Shadee Elmasry – On The Ground in Syria with Tauqir Sharif – NBF 413
AI: Summary ©
The conversation covers the history and success of Islam in Syria, its impact on society, and its importance in advancing enterprise. The three stages of Islam, including education, development, and self-investment, are emphasized. The importance of independence and helping people in their roles is emphasized, and the use of activation methods and rebuilding efforts are discussed. The state of society and consumer, housing, and veterans, and the rising housing crisis and rising housing price are also discussed, along with challenges of living or studying in the context of the pandemic and the need for a culture to be active and not get arrested. The current state of Iran and its potential for Islamization are also discussed, as well as the challenges of living or studying in the context of the pandemic and the need for a culture to be active and not get arrested.
AI: Summary ©
Welcome everybody to the Safina Society nothing but
facts live stream on a Thursday in the
month of December where the weather out is
who knows maybe it's a I don't even
know if it's colder or not to be
honest with you and that's why people get
sick because you don't know if it's cold
you don't know if it's hot and you
get sick but this is the time and
so you got to get your vitamin C
ready and that's what's going on here to
fight these sicknesses but we are today we
have a wonderful guest we have somebody this
program is called nothing but facts we want
to get to the facts you can interpret
them as you wish you can have what
opinion you wish but we want facts and
that's what we're going for so I have
been in the effort to really understand what's
happening in a sham have ended up following
a Twitter account by the name of Toki
talks Sharif and I found it really valuable
what he was bringing to the table and
I liked his optimistic nature and so he's
I get our guest today and we're gonna
learn and see what is going on on
the ground and get his perspective and get
his commentary and his observations on the latest
happenings in a sham so welcome to the
nothing but facts live stream Tokita city miss
Milo Salam alaikum walaikum salam Jazakallah khair for
having me it's my pleasure inshallah ta'ala
okay there are not that many people that
at least that I could talk to who
are on the ground Bilal Abdul Kareem was
one of them you're the second one we
have on the grounds we are sending our
own man Salman inshallah he's going to sham
as part of relief organization let me begin
with you and for the audience to put
it out there I've already asked him what
are the red lines in this discussion he
said there are no red lines in this
discussion so we're going to talk so my
first question to you how does a British
person from what the northern part of England
I am assuming no East London so it's
the southeast London okay how does someone from
East London end up in sham well I
suppose I have to go on a bit
of a journey my my journey didn't begin
in Syria per se but it didn't begin
in sham in a different part of sham
which was Gaza Alhamdulillah Allah blessed me to
be able to go to Gaza in 2009
after the operation cost led offensive by by
the Israelis and yeah I mean we went
on a convoy took 100 ambulances from the
UK drove them border to Gaza broke the
siege and what I saw in Gaza kind
of changed me forever I wanted to stay
what year are we talking say again what
year recently this was 2009 2009 and you
are went for relief work in Gaza yes
we've been on an aid convoy so we
basically bought second hand ambulances fill them with
with aid the well-known MP George Galloway
he was the one who was leading the
convoy and basically we drove it was a
kind of aid effort but also a political
statement driving through all of these countries driving
through borders that had never been opened before
between countries you know that had issues between
them but Alhamdulillah we made it after a
couple of months of driving through different countries
doing conferences Alhamdulillah we broke the siege and
entered Gaza and what I saw there changed
me forever I really wanted to stay and
many of the brothers that would be want
to stay and the brothers in charge there
wouldn't allow us to stay they were like
your voices are more important and powerful to
us outside so I remember leaving Gaza one
of the few times you know that you
know tears were streaming down my face that's
the place that's Gaza it has a it's
an enchanting place to put it in very
basic terms so you went here in Gaza
2009 they made you leave you went back
home to England so I went back home
to England started getting involved in more relief
work I was kind of helping run the
family business which made it easy for me
so I could work three months and then
leave for three months so there was a
flood in Pakistan in 2010 went to other
you know disaster relief areas in 2010 I
was on the Marvi Marmara freedom flotilla so
this was a ship or this was a
group of ships that were sailing to Gaza
to again break the siege but break the
sea blockade and then the Israeli IDF they
basically attacked the ship came down with helicopters
nine people were killed 50 were injured we
were all arrested and taken to prison in
Beersheba or Beersheba in occupied Palestine so that
was a big international story in 2010 a
lot of these escapades that I was doing
ended up resulting in me being banned from
quite a few countries so I was banned
from obviously you know Palestine I couldn't go
to see Al Aqsa I was banned from
Egypt banned from quite a few other countries
for these kind of you know political aid
convoys if you want to call it that
that's strange because aid is usually neutral aid
is neutral if you're you know being how
can I say the nice the nice guy
which is not involving himself in you could
say fighting for human rights once you start
to push that boundary and you start becoming
an activist that's when Zionist lobbies think tank
think tanks people like this they start attacking
and you become you become an enemy okay
so you so you ended up in an
Israeli jail yeah and did your British passport
help get you out no funny enough it
didn't you know it's really funny because we
thought that as Brits we would be the
first people that would be released from prison
right because Britain and Israel are allies yes
that's the British government basically washed their hands
of us they were like we were a
contingent of I can't remember exactly how many
of us but we must have been over
15 of us some were Irish some were
Brits different ethnicities and we just assumed that
we would be the first to come out
the Irish ambassadors were great they came they
took their people out straight away because they're
very pro-Palestine they brought us some chocolates
and they said listen guys looks like you
guys are gonna be waiting for a while
and when our embassy eventually turned up they
were like well we told you guys not
to come here like what the * are
you guys doing sort of thing even countries
like Pakistan because the whole point of the
freedom flotilla it was a one it was
taking millions of dollars worth of aid it
was trying to break the illegal blockade on
or naval blockade but at the same time
obviously it was a it's a political statement
that we're saying that look this this siege
is is illegal right we didn't understand or
think that we were going to be attacked
in this manner and with this brutality but
we shouldn't have expected any different from such
a brutal regime but yeah so what ended
up happening is even countries like Pakistan who
have no ties with Israel their citizens end
up being pulled out earlier because the whole
point of the reason I'm explaining the different
citizenships I'm a bit tired so you're gonna
have to forgive me but the goal was
that they wanted to have as many different
citizenships on the ship and as many high
-profile people as possible so that in the
event something happened many there will be international
pressure and governments would intervene but like I
said even those countries that had no ties
with Israel like I think that the Pakistanis
got taken out by the Malaysian government came
in and took them out so we Brits
were actually the last ones we were the
last ones left in prison which is which
is crazy eventually the Turkish government ended up
bringing us out the British government was like
we can give you a temporary travel document
one phone call and we can lend you
50 pounds that's it but they took all
our money like how are we going to
pay for tickets the Israelis took all our
money they took our cameras they took everything
right how are we gonna what we're gonna
do with 50 pounds they were like well
you got one phone calls you got 50
pounds work it out sort of thing whereas
the Turkish government came in and they were
like look we're gonna fly you on a
five-star airline or I don't know top
of the top airlines we basically had beds
on Turkish airlines they brought us to Turkey
the president came out to meet us there
were millions of people waiting at the airport
like when we came out we came out
like heroes they prayed like heroes like I
remember coming out of the airport and onto
like this bridge and they were just people
as far as you could see when people
were shouting Takbir the whole ground was shaking
people crying people giving us flowers and I've
still got a book a sister gave me
to today it's like a book about Palestine
in Turkish and you know it's got a
message inside it and and scarves and it
was it was it was insane and then
they put us in a five-star hotel
we did the janazah of our brothers that
were killed at the at the it was
one of the famous mosques in Turkey again
millions of people came out and then they
said stay as long as you want and
when you're ready to go home we'll send
you home Wow so got on a plane
paid by them of course again with a
bed and you know first class or business
class got to the UK and everybody the
whole British contingent was kind of let out
of the airport Heathrow Airport except for me
I was held under schedule 7 and the
British intelligence wanted to wanted to question me
and I was like guys this is the
international story the whole world knows where I've
been like come on like if you want
to talk to me I'm tired I want
to go back to my family like just
talk to me I'll come back and talk
to you like this is just taking the
absolute you know but so there was like
quite a few there was a big contingent
of people waiting in the airport so they
start protesting all of my compatriots so they
were like English Scottish you know different people
that were with the British contingent they staged
a protest that we're not going to leave
the airport until you guys release him just
go just go just go so they let
me go through and obviously there was media
and people waiting and that was kind of
that was kind of a lot of the
kind of Palestine activism I was leading a
lot of convoys to Gaza after that but
because I was banned from Egypt I would
go as far as Egypt or Libya sorry
not as yeah the Libyan border and then
I would the convoys would go in and
yeah the aid would get delivered so there
was there was a lot of things that
I was doing like that and then in
2012 when the conflict broke out in Syria
I wasn't really aware of the nuances even
though I'd traveled to Syria before that and
I knew that there was oppression taking place
and stuff I wasn't aware of the kind
of finer details about the Alawite minority population
their beliefs and how they had you know
most of the control and power in government
and so it was a group of brothers
that came to visit me and they were
like look we want to take a convoy
to Syria you've got experience you've been leading
convoys through all of these countries we want
you to lead the convoy what organization was
it again so they were just a group
of brothers they were just a group of
brothers who were working in the Dawa Allah
bless them so they didn't have an official
organization so they were coming to me I
was connected to many organizations and I remember
going to all the organizations that I knew
and saying look guys this is what we're
doing and basically nobody wanted to help us
everybody was like no it's too hot you
know we can't help you you know we
need to see what the British government's going
to say about this first you know this
kind of cowardice kind of colonized mindset I
call it so yeah we ended up taking
a small convoy some of the brave hearts
from the UK Muazzam Beg came with us
obviously Guantanamo survivor one of my teachers one
of my mentors may Allah bless him and
you don't need to say anything about his
bravery and sacrifices for the Ummah so we
took 13 ambulances it was some organizations did
help us under the table and yeah April
2012 we took the first aid convoy from
the UK it was difficult but we managed
to get those ambulances into Syria and Alhamdulillah
that was a big move because once we
achieved that it empowered other people to do
the same you could say it became politically
correct at that time to start supporting the
rebels and that empowered a lot of the
rest of the Muslim community to then kind
of start working in Syria so yeah when
I went in April I was like how
can I leave this place you know people
are getting killed I saw you know mothers
you know crying over their children who had
been you know killed by barrel bombs and
I just said to myself how can I
as a man see this take place and
leave I thought of the ayah in the
Quran the
verse basically says and what is wrong with
you that you don't struggle in the cause
of Allah when you see the men the
women and the children who are screaming out
save us from this this oppressor and that
just reverberated in my mind I remember seeing
you know the video the images of Bashar
soldiers burying you know people alive and saying
to them say La ilaha illa Bashar and
I just said to myself I can't Subhanallah
I went back to the UK organized another
convoy told my wife who would only be
married for 10 months I said listen pack
your bags we're going to Syria Subhanallah and
that's it in December 2012 we were in
Syria and we never looked back okay I
want to get this straight so you took
ambulances where did you purchase the ambulances from
where were they purchased from we bought ambulances
from the UK second-hand NHS ambulances in
the UK we also bought some from Germany
wherever we could find them in Europe we
bought right-hand drives left-hand drives everything
that was they call them there's a word
for it when they go out of service
basically because so obviously these rich Western governments
after 10 years of use they basically take
them out of service they're still brilliant ambulances
Mercedes, Reynolds so we would buy them like
that and and fill them with aid and
drive them to Syria okay you drove them
to Syria or you had them shipped you
drove them drove all through Europe and from
Europe to Turkey yeah yeah so we would
drive them to Palestine so I basically use
the same route that I used to use
to Palestine because basically one of the things
that's important to understand is that the convoys
in 2009 many of the people that went
on those convoys it was like a an
awakening and a realization for them because they
were like wow we can actually do something
ourselves we don't need to like all of
this red tape that because we are privileged
and we have British passports we can do
a lot and I basically stuck like glue
to a guy called Kieran Turner he's not
Muslim Allah subhana wa ta'ala guide him
but he was very gracious he's an expert
I mean he this guy's been doing aid
convoys to all different parts of the world
Africa and all sorts for many many years
so he basically I stuck to him like
glue and learn how to navigate the different
countries how to do cargo manifests how to
you know liaise with different borders how to
organize ships you know that this is this
it's not that difficult and yeah we just
started doing our own convoys and that's basically
what happened so we would drive from the
UK take the channel tunnel or take a
take a ferry to Dover to France then
from France we would there's two routes that
we could take we could either drive down
the coast to Gaza it was two routes
we'd drive down the coast to Spain from
Spain get a ferry to Morocco and then
go all the way through North Africa, Morocco,
Algeria, Tunisia, Libya I was actually in Libya
a week before the war started and Gaddafi
was taken out and then we'd go to
Egypt and then to Al Arish to Gaza
that was one route the other route which
we started using for Syria was you go
through Europe you get to we'd go to
Belgium Luxembourg basically all the way through the
east end up in Bulgaria Bulgaria to...
there's so many borders I'm looking at the
map here there's so many borders yeah so
in Europe because you've got Schengen it's very
easy most of these borders are very easy
Eastern Europe gets a bit tricky but generally
it's very easy Schengen?
yeah it's like the Schengen zone so like
there's no borders in Europe basically you're not
driving through any borders like you're driving through
different countries but you wouldn't really...
oh so you didn't have to stop yeah
because we're Brits like many countries like you
can you literally drive through a country you
wouldn't realize you went from Belgium to France
okay so that explains a bit yeah it's
only certain countries like Switzerland that have borders
everything else is basically open it's a bit
like America in the States when you drive
from one state to another state I'm assuming
there's no checkpoints there's no like police waiting
there saying give me your passport which is
how all the Muslim countries should become that's
what we wish that all the Muslim countries
would become like that's what it was like
previously in history and we hope one day
we've got some kind of Muslim passport that
we can do we've got a lot of
work to do so you go from England,
you know I'm all about maps so I'm
just looking at this you get to Belgium,
Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia no
no no we wouldn't go through the Balkans
so we would go from Austria what's on
the east of Austria give me a few
different Hungary and Slovakia yeah so we go
from Hungary and then from Hungary not to
Slovakia we would go to there's a route
Romania Bulgaria we could have go to yeah
Romania Bulgaria the other route is that we
would drive to where's the place now Italy
we will drive to Italy get a ferry
from Italy to Greece and then from Greece
into Turkey that's the other route Greece okay
so you go up around Greece to Turkey
so you would skip Sarajevo, Bosnia and those
areas yeah because those countries the roads are
poor so what we'll do is there's a
port in Italy if I can remember the
name of it I mean this is a
long time ago now right so my mind's
not as good as it was but we
would go from let's see if I can
remember the name of the port there's a
port in Italy and there's a port in
Spain and we would go over to Greece
that was probably one of the best routes
Greece is absolutely beautiful driving in Greece nothing
like it amazing wow so you're driving 12
hours a day how long does this take
yeah so again the convoys would kind of
be political statements so what we would do
is we'd have press conferences along the way
smart you'd stop in different countries and in
Europe it was always very kind of organized
it was easy and obviously they're not Muslim
majority countries but as soon as you would
hit Muslim majority countries different level people crying
on the streets people taking their sisters taking
their gold off and giving it to you
you know people waiting in the rain for
the convoy to come past you know a
different you know the Muslim ummah is so
empathetic with Muslim causes and they would treat
you like we were heroes that we were
going to liberate these countries and sometimes I'd
feel guilty I'd be like look we're just
driving ambulances but there's nuances right us as
privileged even though we're not I'm not a
white Westerner but I'm still a white I'm
still a brown Brit right which means that
I have privileges that other people don't so
for example us as Westerners with Western passports
we can go to Al-Aqsa but Palestinians
can't so we would literally meet so many
Palestinians on route that were not able to
go to Palestine so for them this was
amazing and similarly with the Syria convoys the
same sort of thing many Muslims are like
oh you're going to Syria to help you
know and they would have that empathy and
people filling up our cars for free and
saying you're not paying for the fuel and
all sorts of amazing beautiful you know stories
I can tell about how great our Ummah
is and can be sometimes SubhanAllah so kids
you know when you said you'd take these
ambulances I was thinking what are you like
driving them to the port and then shipping
them there and then meeting them there so
you guys driving them you must have been
a huge group like minimum 20 people right
10 ambulances the first convoys were small but
we I mean we were doing 100 car
convoys Wow sounds like a blast yeah yeah
amazing amazing I mean those convoys changed my
life and I would one of the most
amazing experiences you can ever have especially if
you've got a good group of brothers on
there and it's a good dawah opportunity for
non-Muslims as well when they see us
pray when they see the muamalat but yeah
many people who went on those early convoys
all have their own projects now they have
their own aid organizations or they have their
own projects or they're in different countries around
the world so they were really they activated
a lot of a lot of people from
the UK especially because they were like wow
we can do things ourselves so there was
a lot of Barakah in it but yeah
SubhanAllah amazing amazing memory so it took you
like a month I'm assuming with all the
press conferences the stoppages 3 weeks normally 4
-8 weeks 4-8 weeks wow and then
who who are you submitting these vans to
so when we would come into Syria it
depends if you're talking about Palestine or Syria
either one so yeah so we would have
coordination with different hospitals inside Palestine or inside
Syria and then we would basically distribute them
to the hospitals and that's what we would
and of course no hospital is going to
say no to that no hospital is going
to say no to an ambulance from Europe
for free full of aid so you don't
even need to actually have anyone there prepared
you just go show up any hospital and
yeah obviously that would be chaotic but we
were organized like that so we would make
sure that everything is organized beforehand and like
I said I took two convoys to Syria
myself after that I was inside Syria and
the brothers continued to organize convoys and I
would basically organize everything internally but this is
where the story gets a bit I mean
it's part of our journey and this is
where I mean it wasn't all what do
they say all rosy posy if you want
to call it that so in 2013 we
brought in a really big aid convoy of
ambulances from the UK at that time ISIS
was on the rise basically there were 99
99 of those vehicles were being driven by
Muslims one was driven by a Christian called
Alan Henning so the convoy was at least
250 people because you have more than one
driver for each vehicle and out of those
250 people we had one Christian and Alan
was a guy that basically he had empathy
for the Syrian cause he was very receptive
to the dawah he was very close to
becoming Muslim and he was just a simple
guy a taxi driver when he when we
got the when we got ambulances in and
the ambulance reached Syria they got to a
place called Dana and ISIS came and kidnapped
oh my god wow so they kidnapped Alan
Henning and what ended up happening is that
many people on the convoy obviously got scared
ran back to the countries it was chaotic
I tried negotiating with many of their leaders
we said to them look guys this is
haram what you're doing we have given this
person a covenant of safety and security he's
not someone of great importance in the UK
the UK is not going to pay you
a ransom because you know ISIS they were
like we're going to strike fear into the
hearts of the Ghaffar and you know we're
going to get a ransom and I pleaded
with them I negotiated with them for months
I was one of the people that negotiated
with them or tried to negotiate with them
and unfortunately to no avail eventually they ended
up putting Alan in a orange jumpsuit and
filming it and basically decapitating him and executing
him and that was very very problematic when
that happened again that was a turning point
for me because my mum always told me
and it's something that's a part of my
character and it sometimes gets me into trouble
but it's an Islamic principle you know that
speak the truth whether it's for you or
against you it's a ayah of Quran too
so at that point I came out publicly
against ISIS, me, Bilal, a few others you
know troublemakers and we basically started telling people
that these people don't represent Islam whilst we
were inside Syria so this is what people
need to understand many ulema, many people were
still on the fence they weren't sure and
we took a lot of heat people were
saying you lot are munafiqeen, how can you
say this these guys are mujahideen and we're
like guys we're in Syria people were like
no you're looking at western news we're like
we're in Syria we know these people we
see what they're doing to the Muslims right
and so yeah they tried to kill me
I had a black toy Hilux they put
a bomb in under it but Alhamdulillah I
survived I had a gym, I had a
youth project where I would train youngsters in
a refugee camp they put a bomb in
that I survived Alhamdulillah this is an insane
story I did not expect this at all
by the way everyone I came into this
totally cold not having a clue but this
was this is insane keep going I've got
loads of stories bro this is just the
beginning wow so yeah so we continued Alhamdulillah
we persevered those were difficult times many people
said to us look you're crazy what you're
doing and we said look this is the
truth we have to make sure that you
know people know the reality and it took
quite a while before other people caught on
and realised yeah actually these guys are what
you know these lot are saying but subhanAllah
obviously now there's no dispute over this but
at that time it was a very difficult
stance to take but Alhamdulillah there was a
lot of blessings and barakah obviously we didn't
do it for any reward or for any
reason we just done it because it was
the right thing to do because we saw
the damage that they were inflicting the murder
you know they had a thing called qatal
maslaha we kill people for the greater benefit
this is one of their like when we
would talk to their scholars like their shari
'een they called them they would say yeah
they would profess we got qatal maslaha we
had a maslaha to kill that person so
we killed him and because you know we're
building an islamic state it's fine that's some
insane fiqh yeah so some insane insane you
know situations you got that in the Hanafi
school that's some insane fiqh oh my goodness
so how did continue so this is like
one of those things when people say things
to me I say to them look guys
you're talking from things that you've seen on
videos and stuff you know we've personally met
these people we've been in their courts we've
you know we've negotiated and we've spoke to
these people and you know we know these
people first hand we know like we've heard
it from the horse's mouth I'm not this
is not a second or third party source
do you understand and yeah like I said
people found it difficult to believe at that
time but obviously over time we were proven
right not that that means anything what matters
is what you know Allah SWT is pleased
with and nothing else but it's also nice
to you know to when people recognize that
actually you guys took a stance that was
very difficult and the right stance to take
yeah I mean you're given the way they
act if they're doing Qatil Maslaha I'm sure
they're going to do Qatil Taskeet or Qatil
to get someone to close their mouth right
so that's so you survived two attempts from
ISIS to kill you to bomb you essentially
and then at what point did you say
nah forget this I'm going back to England
and at what point did you say no
you know what I'll stay here there was
never I'm going back to England I mean
me anyone who knows me from you know
before I started practicing Islam knows that I
was kind of always an adrenaline junkie and
I loved doing all the bungee jumping skydiving
fast cars all of that kind of stuff
so you know for me being you know
in this kind of environment Alhamdulillah it was
I mean there was many blessings I know
that might sound a bit crazy but when
you're in the path of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala you see many miracles you see
many difficult things I've seen crazy things I've
seen a lot of death destruction I've seen
some of the most difficult things that you
know someone can see but at the same
time Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you know
gives you resolve you know when you're when
you're when you're doing the right thing and
and no one will truly understand that until
they go out and put themselves in these
situations you know I read somewhere that you
know you won't truly understand many ulama say
that you won't truly understand until you're you
know in the midst of battle and I
can relate to that you know I've been
in situations where everybody around me has died
and I'm the only person that survived Boy
you gotta tell this story now so yeah
I mean we used to do a lot
of work with with hospitals and stuff in
Aleppo in you know different regions all across
Syria and obviously hospitals were a target so
I was in a building once a missile
hit the building and basically nearly everybody died
I literally walked out of that room I
walked out of that building smoked you know
when these buildings it hits like white clouds
of smoke just envelop everything you can't breathe
you're choking and you're just trying to you
know fight your way out because you can't
see anything because of these clouds of smoke
but I ended up walking out of there
perfectly fine me and one other person another
guy was on the balcony of the building
he ended up flying off the balcony and
landing on the street perfectly fine and me
and him were the only two that survived
so and that was an ISIS bombing no
no that was a airstrike that was a
airstrike from the Bashar regime Bashar ok the
Bashar regime was targeting a hospital so obviously
the ISIS thing is a side point it's
just one of the side kind of points
of the brutality of the you know Bashar
regime there was many different things that were
happening inside Syria but obviously the main aggression
was from Bashar al-Assad and his you
know brutality killing his own people that's how
the whole kind of revolution started the ISIS
chapter was just you know that was a
side thing so the majority of it was
from the Syrian government yeah yeah I mean
obviously ISIS's thing was about power they had
a time when you know they took power
they announced the caliphate and stuff like that
there was a lot of infighting but obviously
the fight has always been against the Bashar
regime and Bashar's regime was brutal there was
a British doctor who took a wrong turning
in Aleppo in the early days Dr. Abbas
Khan and he ended up getting tortured to
death so it was a dangerous place but
this is not to put people off like
one of the things I really want people
to understand is that safety is relative right
yep I was closer to death in the
UK than I've ever been in Syria I've
been in Syria for 12 years and I
always ask myself you know is it because
you know I'm unworthy of shahada may Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive me and purify
me and purify my intentions if I am
because obviously we're always in the quest for
shahada if Allah blesses us with that or
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has you know
a different plan for me but subhanAllah like
it's one of those things where you know
if your time is up your time is
up I was in the UK when I
was 19 I was stabbed in some gang
violence and I could have been another statistic
I could have been a number I could
have been just that Asian guy that young
lad that got killed in London in a
gang fight but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
gave me a different opportunity he gave me
an opportunity to you know you know be
guided inshallah Allah gave me hidayah and that
you know opened doors for me so now
knowing that why would I hold back why
would I be afraid and this is important
you know Allah says in the Quran even
if you're in tall high towers death is
going to come to you wherever you are
so you know going out in the path
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is it's
unfortunately we're in a situation where the men
of the ummah are not fulfilling their obligations
we have become a people of dunya and
that's why we're in the decadence that we
are you know I mean one of the
sad things for me is that for 13
years the Syrian people have been being brutalized
but now that the victory has come everybody
wants to come to Syria and it's like
brothers we needed you and in these 13
years I take my hat off to the
sisters because wallahi many of the sisters were
consistent and supported us and supported and supported
and supported and you know times they had
no one to support them the filling containers
by themselves and doing all sorts and you
know that's unfortunate but now Alhamdulillah we want
people to enjoy the victory but at the
same time sometimes it's disheartening that brothers man
we need to we need to step up
especially brothers in the west because we can
do a lot more what I feel is
that in the west we have so much
advantages and we're staying in the safe zone
we want to stay in the safe zone
we're not even willing to like we're not
even saying get to the boundary we're not
even willing to push those boundaries you know
what I mean and we want to stay
safe all the way down here the boundaries
here we want to stay all the way
down here right I recently heard some clips
Sheikh Asrar Rashid I love him you know
he's a sheikh brother in Islam respect him
but when it comes to Syria I don't
agree with his sentiments that you know we
take the side of safety that to me
shows a lack of standing of the Syrian
conflict do you understand I believe and I've
never personally spoke to Sheikh Asrar but I
believe many people like him held that view
because they were able to go to Syria
they were able to go to Damascus to
Ruknuddin and certain places where they could study
in these small enclaves and what it does
it gives this illusion that everything is okay
and there's deen here and people are studying
but the reality is that's not the case
you know people were being brutalized people were
being taken if they would go to pray
salat al fajr in the masjid people were
being taken to Sednaya and Tadmor for growing
a beard many of the sisters that I
know that are Palestinian sisters here that are
part of my team and they teach in
our madaris our schools and our institutes if
you hear their stories they used to they
studied Sharia in secret they studied in secret
they used to learn deen in secret like
Tariq Al-Arqam back in the day in
the time of the Prophet ﷺ you couldn't
learn deen in Syria for yes for the
privileged people that were going to Ruknuddin and
foreigners that were coming from outside yes you
could and it looked it gave this illusion
but if you look at the amount of
people these mass graves that we're finding now
this has been a systematic I was just
talking to an Italian reporter yesterday and we
were just in a mass grave and we
were looking at these bags bro look at
some of the videos I just done the
last couple of days this is like 48
hours ago the Syrian families that came to
this mass grave with us they started opening
these mass graves in front of us and
what they started taking out was not bodies
bags sacks with names on them names and
numbers so it makes you think who went
to the effort of putting bones of a
human because you can't fit a body in
a sack so either these people were cut
into pieces and put in these bags but
then there was no remnants of blood inside
these bags it means these bodies were somewhere
else and they were moved and that's what
happened when we did a bit of investigation
and digging we went to a place called
Al Qutayf which is just north of Damascus
and when we asked the people we said
look guys we heard that there was a
mass grave here they said yeah there's a
mass grave everybody in the town knew about
the mass grave we said how does everybody
know they said because the regime would come
here and force us to dig and bury
the dead and then in 2019 they came
with trucks and they made us move all
of the dead to this place so they
took 7 months to move all of these
bodies to another place and that's where we
found this place it was in a place
called Jisr al Baghdad they basically said the
place where these bodies were moved were moved
to this place so when we got there
we started finding bags with names on it
children's names women's names a name and a
number so I was talking to an Italian
journalist and he said this was similar to
what the Nazis would do because you're killing
people on an industrial scale what happens you
need to have death bureaucracy do you understand?
we killed so and so family they had
26 members of their family we've killed 13
there's another 13 left to go for example
wow crazy this means that when you see
Sednaya and you go in there when you
go to some of these military hospitals and
you see this was industrial killing it's crazy
and we know that western governments were involved
in rendition and torture you know caged prisoners
actually got compensation for certain brothers that were
sent from the UK America, Canada to places
like Egypt and Syria for torture so they
were doing all sorts of stuff with the
blessing of the west but I didn't realise
it was on this scale when you walk
into these places and you see not only
that Sednaya was Sednaya was heartbreaking for me
because the amount of people that came out
was very minute but I filmed footage where
it's literally like you're walking if anyone's ever
been to a football game or a baseball
game or a any kind of concert you
know when people are going to the venue
it's like thousands of people walking in one
direction literally I remember the first day Sednaya
was released we couldn't get our car up
Sednaya prison is on the top of a
mountain so we had to park our car
like 2km away and thousands of people are
walking all the way up this mountain to
the top of Sednaya and then inside this
prison is absolute chaos people are breaking down
walls people are trying to find this infamous
this red prison that's supposed to be under
the ground and you've got women crying and
you've got and this went on for days
my brother days people coming and you're asking
people what are you guys doing and they're
like we just want to find our loved
ones and when you see that amount of
people you realize how many people were missing
most of these people it's a psychological kind
of destruction and torture and this was going
on at a mass scale so when people
like Sheikh Asrar Rashid say we were choosing
the side of safety which is no revolution
against the Bashar regime that's insane what safety
safety for the Alawites safety for those who
are in power because the normal Sunni Muslim
population was being absolutely brutalized decimated, burned I
went to Tadhaman you've seen the video in
Tadhaman where there's soldiers and they're kicking people
into a pit and they're spraying them when
I went to Tadhaman that was just one
massacre that was filmed that ended up getting
leaked Tadhaman is Tadhaman is a site of
massacres when we went there every single person
had a story my brother, you know what
they were saying to us half of Tadhaman
is underground what they would do is they
would kill people tie them to the pillars
of the buildings, put explosives on them, blow
the building up so the building would fall
down so they didn't have to bury them,
subhanallah and Tadhaman is just rubble I mean
some of the stories like it's just you
can't, like it is literally like concentration camps
and the Nazis and this systematic killing this
is what we're talking about before the revolution
right?
and then obviously the revolution has barrel bombs
and chemical attacks and all of these different
things that were happening right?
so anyone who says that Bashar al-Assad
by not revolting against him this was a
popular revolution, look at the millions of people
on the streets right now anyone who can
say this is some western engineered revolution is
insane, that's completely untrue, has there been external
influences in this revolution?
yes of course ok we're not children of
course there's been deals made, things have happened
but the revolution is real and the reasons
why the people rose up against this tyrant,
dictator, brutal evil person is 100% real
did you ever shift from relief to taking
up arms against the Syrian side?
so my story is quite public, I've been
public about it I mean I'm an aid
worker, I came here to help people with
you know all the different things when it
came to education, relief tents, blankets, all of
this kind of stuff and this is the
things that we've done but I've been very
open about my support for the resistance and
the fact that I even went on channel
4 and debated a British parliamentarian, he was,
he's a Zionist and he actually agreed with
me, you can find this on YouTube by
the way, it's called the jihad debate, this
was in 2014 I think, and I said
the resistance the jihad, they call it the
jihad debate, I said that the jihad in
Syria is justifiable and the Zionist parliamentarian, he
agreed with me, he said Tauqir Sharif, I
agree with you right, we're talking about on
a moral ground, so I've been open about
that, I've carried a weapon, I've carried arms,
and I've been open about that I've been
like look, I've carried weapons to defend myself
and to defend those around me I cannot
be expected to be in a war zone
and you know support the Syrian people and
be you know, not be armed this is
what happened to Dr. Abbas Khan Dr. Abbas
Khan took a wrong turning and he ended
up being tortured to death, so as a
Muslim, neither do I shy away from that
I'm not a fighter that's not my profession,
but have I fought?
Yeah, I've fought to defend myself and I've
fought to defend other people and I don't
see any problem with that and I make
no bones about it and it's completely illegal
according to British law and international law, if
the Israelis can go to Israel as British
nationals and fight in the IDF army that
does international war crimes, then nobody has the
right to tell me that I cannot carry
a weapon to defend men, women and children
in Syria you know, in a defensive position
to make sure that these people are not
harmed and that's what I believe and I
even said that at the BBC and the
Americans have a second amendment, right?
Why is it a problem when Muslims carry
weapons?
Has anybody challenged you on this?
Has anyone from the British government side objected
to any of this?
No, I mean like I said, I did
that debate with the MP.
I've been very open about it.
There was one female in some of the
stuff that I did with the BBC when
I was made stateless because this is what
comes next, right?
I was deprived of my citizenship.
There's like a Zionist you could say think
tank called Chatham House one of their women,
Lena something some irrelevant woman she was like,
which kind of aid worker carries a gun?
Well I do and I like guns and
I like shooting guns and every Muslim should
learn how to use one.
So yeah.
So tell us you becoming stateless means they
stripped you of your citizenship.
Yeah, so what ended up happening is, I
mean this is a racist law.
So what happened is because obviously I was
a well-known aid worker they deprived me.
It's called a deprivation order.
The British government the foreign office at that
time it was Amber Rudd who was the
foreign minister I think it was that was
her title they put in a deprivation order
for my citizenship to be revoked.
That was in 2017.
What's the crime?
So the crime was and this is how
ridiculous it is, right?
The crime was that I am so other
people that got deprived of their citizenships it
clearly stated you have been involved in acts
of terrorism.
You have been part of a prescribed terrorist
group.
My letter said Mr. Sharif we believe you
are aligned to a group that is aligned
to Al-Qaeda.
Wow.
Right?
So this is not guilty by association.
This is guilty by association with a degree
of separation.
That's how crazy it is.
So my case had my case had anonymity
on it.
A lot of people don't know this but
my deprivation order happened in 2017.
My case didn't become public until 2019.
And again that was of my admission.
That was a political statement that we made.
Some of the human rights organizations, brothers in
the UK lawyers, we consulted.
When Shamima Begum's case, she's obviously the most
high profile Brit that was stripped of her
citizenship went public we decided that this was
the right time to piggyback off that and
come out and say no not everybody's ISIS.
You are lying.
The British government, you're trying to say everybody
was ISIS and that's why you took their
their citizenships but that's not true and what
you're doing is not only illegal and unconstitutional
and not you know, according to British values,
as they like to say but it's also
racist.
Why are only people who have ethnic minority
heritages or backgrounds, because like I'm born in
the UK, I'm born and bred in the
UK, right?
Why are we the only ones that are
getting stripped?
Why are white people not getting stripped?
So why are IDF soldiers people who have
you know, because the British government basically said
if you're a dual national we can strip
you.
I've never had a Pakistani nationality but according
to Pakistani law, I am what's the word
I'm eligible one by birthright which is crazy
so so that's why I basically got stripped
but I mean there was a lot of
support for me from politicians from the Labour
Party because obviously they were the opposition but
the way things went in the UK is
that the UK has become more right-wing,
Brexit leaving the UK, you know, anti-immigrants
all that kind of stuff the Labour Party,
they were like we'll repeat these laws if
we get the Muslim vote but Jeremy Corbyn
and his team they didn't get in, he
had the historic defeat so that ended up
happening but going back to the letter and
why I was supposedly deprived, right?
and a lot of this goes into detail
in Al Jazeera documentary, it's called Stateless in
Syria, you can find it on YouTube as
well basically in essence what the British government,
this was our defence in court so what
the British government has is something called SCIAC
secret courts, you know one of the greater
democracies of the world has secret courts where
you can't even see the evidence that is
being presented against you where you have to
make a defence on charges that you don't
know what they are so we were like
okay what, like first of all we were
like I want a public hearing, if I
have a jury I'll win, because I haven't
done anything that's unconstitutional, I haven't done anything
that's illegal, yes I've carried arms, but again
that's not illegal either and yeah I haven't
done any acts of terrorism and by default
you guys are admitting, the British government is
admitting that I am not ISIS, you're admitting
that I'm not even Al Qaeda, you're admitting
that I'm not even part of a group
that is aligned to Al Qaeda which they
meant HTS now, apparently going to be taken
off the prescribed terror list, so you're saying
I was basically a guy that was aligned
to HTS I wasn't even HTS by your
admission so the UK government wasn't having none
of it, so we went around in circles
for about two years and then we ended
up doing a press conference and boycotting the
secret courts because we were like, what I
was advised was, that if you go to
a secret court it's a very high probability
that you're going to be found guilty right,
because it's a cowboy court it's a mockery
of any kind of justice system, so you're
better off boycotting the trial and, funny enough,
my lawyer is Jewish, Gareth Pierce she's a
famous lawyer and Daniel Binberg, also another famous
lawyer in the UK very good people, shout
out to them but they were like, look,
it's better for you to boycott, because that
way you're not going to be convicted as
a terrorist in any court of law, just
means you're deprived, so that's my current status,
I'm stateless I'm not convicted of any crime
I'm not a terrorist and I never will
be a terrorist, one man's terrorist and another
man's freedom fighter, as they say and another
saying that I like is I'd rather be
a what's the saying, it's a famous Chinese
saying I'd rather be a warrior in a
garden, than a gardener in a wall that
makes sense smart, so tell me, are you
able to bring your case up?
to court somewhere?
this is what's interesting now, after liberation and
you know the British government coming and sitting
with Abu Mohammed Al Jawlani, who has a
10 million dollar bounty, and he said he
still is prescribed, and his group is still
prescribed maybe maybe it's a possibility, I mean
I've got lots of news agencies and people
talking to me, but to be honest that's
not my, I mean me losing my citizenship,
was probably one of the best things that
ever happened to me and that might sound
crazy that might sound crazy but Alhamdulillah, I
wear it I wear it as a badge
of honour and I hope that InshaAllah, Yawm
Al Qiyamah I can also wear it as
a badge of honour, why?
because during this revolution, during this journey, I
saw so many people that were escaping to
Europe for many people in the world to
have a British passport, which was a red
piece of paper or an American passport that
is like one of the most prized possessions
in the world that we live in today
so I want to be that person that
says Ya Allah I gave that up for
the sake of you so InshaAllah, I hope
Allah accepts it from you so for me
it was a blessing, when it went it
just took that fitna away from me Alhamdulillah,
it is what it is it just showed
me as well that people have so much
Iman in a piece of paper, when this
is Allah's earth, if Allah wants to open
it for you, He will open it for
you and that's why when you see today
what's happened in Syria yes, there's been a
lot of people like to be pessimists and
dwell on the negatives but there's a lot
of positives to take from it we've been
languishing in the refugee camps in the north,
besieged in Aleppo, we've been chemical attacked in
Khan Sheikhoun you know, these people have been
they have been steadfast throughout all of this
and again, like the people of Palestine, doing
a service for the whole Ummah by staying
here and resisting, resisting is not a crime,
it is an unalienable right for one to
defend themselves and to defend their land, and
we as Muslims should not be afraid to
say that, you know as long as we
understand the terminologies we can speak about this
in an intellectual manner and not be afraid
because these are the same tenets, these are
the same ideas that the west holds on
to, so why why can we not profess
this as well, and that's what's important, and
after 13 years for this, these futuha to
happen, and you know, yesterday I was in
Damascus, sitting in the Sheraton hotel, with many
of the the brothers, Alhamdulillah big, big blessings,
no one imagined that something like this could
happen, now is there sinister hands at play
now is there, you know, influence from other
countries, yes there is, and there always will
be at the time of Salahuddin, at the
time of, throughout the whole of human history
Bilad al-Sham has been a melting pot
of empires and everybody has wanted control over
this piece of land, and that's why it's
so blessed, the anbiya, the sahaba, everybody walked
here, so why do we think it's going
to be any different why do we have
this you know, this crazy idea that, oh
yeah everything's just going to be easy, and
you know, you're going to go and everything's
going to be nice there's going to be
risk, there's going to be difficulties, it's going
to require sabr it's going to require patience
it's going to require a lot of anxiety
it's going to require deals to be made
do you understand, this is siyasa sharia this
is not some utopia, like people imagine you
know, some people outside, when I listen to
their commentary I'm like, guys, what do you
think, this is some utopia Islam is just
going to fall out of the air, and
it's just going to be one perfect khilafah
that's going to come, it doesn't work like
that my dear brothers and sisters, and our
Islamic history is littered with kingships and littered
with dictatorships and littered with, you know people
doing crazy stuff, but there has to be
a group of people who are what?
muslihoon people who do islah and islah, my
dear brothers and sisters, means that you have
to come out of your comfort zone and
you have to throw yourself into the midst
of the difficulties of the ummah I always
hear people online saying you know, where are
we going to make hijrah to, what are
we going to do well there's levels, right
even if you look at the sahaba, there
were those that made hijrah to Habesha for
safety and there's those that made hijrah to
Medina to be with the prophet salallahu alaihi
wa sallam even though they knew that they
would be persecuted people like Salman al Farsi,
Suhaiba Rumi, Suhaiba Rumi when he was leaving
Mecca to join the prophet salallahu alaihi wa
sallam in Medina the famous story where the
Quraysh, they surrounded him and they said how
could you come to Mecca as a poor
man, you've made your wealth and you've made
money and now you're going to leave and
join the prophet and he said if it's
wealth you want I'll give you my wealth
and you know, he told them where his
wealth was and he was willing to fight
all of them till the end or he
gave them the option, take the wealth and
they found his wealth, they took his wealth
and he made it to Medina he was
willing to sacrifice everything so that's what it
is my dear brothers and sisters we need
to be those people that you know we're
on the line, we can't think that Islam
you know our forefathers, you know subhanAllah this
last week has been amazing, so I'm a
bit hyped I've been in the masjid of
Nooruddin Zinki in Hama, I've been in the
masjid of Khalid bin Waleed standing at his
maqam seeing the grave of Khalid bin Waleed
seeing the grave of Salahuddin Al Ayubi, these
people put it all on the line so
if you want a legacy, if you want
to be part if you want to be
recognized by Allah SWT then sitting you know
in comfort you're not going to get that
and Allah knows best let me ask you
a question, so you went to 2009 around
that time you couldn't go back, you end
up staying in Syria, so you've been living
in Syria for the last almost for a
long period of time yeah for 12, since
2012 and doing relief work yes so Alhamdulillah
we've built 44 masjids, we've built schools, we've
built villages, we've built refugee camps, we have
to be honest not many people know but
we have a lot of infrastructure, our project
is actually called Iqra we have 10 departments,
10 different departments, 355 staff, over 10,000
beneficiaries every month and we're not like your
normal aid organizations unfortunately a lot of aid
organizations they are doing the easy work basically
they say we work in 120 countries and
we give out 10,000 food boxes a
year, my dear brothers and sisters that is
compounding issues in the Ummah you're not helping
the Ummah, what you're doing by doing this
is you are one, creating a dependency two,
a lot of people are using this as
a business, that's not the real work and
that's not what the Ummah needs, Syria over
the last 13 years didn't see a lack
of aid but it saw a mismanagement of
aid, it saw exploitation it saw charities making
bucks over conflict and we see that with
Gaza now, many people who have never been
connected to Gaza are now raising for Gaza
and money is sitting in bank accounts and
it's unfortunate when it should be going to
those people that actually are working on the
ground and that's important people need to recognize
that when you're working with a charity ask
them what's your portfolio don't tell me you
work in 100 countries, I don't care if
you work in 20 countries 30 countries, don't
be that charity be a charity that specializes
and works in 2 or 3 countries but
you have quality that you're working you're not
just working on primary relief you're working on
education and development you're working on enterprise you're
helping people to stand on their own 2
feet the Muslim Ummah is a proud Ummah,
they don't want handouts everyday when I go
places people say to me Ya Abu Hussam
MashaAllah give me a job I want to
work for my rizq I don't want a
food box I don't want this humiliation but
unfortunately a lot of people in our Ummah
they don't understand that so how are you
creating businesses and that stuff, that development so
for example we have a model, we have
a sustainability model if I'm going to talk
about Iqra Iqra has a whole constitution, it
has a mindset, it has 4 stages of
work so I'm going to have to explain
this to you and you're the founder of
Iqra I'm one of the founders, so we
have a shura we have a board of
scholars we're one of the only charities in
Syria who has a board of scholars most
of your support is from England or from
everywhere we have a lot of support from
all over the world, we do a lot
of online crowdfunding we're registered in South Africa,
we're registered in Turkey and Alhamdulillah we have
many partners and you said you have a
board of scholars what do they oversee?
so they oversee the whole organization they oversee
the administration of the distribution of Zakat and
Sadaqah they also oversee the Islamic ethos of
the organization so we go to them they're
an integral part of the organization what we
have in Iqra is 4 stages of work
I wanted to do this in a proper
series to help people to understand I hope
there's some I hope people take this advice
on board it doesn't mean they work with
us but I hope that they go and
implement this in their own organizations so we
have 4 stages of work, the first stage
which is the lowest stage is primary relief
primary relief is like putting a bandage on
an open wound the ummah is bleeding out,
we have so many wounds, you by giving
food boxes yes it's needed at certain times
but just giving out food boxes is not
going to help the ummah the second stage
is education and development education and development is
the least funded sector go to your most
charities and ask them how many schools do
you support what institutes do you have most
charities what they do in America, in the
UK is their only fundraise and what they
do is they give their money to third
party charities they have no understanding of what
curriculum is being taught you know the level,
the standard of education even if they are
supporting schools right, so the second stage is
education and development not just for the beneficiaries,
I like to use the word rights holders
because that's what Islamic Relief uses, a good
term, I stole it from them I won't
claim that one, by the way what's your
website our website is I think it's project
Iqra it should be iqracharity.org I think,
but our website is a bit outdated, this
is the thing because we've been so busy
implementing inside, we haven't really been able to
show people the work in that way most
people know us as Live Updates from Syria
because that's the kind of media kind of
political stuff that we do, but Inshallah we
will be launching a new website, I think
the old website is iqracharity.org but yeah
I'm here it's not anything amazing right, so
the second stage is education and development this
is not just for the rights holders or
beneficiaries but also for our staff our teams,
we don't have any sponsorship whether it's for
widows or orphans except that it's connected to
education the education most of the time is
in Masjid, we have a strong connection of,
right now I'm sitting in this office, this
is in one of our Masjids here in
Syria, it's called Masjid al-Sakinah so you
open up a Masjid and then you run
this education out of there, yeah yeah we
have, like I said we've built 44 Masjids
in Syria some of those Masjids have gyms
some of them have different facilities it's making
them the community centres bringing people to the
Masjid so a lot of the time when
people do orphan sponsorships for example, they give
money, but what they don't realise is that
in a war zone, this sister has many
different variables, many factors that are affecting her
life she might be being exploited because she's
living in a refugee camp, she might be
in a situation where she has trauma, so
she's buying antidepressants or drugs etc or there's
family members that are taking, so that those
funds a lot of the time don't end
up going to that orphan so what we
do is, our programmes are very different, the
mother, the widow has an education programme and
psychological support, as well as the orphan, the
yateem themselves so we do horse riding, we
are the only charity in Syria, if you
see any charity doing anything to do with
horses in Syria, that's us we implement that,
we do equine therapy, that is our project
so we have different riding centres in Syria
it's again a prophetic sunnah that we've used
to basically, you know the prophet said in
a hadith there will be blessings in the
four locks of horses until the day of
judgement we've seen that with our orphans kids
that never used to speak because they've seen
trauma, once they start riding, becoming these confident
children that can give khutbah on the minbar
you know, their school results get better their
behaviour at home gets better, etc etc, so
everything that we do is connected to education
development, so that's the second stage, the third
stage is self dependence, so our goal is
that we want independence right, not self dependence
independence so this is the third stage what
we want is, we don't want someone to
be dependent on the charity forever, so alhamdulillah
many of our sisters now they went through
our programs they're teachers, they are running their
own institutes and alhamdulillah they don't need handouts
anymore, right similarly, we're one of the only
charities that when we build homes, we give
the ownership to the people and we had
many issues with many different militias on the
ground because we were doing that, people did
not want us to do that, many organisations
here, the homes that they build are haram,
and I can list organisations and I've advised
many organisations, they get land that is contested
land because it's free, and then what they
do is they build homes on that land
this is categorically haram because many people are
using amwal al zakat, and obviously as you
know, zakat should be cash, because of laws
and stuff like that, and charities difficulties, what
ends up happening is people, we had an
exception you know, a fatwa as an exception
from the ulema to say we can build
homes for people with the condition what?
the ownership goes to those people but unfortunately,
many charities are not open about this, they
go for the cheaper option, and the homes
are not going to those people, what ends
up happening is when territories change hands different
militias control those and they take those homes
if they don't like a person sorry mate,
out of here this is a really important
concept so, the goal, the third stage like
I said, is independence the prophet said the
upper hand is better than the lower hand
so this is what we want, right?
from our people and then, so the goal
is someone who was an IDP an internally
displaced person, they lost everything in the war
they benefited primarily from Iqra then they were
educated and developed and then, they got to
a point where now they no longer need
the organization because they're independent what's the next
stage?
this is the most difficult stage, the fourth
stage, which is activating the people so that
they go on to help other people in
the community so they become a sadqa jari
for us so Iqra is like a factory,
Alhamdulillah we have many people that started with
us in our organization, now they have their
own projects we're happy for that one of
my youngsters, I've known him for since he
was 17 Alhamdulillah, he learned English Allah Mubarak
he went through university his brother was a
shaheed in Aleppo in the early part of
the conflict we sent him out to Turkey
he became a prosthetic limbs technician we helped
pay for his education and stuff he eventually
ended up getting a masters and he is
now one of the most qualified prosthetic limbs
technicians in Syria he's either trained most of
the technicians in Syria and now Alhamdulillah he
is going to Egypt to set up our
prosthetic limbs center in Egypt he's going to
be helping the Gazans this is what we're
talking about I met him when he was
17 he's married and he said to me
the other day and it really hit me,
Alhamdulillah this is what I work in he
said Abu Hussam he said all these years
that I was serving Syria, I felt like
that was just my obligation I had to
do that but he said now for the
first time now that I'm going to Egypt
I feel like you know what I'm really
going to be serving the Ummah and now
I'm going to be doing that greater struggle
that's beautiful I know I went on a
bit not at all this was great I
didn't know that it's the first time I've
seen this for part of relief organizations because
we are new to the game we are
new to relief and we tend to do
primary relief but now that you're talking about
education independence and activation, I like it and
that's how it has to be that's how
you want to eventually produce I could talk
about this for hours but I don't want
to bore the viewers this was beautiful I
wanted to ask you about your future there
you must have now so much rebuilding to
do in Syria what does the rebuilding look
like?
currently we're building a super village it's called
the walnut village in northern Syria this is
the one that we're building at the moment
it's about half complete we're hoping to complete
by the end of 2025 this was before
obviously all of this kicked off so what
we have in our projects is we have
a again this is one of the activation
methods that we use so obviously we want
to verify that people are the most needy
and they need these homes so we have
a point system within our projects a person
has to hit 3000 points if they get
3000 points then we give them the ownership
of the home the reason why we do
that is because we want to make sure
that because what you have is in a
war zone again survival of the fittest some
people will be registered in many different refugee
camps and be getting aid from different places
some people will be actually have a home
in a different place and they're trying to
get another home for free so this model
that we use is one to make sure
that we verify that these people really need
these homes and they're present in those projects
and number two that again they're not getting
something free they're working for it by helping
their own community so how do they get
points?
by guarding their own project by cleaning the
project you know by teaching so if they
teach Quran anything that they do basically that
is voluntary they can get it and we
found this model to be really really good
a lot of our donors they understand it
and it's important and what it ends up
doing is like someone can get their house
in three months basically someone it might take
them three years but the goal is that
this person understands that they worked for it
I need to help other people now and
that's kind of what we do so in
terms of now the rebuilding efforts now that
village is still being built alhamdulillah we built
about 72 homes on it we've got another
130 that we're building at the moment we're
building the largest school in northern Syria on
the same site we have a riding center
being built we've got a football pitch you
know when we build a village we don't
just build homes we build communities we also
build close to cities we don't build on
the side of mountains like many other charities
do they build villages and this is a
tip for anyone who wants to build a
house in Syria if someone's going to build
a house in Syria when someone says we
got the land for free alarm bells alhamdulillah
when you see the drone footage and it's
on the top of a mountain alarm bells
the reason why they do that is so
that they don't have to build foundations again
the homes are cheaper but what you end
up doing is you're putting people on the
side of a mountain and they are far
away from society so you're not actually helping
them people where are they going to go
even if you build a school there how
are they going to work how are they
going to you know be part of society
so a lot of charities have done that
as well housing projects on the top of
mountains and I'm not going to mention names
because I don't want to expose people but
the consumer you people that are giving your
sadaqa and zakat do your homework look at
the videos and look wow that village is
on a mountain that's why I'm paying $1
,000 or $2,000 for a house yeah
because it's in the middle of nowhere that
land was free doesn't need foundations it's on
a mountain you're not helping the people you're
making the people dependent again so yeah just
throwing that in there what city are you
in northern Syria I'm in Azaz right now
but we have a city we already have
an office in so basically 20 days ago
before all of this started up 21 days
ago we had one base in the northern
Turkish territories which is Turkish administered so I'm
in Azaz in the countryside of northern Aleppo
and then we also have another base in
Idlib in a place called Atma where there's
several refugee camps so our organization was split
into two teams so we had the countryside
of Idlib and the countryside and Aleppo and
the countryside but now over the last 20
days we've already mobilized we have an office
in Aleppo city I know the city well
because obviously in the beginning of the revolution
a lot of it was with us and
I used to work in many of the
hospitals there so we already have established an
office in Aleppo we already have established an
office in Damascus because a lot of our
team was from all over the country my
guys that had been displaced from Damascus on
green buses are going to Damascus and they're
setting up our office there my guys from
Aleppo that came out on green buses are
going to Aleppo so alhamdulillah we're working we're
going to be working all over this country
when you were before the revolution when you
were in Aleppo and this other city that
you were in who was ruling these cities?
what was the government?
just civil governments?
just like local governance or what?
yeah so in the early days of Aleppo
obviously one thing people don't understand is that
the Free Syrian Army is not a monogamous
that's not the right word homogenous yeah homogenous
it's not a homogenous group it's an umbrella
it's an umbrella a lot of people really
don't understand this so the Free Syrian Army
is an umbrella underneath this banner it has
hundreds of groups so you have the biggest
groups are Fayalik and then underneath them you
have Aliwa and under Aliwa you have Kata
'ib and under the Kata'ib you have
no it's Harakat anyway there's different types of
groups so a Kata'ib could be 15
guys from a certain area then Aliwa could
be like 300 guys and then what's it
called a Faseel would be like 3000 and
then one of the Fayalik would be maybe
10,000 so now how would these groups
group together so let's just say let me
try because your audience is American right where
abouts in America are you it's American and
British because it's the evening time in England
so we get a lot of viewers from
England it's right now it's 3.30 ok
so England is easy for me to describe
so let's just say London ok London when
the war broke out you had all of
these different areas you've got different boroughs so
you've got like Waltham Forest and then inside
Waltham Forest you've got places like Chinford, Leyton,
Leytonstone you've got all these different areas you've
got the borough of Newham inside this borough
of Newham you've got Manor Park you've got
what's it called what else is in Newham
you've got my brains gone dead anyway you've
got other areas right in Redbridge you've got
Elfrid etc all of these areas are inside
London now what happened is let's just say
the revolution broke out a group in Walthamstow
were like guys we're rising up we're going
to go and take over our local police
station and we're taking over this area the
area next to them let's just say Leyton
was like no where were the regime ok
so this is how the revolution kind of
started organically certain areas were allied to the
regime most of the areas because of the
popular revolution ended up all going with the
people rebelled right and they took over those
areas so depending on the areas and demographics
certain areas the people that rose up were
army defectors so naturally they were people that
were more powerful and efficient at fighting against
the regime because they were soldiers in other
areas they were people that were maybe were
working in the civil sector so they had
certain strengths in other areas it was poor
people that were living in such difficult situations
that they just rose up and took control
of the areas so in the early days
the Free Syrian Army was a hodgepodge of
all these different rebel groups which was crazy
some of them were tribal groups had tribal
affiliations some of them were ethnic groups that
had ethnic affiliations it was very very very
very mixed and then they were all again
some of them had Aqaidi affiliations and I've
heard some commentators outside talking and saying there
was no Ash'ari fighting groups in Syria
this is stupid whoever said that is dumb
they don't even know the situation in Syria
okay alright there is so for example Jabha
Shamia, Liwa Tawheed um who else was an
Ash'ari group predominantly Ash'ari uh I
think they're the main ones that stick out
on my mind but there's more there's more
there's many more groups right it's just that
in the outside world those names are not
that famous if that makes sense right so
there's a large population or maybe even the
majority of people in Syria are Ash'ari
Shafis okay but then there is a lot
of groups that are Al-Hanbali, Salafis if
you want to use that word or Ash
'aris if you want to use that fighting
groups like Al-Qaeda groups like you know
Al-Qaeda groups like Al-Qaeda groups that's
what they used to kind of ascribe themselves
to although now it's it's very much different
in terms of the pragmatic approach they're taking
but you would still generally say that they
are the Ash'ari orientated group okay so
like I said you had certain groups that
were Islamic groups and they were outwardly Islamic
they were kind of not they didn't come
under the Free Syrian Army banner but then
you had other groups that were Islamic groups
that came under the Free Syrian Army banner
so it's not this binary thing that Free
Syrian Army is un-Islamic and the Islamic
groups are Islamic it doesn't work like that
some Islamic groups like ISIS who were under
the Islamic banner did atrocious things so we
have to take a very we've got to
look at it in a detailed manner and
look at every group for who they are
and what they did within the revolution so
in terms of who was administering these areas
you have to have a really good knowledge
of who is doing what and obviously being
in my field in terms of aid work
working with hospitals we had a really good
relationship with everybody because we're doing something that
you know supporting the widows, the orphans and
people that need their help so Alhamdulillah we've
been able to navigate you know What percentage
of the quote unquote rebels were foreigners?
Interesting question so it's varied isn't it over
the years varied over the years I'd say
in the beginning when I came we were
a minority obviously when we came in I
mean we're still a minority but I mean
when we came in in the early days
we were like heroes people were like the
Syrian people the way they greeted foreigners were
like Asalaamu Alaikum it was amazing amazing right
but then as obviously the conflict progressed and
then there was rise of certain Islamic groups
the Islamic groups were mostly part of a
group called Katiba Muhajireen Jabhat al-Nusra Harar
al-Sham had foreigners and I would say
Jund al-Aqsa was another group that had
foreigners these were mainly the groups that had
foreigners inside them and obviously when at the
rise of ISIS because there was a lot
of media and they had an amazing media
machine that was brainwashing a lot of people
thousands and thousands of foreigners were coming to
Syria you would say at that time and
a lot of them were prone how can
I say they were just used as cannon
fodder a lot of sincere people came when
they saw the reality they were like oh
my god what have I done this is
one of the things I used to say
to people if this is a true caliphate
why will they why don't they let you
leave if you want to leave why do
they kill you if you want to leave
what kind of caliphate is that is that
the caliphate that you imagine because you don't
like it they'll kill you if you leave
so that's real I know people that went
there and they thought you know we can
we can go and do something and they
tried to leave and they killed them so
the percentage bro it's hard it's hard to
work that out obviously now over the last
you know I'd say five six years when
there was less fighting many many people left
a lot of foreigners were killed in the
ISIS time and many people left I'd say
now if I was to take an estimate
the foreigners in Syria now I don't think
I don't think it's over 10,000 people
okay and and the biggest group is probably
the Uyghurs the Turkistanis as they're known they're
probably about 6,000 I reckon and how
did that group become you know it seems
like an odd connection how did that group
get so involved it's not a really odd
connection to be honest you got people who
are oppressed in the most brutal way where
they have no opportunity to exercise their deen
and religion Islam is basically fought in every
aspect of their life where we have never
seen anywhere else you know you've heard the
stuff like you know forcing their women to
marry Han Chinese men you know you know
forcing people to drink alcohol these concentration camps
you know destroying Masajid banning the Quran all
of this kind of stuff this is real
obviously we speak to these brothers and we
hear this from them first hand this is
not some concocted story you know how some
people like to make it out to be
because China is a superpower and they have
you know strict controls unfortunately there's not enough
light on that whole situation so those people
escaping that context coming to a conflict zone
to fight and live as Muslims makes all
the sense and I mean they're an amazing
community Allah Mubarak amazing brothers amazing brothers and
they came with their families they didn't just
come by themselves they're a community they have
certain areas they're a community if you ask
the Syrian people who some of the most
ferocious fighters are they will tell you the
Turkistanis they are a force they have been
one of the trump cards in Jowlani's armory
not a lot of people know that did
you have any relations with Jowlani himself any
interactions I've had interactions with him yeah I'm
not he's I mean I would say that
he's he wasn't my biggest fan that's because
I advised him on certain things some of
them to do with you could say justice
system and stuff like that some of that
I did in private some of that I
did in public and yeah I mean my
interactions with him like I said he's someone
that in this time now he's done a
lot of good things and I hope that
he continues on that trajectory does he have
mistakes like any human he does I wouldn't
like to be in his position it's very
difficult to be in the position that he
is in of course he's made deals with
western governments again I'm assuming I don't know
the details of every single deal that's been
made but I'm assuming they're very difficult to
navigate and you know difficult concessions maybe have
been made but I'm optimistic that this phase
that we're in now inshallah will be better
obviously it's no secret that I've been critical
of HTS ironically the group that I was
accused of being aligned to and losing my
citizenship over but at the end of the
day they are Muslims and when they are
doing good I'm kind of different to Bilal
in a sense that I feel that yeah
we should blow their trumpet they've done some
good stuff and they're doing good stuff and
whilst they're doing those good stuff we should
highlight that and say yeah these guys are
doing good things right now and in regards
to the future where this will go only
Allah knows you know we hope that they
are going to be better for the Syrian
people than Bashar and I think I definitely
think they are and they will be when
you say deals with the west are you
able to elaborate what kind of deals are
you talking about what kind of deals and
concessions are you talking about there I mean
look it doesn't take a rocket science right
if you study the previous conflicts between rebel
groups Mujahideen terrorists if you want to call
them that over the last decade over the
last 20 years if we're talking about conflicts
like Bosnia Afghanistan Shishan you will realize that
the the treatment or how can I say
the way things are moving right now in
Syria hasn't happened for any rebel Islamic group
in the past you know 20 25 30
maybe even 50 years okay now that doesn't
necessarily have to be a bad thing okay
I want to make that very clear just
because someone is able to negotiate a deal
doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing okay
we have to be realists here yeah but
and this is the caveat right what are
those concessions that have been made if the
concessions have been made you know are that
we are not going to implement Islam in
this time for some people that is a
concession that is too great I am of
the opinion that it's not realistic to expect
that at this moment in time do you
understand the reality is the West will not
allow an Islamic state to flourish a real
Islamic state state like ISIS yes they would
support these extremist identities and ideas but a
real true Islamic state Islamic project no so
it doesn't make sense to be overtly you
know Islamic I mean people look at Turkey
Turkey has been on a path of Islamization
you just got to read the don't read
the tabloids in the West read the broadsheets
one of the things the West is very
worried about is the Islamization of Turkey yeah
and Turkey has been made very secular statements
and said we're a secular country etc etc
but you can see the trajectory this is
why I say to people and this is
what sometimes annoys me with certain Salafi brothers
and I'll say I'll throw it out there
they will say as long as someone doesn't
say Kufr then you can't do or say
anything or whatever right they could be fornicating
in the street okay but no he hasn't
claimed Kufr so we can't say we can't
even we're not talking about Khoruj because this
is what these brothers do they always conflate
two things they conflate Amr bin Ma'ruf
wa Nahi al Munkar and we're becoming a
bit I don't know if your viewers are
going to understand this yeah they got it
your platform is a lot more maybe intellectual
than me but Amr bin Ma'ruf wa
Nahi al Munkar is not Khoruj they're two
completely different things right so when we're looking
at the trajectory of Turkey you can see
this country is making an attempt to become
more Islamic whether you like them you don't
like them whatever it is 15 years ago
Hijab in universities was banned now it's not
banned it's clear whereas if we look at
Saudi Arabia it's very clear that Saudi Arabia
is becoming less Islamic okay that is not
rocket science guys Wallahi that is just common
sense 10 years ago there was no discos
going on in Saudi Arabia none of this
mad Halloween parties and all this crazy stuff
was not happening okay so these are trends
and trajectories I think that that is more
important than statements and so that's what's important
to bear in mind in this conversation in
the context of the conversation that we're talking
about so someone coming out and professing Islam
is not as important as the application the
Arabs have a saying لا تعطيني الناتور اعطيني
العنب so we want the grapes we don't
want the boy that's going to get the
grapes we want the prize at the end
right and this is going to take time
was the wazir in a Fatimid state today
many people would say they would have made
Takfir on this guy so we have to
be what's the word we got to think
deeper we got to think long term we
can't just be simplistic and say oh look
Mohammed said it's an Islamic state so these
guys are a bunch of losers and also
you know what I was thinking like practically
speaking when people are looking for a place
to live or to study or just to
be active in Dawa right people aren't looking
for a perfect utopia just give me a
place where I can go be active and
not get arrested like that's a very low
bar Turkey has set that bar so they
got out of Turkey everywhere and they say
they're secular okay but if I can go
there and I could participate in a little
school that has maybe a Syrian scholar that's
been a refugee and is working with the
Turkish people and I could do Dawa I
could talk I could do a lot of
things the bar has been sort of set
so low in the Arabic world like they're
arresting you prison Egypt oftentimes no different Saudi
now if you speak out against concerts you're
out so the bar the level is so
bad that just a place to go to
a masjid to have a beard to be
involved in Dawa it's a step up and
you could do a lot you can transform
culture as is happening in Turkey the culture
is being transformed this is what I believe
is a generational thing we need to look
for those bases those places where Islam can
flourish where we can build that next generation
and that's what we're doing here that's what
we're trying to do build the next generation
that inshallah they are going to a lot
of people talk about the king they don't
talk about the king makers they talk about
Salah ad-Din Al-Ayubi but no one
talks about Shirku his uncle nobody talks about
his mother nobody talks about Nooruddin Zinki nobody
talks about Imad ad-Din Zinki they don't
talk about the people that made Salah ad
-Din and the culture that made him that
put him out that's right and the culture
so stop thinking we've got two problems right
we've got double sided problem we've got those
that are saying what do I what do
I do what do I do what do
I do what do I do and they're
just sitting there on their laurels and then
you've got those that are like having this
utopic understanding that we're going to get Islam
straight away in one day and we need
a Salah ad-Din now it doesn't work
like that we need to get the ball
rolling start and work and think long term
and understand that there's going to be stages
yeah and I just saw yesterday a some
article that said that people were upset that
music was not allowed in a coffee shop
and I'm like see this is actually what
the west wants the matter to be reduced
to right to be reduced to these detail
things that have no place in a nation
that's really rebuilding itself and that's not a
comment on the ruling of music don't get
it wrong for those people who want to
take it out of context it's we're not
talking about that we're talking about you literally
have a pile of rubble a nation of
people who half of them are were left
you lost half your manpower you have Israel
putting down an earthquake bomb on that border
and you have probably counter revolutions developing and
this is the issue like that seems not
only that people don't realize the regime is
still here like Bashar I'll give you an
example I was in a hospital called Masjid
Masjid in the center of Damascus at the
beginning of this podcast we spoke about systematic
killing death bureaucracy the hospitals are connected to
when I went into the hospital I had
sisters doctors they were shaking they were like
we can't talk to you I was like
Bashar it's gone you're free no we're not
they didn't even want to give me their
name so Alhamdulillah we managed to convince some
of them they're going to be safe we
got their numbers we took them out of
the hospital we spoke to them and the
things that we heard were shocking some of
these these you could say the structures of
these organizations are still there the same hospital
managers are still there and these hospitals what
were they doing they were slaughterhouses they were
part that the regime would bring people there
and they would torture people and they would
do stuff inside these hospitals even if you
go inside them they're scary places so for
the new government now to dismantle dismantle a
lot of these old regime institutions is not
easy it's not easy it's not something that's
going to happen overnight so you know people
have no understanding of governance people are looking
at this from the outside and until you've
been in the field until you've seen my
organization is you know 355 staff 10,000
beneficiaries a month we have mistakes it's not
easy it's not easy at all you're talking
about a government that was looking after 4
to 6 million people in the north in
refugee camps hardly any infrastructure all of a
sudden taking over a whole country and now
the numbers have quadrupled the institutions it's not
easy right now there's a * of a
lot of work to be done so unless
people want to come out of the field
get off their backsides pardon my French and
be a part of doing Islah and helping
us to build this country then a lot
of them should you know maybe keep quiet
Mashallah we kept you for a long time
this was really a great ability to talk
to you great discussion learned a lot and
we hope to be able to support your
work and maybe direct people who we know
that is moving back to Syria to your
organization and maybe get involved in some of
these things and get help and we're here
if you need anything you need anything put
out need any help on our end I'd
like to have this relationship continue inshallah anytime
you want to hop on just a phone
call I appreciate you for having me and
please forgive me if I offended anyone not
at all not at all not at all
and I think that's the best way to
be you know 100% I agree 100
% alright thank you so much for coming
on alright guys alright there you have it
folks that was a really a wonderful wonderful
interview and a surprise and I did not
know that he was engaged in so much
work and especially intelligent work not just giving
out sandwiches given out food given that stuff
is good don't get me wrong but this
education independence and activation it's great that's the
way to be that's the way to do
relief work folks I'm going to be hopping
off right now to get onto the thinking
Muslim podcast probably it's recorded I don't think
they live stream it's probably pre-recorded it'll
be recorded you know pre-recorded makes no
sense of course you can't record it after
right so it'll probably be recorded and released
later on but I will hop on to
that Jazakum Allah Khayran Subhanak Allahumma wa bihamdik
nashadu an la ilaha illa anta nastaghfiruk wa
natubu ilayk wa al-asr inna al-insana
la fee khusr illa allatheena amanu amilus salihat
wa tawassu bilhaq wa tawassu bil sabr wasalamu
alaykum