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Shamsi Ali*
Since October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas that resulted in the killing of hundreds, including many civilians, and the brutal counter attacks by the Israelis that’s already killed several thousands, including over 1700 Palestinian children, the cycles of violence are continuing and apparently will continue until “only God knows” when it will end.
I am not talking anymore about what’s going on and its effects. We all can see through the media, both mainstream and social media, how big the magnitude of this war is. What I wanted to remind people about is what we can do in our own way and capacity to help to end the violence so that hopefully peace can take place and prevail.
Here are seven things we may do to help:
1. Continue to build and grow a sense of solidarity to all victims, especially those innocent civilians, especially the children, women and the elderly. In this challenging time, may we all learn to put our feet in other’s shoe, imagining ourselves being in their situation with their pain and suffering.
2. Continue to educate ourselves and those around us on the true facts and the reality of this conflict. Too many lies, hoaxes and fake news are being spread around to build the wrong image and perception about one another leading us into wrong and even unjust stands and responses.
3. Continue to reach out to friends and partners to work for dialogue and peace. As many bad people are out there, trust there are more good ones. We must continue our networking for dialogue, peace and the common good. It’s the time to work closely with our interfaith partners to create a conducive environment for our respective communities to engage in a peaceful and harmonious manner.
4. Continue our commitment for peace, harmony, justice and equal treatment of all, and be consistent with our moral values, both human and religious ones. This conflict often leads us to a blind sentiment and emotion, even irrationality and negative responses. Hence, we must continue our commitment and stick to our common human and religious moral ground.
5. Continue to remind or pressure our government to do more for peace and cooperation, rather than wars and more killings. World governments must not use this unfortunate time to pursue their own political agenda, either domestic or global. They must put aside their narrow interests to pursue and advance the interest of peace and world harmony.
6. Continue your generous and kind help to ease the burdens of the innocent victims on the ground. Do help with hearts and in the name of human morality, not by blind emotion and sentiment. Those innocent civilians have suffered so much and are in need of our compassionate hearts to help.
7. Continue to pray for the victims, pray for peace and harmony, pray for justice and fairness, and pray for those seeking their basic rights to be granted regardless who they are.
Manhattan City, 22 October 2023
*An Imam & Interfaith Activist in New York
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