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“Shut your mouth. Nobody can protect you”–is this America?

“Shut your mouth. Nobody can protect you”–is this America?

Last updated on: March 20, 2025 at 1:59 pm by Kathryn Shihadah

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“Shut your mouth. Nobody can protect you”–is this America? 2025-03-20T13:59:50-04:00 Kathryn Shihadah

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GCG – Grace-Colored Glasses – took a long hiatus from Patheos. The genocide in Gaza was breaking me in pieces. The last thing I wanted to do, after six or eight hours writing about Palestine and Israel for If Americans Knew, was to spend more time writing about this horrifying situation in my husband’s homeland. I couldn’t write about anything else – I couldn’t even think about anything else.

Now, not only is Palestine blowing up, but so is the rest of the world, and silence is no longer an option.

I don’t mean just for me – I mean for all of us, progressive people of faith. We all need to become informed, and help our loved ones do the same. And then together, we need to make some noise. We need to stop being spectators.

If the genocide in Gaza wasn’t enough to get you riled up, Trump 2.0 should be.

So Grace-Colored Glasses is back.

Because I’ve been researching and writing about the Palestine-Israel situation for years (and have family living in Gaza), I can offer an informed perspective on current events there. Being immersed in the Middle East has taught me a thing or two about politics and the world, so I have a few thoughts to share on other current events topics too.

I’m going to keep posts short and sweet and to the point. My hope is to equip readers so they can help others understand the injustices taking place today, and join with the voices that are raised to make a difference.

Here’s today’s thought:

Have you been following the story of Mahmoud Khalil? If not, I encourage you to take a crash course by skimming this article. In a nutshell, he’s the poster child for free speech in America. Mahmoud was hauled away by ICE because when he was a grad student at Columbia, he participated in protests against the US policy of sending weapons to Israel. He is now waiting (behind bars) to see whether he will be afforded due process, or be deported without a trial. His American wife is eight months pregnant with their first child.

They say Mahmoud has ties with a terrorist organization, but in reality, he just doesn’t want the US to be complicit in genocide.

(NOTE: Most experts in the field have declared that Israel’s actions do in fact constitute genocide. Several pro-Israel groups and individuals disagree, but none have addressed the charges in any meaningful way.)

The Intercept states:

There is no going back from this point: President Donald Trump’s administration is trying to deport a man solely for his First Amendment-protected activity, without due process. By all existing legal standards, this is illegal and unconstitutional: a violation of First Amendment protections, and the Fifth Amendment-protected right to due process.

If Khalil’s green card is revoked and he is deported, no one can have any confidence in legal and constitutional protections as a line of defense against arbitrary state violence and punishment. Khalil’s arrest marks an extraordinary fascist escalation.

According to a New York Times report,

Days after immigration officers arrested a prominent pro-Palestinian campus activist, administrators at Columbia University gathered students and faculty from the journalism school and issued a warning.

Students who were not U.S. citizens should avoid publishing work on Gaza, Ukraine and protests related to their former classmate’s arrest, urged Stuart Karle, a First Amendment lawyer and adjunct professor. With about two months to go before graduation, their academic accomplishments — or even their freedom — could be at risk if they attracted the ire of the Trump administration.

“If you have a social media page, make sure it is not filled with commentary on the Middle East,” he told the gathering in Pulitzer Hall. When a Palestinian student objected, the journalism school’s dean, Jelani Cobb, was more direct about the school’s inability to defend international students from federal prosecution.

“Nobody can protect you,” Mr. Cobb said. “These are dangerous times.”

NOBODY CAN PROTECT YOU. Not the university administration, not the police, not the courts. Exercise your “right” to free speech at your own peril.

NOTE: the university administration could protect the students, but had decided as a policy not to (here’s why).

Under President Biden, the First Amendment was also under fire when it came to Israel. Trump has just taken it further, threatening to deport anyone whose speech has a pro-Palestine ring to it.

Of course, he dresses up the threat with words like “terrorist” and “Hamas supporter,” but all it boils down to is protest against a policy of the current US administration.

Trump is also threatening other free speech choices made by mainstream media. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve seen that the words “Gulf of Mexico” can land a media outlet in the doghouse. Any reporter making a comment that Trump or his spokesperson doesn’t like can find her/himself on the receiving end of public shaming/trash talking/name-calling.

Soon, if we let this play out, anyone who disagrees with the powers that be will be at risk.

Our greatest weapon is Truth, so we need to know the truth (rumor has it that it will set us free).

Don’t count on corporate media to tell you the truth though – those folks were beaten into submission long ago. Alternative news media is the only way to get at the truth.

Here are some tips for finding a reliable source when it comes to the issue of Palestine – and it’s not hard to see that this is THE pivotal issue of our time.

If you want to just cut to the chase, here are my top recommendations for accurate reporting on Palestine and Israel (unsolicited endorsements):

Al-Jazeera English

Middle East Eye

Mondoweiss

If Americans Knew (full disclosure: I work here – but I’m not paid for clicks)

If you want to simply keep tabs the situation in Gaza, skim my daily updates. In just a few minutes, you can check out the most important, factual news each day, instead of going to a bunch of websites that may or may not tell the truth. (You can subscribe to If Americans Knew for free, or find the daily updates on social media.)

Bottom line for today, if the powers that be don’t want us to know something, you can be sure it’s something we need to know. If they don’t want us to say something, it’s something that needs to be said.

Stay on your toes!

I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter. I write about the Palestine-Israel issue regularly, and other issues relevant to progressives or those considering becoming progressive. If you would like to comment on this post, please pop over to my Facebook page. All of my posts are there and open to constructive comment. I welcome your thoughts.

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FEATURED IMAGE: by Jackson Simmer via Unsplash

About Kathryn Shihadah

I was raised as a conservative Christian, and was perfectly content to stay that way – until the day my stable, predictable world was rocked. A curtain was pulled back on conservative Christianity, and instead of ignoring the ugliness I saw, I confronted it. I began to ask questions I never thought I’d ask, and found answers I’d never expected. Old things began to fall away, and – behold! – the new me has come. What a gift to be a new, still-evolving creation. I found out that it’s better to look at the world through Progressive Lenses, with Grace-Colored Glasses. You can read more about the author here.

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