The journey from ProMosaik News to ProMosaik Voice

The last article of ProMosaik News written in summer 2021 concerned the mosaic society of Afghanistan. I wrote it full of hope the day the US finally left Afghanistan. That day was a turning point in my life as a Muslim, socialist and activist. The new sovereign Afghanistan, a country full of hunger and despair, a country full of political missteps and brutal exclusion and marginalization of Muslim women from society and politics, was for me still the silent expression of our anti-imperialist basic conviction, which I continue to champion to this day. It was also the expression of the multicultural basic attitude of the Islamic religion and civilization as an alternative to imperialist capitalism.

Source: Lebanon Now

Since 2021, the world has gradually become more militarized and brutalized. The wars against Muslim countries are not abating, but at the same time in the West violence is spreading on the streets, and many European countries are characterised by a blind asylum policy, right-wing extremist thinking and uncooperative political thinking and non-action.

Wherever you look, there is little difference between brutality and stupidity, indifference and malice, violence against women, human trafficking, abuse of children and the spread of drugs and prostitution, hostility and calculus of power. In this context, I often think of the German theologician Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his theory of stupidity. It looks like I hit the bull’s-eye with the application of his theory in almost all areas even if this did not produce more than a soft reformist thinking.

Source: Faith and Leadership

Authentic socialism has degenerated and is bowing to the power of the gun lobbies. The anarchists have mutated into an elitist troop to which the common people no longer have access or probably never had any kind of real connection. People’s lives are alienated or emptied of any meaning. The serious economic problems that plague the entire capitalist world and tear apart the gap between rich and poor increasingly give a picture of a dangerous Europe, without safety on the streets, characterized by narcissistic ways of thinking, a harsh demographic decline and a complete passivation of the population, which is shut down by bread and circuses, forced digitization and bare superficiality.

These phenomena are accompanied by a radicalization of right-wing ideologies directed against migrants and asylum seekers, and the complete exclusion/expulsion of the dimension of beauty and truth from people’s lives. The so-called “others” who flock to Europe from other countries to find their paradise here are dehumanized and brutalized by directly associating any sign of violence with Islam and its religious norms. At the same time, however, it is precisely this group of migrants and asylum seekers who carry out acts of violence that fuel the cycle of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim ideology.

The brutal genocide of Israel in the Gaza Strip, the advance of armed Zionism with its expansionist-imperialist goals, the absolute lack of civil courage in the everyday lives of people who no longer see the political dimension as the driving force of their acting and living on the streets, in families and in society, also turn all ideologies upside down by completely degenerating them into their opposites.

Source: Collage by Rudolf Bauer

Source: Lebanon Now

Political opponents are no longer fought by dialectics and intelligence, but by irrational demonization machines. If you look at pacifist parties that mutate into their flip side and stir up hatred against peoples and religions, if you look at the oppression of man by man and the indifference that determines the world stage, you wonder what else you can do against such a world. Our lives are limited and our resources are even more so. What remains for us are our voices, which we may or may not raise, and this with all possible consequences and in the knowledge that one can stifle our voices, that one can “delete” our blogs, destroy our images, prohibit our songs, that our enemies will sow discord, that we will be threatened with punishment, prison, psychological torture and physical extinction, and that we will be vilified, slandered and denounced. Our decision to try to raise our voices again as ProMosaik is the birth of ProMosaik Voice’s blog. The future will show us what will happen to our voice and what fate and challenges lie ahead.

Source: The Economist, by Sebastien Thibault

ProMosaik sees itself as a portal that advocates international understanding, criticism of capitalism, women’s rights, emphasis on diversity, anti-Zionism, anti-imperialism, interreligious dialogue, tolerance, and the dynamic struggle against all forms of discrimination as well as the promotion of beauty in the form of poetry, music and art.

For us, this new portal ProMosaik Voice is nothing more and nothing less than a cooperative and collective writing workshop. It is an imperfect attempt to present our ideas and points of view. ProMosaik Voice is intended to be a platform that promotes dialogue and demonstrates that no voice can exist without an echo. Because in the spirit of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, I don’t see the “Thou” as an object, but as a subject. Moved into politics, this would then mean that the other is not orientalized in the sense of Edward Said, but recognized as a subject.

Source: Excellence Reporter and Portside

The struggle against violence and brutality requires the promotion of social justice and diversity. This, in turn, presupposes a different social contract than the capitalist-imperialist one, whose crisis is hitting us just as hard. And this presupposes that people communicate with each other and engage with the points of view and ideas of others. This communication calls for the abolition of the social alienation controlled by the rulers and their demagoguery. Finally, the fight against violence and brutality presupposes an end to the system of rule, which is based precisely on this violence and brutality.

Exclusion and marginalisation lead to even more violence. The silencing and suppression of problems promotes violence. Where words are no longer uttered, where one no longer advocates for diplomacy, there the weapons of the post-capitalist drone manufacturers of the digital era utter their “words”. It is precisely for this reason that we at ProMosaik clearly position ourselves against the “right-wing” parties, against all kind of totalitarian regimes and consequently also against Zionism, which for us is a right-wing radical and destructive ideology of an apartheid state playing itself out as the sole democracy existing in the Middle East.

Source: politico.eu

However, to make our voice heard, we need your support. But we are also aware of the dilemma that it is not enough to raise our voices and make them heard. In a personal comment on the concept of ProMosaik Voice, our friend and supporter, Professor Dr. Rudolph Bauer, aptly added the following:

“I see three ‘out’ paths: firstly, the revolt of the masses (that alone is not enough), secondly, the attainment of a new consciousness (that alone is not enough), thirdly, that the revolting masses attain a new degree of consciousness. That ‘we clearly position ourselves against the ‘right wing parties’, against totalitarian regimes of any kind and against Zionism’ is a lofty, but also hollow formula, as long as this positioning only includes a confession, but is not equipped with the power to sweep away everything that prevents the liberation of people and humanity. However, this in turn presupposes raising one’s voice and being heard.”