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Khadar Bin Muhammad, the imam of Masjid Bilal Ibn Rabah in Syracuse, New York, posted a video to his Facebook page on May 27, 2020 in response to the death of George Floyd. He said that the Muslim response to the killing of black civilians by police should not be armed retribution, and that Islam forbids killing policemen in a "cowboy manner." He called upon his viewers to leave America for Africa because America is unsafe for African Americans and in order to take African American purchasing power elsewhere. Adding that there are many countries willing to accept them, Bin Muhammad said: "I'm talking about grabbing our bags, grabbing our money, and going to invest in a place where we can be safe together." For more about Khadar Bin Muhammad see MEMRI Clip No. TV 7882.
Khadar Bin Muhammad: "People have protested. They have jumped in the streets. Nothing has changed. 'Arm yourself.' Okay, that's cool. 'Arm yourself.' That sounds nice. But the reality is that you will not win an armed resistance. That's just reality. The best plan, which will hurt them the most, is not to go after the police and kill police. As Muslims we don't support that reality. We don't support that as Muslims... 'Go grab a gun, kill a police officer, eye-for-eye'... Not in that manner, not in that cowboy manner. Any type of qisas or retribution in Islam has to be taken through the government. And obviously the government here is not going to take qisas on our behalf, is not going to take retribution on our behalf. So that is cut out. You might as well cut that out. To think that you can grab a gun and think you can go do harm to someone else. That is not an Islamic viewpoint and it is not a safe viewpoint as well. The real pain that you can bring to this type of situation is economical — is economical.
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"A system such as American cannot stand on its own without our economical support that we give to it. When we are one of the greatest — as they say — buyers in this country. We're one of the greatest buyers in this country! We purchase everything. If we took our wealth that we have — and we have a lot of wealth as Africans in America — and we left this country. It would hurt it more than anything else.
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"Well, where should we go? If you haven't been to Africa yet, you better go. Take your plane once you are able to and go see that Africa is not what they show you on TV, that there are so many places willing to welcome us back into our society. Or, it doesn't have to be Africa, if you don't feel like you came from Africa. Whatever your situation might be. Why stay here and seek help from someone who doesn't want to help you?
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"But now we have an option. We don't have to stay here. You have a passport. There's places that will accept you. We see so many brothers and sisters that's moving to Africa, and they are showing us the pictures that they have. They're showing us their homes that they have. Africa is not a bunch of flies flying around children's heads like they show you on the TV.
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"Who is willing to make a step forward? And I am not talking about violence. I'm talking about grabbing our bags, grabbing our money, and going to invest in a place [so] that we can be safe together."
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