A moral emergency’: Muslim leaders urge others to speak out on Gaza
Aya Fayad | The Detroit News
Dearborn — After a nearly two-year military campaign in Gaza that has left more than 60,000 dead and growing fears of widespread starvation, Michigan Muslim leaders are urging Jewish leaders to condemn the civilian death toll and humanitarian crisis.
The Michigan chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations joined the Imams Council of Michigan on Wednesday in front of the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn to appeal to Jewish officials through an open letter. It has been mailed to Jewish organizations around the state, urging them to use their voices to influence policymakers and politicians to end aid restrictions as well as what they called an “ethnic cleansing campaign.”
Imam Steve Mustapha Elturk, president of the Islamic Organization of North America, urged the recipients to address the "moral emergency" and "deliberate starving of civilians" in Gaza.
“The children of Gaza do not need our sympathy,” Elturk said. “They need food.
“This is not about politics. This is not about Israel or Palestine. It is not about the (Israeli Defense Forces) or Hamas. This is about saving human lives, one human soul.”
Rabbi Asher Lopatin, community relations director at the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, was recently part of an interfaith plea elevated to the Trump administration by U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly.
The proposal, which Lopatin brought to Slotkin with Dr. Mahmoud Al-Hadidi, chairman emeritus of the Michigan Muslim Community Council and chairman of the group World Peace Outreach, asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, to “greenlight” supplies at checkpoints into Gaza needed to feed starving children, including infant formula, drinking water and other resources to treat child malnourishment.
Lopatin said he believes “everyone is on the same page” about “flooding (Gaza) with food.”
“I think the international community, I think Jews and Muslims are all on the same page that we want to eliminate starvation,” Lopatin said Wednesday. “We want to avoid starvation in Gaza, and we want to get as much aid and food as we possibly can. I think that’s happening.”
Lopatin, however, maintained that he does not believe Israel’s military campaign constitutes genocide and called on Muslim leaders to demand the release of Israeli hostages.
“It’s not at all a genocide,” Lopatin said. “Israel has no interest in killing innocent civilians, absolutely not. And they do everything possible to avoid that… In the long term, getting Hamas to get out of Gaza and to drop their arms is the best thing for the Palestinian people.”
Imam Steve Mustapha speaks during a press conference on July 30, 2025 at the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn. Katy Kildee, The Detroit News
The Israeli offensive was launched in response to Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which militants killed around 1,200 people and abducted 251 others.
They still hold 50 hostages, including around 20 believed to be alive. Most of the rest of the hostages were released in ceasefires or other deals
The Israeli operation has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced around 90% of the population, and fueled what some describe as a humanitarian crisis.
On Tuesday, the Gaza Health Ministry announced the death toll had surpassed 60,000. Its count doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
In a statement issued Sunday, the American Jewish Committee said they are “deeply concerned about worsening food insecurity in Gaza” and “(welcome) Israel’s announcement of a series of significant additional actions to increase the flow and distribution of aid in Gaza, including new airdrops, humanitarian corridors for United Nations (UN) aid convoys, humanitarian pauses, and measures to increase access to water.”
The organization, which is dedicated to combating antisemitism and supporting Israel’s right to exist, added: “We urge Israel, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the UN, and all responsible parties involved in aid distribution to increase cooperation and coordination in order to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes and gunfire in the Gaza Strip killed at least 46 Palestinians by early Wednesday, most of them among crowds seeking food, health officials said.
The Israeli military says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, because the group’s militants operate in densely populated areas.
On Monday, two prominent Israeli groups, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, joined other human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, in declaring that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
During the Dearborn press conference, the imams said the population has been pushed to the brink of starvation, with necessities as basic as food, water, and even baby formula being withheld under a blockade.
Video: Imams Council of Michigan appeals to Jewish leaders to break silence on Gaza
After mounting international pressure, Israel began to allow humanitarian aid to be let in to Gaza days ago, as well as a limited “tactical pause” in fighting in three populated areas for 10 hours a day, but experts and activists are calling for more to be done.
Israel denies there is any starvation in Gaza, rejecting accounts to the contrary from witnesses, U.N. agencies, and aid groups, and says the focus on hunger undermines ceasefire efforts.
Imam Mohammed Ali Elahi, leader of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, quoted a 1963 speech given at the March on Washington by Joachim Prinz, a Jewish rabbi who had fled Nazi Germany.
“Silence in the face of brutality and murder is the most disgraceful, the most shameful, and the most tragic problem today,” Elahi said. “This genocide, this oppression, this barbaric bloodshed is not just a crime against Palestinians. It is a crime against Judaism, a crime against the very Jewish voices of justice.”
Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi speaks during a press conference on Wednesday, july 30c, 2025 at the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn. Katy Kildee, The Detroit News
Elahi added: “We call up Jews, Christians, Muslims, and all people of conscience to speak up, to speak out, and to condemn genocide by bombs and hunger. (We) Demand an immediate ceasefire, end the occupation of Gaza, end the blockade of food, water, and medicine, and recognize the Palestinian state and allow all nations and neighbors in the region to live in peace, prosperity, freedom, and Justice.”
Images emerging from Gaza in recent days of emaciated children have fanned global criticism of Israel, including by close allies, who have called for an end to the war and the humanitarian catastrophe it has spawned, the Associated Press reports.
The “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip,” the leading international authority on food crises, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, said in a new alert Tuesday, predicting “widespread death” without immediate action.
In addition, President Donald Trump on Monday openly contradicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as to the starvation in Gaza. After he was asked if he agreed with Netanyahu’s comments on Sunday, in which the Israeli leader said, “There is no policy of starvation in Gaza and there is no starvation in Gaza,” Trump replied: “I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.”
Imam Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Michigan chapter, noted the shared values of Muslims and Jews, such as the belief that “whoever kills an innocent soul is like killing all of humankind, but whoever saves an innocent soul is like saving all of humankind.”
He pointed to instances that the Muslim community in Michigan condemned actions of religious extremism as “not in the name of Islam,” including a conference held to condemn the London bombings of 2005 and another more recently to condemn the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant killings in Iraq and Syria.
“Likewise, we believe it is the moral obligation of rabbis and Jewish leaders (to) clearly say, genocide is not in our name, in the name of Jews or Judaism,” Walid said. “(To say), starvation of children is not in the name of Jews or Judaism, cutting off medical supplies, so children have to have operations without anesthesia goes against Judaism and is not in our name of Jews.”
Dawud Walid of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) speaks during a press conference on wednesday, july 30, 2025 at the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn. Katy Kildee, The Detroit News
Imad Hamad, executive director of the American Human Rights Council, said the level of suffering in Gaza has reached a point “the human mind cannot even comprehend” and demanded immediate action.
“It’s our common responsibility as people, as human beings, to do something about it,” he said.
On Wednesday, the Interfaith Leadership Council of Metro Detroit also weighed in on the situation.
“…We strenuously object to any systematic deprivation of life-sustaining food, water, shelter or medical help, or the imposition of harm, up to and including death, to innocents anywhere in the world,” officials said in a statement. “In accord with these values, we call upon the governments of the United States and Israel to enact an immediate and permanent ceasefire, to allow food, water, and medical assistance to reach innocent Gazans, and we call upon Hamas to immediately release all hostages.”
Imad Hamad of the American Human Rights Council speaks during a press conference held by the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Imams Council of Michigan on wednesday, July 30, 2025 at the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn. Katy Kildee, The Detroit News
