…Because, number one, we want to raise consciousness. [unclear]... some of the great scholars and teachers of Islam around the world, have come to be with us tonight, and they're going to give us insight on the conflict that's within America…

These imams that you see, and some that you don't see, insha`Allah, some time, at 8:15 or 8:30, we're going to hear from our shaykh Bilal Phillips Abu Halim, who desperately wanted to be here tonight but because of security concerns that he spoke in detail about, that he couldn't be here in person. But we're going to hear the voice live. We have to accept the fact that our beloved brother Bilal Phillips wanted to be here, he'll tell you himself. He made plans to be here, and details I can't go into right now, but I can say this: This man is a loved man, and at the same time he's hated. He's loved by the people who love Allah. And he's hated by the people who hate Allah, who hate Islam. And they don't want to see this man come to deliver the truth. So Alhamdulillah they can't stop the truth, he'll be speaking to that insha`Allah, though his flesh won't be here, his words will be here insha`Allah.

Later after a number of speakers:

Bilal Phillips:

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alamin, was Salat was Salam 'ala Rasuli Karim, wa 'ala alihi wa ashabihi, (unclear) ila Yawmud Din. All praise is due to Allah, (unclear) His last Prophet Muhammad, and all those who follow the Prophet's righteousness until the last days.

Alhamdulillah, I've been given this opportunity to share some thoughts with you all today. Although I would have liked to have been there in person, as has been explained to you already, there are certain political issues et cetera which have not made it possible for me to be there in person. So I would just like to briefly share with you a few thoughts I have on this issue of preparing America for putting Allah first. An issue which many years ago, one of the precursors of Islam in America, Malcolm X, Malik Shabazz, on his return from hajj, he was questioned about his understanding or changes in his understanding of concepts. He responded saying that he was convinced that the only solution for the problems of America was Islam. And he went on to elaborate this was true Islam and not the Islam which was promoted by Elijah Muhammad, that the central issues, issues of race and [unclear] etc. etc. could only be resolved through the true teachings of Islam. This observation stands good until today, and ultimately, as Muslims we do believe that the repairing of the world, not just America but the world, lies only in putting Allah first, in establishing Islam as the way governing the life of human beings as a whole, obviously under the leadership of Muslims. Whether we achieve that in the future through our own efforts, or it is achieved through the second coming of Prophet Isa (as), ultimately the solution for the type of problem lies in Islam. Now going into the reality, the reality which as Muslims we know, the West and the world in general, appears to have been a threat, a threat which rather than having the quality of repairing America, it appears as having the quality of seeking to destroy America. And this is of course manifest in all of the very terrorist acts, etc. and activities which are now directed against Muslim countries, people, etc. And a Harvard University Professor, Samuel Huntington has identified this struggle with Muslims as being an international struggle, which is based on fundamental cultural differences. In his book, the Clash of Civilizations, p. 217, he says,

"The underlying problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism, it is Islam, a different civilization, whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture, and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power. And then, he went on to say, "The problem for Islam is not the CIA, or the US Dept of Defense. It is the West. A different civilization whose people are convinced of the universality of their culture and believe that a superior, if declining power, imposes on them the obligation to impose that culture throughout the world. These are the basic ingredients of the true conflict between Islam and the West."

[unclear]

He identifies the conflict as being a cultural struggle. That fundamentally, Islam, what Islam said, would be in opposition to Western civilization. So the basic [pattern] is demographic pressure of democracy. [unclear]. A secular outlook and freedom?. We're looking at a system that is devoid of religion... and democratic, the democratic way of life, stands for the rich... is opposed to what Islam stands for. That is, democracy is based on the principle of [inaudible] and that is that ... human (word unclear) and human experience. [inaudible sentence]. However in reality if one looks at the best efforts of the past, the Constitution or the Magna Carta are the great documents which were designed by people to establish human rights, etc. ... the principles which today we look... for example in the American Constitution, which was written by (the most destructive minds of the 18th Century?), it contains an article ... incorrect. ... compromise. [unclear]. Human beings have experienced... which represent the society where they come from. And it's part of this bias to [unclear]... because of the fact that human beings will always have a bias... ... Another principle of democracy which Islam has [unclear]which means that when people get together to make a decision, different ideas are put forth [unclear]the principle is based on... And then ... remain unchallenged. Whereas in Islam.

[break in tape]

That if, as you move the moral foundation from society, meaning that reality then becomes relative, what people consider to be good today, five years or ten years from now will be looked at as evil. And what is looked at as evil today, five ten years from now could be looked at as being good. And this problem is a natural product of the democratic approach to ruling society. And Islam stands as a civilization in the fundamental (thought?) opposed to democracy and to secular democracy in particular. It stands opposed as the only civilization that really upholds the principles which will not bend, which cannot be replaced. All the civilizations, whether they be the civilizations of China or India, when China accepted the communist block, it accepted secular democracy -- another expression of it, but it accepted those same principles as the guiding light of society. And yet today, a large portion of humankind (unclear) accepted secularism, secular democracy, as their guiding principle.

Muslim countries have accepted secular democracy in varying degrees -- countries like Chechnya, Algeria, etc. But Islam as a system, as understood by the fathers of [unclear] stands in clear opposition to secular democracy. Now, the reality, though Islam stands in clear opposition, and an example of that is what today we can see in America as the greatest wave challenging society, and that is the homosexual upsurge, the promotion of homosexual values in society…

Now though these laws are very clear and they stand firm, and we know that the foundation of Islam is the Qur`an and sunnah, unfortunately what governs human lives today is not that Qur`an and Sunnah, but a cultural coating of traditionalism which has spread throughout Muslim lands, and which really cannot meet the challenge of the Western civilization, of secular democracy. And we as Muslims need to address these issues and correct our view of Islam so that we in fact can take on the role of repairing American society and world society, Western civilization as its children.

What we find in Muslim countries or among traditional Muslims following the traditional ways, and this is what we may call... meaning a blind following of local customs, where Islam is not defined as Qur`an and Sunnah, but is defined as what we do in our area, our town, amongst our people, etc. etc. We find that when such people are invited to follow the Qur`an and Sunnah, their response is, that's not the way of our family, or that's not the way of our society, or our people, and this response is very similar to the response given by the pagans of Mecca when they were invited to Allah and His Messenger, as is mentioned in many many places in Qur`an among them the verse of Al-Maida, verse 104, in which He says there, "If you tell them (Muhammad (s)), tell them what Allah has revealed and His Messenger, they will reply, what we found our parents doing is (appealing? unclear) to us. Even though their parents knew nothing, nor were they rightly guided." This is the packaging of the pagans 1,400 years ago, and this remains the attitude of what we may call cultural or traditional people of Islam. And this view is a product of practices which were from pre-Islamic times in some cases, where people have continued to practice principles which existed in their society before Islam came, but they have continued to practice them into these times on their, what appear in Islamic society to be, an Islamic guise, you know if we can find a number of instances occurring in the Muslim world today which lead to a very distorted image of Islam due to the cultural practices among them is the practice referred to as female genital mutilation, which is common in certain parts of the Muslim world, and which represents a very evil image which is attributed often-times to Islam as a whole. We also find the practice of bride burning in India for example, which has spread over to Muslim communities. Or we also find Muslims also killing their wives over dowries, because of the fact that giving the dowries is turned upside down, and instead of the dowry being given by the male to the female you have female families being obliged to give dowries to the males.

And we have also adopted practices which have become popular among Muslims, whether they be practices of recent times when Muslim societies have come into contact with Western societies, practices that have been adopted, or from in the past, where they adopted the practices of the Christians, and Jews etc., practices for example like the celebration of dhikr among the Christians, but became some 400 years after the Prophet Muhammad (s), the Mawlid, Muslims celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (s). And in the book of their celebrations they are involved in many things which are against the teachings of Islam.

These principles extracted from you know historic, the classics of Islam. In the minds of the common people they cannot distinguish between what is a practice of Islam and what in fact is cultural Islam. We also have a distorted view coming from certain religious innovations, most of which could be attributed back to the principles of mysticism, Sufism which has appeared in the Muslim ummah, which though they attribute it back to Prophet (s), though the form which we cited [?] in half the countries have nothing to do with the Prophet's (s) teachings at all.

And perhaps the greatest evil which came out of it is the principle of calling upon others beside Allah, where human beings are set up as intermediaries between man and God. And so we find people today, under the guise of Sufism etc., calling for such things. People like Nuh Ha Mim Keller, in his book The Reliance of the Traveller, he spends a great deal of effort and time in the appendix of the book justifying praying to Prophet Muhammad (s)...