Omar Suleiman – Sheikh How to Navigate Coalition Building LGBTQ+ Conference
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The speakers discuss the importance of acknowledging the Prophet's teachings and priorities in relation to religion, as it is essential to avoid harms in publicity and create a framework for alliances and coalition. They stress the need for constant revisiting and revisiting the Prophet's teachings and timelines, acknowledging sensitive discussions and the importance of building a framework for policy. They also emphasize the need for history and the agenda of the political movement in society, as it is essential to avoid harms in publicity and create a message of unity and social reflection.
AI: Summary ©
hamdulillah you're denied me in a rush man you're Moshe. Murli Kiyomi Dean. He cannot.
Ghana's dowry Dino slave all ones Debbie said all Kalina and Ron darling him while you're in enough bull behind him or clean
okay Mr. Miller Al hamdu lillah wa salatu salam ala I am honored to present our next speaker I personally get very irritated when I go somewhere people give a long list of stuff introducing me I'm like look just forget let me just start my speech so I'm not going to do the same with a dear friend of mine. If you don't know show Homer Solomon then really I don't know what to say you don't need any and he doesn't need any introduction. So chef almost so they run a dear friend and in upset inshallah he's going to be speaking about alliances and coalition's and some of the things we need to navigate as Muslims so a shoulder shift from what you can come up with. So now I'm wanting to
live in a castle ricotta.
Allah would ask me are you going to say following the seminar like Ma Ma heme Al hamdu lillahi rabbil aalameen What I wanted to underline the mean when we were to do with Sakina la masala cinema data and avocado silica Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa salam are the only he was like me he was setting them to see him and cathedra alarm in your local Houda were to call alpha where Lena. We ask Allah subhanaw taala to guide us to guide through us to rectify us to rectify through us We ask Allah Subhana Allah to
make us firm and steadfast upon that which is true to represent it in the most beautiful of ways we ask Allah subhanaw taala to keep us within the Sunnah the Sierra and the spirit of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in everything that we do. I pray that Allah Subhana Allah allow us to leave with grown perspective in the night time.
I know that there's a looming controversy outside and that is that there was nobody any
and that's violating all Muslim norms in terms of discussion, and what we do for our events and our conferences. So may Allah forgive you all, but it's shaking things up.
On a serious note,
let's start off with that. Inshallah. Tada Allahumma Nia medical Huda what Touka will alfalfa well Lina is one of my favorite Daughters of the Prophet sai sentiments very simple. It's very clarifying. It is suddenlink to the heart, and it illuminates our way better than nighttime. So if everyone could repeat after me Allahumma in the US, Luca
alHuda. What took off while alpha alpha was Rena
Hooda is guidance to God is God consciousness. God consciousness Taqwa is what protects Houda okay, it's what protects guidance and keeps us upon he Daya I fell off is modesty, Xena is self sufficiency, Xena protects our modesty our self sufficiency protects our modesty. So we ask Allah to grant us those four things and our individual lives and in our community lives and all of our affairs Allahumma Amin Alright, so we don't have that much time and I took a lot of notes so I'm going to try my best inshallah Tada to at least give the overall framework of that which I'm trying to address inshallah. And I pray that Allah subhanaw taala make it of benefit and make it good for
us. So first and foremost in terms of asking for a framework or building out a framework for coalition's and alliances. The first thing that's important to acknowledge is that the Quran and the Sunnah of the prophets lie Selim are infallible, it is binding, consensus is binding. We all operate from those places. We all acknowledge those sources, we hold them over our head, we respect them, we try our best to reflect them to abide by them as much as we possibly can. Now the rest of it is what requires constant revisiting. And this is where most differences take place. And I'm not talking about
shit he asked gave a two hour talk on Suffolk on praying while combining or combining while praying and or wait, combining prayer while traveling. And I thought to myself, if you could just give it to us in two minutes, it would have made it so much easier. But obviously thick requires a deep dive. And that's not what I'm talking about in terms of jurisprudence, the most contentious debates amongst the companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam were not FICKY in their nature. They were not about jurisprudence, they had a clear understanding of the place of divine revelation. They had a clear understanding of, of jurisprudence, the most contentious debates amongst the
Companions revolved around priorities and
timelines, what are our priorities as a community? What are our timelines as a community and how to best continue what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam brought to this world? And those were debates that the prophets lie Selim encountered in his lifetime. Obviously sooner they be being the greatest example of that. And I'm gonna be out of the disease, Rahim Allah. He said that, you know, Allah made it merciful to the Ummah, because he allowed us to see the companions of the Prophet slice I'm disagree. Who are we to expect of ourselves that we will not have differences and disagreements, if even the best generation that ever walked the face of this earth had disagreements
and differences, again, not about the place of divine revelation, not about the Quran, or the person or tradition of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, not about that which they had consensus about, but about priorities and timelines. And of course, this led to, you know, the fitna in the wake of the assassination of Earth, Mama, the allow town halls, so many different examples that we could point to. But I don't want to stick too much to that. So what's the priority to be addressed in our community? What's the timeline, you'll find very heated debates amongst them. So for example, for this conference, we saw what it provoked, just just by the very nature of it happening, some
people thinking this is too far left some thinking it's too far, right? What's going to be talked about most people cast judgments on everything that was going to be said in this conference before it even happened. And understandably, so it's a very sensitive issue. But
if there is an argument about priorities, and things of that sort some people would talk about Okay, so is this the issue causing youth to leave Islam? If the idea is protecting our religious identity? Some would argue, yes, it's the ideological undergirds and the assumptions and some of these things that have been discussed. Others would say, why aren't we having conferences about broken homes and divorces and suicide and some of the things that most of those that work with the community on an involved level, and the youth come to them and say that they're leaving Islam with sight, right. And this is a debate that would be had, for example, just about the very nature of what you address how
you address it, right. But with this issue, in particular, it's a very polarizing issue. And we have to remember that we are not immune to the broader debates that happen in the American public, right, we start to become divided upon the same lines, and we often regurgitate. And then just the same talking points, the same divides, and the same positions that other people have, because they resemble what we think we have. And so just using the term conservative or liberal has such loaded assumptions behind it progressive has such loaded assumptions behind it, it's almost impossible to operate within those terms, or to use those terms without getting a bunch of things projected on
you. So that must mean you stand here, here, here and here. And so as Muslims, when we say, well, what's our authentic epistemology, we find that almost every word out of the dictionary has been taken and been, you know, all types of assumptions have been cast upon those words. And so we don't know what to do anymore. Now, I want to say on this issue as well, that for Muslim leaders, in particular, Muslim leaders in particular, it is so crucial to build a framework and they are the most vulnerable, that will often find themselves scrambling. The greatest example of that post Orlando, the tragedy that took place in Orlando, the shooting at Pulse, how many phone calls took
place between most we were on a high? You know, we just bid farewell to Muhammad Ali Rahim, a whole lotta and greatest Muslim American and one of the greatest Muslim Americans to ever walk the face of the earth, a person who inspired the world with his commitment to Islam and with his commitment to humanity, and then boom, pulse happens. Right? And it was like, Whoa, and Muslim leaders were scrambling to try to figure things out. And they came together and it took call after call after call after call, the Orlando statement was issued, which most scholars in America signed on to most locally, mom's most scholars signed on to that statement. Is it perfect? Probably not. Are there
issues with it? Yes. But could the Muslim leadership have just backed up into cocoon and said, We're not going to address this? You don't have that luxury if you're the Imam of the Masjid. Or you are a Muslim, intellectual with the platform or wherever you are. You have to say something. Was it perfect? No. Do we learn from it? We should learn from it going forward. Post Birmingham, some of you saw the LGBT row that took place in the United Kingdom between Muslim parents and and the school system and some of the curriculum that's being enacted in the UK. There's a joint statement of Muslim scholars and Imams. It's literally called Joint Statement on Muslim scholars and Imams on
LGBT wrote in schools, which by the way, I thought was actually a very good statement. The way that they wrote it seemed very intelligently wisely crafted.
But you know, a lot of people would criticize it. This word means that and it's important to underline
Then, that it was very easy for those leaders as well as leaders that sign on to many of these statements and take the stance to say, we're just going to keep our names away, the safest thing to do would be not to say anything, safest thing is just to avoid the issue altogether. And I'm sure as I know, in the case of the Orlando statement, as well as the Birmingham statement by Muslim scholars and leaders, there are words that not all of them preferred, there are sentences that they wish were expressed a little better whether they wished it was more to this way or that way. Not everyone thought it was perfect. But ultimately, you know, leaders felt a need to put out something right in
the absence of it. People, you know, flocked to right and left to try to find
their language on this. So you know, and I want to give you all this example, because I think it's very important.
It's very easy to write online, it's very easy to post a Facebook status, it's very easy to tweet about something, it's very easy to be very bold, in your positions, whatever those positions are, until those positions become consequential to communities. And I want to just observe this as a social experiment. And this panel, I was looking at the I was looking for the name. And I'm not gonna say anything about Epic's Wi Fi. But that's controversial to me too, because I couldn't find I was having a hard time pulling up this this. This page was a social experiment where they looked at how communities talk amongst each other. And then once the community they're talking about is
observing the discussion how the tone changes, I'll give you an example. If you're on Facebook, and you're typing out, right, mashallah people posted a lot on Facebook and a lot on the social media things and it got really charged, if a non Muslim checked into the constant conversation, right? The tone just automatically changes. It's like, wait a minute, this is no longer our echo chamber, why are you infringing on my space? You're not supposed to be here. It's not true. We, you know, when people are amongst themselves, their own kind are people that share their viewpoints, they find it very easy to express things, sometimes very raw, sometimes very, you know, not not in the most
sensitive ways. But then it's like, wait a minute, someone else is there. So let me actually just put this out there and show that as a general rule of thumb, there is no such thing anymore as an internal conversation. All right, not as a community, or as an individual. All right, if you have Alexa in your home, I'm not gonna go any further, there is no such thing anymore as an internal conversation. All right. And so we have to craft rhetoric that is consistent, we have to be in conversation with the circumstances around us that are authentic in ways that are authentic, consistent, and compassionate. Belinda, Hey, Tyler. So how do we start to build this framework out?
Sure. What time would you say I have to finish by by the way? 540. Okay, how do we start to build this framework out? So I'm going to speak really fast, which means I might finish before 540 Allahu Allah, but I'll try Inshallah, to at least get through this thoroughly. Think about building a framework, right with alliances and coalition's and just in general with our interactions of society. So what's the first commitment that everyone in society can make? Everyone in society can commit to genuine condemnation of hate, dehumanizing rhetoric, bullying, against whoever it may be? Right? Whether it is the LGBT community or the Jewish community, or whatever it may be. l all types
of communities we can commit ourselves to, again, avoiding hate dehumanizing rhetoric, bullying, we can condemn violence, we can and should condemn precursors to violence, we should revisit those things all the time, and not because it's bad PR or good PR. But because we start from the place of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, when the Prophet sighs I'm stood for the funeral of the Jewish man that came by and he said, Elisa Nuff said when he said why are you standing up? He said, is it not a human soul? When the Prophet salallahu Salam was an interaction with the society wherever they were, and if you talk about the, the moral differences between the Muslims and Mecca
and Quraysh as a whole, you're gonna see a wide variance in the things that were acceptable in terms of the ways you know, beyond shitake obviously, the most obvious of idol worship, right but some of the connotations of that the rhetoric of the prophets lie some the the way the prophets lie, some still approached people. So we should and can commit to that the Prophet slice and I'm said Liesel MOTM. In the plan, well, Allah and well, in fact, ish. Well, I believe the prophets lie. Some said the believer is not one who slanders or curses, or is wicked, harmful, or shameless when they speak. That's just not the way that we talk. Allah Allah justice lo Quinta for one level problem, problem
and holik. If you are 5151 refers to font this refers to the way that you speak, if you're rude, harsh when you speak loudly that will help to leave people to where they can only assume harsh heartedness because there's a connection between what you say, or how you say what you say. And what's here. It'll tell you Mr. haimo. Allah said, the tongue to the heart is like the spoon to a plate of food. Right. And that's why by the way, we're losing communication, the ability to communicate in person some of society's most sensitive discussions.
In fact, almost all of them are being had on the worst medium possible, which is social media, where people can say whatever they want, type in whatever way that they want. And so there's no way to convey just basic modes of communication, right basic, basic sentiments of sympathy, of empathy, of compassion of well being. Well, wishing all of that gets taken away on social media, but the point still being low, Quinta fogless. If you're mean spirited with your talk, if you're rude when you talk, if you're, if you speak in a way that is belligerent, then people will be forced to assume what lets you revalue. They'll call harsh hearted, you lack empathy, you have cruelty, you don't
care about people, you speak from a place of belittling people, you don't do any service to the truth. You don't bring anyone to the truth, you even alienate people that are upon the truth within the Muslim community. Right in the main kimono theory in the Prophet sighs I'm talking about there are those amongst you that run people away from the truth? Okay, so we don't do service to anything. When we add those elements of speech and add those elements of behavior to what we do. So a general commitment, I got a gun. No, I'm the dinar, I was looking for you, I needed security.
The first commitments is to what societal commitments. And by the way, this is present, even in the statement that I mentioned, the Birmingham statement, you know, where those scholars were expressing where they felt under attack, but at the same time, you know, this idea of committing themselves to that type of rhetoric to that type of harmony, we should be able to commit to that, and we should commit to it authentically and genuinely against violence and things of that sort. Now, I want to walk back. That's the basic commitment that we have. All right. Instead of defense, what Muslims can't do, let's actually talk about what Muslims can and should do. Now, some of you might be
saying, oh, that's escapism, we're here to hear you talk about ally ship and LGBT and you want me to you want me to tell you today, don't cooperate with the LGBT community? Because if we do, then all sorts of things are gonna happen, and then leave the mic and then everyone leaves, you know, sort of satisfied, right? If the only thing that comes to your mind when you hear Islam and activism is what's haram. You know, what you're suggesting? You're suggesting that Islam has stagnated, that Islam has no authentic way of engaging society around it? That the only way we can talk about Islam or the only time Islam steps in is with objections and 50 objections to you doing anything that's
productive and positive. And that hurts us in and in and of itself with its framing. So I'm going to take it from the other direction first and building that framework. What would the prophets lie some sunnah look like today, if it was interacting with the circumstances around us, none of us can say definitively on some specific issues. And by the way, it's strange when some people say, If the Prophet were here, he would have done this. And they do that often with very polarizing, sometimes very strange positions. But if the prophets lie somewhere here, he would have done that. That's a bold statement to make. Now there are statements like if the prophets lie somewhere here, he would
care for the homeless, that's a pretty solid, I think we can bank on that, right. But then when you get to the specific he had the issues is becomes deeply problematic. But what would the character of the prophets lie some look like when he says it will only philosopher has taught us a phono? What tone sodwana Illa people come find me amongst the poor find me amongst a lot of ah, are the weak, the poor and the downtrodden, the vulnerable?
Are you supported or given victory except by the way that you treat your poor or you're vulnerable? You're most vulnerable? Right? And there are numerous Hadith that speak to that idea. So I want you to actually imagine what would that look like? If I was to leave the entire debate and pretend that there are no frameworks that exist right now that I'm either guilty of reinforcing or being complicit in or whatever it is, just pretend there is no such thing as any problems or any friction and you are in the society? It's not a post 911 world where Muslims have been racialized and whatever it may be, what would you do? What would the prophets lie some sunnah to call, call you to
do, in terms of the world that's around you. Now, I actually want to build from that sunnah paradigm, okay, as much as I can. And may Allah subhanaw taala Forgive me, if I err in this regard, because that would be the most grievous of errors and I pray that Allah azza wa jal to keep us upon that which is pleasing to Him and that which is that which is truly in compliance with the Sunnah of the Prophet slicin reflects the beauty of the Sunnah of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasallam. So one thing that we have to say as we're starting to build this out,
to suggest that orthodox followers of the faith, okay, I have no room at the table for the betterment of society or in achieving societal justice or harmony is actually in and of itself, quite intolerant to say that if you have
have certain moral commitments that put you at odds, religious commitments, binding scriptural commitments, that puts you at odds with other movements, some of which you will have, you know, overlap in terms of in terms of the issues that that you're fighting towards, to suggest that you have no role, no place at the table because of that is actually intolerant as well. We talked about one side of intolerance, and we should be intolerant towards bullying, and dehumanizing rhetoric and violence and the precursors to violence and be very clear in those condemnations on the other side to say, Orthodox Jews, Muslims, the black church, Latino Catholics, Mormons, none of you have any
place in helping construct a better society is intolerant as well. And that hostility does indeed, you know, exist sometimes. And you know, I've experienced and a lot of people would speak to it, though not on social media, usually. All right. So I actually want to quote what I wrote in, in CNN a few years ago, I am not your American Muslim. In our polarized politics, the liberal who limits calls of inclusivity to liberal Muslims, and the conservative who will not stand up for the religious liberty of a conservative Muslim, both portray their own ideals. Frankly, more and more American Muslims are not willing to alter that identity or their identity, to gain the half hearted
advocacy of any group that merely sees them as a political football. Just like other groups of Americans, we reserve the right to live in peace and be treated with Justice just like everyone else, even by those who don't particularly like our religion. As one of the most famous Americans in history Muhammad Ali once said, I am America I'm the part you won't recognize but get used to me black confident cocky, my name not yours, my religion, not yours. My goals my own get used to me, Rahim, Allah Tala. And there's some good literature by the way, one article, by actually an Orthodox Jew, it's in the Times of Israel. So forget about all the other stuff that you're going to read
there. But it was a good article on social justice and orthodoxy. The name of the author is Daniel Edelman, who talks about. And it's really interesting because he builds a narrative of social justice using classic Hebrew text and Old Testament literature. It's not just, you know, we can still be social justice oriented, but just not on these issues. Let's talk about what we are first, and what we can do and what we operate out of in terms of a framework, and then see where there are negotiables and non negotiables. And where there's room for compromise, where there is not room for compromise, but with that goal of committing ourselves to a better humanity, building lifestyle. So
level one, level one. Alright, so now we're gonna build, we kind of put those aside what we should be committed to in terms of rhetoric and approach number one, engaging the broadest coalition's possible to advance social change of benefit to everyone, or that remove an imminent harm, poverty, homelessness, public education, the mistreatment of migrants at the border. I want to start off by saying that one of the reasons why we're so polarized as a society is because platforms have become broader, you have to commit to an issue toward these 20 issues. And you can only find this many people willing to commit to those 20 issues if you endorse 17 of those 20. You're not welcome.
Right? So what what type of societal friction and tension is that meant to create? So start off with this? How do you form the broadest coalition's possible? All right, where you bring as many people to the table as possible, around things that are neither, you know, particularly liberal or conservative, they're just good for society and good for people. Right? You know, homelessness, who's going to say that we should not do we should not treat the homeless more humanely, we should not think about policy, that that's better for them, who's going to say that we shouldn't have better public education at least outright, who's going to say that we shouldn't combat poverty and
try to figure out a way to uplift the poor in society. And I use mistreatment of the migrants at the border from personal experience, by the way. hamdulillah I've been to the border many times. I've been Sal pasa, I've been to Juarez. I've been to Tijuana. I've been to San Diego. I've been to McAllen.
All of these different border entry points. And subhanAllah what I noticed the more and more that I started going is that you had conservative religious groups that were willing to actually come down and the statement that I will never forget by a conservative religious leader I use the term conservative not as like a super alt right. You know, I'm conservative in that socially conservative not politically liberal does not like the presidential candidate that shit he is a father he was talking about Pete Buda judge does not like none of you guys caught this post samosa alright does not like any of them. Thinks Democrats are ruining the country thinks liberals are dangerous and
cannibal
lysing like has all those perceptions and Subhanallah the word that he said really, really, really touched me. He said that I'm coming down, not because I agree with your policy proposals, but this isn't it, putting kids in cages the way that we're treating people at the border, unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable. And so when Oaklawn United Methodist Church opens up a refuge center asylum for some of the migrants that we were able to get permission to take from the Annunciation house, which is a Catholic refuge Center at El Paso, you had all types of religious groups come together to provide better accommodations for them to provide cots to provide lunch to provide whatever it is to
the Greyhound, the hotels, whatever it needed, wherever needed to be to get people where they need to get to. So even on an issue that can be polarizing,
you'll find people that just from a human bear humanitarian, or from a basic place of humanitarianism will not find that they're able to sleep at night, right with with the things that are taking place in this country. Now, some would say, if you read social movement theory, some would say broad coalition's don't work. Because the issues that they champion end up being immaterial, they're not real issues, because in order to build broad consensus, you have to shy away from the things that really need to be spoken about, and really be dealt with. The thing about that, unless those issues are so deep that they cut across identities in a society. And if you think about
the issues that I just mentioned, they do cut across all identities in America right now. We are in you know, we're in a situation of emergency, we have some of the worst statistics of poverty in of the developed world. Okay, as far as the gap is concerned, America literally leads the world in the poverty and the wealth gap, right, and what that means in terms of healthcare, what that means in terms of some of those other things that are important for us to come to come together on. So That's level one, broadest coalition, common sense issues. What would stop you as a Muslim who abides by the Sunnah, from engaging those things heavily, not because they're good PR, but because you believe
that's what the prophets like Selim would have called you to do. What stops us from that? And I give the example of the Sikh community. All right, you know, subhanAllah, after Hurricane Katrina, those people I saw them in New Orleans, the Sikh community, do things that I did not see from any other community, it was zeal it was it was a special, it was a special type of energy that they brought to the to the to the process of refugees into the process of rehabilitating the refugees in the evacuees from Hurricane Katrina, right? Where are Muslims in those activities? Don't you think building that goodwill allows you to have a more authoritative voice on some of the more difficult
conversations that I'm about to get to? Right? If you were president, not just for the press conference, presidents for the hard work in these issues, don't you think people would take you more seriously, and people would have a more difficult time demonizing you, right for your scriptural commitments and for the way that you abide by the Sunnah of the Prophet salallahu Salam. So That's level one. Level two, joining are engaged in coalition's that are for the sake of social cohesion, unity, General Welfare, harmony, civil discourse, and coexistence, broader picture,
you know, where these things are actually being discussed about how we how we come to a place where we can agree to disagree, live and let live, but not in a way that's hateful or everyone go back to their corner. But if the city of Plano was to form some sort of welcoming cities, I don't know if you guys have a Welcoming Cities Committee here in Plano they do in Dallas. And it brought together many different communities and talks about how to make Plano, a more inclusive place a more harmonious place, obviously, I think Muslims should be at the table for those things. As far as civil discourse is concerned, I'd really recommend you guys look up Cornel West and Robert George,
who are on the opposite ends of the political spectrum. Robert George who advances socially conservative positions, but has horrible positions on issues like Palestine, right, Cornel West who has wonderful positions on Palestine is, you know, politically liberal, and just ideas, ideas of creating forums and fostering forums on civil discourse. How do we as Americans, right, learn to live with one another in peace without demonizing one another? Now to bring this out of like that big realm? How do you engage your diversity and inclusion groups at work? How many of you have diversity inclusion groups at your workplace? Can you raise your hands?
So you don't sit those out? Because you say I'm a Muslim, I can't be at that place. So I'm not going to engage diversity and inclusion, because, you know, there's, there's other groups that are there, you know, if I do that, then you know, what's gonna happen with the LGBT group? What's gonna happen with this group in that group? You don't do that. Right? You engage it thoughtfully, thoroughly. You try your best to make the best of that situation. If there's an effort like that, that's at a school and things of that sort, then obviously, you know, more
Muslims will naturally engage those things in ways that are beneficial and not so deeply problematic level three.
This is where we're starting to get specific and it starts to get tricky joining or engaging coalition's that address specific issues, specific issues that are about harm reduction. But they are politicized in their nature, criminal justice reform, police brutality, militarism, health care, environmentalism, ecological justice, these are things that are very political, or they're very politicized, even though they are about harm reduction. Okay. So when Muslims engage those things, how do they engage those things thoughtfully, thoroughly. Again, the more specific the issue, the more specific the issue, the less problematic it is who you know what the ally ship isn't who's
around the table, we're here to do this, we're here for this issue. Because this is an issue. That means something to us, outside of the political realm, because I want you guys to think about, again, your own lifestyles, and not just be critiquing leaders, but also thinking about your own life, your own lives and the things that you might engage in your family lives, safety measures in schools, if there was a PTO that came together that formulated to tackle certain issues in school. Are you going to say that? Well, if these people are at the table, I'm not going to sit there? No, you're going to be there because the PTO is addressing XYZ. And it's important now, on these issues
that are specifically about harm reduction? How do we engage them thoughtfully? Number one, I still think we speak from a place of FISMA and place of service, charitable endeavors within these areas, which is the least political form of these politicized issues. All right. So for example, Hamdulillah, I had the blessing of starting Muslims, for migrants with Imams, a check it for celebrate mercy. And we literally paid Bail Bonds, free people Hamdulillah that were held in my custody, reunited them with their families. This is something that by the end, somehow I can't tell, I don't want to go into it because of the time can't tell you how many stories what it's like to see
a parent that got snatched away for something so silly, something so insignificant, you know, I was on my way to class
a few months ago with a brother and there was an I'm not making this up. There's a rainbow in the sky. I'm not talking about the flyers. All right, an actual rainbow, no one painted a rainbow in the sky or a rainbow in the sky. And so everyone that's driving by is looking at the rainbow in the sky. And as we're looking at it, like Subhanallah got rear ended on the highway. All right. I'm on my way to class. And the brother who was driving the car, I was a passenger had to make a decision because the guy came out 21 years old, crying. I mean, crying, begging for forgiveness, saying, Look, I'm undocumented, my papers expired. I have a three year old daughter pulled out the pictures, said if
the police come I'm going to jail. I'm not making this up, please. And I thought how miserable of an existence does that have to be that you have to worry about something like that, especially with SB four where the police can act like ICE agents and enforce that right? Just because he was looking at the rainbow got distracted for a moment boom. Right? So charitable endeavors within these areas. That's number one. Number two prosthetic paradigms being very intentional about your present there because the Sunnah calls you to be there and this this, this this in this issue, right? You don't just give religious languaging to something that's not religious at all. You're actually there
because you need to be there. And this is where there's an important distinction here within volume within transgression, and in the shutter essence, shipwreck in the Sitka, the little nataline, right? Chinook is a great transgression. Right? But at the same time, it took the Sahaba time to formulate that understanding of Chinook everything. If you do volunteer yourself when you disobey Allah subhanaw taala. It's a form of loading. There are societal transgressions of fly ash, right, those immoralities and things of that sort in society, that's a form of volume, but then there is a specific form of loan which is to add D which is the transgression upon another person, which speaks
to a basic sense of fitrah Okay, so the scholars for example, will mention the distinction between what I shall call the Allahu Taala and has said about Zina and hummock versus Wade a little tougher theme, and what either muda to see let's be a them in Coachella. So let me break it down to add the basic transgression. One of the first revelations was ALLAH condemning the people for female infanticide, burying their girls alive. You don't need a long construction to understand why this is problematic and wrong and deeply oppressive, waiting on minimal toffee and cheating with the weights. You really don't need a long construction. To really understand this. Let's type D and it
is the transgression of others.
are people's rights. The other thing What did I shall the Allahu anha say if the first idea to be revealed was Do not drink alcohol the people would have said, well Allah he will never stop drinking alcohol and if the first idea to be revealed was Do not commit Zina, the people would have said, Allah he will never stop committing Zina. But then Allah subhanaw taala gave tau hate spirituality, these reminders of the Hereafter, a greater longing that causes us to channel our desires to that longing. Alright, one of the people I gave shahada to, he's he's a rapper, and I've made it a lesson to never reveal the names of them anymore, because then people go and harass them and say, I heard
about your shahada story Alright, so Subhanallah he said, he said, Look, I can be Muslim can't stop eating pork. I love my bacon too much. Okay, I'll be Muslim but my bacon Gotta have my bacon. Yes, before impossible meat and Beyond Meat and the bacon still doesn't taste all that good, right? Sometimes it turkey bacon, but it was like shallot right? Those primarily those things arise from shallot lusts and desires that get channeled into all types of sexualities into all types of actions in society, and you've got to teach people to aim and long for something greater, right to long for something greater. Now, can we just say as Muslims, we're only going to engage on the tide depart?
No, because harm reduction is only one part of our Muslim moral framework. Our Muslim moral framework involves more than just oppression and harm, but oppression and harm is the most common sense deeply rooted, that you can engage other people on the profit slice. I'm engaged in healthful football. If you go back and you watch the 40 Hadith on social justice that I did with European helful football, which was the League of the just that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam formulated that something happened, or we got more guns coming. Okay. The security stuff is new to me. I'm not used to this. All right. So the prophets lie Selim engaged before Islam and hateful
football, which was that the tribes came together. And I'm paraphrasing this whole lecture with all the lessons and it's from headful flute, the tribes came together before Islam, five prominent tribes and took an oath that they will protect the vulnerable amongst them, those from the lower tribes or the tribe lists or the visitors and the foreigners, meaning that their coop, their rights would not be taken away from them without everyone standing for them when those rights were taken. Primarily this is in the realm of economic transgression, right? So you owe someone money. Forget you. You don't belong to this tribe. What are you going to do about it? Okay. The prophets lie.
Selim was part of Hensel football and he said after Islam, he said that there is nothing more beloved to me. He described that more beloved than a valley of red camels, which is the way that you describe
love for something, then this health, this oath, this pledge that we took before Islam and he said, Allah, He, if I'm called to it again, then I will respond to it again. And one of the blessings of the that Ben McLeod Rahim, Allah to Allah mentioned that he said that one of the implications of that was that Muslims when the prophets lie, some said that he's in a position of power. Okay? Meaning when the prophets lie, so when you're on the vulnerable side of society, it's beneficial. It makes sense to engage in those types of pacts and relationships. But now you're powerful. Now you're you have the upper hand so you could say deal with it. Right? The prophets lie Selim engages as
such, it's common sense. You don't bear the Schick, the Zina, the, you know, the adultery, the the fornication, the alcoholism, all the stuff that the Arabs were doing, aside from idol worship that stem from idol worship, to to participate in that type of a pledge, because it's specific, to be anti to add the which is a very specific form of oppression. But, as we said, our moral framework, and I don't have time to go into moral foundations theory, our moral framework has more than oppression and harm to it, right? So what about the entirety of the framework? What about less and desires? What about, you know, committing to celibacy? What about committing, you know, outside of
Nikka? Right, what about committing ourselves to abandoning alcohol and things of that sort? The spirit of achieving the entire framework should be from a place of concern and wanting good for people, whether we're doing admit to them service for Allah or calling them to Allah, it should come up from a place of concern and well being that this is for your benefit, this isn't a shame or to put people down. This is for the longing of something greater. And I want to actually speak to Malcolm from a philosopher from from a philosophical perspective. When Malcolm left the Nation of Islam he formed Muslim mosque Incorporated, and he said, this will give us a religious base and the
spiritual force necessary to rid our people of the vices that destroyed the moral fiber of our community. So Malcolm said you can't separate political oppression this
is a very, this is very important, though you can't separate political oppression from, from social degradation from economic exploitation, political oppression, social degradation, economic exploitation. And he said the genius of the Nation of Islam was it was able to take people and have them commit to this entire framework. Right. So it wasn't just about reclaiming Black Power and pushing back on the racial injustice towards black people in America, it was able to get them to commit to these these very high standards because they believed in something right, so now come wanted to recreate basically a Sunni version of the Nation of Islam. He wasn't able to do so. Okay,
Muslim mosque incorporated only got 100 or so members. So he formed he formed Au, au organization for Afro American unity, which was a broader umbrella where more people can come under similar political ideals and they could work together. And his ideal was that he said the Muslim mosque incorporated members would be so committed to those causes, that they would naturally show people that the solution to racism in America is Islam.
So while they're working under AU, AU, the broader umbrella, they'll see the beauty of Islam through the commitment of the Muslims the zeal of the Muslims. Right. And that would make them long for the other side of those things. So how do we draw out a towhees centric
framework? That helps us understand that not every objective of the deen is going to be attained by the way through politics, alliances, and coalition's right Ilhan Omar and Rasheeda Talib getting two minutes.
All right. Did you send them? Alright Ilhan Omar and Rashida to leave is not Elijah unless Allah he will.
All right. It's not every objective of the deen is going to be achieved through politics alliances, and coalition's Tao is still has its place. calling people to align to a better way has to still happen to hate still is our primary concern. All of that which is good and bad in accordance with our divine revelation is worth challenging society with. So what that means is my commitment to societal justice does not mean that I relinquish my commitment to Dawa and vice versa. Those things do go hand in hand. Alright, level four coalition's with faith groups that share our concerns, commitments or plights. 68% of Latinos, as I mentioned, identify as Roman Catholic, the AME Church,
the Church of Rosa Parks, the Civil Rights church, the church that brought together black liberation theology, also a socially conservative church, by the way, Orthodox Jews, when's the last time you saw a Muslim interfaith All right, with a religious group that shares the dual burden that we do of being racialized and discriminated against as well as having religious commitments that make things uncomfortable for them wherever they may be. So building those types of alliances, alright, I'm going through level five, engaging forums that discuss the advancement of family values, social order, wholesome morality, etc. With authentic paradigm. So this is kind of on the right of the
aisle now. Okay, so I'm doing a
I'm doing a panel with JD Greer, who's the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. So basically the most important person amongst evangelicals right now at NC State. neighborly Faith is an evangelical Muslim initiative, we should if we have people that are sensible, that are willing to talk that are willing to discuss these issues with us, we don't we don't shut the door on anybody. So alright, let's talk. Let's get together, we should engage these forums. Can I have five minutes Jeff? Will do for Where's bobina?
Alright, man, I'm sorry. All right, let me run through this. So what's our here's some things to consider what's our unique intervention to society? What are our legitimate solutions to society's legitimate problems that often get hijacked by illegitimate agendas? How do we differentiate between well meaning individuals and big agendas, when people come to the messenger to support you, as allies from any community, don't assume that they're part of some grand agenda and scheme to ruin you. All right. Most people are just well meaning individuals, right, that you can talk to and not cast an entire assumption of them being a part of these great agendas, find out balanced voices to
work with on different sides of the spectrum voices like Reverend William Barber who champions the Poor People's Campaign, and if I'm being consistent Arthur Brooks on the conservative side, who talks about social justice from a conservative perspective, and then this is what I'm going to end with alone, Stan, I got a lot of I didn't even get to the problems part. I just built the framework. Alright. I'm just gonna read this part inshallah. All right. Put the pressure on in the space that you are in. If the people that you're with within a coalition or an idea ideate in a certain direction that's positive. So there's obviously something positive that brings us to the table.
There's some things that we don't overlap in, but we're sitting with people we're working
towards this goal that is positive. If you're with people that ideate in a certain direction that's positive, push them to be consistent with their claims. What does that mean? When I'm in a liberal setting and people identify as progressives, why do you exclude Palestine? Why are you progressive on everything except for Palestine? If you're talking about cages in the border, where are you on Gitmo and above *, and the torture chambers of the American government that put Muslims exclusively in these places? If you're talking about policing, why aren't you talking about militarism? Right? Why aren't you talking about the bombardment and the devastation of the Muslim
world? And by the way, if I'm an illiberal setting, you're going to always hear me bring those issues up, because it makes people uncomfortable, but I challenge them on their consistency. So you don't want me to talk about Afghanistan and the bombing of the pine farmers? You want me to take that out of my speech? Why? Explain it to me? So challenge them, if I'm in a conservative setting, push them to consistency, your insistence on morality is wonderful. Why is it that you treat a man who bragged about grabbing women by the private parts as if he's Jesus? Or the Messiah? Right? Your insistence on the sanctity of the baby is wonderful, the unborn, right, and the fetus and not
treating it like a lump of flesh? We have similar ideas. Not not quite to the right, but we're somewhere in the center there. But we agree on the sanctity of that child. It's a rule hits a spirit fine.
But how come that doesn't translate into black and brown babies once they're actually born? You insist on religious freedom. What about the Oilers? What about the largest mass atrocity in the world right now infringing upon people for their religion? So I've worked with conservatives on that on that issue. And as well as the Rohingya issue and I have no shame about that whatsoever conditional ally ship should be rejected. Often our can our ideas of conditional ally ship are imagined. Meaning what and I'm gonna end with this in sha Allah Tala. Along with Stan, I'll get to the other stuff at some point, probably have to develop this into a longer talk. But I want to end
on this point.
Stop being so insecure with yourself.
When you articulate yourself intelligently, compassionately, sensitively, when you build relationships with people, you'd be surprised how understanding people will actually be when you sit with them. And you explain to them where you are on certain issues. And you don't do it in a social media type way. Especially if your presence for hire, especially if your presence for good, then it'll make those ideas of tension more palatable to people that otherwise would throw them out the door or assume that they come from the same harsh hearted place as their opponents in society. Don't be so insecure with yourself. I have never, never been asked to relinquish the sunnah to relinquish
my positions on anything by anyone in Dallas except on the issue of Palestine, by the way, unfortunately, multiple times. But on this issue of LGBT, on the issue of Muslim morality or social, no LGBT group has ever told me you can't be here because you hold this view. No one says that to me. No one has ever you know, you can have thoughtful conversation people just like you cannot work right. If you are able to be secure with yourself and show and express those things compassionately, sensitively, authentically inshallah to Allah so we show people the beauty of the Sunnah of the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Tala and we pray that those are the elements that shine and that allow us
to navigate those tensions a little bit better there's not going to Ohio send
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