Yasir Qadhi – Thoughts on The New Zealand Mosque Shooting

			hamdulillah Isla is niram
		

			Al Hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah Camden Kathy
		

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			Obinna Masada to see him Elon Musk global Kareem
		

			All praise is due to Allah subhanho wa Tada. We praise Him and we seek his help. And we seek refuge
in Allah from the evil of our souls and the consequences of our actions. Indeed, whomever Allah
subhana wa tada guides, none can misguide. And whomever he chooses to misguide none, none can guide
him back to the straight path. I bear witness and I testify that there is no deity worthy of worship
other than Allah subhana wa Tada. And I bear witness and I testify that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam is his final prophet and his most perfect worshipper. As to what follows Allah says in the
Quran, yeah, are you Hola, Xena, Manu, taco la hopko to RT wala Jamuna 11 to Muslim moon. Oh, you
		

			who believe be conscious of a law the way that he deserves and do not die except in a state of
submission to him. My dear brothers and sisters in Islam. All of us are painfully aware of the
brutal terroristic attacks of the massacre on two masjids in New Zealand, a self identified self
proclaimed white supremacist, he unfortunately live streamed footage of him entering the main Mosque
of Christchurch, New Zealand, must you the *, it is one of the largest messages of New Zealand,
it is one of the oldest messages of New Zealand. And he live streamed himself on his Facebook
account and the video is truly grotesque. And I have not seen it and I do not plan to see it. And I
		

			do not encourage any of you to see it. But I have read descriptions of what is on that video. And it
is truly grotesque. And from what is being reported. This person put a GoPro on his helmet, and he
live streamed himself entering the masjid. And what is truly ironic is that the first person who
turned around and saw him the first person when he saw him, he said, Sam, welcome brother. And he
shot him cold right then and there. And we do not know did this person recognize this other person
to be a shooter? Or did he say Sam welcome as his last act before he knew that he was going to be
killed? We do not know. It is possible that he didn't recognize and he just turned on he did what
		

			every Muslim does welcome said I'm Welcome. Welcome to our community, or it is possible that he saw
this person to be a terrorist and a shooter and realizing that he couldn't physically do anything.
He tried to appeal in the face of such irrational hatred with the with the calling of peace with the
greeting of peace, he tried to appeal but no matter what you do, no matter how evil you are, I still
recognize you to be a fellow human being a fellow brother at some level. Unfortunately, that feeling
of sat down was not returned. And that person died. A Shahid insha Allah who to Allah, and it
appears that this humanity that he wished to find in this other brother, this humanity has already
		

			left him because this murder this terrorist continue to enter the masjid and shot down in cold blood
at point blank range. 41 people 41 people walking through the masjid defenseless men, women and
children, wounding at least 40 and killing 41. He then races back to his car, the GoPro is still
running. And while driving to another msgid. He describes in chilling language in a completely calm
voice. He describes the killings. And he says that there were bodies everywhere. And he describes
the thrill that he feels the rush that he's getting. And he then goes to another question where he
begins shooting from his car before he gets off and then enters the other machine and kills a
		

			further seven people in that Masjid. And one person died in the hospital as of yet it is 49 but
there are at least last I checked 40 people critically wounded and dangerous. Allah knows what the
final tally is going to be in that second question.
		

			A person who was responsible for caretaking the messenger, the janitor and the one who would take
care of the traffic and it is those heroes that we don't look upon. They become heroes at times
where we leave
		

			Expect to panel as somebody who was in charge of the custodial issues of the masjid, that person was
monitoring the the killer. And at a particular point, when he lowered his weapon to reload, this
brother charged and jumped on him in a very brave and courageous act, because of which Allah xojo
knows how many dozens of lives were saved. He tackled the person, he took the gun out of the killers
and the killer in his fear runs away. And so the massacre stops here. Allah knows what would have
happened if this brave brother had not intervened and jumped on him risking his life, risking his
life, his body and his soul to save so many other people. Eventually, the police arrested him and he
		

			is now under custody. This person whom I shall not name, I refuse to name I will not honor him by
even mentioning his name. This person, he wrote a rambling manifesto that he posted to a far right
network. And unfortunately, I felt compelled to read that manifesto as a part of what I do. And it
is very, very clear that his motives, his agenda is not something that is new. We have been hearing
this language, we have been exposed to this rhetoric for many, many years. This person believes that
European civilization, whatever that is, that's besides the point, European civilization is about to
disappear. Why he blames mass immigration. He blames Muslim fertility rates. He somehow believes
		

			that Muslims breed like rabbits, and he blames the takeover of European culture, by Islam and by
Muslims. And he said he targeted this particular Masjid because it used to be a church. And you
know, these days, many churches are putting themselves up for sale because people are not coming.
And it is common that Muslims or other faith communities, they purchase the church and everything is
legal. It's not our fault that the church is for sale. And it's a perfect building. For us. It's not
our fault. But he felt that this is a symbol and a sign of an Islamic takeover. What used to be a
church had been converted into a mosque. And what used to be a place of worship for Christians is
		

			now a place of worship for Muslims. And ironically, this person himself never went to church. This
person himself was not a church going Christian, he does not resemble he does not he is not
indicative of righteous Christians. Yet, for some reason he takes on a religion that he himself
seems to have very little to do with and he takes on defending a community and a faith that he does
not exemplify in his character in his teachings, even in his worship. And this person in his
manifesto, he explicitly praises other right wing attackers, other terrorists, like Anders Breivik,
the one who committed the massacre in Norway, like the attack in Quebec in Canada that killed six
		

			people. He explicitly praises dylann roof who shot nine African Americans in a church in South
Carolina. And he praises a whole long list of other radicals. And not surprisingly, at all. He
praises the President of the United States by name, and he considers him to be a symbol of white
identity, as well. He explicitly mentions that his goal, to do this terrorist act is to start a war
between what he calls Europeans and what he calls immigrants, and especially in particular, Muslim
immigrants. The sad part, my dear brothers and sisters, is that reading the entire Manifesto,
beginning to end, I have to say, there was absolutely nothing that I hadn't read or heard before,
		

			there was nothing shocking about the entire manuscript, the entire document, it's the same talking
points that we have been hearing by so many different politicians around the globe. And this
individual, this brainwashed individual, is symptomatic of what happens when you have years and
years of sensationalized news that continues to promote a picture to perpetuate a false narrative.
Eventually, somebody clicks because they believe that false narrative in this Manifesto, he says,
Who is going to defend our culture, who is going to defend our civilization? I had it in my mind. He
goes, if nobody else is going to do it, then I must do it to myself. And he mentioned specific
		

			terrorist attacks that were done by radical Muslims. We will not deny there were people that have
done engaged in the name of our faith as well. And he thought the best way to respond to that hatred
and violence is to perpetuate
		

			The same hatred and violence. And this is why brothers and sisters, we need to be very, very
explicit and clear. I was wondering, should I even talk about this in so much detail in today's in
today's sermon, because I knew that this is spring break, and I knew that some of our youngsters are
going to be here. And it troubles me that I have to mention these topics. And then I have to talk
about these realities. I know there are young children in the audience. I understand this. When I
first told my youngest daughter about this incident last night, the first thing and I could see the
fear in her eyes, the first thing that she said, Have they caught the guy yet? And if this is what
		

			happens when you hear of an attack, literally 10,000 miles away across the globe. I mean, there's a
worry, even though he's in New Zealand, what if he's still here? What if he's still loose?
Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury to shield our community and even our youngsters from this
reality. Because the stark fact of the matter is that that mosque could be any mosque, and that
community could be any community. New Zealand is one of the safest places in the world. It hardly
has any violent crime. If somebody pickpockets, his front page news almost it's such a trivial it's
a it's a very, very laid back casual country. And yet still the rhetoric of the far right and the
		

			hatred of the xenophobes is reaching such for countries, then what then do you think of the bastion
of that hate where that hate is being propagated where that hate is actually being funded? Where
that hate is being disseminated from what then of those places? It is just a few days ago, where one
of the most prominent commentators on Fox News actually claimed that a more had Juba in our
Congress, the first module and Congress could not be an American citizen, because she wears a hijab.
And that hijab, according to this commentator, demonstrates that she follows Shetty law, and so she
cannot be a Muslim, an American citizen. This is publicized hatred being spawned being spewed out
		

			publicly on mainstream media. We are living in a world where xenophobia has now become mainstream
Islamophobia in particular, has become popular, so many countries, their politicians are being
elected on the bandwagon of Islamophobia. In India, the land of my own ancestors. In India, the
concept of hindutva. And hindutva is basically a a radicalized version of Hindu nationalism, that
it's a it's a very vicious form of Hindu Indian nationalism that was first propagated almost 100
years ago by a group called the RSS it has now been taken up by the BJP. And of course, the current
Prime Minister of India is now publicly fomenting it. He is constantly perpetuating this notion of
		

			India being for Hindus and others in that land are not meant to be a part of that land. And we see
time and time again, that Muslims in that land are lynched just because of the whiff of them having
eaten beef or having done something that is not even a crime is just a rumor, and mobs come about
and they kill people. They Lynch people upon the rumor of God forbid they're actually eating meat,
and as we speak, as well, potentially millions of Uighur Muslims have been rounded up and
incarcerated. They're being tortured and forced to abandon Islam. They're being forced to eat pork,
they're being forced to abandon the Salah. They're not allowed to read the Koran, and the world is
		

			watching silently and we see camps they call them de radicalization camps, incarceration camps, the
likes of which Harker and bring back the images of Nazi Germany back in the 1930s. The crisis in
Myanmar has reached a stalemate. The demonization of Palestinians continues, and across Europe, for
right parties are on the rise. And there is a general sense of tension in the air. The point is that
this mass shooter, this murder is not coming out of a vacuum. He didn't just come out of nowhere. In
his manifesto, he calls Muslims terrorists, even as he is the one committing acts of terror. And
this is what happens when you create these demons. When you create these monsters out of others, you
		

			then become a monster thinking that you have to defend yourself against that imaginary monster. And
while I do not deny and none of us denies that there are some radical Muslims in the last 1015
years, they have committed acts of terrorism that they call jihad in western lands. We must also be
frank and clear in the last two decades, what we've seen of the terror of the far right in these
lands in our own lands is far more than the tear of those handful of jihadists and in fact, in the
last year and a half, in fact, throughout 2018 up until now 2019 for the last year, and a half
		

			Every single terrorist attack on American soil has occurred at the hands of the far right. Let me
repeat that. So you understand what I just said, For the last year and a half 100% of terrorist
attacks of mass shooters 100% has occurred at the hands of those that are called the far right. Not
at the hand of Muslim radicals. Not at the hand of immigrants. Not at the hand of Mexicans, not at
the hands of Brock. No, all of them without exception are coming from the far right. And we need to
understand that we are all in this together. Each and every one of us we need to play a part and
have a role to play. I don't want to sensationalize I don't want to create a sense of fear. But we
		

			don't have the luxury to bury our heads in the sand. We have to create a sense of not fear, but at
least urgency. The fact of the matter is that this attack could have happened in any Masjid like we
are gathered here today for Joomla. Our brothers and sisters are gathered for this same Juma in New
Zealand the exact same. They came wanting to just pray Juma going back to their work and they had no
idea 49 of them that would it would be their last Juma. Ironically here in Memphis, we have a Masjid
with the same Masjid name as that Masjid must you the *, which is one of our first semesters in
Memphis, may Allah protect it and all of the massages. But the point is, we all have to help out.
		

			And in order to order to respond. My dear brothers and sisters, we need to have a number of tactics,
a number of strategic issues that we need to think about. First and foremost, we have to begin as
people of faith with our faith. We have to put our trust in our Lord in our God, we need to realize
that we will not win this battle or any battle without Allah subhanho wa Taala now is not the time
to become lazy with our faith. Now is not the time to hide our faith. Now is not the time to be
embarrassed about our faith. We need to be proud of who we are. We need to be proud of our Islamic
beliefs and heritage. We need to be proud of our rituals. We need to constantly engage in what Allah
		

			has commanded us to engage in our rituals, our Salah, our Vicar, our charity, our slaughter, our
Koran are all of them they have to be a daily part of our routine. Secondly, we need to understand
where this hatred is coming from. The Islamophobic industry is churning out propaganda financed by
hundreds of millions of dollars in which a false enemy is created. A false enemy is created that
enemy is us and other immigrants. And the goal of creating this imaginary enemy. The goal of
creating this imaginary enemy is to then allow a radical Neo fascist, pro white, openly nationalist
racist bigot, to win the presidency and then to change the laws in accordance with what he wants to
		

			do. By creating an imaginary monster. A real monster then becomes a savior for the people who look
up look up to him by creating an imaginary Frankenstein, a real Frankenstein becomes a superhero in
the eyes of those who want to be saved from the imaginary one, we need to understand that this
brainwashed person has been brainwashed by a much larger network. And the problem is that the
brainwashing continues while we are legitimately angry at this brainwashed person. And of course, we
need to be angry at him at some level at some level. And I know this is gonna sound strange, there
has to be some pity for him and his ilk. Our main anger should be reserved for those who are doing
		

			the brainwashing financing the brainwashing, we need to understand there is a very clear agenda at
play here. And that is to demonize minorities, that is to stigmatize faith communities and immigrant
communities for a much larger political purpose. And therefore with this information, we need to
respond with words and actions, we need to respond with words and actions. As for words, we need to
counter these claims we need to take on these ridiculous and ludicrous accusations that are being
hurled at us. There is no threat to Western civilization, whatever that is, a little bit of
knowledge, a little bit of history, a little bit of education will teach you that civilization of
		

			all types continues to change. Civilization never remained stagnant. We need to point out that this
very person who is worried about immigrants taking over his land himself and his ancestors took over
the land from other people. How dare a person who himself took the land from the native Aborigines,
the native mores, the native native Indians over here, how dare a person then lecture to others
about taking over land. This is something we need to point out that it is it is inappropriate for
any group in the Western world, especially in America and in Australia and in New Zealand to talk
about immigrants when they themselves
		

			Are the immigrants to those lands as well, this notion of immigrants coming in and super imposing
their values, and exaggerating the statistical quantity of these immigrants. All of this is, in fact
hype. All of this is simply false. This person who committed this massacre, he writes in his
manifesto, that he watched a particular YouTube video. Ironically, I would show this video in my own
class at Rhodes, to demonstrate what Islamophobia is, I would regularly show this video to show them
what you know how people hype up the threat of Muslims in Europe. And it is a fake video that is
done by a far right Christian, a group, which basically has statistics from from sources that are
		

			not accredited, that predicts that within 2030 years, Europe is going to be an Islamic land. It
predicts that Muslims are going to take over America unless we do something and it quotes half baked
statistics. It says that and I kid you not this is in the video. And every time I show it all my
students burst out laughing. It says on average, every Muslim couple has eight children. Do you know
anybody in our congregation that has eight children, eight children, that's the average. And then
the average European has 1.1 children statistically, and so when you do the math at that rate,
obviously in 20 3040 years, they say, Europe is going to be wiped out. And in the video in a very,
		

			very demonic voice. France is going to become a Muslim state by 2047, whatever the date that they
say. I mean, this is this is fear mongering of the highest order and magnitude here in America,
Muslims are barely one at max 1.5%. And yet people believe that we are 30 40% of America, how can 1%
of a nation affected so radically such that there is this paranoia and fear? This is what happens
when you inflate numbers. And you perpetuate these stereotypes, these false narratives, people are
going to believe the most ludicrous things we need to understand the root cause of this terrorism is
actually fear and ignorance have some pity. I know this sounds strange. But we need to prevent these
		

			massacres in the future. Understand that people who do these deeds, they're reacting out of fear and
ignorance. These are the two main motives, you read his manifesto. And the person is scared that his
culture is going to be disappearing, he needs to be taught, that's not going to happen. It's
impossible for it to happen. But there is this paranoia that unless we stop these immigrants, these
Muslims, then our society will be destroyed. And in order to eradicate fear. In order to eradicate
these stereotypes, we need to respond with education and with action. And that is why it is so
important that we mobilize our entire community, we all have a role to play it for only 1% or 1.5%.
		

			What that means is that each and every one of you, your audience, your potential audience is unique.
If all of us put our resources together, and we make an intentional point of trying to educate of
trying to eradicate this fear, eliminate these stereotypes, perhaps we can cause some dent. And that
is why every one of us, as I said over and over again, it is our role to play, nobody else is going
to do it. Every one of us has to be engaged in outreach, we all have to engage in showing our
neighbors, our friends, our colleagues who we are, if they don't even know you're a Muslim, much
less they don't even know what Islam is, then those stereotypes are going to perpetuate those fears
		

			are going to take root in their heart, we need to show them the reality of Islam. We need to invite
our colleagues, our neighbors, our friends, to our houses, our mosques, our communities, all of us
have to take an active role on Facebook, on Twitter, so that insha Allah who tada if there is
another person out there flirting with these radical ideas, through our acts of hospitality, our
acts of love and kindness, our acts of sharing our meals with them. This is our secret weapon,
Muslims, it's not having eight kids, it's sharing our bibiani and our good food with our neighbors
and friends. They just come and they see we're all there's nothing to be scared of. That's the main
		

			problem. The notion that we are something to be feared they've never met us. If you and I are not
going to go out of our way to make sure that they don't meet us. If you and I are going to hide if
we're going to be embarrassed about our faith, then who else is going to tell them what our faith
is? My dear brothers and sisters, those Muslims who died while they were praying this very Juma
prayer in New Zealand, they weren't just victims of that one terrorist. They were the victims of an
entire Islamophobic campaign that is being spearheaded by far right politicians and segments of the
media. However, we all of us collectively are not going to back down. We are not going to be afraid
		

			we will not cower down, we will not hide our identity. We will put our trust in Allah and we will
continue to do whatever Allah wants us to do.
		

			Do we will continue to be who we are come what may and we will put our trust in Allah subhana wa
tada and we will make sure that insha Allah who to love will always overcome hatred that our mercy
and compassion will always be the best antidote to the bigotry and xenophobia that they face. I pray
that Allah Subhana Allah to Allah blesses me and you with and through the Koran, I pray that Allah
subhana wa tada makes us of those who is versus they understand and who make us of those who is
halal and haram they implement throughout our lifespan. I ask Allah forgiveness for me and you for
and for the entire Muslim ummah. And you as well as for that forgiveness. He is the fool and the
		

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			Alhamdulillah hawala had a Samad Allah did emulate what I'm good at what am I akula Hakuna had
		

			my dear brothers and sisters, we have to understand
		

			that every single calamity that happens to us there is a wisdom in it. Every tragedy, there is a
silver lining. Every single darkness there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We have to put our
trust in Allah. We are commanded by Allah to be patient and to ask Allah for patience was spirit
warmer. sobre Roca illa Billah we are commanded by Allah to remove our worries and to not grieve to
not be scared while I tell him what I know what and tomorrow Alona in quantum meaning Do not worry,
do not grieve you shall be victorious if you are true believers and we are told by Allah subhana wa
Taala that in the end, it is our piety that will save us if not in this world then definitely in the
		

			next world and that is our ultimate goal will allow people to live within and the end result is with
them with Philippine May Allah subhana wa tada except those that have died as martyrs. May Allah
protect every single one of us in our communities and faith. May Allah subhana wa tada bless us and
this entire world with peace and with harmony. Aloma in NIDA and amino Aloma today if you had any
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in the water. Anyway, that is horrible. We're young and fresh. I will tell you about a year a
		

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