Silent it, we into grateful for that. Our guests will be in conversation for a bit and then theyll be happy to take questions from the audience. We do have a mike microphone set up here and would love it itself you would you make it to the mic so we can record the questions and that would be very helpful. At the end of the vent there while be a signing at this table. You would you be kind enough to fold up your chairs it would expedite the signing and being able to get through and it out of here and make our staff very happy. At the end of a long day. Then i just want to say that this is our first week of events to 2017. We have an incredible calendar coming up and if you want a hard copy of our january calendar its at the information desk and the front of the store. Lots of really good stuff. And one 0 thing were most it couldded about is were launching i think some of you may know if your read our news letter and emails a launching a series of teachin is we suspect to be undergoing throw the winter, ranging across the a variety of subjects to try to educate and inform people about some of the challenge outsider country is faith little, issues on the forefront in next months and only years and if you have an interest in a particular issue or cause to give you some ideas and guidance as to what you can do as an individual or as part of a group to help make progress on those particular issues. This sunday is our kickoff at 2 20 30. On Civil Liberties and civil rights. We have an incredible panel coming. David cole, the executive director over the aclu. Mike waldman, the chief speech rite for bill clinton now the head of the Brennan Center at New York University small author of many books about Voting Rights and the constitution. And todd cox from the naacp Legal Defense fund. So were excited about having to the guys. All phenomenal experts on this and we look forward to seeing hopefully some of you and many more people 0 sunday afternoon. Well also be doing one on womens rights on january 20th january 20th at 4 00 p. M. , you can look at the web site for more details on that and well have some more upcoming things. Lastly, we do have a display of books recommended for those teach ins. Im done with that part now. I cant say what an honor and delight it is to host ambassador omar tonight here at politics and prose. The young know he is the United Arab Emirates ambassador russia and assumed the position in 2009 at the ripe old age of 37. But i was thinking about this today going through certain learning more about him. To think of him solely as a diplomat and even an important post is to understate his many wideranging interests and good work. In addition to representing his country overseas he is also now an author. That much i thing you know because he is speaking about his new book, called letters to a young muslim and a grandfather brief mention of hi other projects. He read law at oxford, earned an advanced degree in math at the university of london and founded several legal and financial companies, opened an art gallery and launched educational projects focusing on the promotion of arab literature. The driving force that led to the creation of a campus of New York University in abu dhabi. Perhaps my favorite part he spent five years trekking in nepal and switzerland, experiencing nature the fullest as a climber of very tall peaks. All these experiences including fluency in four languages and his role and responsibilities as a father of two sons, are at work in his writing of letters to a young muslim. The book is a collection of misssives written to his own children. His effort to show them, and i quote, how to be faithful to islam and its deepest values as well as to he how to chart their way through a the book is written for your children and also young muslims, young men and young women in mine and i might suggest that this book also ought to be required reading for nonmuslims, too. I think anyone who reads it will gain tremendously from your view that people of all backgrounds have again to borrow your word, a duty to think and question and engage constructively with the world. Those are wise words from wise man, and of course, so very poignant at this moment in our own country. So thank you for that. Were also very pleased to have with us marcus brockley in conversation with ambassador gobasr this evening. Some consecutive you know marcus from his serious roles here in d. C. Executive editor of the Washington Post in and now runs a small Investment Company on media and media technology. So thank you for being here, too. Were delighted have you both, and you have the floor. Thank you for coming. , you few for being here on a cold night. If they get a dust of school they close dust offering snow they close the agos the governments. Its a great honor to be here with omar for the reasons lisa said. A deeply thoughtful man, whose courageous in his thinking and by that mean we live in a time which, as you all know, politics deeply polarized. People get arrested, jailed and worse for thinking thoughts that dont converge with the mainstream. And omar in this maelstrom stand out for his willingness to day take nuanced positions. The one thing that lisa didnt mention which is highly relevant in understanding omars world view is that he was born very much born into this early days of the world were living in today. Born in 1971, which was the year that his country, United Arab Emirates was found it. He is groin up as the region has modernized. His father, who was foreign minimum story of the uae, was assassinated in 1977 when he was six. And i think that searing experience as much as anything, if you read this book, clear informs his awareness of the intolerance and violence of islamic radicalism, and his personal exploration follows his fathers death, as an arar and muslim and father to two young sons shapes this narrative. So thought i ask you to talk about how you came to write this book. What motivated you and what youre trying to accomplish with it. We were just talking before we came out here how this it no a thingologial treatise. Its much more than that and theological treatise and for the larger world, for those whose not muslims to read. Its important for bringing understanding to an area of the world and to a religion that has become so central to our political experience. Well, thank you very much. A great honor to be here. I thought the honors before speak into the mic. I shall. Thank you very much. So, you didnt hear any of that. Ill start again. This miss Favorite Book store in d. C. And i think one of the last standing book stores in the world. So its really a great honor to be here tonight. There are a couple of things i think need to be clarified. Have not written a theology yamal test and i was asked by some key figure inside middle east where i had checked with religious scholars on the appropriateness of what im saying. And i actually responded by saying, im actually writing in spite of them and to take a position visavis the im not asking for religious schools though if im on the right track. Im not talking about doctrine or prescriptions. Im advising my son and my my two sons to perhaps think about taking a particular position on the world, even before they begin to think about the particular sects of religions they belong to. And thats the position that i havent really heard being discussed, and that idea came out of the realization that there are converts coming into islam and they seem to have solved the problem that muslims have not solved. They knoll which one is the right path and particular cases they will choose sunni ya over shia islam and the question for me is how they came to the conclusion. So i tried to take a step back and say, what is informing a convert position . And in a sense, being a muslim in todays world, where we have so much information about competing sects, were all in the same position. Why i would stand up and say im a sunni as opposed to being asee shia . But i was born into a sunni family. Wanted to say where are the Common Elements that come boundary or underlie everything from the peaceful, spiritual side of islam, or the way to the violence, aggressive, animalistic isis, which i believe is a certain kind of expression of islam. An inappropriate one and illegitimate one, but nevertheless it really does come from the source document. The only way i could come up with an understanding how to be a muslim today is come back to our humanity and say that actually our humanity informs or reading and if youre finding fors some strange reason the koran permits you to rape, enslave, to rob to kill, then theres something wrong with you. And you havent its just too much of a co incidents you as a young male thug have found a religion that actually supports your position and your instincts and passions. So what is what im trying to say. Before you come to text you need a position on life in first place. Ive run out of let me take you back to the title of the book and at the porch you take, which i youre rules its as sear of letters and misssives to your son or your sons. Why did you take that approach and youre clearly trying to help them understand the strains of islam. Youre take opening whole underpinnings of the religion and saying you must not be rigid about it. Talk about why you took this framework and what are you trying to accomplish. To be honest, i was never really interested in taking the personal approach, and if you read the book youll see it actually very personal. Had written a what i tried to i tried to write more of a machine manifesto and guideline for young people to think about and an academic understand have to questions. Publisher lid its was great but very few people would read and itty suggested i think in a sear of letters so i rewrote the back between march, april, may so over the course of two months, i used the tool of addressing my older son and it was remarkable that it thrill released tremendous amounts of energy and i was able to wright continuously and there men less beyond inside include in the final version. So, thats where i came from. I cant claim it was my idea. But now that ive written it, it feels like im doing some public therapy sessions for myself, working the the issue missouri childhood. But youre also doing in a sense public therapy for your religion, and ive heard an idea enunciatessed in the u. S. That islam is in need of a reformation, martin luther. I come away feeling like thats what your arguing for that. Needs to be a reformation to change the understanding of islam. I dont think its fair to be honest. People of are you calling for reform of islam, they ask me . Theres summing thats a body and we can debate and topdown instruction. Im taking a much more modest position. I am to offer reform of islam suggests have some kind offing f theological understanding about im only asking for clarity, from the religious scholars who extra traditionally have held the respect in our islamic society. What im saying is that i think we should be asking clerics to come towards their flock and to actually learn about the people that hair guiding, and to perhaps understand that the flock has changed from the tenth century when most of us were ill late rat illiterate and today when everybody of as hawse incredible access to information and knowledge. The clerics have a very specialized area of expertise. What im asking them to do is to really think more broadly about the moral questions that each of us faces in multicultural societies. No longer a hoe mom news society of tenth century arabia. Very dangerous to continue with the categories of believer no believe exing are friend or foe, insider, outsider, especially when youre bumping into all kind of people all day long. So, i would like for this to be the start a dream situation if was the start off potentially a set of dialogues across muslim society, between the clerics who really have a repository of knowledge and thelight who are asks question, to what each can curt to do middle east and the miss him world in general. What is take to get the dialogue going . The u. S. These days i think theres a lot of concern about islam and extremism and islam and i think that the u. S. Would and people in america would generally share the view it would be great if islam could be a religion more focuses on a modern multi curl tour society and not focused so mump on the seventh or under view of utopia and the caliphate. What does its tike get islam to modernize . One thing is that is important is the position of muslims in america. Muslims in america have the protections of the law. They have an expectation they can speak freely. Different from muslim cups where we not a to put in blasphemy laws. Very interesting because they seem to be structured to end all debate, and you have to make sureey get on the right side of the blaspheme ya law. Think the muslim communicates of america should take advantage of the situation here and at the academic freedom, the intellectual free tom to freedom to take affect the global islam and the debate taking blaze in middle east and air arabs. Im not saying thes idea are reforming or modernizing. Theyre providing clarity. So, for example, i talk about the role of the muslim individual. I got some criticism by somebody online where they said that the individual is a weapon concept and, therefore, is not a western concept and that not brought into the die dialogue of our islam. I noted to myself that the person used facebook, which is western tool, or maybe thats not the appropriate term its a product of western society. He was writing in english and writing as an individual. Didnt have group behind i him. Thought these are basic concepts we need to work out and to think about. I also think its interesting that we have this focus on the group and that the idea of the individual is threatening to the group. Think they compliment each other and the focus has been too much on the group which has formed thats kind of almost empty body about of people with little personality. Want to race the level of quality of the group by beefing up the individual in the msu him world. There are two interesting many interesting elements to the book. A couple thinged want you to talk aboutment. Win us your rue of an understanding of women and islam and you write in the become how you have an older sister who is you describe her in very impressive terms, and the way you write about women and the role you think they should play in islam is not, i i i would wod say the conventional view of how are. Ry talk about how women should be treat. Be treat. Thats slightly biased. You know what i mean. Now what you mean. I in apologies. Well, we have a whole one of patriarchal societies in he mideast and i wonder in spread of islam were actually exporting some of the local cultures and practices of the middle east, and thats a great idea, nor die think its a particularly do i think its a particularly appropriate. I can speak for the emirate where women are given freedom to males. And actually in practice that means is that women have the chance to really prove themselves and in fact they do much pet better job tan the males. Were morewide about whereunder men are going or what theyre doing. They set of expectations that completely unreasonable and thats a certain societies win the middle east are pushing forward on kind of wimps womens empowerment. We have a whole bunch of cabinet ministers are women and doing an amazing job. Much more interesting than the male members. My sister, she essentially brought me up and she has that kind of control over me, that an old are sister can have. Often youll hear in the rhetoric of certain clerics that women are emotional, weaker than men and unable to make decision. But i enjoy mountain climbing and my guide, mountain climbing guide, is a swedish woman who is about 53 and my life is in her hands. I trust her entirely. Ive fallen from my position and hung in air, knowing that she is actually controlling the rope and making sure i dont fall to my death. And pulling her with me, of course. So thats important. We need to think in terms something i have spoken we have this idea that moral defection took place in the seventh century. And theres a tradition so they the first three generations of muslims were the perfect form of muslim through all time. I want to introduce the idea, maybe, or at least start a discussion what it mean toads be morally perfect or morally excellent as a muslim in the 21st century and i have difficulty understand hogue to do that if were using a set on of concept inside the seven seventh century . The way we skying the word through through seven inch century lens or going even further, the legitimate line of authorities nell the tenth or 11th or 13th century, it make meds whether or not kerr whether were on the right track. I had an interesting kind of i was very interested by the talk around the religious scholar yusefy we has asked about black lives matter, and he was kind of dispaperring and his neal was it boiled down in my understanding, about the way in which africanamericans raise their families and their commitment to responsibilities and commitment to family life and illinois able to illinois ability to do it. A lot of criticism was directed at him because he within taking into account Structural Racism and injustice. Thought to myself this is a great opportunity him didnt say those are unacceptable categories. He said im sorry i didnt think of them. So these are concepts that happen come from outside of the concept that have come out of islam if thought. We this is a fantastic opportunity to begin to look at our open reactions and to realize that actually we recognize structural injustice even of the it was port of islamic theology. If have no idea if i answered your question. There was an excellent nance. In the other thing ill ask one morphoand then open it up. From the book, i found quite you talk about silence in the book, and how if i in other words it correctly, religion imposes a kind of silence on people, acceptance of the religious dogma imposes silence and nonthinkingness. You talk about your own youth when you were weighing what direction to go and you fell into the sway of certain of more dogmatic religious. You talk about how you think, reference to other young people and young men, how that play otherwise and then how you think that gets ended. Well, i picked up on the silence issue so ill start from there. At around 15 i decided i didnt have any opinions anymore because it was so difficult to reconcile having a russian mother, but having strict, rigid, dogmatic views of the world through islam at the time. At the time i was 14, 15. So i decided to leave and i took a timeout of about 20 years. Three of those year were completely silent. Had absolutely nothing say. Did my exams and until the age of 19 i had no pound. No opinions. Now i think ive solved that problem. I think i thought about silence a great deal, particularly the context of freedom of speech by wonder why the middle