The American Muslim on Gaza

I hadn't realized that The American Muslim had already posted his own thoughts on Gaza last week. Excerpts here:

It’s not just the Israeli’s whom we Muslims should be focusing on. I have received email after email giving notice of planned protests, denunciations, etc. and quite frankly I have to admit I’m a little disappointed to put it mildly. Why is it that every time something happens in Gaza we Muslims can’t see the 800 pound Gorilla in the room?

Allah (swt) knows that I am not denying the brutal onslaught on the Palestinians committed by the Israeli government, but Allah (swt) also commands me to use my reason and to be patient before I react in pure unadultered emotion as some of us are.

Many innocent civilians have been killed in the latest flare up. Over 300 dead and over 1000 wounded Palestinians at this point, and I think at most 5 Israelis have been killed or injured. So of course the disproportionate nature of victims prove that this is a heavy handed response, but the keyword that we fail to acknowledge as we
condemn Israel is the word response.

What are the Israeli’s responding to? That is the question we Muslims never ask. We love to deal exclusively in the effects of a situation but rarely engage in the causes behind them.

We have to call Hamas to account here. They are not the victims. They refuse to deal in a manner in which is honorable, peaceful, and justified. They fired rockets in Israel, they broke the cease-fire, and the cowards purposefully ensure that they do so from civilian compounds so that when the Israelis respond the amount of civilians that are killed are maximized.

Let’s be realistic, if Israel had in mind that they wanted to kill Palestinians indiscriminately they would just do it. They obviously have the capability and the so-called Muslim world wouldn’t do anything about it. It’s all a game these countries play. No one actually cares about the Palestinians or Muslims around the world suffering until Israel does something big enough to give them a stage for political posturing.

If we really wanted to pontificate in a meaningful way we would reign in Hamas and
call them to account for the role they played in the deaths of all the innocents on both sides. These thugs who claim to represent a noble cause are anything but. If they were really warriors or Mujahadeen as they play on TV they would face the Israeli Army in battle directly and not involve civilians. The same goes for all the other so-called clerics and groups that have issues with the West and Israel. No true Muslim would purposefully target civilians and other non-combatants, but that’s not how these thugs act is it?

. . .

In war there will always be collateral damage and it is unfortunate, however we
have to critically look at this people, would the level of deaths be so high if Hamas didn’t use civilian dwellings as bases of operation? If you fire a rocket from an apartment building for example and are fired upon in return obviously everyone in the building is now in danger and at risk of dying too.

This is the major problem that we fail to acknowledge, protest against, and pontificate against. Hamas, Hezbollah, and all the other groups do this on purpose. We are all pawns in their game. They are the true murderers, they set our people up so they can be killed. They use Mosques, homes, schools, etc. to draw fire against the innocent and to them the blame for the dead should be placed.

I can’t stress this enough, Muslims wake up, wake up you sleeping giant! We will never advance any goal or ideal as long as we are blind to those who do us harm within our midst. It is perfectly normal, virtuous, and right to mourn the dead Palestinians and call Israel to account for their heavy handed response to the thugs called Hamas, but it is not normal, virtuous, or right to continue to be silent about the Israeli civilians who are killed and live in a state of fear also. It is not normal, virtuous, or right to continue to be silent about how Hamas set the Palestinians in Gaza up to be killed, these deaths were intentional on their part, and if we really cared about justice in the Middle East we would acknowledge their role in the bloodshed as well.