HAMAS-ISRAELI WAR: ALTERNATIVE VOICES
The Hamas-Israeli war has drawn big headlines and ongoing television coverage since it rekindled last October, but one Freeman couple is taking issue with how it is being potrayed. Or, rather, the story that is not being told.
JEREMY WALTNER – EDITOR & PUBLISHER
From the comfort of their warm Freeman home, Dr. Shakil Hafiz and his wife, Sadaf Cassim, speak with a deep sense of conviction, urgency and anguish.
It’s Nov. 29, 2023, less than a week removed from Thanksgiving, but rather than exuding a sense of gratitude both feel for their privileged lives, they sit solemnly and with heavy hearts.
Like millions of others from around the world, the Freeman couple had been watching with horror the ongoing military aggression by Israel against Palestine reach a level of violence not seen in the region in 50 years. It started with a surprise attack by Hamas-led militant groups on Israel on Oct. 7 and quickly escalated in and around the Gaza Strip and West Bank, two of the largest territories in Palestine.
But Shakil and Sadaf view the armed conflict through a lens much different from that which is being portrayed on national media and in many social circles in Western Civilization. Not only that, but they also take issue with an American government — their American government — that appears largely sympathetic to Israel.
And on the last Wednesday of the 11th month of last year, in an exclusive interview with The Courier, Shakil and Sadaf broke their silence to share a different perspective on a war that cannot be talked about using sound bites or television footage bookended by commercial breaks — a violent clash that is expected to last well into 2024 if not longer.
To put it simply, they say the current Israel-Hamas war is rooted in a longstanding occupation of Palestine by Israel military forces and what Shakil and Sadaf believe to be the intended extermination of the native Palestinians.
BACKGROUND
Shakil’s family heritage can be traced to Bangladesh while Sadaf’s roots are in India.
Both are 38 years old, were born and raised in Chicago, and moved to Freeman with their young daughter, Jennah, in the fall of 2015, after he took a job as a family practice physician with Rural Medical Clinics. The slower pace and expanded space of life appealed to them, and the welcome they felt after first visiting South Dakota and the Freeman community was strong enough for them to make the move.
In the almost 10 years since, they have done considerable work on the Dewald Street home they purchased upon moving here, and they now have four children: Jennah is 10, Qaaim is 8, Zayd is 5 and Hiba is 4.
And living in the Freeman community continues to be a blessing, they say, and it feels very much like home.
“Even though we are physically far away from the Muslim community, we don’t feel alone or isolated,” said Sadaf. “At the end of the day, we’ve embraced this community as our own. It has become a part of us. We love this community, we love the people here, and it would be so nice to see these people that we have come to love to stand with us on the side of justice.”
“To — at the very least — understand where we’re coming from.”
’SURVIVOR’S GUILT’
For Sadaf, the impact the Hamas Israeli war is having on the people of Palestine is largely personal because of the Islamic culture and faith traditions she and Shakil share with most living in the region.
“It’s very personal because the people in Palestine are just like us,” she says, in terms of their Islamic culture and identity. “They talk like us, they dress like us, they dream like us, they live like us, they have children like us and they have aspirations like us. They just happen to be living in a different part of the world.
“And while they happen to be culturally different — we’re not Arab; we’re Indian and Bangladeshi — we have much in common, and the foundation of that is our faith.”
That blessing of connectivity to others like her is, at least in the instance of adversity, also a curse. Sadaf is fully aware that she and her family live a comfortable life here on the plains of South Dakota while others are living in the throughs of unimaginable war.
“I have survivor’s guilt,” she says. “I see these images, read these stories of the people over there and what’s happening to them, and I feel like that could have been me — maybe should have been me.
“I feel like I’m living this dual life where I continue with my day, go about my routine, take care of my children and my family, but in the back of my mind all I can think about is the people dying in Palestine,” Sadaf continues. “It’s constantly there in the back of my head. It’s a dichotomy. There’s only so much we can do to help them over there. There’s only so much money you can give. There’s only so much pressure you can put on your elected officials. There are only so many letters you can write. There are only so many phone calls you can make.
“There’s a feeling of helplessness — of not being able to do more. And, yes, there’s anger.”
Shakil says part of the personal grief he and Sadaf share comes because of the strong connection between people of Islamic faith, regardless of geography and regardless of the type of need, whether it’s a natural disaster or war. That is evident, he says, through prayer and calls for financial charity at the mosque in Sioux Falls they have attended regularly since moving here eight years ago.
“I believe that Muslims have a larger awareness of what’s happening to other Muslims around the world, and the reasons for that could be multi-factorial,” he says.
Shakil notes that the Muslim community in their home city of Chicago was established in the 1970s while the Muslim community here in South Dakota didn’t begin growing until the early 2000s.
“A large percentage of Muslims in America come from recent immigrant backgrounds,” he says. “We are a second generation removed from immigrant parents and are usually paying attention to what’s happening to our parents’ homeland. I have friends who are second generation like me, from places such as Nigeria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. Through them we are more connected with what’s going on in the Muslim world. These areas also tend to be impoverished, underdeveloped and struggling with political tensions.
“There’s also a concept that the Muslims are one body, and if one part of the body is hurting, the whole body is hurting,” Shakil continues. “Those are very strong concepts.”
Given those connections, it’s no wonder that the violent reescalation in the Middle East has had the Freeman couple feeling the weight of the world the past three months. But to fully grasp their level of deep discontent is to understand the breadth of oppression and judgement they feel when it comes to Palestine specifically and the Muslim community as a whole.
BIGGER PICTURE
Sadaf says the current conflict in the Middle East is rooted in a settler-colonial expansionist project that began with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, when a declaration gave Zionism permission to enter and take over Palestine.
“That’s the crux of the conflict,” she says. “We’ve been seeing the persecution of Palestinians for as long as we have been alive; all we’ve ever heard about is the persecution of the Muslims in Palestine and all we’ve ever seen from the West is silence, silence, silence. Support Israel blindly no matter what.”
“Since the moment we were born, that’s all we’ve known,” she continues. “So, yeah, this (war) kind of is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”
“When this happened, my thoughts were, ‘Is it surprising?’ No, it wasn’t surprising,” says Shakil, who is quick to offer perspective surrounding the surprise Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel.
“I’m not going around praising or defending anybody,” Shakil says. “But if someone were to ask me, ‘Do you condemn Hamas?’ my response would be, ‘When you condemn 75 years of illegal occupation, then you will have the moral authority to ask us that question.’”
He also says there’s no question in their mind that Israel’s motivation has long been the elimination of Palestinians from their land.
“It is a fact that Palestinians and Jews lived together in harmony, and Jewish culture flourished, before the occupation,” he says. “We 100% believe that the Israel agenda has since been genocide.”
And that, they say, is injustice at its worst.
“We’re not supporting the Palestinians because we’re Muslim and they’re Muslim,” says Shakil. “We’re supporting the Palestinians because that’s the just thing to do. And if it were the Muslims oppressing someone else, then the just thing to do would be to oppose the Muslim oppression.”
The other factor that exacerbates the anger Shakil and Sadaf feel is discrimination by nations in the West of those who practice Islam — particularly post-9/11. While they say they feel loved and appreciated by the local community, they believe there is widespread racism directed at Muslims in this country.
“We are very concerned about how the media is portraying Muslims and the constant stereotypes that go with it,” Sadaf says. “At this point they don’t even try to hide it; they don’t even try to make a distinguishing point between Islam and terrorism.”
And they say the disconnect between that and terrorism acts at the hands of Christian Nationalism is unbelievable.
“It’s baffling to me, because if you take any of the White terrorists who have committed crimes in elementary schools, who have bombed, who have killed, who have done the worst things imaginable on American soil, is their name associated with all Christians and the Christian Church? No way,” says Sadaf. “You don’t find that kind of language that says Christianity is to blame for all these terrorist acts. But in the media you will 100% find that kind of language is being associated with Muslim and Islam.
“So, people read these big headlines and say, ‘Oh; Islam, Muslim, terrorism,’” she continues. “And that’s where my anger and frustration come from. You would think we have reached a point in our humanity that we have moved beyond that, but we haven’t.”
There’s one more major factor that has prompted Shakil and Sadaf to both speak out and take action against the deep-seeded mistreatment of Islam, and that is the United States’ response to the crisis in the Middle East — specifically, what they call “blind support” of Israel.
That — and what they hope to see happen in both the short- and long-term future — next week.
