A Zionist criminal aggression against the Muslims and people of Gaza in which children, women and the elderly are not spared in an indiscriminate campaign of violence, which some of the Zionists call a war on terror whilst others openly say is to cleanse the land of Arabs.

The losses in Gaza are many times those of the Zionist occupiers. In November 2012 133 Palestinian civilians were killed, while 6 civilians and two IDF soldiers were killed. This time the death toll is above 800 in Gaza and thousands injured, while a comparatively smaller number of occupiers have reportedly been killed (at the time of writing this article).

Messages from Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, Canberra and other Western nations declare their concern for the civilian casualties, along with their support for the Israeli right to self-defence, condemning the ‘terrorist’ defenders of Gaza.

Obama said “I will say very clearly, no country can accept rockets being fired indiscriminately at its citizens. So we have been very clear, Israel has the right to defend itself against what I consider to be inexcusable attacks from Hamas.” The Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott went further saying “In so many ways, [Israel is] a country so much like Australia, a liberal, pluralist democracy,” he said, “A beacon of freedom and hope in a part of the world which has so little freedom and hope” and “When Israel is fighting for its very life, well, as far as I’m concerned, Australians are Israelis. We are all Israelis in those circumstances.”

In the neighbouring Muslim lands the rulers make some kind of remarks about condemning excessive force and calling upon Western states to intervene, whilst at the same time maintaining all their normal communications with the Zionist regime. Secular ‘Islamist’ leaders like Erdogan of Turkey are applauded by some Muslims for their remarks against Israel, threatening not to be friends with her again until she stops her hostilities. None of the Muslim armies are mobilised, or even prepared, to end the Zionist aggression.

This usually continues until an emergency session is heard in the UN or in the Arab league, followed by calls for Egypt to mediate. Negotiations begin, some rocky ceasefires will begin in which the Palestinian government will try and gain some small political victory before a more permanent ceasefire is arranged. They will claim that they have achieved some concessions for the people, such as easing the embargo and blockade or some prisoner releases, whilst in reality none of these will ever be fully delivered or complied with. Egypt will once again be hailed as the peacemaker (whether Mubarak, Morsi or Sisi), despite their criminal neglect in keeping the border closed, their protection of the Zionist entity’s borders from the Egyptian people, and their unwillingness to even offer a word of threat against, let alone mobilise the army to end the aggression. Their recognition of the occupation regime is enough blood on their hands. They merely enter as peace brokers when the Americans declare it is the right time i.e. after the Zionist State is satisfied with its terrorising of Gaza and more-or-less got what it intended to achieve.

The above routine happened in February 2008 when 112 were killed and again in December 2008 in operation ‘Cast lead’ in which over 1500 were killed including the slaughter of nearly 300 children. It then happened again in November 2012 for eight days and now just over a year and a half later exactly the same thing has happened, since the beginning of Ramadan.

This is the routine of the Zionist State, the Western powers and their agent rulers in the Muslim countries whose primary role is to serve Western interests, betray and conspire against the Muslims and their deen, protecting the Zionist regime at all costs.

Will we see a change from the usual routine this time around? Will Sisi’s hatred for Hamas mean that he will ensure that the Gazan people are further promoted as terrorists, until they prevent them from government; the same way that Sisi removed Morsi, with a bloodbath if necessary? It may be that the Egyptian initiative will this time be used as a pretext to increase the war against ‘terrorism.’ Whether this happens or not, one thing is for sure, the traitorous rulers of Muslim lands will continue to recognise the Zionist occupation, preferring peace over military action to liberate the Palestinian lands. In the end Gaza will continue to suffer.

This is a familiar routine, designed to wear down the Muslims into submission; into accepting the Zionist occupation of Muslim land.

Al-Hamdu Lillah the goodness in the Ummah and her collective feeling manifests strongly when the Muslims in Palestine are under attack. From one side of the world to the other the emotions and feelings of the Muslims erupt and within no time they jump into action. Calls for more charity, petitions, boycotts, and special du’aa’s for Palestine increase tenfold. Social media is on fire with nobody discussing anything else, followed by demonstrations in the West to collectively condemn the excessive force on humanitarian grounds. In the Muslim lands people erupt in demonstrations cursing the America and Zionists, whilst burning their flags in rage.

This routine continues side by side with the first routine, until when the first routine ends i.e. some kind of longer more permanent ceasefire is agreed, the second routine also comes to a halt, and before you know it the Zionist occupation is long forgotten… until next time.

Are these incidents and calamities that befall the Ummah whether in Palestine, Syria, Pakistan, Burma, Kashmir, Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka, Russia, China and Uzbekistan amongst many other lands not continuous and are they not repeated time and time again? All of them have their own routines and conspiracies, yet we continue our own routines of anger, emotion, boycotts, petitions, charity and protest etc.

The Muslim Ummah comprises of over 1.6 billion people, with the greatest share of the world’s resources and largest armies in the world. Could the Ummah as a whole do more to bring about a lasting solution?

كُنْتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ

“You are the best Ummah that has been raised up for mankind. You order the ma’rouf and you forbid the munkar, and you believe in Allah” [Aal-‘Imraan 110]

If any other nation’s lands, interests or citizens are attacked, would the people immediately limit their call to raising money to send clothing, or writing petitions asking for foreign intervention and boycotts? Or would the people of that nation expect their governments and their armies to intervene to protect their lands, citizens and interests?

This is the disparity we see in the Muslim response. Indeed the Muslims are motivated by their Deen and concern to help the Muslims of Gaza in giving charity, demonstrates and boycotting of Israeli goods. All of which show the goodness in the Unmah but there’s a lack of connection to that of the response of Muslim governments and holding them to account. For instance Muslims boycott Israeli goods but neglect the continued trade of Muslim states with the Zionist entity. Hence we have Turkey year on year increasing it’s trade with Israel. Figures from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) reveal that Turkey’s mutual trade volume with Israel increased to $5 billion from $3.4 billion in 2008, and the size is expected to grow even bigger this year.

Similarly Muslims are willing to demonstrate against Zionist aggression but a relatively mute response is seen in demonstrating against Muslim regimes who continue to hold back the Muslim armies from liberating the whole of Palestine.

Al-Hamdu Lillah the Muslims are one Ummah, while one part of its body is in pain, the whole body gets no rest. Yet, the goal of the Muslims should not be merely to find a way to get rest, but to end the pain completely, uprooting the cause of that pain.

The Messenger of Allah (saw) informed us that the Muslim should be aware enough not to fall into the same trap twice. Abu Hurairah (ra) related that the Prophet (saw) said:

لَا يُلْدَغُ الْمُؤْمِنُ مِنْ جُحْرٍ وَاحِدٍ مَرَّتَيْنِ

“The believer is not stung from the same hole twice.”

It is not enough to feel the pain of our brothers and sisters, then jump to an immediate action that may or may-not solve the problem. In the case of aggression against them, the only way to prevent the pain is to end the aggression, not temporarily, but permanently, by taking away the ability of the aggressor to do so again.

We must realise that at the heart of all of our pain, suffering and calamities that befall us there is one major political problem. Whilst all other nations and peoples in the world have States to look after and protect their citizens, this Islamic Ummah since 1924 has not had one. The Ummah’s State, the Khilafah, was destroyed and all of our lands were colonised by the West and without exception, all the regimes in the Muslim world were and still remain slaves and servants to the Western agenda, interests and objectives. They all collaborate and conspire day and night in obedience to their Colonial masters against Islam and the Ummah.
The Prophet of Allah (saw) said:

إِنَّمَا الْإِمَامُ جُنَّةٌ يُقَاتَلُ مِنْ وَرَائِهِ وَيُتَّقَى بِهِ

“Verily the Imam alone is the shield of the Muslims, fighting is performed from behind him and protection is found in him.”

The Imam of the Muslims – the Khaleefah of the Muslims – is the shield of this Ummah. Without him we have no protection and without him we will continue to go around in circles and cycles without being able to provide any true solutions to our problems.

This work is the productive work: to build an Ummah that works to re-establish the Islamic Khilafah State that will organise her affairs according to the belief of the Ummah establish her values, implement the Ummah’s rulings that have come from the Qur’an and the Sunnah, and carry the da’wah of Islam to the whole world.

Our response to this situation must not be to merely relieve the pain that we ourselves feel, but we must work to see the re-establishment of the Khilafah state. This means to convince Muslims, as part of a global movement, the necessity of the Islamic State. Building confidence in the Ahkam Shariah which is often maligned as backward and incompatible in solving problems. Indeed not only is the Shariah maligned but false secular solutions are presented as the only solutions. Thus Muslims are pushed to seek a resolution of the Palestinian problem through the United Nations that would impose a two ‘secular’ state solution. This would only reinforce the hegemonic control of Western powers over the region by strengthening a permanent legitimacy for the Zionist entity in the heart of the Muslim World.

Therefore as the current conflict may enter a ceasefire the wider ideological and political problem remains. That is to say, the desire of the West to enforce its secular liberal ideology upon the Muslim Ummah and impose secular nationalistic entities that serve it’s interests.

And it’s this ideological and political struggle – a struggle against capitalist and secular thoughts – which represents the real work for the Muslims in order to build an Ummah that re-establishes the Khilafah Rashida.

Without building the correct Islamic thoughts and political motivation in the Ummah, the Muslims will remain stagnant, unable to comprehend the problem and without a clear direction to lead to a permanent solution. It’s only through this work of directing the Ummah through the correct thoughts that lead to the re-establishment of the Khilafah will the cycle finally be broken.