Gangsterism: Busting the Gang
Shaykh Bilal Philips talks about the problem of Muslims involved in gangs and methods to stop these gangs.
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00:00I have some questions already from the sisters.
00:10Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen,
00:20wa salatu wa salam ala rasoolil kareem,
00:23wa ala ahli wa sahabi,
00:26wa man istanna bi sunnatihi ila yawm al-deen.
00:29All praise is due to Allah and may Allah's peace and blessings be on the last Prophet Muhammad,
00:33sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
00:35and on all those who follow the path of righteousness until the last day.
00:41The topic, as has been introduced to you in the more formal title,
00:47is informally known as gang busting.
00:51This is the topic of the actual lecture.
00:54It's called gang busting, busting the gang.
00:58So, this topic, as you can imagine,
01:03deals with, fundamentally, the phenomenon of the rise of gangs amongst Muslims,
01:12where Muslims' youths have killed each other,
01:17something which is unthinkable from an Islamic perspective.
01:23Yes, we have warring nations,
01:27but within a nation where young people will engage in violence
01:36to the point where they're killing each other
01:39is something unwritten in the history of the Muslim world.
01:47So, this phenomenon is a natural product
01:51of an existing phenomenon of gangs in North America anyway,
01:57and Muslims have fallen into this trap.
02:03And, as such, it is something which we have to worry about,
02:10though it seems to be focused or concentrated in the Somali community.
02:17There are many from other Muslim communities,
02:21whether it's Afghan, Pakistani, Arab, Egyptian, etc. communities,
02:27who have joined in, are engaged, and caught up in this cycle of violence.
02:34So, as Muslims, we have a responsibility to understand this phenomenon
02:42and to work out ways and means of correcting it.
02:48How do we go about correcting it?
02:51After knowing what the problem is, then how do we go about correcting it?
02:57Well, if we look at it from the perspective of the children or the youth,
03:05because we have two perspectives to look at,
03:08the children, that of the youth, and the parents,
03:12because the youth are products of families.
03:16They have come out of families, so we need to look at those families
03:21as well as we need to look at the youth themselves.
03:26If we start with the youth,
03:30we can see that there are particular phases which youth go through
03:40when they join a gang.
03:44They don't just wake up one morning and decide,
03:48I'm going to be a gangster.
03:51It is a process that they go through, a gradual process.
03:57There are three basic stages.
04:01The first stage, and that stage occurs with youngsters between the ages of seven and nine.
04:11This is the stage known as interest and admiration.
04:17Interest and admiration.
04:22And, of course, what we're talking about, interest in what?
04:29It is seeing those who are gang members successful in the sense that they have money,
04:39they have prestige, they have big cars, fast cars,
04:46fancy dress, the latest Nike, Jordan, boots, whatever,
04:53they have all the symbols of success,
04:58at least from the rap DVD video world, from that world.
05:10And these individuals become, for those young people between seven and nine, heroes.
05:18They are looked at as heroes.
05:22They have made it.
05:24In spite of the system, they have made it.
05:28Now, there are symptoms that parents need to know and to watch out for.
05:37Because when kids begin this phase, they will have certain changes in their behavior.
05:47And parents need to know it.
05:50If parents don't know what's going on, then it will just come at them all of a sudden.
05:57They will just find their son in a gang and wonder, how did this happen?
06:03Because they had no consciousness of how the gang mentality evolves.
06:14So, what are the signs?
06:18One of the signs is school.
06:21Problems in school.
06:24In that seven to nine year age range, there are already problems in school.
06:34Problems with teachers.
06:36Problems with other students.
06:39Problems which you, in growing up, never experienced.
06:48At home, even though they're between seven and nine, you will start to find some defiance of authority.
07:01Defiance of authority.
07:03They're not following your instructions.
07:08They're resisting family instructions by the elders in the family.
07:17Bedtimes.
07:18They don't want to go to bed at the times that have been set.
07:21They're wanting to stay up later.
07:24And then you also find, possibly, a certain amount of detachment from some of the members of the family.
07:33They will start to detach themselves.
07:37They don't associate much with certain members of the family.
07:45And they seem to be wanting to be alone more.
07:53So, this is the stage of interest and admiration.
08:00Once you see this happening, as a parent, then you need help.
08:08You need to seek help.
08:12Something is happening.
08:14You don't really know how to deal with it.
08:18You are in a difficult situation because you're limited as to what you can do.
08:25The amount of time that you have to spend with the children is limited because both you and your wife are working or whatever.
08:33So, it's something that's beyond your ability to just handle by yourself.
08:38You might think, yeah, I can take care of it. I can handle it.
08:40But no, you need professional help.
08:45That's the first thing to realize.
08:49Recognize that you need help.
08:51If you recognize that you can get help, then it is possible to overcome this stage.
08:59Catch things at the beginning stages before they go beyond your ability.
09:05Even with help to do anything.
09:08And such young people may be helped through group therapy.
09:17Sitting them down with other young people at the same age and discussing the kind of things that are on their minds.
09:25And trying to clarify for them that what they are seeing as being attractive and flashy and success, etc.
09:35That it really isn't.
09:37To try to get them back on track to have a proper view of the realities of life.
09:45And also to educate them to substance abuse.
09:50Because that's the next stage.
09:53Once they get past 7 to 9, they start to ease into 10 to 13, the next phase.
09:59Then substance abuse is going to be a common factor.
10:04So we have to get them sufficient information that they will know to reject this when it is offered to them, etc.
10:16Otherwise, they will engage in these practices without you knowing it.
10:22And once they get on that track, it's very, very difficult to bring them back.
10:30Also, in this stage here, it is good for parents who have similar problems to come together and share.
10:43So they have what they call parenting groups.
10:47Parents who have children who are at risk like this.
10:51And they can discuss different strategies with the help of psychologists, psychotherapists, etc.
11:00To guide the parents in dealing with this situation.
11:04And of course, what is missing from this picture here is the relationship between that child and Islam.
11:18Obviously, something has gone wrong.
11:23The Islamic connection is missing.
11:27Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. had instructed us to teach our children Salah by the time they are 7.
11:35They should know Salah.
11:41Know Salah meaning not just they know how to do the motions, the movements.
11:50What we call monkey Salah.
11:54They just monkey see, monkey do, right?
11:57That's what they say, right?
11:58So they just go through as you do.
12:01They just go through the movement.
12:02No, we're not talking about that.
12:04Because the Sahaba informed us that there were amongst them those who led their whole community in Salah at the age of 6.
12:23They were 6 years old.
12:25And they led the whole community in Salah.
12:29Why? Because they knew the most Quran.
12:32They knew, they had memorized the most Quran.
12:36And that's what Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. had said.
12:39That the one who knows the most Quran is the one who should lead the Salah.
12:43So they having known the most Quran and of course known what is Wudu and what breaks Wudu and what to do when you break Wudu in Salah.
12:57And all the different things that are connected with it.
12:59It just doesn't mean they just memorized the Quran.
13:01They need to know all the things that for an Imam of the Salah you would need to know.
13:07You made a mistake, you make two Sujood, right?
13:12They know about all of that.
13:14They were doing that at the age of 6.
13:18So that kind of knowledge of Salah and that knowledge should be connected with a consciousness of Allah s.w.t.
13:33That they know that the prayer is not in order to please their parents.
13:40Because this is one of the mistakes that tends to happen in that early stage when the children between 3 and 6 where personalities are developed.
13:52That we inadvertently train them to pray in order to please us.
14:04And this is something which may be natural at 3 years old.
14:13The child sees you standing to pray.
14:16So he or she stands and prays along with you.
14:20And you say, MashaAllah, it really touches your heart.
14:24It touches the heart of others around you.
14:26It is impressive.
14:28The child sees that you are impressed by it.
14:31You are happy with it.
14:33So the child will do it again.
14:36And anytime they want to get attention, that is all they have to do.
14:43You will be sitting there and talking with your friends and they will just come out.
14:46And everybody will say, MashaAllah, look at that.
14:53Look at that.
14:55Something very impressive.
14:58But at the same time, if we allow that to just grow as it is,
15:04then the child identifies pleasing parents with this act.
15:11And so they will do it merely to please the parents as they grow older with a better consciousness.
15:20But they are still thinking, my parents will be happy when I do this.
15:24If I want something, if they are upset with me, I just need to go and do this.
15:28And everybody backs off.
15:31This becomes a powerful tool in their hands.
15:35So we need to connect them with the idea that this worship is not to please parents.
15:44It is to please Allah.
15:46Why are parents pleased?
15:48They are pleased because Allah is pleased.
15:52That is why we need to get them back to Allah.
15:55They are seeing us, but we need to get them to understand that ultimately it is Allah that is pleased.
16:01And that is what is important.
16:04Because that way, even when we are not around, they will pray.
16:09Because they know it is Allah that they are pleasing.
16:12But if they only know they are pleasing us, when we are not around, they won't pray.
16:17They will only pray when we are around, so we will be pleased.
16:21And this, in fact, is the essence of Riyah.
16:28What Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. said,
16:34The thing which I fear the most for my Ummah is Riyah.
16:41Al-Shirk Al-Khafi.
16:43Hidden Shirk.
16:47So this, while on one hand it is natural for the little children to do,
16:53We have to nurture it, we have to develop it, and we have to give it real meaning.
16:59But of course, that goes back to the parents themselves.
17:03If for them, Salah is just a duty they do as Muslims.
17:09We are supposed to do it, so we do it.
17:12Maybe we do it on time, maybe we don't do it on time.
17:16Maybe we only do it on Fridays, we only do it on Ramadan.
17:19We have all these other kinds of things.
17:21If our Salah is that way, then what is going to happen to the children?
17:27There will be no chance for us to elevate that consciousness.
17:31Because we are not ourselves good examples.
17:34So first and foremost, for us to be able to nurture that consciousness,
17:40We ourselves have to be clear about our prayers.
17:44That we are truly praying to please Allah s.w.t.
17:50We are not praying as a cultural ritual.
17:55It is a part of Islam.
17:58Muslims pray five times a day, so we pray five times a day.
18:01So we pray the kind of prayer that many times in the Middle East,
18:06Where I am based and involved in Dawah to non-Muslims,
18:12They will say to me, you know our manager, our director, our supervisor,
18:19We see him praying all the time.
18:22He prays Duhur, he prays Asr, he prays Maghrib,
18:27He is always going there, first there, praying.
18:31But he cheats us.
18:36He cheats us.
18:37He doesn't give us our proper wages,
18:40He makes us work overtime without paying us,
18:44All these different bad things.
18:48So they say, well what is the value of that prayer?
18:51What kind of prayer is that?
18:53And I have to agree with them.
18:55Allah knows best what is the value of that prayer.
19:00Because Allah clearly said,
19:02Salah prevents evil speech and evil deeds.
19:09So how could somebody be so conscientious in their prayer,
19:13And at the same time be oppressing the people that Allah has put them in charge of?
19:19It is contradictory.
19:21It doesn't make sense.
19:23It must mean, not that there is something wrong with the prayer,
19:27But something wrong with their prayer.
19:30There is something wrong with their prayer.
19:34They are not praying the prayer which Rasulullah ﷺ taught.
19:41They are praying, as we talked about before, the monkey prayer.
19:46Monkey see, monkey do.
19:48They do it.
19:50But what is inside the prayer,
19:53Which is supposed to change a person's attitudes,
19:59His Iman,
20:02His emotions,
20:05Control his tongue,
20:07Control his actions,
20:10It is missing.
20:13So, while looking at this first stage,
20:18Interest and admiration for the seven to niners,
20:22We need help externally,
20:25But we also need to work internally,
20:28Because external help, this is the last resort.
20:34If we have our program in order,
20:39Then we wouldn't be faced with this.
20:44So it means that something is wrong.
20:47We have to correct what is inside,
20:49And we get help from the outside.
20:51So the combined effort, Inshallah, can bring about change.
20:54The second level,
20:57That is called the introductory level.
21:00That is for the ten to thirteen year olds.
21:03In this stage, the gang,
21:06Seeing these youngsters who are admiring,
21:12They have reached that age now,
21:15They give them small jobs to do,
21:19Which makes them feel more attached to the gang.
21:23They give them the job of looking out for the cops.
21:28They are the lookouts.
21:30They pass the word along, cops are coming.
21:33So whatever bad stuff they are doing,
21:35They know they have to stop, shift, whatever.
21:38They are the lookouts.
21:40They give them that type of job.
21:45How to know when the children in this age group
21:49Are involved in such types of activities?
21:54They have now become linked to the gang.
21:57You will see changes in their routines.
22:03They will start coming home later than they normally come.
22:08You will see a change in their friends.
22:11The friends who they used to bring over to the house,
22:14You start to see a different kind of friend.
22:18They don't look the same as the other ones.
22:20The other ones looked a little more innocent.
22:22These are now starting to look a bit shady.
22:28You find they become secretive.
22:31They have secrets they don't want you to know about.
22:34They stay up late at night.
22:36You find them very irritable.
22:39They have anger issues.
22:42Getting really upset.
22:44Parents.
22:46And they try to keep parents away from their room.
22:49They want to lock the door on their room.
22:50They want their own lock on the room.
22:52Nobody goes in the room except for them.
22:57And some of them are able to actually control their parents.
23:04They try to gain control over their parents in this stage.
23:11They control the parents by threatening to do things that would embarrass the parents or whatever.
23:24So the parents will go along with what they want to do.
23:27Let them stay out later.
23:28Let them do this.
23:29Let them do that.
23:30Keep them happy.
23:31Just try to keep them happy.
23:34So parents caught up in this keeping your kids happy so they don't get real angry
23:39and they don't say things that you don't want to hear and all this kind of things.
23:42They have now gained control over the parents through that.
23:47Of course in this period of time too,
23:49if you see them coming in with their eyes red,
23:53these are the signs.
23:55They're smoking.
23:57Not cigarettes.
23:59They're smoking pot,
24:02marijuana,
24:03hashish.
24:05That's what's happening.
24:06That's where the red eye is coming from.
24:09So you have to be careful about that.
24:10You see your kids walking in with red eyes,
24:13then you know you have big problems on your hands.
24:16Big problems.
24:19At this stage here,
24:21definitely you need help.
24:25The group therapy is not enough.
24:29They will need to sit with psychotherapists and others
24:34who can talk them through,
24:37walk them through what they're going through
24:39to help get them back on track.
24:43One of the things that you can do in this stage here
24:46is when they don't realize it,
24:51you can check their pockets.
24:53As parents,
24:55you check their pockets.
24:57Because when they have reached this stage,
24:59they start to become a bit disoriented,
25:04disorganized.
25:07Although they will try to hide their stuff,
25:10they will slip up.
25:12And you will find it in their pockets.
25:14Things that shouldn't be there.
25:16And these will be the signs
25:18that you definitely need to go and get help.
25:23And of course,
25:25we said this is just a transition stage now
25:29into the full membership.
25:33Between 14 and 21,
25:35this is when they become now full members of the gang.
25:41And at this time,
25:43you'll see them sleeping out.
25:45They're not sleeping at home anymore.
25:47They're hanging out.
25:48They're coming back after days.
25:51They've been absent for so many days.
25:53They break all the curfews that you set.
25:56Their grades have dropped.
25:58If they're still in school, their grades drop.
26:00And you'll find them dropping out of school.
26:02They don't want to study anymore.
26:04Finished.
26:05This time, they'll openly threaten parents.
26:08They'll stand up to them.
26:09Open rebellion is happening in the home now.
26:12And they will threaten to move out.
26:14Some of them will even move out.
26:16And of course, it will be a big tragedy.
26:19The family's upset.
26:20No, come back.
26:21Don't go.
26:22And they'll pressurize the family to accept them.
26:25Maybe they even pressurize to accept them
26:27to smoke dope in the house.
26:29You have parents who allow their children.
26:31Say, what else to do?
26:32Otherwise, he's going to go.
26:34They allow him to go and smoke in the home.
26:38And what happens, of course,
26:39there are younger kids in the house.
26:41They're seeing this person.
26:43You've just sealed their fate.
26:46You think you're saving the bigger one.
26:49But in fact, you're destroying the smaller ones.
26:53So, there's a point here
26:55where in terms of dealing with this,
26:57where you have an individual who insists
27:00that he wants or she wants to smoke dope in the home.
27:02This is the point where you have to say,
27:04Ma'a salama.
27:06You have to put your foot down.
27:07Ma'a salama.
27:09And go.
27:11Because you want to protect the rest of your home.
27:13If you don't have the authority to maintain a clean home,
27:18then you're finished.
27:21All the other kids will fall into the same situation.
27:25Now, definitely these youths,
27:28if you're able to intervene,
27:30they need to enter into substance abuse programs.
27:35And, of course, if they realize,
27:39if they hit rock bottom,
27:41if you've kicked them out of the house
27:43and they come crawling back
27:46because life out in the street is not so easy,
27:48didn't really work out, whatever,
27:50they want to change,
27:52at that point, yeah,
27:53substance abuse programs can help them.
27:58Of course, this is where the mosque plays a big role.
28:02We should have them involved in the activities of the masjid.
28:06This is where we need to have youth programs in the masjid,
28:09especially for this age group,
28:11because they are the most at risk.
28:14And we need to find for them jobs,
28:17because most of them have dropped out of school, et cetera.
28:19We need to have some jobs available for them
28:23to reestablish themselves in the community,
28:26find a base for themselves.
28:28This is very, very important.
28:29We have many Muslims who have businesses, et cetera,
28:33and this is where the community needs to know
28:35who has these various businesses
28:37and be able to process the children or the youths
28:41in this stage
28:43who are at least trying to pull themselves back together
28:46and get themselves back on track.
28:48There are jobs available for them
28:50where they can engage themselves
28:53and hold some alternatives to that lifestyle.
28:57So basically, we're looking at trying to provide for them alternatives.
29:01And it's not about just,
29:03okay, let's get them a scholarship to Medina.
29:07You come to the imam,
29:08can you please write the recommendation for so-and-so.
29:11This guy is just a druggie.
29:13He's a gang member.
29:15You're sending him off to Medina.
29:17What do you think he's going to go and do in Medina?
29:19You think he's all of a sudden going to become an angel?
29:22You know, the land of the Sahaba.
29:25He's going to go over there and do it there, too.
29:29Because there is dope there.
29:31Yes, as quiet as it's kept,
29:33there is dope in Medina.
29:36Well, we don't see it normally.
29:38You go through.
29:39I mean, I was there for a good six years,
29:42and I never saw it.
29:43But we heard about it.
29:45It is there.
29:47If you're looking for it, you'll find it.
29:50So that young person,
29:52the solution for him or her,
29:53is not to try to pack them off
29:54and send them off to some other place.
29:56And this is what parents are typically doing.
29:58They put them in a madrasa.
30:00It's okay, they can't send them to Medina.
30:02Medina won't accept them for this reason or that.
30:04Okay, we find a madrasa here,
30:05the local Ajax or wherever.
30:07Put them in there.
30:09Again, it's just chaos.
30:11This is not the solution.
30:13This is not the solution.
30:15The madrasas are not the place for troubled youths.
30:19Actually, this has been a tradition
30:21in the Muslim community,
30:23especially in the Indo-Pakistani continent,
30:28where the people who go to madrasas
30:31are the kids who are failing,
30:33who are troublesome to the parents and that.
30:37They can't get them into university.
30:39Okay, put them in a madrasa.
30:43And so what you do is that,
30:45yeah, these kids go there.
30:46They're bad kids.
30:48And the people in the madrasa
30:50are the kids from the generation before.
30:55Right?
30:57And what do they do?
31:00They will beat the kids.
31:04In the best of the madrasas,
31:06you'll find them twisting the kids' ears
31:08and twisting their arms and kicking them
31:10and all kinds of stuff going on in madrasas.
31:12I'm sure you have enough witnesses here
31:14who can put up their hands and say,
31:16I have been abused in the madrasa.
31:20And you as adults, you know.
31:21You've been there.
31:22You know what happened to you.
31:24This is actually a huge problem
31:27that we need to tackle.
31:30We need to tackle it.
31:32It's not a solution.
31:34And we need to correct it.
31:35Because actually, those who go into the madrasa,
31:38because they're going to become teachers of the Quran,
31:42they should be the cream.
31:46They should be the cream.
31:47They should be the best.
31:49They're the ones who should be going to the madrasa.
31:51So when they come out as the best,
31:53they will give the best.
31:55But when you're putting in the worst,
31:57the dregs,
31:59the bottom of the barrel,
32:00this is what you're putting in the madrasa.
32:02You know, as they say in the computer world,
32:05garbage in, garbage out.
32:09Yes, he may be called Maulana,
32:11but he was garbage in,
32:13and yes, he is garbage out.
32:16So all kinds of things happen.
32:19This is not the solution.
32:21And we do need to tackle this problem,
32:23which is a global problem,
32:25which Muslims face today.
32:27So we have to tackle the gang
32:34from the earliest stages,
32:39before it reaches this level.
32:42Once they've become full members,
32:46in many cases,
32:48they are lost cases.
32:50That's it.
32:52There's no bringing them back.
32:54It's just picking up their body from the morgue
33:00and burying them.
33:05So we don't want to reach that stage.
33:08We don't want to be in that position.
33:13So we have to tackle this problem
33:16right from the very beginning.
33:21Now, on the other hand,
33:27gang busting also has to be worked on
33:33on the parental level.
33:37Because the basic elements for gangsterism
33:45exist amongst the adults.
33:49They may not call themselves gang members
33:55or gangsters.
33:57They may not call themselves this.
34:01However,
34:03they display all of the traditional features
34:08of gang membership and gang administration
34:14that the smaller version among the youths display.
34:22So if we look on the family level of parents,
34:30we can find elements of the drug problems
34:38in the community
34:42where Qat may be popular.
34:47This is from Yemeni, Somali, Kenyan communities
34:52where people have these leaves that they chew
34:58which have been identified by Muslim scholars
35:03as intoxicants, as haram.
35:09But it's become a widespread practice.
35:13You know those who are involved in it
35:16when you see them with this in their mouth.
35:24And if they're experts, they're doing it from both sides.
35:32These in certain parts of the Muslim world
35:36have become a norm
35:39in parts of Yemen, Somalia, Kenya.
35:43This is a norm, Djibouti.
35:47People don't even question it.
35:50It's openly sold, openly utilized.
35:54This is a drug.
35:56If this is in the family,
36:02then what are we going to expect amongst the youth?
36:07This is the breeding ground.
36:10Also, we do have in Muslim families
36:13those who are engaged in taking alcohol, drinking alcohol.
36:16Parents, usually fathers, taking alcohol.
36:20So if that is a practice in the family,
36:25what are you going to expect from the youth?
36:28And cigarettes.
36:30Of course, cigarettes have not been looked at in the same light.
36:34People say, well, it's just makroo.
36:36You have people saying it's makroo.
36:39Not haram, it's just makroo, disliked.
36:43If you don't do it, you're rewarded.
36:45But if you do it, no sin.
36:47No.
36:49Smoking cigarettes is haram.
36:54It is a sin, without a shadow of a doubt.
37:00Yes, 500 years ago,
37:05scholars in the Ottoman Empire,
37:10when looking at the effects of tobacco
37:15on those who used it,
37:17concluded that it was makroo.
37:20They did.
37:22Because the effects that they could see from it,
37:26the bad effects,
37:28only included bad breath.
37:34That smoking cigarettes produced the smoker's breath.
37:38Today we have sprays and tablets and gum
37:42that you chew to try to hide it.
37:44But in those days, there was nothing.
37:46So when you smoked, you just had that bad breath.
37:49So, according to the Sharia,
37:53where Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. had said,
37:55whoever eats raw garlic, raw onions,
38:00should not come to our mosques.
38:05Meaning that the 25 to 27 times additional benefit
38:10you would get from praying in the masjid,
38:13is lost.
38:16So this must be something makroo.
38:18It's going to prevent you from getting those additional rewards.
38:22Prohibited because in the end of our prayers, we say what?
38:26Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah.
38:29Now if you've been eating your garlic,
38:32you're hurting your brother, your sister.
38:37So stay home, pray at home instead.
38:41So this is what they made as a basis for concluding it was makroo.
38:47But in the 70s,
38:49after 15 years of struggle with the cigarette companies,
38:55evidence was already produced from back in the 60s
38:59that smoking was connected to cancer.
39:02But the big cigarette companies had bought out scientists and doctors
39:07who were saying these evidences are not conclusive.
39:11We are not certain it could mean other things,
39:14and they were just double talking their way through for 15 years.
39:18Finally the evidence became so overwhelming
39:22that no scientist who had any kind of honor
39:28would dare to say this connection wasn't there.
39:32The Surgeon General of the U.S. declared that smoking causes cancer.
39:40This is conclusive.
39:42All cigarette companies were now forced to put warnings on their cigarette boxes,
39:49pictures of lungs and all kinds of stuff
39:52to let people know this thing causes cancer.
39:57And for us we know cancer of the lungs causes death.
40:02So scholars, when that became a fact,
40:07scholars whose fiqh was living fiqh and not fossilized fiqh,
40:14then re-looked at the evidences and drew from the Quran and from the Sunnah
40:21the statements of Allah where he said
40:25وَلَا تَقُتُلُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ
40:28Do not kill yourselves.
40:30وَلَا تُلْقُوا بِأَيْدِيكُمِ إِلَى التَّهْلُكَةِ
40:32And do not throw yourselves with your own hands into destruction.
40:38Do not destroy yourself.
40:41So these evidences combined with the statement of the Prophet ﷺ
40:46that whoever kills himself in this life will find himself in the next life in hell,
40:51killing himself forever, over and over again.
40:57All of this put together led the scholars to conclude
41:02that smoking was haram without a shadow of a doubt.
41:07And the arguments of those who tried to defend it,
41:11saying, well not everybody who smokes gets cancer.
41:17In fact, in Ripley's Believe It or Not,
41:21the Chinese woman who lived the longest in the world,
41:25a woman who lived to the oldest age, something like 130 years or whatever,
41:30they asked her what her secret was.
41:32She said, I smoked a cigar every day.
41:39She smoked a cigar every day and she lived the longest.
41:45How can you say this is suicide, you're killing ourselves?
41:50Well the point is, this is just Allahu Akbar.
41:54That's all it is, is Allahu Akbar.
41:56That something which normally kills everybody else,
41:59this woman lives to 130 in spite of it.
42:02This is just to show that Allah is greater.
42:05He is the one who determines when people die.
42:09But we do not in the Sharia make rulings according to the exception.
42:16We make rulings according to the general rule.
42:20This is how we operate.
42:22So if you go back to Ripley's Believe It or Not,
42:25they also have there an individual who jumped out of an airplane
42:32at 40,000 feet, pulled his ripcord, no parachute,
42:38pulled his emergency, no parachute, hit the ground,
42:43and still lived to talk about it.
42:46He may have broken almost every bone in his body,
42:50but he survived it.
42:53So now, are you ready to jump out of the airplane without a parachute?
42:59Right?
43:01Of course, nobody is going to do that,
43:03because we don't think that way.
43:05We realize that he was an exception,
43:07and we don't make a rule about him.
43:10We just say, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.
43:15So, smoking causes cancer, cancer causes death,
43:21so smoking is haram.
43:24So if we are going to be smoking in the house,
43:28we are providing a foundation for our children.
43:34They see you smoking, smoking cigarettes,
43:37they are going to want to smoke.
43:40They'll smoke cigarettes and eventually they'll make it to marijuana
43:43and whatever else people are smoking.
43:47Also, in the family, we find the roots of gangsterism and gangs
43:56in the cultural teachings,
43:59where the family will give precedence to the culture over Islam.
44:05Islam says one thing, but the culture says something else.
44:11And, even though the kids may have come across,
44:16they've gone to the masjid, they've heard this is haram or whatever,
44:19they come and they tell their parents, they say, no, no, no, it's okay.
44:23Back home, we do it this way.
44:26This is our way.
44:28So, this is the practice of the gang.
44:31The gang has its own set of rules.
44:34It doesn't abide by the general rules.
44:37So, this is the foundation for gang thinking.
44:46Also, you'll find in the families that are creating this gang mentality,
44:55their sole concern when they want to listen to the news, for example,
45:00they will only turn on the news for their country.
45:04You don't realize what you're doing.
45:06Every time you turn on the TV, you only turn it on to Egypt.
45:11That's all you're listening for.
45:12You're Egyptian, so you turn it on just for Egypt.
45:17You don't want to hear any news about anything else.
45:19You're not concerned. It doesn't matter to you.
45:21What you want to know is just about Egypt.
45:24What are we teaching them?
45:27This is a mistake.
45:29We're teaching them that being Egyptian is more important than anything else.
45:38This is the way of thinking of the gang.
45:44How do we overcome this?
45:48How do we find solutions for it?
45:51One very important step, which most people are not prepared to do,
45:57is marry outside of the family, the clan, or the tribe.
46:03That's the step.
46:05It's a big one.
46:07For parents, for kids, it's no problem.
46:10The youth, they don't mind.
46:12No issues.
46:13But for parents, it's a big problem.
46:17They will bring all kinds of excuses,
46:20difference in culture,
46:23you know how we do it, and they do it a different way, and this and that.
46:28And then the family, the rest of the family,
46:30grandma, grandpa, uncle, they don't like it.
46:33They won't be happy.
46:34All these problems are coming.
46:38But in the end, this is where we have to come.
46:43To break down these barriers,
46:48these walls that create the gang,
46:51we have to open up and marry our children
46:56according to the principles that Rasulallah said.
47:02If the young man comes and asks for your daughter,
47:07and you are satisfied with his religion and his character,
47:12then the Prophet said, marry them,
47:15or you will have corruption in the land.
47:20That is the rule.
47:21That is Islam.
47:23But when we say, no, they have to come from this tribe
47:26or this clan or this country and this family,
47:30when we're saying that,
47:32we are throwing the deen aside
47:35and favoring our culture and our tradition.
47:41We also have to, as we said, in terms of solutions,
47:44eliminate all of the elements of the drug culture from our home.
47:50And we have to encourage in the home a universal outlook.
47:55So our children, if we're watching the news,
47:57watch the news of the world, of the Muslim world,
48:00what's going on in different parts of the Muslim world.
48:02Make them aware of what's going on
48:04in different parts of the Muslim world.
48:08And even when we go on holidays,
48:12we try to go on holidays to different parts.
48:15If we have the means, go to different parts of the Muslim world.
48:17Don't keep going back home every time.
48:19Okay, go back home one time, fine.
48:21Next year, go to a part of the Muslim world.
48:24Experience being in some other part of the Muslim world.
48:28There's so much there in terms of education
48:31and making our children aware of Islam in real life.
48:39The second area of gang formation is in the masjid.
48:49Shouldn't be, but we do find it happening in the masjid.
48:55What we find is that in the masjid,
49:01those people who are from a particular ethnic background,
49:06they will gather in little circles,
49:09different parts of the masjid.
49:11There will be different circles,
49:12and they chat amongst themselves.
49:15When the time for salah, everybody comes.
49:18Salah is over, everybody goes back into their little circles again.
49:24So the young people, of course, they see it.
49:27Maybe they don't even know the language of their parents.
49:32So they see it happening,
49:35and they hang out and they play wherever they play.
49:38It doesn't matter to them what language you speak.
49:41They're just youth, they play together.
49:44They don't have those problems.
49:46But we are inadvertently teaching them that through these practices.
49:53And also, in speaking, of course, in these circles,
49:57we only speak in our ethnic languages.
50:04It means definitely nobody else is going to join that circle.
50:08You've closed it.
50:10They don't know your language?
50:12What are they going to do, just come and sit there?
50:14No.
50:16You've said no.
50:18Only such and such speakers are welcome.
50:26So to overcome this, we need to get to know other ethnicities.
50:34We need to introduce our families to other families
50:41from other backgrounds in the masjid.
50:43We need to sit together, get to know each other.
50:47Not just each time come and know just our local ethnic friends.
50:54Should each time come to the masjid,
50:56try to meet some of the other people in the masjid
50:58who have been coming to the masjid for the last five years.
51:03And there are people who have been coming to the masjid
51:05for the same last five years, and we don't know them.
51:10There's something wrong here.
51:12We don't know them.
51:13Yeah, we know to see them.
51:14Yeah, yeah, yeah, he comes to our masjid.
51:16But who he is, really what is his situation, his family, and so on,
51:22we don't know.
51:24We don't know them.
51:26And that's why it is also important that in masjid activities,
51:32we bring the families together.
51:34That it not just be because the males come to the masjid,
51:37females come in smaller numbers.
51:40They may just come out for events.
51:43But to come on a regular basis is the men who are coming.
51:45So we need to establish programs wherein families come together.
51:51The masjid has certain family activities,
51:54so families get to know each other from the various ethnicities.
52:00And also what we need to do is to also pray in different masjids.
52:10We don't just restrict ourselves to one masjid in the city.
52:13Pray in some of the other masjids.
52:15Get to know people from the other masjids also.
52:17And then the last level, which is that of the community level,
52:21where we find evolving all across the GTA ethnic mosques.
52:30The Bosnian mosque.
52:32The Afghan mosque.
52:34The Somali mosque.
52:36The Pakistani mosque.
52:38The Gambian mosque.
52:40There are only 300 Gambians in the whole of GTA,
52:44but the Gambians have a mosque.
52:46Everybody's got a mosque.
52:48Everybody doesn't feel happy until they have their own mosque.
52:52Now, we have to ask ourselves, do we really need all of this?
52:57We don't really need this.
52:59What we need are gatherings where Muslims come together on the basis of Islam,
53:05not on the basis of the country we come from.
53:07So on the community level, when people have their gatherings for nikah,
53:11they're going to have a marriage, walima, aqiqa,
53:15only people who are from their ethnic background are invited.
53:21And what we find is that people will drive across town,
53:30past five, ten masjids, to go to pray in their ethnic masjid.
53:37This is where it becomes very, very sad.
53:42People pass a Pakistani, Indian, Bengali, all the other masjids,
53:48just to get to that one Somali masjid.
53:54What's happening here?
53:56Something's wrong.
53:58It's not right.
54:00So we need to change our approach in terms of our various social functions,
54:07like nikah, walima, aqiqa.
54:10We choose the people from the masjid.
54:14You're going to have a walima.
54:17Who are the people you invite?
54:19The first on your list should be the people who normally pray in the front line of the masjid.
54:26These are the righteous people who eat your food, and your food is blessed.
54:31The Prophet s.a.w. said,
54:32Don't let anybody except those who fear Allah eat your food.
54:36Bring those people.
54:38Make sure you invite them.
54:40Then you can also invite some people from the gang,
54:43but your first choice should be people from the masjid.
54:52Similarly, in order to overcome these ethnic feelings,
55:01we should encourage interactions between the masjids.
55:07Where these realities of ethnic masjids exist,
55:11then we need to try to develop activities which are shared activities between the masjids
55:17so that these communities can come together,
55:19even though they are already divided initially based on these ethnic lines.
55:27So we do, parents have a big job to do
55:32in terms of opening up our community
55:36and having that really Islamic universalist view.
55:41And our children growing up with that kind of view,
55:45inshallah would be protected from at least those elements of gangsterism.
55:51That we do not be the contributing factor,
55:55we are laying the foundation,
55:57we are providing the fertile grounds for that type of behavior,
56:02for those types of organizations to emerge in our community.
56:07So, in summarizing,
56:10we have to tackle the problem of the gangs
56:15from both the level of knowing our children, our youths,
56:21knowing what's happening to them,
56:23why it's happening to them,
56:25get help where we need it,
56:28make sure that we have provided them with sufficient Islamic input from the homes
56:37that the gangs would not become attractive to them.
56:42Develop for them wholesome heroes from the time that they are young.
56:47Instead of the average kid we ask here,
56:51you know, do you know Batman?
56:54Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know Batman.
56:56Do you know who is the enemy of Batman?
56:58Oh, yeah, yeah, we know who he is.
57:00Do you know Spider-Man?
57:01Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know Spider-Man.
57:03The enemy of Spider-Man.
57:04Do you know Dajjal?
57:06Dajjal?
57:08Who is Dajjal?
57:11Basic information.
57:13Our children don't know it.
57:15We allow them to know all of this other foolishness,
57:19and it truly is foolishness,
57:21and what is real,
57:23and also exciting if they want a nice story,
57:26you know, something exciting.
57:28The truth, they don't know.
57:32So who do we blame?
57:33Who can we blame but ourselves?
57:36We have to tackle the gang mentality within ourselves.
57:42As Allah said,
57:44Allah does not change the condition of a people
57:46until they change what is within themselves.
57:50So inshallah, I hope that these thoughts on busting the gang
57:55would help you all to work towards a new beginning for our community,
58:02which would be one free from gangsterism on any of the levels.