 Thanks very much for inviting me and just so you don't think I'm trying to skip out on fundraising. My donations in that envelope Jonathan Brown doesn't freeload. I Also will donate something else. I have That being you know in the Bay Area. I want to contribute my intellectual capital There's talk of a Muslim senior living facility and that means there's gonna be a lot of slippers Automated slipper bringing You know someone can work on that on the app you two are supposed to laugh out a lot of that joke Okay, so I Was I wanted to talk about the issue of What Muslims have contributed and what Islam has contributed? Where Muslims and Islam have spread and I want to talk about what? Muslims and Islam can contribute here in the United States the first thing that Spread with Islam was justice justice spread with Islam justice and rights and This is true. Not only in the founding of scriptures or scriptures of our religion, but it's true in historical practice as well Islam offered basic protection of rights Basic due process Something that is important to keep in mind today And it didn't matter if you were nasty or nice if you were pious or impious You had rights you had the right to Present your evidence or the right to defend yourself You had the right to demand that person making accusation present proof if they were going to If you were gonna be convicted and just some examples from the life of the Prophet Alayhis-al-salam In the Sunnah of Abu Dawood, there's a beautiful story about a man from Hadramout and a man from the kinder tribe And they were in a dispute over land and the Hadrami man Accuses the kindy man of taking his land The Prophet says to him to the Hadrami man, alayhis-al-salam. He says alaka bayinah Do you have some direct evidence? Do you have witnesses that this man took your land? The Hadrami man said no, I don't But this kindy person He's a bad person It's a bad person So the Prophet turns to the man from the kinder tribe and he says This man has no direct evidence He has no bayinah and we all know that in Islam if the person who's making an accusation has to have direct evidence Has to have bayinah if not the person who's accused just has to swear an oath that they're innocent And the kinder man swears an oath That he's innocent The man from the Hadrami tribe says this person is Fajr la yubali ma halif alayh. This person is a sinful person. He's openly sinful. He doesn't care what he swears about Of course, he's gonna swear he's innocent and the Prophet says it doesn't matter It doesn't matter. This is all you're gonna get from him If he's telling a lie then God will punish him on the day of judgment But just because this person is a sinful person just because he's a nasty person Doesn't mean that somehow you get to come and make an accusation against him And you get to get your way. No, he is a right to defend himself And if no one can bring evidence to prove that he's committed a crime then he swears an oath that he's innocent It doesn't matter if he's a nasty person or not. So it doesn't matter if you're naughty or nice in Islam You have rights. It doesn't matter if you're Muslim or non-Muslim It doesn't matter if you're Christian or Jewish you have rights and again We see this in the life of the Prophet in one famous case in Sahih al-Bukhari The companion, Ashaf bin Qais, is in a dispute with a Jewish person in Medina about land And the Prophet asks Ashaf bin Qais again, Aleka bayinah, do you have direct evidence? The man says no. Ashaf bin Qais says no. And the Prophet rules in favor of the Jewish person And Ashaf says how can you rule in the favor of this unbeliever against me, a Muslim? The Prophet says you didn't have bayinah. You didn't have evidence And Islam doesn't matter if you're Muslim or Christian. It matters what the evidence is You have rights. No one can take away as great scholars like Abu Yusuf in his Kitab al-Kharaj Like many other Muslim scholars have said over and over again No right. No property can be taken. No blood can be shed without direct strong proof Without haq ma'lum, without a right that is known This is sort of hard to imagine because today, especially as Muslims living in the United States We live in a country that has already a robust system of rights and laws From which we benefit and which I want to talk about But for much of human history where Muslims went, there were not robust legal systems There were not notions of the protection of rights So for example when the Mongols converted to Islam, they had these courts called Yadavu courts Don't even worry about how to spell that. It's a Mongol word, okay? These Mongol courts, there is no notion of evidence People just came in and said this guy did this, this guy did that The judge hears them, decides what he wants to do, kills someone right there Take someone's property right there. No notion of rights When Mongols converted to Islam, they adopted Sharia law When the famous traveler Ibn Battuta is traveling in, now it's part of Sudan Right on the Red Sea coast He comes across the people who, they're not really Muslim They know about Islam but they're not really Muslim And he notes they didn't give their daughters any inheritance They didn't give their daughters any inheritance And Islam daughters always received their rights, always received their rights Even if it doesn't matter, as a parent, all you Muslim parents know this You might not like your child, you might love one of your child and hate the other kid But they both have their rights, they always will have their rights Muslim scholars as judges and as Muftis were always pushing rulers not to use excessive force Not to deny people due process And I can give you so many examples of this Muslims who, scholars who lost their careers, who lost their lives Speaking out on the behalf of people who were accused unfairly People who were the victim of some vendetta on the part of the ruler I think actually Republicans should like Muslims Because Muslims have always been opponents of unfair taxation These were the original chai party, right? I just came up with that joke right now Again if you really, I really recommend this Go get the Travels of Ibn Battuta It's three volumes, it's published in Delhi That's where I got the copy of this I mean I got it from another place, it was published in Delhi It's very good, translated by Hamilton Gibb, excellent We've learned so much, so many great examples Ibn Battuta was a judge, he was a scholar So everywhere he'd go he'd notice things about Islamic law Which is fascinating So when he goes to India, during the time of the Delhi Sultanate In the early, in the mid 1300s When he goes he enters Multan He comes from Central Asia, from Afghanistan He said something very interesting by Afghans by the way He said Kabul used to be a nice place Now it's ruled by this tribe called Afghans Which is interesting, I swear that's in the book You can go and check it out He notices that when he first enters India The Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultan Is levying one quarter tax On everything that comes into his, all imports One quarter tax Much more than that, it would almost be like Egypt But what happens after the Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliph sends a letter People think the Abbasid Caliphate ended in 128, he didn't The Abbasid Caliphate was still in Cairo after that He sent a letter to Ghayathadee Ibn Tocholok recognizing him as the Muslim ruler there And after that the Delhi Sultan Ghayathadee Ibn Tocholok felt very guilty By his taxation practices He only then levied the Sharia taxes Of the Osher and the Khuraj and the Zakat This is something that's hard to imagine Hopefully in the United States But just the idea that It's the person who commits a crime Who should suffer for that crime This is also something that in many places Is introduced by Sharia law And I know this because when I taught At the University of Washington We had these Afghan legal scholars Who'd come every year One of them was a specialist in Pashtun Wali Which is Pashtun or Pashtun tribal law I had very interesting conversations with this man Very interesting And one of the rules in Pashtun tribal law Is that let's say I kill somebody's brother He gets my sister as his wife Now that may resolve the conflict But what did my sister do? I'm the one who committed the crime In fact I've been trying to find out from lawyers What you actually call a legal system That just says the person who commits the crime Should answer for that crime And no one can give me an answer Because it seems so basic That people don't really have a word for legal systems Where someone else besides the person who's committed the crime Is actually bears the punishment for that crime This is for many parts of the world Where Islam appeared They didn't have notions even with it The person who commits the crime Is the one who should be punished Muslim scholars that I mentioned before Were constantly trying to limit You have these warlords basically Pre-modern states are almost always ruled By military leaders And these are the guys with all the muscle And more often than not they're not exactly The most educated They're not always the most They don't always have the best temper The best anger management skills And oftentimes Muslim scholars Are trying to advocate very gently Sometimes forcefully with these rulers To not apply punishments as harshly as they do So for example in Aceh One of the earliest parts of Southeast Asia To become Muslim Already Marco Polo visits there In the 1290s And he sees that already people there Not only are they Muslim But they're actually using the Arabic alphabet This one scholar Nur Adina Ranieri In the 1600s He managed to convince the Sultan of Aceh To stop boiling criminals in oil So he's actually very proud He's very proud that he's accomplished this Because he's managed to get the ruler To stop this punishment That has no place in God's law Another thing And this is going to be very surprising To a lot of people Not here but a lot of people in Maybe American media Where Islam spread Religious liberty spread The Quran when it says So religion can be for God alone This is a serious commitment That Muslims have Religion belongs to God And actually Muslims had a notion Of religious liberty That in some ways is much more robust Even than the United States People don't People tend to think of Muslims As being intolerant Or Islam as being intolerant But actually Muslims In Islamic civilization Muslim scholars And Muslim rulers Exercise a level of religious toleration That would really not Americans wouldn't accept it Is too tolerant I'll give you some examples First of all People often wonder How did Islam spread so quickly In the Middle East So the prophet Laysasun died in 632 Of the common era By 650 Muslims had reached all the way Into Central Asia In 711 They entered into Iberia And into what's now sinned In Pakistan How did in 636 637 They've taken over The entire Middle East Including Egypt How did they do this Actually Most of it was because The people who lived there The Christians and Jewish population Were really happy to have someone Besides the Byzantines And the Persians ruling them Especially people like the Muslims Who absolutely didn't care What religion you practiced In the year 632 The year the prophet died The Byzantine emperor The Roman emperor Issued an edict That was going to force All the Jews in the Roman empire To convert to Christianity Something that had never Been done before Forcible conversion Of all the Jews In the Roman empire Fortunately just a few years later All the Byzantine lands fell Under Muslim rule And these Jews were not Forced to convert In fact they thrived And you can go read David Wasserman's book For a professor at Vanderbilt University How Islam saved the Jews Very interesting article He wrote, sorry not a book But you can find it online Similarly Why would Muslims Anyone ever wonder Why Muslims built their first city In Egypt where Cairo is now That wasn't Cairo back then It was called Fustath Why did they build it there Alexandria is a much bigger city Why didn't they go And make their capital Alexandria Because they were a collection Of monasteries There still are A collection of monasteries Where now Cairo is And Muslims settled there Because they were there And the monks in the monastery Were going to help them Administer Egypt Because the Byzantine emperor Had forced the Coptic bishop To leave his position And appointed a Byzantine Orthodox bishop In his place And when the Muslims invaded They went in with the support Of that ousted Coptic bishop And they put him back on In charge of the church in Egypt So they entered with the support Of many of the Coptic clergy there What about religious toleration? To this day I get surprised by this I remember the first time I read this I was so surprised So Muslim scholars had a debate They talked about this issue Because it happened What happens if there is a Zoroastrian In Zoroastrianism And this was true in Zoroastrianism Up until the 1300s You could have brother-sister marriage And father-daughter marriage And mother-son marriage Actually it happened It wasn't just a theory It actually happened And so the question was Can a Muslim judge Let's say a brother-sister married couple Zoroastrians come to the Muslim judge Can the Muslim judge adjudicate their marriage? Let's say they have some dispute Over maintenance or property The answer is The majority answer from Muslim scholars Is yes you can Even though this is something That is completely haram in Islam The Muslim judge he said This is your religion You have your religion I have my religion I disapprove of it I don't accept it But I acknowledge you have this right Similarly if people who weren't Muslims Had ribba contracts Muslim if you have a ribba contract Is an invalid contract No judges It's like having a drug dealer Is coming and saying He cheated me out of my cocaine shipment Or something Judges aren't going to listen to that The same thing in Islamic law If you have a ribba contract But if it was people who were not Muslim who have a ribba contract Muslim judges had no problem adjudicating it Even sati The widow self-immolation The tradition especially Amongst the Rajputs in India Where Rajput noble woman When her husband died in battle She would throw herself on the funeral pyre And you can go If you go to some of these old cities In Rajasthan and India You can see on the walls Of some of the big fortresses These hand prints in henna Where women would put their hand print On the wall as they were going out To throw themselves on the pyre And of course it's a very controversial And in fact the British Ended up banning it in 1829 And still to this day And people will talk about this It's still a very controversial practice Muslims allowed it On one condition You had to get the permission of the Sultan We know this in the case of the Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultan's allowed this But you had to get permission of the Sultan Why? Because the Sultan Muslims have a rule We will allow non-Muslims To practice their religion amongst themselves Even doing things that we think are haram Like drinking alcohol and raising pigs And marrying brothers and sisters And having ribba contracts But nobody as long as No haq adimi As long as no one's rights Are being violated So let's say there's a religion Where it's okay to go up And just knock someone on the head With a tack hammer and take their money No, that's not okay Because this is a violation Of acknowledged rights that people have You have a right to property That's a human right in Islam You have a human right to property But if the woman herself Wanted to do this If she wanted to throw herself on the pyre The Muslim Sultan The Muslim Sultan At least the evidence we have There's not a lot of it But at least the evidence we have Says that they didn't have Muslim rulers had no problem If they did this There's a level of toleration Imagine Imagine in America today American court acknowledging Brother sister marriage American courts don't even acknowledge Polygamous marriages So this is a level Muslims are very serious When they talk about religious liberty They're very serious So what are the lessons That we can take away from this today And the more As I was listening to the speeches And I was talking to a lovely Sister from South Africa Always wonderful Meet South African Muslims We were speaking earlier About rights So wherever Islam spreads Rights spread Justice spread Wherever Islam spread Liberty spread In America today Muslims can be pillars of Rights and religious liberty Pillars of rights and religious liberty And I was Someone came to my office The other day and asked me A very interesting question They said, what would you What would you like to see If you could affect change In the society What would you like to see What would you How would you measure The success of Muslims in this country And I'm sure there's lots Of great religious ways That I could measure that And Sheikh Hamza Could probably give much better Discussion of that But the thing that came to my mind I had this image of a statue On the National Mall In the statue of a Hijabi woman Probably we shouldn't have statues Okay, that's one problem With my vision But I don't know Find out some way to do this Maybe it's a stylized statue Or it's a calligraphy statue My idea was this statue Of a Muslim woman wearing hijab Who is going to be this Who is going to be an acknowledged Hero of civil liberties in America So 20 years from now 30 years from now People in the United States Were going to look and say It was Muslims who stood up For civil liberties Who stood up for rights And liberty in this country They became a column That held this up Like where Islam spread Liberty spread, justice spread So to here in the United States Where there's promise Of liberty and justice But people try and take that Liberty and justice away from people Without due process Because of bigotry Because of fear Muslims can stand up against that And be a column A buttress against that So what can we do today? When people talk about rights You have the idea Of exercising your right I want to exercise my right A freedom of speech I actually think That word exercise Is very important Rights aren't things That you just have You know it's not Like a jumper cables in your car Or you leave them under your Seat for two years And then you use them You have to exercise rights It's like a muscle You have to exercise it This is very important We always have to exercise our rights Because otherwise You don't know how to use them You don't know how to be courageous You have to practice being courageous And it's hard Because a lot of times Muslims, especially Muslims in certain parts of the country You tend to be doing very well For themselves Masha'Allah As a descendant of immigrants Who came here centuries ago And never made any money I have nothing but respect For my brothers and sisters here People who have good life In this country They think sometimes They can just hide They can keep low And they'll be safe Well, this is a bad year For that plan Because let me tell you If you're in a press minority You can't hide You don't even have to be Muslim They go after Sikhs They go after this Buddhist monk Got beaten up for God's sake You can't hide But nor should you have to You shouldn't have to in this country And if you don't practice being strong You won't be able to be strong When the time comes When challenges really present themselves How do we practice? How do we exercise courage? Let's think about How do we do it with rights? People have a right to a fair trial People have a right to be Considered innocent until they're proven guilty We need to practice that We need to exercise that I don't care Just try this This is what I do I don't want to use myself as an example Especially because my wife Would probably disagree with me Being used as a model But I'll just tell you what I do Whenever somebody You see someone come up on TV And they're saying This person is guilty This person is guilty Even like Bill Cosby Everybody loves to say How bad Bill Cosby is You know what I always say When people mention Bill Cosby I say Innocent until proven guilty Innocent until proven guilty They're very simple It's our legal obligation People in this country Are innocent until they are proven guilty And it doesn't matter how nasty they are It doesn't matter how mean they are It doesn't matter what they're accused of It doesn't matter the length of the sheet That the government brings out And reads all the crimes They're accused of And that everyone's so sure they did They're innocent until they're proven guilty Just like the Prophet Accepted the oath of that man In his own self-defense Even though he was a sinner People are innocent until they're proven guilty You need to practice that You need to exercise that belief There's no guilt by association This is very important I remember just a few months ago When the San Bernardino attack happened And the people from CARE came out And were supporting the families Of the one of the shooters I think it was the guy's family Right? And one of my friends Is probably a Donald Trump supporter He said He called me He's like Why are these people on TV He's not Muslim He's like Why are the funds For the community being used To support these people These people I said These are the families They didn't do anything Even if Let's say they committed a crime Let's say the parents committed Some crime or something like that They're innocent until proven guilty They deserve to have legal representation They deserve to have support Is this the kind of community We're going to be We turn our backs on people The second they're under suspicion No This is precisely when you show your strength It's precisely when people Are being accused That you need to stand by them It's precisely when the media Or the public is trying to make them toxic That you have to hold them close That's a matter of principle And by the way You're going to be happy The people have exercised that right When you get accused Like Eric Clapton says Nobody knows you when you're down and out Sorry that song That always comes to my mind Too much Eric Clapton unplugged My school But I want you to stand by people's family And here's a great way to exercise this right On my website Dr. Jonathan Brown.com I think It was a present There's a link Says right to a prisoner There's all these Muslim prisoners Who've been targeted by Things like we saw in Orange County Who've been victim of Basically entrapment Or maybe they even committed crimes Maybe they even committed crimes It doesn't matter You are allowed to write them You're allowed to write them a letter Even if they're a horrible criminal You can write them a letter and say Assalamu alaikum I just want you to know That there are people out here Thinking about you And you and you talk to prisoners They tell you when they get these letters It makes the world a difference to them It means everything to them Just getting a letter means so much And you can also during Ramadan There's on my website as well A link for a group NCPCF National Coalition For the preservation of civil liberties Civil freedoms Where you can help donate money To prisoners, Muslim prisoners During Ramadan So they have money to buy food During Ramadan This is very I want you to practice this It's legal There's nothing wrong with it It is legal There's nothing wrong with it It's your right You need to exercise these rights Don't let fear Make you deprive yourself of rights Don't make fear Deprive other people of rights To contact, to support, to association Because that's how That's how majorities work in societies That's how they keep minorities under control Keep them in their place They don't do it necessarily Through physical oppression They don't do it necessarily By putting people in prison They do it by creating fear You have to break that barrier of fear You have to break it by exercising your rights Finally, what about liberties? How can Muslims contribute to the preservation Of liberty in this country? Well, we're going to have a chance We have a chance now That's a great thing about being Muslim In this country It's always interesting, right? Always have a chance to make a difference We need to ask people How far? How serious are they about With the disability? You know, I just read this other article This article the other day I was very upset by it This Muslim named Ed Hussein Who used to work for the Quilliam Foundation In England Some of you people from the UK Know about this I think now he works for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation He wrote this article where he said He said, talk about how Muslims Don't stand up against extremism One of the things he said Muslims need to stop doing He said, Muslims, they wear hijab They put hijab on their young girls As younger as four or five years old First of all And I don't have any daughters But I'm pretty sure girls When they put on hijab They want to look like their mom They want to look like their mom And you know what? It's their right to look like their mom And you know what? Guess what? If a Jewish parent wants to Put a yarmulke on their child Or a certain type of clothing On their child You better believe that's Their right in this country And you better believe no one Is going to tell them they can't do it This is our right As parents to raise our children According to our religion Why is it a sign of extremism Why is it something to be disgusted at Or to be poo-pooed Or to be looked down on that Americans Are exercising their right To freedom of religion By having their children Grow up in the same Religistration as they did These are things that people You know, how many times have you heard How many times has a Muslim If someone come to you and said As if you're a woman Why don't you just take Your hijab off tonight Just take it off, you know Or when they offer you pork Try some pork, come on Or why don't you just try some alcohol Don't be so serious Since when has it become Un-American not to drink Since when is it un-American To cover your hair Since when is it un-American To have a beard Being American has nothing To do with how you dress Go ask Amish people Go ask Jewish people In this country Being American doesn't mean You drink alcohol Go ask Mormons They don't even drink caffeine No one has a right to make you Dress in a certain way Or drink something Or eat something To prove you're American You don't have to do that They don't have the right To ask you to do that So again, how are we going to exercise How are we going to exercise this liberty We need to make people In our daily lives We need to make them respect Our right as Muslims Our right as Americans To have freedom of religious practice And it's tough It's been really tough Especially when you're young And I have so much respect for young Muslims When I meet them Because they're so strong And they are so guided They're so focused on what's right So I'm very optimistic about the future It's going to be a tough time ahead But in short, this will be a chance For American Muslims to As Muslims have done in the past Bring justice Bring liberty And in doing so We're in the respect of others in this country Who claim Many of whom claim sincerely To value this justice and liberty very much Thank you Thank you