The Clash of Ignorance | Shafique Virani | TEDxUTSC

With shocking evidence, hilarious anecdotes, heart-wrenching personal stories, and brilliant insights into world events, Dr. Shafique Virani urges us to confront the Clash of Ignorance between the West and the Muslim World, replacing walls of misinformation with bridges of understanding. Appealing to the best in human nature, Dr. Virani presents a visionary path forward, and inspires hope for a better future.

Distinguished Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto, founding Director of the Centre for South Asian Civilizations, and past Chair of the Department of Historical Studies, Dr. Shafique Virani (PhD, Harvard University) is an award-winning author and internationally recognized public speaker who has addressed people from over 50 countries and audiences of over 15,000. His book, The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, A Search for Salvation, is believed to be the first academic book of any major university press to have had its own book trailer. Describing him as “a visionary,” the United Nations honored him for dedicating his efforts “to the cause of extending the frontiers of knowledge and the welfare of humankind.”

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

So I just flew in for the TED conference,

and while I was waiting at the airport

I happened to see a family friend
that I haven't seen in ages.

We call him Uncle Anwar

and he's the spitting image of Babar
from the Canadian hit comedy

Little Mosque on the Prairie.

(Laughter)

He loves wearing
his traditional kurta-pajama,

he sports a beard, and he has
the most adorable Pakistani accent.

So he rushed up to me,
gave me a big hug,

and said, "How are you doing?
What are you up to these days?"

So I told him that I'd become
a Professor of Islamic Studies,

and I kept myself pretty busy
flying around and giving lectures

to help people understand
a little bit more about Islam,

especially after 9/11.

He looked me right in the eye and said,

"Don't talk to me about 9/11!

Everywhere I go, everybody looks at me
as if I am responsible for 9/11!

Me, responsible for 9/11?

7-Eleven maybe, but not 9/11!"

(Laughter) (Applause)

As I told Uncle Anwar,

I've been going around a lot
and giving many talks,

and one of them was
at the National Press Club.

At that time, the substance DHM
was being talked about a lot.

In fact, in Idaho, 86% of those
who were surveyed

wanted a ban on this substance.

I'd like to tell you a number
of important facts about this substance,

and then ask for your opinion.

All of the facts
that I'm going to tell you

are actually things that have been
published in peer-reviewed literature

and have been verified
by the best scientists

at Harvard, MIT, the University
of Toronto, and Oxford.

DHM is colorless, odorless and tasteless.

Prolonged exposure to DHM's solid form
severely damages human body tissues.

Symptoms of DHM ingestion
include excessive sweating, urination,

and possible feelings of bloating, nausea,
vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance.

DHM has been found in excised tumors
of terminal cancer patients.

Accidental inhalation of DHM

is the third leading cause
of unintentional death worldwide,

with almost 400,000 fatalities annually,

according to the World
Health Organization.

For those who'll become dependent,

DHM withdrawal means certain death.

Given this information, how many of you
would allow DHM to be freely available?

Almost nobody.

You are in full agreement with the people

at the National Press Club
that I talked to.

Let me tell you little bit more about it.

DHM is Di-Hydrogen Monoxide.

It's also known as Hydrogen Hydroxide.

But most of us probably know it
by its common name,

which is water.

Every fact that I just told you

was verifiable by the best
scientists across the world.

And yet, almost everyone in this audience

was ready to limit our access to water.

When we are presented with only
a certain subset of information,

we are liable to make errors of judgment
and wrong decisions.

The story of DHM reveals a lot about

the topic that I want
to talk to you about,

another type of DHM
that is much more invidious than this one.

The first DHM is
Di-Hydrogen Monoxide,

but the second one is
De-Humanizing Muslims.

Media Tenor,

one of the leading world organizations
for strategic media intelligence,

reviewed close to one million
items about Muslims

in US and European media outlets.

98% of the stories
were about Muslim militants.

Only 2% of them were about
the ordinary 1.5 billion Muslims,

one quarter of our world's population,

with whom we share this planet.

This is an exact parallel to the situation
of the information I gave you about DHM.

When all of the information we have
is about one extremely unusual subset,

not only do we fail
to address that subset,

but we completely misunderstand the issue.

We have conflated the actions

of an infinitesimally small portion
of Muslims in the world

with 1.5 billion people across the globe.

It's similar to if we were to take
the actions of the Ku Klux Klan,

the cross burnings, and say,

"This is representative
of all of Christianity."

Unfortunately, this type of conflation
has become increasingly common,

as we can see in the message on the back
of this pickup truck, which says,

"Everything I ever needed
to know about Islam I learned on 9/11."

I remember 9/11 really well.

I had just been appointed
to the faculty at Harvard University,

and I was preparing for my first class.

I remember that class.

The students and I struggled to understand

the terrible evil
that we had just witnessed.

What I found really encouraging

was that all of them were very open-minded
and willing to learn and to understand.

They realized that throughout
their years of schooling

they had had almost no exposure
to the Muslim world

and, therefore, they wanted to understand.

They wanted to see
this world in its reality.

The contrast between the message on
the back of this truck and these students

reminds me of a passage that I came across
in a book that I'm currently translating

by a famous author
with the name Nasiruddin Tusi,

one of the most famous
of Muslim scientists

and philosophers from the Middle Ages.

That passage says,

"He who knows not and knows not
that he knows not is a fool.

Avoid him.

He who knows not and knows
that he knows not is a seeker.

Teach him.

He who knows and knows not
that he knows is asleep.

Awaken him.

And he who knows
and knows that he knows is wise.

Follow him."

One of the other reasons why 9/11
is etched into my memory,

perhaps much more than many other people,

can be told from this picture.

This is my uncle, Salman Dhanani.

He was an active volunteer
in his community in New York;

a real humanitarian who was always helping
with activities in the developing world.

He was the Vice President
of a company called Aon Insurance,

which had its offices on the 99th floor

of the South Tower
of the World Trade Center.

On that fateful day,

when those planes
crashed into those buildings,

he was responsible
for evacuating his colleagues.

He saved the lives of 80
of his fellows, and they escaped.

But by the time they got out,
it was too late for him.

He was trapped.

And today he lies buried under the rubble

that was once the World Trade Center.

He was 63.

This picture was taken
just days before he died,

when members of my family,

my uncle Nizar, my aunt Mumtaz
and my cousin Fatima went to visit him,

and they took this picture
outside of the United Nations.

These are the ordinary Muslims
that we never hear about.

The vacuum of knowledge that we have

about one quarter of humanity
in the Muslim world

I think is really well revealed by a poll
that was released, just last month,

by one of the most respected
polling firms in the United States,

Public Policy Polling.

They interviewed one thousand Americans,
both Democrats and Republicans,

and the results are something
that I promise you

I could not have made up if I tried.

One quarter of Americans
favor the bombing of Agrabah.

(Laughter)

Now, for those of you who are unaware,
Agrabah is the mythical kingdom

from the Disney classic Aladdin.

(Laughter) (Applause)

It boggles the mind
that one quarter of people

wanted to bomb an imaginary kingdom

presumably because it's maybe
somewhere in the Middle East.

But I think that is something
a little bit telling, isn't it?

Because the image that we have
of the ordinary people

that live in that part of the world
is rather imaginary, isn't it?

And it's something that I think
has developed over generations.

In fact, it's perhaps prescient

that this was about the imaginary
kingdom from Aladdin,

because that was
one of my favorite films growing up.

And I remember the first song
of the narrator really well.

They sang, "Oh, I come from a land,
From a faraway place,

Where the caravan camels roam,

Where they cut off your ear
If they don't like your face,

It's barbaric, but hey, it's home!"

Right from the youngest ages,
little children are learning

that the people of this Muslim world
are barbaric, violent people.

Nobody has done more research
about this than Professor Jack Shaheen.

He reviewed close to one thousand films

produced over the course
of over a hundred years through Hollywood

and found only twelve

that depicted Muslims or Arabs
in a positive light.

In fact, he reached the conclusion

that if there were a male Muslim
or Arab character in a film,

there would be a 95% chance
that he would be depicted

as violent, greedy or dishonest -

95%!

People like Samuel Huntington
have described our current world situation

as a "Clash of Civilizations."

More nuanced thinkers,

who realize and understand
other parts of the world better,

realize that what we're really facing
is a "Clash of Ignorance."

How do we confront the Clash of Ignorance?

Well, here's an idea
that I think is worth spreading.

I sit on the governing board

of the Madrasa Early Childhood
Program in East Africa,

which reaches out to the most
impoverished regions of this place,

to children who have
no access to schooling.

Some thirty years ago,

leaders along the coastal
Muslim communities of this region

approached His Highness the Aga Khan,

whose grandfather had established
the first multiracial schools

in the entire region,

to ask if he could help them
with educating the youngest children

in these disadvantaged communities.

In the time since then, they have
developed an innovative curriculum

that has been highlighted
on CNN and the BBC,

which teaches all the subjects
one would normally expect,

but in addition,

a fundamental part of the curriculum

that my children,
that you see in this picture,

learn from the youngest ages

is that they must be exposed
to the pluralism of the world.

They must learn
about the linguistic groups,

the ethnic groups,
the variety of tribes and religions

that share their villages, their towns,
their country and our world.

In other words, these little children
grow up with a "cosmopolitan ethic."

Now, as many of you may recall,
at the beginning of 2008,

Kenya was faced with terrible violence.

As post-electoral violence
broke out across the country,

there was terrible carnage

as the supporters
of the president Mwai Kibaki

battled against the supporters
of his opponent.

Kikuyu tribe, Luo tribe, Kalenjin tribe
were killing one another.

Thousands of people were murdered;
hundreds of thousands were displaced.

All seventy-five of our schools
in Kenya were closed down.

We were frantic.

Our schools were located
in the poorest areas of the country,

the areas most likely
to be affected by this violence.

When our board next had its meeting,

I immediately requested
that a report be prepared to tell us,

"What has happened to our children?"

"What has happened to our teachers?"

"Are the parents who volunteer
at our schools okay?"

"Are our communities okay?"

"How many have died?"

When the report came back,
we were stunned at what we read.

Not a single school in our communities

had been impacted by the violence.

Not one.

And I'm convinced that it is because,
for the last thirty years,

these children have been growing up
learning about their neighbors,

learning about the tribes,
and the languages, and the songs,

and the dances of everyone
in their surroundings,

and in the world around them.

They have been immunized against
the virus of hatred and dehumanization

that demagogues often try to spread.

Can you imagine if children
across the world were to be taught

like these children were taught?

Would we be seeing the sectarian violence
in Iraq and Syria that we're seeing now?

Would the racial problems
in the United States be what they are?

Would Islamophobia in the Western world
exist in the way that we see it?

You know, our definition
of an educated person in the West

means that they should be able to tell us
something about Sir Isaac Newton,

about Mozart, about Napoleon.

But we would be very hard-pressed

to find many of even
the most learned people in the West

who know about the equivalent
in the Muslim world.

This is despite the fact

that the very words "algebra"
and "algorithm" come from Arabic;

that some of the most iconic pieces
of architecture in the world,

such as the Taj Mahal,
come from Muslim cultures;

and that the "Canon
of Medicine", by Ibn Sina,

was the standard textbook of medicine
in Europe for hundreds of years.

We need to implement a global vision
in our educational curriculum

right from the youngest ages,

so that children grow up understanding
the world in which we live,

the people that are part of our community.

At the entrance of the United Nations
there is inscribed a Persian poem

by Sa'di-yi Shirazi, a 13th-century
Muslim poet, who writes,

(Persian) The children of Adam
are like the limbs of one another.

"The children of Adam
are like the limbs of one another

For they were all created
from a single soul.

When the winds of time
afflict one limb with pain,

How can the other limbs remain at peace?

You who feel not the pain of others

How dare you call yourself
a child of Adam?

How dare you call yourself a human being?"

That feeling that we are one human family

has led to some of the most inspirational
stories of courage in our recent past.

In the last few months,
as a result of terrorist attacks,

some extremist elements in the West

have turned against
Muslims in their midst,

who had nothing to do
with these terrorist attacks.

We have seen women pushed
in front of oncoming buses,

mosques burned down,

and the head of a pig
thrown into a children's school.

But when these incidents started happening

and Muslims were scared
to go out into their communities,

within four hours
150,000 tweets in Australia,

with the hashtag
"I'll ride with you", came out.

"I'll ride with you."

We're with you.
You're part of our community.

You have nothing to worry about.

Just weeks ago,

al-Shabab militants attacked a bus
on the way to Mandera

on the border of Somalia and Kenya.

They tried to take
the Christians off of the bus

to execute them in cold blood,

but the Muslims on that bus

refused to let their Christian
brothers and sisters be massacred.

They told the terrorists,
"You will not take these Christians."

"If you want to kill them,
you will kill all of us."

Those terrorists were so scared
that they ran away.

If we are armed with knowledge
about our neighbors,

the people that make up our world,

we will have the tools
to stand up to anybody

who hopes to dehumanize others,
who hopes to divide us,

because in the words of Sa'di of Shiraz,
we are all the children of Adam,

we are all one human family.

Thank you.

(Cheers) (Applause)