Yassir Fazaga – Statement About Tyre Nichols

			Bilawal hamdu lillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah in the name of Allah to compassionate, the Most
Merciful. All praise is due to Allah and may his peace and blessings be upon our beloved prophet
muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, I begin by greeting you all Assalamu alaykum Warahmatullahi
Wabarakatuh just attempting to answer a question that's been going on around social media nowadays,
I'm not on social media, but it was just brought to my attention regarding Tyree Nichols and whether
Tyree Nichols took shahada Masjid salaam or not. So remember that Monsieur de salaam, I am the Imam
of Masjid Salaam. By the way, the way that we like to do things is that when people come to take
		

			their shahada, we like for them to take their shahada publicly. And the reason we like for people to
take their shahada publicly is because we want to celebrate this is a really, really important
event. And we want this to be a communal celebration. In addition to that, we also identify this
individual, this brother or sister as a community member, so that they receive their rights, and
that we have an obligation towards them, be burial beats, support, whatever the case is, we want to
identify this individual as a community member. And that takes place when this happens publicly.
Please remember, making your shahada public is not a requirement to validate your Islam, you don't
		

			need to you do not need your shahada to be done in front of a chef, you do not need to have it in
front of an Imam, you don't need to do it in front of a masjid, you don't need to do it with the
congregation, you can actually make your own shahada private, and that is 100%. Acceptable.
		

			So we will make sure that this is clear. We also want to acknowledge the challenges that some of our
brothers and sisters who go through, you know when they convert to Islam, you know, sometimes people
become Muslims, and they just don't want that information to be public. Either. They are not ready
for it yet. They have familial issues that are taking place. I have had many people who came to me
and said, Look, I became a Muslim. And I did not tell my parents for an entire year, I did not know
how my mom is going through the app. My mother is very religiously active. My dad is active in the
church. And we just want to make sure that you know, I can tell my parents this information. And
		

			somehow I am able to control the reaction or at least predict the reaction. 100% agree that many
people take their shahada, but they do not necessarily come out publicly to indicate that they are
that they are Muslims. So what happened in the case of Tyree Nichols, I gave the hotbar, the same
Friday that the video was going to be released. I speak to the community to speak about against
police brutality, we speak against oppression and all this whole base over a brother comes to me and
tells me that he believes that tidy Nichols is a Muslim because the brother has given him a Shahada.
So I have the light, you know, so what happens and I met a brother three years ago, in some event,
		

			you know, the Muslims were praying outside tidy nickels seemed like he was interested according to
this brother, and he was listening to what was going on. It was the Friday fatwa. Afterwards, you
know Tyree started walking away. The brother called him and said brothers, salaam alaikum. I don't
know if he greeted him with a Salam Alikum but whether you know, we're glad to have you what's going
on, spoke to him, gave him a business card. Fast forward. The brother tells us that July of 2022 he
believes that tidy Nichols came to Mercy the salam and took shahada atmosphere to Salah brother also
reminded me that I personally was given the hotbar that they admitted to the salam. But I was not
		

			available when tidy. Nichols took the shahada, the brother was the only one present with few other
brothers when tidy. Nichols took the Shahada. Now admittedly, the salaam when people come in and
take the shahada publicly, we usually record our hotbars. And if somebody is taking the shahada, the
hotbar is the audio recording is extended to also include in it the person taking a Shahada. Does
this happen every single time? No, it only happens when the shahada is scheduled. Many times we may
have a shahada that is scheduled but the person ended up showing up late or coming in late. Many
times. We have had people who come in after Juma is over as people are leaving, we are all standing
		

			in the multipurpose hall. And the person walks in and says this is my friend, he wants to take
shahada right there and then in the multipurpose room, we huddle people in you know, brothers
sisters, you know, come in, you know, such and such person has taken the shahada, we celebrate their
shahada, we embrace them and we and we hug them. We do not have any such record of this happening at
Masjid salaam I'm talking about we do not have any video recording of this happening at Masjid
		

			Should Salam. So what happens is, procedurally speaking, mostly the Salaam is unable to confirm this
information. But also because of the report of this brother, we are unable to deny this information.
And the way that this information now, the way that the story is being told around social media, is
that the leadership ethnicity Salaam is suppressing this information. And I say, Man, this is this
is really sad, because every time we brought up the issue of diary Nichols, I reminded the community
I say, Look, we have a report that tells us that brother, tidy, Nichols has taken the shahada, if
that is the case, Alhamdulillah here, but may Allah subhana, Allah bless his soul and may Allah
		

			Subhana Allah, you reunite us with him in the highest place of paradise, Europa Alameen. Remember
when we made this statement, we are neither confirming nor are we denying? The point here is not to
deny somebody Islam or rubella. Why would we do that? I think that we would all be extremely happy.
If we find out that it Nichols died a Muslim 100 liable Alameen. If that is the case, while law you
we would all be happy if that is if that is the case. So what happened?
		

			People who have heard this story initially, they pointed out to some discrepancies into the story. I
personally spoke to the brother, a beautiful brother who said that, you know, it's given him the
shahada, a brother is a pioneer in the community has been very active in the Darrow scene for 40
years. I said to the brother said, Brother, if you give Ty the shahada, why did we not fight for his
legal Islamic rights? You know, what about a Muslim burial? Why did we not make that you know, part
of part of what is going on? And brother said, look, he said, you know, the political situation was
so charged, and we did not or the brother felt that he did not want to disturb what was happening by
		

			bringing in another disturbing element into the scene. So he said, I just I just I just held back
Hamdulillah we also have a community member here in our midst, brother Surrey, who worked with Tyree
Nichols at Verizon for about three years sorry, met with tidy nickels three days before being him
you know, killed by the by the police or beat to death by the by the police. Tyree Nichols is aware
of brother Solomon, so sorry, is a Muslim. They have had many conversations about Islam. Three days
prior to him being beat to death by the police said he called Tyree nickels to catch up and they had
coffee together. And they spoke about many things, and tidy did not bring up him converting to
		

			Islam. Two brothers sorry. Is that enough to deny the person their deal their Islam? Absolutely not.
Maybe he forgot. Maybe the opportunity never presented itself? Maybe he was still not comfortable
going public with that information? Is this the basis as to why we are unable to confirm? Absolutely
not. But this is part of the greater story that is taking place out there.
		

			And then also, what we said is, if if somebody makes such a claim, you know, in sha Allah, it never
happens to any of us if the case is that we outlive our children and our child passes away. And
somebody you know, makes a claim a local pastor or local rabbi, they make a claim that this person
came to our church, we baptize them or they accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. As a
parent, I'll be very livid and I'll say What proof do you have for making for making this statement?
And if we do not, if they do not have a proof, there was a wiry spreading rumors about my about my
child. So procedurally speaking, Mr. De Salam is unable to confirm such information. What we also
		

			cannot deny it on the basis that we have a brother who said, I believe that I gave this person a
shahada Alhamdulillah on a personal level, I choose to believe this brother procedurally as an
institution, it would be very difficult for me to make such a to make such a claim. So that is what
happened. But the idea that we are suppressing information, denying information, intentionally
withholding information, I'm sorry, but I think that's just silly. And like I said, the sad part is
people claiming that they have
		

			Personally confirmed with Masuda Salam, I am the Imam of mercy, the Salah, I have not received a
single call, not a single call, not a single individual ever called to confirm with me.
		

			They call the masjid, maybe they spoke to our office manager. And our position has been cleared,
brothers we are unable to deny, nor are we able to confirm that report. This is a case that has
received a lot of attention, national international attention. And if the institution is going to
make such a statement, we better have some very solid proof. Even the brother who gave him the
shahada did not feel that you know what it was, it was,
		

			it was proper for him to go out there and fight for, you know, for the, for the burial, or for the
rights of Tyrion Nichols as a,
		

			as a Muslim. Please remember that we are not attempting to take away Islam from Brother Nichols or
anybody or anybody else.
		

			And a point before last that I want to make is, and this is beat at Mr. De Salam. And I hope that
this is the case everywhere else. When people come in and identify as Muslims, we do not, and we
should not inquire into the validity of their Islam.
		

			People get very offended when you do that. And it's a really, really sensitive topic for our
brothers and sisters convert specially in the African American community. When somebody you know,
this idea of just questioning their Deen questioning their Islam. It's not it doesn't feel good, you
know, and I sometimes you know, we are unable to, to, to relate to this as an immigrant community, I
still be able to imagine that every time somebody meets us at Are you a citizen? What proof do you
have? Are you here legally? What proof do you have? People would get offended by these types of
questions when other people also, you know, why don't you just take my word at face value? If I say
		

			I'm a Muslim, then that's all we need. That that is all we need to say that, you know, to say that
somebody is a Muslim, our brother and sister is not only our brother and sister in humanity, but
also our brother and sister in in faith. The last point is that our community was interested in the
case. Not because Tyree, Nichols was a Muslim, we're interested in the case because what happened to
him is wrong, regardless of what he believed or did not believe. And I believe that as a community,
let's make sure that we don't care about these things only when it's when these things happen to
people like us, but also when it happens to people who are not like us. We do not care for peace and
		

			justice only for the people that we like, but also we care for peace and justice for people that we
may not like or they may not like they may not like us, because justice is an absolute virtue,
meaning that how we feel is irrelevant to the fact that we want justice to be carried to be carried
out. So again, the point here is not to deny Brother Nichols dying a Muslim, procedural speaking
once again, this is where do we stand as a masjid? I hope this is a clarification and I know that
this is going to raise more questions than give answers but nevertheless, it may answer some of the
questions out there. Does that matter hair salon Malika