idea repression in egypt. journalism is not a crime this time on al-jazeera. al-jazeera . swear every. oh there america island doha is in the top stories on al-jazeera after days of heated aggressions the un security council has unanimously adopted a resolution demanding a month long truce in syria it comes after a week of government led strikes on the rebel held enclave of eastern ghouta which has killed more than five hundred civilians one after. the united nations for

a third day diplomats worked frantically to get a resolution for a cease fire on syria ambassador he got an agreement with the russians now. today we're going to see if russia has a conscience the russian ambassador conferred with his syrian counterpart who's government has continued without rest by the bombardment of eastern even as the negotiations dragged on diplomats have been working around the clock exhausted frustrated and in some cases angry most of the discussions focusing on the exact wording of one paragraph in the end they agreed to a place an immediate cease fire with one that comes into force without delay it meant they could vote it was unanimous but there didn't seem to be much unity in the chamber. every minute the council waited on russia the human suffering group

getting to a vote became a moral responsibility for everyone but not for russia not for syria not for iran i have to ask why as they dragged out the negotiation the bombs from assad's fighter jets continued to fall in the three days it took us to adopt this resolution how many mothers lost their kids to the bombing and the shelling why we negotiated this so long and that is illusion that that the wanted to make sure that it is not used as a pretext military action because we had some trouble so what are you worrying. governments on that in the recent days any good in today some of the variability cause these negotiations were extremely hard getting a ceasefire across syria will be even harder can we get a stop to the bombardment in eastern guta there is an exemption in the resolution allowing continued military action against al qaida. and i saw and some diplomats

fear that the syrian government will assert that those fighting in eastern guta have links with those groups james bows out his era at the united nations a classified memo by the us democrats has been released two weeks after president donald trump blocked it due to security concerns at robots a document prepared by republicans on the house intelligence committee that memo released earlier this month allows the f.b.i. bias against trump tray its investigation into his presidential campaigns links with russia trump has tweeted that the newly released document is a total political and legal bust. i would say that this is we actually one of this out so this is been held for over two weeks the f.b.i. and d.o.j. had right away had told the democrats what was wrong with their memo or their response to our memo and they waited for two weeks before they actually did the

redactions that were necessary to get this out we wanted it out we wanted out because we think it is clear evidence that the democrats are not only trying to cover this up but they're also colluding with parts of the government to help cover this up a growing number of high profile u.s. companies are cutting ties with the national rifle association following last week's shooting at a florida high school more than half a dozen companies say they will no longer offer discounts to the n.r.a. five million members it follows a social media campaign by gun control activists calling for a boycott on brands with n.r.a. partnerships extrasolar says have been deployed in the search for more than one hundred schoolgirls kidnapped by boko haram on monday angry parents say the government has failed to protect their children doctrines in the town of dempsey cast doubt on the government's claims that it has to face has the armed group those

are the headlines another news updates here on al-jazeera off to rewind islam in america say with us. i. l o and welcome to rewind i'm richelle carey and the decade since we launched al-jazeera english back in two thousand and six we have built a library of moving and powerful documentaries here army wine revisiting some of the best of them and looking at how the story has moved on today we are rewinding

ten years to two thousand and eight and rogge amar set out on a unique journey across the united states to get to the heart of what it meant to be muslim in america and that was back in the decade of nine eleven and the iraq war that followed since then of course the world has turned with the rise of isis the political upheavals that followed the arab spring the chaos of us and gulf first libya then syria and of course the election of donald trump and his travel ban so today it's more important than ever to understand the history of a vibrant diverse and still growing muslim community and what it means to be both muslim and a patriot here's islam in america from two thousand and eight. oh say. cecil i want to go on this i think this.

would. be good is. how. you. can. mention america and islam and most people think of irreconcilable conflict but i suspect that's not the whole story in this two part series i hope to discover the truth relationship that's evolving between the two. there is said to be eight million muslims in the united states and the faith is said to be the fastest growing religion in this country and the roots and history of islam a longer than most people are aware of i want to travel across this huge country to find out the stories of what it's like to be an american. in this program all the searching for the origins of islam in america talking to african-americans

who had just discovering that own islamic history and exploring is being american fits comfortably with being muslim. my journey begins with a trip to minneapolis in the midwest it may seem an all destination for a program on islam because its citizens are mostly jewish and christian but in two thousand and seven voters here elected america's first muslim congressman keith ellison. keith spock on the campaign trail on a most significant anniversary today is juneteenth it commemorates june nineteenth eight hundred sixty five the abolition of slavery these are local political activists and they're coming on the parade to get people in this community fired up about voting and at the halls of their efforts a young muslims playing their part trying to get congressman keith ellison the first muslim in congress reelected. hello good spirit nice to see you keith ellison

is a charismatic politician who's keen to get young muslim started in politics well you know we're just having fun out here you know keith introduces me to his in turn. would you say just sort of young muslims living in other parts of the world would think being a muslim in america is a very tough thing and such are i mean there's advantages there's disadvantages we definitely have a lot more opportunity is that it's kind of difficult going up any different especially where i'm from it's a stance and the only muslim in my school dealing with some of my high school so that's definitely a challenge but once you get past that you know you can there's so many different avenues so many different opportunities for you to connect with and what it's like to be able to come in the united states get challenging and rewarding on the same time but i think the most important thing to remember is that you only you know what we can make you know if we want and i encourage all muslims around the world

to actually do the same you know please get to know your elected officials will it all and that's the only way you can make a difference. well that's going to get. you guys who are happy to see you know this is when the slaves got free right this is a great example of the american author of glad handing it's the way to the electoral heart of the nation how candidates meet their votes. yes and it's paid off for keith here in minneapolis and it's worked elsewhere now americans have elected to muslims to congress. all these historically been on the margins of american society now come in you know when there's enough for everybody right now ok. for those muslims around the world in western countries who have no idea about the community here how would you say life is for muslims in america at the moment oh yes there is and like you do hear about people getting cassel in the airports you know there's a long way to go absolutely because impression i mean come from britain in terms of

sure muslims is a base level is hiding under their beds. that's broadly speaking that muslim living is really the beast not only did i not only did i just get elected by an overwhelming jewish and christian community so did andre carson who's a muslim here in indiana so people need to not look for excuses to disengage you have to get involved you have to run the risk that you're going to encounter bumps in a long way but you still have to seen and heard here a lot of good and certainly keith needed the votes of christians and jews to get elected but there's a community of forty four thousand somali muslims here the biggest in america they even have their own t.v. network and they got behind chief. says somali t.v. of minnesota and we're so glad to have you today. ok redlands focused.

in the interest i think muslims in european countries. believe that you know they join the greatest freedoms in the muslim communities in the west a thriving most of all in europe and when they think about the position of muslims in america to be honest with you i think they think that the numbers a tiny before i call the plane here actually i was with my mom and i. or you as we say in somalia. how many muslims do you think they're on in the whole of the united states and she said hundred thousand hundred fifty thousand you know. in the whole united states but i mean as i understand there is anywhere between five and eight million i mean when you think about america as a land of opportunity and sort of seizing things with both maybe the sort of you know the next rank you maz if i could be so arrogant as to say that will come from here it is you. i have

distant relatives in the somali community here they were among the first to escape the civil war that's been raging in my homeland off and on for decades twenty years on and the new wave of refugees has arrived from somalia some of just graduated college and the throwing a party to celebrate their achievements we came here to take advantage of the opportunities here at the same time to keep our identity as muslims we're all going through the same experiences let's not forget our identity and let's give back to the community thank you i'm a very blessed person because. i get a little bit emotional. we've been given so much you know we've learnt so much. well you read the news it's happening at home i have nothing to complain about. after that we need some laughs so i went to welcome i am doing. thank you very much

but the problem is that it is beginning to close me so mother right it is better than me. luckily he's a big shot making one me about a year who knows that i don't know how you do among the much alcohol you know was at the height. of the. my adopted home england has a bigger somali community the minneapolis and it's been settled for longer but they do tend to think of england as home my parents the typical their mental bags are still packed to return to somalia but that's not true here the somalis are no less scarred all traumatized by their experiences of planted roots deeper and faster than any somali community i've seen in the world they don't talk of returning home they are growing up and i said it's a love that's got it i want to. tell you stuff and it's

a message that came across loud and clear and i was still hearing it in the taxi to the airport with how much so whole of you left out the step two years thirteen years yeah and you came from the monist somalia. and i was born there haven't been there for a long time there was a lot of problem last fifteen seventeen years. in england we somalis you know we're not that organized you know here in america you don't organize if you don't vote if you don't disobey the american way of living you lost. you know but that's the way to be visible that's the word to get heard yes can you be muslim and american yes you have to sacrifice one to be the other you. to be america first and you have to do what other americans decertified to live to defending america because this is our country this is feel that you don't think about. my life defending this country

. i get the welcoming i get. that's a powerful thing compared to where i come from how we were how i was you know slaughter a friend of mine who died the war or recount where i come from coming here. you know having what i have. is home. minnesota is a liberal state in the democratic heartland of the midwest a welcoming place for the somalis the latest black immigrants to establish themselves in america but in the early years of its history america was the very opposite of welcoming for the first africans to reach these shores. for three hundred years africans were brought here in chains a slave labor i'm heading to jackson mississippi in the deep south to meet some of the descendants of those first african-americans because it seems that their

history lines at the heart of the story of islam in america. this impressive looking building is actually the state capital of mississippi and i'll be honest i've come with my own really strong preconceptions about the south for me it's about being in the hearts of the bible belt it's about prejudice and the history of segregation but actually being told that the story of islam in america begins of all places here centuries before. and it's a story that begins with slavery. it's. starts here because most of the slave ships from africa came to work the plantations of the south among them when muslims. forbidding from practicing their faith they found secret ways to

keep islam alive calling the faithful to pray here in mississippi is abdul rashid he believes that one way they achieve this was through. the africans brought them there was a key here as slaves peoples then blues came from mississippi i don't think so i've been hearing about the link between the call to prayer and the songs that slaves used to sing in the fields are they similar the call to prayer a lot. if you ever went to a baptist church then you can hear this in a baptist church all of the that this is especially southern baptist. with a capella. singing the whole congregation to sing you know. love

. and be called the entire koran which basically chanted yes this is no and it was chanted basically a minor scale you see that connection to you and your singing things that had deeply embedded within the sort of african-american experience in the blues not only that but that was one of the things that. guided me to islam really is the music and when you start reading when i was introduced to the koran that was founded there as well founded well. so i think for my opinion this is just what i opened it with my opinion of the daughter and something you go to. but this is my opinion that this entire movement is a spiritual movement and is geared toward islam. like abdul more and more people of all ethnicities are finding their way to islam

a third of all muslims in america about two million a converts the people at the mosque in jackson convinced that this is having a positive impact on the entire nation o'connor was she'd is one of the founding members here today have you heard so much about it yet. and we're expected to have a caller who is involved in a new research project with twenty five other historians they believe their discoveries will not only rewrite the history of islam in america but transform our understanding of african cultures i think we're leading the way actually. as part of this initiative a co-founded the international museum of muslim cultures the first in america research it suggests the number of muslim slaves was much greater than previously thought one third of all of them slave to africans that were brought to america actually were muslims nobody knows this is new cutting edge information because we

read our history books we don't see that we have one of the great stories here in mississippi in a place called natchez mississippi we have the story of our prince abdul-rahman ybor he he was an african muslim prince and scholar came out of the area around gambia and he was actually slave to matches for over forty years and we have that story but but you're a combination of all these things that's unique here to the to the deep south on she i mean africa american and muslim and why. why is it important to stress i mean in this example in your work this missing link of islam in this in this week's the most important reason is that it's going to help the african-american to become a first class citizen an opposed to a second class citizen and this whole standing up for rights fight for freedom leading the whole effort in america for reforming america and bringing america to

respect its own constitution blending is really was that's what makes me optimistic about the future. this corner of the exhibition is really interesting because you've goals real evidence of this link between islam and slavery in mississippi and it him of the man who was known as the prince among slaves who was sold into slavery for forty years before winning his freedom and going to live as a free man in liberia and i understand that there are his descendants still living in the united states and i'm going to try and find them. i now see that what's up the heart of the story of islam in america is the story of

slavery and on this issue america was divided as early as the seventeenth seventy's some americans were calling for the abolition of slavery one of these thomas jefferson proposed forming a colony in africa to take freed slaves but it wasn't until eight hundred sixty three after the civil war that slavery was finally abolished with it came the economic collapse of the southern states which depended on slaves the big plantations fell to ruin and two million freed slaves headed for the northern cities. for those who stayed behind life remained brutal well into the twentieth century lynching and murder where every day facts of life african-americans across the south. african americans have been telling me that here in mississippi a place and i've always associated with prejudice they can now be muslim without prejudice and that this is an essential part of being a muslim in america the fight against prejudice and the struggle to be free and it

was in pursuit of this struggle that in the early part of the twentieth century millions of african-americans abandoned the south and they headed north which is where i'm going next. i'm catching the night train to chicago following in the footsteps of millions of freed slaves to the city by the promise of jobs in the factories and stockyards. with the hope of living a life free from prejudice but they did have another option to sail from liberia the colony america established for free to slaves in africa. it was a stark choice scratchie living in america's ghettos will build a nation from scratch the muslim prince ibrahim of mississippi that of color told

me about was among the first to sail from liberia where he dreamt of establishing islam but the early settlers encountered little bit disease and hardship and prince ibrahim barely saw the completion of the first settlement before he died. martin liberia has suffered a succession of civil wars and feeling the last of these was abraham's great great great great grandson who's turned this story on its head he fled wall to liberia to find freedom in america his name is. that i want to say i want to start in liberia i came to this country and it was just a shift as an honest and in my own country's history that i spent hours in the library just trying to find out the history of the mississippi to liberia and then i define oh yes there was a ship there was a ship manifesto and a longer ship me out for. great ground bothers me his name was like man ibrahim sorry he was one of the sons of. remodel or was and was

a prince but also clearly by his name a muslim a muslim was very important to realize that. you on astute son's. medicine and that for me was like winning the lottery or mazing. in reverse to come from africa. from africa. refuge in a. place to a place for me is spiritual home for me in above all it has one of the largest collection of books in africa one norway in africa it's right here in chicago how importance was that. your relative was a muslim this country has to understand its roots especially when it comes to african-american is an islamic african-american shoe not seen as just a religion it is a heritage and a good thing about it people respect each other here you know in the midst of all

of this is diversity so that's something that you've got what has that. chills what it means when people in. all merge. artemus has a good point chicago is culturally very diverse and it has a large muslim community big enough to justify this celebration of arab culture it's the second year running the city is celebrating its links with the middle east for those former slaves who fled the south a little over one hundred years ago the transformation of this city so would be unbelievable. african-americans came to chicago as parts of one of the largest human migrations of the twentieth century they were leaving the segregated and racist south in search of a new life in what many hoped would be a promised land and it was out of this experience that was born the first american muslim movements and it was known as the nation of islam. in the one nine hundred

thirty s. a radical idea began to spread through the cities of america the idea that white people were irredeemably evil form the coolness stone of the nation of islam. these theology combined islam and black nationalism the nation's message appeal to african-americans who fled the bigotry of the south of the one nine hundred fifty s. the nation had around one hundred thousand members led by enlarge. already. not . yet but i'll have a venue. for that. but would gave the nation some credibility were high profile members including the boxer caches clay who took the name. and the radical charismatic activist malcolm x. in the present situation don't know the political power. that they can put the man in the white house so they can take the man out of the white house but in one thousand nine hundred sixty five off the leaving the movement malcolm x.

was assassinated defection sawed enough to enlarge a mama died most of the membership converted to mainstream islam. i'm on a bit of a pilgrimage south of chicago to meet a man who's had a profound effect on the story of islam in america he's the son of john muhammad but he led the largest single conversion to mainstream islam that america has ever seen. the way we communicate is what defines us. it always has been. as innovation in technology continues to shape our lives. pioneering content creation and distribution utilizing cloud technology and artificial intelligence. the future has never seen closer than it does today. and what lies beyond the horizon. takers

to our frontiers the future of media leaders summit. limitless possibilities. this is really an attack on itself is a lot of misunderstanding of what free speech is supposed to be about the context it hugely important setting the stage for a serious debate up front at this time on al-jazeera. and again america and there are these other top stories on al-jazeera here and security council has unanimously adopted a resolution demanding a month long truce in syria that follows a week of government led strikes on the rebel held enclave of eastern which has killed more than five hundred civilians james bays has more these negotiations were extremely hard getting a ceasefire across syria will be even harder can we get

a stop to the bombardment in eastern guta there is an exemption in the resolution allowing continued military action against al qaida. and i saw some diplomats fear that the syrian government will assert that those fighting in eastern guta have links with those groups a classified memo by the us democrats has been released two weeks after president donald trump blocked it due to security concerns at robots a document prepared by republicans on the house intelligence committee that's a memo released earlier this month alleged f.b.i. bias against trunk during its investigation into his presidential campaigns links with russia a growing number of u.s. companies are cutting ties with the national rifle association following last week's shooting at a florida high school more than half a dozen companies say they will no longer offer discounts the n.r.a. has five million members the groups issued

a statement calling the companies cowards. police in lebanon are questioning a man arrested on suspicion of being involved in the death of a filipino maid in kuwait. his body was found two weeks ago in a freezer or than a year after she was reported missing a former employer lebanese national not south was detained in syria and later handed over to authorities in beirut extra soldiers have been deployed in the search for more than one hundred nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by boko haram on monday angry parents say the government has failed to protect their children abductions in the town of deputy cast doubt on the government's claims that it has defeated the armed group thousands of people have attended a rally in tel aviv protesting israel's plans to deport african migrants in february the israeli government started handing out notices to twenty thousand male lichens saying they risk being jailed if they didn't leave by the start of april.

those are your headlines let's get you back now to rewind islam in america. a mom wallerstein muhammad lives modestly here in chicago he became the head of the nation of islam when his father in larger mohamad died in one nine hundred seventy five dean persuaded most of the nation to adopt mainstream islam and he changed the nation's name to the world community of islam in the west there were some very startling ideas. yes tell us about some of the it was a myth mr destroyed we had a myth. there origins of the white race as grafted there was a black man you know it's mind blowing you know and the blood and blood people were gods and the whites were devils and exactly. exactly but what made you break with

the nation of islam that it didn't it didn't take nothing but a child's brain for me to do this out about eleven or twelve when i was there was wrong then you became a sunni muslim well i don't make a big deal muscly in cia you know when i became a mainstream muslim you became a mainstream muslim and really the importance of it how it would affect not only muslims but christians sue. was not realized ballasts in one thousand nine hundred five in what way was it important turning that means alaska national this movement as extreme as ours believing what we believe in the race issue could make a one hundred eighty degree turn and join the muslims of the world good christians and of the good people of this earth is amazing but when you look from the middle east to europe thinking of america as a bad place to be a muslim it's like living in the belly of the beast and i've heard that how would

you say that life is like for people well we know things that happened to make america peer ugly in the eyes of citizens of this country and that is a world that if we can see america the beautiful that has advanced against america the ugly successfully. then i'm sure that we would recognize that america is the most fertile soul we have for x. davening our religion and our future for our children grandchildren and children to come and then my journey across america i want to find america the beautiful. where will i find that kind of things should i look for the concept of citizenry how citizenry it is that race. in the constitution the united states based upon the equality of man and i feel very strongly that the founding fathers envisioned. a world that would welcome muslims and others from across the waters not this not

only christians. seems to be an incredible transformation only thirty years ago chicago was the most racially divided city in america it had a white supremacist movement and a black separatist movement it saw some of the worst racial violence in the entire country i'm amazed what i'm hearing from people like ata misson wallerstein and it seems chicago is becoming much more at ease with its own diverse population it's a rich city where life is improving on many fronts better public education karma race relations and overall the crime statistics show a big improvement. but there is still a dark side to the city because even though the city has cracked down and arrested gang leaders gang violence is getting worse i've been here for three days and nine

people have been killed in gang warfare. islam has made huge gains in chicago which is home to the largest number of african-american muslims in the u.s. thirty years ago they had only one mosque today they have more than forty to choose from now islam has a new battle to win trying to loosen the hold the gangs have on chicago's south side this. year. i'm heading to the south side to visit the city's first halfway house for muslim x. prisoners its aim is to provide an alternative to life in the gangs the man who runs this project to serve twelve years for murder like many x. offenders he converted to islam in prison his name. rafi peterson. we used to go in

the cook county jail division eleven which is in the like maximum security and then . we sing so many brothers we did there for like six years and then we seen so many brothers coming home and going right back right we realize that we needed so its mission to fall back in most being must be very high and for a lot of you've known as if you come back and you go to make money you go to make ends meet not only that remember a lot of brothers that converted to islam and institutions. they were other than their institutions so we know that you have to have an environment here for the brothers to get a foothold when they get out and so we want to national housing service to look my . gosh and how is this. can we get one right and he said i know a good one you can have what we have and a lot of. you know we can we do a little bad way when you first saw this it was goofy everywhere and here this is

again the gang how it was boarded up you know and neighbors and stuff with afraid to say and thinking what are you to call the police on these guys the neighborhood is feeling the benefits of this project but that's no rule it's having a positive impact on new still in prison. haven't you noticed any more more i mean african-americans coming to islam i mean especially in in prison. they already have it in the south they need somebody to bring it out. so fast they see it. like that you know. this whole free house is a calm sensor in a neighborhood torn up by gun violence and rafi is not content to let murder and mayhem thrive on his doorstep. with little. money they drop the brother right here and they shot him in the. this is a very the head of the. book and pastor they're. up to street here.

they say it's eighty eight thousand young people between the ages of eight to twenty five in this general area that we live in west a lot of it's not teasing them down the street don't want to go down especially with a camera in the car this morning his own sound if you look down the street to street look like a ghost. house and the same thing down this way. having a drug infested also. known him since you don't want to take you up six meters i mean you're living right now also so you know a lot of people there you know they know a lot of the brothers and even a lot of the brothers in the tribes they don't like what i'm doing but they know that i got to do it weeks ago they killed a brother that i get the best the store that they broke in on the corner they shot that place up the one thing that they did when they locked up all the real gang

chiefs in chicago they destabilize all of the gangs now there's no one individual who can come to me like you used to back in the day and say man they got control of the whole you know there's a madness of i mean they got to do what they got to do this the bottom. now you know could i understand why. you want to turn people away you got to turn into a song and of course what rafi is trying to turn this neighborhood towards is islam . what do you think rushdie here in chicago would do you think islam is place in america i mean is it a growing one to go to a healthy future or i think that islam can be the cure to america ills of openly aseptic cannot down barriers because we as muslim we spoke to be the best for humanity and i think in america has opportunity to really teach and show that that's what we are and that we can be. i have to admit i've come to america

with my own prejudices and misconceptions i thought that being muslim in america was a story of widespread fear discrimination and stereotyping but in the short time i've been here what i'm hearing from muslims is about opportunity constitutional rights and due process about having a stake in this country and being made to feel that they belong and as i travel across america what i want to find out is whether these ideas define not only what it means to be a muslim in america what it actually means to be an american muslim. and i'm getting the message that a great deal of what it means to be an american muslim is understanding your constitutional rights and how you go about being a good citizen and it's in washington the nation's capital where i'm hoping to

learn about citizenship the law of the land and the influence of islam in fact in something that would come as a huge surprise to most of us amongst the founding fathers one of the greatest thomas jefferson had his own koran in full of knowledge and. of islam's contribution to world civilization and one of the most famous monuments in the american capital over that is dedicated to him. a big part of the legacy of thomas jefferson in the founding fathers is freedom of expression it means a lot to americans including american muslims one of the most radical ways you can indulge this freedom is on stage through comedy. i mean washington d.c. about to get a lesson in free speech at a comedy club show you the real nicholas berg generation pakistani muslim woman she just won an ignite one is in america ruby nicholas won a national talent competition and became an overnight star my parents like when

they came to this country they told everyone they were pakistani muslim immigrants so that i wouldn't have to grow up with the stigma being known as hawaiian. to me this is my mom that when nation of easter to me and my sister's two story. good. to. know i mean. i make stitch. on the east the jesus christ will come out of the gate. and if he does not see his shadow correct i. will be six more weeks of children i. think that you're going to redeem the books. and in the.

end there's always a mixed bag of reaction and i mean there are some that really feel as though it is imminent. you know there are those who you know and there are others who just sort of take it in stride and what do you think i mean when you when you say you but you know you what your heritage is in some ways comedy is a way to disarm people of absolutely a little easier for people to handle some of the muslim terrorist tenets of jokes when you're made you know like i need to see you know i get totally different then you know a guy with a big beard in appears to look at a woman is it made sort of all the comics suddenly jump in there as well one thing to sort of talk about iraq you know yeah i don't know what makes us the whole tend to be a little more political and. and you have jumped into the mix in terms of taking liberties with making fun muslims and the islamic religion

a little bit more than in the past opening up the conversation putting the stereotype on the table was a mess and so way to break it down for me when i do sort of the subtle stereotyping of telling cabdriver like that and my mom called a hand to him you should get people about the contribution. and that american muslims have made going to me we have the most educated we had the less people we were. part of ruby's act is offending people and she's very good at says if she wants to say that jesus gives chocolate to children she can but the principles that underpin this freedom go way beyond providing material for comedians they provide the basis for the nur of this land and guarantee freedoms than a carved in stone congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of

speech or of the press all the rights of people to peaceably assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances when people talk about the fundamental freedoms in shrines in the american constitution this is what they're talking about the first amendment and it's the reason why so many american muslims have been talking to me about the american constitution because it is they are free to practice their religion as muslims and they are free to speak their minds unlike so many muslims in muslim countries around the world and if anybody tries to oppress them in this country they can seek justice from the american government the fundamental freedoms guaranteed under islamic law and not far from these american ideals and that's amazing when you realize the koran predates the constitution by a thousand years and there is evidence in washington that suggests america knows it's indebted to islam for its own citizens inalienable rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. this is the supreme court in washington now we can't get

into film because they're actually in session but what i want to show you is a free means which is in the room where the chief justice is actually sits and dispense justice. this frees pays homage to the ideas and principles that have inspired the america. in legal system and one of the foundation documents represented in this freeze is the koran. and in the nation's capital there are a few other references to islam largely unknown rarely seen the thomas jefferson building contains the library of congress the oldest cultural institution in washington which was completed in the nineteenth century around the dome of the reading room is a mural meant to represent the nations and ideas that contributed most to american civilization and it might come as a surprise to historians that amongst the ideas represented here is islam. beneath this great miracle i'm meeting congressman keith ellison who i came across

at the start of my journey in minneapolis so he tell me about when you took your oath of office because it was a copy of the koran not just any copy that was on this qur'an that we have right here before us and you know in fact this on which is a two volumes it has the initials t.j. inscribed right here thomas jefferson and so you know we said this was your reaction when you found of the one of the founding fathers had his own copy of the koran i was gobsmacked. as a. huge head it was international. i didn't have much appreciation for why it would be a big deal that a muslim of the elect of the united states congress i thought the issue was going to be color. and i thought wow we've really made some great strides in terms of racial justice when people don't care that i'm black anymore they're just they're just exudes or dark about religion but do you think keith that for all the grassroots activism in the muslim community that at

a national level the fact is that most americans are still afraid of islam americans i think are subject to fear just like any people in the world but i think this is deeply rooted tolerance in people and we've been through a moment to civil rights movement we've been through all kinds of social change movements all marching the country toward a greater level of equality and i think people are just not ready to try to cut anybody out of the deal but the fact is in the european context it's what it means to be a brit or a norwegians fairly tightly defined they would look like you are in what it means to be. your certain colors certain cultures certain faith yes but in america cultures all colors our face even the most conservative american does not question my authenticity as an american you know we oppose social orthodox i mean hierarchies and economic iraqis we're not saying we have social justice have been here we don't but but the fact is we don't question our authenticity as americans.

on this journey i've met muslims who made me rethink my prejudices about america muslims here realize something the rest of the world and possibly other americans have forgotten this country was born out of a revolutionary moment settlers first came here feeling religious persecution they overthrew a colonial monarchy they based their constitution on the ideals of the french revolution and radical thinkers like tom paine john locke and yes the prophet mohammed. but there's a much more recent moment in american history that has come to define america's relationship with islam. really. look out over her.

thinking about america's relationship with islam like everybody else i'm drawn immediately to one city in one moment and the events of september the eleventh two thousand and one in new york city changed that relationship between america and islam forever. and it must also have had an impact on american muslims mohammed was with the new york city fire department on nine eleven will muslims like me then you know who died and some that died definitely muslims died there you know trying to help. james he was the army's muslim chaplain at guantanamo prison. i was being accused of espionage spying and aiding the enemy now these are capital crimes in which military prosecutors even threaten me with the death

penalty. they were distinctly american from of islam is emerging in the off the mouth of nine eleven arabic scholar believe something unique is happening here the voice of the muslim woman has not been heard throughout the fourteen hundred years of islamic history now we need to hear from the women and it's only when you live in america that you are empowered to go forward with your idea of. islam and america from two thousand and eight as we know a lot has happened says globally with the rise of by. and in america itself where terrorism has returned to american soil and president trump has introduced a travel ban which seems to many to target muslims so ten years on what is the position of islam in america realises

a political analyst who lives and works in the united states and she joins us now rula thank you very much so you moved to the u.s. in two thousand and nine during that time what as a muslim what have you seen that has changed for muslims in america and i realize it's a broad question that one of the things that stick out to you well a lot of things changed we see in major shifts in islamophobia attacks against muslims in two thousand and fifteen and two thousand and sixteen and it's not a coincidence that the f.b.i. report about hate crimes islam a full big hate crimes in america skyrocketed in those years by far much more than in two thousand and one after nine eleven i just want to remind you that immediately after the election president trump banned six countries six muslim countries and it looked like a persecution religious based persecution of one group based on the actions of

individuals that are carried in pakistan maybe afghanistan iraq and elsewhere he went on to a facking the first muslim mayor subject immediately in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in london singling him out he didn't attack the mayor of barcelona after the attack or the mayor of any other city but he single out of the economy because it is muslim and his brown this is the platform. on which he campaigned and his governing now so where are the voices of people that would traditionally be allies to push back against this type of dangerous rhetoric that sometimes also crosses over into violence where are those voices. i mean there are breyer voices we have some. muslim voices in america whether they are intellectuals like razor. and others but three they way are in minority who are

underrepresented in the political arena and in the media i mean i am the only one that gets invited invited to c.n.n. and i'm b.c.m. to others to explain why this rhetoric is so dangerous and it was it was used before remember europe in the thirty's when you go through the holocaust museum it's clear if thousand and it's written in the wall the holocaust did not start with a killing it started with words with violent words it started with politicians dividing people with them versus us it started with them and ising an entire group of people and criminalizing them and then that pave the way for the killing and for the gas gas chambers remember president bush after nine eleven pushed this narrative of them versus us either you are with us or them that means if you challenge his views or his policies and decision then you are a terrorist and your label as a terrorist and many liberals jumped on that vaga. a just want to remind you that

president obama and he was elected the first accusation the birth or movement that led and behave the way for trump to win the election what was he accused off of being a secret muslim that he is a corrupt a muslim and america is fighting a monster today that is called the country off white supremacy is basically the pure race and in the name of the pure race every minority is an enemy and that will be the final word rula jebreal thank you so much for joining us thank you for having me. that is it from us join us again next week and do check the rewind page it's al jazeera dot com for more films from this series and carrie thank you for joining us. true confessions of

a big. but not example of communist propaganda and to put it in the paper. bear out and. in twenty ten al-jazeera access to north korea to investigate be on the use of biological warfare by the u.s. during the korean war rewind revisits dirty little secrets this time on al-jazeera. hello again the rain is still falling across many parts of north america and it's

been stuck where it is at the moment for the past few days and that combined with melting snow has given us quite a few problems these pictures from indiana showing how bad the flooding has got there now the wet weather is finally going to be on the move as we head through the next day will say here's where it is currently but as we fast forward to into sunday it's just not going its way a little bit further towards the east and then eventually as we head into monday begins to move down into the southeast corner behind it is generally following and settled and it will give us a chance to recover from all the heavy rain that we've seen recently towards the west there's another weather system pulling in there and that will be giving us a fair amount of snow is it makes its way across the rockies every further towards the south and for many of us across the central america as there's some fine dry weather to be found but we have seen some rather stubborn showers over positive agrah there's also been stretching down into costa rica these showers will be easing a little bit as we head through monday but still one or two of them around that coast a bit further south there's also been

a lot of wet weather here too particularly in the northern parts of bolivia here we've seen some flooding more showers there like a hair in those showers stretch all the way down and into rio. this is zero. durham oracle this is the news hour live from doha coming up in the next sixty minutes right.