Marzouk charged that Hamas has been subjected to a concerted smear cam paign about its official po sition, including support for a Palestinian state defined by the borders that existed prior to Israel’s invasion and occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jeru salem in June 1967—and the subsequent violent cam paign of annexation of Pal estinian land that continues to this day.
In their case summary, Hamas’s lawyers argue that Britain has a legal duty to prevent genocide and crimes against human ity and to work to end the Israeli occupation of the occupied Palestinian ter ritories. “Proscription is contrary to Britain’s obli gations under international law,” the lawyers wrote.
“Hamas is the only effec tive military force resist ing – and seeking to end and prevent – the ongoing acts of genocide and crimes against humanity being committed by the Zionist State against the Palestin ians in Gaza. Its continued proscription is purposefully – and in any event practical ly – inhibiting the efforts of
gy of Zionism has become toxic,” said Franck Magennis, the barrister presenting the case to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. “The price of associating yourself with the Israeli government is becoming far too high even for its staunchest allies. And even though strictly that shouldn’t affect the legal analysis—the Secretary of State should consider the application on its merits— it’s clear that she has an extremely broad discretion about who she does and doesn’t decide to add to the
list of proscribed organizations,” Magennis told Drop Site.
“There’s every reason to believe that she will find the arguments persuasive and will grant the application accordingly.” Hamas’s
stifled honest debate about Hamas’s aims and actions, because within the purview of the British government’s policies, any speech that ostensibly supports a terrorist organization is effectively criminalized. “Rather than allow freedom of speech, police have embarked on a campaign of political in-
timidation and persecution of journalists, academics, peace activists and students over their perceived support for Hamas,” the lawyers argued. “People in Britain must be free to speak about Hamas and its struggle to restore to the Palestinian people the right to self-determination.”
Ibn Umar (r.a.) narrates the Nabi (SAW) said: “The place of prayer (salah) in religion is like the place of the head in the body.” Tabarani
Senior Hamas leader Khaled Mashal (left) and senior Hamas member Mousa Abu Marzouk attending a meeting between Iran's Foreign Minister and Hamas' political bureau chief
Resilient Faith in Times of Economic Turbulence
By Imam Dr. A. Rashied Omar
Recent developments in global markets, from escalating tariff wars to rising inflation and disrupted supply chains, remind us that economic policies and global power struggles have far-reaching consequences and can negatively impact and disrupt the lives of billions of people across the world.
In such anxious times, we are reminded that true security cannot be found solely in free market forces or political power struggles. Rather, it lies in the resilience of our values and the
spiritual clarity with which we live our lives. For Muslims, this clarity flows from a profound principle called tawakkul, a courageous trust in God coupled with a responsibility to act with integrity and purpose.
Islam has always taught that economics is not merely about profits, but about ethics. At its core is a moral vision: to earn, save, and spend in ways that reflect trust in the Divine, care for others, and commitment to justice. This is not abstract idealism. It is a practical path known in Islamic tradition as Adab al-Iqtisad, the ethics of economic life. Rather than responding to economic uncertainty with fear or greed, Islam urges believers to act with spiritual awareness and compassion. It encourages us to be mindful of how we earn and use money, and to never forget our role as stewards, not owners, of the wealth entrusted to us. This sacred trust is emphasized in the Qur’an 57:7: “Believe in God and the Messenger and spend from that which He has made you trustees over.”
In other words, our property, income, and assets are not truly ours. They are a
responsibility we hold on behalf of the Creator, to be used ethically and for the common good. With that trust comes accountability. This idea of stewardship is particularly powerful in times of financial strain. It reminds us to remain ethical and generous, rooted in the belief that provision (rizq) ultimately comes from God, not markets.
Another essential Islamic principle is that work itself is sacred. In today’s uncertain economy, where jobs can be scarce or unstable, it is critical to remember that honest labour is not only honorable, it is a form of worship. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) once kissed the hands of a man whose palms were blistered from hard work, praising him for earning his livelihood with dignity.
This teaching was echoed by the second Caliph, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭab (ra), who corrected a group of men who claimed they were “trusting in God” while refusing to work. He rebuked them, saying, “You are not those who trust in God, you are those who live off others.” Real trust in God, he taught, means taking action
while placing your heart in divine care.
In the face of economic uncertainty, Islam offers a roadmap: live modestly, avoid excessive debt, and share what you can with those in need. The Qur’an 25:67, urges a balance in spending, neither miserly nor wasteful, but fair and thoughtful: “When they spend, they are neither extravagant nor stingy, but maintain a balance between the two.”
Debt, too, is treated with great seriousness. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) warned that all of a martyr’s sins could be forgiven, except their unpaid debts. Financial accountability is not just a personal duty, but a social and spiritual one.
Finally, in hard times, the temptation to hold tightly to one’s resources can be overwhelming. But Islam teaches that giving, even a little, opens the door to spiritual and communal healing. Charity (zakah and sadaqah) is both a purifier of wealth and a bridge between the affluent and the vulnerable.
The Qur’an 2:261, promises: “The example of those who spend in the cause of
God is like a seed which grows seven stalks, each bearing a hundred grains.”
These five principles, trust in God, honoring work, moderation in spending, ethical responsibility in debt, and generosity, form a resilient economic ethic. They remind us that financial challenges are not only crises of resources but opportunities to renew our spiritual and social commitments.
As we navigate this un -
certain global economic environment, let us recall a beautiful prayer of the Prophet (pbuh) :“O Allah, suffice me with what You have made lawful so that I have no need of what is forbidden, and make me independent by Your grace of all others.” (Tirmidhi). In turbulent economic times, our faith, when practiced with sincerity and compassion, becomes a lifeline. It offers not only personal strength but a path to economic justice, shared dignity, and hope.
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Clear thinking required in the face of Trump’s attacks
By Imraan Buccus
are very weak — they are very strong.
We face both immediate urgent challenges and longterm strategic questions. The immediate task is to avoid unnecessary escalation while standing firm on our positions regarding Palestine and land reform. We must assert national sovereignty in a calm and princi-
tional law. Given the power Trump and Musk wield through their control of X, we need a world-class communications infrastructure and strategy that can hold its own.
Diplomatic work is equally pressing. We must build stronger relationships with Europe and with rational voices within the US —
compound the crisis.
At the same time, we must take steps to prevent the white right from presenting itself as a voice that represents the majority of whites. This requires active engagement to win over moderate and progressive white voices to the cause of national sovereignty. Whether the ANC acknowl-
‘You stand with Gaza, but burn your own homes: A message to SA’s Muslim men’
By Dr Haseena Majid
South Africa has shown the world what solidarity looks like. Our people — especially in Indian Muslim communities — have given generously to Gaza, cried with her people, and taken to the streets to protest Israel’s violence.
We have condemned the U.S. and Israeli occupation, called out apartheid, and reminded the world that we know what injustice feels like. We are, in so many ways, on the right side of history.
But there’s something rotten at home!
Behind closed doors, too many Muslim homes are burning. And it’s not bombs falling from planes — it’s patriarchy, abuse, control, and silence that are turning these spaces into war zones. Women are burning out. Children are watching, learning, and breaking.
You call yourself a man, but you are Netanyahu. And your army? It’s your mother, your sisters, your silence. You drop bombs of emotional, psychological, and spiritual violence every day, and because your house isn’t turned to dust, you think it doesn’t count.
You believe your wife must have a pot of food ready, yet you don’t put a single coin on the table you eat from.
Your pregnant wife is hand-washing clothes while your mother disconnects the washing machine to prove a point.
Your friends, cousins, and sisters bond with you by tearing down your wife, then cry for justice when their own husbands hurt them.
You appear on demand for neighbours and parents, but call your wife “lazy” when she struggles to cope without help.
You’ve let your mother steal every family tradition meant for your wife and children, and when she passes, you curse the same days you never made space for.
You raise your voice, puff your chest — but haven’t fulfilled even one of your wife’s basic rights. Who are you, little boy?
You use your wife for sexual release but can’t offer her conversation, comfort, or care.
You pay the bond, the school fees — but she and your children pay with their mental health and their bodies every time you roar or
raise a hand.
She falls asleep alone while you serve everyone else, and when she finally speaks, she’s called ungrateful.
You threaten to leave her, but can’t wash your own underwear. Your life is built on unpaid female labour.
You believe your mother’s tears, but ignore the rivers your wives and children cry.
You pay maintenance, but your ex-wives pay in invisible currency — with their time, dreams, and sanity.
You offer your mother emotional intimacy because your father never did — and now you’re repeating that failure in your own home. Who are you, little boy?
You praise other women online, subscribe to porn, and ignore the woman who once glowed — now wilted under disease, exhaustion, and neglect. What you water grows, and you’ve let her die
of thirst. Who are you, little boy?
You are not innocent. You are not neutral.
You are not religious — you are in violation of everything Islam commands about kindness, protection, and justice.
You are the illegal settler. You are the occupation. You are the Zionist — in your own home.
You want to speak for Gaza? Start by liberating
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your wife. You want to support Palestine? Dismantle the oppression within your own walls.
Because if your solidarity doesn’t start at home, it’s not solidarity. It’s performance.
*Dr Haseena Majid is the Operations Director at USAWA, an SA-based charity and social advocacy group that addresses disparity in healthcare and education. Their website is www.usawa. org
SA media must do more to expose IDF’s plan to silence Palestinian journalists
Since the resumption of the genocide against Gaza a few weeks ago, more than 15 journalists have been deliberately and maliciously targeted by the occupation regime.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 232 journalists – an average of 13 per week –making it the deadliest conflict for media workers ever recorded, according to a report by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs’ Costs of War project.
The targeting of journalists is a tactic that has been used time and again by Israel to subdue and repress news coming out from Gaza that contradicts Israeli accounts. Israel is well aware of the massive social media following of these journalists and how vital their reporting is to provide people with real time information regarding events happening on the ground in Gaza.
These journalists, the heroes of our time, have risked their lives and their families in order to share their footage with the world and to challenge the Zionist narrative.
The attack on journalists is not just an attack on free speech. It is an attack on humanity. The occupation army is attempting by all vile means necessary to control the media narrative thereby controlling what we, the public see and by extension, how we will react. Israel is desperately losing the media war and its propaganda tactics are flimsy at best, hence the frenzied killing of journalists- the only people who are able to expose them.
Israel’s attacks on journalists are not random. They are punitive and catastrophic, especially for people in Gaza who desperately need the world to rally together to call for an end to the genocide and to garner mass solidarity action.
Israel denies that the people of Gaza are starving. They are denying that there are no supplies. They continue to lie about the death toll and the scale of human suffering. Journalists in Gaza have successfully refuted these claims, showing the world the reality on the ground. Journalists in print media, radio, television have all been ruthlessly eliminated and targeted by the occupation regime.
A few days ago, a strike on a journalist’s tent killed more than 2 journalists who were burnt alive and injured 9 others. This is barbaric. It is horrific. It is something that should spur journalists across the world into action.
Writing articles about what is happening and merely reporting on it is not nearly enough. Now is the time to take concrete action. Journalists are civilians and are protected by International Law, as are medical professionals and humanitarian aid workers. Therefore the killing of journalists constitutes a war crime.
“Since the war in Gaza started, journalists have been paying the highest price – their lives – for their reporting. Without protection, equipment, international presence, communications, or food and water, they are still doing their crucial jobs to tell the world the truth,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York.
“Every time a journalist is killed, injured, arrested, or forced to go to exile, we lose fragments of the truth. Those responsible for these casualties face dual trials: one under international law
and another before history’s unforgiving gaze.”
I call upon all media houses, radio stations and television broadcasters to protest against the killing of journalists in Gaza by either implementing a media blackout, publishing obituaries of slain journalists,
publishing journalist profiles and prominently featuring Gaza journalists on the front page of their publications. Other actions can include observing a moment of silence on radio or television, encouraging boycotts and mass action and publishing advertisements condemning the genocide. Currently the
death toll stands at over 200. We, the citizens, have to take a stand and do something. These journalists sacrificed their lives to live up to the principles and ethics of their profession. We owe them this at the very least.
Zaynab Khan Durban
How the Zionist lobby uses ‘dirty tricks’ to exploit SA’s Afrikaner right wing
South Africa’s principled stance in solidarity with Palestine’s freedom struggle and in opposition to apartheid-Israel’s genocidal policies, has been explicitly cited by the Trump administration to justify its hostility against the country.
My recent articles have pointed out that Trump’s aggressive sanctions, though due in part to the misrepresentation by some
right-wing Afrikaner elements on being “victimised” by the ruling African National Congress (ANC), was fuelled by the settler colonial regime’s lobbyists.
As is widely known, Zionist lobby groups do not operate in isolation. They are connected to influential captains of industry, pro-Israeli political parties, neoliberal media, as well as a number of so-called “think tanks” – largely Islamophobic and belligerently hardline anti-Palestinian.
America is a perfect case study of how the strangle-hold by its pro-Israeli lobby groups impacts on policies that advances Zionism’s colonial interests via unlimited military aid, financial support and diplomatic cover.
el have been hard at work to replicate the American paradigm. Distortion and deliberately fabricated news have always been and remains part of the devious methods used by Israel’s Hasbara (propaganda) outfits to sugar coat the regime’s PR disasters.
But as Kevin Bloom writes in his latest column in Daily Maverick, the prediction made by Norman Finkelstein a few weeks ago, has turned out to be true.
Finkelstein foretold that South Africa would be subject to an intense “dirty tricks campaign” as evidence of Israel’s war crimes mounted.
Bloom’s analysis confirms that to deflect from Israel’s atrocities, Finkelstein’s predictions have become fact – “not only has Israel recruited noted European anti-Semites to its cause, it
has successfully exploited the Afrikaner far-right too”.
Under the subtext of “Closet Nazis and mangled ambulances”, Bloom writes that on 31 March 2025, the same day that the first news reports began to appear in the Western press about the mass slaughter of the Palestinian paramedics — an atrocity that would reveal its full horrors in the coming days, as more of the details emerged — one of America’s most influential pro-Israel media commentators, Ben Shapiro, and one of South Africa’s most effective white-right activists, Ernst Roets, released a pre-recorded video conversation.
And within this context which Bloom correctly describes as horrific, he goes on to explain that by Daily Maverick’s reckoning “the cultivation of AfriForum by the world’s most so -
phisticated Zionists was a stroke of formidable cynical genius.” This he asserts is because Roets, a former deputy CEO of AfriForum had been skilfully played by Shapiro, and Kallie Kriel, the current CEO, had been skilfully played by Joel Pollak.
Bloom’s analysis reveals that Pollak, editor-at-large of the US’s far-right Breitbart News, had tweeted “Israel should take South Africa to the (International Court of Justice)”, on 28 March. “ ‘Kill the Boer’ and phrases that accompany it, such as ‘Kill the farmer,’ and ‘shoot to kill’ are clear incitement to genocide.” The following day on 29 March, Kriel endorsed Pollak’s sentiment with two words: “I agree.”
Since South Africa’s historic intervention at the International Court of Justice against Israel’s genocide in
Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu and his criminal gang of warlords in association with Zionist apologists, have been determined to punish this country.
Bloom’s February interview with Finkelstein, whom he regards as a global authority on Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and one of the most influential political scientists in the world, revealed that the backlash against South Africa from the Trump administration has everything to do with the ICJ case.
Will Zionist Dirty Tricks end anytime soon? Not unless the actors involved in it are exposed and their plots unravelled - in the public domain. Bloom’s piece is thus a crucial contribution towards it.
*Iqbal Jassat is an Executive Member of the Media Review Network
By Iqbal Jassat
How the ‘Gorba’ Fund became the backbone of the community
By Salim Badat
Long ago, when the ships docked at the port of Durban, a new chapter of South African history quietly began.
Among the passengers were Muslim traders from faraway lands, Gujarat and elsewhere in India, men with little more than a few
They were wise. They knew that prayer alone would not keep the mosque standing.
So they built small shops around the mosque, weaving commerce and community together. The shopkeepers sold cloth, spices, groceries, and tools and a part of every coin earned helped the mosque thrive. As the mosque grew strong,
traders created the Gorba Fund, a fund to help the poor, the sick, the travellers with nowhere to go. If a man fell ill, the Gorba helped. If a widow needed support, the Gorba was there.
It was a community that looked after its own, with dignity and quiet strength. Their story stretched beyond Natal. In the Trans-
Mosque in Durban. It lives on in the bustling markets, the echoes of children learning Quran in madressas, the silent prayers at
dawn. It lives on in a community that, from the very beginning, wove faith and life into one beautiful, unbreakable cloth.
Hasbara junket by SA MPs backfires but reignites campaign to isolate Israel
If anyone is unsure about why South African MPs were treated as royalty in Israel while British MPs were denied entry and chucked out, it is no real mystery and not difficult to understand.
The former group made up of MPs representing political parties in South Africa’s Government of National Unity (GNU), are known to be loyal supporters of the apartheid regime.
Their respective political formations comprising of the Democratic Alliance (DA), Patriotic Alliance (PA) and African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) have not only failed to condemn Israel’s ongoing savagery in the genocide
of Palestinians in Gaza, but have opposed South Africa’s groundbreaking legal initiative at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
That their nine representatives including an ardent Zionist Rabbi Warren Goldstein, were hosted and in all likelihood funded by a group directly associated with the SA Zionist Federation (SAZF) known as “Friends of Israel” (FOI), ought not to surprise anyone familiar with Israel’s “Hasbara” (propaganda unit).
Their so-called “fact finding mission” had a clear objective: To rubber-stamp Israel’s denial that it is an apartheid state. To their shame and humiliation, the cat was let out of the bag when FOI foolishly shot itself in the foot by announcing ahead of time that the group will testify “there was no evidence of apartheid and, to the contrary, Israel is a vibrant progressive multi-racial and multi-ethnic society, in which the rights of all citizens are protected and upheld by the rule of law”.
Denying the existence and
practice of apartheid in the settler colonial regime, has been and remains a misplaced article of faith for Rabbi Goldstein and the regime’s frontline defender, the SAZF. In a 2010 critique I wrote under the heading “SA Rabbi Denies Existence of Apartheid in Israel”, I made reference to the late Palestinian author and eloquent spokesman for the Palestinian cause in the West, Edward W. Said’s ‘96 essay titled ‘Mandela, Netanyahu, and Arafat’.
Though it brilliantly captured the contrasts amongst these leaders, the defining gaps were not related to personalities; instead Said unpacked crucial differences related to and informed by ideology.
For instance he cited Nelson Mandela’s commitment to the African National Congress’ [ANC] single goal for which it was created: the end of apartheid, and the institution of legal equality – one person, one vote – between blacks and whites.
On the other hand, Benjamin Netanyahu, who incidentally at the time was on
his first official trip to the United States, represented bigotry and falsehood.
Today, 25 years later, one will fully appreciate Said’s critic of this bigot. His analysis likened Netanyahu to all other Israeli leaders who denied the past and the reality of the Palestinians.
As is borne out by his horrific bloodbath in Gaza, Netanyahu – now indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC), was profiled back then by Said as a man insensitive to the human toll caused by Israel to literally millions of Arabs. The thrust of my piece centred on Goldstein’s despicable open letter to Archbishop Desmond Tutu in which he disputed the strong argument the Arch had made against apartheid in Israel. Tutu’s devastating critique of Israeli apartheid was underpinned by his support for sanctions against it –unlike Goldstein’s apologetic stance and the absurdity of white-washing by MPs on the Hasbara trip.
As co-publishers of “Apartheid Israel” by veteran human rights activist
and academic Prof Uri Davis, we, the Media Review Network [MRN] are convinced that it provides a thorough critique of Israel’s social, legal and political architecture establishing beyond doubt that Israel is an apartheid state.
A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid
In a comprehensive 2021 study undertaken by B’tselem, a human rights organisation based in Israel titled “This is Apartheid”, the conclusion was clear: “The entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River is organised under a single principle: advancing and cementing the supremacy of one group - Jews - over another - Palestinians”.
A regime that uses laws, practices and organized violence to cement the supremacy of one group over another is an apartheid regime, said B’tselem in its report.
“Israeli apartheid, which promotes the supremacy
of Jews over Palestinians, was not born in one day or of a single speech. It is a process that has gradually grown more institutionalised and explicit, with mechanisms introduced over time in law and practice to promote Jewish supremacy.”
It cannot be disputed, neither by SAZF nor the DA, PA and ACDP MPs that the accumulated measures as described by B’tselem including their pervasiveness in legislation and political practice, and the public and judicial support they receive, form the basis of its conclusion that the bar for labelling the Israeli regime as apartheid has been met. Now that the freebie propaganda mission has been exposed and pressure is mounting to have the MPs disciplined with the possibility of being barred from their privileged posts, it provides fresh opportunities for civil societies as well as the SA government to honour Tutu’s legacy by intensifying boycott of the apartheid regime.
*Iqbal Jassat is an Executive Member of the Media Review Network
By Iqbal Jassat
Pro-Palestine activists target Zionist-supporting businesses at The Pavillion
Pro-Palestinian activists went on a walk-through of The Pavillion mall in Durban last weekend wearing T-shirts of businesses they say are staunch supporters of Zionist Israel. The group achieved their objectives by targeting businesses such as McDonalds, Krispy Kreme, Starbucks, Cape Union Mart and Dis-Chem. The protesters were eventually escorted out by The Pavillion mall security, *The next weekly picket called “Fridays for Palestine” takes place on Friday 18 April at the Snell & Marine Parade Circle, North Beach, Durban from 4-5pm.
Maldives bans Israelis from entering country, in protest against Gaza’s ‘ongoing genocide’
The ban was done in ‘resolute solidarity with Palestinians’ and also applies to dual citizens
The Maldives has banned Israelis from entering the country in protest against Israel’s war on Gaza and in “resolute solidarity” with the Palestinian people.
President Mohamed Muizzu signed the legislation on Monday after it was passed by the People’s Majlis, the Maldivian parliament.
Muizzu’s cabinet initially decided to ban all Israeli passport holders from the idyllic island nation in June 2024 until Israel stops its attacks on Palestine, but progress on the legislation stalled.
A bill was presented in May 2024 in the Maldivi-
an parliament by Meekail Ahmed Naseem, a lawmaker from the main opposition, the Maldivian Democratic Party, which sought to amend the country’s Immigration Act.
The cabinet then decided to change the country’s laws to ban Israeli passport holders, including dual citizens. After several amendments, it passed this week, over” The ratification reflects the government’s firm stance in response to the continuing atrocities and ongoing acts of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people,” Muizzu’s office said in a statement.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday that at least 1,613 Palestinians had been killed since 18 March, when a ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October
2023 to 50,983. The ban goes into immediate effect.
“The Maldives reaffirms its resolute solidarity with the Palestinian cause,” the statement added.
Last year, in response to talk of a ban, Israel’s for eign ministry advised its citizens against travelling to the country.
Chequered history
The Maldives is an Islamic republic made up of 1,129 islands. It is considered one of the world’s premier beach vacation destina tions, known for its coral reefs, white sandy beaches and picturesque lagoons.
This isn’t the first time the Maldives has issued a travel ban on Israelis. The Maldives recognised Israel and established diplomatic relations after Israel became the third state to recognise the island nation in 1965 -
was lifted in the 1990s, and in 2009, Maldives and Israel signed several cooperation agreements to improve relations.
However, in 2018, under new leadership, those agreements were severed, and the two countries have
In 2024, the country took in nearly two million tourists, with the top five arrivals from China, Italy, India, Russia, and the United Kingdom. Most tourist arrivals come from Europe (54 percent), and Asia and the Pacific are in second place with 35 percent of all
MYM Ambassadors for Change Community Outreach Event
MYM hosted a week long leadership programme during the winter vacation, entitled ‘Ambassadors for Change’, a transformative leadership initiative aimed at empowering youth to positively impact their communities.
This distinctive programme merges theoretical knowledge with practical experience, motivating participants to plan and engage in activities that support those in need.
On Wednesday, 2nd April 2025, our Ambassadors from Islamic Guidance, led by Hafsa and Ammaarah, took on a significant
challenge and prepared 600 sandwiches that was distributed on the beachfront and Overport to those in need epitomizing the essence of compassion and community service.
This touching project was made possible through a collaborative effort with our Ambassadors Attiyah and Suhail from Orient Islamic School, who generously contributed towards the food items.Throughout this endeavour, the students were guided by Sr Zubaidah Ayob, a devoted mentor from the Muslim Youth Movement. MYM supports the various activities of all the Ambassadors, ensuring they feel empowered every
country in the first quarter of 2024, down 89 percent from 4,644 in the first quarter of 2023. According to government data, over 200,000 tourists visited the Maldives this February, 59 of whom were Israeli. Middle East Eye
Road to Jerusalem blocked by Arab tyrants groups
By Mazen Hakim
What good is a call for jihad when the gates of Gaza are sealed by Arab tyrants?
This week, a group of prominent Muslim scholars issued a fatwa calling for jihad in response to Israel’s ongoing annihilation of Gaza. Their statement, steeped in classical jurisprudence and moral outrage, arrives as bombs fall on children, hospitals, and entire neighborhoods with clinical brutality.
The outrage is justified.
The legal reasoning, Islamic scholars might find co -
betrayal—the corrupt Arab despots that have collaborated with, enabled, and shielded Israel and its Western backers for decades.
The kings, princes, and generals who rule in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Amman, Manama, and Rabat are not merely indifferent to Palestinian suffering. They are its accomplices.
Let’s talk plainly.
When Egypt’s military junta seals the Rafah border while Gaza bleeds, what right has it to call itself an ally of the Palestinian people?
When Mohammed bin Salman courts Israeli tech
tions at the UN, what “solidarity” does that represent?
When Jordan’s security services coordinate daily with Israel, and Morocco trains its military alongside the IDF, what illusion remains?
These regimes are not defenders of the ummah. They are its jailers. And no amount of scholarly verbiage can disguise that.
The true front line of liberation does not begin at Gaza’s edge—it begins in the palaces, prisons, and parliaments of the Arab world. It begins with naming these regimes for what they are: the local enforcers of a re-
MBS, MBZ, Abdullah and the rest is not just insufficient—it is complicit.
It gives moral cover to regimes that have done everything in their power to ensure that Gaza remains isolated, the resistance strangled, and the Arab street demobilized.
The Qur’anic command to “stand firmly for justice” (Q. 4:135) is not a license for selective outrage.
It is a call to moral and political clarity. And that clarity demands that any meaningful solidarity with Palestine must begin with the overthrow of the despotic regimes that have enabled
