In the dim surrounds of the mosque hall the lone figure of the young Sheikh looms in the foreground as he passionately addresses the Friday congregation in this once house that has now been converted into a mosque. The audience, seated on the floor, listens in austere silence mostly with their eyes on the floor although some fix their vision on the khateeb (speaker) as he speaks of a land far away. The speaker, smartly dressed in a flowing overcoat, of medium height, who is perhaps in his early thirties speaks with a conviction that far exceeds his years. As he scans the audience with his penetrating yet kind eyes, his face speaks with a scholarly radiance as he outlines the issues facing the Muslims in Palestine. His voice resonates in Arabic as he concludes his khutbah (sermon) on dhikrullah (the remembrance of Allah) with an emphatic statement that Muslims are in such a state because we have ceased to believe and act upon the ideals of Islam - that we seek refuge in the West, in America and in Israel and in materialism and not in the Lord of the Universe, that our state is the result of our own doings; an outcome of what we have sown.

My head lowers as though in shame and my mind races back through time to a few weeks ago. The venue was Sydney Town Hall and as we approached the entrance, there was a crowd teaming outside in active chatter. There was an excitement in the air that one experiences when things are being done, when something is finally happening. As the crowd in the now packed hall settled to a hush, the voice of the main speaker echoed through the surrounds. "Breaking the Silence", John Pilger set about systematically outlining and shattering the worldview that we currently held as citizens of Australia. An international journalist of some repute, Mr Pilger, no stranger to the public arena, read through his notes as the audience consisting of a diverse array of the Australian public, including some noted personalities from the native Koori peoples, listened in a lulled silence. He spoke of a political system that was but an eyewash, based on appeasing and satisfying the whimsical dreams and selfish aspirations of a few elite while working against the vested interests of the population as a whole. The media, but a symptom of such a system did but convey a particular view and not the facts. The self claimed puritanical fact based media enterprise was nowhere close to its perceived ideal quite evident from the whole episode of the ‘Tampa Crisis’, just in time for the elections last year. The media is after all a business driven to entertain, to a point where many media organizations simply spell out that their target audience is the ‘lowest common denominator’.

Whether it be the latest ‘War on Terrorism’, the Gulf war and the aftermath, the Middle East conflict, the Asylum seekers in Woomera, or the chaos in South America, things are not as simple as they are made to appear. It is hardly ever the case of good verses evil. There are underlying motives, vested interests and expensive economic and political wagers that motivate and sometimes prolong the wars and the killings and the oppression. Things are not as simple as they seem!

The ongoing bombing of Iraq is only the continual and unrelenting destruction of a country that is all but destroyed. There are approximately 6000 Iraqi children dying every month since the end of the Gulf War. The unending sorties and missions over Southern Iraqi, have left behind a treacherous landscape of depleted Uranium; seeds of terror that will guarantee that over the next ten to fifteen years up to 15% of the Iraqi population will be afflicted with cancer. Cancer that could possibly be cured by drugs if treated in its early stages; vital medicines that were sanctioned by the UN only to be vetoed by the US and UK. The excuse being that these drugs could be used by the regime to make ‘weapons of mass destruction’. Irony that screams in the face of truth. How can the world continue to buy the story? How could the world continue to be silent?

Palestine, a land where blood flows more freely than water. Students of history would stand appalled that a people who mark the ‘Holocaust’ with such silent remembrances and tragic tears, commemorating the Jewish persecutions and massacres before and during the Second World War, that were the culmination of centuries of religious persecution, would then in turn persecute and pillage the fertile lands of Palestine and punish its people with such a vengeance and hatred as though they were the aggressors. Arabs, punished for calling a land home, a land rightfully theirs. The promised land, a land of the pious worshippers of God. A land vacated by the Children of Israel for more than two thousand years before the absurd calls of the Zionist movement broke the scene and a nation state was formed upon land stolen from a welcoming host. If such treachery formed the very foundations, how then can one expect peace and understanding? After all, the Hebrews came to Palestine as but conquerors. Prior to their arrival Palestine was occupied by various Semitic and non-Semitic tribes. Palestine was under Jewish rule for less than five hundred years, and the dispossessed people return 2000 years later to wrongfully claim a land from its rightful heirs who were there since time in memorial, although adopting the Muslim and Christian faiths. The Zionist claim would be like a claim by Arabs that Spain was rightfully theirs because they ruled Spain for nearly seven hundred years, losing it only six hundred years ago!

Insecure and out of place in the midst of nation states forged by shady and unjust political and economic interests of the then super-powers, Israel is rooted in the dirty under-handedness of politics, kicked off by the Balfour Declaration of 1917 promising of a ‘Jewish Homeland’ in Palestine. The Sykes-Picot agreement, the end of the First World War saw the unfolding of the devastatingly effective divide and rule strategy of the colonial powers. And as though colonial domination and exploitation wasn’t humiliating enough, the remnants of the injustice of colonialism and the barbarism of the Euro-centric Second World War saw the creation of the nation state of Israel in the midst of the sea of Arabia.

The creation of a Europe in Arabia, seemed a doomed proposition from the start. As though that in itself didn’t spell the oncoming disaster, history was then marred by repeated armed conflicts including the wars of 1948 and 1967 as well as the unrelenting incursions into Arab lands by the insecure Israel that were of course supported by the then emerging world powers in a bid to secure their own selfish interests. Meanwhile the hatred borne by this conflict passed from one generation to the next and then a third and the senseless killing continues to this day. The hypocrisy of the peacemakers leading to the desperation of the so called "suicide bombers". The cold indiscriminate killing all in the name of the latest hypocrisy: ‘The War on Terrorism’. While the armies of one sweep unceasingly and unopposed through the remaining lands of the defenseless other, you begin to wonder who really is the terrorist. From the stark cold expression of trained killing-machines to the horror filled emotionally charged pain in the other. What is terrorism? Who is killing without fair reason? Who is on whose lands? What allows this to continue? A world where human rights and humanitarian aid is important… or are these just the subjective feel-good pastimes of the soulless wanderings of an ‘all powerful’ West. How can such injustice continue when we’ve touched the outer reaches of the stars? How can the world remain silent to this tragic drama? In the light of history and the brutality of being raised in a refugee camp and toyed with the guns and grenades of an ever watchful army…What must it feel like to be humiliated and taunted almost on a daily basis? What is the legacy left for the children of Palestine? Death is the only reprieve…

Allahu Akbar (Allah is the Greatest), Allahu Akbar…Ash-Shadu Allah ilaha ilallah (I testify that there is none worthy of worship but Allh) Ash-Shadu Allah ilaha ilallah...the call to prayer resounds as I snap out of my introspection. The congregation gathers while replying in word and action to the call of the muadhdhin (person who pronounces the prayer call). The rows of men, lined in perfect unison move together as though one body, listening to the heart rendering recitation of the imam (head of the congregation), heads bowed and each in silent reflection over the meaning... Allahu Akbar and the congregation bows and then rises, as though in acknowledgement of a new found truth, which then allows them in utter submission to prostrate in humility before God. The simplicity of this action draws deep into the soul of humanity. In submitting to God, they symbolically break all patterns of pride and selfishness. Another prostration as though to fully perfect the submission followed by another like manner of a cycle. The entire congregation then seated, joins silently in testifying to the Oneness of God and the Messengership of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and in doing so solemnise their contract with God to uphold truth and justice. The prayer concludes with greetings of peace.

My heart weighs heavily with the daily killings. Surely something must be done… my thought is replied by a bearded man standing at the doorway as the faithful file out of the mosque: "Brothers, there is a rally tomorrow at Town Hall. Please support our brothers and sisters in Palestine." A not uncommon occurrence in reaction to the news, supplemented by the traditional collection of funds… band-aids in the face of a well advanced cancer… Will the killing stop?

The next morning passes in a haze, with the usual demonstration which was largely peaceful with a few emotional outbursts. The evening news reports a two thousand strong "Palestinian" demonstration outside the Israeli consulate, together with images of burning Israeli flags and empassioned Arabic chants. Hardly representative of the events that transpired and the many non-Palestinian and non-Arab attendees. But it seems this is what the media reports and what the people hear. Could the media be innocently responsible for the general sense of local ignorance regarding world issues? How else would the so called "Man of Peace" (Ariel Sharon as described by President Bush) rampage his troops in a killing spree around the refugee camps of the West Bank and Gaza and the world remains silent?

"A time when many will be controlled by a few through the use of opinion", Mr John Pilger emphatically states. After all it is public opinion through which our so called democracies function under a veil of secrecy. Is it indeed a government for the people? Or is it a government for those in power and drowned in money? How else would policies allow for the ongoing development of weapons of mass destruction? The continuation of wars fuelled by and often sustained by the US and its allies in order to secure their vested interests? The failure of environmental summits and the non-conformance of these powers, allowing for the continued marauding of the earth and its resources? A legacy to the children of tomorrow… I awaken to a sad reality that the truth is never revealed by these murderers who in front of a camera smile and in a bid to win an election kiss countless children… and as though by a gesture of their in-borne hatred allow for tens of thousands of like children to simply perish as a result of the hunger, starvation, poverty, wars and conflicts that are mere dramas that satisfy whimsical fancies of these despotic maniacs that happen to be our leaders. Their hypocritical smile and an empty countenance, what lies beneath is the tragic truth. A truth that the people are not told; a truth that the people are protected from. As John Pilger continues his talk, I can’t help but find my eyes damp with tears. Tears that now streamed shamelessly on my face and onto my notepad as I struggled to scribble down the evidence he put. Tears that marked my prior ignorance and gullible naivety in swallowing the fabricated media releases and breaking news as though it were half true, while all it amounts to is a lying propaganda to control the masses, written in blood…the blood of the children of tomorrow.

"It is time to break the silence", John’s voice rose in emotion. He called for a constant mass action, an unrelenting campaign of awareness, against the flood of political and media propaganda; to find the truth in the midst of the sea of lies; to find the needle in the haystack and make others aware of this in the interests of humanity, in the interests of tomorrow. "There is a time when silence is betrayal. Such a time is now" the speech ended with a quote from the social reformer, Rev Martin Luther King. I sat in silent shock. How could I have been so blind? How can the silence still continue?

In the weeks to follow, the Middle East was shot to the forefront of the news. Killings and more killings and the response with so called ‘suicide bombers’. Again the world remained silent, while the Israeli army sweeps through Palestine once more, not allowing the media to record their dark deeds. How easily history is forgotten? How many are the lessons not learnt? Survivors of the Holocaust inflicting a Holocaust upon another people and right before the eyes of the world. The world is blind. They must be. How else does the silence continue?

I re-read some of history just to re-check that such stupidity and deeds are humanly possible. Violence breeds but violence and the vicious cycle continues. The peace process is laughable in all its irony, perhaps another ploy to satisfy the conscience of an anxious world.

There must be an end to all the killing. There must be a solution to this problem. An incursion against the Palestinian people, transferred itself to an Arab-Israeli show down and the common bond of faith automatically means it is a Muslim-Israeli conflict. The slips of President Bush in alluding to the ‘War on Terrorism’ as the new Crusades casts a dark shadow on the planes of an increasingly stark reality… Would it come down to Muslims versus the West? Can all this be viewed in the light of the much anticipated Clash of the Civilisations, outlined in Samuel Huntington’s paper? Theories perhaps; with eerie revelations of truths…truths albeit relative to our subjective minds.

Like all solutions, the solution lies in the roots of the problem. Peace will only come as a result of justice. Justice can be accorded only if truth is known. Demonstrations and money can hardly make a lasting difference, perhaps at most easing the pain for us more than for our suffering brethren. Slogans of ‘Death to Israel’ would hardly achieve a lasting accord. Justice must be served. The perpetrators must be punished. The innocents must be spared. The inheritance of this deadly conflict must be arrested with this generation.

Any action plan must be systematic and planned. And the solution must be one that is constant and unrelenting; implemented in a proactive manner over a planned period of time. After all, the problem arose due to the systematic and planned insurgence of the Zionist dream. The solution in the like manner should bring about justice in a systematically planned and delicately executed manner, according all justice, upholding the truth and laying a virtuous path to a lasting peace that will lead to a sustainable future for the children of tomorrow.