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Asalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Thank you very much for inviting me to speak today on the topic of social justice. Social justice is the idea that everyone should have equal access to opportunities, resources, and privileges in society. This requires fairness and non-discrimination, equal access to opportunity, respect for human rights, which includes the right to life, freedom from torture, freedom of expression, and the right to work and education, and equality in legal rights, and access to redressal where they are violated. This must be available to every single person, irrespective of caste, creed, culture, race, or gender, or any other division. To live means to choose knowing full well that the freedom to choose doesn’t free us from the consequences of the choice. To choose the side we want to stand on, the side we want to support and uphold, understanding that there may be a price to pay for speaking out against injustice, but the cost of silence is higher. I recall the famous words of Pastor Martin Naimolla who said, Injustice to one is injustice to all. That is Islam, and that is why Islam orders us to stand against injustice. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala ordered us to stand against injustice no matter who commits it, and defend the victim of injustice no matter who that might be. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala commanded us, and he said, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said which means, O believers, stand firm for justice as witnesses for Allah. Even if it is against yourselves, your parents or close relatives, be they rich or poor, Allah is best to ensure their interests. So do not let your desires cause you to deviate from justice. If you distort your testimony or refuse to give it, then know that Allah is certainly all aware of what you do. I quote also one of the greatest fighters for justice who prayed for it with his life, Martin Luther King Jr. He said, There comes a time when silence is betrayal. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. He also said, Society asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but one must take it because it is right. I say to you, O people of conscience, everywhere, the time has come to speak out against all hatred. Hatred is fire and the result is always ash. Speak out against all forms of racism and extremism. Speak out against Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, all forms of racism, all forms of extremism. Speak out against all ideology which tell you that land and power and oil and energy, that anything is more valuable than human life. Speak out against all ideologies that seek to differentiate the value of human life based on color and religion and race or nationality of the human being. I say to you that every human being is exactly as valuable as every other human being. And anyone who seeks to devalue one human being has devalued us all. That injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. That is what we must all pledge to fight. Because when we are called upon before the one from whom nothing is hidden, we will not be asked what happened. We will be asked what did you do. I want to conclude with Emily Dixon’s lovely poem called Hope. She says, Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul. And sings the tune without the words and never stops at all. I repeat, Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul. And sings the tune without the words and never stops at all. Emily Dixon. Thank you. Thank you.
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