Sikander Hashmi – When Islam is Outlawed KMA Friday Message
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Respected elders,
dear brothers and sisters, my young friends,
We begin by praising and thanking Allah
our Lord,
the creator, the sustainer, the nourisher,
and the protector
of every single one of us and of
every single of his creation in the entire
universe.
And we begin by sending peace and salutations
upon his beloved and final messenger, Muhammad, the
son of Abdullah
Once upon a time, my brothers and sisters,
there was a large family.
They had many siblings,
children,
aunts,
uncles, cousins,
and they were all very close to each
other. Everyone knew one another. They cared for
each other.
They supported
one another.
As the children
and cousins
grew older,
they got married
with people outside of their
extended family. So they welcome new members
to their family and they grew even bigger.
And the great
grandparents
were keeping everyone together,
keeping everyone connected,
but eventually they passed away.
And many members of the family
moved
away to different parts of the world
and lost touch with one another.
And now
they have their own families
but they feel small
because they feel like they are few in
number
and they find challenges to be difficult
to overcome
because they don't have
enough support.
So they tend to give up
and feel weak and helpless.
However, my brothers and sisters, what they don't
realize
is that there are many other people
who they don't know,
who are actually
linked or related to them in one way
or the other.
And that if they were just to organize,
to work together
wisely,
intelligently,
smartly,
with one purpose,
with a focus,
they could actually achieve a lot.
And on top of that, there are also
others, people who are not linked to them,
who are not like them, who are not
related to them,
who are willing to help,
people of conscience,
people
of good morals and good character.
And they're willing to help them if only
they're able to organize themselves
and work constructively
together.
And on top of that, what they don't
realize is that they have special blessings and
special powers,
but they just don't realize that they have
them and they don't use them properly.
My brothers and sisters,
this
is the story
of
this ummah today.
The believers,
our brothers and sisters
in faith, are in every corner of the
globe,
some large,
some small.
Some have roots
which they have forgotten
and have assimilated
in
their cultures,
the host cultures in the lands in which
they are in.
Some of them face challenges
and oppression
and a large portion are sincere
are sincere, and they want to do good.
And they care about their fellow
believers,
but there is no one to bring them
together
to work smartly.
Or most of them don't have anyone who
can bring them together to work smartly and
intelligently and wisely together
to support one another.
Plus, there are others who don't fully share
the beliefs
but are people of conscience
who would help
if they knew what was actually happening,
if there was an organized effort to offer
support.
My brothers and sisters, every once in a
while,
we come to know of a situation
in which people
and especially
our fellow believers
are in trouble.
And
over the past
50, 100 years,
these
instances,
these situations
anything.
We feel helpless. But actually, we can do
something.
One of those situations and a very serious
one that I'd like to talk about today,
my brothers and sisters,
is
the humanitarian
and human rights
crisis
that impacts
at least 8,000,000
Muslims.
8,000,000 Muslims
is twice
or close to twice the size of Toronto
and the Greater Toronto Area.
These are
our
brothers and sisters
in East Turkestan,
which is occupied by China.
And,
you know, as I go through
the injustices
of being done to them,
imagine for a moment
if
this was happening to you and us here.
And this is actually
a a skill that we should try to
develop that we when we come across stories,
when we come across
narratives,
when we come across
what is happening to people or indeed what
happened to people in the past, even the
stories of the prophets
that we try to place ourselves in their
shoes.
And we try to feel
and
appreciate
and recognize
what it must have felt like or what
it might feel like. Of course, we can't
fully appreciate.
We can't fully empathize.
But nonetheless,
try to make an effort that how would
it be if that was you in their
shoes.
So over 2,000,000
Uyghur Muslims, mostly men, have been forced into
concentration camps,
which the Chinese government first denied that they
existed, but now they admit that
they
ancestors.
They are tortured.
They are brainwashed,
and they are told to give up Islam.
So it's not just about,
you know, ethnic
differences. It's not just about politics
within China, but rather it has to do
with there being Muslim as well,
forced to recite praises of the Communist Party
of China. And this is actually the largest
of concentration camps since the Nazis.
And almost every one
of the Uyghur Muslims in Canada and America
has at least some of the Canada and
America
has at least some of their relatives in
concentration camps. Some even have 50 to a
100 family members who have been detained in
these camps in subhuman conditions.
The Chinese government accuses them of terrorism and
violence,
but in reality,
the Chinese government is the one that is
spreading the real terror in the region
despite their claims of reeducating
and of normalizing
the Muslims.
In these camps, sadly,
most women face serious
and heartbreaking violence.
They are violated in the worst of ways
and are and sterilization
is forced upon them
so that we, as a woman, cannot bear
children.
And many sisters who have survived
these camps have shared their horror stories. May
Allah
make it easy for them.
Most shockingly,
my brothers and sisters, and with possible direct
links to us because you see, a lot
of times we hear these things. And, yes,
we try to feel the pain and we
do feel pain too and and concern
to a certain extent,
but we still feel that this is something
which is far removed from us. It's on
the other side of the world.
And these are people that we probably most
of us don't know.
And perhaps we don't even know much about
the area and the country and the land.
So, yes, we know we should be concerned,
but there is a certain level of detachment.
So most shockingly, with the possible direct link
to us is the fact that 100 of
1,000 so we're not just talking about 1,000,
we're talking about 100 of 1,000 of
men and women are being used in forced
labor camps
or forced labor
in factories
to produce
perhaps the clothes that we
wear
or some of the toys that our children
play with
or some of the
gadgets
that we like to enjoy today. When it
says made in China,
at least 83
global brands
and companies are complicit in this forced labor
scheme,
including the biggest of names such as Nike,
Adidas,
Apple, Samsung, Bing BMW, and others.
So we can see
we can have a very important role to
play, especially when it comes to this aspect
of this crisis.
Those of our brothers and sisters there
in the region who are still considered
to be free are essentially living in an
open air prison.
It is a fact that
their women are forced to let men from
the Chinese Communist Party live in their homes.
This is something that's been covered widely in
the evening.
And China admits sending they admit themselves openly
sending 1,000,000
Han Chinese as guests
to their homes
while the men of the family are not
there.
And the women are even being coerced
into marrying non Muslim men.
Almost 500,000,
half a 1000000 children
are sent to Chinese run orphanages
while their parents are still alive
and they are taught to give up Islam
in favor of communism.
About 5,000 masajid because this is an area
that was not China. Right? China essentially invaded,
took over
and this was a Muslim area. Islam had
been there for a very long time.
There's masajid everywhere. Over 5,000 or about 5,000
masajid are being demolished.
Right? And there's evidence, satellite evidence of masajid
that were that existed, that were demolished,
and there's developments happening there. In one case,
there's a hotel being built.
These brothers and sisters cannot fast in Ramadan
or go to the masjid.
Islamic weddings, nikaz, and janazas, funerals funerals are
forbidden.
Cannot say salaam to one another.
Halal
food, halal meat, slaughter is banned in rural
areas,
and all Muslim restaurants must sell pork.
The households are divided into groups of 10
to spy on each other. And this sounds
like something that's coming out of, you know,
some sort of horror movie or something, but
it's not. It's actually happening.
Not allowed to use cell phones
without government spyware,
security checks
every 100 yards.
Their car must be fitted with tracking devices.
Passports
confiscated, not allowed to travel within China without
a pass.
And the thing is
that, yes, there have been Muslims living in
China
and quite comfortably in some instances.
You
know? In some of the major cities, you
know, you'll find
even an Islamic university,
you know, streets with halal restaurants,
buses even going through public buses going through
those areas, and I'm talking about, you know,
mainland China, Beijing, Shanghai,
those large cities,
you know, buses having signs in Arabic, announcements
in Arabic. So, yes, that has been the
case for some of the Muslim minorities
living in,
in some of the larger cities, even Masajid,
you know, being maintained by the Chinese government.
However,
the oppression that we're seeing now, we're noticing
that it's not just stopping at the Uyghur
Muslims. Because the Hui Muslims of China are
ethnically Chinese in their language and appearance,
and now they are also reporting harassment and
persecution
by the Chinese government.
Even reports
of other minorities, Christians, being harassed are now
also surfacing. So my brothers and sisters, it
goes without saying that, of course, we should
be concerned.
We should be concerned because the prophet
has told us
that we are all like the bricks of
a building.
Verily the believers are like bricks of a
building.
Each part strengthening the other and the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam
clasped interlocked his fingers together
when
making this statement.
And establishing justice
is from the mission of all prophets.
And we are all
the believers and followers
of Allah's prophets alayhi wa sallam.
So it is for us to revive this
mission of establishing truth and justice
in the world
because hardly anyone else is going to do
it. We see
organizations,
countries, groups acting.
And a lot of times, we call out
the double standards,
which is good.
But really, what do we expect?
What do we expect? They're really out there
for their own survival and their own benefit,
promoting democracy where it is beneficial to them
and shutting down democracy where it isn't.
Right? It shocks us, but really it shouldn't
because they're all out there for their own
survival and their own interests.
So we can safely say that there's hardly
anyone, if anyone at all, who's actually standing
up for truth
and justice
with sincerity.
And it is our job to revive that
mission of the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam
as Allah
tells us,
us,
Indeed, we sent our messengers
with clear proofs,
and with them, we sent down the scripture
and the balance of justice
so that people may administer
justice.
And, of course, we have the famous
saying of the prophet as
reported by Anas
that help your brother whether he is an
oppressor or is being oppressed.
It was said, you Rasool Allah, we help
the oppressed. But how we how do we
help the oppressor? Surely, the messenger of Allah
cannot be instructing us to help our brother
or our sister when they are oppressing others.
That is unfathomable that the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam would be encouraging oppression and oppression and
encouraging injustice.
So
Rasulullah
responded,
that by seizing his hand by seizing their
hand and stopping them from committing
this oppression and injustice. Now My brothers and
sisters, we often think, as I said,
that
we can't really do anything,
but actually, we can. And the first step
in realizing that we can do something is
changing our mindset.
Changing our mindset from we are helpless and
we cannot do anything
to saying and believing
that the reality which is that we are
not helpless
and we can do something.
Because this defeatist attitude and mentality
leads to no action. Because when a person
believes, oh, I can't do anything. I'm helpless.
I surrender.
I can't do
anything. Right? When I say and tell myself
I can't do anything, do you think I'm
gonna do something?
I'm not. I'm not even gonna try because
I feel like I can't do anything. Right?
So the first thing we have to change
in our minds, in our hearts
is to believe and understand
that we can do something,
and we are not helpless.
Collectively, the ummah has been blessed.
No shortage of wealth
collectively. Yes, some areas
have, some don't but collectively
blessed
Numbers blessed
It's not like we are small in number.
Skills
blessed Masha'Allah.
Okay. Even in this room,
in this masjid right now, you count how
many skills we each have in different areas.
Okay. Maybe a lot in tech because, of
course, the area we live
in But generally, we have other skills as
well. Okay. So count
all of the skills that we have. Put
them all together.
A
lot of skill. Just in this community, in
the city, and put together everyone in the
entire ummah
tremendous skills,
All we need, my brothers and sisters,
is to come together
to work collectively,
smartly, wisely,
intelligently.
And for that, we need some leadership.
And most importantly then,
follow our action with lots of dua and
trust in Allah
This is the secret of the believers.
Sincere
action, dua and trust in Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
The results do not come by not doing
anything.
If you look at the seerah of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, if you look at
the stories in the Quran
even the story
of Sayyidha Mariam alaihe salam.
There has to be action first even if
it is small. Even if it does not
appear that the action is gonna lead to
anything
but there has to be some movement, some
desire
to have
to do something
and then to make dua and to ask
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to press to place
trust in Allah and the help of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala comes.
Masha'Allah. There is a group of sincere
brothers and sisters
who are trying to do this.
You may have heard of the group. You
may have not. They have had different names
in the past, but one core name that
represents the group and the organization
is justice for all.
And, I actually didn't know this until recently,
they have standing at the United Nations.
They have established links with various governments and
legislators
conducting research,
doing things intelligently,
wisely,
documenting abuses,
document documenting human rights injustices
and violations,
putting together reports,
conducting research,
credible research,
leading lobbying and education efforts, and,
they have had results.
They have been successful
in mobilizing Muslims
and people of conscience
in North America, in the US, and Canada
in getting action to stop the Bosnian war
in the nineties,
getting the oppression against our Rohingya brothers and
sisters
declared a genocide,
which is actually a fairly big deal,
Getting a court case launched against the Burmese
military or Myanmar military at the International Court
of Justice
and more. And just 2 days ago or
the earlier this week,
there was a motion
by Myanmar
to stop this case, which was rejected
by the judges. So the case has permission
to move forward in the International Court of
Justice, Alhamdulillah.
Now brothers and sisters,
these may seem like small steps
and accomplishments,
but in today's world, they're not small.
Whatever the circumstances
we find ourselves in, and this goes for
us as individuals,
this goes for us as families,
as communities,
and
as an ummah, whatever circumstance we find ourselves
in, we have to work with whatever or
whichever tools are available to us. And at
this time,
these are the tools and mechanisms
available to us as imperfect as they
may be.
After taking whatever action is possible,
make dua to Allah
Place your trust in Allah, and don't underestimate
the power of dua.
Don't underestimate the power
of dua.
So many people, masha'Allah, have
witnessed what they consider to be miracles.
They said something.
There was no way of happening of it
happening and it happened. They made dua
Allah made it happen. And these are witnessed
individually.
So if they can be witnessed individually and
we have to be looking out for them
as well also. Right? Sometimes they happen to
us but we're not even paying attention. We're
not even recognizing it as a great favor
and a miracle from Allah
for us. So we have to be looking
out for them. They're all around us, actually.
And if these things can happen to us
as individuals,
they can certainly happen
to us collectively as communities
and as the ummah. So my brothers and
sisters,
regarding this
difficult and terrible scenario that our brothers and
sisters are in, what can we do? So
first of all, as with any issue,
learn
yourself
about the issue, about the culture, about the
plight of the Muslims,
and share it with others. Now, again, these
things take time. We think it doesn't really
make a difference, but actually it does.
Right?
It may be the shortest, easiest forms of
activism, sharing an article, liking an article.
Right? Maybe we should do more,
but it's a start.
It's a start. It's a small step, but
it's a start because it spreads awareness.
And it's a site it's it's a process
that takes a while for it to filter
through and for things to happen,
but it's a start. And if you don't
even do that,
then
we are not making an effort.
So learn and share it with others. Learn
from them directly.
You know, there's a new masjid that's actually
open in our city founded it by our
brothers and Muslims in Orleans.
So visit.
Learn from them directly.
Learn from credible human rights organizations
and their reports.
Organize seminars, events in your community. Share with
family on the genocide that is happening.
Advocate. Advocacy is very, very powerful, very important.
Right? They have a website, savehuivar.ca.saveuihur.ca.saveuihur
r.ca
to send letters
to members of parliament and to call your
MP, to end
the concentration camps and save the wheelbar Muslims,
asking the Canadian government to introduce stricter laws
to ensure that Chinese products
coming into this
country are not made by forced labor of
the Muslims,
to establish a program, a special program for
refugees to come to Canada on an expedited
basis. These are things the government has done
and continues to do for people of various
regions in need, and it should be opened
up for the wheelers as well.
Of course,
donating to support the advocacy
work, the groups, and the organizations that are
fighting the genocide
is also very important. So my brothers and
sisters, the message
I want you to take home today
for all of us is
specific to our real brothers and most brothers
and sisters,
but also
about our mindset
of when we come across
circumstances of oppression and injustice
to not feel helpless
and to know that there are things that
we can do and, ultimately,
to place our trust in Allah
and to make dua, but first after we
have made whatever effort is possible for us.
May Allah
protect our brothers and sisters
in East Turkestan.
May Allah
grant relief and ease to them and all
of those who are suffering and those who
are oppressed. May Allah
strengthen us and guide us to use the
blessings and the freedoms
that we enjoy here which are greater than
most people in the entire world
to use those to serve Allah
and to help others.
We'll take a few moments to offer sunnah
or rafil prayers for those who'd
like
to,
and
then
we'll continue.