Omer El-Hamdoon – Hypocrisy Exposed by the Burning of the Notre Dame

			The recent fire which has engulfed and destroyed notre dam Cathedral in France, has displayed in my
view a law of hypocrisy,
		

			hypocrisy on two levels. Firstly, the hypocrisy of French secularism. And secondly, the hypocrisy of
quote unquote, religious people. And I want to just explain that a little bit because I think it is
quite worrying.
		

			And almost I can feel some sort of
		

			anger within me when I hear matters related to this, first of all, not for down is a cathedral. It's
a religious building as a religious icon and relic of France, at the same time, in which France is
clearly secularist, it's irreligious, it's against religion. In many ways, it's against religious
identity. And we've seen that in many aspects, and it's almost part of its heritage, in the, in the
Renaissance against religion, but now, once this religious building has burnt, and so much people
have wept about it, we see that there are secularist leaders and figures within France who have
actually come out to mourn
		

			this religious building, and not only that, but also promise to restore the building to its glory
and, and so on. And then itself quite disturbs me because on one hand, a country which is clearly,
you know, against religion, fighting religion, fighting religious symbolism, you know, many years
ago, they banned the hijab, in, in schools and so on, or religious symbols. And even more recently,
the whole issue of the burqini,
		

			a couple a couple years ago, also shows that kind of continuity. But now once this building husband,
which again, it cannot be described, except as a religious building, it's almost like a secularity
secularity, of that country is just being thrown aside, in an attempt to, you know, it's difficult
really is almost, you know, bewildering to explain how these two things marry up. Secondly, in the
same way, it shows that even though France is, you know, a religious against religion in many ways,
yet, there is that link still, to its Christian roots, I would very much doubt that if a mosque
burned down in France, in the same way, whether there will be such a commitment to restore that
		

			mosque, irrespective of how old it was, even if it was 1000 years old. Because even though France
has rejected religion, it still has more properly, and an attraction to organs or an association
towards religion, and the religion of Christianity rather than religion. And as something I point
that I made a couple years ago and discussed about the burqini saying that Muslim women were forced
to take off their bikinis on the beaches of France because they were religious symbols. Yet, if a
nun was walking down the beaches, would she have been exposed to a similar kind of violence threat,
you know, at gunpoint to take off their clothes. So I think that's also displays a bit of hypocrisy
		

			in terms of attitudes towards a religion.
		

			Secondly, the hypocrisy of religious people I say that in quotation marks
		

			in regards to the the, you know, within a couple of days, we've seen hearing today on the news that
there's about 800 million euros that have been raised has been raised to restore a building 800
million and obviously continues to rise, to restore, you know, bricks and mortar and these stones
		

			to,
		

			to pay for a building to pay for an inanimate object to pay for a building. That's
		

			I mean, it's a piece of art, it's something to admire to look at. yet. There are hundreds and 1000s
or even millions of people in the world today who are starving people who are going to bed without
any food and some cases, not even clean water, people who don't have shelter.
		

			And yet there is more focused on raising money for a building, rather than raising money for people
who are
		

			in need. And and this is not just about Christianity is not about cathedral is something that even
happens. And I say that regrettably as well with Muslims, Muslim organizations, and sometimes some
of the leaders of mosques in the UK, who actually give priority to their own mosque, they they want
to raise funds for their mosque, and they would deny many times
		

			charities who are raising money for people who are poor and destitute or other countries, they'd
rather give, and rather open the gates and the avenues to donate for their mosque and sometimes
spending ridiculous amounts on the mosque, in terms of its in terms of its
		

			architecture in terms of his style, you know, tiles may expensive carpets, this and that, rather
than using that same money to help people who are in need, which goes against the essence of Islam,
and this is something that also disturbs me. Because when you look at the Prophet Simon did not just
the Prophet but all the prophets, Prophet Mohammed, Jesus, Moses, Ibrahim, all the prophets, they
preached the importance of community, and there's more value given for helping people rather than
helping buildings. It's a sign of the times the prophet SAW Selim said that people will, you know,
will decorate their mosques and show off their mosques.
		

			When you look at the Prophet's mosque, it was a very simple basic building. You know, it had no
dome, there was no minarets, and they actually leaked when it when it rained, you know, yet this
simple, basic building was the illumination for the rest of the world. And that's why Medina is Al
Madina munawwara, the illuminated city because because from this mosque, you know, men and women
emerged who took
		

			the peace and justice cam throughout the world. And that's what's important. It's the people, not
the buildings that we need to invest in. So I find it really disturbing. Why see mosques in the UK,
they don't allow
		

			charities to collect, they'd rather collect for their own mosques. And not only that, we see that,
you know, the extravagance in some Arab countries and other Muslim countries who spend again,
millions upon millions of pounds and dollars on decorating the mosque.
		

			Expensive chandeliers, expensive tiling expensive engravement all that kind of thing to share
thoughts when there are people starving, you know, a mosque is a place of worship. You just go
there, you know, even the mosque in Islam is very basic. It's no chairs, no furniture, nothing, just
just an area, just a space go there to worship, a law to listen to read, etc. There's no need for
extravagance until everybody is, you know, there's no more poverty in the world then. Okay, yeah,
spend your money on these tiles that you saw, like all these luxurious carpets. So these are a few
thoughts that I wanted to show and I think the burning of Notre DOM, even though it is unfortunate
		

			to see a building like this to, you know, come to ruins, but many ways it has exposed the hypocrisy
		

			related to
		

			France particularly and also to people who claim to have religious ideals.