Speech at the Uyghur Spirit Youth Conference
Abdullah al Andalusi – What Should the Muslim world do to help the Uyghurs?
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the ongoing problem of Muslim pride and the importance of protecting their rights. They also touch on the ongoing problem of Muslim disunity and the need for a long-term solution. The speakers emphasize the importance of political unity and the need for peace in the region. The history of the region and the use of the Malacca Strait are also discussed. The speakers emphasize the importance of convinced Muslims to push for peace and achieve peace for their safety and well-being.
AI: Summary ©
All
right. So brother I'm glad that Lucy is the department head of the oxygen technology department and co founder of the Muslim debate initiative, and international speaker, thinker and intellectual activists for Islam and Muslim affairs. His work involves explaining advancing intellectual proofs, or the Islamic belief system revivalism and advocating the respecting of the rights of Muslim minorities. He has 13 years of experience engaging in debates with secularists, nationalists, liberals, atheists, and secular Christians, explaining and examining the background and reality behind Western cultural products, philosophies, political systems, values, and intellectual self
justifications
and so forth and bla bla Thank you so, so much for accommodating us with this little
up and down we had inshallah,
I will now make you a co host so that you may
share your screen.
Yep, cord inshallah.
Sorry, just making sure that you can hear me okay. Yep, we can hear you.
hamdulillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam became
Assalamualaikum.
To
these requirements, the foundation of
inviting me to talk about this extremely important and
very, very serious and, and tragic situation has happened to the part of our family of the honor of the owner of hula Salaam, we need to seriously look at and to try our best and to strive for all means, prescribed, prescribed to us by the rasulillah salam and in the Quran to alleviate and help our brothers and sisters in in undergoing a modern day genocide
in East Turkistan, which some people call shinjang province. So to kind of begin,
one of the things, I feel that when whenever we engage in these situations, these topics, there's numerous situations happening around the Muslim world where Muslims are getting are being oppressed, they're having their rights taken away from them. They're being killed, we have Palestine, we have Kashmir, we've had we've had the occupation of Afghanistan, which is now the obviously Western forces have left Afghanistan. And there's there's also the Central African Republic, many Muslims are being killed, over then not so widely publicized, but still tragedies happening to our brothers sisters nonetheless, and in many other parts in West Africa, as well. And the list goes on and on.
But China has surpassed these other presses in the systematic nature, and in the vast scale of the oppression being committed in Xinjiang. And this is something which I, you know, I'd like to thank organizers for inviting me to be able to
be able to discharge part of the very, very big obligation upon all our necks to speak out against, but I don't want to just speak out against it, I want to also discuss with my brothers and sisters, the solutions that we can actually implement
regardless of whether these solutions are going to be immediate, it's not like I wish I could just switch you know, switch a button that often or and the oppression ends, and they're all the my brothers sisters are released from the concentration camps. But that's not obviously something that we can't do is beyond the power of any individual Muslim. But therein lies the solution.
It is beyond the power of any individual Muslim Yes, but it is not beyond the power of Muslims collectively. And this has always been the case. I feel that 20 years ago, we wouldn't have even imagined such a thing could happen. mosques just being destroyed blatantly openly converted into adults that are not destroyed, kept as cultural relics to change into like dancing schools or
bars and places for tourists. The Chinese tourists to come in and to basically desecrate with alcohol and and, and not be to be used as of house
prep. So we would never imagine this 20 years ago. And yet the perpetual or the continuing problem of Muslim disunity has opened up the doors to greater and greater outrages that can be committed against the Muslim woman. And I won many years ago, even before this escalation that I don't, I think it would only get worse over time, it's gonna get worse and worse. I mean, just look at Kashmir. As one example I don't want to detract so much from what's happening the wiggers but I think it's all connected, because we are one oma. So here, we will connect it here
that, you know, the Kashmir the the article, an article of Indian law was revoked, which gave Kashmir autonomous, autonomous status. And now it was kind of pieces and now formally annexed into India. And the oppressions only increased upon the Muslims in Kashmir. Prior to that, it was meant to be an unresolved unresolved territory that, you know, we're still pending UN resolutions, which obviously un doesn't really do much solutions when it when it concerns real people who are really being oppressed. But
we are seeing now that people are being brazen enough to do things they never thought about before. Or they could never do it in public before against Muslims, and it's only going to get worse. Now before I kind of discuss the solution, which I think is from the Quran and Sunnah, which, to be honest, is not nothing, is nothing groundbreaking, radical or shocking to anyone here, the issue is only our our own will to enact that solution, or our own will to see it through and to see how serious this situation is to use it to motivate us to see it through.
So first and foremost, we have to know a bit about the context. Now, currently, generally speaking, many Western countries don't usually care about Muslim minorities being oppressed when there's no interest now. So if you want to cozy up to India, as a trading partner, they won't really care so much about the Kashmir issue.
Only as much as maybe they could leverage it against Pakistan or the countries in the region to sway their own interests. But generally speaking, if they're interested with India, so they don't really care about the Muslims of Kashmir, what's that what's happened to them. But because of a kind of global tussle between India and China as a rising power, and the United States of America, or now they seem to care, even Israel, who's conducting many outrages and oppression against the Palestinians are condemning China voice doing against the weakest. And that's because it's now currently in the West, and its allies interests, to use the weekers as a
as a bargaining chip against China to to attack and demonize China. Not that it needs that much demonizing the Chinese government that is,
but that we have to be careful about being pawns in other people's games, right and not actually looking out for our own interests as an honor having our own interest in heart and not being exploited by others. Now, by all means, we need to go on the on the platforms offered to us, many normals and platforms, TV programs, and others, who are now taking more interest in the Uyghurs. We need to obviously, of course, go on these platforms, when offered, and to speak about the situation that's happening to anyway, increase ramp up international pressure against China as much as possible. Not that China usually cares about public global public pressure.
And hence,
I would say that, while we shouldn't, you know, we shouldn't issue doing those things, we need to also focus on a more long term solution, because China will not stop what it's doing. It's kind of cultural, and even humanitarian, generally, like anti humanitarian genocide. They're cleaning up people, they're trying to bring Han Chinese into almost colonial eyes, that country, the, the territory, and they're also basically trying to change the culture and the religion of the people of that territory at the same time. And if you look at the current kind of predictions, they're going to, in essence, make the weak as a minority in their own country and make them visibly
publicly non Muslim, ideally, following I mean, they don't necessarily will force them to follow the the become atheists. Exactly. But as long as they toe the party line, and they follow the line of the Communist Party, in China, that's what they want, or at least the public profession, and loyalty to the Communist Party. So that's the current situation. And I also think that it doesn't, it will not benefit us to approach it from
using other Western ideologies, so looking things that like the idea of nationalism, so to say that we
are an ethno linguistic group that have a special title to sovereignty in a land against what the Chinese are doing because Chinese are citing nationals nationals very arbitrary term Chinese will say that well, you're Chinese nationals, you should do what that what the nation of China nation state of China demands you to do. Where and to say that well, the only way to counter that is to get weak is to counter it with Uighur nationalism,
again, doesn't is not really from this family basis or perspective. We need to view it from an Islamic lens and Islamic lenses are brothers and sisters in in East Turkistan are being abused and oppressed. And now we need to focus on what does the Quran Sunnah Vyas kind of give us what not advice? What commands does it give us? So we see that the the Rasulullah
sallallaahu, Rochelle start with us and crimefest. So the Quran says, and hold firmly to the rope of Allah and do not become divided. And remember the favor of Allah upon you when you were enemies, and he brought your hearts together, and you became by his favor brothers, and you on the edge of appeal of the fire and he saved you from it. First, Allah makes clear to you his verses that you may be guided, and do not be like the ones who became divided and deferred after clear proofs had come to them. And those will have a great punishment. Now, we know this verse, but we really don't as Muslims fully understand and embrace the real importance of that verse. The verses that do not
become divided amongst yourselves. Muslims often think many Muslims across the world think that this just means maybe with not having difference of opinion with each other. But that's impossible. Even the Sahaba has had slight differences of opinion amongst themselves. You can't unite everyone's opinion. on on on being exactly the same outside of the basic Akita of Islam. In the the furore in the branches of the deen in fifth, we're going to have different opinions. And that's great, right difference of opinions and mercy. That's not a problem. But if that's the case, then what unity is the Koran referring to here? Okay. I mean, look at the context of referring to the Ulsan has Raj who
were fighting each other before Islam. And then when Islam came, they saw each other as brothers and sisters, and they united as one and even became called the unsought right, the helpers that does have of Medina, they're no longer the Yatra bites, or you know, or the nation state of the athlete. They were, it was Medina, just the city, simply the city of Islam and the launchpad of the comprehensive way of life of Islam to the world.
So within what is this unity that is that the Quran is advocating for us to to follow, so do not hold firmly to the rope of Allah which is honestly the Quran
at which everyone can agree minimally is the Quran, of course, and of course, the commands given to us by the prophet, Mohammed, salah and do not become divided, which means we have to be united. But then what remains what unity is this, the only meaning is political unity. What that means is that we see each other as one, our pieces one, our walls are one, if someone presses part of one of us, they oppress all of us. Right? If someone hurts a Muslim, it's as if they've heard it all. They've heard all the Muslim on all of us, okay, you need to look at this as if your own father, mother, sister, brother, son daughter has been taken into a Chinese concentration camp. If you don't view it
like that, then you are then I would say I would argue you haven't embraced the spirit of unity, which we see in many activities, but also allows us to paraphrase that almost like a body when part of it is struggling with illness, the rest responds with with fever and discomfort to paraphrase the narration. So we are, in essence, one oma. But then how do you have political unity? How do you have political unity? What does that mean to have political unity? Well, the Muslims have always understood it for 1300 years prior to colonialism which cut us into pieces is that we were meant to be one on one with no borders between us and no separate states, and certainly not in separate
nation states were from the European idea and it is a European idea, by the way of nationalism whereby they say that that each cultural linguistic group deserves to have a state which represents its language and fulfills its particular interests of one particular cultural group against other cultural groups and they have a better entitlement to the land. They live.
than anyone else. Whereas as Muslims, we know that the we are all part of Benny Adam, you can have different languages, that's not a problem, you can have different styles of food, you can have different styles of dress within the stomach requirements. But that doesn't mean now that you now have a political privilege to have a government that represents your your cultural, ethnic or linguistic group. When we're not aliens, we're all humans, our needs are pretty much the same, you know, education, health, you know, water, sanitation, food, jobs, opportunities, these are things of universal, why does it matter what ethno linguistic group you you come from? This is a very modern
invention. And they they use this invention, the many of the European colonists to cut the oma into pieces and get Muslims fighting each other. So now Turks and Kurds fight each other Persians, Arabs fight each other
week where prior to this, they wouldn't be fighting on ethno ethnic grounds at all whatsoever. So then now, what is the basis for unity of the Muslim world? And I know that many people think when they hear it is that oh, you know, I'm not this the same thing, again, the same message, but it wouldn't be needed to be repeated if we're not getting the message. And I dare say, I say it is all as who's giving us the message by this increasing? persecution is getting worse and worse with the Muslims everywhere in the world, not not not even just in Kashmir and in Palestine, and in East Turkestan, but also in the West now, like, the Muslims of France, look at what they're, they're
undergoing. Okay. I mean, it's not so the oppression is increasing, although it's not as blatant in the Anglosphere countries like United States of America and in the United United Kingdom with government policies on D radicalization. And counter extremism were when they listen concept. What is an extremist idea? It would cover most mainstream religions or Abrahamic religions. Generally, their core tenets are going to be almost silently deemed to be extreme and buy sell from and no one. We're kind of sleepwalking into that. But I will I won't get distracted with discussing Muslim minorities in the West.
So then what does that What does does that also sort of command us regarding well now to how to practically implement unity and what does this unity do? We see that the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam is reported to have said, the Imam, the Imam of the mosque, that is basically a mom of the Muslims is a shield, behind whom you fight, and you protect yourself with.
So the Prophet Mohammed Sultan was very explicit that the Muslim oma is meant to have one EMR and just one amount that unites all of us. So halifa or Kelly, Kelly just means a successor to the Prophet Mohammed's role as the political leader of the Muslims, defending the Muslims uniting our resources together, and being able to use that united political, economic and military clout to defend your mother. We all know about Canada. The famous incident of the inner Cliff monta cymbala was a Khalif, who during his reign, the eastern Romans invaded his Muslim land, they took a woman a Muslim woman hostage, and it was reported that she called out to Moses and Billa we don't know if
that's true or not. But we do know the response, which is that the Muslim armies crossed the Roman borders and fought the Romans to rescue the Muslim hostages. Right? So Muslim blood meant something Muslim likes meant something and was willing to be fought for. Right? Whereas now, most of them blood is cheap. And I would dare say that no one deems it cheaper than Muslims themselves. By that if you see by many reactions by Muslims, they're not so they're not taking this as a priority as a concern, that that they should be, we know from another Hadith that to paraphrase that Allah Subhana Allah values the blood of one drop of butter, the Muslim more than the Kaaba and all its
surroundings. What what the Muslim would do if China just came in, bombed the Kaaba and destroyed it, and carpet bombed all of Mecca? How would they respond? Well guess what? The one drop of blood of a single Muslim is worth more to Allah subhanaw taala than the carbine surroundings the carbon surroundings it's it's not living right it's bricks and bricks and mortar they say stones and bricks mortar is but we ask as Muslims that our blood is where we'll just one drop of it is worth more to our lab than the Kaaba and all its surroundings. This isn't a hadith since this is in the Sunnah.
We need to take this seriously. I can't stress this enough. This is not an academic topic here we're talking about. This is the lives of hundreds of 1000s of our brothers and sisters and us took your stuff
Okay, and what's happening to them? I, you know, I don't even I feel reticent to repeat. It's not just that they've been killed in these concentration camps, tortured, raped, brutally. And I don't I feel
I feel hard to compose myself, and to bring out the details. So I'll leave it like that to make to keep myself legible. But it's, it's not. It's something which we need to take seriously. Now, here's the thing.
When we look at when Muslims go to, they look at certain Muslim rulers, they say, Oh, well look at Imran Khan, why is he not talking about what's happening in East Turkestan? Okay.
What's the response generally from from even his supporters, you know, what they say? Well, what can he do? If Pakistan is weak against China, and Pakistan needs to have an alliance with China to buttress against India, which India has a larger army, you know, India, you know, is being very belligerent. The only thing that some people say, you know, might stop India from, you know, invading the rest of Kashmir is the threat of a Chinese, the Chinese army coming in and rescuing the ally of which they've, they've invested a lot of money in, some would say, bought in, like, like they do in many countries, they, they buy, in essence, they put cash into debt, and then they say,
compared to debt, no problem. We'll take this port from you, Sri Lanka, almost now has become a client state to China and people saying the same thing is happening to Pakistan. But what about Turkey as well? Again, I mean, why Turkey has raised some issues, it doesn't really approach it seriously. Because, again, because of the pressure from the west, it needs to find economic allies where it can Iran to seize, you know, it's an it's a separate weak country needs to find allies where it can certainly under economic sanctions, its benefit from trade with China. So instead of saying, well, look at these traitors, these traitor, you know, governments or trade to countries,
and that's and you know, as I said, most of the Muslim world has business with China. So I'm not it's not just us countries, by the way, it's virtually all the Muslim countries. The argument that that's always given is they're so weak, they're divided. What can they do? Well, it we can do, which is we need to reconstitute, I mean, seriously reconstitute the halifa
system of Halawa system that was taken away in 1924, on the ultimate, the full ultimate philosopher, if we don't, if we don't unite our armies unite our resources, we're going to see that same excuse mentioned again and again and again, each individual Muslim country is too weak to do anything. Right if we don't have a kind of mutually supporting economic system, where you know, develop our own industries, build trade links among ourselves, start boycotting each other stop having these ridiculous wars with each other killing Muslims, which is an offense you can go to jahannam for and Muslim killing a Muslim, you can go to him for this, right. So it's pretty it's this is a this is a
very big thing you need to speak out against. But if we don't work, we don't support organizations, peaceful organizations, which use the prophetic method to give that hour and revive the Muslim on to be to, to they speak to the armies, they speak to the civil servants, they speak to the people, they speak to everyone and they are basically trying to get a critical mass together to begin the reconstitution of the philosopher assistant we've had for 1300 years. Okay. And I just want to maybe point out to you that there was a time when the Tang dynasty of China was expanding into into the area now we see as to Turkistan.
You know, Tibet, the empathy of the Kingdom of Tibet couldn't limit them so much, but they were you know, they were separate. Obviously, Kingdom from China back then.
The the One Power that could limit the expansion of the Tang dynasty of China was the abbot Halawa, which defeated them at the Battle of talus right and formed an effective bulwark against their expansion so much. So that Kashgar was part of the it was actually part of the opposite cut off, you know, Kashgar, which is now in eastern Turkestan it's part of it which is you think, you know, Muslims I don't know you don't might not know the history so much my think whatever part of China quote unquote modern day China was ever under Muslim rule. Well, certainly part of Eastern Taiwan. The Muslim Kashgar was under most rock it was under
a local mayor who gave birth to the the opposite of absolute Caliphate, right? Muslims defended those lands. If we don't reconstitute unite our economies to give a remote armies to give and take this seriously. It's just gonna get worse from us.
Okay, and it's needn't be it's not pie in the sky. Anyway, it really the only the only thing that stops Muslims from reconstituting that the Islamic system, the Halawa is just our own will really, it really is just that it's just that we just want you just have to want to. It's as simple as that. And it's an obligation that is in the Quran that we're not meant to be divided amongst ourselves. There's howdy if we're talking about the future, or rather, he was asked about the future by a Sahaba. You said,
regarding different fitness that would occur to the Muslim world different, you know, challenges and things. And the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam advised him or told him that stick to the Jamaat and their Imam, to Jamal, Jamal, the Muslims, the Central State, the Muslim, and then the Sahaba said, What if there's no Gemma? And there's no mom? It's not just knowing Mum, but nojima basically like the Muslim and isn't me know Muslims, because then the Sahaba was asking what if I'm in that time? Well, he's a Muslim. Yeah, so what there's no Jamal as in the Muslims, I'm no longer united. Right? What did the Prophet Mohammed Salah advise said that, to split off from all the different
ferok. The setup is different, in essence, the different countries different splinter group states and things. Even if you have to eat the roots of trees, which we can't use a nation state system, we can't use these divided states. We're not they don't even have any authority in Islam.
different governments don't actually even have any authority to start. The historically speaking all regional leaders only had authority if they were given official investiture by the halifa. They're totally they're made official police by the halifa by the Imam of the Jamaat
of the Muslims. Right. It was so important that this last until 1922. And then obviously what the ultimate last one, and obviously the rest we know. So, but did you know that the Ottomans Kelly sent they sent fleets to Malaysia and Indonesia to defend him against Portuguese colonialism right in the in the 17th century, right, even though they were not part they were not under direct control of the ultimate Laughter But the ultimate Calif view that these are Muslims, these are this part the Gema he has a responsibility. So
then you might say that okay, even if there wasn't a united Islamic system state amongst all the Muslims.
Are you saying that now that would require an invasion of China and to rescue East Turkestan science awful? I say not necessarily.
But there are many tools that are such a big superstate, as some people would sometimes like to call it could do against this situation. One of those things is that
according to various surveys, a biggest route of China's sea routes go through the Malacca Strait, right, which is between India, Malaysia and Indonesia, it is a very thin, straight, right. It's like the Swiss canal of the of the, you know, eastern Pacific of the Pacific. It's basically a very kind of very thin, straight. And the vast majority of Chinese goods go through that very small, straight, guess what we have enough back in Malaysia and Indonesia, with the rest of the Muslim Ummah, could simply cut it off to China and say, if you don't stop what you're doing, we stopped your trade. And then the rest of the Belton road initiative by China goes through Central Asia, right, Kazakhstan,
and is now about about Afghanistan. Now China is talking to the Taliban about about certain deals, and of course, Pakistan as well. There's a belt going a Belt and Road initiative, to go through it to Gwadar port, I believe in the south, what is the most important as one united voice and the one mom said, you're going to have no more trade for us, China, we're going to cut every single link you can to the rest of the world. You only have to go You have to be forced to spend a lot of money going through the Panama Canal canal all the way around Australia, or what have or going through Russia and obviously, is gonna exploit that in China like that. So we can cut cut it off. If you
don't stop what you're doing. Right? Then this is what this is the first thing we're going to do, right? Imagine that message sent to China. It's not like China can't invade Malaysia, or Indonesia can't, can't do that and to reopen the straits, right? It's because it overwater and so on so forth. But if the Muslim was united, these are practical steps that would issue very strong economic sanction against China for what it's doing. As a first step. Right, of course, facing a united Muslim world, China wouldn't do it in the first place. They wouldn't have done these things. They wouldn't do what they
To the wiggers in the first place when faced with being a Muslim, so what I would say is that in essence, yes, we must speak out against what's happening against our brother and sisters in East Turkestan. Yes, we must use every platform we can to denounce what China is doing. But we have to remember that despite all those things that we're going to want to do, and all those condemnations, what like what India is doing in Kashmir, or what Israel is doing in in Palestine is the Israeli state. It hasn't stopped them. Right? It doesn't stop there. Okay, what does stop them is Muslim showing the United Front and actual politically united front and you have to remember brothers and
sisters, but even though you were born into a sister into a world where everyone just seemed to act quite normally in these neat in the separate nation states and and what have you, you think, okay, I mean, what's this was this was this obligation of having a falafel so important, wise, not everyone doing you think about it?
Is we living in an unnatural situation in Islamic history and Muslim history? for 13 years, 100 years, we had one, it was the only thing that stopped the Crusades. It was the only thing that stopped the Mongols. It was the thing that stopped tang, tang dynasty expansion. In Turkistan. If you get rid of it, like we have, always get rid of for us, you're going to see the situation that we that we are seeing today. And it's going to get worse, the more they push, and the less resistance they feel pushed back, the more they keep pushing. I've never seen a bully ever be content with the first acquiescence of the victim. I've never ever seen a bully do that. But it asked him what so
even if you don't care about all those obligations, even if you don't care about his commands, which I think which I think is ridiculous, of course you should. A free roam hereafter, at the very least for your own purpose of life. There's no other meaning of life on the planet. But even if you're if you're going to be a person who's who's cynical, and only cares about even interest or benefit in this world, at least for the Muslims, generally speaking, then you need to care about, about bringing back the one defense mechanism that the Prophet Mohammed sauce on left behind that would politically protect and militarily and economically protect the lives that the wealth, the safety of
the Muslim Ummah of the Jamaat inshallah, and we need to work steadfast, you need to any peaceful political group that you see working for it, support them, if there's not in your area, make one and do down to the most in amongst the Muslims call them to us because remember, the only thing that stops Muslims doing it is just was just will the lack of well, if almost and if you are convinced right now of its importance, if you are convinced right now this obligation, do you know what the method is very simple, just convince other people to think exactly like you now convince other Muslims to have to think exactly like you know, and that will advance us getting us closer to that
goal in sha Allah. And there are many Hadith that talk about a time of oppression. And after that time, a philosopher Rashida rightly guided Caliphate on the method of the Prophet Mohammed was also known as the Muslims had been humble. It was a prophecy of the future there's going to be Hello alpha and then it's going to be oppressive rule and then afterwards is going to be khilafah. Again, rightly guided for alpha on the method of the Prophet Mohammed It's awesome. So we have a promise of victory. So inshallah let us put our to welcome in our love our faith in the last month Allah and let us follow His commands and solve permanently these problems so that they never raised their ugly
head again. But I can offer you for listening