So Much Hue and Cry Was Not Made Over ISIS Because Israel Was Not Involved
By
New Age Islam Staff Writer
31 October
2023
Why Don't
Muslims Learn from Their Past Mistakes?
Main
Points:
1. Rallies in support of Palestine are
being held all over the world.
2. Rallies in support of Palestine were
held in the state of Kerala in India.
3. Jamaat-e-Islami affiliate SYMO
played a pre-recorded address by Khalid Meshal in rally in Malappuram.
4. Indian Union Muslim League held a
pro-Palestine rally in Kozicode.
5. Hindutva organisations protest
Khaled Meshal's participation in the Malappuram rally.
6. Hindutva groups agitated over the
tagline 'Bulldozer Justice" in the rally in support of Palestine.
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Damage
in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war. Photo: Palestinian News &
Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APA images/Wikimedia Commons. CC
BY-SA 3.0.
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The war
between Israel and Hamas has been raging since 7 October in which more than
9000 people including children and women have died on both sides. Though this
series of hostility was initiated by Hamas on 7 October 2023, the UN Secretary
General said that the 7 October attacks did not happen in a vacuum and that 56
years of suffocating occupation was behind it. Though Hamas also killed
hundreds of innocent civilians on the other side of Gaza, the retaliation by
Israel was more savage. It has been bombing civilians mindlessly and has been
attacking hospitals by giving advance notice. It bombed the Baptist Hospital
run by the Baptist Church. Its authorities said they had no links with Hamas.
Israel has attacked other hospitals apart from schools and UN shelters and
giving collective punishments to the innocent civilians which is a violation of
international law. It also committed war crimes by cutting off electricity,
water, food supply and internet to the people of Gaza. Therefore, condemnations
of Israel's war crimes have poured in not only from the outside world but also
from inside Israel.
There have
been protests against Israel's barbarity on Palestinians and meetings
expressing solidarity with them in Europe, America and South Asia were held. In
India too, rallies in support of ceasefire and Palestinians have also been held
in different cities and towns.
The world
is demanding a ceasefire in Israel and Palestine and people of the world are
denouncing genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Hamas fighters
are also being killed or abducted by Israeli forces which is a part of any war.
No one is criticising Israel for killing Hamas militants. The world only
demands that innocent civilians should not be deliberately attacked.
However, in
India where there is a tradition of supporting extremist or militant Islamic
organisations, a pro-Palestine rally in Malappuram in Kerala state which was
organised by an affiliate of Jamat-e-Islami, an Islamic organisation of the
sub-continent, turned into a pro-Hamas rally in practice. According to media
reports, a pre-recorded speech of Hamas founder Khalid Meshal was played to the
audience. According to some other reports, Khalid Meshal virtually addressed
the audience narrating Israel's occupation of Palestine and recounting its oppression
of Palestinians. The speech reportedly did not contain any anti-Hindu and
anti-India statements.
A similar
pro-Palestine rally was organised by Indian Union Muslim League in Kozicode on
the same day, Friday. The rally was addressed by Congress leader and former
Union Minister Shashi Tharoor who called Hamas a terrorist organisation. IUML
leaders criticised Tharoor for calling Hamas attacks on Israel a terrorist act.
Tharoor had actually called Israel's mindless attacks on civilians also
terrorism and denounced it.
The
Hindutva organisations have protested against the participation of Khalid
Meshal in a pro-Palestine rally saying that the Jamat-e-Islami has tried to
glorify a terrorist organisation in India. The organisers argue that the Indian
government has not designated it a terrorist organisation as of now.
The point
is that Hamas is a militant organisation at loggerheads with Israel but one
cannot say what policy it will adopt in future. Political situations keep
changing and take unprecedented turns. When in 2014, the ISIS had captured
power in Mosul, many Islamic scholars, intellectuals and journalists and
Islamic organisations of India had supported it because they considered it an
extension of the Islami caliphate. Many youths were misled and some even went
to Iraq to fight with ISIS. Many girls from European countries had joined them
only to realise later that the ISIS were actually terrorists. But after a
couple of years, when it was uprooted from Iraq and Syria, it started terrorist
strikes in Sri Lanka, France, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Philippines etc.
When the
Muslim intelligentsia was glorifying the ISIS, it was New Age Islam that had
demanded on September 15, 2014, that Indian government should ban it as its
activities were against the principles of Islam. The government of India had
banned it belatedly in February 2015 after much damage was done.
Since the
ISIS was designated as a terrorist organisation, many youths were arrested for
having linked with the ISIS. Muslim youth are still arrested for having links
with it. The Muslim scholars, journalists and intellectuals have realised now
that they are responsible for misleading the Muslim youth and ruining their
lives and career.
Earlier it
was SIMI, the student wing of Jamat-e-Islami. The Jamat disowned it after it
was reportedly found involved in subversive activities. The Muslims carried the
stigma of SIMI for about two decades. Recently, People's Front of India was
designated a terrorist organisation and many youths were arrested for having
links with PFI.
Therefore,
from time-to-time religious organisations promising moon to the Muslims come
into existence and after a few years they are banned for having extremist views
and for being involved in militant activities. Instead of contributing to the
welfare and progress of the Muslims of India, these religious organisations
become a curse for the community. Muslims do not have much interest in
establishing schools, colleges and hospitals but in establishing religious
organisations spreading extremist and sectarian views among the Muslims. SIMI,
ISIS and PFI have caused a lot of damage to the Indian Muslims.
In spite of
all this, the Muslims of India have not learnt from their past mistakes. They
have started showing their love for Hamas unaware of the fact that Israel
created Hamas to counter Yasser Arafat's group Fateh. Fateh is still popular in
West Bank. Hamas may not be a terrorist group by the book but the Israeli
government has put pressure on India to designate Hamas a terrorist group. An
IAS trainer Ankit Awasthi said that for a group to be designated as a terrorist
group, it should have conducted terrorist acts in other countries. Since Hamas
has not conducted any subversive activities at least against India, India has
not banned it.
But as
bizarre incidents like the IED blasts in Kerala are unfolding, the Muslims
should have a cautious approach. In the Kerala blast, the perpetrator has
surrendered to the police and confessed to his crime but the TV channels are
still trying to link the blast to Hamas. They might wish the name of the
perpetrator had been Mateen not Martin. Dominic Martin is a member of a 19th
century Christian religious organisation Jehovah's Witnesses which does not
believe in Trinity. That is, it is a puritanical sect in Christianity and has
some intolerant views and practices. Martin most probably conducted the blasts
due to intolerant beliefs as the extremist sects in Muslims do. If the name of
the perpetrator had turned out to be Mateen, the Hindutva organisations,
particularly the media would have by now started 24-hour campaign to ban Hamas
in India.
Interestingly,
in 2014, such an intense media campaign against ISIS was not run though it was
practically a terrorist organisation perhaps because Israel was not involved.
Only some Muslim platforms like New Age Islam ran a campaign against it and a
couple of sensible journalists wrote against it inviting criticism by majority
of so-called Islamic scholars and journalists. Since, the ISIS killed or it
only Muslims, the Indian TVs or Hindutva groups did not care. Therefore, the
love of Israel and not the hatred of Hamas is at the root of this campaign
during the Israel-Hamas hostility. It is also a fact that Many Hindi YouTube
channels are giving a regular account of the Hamas-Israel war with special
emphasis on Hamas.
If the war
escalates and Iran and other countries get involved, tensions between Iran and
India may rise. Since Hamas is an ally of Iran and Hezbollah, any hostility
between Iran and India will affect Hamas' attitude towards India and vice
versa. In that case, India may designate Hamas a terrorist organisation putting
Indian Muslims who are showing solidarity with Hamas now in trouble.
Therefore,
Muslims of India should learn from their past mistakes and adopt a cautious
approach vis a vis Hamas.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/isis-israel-palestine-hamas-genocide/d/131014
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