Tariq Ramadan – Ramadan Chronicles #20 Oppression
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When it comes to resistance,
there is one type of resistance, which once
again is essential when it comes to the
Islamic teachings.
It's about oppression.
And while Muslims should be clear about the
fact that their dignity
is embodied or translated into 2 dimensions, the
first one has to do with their freedom.
The second has to do also with their
knowledge. Knowledge and freedom are the 2 dimensions
that are explaining
the dignity of human being. Now if there
is a government, if there is a society
or a culture
oppressing you, preventing you from thinking, preventing you
from speaking, preventing you from moving. This is
where in the name of your principles, in
the name of your understanding, you have to
resist. This is unacceptable.
So any type of oppression.
So when it comes to,
this, you can understand here that this,
oppression, the way you have to deal with
it, the way you have to resist has
to do with, protecting your freedom to think,
protecting your freedom to express yourself, protecting your
freedom of of moving
around. And this is where today we see
that this is not going and it's not
happening.
And when it comes to oppression,
this is the way you have to deal
with oppression is the way,
a physician is dealing with disease or with
a patient.
You never ask the origin. You don't ask
the color. You don't consider the color. You
don't ask about the social status, and you
don't ask about religion.
A patient has no religion. You have to
deal with the human dignity, and you have
to help him to cure and to find
again his health. It's exactly the same with
oppression. We are not on the side of
the oppressed because they are Muslims. We are
on the side of the oppressed because they
are oppressed against any type of oppression and
sometimes against,
Islamic powers that are oppressing the people. So
we are on the side of the oppressed,
and this is also something,
which is so important. It has to do
with freedom, and it has to do with
the dignity of human being. Omar Ibn Khattab
said,
Why then for how come you
are enslaving people while their mother
gave birth to them when they were
free. Freedom, it's
essential here. And we have to understand that
our struggle against oppression is a struggle
for dignity
and dignity
and, at the same time,
autonomous human beings.
The other side of the the equation here
is also about,
the way we deal with it within the
society. All structures of oppression, we have to
try to dismantle the structural way we deal
with oppression within the society when it comes
to discrimination,
rejection,
injustices,
and when also it has to do with
the,
world order when you see
societies oppressing others and putting them in a
situation where there is no dignity, there is
only economic oppression and cultural oppression
and not only political oppression.
So from where we are, it's important to
nurture the sense of
resisting resisting the world the way it is
and resisting all types of oppression in the
name of freedom. In the name of God,
of course, because we say and we start
with Bismillah,
I start with God. But in the name
of human dignity,
in the name of justice, in the name
of freedom, in the name of our,
common humanity.
This is the way we have to be
involved with this struggle. Resisting
oppression is the starting point of translating,
our faith into something which is visible when
it comes to the way we live within
our societies.
Remember to tell the people you love that
you love them.
Life is fragile.