Malcolm X And Muhammad Ali
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Okay so welcome everyone thank you for coming on we're gonna start the program soon but before we start we'd like to open up with the Clippers education underground so to further ado welcome Muhammad to the same
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our Lord is Allah and then remain steadfast there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.
It is they who will be the residents of paradise staying there forever as a reward for that which they used to do.
We have commanded people to honor their parents. The mothers bore them in hardship and delivered them in hardship. Their period of bearing and weaning is 30 months in time when the child reaches their pride at the age of 40. They pray, my lord inspiring me to always be thankful for your favors.
Which you have blessed me and my parents and to do good deeds that leads you and instill righteousness in my offspring.
I truly repent to you and I truly submit to your will. It is from these people that we will accept the good lady and overlook their misdeeds along with the residents of Paris in fulfillments of true promise they have been getting along
okay, so I'm gonna
talk about a problem How beautiful are citation Next I would like to introduce someone very important you know this this young lady keeps up together the reason we have this event, you know, she keeps her focus. She helped organize this book the room with me every day to make sure we're on pass. Without further ado, please give a warm welcome to the President himself my own
Thank you, thank, you
know undergoes great work to obviously. Okay, so. So I've everyone I like to welcome everyone to this event. It's great that this event has garnered like so much interest and that so many people can benefit from the important discussion back. And then they champion and pear national Deputy Director Edward Mitchell will be leaving shortly. I'm Hamsa thrill and a co president of Georgetown Law is most often Association alongside Pilar, who's in the back as well, also and Lordstown. We would like to thank our sponsors and collaborators George Washington's Muslim Law Students Association and the National MUFON Law Students Association who is hosting its annual conference
here at Georgetown. The conference is happening March 17. Through the 19th. It's a three day event filled with speakers and activities for law students, and those interested in law to gain knowledge and build connections with their future Muslim colleagues. Please join us on the conference March 17. Through the 19th year at Georgetown, it'll be on main campus.
So studying history is not only not only gives us the tools to analyze and explain problems in the past that positions us to see patterns that might otherwise be invisible to us in the present, like racial inequities and injustice, hidden by microaggressions and illegal tools that perpetuate systemic racism. marginalized populations know this all too well within our community. But tonight, in an attempt to peel back the curtain, we hope to engage in a more nuanced conversation on intersectionality of identities, and hopefully find a common ground to build coalitions of resistance. Last night, I attended a Georgetown one Black Law Students Association general body
meeting, and though I witnessed a lot of black joy and success, I've heard stories that made my heart wrench I listened to upperclassmen recommend that newcomers only take classes where they're flying grading so that they can ensure no lies on on behalf of the professors. I witnessed students often speaking about how common it was that they skipped classes after a law professor made racist comments or assertions or hurtful comments. And I also heard students recommend trainings on what to do in case you're stopped by police to prevent the death to prevent death in black community. The students are called the murder of Tyree Nichols, a 29 year old in Memphis, Tennessee who has also
been to death by fire officers and what as he was calling at birth mom, I remember my experience in Palestine on my healthcare career this past winter break, where I witnessed the sense of racism to Arabs of all kinds. I also witnessed the the pool that was had taken on Palestinian lock or student who I met in for the university, whose movement was restricted at the point that they had not visited an aqua mosque in over six years, about a half hour drive from their home. One student took me to see the 20 foot statue of Nelson Mandela that Palestinians had erected in the middle of a roundabout. They viewed him as a symbol of freedom, justice, equality and hope that their country
too would soon be free from the shackles of apartheid. I hope that we can draw from this example tonight and use the discussion that we're about to have to think about how we may draw parallels of discrimination, and hopefully coalition built for the future. I encourage everyone to listen and think intently about the discussions that these amazing speakers will lead and raise any questions that will deepen the conversation. Our secretary ogham has propped up the QR code that you can use to submit any questions for the q&a session. So I would like to introduce our first speaker, Edward almond. Mitchell was an attorney and former journalist who served as the Deputy Director of Council
on American Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. Mr. Mitchell previously served as the executive director of care Georgia from 2016 to 2020. During that time, the civil rights organization recalled numerous cases of anti Muslim discrimination and opened its first office and expanded staff to include a paralegal adept attorney legislative aide.
He and communications director and 2016 the chapter received care national Chapter of the Year award. Before joining here, Georgia Mr. Mitchell practice law as a criminal prosecutor for the city of Atlanta and worked as a freelance journalist for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Mr. Mitchell is a 22,009 graduate of Morehouse College and also an alum of Georgetown University Law Center, where he won first place in the law school annual Trial Advocacy competition served as editor in chief of the Georgetown Law weekly and was elected president of the local Moffitt sociation please give him a warm welcome
Salam Alaikum
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim back to the locker lo ni wa Salatu was Salam ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa salam. So first thank you to also for inviting me here to speak. It's really an honor to be back at Georgetown, when you leave law school, you've never really want to come back. It's it's been somewhat eerie to be back in these these rooms that you were I was Hong Kong two years ago. But if you're gonna come back to law school, this is the way you want to come back. Seeing so many Muslim students in Georgetown, contributing to the school and getting ready to contribute to our society, Lauren, so did not come here to all of you. And thank you again, for having me. It's a
real pleasure to be here and an honor to be here. I know that I am. The only thing standing between us and hear from mom is a charmer. So I will try to be briefer than lawyers usually are in Shaw. I was asking him here tonight to discuss the systemic discrimination, the synthetic bigotry we both from the government and private actors that not only the black community, but in particular, the black Muslim community has space for decades. That is a difficult discussion for me to have. And as I was trying to prepare for this, I really was having trouble deciding what to say. And the reason that when I think of the Black Muslim community, in particular, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali me, Allah
mercy upon them, I don't think of them as victims, I don't first think about what was done to them, I think about what they did. I think about what they accomplished, I think about how they overcame all the challenges they face, it's very difficult for me to have a conversation about the black community and think about what we suffered, I can only really talk about we accomplished. Nonetheless, there are absolutely incredible challenges that the black Muslim community in particular space for decades, that we continue to face today. And in fact, I would say that many of the challenges my organization that deals with hair are really milder versions of problems that lack
we'll see community confronted 1020 30 years. And so I wanted to discuss briefly tight and shallow are some of the challenges that the black male CPD face years ago. It's how those challenges are somewhat similar different than the challenges we're dealing with today. And then most importantly, how the black community in particular Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X overcame some of those challenges. The first thing I want to note that before I dive into that, as I already have today, it's what the second day of Black History Month, we're here to discuss lacking some history and racism and discrimination. And you all saw what happened today. I was outside the capitol building earlier
today with other Muslim organizations, air organizations or auntie organizations. And we were discussing the US house's decision to kick Ilhan Omar off of the House Foreign Relations Committee. Now, the the Speaker of the House explanation for this as well, you know, we had to do this because she has made anti semitic remarks in the past and so she can't serve in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. But that is ludicrous. As we all know, the real reason they kicked her off community golf, the committee is because she is black, because she is because she is a woman because she's a visibly Muslim woman. And because she is out spoken in particular about Palestinian human rights,
the third rail of American politics, so Kevin McCarthy really care by anti semitism. He would condemn Donald Trump. He would kick Marjorie Taylor Greene and all go start their committees, and he apologize for tolerating their nonsense for all these years. But he doesn't do that. It's much easier to smear and silence a black Muslim woman who speaks about Palestinian human rights. And so we still have Ilhan Omar today as part of a long pattern of people singling out and targeting attempting to silence and suppress the black Muslim voice dating all the way back to the 1960s and beyond. Now, when we think about what happened long ago with with Brother Malcolm and Muhammad Ali
and others, the difficulties they face the challenges they face came from both government and private efforts in the government. They had to deal with everything from spine infiltration into
fragmented, deliberate since the subdivision within their ranks, and of course, character assassination, all of this engineering coordinated not by some hate group, but by the government itself, Federal Bureau of Investigation, other government agencies, when we think about brother, Malcolm X, you know, you have to start the course of this time in the nation right now, even though we all know that the Nation of Islam, you know, got many beliefs wrong and was not quite a proper Islamic faith movement. They still were the first group of people in mass have identified as Muslim in America. And they did adopt many of the normal Asana practices like it believe in lifting the
community of brotherly discipline, Sister leg, and that really scared the heck out of the establishment in America. Because what they were saying what Malcolm X in particular was saying was that there should be black unity, that black people have the right to defend themselves, physically, if necessary, and at some breaking was not going to solve the problems of black America. And so what the government did to try to get this movement in the bud was first of course, it's fine to know what they're doing. So sending informants into the nation to track what they were doing what they were playing. Number two was not only spying, but infiltrate that is sending people into the
organization would pretend to be members, and then would try to undermine the organization from within, right. That can be from anything from trying to make sure to sow division within the organization, trying to find opportunities to undermine their campaigns, their efforts, things they plan to do. And also in track, that is when you go to someone and they have no plan of their own to do something bad, but you try to convince them do something bad, and then you arrest them at the last minute. So this was something that Malcolm in particular was a target on both before and after he left the nation. We just found out a few years ago, that when he passed away when he was such
that when he was assassinated, he was at that very moment the target of a very systemic and coordinated attempt to spy upon infiltrate and undermine him. One thing we learned is an NYPD officer who passed away several years ago, on his deathbed, he confessed and wrote a letter confessing this that he had worked with the FBI to number one and trapped to a Malcolm X, his most trusted bodyguards convinced them to, to supposedly take part in some blocked terrorist spot, and they were arrested several days before Malcolm was killed at the Audubon Ballroom. Number two, what is the body of this independent officer who was who was fine amalgam was there as his bodyguard,
when he was assassinated. That is one of the the people who was dedicated to protecting him was an NYPD officer was actually there to spy upon him. There was Sandy revealed all this call for investigation. And as you might imagine, nothing has happened and then had this attorney said, we'll look into this. We reached out to the FBI, DOJ and they said we can't do anything because the Manhattan he's looking into it, which voluminous right but what he experienced and whatever really happened to him in his debt, we still don't know all the answers, but we do know for sure that he was the victim of a very targeted systemic campaign to spy upon entrap and undermine his efforts,
especially when he started talking about global Muslim unity and global black unity, right, which is where he was going at the end of his life moving from this this kind of localized black versus white thing to say, no, no, racism is an international problem that can be solved with international black unity, and also the Muslim community must be united across race across borders, across nationalities. That was a really scary thing for the establishment. It's quite possible that in addition, steadfast speaking that virtue Islam got him killed, give me a laundry and Paradise. And then Muhammad Ali, lesser known if he was also a target of government spying and other such things
about the government had an easier with him, because, you know, when he decided he was not going to be drafted to fight in Vietnam, they had a very easy opportunity to store his career thrown in jail. And he knew that he knew what was going to happen and willing ended, he still refused to bow down to the federal government, he refused to go and fight and kill people who had done nothing to him, not to like not go to jail, but he lost the best years of his career, waiting and getting kicked out of the boxing arena. This is what he had to deal with. Right. This is what he was confronted with when he had the same. And again, what people were so afraid of with these two individuals was not only
the fact that they were famous, but that they use their fame to advance positive causes to challenge the establishment to say that we believe that black people have the right to stand up, to be outspoken to be united in the thick of themselves, change their name change their religion, you know, even today, that's rumble spenders. Imagine the 1950s 1960s How crazy was for cash, it's clay, the
change his name to Muhammad Ali to Malcolm X, we go on national television and say that white people are the devil, which they're not. But that's what he said. And that black people have the right to put people in their graves that they laid a hand on the black purse. Right? That would have been crazy to say today, it was really crazy to say so long ago. And so the challenges they face for speaking the truth are, to be frank, much milder than the challenge that has the Muslims face today. We really have nothing to complain about as Muslims in America today. Yes, we have challenges. Yes, we have to confront them and take them seriously. But we can learn from the example of those that
came before us as we confront modern challenges. And so the three things I want to know that I take from Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X and others lessons that I take as I tried to do my work today, three things. Number one is is I would say courage, but it's not really courage. It's talking. Because both of these men, it wasn't they did that they had some unique lack of fear people have is that they fear a lot more than anything else, right? And that free them to say, Yeah, I'm gonna take the risk of going to jail. I'm not gonna fight in Vietnam. Yeah, I'm gonna take the risk of dying if I go out and testify, and there's only one God, and Muhammad made peace upon him for the seventh
century, not from 20th century is the last prophet of God. Right? They knew that their career, their lives were in danger by going out and testifying to the truth. But they had taught way had made the sperm faith at a law that allowed them to fear no one else, right. And so as we in America face the threat from the far right, who would like to deprive us of our rights, deport us, suppresses I looked at sometimes kill us, you know, that ability to not be afraid to say that bring it on. But we don't fear you, we fear something much greater than you is liberate, it's free, and allows us to keep doing our work, undercover. And at the same time, we're under pressure from the far left, to
give our values and exchange for popularity, to embrace the extremes of social liberalism, to be accepted to be popular, that's a real threat to and we have to have the toggle to say no, we're not going to give up a single aspect of Islamic teachings to be accepted by youth to be popular to get elected to office to win an Oscar, keep your Oscar, keep your congressional seat, right we are. And we are not going to be apologetic. Right, that is a lesson we can take from Brother Mohammed from Brother Malcolm. And listen, I think some of us have not always held on to I said even about myself that we make so many compromises to be popular in our civil rights activists. I tell you, we do
that. And to be frank, I'm tired to deal with that. I'm sorry to feel like a coward. And so I think what we as Muslims have to do in the coming months and years is stand up to anyone who would threaten not only our community, but any other community. We have to say the justice not just for us, we're for all people, and we have to stand for justice in an Islamic way, as they did once a horse. Second thing that I learned from them is ironically, humility. Because when you think of Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, the first thing you really might not think of is humility, right? They were both very brash, very bold, and some people would I guess, back in the day racist, people would
say they were what uppity because they simply stood up for themselves and said, the truth that hearing what you thought about the truth, right, but that wasn't arrogance. In fact, they were deeply humble people. And that is seen in their ability to admit when they were wrong, and change their mind and radically change their position on something right. Rather now that went through so many changes in his life, right, so many evolutions, because he always had a humility, to admit, when he was wrong about something. And we saw the truth, what he believed to be the truth, he would embrace it wholeheartedly. So when he was in jail, right, he was an atheist. He was vehemently
opposed to religion generally did not believe in God. But he was confronted with teachings from the nature of Islam. He recognized some truth in that and he said, I'm going to accept this fully, right? Even though it meant leaving a life that I happened to that point, and he was fully dedicated to what he believed to be the truth. At that time, no matter what anyone had to say about it, no matter how difficult it was, he was fully dedicated to what he thought was the truth. And then when he found out it wasn't really the truth, when he went to Mecca and saw white Muslims and Asian Muslims and realize that no white people are devils, that anyone can be a Muslim, that there's only
one God, that he has never come to earth, and that the last prophet of God was Prophet Muhammad thy peace and blessing the opponent. He had no hesitation in radically changing, probably what he believed in what he stood for, and that took humility. Right, and that is something that we can learn from Muhammad Ali, definitely someone who was bold and brash. But one of the beautiful things about him is that even when he was being people, even when he was out there, you know, seeing all those points and all that stuff, he would always say I can only accomplish what I'm accomplishing by the will of Allah. Right he always acknowledged the last one I was on even before we left the nation
and after you left the nation, you know after years after brother knocking was was killed. Yeah, the humility to number one and then he was wrong and not supported whether Malcolm when he left him
Issue number two, he had the ability to actually apologize for many of the insulting things that he had said by other boxers like Joe Frazier and obviously thinks really racist remarks about other boxes as part of the lead up to their matches, right, he later realized and admitted, I was wrong to say that. And in fact, the really, I mean, impactful thing that he says he actually said that he believed that Parkinson's was actually a kind of you said it was a test or punishment from a law. But he said, a lot of gave this disease to me to remind me that he is the grace. And even say that to think that takes a great deal of I think, humility that we, I think, have to learn as individuals
as human beings. And as so many Muslims think that we've got it all figured out. I'm 20 years old. And I figured out things about Islam and humanity that that people who have been on this earth for 60 years don't know, correcting scholars and all this stuff. It really takes humility to progress as a person. So it's something that I think we all have to learn from this week, we do our work. And the last thing is a dedication to always learning more, because they were able to evolve because they never rest on their laurels. They never thought I know everything there is to know they always accepted, there was something more to learn more people to learn from. So whether we're doing some
rights activism, whether law students in our high bar career, there's always something more than we can learn as professionals, as Muslims as human beings, and that will keep us fresh, and keep us advancing and progressing.
And so again, as I think of these men, I find it really hard to talk about the difficulties they experienced, because I'm so inspired by how they overcame the difficulties. And so as we move forward as a community, I just want us to say a few things. One, we should never think of ourselves as victims. Whenever I hear people say Muslims are marginalized in organization, I say, take that word out. I hate the the language of victimology. We have to be confident and how we present ourselves and how we speak to ourselves. We're not victims and marginalized, we're not trying to get a seat at the table or get scraps on the table, we're going to turn the table over and try to
establish a we believe is a really just society, that adjusted way of life. So we're not the center to that we never feel the need to compromise a psalm again, to be accepted or to be popular, because that way, disaster lies it was Ben Franklin, who said those who give up liberty for security deserve neither. And I think the same is true, those who gave up Islam for security deserve neither. And so we have to hold on to our fate. And through that faith, eventually, we will find success even if we're hated for a while even more popular for hours, Malcolm Muhammad were eventually they become became beloved, right to the point that Malcolm X's dear wife, who died in the 90s, Her funeral was
attended by highest Leaders of America. And of course, we all know that, that brother Muhammad Ali, his personal most beloved figures in the world, and finally, I think is the embrace of cross racial unity, cross national unity as most right. The reason we are experiencing so many difficulties internally and externally, nationally, internationally, is we are divided. Right? I'm for this country, you're from that country. And this school of thought your that school of thought this denomination or that denomination of the people who want to surprise us don't care if you are Sunni, or Shia, or Husby, or whatever else, or whether you came from Syria or Iran or Malaysia, all they
care about is you are Muslim. That's the bottom line, a last one that was settled the differences between us in the meantime, unity is the way people confront the threat of global anti Muslim bigotry and unity is the way we'll advanced justice in this country in the world. I can tell you, being an activist, we are under immense pressure to stop advocating for Palestine, we are under immense pressure to embrace the extremes of social liberalism, we are under immense pressure to go along to get along my recession care route perfect. I think we've made mistakes. There's many other organizations have, but I will tell you, we are dedicated now inshallah to make sure that we tried
to reflect the best of the legacy of Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X. And I hope that you all as you continue through law school, you think about what you're going to do in your life. You take these lessons from Malcolm and Muhammad Ali, and instill them in yourself of humility, of the belief and unity of the dedication to standing up for what is right and against what is wrong. And we are known for nothing but a law. And you will find success that way sooner or later, no matter what career path you choose, and what you do in life and show up that way lies success. So I want to thank you all for having me today. It's really an honor to be back at Georgetown with all of you and I'm so
excited to turn it back over to your dear President so we can hear from Imam Zaid and Shaw Council on.
That please, please give Mr. Mitchell another round of applause.
Please
come back and speak about such important issues. So before we introduce the mandate, I just want to bring one young gentleman up
A date this guy, such a pleasure to be around him. He's like our spiritual glue of our offer He gives us because you read our Jomo Thurman, great to be around him and it's an honor to have the Zika graduate in the law school with us provide us with so much knowledge. So without further ado, please give a warm welcome for publication.
Now, whenever I hear
someone saying I don't know anyone, any.
Our speaker today is a truly special one.
For those of us who know him as aid, we know that there's no introduction that I can give that are truly Gugu investments.
But for those, for those of us who are less familiar, I've tried to provide a brief introduction.
Your mandate in the broad American Muslim community is known only as The People's game I've
just met Muhammad Ali was known as the people's champ because he's really represented and struggled for the people whose entire life.
And truly if there were any one person, that could be the amount of Muslims in America, this amount of day was here virtually loved and respected by Muslims across the spectrum.
from very humble beginnings, mosaic converted to Islam in 1877. And he made it his mission to prove the loss of all people in this country. He founded multiple organizations and communities, guided many people prevented by their lives and their selves, and spearheaded multiple civil rights campaigns and Community Renewal efforts, both within and outside the Muslim community.
Eventually, he left to Syria. We spent seven years studying Islamic sciences under some of the greatest scholars a lot.
When he returned, you continue with leading efforts to insurance reform people and communities. He's been in the forefront of these efforts for well over 40 years and
it gives us speaker and author of multiple books magazine has repeatedly ranked as one of the most influential Muslims in Assam by the most of the 500 over the past decade.
You know, Zayn was also chosen Special Advisor of Muhammad Ali, he spent too much close time with him between 2008 Until you have in 2016. To date was chosen to these various you know, careers and protective funding the nation.
mandate is ultimately co founder of Vegana College, the birth millimeter Brittany America retox. For many years in this fire, really every student that walks through his house.
He's an example to all Muslims. He travels the country in tireless service, to a degree that seems impossible to even the most seasoned seeker. And despite all of this despite all of his accolades and fame, he remains one of the most humble and generous men I've ever met.
So it is therefore a great honor and privilege for me to welcome to the stage hey man I consider to be a personal mentor and model and teacher mosey check
there
was so that was an animator See he did mursaleen saving early Sunday he was said problem Allah can handle from a unbelieving God worksheet we are being sold Bondic Subhana gallantry see Burnett and I can promote Neidhardt NFC alarm was so he was sending with Eric Allah seen in the MENA corrente our Union Cabinet in
Salam Alikum America
is a great pleasure and honor to be here at Georgetown University.
I actually studied here at Georgetown Arabic. My school was American University, but they didn't see charity there. So you can add that time study at Georgetown American George Washington, power University, University of Maryland with a Catholic University of America and in this consortium program, a few school in Norfolk Of course, you can go to any of those schools. I came here to Georgetown on campus and study Arabic for two years to fulfill my language requirements at American University.
Before going any further, I'd like to just think tomorrow that Michel for his comments and to put an exclamation point on not never look at yourself as a victim, because not only is it analytically fallacious. There's also
a complaint against the loss of panic attack. Because anything that we're afflicted with is decreed by our Lord. And if we're saying we're a victim, we're saying Our Lord is victimizing us now, Lord, test us.
And he tries us sometimes to fire and very challenging difficult ways, but we're not victims were victorious.
Now a lot how to get a soft, deep investor to realize that my presentation here is going to go from the extremely informal, to be extremely formal. The extremely formal being actually just reading an article I wrote, because this subject is so deep and vast, it can I find myself like all over the place thinking about it. And I just stumbled upon this article. And I thought that that really captures what I would like to convey tonight.
Before we get to that, though,
this is the extremely informal part I recently
was in Gambia in West Africa.
And well, before I get to that,
let me say this, this is as I understand Black History Month
lecture.
And I think it'd be good just understand just a little bit of history surrounding Black History Month. Black History Month was conceived of not as black history month but as black history week week by the great African American historian, Carter G. Woodson, the second African American to gain a PhD from Harvard University. After W. EB Dubois being the first, Carter G. Woodson, famously known probably for his book, The MIS education of the Negro, and vision celebrating the lives and the contribution of African Americans to this country. And he chose February a lot of people say, well, the government chose February for black this and urban myth for Black History Month because it's the
shortest month and that's how much they care about us. But that's not that's an urban myth. Carter G. Woodson chose the second week in February for Black History Week. And this was a 1926 because the second week of February marks the birth dates of both Abraham Lincoln on the 12th of February and Frederick Douglass on the 14th. And that's why Carter G Woodson chose February's specifically the second week of February for Black History Week in 1969. Penn State is probably most of you only know can stay for the massacre that took place when students they were protesting is the Vietnam War, the massacre at Kent State and the massacre at Jackson stake. But Kent State was the first campus where
the African American professors and students organized a Black History Month, first discussing it and presenting the idea, and 1969 and then 1970, after actually celebrating being joined by many other campuses, until 1976, when President Gerald Ford of all people actually initiated a formal nationwide Black History Month. So that's just a little history on Black History Month.
To go to The Gambia Black history is a history that's compelling, is a history that is deep as in history that behooves every Muslim, and a person who might not be a Muslim to know about, but it's also generally particularly until the last 30 years. It was a very incomplete history because Muslims were almost totally written out of African American History, despite being at the very heart of their history. If you're familiar with even the history of Africans in the Americas as a result of Spanish and subsequently English slavery, the first slave revolt involved Muslims Nanga 1522 on the plantation on Dum Dum Carlos
So hello, who is the son of Christopher Columbus? Christopher Columbus took the Spanish name when he migrated from Italy to Spain and he took the name of
SOTA.
Cristobal, Cristobal cologne, and his son dark caught Don Carlos cologne was the plantation owner in the present day Dominican Republic that had some wool of Muslims on it. Those Wolof Muslims being Pastore peach people come and do some horses. And as experienced cavalry soldiers, overwhelmed the Spanish Garrison escaped into the force and established the mu a maroon community that endure for many years before it was finally broken up. And this this is indicative of the place that Muslims occupy in the history of Africans and what will become the Americans in this country we could talk about the life of a you viscerally men job in Solomon the fortunate slave owners extent work of
African American literature is the is the biography of a Muslim slave job in Ben Solomon. It wasn't just a slave. He was a scholar who studied in Timbuktu at the Great South Korean university, as the Ibrahim Abu Prince, amongst slaves as part of the rise in territory, Alford's brilliant work of history, prints. And then
unity or UPS is a Muslim production company, made a film and documentary a kind of mixed genre feature film documentary film about the life of that Muslim slave. The most prolific of all the slave writers on BBS site who wrote 31 pages from memory of the reset in the IBC. to Cairo when and that's extent those 31 pages are still in a museum in Atlanta, Georgia, you can go read it yourself, you can read Arabic, particularly Arabic in the West African script, which I have not mastered. So someone had to put it in the more standard out of experience, I can read it then.
So this is these are just indication, but history was largely neglected. Even when we talk about Malcolm X, when Alex Hayden even co wrote The Autobiography of Malcolm Malcolm X with Malcolm
decided to trace his roots and that journey became known as routes. I'm familiar with routes that we did it a few years ago, he ended up in a Muslim village in the Gambia.
And so I last month, I was in the Gambia, and I went to Kunta Kinte his village to that Muslim village. And people know the names of their family members that were taken. They know their histories. They know where they live. So this first picture, could the contents house was behind this bison. That's where they can take them.
Canta kente was a half as of Korean, he studied a Korean like these children
riding on wooden slates, an ancient practice, just like these children, sending out and moving the feet of the scholar in his village.
Like these children,
and this the power in this experience for me,
it shows that
Islam is in good hands, because it's with Allah subhanho wa taala.
European encroachment came
the North African slave trade North Atlantic slave trade came.
It went, colonization came and went. People they're still dealing with the vestiges of Neo colonization, but throughout it all, people were sitting at the feet of the che, like these children memorizing the Quran, and that's exactly what content content was going.
And the fact that no one knows that
despite the power that it has been transforming the lives of so many watts,
people in our community
it's not just a tragedy, it's a travesty.
And part of our responsibilities as Muslims is a maintenance system you know,
Make Kunta Kinte this history now that there was a Muslim who memorize the Quran,
who was stolen from his people and shipped to the Americans and forced to give up his name and had his foot cut off because he persistently ran away.
That's our history, that's part of our history. And we can't neglect it. We can't ignore it. And we shouldn't neglect it, and we shouldn't ignore it. So that's the informal part.
The formal part is primarily was
was the focus of the
article, but I'm going to revert back to the informant talk a little about Malcolm, when I'm done with this, my understanding is I have 15 minutes. So if you think I'm going too long, don't blame me, blame the organizers.
They can always give me the Apollo Theater hook.
So I saw this article was called
God's plan for Muhammad Ali.
Then a little analytical methods which post modernism
possess, have some set features some this benefit.
One is the rejection of the idea of greatness. These methods
leave no space for great men or women. What we find instead is an unrealistic leveling that reduces every prince to a valley and confirms upon every valley princely pretentions. For example, Malcolm that's eulogized by Ossie Davis as a quote shining Black Prince.
A man whose COVID had the courage to change when his commitment to truth dictated that he change as illustrated in his autobiography, as we do so conniving hustler who is constantly reinventing himself, in many marvels, deconstruction of his life
more disturbing and perhaps, of greater importance, Muslims is the removal of God as an active agent in his providence has no bearing on historical outcomes. Similarly, divine guidance is not to be considered when examining the complicated array of decisions and choices that lead any of us to become who we are. There is only a boring random collection of unrelated accidents, which if they are to be examined systematically will be it will be through a framework provided by sociology or anthropology. Some will call the whole arrangement new school being an old school guy myself. I've never been impressed with the new school is too predictable and intellectually hegemonic. There must
be
ways of assessing reality that differ from the start materialism bequeathed us by the modern and now postmodern West. Islam provides us with one of those alternative approaches for more than any other system it demands that the divine be considered in all things. It is through the prism of this snap specifically to the unfolding of God's plan that I wish to examine some of the major aspects of the life of Muhammad Ali, may God have mercy on him. Moving away from these introductory remarks, I contend that it will never become Ali had not God both prepared him for his times and prepared his times for him. That preparation began with Ali's deeply religious mother Odessa, the claim is a
mother's deep religiosity left an indelible imprint on the young Downey that imprint would influence our the becoming a dedicated member of the Nation of Islam and a faithful follower of Elijah Muhammad also sustained it once he moved away from the Nation of Islam under the leadership of email marketing Muhammad and later in his life when he became more deeply influenced by more traditional expressions of Islamic spirituality. Of course, it is highly possible for a child growing up without the influence of a devout parent to end up deeply religion however, the ASEAN greatly enhance when those closest to you during your formative years are devout, and both his home and in church are the
ones being prepared for religious life.
This is something all new ally recognize, like Moses has been placed in a particular house was one of the first notable acts of divine intervention in Ali's life. This is also true for Malcolm X. Malcolm X didn't grow up in any house, he grew up in a household of a dedicated to dedicated followers of Marcus Garvey.
His father was a, a an advocate, and an activist in the Garvey movement, and his mother wasn't one of the primary writers in The Guardian newspaper. Any case, we'll come back to Malcolm,
how he was also conditioned. In other words, Ali grew up in a Pan African, sort of
proto Islamic environment at home. And so his he deviated away from that, for well known diseases, particularly the death and murder of his father, the murder of his father, but he came back to his roots. So it wasn't a question of Malcolm X, rejecting a lack of criminality, and then becoming religion. It was a question of Malcolm X, growing up in a house that was both religious and socially and politically conscious, because of circumstances being moved away from his roots, and then coming back to his wounds. In any case.
Ali was also conditioned in childhood to make the kind of history altering choices he will make later in life. He knew, from a young age that there was danger in the path of a black man in America his whatever decision you will make, you need to be prepared to die for it. This sense of danger was drilled into these consciousness by the brutal lynching of Emmett to Holly, we'll never forget that Mississippi murder of a young man his own age, and informed him and he talks about this and any biographical work that you might have read about 100 on inform him from the depths of the depths of hatred, some men can seek to who you offended them either via imagined or petty offenses, such as
that attributed image to put in highly charged ways as AVI would later do. That being so Ali knew that when you took a stand your best be prepared to die for it. Hence, he was dead serious when he said, commenting on the hill, he caught, what do you refused induction into the United States military, quote, whatever your country, whatever the consequences may be, I will not renounce the religion of Islam. I'm ready to die if you put me before a firing squad tomorrow and ready to die.
That is a 24 five year old young men making that statement, and he meant it. Both that consciousness and courage were unnecessary gifts that God gave to it are these boxing career itself began with what can only be described as an act of God. Of course, as Muslims, we believe that everything is an act of God. I stated here for emphasis, that particular act act was a test of all these brand new bytes. Such an occurrence is common. I can remember my bike being stolen as a young boy. However, what happened next is extremely uncommon. First of all, Ali reported the theft to the police, something I never considered doing when my bike was stolen, stolen, because the relationship between
the police and those living in the vast public housing project I grew up in was such that you did not think of inviting the police to intervene in such matters, young kids in our community.
We're usually trying to avoid the police at all costs. Alley, however, went to the police and the officer he found in segregated Louisville, Kentucky happens to be happened to be a white boxing coach Joe Martin, we're taking an interest in helping young African American youth. So going off the skinny 12 year old he suggested a he learned how to fight if indeed he wants to punish the thief where he to find him. There are tremendous odds against this series of events occurring as they did. God had a plan for it. And Ali was always aware of that fact. And preparing our league for the world. God blessed him not only with incredible, incredible physical ability, perhaps during the
early phase of his boxing career, he possessed the fastest
says in the history of the sport, he was also blessed with great physical beauty and a quick poetic wit. There had been many talented boxers before Ollie, we can mention in that regard one Ollie idolize Sugar Ray Robinson, however, known possess are these charisma and beauty two attributes which would serve him greatly via the media, medium of television. In that regard, God brought Ali onto the national stage at a time when television was just emerging as a household standard, and only he was telling me for television. Rather bombastically threatening sunny listener predicting the round in which his next opponent will fall playing around with the Beatles or badgering with
Howard Cosell. Ali was the first athlete whose fame and more notoriety was boosted to considerable heights by television. A medium that prepared all the
medium had been prepared by the which will be instrumental in projecting him onto the global stage. Like John Kennedy, who's improbable and probable victory over Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election was attributed in large part to his televised persona, Ali's rise initially as caches play was greatly enhanced by television, and he appeared even five years earlier, he would have been just another talented boxer little known outside of the fight world. Therefore that guy that they're after God guided Army Reserve, one considers the likelihood of a brash, charismatic, highly successful athlete with a prospects of making millions of dollars because of the aforementioned
emergence of television and their Trivandrum tremendous revenues it opened up for top professional athletes, some of you are familiar with the picture of it sitting on a pile of cash cashes with the cash.
As I should have put that out there
one must see that Ali's Islam itself is a miracle that God has guided on the to Islam and in so doing made him one of the most popular men on earth, for the entire Muslim world could relate to a boxing champion named Muhammad Ali. Ali became their champion, and he remained Cassius Clay. Everybody had integrated into Islam, he would not gain that real global recognition of popularity, no matter how talented a fighter he was. Ali's popularity
was further enhanced when he took a stand against participating in the Vietnam War, by refusing induction into the United States military ally suffered the loss of his title, the loss of his live livelihood, and the constant threat of losing his very life. However, he will not back down by so doing, he was facing up close the seven forces that were ravaging not not just Vietnam, but countless other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. To define those forces. Eileen was now the champion of not just the Muslim world, but the entire
part of the planet known at that time as the third world as he loved the 1960s. stripped of his title but steeped in his dignity. Ali was the most popular human being on Earth. Rob your deal he was forced to endure because of the stand he had taken out he was acutely aware of the dangers he faced. As we mentioned earlier, he was always haunted by the spectrum and that till was murdered shortly after became Muslim, his most significant early mentor Malcolm X was assassinated. Soon after Ali's defiance of the US war machine. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down. In all likelihood because of the stand he had taken against the war in Vietnam, yet, he persevered and he
never resorted to taking a bodyguard. He knew that God was with him. When asked if he had a bodyguard, he famously responded, I have one bodyguard.
He has a he has no eyes, yet he sees he has no use yet He hears He remembers everything with the aid of mighty memory. When he wishes to create a thing he orders it into existence, but his order is not conveyed by words, which take a tone to follow. For the sound carried in ears. He hears the secrets of those under quiet thought. Ask me who is that? That's God Allah he's my bodyguard is your bodyguard.
This man
It who's threatened with death every second of his existence.
Through his courage and defiant speech, Ali had captured the hearts of the struggling old press Muslim and third world masses. He commanded the global stage. Yeah, there was another audience God prepared on the to capture White America. Ali's refusal to be inducted into the army occurred at a time when the movement to end the war in Vietnam was just building up momentum his courageous stand, taken as the heavyweight champion of the world, instantly made out of the post celebrate of the anti war movement in this country. It also catapulted Adi despite his involvement with the Nation of Islam, into the hearts of Americans rebellious fight us as those youth, many of them attending elite
universities like Georgetown made their way to professional public life, Hollywood benefit and many tangible and intangible ways from the connections he was making with them. Not all of white America was anti war, though not all of white America had been able to cleanse itself of the persistent stench of racism to an extent that would allow it to embrace such a fiery young black voice, the conquest of largest swathes of white America
who
cannot rule out his words but through a silence as Ali once famously dubbed the Louisville that only twizzle cautiousness lost his speech, he began to speak with the color of his feet. There was that tongue that was able to touch the hearts of millions of white Americans who politically were not prepared to listen to the young ID or Malcolm or Dr. King or Federico Hamer
or the Angry Bird you flooding the streets of Detroit Newark watch Harford, Chicago, Washington, DC, and elsewhere throughout the nation, that silence allow those who refuse to listen to Andy. For the masses he spoke for to finally hear Him. God sent them a voice they could understand that voice was a side anomaly. Contrary to what some they believed, and have stated that voice was not the passive voice of weakness, defeat and resignation. It was a powerful voice that roared through is dignity, love, compassion, perseverance, and it's matched this affirmation of the ability of the human will to triumph over the most desperate circumstances. It roared in the presence of kings and presidents,
and roar from the top of the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia and roared even after his passing and Louisville as Ali's body walked through the streets of his childhood home. In route to his final resting place, it roars even today for those who care to listen. Finally, it was God's plan.
To enter the in my estimation into a loving relationship with the divine nearness and service, a relationship Muslims refer to as we lie. Ali was once asked by a young man in Ireland, what do you plan to do after boxing? Ali's response that he planned to use the remaining his remaining days to prepare to meet his board. God and the silica stated that preparation, among other ways by ticking all these speech, then suing silence led to the contemplation serenity, reflection, devotion and service necessary to cement Ali's relationship of reliance. We live with his Lord. Finally, just as God ordered Abraham to proclaim the pilgrimage among nations, among the nations of the world
promising that he the divine, would ensure that every soul would hear his voice. He made sure that all the nations of the world even those who refuse to listen, we're here are these voice. It was always a voice calling for peace and ultimately to love, mutual respect and goodwill for all. As we said today, in a nation rife for polarizing hatreds, researching racism, entrenched, entrenching tribal isms, and a debilitating, debilitating refusal to listen to each other. It is time we started listening to me. It is God's plan.
Thank
you many million someone who informed them again and talk a little bit about Malcolm
Malcolm X again and I mentioned Malcolm was a combination
Of all of the forces that created what has been referred to as the black Atlantic, or the African people forced by the institution of slavery, and 12 diaspora across the noun in the north and the North Atlantic, from Great Britain,
to the United States Coast of United States, through the Caribbean, and the West, the eastern coast of South America, particularly in Brazil, but even beyond reasonable Brazil, moving primarily northward, towards Columbia, and then into panama, panama, and out into the Caribbean, the black Atlantic that the Asper was really what produced Malcolm X. Malcolm X, his mother was born in Grenada in the Caribbean, for to her mother having been raped by a white man
and bleeding to the physical features that Malcolm to other members of his family would represent.
His father and his upbringing, their connection with Garvey, Garvey being a true Marcus Garvey, a true child of that diaspora from his Jamaican roots, traveling to London and London hooking up with to say, Mohammed, I'm gonna stop most of them are mysterious origins. Some say Sudanese, Egyptian, some say he was a convert, either British or African American Congress, in any case, do say Mohammed became very much involved in both the Pan African and the pan Islamic struggles. And
do say Mohammed became one of Garvey's primary mentors when Barbary traveled from Jamaica to London, Marcus Garvey. Next up would do say Mohammed Hussain Mohammed Minters Garvey in in both pan Africanism. And he he's he's
Garvey's influenced by his Islam, and that comes through his his, his his newspaper, one of the primary writers in that paper was do say, Mohammed, and if you I'm sure their archives here at Georgetown
was somewhere in DC. Definitely siia has them.
But you'll see that do say Mohammed is writing about ln Islamic themes in Garvey's paper.
Do say Mohammed then goes to Detroit. So there's a book, Islam and Oh, Detroit, it's incredible study.
He then becomes a unifying is this African rooted figure, African Sudanese, Egyptian, Afro British, Afro American, whatever is origins, he becomes a unifying force in that community that brings the Iraqi, Lebanese, Yemeni Muslims, she Sunnis all together, and they form the roots of a very vibrant, strong community. And in any case, those forces are shaping as mentioned earlier, Malcolm's parents, his father is a, a staunch advocate for Garvey's message. His mother's a writer in the Garvey paper, while she's in Grenada, she attends elite, an elite English and Grammar School. She is fluent in French and English think one of the European language.
And she's very, very, a very astute and prolific writer. That's the home Malcolm Brogdon. Malcolm will go with his father when you preach the message and listen to his father. So in any case, Malcolm does not come out of a vacuum. And both his father and mother are very influential in shaping him into becoming who he finally ultimately becomes Malcolm that is influenced by the Nation of Islam, which is a movement itself that is sort of this
journey of the African American people back to Islam. So in some areas, this country 50% of the slaves in a particular community will Muslim overall conservative estimate 20% Some areas such as Virginia, Southern Virginia, the islands off the coast of Georgia, Carolina and the Louisiana delta where rice is cultivated. Rice, as many of you know, is an extremely labor intensive part that takes a lot of expertise to grow, so the plantation owners will rise preferred slaves from the Senegambia region
The region put that can take came from because of the expertise in Warren rice. Those are rice growing areas in Africa. And that's an area that's 90% Muslim. And so it's no coincidence that when Alex Haley
traces its roots Kente is enslaved in Southern Virginia, after landing in Annapolis, Maryland, that he is up in a Muslim village in the Senegambia. That's no coincidence. It's no coincidence, when I'll pop the American filmmaker whose name I forget, I made a movie about a slave in the Louisiana Delta. That movie was called Men deeper. The man d-ga A Muslim tribe put the country's a man deeper, they're the dominant tribe, along with the Wolof
by a Gambia, the dominant type, so men declares the Muslim tribe. So that Mandinka in Louisiana, in the Louisiana delta, where the movie is set, in all likelihood was a Muslim.
And when anyway, Silvia do talks about in her book service of life, and Muslims and slavery in the Americas, I refer you to the book because my time has expired. So want to leave some time for question and answer conversation. So I guess I invite you to go back to the stage and take a seat, and you guys already seated. So now,
I was gonna say, Don't get up and leave, but someone's getting up to leave. But I don't want to discourage you.
Just say some.
If you have to leave, just please leave.
That didn't come out. Right.
Must be because of the rigorous demands of Georgetown academic programs, just the quiet they saw this like this, like the beat prayer, you know, you don't have to stay for the
words, you don't stay in the back and talk.
Just quietly.
Does that occur?
So first of all, thank you for actually using the QR code. Because we have some questions for both you guys. But also, we'll take questions, just like live question through the audience if you guys want, and then we'll use this as well. So first, I'll open up to the audience. If anyone has a question, they can just raise their hand and stand and ask for either the speaker. And then if not, right now, we're going to trade this.
God, what do you think the role of Muslims are today? How do we move forward?
So briefly, a solid,
America is so divided.
There's so much conflict politically, socially. And Muslims have solutions, unique solutions to many of the problems of America. So for example, you just get the economy, right? We have this ridiculous system, where our housing market rises, falls crashes, because of the the danger of interest based debt, right, trapping people into homes, they can't afford businesses, feeding off of people, banks feeding on people, you know, we have an alternative system that could work much better than this interest based system of debt that we use to finance our economy. Right, we have a solution there, it could help social issues, right? Abortion and this and that we have nuance, moderate reasonable
perspectives on these issues that people are just at odds about that could really provide a way for the American people to find a middle ground, right? Between the extremes of of left and right policy. Our nation I, you know, goes between fighting these ridiculous wars overseas, or just being isolationist, don't care about horrible things happening to these people around the world. We have solutions, suggestions and ideas about how we can have a balanced humane, just foreign policy around the world. So I think Muslims in America in a unique position because we're in a time this is not normal in human history. We're at a time we're living in a country where you can practice Islam
freely and openly. That is not the case in many places around the world and most of the Muslim history, and we cannot really practice all we can speak up, we can advocate for what we want, without fear of being thrown in jail or shot or killed for the most part. And more than that, we can actually influence who gets elected to office, which again, is unique in human history. And we live in the most powerful country in the world so we have the ability to influence it.
Honestly impact so many people. So I just think we are in a very, we have this amazing opportunity to do good here and abroad, and also major responsibility, right? I was living in a Muslim country where I couldn't speak out without getting thrown in jail, I can contribute to the public discourse, I don't really have that much responsibility, because I can't do much. But here in America, in this country, we can live so freely and enjoy so much. We can practice our faith, we have a great responsibility, I think, to try to,
to direct our country, our society in a more positive way, and provide a healing voice in a very divided country. Yeah, I would agree with all of that I will qualify what you mentioned.
The
the intervention is and more of the isolationism that expresses a lack of concern for what happens that people think our interventionism also expresses a lack of concern what happens that people, I think they much prefer isolation, so they can begin to work out their own problems without being bombed and strafed and starved, otherwise, seeing their societies destroyed, I think the greatest thing we can do is just learn our religion, and then follow it.
So that there's something identifiably Muslim,
that we can pass on to posterity. I think that's critically important. Because if we know our religion, and we follow our liberal religion, we will make positive contributions, sooner or later to the direction of this society. But if we capitulate, and we become just an Islamic veneer of some right wing or left wing solutions that are not just destroying the world, I'd be strong human beings, then there is no alternative for people. So we should see ourselves and this is something Malcolm talked about, in his famous letter from from Mecca, terms of what Islam could offer insurance, the race problem in this country. On the point we talked about that also. And his essay
is the what is the future of Islam, the West and the future? In his book civilization on trial, he talked about what Islam can offer the West in terms of our potential source of salvation, from the disruptive forces of racism, and also from the disruptive forces of alcoholism. And we can say, by extension, opioid addiction, just playing opium addiction, heroin crack, the rest of it, so, but if we're not authentically Muslim, and most of them in a way that's recognizable, if our profit were to come back, then what does humanity have except Oh, I'll be consumed by what Dr. Abdul Hakim Murad describes as the mono culture. So as Muslims, we just become a part of this hegemonic European
rooted cultural experiment
that's destroying humanity.
So I think we have to be Muslim. And then if we have a foundation to do those things that brother Iman, so so beautiful and poignantly identified as we having the opportunity and the potential to do
Okay, so next we'll take a question that was submitted on this one's for Monday, obviously feel free. So um, so what role do Muslims have in disrupting the monopoly their right wing evangelicalism have on the conversation about faith and morality in the public sphere, especially when social allied on the left are often leery of religion and spiritual talk?
I will challenge the premise of that question. If you say that the right wing has a monopoly on the religious compensation, that means that atheism and the war against tradition on the left has no religious implications.
So I would say we have a responsibility to be totally independent. And, and to to support all of those forces be they on the left or the right or in the center, ideally in the center, because we're the the middle nation that are advocating for expressions of life, family,
that have been historically influenced by healthy religious practice and principles, that I think that's our responsibility as Muslims but to take an approach that says we're an inherently
as
reply by that question, aligning with the left against the right. I think that we're not aligned with anyone we were aligned with a loss of honey with Allah and the prophets of Allah vining would send them those who were aligned with. And we advocate for whatever is consistent with what has been revealed and what has been identified by subsequent generations of scholars as the normative practices, principles and ideals, ideas, and ethics of our religion. That's what we're aligned with. And whoever chooses to align with any of that, and then we'll send them well, what happened, but I don't think we aligned with the left or the right, especially in this highly polarized polarized,
you know, situation we find ourselves in there, there was no middle community.
Oh, that's that briefly. So yeah, I completely agree with what mom's aides said on this ad. But in reality, what has happened, I think over the past years is, most Muslim organizations and leaders have very firmly aligned ourselves with the political left. And the reason for that is partly because the Republican Party the political right was so openly anti Muslim, just so so hostile and Muslims in the years, not even with Donald Trump, even before that, especially Donald Trump, that it really put Muslims who grew up in the past 20 years in a place where the only people who are nice to them were people who were the left or liberals or all that and so they found comfort and friendship
and partnership there. But what they didn't realize is that that partnership would come at a cost that people on the left this on all the but maybe even the left will only embrace muslims so far as we do not contradict what people on the left believe or embrace, right. It's a it's it's a it's not it's not ally ship, right. And I don't I never use the word I have no allies. I never use word allies. Because the the it's not an it's not an unlimited loyals. Right. It's limited. And I'll give you one example. Actually, I won't give you examples, you might know what I'm talking about, let's say this example, row is relatively prominent, like the dish, but it just made it very vague. There
was an elected official Muslim, now they'll have someone else
who very Democrat, very popular recently like, and this individual was approached by some of her supporters, and she was asked to essentially renounce an aspect of Islam
event and it's a renounced in a way to make herself align with something that on the left wanted her team to embrace. And she said, No, in fact, I'll tell you what it's climbing with. Right. So the the issue was, it was an issue with the LGBT community. She this this politician supported policy goals that this community wanted, but they wanted to go further, they wanted her to say that Islam has no issue with sexual relationships outside of men, when they said, Well, I'm going to support you on this policy or that policy school. But I can't say that I'm a Muslim, I just can't do that. And hopefully, you can understand that it's my faith, and but we can work together on this. And that was
not acceptable to that she came under vicious attack, almost lost her position, because she was not willing to compromise on that one little bit, catch them and give them everything else in terms of policy, but she wasn't willing to renounce one aspect of her faith. Right. And when that has happened, I think with many other issues, one is that many other issues were most has been confronted with people they thought were their allies fought, understood and respected their faith. But it only appeared to be so because the moment a conflict arose, it was oh, no, you're not the right kind of most, that's not acceptable to us. And so I say that to say that, yes, I still find
people on the left are much less hostile to mostly obviously, much more open to collaboration aligned with us and probably more issues than the so called far right. But they the extremes of both of the sides pose a serious threat to I think the Muslim community in different ways. And I think as mom's aide said, we just have to be independent. We can't be any one's just allies, we can be partners on issues of which their shared concern, but it's conservatives, liberals, atheists, Christians, whatever, if you're on the right side of something, I'm happy to join you on the right side of that one thing, but I'm not your ally. I'm not your servant. And I'm gonna be willing to
disagree with you on other things, and you got to live with that and you don't want to work with me. And that's fine. We can just part ways and I'll go find someone else to work with or just to do it on my own. But I will tell you, this is the fight that we are facing. And I've seen this union activism now for almost 10 years that the Muslim community is under intense pressure. So usually politics to either shut up about things that contradicts what the left wants us to do, or to fool
We embrace it. And we all know what the threat is and the right because they're so open about it's all in public and take away your rights. And it's only to talk about things. It's so well known, right? They don't hide it at all. It's what was it now who said the wolf versus the wolf birds, the fox, right? So it's nothing new. But this is the fight that we're having behind the scenes, I will tell you we're in it's a very, it's something that I'm not sure I'm not gonna miss. We're winning that fight right now, honestly. But these discussions I think helped us we have to confront the elephant in the room, as we were discussing this brother, Tarik sin? Well, I think
I agree with
Rhoda on it. He mentioned
don't see yourself as victims. And you know, he doesn't use the language of ally ship that that there's a whole
jargon that we as Muslims, and this is my personal opinion, I can give you if we had time the foundations for that opinion. But we language provides the prism through which you view reality.
And one of our prayers along the Elina Hopper on words that y'all Allah blesses see Trump as proof and buses to follow it. So the realism of language is critical in how we view reality. And so it means
supporting someone means adopting their language, this whole language of intersectionality and Ally ship and patriarchy as defined by those folks. And this whole language, of victimization. We have the void this word for pronouns, all this stuff, these are no matter how intellectually deep it is, it's an intellectual fat. And the proof of that no Muslim on the face of this earth
1510 years ago was using that language, there's not a Muslim on the face of this earth, who is using that language, I guarantee you 20 years from now, there'll be very few Muslims using that language. And so but when we become involved in these intellectual fads, it veers us away from the natural trajectory of Islam and our own particular Muslim social context. And we set ourselves back 2025 30 years. So when those fads are abandoned,
we're left on the washed up on the shore, having to somehow those are the people who don't have a commitment to a deeper
philosophical foundation other than liberalism at the end of the day, and individualism, they just move on to the next bag. And so the people are talking about economic deterministic Marxism. No one talks about that anymore. And how the economic substructure and determines the socio cultural infrastructure, no one uses that language, no one thinks like that. People who are deeply Freud is very influential, but very few people would describe themselves as a Freudian today. And you can just go down the line. And a lot of the things that a lot of us some of them embracing right now, along those lines, when history moves on, they can be like, we can be like complicated the people
that village we just always adhere to ours, and his good ol Islam and is surprised us through that period. Or we can abandon our Islam in a de facto sense. And then when whatever we've embraced is as either used us up or it's used up as a meaningful social, cultural, political reality, then we're left like just nowhere Malcolm said we're like in, in Mr. In between no one loves Mr. In between will between this, and will between that. And at the end of their view between this and that you're nowhere because there's no, there's no third between this that someone might say the other.
Well, we all want to be the other. This brother has ended up getting out there. While one of the things to individuals and videos that are most known
aren't looked again, and but they are both Muslims. They held their position. So if the bar is at this level, why go down? Why are we going down? If Malcolm brought it up to the level? I don't know you brought up the left