welcome this morning and thanks for
coming here the hush come across the
room so I might as well get started but
on behalf of the Islamic Institute the
Congressional Muslim Staff Association
and Islamic a magazine allow me to
formally welcome you to this special
discussion entitled Islam and the
Western world an interfaith dialogue
welcome to Capitol Hill those of you who
are guests from far and abroad and while
we're in the Appropriations Committee
room we can't have food in here pork or
otherwise so we'll have lunch afterwards
right after the event that'll be served
in the hall but again thanks for taking
the time to join us you probably heard
that the bells rang just before we sat
down and so there's a series of votes
with the members right now for about 20
minutes so congressman keith Ellison
from Minnesota who's our moderator for
this evening will join us just as soon
as they're finished with those roll call
votes but let me take a moment to thank
JLA Williams of Congressman Meeks office
Mubeen Saifullah with his a tuna
institute Sara columella
of Islamic magazine and Catherine gates
of Park Avenue partners for their
gracious assistance and making a
Savannah reality and I'd like to also
recognize a few special guests that are
here today including Colin Hanna of let
freedom ring Imam Muhammad module of the
Adam Center just joined us from Sterling
Virginia and we have Paul teller from
the Republican Study Committee and we'll
be joined by several members who also
would like to join us and even say a few
words once again those votes are
complete in the Quran we read and
Muslims are told in the second chapter
indeed b-day Muslims Jews or Christians
those who believe in God in the last day
and who do good have their reward with
their Lord they have nothing to fear and
they will not sorrow and again in the
29th chapter in the 46 verse we read do
not contend with the people of the book
Jews and Christians except in the
fairest way in Psalm 34 14 we are
instructed
turn away from evil and do good seek
peace and pursue it and again in Matthew
5:9 we read blessed are the peacemakers
for they shall be called the sons of God
all faith traditions and joined
followers to worship God to do good and
to strive for peace and yet in today's
turbulent and often troubled world we
find that religious religions often
appear to be at the intersection of
mistrust strife and violence has faith
exacerbated and even caused violence as
Christopher Hitchens asserts is one
faith particularly violent or does the
solution of the world's many conflicts
rest with the truly faithful these
questions and others such as Muslim
immigration terrorism the successes and
challenges of Muslims living in the West
are just some of the issues that our
guests will tackle this morning and
again while we are waiting for a
congressman Ellison to moderate this
important session let me begin by
introducing our guests to begin that
discussion my our first guest is
ambassador Doug Holliday I've met Doug
Holliday just very recently and was
taken by his sincerity and willingness
to work with people of different faith
traditions and when we were beginning to
organize this event it became clear to
me that ambassador Holliday was the key
person and the right person to engage in
this dialogue to talk about some of
these important issues
ambassador holiday is a general partner
and a co-founder of Park Avenue Equity
Partners with offices in New York City
in Washington DC previously he was a
senior officer with the international
investment banking firm goldman sachs
and company and held senior positions in
the White House and State Department he
recently completed the four part PBS
documentary the question of God with
Harvard psychiatrist and friend dr. Amon
Nicoli
he holds degrees with the University of
North Carolina Princeton and Oxford
University he serves as co-chairman of
the Bucks and initiative I noted noted
author Gail Sheehy in her bestseller
pathfinders described ambassador
Holliday as an influential layman who
excelled in all that
touched and our other partner this
morning for the discussion is Sheikh
Yusuf Hamza Yusuf was described in The
Guardian as arguably the West's most
influential Islamic scholar after
studying Islam with some of the most
notable scholars in the Arab world for
over a decade mr. Yusuf returned to the
United States and earned degrees in
health care and religious studies he is
one of the most recognized Muslims in
both the Arab and Western
english-speaking countries and the
Guardian poll on influential Muslims in
Engel England ranked him as one of the
highest and most influential Muslims in
the British Muslim community in Eid
Hussein's recent book published by
penguin about a radical Islamist journey
to moderate slam the Islamist why I
joined radical Islam in Britain what I
saw inside and why I left the author
states that mr. Yusuf teachings were a
major influence in his personal
rejection of radical Islamism
he has also advised several members of
various governments about Islam and is a
member of the c100 a division of the
World Economic Forum a high-level group
to strategize in ways which bridges
could be built between the west and the
Muslim world he was also a special
adviser to United Nations high-level
Committee the Alliance of civilizations
and was a discussion leader at the UN's
meeting in Doha Hamza Yusuf continues to
lecture and advise leaders in several
countries and is also running a globally
recognized Muslim Seminary in Northern
California there's a tuna Institute he
has written three books and is also the
student and personal translator of
Sheikh Abdullah bin byah the former vice
president of Mauritania and one of the
most knowledgeable and respected
scholars in the Sunni Muslim world
Sheikh Hamza currently resides in
Northern California with his wife and
five children so we'll begin with
ambassador Holliday who will share some
of his thoughts and then go to Sheikh
Hamza and then we'll proceed with a
conversation at that point hopefully
congressman Ellison will take over the
moderator duties Thank You ambassador
thank you so much well it's wonderful to
be here I I'm I was trying to think of
an inspirational thought and all that
came to me was a t-shirt I saw recently
it said what am i doing in this room and
I
I kind of feel this way with Iman Hamza
he's he's a incredible scholar and
person he's none of the rock star status
of the Dalai Lama but he's getting there
and it's but it's an honor to be with
him my wife also had another t-shirt she
bought one time they said my next
husband will be will be normal but
that's another story anyway I thought it
might be helpful before we got into some
of the substantive issues to give you a
little sense you know it's always good
to know where someone's coming from a
little bit about my spiritual journey I
grew up in a family where my father was
a very aggressive atheist and so
religious kind of exercises were not
really that practiced in our household
and and part of it he was reacting we're
all product of what we've embraced by
our parents and reacted to various
things but he grew up in the South where
the Bible Belt kind of he took it as
something that just was uncomfortable
for him wasn't a lot of thinking going
on him just embracing a kind of certain
approach that he wasn't comfortable with
so I came to faith really on my own
through some mentors and a grandmother
who really I saw it in her life and it
really was really really powerful for me
now if I had been grown they had grown
up in Morocco or some other place would
I have followed different course I'm not
sure but all that I know is for me as a
teenager I saw lives that were really
attractive and they seemed to be
followers of Christ and in the world
that I was in that was very very
important to me
this began to animate pretty much
everything in my life and I I had these
grandiose plans to change the world then
I moved down to North America then to my
state in the city and then I finally got
to the point of saying my my greatest
focus for change spiritually needs to be
myself and I I think of that great you
know the literary critic GK Chesterton
in London one time I think was in the
30s
a hundred leading people were asked the
question what's wrong
the world interesting in here all these
people comment on that and he wrote back
on a postcard just a few words he said
what's wrong with the world
I am and increasingly I see that my
biggest challenge is conforming my own
life to the dictates of my faith and I I
haven't used Christianity because I feel
like Christianity has so much pejorative
baggage it cysts all kinds of things I
choose to use almost biblical biblical
language which strikes me you don't find
the term Christian but once that's when
non-believers were describing what was
going on with with believers I choose to
say that I'm a you know follower of
Christ and want to conform my life to
his dictates so so how did I get into
this whole dialogue matter as a as a
reformed investment banker and a private
equity guy you know I've never never
been really qualified for anything I've
ever done so why stop now but after 9/11
I met a remarkable man dr. Akbar Ahmed
did some of you know a former high
commissioner from Pakistan to the UK and
he's he's a scholar and American
University a friend of mine said you
should meet him and so I went over to
you know the National Press Club he was
he was holding forth that day and I
really was taken with him and we went
back to my office and we spent about an
hour and a half just talking and I I had
just a lot of questions and kind of like
having the privilege of you know
interacting with you you kind of say I
need a human being to talk with about
these things because I I there's so much
I just don't understand
so we began this interesting journey
that didn't start out as to start an
organization or Institute of any sort in
fact I think this city has too many of
them or China they're kind of like
rabbits and Replace you turn there's a
new Institute a new organization I guess
where we're doing the same thing but but
what we did was
we started to meet he and I regularly
and then we expanded the circle you know
he brought a few of his friends I
brought a few of mine and then one day
we had a very important conversation at
the Department of Treasury I brought
some friends together who happened to be
very senior in the CIA FAC they ran
these things FBI and all this and I said
you just got a here with this man has to
say you might not like it but you should
hear this and I said the ground rules
are you won't shoot the messenger here
and he would say things and they'd get
crazy and say but we're Americans we're
the Marshall Plan people is it okay
timeout everybody let's get cool
everybody relax we're just trying to
learn so it was a very it was a
remarkable time so then we started this
kind of conversation where we expanded
it so about every month we'd have at the
Egyptian embassy we'd have a dinner or
the cases home we'd have a dinner so we
go back and forth and a Christian Muslim
and we would just what I would call
create a safe table where people could
begin to connect on a human level and I
think what's a little bit different
about what we're doing with the buckston
initiative there's a lot of places where
people are debating policy and and
that's important to do but I almost
liken it to billiard balls you know that
kind of they smash into each other and
go their separate ways but we decided to
do was really try to get to know each
other as human beings you know what
makes you tick your family how do you
view prayer so we would have
increasingly over time we developed a
level of comfort and trust so that we
could ask the harder question what's
going on with this Danish cartoon thing
what's going on things that Christians
are doing you know what what does all
this mean this Jerry Falwell a spokesman
for four year belief and this kind of
thing so we were able to really talk
very honestly and I remember and we had
a range of people in that room all the
way we you know and and what was also
distinctive they weren't clerics they
were people in pretty key positions that
had real influence you know ambassadors
senators CEOs different people and I
remember one time we talked about Prayer
and we had two Muslims share their
perspective and two Christians one of
the Christians who shared was Ken Starr
and that was interesting you know so he
shared his thought but you know what we
went away with saying isn't this
interesting because I'd never ask a
Muslim you know questions like you know
when you're praying five times a day and
there's a real crisis in your family
does that help you you know I mean I
just kind of thought it was a
ritualistic thing so so because we had
the type of relationship we could really
learn and talk so that I'd say that's
what's been unique about what we're
doing with with buckston you know trying
to find a way to develop deeper better
relationships so that we can learn from
one another now the last point I'd say
with what we're doing the buckston
effort that is really unique we're not
trying to either I think there are
religious groups that kind of sit around
holding hands singing Kumbaya and they
kind of avoid all the uncomfortable
issues and so we've decided that we want
to learn to live with our differences I
mean there's a lot of things we're never
going to come together on you know if
you know our brothers here trying to
convert me and I'm trying to convert
them that's kind of a you know
somebody's gonna either have a stalemate
or when but if we have a relationship of
love and respect you know we're able to
kind of see a lot more movement I can
learn from them and you know who knows
what will happen so I think this idea of
learning to live with differences and I
I really challenge a lot of my Christian