Osher Lifelong Learning Institute - Asma Elhuni: Introduction to Islam

[Music] and my volunteer with the Ali program committee I'm happy that so many of you were here today before I introduce our speaker Janet Blair is the director of the Senior Center and has all things she'd like to tell you hi everybody welcome on this spring rainy day so we'd like to see the room fill up today despite the rain and I just wanted to thank everyone for another wonderful season of partnering with Osher lifelong learning it's always a pleasure for us to bring these wonderful quality and well attended lectures to the senior activity and make them more accessible to more people if you aren't aware we also have a lot of great programs starting next week we have our spring summer quarter beginning we have over 80 wonderful classes about half of those are in movement some of them happen right in this very room but there's also a studio next door where there's lots of yoga so we've got strength training there's also more language we have a new memoir class lots of wonderful class you get to learn more or sign up our newsletters here we've got lots of forms downstairs feel free to stop by the office when you're done here and we also have a special event coming up this which is our annual rummage sale we're very different from everything else happening but that's Friday and Saturday and I also wanted to let you know that with OSHA are not running through the summer we are always really thrilled to put up new lectures or presentations and if any of you have something to propose I would be really happy to receive proposals from anyone and share them with our program committee that reviews them so feel free to get in touch and thanks again for coming thanks oh sure for your wonderful partnership and thank you guys for all your help set up if anyone needs the restroom it's right here outside this room there's also water and I'll be right down the stairs let me know thank you just two short announcements before we get to the program I mean this week this is the last of our lecture series and there are three weeks of films with Rick Winston and the topic that they're generally related films and the topic this year is cross-cultural encounters and collisions in 21st century film and those take place at 12:30 on Wednesdays at the Savoy Theatre so this there are copies of our brochure here that list but each week's movie movie is one last thing on the 12th we are probably most of you know Olli is strictly volunteer organization and eat more volunteers so we would need some help and mean meetings and doesn't read lots of work it means helping out where needed we need help with setup if Bob or not here if his attendance record was not what it was we would be in big trouble you know we need some backup so it doesn't mean a huge commitment but if you're interested please let us know in there is there is a meeting can we do our program planning meeting April 12th what if there is no seriously a week from tomorrow at the library to tell a covered library and oneness teams and everybody anyone is willing to go and if is welcome to come and if you can't come don't want to come but are interested in either giving us program ideas or volunteering please see Marge being anybody by doing a lot of people here are involved okay ESMA alchemy has a degree in political science from Jordan State University where she was the recipient of the university's 2016 Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award for her work on behalf of groups marginalized by society was expert in any meaningful today which you know alchemy has worked as an intern at the Georgia State Assembly and was the community outreach director for the Council on american-islamic relations in Georgia the largest Muslim civil rights organization in America as a volunteer with Georgia close-up a nonpartisan educational organization she have to educate students teachers and citizens about public policy in Georgia she also volunteers her talking with others grassroots organizations Georgia congressman Hank Johnson invited Melanie to be his guests as parenthetically as a form of protest and president Trump's first address to Congress in DC where she spoke to the press and why she continues to fight oppressive news okay and laughing this is cute you'll like this right here I just renamed her to give her of all dams you give a damn right Atlanta's best alchemy is featured in the new documentary produced by Atlantis center for civil and human rights telling stories of six female activists in Georgia she was among the contributors to the updated version of the new appeal for human rights in Georgia and most recently she helped changed the policy in Atlanta to allow Muslim women to wear their mandated a job at the Atlanta Detention Center allahumma has recently moved thankfully for us to the Upper Valley where she resides with her husband I give you gosh thank you so much I am so honored to be here today I want to thank the Vermont Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Edie and all those who made today's presentation possible including the Montpelier senior Activities Center for opening their space for us so I want this to be a safe space so that means I want you to feel comfortable enough to ask me questions and I will answer as many of your questions as possible and I think we'll just go ahead and start so this is the agenda and the first thing I'm gonna do is I would like to ask the audience what your goals are what you would like to get from the what questions would you like me to address and then after that I'll just stereotypes where they come from and their consequences go over the demographic of the Muslim community and also Muslim belief and practices thank you great so kindly prepared to think on the next slide which is your goals she's gonna play okay so I'd like to know from you guys what do you want me to address today so just raise your hand that I'll call on you and we could just write on the on the board right there what you'd like me to talk about what you'd like me to address yes okay so the posters yes they're garments okay garment or head covering or ring yes I feel hopefully about Islam in general I know that's a very deep topper the light paper can give some broad strokes how being a Muslim in America yes okay so how being a Muslim in America technique differ from yeah and also Islamic beliefs and practices sure okay yes every other religion there are progressives and fundamentalists there were people all over the so it's almost ridiculous they ask what do Christians think about something because they're all over the place so I'm just assuming that's the same variety of ways yeah so diversity in a sum that some somebody mentioned something here okay so the Arabic language related word is right related words in Arabic that you may be familiar with okay anything else yes okay so the role of women okay yes yes so Jesus and they also practice in the religion of Abraham has refused yeah Jews do not accept my mother's Department you are Christians so how does let's discuss the fact they returned example the way from school and she may assume in a way to destroy Christianity as a prophet to them and yet they are not their project is not so regarded by the others [Laughter] all right I think we could get started what is the average person think of what comes to an average person's mind when they hear the word Islam and Muslims and I'm not talking about you guys because you guys are woke you invited me here so that says something about you and you're welcoming me but what do you think the average person thinks about is salmon Muslims or what comes to mind so I'm looking for words fear fear different clothing different clothing Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire okay there was a study done and I'm gonna give you the most popular answers to that study in the United States and these are right who can read this for me raise your hand if you can really fast read what it says up here for me yes terrorists fanatical women oppress women submissive women educated women can't work that's right so this shouldn't be new to everyone I mean you probably are familiar with these these stereotypes and if some maybe you're familiar with all of them okay so they're all negative yes there actually were a few positive responses as well but the majority are negative and we'll talk about why that is okay it's not a phobia it's time to talk about a Semih phobia and the negative perceptions of Islam and Muslims so what is Islam a phobia how many people have heard this word raise your hands with you okay so good who can tell me what they think is some of Obion means yes exactly so it's either fear or hatred of Islam or Muslim and in it results in prejudices it resorts a result in the marginalization discrimination sometimes violent act against them against Mosul but also those perceived to be Muslims so Muslims aren't the only ones that are victims of sama phobia so these are the things that cause if some of obeah so let me go over all of those these are their driving factors we have media representations so most everything we see about Islam and Muslims in the media are negative images whether it's the news or movies in fact someone by the name of Jack Shaheen did a study and written a book about the negative perceptions of Islam and Arabs in the media including movies and he found that the overwhelming representations that we get are negative so I want you to put that in context and you'll find out a little bit later that only less than 1% of the US population are Muslims so if you're not gonna come in contact with almost the most likely and everything you see is from the media you can understand why that fuels if some of obeah and and there's no other like positive images to counter that the second by the way they were terrorism how many times do we use the word terrorism when it comes to someone who's non-muslim so unfortunately there is this sighs where a violent person Muslim happens to carry out an attack we automatically will label him terrorist right we never question intentions yet but when someone I don't know a white or a shooter that's that's non-muslim it does something we oftentimes will call them shooters with mental problems right we don't want to label them terrorists so there's that political rhetoric some politicians oftentimes scare people with Islam and and Muslims because if you create fear in people and you make yourselves out to be the hero right that will relieve you of your fear you're likely to win campaigns so a lot of politicians will play off of Islamophobia and an increase to this you'll notice in the media that's when when sanma phobia or the hate for Islam comes about including our own president right he used sin to fuel this fear of my gosh they're there they're coming to take over our country and spread Sharia law and violent extremists so despite the fact that there are a few people that are Muslims that do violent acts right there are we have our violent extremists Russ says any other faiths right but despite that we like to put the responsibility on almost sums for doing that we we don't do that to to say a Christian person who's a white supremacist or alright person we don't say all white people or we don't say all Christians but we tend to think one violence Muslim person does something and automatically all Muslims are violent right and so that goes into it's not a phobia American foreign policy Islamophobia is oftentimes utilized by our nation to justify foreign policies abroad and we'll talk a little bit about this but an example would be Afghanistan and how we went into Afghanistan and we used we're gonna save the Muslim woman in Afghanistan so let's let's go ahead and and for our military escapades there write us Islamophobia networks somebody asked me to discuss what these are and this is what this is basically there are people and groups who are literally making money off of creating hate towards it's them and Muslims it's a tiny million dollar industry and so I thought it might be a good idea so you can see who these people are that literally make money off of creating hate and so there's you can maybe I don't want to waste too much time but later you can come up and actually see who these people are and so when you see them and and people bring them all the time by the way in the media as experts even though they're very well known as sama folks and bigots and then last but not least knowledge from Orientalism and Orientalism was a body of knowledge that started in Europe mostly England and France to gain knowledge about those they would soon subjugate and rule over through colonies it was it continues today through neo colonialism through economic and cultural hegemony and we'll talk a little bit about that shortly as well yeah as long as obeah have been after 9/11 so I don't call it growing up I it just seems to be that was the starting point that's a really good question and if you look in history we always have to have an enemy if you have an enemy it justifies putting money into our war machine and going abroad and and so after 9/11 yes Muslims were the the evil boogeyman right before that we know through history we have the Irish were considered evil at one time right Jews and still are right this anti-semitism today the Russians right so we always have to have an enemy and I think today it's one of them is a silent Muslims so I wouldn't say it started at 9/11 but it has exasperated like extremely after 9/11 you know some lead organizations and you can come up here a you sure you're heard of Robert Spencer Pamela Geller they have websites and it's just fueling hates we create activities and events and yesterday was punish a Muslim they though I don't think any of these people created this is something that somebody created in in the UK but it was basically a list of things if you do these things too much let me get points like right pull off a few job you've got 10 points kill them will somebody go 200 points and so our community basically did send out just a warning you to listen to be wary about their surroundings and because this is just it's horrible but right right hate groups right so okay so this is Laura Bush and Laura Bush is here I think this was in the year 2001 she addressed the radio and she basically said the fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and the dignity of women so making it okay for us to go into Afghanistan and do what we need to do right let me just see what else I want to tell you about that let's just going here all right Edward Sade is the father of Christian Orientalism the word I introduced earlier Orientalism started out as a study of Eastern cultures by the West a way of seeing the world it assumes a huge difference between the East and the West Edwards I eat says there's a difference between knowledge and research to understand for coexistence purposes and then there's the opposite done to dominate right and so we see there an institution Orientalism it's an institution for dealing with the Orient's if you don't know what orient means anybody know what orient means and then the Occident would be its opposite the West ring so sorry about that just want to make sure but basically an institution for dealing with the Orient dealing with it by describing it viewing it teaching it settling it ruling over it in short Orientalism is a western style for dominating restructuring and having authority power over the Orient and that is his book this is his very famous book here called Orientalism and this picture here captures exactly what Orientalism is because you you look at this picture and you think wait what is this what culture is this is it Indian is it is it Iraqi is it it's a whole bunch of mumbo jumbo stuffed in a picture and then called right the orient right and that's how a lot of people viewed the east lina abu dawood i'm sorry if you can't see her name there she wrote a book called ooh muslim woman needs saving it's an excellent book where she talks about the perceptions people have of Muslim women but pretending to be rooted in the language of human rights she critiques how no one really cared these women were dying because of the war or that they were still struggling even after the West has emancipated them right so her critique goes very much hand-in-hand with saving brown woman from their brow men kind of like the white man's burden Jack Shaheen which I talked about earlier who did the research on how Muslims and Arabs are are presented in the media he basically boiled it down to the three B's the billionaire the belly dancer and the bomber and we all know what this is what is this and then Aladdin who would like to sing what the the opening song of Aladdin who would like to sing that part though I come from a place from a far away place with a caravan camels room well they cut off your ear if they don't like your face it's barbaric but hey it's home these are real lyrics in the movie so this is McCain if you recall in 2008 he was running for president and a woman gets up and and what does she say she says Obama is an Arab you know we can't have Obama her that he's an Arab right and and what does McCain say and says he says no ma'am no ma'am he's a decent family man a citizen that just happens to I just happen to have disagreements with so what is that really saying I mean he thinks he did something great here but what does that mean to someone like me or a Muslim child that hears him it basically says that Muslims aren't decent family people they can't be citizens they're on American right and and so that even though he got a lot of credit for this you know people but a lot of the Muslim community wondered how is this a good thing this is Obama when he was running people called him a terrorist people called him Muslim and he responds to the claims that he's a Muslim and a terrorist lie insisting that he's Christian and ignores the opportunity to challenge the association of Arab Muslims that they're terrorists basically accepting the logic and only challenging his faith that he is Christian so not the lost opportunity there so and we all know he's done many many things I just put three things up there so I think most recently is the retweets of anti Muslim pop organda videos that the UK had by hateful group called the Brit Britain first their fake videos of Muslims main violence and he retweeted not once not twice but three times three times these videos on his Twitter and then also we stood up against refugees he said oh we bring in refugees they're gonna be violent and and not one refugee in the United States there was no violent act rated by one refugee in the United States so it's really interesting the other thing is the Muslim ban I did not tell you my parents are from the country of Libya I was born there I came to the United States when I was two olivia is one of the countries that are on the Muslim ban and so he banned seven majority Muslim countries from coming to the United dates okay so what are the consequences of these perceptions so there's an increase in hate crimes so I told you I worked for Care Georgia the Council on american-islamic relations one of the largest civil rights organizations in the United States and what we found is this year alone the amount of calls we received on anti-muslim biases was highest since 9/11 again and if the trajectory continues the way it does it will be the highest since 9/11 so it's really bad right now discrimination in the workplace is another problem that we found they don't want some women to cover their hair or they won't allow people to pray or just being mean and not allowing beards or criminalization of Muslims and there's so many ways some Wilson's are criminalized in the United States through policies FBI targeting the third highest reason why Muslims call care is because of FBI targeting so they have no association with any terrorist organization but simply because their family comes from a different country or they visit a different country the FBI keeps targeting and bullying the Muslim community surveillance there being surveillance there on no-fly lists secondary screening at airports of course we talked about the Muslim ban anti Sharia laws if you don't know Sharia is it's fake its fake it means law right religious law but there is no law that all Muslims agree with so it's something created to create hysteria within the United States and so they have these anti Sharia laws ordinances keeping mosques from being built in Georgia we had to fight Newton County had an ordinance not allowing a mosque to be built because the community was just did not like Muslims and did not want that to happen so they create ordinances to ensure that Muslims don't create houses of worship and then Muslims stealing other and there's so many other things that happen including every single major airline has kicked a Muslim off a flight and so I can give you give you some examples of situations where that has happened let's see if I can get that quickly I may have lost that page but I could just tell you that every single major airline has kicked almost them out for simply talking in Arabic and somebody got scared and said oh they talked in Arabic so really silly things like that got Muslims kicked off of planes it sly its Islamic law but it's there's no there's no exact look there's no Islamic law there's no so should we have some people could say Sharia is giving charity to the poor right there's no power behind it right but there's many things in Sharia that people don't agree on right it also comes in when people say oh if somebody steals cut their hands off but yet there's no Muslim countries that really do that right so it's it's it's fake and that's why I say when you hear that word in this country just know it's being done again to create hysteria to create fear within the community so so when I say should we a snake I'm saying there's no one Sharia that all Muslims agree on right and what they're trying to do is trying to make it appear that Muslims are coming into this country to dominate they don't it's not about just living like everyone else we all haven't it gently if we have an agenda we're coming to take over we want to take over the government we're trying to convert everyone it's just this crazy idea how Muslims are dealing with some a phobia some people are speaking out against it I don't know if you're familiar with the lady on your left that's Linda Sarsour she is the leader of the woman's march on Washington so some people are speaking out against it some have created communities giving a sense of belonging so after-school programs for Muslims so that they don't feel so other others are taking it to the courts and challenging on just policies for example some people are suing Donald Trump for the Muslim ban some are trying to educate the public about what to do if they witness hate and talk about that so maybe you guys can have the tools who to act once you see hate in front of you some are a lying with marginalized communities in demanding equality and fair treatment and so you could see a picture that's actually me in the in the AJC paper in Georgia and I was the sign basically says civil rights are for everyone America it's time and that was during a police shooting when a unarmed black man died and so you could see how Muslims are aligning themselves with marginalized communities to seek their rights as well some are educating the public some are doing nothing because they're afraid that if they do anything don't further be targeted so they're just laying low and just trying to stay quiet about what's going on and then we can talk about what you can do a little later okay so now we're going to get into some important words all right so if Islam is the name of a religion it is one of three that are considered of the Abrahamic faith traditions the root word for the word Islam is sin SLM which means peace essentially achieving peace in self and on earth Muslims are people who practice Islam people Muslims and the religion is called if some it's them it's the religion its followers are called good believe me people mistaken that all the time okay so now the word Islamic Islamic is an adjective that's what that word is it's an adjective that describes things related to it some there there's a catch though this adjective cannot be used for people you cannot say someone is aesthetic but you can say it's Ana clothing Islamic Arts Islamic book stomach architecture right you can you can name anything anything can be a stomach if it's related to us now but you can't you can't say he's Islamic he's a very good how do you get to be okay I'll tell you that when we get to the other side okay so here are some more words arab-arab is someone whose origin is from the arabian peninsula or comes from an Arabic country countries around the Arabian Peninsula and also in North Africa like my country Libya right Middle East Middle Eastern refers to a person or a custom from a geographical region including South West Asia but oftentimes leaves out North Africa so there is another term called Mina if we can have grace right then and this is actually quite important and I should have put this up on the slide it's men1 Nancy a Mina and that describes the area of North Middle East so it stands for Middle East and North Africa Mena Middle East and North Africa it's more of an inclusive term because again my country is not in the Middle East even though people consider it but it's really not it's not in the you know southeast south west Asia so that's a better term to use for those Muslim majority countries Meetup Sunni Sunni is one of two major dominations within Islam about eighty-five to ninety percent of Muslims belong to this group XI XI I tis the other major domination the word Shiite is an English term Shia is the Arabic term so if I say she is because I'm used to saying she are but it's literally the same thing as Shiite Shiite is the other major domination Iraq in Iran Bahrain and as a Georgia as our majority Shia or Shiites the main difference is in the way both see leadership in Sunni Islam leadership is not hereditary so whoever's best fitted to lead will lead and in Shiite it is hereditary so today Sunnis do not have a leader there's no one hadith average you probably heard that term Holly felt a little bit of all Muslims there is no halifa instance then there's no longer empires right so some Shiite do have leaders like in Iran they follow someone in India they follow someone as well there are some religious differences but not much I'll give you an example of a religious difference cuz I'm not gonna stand here until there's no difference except in leadership there's what some slight differences so for example Muslims pray five times a day in Shia Islam they they split their prayers up into three times during the day is and some me split it into five but if you ask us yeah they say well we pray five times a day it's just during three different parts of the so they're combining prayers so it's still five times a day and also there's some slight differences in the words they say during prayer so there's that let's see here okay so this is an interesting fact if you meet an Arab in the United States they're not gonna be Muslim most likely they're gonna be Krishna you won't know it because you know they're not gonna be covered up right but in fact if you meet in however the United States are most likely going to be Christian the majority of Muslims in the United States are either black or South Asian so when I say South Asian I'm usually talking about Bangladesh India Pakistan and so there the majority of Muslims within the United States so we'll see how many Muslims do you think there are worldwide I want to see who has the best guess yes resilience how many okay so number how many Muslims do you think worldwide looking for a number how many Muslims yes one point four billion one point four billion okay no any other number one more guess six billion okay so [Laughter] okay let me ask how many people in the world are there yeah six point something billion I think it actually says it down there point eight billion people in the world so what is that is that every fourth person of the Muslim every third okay is almost something okay that's a really good question I don't know it's definitely it's definitely more yeah it's definitely more there's more Christians and Muslims for sure yeah okay so in United States how many Muslims do you think live in the United States okay three three one percent three people one percent you're absolutely right so how much would that be a guess you can do the math if you think six million okay so very good since there's no real census people have figured out ways to estimate how many Muslims and they say between three and seven million so when you said three that's why I'm like three what yeah so but yeah it's it's three million Muslims again one percent of the US population I think there's three hundred and sixty seven million Americans and when I say Americans I'm including undocumented that's the way I view things people living here residing in the United States you know the Muslim community is the most ethnically diverse American religious community so we'll talk about that in a second so here we are this is the demographic of the Muslims in the United States and we really kind of talked about who does this have like a pointer I don't think so sorry we kind of talked about how black blacks and also South Asian make up the majority and so african-americans 30% but if we include African with that that would be 33% South Asian again when we say South Asian we're talking about India Bangladesh that part of Asia if we're talking about Southeast Asia its 2% you know China Japan down the other end I don't know that's a really good question I actually thought about that quickly when creating the slide and I should have looked that up I can always find out and let you know can you tell me interesting fact about Indonesia do you know anything there's something special about Indonesia yes it's a beautiful country most Muslims more than any other country right percentage-wise so so that's that's the interesting about a interesting thing about Indonesia are they Erin no just because this Arabs so in the United States 25% in the world I don't know but I know the largest populations are Indonesia but also India they're not arid so they're not the most but I don't know exactly what percentage they are okay if you say exactly and let's remember Iran is not Arab a lot of people think Iranians yeah they're Persians in fact if you come up to and Iran in and say are you Aaron some of them actually will get married funded theory they don't speak Arabic and they're not Arabs they may look like Aaron but again you know there are many people that look at rights you like really just so so yeah so there's that yes it within the Muslim community in the United States is there a conflict between ethnic groups like in Christian churches they tend to fall out very segregated by yeah yeah so uh I think in the Christian Church it's like denomination right well yeah but they're still very segregated yes it's one of the issues within the Muslim community I'm letting you in on some of our problems um we're very segregated in the United States unfortunately so you'll have a black mosque about the African mosque you'll have the Arab mosque you have it Pakistani mass you have the Bosnian Muslim it is a problem that we're trying to work with people have voiced their concern about it because there are some communities that are more affluent than others and so forth so on and so forth so we do have that issue the way the mosques I'll now answer that that's a good question the way the mosques work is that the doors are open like they can't stop anyone from coming in to a mosque so if I wanted to go into an African American yeah and you'll see me use the word black and african-american interchangeably and there's a reason some of my friends do not want to be called african-american they refuse to they think it's an insult because we don't do that to you know white people we don't say Irish American italian-american you're just American right and so some of them refuse to take that and so they want to be called black and then I actually have friends who don't want to be called black want to be called african-american so I use them interchangeably and so so you I could go to a black mass in fact in Georgia I felt most comfortable in a black mass going back to your question about separation that is more cultural than religious the separation of genders and so what tends to happen is in the black mask's they're usually in one room they're not separated I'm most comfortable being in a room with my religious leader and so I tried to attend mosques that include women in the same space and then there's a lot of mosques that don't do that and not usually count stems from a cultural practice within their own countries where they separate men and women and so they come to the United States and they'll carry on those traditions and so even though it's a religious house of worship but religiously there's no basis because during the prophets time men and women were actually in one room but it's become very much a part of it it's so ingrained in the culture that for me to ask someone to to make us in the same room it's offensive to some Muslims and so so there's a middle ground the middle ground that I think is that should happen is that if women want to be in the same room we should create a space to allow them and if and if they want to be in another room and I've literally come across some woman who said no I want to be in a separate room do not come into my mosque and demand things that we don't want and I realized that is very that is that is a perception or perspective that I need to respect and so it would be great if they created a space for those women that don't want to be in the same room and then make making sure that those who do want to be in the same room and I think women have that right to have the same access as men to their religious leaders right because what happens when you remove access to women you know they can't reach out to the leaders that can't tell them hey I'm being abused or this is happening or these are some things that need to be on your radar right if you tell people that they can also say well we'll give opportunities for women we give women classes they can always write us they can always make it appointments but again that lack of access to me is problematic but to some people they want it that way yes oh no matter of fact the maasen I went to there there's some they all pray together and then there's Sunni mosque said that that's separate so no it's not I see a Sunni Shia I think the majority of mosques separate yep unfortunate but that's why again I like to go to the african-american laws because they don't do that there's a are agenda they've been here longer there's almost like an American kind of Islam and we'll talk about that they some looks very different in different countries so if we go to Saudi Arabia the way they practice system is going to be very different than the way they practice in I don't know Pakistan even their clothes are completely different right and so I may have more in common with someone from Saudi Arabia from someone from the New Jersey I grew up in New Jersey right then from someone in Saudi Arabia right just even though we have the same religion but I mean I grew up here in most of my life it's just the cultures is more culturally American and so I may have more in common with with a nominal sum right so that's important okay so you talked about diversity we talked about diversity this is a really important slide Muslims are very diverse in fact this is the most important point that I want to come across today like this if you get anything from this presentation please get this we are so diverse we have different cultures educational backgrounds socioeconomic statuses different professions we speak different languages differ in the way they practice their faiths we just talked about one aspect you know prayer and and so they're very there's they're not a mano mano with ik right there's no monolithic way of being a Muslim right there's no one way there's no Sharia law right there's no one way that almost some degree how we should live right and so now we'll talk about if some in Muslim sure we do that yes I think what I was going to ask was if you have to say what aren't important core values and practices yes I know thank you so much yeah I'm actually getting there thank you so much for that question because I am actually getting there but I do want you to notice the picture of a very straight so yeah a woman 200 coloring their hair one that doesn't right just we'll talk about that in a second okay so it Sam as you mentioned earlier is them it's one of the religions that are considered Abrahamic faith traditions Muslims see their religion as a continuation of Judaism and Christianity the Quran refers to Jews and Christians as the people of the book it so it readings me when I tell people that we share a lot of the same stories or the prophets that are mentioned in the Quran are also mentioned in the Bible they get surprised like what I thought it was something so totally different than they don't see that really Muslims view their religion is just a continuation of the very same Judaism and Christianity they also believe in Jesus they revere him very much but the major difference between Christianity and Islam is actually the way Muslims view Jesus as a prophet as opposed to being divine so that's that's where they differ so he's considered one of the most respected prophets but they don't consider him to be divine Muslims also share practices with Jews as well like Jews so for example there's dietary restrictions Muslims can deport in clothing some Jews you know will also cover their hair right also taking time off during the day to pray five times a day and some Jews do that and we know some Christians as well right before going to bed and going to church it also take time during the day to pray so yes when I was growing up thank you thank you for mentioning that yes yes I appreciate you mentioning that yes I'm we'll get up to the head covering and so I'm glad you added that that get there okay and so now we'll talk about beliefs okay we talked about how diverse Muslims are but there are there's a string that goes along a sum that brings Muslims together so what are they they are the briefs now there are five major beliefs in a some Muslims believe in a one God is a monotheists a monotheistic faith Allah is just the Arabic word for God so who knows how to say God in Spanish okay it's very good how about in French oh wow you guys are okay in Hebrew okay all right so in Arabic its Allah that's simple as that okay and then Muslims believe in angels so angels are creation by God and Muslims believe that they do not have free will they just merely serve God angel Gabriel is the angel that is believed by Muslims to have given revelation to prophet Muhammad and other prophets according to Islamic tradition the next thing is Muslims also believe in prophets they believe God has sent prophets throughout time to show and tell people how to live a righteous life some prophets mentioned in the put on our Abraham Noah David Jacob Adam and others as well Muslims leave in other revealed scriptures including the original Bible and Torah Muslims believe in an afterlife so that one day the world will come to an end and everyone will stand before God and be judged according to the way they lived their lives and last Muslims leave in a divine decree basically it means that God knows what happened in the past god knows what will happen in the future and it's all of a part of one big divine plan that we just need to trust in God so any questions before I move on so those are the major beliefs Allah Allah according to Islamic tradition God is not male or female you'll also notice just before I move on speaking of Allah you will see Muslims don't usually draw God there's no images of God usually and I say usually because Muslims are so diverse so if you go into books maybe you'll find a picture or two right but for the most part you won't find images of God they think he transcends all things that we can see right okay so the practice is okay so these are the things that hold up the Sun the way pillars hold up a building these are called the pillars of Islam so the first one is Shahada Shahada is a declaration of faith this is how someone becomes Muslim and I hope that answers your question it's basically saying that there's only one God and that Muhammad was his final messenger and by doing so one is declaring the belief in all the other prophets before Mohammad as well Muslims pray five times a day there just needs to be two witnesses so as long as there's two witnesses you what tends to happen is people go to a mosque in order to get those two witnesses in front of everyone to let people know the reason why that's important this doesn't have to be but what people tend to do is because they'll need a sense of community and if you're not reaching out to people letting them know hey I'm Muslim that people won't know and people won't invite you over to their house and I'll know not to say it if they don't bite non-muslims but it's just to say that meals kinetic extra care of the source of okay okay thank you so there's no like baptism thank you that's a really good question no like for example I was just born into the faith I didn't have to officially fund up everyone say my head like I didn't have to but I'm constantly saying it in prayer and so I say a lot but no there's no like official formal ceremony if that's what you're asking that you are yes or not necessarily so some people have converted out of some then became something else so that's very possible as well but it's it's really I think it's more important to belief inside right saying that there's only one God and that how much is his messenger but formally the scholars this is just their opinion you have to have two witnesses if you are converting from another faith into Islam so do kids how does that start that's a really good question actually there's a slide on prayer and I will get to that and if I don't address up please do just raise your hand remind me and I'll make sure I address that yeah okay so we talked about how Shahada we talked about declaration pray five times praying five times a day this is supposed to connect people to God and I'll go over the movements really quickly so I think this is important so the reason why I do this let me turn this off to a second is in case you see in case you see Muslims you'll know what they're doing and I don't want what tends to happen I also give cultural sensitivity training to police officers in Georgia and the reason why I did that is it's important for people to know what prayer looks like so when they see it they don't think something bad is gonna happen because literally people are calling the police when they see Muslims pray because in movies when Wilson stray they're about to commit a violent act forgetting that Muslims pray five times a day so let me just show you so this is this is not my magic carpet this is my prayer rag speaking of Orientalism all right okay and so basically they have to pray in a clean place Ohashi just gonna quickly take off my shoes just to make it easier so this is the first movement just so that you know the movements I'm not gonna go for everything but this is it this is the first movement we say some things this is the second movement you go up and then this is the most famous picture that you'll see is Muslims will put their forehead to the ground so so my knees are on the ground my hands and my forehead and that's prostration like that we say three things God is glorious God is glorious God is glorious you come up and go back down again God is glorious God is glorious God is glorious and then we come up again say some things to ourselves and sometimes outloud depends on a fern congregation praying together do this God is greatest God is greatest God is greatest and then again forehead to the ground during the day the amount a set we're gonna call this a set from from me standing to my head on the photograph on the ground I'm sorry I'm gonna get to my mic so you can hear me okay can you hear me we call that a set where I was standing and then my head goes to the ground and that differs throughout the day so in the morning it's 2:00 for the hundreds for lots of prayers for more prayers three sets on my shop prayer it is four sets and so Muslims also have one day that's a holy day that they will go to the mosque similar to how Christians will go to church every Sunday and and then the religious holiday for cruises Saturday and so Muslim holy days Friday they'll go to to the mosque and they'll pray congregational prayer okay so that's prayer yes yeah it's the same exact movements there is slight slight difference between the Shia just I didn't show you at the very end after I prostrate we sit and I should have showed you that movement but because again you have to know how but it looks like just me sitting down like this and then we say some things and then to end we'll will do this for Shia it's just a little different I know they do something with their hands slightly different so there's slight variations but basically it's the same thing and you'll see it in pictures and yes my mother actually uses a seat so if you can't do all that you can sit down and you're still lightly doing some of the movements so for example like this to bend when I was was bending like this and then where my forehead is to the ground she'll just go a little further so that's a really good question because not all people can do all the movements right some people have bad knees I'm sorry yes oh my gosh yeah so before prayer there is something called with you and it's a ritual wash and it is washing the hands mouth nose face head one's ears and then feet three times and so I don't want to give it to too much detail but basically it's done before prayer it doesn't have to be done before every prayer if you're purified and that means if you didn't go to the bathroom and you didn't pass gas and it's time for the next prayer then you don't have to do the pure food the purification so that's that you asked and i answered oh it's thank you that's a really good question so it takes about three minutes to do yeah between three the most five minutes if people really want to get into it and real slow it's not like you can just choose your words you actually have specific verses from the Quran that you say during prayer so the first is like mandatory verse from the Quran and then a chapter rather from the Quran and then you could choose any other chapter from the holy book to say but again you can't choose it you can't I mean you could choose the chapter but you can't say whatever you want to say now that happens after prayer when people are sitting down and you usually see them do this that's when they're saying whatever they want to say and they're asking God for whatever so I think well I'm not even gonna get into up let's let's just keep it this I know it's them and I'll stick with this now I don't want to say the Christians do this when they pray you can compare it to that but in Islam it's like this okay yes pre-dawn I think I think there's a slide on that yeah and we'll we'll get it to that too okay so we got up to praying yep and then Wilson's get karey so though you can give charity anytime of the Year any time in your life Muslims actually required to give charity of their savings so if you're saving money aside by the end of the year you have to take two percent and give it to charity that's mandatory you can also give extra charity that's fine but it is required that people give two percent of their savings so I think that's important because people get shocked then like I like I have to give two percent of my well if it's like no only what you've saved for the whole year untouched money for the whole year two percent of that half the boy step connected to I have an idea that I don't know where I got a big meeting that Muslims are extraordinarily hospitable yes that's got to be so ingrained absolutely what is their connection there absolutely is a connection I can't even if you go to where my parents are from their doors are always open there is no such thing as calling someone when you come and when Nick when they come over you can't ask them to leave you can't say oh I have to go somewhere it's suddenly everything and we'll be put on hold you take out the food you it's very yeah it's very hospitable and very giving yep so that's that any other questions okay and then we talked about charity here Muslims fast once a year during the holy month of Ramadan which we'll talk about that in a second and has has Muslims have to make a pilgrimage to hash once in their lifetime so hash is in Mecca in Saudi Arabia and here it is take a look at that picture those little specks are actually people every year 2 million people make their way to Saudi Arabia how's that building there it's called the Kaaba it commemorates the trials and the journeys of Abraham and his family it is believed according to a summer tradition that Prophet Abraham and his son Ishmael built the Kaaba and then it's been rebuilt many many times but just the thing that you have to know is that when Muslims pray they faced this building here and so that's important and the other thing you have to know is one time during their lifetime they have to make this pilgrimage and that is if they can afford it there are some people who can't afford it and so people are not forcing them to write but if they can afford it they have to once in their lifetime make this pilgrimage yes here only a very small fraction actually you're able to do yes yep it's very expensive I have yet to do it and it's a shame because I actually lived in Saudi Arabia I went to visit this but when it was time to make the Hajj there's a certain quota what they do is they don't allow anyone to come in may know there's not enough space for everyone yes and they accept yeah exactly and they accept like certain quota from every country for people to come and actually do this but like you say it's really expensive so there are many people who have not done the pilgrimage and so there are attempts to make sure that those who haven't maybe people can donate to help those who haven't actually make the pilgrimage this at a certain time of the year yes it is during a certain time of the year and you probably don't know what they're doing is what they're doing is their circle they going around the Kaaba seven times and what's interesting is the men are all in white and they have to close two pieces of cloth and this is to basically create the sense of equality so if you were rich you're not wearing your special you know like it's literally to create a sense of equal before God the men and women are not segregated here and Saturday who doesn't have an issue with it man right they can't exactly people coming here with exactly and unfortunately there has also been accidents as well and when accidents happen many many people die as well yes contains a meteorite oh yeah so there's a black stone yeah that Muslims leave is a meteorite they tried to touch it but it is so hard to get to my installers whatever oh oh yeah they believe that came from the heavens bank and they try to touch it and they try to make a special prayer but with this amount of people I guarantee you not everyone's touching it I was able to I didn't make the house but I lived in Saudi Arabia for two you know ten months ten months I got to visit this but not during the high seas and you talked about you can't just go and make the pilgrimage it's only one time a year certain time I went when it wasn't that time even though I lived in Saturday B I wasn't allowed to go so they didn't allow me to because they have a certain quota they allow people from certain you know areas and so I got to touch it and it was amazing and this thing right here this building this gold stuff that you see is actually real gold and they change this this this material so but yeah it's a quite an amazing sight okay ok fasting during the month of Ramadan which is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar people have to abstain or Muslims rather have to abstain from food and drink from when the Sun comes up till the Sun comes down so it's important to mention that the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar it's not like our Gregorian calendar that just means that days are the months are 11 days earlier every single year so Ramadan may fall in the winter one you know one year and then years later may fall in the summer because every year it's 11 days earlier and so during this period of time the reason why this is a significant month is Muslims believe that that's when Mohammed received revelation from the angel Gabriel that he's a prophet and that this is the message from God and so what Muslims tend to do during the month of Ramadan is read the whole Quran they tried to go to the mosque and they're praying and during their prayers they're reading verses from the Quran until they try to finish the hold on so that's something you should know and they're very extra charitable during this month and also inviting friends over and there's a lot of visits during this month so what happens is I wake up before the Sun comes out I eat as much as I can yeah and then and then no eating no drinking and in case you don't know there's also no marital affairs which means literally sex right no sex either and then when the Sun Goes Down usually I know your minds going when the Sun Goes Down people usually break their fast with dates so you always see picture up I decided to choose dates for the month of ramadhan because they usually break their fast with dates the Prophet ate a lot of dates and so people will that's the month where everybody goes and buys they they break their fats with milk usually and some on some what is the Arabic word for dates and then they have a big huge feast now if you are a Muslim and you cheat what some Muslims have done is they'll sleep there today and then they'll wake up and then just literally stay up and unfortunately in countries it's really they created the environment to be able to do that they're like oh but if stop saying that's why I'm have to come over right so that's not what's supposed to happen the reason why people fast is so that you're supposed to feel how how it feels to to be hungry and not be able to eat you know that's the one time that those who can afford to eat all the time finally experience hunger real hunger pains and that's one of the reasons why they're more charitable during the month of Ramadan right yes um okay let's see I think that's that's good for Ramadan okay so you literally experience what I actually just said everything is so different during yeah they have special series on TV like certain soap operas people aren't like it's very different it's not the way it's supposed to be but people have created their own little way of doing things um so after the month of Ramadan there is a major holiday so there are two Muslim holidays during the year the first ones called aidid 15 which is breaking of the fast and then the second one's called I hate the law how they're celebrated the same way so I'll tell you quickly how they celebrate it they wake up they get very special with dressy clothes on the best clothes they usually it's usually new clothes they go to the mosque pray and then after that they visit family gifts and and all that good stuff so that's maybe a fifth at heathrow ha is the festival of the sacrifice and a commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son and then God sending it around in his place right so that's that second Muslim holiday yes the whole whole month one whole month called Ramadan yep it's actually coming soon in May 30 days during yeah it's a lunar calendar so we have a look at the moon oh yeah so it's not cheating when you're actually eating when yes so when the Sun Goes Down what's supposed to happen is you wake up early you eat you don't eat during the day the Sun Goes Down you eat but then your sleep you don't stay awake and then take advantage of like the the night time and just eat away you're supposed to live your regular life but feel the pains the hunger pains right and so um I am so happy during this month because I usually lose least five six ounces I'm like the belly that I'm so worried about is not here anymore so yeah yes uh no actually Muslims read it throughout the year and if you hear it it's it's almost like like a song and they have competitions and people memorize it so I have four boys and three memorize how many chapters not thirty Oh ten like so the the the book is divided into thirty they memorized ten of the thirty so it's it's a it's an honorable thing to memorize the Quran right the Quran is in Arabic there are translations in every language but it's only considered holy and the Word of God if it's written if it's read in Arabic so even prayers I'll be honest my Arabic is horrible I am Arab I know but I was raised here and unfortunately there were no schools that taught me Arabic so but we learned the the vehicle on in Arabic and I'll say my prayers in Arabic including converts they'll learn in Arabic because it's only only only God's words if it's in Arabic so whenever you read the quran you pull it off the shelf and you're reading verses it's actually someone's interpretation of the Arabic so that's something that's important to to keep in mind thank you that's an excellent question okay so here are more important words as said I'm on a comb you probably heard this word this is the Muslim greeting when Muslim to see other Muslims this is the first thing they say Estevan want a comb how much time do we have okay so I better hurry up oh so now Monica means peace be upon you Allahu Akbar is a very important word because it's taken out of context it means God is greatest I say this whenever I'm happy my son scores a goal a long book it does not mean I'm gonna bomb something like that we all the same movies in sha allah means dog Willy and how that means praise be to God and this word she had it's a really important word you have to understand it actually means to subscribe it does not mean holy war like everyone wants to translate it as it actually means striving and so the Prophet said the greatest the greatest striving is to strive to control yourself your nephew your your desire to to do whatever it is that you want to do right and so can it mean fighting yes to strive to defend yourself so it can mean that but it really just means striving but it's always taken out of context in our country so let me go on um research oh this is actually do you want me to go over this I'm almost done but just as any faith in secular groups there are violent Muslims as well specifics show that the majority of violent attacks in the United States are carried out by non-muslims yeah Muslims are the ones associated with terrorism people can find justification in texts for their political agenda just as they can in any holy book by taking verses out of context research shows that the group that carries out the most violence in the u.s. is the alt rights framing their language around survived surviving extinction so though the threat is not as widespread as our society makes it out to be Islamic terrorism there are Muslims who do do go out and do horrible horrendous things just as there are people in all faiths and so are there isn't fighting this yes they're actually Muslims are working against violence within their own communities I'm one of them I'm the first of a group of cohorts that that is in the Carter Center we have the study is right here but what we're trying to do is combat terrorism within our own communities and what we found is there's no way you can combat terrorism without combatting Osama phobia they literally feed each other so the reason why these violent groups including - which you know as Isis I don't like to call them Isis Isis means Islamic state right we don't want to give them any legitimacy but the reason why they're able to recruit people is most of their being so other that and when no communities to make them feel like they belong what tends to happen is they're doing an excellent job recruiting people online and so that's why I fight Semih phobia and extremism so that means on the Muslim end you create environments where they feel like they belong at the same time we call out the things that we do here to make Muslims feel other right and last slide women's dress this is quite important so if you take a look at the picture of the the women there there's a variety of ways and some women dress some may cover their hair dress in loose-fitting attire a few women may cover their face called mini Bob some may not cover their hair at all some african-american women may cover like the way that that the black woman in the top left-hand corner is covered actually your yeah your elastic and so really fast we all know that Muslims aren't the only ones that covered and Bob was very kind to remind us that that he remembers a time when when people used to go into church and have to cover their hair right we've all seen replicas of Merriwether in Christmas silent sometimes I go into churches but um you've seen replicas of Mary right we're covering her hair you've seen Jewish women who cover their hair you not ins you're all familiar with nuns but why is it that whenever we say Islam and Muslims all of a sudden this is considered a Prussian oppressive right so the meat thing I want you to get out of it is this is not necessarily oppressive but the act of forcing anyone to to dress a certain way is oppressive so when we have countries like Saudi Arabia who force women to cover that's oppressive when we have countries like France who who force women to take it off that's also oppressive so where did the practice come from during pre-islamic or the advent of a Sun the only woman that covered their hair were a certain class of woman a noblewoman and it was to let those in the market know that they belonged to a certain family or a tribe and if anybody there harmed them or anything they're trying out their back so when Islam came it was to raise the status of women to these other women that nobody should harm or so it's not really linked to people want to make it out to be linked to a sec like so women are not sexualized or whatever into them some women will say that so uh if you ask why Muslim women cover my answer will be very different than someone else's answer right some woman do it just because it's culturally they see their parents do it and they're a part of a culture that does it and so they do it for that reason some one woman will say because it's prescribed in the holy book they'll put on it says to tell the believing women to dress modestly and cover right and so they believe that is a part of their faith and so they'll do it for that someone will do it out of protest because they've been colonized for so long and it's a way to take back their identity and say this is who I am and you're not gonna tell me what I should look like or should dress like right and so there's many different reasons why Muslim women cover and it's important if I get if you want to learn anything it's that it's not oppressive it's it's what happens if it's forced its oppressive right if it's removed like you're forced to remove it that's also oppressive so that's the thing that I want you to remember some people aren't interpret the face covering out some modesty and they need to do that so you'll see some women also cover their face yes right and I'll be honest because I get this question a lot and then some light a lot of times you will tell me oh but you're not like the other woman you know the woman that covered and they don't literally make a face don't even that cover their face you're not like that and I'm like when what do you mean I'm not like that I have Muslim women friends who cover their face and their lawyers there we're smarter than me they know a lot so like what is what does that imply I'm not like everyone else so I think it's important when we see people covered it doesn't mean that they're from a different country there are people that were born here born and raised here right it just means that they do it for whatever reasons that they do it and we need to accept and respect their decision to cover if they choose to cover um I think Oh last slide which is quite important oh here we go what you can do okay so these are some things that I just wanted to make sure I shared if what you can do ask ourselves if I'm being biased by thinking about this person a certain way if we see someone we there's stereotypes that come at us right so ask us ask ourselves are we are we being biased by thinking that this person will have an accent and they may have an accent and so what if they do does that mean they're less learned maybe they know more than us maybe they speak two languages where we only speak one right make a purposeful attempt to be kind to those with an accent or look look different than us right and I've seen many people do this in the Upper Valley so I see that's one of the things that I that I appreciate some people literally go out of the way to be nice if you see a hate crime this is something that's really important if you see a hate crime and I've been a victim of hate crimes many Muslims have right and what I've noticed is people do nothing they freeze and it doesn't mean they're bad people but good people but they just don't know what to do right and let's go back in history we in turn Japanese and there were a lot of good people then too right so what I'm asking people to do what our organization my X organization usually ask people to do is when you see something happening to able some more anyone writing discrimination or pretend to know that person don't engage the perpetrator just ignore that he's even there pretends another person and then just walk with them somewhere else so just take them out of harm's way but don't talk to the the perpetrator support organizations that deal with Muslim issues care is one of those organizations know that whenever somebody bad does something it's an exception it's not the general rule and so just like in Christianity you have the bad apples right Timothy McVeigh no but it's oh my god it's Christianity it's it's you know it's just a bad apple the same is true for salmon Muslims we have our bad apples and your snow oh my god okay I'm Muslim did something horrible that's just him it doesn't mean it's his faith right speak out against dad policies and write to newspapers on there being bias so if a newspaper is always calling a Muslim terrorists may be right and say hey you know you're always using the word terrorists for Muslims can you also extend that to other terrorists they deserve it too and also why are there any positive images of Muslims are you telling me you can't bring them on and say some of the good that they're doing in the community especially I call it responsible reporting if you're going to put out a bad story it's gonna have a ripple effect right so don't aren't yours shouldn't you be responsible enough to have a counter story what Muslims are actually doing in within their communities so that people are not connecting all the negative stereotypes with Islam and Muslims and I think that is about it thank you so much [Applause] yeah I also this is the the Carter Center book that I made in a study on terrorism only 9% of the terrorists you know like Isis use only 9% of their rhetoric is religious in nature the rest is grievances Muslim grievances like the West hates you and they literally use 12% of their their videos are real videos from the West politicians and also people in the media saying bad things about us and to get people to join so this is a study this is the hate crimes report 2016 that Kara has done about hate and bias towards Muslims this is the book Orientalism and this right here is a pretty awesome gun called it's time of Obon you can go to Kara's website you order it but if you want to take pictures with it it's really cool so if I go to an airport and somebody to see sama phobic I'm like do you need it's not offloaded so we could take pictures of this if you like consumer [Music]

Channel: ORCA Media

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Id: 3V_-Q4U-5yk

Length: 84min 47sec (5087 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 17 2018