 Good morning, everyone. Good morning. How are you guys doing? Christ, you're here on a Saturday morning. It can be so many other places. Wow. Well, welcome. Is this anyone's first time to a mosque? Wow, I think that means we've already succeeded so I can go home. What about lunch? You don't want to miss lunch. That's right. That's right. That is why we all came here. Oh, no, no, no. I was saying you don't want to miss it. Yes, sir. Yeah, well, really, I think we have already succeeded and to a notable extent. You know, our goal is to make this world a more beautiful place. And you coming here has already done that. And so you guys have made this a successful. We can all come here, but if you guys don't come here, you guys are reaching out bold and and and it's very meaningful to us and it's very touching for us. It's very touching for us. Hopefully we can together make this country a more beautiful place. I mean, amen, we can make this a more beautiful place for all of us. So this this country is on a journey where we're we're individuals who are on a journey and hopefully our contributions to that journey will be one of love and light. So thank you again for coming. Today, this panel is called the Muslim Next Door, the Muslim Next Door. So last week, my daughter, my two daughters came home and they said that the neighbor called them Little Brats. So that's the typical Muslim neighbor, Little Brats. I'm just joking. So they came home and they said it was eight year old and six year old. But they said, Baba, this lady in a white car, she called us Little Brats. They're like, what's a brat? And I was like, it's a sweet, darling little princess. And then I was like, what happened? She said, well, we were playing and we shouted a little loud. And then she she called us Little Brats. I was like, do you know who it was? And they're like, yeah, I was a girl, let's take some eggs and toilet paper. And then I was like, no, all right. Do you know who it was? They said, yeah. I was like, all right, we have to go give her a gift. Go get your arts and crafts kit, write him a letter, draw a picture and let's get a gift. So we went to Little Bunk Cakes. Isn't that what it's called, Little Bunk Cakes? Nothing Bunk Cakes. We got her a small, nothing Bunk Cake. And then we went and I was like, which house is it? And they put their little cards in there with all these little sweet hearts and love. I love you and I know she is, but they love her. You know, kids know how to love more than adults do. Maybe we remember how to love like they do. Maybe you remember how to forgive like they do. So then we put them in a bag and we walked and I was like, which house is it? And they said it's this house. And so I rang the doorbell and then I looked at them and I was like, is this it? And I was like, hi, we're just here to say hi. How are you? And the gift was like hitting me. And then we went to the second house and I was like, you sure? Like I think so. We rang the doorbell and someone opened and they were like, is this it? They were like, no. Oh my God. So then, hi. And then we went to the third house and it was cool and I remembered it. And we rang the doorbell and me and my 6 year old. And we rang the doorbell and then this lady came out and then I was like, does that hurt? They were like, no. And they were like, she's like, how can I help you? I was like, well, my daughters were playing last week and they were a little noisy and there was an elderly lady. And we just wanted to express our apologies for making her uncomfortable. We brought a little gift. She's like, oh, that was my sister-in-law. She was visiting me and she drove and she said she felt bad because she yelled at two little girls. She called them little brats and she felt bad. And I was like, well, they have something for her. And then they said, hey, this is for her and they gave her a little gift. And that's our goal to be the Muslim next door. And that's what we try to embody. Martin Luther King said, the greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge. In the Islamic tradition, we have a saying of Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him, where he said, I can cure the blind and the leper, but I can't cure compound ignorance. So today, the way we have this set up, the first part is the myth busting, the myth busters. So we have two myth busters. And that is to say when the illusion of knowledge, whether there's some ideas maybe generally associated with Islam and Muslims, which are not true. And so today hopefully we want to unravel some of those to bring out the truth. And that's the first part. The second segment, which is arguably the core of today's session, is what is Islam? So the first segment is what isn't Islam? The second is what is Islam? And that will answer the question of who are Muslims and who are they and what do they believe and what do they do? And then finally, the third part is a journey of intertwining how can we be both beautiful Americans and beautiful Muslims? Intertwining of a story of how we can live in this country and they're not mutually exclusive. So that's a general framework. We'll then take a break, have a stretch break, we'll take a break and then we'll have questions and answers and we have no cards for anyone. And we invite everyone to bring forth their heart today. Bring your mind, bring your heart, bring yourself, and let's make this a meaningful, genuine, authentic intersection of our lives today. So our first panelist is our dear Hina, sitting right here in the middle in the green. And Hina is an accomplished teacher, writer, and she is a mother of three young men and she has been a teacher for many years and without further ado, please welcome Hina Murta. Good morning, everybody. Can you hear me okay? I'd like to reiterate my thanks. Welcome and also thank you for joining us today. This means a lot whenever we see that. We're able to fill more than three seats. So the reason why we're here today and why we're so grateful that you came to join us is that we have the very awesome task of trying to facilitate a significant shift in people's understanding of Islam and Muslims. And our goal today isn't to proselytize, nor is it to comment with our own personal opinions about politics or even about different aspects of our religion. We're not here representing all Muslims, certainly as many Muslims as you will meet. That's how many different stories and perspectives you're going to encounter as well. The perspective that each of us on this panel shares today is that we are all committed to what is called traditional Islam. As with any religion, you're going to find splinter roots and sects that are going to develop over the years. And Islam is not any different. We have some different offshoots that have come up over the years, like the Ahmadis and the Aqaqhanis and the Nation of Islam, just to name a few. Each of these offshoots is certainly influenced by the original traditional teachings of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. But their core beliefs and tenets of faith have changed so much over time that they're virtually unrecognizable today from when compared to Orthodox mainstream Islam. And they also have very few followers when compared to the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world today. So the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him had said, my nation, meaning his followers, my nation will never err in the majority. So stick with the majority. Our aim is to practice Islam according to what the majority of the scholars of the religion uphold to be correct and true. So this majority makes up what is considered to be traditional Sunni Islam, the mainstream. So that's the viewpoint we're going to be representing today. So along with explaining what Islam is, which is the task that Dr. Asad is going to be taking on, we feel that it's critical for people to also understand what Islam is not. And that's my goal today. So since I want to be respectful of the other panelists' time, I'm going to try to tackle only two main myths that I often get asked about in interfaith discussions. And I'm hopeful that we can tackle some of the other common myths that may be on people's minds during Q&A. So the first myth I'd like to cover is Sharia is coming to take over America. Thank you. So I was at an interfaith gathering in a church in Danville and we were taking questions from the audience members and this lady stood up and she said the thing that she was the most upset about was that Sharia was here in the country and that now our laws and courts were making decisions based on Sharia law and no longer based on the constitution. And I didn't even know where to begin with. It was obvious that she was pretty distressed and her voice was shaking and she was pretty emotional about it. So if you were to regularly watch the evening news or certain evening news, it'd be natural to believe the propaganda that Muslims, for today's bogeymen after all, are here to take over the land with their different ways of thinking and believing and living, actually nothing could be farther from the truth. So simply put, Sharia is a moral code and before it's a legal code, it's a moral code. So Sharia is more concerned with sin than with crime. So for example, if I tell a lie to my friend, there's no earthly law that's going to hold me accountable for telling a lie to my friend. But according to Sharia, I know that God will hold me accountable on the day of judgment for telling lies. And so it's Sharia that will tell me that I'm not allowed to be dishonest or deceitful. We worship God with our minds, our bodies, and our souls. And Sharia is concerned with the physical aspect of our lives. So it defines all the aspects of the Muslims' conduct and actions. It dictates everything from what we eat to how we dress, to how we worship, to the rules of marriage and divorce, the rules of financial transactions and inheritance, rules of what is allowed for us and what isn't, what is required of us and what is forbidden. So one thing people may not realize is that Islam actually does not allow for anarchy or chaos. We as Muslims have to have some form, some system of government in place and we have to live under it even if it's not a Muslim one. And we're required to respect and obey the laws of the land, so that if we ever run a red light on purpose, that we actually have to ask God to forgive us because we broke a law that we had said we were going to follow. We've passed our driving tests. And so Sharia tells us that if we can't practice our religion in peace and safety and if we aren't happy with the laws of the land then we need to migrate from that country. The highest law of the land in the United States of America is the Constitution. So according to our own Sharia, Muslims are required to respect the Constitution. And if we don't, then we're supposed to leave. And believe you, everything that's going on right now in the political landscape right now, there is no one more concerned in protecting the Constitution than Muslim Americans. So what about penal code punishments? That's the big elephant in the room. That's what people are usually thinking about when they want to ask about Sharia. They think of beheadings, cutting off of hands, whippings, stone ins, et cetera. So yes, there is a penal code within the Sharia. And just like the United States law has capital punishments for certain offenses, Sharia law also includes a form of capital punishment. But the important differences between capital punishment in American law and capital punishment in Sharia law are two. The first is that the penal code is first and foremost meant as a deterrent. It's not actually meant to be implemented. And the second is that the evidence required to establish proof of a punishable crime makes the punishment almost impossible to implement. For example, the penal code for adultery is death. However, the evidence required to prove adultery is for witnesses who actually see the act. So as you can see, the punishment is there, but it is first and foremost meant as a deterrent. Muslims knowing that adultery, the punishment for its death, tells them how serious this crime or this sin is in the eyes of God. So it's actually meant to ensure that these types of crimes or sins that affect society at large are not being done out in the open and they're not becoming the norm. Now if we want to look at how Sharia is actually implemented, we can look at the Ottoman Empire, which was by some of the Muslims considered to be the last legitimate Muslim government that ruled a large portion of the world for almost 700 years. The punishment for adultery during that time, 700 years, was only implemented once. And even after that one time, the scholars protested it and so it ended up never being repeated again. The other very important fact for people to understand is that according to Sharia itself, the laws of Sharia can only be applied and upheld when there is a legitimate Muslim government in power. And the majority of Muslim scholars today are in agreement that no such government currently exists in the world. And therefore, there is no official body which has the authority to implement the penal code punishments, which, by the way, only make up 0.1% of the body of Sharia law. So unfortunately, when one hears the word Sharia law, they just only imagine grizzly capital punishments. So when you do see those horrific images on YouTube or on the internet or hear stories of those types of punishment, you should know that Muslims actually consider that to be vigilantism. And it's in no way sanctioned in Islam and it's actually forbidden by our scholars and our jurists. So before moving on to the next myth, I'd like to share with you all what are called the Maqasid of Sharia, meaning the principles or the foundations of Sharia. We believe that all Sharia laws are divinely inspired and therefore they're the perfect set of laws for mankind. And upon close study of Sharia, you'll find that each and every part of Sharia is meant to protect one of six things. So the first is the right to religion. You can't force anyone to convert. The second is right to life. You can't kill anyone unjustly. The third is the right to family and lineage. Everyone has a right to know where they come from. The fourth is the right to honor. You can't slander or lie or backbite about people. It's a taboo journalism on the out. The fifth is the right to intellect and reason. So you can't take intoxicants that affect your ability to reason and think. Anesthesia during surgery has its own set of rulings. So Sharia has nuance to it. And the sixth is the right to property. You can't steal, you serve well, or cheat anyone out of what's theirs. So that was the first myth. The second myth is that women are oppressed in Islam. Yes, just like anywhere else in the world, including the United States of America, there are some women who are oppressed and there are some Muslim-majority countries that do have a culture that is more favorable to men. And there are stories of domestic abuse and some Muslim households are the human family. But the real question is, does Islam teach condone or in any way support the oppression of women? And the answer is absolutely not. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said that the best of you are the ones who are the best to their women. The majority of the focus of this last sermon was on the rights of women. And Muslims believe in the story of Adam and Eve, just like the Jews and the Christians. But in Islam, Eve is still working here. But in Islam, Eve is not held accountable for Adam's mistakes. They're both held equally responsible. So she's not the one to blame. She's not considered to be a temperate and she's not the reason that I have lost paradise. So there seem to be a few reasons that Islam gets this bad rap. The first is the hijab, the head covering. Hijab actually doesn't mean head covering. It means barrier. But it's become shorthand for a headscarf. And it's fine to use that word now. So it actually means barrier. It sets up boundaries for interaction. It's the first thing people see and they don't understand it. They don't necessarily think of the Virgin Mary when they see the headscarf. They usually wonder, why do women wear it and men don't have to cover their heads? Men also have parts of their bodies that they have to cover. They have to cover from the navel to the knee. So they can't wear speedos. They can't expose their kneecaps or their thighs or their belly buttons. So why are there different rules? Well, we have different rules here in America as well. If we were going jogging in the park right now and it was a hot day, a man could take off his shirt. If he's getting hot and sweaty, a woman could. She would be arrested for public indecency. So we believe that our rules for how we dress are divinely inspired and that God understands what is best for us since he is our creator after all. The second thing people see is when they come to the mosques and they may see the congregational prayer they often see that the women are praying behind the men and they may think of it in the framework of Rosa Parks sitting at the back of the bus. But where you pray in the congregational prayer doesn't give any indication of your closeness to God. Islam gives both men and women equal access to men, to God, to getting to paradise, to getting to His divine pleasure. The prayer is intimate. We stand together shoulder to shoulder and we stand, bow and prostrate on the ground with our bottoms in the air. And most women would not feel comfortable having men standing behind them, watching them as they bow down with their bottoms up in the air. So it's really about privacy and modesty. That's the reason you'll see the women lined up behind the men. And the point of prayer is to focus on God and your relationship with Him, not on where you're standing or who you're standing next to. And then the third thing related to women is that people often confuse how women are treated in countries like Saudi Arabia with how Islam treats women in general. Now the fact that women only just started driving in Saudi Arabia in 2018 is due to the Saudi law, not an Islamic law. Muslim women have been heads of state in Muslim majority countries. One of the current vice presidents in Iran is a woman. Even women in the United States haven't managed to shadow that glass ceiling yet. The two holiest cities in Islam, Makkah and Medina happen to be in the land that is currently called Saudi Arabia. However, Saudi Arabia does not hold religious authority over the world's population of Muslims. Their government can make whatever laws they want to, but that doesn't give them legitimacy over the world's population of Muslims. So those were two myths I wanted to cover about Sharia and women. And then during Q&A we'll be able to tackle some of the other ones. I'm going to hand it over back to you. So anyone know how many Muslims serve in the United States armed forces? Almost about 5,000 currently today Muslim Americans serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. The next part of our panel is by a graduate of the United States Naval Academy who served in the Navy. And it's Mike Kim. Mike also works in real estate. He's a father of seven children. Lives locally. And I forgot to introduce myself. Sorry. My name is Mehdi. I live here. I'm a lawyer. I've been a lawyer for 14 years. Married at three daughters. I also graduated from the first... Oh, I have a... Yeah, I just had a baby three weeks ago. We won't tell him. I've been up all night. Sorry. I felt bad for my wife. Before she was like, can you take him, please? I was like, yeah, you take him. So I took him downstairs. I'm like, come on dude, go to sleep. Go to sleep. Yeah, I forgot about that. I've also been blessed to graduate from the first ever accredited liberal arts college in America. It's located in Berkeley, California. Wow. The first ever in the history of America and the history of the western hemisphere. Right here in Berkeley, California. All of you are invited to visit. If you're going to visit, send an email to Moneer. MTC, he'll send it to me. I will give you a tour. Happy to have you there any day in Berkeley, California. At the top of Holy Hill, with other sister universities and other theological seminars. So Mike Kim is going to address the next major issue of what ISNAM is not. And that is the I will let him introduce you. Please welcome Mike Kim. Yeah. Okay. All right. Hi. So I'm going to talk about ISIS and Jihad. But before I do, I want to just share with you because it's intertwined and why I had some interest in matters of war. So as a student at Annapolis, we had this assignment where we were assigned to summarize the biographies of all the eminent scientists and philosophers of the western civilization. So it's quite a task. Those are the libraries that fit into the book. And then came across this passage and it really grabbed my attention. It basically said that the majority of these materialists and scientists and philosophers in the western civilization were believers in the transcendental, which is an academic neutral term for God that the world was a creative universe. So that was an extraordinary statement that the most revered and widely studied and respected minds in the western civilization were believers in the God that their lives and work were inspired by their desire to know the creative universe. So like when Isaac talked about the ocean, he had to understand the point at which a lot of God created the universe. When René Descartes was studying the Cartesian coordinates, he had to understand the geometric relationship of the creative universe. So it really opened up a new horizon for me. So from that point, I launched on a personal quest of people to find out what this is all about because nobody had told me such. Nobody had made that connection in the past. So over the remaining years I read and researched and talked to people and it was the best I can to get my answers to questions that I had. And in so doing I walked away with a certain standard of criteria whether it was social, philosophical or spiritual or scientific on what type of religion that I would adopt. For example, the scientific standard. I felt that since we're talking about the creative universe that revelation must necessarily be ahead of all scientific discoveries. That in no circumstance should science debunk revelation. Right? So I found that standard quite challenging from most of the world's religions. Except Islam. Islam answered those questions and there was just all sorts of scientific proofs in Islam that we're still trying to discover and come to a better understanding. Let's give you one quick example. I was a navigator in the Navy and it's still a bit of a mystery of how certain bodies of water don't intermingle the salinity content, temperature gradient the pressure. For example, the way that the Mediterranean flows into the Atlantic there's a pressure gradient difference causing weather disturbances etc. The Quran talks about that from an illiterate prophet 1600 years ago who'd never seen the ocean. So there's hundreds of these types of scientific proofs and again, other standards it met my standards therefore I became a Muslim. Now, aside, because I was a military naval officer or aspiring naval officer I was very interested in what Islam had to say about the conduct of war. Because war we were taught as anapolis if combat is not conducted with the highest of moral standards, you will literally lose your humanity on the battlefield. Because the most brutal act the human beings can engage in so don't live and conduct war by certain moral code you will literally become an animal. So, you know, PTSD all of these are the symptoms of our soldiers experiencing extreme duress and distress in combat. Anyways, there's volumes of books written about that something you can look it up yourself but that's why it's so important. So I was curious what does Islam say about war? Well it turns out that Islam says quite a bit about it and what I discovered is that they had a very refined and high standard regarding the reasons for war and conduct during war. In the Quran it says that permission to fight is given to those against whom war is made because they have been wronged. Those who have been driven out from their homes unjustly only because they said our Lord is God. In another verse it says and if God did not repulse some men there would surely have been pulled down temples and churches and synagogues and mosques. So those two statements are clear unequivocal saying that fighting is sanctioned under the for self defense and secondly for the freedom of worship. Notice it doesn't say just mosques it's the synagogues and churches so all religions were obligated to protect so the freedom of religion and for self defense those are the reasons why it's sanctioned. And then a lot more is said about it and so when I started digging in deeper the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him had quite a bit to say about war as well. I'll show you just one thing and it's what we call to the rules of engagement. The manner in which you engage the enemy again that moral code because there has been certain rules and regulations on how you conduct yourself in the battlefield. These were the instructions he gave to his soldiers during war. Taking one step back by the way you might ask yourself, well you talk about the Prophet of God why is he concerned about war and conduct and combat. Well we believe that the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him is the final messenger. So as such he has to be complete in his totality of all human aspects whether you're a brother or a parent, a husband, a son a businessman, a student, a teacher and even a warrior. So he exemplified the face and left us plenty of examples of how to conduct yourself in all of those aspects of existence. So in matters of combat these are the instructions he gave to his soldiers. Number one, do not harm women, children, elderly or the sick. Do not commit treachery and never mutilate or disfigure. Do not uproot, cut down or burn trees. Do not harm any livestock except for food. In combat there is a crack in the face for God created all of us in the image and pattern. Do not kill monks and monasteries and do not kill those sitting in places of worship. Do not destroy the villages and towns do not spoil the cultivated fields and gardens. So in other words you can't starve people out during war. Do not wish for an encounter with the enemy pay to God to grant you security but when you are forced to encounter them exercise patience. No one may punish with fire except the Creator. So in Islam, weapons, mass destruction, chemical, nuclear, napalm all of those will be forbidden. And finally, accustom yourself to do good and do not do wrong even if they commit wrong. So you know taking into a totality there are no other rules of engagement that I've come across during my time as a naval officer that were higher standards than those. None. There are the Nuremberg trials and conventions. Post World War II lessons to learn all those embodied today what we the U.S. military utilized for the, what we believe is the highest standards of world engagement. Those 10 things that it rattles off to you is the highest standards that were came across. So let me just now talk about jihad. So the term jihad in Arabic does not in and of itself have anything to do with what we all think it is. The word jihad which means to make an effort. So consequently the highest form of jihad is to struggle with your own self with your own ego. That's the highest form of jihad. The last form of jihad is the military component. By the way, jihad is not when they say holy war that doesn't ring true with us because we see nothing holy in war. There's nothing holy about it. It's the means of last resort if you will. So again, just to give you a couple of examples on the greater versus lesser jihad the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said the best jihad is to speak truth to a tyrannical leader. And in another instance he said perform jihad by serving your parents and there's on and on again about being the best you being as you can. That's the form of the military component. So ISIS we believe that they're vigilantes it's what happened ISIS by the way, there was no ISIS prior to the Iraq war. We hope you all know that. We created a power backing by invading Iraq in the lead and that power backing is filled by this vigilante group called ISIS. Let's say Russia came out of the country and left. So who filled the power back here? Did they destroy our police apparatus and security and government system? The Mississippi militia, right? They're the ones with the weapons and organized and have a cause and somebody in some other part of the world would call them crazies. So it's a geopolitical phenomenon the rise of ISIS. They are not sanctioned at all by the broader Muslim community. The easiest way to look at it is to take a case of Christianity or maybe with fascism is to Christianity. I read Mein Kampf and Hitler invoked a lot of questions, you know, thinking and theology on the basis of why he's doing what he's doing. So it's similarly ISIS is an extreme operation of our religion and not without a fault. That's it. Well, I got it. Thank you, Mike, for that. I didn't have to talk about that. The next segment is arguably the core of what is today's session and that is by Dr. Esal Tarsin who is an ER physician in Walnut Creek practicing ISIS. He saves bodies at night and he saves souls in the day. He's an author of a groundbreaking text. It's called Being Muslim a Practical Guide. This is a text written for Americans by Americans for the one who is journeying to God and it's a comprehensive overview of what it means and how to journey to God. So the point of departure for a Muslim is we come from God and how do we go to God? And Dr. Esal will answer that question for us. Please welcome Dr. Esal Tarsin. Thank you, good morning. How's everyone doing so far? Good. So my task is that within the next 10 minutes I'm going to give you an overview of the religion of Islam. Yeah. A little bit of breathing. So what I'd like to do is hopefully give an overview on a conceptual level not getting down into specifics but more giving you a bird's eye view to sort of look at the box of the puzzle shows you that image because sometimes we can look at individual pieces and lose sight of what the whole thing is. So that's my hope here today. So first I'd like to start with some definitions. So first two what is the term Islam? So Islam is the proper name of the religion itself. Yeah, I am. I'm going to stand just because I kind of need to see what this line is about. With your permission. It's the proper name of the religion itself, right? So it's a word that means literally to turn one's soul over to, right? It is to surrender over to and it means obviously to surrender oneself over to God. A Muslim is therefore one who has surrendered himself or herself over to God. It's one who achieves and the word Islam also comes from a root word that means peace. So you sometimes might have heard that phrase where some people say that Islam actually means peace. Yeah, the word Salam and even the Hebrew Shalom and Semitic languages mean peace. And so what it means is that when a person surrenders him or herself over to God they attain peace within themselves and are able to emanate that peace throughout the world, hopefully. But a Muslim is not a person of any specific race or ethnicity. There are people from all walks of life. There are Muslims of every ethnicity on earth and I've got some pictures up here to sort of illustrate that. There are some more famous and well known people but there's the first one I think is probably one of the most recognizable faces in modern history. But Muhammad Ali who we all know of an American Muslim who just passed away just a few years ago Kat Stevens who converted and took on the name Yusuf Islam and then Dr. Oz. You have many famous athletes and many people that we know that doesn't necessitate any particular race or ethnicity. Just one who surrenders himself over to God. Another definition I think is important to consider is the word Allah. Who is Allah? What does that mean? Is that a deity that Muslims worship? Muslims it is simply the Arabic name for God the God of Abraham. In the Qur'an you will see that the the returning point for all conversations particularly with Jews and Christians is Abraham. Abraham is considered the father of monotheism as we know it sort of spread around the world. And if you go back to Arabic translations of the Bible that right there is Genesis in Arabic and if anyone here could read Arabic you can see the fourth word says that in the beginning Allah created the heavens and the earth. So Christians will call upon Allah. So it is simply the Arabic term. It is not a different God. It is the same God that sent Abraham, Noah, Isaac, Ishmael, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad. We believe that it is the same God. So Muslims often are framed as worshipping another God which is false. So how does Islam view itself vis-à-vis other religions is an important question. Like I have already mentioned, Muslims see the returning point of all theological conversation to be Abraham. So they see themselves as continuing and not replacing. It is interesting there is actually a verse in the Qur'an where God says to the Prophet Muhammad you are not anything new amongst the prophets. You are not bringing anything new per se. This isn't anything different. But he is a culmination of the previous messages. So there is one way that some Muslim academics and actually non-Muslim academics frame this, that Muslims believe in Islam with a capital I, and that's the religion that we follow here, here in the mosque. But they also believe in Islam with a lower case of I. That all of these other traditions and previous revelations were manifestations of a surrendering to God of that time. So that if you are a follower of Noah on the Ark, that you are in a state of surrendering to God following his commandments. And you were therefore a Muslim with a lower case of I, one who was living in surrender to God. If you were with Moses standing against Pharaoh, then you were in a state of Islam surrendering to God, etc. So that's an important concept that's not seen as something foreign or different. Now there is an interesting parable that the Prophet Muhammad gives, peace be upon him. He says that the parable of my coming is like a beautiful building, and everyone is walking around this beautiful edifice and they're saying what a wondrous building, what beautiful architecture except it's just missing that last brick. And he says I'm that final brick. And so his message to us in that is that this is all a culmination of what previous prophets have fought. He doesn't, you know the Prophet Muhammad could have said everything is corrupt. My parable is like a bulldozer that comes and removes everything but he didn't. He said I am just that final brick and so that helps us to understand how Islam views other faith traditions as part of God's plan that were an indispensable part of his mission and his coming. There's another interesting tradition in which the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him talks about the fact that there was no community on earth in the history of humanity to which God did not send guidance even if we don't know who they are or in what form it took. And he says that over 124,000 prophets were sent. So the aboriginal peoples of Australia must have had a prophet that was sent to them. Someone that told them simply about God, the creator of the universe. All of these were different levels of completion. Sometimes it was very basic. Like for example the Noah Hiddock laws, right are much simpler than what Moses brings, right? The rabbinical legal code is far more complex but they all include one God don't kill, don't steal, right? Don't set up idols alongside God. The 10 commandments are almost something universal to all of the Abrahamic faiths and in some form exists even in other faith traditions. So in order to understand Islam, and I mean with the capital I now, the religion came to learn about today, right? There are three main dimensions to learn about the religion, okay? So the quiz at the end of today will be based on these three. So, faith, conduct and character. So I'm going to start talking about conduct. So if you've heard of the five who here has heard of the five pillars of Islam? So the five pillars of Islam are about half of you. The five pillars actually only summarize conduct. So these are actions that a Muslim must perform. These are the five basic rights and rituals that every Muslim has to perform in order to be minimally performed. So the first are the two testimonies of faith. These are the two statements that if a person believes and proclaims that enters them into Islam. There's no baptism, there's no formal ceremony or anything like that. If a person says that there's nothing worthy of worship, say God, and I believe that Muhammad is his last and final messenger that alone would qualify someone to be able to. So the first pillar is to make that testimony. Thereafter, we have five daily prayers based on the position of the sun in relation to where we are. There's a dawn prayer, there's a midday prayer, there's an afternoon prayer, there's a sunset prayer, and then there's a night prayer. And these are five points throughout the day that we spiritually realign ourselves with our purpose, not a creator. One of the amazing things about human beings, there's a British Muslim scholar who has a great proverb, he would say how easy it is to forget, how easy it is to forget. We're just forgetful beings. We realign and wake up in the morning, okay God, what's my to-do list for today? So we have five points at the day in which we realign, we remind ourselves, we recenter, and these things are there for us to guide us throughout the rest of the day. This is what it's called. This is that every Muslim gives two and a half percent of their savings, not their income, but their leftover savings, excess wealth that sits around in a bank account to be given to the needy and the less fortunate. The fourth is fasting the month of Ramadan. So there's a lunar, we follow lunar calendar, and there's a month, it's the ninth month called Ramadan, and how many people have heard of Ramadan? I get curious to know what people are. Okay, that's good. No water, drink, no food, water, or intimacy from dawn until sunset, right, and that's currently in about June, May-June right now, so they're you know, relatively long days. And then the last is the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. So Mecca is a city that was alluded to by our sister Hina that it's in modern day Saudi Arabia. Anybody know who found in the city of Mecca? Any guesses? His name has already been said in Abraham. So Abraham, it's actually in the Bible, it's called Becca with the beat. He goes to the holy city of Becca, and that's where he lives Ishmael, and Heather, right? And there's a famous story of the well that Ishmael finds, etc., that's all there in the Old Testament, but that's where we make pilgrimage to, to the house that was erected by Abraham for the worship of the one God, and that's the holy site of Islam. So that's conduct. Those are five ritual devotions that every Muslim must practice and be committed to as a minimum. Then there are faith. Then there's faith. Not things that we do, but things that we believe, okay? These are things this is surrendering to God with our bodies, but then also with our mind, right? Things that we believe are mental conceptions. If you believe the earth is flat or you believe the earth is a sphere, it has to correlate to truth and reality. Those are conceptualizations. So these are five realities that every Muslim must believe. He must believe that there's God. He must believe that he's a reality. That he created the world. That he precedes time. He's outside of time and space. He created time and space and the heavens and the earth, etc. We believe in angels. That these aren't metaphorical beings. That there are really beings that exist in another dimension, right? Beyond our own, but that interact in our dimension by God's command. We also believe in divine scripture. That God communicates with his creation. That he created us for divine wisdom and purpose to know him and to serve him. But then he communicates this purpose to us through a succession of prophets. Okay? And that they all essentially came with the same message, right? When I say essentially, the particulars might differ because that differs with time and place but their message was essentially the same. God created us, worship him, know him, right? And live in accordance with morality. Okay? So we believe every Muslim has to believe that the Torah was divinely revealed, that the Psalms were divinely revealed, that the Gospels were divinely revealed, and lastly, the Quran. Where Muslims may differ from their sisterfates is that the accuracy and authenticity can sometimes form to question. One of the things that the Quran says is that men, we know that religion is great and sometimes institutions of religion aren't always perfect, right? And that men alter things with their hands and then so that's it. Well, we're going to send another revelation to set the record straight. That's not what I said, etc. But with the final revelation, God promises a divine protection from alteration. And we can talk more about that, perhaps afterwards. Some of the historical evidence of that that's come up recently, that's pretty interesting. The fourth reality I have to believe in are messengers. God has sent messengers. We've talked about that already. One thing that's worth noting is that for Muslims, our conception of Jesus, our Christology, is closer to a unitary understanding that God sent Jesus as the Messiah. He was born to a virgin birth and he performed these miracles and he resurrected the dead and all of these things. But he came as a prophet and not as part of a trinity. He was not God incarnated, he was a son of God metaphorically. Not God the son, but the son of God the way that phrase was used by the Hebrews of the time to refer to a godly person. So we hold it to be a mortal prophet who will return at the end of times. He is the awaited Messiah. So for example, Orthodox Jews don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah, he was still awaiting the Messiah. The Muslims would differ and say, no, he was the Messiah and those who were present at the time had to follow him in order to be Muslims. But that he he was a mortal prophet. And then the fifth reality is to believe that we are all going to meet our maker and to be held accountable for our actions. Some people can get away with things here in this world, but nobody ultimately gets away with them. But we pray for God's mercy on that day. Sorry, the last one is about participating. It's divine decree. One of the things that Muslims believe is that nothing in creation happens without God's willing it and allowing it to be so. Nothing is outside of this power. Good things and bad things happen with God's permission. Because this world was created before a mixture of good and evil. It's a testing ground of our morality and of our free will. And bad things happening isn't separable from free will, but that doesn't indicate that God is out of control. Over the world is outside of his control. So how many dimensions did we talk about so far? Two, there's a third one coming, but I wanted just a little bit of background here. So the first is, what is our understanding of humanity? In order to understand this third dimension, you have to understand what is the Islamic conception of what a human being is? What is our nature as human beings? So we have a primary nature. This is our essential nature that we're all born with. Each one of us is healthy and nurtured properly. We have an innate knowledge of right and wrong. Each of us feels guilt. This isn't a socially constructed thing, right? Each of us knows inside of ourselves that we do something wrong and we feel a sense of remorse against it. We also have this inclination towards something that is good and true and beautiful, right? That our primary nature finds the beautiful attractive and that the ugly is repulsive, right? And the same applies to actions, right? There's a reason that in almost all human history you have until very recently you have these stories in which the hero gets the bad guy at the end and everybody now we have the anti-hero, right? The bad guy gets away at the end, right? That's a recent modern phenomenon but everybody knows that that is resonant with human nature. We want to see those things. We want to see good victories over evil. So that's our primary nature but there is also another aspect of ourselves, right? We have a selfish ego as well. So why are we inclined to that which is good and beautiful and true? We also have a capacity, perhaps even I use the word a tendency, towards being vengeful and preoccupied with our bodily pleasures, okay? Now, so we have these two aspects working at the same time. We then have a third, which is not endow us with reason. That human beings, to borrow Aristotle's term, that were rational animals. That what distinguishes us from the rest of creation is that we have the faculty of reason. And so reason is supposed to help us to listen to our primary nature and to be in control of our selfish ego, right? So you can even think of a basic encounter with a cheesecake, right? The mind tells you, do not touch, don't go there, right? But the appetite is there, okay? Now if your faculty of reason is stronger than your appetite, then you have to say, oh, well, you've got a lot of discipline. You're disciplined. But those are training rounds for moral discipline. That's why Muslims fast. It's one of the reasons we fast. They're all related. The seven deadly sins gluttony is one of them for a reason. If you're gluttonous with food, what does that mean with everything else? Nobody ever has just one deadly sin, right? Even though one is enough to kill you, right? Nobody just has one because they're interrelate. Now to get to the third dimension, it's character. It's building this character. So there's a process that is termed in Islamic literature as a purification of the soul. It's a process by which a Muslim struggles and strives, this is the greater jihad that might refer to, against the lower desires of their soul to purge these tendencies of the ego that are resist and I fight against my temper and my jealousy and my selfishness. And I work to endow myself with more beautiful virtues. I try to be more generous and more forgiving and more kind and more altruistic. And this process is the way in which I purify my soul. Now part of this also entails an understanding of how we engage the world itself, right? That when it comes to the world religion obviously has a lot to say. The Muslim understanding would be that we are in the world but we're not of the world, right? That we engage the world as one of the great sages of Islam said, it's to have the money in your hand but not in your heart. So you don't live a life of rejection of the world. We don't go live in monasteries. We're here in Pleasanton, California, working jobs and we have houses. But we're not here to enjoy this place. That's not at the very purpose. The place is a bridge. It's a means to an end. This is a spiritual laboratory, if you will. We're supposed to exercise and work as a training round for the afterlife. So we go between the two extremes of indulgence on the one hand and rejection. So again just to recap Islam views itself as a culmination of previous religious traditions. The final brick as it were in God's long successive revelation. If one surrenders to God we believe it will bring peace and harmony to the individual and to society as a whole. And it sees itself as a little road of bringing together the great virtues of previous traditions. So for example the Jewish tradition is known to have a great, rich legal tradition, the rabbinical tradition. But Jesus came to remind us that the spirit of the law is greater than the spirit of the law as well. So the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him we believe merges these two and brings each in its right place. There is a, as Hina talked about we have sharia, we believe in a letter of the law, but the spirit of the law, those six objectives of preservation of life and religion and intellect and family and property and honor all of those things that stays at the center of it all. So we balance ourselves as surrendered to God with our minds and with our body, with our bodies in terms of the fact that we pray and we refrain from doing anything that harms another person or stealing and then with our souls because we work on purifying ourselves purging ourselves of our egos tendencies and adorning the virtues of the heart. I thank you for attending this sort of just a summary slide. Thank you for your time and thank you for just being here today. You guys ready for the quiz? So we share and a human father, we also share our forefathers, our American forefathers that founded this country and this country has been beautiful for a long time and may it continue to grow in beauty. Amen. There are historical debates of when Muslims and how long Muslims have been a part of this country and there are sound arguments by historians that Muslims were here prior to Columbus and with Columbus. You might notice in many of the portraits and art depicting that era of history of men where it turbines representing Muslims in that era. A part of the Revolutionary War was a man named Banffit Muhammad who contributed to helping this country gain its independence. Also, if you might find it very interesting to know that in our in the Thomas Jefferson building in the US Library of Congress there is on the dome, there's a picture of 12 civilizations or countries that have represents who has contributed to this civilization and one of them listed there is Islam at the top of that congressional building. You might be surprised to know that in our US Supreme Court there's an image on the north wall that has great loggivers, pictures of great loggivers and there is an image of a Muslim as well in our own US American Supreme Court. So Muslims have been part and parcel of this country for a very long time. Our next panelist is going to address that connection. Before we proceed to Sarah Kim I would like to remind everyone that we are going to take a break and come back for question and answers and at this moment we're going to share some past thousand cards some note cards for anyone to write your questions and I invite everyone to be honest and real and raw with these questions so we can live here in a meaningful manner in a beneficial manner. Those are coming around now. So our next panelist, our final panelist is Sarah Kim. You might notice Mike Kim and Sarah Kim. Yes, they are spouses. They got blessed then. They have been happily married for a couple of decades now with seven children. And they Sarah Kim manages and operates a ranch called Siena Ranch in Lafayette which hosts many children that come to learn gardening or to learn how to ride a horse or to learn archery and she manages that in addition to managing her seven men army at home. She has six boys and one girl and they're all pretty beautiful. So we invite Sarah to share her story with us connecting Islam and America and her journey. Please welcome Sarah Kim. So introduction Matthew. We formed this panel about two and a half years ago in response to some of the horrific things that were being said about Muslims in the media after a few days of feeling somewhat helpless after the San Bernardino tragedy we decided we needed to do something. However small it was to help balance the messages that people are receiving about Muslims in Islam most of which are just plain false. So it's very important that I start by thanking you all for being here because we can assemble this panel of speakers all we want and then attempt to share the truths about who we are but this would have no impact whatsoever if sincere people like yourselves didn't show up to hear us. So I'm honestly humbled and honored to be sitting here before you and sharing my story. I'd like to believe we're all here today because we love our community we love our country, we love our world and that we understand that if we seek to know and understand and respect one another that we're able to actually elevate ourselves and our respective communities and our beloved country to the highest possible levels. The title of my talk today 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'm 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. And what I would like to talk specifically today about is a topic I can address with what I hope is a sincere and passionate part and that's 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. He proclaimed his favorite granddaughter partially because I was named after his eldest daughter Sarah Joe who had passed away in a tragic car accident just a year before I was born and apparently I looked like Sarah Joe 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 us grandchildren. The one thing I remember not knowing how to love him however was his deep seated racism and hatred for people of color. He openly insulted and disrespected black people he frequently used the N word I remember being 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 South was still rife 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 lunch basically there was minimal to no interaction between them and us separate but equal may have been banished by law but it was alive and well in everyday actions even in mine and on my mind however I was all American as apple pie blond hair blue eyed high school cheerleader my European ancestors landed on American shores in the early days of settlement my mother is part Native American I lived in southern suburbia and was the daughter of a self made business man attending some of the best public schools in the area and I had my mind set squarely on attending the surface academy after graduation who could possibly be more American than me in 1996 I had completed a couple of years at the US Naval Academy 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 this time that I was introduced to Islam since my talk is not about my conversion story I won't go into too much detail about how I chose to enter into this religion 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 would be an appropriate time to share a few of the Islamic teachings regarding race which come to us via the sayings of the prophet Muhammad be upon him or via sayings or verses taken from our holy book the Quran which we believe to be the direct word of God and as I share these with you please keep in mind the opening line of the preamble of the direct declaration of independence the document which formed the foundation of our nation we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal in Islam we are taught that righteousness is the only quality that makes someone virtuous in the sight of God not race or skin color or lineage or country in his last and final public sermon to the Muslims over 1400 years ago the prophet Muhammad be upon him very clearly addressed this topic of racism when he said O 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 red skin except through righteousness we were also taught by the prophet Muhammad be upon him 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 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 our righteousness and in our closeness to God so these are just some of the teachings of my mom 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 and taught me the true essence of what it meant to be an American my father at the age of 50 was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor a brain tumor I give in two months to live I wanted to take my young son Ben back home with me to South Carolina so I could take care of my father in his final days he readily agreed to have me come home 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 and my worship and noting my newfound mindfulness that I had brought to my day to day life and questioning me about my new faith facing death he was forced to think about his own mortality so he started seeking answers to the questions of what might be coming after death and what had been a real purpose of life I tried my best to answer his questions but my own limited knowledge of my new religion could not 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 he could speak to someone anyone who could give him the answers that I couldn't provide I searched in the phone book I asked around I could find no Muslims anywhere close to us I was desperate for days and nights I prayed to God though I didn't know everything about Islam I didn't know 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 a miracle God had sent us some Muslims the very next Saturday we drove to Rockville, South Carolina to meet these Muslims in the hopes that they could help my father settle the affairs of the soul 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 saying certain that this was a mistake deep down I knew there was 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 his whole life to spurn them but another fact we are taught in Islam God is greater what you often hear as Allah Akbar God is greater than all the limitations that we place upon ourselves and the limitations we place upon others for in fact when my father emerged from that center he was a man deeply moved by all those whom he had met he was a man who received the answers to the questions that had remained unanswered for so long and he was now a man of the Muslim faith God is truly greater than anything we can imagine through the words and the actions and the sincerity of those whom he had been groomed 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 until his 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 maybe rest in peace the black Muslim community in South Carolina took very good care of my dad and me they would invite us to their homes every Friday after congregational prayers my father would be with the men then 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 finally found this was actually a momentous turning point for me as well for the first time in my life I had black friends but they were more than friends to me they were my sisters we would pray together, sing together eat together and laugh together it was a beautiful and memorable time in 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 the women as sisters out of respect anyway this brother had come to visit my father so that he could read from the Holy Quran in his presence Muslims believe that the recitation of the Quranic words in Arabic brings solace to the heart and that specific reading of the chapter Yasin helps ease the soul's passing from this world to the next it was through the lips of this black man that these verses aided my father's soul it was the brothers from this community who came to pick up his body it was they who shrouded him and who prepared him for his burial they arranged for the funeral transported his coffin to the cemetery lowered his body into the ground and 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 if 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 this 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 back to California I have continued to be blessed with the most amazing 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 races with all races and all people I have been taught that to treat everyone with dignity and respect is an actual act of worship because of our faith my life and my husband's life and my children's lives have been elevated and I hope and I 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 better human being and a better American for it it is my sincerest wish that my children along with all of 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 oppresses all that is evil thank you for taking the time to get to know us and for honoring me by listening to my story I sincerely pray that this afternoon is just the beginning of a wonderful new friendship thank you Sarah I want to acknowledge that it's 12 o'clock and we haven't till 12 30 how are you guys feeling how are you guys doing you guys alright you guys good let's stand up and just stretch for a moment before we continue let's just stand up and if we can collect the questions you guys want me to lead you in a stretch crossfit style we're coming around to collect the questions or you can bring it up we truly want to honor your questions and honor your time so we want to conclude by 12 30 so we can have lunch as well so we're going to take a couple minutes stretch break right now and then jump into the questions just to make sure we have time to answer them for Mexicans Jews not allowed Irish need not applied beware of natives Japs keep moving this is a white man's neighbor today is the term Muslims are taking that turn my wife writes and she has she has written on her card I'm writing to humanize the demonized humanize the demonized right and so today it's time to go through this moment of difficulty in our American journey when they tell my wife go home where should I go to Los Angeles go home where should I go to Chicago I don't consider any other place home my parents emigrated here in the 60s her parents emigrated here a couple centuries ago from Michigan go home where should I go to Ann Arbor a documentary just came out you might be interested in watching it it's called Redneck Muslim Redneck Muslim I'm not making this up for real you might want to watch it it's an American man who found his journey to God through Islam and embraced Islam and this is about his life and his journey so this is our this is our home and may we all contribute to making it a beautiful and comfortable home for all of our neighbors and I so we want to jump into the questions and answers because we only have about 26 minutes alright so Mike please go ahead so the question I got was there's a saying in the Quran that Muslims are to their past is to take over the world no it doesn't and in fact it's quite the opposite because one of the reasons why I was attracted to Islam was that it made it very clear that only God knew the fate of another soul no matter what they called themselves what would they subscribe to they do not know the end state of another human being's soul it was very clear that whether you call yourself a Christian or Jew or much of anything else that God would decide where you end up so that in and of itself told me that the world we mixed with all different sorts of people to do well right to the very end Islam is not going to take over the world to do well the other thing is what Mahdi mentioned 124,000 prophets throughout the existence of humanity so we see we find messages and connection points whether it's Native American traditions or Buddhist traditions that are very reminiscent of our teachings so clearly it seems to me that they were guided by some former prophet so who am I, who are we to say that they're illegitimate or we know better than they the reality is God made it amply clear in the Quran that we live in a world with varied backgrounds, religions and skin tones etc that's what's spoken about today so it's defining impossible in my view that Islam won't take over the world the question is how to interact with Muslims in the right way to say welcome something I've been noticing recently is people are just being really friendly and smiling, saying hello when you go into the grocery store it's just not looking at them as different where you can't interact we're just normal people like you especially for us who wear a headscarf I think it is a barrier people see it as a barrier and it's meant to be a barrier to a certain extent but more about men and women interacting so I think the way to interact and to make Muslims feel welcome is to treat us like you would anyone else and be friendly and don't be afraid to ask questions just like oh I know that you're wearing that or sometimes people are like oh what a beautiful scarf you have I know the scarf isn't anything special it's just there but it means a lot it actually makes a difference and I personally really appreciate that I'll just tag on to Sarah's answer because somebody asked the question here about within the workplace between Muslims and non-Muslims men and women when they interact what are the guidelines in social and non-business situations non-business situations so this often comes up with just like any other community you're going to find the whole spectrum amongst Muslims of levels of practice amongst Muslims of adherence to the different rules I'm showing you a man may put his hand out to shake the hand of a Muslim woman and she'll take his hand and shake it no problem another Muslim woman may say I'm sorry I don't shake hands with men and so just to understand that people have their limits if you want to just play it safe between the genders it is universally accepted amongst Muslims of the way we greet each other as we put our hand on our heart so I know when I go to interfaith gatherings I like to let the organizers give a general announcement that I personally don't feel comfortable shaking hands or hugging men and so it's really nice when people understand that from the get go we don't have those awkward situations there's a really cute video that just went viral yesterday where Prince Harry went to a charity event with his wife and his mother-in-law greeted the Muslim woman who's dressed from head to toe according to Sharia and the Muslim woman greets his mother-in-law by kissing her three times no she though the Muslim woman greets the mother-in-law by kissing her three times and then Prince Harry comes in and he's joking around but he does the three kisses like the virtual kisses just to make it clear I'm not going to touch you but I also want to do the greeting I'm so cute and all the Muslims are sharing it because we're like how many of us have experiences we know that awkward moment and it was really nice to know that he did recognize his limits and he didn't try to touch the Muslim woman but at the same time he greeted her in a very friendly manner that's all anybody wants people to be friendly and accepting a couple of quick questions does the culture believe that someone wears the hijab if they're not Muslim do Muslims consider that disrespectful no not at all the headscarf is in many different cultures the Russian culture the Jewish culture many traditional cultures and even when I first started wearing the headscarf I decided to wear it when my husband actually wasn't that comfortable with the idea of me putting on the headscarf he almost stepped aside and let me do my thing but one thing he said was can you wear your headscarf like the way Audrey Hepburn used to wear it Grace Kelly used to wear it so headscarves have been around okay so a couple of questions for teachers as an upper elementary teacher with many Muslim children in my class and how can I best honor and include and celebrate them how can I help them to feel safe and have their beliefs I'm a middle school teacher here in Pleasanton how can I best support Muslim students especially during Ramadan and then have your children experience rejection or negative experiences in local schools so teachers can definitely set the tone and they can make or break the experience of public schools for students my three sons happened to be homeschooled up until 8th grade and then two of them did go to local public schools here in San Ramon one school son went to a private school in Southern California but it's been very heartwarming to see how much teachers do go out of their way to try and make their students of different backgrounds feel welcome one of the predicaments that we had when they were starting school was about prayer in the local public school like how are they going to take care of their prayer and where would they go to do that and they had different teachers say that you're welcome to come into my classroom you can use my classroom to do your afternoon prayer the principal offered his office to my son and said you can come and take care of your prayer here and then later was sensitive enough to say actually I'm not going to have you do your prayer in my office because I don't want people thinking you got into trouble every time you come out so let me give you the conference room one thing that came up was in ninth grade in the PE class there's a unit apparently that some PE teachers teach in ninth grade in California which is a dance unit and so my son was taking this PE class thinking he was just going to be playing sports and then all of a sudden he was told okay you're going to learn the foxtrot and the tango and the waltz and you have to learn how to ask the girl how to dance and you have to have a dance partner and all of a sudden there was this quandary like how does he deal with this and so because Muslim men and women don't have physical contact with one another before marriage unless they're related to one another and so he let his PE teacher know that he's more than willing to learn about dance but it's not something that's going to be doing with a woman he's not going to be touching in girls or dancing with them so the teacher was very considerate he said okay so the teacher reached out to me and said you know we can have Sean go and just run laps at that time or I can have him switch over to another PE class where they're doing something else like volleyball but he said it would be a real shame for the students to miss out on an opportunity to learn about another religion and another culture so is there any form of dance from your religious tradition that Sean could come and maybe teach the kids about and that would make up for the dancing for him and it was really great he ended up teaching him about Sufi dance and they formed a circle and he taught them the history behind it and the purpose behind it and the kids were kind of intrigued and then his teacher later told him that he had different students over the years who he knew what the cultural sensitivity needed to be thanks to his experience with Sean so it was nice to know that he was that open minded so as far as making students feel welcome just asking them is there anything you need in Ramadan students might be tired they might be a little thirsty more than hungry in classrooms there's nothing you can do to appease that but just understanding if students are feeling a little tired in your classroom especially at the end of the day asking them are you fasting and just letting all Muslim kids want and this is what I remember from my experience as well is you just want to know that people don't think you're weird and you're not feeling apologetic for your faith and one of the reasons my husband and I chose to go to school are kids because we wanted them to have that confidence in their religion and to see it as the norm before they felt they had to go out and constantly explain why they were different and we're asking those questions because that shows high level sensitivity so lots of questions I'm going to work to be brief because you guys might have more questions coming up so it'll be sort of like speed dating so it'll probably be like a minute each each of these that I have here I have about seven they're great questions great questions each of which I can answer in 15 minutes probably but I'm going to try to be brief simply to give me an answer and hopefully maybe in our conversations afterwards if something was left unsaid we can elaborate so without further ado can I refer to the mind and the soul what is the difference some of these have two or three questions the difference between the mind and the soul is sort of your heart is also a synonym for soul in Islamic literature so you think with your heart you can see the reason there is a type of intuition with the heart which is different than that of the mind and so when we talk about our heart making a decision with your heart and not your mind or your mind and not your heart it would be something similar to that they both are aspects of our cognition we have awareness, we have cognition our minds, our souls all play a role into that our sense of experience, even our bodies play a role into our cognitive experience next question history shows change Abraham to Jesus to Muhammad peace be upon all of them how or why then be so sure that nothing will evolve in the added wonderful question there is no reason to know that or to believe that unless it's stated so the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him says that God sends a succession of messengers and prophets but I'm the seal of prophethood with me the door closes and it's completed the final break it's not a two thirds finished building he's one more break he actually says I'm the final break and God's message is complete one other aspect of that is we believe that if you look at the statements of previous prophets they're always sent to their people so Moses says he wasn't really sent to the Egyptians he sent to the Jews and he has to get them out of Egypt even Jesus has phrases which says I was sent to the Jew not to the Gentile in certain parts so what we believe as Muslims is that the prophet Muhammad says I was sent to all of humanity my message is a universal message and can be accepted and therefore adopted in all different times and cultures and history has borne that out as well it's a great question we believe that it was explicitly stated and God says so in the Quran that humanity is completed and would you clarify the major differences between Sunni and Sharia Muslims this is a great question there are entire books written on this very briefly that many differences that you could really observe from the outside they have the same holy book they have the same five pillars that we talked about they have basic understandings and frameworks they have a corollary to sort of a Protestant Catholic difference of opinion where you have these theological debates that started early on and they just sort of solidified into these two camps that had to do with the political succession initially that where is how is the community best led is it something inherited that has to be the grandson of the prophet is it something inherited as a bloodline or is it something that the community takes on that debate became a theological position and then it sort of manifested from there but in essence they have always you're wondering the same way Protestants and Catholics aren't always in conflict until the recent events in Iraq right Sunnis and Shia side by side it doesn't always need to conflict this is Islamic literature literal or metaphorical for example creation versus evolution this is like a 10 volume page no these are great questions so I would say it's both there are clearly passages that are literal when God says there is only one God and you will be resurrected on the day of judgment and do not kill an innocent soul you don't say it's metaphorical but it just means I can't kill those are literal and then there are clearly verses in the Quran that are metaphorical so how do we know the difference between the two that's for the scholars of exegesis that's a fancy sort of discipline in which they study the language in the context and what was meant here we believe obviously that when things are said about God there are some things that are clear conceptual positions their theological statements but others are metaphors because we can't understand the internet we can't it's one of the most interesting verses in the Quran God says there is nothing similar to it there's nothing like unto God yet he is all hearing and all seeing he just says there's nothing like him but then he says yet he's all he gives us things that we know what sight is and we know what hearing is but we know his seeing isn't by light rays coming to a retina hearing is different from him but we have some type of metaphorical understanding of what divine sight and hearing might be and divine knowledge because we have some understanding of what that is on a human level so there are there's both creation and evolution do I really want to get into this creation and evolution one of the things that's very clear in the Quran is that we believe that God created us created the world out of nothing out of nothing the big bang is this point that scientists surmise was an infinite density infinite temperature and no breath out of nothing God created the whole universe God does not detail it's very simple God does not detail how he created human beings there are statements that sort of guide our understandings but there's a debate about religions about how to understand these verses but no Muslim would ever accept sort of randomness unguided randomness being how the world evolved all this design God says he's the creator but he also says he's the fashioner he designs us he guides these things he talks about his forming us in our mother's wounds and guiding us and if we study even basic embryology it's incredible that the DNA code is so complex it's so precise the margin of error that it permits in order to make a viable fetus is just so unfathomably low so we believe there's a designer so these things are very there are areas that we don't know how God created us in fact there's a verse in the Quran and I said I was going to be brave here there's a verse in the Quran that says God says to us you didn't see how I created you you didn't see how I created the heavens and the earth and you didn't witness your own creation so there's obviously some mystery to exactly how who knows we know that God could create everything in an instant but he says he created the world in 7 days what does that even mean? are those literal days? six days right? are those eras or eons those are all God created us so there's I think there's that's the guidelines that the Quran gives us I read that no one can really understand the Quran in Arabic how do you deal with that in order to actually interpret the Quran accurately you have to go to its original Arabic if you want to understand it if a translation is literally someone else's interpretation so to make an assessment of what the Quran says from a translation you are accepting someone else's interpretation scholars of the Quran read it in the original Arabic, yes correct love, my brother in law said that the Quran does not have the Google says otherwise Google's right on this time because the Quran is about your conduct no this is a great question this is because the Quran is about conduct no the Quran has very little of it dedicated probably less than 10% is dedicated to conduct pick a page of the Quran and read it it's more ethical, moral it's reminders of the day of judgment spiritual injunctions every verse will end with God loves those who are patient God does not love the oppressor etc there are guidance about virtues and ethics there are many different themes so the Quran there is love in the Quran love for God and love for us etc pork, all days there was no refrigeration eat anything an unclean animal Muslims don't eat what science is there that says it's unclean in today's world shed your eyes and slaughter it's very important to understand that a lot of Muslims do believe as Mike alluded to that science will simply affirm and confirm what we believe from God there are other reasons that we do it it's very important to understand even though trichinosis still has 10,000 cases a year still happening etc that's not the point what we would say is God has forbidden intoxicants for us it would be forbidden for me to take a sip even if I know that I won't be intoxicated from it God's injunction, he will tell us his wisdom and reasoning behind it but we can't say I know I'm a five beer guy before I really get tips it's about three to have three that wouldn't be valid reasoning God gives this because these are guidelines for us to live by and as time goes on the more we learn about science and the more things come out there's a confirmation but that's not why we do it it's one of those things where they make your faith firmer in your heart when you realize that's not why you did it you trust God to begin with he created us, he knows us, there's something he knows and it also includes the fallacy that everything is reducible to material science to begin with which we don't know, maybe there's a spiritual impact of being poor we're much more than just being sorry, not this crude body you guys all remember that scene I was like trying to get that out of the way alright I'm sorry, I'm really trying to agree we live in a profoundly racist country how do you speak to curbing this through your religion wonderful question what I would say is there's a tradition of the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him he says help your brother whether he's the oppressor or the oppressed and so they said to him, they said don't mess with your God we know how to help him if he's oppressed but how do we help him if he's the oppressor and he said we'll stop him from his own oppression what's amazing about this is that the prophet Muhammad is reminding us that even your brother when he's an oppressor still your brother and there has to be a love and a mercy as your reason for engagement one of the worst things you can do is demonize a racist person I mean Sarah's story probably 15 times and I still have to control my emotions it's very powerful that people can be redeemed and to demonize others as sort of unredeemable is something antithetical to the teachings of the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him what's amazing is some of his enemies who fought him for 20 years and at the end he won them over and they became Muslim and he didn't say there's no good in him and he said give him time maybe he'll come around and he preached and he talked and he preached and he talked but you have to see a brother in humanity on the other side somebody whose ego is overpowering them someone whose ignorance this all comes from ignorance the prophet Muhammad called racism a type of ignorance that a person has but it can be taken out with exposure, with education with knowledge, with love with kindness, with meeting someone and fortunately those stories are of our own thank you ok, stereotypically Islam is seen as a conservative religion do you see the religion becoming more progressive as the US becomes more liberal wonderful question very tough question again I would say that Islam has certain core principles that are unchangeable and that are universal for example one thing we would say is the core teachings that we've covered now they're unchangeable there are things that will change with time and culture in place Islam is a practice even today in China the way it's in sub-Saharan Africa and the way it's practiced so there's cultural adjustment in the secondary tertiary aspects the particular but the core teachings of Islam we believe are universal they're applicable to all times because they speak to our soul and the human soul doesn't change we might have skyscrapers and iPhones but the human soul hasn't changed we're facing the same problems who doesn't have a temper problem who hasn't dealt with jealousy at some point when we figure that out with technology sure we're speaking to the human bills the human soul to find God those changes are universal however what I will say is this is I think a challenge of all religion which is how do you cope with I'm going to say it how do you cope with perhaps almost an oppressively totalitarian understanding of pluralism that forces you to be different in order to be accepted so I think it's a challenge on both ends as America becomes more liberal and more progressive can it tolerate people who don't follow along in all spheres of liberal progressivism I feel a bit more strongly about this take for example the concept of judgment day one of the beliefs that we have to have so what does that mean as a human being in judgment day it necessarily means that we will be judged by God for our actions and our deeds here on earth therefore we will consequential life that has eternal consequences that elevates our humanity here on earth what I say how I treat other human being total consequences it elevates our humanity absolute religion that concept of judgment day it then introduces which is very relativistic so therefore we have this introduction of all manner of business nihilism atheism, socialism all these isms whatever the fashionableism is of the epoch applies the danger of it in something as simple as this I'll just give you one quick real world example as I said I was in the navy from the town man to the naval academy to the town man guy in the navy and what I just gave it to be I mean the sexiest that God was was Dukes and Hazards I come back 11 years later turn on TV I was shocked that one I saw I was shocked I said can they show that so what happened was our society we don't believe that through the passage of time things get better in our religion we don't believe that we think that there is a significant deterioration that's just one small example of the loss of ethics and morality the only thing I've seen today in the public square is prayer but anything else goes anything goes in the public square except worship so I do feel quite strongly about that I'm just gonna try to briefly yeah it's actually 1230 so I think I'm gonna answer just one last question answer this question because I think it's do we have permission to go another 5 minutes let's close it 5 minutes so this question is what is the view of Islam on the LGBT community this is a question I think I have to answer in a few parts so the first is the way the question is phrased is pretty ambiguous what's the view on the community it's interesting Islam tends to look at things on multiple dimensions so there's the actual act itself right and then there are the people who commit any such act and then there's looking at it morally, ethically, philosophically what does that mean and then there's a social dimension of that act to be clear and I don't think anyone will find this as a surprise, Abrahamic morality condemns certain sexual acts outside of the marriage of a man and a woman right that's no big reveal there that's Abrahamic morality as far back as things go however I think that Islam makes a distinction between the act and between a person who commits the act Islam wouldn't see someone as defined by that sin so we wouldn't call a person it's interesting because I think our language today people frame their entire identity perhaps by something Muslims wouldn't see it that would be a person their essence is that they are a soul that God created and we all fall into sin of different types and somebody struggling with this sin or obeying that command there's people who have an affinity to alcohol or gambling and they deal with those addictions and those are challenging and so there's no judgment that God hates you because you are ex or you do ex the presumption is that we all have our tendencies that we're struggling against nobody's surprised or shocked when someone is struggling with that so although we would condemn an act people themselves are to be respected as people who are struggling and this applies to any desire Muslims don't see this as unique or different than someone who falls outside of God's commands on adultery whatever it might be it's all the same it's disobeying God it doesn't make someone we're a certain in America we have in Florida somewhere people who hold up signs that God hates you that God created you in a way that he hates you we believe that God created us all various struggles what we're supposed to do is fight those fights to the best that we can and live as ethically as possible now what Islam would never permit for any sin is to then abuse or beat people up or harm people based on these things now we all know people have had same sex attraction for there's nothing new this wasn't they didn't start in the 50s and 60s and so the question is how did muslim society treat this in the past sexuality was generally a very private thing it was very close to don't ask don't tell it people did things you just remained private and that was seen as their struggle with God and they would work it out with God they would repent or they would struggle or they would do whatever they did and that's the same for like I said anyone who was a womanizer like that's a sexual indecency that a person but in no way would we say in order to love or help that person that we have to affirm what they do as being morally or Islamically upright so what we would say is that we would help that person through things without condoning the act itself because there are strict guidelines on what types of sexual acts are permitted it has to even be under marriage and then there's a lot more that can be said on that but even socially we have to talk about the impact of making sexuality which is something very much kept in the private arena in all societies we forget what America was like I really think Mike for that reminder I remember one of my friends told me that his mother was telling him about when Elvis first shook his hips on this movie and we were like oh my God he's like Saint Elvis right now really so it's amazing to see how sexuality went from these things it's not like people aren't adulterers before people with sexual indecencies and people with all types of but it was kept private and the public space it was respected children could be around people's sensitivities could be respected so what I would say is that Muslims although would condemn the act would really make sure that the room was there for people to repent to grow within the Muslim community and would also argue that there has in order for a healthy conversation about this to really happen there also has to be room for Muslim beliefs to exist and sometimes that doesn't happen either Muslims have to be comfortable to say our religion condemns this act it has to be a type of tolerance as well and I'll stop there because this is kind of worms can we just get a round of applause for that speed dating was nice if you want to access that text again it's called Being Muslim a Practical Guide does MCC have copies for sale yeah I'll put them up MCC the Muslim Community Center East Bay have a website we invite you to visit and to put your email address it's a pretty active community center with many frequent events mcceastbay.org I'd like to personally thank you again I've been here my whole life I'm almost 40 years old this past year or two years has been maybe the most frightening years of my life in America my wife and my daughter chose this actually my daughter and Dr. Assad's daughter they made a deal they're like you know what we're going to put the hijab on together so we can help each other and I didn't know that but she chose to wear it and I'm scared for it so thank you for coming out today and reminding me that there are beautiful people and there is hope and there's optimism and our job is to just bring light to darkness bring virtue to vice bring knowledge to ignorance bring peace to conflict bring beauty to ugliness and that's what you guys have done today you guys have truly done that so you guys the lunch is well deserved I'm just going to conclude because you're being fit thank you for giving us the extra 9 minutes beyond the program the source of mercy to give her a mercy master of the day of judgment it is you who worship and it is you we ask for help guide us to the straight path the path of those who have earned your favor not those who have earned went astray we turn to we ask you guys to accept this gathering to accept all of our hearts and to gather us all in your heaven amen we ask you to give us sincerity and our hearts to protect us from our outward or inward pimples to protect us from any of the vices that we may have and to help us become our beautiful human beings to help us become vessels of beauty vessels of light so that we can help others bring joy into people's lives we ask you guys to help us in our matters in tranquility into our selves into our marriages into our families into our homes into our communities into our country into our continents into this world we ask you to accept this from us and to forgive all of us and to bless this community center MTC East Bay bless Pleasanton we thank you for our health we thank you for our wealth we thank you for our safety and for our security and we thank you for the food that you gift us and we ask you to make us a grateful servants amen amen and we ask you to send peace and blessings and mercy to all of the prophets and messengers that you sent to Mankind all of them Adam and Noah and Moses and Jesus and Muhammad and all of them Glory to the Lord of the Universe in what he has described peace to all the messengers and all praise be to Allah and to our Lord Who is He Who is He Who is He Who is He Who is He Who is He Who is He Who is He Who is He