Suleiman Hani – 20 Years After 911
AI: Summary ©
The aftermath of the recent attack on America's safety have caused harm to groups like the United States, the United States, and the United States. The aftermath have caused harm to Muslims, including the loss of lives of non- Muslims, and have also caused harm to groups like the United States, the United States, and the United States. The recent spike in COVID-19 has also caused negative consequences for Muslims, including violence and distrust towards the government. There is a need for constant engagement to prevent harm and prevent future evil, and protecting one's privacy and community is crucial. Islam is a source of peace and peace is also a concern for Muslims.AI: Transcript ©
In Al Hamdulillah you want to start you want to stop fiddle. When are we below him in Cerulean fusina woman say TR Molina mejor de la who Fela mobila were my youth little fella her the Allah wa should you en la ilaha illallah wa the hola Cherie color. Wa shadow Ana Mohammed Abdullah Sudha Yeah, are you Hello Dina top Allahu Akbar to party, while ultimo tuna Illa. One to Misty moon. You Alladhina amanu tabula well Tumblr enough sama caught them at liquid WhatsApp Allah in Allah Javi Don't be matar malewane All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him. We seek His help, his guidance and his forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our sins, and the evils within
ourselves. Whomsoever Allah guides because they are sincere, non can misguide. And whomever he rightfully causes to be led astray because they are arrogant, and they are not sincere, none can guide and I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except the law alone. And I bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa salam peace be upon him, is His servant and final messenger for our own success, and our own salvation, our own happiness forever. Allah subhanaw taala instructs us in the Quran, all believers be conscious. Be mindful of Allah,
as he deserves as is his right upon you, He created you. Be mindful of Allah, meaning in all places, all circumstances all times, then public and in private, with Muslims with non Muslims, wherever you are, be mindful and conscious of Allah and act upon that.
And don't die except in a state of worship, worshiping Him submitting to him for that as the purpose of life to know Allah to follow his command. And to die upon it. May Allah subhanaw taala chose to live upon Islam sincerely and consistently to die upon EMA and Allama. Me
20 years ago,
to this day, September 10 2001,
the phrase Allahu Akbar,
publicly in society
would not perhaps have caused such a stir,
or a response, or fear, or a reaction, or Islamaphobia, or discrimination, or an insult.
The day after that on 911, the horrific tragedy of 911
is a moment that similar to others in history is decisive. Meaning it had many ripple effects, many implications, many things followed.
20 years ago,
when 911 took place, many Muslims around the world and no doubts in America as well, I
had mixed feelings in that there was shock. And there was also horror. And there's also confusion.
I remember being as a student at the time and being confused, especially how could any Muslim do something like that? I don't I don't understand. And I didn't understand how could someone who claimed to be Muslim, do something like that it didn't make sense to me, meaning it contradicted what I know to be Islam.
And what followed after 911, shortly after that invasion of Afghanistan invasion of Iraq in 2003, based on false information, by a very admission of the president at the time, and his administration, who said we have solid evidence, and so on and so forth. I'm not going into that story at that moment. But what happened after 911 was also a tragedy.
And when we think about tragedy, and we think about historical moments.
Oftentimes, people focus on one angle or one facet and obviously this is a much larger discussion beyond the scope of a short haha.
But when you see the incident itself as tragedy and it is tragedy, it is horrifying, and it has nothing to do with Muslims and Islam. 2 billion Muslims in the world today still
will stand by the claim that this has nothing to do with our faith.
Following that, however, was also as we've seen in the last 20 years
a countless series of
events that also were very tragic, violent, horrifying in so many different ways.
And it would be very irresponsible of me to begin by talking about Islamophobia in America. And the reason I say that is not because it doesn't exist, it does. There are people who, especially after 911, feared Muslims, and there are people who retaliated, there are people who clearly exhibited anti Islamic discrimination. And to this day, that is the case in many segments of society. But what's more important for us to consider in terms of the impact after 911, after the tragic moment, was what it led to politicians who were very hawkish, and people who their true values and colors came out about their beliefs about their agendas about who sponsors and basically buys them out as
politicians, such as the military industrial complex,
invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, and the cost of these wars in those 20 years, and the bills and the laws that passed, such as the Patriot Act and others, the sweeping powers given to presidents after that every president after that abused it, the drone strike program, the interrogation, the Guantanamo Bay setup that's still there, with many innocent prisoners as well, many of whom were eventually freed.
When we consider the cost of violence, we look at 911 as a singular moment, but in fact, there was context to it before and after.
And that contexts in terms of what happened as a reaction in the United States, it's very problematic for us, especially as Muslim Americans, because it impacts the rest of the world in many ways. The cost of war, up to this point, and the wars that follow 911
have taken approximately a million lives. The overwhelming majority of whom were not battling one another or battling anyone at all, meaning they were innocents, many of whom are in Afghanistan.
People who saw their villages bombed their parents killed, armies invading armies, that soldiers who said we don't know why we're here.
These are not my words, you can watch countless documentaries.
People in Iraq, who had nothing to do with 911, absolutely nothing at all, invaded and destabilize the resources taken.
37 million people displaced because of the post 911 response from the United States of America. 37 million people displaced.
Think about the trauma of someone in Afghanistan, who already was struggling and suffering as it is with their own situation there. And yes, there are situations that are beyond the scope of our discussion. But think about someone who then saw a bomb drop on a village, wiping out their families not knowing what to do. All they know is this came from such and such place, who's going to eventually take this person and convinced them to attack those same people and kill innocent people like they did in the first place. Does that is that justified by Islam to kill innocent people? Absolutely not. And if anyone thinks if there is still a minority of people around the world who
think 911 is justified in Islam, please distance, your justification and the religion of Islam, because it's not justified. But the response as well is very problematic. And as Muslims, we need to be wise enough to take something into context and say this is wrong. And this is wrong. And they're not mutually exclusive. Whereas many times still to this day, when 911 is brought up when something horrific is brought up and attributed to Islam, and it has nothing to do with us. The first reaction is what about? Well, no, not what about 911 was a tragedy. It has nothing to do with Islam, period. Muslims died on that day too. But even non Muslims who had nothing to do with us or nothing to do
with any kind of violence or war were killed, they were innocent. This is tragic, contradicts our faith. We can say this is wrong. And the reaction was wrong. The responses were horrific. Some CIA analysts, FBI researchers and others have stated that the aftermath of 911 and what the United States did in the world was more horrific and tragic than 90 Living itself in terms of the costs of war. And I don't mean financial costs, the $8 trillion, that were spent a trillion dollars that could have saved many people who are struggling with food and homelessness and healthcare crisis in America and everything else that people especially certain parties say we don't have funding for
now. We have the ability to take care of people. But when you have a military industrial complex and bottle politicians, you have war, you have divisions, you have people hating each other, and the division has only grown since 911. It's grown into a different
erection, but it's grown. When we look at the aftermath of that moment, and we see tragedy following tragedy, violence, breathing violence and leading to other forms of violence, we recognize that the trauma, and the horror that was left behind the structural trauma in many places around the world, and the impressions of many mines around the world, leads only to more harm leads only to more violence. And if we're looking to be people who solve these problems, or at least are part of the solution, and advocating for justice, rights, and peace, then we take everything into consideration and critique and criticize it where it is. However, for the last 20 years, many Muslim Americans and
many Muslims around the world are constantly being told to apologize for 911. There's nothing for us to apologize for, because it has nothing to do with us. However, there's a difference between apologizing for something and condemning something. And sometimes even our community does not realize there's a distinction between the two and there's a reaction when a Muslim condemn something of violence of any form. And the reaction is why are you condemning it? We have nothing to condemn? No, we do have something to condemn, because on that day, a lot of violence took place that we as Muslims condemned, rights were violated, lives were taken, and the image of Islam was hijacked.
That's something that we should condemn.
We also condemn American foreign policy, where it kills innocent people. We also condemn the atheist Chinese government as it clamps down in concentration camps on innocent Muslims in the millions leugers. We also condemned the Israeli army when it kills innocent native Palestinians and occupies Palestine. We condemn the Indian government for what it's doing to Muslims in India, and on and on and on many examples. So there's nothing wrong with condemning In fact, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Remember, I mean c'mon, Quran, yada, yada, yada. Whoever amongst you sees evil, let them change its meaning if you can change something bad, like let's say something's
happening in front of you, you can change it, change it with your hands, do something about failing them, your stutter Febby design if you cannot, then with your speech, join the collective voices that are all advocating for justice from the Islamic paradigm to stop the violence in the world to stop violence locally, to critique us policies. It's not anti American to critique something that is wrong in a government. In fact, that is part of the American ideal. And that is part of any system around the world that you're able to advise you're able to critique you're able to propose a solution. Specially when so many lives are being taken. How can you not criticize how can you not
critique?
fail them? Yes, Dr. phobia, Colby Weatherly Khobar, fully man. And if you cannot say anything at all, in a situation that at least hate that evil in your heart, at least hate in your heart, and that is the least degree of faith, we ask Allah subhanaw taala to protect us and guide us forgive us elevate our ranks and utilize us for the betterment of the world alone, the Amin, one of the biggest tragedies, that's not a form of direct violence, but it is violence is that because of the lies and the deceit, from certain administrations, and 2003, four and five, about turn it off, and the killing of then many people in Iraq and on and there are many other political factors, of course to
consider. But the point here is that because of the lies and the deceit, from the government itself from a certain administration, the distrust in government increase in this country and increased around the world. Because when the government admitted it was based on false information numerous times, and there really was no information. When that was admitted, the distrust in government, which already existed pre 911 increased even more. To the extent that regardless of whether or not the government and official government policies and guidelines on any topic are true, or false, people with distrust and skepticism towards the government towards an administration will naturally
respond by rejecting it until they can see proof for themselves. And this has become the state of many things today, anything from medicine, to vaccines to war, and so on and so forth. That distrust increases. And when this honesty and distrust increases in a society, harm also follows evil follows. Because even when something good is there when something necessary is there, people don't trust one another. And when there's a distrust, there's more division, as we see in the society and around the world today, but especially here in the United States of America.
The harm that followed from 911 for many Muslims manifested in different ways. And while yes, we start by emphasizing the trauma for many Muslims in Afghanistan and right off and many other countries that were affected, there were many forms of Islamophobia that were expressed in the United States. Perhaps everyone here has their own story. Perhaps every single person knows someone, or five or 10 or 50 people who heard a number of insults, stereotypes, attacks on Muslim women especially and
So on and so forth, we can't count the number of stories. We know we've experienced this. This is something that's real. This is something that affects people in different ways. But hamdulillah in the last 20 years, there is some good news, there is a silver lining, there are some positive things that have changed over time. And amongst them is that in the aftermath of 911,
regardless of everyone else outside of the Muslim American scope, faith was tested. The Muslim Americans were tested in their email, and how will you respond to the situation? For some people hiding was their answer, Let me disappear. Why at a fear for myself and my family, and they didn't just hide after 911, they continue to hide their faith to this day, changing their appearance, removing their hijab, no longer ever mentioning that there are Muslims maybe changing their names, and still to this day, carrying some form of fear, or even an inferiority complex thinking that somebody has something better as a way of life, that to this day, they're living based on that post
911 Fear.
Whereas other Muslims, yes, after the initial moment of shock and fear and worry, is there going to be retaliation against us when we have nothing to do with this incidence.
A lot of Muslims at the time, were told to get active, start getting involved, start doing something about the foundations by previous Muslim American senior leaders, was sufficient for now more work, get involved in your society, get involved in politics become more aware of what's happening. And one of the things that bothers some Muslims, and we still have to say this, and this is a matter of avoiding sugarcoating, is the idea that a lot of Muslims, especially after 911, and for many Muslims, who maybe didn't grow up in the US, don't fully identify as Americans. And by this, I don't mean that they're multicultural, as many of us are. I mean, that they don't think of themselves as
American. So they're not concerned with American politics, in their mind. They're from, let's say, another country. So the politics that they care about from that country, their feeling their allegiance, whatever it may be, is not really concerned with bettering this society. And that's a problem.
And the reason that's a problem is not because you can't care about bettering other societies or having a connection to where you grew up. That's, that's not a problem. The problem is when we distance ourselves from the very country that we are all claiming to be a part of thinking that we are disconnected from responsibility that you shouldn't care.
But where did that assumption come from? Because culturally, for many people, you might be American, you might be black American, you might be Arab, American, and so on and so forth. You might be Yemeni, American Palestinian, doesn't matter. The point is that if you live here and you're a resident of this country, and you're a Muslim, there are many problems that need to be addressed. And there's no group that has a responsibility to better the world than Muslims. And we are large in numbers 2 billion Masha Allah and counting and soon to be the largest group in the world. But what about our quality works? What about being part of our society? And so since 911, many studies have
found that Muslims became much more engaged in multifaith coalition's in working with other people without compromising on our beliefs, and engaging at the political level at the city, state and federal levels. And yes, the reputation of Muslims. While still there's a lot of Islamophobia and attacks every year. In fact, one of the top two groups that are attacked in this country religious groups, we find that a lot of that has changed in the last seven to 10 years. And especially with the last presidency, that more Muslims are engaged politically, more Muslims are going out to vote more Muslims are concerned with what's happening here, because they know that for you to change
society, you need to be involved in and engaged with the laws and the policies that affect society that govern lives, the policies that affect people overseas, if you're going to sit down on your couch and criticize or from behind the screen, every foreign policy of every government, you're not really going to change much. But until we get more involved and understand the system that we are a part of, because we are part of it, nothing will change for the better. And so getting involved means that for some Muslims, it may be that they ran for political office. And while we may not agree with all of their views as Muslims, it's good to know that reputation wise a segment of
society is much more accepting of Muslims today than it was post 911. Although their acceptance of Muslims at times come with conditions that are you are a certain way or you're not this practicing, you're not that type. But the reality is, that impression is changing. And the fear for many people in this country now has shifted over, especially during the last presidency has shifted over due to the efforts of many Muslims who became active and the works that many Muslims have done in many communities, Islamic centers, many conventions and conferences, that the attention has shifted over to the actual concern in this country. The growing fear of domestic terrorists
him of white supremacy and that manifests in many ways and kills in his innocent people in different ways. But ultimately those who followed after 911, the Command of Allah subhanho wa taala, or the regular seven year old became ill Hekmati when Margaret O'Toole has a call to the way of your Lord, with wisdom, and with good conduct good advice, good instruction. Wisdom means knowing your audience, knowing your society, knowing how things operate on how people think, knowing the culture, and at the right time in the right place, utilizing your capacity, your networks, your efforts, your coalition's to improve that place in society or that moment in society. A lot of non Muslims during
the last 20 years learned about the Islamic perspective on justice, what are other unforeseen that you are to testify for truth and standards witnesses, even if it's against yourself, the universal justice maximum is now a lot of non Muslims in these 20 years, learned about the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the medina constitution to student Medina where the Kitab which is a religiously pluralistic constitution that Muslims and non Muslims live side by side in peace,
that this does not contradict Islam.
A lot of non Muslims learn about the stamps perspective on serving others taking care of the poor social justice causes anything from the health care crisis in America to systemic discrimination to racism at the highest levels, homelessness, student loans interest, may Allah subhanaw taala utilize all of us to continue bettering this society and all societies around the world along that I mean,
in terms of what we can do and what we are doing. The past does not dictate the future. And if you've ever seen growth from a difficult situation of darkness, and you've seen light come out of it difficult times in history in different places, anywhere from Turkey in the early 1900s. to Turkey today, anywhere from Muslims in America,
at the moment of 911 to Muslim Americans today, we find that yes, things change. But these situations do not change overnight, and they do not change if people are not willing to engage, to be active to be part of solving the problem. And it's gradual, it's slow, it's steady the process. But all of it is an act of worship, all of it is a responsibility. And as Muslims living in this country, we have a massive responsibility. We need to also control the narrative about what Islam is and isn't because there are people in certain circles, whether it's an intelligence circles or others who tell us very bluntly and tell Muslims in America, if you yourselves are not going to be
engaged and tell us what Islam actually is. We're taking it already from somebody else. And what they're taking from other people is not Islam, what they're taking from other people leads to the discrimination that we see in the United States and around the world. We need to be engaged. We look at the business context. And specifically there's something called strategic foresight in future studies for Strategic Foresight is for you to look ahead, for you to look at the trends for you to look at what's happening, and to assess to plan for different scenarios so that you are preventing something bad, you're preventing harm. You're setting up a system that protects you in any kind of
worst case scenario. May Allah subhanaw taala protect us all. And although 911 caused Muslims to be reactive, meaning we had to then get engaged more politically, although yes, there was some activism before.
No doubt that now and especially in the last 20 years, many Muslim Americans and organizations are working towards a future vision. What is it that we hope to see in 20 years, 50 years 100 years for those after us as well? May Allah subhanho wa Taala utilize all of us for the betterment of society and protect us from any harm. And may Allah subhanaw taala make us all a part of the continuous goodness and betterment of the world. Aloma Amin seek forgiveness from Allah He is the Ever Merciful The oft forgiving, a poodle pony ha that will stop fiddling with you when it comes to stock video in a while affordable.
hamdu lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah while early wasafi on the water
during the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
especially in the Meccan era, as we know, Muslims were persecuted. The Muslims were oppressed.
Some Muslims in the early years had to hide their faith. And they hid even their discussion. On revelation they're learning from the Prophet sallallahu Sallam in double outcome.
Following this was open Islam, meaning they were trying to practice in public, and then the fear spread amongst the pagans of Mecca. That this message will cause them to lose their political power,
their wealth, their status, everything will disappear, that there'll be made equal to another as human beings.
And this fear does
spread and it came with a lot of propaganda accusations about the Prophet sallallaahu Salam accusations against the companions that were false. And these accusations are mentioned in the Quran as well these claims these ridiculous claims
and eventually led to the incident that we know of the boycott the cutting off of Muslims so that they would starve basically to death, cut them off financially access to no food whatsoever, cut them off socially, no communication with them whatsoever.
And some of them were on the verge of starvation aside who passed on the lawn and said, some of them were on the verge of starvation. And they would walk in the desert in the dark looking for something to eat, they would step on something that sounded like it wasn't dirt, and they didn't know what it was, and they would pick it up and eat it. We don't have any reference whatsoever, any moment in which it is mentioned that a single companion, male or female, left Islam because of that hardship.
They stood strong, and it's not easy. By its very nature, a test of faith is difficult. And that's part of the purpose for our existence, that our faith is tested in different ways. What will you do when the test comes to you? And not just one particular test and not one context of that test, but the entirety of a sequence of tests? What will you do to respond, some of the companions could have continued to hide their Islam, and fake something else. Some of them could have changed, maybe their appearance, the way that they carry themselves stopping to practice their faith altogether, even though they're getting persecuted, attacked, and they were not able to fight back.
But they hold on to their faith, and eventually, with the blessing of Allah subhanaw taala and the light of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam that the Companions followed as guidance, their steadfastness, their stability, their perseverance, their character, that they would respond its viability here as and when evil would come their way or injustice, they would respond with something better command of Allah subhanaw taala.
And that changed many hearts, the Prophet sallallahu Sallam a mercy to mankind that changed many hearts, many enemies of Islam who then became Muslim who stopped their Islamophobia who stopped their discrimination who stopped their persecution, despite the fact that they killed many innocent Muslims, despite the fact that they martyred Sumaiya law the Aloha Anna, the first martyr in Islam. And eventually, it got to the point where the companions were safe. The Prophet slicin was safe. A community was built that was established on Islam and religious pluralism, allowing people of different religions to live in the same community.
And because of their perseverance, 1400 years later, and 2 billion Muslims later today we are able to say Allahu Akbar, today were able to say like Ilhan Omar.
While you feel like your struggle as a Muslim, or a desire to hide your Islam
is individual. It's not. Everything we all do is collective. Everything has a ripple effect. The perseverance you have today is perhaps the email of many generations of Muslims tomorrow. The efforts you put in today that you don't see the results for is perhaps the reason that in the future 10s of 1000s of people become Muslim or know about Islam. Or perhaps many lives are saved or perhaps some kind of injustice is removed from society because of your efforts today. Be proud that you're Muslim, be proud that Allah guide you to Islam, that you have something valuable, something priceless, something that also resolves the very problem that we are talking about, of oppression
and injustice in this world. If only we were to follow that morality first and foremost and engage in society, we would see less of these problems. May Allah subhanaw taala utilize all of us and allow us to live upon Allah, Allah and Allah and to live upon Allahu Akbar, Allah is greater and may Allah subhanaw taala guide us protect us and our loved ones all around the world. May Allah subhanaw taala relieve the affairs of our brothers and sisters around the world and make us a people who advocate for and establish justice wherever we are Aloma Amin in Allahu Allah eco Soluna alumina V yeah un leadin Ermanno Sundiata. He was selling notice Nima Alomar Sunday wa sallim wa barik ala
Nabina Muhammad infinito woody Well Phil earthly what Philomela in order you know yo Medina Allama Ferdinand Muslim you know when was NEMA when what meaning you know when what me not even whom when and what?
Allahu Allahu Allah sort of Islam what is the Muslim in Allah one sort of Islam or is it a Muslim in Allah one sort of Islam or is it a Muslim in Allah, one Saudi Muslim in Alamosa? Dafina frequently Mecca Allah one sorry Muslim in and mustafina equally makan Allah Who wants only Muslim in animals still Dafina if he could Lima Can you either Giuliani with a crumb along with apna Herstal Fatima wa Jalla Phaedra, Yamuna Yeoman el parque Robina Tina for dunya has an awful lot your husband walked in either but now welcome to Salah
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