‘People Should Rise Up’: Scholar Urges Muslim Unity in Face of Genocide in Gaza
This is according to CEO of International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS), Dr. Syed Azman Syed Ahmad Nawawi, who made the remakes in an interview with IQNA.
Talking about the issue of Muslim unity, he acknowledged that imperial powers have been trying for “many years” to “put a discord among Muslims and disunite the Muslims.”
Stressing the role of unity, he referred to verse 103 of Surah Al-Imran: “Hold fast, all together, to Allah’s cord, and do not be divided.”
The scholar noted that those who cannot tolerate this unity will “find ways” to sow discord among Muslims by exploiting political and sectarian differences, adding that the main challenge ahead of Muslim unity is “basically political.”
Nawawi stressed the need for Muslim unity given the situation in Gaza and the “hypocrisy of the West.”
“Many Muslim countries and many Muslim leaders are subservient to most of the Western leaders. They cannot move, they cannot make decisions, they cannot help, they are just spectators to what is happening all over the Muslim world,” he said.
'Very sad'
“It is very sad looking at what is happening in Gaza. 1.6 billion Muslims all over the world are just spectators to the daily killings, the daily massacre, and the daily genocide that is happening in Gaza,” he lamented.
The Israeli brutal attacks on the besieged strip since October 7 have killed more than 21,000 people, most of them women and children, amid the inaction of the international organizations and mechanisms to stop the atrocities.
Nawawi said that the support for Palestine is also rooted in the religion. “Looking at what is happening in Gaza in Palestine is not about the Palestinians alone, is not about the people in Gaza alone. It's also about the faith that we have. It is about Masjid Al-Aqsa, the third most revered Masjid for Muslims … [that is] basically controlled by the Zionist Israel.”
Israeli ‘carpet bombing’ and ‘Western hypocrisy’
Slamming the deliberate targeting of Palestinian citizens in the ongoing war, Nawawi said the regime is conducting “basically carpet bombing … they bomb the hospital, they bomb the school, they bomb even the UN building.”
Despite all these atrocities, “the international organizations … are playing with words,” such as “restrain” and “limited ceasefire,” he said.
Explaining the “hypocrisy” of the West, the scholar said: “They talk about democracy, they talk about human rights, they talk about the rights of the minority, they talk about the rule of law, but they themselves have gone against democracy, they themselves have gone against rule of law, they themselves have gone against human rights.”
It is necessary for Muslims “from east to west and from all over the world to rise up,” he said, adding that although political leaders of Muslim countries are “not doing that much,” Muslim and non-Muslim people have risen up, even in the West.
He noted that the public demonstration in support of Palestine lays “great pressure” on politicians both in the Western countries and also in the Muslim states.
US support for Israeli crimes
According to Nawawi, the regime has been able to continue its crimes and atrocities in the occupied territories due to the support it receives from the West.
Numerous resolutions have been passed against the “brutality and atrocity being done by the Zionist Israel,” however, “they don't care they know that they are being well protected by the United States of America,” he said.
Normalization will not work
Asked about the future of the normalization of ties between some regional countries and the Israeli regime, the scholar said such deals “won’t work.”
He said the deals are doomed to fail, citing the regime’s daily killing of Palestinians, taking of Palestinian lands, and building illegal settlements in Palestinian territories that will occupied by “well-armed settlers” who kill Palestinians “at will.”
About IAIS
Elsewhere in the interview, Nawawi pointed to the activities of IAIS, saying that the “government think tank” is mainly “focused on contemporary Muslim Affairs.”
Noting that the center has been active since 15 years ago, he said, that experts at the institute “focus on events that happen in the Muslim world all over the world, and especially what is happening now in Gaza today in Palestine.”
The institute also looks into that unfold in other Muslim countries such as Sudan, Libya, and Tunisia, as well as Muslim communities in Southeast Asia, the CEO said.
