Transcription
Back with another discussion. I think this one will be, uh, greatly enriching and is very timely, as the Black Code will be released today. Uh, the topic that you see reads, "Islam is not for black people and Muslims are racist." So, we're going to go ahead and get into it.
Uh, we initially had three folks online. I think one rejoined, so I'll pop him back in. There we go. And what I first want to do is yield the floor for the gentlemen to make their, uh, introductions, and then we'll engage the conversation.
>> I'm going to start real quick. My name is Hussein. I'm from New Jersey. I'm 29 years old. I just want to say thank you for giving me the time and the platform.
>> It's my pleasure.
>> Go ahead. I'm going after you.
>> Uh, my name is Majid. I'm, uh, from the state of New Mexico and I'm happy to be here. Pleased to be here.
>> Okay. My name is Sir.
>> Firstly, I want to thank our host for consistently being a voice for the voiceless, for the people in Gaza.
>> Appreciate that.
>> Yes, sir.
>> Just to let you guys know who I am. My name is Bilal Ysef. I'm on the Canary Mission watch list for leading over 150 protests, not just for Gaza and Palestine, but also for Black Lives Matters. And I just spent the past eight years in federal prison as the imam of the Muslim car, with the majority of the Muslims there being black or African-American.
Walaykum. Asalam. We appreciate you being here. Uh, ladies and saints, as we go through this conversation, I encourage all of you to send in your questions. You can use the information in the banner moving across the stream screen or using the description of the video. I think this will be a very fruitful conversation. Uh, one that I've actually never had in my many travels and stays in the Middle East. So I think this will be, uh, very close to home for me.
Uh, so I want to yield the floor for anyone to, Oh, yeah. Firstly, if you all would be so kind as to share what your ethnic background is. Mine is foundational black American, as I trust you all have guessed. And I yield the floor to you all.
>> I'm Egyptian. I come from Egyptian parents, just in part, um, Chechen.
>> Okay. And you say you're from, uh, Jersey?
>> Well, yeah. My parents are Egyptian, but I'm from Jersey. Yes.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I know a couple Egyptians from Jersey. All right. And you said you have some Chechen in you as well?
>> Correct. Yeah. 20%.
>> Hell, heck of a mix.
>> It's unusual. Okay.
>> Uh, I'm Tunisian. I'm Tunisia. From Tunisia, North Africa. Um, I'm, uh, native northern African mostly. Uh, we call it, we, we're, uh, Arab as well. So we have, uh, both, uh, both. We're culturally Arab Muslims and religious Muslims. And, uh, but mostly it's northern African.
>> Understood. And are you from Tunis or like a village outside of the city?
>> I'm actually in the center of the country. Yemen, from a, a, a town, uh, city called Siduzid. It's a very, uh, small village, actually. Yeah.
>> Okay. All right. Very good.
>> I was born in Columbus, Ohio. My parents were born in a Palestinian refugee camp in South Lebanon called, and my grandparents were kicked out of Aka, Palestine, specifically from a village called Sria in 1948.
>> Mhm. So you are full-blood Palestinian?
>> Yes, sir.
>> Okay. Very good. Alhamdulillah.
>> And you grew up in Columbus, Ohio, huh?
>> Correct.
>> Yes. That, that's quite a place. I, I've spent some time in Columbus, Ohio.
>> For good or for ill. Okay. Very good. And who wants to kick it off?
>> Put me in the game, coach.
>> I yield the floor to you.
>> Thank you. So although I share, uh, many of the views, uh, that you, especially when it comes to the Middle East and politics and how the world needs to unify to end the the suffering in Gaza, I understand your point of view because, you know, you've been to the Middle East. We've all seen the corner store Arabs, but I don't believe that's a fair representation. I don't believe that's a fair representation of Islam. Just like Donald Trump being the president of America isn't a fair representation for all people who are living in America.
>> So,
>> right. So,
>> I disagree to that.
>> I appreciate that. So furthermore, I want to say that there, and I'm speaking from what I witnessed. This isn't just like I'm paring something out here. There's nothing on earth that can unify the people like Islam. And, uh, brother Malcolm X also said the same thing. I see, uh, you know, from where I've been, federal prison, uh, you, somebody, a brother told me one time, you can go to any part of the world and say, "Where the Muslims at?" If you go to Russia and say, "Where are the GDs?" They don't know what that is. You say, "Where are the Muslims?" They're gonna point you to the masjid. So that's not, no disrespect to anybody, but at the end of the day, we're all Muslim. We're all brothers. I know you want to talk about the racism within the Muslim community. I respect that. I want to hear about that. But as far as the Quran, the Hadith, the Sunnah from authentic Hadith, there is no racism in Islam.
So, one thing I'm not going to do during the conversation is pretend as though you're saying things that are ridiculous. Um, you know, I think it'll be fair for us to respect a middle ground or, or a straight path, if you like. And I agree with you when you say that you can go almost anywhere in the world and say, "We're the Muslims." That's true. I think it was a bit shy to compare it to the GDs, which is a black street gang. So to compare a proper religious order to a black street gang. But it also speaks to something very meaningful, which is to say that when you think of black people, you thought of a street gang instead of thinking of one of our philosophers. And that is one of the chief concerns that I have. That's number one. The number two, when you suggest that you can go anywhere in the world and find Muslims, well, at some level, that's because of conquest and the explicit effort to spread Islam by whatever means, be it violence, dawah, or otherwise. And that doesn't necessarily mean that's a good thing. Similarly, if you were British, you could have said at a point that you could go many places in the world and hear English and hear, you know, reverence for the British Empire. And similarly, it was due to conquest and not many things that are good. Uh, we can cite many places where the Arabs have enslaved, or shall we say, the Muslims have enslaved, uh, the people. And I've been to many of those places, and I think that's something not to be proud of. So the idea that because something has propagated that means it's a good thing is errant.
>> Yeah. So I want to address what, real quick. I just want to address what the brother said to me. So the person who told me that was somebody in prison who himself was African-American. In prison, it's a gang environment. So, you know, that's, that's not really fair to say that I think all black people are gang members, cuz I used a quote that somebody told me in prison. We're
>> I didn't say you thought that.
>> I think, I think, I think we're talking about the wrong thing. I, what I'm trying to, what I, what I want to know is where, where, where do you see that Islam is racist? I, I understand the Muslim thing totally.
>> Okay. So,
>> like, be specific on where you see Islam is racist.
>> So, firstly, we have to do away with the the the escape door that you folks often use, which is as follows: You'll say, "Islam is perfect, but the Muslims are imperfect." So let us excuse the misdeeds of the Muslims and assess the deen based on the Quran and based on the Hadith, which is improper. Because there is nothing on earth where you can look at a school or a school of thought or an ideology or a system of ideas and say, "Well, the system of ideas is perfect, but it's the followers who are errant." Well, if the system of ideas was perfect, then it would yield a better product. I'll give you a quick example. If you send your children to school, and you're paying for private school in Tunisia, and your kids go to school, and you have 10 children, and your kids go, and after they finish, they can't speak Arabic, they can't do arithmetic, and you go to the teachers and say, "Hey, what's what's the issue here?" And they say, "The school is perfect. Your kids are the problem." And you're like, "Damn, all 10 of them, or even eight out of 10 of them?"
>> Okay. Well, I, I, I see what you're trying to do, but you can't say this particular problem is inherent to Islam, uh, specifically to Islam or Christianity or anything. We're talking right here about universal morality and universal values that are very clear. Like Islam falls and falls respects superordinate ethical ordinance, like, and and encourages super ethical ordinance. The problem is when I talk about morality as a whole, no human respects morality at all times. Slavery falls into that universal morality, uh, uh, kind of dilemma, right? And it's mostly a, a question of power. Who has the power at that time? Whether it's the Romans, the Greeks, the Persians, the Muslims, uh, after that, the, the colonialists. Like powers from all of them somehow follow the same pattern. But because they do not follow morality, it is not an intrinsic thing to Islam. So, and let's say humanity in general, I will say through blacks as well as your test in life is to distinguish between what's good and what's right or wrong, right? Like, let's categorize later to be wrong, or racism to be an awful thing, right? Uh, do we all fall into making mistakes and somehow, uh, escape from the correct trajectory on a daily basis? Yes. Where we hold morality as a
>> May I ask you
>> go ahead.
>> And there's a couple of topics you touched there, but if I would ask you a simple, quick question, if we were to look at racism, and obviously there are different races, would you say that Islam, in practice, the behaviors of the Muslims, would you say that they've been more anti-black than anti-anything else? You know, anti-white, anti-Asian, anti-Persian, anti-Arab, anti-anything? Has it been anti-black more than anything else?
>> I think if it comes down to blacks, Islam was, or Muslims, early on, were the most dignifiers of black people. Now, is there some transgressions that happened after the death of a prophet? Yeah. But is that categorical to blacks? Absolutely not. You know, I like
>> Did you, did you understand my question?
>> Yeah. Go ahead. Say, say it again. I'm sorry. Of all the racial categories.
>> Yeah.
>> You said you said there's, we can find racism in every religion, and I agree with you there.
>> Yeah.
>> I'm, I'm asking you in terms of racism, have we found that of all of the races, the Muslims have been most discriminatory toward the blacks more than any other racial group?
>> Can I, can I respond to this real quick? I would say not necessarily, and I say, I'm, Can I
>> Do you mind if we hear from Majid, and we'll come straight to you?
>> Of course. I apologize.
>> All right. Well, given that
>> it too.
>> Uh, given that I do not know specifically what happened with the blacks in the, uh, the 7th century AD. Um, I know that a lot of slavery started to become a practice that is not ex, not welcomed in the Muslim world, and most majority of the slaves at the time, they were black. So, was that a dignifier to the to the blacks? Was that, was that
>> Will you answer the question simply though? Just, is that, do you think, do you think it's a yes or a no?
>> Well, you see, I ask questions in debate that I already know the answer to. And what I'm setting you up for is to expose that you're, you're, uh, you're biased. You see, because if you were honest, you'd say, "Mark, what? It's very clear the blacks have received the harshest treatment, verbal, physical, and otherwise, from the Arabs and from the Muslims." It's very clear. It's not unclear at any level. So when you deny that, when you deny that, it shows that it shows that you're not being honest, but instead you're making every effort to protect your religion. And I respect that, but that's what I'm here to expose is the dishonesty.
>> Okay. Can I answer, can I answer that one? One second. Let me answer him to that.
>> I think it would be fair to, uh, hear from Hussein, but I'll give you a little bit of time just, just to Okay, I'll give you a little bit of time to respond, and then we'll, we'll go to Hussein. I, I feel like if you want to seclude the blacks to be the the the the the only category of a human that were subjugated to racism, I feel like any category that were their socioeconomic reality is down, they would have been subjugated to that. It just happened to be blacks at the time. No, I don't think that it just happened to be. For example, I've traveled widely in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as your homelands. All of you, except my Chechen friend. I've not been to Chechnya. But I will tell you this, that you can even go into museums in Qatar, in Oman, and if you look, they'll tell you their own history. They were in many cases, you go to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, very wealthy today, but they were in some cases fishing villages in utter poverty. And even today, they're, they're skill-less. So the idea that the blacks were enslaved by the Arabs because they happened to be so poor, this is nonsense. And furthermore, we would ask, well, why didn't you just enslave other Arabs who were poor? Why did you feel the need to go and locate the blacks? Why did you feel the need and go and locate the blacks to organize an entire slave trade that was transcontinental? You see, there's something, there is something a little more special about using the blacks as the, the, for your cannon.
>> But, but that's absolutely incorrect. Slavery for the Arabs was not a category, was not a race. Was anybody that you, they could enslave, including Arabs. Even after Islam, slavery was not categorical to blacks. It was anybody. You don't have slaves. Slavery is
>> You speak Arabic, right? You, you speak Arabic, right?
>> Absolutely. Yeah.
>> What is the pejorative term that the Arabs use for the blacks? Let's be honest here. What is the term?
>> Which is
>> Yes, that's right. And they use that for the blacks. Correct.
>> And, and I was shocked the first time I had heard.
>> Yeah. Don't, don't be shocked. Yes, exactly. And you can't lie to me because I know the truth. It's impossible. So I do.
>> So, Majid, Majid, I must, do they use in Tunisia?
>> Ya Allah, Majid, I must, I must tell you this, Majid. Uh, so far, I think all of your arguments have been very weak, particularly because you won't grant the obvious. Uh, there are entire histories that have been impacted by the Arab slave trade that was exclusively based on race. I went to one lovely island called Zanzibar, where they have the most devout Muslims I've ever seen in my entire life. I've never seen, uh, when it was time for Fajr, I never seen so many Muslims walk to the masjid. A beautiful place. But I also went there and observed their enslavement history, where they lived under the most cruel circumstances by Muslims. You cannot show me any place where Arabs did that to other Arabs. So you've not been honest. Uh, Hussein, talk to me.
>> Okay. So I just wanted to ask you a couple of things. Number one, you asked a question in the beginning, say, you, when you made an example about the school and said, uh, "Islam, Islam is perfect, but Muslims aren't," and then you made an example about the school. I think that's a very good example. But you asked him, "Why do you guys always go back and saying Islam and not Muslims?" Well, I would say my personal reason of saying that is because the main topic is saying "Islam is not for black people," which I disagree with. So I'm talking about Islam in this case. I'm not talking about Muslims. That's why when you asked him, he said, "Why you keep saying Islam and Muslims?" I know that, and I agree with you, but the title of this video is "Islam is not for black people." That's the part that
>> Okay, correct. So that's why I tend to defend Islam more than, uh, Muslims. And the second thing, I guess,
>> One moment before we go on to the second thing.
>> Please.
>> Hussein, I like your patience. I admire that, and I admire your poise.
>> Thank you. Would you concede that it is, uh, quite a mental gymnastic to separate Islam and Muslims as though they can be unrelated?
>> That's extraordinary. Yes, that's quite extraordinary. So, what I'm hoping is that we mustn't, uh, use too much imagination here, that we can exist on on the ground in reality and we can just acknowledge, uh, the veracity of what I'm putting forward, which are actually quite basic arguments. Uh, and the challenge is when I'm arguing with religious people, I know generally there's no winning. Why? No one is going to throw away their religion in a YouTube debate. It's impossible, right? So, I know that you must defend it, however wrong it might be. But it is not reasonable to separate Islam and Muslims. We
>> I'm not trying to, as much as I'm trying to respond to your question to him when you said, "Why do you guys keep separating the two?" I came here. I know it's not logical because Muslims come from Islam. I get that. But the reason why I started by saying that is because this question says "Islam is not." When I'm thinking Islam, I'm thinking Quran and I'm thinking Hadith and prophecies, whatnot. And I, and I do acknowledge that Muslims, and we can talk about this all day, the Muslims are not representing religion the way it should be. I, for one, and I don't want to sidetrack too much,
>> I think the biggest enemies of Muslims are Muslim leaders. And I don't want to go too deep into that. These are the number one enemies.
>> You took the words out of my mouth. That's exactly why.
>> The number one enemy is more than Israel, more than any any government, more than anyone is the Muslim leaders. That's number one. That's that's where it starts. These are the people.
>> We don't got Muslim leaders. There is no Muslim.
>> We don't got Musl. They're not Muslims. They're not leaders.
>> Yeah. I don't want.
>> I, I agree with you. However, I must point out the fact that in every circumstance, we must concede that the leaders are often a representative of the people. Uh, whether the people have, uh, directly consented or indirectly consented by failing to take action, it represents the soullessness of the people when the leader is wicked. I'll give you an example. If we look at Iran, and I have a great respect for the Shia Muslims, even though I'm more familiar with the Sunni Muslims,
>> I respect them.
>> But the truth is, if we look at the Shia Iran, who had at the time the fifth largest army in the world, and we know that he was controlled by, you know who, the two devils, the big Satan and the small Satan. The Shia Muslims of Iran rose up and they removed him from power while he had a very well-equipped military and he was backed by the little Satan and the big Satan. So we know that when a people are pure of heart, they will take action based on that. So we cannot suggest that the Muslim leaders are so sick without knowing that there is an ailment that the entire ummah suffers.
>> Okay. But, but to respond to that, unfortunately, you look at Egypt. I'm Egyptian, right?
>> Yeah, I've been there.
>> Yeah, and, and I, I listen to your videos, and by your pronunciation of Arabic, I can tell you've been in the Middle East. Your pronunciation is great.
>> Thank you. I appreciate it.
>> But, um, in Egypt, for example, uh, you're probably familiar with the Arab Spring and the coup that took place by the CC to take off Morsi and all that. And then this, when I was back in Egypt, because I was, I moved to the US when I was 16. So I've been seeing protests my own eyes. I've seen
>> So, you grew up in Egypt. You went to primary school, secondary school in Egypt?
>> And I apologize if I said I'm from New Jersey. Is is
>> No, it's okay. I understand. That's kind of, it's kind of what I'm repping, I guess, nowadays. But, no problem. I'm Egyptian. Yes. Uh, I was born in and raised in Egypt and now I'm spend almost half my life there. Um, to the point is, you look at Egypt, the reason why we couldn't take action against, like, in CC, for example, is because the military is everywhere. There are no, it's not easy to access weapons. And I'm not encouraging violence, God forbid, but I'm just saying it is set up and structured in ways where people are not able to respond. And obviously, the media and the brainwashing takes a role in that. It's not an effect of, we all got to take an armed stand and try to do something. My father, for example, I'm not allowed to go back to any country in the Middle East. Not one. And the reason why is because my father has spoken strongly against the Egyptian government and all the other governments. So now anytime my family goes to the Middle East, they have to get asking, "When was the last time you seen, uh, when did you talk to him? Are you still in contact with him?" Blah, blah, blah. He's trying. I'm trying. Use whatever platform limited I have to say these guys are the biggest world leaders. I was born in 1997. When the Arab Spring happened, I was in the streets. When the coup, military coup happened, I was in the streets. I saw dead people at the age of 13, somebody with his brain out laying next to his dead body. I've seen that. And, and what more do you think I could have done or we could have done to make sure that these bad leaders are not in power?
>> Can I, can I speak real quick?
>> Go ahead.
>> Okay. So, firstly, I want to say this. What the brother is saying, he's not wrong. During the time of the Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, a Jew ripped the shirt of a Muslim, and the Muslims went to war over that. They didn't rip the Muslim women, the girls, the babies to shreds. Where the Muslims at? So, he's not wrong in what he's saying. He brought up, he brought up the subject, if you, your kids go to a school and the school's garbage, you're not going to keep saying it's a good school. My answer to that is, you should behead the principal. We don't have any Muslim leaders. There's not even a, there's not even a monarchy in Islam. People say Saudi Arabia is a leader of, there is no monarchy in Islam. And he said, the, it's a reflection of the people. He's right. He's right. We should be demanding that the the Muslim, the Muslims got all these armies, and they're useless, worthless, not doing anything. So I agree with him on that. Now, nobody here can say they can find a verse in the Quran or a Hadith that that Islam is racist. Nobody's going to be able to say that. Now, if you want to say, are the Muslim people, are the Muslim people racist? Are there's Muslims that are racist? You, you brought up, I want to address
>> He's arguing the opposite here. Arguing that Islam is racist.
>> Say any verse from the Quran that's racist. Now he's saying, I don't want to say, I, I don't want to separate Islam from the Muslims. Okay, fine. We'll do that. We can do that. This is what I want to say though. The Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, said, "Every generation is going to be worse than the one before it." Every generation's worse than the one before it.
>> That's true. The, you, you, you asked the, you asked the brother a question from Tunisia, right, Daniel? You asked him, "Has Islam been anti-black?" That was your question. And you wanted a straight answer, right?
>> Correct. I didn't say Islam.
>> I said, "Of the racism that has been perpetrated by Muslims."
>> Yes.
>> Of all of the races, have the blacks received the worst of it?
>> Okay. I want to answer that question directly and clearly, brother, if I may. The whole world is anti-black. The whole world, every religion is anti-black. I would say Islam, compared to all these religions in their anti-blackness, is not
>> But we're not, we're not going to deny or sugarcoat anything. Yeah. There, there's racism all over the world. I propose
>> Actually, can I ask a question?
>> Hold on. Hold on. I'll let you talk. I was completely silent. I ain't say a word.
>> Uh, when I was, when I was 19 years old, I proposed to a Muslima. Her and her father happened to be Jamaican. Guess what her father told her? When it comes to, uh, dating, I don't care. But when it comes to marriage, I expect you to bring home black. I didn't say
>> Was he Muslim?
>> She's Muslim, and he's Muslim. Now, I didn't say
>> The father, the father's Muslim.
>> Yeah. And guess there's other, there's other groups of Muslims. Maybe Somali. They're very, you know, maybe something else.
>> So, I'm not going to say, I'm not going to typify and be like, "Oh, man, Muslims."
>> Cuz that's not Islam. There's no tribalism in Islam. And I want to say something else real quick. All Arabs,
>> You said there is no tribalism in Islam. Or there is not supposed to be tribalism.
>> There's not supposed to be tribalism in Islam. I want to say something real quick. All Arabs are descended from a black woman. Hagar, Ishmael's mother, was black. All Arabs are descended from a black woman. Arabs are not, are not descended from Hagar. Arabs did exist before Hagar, and Ishmael is an Arabite. Ismael is an Arabite. He's not, he's not an Arab. I, I want to ask you one question. Um, I'm sorry to, but like, I really want to want to get this question out. Uh, do you think that the reality of blacks prior to Islam was worse or better than after Islam?
>> Now that you asked the question, it's a good question.
>> Yeah, I think you asked.
>> Yeah, I think you asked the wrong question. The wrong, right question is, did Islam improve the reality of blacks or not?
>> So, this is a, I'm glad you said that because it it validates the colonial nature of you Muslims and you Arabs, which is the same thing the British would say. They would say, "Were you better off before colonialism? Of course, you couldn't have been more civilized before the British came and taught you how to use a fork." And and this is precisely this is precisely my point. So, let me, let me answer your question. Were the, were the East Africans better before you Arabs came, you Muslims came and forced them into small dungeons where they were packed so tightly that they could not breathe and they died from suffocation in significant numbers? And then they were trotted out with iron shackles on them and then sold at cheap prices to toil for all of their days. Were they better before you Muslims did that to them? Yeah, I'd say they were. Were they better before you engaged, before you engaged the transatlantic slave trade that robbed them of their native tongues and robbed them of their own history? Yeah, they were much better before that. So yes, I would say that your religion is colonial, and you've just revealed it. You just hold on. Yes, they were better before you enslaved them. Yes, sir.
>> I get, I get your point. I get your point. Let's talk about the blacks in Arabia. Now, colonialist Arabians, they went to Africa. Let's talk to the blacks that were in Saudi Arabia, present day Saudi Arabia at that time when the prophet came. Did their reality improve and get worse with Islam? Because now you're talking about, hey, we're just going to get these merchants who are slave makers, right? We're going to get these slave, slave people who happen to be Muslim, majority of them Jews, by the way, and we're just going to cast that on every on the religion staff, the religion itself, and then we're going to say, "Yeah, all the Muslims are bad, and the slave masters are bad, the slave owners are bad, all the, but no, no, no. Let's go back to Hagar."
>> Sure.
>> Ask about the reality of blacks prior to Islam and after Islam. Tell me if you know any. Tell me that's
>> You know, this is, this is actually quite fascinating, and if you don't mind, I'm gonna give a a brief answer, and I just want to acknowledge some of the audience questions because I'm sure they have questions for you all. But I think we can all agree that it is said before the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, shared the message that he received from Gabriel, that there was Jahiliyyah, correct? And the idea is that the entirety of the land was in an age of ignorance. And so all of the Muslim, or excuse me, all of the peoples of that peninsula were raised up by the, uh, message from the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. So I think we can agree on that.
>> But that is radically different than exporting, uh, your belief system, your linguistic system, your culture, your garb, your lifeways, folkways, mores, and and your stories, and doing it with violence and enslavement. That's radically different. If you give me a moment, I just want to acknowledge some of the folks who actually support the work. Shout out to Vic writes, "Bottom left audio is very low." I did, uh, turn up your mic much louder. So hopefully the audio levels are proper. I do want you to be heard. May I also acknowledge Albatar, supporting the work, coming in using the Stripe link in the description of the video. May I also acknowledge Justin writes, "Peace to the saints. Looking forward to this topic. Honored to be counted amongst the saints." Absolutely. Peace to the saints. Shout out to Melvin writes, "Happy to pay tuition. Peace to the saints." Peace to the saints indeed. Shout out to Mr. Cameless writes, "Number one. Watch out to the Saints who created the AI businesses. Making money right now. Number two, Carmelo Anthony was just convicted of murder. No kidding. He got convicted. Wow. Uh, the judge was friends with the white dad. Very possible. Uh, number three, and we'll have to talk about that, uh, in a different session. Uh, this is why standing in front of a gas station with signs will do nothing. 100% agree." Gentleman came back. He writes, "The gentleman with a large beard, audio is extremely low." I turned it up. If you guys can confirm if his audio is much better now in the live chat, I'd be thankful.
>> Thank you.
>> Shout out to Mr. Brown. He writes, "Peace of Saints, audio check, big homie." The gentleman from Ohio is, yeah, I did turn his mic up. Confirm if he's better now in the chat. Shout out to Civiliz. He writes, "Marquet, I would like these gentlemen to share their thoughts on this Hadith, which I find particularly disrespectful." Okay, Sahih Bukhari, Hadith 7142. "You should listen to and obey your ruler, even if he was an Ethiopian slave whose head looked like a raven." You, you knew he was going to bring that one up. I was waiting for that one to come up myself.
>> Okay. And, and
>> You've all heard. Wait, real. I just want to make sure you've all heard that one before. Have you guys all heard that one before?
>> I did. I did. Yeah. Yeah.
>> That one's new to you, Hussein. Okay. Can we hear from Hussein first since it's his first time hearing that Hadith?
>> Can you repeat the last part? Certainly. And this is one I hear, uh, quite often. Quote, "You should listen and obey your ruler even if he was an Ethiopian black slave whose head looks like a raisin." You want to hear my, I mean, I don't, I don't think that's the right choice of words. Um, I'm not going to sit down here and say that Hadith is not true. I'm just saying I haven't heard it before. I know there's a lot of, I'm not, there's a lot of people that say
>> Majid, you're breathing on the mic, so it's making us hard to hear other people. Okay.
>> I'm just saying there's, I know there's a lot of online speculations about Bukhari said this, but he actually didn't. But I would take, he actually said that. And, and, and I think that's, that's the message is positive, but the choice of words, I agree with that.
>> Can I say something?
>> Sure.
>> Yes. Never heard.
>> It's very clear where this stands. There's a thing called, uh, Bukhari, which is like the, how do you, how do you, how do you translate, uh, the, uh, fables of Bukhari, right? Which doesn't make any sense at all. Uh, the, the, the counterargument to that is very simple. In, in Islam, there is absolutely no obedience to a ruler who is not just. It's your, it's jihad. It's your, your your duty in jihad to rise up against a ruler. Sedition. Absolute sedition, whether it's the ruler is unjust. So to come to something that says like, "Hey, you have to obey the ruler even if his head is, uh, uh, looking like whatever." It's just incredibly silly. That is absolutely falls into Bukhari, which is the fable of Bukhari that has no grounds whatsoever.
>> I just want to verify that you're suggesting that you do not trust the, the chain with this Hadith. You're saying this Hadith is invalid. Is that what you are suggesting?
>> When it comes down to the, uh, Hadith, all, all together without exception, that is one rule. If it opposes the Quran, they say, "Throw it upon the wall." It is not correct. There is one rule. The rule is very simple. There is super ethical ordinance that are preserved by the Quran and Islam. And anything that does not fit that frame is not correct. This Hadith is absolutely not correct. It doesn't have
>> Let's, let's take it as incorrect, but let's suggest that, uh, it is a Hadith that was created around the same time as other Hadith, and is, which would suggest that at some level, it would reflect, uh, the sentiments of the Muslim Arabs, or perhaps some, some of the companions. Uh, do you acknowledge that the sentiment expressed in that discourse suggests that blacks are of such a low status that we have to position the, uh, okay, very good.
>> Absolutely.
>> Let me tell you something though, on that, on that discourse, and I'm not going to go and say the opposite. What I'm going to tell you is this is not specific to racism. Like, uh, if you know, if you know a little bit of, uh, Islamic history, who is the cousin of the Prophet, and he's married to his daughter, and the father of his two twins that both were killed by Muslims shortly after the death of the Prophet, and I'm talking about 30, 40 years, right? Uh, this guy gets killed by Muslims who came to his house while screaming Allahu Akbar. The, the guy who is the, the Prophet himself said, "You're going to heaven. You are the best. One of the best people on this planet." Got killed by Muslims who are screaming Allahu Akbar as they're killing him. What I'm trying to get to you to get to is, is there are a lot of things that changed, right? Because there is religion, and there are customs and traditions, and the Arabs are people of custom and tradition. For instance, the Prophet was a feminist in every sense of the word, and we're talking about 1400 years ago. Like he gave freedom to the woman, freedom to divorce, freedom to own.
>> Before we go there,
>> I'm Go ahead.
>> Would you consider yourself an Arab?
>> I'm culturally Arab. Yeah. And a very proud cultural Arab. Like I have, uh, in my DNA about like 20% Arab, and I'm extremely happy and proud Arab, and all the Arabs, a lot of things. So what I'm trying to say is the man of the Prophet died, and his last,
>> sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, when he died, and his last, uh, uh, when he, his last advice, or his last, his last plea to people is, "Take care of women." And the minute he died, they reverted back where women have no rights. So for you to hold Islam, that came and gave these many rights to women, a prophet who held all the ethicals and the, the morality at high standards and trying to instill it in people that were basically living in Jahiliyyah, the fact that you're going to hold those people, uh, that hold Islam guilty or culprit for the behavior of Muslims who turned down, turned around on everything that possibly they could turn on. They killed the Prophet's twins' grandkids, the two twins. They killed both of them in the name of God. So the last thing, do you think they were not going to preserve, uh, the, uh, they going to preserve, uh, uh, slavery and not preserve slavery, or they going to be not racist? Of course they will, because it's the same people, same generations. So what I'm trying to say, Islam is not the reason for the behavior of Muslims. Muslims are the reason for the behavior of Muslims.
>> That's fine. And that brings the conversation, that that kind of brings it away from the core topic. There's a bit of mission drift, but I'll just say to close that out. You know, how powerful is your God? You know, how powerful is your God? You know, I've read the Quran many times, and I've studied with scholars all over the world, some of which I trust, you all know and have heard of. I've studied with Bilal Phillips in Ethiopia. I've studied with Imam Siraj Wahaj. I've, and I'm not going to go on, but, and I've studied with scholars in Jordan. I've studied with scholars in so many different places in the Middle East. But I think we can agree that, uh, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala must only speak, and so it is. Is that correct,
>> Majid?
>> Yes.
>> Okay. He must only speak, and it is. This is a, a truly awesome level of power. Awesome in the sense of it causes awe.
>> So to suggest that you have a God which is that powerful, yet you say, "Well, you can't blame Islam, and the Muslims start misbehaving after the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him," and, you know, of course, they're going to start messing things up. Well, frankly, it sounds like excuses. And I think one thing we can all agree on, whether we're Muslims or we're atheists or people who respect history or agnostics, we can all agree that the Prophet Muhammad was a fair-skinned Arab, and he brought a beautiful deen to the world, specifically to his people who were in great need of it. And those who came after him, uh, exported it in a way that was fairly vicious, and certainly at times, uh, deviating from what he taught.
Um, let me acknowledge some of the folks who have, uh, sent in their comments, questions, and then we'll carry on. Uh, shout out to, uh, Ernest and Gary, who came in using the Stripe link in the description of the video. Shout out to the first baller alert, Mike, who comes in at the baller level on PayPal. He writes, "Tuition to the beat, homie. Thank you, Mark Quet, for representing the best of us. Peace to the saints." We're going to get to that part. I really, uh, like where you're going with this, uh, Majid. So we're going to dig in. Shout out to Risk. He writes, uh, "Tuition, peace of the saints. YouTube doesn't allow me to send super chats anymore. Only on your channel, it does. Not sure if I mistakenly got blocked." Uh, okay, I'm going to, uh, set this one aside for the team to take a look and, uh, make sure you aren't blocked.
>> May I also acknowledge Albatar, spoiling the work. He writes, uh, "Peace of Saints. Mic audio is a little bit fuzzy." You'd have to tell us whose audio is fuzzy. Shant Sean, he writes a piece that says, "Arabs are some of the most racist people on earth. Forget blacks. Saudis are racist to different Arabs and Pakistanis that are supposedly their brothers. Let's not forget Arabs betrayed the Ottomans and sided with Brits in World War I."
>> Man is using historical examples. May I also acknowledge
>> Yes, but, but when you have a, a deen that is so beautiful and so transformative, and you have a, a God who is the one true God, and he's so powerful, yet all you can rely on is are excuses, it saddens me, to be honest with you.
And frankly, I don't think we can have an argument about that because we're going to get into arguments about religion itself. But what I would challenge, especially Majid, who's a proud Arab, and there's nothing wrong with being a proud Arab, but I would say, why can't you leave us to be proud blacks instead of trying to force your colonial religion, your Arab supremacy onto us? We don't want it. And you see, I think you all should take note. Do any of you identify as black? Are any of you black?
>> I'm black.
>> Okay, tell me more about that.
>> Wait, did Maj just ask how are you black?
>> I'm a person of color. I got