Khutbaaz (Sermons)

"Vilification of Muhammad (S) Aims to Separate Mosque From State in Muslim World" 

By Afeef Khan of the Islamic Center in Washington
September 28, 2012

The global elite's animosity towards Prophet Muhammad (S) and his followers stems from fears that the rising demand for social justice through Islamic governance in the Muslim world will end their control over the world's political, economic and social spheres.

By separating church from state, morality from legality, personal space from public space, the West has limited the teachings of their Prophets to personal affairs, allowing the 1% to monopolize the world's power and resources by replacing Divine commandments for social justice with their own reference points: the pursuit of power at all costs, the acquiring of profits without ethics and the proliferation of unchecked self-gratificiation.

As Muslims turn to Islam to free themselves from centuries of Western domination, they (the 1%) are now striving to do the same to Islam by denying that it is a religion, calling it a "political ideology "instead. 

Politics in their mind is filthy, dirty and corrupt, and an ideology is an attitude based on man's philosophical interpretations with political, economic, social and military dimenions. So by calling Islam a political ideology they are saying Islam is a filthy, dirty, corrupt ideology that comes from man: Prophet Muhammad (S).

"Don't think they hate Muhammad (S) because he told you to pray five times a day, to fast in Ramadan, to be kind to the poor, to care for the orphan and widow," Khan told his congregation on Friday. 

"They hate Muhammad (S) because he counsels you to be cognizant of social justice in the world you live in and to put an executive authority of leadership and a legal framework behind the achievement of social justice in the world you live in. That is why they hate Muhammad (S) and have an aversion for you because the potential always exists that you will use Muhammad's (S) program and methods to bring back that standard of justice in the world."

By rallying against the film maligning Prophet Muhammad (S), Muslims demonstrated their love of their Prophet (S) and all that he stands for as well as their opposition to Western domination.

"What is going on right now is a referendum against U.S. foreign policy, U.S. interference in the internal affairs of Muslims, U.S. wars of occupation," Khan said.

"For the first time in a long time, Muslims are speaking with one voice and offering a face-saving solution to the problem. The solution is so simple it can be characterized in one word: "Leave!"

Click here to listen to the complete sermon.
_______________________________________________

"Historical Liars Continue to Distort the Truth Today"
By Imam Muhammad Asi of the Islamic Center in Washington

September 21, 2012

Those who forged Scripture in the past now defame Prophet Muhammad (S) and lie about Muslims in the media.

God tells us in the Quran repeatedly about the propensity of the "Yahud" from the people of the Jewish faith to distort the truth--even God's words--for their own benefit.

Here's one verse:

"They dislodge words from their meaningful location and they confine to oblivion a suitable portion of the consciousness that has come to them from God. They forge Scripture and then they atribute it to God so in exchange for that they can gain some profit." (Quran 2:79)

"We thank God the Muslims are now coming of age," Imam Muhammad Asi of the Islamic Center in Washington told his congregation Friday. "They are no longer zombies or robots when they read what God has to say

"They (Yahud) lie about God. Of course, they are going to lie about God's Prophet (S), they are going to lie about us

Asi said it is these same people who spread disinformataion about Muslims in the media.

"People who are forging Scripture are forging news and information. They are busy churning out these streams fo lies against us as if we are the people who want to kill or go to war," Asi said.

But Asi said a study of  those killed on the battlefield during the life of the Prophet (S) and those killed in conflicts mentioned in the Bible reveals who are the real warmongerers.

A total of 386 people, Muslim and non-Muslim, were killed during wars at the time of the Prophet (S) in Medina. On the other hand, 1,988,477 people, Yahud and non-Yahud, were killed in wars according to the Bible (Books of Judges, Kings, Samuel and others).

"If you're listening to today's news and commentators, analysts, pundits and scholars, you'd think that it was upside down," Asi said.

"They may be able to trick some people but they are not able to trick us when the Quran is in our possession."

Click here to listen to the complete sermon

_________________________________________________________

"Embassy Rows"
By Imam Muhammad Asi of the Islamic Center in Washington

September 14, 2012

Confusion swirls around the identity of those behind this week's killings at the American embassy in Libya as well as the real source that produced the hateful film linked to it, but the violence and terrorism projected on Muslims can be found in biblical verses used by some to justify colonialism, imperialism and globalization, and not the Quran.

Recent media images of angry protests in Muslim countries sparked by the American film (or YouTube clip) "Innocence of Muslims" and spawned by years of military, political and economic oppression by the West further that media stereotype.

In actuality, it is the imperialists who have been perpetrating violence around the world for centuries and using Scripture to justify their policies. In a comparison of the story of Prophet Moses as told in Holy Books, we find God encouraging this type of behavior in the Bible, according to Imam Asi, who quoted the following verses in his sermon Friday.

God in the Bible (Deuteronomy 20, 10-16): "When you advance on a city to attack it make an offering of peace. If the city accepts the offer and opens it's gates to you then all of the people shall be put to forced labor and shall serve you. If it does not make peace with you but offers you battle you shall besiege it and the Lord Your God will deliver it into your hands.

"You shall put all its males to the sword. But you may take the women, the dependents and the cattle for yourself and plunder everything else in the city. That is what you shall do to cities at great distance.

"As opposed to those who belong to nations near at hand in the cities of the nations that the Lord Your God is giving you as patrimony, you shall not leave any creature alive. You shall annihilate them."

"These words conceal the attitude of violence and terrorism in them," Asi said. "We Muslims know these are not actually God's words but unfortunately other people around us in the Judeo-Christian society believe these words. They say these are God's words and this is what we have to do."

"If anybody wants to look at grassroots colonialism and imperialism, here you have it, " Asi said. "We want the goodness and morality in these books that remains until today to trump these types of words that became policies."

On the other hand, "The image of Moses and Children of Israel as presented to us by the impeccable Quran and the unadulterated Quran is an image of common sense and a psychology of peace," Asi said.

God in the Quran (20: 43-48): “Go, both of you, to Pharaoh, verily, he has transgressed all bounds in disbelief and disobedience and behaved as an arrogant tyrant. And speak to him kindly, perhaps he may accept admonition or fear God.”

"They said, 'Our Lord!  Verily!  We fear lest he should hasten to punish us or lest he should transgress all bounds against us.'

"He (God) said: 'Fear not, Verily! I am with you both, Hearing and Seeing.  So go you both to him, and say, “Verily, we are Messengers of your Lord, so let the Children of Israel go with us, and torment them not; indeed, we have come with a sign from your Lord! And peace will be upon him who follows the guidance! Truly, it has been revealed to us that the torment will be for him who denies and turns away.'”

"You tell me after listening to this and reading this where violence and terrorism is coming from," Asi said.

Asi said there exist fanatical Jews, Christians and Muslims, "but in the midst of these are the real master planners."

"They say follow the money. Those who paid for this piece of infamy ["Innocence of Muslims"] are the ones who are ultimately responsible for these bad feelings and irritation that are festering and growing with trouble makers all around the place."

Click here to listen to the complete sermon.

____________________________________________________

"9/11: Blaming Muslims Part of Psychological War on Islam"

By Imam Muhammad Asi of the Islamic Center in Washington
September 7, 2012

Muslims are being falsely linked with violence as part of a propaganda machine that's allowing the military domination of Muslim nations, looting of its resources and slaughter of its people.

Accusing Muslims of orchestrating the attacks on 9/11 is a major component of that psychological warfare aimed at not only gaining public support for wars in Muslim countries but also weakening Muslims' attachment to their faith through feelings of guilt and inferiority.

"Don't be fooled by these engineered lies," Imam Muhammad Asi told his congregation assembled outside the Islamic Center Friday. "We are being militarily defeated because we are psychologically defeated."

"We have nothing to do with what happened on 9/11," he explained. "It's being used as a whip to be lashed at any Muslim that uses his God-given ability to think and his God-given endowment to feel in the frame of being a committed Muslim." 

"It was thought out and executed by the imperialists and the Zionists. They may have had some patsies with Islamic names and Islamic photogenics so we feel we have to prove we are peaceful people." 

To reinforce the Muslims-are-violent image, Western media and academics repeatedly accuse Islam of "being spread by the sword," Asi said, but an independent study of history as recorded by non-Muslims reveals the opposite is true.

Muslims, in fact, followed God's instructions that "there is no compulsion in religion," (Quran 2: 256) while Christians rulers (working in tandem with missionaries) forced conversions in many lands they conquered.

"They turned all this around and they want us to think we did something wrong," Asi said.

Asi cited some examples:

• One hundred years after the establishment of Islam, only 20% of the people living under Muslim rule were Muslims, according to a French research institute. "They didn't become Muslim because they had a sword hanging ove their head," Asi said. "Islam appealed because of its intrinsic emotional and rational values."
• Minorities who were living amongst Muslims enjoyed a status that had no equivalent in past civilizations, according to historian Sir Thomas Arnold.
• Muslims actually saved Christians from other persecuting Christians in some places, according to clergyman Michael the Great, patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church. "The Children of Ishmael (Muslims) came to us from the south to spare us from what the Byzantines were doing to us. They left us to ourselves so we can practice our rituals and pursuit our worship in tranquility and peace."
• It was Christian kings in Denmark, Macedonia and elsewhere who forced pagans, Muslims and others (such as Native Americans) to convert to Christianity or be killed.

Despite all the evidence against it, the propaganda is taking effect in many mosques, where the imams aren't willing to challenge the lies or "express themselves in normal ways," according to Asi.

"We don't pray out on the street for nothing. Saying the truth has a price attached to it. They can't even tolerate the truth in the mosque--as if God doesn't exist."

Click here to listen to the complete sermon.

In this section you will find summaries of Friday prayer sermons given this month that encourage people to oppose systems of oppression and establish social justice. Why? See my post: Preaching Justice.