When Will The Muslim World Wake Up To Its Own Chaos?

More than 100,000 protesters this week flooded the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh. They waved Palestinian flags, beat effigies of U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and screamed into microphones about Israel committing "genocide." Symbolic coffins were carried, chants of "Free Palestine" rang out, and social-media feeds lit up with righteous fury.

But what exactly were they protesting?

Not the forced disappearances in Egypt. Not the people sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia. Not the young men tortured in Algeria's prisons. Not the anarchy in Libya. Not the political show trials in Tunisia. And certainly not the Taliban's abuse of Afghan girls or Iran's execution of teenage protesters. None of those tragedies earned a single chant.

Instead, protesters directed their wrath at Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, because doing so is safe, popular, and, frankly, lazy.

It is the same script that has played out in the Muslim world for decades: Direct rage outward, never inward. Blame the West. Blame the Jews. Pretend the real crisis isn't in your own streets, prisons and palaces.

But the truth is that the Muslim world is burning not because of Zionism or colonialism, but because of the cowardice, corruption and chaos that define its own regimes.

Let's start with Saudi Arabia, whose crown prince postures as a modernizer while continuing to execute peaceful dissidents after secret trials. In 2024 alone, the kingdom executed more than 300 people, many for vague charges like "disobedience to the ruler" or "terrorism," the latter often applied to activists, bloggers or reformers. Meanwhile, the same regime funds anti-Israel campaigns and poses as the guardian of Islamic dignity, while brokering backdoor talks with Israel itself.

In Egypt, prisons are full of political opponents, journalists and critics of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's military regime. Protesters vanish without explanation. Torture is routine. Parliamentary "elections" are choreographed farces. And yet, Cairo regularly hosts conferences condemning Israel for its alleged crimes, as if imprisoning a TikTok influencer is more moral than a defense against Hamas rockets.

Algeria continues to suffocate under a police state cloaked in revolutionary nostalgia. The Hirak movement--a peaceful, mass uprising for democracy--was crushed under a campaign of arrests and intimidation. Today, journalists and civil society figures are in prison for nothing more than using words the regime finds inconvenient. But do Algerians take to the streets for those victims? No. Instead, they march for Palestine, led by the same officials who silence them at home.

In Tunisia, once the great hope of the Arab Spring, the president has dissolved the parliament, rewritten the constitution and jailed opposition leaders--all while pushing an increasingly xenophobic, conspiratorial narrative. But instead of resisting this return to authoritarianism, many Tunisians have been seduced by anti-Israel populism, once again misdirecting their rage at a foreign target to avoid confronting domestic collapse.

And Libya? It is barely a country. Two rival governments, countless militias and total impunity for warlords and human traffickers. Israel has nothing to do with this chaos. Nor does the West. This disaster was authored by Libyan hands, yet no one protests for the Libyan people. There are no symbolic coffins carried through Arab capitals for them.

That script, endlessly recycled, insists that the Muslim world's decline is the result of Western plots, Zionist manipulation and historical injustice. It is a lie--one that has metastasized into a worldview that rewards paranoia, victimhood and external scapegoating, while punishing any form of introspection or reform.

What is rewarded? Screaming about Israel. Burning American flags. Reciting the same slogans that have echoed uselessly since the 1970s.

What is punished? Asking why most Muslim-majority nations can't guarantee free speech, equal rights for women or peaceful transfers of power.

Ask a protester in Dhaka if they know who runs Gaza. Most won't say Hamas. Ask if they know how many Palestinians have been imprisoned, tortured or killed by the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. Most won't believe you. Because in this worldview, Israel must always be evil, and Muslims must always be blameless.

It is not a moral stance. It is a delusion--and it is killing the region.

Why is Israel so targeted? Because it serves a function. It allows dictators to redirect anger. It gives preachers a safe enemy. It offers the Arab street a rare outlet for outrage that won't get them arrested.

You can protest Israel in Saudi Arabia. But try protesting Saudi Arabia in Saudi Arabia. You can burn Netanyahu's effigy in Cairo. But try posting a meme about el-Sisi. You can chant "Free Palestine" in Algiers, but try chanting "Free Hirak."

Even in "progressive" Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has jailed more journalists than any other leader in the world. And yet, he never misses a chance to accuse Israel of war crimes, while bombing the Kurds, cracking down on dissent and jailing opposition mayors.

It's theater. And the Palestinian cause has been reduced to its most cynical function: a shield for authoritarianism.

If the Muslim world truly cared about Palestinians, or about Muslims generally, it would look inward. It would ask why Hamas stores weapons in mosques and schools. It would ask why no Arab state, aside from Jordan, has granted full citizenship to Palestinian refugees. It would ask why Egypt keeps its border with Gaza tightly sealed, even during war.

More broadly, it would ask why so many Muslim-majority states can't tolerate free debate, political opposition or female autonomy.

The real victims of Muslim authoritarianism are not just Palestinians. They are the women of Afghanistan. The protesters of Iran. The journalists of Egypt. The dissidents of Algeria. The thinkers of Saudi Arabia. The reformers in Tunisia. The forgotten in Libya. Until the Muslim world rallies for them with the same passion it shows for Gaza, it will remain trapped in a cycle of self-inflicted suffering.

Originally published at JNS.org