Dilly Hussain – Uyghur Muslims of East Turkestan
AI: Summary ©
The Uighurs, a group of Muslims who were part of a wider Turkish tribal configured region, were predominantly located in Central Asia. The Haganate period lasted until the late 1800s, when the Uighurs were thrown into a new region called loaning, where they were mostly 80-90% black. The Haganate period lasted until the late 1800s, when the Uighurs were thrown into a new region called loaning, where they were mostly 80-90% black. The Chinese government has implemented policies aimed at the Uighurs, but they have also failed to achieve their goals of freedom and self determination. The speaker discusses the historical and political moments of Islam's failure to overcome structural Islamophobia and the need for a strong message in publicity. The Haganate period lasted until the late 1800s, when the Uighurs were thrown into a new region called loaning, where they were mostly 80-90% black. The Haganate period lasted until the late
AI: Summary ©
The Muslims of Jin Yang. I was actually
speaking to brother, David just a second ago.
He was saying, I was pleasantly surprised how,
we decided to speak in this topic because
this group of Muslims are perhaps the one
of the most oppressed groups of Muslims in
the world. And there's a rich history behind
them that we often don't hear about.
Before we begin, I'd like to ask, to
kind of follow the side for the first
before I.
Assalamu alaikum, my dear brothers, sisters, and friends.
I want to begin by thanking UCL ISOC,
for inviting me to deliver this lecture today,
on a very important group of Muslims,
who have arguably been
neglected
to some degree. And when I say neglected,
it's because
we are all aware of the oppression and
the persecution of our brothers and sisters in
places like Syria,
in Palestine,
in Kashmir, in Iraq, in Afghanistan,
even in Myanmar.
However,
even myself, I wasn't even aware that there
were 20,000,000 Muslims in an area called Xinyang
until about 4 to 5 years ago.
And it is arguably
a fact that they are perhaps one of
the most persecuted Muslims
today. And
we will elaborate on this later on in
the lecture. So who are the Muslims of
Shing Yang?
So before we proceed with this lecture, I
think it's important that we clarify some terms,
labels, and geography.
The Muslims of Xinjiang are in fact the
Uyghur Muslims or in Turkish, they say
And they are ethnic Turks.
And the term Xinjiang is in fact a
Chinese colonial name for occupied East Turkestan.
Now for the sake of solidarity and unity
with our brothers and sisters in East Turkestan,
I will not be referring to this area
as Xinjiang.
I will be referring to this area as
East Turkestan.
Now for those of you who are wondering
what does what is Turkestan?
Turkestan in Persian basically means the land of
the Turks.
And
it covers modern day Kazakhstan,
Turkmenistan,
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and parts of Afghanistan and
China. That's what makes up,
Turkestan.
And East Turkestan is what the Chinese refer
to as Xinyang.
And before I proceed, I have
a treat for you guys. I've got a
special message
from my brother called Abdul Ghani Thabit, who
is a Uighur Muslim activist based in Netherlands.
But he was born in Iturkistan, and he
sent this message to you all today.
Just bear with me.
There
we go. Let's go put the volume up.
Can you put the volume up on this?
Apologies.
Yep. That's fine. Yeah.
Before occupation
of the establishment, we had only a 4%
Chinese,
who lives in Uzbekistan.
After occupation, the Chinese government who takes on
abroad and many of, hang China to Uzbekistan.
Today, they are nearly become the enduring population
of Israel.
The China occupation of Uzbekistan,
China had,
systematically common genocide segment of Uyghur Muslims
in 1949
until
Such as,
test nuclear bomb and birth control policy attacking
Islamic and Muslim identities
in Afghanistan.
Especially after a political war and terror, China
got a golden opportunity
to torture a
chignette, professor of ignorance.
And for example, the Muslim women not allowed
their hijab at a public place like schools,
hospitals.
And also Muslim men uploaded,
groups appeared.
And Muslim women and men and children not
allowed to study Islam books.
Especially,
like, after the Syrian
revolution, the China government doubled its social policy
against the Uyghurs,
and they called Uyghurs to the Buddhist study
abroad back to the eastern.
And also the forced, the Dems of Uyghurs,
imams,
and forced the Muslims to dance and sing
a national anthem,
And also,
call
Force of Uyghurs,
installed cyber citizen computers,
and the gas of Uyghurs at a reeducation
camp.
And for the time, thank you very much
for your time. I wish you had a
success,
lecture. Thank you very much. Assalamu alaykum.
Assalamu alaykum
for brother Abdul Ghani who helped me a
lot in preparation
for today's lecture.
So a bit of background and context with
regards to who the Uighur Muslims are. So
as mentioned earlier, the Uighurs are one of
many tribes from the Oghuz branch of Turks.
Oguz Khan was, one of the founding fathers
or was the founding father of
the Turkish nation or the many Turkish tribes
that exist today, and that's a statue of
him in Turkmenistan.
Historically speaking, the Uighurs were part of a
wider Turkish tribal federation.
And they were predominantly located in Central Asia.
And you'll see in the medieval period that
they were heavily influenced culturally,
by the Persians and the Mongols whilst preserving
and maintaining their own rich Islamic culture.
And in terms of the religion of the
Uighurs, I know today's lecture is on the
Muslims of Xinyang. So I won't focus too
much at all on pre Islam.
But before Islam, the religion
of the Uighurs and generally speaking the Turkish
tribes was shamanism
or Tengism,
specifically speaking. And that's basically
the worship of weather, sun, moon, winter, rain,
grass, nature,
and also an excessive reverence of their predecessors.
As years went on, some adopted Buddhism. But
it's only at the middle of 10th century
and late 10th century that they started accepting
Islam in significant numbers. And when they did,
they were predominantly Sunni and they followed Hanafi
madhab and they were of Sufi orientation.
Things have changed since then, but when they
did initially come to Islam, that was their
orientation.
And the history of Uighurs is a very
rich and long one and one that I
certainly cannot do much justice to in half
an hour, 40 minutes. And it's usually broken
up into 7 periods. And I'm only gonna
focus on the latter 3.
So you had the pre imperial,
period between 300 BC to 630 CE. They
were not Muslim. The imperial period, which was
6 30 to 840, they weren't Muslim then.
And then you have the Indukut period between
840 to 1200,
where then we started seeing that the Uyghurs
then started accepting Islam. And, of course, by
the time of the Mongol expansion between 1200
to 1760,
the Uighurs had by this time became Muslim.
But the three periods which I will be
focusing on on today's lecture
is first and foremost, the occupation and the
annexation by the Manchu Empire
or the Qing dynasty between 17/60
to 1910,
then the brief period of the East Turkestan
Republics between 1910 to 1949,
and, of course, the period of communist China
to the present day. And the reason why
I'm gonna focus on these three periods is
because it's absolutely relevant to understanding the context
and the reality of our brothers and sisters,
in East Turkistan today.
And that image is just of some Uighur
fighters,
in the medieval period.
Famously speaking, you know, we're all aware of
who the Ottomans are, who the Seljuks are,
who the Ghaznavids are, and many, many well
known Turkish, Sultanates or empires or caliphates. But
the Uyghurs, we don't really hear much about
them. And they have had empires, but generally
speaking, it was nothing that was that significant
where they had, land span across continents.
Unfortunately,
the the the longevity of these empires were
very short lived. But here are a list
of a few Uighur empires or Khanates.
You had the Uighur Haganate between 744 to
840. They were not Muslim.
The Gamsu Kingdom between 8 70 to 10
36, they were not Muslim. The Kocho Kingdom
or known as Uyghuristan between 856 to 866,
they were not Muslim either. But it was
only until the time of the Harakhanid Khanate,
which lasted between 8:40 to 12:12.
But that empire had accepted Islam in 9:34
under under Sultan Bughril Khan. And that's when
we started seeing significant numbers of Uighurs accepting
Islam.
And then of course,
we're all aware of the Mongol Empire.
The the the savagery, the destruction, and the
madness that they cause in the Muslim world,
most famously the sacking of Baghdad.
But
within a 100 years of the Mongol Empire,
3 offshoots
of the Mongol Empire accepted Islam.
And they were the Chagatai Khanate, the Golden
Horde and the Ilkhanate.
These 3 offshoots of the Mongol Empire accepted
Islam. From the 3, the Chagatai Khanate
became Mughalistan.
So for those of you from the subcontinent,
you have heard of the Mughal Empire. They
were descendants of the Mongols.
Some have even said that even the Ottomans
and the Safavids have also shared the lineage
from the Mongols. So Mughalistan
was essentially East Chagatai Khanate,
and it was under this empire or this
state where the Uighur Muslims flourished.
They experienced
stability and security.
They reached positions of power and authority.
And it was within this period, if you
look at the map, that middle bit there
where it says Chagatai,
in its eastern flank fell east Turkestan, which
is modern day China now.
So if we start by looking at the
occupational annexation by the Manchu Empire between 17/60
to 1910.
So the Manchu Empire is essentially when I'm
talking about them, we're talking about the Qing
Dynasty. And the Qing Dynasty were the last
imperial Chinese empire. So if you saw in
the previous slide, the Mughalistan lasted between 1347
to 16 80. Because when the decline began,
the Manchu empire then started conquering and and
carrying out offensives towards Mughalistan in the mid
18th century.
And by 18/84,
East Turkestan, which is part of the East
Chagatai Khanate,
had been,
fully controlled and dominated by the Manchu Empire.
And after 8 years of war, it was
renamed Xinyang
on the 18th November 18, 84. And Xinjiang
in Chinese basically means new frontier or new
land.
And this is when we really started to
see the systematic
and the structural
criminalization
and oppression of the Uighur Muslim from a
cultural, religious, and racial perspective. And, ultimately,
the reality which the Uighur Muslims find themselves
today is a mere continuation of this colonial
policy
by the Manchu empire which has been preserved,
and and continued and eve and even worsened,
since this period in history.
The Manchu empire was overthrown
in 1911 by Chinese nationalists.
And then East Turkestan then went from the
control of the Manchu Empire to Chinese warlords.
And it was in 1920 that we started
seeing the birth of Uighur nationalism,
which was essentially backed by Soviet Russia. And
in 1921, the Soviets met with a number
of Turkish leaders in Tashkent in Uzbekistan.
They met with leaders from from Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan.
They met with all the leaders from these
countries, which then very late later became satellite
states as part of the the Soviet Union.
And so,
the leaders of Turkestan were also part of
these meetings that were taking place. And, basically,
Russia
said to them, look.
Go for your independence.
Counter the Chinese. But in reality, all the
Soviets really wanted was vessel states, satellite states
which they could, spread their communist ideology and
which they can use for their hegemonic,
interests.
So in 1933,
we saw the birth of the first,
East Turkestan Republic, which is named Turkish Islamic
Republic of East Turkestan. That's their flag there.
And it barely lasted a year, and it
was directly backed by Joseph Stalin.
And the republic was defeated in 1934
in the battle of Kashgar, which fell under
the wider Xinjiang wars. So this first republic
barely lasted a year. And then
10 years
later, the 2nd republic was born, which was
named East Turkestan Republic, which was essentially a
Soviet satellite state.
And there you can see some fighters,
some generals from the 1st republic
there.
And in 13th October 1949,
communist China regains control of Isokistan.
And then 6 years later, it renames this
region
as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. But
in reality, it was anything but autonomous.
So what is the situation
of the Uighur Muslims today from 1949
to the present day? So you will have
handouts.
And in that handout, there's a timeline of
key events,
from around 18/76
to the present day. And you'll see endless
number of,
protests and resistance movements,
which were violently shut down.
Thousands upon thousands of Uighur Muslim activists, predominantly,
you know, students.
Many of our Uighur sisters
had led protests, and there have been thousands
upon thousands of arrests,
extrajudicial
killing,
kidnappings,
and so forth.
But from 1949 to the present day, we
have seen an extension and a continuation of
the of the racist and Islamophobic
policies of the Manchu empire. And as brother
Abdul Ghani mentioned in his brief video, there
has been a systematic
migration
by the Chinese government to move
Han ethnic Han Chinese to the region of
Ishtarqistan.
Now,
in essence, there isn't an issue with migration.
However, there is an issue with systematic migration
when there's when there's demographic politics at play.
And what's essentially happened in Islkistan
is very similar, if not identical,
to what's happened in Israel where European Jews
were moved to this land on mass,
to basically counter the Palestinian demographic. And that's
exactly what's happened in Ishtaristan
where they were predominantly 80 to 90% Muslim.
Now they barely make half. And what happens
when this when this kind of systematic migration
takes place? You then start seeing racial discrimination,
religious persecution, and socioeconomic
marginalization in terms of job prospects,
in terms of,
you know, economic,
vibrance,
In terms of just generally how successful and
the opportunities which are there for the Han
Chinese of that region is not necessarily there
at all for the Uighur Muslims of Ishtaristan.
And before I go on to the war
on terror, what kind of policies am I
talking about? So as Baba Abdul Haeni mentioned,
before the war on terror, men were not
allowed to have beards.
Or in some areas, they were only allowed
to have beards at a certain length.
Muslim women who worked in public offices were
not allowed to wear their hijab. And if
you did work in the in public offices,
you were not allowed to fast during Ramadan.
Men were not allowed to wear trousers above
their ankles.
More recently, you cannot even possess a copy
of the Quran in public. This is punishable
by law. You can be fined or imprisoned.
We started then seeing the introduction of reeducation
camps, which is just a fanciful word for
prisons. And this is where 100, if not
1000 of Uighur Muslims, men and women, would
be sent to these reeducation
camps. And they would be forced
literally
to sing the national anthem, to understand Maoist
ideology,
to understand Confucius philosophy.
There have been some accounts where they've been
forced to drink alcohol
and dance with each other's women. And this
was apparently the reeducation attempt of Uighur Muslims.
And then we had the war on terror.
And when the war on terror happened, this
was an apt opportunity for the Chinese government
to then now really, really increase the suppression
of the Uighur Muslims.
And because
where they were previously
criminalized for being separatists and nationalist,
they were now Islamist extremists. They were now
ISIS supporters. They were now,
terrorists who basically want to establish an Islamic
state in this region. And we've seen this
similar rhetoric
by Russia. We've seen this similar rhetoric by
regimes in the Muslim majority world,
mainly in Egypt and other parts, where as
soon as the war on terror kicked off,
it was just an ace card for them
to now start criminalizing the entirety of Islam
and Muslims.
So the war on terror,
basically just extended and increased further policies. And
now as we speak, there is a document,
which basically has
135 signs of radicalization.
So for those of you who know about
the prevent strategy in the UK, they have
this thing called the 22 signs of radicalization.
The Chinese have a 135
signs of radicalization. And that document there at
the bottom
is basically an official Chinese,
document which basically says that an x number
of reeducation camps have been established and that
is compulsory
for for men and women of a certain
age to attend these reeducation
camps.
And, of course, there has been policies, endless
policies to forcibly,
make Uighur Muslims assimilate to Chinese values. Now
China itself
is a a a multi ethnic diverse country,
with so many different ethnicities.
However, it is only been the Uighur Muslims
that have been targeted
to forcibly assimilate to Chinese values and philosophies.
Now if one studies Confucianism
or or Maoist ideology,
at its root, it's at loggerheads with Islamic
values, ethics, and principles.
Yet, it is only the Uighur Muslims who
are being forcibly
made to adopt these values, ethics, and principles.
And ultimately,
we cannot deny that what's going on here
is
state and structural Islamophobia.
Now I've got another video that I'd like
to play to you all.
And it was produced
by the online forum
documenting oppression against Muslims.
And it was it is a reenactment
of real life scenarios of what happens if
you get caught in possession of the Quran.
So this video was,
based upon real life accounts by Uighur Muslims
who have been caught with the Quran by
Chinese authorities.
So whilst the Chinese government have denied issuing
such policies,
Uighur activists,
and human rights groups,
in that region and in the west have
confirmed that such policies have been implemented.
And there are people in prison as we
speak for merely possessing a copy of the
Quran.
Brothers and sisters, I think it's important to
understand
that there was a time,
for at least 40 to 50 years under
Soviet
Russia
where many many Muslim countries which had communist
regimes
that Islam and Quran classes and Tajweed classes
and stuff like this was essentially taught privately
in in secrecy. But this all changed once
the downfall of the Soviet Russia came in
1989 to, 1990.
However, this condition
still exists in, Eastern Kurdistan,
where literally to be a Muslim,
you need to be doing all of this
in private or in secrecy.
One brother sent me a photo, not too
long ago,
where you don't see men with beards anymore.
Not because they don't want to keep beards,
but simply because you will get fined and
arrested and they can't even afford the fines.
That is the reality
that our brothers and sisters in the istru
kisthan face. And on top of this, you've
got other issues
like birth control. So whenever,
Muslim women have health issues and they go
to the doctors,
they have been given
pills which essentially
make them sterile. Alright? And whilst again the
Chinese government has denied this, and this is
something that has been transmitted and confirmed by
a number of human rights groups as well
as Uighur activists in the region. And in
the sixties seventies, the Chinese government specifically chose
the Isdal kistan region to trial out nuclear
weapons. That is the condition of our brothers
and sisters in eastern eastern as we speak.
Now
it's all good and well that I can
stand in front of you all today and
regurgitate and relay historical facts, important days, important
figures.
But in in reality,
you know, these are not bedtime stories. These
are these are not stories which make us
feel bad right now. And then as soon
as you leave,
oh, things
will be okay. No. We do we must
draw lessons Just like we draw lessons from
the seerah, just like we draw lessons from
our history, we draw lessons from the experience
of oppressed Muslims and see what can we
learn as Muslims living in the UK,
from,
the the Uighur experience. So first and foremost,
the first lesson
I identified
was the failure of post colonial nationalism.
Now
the Muslim majority world, though it's not exclusively
restricted to this,
we saw that when European colonialism, in this
case, Chinese colonialism,
when they came, they colonized these lands, they
looted the resources.
When they left and gave these countries so
called independence
and gave and and the nationalist movements won,
you find that many generals, many kings,
many despotic rulers were left there to merely
preserve and maintain and continue
that colonial hegemony,
and that the era of colonialism may have
changed but in words.
And the similar thing happened unfortunately with the
Uighurs in that republican period that we spoke
about where they had successfully established 2 independent
republics, but they were very short lived. And
they were short lived because it was based
upon the premise and the assistance of Soviet
Russia.
Another
promising lesson we can take as well is
that once every ism has failed,
in Muslim majority countries in in the hope
of establishing freedom and their own self determination
after socialism failed, after communism failed,
after,
Pan Arabism failed, after Pan Turkism failed, after
all these different isms
failed, we start increasingly seeing Muslims,
oppressed groups turning towards Islam.
And when I say Islam, I'm not referring
to Islamism because I reject this term. I
reject this term because a highly politicized term
used to discredit
the genuine sentiments and the direction of many
many Islamic movements
in in the Muslim majority world today. And
when I say even that they're starting to
turn to Islam is that the groups,
whether they be the Uyghurs, whether they be
the Palestinians, whether they be the Syrians, or
our brothers and sisters in Kashmir, or wherever
they may be, even the Rohingya.
When they realize
that every state ideology or every ideology has
failed us in terms of achieving us true
justice,
and self determination,
they turned to Islam. And the reason why
they turned to Islam is because they realized
why are we being persecuted?
Are Are we are we being persecuted because
we follow these different ideologies? Well, no. If
they're looking to not make us wear beards
and not make us wear trousers and not
making our women wear hijab and that means
that ultimately these regimes are ultimately after the
very fundamentals and the basics of our religion.
So therefore,
a solution must lie in our religion and
how to overcome
this situation.
So we then have seen
small small resistance groups in Islurkistan
and you live in Hirabati, in Myanmar, very
small groups, you know, who are Islamically orientated,
and they basically have abandoned previous ideologies which
they had hoped in in terms of establishing
justice for their people.
And lastly,
a lesson that we can learn
is state Islamophobia
and forced assimilation.
Now whilst living in the UK as Muslims,
we're not being abducted, we're not being kidnapped,
we're not being forced to go to concentration
camps, we're not being told that our women
can't wear hijab, we're not being given sterilization
pills when we go to the doctors.
But we are also experiencing state Islamophobia.
For the best part of 15 years since
9/11,
we have seen endless number of counterterrorism
policies,
that have
apparently
been discriminatively,
witch hunting Islam and Muslims.
Whether it be the prevent strategy, whether it
be, the channel program. Anyone heard of the
channel program here?
Channel program? What do they call the channel
program? They call it a deradicalization
program. That bears a lot of resemblance to
the reeducation camps. Now, we were also aware
that Ofsted has been talking about questioning young
Muslim girls in schools about why they wear
their hijab. We know that there is a
a huge uproar about Muslim women wearing their
niqab. We know that there's issues pertaining to
how we have our seating plans in Islamic
events. We know that the Islamic faith schools
that were graded fantastic and adequate, but a
year later, they were shut down or given
the inadequate,
rating. There is a plethora of issues that
we are facing here as Muslims in the
west, which is essentially structural Islamophobia.
We know very well that there have been
researches carried out that even your having your
name as Mohammed or Hussein or Ali, when
you hand in your CV, there is immediate
disadvantage of you even getting an interview. Right?
And that's not even going into,
the the the structural Islamophobia that exists within
the mainstream press. So we experience this. Yes.
We're not being kidnapped. Yes. We're not being
abducted.
But we can at least, you know,
empathize
that we are experiencing to a much lesser
degree structural Islamophobia here in the UK and
forced assimilation.
There's been endless discussions about integration. Muslims don't
integrate. They don't do enough.
If you study the concept or the policy
of integration, integration is a two way thing.
And to quote David Cameron in 2010,
he said integration is a two way street
where the host nation
has to make those who are not the,
indigenous people feel welcome. Obviously that changed very
quickly throughout the years. But integration is one
thing, assimilation is another thing.
So these are some of the lessons that
we can draw
from, the experience of our Uighur brothers and
sisters.
And whilst I don't like to conclude on
a doom and gloom and negative point,
I wanna discuss some actions, some tangible things
that we can do to aid our brothers
and sisters in in in East Turkestan and
wherever they be wherever they may be and
oppress people generally.
And that is ultimately to raise awareness, to
be the eyes, the ears, the mouths of
those who don't have that platform
to disseminate
and describe what they're experiencing.
And that can happen by writing blogs and
vlogs and discussing it on social media. Ignore
those who say you're just a social media
warrior. You'll be surprised. If those of you
who follow the Arab Spring, a lot of
the stuff that happened in Arab Spring was
done via social media. A lot of the
footage that happened in, the bombing of Gaza
came through social media. So so don't think
that social media is just a platform where
people moan. No. You raise awareness. You discuss
it with people, and you have and you
need to articulate these arguments,
when you when you experience people of another
opinion.
And of course, you need to reach out
and network with Uighur Muslims. And not even
as Uighur Muslims. Network I speak to, ethnic
Chinese people. Just before this lecture, I I
I noticed a number of Chinese students here.
Would be wonderful if they stayed. We could
have discussed this issue with them. Maybe some
of them don't even know what's happening to
20,000,000 people in this region called Xinjiang.
Find out if you have any Uighur Muslims
in UCL. See if you find any Uighur
Muslims in London.
Network with them. Reach out to them. Tell
them that, you know, you feel for them,
That they that they are your brothers and
sisters and that if there's any way you
can help, with their struggle in Is turquistan.
And of course, we have to expose the
Chinese government suppression.
We know of the very famous hadith of
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam where he said
that the best form of jihad is the
word of truth to a tyrant leader.
So therefore, we cannot remain silent
whilst the Chinese government continues
this kind of horrific policy towards our brothers
and sisters. And and what is China? China
claims to be a superpower. It is a
superpower, 1 of 3 or 1 of 2
superpowers that exist today. It claims it sits
on, the US Security Council with a veto
power. We cannot let this thing pass. We
need to carry on,
accounting them, writing to their embassies, speaking about
with your local MPs and so forth. And
on that very same basis, we need to
account Muslim governments.
The region of Isidorekistan
borders
5 Muslim countries.
Afghanistan,
Pakistan,
Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan.
Okay. Afghanistan has its own many issues, but
Pakistan do we have any Pakistani?
See your hand up for Pakistanis?
Pakistan
Pakistan borders Pakistan borders East Turkestan
in the Gilgit region. You heard of Gilgit?
It's at the very north, next to the
mountains. So the Pakistani government have increased,
their warm relations and economic trades with China.
Pakistan was founded
on the premise of being an Islamic state,
of being an Islamic republic, for being a
safe haven
for Muslims to follow their religion.
But just across the border in the north,
they got their brothers and sisters who cannot
even possess the Quran in public.
So I kindly ask for those of you
who are of Pakistani origin, if you have
relatives or friends in position of influence, ask
them.
Uncle, auntie,
wasn't this country founded upon Islamic values to
be a safe haven for Muslims?
Why is it then that whilst we're making
economic trades with China that our brothers and
sisters are being oppressed? Now if this idea
of accounting Muslim governments is far fetched,
and some may will argue that, some may
will say, well, you're crazy. How are you
gonna account Muslim governments? Then we need to
have another discussion. And that discussion is, how
is it that we're living in a in
in in
a situation, in a global situation,
in the age of secular nation states, whereby
the concept of Islamic brotherhood
has gone?
That now artificial borders now dictate
when or when not to intervene
or assist your brothers and sisters.
We have known from our rich history,
whether it be the story of Salahuddin Alayoubhi
Rahimahullah
who fought the Crusaders and liberated Jerusalem, or
whether it was Saif Qutuz who fought the
Mongols
and safeguarded Sham in Egypt. Whether it was
Sultan Suleiman Al Qanun
who fought
the Persians,
to protect, the Sunni Muslims in that region.
Whether it be Sultan Fethi who went into
Constantinople
and and and liberated,
Constantinople.
Many many examples. Alp Arslan, many many examples
whereby
the sole reason for intervention
was not to advance geopolitical
interest
or or or kind of empire kind of
interest. It was solely because they felt as
a religious duty that we have to go
and assist our brothers and sisters while we're
in oppression. And we know the famous story
of Khalif
When he heard the story of 1 woman
being dishonored, he sent an
army. Now
these stories are nostalgic.
They are romantic and it's nice. It makes
you feel warm and fuzzy. But the reality
is that these incidents did occur. There were
men and women and states and empires
who prided themselves in Islam that intervened
to aid their brothers and sisters when they
when it was needed.
And of course, once we have exhausted everything,
once we have exhausted,
what we could do physically, what we could
do financially,
we make dua to
Allah Every time, as much as time as
possible. But once that camel has been tied,
then we make dua to Allah So at
least on your we can say that, You
Rabb,
I had access to this platform.
I was able to write. I was able
to speak. I was able to do many
of these things and then I turned to
You. Just like how prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam did in Badr and in many other
encounters that he had. It is not a
case of doing dua alone and not doing
nothing when you can do it. And we
know
from the hadith of prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam when he said that the believers are
those who when they see a munkar, they
change it with their hands. As they're not
able to do so, they speak out against
it. And the lowest form of iman is
to hate something from within. I am confident
that every single one of us in this
room can do more than just from hate
it from within.
And we also know that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala says in a number of passages in
the Quran that the believers are those who
enjoin in all that is good and forbid
all that is evil. So this is part
of our ethical and moral and principle outlook
in life. And not just with oppression experienced
by Muslims, but oppression generally speaking.
That should be our approach.
We do not restrict our outward actions to
dua. Dua is done inshallah once you have
exhausted your outwardly actions.
Now I'm gonna spend a few minutes to
discuss solutions.
Now, solution is one of those topics where
entire movements and groups
differ.
It's one of the reasons why many Muslims
disagree with each other on many issues.
And the issue of is Turkestan
is not different to the issue of Kashmir.
It's not different to the issue of Palestine
or Sham or or or or Myanmar or
any part of the Muslim world or what
or parts of the countries,
where Muslims are being oppressed, occupied,
and so forth. So let's look at some
of the solutions. Charity.
Now
charity is a very laudable and praiseworthy
action
which is deep rooted in our scripture and
there's a lot of ajr in it and
we should continue to do it. But wallahi,
I'm in touch with many and many of
the big Muslim charities in this country And
I'm yet to meet a CEO or a
managing director who has said to me, Dilly,
charity is a solution to the Ummah's affairs.
No.
We give sadaqa jariyah or our zakah to
those who need it as an individual
action or ritual to relieve
ourselves for the akhirah.
It was never ever used as a solution
to overcome oppression, occupation, invasion. Never.
Then we have diplomacy.
Now diplomacy is fantastic from a international PR
perspective.
But I don't need to go back to
any,
previous historical events. Let's just look at Syria,
Myanmar, and the recent announcement by President Donald
Trump of Jerusalem being the capital city of
Israel.
Diplomacy is one of those things which makes
the international community
feel good that, you know, things are being
discussed. We're sitting around tables, you know, we're
doing something about it. But in reality,
you'll find
that in many cases than not, the international
community and specifically speaking the UN have been
complicit
in the continuation
of oppression.
And we just need to look at Saguenica.
We need to look at what happened in
Istanbul.
We need to look at what's happening in
Kashmir. That the UN, there's endless number of
meetings and condemnations.
But what actually happens
from diplomacy?
But it's fantastic for PR. Don't get me
wrong. It's very good to raise awareness on
a global level, but then you have to
really ask yourself
how productive would anything come out of the
UN Security Council when Britain, France, America, Russia,
and China sit on the Security Council with
veto powers. Whenever something concerns Palestine, America will
veto it like they've done 49 times. Whenever
something concerns Eastern,
China will veto it. Something happens in Chechnya,
Russia will veto it. Something happens in
in Syria,
Russia will veto it. So with them, we
need to ask ourselves,
what really comes out of diplomacy?
By all means write to your MPs. By
all means write to embassies.
But always keep in mind based on
fact what has actually come of it.
Military intervention. Now
I'm happy to discuss this after the lecture
if if any agree or disagree. I'm all
for military intervention.
Right?
And some of you might think, oh, well,
that's that's further bloodshed or more. Well,
Jerusalem wasn't liberated by salahuddin by throwing roses
at the crusaders, and that's the reality of
it. And Kashmir won't be liberated by giving,
Laddus and and Jalebi to the Indian army.
And that's the truth of it. And if
that was the case, then Syria would have
been liberated from the grips of Bashar. But
the reality is military intervention should come in
a caveat.
And that caveat is that if any Muslim
government or country intervenes to aid their brothers
and sisters where they've been occupied, that caveat
should be Islamic brotherhood.
It shouldn't be because we want to advance
our geopolitical interest. It shouldn't be because, you
know, there's there's some kind of maslaha or
there's some kind of benefit in us moving
in to aid this group of Muslims. No.
No. No. No. No. Because if that was
the case, we've seen it already in history
when Egypt,
had Gaza under its control, when Jordan had
the West Bank under its control. We've seen
in many instances where Muslim countries have intervened,
and all that it's been is the removal
of one occupying force to another. So my
caveat in support of military intervention should be
one that's based on Islamic brotherhood.
For your patience today. I hope you enjoyed
the lecture. And if you've got time for
q and a, ked. If not, we'll do
it after lecture
inshallah. Outside. I hope we can do some
q and a. That's a flu fight.
Like, this lecture, it marks the end of
our Islamic history week, first time history that
we've ever done. We looked at a few
different things. We looked at how in West
Africa,
they gained some sort of autonomy or respect
through the leadership of Islamic,
scholarship. It looks at how 3 different kings
in masses
had different,
method of rulership.