Changing Islam's Perception in America - Haj Dawud Walid

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In Lectures

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

Transcript

[0:00]bismillah forever of him alhamdulillah hablale mean also that was salam ala

[0:07]sayyidina gonna be in a way habib anna muhammadan wha de la

[0:14]la vina adebolajo anymore it's over to her identity row brothers and

[0:22]sisters in islam assalamu alaikum first of all my pleasure to be

[0:27]here with you this evening and may allah bless each and every

[0:34]one of you and may he protect any of your family members

[0:37]and friends who are at hedge right now and may allah azzawajal

[0:47]accept their ciara and their hedge what i would like to do

[0:51]just very briefly before passing the mic to my colleague and friend

[1:02]steve is to try to paint a broader picture of what took

[1:04]place going back in time a little bit and then give a

[1:11]couple of suggestions to you all first of all what took place

[1:14]in sterling heights on sep tember the tenth was actually something very

[1:19]American it was something very American because if you understand the history

[1:25]of this country that this type of bigotry that's been that's been

[1:29]focused on the list minorities has always taken place this is the

[1:36]first thing understand that Catholics went through it for a very long

[1:41]time into recent American history Jewish Americans went through it for a

[1:47]long time even African Americans who started moving out into suburban areas

[1:53]opening up churches met the same type of opposition that our community

[1:57]just spaced September 10th hundreds of cases have taken place not just

[2:03]one or two that's why I say this is a very American

[2:07]situation that we've gone through is not something that is an anomaly

[2:12]this is why in September excuse me and the year 2000 there

[2:19]was a federal law that was passed called as normally termed ara

[2:26]lupa the religious land use and institutionalized person act that gave legal

[2:33]protection for houses of worship that we're opening up and that communities

[2:38]would try to block those houses of worship opening up using bogus

[2:43]claims such as traffic such as height that was invoked here and

[2:53]the most popular one is used as quote unquote changing the character

[2:58]of the community this is code language they say changing the character

[3:02]of the community it means basically there's a majority of people who

[3:05]live in a certain area and there's a minority group whose of

[3:10]a different race or ethnicity and sometimes different religion that they don't

[3:14]want in that community so this is code language this is the

[3:20]first thing second thing is these zoning cases have been taking place

[3:24]all throughout the United States of America in which organized opposition has

[3:32]stopped proposed Islamic centers and Islamic schools including here in the state

[3:39]of Michigan they have taken place in post 9-11 America more specifically

[3:45]they've taken place right in the city of sterling heights before this

[3:54]project there were no massage it in sterling heights just a few

[3:59]years ago in the year 2011 the organization i represent actually acted

[4:05]as legal counsel for the first message it built in the ground

[4:10]up and Sterling Heights called the American Muslim diversity Association the majority

[4:15]of people who prayed that mosque our son nice their national origin

[4:21]is from Bangladesh mean they're non arab the first mm of that

[4:30]mosque originates from South Africa whose ethnic background is Malaysian and many

[4:37]of the Muslims there are from a Sufi type of orientation that

[4:40]I did not what hobbies like Sophie's right and the same opposition

[4:46]from the chaldean and a Syrian community this very vocal group we

[4:53]won't say the majority but a very vocal group amongst them did

[5:02]the exact same thing in 2011 in 2012 that just took place

[5:07]to a icc is not new and in the same year in

[5:15]2011 going the two thousand twelve and thirteen there were similar opposition

[5:21]in Farmington Hills when the event when the Islamic Cultural Association tried

[5:26]to buy a school that was closed called the Eagle school the

[5:31]turn to a community center there were members of the Orthodox Jewish

[5:39]community that were joined by people in the chaldean community and did

[5:45]the exact same things they said the exact same stuff they brought

[5:51]up what's going on in Iraq they brought up al Qaeda because

[5:56]daya she wasn't as popular so it was a lotta that they

[6:02]brought up and they first brought up things about sleeper cells and

[6:08]all these things right then later on once they knew and figured

[6:14]out that this wasn't the proper language to use legally that could

[6:18]influence the Planning Commission because they can't vote down zoning for these

[6:24]things they start bringing up stuff like traffic and the changing the

[6:29]character of the neighborhood similar thing that happened to AIC this is

[6:35]actually something very organized there is a website and m-fer may online

[6:39]of how to stop a proposed mosque is online it has happened

[6:45]all across the country Murphysboro Tennessee is one of the most famous

[6:49]one CNN to this special on it was Soledad O'Brien I just

[6:54]left Murfreesboro uh about two and a half three weeks ago and

[6:58]I visited that community in which they had similar types of opposition

[7:03]and actually when they were building they had an arson attack in

[7:07]which some of the property and what was used to help to

[7:14]build the structure actually was burned they had a similar type of

[7:20]situation what makes this one a little different and what took place

[7:25]with the American Muslim diversity Association which actually care we have a

[7:31]presentation there tomorrow morning at ten a.m.

[7:34]from ten a.m.

[7:33]to one hour presenting aslam to fellow Americans workshop that we've done

[7:39]for the yma before in the past and Steve joined us with

[7:45]that before at the at the jamia years ago but what makes

[7:48]this different this situation and the one in 2011 is that the

[7:58]other massage it then faced opposition like in Warren Michigan before in

[8:02]Hazel Park with the Islamic Association of North America the Pittsfield Township

[8:06]issue with the islamic school being turned down for zoning murfreesboro tennessee

[8:13]in chicagoland in chicago illinois texas all throughout the country virginia in

[8:17]the richmond area where i grew up at all these cities in

[8:21]recent years have had similar issues what makes this different is that

[8:25]all of those opposition were majority white Americans were evangelicals when it

[8:33]came to the Sterling Heights issue in 2011-2012 and this one the

[8:41]majority opposition came from Chaldeans and Assyrians caldonian were the majority i

[8:46]say and i was out there and Samira correct me if I'm

[8:51]wrong I say ninety percent of those think of maybe 300 people

[8:57]were killed any people I was spit at as well they didn't

[9:00]like me at all actually one of them had the nervous say

[9:04]oh we're surprised at you you should have been on our side

[9:07]you're not one of them a jeep right that was said to

[9:13]me as a woman got in my face so this is what

[9:19]makes this different now we can talk against the bigotry but it's

[9:23]very important for us also to understand the roots of where this

[9:28]type of animus or animosity comes from okay because I believe there

[9:38]are two major reasons why people are sama folks the first reason

[9:48]is a minimum me neens solo wat ooh la la said and

[9:59]ness Ottawa magical ooh people are enemies of what they're ignorant of

[10:03]so many people who come in protest against Muslims they're just ignorant

[10:08]because all they've seen about muslimeen auntie or what they've seen on

[10:13]TV 911 and it's strange that you know that they even had

[10:16]this hearing for AICC the day the night before nine eleven anniversary

[10:24]they look at the timing right but if all people know about

[10:29]Muslims in Islam is 911 seeing TV of Paula ban al-qaeda boko

[10:38]haram al-shabaab in Somalia Sh and of course they're going to be

[10:46]scared if they don't have any interaction with Muslims so this is

[10:53]something that through interaction there's a chance of this type of animus

[11:01]being changed and Allah is the changer of hearts he can change

[11:06]people's hearts yeah Macaulay Bell Kaluga thibaud kalu boner alert articles adoro

[11:15]right so he's a change of the hearts so this is one

[11:19]group but this group doesn't apply to the Chaldeans because the county

[11:26]and people have always lived amongst mostly mean they lived amongst muslimeen

[11:36]the vice president of saddam Tareq Aziz was a Christian Saddam gave

[11:42]the money to the chaldean community to build was called the mother

[11:47]of god church in Oakland County as well as on 8 mile

[11:52]ice cube e 7 mile e 7 mile the chaldean community center

[11:55]Saddam gave them over a million dollars Saddam Hussein got the key

[12:01]to the city of Detroit when Coleman Young was the mayor of

[12:04]Detroit you didn't know that did you Saddam Hussein get the key

[12:06]to the city Saddam Hussein never gave any money to Muslims in

[12:13]America to build any msgs not obviously not Shaab even Atlas unda

[12:16]he never gave any money to establish a message but he gave

[12:22]money to Christians that's why some sunnies who I know make a

[12:26]joke and they called Saddam Saddam and thus Ronnie because he gave

[12:31]money the chaldean community right so they know Muslims and some of

[12:45]these chaldean people who were out there and I talked with some

[12:47]of them and had some interactions many of the people at Sterling

[12:50]Heights do not like the old chaldean community see there's different ways

[12:54]of Chaldeans there Chaldeans who came here after 1965 after the Civil

[12:58]Rights Act I mean even the Immigration Act of 1965 this is

[13:03]the 50th anniversary they came after 65 in the 60s and early

[13:05]70s then you have the group that came that with displaced from

[13:11]Desert Storm in the early 1990s which much of the Iraqis who

[13:15]are Shia came and during that time being displaced from Desert Storm

[13:19]now you have these new ones who are primarily resettled in sterling

[13:27]heights Chaldeans and the Syrians and after 2003 after the invasion of

[13:32]the American military in the British military in a drop and they

[13:37]were displaced they were kicked out of their homes and they didn't

[13:42]have malicious to protect him she I have malicious moqtada a southern

[13:50]and different Hakeem's group different malicious she I have malicious suna had

[13:55]their own lillix militias like Jason aksha Bandia in these different groups

[14:01]they had their militias and groups too and then also there was

[14:08]Al Qaeda there as well I never refer to a hobby terrorists

[14:10]as suddenly they're not so nice we shouldn't even say what hobbies

[14:14]are suddenly what hobbies are not so nice never say that the

[14:23]head of the medicine fokaha of atlas una in Iraq dr.

[14:28]Ahmed Al Qubaisi who Sonny said this himself he said don't call

[14:37]these people Sony's they're not so nice he gave feta Waka's diashow

[14:41]don't call them so nice anyway these chaldean brothers and sisters a

[14:48]Syrian brothers were kicked out of their lands churches burned down and

[14:52]Christians are almost extinct in Iraq this is a reality Christians are

[14:56]almost extinct so many of the people who live in sterling heights

[15:07]suffered deep psychological and emotional trauma they suffered trauma many of them

[15:18]have forms of post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD so we have to understand

[15:24]that when we deal with them in a minimum we need he

[15:26]talked about the concept or the spiritual trait of Tata thought of

[15:31]empathy so we have to understand and put cut put ourselves in

[15:38]their shoes of some of the pain that they may be feeling

[15:47]it doesn't justify the bigotry but it will inform of how we

[15:51]then can try to open up a discourse firstly with their leaders

[15:58]to get them to address the situation I believe that the chaldean

[16:02]community and some of the organizations did disservice to Chaldeans and the

[16:07]Syrians because those people who are resettled they were given housing English

[16:13]language classes but overall many of these refugees people came here they

[16:19]did not get proper therapy and mental health services to talk them

[16:24]through their pain and it's common amongst people who are abused especially

[16:29]like when we know this in psychology my father's a psychologist by

[16:33]the way Emel nephs my father has his PhD in psychology and

[16:39]specializes developmental psychology amongst children so he's told me that many time

[16:43]children who are abused either physically or sexually if they don't get

[16:51]long-term therapy for that they most likely percentage Lee will become abusers

[17:00]themselves by most people who are pedophiles the vast majority of pedophiles

[17:06]are people who themselves were victims of pedophilia so likewise I believe

[17:15]that there is a group of people in the community because they

[17:23]have not dealt with their trauma they are involved in what's called

[17:29]in psychology countertransference they are taking the pain that they suffered and

[17:35]are transferring it upon muslims in michigan who have nothing to do

[17:39]with what took place in iraq the Sterling Heights Community those poor

[17:43]Bangladeshis had nothing to do what's going on in Iran they might

[17:47]know outside of learning their outside knowing how to make salah they

[17:52]may only know five words of Arabic Quran f1 jazakallah heaven etc

[17:58]right don't even know Arabic much less the politics of Iraq they

[18:04]don't know ain't nothing to do with that AICC if memory serves

[18:08]me correctly and I remember what AICC was first started and I've

[18:14]spoken not not recently but in the opening years I used to

[18:17]go and speak there from time to time majority of people who

[18:22]pray there are lip nannying and Lebanese Americans nothing to do with

[18:27]what's going on in Iraq so this is a power thing in

[18:29]our activism we have to be sensitive and understand the points of

[18:32]contention so our leaders and even you when you are discussing these

[18:40]issues with them is to be sensitive about this at the same

[18:44]time we have to be very clear with them and in our

[18:52]discussions that Michigan is not Iraq as what was mentioned earlier there

[18:55]are people flying American Sign spitting and saying nasty things about Muslims

[19:02]singing god bless america the irony of it is most of what

[19:05]they were invoking had actually almost everything they said had nothing to

[19:10]do with sterling heights or America they were talking about it rock

[19:19]ok so the discussion has to be not centered on what's going

[19:23]on in Iraq but talking about how we are going to peacefully

[19:27]coexist it even at times if we're able to move from coexisting

[19:33]and tolerance to cooperation here in Michigan because it's about us having

[19:41]healthy communities here in Michigan and in sterling heights so Iran is

[19:47]not Michigan nor is Michigan erupt so it's the discussion about how

[19:52]are we going to live in a civil society as people living

[19:59]in Michigan I believe is the focus I also have to say

[20:02]this too I I think that some of us in the community

[20:06]have made also made a mistake in regards to talking to your

[20:08]own two Iraqis and I as i get older a some of

[20:14]you may have seen me tweet this or or you know i

[20:18]had to get off of facebook about three weeks ago i got

[20:20]tired of seeing dead Syrian children like it literally I had an

[20:32]anxiety attack and may allah help those innocent women and children from

[20:38]Syria who've been displaced by dodge it breaks my heart it really

[20:43]breaks my heart so we need to what one of the mistakes

[21:02]I've seen us do or some of us have done is saying

[21:09]well you know we the followers of Allah beta amo Saddam we

[21:22]have been persecuted by h2 and we are the primary ones hiding

[21:28]dash if the conversation about how we're going to live in Michigan

[21:36]is centered on what's going on in Iraq we lose as a

[21:44]community we lose and honestly speaking just as Muslims in Michigan sterling

[21:49]heights hat have nothing to do with dash Muslims and Sterling Heights

[21:54]have nothing to do with fighting die ich or protecting Christians in

[21:58]Iraq if we're going to be honest so we don't need to

[22:04]try to play this good Muslim bad Muslim card and guess what

[22:09]those Chaldeans and people in the Camino at those Chaldeans who were

[22:13]just push down muscle recently you know where they're at now and

[22:21]being protected there in the Kurdistan area of Iraq who are those

[22:24]kurti people who are fighting dials or Sudanese so the discussion about

[22:29]all we as flowers of a debate where the good muslims which

[22:33]infers that the sun needs are somehow connected aaj that's a bad

[22:38]talking point it's not a good talking point so what so if

[22:44]a icc were from angeles under they would have made it ok

[22:47]for the Chaldeans that set the same things and protested against the

[22:51]jam it of course not it wouldn't have made it right again

[22:58]if the primary focus of our conversation of trying to make things

[23:03]right with the chaldean community is focus on Iraq we lose as

[23:07]Muslims and they lose as chaldean Assyrians because then the healing process

[23:16]can't really come into full fullness of maturation if every time we

[23:21]talk it is the center thus in earnest of the conversation gets

[23:25]taken off of how we can live together in Michigan becomes a

[23:29]political debate about what takes place in Iraq we can twin brothers

[23:36]and sisters with the county and community on that ground also we

[23:40]as Muslims the different schools of thought in different ethnicities and you

[23:46]know that a few months ago I gave a talk about ethnic

[23:50]relations and race relations in the Muslim community with sister Rasheeda to

[23:54]lab and say it Hassan and myself we talked about race relations

[24:03]race relations and also cooperation amongst Muslims of different school of thought

[24:06]is very important and I'm not sure whether there was outreach and

[24:16]I'm just I know I have to keep it 100 keep it

[24:17]real so it's excuse me this is not meant to be offensive

[24:22]but if the brothers and sisters from AICC didn't reach out to

[24:25]the sunny brothers who went through the exact same thing to the

[24:31]zoning I thought they could just do it on their own without

[24:32]getting the advice of the brothers that was a big that would

[24:36]have been a big mistake of that wasn't done i don't know

[24:38]if that wasn't done or not but if there was a conversation

[24:43]between the brothers and sisters establishing a icc to understand the landscape

[24:49]and the pitfalls if there was no discussion between the Sun and

[24:53]the Shia in sterling heights before project together that was a mistake

[24:57]we have to talk amongst each other as Muslims to at the

[25:03]other day the anti-muslim bigots don't care about med hub and they

[25:08]don't care about ethnicity or national origin whether you're zaidi or jaffery

[25:13]or hanafi or shafi'i or whether your roots come from Lebanon Bangladeshis

[25:21]Sudan to the isama folks where uma to noir he there were

[25:25]one community in the heavy humor to come over to watch it

[25:31]that when I become fat bald on the Quran says that he

[25:32]liked the bigots see us more as one oma than we see

[25:38]ourselves as one houma la hora de la cuenta la bella hey

[25:44]la Li la team I know I mean you know this is

[25:45]this is the truth brothers and sisters so we have to get

[25:51]our way to get our own x together as muslims and these

[25:56]issues are going to happen again this isn't the last time this

[25:58]is going to happen it's going to happen somewhere else we try

[26:04]to establish another message so we need and care we're doing this

[26:08]going to community talk about best practices when opening up Islamic schools

[26:13]and massage it because we've seen this so many times we've litigate

[26:17]this in court we've we've intervene between communities to have discussions so

[26:24]that is the groundwork or behind this or some of the landscape

[26:31]from my perspective and may allah azzawajal forgive me if I said

[26:40]anything incorrect and may you pardon me if I said anything that

[26:44]came across harsh but just as much as we're against bigotry and

[26:49]that we have to empathize with other people's pain we have to

[26:57]organize and get our X together as Muslims well on a beam

[26:59]we're not we're not together the way that we're supposed to be

[27:07]and we pay the consequences for our disunity as muslimeen and mostly

[27:14]met with that I will pass the microphone over to Steve's Pricer

[27:22]salam ha madura Mohammed

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