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Hi my name is Abdullah Sameer and I am out
here in the wintery cold Canada to tell you

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a bit about secularism.

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What is secularism?

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Secularism is actually separating the church
and state, meaning the mosque, the temple,

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the church does not get involved in politics
or ruling or laws of the government.

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By having such laws, we have freedom of religion,
freedom of expression, and we're able to live

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our lives without worry about being persecuted
for what we believe.

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I was a practising Muslim for 15 years here
in Canada and I never had to feel scared to

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show that I was a Muslim.

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I used to have a big beard, and I used to
pray at the office, I used to tell them openly

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that I was Muslim and I don't drink or eat
pork or certain activities I could not be

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involved in - didn't want to work for any
bank jobs, and this is for religious reasons.

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Canada protected my rights as a Muslim not
to be discriminated against.

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I was able to go for friday prayers, to say
my prayers 5 times a day.

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I wasn't scared that because of my religious
beliefs I would be discriminated.

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Secularism allows societies to grow.

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If it's not for secularism, we would be stuck
in the dark ages.

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If you look at Galileo, he challenged the
idea that the sun went around the Earth and

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because of that he was persecuted by the church,
they put him in jail and threatened him with

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torture.

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Why were they able to do that?

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Because the church and the state were closely
linked.

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It should never be that way.

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If you allow such things, you will end up
with sunnis persecuting shias like in Saudi

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Arabia, or in Iran there's shias persecuting
Sunnis, or you'll end up with state sanctioned

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terror against minorities, a situation in
Saudi Arabia, or even in Israel where the

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Orthodox Jews didn't want to allow Christmas
trees in the hotels because it went against

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their religion.

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Secularism protects and allows minorities
including believers and non believers both

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to express themselves and say what they want
and to live their lives without fear of being

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harmed for what they believe.

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On top of it, I was free to promote Islam,
I had an islamic website and I was promoting

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it, and I wasn't scared I was going to go
to jail for that because I was allowed to

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talk about stuff like that without fear of
being persecuted, whereas in some countries

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you can actually be tortured, like in Saudi
Arabia some atheists are being sent to jail

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and lashed and whipped for doubting Islam
or for criticizing any Islamic theology.

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Who is to say which version of Islam is the
correct one?

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What if your particular sect doesn't agree
with some of the practices of the other sects?

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Does that mean you are allowed to persecute
them?

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Of course not.

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Here I am, I wanted to make this message hoping
for a better world, a world where people are

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free to live their lives the way they want
without persecution, how we can criticize

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scientific ideas and not worry about religious
dogma getting in the way.

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Stem Cell research is another thing that is
being blocked in the states because of religious

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values and secularism and a strong division
between church and state helps us to avoid

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such things.

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Anyways thanks for watching, take care, bye.