 Salamu Alaikum peace be upon you, Salamu Alaikum, and may Allah be with you, the best of the best. Thank you for having me here. It's a very interesting topic. I'll get right to it because I'm short on time. The primary text of Islam is called the Quran, as you may or may not know. Muslims believe that it was revealed to the final Abrahamic prophet, that's a prophet with an uppercase P that was Muhammad, peace be upon him, who lived in the 6th and 7th centuries. The Quran explicitly mentions al-Yahud-wan-Nasar, the Jews and the Christians, and gives them the epithet, the honorable epithet, of al-Qadr-u-Qitab in Arabic, which is translated as the people of the book. So initially theologians would, they would interpret the book al-Qitab as being the Bible, the people of the Bible, because the word Bible, literally on it, creates means book, and the Bible in Arabic is called al-Qitab, al-Qitab in Muqattas, or the holy book. Now during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the Muslim calendar, during the Islamic expansion, Muslims came to realize that there are a lot more religions in the world than just Judaism and Christianity. So theologians at the time, they actually expanded the meaning of the title al-Qitab, the people of the book, to any religion that reveres some sort of sacred text. So Hindus, Buddhists, Soroastrians, etc. So under the Muslim polity in pre-modern times, the religious traditions, these religious traditions were given protected status, freedom of worship, and autonomous rule of their own religious courts. So was there absolutely equal rights amongst all the religions? No, that was not seen anywhere in the world at the time. But what was happening in the Muslim land was really unparalleled at that time throughout the rest of the world. And this is why we find historical Christian communities in Muslim-majority countries even today. So were there atrocities committed? Were there people that were oppressive? Yes. But this idea of hordes of Muslim armies coming in to force people to convert is pretty much a myth. Even the man who wrote the book answered Islam. He actually says that about the reason why the North African Christians actually became Muslims so quickly was because of low taxes and stress on brotherhood. That's the power of taxes. But there's a verse in the Quran on the second chapter, verse 256, that says, there's no compulsion in religion. And this is important, it's interesting because Pope Benedict XVI gave a talk at Regensburg University in Germany September 12th, interesting date, 2006 where he quoted this verse there's no compulsion in religion. And he said, this verse is abrogated. This verse has been canceled by other verses in the Quran which called for fighting the infidel. So abrogation in and of itself is a contentious issue within Quranic sciences. Probably there was authoritative scholar on this issue is an Egyptian scholar named Imam Suyuti, you don't have to remember that, but it's a text that most of the students will know and study. Anyway, he says in there that there are about 19 or 20 or 21 abrogated verses in the Quran and this verse is not one of them. I haven't come across a single scholar in my life that has said that this verse there's no compulsion in religion because it doesn't make sense to abrogate it. You can't force someone to believe in something. I can't force you to believe that the moon is made of cheese. You can say, oh yeah, I believe, I believe but I can't force that in your heart so it doesn't make sense that this verse will be abrogated and there's no precedent for that so I don't know what he's quoting here. We'll give you examples of historical Christian communities in most of the country. The Coptic Christians in Egypt, they've been there for 2000 years. Their claim is that Saint Mark founded their church. The church of the Assyrians in Iraq, which is also called I think they call it the ancient Assyrian church in the east, or ancient apostolic church in the east. Their claim is that Saint Badaeus founded their church. I've lived in Yemen. I've been to monasteries in Yemen. I've met nuns. I've lived in Yemen. I've been to North Africa. I've met Christians there. In fact, according to Pew, there are 50 Muslim-majority countries and there are churches in all of them except for two. And that's Saudi Arabia and Mauritania. Saudi Arabia is sort of weird, etiologically and it's important to use that. But it's interesting, Saudi Arabia, there are 2 million Christians living in Saudi Arabia. There's no church in Saudi Arabia. There are 2 million Christians living in Saudi Arabia. Mostly foreign workers. Which is interesting because per capita there are more Christians living in Saudi Arabia than there are Muslims living in America. Which is interesting. And then so there's about 50 million Christians living in the Muslim-majority world in the Middle East. 50 million compared to about 44 million Muslims living in Egypt. There are more Christians in the Middle East than there are Muslims in Europe. Now, if you look at Muslim Spain or North Africa, it's sometimes called the Golden Age of Judaism. This is when Jewish systematic theology and philosophy crystallized. You have these major classical Jewish works being produced in Arabic rather than in Hebrew. Later translated into Hebrew. I'll just give you a few of them. Kitab al-Amanat, what are they about that? It's called Edwinot Vadorot. This is by Sa'at Yagayo al-Fayyumi, the great scholar in Judaism. Reliefs and opinions. He wrote this book in Arabic. It's an incredible book. I've thumbed through it a little bit. Very difficult. There's another al-Hikaya which is called Khovot Halavavot by Ra'ay Ibn Pakuda. Duties of the heart wrote this in Arabic. You have Kitab al-Khutja with Dali, or called the Khusari Rabbi Ya'uda Halavi. Then you have the two great works by the Israelis. It's called Musa Ibn Maimon al-Qurtubi in Arabic. His first book is called Kitab al-Farahil which is in Hebrew. Sa'at Halavot, the book of the commandments, wrote this in Arabic. Then you have the magnum opus. Very difficult, but incredible. Dila al-Haili, the guide for the perplexed Mourid al-Lukhi by also by Ibaramba. It's one in which other religions are acknowledged and accepted and that these other religions will always be there. So the goal is not global Islamic domination. The goal is peaceful coexistence. The technical legal term for this is Musa al-Laha. If you want to do research on the charter, sometimes called the Constitution of Medina, when the prophet went into Medina, he had a constitution drafted. So you can do a Google search on Medina. However, the Quran does not advocate a type of perennial philosophy where all religions are seen as equally true. According to the Quran, there are correct beliefs and there are incorrect beliefs. There is a way of theologizing or speaking about God as correct and a way of theologizing that is not incarnates or he doesn't. Either Jesus is God or he's not. He's either the Messiah or he isn't. The Quran goes into these issues. The Quran encourages interfaith dialogue. The prophet himself engaged with dialogue with some Nestorian Christians who came to Medina and he housed them in his mosque for three days and they engaged in interfaith dialogue. So me coming here today is considered what I would say a sunnah practice of the prophet himself. There was a Catholic lady who came to the Moslem center moment and she was quite elderly. She said, I remember a time when I was not allowed to go into a mosque. Pre-Valent too. Very interesting. Now in with this, when the prophet was living in Medina, he was the head of state in Medina, the Muslims were living under constant siege in the city. God gave the prophet and the Muslims permission to defend themselves. So the stance in Mecca for 13 years was one of assertive non-violence. And in Medina you have active resistance with specific rules of engagement. So the first verse revealed to the prophet in the Quran chapter 22 verse 39, it gave him permission to physically defend his city. It sounds like this in Arabic. It says all of these verbs are in the passive. It says permission is given to those who are being fought against to fight because they have been wronged and indeed God is able to give them victory. So active resistance or martial action can only be called for by legitimate state authority not by vigilantes and is used to defend one's community. The very next verse says Who are these people, the Muslims that are given permission to defend themselves? They are those who are expelled from their homes unjustifiably. Except that they said our Lord is Allah, our Lord is the God of Abraham and that also entails a belief in the prophet Muhammad. And then the Quran says If God did not check one people against another in other words if God did not reveal a just war theory if God did not reveal rules of engagement when it comes to active resistance the Quran says Then you would have seen many temples synagogues and churches and mosques destroyed where the name of God is celebrated. So the initial impetus for active resistance is to ensure religious pluralism according to the Quran to ensure sacred spaces of worship and devotion for people of various religious traditions and I preempted questions. This is why ISIS is not Islamic it is a plague upon humanity that the prophet actually warned us against. There was a group of early Muslims who broke off the guidance of the prophet they were called the Karajites or the Khawwadij in Arabic and today we have Neo-Karajites people who are violent, exclusivist people who are terrorists and the prophet said they come in waves over time and it's our duty to oppose them so I want you to remember this analogy it's a very effective analogy ISIS is to Islam as the Ku Klux Klan is to Christianity so the question I get all the time is why don't Muslims like you your leaders or scholars why don't you condemn ISIS if you go to a mosque and you start talking about ISIS Muslims start rolling their eyes and you say oh this again why don't you know something else so people who ask for this question I always say that have you ever googled Muslim leaders who condemn ISIS and nobody has ever googled it so I'll just mention a few things here the Islamic decided North America or called ISTA they actually released something called the Code of Honor where they condemn ISIS and the organization in North America there's something called the Covenants Initiative Dr. John Andrew Moro is spearheading that this is something that is known in North America as well where he condemns ISIS and he has signatories to that there's something called the open letter to Baladi the so-called caliph of ISIS there's 120 signatories by scholars all around the Muslim world these are people who have swayed over the hearts and minds of millions of people condemning ISIS the Council on American Islamic Relations which is called CARE it's constantly condemning and repudiating ISIS there's something called the Muslim Council of Great Britain in 2014 that released a statement condemning ISIS there's an incredible book written by an incredible scholar of Damascus he's a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad he's a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad it's called Refuting ISIS he wrote it in Arabic and then he himself translated it into English it's very short you can probably find it online quite easily refuting ISIS an ideological refutation of ISIS you have the Muslim Public Affairs Council in 2014 that released a statement condemning ISIS you have the Amman message where 200 scholars signed a declaration of Amman Jordan denouncing ISIS a fatwa that was issued by Al-Azhar University the oldest university on the planet in 2014 that denounced ISIS the Arab League in 2014 made a statement denouncing ISIS in December of 2015 100,000 Indian scholars and teachers signed a declaration 100,000 denouncing ISIS and then you have the Marrakesh and Morocco Declaration denouncing ISIS so these things are out there but it's strange how they don't make it into the MSN or mainstream media as it were I know I'm out of time so I'm going to stop at this point hopefully I answered the question I'm looking forward to your questions and conversations later, thank you for your attention we now open up the floor to questions and we do have a microphone that is going to go around and wherever it is so just raise your hand and you'll get a microphone there's a person right there and try to keep your questions short and on the topic since we only have an hour for this event yes sir oh you need a microphone oh she has a mic, I'm sorry forget about your pleasure I'll talk really fast I'll talk with Boston talk thank you very much, it was very informative talk and I appreciate it as a former Catholic I was condemned to hell if I were to go into a Protestant church let alone a Muslim one of the most glorious experiences in my life was in southern India Muslims, the Christians and the Hindi all had places of worship and often walked together in the street it was absolutely phenomenal and so my question to you would be would you ever see that that might happen here in the United States where we're all accepting of others, religions and the ultimate worship I think we have that here I think with respect to that America is the top of the list as far as acceptance and toleration of religions I'll tell you this I've outside of elementary school I've never experienced any type of and I used to debate Christians by the way I used to be a Muslim telephysicist when I was an undergrad at high school you're young, you're not married you have all this energy positive responses no one's ever pulled me insulted me kids do these types of things and it's interesting I have a friend who lives in Iraq he's actually my wife's teacher's husband my wife's Arabic teacher's husband and when I was in Yemen he was one of my teachers there and he says there's American soldiers around the corner they're going to kill all of us and then he says to me how are you living in America are you constantly threatened every day by people I've never in my life been threatened one time so as far as that goes I think America is actually a model of the rest of the world obviously it's not a perfect society but society is perfect yes and then there's a gentleman here you raised a very important point about the various Muslim organizations that have come out against ISIS and my question is why haven't majored, I mean this is big, why aren't they telling people that Muslims have objected I mean that would cover so many take care of so many concerns I don't know how to ask them you have to ask questions like who actually runs the media those are real questions that I think we're being diverted from so that's what I would do if I were you in research who actually are these people actually doing things for our best interest what's actually happening who are these people, we can find out who these people are we see any differences variations of toleration of other faith traditions between Sunni and Shia Muslim that's a good question certainly with the invasion of Iraq it's kind of created a power factor in Iraq now Sunnis and Shias have been around for 1200 years and in Iraq they've lived in a relative peace the major difference between a negligible difference there's really no difference that's major but the difference is in political theory who who should rule the Muslim or nation as it were the Shias say it must be a descendant of the prophet so I think a lot of these things I think there's always been little pockets of disputed violence since since the middle ages even before that but I think with what's going on in the news those little things are sort of the grand eyes put forward and presented as sort of this global conflict you know so there's the I call it the Santa Claus effect you know you have the the true Santa Claus was a fourth century Christian priest who used to give candy to children that he died when he was gone and you have this sort of mythological Santa Claus that flies around at night and goes under a chimney that doesn't really exist so a lot of this idea of your next neighbor could be Al-Qaeda you know even if he's a nice guy you know that's called Taqiyyah they learn these words that 99.9% of Muslims that they're even heard of right but you know people like Daniel Pipes for example he puts it out there and says you know the Muslim is nice to you and tells you he doesn't want to kill you he's lying because he's sanctioned by God to lie to you and you can steal it and you can do that and don't kill you later what I did a PhD in Islam I didn't learn about this yeah there's something in the deep dark sort of recesses of Sharia that you know the guy has gone to your head and says are you Muslim you can say no Sharia to save your life but this thing is sort of just a grand die so this is what all Muslims are doing they believe in us they believe in America we see our differences do you have a question? bring it down on back here okay I know as you use the term Muslim majority nations it's kind of politically correct that it can be used but I don't think we have our situation if we obscure what really is going on in reality the history of Islam has been more just Muslim majority it's been Muslim rule and wherever Islam has spread to what's got past a certain extent it has sought to establish its own rule whether it be the kind of separatist movement or even taking over governments of the countries where it has spread so I wanted to I ran Christianity I feel like that history separating church and state we have more to learn less of that I really want to challenge this I think we have to be honest there's still a problem with Islam the lack of separation of mosque and state and really throughout the Middle East what you have most majority nations under Islamic rule so do you have a question? do we have to say I think a lot of people feel this way but are afraid to bring that up I would agree with you the pre-modern world you have empires vying for land I also think that a lot of what's happening in Muslim majority countries what you call a PC term is a direct result of the area that Muslims have necessarily recovered from and then as far as under Islamic rule the Quran does not mandate any form of government if you can show me a verse in the Quran that says thou shalt have a theocracy I'll be glad to agree with you that there should be no separation of mosque and state which is a kingdom and the early Muslims when the caliphate became a kingdom a lot of early Muslims they frowned upon that you have democratic movements in the Muslim majority countries Syria in the 1940s and 50s Iran, the president or the prime minister of Iran was a great admirer of Thomas Jefferson but we can't have him he was removed from power by the CIA and the Shah was put in and the Shah was quite cruel and you would torture Muslims my own family members some of them were tortured by him and so you have these sort of I mean Saddam Hussein is another example this is someone who was shaking hand with our defense secretary of defense in the 1980s the CIA trained Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and so did MI5 so you have American or western interests in that region turning that region into absolute chaos for different reasons but you know you have different forms of government all over the Middle East let's take one more question you mentioned that Saudi Arabia is kind of an anomaly can you kind of elucidate a little more about how to frame that yeah it's very interesting again we talk about sacred law Sharia people here Sharia literally means a path to cold water right so Sharia is an indispensable part of this identity it's like saying you can be a Jew but you can't follow Halakha law or you can be a Christian but you can't follow the Bible we're talking about it when most Muslims hear the word Sharia how they think prayer is fasting and like can I eat this because there's jealous of it that's what 99% of Muslims are thinking about so Sharia is very fast there isn't one way of doing Sharia so for example in Afghanistan again a country that's been under attack for 40 years you have places in Afghanistan where women do not leave their homes and they're not allowed to leave their homes and if you say what are people doing that's so oppressive when elders of a certain city will say this is the Sharia that's their interpretation of it if you go over to the border half the physicians Iran's not perfect obviously not perfect but half the physicians in Iran are women 70% of Palestinians are women and if you say well why is it like this they say this is Sharia the acquisition of knowledge is an obligation upon every type of Muslim right so it's very fast now you have Saudi Arabia they have their own laws they say women can't ride cars okay that's their interpretation of the Sharia right and as far as theologically their theological stances are very different than traditional Sunni or even Sharia stances so they're very tech-fairy they've anesthetized Muslims that don't believe exactly as they believe Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest allies by the way which is interesting but anyway not getting too much into politics but so theologically this sort of an outlier this idea that we believe exactly as we believe that we don't consider you Muslim traditional Islam always recognizes defensive opinion and that difference of opinion there's actually a hadith which is not exactly authentic but is quoted a lot by scholars as sort of being true and principle that difference of opinion among scholars is a mercy from God it's not sort of a fitna it's a strife amongst people so there is no true separation of church and state I mean you have Rick Santorum wanting to put abortion into law and he's doing that because he's a Catholic now I'm not saying he shouldn't do that what I'm saying is there's a difference between a secular society and secularism the secularism means let's banish religion to the household not even talk about it at all a secular society allows for religious discourse I mean you can go up there and say abortion is wrong because the bible says so he probably won't get that law passed but he can try and he might convince a few people so religion is on the forefront everyone in the conference almost everyone believes in God so there really is no true separation of religion and the state are never truly divorced anywhere you go around so I think we also have a problem if that's what you want to do create a totally secular society but it's no religion then you're in the wrong country thank you thank you