Corrected Speech A Vision for the Muslim Community

But overall, in the end of the day, we feel comfortable being who we are, and that is Muslim Americans. And the point is now, how does this come into play?

Standing Up for Rights as Americans

When, for example, the Patriot Act was passed, many of the immigrant generation, my parents amongst them, they felt a sense of, we have to now bow down under the pressure. It's expected. We lived a comfortable life for 20-30 years, now it's going to get tough. We just have to be quiet and obey Allah and do what we can.

And I remember my father and I, we had a number of nice disputes about this. He didn't want me to be as active as I am. Why? Because he was scared that I would get into trouble. He was scared that the Patriot Act would come and take me away in the middle of the night and put me in Guantanamo.

That's the way it's understood. That's how people of that generation thought, with all great respect to him. But that's how he grew up in his country. That's what they did back there.

And I was telling my father, and I kept on telling him, this is not the way forward. If I stay at home, it's not going to help anybody. I need to go out. I need to be active. I need to speak up. If I don't stand up to defend my own rights, who else is going to do that?

Because you see, for me, when Islamophobes, when right-wing people, when certain news agencies go and tell us to go back home, I don't have a concept of going back home. This is my home. And I can't stand. And I cannot just do nothing when my rights are stripped away one after the other.

I have to fight legitimately, but I have to fight for my own survival and the survival of my children. This is a reality that only comes about when you have an identification with the land you're living in. I am an American, and I'm not going to allow my government to treat me the way they did.

And when they did, began to intimidate and harass me. I went to the top authorities. I went to the Homeland Security. I went to the Muslim representative of the FBI. I went here. I went there. I went to my congressman. I went to my senator. I said, I will not be treated like a second-class citizen in this country of mine.

And alhamdulillah, after many many years of fighting on some unknown list they put me on, alhamdulillah, finally the name has been removed. You can't just sit back and do nothing. But the attitude to fight only comes when you have an identification with the broader land. And that is something, insha'Allah ta'ala, we of this generation do have.

3. Political and Media Involvement

The third area that I'm optimistic about is actually a corollary of the second one. And that is our involvement in the political life and also by extension in the media. Alhamdulillah, we already have two

Muslim congressmen. This is just the beginning of a lot more involvement.

There are many many Muslims working on the hill. There's Ramadan iftars in the White House, in the Pentagon, in the Senate, in Congress. And many of the people who attend are Muslims who work in those offices. Many of the people who attend are in fact Muslims who work in those very areas. They're not just visiting dignitaries. And this is a positive sign.

Because when we become a part and parcel of the American fabric, that is when broader America will understand this is our land just as much as it is their land. No doubt, a lot of work needs to be done. Nobody is denying that. But Alhamdulillah, this is a positive change that we didn't see for the last 20 or 30 years.

Three Areas Requiring Attention

Along with these three points of optimism, there are also three other points. I'm not gonna call them pessimism because a Muslim is never pessimistic. A Muslim is always optimistic. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said in a hadith in Sahih Bukhari:

(Bukhari 5756)

I like optimism... optimism is the good word.

The mu'min always looks at the bright side of life. The mu'min always sees the good things. This is a part of having iman in Allah:

Having the best thoughts of Allah.

So I'm not calling it areas of pessimism, but I am calling it areas we need to concentrate on more. Areas we should be a little bit worried about. Hurdles that we might have to face.

1. Balancing Religious and Secular Laws

The first of these hurdles, living as practicing religious Muslims in a secular state. Balancing secular laws with the religious morality that the sharia comes with. And this is not as pronounced of a problem in America as it is in many European countries. Especially in Europe, especially in France.

A lot of our moralities, a lot of our ethics are slowly but surely being challenged. You cannot, as you know in France, wear the niqab in certain areas. You cannot preach certain doctrines except that there's gonna be a lot of pressure. Doctrines that are mainstream Islam.

Ethics and morality. Sexuality, what is and what isn't allowed. When you speak about the Islamic perspective, you are treated in extremely negative fashion. And we're gonna have to balance gender

issues, sexual mores and promiscuity, sexual orientation, the hedonistic lifestyle that has become prevalent in many parts of the western world.

We're gonna have to balance this with our conservatism, with our ethics and morality of the sharia. You all know when the Archbishop of Canterbury, last year was it, suggested that we have Islamic arbitration courts. A suggestion that was already occurring by the way. And the Orthodox Jews already had something equivalent for the last 150 years. When he merely suggested that Muslims be allowed the same rights that the Orthodox Jews have.

You all know what happened. Basically the entire media calls for his resignation, calls for him stepping down from office, calls for him having gone mad and wild. And it became a national media circus simply for suggesting something that already is occurring in other religious communities.

That's definitely a battle we're gonna have to face.

2. Balancing Religious and Political Loyalties

Another area of deep thought that we're gonna have to worry about. And this is something that the right-wing Islamophobes always use. Balancing our religious loyalties with our political loyalties. Are you with us or against us? Are you on our side or their side?

And for a while post 9-11, many of us fell for it. We didn't know how to answer. Many of us fell for the dichotomy of you're either with us or against us. It is a Machiavellian dichotomy. It's a dichotomy that is a part of... It's a fake dichotomy.

You're either with America or against America. Who gets to define what is America? Herein lies the problem, right-wing Islamophobes. I am an American and I have just as much right to define what I think my foreign policy, the foreign policy of my country should be doing as much as you have.

And if it so happens that I disagree with you, well then there's always been disagreements. Every single group of Americans has always been battling for what they believe is right, what they believe is virtuous.

Does anybody accuse Christians when they're opposed to... when they're opposed to... when they're opposed to sexual promiscuity, when they're opposed to abortion? Does anybody accuse Christians of trying to impose the Christian Sharia on America? They might not like it. Many left-wing liberals don't like it but they don't accuse them of trying to impose Christian Sharia.

They understand where they're coming from. Christians believe abortion is a crime against God. And if they're fighting legitimately to oppose abortion, if they're taking their cases to the court rather than taking it into their own hands, which is of course illegal, if they're doing petitions, if they're doing things legitimately, then we should have the exact same rights.

We might have a different sense of morality than mainstream America, but that doesn't make us any less American.

Re-educating About American Values

And I think here, one of the key things that we need to do which is very strange in my opinion, but that's what I've been doing for the last few years. We need to re-educate Americans, the broader American population, about their own history. What is America? Why was it founded? Upon what values was this country founded upon?

Why did those immigrants leave England and come here? And found this common... They break away from the commonwealth and found the Republic of America. What were those motivational factors? What visions and dreams did they have?

We need to re-educate the broader American public that this is a country that was meant to include people of all races, all religions. It was not meant to be dominated by any one religion over another. And there are plenty of quotes from the founding fathers, by the way. And if we had time, we would go into that tangent.

But there are plenty of quotes from the founding fathers, from Thomas Jefferson, from Washington himself, from Lincoln, from many of the people whom America admires, and they have every right to admire them, as the founding legacies of this nation. There are plenty of quotes to show their vision of an America was a vision where every single religion could be as they are.

And quite explicitly they said, in one of the earliest declarations that they said, one of the earliest bills that was passed, they said, America is not in any sense of the term a Christian nation. This is something that they had with a treaty with Tripoli. They explicitly said, we have no problems with Muslims, Muhammadans. We have no problems with the laws of any other religion because America is not a Christian entity.

Thomas Jefferson signed this particular bill in Congress. He signed it. He had it passed. And it is available for everybody to view. How many Americans, especially the right-wing fundamentalists, are even aware that their own founding fathers said, America is not a Christian land in any sense of the term. Literally, I quote you, it is not in any sense of the term a Christian nation.

It's supposed to be a neutral nation. So I think the second problem here of balancing loyalties, it is a problem that in reality should be non-existent. It should be non-existent.

Americans of all ethnicities and all creeds and all religions have their own loyalties. Irish Americans had a stance in the problems going on in Ireland. Jewish Americans have their loyalties. German Americans had their loyalties. Every single group of Americans, Christian Americans have their loyalties. We have to be assertive enough. We have to be proud enough to defend what we believe to be truth and justice.

I do not agree with foreign policy X. I do not agree with foreign policy Y. That doesn't make me any less of an American. Don't ask me to juggle between my loyalties. This is my loyalty. There's only one. And that is to truth and justice.

So the second area, like I said, is this supposed conflict between our religious loyalty and our political loyalty. The response to this is to remind our broader Americans that there should never be a conflict between religion and politics. Every American citizen is entitled to his or her opinion. Whether it's based upon religion or political affiliation, as long as it's done within the confines of the law. That's the second area. We're going to have to work a lot on that.

If you listen to right-wing radio stations, if you listen to certain news agencies, you will understand. A lot of Americans have no clue what America is all about. We're going to have to educate them.

3. Developing Indigenous Scholarship

That's the second of the three. The third of the three fronts that I really think we're going to have to pay a lot more attention to, and alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, attention is being paid to this, is the formulation of a new generation of indigenous scholars and leaders, imams and activists, people who are born and raised here, who speak fluent English in the vernacular of the people, and then they can recite Quran in the best accent and the most perfect tajweed.

Those who can give a khutbah, quoting our tradition and quoting Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln and every single philosopher that needs to be quoted. People who can combine the best of the east and the west. People who, when they stand up to give a khutbah, our high schoolers, our teenagers, instead of falling asleep, their ears perk up. Oh, mashallah, he's giving the khutbah. I'm going to pay attention to this one.

We need to form a new generation of Islamic activists. We need to stop outsourcing Islamic knowledge. And I'm not criticizing those who have come from abroad. I would not be who I am today were it not for the fact that I was trained and schooled by imams my father brought in and the people of his generation brought in. But that was 40 years ago.

For how long are we going to outsource knowledge? For how long are we always going to go to other lands and other areas to bring our scholars? It's high time that we form local ulama.

Allah tells us in the Quran that:

We have not sent any messenger except that he spoke the language of his people fluently.

To every group, their brother, their brother from their tribe.

Allah says in the Quran, of his blessings:

"He has brought a messenger from amongst you. He's one of you. You know him. He speaks your language. He understands your customs and culture. This is the sunnah of Allah.

It's high time we began implementing this sunnah. And alhamdulillah, there's a lot that's happening. So many institutes have formed. So many visions of universities and colleges are happening. And alhamdulillah, as I said, the tide is changing. But it is time we concentrate more on this and stop sending our kids overseas and start training them here.

So that they become more professional activists, better imams, greater scholars and educators, more relevant to the American scene. Of course, these are three issues, positive and not negative, but at least areas of concentration. And there are more than this.

Conclusion

Overall though, overall, I am indeed very optimistic for the future of Islam in North America. And as I said, it is a turning point. The tides are changing. Alhamdulillah, we still have amongst us the living legends who formed the Isnas and the MSAs and the great scholars who did what they did. Alhamdulillah, they're still amongst us. But slowly but surely, we see a new generation up and coming.

We see other people coming to the forefront. And slowly but surely, the torch will be passed down. And it is a critical time now that we take account of where we were and where we're going.

The way I look at it, it's as if we've reached a nice and comfortable hill, which allows us the opportunity to rest for a while, to look back and take advice from the scouts, from the guides, from the escorts who brought us to that hill. But then we realize that from now on, we're going to have to be moving on without the scholarship and the leadership of the mentors before us.

So we take as much advice as we can and we scout the area in front of us to see the best course of action, to charter out the most productive and the fastest way for us to ensure the survival of our religion here in this land.

My Ultimate Vision

And my ultimate vision, my ultimate dream, as I look back to my own personal story and the story of my father here in America, and I see the struggles and sacrifices of my father and his generation, what he did to establish Islam, what he did to establish what we see around us. And I see myself involved in that struggle, an active part of it. And I see all of us sitting here today actively witnessing this positive change.

My vision, and my dua, and my hope, and my aspirations, all lie in my children and their generation. My son is only 8 years old. But wallahi, I dream one day that him or somebody of his generation will stand on the same symbolic podium that his father and grandfather stood.

And that one day he will announce to an audience far larger than this one, far more magnificent, and far more religious, and enthused, and practical, and productive people of America, Muslims, proud to be who they are.

I hope that one day he announces that just like his own father could never imagine how much Islam changed from his grandfather to his father's era. Just like in my wildest imaginations, I could not imagine what my son's generation will do. I hope that one day he stands before, or somebody of his generation stands before, and he says, we have witnessed yet another miracle. Even our fathers in their wildest dreams could never have imagined the flourishing of American Islam as we see today.

Closing Duas

May Allah grant us the Iman, the Tawfiq, the Ikhlas. May He grant us the sincerity. May He grant us the knowledge. May He grant us the unity to achieve this goal. And may Allah make us all ambassadors for His sake and His religion. May He make us keys that open up doors of good. And may He prevent us from being keys that open up doors of evil.

"And Allah knows best."