peace be with you welcome to the dean
show I'm EDD your host subscribe if you
haven't already a lot to talk about
again Donald Trump the only two Nations
that have ever been in relationship with
God or Israel in the United States of
America we're going to learn more about
these two Nations the only two that are
actually blessed by God and again we got
Ben Carson with the Bible and our next
guest is going to comment on this video
clip simple question does the Bible have
authority over the Constitution all this
and more on this exciting episode of the
Dean show don't go anywhere we'll be
right
[Music]
back peace be with you assalam
alaykum how are you my brother doing
well how are you Eddie it's good to have
you back here pleasure to be back on
it's been a while I know we're going to
get right into it true story you're
walking down the street man approaches
you says hey I I saw you on the dean
show maybe not quite like that but he
said I saw you on TV you had a really
nice conversation tell us about this
true story absolutely um
basically I was walking down the street
one day and somebody said that I saw you
on the dean show as you mentioned oh it
was the dean show it was cool yeah and
uh basically he had seen basically he
had been following different things that
I've been doing on my social media and
one of them was a dean show and another
was CNN yeah and uh he proceeded to ask
me questions about Islam and Muslims and
um he had a lot of detail on things like
anir Lai where he was born he could you
know pronounce his name properly asked
me questions about Isis uh he knew the
geography there and then deep into the
conversation he asked me but just you
know this may sound a little silly but
clarify for me Arabs and Muslims which
one is the one that prays to Allah and I
was a little stunned that somebody who
had this kind of detail about terrorism
about anaki and Isis knew very little
about the very basics of this part of
the world and the community that he was
purporting to talk about and uh he
proceeded to ask questions that were of
a biased nature given the fact that he
knew a about the aberrational but very
little about the normative and I use the
analogy that imagine if You Were Somehow
a cancer specialist or you thought you
were but you didn't know where the heart
was located in the body and that's sort
of the situation we're dealing with here
and it dawned upon me that islamophobia
um is something that we talk about often
but in many with many Americans it's
simply a case of lack of information of
confusion of ignorance and I say that
not in a way to uh to disparage but you
know objectively they're just ignorant
of the facts and we have a lot of work
to do and you're doing a great job with
it Eddie and others are to educate
people about the very Basics to let them
know what the normative state of Islam
is how most Muslims uh view Islam and
practice their religion and when we
understand that normative body then the
way that we behave normally then we can
talk about the exceptional scenarios of
the extremists of the zealots of the
terrorists Etc within that larger
context but if we only talk about what
is Extreme and aberrational and
exceptional and then draw um Broad and
general General generalizing type of
statements about the majority that's the
problem that we have we're going to get
into Donald Trump and Ben Carson but I
would think this is a good thing how at
the end how did this conversation end we
want people to approach us no matter how
silly the question their ideas how did
it go at the end how overall if you
summarize it was it did you guys leave
off on a positive note yeah it was a 45
minute conversation 45 minutes yeah man
took his time this was a person who was
at a Fortune 500 company an executive so
he was someone who isn't ignorant in
that sense as a well educated person
generally speaking but just didn't know
anything about the basics of Islam and
Muslims so I was happy to take his
questions I try to be as patient as
possible he told me that he was uh
scared of women who wore the hijab and I
explained to him that the hijab
basically is little more than covering
the parts of your body that you see as a
and I explained what a is it's the part
of the body that you can't you know
leave the house without covering and I
said you have that same concept you're
not going to go to work shirtless and he
thought about it and I said well that's
your hijab your shirt is your hijab
you're covering that part of your body
that you deem necessary before you leave
the house um for a Muslim some many
Muslim women um it's also the hair it's
also the head it's also the neck and so
it's not so much a difference in concept
between you and them it's a difference
in the extent of the concept MH and you
know he conceded that point and several
other points that he raised and I
answered and at the end he said you know
I'm very thankful for this conversation
I'd like to keep it going I gave him my
phone number and office address and
invited him back for a conversation so
you know again it's important for us to
be able to differentiate between those
who are maliciously islamophobic and
there are such people who know better
but have an agenda and they pursue this
agenda that is hate that is bigotry and
those who are simply clueless and who
need us to stoop down and help lift them
up uh with information with knowledge
with patience and with a level of Grace
now I'm going to show you show our
audience this clip I want to get your
comments on it you know what struck me
the most honestly was when I took a
minute to actually talk to some of the
Muslim people to find out you know they
are just like me and I am uneducated on
their religion you know I could easily
make as many mistake judgment calls as
any other person out there um but when I
took a second to sit down and listen to
them and um actually enter their mosque
and go and watch some of their prayers
it it was a beautiful thing and they
answered some of my questions that I had
and uh I just feel that maybe that
that's something that they they should
do too for the people a lot a lot of us
are uneducated you know educate us on
your religion let us know that not
everybody's a bad bad person amazing the
human connection look he went into the
the mosque he saw it wasn't a bom making
factory and he's calling he's calling
he's he's it's amaz he said educate us
on your religion what are your thoughts
in those I mean it it's exactly an
example of what I was just talking about
that there are many people who we may
deem islamophobic at first glance at
first instance because of the rhetoric
that they engage in and often times it's
similar to the one from the maliciously
intended you know islamophobic organized
network but we need to go back and and
analyze the difference between the
majority of Americans who may exhibit
islamophobic rhetoric but just don't
know any better and our fair game for
engagement and can potentially change a
man like this and those who are agenda
driven and sort of um rooted in hate and
bigotry and we need to have different
strategies we can't have a one-sized
fitall for the you know sort of died in
the wool islamophobes we expose we
deconstruct um and uh we engage in
reputations of their lives with
individuals like this and many Americans
who are like him we engage in education
in in Awareness building in shedding
light on the reality of Islam and
Muslims uh there was a
Chicago um scholar recently who was with
a student at a Starbucks and his student
um you know looked at this man who was
in tattoos and whom he he whom he knew
and he said this guy's an atheist look
at this kaffer and the scholar told him
he's you can't call him a caffer and he
said but but he doesn't believe in God
and he said but a cfer is someone who
covers the truth have you presented him
with the truth have you ever attempted
to present him with the truth and then
give him an opportunity to cover it or
not but simply given the fact that he
was never approached or given any
information you can cannot call this
person a cther and so we have an
obligation as Muslims to share um the
truth of what we know and to do it in a
way that is easy for others to
understand we need to understand our
audience and speak in a language a
culturally sensitive language that
people can understand these Concepts um
and it's not about proving our innocence
from terrorism this isn't about uh
apologizing for anything I don't expect
Muslims to walk around and have to prove
that they are not bad people I don't
want in any way for Muslims to take on
that kind of responsibility but as
people who love their faith and who are
more than happy to share with others who
are uh thirsty for knowledge and for
information what this faith is about by
all means do so in the prophetic way the
Quran describes it as uh patience with
Grace with beautiful advice with the
good word it isn't with anger it isn't
with a sense of uh uh Revenge it isn't
with a sense of bitterness or
hopelessness or despair uh it is the
we're going to take a break we got a lot
more we're going to talk about the
Donald Trump prayer he's praying that's
a good thing we see what he's praying
about Ben Carson with the Bible a lot
more to talk about with our special
guest here on the dean show don't go
anywhere Isam says love all mankind
that's why we're sharing this message
because we want the best for you and we
want the best for all mankind please
subscribe to the dean show follow us on
our official Facebook and Twitter pages
in The Links below please also help
support the dean show by making a
donation in the link
[Music]
below back here on the dean show Ahmed
rehab director of care Chicago tell us
before we get into the Donald Trump
prayer uh talk to us about the
islamophobia conundrum The Catch
22 well the Catch 22 is basically the
notion that um islamophobes will uh sort
of claim that Islam as a religion is
problematic that there are verses in the
Quran that are violent or problematic uh
in other ways um and then when you
refute that by saying first of all
here's why you're misunderstanding the
verses and we're happy to engage in
apologetics and to explain and clarify
what these verses mean it's not that we
can't do that uh but more importantly
when we come back and say wait a second
let's look at the Bible let's look at
the tanak or the Torah um let's look at
other religious texts and you begin to
list verses that if given equal scrutiny
to the verses in in the Quran that these
individuals are giving scrutiny to you
will find that there's a lot more
violence a lot more intensity a lot more
more of these verses in these holy books
um and then you say anybody can play
this game right um the only difference
between why Islam gets this bad rep and
other religions don't is because Islam
gets more scrutiny by people who are not
Scholars by people who don't know how to
read the text that other religions get
and then they turn around and say well
it's not you know it's only Muslims who
are bombing people well first of all
that's not true it's only Muslims who
are violent first of all that's not true
but U then when you say great let's talk
about people and the reason why people
are violent now we're talking about
peopley things we're not talking about
the religious text anymore that's a
great place to be this is where we need
to be we talk about economic factors we
talk about political ideologies we talk
about GE geopolitical factors we talk
all about these human factors and then
they say well that's a copout we need to
go to Islam itself we need to go to the
holy book itself then you're back to
square one again and so that's the Catch
22 that I'm talking about
uh tell us what did you think uh about
the whole situation and how it was
handled with the uh Muslim who made the
clock and then he actually ended up
Ahmed Muhammad yeah what's your take on
this and how everything was handled yeah
I mean k has been very vifer on this
issue and we handled it in the media and
we helped out the family uh but
basically it's a case of a young boy who
and there's been a lot of debate
recently um especially after the
incident subsided about whether he's a
good inventor or a bad inventor that's
not the point he may have made a great
clock or a crappy clock that's not the
point the point is is is a kid aspiring
to do something great with his life
absolutely he wants to be an engineer he
wants to be a person involved in
technology and that's great and so he
volunteered this project and brought it
to his school to impress his teacher and
as a as a result was arrested and a
suspicion of either having a bomb or
playing a hoax which you obviously
shouldn't do either he was doing neither
of these two things and he maintained
that all along and we believe and many
believe it's only because his name is
Ahmed and he's you know a dark skinned
um young boy who's a Muslim that he was
viewed with such suspicion and rather
than you know applaud the young man and
give him credit for his efforts um he
was cast as yet another potential
terrorist and that's a very very telling
statement on how many in this country
still view Islam and Muslims and so we
wanted to put light on this issue
President Obama commented on it you know
positively um other people in technology
uh did as well the Mark Zuckerberg from
Facebook Google yah other types of
organizations and uh you know MIT um
offered him I I believe a program in the
summer so good things came out of it and
a good national public conversation came
out of it but we really get need to get
to a point where we begin to look at
people based on their Merit based on
what they can offer and have no glass
ceilings on anybody have nobody feel it
because they're of a certain color or
religion that they have to watch out
that they have to be careful that they
can't really engage in their dreams
because Others May Mis understand what
they're out to do that's exactly what we
don't want this is a free uh
entrepreneurial Nation that's what made
this nation great to begin with and hate
and bigotry is the single most greatest
threat to the progress of this nation
moving forward more so than Isis more so
than Iran more so than Russia more so
than China it's all internal it's all
domestic that's the greatest challenge
for our future before we get into the
Donald Trump prayer let's go to Ben
Benny Carson Dr Ben Carson and get your
comments on on on this simple question
does the Bible have authority over the
Constitution he said that's a simple
question that is not a simple question
but any stretch of the imagination a
simply worded question how's
that I I think probably what you have to
do is uh ask a very specific question
about a specific passage of the Bible
and a specific portion of the
Constitution uh I don't think you can
answer that question other than out of
very specific context Carson clarified
his comments yesterday saying in an
interview quote Muslims feel that their
religion is very much a part of your
public life and what you do as a public
official and that's inconsistent with
our principles we have to stop listening
to these people who tell us that we
cannot talk about God we cannot talk
about our faith every coin in our pocket
every bill in our wallet says in God we
trust but we're not supposed to talk
about it what in the world is that in
medicine we call it schizophrenia a
former
so do you believe that uh Islam is
consistent with the Constitution uh no I
don't I do not I I would not Advocate
that we put a Muslim in charge of this
nation I absolutely would not agree with
that he said that's a simple question he
said that's a simple question you know
recently there a big controversy you see
um Ben Carson he made the statements
about uh really derogatory towards Islam
and Muslims and we did a show actually
and we asked him uh to comment to uh
about the Christian Sharia right and now
when he was actually asked simple
question does the Bible have authority
over the Constitution regarding the
Bible and the Constitution it seemed
like a difficult question for him to
answer what what would you say on this
bigotry is one thing that Ben Carson has
been guilty of yeah another is hypocrisy
in this instance he was asked a simple
question it was in fact a simple
question very simple yeah and he said
this is not such a simple question um
that's because he a hypocrite that's
because he believes his religion can
should May Trump the Constitution uh
when he deems fit and many who support
him believe like him um and then they
turn around and accuse Muslims and Islam
of being a threat to the Constitution
with Sharia that's in fact not at all
true first of all Muslims in this
country are 2 million people according
to some Paul's 6 to S million according
to others um we're talking with his
group of people uh 50 to 60 million you
know evangelicals right-wing Christians
Etc
who believe in the Bible trumping the
Constitution now when you look at the
Muslim Community that's not the
direction we're going we're not
interested in Sharia pipping the
Constitution Sharia is something that
can be practiced uh without u in any way
conf conflicting with the constitution
in personal affairs and that's the
direction we take and that's the extent
of it there's no interest there's no
movement there's no money being pumped
in there there are no candidates being
run in order to do otherwise at the
federal level at the state level at any
government level like what his community
is doing secondly um when you talk about
uh that group of people you're talking
about billions of dollars that are being
raised it's not just that they're 50 to
60 million people but billions of
dollars um in in in in political power
money um and then they're running
candidates they have Mike hakabe they
have this guy they have others they have
a tea party um have you heard of the
Hubble hookah party um I haven't you
know the tea part is the one that's out
there yeah U Muslims aren't putting
together you know a massive movement to
put the Quran above the Constitution the
way that group of people are doing with
the Bible to pip the Constitution so
he's a hypocrite in that in that sense
and often times you see this Sharia
scare as being nothing more than mirrors
and smoke screens uh to uh sort of
deflect attention and point at someone
else this is projection and say their
religion is going to threaten our
constitution whereas that's exactly what
the Evangelical right-wing Christian
movements in this country and their
candidates um and their super Pacs and
their websites and their blogs and their
t stations on cable AM radio Etc are
essentially out to do and that is the
religious threat to this Constitution
that many people are not talking about
it's a real big a lot of hypocrisy
double standard we're going to pick up
here with and finish off with the the
prayer the Donald Trump prayer that you
all been waiting for here on the dean
show don't go anywhere Islam says love
all mankind that's why we're sharing
this message because we want the best
for you and we want the best for all
mankind please subscribe to the dean
show follow us on our official Facebook
and Twitter pages in The Links below
below please also help support the dean
show by making a donation in the link
[Music]
below back here on the dean show and
what you've been waiting for I mean
prayer is a good thing and we we include
everyone I mean we like to we ask God
Almighty that He blesses you know this
nation that he guides all Humanity to
that which will give us purpose that
will help us live our purpose to help us
you know really uh do what the Creator
wants us to do and to bless all of us
you know and but this is an interesting
prayer I wanted to get your your
comments on we're going to go to this
clip the only two Nations that have ever
been in relationship with God or Israel
and the United States of America father
God in yeshua's name if you bring this
man into the Oval Office I speak your
blessing over him for the sake of your
people in Jesus name
amen okay so uh I want to share uh true
story with you you know shik's driving
in a car with some of his students and
you know some of the traffic on goers
are letting him go in he's
saying and the students are saying what
are you doing shik you saying you know
these are uh non-muslims you're saying
may God reward him he said of course you
know uh we want the best for everybody
and what a greater reward than guidance
for all of man kind so we don't exclude
anybody so my my concern here was uh the
statement where the gentleman who was
kind of had his palm in uh Donald
Trump's face messing up his hair do uh
the python maneuver there yeah is that a
Jiu-Jitsu move or no I think this is
more kungu or something so he he he
excluded he included two Nations but he
excluded the rest of mankind what are
your comments on this well first of all
again going back to hypocrisy um it's
great that there's prayer like you said
for the reasons that you mentioned but
something tells me that Donald Trump has
never had a prayer session in his
boardroom before and uh this doesn't
look very genuine to me and the people
that he brought on are very shady
characters uh for those who know a
little about some of these people that
are there uh but then this quote unquote
Rabbi from uh uh Jews for Jesus um is
saying that only two Nations have been
blessed or are right by God the United
States and Israel I don't know what
scripture he's referring to there uh but
even in the in in just the intent of
saying something like this um betrays
the mindset of Supremacy that exists
with supporters of this kind of
far-right thinking and excludes the rest
of the world from God's blessings um
which is at the very least extreme I
mean we can call this person a religious
extremist a zealot Etc and it's funny
because it's such people people that are
present in this room that run around the
media uh and on the bloggosphere trying
to suggest that we Muslims are
extremists the mainstream Muslims
whereas in our faith we don't have
something that is similar to this
something that says only you know the uh
is is blessed by God I mean we believe
the entire world the universe is a
Dominion Dominion of God and He blesses
all of his creatures as he deems fit in
his ultimate wisdom Etc so it's
projection once again it's religious
extremists projecting their own
extremism on someone else whereas
they're the culprits of that kind of
thinking and you see it here at the
level of a presidential candidate a
front runner in one of the main parties
political parties in this country so
it's quite scary to me um there is an
element of of it's a bit comical the way
it looks and and feels um and I don't
mean that to disparage the religious
beliefs of of people who um are U are
there or who support people who are
there but just the again the hypocrisy
of it all the fact that it's Donald
Trump the fact that he's standing there
um very awkward way and not feeling
comfortable with what's going on but
still going forward with it to try to
get some votes Etc is very comical to me
there was also a I'm sure you you've
seen the video where a questioner had
asked Donald Trump we have problem in
this country it's called Muslims we know
our current president is one right you
know he's not even an American we need
this man but anyway we have training
camps ruing where they want to kill us
mhm that's my question when can we get
rid of we're going to be looking at a
lot of different things yep basically
when are we going to get rid of them mhm
referring to the Muslims now obviously I
mean you can see if this was something
that was um referring to getting rid of
maybe Jews maybe getting rid of
African-Americans or any other uh um
group of people I mean this this would
really um uh unfortunately particularly
with the uh with the GOP but every time
there is a u a presidential uh campaign
or a political campaign of of of high
exposure we see an uptick in
islamophobic rhetoric the Muslim
Community still deemed as the weak link
by some that it's fair game to sort of
uh slap down and get away with it and
and maybe win some votes uh through the
scare mongering and fearmongering factor
and Donald Trump played to that um I
think given his success in life at least
at the financial level he's smart enough
to know that this guy's statement is
whack is completely ridiculous yet still
he pandered to it and said um yeah you
know there's a lot of bad things out
there we're going to look at all of them
he should have stopped this man dead in
his tracks and said this is what you're
saying is ridiculous we don't get rid of
millions of Americans based on their
faith that's something that Nazi Germany
tried to do um this man was was was
asking for Donald Trump to to support a
sort of Nazi Germany version exactly of
the United States and he and he ran away
with it he he he took took took the pill
and didn't really you know um shoot it
down so it's very problematic for me
that he uh played along with that I
think uh Jason Ledger should be a great
example for anybody who is planning on
protesting we probably uh almost
wrapping up let's go to this final clip
here and the way they open you know
welcom me with open arms they invited me
and my Uncle Paul back to uh uh join in
their prayer and ask any questions that
we may have they would gladly answer for
us I mean that's what struck me amazing
about the people is once I came inside
there was no hostility there was no
anger like what was going on outside
we're being painted as the Hostile ones
Jason Ledger he went into a Masid and
actually went in with a f Islam t-shirt
now you imagine you know if it was like
f the Holocaust or the Jews or whatever
and then the the people inviting him in
probably wouldn't happen after the going
into a uh one of the African-American
neighborhoods F and I you know this
derogatory terms the Muslim F Islam and
they came in didn't he didn't experience
any hostility he really experienced open
open arms so this is a great example for
the of our brothers in humanity to
follow to come in and speak to the
Muslims what would you say about this
you're absolutely right and credit to
the uh individuals at the mosque who
practiced patience and wisdom and
character in engaging this man with the
good word with with beautiful advice
with with Grace and with patience just
like the Quran teaches and just like our
Prophet behaved in his lifetime and
let's remember a lot of the sahabah the
companions of the Prophet people that we
deem in in high uh and Noble uh uh a
noble level uh in our in our faith are
people who once upon a time did not
believe in God Once Upon a Time were
even um very much against Islam uh
perhaps even violently uh with language
but also physically and the prophets
patience and Grace and wisdom and
beautiful advice Help win their hearts
over and I want to clarify something
here daa or inviting people uh to God um
in Islam does not necessarily mean
converting them because God guides
Hearts we shouldn't be out to try to win
one for the team this isn't about
expanding the religion dawa really is
about representing the values of your
faith for the sake of God the only
audience worth addressing is God we're
not looking for a you know pat on the
back from anybody in Behaving the way we
do we're not looking for positive media
we're not looking to impress you know
Jason or anybody else we're looking to
address God who asked us to behave in
this way the consequences of of doing
this is positive it may impress the
media may impress Jason but that's not
the point uh and secondly it is about
the values it is about trying to uh
guide people like Jason to the values of
patience of intellectual disposition of
critical thinking of positive and
elevated human behavior if we're able to
do that that is the daa that our
religion is for should someone as a
result accept the Oneness of God the
prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasallam Etc are great
if that's what works for them and that's
what guides their hearts wonderful but
ultimately we shouldn't be too obsessed
as some people in da are with conversion
and converting people to the religion
but rather um showing the value of this
religion and letting that take people on
whatever Journey that they may
absolutely tell us uh we're out of time
people want to hook up with you your
organization tell us about uh how they
can get a contact with you uh to learn
more about your work yeah well care
Chicago is the office the Chicago Office
of the Council on American um Islamic
relations here in Chicago and we're
located at 17 North State in downtown
Chicago of of State and Madison our
phone number is 312 2121 1520 our
website is www.car chicago.org and our
email is info@ chicago.org um we are in
the business of defending the Muslim
American Community against islamophobia
bigotry racism Etc um we do so um
through the media through education
through awareness but also through civil
rights cases where there our violations
we take on the cases uh that meet our
criteria and we can take them all the
way to the court system and usually we
win these cases because we know what
we're doing and we have the support of
our community we have great lawyers
working with us so if you face
discrimination if you face the civil
rights violation you can consult with us
we'll be happy to help you if you see
anything in the media or elsewhere that
is uh bigoted and you you want to draw
our attention to it so that we can
handle it and deal with it uh please
contact us at the at the information
mentioned we started with peace we end
with peace may God bless you and reward
you for being with
usam and thank you for tuning in to the
dean show as our guest had so eloquently
explained that it is not our job to try
to convert anybody it's to share because
we truly care and we want the best for
all of mankind so when you live how a
Muslim is supposed to live with the best
character in the best manners and at the
same time you share with our brothers
and sisters and humanity and you open up
these mids like Jason Ledger was invited
in and he got a whole new perspective on
Islam and Muslims so continue to tune
into the dean show to learn about the
most misunderstood way of life in the
world Islam yet the fastest growing and
call us anytime 1 80066 to Islam
subscribe if you haven't already and
we'll see you next time God willing
until then peace be with you Salam