When Inaction & Silence are also Crimes

Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal

The Western legacy of crime

The Western countries are known for its long colonial occupation, enslavement of people, slave trading, genocide and economic exploitation of the Asian and African countries. They committed ethnic cleansing of the Red Indians from the American continents, the Aborigines from Australia and the Maori people from New Zealand.

The UK -the flag ship country of European colonialists not only plundered the wealth of Bengal -the richest country in the contemporary world but also engineered genocidal famines many times in that land and cleansed one-third of its population. Starvation was thus used as a weapon to weaken people and sustain the colonial occupation.

The UK also engineered the creation of Israel in its occupied land of Palestine. Thus it sowed the seed of bloodbath in the holy land.

These Western colonial powers killed more than 75 millions in two World Wars. The US killed about 200 thousand people in seconds in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan by dropping nuclear bombs. Thus they made a world record of genocidal barbarity that still stays unbeaten.

The same Western countries still continue with the same old legacy and display the same incurable moral illness. Their policy on Israel is a testimony to that. They not only created an illicit state of Israel on the occupied land of Palestine; but also manipulated the UN -the club of anti-Muslim imperialists to give recognition to Israel. Since then, the Western countries have shown their constant complicity in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their ancestral land by full scale collaboration with Israel. 

The Western collaboration in Israeli crime

Israel gets its necessary killing machines and bombs from the Western countries especially the US, the UK and Germany. The US continues to block any ceasefire effort of the UN by using its veto; thus allows Israel to continue its genocide and destruction. The US has become an obstacle in the way of world peace.

Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. It stopped the entry of foods, drinks and medicines to Gaza long ago. It also turned most hospitals to rubble. The US and its allies stay silent and do nothing against such a genocidal Israeli policy. 

Now every human has a responsibility. Whatever ability we have, we must stand with the full force against these barbaric actors on earth. Every voice makes a difference. Silence and inaction are no option; that will demonstrate the complicity in the war crimes. Such silence and inaction will count as punitive crimes in the Court of Allah SWT in the hereafter.

Killers and war criminals are not many on the earth; but they commit tremendous atrocities when the majority people stay silent. Israel is an example.

Silence and inaction of the majority encourage the criminal to commit more crimes without any red line. So a few genocidal ministers in Israel’s cabinet and a few bombers in the Israeli Army could cause havoc in Gaza.

No city was bombed so mercilessly in two World Wars -as done by Israel in Gaza. They killed more than 55,000 people and destroyed almost 80 percent of the residential houses of the small Gaza strip. Still the whole mainstream Western media support Israel for its war crimes as its right to defend. The war crimes of Israel is not news in the Western media.

The crime of silence and inaction

Islam has a more instructive punitive code of conduct. Most people will go to the hellfire not for committing crimes like killing, stealing, robbery or raping, They will go to the hellfire for standing in support of the criminals -as the common Egyptians committed by staying not only silent but also worshipping Pharaoh. Now we have new pharaoh and pharaoh worshippers.

The Almighty Allah SWT has blessed us with the necessary common sense and conscience to judge good and evil, just and unjust. We are under the constant watch of All-seeing Allah SWT.  Those who stand with the genocidal war criminals, they indeed fail to make good use of their common sense and conscience. Such complicity in crime through silence and inaction is also a punishable crime. By failing in the moral test, they indeed qualify for the hellfire. 

It is a great shame that powerful countries like the US, the UK and Germany are ruled by morally failed people. Because of their moral failure, the war criminals like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prevail and the innocent babies, men and women perish. And the whole world watches!

Of course, there are exceptions. Greta Thunberg and her fellow comrades are such exceptions -who recently displayed their moral excellence. But such exceptions can’t undo the collective failure of mankind. It needs much more.

The whole of mankind has only one option: either to stand with the victims of the war crimes or with the war criminals. That will decide the future course of human history. Therefore, every human has a crucial role; it is to shape the course of human history. 10/06/2025