| THE STREET MIMBAR SPECIAL AL QUDS DAY KHUTBAH (6 August 2011) webpage: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=182501078290&ref=ts http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_street_mimbar/ PLEASE e-mail Suggestions & Criticisms to khutbahs@yahoo.com It is in such a manner that We make plain Our signs so that the course of the Criminals may become clear. | Bismillah Ar-Rahmaan Ar-Raheem. Alhumdulillah. Peace and blessings on Muhammad (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam), his Noble Companions and Family. Respected and Beloved Brothers and Sisters… Assalaamualaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakaatuh We desire to expand and build on the designation of the day of Al Quds (designated by the late Imam Al Khomeini to be commemorated on the last Friday of Ramadhan in recognition of the suffering meted out to the Palestinians and the oppressed peoples of the world), and will be insha'Allah running a weekly additional Khutbah on Al Quds. We pray that Allah raises the awareness of people regarding the suffering of the people of Quds and the other oppressed peoples so that the designation of the last Friday to ensconce the realities in the lives of oppressed people in our minds will culminate into a daily occurrence. Audio on http://www.islamiccenterdc.com/apps/videos/videos/show/10336442-al-quds-day-by-imam-muhammad-al-asi (08-21-2010) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddqsM0-lZ1I THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AL QUDS DAY The International Day of Al Quds, Jerusalem has been designated as such by the late Imam Al Khomeini. This was done about thirty years ago and the last Friday in the month of Ramadhan is when this day occurs every year. Someone may ask "what is it about this day that makes it an International/Global day in which all people regardless of their faith, regardless of their Nationality, regardless of their, even, political persuasion should be involved in?" The simple answer to that is the International Day of Al Quds is a, (if you will), a symbol that speaks to the institutionalised and militarised injustice that has been dealt to the inhabitants of the Holy Land; this would include Muslims, Christians and Jews within a different set of circumstances but all of them have been victimised by an exclusivist, racist and an expansionist Zionist ideology. Since 1947/1948, what used to be called Palestine has been, by the use of force, converted into a military bastion called Israel. Israel is a Nation-state that came into existence at the expense of the Palestinian population who at that time were a-couple-of-million people. As a result of this injustice the Palestinians ever since 1948 have grown into a population of around ten-million. Almost half of that population of around ten-million live in or around Occupied Palestine and then the other five-million live in what is called "their own diaspora." There have been flare-ups, military wars in that area since 1948 in which an additional number of Palestinians were forced out of their homes and forced out of their homeland to live as refugees in different parts of the world. Most of them remain in the Middle East but not in Palestine proper. This has created a humanitarian crisis which everyone can understand whether you belong to the Christian faith, the Jewish faith or the Islamic faith. You can understand that there are around ten-million Palestinians in the world who are not living a normal life, who don't have what we take for granted- civil rights, political rights, human rights, natural rights- none of them! They've been, for all of these years, excluded from what anyone may describe as an average human beings life. The wars that have erupted in 1956, in 1967, in 1973 and then the other lower intensity war fares that have been going on, particularly in Lebanon and in Southern Lebanon since 1978 through the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s in which the whole country bordering on the Northern frontiers of Occupied Palestine has been plunged into civil war. Even in that civil war which was supposed to be among Lebanese, Palestinians suffered a massacre in Beirut and we seem to be encountering a problem that keeps on growing. The basic reason for the growing nature of this problem is that many people justify for themselves a non-participatory stance towards this vital issue which affects the lives of not only the immediate victims, who are the Palestinians, but the lives of the peoples who live in that geographical area and it has the potential of affecting the lives and the lifestyles and the livelihood of peoples throughout the world. Now, the International Day of Al Quds has to be made very clear to every one and everywhere that this day and what it stands for is not against Judaism or the Judaic religion. This has to be stated upfront in no ambiguous terms. Now, the International Day of Al Quds, (the same day), is a day of objection from A-Z to everything that is in the Zionist ideology. Unfortunately we have a Zionist ideology that to a certain extent has hijacked the Jewish religion itself; which means that many of the Jews of the world are sold the argument that the Nation-state of Israel is the Nation-state or the dominion that is mentioned in the Bible. This is a fallacy. It's a fallacy on Biblical grounds; it's a fallacy on historical grounds and we have no time to enter into discussing that matter. Suffice it to say here that Zionism is no representation of Judaism. Zionism is no shelter for people of the Jewish faith. Zionism is a flagrant and an offensive and an expansionist political entity that violates all norms of scripture and all manners of International Law. The Zionist state of Israel is a racist state. It discriminates against followers of other religions whether they are Muslims or whether they are Christians. This is done officially and on the record; (and with the mass media looking the other way), away from the attention of world public opinion. This is the crux of the matter of the International Day of Al Quds. It is to try to bring back the issue, the injustices, the displacement, the warfare that are associated with Zionism that have crippled a population and may act as a paralysis for the instability of societies all around the world. Zionism has brought us the displacement of the Palestinian population, it has brought us the virtual control of United States Foreign Policy in the Middle East, it has brought us the accumulation/stockpiling of nuclear weapons in Occupied Palestine. There is, by objective accounts, anywhere between two-hundred and three-hundred nuclear warheads that the Zionist state has. It has been going through theatrics in the past two or three decades- there have been attempts at reconciling the Zionists usurpers of the Holy Land with the Zionist usurpers with their Palestinian victims, who are the immediate victims, and none of that has got an inch forward. The coming fresh attempt at, (which is basically a repeat at other attempts in the past), is actually going to happen one day before the International Day of Al Quds this year. The International Day of Al Quds this year falls on the third of September, and on the second of September there's a convening of a meeting in which representatives of the Palestinian side and the Israeli side are going to try to hammer out their differences. We've been down that alley many times in the past and we know where it's going and we know what the results there-of are going to be. Therefore, the only thing left to try to bring justice and a semblance of balance to this issue is to get world-wide public opinion involved. The more the mass media hides the merits of this issue, the more we're going to witness/see of the massacres, the mayhem that has been a trademark of Zionism in that part of the world. The International Day of Al Quds is a day that crosses the barriers of Nationalism, Ethnicism, Racism and whatever ism there is to try to focus the attention of the world on the justice of this issue. The Palestinians have all the right in the world to return to their homelands- called "the right of Return." The International Day of Al Quds highlights the Palestinians Right of Return. The City of Jerusalem, Al Quds itself is not a monopoly of one religion and it belongs to its Palestinian inhabitants. The Zionists don't have a secular argument nor do they have a religious argument for stealing the City of Jerusalem and building their settlements there by force at the expense and the misery of the original Palestinian inhabitants of that city and that land. The International Day of Al Quds says to the people of the world that "Zionism does not belong in the Holy Land. If Zionism wants to take root somewhere in the world and there are other people in the world who feel that a racist ideology has or should have a standing among the nations of the world, they can make room for them; but never, ever, should a racist, expansionist, aggressive Nation-state and ideology and military structure have a place in of all places a Holy Land that should belong to the Abrahamic faith without Racism or Classism or Nationalism or Ethnicism involved in it." That's basically what the International Day of Al Quds stands for and that's basically the message that goes out around the globe to the other populations of the world to get involved, to get off the fence and to see this issue with its merits. Wa Salaamualaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakaatuh This presentation was presented by Imam Muhammad Al Asi on the occasion PRECEDING Al Quds Day, on 21 August 2010. The Imam previously led the daily and Jum'ah prayers inside the Masjid. His speeches were revolutionary and thought provoking and eventually irritated and threatened the Middle-East Ambassadors who control the Masjid. Finally, the Imam, his family, and other Muslims faithful to the course of Islam were forced out, into the streets. This khutbah originates from the sidewalk across the street from the Islamic Center, currently under seige. |
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