"On Injustice and Muslims Defending the Muslim Ban"

Dr. Abou El Fadl reminds that Allah has given us the Shari’ah, a path, a guidance, like a map. So, follow it and do not follow the whims of those who do not know. If you enter into a relationship with the Divine, you will feel the Divine and the Divine will guide you.


The unjust are supported by the unjust. The nature of injustice is like an infection. It starts small but grows and extends, and when supported, results in further injustice. It is not just a theological principle; it is a sociological one. It is impossible for injustice to exist without enablers. Most times, when people go astray, a community helps by strengthening and empowering injustice and removing the sense of shame. And injustice, like evil, is an evolution. It is rarely a revolution; people evolve into it. This is precisely why Allah warns us that if you support injustice, you are unjust; and if you aid the unjust, you are unjust.


In the Nuremberg trials, many German officers argued that they were not unjust, they just carried out orders. But the principle enshrined in these trials is that they should have known better. “Carrying out orders” does not excuse evil behavior. By legitimating an infrastructure of injustice, they have become unjust. Claiming ignorance of the law is not a defense.


A professor from Zaytuna, who holds the great responsibility of teaching many of our Muslim youth, wrote an article (https://bit.ly/2VQH3Cs) defending the Muslim ban, enumerating why Muslims are wrong in their negative reaction to the ban; and arguing that it is important to not just speak truth to power, but to speak “truth to pain,” an unclear concept. This professor compares the family separation caused by the Muslim ban to the family separation that Allah (SWT) ordered of prophets; argues that the ban is not specifically targeted towards Muslims; justifies the ban’s policies; and urges Muslims to be patient for the eventual lift of the ban. This professor also defends the incarceration of children in the same article. This is the relationship of some people to power--that they equate between Trump and Allah (SWT)--this is the level of twisted thinking.


Dr. Abou El Fadl quotes and criticizes the article by elaborating on the Supreme Court decision itself; various circuit court opinions; the evolution of the Muslim ban legislation from the first to the last iteration; the manipulations of the technicalities of law used to get the ban passed; and conventions of international law, human rights law, civil rights law, and even American law that answers whether or not immigration to America is a human or civil right. It is clear that the author is not well versed in any of these critical areas. 


The Supreme Court is clear that there was overwhelming evidence that Trump’s executive order was motivated by anti-Muslim animus. The inclusion of Venezuela and North Korea in the ban was solely to protect the Muslim ban from being declared unconstitutional. America has the right to regulate immigration but does not have the right to do so on the basis of religion.


This professor ignores the overwhelming Islamophobic rhetoric that Trump used to get elected as well as to pass the Muslim ban. This ban will end the academic dreams of students and prevent spouses from joining each other in America, yet this professor calls it a mere inconvenience. claiming that Muslims who want to visit family members can simply travel outside of the U.S. to do so. This professor argues that the Muslim ban will eventually be lifted when Trump leaves office. But if the Muslim ban is not a Muslim ban and the victim legitimates the crime of the criminal, why would anyone have an incentive to remove it?


If this is Muslim compassion; if Islam doesn’t lead to justice and if justice doesn’t lead to Islam, then who wants to be Muslim? An Islam that tells a victim that is suffering beyond endurance to suffer in silence is not a morally upright or ethical Islam.  


In recent weeks, Israeli settlers have repeatedly violated the sanctity of the Aqsa mosque, most recently on Yom Kippur. Israel razed to the ground new homes of Palestinians, confiscated new farmlands, decreased the amount of water Palestinians can use to irrigate their lands. India is finishing its concentration camps for Kashmiris. Amidst these and the ongoing devastations in China, Myanmar, and elsewhere, the Muslim response has been absolute silence. This article decries the call for a focus on Palestine, the UAE and Trump’s policies as misplaced, notwithstanding the centrality of Jerusalem to Islam; and the massive investments by the UAE in unjust and anti-Muslim ventures. The allies of the unjust are the unjust. Philosophizing injustice is worse than any other crime, because it's a crime against history and generations.


A just non-Muslim is more respectable than an unjust Muslim. An ethical religion of any name is superior to an Islam that teaches passivism before injustice and suffering.



