This audio is brought to you by Muslim Central.com. Hi, my name is Mike Bachman and I'm a United Methodist pastor and I'm excited that we're able to share a little question and answer time with Imam Omar Suleiman.

He's here to answer questions from some folks who have been part of our audience as we've been having an extended conversation together.

So I'll introduce them each and I'm looking forward to hearing their questions and their response that

Imam Omar has.

So I'm really excited to have with us Rabbi Ilana Zeleney here and she has a question for Imam Omar.

So there you go if you can use that.

Be great.

Hi. How you doing Ramay.

I'm well, how are you?

Good. Thank you for coming.

Thank you for hosting.

I had a question about training.

I know that as a rabbi, there are limited options

around the globe where I can learn our holy texts and where I choose to study can have a vast influence on how I interpret text.

So what does that training look like for an imam? So it's probably not as defined for an imam as it is in other faith traditions.

There is the overseas routes of going and learning the religion in different parts of the world, so some of the premier institutions.

So I personally studied in the United Arab Emirates.

I spent some time in Jordan and I'm doing my PhD in Malaysia right now,

so I've been all over the place, right?

But we, you know, there are institutions now that have come up in the United States.

So at Bain Institute, for example, we teach the Arabic language.

Once you learn the Arabic language, once you learn the Arabic language, you're really able to study all types of things it opens your

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