Maryam Amir – Muslim women influencers and apology or clarification videos

Seen a number of Muslim women influencers make apology or

clarification videos recently. And while this video is not addressed

to any particular person, I'd like to share some insight from an

Islamic perspective. Share this with deep love whom I've noticed

in every video is when the focus on internal worship, private

worship. My intentions are sincere. I'm giving charity

privately. I can do and share with you a story of an influencer,

quote, unquote, from when the Crusaders entered aksah. The

Crusaders entered Jerusalem, and they slaughtered everyone. A small

group of refugees were able to escape, and they made it to Syria.

Al harawi, who was a scholar, was teaching, and he saw them come

into the masjid, tattered, bloodied, and asked what happened

when he learned that the Crusaders had murdered Christians, Muslims,

Jews, went to a local Muslim leadership, and they did nothing.

And so he actually went to beldad. Made excuses not to see him. And

so he thought, strategy, how is he going to help his words go viral?

Went into the masjid that he knew that the ruler was going to be

listening to Jumaa. It was at Ramadan. He went to the front of

the masjid where the khalib was speaking, and in front of

everyone, he started to eat, and you can imagine the uproar. People

jumping up, shouting, it's Ramadan. What are you doing?

Fasting is a private Act, which he didn't actually need to do at all

because he was traveling, but he took that private action and he

used it to mobilize people. And his response was, this is your

outrage to me eating the middle of the day of Ramadan, where is your

outrage for the blood of your brothers and sisters as you're

being slaughtered? That was the first cultural shift for the

ummah. When it came to looking at Palestine, it took 88 years for

Salah Haddin to enter and be able to liberate he was one of many

influencers of his time focused on cultural change for Philistine so

Ibn asakir, a scholar, he wrote about foil Aqsa, teaching people

about why aksha is important. Nila mukh created schools where the

curricula focused on why Aksa is important. So lahadin graduated

from those schools the people before sola, Haden, nurdina, Imad,

DEEN Esme, DEEN mufti, a Fatima, Samar, Pandya, her husband, all of

them, worked to create a culture of bringing back Aksa. You know

that influencers right now helped completely shift public

conversation on Palestine Muslim influencers. You're the first of

your kind. You're trying to navigate what it means to be an

influencer, what it means to be a Muslim influencer. And I invite

you to consider yourself as a cultural shifter. And number one,

the way that you navigate brand deals. If you have spoken about

working with brands that were on the BDS list and not knowing but

let's look at before 2020 Starbucks had a number of national

cases where they were racist towards black employees and black

clients. They still have lawsuits against them for this genocide. I

have seen so many Muslim influencers just like I'm going to

go to Starbucks right now. Prior to the genocide, Starbucks was an

upholder of systemic racism, whether or not you were being paid

by Starbucks. Your assumption of Starbucks, you are a tool for a

brand to make billions more. The Liberation of Palestine is not

just about Palestine. It's a liberation from systems of

oppression. It's a liberation for the people of Congo and Sudan and

from systems of oppression. And reaches out to you and they want

to work with you. If all influencers signed a code of

conduct, a contract that they were not going to work with brands that

were not established in ethical work, those brands would lose you,

and you are their access to us. You hold the power for them to

have to change their policies internally. Can aspect is

dystopia. Many of us have said it feels so dystopian because we're

going about our days and then on our phones, all we see are

literally the brains of children splattered we are either creators

of dystopia or consumers of dystopia, or we are breaking a

dystopia when you regularly create content and there's no mention of

genocide actively, what you're doing is creating a culture of

dystopia, because remember, there's no blueprint for what

you're doing right now. So you are the blueprint for other people,

whether or not it is intentional, you are creating a culture of

permission for other people to look towards you as a blueprint,

see that you are successful, and then choose to continue not to be

actively vocal on their own platforms, because they're looking

at the blueprint that gives them permission not to do so.

Disrupting dystopia looks like continuing your niche, whatever

your niche is, but ensure engage with us. Engage with us. Because

why are you separating your fashion and travel and beauty,

content and ads from our advocacy? You are creating a blueprint for

people now and the next generation to know how to use this tool. I

think a question we should with is, Why did Allah bless me with

being in this moment of time? How can I use it to be a tool of

liberation, for Philistine, for Sudan, for Congo, for the Uyghurs,

for people everywhere, but also for our own selves?