Pervez AkhtarAdvances in the age of social media and the free and easy sharing of information on the worldwide net has matured the electorate, enabled and emboldened its ability to impact the decision making process like never before.
The hot topic, and one that must always be kept alive is the continuing genocide in Gaza, and the West’s collective complicity in the aiding and abetting of the murder of innocents. The sadistic slaughter of thousands, and the sinister starvation of 2.3 million Palestinian men, and mostly women and children weighs heavy on the scale as the UK goes to the polls to decide which party is going to lead the next Government.
The voters and the world have witnessed and judged how Western powers have green lighted this perverse massacre, all the while profiteering from the death and destruction, and gleefully looking forward to lucrative contracts in the “rebuild Gaza” windfall. In the most obscene form of genocidal gentrification, ghoulish real estate speculators are taking bids for plots to build condominiums over the skulls of dead children still buried under the rubble and still unaccounted for in the ruins of Gaza.
Regardless of who gets to run the country in the UK elections, the minorities affectionately known as the BAME (Black And Minority Ethnic) community collectively, are going to have to shape up and organise themselves to counter the inevitable swathe of punitive legislation that’s coming their way.
In their gallant attempts to stop Starmergeddon, these communities have been uniquely catapulted into a heightened and enlightened state of activism. Capacity building has peaked exponentially, spurred on by the sheer outrage at the impunity with which Israel brazenly commits genocide with the UK, United States and the European Union happily cheerleading it on, complete with pom-poms and bombs.
The Not-So Labour party, having deviated from its core values of social justice for the masses, expects to be the next Government, a done deal as it were. It’s leadership is so confident of being gifted a supermajority that it can casually insult the BAME community without fear of consequence. All this in spite of the evidential loyalty shown by the BAME community for years on account of their working class heritage. Pandering to the racists and Islamophobes, Starmer breaks bread with the fascists, telling the minorities to not let the door hit them on their way out if they don’t like it. Well in that case, see you later and bye-bye!
Kid Starver doesn’t realise that communities that traditionally face hardship in resources, become resourceful. This is vested in all minority communities anywhere in the world, and inherent in their instincts to survive and thrive against what seems unsurmountable odds. There will be payback!
The Body of the Ummah
Whole families are divided on which way to vote and what’s best for the community at large. In the past, it was a no-brainer that the majority of the working class population would vote labour. Out of respect for elders, third or even people of the fourth generation of South Asian heritage would still be inclined to put the X next to the red box with the rose. However, the Labour fix, peddled by the community leaders for years and years has well and truly worn off. The anaesthetised patient has woke up to find his limbs missing and his organs sold. Can there be any doubt that the ummah is one body? That when a part of it is hurting thousands of miles away, we all feel it in some shape or form. Emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually, the Ummah is sick.
It’s hard to numb the pain, no matter how many pills you swallow. Images of the bodies of children torn apart, their ripped and shredded bits being scooped into carrier bags by strangely calm parents cannot be unseen. The haunting sounds of emaciated infants whose life saving vital supplies have been blocked and cruelly spilled from aid trucks, by rogue settler colonialists, agonisingly only meters away cannot be unheard. It is not just the collective Muslim psyche that has been scarred by such exposure, the whole of humanity is witnessing how inhumane the Zionist State of Israel and its allies are. Obnoxious as this is, Kier Starmer would have more of it.
When will judgement and vengeance come, cry the martyrs in Revelation (6:10)?
Shrouded in white, they’re told to rest until their brethren too are killed and the number is complete. Revelation (6:11).
When will the tipping point come and judgement? With the hawks spoiling for war, are we not already on the brink?
The Quran explains to the Children of Israel that whoever takes an innocent life it is as if they killed the whole of humanity; and whoever saves a life, it will as if they saved the whole of humanity. Surat Maidah (5: 32)
Are we going to wait until there’s only one life left? Or, are we heading for a reset? Cried the Angel
I’m sure as Muslims we all take our prime directive from the Quran. There can be no argument there and we can at least agree on that. The choice between greater or lesser actions of faith re: physically stopping evil, speaking out against it and recognising it in your heart is well known and acted upon in a daily manner in all our day to day matters. It really is a matter of personal conscience. Congratulations if you have that little pinch of conscience, as that is your taqwa urging you to take your deen into consideration when making any and all decisions.
However, in the matter of choosing who to vote for, I’m aghast at the deviations that are coming from the chatter, about the crux of the issue according to the Quran. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence and sense can understand that the ayahs, (Surat Maidah 5: 51-52), are stating categorically and without any chance of misinterpretation that if you side with THOSE Jews and Christians who have a pact between themselves, i.e., Zionism, you become of their number. This very act would take you out of the safety of the sphere of Islam. Then no matter what you do, doesn’t matter. You might as well be eating pork chops.
The Quran further in the same set of ayahs referring to the same circumstances tells you that will be among the losers should you do this.
It is surprising and somewhat alarming that no body of Fiqh or Islamic jurisprudence has considered this at all. As far as actions are concerned, I would think that the fikr, the danger of people losing their Imaan, their very faith should be the highest priority. Or, at least making sure people understand that so they can make an informed decision on such a crucial matter.
Once anyone is aware of this, it is incumbent on them to make sure their fellow brothers and sisters who are in danger of losing their Imaan are alerted and warned.
It really is a disease of the heart, (as that is where intentions arise), that tries to justify remaining loyal to any party that has openly declared its intention to kill and starve our brothers and sisters and daughters and wives in Gaza. Not only that, but to capitalise on this by selling arms and raining death on innocents.
My concern is that people advocating for labour are basically asking people to leave Islam. No, that’s not me giving a fatwa, it is the most basic interpretation of the ayahs of The Book which is the Furqan, the Criterion with which we are meant to live our lives by.
May Allah grant us guidance and the wisdom to apply it.
So, in all humbleness and due humility and truly, very sincerely I’m asking for the sake of your Imaan as you go to present your mark on election day, please consider this. No one knows how you vote, or at least that’s what they say, but Allah very definitely does. So even if you’ve publicly said things that indicate support for one or the other of the parties enabling and advancing genocide in Gaza, very quietly without any bells or whistles put a cross where you know it will save your Imaan.
Once the dust has settled on the political landscape we will do the necessary digging and weeding to beautify our garden. One love.