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A Message Regarding the Muslims in France | Khutbah
Dr. Omar Suleiman addresses the rising Islamophobic climate in France and the way it affects Muslims around the globe.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Dear brothers and sisters, everything that happens in the world affects us. Everything that strikes our ummah, which is like one body, affects us. And Allah knows that if we were to try to dissect and try to address every one of those approaches, we would fail every single time. When we talk about catastrophes and when we talk about the bombings and the horrible things that are happening to people all over the world, to our brothers and sisters all over the world, we would not be able to tackle all of those issues sufficiently. SubhanAllah, I feel compelled today to talk about one particular one because it represents a concerning blueprint. A few of the brothers and sisters in France who say that this is the worst that they have ever seen it in France. We know the cycle in France in the name of superior values. You have a community that is targeted over and over again with various forms of policy and subjugation. You have Muslim women constantly harassed by government and society. You have institutions constantly being targeted and harassed. The stigmatization of the Muslim population and it happens over and over and over again. And then an attack happens and the attack justifies the entire project. And then it gets worse and worse and worse and worse. Selective silence, disproportionate punishment, disproportionate targeting of a community. And subhanAllah, they're saying now is worse than it has ever been before. That what they are witnessing is reminiscent of the things that they read about the 20th century. Where you had the worst forms of casualties.
You had the greatest number of casualties in a single century in the history of mankind. In the name of all sorts of ideologies, secular ideologies, Nazism, fascism, communism, and yes capitalism. All of these different isms that led to the murder of so many different people. And subhanAllah, it's reminiscent of that to them right now. Now I wanted to say that we know that typically as we go through this over and over again. Whether it's the United States or what's happening in Nigeria right now. That calls for de-escalation always come as a result, not as a result of the abuses of power on the part of the state. But after the turmoil that ensues afterwards. Because that's when violence becomes unacceptable and intolerable. And that's when you start to see the fomenting of so many different things that start to happen. And this is true across the world, subhanAllah. The de-escalation, the calls for de-escalation always come at a certain time. And we've been living this cycle over and over and over again. We know the double standard. You have only a terrorist attack if it's a Muslim that's screaming Allahu Akbar. And then you have a legacy of erasure of Muslim victims of terror. Especially when it's state terror. Especially when it's government terror. The collective guilt that Muslims are then penalized and victimized with when any Muslim carries out any act of terror. And no place like France is this most crystallized in terms of policy. In a way that creates a frightening blueprint that we all have to be very careful of. The selectivity of the media sympathies and attention. When a Muslim man in Toronto, Muhammad Aslam, is sitting in the parking lot of the masjid after salah in Toronto. He was not provoking anyone, he was not hurting anyone, he was not taunting anyone.
And a man comes who has white supremacist ties and slits his throat in the parking lot after Salatul Maghrib. But you did not have the global outcry of a decapitation of an innocent man. Who literally was killed only because of his religion and the way he looked and he was at that place at that time. In a civilized society, you hear about the acid attacks and the torture and the brutality in different parts of the world. Helen Jones, a Muslim woman in Philadelphia, an African American Muslim woman in Philadelphia, a grandmother. And a random person throws acid in her face, 61 years old and now she's blind. Provoked no one. This is not in Afghanistan, this is in Philadelphia. This is here in the United States. This is not in Yemen, this is in Philadelphia. This is here. But we see the erasure over and over and over again. But in France, dear brothers and sisters, in the name of prescribed secularism, you literally have liberal fascism. And you have a man that the world needs to call upon right now and sanction and censure in Macron, who is no different from Modi in the way that he's carrying out these policies. What's the difference between Modi creating a separate set of laws for Muslims in India and Macron creating a separate set of laws in France? Where is the blueprint? What's the connection between India and China and Myanmar and all of these different places that follow the exact same logic? Where it starts off with calls for re-education and assimilation and eventually re-education becomes re-education camps. And eventually some masjids need to be shut down means masjids need to be bulldozed. And eventually some institutions need to come under heightened scrutiny means institutions need to be shut down altogether.
Genocides are carried out in the name of assimilation. But this is what we have at this problem. This is what we have at this juncture. And it's not Islam that has the problem. It's France that has the problem. And it's the potential blueprint that this creates around the world. Just like China and India have a connection, Myanmar has a connection. China tried to protect Myanmar and the United Nations from being charged with genocide. If this is allowed to proceed in this way in France, then what does that mean for Belgium? What does that mean for the rest of Europe? What does that mean for those that claim a heightened level of values, a superior set of values and fuel the same type of bigotry that eventually leads to what's happening to our brothers and sisters, our Uyghur brothers and sisters, 3 million of them in concentration camps without a peep from Muslim governments around the world. It's the fuel to that bigotry that we have to pay close attention to. And that subjugation affects all of us. That type of behavior affects all of us. And you see it in France where you have the Prophet ﷺ portrayed in the worst of ways, insulted in the worst of ways. Children subjected to that humiliation and reminded over and over and over again that they are lesser, that they are to accept a second class level of existence in their societies. And that insult that takes place in the types of policies that have targeted Muslim women over and over and over again. And when you insult the Prophet ﷺ and you subjugate these people over and over again and create a legacy of bigotry and insult, where is the freedom of speech now? Where a person opens up their mouth against the Islamophobia in France and they're assaulted by the police in front of their families
and handcuffed and taken away and humiliated because they dare to critique the Islamophobia of France. Suddenly all the values and all the freedom of speech goes out the window and we're seeing it with humanitarian workers. We're seeing it with people who simply dare to challenge the bigotry in their societies and of course the heartbreaking images of two Muslim women stabbed under the Eiffel Tower. How ironic, two Muslim women stabbed under the Eiffel Tower with a man yelling dirty Arabs. But you won't see the word terrorist in a headline. You will not see a global reaction. You will not see the head of state calling for human rights and an examination of a trend that has led to the rise of far-right nationalism across the continent. That he claimed to be standing against. Dear brothers and sisters, it's important for us to recognize the playbook here. Actual Muslim leaders and institutions of the community are targeted by relentless years of smear campaigns through suspicions built upon thousands of lies so that the public can't distinguish fact from fiction anymore. And then the goal of stigmatizing mainstream Muslim leaders and the mainstream Muslim population by extension is achieved. And before you know it, bodies of subjugation grow in surveillance programs that become heavily permanent funded parts of the government in the name of counter radicalization. This is happening to our brothers and sisters and we need to understand and challenge with concern and with putting the hypocrisy on trial. Putting the hypocrisy on trial because we've seen this happen over and over and over again now. And if it's worse now for them under a so-called liberal leader who claims to be for human rights, what is that bode for the surrounding countries and for the rest of the world? Recognize the playbook and speak against the playbook as a whole and challenge it.
And subhanAllah, when we look to our history and our legacy of Muslims in the earliest days of Islam, Quraysh did not admit, that they were simply going after these people in the name of religion or because they said Allah is their Lord. They did it in the name of values and keeping harmony in society. And our families are being split apart by Muhammad salAllahu alayhi wasalam. And these people are different from us and if we let this happen, this is going to happen and this is going to happen. That's how they targeted them. Not a taqtuluna rajulan an yaqoola rabbiyallah. They would not admit that they were after these people and that they were killing these Muslims just because they said their Lord is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and they maintain their strength, their dignity, their religion in the face of constant insult and taunting and constant humiliation, constant provocation. It was the Muslims in Mecca who went through all of that over and over and over again. And then you wonder subhanAllah, and this is particularly to our brothers and sisters there, you're living now the hadith where the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasalam said, min wara'ikum ayyami al sabr, al sabru feehi mitul qabdin ala al jamr. That you are living in days of patience that the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasalam told the sahaba would come. And patience in these days is like holding on to a burning hot coal. And for the one who does so is the ajr of 50 of the companions of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasalam. Our brothers and sisters are living these days right now. Where they're walking in the streets and harassed just for being Muslims and targeted in their institutions or being shut down right and left. And they're being taunted and provoked over and over and over again. And told that they are the problem. Not the systematic bigotry and racism that's been leveled towards them. And so our hearts are with our brothers and sisters there.
And of course our brothers and sisters all over that are subjugated and suffering in this way. But our hearts are with them. And we want them to know that their thabat, their steadfastness is seen by us all as well. We see their thabat, we see their steadfastness. We see the way that they are holding their own. We see biidhnillahi ta'ala their patience and their perseverance and their refusal to succumb to this type of subjugation and this type of humiliation. And we remind them and us, wa la tahinu wa la tahzanu wa antumul a'launa in kuntum mu'mineen. That you should not grieve or feel sadness as long as you are believers. You remain that status, in that status of being elevated by the only one who grants true elevation and that is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That you are the people that are holding on to burning hot coals right now. Whether it's our brothers and sisters in the Uyghur camps. Or our brothers and sisters in Palestine or wherever it is. Or our brothers and sisters in France and I could go on and on and on and on. I know I can't name them all, it's just too much at this point. But they are the ones holding on to these burning hot coals. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala keep them firm and steadfast and grant them patience and paradise. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us that sincerity and that steadfastness and that firmness. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to remain with our deen in its fullness. With our deen in its fullness, with our Quran, with our sunnah in its fullness. And to not succumb to these types of forms of oppression that take place around the world. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala help our brothers and sisters there and all over. Allahumma ameen. Aqoolu qawli hadha wa astaghfirullah li yulakum wa risa'ilil muslimeen. Fa astaghfiru anna huwa alghafurur raheem. Alhamdulillah, salatu wassalamu ala rasulillahi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. Dear brothers and sisters, we remember it was only a few years ago subhanAllah, that in Garland there was a woman who constantly provokes the Muslim community.
Hosted an insult of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, a cartoon, Prophet Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam cartoons day. And two people drove down from Arizona to attack that convention. As a Muslim community we collectively ignored them. We collectively ignored them and we did not allow them to provoke us. And two people drove down, I believe from Arizona and came to shoot at the event and were killed in the process. And I'll never forget subhanAllah, that I believe it was the mayor who revealed that inside the hall, they started to sing songs of joy. They started to clap and sing songs of joy when they heard that two people came to attack the event and were killed. That they started to sing in joy because it worked. And what ended up happening? The years and years of Islamophobia that we ended up reaping here as well. We must maintain our dignity biidhnillahi ta'ala and our steadfastness. And we don't allow the shayateen to provoke us even as we call them out on their hypocrisy. We defend our Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam in a way that would be pleasing to Allah and his Messenger salallahu alayhi wasalam. And we challenge the institutions of bigotry that continue to portray the Muslims in this way. Whether it comes from the right or the left. Whether it is the bigotry of India or the bigotry of France. May Allah subhanAllah ta'ala protect us all. And may Allah subhanAllah ta'ala allow us to remain on the way of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam until we meet the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. And allow us to be in Jannatul Firdaus with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. Allahumma ameen. Allahumma khfir lil mu'mineena wal mu'minat wal muslimeena wal muslimat al ahya'i minhum wal amwat. Innaka samee'un qareebun mujeebu da'wat. Allahumma khfir lana warhamna wa a'fu anna wa la tu'addibna. Rabbana zalamna anfusana wa in lam takfir lana watarhamna. Lanakoonana minal khasireen. Allahumma khfir liwalidina. Rabb irhamhuma kama rabbauna sigara.
Rabbana ahab lana min azwajina wa dhuriyatina qurra ta'ayun. Waja'anna lil muttaqina imama. Allahumma aslih ahwal ikhwanina almanqoobina fi kulli makan. Allahumma aslih ahwal ikhwanina almanqoobina fi kulli makan. Allahumma aslih ahwal ikhwanina almanqoobina fi kulli makan. Allahumma ansur ikhwanina almustad'afina fi masharik al-ardi almagharibiha. Allahumma ahlik al-zalimina bil-zalimin. Wa akhrijna wa ikhwanina min baynihim salimin. Ibadallah. Inna Allah ya'mur bil-adl wal-ihsan wa ita'idh al-qurba. Wa yanha'an al-fahsha'i wal-munkari wal-baghi. Ya'ibukumna a'alakum tathakkaroon. FathkuruAllaha yathkurukum wa shkuruhu ana ni'ma iya zid lakum. WaladhikruAllahi akbar. Wallahu ya'arimu ma tasna'oon.
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