Shadee Elmasry – Does the US Election REALLY Affect What Happens in Gaza
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the political climate in the United States and the potential consequences of not wanting to vote for the current president. They criticize the current president for his disregard for Muslims and his presentation of conservative parties as an "arson partner" instead of a "arson fan." The speaker also mentions the recent election of a Republican candidate and the recent election of a Democratic candidate in Michigan. The removal of liberal leaders, including Mehdi Hassan and Kamala Harris, is a result of political and political events, and there is a need for consistency in politics. The success of Islamophobic groups like the Nationalists and the centers, but political events and religion are not the only reasons for the removal of these leaders. There is a large number of conversions happening in Islam, which is affecting the political climate in the United States.
AI: Summary ©
Does it really, does the war on Gaza
even matter who's president in the United States?
That's a fair question to ask, right?
That's basically it.
That's, that's why I don't agree with how
Mehdi Hassan has conducted himself.
This idea that, oh, if you don't vote
Democrat and you vote Republican, then you're some
kind of idiot or you've got it completely
wrong.
Ultimately, backing the Democrats is surely the most
deplorable position that anyone can take at this
juncture.
Arguably, it's way worse than anyone wanting to
back Trump.
Again, I'm not sitting here saying that I'm
a Trump supporter from Britain.
I recognize that he is a rabid supporter
of Israel and that he has pushed the
Zionist agenda under his presidency as well.
But if you're talking about the genocide and
punishment for, political punishment for allowing that genocide
to happen, then surely the Democrats have to
be the target.
And I think as Muslims, like you say,
we're a minority.
It's limited how much, how much we can
achieve with our votes, power.
We have to pick our targets selectively and
intelligently.
That's why in the UK, despite the fact
that the Conservatives were the ones in power
prior to the election, despite the fact that
Labour is the traditional home of Muslims and
that Muslims in Britain tend to lean to
the left if they are political, the Labour
Party were the ones that we could punish
significantly more so than the Conservatives because the
Labour Party relies on Muslims much more than
the Conservatives ever does.
So pushing a boycott of the Conservative Party
in Britain would have been a waste of
time, quite frankly.
I don't think they would have cared either
way.
But pushing a boycott of the Labour Party
was and did have a significant impact and
really rattled cages and showed that British Muslims
are not going to be treated like a
doormat when it comes to the issue of
Gaza.
In fact, it actually sent major shockwaves right
up to number 10 and to Westminster.
We actually succeeded in achieving some.
There are five pro-Gaza independent MPs that
were elected in key seats that the Labour
Party was hoping to win in order to
further their majority hold on government.
So, again, that's an example arguably of a
targeted campaign which achieved some successes and sent
the right message to the British establishment.
And that's what I urge American Muslims to
try to do.
But I really just do not accept the
Mehdi Hassan position because it was similar to
the position of British Muslims who remained loyal
to the Labour Party, even though the leader
of the Labour Party is a notorious supporter
of Israel as well.
And they were going against the community's efforts
to push a boycott campaign.
So I think whatever you decide to do,
hopefully that is the bottom line here is
punishing the Democrats is a simple goal.
It's a realistic goal.
It's one that can be achieved.
But obviously not with the likes of Mehdi
Hassan if he's going to lead the way.
You know, what set me off is when
he responded to Imam Tom, the arrogance of
these liberal Democrat, Democratic leaning people, whether they're
from journalism or academia, they are just so
arrogant.
Right.
It sets you off.
And that's really what set me off on
everything up to that point that he said
on Gaza and Palestine was great.
I loved it.
I see his shorts coming up every night
when I get home and I turn the
TV on.
I see his shorts coming up.
He's great.
But the arrogance, right.
Talking down on everybody like that.
So but that's the that's the quality.
And that's what set me off from these
liberal types from 15 years ago.
Like I cannot even stand coming near them
or listening to a word that comes out
of their arrogant mouths.
That's number one.
Number two.
We all have been saying the right doesn't
care about Muslims.
There's no point in interacting with them.
Right.
Then you got Donald Trump going into Michigan.
Three, four times.
And we know his father, his daughter's father
in law is now a Lebanese Christian, and
he helped facilitate these things.
Right.
A lot of Lebanese in Michigan.
But he had, I guess you could say
the gall to go there after all of
what he said about Muslims.
I'm telling you, the guy relies upon the
short term memory of people and the gullibility
of some community leaders.
And he goes in there and one guy
says, I don't know if you saw this,
but one of the guys says, what do
you have to say to the Muslim community?
We love you.
Right.
What are you going to do about this
war?
We're going to end it.
Right.
We want peace.
Why didn't the Democrats do this?
Why didn't Kamala go there?
And it's almost like they're trying to be
consistent where Trump is almost like this postmodern
type where nothing matters except this feelings at
this moment in time.
No consistency matters.
Right.
And he was able to get these people
to stand up there and be pro and
give a pro Trump rally basically in Michigan.
So he went three, four times, according to
what I know.
Some of it was publicized and some of
it wasn't.
But he went three, four times and he
had his guy working, his whatever, new family
member.
Why did Democrats completely drop the ball on
this?
Why didn't they go number one?
And then when they did send in Clinton,
oh, my gosh, they're where are they?
He totally basically shot them in the foot.
But at the end of the day, not
going to affect Gaza in my personal opinion.
Nothing's going to change on that front.
And we're going to go back to life
as is.
I just think that the only other thing
I've noticed here, I've just noticed that there
is a significant number of conversions to Islam
taking place.
This is something which we talk about a
lot in the UK because it's a phenomenon
which we've seen spike after Gaza.
Yeah, I don't know if that same phenomenon
is happening here.
But I was in an Uber yesterday and
I met a Mexican who converted to Islam.
I visited a store where there was some
pro-Palestine activists handing out leaflets and there
were two converts there.
So this seems to me like a phenomenon
that is happening in the States as well.
And if we can't achieve anything politically, if
we can't change anything on the ground for
the people of Gaza, then perhaps one of
our greatest weapons is to fall on our
religion, you know, and to rely on our
religion and to keep pushing that message.
That's something which I firmly believe now, especially
from someone who comes from a very politically
active background.
Perhaps the most effective thing we can do
is remain patient, pray, do our duty as
Muslims and just invite people to Islam.
Maybe it's a long term strategy, but it
looks like it's bearing fruit already with the
sheer number of conversions that's taking place.
And it's something which really worries not just
the establishment, but the Islamophobes, the right wingers,
the nationalists.
You know, they can't understand.
They kill Muslims in large numbers.
They're at war with the Muslim world.
They invade and occupy Muslim countries, yet the
religion continues to grow no matter what they
do, even though they have a media pumping
out Islamophobic narratives.
They have politicians treating Muslims like second class
citizens.
They don't platform genuine Muslim speech in the
mainstream.
We're still growing as a community.
And subhanAllah, I think that's a miracle in
itself.
Perhaps that's our most effective strategy, if nothing
else.
That's my philosophy, and that's why we got
the soup kitchen going.
Go down to the low hanging fruit, the
people whose hearts are open, the people who
are genuine, where there's no BS.
Politics is 99.9999% lies and BS
and nonsense.
And win or lose that game, whatever happens,
happens.
I'm not against people being involved in it.
Muslims should be involved in everything, but really
where the low hanging fruit is.
Go there, Allah is sending you a message.
That's why we film out of a soup
kitchen and we're attached to the soup kitchen
and we want this to run seven days
a week, right?
Seven days a week, soup kitchen open.
Now we're now open one day a week.
But that's really what I personally believe in,
the low hanging fruit.
Go where people's hearts are open to talk
to you, where there's no nonsense.
There's no lies.
There's no BS, right?
That's where you're going to go because those
people, from them will come future governors, future
politicians, future millionaires.
If you deal with them, if, uh, if
you deal with a million, my second million
poor people in your lifetime from them will
come very influential people just by percentages, right?
And those influential people have a, you touch
their heart, you touch their lives.
They know you a hundred percent.
So it's more of a long-term cultural,
uh, result that you're going to get.
And that's what I'm comfortable doing.
That's what I do.
And I wish everyone the best, regardless of
what they're, um, all the Muslims, regardless of
what they're, uh, how they're trying to help,
you know, as long as it's within a
fundamentals of Islam, I'll give them support.
I pray that they benefit, um, the people
and they're successful.
So I like to take that optimistic and
clean hearted approach towards all the Muslims trying
to do different things, even in politics.
Inshallah.
Inshallah.
No, I wish you all the best.
And I wish, uh, I wish everyone here
in America all the best.
Uh, and I hope that however the vote
falls, uh, it will send the right message
to the people of Gaza, Inshallah.