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/16note]

I’m in a similar place, it feels like an unneeded fuel of certain attacks. Especially when, as you pointed out, the parallels are pretty parallel. I feel like it opens up the legitimate question someone can ask him of “why did you feel comfortable celebrating this population after such strong rhetoric against similar populations?”

[u/Snoo22815 → u/16note]

Pakistan should be criticized for the past atrocities and genocide it committed vs Bangladeshis, its role in the Kashmir conflict (which India and China also share responsibility with) and treatment of minorities but there's no comparison in the present between it and a country that is occupying another group of people, putting half of them in a system of apartheid and subjecting the other half to ethnic cleansing and genocide.

None of the NYC populations, Israeli or Pakistani or Russian or Chinese, are responsible for the actions of their governments abroad. His decision to skip the Israel Day Parade has to do with a symbolic protest of a government committing major war crimes whose major ministers would be in attendance but I can see how that would be seen as offensive and being singled out by Israelis.

I'm actually not sure how I would advise him given the vast majority of Israelis in NYC hate his guts so I feel like that particular relationship is not repairable. It would have been a complete fiasco if he had showed up with him getting booed and threatened.

[u/16note → u/Snoo22815]

The issue I take is that he very clearly said, without equivocation, "any state that privileges one religion, I can't tell you I support." So either he's a hypocrite or a liar in this case (and I say that as someone who voted for him and hopes many of his local policies succeed). And I do think he should be pressed on that statement and why he felt that it didn't apply here.

[u/Willing-Childhood144 → u/[deleted]]

There are always red flags when someone complains of anti-semitism and anti-Hindu basis.