Ponder, oh People of Intellect!

270-280 people -men, women, and children- have died according to various reports.
Homes, and centers of security, like police buildings, have been decimated. In the words of a Yahoo News article posted on Sunday titled, "Israel strikes Gaza in 2nd day of attacks," Israeli war planes have

"dropped bombs and missiles on a top security installation, a mosque, a TV station and dozens of other targets across the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Sunday."

Furthermore, it states,

"One of the main medicine warehouses supplying local pharmacies in southern Gaza was attacked in another sortie."

A BBC television correspondent from just outside the Gaza Strip -as entrance to Gaza has been blocked by Israel- reported:

"This is the highest number of people to die in 24 hours in the entire history of the conflict."

An article on the BBC website entitled "Israel renews air strikes on Gaza" reported the following political reactions:

US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad suggested Hamas held the key to restoring calm.
"We believe the way forward from here is for rocket attacks against Israel to stop, for all violence to end," he said.
He was implicitly backed up from Cairo by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas - whose Fatah faction is a bitter rival of Hamas.
"We could have avoided what happened," Mr Abbas said, saying the Islamist group should have renewed the ceasefire before it lapsed.

The only categorical response from the rest of the Muslim world, so far, comes from Turkey. According to the International Herald Tribune, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey, said that the Israeli air strikes were a,

"crime against humanity."

Reuters online reports that,

"The Arab League has delayed until Wednesday an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers called to take a common position on the Israeli raids on Gaza because many of them were busy in separate meetings of two Arab regional groups -- the GCC and the Maghreb Union."

"Air strikes on Gaza continue as deaths rise," an article posted on the CNN website on Sunday, described the statement of the emergency UN Security Council session in the following manner:

The statement "expressed serious concern at the escalation of the situation in Gaza" but it did not single out Israel or Hamas by name when it "called for an immediate halt for all violence."

Some TV news channels have reported that the morgues are full, while others have reported that they received information that the morgues of hospitals in Gaza were already full before the recent attack. In the case of the latter a person of thinking must ask, "where will the newly dead then go?"

Having been desensitized to murder, killing, and bloodshed, few if any may have felt a genuine remorse. Situations like these, time and again, remind me of the saying of the last and final Messenger of God --from amongst the long chain of Messengers of God beginning from Adam and including the likes of Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus (Peace and Blessings of God be upon them all)-- which is translated as something to the effect as, "The Muslim Ummah (community/nation/people) is like one body; when one part of it is hurt the entire body feels the pain." The question is, do we feel that pain? If we do why are we not quick to relieve it as we do our physical bodily pains?
Another saying of the final Messenger of Allah, Muhammad (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him), the meaning of which is, "When a Muslim sees something wrong happening, he/she must stop it with his/her hands. If he/she cannot do that, he/she must stop it with his/her tongue (using words/statements), and if he/she cannot even do that, then he/she must know that it is wrong in his/her heart; and that is the weakest of Emaan (faith)," is revolving around in my mind.
We may be able to excuse ourselves and adopt the weakest of faith in reacting to this and all other atrocities, but deep down inside ourselves we know for certain what real ability we possess. Above all, our Creator, Allah, knows what we are really capable of doing and we are fully aware of that. When His ultimate Justice is established on the Final Day, the Day of Reckoning in His court, we will be answerable for all we do.
I would like to leave you with a quotation of the Qura`an --a quotation that I cited previously in my post, "Mumbai," and to which you may refer to for the background of the verse--

"Because of that We ordained for the Children of Israel that if anyone killed a person not in retaliation of murder, or to spread mischief in the land - it would be as if he killed all mankind, and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all mankind. And indeed, there came to them Our Messengers with clear proofs, evidences, and signs, even then, after that, many of them continued to exceed the limits (e.g. by doing oppression unjustly and exceeding beyond the limits set by Allâh by committing the major sins) in the land!"
(Al-Qur`an 5:32)

Was-Salaamu 'Alaa Man-nit-taba'-al-Hudaa.