Islam & the West

Islam & the West

Opening Remarks and Introduction

Alhamdulillah, there are some people that Allah guided them to this deen, brought them. Among them is our dear brother Hamza Yusuf, may Allah bless him. With this, I will ask my dear brother Imam Hamza Yusuf to come and address you. Takbir!

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. Peace be upon all of you. I want to say that I feel the spirit here this year was much higher than last year.

The Issue of Violence in the Name of Islam

So I want to speak to you tonight about a very important topic that I feel is absolutely necessary that I speak about because I would not be true to what I am feeling inside. In Russia, a group of people took hostage a school filled with children. And that resulted in the deaths of several hundred people including around 175 children.

And this atrocity unfortunately was done once again in the name of our religion. And I feel that we as Muslims are suffering all over because of the acts of a handful of people. And we must in one voice condemn and completely reject the concept of indiscriminate killing in this religion.

The Modern Phenomenon of Extremism

It is neither from the religion nor is it sanctioned by the religion in any reading of our pre-modern tradition. It is a modern phenomenon. And unfortunately those practicing it have learned it from the nihilistic elements within western tradition who innovated it.

From Marxism and from Asian philosophies that have a concept of the kamikaze. This is not our tradition and we must recognize that it is doing untold damage to Islam because we cannot be so short-sighted that we do not see the eyes of history looking upon us as a community. And I feel that what happened in that school is more heinous than the destruction of the church of the sepulchre that occurred under the insane Fatimid ruler al-Hakim bi Amrillah.

And we suffer the fact that that is recorded in the history books. A blemish on the Muslim peoples as long as people read history. We must reject indiscriminate violence against innocents.

The Sanctity of Human Life

Because blood is too precious. And it is our Lord that sanctified the blood of Bani Adam.

"[Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption in the land - it is as if he has slain mankind entirely.]"

(Quran 5:32)

Allah decreed upon Bani Israel and by extension upon the Muslims that anyone who kills a soul without just cause or brigandry in the earth, terrorism, that is if they have killed all of humanity.

And this is what has happened. We do not count numbers. We do not say they killed 30,000 of us or 3,000.

We do not count numbers. Every soul is sacred. And this has to be reestablished on the earth.

The Warning Against Extremism

Once again, the teaching of Abraham alayhis salam. And that is why our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) warned us:

(Sunan an-Nasa'i 3057, Sunan Ibn Majah 3029)

"Beware of extremism in religion, for it is extremism in religion that destroyed the peoples before you."

He did not warn it if it was not a real and serious threat to the Muslim community. And so this is the issue of the age. This is the issue that the Republican Party is basing their entire platform on.

Basing an entire political platform in the most powerful military nation on the earth. It is based on the idea that Islamic fanatics are a threat to the security of this country. And this must be condemned.

Social and Economic Challenges in America

We have a society now that is facing social disintegration. We have the erosion of the middle class in this country. We have homeless people. We have joblessness. We have erosion in our schools of the standards of education that were once the pride of this country that produced the scientists who are now imported from places like India and Pakistan. This is the reality.

We have an entire continent of Africa that has had over 40 million deaths by AIDS. Twice as many people as died in the great plague of Europe, the Black Plague. 40 million human beings.

And yet there is no funding for research into this plague that is afflicting the women of Africa. In great numbers that we are looking at 100 million people that are facing death by the plague of AIDS. And yet we are spending $500 billion on a defense budget that is nine times greater than all of the defense budgets on this planet put together.

That is not right. It's against every principle upon what this country was based. And this is the second extremism that I want to talk about.

Extremism Within America

I believe that this country is being hijacked by a select group of extremists themselves. Islam is not the only religion that suffers from extremism. There is an extremist agenda in this country that is not in the best interest of the United States.

And it's the goodness of this people that every war that this country goes to is always done in the name of the highest ideals of this country because the hypocrites that use those ideals for their own advantages know that in the hearts of the Americans is a love of truth, a love of justice, and a love of liberty. And they believe that those should be values and virtues that are promoted throughout the world.