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Dear brothers and sisters and dear viewers, welcome to "Darul Arqam", a masjid here in "Wuppertal" (Germany). And this is
not a police headquarter of ours or a base. The "shariah police" has only existed for a few hours and only by name on the
back of some orange colored vests, but it has never actually existed, simply because we do not have no authority to pretend
to be Police not in this country, nor according to islamic rules. Why did we do this? We knew that this will catch
attention. I am a Muslim since 16 years now and about 15 or 16 years ago, hardly anyone was speaking about Islam. People
felt shy to talk about it with others. Today, it is a common practice that Islam is being discussed in pedestrian areas,
and everywhere else and people try to suggest Islam to others. With the shariah it is different! Most people connect with
the shariah something negative, such as chopping hands off and stoning. We actually wanted to achieve that this topic
will become normal, because just as Islam is the religion of a Muslim, the shariah is the legislation of Islam! As
Muslims we must not feel ashamed for this.
Since years, we are being stigmatised. They call us "Salafist". Why Salafist? We do not name ourselves as such! But they
want to stigmatize us; they want to exclude us from the society. About myself: They have arrested me, even though I did
not do anything and I was in custody for 3 months. Until today, they have my computer and my cash. Back in the day, when
I used to run a store, they have broken the windows, because of the hate that they spread constantly in the media and they
took away our masjid. Not only ours in Mönchengladbach, but many others. Then we went on the streets to demonstrate against
this, but the people complained that we did that! It does not matter what we do - Nothing is right! On the Internet, we
read hate comments such as 'They must be hung', or 'The Crusaders must return'. We want to bring to the attention that
they are depriving us from all our rights! I cannot find an apartment - no matter where I go - I am a "Salafist", hence
nobody wants to sign up a contract with me; I cannot get a job - they say that we are lazy. What is this? We only want to
get attention. We are not going to run away; we are still here. They say to us "go away" - I am German! Where should I go?
They say that we recruit; Where do we recruit? We do not recruit at all; not for the IS, nor for any other groups. Please
provide evidence! On the contrary, we always spoke against forced marriages, honour crimes, terrorism; we made a plea
to not to burn down any churches or synagoges, even if things are real in Palestine right now and our brothers and sisters
are suffering and are being treated unjustly! Where was this plea in the media? When was this every mentioned in the
media? Never! One is wearing one vest with the "shariah" in the backside of it, everybody freaks out! And we wanted to
demonstrate this to our brothers and sisters to show them what's going on. See, what's going on? The Muslim is always the
bogeyman and always point the fingers at us. They always try to paint a picture that if we did not exist, that they would
live in peace and joy. Audhu'billah, as if were werewolves walking down the streets. Our aim was to pull out people that
are stuck in the swamp, but they have to want out of it themselves. We will not go to them and say "You will not come
here anymore". We will not hold anyone back. We said from the beginning that we are not real Police. They talk a lot about
us, but they hardly talk with us and they do not ask us questions, or approach us. We are always happy for dialogues.
Why don't they make one step at us? Yes, the name was probably very provocative. We knew that this is going to polarise
and maybe it was a mistake from us. We have no issues with admitting to have made a mistake, however, we wanted attention
and say 'Does anyone recognize us, or does it not matter when a Muslim woman gets beaten down; when a Muslim woman is
put in jail with her small baby?'. Where is the media coverage about this? About a sister, who's been in jail since March
or April this year with her small baby, under 2 years old. I did not hear anything - nothing at all. Why don't they report
about this? Why have they not reported that they did not find anything in my case? They always wrote he "supposedly"
recruited, sent money, etc. See, how they always try to misrepresent us. Back in the day, I only sat in a fire truck and
said "funny fire department" and what happened? Next day it was reported in the newspaper. It was only a joke! Every little
thing we do, they report about it in the newspaper. And we want to educate the people to make them realize this. Of course
we will not implement this! We do not want to bother anyone. We do not want to live in hatred, but we want to live in
peace together. We do not want people to fear us when they see us; they should not have a wrong image in their head about
us. They say that we have intimidated people on the streets. This is not true! They say that we have intimidated people
at the casinos; this is all not true! Our sole intention was to walk around so people will see us and not just anyone;
it was for people, who were originally Muslims and who want that - who want to be called back (to Islam). Here, my
friend and brother is tattoed. And? Do we say that we now have to cut his arm? They claim that we are this barbaric!
This is his past and it's none of my business. Even if someone got tattoed today, this is his own concern. We, of course,
say that this is not good and we would advice against it, but if he gets a tattoo done, this is his own voluntary decision.
Shariah is also ordering us to be fair. This means, that we have to be fair to everybody and everything; even to the
animals. A couple of years ago, we have made an appeal to the kidnapper of "Mirko" to release the boy. Later, it was
sadly well-known that he killed him. We are more than happy to support such things. We are with the good people and not
against them. You can come visit us anytime, we are friendly and our door is open for you anytime. Drop by anytime. As
mentioned, live and let live. We never wanted to bother anyone, but we want equal rights, just like anyone else and this
is our right! Such as Freedom of expression and freedom of belief. And, again, if they don't give us our rights, then we
have to go to the market places and make ourselves heard and it forces us to come up with ideas like these to get attention
and to set a sign saying "Stop! Not with us! You have picked the wrong one" and we will not allow to be surpressed all
our lives. Besides, what happens to the one that is being oppressed all the time? He will become the true strong one!
He will become that strong that he will be underestimated and this is not in the interest of the majority, therefore,
just stop oppressing the Muslims. If Muslims felt assaulted, or have a feeling to have been misrepresented by us, we do
apologize for this. Again, also in my case hardly any asscociations or groups have assisted me and that's why I have to
represent myself and I do not think that I have harmed anyone and if I harmed someone, then I apologize for it. Even
though I cannot imagine this, because at the end of the day, it all bounces back to us and you can simply avert it away
from you and say that we have nothing to do with them. However, do not forget that we will stay brothers in Islam and this
is our message. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.