Between Fear and Action

Khutbah: Islamophobia - Between Fear and Action

Speaker: Yasir Qadhi

Event: GPU 2010

Opening

Brothers and sisters in Islam, I know you've been sitting here all day long, listening to one speaker after another. So before I begin, I want to give you a little break and ask you to look around at this audience.

See the people sitting and standing and walking and mixing. Look at the diversity that is present here. Notice the various cultures that are represented and marvel at the different ethnicities and backgrounds of all of the people here.

50,000 people from all walks of life, from so many parts of the globe. An outsider who wanders into our hall will wonder what possibly combines all of these human beings together. What is the uniting factor? What is the one commonality between them? Well, my dear brothers and sisters, we all know the answer to that question.

The Power of La Ilaha Illallah

It is the power of (لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللهِ - la ilaha illallah muhammadun rasulullah) Let us all say it together loudly .

Brothers and sisters, we need to appreciate the power of this kalima. We should marvel at its strength that Allah has given it. This one sentence is so powerful that it breaks all societal barriers, that it transcends all human differences and that it unites us under one great cause and that is the worship of Allah.

Current Challenges Facing Muslims

I began my talk today by pointing out the strength of this kalima because these days we as Muslims need to be strengthened and reassured. There is so much going on in the world that causes us to feel frustrated, that increases our sense of exasperation. So much is happening only in this last year.

Where does one begin? In my own country of America, we have just seen a few months of vicious propaganda against the building of a new mosque in New York that opened up a wave of hatred and fear-mongering against the Muslims, including a threat to burn the copy of the Holy Qur'an. In Switzerland in this last year, they have banned the building of minarets on mosques. In France recently, they banned the face veil on Muslims.

And in Germany last week, Chancellor Merkel announced in a statement that was clearly directed towards the Muslim minority population that multiculturalism has been a failure. And the list goes on and on. It is no surprise that many of our youth are confused and angry.

Hypocrisy in Freedom of Speech

Our countries that claim to be bastions of freedom, supporters of human rights, under the guise of freedom of speech, they actively and even maliciously spread the hatred and the insult of our Prophet (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ). Yet, they themselves are the first to censor anyone who goes against their own taboos. My own government banned Dr. Tariq Ramadan for many, many years. Here in the UK, they have recently banned Dr. Zakir Naik and Dr. Bilal Phillips.

I ask our own governments, where is the freedom of speech for peaceful speakers like Dr. Zakir and others who come and spread the truth of Islam? Even a cursory examination of these issues shows us that there is no real problem, but rather there is an attempt to stoke anti-Islamic sentiment. The Ground Zero mosque was a completely fabricated controversy. The French ban itself was a thinly veiled attempt at legislating racism.

Less than one person per quarter million French citizens actually wears a veil in France. And yet, in France, one out of ten is struggling to find a job. Don't politicians have things better to do than worry about women in veils? Shouldn't they be more concerned about the spiraling economy of their countries? Instead of prohibiting Muslim women from covering their faces, I say that French politicians should hide their own faces in shame for what they have done.

Historical Parallels and Lessons

And as for Merkel's statement, I honestly cannot believe that a Chancellor of Germany could possibly be so historically naive as to utter such statements. One hundred years ago, Germany also had a ruler who didn't believe in multiculturalism and his name was Adolf Hitler. And speaking of Germany, two months ago, I visited the Nazi concentration camps in Auschwitz and Dachau.

And there, I saw firsthand the remnants of the atrocities committed by the Nazis, inspired by Hitler's racism and Hitler's vision of the superiority of one race over another. The Nazis exterminated millions of innocent men, women and children merely because they belonged to a different race or held a different philosophy than their own. I had the honor of meeting a number of Holocaust survivors and the question that I asked one of them was, I asked him this, I said, how could any human being do this to other human beings? Do you know what one 83-year-old survivor of Auschwitz told me? He said, and I quote, the Nazis didn't consider us to be humans.

The Nazis had launched a campaign to instill hatred and fear and disgust that allowed the people to then perpetuate the Holocaust against us. End quote. Sadly, I see that a similar type of fear is being instilled by certain politicians of our times.

The Climate of Fear

And this fear is being translated into political and social currents. Not only are right-wing, racist, bigoted parties being elected across Europe, the people themselves, the common European and American is being frightened. He's living in a climate of fear.

He is scared of me and you. He's scared of Muslims. And when people are scared, they begin to act irrationally, doing evil and crazy things.

The fear that Islamophobes are creating in the hearts of their own people against another segment of their people is a fear that is potentially genocidal. They call us terrorists. But what is a terrorist? A terrorist is somebody who terrorizes.

A terrorist is somebody who makes people scared. Who is the one making scared certain groups of people to others? Who is the one instilling fear in their own populations? Us or them?

Absurd Examples of Islamophobia

This fear is so pervasive that at times it is actually funny. In my own country of America, earlier this year, a woman of Arab descent and somebody who publicly said she's a Muslim, she won the Miss USA beauty pageant.

Now, there's no doubt that she was dressed inappropriately. May Allah forgive me and her. But the funny thing was that a number of Islamophobes began to claim that this was a sign.

If a Muslim won Miss USA, this was a sign of the creeping takeover of America by Muslims. And they even claimed that the terrorist organization Hezbollah was behind this women winning the competition.

Excuse me? The Islamic takeover of America by scantily clad women? And Hezbollah getting involved in beauty pageants? These people have literally gone mad and crazy in their hatred.

What next? What next? The Taliban sponsoring the next Playboy of the Month model? And by the way, by the way, speaking of beauty pageants, I have to say this. And come on, let's be honest here. We don't need no beauty pageants to tell us who the most beautiful women on earth are.

The Beauty of Muslim Women

We could have told them that ourselves. We know that Muslim women are the most beautiful creatures on God's green earth. And it's not because, and it's not because they shed their clothes to be ogled at by men.

No, no, no, no. You don't expose a delicate rose to the ravishes of the harsh desert wind. Our sisters are the most beautiful because they value their beauty, because they protect their modesty, because they guard their chastity.

All Muslim women are beautiful because they are Muslim. And a message to my dear sisters, my dear sisters in Islam, make sure that you stick to your noble Islamic ideals because you are the last representatives of true femininity on earth. But I stray from the topic.

Self-Reflection and Responsibility

Let us get back to the issue of battling Islamophobia. Now, as we criticize the excesses of one segment of society, let us also be frank and fair and criticize the excesses of some of our own as well. It is easy to lay

the blame at others.

It is easy to point fingers at others. But truth be told, we need to take responsibility for some of our own actions as well. These very days, the inquest regarding the atrocities of 7-7 is taking place.

And our hearts go out to the families and the loved ones of those who died on that day. It was Muslims, people of our faith, who in their anger at one set of grievances and terror themselves became agents of terror. We cannot fight terror with terror.

We must not allow our anger to make us blind to the reality of our situation. No matter how much we might disagree with one policy of our own lands, brothers and sisters, in the end of the day, we are a part of these lands. We are a part of this society.

Our Responsibility as Muslims

And we need to realize and understand that destroying this society is destroying us and ourselves. And look at us, criticizing those who wish to prevent us from building masjids. But I ask you honestly, when those masjids are built, do we go there to pray? Here we are, criticizing those who wish to ban the hijab.

But I ask you, have we ourselves manifested that hijab? Here we are, criticizing those who wish to disrespect the Qur'an. But have we as Muslims truly respected it and recited it and understood it? Brothers and sisters, there is no doubt that we're living in troubled times. And a lot is going on that is worthy of our criticism and anger.

But we can't just whine and groan and moan about these injustices. Whining won't get us anywhere. Brothers and sisters, O Muslims, if we truly wish to fight against this racism and bigotry and hatred, we need to start acting the act, walking the walk, living the life of Muslims.

Conclusion - Call to Unity

Therefore, in conclusion, I would like to ask all of you to join me in affirming this reality, in publicly and sincerely acknowledging that our Lord is the most beloved of all beings to us, that nothing in our hearts competes with Him, that He is the greatest and grandest and most magnificent of all. I want you all to join me in saying takbir in one loud and unified voice. A takbir that is so loud that the halls of this auditorium will shake.

A takbir that is so loud that the world will hear that we are here to worship this one God. Will you join me in this? Are you ready? Takbir! I want it even louder, brothers and sisters, with all your might. Takbir الله أَكْبَرْ ! One last time.

Take a deep breath. Takbir! الله أَكْبَرُ