Corrected Khutba 10th Anniversary of 9 11 by

10th Anniversary of 9/11

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi

Opening

We stand today at a significant juncture in our history. Ten years ago today, and by that I mean 9-10, the day before 9-11, the Muslim community really could be compared to an innocent child playing outside of his house, unaware that a disaster is about to strike. And on 9-11, that disaster struck.

The Impact of 9/11 on the Muslim Community

And a calamity befell that household that forever changed this child's life. In many ways, the Muslim community was forced to grow up overnight and face realities and problems that it was simply not prepared for. The terror of 9-11 was horrific.

The carnage ghastly. The images continued to be haunting. In my hotel room last night, every news agency was showing videos of that day.

And even though we've seen those videos so many times over the last ten years, they never cease to be as riveting and as haunting as they were when we first saw them a decade ago. I, along with all other American Muslim leaders, unequivocally and unconditionally must condemn those who perpetrated those acts and firmly believe that they do not represent Islam or the teachings of Islam.

Finding Good in Tragedy

However, as Muslims, we firmly believe that there's always some good that comes out of evil. And there's always positive repercussions of anything that happens. And on that day, the Muslim community, although it suffered a great loss, also began to realize things that it should have realized way before that. The Muslim community was galvanized into an action.

9-11 was a catalyst. It was a necessary catalyst that the Muslim community needed in order to understand that it was living a very childish life, a very naive life before 9-11. 9-11 allowed Muslims to understand that we need to cooperate together, that we need to build bridges between different communities, bridges that should have theoretically been there from the beginning but did not exist.

Building Bridges Post-9/11

And so, post 9-11, we saw for the very first time bridges being built between Arab Muslims and Pakistani Muslims, between immigrant Muslims and between African American Muslims, between Al-Maghrib Institute and Zaytuna College, and the list goes on and on. Post 9-11, Muslims realized that they needed to be actively engaged in the media, in politics, and in civic service. Basically, Muslims realized that they need to be a part of the framework of the land that they live in.

And for the very first time in American Muslim history, and this is extremely symbolic, brothers and sisters, this is unprecedented, for the very first time, some immigrant parents actually supported their children's decision to choose majors in fields other than engineering and medicine. And if you're a child of immigrants, as I am, then you know how groundbreaking that decision is.

The Need to Be Proactive

Now, the real question here today, 10 years after 9-11, is have the events of 9-11 truly taught us to be proactive instead of merely being reactive? Yes, it is good that we realize the need to unite, and the need to be politically engaged, and the need to be socially relevant.

We should have done that a long time ago. So 9-11 was a type of catalyst, it was our growth spurt, if you like. But we still have many other needs that are as of yet unfulfilled.

Are we going to be proactive about addressing those needs, or will we wait, God forbid, for another catastrophic calamity, for us to be facing another catalyst? Are we going to be thinking about our strengths and weaknesses, about our problems and issues, or are we going to be lackadaisical as we were pre-9-11?

Two Important Messages

As we stand here today, commemorating those innocent souls who lost their lives on that fateful day, criticizing those who caused such senseless death and such catastrophic mayhem, it is also useful to reflect on two issues.

First Message: To Those Who Justified the Violence

Firstly, a message to those misguided individuals, few as they may be, who actually believed that the carnage was deserved or even justified. To them I say, look at the results of the last ten years, and see what good has come out of it for the Muslim world.

Two colossal wars, hundreds of thousands dead, most of whom are Muslims in Muslim lands. Civil liberties threatened, Abu Ghurayb and Guantanamo, and the list goes on and on. The people who perpetrated 9-11 claimed to be fighting to free the Ummah.

They wanted to free Palestine. They wanted to send a message to America to stop interfering in the lands of the Muslims. And they were wrong on each and every one of their presumptions, brutally wrong on all counts.

Let this be a clear lesson for those overzealous and misguided youth, few as they may be, but they still exist. Let this be a clear lesson for those overzealous and misguided youth, that the way of violence is not only un-Islamic, it is also counterproductive. If you refuse to learn from the Qur'an and Sunnah, if you're not going to read the book of your Lord to tell you that killing innocent people is not a part of your tradition, if you're going to be too narrow-minded to understand that our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was the Prophet of Mercy and not the Prophet of Terror, if you're going to shut your eyes to all the religious texts, then at least learn from history and understand that perpetuating violence inevitably results in yet more violence.

Second Message: Understanding the Root Causes

The second message that we have to learn from 9-11 is that we really do need to discuss where this rage and where this blind anger came from. We do need to discuss what motivated those terrorists and those who simplistically blame the religion of Islam or wish to ignore that blind rage. I'm afraid that that ignorance is not going to be beneficial to anybody.

Not only is it incorrect to blame the religion, it is also potentially dangerous to ignore the rage that fueled it. And let me be very clear here. Trying to understand that rage is not in any way trying to justify the attacks.

It is simply an analysis that is aimed at better preventing future crimes. It is clear to any neutral observer that what motivated these men was a rage generated by political grievances, not religious grievances or religious differences. Religion was what they used to justify their deeds.

It didn't cause those deeds. Therefore, if we wish to truly prevent such blind rage in the future, one necessary course of action is to also examine the grievances those people had and whether there was any legitimacy and if they could possibly continue to enrage people around the world.

The Right to Criticize

Now, before I proceed, we need to point out that for far too long, American Muslims have been stigmatized when they dare criticize any foreign policy of their own country.

For far too long, American Muslims have been wary even of such criticism because such criticism is invariably viewed as somehow being indicative of deeper feelings of hatred or perhaps even treachery. But I have to say here that a clear double standard exists because it's only when we as American Muslims criticize a policy of our land that we're deemed anti-American.

And yet the fact of the matter is that those who wish to portray us as anti-American and here I refer to segments particularly of the Republican Party and their extreme manifestation of the Tea Party, those people who wish to portray us as anti-American, they themselves are the greatest critics of American policy.

Whether it be recent attempts to solve the healthcare crisis or to lower the federal deficit or to better tax policies, I mean, it's as if the current administration can never get anything right and there appears to be a carte blanche impunity to find fault even with the place where Obama's mother gave birth to him.

But yet, when I come along with a different skin color and a name that's not as familiar as Bill or as Sean and point out the sheer hypocrisy of American foreign policy in the Middle East, I mean, just a few days ago we discovered that for decades America has been saying Libya is a pariah state and we're not going to have any relationship with Gaddafi and yet all of a sudden we discover that there has been a continual communication between the CIA and between the secret police of Libya and that the CIA has been actively spying on behalf of Libya, the Libyan dissidents living in America, and they have been colluding in torture and whatnot.

When we point these things out and we point out such colossal failures, then somehow this is being viewed as being indicative of what? We're simply pointing out some inconsistencies that will inevitably enrage people.

Our Constitutional and Religious Rights

And as an American, brothers and sisters, as an American, it is my constitutional right. As a Muslim, it is a requirement of my faith that I speak out against injustice whenever and wherever it occurs and regardless of who perpetuates that injustice. Those who killed innocent lives on 9-11 are answerable to God on Judgment Day for their despicable actions and wallahi, I have no sympathy for those people.

But in the eyes of God, let us be very clear here, let us be very clear here. In the eyes of God, an American child is no more holy or sacred than a Mexican child or a Canadian child or an African child or an Asian child. And so, just as we criticize the perpetrators of 9-11 when they killed innocent civilians by hijacking planes, we have to also criticize those who willfully killed innocent Iraqi children through inhumane sanctions, those who ordered drone attacks against Afghani civilians, those who deprived and continue to deprive Palestinian women and children from basic food and medical services and the right to live free.

The Need to Address Root Causes

Brothers and sisters in Islam, brothers and sisters in Islam, until we speak out and talk about these problems, we're not going to solve them. And until we solve these problems that is causing so much rage, the world will continue to be an unsafe place. The fact of the matter, and nothing should shy us away from saying this, the fact of the matter is that our foreign policy is an imperial catastrophe of the highest magnitude, that our military might has become an economic weakness, it's become an economic black hole sucking everything into it.

Do you know that we as one nation, America, spends more on our arms and our military than all of the nations of the world combined? There's something seriously wrong with that. Do you know, brothers and sisters, that this complex, this relationship has produced a military industrial complex, a corporation, multi-billion dollars, whose business is to manufacture and sell weapons that kill the largest number of people. And for that business, war is the best business, even if it kills people.

And therefore, there is a huge incentive for such corporations to shape American policy towards such a direction. And you know, I'm not the one warning against this. President Eisenhower, back in the late 50s, presciently warned in his very final speech in office, President Eisenhower's final speech in office, Google it and watch it on YouTube, President Eisenhower warned back in 1956 of the dangers of just such a collusion, just such a relationship between the government and between military companies.

Erosion of Civil Liberties

Our civil liberties as well have been eroded bit by bit over the last decade, and it was the civil liberties of America that made America the shining beacon that it used to be pre-911. Post-911, these liberties under the guise of national security have been chipped away bit by bit and bit by bit. But the same excuse, national security, is the excuse of foreign dictatorships and of evil potentates when they strip away their own country's freedom.

Wallahi, those of us who live pre-911, we never expected to see these types of civil liberties taken away post-911. We never expected that people would quietly, quiescently allow strangers to go and frisk them sexually at the airport, all in the name of security. We never expected that our own government would be able to spy on us, would be able to set us up for sinister plots.

This was simply unbelievable. Slowly but surely, in the last ten years, we have seen all of this and more.

The Spiritual Crisis

Another problem that we're facing is the excessive materialism, which is a spiritual catastrophe. This materialism, which is promoted and perpetuated by a corporate media multiplex and a multi-billion dollar culture industry, it's hardened the hearts of hardcore consumers. It's coarsened the consciousness of would-be citizens. Look at the riots in England.

Look at the riots that took place a few weeks ago in England. People went to the street and behaved like animals for no reason. Why? Because there's no spirituality. There's an emptiness that this society has caused them to be brought up without those values, without those ethics. And all of this is being funded by clever gimmicks of mass distraction to yield a cheap soul craft of addiction and self-medicated narcissist.

Our two main political parties pretend to give an illusion of diversity, but as Chomsky and others have pointed out, they merely offer slightly alternative versions of oligarchic rule, and both of them are beholden to the super-rich.