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Rarely
in the annals of human history
Has a defeat so resounding, so painful been recorded
Shall it be compared in enormity to the Babylonian captivity?
Or the sinister occupation of Poland?
Or the tragic drama of the sacking of Troy?
Or Napoleon’s brutal conquest of Egypt?
Events that have told the story of tutelage
And subjugation rooted in pure force
And these very days we memorialize the fall of Jerusalem
The Golan, the Sinai and the West Bank
A formidable triumph that left a trail of inordinate suffering
Another sordid chapter of occupation, dispersal and oppression
Noble Egypt’s air force was ferociously decimated
Its army routed and rendered in painful, profoundly memorable
retreat
Arab broadcasting mesmerized the misled multitudes
That victory was a hairbreadth away
But the deepest scar was Jerusalem’s stunning fall
Powerfully mirroring a nation’s state of prolonged though remediable
decline
Unable to reverse a continuing trend of defeats
Witness today’s fall of Baghdad
And we implore with futility the victor’s magnanimity
That Arabs and Muslims pray in the holy city’s threatened noble
sanctuary
Or in the churches that toll a bell of grief
Lamenting separation, loss and suffering immense
But the venue of Muhammad’s nocturnal heavenly journey is deeply
carved
In the wounded consciousness of the Muslim umma
Awaiting a time of return, a moment to pray in peace
A time to mark a tide of mercy and justice
To replace the logic of unchecked might
Drawing the darkened map of an uncertain morrow
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