Islamophobia- The Crisis of Muslims in the West

Islamophobia: The Crisis of Muslims in the West

The Importance of Asking Questions in the Right Order

My teacher, Sheikh Abdullah Ibn Bayyah, argued in Washington, he actually argued this at the White House and at the Brookings Institute. He said that in logic, we're taught to ask questions in a certain order. One of the things that ill-trained minds do is they ask questions in the wrong order, and then this results in the wrong answers. So for instance, he said you should always ask what before why.

So for instance, Newsweek has an article that says, why do they hate us? Instead of asking, do they hate us? Because when the Gallup went out and actually polled the Muslims all over the world, they found that they did not hate us. And so by asking why before asking what, we come up with the wrong answer. So I want to look a little bit at Islamophobia in the United States.

Defining Islamophobia Through Cartoons and Media

And you see a lot of cartoons, and cartoons are very influential. Islamophobia is irrational fear of Islamist terrorism. Interesting. So what would you call the rational fear of Islamist terrorism? Sanity. So this is framing, already Islamophobia is being framed here. So they're telling you what it is.

This is not what Islamophobia is, but cartoonists are actually very, very influential, if you haven't noticed. Because many people read the funnies and don't read any other part of the newspaper. And I've seen that on many occasions.

Dictionary Definitions of Islamophobia

So Islamophobia, according to WordNet, a source of many people's definitions, Islamophobia is prejudice against Muslims, from the idea of prejudging. Collins English Dictionary, Islamophobia is hatred or fear of Muslims or of their politics or culture. And then CARE, Islamophobia, see I'm using CARE here.

Islamophobia refers to unfounded fear of and hostility towards Islam. Because phobia, according to psychiatric use, phobia is an irrational fear. Because not all fears are irrational. Like I think it's valid to fear a terrorist attack as a possibility for people that are involved in that. But for the average people, you are more likely to get struck by lightning or die from a dog bite in the United States than die from a terrorist attack. So this idea of having this fear of terrorists.

The Irrationality of Airport Fear Culture

I mean, I always, I'm amazed that at the airports they say, please report any suspicious behavior. Everybody's suspicious at the airport. I mean, just start looking around, they're all telephoning, oh my god, because they're gonna lose, or they left something.

Then you've got people with backpacks that could have bombs in them. You know, it's a type of insanity when you create this environment where people begin to fear other people. Because all of us have a weapon of mass destruction. We drove here in it. There are millions of weapons of mass destruction in the United States, but people aren't driving their cars into places. Some guy did it in Scotland.

Out of six billion people on the planet, that's not bad, right? One guy drove, remember that, at the airport, crises there in the, so there is an irrational fear, but if you want to look at the roots of this, and I think Dr., earlier, we were talking with Dr. Algar, and he said, you know, we fail to look at the sources of a lot of these things, and I said, like the Crusades, and he said, well, even before that.

Historical Roots: Western Literature and the Song of Roland

And I would agree, because if you, I don't know if they still use it anymore, but when I was in school we had to study a book called Norton's Anthology of Literature. And the first entry in Norton's book is the Song of Roland. So Western literature begins with a song that celebrates the defeat of the Muslims. And this is very interesting, and if you look at the, when the Pope spoke in Germany, he mentioned Manuel II.

Manuel II was an emperor who went around Europe, about 50 years before the fall, actually about 30 years before the fall of Constantinople, which is now Istanbul, and he argued that the Christians needed to help him defend Constantinople from this Turkish onslaught. And he failed. But if you think about European identity, Europe has two fundamental identities historically. One of them is a Christian identity, which is a positive identity, but they also have a negative identity, which is that they're not Muslims.

Europe's Dual Identity and the Crusades

And this is very important historically in the Christian consciousness of Europe, is that they really saw the Muslims for centuries as a serious threat to European civilization. So it's important that we remember that the Crusades are a major turning point in European civilization, one, because of a massive influx of Muslim culture into the West, the Rise of Colleges is a good book to read from George McCarthy. Also, we forget St. Francis Assisi, and the Franciscans have a wonderful narrative in their tradition.

St. Francis Assisi is actually, according to the Franciscans, ended the Crusades, because he got a papal dispensation to allow Crusaders to get their expiation by making a pilgrimage to Assisi in Italy, where he had a monastery. And that's part of their tradition. There's actually a book about St. Francis, The Saint and the Sultan, which narrates that story. It's a wonderful story.

America's Turning Point: 9/11 and Pearl Harbor

Now, if you look in the consciousness of America, 9-11 now has emerged like, probably for my father and mother's generation, the turning point for them was Pearl Harbor. And my mother was actually at the University of Berkeley when Pearl Harbor was bombed.

This was a turning point. My father was, he's younger than my mother, but my father was 17 at the time. He literally got a dispensation from his mother to get permission to join the Air Force. And so at 17, he did not finish his last year of high school, but he actually went into the Air Force as a young man from a very, very wealthy family. But that was the type of fervor that that event created in the United States, where people literally went just to sign up.

So that's important to remember that this, my son, my 17-year-old is an artist, and he's been drawing pictures of buildings on fire since he was about 12. So this is in the consciousness of a generation of Americans now. And all of us, you know, for people that are I think over 50, they all know where they were when Kennedy was assassinated. For Americans today, they know where they were on 9/11.

Media Forms: Cartoons and Historical Imagery

Okay, so there's a lot of forms of media that are now being used. Cartoons, and cartoons, again, this is a cartoon from the time when the Greeks were fighting the Turks, and Lord Byron actually went to fight with the Greeks. So this was a very popular war for the Romantics to go and fight.

There's a wonderful picture of him in a turban, because the Greeks actually lived under Muslim rule for several hundred years, they actually adopted a lot of Greek clothing, actually comes from Turkey, and the Greeks have worry beads. The Muslims called them vicar beads, the Greeks called them worry beads. I guess they were worried about the Turks.

Contemporary Anti-Muslim Cartoons

Here we have Pope Benedict, and for the Catholics, excuse that, because I don't like these type of cartoons. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. Are you calling us violent? We'll show you violence.

I mean, wonderful caricatures there. If you look at Jewish cartoons from the Germans, they're very similar, it's really interesting. Jihad, the devil's behind it. Islam, I love this one, Islam, part of America, so that's Barack Obama, the official version, but here's the Muslim, how to build a bomb. So this is the Muslims' outrage over the Pope's words, over cartoons, over the modern world, mildly dyspeptic, over car bombings, beheadings, dumb bodies. And then, I love this one, the West.

I may disagree with what you say, but I would defend death, the right to work. Death, right, radical Islam, chopping the head off. And then here, oh, Nassim, I hear those EU antidote pittings of apologizing for Danish cartoons. Thank Allah, I was in therapy all week because of those. It really was affecting my productivity.

Killing people.

The Anti-Islam Publishing Industry

These things, every day in the United States, people are reading this stuff. Outraged by the cartoons, and then

books written by non-Muslims. So this is an incredible industry that's emerging. And it's important because people say, oh, who cares, Americans don't read. Well, talk show radio hosts read. And then they, in turn, I used to monitor this stuff.

Personal Targeting: The Muslim Mafia Accusations

The first book that I bought was in 1994, I think it was called, it's just amazing. I'm actually in the Muslim Mafia with you. Are you in there? No, I'm a Muslim Mafia don. According to the Muslim Mafia, I'm serious, and you know what their evidence is? I live on a cul-de-sac. And they actually quoted an FBI agent who said, Mafia dons prefer to live on cul-de-sacs because it's harder to do drive-bys and it's harder for the FBI to monitor them.

And then I found out, Dr. Bazan lives on a cul-de-sac, Imam Zaid lives on a cul-de-sac, all these Muslims, Omar from Cairo lives on a cul-de-sac. I said, well, Muslims have, I have five kids, so that's what I was thinking about. You know, cars drive slower on a cul-de-sac. But this is, and then in another book, Islamic Infiltration, I was a stealth jihadist that infiltrated the White House.

The September 9th Speech Conspiracy

So the, another one actually said that I had information because I said in a speech two days before September 9th that America has a grave tribulation coming to it. Two days before. So I had insider information and this was put into, and I told you know, my brother's a lawyer and he said, well, you're a public figure, tough luck. Because we don't have good libel laws in this country.

The History of Dueling and Free Speech

But I want to reinstitute, at least dueling. Because when freedom of speech was a law in America, when they wrote the Bill of Rights, they had dueling. It wasn't outlawed until the 1830s. So if somebody said something nasty about you, you could actually send your second, like I could send Hatta Bazan and say, I demand satisfaction. And then I could just go toe-to-toe with them. And we could, you know, duel it out.

Libel Law and Public Figures

But now you can just say whatever you want. And since Sullivan versus the New York Times, which was a complete liberal, unfortunately, it was a complete liberal disaster because Sullivan was some racist and he was libeled in the New York Times and he sued them and because it was during Earl Warren's, it was very liberal court system, they actually said because he was a public figure that they have higher standards.

So it's harder to prove libel. So now we have two laws in the United States for public figures and private figures. So you can say whatever you want about a public figure and they have no recourse to law to redress that. But private, so my wife has protection under the Constitution for being libeled or slandered. But I don't have protection. And it's just not right.

Swift Boating and Anti-Islam Authors

But this is what we're dealing with. You know, these people can say whatever they want. And they're here doing what is called swift boating. Now these are the people that are writing books now from within Islam. Nonie Darwish, Palestinian, Ibn Warraq, Pakistani, Leaving Islam, Apostates Begotten, A God Who Hates, Wafa Sultan, Voices Behind the Veil, Why I'm Not a Muslim, Unveiling Islam, Origins of the Qur'an, you know, showing that it's all made up, Why I Left Jihad, and then Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She's the poster child because she's an attractive Somali lady. So they love her.

Ethiopian Beauty: A Humorous Aside

Ethiopians, by the way, I know a secret about them. They kill ugly babies. Did you know that? Because you will never see an ugly Ethiopian. And it's impossible statistically. So I think they must do something to their ugly babies. Most beautiful people.

Muslim Reformers and Provocative Books

Why do we want to kill you? Look at that guy. I mean, that's, you know, scary. And now we have Muslim reformers. So you see, these are the ones that want to reform Islam from within. Right? Inside Jihad. The trouble with Islam, they changed the struggle to show them today.

And this is my favorite one. Learn tolerance from Mr. Tolerance. A discussion between Mr. Tolerance and Mr. Bin Laden. I think you should get a stoning wound to death for committing adultery in order to show respect to your culture and sensitivity to your religious values. Many thanks, Mr. Tolerance, for having respect for my religious values. You are indeed an amazing infidel.

Commentators Amplifying Anti-Islam Messages

So sale of anti-Islam books may not be high, but commentators read these books and amplify the effects. So you have people like Michael Savage who just listened to me. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, because they're violent. Because they threaten us. That's just so amazing. Yeah, but where are the Southern Baptist suicide bombers? Where are the Methodist marketplace massacre types? It's clear that the problem is Islam.

But let me play devil's advocate here. Barack Obama wants to win hearts and minds in the Middle East, in a Muslim world, which is a good thing. And you know that. As a soldier, we can't kill all Muslims. We can't kill them all. So we have to win some of them over. That's just an incredible statement.

Winston Churchill's Views on Islam

This quote. And I can't get your thoughts, I don't have my glasses. The fact that in Mohammedan law, every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay

Islam as Totalitarian Ideology: The Rhetoric

I have nothing against people. I have nothing against Muslims. But my point is that Islam has a totalitarian ideology that should be compared not so much with other religions, but with other totalitarian ideologies, like communism, or fascism. But if we don't stop covering up what Islam is, Islam is a violent, I would consider it as a political system. It's a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world, and world domination.

Constant Anti-Muslim Programming

Now, see, what you have to realize from this, this is going on constantly. I have watched, in my lifetime, the 700 Club, I think five times, every single time there was anti-Muslim statements. So I have to assume they must do that all the time. And these people reach large numbers of people. You can say, oh, well, only 20% of Americans hate Muslims. Well, it's actually, the Pew polls are showing it's more than 47% that have bad opinions about Muslims.

The American People's Response After 9/11

But you're dealing with millions of people in a country that is rooted in civil society, and if anything should threaten the stability of that society, because my personal view is, after 9-11, my estimation of the American people went up considerably. I really mean this, because I was convinced that there was going to be attacks on mosques, there was going to be accosting of Muslim women. I really thought it was going to get very bad. That was my initial feeling.

I was overwhelmed by the amount of goodwill that came out of average people. We got, for every one hate call we got to the mosque, we got 100 people saying, we're really troubled by what we're hearing, people making attacks against your religion. Flowers were actually sent to several of the mosques to say, look, you're part of America. And many, many people came out in real solidarity and support with the American Muslim community, despite the fact that they thought that Muslims did this horrible thing.

Jefferson's Vision of Religious Pluralism

And so that, to me, is a testimony to the, one, the innate goodness of a lot of people in this society, but also to the fact that many of the ideals of this country, that maybe at the founding of the country were not fully realized or even partially realized, that a lot of these have really been imbibed by people. Because Jefferson was a philosopher and Jefferson wanted to see America as a neutral religious ground, a safe place, and he actually says for Christians, Jews, Mohammedans, Hindus, and atheists of every stripe. So that was his vision.

The Constitutional Debate on a Muslim President

The vision of the founding fathers was to see a pluralistic society. In Iredell's, in the debates, the constitutional debates in North Carolina, they actually debated whether if they didn't have religious tests, there could be a possibility of a Muslim president. This is 230 years ago. They're debating the idea of a Muslim president. And the debate was won by those who did not want religious tests.

And one of the things they argued was, if there ever was a Muslim elected to highest office in this country, it would be one of two reasons. It would be because that people found him the best and most virtuous candidate, or because the majority of people had become Muslim. In either case, that is their prerogative. So this was the argument of the founding fathers, which is quite extraordinary.

The Power of Repetitive Messaging

So I think it's really important for us not to underestimate the impact. One of the things my father told me, in 1940, he saw a cartoon that had a very big impact on him. He was a young boy. And he saw this cartoon in which, in the first frame, it had Hitler saying, the world is flat. And everybody in the audience says, that's crazy. And then in the next frame, he's saying, the world is flat. And then somebody's saying to one of them, well, what's the evidence that it's actually round?

And then in the next frame, he says, the world is flat. And then they say, you know, he's got a point there. And then in the final frame, he says, the world is flat. And everybody's saying, the world is flat. One of the things that our marketing masters in this country know is that repetitive messages have an impact. If you keep saying something over and over again, it eventually takes hold in people, which is why you'll find yourself buying Crest.

Islam as Anti-American Religion: Media Rhetoric

Now, is that because Islam is the first anti-American, anti-Western religion? Could it mean that the American left and liberals like Al Gore stand up for Islam because it is an anti-American, anti-Western religion? And they've not done a lot with it. And then this is a whole other field, which is really important. 20 million people got that in the face of evil.

Muslims in Film and Television

21 hours of Munich, Muslim terrorists, Islam, what the West needs to know, Delta Force. All these have Muslim terrorists among us. The siege, Aladdin, right? Because Aladdin, in there, he says, you know, in my place, they don't like your face, they cut off your nose. It's barbaric, I know, but it's home. And then he's got a scene where Aladdin steals an apple, and the guy's going to cut his hand off. So it's little children associating with the violence. I just put that in, I didn't like the line.

The Misuse of Taqiyyah

Now, this is another amazing thing. Because now these terms like taqiyyah is a rarefied term in Islamic law that most Muslims don't even know. And this is something in the Shia tradition it's more emphasized, but it is also permissible in the Sunni tradition. If you are under threat of death, you can actually deny you're a Muslim. So if somebody's going to kill you, you say I'm not a Muslim, that's called taqiyyah.

But they're arguing, no, when Hamza Yusuf comes and tells you Islam is a peaceful religion, he's practicing taqiyyah, because he's a stealth jihadist. And he doesn't really believe any of this. You see, so it's very insidious, the way that they're using these terms. And then, you know, Obama's saying, move America, but these are very concerning. And one of the interesting things about some of these, you'll find ties with the armaments lobby is funding some of these. It's very interesting.

Satirical Cartoons: Hate to Love

Raytheon, you know, general electric, we bring good things to death. And then conservative dialysis, moving liberal waste from the American bloodstream, from hate to love, right? So Islam is a religion of hate, and we're moving to Christianity, the religion of love. Because Muslims, we don't love our wives, or our husbands, or our children.

The Problem with Pre-Modern Texts

And this is, I think, one of the worst, because it's all from original sources. And one thing I'll say about original sources, and this is a problem, pre-modern texts. I can take St. Thomas Aquinas, which I've read enough Aquinas to know, and Sister Marianne did her PhD on Aquinas, so I think we can ask a Christian advice on this also.

But I can take Aquinas and make Christianity look like a completely insane religion by just quoting him in certain environments. I mean, Aquinas argues for apostate laws, capital offense, you can do all this. And Aquinas is an incredible, brilliant, ethicist, spiritual master, I mean, so many things.

Marriage Laws in Pre-Modern Traditions

But I can take the pre-modern tradition from the Jewish tradition, the Talmud, that a six-year-old child, and I asked the chief rabbi of Israel, one of them, because they don't debate who's the chief rabbi, but I asked one of the chief rabbis of Israel about this. Because we were talking about Aisha and marriage laws. In the Talmud, six years old. A marriage can be consummated with a six-year-old.

You can take any pre-modern religion, and with the modern sensitivities, you can show it to be a completely insane tradition. Really. We can do this with Christianity, with Judaism, with Islam, any of these religions, but how has the normative practice over time defined itself? This is what is not being told.

Jewish Tradition and Glass Houses

So, it's taking these things, and if you notice, this is more from the right within Christianity. The Jewish tradition, to be fair, the Jewish tradition, I have seen very little from the Jewish community about this, because if you live in glass houses, don't throw stones. What you can do with the Islamic pre-modern tradition, you can do with the Jewish tradition as well. And so, that's an important aspect of this. The Gates of Vienna, God Save the USA, The Real Story, Jihad Watch, again, I mean, and these are really well done. They're very well funded. So, when you do searches, you'll often come up with these websites.

The Ugly Truth: Extremists Within Islam

I'm going to pass through this one. People probably saw this. And then, unfortunately, and this is the ugly truth, because I want to be fair. We have nut cases. We have 1.3 billion Muslims. You will always have a percentage of people in any religious tradition that are insane. It's just statistics, because you have insane people here.

Like, for instance, people talk about, oh, look how bloody Pakistan is. They killed ten people yesterday. Twenty people were probably murdered in the United States yesterday.

Violence as a Human Problem

Violence is a human problem. When it's done in the name of religion, it's particularly odious, but people are violent. We've got a problem. Religion, the major problem with religion is that you can get normally good people to do really evil things, as has been pointed out. And I have argued that, in some ways, the metaphor that I like to use is, in some ways, religion, a metaphor for religion could be atomic energy. Atomic energy is a relatively clean energy, but it has toxic waste.

And that toxic waste can be very, very harmful, as we're finding out from Japan. If religion historically has had ways to mitigate that, and it hasn't always been successful, but we do have a problem.

Prohibition Against Condemning Others to Hell

And this poor British lady. First of all, nobody can say, in Islam, I mean, I studied theology. It's one of the areas that I spent a lot of time on. I studied with really great teachers. It is prohibited in Islam to say anybody's going to hell. The Qur'an talks about going to hell and condemns certain people to hell. That's true. But I cannot point to anybody and say you're going to hell. It's not our prerogative to do that.

Extremist Slogans and Provocateurs

And so, you know, this is just a lot of nonsense. This man was wonderful for the tabloids, because he actually had a hook as a hand and an eye patch, and used to go on about jihad and Sharia for the UK. I mean, if you ask these people, what is Sharia, they couldn't define it. I guarantee you, they could not. None of them are scholars. They're just using slogans. Great, thanks. With friends like that, who needs enemies, right?

Behead those who say Islam is violent. I mean, some Muslims would say this guy must be an agent provocateur, you know, but importantly. Yeah. British soldiers burn in hell. Massacre those who insult Islam. Islam will dominate the world. And then we've got, you know, these poor people here. You will eat your babies. God is your enemy. God hates America.

The Ku Klux Klan and the Spanish Inquisition

Now, I just want to look a little bit in the past. You know, does anybody know where the Ku Klux Klan got their fashion design from? Morocco? No. Does anybody know? Seriously. Do you know where it came from? From the Inquisition. This is the Spanish Inquisition. And that is exactly where they got them from. This is one of the early terrorist organizations in the United States. And they were Christian, in their understanding, and they modeled themselves after the Inquisitors in Spain.

Racism Transferred to the Muslim Community

And so, there's a lot of transference of racism against blacks and Jews and other communities now onto the Muslim community because Muslims, by and large, in the United States are brown. They're people of color. And so there is a lot of it. And in fact, you know, if you join Islam, you will join an oppressed minority. And learn how it feels to be African-American or other minorities.

I know a white lady in Canada who became Muslim and put on hijab, and she said, I really felt firsthand that I got to know what it was like to be in an oppressed minority. Because she said, I didn't realize that I had this white privilege. My Mexican wife is nodding her head.

Historical Lessons: Those Who Forget the Past

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The demonization of Native Americans. Right? I mean, there it is. Right? And we don't show what we did to them. Right? In this country. But this was violence. And that's what it leads to, Wounded Knee, where unarmed Natives were killed. This was the last really battle in the American Indian Wars, and let's include the AIM battles, the later ones, like Alcatraz and things like that, but this is significant. I like this. Homeland Security. This was the original Homeland Security. Fighting terrorism since 1492.

Demonization of African-Americans

Demonization of African-Americans. This is something that our culture was very good at also. Wonderful imagery. She tried to commit suicide, that poor girl. If people read her history. Elizabeth Eckford, I think her name was. Death to all race mixers.

The Hidden Genocide

There's a hidden genocide in this country that nobody talks about. In the South, whole black populations after the Civil War disappeared in counties. Literally disappeared, because they just killed them all. And this has been documented by historians in this country. So, we have a very dark history. We forget apartheid. When I was born, there was still apartheid in this country. So, it wasn't that long ago. And people struggled to get these rights.

Jewish Americans and the Civil Rights Movement

Many of them Jewish Americans. A lot of these people that were in the early Civil Rights Movement were out of the Jewish community because they understood. They sided with them. And there's a wonderful book called When the Irish Became White, which, because the Irish Catholics were marginalized. I'm going to get to that in a second.

The Evil Chinese and Dr. Fu Manchu

So, the evil Chinese. Same thing. Dr. Fu Manchu. Exclusion laws. There were exclusion laws in this country excluding Chinese immigration. And we forget also the pogroms of the Chinese that happened. Even in San Francisco, we have a horrible history of brutal attacks on the Chinese community. World dictatorship. Sound familiar? Cruel, insidious, treacherous. This is Dr. Fu Manchu. Now it's Dr. Abdallah. In his ruthless, mad scheme to rule the world.

Demonization of Japanese Americans

And this is one of the evil Japanese. Also, we forget the demonization of the Japanese community. Japs keep on moving. White man's neighborhood. This is your enemy again. And then this is what it ended up in.

Japanese Internment Camps

So, Japanese Americans were interned in California. We forget. Because a lot of the best farming property in Santa Cruz, Monterey, Southern California, were owned by Japanese. So, there was a move to get Japanese Americans interned here. Confiscated their land. It didn't happen in the Midwest. Japanese fought. They were actually interpreters and many of them were decorated soldiers. It's still there too. You can go out there and see this.

And by the way, this has never been overturned constitutionally. Internment of a collective group of people in the United States. It has to actually happen again for it to go to the Supreme Court. There was an official apology in the 70s, but it has never been deemed unconstitutional. And FEMA has actually, they have internment camps. This is one of the 25 most censored stories. Sonoma State School of Journalism has shown

that there are actually internment camps if there was ever quote-unquote illegal immigrants becoming rebellious, so that they actually have camps for internment.

Demonization of Mexican-Americans

We serve whites. No Spanish or Mexicans. For some people, Mexicans, this is called Aztlán. Texas was stolen from Mexico. I said to my wife once, you guys are taking over. She said, no we're not. We're taking back.

Demonization of Jews

So the demonization of Jews, I mean, how does an Arab say whatever you want? They look just like Arabs, too. That's what's so interesting, is that the cartoons of the Jews look very similar. But this all has impact on people. There's the Jew plodding away in his ghetto and the result, this is how the anti-defamation league and other organizations were started because of the lynching of a Jewish man. And then obviously the Jewish financiers controlling the world. The Jews are terrorists and subversive. 1907, U.S.S.R.

Demonization of Irish Americans

Demonization of Irish Americans. This is my favorite one because my family suffered from this. You know, any color or country except Irish. Like, you know, no Irish need apply. And then look, they're African-American, Jewish, and the Irish got it. So they were all equal opportunity prejudice. They were seen as drunkards. They were actually like African-Americans, shown to be ape-like. And then this is what resulted in the Kensington riots.

The Kensington Riots in Philadelphia

This happened in Philadelphia in the 1840s. They actually, there was a rumor spread that the Irish were going to get the Catholic Bible to replace the Protestant Bibles in the public schools. And they saw this as, the Protestants saw this as kind of atheism. And so they went and they burnt two huge cathedrals that were built by the Irish Americans.

My great, great, my great, great grandfather, Michael O'Hanson, was in Philadelphia at this time. He migrated to Philadelphia in 1838. So he was there for these riots. And scores of Irish were killed. It actually changed the consciousness in this country because people became ashamed afterward.

The Irish Political Compromise

But the Irish were bribed into enfranchisement. Daniel O'Connell, the great Irish orator, asked the Irish Catholics to stand by the African-Americans in their fight for liberty in this country. And unfortunately, and I would be much prouder of my heritage had they done the right thing. But they didn't. They went into the political process and they actually sided with the oppressor in that case. Here's citizenship. There's the Irish. Just like now, the Muslim is the guy that can't assimilate. And he's got his knife because the Irish are violent.

Models of Possibility: Native Americans

Anyway, the final thing is just about models of possibility. I think it's important to remember that in this country that people have overcome immense difficulties. These are the great chiefs meeting at the White House with Coolidge. Now we have many, many great Native Americans that are recognized by the dominant community.

The African-American Model of Struggle

The African-American model is also an extraordinary model, but it was done with a lot of hard work and effort. You do not get enfranchisement in this country easily. It's never been given to any group of people outside of the Anglo-Saxons that came to these shores. It's never been given to any group of people without a struggle. That is part of the history of this country.

The Chinese and Japanese Models

It's possible. I think the Muslims now, the Chinese also, were capable of doing this. The Muslims, food is one of the things. Look, now they're learning Tai Chi. They used to be shooting people. Acupuncture. We've got governors now from the Chinese community. Japanese also have succeeded. The Mexicans also, and please, the Irish, I mean, two presidents. The first Irish president though was Andrew Jackson. People don't know that. But he was an Ulster Irish. He was Protestant. And that wasn't, he wasn't considered Irish. He had to be Irish Catholic to be Irish. Kennedy's considered the first.

The Mexican and Jewish Models

The Mexican, please excuse the next slide. Oh, not Hugo. He's a child. It's an embarrassment. But hey, you know. The Jewish model is an extraordinary model. My point is, now you can just look at the vote, the Jewish vote, and how much it impacts politics in this country.

Muslims Must Fight, Not With Violence

So the Muslims have possibilities, but the Muslim community has to fight. And I don't mean like violence. In Chinese, there's a debate about this, but the ideogram for crisis is also the ideogram for opportunity. In any crisis, there's always immense opportunities. The Muslims have an opportunity to educate people.

The Problem: Who Defines Islam

There are people genuinely interested in Islam. Unfortunately, if you go to a bookstore today, if you go to the Wicca section, how I embraced the moon goddess and found inner peace. You go to Satanism, how I came to know Satan and found inner peace. I mean, it's just amazing. Every religion, you go to the Muslim section, why I'm not a Muslim. The trouble with Islam. You know, leaving Islam. It's just amazing that the people who hate Islam are defining Islam. And that's why Muslim voices really are absolutely essential.

The Challenge to Christians and Jews

But I would also challenge those people, good people, like Sister Marianne Farina. She always gets embarrassed, but I love that woman, because she, to me, represents the best of the Christian tradition. She is somebody that takes very seriously and I know she doesn't view Muslims as enemies, but she takes very seriously things like, turn the other cheek and love thy enemy. These are very difficult things to do, but the real Christians have to step up to the plate. The real Jews have to step up to the plate. People that recognize that an attack on any religion is an attack on all religions.

The Essence of Religion

That is just a simple fact of the matter. Because at the essence of religion is a commitment to something that transcends the self. All religious people that are part of this incredible tapestry of religions that we have in the world are people that are saying there is more to life than just this physical world that we're into.

Shared Ethics Across Religions

We share immense commonalities in our ethics. Islamic ethics, as Sister Marianne knows, is identical to Christian ethics in so many areas. Virtue ethics of Ghazali is the virtue ethics of Aquinas. These are the commonalities and the bridges that don't need to be built, they need to be pointed out. Everybody talks about building bridges. There are so many bridges that are already there, we just need to recognize them through the fog and then make that effort to cross them and meet somewhere in the middle and just enjoy the incredible view.

A Personal Story: The Bridge Is Big Enough

I was once with a group of Muslims, my wife was with us, Osama Hussein and some other people, and we were walking across a bridge just after 9-11. It was a very narrow bridge and there were two people coming on to the bridge and we got to the middle and I just made a joke, this bridge isn't big enough for the both of us. And he looked and he said, you're Muslims, aren't you? And I said, yes.

And he said, the bridge is big enough for all of us. We're very disturbed at what's being done to your community. There are people out there that need to be reached, the Muslims need to reach out, but we also need to hear from those people.

Thank you very much.