Black Lives Matter – 14th Annual MAS-ICNA Convention
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Channel: Siraj Wahhaj
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Bismillah R Rahman Rahim Al Hamdulillah Shinola hula hula Shahi kalasa, Donna Mohammed Abdullah Sula.
Robin sisters A few years ago I very prominent mm African American mm hmm Talib Abdul Rashid
came to my office and told me about
a meeting that he was invited to
a Muslim immigrant national organization.
And he told me they shared with him
their list of priorities, and they listed one through 10
number one the most,
the biggest priority, so number 10.
They study ma'am tala, what do you think about that?
Mmm Todd looked at the list. He said, You know what's interesting?
What you have is priority number one.
For my community is priority number 10.
In what you have is priority number 10. In my community is priority number one.
So what I like to do
today is asked the question,
what are we going to do?
What are we going to do?
And I'm going to make about two or three recommendations.
Number one, I'm going to take a moment
to give you
a 62nd Arabic grammar lesson.
In Arabic
verb have two voices.
It is the active
Calma maloom and the passive call the module.
If you have the sentence Khattab abdulah ki tabin
it means that Abdullah wrote a book, who was the subject, Abdullah, what did he write a book.
But if you have the sentence, Cookie by kita, boon. Passive, it means
a book was written.
Who wrote the book
doesn't say,
active, Abdullah did it.
Passive. It was written.
years ago, we had a rally in New York City.
Because someone had done something racist.
And we got and we were demonstrating.
And you know, usually when you have these demonstrations, you have
slogans.
And we were marching around saying racism must end racism must end racism must end.
And the Imam took the mic and say don't say racism must in say, we must end racism. We are the stage. We are at a stage right now.
That we have to make something happen. And I'm going to make a recommendation. I'm going to take a page out of Martin Luther King Junior's statement that he made.
He said once
every one of you
is either
a thermometer or a thermostat.
And you have to make a determination this afternoon, whether you are a thermometer or a thermostat.
He said a thermometer all it does is measure the temperature. Whatever the temperature is, it tells you what it is. But a thermometer is that instrument where whatever the temperature is, you can change it. So if it's 60 degrees and you want to make it hotter, you turn it up.
If it's 90 degrees, you want to make a cooler, you turn it down. We have to make a disarm determination that this conference that we're going to walk out of here. Not merely thermometers complaining about things, but rather thermostats to change. And I'm gonna make a couple of recommendations.
Dr. Sherman Jackson
said something two weeks ago
that I thought was profound.
How many of you heard of Jackie Robinson?
Most of you will say
that Jackie Robinson broke the color line in baseball, the first African American
in the United States to play professional baseball, and you will be right.
But Professor Jackson said that Jim Brown made this statement.
And he thought it was very profound and I agree with him. I'm going to report to you what Jim Brown said Jim Brown, a great African American football player, one of the greatest ever.
Jim Brown said,
People say that Jackie Robinson broke the color line.
But Jackie Robinson didn't break the color line.
Branch, Ricky, Ricky,
who was an administrator of the dodges, he broke the color line, because he's the one that took an African American, and brought him in Lesson number one today.
Professor Jackson said that we ought to have allies.
I agree with him. How do you get the eila allies, you get the Allies by not asking them but you get our allies by participating in all of the causes that adjust you as a Muslim, we as Muslims must be involved with it. I want to tell you something about what happened in 1965.
Many of you should know by now that this is the sixth the 50th year anniversary of the famous civil rights bill of 1965.
If you remember, March 7 1965,
some 600 African Americans marched
from Selma, Alabama, or they work they attempted to march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, the Capitol.
When they did,
white men, white police begin to beat them down.
Bloody them up.
And what happened was historic.
That night, a movie was being played, called the Nuremberg trials.
ABC.
They interrupted that movie, to show what was happening at that demonstration, black people being beat up
48 million Americans watched it. And when the Americans saw the image of that happening, many of them white said that this is not right.
So that day, the seventh
they call it Bloody Sunday,
more March 9, Tuesday.
After seeing what was happening on TV, they started to march again. And there were 2500 people come into March, many of them black, many of them white.
And when they started to March, Martin Luther King Jr. turned them around because they hadn't got permission to march. So it's called turn around Tuesday,
March 25, which began with 6000 I'm sorry, 600 marches to 2500. Now 25,000 people marched in Montgomery. And because
people saw that there was a change in August 6 1965.
The President of the United States of America signed into law, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. What's my point? Two points.
Two things that I recommend that Muslims get involved with number one,
we have to get on social media. If you study the Black Lives Matter, a lot of things on view
in camera. One day recently, I was on the plane and I was the last one to get on the plane.
And I noticed my seat was all the way in the back. And I noticed as I was walking through the plane, everybody has some kind of social media, some kind of iPad, some kind of iPhone, some kind of something, everybody, even little children. It means that this is a world we live in a world of visual and we have to have our children get involved in the media to begin to show our story. Images make a difference as it did in 1965. It makes a difference now, number two
About 15 or 20 years ago, Muslims were asking the question, is it permissible to vote? Is it is it allowed to vote? I will say in some instances, it is almost haram not to vote. When you understand the power of the vote, black people, they fought for the right to vote. And it is a very, very powerful tool. I want to give you an example of those black people in those years
who are not able to vote.
They had what they call literacy tests. Black people had to take a test to see if they're qualified to vote, I'll give you one test.
They would ask them the question, how many bubbles in a bar of soap?
questions that they could not answer. So therefore, number two, I will suggest to you to understand the power of the vote and the power of the law.
I want you to think about this.
How many of you heard of Masjid Salah in Bridgewater, New Jersey? You may have heard by now, that in Bridgewater, New Jersey,
they had 17 churches,
a Catholic convent,
a Jewish synagogue,
a Sikh temple,
and two Hindu temples. But no masjids and the Muslims in Bridgewater wanted to build the masjid.
And they went to a place that was zoned for a Masjid.
And when they went back to the city council to say that we want to build a Masjid the city council said, because the people said, we don't want no Muslims here. And they refuse to give them the permit to build the masjid.
What did the Muslims do? They understood the law.
They understood the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.
You have the right freedom of press freedom of religion.
You have the right freedom of the press, freedom of speech,
assembly.
And you have the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. So those Muslims in Bridgewater, they sued the government of that town Bridgewater. And they made a settlement. And as a result of the settlement, the Muslims got 15 acres of land in a better property that they had originally wanted. And they won a settlement of $7,750,000. Because they understood the law, and they practice the law. So brothers and sisters,
learn the law, learn the law of the land.
I close with this.
Paul Sperry wrote in his book,
infiltration.
He was concerned about the Muslims and alliances.
And he says that the Muslims and the Black Caucus will make a natural Alliance. And I'm saying to you today that we should work for justice, not so that we get allies. But we should work for justice, because working for justice is what we're supposed to do.
They
I leave you with our response that responsibility that we have.
What are we here to do in America?
quantum cried on my
roof, what can happen on an unmanned cargo to me No.
You are the best people evolved for mankind because you enjoying the good and you forbid the evil and you believe in a law. That is our command. Our command is to stand up in this country and wherever. Stand up and tell the truth truth to power. Don't be afraid. And may Allah subhana wa Thrall bless you and bless your family all of me, Sir Alec