Gaza - 18th March 2025 - Arab Nations - Where Is Thy Empathy? Poem by Bernedita Rosinha Pinto

O' Muslims brothers of the Middle East,
when so many of you gather
at the mosques for evening prayers
after the fasting
or sit to share Iftar with family and friends,
how can your eyes keep visualizing,
how can your ears keep hearing
of the genocide of your own fraternity
which is happening in Gaza
where so many of your Palestinian
brothers and sisters
are getting killed or injured
due to the extensive airstrikes
as the ceasefire has been abandoned
and the promise of peace has been deserted?

O' dear Muslim brothers and sisters
of the Middle East,
when the holy month of Ramadan
seeks compassion in your periphery
and your hearts be filled with empathy,
how can you not want to stop
the fatalities, the tragedies in Gaza
where bombs keep dropping like snowflakes
and people keep dying like autumn leaves
without any chance for resistance?

How can the world keep ignoring
when the Palestinians in Gaza
kept dying in hundreds in a day
and over four hundred bodies kept mounting
without anyone wanting to know
who breathes, who dies,
as no one cared to offer them solidarity,
or show them empathy?

Or has God forgotten to hear their prayers
and their pleas for help and survival
or was death going to be their only anticipation
as Israel kept bluffing them
with the promise of ceasefire
and started to bomb their cities and homes again
without any mercy nor respect for humanity?

Is this what faith professes and teaches
that no one can stand up
and ask to stop the brutalities
is this what Israel chooses so calmly to do-
to let Palestinian people just die and go
as so many of the dead
were wrapped in white drapes
and carried to graves for decent burials
by their male family members?

O' dear Muslim brothers of the Middle East
will you let the war in Gaza keep continuing
and imposing on people
more pain and sufferings,
more grief and animosity
so hard to forget,
so tough to forgive
as those who have lost their lives
were still their children,
their brothers and sisters,
their fathers and mothers
from their own families
who wanted to be together
to celebrate Ramadan in unity
and share blessing of harmony
but now no more will they be there
to see the moon that will shine
when Eid al-Fitr will be here
as in their tombs they will slumber in silence
while the eyes of their loved ones
will be filled with inexpressible sorrow
and agonizing memories of this genocide
which they will never forget
in their entire lifetime?

So, Muslim Brothers of the Middle East
help those families
share your empathy with them
as they are your own brethren,
your own Islamic fraternity.