that was about two years ago, but what i wanted to ask to start with is, when we are constantly the community being tagged abroad, the rise of isis, how do we focus on the domestic when there's so much pressure on us to talk about the so-called foreign? >>. >> lovely to be here in detroit. thank you for that kind introduction. an answer to your not provocative question at all, i would say, what a way to start. i'll start by berating my physical low muslims. my view is very clear. i don't think we should force a choice when it comes to discussing issues that matter. what's interesting is we have this three-day event. i'm looking at the program.

i don't think we should have to choose between foreign subjects and domestic subjects. if you look at your programs, there's an amazing range of panels. i want you can't. so many issues we can cover, should cover. have the expertise within our community to cover. i just don't buy this false choice that so many in our communities, in the uk, in europe and north america which is, we've got to have this debate about gaza and nothing else or about iraq and nothing else. we've got to go in the media, only talk about isis and terrorism and take it from me. i'm a journalist who happens to be muslim. when i started out, the only thing people wanted to talk to me about were these issues. not just domestic versus foreign but islam nick general. i wrote a biography of the leader of the opposition, ed millband. why did you write a book about him? he's not going to be prime

minister. well, we'll see. the first book was not going to be a book about islam because it's so easy to get pigeon holed. i wrote this column in george galloway was elected in parliament. the british mp. and my point was that muslims cannot keep going back to the ballot box and voting basically only on the basis of foreign policy issues. only on the basis of which war is current right now. that doesn't mean that foreign policy isn't important. of course not. it is. take it from someone like me. you want to talk about palestinians. i spent the last month arguing with various supporters of israel about gaza. i've been on radio shows with the israeli ambassador to the uk. you want to talk about iraq. i've written several columns about isis. you want to talk about wmd, let's go right now. we can refight the 2003 iraq invasion. but you can -- what's the phrase? you can walk and chew gum at the same time. you can do both. you can also focus on issues at

home that matter. issues in our community that matter whether it's the high rates of muslim in prison. the number of muslims disproportionately represented among mental health cases in the uk. whether it's issues with drugs and sex and all of those other issues the previous session was touching upon here. i just don't buy this false division between we must talk about foreign policy because muslims are dying and people who want to talk about domestic politics, they are self-indulgent, middle class. they don't care about their fellow muslims abroad. they are focussing an things that don't matter. yes, people are dying but it doesn't mean other issues aren't important. not just from a moral perspective, but from a self-serving purpose, if we focus on issues at home and are a better community at home, a more prosperous, more stable, more united, more politically effective community, we can do much more to help on those causes abroad that matter to us. >> thank you.

to my right, we have zara who is a community organizer, civil rights attorney. many of you have seen her eloquently defending muslim civil rights and civil rights more generally in the united states and abroad. she serves as the executive director of the san francisco bay area chapter of c.a.r.e., the council on islamic american organizations. and i wanted to ask you, the last few years have seen some intense debates and conversations in a lot of muslim communities about where we stand as a country do misktally and internationally. some of these conversations than become kind of intense. and they provoke sharp divisions and disagreements. there's nothing to say we as a community have to agree on where we stand but how do we deal with the divisions in our community that are going to keep coming up as these conversations, especially involving muslims become more pointed and more

heated. >> also not on. thank you to haroon and everyone on the panel and isna for having this conversation. it's difficult to talk about disagreements and thin give us all the stage and hope we won't do it wrong. we build together over and over. one of the things that my parents always raised me with is, you fight more with your siblings than you will fight with anyone in your life. and then maybe when you get married you fight a little bit with your spouse but never the way you fight with your siblings. and you just can't rid yourself of your siblings or your parents. they're our family. our community is one family. one thing i remember post-9/11 we talked about a lot was unity and unity. every time there was disagreement, people got worried and they got scared. except we have to realize that unity does not mean uniformity. we're going to disagree. we have to draw our lines in the

sand. for some people, that's going to be boycott divestment sanctions. for some people, it's going to be gender relations. i'll tell you personally, i have trouble working with people who disrespect women. i have trouble being in separate spaces. i have trouble not seeing the iman. so when i'm put in those spaces, my personal lines are tested. and everyone has those. but i come back over and over. i was racesed to go to the -- every day of the week and i'm grateful that i still get to do that. and i don't always agree but we're stronger together. one of the things that's really easy to do is to fall apart, right? how easy would it be to splinter this group in this room into 15 different conventions. we could probably find more ways to divide us. but the former president of the united states, jimmy carter, doesn't come speak to a convention of 50 muslims. he comes and speaks to isna

because we have power when we mobilize together. and so i say, fight. put your opinions out there, work within the organizations and the institutions to put forward your agenda but also understand that unity is going to mean more than any divisions that we ever have. and so if we don't have the discipline to fall in line when it's necessary to fall in line, when it's necessary to mobilize thousands and really millions of muslims. when you think about how big this group is, take a second and think, actually, they're somewhat around 7 million muslims in the united states. if you could move 7 million muslims, we could probably fix our foreign policy and domestic policy. but it takes discipline, teamwork and unity first. >> thank you. i was using the broken mike because i'm very smart. that was a joke. nobody laughed. that's great. he's really not smart. it's still really early, right?

was it the long cab ride? nothing, man. i'm getting nothing here. it's really terrible. i'm so sorry. i feel really bad. it's bad enough i'm not a doctor. so there's nothing wrong if you aren't a doctor. your kids can pay for school themselves. it's true. so on my far right, imam who i believe we met the first time in west virginia, which is not where i expected to meet the resident imam, community activist of the largest african-american muslim community in the united states. he's based in atlanta, georgia. if you don't know him, you should know him. and i wanted to ask you, we have a lot of big conversations. but you're the imam of a very large, significant, historical community. what are the issues you see on the ground? what are the conversations you think we should be having up here? >> again, it's an honor to be

here an stage with this distinguished panel and discuss something very heavy, heavy issues. big topics. and just to briefly comment on what has been said, i think for me personally and for a segment of the muslim community is very difficult or challenging sometimes to speak about international affairs when our concerns are very domestic. i read a report recently done by an isna research group just noting that 36% of the muslim community in america is made up of african-americans. those who converted over the first and second generation. me personally, i'm a second generation muslim. my parents converted in the -- my father in the late '60s, my mother in the '70s. it's a large segment of people who are not necessarily overconcerned about global issues in the degree in which we have dialogue and conversation. it's good to have this mix.

and so for us, it becomes staying balanced with engaging and understanding the global position and understanding the muslim world and how it affects us with this shrinking table that we all sit at as human beings. but i always pose the question. when we have this large segment of muslims in america, who changed their religion, who converted, we should be asking, what decision, what decision-making process took place? why did they come to the fold of al islam and continue to kind of use that as a way to have meaningful dialogue and conversation as citizens of this country? because as a faith, it's something that really engages all types of people. and the diversity that comes with al islam historically within the formation of the first community in medina, we have a replica of that here in america that's profound and

unique. that's unseen throughout the world. so just calling on that strength and allowing for what we're going through as a people to dictate what the top priorities are. i am an imam. that means that i get abused a lot. used quite a bit. but as imams, we put ourselves in that position to be servants to society. so what i think about really just to be brief with it, when i think about really why so@qb ma people chose al islam as their way from the african-american community in particular it was because islam presented a solution to a problem. and to be leaders in today's society, we have to think about it that way. what type of problem is in existence and how can we pose a suitable, responsible solution to it and by default you become the one who is foremost. the one out front. the one who is leading. but it's not sitting back and having conversations about it, but it's really about being active. a lot of the work we do is in

community development. and seeing the problems daily. seeing the,s that come in from the door from community members who are islam and even those who are just neighbors who need assistance. we begin to think about as a muslim, from our source, from the koran, from the tradition of prophet muhammad, how do we formulate new ideas and new solutions for current everyday problems? and that, believe me, brings new muslims into the fold. >> and on my left here we have miriam. we actually shared a cab ride here. i got to hear her speak quite eloquently and passionately about social justice and what's going on in the united states today. i'm sure everyone has seen and been in dismayed, concerned, heartbroken, frustrated by what's happening in ferguson and the larger patterns and trends it speaks to. sometimes it feels to me that we don't necessarily see things until they pop up on a certain kind of radar, right?

things are fine if they are in the background, and then they blow open and suddenly many people ask ourselves, did we really have a problem that big that we didn't see. and mariam is working towards her bachelors in islamic scientist scientists. she's passionate about social justice. she's memorized the koran, the muslim scripture. so i wanted to ask you in the work that you do, what are the conversations that we're not having? imam spoke about how different communities have different attachments to islam. and what i am wondering conversely is, what are the things perhaps we're not talking about that could lead to the opposite. to people perhaps drift away from the community or from islam itself. >> let me ask all of you a question. raise your hand if you know someone who has dealt with depression in the muslim community? raise your hand. everyone take a quick look around. see how many hands there are.

okay. hands down. depression or isolation to the point of actually attempting suicide or cutting or other forms of self harm? raise your hand. look around. that's a lot of people raising their hand. hands down. how many of you know or have personally experiencedçd]m%m5 n the muslim community? okay. look around. look around. hands down. as a woman, how many of you have felt like you don't have a space in the muslim community? okay. as men, how many of you feel like you have issues that can't actually be addressed in the muslim community? okay. you can't raise your hand because you can't be addressed. that's a trick question. why did you raise your hand? those are broad issues, but in our community, we deal with people who leave islam completely and it's not because islam isn't this incredible religion. it's because our communities

don't have relevant conversations about what people are actually going through. and some of these issues may start young, may start in a person's home life, but as you continue and deal with the type of segregation, the type of sexism, the racism and a lot of the phobias that we have in our community, it causes people to start feeling inadequate as individuals, and it causes us to feel like we can't even be a part of a spiritual space that's supposed to help us feel closer to the one who created us. and when that connection is lost, it's very difficult for us to continue to feel passionate about issues that have to do with humanitarianism or political issues when we feel so broken. so one of the things i've seen in the work that i've been doing in different communities is that people are so in pain because, for example, a brother who told me he's an african-american convert. he's been muslim almost ten years. he told me black is the wrong color to be in the muslim community. another young person, a high school student came up to me

after a lecture and told me that it was the first time in her life that she felt like god actually loved her. she thought god hated her her entire life because in her family she's got problems. her mom is constantly telling her there's no point in you praying because god isn't going to accept it anyways since i'm always upset with you and many young people have told me they've heard that from their parents before. then they see there's no real tangible space for young people íñ and then people who embrait brace this sister, individuals very strongly involved with drugs. and eventually she attempted suicide. but why did that even happen? because she was trying to fill a void that didn't -- wasn't filled within our community. so one of the things that i think i appreciate about every individual here who do a lot of work for building the community, is that they follow a particular example and this is something i think we need to keep in mind. she was a female companion of

the peace be upon muhammad. he converted to islam. then migrated back to medinah. this is seven years after the migration of the prophet peace be upon him. she's coming in late. how many of you are converts. raise your hands. high, high, high. may god bless every single one of you and every single one of your family members. how man of you came to islam later on in life? okay. and how many of you have ever felt like you're inferior to someone else who is muslim because they've made you feel that way? that's happened to me many times. now asmat comes in seven years after being absenia. she's visiting the daughter who sunni muslims revere. his daughter is like, oh, she's the one who made the hedgejja.

he's looik we got to medinah first. we got here first so we have more of a right to the prophet muhammad peace be upon him than we do. we're sunnis. we're the maurgeity of the muslim commune hit. we have more of a right to muslim. we have more of a right to muslim spaces. we're born muslims. you are not. we have more of a right to muslim spaces. we're arab. you're everything else. we have more of a right to muslim spaces. we hear these discussions in the community. but she used her agency of voice. and one thing that all of these individuals are doing and i'm sure many of you are doing and this is what they alluded to is that she didn't just sit there and go, you're right. i'm a woman. i'm inferior. i have nothing to say. she was like, by god, i swear you're wrong. i'm not going to eat or drink until i go to the prophet muhammad peace be upon him and tell it like it is. you know what he told her? he didn't say cover your face leave, even though, i don't mean to say cover your face in an oppressive way. but sometimes that is the way we treat women who have something

very important to say about the dynamics of our community. the prophet, instead he told her, omar doesn't have more of a right to me than you do nor do his companions. he told her, you and your companions migrated twice and they only migrated once. the reward is more for them when she used her agency of voice. she not only affected herself but she empowered the rest of the community of people who came later. the reason i wanted to focus on thisquickly is because we have the collective ability to focus on all these other areas. but we need to make insure that we as a community feel like we can voice the issues we're dealing with and that we feel comfortable having the agency of doing that so that we can go into a community as a convert or somebody who feels like historically we've been oppressed in this country and we can say that we have issues we need to focus on that span beyond what fills our facebook feeds every few weeks and then

changes when people are dying inside. the point is asmat used her agency of change and every one of us has that ability. >> i just wanted to pick up on a -- spot on. i agree with that. a couple of things. one, i think one of the reason the behavior you identify and feel free to disagree, i think there's a lot of laziness in our community. not just physically lazy, although we are physically lazy, and i include myself in that. but intelocateually lazy. we get to this point where we say, walking and chewing gum at the same time. this idea that, many of you are listening and heard such a passionate statement about depression and about self-harm and a lot of you may say, we can't be everywhere at once. but i can protest about something happening abroad. we are too comfortable. we are in a comfort zone and one of the reasons for that is

because, you know, people say the middle east, it's complicated. i think in our mind it's not complicated at all. there's an identifiable set of baddies and solutions. we're an the side of the good guys and, therefore, it's very easy to take a stance, speak out vocally, join groups, go on protests. when there's more complicated or complex or nuanced or slightly less glamorous discussions to be had at home or protests to take part in our universities or workplaces or community, then it's kind of like, i haven't got time. i went to that protest last week on iraq or gaza. i can't go an this protest about climate change or housing or education or health care. and it really bothers me because that's laziness. there's no reason we can't do more than one thing. we have plenty of time which we choose to waste and abuse. i took part in a rally against austerity. a year after the british-led conservative government came in and brought in spending cuts. i took part in a rally.

i was on stage at hyde park. 250,000 people marched against austerity in 2011 in the uk. i'm not saying muslims are only people who wear hijabs or beards. looking at the crowd, there were not many muslim faces i could see from my vantage point. the same park where muslims have gathered to protest against the invasion of iraq, the israeli bombing of gaza, against danish cartoons of the prophet. but you're about to lose your job or livelihood. british pakistani and british bangladeshi communities are among the most deprived communities in the uk. hit by austerity and spending cuts and yet where are the muslims anesthes struggles and battles at home. and one last point, just to pick up something zahra said about, you were talking about siblings and about how you never fight with anyone as you do with a sibling. hear, hear, my sister is not

watching. the problem with that analogy is that sometimes i look at our community and again, feel free to disagree. i don't think we behave as a family. there's very little evidence of that. perhaps sections do. but sections certainly don't. i give the example of those of white house, and those of us an this platform who have taken an unpopular stance, a stance that the majority hasn't agreed with. i can only speak for myself but we don't feel like a member of the family when you take that stance. doesn't matter how much credit in your bank account, how much good work you've done. there's a lot of suspicion in our community, a lot of lack of trust which most families, of course, do have trust. no matter how bad your son or daughter is you'll still give your life for them, still trust them. i give you one example from my own life. i've written, what, 20, 30, 40 articles, columns, blogs about israel, about israel's oppression of gaza. i'm accused of being obsessed

with palestine, et cetera. i write one column about anti-semitism in the muslim community. all of a sudden, the comments are mehdi, you sold out. what are you doing for your career? you want to be popular in these people's circles. doesn't matters what you've done previously. you write anything that doesn't follow the party line on israel, you are a secret zionist. you go to a white house -- you might as well be flying the drone itself that dropped the bomb an pakistani children. this is the level sometimes of the discourse in our community which is one perceived bad deed. even if it's not a bad deed, cancels out everything else. we're suspicion of the motivations of those an the same journey. the right path is pretty broad and capacious in my view. you can be on that path and heading in the same direction as everyone else but doing your struggle in a different way. you can be a doctor or engineer, ab imam or academic.

take a more engaged stance. the idea you can suddenly turn to your fellow muslim and say you're not doing it my way. therefore, you're a sellout, a failure, you've left the community. that's a huge problem in our community and prevents us from being the family we should be. >> so i'm not personally attached to the example so i don't mind that you attacked it, but i will say families go to counseling, mehdi. so if this isn't where we work it out, and not you and me, but like the community. family goes to counselling. they have fights. they don't invite people to weddings. they hash it out. they disagree. but they are still family. those are bonds that's can't be broken. so i agree the family isn't there. it's had some rough years. like money is difficult. people intermarry.

some people are sunni. some people are shia. and others of us don't think that's the best idea. but in the end, we're family. if we're not talking about the issues, if we're not fighting about the issues, then they're under the rug and that's worse. >> i agree with you. i agree with that point. but let's not be under any illusions. the people who are here are islam, the people in this crowd and people who paid money to come to this convention, good for you. not the same as the community throughout. there are many people out there who aren't interested in going to counseling. who just want to say, who just want to be negative and destructive and only take the simple stances, the easy stances. the black and white stances. the comfortable stances. and i'm not sure, and, you know, if we'll hear from the audience. i'd love ideas about how we win over those people. i'm reaching this point maybe because i'm in a particular

space. in a space i occupy, you have to have a bit of a thick skin when it comes to -- i always thought i'd have to have that thick skin to deal with nonmuslims, opponents, people attacking me for my ideological views. i found that thicker skin for people in my community more which is a depressing realization. >> so the hardest thing for me about wearing hijab growing up was that i had the most insults and the most questions from the muslim community. i get it. we have to have thicker skin in our community. the last thing on the family example. we talk about marriage counseling and family counseling. one thing we run into is many people don't even know that counseling resources exist. for me, when i landed at the detroit airport and was really xh excited the person at the coffee shop was arab and wanted to talk to me about my flight and alldvf that, he didn't know what isna is. so he had no idea why i was here. granted, i came in like some time before the convention, but

there's also some work that needs to be done about going wide about making sure that those 7 million muslims know about the community, know where their local mosque is, know what resources exist. the thing i wanted to touch on, i think a lot of times we talk about this as talking versus doing about one protest versus another protest. and i don't know that that works. it's got to be a lifestyle. so looking at -- using myself as an example, i don't know if the airline i flew in on had union staff. and i didn't check to see if the hotel staff at the place i'm staying are union. and i don't know if i tipped as generously as i could have when i had my food. and did i greet everyone with a smile recognizing that rime an ambassador of islam when i'm out in the street? do i care about what i'm buying? did everyone download the app after the recent gaza attack? did anyone download it? the one that helps you figure ot what you are buying? how many of us are actually

using it? it's not just, do you go to a protest. one would argue protests are just one method of achieving change and alone, like any other method, are absolutely ineffective. if that's all we're doing, that's not enough. talking is important, too. one thing we said in the bay area when the recent attack happened in gaza. it's not enough to share it on facebook or talk to your friends and family or even hold a ton hall at the mosque. you have to be talking about it at the grocery store and at school on this and other issues. it sounds really terrible to say, but there is a self-serving reason to care about the other issues. i could say that we should all agree that our religion calls us to work for justice. and that working for justice is itself an act of worship and that issues of injustice are everywhere. you don't have to fly to palestine or pakistan or even the white house to find those.

those are in our own community. so there is a religiously motivated reason to work for it. but mehdi said this and affect r communities, sometimes not even our own, but i think there's a -- let's be real about what affects us. things like poverty. things like the mortgage crisis. those things affect our community, too. we're just not talking about it because those people can't afford issues i think i should care about like palestine, like the drones, like building a mosque, i'm going to be more effective at mobilizing allies for those issues, garnering empathy for those issues if i was temples,

churches to say we're also here to stand with you. that it was even an issue about whether or not muslims should stand for ferguson is itself telling. that should have been an automatic thing for us to do. >> sure, go ahead. >> very briefly before that point goes so i'm not hogging the mike. very briefly, in the uk there was an interfaith gathering between a local mosque and synagogue where people came and there were events. then it stopped. i said why has it stopped? and he said because the jews always came to our mosque but none of us would go to the synagogue. that's what we do at interfaith events. are we there for their causes? absolutely superb. excellent.

>> i think there's a lot of positive things happening in our community. and a lot of different people involved in different things. but our challenge is we try to capture all of it under the umbrella of these oar are -- this is of this is the muslim community, or this is the organization, et cetera, when we have to just live as human beings and get engaged in the things that matter to us. sometimes we live in a society that chops us up into different segments of society, what race you're part of, what generation you're part of. we're falling victim to that line of thinking and everything that a human being does is called upon by his inner faith, that god has chosen you for this purpose, for this idea, and that he's guiding you every day regard loss of your generation, your race, get involved in where things matter, and that's how we have to look at the life of the human being. when you get involved in something that makes a difference you should believe in

making that difference. ferguson was not an issue for me. it's a civil rights issue. as a nephew issue, or a young brother issue that i see every day. you all don't live in the south of america. it's a little different than in the northern cities, and it's a real challenge. race issues still exist, and they still matter. so where things matter, muslims should be involved. where things matter, muslims should be involved. [ applause ] >> so i had a personal reflection on the flight over, largely, because i don't actually fit on planes. so can't really sleep or relax, and i don't actually know how a plane flies if i don't stand up in it. that's why i'm here and don't have a real job. one thing i was thinking about was here we are again going to war with iraq, and it brought me

back to 2003. and it was an interesting time in my life, and i want to, i promise it will all make sense. 2003 i graduated from college. i thought i was going to go to law school. i went to law school. and i was unbelievably mississipmis miserable. nothing against lawyers, but it was not for me. but in my blinker view of the world, there were only two career options. either you're a doctor, or you're a lawyer. and it sounds ridiculous now, but this is what i honestly thought. and i thought to myself, if i don't become a doctor, and i don't become a lawyer, i'm going to become nothing. could be an accountant. yes, that's true. i didn't even know that option existed, also!km÷ as previously said, i can't count either. so that wasn't an option. and i remember feeling very profoundly, like a personal failure. and at the same time, i was kind of a street activist. please don't look me up on

google before 2003, i was also a lot heavier. doesn't make any sense, but we were organizing these protests against the iraq war and tens of thousands of people were coming out, and it appeared to have made absolutely no difference, right? all those people came on to the streets, and nothing happened. the war went ahead. it was a terrible idea. and it turned out to be even more of a terrible idea. the reason i'm bringing this up is because i want to ask each of you how this failure in any respect shaped your life and career. i think we have a discourse in a lot of communities where we talk about achievements and success. and we don't talk about how we deal with when things don't go our way. and when things don't go our way, there are opportunities for us we don't see. and i wish, you know, when i was in that age bracket and point in my life, so to speak, that i had heard that there was perhaps value to not getting what i wanted and to seeing things not

work out, because it showed me things about myself i didn't understand. so i wanted to start with mariam and ask you what got you here? you know, what are the experiences that you wish you could share with people, and this is called generation rise, right? so what do we have to share with people out there? what do we wish they knew about us or knew about themselves? >> i came from a family where many people, many of my family members converted to islam. so when my parents were raising me, islam was, it was a part of my identity, but i didn't connect to that, and i didn't want to be that. so it wasn't until later on when i started reading the koran in english translation after a spiritual experience that i wanted to take on being muslim and i wanted to live it. that was so exciting, and i'm a very passionate person. i was the president of my student body council.

i was so excited about now sharing with everyone how exciting muslim women are. but the more i learned about islam in my super excitement to become a real, understanding muslim, i started doubting my faith because of what i learned about women's rights and roles. and i want to clarify what that means. i had individuals who thought that they knew religion tell me that women shouldn't do this, shouldn't do that, shouldn't be involved with this. me up here? never. the way i speak loudly, no. my personality entirely i thought was a test from god himself, because he was trying to see whether or not i could keep quiet when he's naturally made me this way. and that caused me to really doubt, is this really the religion that i want to be a part of? and i know many women have experienced that as well. one of the things that helped me through that, even though it was very painful, and it took many years to get out of it, was that

i started recognizing that the reason i felt this way was because sometimes in our communities we put people in positions of power who are not educated and not able to be relevant to be there. it's talked about in the introduction, it's a book that talks about the liberation of women, peace be upon him. one of them is that we have a misapplication of our textural evidences, and we say women shouldn't do this because of this hadith. sometimes a scholar may be a scholar in hadith, but he's not a scholar in another area. but we take from the wrong people who don't necessarily understand our situation here.

so one of the reasons that i felt the most difficult time period in my life, which was trying to figure out whether or not i really wanted to assert my islamic identity was finding what islam really is, and it is an incredibly empowering, incredibly liberating and socially just life movement. for me, islam changed my life in the most incredible way, after i went through the pain of thinking that i knew what islam really wanted from me. so in one aspect, my experience is trying to become scholarly caused me so much pain and so much rift in my personality, in my relationships and my religion, but it also helped me understand that islam is relevant. it relates to all of these issues that we're talking about. and that allah loves every single person in this room or the people he's created. and people who don't even know they want to think about him. god is not far from us, but our

community makes us feel that god is far from us. the second thing is that when i was in middle school, i went to a suburban school. in high school i went to school in the inner city, and i saw the differences in the resources and in the consequences of what happened to a lot of my peers when i look at the tracks of life and the opportunities both were given. i did my masters in ucla. i focused on critical race studies. what that basically meant is that on a personal level, my life revolved around understanding what it's like to be in an area that policies of the united states keep in poverty, even in education. on the second level, on a research level, i'm working with students now, looking at research on policies that affect the way we continue to put communities of color in particular spaces. so, for example, when ferguson happened, i was so angry.

yes, at everything that's going on, but also at our reaction as a muslim community. i cannot believe that we actually had questioned why we should be involved with speaking up about what's going on. and be wiwith being allies with brothers and sisters. his name is quinnta. he was brought here as a free man from africa and was enslaved. he was ripped from his family, and the types of things he had to go through, this is not one, one person's story. this is the reality of so many of our beautiful brothers and sisters who are brought here, who were taken as free people and enslaved. and that historically affects policies today. this isn't history. this is affecting communities today. so for me, the two biggest things that affected my life,

and the things that i'm involved with right now is one, recognizing how painful it is when islam is taught at the hands of individuals who may be well-intentioned but do not truly understand the texts and their relevancy in our place and time today. and the second part is being a part of living and loving individuals from different communities, experiencing what it's like to have education on both sides. and then understanding that the people who shaped our country today were individuals now, who live on reservation camps are individuals who live in areas that are historically and systemically oppressed and are individuals who we do not constantly talk about and represent in our own discussions. many of us have felt isolated in our community, and i felt isolated as well, and i continue to feel ice lighted. i'm starting to be a scholar, and i feel isolated. how many other people who have no space can't come to a

conference like this because they don't feel like they will ever be welcomed. and that's not what the prophet taught. one thing i want to talk about to finish this is that for me, through those processes i learned about individual responsibility because all of this is overwhelming, politics, seeing people die, seeing all those images, it's so overwhelming, and you feel like you can't take it all on. this is something i love. another prophet, one time, a woman walked up. and she's like a hottie. sh so he's checking her out. and he's noticing that his young bro is checking out this girl. in this case, he could have told her turn around, he's looking at you. he could have told her leave, go ask some guy you're related to to ask the question. but he felt a responsibility and turned his cheek. he didn't shame him. he didn't blame him. he didn't shame her, blame her. he just taught him that when he

recognizes that there's something going on internally, take a moment, take personal responsibility and do some type of action that you have control over. and for me, i don't have control over everything that's going on, and i'm overwhelmed oftentimes, but then i think about what can i control? i've been in pain because of the things i've mentioned and all of you have been in pain because of other issues. what things can you control in your life? like my dad says, whenever there's a problem, it's not a time to be super sad about, it's a time to get excited. take personal responsibility over the problems that you have. [ applause ] >> very powerful, profound sister maryam. when i think about those who come before, we all have stories. we all have family stories.

we have community stories. we have things that really touch us in terms of those who came before and really made the sacrifice for us to be here today. i have to say when i look prophetically i see someone driven to be drawn to his lord regardless of the conditions and circumstances brought on him. and i see that as she talked about kunta kintae. being muslim. and surviving throughout all of the odds to remain faithful, to know that god is still in control, regardless of the condition that you may be in. and i think that's profound. i think about four particular people i'm going to talk about too. one is malcolm x. raise your hand if you know who i'm talking about.

you and millions of others throughout the world know this figure. and they know him because he stood for his principles. he stood for his beliefs. and something very profound that, here in atlanta, one of the secretaries was malcolm's secretary. she's a pioneer. may allah preserve her. may allah bless her. she shared a story with me. and to be brief with it, i said how was malcolm rond the ross strum? how was he outside of the public face? and she said he was the most righteous man that i knew. he was a man that was consistent with his principles. when i heard that, i think about the politicians, those that have to be before the meek phone. those who have to speak for all. champion these causes. and are they the same behind closed doors? are they the ones charged with this faith, this belief that god

is watchful at all times, not just when the news comes on, and are you consistent with your challenge, are you consistent with how you respond to the challenge? so that really touched me to be a person of balance and jubl myself as it relates to very serious issues that come about in the community. usually when i work in inner faith circles i get the question, am i sunni? am i shia? as a convert, as an african-american, which group will they place me in at that point. and my response is i'm a practical muslim. i'm a muslim. i look at the life that god prescribes for us through the koran, and i look at the life in which god sent as an example, prophet mohammed [ speaking in foreign language ] >> so when i think about the muslim community in many instances, i see a group of

people who are culturally tied to a religion that has no full bearing on culture at all. that we're misinformed. we're not fully educated about the better way that i like to look at prophet mohammed. it doesn't look at what type of talk or cultural habits. it has a way of getting to truth, a way of getting to the heart of the matter. a way of seeing the problem, to seeing the solution to a problem. and so the prophet mohamed also touched the life of mohammed ali. raise your hand if you kn know mohamed ali.

every time i get to the airport, and they see the passport and my name, they say, well, where are you really from? and i say, well, i'm from the united states. no, where's your father from? they know the series of questions. where's your father's father from? i say everyone from the u.s. is from somewhere else. i say do you know who mohammed ali is? and they say yes. he's my uncle. oh! you're american muslim. and it clicks instantly, because he's a figure that transcends kind of this understanding of boxers for muslims. and the reality of his story is courage. his greatest fight was with the supreme court. his greatest fight was standing for his beliefs and his

religion. he's still alive, he has parkinson's in arizona. we ask that allah preserve him. even when it's against his own self, when you look at his story very closely, he corrects the idea of be being the greatest. he says only god is the greatest. i'm just trying to live up to the potential that he placed in me. so these are figures that we can call on and understand that allah has put in these figures that are muslim and standing for the principles of islam. when you look at these stories, you see a passion around islam being inclusive and measuring people based upon their character and not on the color of their skin or their social stability. but really looking at the heart of the matter of what are you

contributing to society and what has allah sent you for. so may allah bless us to keep striving for the best in this life and make sure we receive the best of the hereafter. [ applause ] >> so i've struggled with this question about failures and challenges a lot. and i don't want to repeat what's been said, but there are two things coming to mind for me. the first is i try not to see failures as failures. i try to see them as tests from allah and opportunities. and that's true for whatever the test or opportunity is. even the negative is an opportunity. it's an opportunity to make use of the resources. it's an opportunity to grow stronger. it's an opportunity to learn. and then the second thing that i don't know if it's been said or not is surrounding ourselves with the right people is that every test, whether it is how do we deal with international

issues. how do we deal with depression, marital problems, any of those things, those are all addressed so well when we're surrounded by the right people. that means families and parents that have open and communicative relationships with their children. that means religious leaders who are qualified to be religious leaders but also who are aware of their limitations. it means organizations that are strong and thriving and funded and resourced. and it means the right spouse and the right friends. because those people will love you and help you no matter what you're going through. and when you fall, and you're struggling, they're going to be there for you. a lot of times it's easy to say my family's hard on me, my spouse is difficult or my friends this. we control those things. maryam said she focuses on what she controls, i control who i spend time with. i control who i marry. i control where i work and what

i do for a living. i control which protests i go to. that's all in my hands. and so, i guess just those two quick things is the first is see failures and mistakes and challenges as opportunities, as tests from allah, because he's paying attention to us, because he loves us. and then the second is make sure that you are with the right people, because those opportunities, very easily can be turned around and be disasters if we're not surrounded by the right people, if we're not in the right places, and if we don't have access to the right resources. [ applause ] >> when i was a kid, i loved to argue a lot. when i was a kid, i say. no, really i liked to argue when i was a kid. and i used to fight a lot. and not just with the siblings but with classmates. with teachers.

with anyone. i spent a lot of my time in the corridor. i don't know what the american system is, you do a lot of detention. the british way is a lot quicker, you stand outside the class. i spent a lot of time standing in the corridor for having answering back. and my parents spent a lot of time at parent/teacher conferences going what the hell is wrong with you? why don't you shut your mouth? and interestingly i now have a career the in rin running my mo. allah works in mysterious ways. i would get in trouble for not knowing when to stop. now people pay me to come on radio and television to argue with people. and i think to myself how lucky i am. that's an interesting job. when i go to a gathering, my best friend is a doctor, my cousin is a dentist, we go together and people say how's life, how's your job, nobody's asked about their jobs.

it's great. blessed by allah. come back to the question about failure. now i've done very well. thank you very much. but in terms of what i care about, what i write about, what i campaign about, i'm a total failure. every issue that matters to me is a total failure. nothing i wrote or said stopped the iraq war in 2003. nothing i've done over the past 60 days in terms of arguing, writing pieces, tweeting, going on the radio, debating the israeli ambassador to london, blah, blah, blah, nothing stopped the siege on the people of gaza. i did a debate that some ofly have seen. it went viral. 1.6 million people watched it on youtube. didn't stop isis interest beh--

from beheading people. my friend said, you know what? if you changed all your views, your life would be so much more fulfilling. it's so true. you've got all these protests against austerity. governments are making cuts everywhere. record cuts. nothing works. and you asked about failure. that's the first thing i think of in a sense. how do i not go and self-harm. and get depressed when, you know, when you look at what you're fighting for, what you're standing for, what you're campaigning for, and i've stood on countless panels, countless conferences, and what is the visible change that we're making, you have to ask yourself, what are you learning from that failure? and i think the only thing i'm learning from that failure, and i can only speak for myself is that really there, you know, there is no endpoint to this

journey. what we are doing is the journey. where we're going is not necessarily we're trying to reach some light at the end of the tunnel. it's about every day. it's about the daily struggle. it's about the lifestyle. and it's about keeping doing what you're doing on a daily basis. and if you haven't got the results in this world, perhaps the next world, or perhaps the results will come in a few years' time, and that's what i would take from failure and say, it depends on how you measure the failure and not to connect it to your daily principles. people like mohammed ali, when they were giving up their belt and going to prison, they were a failure. he had lost in that fight. the american justice system had lost in their own way. i'm sure he didn't see it as a failure. that's what i would say about failure. we have to remind ourselves it is about sticking to your principles and thinking about the long game rather than the short game and it is about

recognizing there's not always going to be a victory at the end or light at the imd end of the tunnel. somebody's asked to me, what are three steps we can take together to improve our domestic issues' involve the in the next ten years. three steps in ten years. very organized. somebody from a business school or law school. not an art student. i'm sure there are dozens of steps in dozens of years. off the top of my head, i would say educate yourself. every islamic conference i go to people say education. i don't just mean get a medical degree or law degree, i mean, find out what is happening and in urso sigyour societies aroun.

how do you know what matters unless you are hereading magazines, watching the television screen. a lot of muslims read, we have 30 islamic channels in various languages. i'm not talk being about consuming things you agree with. i'm talking about what other people are saying what our opponents are say, what other communities are saying. as someone said, you don't know your own side of the argument until you know the other side of the argument. the views reflected are reflected of a very narrow, closed-mind-set from one particular article, one particular website. try to educate yourself as broadly as possible, otherwise you stand no chance. number two, i would say reach out, you know, how can you not, how can you know what's

important on a national or local level in you're only cloistered in your home or in your community. reach out and find out what is going on beyond your comfort zone. how do you know what the important issues are in your locality unless you're reaching out, unless you're making friends with non-muslims. scree-