Us Shia people are in the news a lot lately. What with the groups and countries that are directly resisting Israel outside of Palestine being Shia, and Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York City being Shia as well. And since it's the start of the Islamic Month of Muharram, which is an incredibly important time for us. It's a good time to talk about what that means.
The three month countdown to the book launch officially began two days ago and I wish I had more in the hours in the day to do the novel justice in my marketing efforts. Still it is what it is and Alhamdulillah there is so much that I was able to do in this month.
I was in Saudi Arabia in 1990 when the First Gulf War erupted. While I was never in real danger, I vividly remember, as a 9 year old, crowding into my parent's bedroom and putting on gas masks to ward off any chemical weapons Saddam might have lobbed at Saudi Arabia in retaliation for hosting American bases and troops.
Then, at least, there was a clear justification for the war, Iraq had invaded Kuwait, and the entire world, under the auspices of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 678, was united in authorizing the use of force to liberate Kuwait.
In the 35 years since however, the pretexts for wars in West Asia, by the West, have grown increasingly flimsy, and yet the war drums never fail.
The reason why seems obvious to me.
I think it is safe to say that most people who grow up in the West have a negative bias towards Iran. This is neither a good thing or a bad thing. Being biased is just a core part of being human.
The problem comes when we treat our biases as conclusions instead of the first reaction that they actually are
Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park is an incredibly satisfying combination of spy intrigue and rumination on the struggle immigrants face with finding identity and meaning while navigating different cultures.
So here we are less than four months away from the launch of my book and I'm five days late in making my monthly post.
It's kind of reflective of where I find myself. It's been a very busy month for me personally but my book marketing has suffered as a result.
So instead of giving an overview of how my month went as I usually do I want to talk about why I think I haven't been focusing on getting the word out about "Under the Full and Crescent Moon".
I attended an inter faith dialogue event a few months ago in my hometown that was setup by a Shia Muslim group on the topic of end times prophecies. It was a well attended and well run panel with a number of religious leaders explaining their own theology's views of the end times. Most of the presenters were incredibly respectful of each other and the topic itself was a pretty neutral one.
So I was pretty flabbergasted when the Muslims on the panel started going after each other with aggressive rhetoric.
On the 21st of May 2025, two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington were gunned down in what seems to be a premediated attack in Washington D.C, the capital of the United States of America. The two were not armed, they were not combatants.
It should go without saying that causing any injury to non-combatants is horrific and an act worthy of condemnation.
There are three takeaways here though, that if not realized and acted upon will keep the situation of the world degrading further and further.
The problem is that it's European.
People who say that it's the Jewish side of Israel that is causing it to be a murderous ethno-supremacist genocidal apartheid state are being anti-Semitic. All of that comes from the European part of Israel's nature.
In a healthy and functioning democracy, all I would need to do is research the issues, the party policies, the candidates, cast my vote and go about my life with a minimal level of stress.
As I am not in a healthy and functioning democracy I instead pounded the pavement and campaigned for Vote Palestine and my local Liberal candidate, Adam Van Koverden, who publicly did everything that I could realistically expect of him on the Palestinian cause.
He won. But there's a lot in the election that gives me a lot of stress.
And here I will vent about it.