Islamic Insights

I am used to hearing some Jews say, "We don't forget, we don't forgive the holocaust." Then last week I heard Matan Vilnai, the Israeli Deputy Defense Minister, threaten Gaza with a "bigger holocaust."

The same mainstream media that attacked Iranian President Ahmadinejad for many years over a mistranslation ignored Israeli Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit's statement, "We must wipe a neighborhood of Gaza off the map." Sheetrit is justifying mass murder.

Based on BBC reports, basic human dignity is denied in Gaza. John Holmes, United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said he was shocked by a "grim and miserable" situation in Gaza.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Palestinian militants' rocket fire left 13 dead in the last seven years, while just last Wednesday, Israel killed 85 people and wounded 150 in one day!  UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called this barbaric bombardment of civilians and incineration of children "a disproportionate and excessive use of force."

As we honor peace activists in the Jewish community, who call for the end of the siege and for peace and coexistence, we remind the friends of Israel that to imprison 1.5 million people of Gaza in a walled ghetto without food, water, electricity, or even fuel for the ambulances to carry the dead bodies, is genocide – a horrible crime against human conscience. 

If the reason for all these atrocities was to stop the militants' rocket attacks, why did Olmert repeatedly reject the Hamas ceasefire offers, saying no to negotiation? He wants the Palestinians to stop resistance and accept total submission under Israeli occupation. The Annapolis conference was called a "window of opportunity" and the Arab rulers did all they were told, but more Palestinians were killed since then. Israel even ignored President Bush's demand for "a halt to all Jewish settlement expansion" and is threatening the integrity of the Old City and the Aqsa Mosque.

Israel and its lobbies enjoy their influence in the media, Congress, and the White House and do whatever they desire regardless of voices of condemnation. If killing Palestinian children was the solution, Israel should be the safest country of the world after 60 years of slaughter. We know from Scriptures that Pharaoh killed thousands of the children of Israel to prevent the emergence of Moses, not knowing that he was raising Moses in his own palace. Moses didn't need a nuclear weapon to destroy Pharaoh's empire and free his people; all it took was his staff.

The first day the Western TV stations show the scenes of Israeli brutality against the Palestinians, Israel would lose its entire sympathy in the world. This has already started. A Ha'aretz editorial reads: "we have become accustomed to treating the Palestinians as inferior people." It even discussed Israel's own Abu Ghraib prisons!

Israel should be very worried of God's justice and the fact that the world is watching these atrocities on the occupied territories. As Abraham Lincoln said, you can't fool all the people all the time.

Fmr. President Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have already warned Israel of its apartheid policies. Peace activist Arun Gandhi said Israel is the biggest player in the culture of violence, and "this culture of violence will one day destroy humanity." Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is the best Arab friend Israel ever sponsored, yet he accused Israel of committing international terrorism! It's time for the world community to force Israel to wake up and start respecting human life and integrity.

Will we as Americans ever regain our moral direction and stand for the universal principles of truth and justice prescribed by the Bible, the Qur'an, and our own Declaration of Independence?

 

Editor's Note: This is the full version of the article which originally appreared in the Detroit News in a shortened form. It is reprinted with the persmission of the author.

A native of Iran, Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi joined the Islamic seminary at the young age of twelve. He is now the resident scholar of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, Michigan.