Everyday questions › Community and politics
Community and politics
Living as a Muslim citizen: voting, protest, Palestine and other causes, free speech and blasphemy, extremism, race, sectarian tension and what to make of the news.
- Is voting in a secular election allowed?
- How should I respond when someone insults the Prophet online?
- Should Muslims be working towards a caliphate?
Example phrasings, not quotations. Each one runs a search.
Latest answers
386 segments in 105 recordings, newest first
29 Sep 2024On Current Events
LatestMufti Tariq Masood's remark on scribal errors, and Islam as a deen of mercy
Mufti Abu Layth says there are no mistakes in the Quran's script, but Islam is a deen of mercy, so Mufti Tariq Masood's error should not bring calls for his death.
machine5 min 09 s0:03on YouTube
29 Sep 2024On Current Events
LatestIs someone who says something wrong about the Prophet guilty of blasphemy?
Not when there was no such intention: Mufti Abu Layth says Mufti Tariq Masood was clearly wrong, but he meant to praise the Prophet, so calling him a blasphemer is unacceptable.
machine4 min 34 s5:12on YouTube
29 Sep 2024On Current Events
LatestHow scholars' rhetoric fed Pakistan's blasphemy killings, in Mufti Abu Layth's view
Mufti Abu Layth says scholars who long told the public to kill blasphemers, Mufti Tariq Masood once among them, helped build the culture now threatening him, and must teach mercy for everyone.
machine5 min 05 s9:46on YouTube
22 Feb 2023video
LatestShould Sunnis preach to Shia Muslims about what they get wrong?
Mufti Abu Layth says no: it only leads to sectarian fighting. Answer people who come asking, but Sunni-Shia debating does no good.
machine2 min 34 s36:24on YouTube
13 Feb 2023video
Apophatic definition: the early main body defined by what it was not
Early Muslims had no creed checklist: you belonged to the main body as long as you did not hold the positions of the known sects.
machine5 min 03 s5:46on YouTube
16 Dec 2022video
Is someone who prays but commits major sins better than someone who doesn't pray?
Mufti Abu Layth says it is categorically wrong that someone who prays, however evil, is better than someone who does not, and calls the idea dangerous.
machine7 min 08 s0:00on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
Does Islam allow attacking Salman Rushdie?
No: he condemns the attack on Salman Rushdie as cowardly and contrary to Islam, saying ideas must be answered with speech and that the attack only demonised Islam and revived Rushdie's fame.
machine5 min 16 s0:01on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
What does the Mufti think of Salman Rushdie as a person?
Mufti Abu Layth says he personally finds Rushdie's personality abhorrent and senses a strong negativity from him, and that he researched him in order to be fair.
machine4 min 01 s5:17on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
LatestWhat was Salman Rushdie's family background?
Mufti Abu Layth describes Rushdie's privileged Muslim family in Bombay, a father who took the name Rushdie from Ibn Rushd, and an English boarding-school education shaped by admiration for the British ruling class.
machine6 min 32 s9:18on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
LatestWhat made Salman Rushdie so hostile to Islam?
Mufti Abu Layth suggests that Rushdie's hostility to Islam is rooted in an unresolved resentment of his father, who embraced his Muslim identity and moved to Pakistan.
machine9 min 13 s15:50on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
LatestIdentity, Midnight's Children, the fatwa and the years in hiding
Mufti Abu Layth says Rushdie's lack of a secure identity runs through his books, and recounts Midnight's Children, Khomeini's fatwa and the years in hiding before turning to The Satanic Verses.
machine2 min 38 s25:03on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
Is there a difference between criticising Islam and insulting it?
Yes: he says everyone may criticise a religion they do not believe in, even if it offends, but that this is not a right to insult, and no society allows speech without limits.
machine5 min 16 s27:41on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
What is The Satanic Verses actually about?
Mufti Abu Layth summarises the novel's plot, including the Mahound episode and the brothel whose women bear the names of the Prophet's wives, and says this part, though short, shows the book's hostility to Islam.
machine9 min 11 s32:57on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
Is The Satanic Verses a critique of Islam or an insult?
Mufti Abu Layth says the novel is an insult rather than a critique, since it makes no argument and only portrays the Prophet and his wives offensively.
machine2 min 40 s42:08on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
Why did Salman Rushdie write The Satanic Verses?
In his personal opinion, Rushdie wrote the novel chiefly as defiance of his father, did not expect the backlash, and has since been abandoned even by the left he championed.
machine7 min 56 s44:48on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
LatestShould all religions be free to compete without state backing?
Mufti Abu Layth agrees religion should not be forced on anyone and that people may criticise it freely, but says criticism with an objective is different from insults meant only to hurt.
machine1 min 19 s55:22on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
LatestWhat does holding on to bitterness do to a person?
After jokes about Rushdie's marriages, he says bitterness consumes the person who carries it and hurts those around them, and prays for such hearts to be healed.
machine3 min 56 s56:41on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
LatestWhich scholars accepted the satanic verses story and which rejected it?
Mufti Abu Layth says al-Albani and Ibn Khuzayma rejected the story as a fabrication, while Ibn Taymiyya, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Ibn Hajar leaned towards giving it some basis.
machine7 min 50 s1:34:20on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
What does the Mufti think of Ibn Taymiyya and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab?
Mufti Abu Layth says Ibn Taymiyya's contribution is mainly to the Salafis and that Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab's misplaced zeal did great harm, while stressing that all scholars are human and make mistakes.
machine5 min 14 s1:42:10on YouTube
19 Aug 2022video
Recap: the novel, insult versus critique, and the false story summarised
Mufti Abu Layth recaps that Rushdie's novel was an insult rather than a critique and that the satanic verses story is a fabrication rejected by al-Tabari, Ibn Khuzayma and Qadi Iyad, recommending al-Shifa and al-Albani's book.
machine6 min 09 s1:52:45on YouTube
29 Nov 2021video
LatestIs it wrong to joke about people who are seriously ill with covid?
Do not make fun of people who are ill with covid: it is a roll of the dice, as a neighbour's sudden death showed, and it should make us grateful.
machine5 min 17 s0:14on YouTube
18 May 2021video
LatestStatement on the break-in at Mufti Abu Layth's home
Mufti Abu Layth describes masked men breaking into his home and terrifying his family, and asks whether this is the character Islam teaches.
machine1 min 21 s0:08on YouTube
18 May 2021video
Response to accusations over Palestine remarks and claims he is not Muslim
Mufti Abu Layth says he has always supported Palestine and only argued for safe passage for its people, that 'exile' was a slip of the tongue, and that those calling him a non-Muslim and invading his home are not following Islam.
machine7 min 38 s1:29on YouTube
17 May 2021video
LatestAre Bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf to blame for the UAE's deal with Israel?
No, in Mufti Abu Layth's view: the UAE's ruler does not take direction from scholars, Bin Bayyah is said to have disliked the treaty while deferring to the ruler's decision, and Hamza Yusuf had nothing to do with it. He opens with condolences for the losses in Gaza.
machine3 min 58 s1:22on YouTube
17 May 2021video
Has the UAE's recognition of Israel brought any peace?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says two weeks of bombardment followed the deal, so it is not a solution. He calls Israel a terrorist state at the state level, with war crimes documented by the UN and academics such as Chomsky and Finkelstein, and stresses this is not antisemitism.
machine3 min 57 s4:00on YouTube
17 May 2021video
What does Mufti Abu Layth think should happen to the Palestinians in Gaza?
Since Israel is here to stay and a two-state solution will not happen, Mufti Abu Layth proposes relocating the Palestinians of Gaza and the blockaded areas across the Arab world with compensation, housing and education, spread out rather than in ghettos. He says Muslims guilt-trip Palestinians into staying and Arab states value them as a buffer zone.
machine5 min 17 s7:57on YouTube
17 May 2021video
Is Jerusalem really a holy city in Islam?
In Mufti Abu Layth's view Jerusalem was never that sacred in Islam: its glorification began with Abd al-Malik's Dome of the Rock as a rival to Makkah, and he holds that al-Aqsa, 'the farthest' mosque, was in the heavens. Even if holy, it is bricks and mortar, and life comes before buildings.
machine2 min 37 s13:14on YouTube
17 May 2021video
Should Palestinians stay and defend the holy land at the cost of their lives?
No, in Mufti Abu Layth's view: life comes before place, a Muslim's honour outweighs the Kaaba rebuilt seven times, and the whole earth is a place of prayer. He says the war is lost and that those who insist Palestinians stay would stop caring about them once they were safe elsewhere.
machine2 min 39 s15:51on YouTube
17 May 2021video
Why does Mufti Abu Layth compare the Palestinian situation to facing a knife?
His escrima teacher's rule was to run from a knife and fight only when running is impossible, and he applies it to an enemy that will not back down. He repeats that the UAE deal has brought nothing and that Bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf should not be blamed for it.
machine3 min 57 s18:30on YouTube
17 May 2021video
LatestWhat does Mufti Abu Layth think the solution for Kashmir is?
Independence for at least part of Kashmir, such as the valley, from both India and Pakistan, with buffers so Pakistan is not exposed, though he does not expect it to happen. Kashmir differs from Gaza in being a militarised zone rather than a bombarded prison, and India would not pay to relocate anyone.
machine2 min 41 s22:27on YouTube
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