Salafism or Islam?

Valera Rahim hamdulillah salat wa salam O Allah. mousseline Nabina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sahbihi wa seldom at the Sleeman kathira My bad, the respected brothers sisters, Solomonic anata wa barakato. Dear colleagues,

Good evening. Good evening, I wish if I can speak in Dutch, but unfortunately, I can't speak and that maybe in the future, the more you will come me here, here, the more I will be able to interact with the Dutch people, and then I'll be able to inshallah, to speak in Dutch. In a matter of short while we have a limited time. And we need to tackle a very important topic, which is Salafism, or Islam. And I do apologize to the camera person, because I'll make his life difficult because I like to keep moving. Yeah.

I wanted to speak in the beginning about my experience, my first experience with the Dutch people, that goes back to 1996. And it was a very, very positive experience, actually. And I have to say that it was my first visit to the west. And it forms. In fact, it changed my views about to the west. At that time, it was my first visit to the west, and I was I did not have that much experience about Western people, except to those Western people who come to work in Saudi Arabia, and I was working with some Westerners there, but when I came to the west in 1996, in the first time, that was maybe you can say that it was a cultural shock for me, and it amazes me how the West has changed.

After 911 the shift was so far, the the shift was so big, and that needs deep analysis, why this has happened. Anyway, this is another subject that maybe we need to tackle sometime later, but let me just tackle the main topic

that was given to me today, and inshallah, you have a very limited time and I'll try to tackle it in the time that is given to me.

As you know, that unfortunately, Salafism has been receiving a lot of criticism,

in the media or by the media, in basically in the Netherlands, we are not experienced something like this in, in Britain, maybe the brothers or the people in German, German, the German, they are, they are experiencing something like this in Germany, but I think what people are experiencing here in the Netherlands, it might be unique, for me, at least I haven't seen it in somewhere else in Europe, why this needs to be a question that this needs to be analyzed.

And inshallah hopefully, it throughout the discussion in this conference, maybe an answer can be identified. Now, what is Salafism?

See, there are so many definitions of Salafism and in fact, the biggest problem

of the media and some politicians when they not the media, all of them but some media outlets and some politicians when they speak negatively or even positively about Salafism is they fail to give a definition of Salafism

and I challenge them to give a proper definition of Salafism because they can't and those who are qualified to give a definition about Salafism the academics for example, they themselves fail to give a definition about Salafism. Does Salafism mean that you don't follow a particular school of thought?

Does that mean this? Yeah, does Salafism mean

mean you believe in Jihad?

Does Salafism mean that you believe that Islam is the best way of life? What does it mean Really? Does Salafism mean you have a pure

outlook for Islam and you want everyone to have this pure outlook for Islam?

Does it mean like this? Most of the people believe that Salafism is kind of that outlook that look at Islam that Islam is the Pure religion and it should remain pure.

And we should purify Islam or from any kind of innovations or any kind of addition. And I think if you look at it from an abstract point of view, this definition is a beautiful definition. Yes. Because obviously, if we try to purify Islam from any kind of innovation from any kind of addition, then we will go back to Islam, that is actually mercy to the entire mankind. And the Prophet sallallahu wasallam was sent as a mercy for not only mankind but for all living beings. And Allah confirm this in the Quran, Allah Allah Allah says Allah Azza Naka, Allah, Allah Allah mean, we have sent you as a mercy for Al amin al amin includes incident includes human beings and includes even

non human beings.

Islam is a mercy for even for for the environment as well. Islam is mercy for Muslims and for non Muslims. Islam is mercy for all human beings in this life and most importantly, in the life after death. Now, so the point is, what is the definition of Salafism when they want to ban Salafism or when they want to ban Salafi organizations or Salafi mosque or something like this? What is the definition of Salafism? And once you go back to any definition of Salafism, that is acceptable by even the scholars, the so called the scholars of Salafism such as even Tamia for example, or even to Mohammed bin Abdullah hub or even to those colors before them. Mm hmm Mm hmm. Or even to Imam Abu

hanifa or Imam Malik or Imam Shafi, you will see that Salafism is nothing but Islam.

You will see that Salafism is nothing but Islam. What is Salafism is to take your rules from and your guidelines from what? From Quran and Sunnah. Does any Muslim reject Quran and Sunnah in fact if there is any Muslim who rejects Quran and Sunnah he is not any more Muslim agree or not? Yeah, I can see them say I believe in Islam, but I don't believe in Quran or I believe in Islam, but I don't believe in sooner.

Yeah, we say eyeshadow La ilaha illallah wa shadow Allah, Muhammad Rasulullah all of us go back to Quran and Sunnah. All Muslims all over the world. Go back to Quran and Sunnah. Now, some academics might say, well, the issue is the definitive that the interpretation of Quran and Sunnah. Yeah, so at least, we say to those who say that the problem is the interpretation of the Quran and Sunnah we say to them, at least let us agree that all Muslims believe in Quran and Sunnah and submit to Quran and Sunnah. And they take Quran and Sunnah as their guidelines. Yeah. Now let us talk about the second issue, which is their interpretation of Quran and Sunnah their interpretation of Quran and

Sunnah all Muslims in the world belong to

at least the Sunni Muslims to one of the four schools of thought, yeah, either hanafis or Maliki's or Chavez or humbleness. Even, they say for example, even taymiyah. He doesn't follow another hub. He sometimes takes from Imam Abu hanifa. Sometimes he takes it from him. Sometimes he takes it from him, Amharic and so on. Sometimes he would take opinions that are not endorsed by the official school of thought of Imam Abu hanifa Rahim Allah, for example, he might take the second opinion of Imam Abu hanifa. He might take a third another opinion of not the official opinion of Imam Ahmed and so on. At the end of the day, he is moving or maneuvering within the four schools of thought any

Muslim in the world will be referring to those schools of thoughts. Maybe you might find one scholar here or there. He might have certain opinions in single massage and in single issues that go outside the four schools of thoughts. Maybe in the issue of Pollock. Yeah, one opinion, maybe in the issue of

another opinion, maybe regarding the issue of nyjah says something like this minor issues, but in major issues. They don't go beyond the four schools of thoughts.

Yeah, and this is well known throughout history, ask any academic and they will confirm this. So Salafism in reality, my dear brothers and sisters is going back to Quran and Sunnah in a very simple form and go back to the four schools of thoughts. In reality Salafism is nothing but Islam. In reality Salafism is nothing but Islam. Now within Muslims, yes we have certain

certain maybe you can say sect or certain groups. We say that anyone can claim that he is Muslim, anyone, but we have a claim and we have reality. Anyone who believe anyone who believes in Quran and Sunnah, so he is Muslim. Anyone who rejects Quran and Sunnah he is not Muslim. So we say if someone he says that he is a Muslim, but he doesn't want to accept Quran and Sunnah he doesn't want to accept Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam as the final messenger, we will say to him with all due respect, okay, this is not Islam. In order to be a Muslim you need to submit to Quran and Sunnah. furusato if he says yes, I want to refer to Quran and Sunnah, but I want to produce my own interpretation of

Quran and Sunnah. We say to him, that you are saying that the vast majority of Muslims are wrong.

They misunderstood Islam, and you are the only one who understood the Quran and Sunnah. And obviously, this goes against common sense. Islam has been there for 1400 years. Yeah, Islam has been practiced for the past 1400 years, Islam has been practiced by superpowers. Yeah, the healer for Russia was a superpower. The after that the Mayan period was a superpower. The Romanian period, if you know those who know history, it ruled maybe an area that is bigger than the Middle East, America and Russia. If you want to calculate the area, that Romanian period cool, ruled for almost 100 years. Yeah, you want to calculate that area. It was bigger than the Middle East plus America and

Russia. That vast Okay, and it ruled that area, according to Islam, according to Quran and Sunnah. Then after is the Romanian period, we have that bassy period continued for almost 500 years, it was following the same pattern. Yeah. And it was a huge civilization. And it continues for 500 years and one point it was the main civilization in the entire world.

Yeah. Then the abassi period or Dabashi Caliphate, yeah, the word Caliphate is bit sensitive. Yeah, the abassi Caliphate fell down in 605, five in 656, which is after almost 650 years after the Prophet sallallahu sallam, which means that for 600 years, it ruled this big area, with Quran and Sunnah referring to one of the four modahaus. Yeah, in fact, for motherboard practice, they threw out this big, huge civilization, then the Abbasid Caliphate came to an end, as we know, and then after that, the Ottoman Caliphate is started. And again, it's ruled a huge area. At one point, it was the main civilization in the entire world for almost 200 years. And then after that, for the

rest of 400 years, it was one of the main civilizations in the entire world. And there are those who know about history. There are statements from Western academics that confirmed that was 10 M. non Muslims, and general used to have good relationship with the Ottomans if they're used to send their children to study in some Ottoman universities, they used to seek help from the Ottomans. In fact, and historians confirm this, that once the the Jews and some Christians were persecuted in Spain, they fled to who, to the Ottoman Empire. We provided we Muslims provided Jewish people, and some Christians shelter when they were persecuted by some Christians and who provided them with

With this, the Ottoman Caliphate, the Islamic State of the Ottomans. Yeah, the media is always presenting a negative image of what of the Islamic State. Yeah, the word Islamic say is very frightening. It means killing shopping the hands, etc, etc, or shopping the heads, etc, etc. Read the history and see what the Ottoman Empire provided for the entire civilization. Okay, so and then the Ottoman Empire ended in 1924, as we all know, so, throughout history, and throughout these huge civilizations, Muslims were practicing what

Muslims were referring to Quran and Sunnah. And to one of those through four schools of thought, maybe some scholars were, may be moving from one school of thought to another school of thought, or sometimes they are adopting by the notion of each they had an opinion that maybe was not one of the official four schools of thoughts and so on. But in general, there we're referring to Quran and Sunnah. And those four schools of thoughts. Now we as Muslims, when we say that, well, this is our Constitution, the Islamic constitution, Quran and Sunnah. And the interpretation is simple. We have the forest school of thoughts, we are accused of being the barbaric salafists, or we are being

accused of the terrorist Salafist, or we are being accused of the extremists, Salafist, who are maybe now, there are just extremist and non violent extremists, but after some time, by the conveyor belt theory, they will become what they will become the terrorist Subhana Allah, we've been living in.

We have built those civilizations that at once provided or in fact, at many times provided shelters and help for Jewish people, Christian people, and then we are accused of being extremists who is going to turn to be terrorists. This is an over simplistic view of Islam and what Islam can provide for humanity. Obviously, obviously, the notion of jihad will come obviously, any nation that sees itself as a great nation, it will not be accepted, it will not accept at any cost to be demonized. It will not accept at any cost to be slaughtered and just Just wait.

It doesn't accept or it will never accept to wait until it is a slaughter it will never accept to be undermined. Obviously, they will defend themselves, whether they defend themselves and that the notion of jihad or whether they defend themselves under any notion, it is a natural human being reaction that once you are attacked, to be what to defend yourself to defend your honor. This is something this is something well known and all the human beings will do that it is a natural reaction as we have said, Okay, so, my dear brothers and sisters, this is Salafism. This is Salafism. And this means that every single Muslim in reality he is a selfie as far as he believed,

as we said, In Quran and Sunnah and goes back to the former da hip as a matter of interpretation for for an and sooner as simple as this. That's why I always challenge politicians, journalists by giving me providing me with a pure, robust definition of Salafism and they end they fail to provide such definition as simple as this, okay.

Now,

does that mean that the media is attacking Islam?

If we say that Salafism is nothing but Islam, does it mean that the media is attacking Islam or some politicians are attacking Islam? Whether they say yes or no, in reality, they are attacking Islam.

Yeah, not all media outlets, but some politicians and some media outlets. They are attacking Islam and what they need what they are doing, and we have to be aware of this tactic. Unfortunately, the tactic that is used by some Islamophobic and right wing, whether media or politicians is they want to divide us

Yeah, yeah, I'm not attacking Islam, I'm attacking who Salafist you are not a selfie? Yeah, but their definition of Salafism is not like what many people perceive Salafism is. Are you following this? Yeah, we as Muslims might have a detailed definition of Salafism? Yeah. But the media is not attacking that the media is attacking anyone who wants to anyone who believes in Quran and Sunnah. And they refer to those four schools of thoughts.

As simple as this, anyone who believes that for an answer are

the sacred words of Allah and His messenger.

If anyone who believes in the infallibility of Quran and Sunnah anyone who believes that the Koran is a mercy to the entire mankind, in the huddle for Ana de la to hear from indeed this book guides to that what is better anyone who believes in this ayah that for an answer now guides humanity to the best practice, then he is Salafi, and he should be banned and he should be controlled? This is how it is, this is what the media is presenting it, or sorry, this is the reality of what is the media attacking. Although they are not presenting it like this, they are presenting it as if they are attacking just part of the community. Not everyone, they are not attacking Islam, they welcome

Islam, they are happy with Islam, then we need to ask them a question, which is, okay, forget about the definition of Salafism. Give us the definition of Islam. What does Islam mean? Unless you as a non Muslim, you want to define for me what Islam is, you need to tell me how to pray, you need to tell me how to make what do you need to tell me how to make how to get married? And you need to tell me about these things. And I have to adapt to them. Because this is Islam. If that is the case, make it clear that there Islam is defined by some politicians, some media outlets, and obviously, obviously, this is not acceptable. Obviously, this is not acceptable. We have the definition of

Islam. That has been, as I said, practiced by hundreds,

by millions of people throughout hundreds of years. Okay. What is the danger of attacking Islam? Although they don't say that they are attacking Islam, they are attacking Salafism? What is the danger of that? This is very, very dangerous, my dear brothers and sisters, this is very, very dangerous, because at the end of the day, in any society, there should be homogeneous and peaceful coexistence between the components of the society. Yeah, even if they have a huge ideological differences, they should have what peaceful coexistence? Yeah, and we Muslims should be and we are open about that we should be more keen to have peaceful coexistence between the components of the

society as a whole. That's why we are vocal against anyone who carry any crime with our mass crime, that is called terrorism, or a single crime, we are against that, because we are in favor of peaceful coexistence between all components of the society, irrespective of or despite our major ideological differences, despite the differences in our culture, and our cultures, despite our differences as human beings, because as human beings don't expect us Yes, as human beings to live with the same set of values. So why are we forced to accept values that are alien to our nature as Muslims, you Muslims, you have to do this otherwise, you are not European, you Muslims have to do

this. Otherwise, you are extremists, you Muslims have to accept that otherwise, you are not welcome in this country. And to conclude, my dear brothers and sisters, what is the future? Yeah, what is the future, we have to say? We have to say that now Now

see, European countries, Europe in general. In fact, the whole world and in particular, Europe, is in a dynamic state. So the definition of Europe is in a continuous, a change you

Maybe 50 years ago, was a white continent was a Christian continent. But now, you can't say that Europe is a white continent. You can't say that Europe is a Christian continent. Can you say that? No one says that anymore. So what is Europe? Europe is a continent for Christians, Muslims, Jews, no faith, it is for all of us. So Europe has to adopt a new definition. That is what that is also dynamic that suits those demographic changes that are taking place in Europe. You can't force yourself upon me. You want me as a Muslim, not to force myself upon you. Yes, I agree. I am not forcing myself upon you. But why are you forcing yourself on me?

This is the question. You have as a Muslim, you have to assimilate. And when I say why don't you accept Islam optionally? Oh, no, you see, you as Muslims are forcing yourself upon Europe, you want to take over, you want to change Europe, you want to do this and that and this and that you are being extremist and then you will end up by being a terrorist, but it is allowed for you to say you Muslim has to accept this has to do that has to abandon this has to give up your religion has to do this. Otherwise, you are extremist? No, no, this continent, this country, for example, which is Holland, is owned by all of us.

We are partners in this continent, in this country. I don't force myself on you. Yes, I debate my views. Yeah, I'm vocal about my views. Be vocal about your views. We are all partners. I have to deal with you as a partner. And you have to deal with me as what, as a partner. Yes, I am a minority. Maybe now later, I might be a majority. You have to respect me and I have to respect you. It is a mutual respect, mutual, peaceful coexistence. You don't ask me you don't treat me the government's the European governments should not treat Muslims as visitors, they have to comply with what with certain rules that are defined by certain people. No, we are European Muslims. We are

partners in Europe. As we said, I am not a visitor. I am a citizen. Here. You are European citizens. My dear brothers and sisters don't accept to be treated as a visitor, who should just comply to the norms that are forced upon him by the host. Netherlands is not a host for us. It is our country. It is your country, as Dutch people, Britain is my country. I'm not going to Britain as a visitor, and they should not expect from me to live there as a visitor and to assimilate why both of us as Britain and the values of Britain has to take into consideration that we are partners in living in Britain, we all define the values of Britain, we all define the values of Europe, the definition of

Europe has to be dynamic enough and has to accommodate the new demographic changes. If we don't to do this, then that will be a serious problem not only for Muslims, but for the entire continent. Because obviously, human beings by nature, they can't accept to be forced to abandon their values, human beings by nature, they don't accept to be criminalized because of their values, that they have been practiced for hundreds of years. This is the way forward as I see it, and it should be seen like this.

That we need to assert our identity as Muslims, European Muslims. It doesn't mean that if you are a Muslim, if you are a European, you should abandon your religion. No, no, no, no, no, we are European Muslims. What does that mean? It doesn't mean that we have to abandon our values, our cultures in order to fit in Europe. No, you

Europe has to fit. And has Europe has to accommodate all of us because because it is our continent, European countries, our countries, as simple as this. This is the way forward insha Allah de como lo hara Baraka lo fi calm was Salam alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh