child once she's committed to that and
has a child if she abandons that
responsibility in in pursuit of some
empty career or some idea of making her
mark on the world she has completely
misunderstood
the the the the the the the great
importance and the great responsibility
that she has been given by God in that
the fruit of her womb is before her and
she will be asked all of you are
shepherds and every Shepherd is
responsible for his flock and then he
said a ruler is a shepherd and he's
responsible for the country our husband
is a shepherd and he's responsible for
his family and a woman is a shepherd and
she's responsible for her children so if
a woman brings children into this world
and then dumps them in a daycare center
where people have 20 or 30 children and
a woman's being paid $8 an hour to look
after those 20 or 30 children and then
she thinks that somehow she's doing
something more important by going out
and working I think there's something
very seriously wrong with her maternal
instincts yes because abandonment in in
in the animal kingdom abandonment is is
is is alien to animals they will only do
abandonment out of mercy that they will
abandon an animal out of mercy they will
they they won't abandon if the animal is
well with respect to your response to
that
weboth fair that is the woman's only
means of livelihood and that's another
situation you see you can't yeah I mean
Islam is not again it's not a simpletons
religion if a woman has no other source
of income and she's forced to do certain
things and she's forced to do them and
that the shame is on the man
the shame is on the men for not for not
facilitating for women to to raise their
children I mean we're living look if you
look at America right now look at the
children in this country look at the
rage listen to the music don't listen to
it but if you do this into it from these
loudspeakers up coming out of their cars
as they drive by that music is filled
with rage and look at their faces look
at the spiritual state of these people
or the breath
state the lack of spirituality and to
give some of them credit I'm amazed at
how well some of them do despite all of
the odds against them I am amazed that
there's children out there there's young
people out there that are really
struggling to find a purpose to their
life in a world that is telling them
constantly including their parents by
abandoning them that they are worthless
and that their lives are purposeless ok
irrespective of financial need
looking at your knowledge of mercy in
women and I've been characteristic of
women sailor woman
Muslim woman married with children her
husband provides well and family swing
fine if she feels that with this
characteristic of having mercy is able
to go out into the working world and is
able to do something good for the Ummah
whether it be in the media whether it be
in any any fun and if her capability and
her family has been taken care of
how does that configure with abandonment
well again I would really emphasize that
no one can give two children what a
mother can give to their children that
doesn't mean there aren't pathological
mothers out there there are there are
mothers that dump their babies into
garbage cans and this happens people
read about these things in the
newspapers and some people experience
them firsthand but the point is is that
children need time children thrive on
time I have three children they're
homeschooled
and the amount of time that not just my
wife but that I put into those children
it is is immense and and they thrive on
it they need time and parents now spend
five or ten minutes with their children
in a day and you cannot do that to a
child you will kill that child's soul
and they'll end up spending the rest of
their life seeking that
in pathological ways from other people
they'll end up spending it by trying to
be superficial beings that only think
that they're worth in the world is
physical like so many of the women out
there why are all these women getting
plastic surgery to rearrange their faces
why are they out there jogging in the
streets trying to keep up with some
image of the body that has been
presented to them by by a mainstream
media that has essentially at its root a
desire to sell them things that to sell
them cosmetics to sell them clothes that
quote unquote looks sexy to sell them
toothpaste that's going to make them
more presentable I mean this is what's
happening out there people are in a very
if you look out at the world right now
look out there look at the state of
human beings right now so many of these
women that I see out there do not look
well they do not look well to me and I
think part of it is because their souls
are telling them but they're not well
because they're not doing what they're
supposed to be doing and if you don't do
what you're supposed to do in this world
your soul will let you know from every
which way and it will be painful you'll
end up if you don't listen to your soul
you'll end up on antidepressants you
learned up on alcohol you'll end up on
drugs you'll end up in pathological
relationships so what is the role of the
women which is which would be deemed as
it's immunizes errect you know the role
I hate that word first and foremost
because it's an acting metaphor that's
what the role but anyway I'm it's
English language but I would say that
the not so much the role but the purpose
mm-hmm of a woman is the same as the
purpose of a man and that is to know
their Lord before they die and that is
why they were created and everything
else is incidental that is the essential
purpose of a human being is to have a
direct relationship with
creator of the heavens in the earth and
if they're told anything else it's a lie
if they're told that their main role in
life is to have children that is a lie
children are a path to God and there are
powerful paths and children are
spiritual teachers children are teachers
they teach us and he also remind us
about a pure world a pure state and a
state that our souls were once in but I
I would say that the purpose of a woman
is the purpose of a man it is to know
and worship God how much of an impact us
our cultural heritage as women have in
our identities today how much does
culture play in our identities why you
know the nature-nurture argument I think
that nature and nurture are both working
together environment has a massive
impact if you grow up in Sri Lanka
you'll enjoy listening to a certain type
music that most Americans would would
have a really difficult time listening
to and vice versa Sri Lankan would be
horrified at what people doesn't do in
Los Angeles but while that's changing
due to global pressures that there's no
doubt that that culture plays an
incredible has an incredible impact and
the stories of a culture in our culture
I was raised as a Christian and in the
Christian culture we're taught that Eve
basically is the cause of the fall of
man which is alien to the Islamic belief
but it's central to the Christian belief
and this is why many Christian women are
post Christian women have abandoned
Christianity because they don't like the
idea of praying to a father they don't
like the idea of a male God and this is
something that is alien to Islam Islam
has no understanding of a male God God
is is beyond male and female God's
attributes are exalted beyond human
attributes we don't anthropomorphize God
God is called a king in the in the
Corin Milic which tends to be a male
attribute he's also called alwa dude
which is the the word for a loving wife
he's also called a rock man
which is the merciful coming and the the
word for womb is derived out of that
word yeah man so that the Muslims have
always understood that there are what
are known as Jamali and Jalali
attributes of God beautiful and majestic
and they've always seen them in terms of
that women are a manifestation of divine
Beauty and men are a manifestation of
divine majesty and outwardly and
inwardly it's reversed inwardly women
have divine majesty as as the the
attribute that's manifesting in them and
any woodenly men have divine Beauty
that's the way it's supposed to be I
mean that's these are healthy I'm
talking about healthy cosmological
understandings when people are are
living as a dynamic people that one of
the things that can happen to human
beings according to the Quran is they
can be reduced to lower than animals and
you see it out there look at the human
beings out there look what there's a
billboard now for a movie that shows a
man with a holding onto the tail of an
elephant and it's the whole idea that
human beings are animals he's telling
them that and what how do they have
behind that know what is a whole other
program I think because all he would is
Hollywood is I think you know they say
artists are the antennae of society
Hollywood is letting us know where we're
going there they're a symptom Hollywood
is not the disease Hollywood is a
symptom the fact that we have allowed
these things to to purvey permeate our
consciousness how do you think we have
allowed that to happen yeah Hollywood
can't exist if people don't buy the
tickets to their films and and watch the
programs and by the corporate rubbish
that they're that the people that own
them sell do you think that if
became more involved in Hollywood that
things could change no I think it's a
horrible thing Hollywood will change
them they won't change Hollywood
American Muslim women are beginning to
pick up a momentum of being more
involved in the public arena and to have
their voices heard and you may see this
as our wish to become more like men
however is it wrong to be seen in the
public eye if our intention is to do
good for the Ummah well I mean you're
putting those words into my mouth I
wouldn't see it as becoming more like
men I think women have responsibility in
fact I personally believe that if women
don't have indignation about what's
happening to their children about what's
how many to their societies and if that
indignation does not motivate them to
literally do some serious measures to
take serious measures to enact a change
then things will get worse I think that
that women have immense power and
immense potential to do good and to be a
transformative element in society and
women are half the the the human
condition and and there needs to be more
female influence on the world I think
part of the problem with the world is
that there's been too much male
dominance too much male influence and
it's had a very unhealthy impact we call
the earth mother earth and that's not a
Western idea that's actually an Islamic
concept as well the Prophet Muhammad's
allies in him in a hadith in Fulani said
this earth is your mother and I think
the fact that raping and pillaging of
the earth which is going on right now
all over the planet is symptomatic of
aggressive male energy and that if if
that male energy is not tempered by the
humanizing element of the female of the
mother of getting the milk of human
kindness that we will continue to do
this until we destroy the
viability for human life on the earth
and I think that the criminals behind
that will be men they will not be women
unless we see women as complicit in the
crime by their silence so I I don't
believe that at all I think women have
to do something and and and I think
they're signs of that I think that
there's women in this culture that have
done extraordinary things we have a
history of women not just in the West
but in the Muslim world that that was a
beautiful story of an endo to seeing
woman she was a poet who was so
distressed by the tyranny of our
governor in her province that she wrote
a poem to the Keita and in the poem she
she said what do you say about a
shepherd who's eating his flock and and
she the poem was so powerful she sent it
through a messenger to the Caliph and
when he read the poem he was moved to
tears and he actually went to that City
and ascertained indeed that the governor
was oppressing the people and he removed
him and that was from the poem of a
woman that is a beautiful display of a
political dissent at the highest levels
and shows you the sophistication of the
people not just the moon but the
sophistication of the women to actually
protest in poetry and to have that
poetry move the ruler to the degree that
he would do something mm-hmm was a
testimony to what type of people they
were it's talking a bit about issues
where women seem to not have as much
power as you could say as far as in
Jordan an average I think it's 30 women
at an average of 30 women a year are
killed in honor killings
I'm where's the justice in that well I
mean there isn't any justice there I
don't you know the question is that's
all right there's no Jeffs what honor
killings what what see that how can
this song that has no concept of that
the Christian Arabs do that Mexicans
used to do that but the reports are not
I mean this is this is those reports of
it in Pakistan this used to happen all
over the world this said this happened
in Christian countries this is just a
situation that exists existed in many
parts of the world that doesn't justify
it that the fact that it still exists in
that part of the world is only
indicative of the fact that that
familial honor is still an extremely
important if not a central element to
those societies and a woman's chastity
is still considered something that is at
the essence of the honor of the family
as well as the chastity of a male but
because it tends to be a patriarchal
culture and because of the fact that
women when they lose their virginity
there are physical generally physical
signs of it and certainly pregnancy can
occur whereas with a man a man is more
veiled than a woman in that situation
that in no way does it mean that a man
who commits fornication or adultery is
any less condemnable than a woman
they're both terrible breaches of divine
comportment that I would say that the
Christians have the same concept in
their ignorant
societies Arab Christians have done this
so there was an Arab Christian that
killed his daughter in Chicago this
occurred in the United States it's a
very sick thing to do I find somebody
would have to be a really sick human
being to be able to to kill their own
progeny but in America there's been over
20 million abortions and the only
difference in America is that they say
well these are unborn you know so I
think before Americans start pointing
the finger at thirty honor killings in
Geor
let's look at 20 million babies that
have been killed in America all right
really I mean America is a very it's a
culture of amazing paradox and do you
believe the fact that women are now
allowed to vote in Kuwait regardless of
the outcome is a encouraging encouraging
indicator a woman's movement here yeah
well like the bumper sticker says don't
vote it only encourages them I don't
know I mean you know the idea of Muslim
having a vote or not I were the first
country to give women to vote who was
Egypt in the 1880s the Americans didn't
have there was one state I think it was
Wisconsin that gave women to vote in the
19th century his only state there's only
one state in America you know maybe all
the feminists should move there or
anything
that there's no other in America the
women to get the vote to the 1920s
mm-hmm when the Constitution was there
was an amendment yeah to giving in the
vote but the idea traditionally in a
traditional culture was one family one
vote that was the idea it wasn't the
idea that women didn't have the right to
vote it was there was another saying of
a family unit but generally that family
would support and if you have a husband
and a wife that are voting for different
people I mean you've got a serious
problem in your family right in other
words there's a real conflict that is a
conflict I think that's a very deep
conflict that's not a superficial
conflict and they should have maybe done
a poll before they got married to see
how they would vote or something like
that because that's going to indicate
some compatibility and many marriages
have ended in divorce because of
Republican and Democrat splits so you
know do you think the woman that
shouldn't know I don't I mean I think
voting the the whole idea of voting is
it's there's a magical element here this
mystery of I think that the last
election in the United
States indicated the the reality of the
vote in this country I mean people are
trying to wonder are we living in a
banana republic in the United States
when when a presidential candidate can
get the popular vote and you lose the
election well I have to wonder what well
why am i voting hmm I mean seriously why
am i voting all right so I don't know I
mean I don't if men are gonna vote I
think their image should suppose why not
I don't know problem with that I think
it's just logic that I think we have to
question the entire see for me I I want
to question the whole system I mean do I
really I don't federalism is a very
strange form of government I think to
have Washington DC dictating how Irvine
should run their local I think people
locally should decide their own people
say without shoving it into the local
community I mean I would I'm a
libertarian when it comes to that type
my position you know just let let people
locally decide what they need to do if
people locally want to have prayers in
school why can't they have prayers in
school if you've got a hundred percent
Christian community in in Idaho they
should be found the government tell them
they can't add 25 minutes before they
start their classes whereas if you have
Hindus and Buddhists and Jews and and
and and secular humanists or a Marxist
that say they don't want to have that
will have five minutes of silence and
everybody can do what they want where
they can do their homework or something
but this idea of dictating the people
like these are these potato wise men to
learn it elders are going to dictate for
us how we should run our families and
our societies I think that you're an
infant for seven years of your life and
then you begin to take responsibility
and by the time you reach adulthood if
you haven't worked out what you need to
do
you've either been poorly raised or
something seriously wrong with you what
challenges do you think we women face in
this society today
I think women need to decide that for
themselves I think that I would say the
for me that challenges that women face
are the challenges that men face we're
wearing this together we're on the same
planet half my my family I'm married I
have a wife and I have children her
concerns are my concerns and my concerns
are her concerns and I think if you're
in a relationship that's healthy that's
that's the way it should be so I think
that what's out there in terms of the
society is as detrimental to men as it
is to women I really believe that I
think that men are up against as much
difficulty in trying to be human in this
world as women if not more if not more
okay then we appreciate you being with
us this hour and thank you very much
thank you
you