Dilly Hussain – Islamophobia in the media Masjid AlAnsar
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AI: Transcript ©
Facilitate today's event.
When we look at
the life
of our beloved prophet, I'll
be specifically look at a period when
the dawah of Islam
was gradually
gaining momentum in Makkah.
The leaders of Raish,
they gathered,
and
they started discussing amongst themselves
how are we going to prevent Islam
from spreading?
And how are we going to prevent
the different tribes of Arabia
from
accepting actually, forget about accepting. How are we
going to prevent them from even listening
to what Muhammad
had to say?
Because once a year, all the tribes of
Arabia would come to Mecca for pilgrimage.
And it also be a period where there'd
be a lot of commerce, a lot of
buying and selling.
But the Quraysh was seen as leaders of
the Arab people.
So when they gathered together
in Makkah, in their parliament,
they decided that we are going to
spread lies about Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Because if we taint his character,
if we assassinate his character,
then they will not listen to what he
has to say.
And the lies that they came up with
was that he was a soothsayer.
He was a magician.
He was a liar.
He was a madman.
He was someone that was inspired by the
devil
himself,
And these lies were spread by none other
than the poets of Arabia.
Now the poets of Arabia were the equivalent
of the media of that time.
In fact, poetry was so powerful amongst the
Arabs
that it was regarded
that if one line of poetry was enough
to end a war
and to start a war between different tribes.
And when the opportunity
came later,
our beloved prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam also
utilized
poets
in defense and advancement of Islam.
The poets
of Arabia were
the media outlets of the time.
If we look at,
very briefly, even Islamic history,
we see that
there were always derogatory lies
and labels attribute to Islamic Muslims.
Very early on,
terms such as goat herders,
desert dwellers,
devil worshipers,
those who accept the followers of the antichrist,
and so forth. These are very common labels
that Christian Europe
used to use when referring to
Islam and Muslims.
In fact, there is a letter
from pope Urban.
Pope Urban was the most powerful religious man
of Europe.
When the patriarch
of
Byzantium
wrote to pope
Urban to
bring Western European soldiers to fight the Muslims
during the crusades or just before the crusades
began.
There is a letter which pope Urban wrote
to the many kings of Europe.
That letter remains in a museum in Germany.
And pope Urban wrote to the kings of
Europe,
and he was rallying the kings of Europe
to come
and fight the Muslims
in the holy lands of pal of modern
day Palestine, Jordan, and Syria,
but mainly to do with the capturing of
Jerusalem.
In that letter,
the pope himself refers to the Muslims
as barbarians,
savages,
and many other derogatory terms.
This letter is preserved till this day in
a museum in Germany.
And
for the best part of 14 100 years,
derogatory terms,
terms that malign the character
of our beloved prophet
and those who follow him and our beautiful
religion was something very common.
It was very common.
But even if we look at modern history
even if we look at modern history,
and let's take, for example, the holocaust,
a very unfortunate
chapter, One of the most shameful chapters in
European history,
where around 6,000,000 Jews
were slaughtered, were killed by Nazi Germany.
There is a gross
there is a gross assumption
that it was only
the Nazis, it was only the Germans
who used to spread
lies and hate against the Jewish people. This
is false.
Antisemitism
and hatred towards the Jewish people was something
that was rife and widespread
throughout the entirety of Europe.
In fact, when the Nazis came into power
in 1933,
the Daily Mail
the Daily Mail
congratulated, Adolf Hitler in assuming power in 1933,
1934.
But let's look at how
the German state under the Nazis,
how they attacked and maligned the Jewish people
before they actually carried out the holocaust.
The holocaust didn't happen overnight, brothers and sisters.
There was a process which took place,
which justified,
in the eyes of the Germans at least,
justified,
legitimized
the slaughter of 6,000,000 innocent Jewish people.
And the lies were the following.
These Jews looked different.
Their women dress different.
Their men have beards and and and and
these,
long knots coming from the side of their
hair.
They wear hats and long coats.
The Jewish women of Europe Europe used to
wear something that was similar to the niqab
and the hijab.
They have different meat to us. They'd eat
this thing called kosher.
They speak their own language called Hebrew.
They take all our jobs.
Because of them, this country is struggling economically.
These are the kind of lies
which the Nazis spread about the Jewish people
before they carried out the holocaust. Does this
sound familiar to you?
Do we not hear these things about Muslims
in Europe?
Their women dress different. Their men look different.
They speak their own languages.
They come here and take all our jobs.
Because of them,
their indigenous white people have no jobs and
so forth. We hear these these common lies
spread against Islamic Muslims. These same lies
were spread about the Jewish people
in Nazi Germany before the holocaust was carried
out.
The reason why I'm saying this to you,
brothers and sisters,
is because if someone came to you or
someone came
to the Germans
at the time,
1933, 1934,
even few years prior to that and said,
right. Let's kill 6,000,000 Jews. They wouldn't accept
that. I think this is wrong. This is
morally wrong.
But there was a systematic
indoctrination of the masses
which justified
the killing of Jews
because the masses then started
accepting that, yeah. You know what? They are
different.
They do look different. They're not fully German.
Because of them,
as a country, we are struggling and so
forth.
So at the very least,
what that propaganda did
was that it made people turn a blind
eye, at the very least.
And, obviously, at worst case scenario, they supported
the holocaust.
Let's look at a more recent event.
Who's around? Who remembers
the Bosnian war?
During the Bosnian war?
There was a genocide called the Srebrenica massacre,
where 8,973,
even though the number was number was much
higher,
Bosniak Muslim boys and men were slaughtered.
Slaughtered in the space of 10 days.
Did that happen overnight?
No, it didn't.
The Serbian military and the Serbian government
fed its people
from the radio stations, from the newspapers, from
the TV stations, from sermons in the churches,
that the Bosniaks,
they will come and take and enslave our
women and children.
Like the Ottoman Turks did 3, 400 years
ago. They're gonna come and destroy our churches.
The irony of that is that the churches
that remained there, were there from the time
of the Ottomans.
They're gonna come and implement this barbaric
law called Sharia law.
These were the lies that were fed to
the Serbian masses
before
the massacre of Srebrenica
and other genocides took place.
If we look at
situations now,
whether it be
the plight of our Uyghur and Turkic brothers
and sisters in China,
where around 2 to 3000000
are in concentration camps in Xinjiang,
whether we look at the plight of our
brothers and sisters in Kashmir,
whether we look at the situation of our
brothers and sisters in Palestine,
Yemen, the list is endless.
Oppressors
and tyrants
always utilize media
and language specifically
to justify
oppression.
This is a well known strategy
that actually predates the modern time.
It predates the modern time.
In fact, if you have a cursory look
at the lives of all the prophets, may
Allah, peace and blessings be upon them all,
at one time or another,
when they were up against the status quo,
lies were spread against them
and the message of Islam.
Nearly always.
And the lies and labels
still exist today. Unfortunately,
they still exist today.
But what's the difference today
is that the labels
and the language used against Islam and Muslims
from the mainstream media
is something which is couched from the framework
of counter terrorism.
So we are no longer
desert dwellers or goat herders
or devil worshipers. I'm sure in some circles,
they may they may still use this kind
of language.
But now
if you follow
orthodox normative Islam,
you are an extremist.
You are a radical.
You're a jihadist. You're a Wahhabi. You're a
Salafist,
and so forth. New labels.
New labels.
New labels which
19 years ago were at the beginning of
the war on terror, we would have assumed,
oh, they're only referring to Al Qaeda
or Taliban, who, by the way, the US
is now making peace with.
But no. All of a sudden, this fishing
net
of Muslims is now far and wide.
So the labels and the lies of the
media
now does not discriminate
against any particular group of Muslims.
I don't want you all to think,
or anyone who will watch this lecture online,
oh, brother Diddy is just, you know, he's
just he's just instilling fear amongst us. You
know? He's scaremongering us. This is you know,
he's all exaggerating.
Okay. Fine. Fade.
Let's look at what the experts have to
say. Let's look at what credible,
non Muslim
academics have to say about this issue
of how Islam and Muslims are portrayed in
the media.
There was a gentleman called professor Paul Baker
from the University of Lancaster.
He carried out a piece of research,
and
he studied
200,000
newspaper articles
from the British newspapers,
the mainstream newspapers, The Guardian, The Sun, The
Daily Mail, The Independent,
The Telegraph, The Times,
all the prominent mainstream newspapers.
200,000
newspaper articles
from 1997
to 2,006,
6, I believe. And those articles amounted to
3,000,000 words. Look at the the vastness of
that piece of research.
And this piece of research specifically looked at
how Islam and Muslims
were reported in the British media.
And professor Paul Baker and his colleagues concluded
the following.
That for every one
positive article
about Islam and Muslims,
there were 21
negative articles about Islam and Muslims.
For every one positive article, there were 21
negative articles about Islam and Muslims.
And he also concluded
that the use of language and particular words
and terms
were very frequent in these kind of articles.
For example,
in the positive articles about Islamic Muslims,
there was no mentioning of Islamic Muslims.
In the positive articles, it was all about
how a particular Muslim group or figure was
British
or British Asian or British Pakistani or British
Palestinian or British Somalia, or British Nigerian.
They were patriots. They were liberal. They were
moderate. They were progressive. They were tolerant.
These were words that kept
reoccurring in these positive articles about Islamic Muslims.
In the negative articles about Islamic Muslims, there
were also certain words that kept reoccurring.
Extremist,
radical,
jihadist,
intolerant,
regressive,
backward,
extreme.
I want to stress again
why I'm citing this to you.
I want to stress again why at the
beginning of my address to you all
that I looked at the power of language.
Because language is power.
This is how
people,
institutions,
ourselves
individually,
collectively,
define and interpret and make sense of things.
So the ones who control language
are the ones who essentially control the narrative.
Let's look at another piece of research.
Over in the United States,
the University of Alabama,
the University of Alabama,
and Georgia State University
did a similar piece of research.
It's more recent. They carried it out in
January this year.
And they looked at how the American media
covers
terrorism
when it's carried out by Muslims or those
who identify as Muslims
and those who who are non Muslim.
They concluded
that there was there was
357%
more coverage
of when Muslims carried out an act of
terrorism than when it was non Muslims.
And they found that strange. Why? Because the
main perpetrators
of terrorism in the United States is not
Muslim.
It's white supremacists.
It's white nationalists. It's the far right.
Yet Muslims received
357%
more coverage
when they carried out
acts of terrorism.
And they also concluded
with a ratio.
For 15
reports,
articles, news reports, videos, whatever it may be,
for 15 articles
about terrorism committed by
non Muslims.
There was
a
105 articles or covering when Muslims carried it
out.
Even though the main perpetrators
of terrorism in the United States are white
supremacists and non Muslims, generally. And the 2
Muslims, there was also there's all there was
always
by non Muslims,
there was also there was all there was
always a stress in the mental state of
the perpetrators.
All that these individuals at one time or
another when they were young, they were wonderful
young boys.
Or, you know, they were really sweet children.
Or they had some kind of grievances, they
came from broken families. There was always some
kind of contextualization
about
their mental state, their socioeconomic
welfare,
and had absolutely nothing to do with ideology
or religion. That's when it came to non
Muslims carrying out acts of terrorism in the
American press.
However, when it came to Muslims,
there was no mentioning of mental welfare.
There was no discussion of
that this person may have a grievance,
or that this person may come from a
broken family.
Nothing like this. Whenever a Muslim carried out
an act of terrorism,
it had everything
to do with an interpretation of their religion.
Brothers and
sisters,
this
is non Muslim,
established, respected
researchers and academics
telling you this. They're telling us
that there is an institutional problem of Islamophobia
in the Western media.
Brother David is not telling you this.
They themselves are not Muslims. They're telling you,
yes, we've studied these issues, and there seems
to be a clear ideological bias
against Islam and Muslims.
On the topic of labels,
just some nasiha,
sometimes we ourselves don't help ourselves. Sometimes whilst
we are being labeled externally,
we want to also label ourselves and each
other.
The media does not differentiate
between
Sufi,
Sanofi,
Diwbandi,
Barelvi,
Ikhwani,
Hizbi.
They don't.
They don't. Okay. For them,
if you appear to represent
an orthodox normative type of Islam,
this is enough for them to tarnish you.
This is not to say that internally amongst
Muslims,
we cannot use certain labels to identify ourselves.
There's nothing wrong with this in some cases,
but there's a time and place for certain
kind of labels.
Right?
The point I'm trying to make here is
that at a time
where the media has
systematically,
for the best part of 20 years,
attributed labels,
negative labels to us,
We shouldn't act to those labels internally.
When there is a time and a place,
we can use certain things. Yes. I follow
the Hanafi mother. Yes. I'm I classify myself
as an or or whatever it may be.
There is a time and space for these
discussions.
But at a time when we are being
labeled externally,
there is we shouldn't be resorting to labels
when they are being labels already attributed to
us.
And the same applies to secular labels.
I've got up and down universities,
and it's not unheard of to meet Muslims
these days, Muslim youth.
I am a socialist Muslim.
I see myself as a progressive Muslim. I
am a feminist Muslim. I am a pro
LGBT Muslim.
We are not in need of these labels.
We are not in need of these godless
labels.
Quite frankly, that's what they are.
To attribute these labels, those type of labels
anyway, shows that there is an ins there's
an inadequacy in your religion. There's an inadequacy
in the deen of Allah.
That the sole reason why we are enduring
and witnessing this systematic campaign against our beautiful
faith
is none other
than that we are Muslim.
That we believe in Allah
attributing and associating with him no partners in
worship.
And that we believe in the finality of
the message of our beloved prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam.
That the one who submits to Allah
in totality,
that naturally,
these kind of problems that we are seeing,
they then become
an inevitable reality of the one who identifies
as a Muslim.
Now I know that in this show addressed
to you all,
it seems somewhat
doom and gloom.
Yeah? And it is.
For me to sit here and say to
you that, you know what? There is a
fantastic community relations that Muslims have with the
mainstream media. You know you know, the coverage
that our community and our religion receives is
really fantastic. That'd be a lie.
It'd be a lie.
However,
it is not befitting
it is not befitting
of the believers, of the Ummah of Muhammad
to
be defeatist,
to be negative
in our mindset when we are faced with
these kind of hardships.
Rather, it is befitting of the Ummah and
Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam to be optimistic,
to be positive,
to believe and have hope in Allah,
that he, Azar Abdul,
will
deliver to us
victory
is
if we are worthy of it.
So therefore, I want to conclude
this address, hoping that we can have some
interaction in the q and a, if we
have time for it.
I want to conclude
on some positive
actions and practical steps we can take.
But before I
mention to you some positive steps and practical
steps we can take,
I want to give you guys
a story from the seer.
There was a famous battle called the Basel
of Khambak.
Have you heard of the Basel of Khambak?
It was a time,
a very difficult time actually,
when the early society of Muslims in Medina
was surrounded. They were
society of Muslims in Madinah was surrounded.
They were surrounded
by a confederation
of Arabs,
Arab tribes
who were pagan and disbelievers in mushrikeen,
and they also allied themselves
with an element within the Medina society,
of a Jewish tribe.
So basically, the Muslims were surrounding the Medina.
It was a very difficult time.
And
I believe some of the narrations say that
it was like a winter period as well.
And the Muslims
were at the brink of defeat.
And amongst the ranks of the Muslims in
the trenches, so hanged basing these trenches, the
Sahaba, they had they had the trenches
around Medina
to fend off the enemies.
And
amongst the ranks of the Muslims were the
munafiqeen,
the hypocrites.
And it was at this very difficult time
that our beloved prophet
gave the glad tidings to the companions, may
Allah be pleased with them all,
of the Muslims' victory over the Romans and
the Persians.
And the Munafiqun, they they were speaking amongst
themselves
at this very difficult time when the Muslims
were surrounded at the brink of defeat.
And they were saying, look.
We can barely relieve ourselves
whilst the enemy surround us. And Muhammad is
giving glad tidings of taking Byzantium and Persia.
But what happened in 20, 30 years
of that period?
Indeed Allah's promise came true in the prophecy
of our beloved
Rasoolallah came true.
Under Abu Bakr al Umar, indeed we took
Byzantium,
we took Persia.
But the lesson from here is that
at the most
bleakest time,
at the most bleakest time when the Muslims
were surrounded facing imminent defeat,
the Ablobed prophet instilled amongst his companions
positivity,
to be hopeful.
So on this, I want us to leave
today with some practical steps. Yes. The media
is Islamophobic.
Yes. They will make lies about us. They
have done so for the last 1400 years,
and even before the coming of our beloved
prophet, all the prophets experienced this.
What practical steps can we take when it
comes to
engaging and accounting the media?
1st and foremost, can I see a show
of hands of those who
utilize social media?
Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram,
Snapchat. Okay.
Utilize these platforms
for goodness.
They can be
a means of bad. They can also be
a means of good.
To raise awareness about the plight of the
ummah, to give and invite people to Islam,
to clarify misconceptions and lies being spread about
Islam
for charitable deeds and so forth. Use social
media responsibly.
For those of you who
are passionate
about writing
or or or vlogging,
don't shy away from doing these things.
I know there is a misconception
out there and and there is some basis
to it that once we start focusing too
much on social media and vlogging and vlogging,
we take away
from it traditional forms of learning. And there
is truth to this. There is no truth
to this.
However, these are means and platforms for us
where we can utilize and advance majkhayr.
And where we have acknowledged
that the mainstream media is not on our
side, we have to then utilize these platforms
to get our narrative across.
In this day and age,
the vast majority of information that we're getting
from places like Palestine, and Kashmir and China
and everywhere else where Muslims are being oppressed
is from social media.
That somehow, some way, footage and reports are
coming out.
Obviously, once it's been verified, we are able
to know what's going on in these lands.
We are also able to capture
everyday instances of Islamophobia in the west.
Everyone has a camera and everyone can film
things. Obviously, it's a double edged sword because
when there's a time where you should be
helping one another, we find ourselves filming it,
fooling things. So what I'm saying is that
we have to strike a balance
with using social media responsibly,
and do not shy away from writing and
making video videos
after consulting
your local imam or personal knowledge with so
you're not,
you're not disseminating misinformation or something that's not
in accordance with Islam.
We should also read news
and take news from as many sources as
possible.
I know sometimes this is a bit difficult
to comprehend.
But even those newspapers and those media outlets
which, perpetually, on a daily basis,
spread lies about Islam and Muslims, we have
to read those newspapers. Why?
It's so we know what the masses are
being fed.
We need to know what your local plumber,
your bricklayer, your DIY man, your electrician
is reading. There's
a common saying, or is it Tamra, the
white van man.
This basically means the laborer who happens to
drive a white van. The most read newspaper
in the United Kingdom is The Sun Newspaper
and The Daily Mail.
The most racist and Islamophobic newspapers in this
country also happen to be the most popular
newspapers in this country.
We need to know what the masses are
being for. So we are in a position
to counter these things.
Referring back to earlier in my talk, you
tell people a lie long enough, they'll start
believing it's the truth. This is the word
these are these were the words of Joseph
Goebbels.
He was Adolf Hitler's,
propagandist.
He said, tell people a lie long enough,
and they'll stop believing it.
So we need to take news from everywhere.
Al Jazeera,
BBC,
The Guardian, The Daily Mail, Fox News. Take
it from as many sources as possible
whilst being aware
that every single media outlet has an agenda,
and every media outlet is there to spread
propaganda.
But I'll also add on this point that
not all propaganda is necessarily bad.
I'm the founder and deputy editor of the
Muslim news website called 5 Pillars.
We too have an agenda.
We too spread propaganda.
Our agenda is to defend Islamic Muslims from
all harms, especially in the media sphere.
Our propaganda is to is to convey the
message of Islam and to defend it from
any harm, and lies and misconceptions.
So not all propaganda
and agendas are necessarily bad.
Most are in this day and age,
but we just need to be aware
and take news from as many sources as
possible so we have a very
rounded and grounded
understanding of current affairs. We also current affairs.
We also need to be confident
Oh, man. In
accounting the media.
In the UK,
most newspapers are regulated by Ipswich.
That's the independent
press something
office.
Forgot this. It used to be, IPP
but now it's Ipsos.
They regulate most newspapers.
The funny thing about Ipsos
is that all the people that sit on
its board
that look at the different complaints all happen
to be the former editors of the very
same newspapers that you'll submit complaints about.
Nevertheless,
we still should utilize this avenue to hold
the media to account.
So if you have time, brothers and sisters,
look into Ipsl,
look at the editor's code of practice,
familiarize yourself with how to file a complaint
when you identify
a news article or an opinion piece,
which
seems to breach the editor's code of practice.
Similarly, for radio and news stations, they are
regulated in the United Kingdom by the Office
of Communications, Ofcom.
Familiarize yourself with its regulations so you can
hold TV stations and radio stations to account.
Ofcom and Ipsil.
It's a very common thing I hear
amongst
certain Muslim circles.
Oh, we need to be, as a community,
we need to be more organized and coordinated
like the Jewish community.
I don't agree with this statement.
There is a reason why the Jewish community
in the West is so powerful and strategic
and influential in their activism and community development
and and and activities.
But there is one thing that we can
take from the Jewish community.
Is that how coordinated they are when it
comes to holding institutions to power.
How
how strategic they are in mobilizing their community,
when something that they dislike
is being,
promoted,
for example, pro Palestine activism
or holding the Israeli authorities to account,
you'll find that the Jewish community are very
well organized in accounting the media,
and mobilizing people from their communities, from their
synagogues, from their different institutions, and holding the
media to account. There's one thing that I
believe we can take from the Jewish community,
is that
is that we familiarize ourselves
with the language of the media.
We fam familiarize ourselves with how to hold
the regulators to account.
We educate
our congregation,
the community.
And when things happen,
we can file complaints and hold these regulators
to account.
How successful and meaningful that accountability
will be is another discussion in and of
itself,
but the point is that we can stand
in front of Allah
on the day of judgment and say, you,
when the when the deal of Islam
was attacked
and and and lied against, when the honor
of our beloved prophet and the community was
lied against, we did our best.
There was this avenue, this process,
and we
embarked on these processes
to hold the relevant authorities and institutions to
account.
We also need to familiarize ourself with the
language of propaganda.
I keep stressing the use of language
because language is a means of power.
So when
academics
and experts like professor Paul Baker from the
University of Lancaster or
Alabama and by the way, these are just
two pieces of research I cited. There's many
others. When they are telling us
that the media uses particular language
to spread lies about Islam and Muslims,
we
then cannot start using that same language against
ourselves. What do I mean by this?
We can't now start labeling our fellow muslim
brothers and sisters as extremist, as radical, as
this and that. This is the same words
and the same language
that is used against us externally
to vilify and demonize our community and our
and our faith. What does that then say
about ourselves when we start using that same
language, simply because we may have a theological
difference with our brother, a methodological difference with
our brother, a political difference with our brothers
and sisters?
Yes, differences exist within Muslims. They have always
existed. But
Muslims. They have always existed.
But that does not mean we start resorting
to or start utilizing the very oppressive language
that is used against us externally.
Wallahi is not worth it. It's the most
counterproductive
thing you could possibly do at this moment
in time.
Do not use the language of oppression
internally amongst ourselves.
And last but
not least, last but not least,
we must strengthen the narrative
of normative Islam.
And what I mean by this
is that we need to
strategically
strategically
monopolize
and capitalize on opportunities which may may arise
where we can convey the message of Islam.
For example,
Masjid al Ansar
happens to be in East London.
Right?
If there is an opportunity to engage the
local or regional press, do it. And I
don't just mean to invite the press whenever
we have an open
which is like once or twice a year.
Why should engagement with the press always be
on our terms?
Right? Once or twice a year.
I would advise you all actually.
We have a yeah. We have a beautiful
cafe just there. Yeah?
Why don't we find out
who the local journalists are to your local
newspaper or your local radio station,
befriend
a non Muslim reporter or a non Muslim
receptionist,
or a non Muslim editor, or a non
Muslim sub editor.
Find out what kind of halal activities that
you can mutually engage in,
and engage with the press. I've been in
a news desk, wallahi. I've been in a
news desk
where an editor is literally about to publish
an article about a night club owner called
Naiju.
There was a night club owner in my
town, in Bedford called Naiju.
The editor that I was working with at
the time was going to publish an article
criticizing this club owner.
1 of my colleagues came to the editor
and said,
Chris, are you are you going to publish
this piece? I had a read of it.
It's a it's a tight harsh, I guess,
Nigel, isn't it?
Play golf with him. He's a wise. He's
all that chappy he is.
The editor reviewed the article,
and the piece that he eventually published
was far less critical than the one he
initially planned to publish. What that show is
that personal relationships go a long way.
Right?
Next time a journalist or an editor decides
to write something about Abdullah
or Zaynab
or or Masad Al Ansar
or our community,
if you have built a relationship with the
local press,
they may just nod you and say, hey,
man. I know Imam Fawah. I know Masad
Al Ansar. They're okay.
I I I go play football with them
on the weekends. They have a lovely coffee
shop that I go and and link them
up.
Right? I'm not saying that will always result
in positive results. I'm saying that there has
to be at least a meaningful attempt
by the Muslim community to engage the local
and regional press. Because the local and regional
press is where there will be opportunities
to get our narrative across, not necessarily the
the the national.
And we need to capitalize on these opportunities
to advance
the cause, the narrative, and the message of
Islamic Muslims.
To conclude, brothers and sisters,
we are living
in very unique times.
I I I genuinely believe
that in generations to come,
Muslims will look back at this particular period,
this last 100 years or so,
and they will truly rate us.
And they say,
these Muslim that lived
throughout 20th early 20th 21st century, these these
all lived through some very difficult times.
In fact, I believe there is a hadith
to paraphrase, but our prophet, he's
he's paraphrasing.
He actually mentioned a particular special kind of
love for the Muslims that will come later.
And the companions asked,
why are they more beloved to you? He
said, because they do not have me, and
they held onto the Quran.
There are different variations of this
hadith. But the point I'm gonna make is
that we are living in unique times.
Never in the history of Islam,
in the last 1400 years or so,
have we seen
such
a coordinated,
such a system
matic,
ideological,
military onslaught
on our people and our religion. We've never
seen such a thing. Yes. Our history was
not perfect. We had many problems throughout the
course of 1400 years.
But the balance of power has radically shifted.
We are oppressed. We are occupied.
We are vilified.
There is
a coordinated effort to change the fundamentals of
our deen and to reform it so it
is a palatable version,
things which were halal and haram for 1400
years now all of a sudden are up
for discussion and debate.
There has never been a time like this,
I genuinely believe, like any other period in
Islamic history.
So, therefore,
what that actually means
is that it is a crucial time for
us all
to get to Hajar,
and for us not to be bystanders
and mere
witnesses
to these
events that are taking place.
At a time when the community
in the West and abroad are facing immense
problems and immense difficulties and challenges,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam gave them the glad
tidings
of
conquering Byzantium
and Persia
at a time when they were facing imminent
defeat. We should be like those companions
and believe in the best of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala,
hope in the best of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, and that the victory and the promise
of Allah will come if we are worthy
of it.
So the media
is just another means.
It's just another tool
to vilify
the message of Islam.
And whoever said that following the footsteps of
the prophets would be easy?
Who said that?
No more.
We know.
We know that every prophet, that Allah's peace
and blessings be upon each and one of
them,
face difficulties,
immense difficulties.
So why do we think that all of
a sudden, if we want to aspire to
be the followers of the prophets,
that all of a sudden that our
journey
and our time on this earth
would be easy. Doesn't Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
tell us in the Quran
that you believe and do not think that
you will not be tested in your faith?
Of course, we will be tested.
So this is a time for us all,
brothers and sisters,
to gain
as much as possible.
And I wanna conclude with the words of
Allah
where he says in Surah Al Tawba.
They want to extinguish the light of Allah
with their mouth, but Allah refuses
except to perfect his light, although the disbelievers
dislike it.
Yes.
There will be lies,
there will be propaganda,
There will be many things
spread against and about Islam and Muslims.
Yes.
It's been happening for as I already mentioned,
it's been happening since the inception
of Islam,
when Quraysh made lies about the prophet.
It happened during the crusades. It happened during
the period of colonialism,
and it's happening now. We shouldn't be phased
by it.
Know that it's happening.
Know that it exists. And know that as
Muslims,
there is solutions to overcome these issues
from the deen of Islam.
I pray to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that
every single person in this room
is a conveyor,
and a contributor, and a protagonist
for goodness, not just Islam and Muslim, but
for mankind in general.
I pray to Allah
that he grants ease
to all the Muslims and mankind and amongst
mankind who are suffering.
I pray to Allah
that we
be witnesses
and participants
of a positive change that may come in
our lifetime.
My young brother, press the red button.