Omar Suleiman – Justice for Stephon Clark, Jordan Edwards, Jamilah Arshad
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I'm
similar on him the Los Altos Mr. Sula. On early, he was talking to him. And voila. Before I start talking about what I actually want to speak about tonight, I just want to actually congratulate the organization of Akena for putting together such a wonderful convention once again, I personally have found so much of it beneficial Hamdulillah. And one of the things that I appreciate about Akena is that it offers a feeling of home when we have these discussions as a community. So may Allah reward the brothers and sisters that they can unmask for once again, out signing themselves in the previous year, and putting together a convention of this sort. So if you all can give them a round of
applause and salah.
And Dr. Altaf told me to tell you to donate. So keep donating, Inshallah,
the issue that has struck the hearts and minds of so many people in the United States once again, and I want us to begin by actually looking at an image of Stephon Clark. So I'm going to ask backstage to put up this image.
This is the Stefan
that you're not going to see in the media
over the next few months and years to come.
This is Stefan with the mother of his children, his children, Aidan and Cairo, who a few nights ago as we hosted a forum in Sacramento, his kids were playing around on their mother's phone, smiling, laughing, not having any idea what was going on.
This is a man who
had his troubles, like many of us have our troubles in fact, we all have our troubles, and will be purposefully Miss characterized by being characterized by nothing but those troubles for the rest of the existence of his memory on Earth.
His children will grow up searching his name, and we'll find people smearing him and disparaging him making the case that he deserved to be hunted down like an animal, have his body ripped to pieces. And some people will naively say, well, he's no Malcolm.
Well, maybe if Malcolm was gunned down at the age of 22, his record would look a lot like Stefan's
maybe if you gave him a chance,
without murdering him and assassinating him, we wouldn't be able to talk about a young man who completely turned his life around, who instead of having his family talk about establishing a resource center or library in his name could have lived to do so for himself.
If you are a Muslim, you believe in the redemptive nature of Islam. And you believe in the potential of every person to grow up to be special.
This is the stuff on that I want you to memorize.
This is the stuff on that I want you to look at.
And I don't know that in a Muslim gathering or Muslim convention this has ever happened, where we insisted on saying their names. So I want you all to say his name as loud as you can. Stefan Clark,
Stephon Clark.
There are people now in the streets in Sacramento that are chanting his name,
and likely what will happen to those that murdered him, or similar to what has happened to those that have murdered elsewhere in this country. We're here in the home of Freddie Gray.
charges will be filed convictions will not happen. They will wait for your outrage to subdue, they will wait for it to no longer be a national conversation. And then they will release the verdict and then they will release more egregious videos as we're seeing today. Footage of Alton Sterling, who was murdered in Baton Rouge where a cop tells him that I'm going to kill you as he's walking him to the car before they actually put him in the ground and fire bullets into his chest on camera.
A day after Philando Castile the verdict comes back a man who was murdered in front of his daughter with his daughter in the backseat who did everything he was told to do complied just as they always say just follow directions and you won't have an issue and that seven bullets put into his head in front of his daughter, his young daughter. After the verdict. They released more footage.
This is Stefan Clark and I want you to remember
As the
this here is Jordan Edwards.
Jordan was 15 years old, high school freshman in Dallas, Texas and ball springs.
Jordan was a straight A student.
And I'm not mentioning that because if he was a complete failure, he still wouldn't have deserved to be killed the way that he was.
straight A students potentially would have gone on to be a high school valedictorian captain of his football team
has one of the best fathers I've ever met in my life. And I don't say that lightly. His father is one of the most loving fathers I have ever met in my entire life.
Jordan went to a party that night, and before your mind starts going places
about what type of party it was the type of party 15 year olds go to.
One of the neighbors called the cops because of the disturbances from next door.
And officer shows up to the scene by the name of Roy Oliver.
Jordan was in the car with his brothers as they heard the shots fired. Everyone jumped in their cars and tried to get away which is common sense. You would try to get away if you're hearing gunshots fired from wherever you are.
The last thing Jordan saw in his life was he looked over.
As officer Roy Oliver came to the passenger window where he was sitting.
Jordan looked and what he saw on his face was the barrel of an AR 15.
The last word that Jordan uttered was duck
to his brother's
an officer Roy Oliver, began to unload a long rifle this Iraqi military veteran into the head of a 15 year old boy.
His brothers literally saw his brains blown out.
They still talk about seeing the smoke coming out of their brother's head.
Not only that they were taken into custody and questioned all night and interrogated as if they had done something wrong.
The first report, the officer said that the car was backing up violently.
Then when the body cam footage showed otherwise, the police chief said I misspoke.
The car actually wasn't moving violently at all.
They then started to cast this image of Jordan that maybe he was this thug. Maybe he was drinking maybe he was being abrasive and aggressive. The autopsy showed no alcohol in his body. He did absolutely nothing wrong but being a 15 year old black boy in this racist country.
It's been one year Roy Oliver walks free. The trial starts the summer. I want you to say his name as loud as you can. Jordan Edwards.
The first time I met his father and hugged him.
Odell said to me.
I did everything I was supposed to do.
What did I do to have to bury my 15 year old son
played sports with him, tutored him after school, spent time with him every day.
His other sons can't sleep at night with the lights off anymore.
Grown teenagers. What was I supposed to do?
The last person I'm going to discuss tonight
because some of these images have become somewhat prominent, though for some reason. Jordans name and image is not what it should be in the country today and I want you to remember him as the trial starts to unfold this summer. The last person I want to speak about
is a sister by the name of Jamila. Yasmine autoset.
Dr. Jamila, Yasmine out of suds actually has a history here in DC.
She's a revert to Islam and her adult life. Before she was a Muslim, she went to high school in New York.
She finished her pre med here at George Washington University.
She actually interned at Franklin Square hospital for internal medicine
became one of the most respected neurologists in Nuwara
Louisiana
This is a woman that you probably have never heard about and if you search her name online you will get very little.
In 2005, Dr. Jamila son, Nadeem had just got accepted into Georgetown University.
Jamila is a member of my community
lives in a very lived in a very nice neighborhood. Practice that one of the best hospitals. And I want you to think about how noble this woman was.
She was driving home from work at night.
And she saw a young boy that was riding his bike get hit by a car.
So she stopped her car to help that young boy who was dying in front of her.
As she got out of her car and started to resuscitate the boy and to try to help that boy.
A man walked by and told her who are you and what are you doing? She said, I'm a doctor. This is my space. Please let me work on this boy. Basically, I'm trying to save this boy's life right now.
That man called the cops.
And he told the police that there is a black woman. I quote a black woman
who is tending to this boy and she claims she's a doctor, but I don't believe her.
Officer Gerald Miller shows up to the scene
along with other officers without actually taking the time to analyze her credentials or get a hold of the situation picks her up a 51 year old woman and slams her to the pavement.
When Dr. Jamila got up
and try to explain herself and yes obviously was disturbed by the situation.
The police report says she swatted her arm and because of that the officer did a Leg Sweep on her that left her face first on the pavement. And then he sat on her back with all of his weight and handcuffed her and threw her into the back of a police car.
She started having a seizure of shorts.
He locked the car on her. The hospital is literally five minutes or less away, walked away from the car.
She was kicking the door and she was in the backseat trembling and she had a cardiac arrest and she died
after some time passed, another man walked by and saw Dr Jamila in the car and reported that he saw the foam out of her mouth.
So when he informed the other officers you know what he said? He said I don't have the keys to the car. Let me call my partner. It took him 10 minutes
to get the keys to the police car to open the door and to find Dr. Jamila dead.
She is the textbook definition of a murder of a Shahida. We ask Allah that He grants her that status. She died because she was a black woman in America trying to help a child that was hit by a car. Had she decided that it was late at night and it wasn't worth it and she could have just went home to her beautiful home
and be with her family. None of that would have happened. But she was too noble of a woman
to see that happen and not do anything.
For the last 13 years her family has fought to get some kind of charge some kind of conviction, local state federal courts, and instead faced all white juries and constant roadblocks and the officers that murdered Dr. Jamila still work for the Kenner Police Department.
I want you to say her name because it's never been said in a crowd Jamila otter shots.
Her son Nadeem returned from Georgetown that year and never was able to come back
their entire life for the last 13 years.
As has been defined by this tragedy,
your brothers and sisters 264 victims of police shootings
and 2018 987 and 2017. You tell me, it's only a few bad cops.
You tell me that people should pay attention and comply with instructions and they won't get shot.
You tell me that this is communities of colors fault.
Because if they wouldn't be so dangerous than the cops would not have to treat them this way. You tell me that Jordan Edwards deserve to die. You tell me that your sister who said Lila Hala became Muslim, I think here in this area and her adult life deserve to be killed for helping a child that was struck on his bike. You tell me this isn't a systemic problem. You tell me this isn't a Muslim cause you tell me this isn't a problem that each and every single one of us should be concerned with you tell me with confidence that this might not be you one day on the screen.
You tell me that this is a civilized country. You tell me that our American policemen don't act like the IDF now, like an occupying military, and communities of color. You tell me that there's proper accountability.
You tell me that there are other issues
that are more important than this one.
You tell me that it's okay to simply put a hashtag up and move on in life.
I understand that there is a particular apprehension in our communities with taking up such a controversial cause at this point in time. I get it. We have enough going against this right now. Don't we as a Muslim community overall.
But the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said hey, tourists Hakuna watan. Sorona elaborado artha EComm Are you supported are given a by Allah except by the way that you treat your most vulnerable.
I understand that if you start to talk a little bit about too much police brutality, maybe the police chief's not going to want to come to your Masjid next year.
I understand that if you talk about the atrocities that this government carries out around the world
dropping bombs on Muslim countries and non Muslim countries killing innocent people, then you might not get invited to the next mayors have thought or governors have thought there aren't going to be any White House of thought at anytime soon.
I understand that you might not be able to pull the same strings that you used to.
That you might not be able to get the same connections to say that we are an ideal community.
But just a shift Eosin was talking about not wanting or not caring about being popular, we need to stop putting so much currency and access to power. Because power only comes from Allah subhanho wa taala. And if we're afraid of power structures, not wanting to deal with us, because we critique them so heavy than don't whine when that same power structure comes after you collectively as a community and starts to take away your civil rights.
This is our issue.
This is our sister.
She died. And if you search her name, there are only two or three searches that will come up on Google searches court records that you'll have to decipher. And they'll look very much so like the court records with all the other ones. officer acted with reasonable measures.
You tell me if this sounds reasonable. And you tell me if this sounds civilized. And you tell me this isn't a Muslim issue. I am making a plea to you Dear Brothers and Sisters, as a whole. And I understand it is controversial. It is dangerous, it is going to cut off a lot of the connections, the very little connections that we still have
the token support that we still get from some politicians, they're not going to want to talk to us anymore. If we're too harsh in regards to these issues.
But Allah has expectations of you as well. And those expectations are more important. So I implore you to take up this costs. There is no cause right now in this country that is more important for the Muslim community than this one. And I say that and I'm not going to flinch. There is no cause right now in this country that is more important for
For the Muslim community, stop claiming Malcolm X. If you're not going to talk about police brutality, that was who Malcolm was. That was what his platform was about.
May Allah give us
the ability to speak up for our brothers and sisters and to actually enact change for them?
May Allah grant our sister Jamila shahada
May Allah subhanho wa Taala she stopped to help someone on the side of the road, a child may Allah subhanaw taala allow her to enter Jannah without any hardship without any accountability. May Allah use us in support of the victims, whoever they may be. May Allah subhanaw taala protect us and our families. May Allah better this country through us, allow us to correct the affairs of this country and rectify this country. May Allah forgive us when we find our tongues tied out of fear of other than Him.
And may Allah subhanahu Bucha Allah have mercy on our brother Stefan
and forgive him for his sins
because of the brutal way in which he was mutilated, may Allah comfort those who he left behind and those that are left behind from all of these victims allow Aidan and Cairo to grow up supported, strong upon their Deen strong in their character strong and their identity dedicated to making sure that no one else suffers from the same fate of their father.