American Crusade?!

0:00 Dear friends, as-salamu alaykum.

0:03 Imagine someone speaking today

0:06 about the Crusades.

0:07 Writing about the Crusades.

0:10 What do the Crusades represent

0:13 for Muslims around the world?

0:16 So this is not about some past from 100, 200, or more years ago,

0:22 but we have a situation where the current Secretary of Defense

0:27 in the United States wrote back in 2020.

0:31 So nearly 6 years ago, this man wrote a book titled

0:37 The American crusade, which translates to American crusade.

0:42 Honestly, I didn't know about this book, but after a brief look,

0:47 about this book, reviews of this book, you have on Wikipedia a full overview,

0:56 you have on CNN, also very interesting,

1:00 a commentary on this book. So, a man writes six years ago

1:03 about the American crusade.

1:10 Crusades, as you know and as we understand them, were against Islam and Muslims,

1:15 and now we have this man who is the Minister of War and who directly leads

1:16 operations

1:32 against Iran. So, only God knows where this will actually go. This whole situation has greatly concerned me and led me to think about whether his book was really a metaphor

1:41 in Islam,

1:43 he also speaks about the so-called leftism or left

1:46 movement.

1:47 So,

1:48 where it strongly fights

1:51 for Christianity,

1:53 Christian ideals, and thus also for the Crusades,

1:57 for progressive

1:58 views and so on. I believe, I have read a bit, I couldn't believe

2:03 how

2:03 It actually states how a person approaches

2:07 such

2:08 topics, where it literally advocates an American crusade.

2:14 Today we have a situation of a conflict that is increasingly

2:20 escalating into a regional

2:23 conflict, with the potential for

2:32 a major world war. Today, may Allah truly protect us from that.

2:33 However, what really struck me

2:35 at the beginning of this

2:37 Wikipedia presentation of this book by the current American minister of war, is that he denies among other things

2:44 Islam,

2:45 or that it is a religion of peace, but rather speaks of how Islam is a religion of war, how Islam,

2:52 thus,

2:53 populated and so on. I mean, people, these are deceptions, these are lies, these are truly

2:58 great slanders against Islam and Muslims, how

3:03 Muslims may feel,

3:05 not only in the USA,

3:07 when someone produces them

3:08 because they have

3:11 high, among other things, it is mentioned there

3:13 high birth rate

3:15 in Europe and how Muslims

3:18 are perceived regarding birth rates.

3:19 Imagine how Muslims feel when they are accused

3:27 of threatening Europe, its identity, and so on.

3:30 Muslims have made immeasurable

3:35 contributions to the development of European culture, European civilization.

3:39 Muslim civilization in Spain provided huge impulses

3:48 to the development of the Renaissance and numerous revolutions.

3:53 This is, of course, a very, very dangerous

3:56 Samola

3:56 Hantiktona

3:57 which actually spoke

3:59 about the clash of civilizations where it places

4:02 Western civilization

4:04 in confrontation

4:05 directly, among other things, with Islamic civilization.

4:08 So, it is clear that some spirits, in some way hostile,

4:13 are unleashed

4:14 in the name of Jesus or in relation to Christianity,

4:17 In the name of God,

4:19 as we see in press conferences,

4:21 God is invoked,

4:23 someone who supports the bombing of civilians,

4:27 the bombing of civilian infrastructure,

4:30 where there is public talk of readiness,

4:35 thus committing war crimes on camera. So, quite

4:36 normal,

4:37 quite common,

4:41 which is truly, in my opinion, extremely concerning

4:46 thus, it evokes memories

4:48 thus, of killings,

4:50 of persecutions,

4:52 of rapes,

4:53 of 70

4:54 000 killed Muslims and Jews in one day,

4:58 only in the house, or in Jerusalem. Thus, the Crusade

5:03 is a very negative concept from the perspective of every Muslim,

5:08 and I believe even of every good

5:10 person today.

5:11 Calling for any kind of crusade today, in the current geopolitical

5:18 situations and writing such things is truly a serious matter and something that very

5:25 easily opens the door

5:28 to future conflicts,

5:30 opens the door to Islamophobia,

5:32 not only in the West, not only in America, not only in Europe, but if you will, even beyond, thus bringing the potential

5:38 for greater conflict situations.

5:41 etc.

5:42 I remember, about a month ago I saw,

5:46 there on YouTube, among other things, I saw a video where they actually show a muscle.

5:52 This was a war gift

5:56 to the crusaders who were actually killing Muslims

6:00 and simply calling upon God, as in let God's will be done.

6:09 by actually killing Muslims.

6:11 And this is truly concerning. I thought it was wrong or a coincidence, or something,

6:18 in some way, harmless. However, after I really learned about this book,

6:30 and honestly had not come across it before, this really gives a totally new perspective.

6:33 So, these aggressions against Iran, or these beginnings

6:36 of conflicts that are quite

6:46 certain to continue, to expand, and so on. So, at the very least, I am deeply concerned with such Islamic

6:47 So, some people simply express this, and not only Muslims.

6:50 So, where a person openly speaks against the democrats,

6:57 where he calls the democrats in America the worst names,

7:07 where he advocates for certain things, moreover, I found one of the quotes

7:08 that could actually mean or be interpreted as a direct

7:09 nullification.

7:10 Democrats,

7:14 so on and so forth.

7:18 Because supposedly, this approach will be misused,

7:20 to label someone, etc. This is truly something

7:21 In relationships and those blanket assessments of Islam and Muslims,

7:30 you know,

7:31 what seems to be George Bush, who once said, 'Whoever is not with us, is against us.'

7:44 This narrative is actually prescribed in the Bible,

7:46 and there is also a good text on Judaism on index.hr,

7:49 which actually shows how the White House,

7:51 modern administrations increasingly use religion,

7:58 and religiously justifies this aggression against Iran, the killing of civilians,

8:08 and the destruction of civilian infrastructure,

8:09 calling upon God to witness this and to give His approval for all that is done.

8:10 approaching such a discourse,

8:13 such,

8:14 in a way,

8:16 slander

8:16 against Muslims,

8:18 creating Muslims,

8:20 thus accusing Muslim immigrants of not being American enough,

8:25 that Islam as such does not contribute, thus,

8:30 over time, the world is at least extremely controversial,

8:34 extremely dangerous, regardless of who it comes from

8:37 Thus, this simply complicates any dialogue, any human communication.

8:43 on a level

8:46 between religions,

8:47 which has often been advocated.

8:50 What is the purpose of talking to people who deny you, who insult you,

9:08 who completely misinterpret your faith, not just perceive it wrongly,

9:11 but also explain it to others, imposing such fears on people, and so on.

9:12 What Islam actually asks of us is to be objective,

9:19 to be

9:25 in some way critical of certain events, so I think we should definitely

9:28 Even if he represents certain radical views, what are those views towards Islam and Muslims,

9:35 what possible consequences

9:37 such a stance may bring.

9:40 For as much as one extreme arises from one side, it is certain that an extreme will arise from the other side, and that there will be a response of extremism to extremism, which is what none of us actually wants and can only be

9:56 adding fuel to the fire, both in the current circumstances,

10:00 as well as in

10:02 any future situations, in some way, that could unfortunately

10:07 arise. What I really wanted to draw attention to now is

10:12 that under no circumstances

10:14 is such rhetoric good, it is not positive,

10:18 no power in the world should use

10:19 such

10:23 a stance and rhetoric that degrades Muslims,

10:25 that insults Muslims, where their human rights are taken away,

10:40 anyone who does not think this way,

10:43 the black-and-white view of us and them, this discourse that oversimplifies,

10:48 things to the point of absurdity,

10:49 is actually wrong and we must judge it as such. We must rise against it and say it is not only against Islam,

11:00 but also against Christianity,

11:02 and against any dialogue between religions.

11:05 What is the point of discussing such a narrative,

11:09 for it is clear that this narrative is simply

11:14 contradictory

11:15 to everything we are trying

11:17 to say, to advocate; not only to advocate, but we are convinced that Islam is, in fact, a religion of peace, that Islam will always try to contribute

11:31 to peace in the world, etc. We do not see here that Muslim nations have attacked anyone, but rather they are

11:39 attacked by those who proclaim certain values that they claim are supreme values, etc. I ask Allah, the Exalted, to truly protect us from further escalation

11:50 of this madness. This is not, believe me, just ordinary aggression, it is not an ordinary war, but this is truly a great collective madness that will certainly, if it continues at this pace, lead the world in

12:03 a completely wrong direction, completely

12:07 to other realities.

12:08 that will not be for anyone.

12:11 Dear ones. I'm sorry that some people wonder and don't see, and I truly regret that we as Muslims also do not pay more attention to the world that is somehow unfolding around us than we do.

12:26 participants

12:27 in the same. May Allah, the Exalted, reward you. Assalamu alaikum, rahmatullah, and barakat.