By Omer Bin Abdullah
Mar/Apr 2024
The barbarism in occupied Palestine continues unabated. While the genocide demolishes the “humanitarian” image certain countries project for themselves, thousands of humans are ironically considered ineligible to be called “human” by other humans.
The carnage enjoys the full support of the U.S. and its closest ally, the U.K., both of which attempt to cloud the ongoing reality via verbal gymnastics. It’s self-enrichment versus humanity. For example, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has unequivocally backed the Zionist war on Gaza, while his wife’s family has been profiting from a business that operates in occupied Palestine and has appointed Israeli military intelligence veterans to senior positions.
During 2022, AIPAC and other pro-Israel PACS gave $9,633,460 to both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. Addressing the Saban Forum in 2014 (“Stormy Seas: The United States and Israel in a Tumultuous Middle East”), Biden mentioned that Netanyahu has been a “personal friend” for 30 years whom he “loves.” He also mentioned that the U.S. gives Israel $8.5 million a day.
A self-declared Zionist throughput his long political career, Biden believes that “It’s overwhelmingly in the self-interest of the United States of America to have a secure, democratic friend, a strategic partner like Israel. As I said, it’s no favor. It’s an obligation, but it’s also a strategic necessity.”
This crazed support for Palestine’s occupation has deep roots. In 1844, Christian restorationist George Bush (professor of Hebrew, New York University), distantly related to the Bush political family, published “The Valley of Vision; or, The Dry Bones of Israel Revived.” In it, he denounced “the thralldom and oppression which has so long ground them (the Jews) to the dust,” and called for “elevating [them] to a rank of honorable repute among the nations of the earth” by restoring them to the land of Israel, “where the bulk would be converted to Christianity.”
The genocide in Gaza has also created an environment of increased Islamophobia and hate crimes against Muslims. CAIR states that they have received 2,171 complaints of Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias since October 7, an increase of 172% from 2023.
One wonders what Muslims have done to even to dent such skewered supposition and if it isn’t it time to think and act.
Aslam Abdullah explains that weaponization of a Hindu religious myth to fan hatred against Islam and Muslims in that country and to reassert upper caste hegemony.
India’s 20+ million Muslims continue to deal with Hindutva via the ruling extremist Bharatiya Janata Party and ever-rising Islamophobia. Some are being lynched supposedly just for eating beef. On January 22, the Ram Temple was inaugurated on the site of the destroyed 600-year-old Babri Mosque, alleged to be the mythical god’s birthplace.
In its 1,045-page 2019 verdict, India’s Supreme Court agreed that the ruins of an ancient religious structure under an existing building does not always indicate that it was demolished by unfriendly powers. But such is the BJP’s hold that the [Indian] National Herald withdrew its articles critical of the judgment and issued an apology after facing criticism on social media and from the BJP.
Following Modi’s consecration of the temple, extremist groups weaponized ensuing celebrations and convened massive processions to attack Muslims and destroy Muslim-owned businesses, homes and mosques. BJP lawmaker Nitesh Rane threatened to “find and kill” those who had erected defensive barricades to protect a Muslim neighborhood in Mumbai. On Jan. 25, the Washington Post reported that he later ordered state bulldozers to destroy structures belonging to 55 Muslim merchants.
In the U.S., politicians such as Maryland governor Wes Moore (D) celebrated the temple. The OIC denounced these actions “aimed at obliterating the Islamic landmarks…” So once again the question arises: What have Muslims done to educate fellow Americans about the rising Hindu extremism?
Politicians do it for money, but an educated electorate may perhaps move them.
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