So as they're thank you very much first of all I want to thank you SIP and all the partners It's been a pleasure working collaboratively. So as everybody is coming. I'm going to introduce My colleague John Terman, but this morning we heard from the policy and international community And it was encouraging to hear the interest and support But the reality is that we can't judge ourselves and overcongraduate Congratulate ourselves for work done here because at the end of the day our constituency are the women on the ground And I think Abby's film shows that the soccer's comments show that and this panel in particular brings you the voices from the field Of people who are implementing this resolution in civil society in their own contexts So and John is going to introduce you but it's really my honor and my privilege to introduce you to my colleague and and Co-author of this project and co-director of this project that produced this report what the women say Dr. John Terman. He's currently the executive director of The Center for International Studies at MIT. I met him over a decade ago I was a program officer for something called the form on early warning and early response, which was I think the first international network of for conflict prevention efforts and and We went to John. He was the director of the Winston Foundation for funding and he took a gamble and he supported our work and And I realized that I was dealing with somebody who had a vision and and really believed in partnership between the donor community and the philanthropy community and and the NGO community and And when I came to the States, he actually helped us find office space here for what is now Institute for Inclusive Security But um, he moved on to MIT. He was he was at the SS the social science research council and he went on to MIT in 2004 and I have It's as I say, he's he's currently the the co-director of the project that we did but he's also the chair of ICANN He's been a great mentor to me over the years and and through this project and Most importantly, he's a very very good friend and I hope you enjoy the panel with him. Thank you Everything I know about this topic I've learned from Sonam and people on this panel among others who participated with us in this study and and I've seen that most of the copies of this have been taken which is a good sign But if you want a copy you don't have one or you want to send a copy to someone. This is on the MIT website Center for International Studies Not hard to find if you have trouble finding it Please get in touch with me and I'll send you the link, but it's the Center for International Studies at MIT Thank you to US IP for organizing this and Thank all of you and and the the parade of impressive People and government officials. I wish there had been a little bit more attention today to the causes of war and the US role in for good or ill in Armed violence around the world Which after all Does have its consequences for women and other people? But in the spirit of lighting a candle Rather than just cursing the darkness we have with us an extraordinary group of women who work on the ground in dangerous places still dangerous places And have been leaders in their communities in their countries and now internationally And we are going to we're going to have a conversation Which I hope will have time for you to join near the end of our hour About specifically about 1325, which is what's been on our mind As we did this study and as we've been holding events in New York and now here in Washington about how to make real a UN Security Council resolution that the member states so far have not found seen fit To make real themselves by some UN Security Council resolutions are enforced and others are not would be a good topic for somebody's dissertation out there We won't quite take it up in that context today, but certainly the The importance of 1325 to this to these women's work has been Extraordinary and and they were they're going to describe to some extent how Just precisely how it has been so First question, I'd like to pose and I'll give this to my colleagues through Garlow I'm not going to be going to introduce the women you can see in the program who are there I'm not going to take the time to introduce and their bios are in the in the programs you have but they're You know you can see the Exceptional work that they have done in their home countries and so I'm going to start with Saru Garlow who has worked with us On this report She has been a leader in Liberia Saru we have Been talking about women's peace building and security work. What what does that exactly mean? In the context of the work you do what is peace building And women's peace building specifically as you have undertaken it with your your colleagues in in Liberia Thank You John before I answer your question. I will also like to ask a question I always ask myself and other people why do we as women always have to justify our inclusion into processes It's said that we are made by a different God I Just wonder if we just evacuate all the women just for five seconds on the face of the earth and see what will happen to all men It's just a question I asked and I go back to what John was saying for for the work that I do in Liberia we Try to create a space for ordinary women who are grass women in the villages to see how the voices Can come to the table or policy maker will bring them together to discuss issues around participation around prevention around conflict resolution we are in post-conflict Liberia and Liberia is Extremely difficult right now because we have a lot of challenges Our president is doing extremely well. She has high level of commitment for the issues around everyday woman life How do you connect these different international instrument? 1925 to make a more practical eyes at the community level. How can a woman have access to clean drinking water in the village? How can a woman negotiate the issue of natural resources wanting us? Coming to fall in Liberia. We have a lot of resources How can a woman sit at the table with the cheese and the elders to negotiate the issue of land? She wants to make our farm. She wants to control it the produce when she sell the produce She wants to control that income for her money. How can she control that? How can she have access to? Service medical services. She has to war when she's in labor Maybe they have to throw her in the Hummel and carry her three four hours before she can see doctor That this is what we call peace bill. This is what we call 1325. 1325 is not a buying It's not the US government sending downcourts security private security to To security sector for our military But 1325 is how can you connect that to the ordinary women on the ground to get it included into all the Processes for the forces to be here Thank you, siru a Safa Adam You are the secretary general of the community development association Sudan Safa has been a Negotiator has been in party to negotiations in Sudan. Tell us what this Peacemaking has meant to you and in your conflict Thank you all and I am very thrilled and humbled to be here To share my experience with you I am come from Darfur and one of the very few women as Civil society to have the chance to be in the negotiation table in the seven rounds of the Darfur peace process in Avudya and currently I am involving in the Douha peace process as you know for Darfur and it is the only Leverage and evolving think we can say currently going in a douha the participation of the civil society Before that, I would like to say that being in this celebration of the 1325 from the UN for the last to For the last week. I am a little bit. I have a comment. Maybe a comment of all other women as well I Felt as if there is a syndrome of forgottenness generally These big guys the international community the UN whenever there is a crisis it is Up up up to the surface like Darfur Darfur Darfur and suddenly they forgot about and then Congo Congo Congo or Afghanistan Afghanistan I I am sure that it is the voice of all the women and all the people who supporting certain 25 It is our role and it is our mandate to support all women in the conflicting area With the same mandate and we should not leave those behind and It should be our mandate and our commitment in in our in their national National action plan my experience is that the issue of engagement is instrumental in the peace process for the women I am a humanitarian background Providing assistant for the IDPs the internal displaced People women and kill the who are the majority of the camps and we found that by only Providing humanitarian assistant, it is very important women looked at victims only victims and they are recipient and hopeless while the negotiation going on in Abuja in other places and the big deal between the guys there and Also, it is not a matter of a number of women half the world or 50 percent or this is an issue of you of Human rights that women are equal to men, but it is an issue of how women look different to the peace issues Look different to the perception of the security Well sharing power sharing in the negotiation table. We have the chance Using the Security Council Resolution as an advocacy tool. We are not sure whether our government accepted or at least we put pressure on the UN to take us there. We were there and We managed to have discussion in the negotiation table with the negotiator Both the movement the rabies of the Darfur and the government side at the negotiator when we set up our our priorities, we found that the perception of security for the negotiator both the government and the Movement is moving troops From place to place for the women not moving troops security means that a woman nor one woman can move from a village to a village without Anybody harming her Carrying her food basket her daughter going to the school her children can fetch some So photo so we found difficulties what is security mean and that is we managed to put security means for the woman there is no sexual violence and Moreover, we came to the issue of the gender-based violence. We found that the male even sometimes use the the the language using the Gender-based violence as a bargaining power. They know no sexual based violence It is we can talk about the gender based violence. We said no Sexual based violence. It is a specific specifically. It is a war crime It is meant in a conflict situation and that is has to come in the peace deal Finally the issue of what's sharing the women are from agriculture background are nomads Where sharing it doesn't mean that to have oil or to reconstruction. Yes, this is important But it means to them. They can have seats. They can have a small Agricultural implements we thought about there is a need for a women from to support women and The going back the ID piece going back home the issue of land Also, it is meant to a women They need to have a small a plot of land to cultivate in but we just found that is there is different perspective when we sat together we develop That Darfur women priority for peace are reconstructions and it has been used between both we managed to enter those into the Darfur peace agreement in 2005, which is the most gender-sensitive Agreement in Africa, maybe in the world despite of its fragility. I understand it is a case of 66 Thank you very much Now I turn to Maserat Kadim from Pakistan Tell us Maserat. How what is the What is the peace building work you do give us an example of the work you do and how it relates to? 1325 and the themes we've engaged here I'm trying to actually do something in the context of prevention that released directly to 1325 The the area that I'm working is a federally administered tribal area and swath Which went through a lot last year that there was a military operation and of course They were the extremist who took control of that area. I was working there before during and after the conflict What we actually tried to deal with That the extremists who were already there they were they were sent they were taking up the and the youth they were using those youth youth as the suicidal Attackers and they were of course working with the with the youth. So to counter that We took the women in the area into confidence We build their capacity. We try to sensitize them to the impact of this extremism on their own Families and the community around them. We build these women peace groups. We don't call them peace groups We call them tolana tolana means together and then through these mothers we try to actually Connect with the boys who were under the influence of this extremist ideology Now we are working with these boys. They are 75 and number there are many but the I mean I haven't access to these 75 boys who are under the influence of this extremist ideologies at different level of orientation and I just feel that because of the mother we got an access to these boys and mothers and Female particularly women can play a very effective and important role because They we have an excess direct to the home to the family Through these mothers and through through these boys We can really literally address a very important issue that is of the radicalization and extremism which is I think challenging everybody the international community particularly and it's a challenge for everyone at Different levels in Pakistan as well. So I feel that women if they are given the The role if they're and they're given some empowerment that is political economic and social all We can play a very effective and significant role in preventing The chaos the crisis and the conflict So I think it is at this stage that the international community should realize the role of women in preventing such sort of situations in countries like Pakistan or Afghanistan Conflict prevention often talked about not often Implemented and and that's a good example of how it can be done Lena Zedriga you are from Uganda. You have been involved in women's work there at 1325 For many years tell us What what is 1325? How is it? What does it mean to activists on the ground? What is it? What has achieved? Through the resolution and related Resolutions the UN what does it mean to people there? Thank you so much John In the context of Uganda UN Resolution 1325 without it The Jubilee stocks would not have been any accessible to the women of Uganda. I I As a war widow had a personal journey in making sure that women were there in Juba during the time of negotiation but the Constitution of the Negotiation team the government team and the LRA team did not have any single woman except one from the LRA Team who actually was more symbolic than really a negotiator So we challenged why there was no woman on the government negotiation team yet We had one of the most progressive constitutional provisions with respect to women's participation in rhetoric We were informed by the the leader then Honorable Doctor Hakanarugunda that you know the men on the team are because of the virtue of the officers they occupy We took it By that word and decided to invoke UN Security Council Resolution 1325 to which the government of Uganda had made Commitments and decided to mobilize We consulted with women from the grassroots. We also consulted Internationally with the Uniform Goodwill Ambassador from Kenya We traced the women's peace torch to Deira Congo and made a very big piece Caravan that traversed the whole of Uganda and we shook the government up to the highest level We also shook the LRA team and at that moment They had no option than to accept women to go and deliver our protocol which provisions have been included in agenda item Agenda item number five of the Juba peace agreement although the final agreement has not been signed But it was very progressive in so far as the parties agreed to implement the provisions of UN Resolution 1325 holistically at the moment The government has in place a three year Development plan which it calls the peace recover and development plan to kick start development and Reconstruction in northern Uganda. It does not have a single provision about the provisions of UN Resolution 1325 And the inclusion of women's definition of reconstruction. What have we done? We have challenged this Peace recovery plan We stayed it with the training from Inclusive Institute for Inclusive Security Advocacy training and also trainings to Make sure that we read the documents and interpret them with the gender lens So we had our evidence with which we use the media outreach. We made very very Significant different spaces and advocacy meetings to the extent that it became a political issue in Uganda It became a very very serious political issue in Uganda That the PRDP or the peace recovery and development plan was state implementation was state We have redefined the reconstruction as holistically taking the experiences of We the women where the war was fought in our bodies To be part of the reconstruction So that is the extent to which we use UN Resolution 1325 but having said that Very briefly having said that Having used UN 1325 as a hammer and knocked everywhere We are very sad. I am particularly saddened to have participated in that research and found out that The lack of knowledge about this powerful tool is Very very humble. It's just too much for me to take one of high ranking lawyer in Kampala Did not know what 1325 in one of my interviews I asked, do you know about you? What what what do you say about UN Resolution 1325? She said what UN Resolution 1325 1321? Is that the name of the latest gun? So that lack of knowledge at that level to me is a very very big challenge And we need to make sure that we demystify UN Resolution 1325 from just being a document to breathing its life about massive awareness about Like the women in northern Uganda have massive knowledge and they've even used local language in terms of calling it as Mourn, Kuj, Kibbe, Dube. So to that extent it is successful But at the general level the lack of knowledge is very very serious concern to me Thank you, Lena Turd Smith Pulfis also worked on our Our study with us. She spent years in Palestine and Israel and we had the benefit of her wisdom on that tell us toward your experience there What was what was empowering what was not empowering about 1325 in this very difficult and frustrating conflict well, the conflict between Israel and Palestine is one of the longest running in the world and the women of Israel and the Palestinian women have were actually some of the first to meet From both sides when it was still illegal The PLO forbade Palestinians to have contact with Israeli citizens and it was also forbidden for Israeli citizens Okay, to have contact with sort of members of the PLO or so But they met they started meeting and from 1989 they have have had Various forms of cooperation Some of it informal some of it very formal. They have done projects together They have discussed they have fought they have cried in the same room They, you know, some of them have been in prison especially the Palestinians Israelis have been Israeli women have been ridiculed in the press for You know for for sort of believing that that the other side wants peace When 1325 came along Some of these leading women that had had contact with each other for many years Decided to establish an organization based on 1325 With support from the international community and so the International Women's Commission for a just and sustainable peace Built on 1325 was established Finally formally in 2005 So here you have a Group of women that have worked together already For more than 10 15 years in 2005 we're talking and They're discussing the difficult issues Together and you would think that the international community would be very happy. Oh finally we have someone we can work with Well, I can tell you that in May this year when I called all the international communities Highest representatives in Jerusalem or who were assigned to Jerusalem from the UN From the EU from the US government or actually from the Oval Office And also the court at special Representative now we can also remember that they're all men of course But none of them had started to even think about implementing 1325 And they said to me but you know, we don't do women's projects Why don't you contact UNIFEM and ask them what they are doing and on this international women's commission? I also want to comment since this has been up several times in this discussion today There are women who are grassroots work on the grassroots. There are women who are leading big Organizations and have done for many many years You know 10 20 There are women who are elected to Parliament There is Professors there are people who have been women who have been involved in negotiations before because at the Madrid talks There were actually Palestinian women involved So these are women with experience. They know international law. They know about human rights They also have discussed among themselves. What kind of a society they would like to see and yet Nobody has even discussed with them or I'm sorry Invited them to participate at the table and I think it's time that this happens Thank you one of the one of the findings in our report and something that's going to be familiar to many of you is that it's the violent actors that get invited to the peace table and that the stakeholders the peacemakers The community activists many of whom most of whom are women are not invited to the negotiating table This is a an essential inequality And a foolish one at that That we notice widely Sariah I'm sorry, I can never pronounce your name who has been an activist extraordinary activists and leader in Ache Tell us What your experience has been there with this particular issue? What kind of what? Who was invited to the peace table at Ache and what were the consequences? Okay Thank you, John. I want to start with explain more my feeling about what kind of peace for me what the meaning of peaceful for me when I when I say I'll be signed agreement I For me it's already five years today still I can go anywhere in Ache even your public bus at midnight. I Can come here in very beautiful place and speak with you or here and go home Which it's no worry at all But I want to explain with other woman. How about the other woman who live up to the hill? However, the other woman who are live in the field in the village or who are ex-convict or who are the women who get raped during the conflict I Want to explain one experience of women who speak in our group in the meeting when we try to discuss women's What the meaning of justice for them what the meaning of peace for them one woman who are 55 years old Come from North Sumatra talk to us there in one day of the peace agreement. There is meeting with Ache Reconciliation buddy You know provide some support for people who suffer during conflict Most of people who meeting are men and she stand up and asking the question Which way you will support people or our mechanism? what kind of criteria and then Suddenly one man stand up and say that with very roots language in Ache language Hey, woman This is our man business And she said that I'm so sad I'm so angry I'm and then I feel it's really hurt my feeling and then she don't shut up and she said that hey Remember during the conflict situation all of you who sit here run away from the Philips because of Security issue We are the woman who sitting and stay in Philips Profile our children to go to school Try to get livelihood support the other people who get rate and then even negotiate with army because 14 of young men who get arrested and Today even I speak asking the criteria Why you know women's too difficult to get support and then You asked me to shut up But it's no one single people who sit in the table says something and what she said just like the hand This is just so you are an experience How to difficult for women, you know to join a decision making if in Peace negotiate in peace negotiator is no single woman there It's not because women have no experience. This is not because women don't know something And not because woman didn't get enough training and no knowledge about Tiori about may be yet a mediasi in 2000 in February before declaration of certain 25 we 500 women come over from 23 sub district a check sitting together Three day back under and then in last day we finished at 4 o'clock morning To discuss how to end the war after more than 20 years We bring peace dialogue. We want to get dialogue not send troops anymore in a check and we got 22 Recommendation and including what really woman need in education with children. How about the law enforcement? How about health education and or ever and we went to our president of the Rahman Wahid and Bring the issue and talk to him don't send to anymore But then when we have formal negotiate in hand seal key support with International community no single women table and this is not surprise no single point mentioned in The MOU and what going on and another day after we get peace The first time This is huge money come to our child. I can't remember from which country anymore But there is we get support from a you for DDR and you can imagine the first support 3008 combatant or men There is women ex-combatant the mention quite often during the conflict to show words The war gets support for women We show the world, you know, this is women's support to be independent But when they get budget they get money they get everything the forego women We have the first 10 year martial law in a chair Three sub-district women are suffered who are targeting at rape most of the not not most All women who get rep are at least a chair and they are getting rape for army. No single from combatant But then When they get support from BLA the criteria who lost family who lost housing who lost property? No single mention about women get up because women can't show every day So that's mean our government No recognized women who suffer, you know with sexual Valension and then the third biggest issue coming Which is when our government Proposed to use sharia law to stop conflict This is not at all what a Chinese people are asking about because they asked me about justice But then when they propose Implementing of sharia law, no single people can say no because they will see you are a bad Muslim I was born as Muslim I live in civil society Muslim community in Indonesia the first number biggest number Muslim in the world I have no problem with that at all. I With my choice I wear head cover, but one day When the law comes and say you should have head cover They will have another problem because not because you believe not because you're sure, but because this is no Before during the conflict I get company from two peace biggest international almost one year half But today when peace agreement or design When I want to go out from my home, I should ask my husband first What do you think my clothes? Okay, I will get problem with polysharia Because maybe some may have come here. Oh, maybe my you know, I use our pen and then it's a bit tight I will get problem and my husband say that just go if there is problem. I will pick up you I'm lucky because usually men will feel bad if the wife will get you know Trouble and because the role say men or the husband who the one who have to take care a good more family You know something like that, but I'm lucky. So just the first is it's that issue, but no become more more more because Just three months ago. There is new My arm make new degree women should wear Excalibur we can't wear pen anymore our traditional clothes are pen, but no there is new degree This is because no one single woman sitting in table and talk what exactly women need during the peace Not you know like today what going on and then there is another new low will become with Dead stoning if there is another Environment or the past we come to our group ignore and tell him Don't sign because she's so bad and another in this dead Regulation, there is one sentence say about rape, but they get Punishment less than adultery Adultery dead stone, but rape who doing general criminal and sexual harassment sexual abuse Didn't get most punished We are lucky our government signed, but this is just explained to you how Important women sit on the table to make sure when we get peace it is real peace not just something else Thank you very much Well said well said I Want to leave enough time for some questions from the audience, so I just want to go around quickly I'll start with you Saru about and this is a question for all of you Here we are in Washington, DC the indispensable nation As it's sometimes called And it is important in a lot of ways and certainly can be important on the implementation of 1325 and related Norms What in a minute? If you can give me If you can give me one minute on what you would like to see the United States do Both in its own action plan, but but let's not just keep it to the action plan What is it the United States could do to help? Implement and make real the promises of 1325 in Liberia and more generally it comes so the US Preparing the national action plan right as a question right what what I think they could do I think they need to look at the The Intervention strategy where it comes to intervene into conflict situation and Have consultations with all the major stakeholders. I don't know the Security policy says that you should go in first and Bombard a error before you start negotiating no get the people involved into the conflict and sit with their discourse I think they need to look at a whole security strategy the way they want to intervene to stop conflict because sometimes They think they're going with good intention, but sometimes escalate the conflict at the end of the visit at the end Well, we may suffer because they are not part of the Negotiation they are not consulted and no one thing John. I want to let people know that After the conflict women ordinary women at the community level are left to handle the trauma They handle the the men that are coming by into the community that are deeply traumatized They also have to handle themselves who are traumatized and help to rebuild the Family values and community structure that have been broken down So I think if they want to develop a national action plan in which it's so funny to me yet The development as national action plan after at the bureau a small country Would they give all the support to I think the need of the strategy of building peace and not escalating war Yes, I think I would just say the same thing as Just said I think the United States being the only superpower on earth today It has to look into the reality from a different angle and from a different lens now What it is doing to Pakistan all these drone attacks if they stop those drone attacks in Pakistan I think the situation or ground will be totally different They could create a lot of goodwill through all the development where they want to extend to Pakistan But when it is added with the drone attacks and supplemented by the drone attacks, you cannot create goodwill That's one of the things that I wanted to say from this forum But at the same time, I think when there is a dialogue when there is a strategy taking I mean or you are making a plan or a policy you need to include Different perspective and especially women perspective is very very important when it comes to policy making policy implementing and policy shaping Soraya, what would you like to see the US do in this action plan and more broadly? Okay, I already heard enough US made big, you know Play everywhere to make peace. So that's mean US have very big power to To make peace in the world So the the big issue is to make sure Any single country played a role make sure there is woman and table I don't know they should get find a way to make sure if not just don't go make sure there is the Because then we will have and a new problem the left country and there is no problem Special for women. So first make sure any single criteria That is woman and table and have space to speak to somebody here and make decisions and then don't let them It pose Make sure we men get enough support to pay the role in the community Yeah, well the norms around Negotiations are not set in stone and they're not really written anywhere or decided by anyone It's It sort of happens as it goes doesn't it and it's a little bit different from place to place And it's nowhere written that women should not be part of the negotiation team It does it's also nowhere written that the generals who fought the war shall decide who sits on the table So it's open actually and the United States of course as the only superpower They are involved in so many of the conflicts that we have dealt with here and their solutions They have a lot of leverage. So don't say that No, we can't decide, you know, who's gonna be on the negotiating team the countries have to decide themselves Yes, of course, but you can you can influence you can add chairs There's a lot we can do if you want to They know Thank you so much my Proposal is in line with what we say in Uganda when the US sneezes we catch the cold So my humble appeal my demand on behalf of the women of northern Uganda and On behalf of the women of Africa is in the process of developing this This national action plan which is going to be a symbol of that cold that we are going to catch Know that you are in the process of sneezing Let this needs Taking to consideration that there are women out there in Africa Who are going to be enormously affected by this national action plan put them in your Contemplation as if they would be your grand-grand children that we were talk We were informed about in 30 years time to come that this national action plan will Stand the test of time from Africa to the United States Okay My message is In this us a national action plan the vision the vision should be holistic Not just a country specific. This is one thing. It is a commitment or the all country in conflict situations the other thing is that Usually us a listen to that Those who carry guns this is a normal it should also listen and see the Prosperous and successful stories of women who make peace in the ground Finally, I would like to say Including women in the negotiation for the special invoice of the special countries they should have a specific strategy and Mandate of how to include women in the peace process and consult it with the real woman in the ground Saying that because I myself I participated in the peace process. I also know that I met with the envoy office only here in USA Thank you Thank you We'd like to entertain some questions if you have them or comments. We have about 12 minutes I would just add one little note to that while you're going to the microphones About what the US can do and that is And hear me federal employees Make it easier for these women and women like them around the world to get funds from the United States to do their work the barriers to getting USAID and other kinds of grants Are high and I know that people work on that to make it easier, but it's still It's still a very difficult very high barrier For everyone, but it's particularly difficult if they're working in a second language Or if they don't have good internet access or they can't get to the embassy very easily and so on so that is really I think this $40 million I think of which a fraction is actually new money Could be a lot more but but I think even more important is to lower the barriers bureaucratic barriers For them to get the money. Okay, we'll go over here, please. Thank you very much. My name is Nita evale from Congo Global Action I just want to add one other thing about what the US can do One of the easiest one that everybody can ask the US to do is to ask the Congress to finally pass the violence against women's act that been dying every year in the US Congress that make it impossible for a person who been criminalized as a Using rape as a weapon of war to come to the US and if it's here in the US It could be trial in the court here So that one we can ask to everybody and the second Suggestion is the US with all the power everybody talked about how powerful the US is they can help Africa Control the proliferation of small arms. That's the most important. That's one thing that make women's life miserable in Africa. Thank you Yeah, I certainly any reaction that Good comment and and small arms landmines The ICC lots of things the United States could sign on to yes, please I'm Anne Frisch. I represent nonviolent peace force. We're very young organization We are new paradigm in how to build peace from the ground up. We go on invitation from Deeply rooted groups and communities for their serious violence. We are always not armed. We are always nonpartisan We always protect and provide security for local people who already know how to do peace and human rights and Just to tell you a little bit about Mindanao Philippines where there has been some outbreak of warfare Our peacekeepers now numbering 88 Internationals and local people were invited by both armed parties to be part of the monitoring team representing civilians So that is that's a real breakthrough and I think we need to develop this paradigm of civilian peacekeeping Someone mentioned we should not assume that the the military guys get to make all the decisions about how things turn out And I think we're we're taking one small step there in Mindanao But let me add this our partners there have a thousand women monitoring human rights in Mindanao and just recently Our partners announced a 30 woman peacekeeping team that will be working all around the co-tabato area where there's been so much conflict So just for everybody to know From these women and from the people of Mindanao it is working I'd like to ask our panelists if there are similar efforts in your countries to to monitor peace agreements Are women's groups involved and if so how or where is the where's the need for it? If not Lena would in the case of Uganda we have the Follow up to the juba peace peace process which actually Fundamentally is the peace recovery and development plan is being implemented by the office of the prime minister What we have also done is we put a lot of pressure and there was There's been established through the Uganda Human Rights Commission the civil military Relations and centers which are specifically northern Uganda in in the townships And yet those services are needed more In the communities especially in the return process So there is a numbers need for that kind of partnership to ensure that There is we the communities have these centers which are very very critical because Northern Uganda as we speak now is being very highly militarized recently. I think three months ago us military went in the name of some Some agreement and I'm reliably informed that they left a lot of ammunition deep in Kittum So we need the civil military monitoring centers. We do not really have them So that's a very nice one to take on. Yes Yes I Good question who would like to address I Also like for us to look at the issue of armed from both ways who's selling a arm I do agree We don't have one single factory in Liberia that produce Nowhere. We cannot even produce single barrister, right, but who also Gave me the authority to our leaders to buy the arms people selling arm It's like most time people talk about about prostitution always equate prostitution to market You go to sell and come and buy if they sell out come with the arm and the buyers are not there I would never be so so we also need to to pressurize our leaders not to spend our resources on buying arms They have priorities that we may issue health education the money should be used to Build the capacitor the citizens the money should be used for several other important things instead of buying arms The people produce the arm I agree to produce the arm there that they have a whole network for selling arm But there are also our leaders should not be using our resources to buy arm So we look at it from both ways Excuse me from our leaders and from the people who produce arm and sell arm So you have to fight it from two front and not just fighting it from one front Just quickly because we have one more question. Did you have something? Okay, just I would like to add that we women also should not work alone just to develop our Agenda and criteria outside and try when the peace finished we try to just endorse them It is important also to work together with men There are men who friend to women can listen Carefully and we can make use of them in the parliament in in the UN in Moteba the issue of Gender mainstreaming in our attitude of raising our agenda It is important for how to bring women to the peace table or their issues Yes question over here Yes, my name is Kelly McBride from the Carter Center And I'd like to remind everyone of some history in our own hemisphere Which is the case of El Salvador in the early 90s in 1993 there was a peace accord and women actually were signatures on the side of the gorillas and The women were involved in in sort of both sides of the conflict but waging the war and also bringing the peace And there's a number of women who were in elected positions in El Salvador ever since then as part of that peace process And the women definitely had to say in the negotiations in the different points of it So maybe it's a good example for other parts of Africa in Southeast Asia about what the women in El Salvador were able to do and what They're still able to do and what in fact women in Latin America are able to do it has the highest level of political Representation elected and appointed leaders in the world. That's just a comment to do well Let me ask you a question though because I think this is relevant and that is do you think it made a difference? To the peace in El Salvador the women were part of the peace process I think it did make a piece that difference because it's a durable piece there and there was actually recently a transition And where the the guerrilla party was elected into government through peaceful elections El Salvador has other issues social disintegration other things Front and center in that in that country and made in trying to make a change They came mobilized during the the conflict during the Civil War So yes I think the fact that they were involved has has made a difference because they're really leaders for all the other countries in In the hemisphere who have gone through peace processes for like example in Sao and El Colombia They look a lot at what's gone on El Salvador and how they how they came to their peace process and in Guatemala too But Guatemala is not a successful peace process Thank you sir you have It's another thing to have women to the at the peace table in Liberia women when I was formally invited to the peace table But what we did we were outside while in negotiation were going on inside and making sure that those women are invited as Observer in-house. We were given our Recommendations or ideas what we wanted in our peace talk We were giving it to them the taking it out there and most of our recommendations came out in a pistol We didn't just stop there what we did because of the illiterate Population we have we had to simplify the peace agreement So we simplify the peace agreement we took it to the villages and explain the whole peace agreement Oh, they wouldn't have all women consultation and that so that we make we have the information at a fingertips So when somebody is trying to breach the peace agreement they can hold their accountable So it's a whole process for negotiation to oppose war reconstruction all the activities women should get involved in all of them Sometimes the general women the normal of women are normally say that one go to training They say we have 50 participants 25 women so what what are the issues that we may raise When we're having a discussion a dialogue at a community level the women the issues are the women race for those issues Consider into the final policy document are they being implemented implemented So those are the steps we need to take when the peace they want own world to rebuild in the country You see how we in fact you can have women into leadership You guys I can always say in Africa if you have more women in decision-making in leadership You get less corruption because women if they are there my age group in Africa You know when you have men in leadership they gave them more money You gave them more room to marry more wives and you get more corruption in government But they have women women are thinking about marrying more husband because you can't marry one You can marry more than one husband So you focus on rebuilding your family and rebuilding the community and the society Thank you so much. Let's thank these extraordinary women Peacemakers peace builders I'm glad we had a chance to hear from them Thank you very much. I think that The last two panels we really focused on the human face of war and I'm gonna make a plug here for John's forthcoming book It's called the death of others and it's looking at civilian deaths in America's wars And I think that that's part of the process of the US action planning to understand what impact we have in the conflicts that we engage in So that's going to come up soon And I hope you all buy it when it comes out and and and support his work as well We're gonna shift now to the next panel. Thank you for all staying here. It's been a long day Thank you to our panelists now. Some of them are leaving to go fly home. In fact, Soraya is going back to Acha tonight and I think have a stretch break and come back for the last looking forward session. Thank you


Sir, what are your expectations that you hope to achieve as part of your tenure as a CNP? Oh, thanks. That's a great question. I have done three previous tours in the personnel system, and as I mentioned before, I've worked closely with Abel Moran, so I have a vested interest in making some improvements. My first expectation though is that we continue to deliver on attaining trust, balance and stability for our sailors. We have to make the team understand that we really are working for them and understand that we're looking out for their best interests, day in and day out. The balance piece is about life work balance. It's about stabilizing deployment lengths, and it's about making it more and more possible to have a family, have a career, do all the things that people want to do in life while staying Navy. And then the stability piece is, again, similar sorts of things with deployment lengths, stabilizing, but also stability in the personnel system, understanding that you're going to have a certain expectation of opportunity for advancement or promotion, and continuing on the trend of making things predictable so that you understand where you might be so many years down the road in your career path and what your opportunities might be.


Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem Al Hamdulillah ar-Rabbi l-Alamin Wa Sallallahu As-Sallim al-Mubarak, al-Qaaf, al-Sayyidina Muhammad, al-Alihi wa sahbihi wa salim. Rabbishahi Saderi wa Salli Amri, wa halal uqtatim al-Essani, yafqa wa Qawli. Wa Sallallahu As-Sallim al-Mubarak, al-Sayyidina Muhammad, al-Alihi wa sahbihi wa salim. As-Salamu Alaikum, Rahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. Al Hamdulillah, I hope everybody is doing well. I'm sure I'm interrupting your watching of the news, whatever your preferred news channel is as we anxiously await the results of this election. So I thought tonight we could really just keep this brief inshallah and just chat a little bit about a virtue that the righteous have, which is the virtue of being content with Allah's decision. And it's something that is important in all aspects of life, but it's especially relevant right now given everything going on, given that we are in one of the most contested, one of the most heated, one of the most critical elections probably in history. And ultimately, while we engage and while we watch and while we wait, we have to remember a couple of things. So inshallah, we're just going to discuss some of the benefits of this virtue today. And so just as a reminder, we've been talking about a different virtue each week and a different virtue focused really on how do we get closer and closer to Allah through these doors, through these doors of virtue. We've chatted at the beginning about how it starts with knowledge and then we try to implement the virtue and then we really iterate on trying to refine that virtue within us. And in the times that we live in, really the context for this entire class has been that in the times we live in, there is a lot of vice out there and there is not really that much righteousness. And so one of the best things that we can offer the world, one of the best things that Islam can offer the world is good character traits, is righteousness, is figuring out how do we get closer and closer to Allah and closer and closer to being good stewards on this earth that Allah has placed us in, being good caretakers and being people who are responsible by inculcating good character traits and righteous traits and righteous behavior inside of us. And so today, I chatted a little bit about this idea of being content with Allah's decision. Naturally, this is a time that's filled with anxiety. There's a lot of people waiting, watching. I'm sure a lot of us were up late last night and I know myself, I woke up in the middle of the night more than once and checked the results, just to see if anything had refreshed, see if anything had changed. And we're trying to figure out what's going on, who's going to be the next president of the United States. And we have to just be balanced here. And so this is really a reminder to myself first and foremost. So the first thing we can reflect on is we just have to remember that ultimately, no matter what happens, Allah is in control. Allah is the president of all presidents. Allah is the king of all kings. Allah is the Lord of all lords. Allah is the leader of all leaders. And he is the their Lord and our Lord. And to everybody, right, from Allah's perspective, we are all just human beings. We're slaves of Allah. We'd be lucky if we could be called a slave of Allah that Allah created.  From a social perspective, none of that really matters because in the sight of Allah, we are just puny little human beings, right? And what we're measured by is not our votes. It's not our, you know, popularity. It's not our followers. It's not how much money we have in the bank account. Really what we're measured by in the sight of Allah is our righteousness. It's our taqwa. It's the traits that we have. And so really, you know, just like we're going through these Electoral College vote counts right now, and, you know, you have, you get a certain state, right? And even though the Electoral College system really makes very little sense in the time that we live in, but, you know, for arguments sake, you get a certain number of votes in a certain number of states, and then you see that you now have that and you're getting closer and closer to the number for 270. Think about good traits, good character traits is something similar to that, right? You get a certain trait and you get closer and closer to piety. And then you get the next trait. Okay, now I've acquired the trait of patience. Now I've acquired the trait of gratitude. And now you won the trait of being content with Allah's decree. And now you won the trait of being a merciful human being and so on and so forth. And those traits, what do they do? They get you closer and closer in that bar to a state of being a true believer, a true mu'min, right?  Just like there's big states that somebody can win, like they can win California or Texas or New York or some of these other huge states that somebody can win and really increase their amount in the election. Similar to that, you also have certain character traits and certain traits of righteousness that one can have that will really boost you quickly. We mentioned last week the love of the Prophet ﷺ is a trait that will allow you to fly to Allah. It will allow you to elevate quickly in your station to Allah because it's such an amazing trait because Allah loves the Prophet ﷺ and we are in the month of Rabi'ul Awal. Let us not forget. We're in the blessed month of Rabi'ul Awal, the blessed month of the birth of the Prophet ﷺ election or not. He is our Prophet ﷺ. And so what we remind ourselves in is that Allah is ultimately in control. He says in a surah that, you know, I think all of us know since we were children and many of us, you know, when we're trying to quickly get through prayer, we'll probably recite which is Surah al-Nas, after Awad ibn-Lam Shaitan al-Rajim, Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim. Allah says, That say, You seek refuge in the Lord of the Worlds, Malik in-Nas, the King of the Worlds and the God of the Worlds, right? So he is not just the King of the Worlds. Sorry, I meant to say, I seek refuge in the Lord of all people, of all humanity, Nas, right? That all of humanity. And then the King of all of humanity and the God of all of humanity, right? So that he is the Lord, he is the King of all of humanity. So regardless of what goes down, he's still our Lord. And he was our Lord yesterday. He's going to be our Lord tomorrow. And he's the Lord from the beginning of time. He was the Lord before the United States was created. He's going to be the Lord after this country. Whether it's here or not here, whether this world is here or not here. Allah is still the King, Allah is still the Lord. That's something that all of us really need to remember. Then he says in the Qur'an, he says in one of the surahs that we should recite regularly, Surat al-Mulk, he says, Audhu Billahm Shaitan al-Rajim, Tabarak al-Ladhi bi-Aidihi al-Mulk, wa huwa a'la kulli shay'in qadiya That blessed is he in whose hand is the dominion of the universe and who has power over everything, wa huwa a'la kulli shay'in qadiya SubhanAllah, that in whose hand is the dominion and no anthropomorphic way, right? From a metaphorical perspective, the metaphorical hand of Allah, the dominion of the whole universe he has under his control. So let's just keep that in mind, that there's no surprises in the sight of Allah. The surprises for us in this election, polling was in one direction and now everybody's being surprised with what's going on but with Allah, nothing is a surprise because in his hand is the dominion of the whole universe and we have to remember that he has power over all things. He knows what's going to go down. He knows what he's doing and what he's not doing. And now this is also important for us to remember. He is the one who places leaders in power. In reality, it's coming from Allah, right? We vote, we do what we need to, in some countries they don't vote but Allah is the one who places the leaders from in power and it's our job then to interact based on the person who's there but also under respecting the fact that the leader is now in power. And how do we know that? Because Allah says, Allah, that He says in Surah Al-Amaran قُلْ مَالِكُ الْمُلْكِ مُلْكِ مَنْتَشَاءَ بِتُعِزُّ مَنْتَشَاءَ بِيَذِكَ الْخَيْرِ that Allah says, Oh Allah, the Lord of all dominion.   You, it's Allah who's doing this and in your hand is all that is good. You have power over all things.  Who has control? Who has the most votes? Who has this? Who has that? But like, there's a lot of things that Allah has control over which are far more significant in the election and he goes on to say in this ayah, but let's just talk about this first part. Oh Allah, the Lord of everything, all dominion. Again, we see this word dominion again. It's this idea of the mullah, that he has control over everything. I mean, the universe. You're talking about, you know, governing the whole universe, the solar systems, the galaxies, the planets that move, the different moons, the different stars that are out there. All of this, right? Where the earth is just a puny dot compared to the whole universe. Allah is controlling all of that. He has control over all of that. And then he says, you, and then the ayah says, right, you will give the dominion though to whom you will. You will give control in this world to whom you will. And you'll take it away from whom you will. And it has nothing to do at all with, like, that only good people get power and bad people don't get power or that only bad people get power and good people don't get power. No, Allah gives control to whom you will really based on our actions, that the leaders we get are based on the actions of human beings. And if we're placed with a bad leader, we should really look deep down inside what bad traits do we have inside that then manifests externally in the public atmosphere and that manifests externally in the leader. It's simply a reflection. It's simply a reflection, right? Whatever bad traits we as human beings, we as a country have inside of us are going to manifest externally.  He is the one who controls all things. So, like, let's not be too worried. He's going to control whatever is going to happen, right? Whether Trump is in control, whether Biden is in control, whether it's this person, whether it's that person, whether it's Macron in France, you know, who has a lot of racist tendencies, a lot of problematic approaches to the way he handles things, whether it's other racist leaders throughout the world or whether it's people who we might see as good. Allah is the one who is in control and that we need to remember because we need to place our trust in Allah and Allah is the one we need to go to. We don't go to the leaders first. We go to Allah first and then we engage. We have to keep that in mind. Let's keep in mind the order of engagement. We engage with our Lord first and foremost. We ask Him for help. We talk to Him. We pray to Him and then we do externally whatever it is that we are meant to do. But let's not get too attached to the leader. They're going to go. Nobody's going to remember them eventually. They're going to be in their grave and whatever legacy that they had, if it's a good legacy, Allah gave them Taufiq and if it's a bad legacy, they did not have divine assistance and divine guidance. So many kings, leaders, presidents, prime ministers, caesars, pharaohs, all the different names that you could have for the ruler have passed and they all were the big shot in the time that they were in. And now all of them, where are they? They're all dust, dirt, in the dust and in the dirt, decayed. Their bodies are decayed and none of that stuff, right? Most of the time, if they weren't in a good position, they're getting very, very, they're questioned about everything it is that they did. And if they did, of course, good, then that's going to benefit them. But none of those, the power and the, all that stuff, none of that, none of that matter, but the lies that they told, the actions that they did, how many people they hurt, how many wars they waged, how much corruption they had, that's, oh, for sure, that goes in somebody's book, right? And so we just have to keep that in mind that Allah is the one who's handling all this. And then he says in the ayah, that he is the one who causes the night to pass into the day and he causes the day to pass into the night.  And you give sustenance to whom you will. Think about it like this, right? So Allah goes and he mentions that he controls who's in power. And then he says he is the one who brings what? The night into the day and the day into the night. And then the living to the dead and the dead from the living. It's showing us that things alternate, right? He talks about leadership and then things alternate. Sometimes it's dark, sometimes it's bright.  But he is the one who's doing all that. So don't lose the orientation. The orientation should be focused on him first and foremost because he is going to be the one. Any leader, any president, if you told them, don't let tomorrow come. Just keep whatever it is. It doesn't matter how many lawsuits you file of what the Supreme Court says. None of that's going to matter because the day will end and the night begins. And then the night will end and the day begins. Only Allah controls all of this. And so we have to keep all of that in mind. Sometimes as Muslims we get too caught up in the political. We have to look at what else is going on. The only reason I'm mentioning all this is obviously I'm saying this to myself first and foremost. It's the tense time. Everybody's eagerly watching but we just need to remember who really is in control here that it is our Lord. So whoever wins in this election Allah is in the one who is in control. So let's just take a couple. What are the lessons that we can derive from this? Allah says in the Quran that perhaps you hate a thing and it is much good for you and perhaps you love a thing and it is much bad for you and Allah knows and you do not know. This is a very very important ayah and I try to reflect on this ayah. I try to remind myself to reflect on this. I don't necessarily succeed often because sometimes I think I want this, this is good for me, I want to do this and it's not going to be good for me. And sometimes you don't think something is good for you but it is good for you. What is the criteria by which we evaluate that? We'll find out in the next life really but the wise person recognizes that whatever Allah places in control that's what's good. That's what's good. If somebody is trying and worshiping and trying to rectify themselves whatever situations Allah brings forth in someone's life they're going to be good for us whether we like them or not and why is that? So for example if something drives you when it's even though it's difficult to pray more and to become more virtuous and to try to work on yourself more and to try to become more worshipful even though it might look like it was bad it actually ends up being good because what is good? Good is not just what's good now good is what's good internally and eternally internally and eternally that's what's good so whatever is good is what's going to be good not what's just good right now just keep that in mind so I mean we don't know what situation is good for us sometimes a leader is put over us that might be outwardly all the signs of bad but maybe that drives a wide amount of people to pray more and to turn to Allah more and to worship more and so maybe for them there was some khair in it and there was some good in it it doesn't mean that the whole situation in and of itself is necessarily like that but maybe for them that's where the good because you and I will get what it is however we orient ourselves to the world spiritually so people who look at everything as from Allah they will act as though everything is from Allah and they will turn to Allah in everything if you look at everything as from Allah you will turn to Allah in every situation but if you look at everything as not from Allah you won't turn to Allah in any situation and so what could have actually been good for you you get a lot of let's say somebody gets a lot of wealth they're so happy whatever but they're not grateful to Allah that actually ends up being bad for them and let's say somebody doesn't get a lot of wealth but they're super patient and they turn to Allah and ask him for assistance that ends up being good for them whoever turns to Allah and knows that what comes is from Allah and you're going to go back to Allah and in this come from Allah we're going back to Allah and in this intermediate time we just need to be with Allah we just need to from a spiritual perspective we just want to be with Allah and be regularly turning to him so let's remember that other thing is if it's a situation which drives us to reflect more and to change ourselves internally maybe it's good for us it is good for us at the end of the day but if outwardly it looks bad so you know let's just say that let's just say that the situation in the country is a difficult one again and Trump gets re-elected and there's a lot of racism and Islamophobia and all the difficult things that happen when somebody who has such outward bigotry and just such outward lies and a very tajallic type of nature comes into power well for the believer we work on ourselves and we reflect and think what is it? you see the bad and you say what bad traits do I have inside? we see the situation we turn to Allah more and then after we turn to Allah we begin to act maybe there's more activism that's taking place maybe there's more outward work that's being done because of a quote unquote outwardly bad situation and maybe at the end in it is some hair in it is some good only Allah knows I mean again I'm just you know discussing this here only Allah knows but he is the one who knows the wisdom in every situation so he we have to just keep that in mind that he doesn't make mistakes and he knows what's going to go down for us and we just we don't know so let's not get too excited or too attached to any one event or any one circumstance or any one situation or frankly any one result because only Allah knows ultimately what is going to be good for humanity and what is going to be good for us individually the second point that we want to discuss oh yeah and the one point related to that is you know life is Allah says that we created life and death in order to test who will be the best indeed now let's just reflect on this life and death are created to test us that means they're not created for us to always get our way and so again going back to this this situation in this election if they're not created for us for things to always go our way then that means we have to be comfortable with the fact that when things don't go our way it's simply a test from Allah now the believer will respond to the test in a certain way and the person who doesn't believe they won't respond to the test appropriately they will lose it completely whether it's a difficulty or it's a blessing they won't be able to respond to the test but ultimately it is a test and let's keep that in mind the next main point is we should work in these situations to accept Allah's decision look he knows whatever the decision is going to be I don't know what the decision is going to be unless you know and you all don't know what the decision is going to be I'm talking about the election unless in the last 20 minutes the electoral college changed really significantly in which case maybe the decision is clear but Allah is the one who knows the decision is going to be and we have to accept his decree this is actually one of the highest stations of the religion one of the highest stations is to accept Allah's decree accept what goes down whatever his decision is accept it and be content with his decision because whatever he wills is ultimately going to happen and to submit to his decree and to be content with his decree and to just say okay you know what you're doing I don't know and then turn to him ask him for help it doesn't mean that like yeah the decision happened but maybe it's a decision that is difficult for us to digest we turn to him we ask him let there be good in this for us let there be khair in this for us let assist us with this decision allow us to accept the decision but ultimately we got to learn in life and again I'm speaking to myself first and foremost here because I mean I'm terrible at this one accepting Allah's decree something happens and I have a very hard time accepting the decree so like I'm definitely just you know talking to myself here but we all have to learn how do we work on ourselves such that we get comfortable accepting what goes down maybe we don't like our job accept the decree Allah put us in that position he knows what it is why it's good for us and he'll move us when it's time for him to move us maybe we don't like a certain circumstance in our life let's accept it as it is it's a test there's some khair in it for us there's some good in it for us let's try to accept that because when you accept you are letting Allah know He is the Lord and you and I are slaves but when you try to say no no no this is wrong like not wrong from an injustice point of view wrong meaning like Allah made a mistake God forbid we say like no no no I should be in this situation like why did he get promoted and not me or why did he she get a raise and not me or why does he have this thing and not me when we try to do stuff like that we're questioning what Allah's deciding what's going down right and that's that type of anger with his decree is a very very dangerous a very very bad trait it's very very dangerous for us and we have this example Imam al Ghazali and he's in the Ahia al-Umidin in the revival of the religious sciences that one time Musa al-Islam he asks God and we know Musa al-Islam he has this title that he is the one who speaks to God so he asks him show me what pleases you so that I may perform it and Allah says my contentment lies in which you in what you don't like what you load but even so you don't you're not down to like bear it bear it steadfastly and then he says my contentment lies in your being content with my decree so my contentment lies in your contentment with my decision and with my decree what is the decree the decree is the decision of Allah it's the events that take place it's that it's the inward the decree is what goes down and the contentment is the inward resignation and the inward acceptance okay Allah knows what he's doing now that doesn't mean you don't act outwardly let's say you get sick God forbid let's say you have a really difficult disease or a really difficult test or God forbid somebody gets cancer inwardly the ideal is okay I'm going to just accept this Allah knows what he's doing Allah there's some wisdom in this right perhaps you hate a thing and it is much good for you as we just cited maybe there's someone's being cleansed of their sins I mean for sure if some believer is going through pain the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said that they're being cleansed of their sins but maybe there's some care or some good in it for us I mean there is if we accept that right but outwardly we still act it doesn't mean we don't go to the doctor it doesn't mean we don't seek treatment it doesn't mean that we don't try to fix our lifestyle and eat health or enhance our lifestyle eat healthier go to chemok therapy all the different things whatever disease it is that one is tested with but the contentment here it's not an outward like oh I'm just going to chill and not do anything it's an inward contentment inwardly we accept it so similarly if a political situation happens inwardly we accept it and outwardly we do whatever it is we can to enact to enact productive productive impact on society we don't like lose our cool the Muslim does not lose their cool and just completely flip out about what's going on no we keep it cool but we do work but we do the inward work first we have to keep that in mind we have to do the inward work before we try to engage too much outwardly but again the point here is we work on accepting the decree of whatever is going down this can be I mean there are books and books written about this there could be a whole series of lectures just about accepting a less decision but let's work on that and let's take that as a point for us to work on especially given what's going on in the election it doesn't matter whether democrats control the house or republicans control the house if Allah's decision is His decision it's going to come to pass it doesn't matter who controls the senate Allah's decision is Allah's decision again outwardly yes we might want one way or another but ultimately Allah is the one who is in control and no human being is going to do what it is that we want them to do or save us from any specific situation Allah doesn't will it and if Allah wills it anything is going to happen and victory doesn't always come right one after another one after another right sometimes there's a big victory and sometimes a lot of tests after that and then another big victory and a lot of tests after that we see in the life of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and the sahabah that they won the battle of Badr and they lost the battle of Uhud right and so we see these these two you know kind of we juxtapose these against each other and we think okay there is victory one time for one group and for the you know for the correct group obviously and one time maybe the group will lose right and so this is for us as believers I'm not talking about any political party or any political party is correct I really personally believe that it's very difficult to align all of one's views with any one specific party or a specific individual but we just kind of do the best we can that's just you know a personal belief everybody of course is entitled to their own beliefs from political point of view but when it comes to our situation in life sometimes with a wisdom there from battle of Uhud battle of Badr is sometimes we'll win and sometimes we'll lose but in both is good for us right there's going to be good for us in both types of situations but it's because Allah's decree is happening we have to learn to accept it so let's just talk about five specific things we can take away and how do we five specific ways we can inculcate this inside of ourselves cultivate this inside of ourselves and what we can take away from the situation and then we'll end inshallah so the first is for us to just realize right in this with the election and everything going on just who's the king who has all power and really reflect reflect on his power and don't get too caught up on the human power and the human situation human beings have zero power la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah al alia al adim just remember that always la hawla wa la quwwata there is no power nor strength saved by Allah's will that's it Trump has zero power Biden has zero power Pence has zero power Harris has zero power they don't have any power except that Allah wills them Allah wills to give them some ability Allah controls their health He controls our health He controls our eyesight He controls if we wake up in the morning He controls if we're sick He controls if we move He controls if we're able to think He controls if we're completely lose our ability to think He controls all these abilities so la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah always remember that and give us some breathing room sometimes Muslims we get way too caught up in politics like way way way too caught up in politics so one of the things we can remember is if we reflect regularly that Allah is in control and He has power we will start to turn more towards Him instead of expect some human being to solve all of our problems and one of the ways we can do this is spend less time like when we kick it with people and when we're talking to people we visit people spend less time talking about worldly power and who has power, who won this who's in this situation which prime minister, candidate is doing this what's this country doing what's India doing what's Pakistan doing that's all we talk about when we get together with people there's a problem we gotta like these are just human beings they have no power in it of themselves spend time talking about the Lord who has all the power right and sometimes that is not easy for us to think about but bring Allah into your discussions and you'll start to see a different flavor of discussion because of the remembrance of Allah Allah biddhikrilatatsma inlalqulub that verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest you go to a gathering and people you know you're gonna talk about doing Trump supporters and non-Trump supporters guaranteed you're not gonna have hearts that are finding rest you're gonna have hearts that are getting into it and probably you know some type of anger that manifests from that there's been so it's such a politically charged country we live in right now right but if you talk about Allah and you remember Allah is in control the hearts will find rest because he's the ultimate one in control and ultimate one in power so it doesn't mean we never talk politics but let's spend time talking about the president of all the presidents the king of all the kings and not so much time always talking about what's going on at this like low dunya level dunya is the low abode it's the low place we don't just spend all our time thinking about the dunya and thinking about what's in the situation here in that situation no let's talk and that can apply to all the politics the workplace politics the situations we see you know in a company or any other place that we are in society second thing is so reflection is really important reflecting on who is in real control it's not easy sit down and just close your eyes and reflect who is in control think about all of the things you and I have no power over or that any presidential candidate has no power over and only Allah has power over and let that just sit deep down inside and if you make an intention Allah will open up the insight for us inshallah the second thing is then that should drive us before you and I turn to a political situation turn to Allah right so we should not place our hopes in a human we should not place our hopes in a party we should not place our hopes in a candidate we should not place our hopes in a platform we should not place our hopes in a position no we place first and foremost our hopes in Allah what does that mean though that sounds like you know what does it really mean so we should be praying first and foremost for whatever outcome it is that we want if we want things to get better in this country first before we talk and tweet and Instagram and share this and share that and text people before we talk and analyze all the things let's discuss with Allah make dua to Allah turn in prayer to Allah help our country help the situation help the world help the Muslims that are struggling in Palestine and in the the Muslims that are struggling in China in the concentration camps the Muslims that are struggling in Kashmir the Muslims that are struggling in India all the Muslims frankly throughout the world that are struggling pray for the ummah pray for the people of this country bring unity to the country O Allah bring expansion in the hearts and allow people to get over all the difficulties and all the troubles and everything that's going on pray pray prayer is so important we have to pray we should engage outwardly too also pray pray for guidance pray for the leaders that they get guidance that they are guided that they have that Allah guides them to do good actions Allah can change somebody's heart look he changed some of the worst people in the history of this ummah and he changed them to eventually be guided he did right we have many people in the time of the Sahaba of the Prophet ﷺ that used to be very very very vehemently opposed to the truth to the Prophet ﷺ Allah changed their hearts he can change the heart of anybody but let's actually I'm talking about very sincerely spend time actually praying for the country praying for the leaders praying for the situation and then also go out and engage outwardly we vote we get we get involved in activism we get involved in whatever it is that we are able to get involved in but you know we use our time wisely I'll give an example of something you shouldn't do like every morning in the last couple of months I literally was like you know every morning once or twice a day I would check the polls I'd like Google polls and I'd read all like a much different polls okay who's winning in this state who's up here who's up here well guess what all the polls turned out to be wrong all that time was wasted maybe if I just spent that time making dua to Allah it would have benefitted me and maybe Allah would have brought some benefit based on that dua to some to the country I don't know I mean wasting all that time that's a personal reflection I just thought about it literally the polls were all wrong only Allah knows what's going to happen so I should before I turn too much what to the political situation turn to Allah that's very important third thing that we can keep in mind is accept whatever happens and don't lose it just don't lose our cool internally accept that Allah has put people over us and we have to just we got to do what it is that we got to do right Allah says in the Quran I see Allah I see the Rasool and I say I say obey Allah obey the messenger of Allah and obey those who are put in charge over you we follow the land with the laws of the land that we're in it's a red light we don't cross the red light we don't shop lift we don't go out and cause corruption we don't do vigilante justice all the things we're not supposed to do because we obey the laws of the land and we do but when we see a situation that's happening that needs change we can organize we can do these types of things externally but internally we have to accept that Allah is in control that's the thing internally accept externally engage to the degree that you and I are able to engage in and do what it is we need to do to bring good and the fourth and final thing is focus on ourselves and cleaning ourselves up internally focus on ourselves and our families and our societies on the internal work we have forgotten this as a people as a people in this country as a people as Muslims we have forgotten the heart we have forgotten the heart and we have to really that is the main way we bring about change you have a group of people who came in the middle of the Arabian desert in the Arabian Peninsula thirteen or fourteen hundred years ago and literally most of them were I mean like in complete stage of ignorance before they entered Islam and these people were what they were the Sahaba ikram of the Prophet ﷺ may Allah be pleased with all of them but they were engaged in all these crazy acts right literally say in the Omar one time he said that he was you know he had made an idol in the morning with dates with you know with dates and you know he shaped it and everything and then he went on a journey and that day he got hungry and then he ate the idol I mean that is the kind of ridiculousness that they were engaged in but they because they were changed where from the inside they became the best generation to ever walk the face of this earth right of the best generation of people so the internal work though is what was going on at the time there was not vast amounts of political power vast amounts of kingdom none of that no but internally they were clean and they were working on and then Allah gave them success and gave the Muslims success externally because of their inward work so Allah says he does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves that's from the Quran so we have to work let us reflect on ourselves and let us reflect on what we need to change internally first and foremost keep that in mind the leadership that we are given reflects our internal state never forget that the leadership that we are given reflects our internal state maybe we as a human as a humanity or as a people in this country we see a lot of anger in leadership maybe we are angry people we see a lot of division in politics we have become divided people we see a lot of racism we have a lot of racism internally as well as in our Muslim communities we see a lot of love of power and of fame and of cheating and this and that that's what we are doing as well that means we have to reflect don't say oh yeah I can think of that one guy I can think of this one person who has that trait think about yourself what do you have inside what do I have inside what do I need to work on even if we think it's a small part of us let's work on it because I'm let's really deeply remember that what happens outside is just a mirror of what's going on in here and the inside of the hearts we are people who we have become people who are slowly and slowly and slowly falling into this state of moral degradation we have to become people who uplift each other uplift ourselves internally and try to purify ourselves internally and turn to Allah and then go and do that to other people right if we are lying and doing corrupt actions as a society of course you're going to have leaders who are lying all the time and doing corrupt actions it's whatever is here internally is what manifests externally the way this has all been always the understanding and so when tribulation happens the Muslims have traditionally always wondered what am I doing wrong let's think in any situation there's a lot of tribulation in the world what are we doing wrong and remember that what is in our control is acting we act act in the sense that we turn to Allah we pray to Allah we make toba we make istighfar we ask Allah for assistance and then we also act outwardly right we leave the rest to Allah so let's leave whatever decision is going to happen to Allah let's try to be content with that decision let's accept it internally let's reflect the fact that Allah has all the power and all the control and let's try to inculcate this trait of being content with his decision of being content with his decree of remembering that he knows what is best for us for humanity for the world and for all of times and for all of the world he created us he knows what he's doing we don't know what we're doing let's accept that and let's turn to him humbly in dua in prayer and let's try to make a commitment at the very least try to pray for each other pray for this community pray for the Muslims in our area in other areas pray for each other and pray for our countries regularly let's try to make a commitment to do that because inshaAllah one prayer is all it takes if it's heard and a lot of rectification can come one of the things that the people of Allah do and that the righteous do and if you read their dua if you read their dua they literally regularly pray for the affairs of the country regularly pray for the prayers of the country that ask Allah to bring mercy upon humanity and there are many many Muslims out here out there around the world today who because of their prayers and their turning to Allah and their begging Allah in the middle of the night and upholding the sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and weeping in the night for Allah's mercy for not just them and their families but for all of the Muslims and for all of humanity and begging Allah for his mercy and begging Allah for protection that it is by means of people like that that a lot of tribulation is warded off and what would we do if people weren't like that so let's try to inculcate that level in ourselves let's try to inculcate that level of focus and of worship and let's try to focus on the inward before we focus too much on the outward and whatever happens outwardly let's accept it with Allah let's turn to Allah inshaAllah if anybody has any questions or anything please please feel free to put them in the chat inshaAllah and let's try to let's turn our hands inshaAllah in prayer Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alamin Wa sallallahu wa sallim Wa barakah ala Sayyidina Muhammadin Wa ala Ali wa sahbihi sallim Ya ar-Rahman ar-Rahim Ya Allah We ask Ya Allah Ya Allah by your mercy and by your gentleness Ya Allah that you allow us to accept whatever it is that is going on in our country Ya ar-Rahman ar-Rahim Ya Allah accept this decree Ya Rabbil Alamin allow us to accept your decree allow us to accept your decision Ya Rabbil Alamin Ya Allah allow us to accept whatever situation it is that you are going to manifest whatever the outcome of this election is let us turn to you let us remember that you are the Lord of all the Lords that you are the King of all Kings that you are the President of all presidents let us Ya Rabbill Alamin be content and be happy with your decree Ya Rabbill Alamin Ya Allah and bring ease upon this country Ya Rabbill Alamin and guide this country Ya Allah and guide the people of this country and guide the people and the leaders of this country Ya Rabbill Alamin and bring them close to you Ya Rahman Alamin Ya Allah and bring us content with your decree Ya'ala and make your mercy manifest Ya'ala. This is the month in which your beloved Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was born. Let his Sunnah and let his example and let his teachings and let his love be born in our hearts Ya'ala. Ya'ala, this is a month in which much relief comes through him Ya'ala. Let a lot of relief come for us, for all of our communities, for our difficulties, for our sicknesses, for anything it is that we are going through Ya'ala. And let us trust in you and place our trust in you and place our Tawakkal in you Ya'ala. And let us know what it is that is best for us and we do not know and we are mere slaves and we are human beings Ya'ala Bilalameen and we are creation and you are the Creator Ya'ala Bilalameen. So let us rely on you and you only and give us a contentment and a sweetness and an expansion in our hearts and a tranquility Ya'ala Bilalameen by means of which all of our anxieties are removed and all of our difficulties are removed and let this be the case for us and for all of our loved ones and for all of the Muslims Ya'ala Bilalameen and for anyone frankly in our country who is feeling any state of anxiety or worry right now please remove it Ya'ala Bilalameen and please let us turn to you and please let your guidance come from the heavens Ya'ala Bilalameen, let your anwar come from the heavens and let your nafahats and your sweet breezes come from the heavens to guide us and to bring us to you and to turn us towards you and to turn us inwardly and outwardly towards you and to let us be focused on you always Ya'ala Bilalameen and let us not be focused on ourselves Ya'ala Bilalameen, Ya'ala Bilalameen and let us follow in the footsteps of the greatest of all prophets, of the greatest of all people, of the greatest of all leaders.  Salaamu Alaykum.