 Good afternoon everybody. I'm just going to jump right into my talk because I see the time is flying by but before I Begin I did want to thank everyone for coming out today because we're really eager to share how we practice our faith how we live it what we teach our children and There'd be no point in putting a panel together if nobody was interested in actually coming out and listening to what we have to say So thank you for coming out on a Saturday afternoon So my role today is to talk about some of the most common stereotypes that I get asked about when we do interfaith discussions And there's a whole range of questions we get asked about but there's two common ones that come up Time and time again during Q&A if there are other questions that people are wondering about we're more than happy to address those at that time so I'm going to start out with Sharing a little incident that happened in a church in Danville where we were taking questions from the audience and a little old lady Stood up and came to the microphone and with a quavering voice She said that she was really really upset to know that Sharia had come to this country And that Sharia had taken over the the land and the courts and that judges were now deciding cases based on The sacred law of another religious tradition and she you know wanted to know more about that And it was obvious that her fear was very very real And she needed to be appeased and that's probably a very common myth out there that Sharia is Here and it's taking over America so if You were to Regularly watch certain evening news programs It would be natural to believe the propaganda that Muslims who are today's boogeymen after all are here to take over the land with their different way of living and believing But actually nothing could be farther from the truth So to start off with what exactly is Sharia The word Sharia means the way or the path to God It refers to the very idea of God Communicating with human beings through revelation and Sharia is simply put a moral code Before it's a legal code. It's a moral code It contains rules for behavior for Muslims similar to how rabbinical or Talmudic law Derives kosher dietary rules and restrictions and it's not so much a codified rule book Nor is it merely a set of higher principles Muslims actually see Sharia as the ongoing search for God's prescription for human action For human conduct one of the three dimensions that dr. Asad had told us about So Sharia should first be understood by its goals and its values before any of its specific rules Sharia is more concerned with sin than it is with crime So for example, if I were to gossip and backbite with one of my friends about another friend There's no earthly law. That's going to hold me accountable for that behavior But I do know that I will be held accountable by God on the day of judgment If I don't repent and change my ways and it's Sharia that tells me that I'm actually Prohibited from slandering another person So we worship God with our minds our bodies and our souls faith conduct and character and Sharia is concerned with everything to do with our conduct with the physical aspects of life it defines all the aspects of a Muslims actions and Behavior and 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 The rules of what is required of us and what is forbidden and The entire Sharia is designed to protect human welfare, which Muslims define through six Core universal interests and next time I promise I'm gonna have a PowerPoint presentation as well But just bear with me So the six core universal interests that all of Sharia protects So any Sharia rule that you hear about if you reflect it will be protecting one of these six rights The first one. Oh louder. Sorry the first one. I keep thinking this is a mic that everyone can hear but okay So the first one is the right to religion You can't force anyone to convert to any other faith tradition The second is the right to life. You can't kill anyone unjustly The third is the right to family and lineage Everyone has the right to know where they come from the fact that Muslims are taught that sexual relations are confined to marriage Isn't just because of some divine decree. It's to protect family bonds The fourth is the right to honor and dignity. We can't lie or slander or backbite about other people So tabloid journalism would be completely out for someone who follows Sharia The right to intellect and reason so practicing Muslims know that Intoxicants are prohibited for them. So we don't indulge in alcohol or recreational drugs, but Sharia is nuanced It's not just black and white. There are gray areas as well So for example anesthesia in times of surgery it affects our ability to reason and to make moral decisions, but anesthesia has its own rules and exceptions and Then the sixth core universal interest that Sharia protects is the right to property and wealth So we can't steal or usurp or cheat anyone out of what's rightfully theirs Now Muslim jurists discovered these Sharia rules through four primary sources The first is the holy Quran, which is our revealed book our scripture The second are the words and actions of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him The third is universal agreement amongst Muslim scholars or the Muslim community on any given issue and The fourth is careful use of analogy Now one thing people may not realize is that Islam does not allow for anarchy or chaos We have to have some form of government in place and we have to live under it even if it's not a Muslim one and We are required to respect and obey the laws of the land In fact, I once learned from a Muslim scholar that if we deliberately if we ever deliberately run a red light While driving we need to ask God for his forgiveness Because we broke a law that we had promised to follow and that's just one example of how religion informs our day-to-day actions Now 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 land And the highest law of the land in the United States is the Constitution So according to the Muslims own Sharia, we are required to respect the Constitution And if we don't we're supposed to leave and believe you me with everything that's going on in the political landscape right now There is probably no one more concerned about protecting the Constitution than your fellow Muslim Americans so What about penal code punishments? That's the elephant in the room. That's what people think about when they hear the word Sharia beheadings Cutting off of hands Whippings stonings Yes, there is a penal code within the Sharia Just like the United States law has capital punishment 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 First 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 witness the act So as you can see the punishment is there, but it is first and foremost meant as a deterrent It is meant to illustrate to human beings the enormity of the sin in God's eyes And it is meant to ensure that these types of crimes or sins that affect society at large are not being done out in the open And are not becoming the norm Now if we want to look at how Sharia is implemented We can look at the Ottoman Empire, which was the last legitimate Muslim government that ruled a large portion of the world for almost 700 years The punishment for adultery during that time all seven hundred 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 a majority of Muslim scholars today are in agreement that no such government currently exists in the world today and Therefore, there's no official body Which has the authority to implement the penal code punishments, which by the way only make up 0.1 percent of the body of Sharia law Unfortunately when one hears the word Sharia, they just only imagine the grizzly capital punishments Now when you see those horrific images on the internet or hear stories of those types of punishments You should know that Muslims consider that to be vigilantism It's in no way sanctioned in Islam and it's actually forbidden by our scholars and our jurists and when you see Isolated rulings being implemented by certain governments around the world You should know that they don't represent the meaning and the spirit of Sharia itself and Just like any other community you're gonna find the whole spectrum of practice and adherence to the rules of the faith even amongst Muslims and so you'll find people who out of personal conviction here in the United States Will stick with the rules of Sharia in their lives And then you'll find people who don't even know much about what the basic rulings are But they still consider themselves to be Muslims and they are as long as they believe in the testimony of faith Which Dr. Asad told us about believing in one God and believing in the authenticity of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him Okay, so moving on to the second myth Women are oppressed in Islam Yes, just like anywhere else in the world There are some Muslim women who are oppressed and some Muslim majority countries do have a culture that is favorable to men And there are stories of domestic abuse in some Muslim households But the real question we should be asking ourselves 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 the best of you are the ones who are the best to their women The majority of the focus of his last sermon was on the rights of women Muslims believe in the story of Adam and Eve, but in Islam Eve is not held accountable for Adam's mistakes They are both held equally responsible. She is not the one to blame She isn't considered to be a temptress nor is she viewed as the reason mankind lost paradise So there seem to be a few reasons that Islam gets this bad rap The first one is probably the hijab the head covering It gets translated as head scarf, but hijab actually doesn't mean head scarf. It's fine. However to use that as a shorthand now Hijab actually means barrier and it sets up boundaries for interactions between men and women It's the first thing people see and they don't understand it And they don't necessarily think of the Virgin Mary when they see the head scarf They usually wonder why do men have to wear it? Why do women have to wear it and men don't? Muslim men also have parts of their bodies that they have to cover according to Sharia They must cover from navel to the knee So they can't show their kneecaps or their belly buttons not allowed to wear Speedos So Why the different rules? Well, we have different rules here in America as well If a man and a woman are out jogging in the park on a hot day and they got sweaty and uncomfortable The man could take off his top and continue running bare-chested if the woman did the same thing She'd be arrested for public indecency Why why the different standards? Why the different rules? We believe that the 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 visually is if they were to visit one of our mosques or if they saw the Muslims praying in a congregation they would see that the women are praying behind the men and Oftentimes people bring to mind the framework of Rosa Parks We think you know the way Rosa Parks was pushed to the back of the bus because she was considered a second-class citizen So much must be the case with the Muslim women as well The truth is that where you pray in the congregation doesn't have give any indication of your closeness to God Islam gives both men and women equal access to getting to God to getting to paradise to getting to his divine pleasure If you were to see us in our congregational prayers, you would see that our prayer is actually very intimate We stand close together shoulder to shoulder. We stand we bow We prostrate on the ground with our foreheads on the floor and our bottoms up in the air And most women especially Muslim women would not be comfortable being in that kind of vulnerable position with a man behind them so really where the women are praying in the congregation has to do more about Privacy and modesty and being able to focus on our relationship with God and not worrying about whom we're standing next to or in front of or behind Okay, and the third is Reason that people often think that women must be oppressed in Islam is people often confuse How women are treated in countries like Saudi Arabia with how Islam treats women in general So 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 Saudi Arabia is not for Muslims with the Vatican is for the Catholics Their government can make whatever laws they want to but that doesn't give them legitimacy over the world's Population of Muslims the fact that women only just started driving in 2018 is due to a Saudi law. I've had people ask me. How can you be part of a religion that doesn't allow you to drive? I'm not part of a religion that doesn't allow me to drive Muslim women have been heads of state in Muslim majority countries one of the current vice presidents of Iran is a woman Even in America women have not managed to shatter that glass ceiling yet, but who knows things might be changing soon there's hope and So those are the two myths I wanted to cover and if there are any others we can tackle them during Q&A Thank you so much for your time