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Today I found out that this week is Palestinian Week, where we remember the struggles of what Palestinians are going through. My response: meh. The Palestine and Israel issue is past overdue, this has been going on before Pakistan was even a nation. I understand that the founding and spiritual father of Pakistan defended the Palestinian’s right, but if they were alive, they would be turned off by the whole issue. But that is for another post.

I know that we should not forget what the Palestinians and even what Israelis are going through, it’s not easy for them both, but there are other Muslims around the world, other than the Palestinians, who are in a far worse situation. At least Palestinian and Israeli children go to bed knowing that their cause is going to be debated at the next U.N session. They know that the likes of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton will try to promote peace; the Palestinians have a voice even if they are silenced. What about the other Muslim children who are being oppressed around the world and are not heard because our attention is so focused on Palestine? 

There are other Muslims around the world that suffer a more horrible fate than the Palestinians, and what is worse it that there is no one to take up their cause, because all of our attention focuses on Palestine. Another thorn is the fact that many Muslims are being oppressed by Muslim nations, an example being the Rohingya's.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am appalled by the situation of the Palestinians, but if you read about the situation that Muslims are faced with in Bangladesh/Burma, the Philippines, Chechnya (yes even Chechnya, things still have not smoothen over yet) and I can keep naming conflict zones that involve Muslims being oppressed, but what are we going to do about it? Our attention is focused on whatever the media decides is news for that particular day. So if CBC says another rocket has been launched into Israel, or Apache helicopters bombarded Gaza, we will post an update on Facebook, and set our profile picture with the flag of Palestine. But we also forget the other casualty, the Israelis, are they also made of clay, what sets them apart that we cannot also sympathize with them?

When the last offensive occurred, I was upset. The local Masjid had a fundraiser for the people of Palestine, I made a poster (I'm not sure if I still have it) that called on for people to remember previous and current conflicts and inform them of conflicts unheard of. Long story short, I got permission to post these posters up outside the entrance to the fundraiser. The Masjid administrator arrives to reprimand me and tears down my poster (I got permission from the Masjid’s President) and gives me a lecture about being insensitive and not caring about the Palestinians. I actually started to tear up and the next thing I said was, “I care about the Palestinians and the other Muslims around the world who we have forgotten”. I left after.

I just want to leave you, the readers, a reminder.

Our voices and our fists should not be raised into the air only for Palestine.
Ammar Akhtar is a Scarborough resident and just finished first year commerce at Ryerson University. He likes to watch movies, debates and keep in tunes with current issues.

His personal blog can be found at: http://world500less.blogspot.com/.
Guest Blog with us by sending us your article to submissions@keepingithalal.com. 
 


Comments

Jamil
05/01/2010 10:53pm

Finally, someone who agrees with me, there are other people in the world not just muslims who suffer oppressions.

Lets all pray and make dua for Allah to ease all their pain and sufferings

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Something Sure
05/02/2010 7:24pm

The author brings up some interesting points, but presents it in an inappropriate manner and perhaps even brings up his own bias.

First, to argue that people focus too much on Palestine is relative at best. I agree that muslims should stand for justice in all parts of the world and all shapes and forms but by belittling or arguing that people focus too much on palestine is not the way to do it. I would argue that muslims need to increase the fight for justice in palestine and other parts of the world! Injustice is injustice no matter how much or how little one focuses on it.

And time it takes to resolve injustices shouldn't matter. The author argues that Israel-Palestine conflict has been going on before the formation of pakistan. My response is who cares how long it has been going on? Chechnya (which is mentioned) has been oppressed for 150 years, long before Israel-Palestine. Should leaders (spiritual or otherwise) and muslims stop caring or be turned off? There will be injustice until the day we all die, does that mean we give up? I for one will not.

The bias in the article is more subtle and perhaps a greater concern within the muslim community in canada. The author brings up pakistan and it's "spiritual" and "founding" leaders. Why? Is the author pakistani and just because people are not focusing enough on pakistan (which is true) he is upset? I am not trying to be racist but it seems in order to motivate Muslims you have to pander social justice issues to their ethnic background and if non-Muslims are facing injustice you can forget about them. It annoys the heck out of me when i support or post something on facebook about social justice issues in pakistan all my pakistani friends "like" it and post it on their own or all my arab friends post palestine issues or all my bangladeshi friends post issues related to them and ect. However when I ask them to help raise awareness to issues not related to their ethinc background or ask them to take the lead in helping people who are not from their "motherland" they often throw their hands in the air and say they are too busy... OR worse, the accuse me of focusing too much on issues that are not related to their home country.

The overall point I am making is that fighting injustice is not about fighting for your own race or your own religion, but rather fighting for the God given rights of all peoples.

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hasan
05/02/2010 8:58pm

i dont think the authors trying to bring in a bias, maybe on his blog, a majority of his readers are pakistani's and maybe he's trying to motivate his readership to go out and do something.

the author did mention other conflicts and did not focus on a certain conflict for too long, but did not bring up the issues in Pakistan (than you can argue the subtleness)

but seeing how he has only a few articles on his blog shows he just started and has a bit of inexperience

but he did bring up good points

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Shujaat
05/04/2010 2:14am

well done Ammar very good article, keep the good work up

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Tiggy
05/06/2010 12:44pm

I totally agree with the author. Mind you, I am neither pakistani nor arabs. I am of indonesian born and I do feel sick and tired hearing the problems in Palestininans. I do not mean to say I am ignorant of their problems. Of course we support the palestinians, but the focus has been way to narrowed on the palestinians.

Many friends of mine share the same sentiments (with the exception being the arabs, of course). Arabs are known for their deep cultural root. They like to boast, thinking their culture is best. I do have a lot of problems with arabs mainly due to their arrogance. i am NOT saying all arabs are like that, but I find that most of them are. That is why I would like to see more exposure of other muslims in different countries, like Pakistan or Africa or even China.

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Rizwan
05/06/2010 6:17pm

what has Pan-Arabism achieved so far? nothing but overthrowing the Ottomans, from what i notice is the deep cultural roots arabs have is based on a more secular bases

but the ottomans were corrupt

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Rifa
05/07/2010 1:00am

great point of view Ammar, however, I do disagree with your approach. I don't think its a black/white situation... we dont have to neglect our brothers and sisters in Palestine to help those oppressed in other countries, nor vice versa. Justice should not be something we "pick and choose" to exercise upon, its something we should strive to uphold at all times, regardless of how old the issue is. I understand what you mean, sometimes Arab pride can be overwhelming... but the reality is that Palestinians are suffering, and those "annoying people" are just doing what they can to give them a voice. I think they're doing a great job of it, they're certainly catching the attention of us non-arabs lol.

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Fareedah
05/07/2010 12:30pm

This is a really good discussion so far. And I wanted to throw in some points of my own,

I) I think we're forgetting one important point: Palestine is not a Palestinian or Arab issue (no matter what either say or the Zionists say). It is a Muslim issue. That is why Muslims all around the world get worked up when somethign happens in Palestine especially. Al Quds (the third holiest place in Islam!) is being held prisoner by Zionists, and any Muslim, Arab or otherwise, cannot stand that fact.

Imagine if Makkah or Medina was in the same position? Well, the three can't be separated. That's why you'll find Muslims, even if they're suffering too, will feel a special hurt about the issue of Palestine.

II) We all know the rotting affect of nationalism on the Ummah, no matter who the Nationalist is. We cry about Muslims being so disunited and then throw around accusations based on nationality or race.

Remember the Prophet (SWS) said:

“The likeness of the believers in their mutual love, mercy and compassion is that of the body; if one part of it complains, the rest of the body joins it in staying awake and suffering fever.”

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Abdur Rafey
05/07/2010 8:16pm

quote Something Sure "... fighting injustice is not about fighting for your own race or your own religion, but rather fighting for the God given rights of all peoples."


ammar, I agree that "Our voices and our fists should not be raised into the air only for Palestine", but I don't like the way you've phrased this article. For someone that claims to stand up for all the silenced Muslim voices, "meh" is definitely not the kind of reaction I'd expect from you.

Go ahead and raise awareness of other conflict zones, but dont ignore the palestine issue.

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Mm hm
05/09/2010 2:01am

Perhaps you should consider writing an article to raise awareness about some other conflict, namely a non-Muslim one. It seems that you've gotten a lot of people's attention with this and I don't doubt that you can write; why not use that more productively and just do what should be done? It seems circular to me to complain that people are complaining about the wrong things.

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roysan
05/09/2010 11:25pm

a lot of non-muslim conflicts start out with fighting but end up in luxurious places singing documents,

it seems that only muslim conflicts seem to extend years and years

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Sarah
05/24/2010 11:38pm


I remeber this being brought up in one RIS conferences by Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick, An arab girl behind me got upset and starting going on about how he's saying "we are not important".

I'm all about Palestine, its an important issue, but we should all take it upon ourselves to educate ourselves about other issues affecting Muslims. What about the Muslims in China or in Ogaden? Maybe you can follow this article up with writings about less known Muslim area's undergoing oppression?



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