They were about to Destroy this Christian Church until this happened

I'm

just going to level the entire church and they were talking about tearing the church down

the pastor who could have taken a deal that was very

existing church itself was and buildings were going to be knocked down just flattened and

maintaining a place of worship was so important to them that they granted us the contract. Here comes the million dollar question. I would say that this is a Muslim woman, what words would you associate with some of these pictures? nuns in their habits? Why is this lot of times people have this in their minds. I want my audience to know that that you know, the the pastor chose, you know, rather than having the church tore down totally wanted it to continue as a house of worship. 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 with over four acres to make it the Dean center Alhamdulillah The project includes a masjid and athletic facility, a live studio for recording the de show and our outreach programs. And as you've known I've been 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've 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 and sisters

lot hamdulillah Salam aleikum greetings of peace. Welcome to the deen Show. I'm your host and my next guest was a national sales manager for an importing company. on Long Island for many years. She was instrumental in creating the food handler brand of disposable items used in the foodservice industry in the late 80s. In the mid 1990s, her and her family relocated to sunny Florida to enjoy the warm weather. She worked as a sail national sales manager for a plastics company in Tampa, where her and her husband decided to invest in the real estate market, they were shocked at the lack of professionalism. This prompted the decision that she would get her real estate license within six

months. She was a top producing agent with Caudwell banker in Florida. After a few years as a realtor, she decided to open up her own brokerage company Fitz, real estate services. And she's here with us on the deed show, Heather Fitz, welcome. Good morning. Welcome. How are you? Good. How are you doing? Oh, I'm so excited watching the progress of everything from when we first started until now. It's very exciting. Well, well, let's get into that people already. They're still kind of not knowing what we're going to be talking about. We're gonna cover a lot. But let's get into how we actually met. From the beginning it was people you had worked with before was Shaquille Kareem

Hassan. Then they introduced me to you. And then we met. I had worked with Shaquille and we located after many months of searching a facility for them in Tampa, which they have now opened and are having

prayers regularly and expanding daily from what I understand their programs and their offerings to the community. And you and I had met a couple of times when you came to Florida to try to find a location new location for the Dean center. We looked at many ugly duckling so she would say and on your last trip we did find the location del Rico which is magnificent. I am so excited for your listeners for your followers to understand the magnitude of what this new center will do in the Tampa area in the Belle Rico area in particular. It is a very large facility. The facility is almost 35,000 square feet. It is made up of five different buildings. When we went there we were super

excited. I think all of us we did kind of a little preliminary, hey, this is one of the spots were looking at. When we went in we also the potential for what your vision is and your vision which would be to have the Dean center to have your mosque and then also to

Have an athletic facility, school recording studio and just the vision that you have to be able to have that in one location was just amazing. We decided to put in an offer on the property. And we're a little bit taken aback when we found out there were two other offers on the property. So we were competing with one facility, which was going to be a carwash, and then another facility, another buyer was going to just have a storage facility. Now in both of those cases, the existing church itself was and buildings were going to be knocked down, just flattened and use the land to rebuild, as the property is also on four acres. As you know, when our offer was presented to the seller,

Pastor, oh, who is the present pastor of the congregation, they're really thought long and hard about it, and decided that he just felt our mission, your mission with maintaining a place of worship was so important to them that they granted us the contract. And we've been moving forward ever since. I want to touch upon upon that, where you talk about, you mentioned that there was there were two other offers and what they were talking about tearing the church down. Mainly, they were just going to level the entire church and the sub the other buildings that go with it. So the pastor, there, he was more inclined towards

having us continue, you know, as a house of worship, ask him a mosque. And rather than having a tore down, that's amazing. It is absolutely amazing, especially in today's times where you hear that money is everything. And you know, they could have closed a little bit earlier with these other buyers, as there were things that you have to prepare for. But because it was going to be a house of worship, and again, this is coming from a I believe that they're a Baptist church, and you know, your Muslim faith, but they just they just feel that in today's times that house of worship, someplace where people can go to receive the word was so much more important than just getting the

money and running. And in today's times, that's, that's highly unusual. And it's a testament to you and what you stand for and what you hope to build in the community, which is what was presented to them when they were looking at the competing offers. Yeah, that's really profound. It's really amazing to hear that, because I want my audience to know that, that, you know, the the pastor chose, you know, rather than having the church tore down totally, and they actually, you know, wanted it to continue as a house of worship. So people have this opportunity to go ahead and make this a reality. And you've been instrumental in helping to put the deal together, and everything. So how is how's

your experience with us been so far? Oh, it's been wonderful. I'm, as I said, when I helped Shaquille and the others that were involved with the Tampa studio to to site and actually to see the changes that have been made. And the people that they've actually reached out to one of the things I was so impressed with, was that they went out into the neighborhood to let people know that they were here, they were in the community, and they wanted to extend themselves to the community. If anybody had any questions they were they were welcome to come and talk. And I think that that's one of the nicest things in working with you and your groups is that you do open your hearts and your

and your education and your way of life to other people and say, you know, we're here to do better for everyone. We want everyone to get along, you can have a difference of opinion. But we all want the same thing. We all want peace, we all are striving for a higher, a higher connection with our God. And I just think that that's fabulous. And it's something that is so missing.

Let's talk about some of the we see a lot of people moving to Florida. Can you talk to us some of the benefits of this relocation or having places no snow

is one of the biggest things that well personally that was one of the things that attracted me to this area. I will say that I mentioned to my husband the other day we really take for granted how many sunny wonderful days that we have here. When you get a rainy day. It's almost like that snow day that you get where you say okay, I'm just going to stay home and I'm not going to do anything but besides the weather there are so many beaches that are close by you have where you're located in Valrico The beach is only 35 Miles 36 Miles. There are tons of things

In terms of natural parks, museums, there's there's the price of housing in this area. I'm not sure what the housing market is in your area. But the median price in Bell Rico for a house is about 425,000. So comparative, they're going to be a little bit newer.

The population of Val Rico right now is 38,000. But you are bordered by very large communities also, which would be Brandon, Tampa airport is only about 29 miles from where the center is, people coming in to visit can, you know, obviously, you get to and from the area very easily.

And you talk about the the no state, there is no state tax there. There's not on personal income, there is no state tax, which is really nice when you're doing your taxes and putting those in. So that is a big benefit for a lot of people and a lot of companies coming to the area, there are tax benefits as well.

So you mentioned it's about so it's about 30 minutes from the airport. Yes, one hour from Orlando about? Correct. Okay. It's really a great location, very central in the state. And again, the beaches if you'd like to beaches, you're about 3536 miles from Clearwater Beach, which would be the largest in the area.

So that's interesting. So you actually helped me I remember when I came down, the first time, we were kind of just window shopping, it was because we didn't have much of any funds. But we saw a lot of properties, you helped us there get introduced to you through Shaquille, and then that first property that we ended up seeing, that was the one that if we had any money to put down, that was the one that I liked the most, but and then you guys ended up getting that much that facility and called the Jesus son of Mary in Tampa now, mosque, you help facilitate that. Yeah, but I think that actually, for your needs, I have to be honest with you, Eddie, for your needs. This particular

facility seems like it just suits you to a tee, you have the buildings, which you can utilize immediately into your athletic facility, into your school into your recording studio. So that those were all there. Whereas the Jesus Center did not have all of that there, you would have had to add on a lot of things. And then you're also on four acres, which is fantastic. Yeah, this really fit much better. And this, this now when we

now when we came back, I came back for the second round looking we got now we got some capital we can put down and you know, put down some money. But that this property is interesting. It wasn't on the list until I got there. I believe. That is correct. That is correct. That was very interesting. It works out again, this was meant to be your facility and to have your vision and your message just come to life and continue to grow. How did that one come up? Because I was looking at the list and we had a bunch and then I don't know if it was the day before when I got something like that and said, Okay, here's another one. And this one was actually zoned as a church. And it was just ready

to go. And then I said, Yeah, let's see it. A lot of the properties, which some viewers don't know is a lot of properties can be zoned differently. For example, this one was actually an existing house of worship. Some of the other properties, if you remember, we went and looked at an air conditioning facility placed, I believe, we went and looked at,

oh, gosh, just a bunch of different vacant warehouse type buildings that would have qualified for zoning, but would have required a lot of work before you ever moved in. And this was again, the day before, as you said, came up on a popular site, which is loop net, which is a commercial site that was available. And

we said okay, let's go see. And we went and saw it. And then when we determined that it would meet your needs, when we made the offer was when we found out that there were two other offers. And we got together and made a presentation to the pastor and to the sellers and really told them that our your vision was going to be that it would continue to be a house of worship. And that's why you got the deal. Do you how for for people who'd want to God willing, we get everything established? You know, some people would actually consider moving down there to follow us and that facility, but some people might have some hesitancy because maybe they're not a familiar with the area. Or they might

have some misconceptions. Just like people have misconceptions about Muslims and Islam. Some people might think like, okay, Florida, you know, maybe they don't like us down there. They've heard some things. But you can see this a great example of the pastor kind of dispelling that myth. How would you how would you how would you answer that? My answer to that would be that, again, the pastor who could have taken a deal that was very structurally the same except they were going to close a little bit earlier, so they could have had

Your money in hand walked away already.

As far as the differences are concerned, I think that people have faith no matter what faith you are very respectful today, so much more so than it was, say 510 years ago, there are differences among all of us. And if we all have the same end goal, which is to be kind to one another, to worship your God, to live in peace, I think that that's very much a reality. Today, I see women all the time that are of the Muslim faith. And they it's just like interacting with somebody who has curly hair, I don't feel like it's any different.

You do have the radicals that you do not understand or want to believe the stories that they've heard. And you're going to have that in any religion in any, I think in in business, you're always going to have some sort of radical that disagrees with you. But I believe that Florida is a good place to raise your children. There are tons of sports, which I am a firm believer that if your children are involved in activities, they're involved in their church, they're involved in their community, that they're less likely to go out and find other sources to take up their time, take up their interest. And in Florida 20. You know, all year long, your kids can play sports, all year

long. You can do water activities, you can go to the beach. So these are all things that when you're talking about a family or people relocating, that would be when I moved here personally, that was one of the big attractions to me was that there were good schools, it was safe. The economy is strong. And I believe again, you would know better than I maybe about the housing market. But I do believe that you can get yourself a nice home here, a nice place for your family, safe neighborhood, and very affordable, in my opinion. And as you know, one of the main missions of the de shows, education, dispelling the myths and misconceptions, and helping the 300 million Americans out there

who have no idea what Islam is who Muslims are, you know, to have them have a better understanding so we can accomplish that we can live together in peace and harmony and understanding. And education is the key. I'm gonna play a little quiz with you. And let's see if you can is real simple, basic. And when

you can tell me what comes to your mind your head. What word would you associate with some of these pictures?

Mother Mary. All right. That was a that was

an easy one, huh?

Okay, well, no, they're gonna get harder.

Let's keep going. Okay, so when we have here,

a nun and she's reading a Bible, right. Okay, let's go on to the next one.

I would say that this is a Muslim woman. All right. I don't know what kind of books she's read. Maybe she's reading the Quran. I'm not sure she's writing a cookbook.

So let's keep it going. Sure.

Let's say so I would say the Virgin Mary Mother Mary on the left

perhaps of Muslim woman second nun in the middle and a Muslim woman on the last? Yes, yes. Are you starting to see some something very similar here a pattern? Yes. And I'm going to share with you and I hope to kill doesn't mind but I'm going to share with you my story of first meeting Shaquille. I was introduced to Shaquille through his wife Danielle, who was an absolutely lovely woman. She worked for me.

At my ranch i In addition to real estate, I have horses. I'm an equestrian. So she worked at the ranch. And we we actually had conversations because she was a Christian woman and had converted. So we had different conversations about how she was led to that. And then many years later, Shaquille and I were introduced, and I will tell you that I was not aware of the customer that you don't shake hands. I've been in business for a very long time. Men don't shake hands with women. But I've been in business for a very long time. And when I went to meet Shaquille, you know, he said, Oh, no, you know, he was very respectful. He just said, No, we don't we don't do it. And I was like, Okay, no

problem. But in dealing with him, he's been wonderful. Everything's been fine. And I'm getting to know him. I asked him, I said, what, what is the belief behind that? And he shared with me, which I thought was so nice. He said, listen, he said, you know, our wives are women. We put them on a pedestal. We treat them with high regard. And it's our belief that, you know, other women were not, you know, not to interact that way. And you know, the

With everything in today's times and

I guess just a free for all is the only word that comes to mind with society. It was so refreshing for me to hear that and it was so refreshing for a man to say my wife is my pedestal this She's the only woman that I'll touch. So again, that was my story with with Shaquille and that very nice shirt with us. We got just a few more pictures here.

nuns in their habit

of Muslim women greeting each other.

You're doing good read really good.

The we show this for already? No, it did not. So this looks like again, not some sort of order. Okay.

None on the left. Right. Now, here comes the million dollar question. Not just for you a lot of our you know, people out there who again, that's why they tune into the D show. They want to understand better. But here's the million dollar question. Well, you saw the comparisons. But why is this a lot of times people have this in their minds.

I just believe people find a prejudice in again, any area. And I think that things that have gone on in the world, it's just easier when they don't understand something to

automatically not like it not, you know, they they're they're not willing to take the time to become educated as to you know, what your true messages and what and what you feel and what you think, you know, it's the same in when you see people of color, or any other. I think discrimination, it's ignorance, in my opinion.

Okay, last couple questions. We're almost out of time. So I'm going to ask you now for you know, for many people who might be like, hey, there's a mosque opening up, and you might have some people out there who, you know, might be nervous, scared, but then we would ask the question, would you rather and how would you think they would answer this?

Are Christian friends, neighbors, who are people of different religions, but it's particularly here? Because we're talking about Jesus. So I would say would you rather have a neighbor who loves and respects Jesus doesn't mock him and assault him, defame Jesus, but rather follows his way praise like him fast like him greets like him beard like him, neighbor that makes the neighborhood better, or worse. How do you think?

Better? 100%?

That was the easy one. I mean, you just when you when you put things in perspective, you know, and that's why the Dean center is so important. It's so vital. Education. Yes, absolutely. Another one kappa one, what would you rather have a neighbor who exposes many has many of the same Christian values, or one who's trying to have your son or daughter maybe change their gender. Go to nightclubs do drink and drugs and alcohol. Which one I mean, if you ask the pastor, I'd

rather have somebody that is, again, like minded in so many areas, it really is true.

And the last one, a neighbor who tells your kids to respect their parents, doesn't curse use foul language. This one would be for your husband, doesn't I bless your wife respects her so much like you were mentioning earlier? He is hands off and hugs off. So how do you think your husband would answer that? What? What? Well, he would be would much rather have somebody that that wasn't eyeballing his wife.

Okay, well, that's the neighbor. That's the kind of neighborhood that you can expect to have Right? Or to it.

And thank you very much. Hopefully, we also have your son, I look forward to meeting him. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Have a great day. God bless you. Thank you very much. You too. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. And thank you, Heather, for being with us helping the viewers understand the project a little bit better, the location a little bit better. And answering those questions, would you rather and this is for our Muslim neighbors, Christian neighbors. Everybody out there who's kind of fear the hate industry is huge. It's a billion dollar industry and they're spreading lies misinformation and hate. And we're trying to counter that that's why the mission of the Dean center is so important

to establish what we're trying to have what our neighbors peace and understanding. And education is key. And you can see just by those few minutes and those clips and we talked about the hijab, you can see us respecting Mary the mother of Jesus, would you rather have someone who lives next to you one who loves and respects Jesus is a mighty messenger who came to say messages all the other prophets, calling people to worship the Creator, not the creation, very simple to understand. These are the Muslims who want to live a morally upright life God fearing God loving. I can go on and on watch some more of our

shows to get more of that. But what I want to tell you here is that look at this opportunity where the pastor had to go ahead and demolish this, turn it into a carwash or whatever else they offer, they had to just it was going to be tore down. But he was like he wanted a house of worship to be there. And now if we don't go ahead, and we're halfway there to accomplishing our goal, for the initial downpayment, and the rest will be financed owner finance over three years, we need your guys's support, to go ahead and make this a reality to help those 300 million Americans out there who have no clue about Islam except what they're getting fed from the hate industry that hate

business. And that's what we're working up against. So Inshallah, it's your opportunity to be a part of history to be a part of this project. So go ahead and do your part to contribute, you can go ahead and make the contributions online, or you can send your contributions through the mail, you can keep us in your Diaz, and thank you once again in sha Allah the closings coming up in September 1 week of September, we got some donors out and we got some people out there who would like to all upfront just take care of it. Get in touch with us make it easy for us go ahead you're out there that people like who have this type of money and it's like sense to them, right? It's like you know,

like we look at the $100 bills they're looking at it like the pennies so you have people like that and remember you're going to leave all this stuff behind all of is going to stay behind but what you invest you know the three things that follow us to the grave What is it it's our family, our wealth and our deeds right? What do we do our belief but at the end of the day, what's going to stay behind it's going to what's gonna stay behind all of the money all this stuff it stays with you can't take it with you when you go. But if you help establish the Dean center that's going to be benefiting so many people, so many people generations to come you could be a part of that you could be a part of

this legacy this history. What are you waiting for contribute right now. We'll see you next time until then may God Almighty Allah reward all of you wake up there are over 300 million Americans that don't know what Islam is. This is why we are opening the deen center. The first of its kind 35,000 square foot data center and Masjid to show America the beautiful message of Islam inshallah with your help and donations, we can close on the property launch nationwide, our programs a state of the art production studio for online content and an on site Dawa center to show what true Islam is. Donate right now may God Almighty Allah reward all of you