ATOMIC LIES
If we do not name the root causes and fail to call things what they are, we will continue to occupy a false or imaginary story. Living in the land of Oz has many pathological implications, including rendering you a pumpkinhead.
Lies, whether through omission or commission, distort and leave tremendous harm in its wake.
To illustrate the atomic power of a lie, let us read the words of the Palestinian Christian theologian Dr Yousef Kamal Alkhouri: ‘The Palestinian genocide began with the phrase A Land Without A People.’
Though Dr Yousef’s statement is true, I feel he is too charitable and diplomatic with his language. A Land Without A People, referring to Palestine, is not a phrase but a lie.
The Zionist founding fathers’ lie dehumanised a people they chose not to see and laid the foundation for ethnic cleansing and genocide.
So, ‘Do not give the lie to truth’ [92:16]. God commands it.
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
All human life is sacrosanct. But history does not paint such a portrait. Instead, we see a clear hierarchy that values the lives of some over others.
Between the 15th century and the mid-20th century, Western imperialism and colonialism sculpted a world in which Westerners (whites) were more equal than others, and its later cousin, Zionism, imposed the same devilish social construct on the indigenous people of Palestine. Both groups practised racial and religious supremacy in the regions they raped, pillaged, and plundered, and presently, Zionism violently still does.
Racial or ethnic supremacy is not nature but posture. Humans enter the world, inclining to the Divine beauty of all things: nature, kinship, and the dignity of each human face, but through parental and societal guidance, or more accurately, misguidance, they morph into something else: ‘O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may (get to) know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous among you. Allah is truly All-Knowing, All-Aware’ [49:13].
Long before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was enacted in 1948 by the United Nations, expressly to combat the crimes born of racial supremacy, Allah had revealed the above verse to the Prophet (s), guiding humanity to the inherent dignity and fraternity of all and placing righteousness, not race, class, sex, or creed, as the standard.
On Youm al Arafat, the holiest day in Islam, the day of atonement, the Prophet (s) impressed the spirit of the “nations and tribes” verse and Islam’s universal position on social justice during his farewell sermon when he said: ‘All mankind is from Adam and Eve (illustrating that everyone is a sibling, several times removed), an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor does a black have any superiority over a white except by piety and good action.’
Now contrast the Prophet’s speech to Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch’s Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement and the holiest day in Judaism) 2024 sermon when he said: “We did not intend for some in your generation to turn their back on our people. We wanted you to be Zionists. We did not intend that our emphasis on tikkun olam, social repair, would lead some Jews to join anti-Israeli demonstrations.”1
While the Prophet’s message of justice is all-encompassing, the American Reform Rabbi of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue calls for social justice only if it does not interfere with Jews, Zionists or Israel and condemns Jews who stand in opposition to the atrocities committed by Israel and Zionists as traitors.
Such tribalism is contrary to those courageous Jews who say to the Zionist Jews: ‘You are not from among us and not in our name. We stand for justice, even against our own.’
These Jews follow the best of all Prophetic traditions. And just as the Prophet (s) cemented his impartiality and commitment to justice when he said: ‘By God, if Fatima, daughter of Muhammad, were to steal, I would have her hand cut off’ [Muslim 1688], their unpopular stance in the face of empire cemented theirs, too.
The second, subtle and seductive, may seem harmless, but its cumulative power deposes all. Thus, be mindful of the things of no or little value that monopolise your attention, for it will dispossess you of your dreams and life.
Until next week, InshaAllah
Zaahied Sallie
Author of The Beloved Prophet – An Illustrated Biography in Rhyme
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