Sami Hamdi – Power of the Muslim Vote UVA’s Muslim Voter Block Event
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Everybody
JazakAllah here for bringing me to Dallas, at least it's sunny.
Hamdullah, so in that BarakAllahu, I should stop the weather jokes,
because everywhere I went, I found rain, but Alhamdulillah, when I
stopped making them, I found sun. So I take back the jokes, so that
the next place I go, in Memphis, I find it Sunny. Inshallah, you say,
I mean, sha Allah, come to London, you'll appreciate every sunshine
you get.
I think you make a very valid point. Shabdan asked about the way
that the Ummah now is there's a momentum, there's a wave, there's
a great awakening that has taken place. There is this idea that an
ummah that believed itself to be powerless is now seeing itself
manifest power in a way that is altering
the foreign policies of Nations itself.
Those of you will have seen Biden today has imposed sanctions on
Israeli settlers, and Netanyahu is very upset about it. Biden is
trying to apply pressure on Netanyahu so that he can reign it
in, because Biden needs time to make you all forget about the
genocide. He needs to find some Imams to sit down with. He needs
photo opportunities. He needs an imam to tell him, please, hear
what we have in our hearts. We want to tell you. And Biden wants
to take a picture where he does this, the way Trudeau did the
other day with some Imams, where he does that, and then he takes
the picture
so that he can show his voters that the Muslims are not united as
one block.
Biden wants to make it so that the Muslims, they focus on the dialog,
but they forget a key part of the seer of the Prophet, Muhammad,
sallAllahu sallam, which is that when the Treaty of hudaybiyyah was
broken, the same way, the Democrats broke the trust of the
Muslims. When the Treaty of hudaybiyyah was broken, Abu Sufyan
rushed to Medina, and desperately tried to find any Sahabi who would
meet with him. He went to amrable as and said, Please get me a
meeting with the Prophet AMR has turned his back on him. He went to
Abu Bakr Sadiq told him, please, please find me a way to speak the
Prophet sallam. And he turned his back on him. He even went to
Bilal, who he looked down upon. He said, Bilal, remember the leader
of Quraysh who had mocked Bill el Barba was now pleading with Bilal
balaba, grabbing him desperately, telling him, please, Bilal turned
his back on him. No one would meet with abus the same way no one will
meet with genocide. Joe Inshallah,
ibadah, Allah,
genocide. Joe wanted to visit Michigan,
and he desperately searched for a message to find now I confess. I
confess.
I'm a rabaraza from London. It's true, but how many of you have
seen the film, Godfather?
You know that scene towards the end where Don Corleone tells his
son, Michael tells him, when he's fighting with the barzinis,
because they've broken the trust. So he says, The barzinis, they
will send somebody and they will invite you to a negotiation. The
traitor is the one who comes with the message.
So all I'm saying is the masjid or Imam that comes to you. You said
it not me.
The reason why I say this year ibad Allah is because a very
important trust between the Muslims and the Democrats was
emphatically broken. Joe Biden won many votes in America with one
word, inshallah.
Joe Biden told the Muslims that because the Republicans had
betrayed the trust of the Muslims in Florida when they lived with
Bush to power, that therefore the only hope for the Muslims was to
go towards the Democrats, even as they shoved down things down the
throats of our children in many of the education establishments or
the like. And the Muslims said, because the betrayal was so great
from the Republicans, we threw ourselves down into the other
side. The Muslims forgot to innovate politically. They forgot
to engage politically. They believed that engagement had to be
within the system that was afforded to them, but they didn't
think about how to bend that system to themselves. For some of
those younger generations, actually, this might be older
generation now. So who's seen The Matrix before?
Right? You see the first scene where Morpheus is trying to
explain to me what the matrix is, and then he tells him, but you can
bend the matrix. You can bend it to your will. Ibad Allah, this
system that was supposed to be rigged against you today, has
given the Muslims the deciding vote in November by the fact that
the very swing states that will decide just so happened to be the
places where you decided to go and reside.
The reason why Biden is coming to you earlier brother Bashir was
talking earlier about Muslims, who said that politics does not is not
relevant to us.
If the Muslims did not matter in the political system, why is Biden
desperately looking for a message to meet him? Why did Blinken today
try to meet with a Palestinian Doctor Who lost 90 members of his
family, they were slaughtered in the Israeli genocide, and Blinken
still had the nerve to invite him to a meeting to convince him that
the Democrats are still better than the other side.
Blinken wanted to sit with a man who lost 90 who 90 members of his
family was slaughtered in a genocide, and wanted to say that
it was necessary for them to die because Israel has the right to
self defense.
It shows you the extent to which a Muslim community that fails to
engage loses its value, but also the way that Muslims engage before
did not provide as much value as it should have done.
The idea that every time a president wanted to trample on the
Ummah, they found an imam ready to take a photo opportunity with
every time a president trampled on the Ummah, they found a masjid
ready to receive them. Every time they trampled on the Muslims, they
found that the Muslims would always say, will choose the lesser
of two evils. The reason why sin is panicking today is because the
Muslims now have a different attitude, which is Wallahi. I know
the Orange Man is probably be very might even be worse for me, but
Wallahi, let's suffer together. Biden Over my dead body, I let you
get a second term after you commit genocide.
The attitude,
the attitude of the Muslim today, is one that resembles us in North
Africa.
We have, you know, like
so I'll give you two examples. So my father is Tunisian, my mother
is Algerian. I'll give you the Tunisian example and then the
Algerian example in Tunisia, in the village where I come from,
Sidi Buzi, they will organize football, and they'll play on this
sand with these rocks. I don't know how they play football on it,
but you play on it. When you make your teams, there will always be
somebody who turns up late and he says, nalabul and haram, either I
play or I make sure no one plays.
And what he does, if you don't let him play, he picks up the ball and
runs away with it. The Muslims are telling Biden nella Abu Al and
haram I play or I prevent you from getting a second term. You didn't
let us play. There's no second you,
which means none of us get to play. We all suffer for it. The
second example is the Algerian concept of Scara. And I love this
term, Scara, whenever my mother gets angry with me, she says, You
did something. I didn't tell you too. She said you wanted to do it.
Scara, you I'm like mama Wallahi did and Walla, walla didn't do
scarafi. Scara is when you don't have power to achieve an outcome
that you want, but the beneficiary who has bullied you. You've
discovered something that will make sure he can't enjoy it
either. You found a way to annoy him and ruin his experience.
So you keep doing that because you're not going to enjoy and you
say, I'm not going to let you enjoy it. Scarafiq, I'm going to
keep doing the action that annoys you for it.
Ibad Allah, the reason why I start with this is because it's a sober
assessment of the opportunities that are before us.
The reality is that the next four years, irrespective of who you
choose, it's going to be tough and difficult,
whether it is genocide, Joe or whether it is Donald Trump.
Biden was asked, Are you worried about losing the Muslim vote? He
said, Why would I be worried? The other side is a Muslim ban. And if
Muslims have to choose between genocide and Muslim ban, they
would rather choose genocide. 30,000 people dead. But
okay, they may have died, but I still want to see my relatives
when they come to America. I don't want to go to beautiful London,
classy, elegant London, which is better than New York.
I don't want to go to Paris or Frankfurt or Sarajevo or this
place. No, we're American. We go America. I admit you have a
beautiful country. I confess it is true. And I like to think I'm more
American now than most people in this room. I've probably been to
nearly every single state now in America. Alhamdulillah, in many
cities. And now I can speak some American as well. You know howdy
all, how are you? How you doing
gas station instead of petrol station?
And I learned all of these terms, chicken and waffles. Is a bit too
much of a stretch. That's a bit. And I don't know how anybody and
you put syrup on top of the chicken in lillehi were in
elehiraun. And the way you do it with a smile on your face, the
shamelessness in stuff for Allah and you're laughing about rudilla.
Ah, no respect, no boundaries.
The reason why I say this is to give a sober assessment of what we
are able to achieve.
The reality is
that the Muslim ummah, in its united voice, shifted public
opinion in a way that is unprecedented and in a way that
promises to be permanent. The polls suggest that now, 35 years
and younger of ordinary American population are no longer Zionists.
Kamala Harris's own daughter is raising money for Philistine
the new generation is no longer ideologically committed to the
Zionist idea. But ask yourselves, why?
It's because when the Palestinians had to document their own genocide
and ethnic cleansing, they needed, they needed, they needed an ummah
to amplify their voice the Palestinians, they called out.
They said, Yeah, ibad Allah, we are being slaughtered by the
Zionists for no other reason than they want the land that belongs to
us
and the ummah. They said, given the Muslim leaders are not
mobilizing, and some of them instead, are giving Fatah that we
should be
quiet about our views Express other speakers own. They do not
reflect the organization. It's, you know, they want to go jet that
please let them through. It's none of my business stuff. You're going
to be careful about these things. When people take picture, I tell
them, are you sure happy baby, then Hajj.
The reason that this shift has taken place is because an ummah
that was heartbroken, that despaired at what it saw, refused
to be quiet. And Ummah that saw those images refused to be quiet.
And Ummah that was told it had no power, said, * it, I have
some power. Let me use whatever it is I can use. The Ummah decided to
speak. It decided to shout. Then it roared, and then it forced the
poles to shift in such a way that Blinken went from not calling for
a ceasefire to calling for a humanitarian because when he
calculated the swing states, it just so happened that those swing
states where the very swing states where the Muslims are
concentrated, it wasn't a swing states where there are no Muslims.
It was like, why did it have to be the states of Michigan, Arizona,
Georgia, Pennsylvania, where our uncles and our fathers and
grandfathers chose to move and chose to why couldn't they go to
other states instead? It's as if Allah has put the power in your
hands.
Ay, bad Allah,
I know I don't want to. I'm notorious for going on for long,
and I've committed myself to be very short in this particular one
so that I can behave and you know, and and not take too much more of
your time. Ayah, the question that is before us is if we're all
convinced now that genocide, Joe needs to be punished,
that cannot be an aim in and of itself, that has to be a tactic to
achieve something greater. Because if you're going to punish
genocide, Joe, you open the door for Donald Trump.
Now, for those of you worried about the Muslim ban, listen, it's
only four years. I'll come back after four years, Inshallah, you
don't need to worry about too much. So all I'm saying this
Muslim ban, that was Obama's idea that Trump expanded on. And I know
it was Obama's idea because the list that Obama did meant I had to
go to the embassy and tell them, please let me into your country, a
most humiliating experience, but something that at the end of the
day, my friend told me that if I don't turn up to his wedding in
North Carolina, he said, Heather beniwa Benik, this would be the
time where we break our relationship, because there's only
eight of my guys and 400 of hers. And in my heart, I went, nah, I
can't allow my boy to be abandoned like that. To 400 Americans, we
will go represent the king. God saved the king.
And I had to go to the embassy. I had to line up in that queue in
the morning. I had to enter it. I had to sit behind a glass. And
they're not like, you know, Midwest or like Southern
hospitality or west coast, whether you know, you walk in the morning,
630 in California to go to a cafe, and you have these people jogging
in yoga pants, and they go, Hey, how are you? And you're like, who?
Why are you so happy so early in the morning, strong with you.
This person was more like East Coast. Hey, I'm walking over you.
So the person
says to me, what's the purpose of your visit? I'm
going for a wedding. How long I wanted to say, not a second longer
than I need to. But I'm in the US Embassy, you never know what they
might do. So I was like, I'm going for 10 days. Where are you going?
New York, maybe Philadelphia, Washington, North Carolina. I
thought you're going North Carolina, yeah. But since I'm in
America, I may as well go see like New York. Malik, what's wrong with
you? And then he looked a bit right wingy. So he said, Sammy, so
he told me, what do you do? I told my risk consultant. He said,
What's that? And by this time, shahadah snapped, we have dignity
and karama right, usaraha If I don't need the visa. So I said to
him, you want to play that game Google? Sami hemdi. He
was like what I said. I was quoted yesterday in Fox News. Don't judge
me. That.
I didn't actually give a quote to Fox News. I did an interview, and
Fox News took the quote from Al Jazeera. Don't judge me, because
the next part is worse. He goes, okay. He Google Sammy Hamdi goes,
Oh, and you were quoted in Braid bar.
And I went, Oh, I didn't even know that. But yeah, okay, yeah. And he
goes, Well, welcome to America. I realized all I
needed to do was buy a mega hat before the interview, and I
probably wouldn't have gone through the questions. Wouldn't
have gone through the questions,
but going back to the point at hand, it's important to look at
the road that is in front of us. The Muslims have the power,
statistically, to punish Biden. If the Muslims were really organized,
they could punish Biden, and they could even potentially prevent
Trump from winning the house. If you were able to identify the
local areas where you can make a difference. Unfortunately, when I
was in some I mean, I've been touring the US, the deadline for
registration to vote is 20th of February, and I was stunned to
find people still doing drives to get Muslims to vote. I cannot
understand how Biden is so scared of the Muslim vote. He's scared
the Muslims will use that vote. But many Muslims still aren't
registered, and it made me realize, to be honest, Allahu,
Alaihe, Allah, is not oppressive to his believers. I realized when
an ummah is humiliated, it's humiliated for a reason, because
the other side is worried that the Ummah is going to use a tool that
the Ummah has not even equipped itself with. That tool,
they're worried you're going to manifest a power that you don't
appreciate they're worried that you're going to do something that
will actually punish them. And then I turn up on the 26th of
January at the MCA in San Francisco, and they're still
trying to get Muslims to vote because they know Biden is scared
of it. They know Blinken is scared of it. They know that's why Biden
is falling over in his relationship with Netanyahu.
That's why there are division between Israel and the US. And you
tell a Muslim, Have you registered to vote, at least? Have you
equipped yourself with the power that Biden fears you will use? He
tells you, what's the point? Biden is worried about it. And you're
telling me, what's the point? Netanyahu is worried about it.
You're telling me, what's the point blinking is worried about
it. You're worried what's the point in Allah Raj, the Ummah
deserves what it gets in that instance.
So my message to you is here, there are different ways that we
can move forward. One thing I will say
is that it is true, and I will acknowledge it. There has been a
breakdown of trust between representatives and the Muslim
community. There is a breakdown in trust between the community and
those who seek to represent them. There is a sense of deja vu that
we've been here before, where people say we need to mobilize and
engage, and then we rally behind the representatives, and the
representatives bail miserably in representing us.
If you believe that your ultimate aim is to deliver those
representatives alone, that's not the strategy here. What Raza has
demonstrated is that as an ummah, we have power. As a community, we
have power, but also that we often have not used that power to the
best of our abilities. For example, if I told you, if I told
you to give me a list of 10 names that you would send to CNN or BBC
tomorrow, you would struggle to produce 10 names. The Zionist has
a list of 200 people.
A bit of a petty story. But you know, I believe ALLAH is involved
in the mundane, just as he's involved in the grand scheme of
things. Now, as a Brit, Brit from the UK, where we speak English.
When I came to the US, because your influence is so great, many
of the US products are more expensive because of import tax.
So when I came to the US, I had a list of US goods that I wanted to
buy that would be much cheaper over here, that I'd fit into my
suitcase and I'd go and bring them back to the UK. Amongst those were
Timberlands.
So I called my wife, I told her, today I've got a free day. I'm
gonna go buy timber. Tommy Sammy, wait, the company supports
Zionism. And my reaction was, and
somebody said to me, takila, we are doing this for the Haqq. I
said, yakhi. I never said, I'm not going to boycott. I just said, I'm
upset that the Timberland supports. Zionist Maha breaks for
it. He goes, how can your heart break for Timberlands? And bear in
mind, I believe this example is valid the Prophet Muhammad
Sallallahu, alayhi wa sallam, when he left Mecca, after Allah ordered
him to do so, when he left Mecca, even though he knew Allah ordered
him. He still looked back at Mecca, and he said, Wallahi, you
are the dearest land to me, and if your people had not driven me out
of you, I would never have left you. He was heartbroken, even as
he followed the order of Allah, some of you might be thinking, How
dare he bring this in a Timberlands example, if you're
thinking that it's because you believe ALLAH is only relevant in
great things, I believe him to be relevant in every breath that I
take. That's the difference between me and you. So I was upset
about Timberlands.
The reason why I mentioned this is what Gaza also showed us, is that,
as an ummah, we have resources, but we don't invest it often in a
way that will give us lasting change. For example.
After I gave a talk at Berkeley, you guys call it Berkeley.
It is Berkeley. Yeah,
I'm in America, so I'll go by your rules. We went for dinner after
with some of the students, and one of them asked me, how you finding
the boycott? I said, you want the truth? He said, Yeah. I told him,
I'm finding it a bit hard. He said, What do you mean? I told
him, I'm not finding the willingness hard, like the will to
boycott is was raw, believe me, after I saw the McDonald's chief
say that we're losing money because of the boycott, I haven't
thought of Philae fish since,
but I told him what I'm struggling with is, where are the Muslim
alternatives for these things?
Where is the Muslim version of Timberlands, the marks? And
Spencer, someone said, Why do you wear jumpers? It's because my
shirts are marks. In Spencer, I don't want to wear those marks.
And Spencer, sir, where's the equivalent? I have to go to
Istanbul to go buy Kili, to get the other shirts. And I have a
theory, and this theory is relevant to those who are seeking
to represent the community 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. I think
what we did today, yesh as an ummah, what we did is we looked at
the Hadith and we said, Okay, this hadith is nice, Masha, Allah, we
talk about in a halakah, but we want to add to the Hadith. I know
some you're going Stark for Allah, but wait when you hear me to the
end, you realize added to the Hadith, and you're the one who
should make tawbah, not me.
We added to the Hadith. We said, Allah loves the hand that gets
this risk,
but we want to add to the Hadith the hand that is in law, medicine
and engineering, because ya Rasul Allah, if I am sitting with my
with my brother and his daughter is a surgeon,
you want me to tell him that my son makes shoes?
You want me to tell him that my son makes shirts because some guy
from London said he couldn't find Timberlands. You want me to tell
him that my son makes nails, you know, screwdrivers for
construction, so that we can use that kind of thing. Ya rasulallah,
Allah might love the hand that gets this risk from making shoes,
but I need my brother to love it as well.
Allah might love the hand that strives for its risk, but I need
my brother. It's not enough. Allah loves it, and it's not enough that
you love it. Ya Rasulullah, I need my brother to love it, because my
bride has value? Does my pride have no value?
All of you guys are cringing now, but you're cringing because you
realize you're falling in this category of people. The reason why
I mention this is when we're looking in terms of how we move
forward. Inshallah, genocide, Joe will be punished. For those of you
who are more organized, you will be able to deliver representatives
in certain areas. For those of you, even more organized, you will
be able to punish those who refuse to call for a ceasefire. Scara.
You'll make him lose, even though you don't know who on earth the
other candidate is.
For some of you, you will entrench the new thought in new think
tanks, new institutions, training political analysts or the like.
For some of you, you'll start engaging in new media training or
that kind of thing. But yeah. Ibad Allah, I finish on this point, and
I promise you, I finish
this issue of trust is a serious issue.
Ibad Allah, I have been
across America, and I'll be honest with you, and this is with the
greatest of respect you're not in this you're not in this category,
and neither are you. But I've, I've seen Imams. They've come and
they've said, We feel there is a rupture relationship with the
congregation, that the congregations are looking at us,
at the representatives, at the Imams, and saying, Why were we not
prepared for this? Why were we not ready for this? Why is it the
Muslim organizations that kept going to those iftars? Why is it
they're unable even to have any influence whatsoever over Biden's
course of action? Why is it that Imams, you taught us about all
these various different things, about perseverance, but you're
unable to mobilize the community in a way in which we're able to
make a difference. There is a rupture in trust that is true, but
in this rupture is an opportunity to reflect and revise the way that
we move forward in that what we've realized now is that as an ummah,
we don't need to compromise as much as we thought. We don't need
to bend over as much as we thought we are the ones who raised the
Voices Against Genocide, and the allies came rushing to our
assistance. We raised the voice against genocide, and the allies
came flocking to us. You'll even remember, on both sides of the
spectrum, the Muslim is not Democrat, the Muslim is not
Republican. The Muslim operates based on the cause in front of
them. Because Ali ibn Abi talaan Who said that people are not that
truth is not determined by the people who say but rather a people
are determined based on whether they stand with the truth.
In July, if you remember, for those of.
You. And bear in mind, I'm not saying vote Trump. Somebody said
Sam is going around saying, vote Trump. If you keep insisting on
that. Yom al qayyma, I will ask Allah to ask you to deliver the
proof, and when you don't deliver the proof, Allah will give me the
choice to forgive you or not. I don't know if I will be forgiving.
Don't worry, I will. I will be forgiven. The point that I'm
saying is this, to emphasize this point, that the Muslim is neither
Democrat nor Republican. Do you remember in July when the Muslim
parents in Michigan grow tested about certain
values being shoved down the throats of our children?
Do you remember when Fox News covered it? Do
you remember when Fox News covered it? When Fox News came and said,
look at these Muslims, how they're standing for their values. We
should be doing the same. Ibad Allah,
I'm not saying go Democrat nor Republican. I'm not saying to you,
vote one person or vote the other person. I'm telling you to now,
instead of looking at individuals, look at the goal that you're
trying to achieve.
The first goal is we want to tell the world that if you commit a
genocide, your political career is finished. Genocide. Joe out of the
door. Inshallah.
The second goal we're trying to achieve is that the Muslim vote
matters. The way the Muslim vote matters is not just in the
presidential election, it's also in the way that you mobilize
locally. For those of you thinking that Sammy will it really make a
difference if we punish genocide, Joe and Trump comes into power
instead. Let me put it to you bluntly. There are two scenarios
here, and I promise, I promise. I'm wrapping up. I promise. At
the moment when the Congress person comes to you,
how is the interaction before? They don't do research on Muslims
beforehand, what they'll do is they'll meet a Muslim
representative who'll tell them, why don't you visit a masjid? And
they'll be like, Sure, why not? I lose nothing. They won't research
Islam until they're in the car. Then they'll ask their secretary,
find me something that will wow the Muslims. So the Secretary
Googles how to wow Muslims.
So the Muslim, so he finds he says, you know, Congressman,
they have a greeting Asmaa, assala, Assam may come as Sama
mekhm.
So he'll stand there and he'll be like, Sama makeup. Everybody go.
It's actually Assalamu alaikum, but thank you for trying. Very
good. Mubarak. Eid, it's actually aid Mubarak. But thank you very
much. Thank you very much. And he'll
go if genocide Joe wins the second term. Do you think any Congress
representative will waste their time coming to you? They will say,
We committed a genocide of 30,000 Palestinians, and they still voted
for us. These people have no dignity and self respect.
Why would we go visit them? And then a Muslim will say, No, it was
strategic. It was, you know, they'll be like
you see these guys.
But if you punish genocide, Joe, here's why. I imagine what will
happen. I imagine the Congress person will come to you when I'm
Inshallah, if I'm invited to Dallas al Ramadan, Inshallah,
hint, hint.
And I am inshallah praying. You know, in in these institutes, I
reckon that next to me I'll find the Congress person next to me
praying to herjud, because he needs the votes.
I imagine that the Congress person will stand on the stage next time,
he will not only pronounce as salaam alaikum correctly, but he
will say things like and everybody. We gotta work together.
It's going to be hard, but as the Prophet Muhammad said, enamel Amal
will be near
everybody. I know it's going to be hard the road ahead, but we can do
this together our communities, because, as the Prophet Muhammad
said in the Mao usri Isra,
why? Because they will respect the fact that for the first time in
the history of your presence here in America, you finally show the
ability to punish. What makes a Zionist strong is not their
ability to deliver candidates, is their ability to punish now, when
your representatives stand in front of your ibad Allah, I'll be
honest with you, when your representatives now stand calling
on your vote, remember that the Ummah now has shown power.
Remember now that they are relying on you. Now remember they're
seeking your approval. Why? Because they have recognized that
the Ummah has power, and they need to tap into that power. As long as
you believe in that power, you will be able to make sure that
they represent you. As long as you believe in that power, you will be
able to move forward. The moment you let go of that power, we will
repeat the same cycle that we did before, where people take the
Muslims for granted. Abad Allah always remember, and this is the
final sentence, there's no such thing as an ordinary Muslim. For
how can a Muslim be ordinary when Allah the Almighty has established
a personal relationship with you, how can a Muslim be ordinary? When
Allah said, ADR uni as tajib lequm, call on me directly. I
will.
Respond to you. How can a Muslim be ordinary when the Lord Almighty
has said, Come to me, walking. I come to you, running. Take one
step towards me. I take 10 steps towards you. Ibad Allah, the
reason why you have people now saying to you, line up behind us
and support us and back us is because they recognize that you
have power. You are allowed now to set the terms. You are allowed to
set the terms of your support. You are allowed to say that we don't
want to do it the way we did it before. We don't want to see those
compromises that we saw before. We don't want to be told that you
know better than us. We don't want to be told that we know what to
say when we're standing in that White House. We don't want to be
told that, because 30 years of doing it, when a genocide
happened, there was no power there to be used or to leverage. The
power that made Biden buckle was not the power that was won at the
White House. It was the power of the ordinary or extraordinary
Muslim who roared and raised their voices. Made Biden buckle, made
blink and buckle, made Netanyahu buckle, made Macron call for a
ceasefire when Biden didn't want him to. Made Belgium call for
sanctions on Israel, when Biden didn't want them to, made Spain
say it's ready to recognize a Palestinian state, when Biden
didn't want them to, it was said that the power would be through
them, when in reality, it turned out, the power was always with us.
You set the terms. Know your power, set the terms, and let a
new generation of representatives emerge, ones that will not take us
for granted, ones that will represent us and ones that will
know that when Biden looks for any one of them to get a photo
opportunity, they will not do so, because they know that no photo up
with Biden is worth the wrath of a Muslim community that toppled
genocide Joe Baraka, laufi,