SHNEAKO - April 30, 2026SNEAKO interviews Grand Mufti of South Philippines
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 30 minutes
Harmful content
Misogyny
5
sentences flagged
Toxicity
58
sentences flagged
Hate speech
148
sentences flagged
Summary
In this episode, we are joined by the Grand Mufti of the South of the Philippines, Sheik Waleed Abubakar. We talk about the Iran war, the need for tolerance in the Muslim community, and the importance of living in harmony with non-Muslims.
Transcript
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As a Mufti, when we look at the actual situation,
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And why is it American people allowed themselves to invade Iran
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Because these bombs, these bombs falling from the sky of Iran, from America, missiles from America and Israel,
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These are to anyone there, including women, children, kids, old people.
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We in Islam, we've been taught, do not kill the old people.
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People who are, who dedicate themselves in their synagogue, in their churches, priests and monks, do not touch them.
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But these people there, it's the opposite.
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In San Buonga City, alhamdulillah, we are living with the non-Muslims in a very harmonious way.
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is that worldwide the design is simplistic like you're not supposed to post artwork you can't
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have different idols or depictions in there it has a very simple instructions that you're
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supposed to follow yet throughout the world they're so different another thing i just love
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about islam and hopefully this is seen in my content the fact that i've traveled the world
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and i've prayed in masjids in bosnia in saudi arabia in the philippines in thailand and columbia
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and doing this on stream just seeing like i really like the lineup with the children the
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filipino children it's like well we really come from the same ethnicity half you know i was just
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there for eid i was in bosnia with people that look very different or when i go for umrah there's
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so many nigerians and so many black people it's just reassuring and you get to see visually how
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this is for mankind and prophet muhammad sallahu alayhi wasallam his last speech he did not say
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oh jews he did not say oh kafir he did not say oh asians or arabs he said oh mankind
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islam is for all of mankind so any propaganda that's trying to tell you otherwise forget it
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and the southeast asia tour is coming to a close i'm trying we're gonna it's gonna be
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informational on this last stream but i do have to say malaysia is that just that resonates with
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me the most. It really does. This looks like it was propped up for a music video. Should
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I think we're meeting the Grand Mufti of Zambanga now.
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Pretty much, if you don't know Mufti is, it's like the Pope.
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Essentially, we're meeting the Muslim Pope of the South of the Philippines.
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You can call me anything that would make you comfortable with.
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No, I just participated. I mean, I accompanied my daughter participating in a school competition.
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She was representing the school, the Turkish school.
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what's in colombia or fordham uh-huh which school uh my my daughter is from turkish tolerance school
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based in shambunga city okay yeah this is sheikh waleed abubakar okay grand mufti
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region can you show them yes you are originally from colombia or from from colombia or something
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um i'm filipino i'm half filipino but my dad is from haiti so he's from haiti haiti half black
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half white oh wow yeah wow colombia that's the first time i ever got that before the looks like
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shakira hips don't lie oh wow you don't think i look filipino at all never i thought that
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yes it's glad to be it's good to be back here i came last time when i was eight years old to
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Manila my family lives in Manila and it's my first time back so you must be
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fluent in Tagalog or you just understand some words yeah some words but
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I know you have a lot of dialects in Zambwanga yes we have
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you can say it is the official dialect in Sambwanga
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it is almost required for everybody staying in Sambwanga
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But Tausug is the, what do you say, the dialect being used from among the people
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because most of the people doing business in the city are almost Tausug.
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And most of the clients coming from the three provinces,
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which is Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, they are all Tausug spoken.
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okay yeah that's why it's almost a required for every tendera you know the sales lady sales boys
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who are doing business the stores along the way yeah those are uh people doing the running the
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business in the city and it is almost a required to understand the tao soon and they should have
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so can i ask you a question yep sure please so basically the the reason i i come here i'm a
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revert i reverted three years ago you already come to islam thank you alhamdulillah maybe the
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word revert has more of a meaning with filipinos because revert is the idea of returning back to
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your faith and the philippines was muslim before the spanish conquered and force converted the
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people under catalysis that's correct so zamboanga is a city within mindanao correct where most of
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mortos are this is the muslim filipinos correct and they say that this is where the mortos declared
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the longest ever jihad resistance even longer than the palestinians so it's 300 years and eventually
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the spanish left and they protected that's correct their faith so what does the world
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not know about muslims in the philippines and also what do the filipinos not seem to understand about
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but our our situation is that we are almost right in the far corner of the world
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uh people in the world they are we are not almost be seen even in the in the world map
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and our situation here since we are considered as the uh minority of the country but before the
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the coming of the Spaniards, we were the majority from Manila to far Mindanao.
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Because people, every time they go from Manila, everybody says,
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ah that's why you can still see some uh streets in manila in loson as a whole you can still see
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uh streets named and attributed to the muslims before sulaiman you can see sulaiman flame
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market you can see uh pasai this pasai area is named uh in attributed to the princess the daughter
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of the king that time pasai pasai until now it is still pasai and a little little who know
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the history of this that's why uh there is always what we call that team
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and they wage war against the government of the Philippines.
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in that very tiny corner of the world yes do most filipinos even know that this country was
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a muslim country before yes they know yes i didn't know but there is already i'm colombian the young
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the young generations they do not know this anymore they do not know this anymore and little
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who knows these things uh until including the age of a young boy here i i doubt if they know the
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history of the whole uh philippine from way back thousands of years back right yes even before i
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ahead before the arrival of the spaniards because when you look at the purpose of the
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spaniards when they came not only to conquer the the the philippines as a country but to change
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the religion of the people living in that country
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so spania came to change the religion of islam and they converted people by force to uh christianity
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that's the history and what was the reason why force convert people to catholicism was that so
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they would pay taxes to the spanish empire or because they cared about teaching the lessons
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of jesus no no no they came for they called it the three g's gold one five three g's gold glory god
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so there is always these three things uh included in the purpose of the spaniards came coming to
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the philippines gold glory and god so they they introduced they did not introduce they changed
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the original religion of the people living here in this country which is islam and they changed it
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into christianity and of course that time very ancient time people are still far from the
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cradle of islam which i i doubt we started to be connected to the islamic world
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four generations, five generations from us now.
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It's very challenging because we are living in a country
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wherein we are rubbing elbows with non-Muslims.
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And we cannot just do something that might hurt the relationship between the non-Muslims and the Muslims.
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And we Muslims, we are always compelled by our religion to showcase the goodness in Islam, in the beauty of Islam.
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that make people cannot see the beauty of Islam
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They do not know what is the akhlaq of Islam
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and how to deal with people in such a society because it's very hard it's very hard so that's
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why we have to we have to be first educated well in islam are you optimistic about the future yes
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Yes. Yes, definitely. Everybody who is following the right path, they should be optimistic of the future.
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What about for the Philippines? I was supposed to do an interview with the mayor of Manila.
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Esco. And he canceled the interview last second, I think because he's a Zionist probably, and I'm very vocal about...
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He's actually one of the most loved mayor of the Philippines.
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Because he was then, when he was a small boy, he was a celebrity from then on.
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That's why it's not because he is a Zionist when he reached that level in political life,
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So that's why the people of the Philippines always tend to align themselves with the celebrities.
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See, Pacquiao, he's not that, not even the level of eloquency in public speaking.
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He cannot even, he cannot even language well to the people, but still he won for how many times, I think?
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in a very high position of the of the country it's only because he is a
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celebrity guy not because he has this yeah not because he has this he spoke
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English very well I met him two days ago maybe now yes maybe now because when he
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was already there he started to feel that he really needs to improve his
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his linguistic abilities language capability so that he can be able to
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communicate the people right because he's not only talking to the Filipinos not
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even his Tagalog his Tagalog it's not that much also yes but he has to develop
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this alhamdulillah he did able to do it while he was already there but not like
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Like, of course, not like those who are from the very beginning, even before going to that position, having a good position in the government, they are already eloquent in public speaking, like recto, like these people around.
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Yes. Ping Lakson is one of those. He's very eloquent.
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And most of our, you know, in Senate, also in Congress,
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we should have to put a requirement that people going there
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then he can just position himself in that chair.
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and they are yet they are just sitting down there in the in the senate doing nothing he did nothing
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in the senate yeah a little lapid we have one little lapid we have we have bong rebilla we have
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uh and some others what they have done to the public none to mention
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so what is it like working with the mayor and other people because you're saying the
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difficulties of working with the non-muslims you're always bumping elbows with them
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i asked about the mayor and i'm wondering what is the role of a mufti
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i am talking about here in sambuanga city i am not talking about uh the whole philippine
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in general but in sambuanga city alamdulillah we are living with the non-muslims in a very
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unity and peace with other religions this is very important here in samboanga city
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like samboanga city we are living here muslims non-muslims uh pagans pagans yes we have pagans
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here i saw a lot of freemason signs here yes i see the freemason signs on the cars there is and when
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you leave the airport there's a giant free and most of them are lawyers lawyers yes of course
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they are well organized those lawyers are organized in that under that
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organization yeah why why is freemasonry so popular in the philippines it seems like
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i really don't know because uh people who are uh connected to this or belong to this organization
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So what is the truth? A lot of people are saying Freemasonry
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is just a brotherhood and it's for connections.
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right to say things which i do not know actually okay because uh if you say so you have to prove
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are they are they connected to shaitan or whatever no i i cannot say anything about
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i do not have the right to say so what is the day-to-day of a mufti we are here waiting for
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situations coming in or questions raised to us we have to
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relay our our opinion but not forcing anyone to do something which
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whatever we say it should be done by the people but we only give as a house of islamic opinion
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we will give our opinion that's it that's it because that means is the uh house of islamic
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opinion we do not have any police power to compel people to follow what we say right
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yes it's just knowledge yes we just give opinions that's knowledge of course is it comparable to the
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the sultan in malaysia because they don't have direct political no no okay because sultan in
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malaysia he has the power of the police power okay yes he has the police power anyone if the sultan
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say something or dictate something and then there is a somebody who do not follow what he says
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tomorrow is ramadan everybody is compelled to follow and have to pass
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if there is anyone who will not pass yet they will be prosecuted and bring they will be bring
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him to jail because he has the police power for us here we do not have that so that's the
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difference between the daril ifta and the sultanate of the sultan of malaysia he has the
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he has the police power we don't have so speaking of police power and armed power
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what was the siege that happened in 2013 because to give you some context in america when i said i
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was going to zamboanga they said be careful do not go there terrorist city dangerous they weren't
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new they weren't even i have a muslim brother of mine the warner abdul wahab was very afraid saying
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that it's you're going to get put on a watch list what is the the truth about that right why does
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Zamboanga have this reputation it's a very beautiful city well it's it's actually a political
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political actions from the some of the splinters group of MNLF what's MNLF MNLF Moro National
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Liberation Front is this it is an organization fought against the government it started from
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From the days of Marcos, June senior, 1972, I think, March 18, 1972, they organized themselves
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That's why during Marcos' time, he declared the martial law in September 1972.
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Yes, so the Muslims in the South, they organized themselves because there was really too much atrocities happened during that time.
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And because Marcos Sr., he brought in to the Muslim communities, people from the South, and they start to pick up anyone they would like to disturb him with his family.
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nowadays anyone who fought for the rights against american or its allies gets called
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a terrorist they will call him a terrorist okay without even uh further any investigations that
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are they qualified to be uh called terrorist or not it's up to the american to say oh you
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If they say you are a terrorist, then you are a terrorist in the eyes of the world.
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If they say you are a friend, even though you are a terrorist, you are a killer, you are the highest criminal on earth, you will be the good person.
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sorry to say that's that's already the the reality the reality right now the world can i tell you
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something on the plane here i was sitting next to a u.s soldier and he was just changed he now
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has deployment in uh zambunga and i'm like why he said well because philippines are allies well
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okay so there's u.s military bases in the philippines and essentially he admitted that
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america's the bully that we bully people into submission yes the peso is getting wrecked right
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now the pesos is 62 pesos is equal to one dollar if we're allies then why would we be destroying
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their economy with the petrodollar so do the filipinos seem to understand that america
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does not actually see them as an ally and just see them as a colony why the highest the higher
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the higher uh level of thinking of people they know that they know that but most of the people
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You know, here in the Philippines, we are always amazed with the white people.
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That's why one of those white people who accidentally rode with me going to Malaysia,
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he said, oh, there is nothing impossible for a white man here.
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I said, you come to my country, we will cut off your head.
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Because the Philippines was conquered by the Spanish,
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conquered by the lighter-skinned Japanese,
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That's the reality happening in the society of the Muslims.
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Not the same like he is treated in the society of the non-Muslims.
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Because non-Muslims, they are always after what you have in your pocket.
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this that that's the the overall situation yeah but here in our our our society in muslim society
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no it's different we do not look him like that but him guys that guys he's a spy maybe or
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nowadays nowadays but before of course we respect anyone who is coming to our place
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Because I can still remember when I was a small boy, there are a lot of Americans, white people walking around the city of Hulu.
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And we used to talk to them, oh, Django or Gringo.
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We say like that, from where did you come from?
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Well, because we used to imitate the films, but instead of saying, from where you came from, you say, from where did you came from?
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When we were young, now you cannot see white people anymore walking around the city.
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but we are brown people let's go right so this you touched on something that I've noticed a lot
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because I was born in America we always pride ourselves first world country first world country
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yeah yes and you look at something like the Philippines oh they're third world it's disgusting
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but now look at why this happens it's because you destroy their economy you control their
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leadership you take all their resources you exploit them and then you look down on them
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yeah so this superiority complex is probably not going to go anywhere but people don't seem to
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understand why they think the things they think it's uh and it's also not earned because again
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like the u.s soldier i was sitting next to on the plane the reason he became a soldier is not for
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jihad the soldiers here when they were fighting back against colonization they were doing it for
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a law you look at the soldiers in iran they're fighting for the sake of a law the american
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soldiers they do it to get a paycheck they want to get a retirement fund they want to get a camaro
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car exactly when you ask all the american soldiers deployed to iraq or deployed to iran
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they are not happy with their deployment they are just doing it because they are forced to do so
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because of the paycheck as you have said but it's a first world country but they're forced to give
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their lives away to a cause they don't even agree with i cannot see any reason why why why another
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country invade another country i cannot see any reason to take
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oil that's maybe the number one reason why because uh not less than trump himself he
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explicitly uh said i'd like to control the oil of iran the straighter formulas
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With the Strait of Malacca, they're going to look to get the oil from here.
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The Malaysia government and Brunei and some Labuan part of Sabah, they started to already gaining some of these resources.
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But the center of the debasing of the fuel underground is in Sulusi.
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But we do not have the capacity to exploit it until now, to explore.
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Unless we have to be a partner with big companies.
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And that's the number one export from the Philippines is the worker, is human, human, human, human, human export.
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But we have actually natural resources if only we can explore it.
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But until now, firstly, we do not have the capacity to explore
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unless we will partner with the American companies or European companies.
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And later on, we will just be the worker for them.
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And I saw some Iran flags flying around the taxis.
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As a mufti, when we look at the actual situation, Iran did not invade America.
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And why is it American people allowed themselves to invade Iran and kill even innocent people?
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Because these bombs, these bombs falling from the sky of Iran, from America,
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this is to anyone there including women children kids old people we in islam have been taught
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even before do not kill if you are in jihad do not kill the old people or children children women
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People who are, who dedicate themselves in their synagogue, in their churches, priests and monks, do not touch them.
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The reason Americans don't care is because we have a superiority complex.
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when you think that america is the first world and we're better than everyone else and we should
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spread democracy and american values then when 168 kids are killed in iran they don't even care
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they don't care because they're third world they don't even care they're brown they're you know
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subhuman they are subhuman we don't see them as human lives yeah because of all the propaganda
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we're fed of being the first world superior the problem but mind you this is not the totality
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We protested for George Floyd, but I didn't see any.
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There are protests, even in Congress, even in Cheney.
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true yeah why do they say that america is allied with the philippines what does america give the
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philippines and how is this friendship and relationship maintained well these are more
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political political issues we do not interfere with okay just knowledge yes okay we are given
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a chance to say our words and there is nothing behind we are not political people we are not
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we don't belong to any party we do not deciding any group we are just stating the facts what we
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can see what is happening in the ground yes do you think there's a chance that islam could spread
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in the philippines there is always that big chance as i have said if you are with the truth
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the truth will always prevail definitely but it only depends on how it dependers will do
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inshallah inshallah i would love to host you inshallah and how how is this what they are
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doing there during ramadan they are praying in the area in time square in time square where
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yes that was me yeah that was me i was yeah yes that's why i'm asking you because when i was
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there for the first time that was 1990 no in 2008 then last year i was there in america in new york
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that is in time square and during ramadan time they pray there yeah but you know the difference
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in america what do you think they got more outraged at the naked body paint or the
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prayer in time square what did the media get angry about
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it's really paradox is always there everything is inverted yes
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I need to see as much of Zamboanga as I can today.
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It is the most beautiful mosque in Zamboanga City, if not in Asia as a home.
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Can I say you're Grand Mufti of the Philippines?
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So you could say Grand Mufti of the South Philippines?
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After the previous move, he died. Even before he died, he was already in the hospital and looking at him that his situation is getting worse.
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We started already to gather meetings and to confer to each other who will be the next.
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And I did not even expect that I will be the one they will toast.
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But when they, for several times they already had meetings, they concluded that it should be me.
00:49:20.640
So actually, the first day they offered it to me, I refused because I know it is already
00:49:30.260
the end of my free time, my freedom with my family.
00:49:36.040
I do not have any more time with my family, with my kids, because I am always with my
00:49:50.640
I refused actually at the very first moment but then they forced me they said you will be asked
00:49:59.020
in front of Allah if you do not accept this so I said okay but I got a promise from them
00:50:12.040
they will help me why Abu Bakr of I know the family it's the name of the best
00:50:21.100
friend of the best companion of the Prophet yes in the second the first
00:51:26.000
okay thank you so much actually take my phone yeah just it's not probably better
00:51:43.160
if we do it centered over here we are all graduates from Al-Azhar University
00:52:26.000
Huh, when it wasn't up I'd call to Barbour, a testified city in the future.
00:52:41.000
A lot of places followed by this area, there was Let's check the north.
00:53:47.940
Chad, what did you think of the grand mufti?
0.93
00:54:18.000
Is this going to cut my hair? I kind of want to keep growing it out. What are you going to keep growing it?
00:54:28.280
I'm putting it to context about the propaganda about terrorism.
00:54:34.400
Warner's texting during the interview saying I threw him...
00:54:39.380
I'm just saying, I'm using that as a vessel to talk about how people have this perception in America that this is a terrorist place, and it's not.
00:54:47.740
Of course, Warner's the, you know, Warner's the best, Warner the GOAT, man, W. Warner.
00:55:44.000
Actually, we already know each other because I live right behind the mosque.
00:56:49.500
there's not too much fin of the zen of the eyes
00:56:56.620
a little bit island hopping is also one of the best
00:57:03.780
if you have your rod with you you can come with me
00:57:36.420
Which part of Zambongo are we? Where are we in Zambongo?
00:57:39.420
Currently, we are in Santa Catalina in Lombonga.
00:58:09.420
So this is the total hospitality I was telling you about?
00:58:13.420
I know, I'm just having a show of stream I wanted to...
00:59:34.700
It's unfortunate that Islam has been forgotten so much
00:59:46.180
I know so much of that was converted and changed,
00:59:51.820
what was preserved in Filipino culture of Islam?
01:00:04.660
They are not already any more mentioned in the history.
01:00:09.980
Suppose they are part of the history of the world.
01:00:58.660
Visit Marawi City. This tea is so hot for how hot it is right now. I can't do it.
01:01:37.960
drink your tea dude i can't sit here for 10 hours sipping a stupid hot tea
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01:01:45.900
it's like boiling hot out here if i tried to wait for that to cool off it would be tomorrow
0.99
01:01:50.420
like someone has to be the i don't know i know a lot of tests are my patients but if i wasn't
01:01:55.800
impatient bro we would be sitting in just one spot eating mangoes in front of a class all day
01:03:00.160
In the salats of the council, we goody leaders for the petition so far ,
01:03:25.120
Asbhanimilaah, Asbhanimilaah, Asbhanimilaah, Allah.
01:03:37.120
That he at the Allahi wa salatu wa toibat wa salam alayka ayah.
01:05:12.000
is that worldwide the design is simplistic like you're not supposed to post artwork you can't
01:05:18.160
have different idols or depictions in there it has a very simple instructions that you're supposed
01:05:24.260
to follow yet throughout the world they're so different and you get to see the attention to
01:05:30.140
detail and the material and the spacing i really enjoy it or even where they build build it
01:05:40.080
like in the sun or indoors the the size of the the dome but time to go to the next spot
01:05:50.620
you just know it's hot yeah it is i'm surviving though another thing i just love about islam
01:05:57.860
and hopefully this is seen in my content but the fact that i've traveled the world and i've prayed
01:06:06.040
in Bosnia, in Saudi Arabia, in the Philippines, in Thailand, in Colombia, and doing this on
01:06:13.460
stream, just seeing, like, I really like the lineup with the children, the Filipino children.
01:06:17.320
It's like, well, we really come from the same ethnicity, half.
01:06:23.880
I was in Bosnia with people that look very different.
01:06:26.540
Or when I go for Umrah, there's so many Nigerians and so many black people.
01:06:42.360
he did not say oh Asians, oh Arabs, he said oh mankind
01:06:48.300
any propaganda that's trying to tell you otherwise
01:06:58.880
yeah what's your name ted ted nice to meet you i've been watching you on live i saw you with
01:07:05.220
yeah it was good it was a very good conversation yo this is great are you our tour guide here or
01:07:11.760
are you just randomly seeing us i'm just randomly seeing you bro i just wanted to say welcome to
01:07:14.920
zambwanga city oh thanks for having me living here for about like a year now where are you
01:07:19.220
where are you from in the states i was born in upstate new york and raised in uh wisconsin as
01:07:23.640
well and what made you come out i can't i'm like a little bit shocked right now please please turn
01:07:27.980
up the f-stop this is incredible i want to make sure that you get a good shot yeah you're from
01:07:33.760
upstate yeah what made you move here uh i was working abroad for about 14 years in saudi arabia
01:07:42.000
my wife was from here we got married about 10 years ago and we decided to settle out here
01:07:46.360
passport bro no i'm joking i'm sorry but uh how are you finding the city so far man i'm loving
01:07:52.840
it man i'm loving it are you are you revert yeah i've been working for about uh 23 years now 23
01:07:59.560
years hold on let's take a listen in front of brother this wait do you come here so you come
01:08:05.720
here often i'm a neighbor actually i'm like five minutes away or could you stand here please yeah
01:08:10.760
sure yeah i just want to know so this was built um 2022 yeah it's still under construction yeah
01:08:16.040
And they kind of opened up for partial prayers in 2022, 2023, Ramadan and stuff.
01:08:24.320
But a lot of it's still under construction out there.
01:08:31.560
No, that's something I've seen recently with Nick, your friend, you know.
0.99
01:08:45.720
people the whiteness does hold a lot of people back they think that they're they think christianity
1.00
01:08:50.500
is a white religion even though it's from jesus from philistine it's so stupid but they tie european
0.98
01:08:57.000
identity to christianity which is kind of subverting the teachings of jesus because he
0.99
01:09:01.060
never lived in italy or spain he was right right right from bethlehem but they held on to the roman
01:09:05.700
menhage right it's more like following the romans than it is following jesus but anyway
01:09:16.380
I thought it just aligned with everything that we believed in in my hometown.
01:09:19.580
So a lot of people didn't really follow Catholicism at all.
01:09:28.000
We believed in one God, but you know, that Jesus isn't God himself or whatever.
01:09:39.600
pretty easy transition did you revert before you got married yeah yeah we got married about 10 years
01:09:43.940
ago alhamdulillah man congratulations yeah thanks so much okay so you recently seen this back then
01:09:49.100
i mean that was 2004 that was peak you know muslims or terrorist propaganda that never held
01:09:53.060
you back no i studied i mean malcolm x in class so we had malcolm x in high school and that really
01:09:59.500
kind of opened the door but then 9 11 happened so i'm like what's going on like it doesn't jive
01:10:02.740
malcolm was awesome what happened here yeah and so then i had to get a quran for myself
01:10:06.460
if that makes sense. The clear Quran, probably. No, this is way back in the day, bro. 2004,
01:10:11.100
we had, like, a translation by, like, a Turkish author or something like this. Wow, I mean,
01:10:16.040
a white guy converted to Islam in 2004. This was, like, right after the Iraq war started, too.
01:10:21.160
Yeah, yeah. I was one of the protesters that actually, like, took a bus to Washington,
01:10:25.340
D.C. to stand against the war, but, you know, we were leaderless at that time, so. And then you
01:10:29.520
came to the Philippines what year? Just last year. I've been visiting for the last seven years,
01:10:33.580
but actually settling here permanently in Zambwanga for a year.
01:10:40.000
I've been asking people all day, the Mufti, my tour guide, Irfani, has been very generous,
01:10:43.820
but this history, it's complicated and it seems like it's not told and people don't understand it.
01:10:49.100
How do you understand the history of Zambwanga City?
01:10:51.680
Zambwanga, I mean, even since the time of the Japanese, they tried to divide,
01:10:55.400
when they occupied in World War II, they tried to divide the city or whatever between Christians and Muslims,
01:11:01.940
they actually stuck together during the occupation um the big difference between zambuanga i would
01:11:06.620
say and like the rest of the north is that like people are really down to earth here and really
01:11:11.360
straightforward you know like if you get a smile it's a real smile whereas in the north like like
01:11:16.800
in manila everybody smiles hey hey hey shout out shout out or whatever but like here it's just like
01:11:21.140
some people smile some people don't and i enjoy the smiles and i don't mind if they don't you
01:11:25.500
know what i mean so the people here i feel like are down to earth and more genuine yeah
01:11:29.680
yes if they have an appreciation for little things and regular life we are very distracted
01:11:37.920
we always think that there's something better out there in america yeah you know every time
01:11:41.700
you get somewhere it's like okay what's the next thing right rather than appreciating appreciating
01:11:46.680
like you know a conversation or like tea right that's not which you've had a lot i saw a lot
01:11:51.660
too much i didn't bring any mangoes for you bro no i wanted to go sit down for six hours and eat
01:11:55.760
mangos with you like hey do you have another 45 minutes it's ibadah do you want to get into the
01:12:00.860
yes i do would love to yeah yeah i don't want to make you wait out in the sun or whatever
01:12:04.420
no no no i'm just enjoying being here pretty stunning eh bro this is incredible bro so guys
01:12:12.760
all the land here is actually for the masjid so like all the surrounding area here that development
01:12:18.180
there is going to be like apartment complexes and i think they're going to open a mall
01:12:21.380
they have a school that they go to on the weekends called
01:12:25.900
a full time seminary as well that's just right over there
01:12:31.440
the viewers are wondering it costs something like
01:12:45.260
see the way the sun's peaking by the cloud is so cool
01:12:56.860
yeah mufti was saying that the gringos are spies
01:13:06.140
so how do you how would you you know when you said columbia university i think that like it
1.00
01:13:13.080
wrapped his head about columbia you know that's why he was thinking yeah that's a great point
01:13:17.580
like did you go to columbia university and he just columbia was like tossed into the mix that's a
01:13:21.440
great catch i didn't even catch that that's why he was thinking i got a columbian oh he so he didn't
01:13:27.500
even know what i meant by columbia university but what was your advice you said i should give
01:13:31.080
dawa to uh these people how you know you're from russia so you're a white dude how should i give
01:13:35.800
dawa to people like that it's a good i mean you're you're the friend you're a good friend
01:13:40.540
i think being a good friend is is what it what it really takes not like not somebody that's
01:13:45.760
always preaching i never been like put on by people preaching and stuff like that it's a put
01:13:49.900
off for me it's the truth i'm like leave me alone with the truth brother take jahara yeah yeah no
01:13:54.940
no it doesn't work for me i'm gonna run away from that so just be a good friend that's how you
01:13:59.780
resonate with malcolm x he wasn't really even though he was a preacher he wasn't preachy right
01:14:05.600
there's a difference it was his character and there's a way his aura of uh his life that is
01:14:11.880
what resonated with people hopefully you right was that being a good example right and like
01:14:15.760
showing what islam is not just saying what islam is i think it's a difference you said one of your
01:14:20.320
friends didn't come he was like afraid is that like actually true no no no okay okay well shout
01:14:24.580
out to the warner no no he he came for a different reason he didn't come for a different reason but
01:14:28.840
he was saying at first he's like he was looking at online in zambwanga city people are messaging
01:14:33.100
and saying like oh terrorist this and immediately i hear that i'm like i don't believe it you know
01:14:39.540
When crime happens here, people will be like, it's Muslims.
1.00
01:14:47.020
But it's never like, oh, that's the Christians.
0.92
01:14:51.320
From Mexican border coming into America, right?
1.00
01:14:54.160
Or if a Catholic commits crimes in Manila, is the media going to say Catholics kill each other?
0.93
01:15:07.420
i don't think i've ever seen a catholic ever labeled as even the pope they don't say catholic
01:15:11.900
they just say the pope or the mafia i mean it's an italian right catholic organization
01:15:16.220
where they say like the cosa nostra exactly yeah they never call it that that's a great yeah the
01:15:21.980
mafia the mafia even though their initiations to the the mob when they become a made man they burn
01:15:27.420
a picture of a saint and put their blood on it yeah well those are seen in the sopranos i don't
01:15:32.060
know if i'm being accurate but yeah that's my historical analysis from sopranos oh okay let's
01:15:37.820
go in huh for me um i also love malaysia too i was working there for a year in 2019
01:15:46.540
i didn't get a chance to meet anwar ibrahim he was actually in prison at that time yeah yeah he
01:15:50.620
was showing me salam alaikum hello yo he's loud bro and then he goes right back on the phone
01:16:45.160
I've been seeing you since you were a little kid.
01:17:00.600
I know, you yelled really loud and then you went back on the phone.
01:17:30.460
Prenup, I don't know what he was talking about, bro.
01:17:32.620
I'm not going to get involved in that marital issue.
01:17:52.220
I was going to say, if you actually want specialty coffee,
01:17:56.460
like really really good coffee i really want it to take a long time to make can we get a really
01:18:00.400
slow coffee yeah yeah right and like a japanese one yeah the ice brew no there's a nice cafe
01:18:05.260
that's two minutes away from here it's one of the best in the city yeah if we could fit into
01:18:08.420
the schedule i'd love to i want to go see downtown the boulevard yeah mic him up yeah can we mic up
01:18:14.240
do you mind uh okay the throw was not really ideal for i could put it right here yeah so
01:18:26.380
gnome there you go did they tell you about this yeah what is that sleep uh this in saudi arabia
01:18:31.260
this is for like in the house oh you got the pajamas on yeah i know i remember when i first
01:18:35.260
went to saudi i thought it was dripped up and they said are you gonna go sleep yeah it's actually
01:18:39.100
prohibited now yeah you can't even wear it like in egypt you can't go visit a lot of places with
01:18:43.500
this i like those sobs though so what's the name of this masjid again sadik sadik saudi grand mosque
01:18:51.820
Sadiq Sadiq Grand Mosque and they get a lot of tourists actually can imagine
01:18:58.500
usually local domestic tourists here because it's quite the site and Ramadan
01:19:02.520
we had about 27 people become Muslim and I think it's just curiosity of this
01:19:06.220
huge structure that's really pulling people in you know where did that
01:19:09.340
stream sniper go is that him I think he's off to the right this family he left
01:19:14.200
already okay so as you can see there's a still a ton of construction we can go
01:19:18.400
this way to to get to the masala yeah yo ted's pretty good did you you didn't send him like
01:19:28.500
this is a good one we needed a white guy too to go balance out all the mufti talking about
01:19:33.420
the gringos man no no he's awesome dude and i'm joking masha'Allah mufti waleed is like uh wait
01:19:39.520
do you mind let's go see the construction here because like we're going to look back on this
01:19:42.260
footage in five ten years when it's done i want to see and then this is going to be cool to see
01:19:57.680
we could just peek in but i mean there's also i mean there's a ton of ton of work being done
01:20:03.800
everywhere here yeah but these lamps these looks like straight out of medina it's kind of like a
01:20:09.500
medina fusion yeah yeah it has a majin nabawi feel this is so cool bro wait look look yeah um
01:20:16.360
you haven't made it right they have these lamps uh they have some on the floor right here this
01:20:21.640
is the one that they have in the prophet muhammad's grave they have right uh these lamps are
01:20:27.320
identical to this you've got a good view right here this is the like the final version and
01:20:33.880
right over there you can still see for your viewers like the under construction version
01:20:37.080
or whatever well for the big reveal i just want to show them like some of the smaller stuff
01:20:46.360
but it was open for Eid. Yeah, we came here for Eid actually for the big prayers. That's usually open
01:20:52.420
They didn't have these things like laying around though. You know this. Yeah, I know I just I always take pictures of the I always see these in the
01:21:01.180
It looks identical. It looks like the same ones
0.90
01:21:03.800
They may be ordered from there. I have no idea and they did put a lot of money into it, right, so
01:21:08.800
It wouldn't be surprising. How has this family built any other masjid?
01:21:13.020
if i'm not mistaken the founder of this masjid is like the brother of the governor
01:21:17.260
of tawitawi that region that the mufti's uh family is from is this your house
01:21:37.260
so they can't put your feet bro there's like glass and stuff they have a program for
01:21:42.060
Those students that are stay-in students that are like orphans and those in need and things like that.
01:21:47.820
Yeah, and you can see like they've got their learning center over here and
01:22:13.780
And this chandelier was just recently installed.
01:22:28.780
You can see they're just adding the paint to the Quranic ayat up there.
01:22:44.940
I think this might be the most beautiful ceiling I've seen in any Majid.
01:22:52.420
I like Majid Nabawi ceiling, but it's low and it's pretty symmetric.
01:22:56.780
But the ambitious nature of this ceiling here, it's unlike anything I've seen.
01:23:05.780
and this started in 2022 I think it's been going on since before then but like open for
01:23:14.480
some prayers in 2022 is probably safer to say wow if that makes sense
01:23:19.640
I'll show it keep showing okay the construction guys this is going to be so cool to look back on
01:23:25.340
I think this is actually the founder of the message right here with the hats if I'm not
01:23:29.060
let's go say hi then at the table let's go say hi have you met him before i i did meet him just uh
01:23:37.860
just shaking hands though not like i didn't sit down or anything like that
01:24:10.580
I was told that you are the creator of this masjid here.
01:24:31.900
Well, Allah is the creator, but the builder, I guess.
01:24:41.460
what can you tell i'm from america i'm a live streamer i reverted three years ago
01:24:46.740
and i'm half filipino it's my first time here first time back in the philippines so i had to
01:24:50.980
come see this majid it's it has me speechless walking around here it's just absolutely beautiful
01:24:57.300
is there anything you could tell us about the process of building this or
01:25:10.580
House of Allah, it's depending on what kind of money or the people you have invested.
01:25:19.720
You cannot just tell people, you can go to people.
01:25:22.200
There are so many people that have to be learned, but again, you have the position, you have the money, you have the people, but I don't know exactly what.
01:25:36.860
this is uh well these over here from they remind me of medina majid nabawi right yeah okay i've
01:25:43.800
been there yeah i've been uh four or five times to medina for no not hajj but just umrah and my
01:25:50.500
favorite majid is majid nabawi so i recognize this is it looks similar to the one in rasulullah's
01:25:55.400
grave he has uh if you look up it's just like this and it kind of reminds me of haya sophia
01:26:33.160
yeah i'm not gonna mic him up are you kidding me bro mic him up you know who i'm speaking to
0.98
01:26:50.080
you guys are so autistic and like like children
0.94
01:27:04.060
so yeah you could just uh run into kind of amazing people everywhere yeah you know subhanallah no
01:27:12.520
i mean i'll award them for building something so magnificent you mentioned the uh the mayor
01:27:17.580
of manila yes isco is actually uh somebody that really supported the muslim community here oh
01:27:24.580
really okay so i'm putting out bad information i don't know about any of i actually had this
01:27:29.000
the first time i heard that but he actually you know the discrimination issues so like he was
01:27:33.300
the first mayor of manila to build a muslim graveyard for us oh yeah so up until then if
01:27:37.700
you died in manila you'd have to be sent back to wherever you were from even if you're a convert
0.96
01:27:42.520
there's not a space for you there so he established a graveyard cemetery for us there and he's always
01:27:47.740
in contact with the muslim people he's a cool guy oh okay cool okay well i hope we have the
01:27:52.000
conversation you guys said you couldn't hear him he was basically saying that everybody has their
01:27:58.940
input and you know everyone's saying do this or that and they don't know about the funding
01:28:02.100
he's basically saying people don't know what they're talking about wait do you hear the sound
01:28:47.560
but are you going to be, like, in Zamboanga for a while?
01:29:17.340
Hey, what's up kids? Hello, what's your name? I feel sneaker