Islam in Japan: First Muslims and first mosque OIC failure: No end to oppression of Muslims in Palestine

Kazi Haq

Once again it was hard to bear the brutal act of Israeli police beating the Muslims in the Al-Aqsa mosque praying during the fasting month of Ramadan while Muslims from Palestine peacefully offered their prayer in mosques in Australia during the holy month of Ramadan without fear of baton-charge.

At heart, seething with sadness and resentment they worry for their kith & kin back home. Other than submitting to Allah, can they do anything better for the oppressed Muslims in Palestine?

On Wednesday 5 April 2023 and subsequent days the fasting month of Ramadan, Israeli forces violently entered Al-Aqsa Mosque. They used stun grenades and tear gas, baton, and rifle butts to injure worshiping older men and women.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, without any remorse, said he was working to “maintain the status quo” – what could be a farce than this?

As usual, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) denounced the Israeli attack and held an emergency meeting without any meaningful outcome.

US’s favour in terms of money and weapons to defend it from from rocket attacks. The lackluster actions and verbiage resolution of OIC has failed to stop the Zionist expansion over the territory of Palestine.

with perpetual oppression of Palestinians.

After the Russian October Revolution in 1917, religion was dealt with very strictly under communism. Many Muslims belonging to the Turkish-Tatar tribe fled from Soviet Russia and fled to the rest of the world. Japan began to practice the open door policy in Meijikot in 1868. Therefore, like other countries in the world, it accepted about two thousand Muslim refugees and settled them in major cities.

In 1870, a Japanese translation of the biography of the Prophet Muhammad (s) was published.

In 1909, a Japanese citizen, Kataro Yamaoka accepted Islam while traveling to Bombay. He took the Muslim name “Omar Yamaoka”. He was the first Japanese to perform Hajj. Through the efforts of him and Russian-born Abdurashid Ibrahim, they were able to publish Islamic literature in Japanese.

Shime O Kawasan was a writer who was active in national politics. He translated The Holy Quran into Japanese while in prison.

The Muslims who arrived in the port city of Kobe formed a group in 1928 and collected funds, and in October 1935, Japan’s first mosque was opened in the bustling center of the city.

It was designed by the famous Czech architect Jan Josef Svagr. There are about 21 of his designed buildings in Japan. In 1941, he left for Latin America because of the World War. The only religious building by him is the Kobe Mosque that was built by the Takenaka Corporation.

There was a flood in Kobe in 1938 causing a lot of damage. In 1943 ,the mosque was confiscated by the Imperial Japanese Navy. In 1945 , the entire city of Kobe was bombed during World War II and on 6 August 1945 Hiroshima was hit by an atomic bomb.

In 1995, the world-famous Kobe earthquake with a magnitude of 6.99 struck. The mosque of Kobe escaped from all these disasters though.

When the Kobe earthquake hit, the mosque became a refugee camp. While we were sending food and water supplies from Tokyo, we were able to contact Lat Maung Cho, a Burmese Muslim who died due to the earthquake later on.

The age of the Great Mosque of Kobe has been more than 87 years. Japan’s Kobe (Hyogo) Department of Ancient Culture preserved it as a historical building in 2006.

Following the attack, several rockets were fired from Lebanon and Gaza, claimed by Israel, towards Israel, which did not damage anything in Israel because of the Israeli defence system of the “Iron Dome”. In retaliation to the rocket attack, Israel bombed Gaza and Lebanon causing colossal damage and casualties.

In fact, it has been the usual pattern of Israel attacking Muslims in Al-Aqsa every year during the fasting month of Ramadan for at least the last 6/7 years. Israel, a small but mighty country supported by the United States, has been pursuing its agenda through dreadful acts that have become a farce to the world.

Netanyahu is a hard-right coalition government brazen politician who goes all out against Palestinians. It is well known to the world that he was trying to divert the world’s attention, for the time being, from the biggest political crisis against his decision to judicial changes he faced in Israel just before this attack.

After the installation of the Iron Dome, Hamas rockets could not seriously cause any damage against Israel, but Israel’s retaliation brought massive casualties to Muslims. And most importantly, Israel does not leave any stone unturned to bomb Muslims on a flimsy cause.

If it is so, why does Hamas/Hezbollah keep firing rockets, knowing they cannot damage Israel or bring any solution?

The most crucial forgotten lesson the rambunctious leaderships of Hamas/Hezbollah is repeating is that firing some rockets toward Israel invites Israeli military retaliation on Muslims, causing irreparable suffering.

And every time OIC condemns Israel without any follow up action, Israel gets the

Since the exodus of Jews from all over the world to Palestine and the establishment of Israel in 1948, the Arab world has fought many wars with Israel, but they have never won a single battle against Israel. Israel was always the winner and got the opportunity to expand their territory each time which now became Israeli-occupied land.

The OIC, borne in 1969 mainly to protect Al-Aqsa from burning had committed to safeguarding Palestine but subsequently failed to protect the vital interest of Muslims other than to condemn Israel.

In 2017, OIC condemned Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem; also, in 2019, it condemned Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to annex the eastern portion of the occupied West Bank known as the Jordan Valley. The OIC, a body meager and lacking unity, hopelessly failed to stop Israeli expansion.

Also, on many occasions, Muslim leaders have been unable to raise their voices unitedly, which was cited in an article on “Muslim countries foiled the UN debate on Uyghur Muslims”.

Amidst the world’s denunciation, Israel is carrying out its planned strategy to successfully divide the Arab world and safeguard its own interests at the expense of getting away

The callow leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah are the babes in the wood to understand the power politics in the Middle East. Both factions are supported by most of the Arab world, but mainly, Hezbollah is allegedly funded and armed by Iran.

Iran had no diplomatic relations with many Middle East countries, though China has recently tried to restore ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia. However, Israel remains suspicious of Iran’s intention to the building of nuclear weapons.

In short, Muslims are deeply divided by their own sectarian beliefs and interests in the Middle Eastwhile the Middle East’s oil-rich countries have enough money to fuel Arab factions for their political gain.

As a result, the unified voice of Muslims is absent in taking united actions against oppression of Muslims, neither in Palestine, Yemen, nor in Syria. And amid this imbroglio and lack of cohesion among the OIC, Israel unabatedly gets away with oppression and murder.

Kazi Haq is a retired Commodore from Bangladesh Navy and an electrical engineer. He served as Director in Prime Minister’s Office, National Parliament, and Managing Director of a dockyard. Kazi is the founding member of BIMRAD(Bangladesh Institute of Maritime Research and Development). He is now based in Sydney.