Meeting someone who has experienced the trauma of Gaza is humbling. Journalist Abu Bakr Abed did not start out as a war journalist. In relatively calmer days before the genocide, his reporting mainly was on football. But like so many Gazans, the slaughter changed lives and in so many cases ended them.
I met Abu Bakr in Ireland, a country that had recently welcomed the young man after he spent 18 gruelling months witnessing the most horrific crimes. Abu Bakr’s faith, as you will see, remains strong, but he is broken, not by the bombs, but by our inaction. Abu Bakr is tormented by guilt for leaving Gaza and for indulging in what his people would see as luxuries – but what we would call the basics.
In this interview, he discusses the responsibility of the Muslim ummah and how, in his view, we have all failed. There’s, of course, so much goodness that has come out of these past 18 months, but the part of our conversation that affected me the most is when he said the people of Gaza make dua against the Muslim ummah.
He has a right to be angry.
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