Imran Idris

This poem by Khalil Gibran flowed into my river of social media feeds the other day and I want to save it here for posterity.

If you’ve been following this blog, you will know that I recently made a major career decision to leave the (relative) security of a university job for private practice. So far, things are going well alhamdulillah but I’d be lying if I said I’m not apprehensive about what the future may bring.

It’s good, therefore, to put things into perspective when dealing with situations like these. So, here it is, the poem ‘Fear’ by Khalil Gibran:

It is said that before entering the sea 
A river trembles with fear.

She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.

And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.

But there is no other way.
The river cannot go back.

Nobody can go back. 
To go back is impossible in existence.

The river needs to take the risk 
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.

While we’re on the topic of defending the indefensible, I’d like to share this YouTube clip of Mehdi Hasan’s powerful opening statement during his debate with Eylon Levy recently:

Again, I feel like the degree of denial required to continue believing that Israel is the good guy in this conflict is astounding.

Look, I get that many politicians continue to support Israel because of money. Who’d want to jeopardise their chances or being elected by, horror of all horrors, standing up for something as quaint as justice?

But deep down in the smallest recesses of their hearts, surely even they must know that Israel’s actions are cruel, inhumane, and excessive beyond measure.

Speaking of atrocities: what happened to Jewish people during the Holocaust was an unimaginable tragedy, but that makes the current situation even more disappointing because those who have suffered so much are now inflicting the same kind of punishment on others. Life is full of irony, and sometimes it even comes from comedy. When thinking of how much self-delusion people indulge in in order to defend Israel’s actions, I can’t help but recall this YouTube clip of Mitchell and Webb portraying two Nazis who eventually realise that they’re the baddies!

May Allah SWT bless the people of Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, and every other land that is currently suffering under Israeli oppression.

I was listening to a technology podcast the other day and the conversation turned to exploding pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon, a terrorist act widely acknowledged to be the work of Israel. One of the guests on the podcast almost waxed lyrical about the (years of) planning and precision behind the attack, as if it was something commendable instead of reprehensible. He brought up the usual argument about Israel i.e. that it is the most discerning army, always striking with surgical precision in order to minimise civilian casualties while taking out their enemy.

I wonder what he had to say the very next day when Israel massacred at least 492 people in Lebanon following wide-ranging air strikes on the country.

I wonder how he would feel had the same thing occurred in homes and supermarkets in America instead of Lebanon. Would he have adopted the same admiring tone?

This reminds me of the extreme mental gymnastics required, on the part of Americans mostly, but also to a certain extent, amongst people in many other Western countries, to defend the indefensible. It’s a kind of cognitive bias, where people who appear reasonable at first glance, can condone so much violence in order to hang on to their false idea of Israel as a benevolent state. I’ve been listening to this podcast for years, and I know that the people on the podcast are decent individuals, people who cared about their families and about the impact of technology on society. These people would never hurt a dog, let alone condone its torture or murder.

How then, do you square this with their willingness to give Israel a free pass to kill so many innocent people in Palestine, Iran, and Lebanon? This is such a monumental failure of ‘practising what you preach’ that completely beggars belief.

Indeed, the whole argument becomes so ridiculous and uncomfortable that another guest on the show quickly suggests a change of topic! Everyone laughs, somewhat nervously, before shifting the conversation to ‘safer’ topics like social media and artificial intelligence.

People in the West are fond of reminding the rest of the world about their lofty principles of freedom, justice, equality etc. It’s ‘our way’ or the highway, yeehawwwww!

But when push comes to shove, when evidence continues to mount about the sheer scale of atrocities committed by Israel on helpless people in Gaza, where is the condemnation from America? Where is the outrage from the UK? Most humiliatingly for Muslims, where is the concerted effort from Muslim countries to stop this from happening?

Throughout this conflict, the elephant in the room is the deafening silence from leaders of many Muslim countries when it comes to the Middle East crisis. I struggle to see how people in such privileged positions can keep quiet while all of this is happening. Do they not care at all about their fellow human beings? Worse still, do they not fear the reckoning of Allah SWT on Judgement Day, when they will be asked about how they have discharged their duties?

How else can we explain the fact that Israel still enjoys some level of diplomatic immunity despite clear evidence of wrongdoing? In fact, not too long ago certain Muslim countries were even considering normalising ties with Israel, something I pray that my own country Malaysia will never ever contemplate!

What I am saying here is not new. In fact, many others have said the same thing before. Tellingly, many of them have been accused of advocating violence or anti-Semitism, by the very same people who loudly proclaim freedom of speech when insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). These are lazy excuses to avoid addressing the root of the problem: the hypocrisy of Western governments when dealing with the conflict in the Middle East.

Needless to say, I am not in favour of violence towards innocent people, no matter who they are. But we cannot continue pretending as if Israel is the shining beacon of democracy in the Middle East while this terrorist state continues to massacre people in Gaza and lately, in Lebanon as well. I don’t have much hope that the American or British government will change their ways, but I pray that the leaders of Muslim countries will come to the aid of Palestinians with more concrete measures to secure a just and lasting peace, inshaAllah.

From the river to the sea, Palestine WILL be free!

Change is scary, but change is also an opportunity for growth. When I turned 40 earlier this year, I made a promise to myself to make the best use of whatever time I have left on God’s earth.

That means reassessing where my strengths are, what I’m passionate about, and where I can do the most good for society. It also means asking myself really difficult questions, such as: Do I really want to be doing X for the rest of my working life? Or, if money wasn’t an issue, what would I still be doing anyway?

The answer, for me at least, would be seeing patients in the ward or clinic. I think that’s where I do my best work, helping people understand what ails them and how we can make them better.

Unfortunately, doing this also means saying goodbye to a few things I love but are no longer sustainable. Leaving UM is tremendously difficult, as this was where I ‘grew up’ as a doctor. I have had the opportunity to work with so many kind and excellent doctors, nurses, allied health staff etc. during my time in UM and I pray that Allah SWT rewards them abundantly.

Ultimately, clinical neurology is a labour of love for me. Today, I’m starting a new chapter of my life at Sunway Medical Centre. So if you know anyone who might benefit from seeing a neurologist, I’d be very grateful if you could consider referring them to me.