Sami Hamdi – Becoming A Community of Impact and Change P2
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Well, we're so we're so happy to have you again. The first time.
MashAllah is such an amazing event, such a beautiful event. We
just had to bring you back. So without further ado, Inshallah,
just, I just want to dive right in, right set the stage for us.
Israel right now is trying to destroy all the infrastructure in
Rafa
According to reports, once they do that, they will pull out and claim
victory. So I would like to hear your perspective. Sami Hamdi, as a
political analyst, right as someone who understands this on a
much deeper level than we do, paint a picture for what's going
on currently in this situation, and what we can expect from what's
going on and what's the following. Inshallah, first of all, thank you
very much for having me. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be
back in Jersey. And you know, I know noone calls it here, but I
don't want you guys to pop the bubble of the movies that watch
when I was younger growing up, so it is joy until otherwise to
further notice. In any case, just for having me, I think that in
terms of the way the stage is set, I think that everybody expects an
offensive to take place or a massacre to take place in a Rafa
I think for a number of reasons. The first is that the US
administration believes that this is a golden opportunity to expand
Israel's borders, that there was an expectation that there would be
a backlash, at least from Muslim leaders or from Muslim countries,
that backlash hasn't been forthcoming, in fact, from some of
the most important Muslim leaders there's been tested support for
the genocide that's taking place in Gaza. I think the US
administration expected, perhaps, that there would be a great
backlash from Europe. Instead, while Europe is increasingly
calling for a ceasefire, Europe is not necessarily willing to commit
any resources to push back on the Israelis, I think that the US
administration expected that perhaps Egypt would have red lines
that perhaps Sisi would send in tanks in order to deliver aid
instead, it seems the Egyptian army, instead of forcing aid to go
into Raza, it appears to be, according to satellite images, at
least, to be constructing something on the border with Rafa.
The suggestion is perhaps that they're building a camp through
which to receive the Palestinians who will flee Gaza following the
Rafa offensive. I think that for Netanyahu, I think the US
entertained the prospect that maybe they could force elections
to remove Netanyahu. There is an understanding in the White House,
and indeed amongst us allies, that Netanyahu appears to be the
obstacle towards a potential ceasefire. Blinken went to Qatar.
He went to the other states to try to negotiate some sort of truce.
He tried to meet with the IDF commander. Netanyahu refused to
let him meet with the IDF commander.
Blinken met with Benny gantse And yay Lapid. The suggestion was he
was trying to get them to force an election to get rid of Netanyahu.
Netanyahu responded and said very interesting, that he rejects a two
state solution, and he rejects elections as well. So there is
this sort of sense that given we are where we are, given that the
Israelis have reached Rafa, given it's the last stronghold, given
that they've gone into northern given that they've gone into, oh
wow,
given that they've gone into habibi. Don't worry, given that
they've gone into northern Gaza. They went into Han Eunice. They
went into Gaza City. And our Rafa is the last opportunity. I think
that a lot of the ideologues in the White House, whether it's John
Kirby, whether it's Jake Sullivan, whether it's blinking, whether
it's Biden himself, they believe we're here now there's a chance
for Israel now to annex Gaza. There's a chance for Israel to
annex Gaza and have Saudi normalized ties afterwards.
There's a chance to annex Gaza and have CC taken those Palestinians,
given that now there is this perfect storm that's emerged. Why
shouldn't Netanyahu be allowed to enter and to go in and to drive
those Palestinians out and potentially annex Gaza itself. So
it seems to be that we're facing, we're looking down at a
catastrophe that's taking place. I think the other dynamic as well,
and I think this is probably the final dynamic worth mentioning,
and we might go into more detail later, is that Biden was concerned
that the Muslims might punish him in the elections, Biden was
concerned that there was this movement growing where Muslims
will punish Biden in November. Although from my travels in
America, it seems that overwhelmingly, the Muslims are
inclined to punish Biden. The views Express other speakers on
they're not yours or anybody else's here, just and all the
organization that invited me, nor for mass, nor for any of those.
Okay, sammy's own opinion, basically, to put it in the legal
thing, the
the point I'm saying is that Biden felt that the Muslim community
were isolating him, but he found Muslim leaders to meet the
Democrats. They found a masjid to receive them. They found Muslim
community leaders to sit down with who reassured him that.
That all is not lost, that although you committed a genocide,
you have time until November to win back some of the Muslim vote.
And there was one of them who put out a tweet to that effect as
well, if they show empathy, we saw a prominent media Muslim
personality come out and say that I rip my hair out when Muslims are
telling me that Trump is going to be worse, suggesting that he's
inclined for the Muslims. Keep a calm head, even though Biden
committed a genocide, let's not rush. Let's still reward genocide
by allowing Biden, because the other guy might be worse for us
here in America, I say us. When did I say us? When did I become
American? God save the king. I'm sorry. God save the king. I need
to go back to London soon. Yeah. Latif. Oh. Oh. What? I can't
believe I said us. But in any case, I do speak a bit of
American. You know, it's not like any case. The point that I'm
saying is that, going back to the point, I think Biden has assessed
that some Muslims are still willing to vote for Biden despite
a genocide.
Egypt, instead of sending in tanks to send in aid, it's building a
camp to receive Palestinians. The Saudis have insisted that no
matter what happens in ghaza, normalization is still on the
table. The UAE has asserted that there is no going back on the
Abraham Accords, no matter what genocide is taking place. King
Abdullah of Jordan went to the US, but the Israeli media is reporting
that Jordan is also part of the land bridge to bypass the blockade
imposed by the Houthis. So if you're Netanyahu sitting in Tel
Aviv, or if you're Biden, why not give it a shot? Why not give the
Israelis a chance to go into a and seize this unprecedented
opportunity, to take more, to annex Gaza, to expand the borders
of Israel? Because this opportunity might not come again.
My next question, more so pertains to us.
What do you think people in the West, more specifically us in New
Jersey? What can we do with what's going on right now? What can we do
to gain power right and to turn the tide, to make it towards
supporting the people of fullsteen to show the people and to show all
these political leaders that we don't stand for this right, and
that our voice actually matters. What can we do to gain power? I
think
that when you look at the picture in America as it stands today, I
think the reality is that the elections in November are going to
be very tight between Biden and Trump if they're both on the
ballot by November. Anyway, because the Atlantic published an
article yesterday that Biden should be removed as a Democrat
candidate, and Trump is going to face this lawsuit in New York
today. I think the judge ruled he has to pay $340 million in order
to is that okay? Yeah, give that to me. The judges ruled that he
has to pay 346
million in can everybody?
Can everybody hear me?
Can everybody hear me now? Allah, He Barak,
I think that the picture in America is one in which the data
suggested to be a tight election come November between Biden and
Trump, if Biden and Trump are even on the ballot by November, Trump
today, a court ruled he has to pay $345 million for inflating his
finances to secure loans. It's the first of a series of trials. He
may even end up being disqualified before September comes, before
November comes. And there was an article yesterday in the Atlantic
which suggested that Biden is not the right nomination for the
Democrats. They need to change Biden quickly if they want to win
in November. But in the case that it is Trump or Biden, I think the
picture does demonstrate that Muslim votes will matter in the
November elections, and that if Biden loses the Muslim vote, he
stands the potential of losing the entire election. So I think that
that's the first part in that Muslims do have the ability to
punish genocide Joe. The second dynamic is that, according to some
reports coming out of Europe, the suggestion is that Biden is more
concerned that the Muslims can convince the African Americans to
also punish Biden. There was a letter by 13 pastors from the
African churches, African American churches that came out two days
ago that said we can't convince our congregation to vote for
Biden. We can't convince them to reward genocide. And I think what
Biden is concerned more than anything else is that although the
Muslims will abandon him, the Muslims will also keep being loud
and talking about Palestinian and they will keep raising the
awareness, and they will keep forcing it to be a headline topic
until November, in a way that will continue to shift public opinion
away from Biden. I think that Biden, when he sees the shift in
public opinion that Muslims have already brought about, you see the
polls, he's falling in his support and the like. I think Biden
believes that he will be able to recover before November, because
Muslims will move on to other issues, and they will no longer
talk about ghazalam Philistine. They'll start to think with a cool
head between quotation marks. They'll start to think carefully.
They'll start to think about, you know, the nice three bedroom
places that they live in. They'll start to think about, you know,
the nice cars that they live in, you know, is it worth having to
share being in discomfort in these particular areas? And then he
believes that those poles will.
Eventually change. Come September, what he's lost he will regain. And
that's why I think that for Muslims themselves, I think that
they have the power to make change. They've clearly shifted
public opinion. Under 30 fives are now increasingly pro Palestinian.
Kamala Harris, a Zionist her daughter's raising money for
Palestine. We've seen those in California, those of the left
wing. There was an article in Politico which suggested that the
left wing of the Democrat party may not even vote Biden, even if
it brings Trump in power, because they are concerned about
supporting genocide and being seen to reward genocide. The point that
I'm saying is that the Muslim power is not just only in the
vote. It's also in their voice that is shifting American public
opinion in a way that is unprecedented, and that's why one
of the reasons that Biden is willing to support the attack on
Rafah by the Israelis
is because he believes that the Muslims are not an organized
block, and that the Muslims are also flaky, that the Muslims are
angry today, but they will support Biden tomorrow, that the Muslims
are upset today, but they will forget tomorrow, that the Muslims
are not Zionists who are committed to a cause, that the Muslims are
not African Americans who are committed to a block, that the
Muslims are divided. Because when he looks at some of his Muslim
allies as well, he will see, for example, that a Muslim country
gave him a fatwa in support of the genocide in Which Imam as were
coming out and saying that, make dua for hazard, but don't talk
about it. Make dua for hazard, but don't mobilize on it. Make dua for
Gaza, but don't boycott. Make dua for Gaza, but don't engage in
initiatives that will cause disruption because they want to
normalize ties later with the Israelis. So we've seen for Biden
says, If I can get a fatwa in this regard, then I don't need to worry
too much about the Muslims. The reason why I emphasize this point
is to highlight this when I say that Biden believes Muslims will
forget. It doesn't mean Muslims will forget. What I'm saying is
Biden is underestimating the Muslim vote. What I'm saying is
Biden is underestimating the Muslim organization and
underestimating what Muslims might be able to achieve. So when you
ask me, What power do Muslims have, Muslims have two powers that
will completely shake and change the American political system
forever. The first power is the vote. In that Muslims are
concentrated in the six swing states, whether it's Georgia,
Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, and I can't remember the other
two. I think Florida is one of them, and I can't remember the
other one. In any case, not only that, also in the local elections,
what we're seeing is there are Muslims who are beginning to
mobilize, at least. What I've seen across my travels in America, I
think I'm more American than most people here now, even based on the
travels, you know, yeah. But the point I'm saying is that there are
some states where they've been able to identify areas in the
local elections where they're able to flip the vote. So they see two
candidates, one who supported genocide, one who didn't, and they
rally behind the one who didn't support the genocide in order to
punish the one who committed the genocide. Muslims have this power
to be able to flip votes. There are actually certain areas in the
local elections where you'll find that the last candidate won by a
majority of 4000 in an area with 20,000 Muslims, of which only 3000
Muslims went to vote. So the Muslims have that ability to vote
and use their voting power. But the second, and perhaps in my
opinion, more powerful power that the Muslims can deploy is the
power of using their voice to convince Americans to abandon
Biden. By that, what I mean is there was an interesting billboard
in Chicago which said, you know, I can't we're sending $3.8 billion
to Israel, but I can't afford health care. We're sending $3.8
billion to Israel, but I can't afford to pay my rent. The point
is, there is this communication strategy that is taking place to
convince the Americans that they also need to punish genocide. And
there was an interesting video by that guy from Young Turks, Cenk,
Jenk, I can't remember his name,
yeah. So he did interesting video where they've done a sketch where
somebody's buying in the supermarket and they say, No, you
need to put those eggs back. Why? Because we need to give that money
to Israel to commit genocide. We need to give money to Israel to
oh, we can't afford bananas then, because, you know, we need to
send, spend $80 a month sending to Israel so they can kill
Palestinians. There's a lot of this rhetoric that is taking
place, this voice that is shifting public opinion. So I think that
although the Muslim nations are doing nothing, and Biden seems to
be amenable to an attack on Arafat, that doesn't mean all hope
is lost, there's still the ability to punish those who support the
genocide. That was beautiful answer by the Sami. So now I want
to shift into the next segment, which was the questions from the
audience. So last time, we had a lot of questions and we took a
took a while to answer a lot of them. So now, Inshallah, we're
going to, we're going to, we're going to be a little tighter on it
with five minute response from each so if you turn your attention
to the TV screens, once again, there's a QR code available for
you, alright? So if you'd like to ask a question anonymously, please
scan the QR code, um. But in the meantime, what is there anybody
who'd like to ask to get the starting question? I think we
have a hand
in a crowd over there. I behaved today. I tried to keep the
answer short.
Good.
Australia.
I asked him the question like you know, didn't we
punish been penalized
genocide Joe for the in the elections because of what he's
done, and the community has to go more Republicans. And he told me
that, like, the answer is, like two folds, we cannot afford to let
Trump win because of two reasons. Number one is,
if Trump comes in as he's saying that he's gonna stop ban all
Muslim organizations like the mass that they talk about, MSAs, all
the MSAs, he's gonna close out downs, so many things that's gonna
bring in the community years back, and if Trump was here, it would be
in a lot worse. And the second thing he said that
this is going to divide the community, because our African
American brothers and sisters, they're always like, you know,
have a lot of history with Republicans, so to go Republicans,
we're going to lose the support of our brothers. So what is your
recommendations? Because really, until now, I'm lost. But how
should we do with the community? By the way, that's my dad,
same passion, Allah Ark. I know where he got it from.
I think that when it comes to the idea of Republicans or Democrat, I
think Muslims are neither Republicans or Democrats. And I
actually think that if Muslims had mobilized sooner, we could have
actually come up with a strategy whereby you can punish Biden in
the presidential and deny trump the house. And it's still
possible. I actually think that the data suggests that if you look
at the local areas where you can flip the votes, you can actually
make it so that Biden loses the presidency and Trump subsequently
comes in. I'm not saying go and vote Trump. Where a bill? I
listen. I read some people, they say Sam is telling people to go
vote Trump. Wallahi, I dare you to bring any evidence that says just
that. And Yom Kiyama, Alaska, Allah, for you to produce it,
because I ain't forgiven you in this dunya for that to say that I
supported someone like Trump, I'm joking. I forgive them, but in any
I forgive them on the basis, may Allah forgive me for something so
horrific, I think that there is actually the data does suggest
that you can punish Biden in the presidential and deny trump the
house for that. It requires organization at the local level,
an organization which I think, to date, the Muslim community, has
yet to display an ability to be able to do so primarily. And I'll
give you an example. There is an area where there are two
candidates. One supported genocide. One was ceasefire from
day one,
when the Muslims were debating, should we support the one who
didn't vote genocide, somebody stood up and said, they support
LGBT. I'm not voting for them. So the other one said, Yeah, but the
other one supported genocide. Said, No, the other one supported
LGBT. So what should we do? We should just do nothing. So what
Biden comes to power or Trump comes to power? We're both
screwed. I vote in somebody who supported LGBT.
I thought about this for a while, and I'd like to tell you a story,
and I'm not justifying it, only giving a fatwa or saying anything.
I'm just giving you a story for you to consider.
In the last UK elections in the motherland, they send their
Salaam.
For those who know the UK, you'll know that when you look at the
political map, there's an area in the north from coast to coast.
It's called the red wall. The reason it's called the red wall is
because labor, they dominate those areas. Conservatives never win in
those areas. Labor, for the last 100 years, have won in those
areas. We're talking from Liverpool across all the way
through Manchester, towards Leeds and then hull.
They're not nice cities to visit Liverpool, okay, maybe a little
bit Manchester, if you go to hull, I don't know, right? In any case,
no disrespect to hull shout out.
In the last election as a result of Brexit, the Conservatives
finally managed to win seats in the red wall, unprecedented for
the last 100 years.
The reason they won those votes was not because people voted
conservative because they liked the conservative. They voted
conservative in protest that labor which was against Brexit, they
said, because labor is against Brexit, this is something that so
offends my sensibilities, I'm going to go and vote for the
opponents to make sure labor can't win, so that they can't keep us
with Europe.
When the Conservatives won in the red wall, the Conservatives went
and asked the local population, why did you vote for us in the red
wall? And not a single person said, because I like you. They all
said, Listen, I didn't vote for you. I voted against the other
guys. And when the next election comes, I'm going back to vote for
my the party that I like, the conservatives, were so eager that
they won those votes in the red wall. They won.
To keep them What do you think they did? They started adjusting
their policies. One by one. They started saying, what is it that
you want that will let us keep your vote? What is it that we can
do to make sure that we can transform this protest vote into
something that means that you vote for me in the next election and
you don't go back to the Labor Party? What is it that you want?
You want more social housing, which we resent, will give you
more social housing. You want more. This will give you you want
more. This all why? Because they realize that those votes that they
got that deliver them to victory. They know they're losing those
votes back in the next election, so they are now mobilizing to make
concessions in order to keep those votes so that guy who you're
voting for, who might be pro LGBT, may not actually ram it down your
throats because he's so excited at having won when he shouldn't have
won because of the protest vote. He might actually say that to keep
the Muslim vote, I need to tone down on my LGBT stuff just to make
sure I can keep these votes for the next elections. I think that
sometimes Muslim communities perhaps don't appreciate the idea
of leverage and how to use that leverage in order to extract
concessions for the Muslim community. And they see it as
something horrific, because they see it as something of a
compromise. But in this scenario, let's suppose the LGBT candidate
turns around and says, I'll turn it down if it means that you
support me in the next election. Did you compromise in anything at
all? In this regard, he's not ramming it down your throats. He's
not forcing it on you, he's not pushing it towards you, and you
support a genocide. Is this acceptable to the community? I
don't know. That's for you to decide, but the reason why I'm
saying it is that while Muslims don't have the ability to deliver
candidates, they do have the ability to decide the vote
regarding two candidates. While they don't have the ability to put
someone forward, they do have the ability to decide who wins between
the two, and I think that it would be very interesting to see if
Muslims can mobilize in that regard, because you mentioned
Trump, but imagine Trump's wins the presidency, but there's a
house that that rejects everything that he tries to do. Suddenly you
have a check on Donald Trump with regards to the Congress itself. I
think that much is possible. But I think the other argument, which,
in my opinion, is one that convinces me even more is
I do not understand how
a genocide can be live streamed.
Ethnic cleansing can be live streamed.
How you can watch a video of a man with a garbage bag, shouting on
the streets, crying and saying, Yeah, ibad. Allah, has anybody
seen his hand? I gathered his legs, I found his torso, I found
his arms, and I found his head. I'm missing the hand. Don't let me
bury my son without his hand. I don't understand how someone can
watch a video of a child as young as three years old with three of
their limbs amputated, and they were amputated without anesthesia.
I don't understand how someone can watch a child, and for those of
you who don't have kids, maybe don't appreciate it as much when
you have kids, the video hits 100 times harder. I'll be honest with
you, you don't know what it feels like until you have children, when
you see a child as young as my Sulayman, who's four years old,
wandering through the streets crying out, where's mama? Where's
Baba, and the mama and Baba are dead, but the Palestinians don't
want to tell the child, so they lied to the child and say, your
parents are alive. But that child is clever, like my Suleiman. He's
seen the corpses of his parents when they're going by, and he
says, I know you're lying to me. I know my parents are dead. I don't
understand how Muslim community can watch Biden cut funding to
Unruh the day after the ICJ rules, Israel must stand trial for
genocide because he wants to remove the backbone that allows
Palestinians to survive, to force the Palestinians to leave Gaza,
he's removed the funding because UNRWA is the only way that
Palestinians can get the sustenance that they need In order
to stay in those areas. I don't understand how Muslims can watch
John Kirby come out, and when they ask him about the genocide, he
says, bluntly, we will continue to give everything Israel needs in
order to continue what it's doing in Gaza. I do not understand how a
Muslim can see all of that. How a Muslim can see that 30,000
Palestinians, 12,500
children slaughtered, massacred by the Israelis for no other reason
than they want to annex Gaza and take it and make it part of this
somehow fake country that they've created. I don't understand how
Muslim sees all of that and then turns around and looks at me and
says, But Sami, what about Trump?
I don't understand how a Muslim can see somebody who committed
genocide good them in front of the whole world, and how they managed
to bend the international order in all sorts of deformed ways, like
it's some origami, as opposed to a system of law.
And the Muslim turns around to me and says to me, Sami, I know
30,000 Palestinians were killed. I know that their limbs were blown
off. I know I saw the mother weeping over her son, and she was
saying, Why does his body have to be like this? Why did they blow
his head off? If only he died in a way where his head was kept there.
I don't understand how you can watch him.
Recording their own genocide and ethnic cleansing life. I don't
understand how an ummah can look at this and consider a possibility
where the people who perpetrated it can get away with it. And
that's why I think that Biden, in many ways, is it perhaps, that he
understands what the Muslim ummah is like, that it has no dignity,
that it has no karama, that they are humiliated for a reason,
because you can kill 30,000
but the hypothetical scares them more than the reality. The
hypothetical of what Trump might do even though they survived four
years of Trump, the hypothetical of what Trump might do, even
though they already lived through four years of Trump and Masha
Allah, you look like you came out okay, even though they survived
the four years of Trump, the hypothetical of what Trump might
do is more frightening than the reality of what Biden did. They
tell me that Trump will result in an increase of Islamophobia, and
that will put pressure on us. Islamophobia has increased 300%
under Joe Biden. You're feeling it on the streets Wadi, I was six
years old and he was killed. Under whose administration was he
killed? You know the tragic story about Wadia, what it is when the
landlord came in after being radicalized by the media and Joe
Biden's administration that kept insisting that what Israel was
doing to the Palestinians was correct when the landlord went in
and stabbed his mother. You know, the child was so used to the
landlord, he called him Uncle Joe, and went, Hello, Uncle Joe. Hello,
Uncle Joe. And you know, what is what his mother said. The last
thing she heard him say was, the boy goes, hugs Uncle Joe, and
Uncle Joe takes the knife, stabs him 26 times, the six year old,
and with the his last words are, oh no.
Wadia is killed, not under Trump. He's under under Biden. And it
takes Biden five days to give condolences for it.
And the Ummah wants to tell me that it's going to be worse under
Donald Trump. They tell me Biden is going to sense that Trump is
going to censor the campuses. He's going to close down the MSAs and
censor the campuses. Are the campuses not being censored? You
guys are in university, you guys or college, as you call it, you
guys are in college now. Are your campuses not being censored
already under Biden,
and if Biden is allowed to win a second term after committing
genocide, what do you think will be the status of Muslims in
America after that, for the foreseeable future, it will be
that you can trample on this community, because they will never
stand up for principle. They will only stand up for comfort because
Biden will say, you know, they have a hadith.
They got a hadith, and they say their Prophet told them that one
day they'll be like the form of the sea, because they'll be
afflicted with wahan in their hearts, love of comfort, and they
won't be a people who like to struggle. I'm not denouncing the
question I get, Trump is frightening. I know the four years
are going to be difficult, but yeah, ibad Allah, surely some
dignity and some karama here, if Biden is already going to be worse
and Trump is going to be worse. And this democracy produced two
choices, a genocide and a racist. Let me punish the one who
committed the crime and get ready to punish the one I think might
commit the crime later.
That was
powerful.
That's not doing it justice.
Next question is,
there are a lot of questions regarding the vote, I presume.
Maybe it's still unclear, who do I vote for? Pretty much, that's,
that's, that's still the questions coming in for the better of two
evils, if not Biden, then what can you break this down for us a bit
more plainly, what is the strategy? What are we doing this
election? Are we even voting at all
the Arabs? They say, Al Hari Bijan, yakuna, adiban, the one who
is coming from afar, has to be respectful, and he should not
interfere in internal affairs, which is hypocritical for me to
say now, but in any case,
I don't know where your vote should go. I only know where it
shouldn't go. I don't know how you guys want to decide where you guys
want to vote. I'll be honest with you, I went to North Carolina and
the Muslims, they said, loud and proud, we're voting for Donald
Trump. I was like, Allah, and
they went, dude, he made us richer. If we're going to suffer,
let's suffer with more money. Why should we suffer with less money?
I had this No, no, but it's just it. And when they said it, it
reminded me I have my younger brother, Yusuf. Yusuf speaks flu
in Japanese. He lives in Tokyo. I spoke about last time I was and
when you go to Tokyo, it's a surreal experience. Yusuf would
just talk Japanese flu and you know, oh, so this car, do you want
catch up with that? And I'll be like, Yeah, I would have some
catch up with it, like ketchup. That's not Japanese. Yusuf. You're
winding me up.
But Yusuf mashallah, successful businessman. He's not politically
inclined, but he loves business, and what he touches turns to gold.
Mashallah. So.
One day, I said to Yusuf, he was talking about all these
investments he's making and what he's buying, what he's selling. So
I told him, yeah, Yusuf, it didn't she flus like this, this, Dinya is
more than money, you know. And I tried to tell him, you know, with
Dinya, you know, there's more to this, and there's this, there's
that. And he let me finish, and he went to me, Sammy, I love you, and
I appreciate everything you say, and you're right, but I'd rather
cry in a Mercedes than in your toyotaris. The North Carolina
people
reminded me of this is, listen, we're going to suffer the next
four years. We're going to suffer. We're going to, we're going to,
we're going to, you know, struggle, whether it's Trump or
Biden, yeah, semi and I want to struggle in a Mercedes. I'm a
truck driver who made a lot of money, and the Trump and Biden
ruined it for me with these policies and the way that he
ruined the economy. I'm not telling you how to vote because,
in reality, I don't know what is the best way to vote in the
presidential elections, but I would also encourage you what i
The message I really want to deliver is this, it won't just be
decided on the presidential election. The Zionists don't focus
only the presidential election. They focus on the Congress. They
focus on the Senate. They focus on the local election. They focus
even on the council. Let me tell you a story about Huntington.
About Huntington in Long Island. And it's a Long Island. I drove
it.
Listen, my flight from Toronto to New York was 50 minutes. My Drive
from La Guardia to where I was staying was one hour, 45 minutes.
Was it the driver? Was it the traffic? It was a listen, the
traffic is horrible, you know, like stuff Allah hadeem And your
public transport is, I can't lie to you, I know you guys have your
subway and stuff like it, but it doesn't compare to the London
Underground. I grew up lambasting our London Underground, you know,
the tube, but Wallahi, when I came to America, I went back when my
friends complained. I tell them, guys say, Alhamdulillah for the in
because you don't know America. They don't know what public
transport looks like. You know, there is a brother sitting here.
He came to one of the talks and skin it took him three hours to
get there through public
transport. Yeah, entertainment, at least.
What I will say is that, so there's a story in Huntington
where the council aren't really interested in politics. They have
no idea about Palestine and Israel. They have no idea about
the issues, but they still issued a statement on October 8, after
October 7, why there was a deli next to them run by an Israeli who
put out Israeli flags and hounded them to come up with a statement.
The Muslims didn't do anything.
The Muslims could have hounded the Council at the same time to say,
you know, show some the eventually, the council, after the
four weeks, the council repeated the statement that we stand with
Israel. That's when the Muslims moved. And the council member told
them bluntly. He said, dude, these guys are shouting in my ear. You
guys are nowhere to be seen.
These guys move. They mobilize quickly over every tiny local
issue. When they go to the council, 500 of them turn up. Two
Muslims turn up. When they go to a school board meeting, they turn up
in their numbers. Only two of us turn up. And then the Muslim says,
Why are we in the situation that we're in? And that's why I think
that we're thinking about presidential election, about Biden
and Trump. But in my opinion, the most significant battle is
actually at the local level, here in New Jersey. It's here at the
local level that you need to identify where you can make the
difference and where you can rally to make to flip those votes. For
those of you who think Sammy, all this sounds vague, give me
something more specific. All it takes is to Ashish Google, hahaha,
and get the
results of your local elections from the last election. Find the
flip vote. What's the majority? Did somebody win by 4000 5000 3000
then calculate the demographics of that area. How many Muslims are in
that area? Is it enough to flip that particular vote? If it is,
ask Shih Tiktok and go make a video and make it, do the hashtag
of the area and say, Guys, this is how you can make the difference in
your local area, and then when November comes and they realize
that Biden has lost the election, but the Republicans realize, wait
a minute, we don't have the power that we're supposed to have,
because and we won the presidency. But underneath these Muslims, they
moved and they did something they did, like a I don't
know what that is, but anyway, and
that's the point that I'm having about the engagement. And I'll
finish on this particular point.
Ibad Allah, when I read the seer of the Prophet Muhammad,
sallAllahu, alayhi wa sallam, there's something fascinating
about the first 13 years. There's actually a section where they say
that every Hajj season, the Prophet Muhammad Sallam would go
to all of the 29 tribes. I think it was that used to visit Mecca.
He would go to each tent trying to see who would hear His message,
and he would talk to anybody to try to convince them of his
message. The point is, the Prophet sallallahu Sallam never used to
forego any avenue through which to make a change or through which to
make an impact. We forego a million avenues.
The Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam, would sit with the poor
man and the rich man trying to convince them of his message in
order to make change in his society. We're the kind of people
who would have said, Ya rasulallah, you're wasting your
time with those people. We need to think big, Ya Rasulullah. We need
to think huge. Even though Allah said wamaya.
Those who do even an atom of good deed, Allah sees it, and that's
why I think, to be honest, I always pose the question. I'm
like, whenever you speak to these council members, they will tell
you, apologetically, dude, I don't know anything about Palestine
Israel these nine years just came shouting at me. The question in my
mind goes, is not you ignoramus, at least go research the topic. My
point is, where were the Muslims running in from the other side,
shouting at him? I look at the comments. You know, when they
criticize like a Muslim speaker for saying something about Israel,
I look at the comments, and most of them are Zionist comments.
Where are the Muslim comments on social media, commenting and
saying, you so and so things that I'm not allowed to say because I'm
on stage. But you know what I mean, like commenting and, you
know, raising and that kind of stuff as well. I think that while
Muslims, your question was, where should Muslims vote? Who should
they vote for? Vote for the one who didn't support genocide. If
you have two candidates running for Congress, vote for the one who
didn't support genocide. If you have two people running for State
Assembly, vote for the one who didn't support genocide. If you're
looking at the local council, who should you vote for? Vote for the
one who didn't support genocide, and let the system understand that
ghaza was so important that a whole 1000s and millions of
Muslims rushed to the polls just to punish genocide and see the
difference that has as it filters through to the top and they hear
the message loud and clear.
Inshallah, I want to open the floor now for any sisters who
would like to ask a question. Is there any questions for sister's
end?
Hello, sister. We have a microphone for you.
Okay
when I share a video about Palestine
on social media, give me
three months penalty. Closely, close my two account. Book Two
account on Instagram. I'm keep sharing, stop. If they keep
closing, I'm gonna open new one, sharing and I write a comment too,
but they saw enemy.
And I can't believe but I'm crying. I can eat well, I can, you
know, my psychologically, I'm so emotional at home, and I can't
stay far away, because some people say as to no good for you to watch
all the time,
listening the news, all those video you're watching. It's no
good for you. But I can't stay far away. I can. I have to. I care
about them, and I when I pray all the time, I'm praying for them,
because Allah has asked for us, all this, each of us, I know this.
That's why always
trying to do myself, what I can do, always I'm going to, you know,
when I they have an organization,
um, I'm just going to say this. All social media, on their hand,
doesn't matter what you're saying, doesn't matter what you're sharing
about that you that's your fault. You're doing bad things. Like, you
know, my English is not perfect. I'm sorry. It's perfect. It's
better than the Americans, but you're gone.
Sorry, yeah, and you mean,
just want to say it, but I feel like what I'm seeing, that's all
Thank you. I think first of all, we should give you a round of
applause, because Netanyahu is targeting you. Your account is so
important. Netanyahu wants it closed. Your account is so
important. Blinken wants it closed. Your account is so
important. The Zionists are so worried about it. They said, We
have to close her account because her voice is something that is
annoying. It's frustrating us. So Subhanallah, honestly. MashaAllah,
this is a good example of how there's no such thing as an
ordinary Muslim. Every voice matters. Every voice is having an
impact. Now I don't know what content you're sharing that's
making you get mad, but in any case, the point that I'm saying is
at least, at least the fact that they're responding in this manner
means that they're worried about the voice that you're raising. And
therefore, if your voice is frustrating them, the conclusion
should be, if it ain't broke, don't fix it if it's working and
it's annoying them keep doing what you're doing. And I like the idea
of setting up different accounts. I need to set up a couple of
different accounts as well in terms of doing that kind but the
point is that one thing that is worth noting the head of meta for
North Africa, Middle East, he gave an interview to Al Jazeera like a
few weeks ago, and they were asking about the algorithm and
about shadow banning and how to bypass.
Shadow ban and the closing of the accounts. He said, the reality is
that you can shadow ban a couple of 1000. You can shadow ban maybe
100,000 but when millions and millions and millions are talking
about the same issue, it's impossible for any social media
company to keep talk, and that's why I think that we need to
mobilize as a community. And I don't say that from an airy fairy
unity kind of way. I mean that if they shut down your account,
they're not shutting down everybody else's. You may have
fallen on that hurdle, but you set up a new account tomorrow, be
somebody else's account, and your account, we're able to keep going
as well. The fact is, we keep moving in numbers. We keep moving
together. Keep being loud together, keep raising the
awareness. What Biden is gambling on is that as months pass by,
instead of 1.9 billion talking about Philistine, it will go down
to a billion, and then 500 million, and then 100 million, and
then 50 million, and then 1 million, because the rest of the
accounts will be talking about, what do we do about Trump? What do
we do about what happens next? That's why it's important to push
through this barrier and this heartbreak and this despair that
you feel, because that sign of the heartbreak means that you're
feeling the struggle. And when you feel the struggle, it means you're
in the middle of the battle. And if you're in the middle of the
battle, it means it hasn't been decided yet. And if it hasn't been
decided yet, it means you can still win it. And if it means you
can still win it, therefore there is still light on the other side.
And therefore everything suggests that we shouldn't pull back. We
need to keep moving forward, and that's why I think that last week,
one of the spokesman of the Israelis met with 12 Tiktok
influences. I didn't know their names. They're not influencing me
or my Tiktok in any case, and they're offering them a lot of
money to talk about Israel and to show a new face of Israel why they
are concerned that they've lost the monopoly over the narrative.
One thing that I will say is this, for those of you feeling the
pressure, for those of you feeling the backlash, for those of you
concerned about the backlash that's taking place, let me tell
you, it's not coming from a position of strength. It's coming
from a position of weakness, because they did not anticipate
that they would their monopoly over the narrative would be
smashed by ordinary Muslims. They expected that you would listen to
the fatwa from Saudi Arabia that told you to be quiet. They
expected that you would be quiet and go to the UAE and take selfies
with the sheik Zayed mosque and listen to their scholars who are
telling you not to boycott instead, they found that these
nation states, with their powers that they were relying on to get
you to be quiet, you were emphatically ignoring them because
you are following what your own conscience and feta was crying out
for you to do. So McDonald's has come out and said that we're
suffering as a result of the boycott. Starbucks share price has
dropped as a result of the boycott these Muslims, who Muslims thought
were insignificant. Turned out, they are significant. The iCj
ruling that Muslims said had no had no impact the multi billion
dollar Japanese companies are now cutting ties with multi billion
dollar Israeli companies. Israeli press is now saying that the ICJ
ruling is going to have lasting impact on our tech industry, which
is our most lucrative industry, because companies are too scared
to invest in Israel, because they are worried that Israel will be
found guilty of genocide, and therefore they will be liable and
they will be sued by Muslims in the UK courts and in the US
courts. The Israelis are concerned that when Muslim lawyers took a
court case in Oakland in order to try to sue Biden for using
taxpayer money to fund the genocide. They are terrified that
although the judge ruled that he doesn't have jurisdiction, he
ruled on a technicality, and said in His judgment that this case is
close to having jurisdiction here in the US, and that the reality is
that Israel is probably committing a genocide. And he said it's the
hardest ruling, suggesting that if they tweak the legal argument
slightly, then Biden can be sued in the US for using taxpayer money
against genocide. Israel is concerned that when Eli Cohen went
to the EU to present a plan to create an artificial island to put
the Palestinians on, Eli Cohen was stunned because the 27 member
states looked at him in horror and said, Are you really sitting in a
room where somebody is presenting an idea of creating an artificial
island to put Palestinians and Eli Cohen was horrified that they were
horrified. He was horrified. And said, When did you allies start
questioning us? When did you allies start doubting us? When did
you allies start asking us what we're doing and what we're doing.
What is this behavior? What is this thing that suddenly is coming
about? Israel is concerned that as a result of your voice, as a
result of you moving, as a result of you mobilizing, they are
concerned that in this battle that should have been resolved quickly
in their favor. This battle is dragging on so much so that the EU
foreign policy chief Joseph Burrell came out and he said
criticizing the US, how can you say you're against genocide and
give them weapons at the same time, your words do not match your
actions. The Israelis are worried that while Biden is promising to
give them weapons, Macron calls for a ceasefire, the Deputy Prime
Minister of Belgium is calling for sanctions or.
On Israel Spain is saying it's ready to recognize a Palestinian
state. They are concerned that all of this shift is moving and it's
taking place. And I'll finish on this point. Muslims do not doubt
or do not undermine these victories, however small you might
think they may be for the Israelis, they think it's huge,
and do not doubt and say that these victories don't matter,
because the genocide is still ongoing. For Wallahi, if you open
the book of the seer of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam, you will find that when the Muslims were persecuted in the
first 13 years of the Dawah, the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam made the DUA, he said, Allahu reinforced Islam with
ahmadine, with one of the two Omars, and when Omar became
Muslim, the Muslims celebrated a huge victory, even though they
were persecuted the next day, because they determined that
victory as being a turning point that would eventually lead to
something greater. So just as we are praying that the global public
opinion shifts in our favor. That's our version of Allah whom,
bless us with ahadil ahmadine, bless us with a public opinion
that is in our favor, that will create an environment that allows
us to punish those who committed genocide. That's why we see
Americans increasingly saying that I will punish genocide, Joe, it's
because you're moving and you're appreciating those victories.
Don't undermine those victories. Keep going as you are. And for
those of you who think that you're only infecting America,
you've all seen the Saudi statement that came out and said
that we won't normalize with Israel unless it's a Palestinian
state. Now personally, I think it's absolute nonsense. Because if
you're a country that brought Shakira on them to dance on the
night of the ground offensive, that brought Jared Kushner to give
a keynote speech in the devils in the desert forum, four weeks into
the genocide, that every two days you keep talking about,
normalization is still possible. Normalization is still possible
when Gaza are being slaughtered, when you're part of the land
bridge to bypass the blockade, you can't tell me a couple of
sentences and suddenly is going to change everything. The reason
that, the reason I mentioned the statement, is to show you that the
statement was not made for the Israelis or the Americans. It was
made out of panic that you were criticizing Saudi It was directed
at you, not Israel. They were telling the Israelis, I am not
against normalization. But they're getting louder. They're pointing
fingers at me. They're exposing what I'm doing. They were supposed
to be quiet because they don't want fitna in the land of the Two
Holy Mosques. Now these people are saying, No, we need to call them
out. I need to give them something, a statement, to keep
them quiet, throw them a bone so that they can get off my back,
because these people will threaten my ability to rule here in Saudi
Arabia, iba ALA, you're in a blessed position that probably no
other population in the Ummah is in. You're in a position to punish
the perpetrator of genocide. You're in a position to influence
the rest of the world. You're in a position to influence the
relationship between Europe and America. You're in a position to
raise and shift public opinion in America. And you're also in a
position to bring about the entrenchment of the most
unprecedented changes with regards to the narrative on Palestine and
Israel that Israel is so concerned about that today, Netanyahu says,
Please don't talk about Palestinian state, because it's
like rewarding what Homs did. And the reality is that the Americans
are trying to find a way to appease you because they're
worried about a power that you will use. I'm asking you to see
that power. I'm asking you to use it. I'm asking you to deploy it.
I'm asking you to appreciate it, and I'm asking you to stop saying
to me that you have no power when blinking is spending billions just
to make sure you don't use that power.
Alright. Next question, how should Muslims in New Jersey support the
Muslims in the swing state? How do we develop country wide political
networks, and how do we mobilize and do we need Muslim apex? Should
we go on my one or,
first of all, I don't know of a place called New Jersey. I think
New Jersey, that's first of all. So let's, let's give it the proper
names here. Shakias FM is not here to an ambassador for it. So it's
good. I
want to tell you just a very short story. It's not long by any
stretch of the imagination.
In East London, we have a constituency called Ilford north.
Ilford north, the Member of Parliament is a guy called West
streeting. West streeting is tipped to be the next leader of
the Labor Party in the next 10 years,
when the Muslims, Muslims in that constituency are about 35%
so large number. West streeting won by a 5000 majority in an area
with about 25 30,000 Muslims. When
the Muslims got together, they identified that this is a
constituency where we can punish the MP who supported genocide.
The problem was as we're used to in the community, when you gather
10 imams in a room in.
It doesn't always work out very well
when you gather 10 different organizations in the room,
we've all been there.
So eventually one group of people got frustrated. I took off to
America. They were just like semi running away. I said, No, I just
think the Americans can punish Biden, whereas here we're still
judging how powerful we are. And, you know, I get to go to America.
Why not?
So one group called the red bridge Community Action Group, they
decided we're going to get together and do something. So they
said, Guys, do we know anybody in our community who wants to run
against West streets? Three people, they said, We want to run.
They said, Okay, in our masjid, we're going to host the hustings.
And whoever wants to come, they can come Hustings, for those who
don't know, it's three candidates on the stage, and they try to
argue why they should be the candidate, and then in the end,
you all vote for one of those candidates to represent
you. So they announced it. 250
people turned up three hours and a half Hustings debate, and they
decided to support a Palestinian girl called Leyen Muhammad, a
young Palestinian activist. The moment it was announced on social
media that they had put Leah and Muhammad forward, the rest of the
community went
Alaba, everybody behind Leah,
when West streeting saw the reaction of the community in
supporting leyan, because these brave minority decided to move so
now the community couldn't bicker anymore. The opportunity was in
front of them. They all went support them. West streeting went
the next day on LBC and called for a ceasefire.
He went the next day. Why? And everybody joked underneath the
comments, even non Muslims. They said, West streeting is terrified
about his 5000 majority, and that's why he's come out and
called for a ceasefire. And Leon is gathering momentum when the
other constituencies where Muslims are saw what Redbridge did, they
started replicating it in their own areas, saying, Halas, we spent
two months the bickering between ourselves. Kalas, forget the
bickering. Let's all start. Let's some of us just start our own
initiative and wait for the community to follow.
The reason why I say this is that New Jersey might not be a swing
state. And bear in mind, I don't have the data for New Jersey,
primarily because none of you has offered it to me.
And when I ask you, do you have the data for New Jersey, everybody
looks at me blankly and says, How do I get
the data in Ali lahi or in alehira? That's all I can say. But
in the event that you can't be bothered to get the data and you
want to help the swing states. I was in Texas, and there were a
group of people who said, we're gathering money for a pot of money
to send people for two weeks to those swing states, to lend
manpower to those who are campaigning to make sure that they
are able to deliver the message effectively. I met a group of
students in San Jose in California who said to me, we can't make a
difference in California, but we've come up with a set of
narratives that other states can use, such as, we spend 3.8 billion
on Israel, but I can't even afford health care. We're crafting this,
and we're lending our videography skills to help them to create
these videos that they can spread on social media in order to
convince the non Muslim opinion how to mobilize and how to use
their vote as well. I met tech guys at Silicon Valley in the bay
area who are saying, Sammy. We managed to lobby to get Zionists
removed from the overseeing body, so that less accounts get shut
down or like the reality is everybody in their environment is
starting to move and starting to do things. You're asking about New
Jersey. New Jersey. Get the data you need the information first and
foremost, and then decide what you can do in this area. And Masha
Allah, the New Jersey community, also has money. Americans have
money. When I see a fundraiser that starts at $5,000 come to
London, try and start $5,000 and you'll appreciate the netma that
Allah has given you. And that is May Allah increase you, Allah, I'm
not saying any hassad, the houses that I saw in the US, for example,
I've been to Texas. I know Texas, everything is bigger. When I went
back to London, my sister Maya, she saw me, says the welcome home.
And I went, she
said to me, Sammy, what's wrong with you? I thought I feel
claustrophobic.
You haven't seen what I've seen in America.
The point that I'm saying, The
point that I'm saying is that the community doesn't lack resources.
The community does not like resources. The community lacks a
strategy. And I'll finish just on this point to highlight sometimes
the attitudes regarding strategy.
Muslims are the number one givers of charity, right?
Even though only 20% of aid is actually getting into Gaza, but
we're still pumping money into charity.
I want to I have a theory. Why.
It's because no one is brave enough to invest in the long term
alternative.
The Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam said that Allah loves the
hand that gets his risk,
and that hand is better than the hand that takes charity when
somebody comes with the initiative for an institution or an
initiative for something that is intangible, you know, to train
people in or train people in videography, or train people in a
number of different skills, or to set up new businesses or the like,
we tend to invest the first 100k if he fails the first time, we
don't know. We not only not give him a.
UK, we tell the whole community, don't invest in this failure.
Don't don't give him any more money. Whereas the Zionists will
invest in him three, four times. The reason why I'm saying is that
the community has resources, but I wonder if we're spending it in the
best way. The community has resources. I wonder how willing we
are to gamble, not gamble because it's haram, but how willing we are
to invest in strategy, even if we can't measure the outcome in a way
that we measure it with charity, or in a way that we measure it in
other things as well. Do we have the appetite for that kind of
thing? And the reason why I say that is we need to also think
after November, so after Inshallah, when we punish
genocide, Joe Inshallah,
we're saying the next four years are going to be difficult with
Donald Trump, right? Are we investing in training for the next
generation of media personalities that we can send to defend us in
the mainstream? Are we investing in the next generation of
political analysts to send out, or are we investing in the next
generation of venture capitalists? I met with a few brothers. They
have a lovely app that helps people get off smoking and alcohol
and successful app. They got huge funding for it. It's a multi
million dollar company now. But they said something very
interesting. They said to me, Samu, you know, we find
fascinating. They said, here in America, mashaAllah, they have
money, they have resources. But when you go to venture capitalists
to find investment, it's all Zionists. Muslims don't venture in
those industries. Muslims don't try to get involved in those
industries. And I said, maybe Zionists just have more resources.
They're like no. Muslims have more resources, but Muslims only choose
to give charity. They don't choose to invest in their community.
Muslims only choose to invest in they don't choose to invest in
building institutions. A Muslim will give money for a masjid, but
won't give money to institutions. A Muslim will give money to
charity. They won't give money into training the youth for the
next generation. And even when they're training their youth, they
train them in only three industries, law, medicine and
engineering, whereas the Zionist has trained them in all these
different and that's why I think that moving forward over the next
four years, I'm not telling you what you should do, I'm telling
you to just broaden the horizon just a little bit. Let's ask
ourselves, what are we lacking as a community to compete with the
Zionist? Ask yourselves, what are we lacking? And ask yourselves, do
we have the resources to plug those holes? And what you'll find
is those next four years will be as if you make the achievement of
the next 20 years. And that's the point I want to make. What can you
do here in New Jersey? You can do a lot of things. When people ask
me that question, at the end of February, we're approaching March.
The primaries are March the fifth. You're asking the question end of
February, you've had three months to think about it. You had three
months, and still we we're still talking about this. What can we
do? Ibad Allah, I know you're intelligent law I'm an information
Wars guy. I'm not saying I have the solution. I'm saying one of
you does speak up and community, when you hear them speak up, I
don't know. I'm pointing at the men. I point in sisters as well.
When you speak up, community, go and lend their support for maybe
they have the solution. Maybe there's a Salman and Pharisee
here, where, before the trench, they didn't know how to dig
trenches, Salman Pharisee came up with the idea. Maybe there's
Salman and Pharisee over here who's going to give us a solution.
Inshallah, so this next question comes from one of the youth. They
say, salaam alaikum. Can you tell us how to navigate spaces like
colleges and universities where we are being censored and called anti
semitic?
I think that those on the campuses have the most fiercest fight of
any group within our community at this moment in time, I went to
Canada, and I didn't really I thought Canada was gonna be the
easiest trip, but I can't lie like Canada is fascism compared to, you
know what us? I can't. I landed in New York, and I went,
Alhamdulillah,
I'm back. And then I said, What do you mean? You're back? Back is
London? Yes, you're falling too much in love with America. Semi,
you need to go back and reset. You know,
the campuses are struggling. It is true. But I also think on the
campuses, you're actually winning as well. The reason why designers
are trying to clamp down on you as well is because they are terrified
that your voices are getting louder, but also there's something
brave about this generation of students who are in those
campuses, in the way that they keep going, regardless of the
crackdown and regardless of the way that the events keep getting
canceled over technicalities, like there's not enough security. What
I will say to those who are on the campus is arm yourselves with the
knowledge to push back against those accusations. Whether it's
anti semitism, understand that it was the Prophet Muhammad,
sallAllahu, alayhi wa sallam, who came and established the medina
covenant that protected the Jews and said that we will fight with
the Jews against anyone who oppresses them. Understand it's
Omar buchata Anu who brought the Jews back to Jerusalem after the
Romans kicked them out. Understand it's Salah din ayubi Who brought
the Jews back after the Crusaders had kicked them out. Understand it
Sultan Suleiman, who sent the ships to Spain to take in the Jews
after Isabella massacred them and kicked them out of Spain.
Understand that it's the Muslims who during the Holocaust, after 6
million Jews were guessed by anti semitic Europe, understand that
the Jews, they came to the shores of Palestine with these big
banners. Please don't do to us what the Europeans did to us.
Understand your history and learn.
It and learn to convey it. Put it in your tiktoks, put it in your
Instagram, put it in your Twitter, put it in your open letters
denouncing the universities. Make your protest loud, write your
letters to your presidents, do your protests and sit ins in some
of those rooms, I remember, I admit I was rowdy at university.
It's true.
Sometimes, when I look back on it, I think, yeah, maybe a bit too
rowdy, yes, but sometimes too rowdy is a good thing, because you
calm down later. I like to think I'm a calm person today. What are
you laughing for?
That was harsh. But the point that I'm saying is that on the campuses
keep going, you are the ones raising your voices because what
they're terrified of, and let me put it, blunt it this way, one of
the reasons that universities tend to cancel your talks is not
because they believe you're wrong. It's because the Zionists are much
louder. So you community members as well. Those of you who aren't
in college or university, you need to also be writing to these
universities as well. You need to be embarrassing them online. You
need to be adding them on social media and saying, How dare you
cancel these events. You need to lend your support to those student
campuses as well. Because what I realized when I was in Canada is
when they tried to get my event canceled, the campuses were able
to summon the Zionist community, who were able to summon the
Zionist journalists, who were able to get articles published in
national newspapers just to target the students on campuses. In other
words, there are community who are united with each other. I think we
need to show a bit more support for each other. We need to lend
like reinforce one another. Because, to be honest, one of the
reasons why it breaks my heart when, when, when I say these
things is that, in reality, I'm not asking you to go to Mount
Kilimanjaro. All I'm asking you to do is pick up the phone and just
tweet. Pick up the phone and write the letter. And not only that, for
you tech guys, let me give you an example. You know, in the UK, when
we realized that a lot of people wanted to write letters but didn't
know what to write in the letters. Do you know what some of the
younger brothers ended up doing? They ended up setting up an AI
website where the AI all you would do is you would put your postcode
in or your zip code. You would put your zip code in,
and the AI would read your zip code and fill out the email with
the email of your local representative, and it would write
the same letter, but every time you refresh the site, it would
change the format of the letter, so it would be different, and it
would change the subject title, so it would be the same topic, but it
would be a newly crafted letter, which meant that people could
literally go put Their thing they all they need to do is put their
zip code in and put their email in and click Send tech guys. Where
you at? Yani, Sara hayani, all this effort for Google, not enough
for the community, all this effort for meta and not enough. Where are
these apps like come on, Bismillah. You know, I was about
say boujee, like in French, bouj, move. You know, bougie, bougie,
but, but I realized that just it will be lost on some of you guys
over here, but in any case, like move, move like, my point is,
there's so much you can do that there's no such thing as a bad
idea. And there's a really wonderful quote I finished on
this. They say, how can you expect the unexpected to happen if you
don't do the unexpected? How can you expect change to happen if you
don't do something that is different? So that's why I think
there's no such thing as a bad idea. Just do something, and if
you have a good idea, community support them. You don't always
need to believe that the idea is going to succeed. There are a lot
of ideas. I'll be honest with you. When my wife first came to me and
she said to me, Sammy, let's set up Halal travel guide and take
people around the world and show them and reconnect memories of the
Ummah, I said to her, I bluntly. I told the Sumayya, these Muslim
community, I know them. Allah humiliated them for a reason.
They're not ambitious. When they go on holiday, they only go
Morocco, Turkey, Dubai and Malaysia. That's all they go.
They're not brave. They're not like for the guys who went to
university. They want to go Brazil, they want to go Argentina,
they want to go China. Like Muslims aren't like that, you
know, they don't. And she was like to me, no, no, but Sammy, I
promise you, it's a big market. It's $250
billion Sumaya, you don't know what these people are like. It
turns out Sumaya was right and I was wrong. The only reason I
agreed to go along with her idea was because the week before I read
that article about Netflix and blockbuster, when Netflix went to
Blockbuster and said, We're the next big thing, and blockbuster
laughed at them and said, What are you talking about? People are
going to subscribe to watch movies for 599, a month. And they laughed
them out the door. And when I read that, when sumiya came to me, I
was like, Sammy,
are you the blockbuster here? I
wasn't convinced by the idea. I was like, no, no. What if somebody
else takes it better to try the idea and fail than let someone
else do it and succeed and have the regret in my heart
and SubhanAllah. Turns out sumay is a genius in these things. Now
we've got 15 destinations taking hundreds of Muslims every month,
all these different destinations. And when you see a girl from New
York flying out from Bosnia at the end of the trip, and she's crying,
and you think it's because you went overboard with your jokes.
And you're like, oh my god, I'm gonna get bad review. I'm gonna
get bad review. And I'm like, Listen, what can I do? Do you want
refunds? Do you want this? Do whatever. Don't cry if you come on
my trips. I ain't giving you a refund, but, in any case, but, but
I was like, you know, what can I do? What can I do? Was it one of
my jokes? And she said, No, it's not your jokes. I just can't
believe I lived 33 years. Of my life, and I never knew my almost
suffered like this in Bosnia. I.
And I think Subhanallah Sumaya Alhamdulillah that I read the
article about blockbuster, she said, I'm Netflix, aren't I?
But the point I'm saying is that I acknowledge I'm giving you a story
where I didn't know an idea would succeed, but I went with it anyway
for selfish reasons. I didn't want to be humiliated. But in any case,
just try it better to have tried and failed than not to have tried
at all. So when you do the AI stuff about letters to your
presenters, please send me the link so that I can forward it to
people in New Jersey. And these are, I can tell them, use this AI
app. I know there are people here, sitting here who are capable of
doing it. This matter. I have no idea how to start, how to do it,
but you guys do the answer the question is, do anything, because
you don't know what it is that will make the difference. And I
promise the final point I'm making
this
I'm starting already
in the Battle of the Trench in khandak, the Prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu Sallam did not know how to drive back the azab that the
tribes had come against him. They were debating between themselves,
how do you win this battle? No one had an idea how to win it. No one
knew how they were going to get out of it. Seman al farisi, his
plan for the Trent, for the trench, was to delay, was to
prevent them from marching. It wasn't to drive them back. They
didn't know how they were going to drive them back. So they dug the
trench. They said, Let's try the idea. It's better than nothing,
and it buys us time. So they dug it.
When they dug it, the idea comes from the other side. Nuayment
comes from the other side when the Muslims aren't expecting it.
Because the Muslims mobilize, they move. They dug the trench. They
bought time, because they bought time. So you might have a plan
that doesn't produce the result that you want, but because they
did it, they bought some time.
Nuayment ends up coming to the Prophet Sam he says, Ya
Rasulullah, I know how to drive them back and listen to this
story, because I think it relates to us over here. The Prophet Salim
says to Akka Allah, and Iman tells him the plan, so no Amen. He goes
back to the hazard, and he goes to ratifan, and he goes to ratafan,
and he says something very Republican. He tells them guys,
what are we doing here? This is a beef between Quraysh and Quraysh.
Why are we spending all this money and all these resources and stuff
on a war that has nothing to do with us? Does it sound Republican,
or does it not? Why are we spending all this reason? Why have
we marched all this way just for some petty food between Quraysh
and Muhammad guys? Do you think it's wise to spend all this money?
Ratafan went,
you know, Allah, you might have a point.
Why are we doing then he goes to Abu Sufyan. Ratafan are saying,
why are we spending all this money over your beef with regards to
quratia, between you and Muhammad, and they're thinking of
withdrawing? Abu Sufyan says, I'm sick and tired of this discomfort.
Anyway, if they're thinking of withdrawing, this whole thing is
useless. Anyway, Yala, we're going to pack up, withdraw. Then he goes
back to Qatar. Fan. Abu Sufyan is withdrawing. We went all this way
withdrawing his own and they all leave without the Muslims even
having to raise a weapon to fight. The point is you don't know where
the idea is going to come from, and you don't know what kind of
idea is going to result in a magnificent victory. They were
facing existential crisis. The enemy was driven off by a rumor.
And you might think a rumor means nothing, but here you Sira tells
you that even something you think is minor can have a momentous and
tremendous impact for ya. Ibad Allah, don't think that the
solution has to be big. Often, it's the little ideas that
germinate and become that big idea that leads to an irresistible
snowball effect that drags me from London, where I was comfortable
watching Arsenal lose another attempt to win the league, and
find myself here in America where people say, what you doing in
America? I don't know. I have no idea, but I'm here because somehow
some idea was germinated, and Allah subhanaw Taal is bringing
all our efforts together to try to reinforce one another. We didn't
know we'd be meeting like this. I had no ambitions ever to come to
New Jersey. I'm glad I will say one thing honestly, and I'm being
recorded, so other states will get offended. I was actually asked,
Sam, you've been all over America, what are your three favorite
places?
I told them Seattle, because it's beautiful. It's very pretty. The
water, the trees, even when it rains, it's so pretty. It's like
Picasso Monet, like they drew when I said Picasso money, my wife told
me, Sam, you do know one drew human beings, the other drew
nature. Like you need to know which one, and I think was it
Monet who drew the nature? Because Picasso is a bit awkward. Anyway,
in any case, Seattle is lovely, like you sit there. You think Mart
artists drew this. The second place is actually New Jersey.
No, no, no, but. But when someone asked me, like, someone's like,
but what do you mean? You like? What do you mean? What you came to
California, what do you mean? And I thought about it, I said, I
don't know. I just liked it. Tell her what you mean. I said, I don't
know. It just felt like I was in the 1960s it just felt authentic.
They were like, and the.
Today, when we were having lunch, some of guys from Jersey, they
were like, I don't know if you're insulting us or or praise. I said,
no, like, I love it. Like the people in it are lovely, you know,
like I enjoyed it. Like, New Jersey people are direct, like
they're straight, you know, like they're just, like, straight to
your face, boom, you know, like, kind of thing. Because you have to
understand that I come from London. It's very similar when I
went to California, when I landed, I remember, like, on my first
night, I couldn't sleep because of the jet lag, so I woke up like
early, like three, 4am tried to sleep 630 I thought, forget it.
I'm just going to go out for a walk. And I went to find a cafe
open. I remember these people jogging in their yoga pants, like
coming this way. And they were just like, Hey, good morning. How
are you? And my reaction was, Whoa, you're way too happy for the
morning. Like, I feel like New Jersey is more on this wavelength,
you know,
honestly, I could see many of you nodding. It's very, you know, like
Masha, Allah, like Allah, even when you talk to each other, I can
see it. You push boundaries a little bit, you know, you're sort
of just like, Oh, you're tough. Get forget about it. You know,
like,
and the third place actually, was, I don't know why. Like, I'm sure
there are more beautiful places, but the Houston food scene is
really good. Like, Houston, like, for food Bismillahi, mashallah,
Billah, like, wow. Like, I can't lie. Like, whatever restaurant you
go to there, maybe I was taken to a nice restaurant. Not too much.
They went. I went to food trucks, tacos. Man. Like, wow.
I like, masha Allah, but the point I want going back to the original
point, I digressed. In any case, I wanted to show my appreciation,
but also
yay, ibad Allah. Allah
subhanho wa Taala is not asking you to deliver the perfect
solution. Allah is asking you to move. Allah is not asking you to
know it all for he said he knows it all Allah is asking you to
trust Him and move Allah sent Musa to Khidr. Musa did not know.
Alayhi salam, what was the correct thing to do, and when Khidr did
the correct thing, Musa objected, because he didn't know that it was
the correct thing. When Khidr puts the hole in the boat, Musa says,
ah, have you? Are you trying to ruin this family? Allah is not
asking you to know. Allah is asking you to trust Him and move.
And that's why I finished on this hadith. That's why I think Allah
said that if you take one step towards me, I take 10 if you walk
towards me, I come running. I think Allah said this because
Hadith qudasi. I think the reason Allah said this is because, you
know the 10 steps. He comes 10 steps to make sure you don't make
10 mistakes. Because when Allah sees you moving, that's all he
wanted to see move. And if it was the wrong step, He guides you to
10 correct steps that if you walk and it happens to be the wrong
walk, wrong path, Allah comes running to make sure you don't
continue on the wrong path, to bring it straight. Allah is not
asking you for the right move. Allah is asking you to move based
on what you determine. And Allah will open the guidance that you
need to do what is right. And that's why, if you notice the
prophets, when they're under pressure, they don't say, in the
mahayab surani, Allah is with me. He will give me victory. They say
in the mahayab sayyadin, Allah is with me. He will guide me in terms
of how to move forward, and that's why, ya, ibad Allah, this is what
I mean. I don't know what's the best idea. I know my answers sound
vague. I know it sounds like that Whenever anyone asks me a
question, Sammy, where's your ear? I'm doing this, and I still can't
find my ear. I get it. But what I'm trying to say to you is, you
know the solution without asking me. You know what you need to do
without asking you know what you have to do. What's stopping you is
that you feel that your inability to see the result on the other
side means you shouldn't move. I'm telling you you're not supposed to
see it on the other side, you're supposed to move, and Allah will
eventually show you what it looks like on the other side, accept
Allah knows what it looks like. Accept that he's the one you trust
to know what's on the other side. Accept that he's the one, the best
person to the best being to trust with the future. And say, Allah, I
don't know what's the right path in terms of how the right
strategy, but I do know someone committed a genocide, and I do
know we should punish the one who committed genocide. And I do know,
based on my limited wisdom, that we have some sort of ability to do
so. I don't know how to deploy that power, but yeah, Allah, I'm
going to try and move and Allah guide my path to maximize the use
of that power. And I think when Allah hears that dua from you, he
will say, Ya ibad, Allah, because you move, I'm ready to give it to
you. And that's why, when you read even about the prophets, you might
feel the heartbreak, you might feel the despair. But the reason
why I think that the Sira is an extraordinary book of politics,
why I think the Quran is an extraordinary book of politics. Is
because, in the Quran, Allah tells us that NUHA salaam got so
frustrated with the lack of results from his dawah that he
said Rabbi in need out to call me Elena. Hara wala me. Yazid hum,
Duay, Illah, firara, wa en niku, Lama, dautum, Lita, Fila hum,
Jala.
Abu Asmaa was stuck. Show of the Abu asmaaq. Bara No Hala salaam
says, after his hour,
Allah, have called on my people day and night, the same way, some
of you here, you whisper, he keeps telling us, social media, you've
been doing it for 100 days.
That's 100 days North didn't 900 years. No. Ali Salam says, Allah,
I've called on my people day and night, and every time I call on
them, they run away from me. And when I call on them, so you might
forgive them, they put their fingers in their ears, they cover
their faces, and they treat me with arrogance. The question here,
ya ibad, Allah, Noah is not seeing the results alaihi salam that he
wants to see. Does he stop?
Does he give up? Does he go home. Does he say it's useless? He keeps
repeating it again and again and again, because it's all he knows
what to do. And Allah subhanaw taala rewards him, rewards him for
what, for moving, rewards him for mobilizing, rewards him for never
giving up.
Because for the Muslim, this dunya is about getting into Jannah
through our striving and our efforts, and that's why, ya, ibad
Allah, don't be an ummah that does nothing. Don't be an ummah that
sits at home. Move. Ya, ibad Allah, move and make the
difference, because you are making the difference. And ya, ibad
Allah, when you judge victory, don't judge it on your terms.
Judge it on the basis that Allah has guaranteed it, and therefore
you're judging your efforts on the basis that you're making them, not
that they're succeeding. For Allah, there are prophets who
spent their whole lives strategizing and Allah still
destroyed their people at the end,
Allah is the one in charge of the outcome, and that's why, when you
humble yourself to the point where you say, Yeah, Allah, I appreciate
that nothing is out of your control in this world. I
appreciate that every Palestinian who's died is in Jannah now with
you, farihana, I'm Allah. I know it that there is no punishment of
the grave. There's no waiting for the book in the right on the left.
There's no day of judgment. There's no waiting for the scales.
I know they're with you in a place where I'd rather be now in a give
me the choice to spend the rest of the days and don't go to Jannah.
Put your hand if you rather go to Jannah.
It's a no brainer, right? They're in a much better place.
Subhanallah Allah is telling you, I've handled that. But for us who
are left here, what is it on us to do? And that's why I think that
many Muslims, they think of the big things without realizing that
the prophets, they always did, the small things they did, the little
things of giving something to the neighbor, the kind word, the gift.
They did. All you read that hadith,
when you read Hadith about even a smile can be charity, how many of
you think of it in a political way, that to smile and make the
community see Muslim as happy people. Makes people ask, what
make muslims so happy? What is it about their life that makes them
so friendly? Oh, it's the Quran. What is the Quran? Oh, their
Prophet told them to smile. Oh, their Prophet told them to be
happy. I'm miserable. My children never visit me. I'm miserable. I'm
struggling to keep the rent on top of me. I'm miserable. I'm
struggling to maintain this roof. I'm miserable. But look at them,
how happy they are. Look how they give in charity. Look how they
gather as a community. Do you think Ahadith are personal?
Ahadith are political. When the Prophet sallallahu, Sallam says,
Lay up, we know how to come. Had to say that no one truly believes
until they love for their brother what they love for their brother,
what they love for themselves. Do you think this is a personal
Hadith? Do you think that people outside, when they see the
community rushing to each other's aid, when they have a sandwich and
they split it in two, and the person says, Why do you keep
splitting your food with them? They say, because the Prophet said
that none of you believe until they love for your brother, you
love for themselves. I don't want to eat. Why? Don't want to eat
while my brother doesn't eat. And the person looks and says, Whoa,
man, like do you guys just live your lives like this? And so they
become Muslim, and when they become Muslim, the numbers
increase, and when the numbers increase, they have more
influence. And they have more influence. What happens? Islam
spreads, and when Islam spreads, it becomes the fastest growing
religion in the world, and it becomes the haven for the Jews
when they're persecuted by anti semitic Europe. Ibad Allah, you
think Ahadith are personal. They've never just been personal.
The Prophet sallallahu, sallam, gave it his Hadith to build the
community, to build a society. And think about it this way, and I
promise, I finish. I promise I'll finish on this point. I promise,
I promise. I
I always wondered
that, if you had one message to give, if you knew you were going
to die tomorrow, what would be the message that you would leave
behind? And then I asked myself, wait a minute. Let me see what the
Prophet sallallahu sallam said just before he died, he stands on
in the last speech, and he says, In the beginning, hear me for this
may be the last time I address you. So he knows it's the last
time he might address the Muslims. What does he say? Does he say go
out and conquer?
Does he say.
Go out and does He say, Go do these big grant. No, he tells him,
yahibad Allah in the AMWA alkum, wa aravakum, wadima om haramun
Alaikum ka humiti Yomi Kum, hada fibaladikum, hada fishharikum. Had
Oh you who believe your blood, your property and your honor are
sacred between you, meaning that if anybody's honor, blood or
integrity is violated, Rush and uphold it, for it is sacred to
you, like the sacredness, like the sanctity of Mecca, the land that
Mecca is on in the holiest month of the year and the holiest day.
So that Kaaba that you venerate, venerate each other's wealth,
property and dignity in the same way, if you don't see your sister
like the Kaaba, if you don't see your brother and their integrity
like the Kaaba, know that you have a flawed understanding of what it
means to be a community. The Prophet Sallam continues, and he
says that the feud, the revenge feuds you have between yourselves,
set it aside, and I will be the first my uncle's feud with said
tribe is over. It's finished the process. Salim said, Forgive your
vendettas between each other. And I went through hot but Al WADA and
I heard the Prophet Salim talk about the rights of the neighbor,
and I heard them to and I said, I don't understand it. This is his
final message to us. Where's the grand and and I realized the
Prophet Salam was talking about the grandness. I was the Jair not
seeing it, because I thought the grandness was the mighty things. I
didn't realize that it's those things that are mighty. That's the
politics, that revolution society. That's what changes people. That's
what makes Megan rice do a Tiktok video when Raz is being bombarded,
and she says, I want to know where Palestinians get their resilience
from, and so I'm going to do one page of Quran every day, live on
Tiktok, and makes her, two weeks later, appear on Tiktok, live with
a hijab and say, La ilaha illAllah Muhammad Rasulullah.
That's what makes the community which transforms politics and
revolutionizes, and that's why I always say, you know, and I do
this for myself, and maybe it might work for you, but I'm only
telling you this because it applies to me and it may not apply
to you. I think all of you are better than Sammy a million times,
and I don't say that exaggerated humility. I know myself. You only
see what Allah has allowed you to see. I know myself, and I know
what I've gone through life, and I know mistakes that I've made.
Sometimes there was one day I, you know, you start to imagine.
Sometimes your imagination runs wild, right? What would I be like
in the time of the Prophet sallallahu, sallam? I know you
want to think of yourself as you know, or I am Abu
Bakr Sadi. And then I thought, Okay, send me. Calm down a little
bit. Calm down, open the book and read it carefully, properly and
try to see where you would accept to be part of the story.
Let me tell you about arguably the most terrifying experience of my
life. So I start reading about the seal of the Prophet, and I get to
the first 13 years.
And 13 years the Muslims are being beaten up, persecuted.
So I imagine myself beaten up, persecuted for 13 years,
relentless. Now, I'm not an old man by any stretch of the
imagination. So in my current lifespan, 13 years is a long time.
Would I be able to tolerate it and put up with it?
Would I be the kind of guy to say, Oh, listen, this is way too much
headache when you guys are stronger. Let me know. I'll join
you when you guys are
stronger. I get to Sumaya, Ravi lanha,
who is killed before the Prophet Sallam can even give dawah in
public. And I said to myself, Sammy, would you accept to bow out
of the story here.
And I was horrified to find myself saying,
sumay is in firdos. Allah Abu.
I want more of the story. I want to
I wouldn't accept to be that.
Then you go to the next stage.
Bilal lying on the floor with the rock on his chest. And if I Masha,
Allah, Bella balaba, yeah, but do I want to be violated like that?
Why can't I be like Abu Bakr Sadiq, who doesn't get violated
like that? And Abu Bakr, you know, Abu Bakr Sadiq,
but in my heart, I knew that there's a disease that's there
that I'm starting to discover. Because I don't want to be bilen,
okay? Musa Ibram, who converts Yathrib to Medina, but he dies in
Badr.
Would I accept to bow out of the story, you know, in there where
people celebrate Musa bin omega, but you're not the you know, you
don't get talked about, you know as like a main like people
celebrate you for a particular thing, but you bow out of the
story early and stuff. Allah, I found myself
saying, I don't
know, you get to Hamza dullah Muhammad as sadullah, the Lion of
Allah. He dies in Uhud in the battle where.
The Muslims are defeated.
Sami, what about here? Surely, here. Now, this is,
let me keep going through the Sira. Maybe you know like and you
suddenly realize you're not as you know, as you thought you were. And
stuff for Allah, I got to fat hamaka, the opening of Mecca, and
I find Suhail Ibn Amr,
who mocked the Prophet sallam, the chef who they be. But he stands up
and he says, oh, Quraysh, you were the last to enter Islam. Will you
be the first to leave it? And I went, Ah, I can be Suhail.
And I asked myself, why? It's because I realized in my mind I
wanted to be the one applauded at the end in Fatah Mecca. I was, my
heart was not ready to be the one, you know, the one ready to commit
to the cause. With everything that I have, I realized that I was
imposing conditions on my dower conditions on whether I would
choose to strive for Allah in that I would, I will strive, ya, Allah,
on these conditions. And,
you know, the worst part is,
I got to the part of Badr. And if you read
Martin Ling's, Martin Ling's is good because he takes a lot of the
emotion out of the writing. He writes it almost like a historical
record. And you know, you get to the part in Badr where the 1000
have gathered, and the hypocrites are saying, dude, they're 1000
people. You're 300 they have better weapons. They're
experienced. You're 300 and you're actually going to go against them
and stuff. Allah, my mind went, that's a reasonable thing to say.
And the terrifying thing about that thought was, because it's 300
against 1000 it's tough. But the terrifying thought was, when that
thought came in my head, I was like, there's really actually no
guarantee that if I was there at the time of the Sahaba, that I
would be this grand Muslim that I would like to imagine myself to
be,
and that in order to be that grand Sahaba, I needed to reconcile my
nafs with being somebody who is ready to be a vehicle in any
capacity. And then I opened the story, Ibrahim, alaihi salam,
randomly, I was opening the sur Ibrahim. I was flying. The plane
was shaking. So I thought, let me listen to Quran, at least if it
falls, I'm listening to Quran. So I listened to Surat Ibrahim. I
listened to Surat Ibrahim. And then I got thinking, hang on a
second. Ibrahim, alaihi salam is told to sacrifice the dearest
thing to him, right? To show that he loves Allah, and he goes
through a period where he's desperately trying to reconcile
it.
When he finally reconciles it in its agony,
he prepares to commit the sacrifice. But here's the
fascinating thing,
Allah doesn't take the sacrifice from him.
All Allah wanted to see was that he was prepared to do so. And I
realized, subhanAllah, in order to go there, you need to be ready to
be here, that when you're ready to accept to be the vehicle, that's
when Allah can make you. Saladin ayubi, that when you're ready to
be, you know, I'm not denigrating or saying they're low in any way.
I'm giving you the disease of the mind that suggests that there are
levels. In reality, there's not because they're in for those.
We're stuck here. They're in for those. They're happy celebrating.
So there's really no way in which you can but that's the point. You
open the seer, and it gives you an indication where your heart is
with regards to your capacity and preparedness to sacrifice for the
sake of Allah subhanahu wa and it's terrifying when you close the
book and you realize you might be closer to Ube Muslim.
That's the terrifying thing. When you read what he says, and you
think, I can no longer guarantee and then when you open surah Al
Imran, after those you get to that point. Rabban, Allahu, Adha,
Allah, please do not take us out of this. Deen, after you have
guided us, and the ones who say that Ahlul Al Bab and you realize
Subhanallah,
the arrogant Muslim, is the one who thinks he will always be
Muslim, the pious Muslim is the one who is terrified that because
he knows Islam was a gift from Allah, and to preserve it, he must
show gratitude to Allah. And to show gratitude is to take action,
and to take action and to struggle in the way of Allah, Subhanahu wa
because MELU Allah, and that's when afterwards, you end up saying
to yourself, Ya Allah, please get rid of this disease in my heart.
I'm ready to be a vehicle in any capacity, in your struggle and in
your cause. And then Subhanallah as if Muhammad Jalal had read my
mind from the thinking Muslim. He asks me at the end of the podcast,
Sami, how can we be people of Jannah like salah? Hadn ayubi, and
I got upset.
That last part is a tantrum, I said to Muhammad Jalal, why is it
that we envisage people of Jannah as the people on the podium slate
in ayubi, what made us that we don't appreciate the ones behind
the scenes that we never knew about, the ones who kept teaching
the Quran in Turkey when Ataturk tried to ban it, the ones who kept
teaching the hijabis in Turkey when Ataturk banned the hijab and
allowed them to go to university in order to wear the hijab, the
one that.
Bonds in Bosnians when the Yugoslavian communist regime was
banning MSAs and executing student leaders, but they would still
teach the Quran and hold on to La illa Allah Muhammad SAW you don't
know their names. They're the ones, and for those why Muhammad
jalaha, we become an ummah that celebrates the people on the
podium as if we undermine the efforts of the ordinary Muslim?
Because then you come to this conclusion, you realize that the
solution was always in front of you. When you open the seer of the
prophesy, you go back and read it again after you realize you closer
to Abu salud. But when you go back to the Sira,
you get to the point where Abu Sufyan is talking to Heraclius.
And Heraclius, a non Muslim, had the solution there right in front
of him and told us it in the Sira. He asked Abu Sufyan, who are the
people who support the Prophet Muhammad, sallAllahu, sallam, and
have delivered him to this effectiveness that has worried you
so much? Who are the people giving him this victory?
And when Herakles posed the question, I thought, wait a
minute,
it's not the billionaires, it's not the army generals. It's not
these Heracles. Abu Sufyan says it's Ara viruna. It's the ordinary
people, the lowest of the society.
And Heraclius says two things which made me realize how my own
mentality was backwards. Alhamdulillah, I feel I've been
liberated from it.
Shall I have? Heraklion says that if it's the ordinary people who
are mobilizing, moving, who stop giving up, who are the ones who
are getting up off their couches and making the efforts for the
sake of the Prophet, if it's the ordinary people, then this is the
way of the prophets. And if it is the case that it's the ordinary
people you who are in this room, if it is the case that it is these
people who are relentlessly moving and refusing to stay in their
homes, Heraclius says, Then Muhammad will come to rule the
land on which I stand on. This is Heraclius the equivalent of the
United States of America of that period. And you think Subhanallah,
if Heracles acknowledges it's the ordinary Muslims who deliver the
revolution, then the fact we're moving for Ghazal Palestine does
not suggest that we might be able to do the same. And then this is
the final conclusion, I promise. This is the final conclusion. When
you come to this, this just follow the line of thought. It might not
be correct, but just follow it. So I'm thinking out loud. You know,
sometimes in the night time, you know, after you just you can't
sleep in
it, you think about it, then is ordinary Muslim the right way to
describe ourselves?
If heraklia says that we achieve extraordinary things, how is the
Muslim anything but extraordinary, and if Allah from upon high, has
established a direct relationship with you, do you think he
established a relationship with an ordinary creature, the Allah, the
most extraordinary, established a relationship with you directly
because lakala in sanafi, assani, taqwaim, we created them in
perfect proportion. Allah is proud of his creation. He believes his
creation is extraordinary, and he established a direct link. How did
an ummah go from forgetting this extraordinary relationship to
convincing itself it was ordinary? And that's when I realized, yes,
sir, me, you live your life as a jail. You know, all of these
things were staring you in the face, and you doubted it, but
Subhanallah Allah, Subhanahu wa gives knowledge in his own time
and the right time in the capacity and the like. I don't believe
anyone in this room is ordinary. I believe everyone in this room made
Netanyahu buckle, made Biden buckle, made Blinken buckle, made
under 35 in Americans. Pro Palestinian made that Kamala
Harris's daughter ignores her mother and raises money for
Philistine, made Macron call for a ceasefire, made the ICJ result in
a ruling that Israel must stand trial for genocide, that it made
the CNN presenter apologize for running the beheaded baby story.
The CNN presenter ignored Biden, ignored Netanyahu, and said
there's a power greater than Biden and Netanyahu that I need to be
worried about. It's the power of these people who are lambasting me
and demanding I hold journalistic standards. I need to apologize,
lest they deploy a power that will result in consequences for me.
That's why we see Biden trying to find the masjid to receive Him or
Muslim leaders to sit with, because he knows that the Muslims,
they believe themselves ordinary, are extraordinary in their ability
to punish him for committing that genocide. Ibad Allah, the Ummah
has never, ever been ordinary. It's just that Allah has been
waiting to see whether the Ummah appreciates that it's
extraordinary. And when the Ummah took one step, Allah took 10 when
the Ummah went walking to Allah, Allah ran to this ummah, we've
brought about an unprecedented change. And I promise you, no
matter what happens in Gaza and may Allah give them Sakina and be
with them and give them their justice. But I will say this in
1945 France massacred 30,000 Algerians in a Bruto massacre in
Steve harata and.
Allah and the French, they said, Were massacring them to teach them
that resistance is futile and they will never be free. Allah had
written that, 17 years later, Algeria would be free, despite
never being militarily superior to the French in any way whatsoever.
All Power belongs to Allah, Subhanahu wa because the secret of
the power of this ummah was revealed when the Algerians took
to the streets, when they brought about the defeat of the French,
who were this mighty, mighty colonial power, when they brought
about the defeat, despite never being militarily superior, the
Algerians revealed the source of their strength when they took to
the streets and they chanted Ya Muhammad, sallAllahu, alayhi wa
sallam, congratulations. We delivered Algeria back to you. We
never gave you up. We never gave up. Allah, they persecuted us for
132, years, but ya Rasul, Allah, congratulations, we returned
Algeria to you, and the French said, What is it about these
people? They never give up. La ilaha, illallah, Muhammad, also,
despite colonization, despite persecution. Why is it the Turks,
when at attack, changed everything the alphabet, tried to de Islamize
turkey. Why is it the Muslims of Turkey kept going? Why did the
Kurds of Turkey kept going and they kept hitting the system. They
kept denting it. They kept resisting the military coups. They
kept teaching the Quran. They kept teaching the generation, until
they smashed the system and they delivered el Dugan to power. Why
is it the Bosnians? They survived the persecution of the communist
regime. They survived the execution by the communist regime.
They survived the genocide, but still in the heart of Europe, they
rule La Ilaha, illallah, Muhammad Rasulullah. These are the people.
All they needed to do was give up La Ilaha, Muhammad rasulallah, and
they would have been left alone. They chose not to because they
knew that all power belongs to Allah subhanahu wa they believe
the greatest honor was in being the vehicle. You don't know their
names. You've never heard of them, but Allah knows them, because when
the souls went back to Allah, they heard ya Ayato, hanaf sul mutma
Inna, oh beautiful, lovely soul, come back to Allah. Knows Your
Name and he celebrated you. Allah knows what you did. Allah knows
the way you kept going. Allah knows the way you kept striving
despite that persecution. Irje ila, Rabbi kiraviya, and Allah
tells him, fadhifi Abadi, enter, enter. Come. Let me show you what
is the dearest thing that you could possibly see. Fat holy
Jannati enter my Jannah. And those that you've never heard of, those
people you think Jannah is only for Saladin ayubi. I'm telling
you, you're looking at the cherry on the top. You need to look at
the cake and eat the cake itself. And look at those people who kept
striving and mobilizing, who built these massages for us to have our
Haven, who kept pushing and striving because the reality, as
Muhammad Asad says in his book, Why does the world not go after
Hinduism or Buddhism or these other religions the way it goes
after Islam? It's because Islam is a religion where the Ummah refuses
to give it up, and Islam is a religion that commands the Muslims
to stand up for justice, and this world would prefer to keep their
injustice going. But the Muslims believe that, because the greatest
honor is in being the vehicle do to me what you wish, I will never
give up this message, and that's why Allah has given victory after
victory after victory for this ummah, even when they're
bombarding Gaza, all of the analysts are unanimous that
whatever happens in Ghazal today, their dead are in Jannah. But when
it ends, people will say that Netanyahu has done so much damage
to Israel that the global order has now collapsed, that the values
order doesn't exist anymore because they supported genocide.
And now there are shifts taking place in the world. Now, alliances
are changing. Now the political place are changing. Why it wasn't
nation states that brought it about. It's you who refused to be
quiet. There's no such thing as ordinary. Everybody here is
extraordinary. Keep going, keep making the difference. And may
Allah give us victory in this life and the next. And may we have a
face to show the Prophet, Muhammad Sallallahu, alas, to say to me a
rasulallah,
1400 years ago, you died, but we still heard your call, we still
responded to your call. And Ya Rasulullah, though we never met
you, though we never saw you, though we never spoke to you, we
loved you as if we did. We loved you like we saw you. We loved you
as if we knew you. We loved you as if we had spoken to you. Ya
Rasulullah and Ya Rasulullah, they try to persecute us. They try to
kill us, slaughter us, colonize us. They try to violate us. But Ya
Rasulullah, they told us, all we had to do was give you up. And Ya
Rasulullah, I want to tell you I never gave you up, ya rasulallah,
for you were dearer to me than anything they could possibly do to
me, Ya Rasulullah, and I hope that in jannatifird, those who are all
sitting there in that gathering and Rasulullah.
Will say to us, you have one, you have one, you have one bar.
That
was
so we're going to wrap up in sha Allah with one last question. But
before we do, I want to remind everyone please submit your
completed pledge forms for the mass foundation. If you have
already completed your form, please make sure to submit it
before you head out. Inshallah, so brother Sam, this is our final
question for the night,
when one part of the body hurts, we all hurt. How does the
situation in Pakistan with Imran Khan have an impact on our on our
Ummah and in Palestine in particular,
I think that one of the greatest tragedies, in my opinion, that
colonization inflicted on us was not just the physical aspect, but
the mental aspect. What colonization did was it
disconnected us as a body. It tore our limbs from each other, and our
memories became disconnected from each other. When I read Ibn kafir
or Ibn Khaldun or Ibn Taymiyyah and theirs and their scripts, they
talk about the politics of the Ummah from Morocco all the way to
Jakarta and beyond. For them, it's just normal. We are one ummah. It
makes sense that someone from Tunisia knows about the affairs of
Pakistan. It makes sense that the Pakistani talks about Saudi it
makes sense that the Saudi talks about Malaysia, one umarum
Brotherhood, where we all influence each other. When it
comes to Imran Khan, let me be brutally honest, Imran Khan burst
onto the scene, and when he gave his speech in the United Nations,
he was a wonderfully eloquent advocate for the Muslim causes in
Azerbaijan, secular Azerbaijan, when they liberated Nagorno
Karabakh, Imran Khan's influence was so effective in trans in going
beyond the ethnic and nationalist lines that Azerbaijan in their
celebrations, they lifted three flags Turkey, which gave them the
drones, Azeri flag and Pakistani flag. When Imran Khan emerged onto
the scene, there was a shift in the Muslim world that culminated
in the Kuala Lumpur summit in 2019 the Saudi Crown Prince and the UAE
were so terrified of the Kuala Lumpur summit because they
believed if Imran Khan went and attended, Imran Khan would lend a
Muslim legitimacy to this conference that was designed to
rebuke the de Islamization policies of UAE and Saudi Arabia,
which were looking to introduce alcohol into looking to introduce
* model concepts, which were looking to introduce casinos
into those areas. The Saudis, they threatened Iran Khan. They said,
Wallahi. If you go to Kuala Lumpur, we will cut our
investments to Pakistan, and we will kick out the Pakistanis from
Saudi Arabia. And you can deal with it. Pakistan must be
dependent on us. It cannot be equal to us. Imran Khan the
potential that he was about to bring in terms of establishing an
independence. Remember, at every OIC meeting, Imran Khan would
bring up two topics, Kashmir and Palestine, the reason that
troubled Saudi and UAE so much. There are many people who think
Imran Khan was just words. If he was just words, Saudi UAE would
not have celebrated his toppling, nor would the US Representative
have said to the establishment in Pakistan, get rid of him, and all
will be forgiven. The Imran Khan's words were having such an impact
the way your words are having an impact on Biden Blinken and the
shift in public opinion that Imran Khan was bringing up Kashmir at a
time in which Saudi and UAE were trying to get warmer ties with
India. Remember when Modi's when Indian Prime Minister, Modi's
official insulted the Prophet Muhammad, sallAllahu, Sallam and
Sayyidina Aisha ra Modi panicked so much that he issued an
unprecedented statement. He said, We respect all religions. His
party had never made a statement like that in their entire history.
They commissioned an article in Oman and other Arab capitals,
desperately trying to defend Modi and saying Modi had kicked out the
official Modi was worried that there would be a boycott and that
the Muslim nations would punish India. Guess which country bailed
Modi out and invited him to their capital to tell him, don't worry.
This issue doesn't matter to us. Ignore the Muslim anger. It was
the United Arab Emirates with Bin Zayed received Modi and told him,
taala, come and they hugged him, and they built a temple in UAE
last week to show we're moving beyond Islam and Muslim causes
where now we want warmer ties. We don't really care about these
issues. Imran Khan was making them sign on papers telling them that
they respect Kashmir's right to independence at a time in which
they didn't want to upset India, so they were getting annoyed.
Imran Khan kept bringing up Palestine at the OIC and making
Saudi and UAE sign on a commitment to Palestinian Liberation. At a
time in which UAE and Saudi were trying to get close to the
Israelis. They told Imran Khan, listen, Calm down, bro. I'm trying
to get.
Close to India and Israel. Why do you keep bringing up these issues?
Why do you keep talking about it? The Saudis were getting them not
to talk about it. We brought Iggy zalia and Shakira and Mariah Carey
to get them to forget about Philistine Kashmir. Why are you
bringing it up in the OIC the UAE said we're building casinos and
the like to make them forget about Palestine and Kashmir, relax. Why
do you keep talking about it? Take a few million and shush. And Imran
Khan said, I'm not going to shush. Then Imran Khan made the greatest
crime in Pakistan. He tried to appoint a Chief of Staff of the
Army and appoint an intelligence chief, which is the democratic
right of any elected leader, but in Pakistan, apparently, is haram.
That's it's layer Jews. So they panicked and they kicked them out
of power.
When they kicked them out of power, you who believe yourselves
to be ordinary, do you know why they couldn't arrest him? Because
1000s of Pakistanis took to the streets. They tried to arrest him
in Zaman Park. They couldn't do it. They tried to. They said,
let's hold by elections just to get rid of PTI. They did the by
elections. PTI won a landslide election in the largest province
in Pakistan, in Punjab. Then they panicked, and they said, Yeah,
Ilahi LA, what's going on over here? Then PTI, they tried to pull
a nice move. They wanted to dissolve the assembly of Punjab to
force general elections. The establishment said, whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa. They said, we're not holding general elections.
We're going to appoint a new assembly. And then they went to
the Supreme Court. Supreme Court said, No, you have to hold
elections. They said, those Supreme Court, we're not
respecting the Supreme Court. The reason they couldn't arrest Imran
Khan was because people were getting, like, Arab accounts were
talking about Imran Khan. They were raising awareness, saying,
dude, what's happening to Imran Khan? He's being attacked. Being
attacked only because he's suddenly raising the awareness.
But ya. Ibad Allah, let me tell you something phenomenal about
these Pakistani brothers, and why I believe the Ummah is alive. I
refuse to believe the Ummah is weak. The establishment spent two
years preparing to rig the elections to ensure that Imran
Khan would be eliminated from the scene and pizza. They got him in
prison. They arrested him, because on May 9, some installations were
burnt, some Pakistanis, they got scared suddenly, and they went
home. I don't know why, but in any case, it is what it is. They
arrested Imran Khan. They threw 250 charges. They found something
about his marriage. Apparently, the wife didn't wait for it that
period or something. Something was so ridiculously disgusting that
the way they did it. But in any case, they put him in prison and
they tried to rig the elections. But this is the point I was making
about social media. Social media when I said earlier that they can
shadow ban 1000s of accounts. They can't shadow ban millions. They
can't shadow ban millions of accounts. They can't shut down
millions of voices. Because when they tried to rig the elections,
what the Pakistanis did was they went and voted for independence
who are from Imran Khan's party, and they came first. No one. They
started rigging in broad daylight. I went to bed and there was
somebody leading with like, 180,000 votes. I woke up the next
morning, they reduced it to 90,000 votes. It was rigging in broad
daylight, but they were so clumsy at rigging that even international
media came out and said, it's clearly rigged the election. The
reason I give you this context is one, please read about what's
happening in your ummah. Please learn about what's happening in
your ummah. Please start to take an interest in the communities in
your ummah. Please learn to talk about your ummah the way you talk
about American football or basketball or the like. Please
learn about your ummah and learn about but also, in my opinion,
if Imran Khan was in power, I think there'd be a much louder
voice for Philistine. I think if Imran Khan was in power, there
would be a greater shift in the Muslim world that Erdogan would be
encouraged to pursue as well. So would Malaysia and the like. I
think that Imran Khan in those three years showed what a
potential huge change can happen in the Muslim world. That's why I
believe he was toppled. But more than anything else. It's not about
just about Imran Khan. What we're seeing in Pakistan is a revolution
by the people to push back against an establishment, to say to them,
absolutely clear, Pakistan was not supposed to serve an
establishment. It was supposed to serve the Pakistani people, and
for those who say Sami, but all this just Pakistan. What does it
have to do with me? Abadallah, I'm proof of it. I'm an Arab. The
reason I know so much of what's happening in Pakistan, including
the fact they kidnapped a guy called Usman dar for 20 days, and
then he pops up after 20 days on TV and says, Imran Khan told me to
go burn military installations so like clumsy the way they did. Why
does an Arab know this? Because Imran Khan's message resonated.
Why does an Arab know this? Because Imran Khan made Pakistan
relevant to us. Imran Khan showed us a vision where Pakistan is a
key part of the Ummah, and I, as a Muslim who resonates with the
Ummah, I said, You know what? Actually, Sumaya, do you think
it's worth going to Hanza Valley? Why don't we go visit Islamabad
and Karachi? Why don't we go put our money in Pakistan? Imran Khan
sounds like he's got some good ideas like to bring the Muslims
together. Let's go and support him. We won't go to, you know,
Switzerland or the like. Let's go and see what Pakistan is like. He
was shifting the way that we thought about Pakistan shifting
the way that we thought about the Ummah, and that's why, ya ibad
Allah, let noone ever tell you that words don't matter. Let no
one ever tell you that symbolism doesn't matter. Let no one ever
tell you that words doesn't matter because it.
Does because it affects change, and it causes a shift that results
in a series of consequences, that results in new opportunities.
Pakistan now is in a battle. They are desperately trying to make
sure that Imran Khan doesn't form a government. They try to get the
two parties who are the beneficiaries of the rigging to
form an alliance. There are people who won because of rigging, who
have resigned their positions openly saying I won because of
rigging. I don't want to take my position like that. Pakistan is in
chaos. If you want to do something for Pakistan, go and tweet about
it. Go and talk about it. Go and raise awareness about it. Go and
lend your voice to them. For Wallahi, your voice is what upsets
the establishment, because they've been humiliated so much so that
the US, which was happy to see Imran Khan topple. Has issued a
statement saying that it's expressing concern about what's
happening in Pakistan. They're not actually concerned. They are
rather trying to leave a way open in case Imran Khan comes back to
power, there's a chance that he might, but the Ummah needs to
rally the same way that you saw. You can make a difference on Gaza.
You can make a difference on any issue related to the ummah. Learn
about Sudan, learn about Pakistan. Go and learn it. You learn about
so many other things. What's stopping you from going to learn
and teaching your kids that these things matter for Allah, these
borders are artificial. The Ummah is one, and the proof is that
Allah, in the history of Islam, the liberation of was done by Umm
Al Khattab, the Arab, and by Salah hadeem the Kurd and Constantinople
fell to the Turk. And we have the most profound scholars in our
history, like Baba Ahmed from the West African kingdoms. And we have
some of the greatest poets and scholars from modern day Pakistan
and India. And we have the Mughals, and we have those from
Malaysia and India. Every single ethnicity contributed to Islam,
because for them, Islam was not ethnocentric. Islam was beyond
that. Islam was anybody who said, I'm a Muslim. That's why our
armies were composed of people from everywhere. Ibad Allah, when
did the Ummah start believing these borders that were made?
Let's look beyond it. Let's learn about it. Because Wallahi, in my
opinion, if the Pakistanis win in Pakistan, there will be a domino
effect on the rest of the Muslim
world. InshaAllah, tekbir,
brother Sammy, thank you so much. Wallahi, I am speechless on how to
remark on all we've learned tonight. Tabaq Allah, before we
head out, please, can we just give one final round of applause to our
brother Sam for coming out here twice and doing such an amazing
job. Tabata Allah, thank you guys so much. Jeze Please remember to
submit your forms for the pledges Inshallah, and remember if you
book a trip with Brother Sammy, make sure to cry. Make sure to
cry. JazakAllah, have a good night. Everyone. Salaam. Alaikum.
You