Yasir Qadhi – Learning from History

			is the rise of a hatred of Islam, the rise of Islamophobia. We find politicians we find media
pundits always mentioning us and singling us out. And policies are being enacted against us across
the globe, especially in this line and many Western lens. My advice to myself in all of us, we
should study history. We should study history, it's not the first time and it won't be the last time
history broadens our horizons history makes us mature history makes us understand some of the
beneficial tactics about how we can respond to what we are seeing. And in today's brief mini lecture
in sha Allah, Allah, I want to go back and look at five basic parallels that we see in the Sierra.
		

			And also in historical examples of the past that can be shown to be replicating what we are seeing
in our times, because the goal my dear brothers and sisters, one of our goals is to live peacefully.
One of our goals is to not be massacred and murdered. One of our goals is to give Dawa to others
without fear of persecution. Our Prophet sallallahu sallam was physically attacked, assassination
attempts were made, it didn't come out of the blue. Historically speaking minorities have been
killed the Muslims of Bosnia yesterday we celebrated 25 years not celebrated commemorated the
anniversary 25 years of the massacre of Serbian Shia in Bosnia, where around 10,000 Muslim men were
		

			rounded up and in one day slaughtered This is in my lifetime in your lifetime. I remember this as a
teenager. And many of us remember this day, over 10,000 Muslim men were slaughtered in one day that
did not happen out of the blue 100 years ago. In this country, another campaign was enacted against
another minority, the Chinese and the Far Eastern, which culminated around 60 years ago, in rounding
up a quarter of a million Japanese Americans and putting them in internment camps. This happened
once again, in the lifetime of people that are still alive in this land. Under this very
constitution. A quarter of a million people were rounded up and thrown in concentration camps for
		

			four years. They were not allowed to go outside they were imprisoned them and their families. What
was their crime, their ethnicity, this happens, but not out of the blue, there is a multi step
process. And today, we'll mention five of them. Number one, how does it all begin? Where does it all
begin? What is the first tactic number one, stereotyping and putting social pressure caricatures
making fun of the other pointing out differences between you and them and exaggerating those
differences? Look at the early Muslims of Makkah, they began to say the Quraysh began to say, Oh,
they have rejected our religion, oh, they are breaking the ties of kinship. They accused the Muslims
		

			of breaking the ties of kinship, they accused the Muslims of having a different civilization, a
different culture. The same goes for every minority. When it came to this land, the Chinese
Americans, they were made fun of by the broader society. Oh, even in the New York Times, there was
an article and I have the excerpt where they literally said these people they are of a different
race than us, they smell different. They don't wash themselves, they have this and that they made
fun of them in the most ridiculous manner to make them different than us. You look at what is
happening now. Oh, the Muslims, the Muslims, they persecute their women, they're women are forced to
		

			cover. They do this. They do that they point out the differences and not the similarities. And they
exaggerate the differences. And they lie about those differences. Sometimes the very crime that they
are guilty of they caught and they paste and they throw upon the other. For example, the Quraysh
accused the Muslims of cutting the ties of kinship. And yet who were the ones really cutting the
ties of kinship, it was the Quraysh. These days, we Muslims are being accused of being the violent
people, even though who colonize the world who plundered 90% of the world. It wasn't the Muslims who
went and went in invaded other lands that did this and that it wasn't the Muslims. So in reality,
		

			these stereotypes typically are completely false, but they must be done the narrative is created of
us versus them, we are this way they are that way whether it is true, whether it is false, but that
narrative has to be built up otherwise you cannot get to stage two, what is stage two stage one was
social pressure stage one was crew characterization, stage one stereotyping stage two political
pressure. laws are enacted. Things are done politically. They can only be done after stage one. You
cannot just create hatred out of nowhere. You cannot pass a law out of nowhere. You have to build
the hype. You have to create the hatred for you
		

			years on end, the Quraysh boycotted the Muslims, the Quran enacted the treaty that nobody is going
to buy and sell, nobody's going to marry, nobody's going to do anything with the bundle Hashem and
the Muslims that didn't come out of nowhere, four or five years of political of social pressure. The
same goes for the Chinese Americans 100 years ago, 100 years ago, a number of laws were passed of
them the race laws, they're called race, the race act of 1968 or so look it up. I don't remember the
details of the race at what did the race act do? The race act literally said in the law, that a
person of Chinese heritage cannot marry somebody have a white heritage, a person of Chinese heritage
		

			cannot do all of these laws. And by the way, I'm gonna say a historical fact. It's not a stereotype.
Why did Chinese restaurants become so popular in North America? There is actually historical reason
for that. One of the loopholes of the law was that Chinese people who opened restaurants, they
couldn't work as engineers that couldn't work as doctors that couldn't be architects. So there was a
loophole that they could open and run a restaurant. So what happened, a lot of Chinese people came
and started running restaurants and the people liked the food. And it became very popular. And
that's one of the reasons why Chinese cuisine is popular. I kid you not that is actually a
		

			historical remnant of the it's called the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1917. It was passed that we're
not going to take people from China anymore. Again, the paranoia was developed. There was a governor
in California Governor
		

			Kerry, I think was his name was their governor, California. His campaign was no more Chinese. That
was the slogan, no more Chinese people. And he won with a landslide just like our current guy, how
did he win? I think the Muslims or Islam has a problem with us and his people go wild. I want to
build the wall, his people go wild. So there's politics that comes after social pressure after the
stereotype. The same goes with the Quraysh that you cannot enact those laws until you propagandize
until you stereotype. So point number two is political laws are passed after the stereotypes are
perpetrated for many years. Also, Nazis. Nazi Germany is another interesting example. You can go
		

			over all of these one by one. But time is limited, we're not going to do that point number three,
once the laws are passed, another interesting phenomena happens or at the same time as that another
interesting phenomena happens. And that is, people who were disunited all of a sudden become united
simply because they have created a false enemy. And that is us or the other, whoever the other is,
they become united. So the Quraysh were never united with the Hassan is up north, the Quraysh will
never united with what is called the iZotope, or the Confederate armies, they were all disparate
people, all different people. They had nothing in common. The first time in human history, the Arabs
		

			of polytheism, United was when Muslims and Islam came, they finally found a one thing they had in
common. What did they have in common? They weren't Muslim. That was the only thing they had in
common. They were never united in the history of Arabia, the largest army that was ever called pre
Islam was in the Battle of Isaiah. Why how Where did all of these armies come from? What was their
uniting them? Some of them were Christians. Some of them worship different gods of the Arabs. Some
of them had animosities from the days of Jay Lee, what did they have in common? Nothing other than
their hatred of Islam. The same goes when it comes to the Chinese issue here as well. Amazingly, you
		

			look at history 100 years ago, and the same paranoia spread throughout Europe spread throughout
Australia, New Zealand. And it is as if all of these common block of what is called Western
cultures, they united in their stereotype of the Chinese people, and they began propaganda against
them, et cetera, et cetera, the same now we look at right now that unfortunately, it is a reality in
many western lands. Muslims are the scapegoat in many western lands, laws are being passed to ban
the book or to ban the building minarets as targeting Islam. We know this right in France, as we
know they're banning modest covering in the swimming pool in France, you can go wearing nothing it
		

			is legal for a lady to walk wearing nothing, she will not get fine. But if she covers herself and
goes to the swimming pool, she will be fined what type of ludicrousness is this is what happens that
the whole world now not the whole world, but many segments of the world they find commonality.
loyalties are made based upon cutting off from the one in this case, it's us cut countries find
conformity and unit uniformity simply by being against the other. And we see many manifestations of
this. Some of them are a little bit deep. For example, when the tragedy happened, it is a tragedy of
the French reporters and the cartoon is being killed or it's a tragedy. We don't support it. But
		

			what was the backlash? Over 50 world leaders flew in the next day. Do you know this 50 world leaders
and they stood in solidarity. The goal was what many terrorist attacks have happened by various
groups that many you know Caucasian terrorists have done things in this land since when do other
world leaders fly in and say oh, we are
		

			united against terrorism. But what happened in France when those cartoonists were killed, and we are
against the killing of those types of people. And I have given a whole book that has got me on the
attack list of those terrorist groups. We don't do this. We don't kill them. We verbally speak
against those cartoons. We verbally criticize, but we don't harm them physically. Nonetheless, they
were killed, what happened? The world or the Western world felt felt a sense of solidarity. Why
didn't they feel that solidarity? When 50 people were killed in Los Angeles? Why didn't they feel
their solidarity when other incidents happened that happened from within their own race? So we find
		

			here loyalties being formed in this era in history in modern times, and that's something that
unfortunately, it is happening, but at Hamdulillah. There are exceptions, New Zealand was an
exception. What happened with the prime minister there, she was an exception, she took a principled
stand, and she did not side with the those groups that wanted to make this into a political issue.
So this is point number, what number is that who's counting? Point number three, three is done. We
now move to point number four, point number four. So point number three is a loyalties are made
based upon these issues. Point number four, anything that this minority does, whether they're
		

			Chinese Americans, whether the Jews in Germany, whether they're Muslims in the Western world,
anything that emanates from within this minority, is automatically interpreted in the lens of the
stereotypes of one, two, and three, whatever we do, we will never win. Whatever we do, they're going
to find something negative and distorted and read into it, even if there's nothing there to be read
into. And we see this for example, in the Sierra, in the Sierra, before the Battle of budder. There
was a small group of Sahaba they were tracking a group of machinery going and a skirmish happened
and one of them was killed. One of the Koresh was killed, then we should recall and made such a big
		

			deal. Oh my god, you Muslims, you terrorists you killed one of us and Allah azza wa jal revealed in
the Quran. Indeed, the killing of this person was not right. But what did you do? You kicked the
Muslims out of the Haram and you declared war against people only because they worshipped Allah and
His messenger who has done the more volume when Musa want to fit around and he said to fit around
worship Allah azza wa jal for round said, Who are you? You're the murderer. You kill this person.
How dare you come to me? What did Musa say? You're right, I killed this person accidentally. You're
right. But are you going to ignore the fact that you have subjugated an entire civilization? You
		

			have enslaved all of Bani Israel? And you come to me and you tell me that I accidentally killed one
person? How about your crime? Why don't you look in the mirror. This is what Musa is saying. The
same thing happens here. There is no denying we have a small group of crazy people. We have a small
group of lunatics in our own faith doing crazy thing. There's no denying this. But how about other
faith traditions? How about other things going on to take any action that we do, and then stereotype
it read into it? Subhanallah we are blamed for their problems. What is happening in Iraq? Oh,
because those Muslims don't get along the Sunni Shiite conflict Subhanallah and Iraq have never had
		

			the type of conflicts that it had post American invasion. Don't blame us for what you guys have
caused, right? This is the reality they cause it. And then they blame us they have the audacity to
blame us the same thing, by the way for Chinese Americans have given a detailed lecture about this.
Around 990 No, seven or eight there was something called the boxer revolution in China internal
issue, some Chinese dissidents, you know, they massacred their government and some American tourists
were killed. The American government went wild. And they read in their own stereotypes to a local
issue. It was a local conflict, nothing to do with America. And American media jumped on it said,
		

			Oh, look at those violent Chinese people. They don't know how to live civilized lives, not knowing
and seeing what they themselves had done to the American Indians, what they themselves have always
done to African Americans. All of this is ignored. And one Boxer Rebellion is interpreted and
stereotyped the way that fits the narrative of the broader picture. So this is point number four,
that no matter what emanates and the same, by the way, for Jews in Germany, no matter what the Jews
did in Germany, the Nazis read into them, Oh, you are the fifth column, you're going to bring our
downfall. Everything that happened they blamed on the Jews, even though many times they were the
		

			ones that fault, yet they blame the minority. So this is point number four, whatever the minority
does, it will be constructed, the narrative will be then changed such that it is fed into the
stereotype of the broader civilization, then and only then we get to point number five, which is all
out war, assassination, incarceration, rounding up and death camps. That only happens after all of
this has been done. Look at Boston. Yeah. And what happened in Boston, you look at Nazi Germany, you
did not have the Holocaust and the concentration camps until all of these other things that happened
look at what happened in America in 1941. They rounded up the Japanese Americans and the irony of
		

			ironies and this shows you that you have to really be to put it politely not very intelligent I was
harsher but I want to say to you
		

			You have to be not very intelligent to be a racist, you have to be very ignorant to be a racist.
Why? Because for 40 years that campaign was done against Chinese Americans here in this line for 40
years, no exaggeration, from 1890 to around 1939 3540 years, then World War Two happens. It wasn't
with China. It was Japan was on the other side. But Japan, China, what's the difference to the
people over here, they all look the same, right? So they lump them together, they extrapolated their
prejudices for the Chinese Americans. And they put them on to another group of people, the Japanese
who had nothing to do with the previous 3040 years, but this is what happens when you're a racist.
		

			All Muslims look the same all Arabs after 911 Sikhs were killed after 911 Hindus were pushed in
front of trains because they thought these were Muslims. Right? A Sikh temple was attacked, you
know, in Oregon, because they thought it was a Muslim temple. This is the reality of what happens
here. So what happens as we said, point number five is that you actually get violence or war or
bloodshed or incarceration camps. And it only happens after all of the same with the Prophet system,
the night of the Hijra. Why did he make Hijra the Arabs, the Quraysh did the one thing that was
unthinkable for them, and that is to innocently kill one of their own. This was unprecedented. The
		

			tribe never buckled on itself. The tribe never killed one of its own. This was the first time that
they unilaterally decided we are going to assassinate one of our own. That can only happen after all
of these steps are followed. It doesn't just come out of thin air, the bottom line my dear brothers
and sisters, not to intimidate not to frighten, but to be real. We are living at times that are
genuinely perilous. We cannot afford to shove our hands in the sand and ignore what is going on to
our heads in the sand. Ignore what is going on. I tell you honestly, honestly. The potential for our
situation to get from bad to worse, is very possible and Allah is our protector. But Allah azza wa
		

			jal wants us to do things not just to sit back and ignore Allah azza wa jal wants us to take
reasonable measures of protection. I will prophesy centum made the Hijra he protected himself by
going to a lot of thought he covered his tracks. He had food in the cave, this is preparation. What
are a doula who must have heard from Allah azza wa jal does not want us to be fools. Islam doesn't
just say go to the mosque and da da da da da is half of it. The other half of it is to do things to
plan to be prepared. Yes, we need to Ah yes, we need Salah Yes, it is an essential part. But along
with this, there must be wisdom, there must be planning, there must be actual activism that is done.
		

			The whole Sierra is nothing but activism, the process we didn't just go to the cabin, make dua he
preached he taught he had strategy, he did things. And therefore my dear brothers and sisters, the
times that we live in the potential for it to go from bad to worse is very, very real. We look at
what is happening now. We see the rhetoric from our guy in the White House, we can make fun of him
as much as we want. Let us not fool ourselves, he won with a majority vote of the people let us not
fool ourselves, we still don't know what's gonna happen now. And even if we get rid of the guy in
the White House, and he's not elected, the sentiment of the people has been riled up that evil,
		

			hatred is now rampant and mainstream. Let us not fool ourselves, we come to the mosque and
mashallah, we are packed, we go to Muslim conventions, more 10,000 people, in the end of the day, we
are less than 1% of this land, let us be realistic about that. What that means to end on a positive
note is that all of us have a role to play, we cannot afford to simply go into hiding, every one of
us has to be proactive, and inshallah in future lectures I'll give a more detailed plan or agenda or
what we can be doing. But at this point, I just want to say one thing, for many of you, your circle
of friends, your circle of influence, you are the only Muslim that they would know, amongst your
		

			colleagues amongst your office workers, amongst maybe your neighbors or whatever you might be the
only Muslim that they know if you are not going to live up to your tradition and you will not embody
the values of Islam if you're going to be embarrassed about your own faith and change your name and
pretend you're not a Muslim and you know whatever. Then do you blame them when what they see on Fox
News they believe Do you blame them when you yourself and um I myself have not done our job. So at
this base level, the one message I want to leave you with Anisha Allah this is a TO BE CONTINUED
talk many, many talks are going to be based upon this theme. The one message I want to leave you
		

			with is do not trivialize your role. My dear brothers and sisters, every one of you is an ambassador
of this fate. Every one of you has a role to play. And one of the most important success stories
purely from the political situation in this land is the Civil Rights success story. Civil Rights was
not something that politicians wanted. Civil Rights was not something that the powers to be were
eager about. But popular sentiment was wrong.
		

			Stop, the people wanted it. And even the government's could not stop it true. There's still racism.
True, there are still many problems. But at hamdulillah by and large, it is now something that
legislation has now supported equality of races. By the way, this is one generation ago. It's not a
long time ago. And I'll finish with one personal anecdote. One day, I was going to deliver a lecture
at ISNA, the 50th anniversary, and they were talking about, you know, Muslim role in the civil
rights, and it was 1998 2020 1320 13. I remember. So they wanted to go back to 1963 for the civil
rights. And I thought, you know, what, my father came here in 1963. Let me ask him, if he has any
		

			memories of seeing Martin Luther King Live or something like this, let me ask him that he memories
about the civil rights and what he saw. So I called him up as I was walking to his snows driving
test, and I called him up. I said, you know, Ababa, do you have any stories about, you know, the
civil rights and being here in America? Did you see blacks being discriminated against? And what he
said to me, this is 2013, it was like a slap on my face. He said, What do you mean? Did I see people
being discriminated against I was discriminated against. And then he said something? Well, law is
like a knife stabbed me. I had to sit at the back of the bus. It never occurred to me that my father
		

			had to sit at the back of the bus when he came to this country. I was thrown out of a bar, he got
over a long list of memories. He had never said to me until that point in time, it just regroup. So
what do you mean, I saw racism, I experienced it. I was there when I was the one that they kicked
out of the heat because he told me so many stories. It really hurt me that you know, I never knew
this. And then I felt ashamed that you know what? We feel disconnected from the problems of this
country and civil rights. What not? No, we all benefited from what happened with the civil rights
movement. We are all here because of the anti racism and insha Allah data. We're going to continue
		

			this topic. The point is the problems of society or our problems, the problems of hatred and
xenophobia, racism are our problems. The problems of Islamophobia in particular are our problems.
Every one of us has a role to play. We cannot afford to pass the buck and pass the responsibility to
other people. Inshallah, we'll continue this talk and talk more about ways we can be proactive about
challenging the narrative of Islamophobia. May Allah azza wa jal protect all of us and our families
and children may Allah subhanaw taala bring about peace in this land and all lands May Allah azza wa
jal allow us to worship Him and to call others to his land. May Allah azza wa jal allow us to live
		

			as Muslims to embody the values of Islam and to die upon our faith and pass it on to our children.
While after that $100 Bill Alameen wa sallahu wa sallim wa barik ala Muhammad Anwar Ali he was like
the Ultramarine