Jena 6: Where is the Outrage?

• Today, in this khutba, I would like to speak about an evil that has been around since the creation of mankind; Allah mentions in the Qur’an the story of the creation of Adam, where after his creation, he told the Angels and Jinn (Iblis) to bow down to Adam and all bowed except Iblis, and Allah describes him is Istakbar, proud, arrogant, etc.

“And when we said to the angels “prostrate yourselves before Adam”. And they prostrated except Iblis, he refused and was proud and was on of the disbelievers”

• And in another part, when Allah asked him why, he said “I am better then him (Adam), I am made of fire and air and [Adam] is made of water and clay”; and in this statement; and so why did Iblis think this way? The mufassireen have said because fire and air rise to the heavens, while water and clay stick to the ground; but this is in the material world; the spiritual world has nothing to do with this; Iblis, in one sentence, uttered the one sentence that has lasted with mankind throughout the ages: the idea that one person is better than another because of origin, skin color, economic status, or whatever else one can think of;
• And throughout the ages, the prophets have come to tell mankind that all these things are not what make a man good or evil, but rather the deeds of the heart; Allah says in the Qur’an:

Inna akramakhum, ‘indallahi atqaakum
Veriy the most honored of you with Allah is the one that is most
God-Conscious

• And the reason why Allah is mentioning this and why the Prophet in his last sermon mentioned “All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action”, is because it also existed during his time;
• And we find this now not only throughout the Muslim world, but the entire world; In the Muslim world, it is between Shia/Sunni, Arab/non-Arab, one tribe vs. another tribe; one town vs. another town; even within families, one vs. another; and in this country, there is a history of pride and arrogance, or better yet, racism against blacks, Native Americans, Hispanics, basically anyone that is not White; and this is not something that has gone away; it still exists, but just don’t hear about it in the media
• So we need to be aware of its existence, first and foremost, within ourselves, then within our family, and finally within society; and if we find it anywhere, we need to fight it out of us, out of our family, and out of society
• Within yourself, you need to ask yourself, whether you are black or not, Arab or not, whether you feel better than someone else; how do you know you are better? We should be so much preoccupied with our own state with Allah, that the thought should ever even occur to us; before criticizing others or faulting them, we should look at ourselves and fix our own situation;
• And within our families, we should strive to make sure our kids, our siblings, even our parents stay away from this as well; usually with kids, it is easy to teach, but sometimes with parents and siblings, if they do make comments that are prideful, arrogant, prejudice and racist, we should object and tell them it is intolerable, because if you don’t, then we are condoning the act;
• The reason why I speaking about racism, whose root is pride and arrogance, and which has been around since the creation of man, is because we find blatant acts of it even in the US today; it is obvious in the Muslim world, where Arabs look down upon non-Arabs, tribes look down on other tribes; etc. and this is not unique to Arabs, it happens in South Asian countries as well;
• One of the things people mention most is the way the South Asians are treated in the Arabian Gulf states; but they forget that merely 200 years ago, the tables were turned and it was the South Asians who used to treat the Arabs in this way; but our ability to change that is minimal since we don’t live there, and so we need to look closer to home, here in the US and it is not difficulty to find;
• The number of blacks that are incarcerated; the lack of economic and educational opportunities available to them; and most recently there is a case going on in Louisianan dubbed the Jena 6: the six African American high school students in Louisiana who are charged with attempted murder for a schoolyard fight with a white student. The fight took place amidst mounting racial tension after a black student dared to sit under a tree in the schoolyard where only white students sat. The next day, three nooses were hanging from the tree, it was reported, in the school colors. The first of the Jena Six, Mychal Bell, was recently convicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy charges for the fight. He now faces twenty-two years in prison. He’ll be sentenced on July 31st; the other 5 are looking at life in prison!!! Would this have been the case for white kids? They usually get a slap on the wrist and told not to do it again; whereas for these black kids, they will end up spending the better part of their adult life in prison; where is the outrage?
• Why is this not being reported in the media? And what can we do about it? I don’t know what we can do for them in Louisiana, but if it happened here in Bellingham, it would be mandatory upon us as Muslims to stand up against it; Allah says to stand up for justice, even against your own souls; but even in this case of the Jena 6, we need to tell as many people as possible about this and somewhere, somehow, someone will be able to do something against this injustice;