Khalid Yasin – A Special Television Interview
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the struggles of their mother becoming a Muslim and the potential for their own language to bring about change in media. They emphasize the importance of exploring the "fitless lifecycle" for Americans, where they believe in moral responsibility and moral values. The success of Islam in bringing people to Muslims and its impact on their personal lives is discussed, along with the importance of learning about its impact on their personal lives and their ability to assert their own beliefs. The speakers also stress the need for transparency in the message and the natural way of Islam being spread.
AI: Summary ©
I'm very pleased to be a guest on the Discover Islam program. And I'll just give you a brief introduction to myself. I'm your brother, Abu Mohammed Khalid Gesine born 1946. So you know that makes me an elder
accepted Islam in 1965.
The same year that our brother, Alhaji Malik Chavez, better known to the world as Malcolm X,
the year that he was assassinated, and the year that he became a true Muslim and announced that to the world. So it was, I think, his conversion to Islam and his pilgrimage that triggered my acceptance of Islam.
And since that time, I've been working in the field, trying to extend my own knowledge, as well as to fulfill the responsibilities of being Muslim. And also doing my best to disseminate the Islamic values and the true picture of Islam to non Muslims including my family. And speaking about family, I have 11 children Mashallah, Mashallah with the Muslims and
29 grandchildren, Mashallah, Mashallah all of them must be don't look that old, and, and my mother also is a Muslim. Mashallah. So I think the greatest nightmare for me is that Mashallah by the grace of Allah that my mother became a Muslim, and my children and my grandchildren. So in addition to this, we have been working myself and some of my colleagues in trying to teach and harness and serve new Muslims. And at the same token, trying to clarify
the Islamic message and remove some of the distortions and misconceptions that people would normally have about Islam. And
this is what brought me here to Kuwait, the same work. So what we hear from your activities as our brothers of Islam in the United States is something I mean, all of us are really or not, but all a very few people may be here knows about you. So if you just give our dear viewers just a brief description about your interest in the field of our asset handler.
We found in the course of the last 20 years in particular,
that America is a very fertile ground. Because America and the West in particular, have people who accept ideas,
diverse cultures,
people who
have the benefit of free speech and free movement. And although at times, it may appear to people that Americans too opinionated and too proud and set in their ways, as an American, and as a Muslim. I found over the years that the American personality and the American demeanor is one that once you're able to pierce, the outer shell of the American you usually find a person who doesn't know that much about the world.
Who's usually insecure, who's preconditioned
And therefore, once you can pierce this outer shell of the American who has this conditioning, sometime innocently, you find a very genuine person, person very receptive to ideas, not so much set in their ways. And when they are able to get a good view into the window of Islam, we have found phenomenal results. And we have very high prospect to give you an idea in the last 10 years, and we just started counting, maybe in 1990.
In the last 10 years, the Islamic teaching Institute has been
instrumental in delivering some 5000 jihadis Mashallah,
we can't say in America, because we've traveled extensively around the world.
And just since the unfortunate incident of September the 11th, we've given more than 1123 shadows.
This is an indication that I'm sure that our viewers would be surprised to know what you know, because unfortunately, there's a great deal of bad media exposure regarding Islam and Muslims. And one would think that at this particular time, people would have a an adverse reaction to Islam. But on the contrary, that's not so
the window to Islam is open wider today than it has ever been open to my knowledge. And we are doing our best to present Islam as an alternative to present the values that people can see. And many Americans are empty. They don't know what to do. They're not satisfied in their personal lives. And because of this, we think that this is a prime time and a good opportunity to, to offer the Islamic values to Americans and people in western in particular. Well, this is exactly the feeling of a lot of our brothers. I mean, he in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and all of the Arab Gulf countries who went to United States, this is exactly the feedback that we take from them than the Americans. Um, we are
not talking about any politics here. But we are speaking about the people that we meet in the street, the people who sit with them, they're exactly what you are describing. And it's why we have this growing conception in the media. Again, we are not talking about politics. For our dear viewers, we are talking about the plain language, I mean, the what is there, rather than what we hear in the media, but you touch an important thing. And this is the thing, which why I personally went with my American friends. He doesn't have the idea of the purpose of life. I mean, he doesn't know where to go. And we meet them in conferences, we met them in a meeting and training courses is
exactly the same thing. And they are surprised when they speak about the simple things about Islam. And they are I mean, to them, this is phenomena, but to me, this is an everyday talk. So from your experience, as I mean, as a national and international guy. So what is the purpose of life for our field and how we can say it? How can say to our dear brothers in America,
but you know, there's a
there's a social phenomenon
that our viewers should know, on the two sides of the Atlantic, the UK on one hand, and America on the other,
this inverted demeanor. For instance, in America, if you ask 10 people, do you believe in God? Seven of them will say of course. In fact, they may feel a bit insulted that you asked him.
If you take a flight, just across the Atlantic, and arrive in London, if you ask the same question,
do you believe in God, seven out of 10 people will say,
I don't know.
So what divides what has made these people in this in the Western Hemisphere? totally different.
In America, the preconditioning of most Americans is most Americans is that they are it is a Judeo Christian society. So we have the assumption that most Americans believe in God most Americans are religious. Most Americans have religious values, upbringing conditioning, because of this.
In spite of the fact that not many of the people who are Christians actually practice or even know the sources of Christianity. Still, what happens is that there is the platform there for us to discuss God, scripture Prophethood,
death, resurrection, reward judgment, all of the things that we say are part of the components of the purpose of life itself. After all, when we talk about the purpose of life to an atheist, they think it's to eat to drink, to perform some social political functions to have some
Corporate or personal family identity. But beyond that, they cannot see anything beyond that. On the other hand, when we talk about the purpose of life to most Americans, they have the idea of God, they have the idea of responsibility, moral responsibility, the responsibility of citizenship, they also have the idea of moral values good and bad, that ultimately will be judged by God. And this serves as a platform and advantage for us to discuss the purpose of life, this is a common ground between us the common ground. So in America, for instance, a general scenario in talking to people would not be to ask them about religion, what religion are you? What do you think about God?
The general scenario, which I found that's neutral, and non confrontational,
is to meet a person and find out about them personally.
their name, their family, the job they do,
what kind of person they are, talk a little bit about myself, so they get an idea of some interchangeable interactive values, where there's some similarities involved. And then to ask them,
let me ask you,
if I were to say to you, or ask you, what's the purpose of life? I mean, why are we here? Where did we come from? Where are we going? How would you answer that question? How has your family or academic or personal lifestyle contributed to answering that question, have you thought about that before?
I find the average person
is unprepared to answer this simple question.
They've lived such a
organized life.
A preconditioned life. And they have the assumption that as Americans, as people living in the first world, so to speak,
that they have all the answers. They never prepared themselves for a very simple question like that to us. They asked me what do you mean by that?
And so I say to them, oh, look, if I asked you what China is that you say, you know exactly what it is, if I give you a global map, you know exactly what it is. If I said to you that one of the five people in the world is a Chinese, there's 1 billion Chinese in the world, you say, of course, I know that. If I ask you where the Empire State is that where's the capital of the United States? If I asked you, why do you eat? Why do you drink you always you got answers, you say I eat for nutrition? Why do you sleep because we need rest, to replenish our energy. So I asked you, what's the purpose of life? is a simple, practical question. Most people they don't have an answer. So that gives us
the platform by which to explore if they decide to do so. And Americans are fairly open, adventurous,
they don't mind a little bit of stimulation.
And so this allows us to, to take a journey of mutual respect, and to explore this purpose of life. And of course, my job is to navigate the conversation, which I tried to do in a very objective, open,
decent way. I navigated to express to them, what the proposition of Islam is concerning the purpose of life. And in this conversational way, in this very non confrontational way, I offer them comparatives.
And when you offer a person, a comparative, not to say take this will take that, but take that, but a comparison point of view. And it's it's almost as simple as offering a glass of water, you have a dirty glass of water here, and you have a clean glass of water here. So any human being from any place, just from an aesthetic point of view. If you offer them a clean glass of water, or one that's cloudy, which one would they select? Always.
So it is our conviction.
So it is our conviction that most human beings if they had the very clear view into the window of Islam, they would choose Islam, or at least they would appreciate it the idea of Islam. That's correct. That's it. For our dear viewer, my guest for the day is how they are seen and his American and his Islamic diet. And we are very honored to have him here in Kuwait. And they were the same presentation committee as a plugin of discovering Islam will have small break and we'll come back to talk more about Islam here. And that's it. So please stay tuned with us.
The viewers welcome again and my guest for today's holiday icns American Islamic diet as well a well known diet from last set and we are very happy to have as a guest here and we are speaking about discovering Islam here, the phone number the fax and the email will be shown to us already in the screen. So please, if you have any question, we brought you the expertise
As we blink in every episode, and my brother Khalid, I mean, what you are saying is very fruitful. And again, this is the same feedback that we get from our dear brothers. And let me just recall, one of the experience I get from one of my of our friends, he was in a training course. And that training course, he wants to do that one, but he was approaching the the American people exactly, I would say, from indirect way. And one of the segments that was to me, I mean, very peculiar, and very strange. But because I was there, I know that their reaction, and what he said, you know, what he should be in a training course, there should be two person who are doing the same exercise. And
when he when his team came, he said, I'm going to say, do you know an Arabic language? And she said, No, I don't know. I said, Do you know, do you know what I should know? I hate this book of Muslims. I don't know, just hold on, I'm going to read the sample code for you. And when he said that, he read the proxy for them. And the first action that he said, she said, she nodded her head like this.
And you can feel the peace inside here. She became very quiet,
very relaxed. And you can see over here, buddy is I mean, it came in one, and he gets ready to them.
And at the end, when he keeps quiet, there was a little pause there for a few seconds for one minutes. And as if she came from my generation, and she was, I mean, engulfing a certain kind of psychological or spiritual state. And she said, What do you have, right? And she said, this is the vessel called unsaid. And she said, the magical word said, I feel my heart is one and feel the peace inside me. I have tried personally, and this is exactly the same thing. So it's coincide with whatever you are saying, we think that the American, not what we see in the media, we are speaking about the average person who is in the street, we are not speaking about the media, not the movie
star, not what we see in the media, we are speaking about the people that we really meet, this is exactly the feedback we get from them. So if you don't mind
that you just can't expand more. So let us know you better because unfortunately, we are getting very negative messages from the media. Unfortunately, we don't say that all Americans are good or bad. It's the same everywhere. Every country, every society has the black sheep and the watch, we know this. But again, I think this is a good opportunity for us, let us know you better. So how we can approach our Americans abroad and American in better way. So can you tell us one experience handler
it's ironic that you gave that example. Because usually, when I have the opportunity to give presentations or to have dialogue,
I personally know the impact that hearing the Quran has upon an individual, they don't have to understand it.
This medicine from the sound of the Quran from the recitation of the Quran that medicine has an effect from an auditory point of view, from all the sensory points of view. When an ayah is recited, inviting us to feel Allah in warning us about the Hellfire, the punishment of a law, or inviting us towards the paradise or the hereafter the tone of the Quran changes the human body and the human psyche, the human human mind adjusts easily to the court and because the Creator has sent this message to affect the human beings, yes. So I have in my presentations always recited the quote and said to them, I want you to listen to the Quran, you will not understand it. But you're going to
receive the medicine.
After you finish, I'm going to give you the transliteration of the meaning of it. So you'll get the benefit of the transliteration of the meaning afterwards, but you will already have received the medicine. Now some people said to me, Harley, don't you think it's fruitless? To be reciting the Quran? The Arabic language to an audience that doesn't know it? I said, No. Don't you see how relaxed they are? To see how respectful how receptive they are. And we have found, ironically, more people respond respectfully, positively. After the Quran is recited and explained than if you don't recite it. This way we have found it.
I have to say that the impact that Islam has had upon myself and my life is phenomenal. And if any of our viewers if we're familiar with the Sierra of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam we know who is
Rahim, Raja lavon. And Apple is a personality in the spirit of the prophets. A lot of them
Who came from the kinds of people, exactly the kind of people I come from. And if there's a person among the companions of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam, that I say that I could relate to very easily is a Buddha. And we know the prophets of Allah wa sallam, he said about about, he is a man that
he walks alone, and he will die alone. And he will be raised alone on the on the piano. And so this prediction actually happened because it was his personality to be reclusive, to be very critical, very independent to be very opinionated because he was a man that came from the deepest Jamelia. And as the message of a loss of last name, said,
the human beings are like mines of gold and silver, the best of them in today's Jamelia will be the best in the day of this man if they believe. And so best here didn't mean the level where they were aristocratic, or whether they were highly educated, but it mean, the substance of the character.
And so he had this kind of substance. And when we read the Syrah, he was a man who was responsible from my understanding of the theater for bringing almost all of his people to become Muslims.
Something that many of the companions of the prophets allows them who were much more knowledgeable than he more influential, perhaps than he, more sophisticated than he, they were not able to do this. But this tells us something about the the density of his character, the impact of his character. And so I say to my viewers, that I don't think that anything is an accident when Allah subhanaw taala chose Islam for me, not that I chose Islam, but that when Allah He chose Islam for me,
he chose it for me at the right time in my life. I was 18 years old when I became a Muslim.
And I think that I was on the verge of doing a lot of things, but a loss upon what the other head are designed for me in my life, Mashallah. And because of this great design, he gave me the guidance of Islam, and by the grace of Allah subhanho wa Taala. I think that there has to be some special destiny or some special
contribution that I should make by being Muslim. Mashallah, we have a phone call from a man
named Nicholas graph. Yes. My
question to Brother Khalid, please.
What is the
day justify the September 11 attacks?
What is the effect of dow work after September 11? Another question I
will ask Michelle, thank you.
So, so for our brothers. So he said we want you to pin up it September 11. And what's the impact of our brothers, Muslims? and Islam there? Yes. Well, let me ask enter the first question.
To our brother name. Thank you very much for the question.
Of course, you know, as an American, Muslim, and receiving this question, invariably all the time, I'll answer it in the most simple and direct way that I can, first of all, the September 11 incident is part of the puzzle of Allah.
Before we evaluate it from a political social point of view, we know that nothing happens in the heavens and earth, not a raindrop falls nor a leaf falls from a tree, no soul leaves the body or enters a body, nothing happens in the whole world, except by the color of a law. So based upon that this incident, sent a ripple through the present the contemporary world. Sure, it was traumatic to Americans traumatic and a lot of ways to a lot of people. But if we evaluate it first, that Allah subhanaw taala, causes things to happen in order for there to be reactions. Well, of course, the American society will never be the same again, after such a traumatic incident. And without
interpreting this socially or politically, I'll say this from a spiritual point of view. I think that the message of Islam and the true image of Muslims has to come to America it has to come to the Western world. And
when I look through this incident, when I look through the reaction of this incident, I say that there has never been a window open as wide to Muslims and to Islam in America or the Western Hemisphere, as it has done since September the 11th.
Of course, we share
the trauma, the grief, the sympathy for those loved ones that were lost, and we like to also remind
The view is that 700 or more of the people lost in that particular incident were Muslims.
So we're not remote from what happened in America. But at the same token, I think
from a point of Dawa and from a point of a positive point of view, let me tell our brother that. Normally in America, the average amount of people that accept Islam are between 40 and 50,040, or 50,000. People are accepting Islam in America every year.
This is without organized our no missionaries. This is just mostly one on one individual efforts. While since September the 11th, we have found the statistic is between 70 and 75,000.
around
something like between almost doubled. So this means that this incident, it did trigger some negative reactions, but obviously, it triggered some positive reactions.
So again, the father brother, and we have another phone call from Mohamed Salah Malik Mohammad. Yes, sir. I am from India. Yes, I have a question, please. Actually, I'm a big believer of Allah.
I have one question always, in my mind, please. Like if I'm doing a worship,
the purity of worship, it doesn't contain any interest. Sometimes I have seen some people are saying that you will be going to be, you know, to the heaven, if you worship Allah, or you will get this much profit if you do the worship of Allah. So the benefit we are giving, giving getting by doing worship. So does it affect the purity of worship? of Allah does a very good question. Thank you for
the question. My bottom hand is important. But let's discuss anything about the impact of Sundance September the elephant on the stand, you said that think the number of Muslim Americans who are coming to Islam is increasing? Yes. Is there anything else you want to add? before we answer the question? Yeah, and I want to say that
Americans
are resilient people,
they are able to recover. It's a country that has seen a lot of trauma internal mostly. But this is one of the first times that America has been somewhat traumatized from the outside. Now, regardless of where it came from, because we at this point, we have no real indications.
I mean, we have no definite indications where it came from. But we can say that this outside trauma that has brought about this dramatic situation in America, has stirred a certain amount of interest and has made Americans look outside of themselves. And because of looking outside of themselves, naturally, the issue of Islam and Muslims is occupying on a daily basis, a great deal of media time, a great deal of attention.
And all Americans are not closed minded, or prejudicial, or bigoted. Some Americans are very
intrigued, interested,
open minded.
Activists academically inclined to do research to find out and now with fiber optics, and the, the, the internet and so many different ways of being able to do research about Islam and Muslims in the Quran and Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam. We have found that the September 11 incident has triggered a tremendous positive response all over the world, not just in America, but all over the world. As a matter of fact, in the last year, we've traveled to about 17 countries. And in traveling to the 17 countries, we have found various types of responses about September 11, although
not for the same reason that you would find it in the market to Holla Holla. Now the question my brother Mohammed, he said that we are doing for the sake of colossal pinata Allah, and he could do as a Muslim, but sometimes you are getting rewarded. Does this reward has I mean, does it have any effect on the idea? I mean, the ability the word that you want from Allah subhanaw taala? No, of course not. The Messenger of Allah sallallahu Sallam was asked a similar question.
A man had mentioned to the prophets last time he says that
the Messenger of Allah Azza wa sallam was speaking that about good deeds and in the course of that discussion, for the sake of our time, the message of last name said and even when a man or a woman has *,
a private relationship conjugal relationship with their husband or their spouse, this enjoyment, but there's also reward. So the person said, O Messenger of Allah, so awesome. Will we get the reward for having enjoyed
Without wives, the message of velocity awesome said, Would you have not been punished if you had done it outside of marriage? So we see that to answer our brother. Yes, Allah subhanho wa Taala. He makes it attractive for us to do the Hillel things to do the good things, whether it is prayer, if we drink water, and we say Bismillah there's an agile, it's it soothes our thirst. And also there is agile because we said this law,
any other good action that we do, we enjoy it. And we do it for extra rewards. But there's also what there's additional agile, there's a pleasure in it, and there's also a reward in it. So the message of loss loss I'm inclined is this way and we should know as Muslims that Allah subhanaw taala gave us a benefit for being Muslim, and also gave us a benefit for the things and the pleasures that we do while we are fulfilling his commands. Okay, we have another phone call from Hassan al Salam aleikum. Hello, psycho psycho.
I like to ask colleagues, please, first of all, I give the regard of this. Thanks for we have a strong Muslims in America. And I actually I belong to Pakistan. And my question is, what Islam is running in an America? Very inspiration, they have an inspiration from Islam. The Americans have inspiration from Islam, they are getting something from this. Okay. So what is the result? We are getting from as a Muslim society who is surviving in America? Okay, another question my brother. So this is my go to thank you very much. Thank you. So so the question for you. I mean, we hear a lot of things. I mean, I am my brother presidency, unfortunately, we are the other side of the ocean, we
get this mixed message, unfortunately, most of the message that we get from the media, and we know what i'm sure to say it, but most of the message that we get from Americans, the negative one, even at what's Islam, and we hear some horror from something terrible about our brothers, Muslim dad. And we know some of them are true. But again, what is the impact? Is there any benefit? I mean, other than what you have said, on the beauty of Islam in America?
Well, let me see if I can give you a
very concise, accurate picture of Islam in America.
I have been a Muslim by the grace of Allah subhanaw taala, for 37 years.
When I first became a Muslim, to our knowledge, there may have been about 45,000 Muslims in America, maybe 45,000.
There may have been 15 or 20 Islamic centers.
Today, in America, there are more than 2700 Islamic centers all over America.
Today in America, North America, in particular, there are more than 8 million Muslims, these 8 million Muslims and their Islamic centers, they also have schools, societies, libraries, communities, businesses, geographical areas where they have migrated to, they have developed sophisticated areas. There's a very large continental agency called Islamic Society of North America, the Islamic circle of North America,
where they are offering diversified services. We have our agencies similar to the agency that we the services that we are providing for new Muslims in particular,
we we now have sons and daughters of judges, Senators, Assemblyman Congressman,
Islam has affected the the upper class, the middle class, the lower class people.
I think any service that you're looking for now in America, you will find it almost in any state in every city. If you're going to the inner cities, you will hardly find a family where there is not a Muslim. So we say that from a positive point of view, Islam is developing as a society, not just as a phenomena, but as a society with all the micro and macro components that we would expect in any given society. What remains is that Islam becomes a solidified body in America with a central leadership coordination in the fund. We are we are praying for this, we are working for this. And this cannot come overnight. Because you have so many diverse entities that have migrated there that
have grown there became Muslims, people like myself, and other new Muslims. And we have to grow together and bond together and crystallize together and cement our hearts and our ambitions together. But if this kind of growth and this kind of expansion and development has happened in the past 35 years, 37 years, what do you think
could be the prospect of Islam in America in the next 20 years or something?
attempts and maybe beyond our imagination. And this is what we, when we see the record, the spread of Islam as the the record, one asset is the fastest growing religion in the United States and they are becoming not just a phenomenon, they are a reality. And again, I just want to sit a very important point that you said, Now, it's whatever you go you the word halon. Food is an established word, disgusted certain imagination. When you come to this end, Islamic Center, this is not the theater. I mean, this is one of the basic structure of society. I mean, this is an established thing now, to me, this is a great thing. It's much more much more than than a talk or an as this is the
true reality thing. We have another phone call from and what salaam aleikum
wa rahmatullah.
Too much growth in America.
So what
you are doing for that
good machine here in Washington, DC, my question cannot thank you very much. Thank you. And again, we have a question for the opposite from Patreon. So, as we said, there's a different calculator, what they call them, and they have them now my
brother in law, let me say this, in all fairness,
America is a big country, 6 million square miles 3000 miles from New York to California, and some 2200 miles from Texas, up to Canada, huge country. Also, the Constitution of America allows everyone freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of movement. And, of course, there are individuals and organizations that
are propagating what they consider to be an Islamic persuasion.
In the context of the American society,
we can say that they are not real Muslims, because they are violating certain principles of Islam. But without going into detail about the qadiani themselves, which is another subject altogether. Let's just say that, in Islam, we have the spirit of competition.
And again, I bring it back to the same question. If people are able to evaluate the sources of Islam, the Quran, the life of the prophets, a lot of them, the history of Islam, the manners of Islam, in a comprehensive way, in a in an objective way, they will find that
the window to Islam is very easy to digest, the sources are very easy to know. And therefore, Whosoever calls himself a Muslim, and there are many groups in America that we would disagree with, in terms of their attachment to the sources of Islam. There's a very, there's a yardstick to measure them. Because Islam is not something abstract. It's not something personal. And so I would say to my brother, that the growth of the qadiani, or the asmodee group is very minimal.
Compared compared to the, to the sources of Islam, as followed by the mainstream Muslims, I mean, very, very minimal. I just want to add 1.1, which I think is important, we should not get distracted. Our mission is to deliver this philosophy to people.
We have another
Hello.
My question is after the September 11, oh, what is the social behavior relationship, how we live with American Muslims? This is Christian
citizens, American citizens, anything change? They behave as before? What is the effect
on Muslims, American Muslims or their?
And again, I just want to repeat myself, again, we are getting a lot of negative result. Unfortunately, this weekend, they need you. So since you are here. So what is the action of the American people to our brothers Muslim there?
Well, I want to answer this in two ways. Because the question came, I think, in two ways. What is the reaction of the American people after September 11, upon the American Muslims, now there's two. There's two levels or two persuasions or two entities of American Muslims. They're not divided. But they're two entities. Like, in the time of the prophets, the last time they were the mohajir rune. And they were the answer. And they were united as brothers. But they had different backgrounds.
In America, there's almost the same type of dynamics, where there are people who have immigrated to America, which is Nigerian, yet Mahajan, maybe 30 years 40 years or recently or whatever. And they are those who are indigenous to the continent who were born there. Like myself. Well, there was a there's quite a different reaction
from American people.
to Americans than there is to immigrants, quite a different reaction.
Because our demeanor is different. You see, we are very much American and our demeanor, we have the language we have, we have the body language, we have the spoken language, we have the psychological language, we have a history,
which is understood by Americans. And usually the, the adversity or the enmity, or the the adverse reactions that we have heard about in the media that's been perpetrated upon Muslims in America.
It's very remote and very rare that this has happened to an American born Muslim.
We haven't had in our inner city communities in a mosque burned, or any women attacked, or any individuals attacked or our prayer disrupted we haven't had this year. But most of those incidents have taken place in the suburbs. Unfortunately, it has happened with immigrant Muslims. This has something to do with the mindset of Americans towards immigrants, as opposed to Islam.
Also, I'd like to say that what the media has played it up to be is not really so it's been quite exaggerated. As a matter of fact, I think that the American Muslims, the American public in general, sort of recovered, probably three to six months after the incident, this issue was recovered, things started to gel back together, because people started to put things into perspective. And although the media because they're interested, they're there, their incentive is to sell newspapers, to sell news so that when they want to keep the window, so it's like, pulling the scab back to keep pulling it back, but to keep news going. But we say it's, it's it's a lot of media hype. And so we shouldn't
believe everything that we see in the media and take it from me. Most Americans have recovered to a certain degree. And where they haven't recovered, they've made adjustments. And basically, I don't see a great deal of hostility between American Muslims and American citizens. I don't see a great deal of hostility there. Of course, after September 11, we expect there to be some government, some reconnaissance, some surveillance, some changes in security. And I think that goes with the territory. When I get again, I just want to repeat, we are getting a lot of negative I hope that this is going to get anybody we have a phone call as my brother. Hey, Sasha. Hello. Yes, my brother,
Russia. Yeah, I'm Dr. Nisar Patel, I want to put on question this is my brother Holly told just now that there are so many people are converting to Islam in the United States. But right now in the word, I'm working with American, and I am discussing India, so friends of mine, and I'm discussing with them and I came to know most of the people have so much bias in wrong ideas about this plan. So you don't feel that our we should also organize the quarter our Islam in a positive way. Because media has become media has put so much wrong information in there call us is a terrorist and extremist terrorism. If the same thing happened in Ireland, they only say the Christian party. So we
should have also organized these or any organization is doing this budget you campaigned for Islam. Okay, thank you very much, my brother. And again, this is a very positive question again, because of attrition misses, and I want I don't want to call it a war. But this is what the media is trying just to open it again and again, just to see the news. But we have this wrong mixed message from the both sides. So but again, our obligation, our duty to the the soldier of the American who come here to tell them the true picture of Islam and not what everything you hear in the news media is correct. There is a lot of wrong thing there. So our obligation, our duty as Muslims to tell them
about Islam, so that an organized action to those those are badass Americans.
Yes,
of course, there are many organizations like the Islamic teaching Institute, who has undertaken
the task and the challenge of addressing misconceptions about Islam and distortions about Islam and Muslims, offering people an objective, clear,
concise and documented way to be able to review Islam and the sources of Islam and the Islamic values and a good picture of the Muslims. But let's be objective about the issue. Let's be very fair. Let's be critical about even ourselves. Some of these distortions. Some of these misconceptions concerning Islam and Muslims have been the responsibility in the forum.
Muslims themselves correct. And so I tried to be very honest. When I talk to Americans or anybody throughout the world who have these misconceptions, I say to them quite straightforward.
I want to take some responsibility for my Muslim brothers and sisters who themselves do their own misbehavior or their own ignorance have given have contributed to these misconceptions or distortions of Islam. But to be fair and objective, we should not indict Islam and Islam cannot be indicted by the actions of some misguided or misinformed, or
Muslims. In the same way, no one would indict Jesus Christ or the Christian church, because of the misbehavior or criminal acts of Christians. And no one ever does that. So I think that to be very fair, to be objective, to be open minded, to be unbiased.
The individuals always have to examine the individuals and judges the individuals, and not what an individual claims to be a part of, just to be fair, and Islam is a as as the President of the United States says over and over and over Islam is a great traditional faith, a universal faith and doctrine, which has wonderful and powerful people who have made tremendous contributions to America and the Western Hemisphere and all fields of academics and industry and in education. And there is absolutely no reason why in America, anyone else should indict Islam for the actions that they believe or it is alleged that some Muslims have done in the same way.
There has been many wars that America has participated in, and many mistakes that the American government has done, and they have admitted so and they have apologized for it. But no one has indicted the Christians for that. Similarly,
where the person is Jewish, or Buddhist, or Hindu, or whatever, the same thing is because we're talking about human beings who are not perfect, we're not talking about the system, we're not talking about the ideology, we're not talking about what they say they believe. So to be very fair, and very honest, what we always try to say to people, is number one, if you find a Muslim criminal, they should be investigated, they should be indicted, and they should be convicted, and they should be punished. But we would never indict Islam for that. And similarly for the Christian or anyone else. So we treat the problem as open as we can, as objective as we can. And what we try to do is
step by step, take the misconceptions, evaluate them, and give the people the correct picture, to the best of our ability. And there are many agencies like the Islamic teaching Institute that's doing this work in the UK, and also in North America and other places in the world. And of course, misconceptions usually don't just go away. They're historic. So it's not our job to go around the world, to pioneer or to, to take the responsibility of changing the global image of Muslims. That's not our job. Our job is to deliver the message in the most simple, fundamental, objective way that we can to at least minimize the growth of these misconceptions and distortion. And I think just by
telling them the truth, most of this brand, perception will,
will evaporate because it's not based on reality, rather than individual actions. Again, in every country, I want to say very clean, we have our black sheep and we have our white sheep. And this is the center of the world we cannot take responsibility of Islam because torossi on this is in no way offending anybody. I'm not accusing of antibody. I'm just telling you, this is the statement in the statement of somebody who said that he is a Muslim and he said, this has nothing to do with strapless. If you made an addition I guess you will want this has nothing to do with again, myself. I'm in no way making an accusation unworthy. I'm just trying to speak about the truth because this
is the one telling them the message of Allah subhanaw taala
we have another phone call. Yes me Salam Alaikum
How are you?
Very nice program it should be like this. Thank you, my dear.
God bless you also, thank you, my brother. But the question always put in my mind why we are God and extra versa. So we are in that period. So why our scholars fail to explore Islam to the Europe.
This is this is what I see. You know, today's the media and the news or
whatever media wherever they thought, European people's good thought Islam is a different way of life. But this is what it is. You agree with me? Our scholars fail to explore our all the Islamic ideology to them.
That's a very good question. My brother. The other question want to ask this? No, thank you. And again, I just want to ask a thank my brother because
One of the things that the media will take, they will take I mean, what they call that this is the figure of Islam, the one who speaks about the name of Islam. Unfortunately, from our side, they are much very fruitful. They say exactly the negative picture of Islam. And we have long lists of people who claim that they are Muslim, and they are speaking about the name of Islam, unfortunately, I mean, most of most of them don't agree. Again, we are not making an accusation. We're just making a case here. So the question here, there is a lot of good scholars of Islam. Nevertheless, they don't have the tenant or does not appear in the media. So this is the first
one. This is a very good question. And I want to just remind our brother and remind our viewers, that unlike any other system of life, that we call a religious system. Islam has no hierarchy. We don't have a priesthood, it is not the responsibility of our scholars to disseminate Islam or to defend Islam, or to spread Islam to any group of people. No,
the responsibility of the scholars is they have inherited the responsibility of cultivating Islam in the Islamic people and through the Islamic people, disseminating the Islamic values to the world. Let me try to be a little bit more practical in the explanation of that.
We should not point the finger at our scholars because they're human beings with their own resources with their own limitations, where the cultural or psychological or
institutional resources, and I think that the scholars of Islam wherever they are, have done a phenomenal job. When you consider that there is not a country in the world, we're talking about a world where maybe there's 123 countries 127 countries, who are member states in the United Nations today, there is not a country where Islam has not been disseminated, where the Quran has not been translated, where the life of the prophets last name is not known by some people where there's not a library where there's a court and or where there's books upon Islam, or where there may be at least a place where Muslim if there's one or two or 10 Muslims there, they have a place to pray. So I
think the scholars of Islam, keeping this in mind with some of the limitations of their resources, they have done a phenomenal job. But let's take it a little more personal.
It is really, the work of the individuals Islam didn't wasn't spread by scholars historically, how was Islam spread? Islam was spread from person to person, neighbor to neighbor, from a business, from a customer, to a person who have to a shop owner, from a teacher to a student.
Islam was spread in a very natural way. We don't have missionaries in Islam, although our mission, individually or otherwise is to do what clarified Islamic message to practice Islam, and to open up the window of Islam to everybody to see so we can share the treasure of Islam to the world. But brother, I want to connect your question your inquiry to the last question that we have. It is our behavior.
It is the behavior that disseminates and and transmits the Islamic message more than anything else, the prophets lost them said, I have been sent with good manners, good behavior. So if every Muslim were to try to bring their behavior into accordance with what the prophet SAW said and brought the Quran and the Sunnah, I think that we would do our job. And therefore we would then transmit what the scholars are there to do. We have the last one Coronado Salam Alaikum.
Yes, my Sir, I would like to treat this. Firstly, non Muslim say that there are mistakes in Quran. And I will I don't believe in that. Like they say that one fact that Allah said that Rome would be victorious within a few years. And this is where it has not yet been happened. And the prediction is wrong. So how should I react to such a question? Okay. And the secondly, this is that Islam encourages jihad, that is the war, Islamic war. So isn't that a violence? Okay, and could I get a proper email id of yours so that I could clarify a lot of Christians like this? Because I have Christian friends who really work against Islam, and they asked me this question. You're most
welcome. By the way, the email will be shown to you. And please, please adjust just a couple minutes and send all of your questions. I will direct you to the correct people. Thank you very much. And I have a student who's sharing. You're most welcome. We are happy to thank you so much. We have very short term about less than two minutes. So to answer the question, my guess is that, first of all, let me say this to you that the people who are layman, Christians or non Muslims
in order for us to end
That question for them, we should say that this is a peripheral question. This is This has nothing to do with itself, the body of Islam, the belief of Islam, the practices of the Muslims. These are peripheral questions. If we really want to start out we would not send a student who is nine years old to college, would start them young stemming from fundamental studies. We don't take a baby and feed them steak just because we know the steak is good for them. No, we get them the strain food. So a non Muslim, don't allow don't don't become reactionary. And allow them to ask you questions like that. What you do is deal with the basic say to them that let me talk to you about Islamic beliefs,
Islamic practices, then after that, I'll introduce you to the Quran and the concepts of the Quran, then I'll introduce you to the life of the Prophet sallallahu sallam. After that we can guide them towards websites that are available by the hundreds, where they can ask questions from authorities in Islam, who can easily answer these kinds of questions for them. So my sister, I would advise, take the resource of the internet, take the resource of Islamic libraries, Islamic scholars, and deal with the basics that you know, well as a Muslim. And don't be afraid to say, I don't know, because Oliver Dalaran, in a very famous effort, when he was asked a question, he said, It is part
of a belief or a part of knowledge to say, I don't know. And for our This is, just send us your email, and we'll be more than happy to send you I give a lot of lists of authority, good authority, who can answer more of the question? And again, it's our mission as Muslim to spread Islam. We are not here to I mean to us and to answer the specific question that speak about the main thing that they offer the La ilaha illAllah, Muhammad Rasool Allah, and this is the main thing. And then if our show I can I can, I can say only Thank you. We are very honored, and we are very happy. The time has long just like Elijah, I think that anything you want to address our dear fear. Yes. I would like to
say to our viewers, one that we need to as Muslims understand our responsibility to disseminate the word of Allah subhanaw taala in our own simple way to understand and to practice our way of life, because like basmati rice, you cannot cook it without your neighbors knowing it, that's good. So if you are a good Muslim, a decent Muslim, you don't have to be a profound Muslim, just a decent practicing Muslim, your neighbors will know it.
And if each one of us do our simple job, then we'll find that if 10 hands are together, they can do almost any job. But if we as Muslims start to thinking that it's the job of scholars or somebody else to disseminate Islam or to teach Islam, and then we have an underestimation of our own responsibilities, the job will not get done. And I want to thank Allah subhanaw taala for the opportunity to share this program with you and to speak to the viewers. And I look forward to the prospect of joining your program again.
Hey,
hi.
Hey, hi.