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 a lot just single conversion to mainstream islam that america has ever seen. this is a dialogue reading about if we're not getting strong at our international media and on t.v. why should we stop this conversation with skepticism because there's a lot of it on my everyone has a voice we are being taken advantage of just because we are small community without a network just help join the global conversation announces iraq all they want to do is try to depict the same kind of debate that we have here in the street. after

decades of being programmed with instructions data hungry computers can only on their own identifying patterns and predicting human behavior. artificial intelligence could monitor our movement. and decide on our future the big picture decodes the world according to ai and exposes the bias inside the machine part one on al-jazeera. oh again i'm fully back to bill with the headlines on al-jazeera the start of a debate over a proposed extradition bill in hong kong has been delayed after protesters blocked politicians from entering the government headquarters demonstrators are worried the launch change could pave the way for suspects in serious crimes to be sent to mainland china to stand trial hong kong government is urging the protesters to end

their demonstrations. for the hong kong government is calling on protesters who are blocking roads to return to the pedestrian sidewalks as soon as possible so traffic can resume i'm also urging protesters to stay calm disperse peacefully and not to the law i want to reiterate the proposed extradition bill only targets those commit serious crimes and not law abiding citizens we will protect the rights of hong kong people the rule of law after more than a week of violence there piers to be a breakthrough in the crisis in sudan ethiopian mediators say the military giunta and opposition groups have agreed to resume talks soon on the formation of a council to oversee the transition to a civilian government the opposition is suspending its civil disobedience campaign and general strike. yemen's hussein media say the rebels have attacked the airport in saudi arabia with

a cruise missile the saudis have not confirmed the attack the world food program is warning of a catastrophe in northwest syria following weeks of a government offensive the u.n. agency says it's been unable to reach at least 7000 people in the area of. where there's been intense fighting the government's push to recapture the last rebel strongholds has killed more than 300 people so far. dozens of people mostly children have been killed in an attack on a village in the mopti region of central mali houses of doggone hunters were burnt down and their animals killed during sunday's violence the un has called it an act of unspeakable barbarism and mexico will send thousands of national guard troops to its southern border with somalia on wednesday as part of a deal struck with donald trump to curb the flow of central americans seeking

asylum in the united states you have seen with headlines on al-jazeera rewind continues next year stay with us. your mom wallerstein muhammad lives modestly here in chicago he became the head of the nation of islam when his father in larger mohammad died in 1975 wallenstein 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 it was a very startling night is. tell us about some of the it was a myth to destroy we had a myth of the origins of the white race as grafted there all of the black men you know. as man go in and the black and black people were gods and the whites were devils as an 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 that out about 11 or 12 when i was that that was wrong then you became a sunni muslim well i don't make a big deal of mass sunni and shia you know when i became a mainstream muslim you became a mainstream muslim yes and really the importance of it how it would affect not only muslims but christians too. was not realize ballasts in 1905 in what way was it important turning that means a lack of nationalists movement as extreme as ours believing what we believe in the race if you could make a 180 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 not heard it 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 the world that if we can see america the beautiful there has advanced that 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 if 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 indeed and. a world that would welcome muslims and others from across the waters not to not only

christians. seems to be an incredible transformation only 30 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 its 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 3 days and 9 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. 30 years ago they had only one mosque today they have more than 40 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 news i'm heading to the south side to visit the city's 1st halfway house for muslim x. prisoners its aim is to provide an alternative to life in the gangs the man who runs this project has served 12 years for murder like many x. offenders he converted to islam in prison his name is. rafi peterson. we used to go

in the cook county jail division 11 which is in the like maximum security and then . we sing so many brothers we did it for like 6 inches and then we sing so many brothers coming home and go right back right we realize that we need it so its mission to food came must be in must have been very hard 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 convert to islam and institutions. they were other than before institutions so we know that you have to have them by you know for the brothers to get a foothold when they get out and so we want to national service said look my. house is here can we get one right and he said i know. you can have what we have in a lot of. you know we can do a little bad way when you 1st saw this house was goofy everywhere and here this is

again the gang house it was boarded up you know and the neighbors and stuff with the freight to say and think 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. and you know to send 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 the last they see it and they might see over night that you know. this whole free house is a calm center in a neighborhood torn up by gun violence and rafi is not content to let murder and mayhem thrive on his doorstep. right here in this album right here where. they drop the body right here and they shot him in the. this is a very the head of the. booking pastor there and. up this street here.

they say it's 88000 young people between the ages of 8 to 25 in this general area that we live in west a lot of. teasing them down the street don't want to go down there specially to come in the car this morning is on sound if you look down the street to street look like a ghost see on the policy board same thing down this way. having to drop fast also so that the kids. i want to take you up 60 years i mean you're living right now so you know a lot of people. you know they know a lot of brothers and even a lot of the tribes they don't like what i'm doing but they know what i gotta do. to go they kill to. 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 to come to. back in the day. they got control of the whole you know there's a madison vibe to do what they gotta do this is. not you know. if you want to turn people away you gotta 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 openness up to. down barriers because we as muslim we spoke to be the best for humanity not think islam in america has the opportunity to really teach and show that 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. find not only what it means to be a muslim in america but what actually needs 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 there 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 1st generation pakistani muslim woman she just won the good night 20 years my in america nicholas won a national talent competition and became an overnight star my parents lied 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 of being known as hawaii and. this is my mom's explanation of easter to me and my sister's 2 story give. east the jesus christ will come back from the dead. and he will give all of the good you know is in the night. but you know i make damn sure that. i mixed it. on the east the jesus christ will come out of the cave. and if he does not see his shadow was.

good will be 6 more weeks of chile i. think that you're getting ready to go. and there's always a mixed bag of reaction and i mean there are some that really feel as though it was imminent. oh there you go 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 but you know you what your heritage in some ways call maybe is a way to disown people about. a little easier for people to handle some of the muslim terror. when you're me you know like i need to area you know i get totally different then you know a guy with a big beard and 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 really you know mix as a whole tend to be

a little more political and. and you have jumped into the mix in terms of taking liberties with making fun of you know muslims in your comic religion a little bit more than in the past opening up the conversation but it was stereotype on the table that was a myth and a way to break it down i mean i do 3rd of the federal typing metallik have driver job like that and and my mom calling in to him you should get people about the contribution that american muslims have made to this economy we have the most educated we have the i'm glad. we were. part of ruby's act is offending people and she's very good to see it 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 new more 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 enshrined in the american constitution this is what they're talking about the 1st amendment and it's the reason why so many american muslims have been talking to me about the american constitution because they also read to practice their religion as muslims and they are free to speak their minds unlike so many muslims in muslim countries around the. 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 1000 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 wanted to show you is a friens which is in the room where the chief justices actually sit and dispense justice. this frees pays homage to the ideas and principles that have inspired the american 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.