Yasir Qadhi – Unlocking Muslim American Power
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
In the seerah, one of the most critical
junctures in the entire history of the seerah,
one of the most sensitive time frames was
when the Prophet ﷺ conquered Mecca in the
8th year of the hijrah.
And a lot of people don't quite understand
how precarious the situation was, because the Muslims
would not have been more than a few
thousand.
And Arabia was in the tens of thousands,
maybe 40, 50, 60 thousand.
And there is no way that the Muslims
could have taken on the entire peninsula of
Arabia.
It's just not possible.
Mecca was the intellectual and religious capital.
Mecca, as you know, as you're aware, Arabia
did not have unified government.
Arabia had multiple tribes, each one of them
competing with one another, right?
There was no unity.
It's not like the Roman Empire.
It's not like the Sassanid Empire.
It's not like the federalist country of America
with 50 states.
Each tribe is completely independent.
There is one region and one tribe that
had a little bit of fadila and blessing
over the others.
And that is Mecca and the Quraysh.
Even though the Quraysh were not in charge,
but they had the respect because of the
Kaaba, because Ibrahim ﷺ, because they're the ones
in charge of Hajj.
And so after the Prophet ﷺ conquered Mecca,
if members of the Quraysh rebelled and spread
through the land and fomented a resurgence and
a revolt against the Muslims, it would have
been impossible for the Muslim army, for the
Muslims to stand up against the entire peninsula
of Arabia.
If members of the Quraysh, the senior members,
had fled and started campaigning, started riling up
the people, it would have been very easy.
Just like they had done in Ahzab a
few years ago, where they got the largest
army pre-Islamic Arabia.
The largest army ever was the Battle of
Ahzab.
It failed, but the remnants are still there.
So when the Prophet ﷺ conquered Mecca, one
of the issues he has in mind, I
cannot allow the senior members of the Quraysh
to go foment hatred against the Ummah.
We cannot do that.
And after the Battle of Mecca, right after
that there was the Battle of Hunayn.
The Battle of Hunayn took place weeks after
the conquest of it, weeks.
And Allah blessed the Prophet ﷺ with more
wealth in Hunayn than he had ever gotten
in all the other battles combined.
I need you to understand this point.
Hunayn gave him a budget greater than the
budget of all the other battles combined.
Hunayn was the biggest ghanima that he got.
What did he do with all of this
equivalent of tens of millions of dollars?
Did he give it to Abu Bakr and
Umar and Uthman and Ali?
Did he give it to the Ansar who
had spent 10 years fighting on his side,
Badr and Uhud and Ahzab and everything?
Within a day, one day, he has tens
of millions of dollars equivalent.
And he gave to all of the sanadid
of the Quraysh, the leaders of the Quraysh
and the leaders of the other tribes that
happened to be in the vicinity that were
there or helping or gentle alliances, but not
strong alliances.
He gave Abu Sufyan 100 camels.
Do you understand what 100 camels are?
The average Qurayshi did not own one camel
at this time.
It's not the average Qurayshi, it's like imagine
living in a European country, you don't need
a car like that.
The average Qurayshi did not own one camel.
And the Prophet ﷺ gave Abu Sufyan not
one, not two, not ten, 100 camels.
Imagine, 10 million dollar check here.
He gave Suhail ibn Amr 100 camels.
He gave al-Aqra ibn Habis who was
one of the chieftains of the Najd, 100
camels.
And he kept on giving and giving and
giving.
He had thousands of sheep.
He gave one of the chieftains of Najd,
he gave him a valley of sheep, literally
a valley, couldn't even count how many sheep
he gave.
Until finally within hours, all the money had
gone, nothing left.
And the Ansar and the Quraysh were standing
looking at these millions just disappeared.
And they're human beings, and we are human
beings.
And the Ansar began to speak amongst themselves,
which is human nature.
Wallahi, if we were there, Allah knows what
we would have done.
So please, humble yourselves.
The Ansar began talking.
So when it's time for battle, our necks
are on the line.
And when it's time for ghanima, it's Abu
Sufyan.
When it's time for harb, dima, blood, it's
us.
And when it's time for money, these are
people that we don't even know they're Muslim.
By the way, at the conquest of Mecca,
the Prophet didn't ask these leaders, are you
Muslim yet or not?
He gave them a little bit of time.
And it is said many of them had
not yet converted.
And we know many of the chieftains of
other tribes had not yet converted and he
gave them from the ghanima.
He gave them from this crops and all
of this.
And when the Prophet heard that the Ansar
were speaking in this manner, he sent a
messenger to all of the Ansar come and
gather in the tent and make sure only
the Ansar come.
I don't want anybody else other than you
guys.
All of the Ansar gathered in the tent
and he said to them, balaghani, it has
reached me that you are saying such and
such.
And he said exactly what they said.
And by the way, this is Islamic ethic.
When you hear a rumor, when you hear
qila wa qal, when you hear gossip, confront.
Is it true?
Let's find out.
Balaghani.
It's come to my attention that you guys
are saying this.
Is it true?
Silence.
They're embarrassed.
One of them says, Ya Rasulullah, some have
said this.
Yes, I'm trying to be gentle and everybody,
some have said this.
So the Prophet gave them a mou'idah,
a lecture that caused the entire tent to
begin to weep and sob and cry.
And he reminded them of all of the
blessings and he gave them Bashara of Jannah.
And he said, the whole world abandoned me
and you were the ones who accepted me.
And he kept on praising the Ansar.
If all of mankind went to one valley
and the Ansar went to the other valley,
I would have chosen the valley of the
Ansar.
And he said, were it not for the
fact that I was born a Qurashi, I
would have adopted the Ansar.
And he said, are you not happy that
people go back with goats and camels and
you go back with the Prophet salallahu alayhi
wasalam to your homes?
He said to them, are you not happy
that people go back with goats and camels
to their tents and you are going back
with Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasalam to your houses?
Is there any comparison?
And the whole audience began to cry.
The whole audience was sobbing.
And they said, we believe, Ya Rasulullah, we
are content with what Allah and his Messenger
have decreed.
Now the point I'm raising here, and as
you know, and I am Alhamdulillah your local,
I have said this multiple times, the last
10, 11 months, what is happening in the
world, Wallahi, we don't have time for political
correctness.
And I have become more bold and more
blunt than in my entire life.
I am tired.
Wallahi, I am tired of so many issues
that we should not be discussing and debating.
I am just tired of the backwardness and
the fundamentalist mentality.
And I know we have other problems.
Wallahi, I'm not saying is the only problem.
But one problem we should not have is
from the religious folks.
I know we have problems from other people.
And I get it.
But the one group that should be the
least of our problems, zero problems should be
the religious folks.
But unfortunately, they are at some amongst them,
a problem as well, not all some amongst
them, some interpretations and some understandings of Islam.
And of those understandings is the notion that
political activism is not allowed.
We should not be activists.
We should not be fundraising.
We should not be spending any time.
It is haram, it is bid'ah, it
is shirk, it is kufr, it is un
-Islamic.
It is this, it is that.
And anybody who dares open this door becomes
the target of their vicious attacks, as if
he is the enemy, rather than the people
dropping bombs.
The people who are stopping and attempting to
stop the bombs from falling, they become, according
to this group, the liberals, the sellouts, the
reformers, whatever it might be.
And the people who are dropping bombs are
ignored in all of this.
And one of the realities of our shari
'ah, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
mentions eight categories of zakah in the Qur
'an, eight categories.
One of them, wal muallafati qulubuhum.
So many of us don't even know Allah
allowed zakat to be given to muallafati qulubuhum.
Who are muallafati qulubuhum?
Go read any book of fiqh, any book
of tafsir, no exceptions.
Go read it.
All the madhahib agree who are muallafati qulubuhum.
They are either a person who's a kafir,
who's Islam you expect, you hope for, or
a kafir who's evil you are worried about,
so you pay him so he stops the
evil.
Either a kafir yurja khayruhu or yuttaqa sharruhu.
It's somebody, either you want him to become
Muslim.
So, you know, some people, if you give
them a million dollars, like, okay, and you
need his Islam, you need his Islam.
Or somebody that is so evil, you need
to bribe him because the ummah needs this
person to not be an enemy.
All Muslims, after the conquest of Mecca, this
is exactly what our Prophet ﷺ did.
I am not inventing any, look, go read
the seerah.
He's spending the best money that the sahabah
themselves were like, hey, look, where are we
in all of this?
But you see, Abu Bakr and Umar, even
though they would have loved the money, they
don't need it.
The ummah needs these people, the chieftains, to
not foment a rebellion.
The ummah needs to quiet, to placate these
people who if they had united, if Abu
Sufyan had fled Mecca and gone to the
Hawazin, gone to the the Thaqeef tribe, gone
to the other tribes, gone to the Kinana,
if he had gone to those other tribes,
Allah knows what the trajectory would have been.
Because Abu Sufyan was the almost default chieftain.
He couldn't afford Abu Sufyan to leave.
He couldn't afford Suhaida bin Amr to leave.
Al-Aqra bin Habis, one of the chieftains
of Najd, he couldn't afford him to foment
hatred.
So the only way now, because we don't
have enough quantity, you give them what the
people of weak hearts, because the sahaba, even
though it's normal, but they didn't get it
and their iman was remained firm.
No problem, right?
That's the beauty of iman.
But these people, iman doesn't work with them.
And that's why the chieftain from Najd, the
name eludes me around, the chieftain from Najd,
when he returned to his people, what did
he say?
He said, Ya qawm, I have come from
somebody the likes of which I have never
seen.
He must be a nabi, embrace his religion.
Fawallahi, no king, no nobleman could be as
generous as this person.
Only one sent by Allah can give so
much and not even worry about poverty.
I saw with my own eyes, he gave
the entire treasury, leaving nothing for himself and
his followers.
This is not a king, this is a
nabi.
His whole tribe accepted Islam.
Now I swear to you, who amongst us
even thinks about giving money for four political
causes?
It is completely gone from our psyche.
And to dare raise it, you become, astaghfirullah,
somebody that's trying to change Islam.
Ya khi, what change Islam?
It's in the Quran, muallafati qulubuhum.
It's from the seerah.
Go read any book, you know this all.
And yet when we most need it and
we most understand, and again, sorry to be
blunt here, but this is the reality.
How do you think that other group is
so influential and powerful?
You all know how it is.
Do I need to be more explicit?
This is the power.
They are smaller than us.
They're fewer than us.
They're not as diverse as us.
Wallahi, we are more talented than them.
Wallahi, we are more diverse than them.
You all know this.
And perhaps, perhaps, they might be a little
bit wealthier, but give us 10 years, 20
years.
The way we're headed, mashallah, tabarakallah, we are
going to be wealthier than them as well.
But, but, but, is there any comparison for
the amount of lobbying and fundraising that each
of these two groups for political causes?
We don't even do it.
And to dare encourage people to do it,
it's as if you become the enemy.
Ya khi, the Quran allows explicitly zakat to
be given for political causes.
Why?
Because one of the goals of zakat is
to take care of the fuqra and masakeen.
Another goal, to take care of the ummah.
Which is more important?
You feed one hungry, or you protect a
million people from the tragedy going on?
Which is more important?
And that's why Allah, in his hikmah, gave
eight categories.
Two of them, yes, fuqra and masakeen.
And two of them, fee sabeelillah and muallaf
dee qulooboom.
And if you know what fee sabeelillah means,
what is fee sabeelillah?
Let's just say defense of the ummah.
We have to struggle to defend the ummah,
right?
And that struggling, you pay money for it.
This is fee sabeelillah, you are protecting the
ummah.
You give your zakat to protect the ummah.
And muallaf dee qulooboom is what?
Protecting the ummah.
So, bottom line, we have a lot to
learn from the Quran and seerah that we
have forgotten.
We have a lot to implement.
And you see what is happening in the
world?
Anybody who doubts the efficiency of political campaigning
and lobbying, are you blind to the reality
of what the other group is doing?
Why is that other group so powerful?
Because for the last 50 years, their strategy.
Now, I understand.
Wallahi, I understand.
It involves dubiousness and unethical and this and
that.
So, there's a gray area.
I'm not saying it's easy.
I'm not saying it's easy.
But the solution is not to run away.
The solution is not to close your ears
and blind your eyes and say, I cannot,
I cannot.
The solution is, okay, we understand the shariah
allows.
Now, let's discuss the zawabit, the conditions.
Now, let's discuss the methodology.
Let's have that conversation amongst experts, fuqaha, ulama,
siyaseyun, political experts, analysts, lawyers, come together, lock
them in a room, say khalas, now give
us the conditions, what we need to do.
But nowhere is this conversation even happening in
this whole country.
It is beginning now, by the way, Dr.
Wathala, but this is because of the incident.
Otherwise, where were this conversation happening?
Nowhere are the leaders and the shakers, the
movers and thinkers are actually coming together and
having a strategy for the ummah.
Why not?
Many reasons, I'm not blaming everything, but one
of them is because, and this is the
one that is the most frustrating for me,
because I come from this class, because our
own internal, internal checks and balances and clerics,
many of them, they are going to be
an impediment to this.
And I know, because I am one, when
I criticize, I'm criticizing myself and my group,
understand this point, they will say, oh, no,
no, but that was only for the Prophet
salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
They will say, we don't want to open
this door in our time.
I've heard this from my own colleagues and
peers.
Nobody can deny the Quran said, how can
this in the Quran?
Nobody can deny the seerah does this.
Obviously everybody knows what will they say?
Yeah, but if we open this door, then
this is where they go with.
And so they're, what are they scared?
They're worried.
And again, to cut them some slack.
I understand the fear.
It's not as if it's out of blue
air, but again, thin air, but again, the
solution is not to retreat to the safety
of a comfort blanket of the child.
The solution is not returned back to the
past.
The solution is to push forward and be
brave enough to understand Allah has given us
this allowance.
Now let's see, what are the conditions that
are needed to make this permissible?
What are the the wabit and the criterion?
What can we do?
What can we not do?
Who amongst us is doing this?
Very, very few people, but Alhamdulillah, one of
the organizations that has been at the forefront
of Islamic political activism.
And it is of course, the mother of
all such organizations, Alhamdulillah.
It is of course care.
And on a personal anecdote, I don't even
know if our Ustad Nihad Awad knows this,
but I think it was 1990, if I'm
not mistaken.
I was a young 15 or something year
old in Houston, Texas.
You probably don't even remember this, right?
And 91, 92, something like this.
When did, when was CARE formed?
94.
Huh?
94.
But before CARE was formed, you were still
giving lectures and talks, right?
Before CARE was formed, the idea was there.
91, 92, Nihad Awad came to ISGH in
Houston, Texas.
He came to Houston, Texas and I, young
teenager in the audience sitting there, I had
no idea who he is, he had no
idea who I am, right?
And here we are standing on stage together
after 40 plus years.
And the first time I heard about, there
was some Islamophobic incident that happened.
I forgot now some, uh, some, yeah, something
happened.
I forgot now such a long time ago.
But you know, it was in the news
and all the Muslims talking, what can be
done?
What not?
And our brother Nihad Awad was touring the
country and he came to Houston as well
saying that, Muslims, we have to do something.
How can we allow this to happen?
You know, this is our country, they're doing
this, they're getting away, what not?
So that, that passion, that, and it just
made complete sense.
Yeah.
How can we just sit here and do
nothing?
How can we allow the media and the
politicians, why don't we have to come together?
And SubhanAllah, this was the formation of, you
know, uh, CARE.
There was the idea of forming CARE and
here we are, Alhamdulillah, CARE has an amazing
and immense track record.
And listen, guys, Wallahi, the critics can find
fault with everything.
What have the critics done though?
With utmost respect, we all, when we do
something, are going to make some good and
some bad, some mistakes and a lot of
good inshaAllah ta'ala.
The only person who's flawless is our Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Everybody else is going to make some issues,
I'm going to make others.
So rather than pick nitpick and fault find
and what not, understand this is a difficult
area.
You're trying your best to accomplish and yeah,
you're going to try one thing, try another
thing.
But the spirit and the goal and the
vision is 100% Islamic.
So it is my pleasure and honor to
welcome Mihad Awad.
He's been here before, but of course now
he's coming again at a very sensitive time.
I'm going to hand it over to you
and inshaAllah you can advise and suggest to
us some of the tactics we can do.
And then inshaAllah we'll open the floor for
Q&A for all of you.
So Bismillah.
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim.
Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh.
I'm so honored to be in the presence
of all of you and also share a
stage with our respected imam and leader, Dr.
Yusuf Qadi.
I don't think, you know, you made me
look so old.
He said 40 years.
I think it's maybe 30 years.
Okay.
I know we're coming to speak at a
very, very critical time in the history of
our ummah and our nation, our nation as
American Muslims.
And allow me to be open, not necessarily
blunt, but frank, if that's okay.
Maybe some said okay.
What about the rest?
Okay.
Okay, inshaAllah.
I gave the khutbah.
I had the honor of being here last
Friday and I gave the khutbah and I
laid out a 15-year plan.
Has anyone heard it from you?
Okay.
So maybe I will lay it out and
maybe remind some of you who heard it.
So we have like two ways to resolve
some of our important issues as American Muslims.
Alhamdulillah, Allah blessed us.
We established a strong foundation for Islam and
the Muslim community in the United States.
And this is a very good example, EPIC
Islamic Center.
And this is my second time ever to
the center, Friday and Tuesday.
I'm so blessed.
The question to you, what is next for
EPIC?
Are you going to grow vertically, more physical
buildings, which is mashaAllah good and it's a
reflection of your strength to grow bigger?
Or my challenge is also to think about
growing vertically in terms of influence and building
political and social power for the Muslim community
here and lead by example to build political
power and influence for American Muslims nationwide and
you take the lead.
So I said there are two ways to
deal with the current crisis.
Immediate reaction and action which we have been
doing ever since October 8th happened until now.
And I asked the question during Juma, has
the American Muslim community done enough to prevent
a genocide from happening?
The answer was, has the Muslim community done
enough since October 8th until now to stop
the genocide?
The answer is, so something is missing, right?
So we have done a lot of work.
We have protested.
We have rallied.
I believe we made our voices heard, no
question.
And I saw that the tone started to
change among some politicians, no problem.
And I think the world public opinion has
shifted, not because of us, because of the
steadfastness of people in Gaza, because of their
humanity, because their strong belief in Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala and also because of the
naked brutality of the Israeli aggression aided, armed
and justified by our own government.
So the needle has shifted in the positive
side.
70% of the American public, they support
ceasefire.
However, only 7% of our elected representatives
believe in ceasefire.
Why is the gap?
If the majority of the American public believes
there should be a ceasefire and only 7
% especially in Congress believe and act on
it, then there is a disconnect.
Let's try to unpack this.
This is really the current situation.
From now until November, we have choices.
We are going to mobilize and obviously as
a C3 organization, the mosque cannot tell you
who to vote for, right?
Outside the mosque, I can tell you.
I can tell you the process.
But given where we are, I'm going to
give you some information, some analysis.
So this is really the current crisis.
I call it stage one.
I believe the more important one is the
long-term plan that we need to think
of.
So if I ask you, brothers, are we
well represented in the media?
So we are not only underrepresented, we are
misrepresented in the media, correct?
So are we well represented in the movie
industry?
We are highly misrepresented for generations, for over
110 years.
Islam and Muslims and the Prophet ﷺ, Palestinians
and Arabs and all of you have been
denigrated scientifically and systematically.
So it's not haphazard.
When you create a Hollywood movie, there is
a planning, there's genius thinking, there's a storyboard,
there's a plot, there's a villain, there's a
good guy.
It's an industry.
So when you take that side of the
story, being the villain, that's deliberate.
Time and after time, one generation after one
generation, there is science.
And what's the outcome of Hollywood movie like
1,000 of them?
Hatred, bias, discrimination, Islamophobia, unfair policies at home
and abroad.
Are we on the same page so far?
Then also in the courts.
I think we are underrepresented.
I'm not going to say we are misrepresented
because we have a good court system.
Can you hear me?
So the court, I think we can get
it, we can fight and we can win,
right?
Because we have attorneys and Mashallah.
How about in history, in the history books,
how Islam and the history of the Muslim
world and Middle East are represented?
Completely biased.
It has been written by the colonizers and
colonizers perspectives.
And this is being taught and people are
tested and they are evaluated.
So there you go.
And political science.
Have you seen any solid high profile political
media outlet giving Muslims fairness?
No.
So we are underrepresented in these areas.
Are we well represented in engineering?
Are we well represented in medicine, in IT?
Okay.
I mean, I shouldn't ask, right?
So where we are misrepresented and underrepresented, there
should be some planning to be represented, correct?
So here is the plan that I laid
out on Friday.
I said, we have 4,000 mosques in
America, Alhamdulillah.
And most of our mosques are well-to
-do.
They have good budgets.
And I suggested the following, that every mosque,
every board of directors, and if they don't,
you should pressure the board of directors to
create a fund, scholarship fund.
Once per year, they should give five scholarships.
One for journalism, second for law, third for
filmmaking and production, fourth for history, fifth for
political science.
Every year, mosques should give this scholarship to
bright students within the community.
In return, once they're done and they work,
they can serve the Muslim community pro bono
or just work within the community and they
will be trained by Muslim organizations and Alhamdulillah,
they will just be unleashed to succeed in
their lives as Muslims.
So four years from now, if we start
in 2025, four years from now, what is
going to happen for the Muslim community?
The Muslim community will have 4,000 new
journalists, 4,000 new filmmakers, 4,000 new
lawyers, 4,000 political scientists, 4,000 students
of history and potentially can be teachers of
history.
15 years from now, 15 years from now,
if the Muslim community does it consistently and
it can, if it wants, we will have,
the Muslim community will have 20,000 attorneys,
20,000 filmmakers, 20,000 journalists, 20,000
media and political commentators and maybe professors, 20
,000 students and teachers of history.
So who will speak for Islam?
American Muslim professors?
Who will tell the story of Islam and
Muslim issues at home and abroad?
Muslim professionals.
Who will make movies that will speak to
the reality and entertain people from a responsible
perspective?
Muslim professionals.
Who will teach people about history and correct
history and write history?
Who will be trusted historians?
Does this, does it sound like a good
plan?
And these lawyers, what will happen to these
lawyers?
They might become judges.
In fact, many of these lawyers might become
lawmakers, elected representatives, because the best members of
Congress are the ones who are lawyers.
Because a lawyer or being representative in the
House or in the Senate, whether state or
federal, it's about making laws, not policies.
The ones who make policies are the executive
branch.
So brothers and sisters, we can close this
gap and we have to.
We have to.
In 20 years, the reality of the American
Muslim community will be very different.
We will not, inshallah, find a crisis that
we find ourselves in today, feeling desperate, feeling
disappointed, feeling powerless, that we pray to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala and we try to
give money here and there, but it's not
changing the policy of our government.
Have we, as I said, asked two critical
questions.
Have we done enough to change the attitude
and policy of this administration?
The answer was not radically.
Now they're trying to hold it, to hold
the stick from the middle.
They're trying to throw crumbs at us that
they recognize the Palestinian humanity.
Thank you, that's good, but have they stopped
shipping bombs and missiles to the state of
Israel to shell and destroy people?
They have not.
Have they put enough pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu
to stop the carnage?
They have not.
I mean, the president, inshallah, yesterday said such
and such did not do and has not
done enough to have a deal.
Well, thank you, but that's not enough.
He knows that he has the power to
put an arms embargo, but he has not
done it.
Why?
Because the Muslim community is not there yet.
I'll give you four stages, brother, and keep
these four stages in your mind.
What are the stages of a community growth
in the United States?
Number one is persecuted.
The second one is present.
The third one is effective.
The fourth one is celebrated.
The Muslim community, I don't say it's a
persecuted community.
It's not a persecuted community, but I would
say it's shifted from persecuted to present.
That means we are there.
No, we cannot hide.
People see us and we are about our
business, but we're not effective, correct?
I mean, let's be open.
We are not effective.
The third level is to be effective.
Effective means representing its interest, maybe defending its
interest, and that's maybe the next level for
the Muslim community, but that is not what
we are aiming at.
You can be even effective in getting some
legislation done or maybe curbing some policies and
be good to defend yourself, and that's really
powerful.
That's not and should not be the aim
of the Muslim community in the United States.
Our aim in the United States should be
to be a celebrated community, which means we
are effective, we are present, and we stand
for good for ourselves and for the rest
of humanity.
And yes, we don't only have our voice
heard, but we have the power to impact
policies and change them and be respected and
applauded and celebrated, and that should be the
goal, the ultimate goal of American Muslims, as
the Prophet ﷺ was.
We're not here just to defend ourselves.
We are here to defend everything that's good
and stand up against anything evil and wrong.
But okay, to conclude, I know that time
is short.
So brothers and sisters, so I want you
to think that the 15 years plan is
and should be the common vision that American
Muslims have.
That if your children, for example, aspire to
become journalists, don't be or don't block them
because you want them to be like you.
No, let them be themselves.
That's their time, that's their destiny, and that's
an area that we missed.
If your child wants to become a filmmaker,
be their biggest supporter.
If they want to be journalists, don't say,
oh, this doesn't make money.
Well, we Muslims should not be materialistic.
And how much we've been bitten by the
media, and we have been just scarcing at
the TV when we look at, and we
hope that we wish that we have some
Muslims there.
Well, if your children are heading that way,
be their biggest support.
So brothers and sisters, don't try to mold
the next generation the way you have been
shaped.
Let them shape you and the future.
And that's the way out.
Because these people understand.
They see the guts, the courage, the bravery
of young American Muslims on campuses today.
They're much braver than the older generation.
They put everything they had, their career, their
reputation, their safety, their graduation to defend people
they've never seen in Gaza.
Whether they're Desi brothers and sisters, African American
brothers and sisters, they don't have to be
necessarily Palestinians or Arabs on campus.
Even you have people who are Jewish and
people who have no faith.
They have been fighting for what you believe
and you hope for.
So let's be at least helpful for those
people.
Now, I'll come back to the first problem
that we have at hand and just be
frank what we can do.
So I will analyze the following for you.
Number one, a mosque like C3 organization cannot
get involved in political work in terms of
partisan activities.
However, the masjid C3 organization can and should
encourage people to be civically engaged, to register
to vote and go out to vote.
This is the least.
If we care about the Ummah and ourselves
here, that should be like basic.
We should not be intimidated by practicing our
own rights and duties.
The only thing a masjid cannot do is
to endorse campaigns, candidates, but you can even
invite candidates on both sides equally and give
them a platform without endorsing them.
That's the C3 organization.
The benefit of having a C3 organization is
your funds are tax exempt and the donation
to you are tax deductible.
That's the benefit of having C3 organization, right?
But you cannot do lobbying because the IRS
code does not allow it.
So what do we need?
We need another organization called C4, social advocacy
organization, C4, outside the masjid.
The C4 organization can lobby, can fight legislation,
can propose legislation, can mobilize people to get
legislation at any level in our life, at
the school board, at the city council, at
the state house, all the way to the
federal government.
However, although the donation to the C4 organization
is tax exempt, but donation to it is
not tax deductible.
So if you are a donor to C4
organization, it's out.
It's not coming back to you.
Why?
Because there are other communities who are effective.
They have C4 organizations and they don't have
to get money back.
So you have to be, I don't say
you shouldn't be stingy.
If you want to have an influence, you
have to pay for it.
Are we okay with that?
Okay.
Now, the third level of organizations, there are
two more left, are PACs, political action committees,
and I think all of you know PACs,
political action committees.
They collect money and they give to candidates,
but also they have limited ceiling as how
much they give.
They cannot give more than $5,000 to
a candidate, so it's not really much.
However, they can raise money to candidates.
So they encourage people, their members to give
money for candidates.
Are we okay with that?
The more effective and most effective entity, brothers
and sisters, I want you to pay attention
to this, is what the Supreme Court about
11 years ago allowed to happen, which is
super PACs.
Super PACs, or independent expenditure, is really the
organization that makes or breaks any campaign.
And donation to the C4 is, you can
give as much as you want, but the
real money is in the super PAC.
There's unlimited amount of money people can give
PACs, super PACs.
Super PACs simply is an organization, you know,
corporation, you can create and you can have
millions of dollars, but you don't give to
the campaign itself or to the candidate, but
you create a TV ad, you can send
a mailer, you can do like digital ad
for the benefit of the candidate without coordinating
with him or with her.
So you see on TV, for example, this
ad is paid by XY super PAC.
These are the organization that make or break
the races that you hear about.
Now, this is the announcement.
CAIR, Alhamdulillah, the C3 organization that defends the
rights of American Muslims for the past 30
years, free of charge.
Alhamdulillah, we have 70 attorneys, so I feel
that our rights are protected.
Anyone who faces any action of discrimination or
intimidation because they're Muslim, they should feel free
to contact the organization, including our office here
at DFW.
We have brother Mustafa Kiril and we have
brother Adil and we have brother Sohail, plenty
of people and there will be a table
outside.
Now, CAIR has created the C4 organization, which
is a lobbying organization to elevate the political
influence of the Muslim community, and especially this
was created after the genocide in Gaza.
We were able to do it before, but
to be honest with you, we grew with
the community, okay?
When everybody thought that, oh wow, we're spinning
our wheels as C3 organizations, we're not getting
any traction with these politicians.
We cannot lobby, but C4 organization can lobby.
So, CAIR action is a C4 organization.
Alhamdulillah, we have a chapter here at DFW.
Brother Sohail is here and there are other
people outside, so connect with them and be
part of this organization.
CAIR has also created the SuperPAC.
Alhamdulillah, say at least Takbir.
This is important because the Muslim community and
others have been complaining, where are the Muslim
PACs?
There is a Muslim SuperPAC today and it's
called Unity and Justice Fund.
You go there, I cannot talk more about
it because of the limitations as I explained
to you in the mosque.
We cannot say more, but please connect with
the Muslim organizations.
It's the right time for us to move
on and beyond our status quo.
Doing business as usual has not prevented the
genocide and has not stopped it.
We need different forms of work based on
what Dr. Yasser shared with us.
Even the Prophet ﷺ used money to protect
the interests of the community and the peace
of the Muslim community and Medina.
And today, the Muslim community should roll up
its sleeves and change things in the most
effective ways others have preceded us and we
should catch up and prioritize.
I'll give you the analysis finally of where
the Muslim community is standing on the elections.
You will ask us a question, whom to
vote for?
We cannot tell you here inside the masjid.
But seek out and wait maybe for two
weeks after the debate.
Next week, the task force of the American
Muslim community which we are part of will
make a decision.
Where the Muslim voters stand on today is
the following.
CARE has released a survey of about 2
,500 people and the following is where the
Muslim community or where the Muslim voters are
leaning towards.
29.4% are intending to vote for
Kamala Harris.
So this is just by way of information.
Even in the masjid, it's okay, we can
say it.
29.4% are planning to vote for
Kamala Harris.
29.1% are planning to vote for
Jill Stein, Green Party.
11% are planning to vote for Donald
Trump.
4.5% are planning to vote for
Cornel West.
So what this tells you is that the
Muslim community for the first time is sending
a very powerful message to the Democratic Party.
69% of Muslim voters vote usually Democrats.
59% now are saying that they are
considering a third option and that's a very
powerful message for the Democratic Party to wake
up, smell the coffee and catch up if
they can.
Would they do that?
Probably you know what I know, right?
So the key thing brothers and sisters is
this survey shows that the American Muslim community
is engaged.
The Muslim community on November 4th is not
going to stay home and it is a
political suicide if you are a Muslim voter
and you stay at home just because you're
not happy.
Because you're not happy, go and vote.
Go and vote.
You're not happy?
Okay, time is coming.
This cycle of election is going to be
over in a couple of months.
There will be more.
There will be 2028.
Hard work should start now.
Palestine will be there.
Kashmir will be there.
India will be there.
Myanmar will be there.
Broken neighborhoods here around us will be there.
The Muslim community should be organized, should be
effective, should be celebrated.
And we should shift where we spend our
money.
We have to protect the future of the
Ummah here.
We have to protect America from itself.
And the Muslim world is looking up to
the Muslim community in the United States.
You are not living in any other country.
You're living in the most powerful country in
the world.
And the relationship between the Muslim community, the
Muslim world and the United States are not
in the right place and the Muslim community
should take responsibility for it.
Whether it's because of you or not.
But we cannot be indifferent.
We cannot say, oh, we have nothing to
do with it.
You have everything to do with it because
you live in America.
Everything America is doing, it's doing in your
name with your tax dollars, whether you like
it or not.
And those who are in power are there
because either you did not vote for them
or you did not vote at all.
So being absent, being indifferent, being not organized,
I venture to say it's not the Islamic
way of living, especially at this time and
in this place.
So I want to conclude.
Jazakumullah khair for your time.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless you.
Myself and the care people will be out
there again due to the limitation of the
C3 status of the masjid and what I
can do also as a representative of CARE.
Although I spoke as an advisor for the
CARE C4, inshallah there's a lot more connected
with us online and inshallah we'll find the
solution from now until November and beyond.
Jazakumullah khair.
Jazakumullah khair Ustaz Nahda Awad along with the
CARE staff will be outside for further questions.
Jazakumullah khair for coming.
Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
Assalamu
alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.