Not In Our Name

Within the last couple of weeks, two events involving the Muslim community have made the national news. One, the author Salman Rushdie, infamous for his book called The Satanic Verses was attacked with a knife, just a few hours west of us in New York.

The other event was the arrest of someone who is suspected of murdering four Muslims in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Now, we don't bring the news into a hookah just for a juicy story. We're not here to gossip or speculate about things or to talk about somebody else's tragedy in a disrespectful way. But for us, this type of event, hits close to home, and has a real effect on our lives first, because these types of things keep happening once in a while, from time to time, of course, the big one was 911. More recently, there was Dinesh or ISIS, there was the shooting of the nightclub in Orlando. Now these two events, among others, there's a common thread running through these events. Somebody who claims to be Muslim, or somebody who even is a Muslim, commits a shocking act of violence.

The second reason it matters to us is that it changes how people interact with us on a daily basis. Our co workers, our classmates, our teachers, they develop certain assumptions, or a certain impression about Islam or about Muslims, because of these events. And we then have to take that into consideration with everything that we do. And everything that we say, it might affect how we're treated at work, it might affect how we're treated at school, or out in public.

That's why when these types of things happen, the same questions come up. Do we have to apologize? Are we required to condemn these actions publicly? How do we combat prejudice and prove that we don't deserve prejudice? And most importantly, what does Allah azza wa jal want from us, in all of us?

Sadly, our media and news outlets, they're competing for ratings. And so their main job is to tell a story about what was happening and make sense of events as they unfold. They are rewarded with more viewers if they can break the story first. And that pushes the news outlets to jump to conclusions, or to tell a certain story that either doesn't align with the facts on the ground, or is simply the same story that they think their audience wants to hear.

In the case of the killings in New Mexico, every one was in a rush to tell a story that pitted Sunni Muslims against Shia Muslims. Even the Muslim organizations at the national level such as care, were saying that the killings were motivated by anti Shia hatred.

Before we had a full sense of what was going on, or what really happened, the hot take on Muslim social media was that Sunni Muslims were to blame

for teaching their kids to hate the Shia, that this was responsible for the violence, and that a fundamental change was needed from Sunni Muslims. Some even went so far to say that something like teaching the five pillars of Islam in Sunday school, something that we do here, was responsible for planting hatred for Shia Muslims in our youth.

But soon, details emerged that started to disrupt that narrative. One of the four victims in New Mexico was a Sunni. The suspected attacker was accused of fraudulently trying to exchange food stamps for cash. One of the victims was a grocery store owner that confronted him about it. The suspected attackers daughter had married someone against the father's wishes. One of the victims was a friend of her husband. Local detectives are now saying that the cause of the shootings was interpersonal conflict. The suspected attacker actually had a caseworker and that caseworker is a Shia and she said that quote, It wasn't about Sunni and Shia.

One of the takeaways for us here is that we need to be very careful not to let our sympathy be exploited and used

against us in a way that undermines our deen the academia use this technique a lot. For those who don't know that idea or a group that claims to be muslims and wants to be recognized as Muslims, but they believe that there was a prophet after the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa salam when they are with the biller. This obviously completely contradicts Islam right down to the Shahada.

What happens is that if an act of violence occurs against someone from this group, they then try to use the opportunity to force Muslims to accept them and their beliefs as part of Islam.

They want other people to believe that whoever doesn't recognize them as Muslims is just one small step away from committing an act of violence against them.

The same thing happened after the nightclub in Orlando got shot up. LGBT groups attempted to capitalize on our sympathy, they were saying that the violence done to them was a result of our refusal to accept and embrace the sin that they openly practice and try to legitimize. They want people to believe that whoever doesn't approve of same sex relationships is just one small step away from committing an act of violence against them.

And we see the same thing happening here with the events in New Mexico, those national organizations who rushed to label this incident as an example of sectarianism, those organizations who blamed Sunni Muslims, for simply teaching our children what we believe. They want people to believe that if we don't approve of certain beliefs held by the Shia, that we are just one small step away from committing an act of violence against them. And all of these situations, we are being treated, like our beliefs are responsible for violence. And we are being asked to give up our beliefs in order to gain acceptance from certain sectors of society. We say to them,

Why would you assume that if we disagree, that it means we hate each other?

Why would you assume that if we disagree, it means that I want to harm you. If having a principled disagreement with someone is hatred, or violence, then everyone must hate everybody else. Since no two people agree about everything.

But in reality, they do not hold everyone else to this standard. No, in reality, this is very, very selective because they themselves are allowed to disagree with whatever and whoever they want. When as people of faith. We say that a moral ethical life is not possible without belief in Allah and the afterlife. They're free to disagree with us. When we say that there are two genders, created by Allah azza wa jal, and they were meant to live in harmony with each other, not in competition. They are free to get to disagree with us. When we say that alcohol and gambling and usury and fornication are evil, and are destroying society. They are free to disagree with us. And they will never ever,

ever be questioned about whether their disagreement is really hatred, or if their disagreement is, will one day lead to violence. That's because the playing field is not equal. There is a double standard at play, and that works against us as Muslims.

And if it's true, that these groups among others have been victimized, and subjected to violence in an unjust way, then we say to them, victimhood does not give you a free pass. victimhood does not exempt you from scrutiny or criticism. You can be the victim and still be wrong. You can be the victim today and turn into the oppressor tomorrow. Look at Benny Islamia.

Weren't they oppressed, under funeral home delivered out of Egypt? And then how do they act? Most of sortal to the Bukhara is about how ungrateful they were. They even complained about the food saying that their food had been better when they were slaves with wisdom yeah Musa la nostra Allah for me. Wow hidden feather with an Arab DACA you president I'm in tune beetle abdomen Buckley hell for me how honestly how bustle the

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And recall when you said, Oh, Moses, we can never be patient with just one type of food. So Call upon your Lord, to bring forth for us from the earth. It's screen herbs and it's cucumbers, and it's garlic and it's lentils and it's onions. Moses said to them, are you trying to exchange? What is better for that? Which is worse? Did it matter that they were the victims yesterday? Did it remove responsibility from them, that they had been victims?

How you deal with tragedy, and victimhood is a moral dilemma. There are those who bear their tragedies with dignity and work towards justice honorably. And then there are those who try to exploit their own tragedies for the benefit in this dunya mountain Canada you read Hafele Astra Zilla houfy heartsie Well, man, can you read? Well, how's that? Dunya? Nope, to him in her? Well, Mariela Horfield karate min asleep. Whoever desires the harvest of the Hereafter, we're going to increase his harvest for him. And whoever desires the harvest of this world will give it to him. But he won't have any share in the hereafter. We will not give up the covenants that we have with Allah

azza wa jal. We will not exchange the guidance that we've gotten from a law for a small gain in the dunya Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa Salam is the last messenger homosexual relationships are sinful. The Companions of the Allahu Anhu edge marine were faithful to the cause of Islam, despite their differences, and we are just as capable as anyone else, if not more capable of disagreeing in a principled and peaceful way. And colloquially ha That was stuck to the law HollyWell accomodates sadly Massimino min Cooley them first up through in the whole of Otter Rahim.

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On my path to becoming a muslim,

the freedom to disagree without being accused of hatred, or violence was one of the first things that was taken from me, even before I took my Shahada.

And I'll tell you a story. And I'm only telling you the story so that you understand, and especially those with young people who might one day go to college that you might understand what they might encounter.

I was learning about Islam, and I was in my bachelor's degree studies.

I studied abroad in Turkey. And when I returned to finish my bachelor's degree, I wanted to take a class about Islam at the college level that I was studying.

The only course that was available at the time, was taught by a non Muslim professor. The name of the course was Islamic autobiography. And during the course, we read autobiographies written by various Muslim authors. Most of these authors, however, had a very questionable relationship to Islam, to say the least. One of the books we read, was written by an American author who accepted Islam, only to later leave Islam.

In the book, the author takes a copy of the Koran, the Messiah, and he urinates on it.

This was an assigned reading for class.

Even though I was not yet a Muslim, this upset me. And there were a handful of Muslims in the class that I imagined. This also upset them.

When it came time to discuss the book in class, everyone was quiet.

No one wanted to say anything. The other Muslim students, they were smart. They already knew that they did not have the freedom to disagree without being accused of hatred, or violence. I was the new guy. And I was about to learn. I raised my hand, and I told the professor that I didn't think it was right. What the author did to the Koran.

What do you mean? She said?

I couldn't find words to explain it at the time. I just said that. I knew it wasn't right.

Do you know what she said? Something

In front of the whole class, she said, What would you like to do? Issue of fatwah to have him killed.

She was referring, of course to Salman Rushdie, the author of a book that indirectly makes fun of Islam and the Prophet Mohammed alayhi salatu salam in the 1980s. When he wrote this book, the Iranian government issued an edict so called fatwa calling for the author's assassination. As someone who disagreed with this disrespectful action of an author towards something that is sacred to Muslims, that day in class, my freedom to disagree, without being accused of violence or hatred, was promptly taken away. The implication was that if I disagreed with the author's actions, I must be motivated by hatred, I must want to see him harmed in some way.

Putting aside the ridiculous idea that calling for someone's assassination could be called a fatwah. It's important to remember how much that move backfired. That author became a hero in the western world at book deals, speaking opportunities, professorships were handed to this person. non Muslims in the West rallied behind him as a symbol of liberalism and freedom of expression. Every attempt to stop him or harm him, including this recent attack was interpreted as further proof of Western superiority, versus the supposedly violent and oppressive nature of religion in general, and Islam. Specifically, it's worth it to ask and I encourage, especially our youth, to ask this question, this

free speech that we have this freedom of expression that is held so dear, who does it target?

Does it target everyone the same? Or do certain people and certain beliefs repeatedly find themselves targeted, while others escape attention? The truth is what is called the freedom of expression is often just an excuse to target Islam and religious people. As for the things that mainstream society hold sacred if it's democracy, or European culture or anything else, you will almost never find those things targeted by freedom of expression. Instead of standing for freedom and truth, it's actually used as a tool to silence Islam and distort the truth. You'll be doing a Leo Buffy owner Allah here for him Allahu multimo. Nori will carry health care for you rune. They

wants to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah azza wa jal will perfect his light, although the caffeine one dislike it.

The next question for the youth why is it that when a Muslim or someone claiming to be a Muslim commits an act of violence, it supposedly says something about all of us, or the religion that we follow? is Islam a violent religion? That's the question that's always asked. And it's a trick question.

When another people or another nation commits an act of violence, nobody asks Is democracy violence? Is agnosticism violence? Why are we the ones that only have to explain ourselves? Well then talk about unclear who the one that saw that turns out to be a melatonin, call in the hood Allah He who are the Huda water in a Tabata Hua Han Bader Lidija a community and Malik Amin, Allah He, meanwhile you want NSC? And never will the Jews or Christians be approve of you until you follow their way. Say, Indeed, the guidance of a law is the only guidance. If you were to follow their desires after what has come to you, you would have against the law, no protector or helper, which is why I say to

the youth, and anyone else that's put on the defensive when these sorts of situations happen, or these sorts of questions are asked, which aren't really questions. They're really accusations. You don't have anything to answer for. In this world. There are good people, and there are bad people. There are people who do bad things in the name of good causes, religious teachings, even Allah azza wa jal, his own words can be manipulated and misinterpreted.

And if we want to stop the manipulation, and the misinterpretation of our own faith, and our own tradition, then the answer is not less religious education, but rather more religious education and better religious education. Parents. Nobody thinks that can be their kid.

But neglecting your child's Islamic education leaves them vulnerable to other influences. You know what the recent attacker of the author actually said. He said that he wished that he had had a more religious upbringing, and his pathway to violence was his own

misguided, and extreme attempts to compensate for that.

And if we want to do something about these double standards that we are held to, we must take the responsibility for controlling our own narrative. Everybody wants to talk about us, the Muslims, everyone wants to theorize and write about us, the Muslims, it's a whole industry. Look at the universities, there's departments of Near Eastern Studies and South Asian Studies and African Studies, Islamic studies. We are the object of study

were the specimen under the microscope, and they are the authors. They hold the pen.

We can never expect fairness when we don't hold the pen. Allah azza wa jal told us that as human beings, he taught us by the pen, and we need to take the pen back. We need to write our own story. That means making sure that our kids are covering all fields of study, not just medicine, and engineering. We need Muslim lawyers, we need Muslim writers we need Muslim journalists. If your child comes to you with an interest in these fields, you should encourage it even if it doesn't earn the highest salary.

Another way we can take back the pen is through our actions through our community, involvements. We can't hide away in our homes, we can't hide away in the masjid, we have to contribute. We have to get out there. People need to know who we are. They need to know your face. They need to see your good conduct. They need to be won over by the way that we conduct ourselves. And if we do that sort of work, and if we do it consistently, it won't matter. If once in a while somebody acts out or someone makes the news or someone does something crazy. People will know that they don't represent us and they don't represent our deen. They will know better