A message from Dr. Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid

Hate is killing us - not just people, but America itself. 

• A white supremacist killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburg last Saturday
• Another white supremacist murdered two Black customers in a Jeffersontown, Kentucky grocery store after failing to attack a predominantly Black church minutes before the attack
• These killings happened in the same week that 12 bombs were sent to CNN, and leading Democrats, including former United States Presidents Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton

Thank God that all of the culprits were caught. Law and order is still intact.

But rising hate, fear, and anger must concern us all. 

And election time is the action time! Translate your anger into energy to restore check and balance to our government.

         Action Items

• Write a message of love and solidarity to “Tree of Life” Synagogue from you individually and from your organization: 5898 Wilkins Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217
• GOTV (Get Out The Vote)
  • Vote early. This is the best way to vote! Learn: Vote early. Vote by Mail.
  • Call 25 persons every day to vote
  • Use the next Juma Khutba in your community to mobilize the whole neighborhood to vote
• Call your local candidates after checking their website to ask the following:
  • Have they condemned these attacks?
  • Are they calling it an act of terrorism?
  • Ask them to condemn racism in all forms including, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia
  • Ask them for their position on white supremacists
  Talking Points
  America is talking about these incidents. We must join the conversation and help connect the dots. 
  • We must all work to save our democracy. Trump supporters and opponents must both stick to civil discourse
  • Dehumanization of immigrants and minorities must stop. All three of the terrorists in the incidents this week were hateful of the “Other”
  • Demonization of political opponents is responsible for this violence
  • The late Senator John McCain was right in refusing to demonize former President Barack Obama during the 2012 presidential election campaign. That was civil
  • The synagogue attacker railed against a Jewish refugee advocacy group, saying it was bringing ‘evil Muslims’ into US
  • Rhetoric against refugees and immigrants has been rising since Trump’s Muslim Ban and “Build a Wall” campaigns
  • The suspect who sent 12 bombs to Democratic politicians was a Trump-supporting Republican who had demonized his political opponents, plastering pictures of his targets on his van
  
   
  Thinking Points
  • Political violence is connected with political rhetoric. It can be from all sides. Although the current attackers are pro-Trump, the first victims of political violence in the Trump era were Republicans. In June 2017, a Bernie Sanders supporter fired on them during a baseball game. In worse situations, when law and order is weak, it can lead to civil wars or genocides
  • President Trump did not start this hate, even if he has made it worse. And it will not go away with him
  • Scholars believe it will take a generation or two before America frees itself from rising fear, hate, and anger
  • We must, therefore, develop coalitions with organizations you can ally with to liberate America from fear, hate, and anger
  • The hate which started toward Muslims in the post-9/11 world is now finding new targets
  • Synagogues are not the only houses of worship targeted for attack. The Kentucky attacker first tried to kill people in a Black church, and white supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine worshippers in a Black church in North Carolina in June 2015; in Texas alone, more than 15 mosques have been attacked in the last five years
  • Unlike Muslims who are under constant attack by Islamophobes, one does not often hear public criticism of Jews. So why were they attacked? Here is why:
    • Jews, by and large, support policies that favor immigrants and refugees
    • Anti-Semitism thrives among white supremacists. It is rooted in fascination with Nazi Adolf Hitler’s beliefs
    • Historically, Jews have been the classic target of hate in Christian societies because of the belief that that Jews killed Jesus. Muslims do not believe that
    • Although Christian theology has moved away from blaming Jews today, this belief remains in the white supremacist fringes of America
    • Go beyond interfaith dialog with liberal churches to include conversations with Conservatives and Christian Evangelicals. In the World Parliament of Religions, I intentionally invited conservatives on a common cause and it opened many other doors.
    • Liberals must humanize Conservatives and Evangelicals
  
  
  
  
   
  May God give comfort to the families of those who have been killed in these terrorist attacks this week. May He bless us with patience to see the humanity of those we disagree with or oppose. May God open our hearts toward neighbors. And may He open hearts of our neighbors towards us.
  Peace,
  Abdul Malik Mujahid
  P.S. Remember that Islamophobia is a term that was coined in America. It has put a name to the kind of hate and rhetoric which wiped out all Muslims from the Central African Republic, resulted in the genocide of Rohingyas in Burma, sent three million Uyghurs to Chinese concentration camps, and led the Indian government to strip four million Indian Muslims of citizenship. They were all authorized and demonized, called foreigners, terrorists, and accused of trying to impose Sharia. We must understand that it is our responsibility to fight hate in America, as minorities in other parts of the world suffer when hate is normalized here.  
  P.P.S. And please remember to speak out against war. The cycle of war-terror-hate teaches us to hate and dehumanize each other.                                        
   
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