Anti-Crime Khutba - Part 1

Anti-Crime Part 3 - Khutbah by Siraj Wahhaj

Our Responsibility as Citizens

What are we going to do? We're not police. We're not law enforcement. We're just regular citizens like everybody else, trying to live a decent life, surrounded by crime.

What are we going to do about it? I'm going to talk about our community, not because I think that my community represents a model. I don't. I think Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and his community represent a model.

But I want to show you something that we did, inshallah. First, let me give you some information. I'm going to back up, inshallah.

The Thriving Community Today

This Friday, I gave the Jumu'ah khutbah, the sermon at my masjid. And we had at least 1,300 people there for Jumu'ah prayer. The place was packed, people praying in the street.

The more we expand, more people come. I have guests coming to my masjid. There's a woman named Katrin from Germany, Katrin and her sister.

They come to visit me from Germany. And whenever I have guests, I take them about 50 steps from the masjid to this beautiful restaurant called Fatty's Restaurant. A brother from Egypt. He just said yes. Now, Brother Imam Qasim loves to eat. I'm like, oh, man, love to eat.

You want to get on his good side, give him some food. Doesn't matter what kind of food, just give him some food. And we take our guests there.

A Flourishing Muslim Business District

Every day you come, and I'll show you, every day you walk past that restaurant, you see 7, 8, 9, 10 policemen eating in that restaurant. That's how good the restaurant is. Across the street, he's Egyptian.

Across the street, another big restaurant, some brothers from Africa. Beautiful. I take people there, take guests there.

If you want to transfer some money across the street, a Western Union owned by the Muslims. If you want to get on the Internet, we have an Internet cafe right next to the masjid. And then we got, some of you look like you got a sweet tooth.

We got a Muslim bakery there. He's got some stuff to make your stomach say, wow, Muslim bakery. And you go all the way up in the corner, you see a supermarket, supermarket owned by a Muslim.

Across the street, Halal Meat Market. Right next to the masjid, a bookstore, a clothing store, real estate store. All over the masjid, you find in that block, one block from the masjid, you find at least 50 Muslim businesses.

Understanding the Transformation: Before and After

But see, it's not good enough for you because there's no context there. All you do is you see what it is, but you don't know what it used to be like. It's like seeing this man, this man with muscles and stuff like that, this man right here.

No, I'm really talking about him. He had all these muscles and stuff like that, but you have to see what it used to be like before the before and after. So before, in 1981, this, according to the commander of the 79th precinct, one of the worst areas where Masjid al-Tabr was.

I'm talking blight. I'm talking murder. I'm talking robbery.

Acquiring the Property: A Divine Blessing

And on that block, on that block, before I tell you about the block, let me tell you how we got the property. It was in December 1981. This property was owned by the city.

And one day I drove by and I said, oh, I'd like to get that property. Owned by the city. So we had a public auction.

And we went to the public auction that day. We're going to buy this building. And the rest is history.

Most buildings that day, I'll never forget, I was there. You know, they started at $50,000. Someone said $60,000, $80,000, $100,000, $250,000, $500,000.

And that's how much the buildings were going for. This property, the minimum upset price was $25,000. That means you've got to be getting at $25,000, right? Allah is my witness, this happened.

This parcel came available. I said, minimum upset. And the auctioneer said, auctioneer said, minimum upset.

Going once, going twice, sold for $25,000. I almost fainted. No, I'm serious.

I was like, huh? And when they woke me up, we really, we got the property for $25,000. Nobody bid against us. Found out that there was an African American with deep pockets.

You know what I mean by deep pockets? You know. You know what I'm talking about. He said I was going to bid on that property, but I don't want to bid against the Muslims.

So we got the property for $25,000. By the way, people trying to buy it from us for over a million dollars. Now, if I wanted to make profit, buy it for $25,000, huh? Huh? No, that's wrong. They ain't going to sell the masjid.

But you know what? After we got it, and I went to it, then I understood why no one bid against it. I'm talking about 15 crack houses on the block of the masjid.

The Reality of Living Surrounded by Crime

Man, we used to be in the masjid. And while we're praying, you hear, pew, pew, pew. Bullets. In the masjid. And, you know, I'm going to make a confession. I got a problem.

I got a problem. I need some help. You got any doctors here? I'm here.

I go to places, right? I visit cities. That's real quiet. They say, man, how do you like the city? I said, not enough noise.

I'm sick. No, I'm really sick. I got to hear, ping, ping, ping, pop, pop, pop.

So we got the property, but we had a problem because of the crime. What are we going to do about it? Our problem is not unlike other people. Probably not unlike yourselves.

But what are you going to do about it? What we did and what you could do. What was the issue? Most of the problems centered around drugs. People making too much money.

Facing the Drug Crisis Head-On

They're not going to stop. You're not going to go to them and say, please, brother, stop selling drugs. You're destroying the community.

You're hurting the community. Brother, you got to stop selling drugs. They'll laugh at you, man. Seriously, they'll laugh at you. It's a joke. Anyway, we decided to make a partnership with the police.

Why? Because the problem has not been police arresting people. They don't arrest people all the time. People selling drugs, they bust them, they take them in, they let them out.

They take them in, they go in, they let them out. So we decided, we had an idea that if the police could raid these places and get the drug dealers out, we could keep them out. I met with Chief Rayford.

Building a Strategic Partnership

He was, at that time, the commander of the Brooklyn North. Beautiful man. African-American. Told him about our plan. Met with the commander of the 79th precinct and told him about our command. I said, I want to have an anti-drug program.

We want to have a big rally on January 21st on the corner of our masjid. We want to have a big rally, and the same day we have the rally, we want you to raid those 15 crack houses. And after you raid them and get those drug dealers out, we will stand in front of those drug houses and don't let them back in.

Taking Action: The 40-Day, 40-Night Patrol

We had a partnership, and they said okay. We had the rally. We gave the signal.

And at one time, 15 of those drug houses were raided. People were arrested and taken down to the precinct. And what we did, we began a 40-day, 40-night anti-drug patrol.

What did we do?