Yasir Qadhi – Our Voices Will Not Be Silenced – Palestine Sit In at Ohio State University
AI: Summary ©
The speaker urges listeners to protest against Israeli leaders, calling for peace and blessings for the region, while warning of consequences like the loss of lives and the use of deadly force. The global stance on climate change and the use of police brutality and army brutality is addressed, along with concerns about recent protests and potential impact on political climate. The speaker emphasizes the importance of educating oneself and being at the forefront of change, while reminding listeners to be mindful of their religion, history, and social media. The speaker also addresses issues within the law and warns of the danger of false accusations.AI: Transcript ©
Alhamdulillah.
All praise is due to Allah
We praise him,
and we seek his help.
And we seek refuge in Allah
from the evil of our souls and the
consequences of our actions.
Whomever Allah
guides, none can misguide.
And whoever is mis guided cannot be guided
except with him.
And we ask Allah
to bless us with every good in this
world and every good in the hereafter.
And we ask Allah to send peace and
blessings upon the prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wasallam.
As to what follows, know all Muslims that
our Lord has commanded us to be conscious
of him in the Quran when he says,
Oh, Muslims,
why are we here
outside
on these grounds instead of the mosque?
What is our reason for praying our
Our obligatory
Friday prayers, which are typically done in the
mosque.
Why are we gathered here today?
We are gathered here today
send a message.
We are gathered here today
to announce to the world
that our voices
cannot and will not be silenced.
We are gathered here today
to be clear in our conscience in front
of our creator,
and to do our civic duty to our
fellow citizens of this country
to bring attention
to a plight and an injustice
that has gone on for way too long.
We are gathered here today
to protest
against
so many things, all of which stem from
the injustices
happening
towards and against our Palestinian brothers and sisters.
We are gathered here today to protest
the fact that our country
is directly involved in yet another conflict.
And we say to the people around us,
is it not enough that we've gone to
war over and over and over again?
Are we not tired of bombing and sending
weapons of mass destruction
around the world? We are gathered here today
to protest
our tax dollars
being spent in yet another genocidal
conflict.
Enough is enough.
We are gathered here today
to bring attention
to the immorality
of how a Palestinian people has been displaced,
uprooted from their lands.
3 generations
of exile.
The Palestinians
are the only exiles in their own country.
You can't even tell
the Palestinians to go back to where they
came from because they have been deprived the
right to go back to where they came
from. We are gathered here today
to protest against how our own country
is attempting to silence our voice.
The brutality
of sending the state troopers
against students across this country.
Over a a 1000 students have been arrested.
100 of campuses
are now erupting in protests.
And just like deja vu in the sixties,
in the seventies, in the eighties when the
students
protested for different causes and the state troopers
were called in. And in every single one
of those causes, the students were on the
right side of history and the state troopers
and the army was on the wrong side
of history.
So too history is gonna show inevitably,
indubitably.
We have no doubt history is gonna show
that we were on the right side of
history.
And those that are trying to silence our
voices
are on the wrong side of history. We
are gathered here today to protest
the banning of speech and the attempts
to curtail the First Amendment.
Unbelievable.
Yesterday,
congress passed an act in which they attempted
to criminalize
criticism of a foreign country and to equate
it with hate speech.
We are gathered here to protest as Americans
against the infringement
of our first amendment
and our constitutional
right. Oh Muslims,
our Lord has commanded us to stand for
truth and justice. Allah says in the Quran,
O you who believe
stand up for justice and be witnesses to
Allah. We are standing for justice.
Our Lord has told us
You are the best of all nations that
have been brought for mankind. Why? What makes
us the best? It's not because of where
we're from. It's not because of our background.
It is because of a particular characteristic that
the Quran mentions. What is that characteristic?
You preach the truth
and you forbid evil.
You call people to good and you forbid
them from evil.
The reason why our Lord has said that
we are the best nation
is because we are meant
to preach morality to the broader world. We
are meant to preach justice and truth regardless
of how politically incorrect it is, regardless of
how those that wanna silence us attempt to
silence us. So o Muslim,
if you want to live up to this
verse and you want to truly be a
nation that our Lord has blessed, then stand
up and do your duty.
Preach the truth and forbid against evil. And
of the most obvious truths of our times
is the truth of the injustices
being perpetuated
by the last remaining apartheid regime
against innocent civilians.
Over 2,000,000
people are trapped in Gaza.
Gaza, Gaza, is the largest
open air prison in the world.
This is not what I am saying. This
is not what just the United Nations has
said. This is not just what Nelson Mandela
has said. This is what our own previous
president
Jimmy Carter has said. Jimmy Carter himself visiting
those places called it the largest open air
prisons on earth.
We are talking about
injustices being perpetrated
not only in front of our eyes,
genocide taking place the likes of which we
have not seen
in our entire lifetimes.
25,000
women and children have been murdered.
Over 40,000
innocent civilians have been killed. We're not just
talking about seeing this on live YouTube and
television and vivid imagery. We're talking about the
more pernicious and evil reality
of our country, the United States of America
which is supposed to be on the right
side of history, which is supposed to be
a beacon of morality, which is supposed to
be preaching democracy and freedom. We are pointing
out that in this issue and in this
scenario,
our country
is not only tacitly
ignoring,
it is aiding and abetting the wrong side.
It is our country that has given almost
a $100,000,000,000
to the apartheid regime of Israel. It is
our country that has financed weapons,
made weapons of mass destruction,
sold them to that country,
given them loans to purchase the very weapons
that they're purchasing from us. We are complicit
at every single level.
It is our country
that has utilized
its veto in the United Nations
more for the state of Israel than for
its own interest. In the history of the
United Nations,
America has used the veto
almost 50 times to silence
not just your voices, the voices of the
world.
When the world wanted to condemn Israel for
a whole multitude of issues
Over 50 times, the UN wanted to condemn,
wanted to sanction, and it is our country
that stood up for reasons we still don't
understand. And they vetoed a global resolution
to condemn or to provide humanitarian aid or
to call for a ceasefire.
It is high time
that we, not just the Muslims of this
land, but people of conscience,
people of integrity,
people who care about their country, and that's
all of us. It is high time that
we change the realities of what our country
is doing over there.
Why are we financing a war that is
not benefiting us? Why are we involved in
a global genocide, the likes of which we
haven't seen in an entire lifetime?
Why are our own politicians
so fanatically
wanting to aid an oppressor against the oppressed?
It's high time these questions are asked, and
we demand accountability
from our own representatives.
Oh, Muslims,
one of the tactics that is being used
to silence us, and there are many,
is, of course, police brutality
and sending in the troops.
I want to tell you that this is
not the first time that students have been
attempted to be silenced
by the army and by the state troops.
In the sixties, in the civil rights, in
the seventies for Vietnam,
in the eighties when students were protesting against
the apartheid regime of South Africa,
100 and thousands of students would march against
their own governments,
our own government.
And the government
was too scared to address the issues head
on. And so they replied
1st batch of You are not the 1st
batch of students that is being intimidated
by state troopers.
Why would state troopers be called in to
quell
peaceful protesters that are students? Why are you
gonna call the National Guard? Why are you
gonna call the army against your own students?
This is a matter of insanity
that needs to be pointed out. It is
high time that not just us Muslims,
but anybody of sound integrity
and sound intelligence
asks these hard pressing questions.
Why is it that our government is not
even allowing freedom of speech and wanting to
criminalize
discussion of aid to Israel?
Why is it that they're passing laws, and
this is one of their tactics,
equating
criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
And this is something we need to be
very firm and loud about.
Oh, Muslims and people of all faiths,
we shall not and we cannot tolerate
hatred
and preaching hatred of another faith tradition,
and we will not tolerate
antisemitism.
Anybody comes and says all people of that
background, all Buddhists, all Hindus, all Jews, all
Christians, we will stop them and not allow
them to march with us. We will not
allow voices of antisemitism
or voices of Islamophobia
to be given a platform.
However,
we will also not be intimidated
when criticism of a country
is falsely accused of being anti Semitic.
There is nothing
anti Semitic about criticizing policies of a nation
state.
Just like we as Muslims
can criticize
aspects of the Taliban,
aspects of the Middle Eastern tyrannical regimes, and
we are not being Islamophobic.
We're pointing out injustices in Muslim lands. There
is no Islamophobia
in that. So too people of all faith
backgrounds,
Muslims, Hindus, Buddhist, Jewish people, Christians, people of
no faith, they can point out the problems
of the nation state of Israel which is
an apartheid,
colonialist,
elitist, racist nation state. They can point out
those policies
and point out the illegal
and immoral aspects of them
and not be labeled anti Semitic.
This is a tactic that is being used
to silence your voices, and you must push
back. And the way you push back is
you own up and you say you're right.
We are not going to tolerate antisemitism.
And if you find anybody that has a
placard, that has anything that is speaking out
against an entire faith, make sure that person
has nothing to do with your cause and
your protest. We agree with you. We don't
want Islamophobia,
and we don't want antisemitism.
But where we disagree is the definition
of antisemitism. What you have done, what the
bill yesterday that was passed in congress has
done, and all Muslims and all Americans,
you should be very, very worried about how
easily that bill was passed. It equated
criticism of a country with antisemitism.
That bill is absolutely
unconstitutional.
It is infringing on our first amendment rights
to criticize without fear of infraction, fear of
imprisonment, fear of any type of repercussions.
And yet our own congress has been at
the forefront. It is high time we ask
why. Why?
It is as if some people are more
interested in protecting another nation than their own.
They're interested in protecting an apartheid regime
over and above our own country of America.
We are actually calling for, believe it or
not, in this case, America first. Yes. Wallahi,
we are calling for America first. Why should
our tax dollars be spent in the Middle
East? Don't we have enough problems in this
country? Don't we have so many homeless people?
Our health care is in shambles. Our education
is in the bottom 100 of the developed
nations.
Why are we spending
a $100,000,000,000
overseas?
Surely, we have better things to do with
our taxes. Oh, Muslims, it is our duty
especially and people of all faith who understand
this to become beacons of common sense, to
become people who preach wisdom to the broader
masses. And I say to you loudly and
clearly, the tide is changing.
We have never seen we have never seen
the mass protests taking place around the country,
frankly, around the globe. The plight of the
Palestinian people is now a global issue. The
average person is being made aware, and they're
being made aware because of these types of
protests and these types of public affairs that
we are doing. Of the tactics they use,
and this is a very sensitive issue, but
it needs to be said.
Of the tactics they use to silence our
voices
is they bring up
atrocities
and tactics and political movements from amongst the
Palestinian people. And they say, oh, look. They
did this.
I say very, very explicitly,
our protests
our protests
are not about one particular day
and what happened on that day. They're not
about one particular political party or one particular
group and any tactics they might have used.
There is an entire variety of opinions about
that day and the group behind that day.
But the protests are above and beyond that
one day.
History didn't start on October 7th. The Palestinian
plight did not begin from that one day.
The Palestinian people are far bigger and larger
than any one particular party. Whatever your opinion
is about that party, whatever your position is
about that day, our protests have to do
with calling for freedom for Palestinian people. Our
protests have to do against the apartheid regime
of that country. Our protests are to bring
awareness to 2,000,000
refugees,
2,000,000 people that have been locked up behind
walls that are 50 foot high. They've been
locked up not for 1 year, not for
20 years, for 75
years. 3 generations, the Palestinians
have been exiled from their lands. That's what
our protest about. Don't let anybody come and
change the narrative and pretend that history began
on one particular day. Ask them bluntly,
where did these 2,000,000 people come from in
Gaza? Where are they from? Why are they
there? What are what is what is the
reality of their existence there? I have been
to that land. I have been there a
dozen half a dozen times. I have seen
with my own eyes that 50 foot wall
in which even I as an American citizen
am not allowed to go and visit our
brothers and sisters on the other side. I
have seen with video footage slums they live
in. I have seen how Palestinian refugees are
living in ghettos and how people that have
immigrated from Brooklyn, immigrated from Russia, immigrated from
from Europe, they're living the life as if
it's in California.
It is very crystal clear. One side is
an occupier
and one side is the occupied.
One side is the oppressor and one side
is the oppressed. One side is a colonizer
and one side is the colonized.
This is crystal clear. And I have a
message for all those who think that this
entire tragedy is very confusing, and it goes
back many centuries.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The
reality of Palestine,
the reality of Gaza, the reality of Israel
as a nation state, it only requires
a cursory 5, 10 minutes of research. Listen
to the basic lectures from the other side.
Read the most obvious books that have been
written, and you will see it is as
clear as the light of day, and that
is that Israel is the last remaining
colonialist
apartheid regime. And they're using the language of
falsehood,
the language of pseudo biblical Zionism to appeal
to Americans. And I say to my fellow
Americans,
Jesus Christ is far closer to a Palestinian
than he is to the occupying force in
Israel. Jesus Christ was born in what is
now Palestinian land. He lived his life more
akin his morality, his ethnicity, the way that
he spoke and dressed. He is Palestinian
essentially. And so I say to my Christian
brethren from from the broader community,
do your research and listen to what the
pastor of Bethlehem himself
gave that sermon last Christmas, and he gave
a very powerful sermon entitled Christ Under the
Rubbles. Go listen to that sermon, and we
call Christians to the real teachings of Jesus
Christ. Jesus never stood with the oppressor against
the oppressed. Jesus always stood with the oppressed
against the oppressor. He stood up against tyranny
and injustice, and we say your version of
political
of of political Biblical Zionism
is a perversion
of your theology.
This is not real theology.
God will never bless a nation that is
massacring another nation. God will never bless a
nation that is involved in genocide against another
nation. Nothing godly is happening over there. So
we appeal to the broader community to do
its research. All Muslims do not falter. Do
not give up. We are seeing an entire
change of trajectory, and we are leading that
change in trajectory.
So we are with you. I am with
you. All of us are with you. And
most importantly,
when you stand up for truth, Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is with you. May Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala bless me and you with and
through the Quran, and may he make us
of those who as verses they understand
and applies halal and haram throughout our lifespan.
I ask Allah's forgiveness. You as well ask
him for his and the Rahman.
Alhamdulillah.
All praise is due to Allah, the one
and the unique. He it is whom we
worship, and it is His aid that we
seek. He is the Lord of the oppressed,
and He hears the prayer of the weak.
Oh, people of all faiths,
when you see what is happening right now,
there are aspects that make us feel
intimidated.
An element of fear comes,
but there's also aspects that give us hope,
that bring optimism.
And I say, we are living in a
critical stage of history.
Many times we ask ourselves, what would I
have done during the civil rights? What would
I have done during that issue, during this
issue? What would I have done when a
very major calamity is taking place globally,
and my own nation and country is involved?
Well, you no longer have to ask theoretical
questions.
We are doing what is ethically right. We
are on the correct side of morality.
And even if and even if our small
protests over here are not fruitful,
we are seeing protests across the country,
and eventually,
the tide will change.
Why do I say this, and how do
I know this? Because
as a person of faith, as a believer
in God, as a believer in the justice
of our lord,
I say loudly and clearly that our lord
never allows tyranny to go unanswered.
Our Lord never allows injustice to flourish.
Our Lord never allows aggression to go unchecked.
And so we are seeing now the conscience
of the people has woken up. The conscience
of humanity
has woken up. It is our time to
be at the forefront
of every one of these protests, to be
at the forefront of attempting to change from
within the system.
And, yes, it is true that some people
are doing things that are against the law.
And I say, in my opinion, we should
not do this. We should not bring irritation
and nuisance to those that have nothing to
do with this conflict.
But protesting is within the confines of the
law. And attempting to persuade others is exactly
what civic duty calls for. So, yes, be
at the forefront within the confines of the
law, doing what we're allowed to do. Bring
attention to what is happening. Try to persuade
others, and in order to do that, you
yourself have to know what is going on.
So I encourage all of you to educate
yourselves. I encourage all of you to read
a number of books, watch a number of
documentaries
so that you're aware of this reality, so
that you cannot be misinformed when somebody attempts
to argue with you with incorrect facts. Know
your religion, know your history, and then be
involved. And also know that this is a
battle in the long run. I have said
multiple times, there are 2 battles being waged.
There is a battle that is physical in
the Middle East. We are not over there.
There's another battle, and that is a battle
of the hearts and minds, a battle of
perception, a battle of social media, a battle
of tongues, a battle of op eds, a
battle of the pen. There's a battle of
persuasion
going on. That battle,
it needs to take place in our land.
We are the forefront
of affecting change in that region.
If the American public is to be made
aware of what is going on,
I say to you, the average person in
this country would side with truth and justice.
So it is our job to preach and
teach. It is our job to influence,
and anybody from outside who comes and attempts
to criminalize what we are doing,
attempts to paint it in a negative light.
If you see what is happening when are
taking place across campus,
the far right is posting pictures. Oh, look.
The Muslims are coming, and they're praying on
campus. It is as if we, immigrants and
the children of immigrants I speak as myself.
My father came here in the sixties. It
is as if we, the children of immigrants,
have to remind other children of immigrants about
the reality of this constitution.
Our constitution
guarantees
the right of assembly,
guarantees the right of worship, guarantees the right
of freedom of speech. How ironic that those
who think the country belongs to them even
though they themselves are the children of, of
immigrants. How ironic that we have to remind
them of their own history and our own
history. So I say one of my messages
to all of you here. All Muslims,
if you have migrated to this land and
taken on nationality,
if your ancestors came like my parents came
here and you're American citizen,
don't let anybody
ever
silence your voice and say go back to
where you came from. Don't let anybody say
to you that you don't have the right
to preach and to teach and to effect
change.
This is America, and we are all Americans.
It is my god given right and my
constitutional
duty to speak the truth. It is my
right as an American citizen to effect change
in a civic and a lawful manner, and
that's exactly what we are doing. If anybody
dares intimidate you, if anybody dares silence you,
then you need to be firm in this
commitment.
Do not let them rob you of your
American identity as you will not let them
rob you of your Islamic identity. We are
proud to be Muslims, and we're proud of
this country when it's on the right side.
And when it is on the wrong side,
we still love this country. And because we
love this country, we wanna influence it in
a positive manner. And that is my right
as is the right of any other person.
We as American Muslims and as Americans of
all faiths who are standing on the side
of Palestine, on the side of Gaza,
we have just as much rights to try
to influence
our foreign policy as everybody else does. There's
nothing
unpatriotic about it. On the contrary,
this is the essence of patriotism.
This is exactly what it means to be
patriotic
because this is my country, because these are
my taxes, because this is my foreign policy,
because that government is my government, then it
is my civic duty to try to influence
it within the legal mechanisms, and that's exactly
what we're doing here. So all Muslim, be
proud of what Allah has blessed you with.
All Americans,
be proud of what God has blessed us
with in this country. Combine the 2 together
and make it your civic right, your religious
right, and your moral right to march on
the correct side of history as you are
doing right here and now. Oh, Muslims and
people of all faiths, we might not see
victory tomorrow. We might not even see it
this year. We maybe not even see it
in a decade,
but we shall see victory without a doubt
because falsehood
never flourishes.
Allah says in the Quran,
When the truth comes, it shall always vanquish
over falsehood.
Falsehood will never be allowed to flourish. The
will always be destroyed. And the last remaining
colonialist
settler apartheid regime,
That regime
cannot flourish the way that it is treating
those innocent peoples of Gaza. So without a
doubt, the apartheid nature of that of that
nation state is going to be taken away,
and justice is going to be established, and
that's what we're here to do. May Allah
bless every one of you. May God bless
this country to be on the right side
of history. May Allah give you all strength
to preach and to teach and to face
all of that criticism happening, And may we
have the moral courage to always speak the
truth no matter what. I conclude with a
reminder of our beloved prophet when he said
to us,
the highest form of jihad. And, yes, I've
used that word here because jihad isn't always
negative and physical and terrorist. No. There are
types of jihad. And of the types of
jihad, our prophet
said, the best jihad
is to speak truth to power. That jihad
is a legitimate,
legal, constitutionally correct correct,
protected jihad, and that's what we're doing here.
We are preaching truth to power. We're preaching
truth in a very, very
in a time and place where it is
politically incorrect to do so. So preach that
version and make sure you are with the
truth, and Allah
will bless you.
Related Episodes
- Abdurraheem Green – Why do media and Norwegians hate Islam so much
- Nadim Bashir – Surah Summaries #09 At-Tawbah – Allah & His Messenger Comes Before Everything
- Abu Bakr Zoud – The Most Practical Way Of Tadabour (Pondering) Over The Quran
- Musleh Khan – 10 Signs Your Marriage Is In Trouble – EP07
- Omar Suleiman – #15 How do I move on – For Those Left Behind
- Nouman Ali Khan – Intentions Am I Being a Hypocrite Q&A
- Karim Abuzaid – Fiqh Of Fasting Part 1