Suhaib Webb – What is Happening in Bangladesh with Nabikur Rahman
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Okay.
Peace and blessings upon our beloved Messenger Muhammad,
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
upon his family, his companions, and those who
follow them until the end of time.
Brothers and sisters, Assalamu alaikum.
It's a blessing to be here with all
of you. Unfortunately, under
other difficult circumstances, subhanAllah, to
make it easy for the whole entire Ummah.
We know that the prophet
he said
that we are like a building that supports
one another.
We support one another.
And also,
Allah describes us as
It's a strong solid wall. We are an
Ummah that doesn't know borders, doesn't know nations,
doesn't know ethnicities.
We respect those things, but what we know,
1st and foremost, is tawhid
and our dedication to the prophet
That in mind, I have my dear brother,
from Mona, doctor Nikib O'Haman, who's very close
to me and very close to his family
from Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a place that has
an incredible importance to the Muslim Ummah
from the past
into the present.
And I wanted to spend some time and
talk with him about what's going on,
in Bangladesh, and it's important that we hear
and center this around our Bengali brothers and
sisters. So first and foremost, doctor Assalamu alaykum.
Thank you very much. I know you always
have been really passionate about Bangladesh.
And, not only,
I myself,
our
brothers and sisters, who are on the receiving
end of the persecution in Bangladesh,
not just just few week,
over last 16 years,
they really appreciate you because,
not everybody,
knows what's going on.
And even when some people knows what's going
on,
they don't speak out, but you have been
vocal about it. Subaraka Lafiq. May Allah bless
you and continue to
elevate you.
There's no there's no thanks in what's an
obligation.
If you could give us a little bit
of background about yourself and then also
about Mona, which I think also is how
we've met historically.
And then we'll jump into some questions about
what's going on in Bangladesh.
Thank you very much.
I was born and raised in in Bangladesh.
I was born in a small little town,
in Bangladesh.
It's, on the south eastern side. It's called
Jinaida.
I was born in 1977,
1st July.
I, had my high school,
in Bangladesh.
After that, I moved to Malaysia for my
college.
I graduated from, International Islamic University Malaysia,
with a degree in finance
and information systems.
Then I came back to Bangladesh. I worked,
in a textile
company,
for
about one and a half years in Bangladesh.
I worked there as a financial analyst and
then came to US.
And, I
came to US, just
3 weeks before 9/11 in 2001.
Oh. Just just 3 weeks. So I don't
have any experience,
of pre 9/11
lifestyle, how Muslims were treated.
My entire experience is post 9 11.
So in 2001,
18th,
August 2001, I came to United States.
I came for my master's degree in,
University of Maine at University of Maine. I
completed my master's, in information systems.
I worked for a bank for a few
years. I didn't like it. I went back
home. I started teaching,
at a private university called North South University.
I taught there for 2 years, and then
I came to United States in 2,006,
for my PhD.
I completed my PhD in finance from University
of New Orleans.
I I also taught at Tulane University,
in adjunct capacity for some time.
Since 2014,
I've been teaching at University of North Carolina,
Pembroke.
Currently, my rank is associate professor of finance.
I'm also involved in Dawah activity from day
1. When I was in Bangladesh, I was
involved in
Islamic chapter Shabir,
which propagates Dara work in Bangladesh.
Also when I was working, as a university
teacher, I was involved with Jamaat Islami in
Bangladesh. My father,
was also a lifelong dari.
His last
responsibility
was he was the Amir of, Jamaat Islami
in Bangladesh. Also, he was,
partner of
2,001 to 2,006
government in Bangladesh. He,
worked as a, industries minister and agriculture minister.
Unfortunately, this government persecuted him in 2016
in a summarily
executed style trial in the name of
International Crimes Tribunal.
So ever since my family has been displaced,
they're all over the place
and I couldn't go back to Bangladesh
ever since.
So,
but I did not stop working for Dawah.
I have been involved with MuslimM of North
America,
which is a grassroots Dawah organization.
It predominantly
work
among, Bangladeshi
Americans.
We have, alhamdulillah, a huge following in,
New York. Every year we have a convention,
and,
I I knew about, Sheikh,
of my Imam Suhay way, but my first
interaction
with imam was in 2018
when, I was responsible for inviting imam in
our convention
in Philadelphia
in 2018. And, mashaAllah, during that time also
persecution was going on in Bangladesh,
and Imam was very upfront about it,
spoke very passionately
about,
my father particularly. So I I personally am
really,
in-depth to you, Imam.
I mean, I think it's important for people
to know that your father
was like what Omar Suleiman maybe is to
Western Muslims. Right? Your father was Rahim Ohola.
Was,
for those who know, know.
And also the Alwami family. Usama Alwami,
our friends, professor,
in the UK. We have a number of
close friends, and that's one of the things
that we've noticed.
If you know Muslims, then you look you're
looking the eyes usually of someone who lost
a family member
to some sort of state violence,
whether it's a distant family member or
a near family member. May Allah accept your
father as a shayid.
Aminah. May
Allah bless your family. I don't think people
heard what you said, but his father was
unjustly executed
by this regime in Bangladesh.
So if you can
you know, everyone
attention these days is is is is
constantly pulled in different directions, and it seems
like there's everywhere we look, there's a fire
that's brewing within the Muslim world.
And one of them now is in Bangladesh.
If you could give people some background of
what's happening and what what led to this,
and then what's happened since that time?
SubhanAllah,
of course, our heart always will
be bleeding for Gaza, what's happening in Gaza.
There is no comparison,
and we need to be
constantly focusing on that. But at the same
time, we cannot ignore other,
persecutions that are going on because
eventually,
Bangladesh can become Gaza if you don't pay
enough attention.
We have 170,000,000
people. That's
huge. That's half of the population of United
States.
And if you look into the geography,
Bangladesh is,
the size of Wisconsin.
So can you imagine,
in in Wisconsin, 170,000,000
people leaving, half of the population of United
States if it lives in a small area.
So although economically
Bangladesh is
falling behind, and of course it's because of
the corrupt regime that has been ruling this
country,
but,
if you met a Bangladeshi in United States,
I'm pretty sure you will be impressed because
we are very hardworking people by nature.
And, we try to excel in whatever we
are doing. So it's a shame that,
we expect here at Bangladesh is we are
extremely successful
overseas,
but our country is one of the poorest
in the world, and it's it's not
on people. It's on the
dictators that has been ruling this country
for so long.
So right now, let me start with what
is going on right now, and I'll take
you back,
because
what we have seen in last 7 days
cannot have taken place just because of what
has been happening in last 7 days. There
was
an anger that has been brewing
into the mass population, and we have seen
an outburst.
It started
with a student demonstration
for quota reform
in government jobs.
And
this government,
which led the liberation war in 1970
1, uses
that
liberation war and what it calls is the
spirit of liberation war
as an excuse
to do every evil thing, to get away
with every evil thing it has
done.
Again, it is a general practice,
if you see,
for veterans
of any war
to get some special privilege in jobs.
In Bangladesh, let's put it into perspective.
Unemployment rate among youth is so high. It
is as high as 41%.
College graduates with really good results, they don't
get jobs right away.
Their big dream job is to get public
service job, and for that, there is a
nationwide exam. It's called BCS, Bangladesh Civil Service
System.
In that
BCS
exam,
there is 30%. One third of
the job goes to
the grandchildren
of war veteran
of 1971.
No The benefits extend to the extent of
*.
Say that again, Kimao? So the benefits are
extending to, like, other family members, basically. Yeah.
Yeah. So
if if you have if you have,
30% quota for war veterans, nobody would mind
probably. Although it's high, but nobody would mind.
If you have it for children of war
veterans,
that would be probably okay. Some people would
complain. But when you talk about
grandchildren,
that's a bit too much. And let's just
keep in mind
that this whole
process of,
finding out who are veterans is a very
fraud process.
Everybody who is related with government
is basically
getting benefit out of it. So basically,
this 30% quota for grandchildren of war veteran
is translated
as
handpicked
related
people to the power to Awami League, which
is the ruling
party
right now,
the job is reserved for them. And students
are
concluding that this is very unfair. So in
2018,
there was similar movement that took place.
And because of that movement and, of course,
there was an election coming in,
Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of the country
who has been prime minister for last 16
years, she compromised. She accepted the demand. So,
okay, I will accept
that there will be no quota
for,
veterans,
grandchildren, so she accepted that.
But we have to understand this government
is in absolute control and uses the judicial
system, the court, as a rubber stamp.
So just
last week,
the court
gave
a verdict that that quota system, which was,
which was postponed by Sheikh Hasina in 2018,
that is,
not constitutional so the quota system will come
back.
So she used the court
to reinstate the quota system and that's when
the movement started.
Now
it was a very benign, very small movement,
and in in in in, outside
view, it doesn't seem like a, very
a big political connotation attached with it.
But the problem is since it came to
power in 2008,
one after another,
this government
tried to quash any movement that took place.
Right when it came to power in 2000
8, in
2009,
everybody remembers
it killed this government killed 57
highly qualified army officials starting from major general
to Cornell.
And those army officials were patriotic,
and they were killed
in a manner
of a mutiny.
And
by that killing, Sheikh Hasina pretty much neutered
army,
crashed the backbone of army, and took full
control over it.
At that time, there should have been a
mass resistance,
but people were comfortable they didn't come on
the street.
In
2010, this government started cracking down on Jama'at
e Islami, my father's party,
arrested the top leaders of Jama'at,
executed
6 top leaders, killed thousands of people. At
that time, there was really, really serious movement
going on,
and government used really brutal force police by
killing many, many people.
But at that time,
we didn't see
general population caring too much about it because
a lot of people I spoke with, they
privately
were feeling bad about it, but they're saying
that our hands are tied. If you come
on the street, government is going to kill
us.
And they gave
inter liberation
tag to anybody
who would be on the street to quash
that
and thought that Jamaat is eliminated from the
system, from the process.
And then in 2014,
the main opposition party, BNP,
launched a strike, launched a movement,
and Awamilig
contained that with heavy hand by arresting Khaled
Azia, the former prime minister.
And at that time as well, people did
not come out because there was so much
negative propaganda against BNP as well. So people
did not come out, but the anger was
brewing.
And then in 2018,
the quota movement, which is basically quota movement
2.0 now, came out and government was heavy
handed,
but
contained that movement
with a compromise
and broke that promise again this year. And
then then right before COVID, there was a
movement by these same young people
for safe
traffic, safe street because
traffic violation was
and road accident was like epidemic in Bangladesh.
Government
contained that with heavy hand. So every time
there was an uprising,
not the entire population took part of it
because government was successful
in dividing
and conquering,
tagging everybody
and anybody who comes into the street as
an anti liberation force.
So all those anger
was brewing,
and this time,
as I said,
because
this quota is
reserved for liberation
veterans
and their family,
so anybody who opposes that
by ruling party, they were tagged
as inter liberation force, which basically
they use to undermine Jamaat Islami,
all the time.
So this time when these people, the students
launched
the movement,
Sheikh Hasina ridiculed them
saying a very derogatory
word, which is called razakar. Razakar literally translates
as volunteers,
but
razakar
is basically
traitor
during 1971.
Those who,
did not support
the liberation war, they're termed as razakar.
So these students who are simply asking for
their right,
asking to abolish discrimination,
government termed them as razakar. And this is
a very significant
moment in Bangladesh's history, and we can relate
that.
During the
2016,
presidential debate,
we all remember the
deplorable moment of Hillary Clinton.
In that debate, remember,
Hillary Clinton
talked about the Trump supporters as deplorable
and that is a very significant moment and
that probably caused a little bit of downfall
for Hillary Clinton in 2000 One second. We
lost we lost our connection on Instagram. Just
give me one second. Sorry.
Because what you're saying is very important, but
somehow,
we lost our connection.
Like I know, it looks like we're
we're still going. You can continue, Slack. So
what I'm saying is prime minister calling
the students razakar
who are protesting for their right. And just
to put into perspective,
liberation war took place 52 years ago.
The students,
their parents were not even born. Some of
their grandparents were not even born 52 years
ago.
And prime minister calling them traitors,
and this moment is very similar to
the deplorable
moment
of Hillary Clinton during
2016. There was a really
big movement
break coming up, owning this world.
You have seen republicans
printing t shirt and campaigning that we are
all deplorable
deplorable.
So exactly same thing happened to this quota
movement.
The students owned this term razakar trader,
and
every campus students came out on the street
in protest that night
and claimed that we are razakar,
said who? The autocrat. So they basically flipped
the switch.
The liberation war industry, which is basically the
bread and butter
of Sheikh Hasina government,
was just crashed immediately.
And
government
unleashed
their dog,
which is their student wing, chapter league, to
contain the students.
They thought that
like
those
previous movements,
police
and this chapter league, which is the student
wing,
there would be sufficient to scare, beat up
the student, and contain it.
But this time,
it
was pretty much the entire population that were
on the street.
Nobody liked their children being killed. I say
that many times that if you if you
attack
me, I might forgive you. If you even
kill my father, I will remember it for
some time, but I'll forgive you. But if
you kill my children,
that's the red line.
And this government killed children of many.
That's why we have seen
mothers coming out on the street in protest,
fathers coming out in protest. So it resonated
with everyone,
and government couldn't contain it with its student
wing, with police, with border guard.
Government
was forced to call army,
declare curfew, and order anybody who is seen
outside would be shoot on-site. And on top
of that,
shut down
in Internet
for 5 consecutive days.
A long time.
It just went on rampant killing spree. So
we don't know the actual number of deaths
right now, but the videos that we are
seeing
is horrific.
It's horrific.
So if I can ask you just we
we actually have sorry. Go ahead. I just
wanna ask you a few questions. Sorry.
No. Please continue. And then So I, I
just wanted to say that I don't know
the real number of death, but according to,
US embassy, before the Internet was shut down,
their number is,
about
150 people were dead before.
That's the number
up until Thursday,
Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
and, that these 5 days that Internet was
out. And the reason government shutdown Internet was
that
this
government brutality
was spreading like wildfire on the Internet, and
that was causing the mothers to come out
on the street. Government wanted to contain that,
and army used weapon to kill its students.
There was a video
of a UN,
sanctioned
tank on the street, which is a complete
violation of international law. You cannot use UN
equipment to kill
your own people.
So
all line has been crossed
and we pray to Allah
for these poor kids,
these children. These are our children.
And Allah is our only hope because these
unarmed children, they cannot survive against
militarized
army,
heavily equipped army.
So Allah is our only hope.
We have, about 15 minutes, so I just
wanna push in and ask a few questions.
We have someone actually from Bangladesh in the
chat on Instagram who
is somehow,
able to get through, and he's saying now
that the total number of killed is around
1500
or more.
He's mentioning that even children at the age
of 14 have been killed in cold blood.
So the second question I have for you
is, you know,
what can we
outside of I think it's very important that
we amplify
what's going on. Whether we're a Bengali or
not,
we need to support one another, and that's
our job as brothers and sisters.
But what can we do here, say American
Muslims,
to support,
the students
in Bangladesh?
We have a lot of responsibility and, because
we we live in a free world,
and,
we have we have freedom of expression,
which the people of Bangladesh
right now don't have.
Internet is open right now on limited basis,
but it's heavily monitored
and anybody who is posting any entire government
or any pictures,
they are being immediately apprehended. So they have
government have purchased a huge amount of,
spyware from Israel,
Pegasus. It has been all over the news,
and they're using that. And they they are
being supported by Zionist, Wallahi.
So we have the luxury, we have the
freedom, and we need to use that
to pursue, to force
our lawmakers, our government. And again, US policy
towards Muslim world is nothing short of hypocritical.
It it they will say all nice things
when we go see the lawmakers,
but at the end of the day, they
will not do anything at all.
So we have to take matters in our
own hand
and push
our lawmakers.
Every one of us, we need to write
to our lawmakers,
our congressmen and senators
to do something, to ask State Department to
publicly do something. And Alhamdulillah,
US Council of Muslim Organization, US CMO, has
launched a campaign
where,
a letter will be sent to your congressmen
and senators
right away
as long as you provide your name. Right?
So I will be providing that link over
here, Imam. If you can,
if you
can
post that on the chat,
that would be great. So that is a
campaign, we
have launched,
and, I'm I'm providing you that on the
private chat. So if you can copy that
so that link will take you
to that campaign where if you put your
name, it will identify
which area you are from, and it will
send 3 letters, 1 to your congressman
and 2 to the senators,
2 to the each, to, to each senators.
So,
I am
providing that link.
I'll share it in the repost. I'll also
share it and tag it on the repost
so people can use it. Inshallah. Are there
any are there any direct actions? No. I
live in New York City. Alhamdulillah. I know,
you know, Kamala Jin, Palochie, Hamdulillah, you know,
lot of great,
Bangali brothers and sisters in New York City.
How
many Are there any direct
There are there are direct
actions
that people can get involved in, on the
ground?
Yeah. So,
there are few actions, and these these are
impromptu actions. Alhamdulillah. Thanks to our brothers and
sisters.
We had almost 200,
protests
in 200 college campuses
immediately
following this incident.
There are a lot of supporters of Awami
League,
and Alhamdulillah,
what happened crossed all the lines and we
have seen a lot of supporters of Awami
League
are now criticizing, now seeing what we have
been,
calling for last 16 years. So there is
protests going on almost every day. There are
protests going on in front of Times Square.
So please join those protests because we need
our voice to be heard. There was protest
in front of White House,
and we will be, Insha'Allah, organizing protest in
front of, Bangladesh Embassy in Washington DC. So
we are doing all that. So if you
hear about any protest, doesn't really matter who
is calling,
please join that.
So that will amplify the voice. But
first and foremost,
we need
US State Department to stop its hypocrisy.
They need to call spade a spade. They
need to call out this autocrat
and we need our lawmakers
to push that.
Make sure state department does that and please
join our campaign.
Fill in this form that, we will be
sharing
and that will
if you do that enough,
we will be able to
we will be able to move some thread.
Okay. And, also, I'm sure they can keep
up with Mona. Mona is going to be
letting people know of actions that are happening.
You have a big conference coming up. I
think doctor Yasir Qadhi is coming this year
for the first time.
A lot of support. So I'm sure even
with, that's a great resource for people to
refer to for actions and things that are
happening on the front. Yes. Inshallah, I would
I would like I would like to invite
all of you to our convention, which is
going on going to be on 9th,
10th 11th August just 2 weeks from now
in Philadelphia.
Last year alhamdulillah we had 20,000 people
Imam Suhayb couldn't join us last year because
his father passed away and he had to
take care of some business. But Imam has
always been with us.
So this year for the first time Sheikh
Yasir Khadi is going to join us. Imam
Su Imam Suleiman, Omar Suleiman is going to
be there. So there will be a lot
of scholars there. So please join us
and Insha'Allah over there also every speaker will
be talking about Bangladesh. We will have, Sean
King as well,
who also spoke publicly about Bangladesh. So we
will be talking about human rights abuse everywhere,
not about in Bangladesh,
Palestine,
in Gaza, in in Yemen, wherever
our brothers and sisters are suffering like the
Hadith that Imam
quoted at the very beginning. We are like
one body. If one body part is heart,
we all are heart, and we have to
work together
to get out of this situation.
And I think at a broader level, people
may not realize geographically,
Bangladesh is an extremely important area.
What we're seeing with the dictatorship in Bangladesh
is what we're seeing across the Muslim world
where we have basically,
the plantation officers
making sure that people don't get too rebellious,
holding back Muslim potential,
came from keeping Muslims from healing and bringing
prophetic light to the world, something that we've
seen with Sheikh Hasina,
very early on. And some people have said
that this is an extension sort of of
a global war on the Islamic movement. Right?
Jamaat Islami,
is a key component historically
of the Islamic movement. If you can comment
number 1 on, like, the resources
and the geographical
importance of Bangladesh, why the world
wants to keep sort of Bangladesh down. And
then secondly, the historical war on the Islamic
movement that we've seen in the Muslim world
specifically sponsored by the UAE and others,
driven by America,
the the Israelis, you name it,
post Arab Spring. How is this playing out
now also in Bangladesh?
Yeah. JazakAllah Khairn, this is a very important
question. And, one of the reason, although that
this is a very significant
question,
because Bangladesh is relatively poor country and, west
usually don't care about
poor countries much. But the interesting thing about
Bangladesh is it is, a sandwich. Bangladesh is
a country that is
right
between India and China,
so that's why strategic
importance is there.
And,
Wallahi, after 9/11, if you look into who
are the biggest beneficiary of 9/11, it's Israel
and India, unfortunately.
And,
India
has
gotten
pretty much
a free
pass from United States because
US is
paranoid about
China's economic dominance.
And because of that,
India kinda rules
the subcontinent. They want to dominate,
their neighbors.
They try to dominate Nepal. They try to
dominate Sri Lanka, Maldives.
And as as you have seen that the
last election,
the prime minister of Maldives won on the
campaign that
India out campaign.
Right? So
India always wanted
to keep Bangladesh under its thumb and they
have successfully
been doing that
since
2,008 when Sheikh Hasina came to power.
And US, when we talk to the state
department officials,
they are very receptive. They agree with what's
going on,
but, unfortunately,
they don't do anything
because of the calculus of China and India.
They don't want
to make India mad because they need India
against China. So that is the reason
why there was a focus. And then if
you look into the Islamic movement component,
there has been a success story of, Islamic
Movement throughout the world. In Bangladesh,
Islamic Movement
started little later than many places,
and, because Jamaat Islami
officially opposed the liberation war in 1971,
it was very difficult for Jamaat Islami
to come back to Bangladesh,
during that reign of, this prime minister's father's
time who led the Liberation 1 in 1971
and prime minister between 72 to 75,
Jamat was banned. Many members of Jamat were
killed without
any reason, without any,
any charges, without any trial.
But, however, our brothers and sisters, our our
our grandfathers,
they persevered.
And from out of nothing,
they came to power in 2,001.
In 2,001,
my father, although Jamat enjoys about 10 to
15%
popular support,
but because they were a coalition partner of
BNP, they came to power.
And here is the interesting thing. 1 of
the
any Bangladeshi person you talk to, if you
ask them what is the number one problem
in Bangladesh,
unequivocally,
everybody will tell you that it's the corruption
that is the number one problem in the
country.
And between 2,001 to 2,006
government,
Jamat had only 2 ministers, cabinet ministers who
were,
in official position.
And anybody who who you talk to, the
die hard entire Jamaat person,
the die hard atheist person,
anybody who you talk
to, they will admit
that these two individuals
were
they went above
and beyond
in their conduct,
and you cannot press
an iota of corruption on them. And this
is a testimony
which helps Islamic movement.
So it was important for anybody
who wants to crash Islamic Movement to kill
these 2 individuals,
and that's what
global Islamophobic
industry did. They revived
this war crime
tribunal, and they killed these 2 ministers particularly
because their popularity
gained
tremendously.
There are two things that,
people who
like Jamaat Islami, but they didn't ever vote
for Jamaat Islami. They said that you guys
are religious. You don't know how to govern.
Right? You you cannot govern. You don't have
any experience.
So that
was that question was answered by these 2
ministers because they were very successful.
And second thing, anybody you talk to,
even if you don't like Jamaat, that's fine.
But corruption is the biggest problem, and these
guys
are not corrupt because
they build their life
in the philosophy of Islamic movement, and they
believe that they're accountable
to Allah.
And they don't just say that. They don't
just preach that. They practice that, and you
saw that.
So that was the reason
the Islamophobic
industry and anti movement industry.
And, subhanAllah, during that time, if Saudi Arabia
and
UAE,
they had tremendous leverage over government because,
Bangladesh government, because,
majority of the labor force in these two
countries are from Bangladesh, but they chose
not to do anything. In fact,
they encouraged government to execute Jamaat leaders because
of their hatred towards
Islamic movement.
Allow especially young people some of the things
that may be hearing today.
They may have not been aware of before,
But I do believe that there is a
broader sort of nexus at work that is
continued since, you know, pre colonization through colonization,
now post
post colonial worlds. They say it to extend
into the Muslim world. May Allah protect us
and bless us. Thank you for
for sharing. I hope you can, check-in. There
are actually people from Bangladesh in the comments
box. Really appreciate them. They are taken you
know, when you see people saying, I'm texting
from Bangladesh like you were saying,
that'd be
that that these
they're taking a chance. Like, they're being watched.
Right? They're in the comments box. So if
anyone sees people from Bangladesh commenting, just give
them salaams.
Let them know you're making dua for them.
Brother Munzir, he's really been active. He's saying
even that they're hearing Hindi speaking people amongst
the local military forces.
A lot of us there. A lot of
us there. Another
brother is saying a lot of houses are
being raided.
A lot of things are going on. So
we hope that this has at least in
this brief 35 minutes we've been together
work to,
amplify what's going on and people will pay
attention. I will repost this
and then add all the links that you
shared
to make sure that people have a place
to go. They can get involved in direct
actions.
Any final words before we let you go?
Keep our brothers and sisters in your Dua.
And, like I said earlier, these are
kids.
Their age is between 14 to 22,
and they are protesting
against heavy machine guns
and tanks.
They're being killed. They're being tortured,
And Allah's help is our only hope, and
we know Allah's help is near. So keep
our brothers and sisters in your dua,
and please,
whatever opportunity you have,
use that
to engage people,
to
engage people to act, write to your
lawmakers,
so that together,
we can help our brothers and sisters in
Bangladesh and help Bangladesh
to prosper
and get out of this terrible
dictatorship
that has been
on our shoulder for last 16 years.
We'll close out with the final dua. If
you can please make dua, and then we
will let everybody
do.
We never despair from your
help, Allah. We always have hope.
I know Allah
you are testing us, Allah, but don't test
us, Allah, the
test that we cannot bear.
Help us with your angels like you helped
the companions
in the battle of Badr.
And we know that your help will come.
Help us so that we can bear patience.
A lot of mothers and fathers, they lost
their children.
Give them patience
so they can bear that pain.
A lot of brothers and sisters are injured.
They're in the custody. They're enduring torture.
You Allah, send your angel and protect them
so that this torture
does not cause any pain on them.
Like you have promised, you Allah
Those of us who are
away,
who are overseas, allow us to use our
platform,
use our
strength
so that
we can use that to alleviate the sufferings
of people
across the
world. Oh, Allah,
you help our brothers and sisters in Gaza.