The State of Muslims in China – Trip Reflections

Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala Sayidina Muhammad Ali, he will suck the edge Marine 100 has been a while since we've had the Wednesday class hamdulillah it's nice to be back. And inshallah with added today we're going to take a break from our regularly scheduled programs and do something different and that is some personal reflections on my trip to China. As you know, generally when I come back from a trip, I like to just update you and just share personal reflections. This particular trip, a lot of you were interested so we decided to do it a Wednesday after motive rather than a typical operation that we typically do. And of course, I'm dressed for

the part as well obviously, this is a Chinese shirt, mashallah as well I made sure that they came appropriately dressed for the part. My talk is not going to be at a prepared speech. It's literally off the cuff. I don't have my lecture notes. I just have some bulleted points. And I think I want to keep it that way for this casual talk. And it's just going to be a series of bulleted points. Very briefly, I want to begin very briefly by a brief introduction to the history of Islam and China. Islam in China, Islam has been in China since the first generation of the hijra, the first century of the Hijra. And the first time that Islam came to China, the commonly held theory or not theory,

the commonly held perception, you hear this and read this in books and blogs is that the Sahaba reach China themselves. And in fact, there is a grave above the province of Hong Kong there is a city going to massacre the name is goon Zhao, there is a city there, the claim is that Sadie and Abby walk past his grave is over there. And if you read any history book that is at a basic level, not an actual academic book, but just a book that is meant for the masses, you will hear the story that sad MW will cost traveled to China, he met with the emperor, the Emperor honored him, and his grave is over there. And you hear this many times and bows and arrows that the Sahaba traveled all

the way to China to spread Islam. The fact of the matter is that this is more myth than history, the Sahaba could not have reached China, they were still conquering provinces way far from China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, was being conquered in the time of the Sahaba, they could not have reached the lands of China, as for Saudi Arabia will cost and it is impossible that is grievous in China. I give his history in this very rescue, then you listen to the history, and he did not pass away in China. In all likelihood it is in Persia or it is actually in Medina. But we talked about this, when we talked about this, it's not Saturday will cause did not reach China. However, what is the case is

that within the generation of the tab, your own, ie the early OMA years, groups of merchants, they reached what is now the area of Hong Kong, and this is the coastal areas, right. And they set up camp over there to spread their business, their trade. And this is one of the amazing things. Islam spread by two mechanisms in the early period. The first mechanism, which is the mechanism that we all know about, and unfortunately, many of those who oppose Islam make fun of Islam criticize Islam, they only mentioned that Islam was spread by the sword. While we talked about that it is a myth to say it was spread by the sword. But it is true to say the political establishment of Islam did in

fact expand. And the people embraced Islam because of that, because they wanted to. And we talked about this in the lectures that I gave. This is one mechanism. And this is how Islam reached what we now call Syria, and Egypt and Tunisia and the lands of Iraq and Iran, where basically the political domain of Islam continued to expand and people lived under the land of Islam, they decided to embrace Islam bit by bit of their own free will. As I mentioned, we prove this point many many times. However, the other mechanism of spreading Islam, and in fact, many countries are examples of this is the spread of Islam via merchants via businessman via people who would just go to buy and

sell merchandise. That's it. They're going as traders, and the locals become so impressed with their clock, their honesty, their manners, they become intrigued, and slowly but surely, Islam begins to spread in these countries. Some of the most amazing examples of these lands are now the majority countries the largest Muslim countries in the world. Not a single army ever went to them. Not a single Mujahid holy warrior ever reached them. Slum was spread not by the sword, but by the honesty and the clout of good Muslims. And the number one example of this is in dunya

Asia and Malaysia, the entire archipelago is over there. You have now the largest Muslim countries in the world. That's Indonesia and then Malaysia far larger than any other country. How did they embrace Islam? How are they Muslim, the for this lens? How are they Muslim? It was simply the Arab traders. As you know, I've been to Maldives a few times as well. And the Maldives as well. The story is well known his grave is still in the Maldives, one Muslim one out of merchant he went there. And I told the story. When I went to the Maldives, I told you guys when I came back, that basically he saved they had this pagan custom of sacrificing a young, unmarried lady to the gods of the tsunami.

And every year they would slaughter a girl to the gods. And it just so happened that the Arab merchant who came he was living in the house of the mother of that girl. And he said, There's no way you're gonna kill this girl. I'm not gonna let you kill this girl. So the king said, we have to or else and then you know, long story, cutting a long story short, he basically said, Let me pray to my God, and I will make sure the tsunami doesn't come and attack you. Then we pray to my Lord, He is the Lord of the tsunami, and he will make sure it doesn't come. So he spent the night in the masjid praying to Allah subhanho wa taala. And it was the season the monsoon season, you know, so whether

it would come at that time, and it will basically wreak havoc, and he was Allah's kada that no tsunami hit on that, or no monsoon came or whatever, when it was supposed to come. And so the king was so impressed, he embraced Islam. And he then when he embraced what's going to happen, everybody embraced Islam. So Maldives is now 100% Muslim because of what one merchant one Muslim, went there and showed them what is still here. So China is of those lands where there was never a majority, there is still not a majority. However, there is a sizable minority of Muslims, and they came there not by the sword, not by armies, but by early Muslims who want to there. And the first mosque that

was founded in China was founded within the first century of the hedger IE, less than 5060 years after the death of the Prophet Allah while you sell them. Islam reached the shores of China. And that Masjid is still standing, not obviously the physical structure, but the location, we did not go there because it is really down south. And really, there's nothing else to see other than that one small mestu and that is where they say sad BW will cost is very, Allah knows best. It is my theory that generally when these stories, they start spreading, there's a kernel of truth that is exaggerated. So maybe a student of side a grandson of sad, somebody who had something to do with sad

when they will pass maybe some type of basis that the person there is two generations removed, or one generation removed from sodomy will cause either a student of a student or a grandson or something. And then it just becomes bigger and bigger because generally speaking these legends and myths, they have some basis of theory. In any case, that was the first location where Islam went to now China at the time, as with most other countries, were our countries of our times was composed of many small dynasties kingdoms, okay. And so when it was found out that there's this one place that's allowing Muslim merchants, Arab merchants, these merchants are bringing in good they're bringing in

stuff that is not found anywhere else. Another major kingdom, one of the largest kingdoms of the region, called the Tang Dynasty. Ta ng like the drink tank called the Tang Dynasty. They were the first dynasty to officially allow Muslims to come and settle. They wanted Muslims to come. This is roughly in the year, maybe 692 700 ce II II 50 6070 Hijra very early Hijra. Okay, so Islam has now reached the Tang Dynasty and the Emperor gave an official license for Arab and Muslim merchants to come and establish a base in that province in that place and the Arabs that came there obviously, they opened up a door of a channel of merchandise, sorry an avenue of merchandise that no other

group had. And the city or the capital of the Tang Dynasty was is now called Xiang XIANXIAN, Xiang and this is the city that I also we went to as a group we went to the city of Xiang and the city of Xiang not coincidentally, it is the first city in the famous Silk Road you guys know the Silk Road, right? Shi Shan is where it begins, and it ends past Damascus. Okay, so the Silk Road the famous Silk Road, what is the Silk Road for those of you who are in high school middle school, you don't know what this Silk Road is? The Silk Road is the most famous passageway of goods and merchandise in the history of mankind. It caused civilizations to rise and fall it created dynasties and what made

other dynasties bankrupt. It made multibillionaires for people of its time it connected cultures and civilizations. It is basically emerged

In a superhighway, just imagine it. Of course it's not an actual highway, but it is an actual road. Ie it's a physical, not a paved road, but it is a path where merchants would travel. And not all merchants would go from the beginning to the end, but they would go 10% 30% 70% And then the rest would go on. So between all of the merchants that entire Silk Road would span the globe, and it was from China, Shenzhen, all the way to beyond Damascus, right. And by the way, regulators she thought it was safe as I talked to you about this, it basically tapped into the Silk Road on the bottom, the top and the Abyssinian passage, were on the bottom, go back to the zero, the reality sheet, it was

safe, it was a causal passageway between the two main highways of transaction. So Xiang is the beginning of the Silk Road, the Tang Dynasty is where it begins. So they said we want to get merchandise right at the source that nobody else can get. So they opened the door for Muslims to come. And the Muslims of course, they, wherever they went, they showed their honesty, they showed their character, the legends goes, we went to the masjid, he told us, the Imam told us the story, that and these are stories that are passed down. There's nothing documented evidence that when the time for Salah would come, the people would basically close their shops and pray in the road. And

other people complain what are these guys doing? They're stopping merchandise buying and selling. They are you know, clogging up the system the streets. So it reached the emperor that these people are with us every time of the day when it's a little hard time also time. You know, they have their weird customs they stopped the bizarre that they have. They have a bizarre they're everything closes and it's clogging the alleyways. So the Emperor visited them the emperor of the Tang Dynasty and he asked them what is going on. So they explained that when it is time for Salah, we need to stop everything we need to pray. And he saw them in their prayers and he was so impressed and moved. He

didn't embrace Islam, but he did the next best thing. He gifted them a large area of land, and he financed the construction of the Masjid. That Masjid is still standing to this date, portions of it are original 1200 something years old. And if you saw my YouTube video or my Facebook video, then you will see portions of that message. And the infrastructure or the the the dynamics of the mesh is also very interesting. I'll talk about that in a future in a future point. So he constructed the first purpose built there was a message as he said in the city of goon Zhao that the Muslims themselves built, this is a masjid the Emperor built. So Xiang is basically the colonel where Islam

was planted by the blessings basically, of the governor him or the Emperor himself, as we said, is the second city there is a city smaller than that, but this is where the main city comes. And of course, where the Arab merchants came, they established a hub, they intermarried, they began preaching and teaching, and essentially to be very, very simplistic pause here footnote. Obviously, this is not an academic PhD level talk. It's very basic level. So I'm going to be generic and very superficial. And it has to be for this not only because I'm not an expert in Islam, in Islamic in China, I'm not an expert in the history of that region, but also because the you know, the time that

we have is not going to be conducive to that. So, very simplistically, it is said that the descendants of that group are now what is called the hui Muslim Hu AI. Okay, Hu i. Now before we move on, you should know one thing about China, China is a very interesting country, in many ways, of the ways that China is unique. The government of China has officially designated 56 ethnic groups as being Chinese.

If you're not a part of these 56, you can't be a part of the Chinese mainstream basically. Okay. There are 56 ethnic groups that are officially sanctioned or blessed, or basically you are basically a part of the Chinese system if you're one of these ethnicities, okay? And 10 of them are predominantly Muslim 10 are predominantly Muslim.

There's one of these 56 that is the dominant of all the country of China, so much so they Eclipse all of the other 53. Who knows that one that is the dominant? What's it called?

What is it Han ha en de Han Chinese, the Han Chinese are the dominant Chinese. Nine out of 10 people of that region are Han and Han have their cuisine, their language, their ethnicity. Mandarin is from the Hun. So the Han Chinese are the dominant Chinese that's the 90% and obviously they're the ones in control the government you understand this okay. All the

53 put together are less than 10%. Okay. And the Hon by and large are not Muslim. Okay. They are the the mainstream that you know, the hui Hu I are one of those 56 of those entities, okay, one of them. And the hui. It is said very simplistically that they are basically the descendants of the original Muslims that came and their Dawa and their intermarriage and their children. So basically, they go back a long time. And for practical purposes, from my from an outsider, I don't I cannot speak on behalf of the insider, as an outsider, the hui Muslim, and the Han Chinese, they look the same. They speak the same language, you know, you cannot really tell them apart per se. Okay, if you maybe the

insiders can I don't know. But to me as an outsider, they're exactly the same. You cannot really tell them apart. And that's because they are really a part of the culture. The hui they speak Mandarin. They are a part of the mainstream, but they are Muslim. And they're given a different ethnicity. They're called the hui, and the mosques that I visited and are on my Facebook and YouTube are all Hui mosques, okay, they are controlled by the hui and the Imams are hooey and whatnot. So that is how Islam was introduced. Obviously, I'm not going to go over all 12 centuries of Islam in China. But there were times in places where Islam was given official sanction. There were times in

places where not just Islam but other religions such as Christianity and Judaism, were kind of persecuted. This is the way it was by and large, Islam was always allowed to be practiced and flourish within the Para parameters of the mainstream government laws. And there were a number of times where Chinese Muslims played a heroic role, and the Chinese government acknowledged that role, and of them is in 1949. World War Two, when the Japanese and the Chinese were at war with one another. The hui Muslims were at the forefront defending their land, the China mainland and their culture and their civilization against the Japanese invasion. And there were specific army

contingents army you know movements or you can say entire, basically a deployments that were who were Muslim, the Muslims there, and they fought a brave battle. And this is one of the reasons as well that by and large, the hui Chinese are considered to be part of the fabric of China because they have shed their blood they have lived amongst the people, they are amongst the people over there. This is the hui there, of course, many others as well. We're going to come to the Uighur one, the very end to talk about that. So this is a brief nutshell the history of Islamic China. How many Muslims are in China? Nobody knows. Because the census is not allowed to ask about religion. Nobody

knows. You hear figures from 40 million to 100 million. Okay. You hear figures from 40 million to one or number you hear all of these figures, okay? Even if it's 40 million Subhanallah so huge. That's a lot of Muslims. Okay. 100 million is most likely a Somali mashallah 100 million is most likely a little bit too much. A very brave girl Miss Mashallah. That's exactly the guy. He's the one you see on YouTube. Yeah, that's the one yes, okay. Masha, Allah Hamdulillah

100 million is probably too much. Because 100 million would mean how many people just trying to have who knows?

1.2 billion 1.3 billion. They say the largest country is China, as you know, 100 million would say one out of 10 Muslims, that's a little bit too much. One out of 10 is Muslim, that's a little bit too much being realistic. EWB. I've been to China, people live in China. Now one out of 10 is not a Muslim, that's a bit too much. But maybe, you know, one out of 20 or something. Okay, that's a bit more reasonable. Okay. So I have five or six points, and then I'll hand it over to standard Tamia. This was my introduction, history of Islam, brief history, very brief history.

Number one, the first point that I have personal reflections, this was my first trip to China, some of you have been, I know, for me, I had never been to China. And the image that I had of China was the image that I have of many of the countries I've been to, such as India or Pakistan or any other country that we call quote, unquote, the third world, you know, I was thinking it'll be something like Karachi or Mumbai, which I have visited many times. And the reason why I had this image was because of television and Hollywood, right. And when we landed, and I stayed a few days in these large cities of Beijing and Shanghai and Shenzhen.

I myself was humbled at how easy it is to brainwash and indoctrinate one person against another. You see, we as Muslims, we always complain about the brainwashing of the media. And we don't realize that we to fall prey to that, after visiting Beijing and Shanghai and Shenzhen in particular

You look at these three cities, I can say that I don't know of any American city that is cleaner than these three, that the infrastructure seems to be better. The public transportation, I mean, we in America don't even have decent public transportation. The people over there, China for me, in many ways, as an outsider, seemed more of a first world country than America.

And we were we rode on the fastest supersonic train, right? Not supersonic, but it's 300 miles an hour. So we'll figure right from Beijing to Shia. We wrote on that fastest train in the world. And again, the service, the people, the everything, the ambience, so it humbled me, somebody who I think of myself as okay, I'm educated, open minded, yet still, it is so easy to brainwash the image you have, I'm thinking of people with addictions and holding up the caravan. And, you know, upside down hat and running this way. This is my image of China, as an educated person, but this is what the media does to you. So if somebody who knows what the media can do can be fooled by the media, how

much more so the people around us when they're duped about Islam and Muslims, you understand what I'm trying to say here, right? cut them some slack, like even people like us who know that the media is out for an agenda. And there is an agenda. The agenda is to portray America as number one, everybody else is complete, backward. And when you go there, in many respects, I mean, even the driving, even though the cities there are double, triple the size of New York and we talk about Beijing, Shanghai, I remember from our hotel, which was in downtown to the airport, no exaggeration, more than an hour. We're zooming on the freeway, no exaggeration, and that's from center to one

district, right? center to the airport, I was in downtown, one hour, more than an hour, an hour and 20 minutes or something zooming down the freeway, and we're surrounded by high rise shopping centers is as if you are in downtown continuously, and not a single car speeding, not a single car changing lanes erratically, not a single car out of line. Everybody is driving, as if I mean, honestly, I've never in my life seen a better driving system than that one. Also, the cleanliness, I was thinking you'll see fun stains, right? For those who don't know, constant is Don't ask.

I was thinking, that's a good one. I was thinking is going to be like trash and garbage, like I see in Karachi or Mumbai, you know, people just leave it on the road, you know, like our own lands, not a speck of dust, not one paper wrapper on the floor, in cities that are doubled, tripled the size of Houston, Chicago, New York, think about that. The people as well, again, very, I mean, the problem we had was communication, because nobody speaks English. That is the biggest barrier we had. So my point is the first point for me to humble myself in propaganda, we all fall for it, even us, we all fall for it, in many ways, their country, for me, at least in terms of civil infrastructure.

Obviously, there are other negatives that are beyond the scope of this talk. But at least in terms of outer civil structure, it seemed far better than anything I had seen, you know, in the travels that I've done. The second point that really I reflected on is that

really, it is amazing to see a civilization whose history goes back five, 6000 years, you know, when you go to any site here in America, I mean, you know, we've all done the tours. When you go to Philadelphia, you see the Liberty Bell for the first time you're in awe, oh my god, 220 years old, Mashallah. Mashallah. Then you go to Europe, and then you see churches, eight 900 years like Oh, wow. Then you go to China 5000 years old. And you realize, Wow, there is no history to compare with that. Right? We saw the Terracotta Warriors over there, which is honestly, it's just a mind boggling sight to see 10s of 1000s of people that have been carved by hand. As you all know, the story I

don't have time to get into now. But basically one of these emperors he has this weird theology once his, you know, soldiers with him when he dies. So $10 was at 60,000 Forgot how many 1000s and 1000s of soldiers are carved out one by one. You can see the eyes you can see the hand you can see the face. They literally took a person carved them took a person carved him and the whole army you can see it and it's still there for us to see. So you see over here, a civilization a history that it is again to mind boggling. And what came to mind to me when I was looking at this is the Quranic phrases that Allah subhanaw taala says over half a dozen verses for verse

says in the Quran, consider Phil or the founder, okay if I can ask you to let the public go travel in the land and see what was the fate of those before you can who assured them in Kymco they had more power than you were act through Anwar than what? They had more wealth. They're more money than you, you think you are powerful, they were more powerful than you. And when I traveled to these to that land, I really sensed it. How can any other civilization really compared to these mighty civilizations once upon a time for around once upon a time, these Chinese civilizations, and so we benefit and we also wonder, where are they know what happened to them, just like they left we too

shall leave. So that's a spiritual reminder for us that we need to keep our legacy. The third point for me is that every city we went to as well Subhan Allah, there were Halal restaurants and mustards everywhere. It truly is something that boggles the mind. China, historically for the Middle East was always synonymous with the end of the world. And that's why there's the fabricated Hadith that is fabricated or well overseen, okay? It's fabricated is not an actual Hadith the Prophet never said it. It's an actual fabricated Hadith. Go search for knowledge, even if you have to go to China. It's not a hadith is fabricated, but whoever fabricated it in the first century. Why did he say even if

you have to go to China, because China was the furthest known land, the settlement a commercial, she really wants so

I'll say she's a brave girl mashallah, let's have to handle that much.

China was the furthest known land there is no line after China obviously. The fact that Islam flourished in China, within a generation after the death of the Prophet SAW Selim, it truly boggled my mind. And I was reminded of the Hadith over and over again, Hadith isn't Behati when the Sahaba complained to the Prophet system, and he was fieldly Little cab, he was in the shade of the cab, and they complained and they said the auto swill Allah for how long do we have to bear this torture? Ya know, suit Allah, what are we going to do? And he stood up irritated and he said, Are you in doubt about this matter? fo a law he, this religion of mine of Allah subhanho wa Taala it shall reach

whatever the night and the day reaches. They are blown nama Bella lady one now. In the other Hadith the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that there is not a single house made out of Sharjah or whoever and you either from, you know Clay and mud or hair or tent, except that ALLAH will cause this religion to enter it is a disease and we'll do live the live weather in a state of reserve or a state of rule, this religion will enter that house, in yet another Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu I sent him predicted in Allah to Allah Azzawajal out of for a tumor, Sharia kahawa Arriba ALLAH SubhanA wa Taala unrolled or unfolded the world for me, and I could see the eastern most and the

western most and I saw that my ummah shall reach the eastern most and the western most. Now, I said to my group, we had 100 People from predominantly America, I said, subhanAllah we are coming from the western most region of the world. We had people from Los Angeles of Vancouver in our group, and we are visiting the eastern most region of the world. And we are fulfilling the legacy and the prophecy of our prophets. Allah Allahu Allah who is who could have ever predicted that from Anchorage, Alaska, all the way to bank, Beijing and Shanghai, the OMA is going to span the globe. And the Muslims are the time to process and couldn't even imagine Medina much less Shanghai and

Anchorage. Yet the prophets of salaam said, Allah unfolded the world for me and I saw the eastern most and the western most and my own Machelle reach the both of these ends, and Alhamdulillah the western most Muslims traveled to meet the eastern most Muslims, and we could communicate with them with the language of la ilaha illAllah Muhammad Rasool Allah, what a prediction that proves the veracity and the truth of our Prophet and our religion. Who could ever have predicted this, who could ever have said this when they're being persecuted in Mecca, the books of Hadith are there in front of you. And our Prophet system made this amazing prediction. Another point of mine, the last

two points in that were done in sha Allah. Another point that I reflected on is that wherever we saw the Chinese Muslims Subhanallah, they had this unique blend of Islam and China. You had they had this unique blend in their colors and their clothing and their cuisine. Wherever we went, there was a slightly different cuisine. So by the way, all of these you know, schezwan and Hunan and all that one

You go Chinese American, right? These are provinces of China. They actually are. And their cuisine is different. And there are Muslim cuisines as well. And wherever we went, we made a point to go to the halal restaurants of those local Muslims. And there are different cuisines each locality had a different Chinese flavor. The point I wanted to stress here is that Chinese Muslims, when you enter their mosques, when you hear them when you see them, you can see China and you can see Islam. It's a unique blend. They have a unique calligraphy it is called C No Arabic, Chinese Arabic calligraphy, the calligraphy you know, there's a famous Chinese calligrapher in America, he lives here. hygiene

routine, right? You have seen him on whatnot on YouTube, that calligraphy right, we went to Sheehan and we saw it everywhere. It is the style of Islamic China. And it is a unique calligraphy that outwardly looks a little bit Chinese, but when you look at it, it's actually Arabic.

Likewise, you know, I talked to you about the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, building the mosque, how did he build the mosque? It had elements of a Buddhist temple elements how so? Lots of gardens, for contemplation, fountains, but it had been adopted by the local Muslims, and Islam is sized and so it is a mosque that again outwardly the shape if I don't know any better looks a little bit like a pagoda. I'm not an expert. Right? But the local Muslims had no no, you can tell by this, this. So they tell you the differences, but the style for the untrained eye is uniquely Chinese. Yet it is Islamic. And why and where am I heading with this? Because one of the points you've heard me say

this many, many times.

Many of us we don't understand that in order for Islam to flourish in a land, it must adopt the culture and custom of that land, as far as the Sharia allows it to adopt.

There is nothing wrong with this. It is natural. How Muslims flourished in China is not how Muslims flourished in Nigeria. If we can understand this, which we all do, because we see it in our mosques, okay, Indonesian Muslims, they dress differently, then Muslims have other lands, right? Every Muslim identity is somewhat unique. Yet when somebody dares comes and says, Oh, let's think of how we can have Islam flourish in America. Let's not even call it American Islam because people get so crazy when we say this, right? We need to have Islam flourish in America. What can we rethink that what can people get so flustered a stop for Allah? Oh, Allah, there's one Islam. These are platitudes.

These are slogans that mean little, they become emotional doesn't mean anything. Islam has always been practiced, according to the culture of the land, as much as the culture allows you to practice it. Now, many Chinese people eat the pork pig. Obviously, Chinese Muslims cannot do that. But did they change the Mandarin language? No. Did they change the architecture of the masjid very slightly? Did they they adopted their local culture and Islam and they came forth with their own unique see no Arabic civilization. And the same happened across the globe wherever Islam went. And anybody who's from any Muslim land, we from India, Pakistan, how do we dress the how's the process of them

dressed? The show? Archimedes is not sunnah per se. What's wrong with it, though? Nothing. How do the Chinese Muslims dress? How do the Nigerian everybody has their own culture, Islam did not come to dictate to us our culture. Wherever we go, the culture of the land should be adopted as long as Islam allows it to be adopted. And we saw this right here again, with our own eyes went to China. And again, it just underscored the point that if Islam is going to flourish in any land, that it has to adapt to the contours of that land as much as possible. Also, one of the things that we learned as well is we need to minimize our judgement about other civilizations and other people's and other

Islamic cultures. So for example, when we first visited the mosque

the first mosque we visited was the one in Beijing. We saw a dragon on the outside and immediately some of our youngsters Stopford. Hola Hola Hola. Hola. Hola Villa How can this dragon be outside the mosque? Okay, immediately and even I am wondering what is this? Why is there a dragon outside the mosque? You know the core we're talking about the arch of the masjid as you walk in. You see the dirt not inside the mosque. But like essentially like you basically the entrance to MIT imagine Okay, the Arch has them. Then we went to Xiang which is the one of the first mosques of China and the oldest pillar there has a dragon inscribed on it a dragon. And again, start for Allah. How can

the Muslims do this? Why didn't they object and our guide non Muslim

Simply casually talking to us, explains and clarifies and makes a silent for the rest of the trip. Ignorance, right? We're so quick to judge Subhanallah listen to the story, the dragon, and that time in place was the Emperor's seal. No buddy is allowed to use a dragon other than the Emperor. Nobody by penalty of death.

Nowadays, you can buy a Dragon Anywhere and Dragon back then only the emperor, the symbol is the dragon. So if you see the dragon symbol outside and the property, what does that mean?

The Emperor is telling you, you had better not mess with this property.

It is the protection of the emperor that has been given to the Muslims of China.

Now you tell me would you not take that mob mentality this? So again, we're so quick to judge and will law he this is the problem of a little bit of knowledge is a very dangerous thing. Just a little bit of knowledge, you start being so judgmental. You have no clue. And even I I didn't judge, but I'm wondering what is going on? How can Muslims allow a carved dragon outside the mosque? I'm wondering, I didn't say anything. But questions come to my mind. Because I want to know now the guy casually just you didn't she didn't know we're having all these discussions you just said and you will see the dragon outside. And that is because the Emperor symbol and now it is protecting. So

everybody knows you're not allowed to disrespect anything inside. Now everything is clarified. And you're like, oh, wow, rather than be insulted, we feel a sense of pride that the Emperor actually gave his protection and made sure that nobody would harm the Muslims. That's the respect that those Muslims had in the eyes of the Emperor see no changes the entire situation.

Positives now there was some negatives as well. For the last 70 years, as you know, the government has been a communist government very different now. 1949 when they made the country, the modern communist country of China.

And what this has done is that it has caused the government to be controlling every aspect of a citizens life, including the religious aspect. So what the government has done is essentially taken charge of the mosques completely, we're talking about the cities we went to, which is Beijing, Shanghai, Xiang, and other you know, the main cities, we didn't go up north or the Xinjiang province. I'll talk about that at the end. What this means is that in the government, the only the only mosques have to have licenses, you have to be government approved. And the government appoints the Imams, and the government trains the Imams.

So one thing that really, frankly, very much hurt me at the personal level of having studied in Medina for 10 years, and having had many Chinese friends. When I was in Medina, there were hundreds of Chinese students. And I didn't meet a single one of them. None of the graduates of Medina were employed by the government, obviously,

who is employed by the government, only those who graduate from the madrasa that's operated by the government.

And I have to say, some of the negatives. In fact, for me, this is the biggest negative that really, genuinely kind of depressed me.

None of the Imams I met, and I met only the government Imams because I didn't go inside society. So I'm going to literally imagine walking into MIT and whoever is here, the government appointed in China, that's the people I met, I didn't meet the locals inside because there's a language barrier. I don't have the contact details of those graduates because they are, you know, under suppression or whatnot. None of the Imams I met, even spoke Arabic, and their graduates of madrasas. None of them I met was even a half filled of the Quran and this really hurt me.

Some had memorized to Jews, some had memorized for Jews.

None of them could recite the Quran with Tajweed that we are accustomed to. So much so that one of our innocent brothers came up to me and he goes, which could are the reciting? I said it's not Akira is just they don't have that that we that we do.

They are cut off from now. There are Chinese Muslims that have graduated from Azhar that are graduated from Medina from other places, but they are not active. They are suppressed. They are not put to give hold buzz and doodles. We went to the mosque of Shia which is the largest mosque again the Tang Dynasty Emperor right it's a massive complex please log on to my Facebook go over the last week's post and one by one. We went to this grand mosque

of Sheehan, there's three or four Imams there. We met with them in broken Arabic, and we communicated and whatnot. One of them, one of them had studied in Medina for a year or two, just the Arabic level, then he came back, and then he didn't actually graduated whatnot. Then he went through the system, and then he was appointed. So he was the one I could speak with him broken Arabic a little bit. And honestly, it was a very painful interview. We interviewed him with all of our group, you know, it was just a painful interview, because every second sentence was, you know, we thank the Chinese government, we thank the Chinese government, we thank the Chinese government, he said it so

often that we got the point.

He has to say this,

he has to praise Every second third, any question we ask, bring it back down. And then Alhamdulillah, the Chinese government has been great to us. Like no matter what question you ask, the third sentence has to be praised to the government. Right? So much. So we asked him a point blank question. Listen to this. Do you have the recording or even know who had the recording for that as he was with us? So we asked him this question, said Ken, was it you asked him or somebody yet? Yes. As you asked the question about Dawa. So as him asked him, can you give Dawa to the non Muslims? Okay, look at how you flipped it around. Well, light genius. Alhamdulillah the Chinese

government has given us full freedom to speak about Islam, to anybody who comes here.

That was that was a switcheroo.

You get you get the point here. Right. Alhamdulillah the Chinese government has given us the full face. He said it real time. He said that the full freedom to preach Islam, then added here to anybody who comes right here.

He's not allowed to give one pamphlet outside. He's not allowed to say anything to anyone. If somebody for some bizarre reason wants to walk into the Masjid. Right, then the Imam is free to talk whatever they want. Okay, I asked him,

does he prepare his own holebas?

And he said, Yes, they do. And all the Imams prepared their own hobas So this means that like some of the other Arab countries and whatnot, were essentially the hood was have to be completely apolitical. Okay, you have to give a hoot about something that has nothing to do with politics. There's just you know, Iman and philos Tawakkol whatnot. One thing that really hurt me this is the largest mosque in all of China she and Masjid the largest mosque. I said, this my question to him after years, I said, Do you have any gurus or had a heart for the Muslims? For the Muslims do you have Hadith class of sera class? Once again Alhamdulillah we have the full freedom to teach Islam in

my house.

Not in the masjid.

Not a single halacha in the masjid. Although I just My mind just like blanked out. You cannot even have a halacha to teach your fellow Muslims, about Islam.

So what do you expect then of the level of practicing? Right? What do you expect when you cannot really even go to that level? So unfortunately, this was definitely for me one of the very painful realities. And this is in the mainstream cities, right where Islam is essentially relegated now, I have no doubt that privately there will be drusen Halaqaat. Underground. That's how Islam has flourished. I have no doubt. I didn't have access to those circles. Did I right. I have no doubt in basements underground. Under cover, you will have the medina graduates the as her graduates, they'll have maybe two or three or four key students. But guess what, the minute a spy infiltrates

the guy's head is cut off or going to jail or whatever. That's those circumstances. They're going to be, you know, teaching advanced Islam. As for the public eye, very superficial. Their level of Salah and tweet and Quran was

depressing for me personally. Very depressing. This is in the main cities. I want to conclude final point and then headed over to Saudi Arabia.

Of course, this is in Beijing and Shanghai and the main cities realize even this is not happening in the province of Eastern Pakistan, which is the province that they have called Jinjiang. This is their name. In 1947 47. They the Chinese government basically invaded this province which was not under Chinese control, and they occupied it and they acquired it and they basically made it a part of China and the people there they are more Turkish than they are Chinese. They don't speak

Mandarin, they don't speak Chinese ethnically, they're different. They're not the holy Muslim. These are what are called the Uighur Muslims, okay. And the Uyghurs are a branch of the Turkish people, they are not to branch with the Chinese people and the Uyghurs have been humiliated. They have been colonized for the last 60 years. And obviously, push has come to shove and the Uyghurs are now fighting back. Of course, they have been fighting for the last 67 years, but especially in the last decade, it's just gone beyond that, because what has happened is essentially, the Han government has started sending in hundreds of 1000s of Han Chinese to take over all the businesses to control all

the government to rob the lands of the people. So what do you think that people are going to do their land, their livelihood, their education has been stripped away, just like, you know, Israel and Palestine, what's happening there? So what are the Uighur is going to do, they're doing what any people will do when they have been subdued and humiliated. So when they are now fighting back the government to saying oh, I'll carry their terrorism there, ISIS there, even though they have nothing to do with those movements, right. They have nothing to do. They're fighting for their independence, the Uighur independence. So, as a tactic now, the situation has gone from bad to worse in the last

five years, and it is now a situation of catastrophe of the highest magnitude. The UN and Amnesty and others have said that this is one of the worst cases of human rights violations since World War Two is taking place right now in that province of Xinjiang or Eastern Pakistan, where essentially the government now has taken the Uighur people as an enemy.

And they are attempting to wipe out Uighur civilization, by force. And they're doing this by forcing them to give up their language, their culture and of course, their religion. So the Chinese government are not attacking the hui. They're allowing them to pray five times a day. And they're not attacking the other 10 ethnicities that are living in mainland China. They're attacking the Uighur province only because of the quote unquote uprising that theirs that they claim is taking place and the tactics are truly terrifying.

They will make you their hair grow white mass incarceration, the likes of which has not been seen since Nazi Germany. This is what the UN has said the likes of which has not been seen since Nazi Germany not 1000s not 10s of 1000s. It is said hundreds of 1000s of people have been rounded up at will and taken into concentration camps right now as we speak, where they are forced to be indoctrinated into the Han culture, Mandarin language forced to eat pork, forced to not pray, basically cannot live their lives as Muslims, those that are not taken to the concentration camps. Within the Uighur population. The Han Chinese are now living amongst them. They say we are guests,

they will walk into your house and say we are a guest. What does that mean? You're a government agent and you have the right to occupy the house and live in it at the expense of the host Uighur and they're going to monitor that you're not praying. You're not reading Quran. You're not doing anything Islamic. This is like the Inquisition if you go if you know what happened. This is like the Inquisition when the Catholics would send people to monitor so the hunt government is now doing this to the Uighur population. Recently there was an article where Muslimahs are being forced to marry Han Chinese any Chinese person hand on the hand I should say not any hand person can say I want to

bride and the local government there the Uighur which is Han government will literally hand one of our sisters over and forcibly married to this man or with a villa and nothing can be done. This is a forcible marriage where the goal being to eradicate her identity. Her children are going to be hot she is no longer a Muslim. And then of course last week there was a article where

sisters who have long skirts they're being stopped and their their skirts are being cut in public so that they become mini skirts that you're not allowed to wear. Forget a job because hijab was banned last year, hijab was banned last year Quran was banned last year. Ramadan was banned last year, two years they have no no fasting you're not allowed to fat in the broad daylight. There is a table of food in Ramadan. And the Uyghurs are forced to have free lunch on the government. What does that mean? If you don't eat you will be whipped killed torture taken away. Everybody is forced to eat and one of the Uyghur brothers came to me and said his own brother had been arrested and he wants to

know the fatwa can he eat in the daylight of Ramadan? To save his life? This was I had to answer this question Is he allowed to eat in the daylight of Ramadan? Because he is being forced as a teacher school teacher. They took him in front and every

Buddy, and they basically gave him a plate of food in Ramadan. And he knows Ramadan, obviously, they're not going to give him a free lunch and show well, by the way, the free lunch is only in Ramadan because they know and he has to eat the food over there. So what is happening right now is a persecution of the likes of which we have not seen since World War Two, and the government to silent as you know, and the local and the world decided this is the reality unfortunately, the OMA unfortunately will no one was done. So the least we can do is to thank Allah subhana wa Taala for our own blessings, and to make sure that we do whatever we can to help them out in our dramas in our

prayers and our public awareness. I don't think we can even give money to them at this stage, because the government has blocked if everything, we could not go there physically, obviously, it would not even be safe for us to go. But we did meet some of them in other cities. And if they happen to be in other cities, then they're monitored, but they're allowed to pray in those cities. So it's really that province, where Islam is being clamped down upon no Joomla, no Ramadan, no hijab, no Quran, that province, the Xinjiang province. As for the other cities, as I said, if you do a government control, sanitized version of Islam, then you're allowed to eke out an existence over

there. In conclusion, it was an eye opening trip, it was a humbling trip. For me. It was something that again, I learned a lot from and I came back with a renewed sense of appreciation, you know, no matter how bad it is over here, and yes, it is getting worse than it used to be. In the end of the day, Al Hamdulillah. We thank Allah for the freedoms of this land. We thank Allah we're allowed to pray and worship as we see fit. And we pray that the people of this land, never forget what their own founding fathers wanted of this country, which is the freedom to worship as you see fit. And that's one of the things that perhaps we as Muslims have to become the reminders because the

majority seem to be forgetting that the majority seems to be forgetting why this country was founded upon the principle of freedom of worship, they're changing that reality. And perhaps we are that little litmus test that we have to keep on reminding that we don't want to go down the route of China, we don't want to go into other countries and Alhamdulillah I thank Allah that no matter how bad it is, there is no government control of our religious freedoms. And we pray that remains that way. So shall we will open the floor for q&a until after Isha just will delete Aisha by 10 minutes. So we'll have some q&a, Inshallah, whatever I can't, because again, I'm not an expert in the history

of Islam in China, but whatever inshallah Bismillah.

They have to

go to church,

that difficult for them.

So, so the is the comment that even Christians have restrictions and that that's exactly the point is not just against Muslims, even Christians there. So basically, if you're not a part of the dominant culture, you're viewed with a little bit of suspicion. So even Christians that are foreigners, when they go to church, they will have to, you know, take the passports with them. So I'll tell you one thing that happened when we were at the hotel of the city of Cheyenne. So one of the purposes of coming with me and my colleague was with Southern where Issa, was that you get to you know, ask Islamic questions have had occurred, that's the point you go in the Muslim group have

to take care of everything. So every evening, we just have a sit down, just chill and q&a. So one evening, we had it in the hotel lobby, and it just so happened that 70 of the group came like majority usually have come or Sunday, this time was 70. And subhanAllah. There was a somebody that came in a walkie talkie uniform, taking pictures speaking into the microphone, and then just left. And it's like, you don't get that type of stuff in other places where just having a simple we're eating ice cream and homemade ice cream, okay, we're sitting in the lobby eating ice cream, and just chill, just, you know, q&a, nothing. But it raise concern somebody called security, like the secret

security on us somebody's coming. photographs are taken now, from what I understand.

There was because there was no Chinese person amongst us. So they're a little bit lacks. But Had there been somebody you know, that that is from the land, then that person is going to have to be pulled aside face question and whatnot. But I think the government understands that if you're a foreigner, they don't want a PR scandal. They don't want something like that. So they'll let these types of things go where you know, you do that, obviously, I forgot to mention so one of the things about Sheehan was the Muslim province or the Muslim quarters that was founded by the original Muslims is still there. And it is called the Muslim Quarter of Shin and it is one of the highlights.

In fact, for many of us, it was the highlight of the entire of the entire tour. The Masjid is in the middle of the quarter and all around are Muslim shops. So you get different Muslim foods, the street bazaar is there. All the different types of exotic foods, no insects over there because it's Muslim, right? But you have

Have squids and shrimp and you know, weird, you know sea creatures and whatnot, just, you know different types of food being sold over there. And our guide told us and she wasn't a Muslim. Our guide told us that people from all of the surrounding neighborhoods and cities, they come as a day out to treat their kids to the Muslim province. The food over there is what you treat your kids out to. Okay, so people go there, and we were and we saw this, the majority of people there were non Muslim, the shoppers and the shops are all halal and Muslim. So the entire quarter is called the Muslim Quarter. And the mosque is in the middle. And there's, you know, the all the different types

of merchandise and you know, one of the calligrapher we had a calligrapher there, and he wrote calligraphy for us, and it's, you know, Arabic calligraphy. And then the street is full of shops of food, just street food, and it's delicious, exotic, very different cuisine. And interesting. Hamdulillah. I forgot to mention another point. I didn't forget that didn't have time. So Subhanallah in China, obviously, the majority of people have not traveled outside the country, right. And Beijing and Shenzhen and Shanghai or major cities that the villagers come to just to go somewhere. Like to them. Going to Beijing is like one of us going to California, for example, to

show you the Yellowstone park or something like this. Okay. So believe it or not, no tour of mine have I had more pictures of me taken? Not because I'm Chef Castle coffee, but because I'm a brown skin bearded guy.

I'm not joking with you, you know, Zoom was there. You know, my wife, others were there, they can testify to this. We're walking in the street. And Chinese families come up to us and they're taking our photos and laughing they're laughing like they've never seen somebody like this. They've had their kids come and they pose with us. They have no clue that it's it's just we are so exotic to them. Okay, sisters and hijaab brothers and beards this skin color everything is exotic to them. Right? That they they they want to take a picture with us so I was very bemused that there are still people like this that they only know their own culture they were talking about the villagers that

come in and they are I mean you know I don't even know how to say this to you like you haven't seen a large city until you go to China forget New York forget Chicago forget la forget there's nothing compared to Shanghai and Beijing there's nothing I mean these cities they are obviously the largest cities in the world you need to go there to see like how large a city can be and of course they're so large so obviously therefore the villagers they come in or people from other cities they come in and so yes for them they've never seen an outsider, you yourself become a tourist attraction. So we went to the Beijing the Summer Olympics of 2008 were in Beijing right we went to that

the park

the nest exactly the nest yeah went to that the nest it's a beautiful park or what not rather than taking pictures of the architecture that people were taking pictures of us

so we became the tourist attraction like 100 people okay, all brown skin and you know, hit jobs and exotic clothing and whatnot. Okay, I told my wife you started charging money it'll pay for my ticket home and let's say she didn't charge this charge some some Yuan here and so everybody's doing that 100 Anyway, it was an interesting to be the center of attention not because of who I am because of who I'm not I don't know. It was interesting for me hamdulillah other comments bits are no good.

What we can do as you suggested number of

number two what I did two weeks ago because Fox News they have this whole article about the other sitting

or what I I

copied the link and Washington DC

is

a great country because it's such a powerful and

it's very sad to see how you're violating human rights. So then I put all my friends to the links or the deck

so maybe complaining to the Chinese Embassy here as well. Whatever it will do, I mean whatever it's better than nothing. I mean, this is some some type of PR I think as well PR re raise the PR in your circle of friends you know, your Facebook and your email do that in shallow.

Shallow

must have knowledge of Muslims in Chinese.

Probably not because they are not any one region.

But

another question?

So, very good question. Unfortunately, I will not be able to answer it thoroughly because I don't know. The question is how do the Muslims then of these cities maintain their Islam when there's no Halaqaat? No de Roos? And to be honest, I don't know, because we were not one of the biggest problems for us in China is the language, the language barrier. Wherever I have been in the world, you always find some people who speak English. In China, nobody spoke English like No buddy, other than our guide. Literally, nobody, the shopkeepers, the attack, I could not none of our group could even take a taxi. Because the communication is just not there. You are literally dependent on the

guide. The only person who spoke English was the guide, we hired to speak English, nobody else spoke. So. So we had the Chinese brother who, again, one of our one of our brothers was Chinese, so he helped us but otherwise we're completely disconnected. So we were not able to have a detailed conversation, number one, number two, even if we could, the people we interviewed could not be giving us that answers, because they're the government employees, you know, so when we were trying to Inshallah, I hope that's one of the reasons I keep on going is to maybe get to that underground system of who else is there? How are they preaching Islam? Let me just say, though, that it was

obvious to me that the level of knowledge was pretty dismal, very low, and I saw some practices even in the Salah that, you know, it was just for example, I'll give you one example. I mean, you can tell this is not coming out of any film, any nothing is just something happened along the way, and they started doing it. When the President said,

called the comma, to Salah, comma, to Salah. He stopped. And that point, the Imam said Allahu Akbar,

in the middle of the coma, said Allahu Akbar. And all of us we were there were five locals 100 us. Okay, so we're just like, pause, like, what, what just happened here? What just happened? And then he finishes the coma, while the Imam is basically reciting thought to her there. You know, like, where did that come from? There's no Muslim that ever teachers and preachers does nothing. But it's happening over there. How did it happen? I have no idea. But you can understand how the combat isn't a kilometer Salla Allahu Akbar, he made a compost. Okay. And then he finishes the funnel while the Salah is going on.

It's very strange. And then again, other practices as well. So, to me, it seemed, and again, I mean, I have the Advan recorded on my iPhone. To be honest, if you didn't know it was the dawn you wouldn't even hear the dawn in it. Because it's a very, the pronunciation is so different for us, you know, it's not going to come the boys not going to come here that well. So it's like they're cut off. I mean, generally speaking, at least the G Suite is preserved around the globe. Generally speaking, you know, you go to even India Buxton and I learned my lesson here compared to them, mashallah, as Buxton iMovies they split they up their boss or the summit marshal all of them, forget

what as well, Lina, let it pass, okay, at least as well as Walding you can at least understand those Muslims, Gianni they're, they're just cut off.

So, obviously, Islam has become a cultural practice for them more, you know, this is now and and the fact that they are who we are, they are whatever they are Kazaa, whatever. So Islam is a part of their cultural identity these groups, and they would have passed down what they need to know, such as the halal, we saw a few ladies in hijab. And again, I was very interesting, the type of job that we saw, very different than anything I've ever seen. Never seen anything like it again, the style was very unique. And this was not the hui This was another one of the 10 I don't know which one but it was just a very unique, you know, literally like almost like a nun, you know, but it was and the

hijab had decorations like very interesting style, never, never in my life seen it. So they're practicing Islam in their own way. But it's very clear to me that they have been disconnected from the rest of the world, they were only allowed to go for Hajj since 1979.

You know, before that point in time, the communist government would not even allow them to go for Hajj. So it's only been since 1980. Basically where there has been a little bit of leeway. With a lot of conditions you can go for Hajj. With some conditions you can go so it's still kind of sort of

controlled climate what can be done other than this, you know, here's where the gold is.

Thank you so much for taking off.

steel for the world about our situation I'm from Turkistan from that region called Xinjiang, which is new territory. One more thing, I can have the

everybody's DNA samples were taken back we estimate 25 to 35 million wheelers lived in that region. And then every one person from every family for two persons are in concentration camps. Now they're like they're taking up their organs freely, if any Chinese any Chinese needs organs. No, recently I read the news that Oregon's

about three times more expensive.

So our brother here, he's from the shinjang province, I'm not going to mention his name, because this is on on. We're going to be broadcasting this later on on YouTube. But he himself by the way, he's not saying this, but he himself has been harassed here in this land. The consulate has called him and his family up, and he cannot go back. He does not even know the whereabouts of his own family. He has not spoken to his own mother for years. And he is a US citizen, what do you think about the rest. So just imagine that situation, he cannot go back, he has no clue what's happening. Even here, the consulate has called him up and harassed him as much as possible. They want Him to

come, you know, to China, and as if he's gonna go at this stage, you know, and what he has told us is that they have forcibly taken the DNA of basically all of the the Uighur population. And in every household, at least one person is in the concentration camp. And of course, that is like the threat obviously understand is going to keep them in control. In May Allah protect Imagine if one of your children were taken, what are you going to do for the rest of them? You know, so that's the psychology. As I said, even amnesty has said, This is the worst travesty of human rights since Nazi Germany. Right, this is what they themselves are saying. And then the issue that we're now hearing,

which is again, mind boggling, and that is that the people that are killed, or maybe even intentionally killed, we don't know, their organs and are being harvested and sold. Our Muslim brothers and sisters, their organs are being now sold. And

if anybody needs an organ, and amongst the 100 population that will be getting it from, it's like unbelievable, the stories that are being heard. And these are again, it's complete undercover in the sense that there's no media allowed there. But these are all the people that managed to come out, this is what they're saying. This is what they're saying and the rumors that are spreading well Lohan was done what can be done in this time.

Yes, good.

They have no identification. And so the Uyghurs passports and identity cards has been taken. And they cannot travel. Yes, this is also true. So when they want to flee, they cannot flee. They cannot flee because they don't have identity cards, they don't have passports. So it is a maths. Basically, humans rights murder. This is a war crime essentially, is exactly what's going on right now. Allah who was time is greater.

You get any sense what Chinese people think about.

So remember, all of this that is happening of the travesties is in one province far up north, and the main cities and whatnot, we did not face any problems whatsoever. And like I said, we were the object of curiosity and attention. And our guides told us that by and large, the Chinese people of those provinces IE, Beijing, and Shanghai and whatnot, the local indigenous Chinese, the hui, they are considered to be a part and parcel of the fabric of China. You know, so there's not much discrimination in that region. Because again, the government has kept it under control. You have to follow the protocol. If you do then you can flourish. So like I said, you know, if you want to pray,

you can go to the mosque and pray but don't pray outside. We were told where and that's where we had to schedule them thought outside in the mosques, because we were not. We were told that you don't want to be praying outside anywhere. You know, not at home, you can pray at home. Yes, but I'm seeing in public.

night in the hotel lobby, we wanted to, you know, pray in the hotel lobby. We managed to pray Fudger one day at 4am we had to leave at 430. So the guy allowed us just quickly do it and leave. So we prayed Fudger nobody was there at 4am. Otherwise, we were told don't make a scene in public. In a one time we had a problem with Doha and also and the train station and you know, our guides like No, no, we'll schedule you in the mosque over here. Then we go to the train station. Don't pray in the train station.

Is we had an interesting, interesting experience where our group went on a beautiful boat ride in the Guilin city, which is one of the most scenic cities in China. And the boat had 140 people, of which 100 were us.

majority were us. So we legitimately hijacked the boat. So we went to the roof, and we had the HUD and Uppsala on the roof and Hamdulillah we managed to do that from the law. Yeah, not Joomla it was Joomla we didn't do hot but we just did the harasser. hamdulillah shell, but we were told by our guys do not pray in public or else you might get into trouble. So it's something again, this is not to you're not in America, again. That's the point in America, the max they're going to do is just, you know, I mean, it's legal to pray in public as a point. The max is somebody might say something rude or crude or something, but you're not going to go to jail for praying in public, you know, but

you know.

So anyway, final point Bishop final questions

so the Great Wall of China

we went obviously to the Great Wall, there's obviously not just one area it's a very massive wall. And if you want to go to the Great Wall, you will only go to one section, obviously right? So we went to one section, and you could climb 1000 steps, you know, to get to the top we can go from the bottom to the top 8000 Steps mashallah, some of our guys went all the way to the top. Did you know Okay, Abdi, did

I buddy mashallah Tabata Cola, whereas he's not here. When he comes, remind him

it's still resting.

They went all the way to the top and came back to Marshalls Tabata cola. As for me, I, I admitted to everybody a middle aged man, okay, I have admitted and come to terms with my middle aged status. So I went 1/4 2000. And I said, that's good enough, I'll have the rest. So. And those steps are pretty larger to the they're not like small stuff, but to again, to me what I really to be again, on a serious note, the sheer size and determination of a civilization to build something so large, how much manpower you know, as you know, it is the only man made structure that is visible from space, right? It's the only man made structure that is visible from space. And when you see it as far as

the eye can see in both directions, coming up and down mountains. So, again, there's no sense until you see it. Like this is something you've never seen the likes of this anywhere because it is one of the wonders of the world, one of the only original wonders that is still standing. So it is an awe inspiring sight to see and just the amount of dedication that they had to build this wall to protect them from the Mongols and other worried about the Mongols and whatnot. Over there. I did a quick video is on my Facebook channel, where I talked about the myth that the Great Wall of China is the wall of George and George. That's a myth, complete fabric fabrication, no basis to it. But I just

wanted to get rid of that myth on the Great Wall of China. So I said the wall of jujitsu Judo is supposed to protect people on one side from the other. Right now you see Chinese people going back and forth. There is no protection. So it's not the wall of your future marriage. Okay, so this is a myth out there sha Allah, social with Zack Moloch here we had a wonderful evening sha Allah so we'll call it an evening for today and in sha Allah will resume our regular Halaqaat sometime in August in sha Allah Tada.