Of questions that feel a little complementary to me. One may even partially answer the other. First one is how do you balance religious freedom against islams desire to take over the world . The second one is, given your description of what islam is and does, how can it be considered a religion . Thats a very good question. Number one, i think we should define in america what a religion should be. And ill tell you what my definition will be. A religion will be given the respect in america to be practiced only if it respects human basic human rights. [ applause ] any religion any religion we have to define religion. So if we define religion as a set of values and morals to live by, if a religion condemns those to leave it to death, its right to be practiced in america will be null and void. [ applause ] and thats the only way we can either reform islam, we have to get rid of that and we can judge islam by the way muslims practiced in america. By the way. We have to judge islam by how its being practiced in iran and saudi arabia. Because wherever is islam is a majority, when theyre in the minority they admit it, even the koran, when youre in the minority, lie and slander, and accept and act like you like peace. So youre dealing with a religion that teaches lying as a virtue. Islam is notoriously hostile to people who renounce their ideology. You must be a real thorn in their side. Have you personally experienced violence or threats . Oh, yeah. I have a fatwa on me to die if i go to egypt. And thats why i cant visit. The only country i can visit in the middle east is israel. This is the only country i can visit and stay alive. So that is the religion of peace. What, if anything, do you think we should do in syria . Does taking any side make sense . No. We should keep out of syria. If arabs the arab world is very rich, by the way. And they have huge armies. If they want to save the syrian people, let them do it. Stop interfering between people who are both bad. I mean you say shiite or sunni, theyre both terrorists. We cant go against shiite with sunni or sunni with shiites, they both want to kill us. Can you comment on the recent events where a jewishbased university, brandeis, reversed an invitation to a speaker to give an address at commencement. I will tell you something about it. A lot of people exorcising the jewish people because they are not standing up and inviting people who are like me. I see ari enough. Let me tell you something, its time for us nonjews to stand in the front line against radical islam. We should not leave the jewish to do that job. Its our job. Its the job of christians. And i noticed that the christians in america are also not speaking out. Such as the jews. So of course, i would have liked brandeis to keep its invitation and not rescind it, its a shame. But i can understand why the jews have done enough fighting for the life against radical islam. Its time for the rest of the world to wake up. Can your name any prominent leaders in either party in the United States who understand and give voice to the threat . Who understand and what . And give voice to the threat that were facing. To what . To the threat. To the threat of islam. I think theres a lot of republicans who are called racist and bigots, and islamphones. Unfortunately we have neutral neutered our politicians. We have a lot of great men and women. We have sarah palin. We have great men and women. We dont have a shortage of good politicians. A lot of people are angry at our politicians, but you know who im angry at . Its us, who dont go and vote. Last election the reason mitt romney didnt vote because a lot of christians were saying, we dont want to vote for a mormon. This is ridiculous. You judge a person by his character and the man has very good character, very good family. And what did we get . Thats what we got. So were getting what we deserve. When shiites and sunnis fight and kill one another, should we do anything besides sit back, make popcorn and enjoy the spectacle . Absolutely. Just dont interfere. And by the way, im totally against going into iraq and going into afghanistan and do nation building after that. Excuse me, were becoming a poor country. We have a lot of poor in america. We dont nation build oilrich countries. Let their muslim brethren build their nations. They have plenty of money instead of sending it here to build mosques. Let them send it there and fix their own country. Why does the west give money to islamic terrorists groups . Like the muslim brotherhood, al qaeda, hamas, fattah and others . I think it started when egypt had the peace treaty, thats how it started. Its like an insurance policy. Egypt is a poor country. And here is our money, dont fight israel. I think that is, more or less, the reason we give money to egypt. Thats the truth. We dont admit it, but thats the truth. Israel, we should support israel, absolutely, financially. Because israel has been you know, has been abandoned by the world. Look at what the United Nations is doing to israel. So i think egypt, were helping egypt so they dont attack israel. But gaza and the west bank . Dont send them a dime. Let saudi arabia, who is encouraging them, to do the terrorism, to either support them or leave them to fend for themselves and get a job. They need a job. The Palestinian People need jobs. They dont need terror. [ inaudible ] yeah, of course, saudi arabia, 15 of the 19 terrorists were saudis. I mean, saudi arabia is the most dangerous country in this world. In my opinion, its more dangerous than iran. But you know why, because at least iran fights for it. Saudi arabia pays other nations to fight its dirty work through terror. And that scares me more than countries that are up front. They tell you, im your enemy and im going to kill you. Now i can deal with you. Saudi arabia says i am your ally, and heres the money. Go fly airplanes into buildings. Its the most dangerous nation in the middle east. Its the home of islam. This is where mohammed came from. Why do you suppose the 1 billion muslim slaves dont revolt . One million muslims what the one billion muslim slaves dont revolt . Because when you put somebody in for a very long time in a prison, if you open the gate, they dont all run right away. Some people stay in the prison. Like me when i came to america, i didnt feel free right away. Took me a long time. So and also the power of oppression of the society around you, if you live in the muslim world, its very different from being a muslim and you live here. Its very easy here to just dump islam and adopt american values. When youre living there, the social pressure on you to go pray and social pressure is very, very high. Its changing, however. And im seeing hope that islam will go dormant again. But its not going to go dormant, the culture takes decades to change. A human being can change quicker than a culture. So in a few decades, if we start drilling over in america, we have plenty of, then saudi arabia can drink its oil. And thats why anybody in america who is against drilling, against coal, and against doing theyre trying to say that the environment will suffer if we drill for oil. Are you kidding me . Look at saudi arabia and qatar. They have the most beautiful beaches of the red sea and theyre drilling right and left. The life span of a saudi before they discovered oil was like 40 years old. Now its like 75. So i dont see that the camels are dying in saudi arabia from the drilling. Theyre flourishing. The red sea and arabian sea are full of fish. So what are we afraid of . Thats all lies. The liberals are lying to you. Because their agenda is to stop the industrialization of america. They want us to roll back and to take the word catch up with us. Thats the real motivation. But they have to they cant be honest. They are like the islamic ideology. They use lying to reach their goals. Its exactly like islam. I would have more respect for liberals if they tell you their agenda honestly. And lets have an honest debate. But they dont want to have an honest debate. The liberals want to call you names just like islam calls you, youre a youre a racist, youre islamphobe. Thats why [ inaudible ] yes, it was very hard. I couldnt change right away because really to live under islam for a long time can demoralize you. Its a burden. I have a chapter in my last book. Its called a muslims burden. You know christianity lifts your burden, it feeds you, it takes away your guilt. Thats how we become in christianity. In islam its a culture of shaming. Its a culture of control. Its a culture of putting burden on the individual. You know, in christianity, god came down to save us. In islam, we must save allahs reputation. Thats why they riot if you say anything about allah or mohammed, because its the duty of the muslim to carry the burden of mohammed and defend him. So its exactly the opposite. So it wasnt as soon as my mind cleared, which took a few years living under freedom, i went to, you know, i i went to several churches and synagogues. And frankly, i dont find any i find judaism and christianity as like one in my eyes. I dont know why. Christians dont see that, but i see it. Because christianity could never have happened without judaism. So i look at the jaw dayic Christian Culture as one, and the reason i became christian, i was watching one morning in 97 tv on sunday morning, and i was flipping channels, and there were preachers, one after the other. They were praying for the whole world. They were praying for peace on earth. They were praying for everybody, all nations, and that just struck me. I said, oh, my god, my religion curses. I grew up with cursing. Every friday prayer, they would sit and curse and bang and get the sword out. Jihad. May god destroy the jews and the infidels, the enemies of allah. And people go out of the mosque and kill christians as a result of being a muslim. I saw the man, he made me feel so at peace. So you know, i became a better person. And therefore it wasnt difficult for me to become christian. And to support israel. [ applause ] it lifted my guilt. I have one more question for you. Then we want to make sure you have time to sign books for your fans. Sure. So this one is a challenging one. You say youre not against muslims, but against their ideology. How can you separate the two . Youre not Holding People accountable for their actions. Ideology doesnt kill people, people kill people. I agree in a way. But, we human beings are very weak. Let me tell you, we are all born half good and half bad. Depending on our religion, we either strengthen the good or strengthen the bad. Muslims are the victims of islam. They have been brought up in an ideology. We dont even know that lying and slander against jews is evil. We think its a virtue. Believe me, if i go and say in the muslim world today, if i make a speech about forgiveness between jews and arabs, i would be shot dead on the spot as a traitor. While the same sermon in america about forgiveness between jews and arabs would give me a nobel peace prize. You know . So its the same thing. But one culture looks at it as evil and one culture looks at it as a virtue. So thats the problem. Muslims are the victim of an evil ideology. [ applause ] thank you. And tonight on cspan2 its book tv with authors and books on American Foreign policy. We begin with a debate on war and the u. S. Constitution. Book tv tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan2. And here on cspan3, American History tv with programs on world war i. 100 years after the great war began. We visit the First World War i museum in kansas city. Then a history professor looks at how soldiers view their battle experiences. After that, author Michael Lasser discusses the music of world war i and how patriotic songs contributed to the war effort. American history tv, tonight at 8 00 eastern, on cspan3. Tomorrow on washington journal dr. Gavin mcgregorskinner discusses the u. S. Response to ebola. Then political reporter James Hellmann looks at the 2014 elections and key governors races around the country. And Bloomberg News examines how the u. S. Trucking industry is addressing Highway Safety issues. Plus your phone calls, facebook comments, and tweets. All on washington journal, Live Saturday at 7 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. This weekend on the cspan networks, tonight at 10 00 eastern on cspan, a conversation with retired u. S. Supreme Court Justice john paul stevens. On saturday night at 9 00 eastern the founder and former chair of microsoft, bill gates on the ebola Virus Outbreak in west africa. And sunday evening at 8 00 on q a the director of the myth sewnians National Museum of african art and tonight at 8 00 on cspan2 authors john yoo and bruce fein talk about war and 9 constitution. Saturday night at 10 00 author Heather Cox Richardson on the history of the Republican Party and live sunday at noon on book tvs indepth Legal Affairs editor in charge at reuters and Supreme Court biographer. Tonight at 8 00 on American History tv on cspan3, historians and authors talk about world war i, 100 years later. And saturday at 5 00 p. M. Eastern, former fbi agents on catching the unabomber suspect ted kaczynski. And sunday afternoon on american artifacts at 6 00 p. M. The 100th anniversary of the panama canal. Find our Television Schedule at cspan. Org. And let us know what you think about the programs youre watching. Call us at 2026263400. Email us at comment comments cspan. Org or send us a tweet at cspan, comments. Like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. Earlier this week, candidates for Texas Governor met for a debate in dallas. Republican greg abbott and democrat wendy davis faced off in their final debate. Heres a portion of it now. Its incredibly important, whenever we talk to a woman who is a victim of rape or incest that we start with the compassion and support they deserve. Thats what i have done as attorney general by providing a record amount of Financial Support to victims and victims organizations, supporting women whove been victims of rape and incest. Thats what ive done as attorney general by arresting more sexual predators than all attorneys general in the history of the state of texas. But you bring up the issue. You know that im prolife. And im catholic. And i want to promote a culture of life that supports both the health and safety of both the mother and child both before and after birth. In texas, lets be clear about the law. And that is, a woman has five months to make a very difficult decision. Thank you very much. Senator davis . Senator davis you catapulted into the spotlight on this issue with your filibuster against abortion restrictions. But you recently told the Editorial Board of the Dallas Morning News that you might not have filibustered if the legislation only banned abortions after 20 weeks with allowances for rape and incest. What kind of abortion restrictions are you willing to accept . I have always believed, brian, that it is for a woman, and a woman guided by her faith and her family and her doctor, to make these very difficult decisions for themselves. I do not believe that the government should intrude in that most personal and private of decision making. Greg abbott on the other hand, believes that it is his right to intrude, even when a woman has been the brutal victim of a rape, a brutal rape, or has been the victim of incest. This should come as no surprise to us, given that mr. Abbotts attitudes toward women have revealed themselves in other ways. He pays women in his office less than he pays male assistant attorney generals. He campaigns with a known sexual predator who has bragged about having sex with underage girls. What about your thank you. This race leans republican. You can watch the debate and dozens of others any time online at cspan. Org. At the annual convention of the Islamic Society of north america, a Panel Discussed the future of islam in the u. S. And challenges facing the Muslim American community. This is an hour and 20 minutes. All right. Can everyone hear me . Good. I have nothing interesting to say beyond that. Welcome to generation rise. My name is haroon moghul. I am the moderator or the instigator. My job is to get the conversation going. We have a very distinguished panel here. Im going to try to let each of them speak as much as possible and if the conversation dies down, your questions will be brought up to me and ill filter them for the most interesting, provocative, funniest and stranges. Feel free to throw anything in there to keep them on their toes. Is there something you always wanted to know about mansoor, i will make sure to read it out loud. Yeah. So. How is everyone doing . Good. It took me two hours to get here from the airport which is as long as it took me to fly here. So that is generation rise on an american scale. The purpose of tonights conversation is to talk about the issues, dilemmas, opportunities and challenges facing muslim communities going forward. What im going to do is start the conversation off by introducing mahdi to my left who many may have seen or heard. He is the political director for Huffington Post uk, columnist, and head to head on al jazeera english. If you have not seen it you definitely should. He is the biographer of british Operation Leader ed miliband and has published an electronic book on the financial crisis. In 2012 in the Guardian Newspaper wrote he it has become a cliche to say young british muslims are alienated estranged and marginalized from the political process doesnt make it any less true. Muslims are woefully underrepresented in politicaliy life. The number of muslim members of parliament in the uk for instance stands at 8 out of 506. That was about two years ago, but what i wanted to ask matthew to start with is, when we are constantly as a community being tagged by events abroad overseas for example most recently the rise of isis, how do we as a Community Focus on the domestic when there is so much pressure on us to talk about th