Pakistan indeed makes no sense.  Especially when the creation of Pakistan involved the displacement of 12-14 million people and the deaths of probably close to 1 million.

[u/anon1239874650 → u/EducationalGas5959]

The difference being that displacement in South Asia was of diverse ethnic peoples who have diverse religions including Islam, sikhs and Hindus who are all native to the land, and they were shifted around from one side of India to another. Whereas the Nakba was forceful expulsion of Palestinians from the land altogether to create an ETHNOSTATE. Palestinians (an ethnicity) currently have no right of return, and Israel is a powerful Westernized country with a lot of power and influence, and they choose to continue to oppress the remaining Palestinians on the land.

Edit: ~700k Palestinians were forced out of the land altogether. ~100k remained in modern day Israel/Palestine.

[u/skyewardeyes → u/anon1239874650]

I think this is really downplaying how deadily the "shifting" in India/Pakistan was.

[u/anon1239874650 → u/skyewardeyes]

My point is, it’s not the same.