Misleading Attempts To Liken The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict To The Kashmir Issue On Quds Day (Yaum ul Quds)
New
Age Islam Correspondent
10 May 2021
Fresh
Attempts To Liken The Kashmir Issue With That Of Palestine Have Been Made In Pakistan
Both By The Establishment And The Radical Islamic Organisations
Main
Points:
1. This year,
Yaum ul Quds (Quds Day) was held on Twitter, Facebook and other social media
networks due to the ravaging pandemic of the Covid-19.
2. Big rallies,
protests and processions are held on the Quds Day particularly in the Arab and
Islamic countries with an aim to oppose Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem.
3. Pakistan’s
former Senator Farhatullah Babar has called for renaming the Kashmir Committee
of Parliament as the “Kashmir and Palestine Committee”.
4. Chairman of
Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, urged the Muslim states to ‘step up to their
responsibilities and liberate Palestine and Kashmir’.
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This year,
Yaum ul Quds (Quds Day) was held on Twitter, Facebook and other social media
networks due to the ravaging pandemic of the Covid-19. Yaum ul Quds is an
annual international Islamic event observed on the last Friday of the holy
month of Ramazan to express solidarity with Palestinians. Normally, big
rallies, protests and processions are held on the Quds Day particularly in the
Arab and Islamic countries with an aim to oppose Israel's occupation of East
Jerusalem which is also meant to clash with the Jerusalem Day celebration
instituted by Israel in May 1968.
The event
was first marked by Imam Khomeini following the Islamic Revolution in Iran as
"an annual affirmation of the Ummah's solidarity with the Muslims of
Palestine in their struggle for the liberation of Al-Quds. It was basically
aimed to achieve these three major objectives: (1) Reminder for the global
Muslims to renew their attachment to the third holiest Islamic mosque (Masjid
Al-Aqsa), (2) Expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people, and (3)
Denouncement of the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem and Masjid Al-Aqsa.
Since the
inception of the Quds Day, Muslims the world over have observed the occasion to
mark the desecration of the third most sacred Islamic site, as well as to
protest against the illegal Israeli occupation of Jerusalem and persecution of
the Palestinian people. But in Pakistan, the Quds Day has been traditionally
manipulated to serve and further the political ends of the establishment rather
than achieve the above-mentioned objectives. Every year, the Quds Day is
misused to liken the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the Kashmir issue—which is
an Indo-Pak dispute rather than an issue of the ‘Islamic Ummah’ —in an effort
to ‘Islamise’ the Kashmir issue and thus attract sympathies from neutral and
otherwise uninterested parties. It is with this ulterior motive that fresh
attempts to liken the Kashmir issue with that of Palestine have been made in
Pakistan both by the establishment and the radical Islamic organisations. A few
incidents are as follows:
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Pakistan’s
former Senator Farhatullah Babar has called for renaming the Kashmir Committee
of Parliament as the “Kashmir and Palestine Committee”. Addressing a seminar in
the National Press Club Islamabad organised by Majlis Wahdat ul Muslimeen (MWM)
on May 5, Babar said: “Both Kashmir and Palestinian issues are basically human
rights issues and should be treated as such. The non-state actors infiltrating
from Pakistan into Kashmir did not help the Kashmir cause. Instead it enabled India
to question the genuine freedom struggle and label it as cross border
terrorism. Unfortunately, the world also accepted Modi’s interpretation and
that is why no world leader except Pakistan mentioned Kashmir in their
addresses to the UN General Assembly”.
Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen
(MWM) of Sindh, Pakistan brought out rallies in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur,
Nawabshah and other major cities and towns of Sindh to offer prayers after
Jumatul Wida (the last Friday) for the liberation of Palestine and Kashmir. The
MWM leader said: “Kashmir is the jugular vein of Pakistan while Palestine is
the jugular vein of entire Muslim Ummah”.
Dr Abdul
Wahid, chairman of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, on this occasion of the
International Quds Day urged the Muslim states to ‘step up to their
responsibilities and liberate Palestine and Kashmir’. He wrote an article
titled, “Only a united Ummah can liberate Palestine and Kashmir” in which he
argues why it is important to link the Kashmir issue with the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and then he incites for violence and war using
this verse from the Qur’an:
“And what is [the matter] with you that you
fight not in the cause of Allah and [for] the oppressed among men, women, and
children who say, “Our Lord, take us out of this city of oppressive people and
appoint for us from Yourself a protector and appoint for us from Yourself a
helper” (Surah An-Nisā, Verse: 75).
Even in the
valley of Kashmir, some radical Islamic clerics and organisations like the
Majlis Ulema Imamia JK asked Kashmiri Muslims to commemorate the Quds Day on
social media using the hashtag #FromKashmirToPalestine. Maulana Masroor Abbas
Ansari, son of renowned Hurriyat leader, Abbas Ansari and currently the
chairman of Ittehad ul Muslimeen tweeted, “TWITTER STORM ON 7 TH MAY 10am to
5pm On the last Friday of Ramadan, let’s respond to the voice of Late Imam and
create a storm on Social media in support of the oppressed Palestinians on
social media. Use Hashtag: #FromKashmirToPalestine.”
It is no
big surprise that due to the sustain attempts by Pakistani propagandists,
fuelled by the global jihadist organisations like Hizbut Tahrir and the Muslim
Brotherhood, the International Quds Day has been turned into an integral part
of campaigns associated with advancing Kashmiri separatism and the rhetoric
associated with it. Of course, this trend has gained a palpable traction
because some stark historical similarities underlie both conflicts. After all,
both conflicts entail post-World War II partitions, ensuing ethnic-religious
conflict, competing claims of self-determination, and the debate concerning to
what extent can State security be used to suppress terrorism. But what is
staggering to note is on such occasions like the Quds Day, the Kashmiri Muslims
are portrayed as a monolith community through a systematic propaganda which is
far from the truth. Every time there is an International Quds Day or Kashmir
Day, there are countless and coordinated mass campaigns through dubious social
media accounts, originating from across the border, to show that all Kashmiris
are ‘separatist’ and want a merger with Pakistan. Such misguiding campaigns on
Kashmir which project Kashmiri Muslims as a monolith have been deviously
disregarding the internal dissent and resistance to the regressive aspiration
of “Azaadi” by a few secessionists.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-politics/quds-day-palestine-kashmir-radical-islamic/d/124811
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