The Case for Bara series has been as a collection of texts that delve into holistic, alternative readings of contemporary politics, identity, metaphysics, culture and the production and dissemination of knowledge, information and language.
It is Zahreddine's unfolding scroll of texts that answer to today's crippling individual and collective issues, offering an ideology and philosophy in the making.
The Case for Bara can be seen as a growing manual on the collective and personal transformations required to challenge and uproot existing systems of thought and action.
The first in the series, The Martyrs, offers an otherworldly and abstract reading of the ideas of Bara, Barakunan, and those espoused by its eminent scribe, Zahreddine. It offers a cosmological foundation, grounded in fictional metaphysics, speculative poetry and an honest radicalism filled with intent.
The second in the series, American Terror, is grounded in the reality we share and the circumstances we have inhabited since the catastrophic announcement of the War on Terror wreaked havoc on our world, shattering notions of justice, democracy and truth in the process and causing a rupture so volatile an entire portion of the Earth is lit with the perpetual flames of war.
The books may be different in style and substance, but they are similar in personality and impetus. The Martyrs is an invitation to participate in a growing cult of the imagination rooted in fictional cosmology and deep mystical integrity, transforming art into political theory and poetry.
American Terror is imperative toward direct political action in the form of directives, with a clear, deliberate message rooted in self-awareness. without the poetic abstractions of a metaphysical scripture in the making.
What the two books represent together is the first two constellations in a program of literature that will, by issues end, form the totality of a concrete yet fluid and ever-flowing wisdom literature, political program and artistic discipline.
According to Zahreddine’s earliest prophecies, there are 63 books in the cosmology, where the case for Bara is made. But the number 63 is sometimes taken as a misreading of Zahreddine’s intentions. Other, more pragmatic expectations offer the number 27 as a likelier number of books.
What we as Barakunan will eventually publish from the entire set remains to be seen. We are happy to take part today and only hope that the voice and message of Zahreddine’s works, and those of their co-conspirators, are well received, integrated into direct political thought in contemporary scenes, activating a holistic presence of body and mind and an artistic vision of selfhood, collectivity and becoming.
In the words of Zahreddine, "The revolution will continue until every joint of the ruling class is humbled by our grace, troubled by our togetherness. It is through our efforts that a new age will be forged."