arabs looking favorably in some countries on the iranian nuclear program, but if you look at the other numbers we have, not looking favorably on iran itself. they see iran as a threat, but there's almost a factor to their ewe lore program. we opposed it and people are saying, okay, he's defying you. they are concerned about iran's role. ..

and which authors of the latest nonfiction books are interviewed by journalists, public policy makers, legislators and others familiar with the material. "after words" every weekend at 10 p.m. on saturday, 12 p.m. and 9 p.m. on sunday and 12 a.m. on monday. you can also watch afterwards that online. go to booktv.org and click on after words smack in the book tv series and topics list on the upper right side of the page. akbar ahmed, the chair of american university islamic studies program and visited muslim communities in 75 towns and cities in the u.s.. during his trip he found out the views of people on various topics including religion,

terrorism in american politics. politics and prose bookstore here in washington is the host of this event. it's about an hour. >> okay. i am barbara mead, one of the owners here at politics and prose, and this evening i have the pleasure of welcoming professor akbar ahmed back to politics and prose. dr. ahmed has been here four or five times a i think since he arrived in the united states in 2001, which is when i first met him. he holds the chair of islamic studies at american university, and he invited me to his installation -- this was back in 2001 -- vandals certainly ghanem impressive affair he had. muslim scholars from all over

the world flight in for his installations, and i just knew at that moment that we were going to see great things in the future for professor ahmed, and that has occurred. he also, since that time, he has been named the distinguished -- he is the distinguished chair of middle east and islamic studies at the naval academy. and now, according to the bbc, he is the world's top leading authority on contemporary islam and is also known as one of pakistan's both a distinguished anthropologist's. for his new book, which is a companion study to his journey into islami that cannot three years ago, professor ahmed was wearing his anthropologist at for this i think, gathered together a research team compost

both his students to visit over 75 cities and 100 mosques to study the american muslim community. the muslim american community now includes -- excuse me -- nearly 7 million muslims in this country. his team also conducted some 2,000 interviews during this nine month period coming into the interviews range from an academic such as noam chomsky to a stripper in las vegas. [laughter] a muslim stripper in las vegas, is that right? >> not in las vegas. >> not in las vegas? i want to give you just one quote from pakistan paper, the

daily times publishes saying about this book "the expand and death of "journey into america" is difficult to accurately portray. muslims and non-muslims especially in leadership positions must own a copy, dog fourier and return it -- return to it for the treasure house of information and sharp analysis that is. it will be the top of the town and you wouldn't want to be left out. here is professor ahmed. [applause] thank you, barbara. you have been such a friend and patron over the years. distinguished ladies and gentlemen, and this really is a distinguished audience, i can assure you. to me there is no better place

to spend your time than what friends and among the books, and i am delighted that politics and prose provides both and has provided both over the years. so thank you to politics and prose and all of you for coming. i have many friends here but there is one very special friend, a special mentor, clark love pinsky. as you know, he's mr. interface. he gave me and my friend the first ever interface of washington, d.c., and i would like to request him coming and i don't want to violate any separation of church and state in the united states and get involved in a controversy but i would like to offer a blessing for the book and for the gathering and for promoting peace and dialogue. and in case you think i'm just hedging in the muslim and the christian the reverend is in

fact a colleague of a friend and presided over my son's wedding. can we have you up here for a few minutes? >> will you join me in a word of silence and prayer as your tradition indicates. merciful, all wise and loving god, source of all truth, we gather this day gracious for the privilege of being here, for the hospitality of politics and prose, for the enormous scholarship which dr. akbar ahmed has brought to us. open our hearts but especially open our minds this day for we will be challenged, and we give you thinks acid will be challenged. we will learn and give you thanks that we will learn. and we will explore together the wonders both of islam and of

america. in all things me we give you thanks, amen. >> thank you, reverend, for that beautiful prayer. barbara, i recall being here almost a decade back. my wife and i had just arrived in washington d.c.. we were stranded in town and knew very few people and 9/11 happened. i was in class that day, and immediately the tension and anger was palpable to any muslim living here. and i remember coming here indicted by barbara to be on a distinguished panel. i was still new enough not to know the panelists and all sorts of big names, but i remembered the tension in the air. i had become the lightning rod. anything named ahmed was drawing so much animosity.

and i said to myself, i said my next couple of years i'm going to be dedicated with passion, with commitment to trying to bridge this gap that i saw opening up, because if i said if america is in trouble and goes into a certain direction, it will take the world with it. this is going to be a big challenge to anyone like me. i don't want to sound pompous or if modest, but i am an anthropologist, has been an administrator in the muslim world, and a scholar of islam and chair of islamic studies at the american university. i could not sit it out and say it is not my battle. it was my battle to improve understanding, build bridges, create better friendship, create more harmony between the muslims and mainstream americans. and that is exactly what i did. over the years, but i based this friendship and dialogue on a scholarship and knowledge. it wasn't just saying we love

you, you love us and therefore your friends because that wouldn't do and to many muslims unfortunately were saying that, islam is peace and love and compassion, and there was no explanation of either what happened on 9/11 or what was happening in the muslim world. so it left everyone feeling more frustrated. the gap didn't close with that kind of explanation. therefore i felt as a scholar all of our dialogues and friendship efforts had to rest and scholarships. since that day, believe become i don't think i've listed a 24 hour cycle. it's the media, lectors, conferences were meetings or writings, the activities it's just been nonstop. we have had a series of plays, books, articles over the years. it was like embarking on a very exciting journey almost like a crusade and on this journey i

met mamie inspiring people, really inspiring people for the first time here in the united states. i mention my friend bishop or the reverend clark or michelle rabbi of the washington hebrew congregation and we all became great friends. my wife, the family, all of us, and course my colleagues on campus, the professor and the wonderful students, the honor students who were here and joined my team, young jonathan from alabama and a son of a great friend of mine and the secretary of course another member of that group. so jonathan joined us and joined the team. this was the team on this meeting, not the face of america that i was seeing who on the journey helped me create that understanding, but like the character who would work all night and complete the task and in the morning was back to square 1i felt like that.

i felt like the character that the more you try, the harder you work you still go back to square one and there was no risk. yet on the inboard like another remember ulysses that was the kind of emotion that was driving me to this. some of my favorite lines in poetry, yet all experience is in the gleams of the untroubled world that is forever and ever when i move. to follow the knowledge like a sinking star beyond the utmost bound of the human to strive to seek to find and not to yield. it was the same spirit that urged the passengers on the mayflower to cross the atlantic. the same spirit that drove the americans across the continent in the 19th century, drove them to become scientists and explorers, to go to the moon.

it is the spirit as the reverend pointed out also contained in islam. islam emphasizes knowledge about all things. the word knowledge and -- and islam is mil and it has been used more than any other word to accept the word for god. that is how islam, jim salam and the size is knowledge. the profit is lomb said the eink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr. so these are savings that to me as a muslim scholar inspired me to the sense of having to do something. and on this journey, i can say, and i know c-span is covering this, but i found nothing but french shipping and warmth and will come from america. this is what i found. my wife, who is now a realtor working here in washington, my son who is a film maker found

exactly the same friendship and the same warmth from the people of america. yet, there is a problem. we cannot avoid that. there is a problem in the u.s. and u.s. relations with the muslim world. let's look at why islam is so important for americans to understand, and understand correctly in an objective manner, in a scholarly manner, not emotionally. here are some reasons. first of all, america today has young men and women of many of them are students and many of them your family members in iraq come in afghanistan, in pakistan, somalia. hundreds of thousands. surely we in america need to understand the religion of the country's that they find themselves. there are about 7 million muslims in the united states. already we have to congressmen who are muslim. we have a new phenomena, the

home grown terrorist, what is this phenomenon? what do we know about the home grown terrorist? who is influencing them? why is their family feeling in the community? who is training the imams who trained them and where is the feel you're taking place? why should young men want to blow up the country, people that really strained so hard and try to come to as immigrants and yet trying to damage the country. these are questions that need to be answered and we can only answer them if we understand islam. and then the realpolitik, the united states is a superpower. there are other superpowers in the world coming emerging super powers, and muslims constitute 1.4 billion in the population that is the number of the muslims roughly that is the number to the demographic member at this moment in time. that means one out of four

people are muslim. something like 57, 58 countries are muslim. surely we need to understand this huge population one-fourth of the world. we cannot simply be constantly in a relationship of conflict with them. finally coming and for me perhaps the most important point for an american to understand islam because it is american to understand other cultures and religions. the founding fathers right from washington through jefferson, franklin, adams, all of these extraordinary men constantly emphasize religious pluralism and tolerance. go to virginia and you see the statue outside the university that jefferson created. a statue with an angel holding a light that says religious freedom, 1786. the word god in jehovah for

islam and not to stop there. it goes on just think of it. in the 18th-century come and look at the world, what is happening in the rest of the world, the dictators and all kinds of dynasties and all kinds of tyrannies in the government throughout the world in the united states these are creating a new kind of society which rests on the notions of civil liberties, human rights, but above all, religious tolerance and acceptance, and thinking beyond christianity and judaism and islam even get all of these are abraham hecht, reaching out to the monmouth abraham people. what a remarkable to build the to the human spirit. so that is one reason why americans also need to understand islam because islami is very much part of the great world fate we have welcomed through the spirit of the founding fathers.

a word or two about the book itself. the book is above all rooted in the anthropological record. i am trained anthropologist. this is not the traditional and for cultural study which as you know is a small community or a small village of a group in africa or wherever. this is the study of a continent this is the study of a community, the muslim community in america today at the moment in time, this moment in time. because we are studying the muslim community we are also studying american society and culture so we are not looking at muslim society in a vacuum, we're looking in the context of america today, and in order to involved the scholar like me in a project like this, it took me several years to complete this project about a year to prepare for its and not a year but a

very quick couple of months writing a book and then i give them full marks the book now to people out literally in a couple of weeks and the speed and efficiency it did this and the book as barbara pointed of is the second half of the project, journey into islam and then "journey into america," both looking at the relationship between the united states and the muslim world, and we really found that unless you look at the muslim community in the united states. this is why i spent so much time looking at muslim community in america. anthropologists holds a mirror and says his society today. you may have some empathy here and sympathy or affection for

that society. a year or two or three of his or her life in studying this society unless they have a lot of respect and affection for that society, but as a social scientist the interpol test must be absolutely objective or it's not a correct picture. therefore as barbara said we have a range of interviews and some of them would really surprise you. a lot of them well in a press you, so it is a snapshot of america today. curiosity here that american anthropologists are to be the muslim world and study and i had the distinct pleasure of reversing the train and studying how you and very friendly i might add. we of course were involved in what was called participant observation, which means we demers ourselves in the society when we are traveling and stay with muslim families and what

fast with them and say prayers with them and understand them and talk for hours and hours of face-to-face interviews, and that is what is contained in the book. possibly the first study of its kind. there are some excellent studies i can recommend referred to in the book, but this is one of the very few studies which is a field study of muslims in america today and very rich in terms of its geography. it is also a book on international relations. on issues of security, issues of terrorism, don't forget faizal shahzad and his attempt in blowing up things in new york actually cited he didn't cite a the koran or arguments which is what i tell all the time that muslims are potentially geared to blow themselves up it's in our dna and so on, don't believe

them, read my book faizal shahzad was putting the troubled areas of pakistan. so we are seeing some distinct patterns and why people like faizal shahzad are being attempted to do violent, stupid, idiotic things like wanting to harm his own people. that is america. but in his own mind, he was connecting the situation here with the situation in pakistan. and i may add in the parentheses that when you talk to the pakistanis they are discontent with of the war met on terror because they say we have nothing to do with 9/11, nothing to do with what happened subsequently and yet we have lost 30,000 people, 30,000 pakistanis have died and some provinces like frontier is a complete mess. it's in turmoil. that is the blow that they are facing. the taliban are controlling many parts of the frontier province

which has never happened in history. they have been battles for states and the districts like a slot with the taliban to go for the district to be cleaned out by the army and you can imagine what it does to the ordinary pakistanis been killed by the taliban and there is an army action and again they've been killed. food shortages and the sense of anger and disillusionment why are we being sucked into this and it is not surprising anti-americanism is absolutely a peak in pakistan today. talk to the people of pakistan, read the editorials and the comments. so these are things that concern us. what happens in the united states doesn't stay here. it has an impact overseas. then you have the media here, the discussion of islam is the free society and must remain a free society and we salute the notion of the free society but the muslims will tell you and i

will share this with you privately if not publicly that when we talk of our god, profit, customs, we are told this is a free society, democracy, that's how we function and this great. we applaud that. but do you have the same rules when you see something about the african-american community or the jewish community? there is an uproar this latest comment creates an uproar and it should be. we should be very sensitive to each other, to each other's religions and culture. but why are muslims exempt from this great will of democracy and freedom of expression? ask yourself these questions. it's open season, you can abuse them, kick them, say anything and get away with it. as americans you should be very concerned about this because these are citizens of the united states of america. and unless we do something to integrate them and bring them back into the mainstream, give them a sense of confidence, we

will have problems from the community, and this homegrown terrorist phenomenon to me as an interpol but just reflects what i've described which i am not happy about at all. as a father comes someone living in washington i'm very concerned about it, so i hope that this book will generate fresh thinking. we have some rich in demography at the conclusion of the recommendation of the end to do precisely this. now of course, i must mention the team that traveled with me at work on this project and contributed to it, because without them this project would not have been completed and wouldn't have the quality that it had. two of them i mentioned are my honor students at the american university and were with me on the first project and so these were the three members of the team and since then of course frankie is going on to england to be ph.d. and i'm delighted jonathan is staying on probably

feeling sorry for his own boss everyone is deserting him to make sure i don't collapse and in the meantime has become a research director at the center which is georgetown she just was in egypt for the conference and now flying off to larocco for another conference and off to china, so she is contributing a very high level and we are all the recovery proud of what these young americans for the week. craig, another former student of mine who made the film is going on to do a ph.d. again and i think he's going to ireland, is that right? so you can see that the team and as americans if you have any doubt i know there's a lot in your and confusion and some uncertainty and you are seeing evidence of that in the media and the discussions and the controversy. if you have any need and you want confidence and optimism and a commitment come see what this

team who did. literally, they went through such a grueling period of field work and came through in the end. consistent hard work because they were driven by an idea of contributing to the american society in the way they felt they could do with other americans couldn't come and me wandering around in a small town in alabama asking questions put security and terrorism and homegrown terrorism some people have to keep banaa on. of course in the book we are also raising some big questions and again, as a very sophisticated american audience i want you to think about these big questions. the first big question, a conundrum which unfortunately is not treated in the open. we may feel late but i haven't heard a debate about it. here's a huge conundrum that as americans we face head-on like this and we don't recognize it.

how are we to treat the muslim world? what is the policy? from the muslim point of view and the see america as on the one hand the very generous, great donors. pakistan i think are giving 1.5 billion for the next five years. is that right? the famous mark siegel in the back to that great project from benazir bhutto. so 1.5 billion for five years, very generous, but on the other hand, the slap on the face and insult, humiliation. so the muslim world is in a state of complete uncertainty as to what america is doing, what is its relationship. is it respect and dignity with general petraeus, david kuhl colin come all of these extraordinary officers and i have the highest respect for

them and have the pleasure of meeting some of them. the of emphasized you deal with the muslim world through the dignity and respect i am quoting them again because if you get the population on your site, you automatically marginalize the taliban or the al qaeda or with all of our sophistication the bad guys. now if we can do this, we automatically ensure our position in iraq, pakistan and so on. that's one position. this directly at the end of the spectrum is the other position where we believe we are in a clash of civilizations. remember, our experts have been telling us this since 9/11. islam as evil, creates terrorism, but koran is evil that does nothing but preach violence and so on and so on.

now you can't have these two attitudes and ideas about the civilization in one frame. if you have then you are creating a great deal of tension and conflict within yourself and then others being implemented. this is the great american conundrum, and i hope -- i hope that either you or my younger students go on and resolve it and unless you resolve it we will have a very unhappy america dealing with the muslim world and an equally unhappy muslim world. there is another big question in this book and that is how to do we as americans maintain and reinforce and honor the extraordinary ideals of those extraordinary figures of the founding fathers of america? those extraordinary people, and i mentioned the religious pluralism plank in their vision of the world. how do we balance that with the notion of this society feeling a sense of threat, security

threat? this balance between torturing people or suspects and maintaining the idea civil liberties. again if you have any doubts about this, read the founding fathers on torture, civil liberties, of religious pluralism, it is all there and it's a brilliant and inspiring. for someone like me coming from outside, it gives me so much hope in the human condition and in humanity itself. finally, a big question. how does a minority like the muslim minority the trust with the majority in a time of change and crisis? the muslim minority after 9/11 is under a microscope and we have so many case studies in the book you would be amazed at the material you read in the book. on the one hand inspiring, on the other hand challenging.

how do we balance the minority with the majority and integrate them or assimilate them or give them that kind of confidence that they will join us. i will conclude by giving you some findings from the field. number one these are random findings from the field. some of the best americans are muslim. i will repeat some of the best americans are muslim. soldiers, police officers, lawyers, doctors, we went to arlington cemetery and saul muslim soldiers buried there, arabs, pakistan-based, the great honor america can get its own people. thomas jefferson, because he's a great hero of mine and i look up to him and i honor him. i found on this journey as did

my team so many muslims citing thomas jefferson as one of the role models, as one of their idols. isn't it amazing to get a muslim sinking who are your role models, thomas jefferson. the fund this unlikely. that is american muslims. number two, findings from the field. the diversity of islam in america. we know in the media when people talk of islam in america, they talk about it as a monolith. very often by a masked the muslims to this and that and it's not muslim and when they look at media assume that we are all alike. we may look like what we are not. this is a global community and muslims in america literally from all of the corners of the globe, muslims from morocco, bangladesh, india, pakistan, egypt, all over the globe let's keep this in mind. these communities have brought

their rich cultures to america. the troy the american feast, the tradition here is always immigrants from ireland, the jewish community's coming from east europe and so on bringing the rich culture to america. this is what they have done it number three, islam remains a very fast growing religion in the united states of america. paradoxically after 9/11 the koran sales rocketed. americans are curious people and want to know what is this religion so much in the news which is controversial? one of the interesting things i found as an anthropologist we were looking at figures of the american converts to islam and african-americans, we have a full chapter on african-american muslims, fascinating chapter. we were impressed by some of the african-americans, unfortunately they don't get the importance the should be getting and they are very wise americans and

muslims, but i was fascinated by white women converting to islam and three of four converts to islam are women, and i asked myself and i told my team go and find the answers why should a white woman with all of the freedom of facilities living in this incredibly of what in portion society, the superpower of the world give up a way of life and put on an alien to us and live a restricted life? this is a great challenge for an interview with shiastan if you want to know the answer it is chapter 6. [laughter] another finding for you, in the media, the assumption is the implicit, the assumption is islam is somehow post-9/11 phenomena and the middle east

immigrants arrived here three decades ago. wrong. islam was here at the start, right at the start of the united states of america and it came by africa. 30 to 40% of the africans who were brought here on the horrible slave ships and tragedies were actually muslim and many of them were scholars, jeeves, mobile nine. they crossed the atlantic and of course were pushed into this new identity as slaves. one of the most fascinating case studies in the book is when we crossed the atlantic much of the journey was a very rickety boats to to an island off the state of georgia and when we arrived we completely broke off all communications. so firms wouldn't work and we

did been reading about voodoo and so on and that part of the country. he's from the north, so don't blame him too much. he began to say i unfeeling freaked out by what is going on here. that might, we spent the evening talking to a wonderful charismatic woman who was the direct descendant -- think of this, ten generations down from mohammed and african slave brought to america around the turn of the century, 1800, and again as an anthropologist i was fascinated. how does a community, a devout muslim, how does he possess his culture in the fate of a brutal attempt to exterminate that culture? new naim, religion, he must not

have any or give any hint of any other country except the one imposed and we discovered and made notes after a conversation and moving around the island about two dozen substantial pieces of evidence of how one generation would pass off as long feeding over the generations on to the next generation onto the next on to the next one to mrs. dailey who of course is christian, but these customs and traditions slowly fading are still there today and to conceive them. it is incredible, very rich material. you find islam is not a new phenomenon. it goes back, and we are giving you evidence. the best course we didn't just look at muslims in america. i have an entire chapter on muslims and jews and the subtitle is bridging the great divide, and i give examples of the wonderful people felt i have

personally met and we have conducted a dialogue with including the professor, the father of daniel pearl who was tragically killed in karachi. so we give examples of the jewish muslim dialogue and the need for this dialogue and the similarities between the religions. let me say this on record. i found no to have religions which are more similar than judea's some and islami. it is amazing for me. i talked to a rabbi for example it's an enlightening kind of imam. i see little difference between what and in light and imam would say and what he says in his learning and was then and compassion and yet there are challenges. we know there are challenges. then there is another chapter called muslims and mormons, subtitle getting to know you. again, fascinating. the mormons moved to utah.

we found the mormons welcoming us that specifically the muslims. why was taken aback. in america muslims are seen with some suspicion and reservation. and i discovered that the mormons have the birth of their religion and none 19th century looked on muslims as a kind of, with a kind of insanity, the kind of empathy, and that their profit, joseph smith, in the 19th century was dubbed and called the yankee mohammed. people don't know these things. the amount of similarity to consciously have built up between islam and mormonism, again, you find there is an entire chapter. and finally of course, we have emphasized again and again because it is just so important to emphasize this in america

today, the importance of safeguarding the idea, and the idea of america. losing this pluralist identity is our greatest threat, not ticker for some and this came through again and again and the question is americans, we must never underestimate americans. this is a wise and sensible population. we assume this is what america would say. in the field we found in the interviews americans telling us again and again we would assume what is the greatest threat we would assume terrorism's or muslims were you, but they didn't. again and again the top of the education or losing this religious pluralism and this is right across the border of america so as we travel we solve this and the big cities and

small towns again and again and had the guns and to try described the boys and girls would go off and talk one-on-one with people and come back with a lot of rich data within their interviews in tact. what we think all of you for being here and once again thank barbara, and i know before that i would like to answer any questions you may have. we want to go among our group of supporters and team members mary beth and she's got engaged this evening so mary beth, where are you? werries she? she is. stand up and show your face. [applause] where is the lucky man? please look after her she is special to the american

university. thank you. >> people with questions, please use the microphone. >> hello. thank you for your work. i am a sociologists in anthropology and i want to ask a question about the context or the culture in which muslim islamic is found. i believe it was your previous book we discussed, and what i got from there is that islam is different on the culture that is found. that is correct. okay, i had a difficult he conveyed that to the rest of the group. they said all muslims are [inaudible] but my question on this book is did you find muslims practice -- >> you are getting there.

[inaudible] let me quote muhammad ali the boxer. she said muslim and he said muslim is a piece of cloth. i am a muslim. let me just quote him. >> is it practiced differently a round of the u.s. depending upon the village, the culture, the setting in which they lived? >> this is a great question and again, we need to step back and not look at muslims as a monolith. we drew three categories and these are the african americans, these are the original muslims and in fact i called in the first muslims in the united states. they are american. they have lived here for centuries. they are a part of this culture. they have contributed to the and i don't have to remind you we have the first african-american descendant in the white house and the contribution to every

field of the human endeavor is remarkable, so these are american muslims, the african-americans. then you have the immigrant muslims. i am talking of the differences in terms of the muslim community. the immigrants are quite distinct so you have immigrants from the middle east, immigrants from south asia, you may have some from malaysia, indonesia. now, in one sense they are all the same in the sense that christians are the same kid maybe even more similar to other religions. at the same time the difference is on told in languages and how they adjust to america. faired, you have the white converts. again, very distinct. and we found for the simple hear the differences begin to show up. if immigrants are arguing with might converts and say something about america, we don't like the

american culture or something the white convert is likely to say wait a minute this is my culture. i may be a muslim but i am pretty much a part of the political process, don't speak against my country so you see is interesting nuance so i would say yes on one level, the consumption level similar. on a sociological level distinct differences and this is how all of the societies go. you can't assume christians are the same or the jewish community is the same or buddhism. it is exactly like that. could you also introduce yourself so we know who you are. >> i am a producer and host of a television program respecting interface and newly e. elected member of the conference of metropolitan washington we just

completed at the hartford seminary on a muslim woman. what i wanted to say just a very quick i am so glad you were able to cover so many areas with the book and i just want to say that when i was up in hartford connecticut, one of the lessons of being out there was being able -- i went to several, but one of the methods that have over 200 bosnian men so as i look around this room most of them look like the men in here and i asked the question how do people know that you are muslim? how did they differentiate because you look like a regular white guy. [laughter] and they said we are trying to let people know who we are by the things we do here, and it

was just amazing that opened in 2007. what i would ask you, dr. ahmed, is what i asked at the national cathedral. i want to get you on our television program. [laughter] >> thank you. always a pleasure and i would be honored to come on your show and i do want to point out one of the remarkable -- for me because i was honored to have met him, and w. ahmed, but most americans have great regret the have no idea if he is. i call him in the book, and listen carefully because i'm an anthropologist and i choose my words, i call him the martin luther, not martin luther king jr. but the martin luther of islam in america. this man literally is responsible for turning islam around like an oil tank in the

ocean and making it a region in which today reaches out and is involved reaching out to the synagogues and the churches and driving in this environment to the muslim community headed by imam w. mohammed and it's remarkable because he was the son they died, of elijah mohammed, the founder of the nation of islam, and imam w. de was ostracized by his father for wanting this kind of islam, for reaching out and accepting, so you can see that this great spiritual leader, this giant, needs to be discovered by mainstream america and i am hoping this book will trigger that kind of reaction. we have several telling us your right they do look european and they come from europe, but they

did tell us in our private conversations bright color, from religion. they said we have no problem as long as you keep quiet and don't mention our names. fecit everything changes. so it is then and we need to be aware of it. secretary? >> yes, sir, i am pleased to be here and have been a big fan of yours since we met shortly after 9/11 when several of us met at the treasury department and started the initiative and i commend you on your production of the book and look forward to reading at. in your remarks, you talk about the similarities that your but from muslims and jews but also know that you work with the

christian community and the national cathedral and i remember when you have a program which him. could you talk about the similarities in terms of christianity more generally? >> thank you for your work and leadership in the interfaith initiative that you and the ambassador have taken over. you have played a critical role in america's history which i don't think a lot of americans know about but you have changed the dynamic in washington, d.c.. for me, the dialogue with christianity was a very easy one. the reason being that i had the privilege and the honor of being educated first of the catholic school in north pakistan one of the best schools then, and christian college run by a presbyterian minister from america so i had a good idea of christianity in its generosity and compassion and openness to the other cultures.

if this place on 9/11 and the whole world changed for us i didn't have a problem simply teaming up with as the secretary pointed out bishop john. john and i became great friends and his wife and my became great friends and of course the rabbi as the newspaper, i don't know which one, called the three spiritual musketeers. we became great friends because we saw no difference. in fact in these interface meetings people would ask about islam and as an anthropologist i would say a little bit analytical even critical about the muslim society islam is great and it's going through a crisis, 57 nations. how many are dictatorships? how many of the countries are incorrect and incompetent people?

it would be with a minute, it is our brother religion and so on because of the great affection and spirit as a christian, and secretary dalton, let me tell you it's in the book because it is discussed doug holiday and certain kinds of american christians who radiate pluralism of the founding fathers. there was a moment in time which staggered me. it's in the book by might as well make it public. on christmas i get a card from the bishop which has christianity and jesus and so on celebrating that judaism and then islam and talking of the profit of islam and the sacred book and i said john is going to be in trouble and sure enough, he rang me up and said you haven't seen the e-mails plight and getting. these are the great religious

figures that have attempted to live up to and maintain the high standards set so thank you for the work that you've done. >> we've got time for one more question. >> i am the co-founder of the interfaith initiative and the other cofounder in the audience you may know our names or may not but you gracefully paved the way that we could have your tree students speak to a group we gathered in washington called abraham's tent, so we were appreciative of that. >> steve, thank you so much. i hand it to them to spread the word. >> wonderful job. i wanted to ask you -- i believe that it is on your miers' that not?

>> a true one would never say yes to that question. [laughter] i need to many muslims who say i cannot drink or be carefully don't want anyone to scratch -- i hope god will understand why am. >> you answered it perfectly. i'm wondering what your background and as your journey, and i haven't gone to the index of the book yet, but i wonder if you got any resistance of being thought of among of the muslim americans. >> very interesting question, interesting and complex question. unfortunately, steve, you're right. there is a lot of pressure on suvi from the muslim community especially from certain muslim countries that have a certain very literal interpretation of islam and the target of course mom muslims, but also suvi and

one of the great tragedies for me personally was the attack on the greatest shrine and the pakistan only a few days ago and i will share you my father that had great affection for the sufi and i suspect he was a sufi, he took me and introduced me to the sufi hall many decades ago, and every time i entered and i was a modern young man straight back from cambridge and said what is he talking about? what sort of islam is this? everyone got sort of lost their ecstasy and devotion and really communicating with god in every personal matter. over time i grew to love that shrine and the piece i would find. you find muslims, hindus and christians in the audience. and that was attacked, and i was left with a sense of great despair. just before the attack, the community killing about 100

people, and then blowing up or attempting to blow up the shrine in the hall that is survived a thousand years. and i give this example, steve, the counterpart of this in india where very often there are rivals between hindu and muslim and that has never been attacked or blown up or attempt to injure. because again, if you go there you see hindus and christians all in the same universal brotherhood of man yet this shrine was attacked. so it has saddened me and i know the intentions of islam taking place and that is why i urge you to step back and of looking at the world of islam and its relations with america in a more scholarly and objective way so that in the end we promote what we want as a more peaceful, more loving and more productive world and not in up hurting ourselves. thank you. [applause]

>> akbar ahmed is the chairman of the islamic studies program at washington, d.c.. he was the high commissioner of pakistan to the united kingdom. for more information, visit american.edu/sis. mr. gingrich, can you tell a little about your latest release and what your next writing project might be? >> the latest thing we did is a photo book on ronald reagan called rendezvous with destiny that started from the movie and it was the idea we ought to do a book in honor of his 100th birthday and so we were excited to bring it out. we were out of the library and

it actually lasted three and half hours so we were thrilled and they're seems to be a lot of interest because of the renewed interest in president reagan. >> what comes next for you? >> we will have a book on american exceptional was on from regnery. we don't have a title to get. and we will have a civil lawful out in the fall and we are looking forward to both of those. ..