AhlulBayt News Agency: The Palestinian cause remains one of the most urgent and defining challenges facing the Muslim Ummah today. Decades of occupation, displacement, and systematic violations of Palestinian rights continue to expose the cost of fragmentation and disunity within the Islamic world.
In the absence of a common platform, intra-Islamic conflicts, competing geopolitical interests, and fragmented policies have diluted collective pressure on the occupying regime and allowed external powers to exploit Muslim divisions for their own strategic agendas.
The persistence of sectarian divisions and the lack of a unified Islamic strategy have significantly weakened effective support for the Palestinian cause. Without coordinated political, religious, and social action, the Muslim world has failed to translate its moral consensus on Palestine into tangible outcomes capable of confronting occupation and injustice.
Over the years, Muslim scholars, intellectuals, and activists have repeatedly emphasized that unity is not merely an ethical aspiration, but a strategic and religious necessity for restoring justice, dignity, and rights to the Palestinian people.
In this context, Dr. Ahmad El-Zein, a London-based Lebanese thinker and political analyst, shared his views with Taqrib News Agency (TNA) on Islamic unity, sectarian challenges, and the need to move from rhetoric to coordinated action in support of Palestine.
Known for his engagement in political and cultural analysis, inter-communal dialogue, and issues affecting the Muslim Ummah, Dr. El-Zein serves as editor-in-chief of the London-based cultural magazine Ideas and Opinions and as general supervisor of the Lebanese Cultural Association in Britain.
Speaking on the role of Islamic proximity in today’s global environment, Dr. El-Zein described Islamic unity as both deeply necessary and strategically indispensable—particularly in relation to the Palestinian cause, which he views as a powerful unifying issue across all Islamic traditions.
He noted that the Muslim Ummah is facing unprecedented political, cultural, and ideological pressures, many of which directly threaten its identity, sovereignty, and future. Rising Islamophobia, geopolitical polarization, and external interference have intensified the cost of disunity.
While acknowledging the complexity of these challenges, Dr. El-Zein stressed that overcoming them is not impossible. According to him, the path forward requires courage, determination, and a sincere commitment to unity rooted in shared Islamic values such as justice, dignity, and solidarity with the oppressed.
He emphasized that real solutions to the crises facing the Muslim world can only emerge through cooperation and coordination among Muslim countries, institutions, scholars, and civil society actors. In this regard, he highlighted the role of Islamic unity in consolidating collective positions and strengthening the Muslim voice in international arenas.
Addressing the impact of sectarian divisions on the Palestinian cause, Dr. El-Zein identified disunity as a central factor behind the weakness of Islamic responses. Sectarian conflicts, terrorism, and internal rivalries, he argued, have diverted political, economic, and moral resources away from Palestine and undermined coordinated advocacy at regional and global levels.
He further noted that the absence of a unified Islamic strategy has enabled certain states to pursue unilateral normalization policies with the occupying regime, weakening collective leverage and emboldening Zionist projects in the region.
Reflecting on the responsibilities of Muslim scholars and intellectuals—particularly those living in Western societies such as the United Kingdom—Dr. El-Zein stressed their duty to bridge intra-Islamic divisions, articulate a coherent discourse linking unity with Palestinian rights, and engage broader societies using universal principles of justice, human dignity, and self-determination.
He concluded that Islamic unity represents a protective shield against fragmentation, extremism, and occupation. When translated into organized, practical action, it becomes a powerful force capable of defending Palestinian rights, safeguarding Islamic sacred sites, and restoring the Ummah’s collective strength and moral authority.
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