Dear Editor,
FIVE months into a vicious war on the people of Gaza, Muslims have now entered the holy month of Ramadan with a heart burdened by the pain of insurmountable suffering. Ramadan is a time for Muslims to seek out God’s mercy, his forgiveness and respite from the torment in store for the wicked on Judgement Day. It is a month during which Muslims celebrate the Quran that was revealed to Prophet Muhammad in Arabia over 1,400 years ago.

But as Muslims in Guyana observe the fast of Ramadan from dawn to sunset, abstaining from water and food, many will assuredly weep much for the children, women and men of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, who continue to be resolute in their devotion to God while surrounded by death, destruction and misery.

On Sunday March 10, I attended a rally in Georgetown organised by a team of inspired youth – “Guyana for Palestine.” Like protests in major cities around the world, the organisers called for a permanent ceasefire and the Government of Guyana to examine its diplomatic and economic ties with the State of Israel.

The vast majority of those who participated in the rally were Muslims, but shockingly, only a very small sliver of the community turned out. Glaringly absent, were key members of the so-called Muslim leadership. It appears that our moral compass is in tatters and our priorities are skewed.

Our religion insists that we be witnesses to the truth. That is not a slogan, it is an imperative that goes to the core of our identity as people of faith.

What example are we showing our children and grandchildren when we refuse to demonstrate our solidarity with millions of Palestinians who have suffered 76 years of occupation, colonisation and imperialism and who are now facing annihilation?

Have we become like the person from Iraq who dared to ask the learned companion of Prophet Muhammad, Abdullah ibn Umar, about the legal ruling of mosquitoes’ blood getting on one’s garment? And although the question was valid and Ibn Umar was qualified to answer it, his response elevated the spilling of Muslim blood at Karbala in what is today’s Iraq over the blood of a mosquito.

If Muslim leaders refuse to unite around what is so evidently a catastrophic genocide that is unfolding before the eyes of the international community, how can we expect our Christian, Hindu and Rastafarian brothers and sisters to stand shoulder to shoulder with us?

The reality of this genocide is glaringly manifest. No amount of ‘barefaced’ lies can hide what people are facing at the hands of the Israeli Occupation Force (IDF). Israeli officials go on CNN and the BBC to say that their war in Gaza is aimed at freeing hostages and destroying Hamas. It is an audacious lie repeated to pacify the ill-informed. There is a deep inclination to believe there are untruths in statements made by Benjamin Netanyahu, especially when he repeatedly spoke about Hamas’ sexual assault of women, the mass killing of babies, killing a holocaust survivor and other horrendous atrocities his government claims to have taken place on October 7 in order to ‘sell their war’ on Gaza, a Gaza (and West Bank) that did not appear on a map showing Netanyahu’s “new Israel” which he proudly displayed at the United Nations two weeks before October 7.

But Netanyahu knows there are loads of eager buyers and sellers of his war in the American political and entertainment industry.

Gal Gadot, star of the Wonder Woman superhero movies, organised a screening of “Bearing Witness to October 7 Massacre,” a 47-minute propaganda film produced by the IDF. In the old days as it is today, propaganda was a tool to weaponise genocide. Those who attended Gadot’s screening and others like it, were required to sign ‘non-disclosure’ documents. What is even more shocking and utterly disgusting is that the screening of the IDF film was held at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

Reputable media outlets that had once reported Israel’s falsehoods as truths are only now beginning to fact-check the IDF and Israeli officials. But ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu is banking on how much tolerance many Americans have for liars.

According to the Washington Post, former President Donald Trump told 30,573 lies during his four years in office and yet he stands a good chance of being re-elected to the Oval Office. Netanyahu, the leader of Israel amidst this evil genocide, is fond of often repeating his favourite mantra that “our war is your war.”

Those who showed up on Sunday’s March are sending him and his war machine a clear message – THIS IS NOT OUR WAR!

Israel continues to imprison 7,000 Palestinian men, women and children in contravention of all international norms and standards. While the international media gazes in stupendous awe at the destruction in Gaza, armed Jewish settlers have staged 600 vicious attacks against Palestinian villages in the West Bank since October 7, while the IDF stood by and did nothing. According to the United Nations, these attacks have resulted in the death of over 400 Palestinians, mostly poor farmers and members of their families.

Netanyahu’s IDF has also been busy supervising the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank. According to the United Nations, Israel has permitted the construction of 500 new illegal residential units for approximately 25,000 Jewish settlers on stolen Palestinian land in the West Bank since October 7. Promises of a two-state solution is a cruel joke when no land will remain for the people of Palestine to call home.

To the far too few who marched with “Guyana for Palestine,” I say ‘don’t despair,’ history has recorded your voices and will amplify it.

To you I also say, may all your prayers this Ramadan be answered and that a permanent peace in the occupied territories of Palestine will soon be a reality.

Yours respectfully,
Nazim Baksh