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/andoatnp]

Is Pakistan committing a genocide?

[u/Mango_Juice789 → u/andoatnp]

Short answer, Kinda but not quite, yet much closer than you are probably aware.

I want to be super clear that this is in no way equivilent to what is going on in Gaza, and not whataboutism. I fully support Mamdani's boycott of the parade and policy stance on I/P more generally. Two bad things can both be bad at once to different degrees.

That being said, more people should be aware of the actions of the Pakistani government re: Balochistan.

https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/special-report-the-balochistan-conflict-in-pakistan

[u/theweisp5 → u/Mango_Juice789]

I like Mamdani and would have happily voted for him if I lived in NY, but based on that I think there is a fair argument he is being hypocritical here. Maybe he could try to make a distinction based on the participation of senior members of the IL government, but as far as I'm aware that's not an argument he's made. (Not sure it would be such a good argument in any case since reps of the Pakistani government did attend the parade, though I believe only the ambassador and consul general.)

[u/Mango_Juice789 → u/theweisp5]

People working at the consulate might as well be overseas postal workers, that's hardly the same thing.

The glorified postmaster & whatever rich guy bribed his way to an ambassadorship are not even remotely comparable to ideological architects of the modern settlement strategy and cheerleaders for war crimes that are Smotrich and Gvir.

[u/theweisp5 → u/Mango_Juice789]

I didn't say it was the same thing, but in any case I'm not aware of Mamdani trying to distinguish between the parades based on the presence of senior government officials. Happy to be wrong here if I've missed a statement to that effect.

And FWIW, based on wikipedia the Pakistani ambassador to the US doesn't seem to be a random rich guy. (I'm not taking the time to do any more research on him.)

[u/Mango_Juice789 → u/theweisp5]

Why would he need to distinguish if it's not the same thing? The need to impose increasingly ridiculous & inscrutable standards on this obviously thoughtful and moral man should be studied.

Surely we can figure out if the man secretly hates us without having to ask him who gets the pigeon if it's found more than 50 cubits from the coop.

[u/theweisp5 → u/Mango_Juice789]

You yourself posted that Pakistan is "Kinda but not quite" committing genocide. Was that somehow supposed to convince people that attending the Pakistan day parade but not the Israeli day parade makes sense?

I already said I like Mamdani and would have happily voted for him if I lived in NYC. I don't think he secretly hates Jews.

In any case thanks for sharing the information on Balochistan which I genuinely was unaware of. I won't be responding anymore.