Neighbor Who Practices Islam For These Reasons

			Honestly, if a Muslim family moved next door to you, you would be the happiest person in the world.
First of all, the chances of your kids getting in trouble just went way down, okay went way down
because the Muslim community has the lowest crime rate, the highest entrepreneurship, the highest
educational attainment for women in the country. They are the bottle American community. And so when
you have people who are now afraid to come here, and that's starting to happen, you have geniuses
who are from Pakistan who are from Indonesia, who do now that I don't know if I'm safe here. That
becomes an economic problem for the for America long term. So that we're starting to do stuff here.
		

			That doesn't make good sense for for what has made us great so far, keepin it real, real Sally key
		

			show. salaam aleikum. I just met my brother William. So I'll make a William where he comes from and
		

			how you guys doing? How's it live? It's always exciting to meet people who have found this beautiful
way of life. We want to pick their brains and see why why why did they accept this not? Why did you
accept Islam?
		

			Well, it was the fitrah to spiritual truth looking for, you know, the oneness of God, the who is our
Creator, what is our purpose who is our Lord? And you know, it took half my life.
		

			But it came to fruition through fdlr to you know, struggle. This is why like you were speaking
earlier about you know, and the other brother was about struggles. And you know, how we have to look
at this is the test from Allah that this is, this is what makes us who we are, we're supposed to
accept it, struggle through it. If it was easy, we wouldn't be Muslim, right? You know, this is what
Allah has for us to test us. We have to sow the seeds for the accurate, right? Tell me, William.
There's so many. There's so much misinformation and there's so much dirt put over Islam. But many
people like yourself, when they dig a little bit, they find the treasure. So for people who are out
		

			there, they see you white American, they hear the word a law they think of Islam is something so
foreign and strange As for the other, but then they see an American, they see someone he's he's a
practicing Muslim, you know, what do you have to say for those people who are scared they think that
Islam is like the boogeyman coming to get you.
		

			This is what I usually tell people because I do 100 I've been blessed to be able, as an American to
be able to reach out speak to my fellow Americans from from the same culture is that I told them,
most Muslims are Americans, that much of our culture and history here in America has Muslims have
always been there. Islam has always been part of it. Founding Fathers had Koran, who about Islam,
understood, you know, the justice of the laws of how the Ottoman Caliphate operated at that time,
they had context, Kingdom of Morocco was the first country to recognize the United States. You got
to remember a lot of many of our African brothers and sisters who came for hundreds of yours against
		

			their Well, we're Muslims. Some of them were allowed to maintain their Deen. And we have these these
stories and these narratives preserved So Sam has always been here. So it's been part of it. And so
we're as much of the fabric of this country in this history. You know, and I like to trace it back
being from Detroit. If you look at the auto industry, you know, economists and historians will say
this is what built the the the middle class here in the 20th century was the auto industry. What was
the big part of the auto industry? We know, Detroit was the mecca of it, right? Arab Americans,
Muslim and Christian. That was the back that was that was my grandfather did when he came here. Over
		

			100 years ago, he worked on the Ford assembly line. And then like many Lebanese, he went, started
his own business, entrepreneurship. We helped build this country. So we've just as much as any other
group. And so you know, and I let people know, we're not a bunch of weird foreigners, or everyday
people to save everybody else. Ensure that they have the same struggles we got first generation,
second generation, third generation, fourth generation. And if you again, look at our African
American brothers and sisters, how many generations do they go back? They discovered look for their
identity, and they find out, you know what, I'm a Muslim. That's who my people were. And
		

			many people they get, you know, when you start to explain, like they hear this word law, you know,
you tell them that look, Jesus, he's called Aramaic, he would say, la Han Muslim is simply one, like
in the Lord's Prayer is that Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy will be done.
And I'm Muslim. I'm a Muslim. I'm one who submitted to the logo. So you didn't do nothing weird.
Nothing strange. You submitted yourself like Jesus to the Creator. Tell me what is one of the major
misconceptions that people have that you come across when you're, you know, sharing the message?
What's one of the number one things that people fear or they misunderstand about Islam and your
		

			experience? Well, it's kind of changed. Never first it was you know, the misconception that we don't
have Jesus we do have Jesus and that's one of the things that was the guiding
		

			factor for me was, I can still love Jesus. And I have to love Jesus as a Muslim. So though this
still exists, the understanding about Mary and Jesus, I think Islamic on both of them. But also the
the intention, they think there's an agenda, that our agenda is to establish control over people
from a top down way. This is obviously not correct. This is not the min hash of the Prophet. He, and
he emboldened people with faith. This is what Allah gave him the earliest revelation for about a man
and accountability, and our place with the Creator. That's what the URL and this is what we are
supposed to do, we're supposed to be benefiting mankind and our society. So this is the
		

			misconceptions. And we've got to do our part physically to show because the Christians and the Jews
and our cousins of us Jews have been doing it for a long time and doing social justice work, we have
to follow in the footsteps of our cousins more, we really got to get out there. And that's the
biggest misconception. And, you know, one journalist said it great. I'm sorry, I'm taking a lot of
time, but I want to put it out there, Van Jones said a very good thing that I always say he mimicked
what I say and he's not even Muslim. And he said, honestly, if a Muslim family moved next door to
you, you would be the happiest person in the world. First of all, the chances of your kids getting
		

			in trouble just went way down. Okay, we're way down. Because the Muslim community has the lowest
crime rate, the highest entrepreneurship, the highest educational attainment, for women in the
country, they are the bottle American community. And so when you have people who are now afraid to
come here, and that's starting to happen, you have geniuses who are from Pakistan, or from
Indonesia, who do now that I don't know if I'm safe here, that becomes an economic problem for the
for America long term. So that we're starting to do stuff here. That doesn't make good sense for for
what has made us great. So far, the best people you want is your neighbor or Muslims. These are the
		

			people you want as your neighbor. And he gave all the reasons why these are the people with you
know, the highest income, less crime,
		

			statistically, and the people who contribute the most to our society is the good practicing Muslim.
So when people ask me the question, the biggest, you know, question that they have misconception,
fundamental, fundamentalist Islam, they hear this this word fundamental, and I say that's where you
get it wrong. This is where our society has, has misinterpreted that word for Christians, Jews and
Muslims at any faith. If you observe the fundamental principles, then you're supposed to be a good
person, you're supposed to not be a judgmental person. And you know, a negative person, you're
supposed to be a positive, contributing, loving, loving, caring, kind person. So that's what so
		

			fundamentalists, that's a good thing. That's a good thing. And those who call themselves
fundamentalist and are judgmental and hateful, they got it wrong, they got it wrong, whatever, right
there.
		

			That's amazing, you know, to see people like yourself who are searching for purpose, you know, and
had an open heart, you think that's one of the key, you know, ingredients that you got to be open,
you got to be sincere, and you've got to be searching for the truth. It's got it, what do you think
is the ingredient to finding because many people say, there's so many religions, they're all the
same? It's a crutch, I don't need it. Religion is just something that, you know, control the masses,
what do you say to them?
		

			In some ways, when you look at how people have manipulated people for their intention, sure this is
true, but that's why we use the word Dean. Right? You know, this Dean, Mr. Eddie, Dean has a way of
life. So when we understand, you know, the Quran, you know, we have the final element that existed
in all other faiths, that a lot has guidance for us for every aspect of our life, for our physical
and the spiritual nature. So that's what man has gone straight, they forgot the combination of the
two. So for those who say that, if you understand that, that you've got two halves of your
existence, that you've got a feed, then you'll get past all the dogma, you'll get past all that. And
		

			you just have to ask that creator for whatever cool however you want to find it. You know, a very
good book to read about how we believe it or not, was the Alcoholics Anonymous, anonymous book, the
little blue book, because the guy who wrote that book, he said, Look, just pray to whatever higher
power you acknowledge it, he's talking fitrah he's talking he didn't know anything about Islam, I'm
assuming, I don't know. But if you ask whatever higher power give me guidance, let me find what it
is you want me to do to guide me? along is going to answer that draw. If you're sincere, it doesn't
matter. And you eventually you'll you'll get past that negativity about Oh, it's just a system. It's
		

			just bureaucracy. It's just control. Whatever, you do it on your own. You talk to a lot only your
Creator however you want to call that creator and you're going to get an answer. Somewhere you're
going to feel that answer. Beautiful. That makes sense, doesn't it? You don't pray to a stick a
stone a bone, a man or a woman a dead person in the great but the one who created you reach out say
Oh, my Creator, the one who created me the one who fashion me. guide me. What do you want from me in
this life? You did it? You're a Muslim.
		

			Now,
		

			last last closing piece of advice for those people who are struggling, you know, one in 10 people
they say are antidepressants. You have, according to the CDC, you have the second leading cause of
death is suicide amongst kids from the age of 10 to 24. You know, so many people, there are more
people on painkillers than on nicotine. I mean, it's, you know, you know that 5% get this we
consume, we're 5% of the global population. And we consume that wave of people in America, they
consume 80% of the cocaine, so people are getting doped up drug, or alcohol is just consuming them
at the pub, you're fed up with it. you tuned into the D show, you've been led to it now. But now
		

			they have this trepidation they think like Muslim terrorists, you know, I'm gonna join this weird
cult. What do you guys say?
		

			You know, what, if there's something wrong with it, what you know, it must be good because people
are trying to attack it's so much. And I can tell you what I see. Day and night. We have people we
just because we make ourselves open our mission, our center in Detroit. I just have a neon open sign
in front of our door and our bookstore. And people come by all the time, and we go out, we do the
outreach, we don't sit and wait. But I honestly at this point, I can sit and wait and people will
come. They want to know more. So if it's so bad, if it's so bad, why is everyone trying to attack if
it's, if it's so bad, then you wouldn't have to write, they wouldn't have to spend millions and
		

			hundreds of millions of dollars to defame our Deen and defame our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, it was so evident, why do they have to make such an effort? That's because it's good.
Because that shaytan leading them, they choose to follow that path. Those who are the righteous,
Allah says, I'm going to test you, and they're going to come after you and she is going to come
after you. So this is this is our actual jihad. This was our struggle. So what do I say to you is
think about it? That's a very, I was able someone put it to me that way. I don't know who it was. I
was watching and they said, if it was so if it was so bad, they wouldn't have to make do all this
		

			work to make it look bad. And when I looked at myself, I looked at the deen, I looked at the history
and looked at the Quran and the Sunnah. And I didn't judge based on people, right? Because we're
still Muslims. We're still people we are we have our problems, obviously. But when I looked at the
dean, and I looked at, you know, the reality of humankind of our society and study the history of
study anthropology, and I look at the Koran answers all of this throughout time, it's eternal. It's
eternal.
		

			So you know, it's evident, it's right there in front of you. It's right there in front of you. If it
was already, if it was so bad and terrible. Why is there 200 million plus dollars spent a year and
then some by numerous organizations to defame and attack our Dean? Because it's good because it's
from Allah because it's from the Creator. It's justice, righteousness, and shaytan wants to destroy
that. That's why we're in this fight. We're in this fight. And that's the spiritual fight. They are
not. Thank you. Thank you, William. If you can dig, the simple message of worshipping the Creator,
not the creation, believing in Jesus as a messenger of God, who called people to the same message as
		

			all the other messages including Abraham, Moses, john the baptist. Yeah, Solomon, David the last in
front of Mr. Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings upon all of them. calling people to paradise,
calling to prepare for the Day of Judgment, warning them against the Hellfire and to not get
attached to something that's temporary, this world take your share of it, but prepare for the
hereafter. It's a simple message. These are the basic principles and do good be good. make a
positive contribution to making the world a better place.
		

			You could dig that you could dig Islam, it's simple to understand. Call us one 800 662 Islam ask
those tough questions. Anything you want to know make the human connection come into a mosque come
and visit William if he's if they're where where can they visit you? They can visit us visit us at
Iona, Islamic organization of North America 28630 Ryan road and the city of Warren Michigan 4809 to
look us up, give us a call 586586900 we'd love to have you come visit us make the human connection.
Subscribe if you haven't already tuned into the D show every week. We'll see you next time until
then Peace be with you. Please subscribe to the show. Follow us on our official Facebook and Twitter
		

			pages in the links below. Please also help support the show by making a donation in the link below.