Islam and Muslim Culture Presentation 8/16/2017

I want to first of all say thank you to all of you who made it today to this lecture training or dialogue I would call it dialogue the lecture modern lecture and training a little bit about myself I came to this country 1996 so I've been here about 20 years I've attended elementary school middle school high school finished my bachelor's in political science at University of Minnesota Twin Cities and went back and got my masters at Mankato in education and leadership and mink here is where actually I grew up I considered a home that's where my family lives I've moved up here to 2010 to help with youth work and the Islamic Dawa Center it's a promise that I made the Imam who's that the Islamic Dawa center came up to Mankato to give a lecture and he met with a few of us while were why before he left and he made us promise that we would come back to the city or come to the city where there was a large population of Somalis and Muslims that needed help they needed to to be given services for especially the youth he said he had a lot of youth that he worked with and he would like to add me to his team and that's why I came to st. Paul I would have stayed in Megiddo I love it down there I like I like camping I like fishing I like going to the lake that's where I could do that here I know we go out as well some of the jobs I hold I'm a director of rice start talking Center which is located on University and Craig's I'm the administrator of Minnesota Iowa Institute I'm a consultant on youth violence prevention for the city of Minneapolis I am an ambassador for the city of st. Paul and I am advisor and I'll advise many diplomats from all over the world Italy Denmark England on youth violence prevention my favorite one was Eric Holder when he came up here he met with us and the gift that I'm going to be given today I give to him and he invited us up a few of us to come and visit his office and some of my co advisers when they went there they found that gift on his desk so I will be given that gift at the end I want you if you have any questions to write it on a piece of paper and give it to Anita where's Anita there's Anita at the end Imam Hassan will be coming Imam Hassan will be helping with some of the questions as well at 2:30 he'll come and help with some of the questions among husband has done work in the community for the last 30 years he's a lawyer he's a mom and he has a lot of knowledge he's a professor he has a lot of knowledge about Islam and some of the questions that you might have he might be able to answer better than I can I'm his student as well so without further ado we'll start how many departments are here how many departments are here so if somebody from each department can say the department you're from okay HR Public Works libraries Parks and Rec okay okay JV thank you so this gives me a better chance to tailor my my my dialogue to these departments so we'll start with Muslims in Minnesota we have 150 to 200 thousand population in Minnesota more likely the to 200,000 or more according to the Council of Churches 4% are Arab 38% are immigrants 17% are multi-generational 45% are first-generation Muslims and then the large the largest population of Muslims in Minnesota come from East Africa especially Somalia why did I choose that statistics Minnesota Council of Churches why did I choose that actually choose any other districts I chose that specifically because most of the refugees come through these agencies that the council has in their in their group so like Lutheran services they're the ones who bring immigrants to this country into the state and they have better numbers than any agency because when you're Somali or near Muslim you just put down the ethnicity you are you don't put your Somali for your african-american or your black or your the places you so there's no way to figure out who is who on others other statistics histories of Muslims in America the first mosque ever built was built by immigrants from Lebanon and it was built in Ross North Dakota imagine in the Midwest in the Midwest this is this picture right here is that mosque but this is the rebuilt they rebuilt that in 2005 it was destroyed in 1970 and there was a cemetery there and when I did some research on it some of the people that were talking about it didn't didn't want to talk about why it was destroyed they just said they were not there for the conversation but it was rebuilt in 2005 it was named after Sarah one of the granddaughters of the people that founded the mosque and she was one of the persons that encouraged to rebuild the mosque the way it was and then the second mosque which was so five years later not too far from us Rapid City Iowa and it's called the mother mosque of America because it's the original or the the template that the mosque took so the mosques in America they don't only play as mosque they work as community center they help the the members that come there and there's not a list of members that attend the mouth is open to all Muslims it's not a certain sector a certain group everybody is welcome in every month no matter where where you're from what ethnicity you are everyone is welcome so the is called the mother Mosque of America for example and then the rest of America took the same initiative as well yeah there they either look like that they look like that that one Center so I'll have more pictures as we go so we can see if I can't hear me let me know so I can speak louder sometimes I don't speak loud enough the Islamic faith Muslims believe in the oneness of Allah God Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him was the final Messenger of God and there daily life reflects the Quran and the Sunnah which is the traditions of the prophet salaallah salem and there are many ethnicities nationalities that make up believers of Islam they also come with their own customs example the type of food they eat the type of clothes they wear so if a person tells you they are Muslim but they also have a culture to that that they carry with that in our mosque we have we have Somali Muslims we have Hmong Muslims we have West African Muslims each one of them has its own custom and culture but the religion itself is how they live their life there are some differences which one should observe while helping Muslim college and I'll go over some of those different things right now definition of Islam there's two meanings the religious meaning is submission to the will of Allah God and the linguistic meaning Islam means peace in Arabic or Salaam peace Islam is the religion Muslim is the follower of the religion of Islam the five pillars of Islam so what does it mean to be a Muslim right if someone is a Muslim they follow these five things this is the bare minimum that they follow the testimony of faith that they witness that there's only one God and that Muhammad is the final messenger second the five daily prayers the five daily prayers the way is broken up is you have the early morning prayer which is right before sunset sunrises sorry right before sunrises second one is afternoon third one is midday fourth one is sunset after the right after the Sun sets and then the last one is the night prayer so five daily prayer and the analogy of the five times a day prayer if somebody was to take a bay a bath in a river five times a day they would be clean so the five daily prayers is a must is the obligatory on all Muslims to pray so if you have Muslim co-workers and they say they're going to go pray to you and then two hours later they came back and say I'm going to go pray again don't say why you praying so many time so try to understand that we have to follow six schedule and I'll show you how to find the prayer times at the end there's ways to find the prayer time and so every year with the Sun sets the desaad the hour shifts so sometimes that the daylight is shorter sometimes it's longer so the prayers are scattered around the day depending on the daylight saving that we have so that's number two number three giving on the cat every Muslim is required to give 2.5 percent of their annual saving in charity this is our text right 2.5 percent of our annual savings so if I have twenty five thousand saved from the time of the beginning of the of the Muslim Looney after Ramadan to the time Ramadan I have to give 25% sorry 2.5% not 25% 2.5% of that 25,000 who's good with math so 2.5 of the 25,000 and then the fourth one fasting in the month of Ramadan which lands on the ninth month of the lunar calendar on the calendar that we use the George Aryan calendar it moves back 15 days every year so when I first came to this country it was in the summer which is the longest daylight time and for in 20 years time I've experienced it in the winter where the daylight time is short where you only fast about eight hours to nine hours to fasting 16 hours to 19 hours a day and when you're fasting the first thing is you don't eat any food you don't drink any water you sustain yourself from backbiting gossiping you sustain yourself from cursing you try to do more about that meaning you try to do more worship you try to pray more you try to ask for forgiveness it's the holy month the whole 30 days people will go to pray late at night especially when the daylight saving is longer the night is shorter people will be praying this last Ramadan last month of fasting the prayers was from 11 to 12 11 to 1 or depending on the time so if you have to go to work the next day you're going to feel very tired luckily I work in a business where my bosses are Muslim and they understand and then I'm fastening the next day from being tired the night and praying and going to work the next day tired again so that whole month is very exhausting and if the employer understands this and it's more lenient during this month towards the your Muslim employees it would be great especially public works this public works is here if they're working outside during this time it's important to keep that into consideration Parks and Rec I know some people some young men who were working there this summer that they told me it was very hard it was either they were doing the swim pole they were doing something that was very hard for them as well so keeping that in consideration it's only 30 days it flies by really fast and just to keep them in mind that they are fasting the food thing usually it's not a big deal we are the first day is usually the hardest day of the fasting and then after that we're used to seeing food all over the place our jobs and different things and it doesn't affect us as much as the first day is very hard after the first day it gets very easy the last 29 days it's like a walk in the park the last one pilgrimage to Mecca which is in Saudi Arabia at least once in a person's lifetime and only if they can afford it only if they can afford it not everybody can afford it average price is of up going to pilgrimage right now is 8,000 8,000 that includes the hotel the the pilgrimage and everything and I'll explain a little bit more in another slide but this right here you might have an employee that asks for 10 days off I don't know how the city works on on giving religious sabbaticals or religious time off it's 10 days it's 2 weeks you have to add the two days of the travel as well so that 10 days that they're out doing the pilgrimage sometimes it's 2 weeks sometimes it's 3 weeks depending on the group that they go each group has its own schedule of where they're going to visit the sites they visit so that's another thing to to be mindful of and to to think about sometimes they will go at least once in their lifetime the six articles of faith believe in one God believe in all the angels including gibreel it's revealed mikail nextstep naked and moon cup these two they will question you when you are in your grave and there are many more angels we have to believe they exist as part of our faith believe in old books faced from Allah so that our faith from Allah subhana Allah send them to humans through the prophets including the Torah of Moses the gospel of Jesus Quran of Muhammad peace be upon all of them this is news for a lot of people people don't understand that we believe in the Torah we believe in the gospel and we also believe in the Quran we believe in Jesus we believe in Moses and all the prophets that came prior to Mohammed and when I'm explained to this to most people they're shot they're shocked to find out and then fourth is believe in all prophets from Adam Noah Moses Jesus Mohammed and there are many more prophets that are mentioned in the Quran and in the hadith believe in the day of judgment that the world will end that we have to believe in that as part of our faith and then the last one believed in fate and destiny of every creature was planned by Allah God so everything that we do when we're alive when we're born when we die things that happen to us to us on a daily basis was pre-planned if we choose to do good or bad that's up to us our destiny was can so the six articles of faith its slam and other religions so I'm the only comparing the three the Muslims Christians and and in Judaism they are all people of the book all three of the all three religions share basic beliefs that God is one which is articulated through their holy books Quran gospel and Torah so essentially they believe in the same God the message is the same it's different directions of where we are going to towards the towards the explanation who is Muhammad Prophet Muhammad was born on the 20th or 22nd of April 570 180 in Mecca Saudi Arabia became an orphan at the age of six he was raised by his grandfather and later by his uncle so this to help shape the way he became he was very honest who is known for being honest trustworthy he was a shepherd it was a businessman this is interesting too he was raised illiterate unable to read and write and remained like this till he died before receiving a relevation he had no prior knowledge of any other religions he didn't know about the Torah he didn't know about the Bible before he received the message he received the first elevation at the age of 40 and he died at the age of 61 he died June 8 632 ad in Medina I gave those two dates but Muslims don't work they don't celebrate his birthday or his death they don't celebrate his birthday or death they consider him as a messenger as a prophet no more than that he is not son of God in some religion the Prophet was the son of God he's not son of God he is a prophet he is a messenger and he brought the final message to mankind if I'm going too fast please let me know you can slow me down the five essential protection epsilon protects life religion no matter what type of religion wealth honor and family and property and I'll explain more of this life it's all living creature whether it be animal whether we plant whether it be anything that's living is protected under Islam religions I traveled to many countries one of my favorite places to go and visit is Yemen which is place where my ancestors are from I'm from Somalia I was born in Somalia my family was lived in Somalia for thousands of years but ancestor wise we came from Yemen when I visited there I was visiting some of the people that visited my family before the war of Somalia there were a few people that I wanted I was really interested in meeting especially the Ambassador that was sitting in Somalia before the war started who was a friend of my grandfather and he was working at the head of the immigration office in Yemen at that time when I went to talk to him I found out that inside the immigration I found Jewish Yemeni people I found Christian Yemeni and I found Muslim Yemeni all working under the same office they all spoke the same language they wore the same clothes their head covers might be different but they all looked alike there's no different this was attracted me to learn more about other religions to find out if they're doing that in Yemen one of the most poorest country and now it's it's almost at the brakes of of ruining itself its water is very limited there as well that these three religions can be housed in the same office and work together so religion is protected under Islam it doesn't matter what media says it doesn't matter what people say the media will try to say or Muslims are the only ones living in the Middle East Middle East only makes up 14% of the Muslim world less than 14% of the Muslim world and even in there you find Muslims Christians and Jews living together without any issues well person's wealth is protected there has to be a court if the country doesn't have a court to protect that it's not going to work how many of you know of of a country that is strictly running on Sharia law this Islamic state that exists today in the world there is zero there are zero and I'll say again zero majority of them don't run as Islamic state they run as a democracy and they don't enforce 100% of the Sharia they've enforced some of it but not all of it so there is no country today that is 100 percent running an Islamic law so honoring property all of this is protected under Islam if Muslim country was doing that you would find all this protection under under that Islamic state the force sources of Islamic law the Quran the holy scripture Sunna tradition of the Prophet a JAMA which is the consensus of the scholars on a particular problem like for example during the time of the Prophet there was no internet right this is a long time ago there is no internet there is no laws that were set upon internet there is no airplanes there is no laws set based on that so the scholars will come in and try to find similarities from here of the problem that they're looking for in the Quran and in the Sunnah they will come together it's not just one it's a group of scholars that will decide whether a problem is either halal or Haram halal is permissible Haram is not permissible or McCook which is disliked disliked by the scholars it's not mentioned in the Quran is not mentioned in the Sunnah and they couldn't come to a concession on that on that so they make it this light yes yes is the combination of the three and its reasoning by energy and applying all other props all other problems or solutions cannot be found from all three sources so we cannot find the source from all three of them so we're going to have to do PS which means something that is close enough to the solution of that problem infinite I'll go back to Internet again is the hardest thing for them to come to consensus on on different things that are direct that we're using on internet so they're those kind of things that there still haven't figured out you just have to use your your TS on the bottom your your closest answer food and drinks prohibited in Islam all pork products alcohol recreational drugs why are all these three prohibited in Islam Islam wants to protect the health of the body and the mind and that is the reason why all three above are prohibited in Islam anything that that that messes with the mind with the head with your brain or your body it's not allowed to be consumed dressed in Islam women should cover their body except their face and hand what is with hijab or covering in Islam men have to cover from their navel to their knee but you don't see many Muslim men walking around with just navel Sydney coloring they cover the whole body but what's required of them is to cover from navel to knee how does it look like I'll show you in another flight what does this a job look like in different stages of some of our sisters some of them want to wear certain hijab some other more and wear different types of hijab sometimes you have a you'll have an employee that will start out not wearing any hijab and she becomes religious later on or she wants to she chooses to wear her hijab and she will come to work one day so she was working for you two years and then she comes to work wearing hijab after two years of working with you you're shocked right some some people might be shocked and I've seen members have come to me who worked for other industries like banks and it wasn't not who started out not wearing hijab and started wearing hijab and the backlash is that they got from that and some places that some places they had to go legally some places we just have to write a letter for I can also go with with the men as well some some men will grow their beard which is part of the tradition of the Prophet this is another topic that keeps coming back to our Institute will have members that are working at a security company and the manager will say you need to shave your beard in order to work there but again that person that came to me work for that company for three years became religious and wanted to grow his beer so we wrote a letter to the company and they accepted him to keep this beard so most of the time is just to get the managers to understand that this is part of their face this is part of their religion in everybody's life you become religious nobody is 100 percent perfect Islamic holidays there are only two Islamic holidays it'll feature it's at the end of the month of Ramadan the month of fasting and it allowed past is the tenth day of the last month of the Islamic lunar calendar to hedge which is coming six days from today so six to seven days from today it will be it allowed half so if you have a Muslim neighbor which most of you do if you have a Muslim neighbor if you have a Muslim colleague you can say eat Mubarak so let's practice okay Eid Mubarak it means happy eat or joyous ate ate Mubarak I'm pretty sure it will make their day if you say that to them it will make their day they'll look at you twice before the they know what you're talking about but it will make their day as long as the customary guide right so if a Muslim person is following the religion of Islam they would make they would live their lives the way the religion says so this part it's added in here marriage in Islam most of the time you'll have couples that will marry traditionally and that traditional marriage is performed at the mosque so marriage and divorce is it's done at the mosque first and then they make it official after that so if that makes sense so to get the marriage license most of the times they go through the Imam they get married and then they go and get their paper or license through the Imam Imam Hassan will be here he does both it will do the traditional marriage for them and then he signs off on their license for marriage naming of children so according to most Muslim cultures and customs the person his or her name is first given is the given name then if the father's name and the grandfather's name for example I give example Mohammed Ahmed Ali and so if you take this down you will be they will be surprised if you can say oh this is what your name means so Mohammed is the son of Ahmed who is also the grandson of Ali so this is how this translates Mohammed Ahmed Ali Mohammed the son of Ahmed the grandson of Ali I traveled to Kuwait in 2014 the the government have put invited us and a few people from all over the world to take a tour of the country infrastructure and ministries when we came to this country my dad when he wrote the names he rose he started my oldest brother my sister and so on he wrote the first name for my brother he did and then after that he just did the checkmarks so my middle name dropped so on my passport it just says Kasim was sorry so when I went to Kuwait they held me for an hour trying to figure out what my middle name was and after then they came to me and said do you have a middle name I said yes and I give them a middle name and they led me through to the country so most of the time Muslim countries will try to use the 3 name to see if your father did something - if your father owes money if your grandfather owes money or your father committed a crime or your grandfather committed a crime they can go after you for those for those lost money or crimes that they have committed against somebody else so that's the way it's done some people will take their tribe name I'll given another example as their last name the idea or more selling liquor full name plus venomous Ballmer this person is a Somali Yemeni person you can tell with the banana bar venom bias common in Yemen so Satya who is the daughter of Homer who is the granddaughter of salim from the tribe of bin omar bulma that's one example in some names you will find or Sheikh means somebody somebody who performed Hajj and it's one of the pillars of Islam so if I go and M and and do the pilgrimage after I come back I will have the title of Carson with Saudi right so that would be my title I'm not there yet I haven't done my pilgrimage yet Shaikh is given to somebody who's a scholar who's a scholar or somebody who's an elderly person at age of can be older than 40 right so somebody who is older in Islam you're a teenager or you're consider a youth until you're at the age of 40 you're considered youth until the age of 40 then after 40 you're older so and so you'll have somebody that will have their name that will say okay for example Mohammad Hamid Ali would be be his last name so his grandfather was either a ship or considered an elder elder person in his community this is important this is another thing that we get our Institute we have Delta usually gives benefits to your parents and they don't have the same last name so they have to prove that this person is the father so we write these letters for them to explain that this is what it is and different companies will ask the same thing as well too that this person is the son or the father of that person shaking hand so there's a hobby business a nother profit it was narrated that yes sir said The Messenger of Allah said for one of you to be stabbed in the head with an iron needle it's better for him then that he should touch a woman who is not permissible for him so what does this mean okay permissible to him permissible to a man to touch his wife his like the hands of his wife the hands of his daughter the hands of his sister the hands of his mother this was put in place for protection of the woman so you'll find many Muslim women do not shake the hands with men you'll find many Muslim men do not shake hands with women and this is why I wanted to add this into the lecture because a lot of people don't understand why some Muslim men will shake why some of the men won't shake or touch a woman that's not permissible for him so best practice what to do if you don't know right so the person you're meeting with is the Muslim person who's come into your office or you're interviewing it's about the same way so the woman will not touch a man that's not permissible for her as well so you're interviewing a woman who is a Muslim or you're interviewing your you're interviewing Amanda so most of them man-to-man handshake is okay open to women handshake is okay but if is the opposite sex this is what to do or gender I said place your right hand on your heart and say the greeting to them whether it be a good afternoon hello how are you this would be the best practice of what to do when you are in that situation there are some Jewish cultures that are the same way there are some some Asian culture that the same way as well this is again culture and part of the religion the source that I got this from the shift that wrote this is in Saudi Arabia he said whoever does this is committing a sin some scholars translated as a different type of touch some will translate it as this so there's two opinion it depends on the person and which opinion they take so on the lighter note let's learn some Somali how to say hello or how are you in Somali today's height is how are you doing in Somali today's the height okay and then if you want to say I'm fine 1/3 on the height very easy language to learn if you want to take courses on it's an Somali language they have courses at the U of M I think a semester course that can give you all the basics of the Somali language and the professor there is one of my friends and he's also one of my teachers as well I'm I know some police officers took the course a while back and they can say these words they can say gallop 1xn good afternoon so I have an accent good morning so there's more I just wanted to give you the easy stuff today's to hike is the how are you doing and then one Fionna hi is I'm fine so if you have a client or an employee that comes you can say today - hi hopefully they're Somali most most of the time most of the time majority of East Africans look alike majority of East Africans look alike so you could offend somebody by just starting out with city - hi people don't when they first see me they don't know I'm Somali working at the Islamic Dawa center for the last seven years most of the time when a Somali person comes into the office and they see me they'll try to speak in English and it's very hard for them to speak and then I just talked to them in Somali and they're like your Somali I say yes I can talk to you in Somali it took me a while to learn my own language I will be honest growing up in this country I've lost language when I came back to the cities is when I relearned the Somali language so I'm still learning my wife is a fluent she just came to the country two years ago her and my son came two years ago from Kenya so it's a long process for them to come here as well what is she had doctor I like this name so - he said that you had is simply the process of exerting the best effort involving some form of struggle and resistance to achieve particular goal so as you had what the media says which is the media takes your head and terrorists and puts it together jihad is not mean terrorists or a holy war does not mean a holy war jihad means the struggle against or resistance to something for the sake of good cause the protection under Islam life elem animals and human religion property property everything land air sea trying to be an advocate being an advocate as being a jihadist right being an advocate for intellect arts and science and maths is being a jihadist so KD who likes to smile smiling is is in tough moment if she had so keeping patients in hard times if you had struggling circling for good deeds as he had taking care of old parents in a loving way if you had forgiving if you had he had it's not what the media share shows but what the Quran says to strive and struggle so this is what you had me today I am happy to see 70 people understand what jihad is I want you to take that message and share with another 70 that you learned today what jihad means it's always misunderstood and misplaced and some people will hijack it to use it for their own purpose as well okay mosque if you drive down on university or you take the light rail you will see the Islamic Dawa center we're right on University 478 University Avenue West you probably pass by this building multiple time I don't know if it's probably very hard to see with the screen first thing you'll see when you walk in a mosque is a shoe shelf everybody take the shoes off when you go into a mosque is the holy place and if you notice right here over here do you notice anything particular about this picture right here this is inside the mosque no chairs thank you no chairs so we pray on the road we sit on the rug there's no chairs this is just a portion of our mosque and Dawa I had to find a picture of this this circle that they're in is called Halawa is a knowledge circle you'll find it at mosque so if you're visiting a mosque and you notice that there's somebody teaching and there's a circle around that person don't disturb them until they finish their teaching if you can come back and another time because if you stop their lecture it might cause delay for that further learning so it's best to just somebody might come out to you if you notice that they are in a lecture if you notice that they're praying you can wait there's no problem with that and then when they're done somebody will come out and and talk to you and over here this is a mom her son this is one of our classrooms teaching teenagers we have over 300 students and 70% of them are teenagers ages from 14 to 18 majority of them are that age very hard to deal with so when deputy mayor was talking about how I stopped to talk to the two young men I mentor about twenty youths every year and the youth that I mentor I try to make sure that they are on time for the time that I tell them to meet me and the places that I tell them to meet me I have a very busy schedule I have a family that I have to raise if they don't make it on time they fall off they fall off on the list I bring more people on I help them I've helped young men with their unguent aren't tripping or businesses help them start out I've helped young men who are struggling with school be better in school I've helped them find employment so it's a lot of work to to deal with at least ten but let alone 20 so when they're when they're not following my directions I move on to the next group of youth who are ready for it families will come and ask for that service it's it's based on the parents coming or the youth coming and asking for a request we don't go out and search for it they usually come to us for that help so going back to the mosque the mosque inside our Institute is the first month purchased by the Muslim community in Saint Paul when I say purchase there were other month they were rented out to begin with and they bought them there are about five to six mosque in Saint Paul but the first to be bought in 2007 by the community was Islamic Dawa center and it's a hundred percent funded by the community one hundred percent funded by the community through donations we do use counseling we do family counseling we are a community center st. Paul doesn't have the Brian Coyle of Minneapolis which serves the Somali community in the east african community so most of the time the community's first place to look for help is the mosque this is where they go for I had at least five family told me this morning that they needed health insurance and they don't know how to get it so we are helping them with the process of getting that some people don't know how to get resources we help them with that process and youth development just couple of days ago we were in New London Minnesota with 70 youth we took them out camping for the first time it's the only time I get out to camping five days out of the year I go out to camp with these youth it's a lot of work the food the running after them at the middle of the night trying to get them back it's a lot of work but it's a detox for them because there's no TV there's no internet there's no phone a lot of them go crazy the first night because they don't know what to do with their life without that home literally I'm serious they don't know what to do with their life some of them even cried it was hard for some of them so we came back safely everybody is safe 70 there 70 back and not using me every year somebody gets hurt and I have to run to the emergency and take somebody back to the emergency but this year no injuries everybody is fine we came back healthy and happy Hodge so I wanted to just give you a picture of what they do at Hodge all the spots on here they have to make the visitation to throughout the ten days that they're there this is the kaabah so they'd make the visitation to these all these dots you see in here are people this is the kaabah so this is just a diagram today you have hotels 5-star hotels hilton garden all of them surrounding this site so this is older picture of the of the Hodge but this is the places that they have to visit millions of people make the pilgrimage people get lost people get hurt they try to keep the numbers of people who get hurt down every year I believe last year was 3 to 4 million people that were able to perform the Hajj every year the number increases and they're all doing the same thing from all over the world all over the world the Quran I was telling you about earlier the it's in Arabic language so the Quran that I read in my house and if I go to a vet take a trip to let's say Paris I go to France and I go to one of the mosques there is the same Quran that I was reading at home it's same language is Arabic everything is same in there if I go to China again it's same with in Arabic so the main language and the religion is Arabic most of these people that came here don't speak Arabic so they have guides that work with them to take them to the pilgrimage that do speak Arabic and help them with the process hey job this is Cara she was the same fall to begin with she's a police officer in Metro now so simple needs to do a little bit more work to bring more she had a way for the project she had to wait for the process she had a way for the process but Harrington took her but this is a hijab okay we won't get into politics this is a job so people our sisters can wear whatever they want to wear they choose the type of hijab they were and how they wear this is their choice nobody forces them and which type to take today you'll see this right here on the bottom most young girls have westernized or her job to fit with the fashion of the day so they're more like this today compared to back home which the older tradition they wear this you'll find some younger sisters who will wear this as well the niqab is it Y jib for them to wear the ninja again it depends on how religious or how she wants to cover herself it's up to her the person that chooses to do this it's it's a belief that they want to be closer to God that they cover their eye their whole face what is what is required is to cover everything except for the hand in the face but when a person covers their face this is a person trying to get closer to God it's permissible but it's not required it's not required but they're their choice again of what they want to wear and how they want to wear it my niece my youngest niece when she was going to elementary school she struggled with this she wanted to wear the hijab but the kids will pick on her at school so what I did was I went and spoke to the principal who was a was great spoke to him he ended up having a talk with the teacher and the students and after that she felt comfortable wearing her hijab in school most of the time other kids bullied them with the rhetoric and the Islamic phobia that goes on today this is the most they're the most visible Muslims today most visible they're the most hate crimes that are that happens happens to them our sisters our mothers our daughters because they are visible because they're wearing the hijab either somebody falls under hijab somebody says something behind them cause them Isis takes a picture of them on snapchat and puts Isis on there this is the again for them this is their choice nobody forces them to wear it they it's for further religion and they want to be closer to their Creator and when somebody is making it hard for them it just it makes it hard for everybody else in their family as well because they will come and complain to their family most of the time the parents don't know how to get help or where to get the help from so they will they will request the mosque to intervene we had to do that last year there was during spring break last year we had 80 girls fight in central 80 40 of them were Somali 40 of them or not and all because of this right here the hijab with the help of the ministry an eye alliance with Tyrone Sorrell and some Muslim leaders we went and talked to all 80 girls and explained to them this is your face this is their face this is our culture this is your culture and at the end of the day they all were crying their husband and we didn't have any more problems after that this is right before Christmas for spring break this is another thing I get pulled into the schools when we have issues of hate crime or or religious issues like this when somebody gets bullied on they call us in either a mom or I or somebody from our mosque we go in and help with that with that process an issue cultural / generation you have the suitcase generation and you have the Somali Americans who see America is their final destination they don't plan on going to go back and live in Somalia but they consider Somali their homeland they live there the suitcase generation are the older generation most of the time they have their bags packed and they want to go back home as soon as it's peaceful right just as soon as it's peaceful they want to go back home and settle go back to their farm go back to the cows they were hurting it's a beautiful for the country so money is a beautiful country it has a beautiful culture food is fresh the Imam will talk about a little bit more of it he was just there not too long ago about a month ago this is right here is Abdel Basset he went to right track is the young man I was telling you about he's one of the students that we mentored so success story in st. Paul and many more right Ilhan State Representative so Molly's in Minneapolis so this is the Somali mall I meant to say Somali mall not Minneapolis sorry typo so these ladies are the backbone of our community they're the shopkeepers they own these businesses I have a lot of respect for them I visit them at least once a month to talk to them they own the businesses in Carmel mall 24 mall there are many moles in Minneapolis we don't have any moves in st. Paul yet and we're working on and a large project if there's any investors here they have seven million at the end of the talk the dialogue please see me if you have seven million to make that mall this right here is happy Alif he's a comedian he's also a barber this is abdul hameed he's restaurants right here and this is the way the name of the smallest call so caramel or caramel good address is here why am i referring to minneapolis that again they're only the most that we want to go to our only in Minneapolis so we are working on making sure that same poll which has a large Somali population also has a mole that we can go to I don't want to have to drive 15 minutes 20 minutes to go buy some booza I want to buy some buses in st. Paul made in st. Paul right useful material my neighbor is a Muslim it was written by Lutheran services and Imam Hassan who is here with us right now helped go edit the book itself this is the link to it I'll share I'll share this resource to Lisa by email you can forward it to everyone Minnesota Dawa Institute is another resource you can go to our website we have a lot of material there islamic finder if you want to find a local mosque a local community center if you want to find a grocery store you can go to Islamic finder org and there's a button on there that says places if you click on that and you have the zip code already on top it will show you all the mosque all the hollows how loud is a grocery store that's in there when you research something about Islam on Google or any search engine the first 500 articles you will see is anti Islam articles so my favorite resource is mission Islam mission Islam majority I would say 100% of the our articles and material in there is it's unbiased it's not about anti Islam it's also about Islam itself there's an English version of the Quran and so on so resources okay so I'll keep this up for now I have five questions to ask and I have some gifts while I do those questions okay so you ready no most of it and if you have questions be harder questions in your leader leader you can greet a man who can tell me the five pillars of Islam - yes and then it was making as elderness yes you could giving them all it yeah great so this is the gauge the $50 gift is the program this is the same game I needed to we used to eric holder i also involves the games before under eric holder is obvious this was sitting there when our untruth when they're visiting we're sitting at a table as a corner partner if you want to know anything about its time will be angle and then this is one of one of the beautiful of this grand translation is compared to any because as imam or the scholar at read about many translation in english i could say i would say this is the best for two reasons number one the authors simplified the language in a way that every new interested person about islam could understand about islam that's number one number two as you know sometimes verses weather is from quran from any old testimony sometimes requires like a specific type of the language to explain but he chose like a different route to make it understand understandable and easy for those who are newcomers or move people who interest to know much about Islam so that's why this is like one of the best gift so Chris congratulation alright personally to where was part of Mohammad saw I'm here an invoice for this time of year sorry I can't be on the city correct mission what is one form of we had here you're healthy taking care of your eldest that's one form of jihad that's right yeah congratulation he took my topic so I yeah okay okay in that to actually obvious lesson for you I think that's good the questions will be more difficult okay first of all thank you for giving me this opportunity my name is imam hassan mohammed and the Imam of I would say the first mosque purchased by the Muslims in st. Paul that's four seven eight University Avenue West you're always welcome anytime we I have seen and many other officials of the mosque are there most of the time we welcome you to to show you like how love how much we love you starting like as a human being so regardless of your faith for two reasons if you look at the Quran this is like where we have a lot of misconception about the Islam number one the quran' says itself to omars and like a large mutton is allah mean this verse mean is indeed we sent you talking about the Prophet Muhammad Allah saying we sent you as a mercy to the mankind so regardless of who is that mankind so means like give mercy show mercy to any mankind mercy is more than love mercy according to the Quran is everything which is good for the humanity so mercy is opening all doors that you need to be opened for you to relieve whatever difficulty that you in your life so that is number one so if you look what you hear is opposite of what I'm telling you today or many of it number two number two which is very important in Islam the world of Islam I think I have a marker right let me share with you this in Arabic and then in English the word of Islam is written in Arabic this way anyone knows how to read Arabic which I think this is the best way that I can make money today I have Arabic class basic I just start two weeks ago you can join I promise you within four months after you end four months you will know how to read and how to write basic Arabic and you can even not only that you can talk basic Arabic which like greeting and welcoming and so on and you can read perfectly Arabic after four month it's a very intensive two nights Tuesday nights and also a Wednesday night like tonight 7:30 to 9:00 one hour and half 90 minutes the only problem is very very expensive you know how much is per month five thousand no sorry forgive me five-star I'm right right 5,000 anybody wants scholarship 5,000 sent now you're happy how is that $50 per month very cheap very cheap and then if you are attending our ceramic university I give you three credit certify you someone finished four months program with me as a basic Arabic one and then you get three credit for the Islamic University of Minnesota it's a big University we have thousands of students in nationwide and we have more than about 20 countries branches of this ceramic University is a private ceramic University of Minnesota one of the classes held in our Center every Sunday night from 6 to 10 so any one who interested to be part of this class please talk to me or Kasim you can register it's not open only for the Muslims it's open for everyone so you can come if you don't feel like you can have scarf don't worry you can still come and I can teach you and you feel like a lot of change after two months you think we finish the book or like a green book but a lot of homework so but the good thing is like you can contact me any night or any time as new question is to form or via emails and I will work with you it's intensive class so my friend raised his hand so what is this oh sure why sure I know you cannot hurt it shall I see I thought that someone else you know better than anyone about this anybody who can try before sharra to read this it's Anatomy okay sure what do you want to make it like bigger here and then you can see it I know you can read it okay what's this Sharad I'm sure this can really L is LA yes and then this originally came these two letters it's a master Maximus like the source the source of a flop Islam the source is fella or celeb so which means like peace and it has the word Islam has two minutes one is submission to the will of God so you do what God wants you to do and number two meanings which is very important is peace and the Prophet Muhammad said very beautiful hadees hadees we hear that word Hadees means same of Prophet Muhammad tradition of Prophet Muhammad what he said or what he did he said he he or she is not a Muslim the one that harms others either verbally or by action so this is also another another definition of Islam it's a beautiful Hadees or saying of Prophet Muhammad he or she is not a Muslim the one harmless others by verbally or action so that's the general meaning of Islam and a Kassim give gave you like a basic information about five pillars of Islam but there are also six pillars of faith you talked about that so what I'm talking today is the time that I have all devised what time I have three okay if that's case and then I thought that I was given like okay that I have an hour's or what it's only ten minutes left if that's the case I would say if that's the case I would give you time to ask questions so because we don't have time I was trying to explain more about jihad and misconception about the head and then I was trying to share with you I just came back from Somalia it's true but just concentrate many many many I would say like regardless of where they are coming from Somali part appreciate that you welcomed us in in America not only that in Minnesota so we always even after Trump we always call Minnesota Minnesota nice anything I would say this some people were deported like unfortunately in a unfair procedure still those people they have high respect to America and this is what I always joke but it is also a serious to say if America my god forbid if something happens to America or to Americans remember one thing you have future country to come and feel that your country that is Somalia so we welcome you at modern that you welcome ask for two reasons number one faith the faith of swamp requires us in Islam we say Prophet Ibrahim or Abraham is the father of prophetess and he was the father of welcoming so and so that's one tradition we are coming from the faith of Abraham as a Muslim is to welcome everybody who welcomed with you and you do welcome more than listen to what the Prophet said peace be upon him the Prophet said your neighbor who welcomed you your neighbor jibra eel angel of gibreel one of the angels came to the prophet and said how many times three times your neighbor your neighbor your neighbor who welcomed you until the Prophet Muhammad thought after his death they may have shared of his inheritance to that level the gullet of the color faith your neighbor has to be first I always advise my audience or congregation if you have a neighbor who are non-muslims go and know about them because God will ask you after your death this is a very serious hour if any neighbor is suffering for any reason and you don't know about them that's what I'm worried if you ask me one thing that you worry America that God might punish you I because you know neighbor in the definition of neighbor in Islam it is 40 houses from each direction how many how many 160 i as a imam hasan responsible i am responsible for 160 houses to know the situation I can't but God wants me to know as much as I can to try as much as I can there is a man that was about as you just say like was planning to go to Mecca to perform the Hajj pilgrimage and he had enough money you know what he did he went to house to house to say goodbye that was the road 460 houses at the end the last house he found family that never ate seven days and their kids were crying and he found something in the pot and water was boiling and then the man said why they were crying the kids and the man said because seven days they never ate and they are starving they're about to die so what they did is I found piece of dead donkey that's what I was cooking for them they what he did he said wait he rushed he went to his house the whole money that he was collecting for ten years to go to Mecca he brought it to them he said I want you to take a your family and he dropped the whole water and donkey meat and he gave the money to the family and he stayed and he canceled it because he had no money to God and he did his duty to take care about one of the neighbors that was a service dinner what happened this is a story and I conclude this and then ask me question the time left this is what happened and he saw a dream now someone else saw dream someone who was in Mecca so a dream that that year of had 100,000 of people came to build image to perform the Hajj and big image is the same and to perform the Hajj at the end God rejected them because of the thin they committed those hundred thousand but the two Angeles were talking in the dream once said all their performance were rejected and the other one said yes is true but God forgave them the health of the one man and what he did taking care of member of his neighbor and then the other engine said who was that man and he mentioned the name of that man of that village that we just discussed and then he said what village that unit was in sham in Syria and then he woke up and he told the congregation why the Hajj was accepted by God and he traveled all the way from the mecca to come to that village to find out what did he do that man because the dream said only because of what he did but he never found out what he did until he came all the way from Mecca to that village and the man told him that the day that he supposed to live according to the Sunnah tradition Prophet Mohammed you have to say goodbye every neighbor and make sure that they have what they need and I found this family who are starving and I give all my money because I could not live in this condition and then I asked God forgive me I could not make it and I cancelled I stayed and the man who visited from Mecca he stayed because of what you have done you saved hundred thousand of their deeds so this is the meaning of neighborhood in Islam this is the meaning of you your neighbor your neighbors and and meaning of every one of us so that's one thing that I want to share with you and just to show what's about the Islam that people never talk of never present so we swarm as you appreciate it's our faith says that and the Somali culture Shinhwa knows the Somali culture one of the definition of Psalm al means whenever you see a guest keep them in your house for seven days and get milk from your camel look seven days you give them some of these so if you come to my house plan that I will keep you safe for seven days okay questions last five minutes or whatever minutes left and then I will ask these two more for you leave yes when so wonderful image democracy can go where a person is in touch with you while you're there oh it is a I I went I think one time with my mother who passed away so there is a lot of work a lot of rituals and procedures that you should do and all of them are limited in Mecca for example you do like a circle seven times the Kaaba the Black House which is there you go and run to the mountain courts yes al Magua was software to mountainous you run to one and then come back to the other one how many times seven so this is part of the high school novel Hajj this is the one that you do circle seven times while you go to the mountain and coming back and forth it is history you reflect - what a Abraham did what Abraham his wife did Hejira I think you heard about this maybe some of you from the Bible or all testimony on one he left her alone with her son that was just a born and no water was there and then she said are you leaving us alone and then he said like yes and then he left and she run after him she said like but nobody's there and the whole area was desert and then she asked him one question she was faithful woman she said does God notice that you're leaving us a lot you see like indeed he does she said then you can go God will never neglect us then what happened is the boys Ishmael cried and then he was hitting with his two feet like the ground and a water came that called Zemzem today Zamzam water is a special water that those who go there they drink from it it has a special blessing so how that water came was one he cried a lot she started running back and forth to between two mountains shouting is there anyone my son was crying is there anyone helping help help so and then finally the son found that water under his feet so it's part of the also rituals and many more that you should do that it takes about three days the eighth the ninth of the month of the deal Hajj and that month is the month that we are which is coming soon and the eighth the ninth the 10th the 11th but the most three important at the first three days 8th 9th and the 10th 10th is the holiday for the Muslims so they celebrate that they complete about the rituals and the rest from 10 11 12 13 are extra who ever can do that and stay there and someone raised yes but one job is some platform as well yeah we gather is flag immediately behind no there's no reason there's no specific reason that that why were that color was chosen it's only ah yes tradition then no specific reason the as a color white okay I will ask one question they are two questions yes another question yeah I worked with a Department of Parks and Recreation visioning and design and construction mutation and every time we have a new project a new Park apartment of our reservation a new play area we try to get rich out the community and get input from the vice-versa ladies are just simple and sometimes we struggle we can out the Somali community or the Islamic community I don't know if you can advise or cosmically know how to protect Kujo women and children and forget their I would give chasm add or my brother Shiva a tool best advice to reach out reach out to the mosque is Friday Fridays is the best day that even we advise the politicians to come and talk they come and they take five minutes of my time they talk to the people regardless of which party they are coming from they talk like the vote for me I have this and this and this and then I ask next one as a religious entity we don't align with any group so and the message reaches them so that's the best way so any program now we have health program that we had was which one missiles right yeah missile is what we did is like they used through the most stool out which all the formality it was very successful so and so that's number one way number two use elders and their mommies to hold meetings so they respect so for example in silicon on Hassan can you hold I need like to meet fifty mothers I can bring fifty mothers as a map and edges are well respected also of the community so those are the two big sources that you can use to bring and reach them and then convey the message that you want to any and if we are to usually do like four bad meetings at the part is that okay to you know to reach out women or you know to go to the park or in the neighborhood we would like because we really like app we want to get people from the neighborhood to give us input on that specific neighborhood park so we have to go to the products like almost or tenth year if that neighbor has a mosque like close to that area it's a better if he doesn't have and then if you come like some foremost we have now three mosques for mosques five if you go like one of those five is good by the way about the somatic cemented many so many community are moving to sample I was just talking last night okay they are there are I said like soon I don't know next five years will compete with Minneapolis and then don't worry about want to remove those many you'll have many models coming and many tradition and then many businesses are coming but I agree at the same those who have their blockages this is small amount of seven million that just interview please don't forget that at the end of the of the meeting this is an important big big big business opportunity such as a gas the community yeah station for shaker going on missions electronic there was a couple in football in forever blue station I put that because when you have Muslim youth coming so make wudu because of the five daily prayer that when they make one the things don't get water all over the floor and the thing so I think under the shaper half of the added I will do station I think the equipment I think firstly the dissipative design yes okay the pavement and I think with the proof less than I had checked that to have that in the bathroom or one of the bathrooms so that's we're very grateful that you guys are doing that I think Mike home yeah I'm a board member at the Friends of a part - so it's Mike and Michael me like that yeah yeah that's very important I'm done by the way sometimes when you want to do that type of the or build that type of the construction project you can have as the mosque is to be part of the donors so not only the city donate is the community feel responsibility also to donate so you tell us like you're building this station of Voodoo or a pollution and then you say like can you take like a fifty percent I mean like feet of the projects money then we go out reach the community and we'll help so that will remove burden on the on the city or the county so that's another so two questions are we ready okay you look like the one who wants to get a question get ready okay hello if you taught you but the Prophet Muhammad had a great great great great a wife that or even after have death it never forgets the neighbor of that wife not only her neighbor even have friends relatives he was relating to them so I don't know if he talked about you know that life the name of that wife he did not talk about okay let me change her has to be changed okay what was the city Prophet Mohammed died which city okay go ahead Medina so I think this guy here to get some gifts too because we kind of ask you another question are you okay with that because here in his hand right away so okay we'll ask you another question one of the sisters said about one of the forms of the jihad so can you tell me different forms of the jihad so you had meanness he discussed about struggle for the good cause that's the hair to protect the community the land and everything is under jihad jihad it is not and it will never be this is very important to kill and harm innocent people it's not it will never be one of the big conference that I attended as an imam in Somalia 150 scholars invited and I was one of them at the Somali government and not only to condemn the actives of some groups including al-shabaab to kill innocent people but to clear and show and give Petra that the head will never will never be to harm any human being so what is one other form of jihad oh I'm friends with al hands oh my so they she said she has here's one thousand you have one thousand cash okay again it's 1,000 cents that's the way I count yes I teach a lot of kids I always say like okay you did get you come here get you 100 ah you know $101 okay yes does you you had one okay okay thank you very much I think the time is done thank you [Applause] you [Music]

Channel: City of Saint Paul

Views: 5,459

Rating: 4.7142859 out of 5

Keywords: st. paul, network st. paul, islam, muslim, kassim busuri, somali

Id: nJ-tOM2_Nc8

Length: 91min 8sec (5468 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 22 2017