We’ve been hearing, seeing, and reading about the unrelenting Israeli attacks on Gaza since October that resulted in the loss of about 18,000 Palestinian lives. It is a horrifying present with little to no time between attacks to digest the news or even for Gazans to bury their dead. As I stand in solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine, I share their faith in Allah’s mercy and that Palestine will be free.
“So, undoubtedly with hardship comes ease. Undoubtedly with ˹that˺ hardship comes ˹more˺ ease.”
Quran, 94:5-6
Palestinians have been resisting Israeli occupation for over 70 years. They’ll keep on resisting for however long they need to even if they lose their lives and have to rebuild their homes a thousand times over after being bombed and flattened to the ground by the oppressor. The tenacity of Palestinian faith is outstanding, and it’s in the same vein as that of my enslaved African ancestors who resisted slavery for hundreds of years to the point where it became untenable.
In 2015 I began my social practice multimedia performance project X Speaks in which I present and perform Malcolm X’s final speeches and letters in collaboration with members from the Black Muslim community. In the 1964 speech “The Ballot or the Bullet” in Cleveland, Malcolm X said, “It’ll be ballots, or it’ll be bullets. It’ll be liberty, or it will be death.”
We’re are all for certain going to die. There is no escaping this reality, so we are better off focusing on how we live and what we are willing to die for. As the descendent of Black people who lived generations under slavery I’m forever grateful to Allah that enough of them were willing to resist and risk their lives in order for me to be free. Was it worth it for Nat Turner, Toussaint Louverture, Harriet Tubman, Koffi, Denmark Vessey, and the millions of others enslaved Africans who resisted slavery to die fighting for subsequent generations to be free?