Recordings › On the David Wood and Muhammad Hijab Debate: Reflections & Review -Mufti Abu Layth · 24 Dec 2018 › Segment 8 of 9
Was Hijab right to show David Wood no respect in the debate?
takbeer takbirat takbeerat allahu akbar muftis jahannam jahanam jahannum hijaab hejab hijabiDebate demeanour: Hijab's aggression, Wood's composure, and a dilemma over showing no respect
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This segment21:22 to 27:53 · 6 min 31 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenHijab's aggressive, loud and condescending manner, which he justified by Wood's record of bigotry, was used by non-Muslim commenters as ammunition and made Muslims look rowdy, while Wood stayed composed. Mufti Abu Layth sees it as damned if you do, damned if you don't.
In more detail
On conduct, Mufti Abu Layth notes that Hijab announced he would show David Wood no respect during the debate, which left Mufti in a dilemma. On one hand Hijab justified it by saying Wood has been a bigot and an Islamophobe who has caused hatred of Muslims, and if that is true one can understand a zero-tolerance attitude; so Hijab's demeanour was undeniably aggressive, condescending and loud, with constant demands to answer and not to ask, perhaps partly a habit from debating at Speakers' Corner. Wood, by contrast, was reasonable in his behaviour throughout, with only a few sneers and digs at Islam, and did not become equally aggressive. Mufti says that although Hijab unquestionably dismantled Wood, and the attitude amplified that so that Wood must have felt terrible, it also made Muslims look like the stereotype of the shouting, disrespectful mawlawi in a well-known meme, and that almost all the non-Muslim comments online used this to detract from the win and to ask why he did not turn the other cheek and kill with kindness. He describes it as damned if you do and damned if you don't: he can see Hijab wanting to teach Wood a lesson after years of mocking Muslims, and notes that Hijab's size and presence close to Wood added to the effect, but overall the manner was clearly used as ammunition, and the Muslim crowd's takbirs did not help, since they showed Muslims as rowdy. He repeats that the debate is nonetheless monumental and worth watching.
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Kind: general teachingTranscript
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to reason all the way or you don't and so I think that's a overall coming moving on to the way they conducted it I do think that it's unbeatable I mean it's actually very clear Muhammad hijab himself says that look I'm during this debate I'm not going to show any respect to dr. David Ward or whatever David would that's an interesting you see I don't I don't know I was in a bit of a dilemma about this because on one hand I could see that because he justifies he Muhammad he chapters and he says look
this guy has been a better watch my language now he's just mean it's just it's just been an idiot and he's been a bigot towards Muslims he's an Islamophobe he he has caused a lot of hatred against Muslims he's caused attacks on I mean I don't know but presumably that's true and if that be true you can understand on one hand where Muhammad hijab was coming from in the sense that he's thinking well you know you've kind of done us over for so long I'm gonna have a zero-tolerance attitude to you
but and so hence he has a very some Hamid hijab is very kind of aggressive he hasn't aggressive I mean you're not aggressive as in like but it is the demeanor is aggressive I mean you can't deny that it is aggressive like it's a lot of answer me tell me you know show me this today you can won't be you know it's a very kind of condescending and loud it's very loud I mean I'm sure part of that may be because Mohammed hijabs obviously used to generally with his debates like he does like in speaker's corner in Hyde Park whatever they do probably shout and stuff like that but
that may be part of it it may be part of the fact that he like he said look I mean gonna show you respect because you've always been putting us down so you know to hell with you but David Wood is kind of very reasonable from his behavior all the way through he doesn't kind of get rude generally speaking he does one too little kind of sneers and digs in between where he kind of tries to crack a few jokes about Islam but generally he's kind of he doesn't he doesn't get equally aggressive like he doesn't kind of say well you know I don't know if he usually does once again I haven't watched too
many of these things but in that debate so the question was that was the justification of Muhammad each herb on the other hand it did make Muslims look kind of like the usual you know like that you know you get that mean with the you know there's that guy who says 1920 and the guys like and then you've got like then it moves on and then it says like 1955 and then working on a TV and on this side you got that the maulavi kind of a going up and then it says like 2018 and now they've got all the technology and the movies still like you must have seen that mean it's quite
funny but it did on the other hand it did show that it did prove that see that Muslims are like they're very easy they just aggressive they're just disrespectful they kind of shout they they like to kind of stamp the authority they it did give that but I don't you see I'm when I watched he I watched the whole thing and I thought about it and I was in a bit of a dilemma because I was thinking well I think Mohammed hijab on that one was in a situation damned if you do damned if you don't because I think the fact that he did he did it to teach him a lesson
because unquestionably he destroys and David would and with that attitude it just amplifies it because you'll constantly kind of shouting down and saying well go on then answer this answer this don't you do you know like you know like shut up don't bring I'm not sure if he says shut up I said don't bring me you know ask me don't tell me you know constantly now that magnifies your impact so on one hand you really he's put in his place and undoubtedly he was so I can imagine he must have felt like terrible that
might have added to why he was kind of shaky so I could see that on the other hand you see that in a lot of the comments online on a lot of the things on YouTube when I saw it oh most almost all of the non-muslims use that point to kind of then detract from the whinny to say well you know typical you know shouting Muslims you know just nothing better to do just stamp the authority you know be disrespectful be rude why not kind of show it back you know if he's being rude why not kind of turn the other cheek and kill him with kindness so to speak
well doctor I mean I see it's it's a tricky one because I watched it and I have to say on some parts he is very kind of like and then I suppose he's obviously he's a very big person as well I mean so it must be almost by 7 foot or something right so you can imagine obviously in his present so he's just sitting not so far away from him and then he shouting and you must have that impact so I can see that this on the other hand I can see him saying that look you've been taking the mick out of Muslims for so long today I'm going to teach you a lesson that I'm gonna you
know put the nails on the coffin that next time you see in front of Muslims I don't know how he should have behaved on that but I do think that from the overall view it was used as ammunition clearly so I could see that point but because he went all the way through it made Muslims it did give that thing and then the other thing was in the crowd Muslims you know they started the whole takbir you know luckily nobody went this is the Muslim side that's a joke but I
think that that didn't help really because it showed this whole thing of like kind of just you know Muslims kind of being rowdy and stuff like that so that was some of my thoughts about the o'clock characteristics but I definitely do feel that this is in many ways a monumental kind of discussion I do think if you have a watch do some when you get time do watch it it will definitely go down I think that David Wood will forever be embarrassed now what was funny was in the YouTube comments I read their YouTube comments so many of them not the whole thing that so many but what was shocking is that the the kind of supporters of David Wood were still
Paragraphs overlapping 21:22 to 27:53. Full text on the recording page.
Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2018-12-24b-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/gyrfzzzca8g/s/8/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2018, December 24). Was Hijab right to show David Wood no respect in the debate? [Video, segment 2018-12-24b-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/gyrfzzzca8g/s/8/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2018. "Was Hijab right to show David Wood no respect in the debate?" Video, segment 2018-12-24b-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded December 24, 2018. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/gyrfzzzca8g/s/8/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2018-12-24b-S08, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Was Hijab right to show David Wood no respect in the debate?}}, year = {2018}, month = {12}, date = {2018-12-24}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/gyrfzzzca8g/s/8/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/gyrfzzzca8g/s/8/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2018-12-24b-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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