of peace be upon you and welcome to eye on islam. the show where we look at current affairs through an islamic lens. each week we consider a trending news story and we break it down from an islamic perspective. as the world watches on in the face of israel's genocidal onslaut against the people of gazza. one consistent theme which has stood out has been the unbreakable spirit and faith of the palestinian people. it has led muslims to look for ways in which they... can show

their solidarity to the people of ghaza, turning to their religious leaders for guidance. however, when it comes to fulfilling those responsibilities, some muslim preachers have fallen short to say the least. as muslims look towards scholars, callers to islam and academics for guidance on how best to support the people of palestine, some leaders have been exposed by either their silence or worse yet their outright treatury towards the people of. boycotting pro israeli businesses, he discouraged the idea saying that muslims should leave other muslims alone and not enjoy the good on them, so this is a personal preference, if you want to boycot because you feel that it would hurt those who support israel, good for you, this is your personal uh. way of doing it, but if you see someone

not doing it or consuming their cheeseburgers or fried chicken, you cannot blame them, say oh shame on you, you're drinking their soft drinks, no it's not, it's halmati, a former fitness instructor turned social media influencer and preacher based in the usa, who says boycotting israeli companies is haram unless a muslim ruler approves it. hey guys, everyone, we should boycot so and so, so and so company, yo, what, i had the deal with that company, they're paying us and when we have deal together, you're ruining that deal, and it's up to the to the muslim government, then you cannot disobey it like that, if the muslim government, or the ruler says boycott, then yes, because he he knows things you don't know, and they have agreements. they

have taken care of it, so now he says okay to boycot, and it happened before, but if it doesn't happen now, meaning that we don't know something, it's going to harm us if we boycott them, yeah, so boycting, that's why many of they said boycotting is haram, and finally london-based shampsy, a pro saudi salapus preacher, appeared a podcast with fariz hamadi, mocking those who have called for boycotting starbucks and solidarity with the people of gaza and deflecting with claim. about social media links to zionism they're of course big multi million dollar companies like starbucks and mcdonald's and other kind of names you know i love starbucks people are driving me crazy starbucks i don't drink in starbucks by the way but you drinking starbucks right i saw some videos you're holding the cup i'm like man this guy's goingna get a lot of heat now you don't understand i tell you this funny story yeah,

someone sent me message on instagram and he said to me, do you know that starbucks is a is a sinuus supporter? i said, okay, i said, do you know that instagram, the owner of instagram is a zinuus supporter? these men and many other influencers like them belong to a wing of salaphism referred to sometimes disperagingly as mathalism. one core tenat is that muslims must always obey their leaders, a concept that is generally accepted by... some muslims, but for those influencers, there don't appear to be any particular conditions as to when disobeying those rulers should be prioritized such as when those leaders are collaborating with israel. joining us today to talk these issues through our two esteemed guests and favorites of the show. with me in the studio is sheikhmed hanif who is one of our few honorable scholars that is unapologetic in his islamic duty of condemning the oppression in palestine. he graduated from the islamic... of

seminary inqum and lectures in the uk and joining us on skype is brother shakil afsar birmingham shakil is a prominent kashmiri activist who has tielessly campaigned against islamophobia in the uk and abroad and has consistently championed the palestinian cause in the mainstream. thank you to you both for joining us, um, sheik, if i can come first and foremost to you, um, i don't know how you felt watching you know that that vt, that was it, it made me angry, but as a scholar, what are the responsibilities of muslim scholars in times of oppression? we saw that massalen, these people were saying that we should avoid boycotting, you know, specifically, is that something that muslim? scholars have the right to say or do? bismillahirrahmanirrahim uh, in the time of oppression, the time of extreme, the extremes of oppression, like what we are seeing in gaza right now, the duty of muslim scholars is to uh provide

clarification, understanding to the people of why this is happening, what are the forces behind it, you know, who are on what side? and what role should we play in this? um, i think uh, lot of people tend to have very limited idea of what, the muslim scholars who are the leaders of our society should do, um, they think that um they should only be providing, how should i say, spiritual services, but be involved in the issues of community empowerment, consolidation and guidance in terms of how to face the challenges that are presented to their societies, and this is one of the challenges that is being presented to our society, and

we can judge them by their response. absolutely, i completely agree with you, you know, judging these kind of scholars just as we saw earlier, shakile iif i can come to you, as we saw... earlier in the show, there are some muslim scholars who have taken an approach that some would have, some would call disappointing, some would call treaturous, what do you think about this? yeah, i absolutely agree, a time when a lot of british muslims don't actually know what to do and they are with end, we have scolar saying that we shouldn't be boycotting, we have scalar saying that we should be listening to muslim leaders, the question i have for these muslim scholars or so-called scholars, call them is what are the muslims leaders actually doing? do they not see the videos that are coming out of palestine? do they not see the young innocent children? if british, kashmiris, american kashmir, muslims, if muslims all over the world want to boycot because they feel that is the only weapon they have, why are people pushing them

away from this? maybe those colors are on the payroll of the oppressers, you know, lot of lot of times people will tell and misguide the community to serve their own pockets, and "you know, i firmly believe that people like these scholars who for whatever reason, i'm not a scholar myself, and i have never claim to be one, but what i do suggest is, why are these people pushing away, you know, people who stand by palestinians from wanting to do something, you know, they're saying we must listen to the muslim governments, but every single one of you can see what are the muslim governments really doing, we have muslim superpowers who have nuclear power and they are sat on the fence, you know, i firmly. believe at the end when this is all said and done, we won't remember the oppression of our oppressers, but we will really remember the silence of our friends. really well said, you know, i remember reading a statistic to say that um, all the muslim countries in the world, um, they occupy you know a sixth of

the world's wealth if not more, and they could not get a drop of water into gazda, they have not um yet done anything to... to actively really on the ground make an impact on on the genocide that's going on and just as shakil said uh you know some muslim leaders are or muslim scholars preachers are actually thinking about their own pocket because they are getting some money for their stances let's say but religiously and the question to you is religiously are there any justifications for muslims to stay silent when it comes to oppression no and i think that goes against - the uh the statement by the holy prophet sallallah when when he said when a muslim is confrontod with wrongdoing this is a muslim you didn't say the muslim ulama okay when they're confronted with a wrongdoing they should change it with their

hands you know meaning that if you have the power for example the political power the economic power you see to be able to actively change that then you should do that, and if you cannot do this, then you should speak out against it with your tongue, and speaking out against it with our tongues include things like demonstrations for example. chants, slogans, analysis, historical approaches to to these types of things, and if you cannot do this, which means that the situation is so repressive, that just speaking out with the tongue is is is is is is dangerous to you, can get you killed, then you hate it in your heart, and hating, hating it in your heart, hating that wrongdoing in your heart is the least of iman. in other words, if you had one ounce of a man, you know, you should be able to hate oppression, any rate, at this point

in time, um, we don't have that intense oppression over speech yet to say that we cannot speak out, you see, and so when people talk about you, we you only the scholars have the right to say this, and the scholars have the right to say that, or the quote quote leaders, i don't know what i mean by this amorphust term leaders, all right, um, what is this? actually denying us is agency, you see, because that hadith it applies to all muslims, you know, not that you, you just have to follow your leader, for you to decide to take action, yes, absolutely shah, and you know the the muhammady spirit is clear, it encourages the good and forbids the evil, but some believe that this is a personal endeavor not to be mixed in with politics. we went to the streets of london to ask muslims about what the... expect from religious leadership during times of war and in this case genocide. we need to see calls for action

made against this vile genocidal israeli entity, so what we want to see, we want to see from our from our speakers, we want to see calls for boycot in, we want to see pressure being put on these members of parliament, we want to see anything, anything that can be done to aid our brothers and sisters and gaz and philestine, anything that can be done we want to see it being done, so anyone who has a voice? and has been silent on this matter, just understand that the community is not going to forget this, whether like very political or like just you know the social media scholars as we know them, we've seen them there from the start, and then 7 october onwards we we saw them, you know even come out more, and you know, i think every day, their stories, their feed is just about palestine, and they've been teaching us how to talk more, how to advocate more, uh, boycotting, um, the role of like you, to keep this... going to keep talking about it, i think like for example the other day said satani put uh, i don't if you saw it

on karbala on abbas, he put like a big poster that it's wagib to boycot and stuff, like as much as you can, because obviously you can never boycot everything, but as much as you can, you know if you go to a supermarket, you see cola on the fridge, you don't buy it, we should not stop, the protest should not stop, we should not stop speaking about it, everyone that has a platform, you have two followers, three followers, five followers, everyone needs to speak, push it forward, you meet someone in the cafeteria, speak to them, see what they're saying, teach them, and another thing that i think is very important is when we are going to the protest is that we understand, i'm talking especially to the muslims, it's for us to stick and um, stick to the quran and sunnah and the shariah, that we don't you know do things that go against what allah has told us to do. if i can come to you in this uh question, in the west, many scholars have stayed silent, do you... think that this exposes where people's loyalties lie, you did you know briefly in your previous answer talk about their pockets

aligned, you know, can you go into a bit more detail about that? well, look, i can say and credit where credit is duced, some of these muslim institutions, some of these scholars unfortunately are silent because of the pressure that exist, so i totally understand that these institutions have been set up to push forward the message of islam, to allow people to allow people to congrate in prayer, but what these institutions must understand, we understand the pressures that they face by the british establishment, but at this current time, it is time that they face these pressure head on and the communities will stand with them, lot of you, institutions, lot of massages, lot of trusts that have been set up, their answer to not speaking is we do not want to have our mustures closed down, we do not want to have you know external reviews happening and what's happening. internally, but i say each and every single one of them that if now is not the time to face our

problems, then when is, if these institutions cannot be the pillars of our community and leave the communities to stand for the palestinians, then we will, we have so many people within birmingham who are actually going through pts, post traumatic stress disorder, and this violent situation hasn't even finished yet, because of the sheer fact the you know the the videos that are coming out, the... the horrific scenes that we are seeing, if our ulama, if our imams, if our institutions are not going to give direction to the muslims, who is? excellent question, excellent point, pardon me that you made there, um, if they're not actually going to be doing their job, if they're not going to be leading the muslim ummah, you know, acts of um, acting as you mentioned, in uh encouraging the good and forbidding the evil is iman, it is faith, and if people are going to be discouraging them from that, uh, people like mahdi,risi and amshawani who have in the

past, diverted people attention from uh their support of palestine, quelling their in their rhetoric, in their language, quilling the thirst of the people for change, through activism, and even profiting off of this genocide, through putting some of their lectures behind a paywall share, like it begger's belief, what would be your response to this kind of leadership? well, i think when leadership abandons its responsibility, that vacuum. must be naturally filled and say must be naturally filled mean uh the leadership will come from somewhere else you see and uh this is what we would call maybe revolt or rebellion uh so for example in this issue of palestine and what's happening in

gaza uh you would find that if for example a particular establishment or particular individuals who might be prominent in the society and so forth, do not provide the guidance that is necessary to respond to this, which goes back to these three modes okay, boycotting means action, the power that we have, you see, when they do not fulfill these three modes, then what happens is you would find the youth, the younger generation. um, others who see that flaw, you know, who will fill that gap, and this is exactly what is happening with the gaza issue, you know, not only in the muslim community, but also in the non-muslim community, all right, you find that the the the the democratic force of

people on the street, you know, results in not only the fall in joe biden's uh uh uh you approval ratings, but also it results in the default in the approval ratings of our the people we consider to be our leaders, okay? who are also not responding to that? because what they're doing is exactly the same, exactly, there's no longer a distinction between the religious and the non-religious leadership, because their stances are exactly the same, exactly, and this is where now we, or the community who um, see that gap, you know, need to fill and this is what is happening. okay, well then on in the inverse, what about the scholars who have stepped up? you know, we've got mathalan, sheik asr rashid, we've got dr. abdul wahid, you know, people like, and i'll come to you shikel about this question too, um, but about those people, you've got mathalan, sheikh azhar, haki, um, and all these other you know,

prominent young scholars, what about their example? well, i think their example is an example to be. followed, i think that um they are showing the true leadership in the community, you know, and i think um, people should be aware of that and should reward them by gathering around them and supporting them, you know, and and interacting with them, yes, and i don't think you know, we we a time right now where for example you have to follow your leaders unquestioningly, this is the 21st century, you know what i mean, there is self criticism, you know which is something very important um that uh you know our leaders could come up short in in areas and they should be open to criticism of others in order to improve themselves just like we as ordinary people as well should do and shakil if i can ask you the similar question um what about scholars who have stepped up what examples do you have of these scholars is there a generation gap it seems

you know um we're seeing that lot of young scholars you know in their 30s who are kind of coming out of these seminaries, the they are saying um what we believe, what what the people can see, whereas older generation of of scholars are kind of you know more more with the establishment generally? yeah, i absolutely have to agree, namely brother sheikh rashied is actually very local to myself and like the sheikh in the studio just said, it's the 21st century, so the more younger scholars are actually stepping up because they are basing things on factual evidence. they are actually in touch with their community, they are leasing with their community and they are being the pillars of society that they need to be, unfortunately with some institutions and some individuals they seem to... to be more worried about and concerned about protecting their institution when in fact they are actually destroying the institution because the communities can see their silence, the communities can see that

these people are completely silent on the play of our people, whether it be the palestinians, whether it be the kashmiris or whether it be any muslims all over, so i definitely definitely agree with the shake that in the 21st century, and this is this is a big, there is a big movement that is taking place, and unfortunately there will be a time. when those people who were silent will be held to account, people will not forget when our blood was being spilled that these people were sat on the sidelines trying to protect the institutions when the institutions were actually set up in the first place to guide the muslims to help the muslims and more over to raise the ply of our people. you know sheikh what advice now in general to to the muslim public, we're not talking about leaders here, talking about everyday men and women. what advice would you give them about their? responsibility in forbidding this evil? um, yeah, first of all, i think with the the the the muslim or how i

say religious elite, put it that way, and their response has to be seen also in a historical context, you know, um, for example, my brother here was was talking about the younger shakhs okay, so it's a generation thing going on here. "the first phase of the muslim community establishing itself in the west is one of how i would say nostalgia, yeah, you know, i'm from bangladesh, i come here, i am an alien environment, i want to feel at home, so i gather with my other fellow bangladeshies and we end up buil building mosk, which is basically a bangladeshi religious and communicate community center, you know, and the kind of olama that they used to invite to come and lead your communities." so people from let's say bangladesh or pakistan or whatever, it the the the being conversant with the language of the environment that you are in was not important, what was important

is maintaining your own language, you know, which also meant a certain type of disconnect with the environment that you have, and then the other generation started coming, second generation, third generation where now their lingua franca is english, where the their perspective, is one now that is rooted in london or manchester or birmingham and what have you? and they require something more, they require now kind of interfacing between islam and the environment in which they they are, and this is where things fall apart, because these older generation people are not in contact, are not in touch with their environment and this cannot provide that particular leadership, and so the leadership now tends to sort of want to push towards the younger um ulama, at the same time, however their institutionalized structures tend to sort of... put up resistance to this, my advice to the people and the the the young people and and others um in this time is to provide, is to fulfill your own leadership,

is to is to take action, you know, and and when you are doing this, you will attract the right people to lead you, you see, brave people lead to having brave leaders, cowardly people tend to have cowardly or maybe even tyrannical leaders, you see leaders 'who are not in touch in terms of um uh not being faireless enough to um uh risk uh sanctions being put on your centers and even probably even the loss of your centers you know are not really leaders who are prepared to sacrifice you see and and and as as the speakers as the the brother said what's his name again brother you know brother shake brother shakiel you know my dear brother shakil has said you know uh the people end up judging you and you'. you end up losing the very yes basis for your support, which ends up with you, you have empty center with nothing, it's like take responsibility, make

sure that you are people that is strong, that kind of inspires even the leaders, because yes they are scholars and they are religious and and they are in their books, but also they need to be inspired by your action, and it's and it's a responsibility that falls on both leaders and the led, i i love that, thank you so much she and thank you. um brother shakil for joining us and thank you at home for watching, unfortunately this is all that we have time for today uh please join us again next week for another edition of eye on islam.

this is for palestine. "the corporate media's coverage of the zionist regime's daily mass slawter of men, women and children in gaza has been shamefully one-sided. the pro israel storyline is tightly policed, and any interview is who straight from that pro israel narrative are invariably ridiculed, cut short, or continuously interrupted. one the worst offenders is peer morgan, he's clearly uh biased and he clearly does attack people who are critical of of zions." uh and indeed of western foreign policy more than he does the people on the other side, i'm not being awful, chris, mercenaries kill people and they do it for money uh, so they they are not what you would call the most moral people in the world, so not only a spanish people going over there, i've got reports of czech, british, american and also colombia. october

7th marked new chapter in israel's history. they were stunned by the unexpected turn of events. now the big question is, can israel restore its shuttered image? after the seismic shift in its narrative.

first to be headlines a temporary pause in the deadly israely war on gaza enters its second day and it reports of the regime's violations of the four days. the hamas leaders says palestini resistance forced israel into except. the group's terms for ceire agreements. also on the headlines rallies have been held across the world in solidarity with palestinians to have been under israelment in gaza for almost 50 days.