I am lissa muscatine, one of the coowners of politics and prose, my husband is right there. We hope the end of this event you will not be stuck in 8 snowstorm. We are confident you will get okay, but we are delighted to have all of you here. Before we get started, many of you have been to events, just a few housekeeping reminders. If you have a noisemaking device and can silence it now, we will be grateful for that. The way this will work is our guests will be in conversation for a bit and they will be happy to take questions from the audience. We have a microphone set up here. We would love it if you would make it to the mike so we can record the questions and that would be very helpful. And the end of the event there will be a signing at this table. If you will be kind enough to hold up your chairs it will expedite the signing and expedite your being able to get through it and out of here and it will make our staff very happy at the end of a long day so we appreciate that and i just want to say this is the first week of events for 2017. We have an incredible calendar coming up and we urge you to look at our website and if you would like a hard copy of the january calendar it is at the information desk and in front of the store. Lots of really good stuff coming up. One of the things we are most excited about is we are launching as some of you may know if you read our newsletter and email we are launching a series of teach ins this month that we expect to be ongoing through the winter, ranging across a variety of subjects to educate, inform, people about the challenges the country is facing, issues on the forefront in the next month or years and if you have an interest in a particular issue or cause to give you ideas and guidance as to how you can help as an individual or as part of a group to make progress on those issues. This sunday is our kickoff at 2 30. It will be on civil liberties, civil rights. We have an incredible panel coming. The executive director of the aclu, mike waldman, chief speechwriter for bill clinton, now the head of the Brennan Center at New York University law school and author of many books about Voting Rights and the constitution and todd cox from the naacp defense fund. We are excited about having those guys, phenomenal experts on this and we look forward to seeing many more people on sunday afternoon. Also doing one on womens rights on january 20th at 4 00 pm and you can look at the website for more details and more upcoming things. We have a display of books recommended for those at the front of the store. I am done with that. Now for what you are here for. I cant say what and honor it is to host ambassador tillis of at politics and prose. And assumed the position in 2009 at the ripe old age of 37. Thinking about this, learning more about him, to think of him solely as a diplomat in such an important post is to understate his wideranging interests and good works. In addition to representing his country overseas he is now an author, that much you know, his new book is called letters letters to a young muslim. First a brief mention of his other experiences and projects. Tillis of studied law in oxford with an advanced degree in math at the university of london and several legal and financial companies, worked in an art gallery about educational projects focusing on promotion of arab literature. He was the driving force that led to the creation of a campus at New York University in abu dhabi. My favorite part of his resume, i hope you dont mind, hes been five years trekking in they pauls nature to the source as a climber of tall peaks. All experiences including fluency and four language than most of all his role and responsibilities as father two sons safe at work for young muslim. This is written to his own children. s effort to show them how to be faithful to islam and deepest values for a complex world. With young muslims, young men and young women in mind and i suggest if you dont mind this book will be required reading for nonmuslims. They have a duty to engage with the world, wise words from a wise man. Thank you for that. He will be in conversation this evening, some of you know marcus from his roles in dc so thank you so much for being here. We are really delighted to have you both, you have the floor, thanks for coming. [applause] thank you for being here. With a dusting of snow they normally close the schools, close the government, the roads are in chaos, we narrowly avoided disaster. It is a great honor to be here with at the 12. He is a deeply thoughtful man who is courageous in his thinking. By that i mean we live in a time where as you know politics are deeply polarized, people get arrested, jailed and worse for thinking thoughts that dont converge with the mainstream and up to 12 stands out for willingness to take the worst and original positions on flashpoint issues in our time. One of the things lisa didnt mention which is highly relevant in understanding after 12s worldview is he was born into the days of the world we are living in today, 19 1971 when his country United Arab Emirates was founded. He has grown up as the region has modernized. The foreign minister was assassinated, at 6 00, that searing experience clearly informs his awareness of the intolerance of islamic radicalism. Is exploration of life as a muslim and father two young sons shapes this narrative in this book. What i thought i would do is start by asking to talk about how you came to write this book, what motivated you and what you are trying to accomplish. This is not a theological it is much more than that. For the larger world, it is important for understanding, an area of the world to become so central to our political experience. It is an honor to be here. Thank you very much. You didnt hear that. In dc, and honor to be here tonight. I have not written a theological text. I was asked, whether checking with religious scholars on the appropriateness, i responded to take a position, religious scholars tell me i am on the right track or not talk about thinking on the position in the world, the idea came out of converts coming into islam solving the problem how on earth did they come to the conclusion. What i tried to do, so much information about competing sexed sects, why stand up saying im a sunni as opposed to being a shia, born into this family is not doctrine or persuasion. What are the elements from the spiritual side all the way to the animalistic isis which there is a certain expression of islam. And inappropriate one, and a legitimate one but nevertheless it does come from the source documents. The only way i could come up with an understanding of it is to come back to something fundamental. Our humanity informs our reading, something that command you to rape or enslave or rob or kill, there is something wrong with you. It is too much of a coincidence founded religion that supports your positions and instincts and passion. That is what i am trying to say. You need a position on life in the first place. Host to let me take you back to the title of the book, your writing as a letter. This is to your sons. Why did you take that approach . You are clearly trying to help them understand a lot more than these divisions between other strains of islam. Thats a very few people wouldve read it. In the lessons i rewrote the book entirely between. I was able to write continuously in the final version so thats where that came from, i cant claim that it was my idea but now that ive written it it feels like im doing public therapy sessions for myself. I heard an idea enunciated a number of times in the u. S. That islam is in need of a reformation. Reading the book i come away feeling thats what youre arguing for that there needs to be a restoratio reformation. People ask are you calling for the reform of islam. I am taking a much more modest position to suggest i have deep theological understandings but by asking for his clarity from the religious scholars that traditionally have tol held at e respect. We should be asking the clerics to come towards the flock and learn about the people they are guiding and understand this change and today when every one of us has information. The clerics o have a special ara of expertise and im asking them to think about the questions each of us face it no longer the seventh century the tenth century arabia. Its dangerous to continue to believe or nonbeliever friend or foe, insider outsider when you bump into all kinds of people all day long. This would be the dream situation if this were the start of a set of dialogs across the societies between the clerics who have the moral knowledge and the youth that are asking the questions and for there not to be a meeting of the mines but an expression of interest in each other to find out what each contribute. In the u. S. Theres a lot of concern about islam and extremism. People with generally share the view that it would be great if islam could be a religion more focused on the Multicultural Society and not so much on the view of utopia. What does it take to get the dialogue going in the way that you write about in the book . They have an expectation they can speak freely. Blasphemy walls are interesting because they are structured on the world debate. I think they should take advantage of the situation here and the intellectual freedom to take a lead on the direction of global islam and contribute to the debate. Ideas can form and modernize and provide clarity so for example i talk about the role of the muslim individual and i noted to myself the person had used facebook. Its a product of western society. He was writing in english as an individual. He didnt have a group behind him s sorry but these are basic concepts we need to think about. Its also interesting w that we have a focus on the group and the idea is threatening to the group. I think they complement each other and the moment the focus has been on the group thats almost built a little personalities. There are many interesting elements to your book. One is your view of an understandinandunderstanding ofm and you write in the book how you have an older sister you describdescribed her and very impressive terms and you write the role they should play and i would say the conventional understanding can you talk about how women should be treated in islam let me rephrase that you know what i mean. We have a whole bunch of communities in the middle east in particular and i worry sometimes in the spread of islam we are exporting some of the practices and i dont think it is a great idea or particularly appropriate. I can speak from the prospect where women are given all kinds of freedoms equal to males and that means they have the chance to prove themselves and they do a better job than the males in our society. Theres a set of expectations that are completely unreasonab unreasonable. Certain societies are pushing forward on womens rights and womens empowerment. My sister essentially brought me up and has a kind of control over me. Often you hear in the rhetoric of the clerics that women are emotional and unable to make decisions. I enjoyed mountain climbing and there is a swedish woman that is about 5foot three and my wife is in her hands and i trust her entirely. Ive fallen from my position knowing shes controlling the rope thats important and we need to think not just in terms of this idea that the perfection took place in the seventh century and there was a tradition in the first three with the perfect form of muslim through all time. I want to introduce a discussion of what it means to be perfect for excellent as a muslim in the 21st century and we are using a set of concepts are we not allowed to develop these concepts of the clerics. It makes me wonder whether we are on the right track and i had a very interesting talk around the religious scholar he was kind of disparaging and his analysis came down to the understanding on the way that African Americans raised their families and commitments to responsibilities and family li life. A little criticism was directed at him because he wasnt taking into account the injustice and i thought this is a great opportunity. He said im sorry i didnt think of postings so these are concepts that come from outside the concepts of islam and i thought this is an opportunity to look at our own reactions and realized it should be recognized as the structural injustice. I have no idea if i answered your question. I will ask one more question and then open up. Religion imposes a sunny and some people. You talk about your own use and there was a period you were waiting out what direction to go and you found a more dogmatic religion. You talk about this reference to other young people how that plays out. At around 15 i decided i didnt have an opinion anymore because it was difficult to reconcile having a russian mother and dogmatic views of islam at the time so i decided to leave. Until the age of 19 night had no opinion. Now i think i solved that problem. I thought about it a great deal and they wonde i wonder why thet is so hesitant to welcome spee speech. Part of it is because we seem to be stuck in a cycle that we regurgitate the same arguments and think we are making progress but weve contributed to the and officers of the situation and come up with a Conspiracy Theory which removes any power that we might have so its kind of a dead end. I feel you begin to lose the ability to think clearly. I enjoy debate and qanda in thinking on my feet because it commits me to the dialogue. If you are silent there is no dialogue, there is no challenge, no creative thinking whatsoever so thats why im fearful of people in the middle east. Its one thing to think constructively but its also a major problem in our part of the world. There is a microphone here if you would please line up and start taking questions from the floor. I was lucky to catch you on the npr show and the daily show and you mad make a couple points that i thought were very good. You asked a question i think on page 22 whether it is more ethical to have difficult to hat islamic system or to have a psychologically healthy Islamic Society and i wanted to ask how you answered that. Im glad you noticed that. It pops into my head each day. They focus on the ritual and regulation of islam as they imagine it to be. We know there are people having nervous breakdowns, committing suicide, taking all kinds of medication. It occurred to me the religion is not meant to be difficult and we made it difficult and we have become obsessive about these tiny Little Details that have nothing to do with bubble of the religion and i wondered if people didnt be able to find if the clerics could think more in terms of psychology its one thing to pray five times a day but another to pray all night. There might even be a religious argument to maintain limits on your own religiosity. I just think we need to recognize there is a human psychology behind every muslim and we shouldnt push each other to the limits. I didnt expand on it because i need to have a whole set of discussions about it this clerics in the field of psychology. It is missing from the way that you look. Ive worked in the past as a trade advisor so i had a lot of fun funding. I try to talk about politics and religion more openly and as much as i will close with them, ive never been able to do that. I just assumed it was more political. You didnt speak much about that. Is it really a religious person nobody more so or just one of the two . What surprises me is even in western Society People are hesitant to speak out. There are consequences to taking positions and i spoke on npr. I came to the u. S. And i dont have an idea of the political leanings to the people i speak with. I speak freely and get pushback and people express surprise i havent taken a position in accordance or that seems to come here so for me that has been interesting. My speaking out is not a straightforward matter. Im continually thinking about what im saying and saying to myself i will bear the consequence and to take responsibility for these words because it is important for me as a human being to have a position to say it with dignity and stand by it. If people dont like it i can withdraw but i want to put a set of ideas out there and let people think about them if they want. If they decide is one of my close relatives decided that these ideas are beyond the pale, so be it but i think i owe it to myself and my children kind of an obligation to provide as much clarity as i can to them. There is an islamic perspective this ithat says the world is stf you are iyoure in the right res frame of mind you need to worry about nothing. The pope is a dynamic place and we have to continually reengage in the world. Its a daily, weekly, monthly task. I paid my five prayers a day and thats it necessary again. I would like your observation on a comment or some observations ive read by a french philosopher whose name i have unfortunately forgotten. The right way to look at what is happening with isis is to analogize it to the protestant reformation in europe in the 15th and 16th century that is basically the reaction of people that seek religion as being used to benefit some people and not permit explorations as such when ththe renaissance up and people began thinking i can do this and maybe this sun moves or the earth moves and perhaps the idea would be that his theory was that the same forces are at work in the islamist world and a thats quite foolish to think about using the military means to deal with it. Very interesting question. Thank you. [laughter] i think very briefly it is a set of ideas and as an organization it can be destroyed. We can try to discredit those ideas. Im not sure that we are making a serious push globally. I think of it as a state of mind to absorb and follow. Its simple and reductive and makes things black and white. I dont know enough at the 15th and 16th century of the religious kind of the people who spoke i do think it is very interesting that isis comes along almost as a nonstop. What they are doing is challenging the traditional authorities in saudi arabia or egypt and saying we have the right to talk about these issu issues. I have attended a number of conferences where thereve been a great deal of clerics promoting the idea of peace in islam and its fantastic but i noticed about the position is the criticisms are not about doctrine, they are about who has the right to this clerical authority. Perhaps this is why we need to get in touch with the clerics to say you are fighting in the power of the organization but youre not actually interested in us as individual agency just want to take that authority and tell us what to do so in structure you are not really different from what these people have done and thats why we need a set of clerics that are open and ready to have dialogue with 21st century people that have a broad education and who want to be ethical agents in the world. Can i followup with some john dicicco politics because you have the perspective that youve been in russia now for eight years and you know presumably how the government thinks about things. You spend time here and in the west. With isis in retreat, what do you see as the next stage of the ideological struggle within islam and where the west is involved and i will include russia in the region. I cant answer the question because its difficult so i will go off on a tangent. I think where the west is deeply involved in the arab and muslim world is on the question of his homophobia and extremism and very often we will voice our concerns about his homophobia which these are concerns that are very legitimate and i would say we need to fight his homophobia that even in the context we should think about all of the other minority groups weather in the u. S. Or elsewhere but even in the arab and muslim world we need to think about how we ourselves do with minorities and i am concerned i sometimes feel like we focus too much on the his homophobia angle to the detriment of the internal discussion in the community about extremism so these things are linked but they should be in a sense separated. We shouldnt use it as an excuse to hide serious issues the community is facing globally. I am a brand builder and i do marketing. In 2011 i did a talk called rebranding islam and the reason i did it is because at the time the mosque was being built and im jewish and have a lot of muslim friends and i really wanted to defend it and support it because i felt like thats religious freedom but i realized i didnt hear a lot of muslims in america, making a generalization, in my world for speaking out against terrorism so i put together this talk and the wife came and we had a moderator and it was a really polarizing discussion because again im not a theologian or anything but i thought it was important to have a state of understanding and how can muslims in america bridged the gap between what americans think of islam so that was wonderful and years later there are a lot of discussions and the clerics in america in my view has been n opening up discussions in having conversations in speaking out against terrorism and in small ways change the way that americans view islam but my question is there isnt a great stride. And he has a new Television Show coming out about like modern family but for islam instead of normalizing homosexuality, normalizing islam, having got into that kind o of popculture and idyllic that might be the only way. I was buying when september 1funny when septemberi thought i had been thinking about radical islam from the age of 12, 14 or 15 comes with a early ttheearly to mid 80s and t finally september 11 is to be a turning point for the community and we need to be thinking about what has been allowed to be said to our children and neighbors because traditionally at least in the areas i went to, there was a lot of angry preaching and i thought the reaction would be to begin to look into these issues but the action was we have to change islam in the midwest and i have respect for this but the product is it isnt clear where we stand on this and we could spend a ton of money on the brochures and tv series but when i go back home and speak to people at the mosque and we ourselves are wondering where are we going with all this, where are the clerics taking us into this aand this is a longoe discussion in the communities. When i was hearing you talk before, im jewish and there are different strains of this reform, conservative. It sounds like every muslim is that religiosity is to be extreme but thats not true. It is not true, i agree with that. Its an invitation to my fellow muslims to take on more responsibility. I know there are those that are cultural muslims, not particularly identify with the faith thats kind of a warm cozy feeling. But we do have a bunch of people within the faith that are taking radical lines and have an agenda to convert the rest of us to it so thats what im talking about. I take responsibility because i have to say to my child you dont understand isis is an evil organization because they are talking to you through your teacher at school or the internet and so great if you want to be an american muslim who wants to go to starbucks and go to the bookshops and go to work and not worry about the direction of islam globally, that your choice i dont think youre taking responsibility like that but its up to you. A lot of people are saying in trumps american muslims should be afraid. There are a lot of people who may be afraid of different communities in the u. S. But they get together and take advantage of the laws that protect the constitution and worked to establish a position for themselves in the community and thats what i would like to see. I think its a little selfindulgent to say im a muslim and this peopl those peot have anything to do with me. They have everything to do with this. I a ima resident of maryland and i was wondering on what you were saying before about american muslims ability to engage in this internal dialogue are there any plans to translate your book into arabic and they have a lot of human rights activists are blaming this on social media or having informal exchanges under very trying circumstances. Can you share any organizations that are trying to do that dialogue in a somewhat systematic way . There are organizations that everybody is sort of feeling their way forward. Im involved in the counter radicalization in london and Kings College but doing more of and an analysis. I have gotten an offer from an arab publisher and yesterday i got the news there is a turkish publisher that wants to look as well, pakistan hasnt called [laughter] perhaps the taiwanese would like [laughter] im going to figure out what thats all about. Hong kong as well. With friends in russia have said they would like to see and i do have a german and spanish contract. These are the early days as far as im concerned. I would like to see the reaction and again i want to stress this isnt a prescriptive text it just asks people to begin to engage in a set of questions. Maybe we will get some clarity and maybe there are straightforward answers. The muslim experience in the west can be different from the muslim experience in muslim majority countries believe that its used in the west they are issues and problems that are different. Even the clerics are different. Sitting here listening to you i have trouble relating to things you are saying as someone that is an advocate for gender equality and advocates joining hands in the community here i was struggling with a lot of the things youre saying so im wondering your book letters to a muslim exactly which muslims does it address even in the muslim majority countries the muslim experience would be different from those in pakistan that would be different so who is this targeting . Its a set of questions. First, the question is important to open up in the arab world. Its impossible to open up to those ideas if you came and said we are trusted in providing rights they would be horrified and laugh at you if you and though they know its very diverse. I am not saying that i address every single muslim and that every piece of advice or invitation to think in the book is relevant to every single muslim. I would be happy if each muslim who picks up the book finds three of the letters relevant. Im not out to preach im just inviting a discussion. You are right the experience in islam is different so maybe they should just declare their independence and go your own path. There are a lot of people pushing their radical agenda that says you must fall in line and one day you have to fall in line and this great project so you need to be aware of how others are looking at the community. Its also a cautionary book to be aware of the intentions of others in the name of the religion. I hope that was okay. Im an educator in islam and arabic studies and i also talked math, science and religion in Catholic Schools and in that time i did a lot of thinking of how im being asked t i am bein. Before you come to the text speaking specifically you should discover your position on life and i havent read your book yet so my apologies if you already addressed this. At what point and in what ways do you suggest we teach children about religion . That is a difficult one. I know how we should not teach them. There seems to be a growing trend in the communities that i mix in with education and indoctrination so we create a model of muslims and i think that is unfair and it limits their options and the potential of islam as a religion because it locks them into a worldview and doesnt give the freedom to think more broadly so that is what worries me. I will have to come back and think about that. Thank you. My apologies. Ima clinical psychologist. What is your diagnosis . [laughter] how much time do you have. [laughter] my parents experienced the nation of islam and then joined the kind of more mainstream expression so that was certainly my worldview growing up we were raised in a way that appreciated multiculturalism and religious plurality. My question is sort of twopronged. My observation as a psychologist is that often times unfortunately the clerics and religious leaders do a poor job of counseling and so i guess the question is how do we go about sort of changing that from the inside out and as a followon, any advice for folks like me better Just Community members that are Just Community members think of changing that and also holding them accountable or encouraging people who are clearly having Mental Health issues seeking to address those. The way they traditionally viewed their own function they are the ones that possessed the knowledge and essentially the religious knowledge is the only relevant knowledge but if you are not a scholar of islam you dont have the right to engage in the discussion but if you have a suggestion its interesting that keep to yourself so what im saying is we need to expand the notion of the scholar of islam and the people that have the authority to speak about the issues and people that have a greater understanding and to say about youre still the one that understands the intricacies but to make those today and move forward we need a greater number of people coming forward with the recommendations of the clerical religious classes so the knowledge of ourselves seems to be stuck with a view of how the knowledge works in the tenth century. There was a part mentioned where you said my friends and i wondered why committing suicide was seen as a great sin is done for reasons for sad us and unhappiness but a sacrifice it is done as a tactic to kill enemies. I agree with the statement but i was intrigued by the choice of words of committing suicide if somebody committed as a result of sadness and unhappiness. The narrative i have heard is when you talk about depression related suicide. It would not have happened to you so i wonder if the choice of words is the result of sadness or unhappiness or the word depression did that come in while you were writing it or just it was a coincidence . I was certainly thinking of a whole set of issues that led to people in the middle east committing suicide. I find it kind of objectionable we are told you cant do that because life is a gift from god that indicates that you are doing something for the islamics its okay. I think also i say somewhere in the book the whole idea of sacrificing your life it is a great sacrifice. You cant make any sacrifices after that and that is one of the problems if youre interested in making sacrifices for your religion, then stick around for as long as possible and make the world around you a better place. Thats what i would like to see the clerics saying. There was Something Else that wanted to say to you but it disappeared from my mind. Im sorry. This has been tremendous and i think on that note, but stick around and make more sacrifices, all of us can endorse the idea. Its been a remarkable wideranging conversation and i commend the book to all of you if you have not had the chance to read it, its eloquent and thoughtful and as you can tell the author is concerned about issues that are central to our times so i hope you all have the chance to read it. [applause] and because you all do want to read it now we have copies at the front and he would be happy to sign up here. Thank you all for coming out. [inaudible conversations]