Being With Allah In Life And In Death

Developing Just Leadership

Muhammad H. al-'Asi

Jumada' al-Ula' 08, 1441 2020-01-03

Dear committed Muslims, brothers and sisters on as-Sirat al-Mustaqim…

What has happened in the past week or so deserves our immediate attention. Before we try to dissect this whole issue, let us thank Allah (swt) that He has given us the freedom of conscience and the freedom to decide for ourselves.

فَمَن شَاءَ فَلْيُؤْمِن وَمَن شَاءَ فَلْيَكْفُرْ

… whoever wants to commit themselves to Allah has the freedom to do so and whoever wants to deny Allah has the freedom to do so... (Surah Al Kahf verse 29)

This freedom that is guaranteed to us by Allah (jalla wa’ala) has made some of us very committed to Allah, and has made some of us wiggle away from that commitment and has rendered others of us totally irrelevant. All of this is the function of and the result of our God-guaranteed freedom. Allah (swt) says,

لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ ۖ قَد تَّبَيَّنَ الرُّشْدُ مِنَ الْغَيِّ

There is no coercion in matters of conviction for the path of maturity has become distinct from the path of error … (Surah Al Baqarah verse 256)

There can be no one who can force anyone else to be committed to this Deen of Allah and that is by Allah’s Words. That ayah is in Surah Baqarah; this ayah is in Surah Al Kahf,

وَقُلِ الْحَقُّ مِن رَّبِّكُمْ ۖ فَمَن شَاءَ فَلْيُؤْمِن وَمَن شَاءَ فَلْيَكْفُر

Say: truth and justice is from your Sustainer; therefore, whoever wants to commit themselves to Allah, His Power and Authority, may do so, and whoever wants to deny Allah and His Authority and Power may do so... (Surah Al Kahf verse 29)

Another ayah in Surat Az Zumar,

إِن تَكْفُرُوا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَنِيٌّ عَنكُمْ ۖ وَلَا يَرْضَىٰ لِعِبَادِهِ الْكُفْرَ

If you are in denial of Allah, His Power and Authority, Allah doesn’t need you. But He’s not satisfied with your decision to deny Him. (Surah Az Zumar verse 7)

Another ayah in Surah Al Isra’, Allah’s saying to His beloved Prophet,

وَمَآ أَرۡسَلۡنَـٰكَ عَلَيۡہِمۡ وَڪِيلاً۬

…We haven’t sent you as a trustee over them, (meaning the rest of the people in Makkah, and in Al Madinah, and in Arabia, and the rest of us everywhere and anywhere). (Surah Al Isra’ verse 54

The ayah that says,

إِن تَكْفُرُوا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَنِيٌّ عَنكُمْ ۖ وَلَا يَرْضَىٰ لِعِبَادِهِ الْكُفْرَ

If you are in denial of Allah, His Power and Authority, Allah doesn’t need you. But He’s not satisfied with your decision to deny Him. (Surah Az Zumar verse 7)

That ayah is in Surah Az Zumar.

And then we have an ayah, this ayah is in Surah Yunus, this ayah means that

وَلَوۡ شَآءَ رَبُّكَ لَأَمَنَ مَن فِى ٱلۡأَرۡضِ ڪُلُّهُمۡ جَمِيعًا‌ۚ

If Allah wanted (then) everyone, everywhere, all the time without any exception, would have committed to Allah… (Surah Yunus verse 99)

Allah is saying to His Prophet,

أَفَأَنتَ تُكۡرِهُ ٱلنَّاسَ حَتَّىٰ يَكُونُواْ مُؤۡمِنِينَ

… are you forcing people to commit themselves to Allah? (Surah Yunus verse 99)

This is the freedom that Allah (swt) has given us. Now, of course, there are consequences to our choices. Those who decide to commit to Allah- there are consequences. Those who decide to deny Allah- there are consequences.

Let us visit a little of our ground-breaking history in the time of Allah’s Prophet when the Prophet of Allah was forced to leave Makkah. The forces out there who want to kill Allah’s people are a constant force in history. They want to kill prophets, they want to kill messengers, they want to kill imams, they want to kill khulafa’, they want to kill awliya’, they want to kill al aamirina bi al qist, they want to kill as salihin. All of these types of outfits and individuals are a constant in history. So when Allah’s Prophet left Makkah (because he was) forced out with his companion Abu Bakr, they took a certain route in order for them to evade the posse that was out to get them. They went into a cavern, a cave and they were hiding there. Allah’s Prophet and his friend and companion were hiding from the forces of evil. That didn’t demean our Prophet. That didn’t say something is wrong with him. And then, (I want you to pay attention to this because it sort of goes unnoticed. I think you know the territory I’m going to cover but you probably don’t know the observation that I’m going to announce), these deniers of Allah were approaching and Abu Bakr was afraid, (in a sense). He wasn’t afraid in the cowardly sense. He was keen on the safety of the Prophet. Unfortunately, (also I have to say to those of you, brothers and sisters, who have not visited the literature and the history books and other books), some Muslims deny that even Abu Bakr was with him. And then some other Muslims deny that this little conversation took place between the two of them. And there’s an ayah in the Qur’an that speaks to this particular development. Abu Bakr says to the Prophet in a whispering pitch of voice,

يا رسولَ الله لو أنَّ أحدَهم نظر تحت قدَميْه لأبْصَرَنا

و صحيح البخار صحيح مسلم

If they were to look in our direction, they would see us. How did the Prophet answer him? He said

ما ظَنُّكَ يا أبا بكرٍ باثنينِ اللهُ ثالثُهُما
و صحيح البخار صحيح مسلم

What do you say about two when Allah is their third?

The ayah that speaks about this particular moment in time, says,

لَا تَحْزَنْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَنَا

… don’t feel aggrieved or sad, (don’t feel that way), because Allah is with us… (Surah At Tawbah verse 40)

The subtle issue here is, how does Allah describe Himself?

لَّا تُدْرِكُهُ الْأَبْصَارُ وَهُوَ يُدْرِكُ الْأَبْصَارَ

Man’s vision cannot apprehend him, but He apprehends everyone, and their vision, etc. … (Surah Al An’am verse 103)

So the subtle issue that is missing here is, if you are… Before I say this, we all know Allah is present wherever we are, in whatever condition, at whatever time.

وَلَقَدۡ خَلَقۡنَا ٱلۡإِنسَـٰنَ وَنَعۡلَمُ مَا تُوَسۡوِسُ بِهِۦ نَفۡسُهُ ۥ‌ۖ وَنَحۡنُ أَقۡرَبُ إِلَيۡهِ مِنۡ حَبۡلِ ٱلۡوَرِيدِ

And We have created man and We know his internal thoughts and We are closer to him than his jugular vein. (Surah Qaf verse 16)

وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ

And if My servants ask you about Me, I am near… (Surah Al Baqarah verse 186)

So we know this. Allah is with us. Allah is in us. He is beside us. He is near us. But are we?! We know He is with us, but are we with Him? If we are with Him like the Prophet and Abu Bakr were at that moment, we’d know that even if they were to look, they could not see. So it never happened. And this is a function of man’s free will.

Now we make the transition. What we had happening in this past week or two, is the following: we have an attack upon a combined military base in Iraq. Combined military base means there were American military forces there and there were Iraqi military forces there on that base and someone attacked them. Up until this very moment no one, (as far as we can tell), has provided proof of who initiated or who launched that attack that resulted in the death of an American contractor, some Iraqi military officers (and) some other American personnel. There were no reports of American military casualties. And what happened days after that (is) the US military conducts an air raid on a military base that is hundreds of miles away of where the previous incident occurred and the result of that, (depending on whatever news source you’re reading), is 25, 27, or around 30 individuals who were killed on that military base. All of them were Iraqis. Some of them belong to the Iraqi armed forces, some of them may have belonged to the popular mobilization forces or units or whatever you want to call them. And then, after that we had what just happened in the past 24 or 48 hours and that is another American (operation), (as far as the news that is coming across the wires, we don’t know if this was a joint operation), meaning the Americans executed it, but they had some type of linkages with the Saudis and the Israelis. And we don’t even know if it goes further than that and they had linkages inside Iraq or inside of Syria because the news is telling us that the arrival of the head of the Quds brigades was from Syria. The plane landed in the airport in Baghdad along with another military leader from Iraq and the assassination or the targeted killing or the murder or the war crime, (depending on your choice of words), occurred there and then. Now let’s depart from the script from what we read in the mainstream media and let us say that the American Head of National Security, and the American Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Canadian defense minister were murdered in an airport in Canada by drones or helicopters belonging to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Let’s assume for one moment that happened. What would be the reaction? What would be the outcry? What would be the comments? What would be the other fallout from such a development? Brothers and sisters, this development can obviously turn into a trigger for a disaster not only that region of the world, but a disaster for the whole world itself. The first soul-searching question that a person has to ask himself or herself is how did the information leak that made it possible for this development to occur? You need actionable information to do something like that. Where did that actionable information come from? That’s the first question that has to be answered. And this type of question forces us to look into the past few days or the past few months or the past few years so that we can realize that it’s easy to deal with an obvious enemy but it’s not easy to deal with a clandestine enemy. And who has the courage to come out and begin to identify the enemy within? And don’t tell me that there are not people who are in Iran, in Iraq, in Syria, and especially in the areas adjacent to these areas, like Saudi Arabia and Israel, who were not relieved by these developments! If you think that is the case, (I don’t know), maybe your mind has been dysfunctional for a while; you haven’t been living in the real world and witnessing what has been in progress. (Do) you know the word Munafiq? If we wanted to get into some flavor for the meaning of this word, it is related to the word nafaq. Nafaq is a fox hole in the ground in which you see the animal, whether it is a fox or another type of animal that appears at two sides of this fox hole giving the impression that he belongs to both sides. And this is the big mess! The big and, (you can say), potentially spreading mess that has been in the works in Iraq for the past 15 plus years. Big mess that no one wants to touch! No one wants to speak about! These people, meaning officials, decision makers, diplomats, politicians in Iraq, who have been playing it both ways (and) who have been making statements to satisfy their masters in Washington and their masters in Tehran. And for fifteen years there has been a cumulative silence about this. Where do you want to go with your silence? When there’s an individual who wants to shed light on the events such as these that have been trailing themselves throughout the years, they say “oh no! This person is too radical. He’s an extremist!” And their own mouths say “we want moderate Muslims. We want moderate Islam.” And you listen! And no one speaks up! There’s no Abu Dharr in today’s world. No one speaks up. You’re silent! You go to their functions, you attend their programs, you endorse their activities- you are part of the crime! And it’s not easy to say this. No one says this comfortably, but it’s the fact and it’s the reality. And if I am wrong I defy anyone who listens to this to correct me. I’m not infallible. I’m a human just like you are. The difference is, some humans can speak truth to injustice and others remain silent or they hide behind their taqiya. They think they are outfoxing the devil. Or they excuse themselves under the banner of sectarianism. Now do we excuse ourselves? We have nothing to do with all of this. And these voices are becoming louder and louder, decade after decade, and generation after generation. If this continues like this, there will be other shuhada’. There will be other martyrs. And if you continue to be silent or passive or indifferent to all of this, you will be on the wrong side of this whole issue. And I don’t care how you perform your prayers, I don’t care what masjid you go to – this doesn’t matter. What matters is you have compromised the issue of justice which is at the core of what Islam is all about. And the martyrdom that has taken place in these past 48 hours is a testimony against all of you who have been absent from reality. And if further shuhada’ follow in the coming weeks or years, it will be further testimony against who you are. And don’t think just because you say in your adhan, ash’hadu anna Ali waliAllah, and don’t think just because when you pray you put your hands to your sides, somehow you’ve become something special in the world?! It’s the same people who say, ash’hadu anna Ali waliAllah and they pray like you pray, and they go to the programs that you go to, and they do all of this, who have contributed to the bloodshed of these past couple of weeks. And there’s more to come. I’m afraid to say there’s more to come if you continue down this dead end that you are traveling to.

As far as this person in the White House is concerned, you can fill in the blanks. What did you do Mr. Trump? You got on the phone? Or you contacted your financiers, Sheldon Adelson and the rest of the Zionist crowd, and also the Israelis and the Saudis? And what are you saying to them? “Look, you wanted me to take action? I’ve taken action. You want us to take more action? We will take more action!” Because he wants to get re-elected. He wants to spill blood and potentially begin a war to secure his reelection come November. They don’t want Muslims to speak about these issues. Everyone can speak about these issues. Everyone! But when it comes to Muslims- oh no! Please don’t speak about it, because if you speak about these issues, you are revolutionaries! If you speak about these issues, you are radicals! If you speak about these issues, you are extremists! What are we going to do? You want to go down? The wars are against us, everywhere in the world and we want to kill ourselves with our own silence?! In addition to their bullets and bombs, we add our silence to that?! Can you see what you are doing? Some of you showed up today, who didn’t come for years, maybe out of a pinge of your conscience. I don’t know, Allahu a’lam. Where have you been? And where are the others who care not to show up? You can’t defend your own right. This is a simple issue- this is a Jumu’ah, these are salah, that’s a masjid, (and) we are Muslims. Someone comes and tells you “oh no, you can’t come to the masjid – we heard this many years ago from influential individuals in our community in this area and from officials from the Islamic Republic of Iran. They both speak with the same tone and language, saying “what are you doing praying in the street? Stop it!” I never knew that one day, the policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran are going to be an echo of the policies of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia?! I thought at the beginning the Saudis are banning us from praying in the masjid but it happens that there are politicians in the Islamic Republic of Iran who also want us to disappear?! (Do) you see how all of the pieces begin to fall together? What do you want to do? Are you people of principle? Are you people seeking justice? Or are you playing games? What are you doing? There are consequences, (as was stated at the beginning of this khutbah), for being committed to Allah and there are consequences of being in denial of Allah, and there are consequences for those who want everyone to believe that they are committed to Allah when they meet those who are committed to Him.

وَإِذَا لَقُواْ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ قَالُوٓاْ ءَامَنَّا وَإِذَا خَلَوۡاْ إِلَىٰ شَيَـٰطِينِهِمۡ قَالُوٓاْ إِنَّا مَعَكُمۡ إِنَّمَا نَحۡنُ مُسۡتَہۡزِءُونَ

If they meet the committed Muslims, they say, “but we are with you!” and then when they are in seclusion with their demons, they say, “but we are with you; we were only joking, we were only jesting when we were speaking to the committed Muslims.” (Surah Al Baqarah verse 14)

This sentence from the Qur’an practically rounds up the whole Iraqi issue. There has to be an in-house cleaning. You have to look in the mirror, look at yourself, and say, “Where do you stand?” Allah has given you time, He has given you responsibility, and what are you doing? Hiding?! Avoiding the issues?! For how long? We’re on our way to Allah! What’s left: a few months, a few years, a couple of decades, and we’re gone! Can you think? Can you prepare yourself?

Dear brothers and sisters, committed Muslims…

Astaghfirullah, from the usage of the word that refers to a self. I sometimes cannot avoid mentioning certain things, and on an occasion like this I am forced to say what I would otherwise not say. It is obvious, (or) it should be obvious now, (of course, it’s become obvious to me for some time, but it should become obvious to the average observer), that there is a dichotomy of sorts in the Islamic Republic of Iran. I’m not the first to say this and I don’t think I’m going to be the last to; and I say it out of concern and out of compassion; (other) people may say the same thing but they say it out of rancor and out of hate; I don’t say it like that. What do you say about an Islamic government with all of its fumbling and all of its zigzagging, especially through its diplomatic core? It’s still an Islamic effort that has to be preserved by all means, and preserving it is not going to be by our silence- that’s not the way it’s done. When we see a mistake (or) when we see a deviation we have to point it out. We can be patient with it for some time; we can live with it for some time, but there comes a time when enough is enough. So what do you say about departments of that government wanting something to happen and other departments of that same government that don’t want that to happen? They’re working against each other! They’re supposed to belong to the same effort?! I can give examples, but I will withhold without giving examples.

Now we turn to the Saudis. We know, in the past few weeks there has been intense contact between Saudi sellouts, officials (and) royals) on one side, and AnsarAllah in Yemen and the Islamic Republic in Iran on the other side. It’s been going on (and) that’s why you’ve noticed a lull at the war front in Yemen and the propaganda front in Iran. There’s been a lull; as if there’s hope that we can reach an agreement with these shayateen in the Saudi kingdom. People don’t read history?! They don’t learn from the past?! Forget about 1,400 years ago. (Think back) 40 years ago! (Think back) 30 years ago! You don’t know what was done? I’ve heard this from, (I’m not going to name the person, or the individuals), some of them. At least one of them lives here in the Washington DC area, (not to be seen, not to be heard of), said to me personally over/around 30 years ago, (I heard this with my own ears), he said, “what’s all of this Islamic revolution about? Why are we, (meaning the Iranians), learning Arabic? We should be learning German, French, English, etc. I’m listening. This is a graduate of the hawza. This is a person who was at the war front and right now, he’s a shadow figure behind the scenes. Other individuals now- one of them (who) is under house arrest in Tehran said, (this was also 30 or so years ago), “it’s not wise for us to have these types of foreign relations with these types of governments, especially the US. I’m listening. What do you want to do? Create an argument (or) a fight with the person? I was thankful that he was honest and expressed himself. Another one of these individuals in the foreign ministry, (I don’t want to mention his name), says, “what’s all of this about, these Arabs? Let us take a turn eastward towards China, towards India, towards Russia (and) forget that these Arabs even exist. His policies are more or less put into motion now and look at what India is doing to its Muslims! (Take a) look at what China is doing to its Muslims! (Take a) look at what Russia is doing to its Muslims! How do you define yourself? We used to think our brothers in Turkey had an identity problem but we think our brothers in Iran are suffering from an identity crisis. Who are you? To whom do you belong? Where are you going? Am I too harsh?! Some of these same people right now who are in our circles and in our communities go to the White House! Some of them go to the Saudi embassy in the past years! Some of them are meeting behind the scenes with the Zionists and the Imperialists! And we turn out to be the odd balls. People who speak truth and are dead serious about justice- oh no, we are extremists, radicals, revolutionaries, goofballs, etc. That’s what they say. You want to go to sleep?! Go to their Masajid! You want to contribute to further assassinations? Go to their Masajid! Some of them even take pilgrims to go to Makkah and Madinah every year. They used to be with us. What happened? These are the ones who have contributed to the potential war that is in the making now- on the wrong side! We wish they contributed to this on the right side! They contributed to it on the wrong side! And we continue. We don’t care if we are with Allah and Allah is with us.

ما ظَنُّكَ يا أبا بكرٍ باثنينِ اللهُ ثالثُهُما
و صحيح البخار صحيح مسلم

What do you say about two when Allah is their third?

لَا تَحْزَنْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَنَا

… don’t feel aggrieved or sad, (don’t feel that way), because Allah is with us… (Surah At Tawbah verse 40)

These Saudis committed a crime last year or the year before now. They killed one of their own prominent journalists and the whole issue has become hush-hush. Have you seen any interest by those who say that they are spokespersons for Islam and they have an Islamic media? Have you seen them dig deep into this issue? Why did the Saudis kill Khashoggi? Who is responsible for this? It was whitewashed.

In Saudi Arabia this past week, one of the teachers, (they have there), in one of the schools in the south-western region of that kingdom said in his classroom instead of nasta’inu bi Allah, nasta’inu bi Ash Shaytaan. Instead of saying “we ask Allah for help” he says “we ask Ash Shaytaan for help” and the person is arrested and the news item is buried. How did he make it through the educational system and become a teacher in one of these schools? They don’t want to shed light on this. We don’t have satellite TV. We don’t have access to the mainstream media.

You know with this entertainment industry- the entertainment department, the entertainment ministry, the entertainment corporations, the entertainment finances- that is going on in that kingdom that colonizes Makkah and Al Madinah, they said “they don’t want to observe Christmas and New Year’s, this year”. Why? It’s not because they are committed Muslims or they understand what they are doing. No! It’s because it would have the wrong interpretation- they’re going too fast. Give us another five or ten years, and then we’ll begin to observe Christmas and New Year’s. There’s nothing wrong with observing Christmas and New Year’s; but (with) the type of fanaticism that has been ingrained in those people, they can’t do the normal thing. You have to give them time to normalize. Then we’re going to have the rest of these coming. We’re going to have Valentine’s Day. We’re going to have Mother’s Day. We’re going to have LGBT day. We’re going to have other days and they want to modernize. They want to be acknowledged as being on par with the rest of the jahili world.

This past week MBS was communicating with Pompeo and they said- this is the official reason- “they are discussing issues that have to do with security and stability in the area.” Were they discussing an assassination attempt? Were they discussing coordination of their intelligence and their military services, for future attacks inside of Iraq? As a result of this snag in these relationships, a ballistic missile was shot out of Yemen into the kingdom of the royals of Arabia, at a military base, in which scores of military personnel were either killed or wounded during this past week. Something, of course, you won’t hear about in the mainstream media.

During the past week around 200 individuals were arrested in Ar Riyadh. Why were they arrested? Because they were not decently dressed. They didn’t tell us what that means. Our educated mind would say, well, maybe some women are not wearing the aba’ah any longer or they are not covering their head any longer or maybe a man is dressed to look like a woman, or something like that. We don’t know. What we know for sure is most of those who were arrested were women and they were arrested because they were not dressed properly. Their words, albisah khadishah li al haya’, which means “attire that is infringing on al-haya’”.

Now the financial planners in the decrepit kingdom of Arabia are budgeting more than 50 percent of their yearly income to go to military affairs. What does that tell us? Oh you Muslim- what does it tell you?

In the past week there was a security clash in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia. Two individuals were killed and the Saudi media said that they were terrorists. The Saudi media says Al Ikhwan Al Muslimin are terrorists. The Saudi media says AnsarAllah in Yemen are terrorists. The Saudi media says Hizbullah is terrorist. The Saudi media says Shi’is are terrorists. The Saudi media says from time to time, even though they play both sides of it, that the Salafis and Wahhabis are terrorists.

There’s been much said in the social media because of two individuals who are responsible for Islamic affairs in the kingdom of the Salafi Saudi Arabia and Sudan. These ministers of religious affairs don’t even know how to write correctly. I would go through the details of the Arabic mistakes that were made by the minister of religious affairs who is from the Shaykh family (that’s the family of Muhammad ibn Wahhab). In one paragraph the person made eight linguistic mistakes. Now this doesn’t come from the minister of agriculture or the minister of industry; it comes from the minister of religious affairs, which is a no-no! What’s happening? Same thing (with) the minister of religious affairs in Sudan. He says a certain ayah is in a certain surah when it is in another surah?!

مَن قَتَلَ نَفْسًا بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ أَوْ فَسَادٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا

… if anyone took a life without it being due to murder or to spread corruption, then it will be as though he killed all humanity… (Surah Al Maa’idah verse 32)

He, the minister of religious affairs, said that this ayah is located in Surah Al Baqarah when in fact it is in Surah Al Maa’idah!

Then we have a hospital in Abu Dhabi. Look brothers and sisters, we don’t have enough medical for ourselves; what do you say when you hear that there’s a hospital in Abu Dhabi for treating falcons, the bird? A hospital for falcons?!

And then, last but not least, a Saudi woman who made her way to Canada, and is living in exile in Canada because she stands for her rights, has become a Christian and now the whole world has been turned upside down in Saudi Arabia because a Saudi woman from one of the well-known tribes in that country has turned from Islam to Christianity. She said in her social media communication (I can’t remember if it’s Facebook or Twitter or whatever), Yasu Rabbi, which means “Jesus is my lord.” What’s wrong with that? We said at the beginning that Allah has given people the freedom to commit to Him or not. She chose not to. They are incensed because one of them, (due to) the type of mistreatment that women get in that kingdom, forces some of them to renounce their Islam because they find more mercy, more love and more compassion in Christianity. You tell these same people who, right now, are in a rage because of this, a Muslim has become a Zionist or an Imperialist (and) it doesn’t register?! They’re not moved. Nothing happens! It’s normal. This is where our problem is.

This khutbah was presented by Imam Muhammad Asi on the occasion of Jum’ah on 3 January 2020 on the sidewalk of Embassy Row in Washington D.C. The Imam previously led the daily and Jum’ah prayers inside the Masjid. His speeches were revolutionary and thought provoking, and eventually irritated and threatened the Middle-East Ambassadors who control the Masjid. Finally, the Imam, his family, and other Muslims faithful to the course of Islam were forced out, into the streets. This khutbah originates from the sidewalk across the street from the Islamic Center, currently under seige.