Akhtar Raja
A human has a transitory existence and cuts a weak figure whatever he says or does: puny and devoid of real power. Irrespective of his claims and scramble for life, death will find him, and he will ‘taste’ it. This reality needs to be refreshed in every Muslim’s mind.
Introspection is the regular reset without which we lose our Muslimness. Except for things that provide some salvation, after crossing dimensions, our legacies are worthless. Ego will no longer enjoy gratification. The pilgrim’s ihram and the corpse’s kaffan mark our equality and poverty. Power only rests with Allah. We endeavour to wholly relinquish and submit to His will as our prioritised commitment.
Perhaps something along these lines, highlighting our fragility and purpose, whether individually or collectively, could be the preamble of a charter for an alliance of Muslim states. What would make that a reality? A moment when we transition from the phenomenon described in the ‘wahan’ hadith to a dignified, liberated, and united body, with each nation keeping its individual sovereignty.
Every Muslim state’s inclusion regardless of its economic and political capacity is necessary.
African states must be embraced as equals. Some have begun to assert themselves. Three African leaders from the military-led Sahel region—Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have announced withdrawal from the International Criminal Court pointing to its perceived “neo- colonial repression” and “selective justice” against African nations. The Malian emperor, Mansa Musa, would be proud of the move to reassert dignity.
An alliance of Muslim military forces could help stop bombs and bullets and allow unrestricted access to food, water, and medicines for Palestinians. How? The first step is the deployment of a stabilization and peacekeeping force. This has to take place now and cannot be contingent on any further condemnations, speeches, negotiations, plans or diplomatic acrobatics. The real intention of Trump’s ‘plan’ is not to pause killing.
Muslim states possess effective collective negotiating leverage to require this precondition.
This includes withholding commitments made to Trump following his Middle Eastern tour in May 2025; pausing all trade with US and Israel; redirecting military spending to the Global South and among Muslim states; revisiting current and intended sovereign investments; reviewing oil and gas pricing and supplies and so on.
Some must refrain from sycophancy, shameful Nobel peace prize nominations, undignified servitude, and trading all of that for national (or personal) interests instead of saving lives.
Pakistan would benefit from recalling Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s words about Israel. The priority now is looking for the fastest way to stop the genocide while political solutions are discussed. Jumping into the latter before securing the former is a trap. The writing was always on the wall and naivety, or wilful denial, is inexcusable. Positions are intractable and diametrically opposed. Israel will not accept Palestinian statehood and forego its longing for Judea and Samaria and down the road, establishing a Greater Israel.
The 20 point Trump peace plan has every feature necessary to render it stillborn.
The subject matter, the Palestinians, were excluded from its crafting. The two persons who dictate the proposal’s acceptability is down to someone whose every utterance causes fact checkers to implode, and a pathological liar whose savagery knows no bounds. Acceptability is totally unconnected with the reality of its workability. The plan gives Israel a freehand with timing, withdrawal (if at all), and interpreting terms. Palestinians will surrender defence or resistance capabilities while a subtle system of indoctrination to strip Palestinians of their ideological identities will be introduced. As drawn, the plan opens doors to maximise eradication and complete subjugation. Foreign interests will determine and pursue investment opportunities. A resurrected figure guilty of war crimes and responsible for the catastrophic Iraqi war will help run the show, while an unscrupulous real estate developer lays building foundations on corpses. (Together they would create a resort so exclusive that even ice creams would replace the original palatable ‘Ben & Jerry’s’ with an unpalatable ‘Blair & Kushner’s’.) But in the final analysis this is all academic. Lucifer rejects agreeing to a Palestinian state and the plot (not plan) is to give cover to Israel’s ambitions. Remember, even now, Netanyahu says he is ‘not yet done’ At best, while remaining overly optimistic, the plan (whichever version is waived in front of us) must be relegated to a discussion paper. The Palestinians do not have the luxury of time to travel down a long arduous and convoluted road of negotiations with nothing realistic on offer. This will be another journey of betrayal calculated to strip them of land, dignity, and culture.
In the meantime, some leaders of major Western states have performed political ablution washing their blood-soaked hands to uphold the ritual of accepting Palestinian statehood.
That contributes nothing to an immediate cessation of the genocide. On the contrary, they continue to provide intelligence, military, and economic support to Israel while cracking down at home to muffle voices against the slaughter.
The Abraham Accords need to be rewritten to reflect the true basis of recognition: monotheistic submission and a nation of those (and not their slayers) bound together in such submission. The quality of such bond is stronger than blood ties: Prophet Noah was told his son was not part of his family. He was bound to his people in faith. Submission to Allah is submission to justice. Justice is for every soul irrespective of their belief. It is this Abrahamic nation that will unite Muslim states and put them in a position to prevent genocide now, and to subsequently look at plans for Palestine critically and objectively, having set aside their own political polarisation. Their biggest ‘Ally’ would fill any ‘perceived’ insufficiencies.
— Akhtar Raja is a British lawyer based in London and Principal of Quist Solicitors
* The views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication.
