Haifaa Younis – Tuesday Halaqa Series – Protests Understanding the History Behind Today’s Uprising
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss negative experiences of black Americans and their history of violence and police brutality, as well as the use of imagery and the lack of diversity in media. They also touch on the history of slavery and the importance of bringing their own experiences and legion into their actions to make them aware of their legion. The conversation ends with a call for action to prevent further violence. The speaker also discusses the impact of black pride on society, emphasizing the need for legislation to address systemic racism and reaching out to attendees for suggestions. They encourage attendees to reach out to them for suggestions and remind them to email them.
AI: Summary ©
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become an angry nyoka Alenia sharlyn fc laughter Sheila, what do I have been anticipating even a bad day.
We shot the subways and the only wash will operate on the South Pole. So now I come up with a wild worker to welcome again, to our Tuesday class 100 level planning very soon, we're gonna celebrate 20 years of this class, which started as six or seven human in a small room in a Masjid, and 100 level of learning a lot of products. And it's my pleasure today, and I'm always happy
to have a guest for many reasons, one of them I don't have to prepare for the talk. More importantly, I need your speakers. COVID-19 has a lot of tests for everybody in every test in every manner.
As they say, in every test, there is a gift. One of the beautiful gifts about COVID-19 is that we have for the person who has to travel. And this i'm sure knows this we used to have to travel and tour is not easy. You have to arrange a lot of things
in the comfort of your home, and you're delivering the same fundamental, the same message. And this is an amazing way to be grateful. And the other beautiful thing is now we are able to move sisters especially and have them with us, way easier.
Gives me today to introduce our amazing woman who I came I
came to know more in a talk that we did together I think it was in a move on time, right.
And it was through staff Institute where a lovely woman and the first thing cashed my eyes which everybody will for sure is the beautiful smiling face that makes you feel very comfortable. And this is actually very good sign from Allah subhanaw taala when when someone is being seen the other person feels comfortable. Now so my guess which probably most of you know how his sister look pneumonia. She joined us today for California from La 100, lack of autonomy. And a lot of you are familiar with her doesn't hurt to give a little bit more, I will start introducing her being a mother,
Masha a lot, a lot, a lot of tracking to know just before the so here we are
a lot less than with four children, two boys to those. Allah blessed her with secular education. She's accountant by profession. I don't know how many people know that. But they're almost panned out and blessed her with the blessing of studying Islamic studies to the level of monogamy, they've had the opportunity to go to Egypt study and as I did it, but I didn't do it in Egypt, it's very different travel and so on a lot. It's not only the study, a lot of challenges and experiences, he spent three years there
is still under the direction of money.
She came back, I was blessed with being on the board of the acting Institute. And um, she's a chaplain also in university in LA. And I'm sure some of you, a lot of you have heard her. She's a very motivational speaker, after two minutes or three minutes cannot mean.
So it gives me a great pleasure to introduce and to have her with us what we're going to talk about today. I'm sure all of you have seen a
flyer, and we put what
and why do we? What is it?
as we always say things, say things locally. And I'm actually thinking globally and apply.
And I'm going to say two or three lines.
Because some of us have this. As I was reading. The question came in is protesting Hello.
Can we as Muslims can walk in the streets and is it allowed us harm? Is it I don't know. It's very interesting when I was reading
to the following conclusion, the ruling in Canada is nobody is allowed.
What's this allowed comes with requirements. What are we protesting against? How are we professing
The way we are protested, are we arrange a walk during the
protest? Are we violating the rights
during the protest? Is the protest to bringing benefits more than home? So we have to take all this into consideration in general principle
especially if you're using Office two
and the across your question, especially if the cause or the person is under oppression and this is the way you talk to the street
into the right into the attention. Having said that, I will
welcome us as we always
change the day.
fashola What
if I have a delivery, I cannot tell you the
last No, that's impressive to know you've been doing it for 20 years. My last one follow foot motor can everybody in you and everybody who helps and attends and mails fatale give you many many, many more decades.
Just like most waiting for that introduction. Okay, so it's really my honor to do Dennett Institute What a pleasure and indeed that was a blessed meeting we had in Ramadan when we were both on the moustache webinars, so very nice to meet you. Mashallah.
So I wanted to talk about, you know, exactly what not to hide. So for kind of putting the context of protest in an Islamic giving us Islamic understanding, because that is important, first and foremost, that we thought a question in our mind that of course, we'll get to some details on the very end of this lecture today, inshallah, but I really wanted to shed some light on how we got here, and in particular, what I mean, you know, of course, we have Subhanallah, we have so much unrest all over the world, there are so many, you know, civil wars and crises and famine and oppression, so panela all over the world. And, and but not only supposed to people all over the
world, but also in particular to Muslims.
But what I wanted to focus on today is the plight of black Americans. And, and the reason why I wanted to do so is because, so panela, black Americans have a very special situation. Many people who are oppressed all over the world, many people, even some of us that are watching today can relate to oppression, we can relate to racism, we can relate to discrimination, you know, based off of religion based off of the country that we're from, or a different language that we speak, or how we look. Even many of us can relate in terms of some type of discrimination, according to the color of our skin. And yet Subhan Allah, the situation of black Americans is absolutely its own thing,
very special. And so I really think, Dr. Haifa, for forgiving me this time to, to talk about the situation because I believe Subhan Allah, I believe it's from the bottom of my heart, that as Muslims, first and foremost, but then secondly, as American Muslims, we live in this country, you know, regardless of where our ancestors are from, or we ourselves, you know, have moved here and have called America our home. We are Americans. And I do believe it is our Islamic responsibility. It is our civic responsibility as Americans, but our Islamic responsibility to understand the plight and the situation of the people who live around us. And there are other marginalized
ethnic groups in the US, you know, in particular, Native Americans. And of course, we were going to talk today about black Americans will talk you know, there's also the Hispanic Americans, of course, and other religious and ethnic groups in the US that suffer from discrimination. And yet like I said, the reason why I wanted to talk in particular today about black Americans is because their situation so Pinilla is so particular, and their situation is so dire. Um, and as we'll see, you know, when we saw all of the protesting for the past month and Mashallah, that protesting has trickled all over the world, in Europe in
Subhanallah, you know, in different places we saw, not just in the US that we saw people were upset about police brutality, about racism, and it's important to note that gesso Hamdulillah, so we had worldwide support for this. It's important to note that when we were seeing all of this, you know, civil unrest,
we have to understand what is it that we're seeing when we see the protests on the TV, we're gonna see some pictures of people
with their fists up in the air, we're gonna see some pictures with science. We're gonna see some footage of police being very brutal to the people who are peacefully protesting. We're going to see some people, you know, and we don't know exactly who they are. But there are different reasons and different motives. Some people were damaging property, some people were looting.
But when I see all of that footage, what should my main attention be focused on? Shouldn't be on the fringe kind of backlash that occurred during the protesting, which was, unfortunately, some of you know, the looting and what have you? Or should my attention not only be focused on the majority of the people that were peacefully protesting? Or should it be not only that, but also and most importantly, what are the issues behind it? What is you know what is going on, and I want to reflect back to early 2000s, upon Allah, when I was still working as an accountant, I was working for a very small firm, in a very White City, north of Los Angeles. And there was just 12 of us, I was in an
investment company, and myself and my immediate boss, my manager, we were the only people of color in this in this office. And so pyla all day long, all of us are in this one boardroom, and it's an investment company. So we have CNN, you know, Bloomberg, we have all these different
news channels just running all the time. So I remember Subhan Allah, and at that time, I was wearing hijab, so they knew that I was Muslim, even if they didn't know really know what that meant, or that my co workers, at least knew that I was Muslim. And I remember, you know, up on the news, it was during the time of the Intifada. And, you know, you would see pictures of angry Palestinians and throwing rocks, and there's tanks and the Israeli soldiers. And one of my co workers just very benignly, turns over to me and says, what are they so angry about?
completely clueless and completely clueless. And it was, it was the way that he asked, it was, you could tell it was sincere. And so kind of like, it was like a shock. It was like, like, why does it was it was not only what he wants to know, what is behind it, but his reaction was also, um, why are they so mad? Like, why are they acting like that they look kind of crazy on the TV, right? And, and this really, you know, when I was preparing for this lecture today, it really made me reflect, all I had to do was give a two minute, two minute little explanation and didn't even really give it justice. But to explain how Palestinians have their land stolen from them in 1948. And ever since
then, they have had more land taken away from them, their homes, bulldozed, you know, their children killed. And when they fight back with rocks, you know, we have tanks, and we have bombs, you know, attacking them and saying, well, we're just trying to get rid of the aggressors, you know, the terrorists, so pottawatomie completely flipped. I said that, and my coworker was like, oh, wow, that makes sense. And so in his mind, you know, within two minutes, it went from worthless people so angry, they look really crazy on the TV, to Wow, there's a whole story behind the imagery that I'm seeing. And you know, and I feel like, what's important to reflect
upon is that imagery these days is so plentiful, it's so readily available, it's so easily spread.
And it's a catch 22 It's a good thing and a bad thing. In a sense, the good thing is that we are so much more exposed to real events that are happening all over the world. And now oftentimes, we're able to see firsthand information, it's not going to be censored, or piecemealed out necessarily, at least not all the time, you know, by with evil intention of us not knowing the truth. Now, the unfortunate thing about that, is that there's still media outlets that control what imagery we see. And if you think about the plight of black Americans in particular, just as we as Muslims can relate, at least in some way, that leads to discrimination in terms of religious discrimination, we
get a flavor just a flavor, we cannot say it's the same, but we just as we blame the media for showing Muslims as terrorists in the movie, you know, when people still people make jokes about saying, you know, the beautiful phrase of Allahu Akbar, which is God is greater. And but what do we see after that immediately, several times in the movies, we see somebody is about to bomb something stuck for a while, right? This is very negative association that is being taught to not only the world but also to American Muslims and to Muslims that are coming up, confused. They see these images like wait a minute, but I'm not like that. And it is making Muslims or people who are born
into Islam, or who choose to revert to Islam confused at times. Wait a minute, that's not I don't think that
What my religion teaches and it's some kind of law that has so much psychological, you know, implications. So now imagine now imagine black Americans that have had a 400 year devastating history in the American lands, and their history and you know, some time I'm gonna be I'm gonna use and I'm gonna explain why I use the term black American. This is a term that Dr. Sherman Jackson, Michelle is an amazing scholar at USC University of Southern California. He was previously at Michigan, an amazing Muslim scholar, black American himself. And he uses that term and I love it Actually, he rationalizes why he chose this term as one word, capital, black American has no hyphen,
or one word, because black Americans are their own special people, you know, really to say African Americans, you know, I'm an African American, my parents are from Egypt, they're from Africa, I can say that, but black American, or if we were from Somalia, or for some other country, and we recently came that is something and holds some meaning in certain ways. But in terms of the black American, their history, they were removed from their culture, removed from their language from their ancestors from their homeland, and now put under these unspeakable living situations and work conditions, the psychological torture, the physical torture that they've endured for 400 years, they
are their own people, in the sense not own meaning we don't associate and they're different. No, they have their own special history. And that's what makes a people, right, not biology, not the color of our skin, necessarily. But when you have your own history, you are you are a people a group. So I love the term that he used. And, and that's why I'm I'm going to use that until. So when we now talk, I said that we're talking about protesting in general. Yes, so when I was talking about black Americans, and why I use that term,
since so not only have they had a horrible history, that any American who lives here has to learn and understand and has to face and deal with. Um, the ever since media has come out the very first talking the film, The Birth of a Nation is the first talking movie. So they call them a talkie back then, because you had a motion picture, which they would play the orchestra to. And it was a silent movie. But then you had the talkies, which is the first talking motion picture. And the very first movie is called Birth of a Nation. And so power, one of the most striking images I remember seeing and it was so upsetting, is to see a white man painted as a black man, so you know, having black
face, and you see him with his eyes wide open and lurking after a white woman. This was the classic stereotype, false accusation Subhanallah and, and type of fear mongering that white Americans would use to make it acceptable, to make it socially acceptable. And we're talking post Civil War, we'll talk about the history, but post civil war in America when when blacks were freed, when you know, and the enslaved people that were previously enslaved, when they became free, that it became socially acceptable to Lynch them, to kill them, to, to brutalize them to burn down their homes, and so on and so forth. Why, because of this propagation, because of the spreading of fear by showing
that black men were aggressive, that they were out to get the white women that they were evil in nature was stuck for a lot. This is a very, very damaging history that was already there in the US. But now imagine for the next, you can say the next 115 years or so through media, that these concepts keep getting pushed over and over and over again, you know, through media, so we can understand that as Muslims. And I know Muslims encompasses black Americans as well. But I want to say to our whole audience, everyone, you know, we can connect with that this whole Hey, you know, we're not being represented fairly in the media. Well imagine black Americans that have had that
misrepresent misrepresentation for earlier, even though our principal Lawrence of Arabia came not too far after that, and of course, already eroticized and painted Muslims in a very negative light as well. But of course, that history with black Americans goes much, much deeper. So that's kind of what I wanted to make that parallel. So I'm, again now going into in particular to the history of black americans i want to talk about that for a little bit. So that we as Muslims can look ourselves honestly in the in the mirror and say, What can I do despite my background, you know, my ethnic background, the color of my skin, um, you know, how many generations do we go back of being born
here or how recently we've emigrated here?
I want all of us to be able to look in the mirror and say, Do I understand my American history when it comes to black Americans? And if so, do I understand how that influences the way I think about black Americans? And not only that, you know, am I prepared? What am I? What am I? How am I going to use this education that I, that I gain just a little bit today, but I'm going to definitely encourage to encourage you all to do much more inshallah, and I'm sure many of you already have, how many of you have already have, but but then to say, Well, how can I become an ally, for black Americans in general, and then also looking at sources of racism and anti black summit sentiment,
and also in the Muslim community as well, because we cannot just always talk about American problems, as if it does not affect us in the Muslim community, it, those things are there. And again, you know, when we talk about being Muslim, and fighting for the rights of oppressed people, if we would be remiss, we would be remiss, if we look at the noble causes all over the world, the people starving to death in Yemen, due to due to the Saudi, you know, constant bombing of their of their land, their people are dying, millions are dying, you know, the Uighur Muslims, they're being tortured and sterilized, and imprisoned. And this is all sanctioned by China, it's kind of like and
even apparently, news is coming out that some of this was knowingly, you know, understood by the US as well, you know, we have all of these wrongs. And yet, we would be remiss that if we would only mention those wrongs as American Muslims, we have to look at what's happening in our own neighborhood. And, and to think that an American problem is not really an American Muslim problem, we would be really remiss and thinking that we would be missing out on a part of our obligation to stand up for our neighbors doesn't last time to Allah tells them to be mindful, not only of our parents and next of kin and the traveler, and the needy, but what about our neighbors Subhan, Allah
Subhana Allah. So this is our Islamic duty, as I believe our Islamic duty to understand black American history and what we can do to help. And this will be so many different ways. So part of this is getting educated from the left. So I wanted to just start a little bit about, you know, when you think about the first slave ship that, you know, so there's a transatlantic slave trade,
Americans were not the first to engage in slavery. So unfortunately, that was part of that was, you know, there, there was already slavery that existed in the Arab countries, in America, in Europe all over the world. So nobody is nobody's immune, or you know, is innocent, I should say, nobody's history is innocent of this.
Watching on the first slave ships arrived in the early 1600s, this is the beginning of black American history. So for 400 years, you know, that that history of
African educated peoples, some of them scholars, some of them Muslim scholars, were talking fathers, mothers, siblings, merchants, shop owners, all kinds of people were literally stripped of their clothing. You don't remember seeing a picture of that in elementary school in my history book, and whatnot. So we don't even have to wait for talking movies, you know, just the paintings that depict Africans being chained that was brutal. But and you know, we were looking at a history book and you see naked black people on a boat you know, I can't help to think when I was younger, why are they naked? Like were they villagers, what is this how they live stuff for law without any explanation,
there was never an explanation of this picture. And when I when I understand that, I feel so bad. But again, it shows you the, you know, the impact of imagery even and how our history books are full of this type of these injustices. But anyhow, they were stripped of their clothing to further degrade them.
And then sent weeks at a time chained to each other on the very bottom of the boat where they were, you know, a lot of them were suffocated, they starve to death, they, you know, we're in their own feces and urine SubhanAllah. And many of them, you know, when they die, they were just thrown out to the sea, they weren't even given a proper burial. So from day one, the life of the black American Subhanallah was met with hardship with racism, with being recognized as unhuman as not even as a human.
And, and, you know, even when, you know, Americans so Panama, were fighting for their freedom from their old pressors at the time that they call the the, the British, you know, they felt oppressed by the British by taxation without representation. And at this time, those very forefathers that wrote the Declaration of Independence, they own slaves and when they talk about
about men being free, they only really meant the white free men, land owning, free white men, not even women, and not even blacks and not even enslaved people. So panela. So we have to recognize our American history. And if we don't think about it, and how it relates, relates to us today, we are going to have different biases that we don't even realize we're going to think in a certain way. And we're only going to perpetuate this type of,
you know, ignorant type of thinking. So Pamela,
so we have slavery. And of course, we know the unspeakable things that happened, you know, if slaves were
ever caught running away from their masters, quote, unquote, Masters, you know, I hate to use these terms. This is the terms that were in, you know, some of the laws in the south, they were killed, sometimes their children or their wives, they were separated from them as punishment, you know, the, the, the horrors are unspeakable, you know, we see that mothers, black mothers enslaved mothers, they would nurse, the white babies of their owners of their masters and nurse, then they would act as wet nurses, and yet their own children would starve to death. So you know, this trauma, this abuse, runs very deep. And, you know, when we talk, you know, we had a lot of webinars, different
webinars, Michelle enjoyed listening all over the Muslim world, you know, in the US different organizations. And one of them Dr. Moreau was a, she's in Southern California, and she talks about trauma can be passed down from generation to generation.
That's something that doesn't leave you. So this is something important for us to understand. It was illegal to teach enslaved people how to read. So there so there was not only a forced slavery, and a forced migration, number one to this country. But there was forced illiteracy, it was it was a crime to teach enslaved people how to read, they were prevented from getting educated. So panela and, you know, then, of course, we know that the Civil War happens, this is when the South phonce the North, or vice versa, they fought together. 1861 and it did not end until 1865.
But of course, you know, the Emancipation Proclamation was a proclamation by Abraham Lincoln President Abraham Lincoln, that officially ended slavery, and yet that did not fully take place until the 13th amendment was written. The 13th amendment was to officially end indentured servitude, where you know, you can either work to pay off, you know, you're kind of enslaved until you pay off. However much money somebody you know, used to bring you over that was one type of type of forced labor, or of course, slavery. So that was officially abolished in 19. I believe, I should say, 1865. I don't want to say the wrong dates, but it's around that time. 1865 I think 18 Let me look at real
quick, it's right here. I don't want to see the right or wrong thing.
Okay.
Okay. The 13th amendment 1865. Okay, sorry. So I don't want to do the wrong thing in 65. But why is this important? And let me come back to here we are. Why was this important? Because even when officially slavery had ended, even when officially slavery had ended. The 13th amendment had a clause in it, it said it was in indentured servitude, or slavery was abolished in all of the United States and its territories except, except in cases where there is they're accused of a crime and boom, now you have your window to to keep slavery in a different form going. Now what did you have now you had some kind of law already in a time of slavery.
You had patrols and patrols is really the predecessor. It is the you know, the father of the police, you know, if your wife so to speak, this is the beginning of the police is you have people on horses, riding through the fields watching the the enslaved people that were you know, forest, of course, you know, in the hot sun was very little food, long, long hours, you know, very horrid conditions that they were in the fields, for example, and they would roam the plantation, they would roam the fields on their horses with the enslaved people if they were not performing enough, some kind of law and of course, catching any runaway slaves. So the patrols were already there. Now
imagine when the slavery is officially over. It never really ended the session
had still instituted black codes. Those were laws in which controlled where black people could live, where they could work how much they can earn. So still, in a legalized fashion, a states had a lot of control over black people. Then you also had the the patrols and, and and this type of,
you know, this type of pre policing, then you had also communities and you know, plantation owners taking the liberty of really committed, you know, in their eyes, but you know, taking law into their own hands, lynching, the act of hanging
out a lot of black person, hanging them by the neck to a tree. And you know, this, this imagery is so painful, it is so profound. But if we don't understand this entire history, we wouldn't understand what we see today when we just see the imagery of protesting on the TV. So that still happened. And that, you know, so this is post civil war in America, you have what we call Jim Crow laws. And this was legalized government sanctioned segregation, the separation of blacks and whites, all the way up until 1968. And I just wanted to give a quick history on what does Jim Crow mean? Jim Crow, you know, in the 1830s, there was a man named Thomas, I believe rice.
Yes, Thomas rice in the 1830s. And you know, one of the entertainments that white America absolutely loved even even though Subhanallah Look how they looked down on the enslaved people, and they were absolutely torturous to them. But they loved their culture, and their singing. And, and, and they would use it as a means of not only enjoying themselves, but also putting them down. So a white person would go into blackface and you still see people today that are, you know, it's getting exposed that they still engage in blackface, whether it was in their fraternity in their college years, or it was some for some reason, these pictures are leaking out, it still happens today, or
brown face as we also seat seen in the media as well. And that's when a white person covers their face in black paints, leaving the area around the lips expose and mocking black Americans when they would sing in their style. And that was called blackface and white America loved it. And it was even, even in the early or even until, you know, somehow even in the 1950s and a little bit beyond that was still even part of
mainstream American television was blackface So Jim Crow was a character of Mark mocking
a black person and that is what that's that's what Jim Crow means. And this Thomas rice you know, he's famous for starting that horrible tradition, mocking of black people. And so the laws that ensued after 1865 that got that nicknamed the Jim Crow laws and that was basically a laws sanctioned by us this is not just we're not just talking about vigilante southerners, we're not just talking about that was also there. But you know, segregation forced, can you imagine,
you know, my parents came here and my husband's parents, they came here in 1968. And even though they came here penniless or with very little money, but they had education from their countries from where they came, and my case my parents came from Egypt, my husband's parents came from India, they came here you know, to seek a better life. Can you imagine that they came here the same year that black Americans finally gained the rights to vote after the civil rights movement
that implication I mean, think about that for a second. So my parents came and yes they were made fun of for their accents. Yes, they're made fun of for their tradition. Yes, they're discriminated against. But they came here still with much more privilege, and much more freedom and much more rights, to education to housing, support so much opportunity, the same year and something many of you either you yourselves or your parents or maybe your grandparents or what have you. Came here the same year when black Americans were finally given their right to vote they had already been given the right to vote post slavery, yet so many laws were in place like literacy tests, they will say
okay, well read this Well, what does this word mean? How many miles is there around the world? You know, around the Earth? How Many Miles Is it the circumference, they would ask them those questions. To prevent black people from voting. This happened in 1968 finally became illegal. These literacy tests these other type of restrictions that were placed moreso in black areas to prevent black people from voting. Still, this practice happens today. So look, you know, when we talk about reform, you know what, let's not get mad at the police. Hey, we're not blanketing and getting mad at all. Please vote.
More as a concept when people say, you know what, no, no, no, no, we just need reform, you know, we just need reform, we just need to train, we need to get more sensitivity, let's have body cameras, let's have, you know, training let's do, you can do all the different types of bandaging. It's almost not even a bandage, it's a wet bandage and won't even stick. But when when you realize, you know, and more of us collectively realize how deep the systemic racism and the injustice and abuse,
how deep it runs, we gain a much better understanding, we get a much better empathy. And we will be much more willing to continue the fight and the work that is necessary to make sure that all of our neighbors are live on oppressed, that they live free. You know, no matter how many types of legislations and things openly, seem like we're all equal, it still does not exist even until today. So, you know, now, you know, now we have the 100 years post Civil War all the way until 1968, you have segregation. As you know, drinking fountains are separate, the bus is separate, restaurants are separate swimming pools are separate the colored, you know, and sometimes and, by the way, it was
not even though they deemed that it was constitutional to have separate but equal. But even that was not something that came into reality. You know, when you had separate, of course, the white parks or the white pools were nicer, and the more convenient part of town and then the Blackpool's that would be like, smaller or more out of town, so on and so forth. So you have
plus, of course, you have the negative imagery in the media always showing black Americans as means as dim witted, you know, not being very intelligent. Do you have that in the cartoons, I still remember the cartoons, the early ones, Tom and Jerry, the black and whites. I'm trying to think, um, Looney Tunes,
very racist, very witty, so have the Jim Crow, you still have the character you have blackface? in those cartoons? Can you imagine that? So we're talking very, very recently.
All of this, you know, segregationist attitudes, laws are in place. Now,
even when that became illegal to have segregation, and during that time, you know, before 1968, but even after you still had means by which,
you know, beings were talking, like, let's say, for example, this is still before 1968. But after World War Two, America wanted to rebuild, they wanted to make people happy again, because it was, you know, the Great Depression, and then it was World War Two, it was a lot of, you know, holding back families were split. You know, it was a lot of suffering for Americans at that time, you know, even a lot of productions stopped for butter and bread making, and went instead to producing
military machines, and so on and so forth. So when end of World War Two, they really have this big campaign, make America happy, again, happy music, happy movies. And this was very intentional by the American government. This is not something like I'm coming up with a theory on my own. This is part of our history, but part of that was also helping Americans to generate wealth,
you have two things that happen, one thing is inshallah the subject of another halka. inshallah, if I have not over spoken doctor,
but one thing that they wanted to do is
located is to make food a lot cheaper and more accessible, because, you
know, it's a very harsh time for America. So unfortunately, with that good intention, also came big farming, lots of use of the very detrimental pesticides that we're still suffering from today. The beginning beginning beginnings of GMO making crops are more resistant to insects, but by modifying them, it also affected our body. Sometimes that's a whole nother story. But that was one thing was an innkeeper. The second was to really encourage the development of wealth. And the way that they did that was get really low interest loans for housing. Of course, we have our our thoughts about interest. But this was a way that America operated, right? And so what would happen for every 90
plus percent white Americans and sometimes they even have less qualifications than black Americans, for every 90 plus percent of americans that apply for these loans. They received them, and
much less than one out of 10 blocks that would apply, they would get rejected. And then there was something called redlining where in the bank, they literally had maps where whites they wanted white neighborhoods, and if a black person came and applied for a loan and a certain red line zone, they will be refused the loan. So even when you think about well, host slavery, you're talking years post slavery.
Still, black Americans were prevented from gaining that generational wealth. Imagine the 1950s your parents, you know, great grandparents or grandparents buy a home, and then they pass on and then that home has gained much value, you
can ask anybody one of the greatest investments you can possibly make anywhere in the world, right? It helps you to fight to inflation. So imagine they pass on that to their kids. And then now they're that home has increased in value. And now those kids very low interest rate, interest rate loans, you know, they've accumulated some of their wealth, because they don't have to struggle. And they had already grew up in a home, perhaps education was easier for them, they're able to free up that money, instead of going high rent, they really have more wealth. So now that money is freed up for education for cars for another home, and then that gets passed on. So now you have generational
wealth that continued for white America yet black Americans again, were legally prevented from that, you know, beings were literally would look at the map and say no, that's, you know, you can't get them on.
So this is devastating. This is devastating to the black family, this is devastating to the black man, who's trying to secure a war for his family, keeping families together, the psyche has already the trauma that's already been passed on from generation to generation being cut off from the homeland, from language from family from culture,
is devastating. Um, you know, and you know, and then the evolution so so we continue, right, and you see just barely 1968 and finally became official that, you know, all of these illegal practices and trying to restrict black Americans from voting was illegal segregation was before all of these things that happened. And meanwhile, you have the whole prison complex, growing and growing, it became privatized. So there was it's like a number Imagine you're a business now and you What do you want to know, if you're, if you are a television business, you know, you want to sell more TV rights, if you are
a prison industry, you want to, you know, buy or sell, or however you want to look at it, more inmates, because now I can charge the government, hey, it cost me this much money to take care of these inmates. And now I'm getting benefit. That's my commodity now. Even though slavery had ended, now we continue to leave, because of that clause in the 13th amendment. Now, we have continued to see this extremely high proportion, disproportionately high number of colored people, especially black, also Latino and Latin x, you know, males in the prison system, because it is profitable. You see a high percentage of people that obey, you know, commit a crime, something if a black or brown
person committed a crime, they may get very severe, very severe, disproportionate, um, you know, sentences prison sentence, very high bail, as opposed to their white counterparts, if they have the same crime, maybe much less, maybe no prison time. It's unbelievable. So power. So now we see how much suffering black Americans have endured. And now you have the wave of immigrants coming from all over the Muslim world, and other parts of the world, of course, but particularly most Muslims. So for us to put this in our perspective, you know, coming and building their institutions, black Americans have already been Muslims Now, some of them since the early 1900s. You know, the first
Muslims that came in the 1600s and what have you, unfortunately, not all of that was able to be passed down because of this restriction of speaking a different language. The no reading books, no teaching of language, for Unfortunately, not many Muslims have continued since since some of those Muslims came a 1000s of them come in the early 1600s. And even earlier, but the big, you know, mass conversion of Islam happens in some protocol, as Dr. Shimon Jackson explained that some some like total Islamic movements, some to me, Islam in the early 1900s, but then even nation of this one, I mean, even before that, you had many movements that had elements of a swan minutes, but they were so
captivating and empowered with American so much, that they were really the main reason why so many Muslims and black Americans entered into the nation, for example, and there's, you know, similar organizations prior to it, and then made that transition into Sunni Islam. Imagine that, oh, rich history already existing as an immigrant Muslims coming right and going
Through their struggle of finding a place and, and finding their ways and society and wanting to make sure that their kids grow up Muslim and speaking their language. And we have this occupation, right with with continuing the legacy of our culture and of our Islam, and you already have black American Muslims there.
And what type of cooperation was done and if you ask some of our scholars, they will say that not much, as a matter of fact, there was almost looking down upon Well, we come from the Motherland, we come from the east, we know, let us teach you your
religion, when some of them were already there for decades, and already have massages. So you know, for us to recognize that as well. And I say that I'm pointing to myself a child of parents that have emigrated here, okay, we won't even have time for comments, that's important for us to understand that history as well. So when we have the issue of the country, let you know, I'm a chaplain at UCLA, you know, when we have,
you know, children that are seeing each other 100 halloway, whether they come from a different ethnicity, or coming, you know, it's a black American, black American Muslim, with a Muslim from another background, you see the clashes, why, because we have this cycle, of getting of living with black Americans of looking at them as our counterparts islamically, and culturally, and so on.
All of that exists. And that's why that's part of the reason why we have this racism, even if it's unintentional in our own communities in our own budget. So understanding black American history in general, understanding the Muslim black Americans history, also very important for us to understand how important it is for us to be supporters. And I'll talk about that in just a minute. And also to understand where May our own prejudices will come into play.
So something very important for us to understand on the left, so I wanted to give
a chance for anybody ask questions. Okay, awesome. So I have a couple of pointers. Oh,
there is one comment. This is from a friend from St. Louis. She said Don't forget the housing project experiment. Zack Morris. Mohit. Yes.
Thank you, Mr. Leticia. The housing project experiments. I have heard about it. And unfortunately, maybe you can write in the comments. I don't have a lot at the moment to expand upon it. I apologize.
So perhaps you can put a link for us to educate us upon there's so much for us to
learn to, to expand our knowledge. So forgive me for not being able to expand upon this just shared with you as a patient of mine. This was about a month ago, amazing picking my DD loved African American. And we became like friends, so when she comes in, she was last patient by day. And I was like, Okay, come to my office, I'm gonna ask you questions I really need to learn. Realize like this. And I come from different backgrounds. I didn't grow up. And then even when I came in, I did not, I needed to tell me what it is. And she literally she grew up into.
But but then now she become an educator. And she, I mean, amazing. When she talks, I don't say a word and the things she said, if anybody wants to know more, actually, like three weeks ago, weeks ago, we had share her Xena Bhansali. Like, I don't know if you've seen it. And she talked about how her grandparents, and it was exactly the same story. She said in the projects. That patient telling me that it's like you grew up with the mentality or nothing. You cannot make it and you are not the same. Now imagine this is a young person. Like how fortunate we are. We have parents who not only push us, but even they tell you can do it, you can do it. Now you have people just because honestly,
I was almost crying when she was just because of the skin color. May Allah forgive us. And this includes us Muslim sometimes, is just because of the skin color. They engrave in them when they are young, you're nothing. You're not gonna make it. You know, it's like who and this definitely affect the psyche. Because if you think you cannot do it, you will not do it. And if no one is pushing this upon you, right, exactly. So I think we as a Muslim, and I just want to and I'm sure you will come to as Muslims as Muslims, whether I am a native Muslim, whether I mean Native American, Muslim, African American, Muslim, American, black American now I loved it from you, black American immigrant
of born here.
What is my responsibility as a Muslim? When I see this, I will say one, that is the
one. I should not be prejudice.
So parent a lot when I go to the masjid, and let's say, a black American, come and pray next, me versus somebody from my own background, that Yeah, I have a lot. And I keep reminding myself, I'm not talking about anybody. I was like, Don't look at that person, because she looks like he
couldn't be the other person doesn't look like you were being genuine. And I wouldn't be outside waiting.
So I think we as Muslims, all of us, all of us, would remove the prejudice and discrimination inside us. Whether it's based upon culture, where did we grew up? I always make this it's not a joke. It's true. For eyes in magazine. Have you ever seen the
the matrimonial ads? Oh, no, I haven't. But I heard that a painful online, very painful. We know what it's like if you need it, if you read it. Now.
Where is the Islamic console?
Meaning meaning it has to be from that background, that color, that profession, that height, that? And then where is where and where it is. It's not the rest? Where is the most important? So number? Number one is we as human being cooler, cooler, otherwise,
you all were created from dust, and add, I'm sorry, we all were created from Adam. And Adam was created from dust. We go when we meet anybody, regardless of who they are, what they have what they are, it's absolutely the same. And this is Islam. Ya know, if you want to tell me teach me more,
we're learning so much from you know, from vanilla. So what I wanted, you know, somebody asked the question, and this will be heard of, you know, quick summation. So, you know, sometimes, you know, I believe we can be allies, we can be advocators of justice as we are, as always, when someone has asked us to be, you know, let's not talk about justice, a lot to the
education, education, education, you know, Ban online, is offering Dr. Sherman Jackson's course on Islam in black America for free. All you have to do is go to ban online, and they, you sign up with your email free Hamdulillah, you know, and that's an amazing it's a 15 hour course.
I'm just writing it right. Yes, perfect, perfect. Second little hidden. One of the books that Dr. Sherman Jackson covers is his book, Islam and there we go, and the black American,
very, very insightful book, not only about how the biggest conversion or reversion to Islam, happened in America particular even though you know, enslaved people were taking all over the world that that why the biggest conversion happened and he explains that but then also talks about the the responsibility of immigrant Muslims, you know, in terms of working with a black American community, and so that's very important. You know, there's the documentary called 13. And that's why I'm Ava DuVernay, and that's on Netflix. I believe that for free 14th amendment that talks about how that little you know section and freeing slavery except except if somebody commits a crime, how that
basically left a loophole for modern day slavery. The prison system today is modern day slavery. The police brutality that we see today stems from the patrols in the sleeve, you know, the fields where they would monitor the slaves and slaves people. So you know, when people talk about oh, well, and you know, police brutality happens against whites too. It happens much more against unarmed black Americans. So black Americans are not even safe in their own room mistakenly they've been shot. Briana, Briana got shot in in her home. She's a nurse, you know, no knock warrants. You had that that gentleman, that police officer, she came in off of her shift and mistakenly, she thought that
that man was in her home, and she's the one who invaded his home. Another officer was called to ask make sure that our neighbor was okay and dandruff shooting her. I mean, it's unbelievable. So you know, education, education, education, very important us here living in America, we have to nor is number two is the empathy. You know, when we don't feel that connection, we we will get the connection when we learn when we get educated, we will be able to have empathy, just as I said, Hi, I was able just in a few minutes by that person understanding why the Palestinians were so angry and why we always talk with them throwing rocks, what is the sport I under, you know, explain what is
the history, then they were able to understand and then the next step of empathy is put yourself in that situation. Maybe you have not lived
The circumstances but maybe you can connect with something in your own life or your you know those around you to say yes, I can understand how terrible that would be. And then third support, how do we be supportive? One is this. This
question was asked, you know, one of the things Yes, protesting How do you make sense of the protest? Make the intention, when you go out to protest, say, Yeah, well, this is for you, you go out with your will do, you know, make sure you're gonna figure out how to pray, whether it's before you're going to combine them or you're going to pray after, you're going to tell your friends and your neighbors to go be socially responsible to wear a mask. Um, you know, and, and if you see something happening, you're able to change it with your hands, you can remove yourself from that situation. But in sha Allah, Allah, Allah will reward you based off of your intentions, and your
being there, even if something later something happens. And so yes, absolutely, we can make this a long sentence because we're standing as Dr. hyperdimension, for the oppressed. And this is something that once Allah is pleased with, um, support your black institutions, we have black,
we have black schools, support them, you know, attend their fundraising dinners, go to their massages, be part of their programming, when they not just during, you know, February when they have Black History Month, but at least got to start. Take your kids there. I want us you know, because because of segregation, even in LA, I just shared it on Facebook. There was I just have a couple minutes, there was an article about le freeways. La is freeways how racially segregated la into certain pockets, very discriminatory practice. freeways absolutely ran through wealthy black neighborhoods, they tore down wealthy black neighborhoods, so that they can build the freeways. And
sometimes they would go out and get away, to go through those black neighborhoods and avoid certain areas like Beverly Hills, which is extremely crowded until this day, because white Americans said no, don't touch our area. Until this day, it's the most quoted part of the 405, which is the most crowded freeway in entire world. Because white Americans say no, don't come in my neighborhood. And yet, when it came to black Americans, they spared no expense, to not only ruin the wealthy neighborhoods, but to make it
very difficult for them to own their lands anymore, because it was weighed down by the freeway.
So because of those freeways and other situations, other part of the world, you know, part of our history had mean, unfortunately, black Americans live far from immigrant Muslims, sometimes in the same neighborhood. And even then, because sometimes much, it's our splits. Or sometimes, like I say, because of this physical divide, go to the black Masjid, invite them to your I hate to say them and yours and but unfortunately, this is a situation for some of our massages, they are ethnically split, whether by distance, whether by culture, so make those, you know, let's make the who are between the massages and say, we're gonna attend your events, you come and attend ours. And if you
need, try what's called traveling facilitation, if we need a bus or what have you, we're gonna facilitate that, and vice versa. So he definitely wants to do that. Um, and we want to also make phone calls, call your local legislation and say you want to have reform in the police department. You want to have reform when it comes to you know, making loans, healthcare is something another big disparity. It's not just police brutality. So when you see angry people, it's the Black Lives Matter. And the black liberation movement is not just about police, which is big enough, but it's also about the disparity in health care much more people are dying of COVID because they're having
to work in Knox because they've been denied occupation. They've been denied the loans to be able to work from home safely. Like other people, some people don't have that option. And they are and I know Dr. Haifa, Mashallah because you're in the medical field, you're also one of those people that don't have the option of working from home, Allah bless you. So all of our people that are in the forefront, Allah bless you. And for some people, in addition to that on a greater a greater disproportion of people, especially our colored people, that they don't have this opportunity, they get sick more, because they're on the front line, and at the same time, they have much difficult
time getting health care. So it's really, you know, important for us to make those phone calls really push for legislation that gets health care for all breaks down the systemic racism in terms of policing in terms of, you know, public, private institutions benefiting from the prison system, so on and so forth. These are ways in which we can begin to become allies and support our black brothers and sisters, not only Muslim, but our way
like brothers and sisters, our American brethren. And when we do all of that, then in sha Allah Allah, Allah will like us to recognize our own prejudices, our own biases and prevent us from making the same mistakes as those who came before us the most part Allah reward all of you may look like you know constantly like our hearts with the knowledge and the knowledge of this world that makes us better people we saw a lot will be unnamed is that key level here and take a look now it's beautiful to have you for all of you and Jacqueline Lochhead for joining us what we started and we're going to end up in case you joined us late is the concept of Prague protest is allowed in Islam it is halaal
it goes under the permissible it has to have certain requirement because it can become finance can become highly recommended. Why are you going out and that's why are you going to how are you going out? What are you doing when you are there and don't forget the responsibility to Allah number one, and do not trespass do not violate the rights or any of anyone and I will say number one process whatever Swati se taught us which is the weakest the police we have protest in your heart is don't accept it. Don't say it's not I mean, I had this composition with somebody that daughter went out to the protest. Why didn't you go out with her? said Why do I want to go on this? Yeah, this needs to
change marami cominco whoever see something that is rejected and accepted by Allah, at least we have to reject and do our best to change inshallah. Unfortunately, we have to stop because it's eight o'clock. Exactly. Now. It's beautiful to have you follow and have more of that. And if you have any suggestions for topics for speakers, please email us at gmail or on Facebook, and I will be more than happy to do that. There's I can now say I really enjoyed it. I personally learned a lot of this. There's way a lot more to learn. Does that allow Halo cinematic motion to one
sit down