By now, almost everyone has watched the widely praised speech by Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, at the World Economic Forum. There is a story that Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, shared at the World Economic Forum. He used an analogy from Václav Havel’s essay The Power of the Powerless to explain how systems survive through collective participation in rituals people no longer believe in.
He spoke about a shopkeeper who puts a political sign in his window (“Workers of the world, unite!”). He does not believe in it. He displays it because everyone else does and because not doing so would cause trouble. Over time, millions do the same. The sign becomes normal. It looks like truth. But it is not.
Carney used this story to show that putting up a lie simply because everyone else is doing it is morally wrong and dangerous. He applied this lesson to the international order, saying it is time for countries to “take their signs down” and stop pretending.
His message was simple.
Do not live the lie.Do not pretend a broken system is working.Do not repeat slogans you know are false just to stay comfortable.
Now let us place this beside what happened in Gaza.
For months, international law was openly violated. Tens of Thousands of civilians were killed. Hospitals were destroyed. Starvation was used as a weapon.
Yet Europe’s response remained limited. There were statements, yes. But no sustained pressure. No meaningful consequences. No real urgency.
But suddenly, when Greenland became an issue, the tone changed.
Now the language is strong. Now the concern is urgent. Now international law is sacred again. Now borders matter. Now rules must be protected.
Expected-Same laws. Different victims. Different response.
This highlights the reality that International law is often applied differently depending on who is powerful and who is not. Strong countries use the law when it serves their capitalist’s interests. They ignore it when it does not. The weak suffer quietly under it. Prime Minister Carney himself acknowledged that the system has not merely transitioned. It has ruptured. It is broken.
Sadly, many Muslims still believe deeply in international law, even though its real face has been exposed repeatedly.
Yet many Muslim-majority governments continue to tell their people, especially when Gaza was burning, “We are bound by international law.” They say, “Our hands are tied.” They say, “We must follow the rules.”
This is not law. This is self-inflicted weakness dressed as “wisdom.”
Look at borders today. Greenland is under discussion. Venezuela’s borders are contested. Arctic territories are being debated. Borders are increasingly volatile.
When the US President casually share pictures of annexation, even hypothetically, it sends a message. It tells the world that borders are not fixed. They are negotiable when capitalist power desires them. It says international law is optional. It says alliances are conditional. Relationships last only as long as capitalistic interests align.
Yet Muslim countries remain deeply loyal to borders drawn by former colonial powers. Man-made lines created through foreign intervention to divide lands and control people.
The Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916 is the clearest example. Britain and France secretly carved up Muslim lands while the Ottoman was still standing. They drew lines on maps with rulers and pens. These lines later became “countries.” Muslims were then taught to treat these lines as sacred.They still guard these borders with passion. They fight one another over them. They sacrifice lives for them.
The powerful capitalists redraw maps when it suits them. The shackled mind treats man-made lines as sacred.
Nowhere is this more tragic than in Palestine.
For decades, many Muslim countries have spoken in support of Palestine. There are speeches. There are resolutions. There are statements. But when it came to real, practical action to protect and liberate Palestine, almost nothing changed.
Why?
Because it was not in their “national interest.”
Not because they lacked knowledge of the oppression, ظلم. But because they feared economic loss, political pressure, sanctions, or instability more than they feared standing before Allah Al-‘Adl with the blood of the oppressed on their hands.
This is asabiyyah.
The Prophet ﷺ warned clearly.
“He is not one of us who calls to asabiyyah. He is not one of us who fights for asabiyyah. He is not one of us who dies for asabiyyah.”
(Abu Dawud)
Asabiyyah is blind loyalty to tribe, nation, or group over truth and justice. Today, it appears as nationalism.
Muslim countries often protect national interests more fiercely than Muslim lives. They defend colonial borders more passionately than they defend the oppressed. They fear sanctions more than they fear Allah Al-Qahhar.
This loyalty to colonial borders, combined with blind faith in international law, creates a dangerous illusion. …And interestingly that illusion is now being exposed even by those who once benefited most from that mirage, but are now facing its instability themselves.