sheikh hamza will be speaking on united
we stand when destiny was sought to a
serum i know her husband very well so
don't he's a friend of mine him was
sorta to a cinema received in o Muhammad
he was happy was Adam Testament Kiera
what I heard our our in the Holly
darling a hundred the the problem with
being at the end of a long day is that
people one are tired because there's
been a lot of speechifying and talking
and so the mind begins to wander people
are thinking about dinner and other
things but this is my fate today is to
be here and I want to say a lot of
what's been said were thoughts that were
in my mind so people articulated a lot
of my own feelings certainly dr. Jackson
and thought of Carol Milan also dr.
Ramadan's points about standing up for
truth and recognizing that the
us-and-them dichotomy is what can be
referred to as a false dichotomy to put
you into these us in them categories and
say oh we have to be either you're with
us or you're against us there are other
options on the table so I was asked to
talk about where are we going which is
one of my favorite questions because
it's a Quranic question for Anna Todd
have wound it's also a Christian
question Quo Vadis where are you going
it's something we all have to think
about obviously that question can be
thought about on a lot of different
levels it can be thought about on a
metaphysical level where then are you
going as a creature that is both
spiritual and material that has a soul
but also has a body if you ask it on a
metaphysical level the Quranic the
Quranic determination the answer to that
she is very professional very conscious
that you you're either going to bliss or
you're going to dis which is actually a
nice daunting word you're going to the
other place one of the things that
Charles Dickens said about France during
the Revolution was it was the best of
times and it was the worst of times and
then he said we were all going to heaven
and we were all going to that other
place I think this time that we're
living in is the best of times it's also
the worst of times and to ask the
question where are we going
depends on the individual when people
say to me you're too liberal and then I
get other people say you're too
conservative I have to question the
question or more than his remark why are
you too liberal or why are you too
conservative I have to ask the person
why do you think I'm too conservative or
why do you think I'm too liberal because
some people tell me I'm too conservative
and other people tell me I'm too liberal
and you're gonna confuse me I'm just
trying to be true to my own
understanding and if you blame me for
that or challenge what's in my heart you
can't challenge what's in my heart
because by the grace of God only God
knows what's in the heart even the devil
doesn't know what's in your heart so
when we ask the question where are we
going we can ask it at a metaphysical
level but I want to look at where are we
going at the level of being in finite
bodies in this world not the afterlife
because none of us can answer that
question if as Muslims I know that
there's certain strains of Christianity
that will say we're definitely going to
heaven and they're all going to hell and
I've actually read in one Christian book
about Islam he said one of the worst
things about Islam is they actually
don't know whether they're going to
heaven or not ask any Muslim are you
absolutely 100% sure you're going to
heaven and they'll say
I'm not and they say but thank God
because we're Christians we know we're
going to heaven that's a different way
of looking at where you're going in
terms of this country and where we are
today in some ways we are so much better
than we have ever been as a nation let
me give you one example African
Americans most of the African Americans
in the United States today have
ancestors that were brought to this
country in Chains and this was not seen
as as something wrong or immoral except
by a very small group of British people
and American mostly Unitarians there
were pamphlets written by Jews by
Christians not only justifying that
black people were the accursed
descendants of ham and therefore this
was their fate but that the Bible
justified the conditions of slavery in
the United States that was not that long
ago people in the 1950s when Eisenhower
was president African Americans could
not drink from the same drinking
fountains as white people in many states
in this country it's hard for people
here to imagine them but there are
people here that are alive today that
don't know the history of this country
that's not old history it's recent
history that most people of color in the
United States of America fifty years ago
had the option of being a janitor a
night watchman a maid
a servant these were the options that is
no longer the case there is a man of
color in the White House that was white
for over 200 years that house was white
for over 200 years so things have
changed to deny that change in this
country those positive changes
is to deny an aspect of America that is
very important so from that perspective
things are much better that's just one
example and I could give many other
examples but from other aspects of the
United States there are very troubling
signs going on in this country right now
let me give you an example in the FBI
they issue certain guidelines for
determining extremists one of the recent
guidelines was if they talk too much
about restoring the US Constitution
that's considered extremism or a sign of
extremism because there are certain
people's in this country that are very
troubled by a lot of the rights in the
Constitution and aspects of the
Constitution that have been trampled
upon they're very troubled the right to
be free of illegal search and seizure
without probable cause the fact that
people can now be patted down I was in
an airport and my six-year-old Todd I
almost went to blows because I've got a
lot of Irish blood and I was in an
airport and this guy wanted to Pat my
six-year-old child down and I told him
you're not laying your hand on that boy
and if you do you'd better get your
Taser out I'm telling you the truth and
he got very offended I said look I
actually wrote a paper on pornography in
this country and I know the statistics
of pedophilia and I'm not accusing you
but I don't know you you are a stranger
and when I was a kid my mother told me
watch out for strangers so I don't want
you touching my child now if you want to
bring a lady out here if she has to
check a six-year-old boy then I'll let
you because statistics show women don't
molest little kids they might aid and
abet a molester but they don't do it
because that humanity is still
tact for me that is a complete gross and
egregious trampling of my right as a
parent to protect my child what kind of
a world are we in when a six-year-old
has to be patted down what kind of
experience is that for a six-year-old
child people don't think about these
things but this is the world they're
growing up in when I was a young boy the
whole family went to the gate in the
airport you remember that Iman Kassam
imam zain imam sera that was the America
we grew up in you went to the gate to
see her family off there was no you
didn't have to stand in front of a
machine that was going to basically
undress you for some stranger to look at
you now let me give you an example of
the problem of wealth in this country I
was with a group of very wealthy Saudi
Arabians and we went to a private
Airport in the United States of America
not that long ago this a few years ago
we got onto a private jet our baggage
had no cheque we didn't have to put them
through any machines or anything we just
got on the plane and I'm thinking here's
Saudi Arabians because they have a lot
of money they can hire private jets and
they don't have to go through any of
this security what does that say about
our country what does that say about our
country we have so many contradictions
in the United States and until we as a
people start dealing with the
contradictions of this country the
disparities between the powerful and the
powerless between the enfranchise and
the disenfranchised between the rich and
the poor until we start really looking
at who we are as a people we are not
dealing with reality we're living in
bubbles and those bubbles will
eventually burst like they've bursted in
places like Syria Gaddafi now he's
watching television and
saying who are these people ripping up
my my picture they loved me my people
love me cuz every time he went out sound
gazonga every time he went out they
would all clap Gaddafi Gaddafi got and
he's just eating it up
they loved me and then he had around him
all these people saying well I have you
to become an uncle of cotton your hip
book shop your hip bucha you see this is
the delusional State Bashar I said is in
this delusional State they don't
understand what happened
krishna mubarak was surrounded by people
wallahi bucha Shabana sorry ow he didn't
in your hip book and this is what he's
and then he shocked he doesn't and then
he gets up my beeble my people opening
his arms thinking that that they're
gonna all go home this is the delusional
state that these people are in we have
people in power today that are in
delusional states when Barack Obama says
that arugula the price of arugula has
gone way up you see this is a man who's
he's living in a different world from
somebody in East Oakland or South
Central LA he hasn't even visited any of
these places he's living in a different
world and he's surrounded by people
living in different worlds this sets up
a situation that leads to revolution if
you read history this this denial of the
suffering of common people when you have
bailouts in this country of hundreds of
billions of dollars for private bankers
and individuals losing their houses
because those private bankers tricked
them now you look at this because this
is completely Haram and Sharia but let
me give you an example they now the FBI
had recognized this long before 2008
because the FBI does good work as well
they do they do good work in certain
things and in other things they you know
they have problems they're a human
institution but in something um Muslims
you know there's all these you know
horrible government and isn't that but
when the house gets robbed nine-one-one
can you send some police over as quick
as possible I've just been robbed
you see people this is human nature
these banksters what they did was they
they would have somebody go and they
would say oh this house is worth
$800,000 and it wasn't it was worth
maybe four hundred thousand dollars and
then they would loan a person the loan
they would loan them the money eight
hundred thousand dollars and then they
would take several of these loans and
they would put them in a package
securitized debt and then they would
sell this debt to the farmers to the
retirement of teachers funds to the
fireman's funds they as triple-a loans
even though they knew that these were
subprime loans and that they were very
very susceptible to collapsing but they
that's why
who cares if if the same rating
institution that downgraded the United
States
those were the same rating institutions
that were giving triple-a loans to
subprime securitized a the same
institutions you think I trust them
triple a double a single a C B D F
they've all failed us they say too big
to fail but the reality of it is they
were too big to jail because they're too
powerful this is the reality but the
average American is suffering and
they're being told you're the problem
you're the problem
move from far the problem Oh the
boogeyman over here there though it's
all their fault you see this is what's
going on on this planet this is what's
going on people are being hoodwinked
they're being fooled and if you look he
says you know what is relevant for both
Muslims and Americans in terms of where
we're going
Muslims and Americans
assumes already that there's some
difference between Muslims and Americans
know what is relevant for Muslims living
in America as well as the population at
large because I'm an American I'm as
American as apple pie I'm serious
I'm sweet too but I am as American as
apple pie I my ancestor on my mother's
side 1764 my Irish great-great-great
grandfather came here fought in the
Continental Army with Washington as a
lieutenant and this is all I can prove
this I can be a son of the American
Revolution if I wanted I just George
Bush is also a member of that
institution so I haven't applied because
you know it used to be a patriotic
institution but I'm as American as apple
pie
18:38 my grandfather migrated to
Philadelphia up the up the river coming
into New York going up my group my
grandfather on my mother's side from her
paternal side 1896 Ellis Island so the
whole spectrum of experience is there
the only one I didn't come as as I
embraced Islam so I can relate to the
post 1965 immigration because I joined I
didn't know it at the time that I was
joining an oppressed American minority
but now I know that I'm part of an
oppressed American minority so I have
the whole American experience except the
African American experience but I have a
connection with that experience because
my mother was an imam zain knows this
because he knows my mother my mother was
very very involved in the civil rights
movement when I was a little kid I was
marching in marches with my mother in
the civil rights movement my mother is
in the 1964 encyclopedia Britannica's
yearbook there's a picture of her
holding up a a placard at the the when
the Republican
convention was happening in San
Francisco and she was there everybody in
the crowd is african-american except my
mother and my older sister and she's
holding up a placard that says civil
rights is the issue so that's the that's
the stock that I come from I come my
mother was involved she followed the
program civil rights anti-war Vietnam
feminist rights and then the
environmental that she was in
environmentalism in in the late 60s we
were recycling in my house in the late
60s so it's not new to me going green my
mother was Green before people had a
term for that
so that's that's that's the that's the
America that I come from it's an America
of struggle it's an America that
acknowledges that this thing began in
order to form a more perfect union
people don't like that they say it's not
grammatical how can something be more
perfect but the point of that
rhetorically is that this is a work in
progress and and dr. American Jackson
talks about this a lot which is
important and that is the the fact that
America is being negotiated constantly
we are in negotiations
it is a give-and-take let me give you an
example right now you see and my part of
my problem is because I'm you know I was
told my mother taught us as kids that a
mind is like a parachute it only works
when it's open so I was taught to be
open-minded and that's probably one of
the reasons I was able to accept Islam
because I wasn't taught to be
prejudicial towards other face I was
taught that other faiths are good they
have truth in them that's the way my
mother raised us but my mother told us
always be open-minded always listen to
another's argument before you condemn it
or judges that's what I was taught so I
read I read Noam Chomsky and I read Pat
Buchanan and I agr