Do we support Palestinians just because they are Muslims?

I was offering Friday prayers in a mosque here in Houston. The Imam was talking about the situation in Gaza and how we need to show our support and solidarity with the people of Gaza. It sounded wonderful to hear that coming from someone publicly speaking because the American political and journalistic landscape are completely scared into submission to the dictates of the Israeli sadistic demands.

However, there was one problem with what the Imam was saying or at least that is how I see it. He insinuated that since we are Muslims and the people of Gaza are Muslims, we must stand in solidarity with them. The messaging was wrong. The wording was wrong. What if the Palestinians were Jews or Christians, should we then discard their suffering and decide that we shouldn’t care? Should we only be sad for their suffering because they are Muslims?

I don’t care what the faith of those dead children was. I don’t worry about the faith of their parents. To me, those are just very helpless and unfortunate victims of Israeli aggression. This is not about faith, this is rather about the strong and the weak. The strong state has snatched the land and the homes of the weak people and displaced them from their own land. What if some other people belonging to a faith other than Islam were persecuted in some other part of the world by another aggressor? Would we as Muslims not care? Should we as Muslims not stand in solidarity with them? And as strong as we stand with the Palestinians?

A Palestinian friend of mine that I do business with here in Houston told me how they marched in protest in Houston against the Israeli actions and in support of the Palestinians and how he was heartened by seeing so many White and Black Americans marching with them. I would like to ask a simple question: Why are those White and Black Americans doing it? What’s in it for them? Their faith most likely is Christianity. Should they also decide to support the cause of a free Palestine only if Palestinians were Christians? How would we Muslims feel about such a mindset? That exactly is the mindset of many Muslims: those worthy of our help and support are other Muslims.

We live in a world where, to some, how a human being prays is more important than the human being. To others, the kind of passport a human being holds is more important than the human being. The skin colour of some humans creates enough dehumanising effects to justify and rationalise their suffering versus a different skin colour, which is merely the result of the number of a pigment (melanin) in skin, scientifically speaking.

The Imam was making a case for caring for our Creator’s best creation but only a certain kind, which prays a certain way. I am just not convinced by that rationale. I am rather disgusted by it. If we as Muslims do not want to stand in solidarity when our fellow human beings who belong to a different faith and are victims of similar aggression, then we don’t have a leg to stand on when we expect non-Muslims to stand up for a struggle where Muslims are the victims.

Bertrand Russell once said, “Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.” If all the people in the world replaced the last word of that quote with Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus and so forth, imagine what kind of world we would live in. The care for humanity is what Islam teaches very clearly. Allah Almighty has placed more emphasis on the rights our fellow human beings have over us than our Creator has over us. But sadly, we have died and killed more in the name of our Creator than cared for His best creation.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 9^th, 2023.

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