“Greece Racist Attacks Increase Amid Financial Crisis”

Taken from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/12/greece-racist-attacks_n_2116302.html?utm_hp_ref=world

November 12, 2012

The attack came seemingly out of nowhere. As the 28-year-old Bangladeshi man dug around trash bins one recent afternoon for scrap metal, two women and a man set upon him with a knife. He screamed as he fell. Rushed to the hospital, he was treated for a gash to the back of his thigh.

Police are investigating the assault as yet another in a rising wave of extreme-right rage against foreigners as Greece sinks further into economic misery. The details vary, but the cold brutality of each attack is the same: Dark-skinned migrants confronted by thugs, attacked with knives and broken bottles, wooden bats and iron rods.

Rights groups warn of an explosion in racist violence over the past year, with a notable surge since national elections in May and June that saw dramatic gains by the far-right Golden Dawn party. The severity of the attacks has increased too, they say. What started as simple fist beatings has now escalated to assaults with metal bars, bats and knives. Another new element: ferocious dogs used to terrorize the victims.

“Violence is getting wilder and wilder and we still have the same pattern of attacks … committed by groups of people in quite an organized way,” said Kostis Papaioannou, former head of the Greek National Commission for Human Rights.

As Greece’s financial crisis drags on for a third year, living standards for the average Greek have plummeted. A quarter of the labor force is out of work, with more than 50 percent of young people unemployed. An increasing number of Greeks can’t afford basic necessities and healthcare. Robberies and burglaries are never out of the news for long.

With Greece a major entry point for hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants seeking a better life in the European Union, foreigners have become a convenient scapegoat. Some victims turn up at clinics run by charities, recounting experiences of near lynching. Others are afraid to give doctors the details of what happened – and even more afraid of going to the police. The more seriously hurt end up in hospitals, white bandages around their heads or plaster casts around broken limbs. ”Every day we see someone who complained of (some form) of racist violence,” said Nikitas Kanakis, president of the Greek section of Doctors of the World, which runs a drop-in clinic and pharmacy in central Athens that treats the uninsured.

Racist attacks are not officially recorded, so statistics are hard to come by. In an effort to plug that gap and sensitize a population numbed by three years of financial crisis, a group of rights groups and charities banded together to document the violence. They registered 87 cases of racist attacks between January and September, but say the true number runs into the hundreds. ”Most of the time the victims, they don’t want to talk about this, they don’t feel safe,” Kanakis said. “The fear is present and this is the bigger problem.”

Frances William, who heads the tiny Tanzanian community of about 250 people, knows the feeling well. ”People are very, very much afraid,” he said, adding that even going next door to buy bread, “I’m not sure I’ll be safe to come back home.” The community’s cultural center was attacked several weeks ago, with amateur video shot from across the street showing a group of muscled men in black T-shirts smashing the entrance. Earlier that day, children standing outside during a birthday party were threatened by a man brandishing a pistol, William said.

The recent elections showed a meteoric rise in popularity of the formerly marginalized Golden Dawn, which went from less than half a percent in 2009 elections to nearly 7 percent of the vote and 18 seats in the country’s 300-member parliament in June. Campaigning on a promise to “clean up the stench” in Greece, the party whose slogan is “blood, honor, Golden Dawn” has made no secret of its views on migrants: All are in the country illegally and must be deported. Greece’s borders must be sealed with landmines and military patrols, and any Greeks employing or renting property to migrants should face punishment.

The party vehemently denies it is involved in racist attacks. ”The only racist attacks that exist in Greece for the last years are the attacks that illegal immigrants are doing against Greeks,” said Ilias Panagiotaros, a burly Golden Dawn lawmaker who divides his working time between Parliament and his sports shop, which also sells military and police paraphernalia. His party is carrying out a “very legitimate, political fight . through parliament and through the neighborhoods of Athens and of Greece,” he said. The party’s tactics – handing out food to poor Greeks, pledging to protect those who feel unprotected by the police – are working. Recent opinion polls have shown Golden Dawn’s support rising to between 9 and 12 percent.

In late August, the conservative-led coalition government began addressing the issue of illegal immigration by rounding up migrants. By early November, they had detained more than 48,480 people, arresting 3,672 of them for being in the country illegally. Rights groups also warn that what started as xenophobic attacks is now spreading to include anyone who might disagree with the hard-right view. Greek society must understand that the far-right rise doesn’t just concern migrants, said Kanakis. ”It has to do with all of us,” he said. “It’s a problem of everyday democracy.”

“‘Nine/Twelve’ Film Aims To Tell A Muslim American Story, Challenge Islamophobia”

Taken from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/23/nine-twelve-film-khurram-mozaffar_n_1285399.html

February 23, 2012

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1150082127/nine-twelve/widget/video.html
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 forever impacted the lives of every American — but for Muslim Americans, their lives changed more than they could have expected.

The experience of Muslim Americans in a post-9/11 nation — one often marked by scapegoating, prejudice and fear — inspired Khurram Mozaffar, a Naperville, Ill. actor, writer and lawyer, to write “nine/twelve,” a screenplay telling, as the film’s website describes, “a story that hadn’t been told before. But perhaps should have been.”

The screenplay is currently in the process of being brought to life as a full-length feature film by director Sean Fahey and producers Fawzia Mirza and Kevin Schroeder. Telling the story of two Chicago men — one Muslim, one Christian; one a soldier, one a blue-collar worker — whose lives are brought together following the 9/11 attacks, the film recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to help offset its production costs.

The Huffington Post spoke with Mozaffar about his new project.

What originally inspired you to write the script for “nine/twelve”?
I come from an acting background and I do some theater in Chicago and I started writing, in general, because there weren’t a lot of parts for people of my ethnicity. I fell in love with the craft of writing itself. A number of stories originate out of the South Asian Muslim American experience and they’re usually told from an outsiders’ perspective. I wanted to tackle that kind of story line from the inside out because I feel like that kind of voice usually isn’t heard in film.

In the time after 9/11, the world changed for everybody and it changed twofold for patriotic Muslim Americans who were, on one hand, horrified as to what was happening and what they were witnessing, but at the same time, we were also suffering a backlash as we were associated with the people who committed these horrific, horrific crimes. With “nine/twelve,” I wanted to tell that story of what it was like in the days right after 9/11 for people, like me, who were considered patriotic Americans one day and, in a matter of minutes, because of what happened, the perception that people had of them changed.

This story clearly has a strong personal resonance for you. Tell me more about what you sensed changed for you and how you were perceived by others immediately following the 9/11 attacks.
I remember a few years ago, I was visiting a close friend of mine, a white American frat brother of mine from the University of Chicago, in New York. We were talking about 9/11 and he said something to the effect that, in addition to me, he knew other Muslims, including one man he worked with. He said he seemed like a really nice guy though my friend added, “But I don’t know what he talks about when he gets home.”

Wow, was that surprising for you to hear from your friend?
It struck me that his coworker was automatically considered suspicious, even by my friend, someone who knew other Muslims and who doesn’t have a negative bone in his body. But because of what he witnessed, he had to question everything he knew about Muslims. I always thought that as a Muslim American, if people just get to know me, they’ll use me as a standard for what to decide about us, but there are competing messages about what people of my faith have done in the world. It’s not enough to sit back and wait for people to come to their senses — we have to battle the presumption that is out there. That was the impetus of the film.

That said, the film is not an overtly political or overtly pro-Muslim movie. This is not that movie. I wanted to be careful not to create propaganda, because that sort of filmmaking makes me sick. I am telling a story about human people, a story that would resonate with anyone, so that people can understand we are just like anyone else, and felt pain like anyone else. We are a part of the fabric of this country.

Fictional stories can definitely be powerful in battling prejudice.
I feel like we, especially in the West, are a culture of storytellers. I feel an obligation to take on the role of storyteller. I’m a parent and I want my children to grow up in a world where they can be proud of who they are and don’t have to hide aspects of themselves. A good friend of mine in Chicago told me that, in the days after 9/11, his son was 4 or 5 years old saw him shredding some financial documents and his son asked him whether he was shredding the bills because he didn’t want their neighbors to know they are Muslim. Even at that age, this child was cognizant of how the world perceives him right now.

How long has this screenplay specifically been in development?
This script has been in incubation for the last few years now. It was an idea I had a while back and has gone through a couple of different transformations in terms of plot lines and characters. About a year and a half ago, I was in a play with the Silk Road Theatre Project and met a number of amazing artists there. One is Fawzia Mirza, an actress and producer of the film. We started working on the movie together and started developing a fresher take on the ideas I already had. From that point on, it’s been kind of steamrolling on its own as people have really responded to the need for voices like these to be heard.

Your story feels particularly timely right now, as last fall marked the 10th anniversary of the tragedy and there has been a lot of Islamophobic language coming up in the presidential race.
I think it [the anniversary] gave me a sense of urgency. We launched our Kickstarter right after the incident where Lowe’s pulled their ads from the “All-American Muslim” reality show and that situation effected all of us as filmmakers and people. It was very saddening to us that it was happening and made it even more important for us to make this movie. It is profoundly sad that there are people in our culture who have no interest in seeing people like me or my wife or my kids as anything other than some kind of aberration of humanity or something we should all be suspicious of.

I’ve never seen the particular show, but the argument that boycott made was that there is something wrong with a show that doesn’t depict Muslims being violent. Those people don’t want us to be a part of our national conversation. I don’t think this film will change those peoples’ minds, but I would like other voices to be out there on these issues and I hope to be one of those voices. I hope to be a part of the conversation.

What is your timeline going forward with the project?
Job one for us now is to get the money in the bank. To do this film right and to do it justice, we’re looking at a $400,000 budget, which is not a lot of money for a movie, but is a lot of money to fundraise. We are bringing together a wonderful crew, we have the cast, which includes some fun names that we are looking forward to working with. One is another Chicago actor, Parvesh Cheena, who used to be on “Outsourced.” Another is Faran Tahir who played the villain in the first “Iron Man” movie. And we also have Azhar Usman, a Chicago standup comic who tours the world as part of his comedy troupe which is called “Allah Made Me Funny.”

We also have some rewrites going on and one of the people who has been really instrumental in helping us work on the script is “Chinglish” playwright David Henry Hwang, who I had worked with as an actor. I showed him my script and he was very generous with his time and gave me some very serious and thoughtful notes on where the story can go.

Tell me more about the decision to film in and recruit talent primarily from Chicago. What was behind that decision?
It seemed like an obvious decision for us, given that most of our talent lives here, so it made sense because it was cheaper to shoot here. But also, this is an amazing theater town and amazing writers constantly come out of Chicago. As far as we’re concerned, this is a movie that Chicago is making. The crew and actors are primarily from Chicago and the majority of the filming will be done here.

The movie takes place in Chicago after 9/11 and part of it is a love letter to the experience in Chicago. This is a community-based movie. When I’ve been out working on other projects in LA and talking about scripts, it was almost a purposeful decision not to talk about this script with production companies. This has been a passion project for me and really everyone involved with it — to be making the movie for the amount we’re trying to make it for means that nobody is going home with a giant pay check at the end of the day. They all believe in the story we are trying to tell. We’re committed to making this movie no matter what, even if we have to shoot it on iPhones.

As of Feb. 23, with 23 days to go, Mozaffar’s campaign has raised just over $5,200 of its $100,000 fundraising goal. Click here to learn more about the film and help the important project become a reality.

“I’M NOT OKAY WITH CHRIS BROWN PERFORMING AT THE GRAMMYS AND I’M NOT SURE WHY YOU ARE”

Taken from: http://hellogiggles.com/im-not-okay-with-chris-brown-performing-at-the-grammys-and-im-not-sure-why-you-are

February 11, 2012

I’m sick and tired of people acting like it’s no big deal that Chris Brown will be performing at the Grammys.

I’m frustrated that the mainstream media is covering this story like it’s any comeback story, like an exiled prince’s return to a former glory, like this is another political timeline — as though some rich and powerful old white men in the music business have not just issued an enormous ‘f**k you’ to every woman who has been, is or will be on the receiving end of domestic violence.

We should be furious.

Why aren’t we?

A Long, Long Time Ago, or Three Years Ago, But Who’s Counting?

For those of you who are currently listening to ‘Look at Me Now’ and wondering what the big deal is, a quick recap: The night before the Grammys in 2009, Chris Brown got angry at his girlfriend, Rihanna, and he took it out on her face. She went to the hospital and then to the LAPD, where this photo was taken and promptly leaked to TMZ. (The LAPD issued a stern statement on the leak, threatening penalties “up to and including termination”. TMZ reportedly paid $62,500 for the photo.)

Both Rihanna and Brown had been scheduled to perform at the Grammys the following evening. Neither did.

Instead, Chris Brown turned himself into the LAPD at 7 pm, was booked on suspicion of criminal threats and was released on $50,000 bail.

Then the Internet exploded.

I was a full-time entertainment writer at the time, so I had a front-row seat to the action. This is what I expected: I expected a string of celebrities to comment on how horrific this situation was, how sad and angry they were for Rihanna, how domestic violence is unacceptable in any context, how as a nation we need to condemn this and condemn it loudly.

Instead, Hollywood went silent and, when they did speak, they teetered on the brink of defending Chris Brown.

Carrie Underwood: “I don’t think anybody actually knows what happened. I have no advice.”

Lindsay Lohan: “I have no comment on that. That’s not my relationship. I think they’re both great people.”

Nia Long: “I know both of them well. They’re young, and all we can do is pray for them at this point.”

Mary J. Blige: “They’re both young and beautiful people, and that’s it.”

Jay-Z, one of Rihanna’s mentors, spoke up: “You have to have compassion for others. Just imagine it being your sister or mom and then think about how we should talk about that. I just think we should all support her.” In a sane world, Jay-Z’s statement would sound insane. Why would he have to remind his fans to support Rihanna afterwhat happened is that she got hit in the face?

Jay-Z issued that statement because the Internet was, in early February 2009, engaged in a very serious conversation about whether or not all of this was Rihanna’s fault. In fact, large segments of the Internet had devoted themselves to making Rihanna the scapegoat for any woman who ever had the gall to do something worth getting hit, and then the cloying self-esteem to go to the cops about it. Bloggers and their commentators flocked to Chris Brown’s defense in droves. It was a full-blown tearing-down of female self-worth, an assault on any progress women have made in this country in the past 200 years, and the mainstream media ignored it.

It horrified me. It still does.

Later in February, a photo of Brown riding a jet ski in Miami hit the Internet, and singer Usher was caught on video commenting on it: “I’m a little disappointed in this photo,” Usher says in the video. “After the other photo [of Rihanna's bruised face]? C’mon, Chris. Have a little bit of remorse, man. The man’s on jet skis? Like, just relaxing in Miami?”

The backlash was so severe that Usher was later forced to publicly apologize.

“I apologize on behalf of myself and my friends if anyone was offended,” he said. “The intentions were not to pass judgment and we meant no harm. I respect and wish the best for all parties involved.”

The message we sent to young women was unmistakable: You are powerless. You are worthless. You will be a victim, and that will be okay with us.

The Fall-out, and the Lack Thereof

In August 2009, Brown was sentenced to five years probation and 180 hours of community service after pleading guilty to felony assault.

In December 2009, he released his third studio album. It sold over 100,000 copies in its first week and debuted at #7 on the Billboard charts.

On June 8, 2010, Brown was forced to cancel his tour dates in the UK when the British Home Office refused to grant him a work visa on the grounds of “being guilty of a serious criminal offence”. Less than three weeks later, he performed ‘Man in the Mirror’ at the BET Awards’ tribute to Michael Jackson.

His fourth studio album, released in March of last year, debuted at #1.

In December 2011, Billboard crowned him their artist of the year.

And, this week, Grammy producers confirmed that Chris Brown will be performing on Sunday’s show.

“We’re glad to have him back,” said executive producer Ken Ehrlich. “I think people deserve a second chance, you know. If you’ll note, he has not been on the Grammys for the past few years and it may have taken us a while to kind of get over the fact that we were the victim of what happened.”

Read that quote again. Think hard about what is being said. Here is what this quote says to any woman who’s ever been abused:

• By blacklisting Chris Brown from the Grammys for a “few” years (actually, a grand total of TWO Grammy Awards), the Grammys have gone above and beyond expectations for the social exile of an adult man who hit his girlfriend so hard she went to the hospital, and honestly it was really, really hard for them to show even that much support for victims of domestic violence worldwide.
• It was rather thoughtless of Rihanna to go and get herself hit in the face by her boyfriend, because it’s put such a burden on the Grammys. Maybe if she hadn’t made such a big fuss out of it, things could have been easier for everyone.
• The Grammys think that they were the victim of Chris Brown hitting Rihanna in the face.
• The Grammys. Think. That they. Were the victim. Of Chris Brown. Hitting. Rihanna. In the face.

Hitting People Is Wrong, Y’All

I agree that people deserve a second chance. It’s great that we live in a country with a justice system that allows offenders to reclaim themselves and their lives after their sentence. I’m happy about that, and I hope Brown is a changed man at the end of his sentence. (The US justice system has Chris Brown on probation through 2014. It was nice of the Grammys to let him off a couple years early for high record sales good behavior.)

And my suspicion is that Rihanna has no interest in being a poster child for victims of domestic violence. She probably wishes this would all disappear, and I don’t blame her for a minute. She didn’t ask for this – for any of it – and she’s under no obligation to speak out about it.

But someone has to. Because what is happening here is unmistakable. It is, in my eyes, so unmistakable that I wonder if I’m wrong, if I’m missing something huge, because I cannot believe more voices aren’t railing against this.

We – the grown-up influencers in this country, the people with platforms and with educations and with power — are allowing a clear message to be sent to women: We will easily forgive a person who victimizes you. We are able to look beyond the fact that you were treated as less than human, that a bigger, stronger person decided to resolve a conflict with you through violence. We know it happened, but it’s just not that big of a deal to us.

We were so mad when the Komen Foundation pulled its funding for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood. “This is not fair,” we shouted. “This is not fair to women, and this is not fair to the women who don’t have a voice, and we will not allow it.” We shouted it so loudly that Komen reversed its decision in three days. We forced the resignation of one of their top executives.

Planned Parenthood, no doubt, has a well-funded and fine-tuned PR machine, adept at galvanizing a population against a perceived injustice. They outmaneuvered Komen easily.

Does domestic violence have a less sophisticated PR machine than Chris Brown does?

Because to me, this situation isn’t all that different. Accepting that Chris Brown gets to perform at the Grammys because some people bought his album is no different from accepting that women without health insurance don’t get to be screened for breast cancer because some VP at Komen is anti-abortion. It may happen, but that doesn’t mean we should tacitly accept it. What if Chris Brown had hit your sister that night? Or your daughter? (What if Chris Brown had hit Taylor Swift that night?)

We’re accepting the message that women just aren’t that important, that their health and their safety and their self-respect is only important until it stops being convenient for everyone. We should be angry about this, and we should be angry publicly about this.

So I want to say this to anyone who is listening: This is not okay with me. A man hitting a woman in anger is unacceptable and is not easily forgotten or forgiven. A man who hits a woman in anger deserves to be reported to the authorities and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, regardless of who might be inconvenienced in the process. A man who hits a woman in anger may eventually be permitted to go on with his own life, but he is not permitted back in my life, even if it’s been three whole years.