Before talking about jihad, I must congratulate the survivors at the Jenin camp on rejecting the food offered by the Americans whose hands are stained with innocent Palestinian blood. The Jenin refugees refused the Americans though the camp was in crisis with no food, water, medicine or shelter. It should be a matter of great pride to all Arabs that the people of Jenin defended their camp to the last bullet. Those starving people did not think twice before returning the food and other items donated by a country which supplied the weapons to Israel to use against them. US President George W. Bush’s justification of the Israeli atrocities as self-defense has whetted Ariel Sharon’s thirst for blood and desire for destruction. Bush has called the butcher of peace — Sharon — "a man of peace".
The children of Jenin behaved as if they were real adults, when they returned food and toys to America, the "greatest terrorist country". The American aid reminds us of the US planes which last year dropped food and money to the Afghan civilians whom they were also bombing. If only Arab rulers could learn from the Jenin refugees the rudiments of Arab pride which has been relegated to the pages of history books.
Additional prayers for the success and steadfastness of the Palestinians is another form of jihad that everybody should perform. These prayers should be made in all our prostrations, pre-dawn prayers and obligatory prayers. Scholars agree that the special prayers should be recited when terrible things happen. Are not the tragic events in Palestine including the failure of the Muslims to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque terrible calamities? Doesn’t the situation demand the recitation of these special prayers in the normal congregational prayers particularly at the Two Holy Mosques? I remember people reciting the special prayers during the Gulf War and also in the early days of intifada. I believe that matters have come to the point where special prayers and supplications to Almighty Allah should be made along with every obligatory prayer in mosques.
Further, the preachers addressing the Friday congregations should goad their listeners to donate generously to the Palestinians. The preachers should also urge the people to instill in their children the idea of jihad and prepare them to confront the enemy. The preachers should also persuade people to engage in jihad in all its varied forms and they should also warn people about the lies being spread by Zionists.
Teachers at both boys and girls schools should make their students understand the sufferings of the Palestinians. The students should also be taught about the heroic deeds of the Palestinian youths, who were martyred while resisting the forces of occupation. The students should also be taught the power of jihad with money. They should also be encouraged to save money for their Palestinian brothers. They should be taught to boycott goods manufactured by the Zionists or their supporters. Let our motto be "One who boycotts an enemy’s product saves a Muslim." It is also important to train young people in the latest telecommunications methods. People all over the world can be informed of Israel’s injustices and the legitimacy of our stand with the help of the Internet and e-mail. Chatting and text-messaging would also be useful.
The Western Jewish-controlled media presents the occupation of Palestine as Israel’s legitimate right. The media also describes Israelis as poor victims of Palestinian suicide bombers when they are in fact martyrs for a just, legitimate and sacred cause. That same media never speaks of the inhuman acts and humiliations perpetrated by Israelis against the Palestinians. The media never, not even once, refers to the fact that the Israelis have driven the Palestinians from their ancestral homes into refugee camps.
Every one of us should try his best to promote the Palestinian cause. It is part of a cultural jihad to study everything related to the Palestinian issue. Otherwise it will not be easy to convince people, previously misled by Zionist propaganda, of the legitimacy of the Palestinian cause.
Most Arab TV channels and radio stations are busy broadcasting titillating music, voluptuous dances and expensive advertisements. They find little time to concentrate on Palestinian matters. We must ignore those stations and listen to others which devote time to the Palestinian issue.
The economic jihad can be fought by boycotting Israeli and American goods as much as possible. If we feel these commodities are essential, we should try to find substitutes for them. We may continue to depend on them until substitutes are found. The boycott should also lead us to freedom from economic and intellectual dependence on the enemy. The ability to use Arabic in e-mail will free us from dependence on the American e-mail system. Knowledge is not the monopoly of any particular people. History teaches us that the West learned the basics of modern science from the Arabs. We should not underrate the role of the common man in the economic jihad. The Coca-Cola company has announced that its losses amount to 25 percent in the Middle East while Burger King is thinking of closing many of its branches in the region due to increasing losses. This is just a beginning. There are other better restaurants — for example Tazaj, which decided to donate SR1 to the intifada fund from each sandwich it sold for a week, as well as shawarma and Al-Baik. Charity, they say, begins at home so we should know where to start.
