The Deen Show – JEW and a CATHOLIC Christian taught by Italian Missionaries

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Convert to ISLAM! FIND OUT WHY

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The speaker discusses their experiences as a youth in Bosnia, including their belief in one God and the importance of good behavior. They also share their initial confusion with the concept of Jesus Christ's death and their desire to pursue a spiritual sermon. The importance of being open about religion is emphasized, and the need for more openness about religion is emphasized. The speaker emphasizes the importance of finding the right knowledge for one's spiritual journey and thanks the community for their support.

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			completely Ashkenazi Jewish. rewind a little bit more because I grew up in an all boys Catholic
school, that synagogue in my grandfather's synagogue reason that the Catholicism and the
Christianity that we were taught, I firmly believe was different. I think it has changed from the
city of the views. And I was taught by Italian missionaries. You know, we're taught by Italian
missionary like we had actually Italian missionaries from Italy in our school, I said, I'll make
them brothers and sisters. This is your brother Eddie from the D show and I have some amazing news
for you. We just made a downpayment and are in contract to purchase this 35,000 square foot facility
		
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			with over four acres to make it the deed center. Alhamdulillah The project includes a masjid and
athletic facility, a live studio for recording the D show and Dow outreach programs. And as you've
known I'd be looking for a no interest owner financing and Alhamdulillah I found this church
property for 2.5 million that will do all of it. I have given $100,000 downpayment to enter into the
contract and $1 million will be paid over 36 months inshallah with no interest and hamdulillah right
now we need 1.4 million to close on this property brothers and sisters help us purchase this
property to build the dissenter, donate right now. May God Almighty Allah reward all of you brothers
		
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			and sisters
		
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			this is Milan 100 Alhamdulillah wa salam aleikum. We got an exciting episode live here in Boca
Raton, Florida. Now my next guest, Michael Joshua connects
		
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			has taught English to immigrants in Spanish to Americans on the university level professionally
growing up in such an exciting multi ethnic, multicultural and multi racial Metropolis stimulated
his appetite to learn about different people. And, of course, religions growing up with a Jewish
education as a youth, he intuitively felt that there had to be much more than what he had been
taught in Hebrew school. So he began his spiritual journey, and was baptized as a Christian later
on, went on, and studied in a Hebrew ashram, but still felt that he had not reached his spiritual
destination. After all, that he got exposed to Islam. And then he learned about the Koran, and
		
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			Prophet Muhammad the more he had been able to the more he had learned about the Quran and Prophet
moment, the more he was able to synthesize and properly understand the Old and the New Testaments.
He took his shahada just three years ago. And so he's here with us here today and hamdulillah
Assalamu alaikum. My name is Michael Krantz. And it's a great honor to be here on the deen show this
evening. So I'm Michael Michael. Well,
		
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			macaques
		
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			just some spray man, it was very nice to see that you actually live in Bosnia was a Bosnia or which
part? Were you there? He Well, I was a tour guide in
		
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			Croatia that the Dalmatian coast and of course, if you went to former Yugoslavia, you had to go to
Sarajevo. Alright, so I spent some time in Sarajevo i did and in Mostar as well. And I was very,
very touched in my heart, by the kindness and generosity of the Muslim people there.
		
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			Before in Bosnia, in Bosnia in absolutely suffering more than any other part of Europe. I also had
the opportunity to travel through and live in Turkey years earlier. And there I was also very, very,
very touched and impressed by the hospitality of the Turkish people, the warmth and natural
hospitality wherever I went. People would want to take me places, invite me to restaurants, it was
incredible.
		
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			And my, my multicultural experiences as a youth we're in the Bronx, New York, which I'm very proud
of. Mashallah. So you grew up going to a Hebrew school? No, I went to a public school all through
secular schools. I was not a good student. I hated regular school. So to To add insult to injury, my
parents obliged me to go to Hebrew school two evenings a week, which was torture. And so after a
while, the teacher realized that I was unkind
		
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			on football there, they politely told my parents to remove me.
		
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			As a matter of fact, my father had to teach me my Bar Mitzvah, which is a coming of age at age 13 As
a young man,
		
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			but not in that synagogue in my grandfather's synagogue where I didn't have a bad reputation. So
your mother and father Jewish? Yes, actually,
		
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			my mother is really ethnically half Jewish because her mother was from a small Protestant Slovak
village in Slovakia.
		
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			So, on my father's side, complete the Ashkenazi Jewish from the city of the Vive el VIP, if you've
been watching the news, you know that the city is in the news separate day.
		
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			Due to terrible war that's happening. I won't go any farther than that. So then how did you end up
from there? Actually getting baptized.
		
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			I was very, very Music has always been a great part of my life. And I really loved bluegrass music.
So, okay, this was the late 1960s. I'm 72 years old. I used to hitchhike during my school breaks
down to the mountains of West Virginia and Kentucky.
		
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			And so when you make friends, you wind up going to church revival meetings, mostly Pentecostal. And
one evening, I was touched by the Holy Spirit, and I accepted Jesus as my Savior.
		
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			Subsequently, after that,
		
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			they will see a Hindu ashram, in my parents neighborhood. That looks very interesting to me. And I
became involved with that, studying with a very, very renowned Swami from Madras, India. But I felt
intuitively that my journey was not over. And so I began to come here to Islamic Center of Boca
ratone, maybe three years ago, I found out that there was an open house. And I realized that
		
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			Islam respects
		
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			Moses, Jesus. And then of course, God's final prophet, the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. And
everything began to coalesce, come together. And three years ago, I took the shahada,
		
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			and I'm still expanding my knowledge of Islam.
		
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			One thing that impressed me was the warmth and the kindness of the people here. When I came as a
guest, regardless of where people were, they would always come over to me, shake my hand,
		
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			asked,
		
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			ask where I was from
		
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			three years ago, and brother Bassam Halabi knows that I was, I was crippled. Of course, handicapped
is the more generic word but I really was in whenever I would go back into the lobby, to put my
shoes on
		
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			the little children without their parents providing them in any way would all rushed over to me
		
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			to help me put my shoes on. Can you imagine that little children three, four years old, rushing over
to help me put my shoes on seeing my terrible physical state and one night
		
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			there were many people that the open house and I was alone with Brother Besson and his wife Maha
		
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			brother Bassam and Maha have a special way of teaching the, the essence of Islam.
		
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			And suddenly,
		
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			sister Maha asked me out of the blue
		
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			Can you ever become a Muslim?
		
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			And at that time knowing the shahada, I recited it three times, and the rest is little that's why
I'm here this evening. Mashallah. The bed
		
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			All right, let me introduce my next guest when they come home Francisco, from South Florida, here in
the deen show and look forward to sharing my story with you, Francisco Carrera,
		
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			who was born and raised in Ecuador, South America, he attended an all boys Catholic school. And
after migrating to the United States, his journey to Islam was triggered by the passing of his
father after he had just turned 15. He went on a spiritual search. And while he didn't find what he
was looking for, he settled for a few concepts. He believed in only one God, and believed in doing
good. As such, he remained spiritual but not religious. Through a religious studies class, he
visited the religious center of all major religions, including a mosque in Detroit, where he had
some amazing coffee and some Booklover. He never forgot the hospitality and the kind gesture. In
		
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			2015, he found himself researching the boxing career of Muhammad Ali, and was captivated by all the
good he was doing while always giving credit to his religion, Islam.
		
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			And we're not talking about the nation of Farrakhan. We're talking about submission to the Creator,
not the creation, Islam, as he had no Muslim friends and he looked up a he was looking for a Muslim
serving sermon, one video led to another and he found ended up finding the D Short hamdulillah which
is how he got his first Quran.
		
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			He consciously started to cut back on drinking and stop eating pork. He later built up the courage
to try to contact and visit a local masjid, which it took a while for them to respond. But after
about a year and a half,
		
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			it didn't take them a year and a half to respond. It took him a year and a half of, of studying and
research. And after all, that, he ended up saying that ilaha illallah, Muhammad Rasool Allah, there
is nothing worthy of worship except the Creator Allah, Muhammad is his messenger. He took the
shahada, and he's also here with us right next to me, my brother said, I'll make the call slum. How
are you doing, brother? Thank you for joining us in South Florida. There was a lot of things. Thank
you for having for credit. Thank you. I'm happy to be here. Thank you for the free Quran.
		
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			You have a couple. Yes. So let's start from there. Your father passed away. And that triggered? You
said that triggered for you. That's when your journey began? Well, I would rewind a little bit more
because I grew up in an all boys Catholic school. Yeah, so that spiritual foundation was there. But
the
		
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			the irony about that is that even as a little boy, I don't ever recall fully buying into the concept
of what I was being taught, even though I was in a Catholic school since I was little.
		
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			But I always believed in God. And I always, but everything else was just basically ritual. You're a
kid, you're doing what you're told. And that's, that's about it. Then when my father passed away,
yes, I went on a spiritual search journey, if you may,
		
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			you know, different people react to the death of a parent in different ways. And I turned to books,
I turned to reading. And
		
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			at that time, I didn't find Islam.
		
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			The concept was, in my mind, single god, you know, being good. You just serving basically, I thought
that the closest thing would be Judaism, but you can really become Jewish as far as I know. And so
and there is a society kind of imposes a type of,
		
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			of censorship by omission, in the sense that, you know, this shelves at the bookstore were filled
with materials from every religion, except Islam. Wow. Okay. And so I didn't find anything related
to Islam. And, but I knew that that concept that that fitrah was there, you know, it was the same
thing that
		
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			that eventually led me to it. Where were you being taught in Catholic school? You know, it's in
those days 30 plus years ago, 37 years ago, the in those days, for whatever reason, the Catholicism
and the Christianity that we were taught, I firmly believe was different. I think it has changed in
the sense that I was taught by Italian missionaries. You know, we're taught by Italian missionary
like we had actual Italian missionaries from Italy in our schools, there's no as a solution school
we didn't even have nuns past second or third grade. So this is like real orthodox. Like real like
the like the real deal like no Bidda No, like they are as far as they
		
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			it in their version that was it, you know, and I always thought a hierarchy, you know, and I think
that in many ways, you know that the father was God, and the son was was up there he was a VIP but
he was not God. So that's it since I was little, that's kind of like the concept that I that I held
of Jesus Christ peace be upon him, you see. And so the Yes, he was special. I think we I think we
put more emphasis on on Mother Mary, he's on her. You know, I think that that's
		
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			we would find ourselves praying to marry more than two, Jesus. So the compromises that you're seeing
today, it's a big difference is different. And I think that it's a kind of I don't think I'm going
too crazy, because if you ask my mother who's not Muslim, yet, the if you ask her, if Jesus is God,
she'll say, no.
		
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			That's how she grew up, you see, and, and if you ask her, who is Jesus, you say, he's a prophet, he
was a man he lived, he died, or whatnot, but he she doesn't elevate him to the status of God. So
there was something different in the way that Christianity was being relayed in those days, nowadays
is different now. Yes. The whole Trinity concept, at least as far as I come to experience with, with
others, yes, they they merge the three into one you see, but I don't recall that being the case, I
was thought more of a hierarchy. So that transition into Islam was not that difficult. Because at
the end, you know, I, in my eyes, Jesus was not God. You see, what about the crucifixion, that was
		
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			all there, but I would argue was more in my, as a kid, and from what I recall, from what I remember,
it was more like fluff, it was just more just their history that, but it was not,
		
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			I never understood the whole concept of Jesus died for your sins and things like they didn't make
any sense to me. It just doesn't. So I but I believed in God, you see, and I believe that there was
a higher being, and I believe that in doing, being a good person, and that we're here to serve, and
all these other things, so that's why eventually, when I was in my spiritual search,
		
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			you know, that those were the concepts that I held on to, but I could never find because like, you
know, censorship by omission, you know, it's just not it wasn't there, it was impressive. And it
took another 15 years or so.
		
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			Just in researching, like I mentioned, the boxing career of Muhammad Ali.
		
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			And suddenly, I was more, I was more fascinated by his life's work by his flag in how he helped
people and all over the world, and how he felt comfortable with the poor people, and he had this
glow on his face. And seeing that I was like, that's what I want, you know, and he would always give
credit to his religion. So that's it.
		
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			He always came back and said, This is getting one response in one way or another, he never, he never
hit it. And, and I think that as a as an ummah, we need to work a little bit more on that being more
upfront and be more open about the fact that we're Muslims. And sharing that because we have the
right we have the right religion, we have the right principles, we have the right things for the
whole world to witness that. And naturally come to Islam, who is not going to like our concepts,
everybody's going to like our concepts, because they're beautiful. And the, but I think where we
were one of the things that we need to work on, is sharing that with the world. And as part of my of
		
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			my journey, you know, how did I get exposed to it? It was through, like I said, his interviews,
right? Because he wasn't, he wasn't ashamed of talking about it, right. He was proud of talking
about it. And then later on, as time went along, you know, that caught my attention. And as time
went along, you know, in my gym with that, I see, I saw he Jabby working out, and she would always
be covered. And she will be, you know, in the midst of a gym with all these American women, the way
that they work out, she was always, you know, covered and she was steadfast in a sense, right. And I
think women are given a beautiful privilege, a beautiful
		
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			status in Islam, a beautiful gift from Allah subhanaw taala. And
		
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			when they walk into a room, and if they have a hijab on everybody knows immediately they're Muslim.
Right? And I think that's why governments nowadays are so afraid of it, you see, because it's so
powerful, and, and how a sister behaves, you know, how she carries herself. It's so important
because she's not just representing herself. She's representing that religion in that moment, you
see, so men don't have that privilege. I walk into a room nobody notices
		
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			But women have that privilege. So in, in that gym environment also, that's cool, you know. And then
with her husband, they invited like a coach that we had who was a complete right winger, right? And
he, they invited him over for Ramadan. And I was overhearing this conversation. I never told him
that I was probably five or eight feet away. And they invited the coach over for Ramadan. And as a
right winger, he's like, no, no, I'm not gonna go to the, you know, Muslim home or whatever. They
invited me over, I guess. Now I know, it's Iftar. That's the first time I heard Ramadan. And from
that moment on, I wanted to try Ramadan. And that's stuck with me for the years to come as I was
		
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			researching Islam. So do you feel a lot of people get stuck there where they believe in God, and in
doing good, but then like you, you don't associate you got to a point where you aren't associated
with any religion? No, I wasn't the guy. But it was more I see a lot of that happening nowadays. Do
you see people they're just like, Okay, I don't want it because they associate, you know, many
strange things. And, you know, they can see through all the fluff with all the man made religions,
and they just kind of say, I think that if you look at, if you look at organized religion, yeah,
quote, unquote, right? They say, I don't want to follow any organized religion, they organized
		
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			religion, and the biggest growing sector, aside from Islam is people calling themselves spiritual,
but not religious. That's another religion. But what is that they're believing in God and being
good. None of them are gonna believe in God and being evil, not gonna believe in 10 gods or
something like that, you know, if you ask them that what spiritual but not religious means to them,
it means that yeah, there's a creator, that's what their spiritual, you know, but not religious.
Why? Because they see all this, you know, badass going on with these other religions, all this other
stuff that's going on. So they don't want to associate with that. And that's why they call
		
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			themselves spiritual, but not religious. So we have an opportunity as Muslims, to to be more open
about our religion, wear it proudly, carry yourself properly, you know, when you when you dress up,
dress up? Well, you know, when when you speak, speak, well, smile at people, be gentle, be open,
right? So that, and then complement that with being open about being Muslim, because people are
gonna notice, and people are watching. And I can say that from experience. I was watching. I never
said a thing. And I was watching for a long time. You see, and and that's what part of the reason
why I came to Islam eventually. So I want to. So you mentioned that during the introduction, that
		
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			one of the factors that moved you out of Christianity was the shift in the beliefs within this
timeframe, where you saw the status of Jesus, Jesus being elevated to a level where it was not
originally, what do you think is the barrier for people from your generation who should be able to
see that shift very clearly, but somehow, they just don't focus on that and they still are not
pondering over? What what actually is happening? The question has come up very often in our open
house seminars. For me,
		
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			becoming a muslim, was really, really so easy for the simple reason that
		
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			I understood I, I always, okay, backing up.
		
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			I never ever equated Jesus Christ, as a god. In many, many Christian religions.
		
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			I would say in the majority of Christian religions,
		
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			Jesus Christ is equated as a god. And as Francisco mentioned,
		
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			not too long ago, in the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John Paul the Second,
		
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			actually elevated the Virgin Mary.
		
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			To,
		
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			to be like, like a god to be divine.
		
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			There can only be and I suppose, this goes back to my Jewish heritage, there can only be one god one
Creator. There can be prophets. And, as we know, in Islam, Allah has sent down many, many prophets,
		
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			to many peoples all over the world. Islam also respects all of the holy people in the Old Testament.
		
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			As we just as we just discussed, Jesus Peace Be Upon Him
		
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			is the second major prophet. And then the Prophet Muhammad, of course, is God's final messenger. So
this synthesized everything for me it became so, so clear that that here was the correct sequence
and the correct understanding of Moses Musa
		
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			Jesus, and the Prophet Mohammed. And it can only be one God. It was just discussed that many, many
people are leaving organized religion, the latest statistic that I read online from a reputable
website was that 65% of American people
		
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			no longer go to a church or a synagogue. And I'm sure many of these sometimes there are even some
some Muslim people who have fallen away.
		
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			I'll pass the microphone to Francisco. I hope that answered part of your question.
		
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			Personally, I believe that there just needs to be more openness about speaking about religion,
right? The glasses through which the Christian community is taught to see and read the Bible, that
filter the filter of the glass that those glasses are, those are taught since they're little, okay,
so you need to try to when to try to influence that at the maybe at the earlier stages. Okay? If I
pick up a Bible today, the message is there, it's very clear, I see, the way I interpret the Bible
is a little bit different now than it was years ago. Why because,
		
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			but at the same time, if you ask,
		
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			you know, a Christian, right, they will read the exact same message and interpret something
different. You see, there's passages in Acts, for example, in the Bible, in which, you know, some of
Jesus's closest disciples are calling him a messenger, they're calling him, someone sent by God,
they're not calling him God, these are his closest disciples. And there's that message still in the
Bible. But the Christians they just in generally speaking, they just don't see it. You know, it's
like they have these glasses on. So
		
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			we need to be more open about it. In I want to share another experience, right? And it butts up to
right up to that. I lived in Michigan for five years, I was surrounded by Middle Easterners, I was
surrounded by potentially, probably a lot of Muslims. Nobody ever talked to me about Islam.
		
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			Living in Detroit for five years, no one, no one. Okay.
		
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			You know, I had I had in the dorms at the University where I lived, I had a friend, who all would
always have this mat on the floor, right? And it was always diagonal. And I would always come in,
and I will straighten it up. And you think he ever told me that? That's a prayer mat.
		
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			You see, and that's because as Muslims, I think that we are shy about that we have this a little bit
of
		
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			it's either shyness or fear, or maybe lack of knowledge. Maybe we think that people are not willing
to listen. And I think that we need to work on that as a community isn't OMA, let's be more open. If
we put the message out there. If we're open if we're inviting, then I think that
		
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			a good portion of that populace that calls itself spiritual, but not religious would be turning to
Islam very easily. So natural transition, it's very important to have
		
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			have this confidence because you're upon the truth. And if you're living the truth, you should be
sharing the truth and if you carry you share, as I often say, so it's sad to see that you came
across so many Muslims, hopefully, people can watch this and hear from what you're saying, and make
the same mistake, you know, and yeah, I mean, I was I was going to Dearborn I was going to all these
places, I was probably driving by messages left, right and center, you know, inferiority complex. It
is and it's a tendency to just shy away from it. Yeah.
		
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			Maybe I'm not I'm not saying that every single person or every Middle Easterners that I came across,
up there
		
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			was a you know, a real you know, practicing Muslim or something like that. But definitely I was
surrounded by Islam and I had no idea about it got some good coffee in Colombo. Oh, yeah.
		
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			That's like a brother. So when you become the after shahada
		
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			What is your thinking about the Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad?
		
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			sallallahu alayhi salam, what is the before What do you think the Jesus now what do you think and
what is the you're like thinking about the Prophet Mohammed salah, Al Islam, our Prophet, so to see
if I understood correctly, what is what was my concept of Isa alayhi salam behold before taking my
Shahada and and now how it has changed or how it has shifted. I don't believe my my personal concept
of Jesus like Islam has shifted too much
		
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			Okay, I've never really embraced Him as God or part of God, I embraced him as a prophet more than
anything.
		
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			The either that or I wasn't 100% clear of what he was. But I would not say that I embraced him as a
god before, right? Um, Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, I came to learn more about him after
taking my Shahada. He was just because of that censorship by omission. It's just not something or
not someone that I, you know, was able to be exposed to quite a bit before, beforehand. And if you
want to add to that, Michael.
		
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			Two things.
		
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			Yes, many Christian people don't know,
		
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			Jesus's important role in the Quran, for example, he does have a miraculous birth.
		
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			He,
		
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			Mary is touched by the Holy Spirit, and Jesus has conceived.
		
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			And also, most Islamic scholars will agree that
		
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			Jesus will come back as the Messiah. Of course, there's a lot of different ideas about that. But the
vast majority of Islamic scholars believe that Jesus will return
		
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			as the Messiah, and he will correct people into teaching them that he was a prophet, not the Son of
God.
		
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			Something I will borrow from my friend Francisco that he emphasized in our last open house, is that
there must be at least a dozen translations of the New Testament. There's the New World edition,
Jehovah's Witnesses have their translation Catholics have there's
		
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			there was certain contradictions in each and every one of them. However, there is only one
translation of the Quran, and it has never changed
		
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			over time. And I think that says a lot about the veracity, meaning truth of Islam.
		
00:32:34 --> 00:33:15
			I remember you brought that up in our last open house. Yeah, that's a that's an amazing point, that
there's only one version of the Koran, tamper, free, tamper proof, nothing like it. But like you
said, you have all these different versions that are out there. In this Bible, King James, you might
have 73 books or what is it 66 And then you go to the Deray version, so you know, these seven are
thrown out, then you go to the Greek Orthodox, and then you go to the Ethiopian and then you but the
Quran is just one estimating thing is something i Something I want to add is that I speaking with a
brother
		
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			the other messages the other day, and he's from Palestine, and he says he actually corroborates the
version of,
		
00:33:26 --> 00:34:07
			let's say, of Catholicism or Christianity that I was taught that, according to him, if you go to
like, you know, a Christian village and Philistine Palestine, they don't necessarily believe that
Jesus is God. You know, they believe like I told you that he is a prophet of God, he's, let's say
that he's, he's a VIP, he's elevated but he's not God. That's the bottom line. Right? Those are
Christians and Palestine as a Christian in Palestine, according to him, and he's full of sin. And so
the that I think that's an interesting thing that I truly believe that the whole notion of, of
Trinity as we know it today in the in the, you know, American particularly Westerner Christian
		
00:34:07 --> 00:34:42
			communities, I think that that is stronger and has really taken shape here in the West, in you know,
in evangelical groups in American Christianity, stuff like that. But if you go overseas, if you go
to probably, you know, the old school let's call it a Christianity had a different concept, and I
think I want to do more research on that too. You know, there was a there's a new study that came
out that this is just recent that the study confirmed that over half of Christians 30% of
Evangelicals don't believe Jesus God. So they're coming closer to Islam inshallah.
		
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			Right last question here with our brother,
		
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			Abdullah Salaam Alaikum
		
00:34:49 --> 00:34:50
			Samadhi
		
00:34:52 --> 00:34:59
			so how did you perceive Muslims and Islam before becoming a muslim and how did that evolve? After
becoming Muslim
		
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			and whether your knowledge of Islam or Muslims have contributed to you becoming a muslim? And the
question for both of you beautiful question, How did I perceive Muslims before becoming Muslim? I
think that, you know, in particularly in Western media, we have, you know, the media agenda that's
portraying and vilifying Muslims by and large, correct. And then you also have this horrible images
of, you know, groups like Daesh, and all these other crazy things, right. But again, when you have
real Muslims, such as, you know, good role models are people like, you know, that I was influenced
by like Muhammad Ali and others, and Malcolm X and such, right, when you see their behavior, that's
		
00:35:47 --> 00:36:18
			what's important. Because actually, that contrast personally, is what made me research more into
Islam, because I saw this beautiful person doing all this beautiful work in Muhammad Ali, and, you
know, all these other beautiful things about the about the religion and being warm, and the, you
know, the the culture overall. And then I saw these people, you know, being cruel and cutting off
heads in Iraq and Syria and all these other prayers. And I'm like, This doesn't make sense, like
something is
		
00:36:19 --> 00:37:00
			that's what that that dichotomy, that that contrast is what made me want to really research Islam on
my own, you know, and say, Okay, let me look upon you because I had no Muslim friends. So let me
look up on YouTube. What's the deal? You know, let me look up a Muslim sermon, let me see what they
actually say. And that's what I did. You know, it was because I knew no, or probably I did, I just
didn't know that they were Muslim. You know, my, my source of information became YouTube from the
beginning. So the so how did it change after becoming Muslim? You know, I think it's been a natural
process, you know, it's been, it's gonna be close to four years now that since I took my Shahada in
		
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			April 2018,
		
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			the, and the community has, has really come forward to support I believe my growth, but also I think
that when you are on a spiritual path, and when, when, when you're looking for knowledge, God makes
it easy, right? When you're looking for the right knowledge, Allah subhanaw taala, opens the doors
and puts it in front of you, so that you can actually take and learn and grow. So as long as we're
on that path, you know, I want to thank our community for always been supportive of my journey so
far. So
		
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			it's
		
00:37:45 --> 00:37:58
			a very, very, very interesting question of first style related to African American people what I'm
going to say it's an exaggeration, American people love black culture.
		
00:37:59 --> 00:38:05
			But lamentably, unfortunately, many American people don't like black people.
		
00:38:06 --> 00:38:09
			They love the culture, they love the music,
		
00:38:10 --> 00:38:24
			et cetera, et cetera. And then on the other hand, the feelings dropped to negativity. And maybe I
can draw a parallel. Brother Francisco mentioned Muhammad Ali, a great man.
		
00:38:26 --> 00:38:28
			I remember even during the Vietnam War,
		
00:38:30 --> 00:38:46
			when Muhammad Ali refused to serve in the military, because unrelated religious grounds, I didn't
hear a lot of anti Muslim expression.
		
00:38:48 --> 00:39:03
			And when he came back to box, he was as popular as ever. And then afterwards, in his career in his
career as a statesman for the sport, and for world peace. He became very beloved.
		
00:39:05 --> 00:39:07
			I'm a big basketball fan.
		
00:39:08 --> 00:39:11
			Some of my heroes were Kareem Abdul Jabbar.
		
00:39:14 --> 00:39:23
			And a fish Hunter, who I really adore for his taking his stand on human rights. And
		
00:39:25 --> 00:39:59
			Olajuwon akiem. Elijah one who was such a great human being for many, many years, he never signed a
license for an expensive sporting shoe. And people said, You're crazy. You could make millions of
dollars just endorsed Nike, Adidas, whatever. And finally, I can said, I don't want poor inner city
children, young kids, fighting with each other stealing from each other or killing
		
00:40:00 --> 00:40:20
			each other from a shoe that has my name on it. So what did he do? Instead, he endorsed a $35 shoe
with McGregor really low run brand, if target that sold for $35, for the simple reason that
		
00:40:21 --> 00:40:37
			he could rest with his conscience, knowing that everybody could afford that shoe, and no injustice
would be committed in his name for a shoe with his name on it. So
		
00:40:39 --> 00:40:50
			Young, there's a lot of hatred out there. But I do believe that the majority of people in this
country
		
00:40:53 --> 00:40:57
			live up to their better nature. Of course, we read about
		
00:41:00 --> 00:41:02
			the fate
		
00:41:04 --> 00:41:49
			against religious institutions. But I believe I still believe with all of my heart, it's the
minority of Americans, not the majority. I want to thank both of you for being with us here. And I
want to thank the audience. And I want to thank you for tuning in. And you reminded me of a hadith
by the Lhasa messenger from Mohammed who said, when you take a handstand, when you come walk into
God, God will take 10 handstands towards you. So if you're somebody who's interested on the way of
life that these two gentlemen have chosen, to accept as their way of life, and you want to know the
book that helped them to make that decision, and you want to get the free cron like our brother did,
		
00:41:50 --> 00:42:19
			you can go ahead and tune in to the D show.com. And you can go ahead and get your free copy of the
Quran. And again, thank you very much for sharing your story and show I can be a Allahu Akbar. God
Almighty is the greatest and inshallah can be an inspiration. And it can be a motivation for so many
potential millions who are out there who are also searching searching for purpose in life. Thank you
for your work, Eddie, because it makes a difference. Thank you very much for humbled and
		
00:42:20 --> 00:42:23
			we'll see you next time here in additional Peace be with you as salaam alaikum.
		
00:42:26 --> 00:42:40
			And if you liked this episode of the Dean's show, like this video, share this video far and wide and
support us on our Patreon page so we can continue this work. Thank you for tuning in. Peace be with
you. A Salam aleikum