First of all I want to also acknowledge like Imam Suhaib Wedd, the mufti of Egypt Shaykh Ali Juma. Who is really, I think, one of the most effective spokespeople for the Muslims alive and it's extremely
important that we recognize the role of
al-azhar university I think sometimes
our community forgets the importance of
having a normative tradition in other
words a tradition in which people have a
resource that they can go to for a sound
Islam and I want to point out something
very important about this the need for
accredited scholars who understand the
religion as it should be understood
religion is probably the most it is the
single most powerful force on the planet
religion is more powerful than any
temporal government governments come and
go nations come and go all nations have
curvilinear courses they rise and then
they fall but the power of religion
has been around since the very beginning
humans have always been religious this
is something our anthropologists are
historians anybody that looks at the
matter seems very clearly religion
because it's powerful it's also very
dangerous and one of the most dangerous
aspects of religion is revelation itself
when you have a book that those who
adhere to that book claim that it is
from God how that book is understood is
the single most important thing that any
large group of people that adhere to
that group have to be concerned with and
this is why the Muslims historically the
single most important endeavor in
Islamic history is the preservation of
the foreign and all of the ancillary
sciences that were necessary to preserve
the understanding of Islam and at center
to all of those was the Arabic language
without the arabic language preserved
the way it was preserved we would not
understand the Quran the way it should
be understood and so Allah Zod has
played that role in preserving the
Arabic language in preserving the
understanding of the Quran for centuries
it has one of the largest student
populations in the world it has massive
endowments it also has an international
body of students when we were just
recently in Allah saw I was wishing
abdullah bin veya we met with the shekel
us out there and I was overwhelmed by
the contingency that came from Central
Asia the contingency from Malaysia the
contingency from Turkey all of these
different groups studying in a las how
they will go back to their communities
to serve their communities we now have
Imam zohaib web and we should all
congratulate him on graduating
mazher university so that al-azhar's
knowledge is transferred to the United
States of America without its real
scholarship our religion is in danger of
being taken over by mad people and I
want to read quickly an example of this
from email poverty it's in his famous
book of Teddy and he talks about the
college when they took over a village
and I want to emphasize that the
Heritage were people that had prayer
marks on their heads most of them
memorized the Quran they prayed all
night they fasted during the daytime the
prophet saw the light is said him said
when you see them you'll be little your
own prayer in front of their prayer
you'll be little your own fasting when
you see how much they fast they were so
charismatic that many many thousands of
people join their groups and when they
took over the areas that they took over
what did they do bloodshed killing
people that disagreed with them I want
to just read this section he mentions
that when the hottest came to a village
and this was a village in Iraq they took
an old man and her daughter who were
Muslims that weren't following their
version of Islam and the woman the young
girl started crying and she said don't
kill my father he's an old man in the
abu musab that i talked to lou who don't
kill my father he's an old man and then
she said one avena managed area I'm just
a young girl while mahima I take two
thousand up well are they too jolly I
never harmed anybody I never did any
sinful thing and then they said
adamo hollyhock to doha they brought her
in front of them to kill her and when
she did that she sounded a father to
anadi matham be madam be what's my sin
what's my sin and then they killed her
and cut her up and then they killed her
father this is
our history is filled with mad people in
the name of religion who go about
killing other people this is going on in
the massage at of Afghanistan in the
massage at of Pakistan in the massage at
of Iraq we even find this type of
mentality in our own country here in the
United States and if we're not careful
when we see these people like this young
this this young man in New York really
who plans on blowing up Times Square
with innocent people walking around and
then on the stand he says that he's
proud of it and he would do it again
this is the type of problem that we're
dealing with in certain segments of our
community if we remain in denial about
this if we don't address the need for
sound scholarship for moderation in our
religion for the truthful teaching of
Islam and I know all of you are part of
this but we have to institutionalize
these things we have to bring this to
the forefront of our concern because our
religion is a beautiful religion and
it's being made ugly by the acts of
fools by the acts of the sofa ha I just
want to bring your attention to
something that when I found this out I
was so flabbergasted my own teacher
shahab elleven baya had a conference in
Marteen Marteen is a city in Turkey in
which Jews Muslims Christians all live
together there was a period of time when
it the Mongols had a Muslim ruler who
was just a titular head but he was
ruling under Mongol rule even tenia was
asked what he thought about a place
where they were not applying the rules
of Islam even though they were Muslims
and he wrote a famous photographer mr
dean in this that's why he said that
this dog is more aqaba it's a compounded
daughter it's an abode that's neither a
boat of Islam nor in a boat of war and
so he said something very interesting
according to the published editions that
are in Saudi Arabia today in
many Muslim countries according to the
published addition it says famously moon
you are a man una be master hapuna well
how did you wanna share EIT you are
totally famous temple that the believer
should be treated according to them
being believers and those who don't
apply the Sharia al-hadi joanna shariati
should be fought yukata to be mr. hippo
according to what they deserve chef
abdullah bin VII when this photo was
read in Mar Dean he said there's
something wrong with that fatwa and
people got very upset some of the ulama
that were in the gathering were upset
and they said naturally your fatwa
shaven Islam don't change the photo of
shaken Islam new knob they shall fetch
walk what else will he get on Fatah we
can discuss the footwork but don't
change the fatwa share Abdullah said the
wordings not right because he is an
ocean of the Arabic language and he knew
that the wording wasn't right based on
his knowledge of the Arabic language on
bulava on the idea of devout and
maqubela he knew that it wasn't right
when he got back to Jeddah and this is a
copy of the oldest manuscript of the
fatwa this fatwa which is in the LA area
in Damascus is the oldest manuscript of
scheffel aslam's photo of Martine and he
does not say you thought you to be my
hysterical he says you are mentally my
asst temple he should be treated in
accordance with what he deserves this
fetch were based on you Carter who was
used to kill Anwar Sadat this very
football was used to kill Anwar Sadat
the president of Egypt because if you
read the text that they this is the
photo that was quoted this is the fudge
wad that Osama bin Laden used in
justifying the attacks on
the United States this is the fat word
that they've used for opposing all of
the rulers in the Muslim lands because
they don't implement the Sharia and it's
all based on a misprint it's based on a
misprint this is an incredible tragedy
in our community that this is the level
of scholarship has fallen to such a
level that people are killed based on
Miss Prince in books and this is why we
need sound scholarship what what our
beloved president and sister dr. Matson
was talking about about this textbook
that she was teaching these textbooks
have now been printed in the tens of
thousands sometimes the hundreds of
thousands people are reading this books
and thinking that Islam is a religion of
hatred is a religion of violence is a
religion of bloodshed all of these
things are because of this
misunderstanding of a religious
tradition that has a vast spectrum of
opinion if you take books like sorry or
Bihari and I was in Oxford University a
few weeks ago and somebody told me that
they they have a problem with the hadith
and I said you're not the first person
even a what happened the greatest mahad
death of his time in Egypt had a problem
with
you