"It is you who love them, but they love you not..."

Yeah. A lot of people will get angry about positions that Muslims in the West take, like, say, a Yasir Qadi or an Amas Alimah, a Yaqeen. The people Yaqeen people and people like them, you know. That they take the liberal stance or they take a position that doesn't alienate the liberals because they, you know, they think that the liberals are on their side. Whether the liberals, the LGBT, you know, stand up for Muslim rights and so on.

And so therefore Muslims should at least not estrange them. And the same goes for, you know, like in Ilhan Omar or this guy Hamzah Youssef who was elected in Scotland saying the thing about gay marriage or homosexual intercourse is not a sin and these things. And so, of course, Muslims will react, you know. Muslims get angry about these things and Muslims, I think, overreact in a way to these things and are very unforgiving when public figures, Muslim public figures, say things that either directly contradict what we know to be true in the religion or otherwise inject ambiguity into matters that are actually quite clear in the religion. And they inject that ambiguity because being clear about something, they are afraid will alienate the liberals, the liberal constituency.

And I understand, obviously, I understand the anger and the frustration and to a to an extent the overreaction. And by overreaction, what I mean is, it seems to me like a more compassionate Muslim approach to these brothers and sisters who say these unacceptable things. That the more compassionate, empathetic Muslim response, the response of actual Muslim brotherhood towards these people, is to understand you got yourself into a situation that you're unprepared for. You know, it's kind of like taking, bringing a knife to a gunfight. But in this case, you didn't even know it was a gunfight.

You thought it was a picnic. Because you can never allow yourself to forget who the Kufar are and what they are and how they feel about you. There's no excuse to forget that because it's in the Quran. We know and Allah had to tell us and he had to tell us, he had to remind us of this because otherwise we wouldn't know because we are a trusting and a kind hearted people, and we don't have hostility and malice in our hearts. So Allah had to tell us that it's you who love them and they don't love you, and that, you know, what they say in front of you, even when they express hostility in front of you, it's still nothing compared to the hostility that they are holding inside.

And that they say amongst each other about you. This is what we know to be true. Now, the Quran also allows there to be exceptions to this, that there are some non Muslims who don't feel this way. But they are the exception that proves the rule. Because, you know, in my experience, growing up in the West, growing up in America, fifty two years of life now, 30 of which as a Muslim.

In all of my life experience, in all of the ways that I've dealt with non Muslims over the years, over the decades, in various capacities, my experience is that no matter what your relationship is like with them, no matter what type of relationship you have with them, even if it's a business relationship, if if your coworkers, if your colleagues, if your neighbors, if you are working together for some political cause, casual acquaintances. It doesn't matter. In any type of relationship that you have with them, eventually, they will try to make you compromise in your deed. Eventually, religion is gonna come into it. Even if religion has nothing to do with the nature of your relationship with them, they will bring religion into it.

And by bringing religion into it, what I mean is they will try to bring into it, something that will make you compromise either compromise your deen or make you confirm for them that you're you're deemed as extreme. They can't avoid it. They can't get over the fact that you're Muslim. It bothers them. It grates on them.

It's like a kind of mental illness. It's like a it's a it's a worm in their head. They cannot deal with you fairly. They cannot deal with you objectively. They cannot deal with you without bias, impartially.

They can't do it. No matter what, even if it's your mechanic, you know, who's working on your car. It doesn't matter. Eventually, today, tomorrow, a year from now, at some point in that relationship, they will bring religion into it for the purpose of trying to make you compromise in your deen or trying to make you seem extreme in your deen. They can't help it.

It's really something they can't help. And they're just adversarial about Islam. It bothers them. It just bothers them. It doesn't mean that you can't have relationships with them, that you can't work with them, that you can't deal with them, that you can't, you know, have cordial relationship with them.

You can. But the condition for that is that you always remember this problem that they have with you. You have to always know that it's there. And so whatever relationship you have with them, whatever common interests you may be pursuing or whatever advantages that they're getting from you in the relationship, the relationship is only allowed because those advantages, they're able they are important enough to them that they're able to suppress their awkwardness about you being Muslim, their discomfort about you being Muslim, their hostility towards Islam. They're willing to put it on the back burner for the purpose of whatever your relationship is.

But the moment they feel comfortable enough to sort of passive aggressively confront you about Islam, they'll do it. They will try to find ways to make you agree with some kind of kufr. They will. They can't help it, like I said. So you have to always remember, you have to always have it in your mind that they have this problem with you.

And you can never forget what Allah said about them and what they feel about you. There will always be latent hostility, dormant hostility, if not open hostility towards you and towards Islam. And when you develop a relationship with them, like a partnership type of a situation or we're going to do something together, like say when Ahmaud Soleiman, went on that march for the rights of immigrants. He didn't go into it with the confidence that he should have gone into it as a as a Muslim public figure, a national figure. I mean, Omar Suleyman is more well known than anyone else who participated in that march.

He was in a position actually to dictate the terms of his participation in that march and the participation of the Muslim contingent in that march. And he could have said in advance, I need to know everything that's gonna happen. What's on the itinerary of this protest? I need to know everything that you people plan to do because we as Muslims can't participate in every single thing that you guys participate in. He could have done that, but he didn't.

Because he wanted to ingratiate himself with them. He didn't want to alienate them. And so he was going to a gunfight thinking it's a picnic. Because there's always an element of conflict when you're dealing with them from their side, not from our side, from their side. And you have to always go into it knowing that.

Any interaction that you have with them, you have to know that there is a subtext of hostility and anger and aggression on their side, not on our side. And that's why Allah had to remind you that it's you who love them and they don't love you. Because you don't go into it with hostility. You don't go into it with aggression. You don't go into it with any animosity.

And you are naive enough to think that that goodwill is reciprocated. Just because they're smiling at you, because they're being nice to you, just because they want something from you. In this case, we know that the liberals, the left, the whatever in The United States like the idea of inclusivity, diversity, and so on. So in that case of that march, they needed someone like Ahmaud Soleiman to bring the Muslims on board, to bring the Muslims along, you know. And because also it's the time of the of the, the Muslim ban under Trump and so on.

So Muslim participation gave them more credibility, gave them more clout, made it more virtuous according to their framework. But still they can't help it. They have to do some open, blatant, offensive kufa and get you to approve to cosign on it or to even participate in it. No reason for any of that. They just do it because they have to.

They can't help it. The same with this guy in Scotland about the LGBT and gay marriage and homosexual intercourse and so on. When that reporter asked him, is it a sin? Do you believe it's a sin? Gay sex?

Sin? This is not political language. What are you talking about sin? This isn't political language. I'm a I'm an elected official.

I'm a politician. Why are you asking me about sin? Ask me about the law. Why are you asking me about using religious terms? Did you ask that of any other candidate if they believe it's a sin?

It's not a political term. Why are you using this kind of language? Because you wanna compromise me and compromise my deed. And he got himself into a situation that he's not ready for. He went to a gunfight thinking it's a picnic.

I'm not saying don't get involved. I'm not saying don't, you know, seek political office or do whatever. Don't seek to participate in social movements, political movements, protest movements, know, civil rights movements and things like that alongside non Muslims. I'm not saying don't do that, but know what you're getting into and know who you're dealing with and how they feel about you and what they will inevitably try to do in any interaction. It will just be eating away at them the entire time they're dealing with you.

Even if they don't know that's what's going on. Because they may not even be aware of it, but it's there. Because this is part of the sickness of Kufr. Part of the sickness of Kufr is hostility towards Islam. That's part of the sickness.

So one of the one of the symptoms of Kufr is hostility towards Islam and hostility towards Muslims. And they will feel whether they understand it or not, they will feel an impulse to make you compromise or accept in some way, some act of kufr, some statement of kufr, some belief of kufr to get you to cosign on it. If you're going to put yourself in those kind of situations, know that it's a gunfight. It's not a picnic and it's not a knife fight. They will come at you.

So you have to know how to deal with it because it can be dealt with. As I said, they have other interests that they're willing to consider, not just their hostility to Islam. They're willing to consider other things and that's why they're dealing with you in the first place. But you have to try to be aware of this and you cannot enter into any relationship with them when you feel that you don't have the upper hand. When you feel that you are vulnerable, when you feel that you are in need of them in some way.

If you're not entering into the interaction from a position of authority and confidence, then don't enter into that interaction if you can possibly avoid it. Because they will take advantage of you. They will try to compromise you. They will try to put you in a corner. And they will try to get you to say things and do things that you're not supposed to do.

So I have sympathy for these people in the West, these Muslims in the West, who I believe are genuinely trying to do something good. They're trying to have a positive impact and so on. But they're not entering into these situations properly informed by their dean about what to expect and they're letting their guard down. When the guy in Scotland said that he didn't think it was a sin, well, he he he tried every way he possibly could to not answer that question in in the direct and blunt way that she was insisting. She was insisting on getting him to say it's not a sin.

She didn't leave him any wiggle room on that issue. When it has nothing to do with politics, it has nothing to do with his position in government. This was clearly you just have a personal hostility towards Islam and Islamic beliefs. That you want to get him to disavow or to get him to say yes, it's a sin so that then you can make him look like an extremist. That's what I mean.

They will either try to get you to compromise and the one of the one of the leverages that they use to get you to compromise is that if you don't compromise, then we will portray you as an extremist. See? They don't have another way of dealing with you. They will always try to get you one way or the other. They cannot be fair to you.

They cannot be objective. They cannot be without bias when it comes to dealing with you. So know that before you put yourself in a position of dealing with them because they will do you wrong. And if, you know, you get done wrong, you have no one to blame really but yourself because Allah already told you everything that you need to know about them and what their motives are and how they feel about you and how they're gonna deal with you. Now, you may be very fortunate and happen to be only interacting with non Muslims who are not that way, the exceptions to the rule.

You may be very fortunate and blessed and only deal with those kinds of non Muslims, but it's very unlikely if you're a public figure. If you're a public figure and you're dealing with lots of people, the law of averages is that you're gonna end up dealing with a lot more hostile people. And don't be fooled into thinking that they're not hostile just because you're working together. They are hostile. They can't help it like I said.

It's something in them. And again, that doesn't mean that you can't work with them, but you just have to go into it knowing what the situation is.