Becoming An Ally: The Next Step For The Muslim Community

22 المشاهدات· 24/03/22

MYC Media
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Objective:
To erase the embedded racism within the Muslim community, shed light upon the longtime overlooked Black American Muslim community, and to finally structure the necessary actions to become allies and supporters.

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Transcript

[0:31]Saddam and Arya come everyone will give a couple moments I'm to

[0:35]a lot of people to join in sha Allah will it will

[0:40]be beginning very very shortly inshallah [Music] you you you okay now

[1:53]our the billahi min ash-shaitani rajim bismillah al rahman al rahim in

[1:58]the name of allah the most beneficent the most merciful ya ayyuha

[2:03]alladhina amanu Kanagawa mina Belkis oh you who believe stand firmly to

[2:08]establish justice chapter 4 100 verse 135 respected guests and honoured panelists

[2:15]and a monadic muhammad sallahu wa barakatu peace be upon you all

[2:20]my name is Maggie Leah adenine is with my great honor and

[2:22]pleasure to be able to moderate tonight's fantastic webinar alongside my dear

[2:27]cousin say Dada Sweeney this program is brought to you with the

[2:32]help of tireless volunteers and truly an inspiring collaboration of youth groups

[2:36]including Mount San Antonio College MSA in California Muslim youth in motion

[2:41]in Vancouver Canada Muslim youth connection in Michigan Islamic educational center of

[2:46]Orange County in California and last but not least the universal Muslim

[2:51]Association of America better known as OMA because I live in Vancouver

[2:54]I would like to acknowledge that the land that we are on

[2:58]is the unseeded traditional territory of the Katzie samyama Kwantlen and other

[3:03]Coast Salish people's we have a truly beneficial program in store for

[3:06]you all with the topic of the proceedings being becoming an ally

[3:09]the next step for the Muslim community I'd like to jump right

[3:12]into the program and we'll begin with the recitation of the Holy

[3:17]Quran by my dear friend M Carla Mustafa Juma who will share

[3:20]some verses of the holy book with his fantastic voice Sonam and

[3:22]Adi come brother Mustafa before is yours to begin with what someone

[3:34]how do we let him in a shape on your regime it's

[3:41]me [Music] in the minute you see ya a manual a so-called

[4:43]poem you call mean are insane [Music] what I mean [Music] now

[5:27]fire on me [Music] while Antares informs my name tonight baby [Music]

[5:59]you you me say is willful food by a manual that loved

[6:21]me and two for Kiki [Music] you yeah au lait Xena a

[6:49]man would turn you boom can't see you want me now one

[6:59]mean about it [Music] you yeah a you know a man would

[7:27]turn who can fear on me now one in Bordeaux one [Music]

[7:41]while intentions centrum while a temper bow and you have hired income

[8:09]a year kuna my I'm Kiki magnatum thank you [Music] one morning

[8:21]you know that don't worry [Music] yeah Uranus you know final nine

[8:47]community [Music] you you know I'm quite happy now I'm Queen thank

[9:04]God in what our John and Erin showdown for bear Eli needs

[9:16]or wants me in and cool down war he and [Music] how

[9:43]are you might be so I don't come ye you leave i

[9:55]sentence brother mustafa bollocky logic thank you for this wonderful recitation assalamu

[10:03]alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh brothers and sisters my name is mhmm methodical Tasmania

[10:06]and I'm honored to moderate this event along with my dear cousin

[10:10]Sayed Manila Adi the black community has been suffering from systemic racism

[10:17]for the past 400 years black people live in constant fear of

[10:21]racial violence and face anti-black prejudice on a daily basis we live

[10:25]in the 21st century yet black people are being murdered and brutalized

[10:29]by the police with near impunity the gruesome killing of George Floyd

[10:34]has reminded us of the violent mistreatment and dehumanization black people face

[10:40]on a day-to-day basis as Muslims we have a responsibility towards the

[10:45]black community I said may be mentioned the Quran orders us to

[10:52]always stand for justice Malayalam an or Rahim ya ayyuha alladhina amanu

[10:55]Kuno caillois Meena bill passed Shahada Ln a the la-la-la-la unfussy come

[11:01]out why LaDainian a clubby o you who believe be steadfast maintained

[11:05]errs of justice witnesses for God though it be against yourselves or

[11:11]your appearance and kinsfolk however we the Muslim community has constantly overlooked

[11:17]our black brothers and sisters Muslim most of us are aware or

[11:21]tend to forget that day blow black community the black Muslims compromise

[11:25]25% of the Muslim population in the United States it means that

[11:31]at least one in four Muslims in the United States fear of

[11:33]being murdered by the police so we must understand that these issues

[11:37]are issues that our Muslim brothers and sisters are face we have

[11:43]a responsibility towards our black brothers and sisters to main justice and

[11:46]stand against the current institutionalized racism that they face therefore the you

[12:04]and to propose practical steps needed to over to work needed to

[12:10]work toward overcoming discrimination against the black community our questions to our

[12:14]honorable speakers today are divided into three categories our first category is

[12:19]the embedded racism within the Muslim community second the history and experience

[12:24]of the Black Muslim community and lastly and most importantly the next

[12:28]steps we can take to overcome this discrimination each category will have

[12:33]two questions and each speaker will be addressing each question in five

[12:39]minutes for the prep for the purpose of getting through the event

[12:42]we also aim to have a quick Q&A discussion so if you

[12:46]have any questions please type them in the chat Ceyda Maggie and

[12:49]I will be addressing the questions on your behalf since now it

[12:53]is my honor to introduce one of our one of the speakers

[12:58]for today Imam jihad Sofia is the current president and director of

[13:01]a slaw a lay a nonprofit dedicated to conducting social services in

[13:05]South Los Angeles work as a young prison chaplain instill two desire

[13:09]in him to disrupt the school to Prison Pipeline and he founded

[13:15]the slaw academy imam sofia received his BA in Arabic studies and

[13:19]his master's in its dynamic leadership in 2013 and currently is pursuing

[13:22]his PhD in practical theology with a concentration and religious education at

[13:28]Claremont School of Theology Sophia Imam Sofia became the resident Imam of

[13:33]Masjid our Basel ah in 2008 succeeding his great father Imam Sadiq

[13:37]Sofia he's also the former Imam of measured otaku on Altadena the

[13:42]former youth director of the Islamic center of Glendale and the former

[13:46]Muslim chaplain of the California Institution for Women in mom Sofia has

[13:50]received many honorary Awards for his philanthropy and there's a true role

[13:54]model for everyone around him and someone I especially admire thank you

[13:58]for that introduction Sayed Maddie and now we will be introducing our

[14:01]second speaker Margaery Hill from Muslim mark Margaret Margaret Margaret as Lisa

[14:06]Hill is an ang adjunct professor blogger editor and freelance writer she's

[14:11]the co-founder and executive director of Muslim Ark the Muslim anti-racist collaborative

[14:16]and organization focusing on education for liberation after converting to Islam in

[14:23]1993 her life experiences as a black American woman have informed her

[14:27]research and writing on Islam education race and gender she has nearly

[14:31]a decade of teaching teaching experiences at all levels from elementary secondary

[14:36]college level to adult education she has worked in education at various

[14:41]capacities including as a substitute teacher and structure curriculum design design and

[14:45]school policy teacher training as well as teaching assistant and teaching fellow

[14:50]she's earned her bachelor's degree in history from Santa Clara University in

[14:55]2003 and master's in history of the Middle East and Islamic Africa

[14:59]from Stanford University in 2006 she has given talks and lectures in

[15:04]various universities and community centers throughout the country since and last but

[15:10]not least the great Imam Walid is my pleasure to introduce him

[15:15]Imam Dawood Walid is currently the executive director of the Michigan chapter

[15:18]of the Council on american-islamic relations better known as care in Mahwah

[15:23]lead is regularly interviewed and quoted by major news outlets included in

[15:27]the New York Times Wall Street Journal CNN BBC and Fox News

[15:30]Imam Juanita has lectured at prestigious educational institutions about Islam interfaith dialogue

[15:37]and social justice including at Harvard University DePaul University and the University

[15:40]of the Virgin Islands he was also given testimony at hearings and

[15:44]briefings in US Congress and a man Walid has also studied the

[15:49]disciplines of Arabic grammar and morphology foundations of Islamic jurisprudence sciences of

[15:53]the exegesis of the Quran and early Islamic history Mohammed served in

[15:58]the United States Navy under honorable conditions earning two United States Navy

[16:02]and Marine Corp achievement medals while deployed abroad he has also received

[16:06]awards of recognition from the City Council of Detroit and from the

[16:09]mayor of Lansing as well as a number of other religious and

[16:15]community organizations now we will segue into the and jump right into

[16:19]the questions inshallah would the first category being embedded racism and my

[16:23]dear cousin will ask the first question thank you so much stayed

[16:29]Mandy our first question will be directed to all speakers but first

[16:33]we were looking for an answer from Amanda wood will eat the

[16:35]first question is what are some examples of manifest and latent acts

[16:40]of discrimination against the black community in other words what are some

[16:43]of the obvious and hidden forms of racial discrimination within the Muslim

[16:46]community all the balaji mirchi the regime bismillah r-rahman r-rahim and from

[16:55]the lair of Lana beam hundun catherine pugh Heba Mubarak and fee

[16:58]after Lucilla T what Timothy Salim and ste dinner wanna be in

[17:04]a on an early hit Torian Allah Allah Allah Sahaba Tadashi Dean

[17:08]whatever in Lihue be fed no a seminary Medina or an enum

[17:11]arithmetic from ar-rahim ewbarr first of all thank you very much for

[17:19]inviting me to this platform for this important discussion along with MMG

[17:25]had and sister Margaery who both I've been watching have been extremely

[17:31]busy during this time in particular may Allah reward both of them

[17:34]and preserve both of them there are there are a number of

[17:41]different manifestations that come come across some of them are individual acts

[17:46]of of disrespect some of them are institutional with inside of our

[17:54]Islamic organizations and some of those or are subtle and you know

[17:58]I have five minutes for this answered I think I ate up

[18:04]two minutes already so I'll be very quick you know metro-detroit is

[18:08]the most concentrated area of Muslims in the United States of America

[18:15]right we have a metropolitan area about three hundred thousand Muslims you

[18:20]know and with a small population this is like the most Muslim

[18:24]place in America and then at the same time it's also the

[18:33]largest percentage of Arabs some say outside of the so-called Middle East

[18:37]right and so it's I remember about seven years ago or so

[18:42]some you're familiar with this but I got sick and tired of

[18:44]just going into stores or going to places and hearing out of

[18:49]called black people are beat right so I wrote an article about

[18:52]that in Arab American news and we started talking about that and

[18:55]I got a few of our Imams to to to address it

[19:01]and then later on Muslim mark start a campaign about drop the

[19:05]a word but that's like one of the manifestations when you go

[19:10]into a store like in Hamtramck Michigan and you walk in the

[19:13]store and you hear a Yemeni guys say 'under Haddad right lately

[19:17]look at that slave watch out for that slave right there as

[19:20]if someone black might steal something right and then some of us

[19:23]who are black and know Arabic then we know not to go

[19:28]in that store anymore right but that's that's some of the things

[19:31]the other thing is that many of our Islamic centers are really

[19:38]cultural centers masquerading as masajid what I mean by that is that

[19:43]people pray there but when you look at actually who has input

[19:45]in the programming who's actually on the board of directors right and

[19:53]then you have people who are black folks who pray in there

[19:56]and will never have a chance to have any input on the

[19:59]programming of what goes on it's that maybe the symbolic token Black

[20:04]History Month program where they try to call me in or another

[20:07]Imam or or a sister to come and give the yeah you

[20:12]know we got to give the Malcolm X speech once a year

[20:13]in February right around the time of his of his of his

[20:18]martyrdom so you know that's that's par for the course I think

[20:21]the other thing is and I want to be was very brief

[20:25]because I know that the majority of people who are watching this

[20:28]from they are from the the the if NIOSH of the school

[20:33]of thought the Shia school of thought and I'll say they even

[20:37]like a more subtle ray of racism is the erasure of blackness

[20:39]as it relates to ethnic bait so when you're like around Dearborn

[20:43]you see pictures of the 12 Imams and they all look like

[20:48]Persians and we know that the mother of Musa alacazam was an

[20:50]African woman he was described as being black and we and we

[20:55]know the mother of imam muhammad al jawad was was an african

[20:58]woman and he was black right we know that these Imams look

[21:02]more like Mead and they look like anyone from Tehran oh cool

[21:05]right but then you see how their how they're depicted and it's

[21:08]almost like the white Jesus in Christianity right and it breeds a

[21:15]type of in type of subtle superiority complex in some and then

[21:18]people come into Islam and and and see these things it's almost

[21:21]like what you traded the white Jesus for the for the white

[21:26]Emax right so I mean I think I probably need to start

[21:30]a campaign about that in Dearborn for next Muharram of gain those

[21:35]pitchers banned all through the Westside Detroit and and in in in

[21:39]in Dearborn because it's it's it's it's frankly it's it's it's not

[21:44]accurate according to history right and that's number one so we should

[21:51]be truthful for the sake of truth right and then it's just

[21:55]it's uh it's disrespectful I don't have any other way I can

[22:00]put it so with that I'll stop and I'm curious to hear

[22:04]what our beloved sister Margaery has to say as well as Imam

[22:08]jihad f1 Minko thank you so much that was an amazing answer

[22:12]inshallah even it's true it's very true that even in the Shia

[22:17]school of thought um there's a lot of embedded racism and even

[22:20]though they might think it's subtle it's actually um it's very obvious

[22:23]sister Margaery we'd love to hear for you if you would like

[22:28]me to repeat the question I could also do that as well

[22:31]so I'm thinking about some of the explicit forms of racism right

[22:39]and kind of continuing from in the stores like this can be

[22:44]housing discrimination right job discrimination and this is even global when black

[22:49]Muslims go and apply for jobs in different places like when and

[22:52]they tell people like Oh nan you know sign non-disclosure agreements but

[22:56]you'll see when you actually talk about that like fair wages that

[23:02]black educators regardless of what their degrees are typically paid less and

[23:05]white Muslims you'll see hierarchies within school leadership so that was like

[23:10]when my first entry point and really outside of doing research on

[23:19]race from 2004 to 2009 when I was studying racial formation in

[23:23]the Middle East and so but like within American context like my

[23:27]entry point was in Islamic schools and so you'll have these hierarchies

[23:30]where maybe the school leadership the principal will be a white man

[23:36]but then the teachers are black teachers and they don't necessarily get

[23:40]the same amount of respect as as other educators in that school

[23:43]so that you know and given like how widespread our Islamic schools

[23:48]are and when you think about the credentialing whether you have credentialed

[23:52]African American scholars the kind of questioning that happens so there's microaggressions

[23:58]that that do occur for example questioning being shocked that there are

[24:05]black Muslims that can recite quota and you know and getting grilled

[24:08]on that true experience happens like their stores I stopped going to

[24:14]in Philadelphia because I did not want to go and buy Oakland

[24:17]and be subjected to microaggressions or questions about whether I could recite

[24:22]when I had specifically asked for a particular like Warsh reading of

[24:27]that put in you know just a questioning of the leadership of

[24:31]black Muslims and there are capabilities that is pretty widespread when you

[24:39]start to interview and talk with people like whether they're Imams and

[24:43]going ahead and leading prayer and then some people will correct them

[24:47]on their recitation even if their recitation was spot-on but there's presumed

[24:53]incompetence so so those are the kind of structural things that we

[24:58]could see in Islamic schools but then what happens within faiths spaces

[25:02]and that also extends to social dynamics where you have you know

[25:09]segregation that occurs and some of this even within multiracial communities where

[25:16]certain people will get invited to two homes for whether they're celebrating

[25:20]an aid you know the aid open house is who gets invited

[25:22]to that you know like some of the like private party if

[25:28]cars and I've even seen with married couples where a black woman

[25:32]was married to a white passing Latino and he would get all

[25:37]the invites to the Iftars and then she would get not one

[25:40]through the Ramadan and so anti blackness and massagin waar like very

[25:45]much directed at black women you know even you know people would

[25:51]make negative comments about people's wives who are black whether the man

[25:55]was black or not you know like you would have that happen

[25:57]in a community where people would just really seem like why would

[26:02]you marry her when you are so famous you could have anybody

[26:05]else so those are kind of like I guess three dimensions of

[26:08]how racism and anti blackness can show up and I would say

[26:13]that it's also global I lived in Kuwait and you know some

[26:17]of that that was the first time I was called this late

[26:20]was in Kuwait and then it happened again in my Islamic school

[26:23]where my own students called us many of the black teachers in

[26:28]the store as we were purchasing the first time I heard it

[26:31]was was from my stoop my own student thank you thank you

[26:38]for the answer sister Margaery I know black woman suffer especially because

[26:44]they have an extra layer of of it's it's it's a it's

[26:47]called intersectionality in sociology and they just suffer from an extra layer

[26:51]of suffering because of their gender and and this is absolutely unacceptable

[26:55]by by a community that claims to be the best community in

[26:59]history and a community that follows the guidelines of the Quran and

[27:06]the Prophet in my mom jihad Sofia we would love to hear

[27:08]your answer for this question I'll just repeat it one more time

[27:12]for the to remind the odd the audience for this question which

[27:15]is what are some examples of manifest and latent acts of discrimination

[27:19]against the black community in other words what are some of the

[27:23]obvious and hidden forms of racial discrimination within the Muslim community okay

[27:27]I will be let him initiate on the regime is from a

[27:31]lot of mother and human hum do you'll ever be like an

[27:33]amino acid or to us phenomena rasoolullah first of all Sana'a alaikum

[27:37]wa rahmatullahu better care to and humbly I want to say that

[27:43]it's a pleasure to be on this panel especially with these esteemed

[27:46]guests you know my Imam Imam Dawood and my good sister who

[27:54]has been really educating us on anti black racism sister Margaery and

[27:58]I think it's important for us to really have these very honest

[28:04]open candid conversations and you know for me it stems in in

[28:09]regards to a failure of the Muslim community to really get to

[28:17]learn each other's stories you know it's important that we're part of

[28:21]a society that there's a judgement there without getting to learn someone's

[28:26]story without getting to know someone story you know I've heard time

[28:30]in and time out a brother or sister was going to the

[28:33]Masjid and immediately someone who was not african-american wants to teach the

[28:39]african-american they assume that the african-american does not know so that the

[28:46]times that I've heard for example an african-american sister performing or Salah

[28:53]and someone moves the hands her hands or someone for example going

[29:01]into the Masjid and immediately instead of sitting down and getting to

[29:06]know someone's name getting to know someone would City they are from

[29:10]getting to know about someone's history immediately they want to cover the

[29:15]sisters neck okay they want to tell the brother that his tattoos

[29:18]are haram right instead of a failure to get some to learn

[29:24]and get to know someone's story that this person is a living

[29:27]human document and you need to learn about their chapter one chapter

[29:31]two chapter three in their book and and this is for us

[29:38]you know Islamic Lee one of the rulings of when we want

[29:41]to really give someone now see how about a ruling you have

[29:43]to know the ruling first but also you need to know if

[29:48]it's going to be a benefit or not you know the countless

[29:50]amount of times that we've turned people off from coming into the

[29:54]Masjid African American brothers and sisters because we're trying to teach them

[29:59]instead of getting to know who we are dealing with and I

[30:05]think what happens is it's a failure which this is from a

[30:09]broader narrative living in United States of America which at the inception

[30:14]of the United States of America fell to recognize the full humanity

[30:18]of African American people and I think we end up adopting attitudes

[30:23]that are surrounding our massages right so one of the things that

[30:32]I want to emphasize is that you know we need to stop

[30:36]as a Muslim community trying to make black people into our clones

[30:43]you know so for example why why does one of my good

[30:48]friends why does he have an accent and he's from the hood

[30:50]you know I'm saying ain't no need for an accent but he

[30:55]what he what happens to him he is victimized by people trying

[30:59]to make him clones instead of accepting him for him alright and

[31:03]and what happens is is that as a Muslim community sometimes we're

[31:06]ashamed of those who have accepted Islam I'm ashamed of this brother

[31:13]with tattoos all right I'm ashamed of him and I want him

[31:16]to be closer to me I'm the standard of Islam in America

[31:23]and I want my brother has tattoos he needs to immediately get

[31:25]rid of those tattoos and grow his beard out I want him

[31:30]to look like me instead of accepting him for who he is

[31:33]and realizing that he comes in with the story and a narrative

[31:35]that I need to learn to appreciate and have I heard his

[31:40]narrative that what he had to go through in order to get

[31:44]into the Masjid I would appreciate and I would love him for

[31:47]who he is and I wouldn't try to make him into a

[31:52]master of the Arabic language overnight so instead of correcting him I'm

[31:56]going to be considerate of him and get to know first of

[31:58]all who he is get his number meet up with him talk

[32:01]to him get to know him make him a part of my

[32:04]family and love and embrace him first before trying to teach him

[32:07]on who he ought to be and appreciate who he is and

[32:12]how he has really turned away from the things that call him

[32:15]away from the Deen he's to defy them he's went past them

[32:20]and he's up in here with me praying salat so I think

[32:23]that's my that's one of my biggest issues I think there was

[32:28]so much said by Imam the rule and also our sister Margaret

[32:30]they said so many things we can delve into more my issue

[32:37]is that not appreciating each other for who we are and I

[32:40]don't want to come into an environment where I'm not appreciate I'm

[32:43]being corrected for how I speak I'm being corrected constantly for how

[32:48]I pronounce things in the Arabic language but no one's taking time

[32:52]to get to know me and are in closing I would say

[32:56]that my time working in the prison system I never forget telling

[33:00]there's a young lady who was incarcerated she had left and she

[33:03]ended up coming back into prison she was released in the end

[33:08]up coming back in and I told her what happened why are

[33:10]you back here what happened and she said when I was out

[33:16]for a while she said I went to the Masjid no one

[33:19]embraced me Wow no one took hold of my hand okay no

[33:26]one got to know me so I went to the streets where

[33:28]they embraced me and they loved me and now I'm back here

[33:32]so these are some of my issues and I think this is

[33:36]spurred by racism us being afraid to get to know each other

[33:37]and wanting to only teach each other I said that's a spectacular

[33:40]response in mom Sofia we're gonna move on to the next question

[33:47]and it's Muslim communities either ignore or in the rare case overcompensate

[33:50]the presence of black Muslims in their communities I know the dear

[33:55]Jihad Saleh is also in presence and he told us a story

[34:00]about how sometimes they're ignored but sometimes they're even compensated where they

[34:03]can in the Muslim community doesn't even find the balance and sometimes

[34:08]they make them feel like guests instead of communal members so how

[34:11]can the how can the Muslim community find this balance between forcing

[34:14]them either to be Outsiders or on the other extreme where they

[34:17]feel like guests and instead make them feel like they are actually

[34:21]part of the community and I'd love to start with in my

[34:24]mind if that's him so Pamela like 30-something I've never experienced that

[34:33]so maybe that's for somebody else I literally have never experienced what

[34:39]you just oh well we have some we're being uh we're being

[34:45]bombed right now in the image yet so Pamela I'll take oh

[34:50]oh I'll do that's a real miserable person they're like Allah guide

[34:55]you may Allah guide you whoever you are may Allah guide you

[34:58]to Islam and take the ignorance out of your heart may guide

[35:01]you I got I got a zoom bomb speaking out on a

[35:05]mantel program I got bombed so come did Allah it's all good

[35:10]anyway let I I'm not going to take up my whole time

[35:12]with us I think this is better for sister Margaery mmm she

[35:16]had to say but the the overconfident the open the overcompensation I

[35:23]just think very briefly would be corrected if you treat it and

[35:29]saw someone who's Muslim and black just like someone in your own

[35:33]family or like from your own village right I mean you know

[35:38]that you should just be natural and not like tried to have

[35:41]like awkward overcompensation this is your brother this is your sister in

[35:46]Islam I mean I might talk money colorblind stuff because I don't

[35:52]believe in and that whole colorblind narrative either but I've never I

[35:56]can't think of one time where I've welcomed to a Masjid and

[35:59]someone over compensated and was like overly hospitable now I've walked into

[36:04]massage it's like what do you memory have said and someone tries

[36:10]to teach me how to make will duel not knowing I'm the

[36:12]Habib that day so they trying to teach me how to make

[36:15]will do or ask me what my name is brother do you

[36:16]know what your name is I mean you know what it means

[36:21]I literally had that happen right what's your name dude or do

[36:22]you know what it means like no tell me then I walk

[36:26]up on the membe are they say bismillah him in a somebody

[36:28]like her mother who when I start I know etc etc etc

[36:32]right so that's happened to me before but I will cede my

[36:34]time for sister a Margaery mmm jihad for that one thank you

[36:41]thank you for that answer and unfortunately this is just an unfortunate

[36:45]reality within the Muslim community and and thank you for for being

[36:49]here just to address these these issues and insha'Allah the the the

[36:54]audience and and myself and Mandy will have a better understanding of

[37:01]some of your experiences and and what we can do to overcome

[37:04]this discrimination so Imam jihad if we can go to you and

[37:12]have your answer for this question please yeah I think I think

[37:16]bismillah so I've been a part of instances for example I'll never

[37:21]forget and by the way you know for myself and I'm sure

[37:28]Imam that would he can say this I mean we have I'm

[37:30]gonna speak for myself I have Imam privilege so when I go

[37:34]in I go in with my title I go in with people

[37:37]previously having a memory of one of my speeches or so on

[37:41]and I go on with privilege a lot of times I get

[37:44]a lot of stories from the people that travel with me the

[37:46]people that go to these different locations with me how you know

[37:50]one of my brothers said I don't never want to come back

[37:52]to this location again how they treated me you know and I

[37:57]was oblivious to it because I have the amount of privilege walking

[38:00]into the the same location but I have been a part of

[38:05]instances for example people maybe you know like you said this overcompensation

[38:10]on being almost patronizing where they sit me down and then I

[38:13]have to hear about a racialized joke right and I have to

[38:18]listen to this joke highly offended but for myself I'm more shy

[38:22]than you know say for example some of my brothers and sisters

[38:26]they'll be straight up and say and go off on somebody myself

[38:28]I'm patient you know I listen to somebody and and I've had

[38:35]to sit through you know jokes and I think that it's important

[38:39]for our brothers and sisters and what I've seen work wonders is

[38:43]when you have these shorter or you have these circles where people

[38:51]they're able to become vulnerable these are deliberate circles that you set

[38:55]up and you know people are able to become vulnerable this is

[38:58]what we want to do in Charlotte you know for some future

[39:01]workshops is we want to bring people from different backgrounds together to

[39:05]listen to each other story and we have to build more empathy

[39:10]towards each other more compassion towards each other and one thing that

[39:13]I would advise is that we need to learn to listen to

[39:17]each other a lot more than we're trying to tell our story

[39:20]but learn to listen what we have in the Muslim community is

[39:26]people trying to say what they think is best for the African

[39:28]American people why don't you listen to see what the african-american how

[39:32]the African Americans can advise you on what is best right all

[39:36]we need to do this campaign this is what we've done like

[39:40]in California we told them hey in California allow african-americans this is

[39:44]our struggle so allow us to lead in this take our advice

[39:50]in this no longer telling us how we're supposed to feel how

[39:53]we're supposed to deal with racism well the property salon set up

[39:58]said the aura says in a crime note on this one you

[40:00]have to learn and listen to individuals who have been have our

[40:05]insiders who have been victimized by some of these things so I

[40:11]think that it's important for us to get together and learn each

[40:15]other sensitivities and that means we have to listen to each other

[40:18]how each other wants to be treated instead of assuming they gonna

[40:26]like this joke when I tell them this racist joke thank you

[40:29]so much sister Margaery would you like to add anything for this

[40:33]question yeah well I guess I'd like to address the overcompensation right

[40:40]like the the ways that people will like the instrumentality of blackness

[40:44]or just being kind of invited to perform or to do work

[40:48]and that's just the pure nature of the relationship is like either

[40:53]like transactional and I've seen that a lot as far as when

[40:59]people are invited socially you know and and I can make that

[41:02]contrast a guy I mean I grew I have a picture of

[41:05]the bay this is the bay bridge and so like there's people

[41:09]that I've known for many years long before I went into a

[41:11]Stanford I was a traditional like I was a non-traditional student so

[41:14]it took me about 10 years to finish my undergrad but I

[41:17]had friends who went to some of those like elite schools even

[41:21]Stanford and you know unlike when when I didn't have any degrees

[41:25]and and they liked me because of my goofy personality and that

[41:28]I was talkative and and so those are the friends that I

[41:32]still have like I'm still in contact with right like those are

[41:35]the friends that actually paved the way for me and inspired me

[41:40]to go on and get my degree and then you know that

[41:42]contrast and other spaces where people may appreciate the work that I

[41:45]do but that's the sole basis of that it's being you know

[41:49]like during a Kovach crisis of having people that would would ask

[41:54]me to do certain things or ask me advice but not once

[41:57]ask me when they're texting me us I like them are you

[42:02]okay how are you doing you know not even that question but

[42:05]immediately seeking some advice so they could go back and and weigh

[42:11]in as an expert on on on our issue around race and

[42:13]so you know I think that we have to be mindful right

[42:18]of that history of exploitation of black labor and the expectation that

[42:22]black people are you know and if for those who the old-school

[42:25]you watch the message right below and he had that rock on

[42:29]his chest right and it's just like he was like good you

[42:32]know like and it's just like you know that that we're supposed

[42:34]to perform that struggle and inspire people and it's a very sort

[42:38]of a different relationship that you know the ways that people may

[42:41]kind of objectify whiteness and white converse but it's like that that

[42:49]it's like the instrumentality of like black struggle and and to perform

[42:54]that publicly so I think it's you know like what we do

[42:57]need to do is with Amman jihad Severus said is like you

[43:02]have to get to know each other's real stories being in organizing

[43:05]spaces in Muslim organising spaces where we've shared authentic stories and and

[43:11]learned about people's family trauma and found comparisons my family having to

[43:16]go on the northern migration right being displaced multiple times and what

[43:21]we lost in that and how does that connect to people who

[43:24]were displaced by war and that we could find a commonality right

[43:28]around our struggle and and that we could forge a new future

[43:32]based on that but if we're not listening to each other's stories

[43:35]if I'm not hearing or understanding the trauma that they're they're going

[43:40]through and that they're struggling with then even as I as I

[43:45]may react to the narratives that they that they've absorbed react the

[43:49]anti-black narratives and they're just spewing it out because like they don't

[43:52]know they haven't been taught cultural sensitivity or how important that is

[43:56]then you know I may treat them as an entire other right

[43:59]and and bring all that trauma that I have you know 44

[44:02]years of racism my first experience of racism was four years old

[44:06]and so you know like I I think it is really important

[44:11]that we work to build those bridges but we have to do

[44:17]it within a kind of framework that doesn't perpetuate harm that doesn't

[44:20]have us either perform that emotional labor and and is not confessional

[44:25]honestly like I when I meet a person I don't want to

[44:28]hear the latest or just be like I'm just surprised that people

[44:33]tell me new stories of some anti black thing that their relative

[44:37]said that's not that's not gonna build a relationship with me that's

[44:41]not an authentic engagement I mean yes you may be disgusted by

[44:48]that I'm not sharing Islamophobic anti-arab racism that the people my family

[44:52]I am you know I have family members of all races you

[44:54]know even Trump supporters that are white and and they say terrible

[44:57]things about Muslims of all races but I'm not going to share

[45:02]that Andry traumatize people so I think it's like we have to

[45:05]think about how we're gonna be in community together and be really

[45:07]committed and not just invite people to our spaces to work sometimes

[45:13]I just I just want to go and learn and not just

[45:15]or just enjoy and to be able to talk and not be

[45:19]invited just to do something and you know like it is definitely

[45:26]a challenge when those social relationships especially now that I've relocated to

[45:30]another region and not having the same type of social network and

[45:35]how do you really build that when people just kind of Macy

[45:41]see black Muslims is like oh can you speak can you sing

[45:42]maybe you can do the Athan you know so we have to

[45:47]get beyond that performance to actually just really getting to know each

[45:51]other and valuing each other no matter what rate you know cuz

[45:53]like classism like all that that combines but you know like I

[45:58]should have to go to Stanford to get respect from the Muslim

[46:01]community and so you know and I've seen the change or the

[46:05]shift and I think that that's something that we have to address

[46:08]you know as we try to build authentic relationships and welcome people

[46:12]you know especially if we won or welcomed a quarter of the

[46:17]American Muslim population and to our centers thank you thank you for

[46:23]the answer sister Margaery and it was it was an excellent point

[46:25]that you brought up that we have to listen and also be

[46:27]sensitive towards other and not just use stories that we've heard just

[46:33]to try to relate and not be authentic and that's a really

[46:36]excellent point which brings us to our second category of today's of

[46:40]today's discussion which is the black American Muslim community and we would

[46:44]like to shed light upon it because as as we all know

[46:49]we we need to listen we genuinely need to listen to your

[46:53]experiences to your hardships and understand because there's a lack of understanding

[46:58]from the Muslim communities to have them from my behalf from my

[47:01]behalf as well and I genuinely want to listen from your experiences

[47:07]so the first question we would like to hear from Imam Dawood

[47:10]Waleed first which is what is important to know about the history

[47:13]of black community in general and the Black Muslim community specifically and

[47:18]once what are some resources that you can recommend to all of

[47:22]us to read or listen to um well one thing like to

[47:33]start off with is that Muslims who are black are not monolithic

[47:36]right we're not monolithic as far as how we interpret Islam we're

[47:43]not all converts we have different levels of education and socioeconomic backgrounds

[47:50]like you know all of us don't live in inner cities many

[47:54]of us do most of us didn't convert to Islam in prison

[48:00]though a significant percentage of us have right so I think that

[48:06]there's more than reading books I would say is that it is

[48:10]incumbent upon Muslims who are not black to go to where Muslims

[48:17]are who are black and actually gain some inspiration knowledge and go

[48:22]back to what iam am G has says and hear stories right

[48:26]because a lot of these things these are all narratives aren't in

[48:29]books I mean for instance I know that MMG comes from a

[48:34]lineage in the background of Muslims like he's not a convert my

[48:37]children are fourth generation african-american Muslims right so there's many stories that

[48:45]could be told there's another thing that what to say too is

[48:52]that our history as Muslims in America being black did not start

[48:59]with the experience of us being here as enslaved people as being

[49:02]chattel and that's very important to understand because we're talked about as

[49:07]if like our experience is starts from slavery here no so there's

[49:11]a is a good book or Therese s Sudan that you can

[49:16]read it's an Arabic I think Brill translate into history but it

[49:19]it's clearly talks about an even but totally even wrote about this

[49:22]how Mansa Musa's brother sent ships over here to the Americas and

[49:31]that there's anthropological evidence that there were Muslims here in the Americas

[49:36]before Columbus got lost coming over here I've investor de Mai wrote

[49:41]a nice book about this called they came before the Columbus right

[49:44]so there's so much that could be said in this in this

[49:53]answer but I think beyond books that a lot of this goes

[49:56]to hearing our stories and in developing some relationships and that's how

[50:02]we'll learn about different pockets of the of the American Muslim community

[50:07]another book called old Islam in Detroit written by dr.

[50:16]Sally how I will use the title of it I have it

[50:23]somewhere over here but do say Mohammed Ali Saleh who was a

[50:27]friend of the Honorable Marcus Garvey came here in a late around

[50:34]the right before 1920 he first in Detroit in 1918 he established

[50:39]a universal Islamic society he's his mother was from Sudan his father

[50:45]was from for Egypt which Upper Egypt is really down here right

[50:50]down below right SS swanee he was giving Dawa and there were

[50:54]African Americans who were embracing the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi

[50:58]wa alayhi wasalam before the Nation of Islam like there were Muslims

[51:04]who were black who were practicing and praying like like like according

[51:10]to the Maliki school of thought in Detroit back in the early

[51:13]1920s and some of their descendants are still around I know one

[51:18]brother who's in his 80s whose father came to Islam through that

[51:25]that movement right so I'm sorry for my answer cells disjointed I

[51:28]know my sister and my brother will give a much more thorough

[51:30]answer than myself but it's really about establishing relationships and hearing hearing

[51:37]the stories of different uh of different African American Muslims and then

[51:43]you'll be able to piece together some better have a better idea

[51:50]beyond books thank you for that wonderful insight just for the audience

[51:55]Iman Dawood what he'd mentioned the book tallyho Sudan if you would

[51:59]like to mention if you would like to read one of the

[52:00]one of these books in addition one thing that the most the

[52:04]the Shia Muslim community that needs to realize and we have a

[52:09]huge Shia audience today at hamdulillah is that five of our Imams

[52:12]mothers were were African so they were all black mothers and and

[52:18]so they were half black and we need to realize that any

[52:19]mom dealt with what he'd mentioned in the pictures that we we

[52:22]don't we normally depict them as Persian or is white with with

[52:28]it with the blacks with a white skin however we don't realize

[52:31]and that's why we don't realize that day or half black and

[52:36]and that's something that's really important to raise awareness on and move

[52:43]upon in books CDs Mubarak and I wrote a book about this

[52:46]subject is called centering black narrative at labate blackness in Africa when

[52:51]we talk about these Imams mothers we talk about their physical appearance

[52:54]and how they look so if you want to hear about the

[52:58]brother jihad Salah is showing it right there is centering black narrative

[53:06]a debate blackness in Africa you should be able to check that

[53:10]out thank you thank you so much for that I will definitely

[53:13]write it in the chat right now moving on with sister Margaery

[53:17]I do you have anything to add to this question I'll repeat

[53:20]it one more time what is important to know about the history

[53:24]of like the black community in general and the Black Muslim community

[53:27]specifically and what are some resources that you recommend all of us

[53:31]to read or listen to yeah I think it's very important to

[53:33]understand that that black history definitely predates slavery right and and that

[53:40]Islam in Africa has deeply been intertwined and and given the ways

[53:47]that that even like you know Orientalist ropes which try to create

[53:51]those divisions and and in scholarship like when you're looking at those

[53:54]big texts whether that's on college like they'll they'll exclude Africa and

[53:59]then they'll exclude Asia right and and even though these are like

[54:03]important centers of this land like the majority of Muslims actually exist

[54:07]outside of the Middle East and you know so like when we

[54:12]think about Islam in Africa and how significant that is and how

[54:17]significant it is for our own history so similarly like whether we're

[54:20]going to look at West African history and you know like in

[54:25]it I would say I'm like all the books there but it

[54:27]you know like said in medieval pre modern history in West Africa

[54:33]many many of those regions were like very Shia for a long

[54:36]time and that's something that people don't really talk about like when

[54:39]we're thinking about the Moors in Spain that also that history gets

[54:43]whitewashed right like when we're thinking about the AMA Xion communities these

[54:47]communities that cross the Sahara right and and the history of scholarship

[54:50]and so I think it's just really important for us to understand

[54:56]the role that Islam played in Africa and the contributions that black

[55:00]Muslims a plate and not just Islamic history but global history and

[55:05]that's like very significant so there there are some books and I

[55:11]can also share out you know eventually like with like have a

[55:13]bibliography on race and slavery and Muslim societies and it's outdated but

[55:17]you know there's a lot of really good references including you know

[55:22]like hundreds book on the work of like Arabic literature in Africa

[55:26]you know so like reading like what were scholars writing in Arabic

[55:30]at that time what are some of the narratives and so that

[55:35]book was was really helpful for me to think about some of

[55:38]those encounters and you know like there's a lot of great text

[55:44]reading about Black Muslim scholars you know so so the more that

[55:48]we can appreciate contributions of black Muslims the ways that they've interpreted

[55:54]Islam into their societies like that provides and you know like that

[55:59]provides some feedback for what we could do in the United States

[56:02]a lot of people have not really looked at like some of

[56:07]the formation like the work that Dennis ma who did in educating

[56:10]Muslim women so reading her book reading her her biography to see

[56:15]how she was instrumental in helping to solidify Islam in that region

[56:20]and how even under colonialism Islam continued to spread and solidify in

[56:25]West Africa so I would start even there looking at you know

[56:28]whether its critiques that Muslim scholars had about oppression in those societies

[56:34]and then to think about the narratives right of of those who

[56:39]were kidnapped and brought to America as slaves and their struggle to

[56:43]be free it gives you some insight on how deeply twisted and

[56:46]distorted white supremacy was you know for someone against their own self-interests

[56:52]continued wanted to hold Ibrahim of the rough man as a slave

[56:54]even though the Sultan of Morocco was like no we will pay

[56:58]you any cost and his met like the man that owned him

[57:02]that kept him on free refuse so getting those narratives reading about

[57:05]like the Bahia revolts reading about Black Muslim resistance is also something

[57:11]that's very important just like we read about resistance we read about

[57:17]great civilizations and and part of that is like we take pride

[57:20]and what the OMA has done with our community is done but

[57:25]when you race what a huge you know section of the has

[57:26]contributed towards the spread of Islam and it's really what those ancestors

[57:34]did that we're actually embracing right like we're embracing that loss history

[57:37]because there was that rupture through slavery even though there were some

[57:41]people that they were able to maintain their Islam for generations like

[57:47]within like Sapelo Island and seeing how long did that continue so

[57:51]there's you know obviously there's like 20th century books like you know

[57:56]something that really helped me understand that the history of Islam in

[58:01]America I mean in the clouds book african-american Islam understanding race experience

[58:07]there was another Jamila creams book on American Muslim women actually shed

[58:12]light on those what happened like the the subtle dynamics to of

[58:15]under you know I think it's it's still important to to make

[58:18]sure that we value the stories of everyday Muslims and that we

[58:26]also start to look to the intellectual contributions and that's part of

[58:31]like getting to know one another like tata tofu like if if

[58:35]you're not valuing the intellectual thought if you're not going and listening

[58:39]to a lecture of a Black Muslim teaching talking about what Islam

[58:43]means to them then you're not you know getting to know us

[58:46]on a deep way but it's always being invited to somebody else's

[58:49]house but you know people kind of afraid to go into certain

[58:55]spaces because they don't want to be the only one but that

[58:56]may actually give you some empathy right like if you're the only

[59:00]one in a predominantly black space then it's just like welcome Marhaba

[59:04]welcome to the club because usually I'm the only black Muslim woman

[59:07]and black space is a lot of times I'm the only Muslim

[59:12]you know and Muslim spaces and many may you know outside of

[59:15]black the only one so I think it's just important to you

[59:20]know kind of go outside your comfort zone things that you may

[59:24]not know like diversify your reading lists and what you're viewing what

[59:29]you're listening to you know and you know Imam Dowd Walid had

[59:35]a ton of books and I would say like if you can

[59:36]get like a close up of jihad Williams like his book his

[59:43]bookshelf you can get those books you'll be in good shape centi

[59:48]thank you so much we are a little behind on time so

[59:54]Imam jihad we'd love to hear from you and what you would

[59:57]recommend and anything we should know about the Black Muslim community or

[60:01]the black community in general I mean they say so much you

[60:11]know from mom dad and sister Marjorie I mean they really were

[60:15]able to bring some stuff together but just I mean Muslims were

[60:22]here before Columbus you know I mean that simple we have in

[60:26]Abu Bakri the second and we said it was related to Mansur

[60:32]Mansa Musa you have Columbus while he was in Haiti the native

[60:35]people told Columbus that they were trading in these gold tip spheres

[60:40]these gold tip spheres were known for being in West Africa okay

[60:44]so just talking about I mean when we talk about Mansa Musa

[60:49]who who had who has had the greatest had in history of

[60:51]humanity is Mansa Musa you know they one of the mentions about

[60:59]Mansa Musa he went through Egypt and he changed the value of

[61:03]gold because he was given off so much gold all right so

[61:07]you have to look at these very advanced civilizations the University of

[61:11]San course and Cory mosque very advanced there are civilizations and we

[61:15]see that when you have those who were enslaved some of these

[61:22]were people from the early man you know uh the the Muslims

[61:25]who were enslaved Africans were enslaved especially those who were Muslims they

[61:32]were known for their intellectual acumen right they were able to put

[61:38]together some of the most elaborate revolts so we have but he

[61:42]Bahia Brazil and the trio rebellion which was on where African Muslims

[61:51]took over entire slave ship all right so we we had the

[61:52]votes because these they're coming from lands where there was such an

[61:57]intellectual tradition that was steeped in learning memorizing the Koran right the

[62:02]Muslims love the Koran one Albuquerque one of the great explorers he

[62:08]mentions that in 11th century Ghana they had he described 12 massages

[62:17]right they had salary demands 11th century all right you is a

[62:21]lot of my friends I don't have a salary has an email

[62:26]and this is 2020 they had weapon to a salary right they

[62:29]had their own jurists their own scholars so we had this narrative

[62:37]in which those were enslaved this narrative that be they deserve to

[62:43]be enslaved why because they're not civilization builders they can't we reach

[62:51]the height of you know intellectual intellectual accomplishments these are individuals they're

[62:58]illiterate this was the narrative when this is a false narrative you

[63:02]had Muslims at you be mr.

[63:05]lay man he was the Quran from memory three times right as

[63:08]an enslaved African in America wrote it from memory three times Bilal

[63:13]Mohammed he's writing the result it may not be saved from from

[63:20]memory right with his hands all right hey I'm talking about these

[63:23]are our first jurist in America where these Africans who were enslaved

[63:26]all right and in there's many texts on this thing you you

[63:33]have to read sylveon Joe her text you have there's many I

[63:37]have the books right here I'm gonna start pulling pulling them up

[63:41]and showing them right here before you are you are read about

[63:44]even Battuta all right you know even my tooth that he was

[63:46]amazed now you have things that we need to remember is that

[63:53]when we talk about being oppressed for over 400 years you know

[63:59]350 years right of America's history is with slavery and Lee segregation

[64:07]that's important to know right the first so that means 90% of

[64:12]America's history is either with slavery or legalized segregation all right and

[64:18]then the rest of the 50 years the remainder of that 350

[64:23]years over 400 years now until this day now you have had

[64:28]redlining in the community where black people weren't given a certain amount

[64:33]they could not apply for loans or they were given predatory loans

[64:40]right so you've had these things in the community mass incarceration crack

[64:44]cocaine and the black American community all right that has really infringed

[64:51]on the development of black America and lastly I want to say

[64:55]that my father's uncles my mother's they were in the Nation of

[65:01]Islam representing well in Los Angeles you cannot forget right the temple

[65:06]number 27 in Los Angeles temple number 27 I've never met Ali

[65:10]why she but I'm a product of I li Rashid from temple

[65:14]number 27 and during that time you had they had their own

[65:17]gas stations they had their own Bank they had their own bakeries

[65:22]they had their own restaurants right right they had their own independent

[65:26]economy and then they said they said we're Muslims right my father

[65:29]was the head of the fish crew they sold fished all around

[65:33]Los Angeles and they changed the price of the fish because of

[65:36]the Muslims selling fish throughout Los Angeles all right they were very

[65:40]proud and they was amongst the first who now we are standing

[65:44]on their shoulders and we benefit from their struggles we benefit from

[65:48]them calling on Allah they were the first over mass media to

[65:53]not be shameful and the say my name is Muhammad all right

[65:55]Muhammad I leave was named by Elijah Muhammad all right so I'm

[66:01]from that lineage you know and I'm proud and I think when

[66:04]I mention these these things it's important to realize man Muslims have

[66:08]put it down right here in in in America and they've done

[66:14]a beautiful job at doing giving dower and we have some beautiful

[66:17]models to look at right here in America since I sent Mela

[66:22]like those are amazing examples and especially your great father he's truly

[66:28]a special special person and that is something we have to try

[66:30]to strive for to get a Muslim community especially a brat blackness

[66:34]okay but a Muslim you in the hole that can control the

[66:37]economy that we can we can use Islam as an asset instead

[66:42]of dividing between each other shall our gonna move on to the

[66:46]next question and that is as a leader in the Muslim community

[66:48]what has been the Muslim community's response from advocating for black issues

[66:52]I want to highlight more about like how the Muslim community sometimes

[66:56]will say what about Palestine what about Yemen what about what about

[66:59]Syria what do you have to say to that and do you

[67:03]see this response as something negative that these that they try to

[67:07]undermine the black lives matter movement and yeah I would like to

[67:13]know your your thoughts on that um Imam why do you please

[67:21]okay um that's been a that's been a long issue a long

[67:25]challenge I remember when I first started working with with care and

[67:35]and then be very like brutally honest but I remember when there

[67:39]was a a a bill that came in front basically affirming the

[67:45]legitimacy of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 right which was legislation

[67:55]that came after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to try to

[67:59]address some of these racists pieces of law right such as the

[68:09]tests that that we that would be made for African Americans to

[68:11]take a test right then and you had to pass this test

[68:15]in order to vote you like biased test for these ways of

[68:18]keeping black people from voting for instance and I remember having some

[68:23]colleagues saying well you know what does it have to do with

[68:29]us you know that's not a Muslim issue right but then again

[68:31]at that time I think that's stated that the American Muslim community

[68:36]is about 30% Muslim so they say well what does this have

[68:40]to do with the Muslim community and which Muslims would be primarily

[68:44]affected by that including Muslims who are black but also as this

[68:49]weird sort of ethnocentric understanding where something that goes on in certain

[68:55]regions of the Muslim world desk a certain authentic Islamic issue right

[69:01]but if it's in somewhere else where Muslims live then that questionable

[69:07]or not a Muslim enough issue and then I think broader is

[69:14]really a type of theological misunderstanding right because that the the Quran

[69:22]and the Sunnah there's nothing in it that says justice means just

[69:26]our group or justice means just us right so when Allah Azza

[69:31]WA JAL said in the quran qaloo had a limited Oakley jet

[69:33]the nasty type Muhammad al-bukhari Oh took me in my left you

[69:37]are the best nation brought for the people because you enjoin good

[69:41]you forbid evil and you believe in God but the ayat of

[69:46]Quran doesn't say that you enjoying good just for the sake of

[69:48]the Muslims and the prophet sallallaahu na o Ali he explained this

[69:54]cable nasi mignon finesse because the best of the people is one

[69:58]who benefits all the people right so it's even this weird misunderstanding

[70:01]if we understand our Deen correctly and then Allah created us to

[70:06]be the vicegerents in the earth in every single issue that affects

[70:09]humankind and creation is a Muslim issue right but there's this type

[70:18]of disconnect so immigration reform is a Muslim issue but black people

[70:23]getting a usurped of our voting rights in certain states then all

[70:28]that's not a Muslim issue right or I'm trying to think of

[70:33]another one some issue overseas the particular part of the Muslim world

[70:38]that's a Muslim enough issue I'll be very specific okay Bahrain is

[70:47]a Muslim issue Yemen's a Muslim issue right but when Muslims were

[70:53]getting slaughtered in the Ivory Coast or a Central African Republic you

[70:59]know there weren't any special launched good campaigns for that or any

[71:03]special type of like PR campaigns and try to rally the Muslims

[71:09]to protest in front of the embassy of Central African Republic or

[71:13]further embassy of Cote d'Ivoire the IV Krause right and I could

[71:16]go on and on there's many other examples I could give I

[71:19]see my sister Margaery shaking her head over there because I'm sure

[71:23]she could probably give even 50 more right but those are just

[71:25]like some some some some examples in QE mondo would would eat

[71:31]for that beautiful answer we the Muslim community should definitely real realize

[71:35]that the issues that the black people are facing not only in

[71:39]the United States but across the world and every single issue is

[71:43]an issue that the Muslim people should advocate and advocate for justice

[71:47]for and I know sister Margaery was speaking in one of the

[71:53]webinars last week with EMPAC and discussing some of her efforts in

[71:56]in addressing a police brutality in the past and some of her

[71:59]responses she didn't get a good response from the Muslim community if

[72:04]she would like to elaborate on this question and elaborate more on

[72:07]that and yeah I mean we've had when when falando is still

[72:12]in Alton sterling right and and you know I mean nationwide like

[72:17]and and so part of this is when they prioritize as far

[72:19]as like what's going to be an American Muslim crisis and that

[72:24]there were people that said like hey this does not fit within

[72:28]this organizing space we focus on Muslim air in South Asian so

[72:32]you know they could still prioritize say like anti-arab racism or South

[72:42]Asian racism but when it came to racism that targeted the black

[72:46]like black communities or even Islamophobic incidences or violence against the black

[72:50]Muslim if they could not discern that that form of violence was

[72:57]directly related to you know like religious identity there would be no

[73:01]national response like knowing you know like and so these were in

[73:05]decision-making in priorities of lifting up certain cases and that also extends

[73:10]to whether our political prisoners you know people who need advocacy and

[73:14]just kind of that erasing them and removing them so that includes

[73:18]whether we talk about jameelah el-amin or you have Black Muslim women

[73:22]who've had their scars removed when they've been like falsely imprisoned and

[73:27]people just you know like they they'll sue but like they won't

[73:31]be the spokespeople because of the you know like and some people

[73:35]may explain a perceived guilt you know like well they had a

[73:37]warrant but it was like what was a warrant for something it

[73:41]was mistaken crime like there was a messed up paperwork so you

[73:44]know and I was like Kirsty POW like I mean why aren't

[73:47]we hearing more from her experience and champion right championing the rights

[73:52]of Muslim women who are incarcerated to their privacy to their dignity

[73:57]and bodily autonomy so you know the the ways that we respond

[74:05]to hate crimes against black Muslims like it would have to be

[74:08]you know like if someone called me the n-word right and hit

[74:10]like but you would still have people kind of like whoa it

[74:13]was because it was race so we as Muslims we're not gonna

[74:15]mobilize on this particular issue and that is that is a problem

[74:22]especially if we could still prioritize Christian Arabs who are targeted for

[74:26]racism and as a community stand up with them and that we

[74:28]need to be consistent and standing up for justice similarly when we

[74:34]you know I mean there's been a number of cases police brutality

[74:38]you know sama Rahim there Sharif Mobley like who's stuck in Yemen

[74:44]no one's advocating still for him you know so those are you

[74:49]know like real cases that we really need to educate ourselves on

[74:53]and understand how black Muslims do face overlapping like intersection intersecting oppressions

[75:02]of anti black racism Islamophobia and it could be very intense and

[75:06]that we as a community if we don't mobilize to to address

[75:09]those who are like really targeted they were not gonna dismantle this

[75:13]thing that's harming all of us since he thank you so much

[75:20]I want to add one more thing there was a very big

[75:22]movement I remember about Earth still going on with Ibrahim zexion Nagi

[75:29]RIA you might have heard obviously and once again we look at

[75:33]the Muslim community and um hamdulillah we came to our heads to

[75:36]advocate but people sometimes think twice for some reason when it comes

[75:41]to race and not directly Islam which is very sad Imam jihad

[75:45]we'd love to hear from you on on this question yeah just

[75:50]even you know really getting to know many of my friends from

[75:57]the you know desi community from the Arab community one thing that

[76:00]they have mentioned to me is that they went through especially growing

[76:04]up here in America they've went through the hip-hop phase you know

[76:09]they went through with it where they were on the edge of

[76:13]a bridge you know of at least in regards to their Eman

[76:16]and so on and so forth alright and these are our Imams

[76:20]that go around teaching right and I'm not going to name any

[76:23]names but this goes to show you that if we do not

[76:29]prioritize issues that are dealing with what is taking place right here

[76:33]in a mountain in America when we live in America this stuff

[76:39]is going to impact our mentality is going to come into our

[76:42]facilities and impact our mentality and the mentality of our children so

[76:47]we have to prioritize that I mean you know for our Muslim

[76:51]organizations again I'm not going to name any names but it's very

[76:55]disappointing that there is no efforts in regards to prison reform from

[77:02]our Muslim organizations right in regards to our Muslim organizations you know

[77:08]the effort little little to no effort in regards to police brutality

[77:13]and then when this occurs okay when you have the situation with

[77:18]George Floyd now is this co-opting of this particular issue now I'm

[77:23]about racism now I'm gonna set up a march right when this

[77:30]has been this the case for years okay this has been the

[77:34]case for years so I think that for the most part if

[77:38]we don't do not become a part of the conversation right now

[77:40]all right what we're going to see is that this a mentality

[77:46]this racism this a racial attitude towards black people how it is

[77:50]came into our our messages because we prioritize other issues over this

[77:55]issue that's right in our backyard that has been impacting our children

[77:59]so we don't talk about prison reform and we don't talk about

[78:04]issues that plague the african-american community is going to come in and

[78:09]claim us and I think this is what we have we find

[78:12]ourselves for example we're from a community that is steeped in segregation

[78:19]and this is why our masajid are segregating this is by the

[78:24]mesh did in the hood the roof is falling down and the

[78:28]master in the suburban community has gold lettering with the laws names

[78:32]going around ok so we are directly impacted by what takes place

[78:37]here so we need to begin to prioritize what takes place right

[78:43]here in America thank you for though for the answer Imam jihad

[78:47]and of course we definitely need to prioritize the issues that the

[78:51]Muslims are facing in them and in the United States to be

[78:55]able to impact and advocate effectively for the issues that are happening

[78:59]outside of the United States which brings us to the third category

[79:02]and probably the most important category of today's event so after understanding

[79:07]some of the the experiences some of the history that the Black

[79:10]Muslim community and the black community have been facing now it's time

[79:14]to address some of the black practical steps that we can we

[79:19]as Muslims can do to help the Black Muslim community and the

[79:22]black community the black community as a whole so the question is

[79:27]how can the Muslim community advocate advocate effectively for black issues so

[79:32]if you have any legislations bills that we should advocate for or

[79:35]anything that you have in mind we would love to hear it

[79:37]from you starting with sister Margaery yeah I mean it's well one

[79:45]of the challenges that we see is like that you know you

[79:47]have some Muslims and this is even during Kokan once you know

[79:53]these people saw the statistics and they're like well what can we

[79:58]do let's start issuing policy and and I had told people on

[80:02]the national task force it's like we'll follow the lead of black

[80:06]people again working on those solutions follow their leadership you don't have

[80:09]to issue a new policy just say we sign on to this

[80:13]go to your community and share that right I think that it's

[80:18]actually imperative that one does the learning before you know like there

[80:22]should be actually the process of decolonizing yourself becoming an anti before

[80:27]you're going to try to institute new laws and policies because you

[80:33]may replicate harm sign on to things like you know people are

[80:36]really rushing to action because there's that discomfort and it's like look

[80:40]might you know my people are very resilient you know we've been

[80:44]going at this for centuries and we're still here there's been people

[80:50]that have been organizing for decades on with political prisoners prisoners rights

[80:55]and everything follow their leadership listen and learn take some time to

[81:00]do the learning so that's the first step and also do the

[81:03]work your own self like because because coming into movement spaces or

[81:08]act advocacy without understanding social change without understanding the kind of cultures

[81:16]that may exist you know one you'll just you know you could

[81:19]actually replica and doing that of being kind of not understanding where

[81:22]you want to you know apply your efforts and it may be

[81:25]misguided you know you have to see where you fit within the

[81:30]spectrum of social change are you focusing on direct aid maybe your

[81:34]job is just to to do direct aid and support humanitarian relief

[81:39]are you interested in advocacy space so learn learn a little bit

[81:42]more of those those fields but obviously you know like if if

[81:46]black leaders and you know are asking you for specific support you

[81:53]know step up but sometimes like and I don't know I mean

[81:55]I'm kind of old I may be aging myself but Jerry Maguire

[81:58]what I'm getting is a lot of people like help me help

[82:00]you and they're just like strident calling us I don't let you

[82:05]see the look on our face like we're tired and part of

[82:06]that is just like all these people who instantly want to help

[82:10]but the Namie you know they're like will explain to me where

[82:12]I could fit in and what I could do and you know

[82:15]and they're coming in really hard and they're coming in really fast

[82:18]and we're just like this may be a moment but we also

[82:21]need to know are you really committed to the long term work

[82:24]you know like I mean when you think about like I mean

[82:28]I started my graduate work in 2004 you know so the 16

[82:32]years of doing kind of research and working I've been a student

[82:35]I was a student organizer since the 90s you know so it's

[82:40]like we've been doing this for a while and it doesn't mean

[82:43]like we appreciate refreshment you like being you know reinforcements and new

[82:47]folks coming in with new blood but it's like it's some of

[82:50]that introspection needs to happen because we have a lot of Muslims

[82:55]kind of rushing in without understanding the issues and it's you know

[82:59]and it could be overwhelming for for a lot of leaders that

[83:02]are that are trying to do the work and we have to

[83:06]like kind of pause and accommodate the kind of urgency that they

[83:10]have and it's like well yes it's urgent but I also need

[83:16]to mourn right you know cause like you know I've I've lost

[83:19]family members to police brutality so like and I'm holding space for

[83:24]my mom who lost her only brother right and so it's like

[83:25]I want to be on a call with my mom and and

[83:28]not somebody's just like no we need to issue policy now no

[83:32]we don't need to issue a policy that may undermine the work

[83:36]that the people I'm accountable to thank you so much sister Margaretta

[83:41]mom jihad we would love to hear anything that we could advocate

[83:47]for the black community as a Muslim community okay yeah I think

[83:52]you know first of all I want to say that I've been

[83:54]overwhelmed by the response you know from the Muslim community I'm not

[84:00]here to judge if the response is genuine you know I for

[84:05]example I mean I have a lot of people amongst them is

[84:10]amongst me black people they're fed up they they you know you

[84:15]have to realize that there's a lot of heartbreak and it's for

[84:18]example I mean it reminds me of my family I have relatives

[84:22]in my family that refused to go to the family gathering because

[84:26]they do not they cancelled each other for life and you have

[84:29]a lot of people in the african-american community that are saying we

[84:33]don't need no more solidarity letters this is not genuine so on

[84:40]and so forth too little too late not me are always I

[84:44]look at how we can you know for example our organization Islam

[84:49]it's like being an ass you know I think that's no there's

[84:52]no laughs hater we could a lemon a merabh we Sedaka al-mar'u

[84:59]our Islam bein Lenin ass right there's no good in your secret

[85:02]talks you know unless if it's talking about you know doing good

[85:06]in charity or bringing people together right so I think that this

[85:13]is the opportunity this is a window of time and and very

[85:17]overwhelmed with the response the people saying I mean I'm getting Imams

[85:22]coming to me saying give me talking points I want to understand

[85:26]racism I thought I knew before you know should I use this

[85:31]hadith you know I told a group of Imams I said we

[85:35]have made a lot of concessions and adjustments in the way we

[85:39]speak in regards to because of feminism and also homosexuality but also

[85:44]there needs to be adjustments and learning the sensitivities of the African

[85:48]American community so that in saying that I hope to live seen

[85:55]a lot of Imams they want to learn they want to sit

[85:57]down and learn what's the best way to approach it I'm very

[86:00]overwhelmed and I and I love it and I think there's a

[86:05]genuineness and in my community I love my community we have the

[86:07]right outcome in on July 4th right where we're gonna meet at

[86:12]its la la and we're gonna ride out to some of these

[86:14]locations were black men and women were gunned down we're gonna get

[86:19]out and make du'a and this is gonna be a huge event

[86:20]we have we also have on July 3rd Bulow Friday right you

[86:27]la Friday is a day in which we want to send emails

[86:33]from the African American community to be cut EOBs at the different

[86:38]massage it right in in California we're at least doing this in

[86:41]California and we want to make sure that you know as the

[86:46]language centering the black voice we went on that day the black

[86:49]voice front and center okay no co-opting our issues on that day

[86:55]the programming belongs to the african-american community on that day right and

[87:00]and it's not something that you know as some of our community

[87:06]let's stop begging people to love us know it's not about that

[87:09]the pleasure of Allah lies in us building community with one another

[87:12]you know so it compels us like what happened to three days

[87:17]right we we don't we don't do the three day thing no

[87:19]more you know I'm saying like for us we have to figure

[87:23]out how we're going to overcome this and I'm not here to

[87:25]judge anyone's intention if a magistrate comes with their letter of solidarity

[87:29]I'll humbly laugh we don't work on the language of the letter

[87:34]we're there with that later but alhamdulillah we appreciate that the effort

[87:37]of the Muslim community we appreciate the people speaking out like sister

[87:42]Margaery say we're overwhelmed there's a lot of stuff going on but

[87:45]a hundred are we gonna get through this together I'm hopeful and

[87:48]I'm happy this is a window of time that if we don't

[87:52]go through this window this time we may never get this back

[87:55]again so let's work work together as a Muslim community thank you

[88:00]thank you um jihad for that wonderful answer of course we should

[88:05]definitely educate ourselves and then talk to community members and then after

[88:10]that we should start making ourselves as experts and advocate for specific

[88:16]policies without listening to to black leaders and and and listening to

[88:20]them and adhering to their advice so I'm interested of what you

[88:23]have to say Amanda would would eat on this question sister martyr

[88:31]II mentioned basically all that I was going to say I do

[88:39]have one point of one thing that I want to put a

[88:41]little more emphasis and she mentioned about in regards to specific policies

[88:45]that there are people who are in the black community who are

[88:49]Muslim who are working on this I've been working on these issues

[88:53]and mmm their leadership should be looked to and in deferred to

[88:57]but the point I want to highlight in regards to this relates

[89:05]to an issue of creed and an issue of comportment or ed-up

[89:10]and this is a friendly reminder to to my Muslim brothers and

[89:18]sisters because I've seen some things that in Detroit what we call

[89:21]out of pocket you may not know what that means but it's

[89:23]I don't know if you know other pocket means miss out of

[89:27]order like it's not doing things in the proper steps so Allah

[89:29]Azza WA JAL said no Quran el Mormon or mock me not

[89:34]baklava Molly I will Bob yeah more my roof your Honolulu car

[89:37]well you'll be more solar your tune as they can until allah

[89:39]rasool allah kasi from allah in all our season for king believing

[89:46]men and believing women are allies of one another and then there

[89:51]are five things that are mentioned in the ayah that Allah Azza

[89:55]WA JAL gives us adjectives to describe who believers are that should

[89:59]be an alliance or allied ship with one another and then Allah

[90:04]Azza WA JAL says and a number of times in the Quran

[90:07]relating to this that relating to that is not fitting for a

[90:13]believer to seek a lie ship over a believer when they're believers

[90:16]present so what is the point that I'm getting to we are

[90:22]supposed to have wallah or a lie ship or allegiance to Allah

[90:26]to His Messenger and also to the believers who are operating based

[90:39]upon the same framework of II Men so it is improper both

[90:43]from from a Kree perspective and at that perspective for muscles that

[90:49]who are not black to think that they want to be all

[90:55]of a sudden woke or jump on the trends of the bandwagon

[90:57]and jump over their Muslims brothers and sisters who are black to

[91:02]seek so-called ally ship or the jump on the bandwagon of people

[91:07]who are black who are non-muslims it's it's it's not proper according

[91:11]to Creed and it's not proper adapt is it's not right right

[91:18]and with this I would say two other things number one the

[91:23]second point is dr.

[91:23]Schurman Abdul Hakim Jackson T's at University Southern California he said heart

[91:31]work is hard work hard work h e AR t is hard

[91:38]work right so when we talk about these issues and we're sum

[91:45]up anti black racism or how we can incline ourselves against that

[91:48]point that we defer to our brothers and sisters Lam who are

[91:51]black then there's some hard work that we have to do right

[91:56]and one of the things I also recommend for the massage it

[91:59]and for teachers that we spend so much time on tell them

[92:03]on al Qaeda and many times these days is polemics you know

[92:06]because the the asha reason the Sufis they have been negate the

[92:10]Salafis right and then the Shia havena gate the Sunnah of the

[92:16]sudden ease right all these polemics right and then there's political matters

[92:20]blame the overseas and v this is what most of our talks

[92:22]center around in my said it needs to be issues but the

[92:27]issue of tests Kia too scared to a Neffs about spiritual purification

[92:31]about cleansing our hearts from the most deadly spiritual disease of El

[92:39]Cubo because el Kibera according to shakers Madhu bomba rowdy long end

[92:44]this is the most deadly of spiritual diseases and this is what

[92:49]this is the the primary spiritual malady that informs racism because racism

[92:54]is beyond just a socio-political construct it is first informed by spiritual

[93:02]maladies such as el Kibera and it has it there are metaphysical

[93:06]realities behind every physical manifestation and I've been saying this a lot

[93:12]off that we shouldn't just look at things on the surface our

[93:13]prophecy acutally haqqin haqqa con behind every outward manifestation there's a deeper

[93:21]spiritual reality behind it right Nakula haqqin haqqa co so I'd like

[93:28]to see our Islamic centers spend more time and more discussion on

[93:31]how we can deal with these things that are bothering us and

[93:35]then that's how we're gonna make real progress cuz every day Allah

[93:40]Azza WA JAL says that surely Allah will not change the people

[93:45]until change what is inside of their selves right so sometimes we

[93:50]spend more time trying to fix the outside where the real work

[93:53]is the heart work and insight Reformation actually of the ping that

[93:57]75% of our efforts should really be focused on that right in

[94:03]not saying that we shouldn't be involved in advocacy and and and

[94:08]things like because we should but the real work is is heart

[94:14]work and that's my opinion and Allah knows best thank you thank

[94:18]you so much for that wonderful answer Amanda with Waleed and we

[94:23]definitely need to cleanse our hearts and souls before trying to teach

[94:33]others or trying to to put ourselves as experts as sister Margaery

[94:37]said and moving on to our last question for today before if

[94:45]we if we have time to go to a quick Q&A the

[94:46]this question is also mentioned by a lot of our audience and

[94:51]it states your personal activism and organizations have been long advocating for

[94:57]social justice issues can you elaborate on your past achievements and future

[95:00]goals how can we the audience assist and support your goal your

[95:05]goals and these organizations starting off with Imam jihad this mailer okay

[95:22]so al hamdulillah right now so we have and on hamdulillah I

[95:27]want to acknowledge you know I can't you know be remiss without

[95:31]acknowledging my my my father and really the direction in which they

[95:37]instill within us and you know we're a service based community you

[95:42]know for example I see my father was really heavily involved in

[95:48]the 1992 you know the riots and I see myself I had

[95:52]to learn from how he dealt with that and you know he

[95:57]was real keen on relationship building during that point and I'm seeing

[96:02]how I've been able to transfer that into my leadership so we're

[96:06]standing on the shoulders of giants who came before us alhamdulillah today

[96:11]we have s la la and it's LA Academy ok so we

[96:16]my father he was the founder in 1986 of Master Li Babla

[96:22]a service-based you know Islamic community and then now we've taken it

[96:26]to another level to its la ley and it's like Academy it's

[96:28]la ley alhamdulillah we we currently we have a food pantry we

[96:34]feed over 200 families on a weekly basis not only that we

[96:37]have a mobile shower that comes every Saturday for the people in

[96:40]the community not only that we we also pass our cooked meals

[96:48]Monday Wednesday and Friday to the community we take our elderly and

[96:51]elders in the community and the sick in the community a meals

[96:57]we delivered to them personally not only that we have four homes

[97:01]we have two homes for formerly incarcerated and also our home formerly

[97:06]homeless women we have two homes dedicated to our women and now

[97:09]it's occupied by many women who perhaps would have been homeless without

[97:18]those homes and we have two homes for men mainly formerly incarcerated

[97:22]Muslim men in between them for example one of the brothers who

[97:25]is the elder in our community their 40 years in prison four

[97:30]years straight and he as an innocent man right he was innocent

[97:37]he did forty years for a crime he did not commit we

[97:39]have another brother who did 20 years in solitary confinement right so

[97:42]this is institutionalized racism or systemic racism is right before you when

[97:47]you hear their their stories okay so now not only that we

[97:52]have we have an LLC when we when these issues come about

[97:57]we make sure that we educate the Muslim community and we have

[98:01]right now we've been having online actions for example on Islam a

[98:05]page this is where the Muslim community a lot of them heard

[98:10]about the story in more detail Ahmad our Barry and also George

[98:13]Floyd we have actions geared around that we have one coming up

[98:19]next Friday where we were bringing up the case of Brianna Taylor

[98:21]and it's talking about the the women who have been products of

[98:24]injustice we have a full-time with some school and it's LA Academy

[98:28]and hummed a lab we have from K through eighth educating Muslim

[98:35]children and the type of education that we're giving is it's an

[98:41]education that's geared towards the Muslim to be I'm just gonna it's

[98:45]almost be like Malcolm right well you have a balance this is

[98:52]an imagination if Malcolm continue to live and gain more knowledge even

[98:56]of Sharia and so in Quran and so on and so forth

[98:58]this is our imagination we want a culturally balanced young Muslim our

[99:05]school is 98 percent african-american acts actually right now is I think

[99:12]it's a hundred percent african-american I tried to give the two percent

[99:16]but 100 percent african-american young boys and girls being educated we have

[99:21]a high school seminary where we teach Quran and every language full-time

[99:25]and Sharia for time for young african-americans growing up in South Los

[99:30]Angeles well across the street from where Nipsey Hussle who was in

[99:34]the community were across the street from where he was murdered just

[99:40]to give you on what takes place in that particular neighborhood with

[99:43]our presence in that neighborhood they need the Muslims in our neighborhood

[99:46]we need for you our especially those who are aren't in the

[99:51]community by contributing to our community it enables us to have a

[99:57]presence in the inner city when you find out about my last

[100:02]point when you see that there's no presence in the inner city

[100:05]this is when you're gonna have the degradation of the meaning of

[100:12]women on hip-hop when the Muslims were in the inner city advocating

[100:16]on calling people to the worship of a lost behind what the

[100:18]island advocating do for self and so on and so forth then

[100:24]it changed the mainstream media so we have to continue to find

[100:27]efforts such as is la la which is very in Islam Academy

[100:36]and inshallah we just go visit our Facebook whatever Twitter or social

[100:42]media or whatever Instagram I sent um truly an amazing organization and

[100:49]sometimes we have to think as Muslims we just had our zakat

[100:52]since Oprah and we always try to I know a lot of

[100:55]Arabs especially they want to send it back home they want to

[100:58]send to Allah they want to send it to there's there's organizations

[101:01]here in America and Canada wherever and your zakat expect I should

[101:05]go to where you live this is this is your home as

[101:09]well and we should be trying to help the people around us

[101:14]first mashaallah I'm sister Margaery we'd love to hear about your organization's

[101:19]your work and past achievements well I'll try to be brief because

[101:22]I think that there are still some questions that left unanswered would

[101:25]like if we don't answer some of those questions or deal with

[101:28]them then that's just still going to break the lines of solidarity

[101:33]and not move us forward and in creating the broad based coalition's

[101:37]right that we need to make this country more just and address

[101:41]black death both from kovat and mass incarceration so I mean yeah

[101:48]my my like the work that we've done in six years with

[101:52]Muslim anti racism collaborative is not near like anywhere near comparable to

[101:57]the on the groundwork that is law like the and and you

[102:00]know it's law is like a second home whenever I could get

[102:03]to South Central like y'all see me there like we we actually

[102:06]had to cancel our SoCal Muslim anti-racism training in that location you

[102:11]know like we try to do do events there and do do

[102:17]trainings and connect whenever we can but you know in the past

[102:19]six years we we have trained over 25,000 people on the ground

[102:26]and many more thousands online through doing these panels and really trying

[102:30]to sustain a conversation that a lot of times we would see

[102:33]it kind of ebb and flow or disappear and go away so

[102:37]we've been the agitator both online and a kind of PR nightmare

[102:39]for even some of the groups that we work with in many

[102:44]of the ways of like our approach of really trying to incorporate

[102:46]prophetic communication you know thinking about a dab enough luck like how

[102:50]do we call in people how do we talk to them like

[102:54]it's not just issue a letter hold them accountable but you know

[102:57]like really have not just a conversation but the more that we

[103:03]can educate people on these perspectives then we can come to some

[103:07]either mutual understanding and go our different ways through our strategies or

[103:11]we can like work together and collaborate so you know the we

[103:15]have we have tracks of curriculum that really are based on Islamic

[103:19]standards right like our values of a positive self-identity appreciation for diversity

[103:27]intercultural dialogue Ally ship and standing for justice and really implementing this

[103:33]work and educating each other so from those five tracks it goes

[103:36]from the range of doing our K through 12 all from Adams

[103:41]so that's like we're kind of like our early start of developing

[103:43]those curriculum standards through the depths of knowledge and as an educator

[103:48]that's something that's like really close to home and I know for

[103:50]some people that may not be their jam but as an educator

[103:52]thinking about how do we inculcate Islamic knowledge in ways that change

[103:57]our behavior has been something that's very important to me and that

[104:03]also includes whether we are going to try to incorporate nonviolent communication

[104:07]in addition to nonviolent action and thinking about what does that in

[104:10]mass movements and we are on this vert like we are right

[104:14]now in the middle of a mass movement and what is going

[104:18]to be our place as as a community of faith right now

[104:19]you have clergy that are standing up I was asked on Monday

[104:24]you know to come in and lead a prayer at a black

[104:28]lives matter and and and you know as a black lives matter

[104:30]protest and clergy and laity United for economic justice and we did

[104:34]not have any man there and it was you know like the

[104:38]irony was like I don't consider myself clergy but I was asked

[104:40]to present you know a short section prepare a section of a

[104:45]talk about these issues at a foot but the Islamic Center in

[104:48]Southern California so I don't see myself leading devotional life but having

[104:53]to maintain this kind of discussion from a faith-based perspective and provide

[104:58]those talking tools and to support and kind of cultivate faces to

[105:03]advance discussions and yeah like there's advocacy work the work of Detroit

[105:08]like the Care Detroit chapter has been absolutely essential and so what

[105:14]our our work is really trying to weave a network of anti-racist

[105:18]and so we do have over 200 members and we've just connected

[105:23]thousands of people and so it's hard for me to like say

[105:26]like this is what we've accomplished directly similarly with the show that's

[105:30]coming out tomorrow so like I'm really proud of Easter labret which

[105:32]came out of an idea like I wanted to to do is

[105:37]do some storytelling and I had that one idea but hundreds of

[105:39]people worked on that thing and it's not something that any one

[105:44]of us can claim but it's what we all did together that

[105:46]makes that important so I do think in this moment I'm deeply

[105:49]humbled and proud that Muslim art can play a role in these

[105:55]conversations and to sustain it and to lift up the many hundreds

[105:56]of leaders that we know so I don't know if that like

[106:03]answers the question but I still feel very blessed to be able

[106:07]to do this work through these difficult times thank you so much

[106:12]mr.

[106:11]Marjorie must' marks an amazing organization and Charla we can also join

[106:16]and help in your dadís initiatives last but not least in mom

[106:21]dad would do I did we would love to have you elaborate

[106:25]on the organizations you work with care and everything you do is

[106:29]your personal life just try to be very succeed and you mentioned

[106:38]care and I can't get into the specifics but there is gonna

[106:42]be a national initiative it's gonna be a Nelson care soon but

[106:50]in saying that care Michigan we've been working on police accountability issues

[106:54]relating to law enforcement brutality issues long before it became in vogue

[107:04]in the Muslim community and in fact long before my national office

[107:09]and other chapters even thought I was cool and probably the reason

[107:12]is that because I'm the Obama of care meaning that I'm the

[107:15]first black executive director of any care chapter and right now I'm

[107:20]still the only African American executive director of care of any care

[107:24]chapter now that brother Edwards move as deputy director in in in

[107:28]DC we do have a Sudanese sister Alabama who's director now at

[107:36]Care Houston and we also have brother Jelani Hussain who is Somali

[107:40]background in Minneapolis but we've been doing these issues for a while

[107:43]and one of those that we're dealing with right now is trying

[107:45]to work on repealing and gangue Dunaway remove in Detroit the what's

[107:55]called the green light surveillance cameras and unfortunately many Muslim businesses have

[107:59]been owned businesses Arab American businesses have been in cahoots with the

[108:03]Detroit Police Department in regards to having this these green lights they're

[108:08]basically masked surveil communities and in these green lights that are on

[108:17]some of these businesses are even pointed in the direction of a

[108:20]massage it that can literally surveil who's coming and up a sachet

[108:24]so this is an issue that we're working on including in in

[108:29]the warned area of Detroit where they're alive Iraqi Americans who are

[108:34]Muslims who live in that area as one of the poor zip

[108:37]codes in Michigan actually has a lot of knocking Iraq Iraqi American

[108:41]immigrants that live in that area so we've been working on that

[108:48]as far as the how to help where I would say do

[108:52]research and look and supporting some cause in your locality right it

[109:01]doesn't have to be given to a national organization actually there are

[109:05]many grassroots organizations there are doing a lot of impact working on

[109:12]various not only accuracy issues but giving direct services so I'll just

[109:16]lift up one that doesn't live I mean it doesn't it's not

[109:18]my state in my locality I was really impressed when I visited

[109:25]them about a few weeks before the kovat lockdown I was invited

[109:30]to lecture in Milwaukee Wisconsin at the Islamic Center there for a

[109:37]for a program and I went this place called the mock roofs

[109:46]enter the mosque roof center is in the poorest neighborhood in the

[109:50]zip code it's in the poorest ZIP code in the entire state

[109:55]of Wisconsin so if it's the poorest ZIP code in the entire

[109:57]city of Wisconsin you know how the people look they're black right

[110:00]so the mock roof center is there down the street is the

[110:06]dawa Center they get the macro Center they have they have intervention

[110:09]in dealing with at-risk youth they have after-school literacy program and tutoring

[110:17]they have a couple of Muslim brothers there who are martial arts

[110:21]experts who are doing martial arts training they have some sessions for

[110:26]brothers only then they also have something for sisters there and this

[110:32]is a black led organizations called the maka roof center they're doing

[110:38]mashallah it's like it's like a gym in that area and also

[110:40]let me tell you that this is in itself as a source

[110:44]of Dawa because about half of the kids that go to my

[110:49]fruit center or not Muslim so you have about a quarter of

[110:54]the kids are african-american Muslim kids mean descendants of the enslaved Africans

[110:57]then you have the other quarter who are kids of immigrants that

[111:05]come from West Africa right like Ghana in in countries with Nigeria

[111:09]and then you have the other portion of the other half are

[111:17]at-risk African American youth who are not Muslim so look them up

[111:20]the mock roof Center in Milwaukee they're doing some yeah so yes

[111:26]it's in the hood right so look look them up because they're

[111:29]doing fabulous work and think about giving them some of your your

[111:33]your sonica thank you thank you Amanda would Waleed for this for

[111:43]for illustrating some of your work and some of the work that

[111:46]Kara does and and the center that you the matter off center

[111:49]that you talked about and and I encourage all of us to

[111:55]donate and support you if you can't donate you can simply repost

[111:58]one of the posts that Muslim mark-ass la la care or any

[112:03]of these organizations that post on instagram and just spread awareness there's

[112:06]a lot that we can do as individuals and we should all

[112:10]do that as much as we can okay there was someone in

[112:13]the chat that also added believers bailout there also an amazing organization

[112:17]that is helping with the criminal justice reform and helping out with

[112:21]police brutality and all that and that was that was something that

[112:26]was mentioned and it's an amazing organization as well yeah yes the

[112:32]poor believers bail out yes you heard it from the Imams support

[112:35]believers bail out we have to support believers bail out because it's

[112:39]and other organizations that are really trying to help Society and trying

[112:44]to make make change and we can do that by donating by

[112:48]supporting by by reposting and all of these things that we can

[112:52]do as individuals we only have seven minutes left so we would

[112:58]like to ask Marguerite Hill sister Marguerite Hill Imam jihad and Imam

[113:02]Dawood for any lasting thoughts that they have for for the future

[113:06]for the audience starting with sister Margaery yes so I mean we

[113:13]we are on a precipice of something that's really I mean this

[113:17]is an unprecedented time and this is gonna be a long difficult

[113:21]summer and people are reinventing this society and rethinking institutions that have

[113:27]been harmful and we've seen like some of the kind of gatekeeper

[113:30]like some of the big organizations that had internalized a lot of

[113:34]the white supremacy like that had spent a lot of time being

[113:39]very close with law enforcement rethink their own relationships and so there's

[113:43]a great amount of promise that we can have if we continue

[113:45]to push these discussions and to hold each other into account of

[113:48]standing for justice so that we don't backslide so I have a

[113:53]lot of hope that you know we have a growing awareness growing

[113:56]abolitionist movement of we can rethink you know like what does justice

[114:00]look like what does being in community look like and that we

[114:04]as a community of Muslims we can also think just get back

[114:06]to like I mean I'm the Muslim of the 90 so we

[114:10]were rethinking economics and mutual aid and and finance and everything and

[114:14]right now like as we are in this great upheaval in this

[114:19]moment of addressing systemic racism anti black racism that we do put

[114:23]the money like our money where our mouth is and that we

[114:28]start to invest in institutions and businesses and things that are going

[114:32]to turn our communities around our neighborhood around and and this country

[114:39]around thank you for that thank you for that sister Margaery Imam

[114:42]jihad do you have anything any last remarks to add before we

[114:46]conclude and just one thank you all for the opportunity you know

[114:53]to serve today but the Maha being but the Muhammad you are

[114:57]keep going you know these are teachable moments and I think that

[115:05]you know you all are gaining so so much valuable experience in

[115:09]what you're doing so keep going forward you are going to be

[115:13]the target of you know like my father he tells me he

[115:19]says you know leader he says as an imam your target for

[115:25]insanity right so this is one of his saying so you are

[115:27]going to be targeted by criticism from you know perhaps people around

[115:32]you keep going you are gonna find a deep insecurity even within

[115:37]yourself face it keep going you're gonna find moments where you feel

[115:40]like you're drowning and you know in your leadership keep going so

[115:45]I want to just motivate you all and I'm sure I want

[115:47]it I don't see any sisters too much but I'm sure they're

[115:52]sisters I work with you all and I would say the young

[115:57]people y'all keep going have respect for the elders around you but

[116:01]keep going my dua that um that I've been making this is

[116:05]from the prophecies of La Salette he mentioned a beautiful daughter and

[116:10]then this is in regards to our behavior towards one another the

[116:13]prophets all are some of the most important human being to ever

[116:16]walk the face of this earth you know the most having the

[116:21]most compassion you know the most mercy towards others you know when

[116:24]we think about his dua he mentions in this beautiful dua Allah

[116:27]whom every human movement in sebab to piled a leak Allah who

[116:33]quarter by 10 he lake a young man Yama a beautiful deer

[116:36]he says o Allah if I shall ever abuse another believer please

[116:41]let that be a means of bringing him near to you on

[116:46]the Day of Resurrection and this is a beautiful do I ever

[116:49]abuse someone else another Muslim another believer let that be a means

[116:56]of bringing that person close a lot of times we abused each

[116:59]other and we also want them we want to abuse them and

[117:04]we want them far from Allah all right but here the purpose

[117:08]of our time he wanting the best for the believers amongst them

[117:10]we should be like that let us want the best for each

[117:16]other let us want the best for each other but other than

[117:19]that keep going don't stop keep it going thank you so much

[117:24]for these kind words Imam it truly means Allah Aman Dawood if

[117:28]you have anything to share before before the end of this event

[117:32]yeah just as a friendly reminder as we deal with the broader

[117:43]society and even within our community that the message of Islam is

[117:50]a message of redemption and we as Muslims we don't wholesale cancel

[117:57]groups of people no group is beyond redemption and no group is

[118:03]beyond a loss mercy the prophets of Allah only a sudden them

[118:09]did not cancel those who threw stones at him and thought if

[118:13]he didn't cancel chorus even after they martyred Hamza with no lights

[118:17]on I lay at a hood he'd never cancelled those people in

[118:21]fact he didn't even make dua against them right so we had

[118:26]to be in our pain and our moving for as a community

[118:31]with the make sure not to do what I've I've coined the

[118:34]term of socio-political tech fear we don't tech fear someone outside of

[118:39]the Deen but we tech fear them that they're beyond redemption that

[118:45]we've cancelled them so we can't we have to give space for

[118:49]each other as believers we've we've made mistakes some of us did

[118:53]things incorrectly without malicious intent some of us maybe had done some

[119:00]things with with Kippur in our hearts acting from a way of

[119:07]jihad but we have to resolve ourselves and trying to do better

[119:10]and for those of us who have been harmed we also have

[119:16]to open up our hearts and as the Prophet did and be

[119:20]able to give people space and pardon people that people actually can

[119:26]get it and people actually can do better and I also conclude

[119:30]with this that in the Koran this this phrase aquata bullet taqwa

[119:36]is only mentioned two times in the Quran a what is most

[119:42]close to at-taqwa our proper regard fulness and God consciousness one relates

[119:46]to justice but the other one waits to pardoning right so pardoning

[119:51]and justice so this is the balance that we have right between

[119:57]vigil ally in the jamali right that we we seek justice but

[120:00]also we have to have it in our means to pardoned people

[120:06]even when people have done wrong to be able to give them

[120:10]that space so that we can move forward as a society and

[120:12]move forward as a community so equitable otaku are right this is

[120:16]what Allah Azza WA JAL says and and please pardon me and

[120:22]may Almighty Allah bless you see it Muhammad Sadiq bless you see

[120:28]Muhammad macd all the organizers may Allah continue to protect our sisters

[120:34]and our brothers working at Muslim arc may Allah bless our beloved

[120:38]brother as he had severe who's becoming a superstar and the Muslim

[120:43]community am I saying to blow your head up but yeah because

[120:46]when you become a superstar you don't get arrows pointed at you

[120:49]too people will start gun at you so we ask Almighty Allah

[120:56]to protect you miss la la la vía Nessen illallah Afiya we

[120:59]ask Allah Azza WA JAL to give us all the apphia in

[121:03]the in our Dean and the doing in the after thank you

[121:06]so much your mom I'd actually I'd like to give the floor

[121:10]to imam jihad sila if you'd like anything out of respect for

[121:12]him I know he's been here listening with his contagious energy so

[121:15]if you'd like to add anything before we end off we'd love

[121:19]to hear from him so I'm like them these are all my

[121:26]teachers I co-signed on everything they said okay well thank you everyone

[121:30]tarred your speakers firstly I hope this humble program presented by the

[121:33]speakers was as effective and beneficial for you all as it was

[121:35]for me personally and I'm sure it was for you all I

[121:39]cannot thank you enough for sharing your time and your knowledge and

[121:41]in sha allah the muslim community as a whole takes more initiative

[121:44]in becoming the perfect allies to our black community and that serves

[121:48]for a reminder for myself first and foremost it is my hope

[121:52]that we can continue these dialogues and continue to learn from your

[121:55]expertise in the future Thank You Imam Sofia Thank You sister Margaret

[121:58]Thank You Imam when he saw so much I'd also like to

[122:02]express my gratitude to the youth organizations you contributed towards program in

[122:06]any way including Muslim youth connection on Maya ie COC mount sac

[122:10]MSA and Muslim youth in motion I don't want to forget the

[122:14]many organizations and people that also helped in sharing this program and

[122:16]getting our poster all over social media so once again thank you

[122:20]so much my last thank yous to all the wonderful attendees for

[122:23]this program was made solely for the community's benefit and Ishod why

[122:26]you leave with that sentiment we thank you so much for your

[122:31]constant support and your efforts in striving to become a more welcoming

[122:34]Muslim community and your presence in this webinar proves that effort itself

[122:37]our final hope is the objective we began with was met and

[122:42]we as a Muslim community start compensating for the lack of ally

[122:44]ship we have been providing and shot a lot that is something

[122:46]while we that we will be working on vigilantly I'd like to

[122:50]end with the recitation of so let's and fought to have for

[122:52]all those who have been martyred in cold blood due to oppression

[122:55]racism and tyranny all around the world I mean nobody can Medina

[123:06]him later in my movie I lay him on a barnacle on

[123:08]Holly and Arlene thank you all I said I'm an idea compartments

[123:14]ally you about our country

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التالي

Becoming An Ally: The Next Step For The Muslim Community

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التالي

Becoming An Ally: The Next Step For The Muslim Community

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