Arsalan Khan
@akkhan81
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Political Anthropologist. Focus on Pakistan. My book:
Karachi/Knoxville
Joined August 2010
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Happy to share that I have received advance copies of my book The Promise of Piety: Islam and the Politics of Moral Order in Pakistan. The book will be released on January 4th and can be pre ordered here:
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There is really no point of academics in humanities and social sciences if they can’t stand against a genocide and with students standing against a genocide. This has to be the lowest bar of morality conceivable.
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As an academic, I really wonder what to do with the knowledge that so many people in the West are completely unmoved by this flood of evidence of the most horrific human suffering imaginable.
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Andrew Tate converting to Islam reminds of Olivier Roy’s argument that rather than the radicalisation of Islam we should think about the Islamisation of radicalism, already radical, reactionary people converting to Islam cause they see it as best brand and cover for their views.
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750 people including 100 children were on the boat. Greek authorities knew for hours the boat was in distress. They finally arrived and began towing it when it capsized. No life jackets were provided. All but 100 died.
The murderous logic of racism.
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These young cricketers are routinely puting on display an important aspect of male friendships in Pakistan that isnt often recognized or acknowledged.
Start your day with a load of cuteness. Naseem fixing up Shadab’s hair before his interview 😩❤️
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There is no question that the tide has turned on Israel in the U.S., especially among young progressives. It is the political establishment and the media who are desperately trying to maintain the status quo.
The Chicago march for justice in Palestine is absolutely enormous
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Some Pakistanis have no understanding of the evils of the British empire. The British empire was a tyranny that enriched the British and particularly British upper classes at the expense of everyone else. According to Utsa Patnaik, the British stole $75 trillion from India.
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Do PTI people ever wonder why almost all the Pakistani progressive lawyers, writers, journalists and academics in the social sciences and humanities are generally critical of PTI? They can't believe that we are all lifafas can they?
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Can't believe we have been listening to this speech for over a decade. Same speech. After three years in government himself, nothing changes.
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Wait till Pakistani twitter finds out what the boys are upto at these elite schools.
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Good piece on how South Asia’s coffee culture was displaced by tea culture under British colonialism. It’s interesting to think how closely many of us associate chai with our culture but coffee with the West when coffee has a much older history:
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This Cannoli backlash is increasingly being framed in nationalistic terms (our languages/our culture). Issue is not speaking English. The issue is humiliating a worker over whom you have power for not knowing it. Humiliating a worker for not knowing Urdu would wrong too.
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If you’re a Muslim in US academia, a student or a professor, and you suddenly feel like something is off, some relationships have soured or are cold, you didn’t get a grant, award or fellowship that you should have, know that we are in an extreme wave of anti Muslim racism.
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Conversations with Iranians.
Are you Persian?
No. Pakistani.
Why do you have a Persian name?
Long history. Farsi was a court language of Mughals, had massive influence in India, many Indians wrote in Farsi.
Are you sure? Persians and Indians are totally different.
Ok.
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Pakistan age logic:
36 year old man: child
70 year old man: heartthrob
49 year old woman: nani amma
14 - 18 year old girl: full adult capable of converting, marrying a man 40 years older than her, and leaving family.
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The problem with liberal takes like this is that it produces an abstracted morality. It reduces two very different and unequal people to generic abstract categories in ‘conflict.’ It erases the material inequalities between them. It erases the violence of occupation.
This conflict for me has always been about morality.
Morally, you cannot justify the killing of Palestinian civilians, even if you say it’s fighting terrorism.
But morally, you also cannot justify the killing of Israeli civilians, even if you say you’re fighting occupation.
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And why is the Corps Commander living in a "property of national significance and heritage"?
Lahore Corps Commander's official residence is a property of national significance and heritage. It was a property originally bought by Muhammad Ali Jinnah in 1943.
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Student protests at places like Columbia or Harvard terrify Zionists more than anything because the purpose of these places is to reproduce the elite. They know they have lost.
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Dawkins coming out as a ‘cultural Christian’ is actually more self awareness than one expects him to have. The new atheists are all cultural Protestants and anti Muslim racists.
"If I had to choose between Christianity and Islam, I'd choose Christianity every single time."
Self-proclaimed 'cultural Christian', ＠RichardDawkins, tells
@RachelSJohnson
he's 'slightly horrified' to hear Ramadan lights were hung on Oxford Street rather than Easter lights.
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PTI logic is that everyone’s paisa is haram and chori ka unless you support PTI in which case your paisa is halal and made through deep sacrifice for the country.
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Lies. This is obviously Pakistan before Zia.
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Queen Rania asks the key question: why do Westerners think is it barbaric and evil to kill families at gun point but acceptable to bomb them to death, tearing them limb from limb, burying them under rubble, and scattering their bodies in much greater numbers?
In a world exclusive,
@QueenRania
of Jordan spoke with me about the ongoing bombing of Gaza, civilian deaths, the massacres of October 7, and what she calls “a glaring double standard” in the west’s reaction to all this. Watch our full conversation.
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Pakistan should open universities to all women being deprived an education by the Taliban in Afghanistan and the U.S., Britain and Saudi should finance it. Basically the reversal of the Afghan jihad.
#AfghanWomen
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The hardest thing to communicate to American students is the idea that the U.S. is an empire and not just a nation. Once you get this across, the entire framework of American exceptionalism collapses and a whole world opens up to them.
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PTI is one step away from declaring inflation good for the people.
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When IK steps down, it will be a day of great mourning for Pakistanis in New Jersey.
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The most remarkable thing about ex-Muslims and other free thinkers is how they managed to free think their way into every American and Western cliche.
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Imran Khan has joined the ranks of disqualified politicians due to corruption charges. Now the only honest people left in Pakistani politics are the ones in uniform whose wealth nobody is allowed to discuss in public.
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A study of Malala hate will take you to the heart of Pakistani nationalism.
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I teach about Islamophobia in the U.S. and think it's a critical issue but Islamophobia has been weaponized by the right wing in Pakistan and countries throughout the Muslim world. This is something that really has to be recognized in any academic or public discussion.
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These people think remittances they send to their families are charity for the nation. Imagine telling your family you can’t send them money for essentials cause your party is no longer in power.
“No Imran, No remittances” PTI supporters protest against “regime change” at Hyde Park, they say “we won’t send any remittances until Imran Khan comes back.
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A premise of liberal education is that it can create empathy for 'others.' Gaza shows how limited and false this is. At most, empathy stays in the bounds of 'safe difference.' Empathy for people who pose no challenge to one's worldview or social standing.
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"When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land." - Desmond Tutu
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I have already lost touch with a couple of people I used to be.
- Joan Didion
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IK is spreading mass delusion at unprecedented rate, the full consequences of which will be felt for decades.
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I like how IK is always situating himself as a kind of cultural translator or broker between the West and the Muslim world. “They don’t understand us” and “I’ve lived with them so I know,” kinda like an anthropologist, except one who traffics in stereotypes and is mostly wrong.
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This Wahab Bugti story, besides being about systematic discrimination and marginalization of Baloch, shows how much these corporations exploit the talent of local artists for their own benefit and those of rich people.
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Everything we have been saying and teaching for so long about the relationship between. liberalism, racism and empire is currently on full display.
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A good essay on Harari's reactionary science fiction. This book's reception is itself a consequence of the popularity of evolutionary psychology, a bogus science that more than anything serves as a rationalization for capitalism.
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It is not a coincidence that there is a substantial overlap between the ‘hang the rapists’ crowd and the anti Aurat March, anti feminist crowd. Both positions stem from the refusal to accept that violence against women is a systemic problem.
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The only political party in Pakistan that cares about human rights is whichever party is in the opposition.
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Imran Khan is always decrying Islamophobia in the West but makes statements about Pakistani culture and Islam that reinforce the worst stereotypes about us being incapable of controlling our sexual impulses when faced with 'temptation.' This is precisely what Islamophobes say.
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Mohsin Dawar fired upon for trying to stop vote rigging exemplifies difference between how they act in the peripheries and how they act in Punjab.
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I don’t think US politicians supporting a genocide have any moral authority to stand against election rigging in Pakistan.
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5000 dead in Gaza and about half of them children, and we are still being asked whether we condemn Hamas. Only racist dehumanisation and a total disregard for Palestinian lives could inspire this question now.
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Class is such uncomfortable thing to acknowledge because deep down everyone knows that the key to one’s position in the world is hierarchical patronage. That most of what we call talent and merit is a byproduct of these relationships with powerful people and institutions.
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England is cursed. Maybe it’s the 45 trillion dollars they owe us.
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One thing that makes no sense about PTI is that until now this party controlled provincial govts of Punjab, KP, Azad Kashmir and GB, more than 80% of country. Yet, all they seemed to care about is symbolism of IK being PM.
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Happy to announce that I have signed a contract for the publication of my first book The Promise of Piety: Islam and the Politics of Moral Order in Pakistan with Cornell University Press. Deepest gratitude to my editor
@jimlance554
for his support.
#anthrotwitter
#Islamicstudies
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The best way to convince people in Pakistan of the seriousness of COVID-19 is by saying "sochein kaabe ka tawaf bhi rok dya." Works every time.
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Can't think of a clearer example of khud parasti than thinking your political beliefs and chants are more important than the sacred space of the Prophet's (SA) mosque.
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Call me a cynic, but I don't believe that an institution that derives all its power from the existence of insecurity is particularly invested in creating a state of security.
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On treatment of migrant workers, any desi regardless of class that has spent time in the Middle East, especially the Gulf, has felt the sting of the worst forms of racism. Spent a term studying in Jordan as an undergrad and can tell you some stories. Imagine if you’re also poor.
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Just a few weeks ago IK was talking about earning $30 billion from tourism in GB. Meanwhile people stuck in a blizzard two hours from the capital are freezing to death in their cars. The disconnect from reality that is Naya Pakistan and the callous disregard for human life.
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Recent events have shown that we were mistaken to believe that LUMS is where the revolution will begin.
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My two cents on the debate about marriage in pakistan: marriage is a patriarchal institution generally made much worse in Pakistan by a social and and legal system skewed towards defending the rights of men and preserving the patriarchal unit (husband’s house).
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Pakistanis who rant daily about foreign funded NGOs, activists and movements are salivating over Bill Gates.
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bell hooks on self help spirituality:
“I am often struck by the dangerous narcissism fostered by spiritual rhetoric that pays so much attention to individual self-improvement and so little to the practice of love within the context of community.”
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Worth remembering this every year on
#IndependenceDay
. The British empire was a tyranny that enriched the British and particularly British upper classes at the expense of everyone else .
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Poor Afghans are being scapegoated for the failed policies of the security state. Truly a travesty of justice.
All illegal immigrants have 28 days to leave Pakistan.
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This would be an actual step towards anti-imperialism.
Big news. Defense Minister of Pakistan
@KhawajaMAsif
claimed that his Govt will reverse the law which gave control of State Bank to the IMF . He accused
@ImranKhanPTI
for surrendering the economic sovereignty of Pakistan to IMF.
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Can anyone seriously believe that if you confine 2 million people to an open air prison with 64% of people being food insecure and 50% unemployed, routinely bombard and murder them in large numbers, that significant numbers of them will not support a militant organization?
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The thing PTI supporters always ask is, if not IK then do you want the same old lot, and they think this is some kind of trump card but it's actually pathetic that in all this time this guy couldn't build a party that is actually better than this lot.
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Suddenly so many Pakistanis have decided that students standing up for their rights is brave and attacking students is tyranny. Chalo, shukr hai.
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Someone should write about how the IK phenomenon has ruptured family relationships and destroyed life long friendships. There’s a good story about Pakistan in there.
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Ilan Pappe actually posted this on facebook. Truer words never spoken.
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The hypocrisy of the Pakistani right focusing only on oppression of Muslims abroad and ignoring oppression at home shouldnt lead leftists to ignore or downplay what is clearly colonialism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing. There is no point in a Left that is not anti-imperialist.
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Non Palestinians should probably just stay out of the debate about Motaz and stay focused on Israel’s genocide.
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Moeed Yusuf on tv saying how he is the only person who sits in the middle of the "two pillars of the state" - the government and the army - bhai, the army is not supposed to be a pillar of the state let alone one of the two pillars.
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It’s not really possible to defend Malala anymore. Sadly she has affirmed the right wing narrative.
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The idea that Pakistan is a poor country and can't afford a lock down isnt about protecting the poor; the poor who work outside, live in cramped quarters and lack healthcare. are most at risk. It is about protecting the wealthy who don't want to pay the costs of a lock down.
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I really hope Elon Musk ruins twitter so we can all get off it and get back to work.
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A very average man:
- Age 5-22 surrounded by women better than him at school, finds solace in religion that says he’s naturally superior
- Age 25 finds wife through parents, has kids, dominates em
- works meaningless job, pushed around by boss
- rants about feminists on internet
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If IK comes back to power, will he try to put his opposition in jail? Yes. Will his supporters passionately defend that as legitimate and nothing like putting IK in jail? Of course. Will they commit now to not playing this zero sum game? Sadly no.
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My thoughts on IK’s rape apologia and misogyny, how it reinforces Islamophobia and how it is steeped in his class privilege.
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Pakistanis hating Afghan refugees and loving the Taliban who make them refugees...
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What is with Pak celebs and their seeming unanimous support for IK. Is it that they are from an upper class that generally supports him? Is it that they relate to him on some personal level? Or is it that they tend to have pea brains? Maybe all of the above.
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Today a student in my intro class asked what would anthropology look like if its point of reference was not "the West." A truly insightful question.
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No amount of reading on populism prepares you for dealing with its absurdity when you are faced with it.
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Professor McAfee is a “critical theorist working in the tradition of the Frankfurt School” who is living up to her political ideals. ✊🏾✊🏾
WATCH: Among those arrested today were Noelle McAfee, Chair of the Philosophy Department at Emory University.
I’ve asked for a comment from Emory on this arrest, no word yet.
This video provided to us by an
#Emory
PHD student. You can hear him in this video.
@ATLNewsFirst
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It is hard for many to accept, but the truth is that those championing the genocide in Gaza don't think we are full humans. They can tolerate us if we accept the redemptive myths of Western civilization but the minute we reject them we are discredited as humans.
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If Twitter dies I’ll have to actually live in the US while living in the US rather than in Pakistani twitter.
#diasporaproblems
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This Khadija Shah case just shows you how entangled these elites are.
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Happy to share the cover for my forthcoming book The Promise of Piety: Islam and the Politics of Moral Order in Pakistan with
@CornellPress
.
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Proud to announce that my father Afzal Ahmed Syed has been awarded the Pride of Performance (تمغہِ حسنِ کارکردگی) for his writing, translating and work in Urdu literature.
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Even if we got "I denounce Hamas" tattooed on our foreheads they would do everything to stop us from talking about Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism and the liberation of Palestine.
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Load shedding is one of those quintessential experiences that connects people throughout the global South.
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Why are people surprised that Junaid Safdar can sing? Rich people who have no responsibility take up all kinds of hobbies and pay whatever is needed to acquire these skills.
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The first question that drew me to social sciences, which I pondered all through my teenage years, was: why are exploited and brutalized people not in a permanent state of revolt? It still baffles me.
If this image from Karachi doesn't shake you to your core, there's something very very wrong with you.
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One thing is for sure, if there was even a whiff of evidence Chomsky would be on the regime change side of the debate on Pakistan, so clearly there is nothing at all.
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My mother wrote a children’s poem about a mochi. Mochis are devalued in society despite being exemplars of productive labour - they mend shoes so we can all live and work. The entire economy should be organised around this kind of productive and reproductive work.
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People need to start teaching histories of nationalism rather than 'national history' in schools everywhere.
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Maria B's strategy to capture market share by defending Islam against 'Western culture' while promoting rampant, unfettered consumerism is a winning one, sadly.
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