# People are cruel: complaints used to try to stop a retreat he spoke at

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/hv-blbvtr4m/s/25/
- Date: 2021-01-19 · Kind: other · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #198 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (1:44:04–1:49:09)
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv-BlBVTr4M&t=6244s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/hv-blbvtr4m/

**Topics:** The Mufti and the channel; Personal stories and reflections

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth recounts how a self-styled journalist tried to get a 2016 retreat he spoke at cancelled by complaining to the venue and the police.

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says people are cruel: he has seen one hating imam get followers to spam a person's employer with complaints until the institution sacks them, which is one reason he keeps his independence through businesses. He recounts that in 2016, after his time in prison, he was invited to a weekend retreat with nasheed performers and activities, and that a week before, the organiser told him someone claiming to be a journalist, a Muslim, had contacted the venue claiming he had a criminal record, and then the local police calling him a threat to the public. The police looked into it, found no threat, and the event went ahead. He says this is why he loves his freedom, and, when a chat asks whether he is a hitman, jokes that it is one of his part-time jobs, alongside being a movie critic.

## Transcript (machine tier, 1:44:04–1:49:09)

[1:43:26] say I can say whatever is on my mind as an opinion and you know something people who don't like it can't do a single damn thing about it they can't do anything like I'm not affiliated to any Institute like what are you going to do like what can you possibly do you know whereas if I was doing something something in a particular Institute they would people are cruel I'm telling you people are cruel um even you see this is another thing this is why I'm kind of invested

[1:44:04] in businesses and stuff and other things if if I try to have a career can you imagine people would try to compromise my career with this is I mean alhamdulillah I I don't but I'm just saying this is how cruel people are I've seen things where people will say something online and they work for a hospital and and people will start spamming you know you'll get a 100 people send a complaint which isn't that much it just takes one hating Imam to tell his following that can you get all your brothers and sisters and everyone tells 20 people to

[1:44:40] send a uh a complaint to this company saying this person is out of character and doing this and blah blah blah and companies just say well you know institutions say well you're bringing disrepute and we got to sack you and so you you people have your goes they have your precious jewels in a vice so no no no no no these Jewels rather precious I like to keep them out of any Vice please so yeah so I hope that uh I'm getting

[1:45:18] carried away in some of answering some of these questions but ah somebody said that's why I like animals freedom of speech yeah man it's you know what I I you really enjoy it I tell you you know you think I'm joking years back this was what 2016 2016 but it was after my prison thing yeah I went to a retreat I was invited check this out these people ask me please can you come to a retreat you know it's the youth and

[1:45:56] this stuff and you know this this it's just AED it wasn't a strictly aimed at youth it was aimed at anyone it was more like about fun stuff there was uh khid sadik was going to be there performing you know his his his nasheeds his songs and and other people it was a fun kind of it was a fun thing there was activities and they asked me would you come stay the weekend so I agreed now can you believe that this is going about 5 years ago before the event something like a week before uh the organizer contacted me and said look everything cool yeah yeah cool and he just touched base and he said

[1:46:35] look I just want to update you that this is what's happened but you know we still want you and you're still coming uh but that was just this person going out on on a limb he said do you know there's been certain we we don't know who certain people who have been contacting they contacted the venue saying that you have a criminal record they contacted uh the venue didn't really budge like didn't really care they said you know it's not our thing it's you got to deal with the then they contacted somehow the the police in that area now the police didn't understand what the concern was because

[1:47:13] they said like you know so they just said like oh we think this is a threat and it's a threat to the public and it's a threat to so now it becomes a duty for the police to investigate and so they contacted several the police then had to contact the organizers and say what's going on what's this threat what's this thing and they then said look there's nothing there's no threat blah blah blah blah blah and and it was fine the police just said well okay that's not really a threat but still uh now and that that event went ahead and I went there and I mean to be fair to me it was just a regul it wasn't something big but this is the kind of extent to which

[1:47:53] people go and when when the venue tried to find out who where were these complaints coming from they said it was some person who claims to be a kind of a journalist and he was um you know he was and and he this is why it was threatening as well because he was saying I'm going to get this reported now that you guys are being negligent you're not investigating and and um but he but he was a Muslim the person was a Muslim by the way and so yeah so this is the this is why you love your freedoms man you're like do whatever the hell you

[1:48:32] want man so yeah was muy a Hitman that's my part-time job I'm an assassin in the other part-time job I'm a movie critic so all right so what's going down man what's going down people let's take a look uh at some of the uh at some of the questions right we had some questions from oh right so people laughing and joking too much and becoming excessive in that is an indication

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment Hv-BlBVTr4M/s/25. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/hv-blbvtr4m/s/25/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.