Uniting Our Ummah When Politics Divide | Khutbah by Dr. Omar Suleiman

 

New Zealanders observe Muslim call to prayer: 'We are one'

Martyrdom of Imam Hussein as a day of unity

Muharram, the 10th of the Islamic calendar brings out fissures in the Muslim community. Its a day when a segment of Muslims mourn the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet and the other segment that equally loves the Prophet and his family, minimize or ignore the martyrdom. While one segment fasts on the day commemorating a Jewish tradition that says that on this day Prophet Moses saved his people from the tyranny of Pharaoh, the other grieves, laments and remembers the martyrdom of Imam Hussein by self-flagellation.

History is still haunting us and the event that took place some fifty years after the death of the Prophet still divides us. Yazid ibn Muawiya and Imam Hussein are the two characters around whom the entire story revolves. One segment of the ummah considers Yazid a legitimate ruler and the Imam a rebel, the other considers Imam a freedom fighter and Yazid a tyrant. In the continuation of the controversy that has resulted in the emergence of different versions of Islam, the dream of making the faith a unifying force for Muslims is irrelevant.

History has to be seen in its right perspective and should be analyzed according to the explanation of people who were involved in it.

Based on how Imam Hussein presented his case and the horrific ordeal he and his family went through, it is clear that his martyrdom is one of the most revolutionary moment in the history of humanity when an individual decided to sacrifice all that he had to preserve the divine ideals of justice. Those who were fighting against him knew the fate of the opponent. They knew that he was the grandson of the Prophet.

The people who claimed to be defenders of the principles of justice betrayed Imam Hussein and watched him as bystanders pursue the struggle on his own. The Imam fully knew the value of his stand, but mourning or grieving would not serve the purpose or give right tribute to him.

Rather than observing this day of 10th Muharram as a day of mourning and tragedy, all Muslims regardless of their sect, must observe it as a day of justice and freedom. They must make this a day to remind the world that tyranny must be challenged, abuse of power must be questioned, usurpation of power by turning political office into a throne to be passed on one's progeny must be defied and coercion to force people to succumb to political authorities must be responded. This will bring meaning to the sacrifice of the great martyr Imam Hussein for Muslims and people of all faith.

The Muslim world is in fact divided between those who usurp the rights of people and those whose rights have been usurped. We have falsely tried to cover this basic division through imposing sectarian, ethnic, cultural and tribal differences so that the real issues can never be brought up. The existing divisions are preventing Muslims from bring about positive changes in the society. Any time people question the legitimacy of those who unjustly violate people's human rights, the shia sunni differences are brought up by the special interest group. Often these differences are escalated to devastating violence.

Unless, Muslims go back to their history and read it correctly to draw necessary conclusions, they will continue to be played by special interest groups among themselves. Perhaps, we can begin by reevaluating our attitude to the most tragic event of our history, the Karbala.

Link

Distinguished New York City imam preaches tolerance, unity

Religion has a galvanizing force that can catalyze both prejudice and social change. Geneseo highlights this power with the annual MacVittie Theology Lecture: “Racialized Religion.” 

Executive Director of the New York University Islamic Center and Chaplain for the New York Police Department Khalid Latif spoke on Tuesday Nov. 14 for the Robert MacVittie lecture series. 

“The reality that numerous minority populations in this country face … are things that we have to be acutely aware of,” Latif said. “Foundationally, in my opinion, we can understand the country to be rooted in anti-blackness.”

Latif clarified the insidious ways that prejudice can even affect people like him, despite his privileged position as a leader in the New York City Muslim community. 

“I’ve shared stages with the Dalai Lama, been interviewed by Stephen Colbert and Katie Couric, been on the cover of Newsweek,” Latif said. “I’ve still had the FBI up in my house … despite all that though, I can’t tell you what it’s like to be black in America.”

Latif further wove his own experiences, his theology and the perspectives of others into a series of interconnected stories. One of the main memories focused on the different ways people treated him and other Muslims who lived in New York City during and after the World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, 2001. 

As a Muslim student at NYU on 9/11, Latif was often shoved into the spotlight as people profiled and either verbally or physically attacked people they thought looked Muslim. Following 9/11, Latif experienced Islamophobia in the form of questioning at the ninth anniversary 9/11 ninth anniversary ceremony. 

“I was at the ceremony in my police uniform—an Inspector’s uniform—talking and mingling, but I still had my beard and my head cover,” Latif said. “Three men approached me wearing suits and said that Secret Service had spotted me from the top of a building and wanted to check my credentials ‘just in case.’” 

Latif urged the audience to use the tenets of love and religiosity when approaching injustice in the United States and the world.  Latif—who recently accompanied international aid organizations on a relief trip for Rohingya Muslims refugees in Bangladesh—emphasized the apparent Western disregard toward the ongoing genocide in Myanmar of Rohingya Muslims.

Above all, Latif implored the audience to really listen and try to understand other people, especially those who are unlike themselves. The only way to approach the crises and injustices that pervade the country and the world today is through a real love and devotion for other people, according to Latif.

“You are at a university—a space that embraces and appreciates dialogue and diversity,” Latif said. “You can sit down and become informed and then you think of yourselves as potential partners.”

Link

https://www.thelamron.com/posts/2017/11/16/distinguished-new-york-city-imam-preaches-tolerance-unity

#PrayForLondon #GrenfellTower

Muslim man comforts/prays with elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity

How We Stop ISIS - Waleed Aly (The Project)

Profound statement from Waleed Ally. Couldn't agree more.

Si Kaddour ben Ghabrit- Imam of the Grande Mosquée de Paris

Seeing as we're going through the usual cycle holding all Muslims to account for the horrific crimes of a handful of individuals...

The individual pictured below is Si Kaddour ben Ghabrit, the first Imam of the Grande Mosquée de Paris, to this day one of the largest Mosques in France. The Mosque was built in 1926 by the French government as a token of gratitude to French muslims who had fought and died defending their country in the First World War.

When France fell under Nazi occupation in the Summer of 1940, the Mosque first sheltered resistance fighters and North Africans who had escaped from German POW camps, yet the Mosque's actions became most prominent in the Summer of 1942, when the Nazi collaborator regime planned the round-up of Parisian Jews. They were to be handed over to the Germans, before being sent to death camps in the east.

More than 1,700 people are thought to have found short-term shelter in apartments on or near the grounds of the mosque. Ghabrit set up an alert system that allowed fugitives to disappear swiftly in case of a raid - if necessary to the prayer room's women's section, where men were normally not admitted. He wrote numerous false birth certificates making Jewish children into Muslims. 

After providing initial sanctuary, the members of the mosque helped smuggle the Jews out to safety in Algeria or Spain, a task enabled by access to Paris's sewers directly beneath the mosque's grounds provided an escape path, as did the mosque's proximity to the city's central wine market on the Seine, saving them from almost certain death at Nazi hands.

In times like this it's important to remember that within living memory there were regimes in Europe seeking to murder minority groups whilst also loudly emphasising their Christian nature. At the same time there were Muslims risking their own lives to save Jews and other victims of persection. As a society we wouldn't tolerate anyone demanding all Christians apologise for the crimes of Vichy France yet some seem happy to act in a similarly idiotic manner in regards to Muslims and the criminals who claim to represent their faith.

When you do so your playing into the hands of those who wanted to round-up the Jews, and now want to round-up the Muslims.

"In exile like ourselves, workers like ourselves. They are our brothers. Their children are like our own children. The one who encounters one of his children must give that child shelter and protection for as long as misfortune, or sorrow, lasts."

~ Si Kaddour ben Ghabrit
(taken from FB) 

Madrassas in India attract Hindu students

Madrassas are usually thought of as Muslim-only schools where children study only theology and end up as religious teachers or clerics.

After 9/11, many in the non-Muslim world viewed South Asia's tens of thousands of madrassas with suspicion, regarding them as a breeding ground for radical strains of Islam.

But in recent years, defying the stereotype, nearly 600 government-recognised madrassas in West Bengal have introduced a mainstream school curriculum, and non-Muslims are studying in almost all of them.

Currently, about 15 percent of the students in the state's modernised madrassas are non-Muslims, and many of them are expecting to become engineers, doctors, scientists and other professionals.

Orgram and other madrassas in the state have undergone modernisation offering courses in physics, chemistry, biology, geography, mathematics, computer science, English language and literature and other regular subjects.

Islamic studies and the Arabic language course form a small part of the curriculum.

Funded by the state, the madrassas which are located mostly in rural Bengal charge no fees, and offer free school uniforms and mid-day meals, making them especially attractive to students from poor and lower middle-class families.

Examples of Muslim students who attended the madrassas and are now successful in their careers have spurred many non-Muslim families to send their children to the madrassas, many say.

"In Hindu-dominated society until some time back, madrassas - identified as Muslims only institutions - carried a stigma. Non-Muslims and even many Muslims used to stay away from them," Dr Khandkar Fariduddin, an eye surgeon and an alumnus of a modern madrassa told Al Jazeera.

"But, now that they have known that a madrassa student can also become a doctor, engineer or other good professional, they are shedding their inhibitions and sending their children to these modern madrassas," he said.

"Now the modern madrassas are part of mainstream education infrastructure in West Bengal."

Source

Unity....