With Israel’s recent recognition of Somaliland, many in the Muslim world are hearing about the country for the first time. It is an unfortunate introduction to a nation that, for those who have followed it, has long been a quiet success story. Somaliland has been synonymous with peace, stability, post-conflict reconstruction, reconciliation, and democratic governance in an otherwise unstable region. Now it is reduced to a single data point and reframed almost entirely as an Israeli project. That framing has come to define the country in the eyes of many.

For those genuinely interested in Somaliland’s history, Mark Bradbury’s Becoming Somaliland presents a comprehensive account. For shorter reads, see nearly any serious article written about Somaliland prior to this week’s announcement. They all tell the same story of resilience despite the odds.

Why Somaliland Deserves Recognition

Somaliland was a recognized state before voluntarily entering a union with Somalia in 1960; a union that failed because political power was centralized in Mogadishu. The presidency and premiership were held by Somalia. Budget allocations were deeply unequal, with Somaliland receiving roughly 10 percent of national spending despite representing at least a quarter of the population.

More devastatingly, a prominent clan in Somaliland, the Isaaq, was targeted as a matter of state policy. Military communiqués instructed senior officers to “break the back of the Isaaq,” advising them to “leave nothing but the crows,”; language widely understood as genocidal intent. These findings were backed up by a 2001 UN Report that concluded “the crime of genocide was conceived, planned and perpetrated by the Somali Government against the Isaaq people of northern Somalia between 1987 and 1989.” Human Rights Watch documented that at least 50,000 Isaaq civilians were killed by the Somali state between 1987 and 1989, with locals estimating as many as 100,000 lives lost. The scale of destruction left the capital and other major cities in Somaliland flattened. The trauma and devastation formed a major impetus for autonomy.

Since withdrawing from the union in 1991, Somaliland has been saddled with failures that are not its own. Somalilanders live with the consequences of a collapsed Somali state next door. They are effectively trapped, unable to travel freely, holding passports that grant entry to very few countries. The country cannot meaningfully leverage its natural resources because international investors are reluctant to commit capital in an uncertain legal environment. Oil and minerals remain locked in the ground.

Somaliland is repeatedly told to wait for Somalia to right itself. After more than three decades, that demand is wearing thin. Somalia continues to struggle with corruption, patronage, and fragile governance. Somalilanders are expected to remain hostage to that reality indefinitely.

Why Recognition Matters

Being a recognized state enables access to international investment, bilateral trade, tourism, and travel. It allows education systems and professional credentials to be formally recognized. It better facilitates improved health outcomes and prevents deaths from curable and preventable diseases.

Somaliland and Somalia rank among the lowest globally on social development indicators. In Somaliland’s case, the government has effectively operated like a nonprofit state, relying on port revenues, taxes, and remittances. There is no access to sovereign debt or international capital markets. Even its reserve banking relies on Djibouti’s patronage. Infrastructure projects and basic social services often depend on the generosity of partners such as the UAE. This is not a viable long-term model for any country.

Residents wave Somaliland flags as they gather to celebrate Israel’s announcement recognizing Somaliland’s statehood in downtown Hargeisa. [PC: Farhan Aleli/AFP via Getty Images]

Most importantly, recognition has been the collective aspiration of Somaliland’s 6.2 million people. It is a legitimate national ambition, and one to which every people is entitled.

Why Somalilanders Are Celebrating

What Somalilanders are celebrating is not Israel. It is proximity to recognition. Speaking with friends and family back in Somaliland, the mood is jubilant and gleeful. Crowds are beaming with a sense of pride for a promise that has begun to come true. Yet for many non-Somalilanders, the jubilation is difficult to understand as they remain fixated on who recognized Somaliland first. This, I believe, misses the point entirely. Somalilanders do not harbor any special affection for Israel. They abhor the genocidal state as much as any Muslim, but for Somalilanders, the significance of the moment lies in the fact that recognition has begun at all.

That said, there have been videos and images of Israeli flag-carrying youth, outrageous comments from excited but ignorant Somalilanders. The individuals publicly praising Israel or Netanyahu represent a small minority. The same few images and videos are circulated repeatedly by observers, unfortunately seeking to make a broader political argument. This amplification is deliberate and misleading.

A Call For Caution And Respect

Everywhere in the Muslim world, we are led by despots and tyrants who sell out their people and the broader Muslim world. With every leader and every instance of betrayal, we are reminded that the government is not its people. We can condemn governments for their decisions, but we do not condemn an entire population for its aspirations.

Much of the online discourse has devolved into abuse. Accusations of disbelief and moral betrayal are casually deployed. Scripture is quoted selectively, while the same standards are rarely applied to Muslims from countries that maintain cordial, strategic, transactional, or openly friendly relations with Israel.

Moralizing From Comfort

“Some of you may die, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.” – Lord Farquaad

It is easy to condemn choices that do not affect you. From the comfort of warm homes in the UK, the US, or Canada, people lecture those living with limited access to opportunity, mobility, and capital. I’ve heard some say, “you don’t drink seawater just because you’re thirsty,” in relation to Somaliland’s deal with Israel. A more astute and honest comparison would be, you don’t chastise the man in the desert with nothing to eat but swine.

Somaliland could have been recognized by Somalia itself or by any Muslim-majority state. None did. Instead, Somaliland was left to navigate a world where others preferred to prop up a nominal government with little legitimacy in Somalia itself and virtually none in Somaliland.

To tell Somalilanders to refuse recognition from Israel is, in effect, to tell them to reject recognition altogether. To condemn its people to permanent isolation.

What Were Somaliland’s Options?

Former US president Joe Biden captured a well-understood concept in electoral politics when he argued, “Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.” It may feel moral to hold Somaliland to an ideal, but a fairer and more practical assessment of reality demands comparison to the alternative. If Somaliland had rejected Israel’s recognition, it still would have been a signatory by default.

The reality of the matter is that Somalia itself had sought closer ties with Israel and was actively pursuing inclusion in the Abraham Accords through U.S. lobbying efforts. The Somali government paid conservative lobbyists BGR Group $50,000/month in an attempt to curry favor with the new US administration, block potential US -Somaliland recognition, and, notably, join the Abraham Accords, as evidenced by leaked email correspondence. These efforts failed not because of moral restraint, but because Somalia lacks effective control over its territory, most especially the Gulf of Aden.

While many continue to approach this issue through a moral lens, international politics does not operate on virtue. States act in their own interest. To expect otherwise from Somaliland is divorced from reality.

On Instability And Fear-mongering

Claims that recognition will destabilize the region raise a basic question: what stability, and for whom?

Somalia remains deeply unstable, with credible threats of political fragmentation and rival administrations. Somaliland, by contrast, has maintained internal stability for decades.

Assertions that recognition will trigger armed escalation from various tribes are routinely overstated. Claims that largely reflect a limited understanding of local political dynamics. While tensions exist, as they do in any plural society, they have not and do not constitute an existential threat.

Claims that this will strengthen the Somali-based Al-Shabaab terror group are also misguided. Al-Shabab has no operational presence in Somaliland and remains focused on overtaking Mogadishu as they continue to make inroads towards the capital. Recognition does not meaningfully make them more or less likely to be motivated to overthrow the Mogadishu government.

What Comes Next?

Condemnation from Arab, Muslim, and African states presents challenges, but it is not the deathblow opponents to Somaliland recognition might think it is.

Even if the United States, the United Kingdom, the UAE, and other Somaliland-friendly countries deny Somaliland’s legitimate claim to independence today, there is little reason to believe that position will not change in the near future. States operate on their own timelines and through their own processes, and any serious observer of international politics knows there is little daylight between Israeli, American, and Emirati strategic interests in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Stern words and denunciations may slow momentum, but they no longer amount to a death sentence for Somaliland.

The precedent has been set. Over time, more states will recognize that propping up a nominal Somali government while ignoring Somaliland’s lived reality is neither principled nor sustainable. Turkiye will seek to maintain its control over the Somali government, Saudi Arabia will attempt to counter Emirate influence, but sooner or later, states will operate in their own interest.

With the seal of recognition broken, Somaliland will need to make the case for recognition to countries beyond Israel: to prove to the Muslim world that they are worth a second look.

And while I recognize the stain of normalizing relations with Israel may never be washed out, I hope this recognition results in lives saved through improved economic conditions, better healthcare, and stronger educational outcomes. More than anything, I hope there is an opportunity to reintroduce Somaliland to the world in a way that we can all be proud of.

[Disclaimer: this article reflects the views of the author, and not necessarily those of MuslimMatters; a non-profit organization that welcomes editorials with diverse political perspectives.]

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The post Op-Ed: Understanding The Somaliland Recognition Decision – A Counterargument To The Prevailing Muslim Consensus appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

The seminary’s founder, Amin Kholwadia, issued an official statement  in felicitation with “the Eternal Faḍl’ of Allah , and with the timeless acceptance of our great Master, Muhammad (may Allah shower His blessings on him), with the selfless effort and dedication of our board and the accreditation committee and with the invaluable support of our entire staff and patrons.” Kholwadia founded Darul Qasim at Glendale in 1999.

The two departments for which Darul Qasim has been granted the license to give Master’s degrees are those of Islamic Law, chaired by Hisham Dawood, and Theology, chaired by Volkan Yildiran. Firas Khateeb, who teaches Islamic History at the seminary, commented: “I’m thankful every day for being part of this institution.”

The licensed Master’s courses are scheduled to begin in the autumn of 2026.

 – by Ibrahim Moiz for MuslimMatters

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The post Darul Qasim College Given License To Grant Master’s Degrees appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Although the decree did not list a reason, critics have often accused Suwaidan of being an “Ikhwani” – referring to the Islamist political movement that retains widespread intellectual and cultural influence throughout the Muslim world and won the 2012 election in Egypt before its subsequent ouster in a coup. Although the Ikhwan had a longstanding relationship in the twentieth century with Arab monarchies such as Kuwait, often providing much of the professional and educated class, the relationship strained in the twenty-first century and in some cases broke down following the “Arab Spring” protests that saw the movement briefly rule Cairo after winning the 2012 election.

Suwaidan’s career was a case in point; he was long a welcome figure in the Gulf, lecturing and writing, and spoke on a television channel owned by Saudi prince Waleed bin Talal. In 2013, shortly after a coup partly supported by Riyadh against the Ikhwan government in Cairo, Waleed sacked Suwaidan for belonging to “the Brotherhood [Ikhwan] terrorist [sic] movement.” This occurred amid a broader crackdown on Ikhwan-affiliated figures.

Suwaidan was accused of having styled himself a member of the Ikhwan during a trip to Yemen, even though the Yemen Ikhwan, known as Islah, had a longstanding relationship with the Saudi government. The irony was further compounded when Saudi Arabia was forced to repair ties to Islah after they emerged as a major opposition to the Houthis, who seized control of Yemen the following year; that relationship persists today, though Saudi tolerance for Ikhwanis outside Yemen remains low. Hostility toward Ikhwanis and other independent Islamists has been frequent under an increasingly strong-arm Saudi government since then: to cap off the irony, Prince Waleed himself would be theatrically imprisoned for alleged corruption by Riyadh in 2017, by which point the anti-Islamist campaign had peaked to include a spurious blockade on Qatar.

It is unclear if the revocation of Suwaidan’s citizenship is linked to a similar anti-Islamist impulse in Kuwait, which, like Qatar, has traditionally been one of the Gulf states friendlier to the Ikhwan. What is known is that Kuwait is also close to the United States, where anti-Islamist, and especially anti-Ikhwan, discourse is a staple of the far-right and especially of the Zionist lobby. Suwaidan had widely lectured and spoken against the Israeli genocide.

 – by Ibrahim Moiz for MuslimMatters

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The post Kuwait Strips Prominent Thinker Tariq Suwaidan Of Citizenship appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

What does it mean to be Muslims in politics? How can Muslims really bring about meaningful political change, beyond White House iftars and gimmicky identity politics? Celsabil Hadj-Cherif examines Muslims and Muslimness in politics, failed models of political (dis)engagement, and what it means to bring Islamic ethics into our political vision.

Celsabil Hadj-Cherif is a community organiser, activist, political analyst and student of Islamic sciences. She holds an MA in Law and Politics from SOAS University of London. Her work focuses on the history of Islamic political movements, Islamic law and Middle Eastern politics. 

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The post [Podcast] Muslims, Muslim-ness, and Islam in Politics | Celsabil Hadj-Cherif appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

When I hear Muslim candidates make promises like “freeze rent,” “build affordable housing,” “free public transit,” “raise the minimum wage,” or “expand childcare,” I understand the intention. These are calls for relief and mercy. At the same time, I also understand why many people hesitate to support such measures.

From conversations with Muslims who fall into this line of thinking, I have heard people express fear of ballooning government budgets, taxpayer strain, and an ever-expanding state that replaces family and community with bureaucracy. Yet, I think the real tragedy is that neither side of this political divide (liberal or conservative) is grappling with the entirety of the situation fairly. On one hand, some speak of compassion without accountability, and on the other, they demand responsibility without mercy. The result is a nation swinging between extremes of a heartless pursuit of efficiency and a naive promise of endless aid.

Between Mercy and Responsibility

As Muslims who are to set a precedent and example for the societies we find ourselves in, one thing is absolutely clear. No matter what the political pressures are, and perhaps even our desire to remain pragmatic, we cannot be indifferent to suffering. When federal programs like food stamps (SNAP) risk disruption, threatening millions of vulnerable and innocent seniors, children, and families with hunger, we have a duty to care.

Moreover, we cannot just demand action from others; we ourselves must also be willing to act. The Qur’an praises those “who give food, in spite of love for it, to the needy, the orphan, and the captive,” [Surah Al-Insan; 76:8] saying:

“We feed you only for the countenance of Allah; we wish not from you reward or gratitude.’” [Surah Al-Insan; 76:9]

Americans in line for food aid.

Demonstrating (and I use this verb on purpose) mercy is not just about good politics, like many Americans have come to see it; it’s about recognizing real pain and responding to it instead of waiting for some perfect economic system. If a family can rest easier because they can afford groceries this month through expanded credits, that relief is a mercy worth supporting.

The Prophet said, “He is not a believer whose stomach is filled while his neighbor goes hungry.”^[2]

All this being said, I know that mercy also demands honesty. Many of these short-term political promises and vehemently argued solutions are indeed bandages on deeper wounds. The question that Muslims must provide moral leadership on, however, is not only how to help families survive today but to make demands and attempts to answer why they are drowning in the first place. Should it take two incomes just to afford rent? Why has inflation turned basic food into a luxury? As the national debt swells, why are billions of dollars flowing abroad in aid packages that most citizens don’t understand? Why does our government keep printing money as if wealth can appear without real economic activity?

The Root of the Crisis: A System Built on Riba

At the root of all this is a moral distortion that the Qur’an names explicitly: Riba. Also defined as excessive interest or usury. The Qur’an declares,

“Those who consume riba will not stand [on the Day of Judgment] except as one stands who is being beaten by Satan into insanity.” It then warns, “If you do not desist, then be informed of war from Allah and His Messenger.”^[3] For those educated in economics, they might have a better understanding than the average person of how an economy built on debt becomes an economy at war with its own conscience, as we are seeing today. Riba turns money into a self-replicating creature that feeds on itself rather than serving human needs.

In the Islamic worldview, wealth is not evil, but it is also never absolute. The Qur’an commands that economic systems be designed “so that wealth does not merely circulate among the rich of you.”^[4] That single phrase dismantles both capitalist hoarding and socialist dependency. It implies movement where resources flow instead of the normalization of wealth that pools upward, insulated by tax loopholes and corporate immunity, while ordinary families bear the weight of inflation and debt.

In light of the conversation around food stamps at risk, the Qur’an condemns “those who, when they take by measure from people, take in full, but when they give by measure or weight to them, they cause loss.”^[5] These verses expose a timeless hypocrisy whereby leaders ensure their own salaries, pensions, and benefits while freezing food assistance for families who depend on it to survive. They take their measure in full (their comforts, healthcare, privileges), yet when it comes time to measure out sustenance to the vulnerable, they shrink the scale.

Beyond Relief

This is where Muslims must elevate the conversation beyond just secular, unfair policymaking and call it for what it is, which is moral fraud. The Qur’an warns again:

“And O my people, give full measure and weight in justice and do not deprive the people of their due and do not commit abuse on the earth, spreading corruption.” [Surah Hud; 11:85]^[6] 

To defraud is not only to cheat in trade and business; it is also just as much about withholding what is due and betraying the trust of leadership. When those entrusted with public resources exploit power or abandon the poor under the guise of fiscal prudence, they commit fasad (corruption) in its truest sense.

In Islam, there is no entity nor individual that is beyond moral responsibility, unlike the American political and legal structures, which include mechanisms such as presidential immunity that can shield leaders from full accountability. That is why the khalifah Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz stands as one of history’s rare examples of moral political leadership when he curbed official excess, prohibited state officials from personal enrichment, and redirected wealth to those in need.^[7] Umar ibn al-Khattab’s establishment of the Bayt al-Mal (public treasury) embodied this same principle, where he ensured that every citizen received food and a stipend.^[8]

A Need for Preparation and Reform

Today, we need to revive that spirit. Muslims in America must prepare for both immediate and long-term responses. In the short term, we must fund and connect community food banks, revive mutual-aid efforts, and strengthen zakat institutions. During crises like potential SNAP disruptions, we cannot wait for Congress to act, because as individuals, we have a responsibility to use our own resources to act ourselves.

Muslims in Detroit pack boxes of food aid.

During the pandemic, many youth in our community created an initiative to check in on vulnerable neighbors, ensuring they had access to groceries, food, and basic necessities. We should be ready to revive that same spirit of compassion and initiative whenever the need arises again.

On top of bringing immediate relief, in the long term, our discourse must mature. Saying that we cannot be content with endless relief programs that merely manage misery is not the same as saying that these efforts should ever cease. Rather, our aim should be expanded to simultaneously reform the structures that produce it in the first place. From systems driven by Riba and speculation all the way to corporate impunity.

Supporting short-term relief does not make us naive, but ignoring long-term reform does make us complicit. I believe this is the dichotomy Muslim-Americans must break, and indeed, we need to introduce nuance to the public discourse in order to actually effect change in our milieu. If we can revive this balance of compassion that acts and honesty that reforms, we may yet model for America what a truly moral economy looks like.

From Critique to Action

In moments of crisis, moral response requires both organization and imagination. Here are ways Muslims can respond:

1. Partner with local faith and civic groups.
   

Churches, temples, and interfaith coalitions often host food banks or meal programs. We should actively collaborate to ensure Muslim families, who generally underuse public social services due to stigma or inaccessibility, are reached.

2. Work with local jurisdictions.
   

City and county governments have relief grants or emergency food distribution funds. Muslim organizations can apply for these or partner with agencies to reach underserved Muslim populations more directly. Part of proactively getting into local governments’ radar is ensuring good outreach and networking so that communities are able to actually offer their masjid as pop-up distribution hubs for wider city food relief programs.

3. Leverage technology platforms that can bring benefit!

I personally have been inspired by the acts of kindness that apps like NextDoor have facilitated in the last few years. Neighborhood apps connect those in a local community like never before and provide us the opportunity to offer our services to those who live near us and are in need. It’s an active facilitator to help us actualize the hadith about not going to sleep if we know that our neighbors are hungry.  

4. The Sunnah of Ukhuwwah.

The life of the Prophet demonstrates the reality of true brotherhood, sisterhood, and community. During times of prolonged crisis, the Muslim community has a tried and tested method for ensuring families are supported through the pairing up of the well off with the less well off. We have the tools and ability to pair families during a crisis, and many are willing to step up. Moreover, non-Muslim grocery stores always have a program where buyers can purchase a bag of groceries for a family in need, and this should be replicated for halal stores as well.

5. Leverage business owners.

I’ve been to many Muslim-owned restaurants that will pack up food at the end of the day to take to homeless shelters, and I am hopeful that this is a common practice among most restaurants, Muslim or otherwise. With some coordination, it shouldn’t be too difficult to prioritize halal meals for Muslim families and leave the non-halal foods for non Muslim families and homeless shelters.

Conclusion

Dallas masjid feeds the hungry during a “Day of Dignity.”

It is true that many of the proposals touted in modern politics, from endless subsidies, government expansion, and reliance on state relief, can create unhealthy dependence, weaken families, and bankrupt nations. History has proven that a purely socialist model collapses under the weight of its own promises. As Muslim-Americans, we cannot be naïve to that reality.

There is, however, an equal and opposite truth! The working class did not create the economic disaster we are living in; the powerful did. It was not working-class families who engineered a riba-driven financial system, inflated the currency, shipped jobs overseas, or allowed corporations to grow fat at the expense of people’s livelihoods and quality of life diminishing. It was not single mothers or grocery clerks who ballooned the national debt to trillions, speculated on Wall Street casinos, or carved tax loopholes wide enough to swallow entire communities.

To look at the hungry today, those people trapped in a crisis they did not create, and say that they don’t deserve government support in the meantime, is moral blindness. Muslims were not placed in this land to parrot slogans from either political wing. So, although we recognize that perpetual welfare is not a vision for human dignity, refusing to feed the hungry while elites gorge themselves is cruelty disguised as prudence.

When the powerful eat full and the poor go hungry, the response of a believer ought to be moral intervention at every level.

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The post When The Powerful Eat Full And The Poor Go Hungry appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Disclaimer: None of the members on this podcast are political analysts, but Muslim laypeople looking at this campaign from a Muslim community member perspective.

Does Zohran Mamdani’s electoral win as Mayor of New York City herald the coming of Khilaafah?

Zainab bint Younus, Irtiza Hasan, and Siraaj Muhammad get together to analyze Mamdani’s campaign success, what Muslims have to learn about civic responsibility, and not forgetting the lessons from Obama’s era. From Instagram reels featuring a Muslimized New York to concerns about NYPD’s surveillance of Muslims remaining intact, tune into this episode for a breakdown of why Mamdani’s mayorship matters to Muslims.

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The post [Podcast] Welcome to the Islamic Republic of New Yorkistan! appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE for short, sent a chill through much of the Muslim populace and many other citizens with its brazen imprisonment of a visitor with a visa for no other reason than that his pro-Palestine advocacy had riled up far-right pro-Israel media personalities, who both incited and celebrated the move even as it sent a wave of revulsion through much of the world.

An analyst of Tunisian and Algerian descent educated in Britain, Hamdi came into particular prominence as a pro-Palestine commentator after Israel’s genocide of Gaza began two years ago, where his advocacy, analysis, and encouragement of both Muslim and non-Muslim activism against the genocide earned a wide audience. He is a respected, longstanding commentator on international affairs, risk, and intelligence, and has spent the last decade analyzing and advising on political affairs in countries including Britain, the United States, Syria, Turkiye, Pakistan, Tunisia, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and others. His frequent appearances on The Thinking Muslim podcast hosted by political scientist Muhammad Jalal have been particularly influential, with millions of viewers, and he has been invited to speak at both Muslim and other events in multiple countries, including the United States. Abducted at San Francisco Airport, it took two days before Hamdi could see a legal team; among the lawyers who have spoken in his favour are the well-regarded Hussam Ayloush and Mariam Uddin.

The ICE agency, led by Kristi Noem in the cabinet and Tom Homan, has been notorious in its overreach throughout 2025. Purportedly fulfilling a vow by Donald Trump to deport illegal residents in the United States, it has frequently overstepped its authority and been accused on numerous occasions of lawless targeting, racial profiling, and abuse, inevitably aimed at minorities. The ruling clique has made a virtue of deportations with the promise that these will retrieve stagnant wages and “put America first.” This is part of a general surge of ultranationalist posturing with very real consequences.

Among the major posturers are Laura Loomer and Amy Mekelburg, whose ultranationalist messaging in this trend of putting “America first” has an additional irony in its consistent slant toward Israel and its interests. Though both are Jewish-Americans who claim to be standing up for Jewish rights, they have also repeatedly attacked Jewish organizations that fail to share their political stance. In addition to copious amounts of racial vitriol, both have squarely targeted Islam and repeatedly directed calumny and slander at the faith, its prophets, and precepts.

Loomer and Mekelburg are part of a wider intersection between the international right-wing and Israel, particularly the Likud party, whose leader, Benjamin Netanyahu-Mileikowsky, has pushed similar anti-Muslim rhetoric for over forty years and now presides over the genocide on Gaza. Such “influencers” proliferated both with the “war on terrorism” and the subsequent financial crash, both of which incentivized far-right invective with a disproportionate focus on Muslims: Stephen “Tommy Robinson” Yaxley-Lennon and Douglas Murray in Britain are similar provocateurs whose far-right messaging explicitly attacks Islam and glorifies Tel Aviv, whose genocide is portrayed as a civilizational war against Islam.

In the aftermath of Hamdi’s abduction, Mekelburg took to social media to crow, “WE DID IT, LAURA! ONE DOWN….SO MANY MORE TO GO!” [sic]

Far-right provocateurs such as Loomer have long attacked any form of public Muslim activity as linked to the “Muslim Brotherhood”, against whom she also incited in her celebration of Hamdi’s abduction. Among the many targets of this alleged “Muslim Brotherhood” ring is the Council for American-Islamic Relations, whose representative Ayloush noted that Hamdi’s case is linked to pro-Israel incitement against Muslims, that the imprisonment violated the American principles of free speech, and that “this is not the time to be intimidated.”

Hamdi’s ordeal serves to highlight a key point that he himself has long made about the significance of pro-Palestine activism and the drastic, draconian steps that the Zionist lobby has urged to undermine them.

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The post Prominent Journalist And Analyst Sami Hamdi Abducted By American State appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Stories of abuse and wanton brutality have emerged from activists of the Sumud flotilla, which set out to break the Israeli-enforced starvation of Gaza, who were abducted at sea by Israel last month. The humanitarian mission, which involved forty-two vessels that had been given political backing and assurances by several governments, was raided by Israeli soldiers, who imprisoned the nearly five hundred activists and subjected them to a taste of the brutality regularly meted out in Israeli prisons before their release.

The flotilla had been given diplomatic support and encouragement by a number of governments, including Malaysia, Turkiye, Spain, and Colombia, as well as many private individuals and politicians across the world. Former officials, including former Libyan prime minister Omar Hassi and Pakistani senator Mushtaq Khan, joined the flotilla alongside activists such as Thiago Avila, Greta Thunberg, Torkia Chaibi, and Mandla Mandela, grandson of the former South African leader Nelson. In total, forty-six countries were represented; Turkiye most strongly with fifty-six participants, while Spain and Italy had just under fifty apiece. These activists were abducted and held in intentionally cruel conditions under the personal supervision of Israel’s notoriously sadistic interior minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ethnic supremacist who made a point of brutal treatment.

“An Army of Illusion”

Despite their ordeal, participants of the flotilla were surprised at the incompetence of their captors. British journalist Kieran Andrieu described the odd mixture of Israeli brutality and “gimcrackness”; the supposedly elite naval commandos who abducted them struggled to maintain their balance on deck and largely spent the night seasick. Tunisian captain Mohamed Mohieddine was forced to operate an engine when these naval commandos were unable to; when an alarm went off, he recalls, one soldier panicked and another wet his pants. “I realized,” he reflected, “this is a cardboard army.

“We were afraid of an army of illusion. Israel is just an illusion, a spider’s web.”

Despite such incompetence, the reputation for sadism by Israel’s military and security forces was well-earned. Italian journalist Lorenzo D’Agostino described how captives were beaten, kicked, and deprived of fresh water for two days. They were purposely overcrowded in cells, stripped to their underwear, and exposed to the cold. This was encouraged in person by Ben-Gvir’s visit to their Ashdod dungeon, where he bawled in their faces that they were terrorists before the guards subjected them to more abuse. In general, said Turkish journalist Ersin Celik, the captives were treated like “insects.”

Ersin Celik of Turkey speaks to the press after the arrival of 36 Turks and nationals from 12 countries at Istanbul Airport on a special flight, after Israel stopped a Gaza-bound aid flotilla and detained hundreds of people. Photo: AFP / Yasin Akgul

Reflecting a notorious aversion to Islam, the guards saw a copy of the Quran in D’Agostino’s possession and “went berserk – convinced I was Muslim”. Turkish activists Semanur Yaman and Aycin Kantoglu described how they tore the headscarves off Muslim women, forcing cellmates to improvise substitutes with shirts. This was part of a general policy of viciousness toward women; one Somali girl was dragged around by the wrist in a failed attempt to tear off her bracelet. British reporter Yvonne Ridley, who had converted to Islam after an imprisonment by Afghanistan’s Taliban emirate in 2001, underscored the Israeli brutality: “I would rather spend two months in a Taliban prison than two days with the Israelis.”

Perhaps the most recognizable member of the flotilla was the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who has been a tireless and outspoken advocate for Palestine. Aged just twenty-two, the thuggish treatment to which she was subjected raised the hackles of the other captives. Ersin Celik, a Turkish filmmaker and journalist, noted that Israeli guards treated the prisoners in general as “insects” but directed particular venom at Thunberg, who was “tortured very badly”, dragged on the ground, and forced to kiss the Israeli flag. Italian journalist Lorenzo D’Agostino added that Thunberg was “humiliated and wrapped in an Israeli flag like a trophy.”

Despite her ordeal, Thunberg’s own reaction centred the Palestinians, thousands of whom have been imprisoned in even worse conditions, and millions of whom have suffered the genocide of Gaza. Not only must aid be let in, she emphasized, but the siege and genocide must be stopped.

“Believe me, I could talk for a very, very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment, trust me. But that is not the story. What happened here was that Israel–while continuing to worsen and escalate their genocide and mass destruction with genocidal intent attempting to erase an entire population, an entire nation, in front of our very eyes–they once again violated international law by preventing humanitarian aid from getting into Gaza while people are being starved.”

Related:

– Relief Convoys To Gaza Expose Discrepancy Between Society And State

– How Israeli Propaganda Shaped U.S. Media Coverage of the Flotilla Attack

The post Sumud Flotilla Activists Recount Harrowing Experiences In Israeli Dungeons appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

On Wednesday, September 24th, 2025, Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa gave a historic address to the United Nations General Assembly. It was the first time Syria had done so since 1967, prior to the military coup that began fifty-four years of iron-fisted rule by the Assad family. After fourteen years of isolation during a brutal civil war, Sharaa’s address was a clear indication that Syria was once again welcomed onto the world stage. His tightly packed five-day visit to New York was a flurry of diplomatic activity with a focus on making the case to policymakers in the American administration to lift Assad-era sanctions on the beleaguered country, and efforts to find an agreement to stop Israeli bombings and incursions that began shortly after the fall of Damascus. Syria’s focus, as he said in his speech, was “to create a new chapter of peace, prosperity, and development.” Alongside diplomacy, the Syrian delegation prioritized making inroads with the Syrian American community through several events, aiming to meet Syrian Americans of all sects and denominations.

Background and History 

In November 2024, Sharaa’s forces (HTS or Hayat Tahrir al-Sham), in conjunction with other rebel groups, launched an initially limited operation aimed at pushing back the frontlines of the war. Instead, it shocked the world by taking Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, which Syrian rebels had lost to a combined Russian-Iranian assault in 2016 that saved Assad’s government. In late 2024, the strategic situation had shifted as demoralized regime conscripts capitalized on promises of amnesty. Without the backing of Russian air support, Hezbollah auxiliaries, or Iranian advisors, they surrendered or fled en masse. Pressing onward after taking the country’s north, the blitzkrieg swept through cities long-lost to the regime, capturing Hama, Homs, and, after 11 days, the capital Damascus. On December 8th, 2024, the Syrian civil war, which had begun from protests in March 2011, came to a dramatic end.

The unprecedented turnaround of the rebellion from seeming defeat to total victory was mirrored by Sharaa’s own history. Sharaa, captured by the United States military as a low-level militant in 2005, was one of thousands who went to fight American troops after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He was imprisoned by the Americans, including at the notorious facility Abu Ghraib, during the worst sectarian bloodletting of the war. In confinement, he wrote a thesis on how to topple the Assad regime and avoid the mistakes of the Iraqi insurgency. He was released in 2011 as that war wound down and the Syrian uprising began. With seed money from former al-Qaeda allies, he founded Jabhat al-Nusra (the Support Front), quickly turning theory into practice. Nusra became one of the most effective rebel factions and was designated a terrorist organization by Washington in 2012.

Although Nusra’s primary focus was toppling Assad, the United States targeted it with drone strikes and demanded that other nationalist rebels turn on it as a condition of limited support. The policy was embodied in the Train and Equip program, which collapsed in 2015 after Nusra routed American-backed units and seized their weapons.

Meanwhile, the insurgents of the Islamic State of Iraq exploited chaos in Syria and the American withdrawal from Iraq to rebuild. Rebranding as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (hereafter Daesh), they declared war on Syrian rebels in 2014. Fighting drove them from the north, but rebels lost the county’s east to the extremists, who continued to capture parts of western Iraq. After a series of terrorist atrocities, the U.S. led an international coalition to dismantle the group. Beginning in 2015, the campaign stripped Daesh of its territorial control by 2019. With both US and Russian entry, the conflict in Syria became internationalized, and effectively partitioned as a ground of proxy war. During his rise, Sharaa confronted regime loyalists, rival rebels, Lebanese Hezbollah, Iran, Daesh, Kurdish proxies, and  Russia.

In the late 2010s, millions of Syrians fled the Assad regime’s Russian-backed reconquest of most of the country, crowding into the small province of Idlib. It was the last stronghold of the opposition. Defeats and setbacks forced once-divided Syrian rebel groups to evolve and unite. In 2016, Sharaa formally broke remaining ties with al Qaeda and aligned with mainstream rebels in the cause of national liberation, founding HTS.  The realities of governing three million internally displaced people in the region counseled moderation and pragmatism. He imprisoned extremists and consolidated rebel groups (sometimes against their will). In 2020,  HTS enforced a ceasefire when frontlines of the conflict were frozen by agreement between Turkey and Russia. 

Capitalizing on the pause in fighting,  he set up a technocratic government. This “Syrian Salvation Government,” staffed with civilian ministries, ran day-to-day life in Idlib. It began pursuing diplomacy as a recognized actor, inviting journalists, opening backchannels with foreign governments, and reaching out to loyalist areas to build ties for a post-Assad reality. This blueprint of rebel governance allowed for a smooth transition in the final offensive. A unified chain of command and discipline prevented the mass retribution many had feared from a rebel victory. The same structure also allowed basic services like policing and garbage collection to resume the day after.

Sharaa in New York

Still the subject of a United Nations travel ban, the Syrian president landed in New York after a five-day special waiver by the Security Council was approved to permit his entry. Soon after his arrival, he attended an event with prominent dignitaries and members of the Syrian diaspora, including Rabbi Yoseph Hamra, brother of the last Chief Rabbi of Syria and head of the Jewish Heritage of Syria Foundation in Brooklyn. The Rabbi later wrote a public letter to the US Congress urging repeal of the 2019 Caesar Act sanctions on Syria. Sharaa told the diverse crowd of Syrians of all faiths: “We must be a united people. We may not agree on everything, but we must unite.” At the event, he was photographed embracing Safouh Barazi, a former opposition politician who fled Hama in 1973 and was sentenced to death in absentia by Hafez Assad. Dr. Barazi had been in exile for more than fifty years and had several members of his family executed. Hama later saw an uprising in 1982 that was brutally crushed by the regime, killing tens of thousands and ushering in Assad’s police state.

On Sept. 22, Sharaa headlined the UN-adjacent Concordia Summit in a public interview with his former captor, retired U.S. General David Petraeus, who commanded all American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2006 to 2011. Petraeus directed the 2007 surge in Iraq and the 2009 surge in Afghanistan, and it was his forces that once held the Syrian leader. As CIA Director in 2012, Petraeus played a significant role in designating Jabhat al-Nusra, HTS’ predecessor, a terrorist group. The US placed a $10 million bounty on Sharaa’s head and sent drones after him. Yet when the pair met, they had a cordial conversation acknowledging the past but focused much more on the future.

Left to Right: Ahmad Sharaa and his former captor, David Petraeus, Sep 22 2025. (PC: Mustafa Majeed)

“At a time, we were in combat, and now we move to dialogue,” Sharaa said with a smile, adding that people who have gone through war know the importance of peace. “We cannot judge the past based on the rules of today and cannot judge today based on the rules of the past…,” Comparing Sharaa’s leadership as commander and now president of the war-torn country with his personal experience of commanding troops during the war, Petraeus drew gasps from the crowd when he called himself “a fan”. Sharaa quipped that his task in Syria was much harder than Petraeus’ had been in Iraq. He drew attention to the immense task of reconstruction Syria now faced. The interview dismissed rumors that Syria would join the so-called Abraham Accords, with Sharaa saying the states that signed them had no territorial disputes with Israel or faced a direct military threat from it. His focus was instead on reviving the 1974 ceasefire agreement or something similar. Despite speculation of a possible agreement being signed during his visit, nothing materialized after Israel inserted new conditions to the tentative draft, causing negotiations to fall apart.

After the Concordia Summit, the Syrian delegation was hosted by the Middle East Institute at the New York Yacht Club. Inside this historic social venue of America’s East Coast establishment, Sharaa addressed diplomats, researchers, businessmen, and journalists. Also in attendance were the American ambassador to Turkiye and envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, Syrian foreign minister Asaad Shaibani, and Syrian representative to the United Nations, Ibrahim Olabi.

Interviewed by Charles Lister, an expert on the Syrian war, who pressed him to reflect on his past. Sharaa argued that the radicalization of the early 2000s grew as a response to Western foreign policy and the “disturbances in Afghanistan and Palestine that affected the mood of the Arab and Muslim world,” emphasizing that repression and tight control of information fueled resentment. He contrasted that era with the present, where freer information flows and stronger local agency created a new reality, keeping with his theme of looking forward rather than dwelling on the past.

Sharaa sought to calm fears about minority rights and outlined judicial plans to prosecute both former regime war criminals and those accused of extrajudicial killings. These assurances come after Syria faced renewed unrest, including clashes sparked by insurgent remnants of the old regime on the coast and separatist groups backed by Israel in the south. He pledged that all crimes committed since December 2024 would face accountability in public trials. Noting that judicial capacity is still being built, the interim government was reluctant to make arrests public at this phase,  but stated that such arrests were ongoing. Syria’s delegation also stressed the transitional nature of the current administration, referencing parliamentary elections to be held this month.

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly, Sharaa reflected on the pain and struggle of the Syrian revolution and civil war, in his case for lifting sanctions. “The Syrian story is a story of struggle between good and evil. For long years, we’ve suffered injustice, deprivation, and oppression. Then we rose to claim our dignity.”  He also appealed to the international community, “for the complete lifting of sanctions, so that they no longer shackle the Syrian people.”

A banner held aloft with an amalgamation of the American and Syrian flags. Sep 24, 2025 (PC: Mustafa Majeed)

Voicing support for Palestinians, he emphasized that Syria stood “firmly with the people of Gaza, its children and women, and all peoples facing violations and aggression.” Referring to Syria’s own years of violence-“Let me affirm: the suffering Syria endured we wish upon no one. We are among the people most deeply aware of the horrors of war and destruction”,  calling for an immediate end to the war. “Syria today,” Sharaa declared, “is establishing a new state, building the laws and institutions that will guarantee the rights of all without exception while turning the page on a wretched past.”

Outside the United Nations, thousands of Syrians and Syrian Americans rallied in support of the president’s speech. Some were refugees from the war, while others were second and third-generation citizens. Manhattan, where the United Nations is located, was once home to a thriving “Little Syria” community a century ago, and many descendants of that community still reside in the nearby borough of Brooklyn. The crowd waved flags, chanted slogans from the 2011 protests, and carried banners. Sharaa emerged from the General Assembly to greet the demonstrators, drawing cheers. After his departure, members of the Syrian delegation met with supporters. Among them was Raed Saleh, now Minister of Disaster Management and Emergency Response.  A well-known figure, Saleh had formerly headed the White Helmets, a civil defense organization that had rescued people from the rubble of airstrikes during the war. A small counterprotest of Syrian critics of the president passed by without much incident.

Syrian-Americans React

Syrians and Syrian Americans traveled from across the country, many from long distances, to New York to listen to and meet with the Syrian delegation. Sammy N., a lawyer from North Carolina with family roots in Damascus, attended Sharaa’s event on September 21st and said he was struck by what he described as the “unity of diverse Syrians who greeted the president” — noting the crowd had Muslims, Jews, Christians, Kurds, Arabs, secularists, Islamists, leftists, and conservatives, but “all shared optimism about the country’s future.”

For years, Syrian-Americans have been active in American debates over Syria, but with limited influence. Activists once called for international protection of civilians early in the war, and later lobbied for sanctions against Assad over the regime’s human rights abuses. After 2015, when Russian intervention turned the war in favor of the government, they continued with humanitarian work, built bridges with nascent Syrian civil society, and raised awareness about the human cost of the conflict. Now, with Sharaa’s overthrow of Assad, many of the same organizations are urging Congress to permanently repeal the 2019 Caesar Act sanctions, objecting to senators like Lindsey Graham who wish to keep them as a tool of leverage.  Investment at scale required to rebuild is unlikely while sanctions are only currently lifted by temporary waivers. At the Concordia Summit, representatives of Syrian American grassroots organizations were present, including Syrian Forum USA, Syrian American Council, U.S.-Syria Business Council, and the Muslim American Leadership Alliance, among others.

Azzam D., a former political prisoner of the Assad regime, celebrates Syria’s United Nations speech with his personal twist on an American political slogan. Sep 24, 2025 (PC: Mustafa Majeed)

Sumaya Malas, a Syrian American PhD candidate and researcher from Pennsylvania, attended Sharaa’s interview with Petraeus. “It’s important to listen to the president and see his thoughts on his governance strategy since the fall of Bashar Assad,” she said. Her reaction was one of cautious hope: “[Sharaa] has been as pragmatic and middle-grounded as he possibly could be, given all the interests pulling him in different directions. He’s proven to be a good statesman, rational, and those are good signs for what’s to come — though it’s not been perfect.” She continued: “The former regime was so insidious and toxic to not just the political environment but the social culture. It will take more than a few months and some speeches: it will take hard work and the talent of a lot of Syrians who left.” Though Syrians had been “forgotten and demonized in the post-9/11 era and since the beginning of the revolution,” she added, “now we are no longer invisible.”

At the rally, high school student Ahmed L., who emigrated from Idlib in 2011 as a child refugee, expressed pride in Syria’s new course. Speaking with a clear New Jersey accent, the young man state,d “We never thought it would happen. I feel Syria will develop and grow, and the president’s speech showed that freedom could happen. As long as you believe in it, it will happen.”

Fowzi M., another high school senior from Lowell, Massachusetts, who drove down with his family, voiced a similar optimism. He had spent childhood years in Turkey as a refugee before coming to the US, “I wanted to support the new government. I see a new vision, a new opportunity to rebuild the country again. It means a lot — we are getting recognized again by bigger countries, and that is a big step. I believe we are going into a better future… I would invite everybody to go and visit Syria and see it differently than what’s been shown on the news.”

Conclusion

Ahmad Sharaa’s visit to the United Nations General Assembly was symbolically significant, with the Syrian delegation holding at least thirty-six diplomatic engagements. Despite the absence of an agreement with Israel to withdraw from Syrian territory, and with permanent sanctions relief still pending before the American Congress, the visit nevertheless underscored international recognition of the new state. The expectation of a unified Syria is accompanied by an understanding that the new government is committed to protecting its pluralism. The Syrian president’s next diplomatic stop is Moscow in October 2025.

Related:

– Is Syria’s New President The Type Of Political Leader Muslims Have Been Waiting For?

– Fort Down In A Fortnight: Syrian Insurgents Oust Assad Regime

The post Syria Returns To The World Stage: Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s Mission To New York appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

The dossier opens with a bold statement: The New York Times has served as a “mouthpiece for American imperialism,” helping to manufacture elite consensus around foreign policy that supports Israel’s military operations in Gaza. It identifies a pattern of biased reporting, selective framing, and omission of key facts that have contributed to the justification of war crimes.

The dossier meticulously documents the backgrounds of several prominent NYT figures, revealing deep personal and professional ties to Zionist organizations and Israeli institutions:

• Meredith Kopit Levien, CEO of The New York Times Company, has served on the advisory council of B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO), which promotes unwavering loyalty to Israel.
• Joe Kahn, Executive Editor, is linked to CAMERA, a Zionist media watchdog. He oversaw the controversial article “Screams Without Words,” which falsely accused Hamas of mass rape.
• Thomas Friedman, long-time foreign affairs columnist, has personal ties to Israel dating back to his youth and lived in a home seized from Palestinians during the Nakba.
• Isabel Kershner, Jerusalem correspondent, is married to a former Israeli military strategist Hirsh Goodman, and has two sons who served in the Israeli military. Goodman previously worked at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a Zionist think tank founded in 1985 and run by former AIPAC executives.
• Patrick Kingsley, Jerusalem bureau chief since 2021, has been criticized for embedding with Israeli forces and altering coverage under pressure from pro-Israel groups that led to the targeted killings of Palestinian poets, scholars, and teachers like Refaat Alareer by the Israelis.
• Ronen Bergman, contributor to the NYT Magazine, is a former Israeli intelligence officer and frequent speaker at AIPAC events.
• Natan Odenheimer, Jerusalem correspondent, served in Israel’s elite Maglan commando unit for four years. 
• Adam Rasgon who joined the NYT in 2024, previously worked at Zionist think tank Shalem Center, founded by one of Benjamin Netanyahu’s close advisors and funded by Trump mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, and later at WINEP to ‘disseminate the AIPAC line but in a way that would disguise its connections’. He cited them at least 17 times in his reporting without disclosure. 
• Jodi Rudoren, editorial director of newsletters, lived in a home taken from the prominent Palestinian-born academic, physician, and author Ghada Karmi’s family during the Nakba and bought by Thomas Friedman for the Times in the 1980s. She has longstanding ties to Zionist organizations.
• David Leonhardt, opinion editor, has justified Israeli military actions and echoed official narratives about attacks on hospitals after October 2023 by insisting that ‘there may be no way for Israel both to minimize civilian casualties and to eliminate Hamas,’ and that ‘Hamas is responsible for many of the civilian deaths’ in Gaza. “In November 2023, Leonhardt disseminated Israel’s narrative during the IOF’s first invasion of Al-Shifa Hospital, where hundreds of displaced civilians had been sheltering, framing the assault on one of Gaza’s most important hospitals as unfortunate but necessary.”
• Bret Stephens, opinion columnist since 2017, works for a Zionist advocacy group, the dark-money Maimonides Fund, where he works as the editor-in-chief of its journal, Sapir, in a blatant violation of the Times’ ethical guidelines. He has appeared at events across the country with the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most influential Zionist lobby organization in the United States.
• David Brooks, columnist since 2003, defended Israel during its 2014 assault on Gaza, one of Israel’s bloodiest assaults on Gaza, while his son served in the Israeli military. In one 2014 NPR interview, he claimed that exposing civilian casualties of Israel’s attacks was a ploy for sympathy by the Palestinian people, arguing that ‘Hamas has basically decided they want to see their own people killed as a propaganda coup.’ 
• Myra Noveck, long-time Jerusalem bureau staffer since 1999, has children in the Israeli military and is married to a Zionist writer Gershom Gorenberg.
• David Halbfinger, political editor, was described as the NYT’s “most Israel-friendly” reporter and attends a synagogue that fundraises for Israel.

The dossier argues that the NYT has played a central role in laundering misinformation that has justified Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. It highlights four major propaganda narratives:

1. The Hannibal Directive Cover-Up

Despite widespread reporting in Israeli media, the NYT has failed to mention that Israel issued the Hannibal Directive on October 7th, the Israeli military doctrine that calls to kill other Israelis to prevent them from being taken hostage. On October 7, 2023, this directive contributed to the deaths of many Israelis. Yet, the NYT continues to blame Hamas exclusively for the casualties, omitting this critical context.

2. The Mass Rape Hoax

The NYT published the now-discredited article “Screams Without Words,” alleging that Hamas weaponized sexual violence. The claims were refuted by forensic experts, family members of alleged victims, and the UN Human Rights Council, which found no credible evidence of rape. The article cited “sisters Y. and N. Sharabi, ages 13 and 16” as supposed victims of mass rape. However, a spokesperson for the Kibbutz Be’eri, where they were killed, came out and said, “No, they just — they were shot. I’m saying ‘just,’ but they were shot and were not subjected to sexual abuse.” Furthermore, the piece listed Gal Abdush as one of the main victims of Hamas rape, but multiple members of her family came out publicly to say she was not raped on October 7, 2023.

Haartez reported that “At Shura Base, to which most of the bodies (from October 7th) were taken for purposes of identification, there were five forensic pathologists at work. In that capacity, they also examined bodies that arrived completely or partially naked in order to examine the possibility of rape. According to a source knowledgeable about the details, there were no signs on any of those bodies attesting to sexual relations having taken place or of mutilation of genitalia.”

Ironically, these false claims were used to justify actual sexual violence committed by Israeli forces against Palestinian detainees, including minors.

3. The Al Shifa Hospital Lie

The NYT echoed Israeli claims that Al Shifa Hospital was a Hamas command center. Investigations by Channel 4 and the UN found no supporting evidence. Instead, the hospital was subjected to airstrikes, raids, and mass detentions, rendering it non-functional. Palestinian doctors reported torture and abuse at Israeli detention centers, with Israeli medical personnel allegedly participating in or condoning the violence.

4. The Hamas Stealing Aid Lie

The NYT reported that Hamas stole UN aid, citing Israeli and U.S.-backed sources. However, a U.S. government analysis and later NYT admissions found no evidence of systematic theft. This narrative was used to justify the establishment of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) “aid centers” that became sites of massacres, where over 1,000 Palestinians were killed while seeking food. 

An IDF soldier stationed at one of these GHF aid centers told Haaretz, “It’s a killing field. Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred meters away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range. But there’s no danger to the forces, I’m not aware of a single instance of return fire. There’s no enemy, no weapons”. 

Whistleblower Testimonies: A Glimpse into the Horror

Two American whistleblowers—one a career Army veteran and the other a former Green Beret—provided harrowing accounts of the brutality at aid distribution centers. They described the use of live fire, mortar rounds, and tank shells against unarmed civilians. One recounted a woman collapsing after being hit by a stun grenade; another witnessed a man pepper-sprayed while collecting noodles. Their testimonies confirm that these operations were not humanitarian but killing fields.

One of them, Green Beret Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony Aguilar, who was hired to guard one of the GHF aid sites, said to BBC News: “I witnessed the Israeli defense forces shooting at the crowds of Palestinians. I witnessed the Israeli defense forces firing a main gun tank round from the Merkava tank into a crowd of people, destroying a car of civilians who were simply driving away from the site… In my entire career, have I never witnessed the level of brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population, an unarmed, starving population.” He said, “Without question, I witnessed war crimes, I witnessed war crimes by the Israeli defense forces, without a doubt, using artillery rounds, mortar rounds, firing tank rounds into unarmed civilians, it’s a war crime.”

The Consequences of Complicity

The dossier concludes that The New York Times has not merely failed in its journalistic duty—it has actively contributed to the justification of war crimes. By laundering false narratives, suppressing dissenting voices, and maintaining editorial ties to Zionist institutions, the NYT has helped normalize genocide, mass rape, hospital bombings, and starvation in Gaza.

This exposé demands a reckoning—not just with the NYT, but with the broader media ecosystem that whitewashes and enables genocidal violence. Consider the case of Bari Weiss, who founded The Free Press. Weiss once described the killing of 50 Palestinians, including children, as an “unavoidable burden” of Zionism’s self-determination—a statement that would be unthinkable if made about Jewish victims. Yet, such rhetoric has not hindered her professional ascent. Instead, it has seemingly been rewarded.

The Free Press has repeatedly spread misinformation to defend Israel’s actions in Gaza. It misrepresented UN data to downplay civilian deaths, denied the existence of famine despite mounting evidence, and falsely blamed Hamas for aid-seeker massacres later confirmed to be carried out by Israeli forces. The outlet also praised the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has since been implicated in widespread violence against starving civilians.

Beyond misinformation, The Free Press engages in more insidious propaganda. It has shifted its stance on attacks against Gaza’s hospitals—from denial to justification—despite overwhelming evidence and admissions from the IDF. The outlet rarely acknowledges Palestinian suffering or the mounting death toll, instead lamenting the reputational damage to Israel.

Weiss herself has a history of promoting Islamophobic views. She rose to prominence by targeting Muslim professors at Columbia University and has repeatedly blamed Muslims for rising antisemitism in Europe. She has also promoted Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who espouses extreme views about Islam and Muslim immigrants. Weiss’s support for Ali’s rhetoric—calling Islam a “cult of death” and advocating for the closure of Muslim schools—would be unacceptable if directed at Judaism, yet it has not hindered her career.

Weiss and her outlet are reportedly in talks to sell The Free Press to CBS News for $200–$250 million, a move that could give her influence over the network’s editorial direction. The elevation of Bari Weiss and The Free Press—despite their record of misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric—alongside the longstanding pro-Israel bias of institutions like The New York Times, signals a deeper crisis in journalism. As media power becomes increasingly concentrated in the hands of ideologically aligned corporations, the boundaries between truth and propaganda blur. In this climate, narratives that justify war and suppress accountability are not just tolerated—they’re rewarded. 

The public must remain critically vigilant, because when media giants dictate the terms of truth, the cost is not merely misinformation—it is complicity in injustice, and the silencing of those who suffer most.

***

[This article was first published here.]

Related:

– Patrick Kingsley Of The New York Times: Genocide Whitewasher-In-Chief

– Media Coverage Of Ukraine VS. Other Conflicts

The post When News Becomes Propaganda: Gaza, Genocide, And The Media appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.