Extremism Part 5 The Evils Of Extremism

Rahim hamdulillah hamdulillah was local to them Allah said Mohammed was shadow. And lo and behold, he could have a shadow on the Mohammed Abdullah.

Let me

begin this lecture by trying to tie in one of the points with the previous lecture and

some of the reasons behind

why went over some of the material in the previous lecture. One of the evil results

of extremism

and exists is the existence of extremist groups and extremist acts among the Muslims is that it makes Islam an open target for non Muslim propagandists. And we see Islam, you know, being attacked in many different ways in the media nowadays. And so we should have the knowledge and the background of some things that are going on so that we can show and demonstrate to the people that and it's not Islam, that it actually is even forcing these kind of actions upon

the United States or upon the West and so forth. But there have been conscious decisions by people in the West itself.

And as I said, all of the all of the references that they used in preparing my lectures on on the Gulf War, all of them are written by non Muslim Western authors.

And so, the the, we have to open the door

of discussion, to let the American people themselves know exactly what is going on, and what exactly what has gone on, and how those steps

that they have the American government, at times has taken has had negative results for the Muslim world, and also for the Americans themselves.

I believe inshallah, they are hopefully many people in the United States who when confronted, or when see the actual facts coming from the government itself, shall I need, they will

understand the reality. And they may also help and try to assist the Muslims in trying to reduce the war against this level.

But as I was saying,

and in the

the existence of extremist groups, and those who exhort to extremist practices.

And it is, it opens the door for

non Muslim propagandists. And it also opens the door for military or police action against the Muslims, by both Muslims and non Muslims.

What I mean by that,

is it within the Muslim state, within the Muslim countries, I should say,

the presence of these kind of groups and the actions that they perform, is used as an excuse actually to crack down on the Muslims themselves,

not just the extremists.

But actually, the extremists. And their actions are really simply an excuse to attack Islam and to fight the Muslims, even those Muslims who are not involved in such extremist acts, those who are even peaceful. And many times even the moderates in the extreme and the liberals or something for fall under the tech, and it's just anything related to Islam.

And it is, as I said, it is the presence of these extremist groups that gives

then Mr. Islam the excuse that they need, that they can put up in the media, look what they've done, we have to put an end to what they're doing, and use force against them. And this has been done over and over again, in the Muslim world, Muslim countries, and also, obviously, in the international level.

So when we're talking about actually when we're talking about extremism, as I said,

it is a great disease, a great Moncure that is within the Muslim society.

And we have to realize this, and some people when they when they think for example, of the foragers, one brother just said, you know,

The floor is better than the murgia. When they think of let's, let's take Finland, for example. Let's say that everything that's said about Finland is true.

Some people when they think about people like Finland, they think, Oh, you know, this guy is finally somebody, you know, finally fighting for Islam and so forth. But again, the question is, is the results actually something good for Islam or not?

If you just want to be someone that can be used as an excuse to fight against Islam, and Muslims, and Muslims themselves, which should be the first who disapprove of what he's doing, and should be the first to oppose him.

The same thing is happening in Egypt, for example, was the actions of some extremist Muslims that led to hundreds and 1000s, sometimes of Muslims being being put in prison, and torture, even though they are innocent, they had nothing to do. And not only that, when you have sometimes a Muslim who's kind of in the middle,

and he is not really completely Islamic, and he's not really completely non Islamic.

But you know what I mean, he's kind of like in the middle hasn't really decided which way he really wants to take his life.

And he, these actions by the extremists, sometimes they are not in themselves, to drive that person away from Islam,

even though he might be sincere. And he might really be thinking about Islam. And even in, for example, in this country, I know some people who before September 11, they were reading about Islam and thinking about Islam.

And were close to converting, and then after September 11, they wanted nothing to do with.

So, this is a kind of, as I said, the kind of net one of the many negative results

that can be the can be

it can, that can result from

the actions of the, of the extremists, and the presence of the extremists in our midst.

Now, many of times, of course,

and this is the this is the strange thing. I mean, sometimes even you can think of the most evil thing, maybe some something positive might, might come out of it.

But you cannot use that as an excuse

to justify the evil thing that was done.

And as the what is the expression in

famous expression in Arabic.

And if equally cuffed Aloma was every, and it strike, there might be a lesson that you get, but that doesn't mean you want to go out and be struck every time. And you should be able to try to find the lessons and the benefits through ways which are,

which are better. So for example, even even in this kind of situation that's happening now.

Sometimes the door,

for example, the door for dollar, the door for presenting Islam has been has been open for Muslims out and as a result of the statements that some people made about Islam. And they didn't make a statement about Islam. And that gives us the opportunity and a chance to reply, and to give them

and what is the real Islam for example,

if you paid close attention to the to the media, after September 11.

And in particular,

if you if you listen to many of the Christian programs,

especially if you have like a shortwave radio, there's Christian programs all over the show.

After September 11,

there were many of these Christian groups, they were stressing the fact.

And you see how violence is Muslims are this is our now our opportunity

to go to the Muslims and give them the real message.

Of what what is the real message that they want? The real message of love.

This is now our chance to go there. Because you know we're Christians, we believe in peace and love.

This is now our chance to go into those for people who know nothing but violence.

And show them that, you know, this is the real mystery, the message of love and that's what they're missing.

As I said sometimes this is an opportunity for ourselves to make Tao and to refute the false claims.

About this lab.

And one thing about Christianity, if you know the history of Christianity, it's not about love.

It's your Christianity is more about war than anything else.

And if for example, even the even the nature of Jesus Christ,

there's a book just recently published called when Jesus became God.

And he for about 300 years in the in the Christian community, they had different beliefs about Jesus.

You know, some said, He's one of the Trinity he's equal, he's the same substance, as the Father and Son, the other said, No, is equal, but is a different substance.

And they would actually fight and kill each other of these.

Until finally, you know, after the Constantinople everything in, in Constantine, and then the forcing of of one view upon all the others,

after the 325, finally, one Christian group became the dominant force and force their view upon the others,

again with violence.

And then in the history of Christianity, of course, you also have the Crusades.

He was this piece in love with the talking about

the crusades, there was only 17 different crusades

17 different crusades that went out in a holy war, to fight against the pagans.

And one thing noticeable about the many of those crusades, many of those armies, as they went from Western Europe to Eastern Europe, if they ran into some Christian groups that they didn't particularly like they would wipe them out also.

And then there was also the Inquisition in Spain, and so forth.

And then you have Christian countries of the 20th century, like the United States, how many wars has the United States gotten into just since World War Two?

How many countries have they invaded and attacked?

But one of the one of the main differences on this issue between Islam and Christianity

is that when it comes

to the use of force, the legit legitimate use of force?

At least in Islam, we have very clear guidance that we can claim they might not agree with us, but we can claim that this guidance comes from Allah subhana wa, Tada.

We know from our religion, what is illegal to use force? When is it not legal to force use force? In other words, what is the just war and what is not to just work?

We know that straight from our foreign and from the sooner the problem.

The Christians don't have anything of that nature.

SLA Salam never was the leader of a community that has to go to war and distinguish between what is war and what is in war.

And so therefore, in fact, some of the teachings you know, if you listen to them, they certainly never applied by a Christian, you turn the other cheek, and all that kind of stuff. So the Christians,

the Christians, over the years developed the concept of the just war.

The Christians, as human beings got together, they didn't have much guidance, certainly not the Old Testament, if you know about wars and battles in the Old Testament.

And they got together and to develop the concept of the just war.

And now in the modern age, they have the audacity to talk about jihad, and to write about jihad, and to say, do the Muslims have anything similar to the concept of a just war?

And it's from Allah subhanho wa Taala. We know what is the just war and what isn't it just

they on the other hand, they have no guidance. So they have to come up with different theories and every 10 years, every 20 years, as they continue to write about what is adjust what they differ. And they change their idea about what is the basis of adjust more, one is a word Justin.

So even these kind of attacks upon Islam, as I said,

and it we can use it against them.

And either they are not claiming they are not

what they're claiming that they're all about peace and love. And if they tried to spread the message to the Muslims,

we should be and you already know that what they're saying is not true whatsoever, because many Muslims I shouldn't say many muscles, but I know some Muslims who have actually been affected, and some who have even left Islam for Christianity based on those four standard clips.

You know, they have people here like Billy Graham

since World War Two since the time actually, Harry Truman since World War Two,

every president whenever they go to war, they tried to get Billy Graham's blessing

doesn't matter what kind of the war for oil field grants. Fortunately for them, Billy Graham has never met a war that he doesn't like, apparently, this Christian believer in peace and love and so forth.

But unfortunately, as as I said, also,

of course, the ramifications can be much greater than that. And that is, obviously the loss of many Muslim lives

when they use the actions of some muslim extremists, to attack Islam, and to open the door for the attack upon Islam, and Muslims, and allow the killing of Muslims. And as we know many cases of that nature,

speak too much about it.

So as I said, it opens the door for attacks upon Islam, and it also distorts the true picture of Islam.

And when it distorts the true picture of Islam, as I said,

it takes even Muslims away from Islam sometimes.

Any they see,

they see this being presented as Islam. One, in fact, it is not

Islam whatsoever.

However, one of the one of the major things,

and probably,

you know, those people who are working against Islam, and we know, and it may be conspiracy theories are sometimes blown up. But we know from the statements that there are people who don't like Islam, and they're working against Islam.

And one of the major things by which they they use

through the actions of the terrorists and the actions of the extremists

is that by that they try to make people stray. Remember, the three groups as I said, before the the liberals and the fundamentalists and extremists, they try to use the action of the extremists to make people afraid of even being among that middle group that are following the Henderson nojima. And what you could call the what they would like, or what you could call the fundamentalist so to speak.

And by through propaganda, and so forth, they make Muslims to be a to be afraid of even being even being associated with Islam.

Even if it is the, as I said, even if it is the true form of Islam.

And as I said, in the first lecture, one way that they do that is they use fundamentalists and extremists interchangeably. In one sense, they'll be talking about the Muslim extremists, and all of a sudden, they're just talking about muslim fundamentalists as if they're all one in the same people.

And even within the Muslim community,

even within the Muslim community, there are certain actions that that are part of the Sharia part of the Sunnah. And people are afraid to do them, because they don't want to be seen as as an extremist.

One case that I know of

that is, I mean, one issue that I know has come up a lot is the issue, for example of women covering their faces.

And I've heard I've heard

For example, some sisters complaining in particular about their their parents, that their parents will not allow them to cover their face.

Because they say that covering the face, this is the what the extremists do.

So don't do that.

What's next?

extremists go to the mosque.

Supposedly, right? Okay, so don't go to the mosque, you might be an extremist.

don't grow your beard you might be then

people think you're an extremist was the limits?

Well, I can assure you, if they can start removing these things one by one, they will move to the next step.

Until they can try to eradicate almost everything of Islam by identifying it as these are what the extremists do stay away from.

And as I said, if this were just a non Muslim, saying that there won't be a big problem, but within the Muslim community, the effect of the media and the propaganda and influence is so great that within the Muslim community, you can find people who do not want to do acts of the Sharia, that they are supposed to do to be on the straight path, simply because they don't want to be labeled as an expense.

As I said, as these ads get more and more any coming to the lecture for mosque, for example, attending a session like this, to get knowledge about Islam to attend the lecture.

I need to attend a lecture, for example, this is a sign that you're interested in Islam, this might be a sign that you might be there's a question mark. Now, you

might be an extremist. Otherwise, why would you go to a lecture?

I know there's a jump in the logic. But that's, you know, that's what you call effective advertising.

So more and more, more and more acts are more and more as they describe the extremists. I told you about that one book called how the horse level home. And this is their Islam, we're in the picture, they have the person wearing the shorts robe and the beard, it says that same kind of thing.

And he tried to identify even the actions of the sooner the actions of the from Mama, as being some kind of extreme.

And why people are listening to that, why is it affecting them? Because they are extremist who have done certain acts? And yes, we don't approve of their acts, nobody approves of their acts.

Nobody, I don't want to be called an extremist. Nobody wants to be called an extremist.

But you have to realize that, you know, just because they did certain acts, which are extreme doesn't mean now you leave everything about Islam.

But that is that is happening unfortunately to some people.

In other aspects.

Even for example, the the concept of By the way, the concept of jihad.

And in the concept of jihad people Muslims are you can see Muslims are kind of trying to distance themselves more and more from the concept of jihad.

Obviously, the Quran

talks about jihad in many cases in many places.

And in fact, the Jihad

it's true as many types of jihad and Jihad has many aspects to it. But one of the most important forms of jihad

is the legitimate use of force

to make the lawfulness of and without a supreme.

But now, if you if you were to stop many Muslims in the streets, in the United States, and ask them, Do you believe in Jihad?

But you many of them would say, No, no,

you had those experiments, you know, they, they make you happy.

And if they pass that on to the next generation, what's going to happen?

No one is going to change over time. The ultimate result could be the no one is going to have the understanding that at some time, you might need to stand up and defend Islam.

If we don't speak about this, and make people understand what is really jihad, what's the difference between jihad, and what the extremists are doing?

And what the terrorists are doing.

And we don't understand it clearly, then this is what could happen over time.

The people become so distant from jihad, that the concept itself may be lost among Muslim Muslims.

And so therefore, if the enemies ever tried to attack Islam to be open

another thing closely even also closely related to that is Islam the word Islam.

How many times have you heard recently that Islam means peace?

Which I'll do a trick on, you know, how many times have you heard recently that Islam means peace? Raise your hand.

What's the relationship between raising your hand and how many times have you heard the

How many of you heard people say that this that means peace?

Okay.

Is that true? Islam is peace.

Now,

one of the meanings of the word Islam, I challenge any of you

I challenge any of you to go to any classical Arabic dictionary and apparently this brothers already done the work for you.

And show me where Islam means peace. What Islam does not mean peace, as the brother was saying, you know, actually the root you know, the root yes comes from the same root as the word sinner. And the root in essence, the meaning is,

you know, to be like free of defections, free of

disease, real weakness and this kind of thing.

But Islam is the submission to Allah subhanho wa Taala and so forth. Doesn't mean peace, you

know, far enough apart come from the same route. But, you know, so tell me that you're gonna make Nepal towards your wife because she gets Nepal

the big difference between the two

but when you when you keep spreading this that Islam means peace again, you're taking away because Islam also means justice.

If someone's gonna say Islam means peace, I'm gonna say Islam is just

course Islam doesn't mean justice, right? Just want to see if you're paying attention presently nobody was paying attention.

It's not Islam also stands for justice.

Right, idle is one of the key concepts in the Quran.

And sometimes, in order to get justice, in order to get out of jail, you have to resort to force.

I can imagine our children the next generation or our grandchildren here in the United States, when they hear about Muslims making jihad or fighting some place, asking their fathers or their grandfathers, it's not means peace, helping these people are fighting over it.

That means peace. We're like the Christians, we believe in peace.

Also, like all, all innovations, all groups of innovations, and basically as we said before,

extremism is a form of

innovation type of innovation,

like all innovations, is extremism and extremist groups, the presence of extremist groups among the Muslims causes division.

And with the vision also, oftentimes, obviously, you get hatred and rancor among the Muslims.

We know clearly from the Quran

that we as Muslims are supposed to come together but we come together not just in the name of Islam, but we have to come together on some basis as Allah subhanho wa Taala says, Yeah, you're Latina motoko la hapa de partie. Well at mo tuna 11 to Muslim on the move we have Lila Jamia wallet to barafu and Allah subhanho wa Taala is telling us in these verses to have the proper cupolas man with Allah according to what is right and do not save as Muslims and whole all together to the roof of Allah subhanho wa Taala to the court of Allah subhanho wa Taala and do not divide

and he do not divide among yourself. So the key the thing that brings us together is this quarter will this manner without in other words the revelation from Allah subhanho wa Taala the Koran and as soon and as if we have the proper Temple of Allah subhana wa tada inshallah Allah subhanho wa Taala will bring us together

along that path.

And that is the key to our unity. That is the real unity among the most. And anytime there comes there appears a kind of bid up or innovation among the Muslims, there's going to be division.

There's going to be division because insha Allah as the professor cinemas told us,

there will always be at least some Muslims who are following the right way.

And those Muslims when they see this bit out when they see this group,

these heretics they will have to oppose them.

They will have to oppose what they're doing for the sake of all this man with that.

In fact just after those verses in which Allah subhanho wa Taala is talking about his bounty how he brought the Muslims together was put on that was La La come with come to my done other and fella for being a political force back to me Never

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in the same set of verses in which Allah subhanho wa Taala is reminding the Sahaba of the, of the of the bounty that they gave them how he brought their hearts together, and be then they became brethren by His grace.

And they were on the pits of the of the fire in Allah subhanho wa Taala save them. Then also Allah subhana wa tada said, there should be a group among you calling to what is good, or ordering, what is proper, and eradicating what is evil. And those are the ones who are successful.

So it always has to be a characteristic of the believers,

that when they see an innovation, or when they see a wrong deed, it is their obligation to

eradicate it, to work against it to try to remove it.

So if you have, for example, an extremist act like in the case of the problem homosassa when you heard about those people who did some extreme acts,

he ordered them to stop what they're doing.

And when he referred to the whites who are coming, he said, you know, as I quoted yesterday, if I were among them, or if I were to meet them, I would destroy them like the way the people of odd were destroyed.