Shaun King – Gets very emotional talking about our collective failure to stop the genocide in Gaza
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I want to talk to us about how
the promises of Allah apply to where we
are right now.
And this is a message that I've only
shared, I've never shared online before, but I
got a chance to speak here in Istanbul
earlier this week.
And I shared this at a beautiful university
in Uskudar, and I want to share it
with you.
I recently learned a verse in the Quran,
and at first it touched me because as
a new Muslim, I'm often searching for where
do I belong in the faith?
What is my role as a Muslim?
And I heard this verse and it immediately
just, I mean, it like squeezed my heart.
And in it, it says, when you see
injustice, when you see it, first try to
stop it with your hands.
And if you fail to stop that injustice
with your hands, then use your tongue, use
your mouth, use your words.
First, try to stop that injustice with your
hands, with your body.
And if you fail, try to stop it
with your words.
And then if you still fail, then feel
the fury, the frustration about that injustice in
your heart.
But it didn't stop there.
It said, and this convicted me, it said,
first use your, first, listen to the order,
first your hands, then your words, then your
heart.
And it said, but the heart is the
least of these.
And when I heard that, I was immediately
convicted because in the world, as Muslims, and
really all of us, those of you who
are not Muslims, and maybe you've made it
deep into this video.
For those of you who aren't Muslims, we
often say, you know, my heart is burning
with rage about the genocide in Gaza.
But the Quran, the holy words say, that's
the least of your options.
It's in fact, it says, it's the weakest
of the three.
Then many of you, thanks be to Allah,
many of you are using your words.
And I am glad that you are burning
in your heart with anger, and frustration, and
sadness about this genocide.
So much so that you're speaking against it
with your words.
But that's not the order.
It's not, that is that those are, that
is not the order of Allah.
The order is use your hands.
And if you fail, then use your words.
And if that fails, at least feel the
frustration in your heart.
But that's the weakest of the three.
I ask you, sisters and brothers, I'm not
pointing a finger at you.
This applies to me, and you, and all
of us.
Are you using your hands to stop this
genocide?
I'm going to speak very clearly to you
now.
In October, it was towards the end of
October.
I'm going to try not to cry because
this, I saw something that was, it was
awful.
Maybe it was, you know, the last week
of October, and the genocide, we didn't know
that it would last so long, but it
was fully underway.
They were killing hundreds of people in Gaza
every single day.
But the infrastructure was still in place.
The hospitals were still operational.
And I saw something that I had never
seen before.
And it was, it was so awful.
I saw a grandmother, and she was in
front of al-Shifa hospital, and she had
a bag, and it was a * plastic
bag.
And she said, this was all that was
left of her grandchildren.
I told this story many times, but I
didn't want to say publicly what she said
because I didn't want him to be condemned.
But what I'm about to say, it's not
about condemning him.
She looked into the camera with a *
bag full of flesh.
And she said, she said, where, where are
the Muslims?
I was not a Muslim yet, but I,
she said, where are the Muslims?
She said, where are the leaders?
And then she said, where's Erdogan, the president
of Turkey?
And then she said something that broke my
heart.
She said, she said, I've loved Erdogan all
of my life.
She said, I have followed his career and
I have seen him for decades.
Excuse me.
She said, I've seen him for decades say
how much he loves us here in Gaza.
But she said, she said, where are you?
I thought you loved us.
She said, you have, you've called our names
your whole career, but where are you?
And in that moment, I felt frustration with
him.
And I asked myself, yes, yes.
Where's Erdogan?
Why is, why is he not doing more?
I thought that, but I didn't say it
out loud.
And then I realized that he
is no different than me or you.
Yes, he is a president.
Yes, he has a military at his disposal.
So I asked, I asked my imams, I
won't name their names, but I asked the
men who are my teachers about the passage
in the Quran that says, use your hands,
then your mouth, then feel it in your
heart.
And I said, please brother, how does that
apply to me?
And he said, both of my moms who
didn't even know that each other had given
the same answer, they said to the, to
the effect, it is indeed first, the responsibility
of the leaders in the immediate area, in
the countries that are touching Gaza.
It is their responsibility to respond first.
And they have failed.
And then it is the responsibility of Muslim
leaders of countries that aren't touching Gaza, like
president Erdogan to intervene and they have failed.
And then after them, after the Muslim leaders
of the countries touching Gaza fail, and the
Muslim leaders of the countries around the world
fail, then it is the responsibility of the
United Nations, of the International Criminal Court, of
the ICC.
It is then their responsibility to intervene, but
they have failed.
And Sean, after the Muslim leaders touching Gaza
fail, and the Muslim leaders of nations not
touching Gaza fail, and after the UN and
the ICC fail, then Sean, it is up
to me and you to intervene.
Forgive me.
I've never cried on camera before, but now
we have failed.
I'm sorry for you to see me like
this.
Yes, yes, president Erdogan has failed, but so
have me and you.
And we,
we will have to face a lot.
Yes, I've tried to provide food and aid.
I've tried.
We've raised millions of dollars in during Ramadan.
We fed, we provided, I raised millions of
dollars in that provided hundreds of thousands of
meals during Ramadan.
That was using my hands in a way,
but that's not what that verse means.
You know it and I know it.
The verse said, if you see injustice, stop
it with your hands.
How, how shameful is it?
I can hardly even look into the camera.
How shameful that there are 2 billion of
us and we cannot get a bottle of
water into Gaza.
How shameful that our forefathers were warriors and
we are cowards.
It's not okay.
It's not.
And if you've convinced yourself that it's okay,
you're lying.
What purpose is there that we'd be 2
billion strong, but our sisters and brothers can
be suffering so mightily and we watch and
cry and pray.
It's not enough.
Prayer is with your mouth.
It's with your heart.
In the words of Allah say, use your
heart, use your mouth after you use your
hands and fail.
Sisters and brothers, listen to me.
It would be better for us to use
our hands and fail following the words of
Allah.
It would be better for us to use
our hands and die.
It would be better for us to use
our hands and be vaporized by drones and
bombs and missiles than to be so cowardly
that we watch babies be murdered, that we
watch mothers be slaughtered, that we watch elders
be decapitated, burned to a crisp, that we
watch children right now in Gaza at this
moment.
Gaza, which only has 2 million people, has
more amputees than China, which has 1.3
billion people.
There are more amputees in Gaza than China.
What are we talking about?
Who are we?
Is this just for show?
What is the beauty of this place if
it doesn't inspire us to stand up for
our sisters and brothers to actually fulfill the
promises of Allah?
I'm sorry that you saw me this way,
but I cry almost every day at the
shame of our inaction.
It's not okay.
They are still asking for us.
I saw a beautiful young girl just this
week, the only surviving member of her family.
She must have been 11 or 12.
She's now an orphan.
Everyone else is gone.
And even she looked into the camera and
said, where are the Muslims?
Are you a Muslim?
She's asking for us.
She's calling for us.
Yes, she's calling for Erdogan.
Yes, she's calling for the crown prince.
And yes, they're not coming.
But are you not a Muslim?
Do you not have hands?
Does blood not flow through your body?
Does your brain still work?
Does your heart still beat?
Have you not confessed that there is no
God but Allah and Muhammad is his final
messenger?
Have you not said your Shahada?
If so, you are a Muslim.
Do you not pray five times a day?
If so, she's calling for me and you.
And either we will answer her prayer or
we're cowards.
Either way, one day we will stand in
front of Allah and all of our good
deeds, yes, they will be listed.
But listen to what I'm about to tell
you.
I'll close with this.
I'm afraid that there are not enough good
deeds in the world to make up for
us watching a genocide, acting cowardly, and refusing
to intervene.
It would be better for us to be
like Abu Ayyub and pursue the promises of
Allah even if we fail.
Did Abu Ayyub fail?
No.
Did he see the promises of Allah fulfilled
in his lifetime?
No.
But did he pursue them?
And here's the truth.
Pursuing the promises of Allah can never be
failure.
No.
It's only righteous.
And one day, Allah will say to me,
to Erdogan, and we're no different.
We're Muslims.
He will say, Sean, when you saw injustice,
did you stop it with your hands?
Did you try to stop it with your
hands?
What am I going to say to Allah?
Will I lie?
How foolish.
He sees us.
I love you.
Please forgive my emotion.
You know, my therapist told me, she said,
Sean, I would be more worried about you
if you weren't crying.
I would be more worried about you if
you saw all that you saw, and it
did not affect you the way it does.
Sean, the fact that you are crying is
a sign that your heart is still alive.
As-salamu alaykum, sisters and brothers.
I love you, and I want you to
use your hands, then your words, then your
heart.
Peace be upon you.