This is Lakemba – the suburb that Pauline Hanson claims makes people ‘feel unwelcome’ – on the first night of Ramadan

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Muslims donate four times more than the average adult in Britain but banking restrictions mean many humanitarian projects already affected by aid cuts will not get donations

Buckets passed around mosques, fundraisers shared on WhatsApp groups and televised appeals will raise hundreds of millions of pounds for charity over the coming weeks of Ramadan.

Much of the £2bn raised by British Muslims each year comes when giving surges during the holy month, but the full potential of that support – especially at a time of US, British and European government aid cuts – is being limited by challenges charities say they face in sending money abroad.

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Exclusive: AFP comment comes as Bilal El-Hayek, mayor of Canterbury Bankstown, says One Nation leader’s comments ‘will incite someone’

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Federal police say they have “received reports of a crime” in relation to comments made to the media by Pauline Hanson this week.

But an AFP spokesperson did not say whether they had begun a criminal investigation, only that they would have more to say “at an appropriate time”.

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Israeli police raid compound, arrest staff and curb Muslims’ access as Ramadan begins

A six-decade agreement governing Muslim and Jewish prayer at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site has “collapsed” under pressure from Jewish extremists backed by the Israeli government, experts have warned.

A series of arrests of Muslim caretaker staff, bans on access for hundreds of Muslims, and escalating incursions by radical Jewish groups culminated this week in the arrest of an imam of al-Aqsa mosque and an Israeli police raid during evening prayers on the first night of Ramadan.

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This series is a collaboration between Dr. Ali and MuslimMatters, bringing Quranic wisdom to the questions Muslim families are actually navigating.

The Question That Sometimes Breaks Families

“How do I choose between obeying my parents and preserving my deen?”

This is the question I hear most often from Muslim teens in my practice. And it’s the question most parents never expect their children to ask.

For parents who sacrificed everything—left their countries, worked multiple jobs, endured discrimination—to give their children “a better life,” this question feels like ingratitude. Like rejection.

For teens navigating dual identities, generational gaps, and pressure from all sides, this question feels like survival. Like breathing.

And the tragedy is: Both are right.

The Real Conflict Isn’t Islam—It’s Culture

Here’s what makes this so painful: Most parent-teen conflicts aren’t about Islam at all. They’re about culture masquerading as religion.

Common scenarios:

• Marriage: Parents insist on someone from “back home” who speaks the language. Teen wants to marry a convert or someone from a different ethnic background. Both parties claim “Islamic values.”
• Education: Parents push medical/engineering/law careers (financial security). Teen wants to study Islamic studies or social work (meaningful impact). Both claim they’re honoring Islam.
• Mental health: Teen needs therapy for anxiety/depression. Parents say “just pray more” because therapy wasn’t available in their generation or because of the social stigma surrounding mental illness in the community. Both want the teen to be “strong in faith.”

The pattern: Parents equate their cultural experience with Islam. Teens separate the two. Neither side realizes they’re arguing about different things.

What Surat Luqman Actually Teaches

In the video above, Dr. Ali unpacks ayaat 14-15 of Surat Luqman, which present a revolutionary framework:

First, the obligation [31:14]:

“And We have commanded people to honor their parents. Your mother bore you through hardship after hardship…”

Clear. Non-negotiable. Honor your parents. Especially your mother, whose sacrifice is beyond measure.

Then, the boundary [31:15]:

“But if they pressure you to associate with Me what you have no knowledge of, do not obey them. Still keep their company in this world courteously…”

The Quran itself creates space for respectful disagreement.

The Five-Step Process Before Disobedience

But—and this is critical—the ayah about “do not obey them” is not a free pass. Classical scholars emphasize that this is a last resort after exhausting all other options.

The Islamic Process:

1. Make extensive du’a

• For Allah to guide you AND your parents
• For Allah to soften hearts (yours AND theirs)
• For Allah to show you if you’re wrong
• Duration: Weeks, not days. Months if necessary.

2. Consult knowledgeable, righteous scholars

• Not friends who’ll validate you
• Not random internet fatwas or AI
• Actual scholars who know you, know both fiqh and understand the circumstances of your dilemma, and will tell you hard truths
• Ask: “Am I obligated to obey in this situation?”

3. Examine your intentions brutally

• Is this really about protecting your deen?
• Or is it about wanting things your way?
• Are you certain this will cause harm, or just discomfort?
• Your nafs (ego) is a skilled liar—be honest before Allah

4. Try every respectful avenue

• Involve family mediators
• Involve community elders that your parents respect
• Give it TIME (parents sometimes need months to process)
• Show maturity through actions, not just arguments

5. Understand what “harm” actually means

Clear harm:

• Forcing you into marriage without consent
• Preventing halal marriage while you’re at serious risk of sin
• Demanding participation in shirk or explicit haram

NOT harm:

• Discomfort
• Disagreement with their timeline
• Thinking they’re “old-fashioned”
• Wanting to study something they don’t approve of

If you’re unsure which category applies, that’s exactly why you need scholars, not solo decision-making.

What Parents Need to Understand

If you’re a parent reading this, here’s what your teen might not be able to articulate:

1. The world they’re navigating is genuinely different

You grew up surrounded by Muslims. They’re often the only Muslim in the room.

You had clear cultural scripts. They’re writing new ones, sometimes on a daily basis.

You could be Muslim without explaining. They have to justify their existence daily.

This doesn’t make them weaker. It makes their challenge different.

2. “We sacrificed for you” can become a weapon

Your sacrifice is real and valid. But when it’s used to shut down every conversation, it becomes:

• A debt they can never repay
• A guilt that poisons the relationship
• A barrier to honest communication

Try: “We sacrificed because we love you, not so you’d owe us your entire future.”

3. Your timeline isn’t universal

You married maybe at 20. The economy has changed.

You never needed therapy. Mental health wasn’t discussed; that doesn’t mean it wasn’t needed.

Your arranged marriage worked. That doesn’t make all arranged marriages right for everyone.

Their path can honor Islam AND look different from yours.

4. Involvement ≠ Control

You can be part of their decisions without making all their decisions.

Teen wants to marry someone you didn’t choose? Be involved in the vetting process, but don’t veto based purely on ethnicity.

Teen wants a different career? Discuss practicalities, but don’t threaten to cut them off for not following your dream.

What Teens Need to Understand

And if you’re a teen reading this, here’s what you might not see yet:

1. Your parent’s fear comes from love

When they say no to early marriage, they’re thinking: “What if it fails and ruins your education?” or “He’s just not mature enough to handle such a complex situation and I don’t want him to get hurt.”

When they push a certain career, they’re thinking: “I don’t want you to struggle like I did.”

When they resist therapy, they’re thinking: “What if people think we’re bad parents?”

Their methods might be wrong. Their motivation is usually love.

2. You don’t have all the information

You see your situation. They’ve seen hundreds of similar situations—and the outcomes.

You think they don’t understand. Sometimes they understand too well because they’ve watched others fail.

This doesn’t make them automatically right. But it should make you pause before assuming they’re automatically wrong.

3. Obedience in good matters builds trust for hard matters

If you fight them on everything—curfew, chores, family gatherings—they’ll assume your “religious” disagreements are just more rebellion.

But if you show responsibility in the small things, they’re more likely to trust your judgment on big things.

Strategic obedience in neutral matters = earned trust in crucial matters.

4. Boundaries with honor is an art

You can disagree respectfully. You can say no kindly. You can set boundaries without cutting them off.

The Quran model: “Do not obey them” AND “keep their company courteously.”

Both. At the same time. But once again, only as a last resort.

Discussion Questions for Families

For Parents:

1. Which of your expectations for your child are Islamic requirements vs. cultural preferences?
2. Are you willing to be involved in their decision without controlling it?
3. What would it take for you to trust their judgment on a major life decision?

For Teens:

1. Have you completed all five steps of the Islamic process before considering disobedience? Be honest.
2. If your parents said yes to what you want, would the problem be solved? Or would you find something else to disagree about?
3. What does “keeping their company courteously” look like practically in your situation?

For Discussion Together:

1. Can we separate “I disagree with you” from “I don’t respect you”?
2. What would it look like to honor each other even when we disagree?
3. How can we bring in trusted mediators before conflicts escalate?

The Both/And Approach

Here’s what Surah Luqman teaches: It’s not parents OR yourself. It’s parents AND yourself.

You can honor them AND maintain boundaries. You can love them AND choose differently. You can be grateful AND establish your own identity.

But this requires:

• For teens: Exhausting all respectful options first
• For parents: Creating space for respectful disagreement
• For everyone: Assuming good faith, not bad intentions

When to Seek Help

If your family dynamic includes:

• Threats of violence or disownment
• Abuse masked as “discipline”
• Complete refusal to communicate

This goes beyond normal parent-teen tension. Get help from:

• Trusted imam or scholar
• Muslim family counselor
• Community support organizations

Don’t suffer alone. Islam provides resources for these situations.

Continue the Journey

This is Night 3 of Dr. Ali’s 30-part Ramadan series, “30 Nights with the Quran: Stories for the Seeking Soul.”

Tomorrow, insha Allah: Night 4 explores “Being Muslim in Non-Muslim Spaces”—the story of the Prophet Yusuf maintaining his integrity in Egypt, the most un-Islamic environment possible.

For daily extended reflections with journaling prompts, personal stories, and deeper resources, join Dr. Ali’s email community: https://30nightswithquran.beehiiv.com/

Related:

Who Am I Really? What Surat Al-‘Asr Teaches Muslim Teens About Identity | Night 1 with the Qur’an

5 Signs Your Teen is Struggling with Imposter Syndrome | Night 2 with the Qur’an

The post When Honoring Parents Feels Like Erasing Yourself | Night 3 with the Qur’an appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Beyond disproving the tired tropes of Muslims hating the west, Australian Muslims can show us what a month of practising to be a better person looks like

As Australian Muslims prepared for Ramadan this week, the leader of the second most popular political party in the country, Senator Pauline Hanson, said of them: “Their religion concerns me because [of] what it says in the Qur’an … They hate Westerners … You say, ‘Well, there’s good Muslims out there.’ Well, I’m sorry. How can you tell me there are good Muslims?”

None of this is surprising. This same senator has twice worn a burqa into parliament, wrongly claimed that halal certification funds terrorism, and wanted a royal commission into Islam.

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Pro-Palestine activism received a respite from longstanding official and unofficial repression in Britain this week with a legal order to overturn a government ban on Palestine Action, an activist organization that was banned in the summer of 2025. The High Court ruled that the ban was unlawful, giving some relief to thousands of people who had been imprisoned under the ban.

Aiming to challenge Britain’s armament of Israel through direct action, Palestine Action was founded in the early 2020s by Huda Ammori, a British researcher and activist of Palestinian-Iraqi stock, and Richard Barnard. Urgency was lent to their work by the subsequent genocide that began in Gaza from 2023, to which the British government and assorted weapons companies were linked. In a remarkable leap, the government cited the group’s raid on an arms manufacturer’s Bristol warehouse as evidence of its terrorist nature. The result was that thousands of people, including many pensioners, were imprisoned for public solidarity with the group, which the government presented as support for terrorism.

The legal proceedings launched by the British state, first under Yvette Cooper, who has since been given the foreign minister’s role, and then under Shabana Mahmood, have been notable for a reliance on rhetoric, with “terrorism” the most obvious example, in favour of legal rights and facts. Even in court, the Palestine Action legal team was at first deprived of key footage that showed armed guards bearing down on the activists who had supposedly “assaulted” them: footage with the potential to turn the claim of unprovoked assault by the “terrorist” activists on its head. Unsurprisingly, the court ruled against the ban.

Yet, the case of Palestine Action is simply part of a major campaign to crack down against Palestine support and criticism of Israel that the British state has pursued since the genocide ended. Owing to Britain’s relative familiarity with the Middle East, where its colonial conquest and misrule of the region during and immediately after the World Wars set in motion the foundation of Israel amid a mass expulsion of Palestinians, there has long been a relatively informed debate on the issue of the type that is rare across the Atlantic in the United States. In the period since, Britain has usually at least overtly avoided the tasteless partisanship with Israel characteristic of the United States.

However, this has changed enormously in the past twenty years. It changed first under Tony Blair (1997-2007), whose New Labour regime eagerly identified itself with pro-Israel neoconservatives in Washington, and who even after leaving office has personally been an unofficial eminence grise in Anglo-American policy toward the Muslim world, most recently as the prospective viceroy for Donald Trump’s grotesquely misnamed “Board of Peace” that aims to turn the wreckage of Gaza into a “pacified” colony.

Israeli Encroachment During the Tory Decade

The process intensified during the 2010s, a decade dominated by the right-wing Tory party, whose leaders were each closely identified with Israel, though some more than others. One particularly noxious mainstay was the rabidly anti-Muslim minister Michael Gove, who, as education minister, whipped up an entirely contrived Green Scare about Muslim schools acting as a societal fifth column, and also spearheaded the “Brexit” campaign to leave Europe that produced major economic repercussions for which Muslims, immigrants, and minorities more generally are repeatedly blamed. Unsurprisingly, Gove is also a major cheerleader of Israel, recently suggesting that the Israeli military be given a prize for its supposed clemency in genociding Gaza.

British Parliamentarian, Michael Gove [PC: The BBC]

Such ministers and other pro-Israel networksput constant pressure on British policy, as well as institutions such as the state-sponsored media outlet British Broadcasting Corporation, in a more pro-Israel direction. Less personally extreme figures also fell into line: cases in point were successive prime ministers David Cameron (2010-16) and Theresa May (2016-19).

May, who had been interior minister during Gove’s crusade against Muslim schools before succeeding Cameron, was nonetheless seen as insufficiently malleable: in November 2017, she had to dismiss her own interior minister, Gove’s frequent collaborator Priti Patel, for unauthorized secret meetings with Israeli leaders. In turn, the infamous American powerbroker, sex trafficker, and undisguised supporter of Israel, Jeffrey Epstein, conspired against her with her successor and then-foreign minister, Boris Johnson, and with far-right ideologue Steve Bannon.

Johnson’s own interior minister, Suella Braverman, was as ruthless a partisan of Israel as Patel: as soon as the genocide began in autumn 2023, she ordered a draconian crackdown, characterized by dogwhistling rhetoric and spurious targeting of even mild dissidence. Her cabinet colleague, defence minister Grant Shapps, arranged weapons transfers to Israel at the same time as his daughter was publicly denouncing pro-Palestine activism as a threat to Jews. This, despite the sizeable number of Jewish activists in such activism: their struggle, like that of pro-Palestine activists of other faiths, was discounted.

Braverman resigned after lambasting her own police for what she considered insufficient ruthlessness, and has since left the Tories to join the far-right party of Nigel Farage, the rabble-rouser whose views include vilification of foreigners and support of Israel, and to whom Bannon and Epstein were also linked. Farage forms part of a circle of far-right figures that pressure successive regimes to move further right and, among other things, to side with Israel. They include fascist-curious polemicist Douglas Murray and nativist thug “Tommy Robinson” Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, both of whom have since the 2000s whipped up hatred against Muslims and have gone out of their way to cheerlead Israel, frequently meeting with its officials and echoing its propaganda, since the genocide began in 2023.

Nativism with International Links

This propaganda, often relying on Artificial Intelligence-generated imagery and blatant invective, often overlaps with anti-Muslim state propaganda from India and the United Arab Emirates. India has been ruled since 2014 by the far-right Bharatiya Janata Party, which has often made violent anti-Muslim agitation a centrepiece of its policy and is, once more, particularly close with Israel. Patel and Braverman, the former British interior ministers who have so unabashedly pinned their flags to the Israeli mast, both support Modi.

The Emirates, whose Mohammad bin Zayed is infamous for an international antipathy against “political Islam”, which usually overlaps with any Muslim presence but the most obeisant to him, has likewise whipped up agitation against Muslims in the West: anti-Muslim circles frequently cite its foreign minister Abdullah bin Zayed, the ruler’s brother, when he criticized the West for its supposed tolerance of Muslim extremists. These are all talking points meant to increase pressure on Muslims in the West, as Murray has advocated for at least twenty years, and in turn dampen opposition to Western support for Israeli policy.

The crackdown on Palestine Action, and similarly heavy-handed clampdowns in France and Germany, are thus the result of years of pressure by foreign governments and local nativists, invariably linked to support of Israel.

Along with a web of ostensibly private actors linked to Israel’s government, Israeli ambassadors have constantly pressured Britain to crack down more robustly: its ambassador Mark Regev’s push to censor the presentation she arranged of a pro-Palestine Jewish speaker helped push Ammori, the Palestine Action founder, to more direct activism. This blatant case of interference in a private campus was just part of the steady inroads into British institutions that Israel’s supporters made during the Tory years. These inroads threaten the party structure itself: this winter, Robert Jenrick, another particular Israel cheerleader seen as a rising star within the Tories, was forced out of the party by its leader, Kemi Badenoch, after another plot; like Braverman, he joined Farage.

None of this is to signify moderation on the part of the plotters’ targets: with a singular lack of self-respect, the Tory leaders targeted by pro-Israel competitors have themselves gone out of their way to kowtow to Tel Aviv. Badenoch has shrilly supported Israel’s “fight against Islamist terror”, while Cameron, who had been forced to resign by Gove’s Brexit misadventure, returned to serve as foreign minister in 2024 and took such a skewed pro-Israel stance that he is even reported to have threatened the International Criminal Court’s head Karim Khan. Ironically, and underlining the regularity with which Israel’s supporters turn on one another, Khan had himself been first supported by Israel’s supporters but outraged them by investigating South African accusations of genocide.

A Laborious Campaign of Persecution

Nor should corrosively slavish partisanship to Israel be considered an exclusively Tory malady: under Keir Starmer, whose Labour party has ruled since 2024, the state has only doubled down. Starmer took over the party after his leftist predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, had been viciously smeared with, among other things, spurious accusations of anti-Semitism for his outspoken sympathy with Palestine. At the outset of the genocide, Starmer infamously endorsed Israel’s right to block the Palestinians from water, and his regime has continued its predecessor’s policy of crackdowns and frivolous “lawfare” against pro-Palestine activism. These reached a state of farce in autumn 2025 when a police ban on a notoriously violent far-right Israeli club, which had already attacked Muslims abroad, prompted keening howls of grief and outrage about alleged anti-Semitism virtually across a British political elite – only for Israel itself to cancel a local match with the club from fears of violence. The fact that legitimate fears about a demonstrably violent set of anti-Muslim hooligans could be reimagined and portrayed across the British political spectrum as anti-Semitism underscored the state of obeisance to which the British elite has subjected itself.

This month, Starmer was forced to dismiss his ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, a longstanding intimate of both Blair and Epstein, already controversial before his close ties to the latter were unearthed. The revelations also prompted a gaffe from minister Wes Streeting, who had only very narrowly held onto his seat against Palestinian activist Leanne Mohamad in the 2024 election. By his own admission, no “shrinking violet” on Israel, Streeting released his 2025 texts to Mandelson, which showed his knowledge of Israel’s “rogue state behaviour” that “Israel is committing war crimes before our eyes”. These texts show that ministers were privately aware that the same critics they were persecuting at home were correct in their condemnation of Israel and the British links to it.

An undated photograph released by the U.S. Justice Department showing Jeffrey Epstein, right, and Peter Mandelson. [PC: The NYT]

The regime has been far more sensitive to far-right agitation by Farage and Robinson, which relied heavily on the same anti-Muslim propaganda promoted by Israel: the 2020s have seen a series of protests and riots aimed at foreigners in general and Muslims most specifically, gleefully supported by far-right oligarch Elon Musk who has regularly promoted, even with the most childish attempts, the claim that Muslim immigration is destroying Britain. Rather than confront these head-on, the British government has tried to prove their patriotism with more and more draconian crackdowns that, in their haste to classify political opponents as terrorists, intersect with the crackdown on such groups as Palestine Action. That any number of corrosive, destructive precedents that bode ill for British institutions and public life are being set seems to be of no concern.

Conclusion

Palestine was impacted by Britain during the colonial period, but today the genocide in Palestine has reverberated right back into British politics, into its streets, and its public discourse. The tumultuous events of mid-2020s Britain have not only shown a moral rot at the heart of British politics, but also the fact that steadfastness of the sort that Palestine Action so sturdily displayed under so much maliciously constructed pressure, ultimately pays off.

As Allah tells us in the Quran:

“And say, ‘Truth has come, and falsehood has departed. Indeed is falsehood, [by nature], ever bound to depart.” [Surah Al’Isra: 17;81]

 

Related:

– Damning Report On PREVENT Program In The UK

– Quranic Verses For Steadfastness For The Valiant Protesters On Campus

The post Bipartisan Rot Uncovered As British Crackdown On Pro-Palestine Activists Falters appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Around the world, Muslims rejoice with anticipation and excitement for the blessed month. They get to wake up before dawn with lights on for suhoor, set “Ramadan goals,” deepen their relationship with the Qur’an, stand shoulder-to-shoulder in taraweeh prayers, retreat into the masjid for i‘tikaf, and ultimately celebrate Eid with their families in lit-up mosques. 

But for other Uyghurs and myself in the diaspora, this experience summons a different reality — one where our hearts turn to our people in Chinese-occupied East Turkistan (Xinjiang), a land whose occupation and suffering still remain largely forgotten by the ummah.

I describe the Ramadan most Muslims know, because it feels increasingly necessary to name what Uyghur Muslims have been denied, in a land where Islam has been woven into the fabric of life since the 10th century. And it still feels like the community has so much more to do and learn to understand the gravity of our genocide. 

How many years has it been since Uyghurs in East Turkistan last heard the adhan echo through their neighborhoods? How many years have they been forced to eat suhoor in darkness, fearing that a lit kitchen might be flagged as “extremism,” a suspicion that can lead to a decade or more behind torture and death-ridden prison walls? 

How many Uyghur students have been compelled to eat in daylight under the watchful eyes of teachers, forced to prove they are not fasting? How many have been publicly humiliated, coerced into drinking alcohol or eating pork during the holiest month, performing loyalty to a state that criminalizes Islam in its entirety?

What does Eid even look like when often at least one family member is in prison, parents are separated from their children because they are forcibly sent to state-run orphanages, and thousands of mosques are either closed, or demolished and repurposed into propaganda centers? What does Eid look like when the Chinese government criminalizes gatherings, despite the centrality of family visits and communal celebration in Uyghur culture?

What depths of trauma have the more than one million detainees and prisoners endured inside a system that not only stripped them of religious freedom, but twisted Islam itself into an instrument of suffering and death? What depths of trauma must someone endure to be sent to these prisons for praying, naming a child Muhammad, or owning a Qur’an — only then to be locked up, tortured, indoctrinated, and forced to renounce one’s faith?

I will never forget the stories and testimonies of Uyghur prisoners, like that of Adil Abdulghufur, an Uyghur man who told me the unfathomable horrors he experienced for 18 years behind Chinese prison walls. I interviewed him in 2016, one year before the Chinese government started rounding up over a million Uyghurs and other Turkic people into concentration camps and prisons.

“Adil Abdulghufur during an interview with the author in Istanbul, Türkiye, 2016.

 

Below are two excerpts from Adil’s interview highlighting China’s crackdown on religion in prison:

Adil: “I will tell you about one disaster that happened to me. In 2002 or 2003, they said I called the adhan in my sleep. Even saying bismillah is forbidden. We are not allowed to pray. If we sit still, they accuse us of praying. We are expected to constantly read and memorize Chinese laws.

That night, they dragged me from my bunk by my feet. I was naked. As they pulled me across the floor, the skin on my back and head tore. There was blood.

It was January. The snow outside had frozen like ice.

In the prison office, soldiers demanded to know what I had done. I told them I must have been talking in my sleep.

They said, ‘You screamed “Allahu Akbar.”’

I said I had not prayed. They accused me of lying and beat me — like wool rolled and kicked to make kighiz (a rug)  — until they were exhausted.

After nearly half an hour, I could no longer feel the blows. My body was drenched in sweat, dirt, and mud.

They threw clothes at me. Then they chained my hands and feet.

Finally, they hung a 25-kilogram cement board around my neck. Carved into it were the words: ‘For stubborn prisoners who refuse to bow to Chinese rule.’”

———

There is something else the Chinese authorities do, something the international community must hear.

Every year in March, they would administer a questionnaire to prisoners like us. Hundreds of questions are placed before those considered “patriotic” or “faithful” Turkistanis, or prisoners accused of opposing the Chinese government.

The first question is always the same:

“Is there a God or not?”

We are not allowed to explain. Only “yes” or “no.”

Then the following questions would come up:

“Were the heavens and the earth created by God or by nature?”
“Can the Holy Qur’an save mankind?”
“Is East Turkistan part of China, or is it a separate country?”
“Are you praying in prison?”
“Will you pray in the future?”
“What will you do once released?”
“What kind of person is Osama Bin Laden?”
“If Chinese and Uyghurs live together, will society flourish?”

Each answer must be reduced to a single word. Yes or no. No context. No explanation.

Based on those answers, we are sorted into four groups, each marked by a colored card.

Those assigned a red card are permitted to walk upright. They are the ones deemed compliant: prisoners who deny God, who affirm that East Turkistan is China, who give the “correct” answers.

Those given a yellow card must walk with their hands locked behind their heads. Those with brown cards are forced to move bent over, hands behind their heads. And those given green cards, my group, are not allowed to walk at all. We must crawl.

In 2002, my mother was allowed to visit for the first time. I had not seen her in four or five years. When the guards asked whether I wanted to see her, how could I refuse?

The distance from my cell to the visitors’ center was nearly a mile. They told me I could see my mother, but only if I crawled. I told them I would roll if I had to.

So I crawled.”

———

According to Gene Bunin, founder of the Xinjiang Victims Database, an online archive documenting known individuals detained in East Turkistan, more than 500,000 individuals are estimated to have been imprisoned, with roughly half believed to have been released after completing their sentences. Many of the charges stem from ordinary religious practices, prosecuted under vague accusations such as ‘extremism,’ ‘inciting religious hatred,’ and similar offenses.

The Uyghurs do not have the means to freely broadcast their suffering. Their cries are muffled by walls of fear, propaganda, and relentless censorship imposed by the Chinese government.

Ramadan is not meant to be only a personal, spiritual retreat. To isolate ourselves from the world and grow numb to suffering runs contrary to its very purpose. Rather, Ramadan should sharpen our awareness, soften our hearts, and move us toward action.

The least we can do this month is keep the Uyghurs in our conversations and our du‘a, learn their history and their stories, and strive to stand more consciously for the betterment of the ummah.

May Allah uplift and ease the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Chinese-occupied East Turkistan, Indian-occupied Kashmir, Burma, Palestine, and for Muslims oppressed in all corners of the earth.

May He grant us the strength to do more for our brethren, and never allow us to grow weary of doing even the bare minimum.

 

Related:

– Ramadan At The Uyghur Mosque: Community, Prayers, And Grief

– Is Your Temu Package Made With Uyghur Forced Labour?

The post An Unending Grief: Uyghurs And Ramadan Under Chinese Occupation appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Everyday rhythms in Gaza are dictated by water trucks, market sales and fear of famine, making rest impossible.

PenLink embraced by diplomats despite Meta ban.

“Socio-economic death sentence” makes it illegal to receive even food or medicine from a third party.

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, featuring celebrations, prayers, pre-dawn breakfasts and post-sundown meals, began at sunrise in the Middle East and a day later in much of Asia. In the Muslim lunar calendar, months begin only when the new moon is sighted, which can lead to variations of a day or two

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This series is a collaboration between Dr. Ali and Muslim Matters, bringing Quranic wisdom to the questions Muslim youth are actually asking.

What is Imposter Syndrome?

Imposter Syndrome is the persistent belief that you don’t deserve your achievements, that you’re a fraud who’s just gotten lucky, and that eventually everyone will discover you’re not as capable as they think.

For Muslim teens, this takes on an additional spiritual dimension. It’s not just “Am I smart enough for this college?” It’s “Am I Muslim enough to represent Islam? Am I pious enough to talk about faith? Am I good enough for Allah to even hear my du’a?”

5 Signs Your Teen Might Be Experiencing Imposter Syndrome

1. Downplaying Achievements They get an A+ but say “the test was easy.” They earn an award, but attribute it to “luck.” They can’t accept compliments without deflecting. They often feel like they are “boasting” if they share any victory, even with close family.
2. Overpreparation and Perfectionism They spend hours on assignments that should take minutes, convinced anything less than perfect will expose them as inadequate.
3. Avoiding Leadership or Visibility They don’t raise their hand even when they know the answer. They refuse to lead prayer or give presentations, saying “someone else would do it better” or “someone else is more qualified.”
4. Spiritual Self-Doubt “Who am I to teach someone about Islam when I have so many faults?” “My du’as probably don’t even count anyway.” “I’m not one of those ‘good Muslims.’”
5. Constant Comparison They measure their behind-the-scenes struggles against everyone else’s highlight reels and, as a result, always feel like they come up short.

The Prophet Who Said “I’m Not Qualified”

In the video above, Dr. Ali unpacks one of the most surprising moments in the Quran: When Allah chose Musa for prophethood and commanded him to confront Pharaoh, Musa’s immediate response was essentially, “Can you please send someone else.”

From Surah Ash-Shu’ara [26:12-13]:

“He said, ‘But my Lord, I am afraid that they will deny me. And that my chest will get tight from anxiety, and my tongue will be tied up, so—maybe—send Harun.’”

Here’s one of the greatest Messengers ever—chosen directly by Allah, speaking directly to Allah (kalimullah)—and he’s basically saying: “I have a speech impediment. I’m not eloquent enough. My brother would be better. I’m afraid I’ll just mess this up.”

Sound familiar?

Allah’s Response: The Lesson for Our Teens

Allah doesn’t say, “You’re right, Musa, you’re not good enough. Let me find someone else.”

Instead, from Surah Ash-Shu’ara [26:15]:

“Absolutely not! So go, both of you, with Our signs. And We will be with you, listening.”

Allah didn’t choose Musa despite his speech impediment. Allah chose Musa with his speech impediment.

The mission was never about Musa being perfect. It was about Musa showing up and trusting in Allah.

The Deeper Wisdom: Your Weakness as Allah’s Canvas for Greatness

Here’s what most of us miss: Musa’s speech impediment wasn’t a bug—it was a feature.

When Musa finally confronted Pharaoh (with his stutter, with his anxiety, with his obvious humanity), it became undeniable that the miracles weren’t coming from Musa’s eloquence. They were coming from Allah’s power working through Musa’s weakness.

If Musa had been perfectly eloquent and confident, people might have attributed his success to his natural talent. But because Musa was visibly imperfect, everyone knew: This is Allah’s work, not Musa’s.

Your teen’s weakness might be exactly where Allah’s strength shows up most clearly.

The student who’s nervous about leading prayer? When they finally do it, people see courage, not perfection.

The new Muslim who fumbles through explaining Islam? When someone accepts Islam through that conversation, it’s clearly Allah’s guidance, not their eloquence.

How to Support a Teen Struggling with Imposter Syndrome

1. Validate the Feeling, Challenge the Thought

• Don’t say: “You’re being ridiculous, of course you’re good enough.”
• Instead, maybe say: “I understand feeling that way. But let’s look at the evidence. Let’s look at what you have actually accomplished.”

2. Share Your Own Imposter Moments

• Teens need to know that even adults—even prophets—feel inadequate sometimes
• Your vulnerability gives them permission to be human

3. Reframe “Qualification”

• Allah doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies the called
• The question isn’t “Are you perfect?” It’s “Are you willing to show up with sincerity and put your trust in Allah?” Remember that Allah asks of us only this—the effort is on us, the result is in His Hands.

4. Focus on Process, Not Just Outcome

• Celebrate effort and growth, not just achievements
• “I’m proud of how hard you worked” vs. “I’m proud you got an A”

5. Teach the Islamic Perspective on Tawakkul

• You do your best, then trust Allah with the results
• Your job is to make the sincere effort; Allah is the One who grants success

Discussion Questions for Families

For Teens:

1. What’s your “speech impediment”—the thing you believe disqualifies you from serving Allah or helping others?
2. If you knew Allah was with you (as He promised Musa), what’s one thing you’d do that you’ve been avoiding?
3. Can you think of a time when your weakness actually made you more relatable or effective?

For Parents:

1. Have you ever shared your own experiences with Imposter Syndrome with your children?
2. How might your praise style (focusing on outcomes vs. effort) be contributing to their fear of failure?
3. What would it look like to create a home environment where “not being good enough YET” is celebrated as part of growth?

For Discussion Together:

1. Who in our family tends to downplay their achievements? Why do you think that is?
2. How can we remind each other that Allah uses imperfect people for perfect purposes?
3. What’s one area where each of us could “show up” despite feeling unqualified?

The Invitation

Imposter Syndrome thrives in silence. When teens believe they’re the only ones feeling inadequate, the lie grows stronger.

But when they learn that even someone as great as the Prophet Musa—one of the five greatest messengers (Ulul-‘Azm)—felt exactly what they’re feeling? And that Allah used him anyway?

That changes everything.

This Ramadan, perhaps the most important conversation you can have with your teen isn’t about their GPA or their college plans. It’s about reminding them: You don’t have to be perfect to be valuable. You just have to be sincere.

Continue the Journey

This is Night 2 of Dr. Ali’s 30-part Ramadan series, “30 Nights with the Quran: Stories for the Seeking Soul.”

Tomorrow, insha Allah: Night 3 tackles one of the hardest questions Muslim teens face: “When Your Parents Don’t Understand”—navigating the tension between honoring parents and maintaining your own integrity through the wisdom of Surat Luqman.

For daily extended reflections with journaling prompts, personal stories, and deeper resources, join Dr. Ali’s email community: https://30nightswithquran.beehiiv.com/

Related:

Who Am I Really? What Surat Al-‘Asr Teaches Muslim Teens About Identity | Night 1 with the Qur’an

30 Nights with the Qur’an: A Ramadan Series for Muslim Teens

The post 5 Signs Your Teen is Struggling with Imposter Syndrome | Night 2 with the Qur’an appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

You could die before it arrives.

This is not morbid. This is the mathematics of existence that every Muslim knows but rarely speaks aloud. Last Ramadan, people prayed beside you who are now beneath the earth. They had grocery lists for this year. They had plans. They assumed, as you are assuming now, that another Ramadan was guaranteed.

It was not.

And so, before we discuss iftars and taraweeh schedules and Quran khatm goals, before we debate moon sightings and prayer times and which masjid has the best qari, we must begin with the only truth that matters: you are not promised this Ramadan. If you reach it, you reach it because Allah extended your breath that far. Every fast you complete is a gift you did not earn. Every prayer you stand for is borrowed time being spent on its only worthy purchase.

This is not meant to frighten you. It is meant to wake you up.

Because here is what follows from this truth: Allah has already written your Ramadan. The rizq you will receive, the worship you will be granted the ability to perform, the sins you will be protected from or fall into, the tears you will cry, and the prayers that will be answered. All of it inscribed by a Hand far wiser than yours. Your task is not to engineer a perfect Ramadan. Your task is to show up for the one you were written for.

The Great Surfacing

Ramadan has a way of drawing Muslims out from everywhere. It is perhaps the only month where the ummah becomes geographically visible to itself.

Parking lots at masajid overflow. Shoes pile up at entrances in quantities that would alarm a fire marshal. The younger sisters appear in abayas and dresses that spark whispered debates among the elders. The younger brothers walk in wearing crisp thobs, smelling of oud and cologne, looking halfway between piety and a fashion shoot. People who haven’t prayed in congregation for eleven months suddenly materialize in the front rows.

And before you let judgment creep into your heart, before you think “Ramadan Muslims,” remember: Allah brought them. Whatever thread pulled them back to the masjid, that thread was woven by Ar-Rahman. You do not know what battles they fought to be there. You do not know what your presence looks like from the outside either.

This surfacing is one of Ramadan’s quiet miracles. The ummah, scattered and fragmented for most of the year, suddenly remembers it is one body. For thirty days, we eat together, fast together, pray together, and break together. The isolation of modern Muslim life temporarily lifts.

The Interior Architecture

There is something outsiders cannot see: the interior architecture of a fasting day.

There is the body shock of the first few days. The headaches. The fog that descends around 2pm and refuses to lift. Your body, accustomed to its constant inputs, protests. And then, for most, adaptation. The hunger becomes background noise. You discover reserves you forgot you had. You realize how much of your eating was never really about need.

Suhoor is not simply a meal. What you consume before dawn will either carry you or collapse under you. This is not unspiritual. The Prophet ﷺ told us there is blessing in suhoor. He ﷺ did not romanticize unnecessary suffering.

The Two Ledgers

Here is where we must be honest with ourselves.

Ramadan amplifies. Whatever you were doing before, you will likely do more of it now. If you were someone who prayed, read Quran, and gave charity, Ramadan will pour fuel on that fire. If you were someone who gossiped, slandered, and wasted time, Ramadan does not automatically interrupt those patterns.

The same ummah that comes together for taraweeh also comes together to discuss who is marrying whom, whose children are failing, whose faith seems performative. The post-iftar gathering can be a garden of remembrance or a swamp of backbiting. Often, tragically, it is both.

The fasting of the stomach is the easy part. The fasting of the tongue, the eyes, the ears: this is where most of us fail. I include myself in that “us.” I am not writing from above the struggle. I am writing from within it. And yet the Prophet ﷺ told us clearly:

“Whoever does not give up false speech and acting upon it, Allah has no need of his giving up food and drink.”1

Your Ramadan is not measured in calories avoided. It is measured in what you choose to consume and produce in other ways.

Where Do You Stand?

Ramadan, if you let it, will show you exactly where you are. Not where you think you are. Not where you tell others you are. Where you actually are.

When you stand in the masjid for taraweeh, what is your experience? Some people pray all twenty rakats and feel their souls lifted. Others leave after four, or eight, and carry guilt about it.

But let us be careful here. Some people get overwhelmed easily in crowded spaces. Some have ADHD and find it nearly impossible to stay still for extended periods, their bodies screaming to move while their hearts want to remain. Some are hunted by intrusive thoughts that ambush them the moment they try to focus, turning every rakat into a battle they did not choose. Some listen to the Quran being recited and feel nothing, no connection, no khushu, just words washing over them while they wonder what is wrong with them.

These struggles are real. They are not excuses. They are the specific tests Allah has written for specific people. The person who stays for four rakats while fighting their own mind may be exerting more effort than the one who breezes through twenty. Only Allah knows what each prayer costs the one praying it.

And Ramadan does not pause the dunya. Exams still happen. Work deadlines still loom. The Western calendar does not bend for the Islamic one. This is hard. Do not let anyone tell you it is not hard. And yet this too was written for you. What is asked of you is not perfection. What is asked is presence.

So the question is: are you honest with yourself about where you are? Are you showing up with whatever capacity you have, even when that capacity feels pathetically small? There is no condemnation in these questions. There is only clarity. And clarity, however uncomfortable, is a mercy.

The Loneliness No One Mentions

We must talk about this.

Ramadan, for all its communal beauty, can be devastatingly lonely.

Not everyone experiences the communal beauty that comes with Ramadan.

If you have a spouse, children, a household that fasts together and prays together and breaks bread together, Ramadan feels like coming home. The table is full. Suhoor is someone gently waking you. Iftar is noise and laughter and small hands reaching for samosas before the adhan finishes.

But not everyone has this.

There are students far from home, breaking fast alone in dorms and studio apartments, the adhan playing from their phones because there is no one to say “Allahu Akbar” with. There are singles who watch families pour into the masjid while they sit alone on the edges, wondering if anyone sees them. There are converts whose biological families do not understand, who hide their fasting at work because explaining feels exhausting.

There are the poor. And we must speak of the poor specifically.

There are people who come to the masjid iftar not for community, but because it is the most reliable meal they will have. And some of them take extra food to go. They fill containers. They wrap things in napkins. And they feel eyes on them. They sense the judgment of those who have never known what it is to be uncertain about tomorrow’s food.

Let this be very clear: if someone takes extra food from a community iftar, that is between them and Allah . Your job is to make sure there is enough to take. Your job is to make taking it feel dignified, not shameful. The Prophet ﷺ fed people. He did not audit them.

If you are not one of these people, you have been given something. Do not mistake comfort for virtue.

The Assignment

Whatever else you plan for this Ramadan, the Quran khatm, the taraweeh attendance, the dua lists, the charity goals, add one thing that requires nothing but intention:

Help at least one person.

Not an organization. Not a cause. A person. A specific human being whose Ramadan becomes easier because you existed in it.

Maybe it is the brother who always sits alone. You sit with him. Maybe it is the single mother struggling to manage children during taraweeh. You watch them for one night. Maybe it is the student who cannot afford iftar groceries. You fill their fridge quietly, without announcement, without expecting thanks. Maybe it is someone at your own table who is drowning, and you never noticed.

The Prophet ﷺ said:

“Whoever provides iftar for a fasting person will have a reward like his, without anything being diminished from the reward of the fasting person.”2

But I think the deeper wisdom is this: Ramadan is not a solo endeavor. It was never meant to be. We are an ummah. We fast together, not merely at the same time but for one another.

The Ramadan You Were Written For

You do not know what this Ramadan holds. You do not know if you will reach its end. You do not know which night will be Laylat al-Qadr, which dua will be answered, which prostration will change everything.

You do not know. And this is the point.

So, enter this month not as an architect but as a guest. Accept what is given. Show up for what is asked. Forgive yourself when you fall short. Return, again and again, to the One who invited you here.

I will be trying to do the same. I do not know where I stand. I fluctuate. I falter. But I want good for you the way I want it for myself, and I ask Allah to help us both.

May Allah make it your best Ramadan yet. Not by your definition of best, but by His.

Ameen

 

Related:

– Expect Trials This Ramadan…As There Should Be I Ust. Justin Parrott

– The Architecture of Withholding: When Charity Becomes Control

1    https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:16892    https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:807

The post The Ramadan You Were Written For : Show Up In Every Way Possible appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

The loss of sacred spaces during the period of observance and the ongoing conflict reminds us of the importance of cherishing food

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Today starts the first week of Ramadan, and I have the great pleasure of digging into The Sudanese Kitchen by Omer Al Tijani. The war in Sudan has been going on for almost three years now, and Ramadan is a month that arrives with heightened feelings for those fasting in the middle of conflict and displacement. The cookbook, a first-of-its-kind collection of Sudanese recipes, is both a celebration of Sudan and a reminder of all that is at stake.

Al Tijani first realised he needed to learn how to make his own Sudanese food while he was a student at the University of Manchester in the early 2010s. The packages of treats his mother prepared never lasted long enough; he grew sick of student food and began looking for recipes, but there were few resources. Over 15 years, his passion for tracing and documenting Sudanese recipes took him all over Sudan, and his work became, as he told me, “bound” in Sudan’s political story. He gathered recipes and food culture on the ground during the revolution that overthrew president Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s dictator of 30 years.

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South Lakes Islamic Centre, which has been targeted by far right, will host nightly prayers before official opening in July

It is a cold night before Ramadan, and a group of men are completing health and safety checks inside Cumbria’s partly completed South Lakes Islamic Centre (SLIC).

The building is a mere shell, with exposed bricks, hanging wires and no fitted lights or heaters, but a large area has been cleared of construction materials to host nightly congregational prayers.

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This series is a collaboration between Dr. Ali and MuslimMatters, bringing Quranic wisdom to the questions Muslim youth are actually asking.

The Crisis No One Talks About

If you’re a Muslim teen in 2026, you’re living in multiple realities at once. At home, you’re expected to be the “good Muslim kid.” At school, you navigate being visibly different. Online, you curate a version of yourself that gets likes. At the masjid, you try to look pious enough that the aunties and uncles at the masjid don’t gossip.

Underneath all of it is a terrifying question: “Who am I when nobody’s watching?”

This isn’t just teenage angst. It’s literally an existential crisis unique to young Muslims in the West—the exhausting work of code-switching between worlds, wearing different masks for different audiences, and wondering if there’s anything authentic underneath.

The Quranic Answer: Surat Al-‘Asr

In the video above, Dr. Ali unpacks how Surat Al-‘Asr—just three ayaat, just over fifty Arabic words—contains a complete roadmap for identity formation. In fact, Imam al-Shafi’i famously said that if Allah had revealed only this surah, it would have been sufficient for all of humanity.

Here’s the framework:

The Diagnosis:

“By time, indeed all people are in a state of loss…”

We’re not lost because we’re bad people. We’re lost because we’re performing, wandering, chasing things that don’t last. Every second spent pretending to be someone you’re not is time you can never recover.

The Prescription—Four Components of Real Identity:

1. Iman (Belief) – Not just “I believe that Allah exists,” but having a relationship with truth. Knowing what you stand for. This requires knowledge—you can’t build faith without learning about Allah, His Messenger, and His revelation.
2. Righteous Action – Your identity isn’t just internal. It’s what you DO. You become who you are through your choices. Knowledge without action is incomplete; it’s hypocrisy.
3. Encourage Truth – You can’t build identity alone. You need people who will be real with you and vice versa. Your family, your community, your friends, your tribe—these relationships shape you.
4. Encourage Patience – Becoming who you’re meant to be takes time. Expect resistance, challenges, setbacks. All of that requires sabr (patience).

From Theory to Practice

The revolutionary message here is simple but profound: Your real identity is built in time, not found in a moment.

You’re not discovering yourself like some Hollywood movie. You’re constructing yourself through small, consistent choices. Every prayer you choose to pray. Every truth you choose to speak. Every moment you choose patience over reactivity. Every moment you choose good over comfort or compromise.

This relieves the pressure. You don’t have to wake up one day suddenly knowing who you are. You become who you are through the daily work of showing up—even when nobody’s watching.

Discussion Questions for Families

These questions can help parents and teens have meaningful conversations about identity:

For Teens:

1. Which of the four components (belief, action, community, patience) feels hardest for you right now? Why?
2. If you took off all your “masks”—the version you show your parents, friends, school, online—what would be left?
3. What’s one small action you can take this Ramadan to build your identity deliberately rather than let others define it for you?

For Parents:

1. How do you model the balance between honoring your cultural identity and allowing your children to develop their own authentic Muslim identity?
2. In what ways might your expectations for your teen create pressure to perform rather than space to become?
3. How can you create an environment where your teen feels safe to explore who they are without fear of judgment?

For Discussion Together:

1. What does “being Muslim AND yourself at the same time” look like in our family?
2. How can we support each other in building authentic identity rather than just performing for different audiences?

Why This Matters Now

The rate of Muslim youth disengagement is rising—not primarily because of lack of faith, but because of identity exhaustion. When being Muslim feels like one more performance to maintain, many young people simply… stop.

Surat Al-‘Asr offers a way out: authenticity through action, community through truth-telling, growth through patience, and identity rooted in Allah, rather than approval.

This Ramadan, as we focus on the Quran, perhaps the most important question isn’t “How much can I read this month?” but “Who am I becoming through this process?”

Continue the Journey

This is Night 1 of Dr. Ali’s 30-part Ramadan series, “30 Nights with the Quran: Stories for the Seeking Soul.” Each night explores a different struggle Muslim teens face through the lens of Quranic stories and wisdom.

Tomorrow, insha Allah: Night 2 tackles Imposter Syndrome through the story of the Prophet Musa’s self-doubt when Allah chose him for the greatest mission of his life.

For daily extended reflections with journaling, personal stories, and deeper resources, join Dr. Ali’s email community: https://30nightswithquran.beehiiv.com/

Related:

30 Nights with the Qur’an: A Ramadan Series for Muslim Teens

The post Who Am I Really? What Surat Al-‘Asr Teaches Muslim Teens About Identity | Night 1 with the Qur’an appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Introduction

Wherever one finds themselves in life, it’s always been understood, especially for Muslims, that to fulfill our obligations properly, we have to first acknowledge our responsibilities.

A parent has a responsibility in how they speak and behave in front of their child. An employee of a charity has a responsibility in how they present themselves publicly as a representative of a mission. An Imam has a responsibility in the statements he makes before a congregation that sees him as a spiritual guide. A podcast host has a responsibility in how they present ideas to their audience and whether they’re doing so with honesty, clarity, and sincerity.

But these personal responsibilities don’t exist in isolation. They’re shaped and pressured by the larger systems we live within. The choices we make, even the ones that feel private or apolitical, are often molded by the very forces we claim to resist.

The average Muslim-American lives in a bubble of comfort, built by systems that rest on the backs of others, both domestically and overseas. We know this, of course, and so we give to charity, engage in da’wah, support various initiatives to lessen our guilt. But if we’re being truly honest, those things may or may not be enough to offset the moral debt we awaken with every morning as taxpayers funding a machine of subjugation.

And every so often, a moment arrives that demands more than just relief work. A moment that demands moral clarity. A moment that demands a line be drawn. For Muslim-Americans, 2024 was that moment.

The Moment That Demanded More

I recently listened to the MuslimMatters podcast featuring Imam Dawud Walid and Zainab bint Younus. While I appreciated much of the discussion, I walked away disheartened by what felt like a bias dressed up as “objective analysis” regarding the 2024 election.

Let me be clear: I have a deep admiration for Imam Dawud Walid. His writings during the 2010s, when activism often took the place of religion, helped keep me grounded at a time when others seemed swept up by trends and social media validation.

But part of honoring those we respect is offering principled disagreement when it’s needed, especially when the public is involved. And while much of the podcast was beneficial (and I encourage others to listen to it), the portion I took issue with was this:

“I voted for a third-party candidate and encouraged others privately to do the same, not from the minbar.

In retrospect, Trump is far worse now than in his first term. He is doing greater harm to society and to Muslims.

I am stating clearly on this MuslimMatters podcast: I made an error in that calculation.”

To make matters worse, the podcast host responded not by probing or playing devil’s advocate, but by saying: “I appreciate your honesty. I hope others reflect similarly.” As if what was just confessed was the abandonment of heresy in favor of orthodoxy.

While Imam Dawud’s statement was the centerpiece of that exchange, Zainab bint Younus, who served as both interviewer and platform, did more than simply moderate. Her framing shaped the narrative. By praising his reversal and expressing hope that others follow suit, she implicitly cast principled third-party voters as those needing to “see the light.” That kind of moral positioning deserves scrutiny. If the interviewer is going to steer the conversation toward a particular outcome, that influence shouldn’t be cloaked in neutrality; it needs to be owned. And if she truly believes that preserving “representation” or “access” justifies empowering genocidaires, she should say so plainly.

To be fair, podcast hosts are entitled to their leanings, but those leanings should be named explicitly, not cloaked in language that implies objectivity or consensus.

And in that exchange, I saw a familiar problem: a refusal to ask the most important question of all. What would the price have been for not drawing the line? That question was never even posed in the interview, despite the fact that the answer was written across our screens every single day.

What Would That Price Have Looked Like?

Before discussing anything else, let’s recall what the world looked like in 2024.

Starting October 7, 2023, we woke up and went to sleep every day to images, videos, and heartbreak worse than the day before. And throughout those endless months that turned into years, our grief and calls for action were met either with state-sponsored violence or gaslighting.

Hind Rajab was murdered under the Biden-Harris administration. Khalid “Soul of My Soul” Nabhan was murdered under the Biden-Harris administration. Fathers digging their children out of rubble, only to hear their screams fade into silence, happened under the Biden-Harris administration.

The Muslim-American community saw all of this. And after organizing protests, fundraisers, educational sessions, and community campaigns, we turned to political advocacy, specifically because it was an election year. And because everything we’d done up to that point was belittled, dismissed, and ignored, we drew a red line.

And yet here we are in 2026, with everyone offering commentary on the cost of that red line, while almost no one is examining the cost of not drawing it.

Let’s imagine we hadn’t. Let’s say the Muslim community—fractured, tired, traumatized, but still largely compliant—decided to line up behind the Harris-Walz ticket in 2024. Let’s say we ignored the genocidal campaign they bankrolled. Kamala Harris, vice president of the administration that made Muslim blood run like a river, would have been rewarded with a full term. And to be clear, she wasn’t just complicit; she was positioning herself to lead the violence.

John Kirby, who served as White House National Security Communications Advisor from 2022 to 2025, himself said:

“She’s been a full partner in our policies in the Middle East, particularly with our policies towards Israel and the war in Gaza—a full partner, involved in nearly every conversation the president has had with the prime minister.”

And her own words during the campaign season were just as explicit:

“I will always ensure that America has the strongest, most lethal fighting force.”

“I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself.”

“ICE has a purpose. ICE has a role. ICE should exist.”

These statements were intentional declarations of intent, not gaffes or misquotes. She signaled her readiness to continue, and even escalate, the violence. And so, the Muslim-American voter faced a calculation: Should I vote for Harris-Walz and protect my comforts at the expense of my brothers and sisters abroad? Or should I vote third party, not because it’s easy, but because it’s right?

For the first time in decades, many Muslim-Americans chose the latter. They understood the stakes. They understood that being moral isn’t just about what you oppose; it’s about what you’re willing to risk. Because how could we justify endorsing the first livestreamed genocide in history, waged against a people the Prophet ﷺ described in this hadith:

“There shall always be a group of my Ummah clearly upon the truth, subjugating their enemies. Those who oppose them will not vanquish them except for some calamities that shall (occasionally) befall them. And they shall remain upon this until the command of Allah (i.e., Day of Judgment) comes.”

He ﷺ was asked: “And where will they be?”

He ﷺ replied, “In Bayt al-Maqdis, and the neighborhoods around Bayt al-Maqdis.”

That was the choice before us in 2024. And for the first time in decades, many Muslims chose to stand with that enduring group, despite the uncertainty, despite the cost. But that choice brought with it a far more serious question, one that Imam Dawud and Zainab bint Younus raised in passing, but never truly reckoned with.

What Kind of Dīn Would We Be Transmitting?

In the interview, both Imam Dawud and Zainab bint Younus voiced concern about safeguarding the ability to practice and transmit Islam in the West. Imam Dawud said:

“As Muslims living in the West, our priority must be safeguarding our ability to transmit the dīn to future generations and to practice and propagate Islam.”

And I ask sincerely: What kind of dīn would we be transmitting if we voted for genocide? Would our institutions be preserved if we rewarded those who funded the destruction of Bayt al-Maqdis? Would our youth learn moral clarity if we taught them that war crimes are tolerable when committed by diverse cabinets?

Because if our religious practice can only survive through allegiance to mass murderers, it’s not being preserved, it’s being hollowed out. A dīn that adapts to genocide isn’t being transmitted, rather it’s being repurposed as a utility.

And this isn’t abstract theology. It’s the question our children will ask us when they learn what happened. And when, not if, they ask, we won’t just have to answer for our silence, but for the political choices we made in the face of atrocity.

This Was Never About a Quick Win

Critics for the past year have often asked: “What did your third-party vote even accomplish?”

The answer: It was never about quick wins. It was about ending a cycle of political dependency and moral compromise. For 25 years, Muslim-Americans voted based on short-term comfort. That mindset bred a culture of exceptionalism, where we thought we could keep compromising without consequence.

That mindset is what many critics, including Imam Dawud and Zainab, have rightly criticized in other contexts. Yet when it came time to make a sacrifice that actually carried cost, those same critics hesitated. This wasn’t a protest vote to feel righteous. It was a refusal to normalize betrayal. It was a statement: You don’t get to commit genocide and still get our votes.

We’ve been told that we need to be pragmatic, but the fact of the matter is that pragmatism without principle is surrender, not strategy. And had we not taken this stand, many of us would have become what Imam Dawud warned about on the very same podcast: cultural Muslims, who wear religion like an outfit, not a commitment.

And if our community continues down that path, trading integrity for influence, trading sacrifice for comfort, we shouldn’t be surprised when history treats us not as moral leaders, but as cautionary tales.

Historical Memory and Qur’anic Warning

In Surah Al-Ahzab, when 10,000 marched on Madinah to wipe out the Muslims, Allah describes four responses among the people of Madinah:

1. The hypocrites
2. Those who criticized the Muslims instead of the enemy
3. Those who let fear make them flee
4. The believers who stood firm

About the third group, Allah says:

“Another group of them asked the Prophet’s permission to leave, saying, ‘Our homes are vulnerable,’ while in fact they were not vulnerable. They only wished to flee. Had the city been sacked and they were asked to abandon faith, they would have done so with little hesitation.” —Qur’an 33:13–14

That ayah is a warning: compromise has a cost. And a people who grow used to betraying principles eventually forget what principles are. There are Muslims who voted for Harris-Walz in 2024 despite everything, and still ended up with the outcome they feared. To them, I recall the words of Imam Malik:

“The greatest loser is the one who sold his Hereafter for his share of the world. And an even greater loser is one who sold his Hereafter for someone else’s share.”

The Path Forward Requires More Than Regret

To those who say we should have voted for Harris-Walz to lessen the harm: We already tried that strategy. Twice. And all we got was a genocide in return. Since 2004, we’ve voted for the “lesser evil,” and all we got was more degradation, more humiliation, and maybe an occasional Eid tweet from the White House.

No more.

Back in 2017, Imam Dawud tweeted during Trump’s term:

“Wearing American flag hijabs and kufis reeks of pandering. Respectability politics is not the path to liberation for PoC in America, folks. Begging for acceptance earns further disrespect and humiliation. Be yourself, and don’t seek dignity from the status quo.”

I ask Imam Dawud and others: What changed? Why does that principle no longer apply when the flag is held by someone “less evil”?

Let this be the start of something better: A politics rooted in dignity, not dependency. A stance rooted in faith, not fear. A vote rooted in principle, not proximity to power.

Because when we meet Allah, the question won’t be, “Did you safeguard your dīn through compromise?” It’ll be, “Did you stand for it when it mattered most?”

And if safeguarding our dīn means staying silent in the face of genocide, then we’ve already lost it.

Related:

[Podcast] Should Muslims Ally with Conservatives or Progressives? | Imam Dawud Walid

The post What Would the Price Have Been for Not Drawing the Line? A Response to Imam Dawud Walid and Zainab bint Younus appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

We talk with Alex Mitov about why he quit Dell over Gaza. We also discuss whistleblowers at the Committee to Protect Journalists and wins for Palestine Action.

The mosque in Sydney’s west has received two threatening letters in lead up to Islam’s holiest month

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One of Australia’s largest mosques is facing what it says is the most “alarming situation” since the Cronulla race riots, with security bolstered ahead of Ramadan celebrations beginning on Wednesday.

Lakemba mosque, in Sydney’s west, has received two threatening letters in recent weeks, ahead of the beginning of Islam’s holiest month.

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