Member-only story
Boycott Mecca and Medina — Become a Hajji in Your heart
Saudis, Still $tooges After All These Years
Preface to a Poem
Imagine for a second that you write a short poem and it gets treated … like a hot potato! The first publication, Illumination-Curated, rejects it within an hour or two of your submission. Apparently, though the publication’s owner was happy with it, his editors were not. It seemed that they deemed it to be ‘controversial’. I was told nothing specific about what exactly was ‘offensive’, but was referred to the publication’s updated policy on ‘hate speech’.
I was really quite shocked by such a designation. Since when has calling for peaceful protest in the form of a boycott, amounted to ‘hate speech’? All my plans for the day were catapulted out of the window as I felt compelled to pen a response. I was very upset and in the article, I shared instances from around the world, when boycotts were called — peaceful and noble attempts to end oppression and exploitation in the cause of human liberation.
Strangely, while the article I wrote about the poem, was published within a minute or two of submission, days passed and still the poem was in limbo, like the sinner in Dante’s Inferno. I waited and waited and wondered for what sin I was being punished? Lack of time could not be an…
