I no longer think it suffices to call the Gaza strip as yet another Occupied Territory. I prefer and will use as of now, the term: Gaza Concentration Camp (GCC), which by design has been promised slow but sure despair or death. The Muslims whether of Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen – you name it, or the local US Muslims, are never at the table on TV, Radio (with exceptions), or newspaper. They get lambasted on a regular basis on this slip up or that without any voice. Therefore, naming GCC will allow the Muslims to slide in some element of reality and dissension into all hot airy diversity-lacking discussions.

When we shed tears for the Syrian victims, we ceremoniously side with the Sunnis. What about the Sunnis of GCC? God forbid we should speak with both sides of our mouth.

When, in this safe and secure land, egged on by gun business interest, we support the right to bear arms under our much ballyhooed 2nd Amendment, why do we deny the perennially incarcerated of GCC to bear and hurl stones in self-defense? Our mouth will tear apart if we continue to voice our outrage with a forked tongue. Was David wrong in using his slingshot in bringing Goliath down?

When we talk about Muslim Jihad in the Holy Land by Hamas et al, why is attestation to divine rights in the creation and maintenance of Israel not Judeo-Christian Jihad? In how many more ways is the forked tongue going to manifest!

Last but not the least, Muslims did not drive the Jews out of the Holy Land, nor were Muslims vicious toward the Jews. Local people converted, yet our understanding of spirituality is so shallow that we would have God permit and expect inhumanity as justified means toward establishing His decree – land belongs to the Jews.

Why pray tell me was there 40 years of wondering in the wilderness? Had the Jews then displeased God? Are they now not violating the godliness that true inheritors of the Promised Land are supposed to uphold? A god without empathy is a god defined by man. It’s not God’s definition of Himself. Did the European transferees to the Holy Land inhabited by poor, half-educated, once welcoming people leave their soul in Europe? Is this entire nouveaux settlement not the latest act of colonialism that mankind has witnessed?

God disowns excessiveness in our dealings. So, it would do well for all to remember about favors shown to us: God giveth and God taketh away! We must be deserving or everything will turn to dust. Our doing well or doing poorly are all tests. Our station in life is not inherently deserved and a status marker. The people of GCC in their adversity must not turn jealous, angry and vengeanceful even as their tormentors gloat thanklessly with glory and self-satisfaction - buoyant with unimpinged borrowed power, wealth, and friends in high places.