Saudi allies embrace Israeli expansion project

The process of Palestinian displacement began under British colonialism and continues more than a century on, attracting new quislings willing to betray a cause dear to the Muslim world.

At stake is the Palestinian dream of statehood, despite losing a vast part of their historical land to the father of modern political Zionism Theodor Herzl's Jewish state project.

Also at stake is the right of Islamic communities to reclaim their third holiest city, Jerusalem, while recognizing the city's status as Palestine's future capital.

It has been an old Zionist plan to occupy as much Arab land as possible to render the Palestinians stateless under illegal Israeli occupation or to subject them to other forms of terror.

A genuine regional campaign, in which Egypt and Jordan must play a significant role, can help the Palestinians in achieving their ambitions.

It is clear that Israel and its Zionist allies would not yield an inch to them willingly. Israel's Zionist allies are those who support its racist occupation and policies, including successor states of European colonialism, the United States, and the Arab dictators whose survival depends on Western tutelage.

Even today, Britain is unapologetic for its crimes in Palestine. After British colonialism, the U.S. became the Jewish state's protector and collaborator and continues to subsidize its aggression.

U.S. policy

U.S. leaders follow the tradition of their predecessors in manipulating Arabs, chiefly the Saudi kingdom, to serve Israeli interests.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945 may have failed in getting Saudi Arabia's founder King Abdulaziz, also known as Ibn Saud, to endorse the Israeli project, but he did win a relationship that serves American and Western interests to this day.

Now, U.S. President Donald Trump is confident he will get King Abdulaziz's descendants to enthusiastically embrace Israel.

https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/saudi-allies-embrace-israeli-expansion-project

How coronavirus became a mental disease in India

The coronavirus is causing India to become ill in a way that no other countries would consider normal. Slow to react to the pandemic, India has not tested its citizens for the infection in anywhere near sufficient numbers, and its initial response to the shortage of medical equipment and tools has left health staff frustrated.

Quacks, faith healers and various controversial politicians have had a jolly good time offering coronavirus cures. These include drinking cow urine to ward off the virus, rubbing one's hands on an owl's back, standing in the sunlight and so on.

Following this lackadaisical approach, India came to impose the biggest lockdown the world has ever seen. Not even in China, where the virus originated and played havoc in the city of Wuhan, could think of forcing its entire population indoors.

When Wuhan was put on lockdown, pretentious opiners among the Indian elite mocked Chinese authoritarianism to establish their own notions of democratic superiority, suggesting that putting millions under a long curfew was not possible under the Indian ruling system.

Ask Kashmiris and they might tell you about their democratic experiences of curfews, cordon and search operations, interrogations, being charged with draconian laws for expressing political opinions and being held up at military checkpoints.

Two things have become clear under the nationwide lockdown: India doesn't have a supply chain to speak of, and religious hatred fanned by Hindu nationalists has become out of control.

The shutdown also failed to flatten the curve of infections and India on May 15 surpassed China in the total number of recorded COVID-19 positive cases.

I feel sorry for India's cold supply chain and cargo transport, which were supposed to be functioning. Even the biggest Indian retail chains and dairy companies do not follow basic international standards in transporting and storing goods.

Public transport was shut down, leaving millions stranded. When the initial lockdown started, thousands of workers from remote areas employed in large cities defied it to go back to their hometowns.

Hungry and carrying their luggage on their heads, many poor workers decided to walk hundreds of kilometers rather than remain stuck in the cruel cities without any source of income. Some died on the way home. Many fell sick and suffered humiliation and robberies.

Construction workers, carpenters, electricians, cooks, cobblers, rickshaw drivers, domestic help – they all lived on a daily wage – yet once work dried up, they still had to feed themselves and pay rent for their lodgings.

Those who could not leave survived on charity, by borrowing money from others, while some were reduced to begging. Those with savings also have had to rely on erratic grocery deliveries, which are dependent on the whims of the police.

In some places, members of the Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which puts heavy focus on its quest for global power – seeking to take over nuclear-armed Pakistan (and not-so-armed Bangladesh), was seen enforcing the lockdown.

Insufficient efforts

How serious is India in tackling the pandemic? Some journalists and activists have not been timid in exposing the harsh realities of Indian society. Indian elites living in their gated communities hate to be reminded that India has the world's largest share of the poor.

https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/how-coronavirus-became-a-mental-disease-in-india

Muslims targeted as India's lack of capacity to fight COVID-19 exposed

India's lack of capacity in fighting the spread of the coronavirus stands exposed in its substandard quarantine centers and media disinformation campaign against Muslims.

The country is normally eager to present a good image to the outside world, but many Muslim visitors put under coronavirus quarantine in Delhi have been badly treated.

India's Ministry of Home Affairs on April 2 "blacklisted" 960 foreigners for doing tabligh work (sharing Islamic knowledge and values with people and inviting them to this beauty) or propagation of Islam, while being in the country on visit visas. They included Indonesians, Malaysians, people from Kyrgyzstan, Bangladeshis, Algerians, Afghans and some from Western countries.

A total of 2,361 Indians and foreigners were evacuated from the religious group Tablighi Jamaat headquarters, popularly known as Markaz, in Delhi's Nizamuddin area when the place was closed on the morning of April 1 amid a nationwide lockdown to combat the coronavirus.

Most people were sent to quarantine centers, and 617 were taken to hospitals.

There are daily hundreds of people at Markaz, attending sermons and prayers to improve their religious knowledge or seeking spiritual experiences by going to far-flung areas of India for religious propagation.

When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his surprise announcement that the country will go under a three-week lockdown within hours starting March 25, people were told to stay where they were.

No movement of anyone other than those involved in essential services like running utilities, hospitals or food supply chains was allowed.

Those stranded in Markaz sought police and the Delhi administration's help to be sent to their homes and hotels but could not get passes for transportation, according to a Markaz press release on March 31 after they came under a barrage of media criticism for the gathering amid concerns over the coronavirus.

https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/muslims-targeted-as-indias-lack-of-capacity-to-fight-covid-19-exposed

Resistance against injustice toward Muslims grows in India

They are assertive, resolute and articulate. They are attracting admirers and getting noticed by their detractors. They are India's new Muslim youth leaders fighting injustice and inequality.

Since India's Hindu nationalist-dominated Parliament passed a law that grants citizenship to refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan as long as they are not Muslim, there have been protests across the country demanding its repeal.

The movement against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which was passed in December 2019, gathered momentum after protesting students faced a brutal police response.

Delhi police's beating of students at Jamia Millia Islamia, one of India's top universities, in the initial days of what became a national anti-CAA movement was the catalyst for the famous Shaheen Bagh protest in the city.

When Jamia protesters were assaulted, a group of women from the Muslim neighborhood of Shaheen Bagh came out of their homes, occupied a part of the main road and did not leave the site for 101 days.

The sit-in inspired similar protests not only in Delhi but in many states and energized the 200 million-strong Muslim community to demand an end to discriminatory state policies. Shaheen Bagh became a symbol of the anti-CAA movement. Activists and leaders belonging to different backgrounds and faiths considered it a matter of prestige to speak from its platform.

On some days, Shaheen Bagh received tens of thousands of people, including those who came out of curiosity to see how a group of women had organized such a large protest that went on around the clock.

It became a thorn in the government's side and was reviled by various Hindu nationalist groups and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.

https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/resistance-against-injustice-toward-muslims-grows-in-india