 As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. So brothers and sisters, as you can see, this program is entitled seeking, pursuing justice beyond the new cycle, practical steps towards meaningful solutions. And one reason we wanted to address this issue from this particular angle is a lot of times these horrific killings they occur. And we could spend the entire time, the entire hour and a half, just listing off the names of those who have been killed. And the time would not suffice. We're talking about 1,000 human beings every year in this country. A little, almost three every single day. Every single day in the United States of America, three people approximately are killed by police. Does that mean all police are bad? No, but it definitely indicates that there's an institutional problem that requires some deep solutions because it's a problem, it's a nagging problem that has been with us in this country since its inception. It's particularly complex and particularly violent in the context of the African-American community because the former slave population was a population that was monitored, that was controlled. If someone moved, it wasn't a question. If you moved out of state, it means someone's property has absconded with himself or herself. And so you've stolen someone's property. And one of the functions of police was to make sure that the property remained on the plantation. And if the property was for whatever, by whatever means removed from the plantation, that was hunted down and brought back. And that was an aspect of policing. It's not all of policing. Certainly, there are positive things and some of our speakers will talk about that. But these are things we need to consider. The particular moment we're in is a powerful moment. It's a powerful moment. And if one can't see that, I don't know what to say. When the entire world can respond to the killing of one human being. As I said, there are three a day. What made this incident so particularly grievous and odious and foul that it elicited a global response, that it elicited a response in this country that got the NFL, the NBA, major league baseball, one of the, in terms of sports leagues, one of the most profound and powerful statements came not from the NFL, which is overwhelmingly an African-American league, not from the NBA and overwhelmingly African-American league, but from the National Hockey League, which is overwhelmingly Euro-American. But they have one of the most profound statements. So when hearts are moved like that, when hearts are touched like that, it's a moment that we should not let go or not allow to pass by without some serious and deep reflecting. And that's what we plan to do tonight, brothers and sisters. We plan to reflect, we plan to share and we plan to give positive advice, make some positive suggestions based on the work of our various presenters. So we like to start by reminding you or mentioning rather, as I said at the outset, this is a particularly vexing problem. It's a complex problem. It defies easy solutions. If easy cookie cutter textbook solutions could solve the problem of race relations in the United States, could solve the problems of police brutality in the United States. The problem would have been solved a long time ago, but the fact that we see not only the murder of George Floyd, not only the killing of Breonna Taylor, not only the stalking and the murder and then the effing nigger, I'll just say it, there's the last thing that the murderer said on his cell phone. When you see this happening time and time again, it indicates or not time and time again, but right now. And then in the aftermath, you see the brutal police response. You see innocent people, elderly people being shoved down and forced into a hospital bed. You see young women being brutalized. You see people being shot innocently, being shot. You see people being shot in the face at almost point blank round with bean bags and rubber bullets, which aren't rubber bullets, which are rubber coated steel pellets, losing their eyes, losing their consciousness, hidden in the face with tear gas canisters. When you see tear gas that's refined into a chemical weapon and being unleashed against pregnant women who are expressing their first amendment rights now, not in the 60s, not during the civil rights marches, not at the foot of the bridge in Selma, not in Birmingham, not in the Delta in Mississippi, not in Georgia, not in the lynching fields of Florida, not in Rosewood, Florida, not in the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921, but today in our streets and our cities. So this is a complex and deep problem and it requires a deep and complex solution. And so we're approaching it tonight, brothers and sisters, from four angles, from the angle of religion. So we are the Muslim Alliance in North America. We are a religious organization first and foremost, but our scope goes far beyond that, but that's the foundation of what we do. Our epistemology includes revelation. Our religion is qualified by submission, to the will of our Lord. So we're a religious group, and so we're going to have religion. We're going to have culture because we recognize the value of culture and we recognize that Islam has contributed one of the richest cultures to the world. You mentioned the great cuisines. Food is part of culture, Islam. The great bodies of literature, Islam. Deep scholarship and theology and other realms of religious intellectual endeavor, Islam. Civilizational legacies, not just every civilization was characterized by a particular region. So we have Egyptian self civilization, Neolithic civilization, Kush, Nubia, Egypt. We have the Hindu civilization. We have the Chinese Confucian civilization, but the genius of Islam is that it's not rooted in a place, it's rooted in the hearts of human beings. And whenever hearts have embraced the message of la ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasulullah, there's no God, nothing to be worshiped of except Allah Muhammad is the messenger, then the civilization or genius of Islam flourished. So it flourished amongst the Arabs. It flourished amongst the Turks. It flourished amongst the Persian. It flourished amongst many different African people. It flourished in Mali. It flourished in Ghana. It flourished in many different areas throughout the African continent. It flourished in Europe. It flourished in the Iberian Peninsula, present day home of Spain and Portugal. It flourished briefly in Switzerland. It flourished until this day in Bosnia and Macedonia and Albania. Wherever that seed, that civilization generating seed has taken roots in the hearts of human beings, then we see a flourishing of Islam. And we pray that Islam flourishes in our country and makes a positive contribution towards alleviating these nagging historical divides, tensions, conflicts that have qualified our history. May Allah not highly give us Tophik. So our first speaker, and I pray she's here, is Naam, dear sister Aisha Prime. Aisha Prime is a Muslim scholar. She's an activist whose activism is informed by her Islam. She appeared at the Historic Woman's March. She's a teacher. She's an educator. She's a mother. She's a wife. Why don't I just say she's superwoman and leave it at that? Just kidding. But we're honored to have Aisha with us. She studied traditionally in Yemen and other places. She converted to Islam after being a Goodwill Ambassador in the African continent. She's trained in a variety of areas and we marvel at her communication skill coupled with her humility. May Allah not highly give her Tophik. And as I said, we're a religious community. And so we're gonna, a religious organization, first and foremost, but not strictly religious in the sense of the scope of our work, inshallah ta'ala. But we're gonna start with the religious voice and who better to start with than our dear sister, Aisha Pran, Tafadli, Laos-e-Mahati. Jazakum Allah, Alkhair, Imam. It's an honor and a privilege. Just, of course, to share the platform with you to be introduced by you is truly humbling. You know, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, Ya Rabbi, yashrah li-saddir yasalli, Amr wa ahlu l-uqtat, Amal li-sani of Qawwal Qawwali. We ask that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala assist us in our affairs. And how befitting is it for us at this particular time that we have the dua of Prophet Musa, that when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told him to go meet with Fir'aun, told him to go address Fir'aun, told him to go speak a true word to Fir'aun, told him to address him about the liberation of his people, that the dua he made was saying, Ya Rabbi, Rabbi, my Lord, right? Like remove the impediment of my speech and like give a healing and an expansion and guide into my heart, expand my soul, right? Expand my chest. And so a part of expanding the chest is about give me the ability, the strength to be able to withstand that which is in front of me, but more importantly, give me the expansion of my chest that I would be able to receive a guidance from you that would be so complete, that would be so whole, so sound, that I would be able to carry out the message, that I would be able to carry out the task. And then he asked for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to make his task easy for him, give him Islah, right? And so from the very moment when we had these verses in the Quran, guided by prophets, guided by Nbiya to tell us exactly what to do in this time, then we as Muslims, as Imam Zaid reminded us that this is not only our foundation, this for us is something that when we get up in the morning, in the middle of the day, in the late in the afternoon and at night before we go to bed. For us, we are a people that pray unceasingly. We are a people that act with prayer unceasingly. We are a people that act on the command of Allah unceasingly. We are the people that act according to the prophets of Allah unceasingly. And so that is in every aspect of our life, right? For we understand in Islam, there is no separation between that which is sacred and that which is secular. For us, my life and my death, my prayers and my sacrifices, they're all for Allah, right? Every moment of my breath is for Allah. So we must be very careful that when I'm saying that I'm doing it for Allah, that I do it exactly according to his methodology, be it Nila. And that's just the reminder that I have for myself, right? We know that subhanAllah, there are things that creep up inside of us. There's a deep seated anger, righteous anger that creeps up inside of us, that begins to call our blood to boil, that calls us to even sometimes want to act just out of a sheer, like the necessity of the matter. And yet I'm reminded of the moment when Ali ibn Abi Talib, radiAllahu ta'ala, when he's on the battlefield, and when he's on the battlefield and right at the moment that he's about to slay the disbeliever, the warring disbeliever at this moment, who's fighting against him, he right as he's about to slay him, he spits in his face. And as he spits in his face, he puts his sword down. And the man asked him like, why would you put your sword down now? You've clearly overpowered me. You're clearly at the brink of winning. Why would you put your sword down? Now he said, because if I kill you now, I kill you from my own self, from my own anger. And I don't have the right to do that. That I don't stand on this battle for myself. I don't stand on this battle to quench my own nuffs, my own anger, my own ego that I have overpowered you. I stand on this battlefield for Allah. And for that, I must do it with absolute scrupulousness, with absolute God consciousness that any deviation in the matter could result in me losing this battle, right? Especially in the long run. So I just want to remind us of this particular verse that Allah says in the chapter of women. And be aware that Allah Ta'ala for him to put this chapter in the chapter of the women, there is a great meaning behind that. So he says, ya ayyuhaladina aminukunu qawaymuna bilqisti shuhadaanilahi. Right? The first part of the ayah, it says, oh you who have believed. In any moment, Allah Ta'ala calls out with oh you who believe. Like stand up. qawaymuna, let your existence be those who stand up by justice for shuhadaanilahi as witnesses for Allah. So already what's beautiful about this ayah is that Allah Ta'ala has said that standing up for justice, this is a part of your deen. He has said, ya ayyuhaladina aminukunu qawaymuna bilqisti standing up for justice. This is a part of the agreement, the covenant that you have with me. Right? So let there be no question about that. But then there comes this next portion that's really significant shuhadaanilahi as witnesses for Allah. Right? And so when you say that I'm standing up as witnesses for Allah, that the method by which we take shahada, the method by which we bear witness, first says la ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah which means what? That what I speak must be carried out in a particular way. That that which I profess to believe in must be carried out according to the methodology of the Prophet Muhammad alayhi sanatu was-salaam. And that it not be lost on us, the relevance of the Prophet Muhammad alayhi sanatu was-salaam let that not be lost on us. Thinking that someone else's methodology would give us success. Thinking that someone's methodology is better than the one that we have. Thinking that someone else's process is going to progress us forward because if that were the case, if we were to look at it from the time of shaitan, from the time he pronounced that he's made from black mud and I'm made from fire, I'm better than him. I will not bow down. I will not submit. And then he began to take them off the straight path, taking them from right and from left, causing them to deviate. And so what we see throughout history is that sohanallah actually what we learn is that mankind is not actually learning from history. That this arrogance is causing them, right? This belief that I'm better is causing them to be taken off the straight path. And so what we recognize is that I'm not gonna be taken off the straight path because for us, for us, right? Seeking social justice politically, economically in terms of fighting against medical apartheid, address establishing a culture, right? That is guided toward Allah and this deen. This is what's upon me. And the prophet Annihissalaam, he tells us three things and I'll say this in closing. For us to have understanding of iman, what is iman? My belief, my mind must be right. There's some ideology that I must focus on. My aqida must be straight. And then of course my Islam, what are my actions? What are my prayers? And I wanna say to us, do not for a moment think I can put aside my prayers and to pick up this justice and that will work. The reality of it is, is that what gives us victory is our connection to Allah, singularly and together. That we know how to stand in front of Allah, bow down together, fall down together and get up together according to Allahu Akbar, according to the command of Allah. And then of course Ihsan, that we are a people of spiritual excellence, recognizing that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one that we're dealing with. Even in this battle, we don't neglect him. It's he that we're dealing with. It's him that we're going to face. And if we're going to claim that we're standing up for justice, let it be a shohadah to Allah as witnesses for Allah. Jazakum Allah. Al-Qayr. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Wa alaikum as-salam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Thank you so much, Ustad. Aisha, may Allah bless you and your family, may Allah increase you in every good, ilm and wa'amala and the risk and halala. Allah increase you in beneficial knowledge and lawful and righteous deeds and lawful income. Alhamdulillah, our next presenter, our dear sister, Ustad Aisha, asked a question, what is Eman? So Eman is everything she mentioned, but Eman, with all capitals in English, is the inner city Muslim action network. We're honored to have the founder, the visionary leader, who has been instrumental in bringing Eman from just an idea concept to one of the most influential and admired community organizing institutions, not just for Muslims and not just two Muslims, but in the eyes of those who are qualified to assess these matters throughout this country and indeed throughout the globe. So without further ado, I'd like to also say though, I just, throughout the biographies, I've known brother Rami for a long time. He sent me a beautiful picture from way back in the day with a group of the brothers. I used to go through there fairly frequently, not so much in recent years, but it's just beautiful seeing those brothers and just the family. So Eman is more than an organization, it's a family. And that's a model for us. We want the manna, we want manna to be a family. And when something happens, we shed tears. And brother Rami, they've lost two of their, two of their family members who are caught up in some activities, nothing of their fault, wrong place at the wrong time, stray bullets, and two members of the family are gone. So I know it's difficult for our dear brother, Dr. Rami, who's also a sociologist by training to speak tonight, but he graciously came to support us. So he's gonna just give some advice and some nasiha and some steps based on his work and his insights. And so we thank you, Dr. Rami, for sharing, spending some time and sharing the program with us. Ta'fadam, lausalaam. Lausalaam, ma'am, salamu alaykum wa ta'alaam. Peace and blessings be upon you all. I should just simply begin by saying, yes, it is with a heavy heart that I'm here tonight. In less than a week's time, we did lose two young brothers, Pierre and Andre. Both of them were thriving in a program we have called Greenery Entry. And I asked that you keep their families and all of the community in your prayers. Both of them were, and I think their loss is more difficult for us even than other challenges we face with other deaths and in the sense that they were doing extraordinarily well and we had tremendous hope for them. But we also resolved by the decree of the Most High and also motivated to continue to work every single day to put our arms around these extraordinarily beautiful human beings. These are young brothers especially, but even brothers who have been coming home from prison long sentences and sisters and their families who are very connected to our work. This is one of our programs called Greenery Entry. I'll talk about it in a short bit, but yes, part of my reluctance tonight with the Imam's aid in full transparency was because of that moment, but also quite frankly because of the larger moment. And I always feel in this moment it is also completely critical for us to, especially those of us who are working in the framework that we are to be able to listen very closely and attentively to people like Sheikh Aisha Prime and then just sit down and not say much. This is the second time in a short week that I've had this very challenging position of speaking after her when, in many ways, when she speaks, I don't really want to say much after that. So I ask her forgiveness and all of your forgiveness and indulgence and hopefully what I share with you will be of some benefit. It is an extraordinary honor and privilege to be with my brothers and sisters from Mana. I have a long history with this effort. And in some ways, it's very humbling and somewhat, again, not fully accurate to say that I have much to provide all of you when in many ways, organizations like Iman, and I say this very literally, would never have even existed without the extraordinary efforts, struggles, sacrifice of the brothers and sisters that actually are the base of organizations and alliances like Mana and their predecessors, whether it be from Imam Muhammad's community to the Dara to all the various movements, particularly coming out of the larger Black American Islam experience. And so I think I want to say what's so phenomenal about that experience for me as a proud grandson of a Palestinian refugee who came to Chicago as a refugee in the early fifties immediately after losing his home in a village. My mother's father comes from a village called Ainkatum, which is right on the outskirts of Jerusalem. It's the reported home of Yahya, John the Baptist, and it's supposedly also where the well that Mariam may God have mercy upon her and where she nursed Esadi Saddam. That was the legends of this village. So it's a sacred place, but it was a village that he lost as long with other 700,000 plus Palestinians and became refugees and found their ways across the country and the globe. My grandfather's family was one of the first to settle on the South side of Chicago. And yet they came into the United States at a time where the Black-White binary was very distinct in this country, it was either. And so if you were a brown immigrant, you found your way in between this reality. And why it's so important in this moment, even as we talk about models for intervention in this moment, we must first and foremost really begin and recognize where the origins of those models lie. I think part of our First Nation tradition, which we must always recognize and appreciate is that, if you've ever been in a First Nation gathering and I believe it is a Sunnah that we should adopt. And I would hope that groups like Manna embed that into our Sunnah and into the way we interact whenever you are in a place in space, First Nation people in order to recognize and honor the ancestral land upon which you are standing. Those who also were the first casualties of the most violent forms of aggression of that land. And in the First Nation tradition also of course is to honor the elders and to honor the traditions upon which we rest upon. And so when we think about those traditions in our community and certainly for someone like me, who found my way back on the South side of Chicago doing this work, I know I and Eman would not be here if it had not been for entities like Manna in the early 2000s that graciously took us around and took me around to places like South Philly where we went almost five times and met with people like Eman, look man of the Huck, Kenny Gamble and walk the streets of South Philly. And I saw 20, 30, 40 blocks of just extraordinary development led by this beautiful, humble, extraordinary servant who helped to build what urban intervention looks like. And I think the reality is that today if you were to get in a gathering of Muslims across this country, North American Muslims, many, especially in immigrant communities, but even in other communities and ask them, do you know, tell me if you know Eman, look man of the Huck, Kenny Gamble, raise your hand if you know about Eman Muhammad. Many of them may God have mercy on him. Many of them wouldn't be able to raise their hand or say much about that legacy. And I find that not only shameful but criminal on some level. And it's critical that in this moment, especially brothers and sisters of immigrant descent like myself need to first and foremost acknowledge that it is critical to understand that all of our models of intervention in this country and quite frankly, in many ways our models of intervention globally rest upon the foundation of that sacrifice, rest upon the foundation of that struggle. And it is incumbent upon us, it is a prophetic mandate upon us to learn about that struggle, to understand how we are inextricably tied to that struggle, to understand what the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him, mandated the companions of his community to be able to do when they went both for, when he talked to Muad ibn Jabal for instance and he sent him to Yemen and he said to Muad, but as you leave, when he gave him the nasiha, taqid da'utam ad-loom, falaysa bayna huwabayna allahu hijab, be mindful of the prayer of the oppressed because between the oppressed and God there is no curtain when you make dua. He did not tell Muad to be mindful of the prayers of the oppressed, of the Christians, of the Jews, of the Muslims, of any community just the oppressed. And in many ways, he was instructing Muad to be a sociologist. He was instructing Muad to be a person who is attentive to the cultural nuances, the systemic and structural nuances of oppression. Don't just go there and set up shop. Don't just go open up a corner store in the hood. Don't just go there and kick it with people and then enjoy the treats of that land. No, go there and be mindful of the people. Be mindful of the systems and structures in that land because you could inadvertently contribute to that oppression. You can inadvertently become complicit in that oppression. That was the instructions of our beloved prophet, Salih Salaam, not some 21st century activist. This is not a post-modernist reading of Islam. This is a traditional reading of Islam. This is a traditional reading of our tradition to honor those who have struggled before us, to honor the people of the land, to honor the ancestral people of the land, to honor those who have struggled, who have led so that we can stand upon where we are. And so my first, you know, recognition is that an organization like Iman, the inner city Muslim Action Network in Chicago and Atlanta, the model that we have built is built on this tradition. And among the core components of the work that we have built is that, listen, one of the most beautiful aspects of our tradition is this idea of what I'd like to say is calling out and then calling up, right? We do call out oppression. We do call out injustices. We do call out the forms of oppressive structures, both systemically and structurally, that exist both externally and internally. The beautiful part of that verse that our beloved sister just rendered is that we have this issue that I think is critical. And I know my time is coming here and I simply wanna say this as we close this idea of, you know, that beautiful I that she read, it continues not only to be witnesses for God, but what's the next part of that I will allow and for so come, even if it means against our own selves. My both appeal, especially to our brothers and sisters who are exploring models in this moment is that we become a community that is willing first and foremost to build on the legacy of those who have struggled and sacrificed before us, Muslims and others so that we can fight for justice and fight to be a source of mercy and that we also are willing to interrogate the injustices that we may have become a complicit part of. And I speak specifically especially to immigrant communities. That's not just enough right now to hashtag Black Lives Matter. It's not enough simply to send out letters to sectors of the African-American community proclaiming our love for Black American communities. We must demonstrate we can go the distance. Organizations and institutions like MANA have been predicated upon that. Our experience at EMAN demonstrates when we are willing to go the distance. We will become a vehicle that can bring not only hearts together and minds and souls together but call out injustice and call up to alternative ways of working with one another that establish genuine opportunities on the ground. My prayer is that we take now in this moment what's happening in Minneapolis organizations like my own efforts that are now in the midst of a fundraising effort, launch good and driven by people who are trying their very best in this moment not only to serve the victims of what happened of this ongoing legacy of police brutality but also as we speak people like Eman Makram are trying to forge hearts between immigrant store owners and larger Black community residents. And it's incumbent on us that we support these local efforts. We support entities like MANA and I continue to be very just humbled and grateful for its efforts and look forward to serving it in any way or shape I can. Jazakallah Khair and thank you for this opportunity. So now I wanna start. Jazakallah Khair. Dr. Rami, we really appreciate those words and may Allah bless them to find their way into the hearts of all of those who are listening. Our next presenter is our dear brother Rahim Jenkins. Rahim Jenkins is a native Washingtonian who has made his mark in the Washington area, DC era Prince George County, Washington DC proper as a youth activist, a reentry expert and as a person who was ably and capably mobilized the community to foster better policing, to foster stronger relationships or a more responsive and responsible attitude from law enforcement towards the community. So he's going to talk about that. He has a wealth of practical information, grassroots politics. So when we talk about politics and the context of wonderful grassroots oriented individuals like brother Rahim, we're not talking about Democrats and Republicans. We're not talking about donkeys and elephants. We're talking about mobilizing communities so that they find within their ranks, their resources, the power to make significant changes in their neighborhoods. So without further ado, like our brother Rahim to come forth and enlighten us, Jazakumullah Khaira, Fada. As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Am I being heard? I will assume that I am. I am most appreciative to have this opportunity to be a part of this great organization, and I have utmost of respect for brother Imam, and I'm appreciative of Imam hosting, Imam Zaid, and for the invitation coming directly from Imam Jihari. As the Imam indicated, I'm a DC native Washingtonian born, but I am reminded in this discussion and particularly listening to my sister, sister Aisha, in 1967, I left Washington DC from Eastern high school, never really been out of the city to go away to college, and I left to go to Alabama A&M. And this was my first time being away from my family. And so to go to Alabama in the 60s, you can just imagine what that experience and the culture shock of having, going into the state of Alabama in the late 60s. I had an opportunity to go shopping in Amor in Huntsville, Alabama, and there was one men's store in Amor that sold the kind of clothes that we wore here in DC. Well, at least similar to the clothes that we wore in DC. And as I walked around the store and I looked and was picking out items and looking at things, as I had been taught by my dad that before you buy something, you try it on. And so I found a pair of slacks that I really liked and I found my size and I asked the salesperson where was the dressing room. When I asked where was the dressing room, he kind of stared at me for a moment and he all but said that they didn't have a dressing room. And then he says, well, do you know your size? And I said, yes, I know my size. I had it here, I like to try the slacks on. And he looked at me and he says, well, tell you what, you buy them, if they don't fit, you can bring them back. I had never been told that before. And I still hadn't dawned on to me as to why he was saying that to me. But I insisted upon trying the morn. He then looked at me and he said, well, our store policy won't let you try the morn. And he was a young salesman, he had to have been maybe five or six years older than myself at the time. And he said to me that their store policy would not allow Negroes to try on clothes. He says to be honest with you, it's not my policy, but they feel like if you try the morn, no one is going to purchase them. And my question was, no one like who? And he says, any of the white customers, if you try the morn. In stock reality, this was my first experience at coming face to face with racism. And I realized growing up in Washington, DC, that in fact of going to Northern Alabama and coming from Washington, DC, and growing my bush and say it loud, I'm black and my proud and black power that I actually was a sheltered Negro that I couldn't recall any sign saying for color only, or to the rear, it was just an understood piece of prejudice of places in this area that you knew that black folk could not go. And so I began to move around Alabama and I was able to see the signs, the actual signs for color only, black in the rear on days that you could go to stores and days that you could not. And I'm mentioning all of this is because for most of us in my generation coming from Washington, DC, had never had that kind of experience because of the shelter and the infrastructure that existed here and we knew our place and we knew where not to go and what not to do. And so those are shackles that are very difficult for us to break away from as it is as much difficult for white folk who are privileged and elite to break away from the system of looking at us in a certain capacity. We find ourselves now in 2020 having all of that brought right back to us, smack in our faces where much has not changed regardless of the education that we've acquired, the status in the community. We're just coming out of a period where we had a president of these United States that looked like us. Things had not changed in America. Things had not changed in communities. Things had not changed in athletics. Things had not changed in the entertainment. They've only allowed certain progress in development and things to take place for us to begin to move forward in a capacity thinking that we had arrived. With this president, this sitting president that we now have in leadership, he put out a clarion call and the call was answered and the disappointing part of losing George Floyd if the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, not only did it land solidly at the doors of people of color, it landed at the doorsteps of white America as well. And so as Muslims, this is our opportunity to seize this moment and take a very serious look at what the treatment modality will look like to fix this piece. And as we begin to try to fix it, as the brother just talked about with returning citizens, with the escalation and acceleration of women being incarcerated in America, that when those things are completed, they're gonna have to come back to communities that we reside in. And it's gonna have to come from a collaboration and it's the politics of racism in this country that we're gonna have to confront. And that's confronting us in terms of what is it that we intend to do and how we will approach it. The engagement of elected officials and how you choose and select them and support them and who speaks to the issues and the challenges of what we're faced with in our communities is tandem to success or the lack thereof of success. If in fact we don't approach it holistically, we don't approach it economically and we don't approach it seeking and looking for social equity, the engagement and the involvement of supporting one another. And so the success that we've seen here in Washington D.C. is based upon those grads. Yeah, excuse me. We can go into those specifics in the conversation, but we have to wrap up right now. Okay. Yeah, you can wrap up. It is very important for us to seek social equity, political equity and economic equity and bring about those types of things that we've been confronted with that has really not changed. And I think this is the beginning of real steps in that direction. That's the main thing. Next we have brother Ali, you've seen him on Phelan, you've seen him on with Conan O'Brien, you've seen him on major networks, you've seen him, you've listened to him on his nine, top 100 Billboard, top 100 albums. You might know him as a record decorated hip hop artist or you might know him as brother Ali as your Muslim brother who's just trying to ignite the spark of consciousness in the hearts and minds of people of all ages, races, demographic profiles. So as a brother I love brother dearly, he always finds a straight and true word whenever I reach out to him and may Allah continue to bless him. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, brother Ali, As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim wa sallallahu ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa saddam. Speaking this evening because of the request of Imam Zaid, it's almost inevitable that I'll be talking about things that people on the panel and in the audience know better than I. So please understand that I say them with the intention only of serving the truth and of bearing witness, not with any claim to any special rank of knowledge. In 2016, when the person who is called President of the United States was elected, the entire nation was in a deep sense of despair and concern, especially the people who did not support him and didn't choose to elect him. I think that a lot of people were caught off guard, especially people in the dominant class were incredibly shocked and surprised at the willingness of the country to elect this person whose language had been so incredibly divisive, whose language had called attention to people of color in ways that were despicable and disgusting. And America was once again surprised at itself, means that America has a very short history, has a very selective history, especially the people in the dominant class have a tendency to forget the things that this country has been built upon and the deep and evil incessant reality of white supremacy, of the conceptions around white supremacy, seeing people of European background as being superhuman, seeing people from African lineage as being less than human, and then everyone else being forced to figure out where they are in that hierarchy based on their relationship and proximity to whiteness or blackness. And so on Saturday Night Live, which is one of the oldest cultural institutions that broadcast live, of course, the choice was made for Dave Chappelle to host, the choice was made for a tribe called Quest, the incredible hip hop group to be the musical guest. And so Dave Chappelle came out and gave his monologue and Tribe Called Quest came out and performed their new album, along with Buster Rimes and others that came to join them. And America looked to the children of enslaved Africans, the children who built this country and made it wealthy, the people who have suffered, who have given their lives and their work and their service and their genius and their excellence to the world and to America, who have created every genre of popular music and culture for the last 400 years, that what an amazing thing it would be for one group of people to make one genre of music that defines the entire experience of youth of the world. But in reality, the children of enslaved Africans have done that over and over and over again with gospel and blues and with jazz and with rock and roll, with R&B, with every genre of music that America has produced and the latest of them being the hip hop culture and tradition, musical tradition. And so America once again tuned in and watched the entire stage filled with black men who are Muslim. Dave Chappelle is a Muslim. Our brother Kamal Q-Tip is a Muslim from Tribe Called Quest. The DJ and producer for Tribe Called Quest, Ali Shahid Muhammad is a Muslim. The brother who passed away, five-dog, we're not sure whether or not he actually became a Muslim. But his name was Meleek, Buster Rhimes is a Muslim. So the entire country tuned in yet again as it does over and over and over and over again to look at the people who would most certainly be most unsafe, targeted, victimized, oppressed yet again by this presidency. America turned its heart and its emotional well-being and state over to young black men to say, help us understand what to do in this moment. Help us understand how to process and contextualize this moment and give us some sort of sense of hope. Give us a way to understand the moment that we find ourselves in. And the reality is that the children of enslaved Africans are the only group in American history to embrace Islam in mass, to have a large embrace, to have a communal embrace of Islam. And this is because, to a large degree, because many of the people in West Africa who were brought to America come from great Islamic civilization. And the reality is that Africans were in, West Africans were in the Americas before Columbus came, before the Europeans came. They were interacting and engaging with the First Nations and they were forming alliances with them. There was cultural exchange. There was artistic exchange. And all throughout this entire and amazing history of culture, and it's important that we understand it as culture and not believe what the colonizers have said about culture and that they've reduced it to entertainment. The reality is that culture is here to remind us why we are who we are, what it means to be us, what are the standards that we live by, what are the things that we believe in, what are the virtues that we hold dear, what are the ways that we communicate with one another to remind ourselves that we're not alone. And the reality is that all of these cultural expressions with hip hop being the last of them, all of these cultural expressions have made life livable for everyone in the world who are all suffering the squeeze of the global monoculture, of extreme greed and of the dehumanization that comes along with it. And so, sir. Yeah, you could continue in the conversation perhaps you could share something with us and then we'll move on to the conversation, then you could continue, inshallah. Yes, sir, mylena, listen to me now. I wanted to share, Imam Zayt asked me to share something and rather than share something of my own, I wanted to share something from the great KRS-1 from the Boogie Down Bronx. This is something that he wrote and released in 1990. It's called, you were put here to protect us, but who protects us from you? Obviously about the police. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. You were put here to protect us, but who protects us from you? Every time you say that's illegal, doesn't mean that that's true. Your authority is never questioned. No one questions you. If I hit you, I'll be killed, but you hit me, I can sue. Looking through my history books, I've watched you as you grew, killing blacks and calling it the law and worshiping Jesus too. There was a time when a black man couldn't be down with your crew. Now you want all the help you can get. Scared, well, ain't that true. You were put here to protect us, but who protects us from you? Or should I say, who are you protecting? The rich, the poor, who? It seems that when you walk the ghetto, you walk with your own point of view. You judge a man by the car he drives or if his hat matches you. Back in the days of Sherlock Holmes, a man was judged by a clue. Now he's judged by if he's Spanish, black, Italian, or Jew. So do not kick my door down and tie me up while my wife cooks the stew, because you were put here to protect us, but who protects us from you? Allahumma salli alayhi wa sallam, Muhammadin wa sallam, Muhammadin wa sallam. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah, we thank you, brother Ali, for sharing that and reaching way back in the archives to alert us to the continued relevance of the brilliant insight of so many young performers going back to the early 90s and beyond, so may Allah reward you. So we're gonna have a little conversation, inshallah, between those panelists who are still here, and I think everyone is still here. Before that, just I think it's very important to remind ourselves, I should remind us that, weigh your intentions in the scale of Islam before you act across the spectrum, but it's incumbent to act. So now don't weigh your scales and then let your goods route on the scale. No, take your goods, consume them, let them nourish you and strengthen you and steal you for the marathon. This is a marathon we're engaged in, and without the spiritual nourishment, it becomes very difficult to run that race. That's what it's all about. May Allah nourish us with each other, through each other and by each other. Let's start with brother Raheem, and perhaps anyone who wants to jump in can jump in. You started to mention some specifics. So I mentioned in introduction, you've been involved in programs that actually actively address this issue of police violence and police brutality and an overwhelming African-American neighborhood. So what can you share in that regard briefly that all of those listening in can take home with them? One of the things is that something community policing, where the community takes responsibility for the safety of those in the neighborhoods and in your perspective, community. One of the things that happened here in DC, that a lieutenant on the police department told me that there had been 129 women murdered in DC, and more than half of them, their deaths had taken place east of the Anacostia River, which is in Ward 7 and 8 in DC, which is pretty much known as Southeast DC. And in that investigation, we found that there had been absolutely no real investigation, no information, but the community came together. And as a result of that, it was exposed that all of these deaths had taken place. It ultimately led to a particular police chief not having that position here in DC anymore. And there were other kinds of things that took place. So that's just one example of where the community comes in and takes charge of their destiny. The same thing has taken place with reentry here in the District of Columbia. DC has probably one of the most comprehensive reentry initiatives in the country, where it is an office that has been established in DC for returning citizens with connecting them with housing, health, education, and employment. That didn't start inside of district government. That started with a partnership between Mayor Williams, community activists, community-based organizations, which I happened to be blessed to facilitate that process. And so in order to be successful, you have to develop meaningful relationships with elected officials and the community and the business community to realize some of the challenges to overcome most of the challenges we are facing. We appreciate that. On the issue of reentry, Rami, you mentioned that the two young brothers, Pierre and Andre, who were unfortunately lost their lives within the last week or so, were involved with your green reentry program. Why is it, which I understand, I mean, I visited, but why is it a green reentry program? What makes it unique and what do you think people need to know about it that can be replicable in other communities? Yeah. Well, green for us is symbolic of three things. One, it has a spiritual rootedness to it. It is the neutral color. It's the middle way. It's that there's a spiritual resonance with that color that has been part of a spiritual tradition for over 1400 years. And we unapologetically root ourselves in that even among our brothers who are drawn from the Hebrew tradition, the Christian tradition, Iman is a nonprofit organization that works with people across all spiritual face while at the same time, our first principle of change is about being spiritually rooted and broadly informed. So, you know, we are unapologetically rooted in our tradition while drawing from meaning and value across all traditions. Secondly, the green of course is also, there's an ecologically conservative kind of aspect of this project that tries to model what an ecologically friendly form of construction, demolition, use of reusing materials can actually look like in the context of construction. And then thirdly, green is also the color of those Benjamins and we want our, you know, we want to create economic independence. We want the kind of notion of do for self. And it goes beyond quite frankly, that's the material sense. It is really, there's something extraordinary for these young men because we take vacant vandalized homes in concentrated blocks and we allow our young brothers as well as brothers who are coming home from 30, 20 years. We have a guy brother who's been home after a 40 year bit. There's something very powerful about the fact that they're rebuilding things, they're taking things, they're building things for their own, they're staking a claim in the community. So now, you know, we have completely flipped the paradigm on the way returning citizens are looked at like our brother Raheem was saying, you know, we have the church, we have Alderman who are laying the red carpet down because they understand that rather than a liability if this community is given the right type of opportunities, they can in fact be our greatest assets. I was on the call with Chicago Alderman, which are like our councilman. And I was just surprised, you know, when Raheem was talking about relationships, we've built relationships with them, not because we're putting money in their pockets over the last 15 years, quite frankly, because I've organized in the trenches, our leaders have organized in the trenches. We've called them out when we need to call them out, but they've stood with us and they have respected us. Even so, to the point that I was very both humbled and almost brought to, you know, just emotionally moved by the fact that our, we had two resolutions up for a vote this week in city hall and con and Alderman after Alderman, Latino, black, white from every district across the city spoke about how much they value and love our program and want to see it replicated across the city. And on your last point, replication, we've done, we've seen that when you create a model that has been well thought out, we've been working on this particular model for over 12 years, that it can in fact be replicated. In Atlanta, Eman has now five years of experience and it's being led there. Eman, our director is Eman Mansour Sabri that many know, of course, on this call used to be the Eman of the Atlanta Meshit. And one of the first programs they have successfully really replicated is Green Reentry and it's thriving there. They have an Eman Green Reentry Village now on the West End in Atlanta. I'm sure you could go all night because it's deep, all of you could, but it sounds like you're producing a group of young Malcolm's. They go into prison, transform themselves and then come out and transform their communities. And so possibly going, not on no part of their own as a destructive element and come back as a constructive element. That reminds me Malcolm though, and this brings me back to sister Aisha, that Malcolm said he once responded to a question after he embraced Orthodox Islam, will he still be known as Malcolm X? And he said Islam has solved my personal problem. But as long as the problem of my people continues to exist, you can still call me Malcolm X because I still have work to do. But why is it so important that our personal problem is solved before we can hope to solve somebody else's problem? The Arabs say, one lacking something can't give it to someone else. Exactly. I think that when there are two types of levels of personal problems inside of that, one is just of course myself, right? As Rami mentioned in that, the remaining part of that I had mentioned earlier, that for justice, witness for Allah, even if it's against your own self, because many of us are addressing deep, you know. Excuse me, let me interrupt one second. I forgot, anyone who has a question, you can put them in the comments on the Facebook page and we'll take them from the page and we'll try to answer as many as we can. So, excuse me, Gustave, I just wanted to make that announcement. So, you know, a lot of us are tyrants ourselves from within, right? Oppressing others from within. That we are suffering from a deep sense of arrogance, whether that be within our own families, right? Whether or not we are a tyrant in our own homes. And so this becomes incumbent for us to liberate those who are in our families from the tyranny of our ego. And that becomes important for us to, you know, in terms of being able to address tyranny from without. The other issue becomes, of course, as it relates to how are we attached? What kind of attachments do we have to the system? And I think it was my brother Rahim who mentioned, are we willing to divest, right? Even brother Rami mentioned, are we willing to divest from our attachments to structural racism, right? Are we willing to divest from our own things that we have become accustomed to where we have benefited, right? That we are living within a certain privilege that we, you know, usurped from the first nations. And we have become comfortable inside of that paradigm. And so if we want true liberation, if we want to end structural racism, then we ourselves have to be active participants from our first divestment. Imam, you're muted. Imam Zayn, you're muted. I can't hear you. I'm sorry. I was trying to ask before that, let me acknowledge something because this is something Dr. Ramu reminded me of. I want to just acknowledge all of these young brothers and sisters out there who this current situation, the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd has catapulted into leadership roles. Just tonight I was contacted by, I won't say which city, but one of our young brothers there, very pious, conscientious brother has been catapulted as the leader into the role of leader of the African-American community in this struggle. Everyone's looking at him. The good, the bad and the ugly. And so the cops are following him around. And who knows the racist groups and the community leaders and Alhamdulillah, he and others have assumed this role relying on Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. They call up and they're asking, they're seeking to know of actions they're taking. Are these proper and fitting, consistent with our religion, consistent with the methodology of our profit for social change as they are on the front lines? So it's not a theoretical conversation in the library. It's a conversation that's being birthed by the realities on the ground that they're trying to negotiate. I just want to acknowledge all of those primarily young brothers and sisters are out there on the front line assuming tremendous responsibilities and may Allah Ta'ala give them tofeeq and protect them. But brother, if you could just respond to some of what you've heard from the other panelists, you could take in any way you want to take it. Alhamdulillah, I'm really grateful to be presented to hear from different parts of our community and different parts, people that do the work with real folks every day. And one of the things that I'm always really inspired by is the community's ability to find its own solutions and to create its own way forward. That's one of the things that, you know, in religious and spiritual communities and in community organizing and certainly in politics and also in the artistic community, there are egos and people are butting heads and a lot of times it can make the process, it can feel like it's slowing things down and there are difficulties. But, you know, the prophet said that God's hand is on the group. And so when people are together, there always is really beautiful solutions that can be found. And so I'm really grateful to just see that reflected in this panel. Brother Rahim, let me circle back to you because you're still warming up. And so you talked about that engagement, the power it has, but what does it look like? Just break it down a little. What are some of the actual steps that communities and leaders and communities can take to begin to build those relationships? One of the things that we were responsible for here in D.C., which came under Title 16, Title 16 youth that were charged as adults, youth charged as adults, they were previously held at the D.C. jail. Well, over years of advocating and lobbying, we were able to have them move from the district jail to a juvenile agency in D.C., the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. And so one of the programs that we put together was entitled The Covenant of Peace. And The Covenant of Peace started out initially as an anti-violence program, but it morphed into something a lot different than that. And it was based upon seven pillows. And we would take, on a Friday evening, we would go into the detention facility where the youth were being, where they were incarcerated. And we would take clinicians, we would take the faith community, advocates, activists, clinicians, and we would literally spend the weekend in the facility with the youth, sleeping the gym with them, and we would have restorative justice circles and very deep and profound circles. And we would come out with a truce. And at the end of the process, when we left on that Sunday, then they would all vow under this covenant to become ambassadors of that peace. And so that was a collaboration of the community, faith-based, law enforcement community coming in, addressing the violence in the community. And so we need to begin to, like, back in the day when we actually went into the community to do dialogue. I think that the dialogue now has to take on a different shape, a different form, and there's the ecumenical gatherings of faith-based and take our rightful place at the table in the community to begin to make some of those differences. And the peace was very successful under the covenant. It would have never been heard of done where you would actually bring civilians into a secure facility and then spend the weekend with young people and attach mentors to them upon their relief. And so that's just one example of a treatment modality we need to begin to address to bring about some civility in our community. Alhamdulillah. So we're moving close to wrap up time there. Haven't been any questions forward as of this point. So what we're going to do, we're going to reverse the order though that we started in and just ask everyone to give a couple minutes of just some final advice, words of encouragement. I think we have to lift up each other. We have to encourage each other. We can't take it for granted that there's some sort of Muslim exceptionalism that Muslims can witness all of this violence and what Muslims can live a lot of this trauma. Muslims can try to wrestle with our own personal shortcomings in terms of feeling we haven't done enough. There's no exception when those thoughts, those realities, they plague us like they plague anyone else. So it's amazing. Frans Fanon, the wretched of the earth. This is set in Algeria. This is a almost 100% Muslim society. He talks about the Mujahideen opposing the French, but that violence, that anti-colonial violence, he said it creates the new post-colonial subject as a cathartic reality, but the last chapter in the book was psychiatric disorders of colonial war. People are broken by that violence. People are broken by torture and Muslims also in that particular context. So we need to reach out and heal each other. We need to offer words of encouragement and not take it for granted. My brother's all right. We're going to be all right, inshallah. But we're going to have to help each other to be all right. So if we start with Brother Ali, Brother Ali, can you just give us some closing thoughts? Something people can take home with them. They can rest their head on their pillow tonight. And they're ruminating on what Brother Ali told them in that last couple of minutes. You'd be so kind, sir. I'm sorry. Brother Ali, could you share? Was that viewed at the whole time? And Brother Ali is muted. Oh, man. Bismillah. Brother Ali, could you share some final remarks? I'm not going to. Bismillah. Yes, sir. I'm really glad. So one of the things that came to mind is that during the generation before us, you know, what we read in the history books and what some amongst us lived through in the part of the black freedom struggle that happened in the sixties was that church groups and religious organizations were used because of the fact that there was shared language. There was a shared culture, a shared experience and networks there. And a lot of what's communicating to the kids that are in the street right now and the ones that are really providing the energy and the real sense of urgency that America's feeling right now are from youth and they're getting that from hip hop music. And without having the time to go into it now, hip hop music is the language of Islam. It's the modern language of Islam. It's been that way from the beginning. And black Islam is the spiritual heart of hip hop. This is the language that people all over the world use and to understand life and to motivate and to organize and to promote positivity and search for and find and communicate meaning. And so as a Muslim community, one of the things that I would really love to see us do is to embrace and support that. For example, we have one of the greatest living poets is in our tradition in our community, Amir Suleiman for example. There's no reason that someone like Amir Suleiman with all of the resources that we have in our community should be left to the mercy of the entertainment industry when he's not an entertainer, when he's so much more than that. When people like Pearls of Islam, the sisters that sing for us or great poets like Sakina Douglas and others that have these incredible voices that give us so much meaning that I would really love to see our community support them in really meaningful ways. Alhamdulillah. So we have a question. I agree 100% brother Ali, but I would personally say that hip hop is a language of Islam, not the language that there's I think the language is the Quranic language and to the extent that hip hop reflects that. Yes, we can say it, but I would say is the language is the Quran and everything else feeds off of that. But thank you so much. Thank you for that correction. No, no, it's not a correction. It's an it's an it's a appendix. Insha Allah, the appendix clarifies what was in the main body of the text insha Allah, but the text stands on its merits. Sister Aisha, Stada Aisha, your closing remark will be response to a question. Insha Allah. Yes, you talked about divesting from the structures of racism. How do we begin to do that? When many don't know about the race and class dynamic that are intertwined and how capitalism as a system of hose these structures to the detriment of poor black and brown communities. Well, the first thing is in order to divest from something, you have to understand what what is the system in and of itself. So we might want to read, you know, a couple of things, maybe the new Jim Crow. You know, we want to read some text to understand how privileged and how how structural racism is built. How it's, you know, what are the systems that it feeds upon. And then in order for us to divest, once we once we understand the systems that it feeds on, you know, part of divesting is to say, I will not spend my money that don't where it doesn't match my morals. Right. And so when I realize, for example, just a prison industrial complex. Right. And how certain funding when we're sending money toward that, then I say, I will no longer spend my money with that. Or even when it comes to large corporations is, you know, something basic. I will no longer spend my money with that particular company. When it becomes to addressing, for example, right now there's a social justice effort. That's a political effort campaign as it relates to defunding the police. So let's take a moment to just kind of break that down for a minute. Does that mean that 100% we want to go to communal, you know, community policing. And that's the only method. What happens is that there are level there about, let's just say three things as it relates to the police, that we should look to defund. One of them is, right? And I'm saying you and myself talked about this is how police are sent out on mental health calls. Right. When in many times we know even in the case of Natasha McKenna and Fairfax County, Virginia, that a police officer was sent to respond to her while she was having a bipolar manic episode. And before the night was over, she was dead in herself and the police turned to death. And so the program, the funding that goes to send police officers out to mental health facilities, we as taxpayers must demand, no, that can't happen. We have mental health professionals who should respond to such calls. When it comes to, we have such poor education system in certain neighborhoods in our country, we need to look at, of course, how are we going to build, for example, in the prophetic tradition, this system of brother, basically big brother, big sister, this system of mentorship. How are we developing more of those programs so that in, in, in terms of when we're looking at police, that they have education systems that are in place that are supporting a reduction of crime. That's one aspect. Another aspect is, I'm just going to call it since we on the end, we mind, we too late in the game, not to call it how we see it. Good. You know, when we look at the situation of our police being funded, being trained by the IDF, being trained, many of them being sent to Israel and basically the militarization of our police and then coming back and dealing with civilians as if their enemy combatants and or even more so as if they are resistors to an occupation, then we have to say we absolutely do not support those programs and I will not send, I will not support that. And so it becomes incumbent number one just to, to break it down is that we become educated, right, about what are the systems that are in place that are, that are disproportionately affecting black and brown communities. Where am I spending my money to support that or my effort or my energy. And I'm saying I'm no longer going to do that. And as a group that at this point it has, we have to do this. It's not enough to just do it individually that what gave success in the 60s for example to the bus, bus boycott or people who were willing to do that collectively. That was, that was a lot to digest. So while people are ruminating on brother Ali's words, they can digest those other Isha's words, they can reflect on how they can best implement brother Raheem's advice. And so Rami asked you to give us a few Dr. Rami a few parting shots. Insha Allah. Well, I just, if I can have the privilege of building off extraordinary things that sister Isha was saying, you know, again, I think you're, you're, you're pointing towards for instance, the training of police inside IDF compounds, a really important one. But I would also say this sometimes this conversation about how to defund our divest becomes very hyper theoretical for some of our community. And it doesn't need to be that. I, I'd like to challenge, especially my subset of the larger American Muslim community, ie Palestinian Arab Yemeni. If we were to aggregate over the last 20 years, the revenue generated off low income black communities across America. What, where would that dollar amount reach? And then if we were to put alongside how much collectively have we invested in building real black led institutions in these very communities that are intended to allow those communities to thrive and succeed. What would that look like? So there's some very easy analysis for us to begin to do. And sometimes as Palestinians, you know, we can't simply point to the aggression of one people across the seas and come here and set up shop and be blinded by our own blind spots here and be and not be ready to also critique ourselves and not simply get on to analysis about policy overseas when we are not as, you know, determined and deliberate about that on analysis here. Words of encouragement and inspiration. I would end with this. What you were saying, Imam Zayn, it's not just young. It is young people who self identify with as Muslims on the front lines across the country that have put their bodies sacrifice their bodies on the line. There are young spiritual people. I pointed to that are playing different roles in this moment in Buffalo, which also received tremendous amount of attention a sister by the name of Dreya Denour has set up a food pantry which every single night is feeding people and has become a source of healing for all of the activists on the front line who come to this beautiful Muslim woman mother who treats each of them as if they're their own children and nurses them and protects them and feeds them and puts their arms around them. These are the types of people we have in Louisville. There is a young hip hop artist who very close to our community who is speaking out about Brianna Taylor who's been on the front lines who's running for a councilman in the very city that gave us Muhammad Ali clay who became the legend across the globe. His name is Jacory Arthur. These are the people we can invest in and support and then take pride in. They're close to our community. They either identify with Muslims or identify as Muslims and are spiritually rooted in the tradition. And we as a community also cannot become so self-righteous that we are constantly looking for ideological theological boundaries. There may be some on the front lines that may not have your practice of Islam that may still be struggling with the practice of Islam. They may be tatted up. They may be questioning sexuality. They may be doing all of those things. Yet at the middle of the night, get up pray harder than any single one of us on this Zoom call to their creator begging for forgiveness and begging for guidance. And they too are on the front lines. So we are one community that is playing an extraordinary role in this moment as people like brother Rahim and Khalid Samed and the people of yesteryear who created pieces, peace treaties and truces between warring gang, you know, street organizations have in yesteryear. The American Muslim community is a healing community. It does what the Prophet peace be upon him did in 7th century Arabia. It brings people together and we should not let ourselves forget that. We should celebrate that role that we are playing, whether we see it represented in the media or not, the American Muslim community is on the front lines playing that role individually, collectively, institutionally, and we should invest in that role and celebrate that role even more, especially in this moment. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah wa salat wa salam ala Rasulillah, wa alihi wa sahbihi wa manwala. We like all of you, wherever you are to give this wonderful panel, a rousing takbir, if you don't know what takbir is, you can just clap and inshallah your clapping will reverberate throughout the world. We really like to thank our dear sister, Aisha Prime, our brother, Dr. Ramina Shashiwi, our brother Rahim Jenkins, and our dear brother Ali, our brother, brother Ali, for the contributions and what I think was a very, it should have been for all of you as it was for me, and let me, brother Rahim, didn't get his closing remark, so I'm going to circle back, Bismillah. Brother Rahim, I was going to say some nice things about him, so you say some nice things yourself, Fadal. Okay, I'll be extremely brief. I think that it's important in about three weeks we'll be celebrating the 4th of July, the so-called liberation and independence of this country. As opposed to people of color burning money up in fireworks, I would like to see that money placed toward, that's the real defunding of the police, to strengthen community-based programs, to have circles and groups of conversations as opposed to just an empty celebration. And so how do we do that? Everybody in their own communities decide what that looks like for them, and to remember this, I want to also salute those young people across the country that has taken this struggle to another level in America in that we won't forget the George Floyds that have lost their lives at the hands of the police and just this contract that we have on balance period at some point the conversation needs to go there. But I am more encouraged now than I have been in quite some while and what I've been seeing with the Black Lives Matter, which is more than just Black Lives Matter, it is a community. It's a country now. It's moral issues of what's right and what's not right. And so I think the common denominator is love. And I'll end on that note. As-salamu alaikum. As-salamu alaikum. Thank you so much. And may Allah bless you to continue to share the light that you share with us and all of our panelists to continue to share the light because at the end of the day, we're in a battle between light and darkness. It's a battle of truth versus falsehood. At the end of the day, our ultimate enemy is Shaitan. And Shaitan has his dukes, Awliya'u Shaitan. So it's a struggle between the Beloved and the friended and the assisted of Allah, Awliya'u Allah, and the dukes of Satan. And so we pray that we can keep the lines of demarcation clear in our hearts and minds so that we can transcend what the, our immediate circumstances would lead us to believe in or lead us to believe are the sole parameters for analyzing and responding to our situation, that there's a deeper level of analysis. And I think what was shared tonight points to that. So may Allah bless everyone. I'd also like to say that each and every one of these wonderful presenters represents a separate hour-long conversation to just explore the nuances of culture as it relates to this moment. The nuances of religion, Islam specifically, as it relates to this moment, the depth and the complexity of community organizing and activism and politics, grassroots politics as it relates to this moment. So I think that we can really go deeper and inshallah we'll have that opportunity. Also, there was so many things. I'll just point to one because people have to get on with their evening. The fireworks that brother Rahim mentioned, not spending your money on fireworks, fireworks are an extremely ecologically harmful phenomena. And if we can take our money away from things that are ecologically destructive, we can go a long ways towards building healthier communities. And so the whole issue of ecological justice as particularly as it impacts our inner city, primarily African American, Latino, even poor white folks as it impacts those communities. We have a whole, there's a whole range of relationships and issues that we have to, that we can be active in. So we have a lot of work to do on many different fronts. May Allah bless us to come together as family. We are a family. We are a family. So what's the name of the family? Jones, William Smith, Yanni Gomez Lopez. No, the name is Banny Adam, the children of Adam. That's the name of our family. We're the children of Adam. And in this moment, we have an opportunity to come together to address an issue, a couple of issues that have nagged this country, racism, police violence, as it affects disproportionately and historically, even we can say diabolical way, the African American community, that's so undeniable, but it affects other communities. And we all will have to come together to put the final nails in his coffins and may this moment inspire us to feel the pain of our brothers and sisters in this family. May this moment inspire us to open our hearts to receive guidance that we might not have been formerly amenable to, to receive, and that guidance and that light and that truth and that passion to uplift each other. May it be ours to know, to hold, to experience, and to share with others. I'd like to finally conclude by quoting Reverend Otis Moss, who is currently President Obama's preacher in Chicago. He says, we have to bless while we bleed. In other words, not allow the pain of history, not allow the pain of the moment, not allowing the pain of seeing so many families have to repeatedly go through this process of grieving and this process of reaching out and begging and working and struggling for reform and for even revolution change, not allow that to dehumanize us, not allow that to become the hate that the hatred of the likes of Officer Chauvin displayed, not to allow the hate that the likes of the Mac Michael Brothers displayed, not to allow the hate that allows us to indiscriminately stalk and kill and suffocate each other, not allow that hatred and not allow the pain to fill us with hatred and to fill us with pain that we cannot transcend. That's the only way. When we transcend, we will be a great people. When we transcend that, we will be a great people. When we transcend that together as a family, we will be a people that will make a contribution to this country, not for our aggrandizement, not so that we might be noted in the history books, but out of our love for our family. May Allah give us Taufiq. May Allah bless everyone with 15 minutes over time, exactly, which isn't bad for a Muslim program. So may Allah bless you all, protect you all. We thank our panelists again. You know their names by now, so we don't have to run down the list. A final time, we take our people on the back end for their protection and the nominee and anonymity, rather than for them to get their blessings from Allah. We're not going to mention their names, but we appreciate them and we love their sacrifices. And we have a new team member a couple of days ago. I reached out and the call was answered. May Allah bless them. And until we meet again, stay strong, stay safe, work hard, and do everything you can to spread good out into this world. As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. This Imam is a shaker on behalf of Manna and on behalf of all of our wonderful guests tonight and expressing our appreciation for all of those who tuned in. As-salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.