Pope Francis’ calls for a ceasefire in Gaza are a “clear voice” that “we need to hear more and more.”
That’s according to Mustafa AbuSway, the Imam Al-Ghazali Chair at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites.
In an interview with Vatican News, the Palestinian professor – who also teaches at Al-Quds University – discussed the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the role of the Catholic Church in peacebuilding, and how his own Islamic faith helps him to navigate these difficult times.
“Unbridled carnage” in Gaza
As he is based in Jerusalem, Professor AbuSway said he himself is “fine, relatively speaking”.
He did describe, however, the “psychological stress, the sadness, the frustration” of following the situation in Gaza and the northern West Bank from afar.
“This is really something new,” he said, “this unbridled carnage being streamed live to all the globe. This is what distinguishes this event from previous wars: we have images of all the suffering.”
One child dies every ten minutes in Gaza, he said.
Despite this, however, “it was not the death of a child, but the survival of one, that made me really very, very sad”. A video had emerged before our interview, Professor AbuSway said, of a child buried alive under rubble attempting to free herself with one hand.
The fact that such Palestinian suffering is largely being ignored by Western governments, he added, brings to his mind Jesus’ saying that “with their ears they barely hear, and they have closed their eyes.”
