Omar Suleiman: Islam | Lex Fridman Podcast #352

... so the BBC reached out and said, "We want to interview you," and they said, "We've got this idea. We want to take you to a park and have you meet one of the protestors, who's been wielding his gun outside your mosque, and talk to him." It was really interesting because they'd interviewed him before meeting me, and the things that he was able to utter before meeting me and before meeting Syrian refugees was just awful. I mean, the most dehumanizing rhetoric that you can imagine. But then at the park, he meets me, talks to me, he meets a Syrian refugee family, uh, one of the girls whose leg had been blown off in an airstrike, and he said, "I feel like an idiot." I mean, he expressed all sorts of regret, and was teary-eyed that he could dehumanize people the way that he was. And so my whole thing was, and is, come inside the mosque, put your gun down, disarm yourself, (laughs) and learn, and you'll be surprised what you'll walk away with. And it only took one meeting with him to completely shift his world view at the time, which was made up of heroes and villains, the Muslims unfortunately being the villains that had to be wiped off the face of the earth so that the earth could continue.

The following is a conversation with Imam Dr. Omar Suleiman. He's a Muslim scholar, civil rights leader, founder and president of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, and he's a professor of Islamic studies at Southern Methodist University. He's one of the most influential Muslims in the world, and is a fearless, kindhearted human being who I'm now proud to call friend. As a side note, allow me to say a few words about Israel and Palestine. While this conversation with Omar Suleiman was mostly exploring the history and beauty of Islam and the Muslim community, we did delve briefly into the topic of Israel and Palestine. This topic is an extremely challenging one, and an extremely important one. It has deep roots and implications in US politics, in global geopolitics, in military and religious conflicts, wars and atrocities, and basic struggle of all human beings to survive, to protect their loved ones, and to flourish as individuals and as communities. I did not want to cover this topic in a solely scholarly fashion. Much like with the war in Ukraine, it is not simply a story of history, politics, religion, and national identity. It is also a deeply human story. To cover this topic in a way that my gut and my heart says to do it, I have to talk to everyone, to leaders and people on all sides, Muslim and Jewish, Israeli and Palestinian, from refugees to soldiers, from scholars to extremists. I'm not sure if that's possible, or wise, but like Forrest Gump said, "I'm not a smart man," and maybe you know how the rest of that goes. I just like to follow my heart to whatever place it leads. I ask the Muslim and the Jewish communities for your patience and support as I explore this topic. I will make many mistakes, and I'll be listening to all voices so I can learn and do better. I've become distinctly aware that my approach of talking to people from all walks of life with empathy and compassion, but with backbone, can create enemies on all sides. I don't quite yet understand why this is, but I'm learning to accept it is the reality of the world. Hopefully, in the end, whatever happens, whatever silly thing I do has a chance of adding a bit of love to the world. Thanks for going along with me on this journey. This is the Lex Fridman Podcast. To support it, please check out our sponsors in the description, and now, dear friends, here's Omar Suleiman. Assalamu alaikum, Omar. We've been trying to do this-