>> Bringing us rather up to date, could you comment
on activities relating to the refugee situation in the Middle East?
>> Yeah, so obviously, Syria is one of the sources of the worst refugee crisis.
And we know that Turkey has accepted about 3 million of these refugees and
have been extremely benevolent in their kindness, their hospitality.
And hospitality is really ingrained in Islamic societies and Muslim societies.
If you've ever visited a Muslim home, you cannot leave unless you drink some tea,
have some dessert, maybe stay for dinner.
They might even ask you to spend the night.
And so that has really been shown by the Turkish government
towards these refugees that are putting a strain on their resources.
In terms of giving them place to stay and food and.
Obviously, it's not perfect, but considering the situation in Jordan,
to a lesser degree in Lebanon as well.
So you do see Syrian refugee - in addition to, obviously, going to places like
Germany, which has been incredible - going to many Muslim countries in the area.
And speaking of Syria, there's actually a live example of people who
are putting others before themselves into practice every day in their life.
You may have heard of The White Helmets who,
their motto is actually to save a life is to save all of humanity.
Which is based on a Quranic verse and
they've saved the lives of about 80,000 people.
After any bombing in Syria, they will go immediately to that building and
look for human life.
And there's been so many different miraculous stories of them digging and
taking out sometimes babies, sometimes children alive.
And in doing so almost a 160 white helmets have been killed during these missions.
They were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, they'd didn't make that.
But they actually there's a documentary on Netflix about them that received an Oscar.
>> And where do these people come from?
>> They’re Syrians.
They’re just regular people in Syria.
>> Within that country.
>> Within that country, who when the war broke out,
stopped what they were doing and joined this group.
So, quite remarkable.
>> One other question.
Anyone who knows me would be amazed if I didn't ask this question, [LAUGH] and
I was thinking of not asking it.
But that is a general view of people that
women are not treated as equally under Islam as others.
And I'd appreciate your comments about that.
>> So that's a huge topic obviously.
>> I know, I know.
>> But just to say there are numerous verses in the Quran, that particularly for
the time and place 1400 years ago, were extremely progressive,
extremely feminist almost.
Because they talk about the common and equal humanity of men and women,
that they all come from that same soul.
Remember I talked about the [FOREIGN] as the ego, but
it also means the origin of all human life.
And it goes through and also talks about equal obligations in Islam.
There's one verse in the Quran that talks about 11 characteristics and
obligations that are identical for men and women.
It also talks about the rights that women have to an education, to work.
The prophet Muhamed, in fact, his first wife was in fact his employer.
And she hired him and was then impressed by his honestly and
then proposed marriage to him.
Rights to learn, to gain knowledge,
rights to earn their own money and keep their own money, as well as to inherit.
And if we think about it,
it was not until quite recently that women in many countries,
many parts of the world, didn't gain those rights to marriage only with her consent,
which unfortunately you often see is not upheld because of cultural norms.
Rights to divorce, and other rights that in each society,
country, or family are very much impacted by the interpretation
of those particular rights as well as by other factors.
Such as culture, education, social, and economic influences.
And so it's important to understand that there's not one picture of what it means
to be a Muslim woman.
It's a multi faceted picture and it depends on a number of factors.
>> Thank you so much for being here.
I appreciate you taking the time, thanks.
>> Thank you for having me.