By Dallas Darling

When the Iranian Red Crescent announced it would send two humanitarian aid ships to Gaza, it was almost predictable that the Pentagon’s director Robert Gates claimed Iran could launch an attack against Europe with hundreds of missiles.

Hopefully, and by now, most people understand there is a clash between a sacred Islamic republic (Iran), and a secular militant democracy (United States.) It can be observed by how Iran plans to send food, medicines, and medical supplies to Gaza, while the U.S. continues to supply Israel with billions of dollars of weapons, used to subjugate the people of Gaza. Worldliness and militancy, though, especially when spirituality and religion are absent, breeds hypocrisy and double standards, not to mention an ethical disparity between words and actions.

Unlike most Americans, who have either privatized or de-compartmentalized their various faiths, or have bowed to the gods at the Pentagon, Iran has chosen to follow the footsteps of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Orphaned at an early age, Muhammad (PBUH) always remembered the less fortunate and a strong tradition of generosity towards travelers and strangers. One of his first proclamations was, “Your God is most generous.”

It was Muhammad’s (PBUH)  rejection of the traditional Arab gods, and his criticism of how material wealth had become more important than caring for the poor and oppressed, that angered some Meccan merchants. (Economic justice for refugees and the disadvantaged are still a threat today. Trying to absolve one‘s guilt by offering money for seized and occupied lands seldom works too.)

It is also why Muhammad (PBUH) included Alms as the third pillar of faith, or the making of gifts of money, food, medicine, and clothing available to the less fortunate. In Islam, there are three words used for Alms. Sadaqah (righteousness) denotes voluntarily giving money and food to the poor.(1) Waqf is the giving of property to the Islamic state for sacred, public works and charities. It is also to be done perpetually.(2) Zakah means “purification” and is when someone gives a portion of their wealth or possessions to the poor.(3) Surprisingly, the mistakenly used and hijacked (specifically by previous U.S. leaders) term Jihad entails acts of charity and generous giving or an inner struggle to achieve spiritual peace, as well as defending Muslims.(4)

On the other hand, the U.S. spends enormous sums of its time, energy, and resources on producing and stockpiling weapons systems, maintaining nuclear arsenals, and protecting its overseas empire with 800 owned and rented military bases scattered around the world. Its 85,000 private firms, employing millions of military workers, must forever manufacture and invent wars to exist. With two ongoing, lengthy, and parasitic conflicts in the Middle East and Southwest Asia, a militant ideology and aggressive ethos continues to permeate the United States. Ultimately, it was never about a clash of civilizations. It has always been about meaning and how people pursue peace and security. Fortress America projects its unholy militarism onto others. Alms and justice for the oppressed are frowned upon.

Since Muslims do not separate their public life from their religious life, for the Iranian relief workers and volunteers on the vessels being sent to Gaza, for those on the Infants for Gaza Flotilla, and for Iranian lawmakers who now plan to travel on an aid ship leaving Lebanon, it will be a pilgrimage that will help free the oppressed people of occupied Palestine. (The Iranian Red Crescent will also send a plane with more than 30 tons of medical equipment via Egypt for the people of Gaza.)

As U.S. warships sail towards the Iranian vessels loaded with aid, and as a top U.S. military officer, Chairman of U.S. Joint Chief of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, meets with Israel’s defense minister, will there be a confrontation? Will Israel, armed and backed by the U.S., raid the flotillas again (or even Iran!)? Will the people of Gaza ever be liberated? And when will U.S. ships loaded with humanitarian aid (Alms) be sent to Gaza, instead of vessels filled with military aid (arms) bound for Israel?

--  Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John‘s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.worldnews.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and wn.com//dallasdarling.

Notes:

(1) Glasse, Cyril. The Concise Encyclopedia Of Islam. San Francisco, California: Harper Collins Publishers, 1991., p. 341.

(2) Ibid., p. 417.

(3) Ibid., p. 430.

(4) Gaynor, Elisabeth and Anthony Esler. World History Connections To Today. Needham, Massachusetts: Prentice Hall Publishers, 1999., p. 258.