Yasir Qadhi – Lessons From The Bosnian Genocide

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			this week marks the regular commemoration or the anniversary of the horrific massacre that took
place in the Bosnian war in Slovenia. And I thought that today inshallah let me remind or perhaps
even teach our youth about this reality which was the worst genocide that took place in Europe since
World War Two. And a disproportionate number of people who were killed in MasterCard were of course
Muslims. So a lot of people are giving lectures and Facebook posts about the lessons learned. So
today inshallah and destroyed hotter especially for our youth, who perhaps are not aware of this
reality. I wanted to go over and summarize some of the morals some of the wisdoms and lessons we can
		

			extract from what happened in Bosnia, in our own generation. I myself was in university when the
Bosnian war was taking place, many of you above the age of 40 You know this firsthand what happened,
we will get updates the whole you know, war that took place we saw what was going on. So this is in
our own lifetimes and of the Quran itself tells us to benefit from history to learn from the
realities, ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada says in the Quran, our them you see to fill all the for yonder,
okay, if I can activate your lead in the academy, why don't they travel in the land and see what
happened to the nations before them, kind of ushered them in Hong Kong was the nation's before them
		

			were stronger than you. And they left more legacies than you and yet, look what happened to them. So
Allah tells us to look at the past, Allah informs us to study history, and to extract morals from
them. Now, obviously, only so much can be done in a 20 minute or 15 minute Hatha, but just to
summarize and shallow to other of the benefits that we learned of the morals that we extract is the
reality of what the angel said to Allah. When Allah said, I'm creating man, the angel said, Why
would you do this one? This is a species that will always go to war always spread blood, shed blood,
how to attach alluvium and youth to rehab? Well, yes, we could Dima Subhanallah, and the whole
		

			creation around us and the whole cosmos around us. It is only mankind that goes to war perpetually,
no other beast, no other animal. No other species is constantly engaged in killing its own. Yes, one
amongst the other one might fight for food might fight for land by fight for something, but to be
divided. And then entire groups of one species or one animal fighting the same animal. No, we are
the only Mohawk. We are the only creation. And this is our trial and test And subhanAllah there are
periods of peace. But then after every period of peace, there comes war. And the reality is we never
learned from history. Every time such type of mass genocide happens, mankind comes together says
		

			never again, every time they see the evil of bloodshed, the evil of genocide, people come together
say we're going to learn from this lesson. But the one thing we learned from history is nobody
learns from history. And within a period of time, people forget what happened. And they neglect the
lessons of the past. And the same cycle repeats itself over and over again. And that is one of the
reasons why we need to remind our youth of what happened because we cannot forget the legacies of
the past. Also of the for those who don't know the history, I don't want to go into all history
here. But what happened is Yugoslavia was a nation that was created post World War One out of the
		

			remnants of the mighty Austria Hungary, Austria, Austrian Hungarian empire, they created a nation
called Yugoslavia no longer exists right now. This was a creation from 1914. Up until 1992.
Yugoslavia had a majority of Muslims in it in the heart of Europe. How did Muslims end up in the
heart of Europe 500 years ago, the Ottoman Empire was in this region, and people organically
converted, they appreciated Islam. And so that region became majority Muslim. But over time, the
Ottomans had to you know, leave that area. communism came things happen there. Many of these are
fellow brothers and sisters, they kind of sort of were not able to practice their faith. They knew
		

			they were Muslim, but Islamic identity was very weak, frankly, and I know I speak for myself even
growing up in the 80s we had no idea that an entire region of Europe was Muslim. It was completely
disconnected from our conscious our psyche. Nobody knew that entire regions of Europe were Muslim in
1991 or 92.
		

			They had a referendum, the majority of Muslims voted for freedom. But the Serbian Orthodox community
did not appreciate this make a long story short, they had the army, the majority of the population
were Muslim, the army rebelled and started what is basically a civil war. So this is in a nutshell
what happened from 1992 to 9095. Three years, in this timeframe, over 100,000 people were killed,
majority Muslim, at least half that amount were of women were violated along with Stan again,
majority Muslim 10s of 1000s of people were displaced. And from this civil war and genocide, entire
countries were created the modern country of Bosnia Herzegovina, the modern country, so all of these
		

			countries are carved out after this civil war that broke out in Yugoslavia. So of the things that we
learned, as I said, is that we realize that one of the most dangerous forces against humanity is
what we now call the far right, what is the far right? Every time a mass genocide has occurred in
human history. It comes from a group of people that have combined three things memorize this, number
one, a notion of purity of identity of skin color of ethnicity, we are one pure race, think of Nazi
Germany. Think of the Serbian people think of the BJP in India, right? The same notion we are one
pure race. Number two, a fanatical interpretation of religion. So you have pure race combined with
		

			religion. Again, Nazi Germany, again, BJP again, Serbian realities in this region. And then number
three, you need a minority that is of a different ethnicity, and a different religion. And you blame
all the problems on that minority. If you have these three things, you have the recipe of genocide,
if you have these three things, a large group of people who think they are pure, they are the only
inhabitants the original inhabitants of this land, so you have racial identity, then you have
bigoted religion, perverted religion, because no mainstream religion encourages violence, but you
have a far right religion. And then you have a minority that is different ethnicity, different
		

			religion, this is the recipe for disaster. And that's why especially what we're seeing happening in
India, we need to be very careful, because we're going down the same path in this land as well, the
far right, the same realities happen. Look at right now, again, not to be current news here. But the
the trials taking place in the Senate, though sixth of January, what happened, right, they literally
attack their own government, they tried to overthrow their own government. Look at how mad how crazy
people become when you have this toxic combination. So we need to be very careful and learn from
history, when we see the signs of this type of fascism, of Neo Nazism. If you don't stop it in its
		

			tracks, which nobody did back then we're not doing right now in India, Allah who was done the next
stage is nothing other than genocide, you cannot stop it until it is too late. So that's why we
learned from history one of the main lessons when you see this toxic combination of fascism, of Neo
Nazism of the far right, you had better do your best to prevent it from becoming mainstream. Once it
becomes mainstream. Allah when was the one of the lessons we learned as well. Don't be fooled by a
false sense of security. At times of peace, everybody gets along, at times of peace doesn't matter
what your ethnicity and faith and background is. But at times of war, real colors come out. If you
		

			look at the interviews of those people, they are all and many of them, they give interviews, they
still see them on on BBC on YouTube, they say we could never have imagined our neighbors, our
colleagues, when we grew up with our neighbors who were our neighbors for generations, even though
they're different than us. We thought we are one. But when this conflict happened, they flipped
completely. And we did not believe that they were participating in the very killings against our own
people. Subhanallah The reality is at times of peace, it's easy to get along. But we have seen
ourselves at times of war. Even if the majority of people don't support a genocide. They will not
		

			stand against it. When it is their own people. They will sympathize with their own kind. This is the
reality of human nature. And that is also why Allah subhanho wa Taala reminds us in the Quran, many
of our youth don't understand these verses. They think they are politically incorrect. But Allah
speaks the truth. Well and thorough and clear who do not know Surah terbium and Mila to whom Allah
says in the Quran, these other faith nations they will never be fully pleased with you until you
become one of them. It is the reality Allah says in the Quran. Do not take them as Olia as
protectors. They will never be your protectors. Yes, we are friendly in this dunya Yes, we give them
		

			Dawa. Yes, we live in a civil society. But in the end of the day, we need to realize when the going
gets tough, true colors come out. And so don't be lulled. Oh you Oh youngsters or youth
		

			by a false sense of security, these are times of peace. Everybody gets along, learn from the lesson.
And by the way, in India as well, same thing happening speak to the people of India back in the 80s,
back in the 80s, Hindus and Muslims would get along totally fine. Muslims would, you know, protect
the rights of the Hindus and viceversa. There was Brother brotherhood and camaraderie now, the same
people that might have been very good friends, now, there are on two sides of the divide. This is
the reality of human existence. So our youth should learn from this as well. Another point of
benefit we learn from this conflict that took place in Yugoslavia. And this is a deep point, and I
		

			hope, I hope I'm able to convey it's a very complex point.
		

			We are accustomed to viewing the world through the lens of countries of nation states, we cannot
imagine a world without countries. But if you study history, countries are a very, very modern
phenomenon. They only go back two centuries, three centuries, and countries keep on changing
country's borders, keep on changing most of our borders today are from World War 100 years ago.
That's it right? We have to understand that this notion of being united because your mother happened
to be giving birth to on one side of a line, because that's what a country is right? What is a
country, your mother gave birth to you on one one side of the line, you're one nationality, if
		

			another lady gave birth to another place, another nationality? We have to be very clear here.
Countries are frankly, and this is not me speaking, these are very, very learned political
philosophers, figments of collective imagination, you imagine there's a line, you imagine it's not
there, and you say everybody on this side of the line will pretend to be one thing. Everybody on
that side will pretend to be something else. But in reality, there's nothing in common between
people of the same country, in reality, nothing in common of values, of religion, of ideals of
philosophy of living. Now, this is not to say that we should just abandon all countries we live in
		

			countries where this is to say, when it comes to identity politics, right? Our identity is Islam.
Yes, we are Americans, yes, we pay taxes. Yes, we are, you know, happy to live here we will obey the
law, no problem. But our ultimate identity is Islam. What combines us with other human beings more
than anything else is Islam. And we see this one thing at a time is of conflict. Now, it is true,
there are other identities, their identities of ethnicity, the same ethnicity, identities of tribe
Babila, but our Quran has taught us that identity is based upon skin color is very shallow, and we
can see that we can understand that identity is based upon Kabila is also very shallow, the real
		

			identity your real brother is the one who shares your values of life, your values of existence, your
God, that is your real brother. And that is why the whole war of Islam is far more powerful than any
other identity. Now, we're allowed in Islam Alhamdulillah, to have all other identities as long as
they are subservient to the identity of Islam. So yes, I am Muslim, and I'm also ethnically of the
Indo Pakistani race, right, biologically or ethnically from a certain background or do speaking Kota
wearing but Yanni eating no problem, okay, and Hamdulillah. And if I had a Kobina, I don't ever had
a Kabila, we align ourselves to that Kabira. But all of these other identities are underneath the
		

			ultimate identity, which is Islam. And at any point in time, if one of the lower identities
conflicts with the higher one, there is no choice, there is no option, we will choose the first
identity that is Islam. Everything else is secondary, I am proud to be any other identity, as long
as it does not conflict with Islam. We see this reality in Bosnia as well. Yugoslavia, what was
Yugoslavia a figment of the imagination, it tried to sustain itself for 3040 50 years, it cannot do
so. And this is the reality. Every nation rises and falls, every nation's borders will change. No
nation lasts forever. And we have to be very blunt about this, even though it is politically
		

			incorrect to say but still it's a deeper point, and I hope inshallah we understand this point.
Another benefit that we learned from what happened in Bosnia, what happened in 25 or 27 years ago,
is the sad state of affairs of the global world order. The United Nations, in the case of Bosnia was
directly involved. Most of our youth don't know this. The United Nations had actually set aside a
region of the country strip furniture was supposed to be under UN watch. There were UN peacekeepers
wearing you and vests un helmets. There were hundreds of UN troops around struggle each year, and it
was claimed to be safe territory. Therefore, 10s of 1000s of Muslims fled for their lives from the
		

			A Serbian army to Serbian teacher because the UN had said this is safe territory. 10s of 1000s of
people had lost their lives mass *, although this is occurring for during the conflict, all of
these Muslims are coming to the safe zone. The Bosnian sorry, the Serbian warlord now turns his eyes
to Slobodan Milosevic and all of these warlords, they turn their eyes to Serbian each year. And they
say we're not going to keep this Muslims safe. And so they were around 40,000 Muslims in southern
Asia around 40 50,000 The Serbian surrounded they they told the UN to leave, the UN did nothing,
they did not intervene. Now pause here some say that they couldn't there was not the forces. And the
		

			point is the UN was there. That's the point. Maybe they couldn't I'm not saying good or good or bad.
I'm simply telling you the facts. The UN was there, they had direct access, and the UN stepped aside
and under their watch, the Serbian warlords marched in. There is video footage that Wallahi it is
gruesome to watch Wallah, your stomach churns. This is 1995 this is not back in the 1800s there is
color video footage of what took place here. All of the men without exception from the age of 1617
to 18 years old, all of the men were rounded up and they were massacred in around a week for five
days. 8500 At the bare minimum 20 30,000 women and children were expelled along with our with a
		

			biller things against the women, we don't want to mention that oh, the villa mat and stuff. Well, I
don't like saying this, but our youth need to know, camps were set up to do the evil deed or with a
bill. I don't want to be more explicit women, we're putting those out with a villa stop for Allah,
you get the point here under the UN watch this took place here. And this is in 1995 out of Billa. So
this took place the largest massacre of human beings the largest genocide since World War Two, it
took place again 1995 I just graduated university. This is not many, many generations ago, all of
you above the age of 40. You remember this timeframe, right? And this took place. So recently, so
		

			one of the things we learned as well, the impotence of these global superpowers Wallahi I remember
and again, my first activism in my life was the Bosnian war. I was 17 years old when I started
hearing about this and getting you know, getting involved attending lectures in America in Houston,
Texas. My first letter to the editor that I ever wrote about the Bosnian war. I still have it
somewhere that this is my first activism called that. How can we remain silent? There's a genocide
taking place. Right? You the UN, the UN made a law, what is it called the call what policy whatever.
Nobody can supply any arms to the Bosnians. It was an international policy. The problem was the army
		

			was Serbian. The Serbians had all the weapons, they had the ammunition. They had the tanks, the
peasants were Muslim. And the UN said and America supported this, the UN said, We don't want to
increase the conflict. We don't want to cause more bloodshed. So there was a embargo. That's the way
there was an embargo. arms embargo. No arms can be sold to the Bosnians basically let them die. For
four years. We're watching three and a half years and no arms were allowed for the Muslim stuff. But
Allah We saw this in front of our eyes. And this is the reality. Don't think any other superpower is
going to intervene. We saw this in our own lives. And this shows us Muslims need independence.
		

			Muslims need to have their own understanding of this reality. Also on a theological note on a
theological Arkady note of the things we learn this dunya will never provide you justice. Yes. 20
years later, the International Court of you know, genocide convened and in a Slobodan Milosevic and
some of the leaders of the Serbian army were rounded up and set on trial. You know, Milosevic died
during the trial. He didn't wasn't sentenced. Still, he was found guilty. You know, some of the
leaders of the of the Serbians were found guilty. And they got 20 years, 15 years. So is that
justice after all that they've done, and now they live their life in an air conditioned room food
		

			being provided to them, you know, television, what not? This is justice. This is not the dunya for
justice. That's why Maliki omit Dean wala here if we didn't believe in religion, we would go crazy.
If we didn't believe in an era, people would just do anything. Alhamdulillah we thank Allah there is
your Medina. This dunya cannot give you justice. Your injustices might not be you know, manifested
in this dunya in a way of reality, but that's why we believe in an Africa that's what we believe on
that day. Everybody will get their Huck and everyone who was harmed or killed or raped or anything
happened. They will see the punishment on that person and they will feel a sense of justice. Only
		

			Allah azza wa jal can mete out ultimate justice. And that's one of the main benefits or Thumma of
believing in Deen. As I said, if a person does
		

			does not believe in Dean than Subhanallah really, this world becomes almost unlivable, which
explains the rise of suicide and the rise of depression Wallahi this world is very difficult to live
in, Dean brings a sense of calmness, religion gives you a sense of higher purpose in any case, to
conclude, one final point is that look as Muslims, we always try to see the positive not to justify
the evil, Nothing justifies evil, but we tried to see the positive and from this genocide from this
war that took place, a lot of good also came out this is not to justify, but we are as Muslims are
told to look at the good and of the good that came out is that Subhanallah Islam returned to this
		

			region after having been gone from it for almost 100 years. Everybody knows that this region was
hardly nominally Muslim, by the way that didn't save them against the Serbs Subhanallah even though
they weren't like practicing praying, many of them didn't even know the kind of Islam it was almost
gone after communism after so many years of you know, secular rule. They didn't know Islam, but
still they knew they were Muslim. And that was bad enough for the Serbian Orthodox. And so what
happened happened after this war, and after the peace of course of 1995 Islam began to flourish, do
art began to pour in Alhamdulillah, the massager then our pact, there is a clear sense of religious
		

			identity amongst the people of that region, an entire country, Bosnian Herzegovina was formed out of
that, which is over all Muslim countries. I'm not saying it's ideal like all Muslim countries, but
clearly when you go there, you will see that you will hear the Advan everywhere. There's Halal
shops, everywhere, there's hijab, everywhere there is Quran. This was not the case back in the 80s,
in the same region, the same region back in the 70s. And 80s, was not there. So religion has been
reintroduced and Dawa is now public. And the Bosnian people, every one of us, we know the Bosnian
people here as well. There's a clear identification with Islam that perhaps wasn't there as well.
		

			One of the benefits that came out, we studied and learned about the history of European Islam. We
had no idea I had no idea most of us had no idea. There are pockets of Muslims all around the world,
even we didn't know about the Chinese Muslims growing up and now we know there are hundreds of
millions of these pockets around the world. So in the heart of Europe, completely European looking,
they're speaking to everything. They're European, and they are Muslim for many, many centuries, and
they are connected to the OMA so positives have come out and we need to re emphasize those positive
bond in line brothers and sisters, these types of tragedies we should never forget them, especially
		

			because they're so recent. They're so pertinent so many wisdoms can be extracted and the goal is we
learn from the past so that we can try to live a better future it's not a guarantee. Maybe the
future might have some negatives, but at least we will not repeat the mistakes of the past at least
we'll be aware and try our best to have a better future that's the goal. May Allah subhana wa Tada
protect all of us and our loved ones inshallah we'll continue next week. Salam aleikum wa
rahmatullah what I can
		

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