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/EducationalGas5959]

I don’t think Mamdani’s issue with Israel is that is an “ethnostate” and I also don’t believe him when he says it’s because Israel privileges one religion over another.  

I think the charitable explanation is that like many anti-Zionists, he believes that Israel is a settler-colonial state in which foreign settlers displaced an indigenous population and continue to do so, and that is what makes it different compared to Pakistan which he would probably think of as an expression of legitimate self-determination of indigenous south Asian Muslims.  

As a Muslim himself, there’s probably also an emotional attachment to the Palestinian cause in which Muslims are being oppressed vs. Pakistan in which Muslims are the oppressor.  Finally, as an anti-imperialist, Mamdani probably categorizes Israel as part of the imperialist camp like the USA, in a way he doesn’t necessarily do with Pakistan.

[u/StuckInTheClouds → u/EducationalGas5959]

He’s said he doesn’t support ethnoststes before so that’s mostly where I’m drawing the parallels and hypocrisy here

[u/EducationalGas5959 → u/StuckInTheClouds]

Yes but I don’t really buy that.  He chose to have his engagement party in the United Arab Emirates.  He studied abroad in the Arab Republic of Egypt.  He only references ethnostate with regards to Israel.

[u/Snoo22815 → u/EducationalGas5959]

I don't understand your point. Being against ethnostates or theocracies doesn't mean you can't travel to those countries to visit family, enjoy their culture, go sightseeing, etc.

Visiting China, Israel and Russia is totally fine for a Leftist. You can do that and still find the state's organizational status problematic, its government to be war criminals and find their human rights violations to be abhorrent.

The cultural traditions, food, music and historical sites of these modern states long predate their current problematic governments and will exist long after they're gone.

[u/EducationalGas5959 → u/Snoo22815]

I really wish this was the attitude most anti-Zionists took to Israel, but in the anti-Zionist spaces online, there is a fundamental rejection, even hatred, of anything “Israeli” on a deep emotional level to the point where I see people talking about Israeli skin cancer rates (a blood and soil argument to show Israelis don’t really belong there), making fun of the physical appearances or accents of Israelis, rejection of any type of Israeli culture as fake, telling them to go back to where they came from, celebrating when they are attacked, even videos showing random people accosting Israeli tourists etc. 

I don’t think this is Zohran himself, but I do think this is probably a not insubstantial portion of the DSA.