Religious Extremism - Dr

Religious Extremism

Speaker: Dr. Bilal Philips

Opening

Arabic:

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

English Translation:

Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds. The good end is for the righteous, and there is no transgression except against the wrongdoers. I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah alone, without partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger.

All praise is due to Allah and may Allah's peace and blessings be on Muhammad. Friendship should be for the believers and enmity should only be for the disbelievers. And I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah and that Muhammad is the last messenger of Allah.

Introduction

The topic of religious extremism, which we'll be looking at this morning, in Arabic is expressed as (الغُلُوُّ فِي الدِّينِ - al-ghuluw fi al-deen).

First Hadith: Warning Against Extremism

Arabic:

(Source Name)

English Translation: "Beware of extremism in religion. For those before you were only destroyed by going to extremes in religion."

Reference: Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Sunan al-Nasa'i, and Sunan Ibn Majah - narrated by Ibn Abbas

Second Hadith: The Fate of Extremists

Arabic:

(Source Name)

English Translation: "The extremists will be destroyed."

Reference: Sahih Muslim

Quranic Verses Addressing the People of the Book

Arabic:

English Translation: "O people of the scripture, do not go to extremes in your religion."

Reference: Surah al-Nisa' and Surah al-Ma'idah

So this was the warning of Prophet Muhammad. Beware of extremism in religion. And Allah in the Quran called to the people of the book. Addressing the Jews and the Christians primarily. But people of the scripture in the wider sense includes Muslims also. We are the true people of the scripture. And that represents the warning both from Allah and from Prophet Muhammad with regards to extremes in religion.

Understanding Extremism

After that warning, we then have to figure out what is extreme? What constitutes extremism? Because this term extremism is used in a number of different contexts. So that is what we are going to be looking at in this session this morning. What constitutes extremism?

The Middle Nation (Ummatan Wasatan)

Arabic:

"And thus We have made you a middle nation that you will be witnesses over the people."

Reference: Surah al-Baqarah, verse 143

Allah, when speaking about Muslims or addressing Muslims, as a nation, the ummah, He focused on being in the middle. In that way, I made you a middle nation. And by being a middle nation, it meant, as the scholars explained, a balanced nation. You are right in the middle. You are not on either sides. You know, too much this way, too much that way. You are right balanced. A justly balanced nation.

As witnesses against humankind. And the Prophet had explained in a hadith, authentic hadith also, that people on the Day of Judgment will be asked about following Allah's commands. And they will claim that the commands didn't come to them. And Prophet Muhammad will be brought forth, and he will call his nation to

bear witness that the message was conveyed. So we are, as a Muslim nation, we have the responsibility of carrying that message.

And at the same time, we would be witnesses against the other nations that claim, that will claim on the Day of Judgment, they didn't know anything about it, we will be witnesses that, inshallah, we did convey the message, we did represent, stand behind and promote the message of Islam in the world. So Allah chose us. Chose this nation, the best among the nations, in order that they would exemplify the middle path, Siratul Mustaqim.

That same path that we ask for 17 times each day, is none other than Siratul Mustaqim. The Siratul Mustaqim is the middle path. The path of the middle nation, the balanced nation.

Basic Principles: Ease in Religion

So, to understand how extremism challenges that, that basic character or characteristic of the Muslim nation, we need to understand the principles with regards to Allah's instructions and the nation itself. The most basic principle that we hear repeated throughout the Quran, and we hear it also in many places in the Sunnah, is ease. Allah did not place any difficulty in this religion.

With every difficulty comes ease. The ease is the point which is stressed throughout the Quran.

Hadith on Ease in Religion

We find Prophet Muhammad had said: "Certainly the religion is easy. Whoever becomes overly strict with the religion, will be overcome by it."

Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari

The religion is easy. Whoever goes to extremes in making it difficult, then it will overcome that individual in the end. So again, we need to know the lines of what constitutes easy and the ease, and where the difficulty of extremism, produced by extremism, comes into play.

And of course, if it is left up to us, then everybody has his version, his idea, as to what constitutes strictness, over-strictness. So, we will never be able to identify the golden mean, the middle path, if it is left up to us. And that's why Allah, in His mercy, He sent Prophet Muhammad to show us that golden mean, the middle path. So he becomes the criterion, we judge the middle path by what he did.

He is the best example. That's what Allah calls him in the Quran: "There is in the message of Allah for you, the best of examples." The best example of the middle path is found in the life of Prophet Muhammad

So, where we go beyond the bounds that were shown by Prophet Muhammad, whether to too much or too little, that's where we go to extremes. Extremism means going beyond the bounds that were set by Rasulullah. That is the simplest definition.

Because he was the example, he knew what Allah meant when he gave his commands. He, in his life, lived that middle path. He gave us the example of how to live the middle path. So whenever we step beyond it, we have gone to extremes. This is where we find the ghulu. And he was very precise, very particular about preventing, stopping any form of extremism in the religion.

Examples of Extremism in Practice

Example 1: Standing for the Prophet

So, for example, when he came among his companions on one occasion and they stood up for him, those who had gone, were trading north into Syria, etc., where when the king comes, people all rise for the king, they came back with this idea that we should be doing this for Rasulullah. If they are rising for the kings there, we should be rising all the time for Rasulullah. So they stood up for him and he stopped them.

He told them, sit down. Don't stand for me. This standing is for Allah. Qiyam. This is our first posture in prayer. It's qiyam. We stand up for Allah. And that's why any other standing, if we stand up when the Malaysian flag flutters and the anthem is sung, we have to say, where is that from the example of Rasulullah. Or when the teacher comes in, or when a big person comes in, portent, whatever, or in the courts, all rise.

All of this standing is questionable. It is a form of extremism. But the society considers it as normal now. To not stand, that is the extreme. What kind of extremist are you? You are refusing to stand. You see how the determination of what is extreme can shift from time to time, from country to country, all of this.

So we have to have some basic principles which guide us in the end. And those basic principles come from the Sunnah. So you can imagine that if the Prophet prohibited standing for him, the common custom, Malay custom, of making rukuh, by the younger people when the elder comes to the hand. We say it's custom. We don't mean rukuh. But it is rukuh.

Look at it. People are making rukuh. And if we use the argument of custom, then I visited Nigeria a few years back, and in Nigeria when the Shaykh comes in, the people rush and make sujood at his feet. And it's their custom. And when I said it, they said, no it's not sujood, it's just respect. And in India also, when the teacher comes in the classroom, the students come prostrating at her feet.

The point is that if Prophet Muhammad prohibited the standing, then bowing will be obviously far more prohibited. Bowing will obviously be far more prohibited. And prostrating even more so. So the issue is not merely that of intention. If I say my intention in drinking this glass of vodka is just to enjoy the taste. I'm not intending to get drunk. We don't choose our intention. We say our intention is for this or for that.

This is not the basis of the deen. Yes, intentions and deeds will be judged according to their intentions. But this is what good deeds, good deeds are judged by their intentions.

The Hadith on Intentions

Arabic:

(Source Name)

English Translation: "Actions are judged by their intentions."

That's what is meant by the Prophet's statement. So when we look then at the issue of what constitutes the middle path, we see that people deviate from the middle path in two general ways.

Two Categories of Deviation

There are two main ways by which they deviate:

1. Extremism in Beliefs

One, in the area of beliefs. They enter into extreme beliefs. They've gone beyond in their beliefs the bounds which have been set by Allah and His Messenger.

2. Extremism in Acts

And we see also people deviating and going to extremes in their acts. These are two categories which are interrelated because acts are preceded by beliefs. Isn't it? But where the belief is the greater driving force, we're calling that extremism in belief. Where the acts are greater driving force, we call it extremism in acts.

The most dangerous form of extremism obviously is extremism in belief. That is the most dangerous because that is what produces in the end sectarianism, where people splinter off and end up into major deviations leaving Islam.

Examples of Extremism in Acts

Hadith: Three Companions Who Went to Extremes

If we look at extremism in acts, we find a good example from the time of Prophet Muhammad, which was narrated by Anas ibn Malik, that when three of the Sahaba came to the wives of the Prophet, and they asked them about the way that the Prophet used to worship.

And after they described to them, the wives of the Prophet, described to those three Sahaba how he used to worship. They said, you know, mashallah, Allah has forgiven the Prophet's sins of the past and the future. So that is enough, what he does. However, we who don't have that promise of Allah, that our past sins and our future sins are forgiven, we need to do more.

Extremism in Belief: Historical Examples

The Man Who Questioned the Prophet's Fairness

In the case of extremism in belief, we find an occasion towards the end of the life of the Prophet, one of the last battles, after which the Prophet was distributing the spoils of war, and after he distributed it amongst the

companions, one among them stood up and said, "Be fair! Messenger of Allah, be fair!"

The Prophet was upset with what he said, because if he wasn't fair, where is there fairness? Because what he is doing is on the command of Allah. So, when the individual turned and left, one of the companions actually asked, "Should I go and kill him, O Messenger of Allah?" Khalid bin Walid, for the man to have said this.

The Prophet said, "No. Indeed, there will be from his descendants, those who will recite the Qur'an, but it will not go beyond their throats, and they will slaughter Muslims while leaving the pagans free."

So in that hadith, scholars have deduced two characteristics of extremism in belief:

1. The misinterpretation of the Qur'an
2. Declaring Muslims to be disbelievers

And these characteristics we can see manifest from the first of the sects that broke away from mainstream Islam, the Khawarij, we see it in the Shia, and we see it in all of the subsequent groups right down till today. These same characteristics, where verses of the Qur'an are misinterpreted, and they end up declaring the main body of Muslims to be disbelievers.

The Shia and Sufism: Extremism in Belief

So when we look today, for example, the biggest sect that has broken away from mainstream Islam are the Shia. They're the biggest sect. In the past it was the Khawarij, but the Khawarij basically are not around today except in Oman. The governing, the ruling community of Oman are from the Khawarij. They're the only remaining presence of the Khawarij in our time. And they represent a moderate wing, a liberal wing of the Khawarij. So they don't hold some of the extreme beliefs of the earlier body that broke off and slaughtered Muslims, slaughtered the Sahaba, while claiming that they were upholding the Qur'an.

In the case of the Shia, this is one major group, and its sister group, the Sufiya, Tasawwuf, and Shia are two sides of the same coin. They share the same beliefs. Of course it comes in a different package, but when you look at it in its essence, when you take off the outer external differences, you find the commonality internally.

And even the Shia, they claim that they were the inventors of Sufism. They claim that. Of course, much of the Ummah who may be involved in Sufism, they reject that claim. But the Shia claim it. And the Shia actually, they appeared before the Sufis.

Shia Beliefs About the Twelve Imams

So if we look into how, in terms of belief, the Shia went to extremes, we know that their main focus is on the 12 Imams. And the way in which they perceive the 12 Imams is that they have some of the major attributes of Allah.

1. Infallibility

They believe that the Imams, first and foremost, are infallible. Infallible from the time they were born till the time they died. We know about the Pope. The Catholics believe that when the Pope is invested in the office or the papacy, he becomes infallible. That's their belief also. Because he is the spokesman of God on the earth. So they believe he's infallible.

But their belief is less than the Shia, because the Shia are saying there's no point from the time of birth till the time of death, the Imams are infallible. They are incapable of making a mistake or doing an error. Incapable. We say that is Allah.

Everybody else, as Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:

English Translation: "All of Adam's descendants make mistakes."

Meaning: Khata' means makes plenty of mistakes.

So, how can somebody then come and say he or she is infallible?

2. Omniscience

Furthermore, the Shia believe that the Imams are omniscient. They have knowledge of all things. What is in the Lawh al Mahfuz, they know. That's what they believe. Absolute knowledge. So we say, that is Allah.

3. Omnipotence

They also believe that the Imams are omnipotent. That they have power over the atoms of the universe. And they like to quote the case of Ali ibn Abi Talib, which they claim. One occasion, he was involved in some battle and the battle was prolonged and the time for Asr came and the sun set without them being able to pray.

So Ali ibn Abi Talib commanded the sun to rise again. So he could pray his Asr and then allowed it to set. This is among their beliefs.

Imam Khomeini, he says it very clearly in his book, Al-Hukum Al-Islamiyah (The Islamic Government). That the Imams have a special station above that of the Prophets. With a creational Caliphate. They call it Al-Khilafah At-Taqweeniyah. And when you go and read about what do they mean by Khilafah At-Taqweeniyah? No, it means that they control the atoms of the universe. This is the Imams.

Sufism: Parallel Beliefs

So, if we go into Sufism, we find infallibility in another version. When you become the murid of your Sheikh, you become a follower of a particular Sheikh. Then, you are supposed to believe in him absolutely. That he can

do no wrong.

So they tell you, if you even see him drinking a bottle of alcohol. Know that it may appear that way to you. But that's not what it is really. You see him committing adultery. Know that it is not what you see. Because what you see may not be what really is. Like Khidr and Musa. Because your Sheikh can do no wrong. He has become one with Allah.

He is in fact Allah on the earth. They don't say it that way. But when you say he has become one with Allah. He has arrived. They call it Wusul. He has arrived.

The point is he becomes one with Allah. So at that state, he sees what Allah sees. Means he knows the past, the present and the future. He hears what Allah hears. Of course there is a hadith where the Prophet had said that the slave does not come close to Allah except by doing what is compulsory for him or her. And if they continue to worship Allah through voluntary worship, they come closer and closer to Allah until their sight becomes the sight of Allah.

Allah becomes their sight. That's how it's expressed in the hadith. But they're seeing as Allah sees. And they're hearing, touching, walking, related back to Allah. But the scholars of mainstream Islam all understood that it meant that they would only see what was pleasing to Allah. They would avoid looking at that which was displeasing to Allah. Not that Allah literally becomes their sight. That they see what Allah sees. No.

How can? We are human beings, finite. We cannot see what the infinite sees. So they give their imams these attributes of Allah in terms of knowledge, in terms of power.

They have this belief that whenever Allah sends down blessings, the leading Sufi saint, they call the Qutub or the Pole, it comes to him. Then he distributes it over the earth to the people of the earth. So he has control over Allah's blessings to give to who he chooses.

Consequences: Intermediacy and Shirk

So we see in the end, when we look back at the Shia and we say, okay after they've had this belief in the imams in this way, then what is the consequence of that? The consequence is that they then, believing that the imams are infallible, know everything, capable to do anything, they pray to them. So the imams become intermediaries between themselves and Allah. They pray to the imams.

They have special prayer books which you call on Hasan, you call on Hussain, you call on the various imams, Ali, etc. You call on Fatima. They didn't exclude Fatima, she's included. They talk about the 14 infallibles. There's main 12 and then you have an extra two, Fatima and Prophet Muhammad. They call on them in prayer.

And similarly, when you look in the Sufiya, they call on their saints. The people who they have elevated to the status of having this connection with Allah, they call on them in prayer. So when trials befall them, they call on

the people, like Abdul Qadir is the most popular saint to call on in trial times. Ya Abdul Qadir, aghifni, O Abdul Qadir, save me. They will say that openly, no problem.

They will go to the tombs, make tawaf around the tombs, prostrate at the tombs, and that's what the Shia do when they go to their mashhad, where Ali ibn Abi Talib is buried and so on. So they go there, make tawaf, prostrate, everything. Especially Karbala, where Hussain was killed, where they believe because he was killed there and his blood touched the earth of Karbala, Karbala becomes the most holy spot on the earth, more holy than Mecca.

So much so that they make clay tablets out of the earth from Karbala, they call turbat, and they take it with them. Whenever they have to prostrate, they put it down, they prostrate on it. You will see it if you pass their mosque, you go inside, you see all these little tablets, stone tablets on the mats, the prayer mats, it's all over.

So the intermediacy that you find in Shiaism, you find it also in Sufiya. So this is the shared extreme beliefs.

The Prophet's Warning

And this is what Prophet Muhammad ﷺ stressed: "Do not be excessive in your praise of me. As people before were excessive in the praise of Isa ibn Maryam, I am only a slave of Allah and his messenger."

Stressing this point. Don't be excessive. Because in their excessive praise, the Christians in their excessive praise of Isa ibn Maryam, they elevated him to be the son of God and to be God. So they worshipped him. So this is the same thing that has happened with the other groups. They followed that same extremism of the Christians.

Extremism Under the Banner of Hakimiyah

So what we have in terms of extremism belief, today those are the main areas that we see. We do have along with that the groups who, while not going to extremes in how they hold leaders, they've gone to extremes in how they judge the followers. Under the banner of Hakimiyah.

Hakimiyah, which as a principle, Tawheed al-Hakimiyah as a principle, is a valid principle in Islam. Tawheed al-Hakimiyah means that rule, government, should be in accordance with the rule of Allah. That's what it basically means. And it is an extension of Tawheed al-Uluhiyah or unity of worship. That part of our worship of Allah is applying his laws, not only in our personal selves but in our societies. That stands.

But people who have gone to extremes in our time, have taken this aspect and focused on this aspect of the rule of Allah. Which now overrides everything else. So from that they concluded that if you don't rule according to the rule of Allah, you are a disbeliever.

Quranic Verses on Judging by Allah's Revelation

Now there are verses in the Quran which say that:

English Translation: "Whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, they are the disbelievers."

Reference: Quran

But it's also there that Allah describes them as:

Translation: The oppressors

Translation: The corrupt

As being oppressive and sinful, as being corrupt. So we don't just have one ruling, that everybody who does not rule by the rule of Allah is automatically a disbeliever. But we have different grades. There are shades of grey, it's not just black and white.

But these people have taken it in a black and white approach. If you don't rule by Allah's law, then you are a disbeliever. And whoever works for you is also a disbeliever. Whoever is paid by you is a disbeliever. So then, being a disbeliever, your blood now becomes halal.

And they unleash violence against the Muslim population. Various groups which popped up in Egypt and elsewhere have promoted and propagated that approach. So their extremism is expressed in how they judge Muslims.

It's an extension from that first individual that the Prophet ﷺ spoke about, who would slaughter Muslims, his descendants would slaughter Muslims, while letting aside the disbelievers. They will not focus on disbelievers, they will focus on Muslims and end up killing Muslims, declaring them to be non-Muslims. And this was the Khawarij.

So we have people of our time also promoting that methodology which represents an element of extremism in belief.

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Contemporary Extremism in Practice

In terms of extremism in practice and acts, what we see today is the various customs and traditions which we find in different parts of the Muslim world, which are in fact innovations in the religion itself.

Examples of Extremism in Practice

Forced Marriage

Whether it is forced marriage, that is an extreme in the religion. Forcing our daughters to marry people of our choice, this is extremism. When the Prophet ﷺ had said that daughters should have a choice, you can suggest, you can encourage, but the choice should be in her hand. So when you remove the choice from her hand, you have gone to an extreme. That is extremism right there.

Female Genital Mutilation

Also where in the society we have other practices which are based on other customs like female genital mutilation for example. This is an area that the Muslims are attacked on, that they are involved in this practice. Again, this is not in accordance with the teachings of Islam, teachings of the Prophet ﷺ, and it becomes a form of extremism.

Denying Women Access to Mosques

And all of the other areas where women are denied, for example, masjids, to go to the masjids. Here for example in Malaysia, generally speaking Juma is not attended by women. They are discouraged.

In India, they don't even have a place in the masjid for women. There is no women's section at all. A woman tries to get in the masjid, the men will stand and bar her from entering the masjid. That is how they have made the masjids. They don't believe that women have a place here.

This is extremism in practice. It is based on ignorance. It is coming out of ignorance.

Superstition and Magic

But much of what we have to struggle against today in these practices as well as a variety of other acts which are holding Muslims back, whether it enters into areas of the supernatural, for example, this BOMO thing that you guys have here in Indonesia, how you are caught up into it, and people go into this one and that one, they are calling on the jinn, this is extremism.

Prophet Muhammad wasn't doing that. The Sahaba, when people came, they were not calling on the jinn. They didn't have jinn working for them. People say, he's got a good jinn working for him. This is nonsense. This is all nonsense. This is not from the way of the Prophet ﷺ and his companions. But it has become widespread.

People have become very superstitious. Anything happens, it's magic. Somebody did some magic on us. So it's widespread. People are abusing it. Taking people's money, claiming to cure this one and that one. Maybe the issues are psychological. It's not even jinn at all. So we have it coming from all kinds of directions in our societies today.

Lack of Understanding in Teaching Islam

And even we could say that the way in which Islam is taught today, where understanding of Islam is missing. People are just told to do what we do because you are Muslim. That's why you pray five times a day. That's why you fast. Just do it. And so people grow up under the pressure of society, etc.

They grow up practicing, but they don't really know why they practice. So when circumstances arise, they travel overseas. They go to universities. Now all their classmates are non-Muslims, and they start to question them. Why do you do this? Why do you do that? I'm not really sure. And more questions arise, then they start to doubt.

Why am I doing it, really, anyway? It's just making life more difficult for me. And the next thing you know, they're leaving it aside. They're dropping it. Finally, your daughter or your son calls you back from Swaziland and says, listen, I don't believe in Islam anymore.

Why? Because they didn't understand it in the first place. If they ask a question, you say, shh, shh, shh, shaitan. It's the shaitan that's got you. So don't ask that question. Why? Because you didn't have an answer. You never asked a question because you were afraid of your parents. And they were something handed down. But this is not the way.

Allah gave us intelligence. He gave us reason to understand. Of course, that reason does have its limits. But as much as we can understand, we should understand. Because if we've understood why we're doing it, that gives us motivation to want to do it more. When we don't understand, it's just like a burden that we have to do.

So much of our problems, internal problems in the Muslim world today, this is a result of extremism in the acts that we follow. What we call bid'ah, you know, in terms of our practice. This is holding the ummah back. And the real problem behind it all is ignorance. Not knowing the religion. Not understanding the teachings so we can find that Sirat al-Mustaqim. That middle path.

The Secular Attack on Islam

Now, looking from the other side, the side of the secularists. Because the Muslim world is under attack today. A global attack. A global attack led by secular Western civilization. We have internal representatives for that same secularism, who are attacking us from within. But we have a major attack coming from the outside.

Some people say, no, no, no, it's not really an attack. You know, this is a distorted way of looking at it. You know, really, it's the Western civilization. They just want to, you know, help us, help us to develop. And, you know, they don't really, you know, this is an extreme way to look at this as them and us.

The Nature of Secularism

But the thing is that Western civilization has divorced itself from revelation. Secularism means exactly that. That human life, political, social, et cetera, where it is ruled by law, should not be governed by religion.

Because fundamentally, those who promote secularism, religion is made up anyway. So if you made up, you have a made up religion and he has a made up religion, you know, why should yours be the rule and not his, you know? So you can keep this made up religion as your own personal thing. But for society as a whole, it must, religion must not come into play because it will lead to conflict.

So they say, remove religion, we just deal with human needs, humanism. We focus on our human needs. So what do we do? We decide on right and wrong, how do we do it? Because before we used to have to use religion, right? What was right and wrong was what was in the Bible.

Western civilization was Christian. So the Bible, Old Testament, identified what are evils, what are okays, et cetera. So now when we take away the Bible, how do we determine what's good and what's wrong? Evil.

Democracy as Moral Authority

Democracy. We have a principle here. Democracy, where the majority agree on something, that's what's good. If the majority don't agree, they feel otherwise, then that's what's bad. That's our principle.

What that does, of course, is it removes any solid basis for morality in the society. Because if the majority feel something is good today, it's good. If they think it's bad tomorrow, it becomes bad. What was bad today can become good. So where is your basis?

The Homosexuality Example

And that's exactly what has happened in the society. That the values that were held have been turned upside down. Before the 70s, if you asked anybody in the 60s, for example, about homosexuals, they would say, oh, bad people, corrupt, sick. An abomination unto the Lord, as in the Old Testament. And the psychiatrists considered them to be ill. They had all these treatments in their psychiatric manuals, electric treatment, drug treatments, all kinds of treatments for them.

But by the middle 70s, things turned around. All of a sudden, you ask the average American, what's the case of homosexuals? They say, alternative lifestyles. It's just another way of living. Different strokes for different folks. That's how it's put. Who am I to say? I personally am not, but they want it to be that way. It's their thing. It's okay.

And the psychiatric profession removed the illness of homosexuality from the book, and they replaced it with what? Homophobia. Those people who still have the nerve to consider homosexuals to be sick, and despicable, etc. These people are now sick. And they need to go to the psychiatrist and get reprogrammed, corrected.

Personal Experience: Banned from Germany

And I don't know if you've been following the news, but recently I was banned from Germany for life. I gave a lecture in Germany, in Frankfurt, Germany. This was just three months ago, two months ago. And, alhamdulillah, big public lecture. After it, 17 Germans accepted Islam. Alhamdulillah.

After that, on my way to the hotel, the German SWAT team came and surrounded the car, and took me down to the police station, and read me a manifesto from the mayor of Frankfurt saying, "You are banned from Germany for life."

Why? "Because you advocate the execution of homosexuals."

I said, what? How is that? Islamic law says that if you're caught in the act in an Islamic state, you will be executed. If you've been seen by four witnesses, etc. Execution. That's the law.

They say, "But homosexuals are a respected part of our society, whose rights should be protected against anyone who would speak ill of them. And we fear that you, even though, yes, you're saying that you don't call for their execution, that this is Islamic law, but we fear that at some time you may say this to the young people, and tell them to go out and kill homosexuals."

So, therefore, we will ban you for life. So, Allahu Akbar. This is their position.

Indoctrination in Schools

And they have now introduced into the educational systems of the West. In the States, kids in grade one on the East Coast have a book, which is called "My Two Dads". Yeah, grade one, My Two Dads. In it, Johnny has two dads, you know, Tommy has a dad and a mom. But Johnny's two dads, they're really great guys, you know, they take him to the beach, they take him to the playground, they take him here, they take him there, you know. To get the children used to the idea of two dads.

In England, the book they have is called "The Prince". Grade one, grade two students. The kingdom of so-and-so, they had a prince who they were trying to get a wife for. The parents were bringing this young, beautiful princess and this one. But no, no, no, no, he didn't like this one. Finally, he met another prince. And they liked each other, and they were close, and they were good. You know, very subtly feeding these ideas into the society.

So they are coming at that civilization, they're coming at them in full force. In full force. And of course it's coming at us too. Because from there it comes to us. It's just a matter of time.

Secularism as Extremism

So that extremist approach through secularism is the major threat to Muslims today. Besides the problems that we have of our own ignorance in terms of our practice of Islam, etc., we have this other huge challenge in front of us. The secularists.

And for the secularists, anyone who seeks to practice Islam properly is an extremist. That is extremism.

They only want what we may call liberal Islam or nominal Islam. It's okay if you drink, you shake the hands of women, you don't pray Ramadan, you don't fast, maybe you fast a day or two, whatever, like this. That's what they want.

But for you to insist, no, five times daily prayer, that's what we're supposed to do, you're supposed to dress this way, you're supposed to eat this way, you're supposed to act this way, and so on, so on, so on. That is extreme. That is extreme.

So that is the struggle and that is the test and challenge that the Muslim world is facing today. And it becomes greater and greater as Muslims become more and more conscious.

The Backlash Against Muslim Identity

Because 25 years ago you didn't hear this stuff. They weren't banning veils in France and Belgium and all that. Why are they banning now? Why not 25 years ago? Well, because 25 years ago nobody was wearing veils. Muslim women in many parts of the Muslim world didn't, hijab, there was no hijab.

So this change that has happened with the ummah where there's an awakening, where people are now becoming conscious and dressing and speaking and acting as Muslims, recognizing and identifying their identity and taking it on, this is now a threat.

So when you listen to the presidents of Germany and France and UK, what they're saying to the Muslims there is that you are supposed to be a German first. You should look like a German. You should talk like a German. You should walk like a German and think like a German. But you can also still be Muslim. I'm not saying you can't be Muslim, but these other things must take precedence.

Same thing in France. They're all saying the same thing. They want this, you know, you could say, they call it assimilation, integration. But really what it means is to become one of them.

Quranic Warning

And Allah spoke about it in the Quran 1,400 years ago:

English Translation: "The Jews and the Christians will not be pleased with you until you follow their way."

Way doesn't necessarily mean you convert to Christianity or Judaism, but follow their way. What is the way? Secularism.

Because are Westerners really Christians? They're a minority.

I mean, people would say, yeah, I'm Christian, but what does it mean? Maybe we're a big cross, you know, it's just style. But what does it mean? It doesn't mean anything. They're leaving the churches, you know, in droves. Churches are being closed, shut down all over the West.

In Britain, it's so many, and Muslims are buying up the churches and turning them into masjids, that finally the church said, ah, we have to stop this. You know, they made a law amongst themselves that they will not sell any churches to Muslims. They will sell it to become a bar or a bowling alley or anything, but not to Muslims. But that's what's happening.

The Real Conflict

So the West is not really a Christian thing. Some people think of it as like, you know, a crusading. Yeah, there are, you know, fundamentalists out there, and they're, you know, doing their thing and converting Muslims in different parts of the world, too. That's happening. But that's not the major thing.

The major thing is secular Western civilization, which looks at Islam as an extreme. Because their basic principle is that religion should not interfere in the governance of people. Whereas Islam, Sharia says, religion is supposed to interfere in every aspect of the governance of people. So you're two poles, like the North and the South, the East and the West, two poles apart.

Now, Islam doesn't say, we now must force everybody to follow our way. It doesn't say that. You want to believe that? Okay. We can deal with you on trade, etc. It's not a problem.

But the West is driven to impose this on us. Because they believe, according to evolutionary theory, that they are the most evolved of human beings on the Earth today. Western civilization is at the pinnacle of the pyramid of evolution. So they feel it their duty to help those down the bottom by imposing their secular systems on them. Helping them.

Western Jihad

So, in the name of security, world, peace, protecting civilization, they wage a war of jihad against the Muslim world. They don't call it jihad. If we fight back, it's jihad. But when they're doing, if you think about it, they're doing jihad for their belief system, to promote it. They're in Afghanistan, they're in Iraq, they're in the Muslim lands, waging a war of jihad to promote their secular way on the Muslim world. That is the bottom line.

If jihad means to struggle against evil and to promote good, that is the essential meaning of jihad. So you can make jihad within yourself against the evil tendencies. Jihad in your family, jihad in your society, jihad outside of your society. Promoting the good and prohibiting the evil is not what they claim.

When they went into Iraq, weapons of mass destruction to prevent the evil of Saddam, with all these weapons of mass destruction which he didn't have. They were going in there to stop and protect the world against him. So they were waging jihad.

Conclusion: Finding the Middle Path

So this is the struggle that we are faced today on a world scale. That Western civilization have identified those who seek to practice Islam, as it is in the Quran and the Sunnah, to live their lives according to that as being extremists.

So we are religious extremists. And we are labeled fundamentalists. That is the title given to the extremists, religious extremists amongst themselves. Christian sects that believe that the Bible is the word of God from Genesis to Revelation, and so on and so forth, infallible, etc. They label their people that and then they put the same label on us.

So extremists, fundamentalists, terrorists, because that is what it becomes now. And as people have pointed out, this guy in Norway who is a Christian fundamentalist, who blew up all his people, waging war against Muslims, they don't call him a Christian terrorist. You will not see anywhere in those news, they say a Christian fundamentalist who committed this act of terrorism, but you will never see in the news Christian terrorist.

But you let one Muslim do anything, and this is Muslim terrorism. Always Muslim terrorism, not a Muslim who committed a terroristic act, but Muslim terrorist. These two are put together. And this is deliberate media blackening, distortion of what Islam is and what it represents.

Summary

So to bring us back to where we began, that religious extremism is something which both the Quran and the Sunnah warned against. We, in practicing our Islam, have to be careful not to fall into any of the extremes.

Whether we try to overdo it in acts which go beyond what the Prophet has shown us, or we become so lax we don't do what we should have been doing, either side are the extremes that take us away from being ummatun wasatun.

This is middle nation which Allah describes as having made us to be that middle nation that would be the example for human society of the way which Allah wants us to be. And this is what we have to offer the world today. We don't have technology to offer. In the past, yes, we were the leaders of technology in Spain, Baghdad, Damascus and so and so. But today we are running to New York, London, etc. to gain the knowledge. We don't have the technology.

So what is it that we have to offer? We have to offer morality. The moral heart of civilization lies with us.

The Prophet's ﷺ Mission

As Prophet Muhammad ﷺ had said:

English Translation: "I was only sent to perfect for you the highest of moral character traits."

So this is the essential message of Islam. It is a moral message. And this is what we have to offer the world.

The Need for Knowledge

So we have to be conscious of our Islam. We have to have knowledge by which to be able to understand how to live our day-to-day lives in our various professions, in our education, in our families, etc. We have to have that knowledge to be able to live that middle path.

And inshallah, alhamdulillah, we have easy access today. We have the Islamic Online University which I set up back in 2007. It means to make authentic Islamic knowledge available to the world. The Islamic Online University in its diploma courses is absolutely free. Anybody can register anytime, study at anytime, at whatever pace you wish. No prerequisites to get to join it. It doesn't matter what your age is, what qualifications you have, academic. It is open to you.

The IslamicOnlineUniversity.com. You can study at home, wherever you have a chance. As long as you have internet, you can study. So we have this product by the will of Allah. He made this available in our time where the knowledge is now so much more accessible to us.

Hadith on Seeking Knowledge

And Prophet Muhammad ﷺ stressed:

English Translation: "Seeking knowledge is compulsory for every Muslim."

And this is knowledge primarily of the deen. To know who Allah is and to know what He has commanded. To know who the Messenger of Allah was and what He has taught. To guide us in our day-to-day life.

So the internet has now made this accessible to us. We also began to offer from last year a BA in Islamic Studies online. Which is accredited. We have from universities in the Philippines and from Indonesia, which issue the degrees for us. And the cost is virtually nothing.

So inshallah we hope that you would participate in this and to support it in any way that you can. Whether offering help as volunteers with the university in its projects etc. Or whether it is financial because it's all being run on individual efforts and contributions in that way.

So inshallah we have an opportunity to know what that middle path is. And to avoid extremism then we should take it. We have no excuse today with the access of the internet in our homes. Let us use it for more than

gaming and chatting. Wasting a lot of our time. Let's get in and benefit from it from the perspective of knowing our religion.

That we can inshallah in the future according to the motto of the Islamic Online University: Change the nation through education.

Final Remarks

So inshallah we'll stop here in the presentation on religious extremism. I hope that the points have been clear.

What we refer to as extremism in beliefs. The most dangerous here is extremism. Where it ends us up with. Where it takes us to in the end. Which is basically intermediacy. Where we end up worshipping others instead of Allah. Worshipping Allah through others.

Or extremism in our acts. Where we're doing a variety of different practices, customs, traditions. Which are in fact not in keeping with the sunnah of the Prophet.

Whether it is Mawlid. Though Mawlid has become a holiday in most Muslim countries today. But we have to know that this is an act. Which was not sanctioned by Rasulallah. His companions who best knew his teachings and best followed it. Never did it. So we have to know that this is something which people have innovated.

They have brought into the religion.

Hadith on Innovation

And the Prophet ﷺ had said:

English Translation: "Every innovation in religion is misguidance."

It's a source of misguidance.

So inshallah I will stop here and we'll take questions.

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all the worlds.