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Thu. Jan. 1, 2009
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Politics in depth > The Americas > Society
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Blog 
US Muslim & Gaza: Media Fuss, Govt. Pressures
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About Umar Lee
Over the last several days a growing frustration has emerged amongst American Muslims at this mass killing being perpetrated with our tax dollars.
The administration of President George W. Bush in its last days has put the full blame for the conflict on Hamas and has basically given Israel a "blank check" to defend itself. For his part, President-elect Barack Obama has mostly stayed silent and this has left American Muslims, who supported him in large numbers, frustrated.
The mainstream American news media has basically provided an imbalanced view on the conflict with a pro-Israel slant. We are constantly hearing from media that "both sides are equally at fault" and "Hamas triggered this conflict by firing missiles into Israel," and both of these allegations are false.
The firing of rockets by Hamas into Israel did not occur as an act of offensive aggression; but as an act of self-defense in order to break the inhumane and illegal blockade Israel has set up around Gaza with the tactical support of the Egyptian government. All of the rockets fired by Hamas combined have only killed a handful of Israelis while Israeli airstrikes have killed hundreds of innocent Palestinians in just a few days.
The mainstream media in America is telling the public that the issue is the Hamas rocket attacks and that Israel is taking precautions to not kill civilians. Once again, both of these are false messages. The issue is the embargo that is causing so much misery to the Palestinian people. Without the embargo, and the instigation by Israel and America to remove the democratically-elected Hamas government from power and then isolate it, there would have been no rocket attacks. It is also a statement of fact that you cannot bomb one of the most densely populated areas in the world and say you are taking precautions not to kill civilians.
American Muslims Would Like to Do More …
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| (Reuters Photo) |
Muslims in America have been organizing to highlight these facts. The Muslim American Society (MAS) in conjunction with the ANSWER Coalition has held a number of rallies throughout the country in support of the people of Gaza. In Chicago and New York, protesters rallied in front of the Israeli consulates and in DC the local Muslim community organized a rally in front of the Israeli embassy led by MAS. In Dallas, local Muslim leaders and MAS Youth led a rally at Daly Plaza (the site where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated).
Tuesday, in St. Louis, I attended a press conference with local Muslim, Jewish, and Christian leaders at the Dar Al-Islam Masjid calling for an end to the attacks by Israel and the end of the embargo. After the meeting several local Muslims agreed to work together to raise money to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza. This effort is complicated by the fact that the Israeli navy is blocking the delivery of humanitarian goods, and those charities set up to help the Palestinian people, such as the Holy Land Foundation, have been closed by the American government.
Many American Muslims would like to do more, even if that means physically travelling to Gaza to help the people but feel they would risk imprisonment by the American authorities upon return. For now, American Muslims are limited to raising money for charities that may or may not be able to deliver relief to the people of Gaza, and calling and writing to American politicians, who for the most part, have turned a blind eye to the suffering of the people of Gaza.
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