Islam and Muslims in the world with Imam Ishaq Abdul Hafiz

Homeboy Homeboy Homeboy Homeboy Brothers, there's only one blood Cause there ain't no sense in us Traveling on the stones It's us, down, down to the bone Blood is thick Waters were known well Cousins were kept apart Mothers were often memories Fathers were not favorites on the farm For he could do some harm He could wreck them after skiing For he, brothers, could dream Homeboy Your mama ain't no saint Your daddy died on a shallow stream But your uncle, Dr. King Did have a dream, my brother And what is your real excuse Why can't you study your lessons And stay in school Why can't you study your lessons And stay in school School Free love And sex ain't nothing but a game Don't never last Try hope Take a chance on love Register to vote Money ain't everything But you can buy Homeboy by Sunchi Ali Buy you a record of a yard bird with me Welcome to the Comram Report May the peace and blessings of the life-giving creative spirit Be upon you and upon your family My name is Melvin Ishmael Johnson Coming at you live from Skid Row Studios And I'm in the studio with my co-host Earlene Anthony I'll call in numbers 1-800-893-9562 Now this week on the Comram Report We have in the studio Our guest host Al-Hajj Muhammad Abdullah With a special guest And he's going to discuss Islam And Muslims in the world Welcome to the Comram Report Now before we get into our discussion I have on the line My brother Rashad Waleed Muhammad Calling from Boston, California Rashad, Salaam-Alaikum Walaikum-Salaam Wa-Rach-Mu-Tula Wa-Rach-Mu-Tula Alhamdulillah How things going? Alhamdulillah Everything is going alright By the will of Allah Alhamdulillah Hey, do they have an Islamic community up there in Boston? How is it up there? Well, there's no Islamic community in Boston At the moment and everything You know, as far as I can see I haven't ran into Very few Muslims up here I haven't ran into any really Yeah, they don't have a masjid Or anything like that No, nothing like that It's a smaller city Some cities Don't have a smaller Community Or no community And some cities are big That have too many Masjids In one city Yeah Yeah And I know how it is In Boxer Out there in the desert Because when I was in the Marines I was stationed pretty close I know it got to be hot out there now Yeah Yeah, y'all Well, today we The last couple of days We've been having some rain up here You know And so it's been kind of cooled down The wind blows a lot up this way You know Yeah It seems like it's a little quiet town And everything, you know Yeah And I was I was talking to Down home today In Greenville, Mississippi Mom's told me it was over Like 105 Something like that Down there 115 Yeah, she said 105 Yeah 115 Yeah And that's burning up in the desert But I mean in the Delta But it's a little cool So what do you want to say to Greenville And the family down there in the Delta? Well, I want to tell Greenville That I always be a Mississippi You know I want to And I have to tell my family You know I will always love them Physically and spiritually Yes And that I'm blessed And thankful To be able to come through the family That I came through I'm so glad And all the teaching And all the teaching And everything that I got From my mother and father You know That I carry with me today Yes You know And because you I see a different face You're a military veteran too You Was in the Air Force Yeah Yeah Yeah Oh yes I stayed in the Air Force For four years Yeah I was old Yeah When I tell people That out of our family With seven males And two females That six of six Served in the military They are surprised You know Three of us Was in the Army You and Fred Was in the Air Force And I was in the Marines Oh yeah That's real You know That one of those times You know We didn't know A lot of stuff What we know now Yeah You know So at the moment You know We was just Trying to be the best Americans That we could be Yeah You know Still try to be that Since we had America You have to Obey the laws of America Since we're here Yeah Like Some Muslims You know When they migrate here And everything You know They bring along Their ethnic with them You know Yes So that's why A lot of my years Be full of ethnics And not just Muslims You know You got Arab leads And all the other kind of Disunity Yeah When you're supposed to be When you're supposed to be Just Muslim Yeah Don't carry a title Yeah Don't carry a title Or be part of a sect Yeah We're gonna We're gonna talk a little about That today Alright then Look Hey How's Aleman I'm doing She's doing fine She's doing fine By the will of Allah Beautiful Because I know You're just finishing up Ramadan And all of that Oh yes He is Yeah Alright then So good to holler at you Looking forward to you Come through Los Angeles Looking forward to it By the will of Allah Be there soon Alhamdulillah Salaam Alaikum Alright Walaikum Salaam Yes Okay Thank you Rashad Waleed Muhammad My brother Out there in Boxer, California Now at this time I'd like to turn it over To our guest host Alhaj Muhammad Abdullah And he will make The introduction Bismillah Alhamdulillah Bismillah Al Rahman Al Rahim As-Salaam Alaikum Al-Salaam Al-Salaam Eid Mubarak Eid Kareem Eid Mubarak Eid Kareem Kareem Kareem Kareem By the grace and mercy of Allah With the honored guest Imam Ishaq Abdul Hafiz Inshallah And the topic being Islam and Muslims in the world I would like to ask the Imam In regards to the Eid And its significance And then inshallah For those who don't know about Eid al-Fitr In regards to the end of Ramadan As-Salaam Alaikum Al-Salaam Alaikum Al-Salaam Alaikum Al-Salaam Alaikum Al-Salaam Alaikum Al-Salaam Alaikum Al-Salaam Alaikum Alhamdulillah Praises be to Allah The God the most merciful The beneficent And peace and blessings Be upon his prophet Muhammad And all of the prophets May Allah's peace and blessings Be upon them Their families Companions And those that follow them In righteous intentions As you just articulated We as Muslims Throughout the world Have just completed The fasting For the sacred month Of Ramadan And at the conclusion of that Is the Eid Or the celebration Called Eid al-Fitr Which is the Eid Of the month of Ramadan And the Eid Of the month of Ramadan Is the month of Eid Of the month of Ramadan And this is the celebration That the month has completed And Muslims celebrate Collectively Throughout the world Thanking Allah That we were able To be so blessed During the month of Ramadan Is the most blessed month For 30 29 to 30 Consecutive days That Muslims Not only abstain From eating And drinking Of liquids And foods And other relationships In the day hours But also From seeking forgiveness Not only From God But also From the people Of the world But forgiveness Of each other Forgiveness Of those Who have possibly Wronged them It is a month Full of blessings And for whatever act That one does That is good Then the Prophet May Allah Spend blessings upon him And say The Muslim world Receive The ten rewards For every act Of goodness That one does And so It's a month Full of persons Looking out And seeking To increase You know Their blessings You know You get You get You get You get to the poor, to the homeless, to the needy, that we who can be able to find food at the end of this month don't want to forget those who at the end of it continually don't have things to eat, who don't have their basic needs. And so it tries to inculcate on a global level Muslims to have compassion and care and empathy for the poor and to continually to do something for them and to have an outcome. Like I said, when Ramadan is over, we want to be invigorated and mobilized to get actively involved in the community and to be out and caring for others. So hopefully that is one of the things we will see here locally as well as globally, the Muslims to get out and put their hands together with those who are going through struggles and difficulties. Praise be to Allah. By the grace and mercy of Allah, in regards to the emphasis that's being placed on a lot of violence, that's going on here and abroad, I want to touch on first the recent election of Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari. Muhammad Buhari is the President of Nigeria and he just came to meet with President Barack Obama and one of the key topics they spoke about is Boko Haram and the transgressions that have been going on. And from the criterion of Islam, we see that this behavior, of kidnapping women, girls, and killing people, etc., would you elaborate on how is it that people continue to say that these are Muslims when this is contrary to the criterion of Islam? You know, that is the propaganda of those that want to try to disparage the faith of Islam by knowingly acknowledging that anyone that commits acts so heinous and so, inhumane, you know, these acts that this, it's occurring in Nigeria as well as other places, any brutality that includes civilians and women and children and the elderly, destruction of land, these are things that are so adverse to Islam and that is absolutely clear. For Islam is a religion, not only a religion of peace, but it's a religion that people believe in God and godliness is something that's clearly, it's clearly from that which is wicked and evil. And so to associate in any way these types of behaviors is only that that can be perpetrated, you know, by those who want to cast Islam in this disparaging way by identifying these persons as Muslim extremists. And these people have no connection to Islam whatsoever. These are just brutal persons who, you know, in their own mind, they want to take over and control through fear, and brutality, because it's the only good that comes out of what they're doing is to brutalize and to put fear in other villagers and other persons in the smaller communities so that they can intimidate and to oppress. And Islam is against oppression. And this is why the challenges for Muslims to live this faith in a participatory kind of a way that makes it absolutely clear. And this is one of the beautiful things about Muslims in America, through the different charitable organizations and the different agencies, and entities that go to all over the world trying to make sure that they can feed the poor and do for others. Even down south where the black churches have been set ablaze, Muslims have raised over $100,000 to help to rebuild. You know, but this is not in the news. This is not spoken of. But if a person who has any inkling connection with Islam through a name, his name is Arabic or something, and he does something horrific or horrendous, then this is all publicized about, you know, Islamically is being done. Whereas when these same kind of acts are done by others, whatever the religion is, it's not ever associated or affiliated with this kind of madness and things. But again, it just puts the challenge upon us even more to clearly articulate what is Islam and what is not Islam. Again, you cannot be a God-fearing person. And one who is aspiring and aspirations is to be rewarded by God going to heaven to do these types of acts that are clearly the work of devil, you know, and that are evil. And Muslims believe in, I mean, good is real and bad is real. Evil is real. And, you know, to counter that, we must establish, you know, through our interaction with each other and our relationships with each other to really accentuate the best, you know, in mankind. And this is what the Quran continually calls us to. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. To be the best, you know. And also in regards to what's taking place in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Now here Marines have been murdered by reportedly underprivileged Marine and his name Muhammad Yusuf Abdulaziz. And what amazes me is that how is that immediately people's names can become up and then this history and then to, you know, you know, you know, kill combat soldiers and simultaneously equate that with terrorism, et cetera. And then, as you alluded to earlier, like in regards to the Christians in Columbia, South Carolina, where nine people were killed in a place of worship, in church, and multiple people wounded. And the director of the FBI was questioning the press conference, and said, well, this is not terrorism. How do you address that when you're disseminating information to the people to show how Muslims are characterized immediately in a negative manner when others are doing things, and they don't say, okay, these are adherents to Judaism, these are adherents to Christianity, Buddhism, et cetera? Yeah, these are the things that we are confronted with. Just as when these acts happen, you know, the whole Muslim community is, for some reason, is ostracized, or we have to sometimes place in a position as if we have to apologize for acts that, in the first place, are not good for the community. And this is what individuals do. And this is nothing new for us as African Americans, because we historically have always had to apologize for something that was allegedly done by one of the persons in our community. You know, going back even to slavery. If someone was raped, or if something happened to somebody, they could grab any African American and burn them or lynch them. The whole community had to, you know, take on this guilt. Somebody, you know, from those periods of time to this day, an act can occur. And I hope... I hope that the whole community has to have this communal guilt. And that same now thing is applying to Muslims. You know, this young person, it appears from his family that he had mental problems. He's having alcohol problems, drug problems. I mean, there's many things that was possibly behind this particular behavior. As we're seeing these kind of shootings happening across this country. And when the other persons are, you know, whatever their faith or their family's faith is, that's never brought into the picture. But when it comes to a person from an Islamic family, had any inklings or any connections with Islam, then these kind of things are attributed, you know, to the faith or attributed to the community. And this is totally, you know, unfair. You know, we as a people who live in this society, and even not only living in this society, we're for good in all societies. I mean, we don't want to see any brutality perpetrated on anyone, you know, as Muslims. That's how we carry this. You know, that's just in reality. And we feel for the families of the soldier. We feel for the families of the law enforcement. We feel the families of the innocent victims that are killed by law enforcement. I mean so our, you know, perspective and our role is to stop the madness and to try to be – create – reconcile circumstances and situations. One of the most beautiful things that we try to do as Muslims is to establish mechanisms for there to be reconciliation. Just like what we saw that happened in – Liberia and then Sierra Leone after they had these conflicts, what we saw happen in South Africa. These are the kind of things that are going to be needed, you know, and continue to be needed, you know, even here with our struggles that we see with our young people in these cities that have these conflicts and these killings and these murders, is that more and more we have to teach them about forgiveness and about how to sit down and to be able to come to a common ground and a common nality that we as human beings cannot kill each other off, that we have to live in this world together, inshallah. Okay, excuse me. By the grace of God, one of the key things, too, I've been really evaluating on, and that is the conscious behavior that Saudi Arabia is doing in Yemen. And at the various masajid, I never hear in the khutbah, nobody talk about Saudi Arabia's transgression. They're talking about the aggression against the fellow Muslim brethren in Yemen. How is it that they can be and feel justified in doing what they're doing and they are regarded as custodians over Mecca and Medina? You know, these are the, you know, contradictory realities and the hypocrisy that we see. Oftentimes, because of politics, people are afraid to speak out. Again, we go back to what Islam is about, and we're, you know, individuals as well as collectively in joining the right and forbidding the wrong. Even if that's against ourself, even if that's against, you know, our families, that's against our nation, if wrong is done, we should be able to speak out against that wrong. And what we aren't seeing is the, you know, Muslim community and Muslim leadership, or persons who consider themselves leaders, not speaking out against this wrong. You absolutely are correct. What the Saudis are doing is not being the bridge and finding reconciliation. What the Yemenis are doing is not being the bridge and finding reconciliation with the Yemenis that are having this conflict. They jumped in it, and now they are perpetuating, you know, some brutal things that are happening to citizens, to innocent civilians. And this is being reported by all of the media. I mean, it's no secret that many, many innocent persons, women and children, and elderly persons are being killed and murdered in these different, you know, conflicts. And it's all, you know, generated and based on nothing but somebody trying to uphold, an individual who's a friend of theirs, you know, not about right and wrong, not about finding what is the base cause of the disturbance among the Yemeni people that can bring about, you know, reconciliation. It's one of the beautiful things that I was reading recently that's happening in Afghanistan is that Sheikh Omar, the former, the leader of the Taliban, is now sitting down and talking with the current Afghan government because they know that there has to be reconciliation. Actually, conflicts. They're not going on forever and ever. You know, when people come of good mind and righteous mind, and they really act upon their faith, they're going to look for ways, not that I'm going to beat you down, but how can we sit at the table and share in the responsibility of our society and our country and our people. And it's just sad that, and this is why, you know, as Muslims, we don't follow people just because they are, you know, from the Middle East or just because they're, you know, from Saudi Arabia, and they're supposed to be the custodians of the two holy sacred sites that Jinnah is from. And it's just in and of that makes them and whatever they do good and right. No. And the beauty of being in America, we can speak out against that. You know, we can challenge that and not feel that, you know, we can be, you know, discriminated against or be attacked for that, you know. And if so, then let that be. But we at least have the opportunity to voice, you know, this truth. And, you know, one of the sayings of the prophet is that one of the sayings of faith is that you have to believe in God. Is that if you say you believe in God, you believe in God. Is that if you say you believe in God, you believe in God. see a wrong and you have the ability and the mechanism to remove it with your hand and you remove it if you don't have the ability to remove with your hand then you speak out against it if you don't have the ability to speak out against it then hate it in your heart and the weakest of faith but still faith is to hate it in your heart when you have the ability to speak it speak out against wrongs and injustices in particular when it comes from high places when they come from powerful and mighty people then you want to be able to do that and this is one of the beautiful things about this program and about you know i know your work uh over the years is that when there's wrong and then there's injustices you know you speak out against that and and you challenge that and this is what we must continue to do and this is what we must inculcate in our youth is to speak out against wrong and to speak out against that which is not correct and to try to stand up on the principles of righteousness and goodness because when we see society's not doing this then how can we ask for the young kids on the streets not to be gangbanging you you know if the government in the country can have flybys then how you can tell somebody not to have a drive-by you know when they see that you aren't sitting down and and talking things out then it trickles down like they always say the best you know people don't do what they hear they do what they see you do and so to to be the best example is that we must lead by example also i uh we're also in regards to the nations and with the uh leadership and president's of obama has uh initiated in regards to the islam republic of iran and uh the uh nuclear deal that was just made and also uh the reassurance of the apartheid state of israel and saudi arabia in their fee of the islam republic of iran now how is it that as it says in politics they are strong you know has strange bed fellows here's the apartheid state of israel in saudi arabia in collusion with one another again so so of Israel and Saudi Arabia in collusion with one another against the Islamic Republic of Iran and always using the premise that one is Sunni and Shia, etc. How do you address that in regards to people knowing what is, as you point out, in regards to even with the apartheid state of Israel, but Dr. Ben-Nudu, he points out that Israel has nuclear weapons, but nobody talks about their nuclear weapons. Exactly. And this is the thing that's unfair, especially when it comes to nations. Every nation has its right to be able to defend itself and to have its own self-determination. No nation, no matter how large or mighty it is, should have the authority to tell a smaller nation that you can't do what I do. And this is sometimes what comes out. One of the things I must commend our President Obama about, though, is that even when he had his first term. He spoke that he wanted to have engagement with the Islamic Republic of Iran. He wanted to have engagement with Cuba. He wanted to have engagement with these nations that have been on the surface enemies. And I thought that that was a bold move. It's taken him eight years, but for him to continue to fulfill that obligation. And again, what else, as he said, what is the alternative? You can't keep fighting fights and wars with everybody. It has to come a time where you have to find common ground. Even with those that are your enemy, where there's commonality, let's be civil. And we see that same situation when it comes to Russia, the USSR. The U.S. has a relationship with Russia. They have a relationship with China. They have a relationship with many others that are considered their enemy on certain levels. So why not with Cuba? Why not with the Islamic Republic of Iran? Who was one of the best friends of the United States. Before 1979, the Iranian people didn't change. They didn't change their religion. They were Muslims when the Shah was alive. And it was the number one partner with the United States on so many levels. But when they became more independent and said, we didn't want you to house your spying entities and things from our country onto Russia, because Russia is our neighbor. We didn't want to be on the front line of your stuff. Then all of a sudden, you became. The pariah of the world. And this whole thing on that they support terrorism. Who's calling? Who can throw stones when it comes to any of these nations on the politics and the war machinery that they all are involved in? It's like they should just stop it. I mean, really, I mean, to be that they treat the citizenry of the world as if we all are ignorant. All of them are involved in doing something. And that's, you know, supporting some cause that somebody else can call that group of terrorists outside of your own group and things, you know. So to just try to use that as an excuse to hold Iran back, you know, is ludicrous. And again, what is the alternative? You know, and hopefully we will see this further acting upon it. Even Israel, you know, talking tough on one hand. And they, too, know the reality. I heard. A report yesterday that the military and the secret services of Israel know this is the best deal that's on the table. And they got to play this political thing with the citizenry and acting like, oh, they're really against it and this and that. And they know, you know, you take this or what's the alternative? You know. And then again, for the world, we cannot continue to see this bloodletting. I mean, it breaks my heart to see the conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis. Sixty years of bloodletting. And these are people that consider themselves, you know, and it's not, you know, they all consider themselves religious. But where is the religion? And when the rest of the world, the Christian majority of the world, where are they in stopping this kind of madness? You know, the land is not even that large for them to be in this kind of a conflict for this kind of period of time. So, again, you know, good people must continually challenge these persons behind the scenes who are prophet. And I think that's what's so amazing. Because there's a lot of profit being made in order, you know, to castigate one against the other, you know. And then just as you mentioned, like with the Saudis, I mean, all of the weaponry that they're buying, all of the hardware, war machinery that they're buying for all of these last 20 to 30 years being manipulated, you know. And it's just, it's just, if that could be used more for the development of their society, you know. And for the world. And for the rest of that part of the world. Everybody could be living almost on a middle class level in that part of the world. And more things they could be able to do for other places in Africa and other third world countries with the funds that there's behind more jets and more bombs and more missiles just because they use those on the surface that Iran is a threat. Stop it. Stop it. I was reflecting also in regards to Islamic education. And I always think about when Malcolm X, when he made Hajj. And then he brought back scholarships. And for brothers to go to study. Now, how do you see and also, and how do you benefit and how is it that can, how is it that it can be institutionalized to develop Islamic learning in the educational institutions here in America, specifically high schools and community colleges and universities? You know, one of the wonderful things that with this electronical. Ability now and smart equipment learning, you don't have to go overseas as we once had to do. As you mentioned, when Malcolm went overseas, he opened up some avenues, particularly for African-Americans that we never had had before to have scholarships going to study in Egypt to go study in the Sudan, as well as in Saudi Arabia. And I know many Americans who have gone to study in Yemen and when they studied in Syria. So there's all of the major. Universities where Islamic knowledge was today. One doesn't have to do that because the learning can be done online on Skype, even with a live professor or live teacher. Quran studies and things beginning even at elementary levels. I know that there are chronic classes being done right now with little children over the Internet with a live teacher. And many of them are learning, you know, to memorize the whole Quran. You get information about Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam through Islam even though it's a wonderful thing to go to historical sites, just to see, you know, the historical places where the battles took place or where, you know, the prophets actually walked and where they, you know, journeyed and things is a wonderful addition. But the actual learning process now is available here and is being generated towards our youth. And there are many young American young people born here, children of Muslims who are getting this education, getting this knowledge. And I think we're going to really see a difference. You know, just as we, one of the things I know last time when I was here and we spoke about my becoming a Muslim and when I was in college, one of the things I didn't get to touch upon was when I came into the knowledge that not only that Africa, you know, 70% was Muslim, but that from the Sangha dynasty and from when Mansa Musa made pilgrimage, 10 years after he made pilgrimage, the gifts that he gave away had devalued. You know, let's say that the economy going across the whole desert. And when you had the universities of Timbuktu and you had the universities in Morocco and the universities in Tunis and the universities in Cairo, learning that because the story had been the reason we were enslaved was because, you know, we were heathens and that they were trying to humanize us because we were savages. I think when you find out that Islam had universities and they had magnificent cities and the businesses that was all through West Africa, and the power and the universities that was there that got destroyed when slavery came in and that they knew about Christianity. So then it's like they lied. I mean, those are the things that really pole vaulted me when I realized the wealth of, and how Islam, the Muslims had ruled Spain for 800, for more than 850 years. And so when you saw, you know, these things that we never heard before, and you saw that they didn't do this through the might of the gun or the swords, but through economics. Through opportunity, through the Muslims marrying the persons in which they lived with them, you know, whereas like with the slavery that was here, the Europeans didn't marry the slaves, you know, and even if the slaves became Christian, that didn't lead to freedom. That didn't lead to their, you know, independence. They still was being castigated if they learned how to read and write. So you really saw the disparity on what they claimed that they were supposed to be doing by civilizing us if we became Christian. But even after we became Christian, they even... Devastated us even more in their trying to turn us into being zombies of themselves. Whereas when you looked at the Islamic history and you saw the comparison, it was like, wow, this is truly something that they hid from us. And this is why it's so important that our young people, you know, learn about Islam. Because again, we need to learn about forgiveness. Knowing the connection with forgiveness and prayer, because things happen that really are hurtful and hard, you know, to someone. But until they can be able to forgive, then you can't have reconciliation. And so you can't be able to get beyond this revenge and this retaliation. And once we can be able to do that, we can change the reality of our communities. And then from a microcosmic kind of a way and start seeing how this can transfer to around the world. Because we cannot, you know, continue to believe that the human family will continue if we don't find ways not to kill each other. Because we can't. Because if everybody gets a nuclear bomb and then everybody wants to use it when they get angry and then they will just, you know, we'll wipe each other out and won't exist again. So rather everybody gets it and we still learn, oh, you can have it, but let's don't use it. You know, can we not find, but again, it takes people of faith. People without faith are not going to, you know, use these tools. And again, what we as people of faith are seeing is we're challenged. You know, we're challenged to let things be the status quo. Whether we in our lifetime want to be able to know that the prophets of old were able to change the reality of their time. If enough people of faith act with that faith, we too can make a difference, you know, that can take these weapons, you know, and help people to lay them down. You know, yeah, weapons are necessary. But at the same time, people got to let them go. And that's how we learn how that's not the first thing to pick up when there's an issue with each other. And that's from, like I said, from a microcosmic kind of a way to the macro, from individuals to societies. I was reading just recently, I'm currently reading one of the books, it's pre-colonial black African, Dr. Sheikha Antadiab. And he spoke about Tariq al-Sudan, Tariq al-Fattah, Ibn Khaldun. And I thought about when... Dr. Carter G. Woodson, in his book, The Miseducation of the Negro, mentioning Tariq al-Sudan, Tariq al-Fattah. And this was in the 30s, and it wasn't even translated then. And for them to be speaking, especially Dr. Carter G. Woodson, in the 30s, talking about the education and scholarship of Islamic Africa. Could you elaborate, like, on the history of that Tariq al-Sudan, Tariq al-Fattah, and Ibn Khaldun, in regards to the similar... in regards to the Western world, and how they've benefited from that source? I would like for you to delve into that. Allahu Akbar. Yeah, because by the grace and mercy of Allah, is that I had met a Muslim brother, and we were at the end of Masjid al-Ummah ibn al-Khattab, hadn't been built on the exposition in Vermont. We were praying just in the house, in the complex. And so I asked him, I said, well, what is your major? He said, sociology. I said, wow. I said, have you... I said, do you know who the father of sociology is? He said, no. I said, Ibn Khaldun. He said, who is he? And he was graduating that month, the next month from USC. He had never heard of Ibn Khaldun. And then I said, well, I said, you ever heard of the Muqaddimah? He said, I don't know what it is. I said, okay. And by the grace and mercy of Allah, it was Sheikh Jamaluddin, who was our scholar, and self... Self-talked by the grace and mercy of Allah and a linguist. And he would say that the Muqaddimah was just the introduction. And to see that Dr. Carter G. Woodson spoke about that, and he said in order to talk about history and Africa's history, we must know about this great history. And Sheikh Muhammad Sharif and Dr. John Hummock, they have now translated the Tariq al-Sudan. And to let us know, again, that history, that rich history of West Africa. And also with Syri and Diya, as I pointed out, in regards to servants of Allah. I wanted to ask you too, Imam, in regards to the online courses. Is there an online course of courses for people that are incarcerated? You know, this is wonderful that you ask this question, because Bilal Phillips has an online university. It's been for like four or five years. It was on there for free. It's free. And they just made it because, you know, the inmates don't have access to the computers. So what they've done is now they've put everything on DVD and CDs and in book form. And then through the chaplains, you know, allowing the guys to have access to the DVD players, they are now sending the materials there. And so they have eight-point courses, a diploma course. And for the guys that get through the diploma course, they want to get their undergraduate degree. They can get their undergraduate degree all the way to their master's degree. This is something that's just going on as we speak. There's another organization called Taiba Foundation that is a study course. And the brothers at O Folsom, there's about 30 brothers taking the course right now. This too is a class that specifically is for the brothers inside. And they have put on lectures that were taped for regular classroom, university. And then sent to the brothers. I mean, I've seen the material and seen the brothers learn, you know, Quran, learn Tafsir, learn the basics, you know, Hadith studies. It's really, really wonderful. This has been going on about three or four years. A number of the federal facilities, but California State in particular, because a brother was from California, from Northern California, who started the Taiba Foundation. And so it's a number of the state facilities. The brothers. They're taking those classes. And then there's one that's just starting now. Sheikh Omar from the IOC, the Islamic Institute of Orange County, is now making his materials because they also have an online course. But through their prison outreach program from Omar, Qatar, Masjid and Anaheim, they now are. And in fact, they partnered with Taiba Foundation so that they can be able to now make a course. And so we're going to be able to make a course work available for correspondence courses for the brothers and sisters. And it's not just limited to the brothers, but also for the sisters to be able to learn. And this is, like I said, as we speak, some of the most exciting things that we've always been waiting for. Brothers have always been asking for some kind of correspondence courses. And these are quality courses, similar, and much of it is following the path of materials that were studied in Medina and at Mecca University and things, is the course work that the brothers are learning. So they have good, solid foundational basis in their faith. Alhamdulillah. I want to ask you also, like in regards to, like for us, we had spoke previously too, about like housing for people when they're getting released. And also like women and children, what type of resources are being, you know, put together for people that are being released and to reunite with their families? Right now we have a transition home in Pomona that we have just begun to receive brothers coming home. There's two structures, and one is going to be for sisters, because they have their separate entrances and they're two separate, but they're on the same, you know, street. And we are, you know, right now developing some programs for them. We want to have the Islamic 12-step program, Malati to Islam, that we want to be able to institute. I was just speaking with some brothers today that's going to come in and help to get that going. To be facilitators until we can, you know, train the brothers and sisters inside how to be facilitators. We do hope at some point this will be our pilot program once we can really hone this in and get the good structure. We're gonna start a peer program for brothers coming out. I've been just informed that there's a number of brothers who, even who've been out a long time, they said they never had a situation to talk about the experience and how wounded they still feel that they are. And how this will help even the brothers who are just coming out. But it's going to be such an inclusive kind of a program. And these are things that we're working on right now. And we do hope, as you mentioned, Brother Muhammad, that sometimes there are sisters with families that we do want to be able to incorporate, you know, shelter for them as well, inshallah. Alhamdulillah. So by the grace of the mercy of Allah, I want to thank you, Brother Imam Ishaq. And alhamdulillah, inshallah. And now I'll turn it over to Brother Muhammad. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Now turn it over to Brother Ishmael. Okay. Salaam Alaikum. Great information. We're going to come back to the round table in a minute. Let's go over to our Community Calendar and then we'll come back and open it up to our round table. This is the Community Calendar of upcoming events. This Thursday, July the 23rd, 2015 at 7.30 p.m., Drama Stage , L.A. Labor Fest and Public Work Improvisational Theater present a reading of If the Shoe Fits, Voices from Solitary Confinement. After the reading, there will be a time for Q&A, sharing stories, discussing strategies and ways to take action. Also, writing letters and sign up for legislative visits. This is a statewide coordinated action to end solitary confinement, and performances will be held on the 23rd of the month throughout the year end at different locations. This event on the July 23rd, 2015, the location is the Westside Peace Center, 3916 Acrobat of Boulevard, Tacoma City, California, 90230. Thank you. Thank you. This is a free event, free parking, and all are invited to attend. For more information, you can email lalaberfest at gmail.com or call 310-704-3217. And please save this date, Saturday, August 30th, 2015, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Industrial Green will be holding its first annual. Summer. Fun Racer. The location is lot 613 on Imperial. This is a family-friendly event. There will be food, drinks, music, and display of current and future projects, and much, much more. For information, you can contact industrialdistrictgreen.org. And this is a Catherine McNinney project. If you have a community event that you would like announced on our show, send the information to dramastage1 at yahoo.com. Attention, Earlene Anthony. And the call-in number for our show is 800-893-9562. Now, back to our host. Okay. Thank you, Ms. Earlene Anthony. We're back with our in-studio guest. And I want to open up our roundtable. And what I would like to discuss now is, what are the implications for the marriage form of polygamy in light of the Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriage? Can we talk about that for a while? I think it definitely puts it on the table in a legitimate format to be looked at. If they can, you know, come out of totally something that's not traditional whatsoever and legalize. Give it some right and give it life. Then for sure, there is something that is historical that has been a part of the human experience, which is polygamy, for many, you know, legitimate and purposeful reasons. And, you know, and then it's religiously based. And not even just, you know, Islamically, but even in the, you know, the other forms of Christian faith, it is something that is there. It's not something scripturally that says one. It's something that is there. It's something that the society in and of themselves have done. But when you look at the reality of women who don't have, you know, a mate, and it's not about just, we know that people, human beings, need relationships until they don't live anymore. You know, you can be 80, 90 years old, and you still need to have an emotional, connected relationship. And polygamy offers this for, a lot of times, a person is a widower, and she still, she still has desires, you know, humanistically, to be with another human, another person. And this has always been something that was able to be facilitated. Again, it's not always about marrying somebody just because they can have children. You know, you can have a wife that's, you know, beyond childbearing years, and at the same time have one that's, you know, younger. And in most societies, that's not really the issue, and it's not about, you know, this being my property, you know, the woman being the man's property. The older man being the woman's property. Usually, where there was issues about polygamy is where there's this selfishness. But when one looks at, I wouldn't want, you know, my sister to not be able to have a legitimate relationship, because a person can have a relationship, and people do it all the time, but it's illegitimate when it's outside of a wedlock, you know, which is a bond, which is a commitment, which is a contract, which is your partners, you know, you're there for each other till death. Not just, you know, a flame. And things, I mean, so what polygamy offers to keep a society, you know, not only sane, but pure and wholesome, is something that's not available except under the table, whereas by them opening up something, like I said, totally that's outside of the norm historically among human beings, now they should look at something that is a part of the norms, and like I said, that is religiously. And so, you know, I think that's something that we should look at, and I think that's something that we should look at, and I think that's something that we should look at, and again, it's not just because a person wants to do it. Islamically, there's some criteria by which one must meet in order to, you know, have more than one wife, you know, and there's a limit for one, you know, they can't be more than four, but the person has to be able to sustain them and to take care of them and those kinds of things, so it's not like, you know, somebody can just go out and just exploit this whole situation, and that's why it would be good if it was in a, you know, a legalistic kind of a way. a way through the society, but I think that it definitely is something that should be brought to the table, you know, as we move forward in the future, and when we look at the disparity of women and men, and women living longer than men, again, it is tragic when, you know, a woman loses her husband at 40-something years old, or she's 50-something years old, and she may live another 30, 40 years, and the only relationship she can have is an illegitimate relationship, with somebody or somebody else's husband that she can maybe be around with, and, you know, all these kind of other things that happen, whether then she can have another mate that is totally legitimate on every level for her mentally, socially, and all of those kinds of, you know, mechanisms, which is very important, you know, that it's a social accommodation and something that is done around the world. I mean, it's not like it's not practiced around the world. It is practiced around the world to this day, and we know in those societies, we don't see the same kind of diseases that we see in the Western part of the world, as well as all of the other disparities, you know, family-wise, that we see in the Western part of the world that we don't see in the parts of the world where it is practiced and things, you know. So it's, again, it's not something that's foreign from a world scale. It's just something in the West that they haven't entertained, but since they've entertained this other whole situation, you know, and they've even expanded that to something totally different, you know, and now that they, you know, the transgender, I mean, that's a whole separate. So to get it to the Supreme Court, a case would have to be first initiated on the local level and then the federal level and then they push it up to the Supreme Court. Right. Okay. Do you want to say anything, Akiyone? Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. It reminded me of a former, former president of Delta Sigma Theta and she had admonished the women of Delta Sigma Theta and saying that some of us are already practicing polygamy and within the next convention, they got rid of her. Okay. But, you know, just touching on that, you know, there are some states where it is, you know, even California has been known for having, you know, some perpetrators. You know, there are some persons, you know, practicing this in this state, in Utah and Colorado. And, you know, even though they, on the books, it doesn't support, but they know it's happening and they, you know, in Texas, you know, in these little isolated, so these states are so big, probably Alaska, they just leave them alone. But it is being practiced here, you know, but it's just not on a large scale. And I've known persons, you know, around the country who have practiced it for more than 40 years. Right. For more than 40 years. And they've never had any issues and haven't gone to court to nothing else and got, you know, healthy families and 20, 30 kids. Yeah. And I think this is definitely the right time to look at that situation. So let's go around for some closing comments and contact information. All right. By the grace and mercy of Allah, there's going to be a program for one of our beloved brothers who returned to Allah, Abdul Latif, formerly Charles Jones. He was my child. He was my childhood and adult best friend. And may Allah bless him with the paradise. It's going to be next Sunday, or Sunday coming up at the FIBA Center on Slauson and Crenshaw from 3.30 to 9. And everyone is welcomed by the grace and mercy of Allah. He was an activist and he was a former member of the Black Panther Party in the Nation of Islam and Ahl-e-Sunnah-Wah-e-Jamaat and the follower in the Jamaat of the Sheikh-ul-Mandanfoti or Rahim-Allah. My email address is two. One is sheikhm099 at gmail.com. Sheikhm01999 at yahoo.com. My address is taif, T-A-I-F hyphen T-U-L hyphen Islam, I-S-L-A-M P-O box 338, Compton, California 90220. And I would just like to thank you all so much for having me here and I hope in the future too, to bring information. We're trying to recruit more Muslims to be volunteers in the jails and the prisons as well as now at the detention centers. There's a lot of Muslims in detention centers and nobody's visiting them and seeing them. And they're there just because of immigration issues. They haven't committed any act other than they just don't have documentation. And sometimes they can be lingering in their situations for eight, nine, ten months or longer. And many of them have never lived here. They've come across the border and got caught at the border. And some of them have horrific stories. And so I'd like to share that and then the future of how a person can get involved in that. I will give my email. There's A-A-B like in baby U-D-I-Y-A 73 at AOL.com. That's Abu Diyah 73 at AOL.com. Okay, thank you very much. Okay, we're winding down. I'd like to mention that the guest host will be back in the studio the last Monday, which is August the 31st for their monthly show. Looking forward to it. And also a little section that we started. It's called the Lazarus Book Club, which is like Lazarus, I guess, the wake of the dead. We try to recommend a book. And the book that I want to recommend this time is called D to Babylon's by Ellington. It's a book by Alexander Hislop, which deals with the origins of a lot of these Isla worshiping concepts and holidays. A very good book. D to Babylon's by Alexander Hislop. And I would like to extend a special thanks to our guest host, a special guest in the studio. So please listen to past shows of the Qumran Report by Googling in Qumran. Thank you for tuning in to the Qumran Report from your host, Melvin Ishmael Johnson, from my co-host, Earlene Anthony. May the peace and blessings of the life-giving creative spirit be upon you and upon your family. I leave you with a song that opened the show, Homeboy by Sunji Ali. Homeboy. Homeboy. Homeboy. Homeboy. Homeboy. Homeboy. Brothers, there's only one blood. Cuz, there ain't no sense in us trampling on the stones. It's us down, down to the bone. Blood is thick. Waters were known well. Cousins were kept apart. Mothers were often memories. Fathers were not favorites on the farm. For he could do some harm. He could wreck them out to ski. For he, brothers, could dream. Not enough blood! Not enough blood! Not enough blood!