Hamza Yusuf – Religion, Violence And Modern World – Part 2

			And I'm not talking about the Muslims over here I'm talking about the nominals. There are many
people in the West that actually believe that religion is pacifism. See, Christianity is a
pacifistic religion. It's not a religion of war. And therefore anything that has to do with war is
irreligious. You see, this is how the thinking process goes. Jesus said, Love those who revile you.
		

			do good to those who hate you. turn the other cheek. And these are the thoughts that come about when
people hear think of a religious ideal. They think of Jesus, they think of the passion for instance,
one American writer described it as watching Rocky, where rocky never hits back. So that's the
ultimate form of passive ism. I mean, they're whipping you, they're torturing you. They're nailing
you to a cross and there's absolutely no resistance. Well, this is a religious image in the minds of
many Western people. And therefore when they see religious people actually defend themselves when
Latina either assawoman, budgie holmium,
		

			those who when oppression afflicts them they defend themselves, within and under the neopolitan
gonna be unknown who were in the law and and also to him that idea that there is permission has been
granted to those who are oppressed,
		

			who have been persecuted, because there are oppressed permissions been granted for them to fight to
defend themselves. I mean, there's report on it versus what Archie to whom hytera takuna fitna and
fight them until there is no pfitzner
		

			I mean, this is what Allah subhanho wa Taala says partido feasability fight in the way of Allah,
Allah denio Jae Hee doing a feasibility beyond fusuma what
		

			is what Allah Subhana Allah says in the Quran, so this is the religious view that is rejected in the
West. But that rejection is actually a fallacy in the minds of very shallow superficial people that
know nothing of their own tradition. They know nothing of their own tradition. Those people that see
religious people defending themselves are rejecting a foundational principle in every single
religion, including Buddhism, in one of Buddhist texts, because everybody associated Buddhists with
pacifists.
		

			I mean, the Buddhists say, don't just do something sit there. So Buddhism is the ultimate pacifistic
religion, the Buddhist tradition, they actually say in the Maha para heading, Nirvana, sutra, Maha
Petit Nirvana, Nirvana, I think they pronounced down in southern India, that the Buddha says, In
polluted distorted societies, after my extinction when nations are wasted and chaotic and plundering
and robbing one another, there will be famine among the people. So this is like prophecies of the
end of time. At that time, there will be many who will ambitiously become monks on account of
hunger. These people will be nothing but ball bad men, bad men who drive out any moral dignified,
		

			pure renunciant they see even killing or maiming them. For this reason I now permit people now
permit. So he's saying this 3000 years ago, I now permit people who uphold the religious precepts to
be accompanied by armed laymen. If rulers officials, grandees or laymen bear arms for the sake of
protecting religion, even though they bear arms, they're set to be upholding the precepts of the
Buddha, and that's in an authoritative Buddhist text. So it's very clear that the Buddha allowed for
protecting yourself. If you look at the Christian religion, there are indications in the Gospel. Do
you have a sword know that he had not a sword, sell his government and purchase a sword? Then Peter,
		

			when he raises his sword, as the men are coming in, he said, he takes up the sword will die by the
sword. I mean, that one that could be interpreted as a strategic because Peter was going to spread
his mission after him that could have simply been a strategic, don't use a sword We're outnumbered.
And intelligent people when they're outnumbered, usually don't commit suicide because suicide is how
long in all of the Abrahamic faiths, right, in fact, in Islam, the Odom actually have a debate about
a person who's burning on fire, whether or not it's permissible to throw themselves into a well,
because they're going to die anyway from the fire, to throw themselves into the well to kill
		

			themselves to remove the pain. There's actually a debate about that. So even when death is
absolutely certain, and there's a way of getting out of it, that many will say even in that
situation, it's absolutely not permitted. So in
		

			Here's an example from Buddhism. In Christianity, as St. Augustine, it was one of the earliest
theologians writing in the late fourth and early fifth century, St. Augustine developed the just war
theory that permitted Christians to defend themselves. And he gave certain conditions that it was
adjust cause that there was proportionality. In other words, that you use the amount of force that
was needed to remove whatever threat it was and did not exceed that. And then obviously, that non
competence weren't killed these types of things. So Christianity is filled with St. Thomas Aquinas,
in his writings goes into great detail about Christian warfare. And in fact, the Christians outlawed
		

			the crossbow, because they considered it cruel and unusual. But they only outlawed it for the inter
Christian warfare. The Pope actually gave a special dispensation for using it against the Muslims.
That's Christianity. And there are certain pacifistic branches of Christianity like the Quakers and
others that absolutely oppose warfare, in any way, shape, or form. But that is not dominant
normative Christianity throughout Christian history. So when you see Muslims around the world that
defend themselves, they're simply being good Abrahamic peoples. They're following the Jewish
tradition, the Christian tradition and the Islamic tradition of the right for individuals and
		

			collective bodies of people to defend themselves. And the Quran is very clear, that the reason why
fighting was permitted, was headed not Lola definitely Allah He or defend Allah He
		

			ness, Ababa Home Depot,
		

			had it not been for the defense or the constraint of one people upon another people, you would have
seen temples, synagogues, churches, and mosques destroyed. And so holy war is actually war in
defense of the holy mean, that's what it is. It's war in defense of the holy. And this is what the
Buddha's saying that those laymen who are protecting the religious peoples, that they're actually
acting in accordance with the precepts. Why, because they're defending the holy. And so this idea
somehow, that war is unholy. If you look at Buddhism norreys, I'm using Buddhism because I think
Buddhism is associated in the west by people as the ultimate pacifistic religion. I mean, the
		

			Buddhists actually say that when evil is proliferating, and persecution is spreading. Those who
stopped by and allow it to happen, are not Bodhisattvas. They're not people in search of
enlightenment, they're demons. They're demons. And the same is certainly true in every religious
tradition that just sit and watch evil spread is unacceptable. Now, where in terms of the Muslim, I
really feel this caricature of the Muslims as these evil aggressive people, I mean, if you look at
the numbers, I mean, if you just take a body count of how many Muslims have died in the last 50
years, and how many non Muslims have died in the last 50 years, how many Muslims have died at the
		

			hands of non Muslims? And how many non Muslims have died at the hands of Muslims in the last 50
years? What You Will surprisingly find is the overwhelming majority of Muslims that have been killed
have actually been killed by other Muslims. Not a very pleasant thought. The Iranian Iraqi war,
remember that? hammer? They remember that hammer? But see, of course, those are too far as well. I
mean, it's very easy to simply reduce it all down to this Manichaean simplistic worldview of black
and white good and evil. You can even take it back to the first split between wow out of the land
and say that you can't say Maui as a cafe, unless you enter into a certain brand of Islam. That is a
		

			very small minority opinion, but certainly not the majority opinion. The majority opinion is that
while it was not a Catholic, I mean, there's even a debate about yazeed. And there's certainly a lot
more evidence there. It would have been allowed. I mean, he was one of the Sahaba he relates had his
his Hadees are well recorded in citing Buhari and other texts, and yet he's the one who devised the
plan of putting the poor on upon the polls. In order to prevent the followers of Satan out from
continuing on that's there. Those are Muslims killing each other 70,000 Muslims approximately died
during that period. I mean, in the last 50 years in Israel, around 30,000 people have died about
		

			7000 Jews and about 23,000 Palestinians. That's 50 years that equals two weeks in Hama, 30,000.
Muslims and Hamas died in that period of
		

			Time, the same can be said about foul. Remember foul and you probably don't I actually remember that
foul waves of children being sent into holy war, jihad. This is our recent history. See, nobody
cares about Rwanda. Nobody cares about the Hutu and Tutsi 800,000, who talks about that genocide?
nobody really cares about that. Why? Because those are just jungle people, ignorant people. Well,
who are they? But that's probably in our lifetimes. I mean, that's the single greatest atrocity but
you don't have people demonstrating to stop these type thing. Really, you don't have that. I mean,
there's atrocities all over this planet, Muslims, we think now. And it's very interesting, because
		

			one of the things that we're always complaining about the Jewish people, is how they think they're
the only people that suffer. And that's a very common motif in Muslim discourse. But Muslims also
don't really think about other people that are suffering around the world. Really. I mean, isn't it
interesting that all of these Rwandans were becoming Muslim, because they just thought the Anglican
Church had completely failed. And what they noticed is during this massacre, the people that were
acting the most upright, were the Muslims. They were the ones that were actually hiding people, you
won't see a Schindler's List movie about the Rwandan II moms that were hiding tutus in their
		

			mosques, and circumcising people. Because that was one of the ways they tested to see whether or not
they would kill them was to look at their *. And if they weren't circumcised, they'd kill
them because they knew they weren't Muslims. See, that's new york times how many Muslims know that
story? Very few, because they're not really concerned about Rwandan Muslims. That's not an Arab
cause. That's an African con, Benny Islam. So we have a very serious problem in our community. It's
a deep problem. And it's not going to go away anytime soon. And I personally think it's going to
take an immense amount of effort to remedy this ridiculous war on terror. And it's been pointed out
		

			that simply cannot wage war on an abstract noun, unless you're using the weapons of metaphor,
terror, where is seriously pointed to? Where is it? Is it soldiers are those Iraqis in Abu Ghraib
prison? I mean, were they terrified? Were they terrified? Getting guns put up into their mouths?
Being told they're gonna have their head blown off? If they didn't tell them things? Who was that
terror getting urinated on? Was that terrifying? I mean, war on terror. Where's the war on terror?
Yeah, all these bombs dropping on people's heads, is that terrifying, is the idea of going to a
mosque and seeing a man in a wheelchair get blown apart with a missile coming out of a place of
		

			worship at dawn, in a wheelchair blown apart with a missile. I mean, they've got snipers, right. The
Israelis have snipers. I mean, they're very effective, very well trained. They have snipers, I'm
used that little overkill to do that, right. And then there's extra judicial. And yet Ariel Sharon's
a man of peace, where's terror tears all over the place. And the Muslims are an easy target, the
bull's eye on the back from the non Muslims. And then if you're a Muslim, speaking out, you've got a
bullseye on the front for all the Muslims aiming at you. So Muslims are easy targets were an easy
group of people to pick on. And unfortunately, we pick on each other. So it's not gonna go away. I
		

			mean, this religion and violence, religion will always have, if it's true religion, it will always
have the right of self defense, always. I don't care if it's Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism,
Jainism, every religion out there, it is a natural instinct from God, to defend yourself. I mean, if
somebody strikes you, the B flags, where you put up your your arm, if you're about to get into an
accident, there's a reflex to defend yourself. I mean, this is reflexive, it's in the nervous
system. It's not something you can even consciously do. It's at the most rudimentary level of human
existence, the desire to defend and that desire is even greater. To defend those that you rank
		

			higher than yourselves. You will defend your child there are people that will give up their life for
their child, they'll stand in front of a bullet for their child. There are servicemen in the United
States, that column Secret Service, when they hear shots firing, they jump in front of the President
of the United States. Why are they doing that? Because they consider his life more important than
their life. And that's why they signed on to protect even if it means dying, you see, that's called
sacrifice. It's actually sacrifice
		

			yourself for something that you feel is greater than yourself. Now Muslims believe that Islam, this
sacredness, this idea of worship in the world is so important that they are willing to die in
defense and preservation of that truth. And if that is hard to swallow for people in the West, well,
they've just simply forgotten their own tradition. That's all. And if they've forgotten their own
tradition, that's not my problem as a Muslim, because I'm a Western person as well. Do you see and I
know, when I was a kid, I learned the speech of Patrick Henry, did you That was a speech that we
learned in school, Patrick Henry, I know not the course. Others may take but as for me, give me
		

			liberty or give me dad. So What was he saying? If I can't be a free man, I would rather die fighting
for that freedom for others. Liberty, there are people who died. Why did all those men line up with
Robert the Bruce? Right, Bannockburn? Why did those men line up to fight with Robert the Bruce to
sacrifice their lives and many of them knew that they would die? Why did they do that? So that Scots
might breathe free, that they might not live under the yoke of English tyranny. That's why they did
it, you see, and many of them were devout Christians. So they had an idea that they had a divine
right from God to do that. And they were crosses on their armor, to remind them of that. So they
		

			believe that they weren't only defending their national, right to be free men, but also their
religious right to be free Christian Scotsmen. So if people in the West have forgotten that, I mean,
isn't it interesting that all these young men, and some women that are coming back in boxes were
being told they made the ultimate sacrifice? What was the sacrifice? Because Iraq is clearly no
longer a threat if it ever was, I mean, I personally don't believe it ever was, but it's certainly
not a threat now. So the threats over, you can go home? No, but we're there to give them freedom. So
not only are we sacrificing our lives, for liberty, we're not even sacrificing our lives, for our
		

			liberty, but for the liberty of others. So that is the way that it's being framed in the United
States, that people are dying, not for themselves, but for a whole other people, because we want to
spread Liberty around the world. Now, I would love that if it was the liberty of the Constitution,
which is justice, domestic tranquility, common defense, General web and the blessings of liberty.
Nobody, the man that wrote that Madison, Jefferson, Washington, Governor Morris, john adams, none of
those people ever thought that Liberty meant the right to watch a * movie, the right to
see women degraded in public spaces, none of them ever thought that was had anything to do with
		

			freedom, the right for corporations to move into a country. And because they can produce things at
such a cheap rate, all of the local economy is destroyed. That's a type of colonialism. That's just
another type of hedging Mini. So there's very serious problems in this argument, in my personal
opinion, for whatever it's worth, and you can take it or leave it. And I'm really serious about
that. I would appreciate if Muslims just had the basic decency to recognize that people who have
actually thought about things, people who have studied, people have actually given the problems of
the world some consideration and thought that we would at least listen civilly to what they had to
		

			say and considered them. I mean, the right to dissent is a right and if the deaf is one of the great
traditions of Islam, but I personally do not believe that Islam sanctions vigilante violence, I
don't I find no proof for it. Islam is a religion of order. It's a religion of government. It's
actually a religion that sees generally I mean, even though the earlier the mob probably did not
think this and I'm talking about the first century, but certainly second, third, fourth, fifth and
onwards believed it because of what they saw from the civil wars that occurred in the first century.
They actually believe that tyranny was better than anarchy, Mo Matic and urban Oh Yana said, tuna
		

			center, field bullman Hiram, and satin fee for more than 60 years in oppression is better than one
moment of anarchy where fitna reigns if you look in the verse part you don't have that as a
foreigner fits in and look in Sahih Bukhari in keytab and Fitton and look at the Hadith that is
related from a man from urban Omar or the London when they asked him about that ayah and he said,
		

			Do you know what it means? held Saturday mana erotica, okay? Do you know what that means? And he
said that meant for us, the pfitzner was being forced to leave our religion and enter into the
religion of the machine, he came to be forced back into ship. That was the fitna to be forced back
into idolatry. And he said, we were fighting in order for religious freedom to exist. And it's not
created equal until about a month. It's not you're fighting today over power and acquisition of
power. And so I think Muslims need to be very wary of all these people that are talking about why
they're fighting. I mean, I really do, I think they really need to think about it. As for the
		

			situation in places where Muslims are clearly being deceived, they have a right to defend
themselves. If if their houses are being attacked, if they're everybody. I mean, that's, that's a
constitutional right in the United States government, and to defend yourself. That's Geneva
Convention. I mean, that's agreed upon by every system of law, known to man, but the idea of taking
vigilante justice into your own hands in a nuclear age, the idea of killing innocent people, that's
another religion, that's called Elijah to better will sila, the end justifies the means we can do
whatever we want. So, you know, let's blow up some English people because they're supporting the
		

			war. I mean, how do you know? Did you talk to those people? What right? Do you have to take their
life? What right? Do you have to take them out of the world? God's given you? no right to do that?
What right? Do you have to take non competence? Who are not aggressing? on you as individuals? What
rights? Do you have to take them out of what you have no right? at all, whatsoever, God has not
sanctioned it in any way, shape, or form in the Islamic tradition. And it's as simple as that. And
as your sales. Why? There's only about 500. And what Oh, I thought I had these. That's it. Out of
all the 1000s of headaches that exist, there's only about 500 that are actually considered at the
		

			same level of the poron. And you ask yourselves, why not utilize all the ladies that I'm putting in
the setting? What will then why that had the this mutawatir, the province on the lightest senate
prohibited the killing women and children mean why? Because Mother Mother had these are Hadith that
the Prophet repeated so many times that many, many people heard them spread out in large numbers,
and those Sahaba who heard them, repeated them, and the next generation so that each generation had
so many people repeating that it's impossible for it to have been alive. That's someone to let that
Id multiply transmitted. That's right there. So you tell me if you see that little girl, looking at
		

			you, right?
		

			You take her out of this world, is that sanctioned by the Messenger of God? I am sorry, that's not
my religion. It's not the religion I joined 27 years ago, I'll never believe it's my religion. And I
don't care what the elements say, I'm sorry. Because the step the public would have openness. You
have to in the end, you have to listen to this. And I'll never believe that as long as I live on
never believing. I will not believe that that is my religion. And I'm sad that my religion is turned
into a tribal religion. It's very unfortunate, although, on a positive note, I would say it's a
testimony to the power of Islam, that it's taken, the Muslims this long to reach the level they've
		

			reached. I mean, over 100 years of degradation, humiliation, denigration, I would say it's a
testimony to the power of Islam, because it took Nazi Germany 15 years to become Nazis, after the
degradation of the first side treaty, where they weren't even allowed to sit at the table, after
they were promised a victory without peace. But I mean, for me, the last great Muslim, the last true
icon, the last true Muslim, is a miracle.
		

			And that's the majority of that. I want to be under his banner. And when he shows up, I'm gonna sign
up.
		

			Thank you very much for a thought provoking presentation.