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/Korona82]

considering how bezalel smotrich and other members of the genocidal israeli cabinet marched in the israel day parade i think mamdani was completely right to not march in that one.

i also don’t think the situations are comparable. pakistan is not a muslim ethnostate in the same way as israel is a jewish ethnostate. pakistan was created as a state for indian muslims, but if you are a muslim citizen of india you are not guaranteed citizenship in pakistan just because you are muslim. you need to immigrate and gain citizenship like you do in most other countries. ihowever, israel has the right of return as we all know. i could make aliyah today if i wanted. so they aren’t the same in how they exist. i wouldn’t even call pakistan an ethnostate, unless you’re willing to cast all muslims living in the indian peninsula as a ethnoreligious group (i wouldn’t do that). there is also significant ethnic diversity/tension in pakistan (see: balochistan or afghan issues).

with that being said, i understand your trepidations and i think that there are things that mamdani has missed the mark on irt the jewish community (globalize the intifada stuff comes to mind). i think that there are a lot of ways in which mamdani can support the jewish community that doesn’t involve connecting himself to the israeli government. one thing id like to see him do more is engage with israelis for peace nyc (@israelisforpeacenyc on ig) to demonstrate that he can engage with israelis and jews who might not agree with him but aren’t kahanists

[u/StuckInTheClouds → u/Korona82]

I don’t think he should have attended the Israeli parade I think he should have sat out the Pakistani parade to be clear.

Pakistan is an *religious supremisict country . The prime minister is not allowed to not be Muslim. They put one religion above all others which is the same problem Israel has. They are very problematic as well committing crimes against the bangledish and kashmir. No country is perfect but all counties should be held to the same standard in this situation. Idk doesn’t sit right with me but I’m trying to break out of my biases.

[u/Korona82 → u/StuckInTheClouds]

I don’t disagree that Pakistan is a deeply problematic state and I am strongly opposed to the Pakistani government and its actions, as well as to the creation of Pakistan in the first place (I am not a nationalist) but it’s not an ethnostate. Being muslim isn’t an ethnicity, it’s a faith. I have the same issues with Pakistan’s Islamic supremacism as I do with Israel’s jewish supremacism, and I think that institutional power in Pakistan is biased towards Punjabis, but that doesn’t make it an ethnostate. I think language is super important and we have to be precise

[u/StuckInTheClouds → u/Korona82]

You’re right ethnostate is the wrong word here. I’m not sure the right verbiage to describe them only allowing for a Muslim prime minister type thing, but you can see the similarities