Written by Imran Muneer

Saudi Arabia is waging an illegal war in Yemen that has killed tens of thousands and left large parts of the country a wasteland. They have been brutally repressing any form of dissent for decades. Last year they kidnapped the Prime Minister of Lebanon. Let that sink in for a minute. They kidnapped the Prime Minister of a sovereign country! Recently, they arrested several prominent Imams and scholars for pure sport. Private enterprises within the Kingdom are collapsing due to the enactment of new government policies. And now we have the incident of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen that worked for the Washington Post that went to a Saudi Embassy in Turkey for legal documentation and left carved up in small body bags.

We need to acknowledge and respect the few brave individuals from our community like Dawud Walid and Dr. Shadee Elmasry who have been vocal about the Jamal Khashoggi incident but have we asked ourselves why several other respected Muslim community figures across the western world are silent over the scandal?

Let’s at least be honest with each other and stop the charade. Give us some sense of clarity that this is all code for “not my problem” or “I’m not ready to upset my Saudi contacts”. Maybe then we can start the conversation of how we can at least mitigate our dependence on foreign powers. Crown Prince MBS knows full well, the world isn’t willing to sacrifice an inch for truth and justice. Let us all know it and be witness to it. Let us all at least enjoy the silence in honesty as opposed to hypocrisy.