“Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ But conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right.”
— Martin Luther King“Nationalism is to aid one’s people in an unjust cause” – Prophet Muhammad (Saw)
“The silence of the British government, and most Western governments, is obscene.”
– former London mayor Ken Livingstone“Israel is committing a shocking series of atrocities by using modern weaponry against a defenceless population.” – The UN Human Rights Council
Death toll in this latest hostility:
Palestinian :: 383
Palestinian Children :: over 30
Palestinian injured :: over 1000
Israelis :: 4
This just isn’t right. Legally or morally.
No child in this universe should be made to feel hungry, tired, scared and cold. No child should feel terror and fear.
I’m sorry. I know many of you come here for a bit of light relief from life’s realities – a place where we can find joy and inspire each other to beautiful living. Light banter and polite conversation.
But today I can’t pretend to be thinking about anything else but this slaughter, this Gazan Holocaust. I look and I see my children’s faces in each of these pictures…
Many of you, I know, are mothers. And we are lucky in that we have security and guaranteed rights to life. As a mother I am compelled to reach out any way I can to children who have had the misfortune to have been born in the wrong place – a place of war, insecurity, pain, loss, hunger, ill-health – a place that warps them into people who hate.
So I am asking each of you, as a mother yourself, to do what you can to help these children as you would hope others would help yours. Help as though your own children’s lives depended on it. This isn’t about politics or faith or opinion, it is a simple request to do what little you can – however insignificant you think it is. Together we can all make a difference.
Small change, but huge affects, can be donated here:
And if you are Muslim, then Muslims fighting for Palestine have asked all Muslims to please read Surah Al-Fath (Chapter 48) of the Noble Quran and to ask Allah for His help.
Thankyou.
EDIT
Since writing this post the situation in Gaza has gotten a lot worse. Deaths and injuries are now escalating by the minute. I would like to add some websites here for further information:
B’Tselem – an Israeli Human Rights Organisation monitoring the situation as it unfolds
Harm to Civilians – an offshoot of B’Tselem which aims at getting accurate information about civilian deaths, abuses and injuries to the outside world in the face of the MEDIA BLOCKADE set up by the Israeli Defense Forces.
Children in the Crosshairs – an article detailing the evidence of Israeli troops specifically targeting children.
Please disseminate this information. Spread it. The media machine cannot silence bloggers.
xx
It’s seriously disgusting. What’s even more disturbing is the lack of help from anyone, especially muslim countries.
insha’Allah they will pull through one day wayfarer. we can pray it’s this day.
xx
I’m in absolute tears. In another circumstance this could be our own children, but it should not be ANY children.
I will not ever understand why such death might ever be considered ‘acceptable collateral damage’ or whatever cold and heartless term is used for such slaughter.
It is horrific. It is unforgiveable.
No. It should not be any children. This is breaking every convention that exists and any moral code that even an animal might hold. It is horrific, unforgivable, and moreover it is evil to its core. It is a sign of collective madness. The hardest thing to do is to not give in to hatred. Ultimately truth and justice wins over falsehood and oppression.
We are worse than animals.
It takes a lot of work to be human, and I guess the Israeli power have just given up on that greater fight.
I am seriously white hot still and calm disgusted by the merciless actions of the Israeli power.
No I do not want light relief.
To attempt light relief from the happenings as we speak in Gaza is to not bear witness to our sisters and brothers who suffer.
I do not want to ignore what happens there.
We may not be able to ‘do’ anything except pray and hope and send our love and pennies, and to weep with the mothers, but we can bear witness, we can talk about it, we can choose not to make life light in an effort to ignore what is happening, so our own lives are easier to bear.
None of us are free while our sisters and brothers are imprisoned, geography and miles may seperate us, but who among us can sleep without a sorrowful sigh until the siege is ended?
I for one light a candle for the murdered children, the Jews I know do not support Israeli murderers. It is important for us to speak to Jews and discover that this is not Jewish action, but Israeli action.
Who funds Israeli? They are also to be held accountable no?
Peace is the answer, violence is never the answer.
Violence is never the answer, and I really am past listening to anyone who attempts to convince me otherwise.
The violence is wrong, and Israel is doing it because they can get away with it. Because they feel justified.
*sigh* and they will get away with it won’t they?
It is an utter joke that they say this is all about the war on ‘terror’, they are hiding behind that smokescreen and they have another motivation. They want the land.
They want the land.
They are disposing of the people.
I call for an end to lightheartedness, it’s time to get serious. Surely.
Although, having said that, I have a chronic headache now and have to go lie in a darkened room and find a happy place.
The happy place I find is a place where the Israel powers are humbled and sorry and vow to behave themselves. But yeah, lighthearted is often just pure fantasy to help keep us from the abrasive quality of actuality here on earth.
There is only one true reality, and we are seriously missing out on that bliss by killing eachother for territorial and jealous competitive reasons.
Right, darkened room beckons.
Love to you dear sister, I haven’t forgotten you at all xxxxx
It *is* about land. They *WILL* get away with it. But not forever. The pendulum will always return; every action has a re-action. The Scales will always return to balance. The real work is the work on the Self; to be ‘human’ is a challenge, not a justification.
I can’t help but get this ayat from the Qur’an out of my head:
“We offered the trust (vicegerency of Allah) to the heavens and the earth and the hills, but they shrank from bearing it and were afraid of it. But Man assumed it. Surely he has proved a tyrant and a fool. (Surah al-Ahzab, 33:72)”
Tyrants and fools and who have the chance to by higher in status with Allah than angels, yet choose to fall below the animals in their depravity.
as salamu alaykum
The situation is heart breaking… and the images only show us a part of the chaos and sadness.. subhana’allah.
I also feel like I can’t blog much these days because of what is going on…
My father in law’s wife lost a brother, age 25, end of December in Ghazza. May Allah accept the dead from amongst the shuhadaa’ aameen