Welcome to the Middle Nation. Although this is maybe more for the "moon uh" playlist, a number of people have asked me to

respond to the interview on the Dean Show with Andrew Tate. Muslims, for whatever reason, want to recruit this guy. I

mean, Alhamdulillah, we want to spread Islam. We want people to convert. We want to make dawah and so on.

And so on. If you're only interested in getting this person to accept Islam, you don't have to do it in front of a

camera. You could talk to the guy; you know, you can just talk to the guy personally and explain Islam to him and

so on and so on. When you're doing it on a show, obviously you have divided motives. You know, on one hand,

yeah, you want to make dawah; on another hand, you want to be seen making dawah; and on another hand, this is a name

that's going to get you clicks and it's going to get a lot of people viewing the thing. For example, I'm doing a

response video, so that's one of the reasons why they would have Andrew Tate on the show in the first

place. I just started watching the first few minutes of it, and they begin by—the brother on the Dean Show, the

host of the Dean Show—is asking him, "Do you know the words of the adhan?" Because he—Andrew Tate—has a video of him

in his fancy car with his fancy watch outside of a masjid while the adhan is playing. So he's asking him, "Do you know

the words of the adhan?" And he said no. Since he's become known in the Muslim world for having

said things about his, uh, version of respect for Islam, over the course of these months, his respect for Islam and his interest in

Islam hasn't even prompted him to know what's being said in the adhan, even though he's hearing it in Dubai five

times a day, but his curiosity is such that, uh, it did not prompt him to find that out on his own. I've got it on speed

it up because I didn't want to watch this in the first place, but I'm watching it because y'all requested it, uh,

my first impression is that this guy's respect for Islam [Music] is a *dunya*-based type of respect.

And I can compare that to, you know, in prison, everyone forms gangs: there are Black gangs, Latino gangs,

Asian gangs, White gangs, and Muslim gangs. And the most—one of the most formidable, maybe the most formidable,

group of people in the prison population are the Muslims. Nobody messes with the Muslims because the Muslims protect each other. This is

sort of like the framework through which he has respect for Islam: that nobody messes with the Muslims.

If you were to get on the wrong side of the Muslims in prison, that's a big problem for you,

because the Muslims have very strong beliefs, and they [Music] members of the community will act out

their commitment and their conviction in those beliefs, sometimes in violent ways if they are offended. He likes the things that

he likes the things about Islam that are the stereotypical ideas about Muslims held by Islamophobes. You know, it's very similar

to someone like Daniel, or a lot of the extremist sides in our community, who have not really learned the religion

properly, and they've learned what they've learned about Islam from mostly Western sources, and mostly Western

sources who are hostile towards Islam, and who stereotype Islam, and who have very negative views about Islam. The idea that Muslims

are violent, that Muslims are oppressive, that Muslims oppress women—and these are stereotypes that Muslims have

tried to fight and have tried to correct, but there is a segment of the Muslim community who embraces those stereotypes

and thinks, yeah, we shouldn't apologize for that; that's the way we are, and it's right. Um,

these are the most ignorant in our community, but there are people who embrace those stereotypes and who want to be, you know, the tough

guy on the block, and they think that, well, the Muslims are the tough guys, so we want to be the tough guy.

That's the way I see so far; his view of Islam is that it's the toughest gang

in the prison—the world is a prison—and the toughest gang in the prison are the Muslims, and

so they're formidable, and I respect them. That's kind of the position that he's taking, as far as I can tell. Okay, so I'm

continuing on with the video, and he's talking about how in a place like Qatar or the UAE or Saudi Arabia, you could fall

asleep in the middle of the road with a million dollars in your lap, and no one will take it from you because everyone

has values and principles and ethics and law and order. [Music] See, again, it's the idea of

the earthly benefits, as he perceives them, of the strictness of Islam in maintaining order, which is again akin to

a Muslim prison gang that you don't mess with. But here's a—here's a problem in that

he's talking about how the Muslims have spiritual values and they're worried about *Yawm al-Qiyamah* and the *Akhirah*, but he's viewing the entire religion in materialistic terms. Of course, you couldn't fall asleep in

Dubai with a million dollars in your lap and not have it be taken from you. Uh, but that's his experience because

Also, he's a millionaire; he's a rich man. So, whenever he goes to any part of the world, he's in the rich part.

He's in the rich part of Dubai; he's not in, uh, you know, he's not where the workers are.

He's not—he's not in the labor camps; he doesn't see the other side

of these countries. The point is, this guy is a materialist. I mean, the video of him outside of

the mosque is a perfect example, showing off his fancy car and his fancy watch. Uh, so his whole way of understanding

Islam and his appreciation for Islam is materialistic. Yet, the thing that he is pointing to that he

appreciates about Islam is that it is not materialistic. So there's a confusion there. Now, again,

okay, this guy could come to Islam, and he could change. Many people have done that; many people were low-lives and terrible people

before they came to Islam, and then they became Muslim, and they were righteous and good. That I'm not saying that it's impossible

that that could happen to Andrew Tate, but what I don't like is that everyone is kind of

pursuing this guy and trying to recruit him into Islam because they have in their heads that this guy is basically

already Muslim in his worldview, when actually he's completely wrong in so many things that if he were to come

to Islam, he would have to make a 180-degree change in his view of women, in his treatment of

women, and the meaning of life, and his lifestyle would have to make radical changes. It's not that this guy

is basically Muslim already in his worldview; he is radically outside of any Islamic framework of understanding life.

It's a misunderstanding by a certain segment of our community that's trying to recruit this man into Islam; they think

that his views already align with Islamic views, when they do not.  They see him as someone who came to Islam...

myself, in my early twenties, and who's known many converts to Islam—um, I don't know anyone...

and myself included; no one that I know came to Islam on the basis of Islam's worldly benefits to society.

We came to Islam searching for the truth and what Allah expects from us in terms

of worship. Most people who come to Islam make a religious journey of: I know that Allah exists,

and I want to know what He wants from me. I want to know how I can stand before Allah

and be safe, be satisfactory, and be acceptable to Allah. Like I said, everyone that I've ever known who came to Islam came to

Islam on this basis. I don't know anyone who came to Islam on the basis of the worldly benefits of Islam for

society. His respect for Islam is based on this evaluation, and his critique of the West, which is

largely correct. His critique of the West is largely correct, um, and he sees that Islam is the

solution to the problems that the West has, and that is correct. But it's a very superficial...

I don't—I don't blame the man. I think he's a superficial person with a superficial mind and a superficial mentality because he comes

from the West, so of course he's going to think that way. But his exploration of Islam is not deeper than that.

He sees it for its social utility—the stability that Islam provides to a society—and there's nothing wrong with

That's fine, but I don't see that as a basis for converting to Islam.

Come to Islam because it is the truth, not because of the worldly stabilizing effect that Islam can have on society

and on families. That's a byproduct of acceptance of the truth and conformity with the truth; that's a byproduct. I will

say that one of the things that made me start to look at Islam was my admiration for Malcolm X

and my admiration for Malcolm X in terms of his discipline, in terms of his courage, in terms of his honesty. So I

looked at it in terms of: these are qualities of character that one can associate with belief in Islam.

I didn't look at it in terms of, 'Well, Islam built a stable society, stable families, patriarchy,' what and so on and so on and

low crime and all of these things. These are all byproducts. The objective of Islam isn't the stable

society; the objective is to worship Allah and to conform to the truth in all aspects of life. So a byproduct of

that is the stability of society. This is also a problem with Islamism, by the way. Political Islam,

frames the religion in terms of its impact on society and the building of a stable, safe, secure, healthy community. All of that's fine,

but that can't be the primary emphasis on the importance and the value of the religion. Now, okay, he just said something

interesting. Would you marry...? Like he's talking about his critique of the West and saying men don't want to get married

and he said, 'Would you want to marry some chick that you met in a club in Miami,

you know, two o'clock in the morning, or whatever, drunk girl at the club?' Would you want to...

That's wife material, okay? But are you husband material, though? Why are you in the club? You know, I mean, his critique of Western

society is based on his own participation in all of the things that he's criticizing. That's why he has the knowledge and the

insights to criticize them, because he's a participant in that. Okay, so he just said, "What's the point of a belief system

if it doesn't uh, create a stable society?" The point of Islam, the point of a religion, is to please your creator and

to uh, secure your Akhirah. I mean, Ibrahim Alaihissalam didn't create a

stable society. Didn't create a stable society. Didn't create a stable society. You know, there's only been what? Nabi Musa

created the stable community. [Music] Created a stable community. It's a good, stable society. And Rasool Allah created

a stable society. Were the belief systems of all of the prophets, you know, were the belief systems of all

of the prophets useless because they did not create a stable society? No, they were valuable because they were the truth

and because they pleased Allah. If you conform with it, if they form a stable society, Alhamdulillah. But the point is, it's the

truth, regardless of what the worldly consequences may be. So again, it just seems clear—I'm I'm not actually going

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