bismillah
OhSelam aleykum, Like i said, first of all i want to thank everybody for coming out on a Monday night, Bay Area traffic, Berkeley parking . And I want to thank the president the GTU dr. Munir jeewa also for honoring us here on the hill, sandy for coming up on very short notice from a very busy schedule the
obviously this is an event that's
happened we've been here before in fact
when the Danish cartoons happened I
actually went to Denmark and I met with
the prime minister's office I spoke to
the Danish people I actually spoke on
Danish television reminding them that
the Arabs loved Danish cheese and that
it actually harmed their economy believe
it or not it harmed their economy
because there was a boycott on Danish
cheese which sells very well in the Arab
world and economics is very important
right people like good ties with other
places because they can make money in
fact one of the worst things for
business is war unless you're in the
business of war business people do not
like instability they like stability
these are very destabilizing events that
are happening I want to just look first
of all at a few ideas and then we'll get
into the conversation one of them I
spoke here on this lectern a while back
before I even knew that we would one day
own this building not even a thought in
my head but I spoke about economic
injustice and I used Dante as a
springboard to talk about that and
during that talk actually mentioned and
I used the word defend and I that
because Dante according to the inferno
has a character that he calls Mohammed
oh and an ally another character and
it's believed that these are meant to
portray the Prophet Muhammad and his
cousin Ali as schismatic s-- anyway I
use the word offend pointing out to a
lot of Christians most of the people in
the audience were Christian that the
that Dante did not put the Prophet with
the false prophets but with the
schismatic s-- so i was pointing out
that nuance about the inferno well lo
and behold a remark really off-the-cuff
I didn't wasn't prepared but a group in
England actually anemone for that
statement saying that I was no longer
Muslim that I need to make public Toba
which is repentance because I had
defended somebody who had insulted the
Prophet which was certainly not my
intention but I was pointing out at
nuance well we're living in a world
where nuance is no longer in our
vocabularies right we are in the cartoon
world of black and white it's not even
color cartoons so I want to talk a
little bit here about the idea of
freedom of speech because certainly in
the West this is one of our most
cherished rights is the right to freedom
of speech I will guarantee to you I've
been all over the world literally you've
lived in many different places
freedom of speech exists all over the
world people speak very freely in fact
in some places they speak far more
freely about things than they do in the
United States but there are two areas in
many places that people are not free to
talk about one of them is religion and
the other is politics but in the United
States of America freedom of speech
means being able to say whatever you
want about religion and whatever you
want about politics generally this is
the idea and these are hard-earned
people died there was bloodshed to to
acquire these rights but we also have
certain laws that prevent certain types
of speech and we know that you cannot
shout fire in a crowded theatre Oliver
Wendell Holmes we also have the
Brandenberg standard if there is a clear
and imminent danger in speech that
incites to hatred
Brandenburg versus Ohio case and there
are other cases like this that tests the
limits of freedom of speech
unfortunately we have now people
insignificant people really and I would
say and you know everybody's significant
in their own way but I'm talking about
people that you know really it's quite
stunning that somebody you know who
lives in a house with wheels and has a
car in the front that has no wheels and
he's able to literally create riots on
the other side of the planet who has a
church with 15 people right half of them
are his own family and then and the
other half are our friends right that
really can affect global situations I
mean this is really extraordinary the
internet the internet right really I
mean I call evil email evil mail because
it causes so much problem now we have to
have these little happy faces just to
make sure people know that I'm not being
offensive right I mean this is the type
of world we're in there's no nuances
people can't speak any more freely
everybody's afraid right so you know we
have to think about incitement to hatred
and what that means and being realistic
about it nobody argues that Germany is
not a free society but they have a law
there that prohibits denial of the
Holocaust there's a law that prohibits
denial of Holocaust there are laws in
certain countries in fact in Denmark
there are not laws denying the Holocaust
and one of the things that I tried to
point out one of the nuances in the Arab
world when I was there because I was
interviewed during that time I went to
the Arab world what I tried to point out
was when the Danish people said they
supported because that the Arab
newspapers would say 80% of the Danish
support the cartoons they didn't support
the cartoons they supported the right of
the person in fact most of the Danish
people were actually offended by the
cartoons and so these are the nuances
that get lost in these things
unfortunately we had
a presidential candidate say we should
never apologize for American values
supporting the film people hear that in
the Arab world and they say it's an
American value to to denigrate our
religious sensitivities he was obviously
saying speech freedom of speech but the
point is as Americans do we really want
to say it is an American value to
denigrate other people's face other
people's beliefs we can criticize those
belief right intellectual tones about
why Islam is not a true religion there
are many books like that and nobody gets
upset Muslims don't get upset you can
write all you want of why you don't
think the Prophet Mohammed is a prophet
but to mock to denigrate to make fun of
somebody who's dearer to the hearts of
the Muslims and this includes Jesus the
Muslims feel the same way about Jesus or
about Moses about any of these prophets
really this is where we have to ask
ourselves is this the type of society we
want we have risen above racial
denigration in this country in the
public space if you denigrate somebody
racially in the public space you will
lose your job you will lose your job
there are consequences to saying kike to
saying mick to saying spick to say
nigger all of these things have
consequences why because we recognize
that people have sensitivities if you go
down to east oakland right now if you go
down if you go down to east oakland
right now and and you shout the n-word
as a white man in East Oakland and
somebody comes and stabs you is any kind
of anybody going to be surprised
seriously is any got anybody going to be
shocked no but what the problem is
we don't recognize that for believers
when you die you lose your racial
identity but when you die you maintain
your religious identity this is this is
how the Muslims understand it now I'm
not going to justify anything the most
did in their reactions I'm not going to
justify that the Prophet Muhammad never
never ever attacked any ambassador in
fact when a false prophet sent his
ambassadors he actually honored them and
sent them back
he never denigrated ambassadors in the
ancient world it was a declaration of
war to kill an ambassador this is a
wretched thing that happened but a small
minority of people and let me remind you
that there were Libyans who died
defending that embassy trying to keep
the Americans safe and they are recorded
there are recordings of them saying
hello
who should America and awesome who
should I marry kind of get a move on
protect them make sure they're inside
and they lost their lives and they would
see that as a martyrdom in their faith
just like Amira the father of Josiah D
defended the Christians and the French
Legation in Syria against the riots in
which they were attacking Christians he
went out and defended them the French
sang his praises even though they had
conquered his country and driven him out
of his own country he defended them in
Damascus he was honored in this country
kadar Ohio is named after Iowa is named
after him because he was honored as a
noble human being this is our prophet
this is how we see our prophet now I
would argue that there is an element III
called this years ago I gave a talk at
the Globe Theater about a fellow it was
after 9/11 and I argued that Othello you
know Iago Santiago Matamoros was the
patron saint that drove out the Moors
from Spain and so Shakespeare called
this character Iago write the Spanish
advisor to attend the the moor and there
there's an argument that Iago was
actually represented a certain voice
inside England that wanted to prevent an
alliance with Queen Elizabeth and the
Moroccans against the Spanish because
Mansour adhabi had argued for that
alliance we have Iago's working on both
sides
whispering trying to get us to kill each
other to strangle the Desdemona of hope
I mean this is what's going on and we
have to be very careful about that I
want to argue that when the the first
amendment which is such a beautiful
testimony to the ideals of this country
when that was enacted we tend to forget
there were dueling laws in the United
States of America the dueling laws were
actually a caveat to make sure that you
did not use freedom of speech to abuse
other people you could actually demand
satisfaction
we have one of our founding fathers was
killed in a duel because his honor was
disparaged honor is something real
people hold to honor I I'm actually a
Kentucky kernel right and in Kentucky if
you're sworn in to a state public
service you have to swear that you've
never been in a duel because Kentucky
was the last state to outlaw dueling now
in place of dueling they brought in
defamation laws defamation laws to
prevent defamation of character
unfortunately during the Warren Court
they had pseudo Matt Sullivan versus the
New York Times to remove defamation from
public officials and public characters
so my wife is protected under the
defamation laws but I'm not it's not
equal I don't think it's fair you can't
mess with my wife you can mess with me
it's not fair she does it all the time
but I want to say honor is an important
thing and anthropologist sometimes
divided societies into honor societies
and into law societies honor is
sometimes in place of law when you don't
have a strong legal system honor becomes
the way that people redress problems
that's why in the ghettos often where
you have a type of lawlessness there's
codes of honor right you don't step on
people's toes because there's constant
quinces to doing that you don't diss
their mothers you don't diss their
fathers right because there are
consequences to that right you talking
to me you talking to me you must be
talking to me I don't see anybody else
here you talking to me right that's how
it works in the hood that's how it works
in the hood right so it's very important
for us to really think deeply about
these things and the harm that these
things caused right and finally I want
to say that if this country would only
apply the advice of the United States
Army from 1943 we could end all of the
problems all right so I want to read
from instructions for American
servicemen this was during the Iraq when
they were in Iraq in 1943 okay page 12
no preaching this isn't preaching you
probably belong to a church at home and
you know how you would feel towards
anyone who insulted or desecrated your
church the Moslems feel just the same
way perhaps even more strongly in fact
their feeling about their religion is
pretty much the same as ours toward our
religion although more intense if
anything we should respect the Moslems
the more for the intensity of their
devotion that's the u.s. government in
1943 I mean where the hell are they and
not in 2012
right if you should see grown men
walking hand-in-hand ignore it they are
not queer be kind and considerate to
servants Iraqis consider all people
equals avoid any expression of race
prejudice 1943 avoid any expression of
race prejudice the people draw a very
little color line yeah so finally we're
living in the age of mockery one of my
favorite poets Yeats wrote a poem about
this
come let us mock at the great that had
such burdens on the mind and toiled so
hard and lay to leave some monument
behind nor thought of the leveling wind
come let us mock at the wise with all
those calendars whereon they fix told
aching eyes they never saw how seasons
run and now but gape at the Sun come let
us market the good that fancied goodness
might be gay and sick of solitude might
proclaim a holiday mock mockers after
that that would not lift a hand maybe to
help good wise or great to bat bar that
foul storm out for we traffic in mockery
you