A Palestinian man once asked me, how would you, as a Christian, feel if it was the Christians that were being persecuted today?

I replied, “First of all, Christians are indeed being persecuted, in Iraq, Iran and perhaps in Syria right now. So there is no ‘were’ but ‘are’; secondly, I wrote extensively against the war in Iraq in 2003 although many churches around the world rallied behind George W Bush on the invasion at the time.

“I refused to allow my personal faith to cloud my view of global affairs. After all, when human lives are threatened, it does not matter if one is Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, atheist or any other.”

He fell silent on hearing this. That is understandable, because human beings remain adherent to the belief that sympathy and solidarity can only be found among their own kind.

In assuming that I would ‘naturally’ exhibit greater outrage at Christians being oppressed, this particular Palestinian man had fallen into the mind trap. He had indeed been ill-prepared for my answer as such.

Now that the insane military offence launched by the Israeli authorities has stretched into the fourth week, the death toll will soon be reaching 800, mostly civilians and including children.

While Washington, London and Ottawa have persistently maintained the position that ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’, a right question to be asked of them is none other than ‘how much did they pay you to say that?’.

I cannot describe the anguish that I have been feeling over the past few weeks. Gaza is a human tragedy that refuses to disappear from the headlines. Year in, year out, you read it somewhere. The immense sufferings of the Palestinian people in their own land cannot be overstated.

But hang on, are the Palestinians the only ones bearing the brunt of war? Not really. Starting about three weeks ago, my Facebook wall has been inundated with news on Gaza, complete with shocking and gory images.

Still, I have not lost sight of the fact that, at the same time while the Israeli army is pounding homes and schools in Gaza, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is seizing one Iraqi territory after another, killing many innocent lives along the way.

No end to Syrian civil war

Across the border in Syria, a civil war that began with peaceful demonstrations against President Bashir al-Assad has entered the fourth year, with no end in sight.

In a fashion remarkably similar to that in Iraq, Palestinian refugees have become the scapegoat when their political allegiance is questioned by the two warring factions.

The Assad regime accuses them of allowing the rebels to infiltrate into Syria, while the Syrian Free Army has forcibly recruited young Palestinians to fight for them in order to prove their ‘loyalty’.

In December 2012, al Yarmouk in Damascus, home to the largest number of Palestinian refugees in Syria, came under heavy attack as the Syrian authorities were seeking to regain control from the rebels.

To date, as many as 250,000 Palestinians once living peacefully and being assisted by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency ( UNRWA ) are now displaced, many of whom have been forced to seek asylum outside Syria.

After Jabhat al-Nusra, a rebel group affiliated with al-Qaeda, seized control of al Yarmouk early this year, it immediately blocked international aid from entering the refugee camp, seriously impeding UNRWA relief operations.

Again, the welfare of Palestinian refugees is jeopardised, but where is the righteous wrath of the Muslim communities worldwide? Is a plight less of a plight when the perpetrator is not Israel?

Silence when Muslims kill Muslims?

I have not mentioned other conflicts in which marginalised and impoverished Muslims are confronted with imminent death by powerful Muslims: think Sudan, where the Janjaweed (Sudanese Muslims of Arab origin) militiamen are killing the vulnerable black Muslims, or Somalia, where the dominant Hawiye militants are pursuing mercilessly the small clans, especially the Gaboye, and both groups are Muslim.

Again, most of the Muslim countries are conspicuously silent on the persecution of Muslims by other Muslims, although they will rush to register their strongest protest at Palestinians being killed by Israel.

And I also have not mentioned the catastrophic civil war in Sri Lanka that only ended in May 2009. For nearly three decades, Tamil civilians, especially what the Sinhala-dominated government called ‘Tamil men of fighting age’, were subject to arbitrary arrest, indefinite detention, torture and even extrajudicial killing, just because they were suspected to have links with the Tamil Tigers.

And for close to three decades, nearly all the Muslim countries, including Malaysia chose to turn a blind eye to the immense suffering of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Suddenly, their eyes were opened and their conscience brought back to life when the Muslim community there came under attack, just as in the case of the Rohingya in Myanmar.

 

This is not to belittle the injustice that the Palestinians have been made to endure since 1948. But I am increasingly sick of the hypocritical Muslims beating their chests whenever Gaza dominates the headlines, but being indifferent in the face of other equally appalling conflicts.

I suppose it has much to do with the siege mentality of much of the Muslim community today. In the context of Malaysia, it is particularly relevant because Umno, Perkasa and Isma have all been relishing in highlighting the misery of the Palestinians in order to boost Malay Muslim support.

In other words, while they may seem to champion the Palestinian cause, their real purpose is actually to send home the message that Islam is under threat (as opposed to Umno being unpopular) and that a weak Muslim nation will invariably be at the mercy of others (the ‘misfortune’ of the Penang Malays, lest you forget).

Now, we even have a minister who unashamedly believes the death of the Muslim victims in MH17 deserve greater acknowledgment than that of others. How low can he stoop so low, really?

And they all have a patron who is always quick to turn an issue of justice into one that is racial in nature.

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad ( left ) clearly knows there is a huge difference between the Israeli state/Zionists and the ordinary Jews, but he has chosen to condemn the entire Jewish people, just to heighten Muslim paranoia/Malay sense of insecurity.

By his logic, I, too, can denounce all Muslims as terrorists on account of the evil deeds of a few, but I won't.

The war in Gaza has to be stopped, and the Palestinians deserve all the help that the international community, including Malaysia, can render. And so do all other victims of war and injustice, irrespective of their race, religion and creed.

Too bad, that the Palestinian issue has become intertwined with the racist politics entrenched by Umno. The lack of empathy of the Malaysian populace towards the pains of others testifies to this.

JOSH HONG studied politics at London Metropolitan University and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A keen watcher of domestic and international politics, he longs for a day when Malaysians will learn and master the art of self-mockery, and enjoy life to the full in spite of politicians.