After the advent of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in the center under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, The Hindu, once a revered newspaper known for its eloquent and erudite articles has now transformed into a propaganda of ‘mischievous distortion of truth, hyperbole, and false equivalence‘. However, the latest interview given by Moussa Abu Marzouk who heads Hamas’ international relations office based in Doha, Qatar to Frontline magazine is a new high in woke-liberal journalism that absolves the terror group’s wrongdoings.

Particularly the first question asked by the interviewer Iftikhar Gilani who is an Indian journalist based in Ankara, Turkey. In his very first question, this journalist absolves Hamas when he asks Marzouk, “Hamas surprised the world by taking on one of the world’s strongest armies. But the way Israel is retaliating, the way civilians and children are getting killed, the question arises if it was worth it?”

How convenient!

Did the attack come as a surprise to the Israeli government and its military? Yes!

Did Hamas attack a country that has one of the strongest militaries? Absolutely!

But what the journalist conveniently forgot to ask was about the terror attack launched by Hamas on 7 October 2023, that led to the brutal murder of over 1400 people. What the Frontline failed to acknowledge was Hamas targeting innocent civilians at a music festival where they killed over 250 people, raped and mutilated women, and then proceeded to various kibbutz where entire families were killed in cold blood.

Instead, he went on to give legitimacy to the attacks on civilians which the Hamas’ international relations head called a resistance movement against a grave historical injustice.

When questioned about Hamas killing civilians and taking hostages, Marzouk who now stands on the pedestal of a victimhood says, “There are false Israeli narratives about civilian deaths. According to the testimony of the Israelis who lived through the events, our freedom fighters did not kill them.”

He is then allowed to absolve Hamas of all the wrongs and he goes on to blame IDF for killing its own civilians which will now be bought, chewed, and swallowed by the woke-liberal-leftest cabal and this incident will enter the realms of conspiracy theory.

Marzouk, then says that he and his people do not want to live under occupation and says, “All we want is freedom because we do not accept to live under occupation. Just as the Indian people rejected the British occupation and expelled it in the end” which Arfa Khanum Sherwani who is a Senior Editor with The Wire magazine gives ‘liberal legitimacy’. However, the Indian freedom movement was predominantly non-violent using civil disobedience and non-cooperation as tools to fight the British. 

Those who took on an armed struggle like Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Master Surya Sen, Bagha Jatin, and many more did not butcher innocent British women and children. They attacked the police and the army which takes courage. However, Hamas did the opposite and attacked, killed, raped, mutilated bodies, and took women as sex slaves, children, and infants as hostage is reprehensible, and to compare it with India’s freedom struggle and give it legitimacy by Indian journalists is unconscionable. 

The fact is, that Hamas and Hezbollah are terror organizations that will never follow peaceful means to obtain justice. In his interview, Moussa Abu Marzouk also said, “Our people no longer believe in peaceful solutions alone. We believe in comprehensive resistance that includes armed resistance and popular resistance. ” 

The question is what popular resistance? 

The one which kills babies and decapitates their heads, rapes women, and takes sex slaves? 

So in that way, one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s Jihadist which can be called a cliché because the statement rings a broad truth, yet falls short of qualifying. That would mean the entire population in the Gaza Strip are Jihadsits which would be a monumentally incorrect statement. But Hamas is a terror organization under whose rule, average Palestinians have to live and die. Also, what legitimacy could be bestowed upon Hamas which uses its own people as human shields and whose leader lives in opulence while the average Palestinian suffers every day?

What was even more contemptible was when Moussa Abu Marzouk said,  “The easiest option may be to abandon resistance and accept Israel, but we see the truth in Mahatma Gandhi’s saying, “The right path is always the most difficult.”

It is amazing how the left liberals and Islamists normalize and legitimize violence under the cloak of the apostle of peace and use Gandhi as their means to an end. At the same time, there will be no tears for the Muslims who are dying in Yemen or the Muslims held in “re-education camps” in Communist China.

The one incontrovertible truth is that Hamas will never opt for any peaceful solution, nor will it accept a two-state solution that goes against its Islamic principles. According to the Quran, “The earth belongs to Allah, He gives to His servants (Muslims) as He pleases and the end is (best) for the righteous.” (Surah Al-A’raf (7): Part of ayat 128). sustenance which he fumishes, but unto Him is the resurrection” (Surah al-Mulk (67): 15).

For Hamas, as long as all the Jews are not driven into the sea there can be no peace. So if that is the end game, how can they expect Israel not to act?

At the end of the interview, the journalist asks if it is possible for Israel and Palestine to coexist for the sake of peace and if will it be acceptable to Hamas, to which Marzouk says “You are asking the lamb, do you agree to coexist with the wolf” which clears its uncompromising stand. 

If one were to revisit Indian History on its eve of independence amid chaos, violence, and bloodshed that took place during the partition, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy said, The partition is only first of our demands“. And he was right, the two-state solution is still not acceptable to Pakistan that dreams of Gazwa e Hind, a Prophetic narrative to justify its jihad in India as told to Abu Huraira by Prophet Muhammad who promised us the “Jihad of Hind. “

In his book ‘Pakistan Or The Partition Of India’, BR Ambedkar writes – 

The brotherhood of Islam is not the universal brotherhood of man. It is a brotherhood of Muslims for Muslims only. There is a fraternity, but its benefit is confined to those within that corporation. For those who are outside the corporation, there is nothing but contempt and enmity.

We can now see that in India the universal brotherhood of men in action who are supported by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind who said that Hamas is not a terrorist organization but a ‘resistance movement’ ably supported by those in India who want to turn Muslim ghettos in India into a mini Gazas.

(Balaji is a political commentator and columnist. He tweets @LaxmanShriram78)

Subscribe to our channels on Telegram and WhatsApp and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.