we're just going to level the entire
church and but they were talking about
tearing the the church down
[Music]
the pastor who could have taken a deal
that was very
the existing church itself was and
buildings were going to be knocked down
just flattened in
maintaining a place of worship
was so important to them that they
granted us the contract here comes the
million-dollar question i would say that
this is a muslim woman what words would
you associate with some of these
pictures
nuns in their habits
why is this a lot of times people have
this in their minds and i want my
audience to know that
that you know the the pastor chose you
know rather than having the church tore
down totally wanted it to continue as a
house of worship assalamu alaikum
brothers and sisters this is your
brother eddie from the d show and i have
some amazing news for you we just made a
down payment and are in contract to
purchase this 35 000 square foot
facility with over four acres to make it
the dean center
alhamdulillah the project includes a
masjid an athletic facility a live
studio for recording the d show and dawa
outreach programs and as you've known
i've been looking for a no interest
owner financing and alhamdulillah i
found this church property for 2.5
million that will do all of it i've
given a hundred thousand dollar down
payment to enter into the contract and
one million dollars will be paid over 36
months inshallah with no interest
alhamdulillah but right now we need 1.4
million to close on this property
brothers and sisters help us purchase
this property to build the dean center
donate right now may god almighty allah
reward all of you brothers and sisters
[Music]
and my next guest was this national
sales manager for an importing company
on long island for many years she was
instrumental in creating the food
handler brand of disposable items used
in the first food service industry in
the late 80s
in the mid 1990s her and her family
relocated to sunny florida to enjoy the
warm weather
she worked as a sail national sales
manager for a plastics company in tampa
where her and her husband decided to
invest in the real estate market they
were shocked at the lack of
professionalism
this prompted the decision that she
would get her real estate license within
six months
she was the top producing agent with
caldwell banker in florida
after a few years as a realtor she
decided to open up her own brokerage
company fits real estate services and
she's here with us
on the dean show
heather fitz welcome
good morning welcome how are you good
how are you doing
oh i'm so excited watching the progress
of everything from when we first started
until now it's very exciting
well well let's get into that uh people
already they're still uh kind of uh not
knowing what we're gonna be talking
about we're gonna cover a lot uh but
let's get into how we actually met
from the beginning it was uh people you
had worked with before was it shaquille
karim hassan then they introduced me to
you and then we met
i had worked with shaquille and we
located after many months of searching a
facility for them in tampa
which they have now opened and are
having
prayers regularly and and expanding
daily from what i understand their
programs and their offerings to the
community and you and i had met a couple
of times when you came to florida to try
to find a location new location for the
dean center
we looked at many
ugly ducklings as you would say
and on your last trip we did find the
location in bel rico which is
magnificent i am so excited for your
listeners for your followers
to understand the magnitude of what this
new center will do in the tampa area in
the balrico area in particular
it is a very large facility the facility
is almost 35 000 square feet it is made
up of five different buildings
uh when we went there we were super
excited i think all of us we did kind of
a little preliminary hey this is one of
the spots we're looking at
when we went in we all saw the potential
for what your vision is and your vision
which would be to have the
the dean center to have your mosque and
then also to have an athletic facility
school recording studio and just the
vision that you have
to be able to have that in one location
was just amazing
we decided to put in an offer on the
property and
were a little bit taken aback when we
found out there were two other offers on
the property so we were competing
with one facility which was going to be
a car wash and then another facility
another buyer was going to just have a
storage facility now in both of those
cases the
existing church itself was and buildings
were going to be knocked down just
flattened and used the land to rebuild
as the property is also on four acres as
you know
when our offer was presented to the
seller pastor o who is the president
pastor of the congregation there
really
thought long and hard about it and
decided that he just felt our mission
your mission with
maintaining a place of worship was so
important to them that they granted us
the contract and we've been moving
forward ever since i want to touch upon
uh about that where you talk about
um you mentioned that there was there
were two other offers and what they were
talking about tearing the the church
down
completely they were just going to level
the entire church and uh the except the
other buildings that go with it
so the pastor
there
he was
more inclined towards
um having us
continue
you know it as a house of worship
actually a mosque
and
rather than having it tore down that's
amazing
it is absolutely amazing especially in
today's times where you hear that money
is everything and and you know they
could have closed a little bit earlier
with these other buyers
as there are things that you have to
prepare for
but because it was going to be a house
of worship and again this is coming from
a i believe that they're a baptist
church
and you know you're muslim in faith but
they just they just feel that in today's
times that you have house of worship
some place where people can go to
receive the word was so much more
important than just getting the money
and running and in today's times that's
that's highly unusual and it's a
testament to you and what you stand for
and what you hope to build in the
community which is what was presented to
them
when they were looking at the competing
offers yeah that's really profound it's
really amazing to hear that uh because
and i want my audience to know that
that you know the the pastor chose you
know rather than having the church tore
down totally
and they they actually you know um
wanted it to continue as a house of
worship so people have this opportunity
to go and make this a reality
and
you've been instrumental in helping to
put the deal together
and everything
so how's uh how's your experience with
us been so far
oh it's been wonderful
as i said when i helped shaquille
uh and the others that were involved
with the tampa studio to to cite and
actually to see the changes that have
been made and the people that they've
actually reached out to one of the
things i was so impressed with
was that they went out into the
neighborhood to let people know that
they were here they were in the
community and they wanted to
extend themselves to the community if
anybody had any questions they were they
were welcome to come and talk and i
think that that's one of the nicest
things in working with you and your
groups is that
you do open your hearts and your and
your education and your way of life to
other people and say you know we're here
to do better for everyone we want
everyone to
get along you can have a difference of
opinion but we all want the same thing
we all want peace we all are striving
for a higher a higher connection with
our god and i i just think that that's
fabulous and it's something that is so
missing too
uh
let's talk about some of the
we see a lot of people
moving to florida
can you talk to us uh some of the
benefits
of uh this relocation of having places
that is one of the biggest things that
well personally that was one of the
things that attracted me to this area i
will say
that i mentioned to my husband the other
day we really take for granted how many
sunny wonderful days that we have here
when you get a rainy day it's almost
like that snow day that you get where
you say okay i'm just going to stay home
and i'm not going to do anything but
besides the weather there are so many
beaches that are close by you have where
you're located in bel rico the beach is
only 35 miles 36 miles
there are tons of things tons of natural
parks
museums there's there's
the price of housing in this area i'm
not sure what the housing market is in
your area but the median price in bel
rigo for a house is about 425 000.
so
comparative
they're going to be a little bit newer
uh the population of valrico right now
is 38 000 but you are bordered by very
large communities also which would be
brandon
tampa airport is only about 29 miles
from where the center is
people coming in to visit can you know
obviously get to and from the area very
easily
and uh you talk about the the no state
there's no state tax there there's not
on personal income there is no state tax
which is really nice when you're doing
your taxes and putting those in so that
is a big benefit for a lot of people and
a lot of companies coming to the area
there are tax benefits as well
so you mentioned it's about so it's
about 30 minutes from the airport
yes one hour from uh orlando about
correct
okay correct it's really a great
location very central in the state and
again the beaches if you like the
beaches you're about 35 36 miles from
clearwater beach which would be the
largest in the area
so that's interesting so you you
actually helped yeah i remember when i
came down the first time we were kind of
just window shopping it was because we
didn't have much of any funds but we saw
a lot of properties you helped us there
get introduced to you through shaquille
and then that first property that we
ended up seeing that was the one that if
we had any money to put down that was
the one that i liked the most but and
then you guys ended up getting that much
that uh facility and call the jesus son
of mary in tampa now mosque you helped
facilitate that
yeah right but i think that actually for
your needs i have to be honest with you
eddie for your needs this particular
facility seems like it just suits you to
a t you have the the buildings which you
can utilize immediately into your
athletic facility into your school into
your recording studio so that those were
all there whereas the jesus center uh
did not have all of that there you would
have had to add on a lot of things and
then you're also on four acres which is
fantastic yeah this really fit much
better and this this now when
we now when we came back i came back
for the second round looking we got now
we got some capital we can put down and
not you know put down some money but
that this property is interesting it
wasn't on the list until i got there i
believe that is correct that is correct
that was very interesting
it works out again this was meant to be
your facility and and to have your
vision and your message just come to
life and continue to grow how did that
one come up because you i i was looking
at the list and we had a bunch and then
i don't i don't know if it was the day
before when i got something like that
and he said okay here's another one and
this one was actually zoned as a church
and it was just ready to go and then i
said yeah let's see it
a lot of the properties which some
viewers don't know is a lot of
properties can be zoned differently
uh for example this one was actually an
existing house of worship some of the
other properties if you remember we went
and looked at an air conditioning
facility place i believe we went and
looked at uh
oh gosh just a bunch of different vacant
warehouse type buildings
that would have qualified for zoning but
would have required a lot of work before
you ever moved in
and this was again the day before as you
said came up on a popular
site which is luke net which is a
commercial site that was available and
we said okay let's go see it we went and
saw it and then when we
determined that it would meet your needs
when we made the offer was when we found
out that there were two other offers and
we got together and made a presentation
to the pastor and to the sellers and
really told them that our your vision
was going to be that it would continue
to be a house of worship and that's why
you got the deal
do you how how
for for people who'd want to
god willing we get everything
established you know some people would
actually consider moving down there to
follow us in that vicinity uh but some
people might have some hesitancy because
maybe they're not a familiar with the
area or they might have some
misconceptions just like people have
misconceptions about muslims in islam
some people might think like okay
florida you know maybe they don't like
us down there they've heard some things
but you can see this is a great example
of the pastor kind of dispelling that
myth how would you how would you how
would you answer that
my answer to that would be that uh again
the pastor who could have taken a deal
that was very
structurally the same except they were
going to close a little bit earlier so
they could have had their money in hand
walked away already
as far as the differences are concerned
i think that people of faith no matter
what faith you are are very respectful
today so much more so than it was say
five ten years ago
there are differences among all of us
and
if we all have the same end goal which
is to be kind to one another to worship
your god to live in peace i think that
that's very much a reality today i see
women all the time that are of the
muslim faith and they it's just like
interacting with somebody who has curly
hair i don't feel like it's any
different
you do have the radicals that you do not
understand or want to believe the
stories that they've heard and you're
going to have that in any religion in
any
i think in in a business you're always
going to have some sort of radical that
disagrees with you but i believe that
florida is a good place to raise your
children
there are tons of sports which i i am a
firm believer that if your children are
involved in activities they're involved
in their church they're involved in
their community that they're less likely
to go out and find other sources
to take up their time take up their
interest and in florida 20 you know all
year long your kids can play sports
all year long uh you can do water
activities you can go to the beach so
these are all things that when you're
talking about a family or people
relocating that would be when i moved
here personally that was one of the big
attractions to me was that there were
good schools it was safe
uh the economy is strong
and i believe again you would know
better than i may be about the housing
market but i do believe that you can get
yourself a nice home here a nice place
for your family safe neighborhood and
very affordable in my opinion
and
as you know the one of the the main
missions of the dean show is
education dispelling the myths and
misconceptions and helping
the 300 million americans out there who
have no idea what islam is who muslims
are you know to have them have a better
understanding so we can accomplish that
we can live together in peace and
harmony and understanding and education
is the key i'm going to play a little
quiz with you
and let's see if you can it's real
simple basic
and when uh
you can tell me what comes to your your
mind your head what word would you
associate with some of these pictures
uh mother mary
all right that was a that was uh
an easy one huh
yes
okay they're gonna get harder no
let's keep going okay so when we have
here
uh a nun
and she's reading a bible right bible
correct okay let's go on to the next one
i would say that this is a muslim woman
all right now i don't know what kind of
book she's maybe she's reading the quran
i'm not sure she's reading a cookbook
so uh let's keep it going sure
uh let's see so i would say the virgin
mary mother mary on the left
um
perhaps a muslim woman second uh none in
the middle and a muslim woman on the
last
yes yes are you starting to see some
something very similar here a pattern
yes and i'm going to share with you
and i hope shaquille doesn't mind but
i'm going to share with you my story of
first meeting shaquille i was introduced
to shaquille through his wife danielle
who is an absolutely lovely woman she
worked for me
uh at my ranch i
in addition to real estate i have horses
i'm an equestrian
so she worked at the ranch and and we we
actually had conversations because she
was a christian woman and had converted
so we had different conversations about
how she was led to that and then many
years later shaquille and i were
introduced and i will tell you that i
was not aware
of the custom that you don't shake hands
i've been in business for a very long
time men don't shake hands with women
but i've been in business for a very
long time and when i went to meet
shaquille you know he said oh no you
know he was very respectful he just said
no we don't we don't and i was like okay
no problem but in dealing with him he's
been wonderful everything's been fine
and in getting to know him i asked him i
said
what
what is the belief behind that and he
shared with me which i thought was so
nice he said listen he said you know our
wives are women we put them on a
pedestal
we treat them with high regard and it's
our belief that you know other women
we're not you know not to interact that
way
and you know
with everything
in today's times and
uh i guess just free for all is is the
only word that comes to mind with
society it was so refreshing for me to
hear that and it was so refreshing for a
man to say my wife is
my pedestal this she's the only woman
that i'll touch so again that was my
story with with shaquille and that
very nice uh sharing that with us we got
just a few more pictures here
nuns in their habit
uh muslim women greeting each other
you're doing good man really good
did we show this one already no we did
not so this looks like again nuns of
some sort of order okay
uh none on the left muslim woman on the
right now
here comes the million dollar question
not just for you a lot of our you know
people out there who again that's why
they tune into the d show they want to
understand better but here's the million
dollar question you saw the comparisons
but why is this a lot of times people
have this in their minds
uh
i just believe people find a prejudice
in in again any area and i think that
things that have gone on in the world
it's just easier when they don't
understand something
to
uh
automatically not like it not on you
know they they're they're not willing to
take the time to become educated as to
you know what your true message is and
what and what you feel and what you
think you know it's it's the same in
when you see people of color you see any
other
i think discrimination it's it's
ignorance in my opinion
okay last couple questions uh we're
almost out of time
so i'm going to ask you now for you know
for many people who might be like hey
there's a mosque opening up and you
might have some people uh out there who
you know might be nervous scared but
then we would ask the question would you
rather and how would you think they
would answer this
uh our christian uh friends neighbors
are people of uh different religions but
particularly here uh because we're
talking about jesus so i would say would
you rather have a neighbor who loves and
respects jesus doesn't mock him insult
him defame jesus but rather follows his
way prays like him fast like him greets
like him beard like him neighbor that
makes the neighborhood better
or worse
oh better 100
ah that was the easy one huh i mean you
just when you when you put things in
perspective you know and that's why the
dean center is so important it's so
vital
education yeah yes absolutely
another one couple one would uh would
you rather have a neighbor who
espouses many has many of the same
christian values or one who's trying to
have your son or daughter maybe change
their gender go to night clubs do drink
and drugs and alcohol which one i mean
if you ask
the
pastor day long rather have somebody
that is
again like-minded in so many areas
it really is true
and the last one a neighbor who tells
your kids to respect their parents
doesn't curse use foul language uh this
one would be for your husband uh doesn't
i molest your wife respects her so much
like you you were mentioning earlier he
he he's hands off and hugs off so how do
you think your husband would answer that
one what you know
he would he would much rather have
somebody that that wasn't eyeballing his
wife
okay well that's the neighbor that's the
kind of neighbor that you can expect to
have right forward to it
and uh thank you very much hopefully we
also have your your son i look forward
to meeting him
thank you thank you i appreciate it have
a great day god bless you thank you very
much you too
and thank you heather for being with us
helping the viewers understand the
project a little bit better
the location a little bit better
and answering those questions would you
rather and this is for our not yet
muslim neighbors christian neighbors uh
everybody out there who's kind of fear
the hate industry is huge it's a
billion-dollar industry and they're
spreading lies misinformation and hate
and we're trying to counter that that's
why the
mission of the dean center is so
important to establish what we're trying
to have with our neighbors peace and
understanding and education is key and
you can see just by those few minutes in
those clips and we talked about the
hijab you could see us respecting mary
the mother of jesus would you rather
have someone who lives next to you one
who loves and respects jesus he's a
mighty messenger who came to say
messages all the other prophets calling
people to worship the creator not the
creation very simple to understand
these are the muslims who want to live a
morally upright life god fearing god
loving i can go on and on watch some
more of our shows to get more of that
but what i want to tell you here is that
look at this opportunity where the
pastor had to go ahead and demolish
this turn it into a car wash or
whatever else the offer they had to just
it was going to be tore down but he was
like he wanted a house of worship to be
there and now if we don't go ahead and
we're halfway there to accomplishing our
goal
for the initial down payment and the
rest will be financed owner finance over
three years we need your guys support to
go ahead and make this a reality
to help those
300 million americans out there who have
no clue about islam
except what they're getting fed from the
hate industry the hate business
and that's what we're working up against
so inshallah it's your opportunity to be
a part of history
to be a part of this project so go ahead
and do your part to contribute you can
go ahead and
make the contributions
online or you can send
your contributions through the mail
you can keep us in your duas
and thank you once again inshallah the
closing is coming up in september first
week of september we got some donors out
there we got some people out there who
would like to all up front just take
care of it get in touch with us make it
easy for us go ahead you're out there
there's people like who have this type
of money and it's like
sense to them right it's like you know
like we look at the hundred dollar bills
they're looking at it like the pennies
so you have people like that remember
you're going to leave all this stuff
behind all of it's going to stay behind
but what you invest you know the three
things that follow us to the grave what
is it
it's our family our wealth and our deeds
right what do we do i believe but at the
end of the day what's going to stay
behind
it's going to what's going to stay
behind all of the money all this stuff
it stays with you you can't take it with
you when you go but if you help
establish the dean center that's going
to be benefiting so many people
so many people generations to come you
could be a part of that you could be a
part of this legacy this history what
are you waiting for contribute right now
we'll see you next time until then may
god almighty allah reward all of you
wake up there are over 300 million
americans that don't know what islam is
this is why we are opening the dean
center the first of its kind 35 000
square foot tawa center and masjid to
show america the beautiful message of
islam inshallah with your help and
donations we can close on the property
launch nationwide programs a
state-of-the-art production studio for
online content and an on-site dawah
center to show what true islam is donate
right now may god almighty allah reward
all of you