Kind: captions
Language: en
you always know when you live in Gaza
that it's only a matter of time before
the next bombs drop you know if you're
in
Gazza
that you are waiting for your
death people dream about going out in
the world and pursuing education people
dream about going out in the world and
pursuing Economic Opportunity in
Gazza your idea of opportunity is an
opportunity to see the next year that
has been the case and so when we talk
about you know this not existing in a
vacuum if people only hear about
Gazza on October 7th that is that is a
major part of the problem and that is
Again part of the problem of our
ignorance and our apathy right why is it
that the plight of the people of Gaza is
not brought
up until an attack happens on
Israel the following is a conversation
with Imam Dr Omar suan his second time
on the podcast he is a Palestinian
American a Muslim scholar a civil rights
leader president of the yakin institute
for Islamic Research and is one of the
most influential Muslims in the world
our previous conversation was focused on
Islam this time the focus was on Gaza
and
Palestine this is Alex Freedman podcast
to support it please check out our
sponsors in the description and now dear
friends here's Omar
suan what did you think feel and pray
for in the days that followed October
7th I think the
first feeling was
that uh there's going to be a lot of
death and destruction in Gaza as a
result right we always kind of see this
where one Israeli casualty leads to
hundreds of pales Ian casualties right
so it's a pretty familiar cycle in some
ways where there are daily
transgressions against Palestinians in
the West Bank and in Gaza the
checkpoints the aggression on MJ
AA the settlements
expanding the stories of Palestinian
death and then you have Rockets fired
from Gaza and that's when the Western
press catches up and starts to cover
Israel responds with Hellfire missiles
white phosphorus bombs and the
casualties are wildly
disproportionate and so I think that you
know I wasn't surprised I prayed for the
people that I knew were going to Bear
the
brunt of this outbreak but the outbreak
was
predictable you wrote a statement on
October 9th I was hoping uh to read it
if it's okay yeah go ahead our
Palestinian casualties are always your
footnotes the daily humiliation of
occupation ignored the aggression by
settlers and soldiers alike on holy
sights and
souls the annihilation of entire
families that follows the devastation of
whatever scraps remain in the open air
prison of Gaza unsustainable and
inhumane so if you're waking up to a
sudden interest in the region and want
to know what's been happening dig a bit
deeper than two weeks and try to read
beyond the headlines of a media that has
been dehumanizing us for
decades again this was not surprising
this was very predictable if you've been
watching what's been unfolding before
October 7th
2021 Human Rights Watch puts out the
report threshold reached Israel is an
apartheid state Amnesty International 20
22 the crime of
apartheid uh showing how all of the
legal determinations of apartheid have
been reached the occupation is only
getting more aggressive sharen abaka a
palestinian-american journalist is shot
dead in
2022 in front of the world the United
States says initially that if it is
shown that Israel was complicit or that
Israel carried out the execution then
there will be
consequences of course once it was shown
that Israel was indeed responsible for
the bullet that killed Sharin abaka the
United States did absolutely nothing
shireen's funeral was attacked the
powars were beaten her casket almost
fell and again the world is watching the
aggression
against worshippers in Al AKA is getting
worse you have the flag March the
Jerusalem flag March where extremist
settlers are let loose and Wild on
Palestinians by the thousands chanting
things like Muhammad is dead we're going
to murder you Arabs all with the
protection of the state with Israeli
soldiers and throughout this time it's
like something bad is going to happen
and then 2023 comes
along you had 13,000 settler
units in
2023 a plan of 13,000 settler units the
most in the hisory of the occupation the
most racist and extremist government
Israeli government that you have ever
had and people don't realize that in
2023 alone over 600 Palestinians had
already been killed it just doesn't make
western headlines and so if you wonder
why the American public sees this so
much differently than the rest of the
world it's because American media shows
the American public something so much
different than what the rest of the
world the shown and so this was a
pressure cooker this was going to
explode it is extremely predictable
you've given people absolutely no hope
and so I I think that as we're watching
that you know it's important for us to
actually
interrogate the
ignorance that people have of the
Palestinian plight the ignorance of the
root causes of the this violence the
ignorance of the
occupation and also ask yourselves you
know why is it that Israel can violate
every single international law on the
books have all these determinations and
the United States keeps on issuing these
inconsequential statements while also at
the same time funding these aggressions
so it's like stop the settler violence
the United States will issue statement
after statement stop the settler
violence stop the incursions on Masjid
AA stop violating the people in
Jerusalem stop trying to wipe out the
Palestinian people stop openly saying
you know that there is no two-state
solution that we will never allow a
Palestinian state to be established but
at the same time here's your $3 billion
check and uh if the United Nations
issues any sort of resolution against
Israel or if any International body
tries to hold Israel accountable the
United States stands in the way of any
accountability it's important for us to
ask why and so I always tell people read
beyond the headlines even now with the
backdrop of a genocide over 30,000
people have been killed if you open the
front page of most American mainstream
sites you will see stories about the
hostages the Israeli hostages you will
see stories about October 7th but
October 8th is missing October 9th is
missing October 10th is Miss missing 100
days of genocide are missing and you'll
barely have a story that shows up every
once in a while that you know is still
very much so controlled by the Israeli
propaganda machine because while Israel
kills Palestinian journalists it also
makes sure that American journalists are
only able to tell a certain story
they're only able to see Gaza from a
certain perspective they're only able to
speak about Gaza from a certain
perspective and this is well documented
that they have to review their media
tapes with Israel before they can
publicize them and so this is State
propaganda at this point the mainstream
media and the United States government
are in lock up telling a very skewed
story and that is leading to a greater
sense of frustration and I think the
American public has been wronged as well
by not knowing what's happening so you
mentioned settlements so to you this is
bigger than Gaza it is the West Bank it
is the the Palestinian people broadly
absolutely you can't disconnect Gaza
from Palestine you can't disconnect the
West Bank from Palestine you can't
disconnect Jerusalem from Palestine and
you can't disconnect a very human story
from the political plight you
interviewed Muhammad Kur you met him
what did the world do when it saw the
images of the CED household being taken
over by a guy from Brooklyn or Long
Island who just shows up and lays claim
to their home what did the world do when
American
settlers suddenly decided they could
walk into historic Palestinian homes and
throw people out of their homes what did
the world do and so yes this is very
much so connected to the broader issue
of Palestinian existence if you realize
here we are erased in peace and we are
erased in war
in peace it's the Abraham
Accords agreements between Israel and
its Arab Neighbors which is supposedly
to solve the Palestinian problem but
Palestinians are absent from their own
fate from discussions about their own
fate in war it's the Israel Hamas War
it's Israel and Gaza where are the
Palestinian people the millions of
Palestinian people that have either been
removed from their land or are being
tormented on their land where are they
in this discussion what are the
Palestinians in the diaspora
feeling I think deeply
frustrated a great sense of anger
sadness every single Palestinian right
now knows someone that's been killed
every single Palestinian is a part of a
story of displacement or destruction
every single Palestinian has a relative
that's either e missing a limb or a
loved one every single Palestinian in
the world is traumatized by
this and in some ways being
outside of Palestine being away from it
all hurts even more because you see your
people being
killed and starved and brutalized and
slaughtered and you can't do anything
about it and the people around you are
justifying that Slaughter if you turn on
a TV or if you open a mainstream news
site these sites are justifying your
Slaughter and people are being killed
over there because they look like me
because they're Palestinian like I'm
Palestinian and so we're watching this
in diaspora uh with Agony we can't go we
can't we can't heal our loved ones we
can't Comfort the people that are there
I recently spoke to a doctor who's lost
75 relatives 75 relatives and Gaza and
he's a medical doctor and all he wants
to do is get in there and just use his
medical expertise to help his people and
he
can't and so we're watching it from afar
but our hearts are there they are in the
buildings that are being destroyed
they're in the hospitals that are being
bombed they are there and they are with
the
people you're somebody who's always
rushed into the midst of a crisis so
what does it feel like on a personal
level to not be able to do that here to
go to Gaza to
help yeah
it's it's really hard I mean when any
group of people are
killed
uh my instinct and I think a lot of
people is to go there to help whether
it's a natural disaster or especially
after an incident of Terror um wherever
it is right it's
Rush there and do the best that you can
to help people get through it um so it's
been extremely hard uh to watch this
from afar and feel like I can't do
anything about it and so that's why
instead I think that uh most of us are
driven to continue to be the voice of
the voiceless you know I always say that
if they've made them faceless they can't
make us
voiceless they have reduced our
casualties in pal
to a number the number is
hundreds a day over 30,000 people we're
averaging 10,000 people a month the fact
that they've been turned into faceless
numbers with no stories with no Humanity
makes it that much more important for us
to tell their stories here and to remind
the world that you've lost your Humanity
if you can watch this unfold and not
even have the decency to call for a
ceasefire
I mean that's the that's where we've
reached that's how low it is right now
calling for a
ceasefire has now become radical uh so
we have to remind the world that if
you're okay with the Demolition of an
entire town or a city or whatever it is
that you want to call Gaza because it
wasn't always the Gaza Strip but if
you're okay with this and you're okay
with this casualty count every single
day it's not just them who are being
killed it's your hearts that are dying
and I think that when I look back to Dr
Martin Luther King Jr and I I mentioned
this he wrote about Vietnam he said that
if America was to succumb to uh its
spiritual death the autopsy would read
Vietnam I would say that it would read
Gaza
now speaking of the people the faces the
voices one of the people you've talked
about you've posted about you've written
about is while him being
hospitalized he's a Palestinian
journalist and the bureau chief of Al
jazer and Gaza City what can you tell me
about this man if W wasn't Palestinian
he'd be on the cover of Time Magazine
right now he would be the most
celebrated journalist in the
[Music]
world is from Gaza he has been in
Israeli prisons he has been under
Israeli air strikes he has seen the
worst of the occupation before he seen
the worst of the genocide
while on TV I mean and this is this is
insane when you think about it we have
over a hundred journalists now right
that's more than any conflict in history
that have been killed and there is
sufficient evidence by International uh
Watchdogs that this is intentional that
journalists have been killed
intentionally but then their families
while it was reporting on TV when an air
strike hits his
wife two kids and a
grandchild
he goes to the scene and he said this
you know you never expect as a
journalist to be the subject of the
story suddenly the camera is on him
mourning over his dead wife and kids and
grandkid and he's saying he even says it
in Arabic he says they're taking it out
on our children they're taking it out on
our
children uh you know I've heard this
from multiple people that have had
relatives targeted that I wish it was me
instead
he gets back on camera the same day
because he feels a responsibility to
continue to cover the lives of the
people of Gaza he understands that his
story as devastating as it is is not
unique in regards to the people of Gazza
that there are many people whose
families have been killed in air strikes
all two million people have been
traumatized in some way and so he gets
back on camera tells the story again and
and then he is targeted
himself uh his arm struck his cameraman
Sam dies in front of him he bleeds out D
watches him bleed out for hours and
while any Aid workers try to reach them
in the building that they were in uh
snipers would shoot all of those that
were rushing to Sam so he watches his
cameraman one of his best friends bleed
out to death while goes to the hospital
hospital his arm is wrapped up gets
treatment he's back on camera the next
day a few weeks later uh another child
is killed again with his
friend uh in a car so this was a
targeted air strike his son is
driving and his son and his best friend
are hitting an air strike while it leads
the funeral prayer is back on camera
again and speaks with such dignity with
such compassion you know one of the
things
that always gets to me as as a
Palestinian right and as a Muslim
too is that we are portrayed to be these
beasts and Savages tell me a man that
would be put through what wild was put
through and still stand on that on that
pulpit and in front of the world with
such dignity with such Grace continues
to tell the story W has become a hero to
many of us
and he would be a hero in a
world that wasn't anti-
Palestinian and
unfortunately has not only lost his
family he's not only lost much of his
own existence but well is part of the
greater story of eraser so even though
he's telling the story of the people of
Gaza and he is the story of the people
of
Gaza most people will never learn about
w
you have posted videos and written about
what is happening in Gaza since October
7th what has been happening there the
individual stories and the broader
impact on the 2 million people there
Gaza has been described as the world's
largest open air prison unemployment
blockaded from all directions no
airport um Regular added restrictions
placed even on their ability to fish
so every aspect ofin life has been under
occupation I would argue that it's an
injustice to even call it an open air
prison
because inmates are not bombed in prison
routinely by the most sophisticated
weapons in the world regular bombardment
of Gazza every single person in razza
has lived through multiple rounds of
bombardment it is deeply uh
distressing you know I I remember in uh
2021 there was an
image that I will never forget of
children having to go back to school
after the bombardment of
and next to them they would have the
empty chairs and the posters of the
child that used to sit in that
chair I think what encapsulates it most
for
me and image that I grew up with was the
image of Muhammad dur who was in his
father's lap over 20 years ago and his
father was begging for Israel to spare
his child and Muhammad was murdered in
his
lap and you know what happened this last
round his other kids were murdered so
Muhammad's brothers were murdered and
his father's been on the run every
single person in Gaza has witnessed
multiple Wars has witnessed the the
greatest Suffocation of
occupation has even had their diets
restricted and has suffered under Israel
State policy which is called mowing the
lawn and everyone should look this up
this is what Israeli ministers refer to
as routine bombardment of Gazza mowing
the
lawn which shows you that before they
called us animals they considered us
insects and unfortunately the casualty
counts get higher and higher every time
and people become more and more
desperate more and more helpless
Gazza has been unfortunately the worst
manifestation of anti- Palestinian
bigotry it's already I mean 60% of the
population is a refugee population what
that means and people do need to
understand this is that people move to
Gazza from other parts of occupied
territory to find
refuge and we're practically living on
top of each
other there are people that that are in
the gazda strip that know that they had
homes right beyond that apartheid wall
and those homes were stolen from them
and they can't even enter that territory
anymore and they know that on the other
side of that wall there's life on the
other side of that wall there's
opportunity on the other side of that
wall you have a passport you have an
airport you have the ability to travel
you have the ability to export and
import you can dream but behind that
wall you are are to live until the next
air strike you are to live until Israel
mows the lawn again and hope that you're
not part of the grass that's what Gazza
has been all of these years so
pragmatically and psychologically it is
very difficult to
flourish when you're just waiting for
more bombardment cuz you know that it's
around the corner you always know when
you live in Gazza that it's only a
matter of time before the next bombs
drop you know if you're in
Gaza
that you are waiting for your
death people dream about going out in
the world and pursuing education people
dream about going out in the world and
pursuing Economic Opportunity in
Gazza your idea of opportunity is an
opportunity to see the next year that
has been the case and so when we talk
about you know this not existing in a
vacuum if people only hear about
Gazza on October 7th that is that is a
major part of the problem and that is
Again part of the problem of our
ignorance and our apathy right why is it
that the plight of the people of Gazza
is not brought
up until an attack happens on
Israel I've gotten a chance to witness a
destroyed School in
Ukraine it's something
that is really difficult to see yeah
have over 100 destroyed
mosques every University in Gaza has
been demolished we're seeing Tik Tock
videos of Israeli soldiers laughing and
singing as they press a button and we
see the demolition of every single
University in Gaza schools have been
reduced to Rubble there's a cultural
genocide as well I want you to think
about what you saw in Ukraine look
imagine coming back to school in Gaza
and some destroyed building you're
missing legs you're missing arms you
have white phosphorus Burns have you
ever seen what white phosphorus does to
a person there's a reason why it's a war
crime you have white phosphorus burns
your mom's dead your dad's dead all of
your uncles and aunts are dead all of
your siblings are dead somehow you got
pulled out of the
Rebel you know in my own family my
father's in-laws my father remarried
after my mother passed away um and
they're in
Gaza all all of them were killed in an
air strike except for an elderly Aunt
who somehow made it out of the Rebel a
day later if you're a child that's been
pulled out of the Rebel what are you
going to grow up with I mean what are
you supposed to feel what are you
supposed to
think and then you have you
know racist commentators that say they
could have turned that into a Singapore
you know the Palestinians are the
authors of their own destruction
because if they wanted to they could
have turned this into a place of
prosperity but they keep on bringing
destruction upon themselves so at the
root of this is a bigotry and again this
idea that uh Palestinians are savages
they're animals and the only way to deal
with them is to continuously mow the
lawn while simultaneously expanding the
occupation and erasing anything that was
ever called Palestine and any human
being that was ever called the
Palestinian
so those kids growing up in Gaza now to
you they have almost no choice but to
have
hatred for
Israel it's
human I mean look any
child that is under that type of
Oppression is going to hate their
oppressor I don't care who you are I
don't care what you are but here's my
problem with how that gets brought
up you're talking about the future of
the security of Israel even some people
that speak about it uh seemingly from a
place of being well-meaning that say the
only way that Israel can have its
Security is to stop killing Palestinians
and so the future of Israel depends upon
Palestinians not hating Israel so much
and so we've got to stop tormenting
these people so that they don't grow up
to want to torment us you've already
decided then whose life is worth more
than the other and so instead of talking
about the future
of Israeli Lives why don't you talk
about the present of Palestinian lives
instead of talking about whether or not
your state will be secure in the
future talk to me about why you're
killing children now 2third of the
30,000 civilians are women and children
and so uh we can't talk about what these
children are going to grow up with we
should talk about whether or not these
children are going to grow up in the
first place and that should be what
dominates our conscience right now and
what drives our policies and what drives
our emotions right now so when I had a
conversation with Elam musk he
suggested that what Israel should do is
conspicuous acts of
kindness so do as much
positive things in Gaza as possible on a
basic individual human level and at a
policy level at every level what do you
think about that I mean you don't pass
out candy in a concentration camp you
end the
occupation and so there has to be a
solution that is beyond merely acts of
kindness at the end of the day if you're
occupying a
people you have to remove that
occupation a paride is not dealt with by
acts of kindness on the part of the
occupying power apartheid is dealt with
by ending a parthe and so there has to
be a level of accountability it's not
just acts of kindness it's not just uh
treating the people with more dignity
it's giving them the ability to pursue
their own dignity there's a reason why
it's called Palestinian
self-determination the United States
likes to use it in all of its
inconsequential statements that we need
Palestinian self-determination too but
the United States also voted against 138
states in the United Nations to allow
for Palestinian
self-determination uh self-determination
means I get to pursue my own course of
worth I get to pursue my own happiness I
don't have to depend on the benevolence
of my occupier and when my occupier
feels like you know throwing me a few
more crumbs it has to end there has to
be a point now where the world says this
is not sustainable it's not just about
ending the present genocide a ceasefire
is the bare minimum I think any decent
human being would be calling for a
ceasefire right now but at some point
you cease occupation you cease apartheid
because what led to the ability
of Israel to carry out a genocide
without any
accountability was that the global Arena
has permitted it to do so largely due to
American obstruction of
justice is violence an effective
method of resistance so the framework
that I would propose is
that Dr King mentioned that peace is not
the absence
of violence it's the presence of
justice and so occupation and apartheid
are violence even in their most
benevolent
manifestations the default of occupation
is that it is unjustified the default of
apartheid is that it is unjustified and
it must be dealt with the default of
resistance to occupation and apartheid
is that it is Justified but there can be
transgressions even resisting occupation
and apartheid right and and I come to
this from an Islamic perspective my
moral framework is
Islam the prophet Muhammad peace be upon
him was outraged when he saw uh a woman
or a child that was dead from the other
side the side of his
persecutors and so yes you know we have
a saying as Muslims that they are not
our teachers our oppressors are not our
teachers but the concept of resistance
to
occupation it is morally Justified it is
justified by international law any
occupied people have the right to defend
themselves we talk about Israel's right
to defend itself Israel is the occupier
any occupied people by international law
have the right to defend
themselves uh and any occupation is
unjustified and illegal and so that's
where I start from that's the point that
I come to this with I think that the
problem is is that the Palestinians are
told find better ways to resist and then
they are
demonized when they try to find any
other way to resist you know if you go
back a few years ago you had the great
return March people in Gaza marched to
the wall in what was one of the most
inspiring protests or
demonstrations that I had ever seen
March to the wall nonviolent
protest and snipers took out their legs
AP actually
documented that Israeli snipers had knee
counts where you had an Israeli soldier
that would say I took out 45 knees they
actually had a register a scroll of KNE
counts and so you have all these kids in
Gaza walking around without legs now
because they were targeted by snipers
when they marched to the wall we're told
to find methods of nonviolent resistance
but when we boycott when we Bunch you
know boycotts around the world in
response to this transgression in
response to this ongoing oppression that
the world powers have shown either the
inability or the unwillingness to reign
in we're told that that's anti-semitic
even though it is based on the South
African method of bringing an end to the
apartheid regime there so uh don't
respond with violence don't respond
non-violently don't protest uh don't try
to use people power in the face of
global impotence at the political level
instead let's just keep talking about
the two-state solution and while talking
about the two-state solution if you were
to look at a
map under every single Israeli
regime conservative or liberal whatever
it is the settlements have expanded more
Palestinian land has disappeared more
Palestinians have been dispossessed more
Palestinians have been killed and so we
have these little pieces of land that
keep on
shrinking and Jerusalem keeps
disappearing and there's aggression
whether Palestinians are resisting or
not but then we're told why can't you
people just pursue peace why can't you
just believe in a better way all along
we're hearing Israeli ministers become
far more radical and uh open about their
intentions to wipe us off the face of
the Earth and that is actually their
policy it's not just slogans it's not
Fringe elements actual Israeli Minister
starting from the Prime Minister himself
who has executed a policy of the removal
of all Palestinian lands and Palestinian
lives and then we're told peace peace
peace peace and it is awfully ugly when
you use the language of peace to
suffocate the work of Justice you know
Dr Martin Luther King Jr one of his
early sermons was something along the
lines of when peace is obnoxious when
peace is obnoxious it was in the
1950s around the m monery uh bus boycott
and he talked about how this obsession
with the language of peace is usually
used to try to uh keep people in status
quo and make them complacent with their
miserable situation that has been the
story of the Palestinian people that
they've been told that if you do things
differently then you will find peace but
everything the Palestinians have tried
inside and outside has been met with
repression the most violent forms of it
they in Gaza and Beyond and so look I I
start from the place of wanting to see
peace I want to see a situation in which
no innocent people lose their
lives but we have to analyze the
situation with some justice with some
fairness what would any group of people
do in this situation that doesn't mean
that you hope for hell that means that
you analyze the existing circumstances
of Hell which was life in Gaza even
before October 7th that said you did
talk about wild lak duuk and
dignity and you mentioned
transgressions so there is places where
violence can go too far absolutely so
violence again the point is is that you
you ask yourself why we've been silent
about the violence all of this time and
you know what when people say well what
about this what about that my response
is this what I would love to see is
effective International bodies of
Justice being able to reign in any party
that has committed an act of aggression
or committed an act of Injustice and
hold them accountable any reasonable
human being would say yeah you know what
there should be effective International
bodies that can reign in parties that
can't be reigned in domestically that
could stop the violence that could
assign blame properly and then have
methods of accountability the problem is
is that Israel has been made Invincible
in the international Arena because of
the United States and then we wonder why
there's such a rise in global
anti-American sentiment it's not because
of American Freedom it's because America
is directly participating the United
States government is directly
participating in the worst genocide that
we have ever seen in our lives right
playing out on
screen you know on social media and we
can't do anything about it so I think
that the point is is that we need those
International bodies we need methods of
effective accountability and I would
love to see blame properly assigned and
anyone that kills any innocent human
being take into account anyone that is
guilty of a war crime Tak to account we
have to ask ourselves why is it that
Israel has violated over 63 United
Nations resolutions has expanded its
occupation has killed over 600
Palestinians before October 7th why is
it that Israel cannot be held
accountable and so when you talk about
you know words that get thrown around um
you know that that are used to justify
violence against more innocent
people you know when I'm asked about uh
terrorism is it only terrorism if it's a
non-state actor
if someone's sitting inside a room you
know of suits and can press a button and
terrorize thousands of people and murder
innocent people with no
consequences how is that not terrorism
so if terrorism is only to be assigned
to non-state actors then it's a word
without function in fact it's a word
that justifies more terror that is then
rained upon innocent populations we have
to have moral consistency children
should not be killed not non combatant
should not be targeted we can all agree
upon that why aren't there proper
investigative bodies and then proper
International bodies of accountability
then that can execute their findings in
a way that makes the world a better
place in a way that actually brings
about more peace and so you know I think
this is where we're at right now
and this is the frustration and this is
the the place that the Palestinians have
been left so to you violence becomes
terrorism when men women and children
non-combatants are killed no matter who
is doing the killing
absolutely
absolutely in
America for you
for other Palestinians other Muslims in
your community what has all of this been
like it feels like there's a uh a return
to some of the days uh after 9/11 the
dehumanization the feeling of complete
disregard for our Humanity at the level
of government at the level of
media feeling of an increase in
surveillance the feeling of an increase
in
bigotry um people are losing their
jobs uh and people are being uh
bered on campuses and grocery stores and
people are being killed
you know I went to the funeral of a
six-year-old boy who was killed directly
due to anti-palestinian
propaganda and so I think that a lot of
us are feeling a return to that but we
also uh refuse to be cornered into a
position where we are told to
perpetually condemn acts of violence and
not speak about the violence that's
committed against us here
abroad can you tell the story of this
boy why Alpha
he's a 6-year-old Palestinian American
boy who was stabbed 26 times in his home
in planfield Township Illinois it was
found to be a hate crime motivated by
islamophobia and
um the
attacker said you Muslims must
die so before W was killed W was killed
on a Saturday it was um the immediate
Saturday after October 7th I remember on
Friday uh media starts to reach out to
every Imam in the country every Muslim
leader in the country and say what are
you going to do about this Global day of
jihad what are you going to do about the
global day of jihad it's like what are
you talking about it's like well Hamas
has called for a global day of jihad so
how are you going to stop Muslims from
attacking people right so it's Friday
and I'm like well this is the first I'm
hearing from you and I I remember resp
responding to a local reporter most
people I just ignored I responded to a
local reporter I said I've got people in
my community that have already lost 10
15 relatives at that point now it's
2030 and you haven't said a word and now
you're reaching out to me about the
potential violence of Muslims in America
this is great this is just like 9911
right what are you going to do to
restrain you angry
Muslims from responding to what's
happening overseas and responding to the
call of a global day of jihad
guess what that
night this man takes out a military
knife and attacks a six-year-old boy a
six-year-old Palestinian Boy by the way
it gets worse the more details that you
know and and I recently had a chance to
go and speak to his mom uh cuz she was
in the hospital when I was there for the
funeral so I had a chance to visit her
um not too long ago and she was attacked
also she was attacked first it was
actually their landlord so Hanan the
mother um was at home with wadir
six-year-old
boy landlord comes in and with
absolutely no emotion just charges at
her starts with her she was able to
fight him off he stabbed her initially
seven or eight times with a military
grade
knife she fought him off um escaped to
call
911 and while she's calling 911 she
hears wer
W ran up to the man calling him Uncle
Joe because the land lord prior to that
had been kind to them used to give wer
toys wer had an infectious beautiful
smile every picture you see that kid
beautiful beautiful beautiful smile and
so w runs up to him says Uncle Joe he
runs up to him to give him a hug even
though he's carrying a military grade
knife with blood on it cuz wer doesn't
believe that harm can come to him from
that
man and um Hanan didn't think
that he would do anything to her kid
even in that fit of rage the last thing
that she says she heard was oh
no you know W says oh no and then he
starts to stab him 26 times says you
Muslims Must
Die uh usually in a scene like that
police are hesitant
to classify something as a hate crime it
was classified as a hate crime the very
same
day the thing is is that who's complient
in that hate crime what filled that
man's head for him to believe that he
was doing an act of Good by murdering a
six-year-old Palestinian
boy and in
reality Uncle Joe was motivated by
President Joe Biden who repeated a
debunked report that there were 40
beheaded Israeli babies and he said I
saw 40 beheaded Israeli babies the White
House walked it
back afterwards in a statement that no
one reads because it was factually false
but Uncle Joe heard
it and had been binge
watching media about these violent
Palestinians and suddenly the propaganda
overcame his own humanity and what he
knew of that family and he went in and
ruined their lives and you know now you
know just like any any
mom you know she hasn't moved the thing
his bike is still in the same place it
was his toys are still in the same place
she's left with this great void this
great emptiness if that was the only
crime it would be
enough to wake this country up and say
oh no this is not where we need to go oh
no right the last thing she heard him
say was oh no if that was it and I got
the news by the way when I was
ironically at a protest we were
protesting on Saturday Downtown Dallas
and I started getting all these texts
about what happened in Chicago oh no
right
like no Muslims attacked anyone the
media was in a frenzy over the global
day of jihad I got called by national
news outlets and local news outlets what
are you going to do about Muslims that
are going to turn into monsters and
start killing people in the streets
next thing we know we have a dead
six-year-old Palestinian boy went to his
funeral um and that's kind of speaks to
the proximity part of
things yeah it felt like stepping into
Gaza right for a moment it didn't feel
like America didn't feel like America
felt like stepping into Gaza his casket
was wrapped in a Palestinian
flag um there was not just sadness at
his funeral but a deep sense of anger at
the funeral some of his family members
shouted out Joe Biden you did this Joe
Biden you did
this
um and and you know I
remember the next day it was right after
the
funeral looking at the front page of
CNN and the story of wer was
buried in the last in the last
section and it it was right over all
these meaningless ads and I thought to
myself that's it like if this was if
this was an Arab man let's be real let's
be honest here if this was a Palestinian
landlord that stabbed a six-year-old
Jewish boy to
death this would have gotten more
attention it would have been the front
page of the news and rightfully so
people would have
grieved over the insanity of stabbing a
six-year-old boy 20 six times became an
afterthought the very next
day and so it's an extension of the
bigotry an extension of the racism and
there's so much that happens after that
there's the terrible uh stabbing of uh
Detroit synagogue president Samantha
wall and it's horrible she was stabbed
in her driveway immediately front page
of all the news outlets immediately it's
the main news story and immediately the
implications are there go the Muslims
the Palestinians have lost their minds
the Muslims have they are who we thought
they were right that's what it is they
are who we thought they were they went
and they stabbed a synagogue president
it turned out it wasn't a hate crime
although it's an awful crime it turned
out it wasn't a hate crime what de's an
afterthought had people reach out to me
afterwards expressing
condolences and I responded to them
those who have Justified the genocide in
Gaza
but that we're somehow offering
condolences uh for w privately of course
you know by the way if a Muslim would
have committed that crime every single
Muslim leader would have had press in
front of their door to condemn that
crime we would have all been made
complicit had people reach out to me say
I'm sorry about what happened with with
wer it's terrible you know I saw you at
the funeral praying for you my response
was what's the difference between wadir
and a boy in Gaza what's the difference
between me and wad here I'm a
Palestinian child my parents made it out
of Palestine I was born in this country
if I didn't have the opportunity to grow
up here and to become the person that I
became you would have been justifying my
murder right now you would have been
okay with my genocide you would have
been giving the talking points to the
press to erase me but you feel sorry
because wadir was killed and I think
this is when we say that anti-
Palestinian bigotry is an extension of
islamophobia if a mosque gets targeted
here people rightfully rush to protect
that mosque and say this is horrible and
it shouldn't happen but when you have an
Israeli soldier bombing a mosque and
laughing like a maniac on video and it's
going viral on Tik Tok and there's no
way to reain that in and you don't have
a word of condemnation about it in fact
you are standing in the way of a
ceasefire then you're a hypocrite
there's no way around it you are a
hypocrite what's the difference between
a mosque here and a mosque there what's
the difference between a Palestinian
life here and and a Palestinian life
there if you're okay with me being
murdered there don't say that you care
about my life here and so that hypocrisy
has been laid bare we have said multiple
times masks are falling masks are
falling people that we thought were
decent people somehow have found it in
themselves to justify a
genocide there is no shortage at this
point of videos and again when you you
know I could have made the excuse for
you maybe in the first few
weeks you know that you hadn't seen
enough but with all social media
suppression across all platforms there
isn't a single platform that hasn't
suppressed Palestinian voices with all
that
suppression there are enough videos at
this point of children whose heads have
been blown off of children walking
around without limbs of parents carrying
their their kids in bags not body bags I
mean grocery bags cuz they don't even
have body bags and screaming out and
saying why are you doing this this to me
make it stop and you come back and you
tell that person it's hamas's
fault where is your Humanity where is
your sense of decency isn't that the
logic of the so-called terrorism that
you condemn yeah you can wipe out entire
populations you should have talked to
Hamas it's hamas's fault all the kids in
the West Bank all
like where does this end so what's your
what what are your moral boundaries here
right so if if that's the logic that
you're okay with then in that case when
there's a mass shooter in a school in
the United States just bomb the whole
school in fact bomb the whole town if
you can't find the mass shooter you know
where does this end for you right and so
when I say people have lost their
Humanity they're killing us overseas but
their hearts are dying people have lost
their Humanity they've lost any sense of
morality and their moral boundaries and
being there and and and I mean
participating in his funeral it was it
was anger I'm not used to that I'm not
used to that you know I'm an Imam I
Pastor to people I went to Christ Church
and that was the worst i' ever seen
before where 50 Muslims were killed by a
white
supremacist and he murdered them with
such callousness and I remember being at
those funerals and yeah I mean there was
anger but it was just profound sadness
because at least the rest of the world
could all come out in one voice and say
that's
wrong now most of the world sees what's
happening in Gaza and says this is
disgusting most of the world sees this
and says this is a
genocide but we happen to live in this
bubble here where we're constantly being
told we did this to
ourselves and that's the same logic that
led to our initial expulsion
1948 what was the crime of those 700
100,000 Palestinians that were driven
out of their home in 1948 what did they
do they didn't do they did not commit
the Holocaust they didn't have a mass
murder of Jews at their hands what did
they do what crime were they paying
for and so it's been the consistent
theme this is the story of our people
not since October 7th this is the story
of our people for the last 75
years there is a deep geopolitical
connection between the United States and
that part of the world what is the role
of us politicians in all of
this you know James
Baldwin uh wrote about how Israel was
created as an extension of United States
policy to be a colonial entity at the
gates of the Middle East and to function
essentially as a military base out there
and as a means of of extending its
policy um you know throughout the Middle
East and it has functioned as such the
United States stes is not an honest
peace broker it never has been an honest
peace broker the United States uh has
never shown any uh meaningful
inclination towards peace has guarded
and protected Israel from International
accountability has made Israel
Invincible the United States is not just
responsible at the governmental level
for the genocide it's responsible for
letting it get to this point in the
first place we have
funded that Arsenal we've given them the
most sophisticated weapons in the world
to test
on the most desperate population in the
world we've given them the
weapons it's been
bipartisan we have issued at most
inconsequential statements of
condemnation but at the same time
stopped any International body of law
from actually holding it accountable so
the United States at this point um
unfortunately has rightfully lost all
credibility it should remove
itself uh from this because it is not an
honest peace broker I think Americans
are probably sick of us paying for Wars
in general I think Americans are
probably sick of our tax dollars going
to funding a genocide while we have a
rise of homelessness and um income erity
here in the United States I think that
Americans probably don't like that we're
making
ourselves uh so deeply unpopular in the
world because of Israel's actions so in
the immediate moment make this stop the
United States could have had a ceasefire
a long time ago the United States could
have ended this genocide right
away the reason why this is
continuing is because of US foreign
policy and in the process of Joe Biden
talking about managing this crisis and
talking about making things better there
have only been more bills that have come
out of Congress in fact he's bypassed
Congress to fund the Arsenal to keep
replenishing the Arsenal stop paying for
weapons stop paying for someone else's
war crimes stop protecting another
country as it commits these war crimes
and if you can't be an honest peace
broker get out of the process so there's
money that you just mentioned and bills
and then there's rhetoric which you also
criticized that he spoke about the
beheaded
babies and things of that nature so
where has uh Joe Biden fallen short now
we need another podcast that's going to
take a few hours to talk about where Joe
Biden has failed um for one the first
time he seemed to find the word
Palestinian in his vocabulary was when
he accused the Palestinians of lying
about the death toll uh in Gaza
and then that turned out to also be
false in fact the numbers that were
coming out of the Gaza Health Ministry
according to multiple International
bodies have been Under reporting
Palestinian casualty counts Israeli
intelligence has said that the civilian
count or the death toll is actually
higher than what's been coming out of
the Gaza Health Ministry so he's failed
on that front he has failed to speak to
Palestinian Humanity he has spoken with
deep passion and concern as as Anthony
blinkin about you know the devastation
in Israel and the way that people are
feeling in Israel and has shown nothing
of that sort towards Palestinians we
don't want the rhetoric we really don't
want the rhetoric uh you know when
people say call for a ceasefire the
United States has had an opportunity and
has an opportunity to to really walk
back and reflect on its entire policy
towards Israel Palestine this is a
moment of reflection this is a moment of
restoration if you want it to be right
and to think about what we've enabled in
the first place he's shown absolutely no
real
empathy
um
and I think that he is under great
delusion and thinking that um the Muslim
Community
or people of conscience are going to
forgive this are going to forget this
come November you can't tell us that
well at least I don't have the Trum
Muslim ban while also carrying out a
genocide primarily against Muslims and
think that the Muslims are still going
to vote for you and so we will May him
hear us at the polls and any
politician uh for Congress or otherwise
that has not called for a ceasefire that
has been a part of this
dehumanization we will make sure that we
cease support for them in any way as a
community it's only right so Biden has
lost or is losing the hearts and the
support of the
Muslim Palestinian people and the uh
Muslim people in America I don't know if
you ever had the hearts of the Muslim
Community be honest with you I mean I
personally was never a Joe Biden fan I
think a lot of people felt the same you
know this country unfortunately leads to
the uh the way that our political system
is built is that you're always voting
for the lesser of the two evils that's
always the way that is it's analyzing
which evil is lesser right and when
people say if you vote for Donald Trump
and I'm not planning to vote for Donald
Trump either but if you don't vote for
Joe Biden right if you don't vote for Jo
Joe Biden right then you are destroying
democracy I'm like a democracy that's
given us a choice between Donald Trump
and Joe Biden is already a failed
democracy and so he he never had the
hearts and minds of the Muslim Community
uh people always saw past his rhetoric
he always has had a terrible disposition
towards Palestine he's always had a
terrible disposition towards the Muslim
World um you know his his segregationist
past comes out sometimes when he starts
talking about the Muslim world and and
you can hear the racism in his voice and
you can hear the way that he talks about
uh Palestinian life um in such devalued
fashion so he lost us uh a long time ago
but he's definitely not getting us back
after this in any way and I can't speak
for all Muslims but
I think that come
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