Mirza Yawar Baig – Isolation is death
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My brothers and sisters,
one of the things that we are seeing
right now which is happening in the UK
are the
anti Muslim riots which are happening.
And we are seeing
some form of violence
against Muslims
in different countries.
Now I'm not talking about
what's happening in the Gaza and so forth.
That's a different
logic and
then if it can be called logic anyway.
That's a different story.
I'm talking about
the position of Muslims and the image of
Muslims,
especially in the western world. We have
Muslims in,
the US, the UK, Australia,
and so on and so forth,
New Zealand.
And,
Muslims like to go to these places. We
like to move here. We like to live
here.
We enjoy
the society. We enjoy all the benefits that
the society provides us,
many of which,
maybe in some cases, all of which
we do not get in our own countries.
So we come here, we enjoy that.
Yet,
the overall image of Muslims
is negative.
Now
we blame this on Islamophobia.
We blame this on anti Muslim propaganda, on
Fox News, and so on, all of which
is correct.
I don't deny any of that. But
the question to think about it about that
is,
how does that happen,
and why does that happen?
How is it that this
happens and it
continues?
And
what is the antidote
to that?
The answer to that
is to ask
a very simple question. The question is,
what is the level of Muslim
participation
in local communities and local society?
What is the level of Muslim participation in
local communities, local societies?
Just to give you an idea, put something
in perspective,
the first Muslims
the first record of Muslim landing
in what is now America. In those days,
it was not America as in the as
in a country,
but on these shores is in 1527.
That's a long time ago. 1527.
To put it in perspective for those of
you, especially from you are from,
India, Pakistan, and so on, 1526,
Babur won
or he conquered
Delhi. He won the battle against Ibrahim Lodi,
first battle of Panipa 1526.
At the same time, 15 20 to 1566,
Suleyman
the Magnificent
was on the Ottoman throne in Istanbul.
So that is the time frame we're talking
about.
And 15/27,
Muslims are here.
But to date, from 15/20
well, you can't tell you count from 15/27
from the time the United States started.
To date,
only 4 Muslims
have ever been elected to US Congress.
Only 4.
In how many centuries?
Only 4. Out of that, 3 are currently
in the house of reps alone.
That's it.
Now
why?
You've been here for centuries,
and in all those centuries, only 4 people
ever elected.
So think about it. I mean, the the
thing is that
simple way of of checking.
I'm not talking about the work of Dawah.
I'm not talking about preaching Islam. I'm talking
about participation
in communities.
Take West Springfield. We are in we are
in West Springfield.
Simply do this research. Right? I'll be very
happy if if somebody gives me the actual
numbers.
How many
Muslims are
there? Do another one. How many Muslim children
go to the West Springfield Public Schools?
One number.
How many Muslims
are on the school boards?
Right?
So you've got you've got several 100 children,
maybe over a 1000 or more, who are
going to the school boards. How many
Muslims are on who are going to the
schools, how many Muslims are on the school
boards?
Private school, high school, middle school, whatever.
How many Muslims
are in local government?
West Springfield
City Government. How many Muslims are there in
there? I don't care what level. Whatever level.
How many Muslims are there in the local
government?
Just 2 indicators. Right?
Just 2 I'm talking about participation. I'm not
talking about how many Muslim doctors are there
in base state. That's that's work. They're getting
paid for that. I'm talking about participation in
this.
What how many Muslims
regularly
and happily
attend jury duty?
And how many make excuses?
How many Muslims participate
in town halls
when they have town halls?
Even if you take the work we do
here,
our interfaith work.
I'm not talking about the annual interfaith,
iftar and so
on, where some people turn up.
Regular interfaith work which we do throughout the
year. How many people participate in that?
Now the problem of all this is that
ignorance creates
fear.
Ignorance
opens the door to
manipulation.
It opens the door to
all kinds of phobias and hatred,
and that
enables violence.
People are willing to believe the worst. This
is a human tendency.
Human tendency is bad news travels faster than
good news. That is the reason why you
have so much bad news all over the
place because bad news sells. Good news does
not sell.
Think about a newspaper headline.
Last night, there was no crime. Everyone slept
peacefully. Do you think that that paper will
sell? No.
Last night there was a massacre. Oh, wow.
Fantastic.
Even the guy who never reads the paper
will go pick up the paper.
Last time, somebody broke a bottle of whiskey
on someone else's head. Oh, fantastic. That's news.
Last time, nobody got drunk. That's not news.
So this is human tendency, unfortunately. Bad news
travels faster. Bad news is more popular. Bad
news sells.
So then when that bad news does not
have
a contrary
good news to face it,
when the dominant
narrative
does not have an alternative narrative for people
to look at, people believe the dominant narrative.
Right? So I I as a
ordinary American
person, I'm watching Fox News, and I'm getting
all these negative images and so on and
so forth, and I'm watching
social media. I'm getting all this
about Islam and Muslims.
And I asked myself,
do I have any Muslim friends?
What's the answer?
Most probably no. If I ask you guys
who are sitting here,
do you have American friends?
By American friends, I don't mean a b
c d's.
American born confused disease. I'm not talking about
that. I'm talking about
American meaning
Caucasian
American, white American,
African American,
or native American.
Do you have
people in these three categories
as friends? By friends, I don't mean coworkers.
I don't mean the guy who's sitting next
to me on the bus. I mean a
friend as in a friend.
Somebody I go to his house, he comes
to my house. We hang out together. We
share
our thoughts and aspirations and hopes and fears
together. We we are friends friends.
How many people have American friends?
And the answer is almost nobody.
Why do Americans not have Muslim friends? Because
Muslims don't have American friends. Simple as that.
Simple as that.
And what's the result? The result is when
that American and I'm saying American because we
are sitting here. The same story in Australia,
same story in the UK, same story anywhere,
when that person
is told a negative story about Islam and
Muslim,
Muslims,
he has nothing positive to compare it to.
So he believes it.
Nobody is interested enough to go and do
some deep research into what is the truth
and what is not the truth. They don't
care. Who cares?
So, they need to have something in their
face. The moment somebody says that
Muslims are this way, that way, negative stuff,
they say, hold on. Hold on. Hold on.
Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.
Hold on. Hold on.
I went to a Muslim wedding. I went
to a mosque. I went this. I did
that. I went to somebody's party. It was
not like that.
We need that. We need that narrative. We
need that counter narrative, counter story
for people to know the
truth about Islam.
So my submission to you is 2 things
we need to do. Number 1, to be
able to present the truth, you must know
the truth yourself.
So please study.
Learn about Islam. Come to the mosque. We'll
teach you.
Go somewhere else and learn. I don't care
where you go, but learn about Islam. I'm
not talking about technical details about theology. I'm
talking about Muslim behavior, Muslim actions, Muslim manners,
our culture,
the other, the the the
respect for each other, the affection for each
other, saying salaam to each other, all of
this stuff which we talk about, learn
that,
and then go out there and practice it.
Make friends. Know your neighbors. How many people
know the name of your neighbor?
Just the name.
Know your neighbors. Go talk to the neighbors.
Share some food with the neighbors.
Help out the neighbor.
You see that grass grown, you go mow
the lawn for them. I want to thank
you very much. You know? You're my neighbor.
You're right on me, which is a fact.
They have a right on us.
Go do that.
Because Islam spreads by the winning of hearts,
not by the winning of arguments.
And you win hearts when you do for
people something which benefits them, and you do
it from your heart
without any material compensation.
That is very important.
We ask Allah
to open our hearts to Islam, to open
our hearts to,
interacting with people, to doing things which will
present Islam in its most beautiful form to
the world.