Omar Suleiman – Media Martyrs and Symbolic Resistance

			I begin by praising Allah subhanaw taala and bearing witness that none has the right to be
worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for him. And we bear witness that Muhammad Sallallahu
ani who ascend them is his final messenger. We ask Allah to send his peace and blessings upon him.
The prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside
him and those that follow in His blessings path until the day of judgment and we ask Allah to make
us amongst them Allah Amin, dear brothers and sisters, many of you are familiar with a companion by
the name of Abdullah Maktoum or the Allahu taala. And, and as we are trying to connect the moments
		

			that we are living right now to the moments around our beloved messenger sallallahu alayhi wa salam,
I want to take you to the last episode of this man's life while the Allahu turned on him, a man who
Allah subhanho wa Taala referred to in the Quran and exalted. And
		

			when are you rica law, who is a man who was coming to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam who
belong to the downtrodden, who was blind, and who came to the messenger of allah sallallahu and he
was said I'm seeking to be purified. And Allah subhana huzzah Allah, on his behalf reminded the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam of the value of a man like Abdullah matomo The Allahu Taala and
I'd love no Maktoum Radi Allahu Anhu lives his life, feeling a great sense of pain, that he cannot
participate in what his companions are participating in. And he's actually not feeling the pain that
his companions are feeling. And so, when the battles have bedded and take place, he feels a sense of
		

			exclusion, because he is not injured by what they are injured by. And he is not in his mind and in
his heart rewarded with what they are rewarded.
		

			And for many years, he asks the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam to have a different type of role
and the Prophet salallahu it was that I'm seeks to protect him, particularly from the battlefield, a
man who was blind, and so who would be a guaranteed casualty. And after the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam he seeks from Abu Bakr Siddiq or the Allah Tala and was something similar. And then
he seeks it from Oliver and Cotabato the Allah Tada I'm home and over a decade into the Khilafah of
honorable hubub Radi Allahu Anhu over a decade rather after the Hijrah soon into the Khilafah of
Satan the role model the Allah Tada and the Battle of cod the SIA unfolds and I'd love No matomo The
		

			Allah Tada and who asks I'm I don't know how far but all the Allahu Taala and hope for the
permission to just be with his brothers in the battlefield.
		

			And oh my God, Allah Tana And who protects him as he always did. But he comes up with a particular
role that he plays. He says to ometer and Pablo the alongside annual Alassane, Tatar Jonah Isla
Manuel Raya, don't you need someone to at least carry the banner, I can carry the banner.
		

			Go ahead and armor me up, protect me, put me in the middle of the lines, and just put me in there
and let me carry the banner. Because the banner represents a very particular type of symbolism. And
there is a reason why one of the ways that you demoralize your opponents is you go after their
banner. So he asked samaroli Allahu Anhu just let me be there. And let me just hold the banner let
me be covered in armor and let me hold the banner. And I'm going to know how Pablo the Allahu Anhu
allows this man who again, Quran was revealed on his behalf, to stand in the very middle of the army
and to carry the banner. And that was the safest position that he could have. And he couldn't see.
		

			But as the battle unfolds, I'm loving on Mac tomorrow, the lion who can feel the presence around
him, he can feel what is taking place. And suddenly the enemy goes after him recognizing again, he
is the one who is carrying the banner. And they cut off one of his arms,
		

			the one that he was carrying the banner with.
		

			And he takes his other arm and he picks up the banner with his left arm. And so they took that arm
as well. And this man Subhanallah who had nothing to swing, nothing to offer except for carrying a
banner takes what was left of his limbs and places the banner between them and hoisted up until he
is martyred while the Allahu Tada on hold while he is doing so. And so Subhanallah you can imagine
the sight of this man for whom Quran was revealed, missing his limbs but at no point missing his
heart and his function was carrying the banner
		

			I want us
		

			Think about the people that we're witnessing today for a moment in sha Allah Tsai then come back to
us. The heroes that we are learning about well do May Allah Subhana Allah Allah give him full Shiva.
Last week we talked about the dura Allah Who mushiya Abduch young cat look, I do. Yum Sheila can eat
Asana, oh Allah give she thought cure your servant, who becomes a thorn in the side of your enemy,
and who walks for you to the Salah, we make the dua for what to do, who was targeted today? May
Allah subhanaw taala give him full Shiva. And of course his cameraman Salman Abu dabka, who was
unfortunately murdered today. May Allah Subhana Allah accept him as a Shaheed and all of those
		

			journalists, all of those people who have been killed, I want you to think about in this targeted
war against journalists, you know, there's a term that of course, when Muslims use it, it becomes
associated with a death cult. How dare you say the word martyr, CNN, of all people had an article
prior to this genocide called Media martyrs, analyzing the lives of 15 journalists who were killed
in war zones, yet I bet you they would never call the 60 Plus journalists who were murdered in the
Gaza media martyrs. But in no time in history, have we ever seen a more targeted war against
journalists against people that are wearing press jackets, press jackets have actually become
		

			targets for this genocidal army that does not feel any sense of shame. Nor is it held accountable in
the international arena of law. And I want you to think about what it takes to be a journalist in
that space. Not only that, Pamela, won't do May Allah subhanaw taala cure him
		

			was speaking about his most difficult job, which is, as a journalist, you cover the news. And you
don't expect to one day be the object of the news. It's your job to tell the story. But it's
difficult to be the story. And of course, this man, who is the Al Jazeera, head of Gaza bureau chief
of Gaza, his entire family, his wife, and his children were targeted and imagine being on air when
the air strike hits your family, and then having the strength when you think about metaphorically
cutting off an arm, having the strength with all of that emotional wounding, to still be able to
stand in front of a camera the very next day, because you feel a commitment. That is that great. And
		

			he still did it. And as we've been getting to know these people, I want to focus on them for a
moment in sha Allah Tala and who we are to them, and who they are to us. These are the people that
are carrying the banners right now. These are the people that are armored up, yet unarmed, in the
middle of the most devastating scene that is playing out in front of us, and who are losing their
lives in the process, but bidding Allah to Allah gaining paradise in the process. This is them, our
media, martyrs, but then I want to bring it to us. Why do you think Israel is targeting targeting
these journalists? Why do you think they're going after them? Why do you think they're trying to
		

			psychologically torture them, so that they won't tell the news anymore so that they won't appear in
front of the camera anymore, because they do not want those crimes that they are committing to be
known to the world. And they also, by extension, want to break the Palestinian symbolic resistance
around the world.
		

			This is not just a war on the inside,
		

			on the people of Philistine it's a war on the people in Philistine that are telling the story of
Philistine. And it's simultaneous to a war against symbolism around the world, one that has exposed
the hypocrisy of every so called democracy in the world, including the one that we live in right
now. Where suddenly, these are becoming criminalized around the world. How ironic that in Europe of
all places, where they seemingly at least once a year, have to tout their so called freedom of
speech by insulting our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam will target young people for wearing the
CFIA or hoisting up this flag in the United Kingdom of all places, people will be arrested for
		

			wearing this flag. We see the videos coming out of the streets, one of Germany's main newspapers,
yes, the same Germany, where Nazism was born, and where they continued to have extensions of it. One
of the main newspapers in Germany called the Koofi the problem cloth, the problem cloth if you
search it online,
		

			And then this is the cloth of terrorists. I want you to think about what these flags and what these
Kofi has mean in terms of symbolic resistance
		

			and how you carry your own banner.
		

			You know, subhanAllah there's something about words. And there's something about the insisting of
the existence of what we know is so sacred, even outside of the warzone.
		

			And even the messenger of allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, when you think about words, the
prophets lie, some distinguished the hypocrites by something that you could hear in their mouths,
you could hear in their voice, it would come from their mouths, he said, sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam. Yaku Luna Yathrib we're here, Medina, just think about it. It might seem innocent. Yaku Luna
Yathrib we're here, Medina that the hypocrites would continue to insist on calling the city of the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam yesterday,
		

			they would not be able to call it Medina. And that was a symbol of their hypocrisy, though it seemed
so innocent, but it wasn't innocent.
		

			And on the other hand, your brothers and sisters, in this day and age that we are in right now, I
want you to think about yourself, your very existence, as the existence of Palestine, as the
existence of Palestine. You see the fact that they fear its existence so much, the fact that they
fear every symbol, every banner, every flag, every slogan, so much tells you how important it is.
And especially in the wake of September 11. For many years, our sisters who work a job bore the
brunt
		

			in the public space, and they still continue to. But now each and every single one of us has to kind
of take a step back and ask themselves, you know, if I've been using a name that is different from
my name, because it's easier for people to pronounce, if I've been shying away from this cloth, or
this flag, or what we represent, because I don't want to attract attention to myself, maybe I can
recalibrate and I can think to myself, You know what, who gets to be the journalist of the
journalist when the journalist is wounded, who's the voice of the voice of what I do. And these
journalists that are being targeted, who is the Palestinian on behalf of the Palestinian that is
		

			being suffocated in their own homelands are being expelled to a place that is foreign to them, who
is an extension of them. And this is a beautiful tradition from our messenger sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam
		

			a beautiful idea of a sonnet of a chain, that everything is connected. The onma is like one body,
our cause is one beautifully threaded cogs. And when they try to pick away literally thread by
thread and remove the symbols of who we are, then that's when we have to actually see a deeper
meaning.
		

			The brothers and sisters the message Subhanallah that I have for this hotspot as be like what
		

			we're reading so much about the Sahaba and Allah is blessing us with an opportunity to see the
people that exemplify and manifest the Sahaba today for us, be like those people. Think about who
those people are. Ask Allah subhanaw taala to put in your heart what he has put in their hearts, and
ask Allah Subhana Allah Allah to allow us to be an extension of them, as they are an extension of
the people that we used to only read about in books and see something deeper with the insistence on
the symbols of resistance that we have in the lands far and wide away from the land that we hope
will one day bitten the light out to be free from occupation. We ask Allah subhanaw taala to have
		

			mercy on all of those journalists and all of those people that have been martyred, we ask Allah azza
wa jal to accept them as shahada We ask Allah Subhana Allah to cure and heal the wounded We ask
Allah Subhana Allah to Allah to protect the living. We ask Allah subhana wa Tada to guide us to the
ways that are pleasing to Him and the ways that are helpful to them. Allahumma Amin Akula we had a
stock Allah Ulagam reciting Muslim infrastructural in the whole of affordable housing.
		

			hamdu lillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah on early or Safi Hillman wala brothers and sisters
before I start with the DUA
		

			Just want to emphasize to you all,
		

			as the protests are sort of waning, and as the symbolic support for our brothers and sisters and
Philistine is waning, I don't just want this to be a renewal for each and every single one of us in
Charlottesville to remain sustained in that, but also be sustained in your app, if you find that
you're doing has become robotic as of late, if you find that it is missing the tears that it had in
October and November, if you find that your connection is waning, then use this as an opportunity in
the 19 to Allah to renew that connection in the lucky time to renew the depth of your and to renew
and sha Allah to Allah, your commitment to this cause. All of us their brothers and sisters have a
		

			responsibility. And just as well and these people Subhan Allah with everything that they've been
through, they still found the strength to keep going, we have to keep going for them. We ask Allah
azza wa jal to enable us to do so. We ask Allah Subhana Allah to Allah to put in a strength and we
ask Allah subhanaw taala to maintain a sincerity, a lot more free money in order to win what's the
meanwhile moneymatch Allah here even from MIT in the Casimir on Caribbean Mooji with AirWatch Allama
hurlan Our Hamner work for Anna wala to Dibner Robina alumna and for Santa Elena I'm tougher than
Otto Hana learner Conan them in Ohio city in alarm in California and getting ready to head with
		

			alpha five four and llama through the way Dino but Hello my camera boom so I've been I have learned
I mean as far as you know the reality now Kurata iron with Jana LaMattina Imam Allah on so this one
and masala Athena femur sharekhan I'll do my very best Allah who couldn't eat one and masala Athena
fi Philistine la I'm sort of one and we're still the Athena Philistine Allah Allah combining Nina
was lighting original with one and been him certainly been able to learn a lot about mobile Abdullah
Osama ito the portable way inherited fascia you wouldn't want to carry well belly yeah the common
Allah come to the Coronavirus Corolla has Kuroko wash crew running their mouth is it look what are
		

			the crew Allahu Akbar? Allahu yanwen Matheson Arun wealthy masala