Radical Middle Way Transcripts

Imam Johari Abdul Malik on:

‘Can Muslims Trust Barack Obama?’
[Opening du’ā]

That‟s probably about the most religious thing I‟m going to say, but I have to begin by
praising Allah and asking for mercy on the Prophet, all of the Companions and the
rightly guided people everywhere.

It has been part of a multi-generational effort to bring people who have been on the
fringe of the discourse of politics and society, to be at the table and to be having this
kind of discussion. There‟s something you don‟t know Abdul-Rehman, and it‟s
something I didn‟t tell you, which is that I serve on something called the American-
Muslim task force for elections and civic engagement. And that umbrella group is an
umbrella group that contains all of the major Islāmic organisations in America,
including MANA, ISNA, ICNA, CARE and MPAC, groups that are in some way
affiliated with politics, we meet regularly and regularly have conference calls, and
have been organising across the political spectrum, some of those might have been of
quite republican meaning and some of those in general more democratic now. But we
have been meeting to be able to move the Muslim Community forward in the political
discourse, particularly around the elections of 2008.

I want to start by placing a lot of the issues that I hope we‟re going to talk about
tonight, in some context. First, when we are looking at candidates that are running
for office in America. One of the issues that is really fundamental to political
engagement is the issue of social identity. If I were to look at nine different identities
you‟ll find a complex combination of characteristics that creates the political identity
in America.

One: national origin. In other words, where were you born? As you might have
discovered, in the United States, in order to become President you must have been
born an American. You can not be a naturalised citizen and become President.

The second identity is nationality. That you are somehow a natural citizen or a
natural born citizen of the United States.

The third identity in America is colour. And colour doesn‟t just mean if you are just
black and white – it‟s all of the shades of colour in between, and in many respects
America is kind of a colour-struck society. But it‟s not as sophisticated as perhaps
Brazil, where Brazil has gradations so you really know where you stand in the
pecking order, depending on how you put the other aspects of that colour identity
together, determines your ability to move between communities and groups.

The fourth is language, now seeing that the fastest growing demographic in America
is the Spanish speaking community. But remember that the Spanish speaking
community in America is not monolithic, just because they speak Spanish but they
might be Cuban, would make them more to the Conservative right-wing, as opposed
to Nicaraguan, El-Salvadorian, and Mexican; if they‟re Mexican they‟re probably
more likely to be leaning democratically, only because of their association with
organised labour.

So the fifth is race. Now race is this dubious thing, a social construct that identifies
you, and we‟re going to talk a little bit more about the characteristic that identifies
your race, because it‟s very insightful with regard to the phenomenon of Barack
Obama.

The sixth is class, because class in America has a fundamental affect on whether or
not you can have access to the halls of power. Some people say we don‟t really have a
two party system in America or a three party system; we have a one party system:
party of the rich. And if you‟re of the party of the rich, however you got there (that‟s
the nice bit about it), once you get into the millionaire club, you could probably
become President of the Unites States class.

Seven: religion. And religion not in the way that until this moment, we have had a
discourse in America about religion, meaning what kind of Protestant you were, or
maybe if you were Jewish, Catholic or Protestant, a „lifestyle‟ – lifestyle by the way is
a euphemism in America for whether you‟re gay or straight – [Imam Johari Abdul
Malik laughs] that‟s lifestyle.

Ninth is what level or where on the political spectrum you are – whether you‟re on –
whether you‟re conservative (and by the way in America, conservative and liberal
means something different to when you say conservative and liberal over here)
generally in America, a person who is a liberal means that they are pro-organised
labour, it means they are liberal because they are liberal in a social sense, in other
words they are pro-gay, pro-minorities, pro-social welfare. Conservative means that
they are fiscally conservative, that they don‟t believe in affirmative action; that they
don‟t believe in domestic programmes that support people who are on the dole –
public benefits. But that has recently been taken over by another type of
conservatism, meaning the Christian right. But again, in America, that ninth
dimension of your political identity also determines what you will be in the
composite. So a person could be a Cuban by historical nationality, Spanish speaking
which makes them Latino, brown by their colour, by their race they could be
classified – even though they‟re brown – as „white‟; be in a socially upward socially
acceptable class; maybe coming out of the Cuban experience and may or may not be
Catholic; be gay or straight, but probably in a Cuban sense they would be straight,
and would be politically to the right.

Now, probably all those things as an example, don‟t come to your mind as what a
conservative, Cuban, Spanish speaking person would look like. But that‟s what‟s
possible in this American political matrix.

I want you to think about the historical context within the framework of the
Constitution around the issue of political empowerment. 13th and 14th amendment of
the Constitution of the United States passed in 1865. The President at that time was a
Republican, Abraham Lincoln; the Republicans sometimes like to say „we‟re the party
of Lincoln‟ as though is some way or another that makes them liberal towards
minorities. But the 13th and 14th amendment freed the African American maybe
making them not full citizens, but citizens, saying they had rights. And primarily that
13th and 14th amendment of the Constitution provided that black men could have
parity with white men. It‟s not until the 19th amendment to the US Constitution in
the 1920‟s that women would gain the right to be politically equal to men. The quick
math on that anybody? Anybody good with math? How many years is that? I‟ll go
with 55. For quick math, that wasn‟t bad.
This gives you a sense that in America, race versus gender, there seems to be
something about the American society that tends to move people in the direction of
addressing the issue of race before the issue of gender and we‟ll see it again. 1964 we
have the civil rights act which then completes the franchise that African Americans,
Asians – the Asian Exclusion Act meant that if you were a person of ancestry and
Asian ancestry – that means whether you‟re Chinese, Japanese, whether you were
Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, if you were deemed to be Asian, then you were
discriminated against in housing, applications to certain professions that were
barred. The Civil Rights Act of 1954 brought Asians and African Americans and Jews
and women to a status of having equal political rights to Caucasian men.

That‟s important for us to look at, and show you that minorities in the United States
of America have only advanced historically during times of crisis. In other words
America never gives the franchise to people unless there‟s a crisis. There was an
industrial crisis around the time of the Civil War. It was not about just saying „we
have not treated our negroes right.‟ There was a shift in the industrial nature of the
society away from a rural, non-industrial, non-mechanical source of production into
a more industrialised north that was invading a non-industrialised south. And so
there was a need to shift the source of labour in America into the industrialised
world. And because of that it was important to emancipate African Americans –
that‟s one reading of history.

If we were to look at World War One, and in World War One, women were allowed to
move into the industrialised work force in America. Why? Because so many men had
been drawn into the war that the factories that produced munitions – even my
grandmother – subhān Allah, I just remembered that. My grandmother, when she
was a young girl, worked in a munitions plant. A Negro woman was allowed to work
in a plant because the United States needed people to put the bombs and the guns
and the bullets together. And so they took every able-bodied person, even though
under normal circumstances they would have restricted women, and particularly
white women, and they would be allowed to move into the industrial work force, able
to earn wages and maybe even to be unionised, which was a phenomenal idea at that
time.

World War Two, blacks in World War One that weren‟t allowed to fight were allowed
to cook, clean, to work as orderlies in the hospitals, but they weren‟t allowed to hold
a weapon and fight. When in World War Two they needed more man power, and so
they let African Americans bear arms. Only when America‟s back is up against the
wall, do they release the reins of power. And so you have groups like the Tasghigi and
they take the freedom of African Americans to new heights. Being able to
demonstrate their ability to fly aeroplanes and to fight and to have valour, and to
fight the social order. And by the way, this reference to the military is very important
to the framework of the advance of the social-political majority of blacks in America.
We‟ll pick that up later.

When we look at the issue of racial identity. Remembering that race is a social
construct, not a genetic construct, especially in the United States. I don‟t know if any
of you realise that if you were Egyptian, according to the State Department, it didn‟t
matter what the colour of your skin is, Egyptians in the United States would be
classified as „white‟. Yes, because it‟s a political construct. During segregation,
immigrant blacks from Africa or Asia were exempt from the codes that said if you
were black – meaning an ex-slave – you‟re not allowed to go to certain places; but if
you are not part of the slave legacy, this is important. Then you can enjoy the rights
of being – pardon the expression – an honorary white person.

So during slavery and segregation, even though the colour was the same – maybe
even the country of origin was the same – but because of the state of involuntary
servitude, those blacks historically, would have been excluded from any political
identity. And so the phenomenon of Barack Obama is very interesting in the
American political mainstream.

Barack Obama does not share a slave legacy. Therefore, his identity in the American
mainstream is not the identity of an ex-slave. He‟s exempt. So he enjoys the status of
an immigrant like an Irish or a Polish or others, and he has the benefit of identifying
himself as a person of mixed race, which affords him a different position in the racial
construct of America.

Right now in the United States there‟s an explosion (if I can use that word...because
you know a lot of the time with Muslims there are certain words you can‟t use, like
the word „explosion‟). [Audience laugh] There have been explosions in interracial
movements in America, and the American military historically is the place in
America where mixed race peoples and inter-racial marriages are most accepted.
Some people who are part of the military who have inter racial marriages (black-
white is the most obvious one) many of them say that when they are serving and they
have to live near the military base, they would rather live on base in the south, than
to live off base. Because on the military base you are respected by how many stripes
or bars you have on your shoulder. But when they walk off the base they are judged
not as a captain or a colonel or a lieutenant or whether they‟re black or white, and
they‟re not accepted in their inter-racial union. So they would rather live on base
with other military families like ourselves. So the American military really has been
the example of the best place for the racial question to be worked out and I think for
many of us, we owe Eisenhower a great debt of gratitude.

But there is in America a growing acceptance of the baby boomers who all grew up
with the Beatles and the hippies and the whole free movement. So that population
now who were the baby boomers are the ones who are driving now the political
engine in America. And so you have in America now, the phenomenon of race choice.
You could choose one race – I‟m of mixed race but I choose one race. Maybe on some
level the Barack Obama phenomenon is interesting; Barack Obama can choose. Some
choose „other‟ when asked „what‟s your race? What do you mean other?‟ Others say I
am not one race or another; I don‟t even want to get involved in the race question.
Most Americans historically choose one, because of what we call the „one drop rule‟ –
does anyone know what the one drop rule is? If you add one drop of ethnicity into the
white paint you are of the „other‟. So there‟s no grey. If somebody is mixed race,
they‟re black. You say „I‟m not black‟ – Tiger Woods right? He had to say „I‟m not
black.‟ We say „come on Tiger, what you saying, we seen the pictures...‟ and he says
„I‟m not black!‟ He has been allowed in the current context not to be black.

Now I‟m going to talk about Michael Jackson [audience laugh]. Now Barack Obama
has been able to identify himself as both black and white. When he‟s in Chicago he‟s
black, when he‟s in Kansas he‟s white, and when he‟s in Hawai‟i he‟s Hawaiian
[audience laugh]. He actually is Hawaiian because he was born there. Remember I
talked about national origin versus nationality. Now if he had been born in Hawai‟i
just a little bit earlier, he wouldn‟t have been able to run for president. But because of
the accident of birth in that place is so far away from the United States I don‟t know
how they call it the United States. But because of that, when he goes to Hawai‟i, he‟s
going to carry Hawai‟i, because they want the native son to be President. He‟s going
to win Kansas because he‟s going to stand next to his white relatives who accept him
because they want their relative to be in the White House – you see all of Kansas is
going to get invited to the White House. You see? The political realities.

So I say that to say, if we were to look at this complex combination of relationships, if

we looked at race, gender and religion, a recent poll was done „could you, would you,
vote for the following: could you vote for black?‟ a little more than 80% of Americans
said that they could vote for black. We already had the Jesse Jackson phenomenon;
the first person of colour to run for a major campaign to get matching funds from the
national party, does anyone know who? Shirley Chisholm who is a female and black,
and if you think about how far back Shirley Chisholm was – that‟s before Elizabeth
Dole, Geraldine Ferraro, so there has been a road paved for people of colour and
women, to make their way through the political ascendancy. And the idea now, after
rainbow pushing, that a black person can do it, people are saying, „why doesn‟t Colin
Powell run?‟ People are saying, is this the same America? The same America that
assassinated Martin Luther King? Some people say ‟look the democratic party is so
weak, let‟s let Condoleezza Rice run.‟

So in Barack Obama there is something that starts leading the charge, saying it‟s the
time for change, is America ready for change? There‟s no doubt about it; in fact
America is so ready for change that all the other candidates start talking about
change. Somehow, and in a way that the Democratic Party didn‟t anticipate, how
ready America is ready for change. But a little more than 60% of Americans said that
they could vote for a female. And about 34% of people said (this is a poll taken in
February) that they could vote for a Muslim.

For most of us who live the political reality in America, 34% is not bad! [Audience
laugh] We expected something like -10%! When you look at the numbers you can say
to yourself „man, we only half as likely as a woman in America. But what it illustrates
is that America in its history has been more sexist than it is racist. That America has
demonstrated since 1865 until today that it is more sexist than it is racist. So when
we look back at the amendments to the Constitution and so on, it‟s clear how the
American political electorate is still falling out.

I‟m on a mission as a camion that countries that have a Muslim majority whether
they‟re technically Muslim countries or not have already elected women as presidents
before now. So the idea of whether Muslims are ready to accept that has nothing to
do with this issue, that‟s just like a commercial; that Muslims are less sexist than
people think we are.

I want to turn again to share with you a little bit on this constitutional framework.
And that is the view of religion and politics in the United States. I don‟t know how
you handle it in the UK, but in the US we have an amendment to the Constitution
that grants the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, and therefore by notion in
America by order of the Constitution that Congress should make no law that imposes
a State religion, nor any laws that restrict the freedom of religion, the freedom of
speech in America. 1960 John F Kennedy, who was Catholic by the way and nobody
thought he would win, because he was Catholic in a majority white Anglo-Saxon
Protestant nation. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

But interestingly enough, 1960 was the first election in which women voted
differently to their husbands or their fathers statistically. And so there‟s something
going on now, not just in the empowerment of African Americans, who are marching
and demonstrating, but also women who are saying we are going to vote our
conscience, and it sways the vote towards John F Kennedy.

The phenomenon that I think is important to note is that in the 2000 election
American Muslims for the first time organised themselves to any significant degree
to do block voting. People will say that in that voting, African Americans who are
traditionally in the Democratic Party didn‟t switch over with the immigrant Muslims
who were going Republican. I would say to you this – any block voting, if you get a
third to half of your electorate to vote as a group, you‟re going to have impact. And if
you can organise and mobilise people, where you never ever coalesced your vote, it
may not have made the difference for us in terms of political power. But it definitely
meant that after that election, that the political system began to look at Muslims. And
to say, „hmm...I‟m afraid that the day has dawned that if Muslims were to decide,
they would be a force to be reckoned with in America, and that has never happened
before.‟

But I think we made the Liebermann mistake and that is that rather than going with
the Democratic Party, the hope was that the values of the Republicans were more
socially conservative. They were associated with the Christian Right; they were
associated with religion and family values – the idea that therefore they‟re more like
the Muslim electorate. Except for the pressure from the other side to say those of us
who are using Palestine as the litmus test since Al Gore selected Lieberman – he‟s
Jewish – therefore the rest of us have to go with the Republican Party because we
can‟t tolerate a pro-Israeli candidate and of course then there‟s other rhetoric that
we‟ve all forgotten about now, suppose something happens to Al Gore then
Lieberman will be the first Jewish President in America. Wow. When the political
landscape has been clear at least for the last 50 years, whoever resides in the White
House sees Israel as a strategic ally. It doesn‟t matter who‟s in the White House –
Israel‟s going to be an ally of the United States. That could be a good thing and a bad
thing, and we‟ll talk about that later in the Q and A.

I think the American Muslim electorate has decided that it‟s not going to make
Palestine Israel – the litmus test for their candidate – which is why you don‟t see a
discourse talking about Hilary and Obama and McCain around the issue of Israel
because I think we‟ve become more politically mature.

In 2008, the issue of Romney and his Mormonism, so now everybody looks back to
Kennedy – let‟s have a Kennedy speech about how my faith informs my values but
I‟m going to vote according to what‟s in the best interest of the United States of
America. That has cleared the air and opened the discussion up in a way that is really
wonderful. I don‟t think any other candidate except Barack Obama could give us the
nexus for the discourse about race, gender, politics and religion that we‟re seeing
now.
And I believe that Barack Obama has handled himself well. The issues around „I am
not, nor have I been a member of...‟ In the McCarthy era you had to swear that you
stand in front of the commission and swear that had never been a member of the
communist party. And I think that in our post 9/11 society, we have to accept that.
I‟m going to read a little on his background because some Muslims are saying „oh he‟s
backing away from his Islamic identity. Barack Obama was identified by his family in
Indonesia as being Muslim, he‟s living with Muslim people, and he‟s going to a
Catholic institution. But he has some religious training and so on...‟ That does not
make you Muslim. Just being exposed to Islam doesn‟t make you Muslim.
During the third and fourth grade, according to the Baltimore newspaper, they say he
learnt about Islam in religious classes for two hours a week. Now, for me by the way,
this was encouraging. Chicago Tribune said that Obama was listed and registered as
a Muslim and that he used to go with his step father to the Masjid sometimes. His
friends said „he used to play with us; he was never very serious about religion.‟ But of
course he was in the third grade, and third graders take religion very seriously – with
these we could then say, Barack you‟re faking it! [Audience laugh]. There are some
myths and rumours that he took the oath of office on the Qur‟an. I‟m sorry, but that‟s
a different member of Congress. Or that he doesn‟t pledge allegiance to the flag.

All these things. And Barack Obama said „there is one more thing I want to mention.
Part of what we‟ve been seeing during the course of this Campaign have been
scurrilous e-mails sent out saying that I‟m denying my faith; talking about me being a
Muslim, suggesting that I got sworn into the Senate with a Qur‟an in my hand and
that I don‟t pledge allegiance to the flag. I think that it‟s really important for your
readers to know that I have been a member of the same Church for over 20 years and
I have never practiced Islam. I am respectful of the religion, but it‟s not my own.‟

Now you have Muslims who say „why doesn‟t he just say he‟s Muslim,‟ and I have to
say „Come on man, the Qur‟an says ‘lā ikrāh fī Al-Dīn’ [2:256] let there be no
compulsion in religion. If the man says, „I went to a madressa but it never touched
my heart, I went to the Masjid but never thought about it, but when I made the
decision that I was going to be whatever, I chose Christianity.‟ But I think that in the
post 9/11 reality are Muslims are politically radioactive? In America, yes. Muslims in
America are still politically radioactive. Do we like the fact that we‟re radioactive?
No. Are we going to make the same mistake that we made with Lieberman? No. But
are we going to move ourselves to be politically significant in the upcoming election?
Definitely.

Now let us question trusting Hilary versus Obama.

The Muslim Community knows Hilary Clinton; in fact I remember speaking at a

rally, I guess you could call it a demonstration, in front of the White House. This was
around the time of Hilary and Bill‟s term in the White House and I made reference to
Bill Clinton regarding some of his policies towards Muslims by making a
Pharaohonic reference to him and making a comment about Hilary saying that she
was actually more receptive and more responsive like Pharaoh‟s wife was in accepted
Musa „alayhi Al-Salām. Some people said that was kind of heavy, but at that point
Hilary had come out and said some very positive things about the support of
Muslims, the whole Yugoslavia-Bosnia issues – it was very positive. But then
something happened to Hilary Clinton when she ran for the Senate in the New York
State. New York State is heavily lobbied by the American-Jewish Community. Hilary
Clinton suddenly became very hostile to Muslims. I know that the Muslim political
establishment raised thousands of dollars; we bundled the funds and delivered them
– I know who delivered them. Hilary Clinton probably came under pressure from
APAC, and called us and told us she‟s giving our money back. No apology, no
explanation; you think you‟re radioactive? The Jewish Community can double the
money you gave us, they can replace what you gave and add some to it, so I don‟t
want to touch the Muslim Community. For me, that lets me know, that as far as the
politics of Hilary Clinton are concerned they‟re up for sale.

Therefore when it comes to the question of trust, we know that Hilary Clinton, when
it comes to our politics cannot be trusted. I don‟t know about other people, but I
know that in New York State that she waffles on issues depending on who puts the
most pressure on her. You know the political reality is you have to live, you have to
raise money, you have to get ready for your next campaign, and usually when you‟re
in the Senate you‟re pretty insulated; you‟ve got the next six years, so you can usually
say to yourself „these are the values and principles I stand on‟ and hope that in the
long run (they‟re still strong) when you‟re in Congress, when you really have to be a
bit more of a rat. So there‟s no reason for Hilary Clinton to have been that weak.
Except that she blows in the wind of political expediency, even though I did tell you
earlier that I referred to her as one of the blessed women in Islamic history. But I
don‟t know what happened to her, maybe she lived with Pharaoh for too long.

In the place that we live in now the strategy for Muslim Americans now, is to place
the priority of regime change in Washington. Because the White House was putting
out this message that we need regime change in Iraq, we need democracy and
freedom in Iran. Malcolm said „when they told me to go out and find the enemy I
don‟t have to go as far as Vietnam to find that enemy, I can find the enemy right here.
So if we‟re willing to fight for freedom there, then we ought to be able to fight for
freedom here.‟ So in America, we‟re looking for regime change in Washington. And
the only regime change that we can look forward to in the near future is to get the
democrats in the White House and put the Republicans, as Malcolm would say, „in
the dog house‟.

Our strategy: move, raise money, political organisation, votes, registration, and civic
engagement with other groups that have common political agendas to ours. That
means even groups that we would otherwise not work with; around the war, around
civil liberties, personal freedom, surveillance, justice system, the state department,
they will get some new judges so that we can get rid of this political prosecutions that
we‟re seeing, maybe we could get round the scare tactics that we get on the war on
terror – global war on terror.

And so I would say to you, as I get ready to close sister Munira, that Barack Obama
has the benefit that he is not a former slave. That‟s going to open some doors. That
he himself is not an immigrant, but that he is a first generation immigrant. This gives
him some standing in America. He‟s not a Muslim, but I trust that he knows enough,
and has shared (and that) he is smart. He‟s not talking about Al-Qā‟ida - what I
know about Islam in Indonesia – that had nothing to do with that. So I can speak
with authority about engaging the Muslim world, because I used to live there.

The other side of the equation is that it can‟t get any worse in America. Then the good
news is that it can‟t get any better than Barack Obama. It can‟t get any worse; the
nation is at war – it can‟t extradite itself; it can‟t extricate itself; it can‟t get its foot
out of the mud.

The economy of the United States is lower than it ever has been since the Depression.
For those of you looking to go for a shopping spree, come to America, because the
dollar is so weak you can buy all of New York City and still have change to buy New
Jersey. Unemployment – January, February, March – 84,000 people lost their jobs.
60-odd-thousand people lost their jobs in February and approximately 70,000
people lost their jobs in January. That‟s the first quarter of the year and almost
200,000 people lost their jobs! Meanwhile the President is saying the „economy is
strong, there‟s just a few bumps in the road.‟ I say man, he is out of his mind. I don‟t
know, but I‟ve met personally with George Bush; I shook his hand and thanked him
on behalf of the American Muslim Community for saying after 9/11 that Islam is a
good religion, that the Qur‟an is a good book, that America is a country of many
faiths. I told him that that statement, at the Islamic Centre of Washington DC, was an
important statement, that we appreciate that, and that it saved many lives. Save
lives? We‟ve lost members of the Sikh Community – they were murdered because
people thought they were Muslim. So the tenant of the President laying that out had
a positive effect. I said „but after that, I don‟t think that your right-wing friends were
listening to you. So I think you need to go back to them and tell them to get back on
your message or you have to distance yourself from them.‟ He said „[with a voice of
hesitation]...uh....thank you Imam..Thank you.‟ Cool, no problem, so that was the last
invite I had to the White House [audience laugh].

But the reality is that if you‟re looking at the American mainstream, and if you look at
this social, cultural, political, religious identity matrix that we talked about, it
probably is time for a black President. It‟s time for a black President, because in
America, when the cities were at their lowest point in America, all of them had black
mayors. So nobody wanted to be Mayor; Negro said „I‟ll run for Mayor.‟ [Audience
laugh] „It‟s my only shot!‟ right? Congressional districts that were in trouble that had
a poor minority of communities, you could get a black congressman or woman. And
now the nation is in such trouble, we‟re in such a bad shape...time for a black
President. [Audience laugh]

The good news is that although he may not be able to get us out of the mire, but he‟ll
restore hope. He‟ll tell people, I know what it means to live in a house where we
didn‟t have enough. If we move together, and we have faith and we keep working, we
can come out of this.

I have news for you. I‟m not Jeremiah Wright, but Hilary Clinton doesn‟t know
anything about that restoration of hope; that‟s what John F Kennedy gave America.
By the way, he didn‟t do much legislatively to help black people, but just the idea –
the idea- that we could make it transformed America. It was Linden Johnson who
was a southerner, and nobody thought that he would be the one. Bu the delivered on
the franchise that John F Kennedy gave lip service to. And on the real side, the war is
so unpopular in America, that if you have a candidate and he‟s the front runner of his
party, the huckaburger wouldn‟t have a chance anyway. I don‟t know if you all know
about this thing, they went to one town and made a hamburger named after the
huckaburger. John McCain said we‟re going to stay the course and we‟re going to be
in Iraq for a hundred years if we have to. That means what? That means that the
Republicans don‟t want the White House – they make it fake – like saying „just build
the base of the party and we‟ll come back later.‟ Give it to the Democrats and they
start saying „let‟s give it to Obama. Because then we can blame it on him, and rebuild
the party.‟ So I‟m saying the only reason why Barack Obama has any hope, is really
because no one else wants America. America is browning and they‟ve got all kinds of
problems. I think Muslims will fare better than we think in the political arena under
Barack Obama without a doubt. Just the idea of the sensibilities, the thinking.

By the way, I‟m not sure what you get here when you get a new Prime Minister, but in
Washington people start putting their houses up for sale. They say „oh, looks like
we‟re going to win, better had put our house up for sale and go back to wherever. If
we can‟t get a job in a lobby group, then we‟ll just go back to where we came from.‟
And so really, when the regime change comes, the attitude and the tenure and the
people change, and all your friends have to get a job. So there‟ll be some Kansans
who are going to get a job, some Hawaiians who are going to get a job, and some
blacks from Chicago are going to get jobs, and they‟re going to bring their perspective
to that equation. And when other guys come in and say „no we‟re not going to do that‟
they come in and say „yeah, we‟ll do that.‟ They‟re all going to empower themselves
and it‟s going to shift the iceberg. You know how long it takes to move an iceberg?
For a glacier to move? We‟re going to see a glacier move between November and
January 20th.

Currently we have two Muslim members in the House of Representatives: Keith

Ellison, as well as Andre Carson, both elected to the House of Representatives, what
we call the Lower House of Congress. And they weren‟t elected because they were
Muslim, and they weren‟t really elected because they‟re black, they were elected
because they had served in various capacities and had proven their political medal. I
say that because Keith Ellison is from the fifth district of Minnesota; Minnesota is so
white that they think that if you are a Methodist and a Lutheran, that‟s diversity.
They have a large Somali Community there, but that‟s still not enough to change the
balance of power. Keith Ellison had a district that was largely white. But he delivered
on the franchise of being a labour organiser, he knew how to get things done
politically, and because of that and the points I said before (they would rather choose
race over gender), he was able to be elected in a special election because of the
family‟s political legacy (as Andre‟s Grandmother was a Congresswoman).

So I hope what I‟m saying to you provides you with insight into the political
landscape in America, that you might be able to support us in our fledgling
democracy, that we may be successful in really reshaping the balance of power and
enter a new phase of peace and reconciliation and co-operation, and get away from
this clash of civilisations. So I thank you for your comments and your criticisms. The
time is 8 o‟clock and we have a few minutes now and we‟ll break. So I‟ll turn it back
over to Abdul-Rehman. I want to thank you for your time and attention; no body fell
asleep neither did they heckle, so that‟s a good thing. May Allah bless you, and thank
you so much. I think this is a really dynamic gathering and I‟m glad that there are
more women present. When we started it was mostly men. And I thought that maybe
there was something wrong with this club, but then I see that the women were just
late, and I figured I‟m not going to say anything about the women being late
[Audience laugh].

Thank you so much. Al-Salam „alaykum.

Question-Answer Session

[Abdul-Rehman speaks]

I‟m going to take three questions and then we‟ll hand back to Imam Johari. I‟ll go to
Riaz and then the sister in the pink followed by Safraz and then we‟ll go back.

Question:
What would you say to those groups and elements within Muslim Communities that
use Scripture to justify an argument to other Muslims, to not participate in elections
because it‟s not Islamic?

Answer:
I hope that what we are as a Muslim Community is that we are guided by our
scholarship. I enjoyed being part of the effort of the Radical Middle Way around the
whole hip hop thing that they were doing because we brought the person who is an
Asari graduate to produce the evidence and the proofs for why we do what we do. So
a scholar, Dr. Munisa, provides the inside guidance for that effort. I‟m a person who
believes that subhān Allah, as Muslims we‟ve got difference of opinion. If you have
scholarship and I have scholarship – Ja‟far Idris who I believe is an eminent scholar,
and I take lessons from him – he says „engage in it because this is an engagement in
which we are trying to enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil, mitigate harm.‟ I
could take the examples and say subhān Allah, how can you do that, it‟s a Christian
system and it‟s unlawful. The Nagashi of Ethiopia, he was secretly a Muslim and head
of State – that‟s permissible.

The Prophet (saw) engaged in helf Al-Fadūr - being involved in the Congress of the
people of Mecca while he was not a Prophet. He was asked later „would you engage in
that political discourse with them as a Prophet?‟ He said, „even as a Prophet I would
have engaged.‟ So I‟m in that group. There are other groups that say they have proofs
and evidence, then let them do what they do, and we do what we do, and in shā‟
Allah, one of us is right. This is the attitude of the scholars; not that „both of us are
wrong. Maybe if I‟m making a mistake may Allah forgive me and let the other person
who stays away from it, build an alternative to the political arrangement and
Alhamdulillah.‟ Subhān Allah, that‟s how I take it and I encourage the ones who are
saying „politics is harām‟ let them go about the work that they do to build the society
in a way they can make it better and not stop the ones who are trying to improve the
society in the way that they think is correct to their understanding from the Qur‟an
and the Sunnah of the Prophet (saw).

Question:
I appreciate the point that you have made that in America and perhaps elsewhere as
well, that minorities are increasing in times of crisis and you yourself said that
America is in a war, difficulties with the economy, he may not be able to get out of
the mire but he can restore hope. So number one, who will be the restored hope for
and secondly, and I say this with some trepidation, that if I was American, I would
also vote for Barack Obama. However, I do have in the back of my mind why does he
feel it so necessary to insist that he is not a Muslim?

Answer:
Let me explain something to you. I grew up in the Episcopal Church. I was a choir
boy, right. I was in church every Sunday. If I was running for office some place – I‟m
in Indonesia, I‟m running for President in Indonesia – then there are going to be
some people who say „ah ha! He was a Christian!‟ I‟d say, yes that‟s true, I was. But
when I was old enough to choose on my own I chose Islam. People who wanted to
make that equation as if somehow or another, being a Muslim has something to do
with what your parents were, that‟s not the dīn that I am part of. Islam is not that
you‟re born, we make some du‟a, we cut your hair, we give you some tahnīq and
Alhamdulillah, and you‟re a Muslim all your life. Islam is something that the Prophet
(saw) is „light on the tongue, but heavy on the heart.’ So for me, people who want to
retro-Muslim him... [Audience laugh].

For the first part of the question: what we‟ve seen in his fundraising dollars, he is
raising small numbers of dollars from the broadest cross-section of Americans in the
history of collecting data about campaign contributions. Therefore, for the people to
whom he owes his Presidency to, for the people who are looking toward him for
engendering this attitude, and by the way, if you want to make fundamental change,
fundamental change requires four elements and Munira knows what they are:
knowledge, attitude, skills and habits. Our big problem in America is that we need a
big attitude adjustment. The American attitude is killing us. We even have the
attitude that, notwithstanding the knowledge that global warming is happening, we
want to deny that it‟s happening because we have an attitude that „it can‟t be
happening because if that‟s happening we have to change the way we do business.‟

I don‟t know if you know much about the Presidency of the United States, the
President has very little in the way of real power. I met with Bill Clinton in the Oval
Office with a few other Muslims, and we had discussions with him, and subhān Allah
I can tell you that meeting with him, he has sense enough to know that „there are
some things that I can do as President, to change the attitude, tenor, tone but it‟s
Congress that legislates.‟ It‟s the President that provides a kind of leadership and
direction. And if that can be picked up by the nation, it can move in different ways
that it hasn‟t moved before. So the hope that this is going to happen is really not
coming from the top down, it‟s coming from the bottom up.

Question:
I really enjoyed the lecture. I was wondering, your five-dimensional model of
identity, there are two things that we didn‟t mention; he seems very comfortable in
his skin and the second is that his wife is black and I wonder whether you think that
both of those help his sense of identity. And the second thing is, what do you say to
the argument that the best way for Muslims to help Obama become President is to
not mention that Muslims want Obama as President?

Answer:
I think I answered the first part – he chose to be African American in the political
reality in Chicago. And to attach himself to the African American civil rights legacy
when really it‟s probably more associated with his union organising legacy than it is
in his African American roots. And I think related to the second part of the question,
Muslims have reached a new level of political maturity. That it‟s not a beauty contest.
It‟s not kissing babies and shaking hands. It‟s about what are our core issues? And
whatever aren‟t the core fundamental issues for us, let‟s put them aside and deal with
the real pressing issues of the nation.

To have a President that says „I‟m not for the war, never for the war, I want to get out
of the war,‟ or a President that says „I voted for the war but I really wasn‟t down with
the war, when it was popular I was behind the Chief,‟ but now it‟s a political liability
to have said that, „I said that but I didn‟t really mean that.‟ If I had to choose between
those two, I‟d choose the guy who said „I voted, I knew what I was voting for, she
knew what she was voting for, but it wasn‟t politically expedient to do it then, so she
didn‟t do it then.‟ I would rather vote for that guy who might lead the nation. The
polls said that 60% of Americans said that they wanted to get out of the war, and I
think he‟s going to deliver on that promise and do his best to extricate us from the
war.

By the way I believe that these core values have moved the American electorate to a
new level which means that it‟s not really about Hilary, not really about Obama, and
it‟s not really about yo mama [Audience laugh], right; those things don‟t matter to us
– what matters is can we get some people who might be on record, might be able to
pull us back. I want you to understand that the attitude of homeland security now
comes straight from the White House; fear mongering, fear mongering your
neighbour. You don‟t have that here right, it‟s on the bus and stuff like that – „watch
and look for dangerous activity‟ – it‟s paralysing us. We need someone who‟s going to
come in and say „look man, we have more pressing issues than where Osama bin
Laden is.‟ One of our congresswomen said, „we are more likely to die from not having
health insurance in the United States, than we are to die from a terrorist.‟

So setting priorities is right, while we still deal with the issues that there are bad
people out there. By the way, most people who have been killed in the past few years
have been high school students going to school and killing their teachers and their
class mates. So if you want to talk about the tenor of fear and violence that‟s creating
in America, there‟s a Cancer in America that‟s destroying us and we need a new
attitude and I believe this is the best way to get it and if it was somebody else who
was saying this, whether they had an Islamic background, legacy or whatever, we‟d
be with them.

Question:
I have a very straightforward question...

Imam Johari:
Oh no, they‟re the ones that take all night...very straight forward is it? [Audience
laugh]

Question:
Who are you going to vote for in the coming election, and how does that affect your
impartiality?
Answer:
Those two things go together. Who am I going to vote for and how does that make me
impartial? I‟m not impartial...I already told you! I am biased, I have a political
opinion, and even though we have a secret ballot in America, I‟m going to tell you
that the bumper sticker on my car says ‘Obama ‘08’ . [Audience laugh] Even though,
as an Imam of a Masjid, I don‟t stand up on the Mimbar and say „Obama...etc‟ I just
say „Change...vote for change‟ [Audience laugh throughout] „but brothers and sisters
you just vote.‟ But my bumper sticker – I‟m allowed to do that – says ‘Obama 08’-
fine. There‟s a certain kind of change that I want to see happen, and that‟s my right.
I‟m telling you now, that even though it‟s my right to keep my ballot a secret, in
November I‟m going to vote for...shhh...

Question:
First of all, I‟d like to disagree with you on why he‟s allowed to insist that he‟s not a
Muslim. I think that it‟s because „Muslim and Islam‟ have been made to seem bad
things in the United States and I think it would be political suicide to say „I have the
utmost respect and love for Islam...etc‟ it would be political suicide. Now, I‟m an
Obama supporter, an Obama donator, but I will absolutely hold him to account for
his actions after he gets in office. And for what he says and how he is going on with
this perpetuating „Muslim as a bad thing and Muslim as a bad name‟. How do you
think we can hold him to account in a diplomatic way after he‟s been elected and say
„I‟m glad you‟re in office, but you didn‟t really help the perception of Muslims and
Islam beforehand.‟

Answer:
I can read from an article in which he said, „I have the utmost respect...‟ so once you
go on record, you can‟t be told you didn‟t say it. Your enemies go to the article and
they promote „ah, he said he has the utmost respect‟ I don‟t want to get stuck on the
small details; if the man went on record and said that he has the utmost respect for
Islam, then he said it. That‟s enough for me; I don‟t want to make the political litmus
test. Muslims are radioactive, face it, right?

I told some Muslims, you know, we should invite some of our political enemies to our
rallies and meetings so that they can be taught and so we can say we love them, and
let them say „no no no.‟ And by the way, this really did happen. One candidate in
northern Virginia came to the mosque and he was attacked my some conservatives,
saying „why did you go to the mosque?‟ and he said „no, I‟m not with them at all-
believe me-I‟m not.‟ It was political suicide for her, but we helped him. We put the tar
on him, opened up a pillow case and waited for a wind to start blowing and feathered
him right there. So I think the question of political accountability will be there for
whoever wins.

I think this man is going to need all the help he can get. And we‟re going to help him
as much as we can. He‟s probably had to read up on Islam so that if somebody asks
him he can say „no I don‟t believe in this, no I don‟t believe in that.‟ The discourse;
now I apologise for saying this and I apologise for being long-winded, if we were
trying to move the discourse about Muslims in politics to the next level, our thought
would be to run a full-fledged Muslim candidate for President. In which all the
questions would not be about the economy, not about jobs, healthcare – it would be
about Islam.

Now you have a candidate whose middle name is Hussein, who when asked these
questions, says „I am not a Muslim‟ with regard to education, with regard to
healthcare, so somebody said „he‟s secretly a Muslim, but he‟s a damned good
politician.‟ And so the discourse – he‟s black – but „I‟m not really a black candidate,
I‟m from Africa but my mother‟s white‟ and we get, „oh, ok, so let‟s talk about the
issues facing the nation.‟ So we can find a better nexus to open the discourse and
then deflect all of the issues because „I‟m not the thing that you want to label me as.‟

W‟Allahi, Allah is so wise to have sent in the middle of this conflict, someone who can
acknowledge Islam and say I‟m not a part of it but opens the discourse. It will lower
the fear level. He went to a madressa – he sure is smart. He‟s the first ever Negro to
ever be on the Harvard Law Review right? He‟s a smart guy. And there‟s an ayat in
the Qur‟ān that says Allah created us into tribes and nations li ta’ārifū – to know
each other. He goes into a State where he is not known and racism and Islamophobia
is all hyped up, and he goes through the neighbourhood, meets people, starts talking,
kisses babies – AND – he was 12 points behind and now he‟s 12 points ahead. By
knowing him, it changes people‟s attitudes in a nascent way he‟s improving the
perception the Muslims have because they‟re thinking he might secretly be Muslim
[Audience laugh] because it‟s still in the back of their heads and they‟re thinking, we
sure do like him, he‟s so likeable, and Hilary is so cold and impersonal and etc etc.
Subhān Allah, it couldn‟t have been done in a better way.

Question:
There is a lot of Islamophobia, especially now, and he‟s in a difficult place getting us
(Americans) used to the name Hussein. People often turn up to rallies with a rose,
following on from the quote from Romeo and Juliet which says "What's in a name?
That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Answer:
I‟m going to follow on from her point, and I‟m not homophobic, but I want to share a
strategy that the gay community used, and I use this approach in da‟wa, but their
thinkers took this to a new level. There are five fundamental outcomes of your
outreach: 1 – a person will say, I want to join you, for instance, I want to become a
Muslim. 2 – I find you intriguing, I want to read more, learn more, etc. 3- The
person says, I learned about you and I‟ve noted that you‟re normal, you‟re just like
any other people – any other religion . 4 – I was impacted upon by your outreach,
and I know what your beliefs are, but it‟s not for me; the long clothes and no drinking
but I could never be a tea-totaller, so I‟m out. Then there‟s a fifth person who says, I
hate you. I hate what you believe, I hate your principles, and I fear you, your
dangerous ideas.

What the gay community was able to do, strategically is to identify the four positive
outcomes and to have them turn together and say that this person who is anti the
principles that we are about, and they are a bigot, they‟re racist, they‟re intolerant,
and we won‟t accept them.
This is our challenge; to say „ok, I‟m not a Muslim but I‟m fascinated by the nation of
Muslims and Islam and so on and so on, and I think they‟re OK.‟ And another person
will say they‟re all the same, it‟s just a regular religion and hey, people have a choice
etc.‟ But them to stand together and say we will stand by and let people be
Islamophobic, homophobic, racist, we‟re not going to tolerate it. They were able to do
that. And that is our challenge. People of da‟wa think that the outcome is to turn
everyone into a Muslim and that will turn the tide. That was not the case in Yathrib,
at the time of the Prophet (saw), it was not the case in Andalusia, it was not the case
in so many civilisations that Islam had impacted upon. It took hundreds of years in
some societies for Muslims to become 50% of the population but they had those four
sections of the population to say „we will not have racists and bigots and sexists to
have dominance over people who are fair minded, reasonable and rational.‟

Question:
When Tony Blair was young and campaigning, he had nice smiles, full of hope and
new ideas, and so on, and look how he turned out. Is it the same with this candidate?
Obama isn‟t anti-Islamic but George Bush said he wasn‟t, and look at his policies.
The second point is surely it will not benefit the Muslim Ummah if America focuses
only on its internal policies.

Answer:
For me, again, I‟m not putting my faith in the Government. My faith is in Allah, I
don‟t believe in the Government. If I believed in the Government, then we would
have been involved in the civil rights movement. Slavery – my people were slaves, I
don‟t know if you know that, we did not rely on the good will of the Government to
get us out of slavery. We organised internally and externally to end slavery. Now
what your idea would have been would be to get out of the abolitionist movement.
Eventually the United States Government will fall under its own weight and you‟ll be
free. In 1607 my people would still be labouring under slavery and involuntary
servitude if it was left up to the Government to collapse. Now in your own personal
environment you have the right to make that decision. For me, I‟m not willing to
make that decision. I‟m willing to challenge the Government based on my principles
to change. Now with regard to Muslim governments that are despotic and tyrannical
I believe it‟s the obligation of the Muslims who live there – and this is a principle in
Fiqh – I can‟t make legislation for the people who live in Palestine and Iraq, their
scholars have to make their own determinations based on their own political
realities, how they should function, and we in America have the right under what we
call Usūl, to make our own decisions with our own scholars about how we respond.
You in the UK, knowing your political realities, have to make your own decisions, and
Alhamdulillah, this has been the great success of the amūr of the Prophet (saw), that
we can be diversified in our establishment of what‟s right and forbidding what‟s
wrong. Our Fiqh allows us to work on our own thing and by the way, this is 9/11
commentary.

People who came from other places to the United States to help us resolve our own
problems with our government because they were unable to resolve their problems
with their government, had it backwards. They should have worked on their tyrants
and we should have worked on our tyrants.
Question:
The strategy of McCain is to want Obama to win over Hilary so that the white
majority will vote for him because he‟s white – what do you think about this
possibility?

Answer:
If you buy into my reasoning the Republican Party doesn‟t want to win. So you‟re
going under the assumption that they don‟t want to win. They would like a President
who has a Senate and a Congress which is won by Democrats and preside over an
economy that‟s failing and just sit there and take the beating for the next four years.
My political analysis is that they are holding the line of the presidency only to be
consistent with themselves but they don‟t plan to win. And taking that diversified
strategy of – me I‟m working on America, you you‟re working on Iraq – rather than
all of us who don‟t understand the political landscape of America trying to tell us how
to do it. I think we need dialogue, an exchange between Muslims world-wide about
who‟s responsible for what. You wouldn‟t want me to come here from the United
States telling you how to run Parliament and so on. You‟d send them on a boat back
and tell them to mind their own business.

And by the way, I want you to know that my ideas are no better than your ideas.
Alhamdulillah everyone has ideas, and we pray that in shā‟ Allah, collectively. The
Prophet (saw) said that the scholars of the Ummah will not agree in error. So if we
have a discourse, then in shā‟ Allah we can come to consensus; with our „ulamā‟ we
will not agree in error.

Question:
If Obama wins, will he not be undermined by the hidden powers and forces that will
prevent him from changing things? That is my worry and I wonder if he will have the
capability to still manage it. What are your thoughts on that?

Answer:
I think the issue of whether Obama will have the capacity as one man, to lead the
nation in the world, is unrealistic. That‟s not my issue. My issue is changing. Let me
give you an example let‟s have a show of hands for how many people here have
watched Mission Impossible. At the end of the mission statement, it says „if any of
your iron force is caught or killed, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your
actions.‟ And that means it was a democratic administration [audience laugh]. If it‟s a
Republican Administration then you get to be Oliver North. They make you a hero,
they give you an award and that means that all of the secret cells torture, kill, rape,
maim, murder people, in order to maintain their hegemony. You might be doing
those things, but if you get caught, you‟re on your own. If I could choose between the
two, I‟d choose the one that says „look, go out there and find what you can, but if you
get caught, don‟t call me.‟
So that makes things like Guantanamo something we can‟t tolerate. That has to close;
it‟s a disgrace to us. If you‟re going to do bad things, have some shyness about it. That
will save lives. I‟m not saying it‟s going to save all our problems; we still have some
deeper, underlying work to move the society forward. And just electing Barack
Obama is not going to solve all our problems. But I would still rather have that tiny
change in attitude when I go back to America tomorrow; they will know what I said
tonight, that I‟m not for George, and I‟m going to get stopped at the airport and
they‟re going to look at my passport and say „Holy smoke, this guy‟s been everywhere
– Sudan, Israel Soviet Union, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia‟.
They‟re going to put me in a cell, because the guy on the line lost his wudū when he
read my passport [Audience laugh].

So for me, just a slight change in the attitude, then when I go in they‟ll say „oh, he‟s a
Muslim, ok, let him go.‟ I just want a little bit of comfort, that‟s all. I want to change
the attitude, the tone and the tenor just a little bit. In America there are people being
held based on „conspiracy‟ – they haven‟t really done anything. I know a boy right
now, who was found innocent on Terrorism charges; his name is Sabri bin Kahla. He
was found innocent on all charges and set free; because of the political attitude of „we
can‟t let this guy go‟ so they found another grand jury find him guilty of Perjury. He
said he remembered somebody 4-5 years before, and then he said he couldn‟t
remember them. And they gave him two years for perjury. But because of enhanced
sentencing for terrorism cases, he‟s serving ten years. If Sabri bin Kahla was in a
different political climate, even if he was found guilty of perjury, he‟d be home now.
For me that‟s enough to vote for somebody who will change the attitude just a little
bit, will give us a chance to organise, and convince our neighbours that we‟re not the
enemy.

I‟m just going to say on behalf of me, thank you, and that my ideas are no better than
yours. If I said anything that‟s good it‟s from Allah and his Messenger, and if I
offended any of you and I was short sometimes, I apologise; I was just trying to be
fair, even handed and perhaps even a little funny. If that wasn‟t funny to you, I ask
you to forgive me, and subhān Allah, thank you so much for having me, and Al-Salām
„alaykum.
About Imam Johari Abdul Malik

Imam Johari Abdul-Malik serves as the director of Community Outreach for the Dar
Al-Hijrah Islamic Center. He was the first Muslim Chaplain installed at Howard
University. The imam is the former chair of Government Relations for the Muslim
Alliance in North America [MANA founded by Imam Siraj Wahhaj] and is the
founding President of the Muslim Society of Washington, DC Inc.

Known nationally for his fundraising efforts for masjids, schools and relief
organizations, Imam Johari is a founding member of the Muslim Advocacy
Commission of Washington, D.C. and “Muslim Men Against Domestic Violence”
[MMADV] and has edited a book on “What Islam Says About Domestic Violence”.

In his native Brooklyn community his mother kept the family busy with community
service. From an Episcopal choir boy-who visited the deep southern Pentecostal
“COGIC” holiness church during his summer vacations as youth-until at
confirmation the teachings of the Ten Commandments exposed what he believed
were contradictions within western Christianity. Beginning in high school he became
a musician playing trumpet, flugelhorn, flute, soprano sax and conch shells. The first
band he performed with in New York City, Black Oasis and later with The New World
Percussion Ensemble and Visions. He has opened for such greats as Tito Puente,
Pharaoh Saunders, Third World, Flora Purim, Melba Moore and Sun Ra. His
journey lead him through Taoism, Asian Spirituality, sufism and other world
religions.

In College he became a community organizer, musician-cultural warrior, he

practiced Transcendental Meditation-TM and became a vegetarian and started the
Chakula Food Coop. In graduate school, Allah showed him the light of Islam. He
served as the President of Ubiquity (Co-Ed Social Service Fellowship), President of
the Muslim Student Association and later became Howard University's first Muslim
Chaplain.

Imam Johari and along with Rev. Graylan Hagler started the “Ramadan Feed-the-
Needy” Interfaith Program in Washington, DC feeding over 100 hundred homeless
women of all faiths nightly during the fasting period of Ramadan.

For more information about this speaker or event, please visit

www.radicalmiddleway.co.uk