The Eid Al-Adha (September 24, 2015) editorial of the London-based Qatari daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi discussed the current state of the Muslim world, and bemoaned how many Muslims are slaughtering their brethren in Arab and Islamic countries. It added that Muslims today are in the throes of an unprecedented catastrophe that surpasses even the loss of Andalusia and of Palestine.
The following are excerpts from the editorial:
"How sadly misleading is this picture, which does not reflect the true state of this nation: One million Muslims in simple white garb, symbolizing a state of abstinence and purity, equality and compassion, stand in a single place as one, praying and offering pleas to a single deity. Despite their differences in color, nationality, tongue, and cultural and political schools of thought, they help each other bear the effort of the pilgrimage to Mount Arafat at high noon...
Pilgrims ascending Mount Arafat (image: arabnews.com)
"Are these pilgrims, these submissive believers, who praise Allah morning and night, among those Muslims who slaughter each other in more than one country, to the point that their lands are awash in blood and tens of thousands of them have been killed or wounded since the last Eid Al-Adha?...
"Have we reached a situation in which we must redefine the term 'Muslim'? Do we even remain an 'Islamic ummah'? And are we still 'the best nation established for mankind' [Koran: 3:110]? Or have we become 'a nation of refugees?' Are Muslims still 'a single body, in which if one organ complains the rest of them hasten to treat and protect it,' [as the hadith says]? Or have they become one body in which one organ kills another and conspires against it?
"What are Muslims exporting to the world today, other than tragic images of killing, burning, destruction, thousands of refugees, crimes against humanity, and organizations that carry out, in the name of the religion, terrorism that has nothing to do with the religion?
"The Saudi Mufti said yesterday in his sermon on Mount Arafat: 'Villains have sprouted up in our midst, known for their deviant morals and recklessness, who have strayed from [the path of] Muslims and left their midst and who have accused Muslims of being infidels and made it permissible to kill them in suicide operations. They destroyed mosques of peaceful people and wrongfully attributed their evil words and thoughts to Islam.'
"But what he did not tell us was: Where did these people come from? Aren't they the product of the political cultural and social ills that have festered in the Islamic world? How have they used their lies to transform the slaughtering of Muslims and the bombing of mosques into acts bringing their perpetrators closer to Allah? How distant are they from the hadith that states that [even] destroying the Ka'ba stone by stone is not as bad in the eyes of Allah as the unjust murder of a single Muslim?
"Beyond the conflicts, plots, wars, and struggles, there is one truth that hardly any Muslim disputes today: that they are experiencing an unprecedented catastrophe unmatched by any in their history - including the loss of Andalusia or Palestine - as well as internal division that sets them back to the darkness of the Middle Ages, while the world around them moves forward towards unlimited horizons of scientific and cultural progress.
"Perhaps Muslims will try to give facile explanations attributing their weakness and collapse to 'external schemes' - some of which might even be true. But who was it that put these schemes into practice? Wasn't it members of our people, our religion, and our culture? Obviously, Muslims are and always have been surrounded by enemies who lie in wait for us. But the real danger that now threatens their lives, and not just their lands and natural resources, lies in their midst.
"One does not have to be a cleric to know that it would be best if Muslims, who today slaughter a sacrifice following holiday prayers, think of the Muslims slaughtered every day by their Muslim 'brethren' in more than one country; of the children orphaned simply because they were born into a Sunni or Shi'ite family; of the women captured and raped in the name of the religion; and of the families that throw themselves into the sea while fleeing death in search of a life with minimal human dignity.
"Ultimately, and unfortunately, even if this holiday and many more after it pass, the true Muslim holiday will be postponed until the day that the illegal slaughter of their brothers ends - and also until the end of the insane urge of the Muslim ummah, or what is left of it, to commit suicide."
