After Hamas launched operations against Israel on the morning of October 7, 2023, the genocide initiated by the occupying forces against innocent civilians in Gaza is entering its second month tomorrow. Beyond the human tragedies, we are witnessing a process that is both new and filled with lessons in many respects. It's a surprising period that reminds the entire world of forgotten truths and teaches entirely new things, accompanied by shockwaves.
When we want to concretize the question, 'What have we learned?' we particularly need to emphasize five points:
1) We learned how the living can emerge from the dead.
The incident constantly emphasized in the Quran about 'bringing the living out of the dead' has manifested right before our eyes. While some are losing their lives in Gaza, consciences around the world are awakening, voices are rising, anger is swelling, and the hypocrisy accompanying the brutality prompts people to question everything anew, fundamentally. Videos containing sincere confessions of someone with tearful eyes pass before us every day.
2) We learned that Israel is not all-powerful.
For years, we were indoctrinated with the idea that Israel's power, its war and intelligence capabilities, how it ruled the world, and how everyone bowed to it, would make us believe that no bird could fly without the Zionists knowing. However, now we face an occupying state that is crumbling in every aspect, resorting to inflicting its revenge solely by bombing innocent people with warplanes. Its military operational capability and intelligence have seriously weakened, its morale has collapsed, and it has become a state that fuels a wave of hatred towards the religion and race it claims to represent. Even the PR facades that emerged only during hostage exchanges make Israel a subject of ridicule and open to debate. They can never recover from this damage. A fear wall has fallen in the world, a threshold has been crossed, and more will come.
3) We learned that a boycott is a lifelong stance.
From the very first day of the events, some major brands openly declared their support for the genocide. They thought the world would blindly buy into Israel's narrative of 'Hamas equals ISIS,' but that didn't happen. Muslims, on the other hand, openly confronted these scorpions infiltrating their homes and pockets. Now is the time to rethink everything from scratch, to question our lives thoroughly, and to completely abandon some habits. Boycott is not just a remedy to be resorted to when the enemy bombs innocents; it is a way of life. A Muslim already boycotts some foods, some drinks, some clothing, some places, some concepts, and some people. What Islam calls 'haram' is called 'boycott' in modern language. We need to think about the issue in this way.
4) We learned how widespread Islamophobia has become in Türkiye.
This is unfortunately a very serious problem we must confront. Especially, some discourses easily accepted by our younger generations have started to reach threatening levels for our country's future. It is evident that many sentences starting with 'Arabs...' have evolved into explicit Islam and human hatred. If we, as Muslims, envision a future in these lands, we must fight against this hostility at all levels. We are obliged to discuss the method, content, and implementation form by adopting long-term and consistent strategies.
5) We learned that we need to work very, very hard.
In fact, our path leads to the same destination in every matter: working ceaselessly, without pausing, without obsessing over seeing results instantly, working with sincerity and patience... The only way to create public opinion, weaken the enemy, gain positions, take positive steps, and leave a strong legacy for those who come after us is through this. The answer to the question 'How did they win?' is here, and the aspect of the question 'Why are we losing?' that concerns us also lies here. Since it is not possible to escape from the responsibility that history has placed on our shoulders, there seems to be no choice but to willingly shoulder the burden."
