Am very honored to be here as and of the newest fellows especially to moderate this conversation which is so important right now. You know, conservatives often disagree with the left and other political factions about the role of government in todays society, but i think the one thing that we all do agree on is that the governments most important responsibility is protecting its citizens from all threats both foreign and domestic. And weve seen a rise in antisemitism, in radical islamic terror as well as domestic terror. So it is only gotten harder over the years for the government to take care of this very important responsibility. But luckily we have two really great panelists with us here today to help break this down. First, the cofounder of the Muslim Reform Movement. Shes dedicated her life to promoting peace and human rights and womens rights within the Muslim Community. She has a very illustrious resume, including being a reporter for the wall street journal. As well as teaching at my alma mater georgetown university. Our second panelist who was actually joining us via skype is arasarah carter. She is an awardwinning investigative journalist. For thewritten Washington Examiner on the Washington Times but now she publishes her original reporting on her own website sarahacarter. Com. She is covered everything from the wars in afghanistan and iraq to security crisis on our southern border. Please give a big round of applause for our wonderful panelists. [applause] so, i think if anyone knows how to keep america safe, which is the topic of this panel, it is definitely these two. Id like to start with something that has always been important to me because i was seven years old when the september 11 terror attacks occurred. It is really one of the first big news events and the United States that i remember and was really affected by. So, for the vast majority of my life we have been fighting these wars against radical islamic terror in afghanistan and iraq. Of course, there have been attempts that nationbuilding by the bush administration. Id like you all to start, just speak about how this threat has grown over the years because the Muslim Community did not used to be such radical didnt have such radical sects. It was quite welcoming to women. Women were much for your. What are these pivotal moments that occurred in the Muslim Community to lead us to this point. Thank you so much for having me here. Im so honored to be here amongst all of you. And thank you for the invitation to come here. My own experience, i was a little bit older on september ahha01, but it was an moment like it was for so many people in the world. I am a muslim born in india to a theologically conservative family. Of the share a lot values of many of you in the room. I wasnt allowed to go to the dance when i was in Junior High School when the senior class president asked me to t go to te senior prom i said i cannot because i was not allowed to date. We loved the arranged marriage. And so, theres many ideas religiously align with the religious conservatives in america. But the great departure for my family and for me was this interpretation of islam that preached violence. And this was an interpretation that has been exported to our world over my lifetime since 1979, brought sunni and shia leaders to try to compete for the hearts and minds of muslims. So, sarah will speak to you about what she has witnessed but on that day, on september 11, 2001, i knew that as a muslim and as a journalist i had to get on a plane and go to pakistan and start reporting on the war. That was about to be unleashed it was ther ee that i had my critical moment. My colleague at the wall street journal was danny pearl. Yeah, you all can feel just in that reaction the tragedy that had happened to danny. For some of the younger ones here, he was a journalist who was reporting, like all journalists, and he came to visit me in my home in karachi, pakistan and he was kidnapped. Whohe was beheaded by men laid our their prayer rug after they had had slain him. Because they believed that they were doing something divine. And my journey then after that has been to stand up to that interpretation of islam that justified killing dan, because he was american, because he was jewish, and because he supports the right of israel to exist. Thats how our Muslim Reform Movement was born in the United States, to try to put forward an interpretation of islam that believes in peace. First, thank you so much for having me here, being able to speak. I really wish i could be there with the audience and who is such a good friend and somebody adoration formcuh so much adoration for because she is so brave. And she speaks the truth that we are not hearing often enough for muslim women. I did grow up in saudi arabia. I spent my formal years in the formidable years in the kingdom from the time i was six years old until i started high school in the United States. My father worked there as an american. And i remember a kingdom where, of course, it was with strict islamic law, was rooted there. This is a strict sharia nation. I remember traveling throughout the middle east as a child and like asra, in egypt and in lebanon and in the persian gulf, things were different. It was not this strict law or this strict interpretation of islam that we were facing. Now today. And i remember september 11th like im sure everybody else who lived through it. And it changed my life, because at that point, just like asra, but that is when i decided to dedicate my life to journalism. And to covering the war and covering terrorism, to covering the National Security issues that affect our nation. And i believed because i had that experience that is what led me to it. Lifet changed my completely. It changed my life forever because i spent so many of the last years of my life in the middle east and in south asia, covering the war like asra. Look, what we are seeing today and we have to understand this, these islamists are trying to divide us. They are trying to pit us against one another. We need to listen to reformers, people like asra. And others, women who are out there speaking the truth about what, about what [inaudible] of islam. Of being muslim. [audio breaking up] in the middle east and i will wrap it up because i want to get back to asra. I have had the most extraordinary experiences. Beautiful friends, warm and welcoming people. If people have seen the news today you know, a press release that two women in brooklyn actually from queens they pleaded guilty in brooklyn to basically preparing and planning to build a bomb and distribute bomb making instructions to followers. They are extremists. They are radical. They follow groups like al qaeda and islamic state. They actually had the intention of using a weapon of mass destruction on a large bomb in th United Statese. These are two women, two american muslim woman that had been radicalized. So, i think this is a really important discussion. Im really happy to be here. And i hope that asra and i can dispel some of the inaccurate information that is out there. And really get to the root of whats causing this rise in radicalism among some in the Muslim Community and what we can do as a nation to stop this and to find a way to communicate and make a difference. Madew has radicalism its way to the u. S. . In domesticg a rise terrorism in terms of antiof antisemitism, white supremacy, but also islam is impaired and im just wondering how you all see that making its way to the u. S. . How is that ideology gaining root in a place where we value things like democracy and freedom and liberty. For me, i grew up. I came from india and lived first in new jersey. And then i lived in morgantown, West Virginia. In the foothills of the appalachian mountains. My father was a professor at West Virginia university. And so, when i was a teen, i party thate annual we have that marks the end of ramadan. Normally we would mix together. Just like we are in the room, men and women, Families Together and husband and wives next to each other but one year we were told as we walked into the front, women over there. And we were sent as women and girls into the little studio apartment at the graduate students lived in. Men would bring the food there the women had cooked and leave it at the door. Knock on the door and run away as if they were to look at us and then turned to stone. Because saudi students had come to campus and they had brought with them suitcases of their koran and their interpretation of islam. Habiismbby is a wa that sara talks about. What is happened in america which is so important to all of you is that first but saudis and now the government of qatar and the current government of turkey have funded muslim organizations in the United States the believe in this islam is a, which is the ideology of political islam, the idea of muslims a privacy. And these are organizations that some of you might be familiar with like the council on American Islamic relations. And activist like, like an activist from brooklyn. Enese individuals have now tak the ideology of islamism and put it forward in america as one of their agenda items. And what comes with that . Whats really important to any of you that care about pluralism is antisemitism. A very clear agenda to destroy the state of israel. And, as our last panel discussed, now what we are seeing is the unmasking of ideas, right . We now know where people are espousing socialist ideas. They are saying it straight up. Omar as the rise of spokeswoman for the sloppy, w this lobby, we have seen really clearly, justin this past week just in this past week. The propaganda was canceled by the Prime Minister of israel because he knew that in their agenda is destruction of israel. And so, thats the alarm bells that we want to raise with many of you that i know you are aware of. But what is happening is they have considered themselves into the Democratic Party platform. They have decided that liberal america and the left is the way they are going to enter into american politics. This weekend is going to be a big muslim vote drive by all these organizations. And their interest is to have Rashida Tlaib and nth to th omar to the degree in the u. S. Political system. Sara, how do you think the left has allowed this to happen . The womens march was supposed of the about the apartment of women when we know that the things that she believes in, like sharia law, do the opposite of that. So, how has this been able to become a Democratic Party platform when it seems antithetical to the themes they claim they believe . Sara i could not have said it better myself. You made such an important point right there. How did it happen . Cap and very slowly and it happens with the ability, especially when you have someone like Representative Ilhan Omar or Rashida Tlaib coming out and making statements. Its very difficult for people on the left. And many people on the right to stand up to them because the one thing they are afraid of is the one thing they will automatically throwback at anyone who criticizes them. Youre antimuslim, you are antiwoman, we do not understand the culture. Do not understand where i come from. You must be a racist. And people are terrified of that. Especially when they make it a political threat. People hold back. They are afraid of asking questions. We saw what happened with nancy pelosi. She challenged them. You see what happens when anybody challenges wishing to to leave or representative it Rashida Tlaib and congresswoman ilhan omar. Israel said, we know why you are here. That that Media Movement is so divisive and was working very closely palestinian terror organizations early on. And youre not coming into israel. Very difficult decision im sure because they felt the wrath of that. But israel understands where these two women were coming from. Iss iraq. Ewed former m i she is muslim as she lives in the United States now. At the age of 18 she actually volunteered and took on a job as an interpreter for u. S. Forces in iraq. Became very enamored by the United States and what it stood for. And eventually came to the u. S. She was a refugee as well in syria for a time. Aftere went straight out omar, saying you do not represent me as a muslim woman. They had a really backandforth battle going on publicly because she is trying to dispel what o mar and Rashida Tlaib are putting out there. They are saying that there is a representation of muslim women all across the globe. And they are not. There are muslim women all across the globe that are that are fighting this fight of, antiwomensay, movement that has been pushed forward so strongly within islam. The new islamism. Just think of malala in pakistan that stood up to the taliban and almost lost her life. Think of all those women in afghanistan. Stood up to people in their not goingo, im to marry that man. [audio breaking up] asra talked a lot about this. [inaudible] as americans need to stand up for these women and stand up for that are willing to fight [inaudible] unfortunately the left is not do that. Instead, they Rashida Tlaib and do not challenge them. [inaudible] im not going to speak for us here. Ask them what they believe. Hold them accountable for what they believe and then stand up for those women all over the world that really need someone to back them up and give so that we can change this tide. When it comes to surviving islamism and terror. And one of the things that you speak about, a lot about, asra, is what is the alternative to what is happening with islamism. And that is what your group looks to od, provide that opportunity. Asra when i was just reminded of when sara was talking so eloquently about how israel reacted. I come from, in a muslim society, we are in honorshame culture. That is often times the leverage used to intimidate people into silence. So, that is the go to for this radical muslim lobby as i describe them. They will try to shame you into silence. So, if you get to question them then they call you and islamophobia. And im exhibit a for what an is left open looks like, according ophobe looks like. I dared to criticize their interpretation of islam that is a problem. On some level we have to be shameless. We have to stand with courage, intellectual courage and conviction. Say that it isy really important to allow in is lam and among muslims the same progress and reformation that has happened in christianity and judaism and even in the conservative movement, right . In earlier panels we talked about how you go back to tradition, but you see with cl ear eye what works for the present day and what doesnt. Was born inm is, the seventh century. Just think we are 700 years behind. Give us a little bit of, you know, slack for the fact that we have all of these bureaucratic governments basically with a club over the heads of so many muslims. But what were offering is a vision in the Muslim Reform Movement for an interpretation of islam that is in the history of islam. Called they were living in iraq during the 10th, 12th century, and they believed in Critical Thinking. They believed in this critical principle of Education System in america. They believed in rational thought. And just like philosophical movements through history have been crushed and reborn, they were crushed. That is when the gates or Critical Thinking were closed. What were trying to do is bursting open. Burst it open. And i so appreciate that many of you are offering us that opportunity. In this country because it is only in this country that offers so many freedoms that we are able to do this with relative safety and security. At so, please, please look islam not monolithic as a monolithic interpretation but on that has a continuum. Do were not trying to, to anything except bring principles with which islam was born that are the most progressive and able to live in the 21st century. In onei want to sneak more question before we turn it over to the audience. This ties so much to immigration and our immigration policy because when you look at what has happened in europe with the refugee crisis, sweden, for example, attempted rape of girls 46 percent from 2015 to 2016, rape of girls under 2015 up 26 , and the majority of the men convicted of rape were foreign nationals, not native to sweden. What lessons can we learn from europe in dealing with the refugee crisis as we craft our own immigration policy, trying to protect our nation and borders . Sara . Sara this is a subject that means so much to me. I spent so much of my career on the u. S. Mexico border, and i was in Central America in guatemala twice over the last year and plan on returning back shortly. There are so many lessons we can learn, lessons we can learn over decades of having this same problem and crisis repeated over and over again. I can tell the audience, i listened back to some of my work in 2006, on the radio or the stories i wrote, back in 2014 when there was a flood of undocumented children into the u. S. , and it sounded like i was talking today about the same crisis. This is a National Security crisis at our borders. This isnt just about immigration. Notborder is wide open, just of people coming from Central America, which we havent properly vetted or cant time, because they dont have identification, but people from all over the world. We have seen increases of people coming as far away as bangladesh, africa, congo. While i was in guatemala, there were a number look people a number of people who had come through from bangladesh as well as africa, through brazil, up through columbia, and eventually through guatemala. We dont know who these people are. We dont know what their intentions are. And unless they are in a database, we will have no idea what their intentions are. I think this is why the Trump Administration in fact, i know this is why the Trump Administration has made this such a priority. Shut down the loophole. Make sure the people are properly vetted. It is a really difficult challenge, however, when the focus from the left or from others is to say, well, this is antiimmigrant, this is a racist you are not appropriately taking care of ,hildren, we should let them go we should end the settlement agreement. Crisis becauseus that border has been [indiscernible] the time i spent with intelligence officers. They are terrified. They even say if the American People really understood what was happening down here, i think all of them would want something to happen. But unfortunately we dont get all that information and unfortunately there is a lot of rhetoric out there. Immigration for me is still a major priority, a major part of howork, and also looking at that border is a National Security risk. We know people have attempted to cross that border before that are wanted, people that have been identified as belonging to a terrorist organization. We know the dea and department of defense, that our border immigration and customs enforcement, the department of Homeland SecurityWork Together to try, along with our partners to the south, tried together to stop the flow of anybody attempting to come into this country to do us harm. But remember, it is almost impossible. There are so many people, and we miss a lot of them. Every time i hear about apprehensions, i say to myself, those are who we have actually stopped. What about all the people we didnt catch . What about all the contraband that came through that we didnt catch, didnt inspect . Thats what people have to realize. As for europe and i will make this very quick you see what is happening. We see what is happening to europe and asia with the flow and it has become difficult for countries like italy as well as other nations, which economically cant sustain it, but have to take in so many people flooding into their nation. We have to look at this as a comprehensive solution. Its not just one thing. It is not just building a wall. Negotiating a safe third country agreement. Its all of it. Its looking at this as a comprehensive issue and ensuring that the democrats are involved. People can politicize this all what will happen if someone does come across that that conducts a terrorist attack in this country . On is going to be sitting that september 11 Commission Hearing . To wenty going for decades we have been thatting and crying out there is a National Security threat at the u. S. Mexico border . Asra i would add that when we talk about the radical muslim lobby and the immigration issue, they have made themselves a key part of the coalition to have president rs, to pit trumps policies as a muslim ban, and they are intent on promoting the democratic agenda when it comes to immigration. And what they are not interested in doing is forcing at demanding and demanding the kind of expectations that have been surrendered, and fact, in europe that have created the kind of situation that you have talked about, related to crime and sexual assault. That is the simple principle of integration. I came to this country when i was four years old, and it was nancy drew that was my best friend. [laughter] asra i, too, loved country music. What mountaineer wouldnt . That is, i think, the challenge for all of us. That were immigrants asylumseekers in greece this summer, add i introduced them to an exhibit i had done related to my friend danny pearls story. One of them literally wore a iteball cap with an ak47 on , which was like a trigger for me because it is basically the god of the militants in south asia and pakistan. I told him the story of dannys kidnapping and murder, and this young man, who i had had suspicion about initially, had tears in his eyes, because this tragedy spoke to him also. This is the group that we need to integrate. If people are coming into this country, it is on all of our shoulders to find a way, the ishway to american identity one that is in sync with our values. Hefather was most moved when was a student in kansas state, because he went to a church and he watched the carwash. Washe carwash, the pastor there along with a teenager, washing cars to raise money for the church. It is in those simple values that i think we can preserve the incredible fabric that is america. Amber we are going to turn it over to the audience for questions. I see this young man raised his hand very quickly, so we will let him go first. Hello. Thanks for the young man. I greatly appreciate that. [laughter] i thought you were talking to somebody behind me. Was one of the founders of the modern feminist movement, with Gloria Steinem and that group. Two, sheast decade to has been thoroughly ostracized from the feminist community because of two issues. One, her support for the only Democratic State in the middle east, israel. And secondly, because she speaks out against the treatment of women in so many islamic countries. Could you both speak to the deafening silence of the american feminist community about whats happening to their sisters in islamic countries . I am very familiar with Phyllis Chesler and her contributions to important issues, from the honor killings that are a reflection of the honor shame culture in which i was born. What has happened with the feminist movement is exactly the point of the womens march that you brought up. It has been hijacked. By muslimn hijacked leaders, women muslim leaders, who want absolutely no conversation about the womens rights issue in islam because they know it is our achilles heel. They know that if you dare to touch that issue, you are going to end up with an indefensible argument related to segregation and lack of equal rights and so many fundamental issues. They have completely abandoned, to me, women in so many muslim countries, like the women in iran who want to simply have the right to feel the wind in their hair. Such a simple idea. When you go outside as limit and go outside as women and as men and to see a woman being able to walk freely, the feeling that i have is, wow, do you know how amazing an experience this is . Because it is denied millions of women. Unfortunately, the feminist Movement Today wants to say you are an islamophobic if you want to talk about these issues. Thats where i say, stand up with moral courage and challenge them and feel no shame about raging these about raising these important issues. Sara exactly. Thank you so much for such an important issue. Thisisnt about culture, is about human rights and dignity. If any of these women actually cared enough about their fellow women, they would be outraged and they would stand up against it. There is always strength in numbers. I am telling you, when i hear even someone like ilhan omar talk about, i come from a different cultural place then you, i know, because i have traveled through a lot of these regions. Asra, irock mike spent my childhood in countries with culture is completely different from my own. About this is not about culture. This is about human rights and dignity. In afghanistan, i spent so much time with young girls in villages or covering stories, and i will never forget, there was one little girl whose mother was actually recovering from opioid addiction in afghanistan. Ande was a female doctor, she saw me and she saw this dr. And she sat looking at and tears started coming out of her eyes. Her daughter was 11 or 12 years old. I asked the doctor why she was crying. She said, because i will never have a chance to be a doctor or somebody like you. I said, what do you mean . She said, because my father is forcing me to marry an elder in the village, and i will never go to school. And my heart just broke. She wasnt happy about that. This wasnt a cultural, great moment for her. Her village had been dominated by the taliban for a very long time. This little girl felt like she had no one to defend her. Nden you think about this a you think about what [indiscernible] andnd took a picture defiantly said, i stand behind the israeli neighbor and i will be the israelis friend. Is a really brave thing to , anything that each one of us can do. We shouldnt turn our heads if people are suffering. Because we come from an extraordinary nation, we should make sure that light shines so women get the privilege, like iran and saudi arabia, to stand up and fight for their own dignity. Amber another question, we have one here. Asra, you are a cofounder of the Muslim Reform Movement. All the peaceful messages of the koran written during mohammeds with thoseplaced later messages of hatred and disgust for nonmuslims. If allthe things many the things many see as hateful about islam were removed, nothing would be left. How can we reform islam if getting rid of the bad, like female genital valuation mutilation, rape, and says leaves nothing left of islam . Asra thank you for that great question. It reminds me of a tour we want to start, because when ilhan omar was asked by a muslim activist about her position on female genital mutilation, the cutting of a girls quitter is oris so shelit doesnt feel orgasmic she yelled at the woman and said, that is an appalling question and i refuse to answer it. We want to start a tort in the Muslim Reform Movement of honoring islam by asking appalling questions. This is a critical question about the violent verses and violent chapters. When the question was asked, it started with the assumption of abrogation, which most of you might understand means that a later verse usurps an earlier verse. , it wasam was founded in the city of mecca and there were more peaceful versus. Later when the Prophet Muhammad moved to medina and was at war, there were more violent verses. There is a couple fundamental namedin that fancy word hermeneutics, this study of sacred texts. A fundamental idea in the marvin the Muslim Reform Movement is that we do not agree that ofogation is the kind analysis with which we approach the chapters and verses in the koran so that is a really critical idea. We denied the fundamental like, shufflet, that you have got to do. The second one is that we denied the idea that you have to take each chapter and verse literally. This is something christians have had to deal with also related to the bible. So sometimes we might look at a verse more metaphorically. I will just give one example, is that in the seventh century, one of the sexiest interpretations was one of the sexist interpretations was that a girl got less inheritance than her brother. It was considered progressive because a girl was finally getting inheritance, but in the spirit of progressiveness, we say, now it is the 21st century and a daughter receives equal to us on. Women 28 son. Women were never witnesses to a man, so it became that two women equal one man as a witness. That is not fair, but in the seventh century it was progressive. Moving along with the progressive spirit, today one woman equals one man as a witness in crime. On the violent verses, what we also do is we say that they were revealed at that time when mohammed was fighting with these itbes and they declared was basically the battle plan for the war at the time, but it is not for alltime. , yes,entially it means ripping pages out of the garage out of the koran, which could put a target on our backs if we put them forward as an idea, but having that kind of Critical Thinking is essential to having progress, and thats how we handle what we will be left with in terms of the text and the teachings. Amber unfortunately we are about out of time. I know we would love to dig into this. There is so much more to cover in terms of making sure we are protecting American Values and our citizens. I want to say thank you to our wonderful panelists and thank you to the Steamboat Institute for putting on this very important panel. [laughter] very important panel. [applause] announcer tonight, our interview with a disability rights attorney and author. In her book, she details becoming the first deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School and how she maneuvers through a sighted, hearing world. Other students can go to school at expect this dude the teachers expect the teachers to teach them. I could not do that. I had to think about what i might be missing. What are the unknowns . How can i find those unknowns . All my life has been the process of trying to identify unknowns and figure them out and come up with solutions. Announcer at 10 00 p. M. , an American University professor talks about his book, how to be an antiracist. He is interviewed by an author and Princeton University professor. I dont think even wellmeaning people, even people who are trying to be part of the movement against racism, recognize really that the history of this term so when a eugenicist was classified as racist, they said, i am not racist. When jim crow segregationists were charged with being racist, they said, i am not. Now today even white nationalists are saying, i am not racist, no matter whether they are in the white house were planning the next mass shooting. Announcer at 11 00 p. M. , jim mattis recounts his military career and