Yasir Qadhi – The Srebrenica Genocide

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

			we can extract from what happened in Bosnia, in our own generation. I myself was in university when
the Bosnian war was taking place. Many of you above the age of 40 You know this firsthand what
happened, we will get updates, the whole you know, war that took place we saw what was going on. So
this is in our own lifetimes. And the Quran itself tells us to benefit from history to learn from
the realities, ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada says in the Quran, our them you see to fill all the flounder,
okay, if I can ask you what you let in the Academy of Kabbalah him? Don't they travel in the land
and see what happened to the nations before them kind of ushered them in? Who were the nations
		

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

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

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

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

			were Muslim, but Islamic identity was very weak, frankly, and I know I speak for myself even growing
up in the 80s we had no idea that an entire region of Europe was Muslim. It was completely
disconnected from our conscious our psyche. Nobody knew that entire regions of Europe were Muslim.
In 1991 or 92. They had a referendum, the majority of Muslims voted for freedom. But the Serbian
Orthodox community did not appreciate this make a long story short, they had the army the majority
of the population were Muslim. The Army rebelled and started what is basically a civil war. So this
is in a nutshell what happened from 1992 to 1995. Three years in this timeframe. Over 100,000 people
		

			were killed majority Muslim, at least half that amount were of women were violated along with Stan
again, majority Muslim 10s of 1000s of people were displaced and
		

			From this civil war and genocide, entire countries were created the modern country of Bosnia
Herzegovina, the modern country. So all of these countries are carved out after this civil war that
broke out in Yugoslavia. So of the things that we learned, as I said, is that we realize that one of
the most dangerous forces against humanity is what we now call the far right, what is the far right?
Every time a mass genocide has occurred in human history. It comes from a group of people that have
combined three things memorize this, number one, a notion of purity of identity of skin color of
ethnicity, we are one pure race think of Nazi Germany. Think of the Serbian people think of the BJP
		

			in India, right? The same notion we are one pure race. Number two, a fanatical interpretation of
religion. So you have pure race combined with religion. Again, Nazi Germany, again, BJP again,
Serbian realities in this region. And then number three, you need a minority that is of a different
ethnicity, and a different religion. And you blame all the problems on that minority. If you have
these three things, you have the recipe of genocide, if you have these three things, a large group
of people who think they are pure, they are the only inhabitants the original inhabitants of this
land. So you have racial identity, then you have bigoted religion, perverted religion, because no
		

			mainstream religion encourages violence, but you have far right religion, and then you have a
minority that is different ethnicity, different religion, this is the recipe for disaster. And
that's why especially what we're seeing happening in India, we need to be very careful because
they're going down the same path in this land as well, the far right, the same reality is happened.
Look at right now, again, not to be current news here. But the the trial is taking place in the
Senate on the sixth of January, what happened, right, they literally attack their own government,
they tried to overthrow their own government. Look at how mad how crazy people become when you have
		

			this toxic combination. So we need to be very careful and learn from history, when we see the signs
of this type of fascism, of Neo Nazism. If you don't stop it in its tracks, which nobody did back
then we're not doing right now in India, along with Stalin, the next stage is nothing other than
genocide, you cannot stop it until it is too late. So that's why we learned from history one of the
main lessons when you see this toxic combination of fascism, of Neo Nazism of the far right, you had
better do your best to prevent it from becoming mainstream. Once it becomes mainstream. Allah Han
was one of the lessons we learn as well. Don't be fooled by a false sense of security. At times of
		

			peace, everybody gets along, at times of peace doesn't matter what your ethnicity and faith and
background is. But at times of war, real colors come out. If you look at the interviews of those
people, they are all and many of them, they give interviews, they still see them on on BBC on
YouTube, they say we could never have imagined our neighbors, our colleagues whom we grew up with
our neighbors who were our neighbors for generations, even though they're different than us, we
thought we are one. But when this conflict happened, they flipped completely. And we did not believe
that they were participating in the very killings against our own people. Subhanallah The reality is
		

			at times of peace, it's easy to get along. But we have seen ourselves at times of war, even if the
majority of people don't support a genocide they will not stand against it. When it is their own
people. They will sympathize with their own kind. This is the reality of human nature. And that is
also why Allah subhana wa Tada reminds us in the Quran, many of our youth don't understand these
verses. They think there are politically incorrect but Allah speaks the truth. Well, and tada, Uncle
Yehuda nasaga had to adapt the tibia Mila, to whom Allah says in the Quran, these other faith
nations they will never be fully pleased with you until you become one of them. It is the reality
		

			Allah says in the Quran, do not take them as Olia as protectors. They will never be your protectors.
Yes, we are friendly in this dunya Yes, we give them Dawa. Yes, we live in a civil society. But in
the end of the day, we need to realize when the going gets tough, true colors come out. And so don't
be lulled. Oh, you owe youngsters or youth by a false sense of security. These are times of peace.
Everybody gets along, learn from the lesson. And by the way, in India as well. Same thing happening
speak to the people of India back in the 80s back in the 80s Hindus and Muslims would get along
totally fine. Muslims would you know protect the rights of the Hindus and vice versa. There was
		

			brotherhood brotherhood and camaraderie now the same people that might have been very good friends.
Now there are on two sides of the divide. This is the reality of human existence. So our youth
should learn from this as well. Another point of benefit we learn from this
		

			conflict that took place in Yugoslavia. And this is a deep point that I hope I hope I'm able to
convey. It's a very complex point.
		

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

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

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

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

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

			incorrect to say but still this is a deeper point and I hope inshallah we understand this point.
Another benefit that we learned from what happened in Bosnia, what happened in 2527 years ago, is
the sad state of affairs of the global world order. The United Nations in the case of Bosnia was
directly involved most of our users don't know this. The United Nations had actually set aside a
region of the country strip furniture was supposed to be under EU and watch. There were UN
peacekeepers wearing un vests, un helmets. There were hundreds of UN troops around traveled each
year, and it was claimed to be safe territory. Therefore, 10s of 1000s of Muslims fled for their
		

			lives from the Serbian army to Serb miniature because the UN had said this is safe territory. 10s of
1000s of people have lost their lives mass *, although this is occurring for during the conflict.
All of these Muslims are coming to the safe zone. The Bosnian sorry, the Serbian warlord now turns
his eyes to Slobodan Milosevic and all of these warlords, they turn their eyes to step on each
other, and they say we're not going to keep these Muslims safe. And so they were around 40,000
Muslims in southern Asia around 40 50,000 the Serbians surrounded they they told the UN to leave the
UN
		

			Did nothing they did not intervene. Now pause here some say that they couldn't there was not the
forces. And the point is the UN was there. That's the point. Maybe they couldn't I'm not saying
Good, good or bad. I'm simply telling you the facts. The UN was there. They had direct access, and
the UN stepped aside and under their watch, the Serbian warlords marched in. There is video footage
that will Llahi it is gruesome to watch Wallahi your stomach churns. This is 1995 this is not back
in the 1800s. There is color video footage of what took place here. All of the men without exception
from the age of 1617 to 18 years old, all of the men were rounded up and they weren't massacred in
		

			around a week for five days. 1500 At the bare minimum 20 30,000 women and children were expelled
along with our with the biller things against the women. We don't want to mention our auto Biller,
Matt and stuff, although I don't like saying this but our youth need to know camps were set up to do
the evil deed or with a bill. I don't want to be more explicit women, we're putting those out with
the villa stuck for the law. You get the point here under the UN watch this took place here. And
this is in 1995. I was a biller. So this took place the largest massacre of human beings, the
largest genocide, since World War Two, it took place again 1995 I just graduated university. This is
		

			not many, many generations ago, all of you above the age of 40. You remember this timeframe, right?
And this took place so recently, so one of the things we learned as well, the impotence of these
global superpowers Wallahi I remember and again, my first activism in my life was the Bosnian war. I
was 17 years old when I started hearing about this and getting you know, getting involved attending
lectures in American Houston, Texas. My first letter to the editor that ever wrote about the Bosnian
war, I still have it somewhere that this is my first activism call that how can we remain silent?
There's a genocide taking place. Right? You the UN, the UN made a law, what is it called a call with
		

			a policy, whatever. Nobody can supply any arms to the Bosnians, it was an international policy. The
problem was the army was Serbian. The Serbians had all the weapons, they had the ammunition, they
had the tanks, the peasants were Muslim. And the UN said and America supported this, the UN said, We
don't want to increase the conflict. We don't want to cause more bloodshed. So there was a embargo.
That's the way there was an embargo. arms embargo. No arms can be sold to the Bosnians basically let
them die. For four years. We're watching three and a half years, and no arms were allowed for the
Muslim stuff with Allah. We saw this in front of our eyes. And this is the reality I don't think any
		

			other superpower is going to intervene. We saw this in our own lives. And this shows us Muslims need
independence, Muslims need to have their own understanding of this reality. Also, on a theological
note, on the theological after the note of the things we learn this dunya will never provide you
justice. Yes. 20 years later, the International Court of you know, genocide convened and you know
Slobodan Milosevic, and some of the leaders of the Serbian army were rounded up and set on trial.
You know, Milosevic died during the trial. He didn't wasn't sentence still he was found guilty. You
know, some of the leaders of the of the Serbians were found guilty. And they got 20 years, 15 years.
		

			So is that justice after all that they've done, and now they live their life in an air conditioned
room, food being provided to them, you know, television, what not? This is justice. This is not the
dunya for justice. That's why Maliki omit Dean wala here, if we didn't believe in religion, we would
go crazy. If we didn't believe in an al Qaeda, people would just do anything. Alhamdulillah we thank
Allah there is yo Medina. This dunya cannot give you justice. Your injustices might not be you know
manifested in this dunya in a way of reality, but that's why we believe in an Africa that's what we
believe on that day. Everybody will get their Huck and everyone who was harmed or killed or raped or
		

			anything happened, they will see the punishment on that person and they will feel a sense of
justice. Only Allah azza wa jal can mete out ultimate justice. And that's one of the main benefits
or Thumma of believing in Deen. As I said, if a person does not believe in Deen, then Subhanallah
really this world becomes almost unlivable, which explains the rise of suicide and the rise of
depression Wallahi this world is very difficult to live in. Dean brings a sense of calmness,
religion gives you a sense of higher purpose in any case to conclude, one final point is that look
as Muslims we always try to see the positive not to justify the evil Nothing justifies evil, but we
		

			tried to see the positive and from this genocide from this war that took place, a lot of good also
came out this is not to justify but we are as Muslims are told to look at the good
		

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

			Alhamdulillah. The massager then are packed, there is a clear sense of religious identity amongst
the people of that region, an entire country, Bosnia and Herzegovina was formed out of that, which
is overall the Muslim country. I'm not saying it's ideal like all Muslim countries, but clearly when
you go there, you will see that you will hear the Advan everywhere. There's Halal shops, everywhere,
there's hijab everywhere there is Quran, this was not the case back in the 80s, in the same region,
the same region back in the 70s. And 80s, was not there. So religion has been reintroduced and Dawa
is now public. And the Bosnian people, every one of us, we know the Bosnian people here as well.
		

			There's a clear identification with Islam that perhaps wasn't there as well. One of the benefits
that came out, we studied and learned about the history of European Islam. We had no idea I had no
idea most of us had no idea. There are pockets of Muslims all around the world, even we didn't know
about the Chinese Muslims growing up and now we know there are hundreds of millions of these pockets
around the world. So in the heart of Europe, completely European looking, they're speaking to
everything. They're European, and they are Muslim for many, many centuries, and they are connected
to the OMA so positives have come out and we need to re emphasize those positive bottom line
		

			brothers and sisters, these types of tragedies we should never forget them, especially because
they're so recent. They're so pertinent so many wisdoms can be extracted and the goal is we learned
from the past so that we can try to live a better future it's not a guarantee maybe the future might
have some negatives, but at least we will not repeat the mistakes of the past at least we'll be
aware and try our best to have a better future that's the goal. May Allah subhana wa Tada protect
all of us and our loved one Santa Sharla will continue next week said I'm gonna have to look at what
I catch. In La Mussolini now almost Lima de one meaning Mina de carne de now look on it that he was
		

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			one heavy Lina photo gentleman one Hatfield lot the was that good enough long I guess.
		

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