 Peace be upon everyone. We greet you with a prayer. We wish upon everyone internal, external, tranquility, peace and serenity in your heart and in your homes and in your marriages and in your families and in your communities and in your societies and in this beautiful country everyone say Amin or Amen. So we thank everyone for coming here. Is this anyone's first time in a mosque? Oh, round of applause for those who showed up. Seriously. Seriously. You guys are the winners today. You guys are making this a success and a victory for all of us, for all of us today. I applaud you, I commend you and I thank you and I thank you. You know, I've born and raised in America, in Chicago, lived in Orange County so we share a house and out here in Northern California but I also had a little stint in Minnesota. So yeah, I've born and raised, you know, and the first time in my life that I've ever felt slightly uncomfortable living in this beautiful country was just in the past several months. First time in my life. And so you coming out here today and the amazingness that we've seen in the past several months of the beauty of what it means to be American really touches me. And for all of you here today, you just contributed to that. So thank you again. I'd also like to thank MCC and Wunear specifically for his amazing professionalism and organization. And I'd also like to thank our respected professor and teacher, Dr. Alia Tai who's here humbly sitting and I feel inadequate. He's my teacher and I'm sitting here right now but he's probably going to evaluate me and give me like a sit-mime. So have some mercy. So just to introduce because this is called, you know, Meet Your Muslim American Neighbor. So I'm a lawyer by profession. I practiced, I've been practicing law for about 12 years and I was at Dell Corporation. I was corporate counsel. One from about 170 attorneys there. Yeah, a lot of attorneys. Too many in one place sometimes. And then I was blessed to continue working as a lawyer but then attended the first ever accredited liberal arts Muslim college in the western hemisphere which is located in Berkeley, California. Yes, we're pretty lucky. It's called, say, Tuna College. And while attending full-time I continued to practice law and now I work both as a chaplain, teacher and as well as practicing law right now general counsel for a global laboratory which specializes in cancer. So that's what we do. So this is, you know, Meet Your American Muslim Neighbor. You know, if you see me out there you might not know my Muslim necessarily but just like all of us we're part, we share that family. So that's just the personal touch. You know, a couple of days ago, a couple of days ago my daughter, I have three daughters, it might be running around here somewhere. And they went to our neighbor, you know, this is one of the neighbors and they say we need to put the hood back into the neighbor. You know? Or the neighbor back into the hood. We need to put the neighbor back into the hood. And so the neighborliness. And so anyways, I was, my neighbors had a lemon tree and my daughters went there and they took a couple lemons and they started making lemonade. It didn't taste good but she made $2.50. I don't know how people just bought it out of mercy. But anyways, so she told me, yeah, our neighbor said that maybe we should ask before we take the lemons. And I was like, yeah, that makes sense. So, you know, we went and bought some chocolate and she wrote a letter and she took it to our neighbor and we're putting the neighbor back into the hood. So she went and she knocked on the door and took some chocolate and took a nice letter and gave her the chocolate and the letter. And so I think, like Assemblywoman shared with us, this is really about understanding one another. And today I invite and challenge everyone to come with an open, objective mind. You know, you can come with a skeptical mind or an objective mind. And so I open you to channel that. And so what we're going to do today, we're going to start with Sister Hina. And what she's going to do kind of is try to remove some of the feathers in front of our eyes that block us from seeing the mountain of Islam and Muslims. They say you can put a feather in front of your eye that you can't see a mountain, right? So Hina is our myth buster, right? And so there are a lot of myths out there, right, for whatever reason and we can get into what those reasons are, how they've been constructed. But she is going to help us deconstruct some of those so we can then try to succeed with that challenge and come with a non-sceptical mind but with an objective mind, right? So then when we go to the next session, Dr. Esad, then we can approach some of the crux in the core, what are the tenets and the fates and the practices of Islam. We can then remove some of those obstacles so we can see a little more objectively. And then we have our esteemed colleagues, we have Mike with us who will talk a little bit about one of the elephants not in the room, right? We'll talk about Jihad and what Islam says about that. And then finally our final guest panelist, Sister Sarah, will tell us about her personal journey and how her personal journey into Islam has made her a better American. Yes, they're not mutually exclusive. You can be a beautiful Muslim and a beautiful American at the same time. So without further ado, Sister Hina, she is a speaker, a writer and one of the leading managers or principal of the homeschool co-op in Lafayette, California. And I'm sure you will enjoy her. And of course we will have, and I invite you everyone to be raw and real and authentic. And let's take something, let's come here with meaning, you know? Let's come here with meaning and let's leave with meaning. So we will have a very open question and answer session after the panelist and after our break. Without further ado, please welcome Sister Hina. Thank you very much. So I've been really blessed to be able to be involved in interfaith work for a few years now and it's been a really illuminating experience and it's allowed me to get to know members of different faith communities or people who don't subscribe to any faith community but who want to learn more about one another. And I've been really grateful for the opportunity. And one of the things that I've been seeing when I've been kind of out there talking about being a Muslim is that pretty much the same problem of questions come up everywhere I go. And they can be divided into like maybe four or five basic questions that get asked again and again. So I thought that I would address some of them right off the bat today in case anybody here has some of those questions and try to demystify some of the terms that are out there that we're hearing in the media or hearing on the lips of political pendants. So the first one I wanted to talk about was the buzzword that everybody's hearing about is Sharia. And a few months ago I was speaking in a church and I had an elderly woman stand up in the audience and really very, very concerned, very upset and she said that she was really upset to see that Sharia law was taking over America and that the U.S. courts and judges could no longer judge according to American law that they were going to be judging according to Sharia law. So I didn't even know where to start with that. But just off the bat I want to make it really clear that there's no such thing as a dumb question. I want everyone to feel free that they can ask anything that they've been wondering about or that they're confused about, they want clarifications on. And my heart actually really went out to her and she, her voice was shaking. She was so stressed out by the idea that Sharia law was coming to take over America. So I want to first deconstruct, demystify the word Sharia and get into what it is, what it means to Muslims, how it's implemented. So if we look at the root of the word Sharia it actually means a path to a body of water. And if you think about what does a body of water do like in the middle of a desert, I don't know why it says this. It's literally where you go to save your life. It's the path to the body of water is a path to salvation. And the understanding is that Sharia also for Muslims is a path to salvation both in this life and in the next life. And it is how we live our daily lives. It constitutes pretty much day to day life for Muslims. It's what we eat, what we don't eat, how we dress, how we don't dress. Our prayers five times a day, giving 2.5% of our savings and charity every year. It's known as Zakat and the poor tax. Going on the pilgrimage at least once in your life if you're able. So that is what Sharia constitutes, the day to day life of a Muslim. And it's important to understand that before thinking of it as a legal code, it's actually a moral code. And Sharia is more concerned with sin than actually with crime. So for example, if I were to tell a lie or lie to my friend here, there isn't an earthly law that's going to punish me for telling her a lie. But according to Sharia, I understand that unless I repent and change my ways, God will hold me accountable for telling a lie. So that all falls under Sharia. So thinking of it as, it's not law as in the Western sense. And it can be misleading when we call it a law. But it does help us decide how we're going to divide up our inheritance when we write our wills. It does tell us the rules of marriage, the rules of divorce. All of that falls under Sharia. So the Muslims live by the principle that everything is permissible unless God has forbidden it in a sacred text. So that's our understanding. And so taking that understanding and taking the Holy Qur'an, our Holy Book, and also taking the life of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, what he said, what he did, what his advice was, what his instructions were. The Muslim scholars have classified every single action that we can possibly do into one of five categories. I'm just going to quickly tell you what those five categories are. I'm not going to go into the details of it right now, just in the interest of time. However, during Q&A, if you are interested in knowing examples of these different categories, I'll be happy to share them with you. So the five categories according to Sharia, every single thing we do, we think about which category does this fall under. It's either obligatory, it's by God. So all in the eyes of God, it's obligatory, it's disliked, it's permissible, it's recommended, or it's outright forbidden. So every single thing that we do falls into one of those categories. So thinking about our actions and which category they might fall under in Sharia allows Muslims to live a subconscious life, to be really mindful about day-to-day living. Now, the purpose of Sharia is twofold. It's basically to establish religious practice and to establish social harmony. And there's five basic rights of Sharia, human rights. And those five rights are the right to religion, meaning that you can't force somebody to convert and you can't force someone to disbelieve. The second is the right to life, meaning you can't kill anybody. The third is the right to family and lineage, meaning we have a right to know where we come from and what our lineage is, which would explain why in Islam sex is confined to marriage. And then the fourth is the right to honor, meaning that we can't slander people, we can't tell lies about one another. The fifth is the right to reason, meaning we can't do anything that affects our intellect, which would explain why alcohol and other intoxicants are forbidden. And then the sixth is the right to property, where you can't steal or pillage or rob or cheat. So those are the... I'm sorry, those are six things that Sharia comes to protect. Now, when most people hear the word Sharia, they automatically assume that it's got to do with penal code punishment. They imagine the... they visualize the YouTube videos that we're seeing these days, unfortunately, of honor killings and stonings and hangings and things that are completely contrary to the everyday Muslim's understanding of Sharia. There is an understanding of corporal and capital punishment in Sharia, just like there is even in the United States law year. But as far as capital and corporal punishment is concerned, these form less than 1% of Sharia laws, probably less than 0.1%. There's actually only capital punishment for three cases. Those are premeditated murder, adultery of married people, and apostasy with treason. Those are the three that fall under Sharia. And Sharia is implemented on a governmental scale by a legitimate authority, a legitimate government. It's not vigilante justice. It's not what we're seeing today, which is just hordes of angry young men going around taking the law into their own hands. It's just like we have capital punishment here in America, but you and I, John Q. Citizen, cannot go out into the streets and decide to take the law into our own hands. And the question is, why is there capital or corporal punishment? What we've been told by God is that there are certain things that he wants us to not do out of fear of him. And so that's why those rules are in place. But however, it's really interesting that if we look at where Sharia has actually been implemented over the largest number of people and the longest period of time to see how it was actually implemented is really eye-opening. 1,200 rules, 1,200 years of Sharia rule in Egypt, there were only two documented cases of punishment for adultery. And even those, it said that they were technically illegal and they were politically motivated. And during the entire period of the Ottoman Empire, which was from 1299 to 1923, there was only one confirmed case of punishment and the scholars actually protested that judgment and it was never repeated. So that's actually when there was a legitimate authority that could implement the capital punishments that fall under Sharia, that's how it was carried out. What's happening today, every day a Muslim does not recognize it and it's just as foul by it as anyone else. And also it should be understood that capital and corporal punishment is really ultimately either as a deterrent, it's not meant to be there to be implemented. The evidentiary bar for implementing any of these punishments are so high that it's difficult to prove some of these cases. And it's meant more to keep society functioning at a level where open disobedience begins to God isn't done out in the streets. And so that's what these laws are meant to legislate in the Muslim countries, Muslim citizens. So that would be if we were looking at it from a governmental scale. But Sharia actually for Muslims in America is really about our personal lives, how we live our daily lives. It's not about anything in the court system. Okay, so just moving on from Sharia, the second thing that I get asked a lot about and a lot of people think that Jihad automatically has to do with military combat. But that's not how Muslims understand it. There's a famous tradition of the Prophet Muhammad used to be upon him. He had different facets to his life and one of them was that he was a military commander as well. And one time on the way back from Skirmish he was with his companions and they were coming back from the battlefield and he turned to his companions and he said, we go now from the lesser Jihad to the greater Jihad. And his companions were confused because they thought putting your life on the line in the battlefield must be the greatest Jihad possible. So they asked him, well, what's that? What's the greater Jihad? And he told them it's actually the Jihad against the ego, the struggle against the self. Jihad in Arabic, the root word of it actually has nothing to do with war. It has to do with struggle. And so Jihad can be, you know, trying to give up telling lies or trying to give up gossiping. Jihad can be trying to give up cigarette smoking. Jihad can be trying, you know, not wanting to reach for that third chocolate you could be because, you know, it's not good for you. That is what Jihad is for Muslims. It's a struggle, a struggle against the self. There is a military aspect to it as well and that can only be done under very, very noble conditions. And Mike's going to be going into that. It's more defensive rather than offensive. Okay. The third thing, I think last time, a majority of our questions are about ISIS. And ISIS is, you know, what's really heartbreaking about ISIS is that as Muslims were often asked to explain their actions and to disavow ourselves from them to say that we have nothing to do with ISIS, while at the same time we're grieving and mourning what they're doing, not only to other communities, but to Muslims. Muslims are the greatest victims of ISIS's crimes. And when my son was in high school, he said that was the most frustrating part about having to talk about ISIS because he felt like he had to constantly explain to people that he doesn't agree with ISIS while at the same time being so outraged and upset by what they were doing. And my youngest son, when he was 11, he's now 13, he said to me, Obama, ISIS, they can't be Muslims. They're not Muslims, right? He just wanted me to say they're not Muslims. And I said, I know that you don't recognize Islam in them. There's nothing about them that tells you there's somebody from your faith community. But they claim to be Muslims and that's how they're advertising themselves at. And so you have to understand why people are confused. And so this is something we're going to have to answer and we're going to have to explain. And he said to me, but they've taken everything that's beautiful and they've made it ugly. And I asked him, like, for example, what do you mean? And this was around the time that the Paris attacks had happened and the Paris attacks happened on a Friday. And he said, Fridays are holy day. Fridays are day of prayer. What Muslim would go out and kill anybody on a Friday? And the ISIS flag is the flag that they have. The seal on the flag, that was the ring that the Prophet Muhammad used to wear that said there's no God but God. And so he said, that's such a beautiful image. It's the seal from his ring with which he used to stamp the correspondence, the letters that went out in his name. And he said, they've made that their flag and they go around killing people. That was something beautiful and now they've made it to something ugly. So all I can tell you about ISIS is that I'm not a big political commentator, but what I can say is that I personally, and I know all my community members here don't know anybody who supports ISIS or understands them. They are the bane of our existence here in America right now. And so I'm not a political commentator so I can't explain where they came from. I've been told they've come out of a power vacuum and that when there was no government in place or vigilantes, but we're just as confused by them as anyone else. The other question I get asked about is the Shia Sunni differences. The Shias and Sunnis make up the religion of Islam. And everyone here on this panel is Sunni, but many of us have friends and acquaintances who are Shia. And again, I'm not a big historian so I'm just going to really, really come it down to the basics of how I know it. So the understanding that I have of the Shias and the differences is that it was a split that happened in the Muslim community soon after the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him passed away. And it was really over who gets leadership of the Muslims. The Shias said that it should be somebody from his family and they believed that Ali the Prophet's law, that he's this rightful spiritual successor and he should have been the leader of the Muslims after the Prophet Muhammad passed away. The Sunnis believed that it's a meritocracy and that the best person for the job is the one who should be the leader. But no matter what the difference is, there are nuanced differences in how we practice our religion between the Shias and the Sunnis. But whatever the differences are we do understand, again we don't understand the difference that you don't persecute one another for what you believe. It's not a reason for military conflict. What we're seeing happening in different parts of the world has got to do more with the geopolitical realities on the ground. It's kind of like if my only understanding of Catholics and Protestants was what happened in Ireland in the 1980s. Catholics and Protestants are not the same thing with Shias and Sunnis. And then the last one, the big one I get asked as a woman is about the hijab, the headscarf. And so the Arabic word hijab actually doesn't mean headscarf. The Arabic word for headscarf is khimar. Hijab actually means a barrier. It's a barrier that clearly delineates where my boundaries are. Hijab is more than just a piece of cloth on the head. Hijab has got to do with, like I always joke that okay fine, I put a hijab on my head but how do I put one on my personality. And by that I don't mean that I can't be out there talking and getting to know people. But what I mean is like how do I inculcate the inner aspect of modesty, which is to not brag, to not be a showoff, to not make every conversation be about me, me, me. That also falls under hijab. It's modesty and it's modesty in actions, it's modesty in thoughts, and it's also modesty in how we interact with one another. People ask about men and so for Muslim women one thing I want to make clear is that Muslim women are a monolith. There are all types of Muslim women who do wear the hijab, women who don't wear the hijab, women who believe you should wear the hijab but don't want to wear it so they don't. Women who don't believe hijab is required so they'll never wear it. There's all sorts of opinions out there. And amongst the women who do wear hijab you'll see different forms of how Muslim women choose to wear the hijab. Some women will wear hijab and they'll wear makeup, some women will wear hijab and dress light colors, some will dress bright colors. There's all different understandings of how women choose to wear the hijab. But the concept of hijab is that women who choose to wear it, wear it and they cover every part of their body except their face, their hands, and their feet. So anyone you see wearing a hijab is usually dressed that way. And traditionally in Muslim cultures and even here in the western culture, men and women pretty much covered the same amount when they went out in public. Men wore hats, women wore hats. Women were long gowns and tops, men wore blazers and suits or whatever. Everybody was dressed from head to toe. That's how it's also been in traditionally in Muslim cultures as well. Men would go out in turbans and long gowns. Women would go out wearing the hijab and long gowns. It was interesting because my grandmother I always think about her. She visited us in 1990 and she was sitting on the sofa with us while we were watching the show Candid Camera. And that was back with Dom DeLuis was the host and he had this pretty young model type co-host with him. My grandmother did understand a word of English. And she didn't wear the hijab but this was just her observation. She was watching the television set and she said it's interesting that the man he's got a beret on his hat and he's wearing a full three-piece suit but the woman is like in a tiny mini skirt and her cleavage is all showing and she's sleeveless. It's interesting how much skin is showing on the woman but the man is completely covered. And I remember as a teenager thinking I never noticed that. I never noticed that. Traditionally in Muslim cultures women would cover pretty much the same. However, for men the requirement of what they have to cover on their bodies out in public is between navel and knee. So that part of their body is always covered so they won't wear speedos or they're not supposed to or short shorts or anything covering the belly button. And these are just understood that this is what God has told us to do and this is the only reason that it was something that was pleasing to God I wouldn't be wearing the hijab. So it's based on people's individual understandings of what will bring them closer to God and it's a personal decision. Many people assume that if you're wearing the hijab you must be wearing it because a man is requiring it or demanding it of you and it always surprises people when I tell them that when I chose to put on the hijab at the age of 28 I actually did it in direct opposition to what my husband wanted. He wasn't comfortable with the hijab. He didn't want me to wear it. He said he was a private person and he didn't want it to be necessarily advertised every time we stepped out or Muslim but I told him at that time this is between me and God it's got to do with nobody else and he respected that. I think I went over time I'm really sorry but during Q&A if there's anything else you want me to expand on I'll be happy to and any other questions. Thank you and I appreciate it. So it's interesting that of the four panelists we have we have kind of you know because I feel like it's something so beautiful but we can't yet talk about the beauty of what it is because we're clouded with so many other things you know like something that's so amazing and so beautiful but we can't get to the beauty because you have to start with all this other stuff that you need to talk about but that's okay does anyone know who the first country was to recognize the existence of the United States of America? Morocco Morocco, a Muslim country does anyone know who established the first university in the world that continues to exist today? A Muslim woman Fatima Al Fahriah also in Morocco yes, great okay so this next part is one of my favorite parts Dr. Esa Tercine who is an ER physician and also an author of a great book called Being Muslim A Practical Guide is with us today and he's going to present the the core tenets of the faith and I will invite you to explore what he's saying and process it this way there were three men that were invited into a dark room and in this dark room was an elephant and they didn't know what an elephant was and so they go in and they discover an elephant and so the first man goes in and he touches the leg of the elephant and the tail and the third touches the trunk of the elephant and then they come out and they ask him what is an elephant? so the first man who touches the leg says an elephant is a strong pillar and the second man says no no no no no no an elephant is a whip and the third says you guys are crazy I touched the elephant with my own hands an elephant is a hose and all three of them start to say you guys are all crazy you guys are all wrong now we know that all three of them are they're all incorrect an elephant is not a whip an elephant is a live animal it's a beast, it breathes, it walks it makes sounds it communicates, it has a family it does this, it's not a whip a whip is not alive, it doesn't move a pillar is not alive so unfortunately there are many Muslims and non-Muslims in the world that only know one piece of the elephant one piece of Islam and thus they have an imbalance and so when we get this balance and we restore this balance then the beauty of Islam can come out so Dr. Assad will share with you hopefully and without further ado please welcome Dr. Assad stand if that's okay with everyone if they're okay with the mic like this good afternoon everyone I want to thank everybody for showing up our esteemed guests all of you coming on this Saturday afternoon very appreciated I know how valuable things are so I'm going to briefly try to cover the core tenets of Islam to put it simply sometimes we try to have what the box top is so we don't have birds out of you with a thing I'm going to try to talk about the box top today we're not going to use just details we're going to try to get that bigger picture so brief overview I want to start with some definitions actually I think before that yeah we're going to start with some definitions Islam and Muslims and on the side I have a friend of mine who wants to start the S campaign that's Muslims with an S not a Z and Islam but it's commonly mispronounced Islam and Muslims so what is Islam? Islam is a proper name of the religion itself it's an Arabic word, Semitic roots and it means to surrender oneself over to willingly so if you surrender yourself over willingly that is to be in the state of surrender or submission the root word in Arabic also means the word peace or to behold or wholesome the word Muslim is the title for somebody who's an adherent of the religion so somebody who follows the religion is a Muslim the religion is called Islam and I know it's kind of confusing with Christianity Christianity is a little easier Judaism is a little easier for Islam it's a Muslim a Muslim is one who willingly surrenders their will over to God and thereby achieves inner peace and wholeness Muslims can be from any ethnicity all walks of life, here are a few more famous Muslims who can name the top left you'll age yourself if you can and then on the right his name is right there and in the front a great American hero we recently lost Muhammad Ali so as you can see it's people of all ethnicities all cultures many Muslims in the world are spending all continents so you're going to get a lot of variety so now I'd like to talk a little bit about one more term the word Allah it is commonly misunderstood that Allah is a particular God that is different than the God that we're used to hearing about Allah is simply the Arabic name for God so Christian Arabs in church will say Christian Arabic Jews will use the word Allah this is a copy of the Bible in Arabic and it says for those who can read Arabic in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth so there is the word Allah in an Arabic Bible this is the one God of Abraham who sent Noah Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael Jesus, Moses and the Prophet Muhammad so how does Islam view itself Islam sees itself not as a new religion but a continuation of the truth that God has been revealing all throughout time it's a culmination of the previous religions sent by God one of the useful things that Muslims will talk about is we talk about Islam with the capital I and Islam with the lower case I what does Islam mean again submission to God to surrender oneself over to God so by that meaning would Muslims believe Moses to be in a state of Islam yes he was surrendered over to God was Noah in a state of surrender to God so we hold that all of God's religion is Islam in the generic sense the lower case I with the final capital I the final religion of Islam the final version brought by the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century there is a famous narration from the Prophet Muhammad and it's important to see how Islam views itself in the greater human story the Prophet Muhammad says the parable the parable of my coming is like a large beautiful building and everybody's walking around marveling at how beautiful it is and they'll say what a beautiful building except it's just missing that last brick and he said I am that last brick so Islam isn't something that comes to replace something from before it's a completion of the tradition before there is a Muslim tradition that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, tells us that God sent over 124,000 prophets to humanity we don't know them all but we know that every people had a prophet the Native Americans had their prophet you may not know who they are the Asiatic people had their prophets the Nordic people had their prophets everybody had a prophet sent to them by God so what does this do for the Muslim? we don't know who these prophets are we can accept that there may be remnants of truth in other traditions even if we cannot confirm with certainty that it's a prophetic tradition so for example Muslims will entertain the possibility that the Buddha may have been a prophet for example they won't say that he is we don't have any scripture that specifies him being a prophet the same way we do say Isaac or Jacob but we can entertain that possibility that truth, divine truth and guidance may still have some remnants in that tradition if its source was indeed divine so Islam doesn't have an exclusive truth claim meaning that only Islam has truth and everything else is absolutely false but that Islam is the final and complete culmination of the message of God as it's been sent down so this is what you're going to be tested on at the end these three things there are three dimensions to the religion faith conduct and character faith, conduct and character okay so we're going to start with conduct these are what are commonly referred to as the pillars of practice these are one of the five pillars of Islam who can name them that's what we're going through so these are actions that we perform okay the five pillars keep in mind are only one of the three dimensions we have faith, conduct and character they're the pillars of conduct so the first is to pronounce the two testimonies of faith right and this is what entered this is what officially makes someone a Muslim they say I testify there is nothing worthy of worship save God and by that we mean the God of Abraham the creator of the heavens and the earth the one who sent Jesus and Moses and Noah etc and that Muhammad is the messenger of God the final messenger and you have to accept all of the other messengers along with him so to say that is what enters you into the religion then once one is a Muslim they have to pray five times a day based on the position of the sun whether you're at work try to take a break at five different points of the day to re-align oneself and center oneself with God there's also the purifying charity so of your excess wealth that goes unused throughout the year not what you make but your unused wealth if you're above a poverty line two and a half percent gentler than Uncle Sam two and a half percent goes to charity then there's fasting the month of Ramadan we've already alluded to that that there is a month of fasting from the break of dawn to the break of dawn until sunset and lastly is the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca now we're going to go to the second which is faith so faith, conduct and character faith are realities that we believe in conduct is actions that we do these are realities that we affirm truths that we affirm the first is God we believe that to be a reality that anybody open mind will know to be the truth and we believe that there are things that God has revealed about himself we know what are called in Islam the 99 beautiful names of God so if that's something you're interested in to know the nature of God that's something that I would research then we believe in angels that God has created beings in another dimension from ours and we believe in holy scripture that God communicates with His creation through scripture the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms of David and the Quran for example that these are all revelations from God to humanity and every Muslim has to affirm each of them and the messengers the prophets I've named some of them that we affirm with the person of Jesus you may have noted I listed him in the Muslim tradition as what? a prophet so we hold him to be there's sort of if you think about two extremes he was rejected as an imposter a messiah by some people historically and on the other end early on there was some debate there are unitarian Christians but eventually he was deemed to be divine Muslims hold him to be created and he is the messiah born of a virgin birth will return at the end of time brought life to them from all of those miracles but affirm them to be miracles given to God's prophet so that he is the prophet of God who will return at the end of time and then we believe in the day of judgment that each of us whether we believe it or not will be resurrected in a life after this one to be held accountable for everything that we do hoping for some mercy on that day and then we believe in divine decree that everything that happens destiny is all in divine hands so these are realities that we believe in that's faith, conduct character so this has to do with what is the Muslim understanding of purifying the soul we believe that the soul has some innate good qualities hopefully if you're healthy there are people who have seen war, abuse, etc and in that trauma they may not but most of us if we see someone hurt will be really bothered by that we were to watch our torture video we see pain us we see a picture of a cute baby at least the ladies in the room will say what this is an innate goodness that each of us has our souls know and incline towards goodness and beauty but at the same time we have an aspect of our being that's called the ego and this is the part of us that if we're honest inclines towards selfishness a bit of vengeance, anger, jealousy wanting more than someone else and so we are in a battle to let the better nature of ourselves reign over the lower nature and so that goes through the process of purification we are to purge the vices of the soul, we are to work on not getting angry so much not being jealous when somebody else gets something good and we didn't not thinking ill thoughts of someone else and we are to inculcate and we are to cultivate those positive qualities of generosity and forgiveness and love so those are both inherent in us but it takes work to get there and we also have a belief in asceticism this is something that the prophet Jesus in our tradition really epitomizes but it is between rejection and indulgence in the Muslim tradition we neither call for monastic living, that's not to disparage other monastic traditions but in Islam it is not that we retreat from the world onto a beautiful hilltop although that's tempting sometimes but we are to be in the world without letting the world lead being us exactly so it is to have as the Sufis would say it is to have the world in your hand but not in your heart and that is our asceticism so that is faith conduct and character and they correspond to three the three core virtues of Islam that is truth so we have to believe the truth if you think if you believe that there is no continent called Australia you are simply mistaken so your beliefs can veer from the truth to have proper faith we believe that if you don't believe in a creator of the universe that you are mistaken and that there are rational proves that can correlate with faith this is a longer conversation and the Muslim tradition faith cannot be irrational it can be super rational but it cannot be absurd so truth and then we believe in proper conduct that we have to be good people our goodness, we have to be honest and just in our dealings we have to be good to one another we cannot harm one another so the three central Muslim virtues are truth, goodness and beauty and they correspond therefore to the submission of the mind faith the body, your conduct and the soul which is your character so only when all three of these to borrow from Mehdi's analogy the hose, the pillar and the whip the only when all three of these are surrendered willingly over to God do you live in a state of complete submission to Him and so this is the middle road Islam sees itself as merging the great spiritual tradition of Judaism with the rich, higher road and spirituality of the Christian tradition and that the Prophet Muhammad was a great merger of these two so we have conduct and Hinnah talked a lot about that in terms of what role the law has and then what role the spirit has and so these three dimensions come together hopefully to give us a brief overview of the box top of the puzzle called Islam faith, conduct and character thank you for listening and hopefully we'll take questions made it look simple they say a true master can make anything look simple true master can make anything look easy well thank you Dr. Ashad so our next panelist is someone who's beautiful outside and in Mr. Mike Kim was struck by his handsomeness but Mr. Mike Kim is a real estate guru with seven children a wonderful family man just an open heart and he's going to speak about his naval academy experience and brought in that a little bit to expand on what sister Hinnah spoke about which is the Jihad and the rules of engagement in Islam and related concepts does anyone know how many Muslims are in the US armed forces 4,000 4,000 does anyone know what percentage the FBI states that Muslims perform in terrorism what percent Muslims according to the FBI what percent less than 6% according to our very own FBI statistically according to a Duke study more Muslims report terror report suspicious terror activity than any other ethnic group or religious group Muslims report more and actually a kind of fun story when I was in Orange County there was this dude he was just kind of funny and he was in the mosque occasionally and so one day we called the local chapter of the Muslim organization and we said this guy he's talking a little weird he's bringing up some concepts we're not comfortable with and he comes to the mosque frequently and he's talking to the young guys a little uncomfortable and we told our local leadership called the FBI and said hey we want to report the suspicious activity of this guy it turned out that guy was an undercover FBI agent like oh yeah he's our guy don't worry about it yeah so that's that's great to know and finally finally statistically the least one of the least civilizations in the history of our recorded history of the world Islam and Muslims have conducted the least amount of violence in the civilizational history this is just history historically speaking so I leave you with this final statement as you process what Mike shares with you and it's a way to just comprehend this and think about it for a moment it says terrorism is to jihad what adultery is to marriage terrorism is to jihad what adultery is to marriage so marriage is beautiful it's sanctioned it's with consent it's peaceful it's comfortable you take care of each other you have intimate relations and likewise that's the way we can process it without further ado please welcome Mike Kim can everybody just stand and give me a stretch a little bit I don't know can everybody hear me okay? can everybody hear me okay? can everybody hear me okay? so I think the best way for me to explain to you the best way for me to explain to you Islam is just a word concept in some background how why the subject was of importance to me and it's tied to how I discovered Islam itself so a good place to start is through my college years at the naval academy in Annapolis, Maryland it was there as a freshman that I had a research assignment and the assignment was to summarize the biographies of the most major and most eminent scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians in the western civilization so I began coming through the books and I glanced at a passage that literally jarred me and the passage described how most of the renowned philosophers mathematicians and scientists were believers in a unified deity a universal or a transcendental these are all academic neutral terms for a god and that trying to understand the community of universe was one of if not the prime motivation of their respective life's work now this was quite a statement that the most revered, widely studied respected minds of the western civilization were all believers in a god further that their lives were inspired by the desire to know the creative universe for example that Isaac Newton's law of motion, laws of motion was in part an exploration into the origin of motion at the moment of creation that René Descartes's Cartesian coordinates system was in part a study of geometric relationships of creative maths and the examples go on so it quickly deduced that the vast majority of the most eminent thinkers and philosophers in the world believes in a creator it seemed logical to me that I would benefit from their knowledge so this launched me on a quest I continued to read, study, debate and searched out answers to the growing number of questions and conflicts that I had accumulated during my years at Annapolis and on the subject of religion and in the end I left Annapolis with two firm conclusions one was that the observable balance, harmony and order nature of the creative universe strongly indicated that there was only one god and two the inner creative universe divine matters must necessarily take precedence over all human and earthly matters those are my only two conclusions on of these two conclusions I began my journey trying to discover the right religious system of belief but as a consequence of my academic inquiry I established what I believed with a fairly high bar for a system of belief that I was willing to adopt so for example on a scientific level I was in search of a religion where science could not disprove god giving a self-evident relationship between the creator and the creator a standard I held fast was one where scientific discoveries must support the existence of god not disprove it and two that all scientific discoveries would lag behind and ultimately validate revelation I found numerous examples in the Quran for example I was a navigator in the Navy there was always a mystery to us not a mystery too much anymore but in the history of the research how certain bodies of water retain their principles without mixing so for example in the Quran talks about this how god puts a barrier between the waters and it creates all manner of interesting things like in the Atlantic Ocean there's fresh water layers that go underneath the warm water layers for many hundreds of nautical miles creating extreme weather disturbances how certain salinity content don't mix how temperature gradients remain there was a mystery for the longest time another example is the Quran talks about how the mountains act as stabilizers and it was much later we discovered that mountains act as as a stabilizing force between strata plates that hold it together how the universe with gas then mass then it imploded and it's a constant motion and it's ever expanding these are all the stuff that talked about in the Quran by an illiterate unlettered prophet living in the desert 1400 years ago who's never seen the ocean or the high mountains he's sitting there with a high power to do the cosmos 1400 years ago so there's different examples and there's many more of how there's revelation that is ahead of scientific discovery so that was evidence to me on a social level I held fast to the idea that the outward practice of religious ceremonies needed to reflect the core teachings of the religion to be true and relevant any incongruence or conflict between his teachings and ceremonial practice was to me an indicator of corruption or distortion a good example of this consistency in Islam is a Friday prayer where everyone above background plays in a straight line with poor black white brown shoulder to shoulder facing one of the earliest places of worship built by prophet Abraham and his artist male known today as Mecca to me the weekly prayer ceremonially symbolically in a practice reflected teaching of brotherhood equality and peaceful coexistence on a philosophical level take the concept of equality the very notion of equality absent a creator was illogical to me because no team of beings are equal whether intellect, strength, wealth, height or any other standard of measurement we are rendered equal logically only when the creator of all declares itself with a perspective of the creator in fact Thomas Jefferson recognizes conflict when he explicitly stated in the Declaration of Independence we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain unending both rights on a spiritual level it's part of the concept of afterlife heaven and hell absent an afterlife our lives are inconsequential in big picture sets we can only truly live a consequential life if we are held the account for the deeds we do on earth so it gives real meaning to the religious teachings that be good to your neighbor be responsible stewards of nature care for the old forfeit and the elderly be the hungry since these acts would have eternal consequences it was clear to me that belief in the divine judgment of our deeds here on earth was an effective way of encouraging humanity to live in more virtuous and noble life so these were just few of the issues that I grappled with which Islam addressed to my satisfaction finally, in terms of armed conflict as a student at the U.S. Naval Academy we all spent a good amount of time studying and understanding more based on just war theories and for the United States they are derived from three primary sources lawmaking and treaties or conventions such as the Hague Convention of the late 1800s through the early 1900s the Geneva Conventions following World War II number two is globally accepted practices and customs for example the laws of the sea traditions which the nation states have adopted as how we are going to conduct ourselves on the high seas and a third are fundamental and universally accepted principles such as military force for defensive purposes only a principle of distinction distinguishing civilians from military combatants law proportionality if one attack we should deliver one attack not multiple attacks targets of military necessity avoiding tracking infrastructure schools etc it is important to know that these universally accepted principles have been aggregated in recent years as we all know we now have a policy of pre-emptive strike as opposed to defense we have a we see a widespread collateral damage so the principle of distinction can be put on the shelf there is frequently targeting of schools and hospitals and infrastructure so the point is that the source of these principles derives itself in the collective wisdom of man thus it is not ultimately durable as opposed to divine principle which by its very nature is ultimately durable where it has no higher authority on earth there is no congress president king or dictator who can change it so that's one of the things that I recognize about whether it's something to say about warfare no matter what ISIS does or doesn't do they cannot change the divine guidance through the art of time evident right so what are those things so Islam also has this rule that law is governing armed conflict among major categories it covers international law, ethics, military jurisprudence treatment of diplomats, hostages, refugees prisoner of war, rights of asylum contact in the battlefield treatment of women it list goes on I found that the Islamic corpus of teachings on matters of armed conflict comprehensive, thorough, and humane more so than the modern just war theories that I just recited earlier it's worth noting that these sophisticated and well-developed concepts were claimed and implemented in the pre-modern world we forget that the world 1400 years ago was very tribal essentially lawless and weak to no institution in the pre-modern era before there were borders people were always attacking and invading other people's lands it was very fluid so in that environment to have the very sophisticated comprehensive laws and principles was very impressive even more so comprehensive and humane than the ones we have today so that's what I touch upon a real brief example and I'll stop talking the Quran states that the permission to fight is given to those against whom war is made because they have been wrong those who have been driven out of their homes unjustly only because they said our Lord is God and if God did not repel some men by means of others there would surely have been pulled down temples and churches and synagogues and mosques so what is that saying breaking it down the permission but not a commandment to fight is defensive and fighting is to be used to protect temple, churches, synagogues and mosques which is to say that we believe in the universal religious freedom another quick example before the Prophet Muhammad allowed his soldiers to go into battle he gave 10 concrete rules that they could not buy they were do not harm women, children, elderly or the sick 2. Do not commit treachery and never mutilate with this figure 3. Do not uproot, cut down or burn trees 4. Do not harm any livestock except for food 5. In combat avoid striking the face for God created all of us in the image of our Father Adam 6. At Adam the Prophet 6. Do not kill the monks and monasteries and do not kill those sitting in places of worship 7. Do not destroy the villages in town and not spoil the culture in the fields and gardens meaning you can't starve people 8. Do not wish to encounter with the enemy pray to God to grant us security but when you are forced to encounter them exercise patience and directly this commandment you are allowed to fight someone that is fighting you own even if in a military you've got logistic military doctors that individual is actively fighting you or anyone you are allowed to fight 9. No one may punish the fighter except the Lord of the world so in the modern era weapons of mass destruction, chemical weapons, nuclear, napalm, atomic all of those would be forbidden in Islam 10. Assume yourself to do good if people do good and do not do wrong even if they commit wrongs meaning she'll burst into people even in combat warfare is the most brutal activity that a human being can engage in and if you don't conduct yourself with ethics and values and principles you'll walk away from the battlefield no different than an animal when a lion destroys a deer we don't impose morality on the lion lion just doesn't, lion does right? but as human beings when we engage in destruction we have to do so with certain principles and values otherwise we become nothing less than a lion we walk away from the battlefield no better than animals to learn to preserve humanity from engaging in the most brutal acts we have to adhere to these moral sets and guidance otherwise we lose our humanity on the battlefield thank you I invite everyone to take a look at this handout it's for your benefit we try to summarize the panelists here and this for your benefit as well as a take away with me also if you have before our final panelist Sarah engages us with her story if anyone has questions you receive the index cards please write those down because after our final panelist and before the Q&A session we're going to have a small five minute break to grab some coffee or to grab some tea or something like that and your cards will be collected so you can get those ready in the meantime so Sarah is going to share her story with us as an American and as a Muslim and you know Mike was talking about the US Constitution and honestly you know God bless this country I mean the US Constitution is arguably probably the most amazing man-made human document in human history I mean to see it in action the checks and balances the separation of powers and to see it in what it's done it's one of the most amazing man-made human documents in human history and I'm proud of that as an American you know what I mean I'm proud of that and so we return to that and this is our return to those core tenants and core beliefs and finally as Sarah shares her story as an American and as a Muslim I just want to tell you guys about my American hat this is my American hat and if I take it off it would be un-American because in America it's a place that we're comfortable with who we are we're comfortable to be a little different and we welcome those differences and if I'm embarrassed to take off my American hat that would be un-American Sarah is one of my personal role models she's an amazing human being her productivity and her exemplary character is just impeccable and they got a blessing everyone say amen she is also one of the founders and spearheaders for the homeschool co-op in Lafayette California without further ado please welcome Sarah so first of all I know Matthew and Moonier already thanked you all for coming but I feel it's really important to do that as well because we can assemble a speaker a panel of speakers all we want in an attempt to share the truths about who we are but this would have no impact whatsoever if people like yourselves weren't showing up to hear us so I'm honestly both honored and humbled to be sitting here before you on a Saturday afternoon when everyone probably has a lot of other things they could be doing right now so I really really appreciate that and I'd like to believe that we're all here today because we love our community and our country and our world and that we know that when we seek to understand and respect one another we can then elevate ourselves and our respective communities and our beloved country to the highest levels can everybody hear me okay so the title of my talk is How Islam Made Me a Better American but what does that really mean to be an American there are likely many definitions for this however I am confident that there are a set of ideals which resonate with most Americans compassion integrity mutual respect kindness generosity equality these are all qualities which I think good human beings good Americans strive to embody what I would like to speak about today is a topic that I can address with what I hope is a sincere and passionate heart and that is the topic of racism growing up I was very close to my paternal grandparents I would spend summers in North Carolina with them and since I was an early riser like my grandfather we would enjoy a daily 7am breakfast at a restaurant nestled at the bottom of the mountain where he lived I was proclaimed his favorite granddaughter partially because I was named after his eldest daughter Sarah Jo who passed away in a tragic car accident just a year before I was born apparently I looked like her as well so his affinity towards me was clear and understandable to all and in return I deeply adored him he was a generous man who showered love and affection on all of his grandchildren but the one thing I remember not knowing how to love about him was his deep seated racism and hatred for people of color openly insulted and disrespected black people he frequently used the N word I remember being really really uncomfortable with his attitude and actions towards blacks so naturally I exonerated myself from being racist in hindsight however I realized that the post civil rights era in the south was still right with unspoken racism though there were African Americans in town and in school we had very little to do with one another I didn't have any black friends I didn't live near black people I didn't sit near black people in class or at bunch basically there was minimal to no interaction between them and us separate but equal may have been damaged by law but it was alive and well in everyday actions even in mine but in my mind however I was all American as apple pie a blonde hair, blue eye high school cheerleader African ancestors landed on American shores in the early days of settlement my mother is part Native American I think I'm 116th Native American I lived in southern suburbia and was the daughter of a self made businessman attending some of the best public schools in the area along with church on Sundays with my mind set squarely on attending a service academy after graduation so who was more American than me in 1996 I had completed a couple of years before deciding military life was not for me I transferred to the University of Maryland to get my degree in civil engineering married my husband Mike and had our first son Ben Mike was still in the Navy and stationed in Japan and I stayed in the states to finish my degree and it was at that time that I was introduced to Islam my talk is not about my conversion story so I won't go into much detail about that but I do want to share with you how being Muslim completely altered my understanding of race before I do that however I think this is an appropriate time to share a few of the Islamic teachings regarding race which come to us via the sayings of our prophet Muhammad peace be upon him or via the verses taken from our holy book the Quran which we do believe to be the direct word of God when we call Allah and Arabic as Dr. Asif already explained and as I share these with you and Mike has already reminded everyone of this part of the Declaration of the Dependents keep in mind the the opening line of the preamble that says we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and in Islam we are taught that righteousness is the only quality that makes someone virtuous in the sight of Allah not race or skin color or lineage or country the last and final public sermon to the Muslims over 1400 years ago the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him very clearly addressed this topic of racism when he said oh people your lord is one and your father Adam is one there is no favoritism of an Arab over a foreigner nor a foreigner over an Arab neither red skin over black skin or black skin over white skin except only through righteousness we were also taught by the prophet Muhammad that God created Adam from handfuls of clay and dirt collected from the different areas of the earth so just as the dirt of the earth is different colors we have black soil white sands and red clay the children of Adam come in different colors as well finally he taught us that there is no good in red skin or black skin but that our value lies only in the righteousness and our closeness to God so these are just some of the teachings of Islam that slowly began to permeate my life and to help me develop a deeper understanding of the problems with racism however there was one crucial time in my life that these teachings really took hold of me and taught me the true essence of what it means to be an American my father at the age of 50 was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor and given two months to live I wanted to take my young son Ben back home with me to South Carolina so that I could take care of my father in his final days he readily agreed to have me come but firmly warned me against trying to convert him to my new religion I had become Muslim only three months prior I assured him I would do no such thing and I headed to South Carolina interestingly enough in a very short period of time after quietly observing me in my worship and noting my newfound mindfulness that I brought to my day to day life my father began questioning me about my faith facing death he was forced to think about his mortality so he started seeking answers to the questions of what might be coming after death and what had been the real purpose of his life I tried to answer his questions to the best of my ability but my own limited knowledge of my new religion couldn't satiate his deep curiosity he peppered me with questions and I literally ran out of answers in desperation to provide him with what he was looking for I searched for a local Muslim community where I might be able to take him so that he could speak to someone anyone who could give him the answers that I simply could not provide I searched in the phone book I asked around nothing I could find no Muslims anywhere close to us I was desperate for days and nights I prayed to God and though I didn't know everything about Islam I did know that one of the irrefutable tenets of the religion is that one condition of prayer is that you have to recognize and submit to the knowledge that only God has the power to answer your prayer and answer it he did one morning my father stumbled across an ad in a local paper announcing the grand opening of an Islamic center in the next town he eagerly showed it to me and I couldn't believe my eyes it was truly American God had sent us the Muslims that very next Saturday we drove to Rock Hill, South Carolina to meet these Muslims in the hopes that they could help my father settle the affairs of his soul and to my surprise and honestly to my disappointment we saw that the entire group was comprised of African Americans not one other white person was in the room my heart sank deep down I knew that there was just no way my father could be guided to a new belief system through a group of African Americans it just wasn't possible he had been conditioned all his life by his father to spurn them but another fact we are taught in Islam a love wekbar which means God is greater than anything we could imagine and is certainly greater than all the limitations we place upon ourselves and the limitations we place upon others so when my father emerged from the center he was a man deeply moved by all those whom he had met he was a man who received answers to the questions that had remained unanswered for so long and he was now a man of the Muslim faith through the words and the actions and the sincerity of those whom he had been roomed to hate he had found acceptance love and a faith that he would embrace and practice as a means of drawing closer to his creator to death almost one year later may God have mercy on him this is something Muslims say about those who have passed similar to when people say God rest his soul or may he rest in peace the black Muslim community in South Carolina took very good care of my dad and me they would invite us into their homes every Friday after congregational congregational prayers my father would be with the men and I would hang out with all the women and children the men became an unwavering web of support for my father teaching him guiding him and helping him come to terms with his impending death while I was comforted by and thrilled with the peace that my father had found this was actually a momentous turning point for me as well for the first time in my life I had black friends they were more than friends to me however they were my sisters we would be together, sing together eat together and laugh together it was a beautiful and memorable time of my life it was a Friday in February nearly one year after my dad's conversion to Islam when he returned to his lord at the time of his passing my two-year-old son Ben an African American brother named Abdullah and I were all sitting at his bedside by the way Muslim women often refer to Muslim men as brothers and the men often refer to women as sisters without respect anyway this brother had come to visit my father so he would read from the Holy Quran in his presence Muslims believe that the recitation of the chronic words in Arabic brings solace to the heart and the specific reading of a chapter named Yasin helps ease the souls passing from this world to the next and it was through the lips of this black man that these verses aided my father's soul and it was the brothers from this community who came to pick up his body it was they who watched his head in his lens who perfumed him who shrouded him and prepared his body for burial they arranged for the funeral transported his coffin to the cemetery lowered his body into the ground and then prayed over him in accordance with the Islamic rituals of burial there were rows and rows of black men praying for my father's soul and only my grandfather had been there to witness that tremendous and powerfully ironic scene so that was the starting point from which all of my unrealized racism began to melt away it was at that point that I became truly Muslim and truly American I understood unequivocally the power of humanity without preconceived notions or discriminatory underpinnings and upon moving to California I have continued to be blessed with the most amazing and friends and community members from all backgrounds races and religions it is on this premise of mutual respect for all of God's creation that I have found a true kinship with all races and all people because of our faith my life or my husband's life and my children's lives have been elevated and I hope and pray that we will always be positive contributors to the greater society in which we live I can surely say with immense gratitude and humility that I am a human being and a better American for it and it is my sincerest wish that my children along with all the children of our Muslim communities will lead future generations of Americans based on the premise of God's command to get to know one another in peace and respect and to create a life that uplifts all that is good and suppresses all that is equal How many generations has your family been in America? Do you know? Well, there are some opinions that academic opinions and records that indicate that Muslims came over with Christopher Columbus on the same boat and there are records that indicate such as the like of Bambit Muhammad fought in the Revolutionary War a few hundred years ago and there are many other records that indicate Muslims have been in this great land for centuries so we're going to take a small break to get some coffee some tea and stretch a bit and by the way if you hear a little girls giggling I dropped my wife off at the airport yesterday and if their hair is a little messy don't pretend I'm thinking I have to do my hair this morning really good please enjoy your break okay so I have three question cards here but they essentially ask the same question which is how can non-Muslim community members that support and help are Muslim neighbors and friends so first and foremost I have to say we're really touched by that question because it really expresses your genuine concern for our well-being and I'll tell you last time I was not a Muslim obviously because you heard my conversion story and so I had total empathy for the average American who harbors a lot of distrust or even hate for the Muslim world because of the media I was presented, I myself had a disordered reaction to the idea of becoming a Muslim when I started entertaining ideas like no I'm not that, no way so it took a long time before I you know anyway so I have a lot of empathy for and contrast that to all of you I mean you're here despite all of that you're here with an open heart and open mind and spending your precious weekend time with us to learn about Islam which is so I'm really touched and very impressed by that so with the question of how can you help what can you do I'm reminded about a guidance in our religion where we're told if you see a wrong stop it physically even if it's physical you have to stop it if you can't do that speak out if you can't do that know in your heart that it's the wrong thing and that is the least of faith what we were taught so I would in hopefully give you the same guidance if you see something wrong a conversation turning weird we all know right that we just can't tolerate any division in our community let's not be a salad bowl let's be a melting pot let's not tolerate let's change our mind shift and speak out what we can for the true value of this country which is one of justice and equality and we value multiculturalism because they're strengthened and it's showing that time to time again thank you more personal though I really am touched by people who more recently did a lot of smiles greetings when I'm out in public that to me makes a huge difference I know maybe the way the leader nationally it's not making a big difference but it makes a big difference to me so if you see a Muslim say hi open the door for them the question I have is do Muslim families raise boys differently from girls I have six sons and one daughter I think we generally first of all this question depends on the culture that you're a part of obviously so if a Muslim family here in America is recent has moved to America recently they might have a lot of their own culture informing how they raise their children so what I'm going to talk about is how we raise our kids and how people that I know and are intimately familiar with raise their kids but generally it's the same my daughter has they all have equal access to education they've all learned how to drive we have a kitchen cleaning chore chart they're all on the kitchen cleaning chore chart in that sense there's no difference we do as Muslims recognize that a woman is different than a man in many ways and we don't teach that we're exactly equal we're equal in the sight of God but we're not equal in the way that we were made women have different tendencies so we honor that and just encourage healthy families and encourage our daughter to do things that are in her nature encourage our son to do things that are in their nature they've all played sports they've all helped at Santa Ranch which is where we have our home schooling in different ways my daughter did a lot more with the horses she was interested in my sons they helped with the facility team but that's what they were interested one of my sons now does anyhow the point is there's not a lot of difference other than the fact that a woman is a woman in her art alright so I got one of these questions I was hoping somebody would ask so remember when I talked about how every single action is classified in one of five categories so somebody asked so if I see a baseball game on television what category so I'm going to go through the different categories and give examples so first there's the category of obligatory and the understanding is that you have to do it and God has told you that you have to do it and he's told us either in the Holy Quran or through the Prophet Muhammad that we will be rewarded by God for doing it and we'll be punished by God for not doing it so an example would be our five daily prayers or being respectful to our parents the second category is disliked that's something that you would be rewarded by God for doing it but you will not be punished by God for not doing it for doing it so for example swearing that's the one that's changed over time divorce wasting water while washing for the prayer eating garlic before going to the mosque to pray so that comes under the category of disliked the third category is permissible not rewarded by God for doing it you're not rewarded by him for not doing it you're not punished by God for doing it you're not punished by God for not doing it for example like eating or sleeping the exception to this is unless you're doing that action for the love of good so an example would be coming on a Saturday afternoon to an interfaith event to learn about your fellow Muslims if you come you're rewarded for it you're not going to be punished for it either way however if you're coming for a greater purpose for good that you want to have peace amongst people you want to understand about others you want to help make the world a better place then that action of coming to an event like this becomes something that you actually do get rewarded for does that make sense so it's all about intention that's recommended you're rewarded by God for doing it but you're not punished by God for not doing it so for example if I'm in a rush and I'm going down the road and I see an old lady she needs help carrying her luggage if I stop to help her with her luggage or her packages I get rewarded by God for doing it however if I have a flight to catch and I'm in a rush and I just can't there's no punishment for not helping or needing help and another example would be saying saying assalamu alaikum may peace be upon you you're rewarded for saying it but there's no repercussions for not okay and the last category is forbidden so that's something that God has told us that there's a punishment for doing it and there's a reward for not doing it so the examples of things like murder and robbery and sex outside of marriage so those are examples so watching baseball under obligatory, disliked, permissible, recommended or forbidden permissible I try to teach my kids this to turn every mundane action into a rewardable action so it's all in your intentions if you're watching baseball with the intention of spending time with your family and increasing the love amongst you or making your husband happy because he loves baseball then all of a sudden that permissible action becomes an action that's rewarded so it's all in your intentions I want to ask something stay with me for a minute when I first came across these stressed intentions I was like what is this intention just do it or don't do it but what I later discovered is the importance and significance of intentions and it's another one of the scientific aha moments which is now science is really getting a better understanding of what happens at the subatomic level at the atomic level meaning electrons, neutrons, protons and that's where the foundation of our physical science is derived from the observable universe everything goes that way all of a sudden we've been able to know about but what we are discovering is that the behavior matter at the subatomic level is entirely different than at the observable atomic level so much so that depending on who is present the activities at the subatomic level is different than if I was present or who meaning that our intentions have tremendous meaning all of a sudden that the universe conspires to make your intentions a reality at the subatomic level and that's what the universe gave me I think a better understanding of what God now but he said that God made us caretakers of the world and I thought to myself how am I caretaker of the world if the physical universe just does what it does but with this understanding of intentions and how the universe moves to help us achieve our goals and make our intentions a reality give meaning to the idea like an animal would or even a tree even water and so it just gave a whole new deeper understanding from a scientific perspective of the stuff that is under the stress that I used to bother you but bothers me a lot so we have about 13-14 questions left and we want to finish at 3.30 so it's about 24 minutes so we have about 2 minutes per question so if you see us rushing a little bit if you see us rushing a little bit it's just to honor everyone's time in the room so just the heads up and if you don't get your question answered I'm sure some of us will be happy to hang around afterwards some of these require more conversations and sort of multiple choice answers but I will try I've got a few summer short answers one is a long answer so I'm warning you guys let's go to short one just curious how was the number of 124,000 determined regarding the number of prophets such an odd number to me that comes through a report of the Prophet Muhammad who was told that God sent a messenger, a prophet to every people on earth and each one was sent to his or her people and there's a difference of opinion even like Mary, the Lady Mary by some muslim scholars to maybe be a prophet because she had the Archangel Gabriel interact with her and so each one was sent to their people a prophet that we believe had a universal message which is the Prophet Muhammad to be upon him whereas Jesus and Moses were sent to the tribes of Israel etc so yeah that number comes through a revealed report can you recommend an acceptable interpretation of the Holy Quran in English there's a couple of, so I would answer this on two levels, if you're looking for a good easy translation to read is it on this sheet? alright so if you're looking for an abbreviated version there is the third one down it's called the essential Quran translated by Thomas Cleary and that is sort of like selection of some of the main chapters and passages and sort of like the highlight reel for lack of a better term then on the middle level there's a translation by Halim it's the Oxford Classics translation that to me is probably my personal favorite translation to read very readable very accurate translation with some footnotes right not overbearing in terms of the footnotes if you are really scholarly and you have a lot of time on your hands and you really want to sort of get nitty gritty there's that one called the study Quran a new translation and commentary and there's a link for it there so that's sort of the three levels of depth depending on your level of interest what is the relationship between Muslims, Hindus, Muslims and Jews political origin that's a broad question I'm not sure what exactly is being asked that's literally what's written there yeah can you add to what yeah and Hinduism as being recognized in that same manner in terms of prophets and I just wanted some clarity about because there is so much strife especially in India I have to span that area how to Muslims hold Hindus more no great question there are 25 prophets that are named in the Quran that we all affirm I would say to make up a number off the top of my head probably 85% to 90% are biblical prophets it's names that most of us from the Abrahamic traditions would be familiar with there's a handful of prophets that are unknown to the Jews and the Christians there but we entertain like I said earlier with the 124,000 number we entertain the possibility that the origins of other faiths like Hinduism and Buddhism may have some divine origin but that can't be confirmed in the extent of another important thing Islam holds that there with the passage of time to use an analogy like a building you can have sort of decay and it can become a ruin after a while etc you can have an alteration you can have the integrity of the message change with time messages change with time this is something well documented in religious studies and so we don't know which aspects of a particular teaching are the original which ones are new and introduced over time by clerics of different sorts etc so generally speaking they have had they lived Muslims have tended to live in great harmony with other religions historically I personally am not a great fan of the 20th century I like to look at everything before the 20th century I mean just worldwide all of us right just the whole globe if you look at Muslim majority nations you'll find non-Muslim minorities there you'll find churches you'll find temples, you'll find synagogues you'll find Hindu temples you'll find Buddhist statues all of these in fact all of these things that crazy ISIS is destroying ask yourself how it's still there to be destroyed in the first place like that's just a really just a very basic thing of like oh wait they're destroying it but Muslims have been in control there for 14 centuries and it's still there for these idiots to destroy it clearly it survived somehow right so that is to be there now it's not to say people aren't humans and they haven't been skirmishes in stride but that typically is more political and not an inescapable part of religion so I hope I answered that this last one and I'm going to try to be brief but this is something that I think is a little more sensitive and requires a bit of context and the reason I'm saying that is I see about four questions all on the same topic and these are questions of do Muslims accept or not accept homosexuality is there anything in the Quran that bans it or is it mainly a cultural issue power issues of the LGBTQ community viewed by Islam yeah I think that that's the general just of the question kind of phrased in different ways I would say that in order to understand this from a Muslim perspective you sort of have to try to put away the baggage of how this has historically been dealt with here because I think we tend to see religion as viewing it in a particular way and I would say that there's multiple levels to this so on the Sharia level the personal moral code Muslims have traditional Abrahamic morality that the only act an only sexual act sanction is between a married couple and in fact I think Islam would even be slightly more particular and say that and I apologize for the explicit nature of this answer but it's the question I am Sadami is even forbidden between a married couple, a man and a woman this is something that's categorically forbidden for Muslims but that's on the level of moral code so Muslims hold that the only condoned sexual act is between a married couple and anything outside of that the man and the woman anything outside of that would be forbidden so that's on the level of moral code but so what does that mean philosophically because I think sometimes if we're really honest religion has had an interesting history vis-à-vis this issue that is really charged does that mean that God hates me does that mean that God created me this way, am I condemned to hell what does this mean philosophically Muslims would hold that we are first and foremost were our souls that we're not defined by our passions and everybody has a different set of passions, a different set of you guys remember how we were talking about the character, of course you remember because that was my part of the talk that it's about resisting the temptations of the ego we all are inherently built with that there are heterosexual impulses that must be that's why adultery is one of the 10 commandments those impulses must be resisted and a person is not defined by their temptations now we do, Muslim scholarship has accepted that this has been something that has existed in humanity for millennia that there are people who have an inclination a temptation towards the same gender but that's why you will find and actually know several personally celibate gay Muslims who just say well I'm not attracted to the other gender I'm attracted to my own gender but I believe that God doesn't permit it so I'm just I will commit myself to a life of celibacy they are not defined by that Muslims don't see them as what's wrong with you, there's something in fact, in my own personal experience they tend to be celebrated because that's a pretty that's a pretty difficult thing to do particularly, that is a jihad of sorts and I've got one more thing to add about jihad by the way it is something that we are to do part of the surrender to God is to follow God's commandments and it's hard for us to accept because I think sometimes popular culture tells us we have to just embrace our passions we are our impulses and passions, so we have to embrace them whereas Islam would say we're a little more complex, we're a composite and you do have some passions, but sometimes those are the things you should not be listening to and you are your soul and you have a higher nature and God is going to lay out the criteria for how you should live your life you could be in love with a married woman you don't act on that that's called that tough luck you sort of struggle with that socially, Muslims really see sexuality as something private anything, whether it is permissible and proper or keep it in the bedroom it's just to preserve the decency of society in a lot of these questions about hijab and dress if you think about how people dressed 100 years ago I don't think women and headscarves would have stuck out in 19th century America 19th century England where people were you watch these timepieces and you're like wow, that's nice peasants wore three piece suits with ties what happened to that so I think sexuality was also something very improper to bring it to public whether it was homosexual or heterosexual, so generally speaking that's something socially kept private but communally and I think this does bear saying generally, how do we get along this is an important thing how can those of us who hold different opinions coexist with mutual respect so simply because a Muslim believes God has forbidden something in their personal moral code does that equate that we're now we have to sort of clash and we have to disrespect one another absolutely not and a Muslim would stand in the defense of any abuse, any intolerance any attacks based on any belief somebody has now somebody here might think and I wouldn't be upset about it by the way that we're all condemned to hell because we haven't accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior I shouldn't be offended by that as long as we can respectfully have a dialogue why should I believe about what attains salvation and the hereafter offend me