Deykun, 1 year ago (edited 1 year ago)

Most people don't have an issue with it. But starting each interview with a question: "Do you condemn Al-Qaeda?" is sinister. It is not a good faith question.

If you are asked this question each time you want to speak about atrocities committed against civilians and have to proclaim that you do not in fact support terrorists, you have the right to be offended. Especially when the person asking you that question cannot condemn cutting off water to civilians.

After 9/11, thousands of Arabs living peacefully in the US were asked to condemn Al-Qaeda, which they did because who wouldn't? That condemnation and support was used to justify attacking Iraq - the country where Al-Qaeda was not located in, and resulted in the death of a million people there. Imagine being an American Iraqi supporting the US's right to "defend itself" and seeing your family in Iraq and their children being killed.

There is a level of analogy here where a person with relatives in Gaza is asked by interviewers that question while trying to advocate to not cut water or bomb one of the most densely populated places in the region.

You have the right to be offended if people start asking you to condemn segregation, Nazism, or bigotry when you never claimed that you don't have an issue with those things. Especially when the person asking you is using it as a tactic while you are trying to alarm about human rights being violated, and civilians / children being hurt.