Changing Islam's Perception in America - Brother Steve Spreitzer

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In Lectures

Recorded 9/18/2015 at the WISE Academy in Dearborn Heights, MI

Transcript

[0:00]hello a lot of new faces some old faces and the daughter

[0:05]of a old friend Jenna its dad is Dan necklet as an

[0:11]old friend so how cool to see you dr.

[0:14]Martin Luther King peace be upon him said that he wasn't worried

[0:17]about the words of his enemies he was worried about the silence

[0:21]of his friends and so I want you to know that um

[0:26]as an ally to the Muslim community I'm 25 years or so

[0:32]that there are a lot of allies there are a lot of

[0:34]people who've had opportunity to experience shlom about Islam through the lives

[0:43]of your parents and through the many Muslims that have come before

[0:49]you so there is a good number of people who care about

[0:51]what's going on in sterling heights right now and we're working together

[0:56]to figure out how to be helpful encouraging the Catholic bishop to

[1:04]speak to the chaldean bishop working with the chambers of commerce so

[1:09]there are multiple levels where people are acting on this nothing's going

[1:14]to happen fast because as Dawood spoke this is bisko's deep and

[1:18]it hurts deep my Muslim friends so amana Achmed was with her

[1:24]on Monday we have a group in plymouth canton called the Beloved

[1:27]Community and we worked to help change the hearts and minds that

[1:31]people so that community treats people better basically and it's taken after

[1:35]dr.

[1:36]Martin Luther King's teachings on the Beloved Community but omnes from Pakistan

[1:41]and what happened in sterling heights was like a knife through her

[1:46]heart and I think that's the case for many Muslims this is

[1:52]going deep and so my sympathies to you I feel horrible about

[1:54]it I hurt about it too and I'm not a Muslim but

[2:01]I am in solidarity with you is interesting a gentleman told me

[2:06]or a person told me Steve you're white like I needed to

[2:12]be reminded he said why are you stay for the Muslims because

[2:15]he read something I wrote in the Free Press or something and

[2:17]you don't have to why are you with them and and it

[2:25]was like wow because it was racist and it was bigoted because

[2:29]Islam essentially is a religion of people of color for the most

[2:35]part and so when you run into bigots who don't like anybody

[2:37]who's different and that's about fifteen percent of the population you get

[2:41]a double whammy as Muslims and I think it's important now and

[2:47]I'm rambling I didn't prepare any remarks i was listening to out

[2:50]da mood and listening to you so when I I'll keep this

[2:53]short but if there are questions but what we know a couple

[2:59]things I'm glad you pointed out that it is a small bow

[3:01]sybaris loud minority of the community that has the microphone now that

[3:07]is causing all kinds of problems and even though there will be

[3:13]efforts to help them move to a better place the likelihood of

[3:17]these perpetrators healing of getting because of what they have is crystallized

[3:22]anger some of you have studied in your psychology classes even in

[3:26]high school the stages of grief and and and i think as

[3:32]is humbling part about it for all of us is we're going

[3:35]to be hurt by people and we're going to have to forgive

[3:37]we're gonna have to get through our anger and so one of

[3:41]those things this does is brings a cause for introspection like we'll

[3:44]wait a minute who and a nun far be it for me

[3:49]to tell you people of faith about that but it leads you

[3:50]to kind of ask who have i not forgiven who am i

[3:54]still angered about because if you don't deal with your anger it

[3:57]crystallizes and it becomes poisonous and i think that's what we're seeing

[4:00]with these folks so thanks for pointing that out so there's there's

[4:06]a number of types of bigots rate being raised in isolation that's

[4:11]the story of southeast michigan is segregation many people are raised and

[4:15]they don't know a muslim they don't know anyone of another race

[4:18]seventy-five percent of people in southeast Michigan who are white don't have

[4:22]a relationship with anyone who's african-american just as an example most of

[4:27]them don't know any Muslims and so in the back of the

[4:32]day we would say that's excuse me for that term now we

[4:36]say those people our development Lee just delayed so you have a

[4:40]bunch of people who have gone through their formative years and don't

[4:43]have a meaningful relationship with people who are different so they don't

[4:48]have the skills to engage now most of those people through relationships

[4:54]will come to a be okay those that has anyone studied attachment

[4:58]theory it's a field of psychology adult attachment theory basically it says

[5:02]that the way you're parented will affect how you act we know

[5:04]that in the first couple years there was a psychology psychiatry stin

[5:11]Britain Neil bowl bowl be dr.

[5:13]Bobby studied the impact of maternal deprivation on infants so during world

[5:17]war two a lot of children were in hospitals moms were hurt

[5:21]they were born but they were separated from their parents and their

[5:23]moms especially and that he studied what happened when kids were raised

[5:30]away from their parents he noticed that they had difficulty form attachments

[5:34]they had difficulty bonding they had difficulty taking risks and moving out

[5:40]and getting to know someone who's different so the adult attached is

[5:44]how that plays out today and basically if you're parented by someone

[5:49]who's harsh there's no justice in the family your kid who's abused

[5:54]you're going to end up having very difficult time forming attachments right

[5:58]same thing is if you have a parent that's laissez-faire or it

[6:02]doesn't allow you to form internalize a strong parental dimension of your

[6:07]personality you two are going to have trouble enough of that but

[6:11]basically there are fifteen percent of the population are that way and

[6:14]these are people that are bigots they don't like anybody interesting that

[6:18]the ISP you study the Institute for Social Policy understanding study the

[6:22]voting records of legislators in the state and state legislatures and national

[6:28]and they looked at how they voted there are a group of

[6:35]them 15% ironically don't like who didn't by the way they voted

[6:39]against the Sharia laws voting rights for people of color LGBT laws

[6:44]women's reproductive rights immigration law they are like six issues this group

[6:50]of legislators fifteen percent of them voted on all six of them

[6:53]you know they were expressing their dislike for all six populations so

[6:59]the reality is the good news is that's fifteen percent the challenging

[7:03]news is that there's about seventy percent of the population that are

[7:07]in this middle so to use attachment theory there's this sort of

[7:10]like a bell-shaped curve you got people who got it together you

[7:13]got the people don't and they got the people in the middle

[7:15]and I think that's the target here I don't i don't think

[7:19]that group darling heights or it's going to the chaldean community that's

[7:23]in pain it's gonna be a long time before they come around

[7:26]if ever in Christian scripture they talk about shaking the dust from

[7:29]your feet you keep trying you keep trying you keep knocking on

[7:33]the door of your neighbor and at some point you just have

[7:35]to move on but I think the opportunity here is to and

[7:40]I've said this plenty of times and God forgive me for saying

[7:43]this but to that we need more Muslims to be ambassadors the

[7:48]world is and you guys have been doing this especially since nine

[7:52]eleven 2001 some Muslims are been everywhere but how you figure out

[7:56]a campaign to help the world know about you I think and

[8:01]I've said this before as well but Christians are interesting because they

[8:05]think the cousins the Jewish community they think they're like connected to

[8:09]the Jewish community but only in their mind because in the Jewish

[8:12]community the Christians there is no connection Jesus is their story and

[8:16]here are the Christians thinking we've got the Old Testament the New

[8:19]Testament and we're a family with the Jews now that's in your

[8:23]my family and it's kind of sad because there is a kinship

[8:25]but and the Christian tradition is based on the Hebrew Scriptures the

[8:30]same thing with Islam though because you are people of the book

[8:34]and you speak of the cousins and you know that you probably

[8:36]know the Christian scripture better than most Christians truth be told because

[8:39]it's part of to be a good Muslim you have to know

[8:43]it but Christians don't feel any kinship toward Islam you are this

[8:47]foreign group the reality is in what in the United States needs

[8:50]Islam more than they know you guys you guys through your practice

[8:56]of Islam bring to the United States a completion it really is

[9:00]a completion you you help honor Christianity and Judaism and I don't

[9:05]mean to be patronizing but having I was studying to be a

[9:09]priest I work for the catholic church for years and I'm a

[9:11]student of religions and the impact of Islam in the west and

[9:16]the impact of Islam and Christianity is a very helpful influence most

[9:19]people though they just don't know it so your very presence here

[9:21]is a good thing the problem is while it's a good thing

[9:26]and we need Islam to flourish and as you are a lot

[9:30]of people don't appreciate it or even know it so it's a

[9:32]thankless kind of presence to be practicing your faith in a place

[9:36]where people don't even respect you and are antagonistic toward you but

[9:39]it isn't that moment that um that I think we're in a

[9:42]moment now there's an extra time for um to be communicated in

[9:47]the West as you're being / q tada I mean you don't

[9:49]have to try it or fake it it's just it's like the

[9:53]l aslam mosque in hamtramck in 2004 i wanna spend golly i

[9:59]wanted to broadcast the adhan in hamtramck and of course being that

[10:02]in Islam it means to be a good neighbor they went and

[10:06]asked the mayor and correct me if I got this wrong if

[10:08]they could can we broadcast the call to prayer they didn't need

[10:12]to ask the Catholics were ringing their bells were all these years

[10:14]in hamtramck they didn't even have permission they had privilege and power

[10:18]but then the Muslims at the Bengali Muslims at Isla on it

[10:22]to broadcast and so they asked for permission and that's when they

[10:25]said well we can't let them do that and so they put

[10:27]it up for a vote and sowed I would I think you

[10:30]were with us at the time and so we started to organize

[10:34]in hamtramck and we got the black church which is as a

[10:36]historic black community I'm trimming we got the Catholic community and the

[10:40]Muslim community and they started working together becoming friends and and going

[10:45]out and rather than protesting a call to prayer they called it

[10:48]a call to bear gifts a call to become friends and the

[10:52]vote was taken and two out of every three people in hamtramck

[10:55]voted to allow the adhan to be broadcast it's funny because by

[11:00]making it legal now the Catholics weren't breaking the law is funny

[11:04]but the mayor was given she was ahead of city council mayor

[11:06]my you she was given the key to the amplification box inside

[11:10]the mosque in case the adhan was too loud because it was

[11:14]just we want to be good neighbors I mean just there's so

[11:18]much about Islam that the West needs to know and here's an

[11:21]opportunity for you to continue to just to be fed here to

[11:27]to learn and to be become strong so you can go out

[11:31]now that could look like a lot of things but I'm working

[11:33]on a project with the Michigan Muslim community council and some of

[11:37]the Muslim leaders for allies to fight Islamophobia and I know that

[11:40]mazama Achmed dr.

[11:42]Ahmed and the MMC see with care and others are working as

[11:48]you said to order them get an order within Islam so you

[11:50]guys can be having one message so you might not know this

[11:54]that there are these campaigns both with in sterling heights and in

[11:57]the broader area how do we attack Islamophobia and I I'm sorry

[12:00]for going too long here I hope I haven't as that would

[12:05]said confuse anybody or not made sense because it's just I'm just

[12:09]speaking from how I'm what I'm thinking right now so I'm going

[12:13]to stop and and just if there's any questions but I'll give

[12:18]it to me salam how much you

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