Racism in America and in Muslim Communities

hamdulillah all praises due to Allah subhana wa Tada who created us from one pair and made us into nations in diverse tribes. Not a word that we utter, except that it is written down by observant angels and watchful scribes of His Signs is that he has created us from to rob from dust, and made us into many different skin colors, and of His mercy is that he has united all of the believers regardless of race as brothers, may Salatin Salam be upon the one who taught us that between white and black, there is no superiority. For he said that ranks are raised and nobility conferred not by skin, but by piety. Realize mere Muslims that ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada has reminded us to be conscious

of and when he says in the Quran, you have Latina, Allahu Akbar, to call to whether to move on to Mr. Moon. As to what follows. We are all painfully aware, we are all witnessing in horror, the events that have unfolded over the last week and a half after the brutal killing in broad daylight of yet another person of color at the hands of police. This came only shortly after a jogger was literally hunted down once again in broad daylight and shot at the hands of people who videotaped that deed and gloated over his death, even as they used racial slurs. But these incidents are not random. They are not atypical. And the reality that most of us live is very, very disconnected from

the reality of these stories. The sad fact of the matter is that this country has a long history, a well documented history of racism and injustice. And while many of us and in particular those of us who came or whose parents came from other lands, while many of us attempted to live out the American dream. And frankly, many of us succeeded in living out that dream. Even as we have lived out that American dream, we have failed to acknowledge the American nightmare that the African Americans have had to undergo for the last 400 years, beginning with the forced kidnapping and brutal extraction of what would eventually become over 4 million slaves in this land. The manifestation of American

slavery was one of the largest and one of the most brutal manifestations of the institutions of slavery in human history. And it was class slavery. It was a slavery of an entire nation in bondage simply because of the color of their skin and their origin one class against another class and dear Muslims, this is exactly what Allah accuses frown of, when fit out separated between his people and between the Bani Israel which either Allah Shia and yesterday a photo of him in whom you the beard Robina, and we start UniSA home. This is the Pharaonic evil of separating people based upon race and skin color, and then subjugating one of them in bondage, while the other one is the superior race.

The issue of slavery was the one issue that this country has gone to war over the Civil War. And by the way, even in the Civil War, we should not idealize the northern states that fought to free the African American slaves because that their goal was never to make the slaves equal to the other citizens. Their goal was to create a subjugated class, a second class of citizens that could give them cheap labor and could be taken advantage of. And that is how things continued for yet another century, it was only in our generation or the generation before ours, that the Civil Rights which took place barely a generation ago, many of us fail to realize that the Civil Rights is still in

living memory. There are millions of people, millions of people who participated in the civil rights, they saw themselves the America pre civil rights and post civil rights. This is living real history. It's not something eons ago, it's not something centuries ago, the Civil Rights is something that took place from the elders of our own generation. They were alive at that time. And what the Civil Rights did was not to eliminate racism. No, what it did was to lift the laws that explicitly legalized and legislated bigotry, the Civil Rights and the success of the civil rights could not erase the actual bigotry. They could not wipe out the actual hatred and feeling of

superiority that runs deep in the DNA of this country. And

Therefore, even after the Civil Rights, the system of this land was set up from birth to act as impediments and barriers to those of particular backgrounds. And there is a saying that anthropologists and historians say in America, that zip codes decide your destiny. And what they mean by this is where you are born in this country, it dictates much of your future. If you were born in the ghetto wise neighborhoods, if you're born in predominantly African American neighborhoods, then your entire life has a different trajectory than somebody who is living two three streets away and another zip code. Most of us living in suburbia, most of us living in the

upper class of this land do not understand the intentional laws that have been passed to segregate zonally through a legal mechanism to this day to segregate blacks from whites. And if you look at just any statistic, whether it is education and the education gap, whether it is job prospects, whether it is exposure to crime and violence, whether it is unemployment rate, whether it is the wealth gap, a statistic that I looked up to today, and Subhanallah day in and day out, we are continuing to educate ourselves. I think I know a little bit about this history in life. But the more you study, the more you are shocked today, I looked at this statistic that the median the

median wealth that the black family owns in this land is a shocking 2% of the median amount of wealth that a white family owns let that statistic sink in 2%. If the average white family owns $100,000 2% of that $2,000 is with the surplus, the average African American family have a look at the disparity of that gap. Yes, it is true that there are no laws in the books that can legally discriminate now between black and white, but still the shadow of racism. But still, the effects of 300 years of bigotry are clear and palpable at every single level of society to those who have to face it. And of course, statistics we can go on and on. Even though this line has around 15% African

Americans, if you look at the prison system, 1/3 of the people in jail are African American. If you look at the statistics of p of police stopping people on the street 80% of the people who were stopped by the police in New York in a very exhaustive study done a few years ago 80% were African American, and even by the way, the Caucasians who were stopped less than 8% of the Caucasians were actually frist and interrogated there was simply asked a question, and then let's go. So what is going to happen when this brutality continues? What is going to happen when this blatant racism continues between people of color, and the events of the last few months have shown us that this is

not a justification of the random acts of looting and hooliganism. But those Muslims who concentrate on those random acts, and they forget the larger picture, it is exactly the same and I'm sorry for being blunt here to concentrate on the crimes of some patent Palestinians and to ignore the bigger problems that the Palestinians live in, does any Muslim get irritated by one Palestinian say? How dare he have done this and ignored the system of what is causing that anger? Nobody does that then why don't we understand the same reality we are not justifying anything that is an Islamist, of course, it is not right to loot and to steal and to break property that does not belong to you. And

that is something that is incorrect. But let that not blind us to the reality of 400 years of oppression what is going to happen when so much oppression happens. And this is not a justification. It is a contextualization now we can go on and on. And the reason that I wanted to summarize some actual facts is because most of us who are immigrants or children of immigrants, we truly, truly do live in a bubble that is very isolated from the realities of our African American brothers. And so I wanted to bring it into the hotbar. But obviously, we're getting a Friday holds about we are all Muslims over here. And I wanted to now link directly to one of the core teachings of Islam. Now, we

all know and we have heard a million hood buzz about how Islam came to abolish racism. But I still believe that most of us do not fully comprehend how integral this aspect was in our deen from its very inception Maccha itself like America had its own issues of racism and classism. And when Islam came, there is no doubt that the primary focus was the Calima and Tauheed and the elimination of idol worship. There's no question about that. But from the very beginning of this religion from the very beginning of the revelation of the Quran. Other aspects will also be

instilled in the hearts of the followers of this religion, and one of them. One of the key teachings that dates to the very beginnings of Islam is that all human beings are equal in the eyes of Allah, regardless of their skin color or their ethnic origin. And we can give many Hotspurs about incidents from the Sierra. But I wanted to give you three or four from the beginning and from the middle, and from the end to demonstrate the consistency by which our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the Quran, it battled racism, racism was not revealed. The banding of racism was not revealed in late Medina. And by the way, let me again, be honest here, so many of the issues that we love to pounce

on and concentrate on whether it is the hijab, whether it is other things these will reveal late Medina, the fifth year of the hijra, okay, that's good. We talk about everything, where and why do we not encourage and talk about eliminating racism, which came with the very beginning of the revelation, which came with the very thrust of this faith, and it was a consistent reality until the end of this tradition. I quote you one of the most interesting aspects of this era of early Makkah, that actually the blur Mahira and some of the senior members of the Quraysh and he is the father of Khalid, Khalid Abdullah lead, one of the senior members of the Quraysh, one of the most powerful,

one of the richest Members of Parliament, he was of the doubter, Najwa and he was somebody who was on the fence, he was not like a Buddha Hall, and he was also not a convert and what he was somebody who was interested in Islam, and the and he wants came to Abu Talib with another group of people like him, and he said to Abu Talib, that oh Abu Talib, your nephew has teachings that we might listen to, we might we might appreciate and maybe even convert, but we have one condition that we asked you to place on him. And that is what was the condition had been his heart mentions that you tell him that when we come into his gathering, he needs to cause Bilal and even miss Ruth and Amara

vinyasa by the way, Amar was also a very dark skin, you must ask them to leave the gathering and we will have a private gathering. Now notice here they did not say to eliminate anti racism from Islam. They only said when we come we don't want those people over there. That was the only condition when we entered the room. Those people have to leave we will not sit down with the likes of them that was what they said to herbal powder. Let not out of say that we will sit with the likes of Bilal and with Ahmad and with others and they were of course from a different ethnicity. And of course from a different skin color. abou pondered rejoiced. He thought this was the breakthrough and he rushed to

the Prophet Sall Allahu Allah, he was selling them. And he said to his nephew, that Oh, my nephew, be reasonable your home your people have come to you with a very reasonable condition. Please don't be hasty. Listen to it, and we will solve all this problem and the Prophet saw some himself it appears he was thinking of this he wants to the senior Sahaba a number of senior Sahaba they said yeah rasool Allah Bina will understand you will make him up later he tell him that he will get to a lead biller will understand he's one of us will make it up to him later on. And perhaps many people were sympathetic to this notion. After all, you are getting a lead and if you understand who he is,

if you understand the power of a lead the status what will lead the favorable will lead if you understand the PR benefit to have somebody like a leader. On your side, you will perhaps understand why so many of the senior Sahaba and maybe even more than that were flirting with this idea. But then Allah revealed not one, not two, three verses in the Quran. Think about that somebody as powerful as Waleed and his only condition he didn't say, let Islam become a privileged status only the white sand out of here and no, he didn't say that. He said when I come and my entourage comes there should be segregation. That's all that he said he did not care if it was in other gatherings.

He's just himself did not want to be a part of an equal class society. And remember, this is early Maccha. Muslims are still being persecuted Muslims are still being harassed and intimidated. And yet ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada revealed three verses about this of them is Surah teleca Huff was pure enough second Allah De Niro la bomba Dottie what actually you need to know what Wallah i do i NACA I know whom to read those Xena tell higher to dunya that Allah says, Be patient and stick around those people who are making dua to Allah morning and evening for the sake of Allah. And Allah says in surah 10 An arm. Wala toploader livina, you're the owner of Bundler that they will actually do not

expel from your gathering do not expel those who are calling their Lord morning and evening. Then Allah says Fatah through the home for takuna minute volume if you get rid of them, your US will Allah if you keep them out of your gathering, then you would have done an injustice you would have done something that is wrong. Subhanallah so

pound Allah imagine the verse is coming down and our Prophet sallallahu wasallam is being addressed. Do not get rid of Amar do not get rid of Milan. Do not get rid of Ibn Masaru. Stick with them and do not worry about others that you desire the pleasures of this will to reduce Zina tell Aya to dunya those people are worried and their ilk, they're bringing you this dunya but Allah says, No, I don't care about that. I want the quality of Bilal the quality of a mouth, the quality of Ibn Massoud the quality of Sohaib, Rumi, the quality of salamander, the Pharisee. That's what I want, I don't care about the wealth of Mahira. And the fame of so and so and the power of so and so they don't deserve

anything if they don't have Taqwa from the very beginning. That was the message of Islam. In the Medina and phase. There are so many a hadith about this reality. And of course, the most famous of them was when a Buddha, you know, the Allahu, and Bilal owed him some money and Billa was not able to pay on the right amount of time. And of course, in this scenario, the Buddha has a right to demand his money. But a Buddha demanded it in a manner that was not acceptable. And he got angry. When Bilal asked for extension and delay, he got angry, and he said, Oh, son of a black woman, you have been a soda and the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam was passing by. And he immediately turned to

a widow. And he said, I Yatta who will be angry on me he did you criticize him because of basically the skin color of his mother? Did you say something that was meant to demean him because of this issue? In the camera on you are a person that still has Jai Hee Lee within you, and up with her felt so guilty that he lowered himself in front of Bilal and begged for forgiveness and Bilal picked him up and kissed him and forgave him. But the point being, this was a public teaching moment that everybody should know that we will not tolerate these acts of aggression, micro aggression, racism, we're not going to tolerate this terminology and this language. And of course, when our Prophet

Sall, Allahu Allah, he was setting them Concord Machop in the eighth year of the hijra, and the very day that he conquered Makkah, it was time for the event of acid and the Quraysh were huddled in front of the kava, all of the senior members, they did not know what is going to happen, shall they be forgiven? shall they be executed? They did not know and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said to Bilal Oberland, it is time for the Van Gogh and give it from on top of the cab. And so biller live in a bureau bar, he climbed on top of the cab to make the event remember, barely a few hours have gone by since the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has conquered Makkah, the majority

of the Quraysh are still not Muslim. If one of us had been there, perhaps we would have said let's not send Bilal is going to increase the tensions let's be politically correct. Let's choose one of these noble men of pure blood so that this is PR political correctness Wallah he asked yourself what would you have done? If you have been in charge? Ask yourself why did the Prophet system choose Bilal, even though it's not obligatory for one person to give anybody can give the other and if the prophet system had wanted, you could have told her Samantha nobleman or Omar or Abu Bakar or anybody to say, Okay, today Billa you go to the back and we'll send somebody else forward. But no, that's

not the point. He wanted to send that message and beloved stood up on top of the cab, and immediately the Quraysh began murmuring amongst themselves wrote out even a seed said, Thank God, my father, a seed is passed away, or else if he had seen this, he would have basically had a heart attack and died. Thank God who's already gone. He's thankful that his father, the senior member of the Quraysh, who died a pagan did not live to see this and hide it in his Sham, he remarked to the person next to him a very vulgar statement. Didn't Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam find anyone better than this black crow to give his Athan again being derogatory, so he made some remarks as well. Abu

Sufian also said, you know, I'm not gonna say anything, or else Allah might reveal something to him, meaning he's still a half Muslim. At that point that was Sophia is still flirting with this. Now he's like, I don't want to say anything. Perhaps Allah will send Quran to the prophets of Allah who I knew he was selling them. A bin Abbas says, a bin Abbas narrates when the Quran said this, Allah sent Gibreel down to inform the Prophet so some about what they had said, Allah sent Gibreel down to convey to the Prophet system, this conversation that was happening somewhere in front of the camera, and the Prophet system is sitting where he is sitting, so he called them on the Day of the conquest

of Makkah. Surely we can say there's better things to do. Surely we can say on that day, he could have just ignored it. On the day of the conquest of Makkah. He calls the seniors that Gibreel mentioned by name, and he said to them, that Allah subhanho wa Taala has eliminated tribalism eliminated a favourable answer both

Think about once and to ancestry in no Madonna either Taqwa all of it now rests upon piety. And then he recited the verses a certain hoogenraad Yeah your nurse in the Halacha come in Zakat and what was your under commercial Reuben Wakaba in a letter out in a karamba come in the law he had come, he recited this verse a few hours after the conquest of Makkah, that all races are equal. If there is going to be any superiority, it will be by means of Taqwa to Muslims. All of this shows us that Islam did not just come so that we are busy in our personal rituals. We are busy in our dictionary by dots and circles of halacha and enum, no, let us not convert this religion into something that is

a suburbian type of of manifestation of a simplistic know Islam came to challenge status quo. Islam came to cause an impact on society, Islam came to eliminate all types of evil, not just this evil, but on one evil Islam was consistent from the beginning to the very end, the last hutzpah that our Prophet sallallahu wasallam gave the whole battle whether I think about it from the beginning, in the middle on the day of the conquest, and then in hijab, when he gave the largest goodbye he ever gave five paragraphs that's it. One entire paragraph dedicated to racism on Muslims. We love this hadith, we have it on our walls, the hot button where the eyes memorize, we love to quote things

about it. Have we ever understood the consistency the context? Why on that day 1/5 of the hotbar is dedicated to eliminating racism? Why do we not even have a fraction of the passion of our prophets of Allah? Who are they he was set up to take an active role, not just passive, who doesn't talk that racism and back take a genuine row and have a very difficult look around us that what can we do to eliminate this evil and this disease as our prophets of Allah? Who are you instead of said, the idea doesn't determine the distance another version of the whole hydrated with that, oh mankind Allah has eliminated from you the tribalism of Jahai, the year and the boasting of the ancestors. There are

only two types of people, a pious, God fearing person, beloved to Allah and an in pious, evil person despised by Allah, a nostril Kulu, whom mean Adam, all of mankind, or from Adam, and Adam was created from dust and once again, he recited those verses of Surah to God, may Allah Subhana Allah bless me and you within through the Quran, and may make us of those who is verses they understand and to implement his Halon and haram throughout their lifespan. I ask Allah's forgiveness, you as well asked him for his the folder Rockman

stuff.

And hamdulillah helwa had it I had a summit, Allah de la mula, mula whatever you call local phone, we're about to do, what are the action items that we can do? Talk is cheap. We've been hearing hotspots about racism since the beginning of our childhoods, no Muslim in sha Allah, Allah is outwardly openly saying I'm a racist, that would be an Islamic nobody would be. Maybe somebody is but generally speaking, nobody thinks they are racist. What can we do given the reality of our circumstances, a number of points, first and foremost, understand that supporting oppression against the oppressor, supporting the oppressed against the oppressor, fighting on behalf of the oppressed

against the oppressor, and fighting is done by multiple ways, sometimes physical if you're able to sometimes verbal, and the very least that we can do is in the hearts the very least, that fighting against oppression and violence is something that transcends religion. It doesn't matter the religion of the volume and the volume of the one who oppressed and the one who oppresses Islam teaches us to side with the oppressed against the oppressor in all circumstances. We talk of the famous healthful fool all the time, we talk of the issue of the coming together of the Prophet sallallahu ala he was set up with other people, we rarely want to implement a modern healthful food,

what can we do to bring people together to fight against racism, whether it is by education, whether it is by other means, but we need to revive the spirit of healthful food. Point number two, I especially advise Muslims whose parents migrated to this land to get outside of their comfort bubble, and to learn the history of the land that we live in to understand the contributions of African Americans, this country would not be the superpower that it is, were it not for the economy generated by slavery, the Muslims that migrated to this land, we need to understand African American Islam has been here 300 years before immigrant Islam and the most well respected Muslims of this

land are all African American Muslim

Ahmed Ali Kareem Abdul Jabbar, all of them. Immigrant Muslims and children of immigrant Muslims give due credit where it is due to the contributions of those who preceded us. Thirdly, we need to understand the American Muslim community is unique amongst all other countries because of this amazing diversity. No other western country has had these movements like the Nation of Islam that paved the way for millions of African Americans to convert to mainstream and Asuna Islam. We have millions of people that were born and raised here for many generations. And we also have millions who came from other lands, that mixture right now unfortunately, it is somewhat dividing us. But I

say we have the potential to be the strongest Muslim community in the Western world. Because coming together, each side has strengths that the other does not. And that will only happen if we cooperate. I encourage every Masjid to reach out to the messages that they typically don't go to and have program that will benefit both communities. And the last point, the last point and much more can be said but time is always of the essence here is that dear Muslims Enough is enough. Let us eliminate all acts and all languages and all stereotypes of micro racism within our own very ranks. It is so easy to criticize the police it is so easy to criticize pre Civil War America and pre civil

rights America. How about getting an active role within our own communities? There is so much latent racism, Muslims remember when the Quraysh were in front of the cab mumbling bad things about Bilal, Allah sent Gibreel down to inform the Prophet sallallahu either he was sending him of that racist language. Let me be very honest here. How can we allow snide remarks of micro racism amongst our own? Oh people have an Arabic background stop using slurs like A B than Zuge Oh, people have a DC background stop using slurs like cologne and other things. These are disgusting, derogatory terms. Any time somebody uses these terms, remember a loss and Gibreel down because the Quraysh were saying

bad things? Are you wanting to be on the side of the Quraysh against the side of the Muslims? Do you not understand that just simply being in that gathering and listening to other people crack jokes and make stereotypes that's a part of the problem. So I encourage all of you from now on to make it a role for you that you will never be in a gathering where other people inshallah you will not do that where other people will say something of a negative nature and you will let it pass stop that racism and eliminate it and take an active role like our Prophet salallahu Salam did to battle against this disease of racism. Along the nd dine for a mineral we lift our hands to Allah subhana

wa to Allah O Allah, we asked you on this blessed day, that you leave no sin of ours, except that you have erased them and no sequel of ours except that you have cured them and no one who has passed away except that you have forgiven them and no one in debt except that you have enriched them and no one hungry except to what you have provided for them and no one who is oppressed except that you have aided them with your mercy Yet Allah Yara man we ask you to bless Islam and its people and the OH May Allah make it safe and peaceful and protected from those who desire for an evil you are the most majestic the most powerful Yara Haim raise from us display again disease and bless us instead

with comfort and ease and acceptance of our good deeds. You are the Hakeem and the Majeed Our Allah we ask you for the good of this world and the good of the next world and that you protect us from your anger and your punishment. Oh Allah except our good deeds, Forgive our mistakes and make us on our families from the righteous regards Allah servants of Allah, Allah subhana wa Tada has commanded you with a command that he began with himself and then he seconded with the angels themselves, and then he asked you all and all of us to follow ourselves for he said in the law or medical to your saloon, and then maybe you will lead in Amanu Sallu alayhi wa sallam with a steamer Allahumma salli

wa salim robotic Well, I love the Kurosu to come Mohammed was the he was like a big Marine who by the law in the law to honor your moral bill I believe it is anyway tell you all about where you can hide in fact Shay will will carry with you either Camilla come to the karoun Oh, the Corolla has come wash Kuru who Yes it did. What are they called Allahu Akbar or ultimate Salah

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