Defend what they believed in and explain what they believe in because at that point americans all of a sudden became interested because of the threats and all the hostility, violence. All of a sudden things changed. Why did you decide to share with the public . Religion is a private thing. You could have easily made your conversion not said anything. Why did you think it was important to tell the public . I wanted to make a break with what i saw as the tradition of oppression for black americans. Islam gave me a platform that was neutral in the sense that it didnt have any political leanings. It was just about living your life according to difficult vine decree. Muslims can be themselves they worship the same god as abraham. What they call a Judeo Christian tradition, we embrace that and we feel that is our tradition o its funny you brang up that phrase. When you bring up the phrase Judeo Christian, it almost seems like were leaving the muslims out. You would say to that . That is absolutely wrong construction. Prophet muhammad was a descendant of abraham, were told in both the bible and the koran. We absolutely are a part of that tradition. If you read the koran you see all the people that you read about in the bible. Mary, including mary . Mary, jesus abraham moses, david, solomon, theyre all in there. One of the things you made clear, and it was interesting, its fascinating anybody should go into the Sports Illustrated vault and read this. You explaining the difference you decided to be a shia muslim. And now we hear sunni shia and we think of a civil war. How would you describe the difference between sunni and shia. You said theres no ideological difference. Theres no ideological difference. The split has to do with the succession of who is going to lead the Islamic Community some 12 centuries ago. Thats when it happened. Theyre still fighting over it. It makes absolutely no sense that blood is being shed and all this conflict because its something that happened a long time ago. Would this be akin to like catholics and protestants . More or less, yes. You even talked about it with whats happened. Yes, just a different interpretation of what is the best way to move forward in terms of what they believe in. They believe in exactly the same thing. Ill faus for a break and have more with Kareem Abduljabbar. Well talk late basketball and Race Relations. I love my shows, but i cant just sit around all day. Thats why i have xfinity. Their cloud based dvr lets me take everything ive recorded anywhere i go. Which is perfect for me, [whispering] because i have responsibilities. I mean thats really interesting, then how do you explain these photos . [people gasping] objection your honor. Sustained. With the x1 dvr library you can take anywhere, xfinity is perfect for people on the go. Call or click today. We live in a pick and choose world. Choose, choose, choose. But at bedtime . Why settle for this . Enter sleep number, and the ultimate sleep number event, going on now. Sleepiq technology tells you how well you slept and what adjustments you can make. You like the bed soft. Hes more hardcore. So your sleep goes from good to great to wow now we can all choose amazing sleep only at a sleep number store. Right now find our bestbuy rated c2 Queen Mattress starting at 599. 99. Know better sleep with sleep number. Back now with Kareem Abduljabbar abduljabbar. I was curious, during the whole ferguson protest, we saw athletes speaking out. I say this, growing up for me, athletes spoke out all the time in the 60s and 70s. You would be outspoken on cultural issues of the day. Then it just sort of went away. In the 80s and 90s you saw the prominent athletes, the most famous line attributed to michael jordan, why he didnt want to get involved in politics republicans buy sneakers, too. It became part of a business. When you saw ferguson sparked protests again, what did you think . I thought the athletes that spoke out had a good point to make. One athlete i forget his name plays for the Cleveland Browns and hes a parent. He started thinking about what could happen to his son when he became a teenager and might do something a little bit out of line, would his son be shot down for no good reason. He was very concerned about that. It made absolute sense, this is something that would be in his future if hes not careful and if his son does not figure out how to negotiate this minefield. So it would be great if we could clear the minefield and have it so that black people are not immediately suspect or treated as people who are criminals for no good reason. Do you think its healthy for athletes to be speaking up . I think its healthy especially when they think out in a sensible and correct way you know about the issues and about making things better. We try to make things better. The whole thing the common good of our nation, i think its very important. A lot of this has to do with tradition. Somebody mentioned the dredscott decision and also the fugitive slave act. In the fugitive slave act white people were supposed to help capture runaway slaves because they were seen as less than human and did not understand and civilization and they needed to be dealt with in a repressive way. They needed to be chained and forced to work. This mindset, even though that is no longer the law, it hasur criminal Justice System where blacks are looked upon as criminals and not being able to behave in a civilized, legal way. Your generation of africanamericans has seen the best and the worst, i would say, of times in Race Relations. Absolutely. I think about the story you told of going home to harlem and walking into the riots when they were taking place there. Right. At the same time youve seen an africanamerican elected president of the united states. Describe how you would tell somebody two generations younger than you of sort of the state of Race Relations and this push and pull and what you saw and how much hope does it give you . I always have hope because young people are getting it. In the past 30 or 40 years theres been a whole lot of progress in terms of americans understanding that no matter what ethnicity you are, were all americans. Were americans first. Im an american muslim. I dont have any problem saying that, and i pay my taxes, i respect my nations laws and traditions. Thats what i should be doing. Most muslims feel this way and theyre happy to be here. They couldnt do this in many of the countries that they left. America is a great place for muslims to come and worship as they see is correct. We should embrace what america is all about. Do you feel more patriotic today than you did in the last 60s . Yes i do. We have the ability to make it better. The Founding Fathers were geniuses in that they allowed us to reinterpret and adjust the constitution because weve made progress. When this country started, blacks were considered to be only 3 5 human. And weve gotten past that. That has to do with the evolution of how we think about people and what we know to be right. All right. I hesitated to do this, wu im going to ask you a little sports. In the world of basketball the game isnt dominated by centers like you anymore . Right. Why . So many young people when they learn the game, they get in love with the threepoint shot. So all the guys that should be working in the paint with their back to the basket are out ton threepoint line trying to make threepointers because the threepoint shot has created a lot toe fever. Everybody wants to hit the three. Do you think its you were telling me earlier you thought it was a lack of good teaching of the game. I dont think the guys who are teaching kids in grade school are showing them how to play the postup game. Thats a very effective way to play the game. You get High Percentage shots. You want as many High Percentage shots as you can get in a basketball game. That usually means that you win. The whole romance with the threepoint shot has pushed people off of that. Ill give you an example. In the worst game we played in the playoffs in 1985 against the celtics, the celtics made i think seven three point shots. They took 11 and made seven. Nowadays, thats thats in a quarter you take 11 shots. 11 threepoint shots. And that would be a lot. They only took them as they had to. They were looking to get the ball as close to the basket as they can. You are a renaissance man. Tell me about stealing the game. About Junior High School age based vaguely on my life when i was growing up and trying to figure out how to fit in. Thank heaven for basketball. It gave me something to pursue and use to enhance myself esteem and got me through college. You were six feet in middle school . When i entered the ninth grade i went to eighth grade and started high school in the ninth grade. When i started high school i was 610. Kareem abdul jap par this has been an honor. Coming up next on meet the press, my guest is secretary of Homeland Security jeh johnson. Ill see you in just a few minutes at 10 30 for meet the press. Yoplait greek 100. For when you just cant make it without a proteinpacked, thick and creamy, powermeupwithsomething filling tastebudloving, satisfaction by the spoonful, deliciously fruity dinner feels a million years away grab and go, lets take on the world with 100 calories, snack yoplait greek 100. There are hundreds of reasons to snack on it. Controversy over how president obama talks about isis. Doesnt invoke the sense that he loves this country. Ask yourself. Were not at war with islam. Were at war with people who have perverted islam. Really sound much different than this. By no means a war against islam. Plus after another week of unspeakable atrocities committed by isis, the threat abroad and the threat at home. Ill be joined by Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson. As kevin spacey from house of cards moves into the white house there is but one rule. Hunt or be hunted. Well have a look at famous fictional
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.