# What is the Pagan-gate row about Omar Suleiman? *Pagan-gate explained: a libation at a border protest, which Mufti Abu Layth calls a power game* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/jtyem-eee78/s/25/ - Date: 2020-09-22 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #183 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (2:27:01–2:33:51) - Status: general teaching - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTYEM-eEe78&t=8821s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/jtyem-eee78/ **Topics:** Views on contemporary scholars; Tawhid and shirk **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth sees Pagan-gate as a power game: imams may seek status, but wrapping it in high religiosity is what invites attacks like this. ## Longer summary Mufti Abu Layth explains that Daniel Haqiqatjou has accused Omar Suleiman of taking part in pagan rituals at a protest for asylum seekers at the US border, led by priestesses and ending in a libation, the pouring of a liquid as an offering, with an earlier anointing, and that Haqiqatjou says the protest itinerary shows it was planned. Mufti calls the whole affair a house of cards and says that, while he likes Omar Suleiman's social justice work, it is ultimately a power game in which Omar Suleiman is no different from others. He says everyone has motivations, such as money, status or power, and he cannot fault imams for wanting power. His problem, he says, is when they wrap this in high religiosity, as he feels Omar Suleiman does, since that invites this kind of opposition. ## Sources and names cited - Omar Suleiman - Daniel Haqiqatjou - 'Pagan-gate': the row over Omar Suleiman and a libation ritual at a border protest (2020) ## Transcript (machine tier, 2:27:01–2:33:51) [2:26:23] he's a faster if he allowed people to drink alcohol smoke we'd stab each other kill each other rape each other and not do anything and stand by and watch he'd allowed [ __ ] to take place and then he participated in a shitty ritual and then he says what it's a lapse and you're telling me he's not a facet your life this and fujor is this he doesn't go below that so to have a man like well it's problematic so that what you saw there was a um an interview between a tag teaming effort between sorry that's we're gonna come to that in just a moment [2:27:01] uh a tag team effort between dawah man and danny boy so what is this all about people well you've gathered it there you've understood this is about omar suleiman so here he is at a protest this whole fiasco that you're seeing ladies and gentlemen is what we can term pagan gate okay so why because what's happening is omar suleiman has been accused [2:27:38] by danny y to that he has participated in pagan rituals how can he be an imam so this is the whole thing and let's take a look at some of the things that have been highlighted now danny boy has been going at omar suleiman for quite a while now and recently i think he's actually starting to get through to him because um started reacting and we're going to see here [2:28:16] that let's take a look at some of the pictures of the event you've got here um this will be uh highlighted his whole this was one of the things there was something about an annoyment anointment that we can see right here right there is some of the that's the care director who said i don't know who he is but hussein who is being anointed uh he will speak of something called the libation what is the libation it is a ritual of pouring a liquid such as wine [2:28:55] milk water etc that in as an offering to a deity or a spirit and what danny boy will highlight is this itinerary that um knew exactly according to the itinerary of the protest what was to happen and where it was to take place so pause that let's zoom out what's happened there's been beef going on people masala segment between omar suleiman [2:29:33] between daniel hakatu it's been going on for a while it's been simmering boiling up and now danny boy has finally got some some masala to put out there and it's to do with a protest that um solemn went to in this protest it was led by a lot of um it seemed to be a very religious uh undertone to the whole protest it was led by gay priestesses and there was a lot of ritualization right through it and it's the whole thing culminates it ends with this ritual of the libation pouring this water as some kind of [2:30:11] sacred ritual for the i think it's the mexicans or the people across the border that are asylum seekers and being denied safe refuge what is all of this what is going on people we need to take a look at it let's break it down all right so what we have in essence this is no sure this is nothing less than house of cards honestly i'm just being real yeah that people can say what they like but [2:30:49] everybody's playing the game now some people are playing it better than others true unquestionably but they are all playing the game you've got um two i feel that he you know to me um i like a lot of the stuff he does i love the social justice work and stuff like this but i'm just going to be real with you yeah the truth is this is ultimately a power game yeah i and look suleiman is no different [2:31:29] to your other people playing for power i know people may not um i don't know because he's very you know but he he's he plays it well so i i like and i think there's nothing wrong in a person wanting having motivations i have motivations you have motivations every person has some people are driven by money by wealth by status by power by women by you know by other things whatever drives whatever floats your boat these imams are no different and i i can't fault them for necessarily just wanting power [2:32:07] or wanting status or wanting money or wanting things like this my only problem is when they super glass this whole thing in high religiosity see that is a problem and yeah and i feel that is an issue with umar suleiman as well see he does these things but then he and to me i'm not going to just fault him for these things because i know why he's doing it he's doing it for the the cloud that he's after and fair play i mean he you know he has kind of rubbed shoulders with the [2:32:46] president of america he's he's been with high dignitaries he has become you know such a highly rated imam within the united states so it's natural for him to do several things for pr to get up there to fight on the side of uh of people being persecuted to do certain things it serves a pr image and i'm not gonna personally knock him for that but what i will point out is when he too does all this islamic talk of why it's all you know [2:33:23] sake of allah and all this kind of stuff then this one not nice because the problem you see when you do all of that right then you're going to give rise to these forms of opposition that okay i am and i want to say something i want to go to a clip of ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment jTYEM-eEe78/s/25. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/jtyem-eee78/s/25/ Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.