Ramadaan must inspire solidarity in us
WITH the approach of Ramadaan, Muslims around the world are expected to engage in heightened consciousness to inculcate values of justice, empathy for the downtrodden masses and to embody Islam’s principles of solidarity with marginalised people.
As the annual journey of fasting from dawn to dusk is intended to instil a high degree of compassion and commitment to eradicate injustice as one of the root causes for poverty, inequality and oppression, many will question whether Muslims who possess the means to do so will rise to the occasion. Ramadaan provides an opportunity to introspect to overcome spiritual poverty and to devote resources to improve lives. A jihad indeed!
Yet the levels of repression experienced by humanity in many parts of the world have, tragically, worsened year on year. Casualties caused by Syria’s bloody civil war, unending drone attacks in Afghanistan, refugees fleeing ghoulish nightmares, death and destruction in Yemen, Kashmir, Somalia, Libya, Myanmar... all point to an unending list of horrors recurring, Ramadaan after Ramadaan.
Most Muslims are familiar with Palestine. A century of massacres and dispossession and daily atrocities seem not to have woken the Muslim soul. Yet successive Ramadaans have witnessed some of the worst brutalities visited upon Palestinians. Strange indeed that in spite of longer hours of worship during Ramadaan, souls seem to be insulated, and tragically immunised from shocking reports of “normalisation” with Israel by the “custodian of Mecca and Medina”.
The re-election of Benjamin Netanyahu to lead the world’s most notorious colonial settler regime, Israel, confirmed his status as leader of an extremist white supremacist state openly applying racist apartheid policies.
Netanyahu’s victory in an election which has correctly been dubbed as “right-wing versus right-wing”, has yet again perched him at the helm of racist bigots who, like him, have thrived in ascending fascist political power. Whether it’s Brazil or parts of Europe, white supremacism is on the rise and their guru is Netanyahu. Some may disagree with this claim by insisting that the chief of right-wing politics is US President Donald Trump.
However, the reality is that while Trump may be holding what many understand to be the single most powerful position in the world, he is putty in the hands of Netanyahu. That he is manipulated to adopt policies that are not in America’s interests is an indication of the power he has to yield to.
Though this debate about who in fact is the puppet master may drag on, an additional factor to consider about Netanyahu’s ability to act with impunity is the enabling environment which allows him to play roughshod with the lives of millions of Palestinians.
Just as he has bagged Trump, Netanyahu has connived with unelected Arab despots via various secret deals to capture their fiefdoms. In turn, we see how these oligarchs, from Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman to the UAE’s Mohammed bin Zayed, have shamelessly adopted a pro-Israeli stance. That they do so publicly and in league with the dictators of Oman, Bahrain and Egypt gives a clue of the enabling environment I’ve referred to.
Whether this Ramadaan will truly awaken Muslim consciousness and inspire them to not only intensify their efforts in the service of humanity, but also to fearlessly oppose the “enablers of oppression” is left to be seen.