 We, in the West, owe a debt to the Muslim world that can never be fully repaid. Despite our common religious and spiritual loop, we have thanked them with a century of mistrust, the brutality of the crusade, and the imperial takeover that was conducted with callous indifference to the need of the people we exploit. I want to add something also to the contribution which is part of our daily life so that we never understand it or know its root. For example, the first university in the world, the first university established by a Muslim woman, Fafima Fahriya, which is in Morocco fast, and we call it the Karawiyin. Karawiyin University was the magnet for all the European students from all over Europe to come and study logic, philosophy, because remember, the church at that time stopped teaching philosophy or logic, philosophy of the ancient being dead was dead in the West. So they have to come to study in the Karawiyin. And also one of the very few people know about it, that when the church didn't like the teaching of the Islamic university, tried to stop the student from learning the curriculum of the Muslim university. So the student in Paris went for six years of strike. They refused because they want to study philosophy and Islamic logic and what the Islamic university is giving. So in the end, Thomas Aquinas came to Paris to negotiate with them and talk to them. And in the end, he himself started understanding the importance of science and religion together. And he was influenced by others, which we call in Arabic, even Russian, and later on he had his book published. Also, I find it very strange and really, I couldn't believe it, I saw a letter from King George II in 1028. He sent a letter to the ruler of the Muslim state, the Angeles, asking him if he can send ladies from the royal family, some of the princes, to go to Spain or to the Andalus to learn, so they can bring back the Islamic learning to England. His letter exists if anybody would like, I will show you the letter. It's also another thing, all of us know that this is the month for graduation. And everybody graduated wearing black robe and a hat. Other people, they don't know where this tradition came from. This is a tradition come from the Islamic universities that time because their graduate used to wear the black of time and the turban and that's the European took that and now we see it with the robe. This is for example. Now, another thing, we all drink coffee. And a lot of people, they don't know that the beginning of coffee when it started actually started because of religion, because coffee invented actually in Yemen. The Sufis in Yemen, they want to stay late so they can worship. So they came with the idea of roasting their coffee and grinding and make their coffee. So this way they can stay late. And of course the coffee later on spread all over and all of the West Naui through their Turkish coffee, but it was originally. So there is a lot of contribution of Islam in our daily life. Unfortunately, there is insomnia about when it comes all, you know, trying to ignore it. But there is a lot if you go to the internet and look. So another thing, when we're talking about spirituality, one of the things I would like to talk about is my birthplace, Makkah. I was born in Makkah, which is the West Park of Saudi Arabia. And the city of Makkah, of course, is a very famous city for its spirituality and uniqueness. One of the things it makes you unique is that you cannot have people, of course, like me, coming to talk to you because very few Saudi goes out. Anyway, my family actually, from my father's side, I'm the descendant of Omar bin Khattab, which is the second Khalifa of Islam, the most mighty, you know, second most important. From my mother's side, she's the descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. And also my family inherit the same job of the time of the Prophet, which is hosting all the pilgrims. So I live that life. I live the, you know, the pilgrim and Makkah and the spirituality of Makkah. And I tell you, spirituality of Makkah, Makkah, you will never see in a city like it. It's very unique. It's, spirituality there is amazing. So what makes Makkah special? Why people go into Makkah? Very few reasons. First of all, people go to Makkah because of Abraham. When in the Bible, you have it in the Bible if you go back to the Bible and look. God, when he had his son, Ishmael, when he, Ishmael, God asked him to go and take his wife, Hagar, to go to the valley of Makkah, which is another name for Makkah. So he took his wife with the child, is still very little. So he went to Makkah and he left her. And she was asking him, why you leave me? He said, I've been ordered to do that. So, and then the angel looked at her and he said, this is what's written for you. You have to stay here. So she took the baby. It's a dry valley. There is nothing because Makkah is not a beautiful city. It's a dry valley, but the beauty is something different. It's an abstract beauty. It's a spiritual beauty. So she stayed and when she had the baby, she got thirsty. And the baby was starting crying and she had no water. So she started running between two girls, which we call Safa and Marwa. She was running for seven times. And then when she came the seven times, she found the water under the feet of the little, little kid, the baby, who I'm calling the here, the well of Stamson. So the well of Stamson ages, life started with Makkah and then. So Hagar became the matriarch of the valley. And then later on other tribes came. So, but her tenacity and her devotion and her patience, which make Makkah is very important. I want you to see women in the history of Makkah very long, the history of women. So just as one. So later on, Hagar had killed. And he was ordered to build the first house for God. And this is what we call the Kaaba. And the Kaaba means the king. So he built it. And when he built it, he was so happy he was trying to worship God and trying to praise God. So he kept going around this for seven times. So this is what in the Kaaba. Now outside Makkah is also there is a hill. We call it Arafah. And Arafah in Arabic, it means the condition. And Arafahs we believe that when Adam and Eve descended from heaven, they met there in the mountain of Arafah. And when Eve died, she was buried in the city of Jeddah. That's where the name Jeddah is coming from. So this gives you a little bit of spirituality of Makkah. Now when the people come for the pilgrims, it is something unique all over. You would never see something like that because it's really changed me when I was little kid. I remember standing in my door and I feel like a wave of white coming and keep coming and keep coming. As soon people coming in the Makkah, they start straight away invoking God. And you will hear, Oh God, we're coming here. We worship you. You're the only one. And we see wave after wave and after wave and people coming. And they only speak one language, Arabic. It's the language of the Quran. Only repeat the language of the Quran. So really when you look at it, you feel that this is the kingdom of God. This is the kingdom where people come and when they come, how they dress. They dress in their coffin and what they wear for the child. When a Muslim child was born, he wore two pieces of white, dressed in two pieces. And when a person died, he also wrapped with two pieces of white. So they come with their coffin and the clothes they're going to be worn again. So when they come to Makkah, it's come for death and rebirth. Death of the old person and rebirth of the new person. And when they're there, you cannot use your temper. You cannot say anything bad. If you say anything, your pilgrim is gone. You have to be the best you can because you are in the land of God. You are in his kingdom. You have to be the best. And you will see people. It is amazing. Day and night. Makkah never stops. People come in and then they go to the haram and to the mosque and do the miracle. I will never see the mosque empty. Always full. And the amazing thing used to amaze me is when the time of prayer comes. Suddenly you have three million people going and coming and suddenly the prayer star and the azar or the calling for prayer star. And suddenly what you see is three million people stop, line up. Everybody line up. It's like an army. Somebody line up. A general line. You don't need general. It's the love of God and the commitment. You will see people lining up to pray and facing the Kaaba. You will see shopping close and everywhere you go people put their map and the whole place, it doesn't matter because the mosque doesn't take everybody. Everywhere. People stand there and they do the prayer and they're all together up and down and the whole city is quiet. You only hear them walking in the name of God and you listen to that. So this was so impressive for me as a little girl that I always, even when I go to Makkah I always look and I say can't believe it that people line up like that. You know it doesn't matter and you find and by the way women and men mix because I know in the mosque we don't have women in separate and men separate but in the Hajj there is nothing separate. Everything women do and then you go people go to Arafa which is the mountain of Arafa. You know, this is the hill. And this is in the desert. Before they go it is a piece of desert. The time they go it's a tent city or a tent city. And then the people start going to the mountain. And I tell you if you talk about resurrection you have to see that back in that view. People standing there in the looking everybody looking toward heaven. Everybody was walking the name of God's supplication and it is amazing and I tell you is it easy? No, it is very hard. Makkah is a very hard place. It's not an easy to live. There is no air condition. There is nothing bad. That's what makes something to kill all the earth the worldly thing because when you come you cannot come on the watch. You cannot come on the jewelry. And one of the thing you see the people equal. You don't know who is rich who is poor. There were sandals and two pieces of white they are all the same. Everybody is the same. And it is amazing that you don't see the classes you don't see any of those things you see and people understand that. So equality and it's like and the second thing which is amazing you see people from all over the world black brown white every day in England it's like an international conference of the whole world come to that place to only worship God. So it is a very interesting experience and you stay the whole the whole week and then you will people go after that back and they go to Medina which is the prophet prophet tomb there to go and visit Medina and then come. So okay I'm going to be taking question for five minutes. Anybody has any question? Have a great opportunity to ask. They mentioned equality in the hodge but can you answer your opinion why is it that Saudi Arabia does not have equality today for women for LGBTQ people for Christians and other non-Muslims. Okay. If we go for example let me take the second first thing about Christians. The prophet when he was in Medina a Christian delegation came to him in Medina from Abyssinia. So when the time of the prayer came they said we want to pray outside he said no you stay in my mosque you pray so the prophet went out and gave them the time to pray. So Islam is always thought we always consider Christian and Jews are the people of the book. Now when we come to Saudi because I want you to understand religion is different and the people follow religion are different. Two different things we are people we are weak we have our response I mean you know you know that if you come to the the history of Christianity here you will be shocked. Every religion have the good the bad and ugly and every religion that's why one of the reason actually we have to look at the religion itself not to judge a religion by the people followers because you're doing yourself disfavor you're not learning anything because that's not reality and every religion have that it's not Islam it's not something to Islam. Now Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia they call themselves Islamic but they are not following Islam Islam Islam if you look I hope we have our opportunity another time to talk about women. First religion give women more things than any other religion give the woman the right to divorce give the woman to inherit the woman keep it is it's name women can vote because they voted for the prophet when he went to the dinner so Islam gave women a lot of right now what happened is now we see the culture overwhelmed the religion that's why you find if you look at a lot of the comfort from all over they are women 75% of comfort in Europe because they see Islam is a feminist but real Islam not and by the way before I forgot because of what I'm saying I left a gift for every one of you I have a bag which has the Quran in it because this is one of the things a lot of people unfortunately talk about Quran like they never read it because the Quran is amazing when you read you or completely you see there something you never heard because Quran talking about morality talking about nature talking about equality talking about women family there is a lot of things which is wonderful for us as Muslims we know it is love so I hope if you want you can pick a bag it has some flyer it has some idea to give you if you want and I hope this this occasion it will come for us to learn about each other religion not to judge it by the media but to judge it from its own source and I hope that we can read each other books and read each other think from the people themselves not from the outside to the media because I tell you if you read the Quran you see that what you hear is completely different it doesn't exist even in the Quran so so that's one of the one minute anybody have one question for one minute if anyone else has a question I just didn't hear where you said the first university was founded was founded by because actually at that time in Morocco in Fez in Fez in Fez and after that the spread of the university all over the Muslim world and Europe didn't know university until later when they come in the Islamic system yeah so that's the interesting okay thank you thank you so much and now Dr. Farhav everyone me I also wanted to express my gratitude to Hedutenthal and all of those friends who made this possible it's really great to be here so thank you for this enlightening speech very young it was wonderful and indeed Islam has made significant contributions to our civilization I was thinking of the word algebra algorithm Al-Kharazmi which is also an Iranian created algorithm alcohol was created by so yeah there have been lots of contributions by Islam and it's important for us to all remember them now I'd like to share with you some thoughts about the last point that you mentioned about how culture tends to change religion actually because the way I think about the question that was posed what my religion can do to make the world a better place I'd like to emphasize what can I do as a follower of religion to make the world a better place because religion is really a concept it's just sitting there and the extent to which a religion can change the world is the degree to which we as an individual can adopt those wonderful principles that she mentioned and implement it in our lives practicing our daily activities and make sure we are the best representative of the religion we're representing especially in Mecca in churches in synagogues in wherever we are so the Bahá'í Faith really emphasizes first and foremost individual transformation essentially what it is that we can do as individuals to make the world a better place so as I was thinking about okay so exactly what is it that the Bahá'í Faith teaches for individuals to change the Bahá'í Faith basically emphasizes the concept of unity and equality as was mentioned meaning that we see the world pretty much the opposite of the way it is being seen today today we are living in a world that is divided or at least the division part is emphasized so much more you know we divide the world between men and women you know as an economist I know that basically for similar jobs women earn about 70 cents of the dollar with men we divide the world between black and white we divide the world between Muslims and Christians and Jews and basically war infactions we make religion which was supposed to be the cause of peace we make it the cause of war and in the Bahá'í literature says if religion is the cause of disunity it is better to have no religion at all than the religion that actually causes disunity so we see that even language sometimes causes disunity and hatred and unfortunately we hear a lot of language today and in the past several decades but especially recently language of hatred language that incites violence and all of these are basically individuals these are individuals who are expressing their own beliefs in one way or another so the first starting point for us to actually change ourselves is to try to remove every stain of difference and by difference I mean these artificial differences from our thoughts now the reality the reality is we are all diverse we are all different I mean I'm just looking at the way we address today it's very hot it is actually a beautiful scenery we see men and women different colors with different heights and all that and that diversity is in fact what makes our lives a more richer life a more rewarding life a more prosperous life but beneath all these differences we are all humans and that is really what sometimes we lose sight of so the Bahá'í Faith and it believes in the concept of unity we believe in unity and diversity in other words we celebrate diversity which is all the appearances that we have underneath of which which are essentially human beings human beings with the same sentiments the same emotions the same values we cry when we are sad we laugh when we are happy we basically are we all of us what religion we are the essence of all of these religions are one and the same according to Bahá'í Faith we all believe in honesty, truthfulness fortitude, justice we all believe in all of that so the question ultimately is how can we reflect that and the first step for that is to try to see each other as ultimately one human being and the second principle that Bahá'í Faith teaches is for each individual to seek the truth for himself or herself