“Allah is my Lord / Islam is my life / the Qur’an is my guide / the Sunna is my practice / Jihad is my Spirit / Righteousness is my Character / Paradise is my Goal / I enjoin what is Right / I forbid what is wrong / I will fight against Oppression / and I will die to establish Islam.”
Amir Abdel Malik Ali’s new pledge of allegiance at the 2011 MSA West Conference caused quite a stir. Not only did it receive the routine, incendiary criticism from the usual suspects outside of the Muslim community, it caused many Muslims, including myself, to raise their eyebrows in concern.
Although the first lines of his pledge are definitely something we can all readily attest to, it is the very last line (“I will die to establish Islam”) that puts me into a bit of a bind. I was especially unsettled at the use of the word “establish”.
For me, such words set the stage for the dominance of one ideal over another, forcing people to accept something without giving them a choice. I believe that this detracts from the original Islamic message of tolerance and understanding – it implies pushing Islam on people who are not necessarily willing to submit to it.
Furthermore, the phrase in and of itself depicts a distressingly black and white worldview. It implies that alternative realities cannot coexist, that one must seek to erase the other.
The word “die” conveys this sense of urgency well. Only one reality is possible – if it is not achieved, then everything else is rendered futile.
The problem with this is that a world where Islam is the only thing that exists is an ideal a Muslim may dream of, but this is contrary to reality. As such, it is morally incumbent upon Muslims to get accustomed to the existence of belief systems different from their own. The phrase “die to establish Islam,” however, promotes the exact opposite.
Amir Abdel Malik Ali could have done much better by using the word “defend” in place of the word “establish.” By doing so, he would have conveyed a less vitriolic, but more encompassing message. He would have effectively managed to retain the pride in one’s own identity, without feeling the need to trample on others’.
Adina, Jazakhallah for this article. I have a difficult time discussing Amir Abdel Malik with people, and usually I’ll sway between making excuses for him, or agreeing with the opposition, but you couldn’t have worded it any better.
Very good points. However we also should give him the benefit of the doubt. The use of “I will die to establish Islam” was a very very poor choice of words, but it is hard to know what he meant by that. When I heard this, “establishing Islam” to me meant proving Islam to the world, establishing it’s legitimacy, and most importantly, establishing the NARRATIVE we bring Islam (ie. Taking back our narrative). It did not mean to physically establish Islam. And how could it, given the rest of his speech?
I think it is unfair to say that Amir Abdel Malik was advocating violence with this verse, or even advocating Islam’s complete dominance. If you re-listen to the very last 10-15 minutes of this speech, you will notice the context this phrase is used is in Non-Violent resistance.
Also, I think Al-Talib should begin the youtube video from where his speech starts. It’s a bit unfair to take his “sentence” out of context of the entire speech, because it is the conclusion to the speech which preceded it. Taking it out of context is a bit ironic given how many people do this to the Qur’an all the time.
The point is Koutaiba is that people can and will take his words out of context and he is well aware that it happens. It is argued here that maybe it would have been better for the Imam to have used other words.
As for jumping to his pledge in the video, I was there along with everyone else at the conference. Pretty much the whole room got uneasy during the pledge and they heard everything from beginning to end. If when put into “context” its ok, when why would people feel uneasy?
Great article, this is definitely a conversation that needs to happen within the Muslim community. And I agree, even if Amir Abdul Malik didn’t mean “die to establish Islam” in a negative way, a speaker’s word choice is extremely important, especially when we as a community are constantly scrutinized by others.
I don’t think the author is criticizing Amir Abdel Malik’s intentions but rather the implications of these words on our larger audience. It’s a fact that MSA UCLA was attacked by opponents who utilized and misinterpreted these same words in order to make a case against the MSA.
As the title of the article suggests, the author is telling us to pay heed to the various meanings our words can hold; make the small changes needed to convey exactly what you mean in order to avoid ambiguity and misinterpretation.
Koutaiba: The youtube video allows you to play the video from any part of this lecture, it just automatically starts from the pledge to make it easier for people to find the pledge and not hunt through the entire 53 minutes of video.
Very good points. I don’t think Brother Amir Abdel Malik realized the impact of his words on the image of the Muslim community. This is something we should all be prepared to face ourselves, as Muslims the microscope is on us 110% of the time, so we should really get our acts together iA
One more thing is, people should keep in mind that Br. Amir Abdel Malik is strongly influenced by Malcolm X and great figures like him. Just like Malcolm X, he pushes the envelope in how he words things, and he does it on purpose, this is his style. Just like Malcolm X pushed the envelope with his controversial “By any means necessary”. This was especially true of the speech he gave that night. While I agree the word he used was wrong in the sense that it easily could be misrepresented, I feel that the Muslim community should show support to him at this time when non-Muslims are calling him radical and fundamentalist. Yes it was poor word choice and yes we need to call him out on that, but we can’t let this incident ostracize him from the community, especially when his views are NOT like many accuse him of.
As for the video, I just fear that people won’t be able to see that this is is the end of the speech (when you hit play, the cursor is off the screen for where it is in the video, so it appears as if the video is playing invisibly). I feel that maybe a comment under the video should instruct the user to start the video at for example: “If you would like to hear the quote in context of the whole speech, start the video 28 minutes and 50 seconds”. Otherwise we are almost advocating for people to take it out of context.
I disagree with this piece being taken out of context. He was making a conclusion of an earlier argument, he was clearly stating a pledge that is reflected in the clip and he should rethink the terminology he uses when speaking to the youth. I think this is an awesome rewrite Mr. Malik should read.
Adina, I hope to see you be on the stage one day in the near future, I think you have a lot to say that we need to hear in order to prompt the Muslim youth into smart and honest work and encourage all us to have better relations with others. Sorry for the run-on sentence!