How Can We Eat as Banu Hashim Go Hungry?

The people of Gaza-displaced, bombed, and stripped of basic human necessities-are now being starved in front of the watching world. This is not a famine born out of natural disaster.

It is not the result of drought or an earth that failed to yield. It is a man-made siege, one that has turned a population of over two million into victims of deliberate, systematic deprivation.

There are no functioning hospitals. No standing schools. No safe shelters. No access to clean water or food. The streets are filled with the hollow eyes of children too weak to cry and the broken bodies of the elderly. Hundreds die every single day. Tens of thousands face the slow, cruel death of starvation. And all of this is happening while the world watches-and does nothing.

This is not a tragedy of neglect. It is a crime of precision. There are trucks loaded with food, medicine, and formula sitting idle at border crossings. The world has the resources. It has the means. But it does not have the political will, because Israel-the occupying apartheid regime-has decided that even the smallest child in Gaza is guilty by birth. Innocent babies are being denied formula. Wounded children are being denied medicine. Civilians are being punished for simply existing.

A Dark Page in Human History

As a student of history, one can look back at many dark chapters-wars, famines, genocides. There have been cities starved during sieges, and nations who fell into famine because the rain did not come or the land gave no yield. But never in human history have we witnessed an entire population of over two million people being intentionally starved while the world not only watches, but justifies it.

We've seen these images before-emaciated bodies, skeletal children. We saw them in black and white from the Nazi death camps. Today, they are broadcast in full color from Gaza. And while comparisons must be handled with care, one cannot help but feel that this generation is witnessing a cruelty that even the horrors of the past might pale against-not in degree, but in brazenness. This is no longer hidden. It's live-streamed.

The Hypocrisy of Condemnation

The United Nations has issued statements. European nations have spoken out. But where is the action? Condemnation without consequence is complicity. And worse still is the deafening silence from many within our own ranks.

Where is the Muslim Ummah? Where are the two billion Muslims who claim to be united by the bonds of faith? Why do we not feel the cries of Gaza's children as our own?

Even in pre-Islamic Mecca, when the Quraysh imposed a cruel boycott against the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his companions, pagan tribesmen eventually tore up the treaty out of sheer humanity. They could hear the cries of starving Muslim babies echoing from the valleys, and it broke their hearts.

Are we to believe that today's Muslims have less mercy than the pagans of Quraysh?

A Failure of Leadership

This is not just a failure of humanity. It is a failure of leadership. While we do not expect anything moral or just from the Zionist regime, and we understand the compromised positions of Western politicians, what excuse do Muslim leaders have?

Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, the Gulf states-where is your spine? Where is your collective will? If even a few of you stood together and said, "We are sending humanitarian aid-nothing more, nothing less," who would dare stop you? Send baby formula. Send water. Send medicine. Open your borders. Let the Ummah pay for it. We will. But we cannot act without you.

You boast of defending the Ummah. You rally your people with slogans about Islamic honor and pride. Where is that pride now? Where is that honor when Gaza's children are starving?

What Can We Do?

So, what is our role as individuals? Firstly, speak. Do not be afraid. Do not be silenced by fear of labels. If the children of Gaza are dying, the very least you can do is raise your voice.

And do not fall into the propaganda trap. Every time you speak, they ask, "But do you condemn October 7th?" We say: Do you condemn apartheid? Do you condemn ethnic cleansing? Do you condemn the starvation of babies? Do you condemn decades of occupation and violence? Enough is enough. We must reclaim the narrative.

Secondly, while individual calls to physical action may fall outside our means and jurisdiction, collective pressure must be applied on our governments. Muslim leaders must be held accountable. We must call them out publicly and persistently: Why are you silent? Why are you inactive? You have the means to act. Then act.

This is not just about Palestine. This is about what kind of people we are. What kind of Ummah we want to be. If we cannot feed starving babies, if we cannot speak truth when oppression reigns, if we cannot act when genocide unfolds in front of our eyes-then what is left of our dignity?

To Allah we complain. Upon the oppressors lies the ultimate blame. But upon the silent lies the shame.

Let the world know: Gaza will not be forgotten. Palestine will not be erased. And the cries of the hungry will one day be answered-if not by man, then by the Most Just of judges.