Mirza Kashif Baig
The early months of 2025 have brought an alarming escalation in the suffering of Palestinians. Even during a brief ceasefire in January, Palestinian families were still retrieving bodies from previous bombardments, and the wounded succumbed to untreated injuries. This fragile lull shattered in mid-March when Israel unleashed a renewed onslaught on the Gaza Strip. In a single night of bombing on March 18, more than 400 Palestinians were killed as warplanes pounded densely populated neighbourhoods. Gaza’s hospitals, already barely functioning, were overwhelmed by waves of victims, many of them children pulled from the rubble of their homes.
By April 2025, the scale of carnage reached unspeakable levels. Gaza’s health authorities reported over 50,000 Palestinians killed since the war’s start in late 2023 a staggering toll that climbed rapidly in recent weeks. At least 17,000 of the dead are children, a whole generation wiped out before our eyes. Tens of thousands more are injured, and thousands remain missing beneath collapsed buildings. The humanitarian situation is nightmarish: more than two million people trapped under relentless bombardment, with food, water and electricity often completely cut off. It is a campaign of collective punishment that grows more brutal by the day.
Even outside Gaza, the cruelty continues unabated. In the occupied West Bank, deadly military raids on Palestinian towns, home demolitions, and attacks on worshippers at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque have further deepened Palestinian agony. Equally shocking as these atrocities is the world’s deafening silence or worse, its hypocrisy. As Israel intensifies this campaign of collective punishment, most world leaders offer nothing beyond hollow words. The United Nations has convened emergency sessions, only to see meaningful action blocked by powerful allies of Israel. The same international community that preaches human rights watches quietly as an entire people is decimated in real time.
Consider the contrast: if any other military had slaughtered tens of thousands of civilians in a few months, global sanctions and war-crimes tribunals would be assured. Yet for Gaza, the unacceptable has been normalised under the pretext of “self-defence.” Bombing hospitals and apartment blocks is excused; humanitarian aid is openly obstructed in violation of international law with impunity. Apart from a few voices calling it the worst humanitarian crisis in decades, there is mostly silence or outright complicity. This moral paralysis has only emboldened Israel’s extremist government to push even further.
Every day that the world averts its gaze, more innocent lives are extinguished. With each Palestinian child killed and each neighbourhood reduced to dust, a question haunts the global conscience: How can genocide unfold in plain sight, yet those with the power to stop it choose inaction?
Amid this bleak reality, a powerful voice of moral clarity has emerged from Pakistan. In April 2025, an assembly of the country’s most prominent Islamic scholars led by Mufti Taqi Usmani and Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman issued a joint religious decree (fatwa) declaring that armed jihad against Israel has become obligatory for Muslim governments, given the carnage in Gaza and the world’s indifference.
“What is the purpose of our armies and weapons, if not to protect our brothers and sisters?” Mufti Taqi Usmani asked, giving voice to the frustration of millions. “Over 50,000 Palestinian Muslims have been martyred in Gaza right before our eyes. We have failed to take practical steps. Instead of holding conferences in Islamabad, we should be standing with the freedom fighters in Gaza.” His words struck at the heart of Muslim leaders’ inertia. Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman concurred, emphasizing that according to Islamic law, when any Muslim community is under attack, jihad (armed struggle) becomes fard a mandatory duty on all Muslims to help defend them.
This fatwa was a call for action, not just emotion. It urged Pakistan’s government and all Muslim nations to move beyond rhetoric and heed their religious and moral duty to confront Israel’s aggression. The scholars cut through the fog of political excuses and reminded the Ummah that when oppression reaches such horrifying extremes, resisting it is not merely permitted it is compulsory.
The stance of these scholars is strongly supported by Islamic scripture and tradition. The Qur’an commands believers: “And what is [the matter] with you that you fight not in the cause of Allah and [for] the oppressed men, women, and children?” (Qur’an 4:75). When innocent people are being massacred and driven from their homes, Islam makes it a duty for the faithful to stand against the oppressor. Jihad, far from being an act of mindless violence, means a just struggle to protect the innocent and uphold justice when all other means have failed.
Islam also places immense emphasis on Muslim unity and mutual responsibility. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught that “the believers are like one body; if one part of the body is hurt, the whole body reacts with fever and pain.” By this analogy, the pain of a child in Gaza should be felt by a family in Pakistan or Turkey as their own. The Qur’an urges, “And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided” (3:103), underscoring that Muslims must stand together. When any part of the Ummah bleeds, the entire Ummah is obligated to respond as one. Coming to Palestine’s aid is not a matter of charity or politics but a religious obligation.
If Israel’s onslaught is not confronted now, it will not stop at Palestine. An aggressor emboldened by impunity will inevitably set its sights on new targets. Already, some in Israel openly speak of expanding beyond Palestine. Today, it is Gaza’s children; tomorrow, it could be another Muslim community facing the same fate. History shows that when one of us is attacked and we do nothing, we invite the oppressor to attack us all, one by one.
The only effective answer is unity and action. The Muslim world, 1.5 billion strong, must finally unite in purpose. Our leaders should take tangible steps from cutting diplomatic ties and boycotts to forming a joint defence pact to truly protect Palestinian lives. Such measures may be daunting, but the alternative is a future of humiliation and subjugation.
We now stand at a moral crossroads. What does it mean to be a Muslim or even a human being if we allow this slaughter to continue? If we fail this test, we not only betray the Palestinians but also the core ideals of our faith. Future generations would ask why we stayed silent in the face of such evil. Yet if we rise together now, we can change the course of history. Let this be the moment the Ummah rediscovers its courage and unity. Our actions must match our prayers for Palestine. Even a small light can pierce the darkness; if millions act as one, that light becomes an unquenchable blaze of justice.
The blood of Gaza’s children cries out to our collective conscience. We must answer not just with tears or words, but with the will to do what is right. We believe that if we stand firm for justice, divine help will be with us. Now is the time to prove that the Ummah is alive, that our bonds of brotherhood are real, and that we will no longer stand by while our brethren are slaughtered. History is watching, and so is our Creator. The choice is ours unite now in the cause of justice, or fall divided under the weight of injustice. The time to act is now.
The author is the Editor of Monthly Interaction.
