in front of the uh orthodox church yeah
honor your father and your mother
um and love your neighbor
have you ever read the quran have you
ever looked into the life of
uh the last and final messenger sent to
mankind prophet muhammad peace
what about in luke 6 uh in the gospel of
luke
chapter 6 27 where jesus is allegedly
have said
but i say to you hear love your enemies
do good to those who hate you yes
this is
and we are we just passed over from the
in bosnia you have different sections
that are
you have different sections that are
considered rs
uh called republican surfska so we're
actually in the republic of surf so
it's kind of confusing for some people
but you're well yeah you can see the
flag here
so i read an article and we'll have that
on our facebook page
uh he was a chetnik who was
known for blessing the the weapons of
those
who are out there contributing to the
genocide in bosnia
and he talks about many other things in
this art article
we'll post it you can see it and at the
end of the article he talks about
losing his soul and he built the church
out here
and i believe he's in this area so we've
taken it upon ourselves to come try to
try to meet this bishop and invite him
to the purpose
since he's lost his soul he's probably
done a lot of atrocities
done a lot of evil horrific things but
uh
allah is the most merciful allah is the
most kind we as muslims we come out
you know with uh that intention to
invite purpose to
people to purpose to to to peace
peace with their creator you know always
giving people the benefit of the doubt
so shall over here hopefully we can find
them and meet them
and see how things go we're here at the
church
okay bala
we can come he should be here all
morning
he said so where are where are we
exactly now this is uh luca
right uh
a town uh serbian in the rs
republika sebsco a town that's actually
used to be part of sarajevo before the
war
and after the war the border of the
federation of bosnia and the republic
this is the border town sarajevo across
the border begins this town
of luca which used used to belong to
syria
they it used to be called after the war
they call it subscribe but then they had
to change the name
because it doesn't belong only to the
serbs so they had to change the name to
eastern sarajevo
now the official name of luca is
do in general uh muslims and christians
orthodox do they have these type of
engaging conversations you know uh to
go ahead and talk with each other and to
kind of do muslims come and try to
deliver
the message of the dean of islam or
purpose of life
no actually not at all here in bosnia
not at all that's a
that's a taboo subject so let them live
with their religion
we live with our religion and nobody is
trying to deliver
few people there are few people dice
here in bosnia
i don't i'm not sure if they go to to
serbian parts to call the serbs to islam
it's also kind of dangerous you know
because here
uh the war has stopped but the peace is
always shaking you know and uh what's
the the most problem when you see it
from the religious religion
uh the most problem is the people look
at religion
as part of of the nation of nationalism
there's a strong nationalism here in
bosnia between serb squads and bosniaks
and they put it in the same bag like if
you're a crowd
you're a catholic and if you're a serb
you're an orthodox if you're a bosniak
you're a muslim
but it doesn't have to be like this you
can choose your
nationality whatever you are if you like
croatia if you're like kurtz you can be
a crowd but still be a muslim you can
be a serb love serbia love love the
republican
sky even but be a muslim be a muslim
submitting to god
believing in one god your nationality
doesn't matter there
so but the people the mindset of the
people here is
they don't they don't quite get that
yeah but uh
anybody uh who has some kind of
knowledge of islam who reads the quran
who understands the life of the prophet
muhammad peace and blessed be upon him
they should be able to see that this was
his mission his whole life
was and then you read the quran and the
themes over and over from prophet
abraham
inviting the people to the purpose of
life to submit their will to the creator
islam
moses musa jesus peace be upon him
prophet muhammad now we get to him all
the messengers and then prophet muhammad
being the last they all they all
continued with this mission of dawa of
sharing the message
we can't change nobody's heart allah is
controller of the hearts
we can't force anything on anyone but
you know
if you love for mankind what you love
for yourself
to deliver the message to share with the
people and that's what we're trying to
do here
yeah allah says in the quran
invite all not some not just you know
who you think
should be invited but allah says this is
your creator says invite all to the way
of your lord
with hikmah with beautiful preaching so
we'll try our best again we're here
in front of the church
and uh this is the what do you call pope
or bishop not pope it's pop
pop it's like uh like a priest he's like
a pretty pope
pop priest yeah so he was the one in the
article
he was the one in the article yes yeah
who said you read the articles i mean
about him who blessed
the killings bless the weapons and the
murderers
and you said he said he he he lost his
soul
yeah but still he says he's a man of god
yeah at the end of the article they're
quoting him
we'll put the article up you can watch
it at the end he said he lost his soul
so you're a man of god
you know he talked about you know other
things about being in the mood to kill
he talks about losing his soul and other
things uh but it reminds me
see allah you might have done all these
horrific things right you've been
been an extremist technique you know
misrepresenting the true teachings of
jesus killing innocent people
but allah's mercy is above all that yes
right if you turn to the creator alone
and you repent
and you change your ways allah can
forgive all that
so we're here yes we have even uh
examples from the
from the prophet muhammad ali from
later the people that they became his
sahaba the people who had
been fighting muslims and killing
muslims but repented
and accepted islam and became the the
best of the best yeah so we're here to
share all this valuable information
our love our deep love for jesus you
know as a mighty messenger
you know so many commonalities there's
so many things to share you know
muhammad the last and final messenger
uh people don't know about that so the
commonalities purpose of life the
evidence and the
so many things to talk about and usually
you make that human connection you talk
about that one you're fulfilling your
obligation
you know two you're helping to save
people from the hell fire
you're getting the reward from your
creator i mean i can go on and on but
inshallah we'll
well if it's meant to be we'll hook up
and uh meet uh this uh
technique and uh shall some good can
come from it
because we are the muslims and muslims
are those
people of peace who call the peace
directing people to have a relationship
with the owner of peace the creator that
heavens in the earth
so here we're looking at the sign right
before you come into the republic of
surfska
that command is the general who's
responsible for the genocide in sweden
that's what this is uh talking about yes
that's right here at the border of the
federation federal part of sarajevo and
the serbian part of sarajevo
and they're praising rod kamadic that he
gathered here the two battalions of the
army so
at this place let's say that's all that
it says
we just entered
the republic of subscribe
and we're heading over we tried
yesterday
to visit the
former commander still a priest still a
priest
still a priest of the orthodox church
and he wasn't around yesterday
so what we know about him thus far was
he was a commander
in the czechnik
unit in the chutney clinic in gerber
right down the hill from here
part of syria now
so we're pulling up to the church here
we're here in republic of subscribe
do many people do this do they come over
here any uh muslims
are there is i know no
no is there still that tension here do
muslims uh
visit these parts only if they have some
necessity
yeah so it looks like it's a packed
house yeah
many cars around yeah
hopefully your inshallah will be
welcomed
i know i i myself i get pretty excited
when uh
you know not yet muslims non-muslims
come
visit us at uh masjid
i get very excited you know to greet
them to
have a talk with them and hopefully uh
we'll get the same reception so we're
back here
in front of the orthodox church
looks like uh the service
is about to end soon
and
and our intention here is to to make the
human connection
to sit to talk maybe find some common
ground
and this is what our dean teaches
inshallah
some uh some height as they say some
good can come from this
so we are we're
literally right in front of the church
and give us some some history here in
this this area like
um there's to this day is there
some tension between the between uh
bosnians and serbs and we don't do we do
any muslims live around here do they
come around here at all or does any
everyone kind of keep to themselves
well the tension in bosnia is still
since the war is over so over
25 years almost 25 years since the war
is over
there has been tensions in between serbs
kurats
and bosniaks and uh
mo the smaller the town is the the
bigger detention is
so this is a small small town here right
near sarajevo where mostly serbs live
there are probably some bosniaks some
muslims that used to live here before
the war that came
back after the war to to their homes
but i don't know now the facts the
numbers but it's a small percentage
so
[Music]
they are usually left in peace nobody
bothers them but
you know you got to keep to yourself and
[Music]
also other muslims from other parts of
let's say from sarajevo they would come
here only if they have any necessities
not really no do do we see any um
muslims like in in amer
in america what we have is um
we have open houses we invite
christian priests we invite christians
and they'll come to the jummahs they'll
observe
they'll ask questions we invite them we
have these open houses is there such a
thing
that's done here at all to invite the
neighbors to invite we invite our
neighbors
to get to know us to get to know islam
to ask their questions
not that i know this here is uh you
don't
you don't do that stuff around here
because this is mostly connected to
nationalism
so you don't want to invite a orthodox
serbian to a
masjid or they will not invite
they will not invite any let's say
muslims or or
croat catholics to their church
that just that stuff nobody does here
nobody does it here maybe this can be a
a um a start we can instead a good trend
huh
well this possibly inshallah this is a
start this
is a start we came here to the church to
talk to this priest
from my knowledge nobody does that
nobody has done this before so
but definitely it should it should it
can come
to to more of a peace between people
when they talk about openly let's say
you believe in this we believe in this
let's talk about it
is it dangerous do you think what we're
doing here people think this is
dangerous yes
it is kind of dangerous what we're doing
here you you never know how
he's gonna react if he's gonna see this
as a provocation
you know that he came here to provoke
him which we definitely did not
is that him i don't know let's go see
let's go come on
probably hi do you speak english
people starting to come out
in the church
because of all the pain that's been
caused in this area
you know just imagine if you had to you
needed a job and you needed to work in a
factory
and there was serbians creation there
maybe you'd you
you know because of the genocide things
that happened you didn't have
that good feeling towards someone but
you had to be professional you had to
work in the factory you had to work in
the job
you'd go there and you'd be professional
as
us we have to deliver the message of
there's nothing worthy of worship except
the greater allah we have to do that
and muhammad is the messenger so
that's what we're coming to do here
today in a peaceful benign way
with compassion with love and uh
inshallah we're
there's like a horse with a man on it
what does that mean you know
it's probably some kind of a saint that
they believe in
yeah i don't know which one it is yeah
i think he's coming out
how are you
okay should i talk in a
foreign
what we try to do is try to open the
doors of communication
between human beings specifically
between
muslims and christians so we can better
understand each other
the the
foreign
it used to be uh communication but it's
uh
getting lower yeah
m
there is a council that is here to to
communicate between religions and
yeah between religions
that movement was earlier in europe than
in america
you americans try to represent some
things now which europe already has
assad
on
would you like to see that this door
opens
of communication that muslims come here
you come there and we discuss and we
dialogue about religion about life about
purpose
what you
what do you think when we find in the
bible
in for instance matthew 19 19.
honor your father and your mother
and love your neighbor
it's more and more it's uh
less and less uh respect to the
mother and father and the
what about in luke 6 uh in the gospel of
luke chapter 6
27 where jesus is allegedly have said
but i say to you hear love your enemies
do good to those who hate you
tell
foreign
what do you think when you hear me say i
love jesus
did you know that i love jesus
i can go to the hellfire god will punish
me if i say one bad thing of jesus
we believe that he was one of the
mightiest messengers that god sent
to convey the message just like abraham
and moses that there's only one god and
you worship him alone
[Music]
yes
there's no need to ask these questions
yeah but this
this is to show you yes
yeah what's wrestling priest yeah this
is to show like when you
if me and you if i say hey you like
basketball say
yes you like football yes you like the
color blue
yes to show commonalities
toys
because christians are not going
anywhere muslims are not going anywhere
we have to live in this earth and we
have to find a common ground to live in
peace
and jesus tells us to love your enemies
to love your neighbor islam says the
same thing
islam in islam says that we also worship
one and only one god is
i grew up besides a mosque and a
catholic church
when others want the war i don't want a
war
so don't you think this is how we can
prevent something like that
is by communicating talking making the
human connection
[Music]
to
he
i left the war and you americans the
troops you came here yeah
i we i was reading an article where you
said
uh correct me if i'm wrong
that you felt like you lost your soul in
the stratosphere
what
over 120 000 packages i send over them
toy
packages i sent were for serbs and half
were for uh
crowds catholics and muslims did you
ever hear or study
the life of prophet muhammad peace and
blessings be upon him
muhammad
we believe that
the god out of his love
yeah so out of his love and mercy he
sent
messengers
and they all came with the same message
for human beings to submit their will to
the one god
make sense
and we believe muhammad is the final
messenger
he confirms jesus
moses abraham and
and and to love god
and to
much stronger than you guys over the
ocean
does he know what muslim means is
was paid to put it out like this he
swears he would
he would never say something like that
do you have any questions
that or misconceptions about islam or
muslims that you can ask
and maybe that can remove some of the
negative thoughts that you might have
forget about
forget about uh uh pretend like nothing
ever happened as far as war anything
we're just talking purely
you know from a religious standpoint
or islam
did he ever hear this does he know what
it means
does he know that during the time of
jesus they would say
isa rasulullah
did he hear it did he did he understand
that yes
yeah this does he when he hears the
adhan does he know what that means
he's not until
is
thank you thank you uh does um so
when when when you hear these things
like you know when when the is that
god is the greatest god is the great did
you know it means that yes
did you know that in the gospel of
matthew
26 39 that it says jesus
and he went a little further and he fell
on his face and he prayed to god
the imam will be bleeding the curse is
what
my muslims here are complaining about
the arabs
they pray differently to god than the
muslims here
yeah but what do you think about when
jesus then when he fell
on his face and prayed to god how we do
the same way
that's another similarity i'm showing
just these are just similarity
commonalities
is
what do you think in aramaic aramaic
right
allah
there's a root in all the languages
i'm just showing these similarities
because we there is so much
now that you can see that brings people
together rather
did he know that in the quran there's a
whole chapter named after the blessed
mother of jesus called maryam
as a gift oh he was giving qurans as a
gift yeah
do you believe in destiny
do you think we're here by destiny today
everything's up everything happens by
god's will
is there any questions that uh anything
about islam there anything that
that while we're here that we can answer
or anything that you might have
islam
and can i and then can i give him a gift
[Music]
it's nice for my library yeah
i want to thank you for sitting with us
and i would like to continue that legacy
that all the prophets brought
of us working together to
collaborate with our neighbors in
goodness
and we love
and
the ten commandments the ten
commandments to honor the father and the
neighbors
people don't come to the houses of
worship
probably that's the problem
with
[Music]
the mosque in sarajevo is full but
the other day is let's say friday
there's not many people
uh two three thousand people but the
church
came about two hundred dollars
yeah so thank you very much and i would
i would um
like to see these doors open and
inshallah you can um help
us to start this good work
and i would also i would sincerely
humbly i would request
that you look more into the life of the
last and final messenger sent to mankind
prophet muhammad
who came with the same message as jesus
calling people to la illahi
there's nothing worthy of worship but
the one god and muhammad is the
messenger i would
uh
in the quran there are over 560
from the passage from the bible like
when moses came he said hero israel the
lord thy god is one
grim
that's why you'll see the same thing in
[Music]
quran
and there are roots in the old testament
so we would say if you had the old
testament new testament the quran is the
last and final testament
is
be
i believe and i don't believe that
muhammad is the messenger
do you believe that no one should be
worshipped except the one god alone
yeah yes and if we if you look
if you can confirm that muhammad is the
messenger then
you would be fulfilling what god
almighty wants all of us to fulfill in
this life
without partners
how does he think about the first
commandment in the bible it says thou
shalt have no other gods except one god
thou shall not uh worship anything in
the heavens and the earth
all right
so we just uh finished uh
the uh short little talk and interview
with the uh
head priest here serbian uh
priest uh how do you think that went
he says he worships only one god he was
friendly to us
not what we may have expected
uh to be you know insulted he didn't
think we came here to insult him yeah
uh to provoke him so we had a nice
conversation friendly conversation
yeah uh i was making the example like
because there's a lot of tension in this
area
some people uh from bosnians or
from muslims around these parts you
think some people are going to get
really
angry that we came here that we sat with
someone who's a known technique
and some people will say that this
person you know probably
being a commander uh in this uh
genocide that happened killed so many
people and then why are you guys sitting
with him do you think there's going to
be some of that
resentment i think they will i think
there will be there's always people who
could think this way
there's always people who think uh
in the nationalism mindset
uh you you don't go talk to these people
he
he hates muslims he killed muslims and
you have no business talking to these
people calling them to islam
now anybody who has i gave an example if
you had to work
at a factory we talked about that
yesterday if you had to work at a
factory
and there were serbs working there uh
chutney's working there
you had to earn your livelihood do you
think they would work in that factory
yes i mean they'd be professional about
it it would be professional you have
your job you have your paycheck
so you got to work with these people
yeah but we have to be
beyond professionalism when it comes to
this deen
and sharing the message this is what
allah the creator told us to do
yes and it's not up to us to choose who
is going to
submit to god or who is not
submitting who is not supposed to submit
to god it's not up to us to choose
and it's not up to us who are we going
to choose to deliver the message to or
not
no that's uh we have as the prophet
muhammad
ali salam had to deliver the message who
is going to
follow the message who is going to
submit to god
that's allah's will yeah and our job is
to deliver the message to whomever
one thing that came to mind because we
know that allah is
rahim and there was the man who killed
99 you know the story of the man who
killed
99 people and then he went to the monk
and he said because now
it was eating them away and he went
there and said is there any mercy for me
what do i do he said what you killed 99
people
and then he told him he said you know
hey you're done there's there's no hope
for you he killed him too now he killed
a hundred
and then he went to a learning man and
that learned man
gave him the proper advice he told him
to leave this area
and obviously he told him about turning
to his crater alone without association
turning to the one god
and then he went and on his way he died
and then he was actually closer
to the place he had just left but then
the angels
came and they asked where should we put
this person because the angel of
punishment came the angels of mercy
and then allah made it that his way
because he said wherever he was closer
to
that's where he'll go now imagine this
person killed a hundred people
but he turned away from
setting up partners with allah away from
the evil he came and he repented
and then allah made the way that he was
going towards closer and he admitted him
to jannah
yes and this is a perfect example for
this
that we should do call everybody
to islam to allah to submit to allah so
as i said it's not up to us to choose
who is
good for it or not yeah so i think we
did our part
we told him about la ilaha yes we told
him about
the last and final messenger sent to
mankind the prophet muhammad which he
said he
does and does not believe yeah so
it's a step closer yeah and we shared
some of the commonalities
there and we did our part insha'allah
the people if he doesn't accept the
people that are watching the serbs and
others who are tuning in
who have a problem with this trinity who
doesn't make sense they're also
doing things in life that's not bringing
them peace solace and contentment
they're searching for purpose
yes inshallah this can be a means that
can help them
to overcome that nationalism and to not
see muslims as the other
and all the other things that they're
programmed to believe and maybe they can
come
to the purpose of life the true purpose
of life of only worshiping the one god
alone doing good deeds being morally
upright and this could be a means for
them
yes and also an example that we can come
here to the serbian part
and openly talk we came here to the
church
which everybody would think it was it
was dangerous
i myself thought it would be dangerous
but we had a nice conversation
yeah thank you guys here in republic of
subscribe in bosnia
salaam have you have you ever read the
quran have you ever looked into the life
of
the last and final messenger sent to
mankind prophet muhammad peace and
blessings be upon him
[Music]
yes
do you know that it's an article of
faith in islam to believe in love jesus
there's actually also
a chapter named after his blessed mother
[Music]
we believe that every messenger came
with the same message
calling people to only worship one god
[Music]
so the reason i say this is because when
we see these similarities
then we can go ahead and see like
there's so many things in common
and it can help to destroy some of those
barriers
okay
and when we say jesus we say peace be
upon him
yeah and we believe that jesus came with
the same message as muhammad
first it was a negation not to worship
anything other
except the one god and affirming that
god is only one
and what we uh christians have to have
is a
love between each other what about the
neighbors who are non-christian
because jesus didn't limit that love
as
so i'm glad how this went i i i wasn't
sure what to expect
what's gonna happen i i didn't think
this is gonna happen this is gonna
i wasn't sure how the people here are
gonna react to us
uh coming here to this small community
of serbs
orthodox people calling them to islam so
i thought it might they might get
offended they might think we came here
to provoke them
uh i also had in my mind a small
possibility
even some guns would be drawn but
alhamdulillah
everything went good we they
accepted us here they talked to us
nicely in a nice manner
so everything went very very good yeah
this can be a start for others watching
us who live
in this area they don't have to
wait for us to go to the next place yes
people can start doing this
in your local town you make the
initiative we talked about being
professional
be professional for your dean go ahead
and
do it this is a mandate from allah this
is this is something that the creator
that happens on earth has mandated
on all of us and especially these
institutions that
are organized you know the ones who who
have control of uh
you know the uh what do you call them
here the um
the institution yeah the islamic
institutions and the
orthodox church and the catholics yeah
so especially at a higher level
these people who organize they should be
organizing this they're the ones
in this religious council as he said
the priest they meet once or twice a
year
that's that's that's that's not enough
now see we have organizations
uh in in americas and and usually people
from here
they end up following us over there but
they're late about it so we're
we're bringing it up to speed be so they
don't have to they can not wait for
another war to happen and things erupt
but really truly uh not to compromise
your deen now see what happened before
people are becoming friends and now
you're drinking alcohol eating pork you
know
uh becoming you know what you're
supposed to be calling people to right
yes uh losing your identity hold your
identity
you're one who has submitted to the will
of the creator you're a muslim you're to
be kind you should be compassionate
merciful
but you need to be professional and not
let this your ego your hatred
for people block you from delivering
this message
yes i mean imagine go talk to these
people
and if they start accepting islam
one two five ten
when they start accepting islam it's
much better for the peace
here in bosnia and to live together than
to
from hate you have nothing from hate and
uh
provoking each other and uh you can only
bring uh more hatred and even
it can develop to to another war yeah
and and at the end of the day i mean the
crater is the one allah is the one who
makes believers but
at the end you can tear down some of
those those walls
uh you can make help to remove many of
the abu jahls that are out there make
abu talibs right
that tomorrow you know you have people
now you
they develop a better understanding of
uh who
what islam is who muslims are and you
know
inshallah some great good can come from
this and you guys can start now we uh
we planted the seed you guys can go
ahead and uh who are watching out here
um maybe take the next step and uh
try to continue while we're trying to
start here well the people also people
who don't know
about their own religion islam the
people in
here in sarajevo when they want to
insult insult
a serb or a crowd they go and curse
jesus
which you're insulting yourself and your
religion then if you curse jesus
yeah so
sharing these commonalities talking
about some positive things delivering
the message sharing the purpose
of the people here in bosnia coming out
from the republic of sripska
and uh in closing
what stood out from this interview is
when we asked the priest
if he believed that prophet muhammad
peace and blessings be upon him was a
messenger sent by the creator allah he
didn't say yes or no
another thing is that we kept repeating
repeating
the simple message of toheed of the
oneness
of allah of the creator and you notice
that he agreed he kept saying monotheism
so we end with this we ask our cre
our christian friends neighbors
to really reflect and specifically those
in this part
that if you do believe
in the almighty the creator
it's a simple shift from going from
throwing up because the serbs are known
to do this
which represents three and they say not
three but one
but in reality all the messengers
including jesus they never did this
they never said trinity knew about
trinity nor did they throw opportunity
what they did was they did this
and what this signifies is the pure
monotheism
is the belief in truly one
god and i'll end with an ayah from the
verbatim word of god
that we invited the priests and all of
you
to read the quran where god almighty
this is your creator and mind speaking
where allah says
say he is allah the one and only the
absolute the eternal
he begets not nor is he begotten and
there is
nothing comparable to allah the creator
of the heavens and earth
not jesus now muhammad nothing in
creation is the creator
jesus worshiped one god now the trinity
moses and abraham and all the messengers
that allah said including muhammad peace
and blessings be upon him who is the
last and final messenger
they all call to the pure monotheism
and closing up in the quran allah tells
us
in the dina in the law islam that the
only way of life
acceptable to allah
to the creator is the submission and
surrender to the one god this is how you
truly get peace
and that in one word is summed up islam
that's what it is peace acquired by
submitting your will
not to a human being not to materialism
not to money not to stick to a stone to
a bone nothing in creation
but to one god this is islam and whoever
hears
about prophet muhammad peace and
blessings be upon him and we say this
with love and compassion
and denies him this is
just like us if we denied prophet jesus
peace be upon him or we elevate him to a
status of god
this can get us into the hellfire or
anybody the same way if you deny
muhammad peace and blessings be upon him
as the last and final messenger
he said the one who denies me hears
about me he'll also be in the hellfire
we say this with compassion and love
because we want
you and all of us to be together in the
jannah and the only way we can get to
the gender the paradise
is by worshiping the creator on his
terms not our desires
alone without any partners or associates
as one god and doing good righteous
deeds and this
is how we get the mercy and the jannah
of allah of the creator peace be with
you
assalamu