Aleppo is the source of both shame and pain

There is no doubt that the tragedy of Aleppo will go down in history as a shameful stain on the world’s conscience. To it will be added the other stains that are bound to follow. The conscience of the Arab world has finally announced its demise; it stood by and watched the killing of thousands of Sunnis in Aleppo at the hands of the Russians and Iranians, but did nothing in the face of this tragedy. The scenario is reminiscent of Bosnia and Herzegovina and all those killed by the Serbs in the early 1990s, as well as the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from their land in 1948. If we go way back in history, it reminds us of the expulsion of the Muslims from Andalusia in the 15th century.

Such Muslim tragedies have been ongoing since the fall of the Islamic Caliphate; they are a continuous series of blood, tears and pain. The Muslims are disunited, lost and in a lengthy, deep sleep. This has been exposed by the tragedy in Aleppo, revealing how dead their conscience has become. I have said many times that Aleppo and Mosul are the defences of the Sunni Muslims and if they fall we can bid them farewell. Iran has prepared itself for the decisive battle and prepared its armies, including the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and its Shia militias in Lebanon, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, along with the remains of Bashar Al-Assad’s Alawite army and Russia’s aircraft. Cameras have captured the bombing of hospitals and children’s nurseries in unprecedented displays of cruelty and brutality.

Despite all of this, the international community stood by silently, not lifting a finger even when the corpses of premature babies were being removed from the rubble. They are the true terrorists that the armies need to fight.

Patriotism has not run in the veins of the Arabs as they watched women throwing themselves from rooftops so that the murderous forces of Assad and Iranian leader Khamenei’s dogs of war cannot rape them. Nor were the Arabs moved by the sight of Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani walking arrogantly in the streets of Aleppo while boasting of his sectarianism and nationalism and expelling its people. The scene was reminiscent of Moshe Dayan and his walk through the streets of Jerusalem after its occupation during the 1967 Six Day War.

Activists have put these two images alongside each other and posted them on social media, suggesting that there is no difference between the new Iranian occupation of the Arab region and the Israeli occupation. In fact, they complement each other, as if the two were carried out with full agreement and coordination.

The disaster is the fact that the Arabs do not confront them, but would rather makes deals with them under the table. We are truly seeing a people who have lost their collective mind completely. I cannot even forgive the masses from this mindlessness, as they seem to be content to stand in solidarity with the people of Aleppo from behind their computer screens, in the virtual world of Facebook and Twitter. They did not bother to engage in the real world and participate in the protests in the streets condemning the massacres in Aleppo; nor did they join the demonstrations outside the Russian and Iranian embassies. They didn’t engage in such activities like they did in the past when Israel was attacking Lebanon and when America invaded Iraq.

We didn’t even hear a peep from the Arab League until after the people of Aleppo were displaced from their homes. Only then did we hear from its Secretary-General, who is very much like a representative of Israel at the organisation. He made a speech as disappointing as himself; it would have been better if he hadn’t. We are a nation which is clinically dead and awaiting someone to revive us.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.