“Do You Support LGBT?” | Dr. Omar Suleiman | Ask Me Anything

foreign so like the last video um I thought it would be useful here to actually go ahead and just group a few questions together on a singular topic and uh this video I basically put together the questions that I've gotten about the LGBT issue so LGBT agenda the LGBT ideology um activism alliances coalitions where we stand in regards to you know young Muslims that are struggling what we do with colleagues and co-workers so a lot of questions naturally uh come in about this and also my own personal stances and my own personal views on some of these things so I put together about nine of them uh that have come through and shot lotsahara and hopefully you know even though there'll be short answers but then now you'll find some benefit in it so the first one is actually directed towards me do you support the LGBT agenda I do not so that means I don't religiously socially politically and I do believe it's important for us collectively as a community to actually oppose any agenda or ideology that is contrary to the quranism so that's my personal View and that is of course I think the view of um the imams uh all around North America and any Muslim that's committed to the Quran and the Sunnah okay so question number two can I support LGBT rights politically even though I disagree with it morally and the answer is absolutely not look I've written about this in an article in 2020 on Japan and I've spoken about this in multiple podcasts and multiple articles and I want to be very clear here that Muslims should not be asked to nor should Muslims participate in anything that undermines their Deen so you cannot be asked to separate between your religious conscience and your political and your moral principles and so that means if you're a Muslim politician an activist if you're even just a lay person do not find yourself promoting anything that directly contradicts The Deen that directly is advocating for essentially a Prohibition from Allah so any legislation that supports a supposed right to do something that is directly prohibited in the Deen is not something that you can get involved in and it's something that we should abstain from all together as Muslims question number three can we as Muslims form an alliance with LGBT groups because they support our rights as Muslims and the answer to that once again is of course not how can we find from the son of the Prophet saws any justification for allying with a group that exists on the basis of a cause that is in direct contradiction to his message so we have to as Muslims operate on the basis of principles not some sort of political tribalism it's not you scratch my back and I scratch yours it's we have certain causes we have certain issues we have our own principles that we operate with and that's the basis that we're going to engage Society with now a good follow-up question to this would be and it's not actually asked here but I'm adding it because I think it's important what about a group that's not actually an LGBT group but it's an anti-war Coalition or it's an anti-poverty group and they happen to have in their overall agenda items that we don't agree with and this is really where it depends and it requires a little bit more scrutiny and generally speaking most people have operated with this idea that what matters is what's on the banner not who was on the stage and I agree with that for the most part but if we're learning from our past mistakes actually if I'm learning from my past mistakes specifically as well sometimes the baggage of the speakers can overwhelm the actual agenda item that has supposedly brought us all together and that could be for a number of reasons right that person's personality is well known for those other elements it could be what they're wearing it could be something they slip into their speeches so you have to really be careful to try to get everyone on the same page in advance and say look we're here for a very specific agenda item and this broad Coalition is here for poverty this broad Coalition is here because we're against the war in Iraq or whatever it may be right and I actually want to give an example here because subhanallah it's very immediate and it's near and dear to my heart it's a cause that I've been a part of for for years now in some capacity and that's the case of Dr alpheus whose sister Dr fozia was just here may Allah free Dr arafia and allow her to go back home and be with her family look her case is not a popular case it's not a case where it's easy to get people involved so what happens when you have human rights organizations or civil liberties organizations that are willing to take on her case I think it would be wrong for us to say to them we don't want your support because we went on your website and you got these other things that you also do I think we would welcome their support but we say in advance look we're here for Dr Matthew specifically we're trying to free Dr afia and so any form that we have any protest that we have any type of activism we do around Dr afia has to be about Dr hafia and we don't want anyone to bring any other elements into these protester into these forums that contradict the specific cause that has brought us together so making sure in advance as much as you can this is going to be about the cause and absolutely nothing else and we do not welcome anything that undermines what we stand for and what we foundationally are as Muslims in the pursuit of justice for this particular cause all right the fifth question here have you ever attended an LGBT Pride Parade so first of all absolutely not I have never attended a pride parade and inshallah I never will and if I do you should condemn me so this is not something that I stand for and I do believe as a Muslim that to celebrate what is prohibited is prohibited in and of itself and so no Imam no student of knowledge no one being in Italian who upholds the sanctity of the tradition would celebrate something that is prohibited and on top of that no politician no activist no athlete no one should find themselves in this position and I would advise everyone who has done so to turn back to Allah and to not do so again because this is dangerous territory and you risk compromising your over something that is so cheap so absolutely not and there's a picture here of me holding a sign that says Love Knows No borders and so a lesson in the internet this was even sent to me by a family member in the Arab world with the caption that love knows no borders this was a migrant protest at the border of the United States and Mexico so love knows no borders literally meant that the people that we were looking at at the other side of the border that were being mistreated behind the fence are not to be hated or repulsed love knows no borders literally the United States and Mexico and so no don't take any imagery or any videos to suggest otherwise I've never attended a pride rally and I never will inshallah all right the next question and this one is personal and I appreciate the question do you regret any of your activism from your younger years so first of all I appreciate the question I'm not that old alhamdulillah but since you say younger years let me actually pull further into a time that I remember with my activism that is really before much of these things that have transpired today I can remember prior to I want to say 2014 2013 that a single issue protest a single issue caused was truly a single issue cause or a single issue protest I grew up with parents I lost my Mercy on my mother and may Allah preserve my father who were deeply vested in Refugee crisis deeply vested in pro-palestinian activism deeply vested in condemning racism I mean all types of things anti-war activism and so I remember going to multiple protests and never seeing things get diluted the way that they have been in recent years and honestly you know subhanallah I think that there was a switch and this is probably obviously subsequent to the political climate in the United States changing where protests 2015 2016 onwards really started to follow suit with political tribalism identity politics where multiple issues in the name of intersectionality would take over the stage where the protest would suddenly have banners and suddenly have signs that had nothing to do with the cause and that made everyone uncomfortable but it was like Hey you know here it is like Muslim ban the airport protests what do you do when people show up in a matter of a few hours and everyone's got their signs and everyone's got their own chance everyone's got their own things going on so it's in those years that subhanallah I think that those changes really started to become apparent to me and in my mind it was always like I'm there for the cause if I'm engaging Muslims who I feel like have gone a little bit too far advise them give them they'll see try to steer them back to the Quran and Sunnah keep reading the Quran speaking about the Hadith bringing in the issues that are dear to us as Muslims but at the same time I actually really do regret a lot of what happened especially between probably the years 2016 to 2019 and that's where I think that I really had to take a step back and reassess my own activism my own participation in these things and so I look back at an example now which is once again the migrant protests and subhanallah the treatment of people at the border is horrendous and it's been that way under Democratic and Republican administrations and I got exposed to it for the first time in fact in that time period that's the first time I actually went and saw for myself and it was after seeing Syrian refugee camps and I've spoken about this to see the way that people are in poverty and mistreated in these privatized warehouses uh was really heartbreaking and devastating so I'm going to Tijuana I'm going to Juarez I'm going to the Border over and over and over again and the amount of protests were numerous and I didn't do a good job of actually asking questions before these protests it was like I know why I'm here I know what I'm going to say I know when I'm going to show up and things just kept on happening but I wish did not happen in those protests and so I go back and I look at it and I specifically remember one protest at the border of San Diego and Tijuana had numerous Muslims that went out there and it was organized by the Quakers all right and if you read about the history of the Quakers you'll kind of understand where that's coming from and it had a large Coalition but it really took a lot of strange turns on subhanallah there were things that were just happening right and left and it was like what's happening here you know so you had anoint anointments and for me I was like I've never seen an anointment at a protest before right so I step aside and I move away I should have actually intervened so even doing they'll see afterwards um I wish I would have interviewed and intervened in the moment and there are things that have continue to happen so there's the pouring out of the water now in my mind pouring out of the water we're on the side of the U.S border we're looking across this humongous fence and we see poor people on the other side and pouring out the water on this side in my mind was that they have a right to be here and that was the understanding that I had when I was doing that now granted that things get really tricky with with vigils and with the types of practices that have their Origins and different thoughts and practices in these places I should have done a better job and when it was brought to my attention and when you know obviously there was a lot that happened after that Allah knows that I sincerely repented and I ask Allah's forgiveness for that and not only that but honestly taking a step back and saying I'm really going to ask questions a lot of questions before I go to any one of these spaces any one of these forums and inshallah keep myself away from these types of things and sometimes you know these things happen with snap judgment and that doesn't justify them that just means that I've got to look back and learn from my past mistakes so 2016 the Pulse Nightclub shooting the lgbtq nightclub shooting we're talking 2016 a very different climate this is on the heels of San Bernardino where attacks against Muslims are crazy and then we had an element of Hope when Muhammad Ali passed away in his janaza sort of brought another breath of fresh air for Islam in America and then suddenly the worst mass shooting in America is committed by a guy who's supposedly a Muslim going into an LGBT nightclub and mowing down 50 people and we panicked and subhanallah I remember you know getting the call driving to the place I didn't even know where the press conference was going to be held I literally just plugged it into my GPS I got there and they said well you should read the statement and we would frequently gather after a mass shooting because um you know we obviously don't want this to result in backlash against the Muslim Community and I was there to condemn violence and I still condemn violence and condemn vigilantism that was an awful thing that happened but I got there they said we've got a statement on behalf of all the faith leaders we want you to read the statement I look back at that and I wish first of all as a Muslim Community we didn't accept the premise of that so quickly right and I think that's the spirit in which a lot of the posts and the Orlando statement so many things came out I also wish personally I would have handled that differently now I don't think it's fair that that is clipped and used to suggest that I participated in a pride rally today right or that it was something that it's not but at the same time I should have been more judicious about my words I should have been more careful and I ask Allah's forgiveness so what I do now is you know 2019 to 2023 where we're at right now alhamdulillah I've had a chance to really step away and who I am now is very different and what I participate in now is very very different and I can actually look back and I did actually look back in my calendar to see what I've participated in since 2019 since the end of 2019 uh two protests for Palestine one for India one for well multiple for atheists the deeply and then one for Imam Jimmy I mean and so for me it's like if I don't know the space I don't want to be there I can still advocate for the cause and still deeply care about it but I ask Allah's forgiveness for that and inshallah and I hope that I can still find ways and we can find ways as a community to still be committed to causes that are important to us without undermining ourselves by inculcating elements intentionally or unintentionally that are displeasing to Allah [Music] I'll just knock out a few more in regards to this particular subject so the next question is why did yapine publish a paper by Dr Jonathan Brown regarding LGBT now first of all the context of this for those that are not aware this is referring to 2017 European is about a year old at the time and we published a co-author paper by Dr Jonathan Brown and Dr shady and masri that was specifically around how the Muslim Community should deal with the potential legalization of same-sex marriage at the time and what the implications would be for Muslims trying to live by their religious laws in a secular society so to walk back a bit and it's not on the website now because it was removed about two years ago um but to walk back a bit inshallah to the context at the time there were debates at that time in a very different socio-political climate about what was going to happen to us and where Muslims should really stand politically on the subject and a lot of that had to do with the overall just left and right bias and whether Muslims should Ally with the left or Ally with the right but a lot of it was really about the specific issue okay do we as Muslims have a greater ability to function in accordance with our Deen when the government is more hands off of our family Affairs of marriage of contract law and things of that sort or are we as Muslims to advocate for laws that would be closer to what our religion is or do we as Muslims stay silent on the issue all together and just pick other issues to politically organize around so this paper comes out of a debate that was happening in multiple places at the time in the Muslim Community Dr Jonathan Brown publishes his opinion which was an opinion that was shared by many others at the time that it's actually better for Muslims if the government has less overreach less oversight when it comes to family law and things of that sort and he published this on Lamppost I believe in 2015 he published this with Al Madina Institute Iman wire in 2016. and there was a debate that takes place at Amgen the Assembly of Muslim jurors of America in 2016 where you had Scholars that were debating the merits of the argument right so is a one-year-old organization at that time we're publishing papers and different formats uh we really viewed ourselves as a new platform and we're trying to give a platform to arguments and debates that are happening in the community the only difference between what yaquin did and what other platforms and organizations had done at the time is that we actually published his argument with a rebuttal side by side so Dr Brown's argument with Dr Shadi al-masury which Dr Brown welcomed at the time by the way and still does welcome and basically the paper was laid out in the following way number one you know a complete acknowledgment that this is all Haram in Islam that Islam has no room for same-sex actions and that we cannot dilute our theological understanding in this political debate then he goes on to make his arguments about you know sort of accepting more hands-off approach from the US government regarding marriage and other family Affairs and contractual Affairs because that would be more conducive to our community being able to live in accordance with its beliefs and with its ways now Dr Shadi and masri provides a rebuttal in the same paper side by side where he says that this is a bad idea you can't ask Muslims to separate the religious from the political this will lead to confusion in the Muslim Community and this has some potentially detrimental consequences that maybe are not being looked at carefully Enough by those that are making this argument Dr Brown at the time actually wrote that I agreed with with Dr Shadi so that I and multiple people in fact most people at yakim thought that there was a problem with Dr Brown's argument as well as the other Scholars that were making that argument at the time now fast forward you know to 2021 we did actually decide to take down that paper because of the potential confusion that could come out of it a very different socio-political climate and we put an explanation there and a redirect to a much more detailed paper which I'd encourage you all to go read inshallah Islam and the LGBT question reframing the narrative by Dr Carl Sharif it's a 50-page paper that is based on a complete reframing of the narrative which is what we really need at this point because this narrative has become so pervasive in every single element of our politics of our social spaces of our media of our cartoons of our school system that it's important for us to actually go deeper than simply making a political argument either way and um Dr sharif's paper or the paper that's based on his work has now been turned into curriculum and and Dr Sharif is teaching at sapiens in a free course of over 30 hours really going deep into the narrative and this is the type of work that we need right now as a Muslim Community and this is the type of work that you're going to see at yakin inshallah of really looking at how ethically speaking we make sure that we establish our foundations properly in our Dean and work with other institutions work with other imams work with other um you know organizations that Advance a normative position in Islam as to how we can make sure that our youth not just reject this politically but are fully certain in the Islamic framework of this particular issue and any other ethical issues all right so the next question here is how should we treat Muslims that struggle with their desires and their Islam and I want to actually acknowledge for a moment here that subhanallah the amount of emails that have come through of young Muslims especially young Muslims that are struggling with this and the amount of young Muslims that will walk up to myself and other imams and say that I'm struggling I'm trying to be the best Muslim I possibly can what do I do that that number is growing and that none of what I have said should be interpreted as opposition to you or as hatred of you or that Allah hates you in fact you identify as a Muslim and it's important for us to acknowledge for a moment inshallah that all of us identify as Muslims people that submit themselves to Allah in pursuit of his pleasure in pursuit of his paradise and it's very beautiful here that we don't identify by a claim to Perfection or being you know at any particular level with our faith nor do we identify by shortcomings or sins or feelings no matter how you know long those feelings have persisted or how strong those feelings are how temporary they may be we don't identify by feelings we don't identify Why by anything but Islam that we are people who seek Allah's pleasure and we strive for him and if you are struggling and striving for the sake of Allah not only should you not look at yourself as a person who is a failure in life you should look at yourself as someone who has the potential to be a close friend of Allah that those who strive in our way we're going to guide them to our paths Allah mentions that those who restrain themselves for the sake of Allah is their Abode Paradise is there Abode Paradise is their refuge and so none of this none of the opposition to the movement to the agenda to what's happening in schools right now to the political movement should be deemed in any way as hatred of you or suggesting that Allah hates you o sincere struggling striving young Muslim and to everyone else you know I just want to reiterate this again do not let your opposition into the movements lead you to beat up on young sincere struggling striving Muslims all right the next question and I'll probably make this the last question inshallah and sort of this set of questions is well how do I deal with my co-workers how do I deal with my colleagues that identify as LGBT what do I do in these situations and I want to say especially to the young Muslims here and in fact all Muslims carry yourself with both courtesy and courage we are a people who have the best of character with everyone we interact with we call people to Allah we show people what it's like to live by the way of Allah we remain unambiguous in our principles and so that means sometimes uncomfortable conversations because we live with calling to Allah and doing um right and joining good and forbidding evil but at the same time let your Islam shine through your character show courtesy show genuine care for everyone but in the nighttime that you interact with and that is a part of our Dean and it doesn't change with anyone that we interact with in the nighttime so inshallah with that I'm going to close it out and I wanted to just kind of have a take-home message number one on an individual level to all of you who have sincerely corrected me and sent me concern and I hope inshallah that some of this is helpful and I pray Allah protect me and protect all of you from being amongst those who are described as that ego stops them from repentance uh I ask Allah that all of us turn back to him and that he accepts our repentance with the night and that he allow us to be used for good that he Rectify us and rectify through us that he guide us and guide through US Allah I mean the next thing I want to say is I hope inshaallah that as a community we have the ability to take advantage of this opportunity in front of us inshallah to really put forth an alternative way what do I mean by that and I gave it about this that you know there are more people that have embraced Islam in the last year than I've ever seen before people are looking for something else people are looking for meaning and there's nothing more meaningful than that which is anchored into hate there's nothing more meaningful than this Deen which is for the concern of all people in regards to their Dunya and their in regards to their lives and their afterlives and we really need to Usher forth that way of Islam together that speaks to the concerns of people in a morally consistent way that is away from the hypocrisies of the political left and the political right that is away from cruelty that is away from moral degradation that is away from political polarization that doesn't get hijacked by any of these political parties or platforms it's important for us to have our clear and pristine way business to call people to that together and this is another note which I hope is Allah is a good sign that you know in this last year I've seen more people become Muslim than ever before I've also seen alhamdulillah more walls come down between Scholars and students of knowledge and organizational heads to start thinking about how we come together for the sake of Allah learn from our past mistakes and chart forth the best future so don't let the toxicity or uh sometimes the insults that get thrown around on social media and different places deter you and not see the blessing and the beauty of people that are coming together with the naitana to Usher forth A Better Way bit than the shaitaan hates nothing more than our Unity inshallah when we're unified and working for the sake of Allah unite our hearts may he unite our ranks may he use us for good and may He forgive us for our shortcomings and may he make us amongst those that he is pleased with Allah I appreciate you all sticking with me for for the much longer AMA than usual and I don't plan to do this uh frequently but I hope it was beneficial

Channel: Omar Suleiman Personal

Views: 578,752

Keywords: lgbt, omar suleiman, islam, islamicreminder

Id: _OasNYZn-R8

Length: 29min 23sec (1763 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 14 2023