We have a saying that Shaykh hamza often uses. Let the dogs bark because the caravan is leaving and we have places to go. So, the dogs that Mr. Gatto alluded to who are barking up the tree of compulsory schooling can continue to bark because we have an antidote to this dilemma. Factually we have many antidotes and some of them appeared in front of you earlier today we had six fine men and women who represented real tried true alternatives. We had a representative here from the interio federation of teaching parents and we'd like to welcome actually all the members of the interior federation for teaching parents who are here tonight they've set up a wonderful display outside these are really courageous men and women and young children and families who are taking education into their own hands and I hope all of you will take an opportunity to visit their wonderful booth outside and and speak to their
some of the really fine representatives
we had representatives here from the
Montessori tradition from the Waldorf
tradition from the Sidwell Friends
Quaker tradition and also from our own
Islamic traditions
our next speaker tonight is not a
stranger to most of you he has come to
Toronto many times and every time he
comes mashallah the community comes to
listen to him shaykh hamza yusuf hails
from California he is presently the
director of the zaytuna institute for
traditional learning Shahana has himself
had an incredible array of educational
experiences that have taken him through
private schools in the United States
that took him through universities in
the Middle East and finally took him to
the place which tea this morning told us
was really a place where education was
happening in the wilds of the Sahara
Desert with men and women who were
really committed to learning and living
in communities of love and peace and
tolerance together she comes a Yusuf has
since his return to North America
several years ago dedicated his life and
masha allah der many young men and women
older men and women who to have
committed their lives to creating
educational alternatives within the
Islamic ethos that reflect many of the
values that John ended his talk on today
the zaytuna Institute and many other
organizations including dar al-islam
foundation heey productions and others
organized programs at a grassroots level
to bring different methods of education
that find their heart and soul in the
tradition of our particular faith a
reality Dean intensives rattlers jr.
Dean intensives and Arabic programs that
seek to reconnect members of the Muslim
community with their tradition in many
ways Hamza Yusuf is our version of John
Taylor ghetto tonight he's going to be
following for where mr. gateau left off
and just in the same way as mr. Gatto
has given us that picture we hope to
take the next step what do we do about
it where do we go from here what is
there a vision that we can all share a
Muslim and non-muslim alike as citizens
of the same land and of the same country
is there a vision that we can develop
together that sees learning as something
that really matters that educates the
heart and the mind that creates dynamic
citizens that takes us to the
vision of a good society that we all
hope and pray that our children will
have without any further ado it is my
great honor and pleasure to introduce to
you my teacher shaykh hamza yusuf hanson
sman r-rahim salaam aleikum salatu salam
ala rasulillah but I hold on report a
nebula in the name of God the merciful
the compassionate person peace be upon
all of the prophets and upon our
messenger prophet mohammed first of all
i want to say that one of the benefits
for me about hearing what I just heard
from somebody of not considerably but an
older age and I'm at and more life
experience and more teaching experience
can come to the conclusions that I came
to which makes me realize that I might
not be crazy after all and that in
itself I think is one of the benefits of
hearing an alternative perspective is
that what you surprisingly find is that
there are actually many people out there
that are having these same Inklings
something's wrong something's wrong with
the present situation the condition that
we're in and I think the primary reason
for that is the extraordinary factor
that is never placed into their equation
which is the human soul this is not in
the social engineers equation and I
think this the thing that sums it up
best there was a book written by a man
named Crosby about his basic thesis was
that the the incredible control that has
taken place in the last 500 years is
based on the ability to
things that human beings have have have
obtained a power of measurement they can
measure the air they can measure the
ocean they can measure the stratosphere
and measurement gives you power in fact
the Arabic word to measure and to have
power is the same word but one of the
verses in the Quran says mokka-dal la
haha kappa did he they didn't measure
God they didn't measure God he's not in
the equation and one of the things that
we see that is so prominent in modern
society is the attempt to remove the
sacred whether it be Christian sanctity
whether it be Islamic whether it be any
type a vision of a sacred world it is
removed and when it is included it's
included in a way that takes the teeth
out of it it's included in a way that
makes it an object of study as in
anthropology we can look at the quaint
natives the quaint beliefs that they
held I took a course in in the
University called magic religion and
science and you can see from the order
where they were taking you in other
words we lived in a magical period where
people believed that there were gods up
on Mount Olympus and they did
extraordinary things and then we moved
to the religious period a little more
rationalism introducing elements that
the intellect could share but still
retaining fragments of that previous
period that period the magical period so
the belief in angels despite the fact
that every culture on this planet has
some concept
of the angelic realm coincidence that
every plant every culture on this planet
has some concept of the demonic realm
and every traditional culture on this
planet has some concept of the Sacred
Realm but these are our remnants and
then the religious period was superseded
by the rational scientific period and
then the religious person becomes
irrational as if irrationality was not
part of the human makeup human beings
have irrational elements why do you fall
in love is there anything rational about
falling in love and yet a large part of
my life has been affected by the fact
that I fell in love with a woman and it
was a completely irrational event I
couldn't tell you why it happened I
couldn't even tell you how it happened
but it happened and and I've got some
children running around as a result it
was irrational but it was one of the
best things that I ever did so we do do
irrational things and we shouldn't be
ashamed of those irrational things that
we do if there's some type of
satisfaction that comes out of it is if
there's some meaningful event if there's
some purpose if it fulfills something
necessary to our humanity to our being
then we cannot say it's irrational but
what becomes irrational is a society
that claims to be the most rational
society on the planet and yet it has the
most irrational premises at its
foundation the premise that human beings
can be controlled the human being is a
loose can
on this planet and and we have to thank
God for that the human being is
unpredictable the human being will do
things because he's told he can't do
them because it's impossible and
sometimes because he was told he can't
do it he does something extraordinary or
she does something extraordinary that
changes the world for the better and
sometimes for the worse and that's being
human as well the ability to make human
mistakes there are people now who would
say what do we do we've got this system
what John Taylor Gatto just said it
would seem as he's saying throw the
whole thing out and we're told there's
no turning back the clock you can't go
against progress there are people that
will say that they'll say this is human
progress you can't go against progress
and yet one has to question the
intelligence of somebody who recognizes
that they've made a wrong turn down the
wrong road and it's taking them to the
wrong destination and they see a sign
you see you're going to a place called
Paradise South Dakota and you turn on
the wrong fork and suddenly it says
he'll Arizona you have to question the
sanity of that person to not turn his
car around and head back to where he
made that mistake because that's a sign
of intelligence to make a mistake and to
rectify the mistake that you've made and
if you can't do that then you're stupid
and those are the people that are
supposed to get the f's
really we have to question a society now
of lemmings headed for a precipice and
nobody is saying stop and the people
that are saying stop are called radicals
are called extremists a lot of people
don't realize that some of the greatest
most celebrated people in these
so-called universities these higher
centers of learning were radicals in
their time some of them were killed
because of their ideas burnt at the
stake put under house arrest and then we
can honor them like they used to say the
only good Indian is a dead Indian that's
what the Americans used to say the only
good Indian is a dead Indian well now
you can have Hollywood films in which
Geronimo's the hero he's the hero the
bad guys are these these stupid white
guys we can do that now but woe unto
Geronimo when he was calling his people
to rebel against control of free people
of free people look at the South Western
Indians I want to take one example the
Anasazi Indians they lived in our place
there's a place now called Chaco Canyon
Chaco Canyon nobody knows what it is but
there was a woman she's an
anthropologist who also happened to be
an astronomer and she was one day
examining some glyphs up on a hill on a
rock a Mesa that overlooked this this
site of these Native Americans they
weren't called Native Americans when
they were living there they got that
title later I never understood why the
Aboriginal peoples of America have
accepted that idea of being a native
american and
some haven't but some do and it always
intrigued me that but they weren't they
obviously weren't called that then this
woman was up on this rock and she was
looking at this glyph it was a circle
and it had a spiral that looked oddly
enough like what we now know as a galaxy
galaxies are spirals you always you see
these pictures from the Hubble
telescopes of these spirals and you
wonder about order what why is it a
spiral I mean why do you see that in a
seashell that same spiral down here on
planet earth that what is that in nature
the seculars word for the divine what is
it that in nature that that like spirals
in fact our whole bodies are spirals
it's called a double helix it's
everywhere so she was looking at this
and suddenly there was a flash of light
that went right through this spiral from
the rock and she looked back and there
was a slight sliver in rocks that had
been placed there and she thought what's
today and she realized it was the
equinox and she realized that she was
actually seeing the zenith point and she
said is this some kind of astronomical
glyph so she began to study it not no
longer as an anthropologist but now as
an astronomer which is we have to ask
how do these coincidences happen you
have to wonder I mean one of the
fascinating things for me to what in my
travels around the world is to to ponder
the fact that you've got six billion
people according to the control
paradigms latest estimate I don't know
who know who has anybody gotten counted
six billion people but anyway they
extrapolate somehow in that mystical
science called statistics which actually
got an A in
I can't remember a whole lot i remember
the bell curve and a few other things
about that but which is part of the plan
you can take those classes do very well
in them and they don't serve you very
well later on down the road so six
billion people each one of them has a
best seller if they could just write it
down in good language every single
person on this planet that's reached any
age of maturity has a best-selling novel
of their life if they could just write
it down in good language and the amazing
thing about it is those other five
billion 900 million or 99 whatever those
other they're all in that novel somehow
that they're either they're either
supporting actors or small-time parts or
extras and each one of them has that
going on in other words we have a cosmic
event-- of incredible complexity going
on here which is the fact that each one
of you is the center of the universe
each human being in this room is the
center of the universe and right now I
just happen to be part of your
experience each one of you I'm just part
of your experience i'm going to leave
and you go back to your lives and
hopefully they're changed for for the
better a little bit or we've learned
something or we go out to to make some
changes but we have an extraordinary
event going on here and it took place in
that moment in that Mesa where this
woman an astronomer who happened to be a
anthropologist uneasy people saw this
flash of light she happen to be up there
at the right time in the right place and
she had the right tools to understand
what she had just witnessed so they
began to study this Chico Canyon as an
astral astral site and what they found
out was was the entire place was a lying
not just to the sunrise and the sunset
to the equinox the shadows all reached
certain corners in this building and the
moonrise and there was the glyph work to
determine moonrise and sunrise to
determine moon set and sunset at
different times of the year and one of
the equations would take 18 years to
work out these were ignorant Native
Americans ignorant Native American
savages savages so they they asked these
anthropologists to say what was this
place what did it mean they're saying
well we don't really know we don't know
what it was but if they definitely knew
something amazing they had very high
astronomical and geometrical Sciences to
work all of this out they asked a Native
American from the Hopi Indians no degree
no diploma had in fact they just said
Native American that was his
qualifications to be interviewed and he
was a simple looking guy there with it
these they asked him what do you think
this place was he said you know what
this place was he said these people were
people that looked into the heavens and
they saw order and they wanted to bring
a portion of that order down to earth
that's what they saw they looked up in
into the heavens and saw order we used
to say in this culture before it was
taken over as in heaven as above so
below as above so below the idea that we
live in an orderly universe an ethical
universe one of my favorite statements
ever by a theologian in the history of
theology is Kierkegaard statement in
which he said if every human being on
earth was led into heaven and only one
man was condemned
hell and I was that man then from the
depths of the abyss of hell I would
declare the eternal justice of god
that's what these people were looking at
they were looking at adjust universe a
universe of purpose not an eloquent
dance to nowhere as a leading
anthropologist at Harvard University
called life on Earth an eloquent danced
to know where a meaningless random event
of extraordinarily complex coincidences
billions of them that happened to come
together at the right time in the right
moment to make this event why is there
something as opposed to nothing I was in
an observatory and we I took my boys to
see this planetary was at a planetarium
and you'd saw the stars and we looked up
at this dome and here's how it began the
suddenly there was just a flash and
suddenly you were in this all those
swirls again and the man said in the
beginning there was the big bang
that's literally what he said the Big
Bang didn't happen in any one place it
happened everywhere at the same time and
you know what my boys said so haha no
law because they knew who did that
children know that one of the things for
dino rossi said if you take a rock and
you look at a two-year-old and you hide
behind a wall and you throw the rock
over his head the two-year-old will turn
around and if he can't walk he'll crawl
over to investigate where the rock came
from why can't that two-year-old just
believe it popped out of nowhere why
can't it do that why can't that
two-year-old just simply believe that it
popped out of nowhere because inherent
in human nature is the belief that there
for every effect there is a cause for
every effect there is a cause and it
starts right from the beginning and
we're told that there was no cause we're
told everything on this planet has a
cause except the universe there was no
cause everything else has a material
cause you study any of the physical
sciences and that they'll tell you there
was a call they'll even if you study
physiology they'll tell you about form
and function that every single thing in
your body is designed for a function the
form is actually designed for the
function and they talk about design they
use that word and I always wondered
about that because I would ask them
who's the designer natural selection
well can you tell me a little bit more
about this character because there's
intelligent design so is natural
selection intelligent well he works a
lot at it he makes a lot of mistakes but
he improves each time well that's
intelligence I mean that's a lot more
intelligent
a lot of human beings that I know right
because Einstein said the definition of
insanity is keep doing the same thing
over and over again and expect a
different result which is what we call
school reform really that that's what it
is it's school reform so we want we want
to look up at the stars again they've
done their best to take them out of the
sky they keep artificial eyes in
California fortunately the power we're
losing it all so one day the San
Franciscans in a walk out and say my god
who created that they haven't seen the
heavens in at least 30 or 40 years
there's kids there that don't even know
that there's stars up there and they
don't know that the Sun shows up every
morning there's a lot of I'm serious
there's a lot of these people that are
so disconnected to this universe that
they're not even aware that there's a
thing called the solar system again a
system you wonder about that system
that's an engineer's term ID systems who
make systems you can't blame that one on
natural selection the solar is the
canals was actually working here on
earth who got that one going right I
mean really there's questions here to be
asked these are called the big questions
but they're left out of those multiple
choice tests somebody once had the I you
know this guy he's called the telephone
man and this is a true story he was a
telephone man in a yellow book and I was
in a bookstore cody's bookstore in
Berkeley and he came up to me and there
was a camera there and he said I'm the
telephone book and I can help you find
what you're looking for and apparently
is a commercial and you get fifty
dollars just for doing it so he asked me
what are you looking for and I said
actually I was in this section it's
called phenomenology and I don't think
it's in the phone book
and he said no you'd be surprised I'm
I'm really serious he said you'd be
surprised he's looking up how do you
spell that ph e he looked it up he said
it's not in here and I said you know
God's not in there right God's not in
there I mean the big things aren't in
the phone book you can't look them up in
the phone book and that's the truth it
doesn't have all the answers all these
manuals they give you how to do this and
how to do that they don't teach you how
to nurture your soul but they're very
good at destroying the soul and and what
we need to do as a community all of us
together is we need to wage we need to
wage I don't want to use war because
when Muslims say war they get in trouble
but we need to wage I'll use Brian
Wilson sir we need to wage unconditional
peace against a culture controlled by a
handful of people and people say well
that's that are you saying there's a
conspiracy I'm saying that you don't
hang around long enough after the movie
to read the credits there's no
conspiracy about who made the film you
just saw a film and that film had an
agenda and if you didn't stay long
enough you'll often miss what the agenda
was for instance there was a film called
executive decision with Steven Seagal
and Kirk something or other and a whole
bunch of other famous people that people
go and see just because their names are
in there they don't care what the movie
is about but they go to see those people
this film was about terrorist Muslim
terrorists taking over airplane and
interestingly enough the white guy who
goes to save the plane is using a plane
that can latch on to another plane which
was actually a pentagon project that was
canned by Congress and the Pentagon was
upset about
this so he latches onto the plane and
then a whole bunch of minorities are
under his command and they go in to take
over and get these Arabs out of there
who are going to blow up the entire East
Coast how they got that baggage onto
that plane is another story but that's
Hollywood so the interesting thing about
this is that if you stayed till the end
of the credits at the very end not at
the beginning after Steven Seagal and
all those characters and the producer
and they said they said we'd like to
thank the United States Air Force we'd
like to thank the United States Navy
we'd like to thank the the secretary of
defense for making this film possible
that's an agenda and those people who
didn't say long enough to see the
credits don't realize that they were
being affected by what they saw there's
propaganda there you can everything that
John Taylor gado told you you can find
in public libraries the Library of
Congress or you can get it through
interlibrary loan some of them you'll
have a very hard time finding and I'm
really serious about this I tried to
find a book called the evil eye it took
me two years and the book was about a
lot of studies that were done about
television this man's premise was that
he felt that there was a lot of brain
mind control going on in television but
it's it's a fascinating book to see the
studies of what they knew back in the
50s about the the severe effects of
television we're having on people so
where do we go beyond schooling what do
we do as as people we are human beings
here together in this in this auditorium
and we're here because we have a sense I
hope of the importance of what we have
going on here we're human beings some of
us have children I have children I'm
concerned about my children I'm
concerned about the world they're
growing up in I'm concerned about
a commodification of human being I'm
concerned about human resources I don't
like that one of these guys that went
and shot this place up he killed all
these people in the human resource
office because they wouldn't give him a
months in advance pay so that he could
buy Christmas presents for his children
now to imagine the stress that this man
was under to actually because he was
denied that month in advance pay by the
human resources to go and do something
that tragic because it is tragic but the
entire system is tragic what produced
that man is tragic I lived in the Sahara
Desert they don't have mass murderers
they don't have children shooting their
fathers they don't have children going
to school and shooting their fellow
children they wouldn't even think of it
it wouldn't even occur to their mind or
their heart they're not more human than
we are they're not less human where
they're human beings but they're in an
environment in which their minds have
not been manipulated and controlled to
the degree to which they're going
berserk they're running amok look at
these this last killing and I have a map
here of the school killing which is
interesting because they're all over the
country I mean it's almost it's amazing
how they're just yeah one happens here
then here and then here and these are
these are tragic events beyond belief
but if you look at these characters when
you see their pictures the same glazed
look in the eye those boys you saw that
picture that boy in in San Diego he
doesn't know what he did he doesn't know
why he did it our prophet muhammad said
one of the signs at the end of time he
said ya hidin as a man layered real car
to be my pattern will end mock to lima
cote de the killer will not know why
he's killing and the one being killed
will not know why he is being killed
it's a hadith in sahih muslim the killer
will not know why he's killing
and the one being killed will not know
why he's being killed what is going on
what has brought us to that point we
have lost community we've lost family
these things have been taken away from
people and they weren't taken with ease
people thought read history read what
happened a hundred years ago in the
United States of America what the
farmers did now you look at the farms
and in America the highest rate of
suicide is in farmers in the United
States of America they're committing
suicide when I was a child we we used to
sing a song Old MacDonald had a farm
eieio and on his farm he had a cow eieio
and what did the cow do it went moo moo
Old MacDonald had his farm taken away
from him because he couldn't pay the
bank his cow doesn't go moo moo anymore
because he's got foot and mouth disease
or mad cows disease really and old
McDonald's has been replaced by
mcdonald's that's who replaced him
that's who bought the family farm and
he's going to genetically alter Phi
alter the corn that you're eating he's
going to genetically alter the food that
you're eating in the health food stores
in the United States they have to put
out things that say we cannot guarantee
the absence of genetically modified food
in our foods and if you have an ounce of
intelligence to think that this
ignoramus that we call Homo Sapien can
improve can improve on perfection can
improve on the god-given seed the seed
of life if you believe that man this is
called hubris in the ancient Greeks this
is what destroys man is his arrogance
his belief that he can do things that
he is not qualified to do and the sign
of an intelligent man is to know his
limits to know his limits really we have
to question what is going on out there
and our silence is complicity the sign
of one is complicit in the crime if you
stand by and watch a crime happening
you're part of that crime you're aiding
and abetting that crime if you don't do
something about the Arabs say the hadith
says asuka Adama to riva silence is the
sign of contentment silence is the sign
of contentment we should be standing up
the Europeans went out marched in large
numbers to prevent genetically modified
food and yet not these things people
aren't even debating these things
because we have a educational system
that makes us docile that makes us think
like the Dante llegado said it makes
people accept orders even if they're
stupid it makes them except there's
people that I there was an old lady in
England and she was pouring tea she had
her cream there and as she was born she
said you know something very strange
about this cream when I was young I
remember cream going off really fast but
this cream doesn't go off anymore it'll
last two weeks my grandfather said he
had an orchard and used to tell us if we
found a worm in the Apple he said I
wouldn't eat an apple a worm would need
seriously think about that people I
don't want to eat a tomato that doesn't
bruise you going to supermarkets now and
I you think you're in a science fiction
movie the colors are different where
they're getting apples like that I don't
remember apples that look like that when
I didn't remember strawberries like that
seriously you think this is what's
happening you're watching this thing
happening before your eyes we need to
wake up and take our lives back and the
first thing that you can do the most
empowering thing that you can do is take
your children out of this system protect
them at least for the first 10 years at
these for 10 years don't be afraid to
educate them in your homes you can do it
and they'll do it themselves and they
will surprise you at how intelligent
they are and you'll see that light in
their eyes it won't go out after two or
three years of public schooling it'll
still be there that brighter you'll see
that child still loves you it isn't
listening to the children at school
telling them how much they hate their
parents and there are some children in
school that they do hate their parents
they beat their children they do
terrible things to their children and
your children are listening to that and
with their oppressor they start hating
their parents they start contributing to
the the dialogue my mom so stupid my dad
so stupid you know what he made me do
children in in West Africa don't do that
they couldn't imagine saying that their
apparent was stupid a child couldn't
imagine that the Arabian prophet
sallallahu said I'm once said to his
companions never curse your parents and
they said yiannis oh la la how could we
curse our parents it wasn't even in
their frame of reference now look at the
subtlety of this meaning he said by
cursing another man's
aarons you caused them to curse your
parents so don't curse another man's
parents but look how he began it don't
curse your parents by cursing another
man's parents you caused them to curse
your parents like these poor unguided
Afghani people that just blew up this
Buddha that's been there for 1,500 years
the greatest Muslims in the history of
Islam were living in Afghanistan and
before that some of the greatest
Buddhist both was a center of Buddhist
learning many of those scholars became
Muslims and actually contributed to the
development of Islamic logic the
greatest scholars never said go blow up
those statues of Buddha but what the
press will not tell you is the reason
how what brought that about like those
companions who asked how could we curse
our parents how did that Buddha get
destroyed it got destroyed because for
20 years the Afghani people have lived
under the tyranny of being victims of a
cold war game played between two giants
called America and Russia a peaceful
people of proud people of people of
great dignity of people of great
strength of people that that are praised
in the literature of the English for
their tenacity one of the Prime
Minister's said in in Parliament how can
we defeat a people speaking of the
Afghanis when they look down our barrels
they see the gates of paradise how do we
defeat those people the Midwife an
educated of granny woman a physician Adi
fellows add a beautiful ifani woman
educated irid aight knew her poetry knew
her culture was proud to be an Afghani
she was the obstetrician of my family
she couldn't go back to her country she
came to this country to learn medicine
to go back and
this medicine in her country and the war
broke out she was not ashamed of her
people she was proud of her people she
was a literate person people don't talk
about that because history is in a
vacuum history is what CNN tells you
that's not history that's what happened
yesterday or today whatever the latest
headline news is it's told without any
context it's told without any ability
for people to analyze and look at what's
happened this is what people are given
read history really look back all of
this is new if you want to know a
homeschooler I'll give you a great
historical example of somebody who was
home-schooled a man named Ali event have
you found it he was the halifa the Calif
he was the fourth kid he was a brilliant
man he was a genius he grew up in the
house of the prophet muhammad sallallahu
sir he never went a day in school he
never spent a day in school not one day
because he was in the greatest school to
school of the Prophet Muhammad that's
the Sunnah for Muslim soon as the
tradition of their prophet their prophet
was a homeschooler he schooled his
children fatima when the prophet
muhammad peace be upon him was 12 years
old 12 years old imagine this he took a
trip with his uncle to syria of a month
a commerce trip a trip as a as a
merchant 12 years old and look at our 12
year olds today look at them it's
disgraceful it's disgraceful really look
at these poor kids and their victims and
you have to see them as victims and were
complicit in the crime that was done
against them because we're more busy
making a living and we've forgotten
we've already been given a life we've
been given a life by God
and your children are your wealth a man
who will be no Xena to hire to dunya
children wealth and children are other
the ornaments the embellishments of life
on earth but to sacrifice your children
for your wealth if I had to give up one
of the two I know which one I'd give up
and I don't have that much to give up so
it's a lot easier choice than it is for
some people out there we need to retake
our communities really you need to stop
buying these at these corporate really
don't don't buy from them don't wear the
logos don't wear the nike swish why
should you give them free advertisement
they're not going to pay you seriously
why why advertise for them take them off
there they're closer don't buy their
clothes make your own clothes people
used to make their own clothes you can
buy buy cloth go buy cloth learn how to
sew sewing is a good thing to learn how
to do want me to feel stupid walking
around and homemade clothes well who do
you think made you feel stupid the same
people trying to sell you those clothes
that they made that look a lot stupider
than homemade clothes we've got kids
walking with pants halfway down their
bottoms with shoes that are so big I
can't I don't some of these young girls
walking around my god how do they walk
and we know it's bad for their spines
really all of this this is madness
you're not the mad one but if you have
enough sense of who you are and who's
you are you have some individuality you
have some spying you have some courage
to be different it takes courage to be
different people ask me every time they
say what about your children being
homeschooled what about socialization I
said that's why we're homeschooling for
God's sakes get that through your brains
that's why I'm homeschooling I don't
want them socialized into that madness
it amazes me that question
and always come what about every single
person I've ever said what that you
that's it I don't want my my children
there I look out that I see this kids
the same age they scare me when I was a
little kid and I did some Huckleberry
Finn things and I'm probably a little
ashamed of but when I was a little kid
if an adult looked at me with any type
of disdain I felt fear I'll tell you
something I feel fear looking at these
eight year olds I really do and one of
them broke a bottle in front of my house
and I went outside and I said to him hey
excuse me what are you doing he said
what's it to you man this kid was 10
years old if I had said that when I was
10 years old in Mill Valley California
that man would have taken off his belt
and whipped me and my mother would have
thanked him for doing that it wasn't
called child abuse in those days Al
Capone one of the worst criminals in the
history of America according to the the
history books was thrown out of school
when he was 12 years old for punching a
teacher in the mouth Al Capone he didn't
bring a knife to school a knife his
teacher he didn't shoot him he punched
him in the mouth and he was the worst
kid on the block Al Capone went on to
have a extraordinary career in crime but
he was a clever fellow he out people
don't realize that Al Capone probably
did more for the people of Chicago then
most of the multinational corporations
that are centered in Chicago he opened
up soup kitchens and fed poor people
that didn't they loved him Al Capone you
know why they got angry at him poor old
al right you know why they got angry at
him they love now they really did you
can read the history Al Capone at his
trial when they mentioned that he
actually wore they had a somebody up
there who made his underwear homemade
underwear Al Capone was a rich guy he
wore homemade clothes that's what rich
people do they they they don't you think
rich people are buying that stuff
the gap rich people have they pay
somebody to make their own clothes they
eat organic produce right really they do
they eat from homemade balls they don't
buy mass-produced stuff you can make
your own balls rich people they write
they're too busy ruining the world to
make their own balls so they pay other
people to make their own bowls but the
point is they don't eat from
mass-produced things the wealthiest
people don't they really don't Al Capone
when it was mentioned that he wore silk
underwear blushed that's what the
reporter said in other words the man had
some shame in his heart we didn't even
see Clinton blush the President of the
United States when he lied to the
American people didn't even blush Al
Capone blushed because his underwear was
mentioned when Clinton's private parts
were mentioned not his underwear mind
you his private parts the man didn't
blush what does that tell you about Al
Capone and the president united states
well I'll tell you something tells me
that I think Al Capone was probably a
better person really I think he probably
had something in his heart that gave him
a sense of shame despite the fact he was
a horrific human being the reason the
Chicago people went against Al Capone is
because he killed seven men allegedly
not it wasn't the killing of the
gangsters they could care less you know
what really upset them he had his
cronies dresses policemen that's where I
went too far that's what really troubled
them the idea of a police officer being
a mafioso in other words it was too much
even for the people of Chicago seven
people and the people of Chicago were up
in arms we have seven people being
killed every hour and she
go now really I mean look what's going
on out there and people don't they're no
longer shocked at these things my mother
told me who grew up in the 1930s in san
francisco california that if a person
died it was front-page news for at least
a month if a person was killed murdered
it was front-page news for at least a
month why have we allowed this to happen
really something very very wrong has
happened and what it is is that your
souls are dying we're literally dying of
suffocation spiritual suffocation our
souls are dying and and before the
lights are out completely I would advise
all of you to reject this and to commit
your lives to turning the tide because
the danger of people that can see things
another way and have the courage and the
motivation to set out to change those is
that very often they succeed that's why
those people are dangerous people that
can see things the way they should be
and not the way they are those people
are dangerous people and I hope I'm a
dangerous man I really do I hope I'm a
dangerous man and I hope all of you will
commit to being dangerous people a
danger to what's wrong out there a
danger to what is wrong out there and
I'll tell you something you can begin it
if you look in here if the average
person here even has two children and
they raised them to break the cycle to
be different to reject it that can
change the history of Toronto really it
can change the history of Toronto and
Toronto can change the history of canada
and this is the way it begins it begins
with an understanding of the power of
one because one is the greatest number
it is the greatest number is God's
number it's a powerful number and an
idea can change hearts an idea can
change hearts and if an ideas right and
it's true it should change hearts and if
it's not it shouldn't but we're
being bombarded by people who have the
power now to inflict on us ideas that
are dangerous to our hearts and they're
doing it to our children so my advice to
all of you to all of you is to turn off
your commercial televisions this is a
first and major step in changing the
conditions of your households turn off
your and this is an act of courage it's
an act of courage it's the coward that
allows others to amuse himself you see
and I agree wholeheartedly I once heard
somebody to say that they'd never been
bored in their life and it always
troubled them when they heard people say
i'm bored children learn boredom i have
never seen my children bored I've never
once I've never heard them say on board
I haven't heard that I haven't seen that
let them run around and do it they want
you put them in a classroom for eight
hours a day in training and preparation
to living a life of sitting behind a
computer terminal for eight hours a day
being bored stiff really and and think
that this is life know there are there
are alternatives out there people be
creative be creative there's
alternatives it doesn't have to be this
way and if that's the only message that
you take from tonight it's enough it
does not have to be this way we have the
power and the ability to change and we
have to do that we have to change and we
have to listen to our hearts our Prophet
peace be upon him said listen and take
advice from your heart even if others
give you advice what is your heart
telling you about what you see out there
if it's not telling you that something
seriously wrong then as a cardiologist I
would say your hearts dead I'm not a
cardiologist I'm actually cardiac nurse
so I spent a lot of time with
cardiologists and and a cardiologist
will tell your hearts dead if if it's
not registering any movement there's
nothing moving in the heart it's dead
the physical heart and the spiritual
heart and if your heart is dead then
like the Quran says in allahabad mot ha
God brings life to the earth after its
death and our scholars say the earth
here also means the human heart our
children's hearts can be brought back to
life it's going to take some some
serious measures resuscitation sometimes
defibrillation but it can be done they
can be brought back to life because
humans are amazing they have awakenings
I had a car accident that's what brought
me out of sleep that I was in I had a
very powerful car accident and I was
confronted without my own mortality and
that's why they don't want to tell you
about death they don't want to let you
think about death they want to fill your
lives with empty songs empty they'll
replace real friends for friends on a TV
sitcom that know nothing about you they
don't care whether you live or die if
you want to know if you live in a
community then somebody said the the
best way to assess that is ask yourself
will the person at the grocery store
realize if you happen to drop dead today
that you're no longer buying groceries
there that's how you know if you have
any community whatsoever will the person
that you buy gas from will the person
that that does this or that for you will
they even remember that you were a
person in their life because that's
what's been taken away from people we
need community we need community we are
communal beings were beings of community
every religious tradition the song of
the Buddhist the the Ummah of the
Muslims the ecclesia of the Christians
every religious tradition has a sense of
community of bringing people together
and we're difficult to be with each
other you have to set aside differences
sometimes we're hard to be together
that's part of being human it's learning
to deal with that obstinate person over
there and that contrary and over there
and you could be the contrary in
yourself and they're having a hard time
dealing with you but that's what life is
about it's a it's about setting aside
differences for a greater good coming
together listening to each other I i we
were at a poetry recital in New Mexico
we added a spectacular night everybody
read a poem and we had a beautiful night
at doral Islam with all these teachers
and when and when we finished I said
that I would just like to have us a
moment of silence I think or a prayer
for all those people out there watching
television right now who are deprived of
the joy of human companionship of
sharing poems together of sharing
thoughts together and you know what a
man came up to after he was a teacher
and he he was almost in tears he said to
me when you said that I just realized
something I've been spending the last 20
years of my life in front of a TV said
every night and this is the best time
that I've had and it's not condone let
it happen at borders don't let them
co-op that because they'll do it Delta
you come down have a poetry thing will
even give you borders poetry thing and
you can advertise us on the thing make
your own coffee houses really be be
people of creativity be people of
creativity and and the the thing I'll
end on two notes one is Dante legato
said they want you to be docile they
want you to obey orders and it reminded
me of a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad
peace be upon him in which a group of
men went out and he put one of the men
as an Emir over the others which is a
leader on this journey and this man who
is probably a humorous fellow he told
his capacity see that fire I'm
commanding you to jump into the fire and
they looked at each other and they said
the whole reason we became Muslims was
to save ourselves from the fire
so we're not going to do it he said I'm
the Emir I'm the ruler they said well
let's go back and ask the prophet of God
so they went back to the prophets a
lotta time and they told him the story
and he said laughs at oedema hope and
female theater harlot never obey a
creature if it means disobeying the
Creator never obey a creature if it
means disobeying the Creator and i would
put forth that we are in gross
disobedience of natural laws laws that
are part of nature we're in a state of
disobedience and we need to atone really
we need to redeem ourselves all of these
things that are happening on this planet
I believe that we live in a moral
universe that that there's reasons these
things are having there's reasons why
the ozone has a hole in it there's
reasons why the weather is no longer
like it used to be there's reasons why
you don't see birds and bees anymore in
many parts of of our lands there's
reasons why our forests are disappearing
there's reason why our lakes are poison
and toxic there's reason why our food
now kills 20,000 people in the United
States every year 20,000 people more
than was killed in a year in Vietnam in
their own war statistics are dying from
there there the food they're eating
there's reasons for all these things
because we're out of balance and we've
forgotten what the heavens are the
heavens are order and we need to bring
that order down here and there are many
ways to do that I'm a Muslim and I'm
committed to Islam but there's people in
here that have their wisdom traditions
and if those wisdom traditions are
working for them then the Quran says
yeah a little keytab Lester matter she
had to talking with Tara to it in you o
people of the book you're not on
anything until you practice your Torah
until you practice your gospel guidance
has been given to humanity really
guidance has been given and everybody
agrees on certain basic things except
the control paradigm out there they're
the only ones that don't agree in the
majority of people in in in Canada and
America the majority of people according
to the dominant paradigm statistics
believe in God
believe in an afterlife so why aren't
these things ever even discussed in our
public schools why aren't they even
discussed so my advice to all of you
really is don't obey any creatures if it
means disobeying your Creator and if you
want to know what disobedience your
curator is the prophet said disobedience
to the your Creator is what doesn't feel
right in your heart listen to your heart
listen to your heart I thank you very
much and apologize for going on a little
longer than I probably should have and
and I hope that that you do what the
Quran tells you to do whether you're
Christian or a Jew or a Buddhist or a
Muslim the Quran gives a beautiful piece
of advice and it applies to every human
being Aladin st mirren and philadelphia
to be una asana those who listen to
what's been said and they follow the
best of it thank you very much
you