Haitham al-Haddad – On the racist killing of George Floyd

			The killing of George Floyd has raised so many debates and questions around the globe, I will try to
address some of those key debates and what Islam says about them, especially when we look at the
consequences of his killing.
		

			And the demonstrations, the protests that we see in America in particular, and we see around the
world, one of those key questions that were provoked, or debates that were provoked, is, what does
Islam say about abuse of power? And obviously, one key question is, what Islam says about racism?
Yeah, another key question is what Islam says about injustice, and the response to injustice, how
people should respond to injustice. And there are so many other issues, I hope that I can address
them one by one. The first question that I like to address here is what Islam says about the abuse
of power?
		

			It seems to be a very complicated question. They are a very sophisticated issue. But it is very
simple. And it is true, what people have said, or what has been said that power breeds corruption,
power breeds evil, power, breeds contempt. And so many, so many, so many statements that have been
said by different people, all of them almost confirm that power breeds something that is evil. And
many historians have confirmed this conclusion that power breeds corruption. And they say that if
you look at powerful nation through our history, you will see that they power they had led them to
corruption, injustice, abuse of power, discrimination against certain ethnicities,
		

			degrading others, humiliation of other people, and all of these kinds of bad treatment of others, as
they say, Now, what does Islam say about that? The answer is very simple. See, any power? Yeah,
human beings, this is the nature of human beings. When human beings feel that they are powerful,
then they will abuse this power, unless they feel that there is another power or superpower above
them, to keep them in. Oh. And, by the way, just a minor thing, Thomas Hobbes, in his book, The
Leviathan, he mentioned something of that effect, that human beings, if they don't see that there is
a superpower above them, to keep them in, oh, then they will try to fight over everything they would
		

			like to have for themselves. This is the nature of power. That's why so many Islamic perspective.
Yes, we have to submit to the superpower above us otherwise, we will abuse any kind of power that we
will have and we will humiliate others, we will abuse others, we will discriminate against others if
we are if we feel that we are not going to be held accountable for our deeds by a superpower that is
capable of holding us accountable for our
		

			abuse of power, as simple as this. So that's why globally internationally those so called super
powers, unless they believe that there is a super power above them, to keep them in order to keep
them in control, to stop them from abuse of power, they will continue abusing their power, whether
domestically or internationally. And this is actually what we have seen as an attitude by so many
super
		

			Pause. America is not an exception. Russia is not an exception. China is not an exception. Any
unfortunately, any superpower will abuse that power. Now some people might say, United Nation might
be the superpower that will keep them in all or we'll keep them in control. That is possible. I do
agree to a certain extent with that. But the practice that we see now is against that idea. More
over some people might argue that actually, those superpowers are using United Nations to abuse
their power. Yeah. And we have seen violation of United Nations resolutions by those superpowers.
There are so many examples are you know them, you know them and no need to address all of them, or
		

			they are well known, yes, that those superpowers, abuse their power, abuse, United Nations, or maybe
violate United Nations resolutions, because of their power.
		

			Some other people say democracy, democracy might be the controller against any power in order to to
control it, as we said, and to stop it from abuse. Again, this is really a very good suggestion. But
the issue now is we see that the democracy is abused by the powerful people within the Democratic
setup, and they are controlling it, they are controlling democracy is through it through media,
through finance, through
		

			some other influential positions. So democracy is not really working. What we as Muslims believe
what I suggest that any power that exists with a political power, financial power, economical power,
etc, it has to surrender and submit to the super power, Who is Allah, Allah, Allah, otherwise, they
will, this abuse will continue, and actually, it will become bigger and bigger. And I also
recommended that we have a kind of merge between democracy and Islam. This should be the post
democracy may be IDM. Yeah. And for us as Muslims,
		

			we can produce a formula about that, to solve these kind of problems. I have to say that it is
unfortunate that because Muslims don't have a power now or a superpower, they are not setting a good
example, for all human beings. Yeah, and this is really, we have to blame ourselves as Muslims,
because we are fighting among ourselves. The Muslim countries, they don't represent Islam. It is
very unfortunate. All of them, or most of them, most of these powerful Muslim countries, they are
corrupted, and they do not act upon Islam, they are not setting good examples for other people, for
non Muslims. Anyway, that's why we as Muslims, we as drought, we are trying to bring people to
		

			Islam, so they understand Islam. So they act upon Islam, those powerful Muslim countries to behave
in an Islamic way as early Muslims behave. And then when they have a superpower, they will never
abuse the power, because they believe that there is a super power above them that will keep them in
control. It will keep them in all and they will never commit any injustice. If they commit any
injustice or any element of the law enforcement bodies within those Muslim setups, then those people
will be punished. Yeah, they will receive severe punishment in Islam due to abuse of power. This is
what Islam says about the abuse of super power of power. It is very unfortunate that most of the
		

			discussion now is taking place around the
		

			Racism and what racism in the world and what Islam says about racism? Many people forget about
forget about abuse of super power. I hope that this is clear. Inshallah we will talk about Islam and
racism in another. In another episode
		

			Quran summarized the abuse of power in one verse or two verses. Yeah, among the very first verses to
be revealed to humanity. Yeah, actually, the first chapter that was revealed to humanity is Surah
escala. It is an amazing chapter. I encourage all of you to read Quran, and I encourage all of you
to read this particular chapter.
		

			Chapter Eight rock. Yeah.
		

			What does it say? Bismillah pika lady Hala Kola Peninsula mean Allah.
		

			Karim, Allah. Allah. Allah. Allah lemon in Santa Ana Mia. Cal, in in sanella your pillow out? Who's
governor? I'm just commenting on those two verses. Allah, Allah, Allah, the Creator of human beings,
the creator of every one. He says that human beings will transgress.
		

			If they feel that they are self sufficient, which means that if they feel that they have, they have
power, and they don't need any other power, they don't need anyone, which means that they become
like a superpower. If they don't feel that there is a super ideal superpower above them, they will
transgress that's why there is no solution for the abuse of power except to surrender yourself to
the real superpower. Allah
		

			cinnamon, one, seven or how often and
		

			your model was on the moon