Solidarity with Migrant Labor in Abu Dhabi:
A Friday Sermon from NYU
Jumu’ah prayers at New York University are held in the Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life, or what we affectionately call “G-Castle.” This recently-constructed building cost tens of millions of dollars, and like all nice buildings, required the work of many hands to make it come into being. We thank the architects, donors, construction workers, engineers, and university administrators that made it possible, for every day we benefit from its presence in our lives. Alhamdulillah (All praise is due to God).
But imagine for a moment that the construction workers — the group involved with the building of this building who have the least social power — felt they had been treated unjustly. Imagine that they organized together and tried to get the construction company to address their concerns. Facing repeated denials of their request, imagine they organized a strike to make their voices heard, and put pressure on those who had power. All of this so far seems pretty usual and understandable for us, living in the wake of over a century of labor activism in the United States. But now imagine that the leader of the strike was detained by security forces, beaten up, and deported from the United States. I think I can safely speak for all of us — that is something that we would not accept, not as Americans, not as Muslims, not as human beings.
Last week, the New York Times, Newsweek, and other major media outlets reported that NYU Professor Andrew Ross was denied entry to Abu Dhabi — one of the seven emirates that make up the country known as the United Arab Emirates (or UAE for short) — because he was researching the mistreatment of laborers who build buildings there, such as the buildings that make up NYU’s brand new campus in Abu Dhabi. Now, this was a clear and obvious violation of NYU’s attempt to make a campus with real academic freedom, something which is serious in and of itself. But more than just the academic concerns of NYU, it was an attempt to derail efforts at shining more light on the systematic oppression of thousands upon thousands of migrant laborers primarily from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, working in the UAE.
As Professor Ross wrote in an online piece for The Baffler:
“No one can doubt that the funds are available to implement these necessary [labor rights] changes. Money abounds in the UAE; the real obstacle here is power. In Gulf societies, a small elite draws on a vast servant class (in the UAE, up to 90 percent of the population) for all of its needs. Under those conditions, any improvements in pay and conditions of employment threaten to unravel the tight web of controls and strictures that keeps the system in place. Conceding that such improvements are eminently affordable might set in motion a revolution in rising expectations. That is why even the smallest and most isolated displays of worker insurgency in the UAE call down such draconian crackdowns. Strikes, as our Gulf Labor team discovered, are already quite common at some of the major contractors. In the instances we investigated, the leaders of work stoppages — or anyone branded a leader by the police — were summarily beaten and deported. Our team also found that few of the promised employer concessions arising from the actions had yet to materialize.”
So just as we would not accept such behavior here, we do not accept such behavior there. Just as we demand accountability from those with wealth and power here, we demand accountability from those with wealth and power there. We do so because the laborers are human beings who deserve better. We do so because they are our Muslim brothers whose plight causes us pain. We do so because when I say they are our “brothers,” I am 100% sure that I am not the only member of this congregation who has extended family members in South Asia that hardly ever see their husbands, fathers, and sons because they are away in the Gulf trying to earn a decent living. And we also do so because we want to help our other brothers in Abu Dhabi who have almost all of the power right now.
Many of us have heard the narration of our beloved Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him and his family, as related by the Sunni hadith scholar al-Bukhari:
“Help your brother whether he is an oppressor or oppressed,” A man said, O Allah’s Messenger! I will help him if he is oppressed, but if he is an oppressor, how shall I help him?” The Prophet said, “By preventing him from oppressing, for that is how to help him.”
So the Muslim community of NYU in New York City should want to help those who are oppressing migrant labor in Abu Dhabi and elsewhere. We do so be urging them to refrain from this oppression. Human Rights Watch has documented this extensively, and so it is not a matter of debating whether or not it has happened. Nor is it a matter of cultural difference between the United States and the United Arab Emirates — this is a universal issue that concerned the Messenger who was not just sent to the Arabs, but to all of the ‘Ajam (non-Arabs) as well, may blessings and peace be upon him and his family. As the Sunni hadith scholar Abu Dawud relates, he even forbade overburdening camels, let alone oppressing human beings!
The Messenger of Allah entered an orchard belonging to an Ansari and saw there a camel. When it saw him, it began to groan and its eyes shed tears. The Messenger of Allah approached it and patted it on the hump and the base of its head until it quieted down. Then he asked, “Who is the owner of this camel? To whom does it belong?” An Ansari youth stepped forward and said: “It is mine, O Messenger of Allah!” He said, “Do you not fear Allah in respect of this beast which Allah has placed in your possession? This camel is complaining to me that you starve it and put it to toil.”
What a beautiful example from the one who was sent as a mercy to all the worlds. How many powerful and moving lessons for a world filled with tears and pain can be extracted from this one narration!
To hearts filled with iman (faith), all the Prophet had to do was say, ”Do you not fear Allah” in order to elicit a change in people’s behavior. We today struggle to be moved in a similar way — we require long khutbas like this one, 80-page documents by Human Rights Watch, repeated articles in the NY Times, and so on before we realize we might be involved in an injustice. Just to be clear, I am speaking about myself in this regard.
But it is not just the Best of Creation, may blessings and peace be upon him and his family, who can remind someone’s heart. Even a slave — the classical metaphor for the weakest of all — has the right and responsibility to remind the believers of their duty to Allah.
There is a Qur’anic description of the righteous that reads:
“those who give, both in prosperity and adversity, who restrain their anger and pardon people- God loves those who do good“ (3.134)
In the Shi’i hadith collection “al-Amali” of al-Shaykh al-Saduq, it states regarding Ali ibn al-Husayn Zayn al-’Abidin, the great-grandson of the Prophet, the fourth Shi’i Imam, and a revered scholarly and spiritual figure in the Sunni tradition:
One of the slave girls of Imam Zayn al-`Abidin was pouring water on his hands while performing ablution when all of a sudden the water jug hit him and hurt the Imam’s face. The Imam raised his head towards her. The slave girl said: “Allah says, ‘Those who restrain their anger.’” The Imam said, “I restrained my anger.” She said, “…and pardon men.” He said, “I pardoned you.” She said, “…and Allah loves the doers of good.” He said, “You are free for the sake of Allah.”
Would that the quoting of a few lines of the Qur’an could open our hearts so much that we could free a human being for the sake of Allah!
The reason that a slave can speak to a spiritual master and remind him of high ethics is because the truth is that worldly standing does not determine our position before Allah. For most human beings, our rank is hidden. In a different Shi’i hadith collection by al-Shaykh al-Saduq, entitled “al-Khisal,” he narrates from the same person, Ali Zayn al-Abidin, who quotes Ali ibn Abi Talib:
“Surely, Allah (Blessed and Exalted) has concealed four things in four things. He has concealed His pleasure in obedience to Him, so do not make little of any act of obedience to Him, for it may agree with His pleasure even though you do not know it. He has hidden His wrath in disobeying Him, so do not make light of any act of disobeying Him, for it may agree with His wrath while you are unaware. He has concealed His answer in supplicating Him, so do not make little of supplicating Him, for it may match His answer while you do not know. He has hidden His friends among His servants, for one may be His friend and you do not know it.”
How do the rulers of Abu Dhabi know that the men working to build their buildings are not greater awliya (protected friends of Allah) than the men in turbans who preach in their masajid (mosques)? How do they know that the sin of oppressing migrant laborers is less than a sin that they would never consider, such as defiling the Ka’ba (the Sacred House in Makkah). The fact of the matter is, they don’t. They, and us, need to fear Allah’s justice which might take us to account for that which we refuse to admit. In the case of Abu Dhabi, the New York Times has talked about it. Human Rights Watch has talked about it. And now a professor who works for our university — the same university that Abu Dhabi wanted to have in their country — is talking about it. So at the very least we all need to own up to it.
We know from various ahadith that someone should not broadcast their sins when Allah has covered them. But Allah has not covered this sin — everyone knows it, and yet people in power like to do whatever they can to keep it out of the spotlight! That is why Professor Ross was not allowed into the country — damage control. If Abu Dhabi thinks they are treating the workers properly, and that they have nothing to hide in front of the world, then let Professor Ross come and don’t intimidate him! Let journalists come as well! We here at the Islamic Center of NYU have praised Ayman Mohyeldin at NBC News for exposing the murder last summer by the IDF of four kids on the beach in Gaza, even though the Israeli government wanted to cover it up. Similarly, we praise Professor Ross for trying to bring light to this situation, even though the Abu Dhabi government wants it covered up. And we similarly praise the journalists who expose our own government’s oppression, such as those who are still fighting to expose the extent of the torture that happened at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq during the occupation.
We as a community cannot pretend like we do not understand this situation. We know what justice and injustice are much of the time without needing a fatwa (scholarly legal opinion in Islamic law). That is why I began this khutba (sermon) with the imaginary story of the deported construction worker — we wouldn’t hesitate to act if it were right at our doorstep. Similarly, we don’t need a fatwa to know that it is the right thing to advocate on behalf of migrant labor in the Gulf, as members of the NYU community who are complicit in this injustice at a certain level.
In this situation, as in so many other situations, being silent means that those who abuse get to continue their abuse.
It is part of the prophetic legacy to oppose systemic injustices. All the Qur’anic verses and hadiths that speak about improving the rights of women were meant to counteract the systemic injustices inflicted upon women prior to the advent of the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him and his family. All the Qur’anic verses and hadiths that speak about the rights of the poor and weak are part of a campaign to redress the systemic injustices inflicted upon them in the era of jahiliya (ignorance). Systemic injustices undoubtedly exist, and the exploitation of labor is one of its major manifestations. Muslims may disagree on the details regarding various forms of injustice and the proper means to redress it, but to think that Islam is unconcerned with systemic injustice is not only wrong, it is the type of thinking that almost always leads to the justification of social evils in the name of an incomplete piety.
The fact that otherwise pious people sometimes overlook systemic injustices was addressed by Ayatollah Khomeini when he wrote the following in a 20th century Iranian context: “Since the range of thought of some people is confined to the mosque we are now sitting in and is incapable of extending any further, when they hear the expression ‘consumption of what is forbidden,’ they can only think of some corner grocer who is (God forbid) selling his customers short. They never think of the whole range of more important forms of ‘consuming what is forbidden,’ of plunder. Huge amounts of capital are being swallowed up; our public funds are being embezzled; our oil is being plundered; and our country is turned into a market for expensive, unnecessary goods by the representatives of foreign companies, which makes it possible for foreign capitalists and their local agents to pocket the people’s money. A number of foreign states carry off our oil after drawing it out of the ground, and the negligible sum they pay to the regime they have installed returns to their pockets by other routes. As for the small amount that goes into the treasury, God only knows what it is spent on. All of this is a form of ‘consumption of what is forbidden’ that takes place on an enormous scale, in fact on an international scale. It is not merely an evil, but a hideous and most dangerous evil. Examine carefully the conditions of society and the actions of the government and its component organs, and then you will understand what hideous ‘consumption of what is forbidden’ is taking place now.”
What Khomeini said in regards to the extraction of oil is relevant to many global commodities. Our search for piety — whether it be the stations of taqwa (changing one’s actions due to an awareness of God), or wara’ (being very careful to avoid anything even remotely harmful to one’s spiritual state), or zuhd (being unconcerned with the pleasures of the world) — does not simply extend to concern with who cut the throat of the cow we are about to eat, and how he cut it. It also concerns the creation of large-scale global agribusiness, and the production of beef as a global commodity, such that the increasing demand for beef is one of primary drivers of the burning of the Amazonian rainforest. It does not simply concern the ruling on drinking our morning cup of coffee (e.g., intending it as an act of worship so as to get the energy needed to have a productive morning!), but also the concern for who grew the beans, whether or not they were paid a fair price, if they have access to adequate healthcare, and other matters that our consumption patterns have the power to dictate globally!
So when we read what is related in the Sunni collection of forty hadith by al-Nawawi:
“…Then he (blessings and peace be upon him and his family) mentioned a man who, having journeyed far, is disheveled and dusty, and who spreads out his hands to the sky saying, ‘O Lord! O Lord!’ while his food is haram [unlawful], his drink is haram, his clothing is haram, and he has been nourished with haram, so how can his supplication be answered?”
We remember that it is more than simply concern for avoiding pork and alcohol. It is more than simply concern for the injustice that comes from mistreating the person from whom we buy our food down the street. It is also unavoidable that it has to do with systemic issues, such as how that food is transported to us from the other side of the country, or how that food was produced for us on the other side of the planet. We cannot erase the fact that we are part of a global system — that, for example, the work of a cab driver in New York City pays for the wellbeing of his kids in Senegal — and that we are responsible. The Qur’an talks of a city being provided its provisions from every direction — New York and Abu Dhabi are such cities! — and that Allah’s punishment will come if we are ungrateful. So we have to take heed.
If this building that we are praying in right now was built on the clear oppression of exploited labor, I would wonder about the efficacy of our prayers today. And so this goes to the core of our fear of Allah, our fear of the the One who determines whether or not our worship is accepted, our fear of the most just of those who show justice (‘adal al-’adileen). It is not just about our brothers and sisters in the UAE — it is about all of us implicated in global systemic injustices. We speak about Abu Dhabi and Professor Ross because it is something that involves us, just as many of us in this community marched and spoke up to protest the unjust murder of Eric Garner by our own city’s police department.
But there is an important difference in this specific situation. Just as I can take my city’s cops to account for injustice, just as I can take my President to task for killing innocent civilians with drones, so too can I hold the Emir of Abu Dhabi and other relevant authorities responsible for allowing this oppression to happen. I can post articles from the NY Times and reports by Human Rights Watch that detail the abuses of workers in the Gulf. And I can encourage all of you to do as well. But what I have heard from multiple sources in the UAE is that you cannot do such things there — it is off limits, and there are harsh penalties in store for those who anger the small elite who holds power. So the fact is that we in New York City have an even greater burden to speak up, and use our privileges in the right way, if Allah so wills.
Accountability and transparency are not Western inventions — they are Divinely-manifested realities that will become clear in the next life:
“So whoever has done the tiniest speck of good will see it, and whoever has done the tiniest speck of evil will see it.” (99.7–8)
And so if the rulers of Abu Dhabi are not going to let Human Rights Watch, or the NY Times, or Professor Ross see it — and through those means let all of us here at NYU see it — and the workers will remain to suffer from the abuse of the rich and powerful, than surely we must all know with certainty that our own eyes will see it on the Last Day. The Day when everyone who was oppressed lines up to extract from his oppressor the rights that Allah gave him. When every tear that was shed by an overburdened and toiling man will be wiped away by the mercy to all the worlds, may blessings and peace be upon him and his family. And it will come to pass, as is related by Bukhari: “Allah will hold the whole earth, and roll all the heavens up in His Right Hand, and then He will say, ‘I am the King; where are the kings of the Earth?’”
May Allah open our eyes to these systemic injustices, and give us the courage to help the oppressors within our own souls and the oppressors out there in the world by stopping the oppression. May Allah give us the strength of iman to know that whatever worldly pleasure we are seeking — whether it be the admiration of the rich and powerful, the praise of the intellectual class, residing in beautiful buildings, earning prestigious degrees, eating a cheeseburger, drinking a cup of coffee, getting a cab ride, or whatever — that none of this can compare to the delights promised to the righteous in the next life, the highest of which is nearness to the Lord of all the worlds, and so we are more than happy to do without it in this world if it means harming others in order to get it, ameen.
R. David Coolidge is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at NYU where he teaches a course about contemporary Islamic law, as well as gives sermons and leads halaqas (study circles) at the Islamic Center at NYU (ICNYU). More of his writings can be accessed at his blog, A Mercy Case.
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