Organizations claiming to represent Muslims have issued statements effectively condoning the mass terror attack in southern Israel that saw hundreds of civilians – including toddlers, grandmothers, and Holocaust survivors – executed at gunpoint or taken as hostages. These organizations – and the Hamas terror group whose atrocities they excuse – do not speak in our name. As Muslims of moral conscience, we are horrified at the massacre of Jews and other civilians, and we categorically reject this unauthorized attempt to hijack our Muslim identity to justify barbarism. 

Hamas' founding charter includes an odious false claim that the "Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews. When the Jew will hide behind stones and trees, the stones and trees will say, 'O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'" Such hate speech and calls to genocide should be condemned by all decent people, by Muslims most of all.

Our holy Qur'an is apparent in its respect for Jews, the Torah, and the sanctity of human life. Its 17th chapter (Surah Bani Israel) is named in honor of "The Children of Israel." The Qur'an repeatedly acknowledges the Torah as an "imam" – a guidance source. In Surah Al-Ma'idah (5:32), the Qur'an directly quotes from Jewish scripture to declare that "whoever kills a person, it is as if he has killed all of humanity; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all of humanity."

We will not stand by while extremists hijack our holy scripture to instigate hatred and atrocities – and while organizations hijack our name to justify such inhumane and anti-Islamic conduct. The rise of Nazism happened because too many non-Jews stood by silently as hate metastasized into mass murder. Today, in 2023, we will not make the same mistake – all the more so because we recognize that trying to justify Hamas atrocities reinforces the worst Islamophobic stereotypes and thus puts all Muslims at risk.

We Muslims of conscience stand in solidarity with our Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel and worldwide, including those held hostage in Gaza. We completely reject the path of Hamas and instead embrace the trailblazing example of Muslim countries like Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and now Saudi Arabia. We come together to pray for peace for the Children of Abraham and all people. Ameen.