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Aug. 3, 2025 - Lionel Nation
34:53
The Great Religious Illiteracy: Do We Even Know What We’re Arguing About?
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My friends, good morning.
I happen to be rummaging around.
I found my keep America great again cap.
Keep America, part of my collection.
What do these words mean?
I don't know.
I like the idea.
We pay homage to the president.
And today's subject is, I think, most important because it talks again about the biggest problem we have in this country is that people don't know what the hell they're talking about.
Nothing.
And when it comes to the issue, I don't know what it is, but when it comes to, specifically comes to the issue of, I guess you'd call it religion.
You can forget it.
I mean, you can really forget it.
I mean, you can really, really, we don't know anything about religion.
Nothing.
Nothing.
And the first thing we don't know more than anything else, the best one is we call scarves anything a woman wears either a burqa or a hijab you got that it's wonderful a hijab uh uh not an abaya what no burqa was the old one and
And burqa, as you know, is the, basically, this was like Afghanistan.
Nobody, I've never seen a burqa.
Never.
I've seen an abaya.
Very rarely.
Very rarely I've seen them.
This is where you have the, oh, what's the word?
You have the, kind of like a black, usually black, but it's a black covering.
And maybe you'll see eyes only.
But the burqa, you see nothing.
It's that coarse Afghani, Taliban type of burqa.
And you don't see anything.
Mother Teresa wore a veil.
This one wears a kippah.
There are Orthodox women who wear wigs.
Here in Williamsburg, wigs.
Very expensive wigs.
And they have a, kind of a uniform.
Is that a head covering?
Is that a head covering?
I don't know.
Yamaha, kippah.
Sometimes, depending upon if it's a Lubavitcher.
But there are people who have worn pre, sometimes will wear a mitre.
A beretta.
A beretta is that one particular type of.
Those are okay.
But Kathy Hochul wears a veil.
And I detest Kathy Hochul.
But Kathy Hochul is in a, is in the mosque.
And it is considered reverence for a woman to have a head covering.
Like when I was a kid, my mother, my grandmother wore a mantilla into Catholic Church.
And if you didn't have a veil, you put a little tissue or something on your head.
This was custom.
But these morons are saying she wore an abaya.
Or hijab.
I forget which one it is.
They get it wrong.
Because they haven't even spent enough time to even say, let me, let me just look and see what words am I using.
And then they're talking about Sharia law.
They don't know what they're talking about.
They don't know what they're talking about.
They don't know anything about this.
They kind of think it means cutting hands off.
They don't know.
You've got people in this country who can't even tell you the difference between a Protestant and a Catholic.
A Methodist and a Baptist.
No idea.
But we used it.
But they walk around with these big crosses on all the time.
Because I'm a Christian.
God damn it.
I'm a Christian.
See?
So we're going to be talking about that.
And it's going to be a great one.
But I want you to listen carefully.
Our man, Mike Lindell, is back.
Do you remember this?
He is back.
And he is going to emerge triumphant.
And it is incumbent upon us.
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Now, right now, as we speak, this is one of the best tutorials ever.
And I want you to go back and read this later, which is fantastic.
Because you are going to be already very nice people who don't know shit about what they're talking about.
Let me make sure I get this, you understand it.
don't know anything they've never lifted a finger a pencil cracked a book looked never they don't know sharia law they don't even know what it means they think they kind of if somebody writes oh i think it's incompatible with american what is it i don't know i don't know What do I have to know what I'm talking about?
Excuse me.
Is this some requirement?
I got to know what I'm talking about.
Since when?
Oh, my God.
Oh, dear God.
Dear God.
Dear God, you don't know what you're talking about?
Well, why do I have to know what I'm talking about?
Why do I have to know what I'm talking about?
Here we go.
Pilgrim says, I was raised in religion and I still don't care.
Who cares?
I don't either.
I'm irreligious.
It's all superstition to me, all of it, every bit of it.
That's not the point.
Years ago, there was an issue.
Remember the fellow who was, he was, he was a golfer.
And he said something to the effect of he wanted to, he claimed that because of a medical problem, he wanted to actually not walk the course because he couldn't.
And the issue became, should he be able to claim as a disability his whatever and not walk.
Okay, you got it?
He said, I don't want to walk the course because I can't because of my life.
We talked about it.
We talked about the issues involving whether when a disability so impedes your ability to such and such that you cannot do something or you cannot, whatever.
Okay, fine.
You got it?
Okay, good.
Now, imagine if I weighed in with, I don't care about golf.
Okay, then shut up.
I don't know anything about golf.
Okay, then shut up.
I don't play golf.
Okay, don't talk about this.
I think golf is stupid.
Okay, again, thank you.
Sit down.
That's the way we talk about this now.
I don't care about golf.
I don't know anything about golf.
Or, or let me weigh in and I don't even know the rules.
Do you know that people who believe, just we'll get back to the subject, but people who, by the way, could not walk were actually handicapped because one of the things that you need when you walk with your caddy is to see the undulating hills and it actually helps you.
So you are at a disadvantage.
But the morons who are weighing in on this, because they didn't know anything, they just started.
So again, it shows you we sit back and we don't know anything.
And the first question that people never ask is, what do I know about Sharia?
Let me help you.
Nothing.
Nothing.
It should embarrass you.
I would say, I can't talk about this something.
I don't know.
Give me a couple of minutes.
Let me rehearse.
No, not now.
This is America.
God damn it.
You can say whatever you want.
In fact, the best is if you don't know anything.
All these crosses, like you notice, and then all the crosses are gone.
I say, what's going on?
I asked him, and I said, do you notice that?
I said, see that cross right there?
Protestant.
How come you don't wear a Catholic cross?
What's the Catholic cross?
It's a crucifix.
Aren't they the same?
Of course not.
These are Christians.
Christians who are Christian, Christian, Christians, Christians, Jesus, Jesus.
They can't tell you the first thing about it.
Nothing.
Because you don't know what we're talking about.
It's the most, it is, it is, it is incredible.
And when it comes to Sharia law, oh my God.
One of the most prominent, one of the best sources on Sharia law and how it is not what you think it is, is, believe it or not, a Harvard law professor named Noah Feldman,
who is not exactly a big, well, he's not probably my vote for Muslim of the year.
Noah Feldman.
Okay, you dig, you dig.
And I've read him for years.
And I may not, well, that's another thing.
I may disagree with him on Trump or whatever it is, but he has something to say about this.
And I can always learn because that's kind of like what I like to do is to learn new things.
Not America.
New, new, new.
We don't want to hear anything about this.
I've been telling people and warning you, you should see what's happening to what's going to happen to Candace Owens.
And I'm telling you, legally, but because people like their girlfriend, they get upset.
They don't even care about the legal.
Do you want to know what you say?
No.
No, I don't like her.
No, I don't like her.
I don't like what you're saying about her.
She's my girlfriend.
I don't appreciate that.
Well, do you know what you?
I don't care.
Sharia.
And by the way, let me say this again.
I'm a member of no religion.
None.
That which you must require as the basis of belief, even Hinduism, Buddhism, it's not my thing.
I'm not rejecting.
I just don't understand.
Sharia is one of the most misunderstood concepts in Western discourse.
It is usually conflated with extremism and violent authoritarianism, just like people think socialism means Stalin or concentration camps or something, or that Marxism means lack of speech.
It is conflated.
Sharia, in fact, is a deeply old, ancient, nuanced moral and legal framework rooted in Islamic tradition.
There were two, two and a half, I don't know, billion Muslims.
And if they were ever, if 10% were violent and you had 250 million crazy, oh, they use the word, he's a jihadist.
They use that word incorrectly too.
or radical Islamo-fascist, which is an oxymoron.
But if 10% were like this, so you know the numbers don't work.
You know the numbers don't work.
You'll see somebody like the guy running for mayor.
But Sharia is a deeply articulated, nuanced moral and legal framework that is rooted into Islamic tradition.
And it is comparable to halakha, or I know maybe pronouncing it correctly, which is the body of Jewish religious law, which we see here in New York and in Williamsburg and others.
We had something years ago called Medzitza, again I'm mispronouncing it, Medzitzi Bepet.
This is a rite where the moil, during the circumcision or the bris, after removing the forkins, or the foreskin or the prepuse, would, I know this is weird, place his mouth.
This was from, maybe they thought that saliva seared the, who knows, place his mouth on the newly, I know you're going to get, get, I don't know, I know where you're going with this.
Anyway, of the mouth of the, of the freshly incised child.
And one of these guys had like some kind of oral herpes and then passing a herpes.
And even Bloomberg says, hold it, that's it.
And they said, excuse me.
They had the Jewish, the Jewish elders.
And they said, oh, no, no, no, no, excuse me.
This is our tradition.
And Bloomberg said, oh, no, no, no, no, no, excuse me.
No.
And there was this huge battle between ancient Talmudic, Abrahamic Jewish laws when it abuts and does not work with.
We have gets, you know, you have to have the, just like in Christianity or Catholicism, you have to annul the marriage before you get this.
All right.
We do that all the time.
But, and nobody knows anything about that either.
But Americans think that there's the Sharia means cutting hands off and violence.
No, no, no.
No.
No.
But I'll tell you right now, so that you listen to me, the Islamic profession, profession, religion is doing a pretty piss-poor job in trying to explain this to people.
But like this halakha, you know, Sharia encompasses rules for worship, family life, business, business ethics, charity, civil behavior.
It's not monolithic, nor is it universally interpreted and applied in a single way around the Islamic world.
And most people don't know when it's implied.
What's critically important for you to understand as a learned member of our world, you don't have to abide by this, you don't have to, you don't have to, but it's overlooked, is the responsibility of the Islamic community itself to clarify what Sharia is and what it is not.
It is incumbent upon religious scholars, educators, and community leaders to differentiate their faith from those who bastardize and adulterate or hijack Sharia for political control or terror or cultural repression.
And this, by the way, this challenge is not unique to Islam.
Jewish and Christian communities have long had to distance themselves from those who misuse scripture.
Do you believe in snake handling?
They did it in the old days.
Do you believe in animal sacrifice?
Some parts of Hialeah, the Santeria folks do.
What about animal sacrifice?
Anybody got a problem with animal sacrifice?
Do you?
If you tell people, oh yeah, what about the paschal lamb?
Huh?
What?
The paschal lamb.
What about that?
What are you talking about?
I don't know.
People don't know what they're talking about.
And Kathy Hogel did not wear a hijab or an abaya.
It was a scarf.
It was just to show respect.
I don't like Kathy Hokel, but everybody is saying she wore an Abaya.
Jesus, get your head out of your ass and pay attention.
Your ignorance is so sad.
And you just don't care.
And I know you don't care.
I know you don't.
I know.
Because it's fun for us to sit around and to beat ourselves.
It's ridiculous.
It's embarrassing.
And nobody seems to be embarrassed.
And when it comes to religion, we don't even have the slightest bit of insight or interest.
We don't care.
I don't care.
What are you talking about?
I don't give a shit about that.
So where we are.
It's the way we are.
It is unbelievable.
It blows my mind.
This is the part that kills me.
I told you this Noah Feldman.
I'm telling you this in this thing.
If you want, you can, but he's written some great stuff.
And he's been the long authoritative voice.
And according to him, Sharia, again, is not this singular, codified set of violent laws.
It is centuries old.
They call it a moral legal framework designed to help Muslims lead ethical lives.
At its core, they will tell you, Sharia translates to path to water.
That's the phrase.
Symbolizing a route toward justice and moral clarity rather than violence.
Now, what this Feldman, and I've read him for years, what he emphasized, and again, we probably don't agree on anything politically, but this he knows.
It is not synonymous with Islamic expression.
Excuse me, pardon me, extremism.
Sharia is not the same, is not synonymous with Islamic extremism.
In fact, the classical Islamic legal traditions often acted as checks and governmental checks on governmental abuse.
And it provided rights to property rights, personal safety, and what they call due process, which we forget sometimes in some periods.
And it outpaced, some cases, their Western counterparts.
Now, where Sharia was traditionally implemented, the power of rulers was not absolute.
And scholars, not politicians, but scholars, interpreted and administered law through legal reasoning and scholarly debate.
The derivation, many suspect, of the American mafia from Sicily was il huomo de Honore, the man of honor, because they had to go to kind of like an outboard form of law and order even then.
So, one of the points that Feldman makes is that Sharia, as it's been practiced historically, forbids most forms of violence.
It explicitly outlaws vigilantism, terrorism, and public chaos.
He notes further, this is Feldman, I'm reading, that he notes that Islamic law forbids members of Muslim minority from engaging in violence, subversion, or retaliation, even if they live under unjust regimes.
In essence, the Islamic legal tradition prioritizes order, negotiation, and restraint over chaos and extremism.
Now, does that mean that everybody follows that?
Hell no.
But don't you want to know what the rule is theoretically?
Don't you want to know what the Vatican is theoretically?
Don't you want to know what the Protestant Reformation is?
Don't you want to know what the Baha'i people think theoretically?
Yes.
If you're wise, if you're smart, if you're a rational adult.
They also draw the line between Sharia and Islamism.
And this is what's critical.
Sharia refers to a centuries-old ethical and legal code.
But Islamism, like the Islamist, is a modern political ideology that uses Islamic, in essence, vocabulary, to justify authoritarian state power.
Noah Feldman, read his stuff.
Again, not everything I agree with, but this is his, this is fascinating.
He warns that the modern fusion of Sharia with totalitarianism is not representative of Islamic legal tradition, but rather a distortion driven by modern political agendas.
He and other scholars note that Sharia has always been adaptable.
Scholars across generations have interpreted it differently depending upon geography, social context, historical realities.
There is no universal version of Sharia applied consistently across the Muslim world in practice.
Now, most Muslim-majority countries today do not apply a full Sharia system.
Instead, they selectively implement certain principles, often in a civil law areas like marriage, contracts, inheritance.
Feldman points out that the modern Western fear that Sharia stems not from real understanding, but from politicized narratives is a problem.
Terms like Sharia law, you hear this all the time, Sharia law are invoked to stoke and to exacerbate cultural fears and justify legislation aimed at Muslim communities.
These portrayals, it is argued, ignore the legal pluralism and diversity of opinion that have defined Islamic jurisprudence for more than a millennium.
Moreover, Professor Feldman insights and highlights the historical irony that laws like the Man Act, which is what they got diddy on, the Man Act.
In the United States, this was originally used to target minorities.
But how man act laws mirror the misuse of Sharia when invoked to justify authoritarian repression.
Just as Sharia can be distorted for political ends, so can secular legal systems.
We do it all the time.
Look at law affair.
Look at what Trump's been through.
Now, in short, we have to demystify Sharia unless you want to live in the shadow and the darkness of ignorance.
I don't.
I don't have to like these people, be one, but I want to understand it.
It is not a violent mandate.
It is designed, and they will tell you, a moral and legal tradition rooted in ethics and justice.
Ask Dave Chappelle.
You think he's a violent Muslim?
Kareem Abdul Jabbar.
Just go down the list.
Pick your favorite, okay?
It calls for order, not chaos.
It encourages compassion, not cruelty.
And when interpreted faithfully, this is what they're saying by scholarly traditions, Sharia emphasizes accountability, fairness, and peaceful coexistence.
Values that we have to get back into.
But don't expect to explain this to Americans.
No, because Americans, we know everything.
We know everything.
We're experts in everything from seed oils to methylene blue to you name it.
We are expert.
We know everything.
We don't crack a book, lift a finger, read a lot.
We are immersed.
We are absolutely filled with every ability to research everything, and we don't do it.
We grovel in ignorance.
We love it.
Pilgrim says it cannot undermine us.
It cannot undermine U.S. constitutional law.
No shit.
Thank you.
But U.S. law undermines constitutional law.
Where have you been?
The U.S. constitutional law, for the most part, is violated by American legislation, not Sharia or whatever it is.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
No.
I'm wasting my time.
I know this.
Maybe somewhere, maybe, and I recognize it, 90% of the people, they just don't, they don't give a shit about this.
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't, they hate.
We love to hate.
And let me also tell you something, and I'm going to tell you right now.
If you don't like it, I can't help you.
I can't help you.
But I'm never going to lie to you.
I can tell when somebody's got a hard on for a subject, for people.
And Candace Owens has a hard on.
Pardon my friends, for Jews and Israel, I mean it's personal.
And when you get personal, you lose all context and you're going to lose.
And they are setting her up.
And I'm telling you, and I'm also telling you for the millionth time, Tucker Carlson, they're coming after you.
Coming after you, my friend.
Ryan says, didn't Ataturk prove by modernizing Turkey that Islam can exist in the secular modern society?
I have heard that.
I am not in any way a Turkish scholar, but I have done that.
Also, there are folks who have fierce Freddy.
Freddie, look at this.
He's gifted 10 Lionel Nation Membership.
Freddie, thank you, sir.
You're a good man.
I don't know about that.
I don't know.
I don't know.
But what I will tell you is simply this.
Listen to me very carefully.
There were people, Habib, Habib Burgiba from Tunisia, Nasser, Pan-Arab.
They crushed Nasser in particular, crushed Islam, created the Muslim Brotherhood.
Remember where the Muslim Brotherhood comes from?
Koopt.
Remember him?
He was one of the founders.
Their party were the ones who took out Nasser.
This is a wild balance that they are having.
You're seeing it.
When I was in Israel twice, there was this battle between the secular and the Orthodox, the religious.
I mean, they were at odds constantly.
This is something that is, do not show your American ignorance.
Anybody who foments, who actually produces, who inspires violence in this country must be shut down, no matter who you are.
Protestant, atheist, Buddhist, doesn't matter.
But when you act like a goddamn fool and have big, big, just go look at the headlines.
Kathy Hochle wearing a bio, no, a hijab.
I forget what it is.
Sometimes it's Jews interchange.
Wrong!
It's, it's, it, because we grovel in ignorance.
We don't know anything about anything and we don't care.
We're not allergic to looking stupid.
And I want you to be allergic to looking stupid.
I want you to always know.
I want you to say, I know that.
I understand that.
I can differentiate that.
It will make your appreciation of the issues clearer.
And clarity will give you a profound excitement and understanding.
You know, for the first time, it's like being able to see.
You've got to throw out old ideas.
Like going to your fridge and you've got some yogurt that's been there for six months.
Get rid of it.
Get rid of these stupid ideas.
Get rid of this Fox News, Newsmax, close-minded, whatever, and CNN as well.
These are people who are basically providing and focusing on your ignorance.
They're stupid people.
Stupid people kill people.
If we're going to make America great and keep America great, we need legions, contingents of smart people, educated people, intellectually curious people, people who are just absolutely insatiable when it comes to wanting to understand what's going on.
That's what we need.
And I'm calling upon you to just remove this cloak of ignorance.
Stop profoundly announcing how you don't know anything.
You don't watch this.
You don't care.
You don't read.
You don't vote.
You don't watch.
You don't understand.
You don't go.
You don't.
It doesn't work like that.
All right.
It doesn't work like that.
So that's it, my friends.
That's it.
Remember, I'm not going to sit around.
And by the way, Pilgrim, Pilgrim Media, thank you.
And Ryan, thank you.
And Freddie Haddad, thank you.
By the way, follow Mrs. L at Lynn's Warriors.
I'm calling out.
I need five more subscribers to Lynn's Warriors.
Because if you want to really fight, now listen to what I'm saying.
This, not only perdition, but this victimization and predation of children, you will go and you will follow her immediately.
Listen to what I'm saying, my friends.
Don't get your little feelings hurt.
Be an adult.
Be smart.
Be wise.
Grovel, bathe in knowledge.
And get rid of people who don't know what they're talking about.
Okay?
Because remember, if they can't get the name of a headscarf correct, how do you expect them to understand really complicated issues like artificial general intelligence and singularity and alignment?
Okay?
All right.
All right, my friends.
Have a great and glorious day.
Talk to you next time.
Until then, remember, the monkey's dead.
The show's over.
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