Newspapers are again filled with headlines depicting Muslims in various ways across the country. This time it is a sixteen year old boy, callously shot by Israeli occupying forces only to become another statistic and cast aside without the blink of an eye. Did I say newspaper headlines? I apologise and correct myself. The news was not important enough to warrant headlines. It is not something we are interested to hear about anymore. After all it is a daily occurrence. What is one more life in an already uncountable number? Tomorrow it will be a young girl, heartlessly thrown to the wolves only to be filed and stored into a drawer. And some are not even ‘merited’ such a ritual. They are simply trod on like an inconvenient piece of litter that has come in the way, their bodies lying forgotten in the dust.

Day by day we hear news of increasing torment, suffering and pain that we are running out of adjectives to describe it. Agony, Anguish, Ordeal, they are but a few but we are living in times that go beyond words. Day by day there is news of escalating distress among our brothers and sisters in Palestine. In Iraq. In Kashmir. In Bosnia. Yet day by day our hearts are hardening.

Now the screams of a mother as she holds the lifeless body of her child in her arms does nothing to move us. Now the silent cries of a sister being raped and brutally murdered do nothing to horrify us. Now the lost torn look in the eyes of a 6 year old as he gazes at the blackened remains of his home do nothing to wrench our hearts. Nor do the millions of lifeless bodies lying across the land bring tears to our eyes.

Our hearts have hardened. They glow no longer with the sweet light of Imaan. They hurt no longer for the hundreds of wasted lives. They weep no longer for the innocent blood running through this land. The blood of innocent children. The blood of war-torn countries. The blood of our brothers and sisters.

But wait…what am I saying? They are no longer our brothers and sisters. Now it is Us and Them. It is Me and You. They are far removed from us. They are nothing more then a sad story in a distant land. We refer to them as Palestinians, as Bosnians. We refer to them as Iraqis, as Shias, as Sunnis, but we never refer to them as our brothers and sisters. Their pain does not become our pain. Their suffering does not become our suffering. Their torment does not become our torment. We are divided. And hear me, for I cannot call you brother. I cannot call you sister, for I know when I need you; you will not come to my aid. And please don’t call me your sister. Don’t call me your brother, for I am not sure if I will come to your aid. We are divided. Divided we have fallen and have been torn apart.

We are no longer in the time like that of our Prophet when brotherhood was so strong it coursed through your body like fire and gave you strength. It made you stand tall. It gave you respect and dignity. It gave you pride. But we have lost it all you and I. We have lost it because we chose to let ourselves be divided. We have chosen to turn our backs on our brothers and sisters. We have chosen to turn our backs on our religion. Now we are paraded through the western media like juicy pieces of gossip. Our names are blackened in people’s homes. We are exploited and ridiculed as entertainment in Hollywood blockbusters. We have been divided and conquered by the very people that are humiliating us today.

Have you ever thought it could be your son an Israeli soldier shoved in front of him as a human shield? It could have been your husband being tortured behind the iron bars of Guantanomo Bay. It could have been you daughter being sodomised by one of the U.S. troops. It could have been your brother, uncle or aunt being blown to bits in a roadside bomb in Iraq. It could even be you, lying dead in an alley in Palestine while civilians screaming in fear tripped over your rotting corpse. Do the pictures I present disturb you? Well then it would disturb you even more when I tell you the reality is a hundred times worse. Imagine the worst media scenario and then times that by 10. That’s the reality.

I send out a message to you today. Please take a moment to hear it. Please don’t close your eyes and ears to the plea of our brothers and sisters suffering everywhere. Open your hearts to compassion, humility, empathy, values that were so highly encouraged at the time of our beloved Prophet. Let us look inside ourselves and see what is lacking. Let our hearts glow again with the sweet light of Imaan.

Please brothers and sisters…. take a stand. An hour of your day volunteering in a Muslim organisation. A letter to your local MP. Your vote against an Islam phobic politician. Your voice raised in protest at the atrocities committed far and wide. An email of objection sent to the press about their unlawful comments on Islam. Your contribution to your local mosque in helping to bring the community together. Even something as little as donating a five pound note. We can all do something.

Let us all come back together, uniting under the one banner. The banner of brotherhood. Let us stand united. It is never too late. One voice. One nation. One common goal. Remember brothers and sisters…United we stand, divided we fall.

"A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim; he does not wrong him nor does he forsake him when he is in need; whosoever is fulfilling the needs of his brother, Allah is fulfilling his needs." (Bukhari & Muslim)

Palestinian relatives of Ahmed Asa'asah, 16, mourn during his funeral near the West Bank city of Jenin March 29, 2007. Israeli troops shot dead the teenager after he threw stones at soldiers and wounded two other Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, local residents said. An Israeli army spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said soldiers on patrol in the area had come under fire and shot an armed man who had been standing on the roof of a house. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (WEST BANK)

Palestinians carry the body of Ahmed Asa'asah, 16, during his funeral near the West Bank city of Jenin March 29, 2007. Israeli troops shot dead the teenager after he threw stones at soldiers and wounded two other Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, local residents said. An Israeli army spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said soldiers on patrol in the area had come under fire and shot an armed man who had been standing on the roof of a house. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (WEST BANK)

Palestinians carry the body of Ahmed Asa'asah, 16, during his funeral near the West Bank city of Jenin March 29, 2007. Israeli troops shot dead the teenager after he threw stones at soldiers and wounded two other Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, local residents said. An Israeli army spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said soldiers on patrol in the area had come under fire and shot an armed man who had been standing on the roof of a house. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (WEST BANK)

Palestinian mourners carry the body of Ahmed Asaesah, 16, during his funeral in the village of Mothallath Alshohada near the West Bank town Jenin, Thursday, March 29, 2007. Israeli forces shot and killed Asaesah during a raid in the village on Thursday, Palestinian security officials said. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas).

Palestinian relatives of Ahmed Asaesah, 16, mourn during his funeral in the village of Mothallath Alshohada near the West Bank town of Jenin, Thursday, March 29, 2007. Israeli forces shot and killed Asaesah during a raid in the village on Thursday, Palestinian security officials said. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas).

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