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"What I Saw in Bosnia." 30 Years After the Genocide | Lecture by Dr. Omar Suleiman
The Bosnian genocide is a testament to the resilience of Islam—and a reminder that Gaza will overcome too. Listen to Dr. Omar Suleiman as visits Bosnia and reflects on the stories of survivors and the atrocities of Srebrenica 30 years later, where bones are still being recovered, and speak on what lessons can be learned from witnessing yet another atrocity targeted toward Muslims.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
As-salaamu alaykum.
As-salaamu alaykum.
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'Alameen. Was-salatu was-salamu 'ala Rasulina al-Kareem wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een. Dear brothers and sisters, I am standing amongst the shuhada of Bosnia. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala have mercy on them. May Allah accept their shahada.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala elevate their rank. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gather them with all of the shuhada of all times and all places, including the shuhada of Gaza and Sayyid al-shuhada Hamza (رضي الله تعالى عنه) and the best of companions that proceeded.
Allahumma ameen. There's so much to say. People are here in Bosnia for the 30-year anniversary of Srebrenica. I'm not here for an anniversary. I'm actually here with the intention of salatul janaza. And that sounds crazy to some people.
But people have forgotten that the bones are still being found. The bodies are still being collected. And of the tens of thousands of shuhada, we will be burying seven tomorrow,
bi'idhnillahi ta'ala, or today, depending on when you are witnessing this. And SubhanAllah, to think about the fact that this genocide is so fresh, it hit me the first time I came here,
and this will be my first time participating in salatul janaza in particular here. But some of the same people that we saw on TV crying and screaming and wondering when the world was going to come to its aid,
some of those same people are perhaps the people that we're burying tomorrow. We just don't know. This entire genocide was shrouded by denial,
was shrouded by all sorts of layers of darkness, because the victims were Muslim. And this is an example of "ataqtuluna rajulan an yaqula rabbiyallah"
Do you kill someone only because he says his Lord is Allah? These people are Europeans. They look and speak and dress and identify, other than their faith, in very similar ways to everyone around them.
But because they were Muslim, they were killed. And they are shuhada' bi'idhnillahi ta'ala, who are now enjoying their place in Jannah, after a very difficult genocide,
and the concentration camps and the torture that they sustained here. I do want to offer some advice for the situation in Gaza, based upon where we are. But SubhanAllah, there are snippets from every single survivor
that you meet, and I'll use the word survivor in quotes, about what it's been like since. While the people around me are in their graves, and bi'idhnillahi ta'ala, enjoying their reward with their Lord,
there are those who aren't represented in the casualty counts, but who have stories that have robbed them of real life, as far as they are in this dunya. The amount of women that you sit and you talk to from the widows,
who begged to die instead of being raped, and SubhanAllah, instead they were spared. They watched every single male member of their family, slaughtered in front of them,
and their innocence and their lives were stolen from them, through these horrific crimes that were perpetrated on them. Yet here they are still three decades later, and telling the story over and over again,
and there is a blankness in their eyes, a death in their eyes. That while they're here, they only see themselves as vehicles, by which they tell the stories of what happened to them,
and they say, we do this so that it never happens again. SubhanAllah, one sister, she mentioned that they set her house on fire.
And as she watched every single member of her family hacked to death, the women and the children were locked into the house, and it was set on fire. And she said that they chose to break out of the house,
out of the window, because death by bullets would be easier than death by fire. SubhanAllah, can you imagine the calculation in their minds? They knew that if they came out, they'd be shot up.
But death by bullets was easier than death by fire. There's no punishment too severe, for those people that wreaked these crimes on our people here in Bosnia,
and there's no punishment too severe, for those that continue to wreak these crimes, on our brothers and sisters in Palestine, and all over. Dear brothers and sisters, as we see what is unfolding in Gaza, I wanted to reflect on a few things.
Number one, it may be that these shuhada that are around me, are amongst those that received the shuhada of Gaza, because the Prophet (ﷺ), mentioned to us that the shuhada get to know one another.
So the shuhada of every generation receive one another. In Palestine, you grew up with the mention of Bosnia, watching what was happening in Bosnia. Many of those shuhada of Gaza,
watched the scenes of those who were killed in Bosnia, with tears in their eyes. And perhaps now they found one another, in the realm of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's divine favor. And so that's the first thing,
don't say about these people that they're dead. Allah, you look at them and this is an audience. These people are just as alive as every single one of you, and perhaps even more alive,
and their lives more expansive than the people that came before. The next thing that I'll mention, dear brothers and sisters, is that we can't always arrive late to the scene.
And the words never again have to mean something. Bosnia was a test of never again. Gaza is a test of, did we really mean it? And many of the mothers here in Bosnia,
when they see me and when they see people from Palestine, they say that, look, we never thought that if our crimes were broadcast to the world, that the world would be silent. But we're watching now what's happening in Gaza,
we're watching now what's happening in Gaza, and we're watching the very same crimes that happened to us, happen to them. And the fact that the world is not moving tells us that it doesn't matter how much exposure there would have been to the crimes that were perpetrated against us.
We still would have been killed in the same brutal ways because the evil of these people knows no bounds. They feel sympathy. And they say that a question has been answered for them. One woman actually said Gaza was closer for me in a way
because I used to think that if only people saw more of us, then they would have never let this happen. But she says, I saw that humanity has truly failed and only Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is worth pleading to.
Bosnia was the test of never again. Gaza is the test of, did we mean it? You can't arrive late to the scene and say, Inna kunna ma'akum, we were with you.
You have to arrive early to these things and do everything you can. Pray, spread awareness, use whatever Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given you a position of quality to fight your fight for them. And don't be the first to leave either.
Unfortunately, Bosnia is a story of late arrivals and early departures. The elements of the genocide are still present in the air and we can't take our eyes off of these people because I think there is a prevailing sentiment that it's only a matter of time.
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, the same people that committed these horrific crimes, many of them went right back into living in the homes next door. And you think about that, overnight people that you went to school with, people that you were neighbors with for decades,
walk into your home, hack you to death, commit sexual crimes against your family. And then suddenly they go right back home and you still have to see them every single day and you can't do anything about it.
The elements of genocide are still very much so prevalent in the air. Like I said, they're still finding bones. There are still bullet holes in the buildings.
The same hate that existed that led to it in the first place is still here. Can't take our eyes off of a place like Bosnia. So stay connected. Don't be late to arrive. Don't be first to depart.
Try to encompass all of these causes because they are united. The other thing when I say about education, many of you may have seen this flower. This is the flower of Srebrenica.
What it actually represents, and this is handmade by the mothers of Srebrenica, the widows of Srebrenica. The white here represents the women wearing their white
at the janazas of their children. The green in the middle represents the casket. If you see what they bury their loved ones in, they bury them in a green cloth. And so these represent the mothers
and the green in the middle represents the casualty. In many ways right now, the green is Gaza and the white is all of us surrounding the deceased, making du'a for them
and holding in our arms and in our hearts the victims and saying that we will do everything to be with you until you are free bi'idhnillahi ta'ala. And so learn about Bosnia, connect to Gaza
and make sure that you are focused. Focused on the type of world that you live in. The last thing that I'll mention here insha'Allah ta'ala is that as much as Bosnia is a story of the genocide of Muslims,
it's also the story of the survival of Islam. The enemies wished that people would never say Allahu Akbar in this land again, but we hear the adhan in a masjid right next door.
The enemies wished that they would destroy every single masjid. They're still here. The enemies wish that they would break Islam out of the people. And for many, it actually brought them back to Islam. The enemies wish that the people would never identify as Muslim again
out of fear that they would find themselves in the same situation. But even the least practicing person, SubhanAllah, seems to say proudly that we are Muslims. They still connect to their Islam.
They haven't stolen the Islam of the people. It's not perfect. There's a lot to do and the trauma is intergenerational and it has affected some people adversely in their faith as well. That's the reality.
But they failed to remove Islam from this land. Walhamdulillahi rabbil 'alameen. They will fail in Gaza. They will fail in Palestine. And we have to draw from the spiritual resilience of the people.
Some of these shuhada that are here were generals. Some of them joined the war at 15, 16 years old and fought bravely.
They were people who defended their lives and sought their afterlives with such sincerity. And we have to honor that legacy by continuing to fight for what they fought for
and by continuing to struggle for what they struggled for. It's very hard to find the words here. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala bless our brothers and sisters all around the world that are under oppression. May Allah have mercy on the shuhada.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala allow for the full restoration of the rights of the people of Bosnia and the full glorification of Islam in these lands once again. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala liberate Gaza and liberate Palestine
and allow them to also have their full freedom and their full liberation. Allahumma ameen. JazakumAllahu khayran. Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
