Hamas and Palestinian Civilians
I’ve had numerous discussions with people, mostly fellow Muslims, in recent days about the Israeli attacks on Gaza and the civilian victims of these bombings. As these people point out to me, purposefully killing innocent people – especially children – is a major crime against humanity and it is forbidden in the Qur’an: killing children is one of the worst crimes imaginable. As the Qur’an says, he who kills one innocent person, ‘it is as if he had murdered all mankind’ (Sura al-Ma’ida: 32 – 5:32).
Since children are the most innocent human beings in the world, killing them is a major sin and crime: both in Islam and according to secular law.
However, one should not only look at whether children are killed or not, one should also consider the intention of the killer: did they mean to kill the child or did they do everything in their power (except for not defending themselves and waiting to be killed themselves) to prevent the deaths?
In the case of Israel and Hamas, the difference between both sides should be clear to everyone with half a brain. Israel tries not to kill innocent people, but sadly some die nonetheless (collateral damage). Hamas, on the other hand, purposefully kills innocent Israelis and the terrorist group purposefully uses children and other innocent individuals as a human shield.
See, for instance, this video:
“We welcome death” is Hamas’ motto. Hamas won the elections in Gaza several years ago, beating Fatah with ease. The group has indoctrinated Gazans ever since, making them even more hateful, extremist and pro-terrorism than they already were. These individuals who call themselves Muslims but who are, in fact, hateful and intolerant sadists are responsible for the deaths of both innocent Israelis and innocent Palestinians and they are proud of it.
There certainly is evil present in this conflict. But the evil is not coming from the Israelis, it comes from Hamas. In strictly Islamic terms, Hamas represents the worst thing imaginable for all Muslims: Islamophobes can only do so much to destroy Islam, but those who use the name of Islam and God to kill innocent beings are doing far more damage to this great religion. They will, of course, be held accountable in the afterlife. In this life, however, they are doing tremendous damage to themselves, their own people and the rest of us. Muslims everywhere are served best by declaring Hamas the enemy of humanity and Islam instead of pretending that Israelis enjoy killing innocent Muslim children for a living.
Of course the above does not mean that Israel should not be criticized: it should. If it uses disproportionate force we – Muslims and non-Muslims alike – should say so. We should, however, not forget that Hamas, not Israel, is the true face of evil in this battle and every Muslim everywhere should make clear to this terrorist organization that they should stop using the good name of Islam in order to kill its own and other innocent people. The photos of dead Palestinian children, terrible as they are, should remind us of the evil embodied by Hamas – Israel tries to prevent these deaths while Hamas purposefully sacrifices these children for PR reasons.
It is a hard set of subjects to speak about using both facts and heart as well. Fine analyses, with both intact, Michael. Thank you.
Dr.E
Assistant Editor/ Columnist, TheModerateVoice
Thanks Dr. e – for the compliment and reading the piece.
And may you have a great 2009.
You and your loved ones as well, Michael… and all the souls there at Poligazette…
dr.e
Ugh.. I think we have two evils here. There’s nothing “good” about the way the Israelis have treated the Palestinians. Not from the very beginning.
I mean the whole stupidity of the idea of the West and Israelis although in fairness it’s not like the Jewish immigrants had many options, that they were going to create a Jewish state, in an area that was predominantly Muslim.
That area had been majority Muslim for centuries. How did people really think the Muslims were going to react to being second class citzens in the area of their birth? Not very well. Of course they fought the creation of Israel, any group of people in their position would. And they have been treated horribly by the Israelis every since with many not allowed to return to their homes, or expelled from their homes.
The Palestinians in the occuppied lands were once again treated horribly, discriminated against, etc.
All of this has let to the creation of a group like Hamas. So to just say it’s well all Hamas’ fault, we have to look at who created the Hamas monster in teh first place.
How dare people be so ignorant – the Hammas care only for killing they do not value life. They don’t even value their own people, they just use them for human shields – they are murderers and Israel have had enough of them shooting rockets 8,000 of them. They are momsarim, they should be wiped from the face of the earth. I pray Hashem will help in the fight against the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people
Becca, you are very articulate and reading your post it sounds clear that the Palestinians are the victims. The problem is that your information is not based on clear facts.
The “Land of Israel” (as opposed to the state) has always been recognized by the world as a Jewish Land. With the exception of about 300 years, there have been continuous Jewish communities in the Land for 3000 years. There have always been groups of Jews immigrating to their Land and at times throughout history there have been Jewish governments there but never a “Jewish State”. The Muslims got there about 700 years ago.
As for the area being “predominantly Muslim”; some areas of the land were predominantly Muslim, others were predominantly Jewish. Some historically Jewish cities were predominantly Muslim because of Muslim violence (Hebron for example, where Muslims killed close to 180 of their Jewish neighbors in 1929 and the British rescued the rest of the Jewish community and brought them to Jerusalem)
Muslims were not (and are not) second class citizens in Israel. The ones who chose to stay, are full citizens with full rights- Arab Israelis make up 20% of Israeli Population and they have representatives in the Israeli Government.
I concede that some Arabs had to leave their homes both in 1948 and in 1967 but I don’t think that they were “treated horribly”.
Anyway, I just wanted to clear that up, have a great day