Kamal El-Mekki – The Comeback Bullying
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the history and use of bullying practices during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the use of language during interactions and the use of negative language techniques. They also touch on the importance of following rules and avoiding bullying practices. The use of negative language techniques has caused feelings of fraud and negative emotions, but the speakers emphasize the need to address these practices and avoid them.
AI: Summary ©
So, let's move on to our next speaker inshallah.
He has been dubbed the black belt of Dawa. with decades of experience in the DA was seen, he combines his groundbreaking teaching style with his own dash of humor, certain to leave students feel at ease and entertained, but above all else, skilled and empowered, he is known best for his workshop, how to give Shahada in 10 minutes, a six hour workshop designed to empower Muslims in the art of Dawa. His lectures and online videos have also gained popular fame and positive impact among Muslims and non Muslims alike. educated in the hands of numerous prominent Islamic scholars from across the world. He also has dynamic experience in the secular world, his focus will be on the
topic of bullying. More specifically, how to respond to how to respond proactively to criticism as a Muslim. Please help me welcome me.
The very woody the very funny chef Come on in my queue.
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Much, Miss Milan Han Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam ala rasulillah. I mean, while he was happy as you may have, but
let's start things off a little awkward, shall we?
I was asked to make an awkward announcement. This announcement is a request from the sisters actually.
And I guess I'm the right person to make this announcement anyways. So the sisters are requesting that brothers lower their gaze a little bit better during this conference. Now I understand the situation. Some people are here for different intentions, not a single brothers trying to get married and stuff. These are the brothers that are called, they're at their peak performance. Because you know, when you get engaged, you're allowed to peek at the woman, right? So the brothers peeking over here, and he's peeking over there, and he's peeking. They're at their peak performance. So turn it down. And this is a request from the sisters common locator.
Okay. So the lecture is entitled The comeback and it's about bullying.
And the the organizers of this conference, they wanted different things from this lecture, some specifically wanted me to deal with school bullying, and others wanted bullying on a larger scale, like when you bully a minority, or an ethnicity or religious group, and inshallah, we can satisfy both. Both groups, because both types of bullying, they have some common underlying traits.
It is sad that there's not a single person in this room,
except that they've been bullied in one way or another. Some of us were never bullied in school. And it's sad that after becoming grown men and women, adults, then other adults want to bully us. Now isn't that sad?
So domestic abuse when it comes to women, that's a form of bullying. If you've been harassed at the airport, for being a Muslim, you've been bullied, because you're Muslim. In the United States, this is very common. And the problem is we accept it. So we're always pulled aside for random security checks. Sometimes, like if I travel a lot, I'll get three random checks in one day. Now, they can all be random. I mean, just harmless. Don't insult my intelligence. This called them Muslim checks, right? It's fine with me is Don't lie to me, you know. So that's a form of bullying. Muslim women, they're bullied by Muslim men, true or false.
Women in general, are bullied by men. And women in the West in general, they're bullied by men in many, many different ways. So much so that they're made to believe that they're inferior to the man. So if a woman does something one way, and if a man does something in another way, whether it's communication or dealing with issues, or emotional versus not emotional, if a man deals with something one way and a woman deals with it differently, they immediately assume that the man's way is better. And this is very sad. And this is even crept into the mind of Muslim women as well. So if the man does something that means that's probably the better way Why can't we do what the man does?
pipe who said that the man is a role model for a woman? Lucky there's no such thing. Only for Muslim women. You have other great Muslim woman as your role models who said that the male today is your role model? Absolutely. Nobody
But society gets you to believe that.
So you want to do things like the man the way the man does it.
And, and he this has manifested into different forms of movements. Some of the movements have made it so that basically life is a war between men and women. It's a battle of the sexes. and sisters, I'm here to tell you right now, there is no war between men and women. We won.
That was a joke. See some people not not happy about that. So the truth is, yes, there is no war between men and women. So Muslim woman will come and ask you, why can't a woman marry for in Islam? very shameful question. very disgusting question. Are you serious? You want to know that? So you assume because the man can do it? You have to be able to do it. Yeah. But for you, it's it's insulting in this case. So you don't have to ask a question like that. If you took one minute to think about it. So you want to cook and clean for for men have children format and what is? It's not another respectable, honorable position whatsoever. So why do women pray in the back of the masjid
and men pray in the front type? Who on earth told you that is degrading to pray in the back? I want to meet this guy who made this rule who put this into your mind that if you pray in the back, it's degrading many massages, you find this an issue? Why should we be in the back? Why? Use your brain now you want to be in the front? How much goes up from the men now, there'll be fighting to get in the front row. His brothers
brothers would be beyond their peak performance. Everybody wants to be in the front row brothers. There's
not enough room in the front row and shuttling or tighten the roses and maybe salsa them to tighten the rows. Aren't you sweet?
So who put this idea into our heads that in the man whatever the man does is superior to the woman? Why can't the Muslim woman give a hotbot? Would that make you a better person? So if Muslim woman can get caught up? Why isn't there a fee? no prophet ever sent? But first of all, I mean, just a little bit of logical thought you'll see why it's clear. But if right now, 2000 years ago, there had been a female Prophet, would you be a better person sitting here right now? Are you any less of a great person right now? Are you less honored right now sitting here? because there wasn't a profit that was a female 2000 years ago? No, but who puts these ideas into our head? bullying, that's what
it is a different form of bullying. It's not just about taking your lunch money and stuffing it in a locker? No, they're virtually taking our lunch money and virtually stuffed us into a locker. So the easiest way to bully people is to reevaluate how they see themselves. That's the easiest way to bully people. That's why women who suffer from domestic abuse, it takes them about 12 to 18 years to finally get out of the relationship. 12 to 18 years. I know what we think. We think that the minute the woman is struck the first time she takes I think she leaves, that's what we would all like, but it takes them from 12 to 18 years, they remain in an abusive relationship. If it's verbally abusive,
or if it's physically abusive, 12 to 18 years. Yes, because a lot of times, they've been destroyed verbally, the man destroys them, and he gets them to accept that position. They told me that when they talk to a lot of women who are in these abusive relationships, the woman blames herself. When the man hits her. It was my fault. I didn't prepare the food in time. No, it's not your fault. But this is bullying.
And in America, and I can pick on America will leave Canada alone.
In America, we have a history of bullying minorities, bullying, ethnicities, bullying, different groups of people, this is the history of America, there's always got to be a group that were bullying that were harassing or manhandling in one way or another. So beginning with the Native Americans, so we came and people came into their land, and kept pushing them further and further west. And they put them on reservations, even though the Native Americans are very peaceful people. And they're, they're one with nature and with the animals, but they portrayed them as savages and refer to them as savages. And then treated them in a very savage way. But they're the savages.
Right? Then women, they had a tough time as well in America. And it was only until 1920 that women were allowed to vote. And just for your information on the Native Americans, it wasn't until 1924 and in some states until 1954. How recent is that? They were not allowed to vote. And in the UK, 1928 women were allowed to vote in New Zealand It was 1893 1902 in Australia, just all of them are just recent, not a long time ago. So domestic abuse liquid
That's a way of bullying women. And in the numbers are incredible. So in the United States, every 15 seconds, a woman is beaten by her husband in America every 15 seconds. Since we've started this lecture, Allah knows how many women were beaten by their husbands. And these are problems. These are major, major issues. So we have these problems still in America right now. Bullying still goes on in America right now. Then came the African Americans, and they were brought into the Americas as early as the 1600s. And just recently, and they were still told to sit in the back of the bus still mistreated. And until today, of course, racism exists in one form or another. The Chinese and the
Japanese also were a group that was was treated or mistreated in United States.
In 1882, they had something called the Chinese Exclusion Act, which basically did not allow any Chinese people to emigrate, or to immigrate into the United States. And it's interesting that the Chinese have been in America for a very long time, just between 1854 and 1882. There are about 300,000 Chinese men and women that came and immigrated to America. And part of that was part of the Gold Rush, the building, the Transcontinental Railroad, and so on and so forth. So some of them have been there since the 1850s. And today, a descendant of that person might be asked by a white person, we used to be English very well, where are you from?
Maybe this guy has German descent. His ancestors just came 5060 years ago to United States. And this person, his ancestor has been there for 100 years. But he'll come and ask him, you know, you speak very good English. When did you come to America? Yeah, maybe my ancestors came 60 years before yours. And you have the audacity to ask me where I'm from. And in 1941, the Japanese, they were basically gathered up for their own safety. And they were put in concentration camps, basically. And it took the government 50 years to apologize. 50 years later, they apologized to them. So this is the history of America, there's always a group that's bullied. And now of course, the new group that
will be bullied would be the Muslims. Right? So one of the civil rights leaders in America, he said, the Muslims are now the new negros. So congratulations to all of you. You are now all negros have fun.
I took a course one time in media criticism, which is kinda like my field of study. And the professor was saying, if you look at old, if you look at Hollywood movies up to like a recent date, the bad guys always had what kind of accent in Hollywood movies before 911.
German accents, right, and Russian accents. So always a Russian or a German bad guy, even if they're not Russian or German, they have that type of accent. And so many movies, if you think in your mind, have the bad guy speaks with a German accent or a Russian accent. Now, then the professor says, Now notice from this point onwards, because this was after 911, he said, notice from this point onwards, bad guys will have an Arab accent. How many movies now the bad guys in Arab? Well, I want to I'm just sitting in the living room, we're working on my laptop, and the television was on someone else was watching TV. And there was a shootout happening. And from behind the wall, the guy shooting was
speaking to the agent. And they were negotiating like his basically surrender agreement. So basically, the guy had an Arab accent. So I looked up to see if this is an Arab, and it was an African. He was an African, but they gave him a Middle Eastern accent, because now the Arab is the new bad guy. So the way now is to beat the Muslim into submission. So they don't open their mouth and they accept being bullied. And they don't stand up for their civil rights. So they want to change the way we see ourselves.
And speaking of accents, by the way, tell you an interesting story. After 911 like immediately after 911 I was working at this building office building in Washington, DC. And you know, the Pentagon got hit, and it's not far from Washington DC. So one time the head of security comes to the building and is this white guy, and he comes into our office because you know, people know that there's some Arabs or something like that in this room, hijab and beards and stuff. So the head of security comes, you know, important guy, like, does anybody here speak Islamic?
So I said the there's no such language as Islamic. You mean Arabic. So he felt stupid. Like I don't know what language it is. But
basically, what happened was, some guy made a call. He's trying to call his friend, and he does the wrong number and it went into the voicemail of this.
This voicemail of this lady in the same building, so she found this voicemail in Arabic, and she thought maybe she intercepted some dangerous terrorist communicate. So she called head of security has to create it came to us for translation purposes. So I went with them. I went to that office and everyone was standing all serious, okay, the translators here, we know we, let's see what we intercepted here. Maybe some, this is the next 911 You know, this is 1822 discovered right here. So I go in, and the lady's like standing there No, come this way. They went to the phone they played it
is a message in English.
Just the guy had a bad African accent. That's all.
He was lost. And he called his friend. He's saying, I am standing right here at Fifth Avenue and Fifth Street. And I don't know where to go. And they thought this was this was Arabic.
I mean, I should have just told the guy Well, actually, this message is in Christians, not an Islamic.
So word association, I'm gonna say a word and you tell me which religion or belief system immediately comes to your head. So if I say meditation, you okay? Buddhism, you think of something far eastern, right? If I say love,
Christianity immediately comes into your head. And if I say terrorism
it's painful, isn't it? It hurts right? It hurts that we're Muslims. And we know there is no terrorism in Islam. We know it's a religion of peace. But when someone says terrorism, we think immediately Islam. So who put that association in our word and in our minds? You know the answer, right? So and it's strange that we have love in Islam. It's not like some other religion hijacked love and we were just left with hate and killing and we have love Allah Subhana Allah is Allah mohib the loving he's Allah dude. Also the loving Allah Subhana Allah loves. Yeah, but we don't even talk about that anymore.
You know, tough stuff. You know, the minute you start speaking about caring for people, people think he's gone soft, I think, is he okay? Yeah, you give a lecture talk about caring. Are we not supposed to care for people, Muslims? We have a responsibility. We have a message to give to people. What drives us to give that message we care for people. We can hate go for but we can care for people. The minute you say that, and I think he's gone soft. I think he's gone soft. Something happened to him. He's changing. The minute you say that? No, it's part of our religion. The problem cared for people so much, that the grief almost killed him. That's what Allah tells him and soaked, and calf.
Verse six, Allah Subhana Allah says, Allah Allah, aka bash on Neff. sakala 30 him Illa mute me We'll be having Hadith esfr perhaps you would kill yourself in grief over their footsteps? They're turning away. What does it mean turning away from you not accepting this message. You're gonna kill yourself in the with the grief that you feel when they turn away from you? First alum cared so much. He was offered to crush Mecca between the two mountains. He refused. Why? Because he cared. If he didn't care. He would say crush them. I know what I would have said, Yeah, I'd be like crush them. And please do that thing you did to the people of loot, pick them up and bring them down again. Let's
have some rain, some hail, some hail, rain down on them. Let's do some of that, please. I want to watch all this from the mountain.
frustum cared. That's why we talk about caring about what happened to this guy. It's part of our religion to care. Okay.
So
the, we've accepted the idea. So when we're searched at the airport, we accept it. And we just complain about it. But now we accept the idea that we should be sure, well, people who are behind 911 they kind of look like me. They were from my religion. So it makes sense. If they want to search me, I accept it. You know what, I don't accept it. I actually went to a lawyer. And you know, when he told me, he told me to accept it
online. And I went to a lawyer and said, Look, I don't accept this. And he says, No, basically, after a long winded conversation, you said you have to accept it. I don't want to hear that from you. That I have to accept it, and burden. And he began by saying, just so you know, I know you're coming to me for help with this issue of being harassed at the airport. But I also get stopped for many, many hours when I come into the United States. And I know you don't want to hear that. Like, yeah, you're right. I don't want to hear that. I'm hoping you can help with this problem. You're telling me you have the same problem. And then tell me accept it. Okay. So
and this is how we're supposed to be we're supposed to apologize. Accept apologies, guys for everything. 911 everybody wanted Muslims to apologize. And most Islamic websites haven't had an apology on their on their website. Most masajid had an apology on their website.
You know something? I've never apologized for 911 and I'm never gonna apologize for not unlimited. Why on earth should I apologize? Was I on the airplane or something? Was I flying one of them? Why should I apologize? We've been beaten into submission. So the minute 911 as mentioned, I'm supposed to apologize. And this is the accepted role from us now. So if that's what how you want to play this game, you want me to apologize? I'm expecting 1000s of apologies from you for what you did to my people. 1000s of apologies. You want me to apologize and do anything so I could apologize? You know, something, when, when the incident of the Danish cartoons came out. People are so used to Muslims
apologizing, that they wanted me to apologize for the violence. So we had the lecture with me and another speaker. The other speaker basically was being apologetic and I refused to apologize. And the audience was angered. Like they want that guy to apologize. Why isn't he apologizing for this? I'm not apologizing.
You want a peaceful life? Don't provoke me. Don't insult me. I can't be responsible for how people react. But people just couldn't take that. Because they want the apology from the Muslim now. Bend down the beach on the head. So I supposed to feel inferior now. And I'm supposed to conform. I'm supposed to listen to what I'm told, melt into the pot. Sure, if I was like you, I would melt into the pot. If I didn't have Islam, I would melt into the pot, but I can never feel inferior to you. Because I have a PSA. Is that is the feeling of dignity and honor that Allah subhanaw taala made us Muslims. How can you expect me to lower myself? lower my head? How can you expect me to apologize?
Allah honored me with this great religion.
Just this phrase law in the law, you say it and you will never spend eternity in the Hellfire in sha Allah? Never.
How can someone who is never destined to spend eternity in the Hellfire in sha Allah, apologize and want to be like people that he knows collectively will spend eternity in the Hellfire just doesn't make any sense. So I'm not the one who's supposed to conform. I have a responsibility. You know, I have my prophet. So I said Lamb who informed me of everything that will take me to paradise. And he warned me of everything that will take people to the hellfire. So Allah subhanaw taala put me on this earth to guide you. You're telling me I should conform. You're telling me I should apologize. You're telling me I should be beaten into submission and do what I'm told. I'm put on this earth to
guide you. And oh, by that I mean the Muslims, right? were put on earth to guide people, not to cower down not to low lower ourselves
are not to say that your way is better than my way. No, we have responsibility. Allah subhanaw taala gave us this dignity gave us this honor.
So then the way people see you is equivalent to the way you see yourself. So the question is, how do you see yourself? How do you see yourself. So if you can beat me into submission, sure, you can harass me at the airport, and I'll never say a word. You can arrest our leaders or scholars, or moms, you can arrest our youth, and we'll be quiet. And that's what's happening today. People are being framed, and the massaged will not do anything. They will not try to help with their funds, they would not even try to help the families of these people who are framed, young man is arrested. He's got a wife and child. Nobody cares. No one even wants to come near them. They're radioactive
all of a sudden, why? Whatever happened to the fact that you're innocent, are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Now the minute now something happens, the word terrorism comes and immediately everyone assumes this guy is radioactive. I'm gonna stay away from them. But you think I'm gonna get in trouble if I help someone's wife, and she's in trouble and we try to help her with a rent. We'll get arrested based on what, but just extreme cowardice gripping our communities. Everyone's afraid no one's willing to stand up. And this is not how any group in history has secured their civil rights ever.
This is basically when we accept bullying and we accept to be bullied.
So
we will get bullied into submission. And like I said, when you look at the history of civil rights, you find every group struggled until they secured their rights. So is this feeling of dignity and honor that Allah subhanaw taala made us Muslims. It stems from our relationship with Allah subhanho wa Taala. This is the higher position that allows the will has given us and so because I have placed me in this higher position, I feel the need to contribute to humanity. I feel the need to guide people. I feel the need to contribute to my community. Not to hide somewhere. I guide
People I contribute I fix things. So Allah subhanaw taala that means Allah put us here as leaders, not as bullies and not as people to be bullied as leaders to guide humanity.
Allah Subhana Allah says in Surah Al Emraan quantum hydrometer no credit leanness. morona bill Murphy Ratan hona, Allah Moncure minimalna builder, Allah subhanaw taala says, You are the best nation that was put forth leanness, and we all know what it means when Allah says leanness for humanity, for people, Muslims and non Muslims, you are the best nation put forth for everybody, for Muslims and for non Muslims. This is the best nation ever. And it's good for everybody. Why? Because you enjoin what is good, and you forbid, what is evil. And you believe in the laws of origin? You know, there's a very famous speaker, I'm not going to mention their name.
But he actually traveled the world and he tells Muslims, it's not you know, if you live in the West, if you live in Europe, it's not your job, to forbid, what is evil don't? Is there a country if they want to get drunk, let them get drunk? If they want to shoot up on heroin, they should do that. Don't come and give them Islamic laws and try to forbid what's evil in their own country? Why would How could someone say this? How can someone who read this verse say something like that? Allah subhanaw taala brought us out to first to rectify the conditions of every group. The hair that comes out of the Muslim affects everybody. How can a speaker get up and say something like this to people?
Yes, people are getting drunk and they're selling drugs in your street corner. Is there a country leave them alone? And he contradicts himself in another place to say it's your country? Which one is it? So you're telling me I should live in a neighborhood where people sell drugs and my kids walk around that street and I should not do anything about it? Is this what this verse says? You know, something scheffel Islam even Tamia Rahim Allah. He died in the year 728, after the hijra, and when he died, everyone was affected by his death.
And bizarre he says that when the people heard of the death of Ivan Tamia, not a single person wanted to be, who was in Damascus, didn't want to be at his funeral. So everybody wanted to attend the pure funeral prayer. So the markets closed down. And there were no financial transactions, businesses closed, everything closed. One man died, everything closed, stores closed. Everybody wanted to go to the funeral prayer. Even Catherine Allah says, there was a train of 60,000 to 100,000 people, and 15,000 of them were women. And they all joined the funeral procession. Everybody wanted to pray over this mat. That's amazing. But that's not the most amazing part that we want from
the story. The most amazing part is that a priest came crying because even Tamia Ramallah passed away. Like, why would a Christian priest cry? You know, even taymiyah he wrote volumes this big. Okay, this big
refuting Christianity. You would imagine this priests would be happy. I mean, he destroyed Christianity in these refutations. So they should be happy. So the priest came crying, real tears, so that he will ask him, why are you crying? And wouldn't this man be considered an enemy of yours, he says, I'm not crying because of the man himself. I'm crying because all the good he used to do will not be done anymore.
This is what we're talking about. This is a believer, and so much hair used to come out of him. And that thread would affect everybody. So much so that when he dies, people from another religion would be saddened because he used to do good in this city.
This is a point in time where everybody cared about good happening in the city. And then someone has the audacity to say, the Muslim should just back away, not forbid any evil, beaten into submission, bullied so much that they accept that position. And it'll take them more than 12 to 18 years to come out of this relationship.
So our source of Isaiah is Islam, our source of dignity and honor, it's Islam. And we know the minute we try to find dignity and honor and something else a level disgrace us and we all know this quote from audible cadabra. Below on who he says we were the most disgraced people.
Of all people were the most disgraced Allah azza wa jal gave us honor with Islam through Islam. He says, if we tried to find honor in anything besides that, Allah subhanaw taala will disgrace us again, this is a source of our honor.
And it's true, why would we try to find honor in anything else?
So you can't bully someone who has who feels dignity and honor that Allah made him Muslim. You can't bully someone who has strong Eman
You know something, again, they've been told me out of him Allah. He commented, when there were wars between Muslims and non Muslims. He commented that whenever Muslims were captured by the enemy, if they had strong Eman And Isaiah, they would immediately exchange them for capital from this side, or they would ransom them off. But whenever a Muslim lowered his head, accepted to be pushed around, bossed around what happened, they kept them as slaves immediately, no plow the fields, grow things, construct things, they kept them like that. The minute they see someone when they said, We don't want them immediately. And this is the history of how it works, you have a choice that nobody wants
to push you around.
And there are certain types of people that accept being pushed around
Malcolm X, or hammer Hola. He said that we cannot think of being acceptable to others, until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.
Amazing. And that's exactly how it works. So so how do we deal with this issue? One way to deal with this is to stop oppressing one another, to stop oppressing each other. Because we do it to ourselves all the time. I'm not talking about countries of origin, where our parents are from and back home as some people say, yes, there's a lot of oppression happening there. But you know, something. So a lot of times we move to the west, and we feel that we're far removed from things that happen there. But we do the same things to each other here. We oppress one another here. So we're upset that the Muslim, the non Muslims fired this lady because she wears hijab, and it makes me so angry. But we do
the same thing to our sisters. We do them. We do these things in Islamic institutions. We do it in the massage as well.
We're offended that someone pulled the hijab of a Muslim woman in the street, but we do it. We harass Muslim woman. I know Masjid, where if a woman goes in niqab, they harass her, men will harass her, take it off her arm to cover your face is any of your concern.
But just because they're cowards, that's why. So we do the same things to each other. And Allah subhanaw taala as you all know very well will not change the condition of a people until they change the condition of what's in their heart in Allah Allah euroma hohman, Hatha Yoga yamabe unfussy him. So this situation won't change. We treat each other well, then it might start to change. But we oppress each other. Others oppress us and started to say this, but at this point, we deserve it. We stop harassing one another. Other people will stop harassing us. Yeah, we start to value each other other people will value us if we don't value ourselves. Why would another outside group value us?
human need Muslim the Muslim life now? So sacred in the sight of a larger idea? in our minds, just as a statistic now, we hear in the 10s of 1000s of Muslims dying, and we're okay with it now. Okay.
So, we're saying that we do this to ourselves, with my dad hippies from that must have been from this method with ethnicities with even within the same country, the tribes, he's from this tribe. I'm from the other tribe, the better one and so on and so forth. And with niqab and hijab, niqab is give dirty looks, the hijab is hijab is to give dirty looks to non hijab is we do this all the time. So once we rectify that condition, then other things will start to change. So if we press each other, and the other outside groups will want to oppress us.
The second thing, it's interesting that nav salatu salam,
the courageously came with many different ways and measures to basically disrupt his power. And it's amazing when you read about the things they used to do to the process. And this is the amazing part is that never ever does he turn around once and say, could you leave me alone for a minute, please? So basically, they would look at the efforts the corporation went through, they would have a person chased them around from place to place, from tribe to tribe. And every time the person wanted to recite, or they would sing out loud and drown out the voice of the president said, and not a single generation that is to say, could you stop? Could you not sing now while I'm reciting? Could you sing
somewhere? Not once. Okay, then they would have another inherit, he would follow indivisible Salaam. Whenever the Muslim wanted to recite the Quran to people publicly, he would start to tell stories. He had traveled a lot and he knew a lot of stories. So he would begin telling stories and people would move from them and they'd be salsa lamb, and come and listen to this man stories. Again, not a single time. Do you find the president going up to him saying listen, could you not follow me around please? I'm just trying to talk to people. Could you not tell your stories while I'm resetting for not once does he say that?
An eyewitness says I saw a handsome young man meaning and never lost.
Alam and he was walking and trying to talk to tribes, the delegations, different people at the time of Hajj. He said behind him was this big man with two braids. And he was cross side. He's talking about
hula hoop, sorry. He's talking about his every time the young man, the process of them would try to speak to a group of people, this man behind him, Abu lahab would interrupt and say, Don't listen to him. I know him very well. Okay, he's my relative, and he's a liar. And he's known to be alarmed. Don't listen to him. And the President never once turns around and tells him, could you please leave me? Could you not call me a liar? You know very well, I'm not a liar. You know, you even you used to call me the trustworthy one. Not once does he do that.
So perhaps one of the wisdoms behind that is that when you show the bully that the techniques are working, that they're annoying, that they're affecting you, they continue doing it. And when you remain quiet,
and you remain patient, come on, this is now a find, find a good comparison to this in this life, we're not saying and in our times, we're not saying that's all we have to do is ignore all the time. But sometimes they're just these little tactics that are just really, you could just ignore them. And they would stop. And that's why in this in the seat of the process, I learned all these techniques work for a short period of time, the singing the stories, calling him for a short period of time, when they didn't see it working and agitating the processor, guess what, they stopped, and they moved on to another tactic, another technique.
And it's interesting, I'm gonna read something to you from a non Muslim website, just a website about school bullying. And it says that
show minimal reaction to bullying, exactly the technique of the process. And so do not show bullies that you were that you feel hurt. If they do something that makes you uncomfortable, just walk off.
Because it says the bully gets satisfaction from knowing they made you feel uncomfortable, don't show them you became uncomfortable. And okay, this is not fun. The bully wants to see a reaction from you. This is not fun. So they stop. And it's interesting that they say you cannot talk sense to an irrational person. Then they say walk away with dignity. Exactly what we're saying is walk away with dignity. Okay. And the fourth, the third thing we already spoke about is having this feeling of being honored by Allah subhanaw taala, this feeling of Islam. And it's not fried, by the way because pride in Islam, it's not a very good thing. But it is different is the feeling of dignity and honor
that Allah subhanaw taala has made you a Muslim. So sometimes even if you're weak, you show strength, and you show signs of strength, even if you're weak. And you surprise that oppressor you surprise that bully. True story. There was this old lady, this is an America. It's not a Muslim or anything, just this old lady. And she lived in a very dangerous neighborhood. And a lot of old ladies were mugged constantly. Young man come and grab their wallet, put enough to their head or whatever, and take a wallet from them. So she says I was walking down the street and it was like a dark street at night. And I saw a young man's kind of hiding in the front there in an alleyway. And
I just knew he was gonna mug me she had been mugged before she knew what it looked like. So this young man had the hoodie, covered everything, his conceal his identity and everything. And he's waiting for her, she could see that he's just waiting for when she gets close, he's gonna jump up and grab her her handbag from her. So she said I knew it. And I prepared for him. And she said, when I got really close, I could see him physically preparing now to jump at me. When he got really close. Just before he jumped at me. I looked him dead in the eye. And she said, Hey, I don't know your mother.
And he immediately jumped back now. Now it's different. Now maybe I'm logging on to something now. A friend of my mother, maybe she changed my diaper or something. Now I'm gonna mug her like that. So she just looked at right in the eye says, Hey, don't I know your mother. And he was taken aback. I don't know, just walked away. Sometimes even a weak person can make can do something strong, and show that they're not going to be pushed around and they won't be pushed around.
And you know, something?
In the last two minutes, like sometimes, some governments, they will purposely test to see how much they can push around the Muslims. This happened, you know, maybe about 10 or 15 years ago. And I'm not going to mention the country. But they purposely put an insult in the newspaper. Actually, this happened in two countries about the same time. They purposely put an insult in the newspaper about the profits of the Law Center.
So they put this insult to see next day How will people react to this insult if people get angry, and they start to write and complain and become vocal than they know that Islam is too strong in the hearts of these people. And we can't bully them about not yet. We can't push them around.
If nobody says a single word, these people are ready, we can push them around, we can do whatever we want with them. And going back to civil rights, the same thing was done in the United States. So in the beginning, after 911, the government didn't know how far they could go bullying the Muslims. So they did a series of tests. First, they shut down one of the largest Islamic Relief organizations. And when they shut it down, they waited and watched, and few people open their mouth. So they said, that's the green light, we can shut down anyone we want. And they shut down so many one after the other after that. Then they arrested why the Muslim leaders, civil rights leaders, let's say, and
they waited to see if the community will react. And nobody said a word. What was that to them? The green light, we can bully these people now. And after that they put leader after leader shift after shift in jail, and so on, and so forth. So, people believe you accept it. And it's going to be an a spiral of just never ending it's going to continue and you stand up. And you feel the dignity that Allah subhanaw taala made you Muslims. I'm here to guide you. How am I going to allow you to push me around? So with that, then we've come 55 seconds to the conclusion of the talk supplemental Faden for attentive listening, or salam o barichara. Mohammed Redmayne salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa
barakato.