The unfortunate events in Gaza highlight the flaws in international institutions and their legal frameworks, which are either dysfunctional or have a tendency to engage in double standard practices.

At the top of such institutions sit the United Nations, the United Nations Security Council and the International Court of Justice.

The current state of the world is designed to benefit the proponents of the failing world order, allowing them to have their way and escape accountability for their misdeeds.

This not only makes a mockery of the established systems and laws, but also undermines the credibility of the entire global community.

The failure of modernity

Consequently, there is one set of criteria for the powerful, rich and overbearing godfathers of the prevalent international order, and another set for those in the underprivileged category who usually experience the manipulatively oppressive and abusive tactics of the former.

If one looks closer, one can easily see that little has essentially changed since the socio-political dynamics of both ancient and medieval times. It was first slavery, then feudalism, and finally liberal capitalism, all of which, while displaying faint evolutionary hedges, championed nothing but similar ideals and objectives, and resorted to similar modi operandi.

Moreover, when it comes to political systems and modes of government, it was first absolute monarchy, then oligarchy and dictatorship, and finally fictional, as well as farcical, democracy, all of which, while also displaying the shadowy landmarks of a socio-political evolution, advocated fundamentally identical motives and aspirations.

That means that over ages, neither man nor his regulatory ways, in essence, changed. However the misrepresenting developments in the global collective behavioural dynamics are attempted to be showcased, it cannot be denied that, by and large, the progress of humanity is driven by the penchants for confrontation, conquest and domination, resulting in perennial wars and bloodbaths.

It is not a secret that what rules the thoughts and behaviours of the modern man and his chauvinistic societies are such precepts as are rooted in collective antagonism, material or immaterial colonialism, pseudo-cultural and quasi-civilizational interventionism, and moral, together with spiritual, relativism.

In the bewildering era of ideological uncertainty and existential insecurity, the only currencies are those that pertain to might, which is only right, to matter and human desires, which are the only objects of an institutionalized worship, and to the animosity towards the sacred, accompanied by the unrelenting desacralization of values and existence, which serves as the sole source of motivation for the future.

Globalization has thus become a battleground for an ideological world war, where a vast array of ideas, worldviews and systems are constantly in conflicts with each other. With neither reprieves nor solutions in sight, the modern and postmodern age has been turned into the bloodiest and most merciless age. In the name of material progress and civilization, the modern man has only perfected the ways to misbehave and cause mischief on earth, doing so on a global scale. He has become a mass destructive agent and a mass killing machine.

Hence, instead of regarding the 20 th and the first quarter of the 21 st centuries as the pinnacle of the humanness of man and his civilizational trajectory, the same period should be seen as the time when both humanity and civilization declined so rapidly that they approached the brink of extinction. Such was the time of either modern primitiveness or primitive modernity.

The Gaza tragedy as an epitome of the iniquities of modern times

The Palestinian question in general and the ongoing Gaza crisis in particular epitomize the dark sides of modern times. The contexts serve as the confluence of the mighty-versus-weak, the wicked-versus-righteous, the shameful-versus-honourable, and the colonialism-versus- liberty, kinetics.

Needless to say that the immediate perpetrators of crimes in Palestine are the Zionists, representing the diabolical nationalistic and political ideology of Zionism, while they are being fully backed and supported by the equally diabolical segments of the institutionalized West and its pretentious civilization.

All the ideological and civilizational flaws of modern times have been on full display in Palestine, from the superiority complex and socio-cultural exclusivity, to the notions of imperialism, subjugation and hegemony.

The utter and ruthless destruction of Palestinian property, lives and hopes, driven by the deceitful and cunning politics of the West and Israel as an obedient and pampered pawn, represents the countless horrors that have plagued the world especially since the turn of the 20 th century.

As a consequence, no Palestinian possession, life, ambition, or value, is held of any importance, let alone sacred. When juxtaposed with the satanic aspirations of the West-Israel axis of evil, they simply do not exist. They and their Palestinian agents, or operators, are nameless and faceless. They are without identity, nearly undeserving of life.

In the eyes of Israel and its Western allies, the biggest crime “committed” by Palestine and its people is that they stand in the way of the realization of the most sophisticated form of colonialism whereby the victims are intended to be completely erased, not just from biological existence and physical records and maps, but also from the annals of history and the recesses of collective human memory. That is to say – in a way – Palestine and the Palestinians live in the “wrong” place at the “wrong” time.

Gaza and the lack of the sanctity of human life

The tragic developments in Gaza, though heartbreaking, are proving to be as much yardsticks as purifiers. In the arena of the Gaza strip, the truth is clearly distinguished from falsehood, civilization from barbarism, rationality from madness, and humanity from viciousness. The
Palestinian human dignity and the sanctity of life are scarcely valued by the Zionists. There is no greater disregard shown by the Zionists than towards the Palestinians and their overall interests.

This begs the question of how such a thinking and behavioural pattern is possible, given that one of the pivotal tenets of Judaism (in principle at least) – just like in the case of Christianity and Islam – is that all human lives are sacred. As the creation of the Almighty God, humanity transcends the parameters of religion, race and culture. It operates at another level, and is ruled by a different set of regulations.

People may follow different religions, belong to different ethnic groups, and subscribe to different socio-cultural norms – all in accordance with the physical and metaphysical laws instituted by the Creator of people, earth and the whole universe – but in no way and under no circumstances can they interfere with, or obliterate, the imprints of their createdness and humanity, which are imbued in each and every human being.

It is this aspect of humankind that must be honoured and cherished by such as honour and cherish the Creator. Undoubtedly, honouring creation signifies the unmistaken honouring of the Creator, while dishonouring it signifies the dishonouring of the Creator

The sanctity of human life is an existential universal canon

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ told us that Allah created Adam - in his capacity as the father of humanity - in His own image (Sahih Muslim). It goes without saying that this hadith or tradition is to be understood neither literally nor in any of the anthropomorphic (humanlike) terms, for “there is nothing like Him” (al-Shura 11), but the hadith clearly underscores that mankind has been created in the best of stature and moulds (al-Tin 4) and that, since the inception of life, mankind was destined to occupy a special status and play a special role within the ontological matrix of life and the universe as its locus.

As such, this universality of the importance of man as a species and the sacredness of human life was always there. It was inseparable at once from the human presence on earth and from the contents of God’s revelations, the latter functioning as the ultimate orientation and guidance for the former.

The mighty canon of the inviolability of human life was brought to the fore as early as during the goings-on associated with the first man and prophet on earth, Adam, and his household. This was so because, as the first humans on earth, they needed to set standards to be followed; they needed to develop a benchmark for posterity.

The canon continued, with each prophet reviving and drawing attention to it. As the final messenger, Prophet Muhammad ensured that the canon remains on the pedestal and venerated till the end of time.