What stopped Egypt opening its border, as Turkey and Lebanon did for Syrian refugees, as Bangladesh did for the Rohingya, or as Poland did for Ukraine?
Instead, everybody parroted the anti-Quranic line of Al-Azhar: stay in harm’s way and die in your land. Why?
Well, now you’ve got what you wanted. That desperate people are trapped, with no way out.
We know a lady locally who was raising funds to pay the extortionate fees to get their remaining family across the border and out to safety.
But it’s too late now. They are trapped. This a family that has already lost multiple members in air strikes on their home and an assault on a hospital.
They raised what they could through their network of friends, but it was not enough. It makes all of us wonder: could we have done more?
Well, of course we could. But perhaps none could have done more than a neighbouring state, who could have opened that crossing to a desperate people.
The argument against being that if they leave, they will lose their lands forever. But, of course, if you’re dead, it’s the same result.
Has everyone forgotten that the central tennet of faith is the preservation of life? That we are called to establish a state of safety for all? Well, clearly.
Maybe it’s time the esteemed scholars of Al-Azhar opened the Book they claim to profess? Doesn’t it speak of the best of us forced to make migrations to safety for millennia?
Bangladesh took in a million refugees, in the midst of their own state of emergency caused by unprecedented floods. Turkey took in 3.6 million. Indeed, Egypt itself has taken more than half a million from Sudan and neighbouring states.
Why could it not do the same for the people of Gaza? Some cite security concerns. Some claim it would undermine prospects of the establishment of a Palestinian state. Others cite pseudo-religious reasons.
But none of those reasons is really persuasive to the ordinary man and woman, now facing their fate.
Rather, they ask themselves the same question posed by the Quran: is God’s earth not spacious enough for us to emigrate to somewhere else?
Shame on those who could not provide a place of refuge to the most desperate in their time of need. Do we not fear a meeting with our Lord?
Last modified: 21 September 2024
