By Ali Bin Omer

Mar/Apr 2024

On a chilly Saturday afternoon in January, 400,000 resilient individuals gathered at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., united in support of our brothers and sisters in Palestine. We gathered to demand that the U.S call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, cease unconditional funding of military actions by Israel, hold its leaders accountable for war crimes and continuous violations of international law and ultimately work toward the liberation of Palestinians. 

As part of a Global Day of Action, busloads of protestors arrived from Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio and other states, resulting in the largest pro-Palestine protest in this country’s history. It was endorsed by the American Muslim Task Force for Palestine which includes American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), CAIR and ICNA along with hundreds of additional organizations nationwide.

After 100+ days of intense carpet bombing and a high number of innocent civilians murdered, the march was timely, as this collective movement was feeling the weight of the brutality we continue to witness daily via our smartphones in the palm of our hands.

Palestinians are currently experiencing the greatest threat to their existence. Nearly 2 million of them in the Gaza Strip have been displaced and are now threatened with famine … not to mention the rise in aggression and the siege on Palestinians in Jenin, Ramallah, Al Quds, Hebron and other cities in Palestine.

A sea of black, green, red and white flags flooded the streets of D.C., with hundreds of thousands of voices for the voiceless chanting “Free, Free Palestine” and “End Genocide Now.”

Religious Leaders and Activists Take to the Stage

“South Africa is keeping alive the legacy of Nelson Mandela and suing Israel in the International Court of Justice, the highest court in the world, and they are charging the country with genocide,” proclaimed Yasir Qadhi (dean, Islamic Seminary of America). “We need to call a spade a spade. This is not antisemitism; it is speaking the truth. The Palestinian people are live tweeting their own genocide. They’re uploading images of their own massacre.”

 “We have been walking the halls of Congress every day for the last three months,” stated Medea Benjamin (co-founder, CODE PINK). “We need them to know that we will not stand by as they continue the genocide.”

“We are here to represent the 36,000 people that have either been martyred or are under the rubble,” said Shaykh Omar Suleiman (founder and president, Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research). “If we were to take to the streets for every casualty and every person under the rubble, it would take us 100 years to honor each and every single one of them.”

Wael al-Dahdouh (correspondent, Al Jazeera), whose wife, daughter, two sons and a grandchild were recently killed in Gaza, delivered a powerful statement via video call. “Gaza is going through a period of great hardship. The people here are paying a truly exorbitant price and are living a disastrous life. People do not have sustenance, food, or drink, a place to sleep, a bathroom and what is necessary for life — not for a decent life, [but] rather what is basically necessary to maintain life.” 

Alana Hadid, the oldest daughter of Mohammad Hadid (real estate mogul and survivor of the 1948 Nakba), passionately professed that “Collective freedom is what Palestinians have taught the world. Bravery and perseverance is what Palestinians have shown us day after day, not just for 100 days but 75 years, and we must continue the struggle for them.” 

Rally Attendees from All Walks of Life 

Outside of the inspirational speakers, many of us found value and warmth in the opportunity to connect with the greater pro-Palestine community. Many are showing their support in a silo through online activism on social media, calling our representatives (who once again prove to be useless) and attending protests as our circle of friends, coworkers, acquaintances and the like remain silent. It was a crucial step in a long battle to be among like-minded people who support humanity and justice for all. 

Two young women from St. Louis, one Palestinian-American and the other Caucasian-American, braved the long ride to D.C. They spoke about how the genocide had deeply impacted them and felt it was their duty to attend in person. 

A family of four from Alexandria, Va., also attended the march in solidarity, as it was personal for the family’s matriarch. Her great-grandfather immigrated from Palestine to Bolivia to escape apartheid. She has been horrified by the events of the past 3 months and considered it imperative to attend, along with her Irish American husband and twin daughters.

People from all walks of life traveled to be there. “I’m here because of the children being slaughtered,” said one Catholic attendee from Maryland. “Our president had said he would not go to war.”

“I understand that at times wars are needed, but there are rules that must be followed. Civilians cannot be killed for no reason,” said a Muslim attendee from New York. 

We came together, listened, shared stories, shed tears, shared laughter, marched, resisted and stood united for Palestine. We must fight, we must resist, and we must preserve until “from the river to the sea, Palestine is free” and every human being in this world is free.

Ali Bin Omer is a freelance writer.

Tell us what you thought by joining our Facebook community. You can also send comments and story pitches to [email protected]. Islamic Horizons does not publish unsolicited material.  

The post 400,000 March for Gaza appeared first on Islamic Horizons.

By Kiran Ansari

Mar/Apr 2024

These days, Muslims worldwide wake up and check their phones to see if a ceasefire has been declared in Gaza. At press time, Palestinians have been killed, injured and displaced for 100+ days. Trying to absorb information from all over social media and a few media outlets that provide some balanced coverage, parents wonder how they can explain the situation to their young children? 

“I can shield my children from graphic images of the wounded and killed, but I do not want to shield them from the truth,” said Nida Khan of Fresno, Calif. “We are witnessing a genocide. I owe it to my children to tell them the story of the Palestinian cause in an age-appropriate manner, and one of the best ways to do it is through books. This is even more important for Muslim kids who do not have a Palestinian family member to share stories firsthand.”

Islamic Horizons asked MuslimMemories.com about which children’s books on Palestine have been popular lately. We then set out to interview those authors and learn about their journey to inspire more authors to share, because our children deserve to read authentic stories. 

You Are The Color

“I had always wanted to write a book about the Nakba, one of the seminal events in Palestinian history that must be understood in order to understand what is still happening in Palestine today,” said Rifk Ebeid, a Palestinian author who self-published “You Are The Color” and “Baba, What Does My Name Mean?” 

“I researched Nakba survivor testimonies and oral history. I delved into what life was like in Palestine before, during and after the Nakba. This took some time due to the heavy nature of the topic and my capacity to process it all.”

After developing the idea, Ebeid worked with Hajera Khaja, a wonderful writing coach, to help bring the story to life. What really helped flesh it out was the process of free writing, seeing where the pen was taking her and what plot sequence felt like it captured what she wanted to convey. The result is an impactful and authentic story of one Palestinian family that encompasses many of the real experiences during the Nakba. 

Ebeid believes that for Palestinians, as they resist the erasure of their culture and existence, sharing stories is crucial to documenting their experiences. “Every action we take individually will have a ripple effect collectively. You never know who is listening, who is learning from you and what they will do in the future with that knowledge they have gained,” she stated.

“Sitti’s Key”

“I never understood the history of my homeland until I visited Palestine and learned about its rich history,” said Sahar Khader, author of “Sitti’s Key.” She continued, “When I had my first child, I was always looking for books that shared Palestine’s history in a simple way, but I never found them. So I took matters into my own hands and decided that I should publish a children’s book about the collective memory of the key.” In 2023, this proud Palestinian did just that. 

In light of the current genocide in Gaza, the book presents the repetition of history. Readers find flashbacks about what happened in 1948, when 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes. Unfortunately, what is happening now in Gaza is even worse — more than 1.2 million Palestinians have had to leave their homes. This book teaches the younger generation that what is going on today in Gaza has been happening for 75 years. 

“My Garden Over Gaza” 

Sarah Musa started writing “My Garden Over Gaza” in May 2021 when Israel was bombing Gaza. As a Palestinian-American living in Jordan, she had watched this happen for years. “My father left the Al-Quds region when he was 15, and he was never allowed back,” she said. “It is painful to watch how history repeats itself again and again.”

As she started getting vocal on Instagram and getting to know activists, one of her writer friends encouraged her to write a book. That was her lightbulb moment. “Palestine is a part of who I am, so why haven’t I done it yet?” Musa wondered. “I have had a rooftop garden like they have in Gaza. It’s one way for them to produce their own food because of sieges and the aerial spraying of herbicides on agricultural crops.”

Types of Publishing

Although there have been a handful of children’s books about Palestine from traditional publishing houses, Muslim authors aren’t happy about the representation. Many Palestinian authors fear that their story will be diluted, sanitized or edited. Even though Ebeid has heard from some author friends that they have more control over the narrative, it’s still an uphill battle. Muslims have seen silence and censorship from the book community during this genocide. 

“The topic of self-publishing vs. traditional publishing is multi-layered. I hate to distinguish when it comes to Palestine, in particular, because of how Palestinian voices have been censored for decades,” she said. “Although I understand the aspect of wanting to hold mainstream publishers accountable for being more inclusive of diverse voices, I find the distinction between the two routes to be divisive at a time where we need all hands on deck and should all support each other’s efforts.”

Khader began the publishing process with a mainstream company, but her passion for “Sitti’s Key” was so high that she felt they didn’t understand it, especially when it came to illustration. That led her to cancel her contract with them. 

Her book was then published by Little Hibba, a children’s publishing company that empowers Muslim authors to share meaningful messages with the next generation. “They worked closely with me and understood my passion,” Khader related. “I also had the pleasure of working with the illustrator, Noor Alshalabi, who paid attention to certain details and brought my vision to life.”

Musa’s experience with mainstream publishing wasn’t great — not because anything bad happened, but because nothing really happened. She tried to get published for 15 years, but never heard back. She believes many mainstream publishing houses aren’t really interested in unapologetic Muslim stories. 

“They want to show they care, but it’s only superficial. They want to just add a Muslim twist to an American story. They have no interest in real Palestinian stories. They want to minimize that kind of stuff,” she asserted. 

She wanted to get “A Garden Over Gaza” out quickly. Her sister told her about Ruqaya’s Bookshelf, a Muslim publishing company in Canada. What started out as an eBook flowered into a manuscript.

“I had never written a book about a Muslim protagonist — it was colonized out of my mind,” Musa recollects. “I dove into it 100% and submitted my manuscript in a week. Publisher Asmaa Hussein got back to me promptly, and I signed my first book deal.”

Muslim authors don’t want publishing companies that just pretend to care. They believe that if Muslims want authentic and unapologetic stories, the community needs to support small Muslim publishers. Mainstream publishing companies have huge advertising budgets. The sprouting Muslim publishers don’t have the resources yet, so we, as the umma, have to do that. 

“Growing up, I felt like an odd phenomenon with a Palestinian father and Hispanic mother,” Musa said. “As a child, I would have been over the moon to have a book that truly represented me. Now as a parent, rather than always reading about Stephanie and Jake, I want my kids to feel heard and seen. It can boost their self-confidence. So we need to support Muslim authors and publishers. Let’s be their microphones so more people become aware.” 

Readers can purchase these and many other titles at www.muslimmemories.com and support Muslim book stores. 

Kiran Ansari is the assistant editor of Islamic Horizons. She hopes to visit a free Palestine one day.

Tell us what you thought by joining our Facebook community. You can also send comments and story pitches to [email protected]. Islamic Horizons does not publish unsolicited material.  

The post Teaching Kids About Palestine appeared first on Islamic Horizons.

By Tayyaba Syed

Jan/Feb 2024

Eight-year-old Etaf Saleh was playing outside with her siblings, while their baby sister slept peacefully inside the house. Suddenly they heard jets overhead and loud booms. “It’s war! It’s war!” Saleh’s mother began screaming and ushering them quickly to safety.

“We’d never witnessed anything like it,” recalls Saleh, now in her sixties, of her experience living through the 1967 Six-Day War in Silwad, a West Bank town next to Ramallah. “Bombs were coming down everywhere, and we started to escape toward the center of the town. My mom then remembered she had forgotten my sleeping baby sister and ran back home as we waited for her.”

The families were instructed to head up the mountains into designated caves. They hid there for seven days. That one week changed the trajectory of their lives forever. 

“I don’t know how we had food or anything, but every day there was bombing,” shares Saleh, who now lives with her family in Willowbrook, Ill. After seven days, they were instructed by the Israeli forces to return home even though the bombing continued. Frightened and weary, families held up white cloths and flags and headed back down the mountains. “Last year, my mom passed away at the age of 92. Yet she never stopped talking about what we endured and said that for years we [children] would wake up screaming at night from the trauma.”

The fear of being bombed, being killed, being separated from or losing your family, having to abandon your home and hide in a cave, surviving on little food, not being able to just be a kid and play and laugh and learn…what can that do to one’s psyche? 

On the eighth day, Saleh rode along with her mother and siblings in boarded trucks to escape to Jordan. Their father, who had been working in Kuwait, was waiting for them across the river. 

“My older brother was probably in eighth or ninth grade, so we had to cover him and other young [adolescent] men [so they would not] be taken away,” Saleh says. “In those few hours, we saw people lying dead in the streets. I remember asking why this was happening and was told, ‘They are killing us.’ How can I sleep as a child after this? I would hear the sound of bombs even after we had escaped and couldn’t unsee all those dead bodies I had seen with my own little eyes.”

After staying in Jordan for a few days, the Saleh family began heading to Kuwait. Her brother decided he wanted to remain in Jordan for high school. Saleh states how difficult it was to leave him and be apart from him; however, she admits, he became very resilient from the experience. Once Saleh herself was old enough, she insisted on pursuing her undergraduate studies abroad. 

“I got accepted into schools in Egypt, Jordan and Iraq,” she remarks. “However, my father wouldn’t let me go on my own. He told me I could go study in America instead and live with my oldest brother, who had come here in 1974, five years before me. The application and paperwork were never-ending, but we made it happen somehow. 

“My whole family was crying at the airport — all except me. I was just so happy to finally get out and be on my own, even though this was my very first time flying in an airplane at age 19. Before leaving Kuwait, my father taught me how to drive, I learned how to type and I took English classes. I was ready. You can’t let anything overpower you. If you don’t have iman (faith), you don’t have anything. That’s the most important thing.”

Made Her Stronger

Even though Saleh feels she had to grow up faster after experiencing the trauma of war, she still believes it only made her stronger. The current Israel-Gaza war brings back horrific memories, though. She cries every day and worries how the people, especially the children, will recover from it. 

According to Dr. Fahad Khan (licensed clinical psychologist and deputy director, Khalil Center, Lombard, Ill.) traumatized children can skip a stage of childhood.

“Trauma can affect how they respond to stress, affect their thinking and emotional abilities and even hinder natural tendencies such as creativity and fantasy,” says Khan, who has won awards from the American Psychological Association for his work and dedication. “Meta-analysis studies show signs of aging in traumatized kids and physical changes in the brain that can be measured. Someone who is older and is traumatized can accelerate [in aging] with post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] in adult life.” 

Khan states PTSD symptoms can linger long after the trauma ends and can be triggered at any moment: socially, emotionally and even within relationships. “The way our brains are structured and emotions are stored is different from where complicated thinking happens (in the frontal cortex),” he says. “When we are traumatized, high-level thinking leaves, and you can’t think rationally or logically in that emotional state of mind. What we want to see [more of] is more post-traumatic growth in people.”

Post-traumatic growth is the positive psychological change that some individuals experience after a life crisis or a traumatic event, according to Psychology Today (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/post-traumatic-growth), which also states that post-traumatic growth doesn’t deny deep distress. Rather, it posits that adversity can unintentionally yield changes in understanding oneself, others and the world. 

Trauma Beyond War

Trauma isn’t just limited to war. Fareeha Aziz of Houston also saw this in her oldest child, who was only eight when she was divorced. Suddenly she was a single mother of her newborn, two toddlers, and eight-year-old son. How does a child process such drastic changes?

“My kids had to grow up so quickly when everything happened,” Aziz recalls, who spent eleven years on her own before remarrying. “My eldest for sure was traumatized by it all, reckoning with reality and trying to process everything. My kids had to take care of themselves to help me. When children are around unpredictable situations and people, they start to understand adult subjects sooner than necessary.”

Despite the difficulty Aziz, 42, has endured, has done her best to keep a positive mindset about life and has full trust in God. Instead of focusing on the past or future, she is determined to make the most of whatever time she has left on Earth. “Ask Allah for help for whatever you’re going through and then really believe in [that help].”

Another example of trauma can be when your health is tested. Mother of four Nafeesah Zabadneh of Lombard, Ill., was diagnosed with Lupus in 2020. Lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease that causes your immune system, which usually fights infections, to attack healthy tissue instead. It can cause inflammation and pain in any part of your body.

“I am 41, but I feel like I am much older and weaker,” states Zabadneh. “If you see how I walk, you can tell something’s wrong. I’m on the smaller side but feel so heavy. Lupus affects your organs and your breathing. Sometimes I’m so fatigued that I can’t even take care of my kids properly. I feel so guilty at times and just try to push through my debilitating health. I can’t even braid my youngest’s hair due to cysts on my joints and stiffness. I took things for granted when I was healthy, but I don’t want to be a burden on anyone.”

Many times, Zabadneh feels like she’s fighting against her own body. She describes it as “watching the world go by” while she stands still. She wonders if this is how it will always be or if it will get better, knowing that right now there is no cure. Major life changes, trauma and difficult circumstances can cause kids to grow up faster than normal, to age out of innocence much sooner. Zabadneh is seeing this with her eldest child. 

“I’m praying that I can still be there for my family and community somehow through all this,” she says. “I’m grateful for a supportive husband, and if it wasn’t for my 15-year-old I wouldn’t be able to take care of my toddler. She is like a second mother to her siblings.”

Tayyaba Syed is a multiple award-winning author, journalist and Islamic studies teacher. She conducts literary and faith-based presentations for all ages and is an elected member of her local school district’s board of education in Illinois, where she lives with her husband and three children. Learn more at www.tayyabasyed.com.

Tell us what you thought by joining our Facebook community. You can also send comments and story pitches to [email protected]. Islamic Horizons does not publish unsolicited material.  

The post When Children Need to Grow Up Faster appeared first on Islamic Horizons.

By Luke Peterson

May/June 2023

During the last week of March, widespread public demonstrations coupled with a general labor strike brought Israel to a grinding halt. Schools, universities and banks were closed, along with two major ports and Tel Aviv-Jaffa’s Ben Gurion International Airport. Roads and bridges were blocked in dozens of areas, and public transportation was brought to a standstill. Hospitals across the country even began canceling non-urgent procedures. 

The total number of protestors is difficult to pinpoint, but witnesses say that hundreds of thousands took to the streets in one form or another in what has been called the nation’s largest-ever collective demonstration. Given that Israel has a population of 9 million, these demonstrations should be considered a mass movement, the collective will of the people rising up in one voice in protest of their government’s policies.

The catalyst for this unprecedented collective action was a move by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a longtime hawk and fixture of the militant Israeli right, to establish a naked dictatorship. Netanyahu, who was sworn in for his most recent term as prime minister last December, heads a vocal ethno-nationalist and conservative Jewish political coalition. At the start of his term and with his coalition’s support, he moved quickly to strip the judiciary of its responsibilities to conduct executive oversight. If this move had succeeded, the ruling party (his rightist Likud, as it happens), would be legally entitled to ignore Supreme Court rulings. 

The inevitable consequence of this new policy would be a dictatorship of the right. It seems that Netanyahu wants to head an ethno-state in which Judaism and Zionism coalesce to dominate Israel’s neo-Spartan society even more thoroughly than his party does now. The ongoing protests, public demonstrations and labor strikes are an attempt to stop this party putsch. 

So far, these wide-ranging demonstrations appear to have been successful. On March 27, Netanyahu backed down while reserving the right to reintroduce the policy in a later session of the Knesset. This half-measure was enough to end the general strike, although protests and clashes between demonstrators and police continued through March 28 and show no sign of abating at the time of this writing.

One reason the protests continue is Netanyahu’s new concession to his party’s extreme right. In a speech responding to the protests on March 26, he agreed to place his proposed erasure of judicial oversight on the backburner, thereby tabling it for future discussion. In the same speech, he also announced the creation of a new wing of the Israeli National Guard to be placed under the control of Itamar Ben Gvir for reasons of “national security.” Ben Gvir, a public darling of the right, has been convicted for racist incitement and his public support of Jewish terrorist groups among the “settler” (read colonist) community. 

He’s also fond of publicly praising Baruch Goldstein, the American Israeli settler who massacred 29 Palestinians at prayer in Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque on February 4, 1994. [Editor’s note: Wikipedia states, “Goldstein’s gravesite became a pilgrimage site for Jewish extremists. The following words are inscribed on the tomb: “He gave his life for the people of Israel, its Torah and land.”] Such a macabre resume would condemn a public figure to the absolute fringe of political participation in all functioning democracies. But not in Israel. In fact, it won Ben Gvir the post of minister of national security. And now it has garnered him a private militia. 

These facets of the Israeli political system point to the obvious conclusion that, despite repeated assertions from protesters who claim to be fighting for their country’s lifeblood of democracy, Israel is no democracy at all. It was built on top of and against the express wishes of the land’s indigenous people through an organized ethnic cleansing that denuded the land of more than half of its indigenous population while destroying 400+ Palestinian towns and villages. 

Today, the descendants of those Palestinians who resisted and remained between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea live as second-class citizens, either segregated within Israel as the nation’s largest minority (around 1.5 million of the total population) or subjected to cruel and capricious military rule in Gaza or the occupied West Bank. Palestinian citizens can vote in Israeli elections and hold office but are, nevertheless, an oppressed minority seen as a fifth-column element by average Israelis. 

So, while hundreds of thousands protested the blurring of checks and balances within their political system, few of them carried signs expressly condemning Ben Gvir, Ayelet Shaked (Zionist Spirit Party), Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party) or other Israeli officials for their continued advocacy of the ongoing settler-colonial project in Palestine. Fewer still were prepared to acknowledge the patent hypocrisy inherent in protests to support an Israeli democracy. 

One wonders if they ever question why their country continues to occupy and sequester 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and deny them the legal right to participate in its political system. And during the last week of March 2023, even fewer Israelis protested the crimes of ethnic cleansing and forced removal carried out during 1948-49, when at least 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes.

While Palestinian citizens of Israel can at least vote, residents of Gaza and the occupied West Bank are only allowed to vote in elections held for the Palestinian Authority, an increasingly desiccated and toothless political body that primarily facilitates Israel’s full civil and military control of the region. As such, the regulation of border crossings, air space, all water resources and even the remodeling of homes in Palestinian neighborhoods — all elements of life and society in Palestine — are exclusively controlled by Tel Aviv. 

No Palestinian West Bank or Gaza resident, a mixed Muslim and Christian population, can vote in Israel, hold office inside its political system, or participate in national politics in any way. Israeli democracy, indeed! 

Israel, a nuclear power that will celebrate its 75th year of existence this May, reserves its unapologetic identity as a Jewish democratic state. Then as now, there appears to be no semblance of awareness, either officially or publicly, of the obvious incompatibility of democracy and ethno/religio-nationalism. As such, claims from the droves of Israeli protesters this week paying lip service to internationally cherished concepts like equality before the law and equal rights within electoral politics should be received, both regionally and abroad, with only the most intense skepticism. 

In reality, Israel has never practiced electoral equality or political transparency because such ideals — paramount for a functioning democracy — are in absolute conflict with the ongoing occupation and deliberate confiscation of the land of Palestine. 

Given this reality, Israel refuses to adopt an official state constitution, wherein the rights of citizens under its charge are articulated and guaranteed, and official borders identifying its territorial claims in the region. This convenient loophole allows figures like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to give speeches in front of homespun maps that, in addition to Israel and all of the Palestinian territories, include the sovereign nation of Jordan, as he did on March 19 of this year. 

Further, because it has no constitution, Israel has no official mechanisms in place to prevent power grabs like Netanyahu’s latest maneuver. In the absence of official state channels, the vox populi has flooded the gap, rising to the fore to express its disapproval of the corrupt Netanyahu’s more sinister machinations. While meddling with the political system, let’s not forget that the Israeli prime minister was under indictment by the courts in November 2019 for breach of public trust and accepting bribes, likely another reason why he’s taking aim at the judiciary. This active and animated Israeli mass movement has had a tangible impact upon the progress of Israeli politics. 

But where is this mass movement and historic public demonstration when it comes to the rights that Israel has denied most of the Palestinians ever since its founding as a “democratic” state? 

Luke Peterson (PhD, Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge) is author of the forthcoming “The U.S. Military in the Print News Media: Service and Sacrifice in Contemporary Discourse.”

Tell us what you thought by joining our Facebook community. You can also send comments and story pitches to [email protected]. Islamic Horizons does not publish unsolicited material.  

The post Mass Protests Pierce Israeli Delusions of Democracy appeared first on Islamic Horizons.