1
00:00:13,540 --> 00:00:15,846
So I just flew in for the TED conference,

2
00:00:15,846 --> 00:00:17,714
and while I was waiting at the airport

3
00:00:17,714 --> 00:00:21,460
I happened to see a family friend
that I haven't seen in ages.

4
00:00:21,460 --> 00:00:23,457
We call him Uncle Anwar

5
00:00:23,457 --> 00:00:26,701
and he's the spitting image of Babar
from the Canadian hit comedy

6
00:00:26,701 --> 00:00:28,151
Little Mosque on the Prairie.

7
00:00:28,151 --> 00:00:29,336
(Laughter)

8
00:00:29,336 --> 00:00:32,182
He loves wearing
his traditional kurta-pajama,

9
00:00:32,182 --> 00:00:36,822
he sports a beard, and he has
the most adorable Pakistani accent.

10
00:00:36,822 --> 00:00:39,334
So he rushed up to me,
gave me a big hug,

11
00:00:39,334 --> 00:00:42,653
and said, "How are you doing?
What are you up to these days?"

12
00:00:42,653 --> 00:00:45,740
So I told him that I'd become
a Professor of Islamic Studies,

13
00:00:45,740 --> 00:00:49,568
and I kept myself pretty busy
flying around and giving lectures

14
00:00:49,568 --> 00:00:52,484
to help people understand
a little bit more about Islam,

15
00:00:52,484 --> 00:00:55,161
especially after 9/11.

16
00:00:55,651 --> 00:00:57,981
He looked me right in the eye and said,

17
00:00:57,981 --> 00:01:00,779
"Don't talk to me about 9/11!

18
00:01:00,779 --> 00:01:06,386
Everywhere I go, everybody looks at me
as if I am responsible for 9/11!

19
00:01:06,386 --> 00:01:10,157
Me, responsible for 9/11?

20
00:01:10,157 --> 00:01:13,055
7-Eleven maybe, but not 9/11!"

21
00:01:13,055 --> 00:01:16,455
(Laughter) (Applause)

22
00:01:16,455 --> 00:01:18,342
As I told Uncle Anwar,

23
00:01:18,342 --> 00:01:20,724
I've been going around a lot
and giving many talks,

24
00:01:20,724 --> 00:01:23,317
and one of them was 
at the National Press Club.

25
00:01:23,317 --> 00:01:28,308
At that time, the substance DHM
was being talked about a lot.

26
00:01:28,308 --> 00:01:32,122
In fact, in Idaho, 86% of those
who were surveyed

27
00:01:32,122 --> 00:01:34,706
wanted a ban on this substance.

28
00:01:34,706 --> 00:01:38,885
I'd like to tell you a number 
of important facts about this substance,

29
00:01:38,885 --> 00:01:41,223
and then ask for your opinion.

30
00:01:41,223 --> 00:01:43,323
All of the facts 
that I'm going to tell you

31
00:01:43,323 --> 00:01:47,006
are actually things that have been
published in peer-reviewed literature

32
00:01:47,006 --> 00:01:50,237
and have been verified
by the best scientists

33
00:01:50,237 --> 00:01:53,342
at Harvard, MIT, the University
of Toronto, and Oxford.

34
00:01:54,082 --> 00:01:58,698
DHM is colorless, odorless and tasteless.

35
00:01:59,138 --> 00:02:05,369
Prolonged exposure to DHM's solid form
severely damages human body tissues.

36
00:02:05,969 --> 00:02:10,721
Symptoms of DHM ingestion
include excessive sweating, urination,

37
00:02:10,721 --> 00:02:16,900
and possible feelings of bloating, nausea,
vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance.

38
00:02:17,870 --> 00:02:23,866
DHM has been found in excised tumors
of terminal cancer patients.

39
00:02:24,686 --> 00:02:27,143
Accidental inhalation of DHM

40
00:02:27,143 --> 00:02:31,194
is the third leading cause
of unintentional death worldwide,

41
00:02:31,194 --> 00:02:34,443
with almost 400,000 fatalities annually,

42
00:02:34,443 --> 00:02:37,645
according to the World 
Health Organization.

43
00:02:38,763 --> 00:02:41,078
For those who'll become dependent,


44
00:02:41,078 --> 00:02:45,268
DHM withdrawal means certain death.

45
00:02:46,098 --> 00:02:52,870
Given this information, how many of you
would allow DHM to be freely available?

46
00:02:54,570 --> 00:02:57,076
Almost nobody.

47
00:02:57,076 --> 00:02:59,042
You are in full agreement with the people

48
00:02:59,042 --> 00:03:01,864
at the National Press Club
that I talked to.

49
00:03:01,864 --> 00:03:04,283
Let me tell you little bit more about it.

50
00:03:04,283 --> 00:03:07,223
DHM is Di-Hydrogen Monoxide.

51
00:03:07,223 --> 00:03:10,775
It's also known as Hydrogen Hydroxide.

52
00:03:10,775 --> 00:03:14,376
But most of us probably know it
by its common name,

53
00:03:14,376 --> 00:03:16,237
which is water.

54
00:03:18,347 --> 00:03:21,514
Every fact that I just told you

55
00:03:21,514 --> 00:03:26,712
was verifiable by the best
scientists across the world.

56
00:03:26,712 --> 00:03:30,729
And yet, almost everyone in this audience


57
00:03:30,729 --> 00:03:34,609
was ready to limit our access to water.

58
00:03:35,519 --> 00:03:39,856
When we are presented with only 
a certain subset of information,

59
00:03:39,856 --> 00:03:45,495
we are liable to make errors of judgment
and wrong decisions.

60
00:03:46,355 --> 00:03:49,446
The story of DHM reveals a lot about

61
00:03:49,446 --> 00:03:51,690
the topic that I want 
to talk to you about,

62
00:03:51,690 --> 00:03:57,050
another type of DHM
that is much more invidious than this one.

63
00:03:57,492 --> 00:04:00,893
The first DHM is
Di-Hydrogen Monoxide,

64
00:04:00,893 --> 00:04:05,022
but the second one is
De-Humanizing Muslims.

65
00:04:06,132 --> 00:04:07,230
Media Tenor,


66
00:04:07,230 --> 00:04:10,934
one of the leading world organizations
for strategic media intelligence,

67
00:04:10,934 --> 00:04:14,429
reviewed close to one million
items about Muslims

68
00:04:14,429 --> 00:04:17,882
in US and European media outlets.

69
00:04:18,482 --> 00:04:23,642
98% of the stories
were about Muslim militants.

70
00:04:23,642 --> 00:04:30,769
Only 2% of them were about
the ordinary 1.5 billion Muslims,

71
00:04:31,239 --> 00:04:34,906
one quarter of our world's population,


72
00:04:34,906 --> 00:04:37,386
with whom we share this planet.

73
00:04:37,906 --> 00:04:43,029
This is an exact parallel to the situation
of the information I gave you about DHM.

74
00:04:43,299 --> 00:04:50,170
When all of the information we have
is about one extremely unusual subset,

75
00:04:50,170 --> 00:04:53,837
not only do we fail
to address that subset,

76
00:04:53,837 --> 00:04:57,584
but we completely misunderstand the issue.

77
00:04:57,904 --> 00:05:02,692
We have conflated the actions


78
00:05:02,692 --> 00:05:07,982
of an infinitesimally small portion
of Muslims in the world

79
00:05:07,982 --> 00:05:11,808
with 1.5 billion people across the globe.

80
00:05:11,808 --> 00:05:15,934
It's similar to if we were to take
the actions of the Ku Klux Klan,

81
00:05:15,934 --> 00:05:17,770
the cross burnings, and say,

82
00:05:17,770 --> 00:05:21,536
"This is representative
of all of Christianity."

83
00:05:21,536 --> 00:05:26,231
Unfortunately, this type of conflation
has become increasingly common,

84
00:05:26,231 --> 00:05:30,602
as we can see in the message on the back
of this pickup truck, which says,

85
00:05:30,602 --> 00:05:35,977
"Everything I ever needed
to know about Islam I learned on 9/11."

86
00:05:37,617 --> 00:05:40,729
I remember 9/11 really well.

87
00:05:40,729 --> 00:05:44,123
I had just been appointed
to the faculty at Harvard University,

88
00:05:44,123 --> 00:05:47,642
and I was preparing for my first class.

89
00:05:47,642 --> 00:05:50,270
I remember that class.

90
00:05:50,270 --> 00:05:53,925
The students and I struggled to understand

91
00:05:53,925 --> 00:05:57,138
the terrible evil
that we had just witnessed.

92
00:05:57,878 --> 00:06:00,289
What I found really encouraging

93
00:06:00,289 --> 00:06:06,917
was that all of them were very open-minded
and willing to learn and to understand.

94
00:06:06,917 --> 00:06:11,158
They realized that throughout
their years of schooling

95
00:06:11,158 --> 00:06:15,614
they had had almost no exposure
to the Muslim world

96
00:06:15,614 --> 00:06:18,952
and, therefore, they wanted to understand.

97
00:06:18,952 --> 00:06:23,628
They wanted to see 
this world in its reality.

98
00:06:23,628 --> 00:06:29,257
The contrast between the message on 
the back of this truck and these students

99
00:06:29,257 --> 00:06:33,467
reminds me of a passage that I came across
in a book that I'm currently translating

100
00:06:33,467 --> 00:06:37,782
by a famous author 
with the name Nasiruddin Tusi,

101
00:06:37,782 --> 00:06:40,246
one of the most famous
of Muslim scientists

102
00:06:40,246 --> 00:06:43,207
and philosophers from the Middle Ages.

103
00:06:43,207 --> 00:06:45,145
That passage says,

104
00:06:45,445 --> 00:06:51,810
"He who knows not and knows not 
that he knows not is a fool.

105
00:06:51,810 --> 00:06:53,605
Avoid him.

106
00:06:54,165 --> 00:06:59,387
He who knows not and knows 
that he knows not is a seeker.

107
00:06:59,387 --> 00:07:00,813
Teach him.

108
00:07:01,923 --> 00:07:06,908
He who knows and knows not 
that he knows is asleep.

109
00:07:06,908 --> 00:07:08,384
Awaken him.

110
00:07:09,264 --> 00:07:15,167
And he who knows
and knows that he knows is wise.

111
00:07:15,167 --> 00:07:17,032
Follow him."

112
00:07:19,102 --> 00:07:23,156
One of the other reasons why 9/11
is etched into my memory,

113
00:07:23,156 --> 00:07:26,412
perhaps much more than many other people,

114
00:07:27,622 --> 00:07:29,802
can be told from this picture.

115
00:07:30,812 --> 00:07:34,553
This is my uncle, Salman Dhanani.

116
00:07:34,553 --> 00:07:39,000
He was an active volunteer
in his community in New York;

117
00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:45,310
a real humanitarian who was always helping
with activities in the developing world.

118
00:07:46,610 --> 00:07:50,578
He was the Vice President
of a company called Aon Insurance,

119
00:07:50,578 --> 00:07:53,833
which had its offices on the 99th floor

120
00:07:53,833 --> 00:07:57,693
of the South Tower 
of the World Trade Center.

121
00:07:59,443 --> 00:08:01,582
On that fateful day,

122
00:08:01,582 --> 00:08:04,582
when those planes 
crashed into those buildings,

123
00:08:04,582 --> 00:08:08,894
he was responsible
for evacuating his colleagues.

124
00:08:08,894 --> 00:08:14,649
He saved the lives of 80
of his fellows, and they escaped.

125
00:08:15,699 --> 00:08:19,685
But by the time they got out,
it was too late for him.

126
00:08:20,435 --> 00:08:22,562
He was trapped.

127
00:08:22,562 --> 00:08:27,814
And today he lies buried under the rubble 


128
00:08:27,814 --> 00:08:30,604
that was once the World Trade Center.

129
00:08:31,274 --> 00:08:33,208
He was 63.

130
00:08:34,738 --> 00:08:39,281
This picture was taken
just days before he died,

131
00:08:39,281 --> 00:08:41,114
when members of my family,

132
00:08:41,114 --> 00:08:46,647
my uncle Nizar, my aunt Mumtaz 
and my cousin Fatima went to visit him,

133
00:08:46,647 --> 00:08:50,486
and they took this picture
outside of the United Nations.

134
00:08:51,366 --> 00:08:55,516
These are the ordinary Muslims
that we never hear about.

135
00:08:57,646 --> 00:09:00,625
The vacuum of knowledge that we have

136
00:09:00,625 --> 00:09:04,253
about one quarter of humanity
in the Muslim world

137
00:09:04,253 --> 00:09:09,478
I think is really well revealed by a poll
that was released, just last month,

138
00:09:09,478 --> 00:09:12,479
by one of the most respected
polling firms in the United States,

139
00:09:12,479 --> 00:09:14,433
Public Policy Polling.

140
00:09:14,433 --> 00:09:19,492
They interviewed one thousand Americans,
both Democrats and Republicans,

141
00:09:19,492 --> 00:09:22,029
and the results are something
that I promise you

142
00:09:22,029 --> 00:09:25,523
I could not have made up if I tried.

143
00:09:25,833 --> 00:09:29,690
One quarter of Americans
favor the bombing of Agrabah.

144
00:09:29,690 --> 00:09:31,510
(Laughter)

145
00:09:31,510 --> 00:09:36,030
Now, for those of you who are unaware,
Agrabah is the mythical kingdom

146
00:09:36,030 --> 00:09:37,925
from the Disney classic Aladdin.


147
00:09:37,925 --> 00:09:40,525
(Laughter) (Applause)

148
00:09:40,525 --> 00:09:44,010
It boggles the mind 
that one quarter of people

149
00:09:44,010 --> 00:09:47,394
wanted to bomb an imaginary kingdom

150
00:09:47,394 --> 00:09:52,453
presumably because it's maybe 
somewhere in the Middle East.

151
00:09:52,453 --> 00:09:56,865
But I think that is something
a little bit telling, isn't it?

152
00:09:56,865 --> 00:10:03,806
Because the image that we have
of the ordinary people

153
00:10:03,806 --> 00:10:08,798
that live in that part of the world
is rather imaginary, isn't it?

154
00:10:10,148 --> 00:10:15,159
And it's something that I think
has developed over generations.

155
00:10:15,159 --> 00:10:17,818
In fact, it's perhaps prescient

156
00:10:17,818 --> 00:10:21,062
that this was about the imaginary
kingdom from Aladdin,

157
00:10:21,062 --> 00:10:23,681
because that was 
one of my favorite films growing up.

158
00:10:23,681 --> 00:10:29,378
And I remember the first song
of the narrator really well.

159
00:10:29,378 --> 00:10:32,843
They sang, "Oh, I come from a land,
From a faraway place,

160
00:10:32,843 --> 00:10:35,714
Where the caravan camels roam,

161
00:10:35,714 --> 00:10:38,941
Where they cut off your ear
If they don't like your face,

162
00:10:38,941 --> 00:10:42,636
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home!"

163
00:10:43,126 --> 00:10:48,310
Right from the youngest ages,
little children are learning

164
00:10:48,310 --> 00:10:55,114
that the people of this Muslim world
are barbaric, violent people.

165
00:10:55,694 --> 00:11:00,530
Nobody has done more research 
about this than Professor Jack Shaheen.

166
00:11:00,530 --> 00:11:03,183
He reviewed close to one thousand films

167
00:11:03,183 --> 00:11:07,099
produced over the course
of over a hundred years through Hollywood

168
00:11:07,099 --> 00:11:11,116
and found only twelve

169
00:11:11,116 --> 00:11:15,846
that depicted Muslims or Arabs 
in a positive light.

170
00:11:15,846 --> 00:11:18,406
In fact, he reached the conclusion

171
00:11:18,406 --> 00:11:22,936
that if there were a male Muslim
or Arab character in a film,

172
00:11:22,936 --> 00:11:25,958
there would be a 95% chance
that he would be depicted

173
00:11:25,958 --> 00:11:29,949
as violent, greedy or dishonest -

174
00:11:29,949 --> 00:11:32,739
95%!

175
00:11:36,039 --> 00:11:40,258
People like Samuel Huntington
have described our current world situation

176
00:11:40,258 --> 00:11:43,182
as a "Clash of Civilizations."

177
00:11:43,582 --> 00:11:45,318
More nuanced thinkers,

178
00:11:45,318 --> 00:11:49,978
who realize and understand
other parts of the world better,

179
00:11:49,978 --> 00:11:55,036
realize that what we're really facing
is a "Clash of Ignorance."

180
00:11:55,676 --> 00:11:59,084
How do we confront the Clash of Ignorance?

181
00:11:59,084 --> 00:12:02,267
Well, here's an idea
that I think is worth spreading.

182
00:12:02,887 --> 00:12:05,051
I sit on the governing board

183
00:12:05,051 --> 00:12:08,793
of the Madrasa Early Childhood
Program in East Africa,

184
00:12:08,793 --> 00:12:15,917
which reaches out to the most 
impoverished regions of this place,

185
00:12:15,917 --> 00:12:19,076
to children who have 
no access to schooling.

186
00:12:19,816 --> 00:12:21,750
Some thirty years ago,

187
00:12:21,750 --> 00:12:24,960
leaders along the coastal 
Muslim communities of this region

188
00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:27,407
approached His Highness the Aga Khan,

189
00:12:27,407 --> 00:12:31,717
whose grandfather had established
the first multiracial schools

190
00:12:31,717 --> 00:12:33,469
in the entire region,

191
00:12:33,469 --> 00:12:37,913
to ask if he could help them
with educating the youngest children

192
00:12:37,913 --> 00:12:40,851
in these disadvantaged communities.

193
00:12:41,761 --> 00:12:46,246
In the time since then, they have
developed an innovative curriculum

194
00:12:46,246 --> 00:12:49,373
that has been highlighted
on CNN and the BBC,

195
00:12:49,373 --> 00:12:52,729
which teaches all the subjects
one would normally expect,

196
00:12:52,729 --> 00:12:54,250
but in addition,


197
00:12:54,250 --> 00:12:57,200
a fundamental part of the curriculum

198
00:12:57,200 --> 00:13:00,422
that my children,
that you see in this picture,

199
00:13:00,422 --> 00:13:03,339
learn from the youngest ages

200
00:13:03,909 --> 00:13:08,701
is that they must be exposed
to the pluralism of the world.

201
00:13:08,701 --> 00:13:11,297
They must learn
about the linguistic groups,

202
00:13:11,297 --> 00:13:14,634
the ethnic groups,
the variety of tribes and religions

203
00:13:14,634 --> 00:13:19,572
that share their villages, their towns,
their country and our world.

204
00:13:19,572 --> 00:13:25,974
In other words, these little children
grow up with a "cosmopolitan ethic."

205
00:13:26,764 --> 00:13:31,261
Now, as many of you may recall,
at the beginning of 2008,

206
00:13:31,261 --> 00:13:34,789
Kenya was faced with terrible violence.

207
00:13:34,789 --> 00:13:38,363
As post-electoral violence
broke out across the country,

208
00:13:38,363 --> 00:13:40,916
there was terrible carnage

209
00:13:40,916 --> 00:13:43,906
as the supporters 
of the president Mwai Kibaki

210
00:13:43,906 --> 00:13:47,418
battled against the supporters 
of his opponent.

211
00:13:48,448 --> 00:13:52,478
Kikuyu tribe, Luo tribe, Kalenjin tribe
were killing one another.

212
00:13:52,478 --> 00:13:56,506
Thousands of people were murdered;
hundreds of thousands were displaced.

213
00:13:56,506 --> 00:14:01,269
All seventy-five of our schools
in Kenya were closed down.

214
00:14:01,269 --> 00:14:03,434
We were frantic.

215
00:14:03,434 --> 00:14:07,210
Our schools were located
in the poorest areas of the country,

216
00:14:07,210 --> 00:14:12,489
the areas most likely
to be affected by this violence.

217
00:14:13,389 --> 00:14:16,693
When our board next had its meeting,

218
00:14:16,693 --> 00:14:22,967
I immediately requested
that a report be prepared to tell us,

219
00:14:22,967 --> 00:14:25,131
"What has happened to our children?"

220
00:14:25,131 --> 00:14:27,602
"What has happened to our teachers?"

221
00:14:27,602 --> 00:14:30,924
"Are the parents who volunteer
at our schools okay?"

222
00:14:30,924 --> 00:14:33,632
"Are our communities okay?"

223
00:14:33,632 --> 00:14:35,903
"How many have died?"

224
00:14:36,803 --> 00:14:40,950
When the report came back,
we were stunned at what we read.

225
00:14:42,250 --> 00:14:47,013
Not a single school in our communities


226
00:14:47,013 --> 00:14:51,093
had been impacted by the violence.

227
00:14:51,713 --> 00:14:53,288
Not one.

228
00:14:54,448 --> 00:14:59,562
And I'm convinced that it is because,
for the last thirty years,

229
00:14:59,562 --> 00:15:03,687
these children have been growing up
learning about their neighbors,

230
00:15:03,687 --> 00:15:07,906
learning about the tribes, 
and the languages, and the songs,

231
00:15:07,906 --> 00:15:12,751
and the dances of everyone 
in their surroundings,

232
00:15:12,751 --> 00:15:14,930
and in the world around them.

233
00:15:14,930 --> 00:15:20,947
They have been immunized against
the virus of hatred and dehumanization

234
00:15:20,947 --> 00:15:24,017
that demagogues often try to spread.

235
00:15:24,917 --> 00:15:30,894
Can you imagine if children
across the world were to be taught

236
00:15:30,894 --> 00:15:33,473
like these children were taught?

237
00:15:34,033 --> 00:15:39,403
Would we be seeing the sectarian violence
in Iraq and Syria that we're seeing now?

238
00:15:39,403 --> 00:15:42,777
Would the racial problems 
in the United States be what they are?

239
00:15:42,777 --> 00:15:47,763
Would Islamophobia in the Western world
exist in the way that we see it?

240
00:15:48,843 --> 00:15:53,400
You know, our definition
of an educated person in the West

241
00:15:53,780 --> 00:15:57,738
means that they should be able to tell us
something about Sir Isaac Newton,

242
00:15:57,738 --> 00:16:00,851
about Mozart, about Napoleon.

243
00:16:02,181 --> 00:16:04,505
But we would be very hard-pressed

244
00:16:04,505 --> 00:16:08,271
to find many of even 
the most learned people in the West

245
00:16:08,271 --> 00:16:13,329
who know about the equivalent
in the Muslim world.

246
00:16:13,779 --> 00:16:15,278
This is despite the fact

247
00:16:15,278 --> 00:16:19,305
that the very words "algebra"
and "algorithm" come from Arabic;

248
00:16:19,305 --> 00:16:24,140
that some of the most iconic pieces
of architecture in the world,

249
00:16:24,140 --> 00:16:28,682
such as the Taj Mahal, 
come from Muslim cultures;

250
00:16:28,682 --> 00:16:33,434
and that the "Canon
of Medicine", by Ibn Sina,

251
00:16:33,434 --> 00:16:38,204
was the standard textbook of medicine
in Europe for hundreds of years.

252
00:16:39,504 --> 00:16:45,414
We need to implement a global vision
in our educational curriculum

253
00:16:45,414 --> 00:16:47,947
right from the youngest ages,

254
00:16:47,947 --> 00:16:52,575
so that children grow up understanding
the world in which we live,

255
00:16:52,575 --> 00:16:55,248
the people that are part of our community.

256
00:16:55,708 --> 00:17:00,634
At the entrance of the United Nations
there is inscribed a Persian poem

257
00:17:00,634 --> 00:17:05,978
by Sa'di-yi Shirazi, a 13th-century
Muslim poet, who writes,

258
00:17:06,528 --> 00:17:10,437
(Persian) The children of Adam
are like the limbs of one another.

259
00:17:10,437 --> 00:17:15,094
"The children of Adam
are like the limbs of one another

260
00:17:15,094 --> 00:17:18,329
For they were all created
from a single soul.

261
00:17:18,789 --> 00:17:23,347
When the winds of time
afflict one limb with pain,

262
00:17:23,347 --> 00:17:27,712
How can the other limbs remain at peace?

263
00:17:27,712 --> 00:17:31,896
You who feel not the pain of others

264
00:17:31,896 --> 00:17:36,793
How dare you call yourself
a child of Adam?

265
00:17:36,793 --> 00:17:40,947
How dare you call yourself a human being?"

266
00:17:40,947 --> 00:17:43,273
That feeling that we are one human family

267
00:17:43,273 --> 00:17:49,789
has led to some of the most inspirational
stories of courage in our recent past.

268
00:17:49,789 --> 00:17:53,969
In the last few months,
as a result of terrorist attacks,

269
00:17:53,969 --> 00:17:56,817
some extremist elements in the West

270
00:17:56,817 --> 00:17:59,311
have turned against 
Muslims in their midst,

271
00:17:59,311 --> 00:18:02,595
who had nothing to do
with these terrorist attacks.

272
00:18:02,595 --> 00:18:06,509
We have seen women pushed
in front of oncoming buses,

273
00:18:06,509 --> 00:18:08,710
mosques burned down,

274
00:18:08,710 --> 00:18:13,877
and the head of a pig
thrown into a children's school.

275
00:18:13,877 --> 00:18:15,877
But when these incidents started happening

276
00:18:15,877 --> 00:18:19,787
and Muslims were scared
to go out into their communities,

277
00:18:19,787 --> 00:18:24,167
within four hours
150,000 tweets in Australia,

278
00:18:24,167 --> 00:18:28,334
with the hashtag
"I'll ride with you", came out.

279
00:18:28,334 --> 00:18:30,240
"I'll ride with you."

280
00:18:30,240 --> 00:18:33,341
We're with you.
You're part of our community.

281
00:18:33,341 --> 00:18:36,225
You have nothing to worry about.

282
00:18:36,225 --> 00:18:37,464
Just weeks ago,


283
00:18:37,464 --> 00:18:41,581
al-Shabab militants attacked a bus 
on the way to Mandera

284
00:18:41,581 --> 00:18:44,771
on the border of Somalia and Kenya.

285
00:18:44,771 --> 00:18:47,068
They tried to take 
the Christians off of the bus

286
00:18:47,068 --> 00:18:50,187
to execute them in cold blood,

287
00:18:50,187 --> 00:18:51,875
but the Muslims on that bus

288
00:18:51,875 --> 00:18:56,706
refused to let their Christian
brothers and sisters be massacred.

289
00:18:57,086 --> 00:19:01,763
They told the terrorists,
"You will not take these Christians."

290
00:19:01,763 --> 00:19:05,615
"If you want to kill them,
you will kill all of us."

291
00:19:06,285 --> 00:19:10,550
Those terrorists were so scared
that they ran away.

292
00:19:13,710 --> 00:19:18,947
If we are armed with knowledge 
about our neighbors,

293
00:19:18,947 --> 00:19:21,593
the people that make up our world,

294
00:19:21,593 --> 00:19:26,285
we will have the tools
to stand up to anybody

295
00:19:26,285 --> 00:19:30,842
who hopes to dehumanize others,
who hopes to divide us,

296
00:19:31,762 --> 00:19:38,374
because in the words of Sa'di of Shiraz,
we are all the children of Adam,

297
00:19:38,374 --> 00:19:42,398
we are all one human family. 


298
00:19:42,398 --> 00:19:43,688
Thank you.

299
00:19:43,688 --> 00:19:46,498
(Cheers) (Applause)