Page 13 - North Star 2024

themselves show soldiers mockingly wearing Islamic clothing, stolen from the homes of Gazans they have displaced. A particular video showed an IDF soldier defecating in a ransacked house in Gaza with an Islamic prayer mat deliberately placed on the bathroom floor, considered highly insulting within any religion. A deeply disturbing trend has emerged on TikTok in which anti Palestinian accounts post videos derogatorily mimicking suffering and starving Gazans. Oen, they are dressed as stereotypical Muslims and donning Islamic cultural clothing.
There is little doubt that Islam has long been a flashpoint for racist, hateful attacks aimed at dehumanizing Palestinians. This has only worsened with the waging of the current war; this virulent anti-Muslim violence has already cost innocent lives outside Gaza as well. However, despite the constant mocking and targeting of their Islamic faith, the Palestinian spirit has shown no signs of giving in. Ever since the beginning of the military campaign in Gaza, ever since the first bombs dropped, the people of Palestine have only turned closer to their religion as a source of communal hope, comfort, and resistance. They have persisted in their faith despite it all. It is beyond remarkable how resilient Gazans have been in their beliefs even as they suffer the deadly, genocidal consequences for it.
Consider, for example, the prayers of Gaza. The first Friday prayer, known as jummah, of Ramadan was held right beside the remnants of a mosque destroyed by the invading military. As described by Reuters News Agency, “scores of worshippers knelt in rows . . . by the wreckage of the al-Farouk mosque in Rafah, laying out their prayer mats in the shadow of a white minaret marking all that remains of the otherwise flattened building.” The name “al-Farouk” had been painted onto a nearby structure, since the mosque itself had been decimated.