Yasir Qadhi – Reflecting on the Power of Western Muslims
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It is very very
very humbling
to come back to my alma mater, to,
New Haven where I lived for 5 years.
20 years ago, I applied to Yale. 20
years have gone by. And I first came,
as a student, graduate student, 2,005.
2,005. How many amongst you knew me back
then? How many were there at that time?
So we have
30, 40 people in the audience that that
were here at then. And, SubhanAllah, when I
came here, I wanna tell you one thing,
about the community,
about Yale.
That I gave a chutba in August
2005,
and there were probably
14 students who attended.
More than half of them were graduate students.
And
most of the undergrads were coming from overseas.
I believe there was 1 or 2,
like, born and raised here.
And I just found out from Imam Omar
Bajwa that you have over 200
students
every single Friday for
at
Yale.
Could never have imagined this change.
And
Islam as well, where I was regularly give
you know the Sira lectures you guys watch?
I started
Islam,
the first round.
And I gave 5 years on and off.
And Ammar would attend those as little kid.
He would attend those and others. But then,
you know, life and studies and whatnot, it
wasn't recorded. It was just given at the
masjid of Re Masjid Al Islam. And so
what you are watching
in Memphis,
the notes of half of it were written
here
for Masjid Al Islam. And then of course
I redid them and, you know, alhamdulillah.
What you saw was online. But Alhamdulillah,
lots of sweet memories over here.
So brothers and sisters, I had a few
weeks ago another topic prepared. But in light
of what is happening right now and in
light of Gaza and in light of the
protest. I was at the protest today at
Yale. I spoke over there as well,
in front of, Sterling Library.
And in light of what is happening, it
is important. It is imperative that
we become relevant. Because the sierra teaches us
that you have to be relevant.
The sierra teaches us that you must make
an impact in the here and the now.
The seerah teaches us that we don't just
live in some abstract reality.
No. We deal with the situation and circumstance,
and we impact
positively
wherever we are, whenever we are. And
I want to begin by stating
that I know for the last 6 months,
7 months,
we've been in a state of shock and
despair.
I know things have been very difficult and
to see the carnage, to see the bloodshed,
to see the genocide
and to know that the fact of the
matter is it is our country that is
green lighting, that is allowing all of this.
It's really painful.
And a lot of questions and a lot
of issues come. What do we do? How
do we Is there any future? What is
what is the what is the strategy that
we follow?
And here is where I'm gonna come in
and give some generic guidelines.
Some insha'Allah, hope
to what we are doing over here. And
I wanna begin by stating
that
anybody who reads the sirah
knows that it is a part of the
prophetic
methodology
that you will and you shall engage with
tyrants, and dictators, and evil rulers. Not just
the seerah of our prophet salallahu alayhi wa
sallam. The seerah of every prophet. The life
and times of every prophet. What exactly is
the story of Musa and Firaun?
What exactly is the story of Musa and
Firaun? It is exactly what we are seeing
here. And the irony
is that those who claim to follow Musa,
those who claim they are the Umma of
Musa,
the irony of ironies
they are following the methodology of Firaun.
They are following the tactics of Firaun.
They are following the beliefs of Firaun.
And it is the people of Gaza
that are the real followers of Musa alaihis
salam.
They are the ones being persecuted.
They are the ones that are constantly being
stereotyped in caricatures
like Firaun said to the Bani Israel. What
did Firaun say to the Bani Israel? What
were the tactics that Firaun did to the
Bani Israel? The the Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
mentions that,
He would persecute them. He would humiliate them.
He would kill their children.
Allah mentions that Firaoun would mock and make
fun of the people of Israel the the
the
Bani Israel. That Firaun would
say
These are a bunch of renegades, small and
and people shouldn't be caring about them.
Every single caricature,
every stereotype that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives
a firaun,
we find it embodied in the modern apartheid
regime.
And every single praise Allah gives to the
Bani Israel.
SubhanAllah we find it in the real followers
of the prophet Musa and that is the
people of Gaza and the Muslim Ummah. What
is then the seerah as well? The seerah
once again is a story of a person
and the early Umma taking on the persecution
that should not have been done. Persecution that
is stemming from a irrational hatred.
The entirety of the sirab is a battle
between good and evil. It is a battle
between the weak and the oppressed against the
powerful and the oppressor. That is the entirety
of the sirah. How can anybody read the
sirah and then not understand that there are
direct and relevant lessons for all of us.
And subhanAllah brothers and sisters,
you know I'm gonna say something. Please don't
misunderstand
or misquote me. But we are all guilty.
I am guilty.
One of the things that hurts me a
lot, and I am guilty. I'm not saying
blaming anybody else,
is that when you look at our modern
movements, our modern thinkers, our modern strands, Masha'Allah,
there's a lot of good in all of
the mainstream movements. We thank Allah. There are
many of them. They have prioritized things that
are so good to prioritize. Memorizing the Quran,
teaching aqeedah, doing dawah and tableel, thinking about
how to, you know, bring about Islam in
the political arena and Muslim lands. Every strand
of the ummah, we thank Allah they're doing
some good.
But when you see the reality of North
American Muslims and the Western Muslims,
you must say,
not in a proud manner
and not in a harsh manner, but in
a factual manner.
We don't
have a plan
for Muslims in North America.
Every movement
seems to have
failed
in providing a road map,
in providing
strategy,
in providing a realistic
and practical
methodology
for what we should do.
Every single
news media outlet,
the majority of our politicians,
They are so disconnected
from our world and what we're trying to
do.
And our own president,
SubhanAllah,
As if he's unaware or as if he
doesn't care or whatever it might be. 2
days ago
allows another 15,000,000,000
or $17,000,000,000
to the After all of this
And 3 days ago, when the UN
symbolically
symbolically
voted, let us give the Palestinians
a people. It's a symbolic give them a
land. It's a symbolic vote. Nothing's gonna happen.
And the UN pretty much agrees the Palestinians
like every human being deserve to live like
other human beings. The one country that vetoed
was our country.
What do we do?
Why is it all Muslims
that quantity wise, we are more than many
other faiths?
Why is it that in terms of our
diversity,
we are number 1 in all the various
faith traditions. No faith tradition is more diverse
than us. Why is it that socioeconomically,
masha'Allah tazarakallah.
We are upper middle overall. We are very
well integrated.
And yet our impact is
not just negligible,
as if it doesn't even exist.
Why?
These are questions that are painful.
But it
is high time that we ask these awkward
questions,
And begin the internal
conversations
about how we're going to move forward.
Because we still have those small voices amongst
us. Who use the religion
in a manner that is actually
debilitating.
It is harmful.
We still have a small group of voices
and I don't doubt their sincerity.
But wallahi,
I doubt their wisdom.
And I doubt their understanding of the Quran
and their understanding of the Sira.
We still have a small group of religious
folks. They tell us, oh, Islam says it
has nothing to do with any political system.
We should just worship, go to the masjid,
pray. We should just do our Ibadah
and we shouldn't even protest.
Protests are haram, the fatwa is given.
Protests are haram.
Of course for this these types of people
And it's by the way, it's not just
one strand. It's not just one group. Multiple
groups have this. Multiple strands have this.
Voting is haram.
Voting is kufr and shirk, not just haram.
If you vote, you become kafir instantaneously.
And these fatwas,
they're still around. Wallahi, I would battle with
these fatwas when I was 17 years old
in Houston.
Back in the eighties.
That's how old I am. Back in the
eighties.
And we'd have these types of people. And
even though I didn't study, even though I
hadn't had the the what I have now,
it just didn't make sense to me.
What do you mean that we don't get
involved in the system? What do you mean
we just sit outside and do nothing? What
do you mean that just by worship? Even
I at that time understood the Sira is
an entirety
of worship along with activism.
Worship along with taking the tactics and means.
Worship along with doing what you need to
do to get to the goal.
How can anybody read the sirrah? How can
anybody look at the life and times of
any of the prophets and then conclude from
that that, oh. All we need to do
is just
worship and do nothing else. No. Wallahi no.
A 1000000 times no. And in the past,
we would just gently be quiet about these
types of people. May Allah help and guide
them but we respect But now, there's a
genocide going on.
Now 40,000
people have lost their lives.
We don't have the luxury
to be silent
at these voices from within that are actually
confusing our youth. And we have to push
back not at their intention. Today, I'm not
saying anything about their intention. Wallahi, I know
many of them in their own world view,
they think this is right. May Allah bless
and forgive them. Just because they're good in
one aspect, their ibadah, their tilawah, doesn't mean
they're good in other aspects. And that is
how to carve a course out.
Fact of the matter is,
a smaller group of people than us
are influencing
American politics
far more powerfully than us.
This is a fact.
Numerically, they're smaller.
The Muslims of North America,
numerically,
we are already the 2nd largest religion in
this country.
Already, we are the 2nd largest.
And the quantity and quality and the diversity
that we have,
they don't have it.
And yet their influence is exponentially larger.
And you know, I don't believe in conspiracy
theories. I don't believe that oh there's just
something magical about them. No. It's tactics.
It's strategy.
They came together. They had a vision and
they enacted it. That's the way the world
works. There's nothing magical about it.
Unfortunately,
we amongst us,
we have so many issues from within.
We have so many problems from within. So
what I wanted to do actually today is
actually very simple. And that is
encourage us with some positives and point out
some negatives
of us as a Western Muslim community. So
that knowing what we know, you know, for
those of you that work in corporate America,
for those you that work in any field,
you know there's something called a SWOT analysis.
Right? Our strengths, our weaknesses, our opportunities, our
threats.
I want to do a quick, very quick,
mini SWOT analysis
of the American Muslim community.
What are the strengths? What are the weaknesses?
What are the opportunities? What are the threats?
Do a SWAT analysis
of us as American Muslims. Because
only when you know your strengths, can you
play to your strengths.
Only when you analyze your weaknesses,
can you take protections against them. Only when
you know your opportunities, can you strike at
your opportunities.
And only when you know your threats, will
you take adequate precaution to make sure those
threats don't harm you.
So very quickly, I'm going to do a
SWOT analysis. And again, it's just an opinion,
take it or leave it, and let the
conversation begin. Let's begin with strengths. Number 1,
strengths.
And very quickly.
And these are coming from my own experiences
and travels that alhamdulillah has blessed me to
live in multiple lands, multiple states, travel to
over 60 countries and wherever I go I
interact with the communities, speak with their with
their leadership, get an idea of what's going
on. So based on my own life experiences,
this is my own you know, Khulasta and
what
It's an opinion, it could be right, it
could be wrong. Our strengths,
I say
categorically
in my humble opinion, but it is categoric
from me. I say
the strengths that we have as American Muslims,
listen to me carefully,
are second to none in the entire globe.
The strengths we have
as American Muslims
are second to none in the entire globe.
And only those that have lived in other
lands
can appreciate that.
Only those that fully understand
what this country gives us,
of them,
of the most important strengths we have,
and we thank Allah for that,
is that this country was built
on the freedom from religious persecution.
No other country in the world
was built by people
who were so
traumatized
by religious persecution
that they made it a fundamental principle of
their constitution.
No other country.
Our founding fathers,
some of whom walked these very campuses.
Our founding fathers,
when they came to this land,
they enshrined
in the constitution
certain rights
that are not enshrined anywhere else in the
world.
And as an American Muslim,
I thank a law for the constitution of
this country.
The freedom
to practice your faith.
The freedom to assemble and congregate.
The freedom to speak whatever you want to
speak. The freedom to protest
even in Europe,
in France where allegedly democracy began.
In France where allegedly the French revolution
sparked the entire western. In France, it is
illegal right now to have a pro Palestinian
rally.
In Germany, you will go to jail for
waving a Palestinian flag.
In England, the parliament is debating
whether the phrase from the river to the
sea constitutes genocide and they might ban it.
In Canada,
up north,
in Canada,
they have banned the wearing of the kifai.
Today, an MP was kicked out of parliament.
Today, look at the news. Today, a Muslim
walked into the parliament wearing a Palestinian scarf,
and she was escorted out.
Now I understand, and I just spoke at
the at the Yale rally, and I see
what's happening at Columbia, UT Austin, whatnot. I
understand
those ideals
aren't always fully applied.
But no matter how bad it is,
it's nowhere near as bad as anywhere else.
I'm not trying to say we should overlook.
I'm saying compared to other places,
we thank Allah.
Yes, they can stop certain things to congregate
at certain locations.
They can never
ever
stop the general act of protesting.
They can never
criminalize
generic free speech.
Sure, they have their laws. So I was
at Yale today to speak
and they've
apparently from the speakers there they said
every protest that has taken place,
they allow loud speakers, they allow congregation, what
not.
But technically,
you need permission for a loud speaker but
they've never enforced it. Okay?
Because it's a pro Palestinian rally
and the Yale police came in and said
no loud speakers. You cannot have any loud
speakers.
And so all of the speeches you're giving,
you just have to speak with your voice.
And as you're aware, they were processing in
Beinecke outside of that and the law came
in and said you can't do it over
here. But they couldn't stop them from doing
it in the square. And so they moved
over to the square. Now we know that's
not fair. We know there's double standards. We
know we should fight it. But in the
end of the day, they cannot ban.
They just can't.
Even Colombia, if you were to walk outside
and protest, right, as they can't ban in
the public.
Sure. Within they have their laws that they
selectively apply.
The freedoms we have to express, to try
to
change the mindset
are second to none.
I regularly give Khutbas
about
how angry we are about foreign policy.
Last month or sorry 2 2 months ago
before Ramadan, we had the largest pro Palestinian
rally in the history of this country in
front of the White House.
400,000
people attended.
And I spoke in front of the White
House. I spoke in DC.
And I and multiple people
called our president a genocide
enabler.
We said that our foreign policy
is
killing tens of thousands of innocent people. We
called it war crimes
right in front of the president's house.
And subhanAllah,
when I uttered these words and when the
other speakers uttered these words and we went
back home, we knew
with certainty
that we're not gonna get a knock on
the door and the secret police is gonna
come and say, hey, did you actually say
this?
That's we knew. And if anybody,
if the FBI or secret police dared come
to my door and say, did you criticize
our government?
I would sue them
and I would win in a heartbeat.
What other country can this happen in?
What other country can this happen in?
Imam Khaled Nautih from the NYU will tell
you the full story
about
NYPD.
As you're aware after 9 11,
they began harassing
and profiling
Muslims and it became unofficial memorandum and policy.
They would literally stake out Muslim schools. They
would have units, undercover units outside of Muslim
kindergartens.
And they would take notes of the parents
who's going to Islamic school with the presupposition
that if you're sending your child to Islamic
school, potentially you're a terrorist.
This is the NYPD.
And they had an entire program that was
secret
about surveilling
mosques,
surveilling
Muslim schools and Muslim homes. That was completely
illegal until finally one cop with a conscience
leaked it, became public
and the Muslims sued
the government.
The Muslims sued the NYPD, I should say.
Sorry. They sued the NYPD. The NYPD is
the largest
police union in the entire country.
It has the greatest clout in this whole
country in terms of police department. It has
the most respect and the most power.
The Muslims
sued the NYPD
in court.
Guess what happened?
They unanimously
won
that lawsuit. And the NYPD had to give
money to Muslim charities and causes and enact
a policy
of teaching
every single cop about
the dangers of racial profiling
and what it means to be an American
etcetera etcetera.
I ask you by Allah
in which country could you sue your own
police department
and the justice would side with you against
the police department.
Think about it.
This is our strength in this land.
And we thank Allah for that strength.
And here is where I'm sorry but we
don't have the time to be politically correct.
It frustrates me when people who have some
knowledge, people who have some taqwa, they come
and they preach to the Muslim masses, hey,
voting is haram. Hey, don't go to the
protest. I'm sorry, but I have to push
back. As I say, I'm not doubting their
sincerity,
but I am doubting their understanding. Because here's
the point. In an entire ummah
of 1,500,000,000
people,
we are the only Muslims
who have the political
clout
to change the system
legally from within.
We are the only group of Muslims
that has the constitutional
right
to try to bring about change in a
legal manner, in an effective manner.
How dare a scholar
ignore this reality and come and say, oh,
it is haram to vote.
I don't doubt your sincerity.
I do doubt your wisdom and your understanding
of the Sira and your understanding of the
Quran and your understanding of reality.
The only group of Muslims
that can possibly do something,
real something, politically is us.
Far from saying it's haram,
I would like to say it is farda'in
and wajib.
It is wajib, I can't say, to get
involved as much as you can. It is
wajib to make the best change and the
most effective change that you can.
And we learned this from the seerah. SubhanAllah
those that say voting is haram what not.
You know again there's so much for the
seerah to learn. The incident of Najashi and
the sahaba negotiating
with Najashi directly.
This is influencing from within. The incident of
the boycott, I've spoken about this in in
multiple detail in in multiple lectures in the
last 6 7 months. The incident when the
Muslims were boycotted.
And
Abu Talib had to negotiate
a release.
And he went to Darul Nadwah with some
Muslims.
And they negotiated and they and they and
they protested in their own manner.
How can anybody say that it's against the
laws of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to try
to change from within the system?
So
our strength, number one strength is
the fact that we are
constitutionally
allowed
and civilly and and democratically
required and requested to get involved in the
process. Another strength of ours another strength of
ours is that by and large, the American
Muslim community is the most diverse of all
Western Muslim communities.
If anybody's traveled to any other western
country, you will realize that the vast majority
of Muslims of any one land come from
one country.
That's just the way it happened after world
war 2. So let's say, choose any country.
Germany
had a relationship with Turkey. A lot of
Turks went there. Okay. Netherlands had a relationship
with Morocco. Okay. France has a relationship with
North Africa. So by and large,
every European country
has 1 or 2 Muslim countries that are
predominantly amongst them.
As for America, look around you.
Look at our Muslim Ummah. Go to any
mosque.
The diversity
we have,
it's second to none in the western world.
And that leads me to, again, similar to
diversity, our socioeconomic
diversity.
Once again, the majority of European countries,
when they had to bring in Muslims,
it was one occupation. And generally,
menial occupation. Work in the factories in England.
World War 2, bring in, you know, the
people from Pakistan and Bangladesh to work in
the factories.
Right? Whereas in America,
we have everybody.
And socioeconomically
and education wise, we are once again number
1 in the western world.
Our political clout, our economic clout and our
educational
clout is second to none in the whole
western world. We are as a Muslim community
the the most well integrated.
We are as a Muslim community the highest
educated. We are as a Muslim community the
ones who are politically and and and socioeconomically
number 1. No other western land comes close
to us.
So that is one of our strengths as
well. Definitely.
So the freedom to who do what we
are and to be who we are without
a doubt, this is our strength.
Weaknesses.
Move on to weaknesses.
Our number one weakness in my humble opinion
is that we lack
cohesive
unity.
We are divided amongst ourselves.
We don't have leadership. We don't have a
plan.
We don't come
together. We don't come together.
If we could come together.
If we could have an agenda we all
agree on. If we could have a systematic,
a thought process, a methodology,
a framework,
if we could add a template and the
majority of the western American ummah says, oh
this is what we have to do. But
no.
Every group is divided. We're divided
ethnically.
We're divided politically,
we're divided in sectarian lines. And if you've
listened to my talks and lectures, for the
last 10, 15 years one of my pet
peeves is railing against narrow minded, petty minded,
dogmatic sectarianism.
Wallahi, all Muslims of America, listen to me
carefully.
It doesn't matter
whether your son or daughter prays with hands
here, hands here, hands here, hands here. As
long as they pray, thank Allah for that.
It doesn't matter whether your son or daughter
believes in this abstract theology, a theological position,
or that abstract
If they believe in Allah, thank Allah for
that.
For us to be bickering
and arguing
and dividing ourselves
over our arcane
theological issues, over the minutia
of the fine print of fiqh.
Wallahi, this is the height of folly and
backwardness.
Live and let live. You choose your madhab.
You choose your firqa. You choose your theology.
And then understand,
belief in Allah
is far more important than the finer details
after that.
And what unites us as an ummah in
North America
is much more than what divides us. And
if you must preach against the doctrine that
you think is wrong, ideology you think is
wrong, there's a time and a place and
an audience and a methodology to do that.
Do not drag in these sectarian issues into
the mosques.
Take an advanced class.
Vet the people who are gonna come in.
They must be advanced students. They know theology.
They know faith. And now, as much as
you want, debate and whatnot. But after you're
done, go to the local mosque and pray
with everybody over there.
Keep theoretical differences theoretical.
We need to unite and ask for our
ethnic divisions. Then, a'udhubillah. This is jahiliyah.
A'udhubillah. We're going to be divided on where
our ancestors came from. It doesn't matter where
your grandfather was born. What matters is where
your grandchild is going to be born.
We are 1 ummah over here.
And the fact of the matter, oh parents
who have migrated from other lands,
your son or daughter has more in common
with another family migrated from another country
then he or she does with your own
biological cousins back home.
I repeat,
now be be more explicit.
A Pakistani
American born over here, and I'm one of
them,
has more in common
with an Egyptian American, Sudanese American, Indonesian American,
Boston American.
Much more in common
than with that same person's biological cousins back
home.
If you don't understand this,
somebody should tell you bluntly about it.
Stop these petty divisions.
Not only are they un Islamic,
they're unwise
and they're counterproductive
to the future of our cohesive ummah. To
me, this is our biggest weakness.
And of course, we have other weaknesses as
well. Of those weaknesses
is that by and large, we as a
North American ummah have been divorced from distance
from political engagement. We are still very very
first level, kindergarten level, naive level. We don't
know how to get involved in politics. We
really don't.
And that's the struggle of our generation and
it's constantly and again, I wish I had
the luxury to just pretend everything is fine
and dandy. There is a genocide going on
right now. People are dying.
Bombs are dropping that are made in America,
paid by America.
We don't have the luxury to just pretend
that this isn't a problem.
We are
completely
disadvantaged
when we as a community
do not have a discourse
about Muslim politicians and Muslim involvement in politics.
When you wanna be a politician,
and I don't wanna be a politician, aoodhubillah.
Those who choose politics,
politics is always the lesser of 2 evils.
Politics is all about compromise,
And I personally
don't like it.
But it's a necessary evil. Somebody has to
do it. And those who choose to get
involved,
they're not going to be clean and pure.
We have to be mature enough to distinguish
ulama from politicians.
Take your fiqh, your aqeedah, your morality, your
akhlaah from ulama.
Politicians have a different role.
And you cannot assess politicians
the way that you assess awliya,
the way that you assess fuqaha, the way
that you assess mufasidin,
the way that you assess muhaddithin.
We are still so basic in this regard.
And the minute that the sheikh comes up
or any religious person comes and says, okay
well, this particular candidate looks like better than
the other one. Automatically, oh but look at
all of these evil things this candidate is
saying. And they don't understand. You're not gonna
get Angel Jibril to run off her office
over here.
The fact of the matter is, and I'm
sorry to be blunt here but again, there's
a genocide going on.
The only hijabi in congress
has a lot of problematic
views about morality.
Yet
she is one of the most vocal
voices
about the influence of the AIPAC,
about the genocide going on, about the reality
of the criminality
of our foreign policy.
And anytime one of us attempts to
Again, it's so sad. And again, this is
not an endorsement but it's definitely not a
criticism.
This
very one hijabi,
our own community has abandoned her. She walks
into a Muslim conference,
she will be booed.
She walks into a Muslim audience and the
conference has the potential to get cancelled.
The cancelled culture we live in.
This is the reality. I wish I could
be politically correct, but I go back to
the fact there's a genocide going on.
Now the minute I say this, one of
your YouTube clips is gonna go and my
critics are gonna come again. Look, You sir,
Ali endorses this candidate. Look at all of
the evil she has.
Circularity. Wallahi, we're in this kindergarten loop.
The the the narrow mindedness.
Their IQ is in the 1 digits. I
am not endorsing
her morality.
I am not endorsing
the views.
But in the end of the day,
she is standing
almost a solitary voice.
Another figure in qa'indah. Wallahi, I'm not endorsing
because I know there's theological problems. Right? But
I am saying when you go vote, you
cannot vote based upon personal views of morality.
The one
Palestinian in congress. One Palestinian American.
Again, she might have problematic views about whatever
in the past. Whatever. But in the end
of the day,
she can go to congress as she has
done. And she can pull out a picture
of her grandmother and she can say our
foreign policy is potentially killing my grandmother.
Who amongst us can do that?
So we as a community, we need to
mature up. Wallahi enough is enough of the
backwardness and foolishness and stupidity.
We have to have the bravery to speak
out against the narrow mindedness.
The religious folks have abandoned the very people
that can potentially help us.
We have to be mature enough to separate.
If our politicians make theological mistakes, we point
out that is a mistake. Oh child, don't
learn your fiqh. Don't learn your aqidah. She's
not a faqihah. But we're not voting them
for fiqh. We're not voting them for theology.
We're voting them to potentially stop a genocide.
If not for this generation, at least plant
the seeds for the next generation. This is
a weakness we have. Is this not a
weakness? This is a reality.
Amongst us we are politically
immature.
We are completely
unprepared
for the difficult nuanced conversation of what it
means to be a Muslim in politics.
That's one of our weaknesses. More can be
said but time is limited. Let's go on
to number 3, opportunities.
What opportunities do we have in this country?
What opportunities
do we have in this country?
We have unparalleled
opportunities.
And of them, I go back to my
strength and I make it into an opportunity.
The freedoms we have to congregate,
the freedoms we have for speech, the freedoms
we have to build, the freedoms we have
to fundraise,
No country in the world gives us that
opportunity.
I am the dean of the Islamic Seminary
of America. Have the president sitting right here,
mashallah, doctor Jimmy Jones.
Mufti Saab, what is your title and position
with your muftah? He is the he is
the big shot and the hidden the hidden
puppet master of As a joke here mashallah.
But he is the brains behind another large
seminary,
and that is muftah.
And we have some students from Qalam in
Dallas. And we have some students from Maghrib
which is always used to be the dean
5 years ago.
Guess what?
All of these institutes,
we didn't need to get approval from the
state department.
We didn't need to get permission from the
FBI.
We don't need to vet
anyone's
fundraising efforts to help us out here.
What most of our youth don't realize and
they idealize
other seas and overlands.
I'm sorry to burst your bubble, oh youth.
No Muslim land
will allow you to bring religious folks and
teach them Islam
without a long list of conditions that you
can never meet if they even do that.
No Muslim land will allow you to fundraise
for Gaza
with the ease that we are fundraising for.
I'm sorry to be blunt here. In the
holiest of holy, you're not allowed to make
dua for Palestine.
You wear a Palestinian scarf.
I don't know if you know this or
not. The police will literally
catch you and deport you, interrupt your ritual
and your worship,
and deport you for wearing a Palestinian scarf.
This is the reality
of alleged Darul Islam.
In this country,
we can fundraise.
Brother Azhar has just fundraised over here. On
my online in Ramadan, I raised 3 and
a half $1,000,000
for Gaza in 1 month, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah.
And I didn't need to get a single
letter from anybody. And no one has the
right to stop me from doing that.
The potential
to build,
the potential to construct
institutes,
think tanks, ideology,
there is no other country that gives you
that potential. And that is why
unbelievably,
what we are doing in this country intellectually,
Islamically,
it is Unbelievable.
Personal
anecdote for myself, I didn't know this like
few years ago, around 10 years ago.
I mean, Facebook has this algorithm back then
that you could see where your people,
who follow you from Facebook and YouTube and
all of them. Right? And
I was
genuinely shocked to discover
that
at the time, I think it's changed a
little bit now, I had never visited that
country. Number 1 was, of course, America, which
I expected. 10 years
ago, I was genuinely shocked that the largest
group of people that's listening to my lectures,
who can guess which country?
Malaysia.
We have some Malays in the audience?
Abakaba.
I'm going to Malaysia next month actually.
Kuala Lumpur. At the time, I had never
been. At the time, I had never been.
And I was shocked.
Malaysia,
number 2. What was number 3?
Bangladesh.
Que mara chan.
I have still not gone to Bangladesh.
I'm worried for my safety. But anyway, let's
not go there. Okay?
Not because of the people, you understand?
You understand?
Because I have spoken against India.
And I'm banned from India.
And so, you understand, that's another reason. So
not the people.
My point is, back to my point here,
potential.
Why
is an American cleric being listened to in
the millions
in lands he's never visited?
Why?
The potential
to preach and teach
unlimited
by government control
because I can speak
in a way from my mimbar
that people in other lands cannot speak.
When I spoke about the Babri Masjid,
again I was
not not shocked but I mean pleasantly surprised.
It went viral in India.
Tens of thousands of people are. And they're
like, why can't we say this now? Because
the government doesn't allow them to say what
I said in my masjid and epic.
So we have
the opportunity
to influence the globe.
But here we are bickering amongst ourselves about
whether protests are haram or halal.
Opportunities
in this land are second to none.
And we see an opportunity right here what
I just told you about y'all and our
growth. When I came 15 Muslims. Now you
guys have 250 Muslims that are actually for
Jum'ah, probably 500 that are in the campus
overall. Mashallah Tabarakallah.
How quickly Islam is growing.
So we have plenty of opportunities.
And we haven't even tapped the potential
of influencing
the greater influence in this country. And by
the way, in case there is one of
these secret spies from Fox News or whatever,
they're gonna take these clips and whatnot.
No. No. Seriously, because every time we have
those types of people By the way, at
times of difficulty,
Munafiqeen
come out.
At times of these, you realize who's the
and you see this. Right? So if there's
one of them, let me just say, I
am not preaching
stealth jihad.
I'm not preaching a secret agenda
in some private hotel audience.
You know what I'm preaching?
I'm preaching
the quintessential
reality
of American democracy.
That's exactly what I'm preaching. I'm telling you
that you are an American.
And I'm telling you bluntly and loudly,
why shouldn't
you exert your
constitutional rights like every other group is doing
it? What prevents
you from influencing
popular culture, influencing media, influencing politics? That's what
it means to be an American. That's what
it means to be a part of a
democracy.
So I'm not preaching some
radical, secretive
document that you have to sign on to
with the secret handshake. No. I'm not a
member of Skull and Bones guys, so that's
not me. No. No. No. Okay. I'm not
teaching any of that.
I'm telling you,
the sierra teaches us
that you need to influence as best as
you can. And our
American rights allow us what no other country
allows us.
And this leads me to my final point,
and then inshallah, we'll have some time for
q and a as well. My final point.
So we did strengths, weaknesses, opportunities.
Now we have what's the final point?
Threats.
We do have multiple threats.
From outside,
one of our biggest threats is,
it is far fetched, but it is not
completely unrealistic,
is that the very freedoms that were granted
to all citizens are going to be eroded.
And by the way, this has already happened
post 9 11.
The alleged Patriot Act.
Right? And it just happened. It was ratified
2 days ago.
If you were watching the news, 2 days
ago, President Biden
not only
renewed the Patriot Act in its basic essential
form, he actually added even more clauses.
So in some ways,
our freedoms are being eroded.
Those of you who are old enough to
remember, pre 9 11 world, it was very
different in America. Very different.
And even as we speak, multiple people are
in jail for thought crimes.
Even as we speak, which wouldn't have happened
before 911. This is definitely a threat.
And we see as well, the ease with
which
the far right and others, and sometimes even
the far left, both are just as violent
when you need to, that they are, they
can easily be mobilized to
maybe even become potentially violent. And that's a
reality we have to face. We have to
make sure this is a threat. We make
sure it never happens.
Please, all Muslims, don't be naive.
After World War 2,
when our own country
legislated
internment camps for anybody
who had 1 fourth Japanese blood.
People of those camps are still alive right
now. This isn't 1000 of years ago.
When paranoia sets in, for those of you
that remember 9/11, paranoia sets into the country.
They couldn't think rationally.
Right? And they just invade and bomb and
list go profiling. All Muslims, I was one
of them. Separate screening and whatnot. Crazy when
you travel. This is the reality.
When paranoia sets in,
people don't act rationally.
We have to be extremely vigilant and make
sure that that threat is never
realized.
And one of the ways to do this
is to make sure people
love our faith and not be scared of
it. People know our faith and not be
completely in the dark and unknown about it.
You can't hate what you know and love.
So we have to be aware of this
threat externally.
And internally,
we also have threats. And we see this
now.
As I talked about the rise of nifaq
and hypocrisy,
internally we see
so many Muslim lands and even saqfirullah scholars
and whatnot.
They are impediments to progress.
Sometimes Muslim lands are the ones wanting to
normalize relations.
Sometimes Muslim lands are the ones saying, come
and use our air bases to attack. Sometimes
Muslim lands are the ones trying to criminalize
Islamic organizations here in America.
And those Muslim lands have representatives amongst us.
So that is a threat. And frankly, I
said, I don't doubt the intention and sincerity
because we're not supposed to. But wallahi, you
wonder sometimes, some of these people that are
causing chaos from within. Some of these people
that are confusing our own masses.
Some of these people that are telling us,
oh, you must obey the ruler and you
cannot protest and voting is haram and shirk.
I wonder if all of them are just
naive and sincere. Or if maybe some of
them have more sinister motives and more financial
gain, if you get my drift.
Because one wonders what is going on, and
why would somebody say this at this time.
But khair, we have
to judge on the apparent. So to conclude
brothers and sisters, in this country of ours,
I stand by what I said. Our strengths
and our opportunities
are second to none.
We are the only Muslim
group in the whole world
that has the
opportunity
to change from within.
And we see this is happening.
Don't lose hope.
Don't lose hope, oh Muslims.
Look
at 8 months ago before the attack happened,
how the sentiment was in the western world.
And now look.
Don't look at the number of deaths
which is of course a tragedy.
Look at how a global movement has begun
in support of Gaza and Palestine.
Look at how Pew survey and others demonstrate
that those under the age of 30, more
than half of them more than half of
them are sympathetic to the paid Palestinians and
Gaza. This is unbelievable.
The largest mass demonstrations
in England and other places were for and
in support of Gaza. Across this country,
student campuses are erupting.
Columbia, UTD,
the UNT. You have USC. You have you
have NYU. You have the University of Texas
in Dallas. Across, you have Yale over here.
You have Harvard. All of these places.
When you have
students
rising up,
protesting against their own government,
these students will be in charge in 30
years, 15 years, 10 years.
And that change
and that change, how did it happen?
How did it happen? Definitely not through the
New York Times. Through Wall Street. Definitely not
through CNN
which is
blatantly
blatantly
stereotyping
and caricaturing and lying. You know this and
I know this. You know what happened here
at Yale
where the news came and I read it
on on me on my feet. The first
time I read it, I was shocked that
lady was stabbed in the eye by a
Palestinian protester. Well, I read this on my
Facebook feed and I said, what? Astaghfirullah,
how is that happening? Right? Lady was stabbed
in the eye, poked with a Palestinian fly.
This was front page
of that journal in the New York.
Front page.
Palestinian protester
pokes a Jewish lady's eyes out. And then
when the video comes like, wait. What?
What did I What How is And of
course, there's not gonna be any type of
correction except on page 10 at the very
bottom, and the damage is done.
When I spoke at the
DC
protests, I was there.
I have spoken to crowds.
I know the size of a crowd by
looking at it. I know 1,000 from 10,000
from a 100,000.
And I swear to you as Allah is
my witness,
there were definitely
much more than a 100000 people. I spoke
to them with my own eyes.
The next day, I eagerly logged on. Who's
gonna be reporting?
Not a single article in CNN.
Not a single blurb in the New York
Times. Not a single reference on MSNBC.
The Wall Street Journal has on page 3,
one little paragraph,
around 10,000 people protested.
As Allah is my witness, there could not
have been only 10,000 people.
But who's gonna do See. And again,
how You know why this is happening?
Because we don't have people of empathy, and
sympathy, and Islamic values in the Wall Street
Journal, in New York Times, and other places.
In front of our eyes,
3 Muslim
journalists lost their jobs
because of Palestine and Alissa. In front of
our eyes as we speak,
some of the top names in journalism.
On MSNBC,
on other places, they lost their jobs.
And we all know why they lost their
jobs.
And we couldn't even lift a finger to
help them.
Do we not understand
that we need to do something?
Do we not see the reality that why
is this happening? How can we allow this
to happen? You wanna know why? Because we
have next to no political clout.
We have next to no actual power.
And one of the reasons, one of them,
not the only one, one of them is
once again,
our religious leadership. And I'm one of them.
I take responsibility.
We are not thinking 10 steps ahead.
We're only reactionary.
We're not proactive. We're always reactive.
And because when we try to be proactive,
when we try to chart out a course,
and I speak to you as a cleric,
my number one enemies are fellow clerics.
My number one critics are other religious folks.
Not the outsiders. Not the kufar.
Religious folks
because they cannot understand thinking 10 steps ahead.
They cannot have a vision and an analysis.
So I'm asking and appealing to all of
you directly.
Every one of us has a role to
play.
Every one of us needs to start thinking
strategically.
Every one of us needs to look at
the broader picture.
Because wallahi we have the potential.
We have the intelligence. We have the talent.
We have the wealth. We have the zeal.
We have the drive.
All that we lack is a unified leadership
and a plan. That's all.
That's all that we lack.
So if we were to insha Allahu Ta'ala
come together,
if we were to start thinking strategically,
then
the amount of influence we could have Look
around us, masha'allah.
I go back to this point. Why do
you think this change is happening?
Why do you think that the 30%
that sorry that those less than 30, sorry.
That more than 50% are sympathetic to Gaza.
It's not I said it's not CNN. It's
not MSNBC.
What is it? You know what it is?
It's me and you.
It's social
media. It's Twitter or whatever x or whatever
it's called now. It's Facebook. It's TikTok. It's
And that's why they wanna ban TikTok by
the way. That's exactly why. Not that I'm
a fan of TikTok astaghfirullah. But I'm saying,
it has its positives as well. Wallahi could
only stand 3 weeks. I said, Enough man.
I can't do this anymore. It's like not
me. But I understand. Somebody's got to do
it. It's got to have some people on
there as well. Because what social media has
done,
it has flattened the learning curve. You don't
need to go to CNN to get your
news.
Every Palestinian
becomes a journalist.
Every single person in Gaza can live stream
what is happening.
And if one of us here in America
allows our voices to amplify,
We retweet. We change the script and narrative.
Slowly but surely, it is having a trickle
down effect. So I wanna conclude with the
final message here. And then we have some
time for discussion and q and a. Do
not trivialize your role, o Muslim.
Do not trivialize
your role.
The battle might be long.
The war might take a long time to
win.
But winning is an inevitable
reality.
We shall win. And the reason we shall
win is because truth always wins over falsehood.
Justice
always wins over injustice.
This is the sunnah of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. Injustice will never flourish. Tyranny will never
be allowed to live. And Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala does not allow zulm to go unanswered.
So we shall win this battle and war.
Might not be in 5 years, 10 years,
might even be more than this. But Allah
is not gonna ask, did you win or
not? Allah is gonna ask, did you try?
Did you do your job? And that's why
I go back to my point.
Every one of us, o Muslim and I
can't tell you exactly what to do because
we all have different talents, But do something.
Some amongst you fundraise. Others amongst you public
awareness. Others amongst you journalism. Others amongst you
wallahi. If the only thing you can do
is to make sure your circle of friends
loves Islam because of your akhlaq, that's enough
and that's all we need you to do.
If the only thing you can do is
your smile and your kindness and your honesty
and your charity influences your neighbors and your
circle of friends to love this deen then
wallah you have succeeded. That's all we need
you to do. But you have to do
something. You have to get involved. You have
to be proactive. You have to be at
the forefront and keep on keep on keep
on. And even if you don't see result
in your lifetime,
Allah will tell you, hey, you know your
efforts? They played here and they did this.
And we will win in the eyes of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So we pray that
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala blesses the Muslims of
Gaza. We pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
protects them against their enemies. We pray that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allows every one of
us to do whatever little we can so
that we can benefit and help them. We
pray that Allah grants us iman and taqwa
and wisdom and ikhlas and hikmah. And Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala allows us to be