As Salaamu Alaikum and Greetings of Peace:
My heart is heavy ... I have a lot going on. Alhamdulillah, it's not as bad as some people have it. It's merely another test, or rather a series of them, and it will be okay, Insha Allaah.
The thing about it is that it has paralyzed my writing voice. Some people get writer's block. I'm not blocked. I have a lot to say. But my friend Aaminah put a quote on her Facebook page that describes it perfectly for me:
""One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter." (James Earl Jones)
In addition to my own problems, it just seems to me that the whole world has gone crazy - The BP oil catastrophe on the Gulf Coast, the Arizona immigration law ...
And the fitnah on a lot of the Muslim blogs is also depressing. It seems like every click on my list of blog feeds, takes me to a place that gives me a grand headache. More than once, I have started to write a comment, but canceled it. What's the use?
But, a recent court battle won by Gisha of its Freedom of Information Act petition got me thinking (after I got over my waves of nausea), and has motivated me to write.
You can go to the link and read for yourself and see the lists of items that the Israelis consider contraband for Gaza in the name of national security (like coriander, lol), but what REALLY caught my eye was that Israel admits the existence of a "red line" document that establishes the minimum nutritional requirements for the residents of Gaza BUT REFUSES TO REVEAL IT! I read somewhere else that the Israeli government is trying to determine how much food a person from Gaza needs based on gender, age, etc., to prevent starvation.
Ya Allah ... Ya Rabb
How can a people who suffered the cruel atrocities of the Nazis even dream up such a plan?
And now this morning - we wake up to the news of the Israeli IDF assault on the Freedom Flotilla that was taking aid to the people in Gaza. This flotilla was the 9th such trip of international peace activists, mainly organized by the Free Gaza Movement. Seventy-five miles off the coast of Isreal, in international waters, the IDF attacked the flotilla of six ships, and then boarded the Turkish vessel, Mavi Marmara. All of this is in direct violation of international law. (And so is the blockade of Gaza, by the way ...) Facts are hard to come by at this time, but what is known is that a number of civilians have been murdered by the IDF, and some 800+ activists are being held by the Israelis out of communication with their familes and embassies.
Until this incident, Turkey was the only Muslim friend of Israel.
Lately, however, there have been problems and tensions have risen.
When I was in Istabul a few months ago, we were the guests of a Turkish aid organization called Yardimeli that does a lot of work in Gaza. Shortly before we arrived, a Yardimeli group had gone to Gaza to bring aid. When the group prepared for return to Turkey, one of its team members was not permitted by the Israeli government to come home. For no reason. Except to discourage people and organizations from helping the Gazans. Alhamdulillah, on the day we left, the brother was allowed to return to Turkey. But, the Turkish government had to get involved. All of Yardimeli's efforts to resolve any "problem" the Israelis might of had was in vain.
Well, the Turkish government is now pissed. Allaah only knows where this Flotilla crime will lead.
Say dua. Please.
Insha Allaah I will be writing a series of posts about Jewish people and Israel. But, I leave you with this fact: not all Jewish people are Zionists. Even some Zionists in Israel do not like what's going on with Gaza. Please remember this.
