How many more must die?

"...you will find the faithful like a body, if one of its parts feels pain, the whole body responds with wakefulness and fever" (Narrated by Muslim and Bukhari)

As I write this entry, it's been 19days since Israel started it's barbaric assault onto Gaza and the death toll is nearly 1000. Sometimes you just don't want to watch the news anymore. Too many deaths, destruction, tears, screams, blood...all you want to do is just to flick the channel or turn off the TV and make it all go away. We're fortunate enough to just turn it off, but what about those in Gaza, subjected to sounds of bombs, sounds of jetplanes constantly circling above their homes every hour of the day? What about them?

I've never felt more useless in my life as I feel now. I've always thought that with a proper education I would be able to help rise the ummah, I would be a part of the generation that will create change. Yet, I spend my days in comforts that my brothers and sisters in Gaza can only dream of. The worst feeling ever for one to have is that of helplessness.

I was reading in Al Jazeera how Egypt and Saudi Arabia rejected an Arab summit call to discuss the situation in Gaza. Instead they find the 18th January economic summit would be an appropriate place to discuss the issue. What I find interesting is how diplomats have said that the Egyptians and Saudis fear that the summit wont have any results and would make Arab leaders appear ineffective. Oh trust me, Arab leaders have appeared ineffective a looooooong time ago! Actually not just Arab leaders, most Muslim leaders are pretty much useless at the moment, OIC I believe stands for organization of IMMOBILE countries. For the most part, they don't move anywhere, they don't progress, they're just stay stunted and useless.

For example, just a few steps from Masjidil Haram lies a Starbucks Coffeeshop. Now Saudi Arabia, a state that won't allow women to drive (!!!) has made Makkah, the holiest of lands for all Muslims a place where multi-national corporations to stamp their brands on. And need I add Howard Schultz the chairman of Starbucks is an active Zionist too. When I see on the news how the Muslims in Gaza are saying Arab leaders have sold them out, I echo their sentiment.

Everyone seems to think that the most powerful nation in the world is the USA. Ironically enough most of the oil (where the money is really at), is concentrated mostly in the Middle East. So shouldn't the Muslim countries be the ones most powerful and feared right now? Look at what the furore Russia caused with stopping gas to Ukraine, what would happen if a similar incident occured but with regards to oil? Isn't that a frightening situation?

Yet, it seems like those in "control" of these riches are just mere puppets on a puppet show. Other people are pulling the strings, other people are ochestrating the show.

Again, I repeat, I've never felt more useless in my life as I feel now. What use is that piece of paper stating my accomplishment when my brothers and sisters, no, a part of me is bleeding; hurting; dying!

Israel continue to claim that they are attacking only Hamas and not civilians. Yet the accusations of them using white phosphorus really does go against their "we're not attacking civillians" claim. It's a smoke that encompasses a wide area, it will eventually harm everyone within the vicinity. And we continuously hear on the news how densely populated Gaza city is. Oh yes, not harming the civillians indeed. I didn't know that children were military targets either.

My voice may not be heard, but the cries and screams of the 4000+ injured and families of the nearly 1000 killed is hard to drown out. If you can't hear that, then you truly are deaf. You're not human.

How many more must die for the world to open their eyes, their ears, to hear the pleas of those who are unjustly murdered? How many more must die for diplomacy to come to play? How many more must die for the Muslim ummah to rise and help one another? Uniting to fight against an evil may not be the best foundation to begin unity, but it is a platform for unity. So why then can't we forget our differences, leave the accusations behind and just stand together?

"The Believers are but a single Brotherhood: so make peace and reconciliation between your two (contending) brothers; and fear God, that you may receive Mercy" (Holy Qur'an 49:10)