After Covid, another global pandemic remains to be eradicated: the one against Muslims. A pandemic made up of massacres, persecutions, and harassments, which have become daily bread in the media, to such an extent that those who are not directly involved, even if they are Muslims, no longer pay attention to them. In doing so, however, we forget that since Allāh Ta’alā has united us all in the Ummah (Sūrat āl-ʿImrān, 3:103), to share the pain and suffering of so many brothers and sisters is a duty imposed on every good Muslim, in order to keep alive the authentic sense of the community of believers along with its unity, especially during the “best of months”: Ramaḍān.
THE UIGUR MUSLIMS VICTIMS OF THE CHINESE “DRAGON”
In the Chinese Xinjang, or rather East Turkestan, ethnic cleansing and genocide are advancing in the concentration camps where more than 3 million Uyghur Muslims are imprisoned: 2 million in the so-called “re-education camps”, 1 million in the “anti-extremism centers”.
In the “re-education camps”, the regime of the Nazi-Fascist-Communist party in Beijing is carrying out an unprecedented brainwashing operation, aimed at transforming Muslims into slaves submitted not to the Most High, but to the majority ethnic group in China, who currently holds the reins of power: the Han. From other areas of the country, over the past 20 years the Han have moved en masse to East Turkestan in order to colonize and subjugate the Uyghur Muslim majority, exploiting it in agricultural and factory work to the last breath. The Uighurs must be “re-educated” to make them forget that they are Muslims, that they must recite the Sūrat al-Khaf every Friday, and that they celebrate Ramaḍān, thus converting them into mindless and soulless beasts of burden, capable only of obeying to the orders of the Chinese masters.
The Uighurs locked up in the “anti-extremism centers” are those who have undertaken the armed struggle to free East Turkestan from the Chinese dictatorship, political opponents of the regime, and anyone who has carried out protest activities. This is a phase prior to brainwashing, of course for those who manage to survive the torture and atrocities of Bejing’s persecutors, which are frequent as a teaching method also in the “re-education camps”.
The 8 million Uyghur Muslims who are still “free” live in the most absolute repression, and know that at any moment their turn may come to be detained in the places of horror where the de-Islamization of the local Ummah is shaytanically being executed. But is Islām so scary? Seemingly yes, and not only for the regime of the Nazi-Fascist-Communist party in Beijing. Let us look at what happens in the countries a little further down the map.
HINDUTVA’S WAR ON INDIAN MUSLIMS
In India, the war waged on Muslims by Hindutva’s militant polytheists is made not simply of repression in a strict sense, such as that carried out in Kashmir. Narendra Modi’s government does not have the strength to adopt the same method in the other states that make up the federation. Therefore, it is resorting to the most shallow and dishonest means in an attempt to stem the expansion of the Indian Muslim community, which is joined by a constantly increasing number of “reverted”, mainly Hindus but also Christians, Sikhs, Jains, and other brothers and sisters who leave the remaining forms of idolatry and paganism still widespread in the subcontinent.
When Allāh Ta’alā guides to the Straight Path (Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm), any excuse is good to target Islām, especially its vital organs, and this was the case of the abolition of the hijāb in the schools of the Karnataka state, and for the law aimed at hindering “mixed” marriages adopted in Karnataka and in Kerala as well. Furthermore, there is a massive campaign to exclude Muslims from the labor world, both in the public and private sectors. Not to mention the rampant disinformation in the media, which continues to discredit Muslims by smearing them for being guilty of any kind of crime or heinousness (thefts, murders, rapes, forced conversions), with fabricated and distorted news.
From mobile phones, the hate and incitement transfer to the streets, where Hindutva’s militants keep assaulting and brutally beating local Muslims, including women, the elderly, and children. Moreover, they burn and damage mosques, schools, and homes on a daily basis. On top of that, the propaganda of terrorist groups such as ISIS and of fake “doctors of the law” such as Zakir Naik, compounded by the nefarious influences of neighboring Pakistan, the cradle of religious “misguidance” for political purposes, do nothing but provide Modi’s government and the Hindutva with new excuses and justifications for targeting Muslims. When will Ramaḍān be abolished?
ROHINGYA MUSLIMS: PERSECUTED BY BUDDHISTS, UNWELCOME GUESTS IN BANGLADESH
If we move to southeast India, we find the enormous tragedy of the Rohingya Muslims. About a million of them took refuge in Bangladesh after being forced to flee the state of Rakhine, due to the ethnic cleansing and genocide perpetrated by the Myanmar’s military regime, driven by the ethno-religious extremism of the Buddhist majority. What Ramaḍān will be for them, in the camps of Kutupalong (the largest in the world) and Nayapara? While there are 150,000 Rohingya Muslims still missing in the Burmese territory, living in makeshift camps and tents. They cannot return home, and not only because they would find it destroyed or occupied, but because they would be faced with by the same context of apartheid and discrimination that the Rohingya Muslims have suffered for decades, which the approximately 300,000 who stayed in the Rakhine state continue to suffer today. They survived violence and abuse, systematic rapes and indiscriminate killings, but without the possibility of escaping from the nightmare of the reality they live in.
On March 5, a fire destroyed 2,800 homes in Balukhali, a subsection of Kutupalong, leaving 15,000 Rohingya Muslims homeless. It is not the first case of fire affecting refugee camps in Bangladesh. Two years ago, in March, a huge fire killed in Balukhali at least 15 people and left 50,000 homeless. Between that tragedy and the one that took place more recently, 222 fires occurred, at least 60 of a proven malicious nature as the last tragic accident. Investigators spoke of a “planned sabotage”: who could have done it? Suspicions converge on Bangladeshi individuals close to the Bangladeshi authorities, who allegedly aim to put pressure on the Rohingya Muslims to leave the country, after having already cut off food and assistance.
These are the Muslims who take it out on other Muslims, instead of showing the due generosity and brotherhood, as part of a single Ummah. “He is not a believer whose stomach is full while his neighbor is hungry”, Prophet Muḥammad SAW said (al-Ādab al-Mufrad, 112). From this point of view, as ordinary Muslims we are (almost) all at fault, or we could certainly do something more. However, when the lack of solidarity comes from the states, which even define themselves as Islamic, it is called institutionalized “hypocrisy”, which makes the need for the Ummah to return to have “well-guided” rulers ever more urgent.
AFGHAN WOMEN AGAIN VICTIMS OF THE TALIBAN’S “IGNORANCE”
In regard to the urgent need for the Ummah to return to have “well-guided” rulers, one cannot help but mention the Taliban “brothers” in Afghanistan, who hold a seasoned experience about harassment against Muslims themselves. Ask the Afghan women who, among the series of measures of segregation and isolation they are being subjected to, have also been completely denied the right to study, in full contradiction of both Sharīʿa and what Islām proved to be throughout history. All the believers, no matter the sex, are called to deepen their education and knowledge as a religious duty. “Read!” (Sūrat al-‘Alaq, 96:1) is certainly not a commandment that the Noble Qurʾān addresses exclusively to “males”. Furthermore, there are more than 2 thousand Ḥadīths of the Sunnah of the Prophet Muḥammad SAW which clearly affirm the centrality of education for the Dīn, without making discriminations.
On the battlefield they are not in question, but certainly a few more hours of religion at school as “students” would have been useful to the Taliban, in order for them to do less harm to other Muslims, women in particular. So let them begin now with the review: “To seek knowledge is a duty for every Muslim, and he who imparts knowledge to those who do not deserve it, is like one who puts a necklace of jewels, pearls, and gold around the necks of pigs” (Sunan Ibn Majah, 224). Does the “neck” mentioned by Prophet Muhammad SAW coincidentally refer to that of the Taliban?
If they accomplished the enterprise of liberating Afghanistan from the occupation of the Western infidels, but then installed a regime even more “sick” than the previous one, was not the situation better before their return to power? We do hope that, in this month of Ramaḍān, the Taliban will not forbid women to eat for Ifṭār after sunset and on the occasion of Eid al-Fiṭr.
THE GREAT TRAGEDIES OF THE SHĀM AND THE ARAB REGION
Current events inevitably bring us back to the Shām. In Syria’s liberated areas under Islamic control, the celebrations for the 12th anniversary of the Revolution on March 15 were extraordinary and moving: a sign that Muslims do not intend to bow to the attacks of the Assad regime and its Russian and Iranian allies. At the same time, the catastrophe that struck the earthquake-hit areas on the border between northern Syria and southern Turkey is massive to say the least. It is a catastrophe that goes beyond the number of dead and injured, the homes and infrastructure destroyed, the material damage caused. Only Allāh Ta’alā knows how much pain and suffering is being harbored in the hearts of the survivors, who already had to suffer a lot due to the abuses of the Assad regime, and now are called to face an even bigger test for their faith (Īmān). May this Ramaḍān serve to draw them ever closer to our Lord, the only true source of strength, hope, and salvation.
The same can be said about the brothers and sisters in Yemen, a country of stunning beauty, still authentically Islamic and Arab, unlike the extremely rich gas-and-oil monarchies of the Peninsula. Alas, Yemen has been overwhelmed by the main dispute that has kept the Ummah divided for centuries, the one between Sunnis and Shiites. The result of the infighting has been so far 20,000 innocent victims, destruction, and one of the worst famines ever. All of that, while al-Qāʿida’s “misguided” terrorists continue to reign undisturbed over a portion of territory in the heart of the country.
Sadness and anger rise even higher into the sky, thinking of the decades of occupation of Palestine and al-Qūds by the Israeli Zionist regime, with the approval of the so-called “international community”. The indomitable resistance of the Palestinians against the injustice of injustices goes on from generation to generation, never giving up. The month of Ramaḍān lived and celebrated in al-Qūds embodies perhaps more than in other places of the Dār al-Islām the collective and social dimension of being Muslims: millions of believers, brothers and sisters, all united in the Ummah to pray and bring praise to the Lord in the al-Aqṣā Mosque, reaffirming one’s adherence to the Tawḥīd in the footsteps of Prophet ʾIbrāhīm AS, under the golden dome of the al-Haram al-Sharīf. Zionists, driven by envy and jealousy, will never be able to subdue this.
WHAT ABOUT OUR RAMAḌĀN?
This is the point of view of a brother who was born, lived, and returned to Islām in the Italian and European Dār al-Ḥarb. It would be unfair not to admit that the situation here for Muslims is far better than elsewhere, as is evident from what has been described so far, both from the security and the economic point of view. Otherwise, there would not be that large number of brothers and sisters who, from Africa and the areas mentioned above, try to land on the Italian coasts at the risk of their lives. Then, even the freedom to invite to Islām through the Daʿwa is not lacking at all, and Ramaḍān is really a valuable opportunity to share with the non-Muslim majority how “beneficial” the knowledge of (the) Religion is.
On the other hand, we are also aware that the situation could get worse in the near future. The alarm bells abound. “Islamophobic” offenses, demonizations, and incidents are on the rise, and the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand, which took place 4 years ago (51 dead and as many injured), is a prospect that could also materialize in the region of the Dār al-Ḥarb in which we find ourselves in, as a reaction to Islam’s natural conquest of hearts and minds. Furthermore, the challenges of the jāhiliyya that surround us are becoming ever more pressing, and risk of contaminating the Ummah as well, “misguiding” especially the new generations of Muslims.
In short, we too have our problems as Muslims, but woe to being self-referential, forgetting about the brothers and sisters who have a much harder life than ours. Therefore, let us make this Ramaḍān of the year 1444 even more special, making an “effort” (Jihād) to remember them, dedicating our thoughts and reflections, our prayers and invocations to their predicament. It does not matter if at a distance, as long as we are sincere. Allāh SWT, the Lord of the Worlds, will appreciate it.
Jihād senza Spada 