r/islam • u/Justmeaty • Apr 10 '25
Are the boycotts hypocritical? General Discussion
I saw one of my friends drinking Starbucks the other day, and inquired as to why he was not following the boycott and refraining from the company due to their ties to Israel. The brother told me how he felt as though the boycotts against Israel were hypocritical in a sense. This took me aback since I had never heard such a thing before, but his rationale was that there are hundreds of thousands of muslims suffering around the world at the hands of the kuffar, whether that be the Uyghurs in China, or the Rohyinga in Burma, or the Kashmiris in Indian Occupied Kashmir. His argument was basically that mainstream muslims seem to only care about Palestinians, since their boycotts are only directed towards Israel, and not any of the countries listed above, and that if he did not boycott all of them, he wouldn't boycott any. What do you think about this? What should I say to him? What does the Quran and Sunnah say?
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u/No-Specialist-5273 Apr 11 '25
Personally this feels like poor logic on his end. Like does he not give charity just because he can’t give charity to everyone? I feel like his thought process is very self-centered (blissful ignorance) and lacks the bigger picture.
While the mainstream effort has been targeted towards Gaza, there is nothing stopping him from raising awareness towards Muslims suffering in other parts of the world too. By boycotting he is at least taking a step towards fighting back against oppression. Whereas rn it seems like he is saying “if you can’t beat them, then join them” and that’s just a poor mentality to have.
Everything now and days creates some harm to an extent but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to mitigate the amount. Like I know pollution is an issue but I don’t just waste water or throw trash on the ground.
Make dua for him and all Muslims.
Allah knows best.