Many have become accustomed to the helplessness of the Palestinians in the face of the Israeli occupation, supported
by America, whose policies are largely influenced by the Zionist lobby. Yes, Israel today seems stronger than the
Palestinians, and America stronger than the divided Islamic world, which is unable to protect them. But the real
power belongs to Allah, who sometimes demonstrates it in the most unexpected ways.
This is also evident in what is happening in America. It is not just about the internal upheavals in a country that
has tried to impose its own order on the Islamic world, often with violence and disregard for the victims. It is
about the cause and consequences of this upheaval.
It is well known that the killing of the African-American George Floyd by the white police officer Derek Chauvin,
who was seen on camera suffocating him for ten minutes, was the trigger for the riots in the United States. But it
is equally symbolic that the incident took place at the Cup Food restaurant, owned by a Palestinian man named
Mahmoud Abumayyaleh (pictured in the middle), whose employees called the police on that unfortunate day.
This happened because Floyd had paid for his purchase with a counterfeit $20 bill. When the Palestinian employees
discovered this, they understandably called the police. However, neither the employees nor the owner, Mahmood
Abumayyaleh, could have anticipated that instead of resolving the situation, one of the police officers would kill
an unarmed man who may have made a (possibly unintentional) mistake over a small amount of money.
The result is well known — riots and looting spread to dozens of American cities, bringing the world power to the
brink of civil war. Many could draw their own conclusions from this story.
The oppressors of the defenseless — that despite their seemingly powerful and invincible position, they are
completely defenseless against the One who can bring them down by using someone from an oppressed nation who owns a
cafe and had an unsettled small payment.
Those who resist oppression — that despite all their efforts and sacrifices, they are unable to do what the One who
decides to create something says «be» and it is.
And both the former and the latter, as well as other rational minds — that we live in a world where everyone is
interconnected. The oppression in Palestine, from which people spread around the world, can backfire in America,
just as the upheaval in America can affect the victims of its own oppression, like Mahmoud Abumayyaleh and other
Muslims, whose businesses and property can become targets of riots.
There is no power or might except Allah to whom the aspirations and pleas of rational minds should be directed.