Shadee Elmasry – The Challenges of Uniting Sunni Muslims in the UK

While we're having this discussion on Harris theology, but you also

have a great desire to bring

Muslims together. Would you like to speak about that for a second?

Yeah, so I think, like I said,

especially here in the West, I mean, so let me just give you a

bit of a bit of context here. Yeah.

By the grace of Allah, I've done. I've been an imam for the last

1314 years, and Hamdulillah.

So I was in Bradford for almost seven years, six, seven years. And

hamdulillah down there. We have majority Muslims.

majority Muslim, even in the schools, you know, in high school,

etc. We have majority of Muslims.

And as you know, inside it will be yes. A human is the product of the

environment. What's the city again? You said Leeds. Bradford,

Bradford? Bradford. Okay. That's good. Yeah. I'm offended. You

haven't heard of it. So? Oh, no, I went, I did go. Oh, yeah, I did

go. Yeah. Teddy. Bradford is very nice. Birmingham was industrial

Bradford had this beautiful huge park and it was prettier city I

think then then Birmingham was Yeah.

So now, everywhere I've been this is more in south towards south, a

bit close to London.

Down here, the demographics

are quite different.

So, of course, I'm going through a journey where I'm learning, I'm

trying to do it myself. So I'm, you know, comparing and

contrasting, you know, seven years there, six, seven years, that six,

seven years here. And I believe the majority of UK at least,

apart from places in Bradford and Birmingham and Leicester, and

Preston, these places,

non Muslims, and then of course, in the West majority non Muslims.

Yeah, our challenges.

You know, we've got very big challenges like LGBTQ, for

example, atheism, and all these other isms, and schisms are on the

rise. And the attack on Islam and Muslims is not on a specific group

is all of us. So this has made me think, you know, we need to do

something about this. We need to actually, yes, this doesn't mean

we compromise our differences. And we say, you know, we unite in

theology, which is impossible. I think that that's impossible. It's

not actually impossible. It must be the other than it is, you know,

it's never happened. Yeah. And I don't think it'll ever happen.

Yes. It's never always been there. And it will always stay there. So

it's normatively impossible to even call to notion of theological

unification. I think that's impossible. Yeah.

So So my thing is now that I think even polemics, and to be honest,

now I need to confess I'm also polemicists, may Allah forgive me,

I'm not good.

But even polemics, our polemic should be discussed in certain

context in a certain way, you know, we have a double bathroom

manava

your classroom settings, maybe academic setting, maybe, you know,

in writing, for example,

but because what I'm seeing is a lot of the online polemic

especially is creating further disunity within the

Muslim denominations. And that is becoming a barrier for us to work

together in order to defend Islam

which the problem

is that I'm not going to mention any names yes any places but just

generally speaking, I've seen messages

where they will happily take pictures with priest and Christian

I'm not saying this is a bad thing. You know, you're working

with love for example.

You can have your opinion about that and whatever. But then they

will be terrified petrified to sit with another Muslim from another

denomination somehow. And I've been told

please let's not take a picture

buddy, our take picture already and go and put the phone away

please, nobody take a picture Subhanallah I realize whoa, this

this this is really bad. So we do have this unfortunately, in some

areas. And I think we need to we need to we need to do something

about it.

There is another shift that we had on who's on the same wavelength as

you Okay. Yama, the Madrid of shift summit in NUS

shift noted Dean Yeah, yeah, but he's Yeah, I'm in contact with the

martial law is far from me and Marshall. He's also the same

mindset Mashallah. It's something where you can say okay, we can

recognize if the left that are here, but it's actually

Eat

a meth Seta, if we don't recognize to not recognize that there are

ads that there are enemies who don't care what your message is.

Exactly, exactly. And regarding that group, there should there has

to be a unification of some of a response to them. Yes. When it

comes to that, that's extremely important, which I would say is a

challenge. Yeah, I did. And in student saying to me recently, he

says to me, well, and I think, you know, now it makes sense why being

sectarian and more easy.

Because you're, you're living with you. Yeah. And you will have these

people in every denomination, every group, you know, who would

who don't want this is like your optimal, or you have the Muslim

And subhanAllah Hadith scholars saying that, the moderator mind

it, people from two different groups will get on with each other

more than the extreme and the moderate of the same group

100% 100% to intelligent people from I would even say different

religions altogether. Intelligent, but also emotionally healthy. Like

they were raised well, and they didn't have any dramas in their

upbringing, can probably they only have 5% in common.

But they're wise enough and mature enough to deal with each other in

a beneficial way.

In contrast to emotionally unstable people who have 95% in

agreement, and only 5% disagreement, will find a way to

create a civil war over the 5%.

The proof of that is that you have neighbors all the time, I think

most of you,

probably in your youth, most of your neighbors were Muslims. In my

youth right now, from my youth until now, I never had a little

Muslim cul de sac, right? Or Muslim, a block a street or

something.

But you learn to survive, right? You set in your mind parameters.

He in His mind have parameters. We both know the parameters unspoken

the and we're very happy as neighbors, right? Why can't that

apply then?

To a McAuliffe? Right. And by the way, many people who talk and

because I talk about Harris theology a lot. I care about it.

Because I care about the consistency, rational consistency

in your beliefs, and learning what your beliefs are. We got

we have some of these people have these heretical groups that are on

our cul de sac, right? And it puts to the test now, okay, what is the

adapt, you have to adapt to the neighbor. Right? Although he's

that he's also a neighbor. So he has the hook of a neighbor.

There are the limits of the Messiah of the keeping company of

the heretical groups, but you also have the vocal the rights of a

neighbor.

Okay, so when somebody a child says, Oh, those are the people

that you said, they're all fake Muslims. I didn't say fake

Muslims, but that's how kids interpreted right? That these guys

are just fake, right? I said, okay, there is Aki, the point,

boom, boom, boom, but there's also the adab the manners of how to

treat a neighbor. Right. And that's what we have to do here.

And that's what I said, I love about that. The shittier has a dub

for every single situation, it gives you an answer for every

situation. And it's, it's a way of living, that doesn't require you

to be some emotional extremist. Like it's practical. It's

something that you can live with. If not, you wouldn't have a

billion people in an Obama when Obama was impractical.

And you had to be some mean person or go to some extremes. This

almost couldn't house 1 billion people is the common person would

sell is this crazy? It's too much