interesting statement about you know
just the popular culture and how they
take you know how they dress humiliate
these young black artists by getting
black males to wear female clothes you
know there was an interview with Oprah
Winfrey that Dave Chappelle had and he
said one day he went into the his his
dressing room they had a dress on the
chair and the the writer came in and
said Dave we've got a great part for you
we want you to put on this dress you're
gonna be a prostitute ha ha in that
funny days he said I'm not you know I'm
not cool with that because he's I mean
in the end whatever you say about Dave
Chappelle he's all Muslim you know
there's I mean he's got limits right of
where he's gonna go and he said I'm not
putting on a dress and I'll come on all
the greats have done and he said well
then is hackneyed why should I do it if
all the greats have done it and then in
this clip they showed all of these films
where they had these really strong black
men dressed in dresses
you know humiliating them what is that
about why does how you would have to
humiliate people what is that about all
of these people that they they really
squelch down they
end up drug addicts and and meltdowns
you know they kill themselves really
having all these melded what is that
what kind of culture is that that that's
what they do to their most creative
people drive them to drug addiction and
to public meltdowns what that's
impoverishment these are poor people and
if you don't have compassion for poor
people you don't have any compassion but
I'm saying they're all impoverished
really the richest people to the poorest
of the poor they are impoverished
because they're culturally and
spiritually impoverished and that is the
poverty that we should be united against
but if the Muslims are going to
participate in it if we're going to
degrade our religion and turn our art
forms into pale imitations of their art
forms if that's what we have to offer we
don't have the richness of tradition
looking back into the past what did they
do what did they do that can inspire us
today to do it in our own way but we're
people of legacy we believe in legacy we
believe in things handed down and you
hand down things of worth you don't hand
down junk the prophets all the light is
sin and one of the things about him that
amazes me and everything about him
amazes me but one of the things that
I've contemplated is the fact that he
named his personal belongings and what I
realized about that in my estimation
while out on Adam is that he was
honoring goods that enhance our lives he
had a name for his comb he had is a name
for his turban he only had a handful of
things in his life if you actually took
all of the possessions that he had they
would fit into a very small box but he
named them because they were meaningful
things to him we live in a society that
gives stuff no meaning
it's not only nameless it's discarded as
fast as people buy it we have engineered
obsolescence things aren't built to last
if you want a idea because I'll be your
first customer
I have a idea like I want a shop called
till death do us part things for people
that want things that last because when
I was a kid if you bought something it
lasted I do brush leaves because my
grandfather had a cattle ranch um and we
had to go up and he would always put us
to work because he was old school and
that's what he thought you should do to
kids because because they put him to
work when he was six years old he was
selling bubble gum on Market Street in
San Francisco California in 1899 so that
was what he would do so we'd be just
pushing brooms and there'd always be a
tree at the end we could go ride a horse
or something but the brooms that I was
pushing when I was five years old they
were the same brooms I was pushing when
I was fifteen because they were built to
last
now you go and you buy a broom and you
do you sweep your your sidewalk three
times and it's broken and then they tell
you well it's cheaper to just buy a new
one that's what they tell you now it's
just cheaper to buy new and we have to
reject this whole culture of consumption
we have to reject it the Islamic
tradition most of the if you look now
the wealth in this country 40% of the
wealth is not an economy of goods and
services that is the old American
economy it was an economy of goods and
services you produce things you sold
things or you did things for people like
you hired a carpenter and he would do
something for you or your mechanic so
goods and services that was that now
it's financial instruments it's making
money off of money this is the economy
of America and it's an economy that
takes wealth away from the middle people
and increasingly to the upper echelon
there's a Wall Street Journal op-ed
writer who's been covering the
wealthiest people he wrote a book called
richest an richest and like Pakistan but
it's where rich people live there's some
rich people in Pakistan trust me because
if you want to talk about wealth moving
up right but he wrote a book called
richest an and what he shows in that
book he had lower richest and middle
richest an and upper richest an and then
in Upper richest an he had a pound
called billionaire Vil a population of
one thousand two hundred and thirty
people those are the people that are
billionaires they have half of the
wealth of three billion people on the
planet half eight trillion people eight
trillion dollars half of that goes to
one thousand two hundred and thirty
people and the other half goes to three
billion people you think about that the
inequity that exists today on this
planet and we're part of it and I'm
going to just tell you a few things and
I'll close out with this tell you a few
things one historically the Muslims had
something in that you know when a
merchant comes into town you don't have
to ask where they got their goods from
this is what the I had taught you
know that there's butter on Asli and if
it's if it's a halal thing to purchase
you don't that tesu lettuce arrow
inertia and took that I've come to
succumb don't ask about things if you
find out it's you know so if somebody
comes in he's a merchant you don't ask
where he got it you can buy it if it's
how loud that that's traditionally how
they viewed it in I think in in
societies where most wealth acquisition
was relatively just that's fine I
personally don't agree with that opinion
today for things that we know about and
that we're able to do something about
and the single most important thing I
think to deal with the impoverished
conditions that we're living in this
country is to begin to empower people to
take back their communities
we have to make our own clothes
stop buying clothes that were made in
sweatshops we have to really this is
what we have to do we have to
re-establish family as the central most
important unit of a society because
Islam is about preservation of family
it's one of the six fundamentals
preservation of family if you look now
in the inner cities at the
disintegration of the family because if
you take oh if you take the father out
of fatherhood if you take the father out
of motherhood if you take the father the
brother out of brotherhood and the
sister out of sisterhood what do you
have left you have that the hood that's
all you've got left that's it and people
cannot survive in those conditions they
will die Camden New Jersey Chris Hedges
wrote a whole section on his book the
Empire of illusion about about that town
they they're going to dismantle the
police force in Camden they it's they
don't have money so they're just going
to regionalize it highest crime rate in
America just leave the poor people there
there's children on the streets doesn't
matter because these are throwaway
people what has to happen and the
Muslims and I'm going to chastise here
the immigrant community I really believe
that the immigrant community made an
ethical mistake as well as the strategic
mistake in not seriously taking the
existing indigenous Muslim communities
that you find in the inner cities to
heart and recognizing that they had a
moral obligation
to help them build community centers to
help them build their mosques it is a
disgrace when Suraj WA Haj Imam Surratt
when all over this country building
mosques for the entire Muslim community
mostly immigrant community and and and
he couldn't find the money to build a
beautiful Center in Brooklyn that's a
disgrace to this community because as
far as I'm concerned the single most
important community for the Muslims in
the United States of America is in the
inner cities it is the single most
important and I'm not saying this
gratuitously I'm saying this from my
heart it's the opinion of dr. Hadid
Blankenship who I consider one of the
most brilliant Muslim scholars that we
have not just in the United States but
on the globe and he has said that to me
many times so we have to be real about
helping these communities we want to get
the best and the brightest give them
scholarships so that they can give back
we don't want the migration up right
this is what happened with the the black
middle class and upper middle class they
just moved up and they didn't pick
anybody else up with them and now
they're completely alienating you have
completely separate african-american
communities in the United States that
can't relate to each other right and the
situation is so bad in places like East
Oakland really it's so bad and it's
right next door it's right next door
we're seeing social disintegration and
we have a moral responsibility as a
Muslim community we have a moral
responsibility to serve the unders
understand lisent promised us that you
are given victory by the weakest amongst
you and he meant what I thought he meant
like poor people that's who he was
talking about and he lived amongst them
and a lot commanded him to be patient
with the poorest of people who call on
their Lord in the morning
in the evening be patient with them be
with them don't hang out with the rich
people hang out with the poor people
that's what he told them Allah told him
to be with those to elevate them lift
them up bring them up
we need to dignify poverty in this
country because poverty in this country
is a blemish it's like something's wrong
with you you're like a a moral leper is
God's God is this is Protestantism at
its worst this idea somehow that God's
grace is when you get lots of money
Matthew 19 21 quoting crisp Christian
scripture here Matthew 19 20 19 21 when
the man comes to Jesus and Jesus says go
and sell your garment and give it to the
poor right go and sell your goods and
give it to the poor and you'll have a
treasure in heaven if you want to be
perfect go and sell your material
possessions and then give it to the poor
and then and then you can get a treasure
in heaven and you follow me the
Catholics took that very seriously and
that's why in the Catholic tradition the
highest thing is to renounce wealth
that's what monks do they have a vow of
chastity poverty and obedience chastity
poverty and obedience in those Catholic
schools they were all working for free
they were working for free the prophets
Eliza shows poverty over wealth he was
given a choice to be a slave prophet or
a king prophet and he chose to be a
slave prophet he lowered his standard of
living so that other standards could be
raised up that's a challenge that's a
moral challenge for people there's a
moral challenge wealth is a dangerous
thing
Satan no mater he said Satan Ali said
halala who he sab without on table
what's halau from well the permited is a
severe reckoning and what's Haram is a
chastisement and that's why the zoo had
they in all the books they say this the
people of zoo hood
the people that give up well cardona's
they're the most rational intelligent
people we have to lower our standards of
living really because we're living on a
planet right now that's in peril because
of all this wealth acquisition all this
greed because that's the fundamental
problem it's about bummer is just
wanting more when is enough enough you
know if you watch any program you watch
any of these animal shows you know those
animal program
I was once in West Africa with a
Egyptian American from New York and we
were in a jeep out in the middle of the
Sahara and he saw this all of these wild
animals he said man this is just like
the nature Channel
I said no the nature Channel is like
this yeah you got it wrong but if you
watch those programs when the lion gets
the zebra watch the other zebras you
watch them because they're all running
but right when that lion gets the zebra
they all stop and they go back to eating
because they know you know Harvey's gone
the lion got his lunch you know it's
over but the lion will not eat the whole
flock because the lion has a limit a
natural limit Aristotle said man is the
only one that has no natural limits in
Ellenson Alea tava our host Ivana
Shirley man goes to excess when he deems
himself wealthy when he deems himself
wealthy allies the wealthy and we are
the poor Sara Marku