Yasir Qadhi – Role of American Muslims In Combating Racism

Yasir Qadhi
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the struggles of the past few years, including the deaths of black people and the failure to acknowledge racist label. They emphasize the need to educate oneself and acknowledge the gap between black and white wealth. The history of civil rights and the use of racism has affected the future of the land, and the importance of educating oneself and avoiding racism is emphasized. The speaker also discusses the negative impacts of racism on society and the potential for groups to become evil. They encourage individuals to take an active role in community activities and avoid negative language and behavior.
AI: Transcript ©
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hamdulillah. All praise is due to a loss of Hannah who 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 Salatu, 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, realized Muslims that Allah subhana wa tada has reminded us to

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be conscious of him when he says in the Quran, yeah, you Hello Tina Armando la Hakata. Mouton, Illa unto Muslim 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 a typical, and the reality that most of us live is very, very

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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

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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 Iran of when found separated between his people and between the bunnies in which either hella Shia and yesterday photo affects him in whom you either be robina and we're studying Hassan, this is the Pharaonic evil of separating people based upon race and skin color, and then subjugating one of them in bondage, while

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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 failed to

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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

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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 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, white neighborhoods, if

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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 in 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 so

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panela day in and day out, we are continued 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 up this statistic that the median

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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 land has around 15% African

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Americans, if you look at the prison system, one third of the people in jail are African American. If you look at the statistics 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. They were 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

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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 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 Islamic Of course, it is not right to loot and to steal and to break property that does not belong to you. And that is

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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 brother. And so I wanted to bring it into the hotel. But obviously we're getting a Friday Hold up. 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

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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 it's very inception mcca itself like America had its own issues of racism and classism. And when

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Islam came, there is no doubt that the primary focus was the kalama and tawheed 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 were also being 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 heartburn about incidents from the Sierra, but I wanted to give you three or four from the beginning and from the middle, and from the

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end to demonstrate the consistency by which our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the Koran, it battled racism, racism was not revealed, the banning 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 hegira. 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

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tradition. I quote you one of the most interesting aspects of this era of early America that albery dibbler mojarra. And some of the senior members of the Rh antibodies is the father of Khalid Khalid Abdullah Walid, one of the senior members of the Rh 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. And he was also not a convert and worried was somebody who was interested in Islam and and he once came to Abu Talib with another group of people like him. And he said to him, that oh Abu Talib, your nephew has teachings that we might listen to, we might we might appreciate

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and maybe even convert, but we have one condition that we asked you to place on him. And that is what was the condition in his heart mentioned that you tell him that when we come into his gathering, he needs to cause Bilaal, and even miss rude and amount of vinyasa, by the way, Mr 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 save to eliminate antiracism from Islam, they only said when we come we don't want those people over there that was the only condition when we enter the room, those people have to leave we will not sit down with the likes of them. That was what they

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said to occupy the left out of say that we will sit with the likes of Bilal and with our modern with others, and they were of course from a different ethnicity and of course from a different skin color. I will followed rejoice t thought this was the breakthrough and he rushed to the profits of the law while he was setting them and he said to his nephew that oh my nephew be reasonable, you're calm your people have come to you with a very reasonable condition please Don't be hasty listen to it, and we will solve all of this problem and the prophet SAW some himself it appears he was thinking of this he went to the senior Sahaba a number of senior Sahaba they said yeah rasulillah

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below will understand you make him up later he tell him and he will get to a lead below will understand he is 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 will lead is if you understand the power of a lead the status well what are you the fame of it? What do you if you understand the PR benefit to have somebody like what do you do on your side, you will perhaps understand why so many of the senior Sahaba and maybe even more than that we're flirting with this idea. But then Allah revealed not one, not two, three verses in the Koran think about that somebody

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as powerful as Waleed and his only condition he didn't say that 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 wasn't other gatherings. He's just himself did not want to be a part of an equal class society. And remember, this is early mcca. 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 as soon as telegraph was clear enough sec Mr. larina, the owner of bomba Dottie, what should you do know what

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you have? What do I know I know to do Xena tell hyah 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 and I'm

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really loving it. You're the owner of bomba when I see do not

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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 Amina volume if you get rid of them your rasulillah if you kick them out of your gathering, then you would have done an injustice you would have done something that is wrong Subhana Allah Subhana Allah, imagine the verses coming down and our Prophet sallallahu wasallam is being addressed. Do not get rid of Amar, do not get rid of Babylon. Do not get rid of Eben Massoud, stick with them. And do not worry about others that you desire. The pleasures of this world today do Xena tell hyah to dunya those people are worried and their ilk.

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They're bringing you this dunya but Allah says no, I don't care about that. I want the quality of Bilaal the quality of our mark, the quality of the quality of sohaib Huni, the quality of salmonella pharmacy, 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 of the most famous of them was when a Buddha you know, the Allahu Akbar 1 billion owed him some money and Billa was not able to pay on the right amount of time. And of course, in this

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scenario, he ended up without has a right to demand his money. But Abu Dhabi 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. Yep, in a soda. And the Prophet salallahu alaihe salam was passing by. And he immediately turned to him and he said, I Yahoo be angry on me. 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 giant he Lee within you, and up without felt so guilty that he lowered himself in front of Bill and beg for

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forgiveness, and Bill, I 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 sallallahu alayhi wa sallam conquered makup, in the eighth year of the hegira, and the very day that he conquered Makkah, it was time for the advent 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

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Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said to Bilal obey the law, it is time for the then go and give it from on top of the Kaaba. And so without even a bureau bar, he climbed on top of the GABA to make the event remember, barely a few hours have gone by since the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has conquered Mecca, the majority of the chorus are still not Muslim. If one of us had been there, perhaps we would have said, Let's not send Bella 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 will lie ask yourself what would you have done? If you had been in charge? Ask yourself

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why did the Prophet system choose Bilaal 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 earthman that nobleman or Omar or Abu Bakar to anybody to say, Okay, today we allow you go to the back end would 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 Kaaba and immediately the courage began murmuring amongst themselves, wrote out 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, he's already gone. He's thankful that his

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father, the senior member of the horseshoe died, a pagan did not live to see this. And had it been a 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 as an again being derogatory, so hey, made some remark as well. Abu soufiane 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. And at that point that Luciferian is still flirting with this. I was like, I don't want to say anything. Perhaps Allah will sound caught on to the prophets of the law while he was setting them up in a bus says, a bit of a

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bus narrates when the chorus said this, a law 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 that

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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 subhana wa Taala has eliminated tribalism eliminated and favourable and sub boasting about once and ancestry in madora. Ida taqwa all of it now rests upon piety. And then he recited the verses of Surah hoogenraad. Yeah, you have nurse in LA comienza current

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commercial Ruben wakaba anindita our foo in a Chroma come in the law he 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. Dear 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 Hadouken No, 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

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consistent from the beginning to the very end the last chutzpah that our Prophet sallallahu wasallam gave the whole battle without think about it from the beginning in the middle on the day of the conquest, and then in hijo de when he gave the largest Hooda he ever gave five paragraphs that's it one entire paragraph dedicated to racism all Muslims, we love this Howdy, we have it on our walls, the hot button word is memorize we love to quote things about it. Have we ever understood the consistency the context why on that day, one fifth of the hookah is dedicated to eliminating racism? Why do we not even have a fraction of the passion of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam to take

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an active role, not just passive hood buzz and talk that racism and take a genuine role and have a very difficult look around us that what can we do to eliminate this evil and this disease as a professor the law instead of said the idea disintermediate this is another version of the digital without that oh mankind Allah has eliminated from you the tribalism of je D and the boasting of the ancestors. There are only two types of people, a pious, God fearing person, beloved to Allah and an empire evil person despised by Allah, a nurse who could know whom in Adam, all of mankind or from Adam and Adam was created from dust and once again he recited those verses of suta to God may Allah

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subhana wa tada bless me and you within through the Quran and may make use of those who is versus they understand and to implement is held on and held on throughout their lifespan. I asked a lot forgiveness you as well ask him for his double folder. Hey man.

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hamdu lillahi wa Haddad ahead of Summit alladhina, Mula Bandha. mula will have your coloca phone, what I do, what are the action items that we can do? Talk is cheap. We've been hearing horrible about racism since the beginning of our childhoods, no Muslim and Charlotte Dallas outwardly openly saying I'm a racist, that would be an Islamic nobody would be, well, 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

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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 volume is something that transcends religion. It doesn't matter the religion of the volume and the more 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 about the issue of the coming together of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. with other people, we really want to implement a modern healthful food, what can we do to

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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

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To be the superpower that it is where if 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, Muhammad Ali Kareem Abdul Jabbar, all of them. immigrant Muslims and children of immigrant Muslims give due credit where it is due to that 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

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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

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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 American pre civil rights America. How about getting an active role within our own communities? There is so much latent racism Muslims remember when the chorus were in front of the cab mumbling bad things about Bilaal a la San gibreel down to inform the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam of that racist language. Let me be very honest here. How can we allow snide remarks of micro racism amongst our own old people of

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an Arabic background? Stop using slurs like IB than Zulu, or people of a DC background? Stop using slurs like Gullu and other things? These are disgusting, derogatory terms. Anytime somebody uses these terms, remember a loss and gibreel down because the orange were saying bad things? Are you wanting to be on the side of the corporation 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

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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 sallallahu wasallam did to battle against this disease of racism alone and he died for a mineral we lift our hands to Allah subhana wa tada Oh 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 how you have provided for them and no one who is oppressed except that you have aided them

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with your mercy. Yeah, a lot. Yeah, man. We asked you to bless Islam and its people and the Omega 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 this plague and disease and bless us instead with comfort and ease and acceptance of our good deeds, your the hygiene and the Majeed, our law 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 or law except our good deeds, forgive our mistakes and make us and our families from the righteous are about the law servants of Allah. Allah subhana wa tada has commanded

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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 woman dicho soluna nebby Yeah, you already know amanu sallu alayhi wa sallam with a steamer a woman salli wa sallim wa barik halab Decker Asuka Mohammed Ali. He was like a big marine rebels a law in the law to either your Moodle bilaterally with your salutary the horrible sachet will will carry with you. Come to the Kuru Kuru la Halima Kuru Kuru

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Kuru la Akbar Optimus Allah

Racism in America and the Role of American Muslims In Combating It, Racism has been well and alive in our communities. As Muslims, we are taught to love one another regardless of our differences. There are different ways of how we can combat this within our Muslim communities

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