Yvonne Ridley Speech at WAMY (World Association of Muslim Youth),
Cairo
Saturday, November 25, 2006
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The Arabic
language is one of the cornerstones of Islam, as we have heard today from our brother, so
I do apologize in advance that this is one of the many areas of Islam I've yet to master.
Islamically, I am
very young, having reverted in 2003? And while I have much to learn I can identify with
the frustrations shared by young Muslims today.
I know 9/11 had a
huge impact on the world, but it wasn't really the start of something? It was the
continuation of a legacy of US imperialism and its fear of Islam.
Just over ten
years ago, fit, young Muslims across the globe flooded into Bosnia to help their brothers
and sisters fight for their survival against the Serbs who were carrying out a genocide
sanctioned by the silence of a watching world.
The jihad brought
together Muslims from all nationalities, status and culture. All were united; even those
who could not travel to fight helped in other ways such as fund-raising, public awareness
events and demonstrations.
The impact was to
stop the genocide. Western intervention, when it happened, came only after it was apparent
that that the Bosnian Muslims were heading for victory. The establishment of an Islamic
state deep in the heart of Europe was simply too much to bear and so the West intervened.
This is not my conclusion, but US President Bill Clinton admitted it in his autobiography.
This fear of
Islam has now evolved in the last 10 years to such an extent that the blood of our
brothers and sisters is now flowing like rivers across Chechnya, Kashmir, Palestine,
Afghanistan, Iraq and we saw recently what happened to Lebanon.
I have walked
through many of those killing fields and let me tell you the twisted, blown up limbs of
our Muslim brothers and sisters look exactly like those pulled from the rubble of the Twin
Towers.
Yet the message
of today is quite clear. Muslim blood is a cheap commodity.
Meanwhile tens of
thousands of innocent Muslims continue to be tortured in far away dungeons and cages in
Guantanamo Bay, Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib, Diego Garcia and ghost prisons
throughout the world.
Others are
tortured in Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria and even here in Egypt. Brothers
are being tortured at the behest and request of the United States.
So what sort of
message does that send out to our young people?
They read about
the heroic exploits of Salahudddin Ayyubi, Khalid bin Walid, Tariq bin Ziad and listen
intently to stories of courage and bravery about our beloved Prophet Mohamed [pbuh].
Do you know, five
years ago I had never even heard of The Prophet [pbuh], but now I would give my last drop
of blood to protect his name, his honour and his memory.
Even in death he
continued to show how strong he was by uniting the Ummah in protest at those vile cartoons
from Denmark.
Our modern day
heroes include those two sixties martyrs Malcolm X and Sayyid Qutb, both whose writings
have helped define me as a Muslim. These are the sort of role models and
influences our youth need to follow, but instead they receive confused and mixed messages.
One minute they
are told the fear no one but Allah [pbuh] while the next minute they are told to
dilute their Islam and keep their heads down.
Since the events
of 9/11, there has been an unrelenting campaign launched to change Islam into something
more palatable to Western society.
The vision is a
secular and cultural Islam at peace with the world through her submission to her
oppressors rather than to Allah; an Islam devoid of jihad, Shariah and khilafah? The very
things we are commanded by Allah to implement in order to establish Allah's deen on this
earth.
And it is in
evidence everywhere I look. Hijab are being ripped off the heads of my sisters in Tunisia,
France and Turkey. Sisters in Holland and Germany are also in the firing line.
And in Britain,
we have Jack Straw, the former British Foreign Secretary who questioned the veil? I am not
having a white, middle-aged man telling me how to dress. Keep out of my wardrobe and that
of every sister on this planet.
I pick up the
newspapers in Cairo today to discover the Minister of Culture has called the wearing of
the veil a regression.
How dare he say
that? Why are the men in Egypt standing by and doing nothing to silence him? He is
insulting the honour and dignity of every Muslim woman who chooses to cover.
Farooq Hosni is a
disgrace to Islam? What sort of message does he send out to our young people with his
weasel words?
The nikab, like the
veil, like the hijab has become a symbol of a rejection of those negative Western
lifestyles like drug-taking, binge-drinking and promiscuity. It is a statement telling the
West we don't want to be like you.
These Arabs who
choose to be more western than Westerners make me laugh? Do they realize how pathetic they
look in the eyes of the rest of the world? This Minister should be sacked from his post
for dishonouring every sister who chooses to cover.
I suppose he
hides behind such descriptions as moderate? Again what sort of message does that send to
our young people?
If we ask them to
be moderate does that not suggest that there is something wrong with Islam that it needs
to be toned down, diluted?
The last time I came to Cairo I was called an extremist by none other than the
Sheikh of Al Azhar? Sheikh Tantawi. The reason for this? Because, I would not shake his
hand.
What is a moderate
and what is an extremist? I really don't know. I am a simple Muslim. I follow no scholars
or sects? I merely follow The Prophet [pbuh] and the Sunnah. Does that make me
an extremist?
I once said being a Muslim is a bit like being pregnant. You are or you are not.
Whoever heard of anyone being moderately or extremely pregnant?
Islam has been under attack for 1400 years and we should have learned by now to
put our trust in no one but Allah. Yet there are those who continue to kiss the hand which
slaps them.
I am afraid that we
can no longer put our trust in to someone just because they might wear Islamic dress or
have a long beard? I notice quite a few long beards in here today, but I am not referring
to you, brothers.
There are those
Muslim leaders who claim to guide and protect us but not all of them have our interests at
heart.
Our young people
are going to have to be very discerning since the events of 9/11, Bali, Madrid and the
London Bombings, to name a few.
There are individuals who for years rallied the masses to stand up for justice
and support mujahideen groups around the world and now some have become embarrassingly
silent while others condemn armed jihad, portraying mujahideen as terrorists and
extremists who follow a distorted version of Islam.
In some ways we are all to blame. Our greatest shame has been our silence while
martyrdom operations in Palestine and other occupied lands have been condemned as acts of
terror as witnessed in 9/11 and the July 7 bombings. Our young people have to be taught
that what is happening in Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, Iraq and Afghanistan is legitimate
resistance against a brutal military occupation, while crimes like 9/11 and the London
bombings are blatant terrorism.
Equating the two only betrays our brothers and sisters who have no other option
but to fight or face being wiped off the face of this planet. The new slaves of
the West criticize Islamist parties and governance by Shariah. Even student and youth
movements which consistently campaigned for Palestine and Iraq have suddenly lost their
tongues in a bid to be seen as ? Moderate?.
In Britain we
have an invasion of what I call the Happy Clappies. They are being flown in by the
Government from the US, Canada , Yemen and Mauritania to preach a diluted form of Islam.
They are poisoning the minds of our youth and we should be very wary before the Happy
Clappies spread across the world.
They attack
Wahhabi groups in the most cynical manner? Some even misuse nasheeds, and I am deeply
afraid that the Happy Clappies are infecting our nasheeds with the excesses of western pop
culture.
The end result of
all this has been a dilution of the deen of Allah, a weak and pacified Islam willing to
accept the status quo in which Muslims are oppressed and subjugated; an Islam in which
Muslims are content to sing and dance the night away to nasheeds, to concentrate on
bettering their life in the West and to condemn the actions of their brothers and sisters
who courageously resist occupation and oppression with whatever they have.
Even making dua
for them now has become a crime? How long before we are told not to even pray for the
mujahideen?
One of the greatest
military general the world has known, Salahuddin Ayyubi, the liberator of al-Quds, was
once asked why he didn't smile. He answered back that how could he smile while he knowing
that Masjid al-Aqsa, remained under Crusader occupation.
I wonder what he
would make of the state of the world today. I wonder what advice he would give our youth?
This is a world
where Arab leaders belly-danced shamelessly in front of America while handing Iraq over on
a plate. The same Arab leaders look the other way as our beautiful Palestine is
continually raped and sodomized, and that other great daughter of the Arab world, Lebanon?
Where was the Arab world when she was so brutally assaulted?
And the war drums
are beating again. Not only is the whole world watching, but so are our children, our
youth, and our future.
We must nature
them, and inspire them with tales of the Prophet and the Sahaba. As long as the Ummah
continues to throw up figures like Khalid bin Walid, Salahuddin Ayyoubi, Sayyid Qutb and
Malcolm X all is not lost.
The more we are
oppressed by the tyrants the more we will fight back. That is the nature of Islam. And
this is the Islam our youth need to follow, be guided by and inspired.
Farooq Hosni and
his ilk are pale imitations of real men? They have castrated themselves in a pathetic
attempt to become more Western than the Westerners. He will be consigned to the history
books with barely a sentence while the courage and heroic resistance of our brothers and
sisters will go down in chapters.
A rapidly increasing number of Muslim youth are now realizing that no matter how
hard they compromise their deen to blend in with the wider society, when things go sour,
they will be treated with suspicion.
The more we are told to forget Shariah, khilafah and jihad, the more Muslims will
pay the blood price to uphold these values. The jihad we are witnessing in
Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Chechnya is something noble, a just war against
injustice and tyranny.
The actions of the
jihadists pose absolutely no threat to the West or Western lifestyles and their resistance
is not only justified but embraced and encouraged by international law. The real religious
extremists who pose the greatest threat to radicalizing our youth are the Christian
Fundamentalists in the White House and Downing Street. Bush and Blair have become
al-Qaeda's finest recruiting officers.
More and younger Muslims are waking up with the realization that it is not
terrorism or extremism that is being targeted but Islam itself. It is up to the
Ummah to lead and inspire our youth, just as The Prophet [pbuh] led and inspired millions
and continues to do so.
And the first lesson we must teach our youth is to fear none but Allah [pbuh].