MEMRI does indispensable work, but on this one its headline is in error. Jawad Rasul is not saying that Muslims need to start making hijrah, that is, emigrating, to Muslim lands. He is just talking about leaving WhatsApp, because he imagines that it is supplying information to the IDF. Calling upon Muslims to leave the U.S. would be an odd thing for him to do, as many Muslims are here to conquer and Islamize the place, and that endeavor has not been and cannot be called off. The Qur’an promises a reward to those who undertake it: “Whoever emigrates for the sake of Allah will find much refuge and abundance in the earth, and whoever forsakes his home, a refugee for Allah and his messenger, and death overtakes him, his reward is then obligatory upon Allah. Allah is always forgiving, merciful.” (Qur’an 4:100)
As for the claim about WhatsApp and the IDF, it’s fanciful, but in the Qur’an, the Jews are frequently depicted as scheming against the Muslims. The Jews in the Qur’an are called the strongest of all people in enmity toward the Muslims (5:82); they fabricate things and falsely ascribe them to Allah (2:79; 3:75, 3:181); they claim that Allah’s power is limited (5:64); they love to listen to lies (5:41); they disobey Allah and never observe his commands (5:13). They are disputing and quarreling (2:247); hiding the truth and misleading people (3:78); staging rebellion against the prophets and rejecting their guidance (2:55); being hypocritical (2:14, 2:44); giving preference to their own interests over the teachings of Muhammad (2:87); wishing evil for people and trying to mislead them (2:109); feeling pain when others are happy or fortunate (3:120); being arrogant about their being Allah’s beloved people (5:18); devouring people’s wealth by subterfuge (4:161); slandering the true religion and being cursed by Allah (4:46); killing the prophets (2:61); being merciless and heartless (2:74); never keeping their promises or fulfilling their words (2:100); being unrestrained in committing sins (5:79); being cowardly (59:13-14); being miserly (4:53); being transformed into apes and pigs for breaking the Sabbath (2:63-65; 5:59-60; 7:166); and more. They are under Allah’s curse (9:30), and Muslims should wage war against them and subjugate them under Islamic hegemony (9:29).
“In Brushy Creek, Texas Friday Sermon, Imam Jawad Rasul: Muslims Should Stop Using WhatsApp Messenger, It Passes Data To The Israeli Defense Force; I Consulted Many Muslim Scholars And Leaders And They Agree; We Need To Start Making Hijrah To Muslim Lands,” MEMRI, June 21, 2024:
In his June 21, 2024 Friday sermon at the Islamic Center of Brushy Creek, Texas, Imam Jawad Rasul called on Muslims to stop using Whatsapp messenger, because it supposedly supplies information on users to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). He claimed that an IDF artificial intelligence tool called Lavender identifies participants in whatsapp groups with known terrorists as targets for drone strikes. He suggested that Muslims start using alternative messaging apps that are not controlled by Meta. The sermon was streamed live on the mosque’s YouTube channel.
Jawad Rasul: “There is an artificial intelligence tool that has been developed by the IDF called Lavender. IDF is the Israeli army, and this tool is called Lavender. And Lavender is a military tool. And what does this tool do? It identifies targets that should be struck by bombs through drones and should be killed wherever they are. And we’ve all seen videos of people walking, ambulances being bombed, you know, just ruthless killing once the tool identifies that this person is a target. And this tool, of course, is feeding on our data, right?
“So, one of the apps which is feeding this tool is actually WhatsApp. And the way that it’s doing it is that they have told this tool that ‘Look, if you look at all of the data that’s coming to us from WhatsApp, and if you see that there is a known terrorist that we have already identified… if this known terrorist is in a group on WhatsApp, and that group has 40 people, all those 39 other people are also targets because they are potential terrorists because they are in a group with this guy.’ So then, this tool starts to put out targets which is then taken by the other branches and they say: ‘Okay, we need to target this guy, we need to target this guy, we need to target this guy…’
“So, think about what that means. You know, how many of us…we are in groups with people whom we have no idea. Right, 1,000 people, 2,000 people, in groups that we are in. Some guy lives on the other side of the world, but we are in the same group with them. So there is a problem of how they’re using it, there’s also a problem of: Why is WhatsApp giving them this data, when it promises us that ‘we are giving you end-to-end encryption and privacy?’
“So, one of the things that I have spoken to many Muslim leaders and scholars in our area, outside of our area, and everybody feels that there is no good reason for the Muslims to be continuing to use WhatsApp. So, I want everyone to think about other apps, other alternatives. There is Signal. There is Telegram. There are other Messengers out there, which are not owned by the same platform, Meta. And I want us to start sending messages to our friends and family and tell them: ‘Hey, I made a new group on this app, join me over there.’ And eventually, we want to, we should be thinking about leaving this platform. We don’t necessarily have to delete it today. But we need to start making the hijra. We need to start making the hijra.”
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Does this imam think encryption is bida?