# The Dark Truth About Secularism | Imam Tom Weekly **Author:** Tom Facchine **Series:** Imam Tom Live **Published:** 2025-04-09 **YouTube:** https://youtu.be/crlTS93XnNs **URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/the-dark-truth-about-secularism-focal-imam-tom-weekly **Topics:** Culture, Family & Community, General Psychology, Psychology & Mental Health ## Description You've been told secularism saved the world from religious violence. But what if that’s the biggest myth of our time? Imam Tom uncovers the true history of how your understanding of “religion” was reshaped — not by faith, but by power. ## Transcript **[0:00]** Today, when people use the word religion, they have a certain idea of something in mind. Religion is basically like a genus or it's a category of which there are different specimens **[0:17]** or examples. Like Islam is a religion, Christianity is a religion, Judaism is a religion. This is a very, very new way of looking at religion. And it's not actually the original use of the word. Religion originally in Latin used to mean the duty that you have to render unto **[0:36]** God. Now, the question of how we got from that definition, religion as the duty that you owe God, to this super category of different faith communities that fits inside of it, that is the story of secularism. And secularism, it's not just a political ideology, it's a **[0:55]** totalizing way of looking at the world. And it is the dominant viewpoint that is making up the soup in which all of us swim. So, if you imagine a fish in water and one fish asked the other fish, you know, how's the water today? And the fish said, what water? That's **[1:13]** secularism. This is what we swim in and it's very, very hard and subtle to understand where it came from, how it changed, how we define and think about ourselves, our faith, our families, ethics, morality, pretty much everything. So, today we want to bring that implicit hidden **[1:34]** thing, which is secularism, and we want to shine a light on it. We want to put it under a microscope and we want to understand it, how it works, where it came from, how it was imposed upon us, especially as Muslims. And we want to demonstrate what the difference is between the Islamic alternative of what used to exist and the secular society in which **[1:55]** we live today. Now, the biggest lie you've ever been told is that people were religious in the past and they couldn't get along and they fought each other and then secularism came and saved the day and now nobody fights anymore because they have secularism. This **[2:10]** is just a complete lie. First of all, it's a historical lie on multiple counts. We don't have to go very far to look at the global war on terror, to look at World War I and World War II, all of which happened in a secular age that were probably the most brutal conflicts **[2:28]** that we've ever seen as a human species. By the way, a great book recommendation, if you're interested in more, would be to read The Myth of Religious Violence by William T. Kavanaugh. He explains that this isn't even an accurate rendering of the past, that people were always **[2:45]** at war and fighting because of religion, even if you were to say, OK, this isn't the world's story. This is just European history, that maybe Europe had their wars of religion, as is known in the history books. And so it was a European solution to a European problem. **[3:03]** That's getting closer to the truth. But that's not even 100 percent true because it's very, very difficult to parse out and separate what people were fighting for. Were they just fighting Catholics versus Protestants in European history? Not really. And William Kavanaugh **[3:20]** does a great job in his book of going into the weeds and showing that even supposedly the religious wars after the Reformation were really more complicated than that. You had opportunists on all sides. You have examples of Catholics fighting Catholics and Protestants fighting Protestants. You have examples of Catholics and Protestants making alliances **[3:39]** against people of their own supposed religion. So the idea of a violent religious past and a peaceful secular present is a myth. And it's one of the biggest myths that dominates how we think about the world today. Now, that's important because secularism was supposed to **[3:58]** be the solution to that problem. And so if there was no problem in the first place, if the world wasn't any more violent and perhaps even was less violent than it is today, and even if we were to agree for a second, hypothetically, that the world was more violent, that it turns **[4:16]** out that people weren't actually fighting just about religion. They were fighting about stuff that they continue to fight about today. Then secularism needs to account for itself. Where does it come from? Why does it exist? And how did it change our society in the way **[4:31]** that we look at everything? And what have we lost? Now, the second biggest myth is that secularism is merely a separation of church and state or a separation of religion from society. And this is a very, let's say, ideological self-understanding that secularism and secularists **[4:49]** would like you to believe that secularism came. Imagine there was religion A and religion B fighting over here. Secularism came in and separated them and say, no, no, no, you guys, you have to get along now. That's not true. Secularism is not a separation of church and **[5:04]** state or of religion and society. Secularism is the production of entirely new forms of religiosity. Yes, there is a secular version of Christianity and a secular version of Judaism and a secular version of Islam and a secular version of everything else. Huh? Well, why? **[5:21]** In short, the difference is that secularism produced forms of religion and religiosity that were easy to manage and govern and dominate by the nation state. The government wants to control. That's what modern governments do. They control and they try to control as much **[5:40]** as possible. And when you have people that their main allegiance is not to a government, but actually to God, not to the nation, your supposed ethno-nation usually, but actually to a community of believers, the government kind of sees this as a threat. You should **[5:57]** be willing to live and die for us, for the nation, for the government. You shouldn't necessarily be so fond of your faith community or so dedicated to your God that that would come in the way of serving, let's say, in a time of war or the army, your nation state, **[6:13]** et cetera. And so this is where secularism comes in. Secularism comes in to produce new forms of religion and religiosity that are much more amenable to the government, that are much more friendly to the government. And so imagine you had a cloth, okay? And **[6:32]** your religion originally was this big cloth. What secularism does is secularism basically cuts that cloth down to size. And so it will say, this is what fits in our version or our vision for society. You guys have these elements, we can accept that. Your five pillars, your **[6:51]** prayers and your fasting, your personal status law, some things that having to do with your marriage and your burial rituals, we'll let you keep that for the most part. But these other things out here, your ideas of how society should be run or how government should be **[7:07]** implemented or other things that affect society or public morality, such as prohibition of gambling or the prohibition of alcohol, the prohibition of fornication and of promiscuity, right? These things are not, they're not accepted here, right? These things are not secular **[7:22]** concepts. And so we need to now produce a different version of religiosity that is okay with being put into a box. That is what secularism did. So rewind that. Secularism is not about separation. It's not about separating state and society. It's not about separating **[7:41]** rather religion from government or anything like that. It's about producing a new type of religion that is very, very easy to control by the government. Now, where does this come in with the definition of religion? Well, glad you asked. This is exactly where the change in the **[7:57]** definition comes in. Remember, religion used to mean your duty to God. And if it means your duty to God, then there's no negotiating that. That is the absolute most important thing in your life. Okay, that definition won't work for secularism. The first thing we're going to have to **[8:14]** do is redefine religion. And so religion then comes to mean that it's just your little faith community and you are one of many religions and this is kind of how you work. And it gives equal validity to all religions. And it also poses this arrangement where the religion is now **[8:33]** subservient or it's secondary, it's subordinate to the interests of the government. That's the definition that secularism likes. Now, there's other things that secularism did in order to achieve this difference. So one of them, remember, we talked about the faith community and you **[8:49]** identifying with a community of believers, maybe they're even a worldwide community of believers. And that's going to actually erode and chip away at your affinity for the nation, state and the flag. And you're willing to go to some foreign country and die for it. Well, they don't want that. And so in order to replace that, what do we have? What's going to rival the imaginary **[9:11]** individual identification with their religion and their community of believers? Ah, the citizen. The citizen is what's going to replace that. You're not going to think of yourself anymore as a believer in the world that is tied to a community of believers worldwide and that they have **[9:28]** obligations upon you and you have obligations towards them. We want you to think of yourself as a citizen, which is why in every single classroom in almost most of the world today, the map that they put on the classroom wall is a political map. That your mental imaginary for the shape of the world, **[9:47]** the shape, it's not the mountains and the rivers and the seas and the valleys and the fields of wheat and whatever you have. It's the political borders. This is your territory. This is where you live. This is your nation. This is your people. The flag is everywhere. And if you're in the United States, you pledge allegiance to the flag every morning, et cetera, et cetera. All of this trying **[10:04]** to replace your primary identification, trying to displace that religious identity that you have and that religious affinity and identification that you have and replace it with the citizen. Now, this is not to say, we have to be very clear here, this is not to say that there's no way in which support **[10:23]** for one's nation or affinity for one's nation can combine with your religious identity. That's not what we're saying. In fact, this happens all the time. But what we are saying is that secularism is not neutral in this process. They love that you would minimize your religious identity and affinity **[10:40]** and affiliation and make the primary thing that you identify with and are willing to sacrifice for and certainly willing to obey the nation state and its government. So there's a historical process to this, if you doubt anything that that we're saying here. And you can very, very easily tell that this **[10:58]** process is true by looking at European colonialism, especially on the Muslim world. You go to places like Egypt, Algeria. If you go to Indonesia, the occupying powers, the foreign colonial powers that they weren't simply just there to extract resources. A lot of people don't understand that colonialism **[11:17]** happened in stages. The first early stage of colonialism was very, I don't want to say normal, but it's very rudimentary. Resource extraction, killing people, brutality, all horrible things, but very typical things in the broad arc of history. But as colonialism got more sophisticated **[11:38]** and secularism started to take place and the ethno-religious state, the secular state, started to become the main form of political organization, the idea of what colonialism was doing completely changed. That's where you get into the 19th century, the 1800s, and you've got the idea of the **[11:57]** civilization mission or the white man's burden. And now we have to civilize the barbarians and we have to change their laws and we have to change the way that society is organized. And this is where things get really interesting because they didn't stop there. It would have been even enough to **[12:13]** prove our point that they went and they changed all the laws, which they did. In the Muslim world, for example, they replaced all of the Sharia courts or the Islamic courts with courts that are based off of the European legal codes or the penal codes of France or of England or different colonial powers. But they didn't just stop there. They also produced knowledge in and of and about **[12:35]** the religions of the natives, of the people that were on the ground. So they were trying to affect what type of Islam was practiced. They were trying to affect the natives' understanding of their own religion. If you want an example, let's go to Algeria. When the French went to Algeria, **[12:52]** they attempted to produce scholarship. First of all, they tried to change the Quran, but that's for another video. They also produced scholarship, meaning French orientalists and whoever they could recruit from the elite of Algeria in order to produce information on Islam **[13:10]** that was supporting colonial rule. And one of the most famous ways in which they did this was in the economic realm. In Islam, we have a very important institution that is called the waqf. A waqf is an endowment. And how a waqf works is if you own an asset like a piece of land, you can dedicate that **[13:29]** asset forever, eternally to a charitable cause. So if I had a farm, for example, and I say, you know what, I'm going to make this farm into a waqf, into a charitable endowment. No one's going to be able to buy it, sell it, mess with it, whatever. And whatever proceeds it generates, **[13:46]** whatever money or income it generates, I'm going to dedicate it to orphans. That was such a prevalent economic technology in the Muslim world that when the European colonists came to the Muslim world, around 50% of all Muslim lands were reserved for these types of endowments. All the things **[14:06]** that you imagine the government providing today, like water and sewage and hospitals and mental asylums and orphanages and roads, the government didn't do that in the Muslim world until the nation state came along. This was taken care of by charitable endowments, people dedicating land or **[14:25]** other assets to produce income, and the income would go into these initiatives. When the colonizers came, you can imagine they didn't want that. That was standing in the way of stealing and getting what they wanted. And so they realized that possibility one, they could just come and take it, **[14:44]** but there would probably be a big backlash. I know what let's do better than just take it by brute force, which they also did sometimes. Let's convince the natives that the waqf is actually not okay in Islam. And so that's what the French orientalists **[14:59]** did. They had a whole propaganda campaign in which they tried to explain to the Algerians how the waqf was a bid'ah, that it was an innovation and all innovations are in the hellfire and this thing is not from Islam. And you know what? It kind of worked. So this is just an example. There's dozens of examples, whether you go to the Dutch activity in Indonesia, if you go to the British in, you know, the subcontinent in India and Pakistan, this was the playbook. This is what they did. And so why this is important is that it shows that it's not just **[15:29]** simply colonialism was not just simply about taking resources, stealing land, killing natives, though it was, it was about that. It mutated. I don't even want to say evolved. It mutated into something even worse, which was trying to change you from the inside, which is trying to mentally colonize you, which is trying to make you practice a type of Islam that is not really fully Islam. **[15:57]** That is Islam light or secularized Islam, Islam, cute Islam that is amenable to the powered vested interests. And that's what we don't like. So if that is how secularism reconfigured the world, and by the way, they didn't just reconfigure the world for Muslims, though, as Muslims, we care about that primarily, but also for all other people of the colonized world. **[16:23]** It reconfigured how people identify, think about themselves, think about their religion, think about family, think about law, think about ethics, everything. Okay, so then what is the alternative? What is the Islamic alternative? First of all, rather than understanding yourself as an individual citizen, we understand ourselves as servants of Allah subhana wa ta'ala. That is the most fundamental thing. We don't even belong to ourselves. We belong to Allah subhana wa ta'ala. Allah subhana wa ta'ala tells us that every breath that we take has to be for him, that every decision we make is for him. **[16:53]** Every action, every act of worship, of course, it has to be for him and for him alone. And that's our higher calling in the world, that if we have an allegiance or an affinity, the ultimate affinity is to God, is to the creator. Because who's going to be there on the day of judgment after we die, holding us accountable for what we did or potentially punishing us or potentially rewarding us? It's not going to be your government. It's not. Your government rules in this life, in this world. It's going to be the creator. **[17:23]** And so our ultimate understanding of ourselves has to be tied back to the creator. The second thing is that the idea and the redefinition of justice. So one thing that secularism did, it redefined law in a way that separated ethics from law. We have in the United States now sports betting. It's everywhere. Before that, it was the legalization of marijuana. The government does not, in a structural way, care about you being a moral person. They don't care about you getting into heaven or not. **[17:50]** There's a difference, a very, very big difference between what is legally allowed and then what is considered ethical. So in Islamic society, especially before colonialism and before secularism, those two things were put together. Law and ethics were considered an integral, integrated whole. And there's no better example of this than to open up any random classical fiqh book. **[18:14]** And fiqh is often translated as Islamic law. But what's the first chapter in a book of fiqh? It's not having to do with penalties or fines or punishments. It's about water and what water you can use to purify yourself. And then it's about prayer. And then it's about fasting or charity and all these acts of worship. And then other things that a modern understanding of law would look at like, why is this stuff in a book of law? **[18:39]** Well, that's exactly the point, that Islam puts all these things together because your moral capacity to pray to Allah and render your gratitude to Allah, the duty, the original meaning of religion, the duty you owe to your Lord. **[18:54]** That is how you build the capacity to follow criminal law and not kill anybody and not steal and do these other things. So they're all together. Whereas secularism also changed our understanding of family so that we think of ourselves more as individuals and autonomous individuals. **[19:10]** I think about what's my education and my major and my career and I'm going to move across the country or I even might move to another part of the world just for a job. That's a very, very new way of thinking about things as opposed to understanding yourself as part of a family, as part of an ummah or a community that they have rights upon you. **[19:32]** We always joke, if you go back to the village or you go to some of the older generations and they seem nosy, don't they? You come back and they're like, what were you doing? Where'd you go? And what were you doing there? What are you doing tomorrow? And we feel uncomfortable about this because we're very secular. So we think that like, listen, don't be in my business like that. I don't want to share that information with you. But that harkens back to an older way of doing things where there was an understanding that there was a mutuality that they had rights upon you and you had rights upon them and you weren't just an individual floating through space. **[20:04]** As we know, the Prophet (ﷺ) talked about, you know, your mother, your mother, your mother and talked about how paradise is at your mother's feet and talked about the rights of your parents. And there was a companion who was making tawaf around the Ka'bah and he had his mother on his back and he asks somebody else, have I repaid her for what she's done for me? And he said, no, you'll never repay her. **[20:24]** You haven't even repaid her for a single breath or a single pang of labor that she felt when she was delivering you. That's a very non-secular way of looking at family and your obligations to family. And of course, our ideas of freedom and control have changed completely. **[20:39]** We've been told, and part of what secularism sells as its, or one of its selling points is that, well, we live in a freer society. We don't have witch hunts anymore. We don't have, you know, people doing black magic on other people or the church coming knocking at your door. Why weren't you at service on Sunday or things of that nature? **[21:01]** So secularism purports to have freed you from certain things. But of course, we have to realize that the secular state has more control over us than any government has ever had in the past. You look at what's going on now with surveillance and with spying and with detaining people randomly, the national security interest is a blank check to do anything. And there's nothing that is going to stand in the way of the government essentially doing what they want. **[21:28]** So it's not accurate or fair to say that secularism made us more free. It did not whatsoever. In fact, it only changed the pattern of constraint. That there were certain things that constrained us before, those nosy family members, maybe your imam or your pastor or your priest wondering where you are on the community day of worship. Yeah. But now there's other things. There's surveillance, there's passports, there's thumbprints, there's all these other things that we have that modern nation states do. **[21:56]** Now, some people will wonder, say, well, you know, why don't you just go to an Islamic country or what about these other nations in the Muslim world? And the honest truth is that these are just secular nation states, the vast majority of them. They operate in a way that's not very different and certainly not structurally different from the nation states of the West, whether the United States, Canada, the UK, Europe, what have you. **[22:19]** Part of it, remember, secularism doesn't get rid of the cloth entirely. If the cloth is your deen or is your religion, it just cuts it down to size. Now, you can practice within these boxes, but you can't practice that. So the vast majority of these governments still operate on a secular framework. Law and ethics are not fully integrated. The guidance from Allah subhana wa ta'ala is not the highest order. It's not the highest call. **[22:47]** The highest call is the government and obedience to the government. And that shows us the task at hand, which is how does a Muslim respond and how does any person of faith or person of conscience respond in this time? And it's a really interesting dilemma that one thing that we hope to do is to demonstrate to the world opportunities and different possibilities for life that have maybe not been extinguished, but are certainly forgotten and certainly displaced. **[23:14]** And so Islam offers a very, very important alternative to the current world order as we look at the increasing state power and increasing state surveillance. And we're concerned about the emptiness of our lives and we're concerned about the immorality of our society where you're just a couple mistakes away from being without a home, without any support, without anything. **[23:39]** We believe in offering an alternative to a society where people can look and say, wow, like that actually kind of makes sense. Maybe we should do things like that. And there's lots of room in our current setup and configuration to actually demonstrate those things. So if you go to the waqf, again, let's get back to the endowment. A charitable endowment, at least in most Western nations, is something that you have complete freedom to set up. Now, most people in the West, they can't imagine paving roads without the government. But in fact, this was the norm. Most people, they can't imagine hospitals that are run just by endowments. **[24:17]** But this is the norm. In fact, the university system, as corrupt as it currently is, the original idea of an endowment for a university was from Islamic law and Muslim society. Now, that's a whole other issue in some things that have happened with neoliberal models of profit over everything else. **[24:36]** But the general idea of having an endowment to provide these things is a really important Islamic institution. And it's one that we should really prioritize setting up to demonstrate people that there's other ways of having quality of life, that you can have these things and not necessarily by turning over half your income to the government. **[24:58]** And of course, one of the most important things we can do is to look inwardly and to notice how we have been affected. Again, this is the soup that we're all in. This is the water that we swim in, that secularism has affected our ideas of who we are and what religion is, how we should be affiliating and defining ourselves. **[25:15]** So we should all do that work of looking inward and paying attention to ourselves and noticing the ways that these things don't come organically, actually. They come from a very, very recent hegemonic ideological project that happens to be dominant in the world right now. **[25:31]** So to close, secularism, as we've said, is not simply a political system. It's an entire worldview. It shapes everything. And it shapes how you define yourself, your religion, your society, your family, your ethics, your morals, your values and justice. **[25:46]** And as Muslims, we have to critically engage with it. We have to understand it as a historical phenomenon, as a hegemonic political phenomenon, as an ideology of dominance and of reshaping us, our lands, our worlds, our families and how we think. **[26:01]** And our goal is not to simply stop at critiquing and noticing the bad stuff, because there's plenty of bad stuff to always know, but it's also to revive Islamic alternatives and then to also demonstrate those alternatives to people and the societies in which we live. **[26:17]** The final question is, are we ready to take that challenge? ## Other Episodes in "Imam Tom Live" - [The Promise and Paradox of the Islamic Republic | Deep Dive: Iran Ep. 2 | Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/irans-political-system-explained-deep-dive-iran-ep-2-focal-point-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [Sunnis vs. Shias | Deep Dive: Iran Ep. 1 | Focal Point with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/sunnis-vs-shias-focal-point-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [Who's Your Real Enemy? | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/who-is-your-real-enemy-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [How ‘Taqiyya’ Became an Islamophobic Talking Point | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/how-taqiyya-became-an-islamophobic-talking-point-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [Does Islam Actually Oppose Science? | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/does-islam-actually-oppose-science-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [What Sharia Law Actually Means | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/what-sharia-law-actually-means-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [Why Not Every Seat is One Worth Taking | Focal Point with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/why-not-every-seat-is-one-worth-taking-focal-point-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [Debunking the Myth of the ‘Oppressed Muslim Woman’ | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/debunking-the-myth-of-the-oppressed-muslim-woman-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [What ‘Allahu Akbar’ Really Means (And Why It Scares Them) | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/what-allahu-akbar-really-means-and-why-it-scares-them-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [How Does the Qur’an View the Bible? | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/how-does-the-quran-view-the-bible-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [What the Qur’an Says About Christianity | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/what-the-quran-says-about-christianity-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [The Truth About AI’s Intelligence | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/the-truth-about-ai-intelligence-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [Amazon's Kill System & the Network Behind Sami's Detention | Focal Point with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/amazons-kill-system-and-the-network-behind-samis-detention-focal-point-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [What Real Masculinity Looks Like | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/what-real-masculinity-looks-like-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [What Islam Reveals About Socialism and Capitalism | Focal Point with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/what-islam-reveals-about-socialism-and-capitalism-focal-point-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [Kings Chased Thrones. He ﷺ Chased This Instead | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/kings-chased-thrones-he-chased-this-instead-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [Why You Can’t Escape Organized Religion | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/why-you-cant-escape-organized-religion-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [Why Some Scholars Critique Resistance | Focal Point with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/why-some-scholars-critique-resistance-focal-point-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [Columbus Wasn't Just After Gold – He Wanted Jerusalem | Focal Point with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/columbus-wasnt-just-after-gold-he-wanted-jerusalem-focal-point-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [How to Stop Falling for Fake Mahdis | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/how-to-stop-falling-for-fake-mahdis-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [How Should We View Gaza’s Celebrity Support? | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/gaza-celebrity-support-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [Living Up to the Prophet’s ﷺ Final Speech | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/the-last-sermon-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [Israel’s Link to U.S. Anti-Terror Policy | Focal Point with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/israels-links-to-us-anti-terror-policy-focal-point.md) - [Will Recognition Help Palestine? | Snapshots by Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/will-recognition-help-palestine-snapshots-by-imam-tom.md) - [Modesty Is More Than What You Wear | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/modesty-is-more-than-what-you-wear-snapshots.md) - [How Your Victim Mindset is Destroying You | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/how-your-victim-mindset-is-destroying-you-snapshots-with-imam-tom.md) - [The Hidden Bias in Every History Book | Focal Point with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/the-hidden-bias-in-every-history-book-focal-point.md) - [Islam Isn’t Just Therapy | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/islam-isnt-just-therapy-snapshot.md) - [Is This Da’wah or Entertainment? | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/is-this-dawah-or-entertainment-snapshots.md) - [Representation Isn’t Working. Here’s Why. | Focal Point with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/representation-isnt-working-heres-why-focal-point.md) - [How to Stop Chasing Validation | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/how-to-stop-chasing-validation-snapshots-imam-tom.md) - [What Activism Is Missing Today | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/what-activism-is-missing-today-snapshots-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [How Colonialism Hijacked the Muslim World | Focal Point with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/how-colonialism-hijacked-the-muslim-wor-focal-point-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [Why the Islamic Calendar Matters | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/why-the-islamic-calendar-matters-snapshots-wit-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [How Islam Completed what Christianity Began | Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/how-islam-completed-what-christianity-began-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [The Multi-Million Dollar War on Islam | Focal Point with Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/the-multi-million-dollar-war-on-islam-focal-point-with-imam-tom-facchine.md) - [Hajj is the Great Equalizer | Imam Tom Facchine](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/hajj-is-the-great-equalizer-imam-tom-weekly.md) - [Malcolm X's Legacy We Forgot About | Imam Tom Weekly](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/malcolm-xs-legacy-we-forgot-about-imam-tom-weekly.md) - [How Music Impacts Your Brain | Imam Tom Weekly](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/how-music-impacts-your-brain-imam-tom-weekly.md) - [Debunking the 'Islamic Dilemma' | Imam Tom Weekly](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/debunking-the-islamic-dilemma-imam-tom-weekly.md) - [The Ummah or the Nation? 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| Imam Tom Weekly](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/what-does-trumps-second-term-mean-for-muslims-imam-tom-weekly.md) - [Why Reps Matter More than Time | Imam Tom Weekly](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/why-reps-matter-more-than-time-atomic-habits-imam-tom-weekly.md) - [Surah Al-Masad & Atomic Habits | Imam Tom Weekly](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/surah-al-masad-atomic-habits-imam-tom-weekly.md) - [Surah Al-Ikhlas & Atomic Habits | Imam Tom Weekly](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/surah-al-ikhlas-and-atomic-habits-imam-tom-weekly.md) - [Why You Can't Resist Cravings (and How to Take Back Control) | Atomic Habits | Imam Tom Weekly](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/why-you-cant-resist-cravings-and-how-to-take-back-control-atomic-habits-imam-tom-weekly.md) - [Surah An-Nas & Atomic Habits | Imam Tom Weekly](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/surah-an-nas-and-atomic-habits-imam-tom-weekly.md) - [Atomic Habits: Why Most Quit Early | Imam Tom Weekly](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/atomic-habits-why-most-quit-early-imam-tom-live.md) - [Surah Al-Kawthar & Atomic Habits | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/surah-al-kawthar-and-atomic-habi-imam-tom-live.md) - [Allah Will Ask: What Did You Do With Your Freedom? | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/allah-will-ask-what-did-you-do-with-your-freedom-imam-tom-live.md) - [Oct 7th Changed Everything | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/oct-7th-changed-everything-imam-tom-live.md) - [All Praise Be to Allah in Every Situation | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/all-praise-be-to-allah-in-every-situation-imam-tom-live.md) - [Muslim Votes Swing 2024 | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/muslim-votes-swing-2024-imam-tom-live.md) - [Remembering Aysenur's Courage | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/remembering-aysenurs-courage-imam-tom-live.md) - [Empowering Student Activism | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/empowering-student-activism-imam-tom-live.md) - [Hypocrisy at the DNC | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/hypocrisy-at-the-dnc-imam-tom-live.md) - [Falsehood is Bound to Vanish | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/america-unraveling-political-violence-imam-tom-live-2.md) - [No Limits: Israel’s Growing Atrocities and Global Indifference | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/no-limits-israels-growing-atrocities-and-global-indifference-imam-tom-live.md) - [What France & UK's Electoral results mean for Muslims | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/what-frances-and-uks-electoral-results-mean-for-muslims-imam-tom-live.md) - [The Real Guise of 'Islamophobia' | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/the-real-guise-of-islamophobia-imam-tom-live.md) - [Muslim Influencers Profiting from Apartheid | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/muslim-influencers-profiting-from-apartheid-imam-tom-live.md) - [Israel's Ceasefire Rejection, Nurse Fired for Gaza, and the Law of Sacrifice | Imam Tom Live](https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/imam-tom-live/israels-ceasefire-rejection-nurse-fired-for-gaza-and-the-law-of-sacrifice-imam-tom-live.md) - [Do Influencers Owe their Followers Advocacy? 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