sometimes I disagree with him other time
I agree with Chomsky sometimes I
disagree with others right because I'm
in dialogue with the books I read if you
if you see my library there's markings
on the side what is he talking about
couldn't agree more because I'm in dire
with the books I read that that's how I
was raised that you have to think and
you have to process and sometimes if
something bothers you you have to ask
yourself why is it bothering me why is
it bothering me because sometimes
something bothers you because it's
something you haven't dealt with inside
yourself you see you don't like to hear
it because it might be too true now in
the United States of America we have a
major problem in this country with how
Americans are looking at terrorism just
a few examples when a man who was
rational by all accounts all of his
friends said he was rational he had a
engineering degree he was very
intelligent
high IQ had made a lot of money when he
flew his private plane into an IRS
building and left a note as a political
protest this was an act of political
protest they said this is a madman but
when Colonel when lieutenant or captain
Hassan kills the people down in this is
obviously a conspiracy he was in contact
with somebody in Yemen he wasn't a
madman you see this this this
psychiatrist who was in the Army when a
man in northern Europe plans for two
years to bomb a building in Oslo and
then kill all of these multiculturalists
and he does it with a political screed
that he writes justifying this and
quoting many many Islamophobes from
around the world including the major
ones that are here when when he does
that it's he's a madman that's all he's
just a madman so why is it that when
these hijackers hijack these planes and
drove them into why weren't they mad
what's the rationale
behind that reasoning it either there to
all terrorists or they're all madmen but
let's have a standard that is based on
some kind of rational criterion because
from my perspective it's madness we're
living in a time one of the arab poets
said enough is eminently forty should do
the heat malaysia hew general philosophy
aqua de we're living in a time that's so
extreme that if it doesn't drive you mad
you're not saying if it doesn't drive
you mad you're not saying when
palestinian if you if you look at
palestine a hundred years ago you Mark
Twain wrote a book about his travels he
went to Palestine he had some racist
remarks it was par for his day but
basically he wasn't afraid of
Palestinians he felt very comfortable
going to the Holy Lands you read
Gertrude Bell and her experiences when
Gertrude Bell went to visit the Ottoman
Bay in Baghdad she talked about the fact
how she marveled that she could just
walk in and sit down with the ruler what
happened what has happened to our world
it wasn't that long ago that you could
go into the modulus of the kings of
Saudi Arabia anybody you could go into
the modulus of the rulers in the Muslim
world just go in and sit down with them
you could bring your complaints to them
this was the world that people lived in
not that long ago in the United States
of America when Andrew Jackson won the
presidency he opened up the White House
anybody could come in they completely
trashed the place it was the last time
they did it but but that was that was
America because Andrew Jackson was the
people's president he was a true
Democrat he was also a
terrible killed a lot of Native
Americans and he's got some blemishes
but he's he was a human living at a time
when it's hard to judge people based on
the time they live in I mean it's easy
for us to condemn people now for things
that they did in the past but those were
the norms of their societies thank God
were beyond those norms we have a
problem in this country one of the major
problems in the United States of America
today is that the economy that's what
they say it's the economy stupid what
they talk about is the problem is
entitlements it's all this welfare no
there's only one problem with the
American economy it is a war based
economy it is spending almost all of our
budget in Washington is going to the
military industrial complex and until
that stops nothing is going to change in
this country they don't want to deal
with the fact that the budgets that the
Pentagon gets could completely rebuild
the entire planet we could have in in
mauritania the main street in mauritania
is John F Kennedy Boulevard
you know why the more tenían say John F
Kennedy Boulevard because he used to
send wheat to the more Italians if you
ask an old more Italian who lived at
that time who was John Kennedy man
Kennedy Kennedy he'll say Roger solid
minute American can you convert a foot
per hour my second a good man from the
Americans used to feed poor people when
Hillary Clinton as sheikh abdullah bin
vania in papa what can we do to improve
America's are are how people view us
abroad Shanna blow the says feed people
up Animal Farm
don't drop bombs on them it won't make
you any friends and they won't even be
frenemies
really
don't drop bombs on people Afghanistan
is one of the poorest countries in the
world today if you read Roland me show
this extraordinary French photographer
and his wife in the 1960s they lived in
Afghanistan it was one of the most
beautiful places in the world they fell
in love with it and its people and you
can look at the pictures of beauty
Afghanis used to plant gardens they
loved flowers every half honey had a
flower garden in his house many pictures
of Afghani as he picked showing them
smelling flowers they used to fly kites
there they loved kites of many people
they would go and fly kites
they had picnics in this country they
say these are terrorists how did they
become terrorists those who among them
who are terrorizing how did they become
terrorists over a decade of war Russia
killed at least 1.5 million Afghan Eze
Russians lost about 13,000 people we
don't know how many we've killed but
today we're mourning the dead of New
York and it was said earlier we have to
remind the American people of the dead
of bedad of the dead of Kabul and also
of the danger of the imminent death of
people in Tehran of people in poem of
people in Tabriz for being nothing other
than simple people who are trying to
live their lives in peace and security
and because of the failure of political
people their lives are endangered and
threatened this is the reality we cannot
allow the incompetence of these
political leaders to get you and Isaiah
Narmer John and Abdullah killing each
other this has to stop as a project in
the human condition because the only
people
benefit by this you know Karen Armstrong
was saying the fact that the people that
support her this program to create more
peace in the world are the businessmen
because business men don't like war
businessmen don't like war unless
they're in the business of war then they
love war then they love war there are
people here that love war because it's
an exciting time for them they make a
lot of money off the blood of people
share Abdullah bin VII said the Arab
Spring was watered with blood this is
what's going on innocent people being
killed whether it's in New York but dad
wherever it is Washington DC it's
unacceptable and as a human community if
we don't begin to recognize that we have
to re-establish and reassert ourselves
as individuals that have rights to have
good governance to have people that are
looking out for our best interest
because these people in power today are
not looking out for our best interests
and let me give you one example it in an
extraordinary study called the China
study of nutrition 20 years with top
experts from Princeton from Oxford that
determined that most of the diseases
that are happening in the United States
of America are directly related to the
diets of the American people and yet
Americans are lied to that they need
milk that they need meat that they need
all these things fat and sugar if you
give it to rats they will die because
they can't stop consuming it all motor
banana Bob in the warmth of imam attic
said yeah krome allow the Anela holder
our captor a little calmer
beware of meat because it has the
addiction of wine you can become
addicted to meat it's harmful for you if
you consume too much meat this is all
proven but when Oprah Winfrey after
reading about this announces it on
national television that she doesn't
want to eat beef anymore the
Hado Lobby sues her the Pyramid of food
that you see this pyramid that you see
of food was actually restructured after
the dairy and meat Lobby said no no
you're going to harm our economy and so
science is subjugated to greed you see
this is the problem when we have most of
our scientists in this country working
in defense industries instead of trying
to find cures for cancer they're trying
to find better ways to kill people and
when they you see they had a problem
when they were thinking about Saudi
Arabia and if we have to ever use
nuclear weapons on these places we're
going to destroy all the oil
infrastructure and so they had American
scientists good people that go to church
on Sunday most likely PhDs from the best
universities so they developed the
neutron bomb that kills all the people
and leaves the infrastructure standing
this is the type of madness that we're
living in
this is unacceptable as a human
condition when the number one industry
on this planet is tobacco alcohol and
narcotics and number two a close rival
is weapons something is wrong with the
human project something is seriously
wrong with the human project there are
two questions to ask why do we need all
these weapons when most of us I don't
have any problem with you you don't have
any problem with me if you want to know
why people get aggressive against you
disrespect them in the ghettos in in
Washington DC there's people that carry
around guns you know what they really
want they won't respect because if you
pull out a gun you suddenly have an
incredible amount of respect coming from
the person on the other end he respects
you and that's the that's the level that
these people have fallen to because they
feel so disrespected that they have to
carry around that they have to look at
you like what you looking at what are
you looking at because they think you're
looking at them with contempt they think
you're looking at them without any
respect that's what the african-american
in
inner cities in the United States feels
he wants respect she wants respect and
it's not offered and now because Obama
is president suddenly it's all over
races a hey man were beyond that
tell the Tea Party that you know tell
tell the white supremists that tell the
N let me talk about the G Party because
I read the tea party's manifesto and I
agreed with probably about 80% of that
book I'm not exaggerating I read there
man people just say Oh tea party Tea
Party see they never read what they
actually have to say you should actually
read what they have to say a lot of
their complaints are very justified but
the tea party is even though there's
some african-americans in the tea party
undeniably the tea party is largely a
Norman Rockwell America that doesn't
exist anymore these people have seen a
change and the demographics of this
country they've seen a Kenya Luo
tribesman become the President of the
United States of America he could not
get elected in Kenya because Luo people
can't get elected to high political
offices his father was a failure because
he got some of the highest degrees in
this country when he got back to Kenya
because of the tribalism in his country
he was not able to advance and yet his
son could become president of the United
States you see this this these aspects
of America are very troubling to certain
Americans they're troubling to them but
as somebody who has Irish American entra
ancestry welcome to America it's part of
the negotiating process because my
grandfather changed his name from Oh
handsome to Hanson
because H ENS Owen is also an
anglo-saxon name and it's a Swedish name
and John Hanson was the first president
of the Continental Congress so he
changed his name my great-grandfather
you do Chiappa let's change his name to
George he was light-skinned he used to
tell people he was French I see it's not
that long ago I these are the stories
that I grew up with but Greeks now they
have Greek day kiss me on Greek the Big
Fat Greek Wedding
everybody loves Greeks in America now
it wasn't always like that they were
greasers seriously they were greasers
John Esposito could go on all night
telling you about the Italian Americans
and they're still struggling with The
Sopranos they're still struggling with
that stereotype I mean when I listen to
John I love John he's he's brilliant
he's great but I keep hearing the Mafia
Don make him an offer he can't refuse
and to end on the Mafia Don America is
in danger of becoming a Mafia Don this
is not the America that I grew up in
when Dick Cheney can go around this
country selling his book and people
aren't literally spitting on him for
what he did to this country I'm serious
and I'm gonna make a distinction for all
of you right now if people say I'm
anti-government that's a lie because
I've studied the American system of
government in America we differentiate
between government and administration
the government is the Constitution of
the United States
it's the Congress it's the Senate it's a
judiciary system we have checks and
balances that are made to protect we the
people but administration's can
manipulate can abuse can do things that
are wrong and the only way that we can
change that in this system of civil
government's is by voting in different
people and I'm hoping that that's still
a possibility to see a real change in
this country but this country is
polarized it's in a very precarious
situation and the economy is incredibly
fragile it is incredibly fragile many of
the jobs that are gone will never come
back again Americans are gonna have to
think of new ways of making livelihoods
they're gonna have to go back to the
creativity of the 19th century it's a
new America
and Muslims are part of that America
we've been here from the beginning we're
not going anywhere we're here to stay
and Americans Americans in this country
and and and I really mean this we're
part of the family we're part of the
intellectual family of European and
American intellectual tradition they use
Arabic numerals when they learn their
mathematics just to remind them if they
don't know where those numerals came
from they came from Spain
via Morocco via Egypt via Iraq via India
that's how they came when they look up
at the night sky they see Betelgeuse
epple Joseph they see devar on a divan
they see Altair a paya they see the
remnants of Muslim discoveries when they
study astronomy in American universities
they learn Arabic names to think about
those stars because we are part of the
intellectual tradition when they study
my son is studying algebra right now
algebra when ma vana it's it's forced
upon them the words are there to remind
those who know and so that we can show
others who don't know we're part of the
family we're part of the intellectual
spiritual emotional physical
psychological fabric of human existence
we are one-fourth of this planet and
we're not going anywhere it's a big new
Brzezinski said it's easier to kill a
million people today than to control a
million people in the past it was easier
to control a million people than to kill
a million people if having to kill a
million people is the only way we should
end the human project right now drink
the kool-aid get it over with
this is totally completely unacceptable
stop thinking about controlling people
that's the problem
learn how to work with one another
Alwyn we're a little bit early we'll
talk while come together that verse was
about all of us coming to there that
verse was revealed about the people of
Mecca who weren't Muslims work together
in what's good to Allen or a liability
with Dhokla work together this is what
we have to do as a people we have
incredible challenges incredible
challenges but this country is a
creative country it has risen to the
occasion many times before and I'm
hoping because hope springs eternal hope
is a bird with feathers that perches in
the soul I'm a hopeful person I've got
five kids to make me extremely hopeful
this is my country I love this country
it's my home
I love the hills around the Bay Area
that I grew up with I love muir woods
I love the redwood forests I love the
Sierra Madre that I went to as a child
and camped with my family these are the
places that I grew up with when the
prophet sallallaahu them left Mecca and
he met when he got to Medina there was a
man who came sailin high fari
and he said to the Prophet SAW I said
I'm said kafir I hit Tameka - how did
you find Mecca and he said oh the valley
has been filled with flowers through
Maha and he said and all of the cedar
trees were blossoming and I left the the
water was flowing and he began to
describe the physical he didn't say the
Kaaba or masha'Allah dr. Kutner he
described the physicality of the place
that the Prophet SAW lies who grew up
with as a child and the Prophet began to
weep and he said qu franca has
polka-dotted shalwick Tony don't please
stop it's enough you have made me yearn
from my home
he was yearning for the flowers of Mecca
not just for the Kaaba
he was yearning for the trees of Mecca
that he shaded under as a child
everybody loves the place they grew up
in her but what a minute
amen it's part of human condition it's
not a hadith but it's a basic fitness
statement so this is our country all of
you are here with every right unless
there's some illegal immigrants in the
hall now report yourself immediately to
Homeland Security and for those people
who came here who are going to report
back to your whoever that you report
back to because there's private
enterprise as well as public I would
just say this Imams Aid
I've known Imam David for many years now
Imams aide the lies that they tell about
this man just really bothered me
you know these right-wing people they
just recently wrote an article about him
Imams aides what grew up in very
difficult conditions but like many
honorable African Americans he joined
the United States Air Force to get out
of a certain situation he served
honorably unlike all these chickenhawks
Dick Cheney got six referrals right
seriously unlike these chicken Hawks
to talk about all patriotism in this
they've never served this country
they've served themselves they've served
themselves and he spearheaded this event
because he wants to see the best for
Humanity he's a universal man and he
loves humanity and that's what this was
about coming together to commune with
one another to share thoughts to be
together on a day before a very sad day
in American history but I want all of us
to remember the evil that came out of
the evil that occurred on September 11th
as well remember all the dead Iraqis
remember all the dead civilians in
Afghanistan remember those people
because they're nameless people we've
got now a memorial with all the names of
the people that died in New York
and in Washington their names are known
but we'll never know the names when I
read the New York Times it said six
civilians were killed yesterday in
Afghanistan they don't say Zana Hunnam
or BB Majid daddy or they don't give the
names they're just nameless people
nameless people they're not nameless
with God
so don't mind it come