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hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu wa salam O Allah say that MBI even mousseline other early he was happy he got in from the villa him in a shaytani R rajim. Falletta Brunel Quran, Allah Peruvian UK falou ha rubbish. Ali Sabri were silly Emery. Well, hello, Dr. melissani of Coco Lee, I mean, horrible, either mean,

Inshallah, in the session that I have with you now, I'd like to have a pretty difficult conversation. And I hope that you can keep up with the ideas that I want to share with you. This is not the kind of speech that I usually give, some of you are familiar with the kinds of talks that I give. So I'm giving you a heads up ahead of time that I would really appreciate if you guys can keep up with the things that I'm saying. In the course of my talk, I will ask you some rhetorical questions. So you can repeat what I said, just so I know you're still alive, because they make sure that the lighting in here is extremely romantic. So I can't tell what's going on back there. So the

only way I will know that you're still with me is by you repeating yourselves after me inshallah. So there are three parts of my talk. The first part of my talk is the problem, I like to call it the problem. And here what I'm going to talk to you about is what I felt growing up as a Muslim, towards Islam. And what I learned from from Muslims from the member from the Imam from the Khatib from whatever lectures my dad used to watch on VHS tapes, or whatever, I don't come from a very religious family, I come from a very average family. And the only exposure to Islam I had is much like many of you have had that are that are similar in age. But as I grew older, and I became a teenager, and

then I started going to college, there were basically four attitudes that developed in my mind, and I've talked about that previously, when I came here, but I'm gonna go further in sha Allah. But I'll review those four attitudes. The first of those attitudes is that this religion is extremely, extremely harsh, that it has a lot of punishments that this is haram and that is haram. And if you're in doubt, chances are what you're doing is probably what is probably haram. And you're probably gonna get in a lot of trouble for it. And the punishments are pretty extreme. I mean, I use cutting the hand or, you know, stoning to death or something. There's some pretty extreme

punishments in this religion. I'm not talking about Christians doing propaganda against Islam, or watching Fox News or whatever. I had that impression, just being a Muslim hearing about Islam from Muslims. Now, that was my first impression that that religion is pretty harsh.

My second impression was that this religion,

it seems like the only time they talk about good times, is when they talk about ancient history.

And the only time they're talking about bad times is when they're talking about right now. So we're all really bad. And people that came a long time ago, were really what, they were really good. And so that makes me feel really terrible about myself, because I just I, the more I hear about the people of the past, I realized they were so much better. And there were so much more awesome. I am never going to be that anyway, first of all, this religion is harsh. Second of all, it seems like its best days are behind it. Now we're just living in bad times where we can feel bad about how terrible we all are, how we're just not good enough, especially when we compare ourselves. And I

would hear stories and hot buzz and lectures about people who prayed tahajud all night, who recited the entire Quran every 48 hours, or who fasted every other day, and who did this, this this and they were still not good enough, I'm gonna go, That guy wasn't good enough. I'm so gonna hell, you know, like.

So there was this intimidation, almost of this religion, it felt like it doesn't even belong in this time. It only belonged in ancient times. And as a matter of fact, that people that I saw that, that were religious, they dressed and they talked, and they looked like they belong eight centuries ago. Like they didn't look like they belong in, you know, back in the 90s. Even. They didn't look like they belong. They looked like they wanted to look like ancient Arabia, you know, and then even subconsciously built this idea in my head. If you want to be serious about this religion, you have to pretend that we're living at least 1000 years ago.

You cannot accept that you're living now. And if you do want to save yourself, then you have to create an environment, a bubbled environment that cuts itself off from all the modern world because everything modern is fitna. Everything modern is corrupt, and you have to cut yourself off and if you live inside this bubble, then you will be safe you'll be able to save your iman just go to the masjid and go home and just you know, dress in traditional clothing and only meet with Muslims and don't deal with anything outside and you know, just save yourself. So

My first impression was I forgot, I can't remember.

Harsh second impression

belongs in ancient times. My third impression was no matter what I do, it will never be good enough. I have heard so many lectures about how I am probably a hypocrite. How am I will do was probably not good enough how my salah was probably missing something, how am i How'd you even probably wasn't even good enough. So all the doors to forgiveness are pretty much closed in my face. And no matter how much I do, I keep getting reminded that it's just not enough. So I think to myself, this religion is so harsh, it belongs in ancient times. And on top of that, I can never get anywhere with it. I'm still made to feel like a bad person. As a matter of fact, I anything I do seems like a sin.

Everything I do seems like a sin. So why am I even bothering and that leads me to my fourth and final most deadly of all impressions. And that impression basically was I give up, pints will give up, I will just stay Muslim because my mom might have a heart attack.

I'll go to Juma. You know, if I have to out at least I'll show up to eat prayer. You know, I'll do some ritual things here. Maybe it won't get I like eat because they give money.

You know,

Ramadan seems to be okay. It's like circa fun time or whatever. But for other than that, I don't really see a reason to hold on to this thing. I don't see it. I don't see why someone would have all these problems and still hold on to this religion. That was not because some non Muslim did propaganda against Islam. For me. This was not because I was convinced of Islam or against Islam by some atheist, these were thoughts running in my own head about the religion by the time I was 1718 years old. And then my my father was because of work, he left the United States and my sister and I stayed back, you know, and I was living on my own. So the one reason I had to hold on to the

religion was which was what, my parents is no longer there. And I'm living in New York City all by myself. So I basically had no reason to hold on to this religion, for any practical purposes. Now, this is the first part of my talk, which was called what the problem, I came to realize I've been in this line of work of trying to learn the religion and teach some things about it teach some things about the Quran for some time now, it's been almost 15 years. And in my line of work, as I've traveled all over the world, I've talked to so many so many so many young people. And when when people ask me questions, they just remind me of myself.

I realized that wasn't those attitudes were not my own. There are millions of people around the world who have the same exact attitudes, somewhere in the back of their head, one way or another. They feel like the religion is too harsh. They feel like they're never going to be good enough. They feel like what's the point? They feel like? It's always talking about ancient times, how is it going to, you know, work together with the modern world, they have the same exact concerns that I had. So it wasn't personal. And so I realized this is something we openly have to talk about. And I've been thinking over the last couple of years about why that is, why did I develop these attitudes? And how

can we help prevent these attitudes from going further? Here's my second part. Second part of my speech, the first part is over, I actually, I'm going to change the title of the first problem. First speech, it's my problem.

And the next part of my speech is their problem. Now we're going to talk about their and who are they, I'll tell you, people who talk on behalf of Islam,

people who teach us Islam, some of them are amazing, or some of them are really messed up.

They're just really messed up. They messed me up.

All I had the only Islamic could get was from them. And so here's my analysis, you are completely free to disagree with me. But I'm going to share with you three kinds of presentations or discussions or discourse about Islam that is very popular in the Muslim world, three kinds of conversations. The first kind, is when we talk about Islam, but we're so angry at what is happening in the Muslim world. We're so angry at the political situation. We're so angry at the media attacks against Islam. We're so angry against the insults to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam we're so angry at the blood that is being shared all over the world that our discussion of Islam itself is

angry.

And so we make Islam sound like something that is perfect for angry people.

We quote things from Islam that justify our anger. And we make it sound like the mission of Islam is to annihilate the enemies of Islam.

The goal of Islam is to destroy the kuffar and to gain the ultimate victory

This is what realists I mean, anybody who emphasizes anything else is a hypocrite. They're a sellout, because Islam came to dominate. And it's a very powerful discourse. By the way, when you hear that kind of speech and you're a young, frustrated, man, you're gonna find it very powerful. And he's got all the deals too.

They've got all the disease to they got all the IoD lined up all the incidents from the seat all lined up. And it sounds really compelling. And it's very empowering, and you're frustrated anyway. So it makes you even angrier. That is one kind of discourse is very popular in the OMA today. An angry discourse on Islam, unfortunately, it is our anger. It's like you put the shades on that make everything look angry, and then you put the shades on and then you study the Quran. And then you study the Sierra. It's tainted. It's tainted, but it's very popular. It's extremely popular.

Here's the second, by the way, I'll be very real with you. And I was in another continent, I'm not going to name the country. I was talking to youth about what was happening in you know, the Arab world, how it's on fire, things like ISIS, etc, etc. And some youth sitting there yeah, what's wrong with it?

Could you just totally normal conversation? Yeah, what's wrong with that? So hon Allah. That's the this propaganda is so bad, that it gets to that point, our reasonable person says, this stuff is crazy. Do Muslims really believe this? Do we really believe this? It puts pushes them even further away from the religion that's one kind of problem. The second kind of conversation about Islam is when things are said on behalf of our tradition.

Things are said on behalf of our tradition, and they have nothing to do with our tradition. I will give you a contemporary example. I have a teacher who I love to death with Allah He makes so much to offer him and his family Dr. Akram nadwi. I am so honored to call him a teacher. I every chance I get I fly across the you know, the pond, I go to England and I spend time with him every chance I get. And last time I went we had a I had a few questions for him. And one of the questions I talked to him about was women in the masjid.

So I'm just gonna give you one example of this problem of the rigid interpretation of Islam, and the subject matter will be women in the masjid. As I was growing up, I heard that women in the part of the world I come from Pakistan, and by extension, India, Bangladesh, right? By extension, in that part of the world, it's very common, very commonly known that women are not actually supposed to be at the masjid. Oh, if you have to have the maybe, actually, if I went to Pakistan right now with my family, and we went to somewhere in the bazaar in Lahore shopping, and it was the dawn for Muslim. I can go into a masjid my wife and kids and my girls, what are they going to do? Sit in the van.

You know, they're not half the more than half the population can't even pray and we call it an Islamic country. We can't even let them pray.

So this idea that women are not supposed to go into the masala where are they coming from? Why why are they here, etc. And if we are going to have them there, then what do we have to do? We have to put a a wall, then an electric fence, then

laser guided missile systems.

So if they were to step foot in,

like

that, we have to have the securities in place because there's going to be what fitna we don't want to fit now.

And I was even told stories about how Omar will be Allahu Taala and who used to stop women from coming to the masjid. He used to throw stones at them, stopping them from coming to the machine. I heard this myself. And I was like, Oh, it makes sense. Machine is supposed to be a place where you develop your Eman and that's only for men, of course. So

and I'm sitting with Dr. Okra and talking to him about limiting the machine and what do I learn from the same school by the way, people told me this is from this school of thought this school of thought this school of thought I'm not here to name the schools of thought. But I'm sitting there talking to this man and he's going to the Mohalla women hasm Rahim Allah

remarkable work, simple things. First conclusion, women get equal reward for going to the masjid as men do. There is no less reward for women for going to the masjid. According to authentic narrations. If men get 25 to 27 times for joining the congregation prayer. So do women. There's no difference. And that's a traditional position. There's not a new position.

Women have the option of going but they're actually equally encouraged to go.

Second thing the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wasallam. In authentic narrations. Women used to leave their homes in the middle of the night walking in the middle of the night to catch Fajr at the masjid, to pray behind the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, and walking in the middle of the night is dangerous. And these women used to do it and they also had to pass through sewage. So their their clothes would get sewage on it.

And as they came to the prayer

They would say to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, we should we stay home and pray because when we come to on the way we get the sewage on our clothes, and so maybe our prayer won't count and the Prophet SAW Selim would tell them, actually,

the rest of the way where it's dry will clean off the filth, you should still come to the masjid.

I don't think most of you have heard that before. Because I didn't my whole life. Even though it exists in books of Hadith, Sahih, authentic narrations, we highlight certain parts of the text, and we ignore certain parts of the text to keep the oppression going. And we make it sound like it's Islam when it's not.

The thing about Armada or the Allahu anhu, his his wife was very young.

And he was very possessive of her. And he was the head of the of the Khilafah. He was the Ameerul Momineen. He was the head of the state. People listen to him now anyway. And now he's the head of the state. So it's like law to listen to him. And his wife used to love going to the masjid the prayer. And he used to say, Please don't go just stay home. And she says, No, I'm going and he couldn't stop her. Or murder of the Allahu Anhu couldn't stop his wife from going to the masjid as the head of state. As the head of state, this is a right the Messenger of Allah gave this woman salAllahu alayhi wa sallam who am I to take it away. So he devised a pretty intelligent plan. One

day, he hid in an alleyway. And he had a couple of stones with him. When she passed by, he threw a couple of stones from the hidden corner towards her direction, she got rattled and ran home, problem solved, she stopped coming to the machine. Until three days later, she found out it was him and she started coming back again.

But I was told a different version of the story where he used to be somewhere on the second floor of a machine. And women are coming to the machine. And he's going get out of here like you know,

that's the version I was told.

And then on top of all of this, the Rasul of Allah sallallahu alayhi. wasallam says that the best rows for the women are the last rows and the best rows for the men are the first rows. That's what he says, Now tell me, and this is interesting, because if the best roles for women are the last rows, that only makes sense, if they're in the same room.

If they have a hall by themselves, then it makes no sense that the best roles for women are the last it doesn't make any sense.

It only makes sense if they're sharing a hall. Now, by the way, if there's a barrier between the two, if there's a barrier between the two, then it still doesn't make any sense. Now here's where we got really good and some people are already getting uncomfortable. It's okay. It's okay.

It's too awkward to get up now. So just bear through it.

So here's the thing. There are several narrations, I'll share a summary of a couple of them with you the Prophet sallallahu alayhi salam is leading the prayer. And there are in towards the back there some younger men. There's some younger men, and these young boys are like maybe 1819 years old, or whatever, you know, hormones.

And so homeboy goes into such

but when he goes into such that he checks out the ladies.

So he's in the back row on purpose. He's got a good view of what's going on back there and they caught him.

Now when they catch him, we have to do you know, subtlest, Bob, we have to stop this fitna from ever happening again. So there must be a lead wall like the one that will come named built that yeah, Julian My God couldn't get through for mcdata Allah,

who, well, mastaba Allahu Akbar, they weren't able to scale it or drill through it that kind of, well, no, just put this man in the front. Problem solved.

Then he got even more intense. They were custom companions. By the way, they used to wear the this this kind of cloth which basically in DC language you would call a lunghi. Okay. So that's what it because they were poor, they didn't have all kinds of clothes. So they wrap this thing around them, and that's what they're wearing. And some of them didn't even have shirts. They didn't even have shirts, and they're praying. And so they go into such that and when you go into a pretty compromising position, if that's what you're dressed in.

And women complained that when we get up from such that bad things happen, this happened. This happened now, when the Prophet alayhi salam was told this come this happened in the problem, the prophets Masjid sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and when this complaint was issued, what was the solution? Easy solution, put a curtain there. No, actually the solution was women just stay in stage that a little extra longer.

Let them in get up. And then you get up from

what

if there was us, we would have built another masjid for them or something or dug a hole and put them in there. Some kind of they cannot be here. Why are they here? You understand?

There's this conversation about the police of women in the house.

Allah and as a matter of fact in Islamic history, for example, one of the teachers of Imam had been hired as Kalani Rahim Allah is a Mahadeva, who's actually a female and she was requested to come and teach him and another 400 or so Allah ma Hadith in the prophet's mosque Salallahu Alaihe Salam, the Hadith he narrated that she used to put the Buhari on the grave of the province lay Salam at the head place, and sit there and teach in Masjid Nabawi to 400 men and women,

a woman is teaching Hadith in Masjid Nabawi to 400 men and women from the front of the Masjid. That's our history. What I'm trying to get across very quickly, is that we have an interpretation of Islam that is presented as our tradition, but actually has nothing to do with our tradition. We are told, this is what you do when you're serious about Islam. This is the, you know, the considered not conservative, but the authentic tradition. But it's not when you dig deeper, it's not. And it's so unfair, because to any reasonable person, when you and I only give you one example of women in the machine, there are tons of other examples, by the way, tons of other examples. Like you know how

they force kids in the back of the back rows. When you're about to pray this take the kids all the way to the back the prophesy, some did mention that the people right behind him should be mature why in case he cannot continue the prayer, what should happen, someone mature behind him can take over, this was not a policy to take all the kids and put them all the Sunday school kids are in the back fighting each other. That wasn't the policy. But we made it into that men in front children in the back women, I don't know where somewhere parking lot, you know

SubhanAllah.

And I, you know, I like to get in trouble. I personally, I enjoy trouble. I don't know what it is. So when I learned these things, I was invited to a gathering of very,

let's just say conservative scholars, and I kind of brought it up. Why not?

So I mentioned all of these things. And I wanted to see how, how hard are they willing to throw their plates at me? And so at the end of this conversation, some of the top or the AMA that I've heard the exact opposite from are like, yeah, all of that makes sense.

Oh, that makes sense. How come you never said it?

Well, you know, it's just that if women dressed better, it would be better for them to come to the machine. I was like, hold on a second.

The way a person dresses is an act, and we all know x are inspired by faith. Yes. If you have strong faith, it will lead to better action. That's simple formula, isn't it? The way to develop your faith is to go to the masjid to house of Allah. That's where you go to strengthen your faith. So if your formula says they shouldn't come to the masjid because their acts aren't good enough.

Where do you expect them to develop their eemaan if the doors of the masjid are close to them?

I was shocked when I went to Malaysia and I saw how open access to women and men have to the houses of Allah. I was amazed because when I travel across the United States, I go to massages in American Muslim communities where if a woman wants to walk in there will be a stiff hot all night.

What do you do if you don't have those here?

This is a huge fitna

you know put put them somewhere else.

This is and this is one issue but there are hundreds of issues hundreds of issues where we've we've been told this is the Islamic position. But when you do the digging, it's something else. My The reason I'm doing it by the way, there were three problems. This is only the second the first problem was overly angry. Islam. The second one is a very rigid Islam, which doesn't even represent the tradition. And the third one them probably the most dangerous is a literal reading of the text. In other words, this is what it says this is what it means done.

Finished. We don't have to dig dig into this any further.

Like for example, I'll give you another women's issue example because that's what I studied with Dr. Chakra recently.

The Quran talks about me you must have heard this and raise your hand if you've heard this. The testimony of a man is twice the worth of the testimony of a woman you've heard this before. Okay, good.

The eye belongs to Surah Al Baqarah the IR belongs in SOTL Bukhara it's the longest I have the Quran and in the middle of it until the Allah whom refer to the Kira Haida, Houma, la cara, for Illumio, coonara julaine Faraja Lumumba, atta and women Tourville nomina Shahada. If you couldn't find a man find two women.

If one of them gets confused, the other can remind her this is part of that if this idea, by the way is about business transactions, business transactions, it's a Madani aisle. There's a long context to this idea. And this idea, some have used to extrapolate that because in the context of these business dealings that were happening in Medina, it must be a universal principle that women testifying is half the worth of a man testifying based on this idea. I only have one problem with this simple problem.

If you have a business transaction worth $100

It's worth $100. But what and recording it is important if you have a deal you should write it down. You have Latina Amanu is that they they intimidate ninja agilely Musa taboo, write it down Fine. How much is the transaction worth? 100 bucks? Now tell me, what is a Hadith of the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam worth?

And if you need witnesses for $100 transaction, shouldn't you have far more powerful witnesses for a quote directly from the Prophet of Allah salAllahu Salam isn't that more valuable? As a matter of fact, priceless? How is it? How in the world? Is it possible that in the scholarship of Islam, I shall have the Allahu Taala Anna takes a huge chunk of Hadith narrations from a single woman Narrator

Why isn't her testimony you have to make a half out of a man? How come nobody ever raises that problem?

Our entire tradition disappears. If you do that. It doesn't even make sense. There's a very limited context in which that applies. And we took that and made it into something entirely different. That is the rigidity of some people. And by the way, this has been dealt with in scholarship. I'm not coming up with this. Now. This is already sitting there. But you know what's happened? There are people and I'm going to sound insulting, but I have to say what needs to be said I'm sorry. I really am. I'm sorry, only a little bit. I'm mostly not sorry at all.

You know, when you study law, you can get an associate's degree, you can get a bachelor's degree, you can get a master's degree, you can get a PhD. Yes. And even after you become, you know, a bard, as a lawyer, you can be a lawyer, you can be an appellate court judge, you can be a district court judge, you can be a Supreme Court judge. Yes. Is there a difference between these people, the guy who's got an associate's degree in law cannot be compared to a Supreme Court judge, you understand the difference between these two? You know what's happened, the people that are talking about Islamic law today, the people that are describing these, these issues to us, the vast majority of

them are no better than an associate's degree. So what they talk about is at this level, but when you go to scholars at the highest level, you get a completely different picture of Islam. And you're like, why don't we go to these top scholars? And here's the reason because top scholars spend too much time studying and reading and researching, not explaining and talking and even when they do because they are such amazing, amazing researchers that happened to be nerds. They happen to be very like there's just lost in the book so when they speak most people what do they do?

That's what happens. We don't listen to them because they're too scholarly. That's what happened there's a there's a gap between the Muslim population and the actual intelligent the brain trust of the OMA there's a gap between them. And this is where we're going to talk about the solution.

You see when unintelligent shallow reading of Islam and of the Quran, and the Sunnah, when an angry reading of the Quran, Islam and the Sunnah when a literal reading of Islam Quran and the Sunnah, when that's presented no wonder people are turned off from Islam. No wonder they're pushed away. No wonder it doesn't seem to meet with the fitrah it doesn't seem to meet with reason.

But you know what, we have to solve this problem and so the last part of my talk is the solution. How do we get nuanced intelligent thinking about the religion back back on track for this OMA how do we expose the OMA again to what makes this so naturally beautiful? So they don't have to wonder Well, I accept it because it's a hadith but it makes me uncomfortable. I know it's in the Quran, but I just I can't really doesn't sit well with me. I don't want that to be the case. Every word of our messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, every word of Allah should be Beloved to us. We should love it from the bottom of our heart, not be grudgingly accepted. That's not faith. Faith means we love

everything that's been revealed. That's what that means. So what is the solution? I'm going to start with something that seems completely unrelated. I know it's not going to make any sense, but it will eventually. Okay, so here it goes. You guys are familiar with pharmaceutical companies? Yes.

So a pharmaceutical company spends millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars in research on let's say, a medicine for migraines. Okay, like Tylenol or something. And they spend all this money and all this research and all these people in lab coats are doing their work. These biochemists and these researchers are doing their work in the lab. And they're collecting piles and piles and piles of data. Yes. And after four or five years of research, they finally have themselves a pill. Now, this pill,

it doesn't just sit in the lab.

That pill goes from the lab, and it goes into the marketing department. And these lab executives these these lab researchers, they sit on a round table with marketing executives, and the marketing executives know nothing about chemistry, nothing about biology, nothing about physiology. These guys say so what does this pill do? Well, it releases certain No, no, no, no, no it say it in English. What does it do? It gets rid of your headache. Oh,

Oh, is it better than Advil?

How long does it take within an hour? Good write this down. And then they package this thing, don't they? They pick the right colors for it. They even negotiate with CVS and Walgreens, which level shelf the item will sit on. They figure out which days and which television shows and which online programs to advertise their medicine and, and they go on this blitz campaign. And their goal at the end of the day, is there's a farmer in Lahore, like on the outskirts of Punjab somewhere who has a headache and said Carla linea, like that guy doesn't speak a word of English. But he knows what Tylenol is yes or no. Now that guy, that farmer, did he ever read those research papers? No, it had

to be packaged in a way that anyone in the world can process you understand what I'm saying? This product is the result of a lot of research. But that research is now relevant to the people. What is relevant to people is telling me what it does in my language, you understand? Now there's the gap, you have the highest intelligencia of the Muslim world who've got the solutions to much of these problems. It's already sitting there in their conversations. But the problem is, their conversations are happening with four or five dedicated students around them, who are also as nerdy in their conversations as they are, and nobody else has any idea what's going on. And I happen to have one

foot in this world and one foot in the other world. So when I go into scholarly world, I sit with these incredible scholars with 600 pages at a time I go well, how come the world doesn't know this stuff? People need to know this stuff. Well, if they try to tell it doesn't happen. So what do we need to do? We need to learn to package things. We need to take the best of our minds, we have to decouple these two things. Please keep up with me. This is the plan. Inshallah. How do we get to, for people to see in between? Let me just stop, don't you? Yeah, I'm gonna take two minutes, I'll be done. Here's the plan. Here's what we need to do. It's really simple. Right now we expect one person

to be everything. We expect the sheikh to be the top intellectual, the best speaker the best, this the best that we want all of those to come together in how many people one person, listen, that happened in the prophets time. Salallahu Salam with the Prophet himself. Salallahu Alaihe Salam. And yes, there are some incredible individuals in the OMA, that's fine. But if we're going to survive as a civilization, we have to understand that we can departmentalized there can be the people that are the really super smart people, the brain trust the researchers, the thinkers that have the solutions to these problems. And then there can be the people that can be like Jon Stewart on the camera

that can actually reach millions and millions of people, and communicate what the scholars are saying in language that a dummy like me can understand and proud and think about and change my attitudes. We need to take these ideas, and then even start influencing film, influencing cartoons, influencing movies, TV shows, talk shows, and I'm not talking about Islamic talk shows. I cannot stand Islamic cartoons. They are the most boring thing I've ever seen in my entire life. I said I'm what I like and what I'm not Allah. Like, what is that? Why would I want to watch this? Why would I want to put my kids through that put some time and Jerry on or something is so boring. You know, our

idea of Islamic media is do a googly loopy, loopy thing that says eight Nevada goose slaughter television. That's not what I'm saying. I am saying we have to take these ideas can be infiltrated into modern media, we cannot change the media, we cannot change the entertainment world. But we can certainly influence it if we have the right gameplan influence as possible. It is possible and now it's necessary. It has become absolutely necessary. You know, there are there are other movements that are doing it and they're doing it much better than we are. The for example the atheists atheists are very philosophical people. But one of the ways they spread atheism far and wide is

through entertainment media. The television show House is a he's a brain is like a poster child for atheism. You know, he's a really smart doctor and every chance he gets he makes fun of religion. That's what he does. I'm pretty much done here. What I want what I'm gonna say to you Inshallah, is, look, there is a problem people are being disconnected. There is a message of Islam that is unintelligent, unfortunately that is being spread. But there is a solution also, and we as an ummah, and especially as the American Muslim community, need to seriously start thinking about investing in our scholarship, investing in our people and investing in presenting the right kind of media. It's

time to stop complaining about the media. It's time It's time time to start owning it. Insha Allah Allah BarakAllahu li Walakum wa Salaamu Alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato