So Much Hue and Cry Was Not Made Over ISIS Because Israel Was Not Involved

By New Age Islam Staff Writer 31 October 2023 Why Don't Muslims Learn from Their Past Mistakes? Main Points: 1. Rallies in support of Palestine are being held all over the world. 2. Rallies in support of Palestine were held in the state of Kerala in India. 3. Jamaat-e-Islami affiliate SYMO played a pre-recorded address by Khalid Meshal in rally in Malappuram. 4. Indian Union Muslim League held a pro-Palestine rally in Kozicode. 5. Hindutva organisations protest Khaled Meshal's participation in the Malappuram rally. 6. Hindutva groups agitated over the tagline 'Bulldozer Justice" in the rally in support of Palestine. ------ Damage in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war. Photo: Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APA images/Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0. ----- The war between Israel and Hamas has been raging since 7 October in which more than 9000 people including children and women have died on both sides. Though this series of hostility was initiated by Hamas on 7 October 2023, the UN Secretary General said that the 7 October attacks did not happen in a vacuum and that 56 years of suffocating occupation was behind it. Though Hamas also killed hundreds of innocent civilians on the other side of Gaza, the retaliation by Israel was more savage. It has been bombing civilians mindlessly and has been attacking hospitals by giving advance notice. It bombed the Baptist Hospital run by the Baptist Church. Its authorities said they had no links with Hamas. Israel has attacked other hospitals apart from schools and UN shelters and giving collective punishments to the innocent civilians which is a violation of international law. It also committed war crimes by cutting off electricity, water, food supply and internet to the people of Gaza. Therefore, condemnations of Israel's war crimes have poured in not only from the outside world but also from inside Israel. There have been protests against Israel's barbarity on Palestinians and meetings expressing solidarity with them in Europe, America and South Asia were held. In India too, rallies in support of ceasefire and Palestinians have also been held in different cities and towns. The world is demanding a ceasefire in Israel and Palestine and people of the world are denouncing genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Hamas fighters are also being killed or abducted by Israeli forces which is a part of any war. No one is criticising Israel for killing Hamas militants. The world only demands that innocent civilians should not be deliberately attacked. However, in India where there is a tradition of supporting extremist or militant Islamic organisations, a pro-Palestine rally in Malappuram in Kerala state which was organised by an affiliate of Jamat-e-Islami, an Islamic organisation of the sub-continent, turned into a pro-Hamas rally in practice. According to media reports, a pre-recorded speech of Hamas founder Khalid Meshal was played to the audience. According to some other reports, Khalid Meshal virtually addressed the audience narrating Israel's occupation of Palestine and recounting its oppression of Palestinians. The speech reportedly did not contain any anti-Hindu and anti-India statements. A similar pro-Palestine rally was organised by Indian Union Muslim League in Kozicode on the same day, Friday. The rally was addressed by Congress leader and former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor who called Hamas a terrorist organisation. IUML leaders criticised Tharoor for calling Hamas attacks on Israel a terrorist act. Tharoor had actually called Israel's mindless attacks on civilians also terrorism and denounced it. The Hindutva organisations have protested against the participation of Khalid Meshal in a pro-Palestine rally saying that the Jamat-e-Islami has tried to glorify a terrorist organisation in India. The organisers argue that the Indian government has not designated it a terrorist organisation as of now. The point is that Hamas is a militant organisation at loggerheads with Israel but one cannot say what policy it will adopt in future. Political situations keep changing and take unprecedented turns. When in 2014, the ISIS had captured power in Mosul, many Islamic scholars, intellectuals and journalists and Islamic organisations of India had supported it because they considered it an extension of the Islami caliphate. Many youths were misled and some even went to Iraq to fight with ISIS. Many girls from European countries had joined them only to realise later that the ISIS were actually terrorists. But after a couple of years, when it was uprooted from Iraq and Syria, it started terrorist strikes in Sri Lanka, France, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Philippines etc. When the Muslim intelligentsia was glorifying the ISIS, it was New Age Islam that had demanded on September 15, 2014, that Indian government should ban it as its activities were against the principles of Islam. The government of India had banned it belatedly in February 2015 after much damage was done. Since the ISIS was designated as a terrorist organisation, many youths were arrested for having linked with the ISIS. Muslim youth are still arrested for having links with it. The Muslim scholars, journalists and intellectuals have realised now that they are responsible for misleading the Muslim youth and ruining their lives and career. Earlier it was SIMI, the student wing of Jamat-e-Islami. The Jamat disowned it after it was reportedly found involved in subversive activities. The Muslims carried the stigma of SIMI for about two decades. Recently, People's Front of India was designated a terrorist organisation and many youths were arrested for having links with PFI. Therefore, from time-to-time religious organisations promising moon to the Muslims come into existence and after a few years they are banned for having extremist views and for being involved in militant activities. Instead of contributing to the welfare and progress of the Muslims of India, these religious organisations become a curse for the community. Muslims do not have much interest in establishing schools, colleges and hospitals but in establishing religious organisations spreading extremist and sectarian views among the Muslims. SIMI, ISIS and PFI have caused a lot of damage to the Indian Muslims. In spite of all this, the Muslims of India have not learnt from their past mistakes. They have started showing their love for Hamas unaware of the fact that Israel created Hamas to counter Yasser Arafat's group Fateh. Fateh is still popular in West Bank. Hamas may not be a terrorist group by the book but the Israeli government has put pressure on India to designate Hamas a terrorist group. An IAS trainer Ankit Awasthi said that for a group to be designated as a terrorist group, it should have conducted terrorist acts in other countries. Since Hamas has not conducted any subversive activities at least against India, India has not banned it. But as bizarre incidents like the IED blasts in Kerala are unfolding, the Muslims should have a cautious approach. In the Kerala blast, the perpetrator has surrendered to the police and confessed to his crime but the TV channels are still trying to link the blast to Hamas. They might wish the name of the perpetrator had been Mateen not Martin. Dominic Martin is a member of a 19th century Christian religious organisation Jehovah's Witnesses which does not believe in Trinity. That is, it is a puritanical sect in Christianity and has some intolerant views and practices. Martin most probably conducted the blasts due to intolerant beliefs as the extremist sects in Muslims do. If the name of the perpetrator had turned out to be Mateen, the Hindutva organisations, particularly the media would have by now started 24-hour campaign to ban Hamas in India. Interestingly, in 2014, such an intense media campaign against ISIS was not run though it was practically a terrorist organisation perhaps because Israel was not involved. Only some Muslim platforms like New Age Islam ran a campaign against it and a couple of sensible journalists wrote against it inviting criticism by majority of so-called Islamic scholars and journalists. Since, the ISIS killed or it only Muslims, the Indian TVs or Hindutva groups did not care. Therefore, the love of Israel and not the hatred of Hamas is at the root of this campaign during the Israel-Hamas hostility. It is also a fact that Many Hindi YouTube channels are giving a regular account of the Hamas-Israel war with special emphasis on Hamas. If the war escalates and Iran and other countries get involved, tensions between Iran and India may rise. Since Hamas is an ally of Iran and Hezbollah, any hostility between Iran and India will affect Hamas' attitude towards India and vice versa. In that case, India may designate Hamas a terrorist organisation putting Indian Muslims who are showing solidarity with Hamas now in trouble. Therefore, Muslims of India should learn from their past mistakes and adopt a cautious approach vis a vis Hamas. 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