United We Stand- One Destiny

United We Stand: One Destiny

It is my great pleasure to introduce Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, who is ranked as the Western world's most influential Islamic scholar by the 500 most influential Muslims. Sheikh Hamza is a co-founder of Zaytuna College and an advisor to Stanford University's program in Islamic studies and the Center for Islamic Studies at Berkeley's graduate theological union. He is one of the leading proponents of classical learning in Islam and is a widely recognized innovator in modern Islamic education.

He has served as an advisor to many organizations, leaders, and heads of state. He has been interviewed in the media throughout the world and was the subject of a BBC documentary segment, The Faces of Islam, Ushering in the New Millennium. Sheikh Hamza has been a passionate and outspoken critic of American foreign policy, as well as Islamic extremist responses to those policies.

He has drawn criticism from both the extreme right in the West and Muslim extremists in the East. He has authored numerous articles and research papers. His published books include, among others, Purification of the Heart, Agenda to Change Our Condition, and The Prayer of the Oppressed.

Sheikh Hamza will be speaking on United We Stand, One Destiny.

Opening Remarks

Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim.

Was-salatu was-salamu ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salam, tasliman kathira wa la hawla wa la quwwata illa billahi al-aliyyi al-azim.

Alhamdulillah, 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 Tariq Ramadan, 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 and 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.

The Quranic Question: Where Are We Going?

So I was asked to talk about where are we going, which is one of my favorite questions because it's a Quranic question, (فَأَيْنَ تَذْهَبُونَ - fa-ayna tadhaboon) - "Where then are you going?" (Quran 81:26). 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 determination, the answer to that question is (فَرِيقٌ فِي الْجَنَّةِ وَفَرِيقٌ فِي السَّعِيرِ - fariqun fil jannah wa fariqun fil sa'ir) - "A group in Paradise and a group in the Blaze" (Quran 42:7). You're either going to bliss or you're going to dis, which is actually a nice Dantean word. You're going to the other place.

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

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 questioner 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 going to 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.

The Metaphysical and The Physical

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.

America's Progress: The Good

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 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 that 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 50 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.

America's Challenges: The Troubling Signs

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 U.S. Constitution that's considered extremism or a sign of extremism because there are certain peoples 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 child, 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 better get your taser out. I'm telling you the truth. And he got very offended. And 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 intact. For me, that is a complete gross and egregious trampling of my right as a parent to

protect my children. 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 Imam Qasim, Imam Zayn, Imam Siraj? That was the America we grew up in. You went to the gate to see your 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.

The Problem of Wealth Disparity

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 was a few years ago. We got onto a private jet. Our baggage had no check. 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 enfranchised 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 are living in bubbles, and those bubbles will eventually burst, like they've bursted in places like Syria.

The Danger of Delusion in Leadership

Gaddafi now, he's watching television, and he's saying, who are these people ripping up my picture? They love me, my people love me, because every time he went out, zanga zanga, every time he went out, they would all clap, Gaddafi, Gaddafi, and he's just eating it up, they love me. And then he had around him all these people saying, (وَاللهِ يُحِبُّكَ، الْأَخُ الْقَائِدُ، يُحِبُّكَ، الشَّعْبُ يُحِبُّكَ - wallahi yuhibbuka, al-akh al-qa'id, yuhibbuka, al-sha'ab yuhibbuka) - "By God they love you, Brother Leader, they love you, the people love you." You see, this is the delusional state. Bashar al-Assad is in this delusional state. They don't understand what happened. Husni Mubarak was surrounded by people, (وَاللهِ يُحِبُّكَ، شَعْبُ الْمِصْرِيِّ، أَوِي جِدًّا يُحِبُّكَ - wallahi yuhibbuka, sha'ab al-misri, awi jiddan yuhibbuk) - "By God they love you, the Egyptian people, very much they love you." And this is what he, and then he's shocked, he doesn't, and then he gets up, my people, my people, opening his arms, thinking 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.

The Path to Revolution

This sets up a situation that leads to revolution. If you read history, 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 have problems. They're a human institution, but in something, Muslims, there's all these horrible government and this and that, but when the house gets robbed, 911, 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 would have somebody go, and they would say, oh, this house is worth $800,000. And it wasn't, it was worth maybe $400,000, and then they would loan a person the loan. They would loan them the money, $800,000, 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 firemen's funds. As AAA 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 the same rating institution that downgraded the United States, those were the same rating institutions that were giving AAA loans to subprime securitized debt. The same institutions.

You think I trust them? AAA, 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. Muslims are the problem. Oh, the boogeyman over here, they're, oh, 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.

Muslim Americans: Part of the Fabric

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. No, 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.

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. 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. 1838, my grandfather migrated

Family Legacy of Civil Rights

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 placard at 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 stock that I come from. My mother was involved.

She followed the program. Civil rights, anti-war Vietnam, feminist rights, and then the environmentalist. She was in environmentalism 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.

America: A Work in Progress

So 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 Dr. Abdur-Hakim Jackson talks about this a lot, which is important. And that is the fact that America is being negotiated constantly. We are in negotiations. It is a give and take. Let me give you an example. And part of my problem is because 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 faiths. 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 judge it. That's what I was taught. So I read Noam Chomsky, and I read Pat Buchanan. And I agree with Pat Buchanan sometimes. I disagree with him other times. I agree with Chomsky sometimes. I disagree with him other times, because I'm in dialogue with the books I read. If you see my library, there's markings on the side. What is he talking about? Couldn't agree more, because I'm in dialogue with the books I read. 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.

The Problem of Double Standards in Terrorism

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 an 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 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 psychiatrist that 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 he does that, 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 rationality behind that reasoning? Either they're 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.

Living in Extreme Times

We're living in a time, one of the Arab poets said:

(In fi zaman fart shudhudhuhi laysa man la yujannuhu bi'aqilihi) - "We're living in a time so extreme in its abnormality that whoever is not driven mad by it is not sane."

If it doesn't drive you mad, you're not sane. When Palestinians, if you look at Palestine 100 years ago, 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 majlis of the kings of Saudi Arabia. Anybody. You could go into the majlis 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.

Historical Perspective on Leadership and Access

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 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 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 we're beyond those norms.

The Real Problem: A War-Based Economy

We have a problem in this country. One of the major problems in the United States of America today is 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 economy. The entire planet.

We could have, in Mauritania, the main street in Mauritania is John F. Kennedy Boulevard. You know why the Mauritanians say John F. Kennedy Boulevard? Because he used to send wheat to the Mauritanians. If you ask an old Mauritanian who lived at that time, who was John Kennedy? مَنْ كَانَ جَاكَ كِينِيدِي )Men kana Jack Kennedy(? He'll say, هَذَا رَجُلٌ صَالِحٌ مِنَ الْأَمْرِيكَانِ كَانَ يُطْعِمُ الْفُقَرَاءَ وَالْمَسَاكِينَ )Hadha rajulun salihun min al-amrikan kana yut'imu al-fuqara' wa al-masakin) - "A good man from the Americans, he used to feed the poor and needy."

The Power of Feeding People

When Hillary Clinton asked Sheikh Abdullah bin Baya in Qatar, what can we do to improve America's... our... how people view us abroad? Sheikh Abdullah says, feed people. أَطْعِمُ الطَّعَامَ )At'imu at-ta'am) - "Feed food." 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 Michaud, 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 Afghani had a flower garden in his house. Many pictures of Afghanis he picked showing them smelling flowers. They used to fly kites. They love kites, Afghani people. They would go and fly kites. They had picnics.

The Creation of Terrorists

In this country, they say these are terrorists. How did they become terrorists? Those among them who are

terrorizing, how did they become terrorists? Over a decade of war, Russia killed at least 1.5 million Afghanis. 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 Baghdad, of the dead of Kabul, and also of the danger of the imminent death of people in Tehran, of people in Qom, 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 I, Zaid and Amr, John and Abdullah, killing each other. This has to stop as a project in the human condition. Because the only people that 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 businessmen 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.

The Arab Spring Watered with Blood

Sheikh Abdullah bin Baya said the Arab Spring was watered with blood. This is what's going on. Innocent people being killed. Whether it's in New York, Baghdad, wherever it is, Washington, D.C., it's unacceptable.

And as a human community, if we don't begin to recognize that we have to reestablish and reassert ourselves as individuals that have rights to have good governance, to have people that are looking out for our best interests, because these people in power today are not looking out for our best interests.

The Crisis of Nutrition and Corporate Greed

And let me give you one example. 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. Omar ibn al-Khattab, in the Muwatta of Imam Malik said إِيَّاكُمْ وَاللَّحْمَ فَإِنَّ لَهُ ضَرَاوَةً كَضَرَاوَةِ الْخَمْرِ )Iyyakum wa al-laham fa-inna lahu darawatan ka-darawat al-khamr) - "Beware of meat, because it has the addiction of wine" (Muwatta Malik, Book 49, Hadith 18). 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 cattle 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, no, you're going to harm our economy. And so science is subjugated to greed. You see, this is the problem.

Scientists Serving Death Instead of Life

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.

The Crisis of Global Priorities

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 Washington, D.C., there's people that carry around guns. You know what they really want? They want 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 level that these people have fallen to because they feel so disrespected that they have to carry around, 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.

The Quest for Respect

That's what the African-American in the 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. Racism, hey man, we're beyond that. Tell the Tea Party that. You know, tell the white supremacists that. And let me tell you about the Tea Party because I read the Tea Party's manifesto and I agree with probably about 80% of that book. I'm not exaggerating. I read their manifesto. People just say, oh, Tea Party, Tea Party. 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.

Understanding the Tea Party

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 in 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 American Experience of Immigration

But, as somebody who has Irish-American ancestry, welcome to America. It's part of the negotiating process. Because my grandfather changed his name from O'Hanson to Hanson. Because H-E-N-S-O-N 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 Greek grandfather, Georgiopoulos, changed his name to George. He was light-skinned. He used to tell people he was French. See, it's not that long ago. These are the stories that I grew up with.

But Greeks now, they have Greek Day, Kiss Me I'm 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 brilliant, he's great. But I keep hearing the Mafia Don. Make him an offer he can't refuse.

America's Dangerous Path

And to end on the Mafia Don, America's 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 going to 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.

Government vs. Administration

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 administrations 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 is by voting in different people. And I'm hoping that that's still a possibility to see a real change in this country.

The Fragile State of America

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 going to have to think of new ways of making livelihoods. They're going to 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.

Muslims: Part of the Intellectual Tradition

And Americans, Americans in this country, 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, Ibt al-Jawzā'. They see Aldebaran, Ad-Dabarān. They see Altair, Al-Țā'ir. 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. Al-Jabr, Al-Muqabala. 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.

The Danger of Control

Zbigniew 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.

"(Wa ta'āwanū 'ala al-birr wa at-taqwā) - "And cooperate in righteousness and piety""

Come together. That verse was about all of us coming together. That verse was revealed about the people of Mecca who weren't Muslims. Work together in what's good. وَتَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْبِرِّ وَالتَّقْوَى )Wata'awanū 'ala al-birr wa at-taqwā) - "And cooperate in righteousness and piety" (Quran 5:2). Work together. This is what we have to do as a people.

Hope for the Future

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.

The Prophet's Love for His Homeland

When the Prophet ﷺ left Mecca and when he got to Medina there was a man who came and he said to the Prophet ﷺ (كَيْفَ عَهِدْتَ مَكَّةَ - Kayfa 'ahidta Makkah) - "How did you find Mecca?" And he said, "Oh, the valley has been filled with flowers." (ثُمَامَهَا - Thumumaha) - "Its plants." And he said, "And all of the Sidr trees were blossoming." And, "I left, the water was flowing," and he began to describe the physical, he didn't say the Kaaba, oh Mashallah. No, he described the physicality of the place that the Prophet ﷺ grew up with as a child and the Prophet began to weep and he said (كُفَّ عَنَّا حَسْبُكَ لَقَدْ شَوَّقْتَنِي - Kuff 'anna hasbuka laqad shawwaqtani( - "Stop, please stop. It's enough. You have made me yearn for 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 (حُبُّ الْوَطَنِ مِنَ الْإِيمَانِ - Hubb al-watan min al-iman) - "Love of homeland is from faith." It's part of human condition. It's not a hadith, but it's a basic fitrah statement.

This Is Our Country

So, this is our country. All of you are here with every right, unless there's some illegal immigrants in the hall. Report yourself immediately to Homeland Security. And for those people who came here, who are going to report back to your whoever you report back to, because there's private enterprise as well as public. I would just say this. Imam Zayd. I've known Imam Zayd for many years now. Imam Zayd, the lies that they tell about this man just really bother me. You know, these right wing people. They just recently wrote an article about him. Imam Zayd 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.

Chicken Hawks vs. True Patriots

Unlike all these chicken hawks. Dick Cheney got six deferrals. Right? Seriously. Unlike these chicken hawks that talk about, oh, patriotism and 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.

Remember All the Dead

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 Zainab Ghulam or Bibi

Mujaddidi. They don't give the names. They're just nameless people. Nameless people. They're not nameless with God.

Closing

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ

Assalamu Alaikum.