Shadee Elmasry – War in Syria with Sami Hamdi – NBF 405

Shadee Elmasry
Share Page

AI: Summary ©

The Sufyan Society discusses the upcoming events in Syria, including Omar Q centers and the HDF, while acknowledging the upcoming attacks on Iranian-led territory. They stress the importance of following principles and not criticizing anyone. The conflict between the US and Iran is discussed, with the return of American troops to Syria being a positive for the region. The speakers stress the importance of following principles and not criticizing anyone.

AI: Summary ©

00:01:15 --> 00:01:16
			In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
		
00:01:16 --> 00:01:17
			the Most Merciful, all praise is due to
		
00:01:17 --> 00:01:20
			Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the
		
00:01:20 --> 00:01:22
			Messenger of Allah and upon his family and
		
00:01:22 --> 00:01:23
			companions and whoever is around.
		
00:01:23 --> 00:01:28
			Welcome everybody to the Sufyan Society's Nothing But
		
00:01:28 --> 00:01:29
			Facts live stream.
		
00:01:29 --> 00:01:31
			Omar, let me see the image please.
		
00:01:33 --> 00:01:34
			Here, you turn this on.
		
00:01:35 --> 00:01:38
			Keep clicking away, as only a Moroccan can
		
00:01:38 --> 00:01:38
			do.
		
00:01:41 --> 00:01:46
			We're here today on a very interesting subject
		
00:01:46 --> 00:01:47
			that we're going to be covering today.
		
00:01:47 --> 00:01:48
			Let's go.
		
00:01:49 --> 00:01:50
			Keep it green, you're good to go.
		
00:01:52 --> 00:01:55
			Of course, in the past week, in the
		
00:01:55 --> 00:01:58
			past few days, the Syrian revolution has occurred
		
00:01:59 --> 00:02:02
			and in which, I don't know if we
		
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04
			can say there were heavy casualties, but of
		
00:02:04 --> 00:02:09
			course it did garner a lot of attention.
		
00:02:09 --> 00:02:16
			The Pakistan protests had actually probably, I think,
		
00:02:16 --> 00:02:17
			more casualties.
		
00:02:18 --> 00:02:20
			Nonetheless, I want to begin with a couple
		
00:02:20 --> 00:02:20
			of themes.
		
00:02:21 --> 00:02:23
			Number one, the importance of concern for the
		
00:02:23 --> 00:02:23
			Ummah.
		
00:02:23 --> 00:02:25
			And you know that Nothing But Facts, we
		
00:02:25 --> 00:02:32
			talk about kalam, basically theology, current theological issues,
		
00:02:32 --> 00:02:34
			debates and discussions.
		
00:02:35 --> 00:02:39
			But we're also, we cover the Awliya.
		
00:02:40 --> 00:02:44
			We study the people of Allah and their
		
00:02:44 --> 00:02:45
			stories, which we haven't done in a long
		
00:02:45 --> 00:02:47
			time, but we read from the Risalat of
		
00:02:47 --> 00:02:48
			Qushayriyyah.
		
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50
			But also we're concerned with the affairs of
		
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52
			the Ummah and we promote activism.
		
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54
			We promote action.
		
00:02:55 --> 00:03:01
			We're not the type of people of tasawwuf
		
00:03:01 --> 00:03:03
			that just sit around with a misbah and
		
00:03:03 --> 00:03:05
			food and mawalid.
		
00:03:06 --> 00:03:07
			I'm just not for that, to be honest
		
00:03:07 --> 00:03:08
			with you.
		
00:03:08 --> 00:03:13
			I'm for that 10%, okay, 15%.
		
00:03:13 --> 00:03:14
			But we need action.
		
00:03:15 --> 00:03:18
			We need ilm, amal, haraka, haraka baraka.
		
00:03:20 --> 00:03:21
			That's what we need.
		
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23
			And a lot of our counterparts throughout the
		
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25
			world, I have to say, to be honest
		
00:03:25 --> 00:03:25
			with you, they don't do that.
		
00:03:25 --> 00:03:26
			And I want to say that I don't
		
00:03:26 --> 00:03:27
			really believe in that.
		
00:03:28 --> 00:03:31
			Honestly, a lot of our counterparts, their action
		
00:03:31 --> 00:03:32
			is not something that's really on the list.
		
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35
			And maybe, I can't blame them, maybe they
		
00:03:35 --> 00:03:36
			literally can't.
		
00:03:37 --> 00:03:38
			Like they literally cannot.
		
00:03:39 --> 00:03:42
			In some situations, in some cases, there's no
		
00:03:42 --> 00:03:43
			majal for them.
		
00:03:44 --> 00:03:45
			But when I look around, I say, hold
		
00:03:45 --> 00:03:47
			on, why are other people taking action?
		
00:03:47 --> 00:03:50
			Why are other groups active?
		
00:03:51 --> 00:03:53
			Haraka baraka, that's what we believe in, and
		
00:03:53 --> 00:03:54
			that's what we need.
		
00:03:56 --> 00:04:00
			So for the people who share our aqidah
		
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03
			and madhhab and maslak in the deen, and
		
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06
			manhaj in the deen, not all of their
		
00:04:06 --> 00:04:09
			modes of actions do we all agree on.
		
00:04:09 --> 00:04:12
			I'm definitely for action in any way, shape,
		
00:04:12 --> 00:04:12
			and form.
		
00:04:12 --> 00:04:17
			And I'm for not fearing backlash, for having
		
00:04:17 --> 00:04:18
			courage.
		
00:04:19 --> 00:04:24
			What separates winners from losers, successful from unsuccessful?
		
00:04:26 --> 00:04:27
			And I don't want to say men from
		
00:04:27 --> 00:04:29
			boys, but that's an expression.
		
00:04:29 --> 00:04:34
			But under pressure, how do you react?
		
00:04:35 --> 00:04:37
			And are you willing to go against the
		
00:04:37 --> 00:04:37
			grain?
		
00:04:38 --> 00:04:40
			That's the question you have to ask.
		
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44
			Let's talk a little bit of principles on
		
00:04:44 --> 00:04:45
			the Syrian matter.
		
00:04:46 --> 00:04:47
			We have to have concern for the ummah,
		
00:04:47 --> 00:04:48
			there's no doubt about that.
		
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52
			And that's why I've been tweeting and retweeting
		
00:04:52 --> 00:04:56
			news surrounding on this issue for a long
		
00:04:56 --> 00:04:57
			time.
		
00:04:57 --> 00:04:58
			For a while now.
		
00:04:58 --> 00:05:01
			The last few days.
		
00:05:01 --> 00:05:02
			I wasn't on the first day, and I
		
00:05:02 --> 00:05:05
			saw a guy saying, Shajah Masri, silent!
		
00:05:05 --> 00:05:07
			Yeah, but I wasn't even on the phone.
		
00:05:07 --> 00:05:09
			I don't have my phone on me all
		
00:05:09 --> 00:05:09
			the time to tweet, tweet, tweet.
		
00:05:11 --> 00:05:12
			But as soon as I got on the
		
00:05:12 --> 00:05:15
			phone, and got on my computer.
		
00:05:15 --> 00:05:16
			Some days I'm not on the computer or
		
00:05:16 --> 00:05:17
			phone at all.
		
00:05:18 --> 00:05:18
			Neither.
		
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21
			You have to unplug sometimes.
		
00:05:21 --> 00:05:22
			And I don't care what the heck's happening
		
00:05:22 --> 00:05:22
			in the world.
		
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26
			I'm not a journalist to have to do
		
00:05:26 --> 00:05:27
			that.
		
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29
			I'll plug in when I plug in on
		
00:05:29 --> 00:05:29
			my own terms.
		
00:05:31 --> 00:05:33
			And when I did, I'm constantly putting out
		
00:05:33 --> 00:05:33
			news.
		
00:05:34 --> 00:05:35
			Concern for the ummah is the number one
		
00:05:35 --> 00:05:36
			thing we have to have.
		
00:05:37 --> 00:05:38
			Number two.
		
00:05:39 --> 00:05:41
			We have to make judgments based on knowledge.
		
00:05:45 --> 00:05:47
			Most of the stuff that's going on is
		
00:05:47 --> 00:05:48
			hearsay.
		
00:05:48 --> 00:05:50
			I can't take it and run.
		
00:05:51 --> 00:05:53
			And so it took me actually a while
		
00:05:53 --> 00:05:55
			to navigate the situation.
		
00:05:55 --> 00:05:57
			And I actually stepped on some mines.
		
00:05:58 --> 00:06:02
			And got caught up in some articles and
		
00:06:02 --> 00:06:03
			news sources.
		
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05
			Because that turned out to be unreliable.
		
00:06:06 --> 00:06:07
			You learn as you go on.
		
00:06:07 --> 00:06:08
			But you got to admit your mistakes.
		
00:06:09 --> 00:06:10
			So I delete those tweets.
		
00:06:10 --> 00:06:10
			Simple as that.
		
00:06:10 --> 00:06:11
			It's a mistake.
		
00:06:12 --> 00:06:13
			You think something's good.
		
00:06:13 --> 00:06:16
			You learn later on this person is biased.
		
00:06:17 --> 00:06:22
			And their presentation of facts is not reliable.
		
00:06:22 --> 00:06:22
			Okay.
		
00:06:22 --> 00:06:23
			You live and learn.
		
00:06:23 --> 00:06:24
			Right.
		
00:06:24 --> 00:06:27
			This is not Dean and shut up.
		
00:06:27 --> 00:06:30
			Where you have to actually be absolutely certain.
		
00:06:30 --> 00:06:31
			It's an analysis.
		
00:06:31 --> 00:06:32
			It's a political analysis.
		
00:06:33 --> 00:06:35
			And sometimes that person turns out not to
		
00:06:35 --> 00:06:36
			be what you thought.
		
00:06:37 --> 00:06:38
			So you undo it.
		
00:06:38 --> 00:06:38
			No problem.
		
00:06:38 --> 00:06:40
			I have no problem saying click delete.
		
00:06:41 --> 00:06:42
			Oh, you deleted it.
		
00:06:42 --> 00:06:42
			Yeah.
		
00:06:43 --> 00:06:43
			And?
		
00:06:44 --> 00:06:45
			And what is this like?
		
00:06:46 --> 00:06:47
			Aqidah here?
		
00:06:47 --> 00:06:47
			No.
		
00:06:47 --> 00:06:49
			It's political analysis.
		
00:06:49 --> 00:06:52
			Sometimes they're on point.
		
00:06:52 --> 00:06:52
			And sometimes not.
		
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59
			Secondly, we know that what Bashar al-Assad.
		
00:06:59 --> 00:07:00
			We know him.
		
00:07:01 --> 00:07:03
			And not only is Bashar.
		
00:07:03 --> 00:07:06
			He's an evil guy who's killed so many.
		
00:07:06 --> 00:07:08
			And it's actually Dean to be against this
		
00:07:08 --> 00:07:08
			guy.
		
00:07:10 --> 00:07:13
			It's Hukum Shah because it's absolutely certain what
		
00:07:13 --> 00:07:13
			he's done.
		
00:07:14 --> 00:07:16
			We have no doubt on what he's done.
		
00:07:17 --> 00:07:20
			And to be near this person is to
		
00:07:20 --> 00:07:21
			be near the oppressor.
		
00:07:21 --> 00:07:28
			And Allah said, forget being against people.
		
00:07:28 --> 00:07:28
			Okay.
		
00:07:30 --> 00:07:31
			All right.
		
00:07:31 --> 00:07:32
			Forget being against people.
		
00:07:33 --> 00:07:34
			Allah says.
		
00:07:39 --> 00:07:40
			Subhanallah.
		
00:07:42 --> 00:07:43
			What's the idea that I was caught on
		
00:07:43 --> 00:07:43
			this?
		
00:07:44 --> 00:07:45
			I can't believe for skipping me right now.
		
00:07:47 --> 00:07:48
			It is.
		
00:07:55 --> 00:07:57
			Do not lean towards them.
		
00:07:57 --> 00:07:59
			Do not support them.
		
00:07:59 --> 00:08:02
			Do not even lean in their direction.
		
00:08:05 --> 00:08:07
			Here means to seek their protection.
		
00:08:08 --> 00:08:09
			It means to support them.
		
00:08:10 --> 00:08:12
			And it even means to like have a
		
00:08:12 --> 00:08:13
			leaning towards them.
		
00:08:14 --> 00:08:16
			Of course, to support them and seek their
		
00:08:16 --> 00:08:19
			protection is the number one tafseer for that.
		
00:08:19 --> 00:08:24
			But even associating yourself, allying yourself in some
		
00:08:24 --> 00:08:25
			way, shape and anyway.
		
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27
			You're going to get hit with what they
		
00:08:27 --> 00:08:28
			get hit with.
		
00:08:29 --> 00:08:34
			So, the position on someone like Bashar al
		
00:08:34 --> 00:08:34
			-Assad.
		
00:08:34 --> 00:08:35
			I think it's a religious position.
		
00:08:36 --> 00:08:39
			Because it's not allegations against him.
		
00:08:39 --> 00:08:42
			It's actual absolute certain fact that's been for
		
00:08:42 --> 00:08:43
			years like that.
		
00:08:44 --> 00:08:46
			And therefore, to denounce him.
		
00:08:48 --> 00:08:49
			And to hate him.
		
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53
			Allah's messenger commands us to love for Allah
		
00:08:53 --> 00:08:54
			and hate for Allah.
		
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56
			So, some people you have to hate them.
		
00:08:57 --> 00:08:57
			And what does hate mean?
		
00:08:57 --> 00:09:00
			It means you utter no word of support,
		
00:09:00 --> 00:09:01
			no word of sympathy.
		
00:09:01 --> 00:09:07
			And you utter words of disavowal and condemnation
		
00:09:07 --> 00:09:08
			of this person.
		
00:09:09 --> 00:09:10
			And that's what you should have in your
		
00:09:10 --> 00:09:10
			heart.
		
00:09:11 --> 00:09:11
			So, that's known.
		
00:09:12 --> 00:09:13
			So, that's principle number one concern for the
		
00:09:13 --> 00:09:14
			Ummah.
		
00:09:14 --> 00:09:15
			Principle number two specifically on Bashar.
		
00:09:16 --> 00:09:17
			Principle number three.
		
00:09:19 --> 00:09:21
			The position on the rebels.
		
00:09:22 --> 00:09:24
			And are they even rebels?
		
00:09:24 --> 00:09:26
			Because the whole place is rebel.
		
00:09:27 --> 00:09:29
			It seems to be the whole country is
		
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31
			like a no man's land outside of Damascus.
		
00:09:31 --> 00:09:33
			But anyway, let's just if they're called rebels
		
00:09:33 --> 00:09:34
			for the sake of it.
		
00:09:35 --> 00:09:38
			Not all of rebellion is unlawful in the
		
00:09:38 --> 00:09:38
			Sharia.
		
00:09:38 --> 00:09:39
			We know that.
		
00:09:39 --> 00:09:40
			And we've had rebellions before in our Sharia.
		
00:09:41 --> 00:09:43
			So, we should all know that.
		
00:09:45 --> 00:09:49
			But these groups, if we pass a judgment
		
00:09:49 --> 00:09:50
			on them, it's got to be based on
		
00:09:50 --> 00:09:51
			knowledge.
		
00:09:51 --> 00:09:53
			And there should be no shame in somebody
		
00:09:53 --> 00:09:55
			saying, I don't have knowledge on them.
		
00:09:55 --> 00:09:57
			I hear a lot of hearsay.
		
00:09:58 --> 00:10:02
			Just because someone trustworthy tells me, listen, trust
		
00:10:02 --> 00:10:03
			me.
		
00:10:03 --> 00:10:04
			I know Shuyukh.
		
00:10:04 --> 00:10:05
			I know people on the ground.
		
00:10:06 --> 00:10:07
			This is what's going on.
		
00:10:08 --> 00:10:11
			That's not sufficient enough in such a huge
		
00:10:11 --> 00:10:13
			issue like this.
		
00:10:13 --> 00:10:15
			Because I just can't take, maybe I can
		
00:10:15 --> 00:10:16
			believe that.
		
00:10:16 --> 00:10:17
			But I can't take that and run as
		
00:10:17 --> 00:10:18
			if it's fact.
		
00:10:19 --> 00:10:21
			It's still hearsay.
		
00:10:22 --> 00:10:23
			There are way too many.
		
00:10:24 --> 00:10:26
			There are way too many.
		
00:10:27 --> 00:10:28
			He's saying Aleppo is not rebel.
		
00:10:28 --> 00:10:30
			What I mean, I mean that like metaphorically.
		
00:10:30 --> 00:10:40
			Meaning that there isn't a government that's solid
		
00:10:40 --> 00:10:42
			and stable that has been running the country
		
00:10:42 --> 00:10:43
			in the way of other countries.
		
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46
			That's what I mean by that.
		
00:10:48 --> 00:10:49
			Nonetheless, in any event.
		
00:10:50 --> 00:10:53
			In other words, there's hands in the pot.
		
00:10:53 --> 00:10:56
			Unlike other countries, the Russians have hands in
		
00:10:56 --> 00:10:56
			the pot.
		
00:10:57 --> 00:10:59
			Mossad has hands in the pot.
		
00:10:59 --> 00:11:00
			CIA has hands in the pot.
		
00:11:00 --> 00:11:04
			ISIS, Al-Qaeda, these different groups, HTS, all
		
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06
			these groups have hands in the pot.
		
00:11:06 --> 00:11:07
			That's what I'm saying.
		
00:11:07 --> 00:11:10
			It's not a clean cut crisp nation the
		
00:11:10 --> 00:11:13
			way others are where it's more controlled.
		
00:11:13 --> 00:11:14
			That's what I mean by that.
		
00:11:14 --> 00:11:16
			And I think we all know that's true.
		
00:11:19 --> 00:11:21
			How are we supposed to perform a judgment?
		
00:11:21 --> 00:11:22
			We can research.
		
00:11:22 --> 00:11:22
			We can study.
		
00:11:22 --> 00:11:24
			But ultimately at the end of the day,
		
00:11:25 --> 00:11:28
			is it going to be an absolute certain
		
00:11:28 --> 00:11:30
			fact of what's going on in the ground?
		
00:11:30 --> 00:11:32
			I feel that there's so many hands in
		
00:11:32 --> 00:11:32
			the pots.
		
00:11:33 --> 00:11:34
			So many hands in the pot.
		
00:11:35 --> 00:11:36
			So many claims.
		
00:11:36 --> 00:11:37
			So many counterclaims.
		
00:11:38 --> 00:11:40
			There are some people who treat it as
		
00:11:40 --> 00:11:44
			if it's absolute fact that these rebel groups
		
00:11:44 --> 00:11:47
			are righteous and pious.
		
00:11:47 --> 00:11:49
			And if you don't support them, it's as
		
00:11:49 --> 00:11:51
			if you're not supporting the people of Gaza.
		
00:11:51 --> 00:11:54
			Others, they roll their eyes, they laugh at
		
00:11:54 --> 00:11:56
			you, and they say we know of absolute
		
00:11:56 --> 00:11:58
			fact that they're Mossad pawns.
		
00:11:58 --> 00:12:00
			And the Mossad is playing puppets with them.
		
00:12:01 --> 00:12:04
			Between these two, you can't blame somebody who's
		
00:12:04 --> 00:12:06
			left in the middle and really not knowing
		
00:12:06 --> 00:12:06
			what to think.
		
00:12:07 --> 00:12:08
			But let me ask another question.
		
00:12:11 --> 00:12:12
			If we can form an opinion, fine and
		
00:12:12 --> 00:12:14
			good, but if you cannot, you're not harming
		
00:12:14 --> 00:12:17
			or benefiting anyone by not having an opinion
		
00:12:17 --> 00:12:18
			on a certain group.
		
00:12:19 --> 00:12:19
			Right?
		
00:12:20 --> 00:12:22
			So, oh, okay, we're divided.
		
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24
			Okay, what if we were unified?
		
00:12:24 --> 00:12:25
			Are we having an impact?
		
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28
			If we're unified, are we having an impact?
		
00:12:28 --> 00:12:29
			That's the question.
		
00:12:30 --> 00:12:31
			Opinions.
		
00:12:31 --> 00:12:36
			We were all unified on Gaza, and maybe
		
00:12:36 --> 00:12:38
			it had an impact on an election here
		
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40
			and there, but Netanyahu's doing what Netanyahu's doing.
		
00:12:41 --> 00:12:44
			And the whole world's opinion, the United Nations
		
00:12:44 --> 00:12:45
			taking the guy to court.
		
00:12:46 --> 00:12:48
			Or wanted to.
		
00:12:48 --> 00:12:53
			And no one, you know, nothing changed.
		
00:12:53 --> 00:12:56
			So let's not also overrate our opinion on
		
00:12:56 --> 00:12:57
			the matter.
		
00:12:57 --> 00:12:57
			Okay?
		
00:12:58 --> 00:13:00
			Let's not overrate that because that might not
		
00:13:00 --> 00:13:01
			necessarily.
		
00:13:01 --> 00:13:02
			Now, what do we do have?
		
00:13:03 --> 00:13:05
			We do have something in our hands.
		
00:13:06 --> 00:13:06
			All right.
		
00:13:08 --> 00:13:10
			Omar, do you have the GRT link?
		
00:13:12 --> 00:13:13
			You want me to send it to you?
		
00:13:15 --> 00:13:17
			Okay, let me send you the link because
		
00:13:17 --> 00:13:18
			we do have something in our hands.
		
00:13:18 --> 00:13:23
			And something that is an objective fact is
		
00:13:23 --> 00:13:27
			the idea that we are sending people through
		
00:13:27 --> 00:13:29
			GRT and some of our own guys.
		
00:13:29 --> 00:13:30
			Omar, are you going this year?
		
00:13:30 --> 00:13:32
			Or is it Salman this year?
		
00:13:34 --> 00:13:36
			GRT is one of the sponsors of this
		
00:13:36 --> 00:13:36
			livestream.
		
00:13:36 --> 00:13:37
			We work with them.
		
00:13:38 --> 00:13:44
			And let's put up the link for that.
		
00:13:45 --> 00:13:46
			And let's put the board on.
		
00:13:46 --> 00:13:51
			This is something we do have objective knowledge
		
00:13:51 --> 00:13:51
			of.
		
00:13:51 --> 00:13:53
			And it's an actionable item.
		
00:13:55 --> 00:13:57
			Tweeting has not changed the world, I don't
		
00:13:57 --> 00:13:58
			think.
		
00:13:58 --> 00:13:59
			Last I checked.
		
00:14:00 --> 00:14:00
			Right?
		
00:14:01 --> 00:14:03
			But this will change a life or two.
		
00:14:04 --> 00:14:06
			We're trying to hit 50K.
		
00:14:06 --> 00:14:09
			We're trying to go to 50K pounds.
		
00:14:09 --> 00:14:10
			British pounds.
		
00:14:10 --> 00:14:12
			We're at 6,000 right now.
		
00:14:13 --> 00:14:14
			If we can get this to 6,500
		
00:14:14 --> 00:14:15
			today, I'll be happy.
		
00:14:15 --> 00:14:17
			Because I don't put pressure.
		
00:14:17 --> 00:14:19
			It's just one pound here, two pounds there,
		
00:14:19 --> 00:14:19
			three pounds there.
		
00:14:19 --> 00:14:20
			And it's not going to me.
		
00:14:20 --> 00:14:21
			It's not coming in my hands even.
		
00:14:22 --> 00:14:26
			It's going to an official, accepted, licensed in
		
00:14:26 --> 00:14:30
			the UK charity called Global Relief Trust.
		
00:14:32 --> 00:14:33
			That's our number right now.
		
00:14:34 --> 00:14:35
			6,330.
		
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37
			Let's just get it to 6,500.
		
00:14:38 --> 00:14:39
			That's it.
		
00:14:39 --> 00:14:42
			And once we hit 50K and maybe even
		
00:14:42 --> 00:14:46
			before that we're one or two Safina Society
		
00:14:46 --> 00:14:48
			guys will be joining GRT.
		
00:14:48 --> 00:14:51
			To give you the evidence.
		
00:14:51 --> 00:14:52
			Although it's video.
		
00:14:54 --> 00:14:57
			The video of our guys handing out blankets,
		
00:14:57 --> 00:14:58
			hanging out this, handing out that.
		
00:14:59 --> 00:15:00
			Omar, why don't you even put the footage
		
00:15:00 --> 00:15:01
			of yourself from last year?
		
00:15:01 --> 00:15:04
			Get that footage from WhatsApp of yourself from
		
00:15:04 --> 00:15:05
			last year.
		
00:15:06 --> 00:15:07
			Giving stuff out.
		
00:15:07 --> 00:15:10
			To show the community, show the world this
		
00:15:10 --> 00:15:11
			is not an empty thing.
		
00:15:11 --> 00:15:12
			That's a scam.
		
00:15:13 --> 00:15:14
			This is legit.
		
00:15:14 --> 00:15:14
			Alhamdulillah.
		
00:15:15 --> 00:15:16
			Happy to say.
		
00:15:17 --> 00:15:18
			Completely and totally.
		
00:15:19 --> 00:15:20
			If it wasn't, if I didn't have the
		
00:15:20 --> 00:15:23
			cutsy evidence of Omar himself, this guy who's
		
00:15:23 --> 00:15:24
			behind the screen in Syria.
		
00:15:26 --> 00:15:26
			Face reveal.
		
00:15:27 --> 00:15:27
			You might get married.
		
00:15:28 --> 00:15:31
			In Syria, handing stuff out.
		
00:15:32 --> 00:15:35
			And I, we know this for a fact.
		
00:15:35 --> 00:15:37
			I wouldn't be so comfortable.
		
00:15:38 --> 00:15:38
			Right.
		
00:15:39 --> 00:15:40
			But we have that information.
		
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42
			We have that cutsy evidence.
		
00:15:42 --> 00:15:44
			You know epistemology is so important.
		
00:15:45 --> 00:15:46
			Epistemology is what.
		
00:15:47 --> 00:15:48
			No, no, no.
		
00:15:48 --> 00:15:49
			Shrink it more.
		
00:15:50 --> 00:15:51
			Oh, they're larger.
		
00:15:51 --> 00:15:52
			Okay, because we want to see.
		
00:15:52 --> 00:15:53
			We want to see Omar.
		
00:15:53 --> 00:15:54
			All right, go.
		
00:15:54 --> 00:15:55
			Click.
		
00:15:56 --> 00:15:56
			Bismillah.
		
00:15:58 --> 00:15:59
			There he is folks.
		
00:15:59 --> 00:16:00
			That's our guy.
		
00:16:00 --> 00:16:02
			I see him with my own two eyes.
		
00:16:03 --> 00:16:03
			Okay.
		
00:16:04 --> 00:16:06
			Cutsy evidence that he's on the ground.
		
00:16:07 --> 00:16:08
			What city was that Omar?
		
00:16:10 --> 00:16:10
			Syria.
		
00:16:12 --> 00:16:13
			Near Halab folks.
		
00:16:15 --> 00:16:16
			Move the mouse.
		
00:16:16 --> 00:16:17
			Yeah, look at that.
		
00:16:18 --> 00:16:21
			Tent city like people living their lives like
		
00:16:21 --> 00:16:22
			that.
		
00:16:22 --> 00:16:27
			And we're here sitting and enjoying our pizza.
		
00:16:27 --> 00:16:29
			This is right out of Halab.
		
00:16:29 --> 00:16:32
			And we're here sitting enjoying our thin crust.
		
00:16:33 --> 00:16:36
			New Jersey pizza brought to us by our
		
00:16:36 --> 00:16:37
			Moroccan friend.
		
00:16:37 --> 00:16:38
			Yes, seen from Toronto.
		
00:16:39 --> 00:16:41
			And we're enjoying this hot pizza every single
		
00:16:41 --> 00:16:42
			day.
		
00:16:42 --> 00:16:42
			Whenever we want.
		
00:16:45 --> 00:16:45
			Okay.
		
00:16:47 --> 00:16:48
			Mr. Coolio.
		
00:16:49 --> 00:16:51
			He has a suggestion for Omar for a
		
00:16:51 --> 00:16:51
			wife.
		
00:16:52 --> 00:16:52
			Okay.
		
00:16:54 --> 00:16:55
			Omar is already.
		
00:16:55 --> 00:16:57
			You know, he already has four wives, right?
		
00:16:57 --> 00:16:58
			Yeah.
		
00:16:58 --> 00:16:59
			You know what they are now?
		
00:17:00 --> 00:17:00
			Whole month.
		
00:17:01 --> 00:17:02
			Those are.
		
00:17:02 --> 00:17:04
			That's what Omar is married to these days.
		
00:17:04 --> 00:17:04
			You know, Omar.
		
00:17:05 --> 00:17:07
			If the, if the came, he wouldn't know.
		
00:17:09 --> 00:17:10
			He's literally under a rock.
		
00:17:11 --> 00:17:12
			You know, when the Taliban gets under a
		
00:17:12 --> 00:17:12
			rock.
		
00:17:13 --> 00:17:16
			When a student of knowledge is literally under
		
00:17:16 --> 00:17:16
			a rock.
		
00:17:17 --> 00:17:18
			Omar is now under.
		
00:17:18 --> 00:17:20
			And I'm accepting of it because he's, it's
		
00:17:20 --> 00:17:21
			temporary.
		
00:17:22 --> 00:17:23
			And he's a Taliban.
		
00:17:23 --> 00:17:26
			So today we have a special guest.
		
00:17:27 --> 00:17:31
			One of the foremost political analysts in our
		
00:17:31 --> 00:17:31
			community.
		
00:17:31 --> 00:17:35
			And he has a lot of information.
		
00:17:35 --> 00:17:36
			We're going to discuss today.
		
00:17:37 --> 00:17:39
			I'm going to give him the mic first
		
00:17:39 --> 00:17:40
			to bring, to give what he wants to
		
00:17:40 --> 00:17:41
			tell us.
		
00:17:41 --> 00:17:45
			And then I have some questions on what's
		
00:17:45 --> 00:17:45
			going on.
		
00:17:46 --> 00:17:47
			And what information we have.
		
00:17:47 --> 00:17:49
			So let's bring our guest on today.
		
00:17:50 --> 00:17:52
			Welcome Sammy Hamdi to the Safina society.
		
00:17:53 --> 00:17:54
			Nothing but facts.
		
00:17:54 --> 00:17:54
			Live stream.
		
00:17:55 --> 00:17:56
			Thank you for having me.
		
00:17:56 --> 00:17:57
			I hope you will.
		
00:17:57 --> 00:17:58
			Hope everything's good in your Jersey.
		
00:17:59 --> 00:18:00
			Very good.
		
00:18:00 --> 00:18:00
			Very good.
		
00:18:00 --> 00:18:01
			And where are you filming out of?
		
00:18:02 --> 00:18:02
			Are you in London?
		
00:18:02 --> 00:18:03
			I'm in Dallas at the moment.
		
00:18:04 --> 00:18:06
			You might as well move to the United
		
00:18:06 --> 00:18:06
			States at this point.
		
00:18:08 --> 00:18:11
			Look, we had so much to talk about
		
00:18:11 --> 00:18:12
			from the abandoned Biden.
		
00:18:12 --> 00:18:14
			That turned to abandoned Harris.
		
00:18:14 --> 00:18:16
			That turned to Kareem Harris at the polls.
		
00:18:16 --> 00:18:19
			But we have other stuff that we want
		
00:18:19 --> 00:18:20
			to talk about today.
		
00:18:20 --> 00:18:22
			Why don't you begin telling us and telling
		
00:18:22 --> 00:18:23
			our viewers.
		
00:18:24 --> 00:18:27
			Your thoughts, immediate thoughts on Syria.
		
00:18:27 --> 00:18:28
			If you have any.
		
00:18:28 --> 00:18:29
			I'm sure you do.
		
00:18:30 --> 00:18:33
			I think that first and foremost, I think
		
00:18:33 --> 00:18:37
			the offensive by the armed groups in Idlib,
		
00:18:37 --> 00:18:38
			the opposition groups.
		
00:18:39 --> 00:18:40
			I know people are referring to them as
		
00:18:40 --> 00:18:42
			rebels against Bashar al-Assad.
		
00:18:42 --> 00:18:44
			I think that it came as a surprise
		
00:18:44 --> 00:18:48
			for everyone, including the Russians, including Assad himself.
		
00:18:48 --> 00:18:50
			And there are some reports even suggesting it
		
00:18:50 --> 00:18:51
			came as a surprise for Turkey too.
		
00:18:52 --> 00:18:54
			And I think the speed at which that
		
00:18:54 --> 00:18:55
			they've been able to take Aleppo.
		
00:18:55 --> 00:18:58
			And now they're on the outskirts of Hama
		
00:18:58 --> 00:19:00
			and there's reports suggesting they might take Hama
		
00:19:00 --> 00:19:00
			too.
		
00:19:01 --> 00:19:02
			And there's even talks now that perhaps they
		
00:19:02 --> 00:19:04
			might even after Hama go towards Damascus.
		
00:19:04 --> 00:19:07
			There's a flurry of diplomatic activity in the
		
00:19:07 --> 00:19:07
			region.
		
00:19:07 --> 00:19:10
			Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince who
		
00:19:10 --> 00:19:12
			hadn't been to the UAE since 2021.
		
00:19:13 --> 00:19:14
			There are some tensions between him and the
		
00:19:14 --> 00:19:15
			UAE.
		
00:19:15 --> 00:19:17
			He flew in the midst of the news
		
00:19:17 --> 00:19:19
			to Abu Dhabi to meet with Mohammed bin
		
00:19:19 --> 00:19:19
			Zayed.
		
00:19:20 --> 00:19:21
			And it's news that bin Zayed of the
		
00:19:21 --> 00:19:24
			UAE had met with the Americans to tell
		
00:19:24 --> 00:19:26
			them, you shouldn't let Assad fall.
		
00:19:26 --> 00:19:28
			If Assad falls, it might cause a domino
		
00:19:28 --> 00:19:29
			effect in the region.
		
00:19:29 --> 00:19:32
			I think that this attack essentially has taken
		
00:19:32 --> 00:19:33
			everybody by surprise.
		
00:19:33 --> 00:19:34
			But I think that those who are watching
		
00:19:34 --> 00:19:37
			Syria are not expressing surprise so much as
		
00:19:37 --> 00:19:39
			with regards to the offensive, but perhaps with
		
00:19:39 --> 00:19:40
			the gains itself.
		
00:19:40 --> 00:19:43
			Because two years ago, Jolani, the head of
		
00:19:43 --> 00:19:45
			the armed groups, the head of the HDS
		
00:19:45 --> 00:19:49
			actually gave a speech or a khutbah in
		
00:19:49 --> 00:19:51
			which he said, we're almost ready militarily to
		
00:19:51 --> 00:19:53
			begin an advance that's taking forward.
		
00:19:53 --> 00:19:55
			And it's important to put this offensive into
		
00:19:55 --> 00:19:55
			context.
		
00:19:56 --> 00:19:58
			Everybody looking at Syria or analyzing Syria was
		
00:19:58 --> 00:20:01
			arguing that Assad, all he had left was
		
00:20:01 --> 00:20:02
			to take Idlib.
		
00:20:02 --> 00:20:04
			There was this suggestion that he had won,
		
00:20:04 --> 00:20:06
			this suggestion that that's it.
		
00:20:06 --> 00:20:07
			The Syrians just have to accept it.
		
00:20:07 --> 00:20:08
			They just have to live with it.
		
00:20:09 --> 00:20:10
			And that therefore they had no longer had
		
00:20:10 --> 00:20:13
			any agency and that it's about Turkey, Russia,
		
00:20:13 --> 00:20:14
			Assad and the like.
		
00:20:14 --> 00:20:17
			I think what's become abundantly clear in the
		
00:20:17 --> 00:20:19
			past week is that Syrians do actually still
		
00:20:19 --> 00:20:21
			have agency and people do have agency.
		
00:20:21 --> 00:20:24
			And I think that when you consider how,
		
00:20:24 --> 00:20:26
			what the situation looked five months ago where
		
00:20:26 --> 00:20:28
			Erdogan, the Turkish president was saying to Assad,
		
00:20:29 --> 00:20:31
			come to Turkey, let's sit down, let's talk,
		
00:20:31 --> 00:20:32
			let's discuss.
		
00:20:32 --> 00:20:34
			The idea being that the Turks were looking
		
00:20:34 --> 00:20:36
			for an opportunity to make peace so they
		
00:20:36 --> 00:20:39
			could ship out the refugees from Istanbul or
		
00:20:39 --> 00:20:41
			from Turkey that have become a source of
		
00:20:41 --> 00:20:44
			economic crises, according to nationalist Turks.
		
00:20:44 --> 00:20:46
			I think when you look at Erdogan going
		
00:20:46 --> 00:20:47
			from, I want to talk to Assad and
		
00:20:47 --> 00:20:49
			sit down with Bashar al-Assad, and then
		
00:20:49 --> 00:20:52
			the Russians bombing Idlib relentlessly in preparation for
		
00:20:52 --> 00:20:56
			an offensive by Assad on Idlib, there's a
		
00:20:56 --> 00:20:58
			complete turnaround of the situation, which suggests that
		
00:20:58 --> 00:21:00
			the Syrians do have agency.
		
00:21:00 --> 00:21:02
			I think these cities are being liberated.
		
00:21:02 --> 00:21:04
			I know that's a controversial term for some
		
00:21:04 --> 00:21:07
			people, but certainly they are being liberated from
		
00:21:07 --> 00:21:08
			Assad strongholds.
		
00:21:08 --> 00:21:10
			And to be honest, nobody is sure how
		
00:21:10 --> 00:21:12
			far it will go.
		
00:21:12 --> 00:21:15
			And I think that certainly it's upended the
		
00:21:15 --> 00:21:17
			system in a way whereby now I think
		
00:21:17 --> 00:21:19
			the regimes in the region are watching and
		
00:21:19 --> 00:21:21
			praying that Assad doesn't fall.
		
00:21:21 --> 00:21:23
			And that doesn't apply just to one particular
		
00:21:23 --> 00:21:25
			spectrum.
		
00:21:25 --> 00:21:27
			It applies across the whole spectrum where even
		
00:21:27 --> 00:21:29
			those who said they were against Assad are
		
00:21:29 --> 00:21:31
			now concerned that if Assad falls, it might
		
00:21:31 --> 00:21:34
			actually cause a domino effect that could transform
		
00:21:34 --> 00:21:35
			the entire region.
		
00:21:35 --> 00:21:37
			And Sham does have a special place in
		
00:21:37 --> 00:21:37
			Islamic history.
		
00:21:38 --> 00:21:40
			Whatever happens in a Sham affects the rest
		
00:21:40 --> 00:21:42
			of the Ummah, affects the potential of the
		
00:21:42 --> 00:21:44
			rest of the Ummah, the opportunities in the
		
00:21:44 --> 00:21:46
			rest of the Ummah and liberation of Sham
		
00:21:46 --> 00:21:47
			may lead to the liberation of Palestine.
		
00:21:47 --> 00:21:49
			But at this moment it's unclear how far
		
00:21:49 --> 00:21:50
			it will go.
		
00:21:50 --> 00:21:54
			Tell me the liberation itself as you're going
		
00:21:54 --> 00:21:55
			to, we're going to use that term.
		
00:21:56 --> 00:21:59
			Is it occurring through one group or it
		
00:21:59 --> 00:22:02
			is a conglomerate of different people and groups?
		
00:22:02 --> 00:22:05
			There are three main groups that are against
		
00:22:05 --> 00:22:06
			Assad in Syria.
		
00:22:06 --> 00:22:08
			The first of them, which is the group
		
00:22:08 --> 00:22:11
			that's leading this particular offensive, is Hayat Tahir
		
00:22:11 --> 00:22:12
			al-Sham, the HTS.
		
00:22:12 --> 00:22:14
			HTS led by a man called Jolani.
		
00:22:14 --> 00:22:16
			Once upon a time he declared his allegiance
		
00:22:16 --> 00:22:19
			to Al-Qaeda, then separated from them and
		
00:22:19 --> 00:22:21
			went to war with them and then eradicated
		
00:22:21 --> 00:22:22
			them from Idlib.
		
00:22:23 --> 00:22:25
			The forces that he commands are an amalgamation
		
00:22:25 --> 00:22:29
			of Syrians who fled from other territories and
		
00:22:29 --> 00:22:30
			came to Idlib itself.
		
00:22:30 --> 00:22:32
			They don't belong to a particular faction.
		
00:22:33 --> 00:22:35
			Some reports suggest there are 27 different factions
		
00:22:35 --> 00:22:38
			under Hayat Tahir al-Sham, under those groups
		
00:22:38 --> 00:22:41
			that operate underneath it, of various different ideologies
		
00:22:41 --> 00:22:41
			and the like.
		
00:22:41 --> 00:22:43
			And I think that amalgamation is what has
		
00:22:43 --> 00:22:46
			allowed those of the Christians and the Druze
		
00:22:46 --> 00:22:48
			and some of these other religious sects to
		
00:22:48 --> 00:22:51
			come out on social media and say that
		
00:22:51 --> 00:22:53
			we haven't been harmed by HTS and we
		
00:22:53 --> 00:22:55
			actually feel quite good now that they've come
		
00:22:55 --> 00:22:56
			and taken this place itself.
		
00:22:56 --> 00:22:58
			But in any case, you have the HTS.
		
00:22:59 --> 00:23:01
			You also have the SNA, what's called the
		
00:23:01 --> 00:23:02
			Syrian National Army.
		
00:23:02 --> 00:23:05
			This was a group set up by Turkey
		
00:23:05 --> 00:23:06
			in 2017.
		
00:23:07 --> 00:23:09
			Turkey wanted to establish a force, an auxiliary
		
00:23:09 --> 00:23:11
			force that it could use in Syria.
		
00:23:11 --> 00:23:14
			That wasn't composed necessarily of Turks, because if
		
00:23:14 --> 00:23:16
			Turks die in Syria, it causes a domestic
		
00:23:16 --> 00:23:17
			problem.
		
00:23:17 --> 00:23:19
			But if other ethnicities die in Syria, then
		
00:23:19 --> 00:23:19
			it's OK.
		
00:23:20 --> 00:23:21
			It's more expendable.
		
00:23:21 --> 00:23:24
			So this SNA is eventually, or is not
		
00:23:24 --> 00:23:27
			ideologically aligned, but has more acted as a
		
00:23:27 --> 00:23:30
			mercenary force by which it has gone after
		
00:23:30 --> 00:23:32
			some so-called ISIS areas and essentially done
		
00:23:32 --> 00:23:34
			whatever Turkey wants it to do in the
		
00:23:34 --> 00:23:34
			region.
		
00:23:35 --> 00:23:37
			And the third group that's against Assad, or
		
00:23:37 --> 00:23:39
			rather that flip-flaps between Assad and the
		
00:23:39 --> 00:23:41
			other rebel groups, is the Syrian Democratic Forces,
		
00:23:42 --> 00:23:45
			SDF, which are the Kurdish separatists, those who
		
00:23:45 --> 00:23:48
			are aligned with the PKK in Syria, those
		
00:23:48 --> 00:23:49
			aligned with the YPG.
		
00:23:49 --> 00:23:52
			It was a rebranding because the Americans felt
		
00:23:52 --> 00:23:54
			that if Assad was going to stay in
		
00:23:54 --> 00:23:55
			power, we don't want him to rule all
		
00:23:55 --> 00:23:56
			of Syria.
		
00:23:56 --> 00:23:58
			We don't want the rebels to conquer Syria.
		
00:23:58 --> 00:24:00
			So let's sort of prepare for a division
		
00:24:00 --> 00:24:01
			of Syria.
		
00:24:01 --> 00:24:03
			We leave the rebels in the northwest, we
		
00:24:03 --> 00:24:05
			leave Assad in the south, and we leave
		
00:24:05 --> 00:24:08
			the Kurdish entity, an independent Kurdish entity, in
		
00:24:08 --> 00:24:09
			the northeast.
		
00:24:09 --> 00:24:11
			We don't want Islamist Kurdish entities.
		
00:24:11 --> 00:24:13
			A lot of those are actually working with
		
00:24:13 --> 00:24:13
			HTS.
		
00:24:13 --> 00:24:17
			We prefer secular Marxist-leftist Kurds, very similar
		
00:24:17 --> 00:24:17
			to the PKK.
		
00:24:18 --> 00:24:19
			They're in the northeast themselves.
		
00:24:20 --> 00:24:23
			As it stands, the Heyat Tahir al-Sham
		
00:24:23 --> 00:24:25
			are the ones who have allegedly launched this
		
00:24:25 --> 00:24:26
			attack on their own.
		
00:24:27 --> 00:24:30
			The report suggests that Turkey was uncomfortable with
		
00:24:30 --> 00:24:31
			this attack, and Turkey actually on a number
		
00:24:31 --> 00:24:35
			of occasions, whenever HTS have gone out on
		
00:24:35 --> 00:24:37
			their own, Turkey have initially supported them and
		
00:24:37 --> 00:24:38
			then withdrawn that support.
		
00:24:38 --> 00:24:40
			And that's why I think some people are
		
00:24:40 --> 00:24:41
			concerned about this.
		
00:24:41 --> 00:24:43
			Many will remember, I think it was 2017,
		
00:24:43 --> 00:24:46
			2016, when Heyat Tahir al-Sham went to
		
00:24:46 --> 00:24:47
			a place called Saraqib.
		
00:24:48 --> 00:24:50
			The Turkish drones went with them to support
		
00:24:50 --> 00:24:50
			them.
		
00:24:50 --> 00:24:52
			But when Heyat Tahir al-Sham looked like
		
00:24:52 --> 00:24:55
			they would take it, then Turkey withdrew the
		
00:24:55 --> 00:24:57
			drones suddenly, and Hezbollah was able to come
		
00:24:57 --> 00:24:59
			in from Lebanon and wipe the floor with
		
00:24:59 --> 00:25:00
			those forces that entered Saraqib.
		
00:25:00 --> 00:25:02
			So it's unclear to what extent the Turks
		
00:25:02 --> 00:25:04
			are supporting Heyat Tahir al-Sham.
		
00:25:04 --> 00:25:06
			What suggests that the Turks are interested in
		
00:25:06 --> 00:25:09
			supporting Heyat Tahir al-Sham, at least for
		
00:25:09 --> 00:25:12
			the short term, at least until what we
		
00:25:12 --> 00:25:14
			see now, is that the SNA, the Syrian
		
00:25:14 --> 00:25:16
			National Army, which was built by Turkey in
		
00:25:16 --> 00:25:19
			Syria, they have been deployed to Tarrafat, they've
		
00:25:19 --> 00:25:20
			been deployed to some of these areas over
		
00:25:20 --> 00:25:24
			here, suggesting Erdogan, even if it turns out
		
00:25:24 --> 00:25:26
			to be true that he didn't support the
		
00:25:26 --> 00:25:29
			original offensive, he wants to take advantage of
		
00:25:29 --> 00:25:31
			this momentum in order to boost his negotiating
		
00:25:31 --> 00:25:34
			position on the table with the Russians and
		
00:25:34 --> 00:25:35
			with Bashar al-Assad.
		
00:25:35 --> 00:25:38
			Remember for Erdogan, Erdogan wants to start closing
		
00:25:38 --> 00:25:40
			a lot of the files to focus on
		
00:25:40 --> 00:25:42
			his economy, which is why he reconciled with
		
00:25:42 --> 00:25:44
			Saudi, reconciled with UAE, trying to reconcile with
		
00:25:44 --> 00:25:47
			the Russians, trying to keep the peace with
		
00:25:47 --> 00:25:49
			the Israelis, even as his people go ballistic
		
00:25:49 --> 00:25:51
			over what's happening in Gaza, trying to give
		
00:25:51 --> 00:25:53
			statements here but keeping the trade going, trying
		
00:25:53 --> 00:25:56
			to make more statements and suspending some trade,
		
00:25:56 --> 00:25:58
			but keeping the oil going through the Jehan
		
00:25:58 --> 00:26:00
			pipeline through Turkey itself.
		
00:26:00 --> 00:26:01
			Erdogan is trying to hold the stick from
		
00:26:01 --> 00:26:03
			the middle to say, I don't want any
		
00:26:03 --> 00:26:05
			problems, I don't want any hassle, I want
		
00:26:05 --> 00:26:08
			to reconcile with everybody because this economy could
		
00:26:08 --> 00:26:08
			ruin my legacy.
		
00:26:09 --> 00:26:11
			But I do think that Erdogan, in the
		
00:26:11 --> 00:26:13
			deployment of the SNA, the Syrian National Army,
		
00:26:13 --> 00:26:17
			be wary of the names they suggest entities
		
00:26:17 --> 00:26:19
			other than what they actually are, but in
		
00:26:19 --> 00:26:21
			any case, the Syrian National Army that Turkey
		
00:26:21 --> 00:26:24
			built has been deployed, it is marching, which
		
00:26:24 --> 00:26:25
			suggests there's still some support there.
		
00:26:25 --> 00:26:26
			Those are the three main groups.
		
00:26:27 --> 00:26:30
			The final point worth mentioning is that the
		
00:26:30 --> 00:26:35
			Syrian Democratic Forces, the separatist Kurdish groups, they
		
00:26:35 --> 00:26:37
			are the ones who have the most to
		
00:26:37 --> 00:26:41
			lose as these rebels advance, primarily because they
		
00:26:41 --> 00:26:43
			were promised by the Americans, and they've been
		
00:26:43 --> 00:26:45
			working very closely with the Americans, that they
		
00:26:45 --> 00:26:47
			would be given autonomy in the regions.
		
00:26:47 --> 00:26:49
			But it seems that HTS and SNA are
		
00:26:49 --> 00:26:52
			targeting those areas where the SDF are as
		
00:26:52 --> 00:26:54
			part of their preparations to march on Damascus
		
00:26:54 --> 00:26:55
			itself.
		
00:26:55 --> 00:26:57
			And I think there have been rumors over
		
00:26:57 --> 00:26:59
			the past day or so where there have
		
00:26:59 --> 00:27:01
			been some flare-ups in the whole Kurdish
		
00:27:01 --> 00:27:04
			-Arab issue that HTS are trying to reconcile
		
00:27:04 --> 00:27:07
			by sending Kurds from their own group, you
		
00:27:07 --> 00:27:10
			know, Muslim Kurds, to those areas to reassure
		
00:27:10 --> 00:27:13
			the local Kurdish populations that look, this isn't
		
00:27:13 --> 00:27:15
			a sectarian thing, it's not an ethnic thing.
		
00:27:16 --> 00:27:17
			Jolani's number two came out and gave a
		
00:27:17 --> 00:27:19
			khutbah where he said the Armenians and Christians
		
00:27:19 --> 00:27:22
			and Kurds and whoever are guaranteed their rights,
		
00:27:22 --> 00:27:24
			guaranteed their cause, similar to what we saw
		
00:27:24 --> 00:27:25
			when the Palestinians went and marched.
		
00:27:26 --> 00:27:28
			So those are the main groups fighting, but
		
00:27:28 --> 00:27:29
			everything is still in flux.
		
00:27:29 --> 00:27:30
			Russia now is bombing Idlib.
		
00:27:31 --> 00:27:33
			There's talk that some militias, pro-Iran militias
		
00:27:33 --> 00:27:35
			in Iraq, are trying to cross the border
		
00:27:35 --> 00:27:37
			to go in and rescue Bashar al-Assad.
		
00:27:37 --> 00:27:39
			It's a bit of a mess, but those
		
00:27:39 --> 00:27:40
			are the main groups at this moment in
		
00:27:40 --> 00:27:40
			time fighting.
		
00:27:41 --> 00:27:42
			Who runs the Syrian National Army?
		
00:27:43 --> 00:27:47
			The Syrian National Army predominantly, the consensus is
		
00:27:47 --> 00:27:49
			that it is controlled by Turkey.
		
00:27:49 --> 00:27:52
			Turkey orders where it goes, where it doesn't
		
00:27:52 --> 00:27:54
			go, where it mobilizes, where it doesn't mobilize
		
00:27:54 --> 00:27:54
			itself.
		
00:27:55 --> 00:27:57
			Without making it sound like it's very pragmatic,
		
00:27:58 --> 00:28:00
			Turkey did have a legitimate reason to set
		
00:28:00 --> 00:28:02
			it up, which was that at the time
		
00:28:02 --> 00:28:05
			before it was set up, HTS, remember, is
		
00:28:05 --> 00:28:06
			listed as a terrorist organization.
		
00:28:07 --> 00:28:09
			And as a result, whenever Erdogan would go
		
00:28:09 --> 00:28:11
			and lobby abroad for support for the Syrians
		
00:28:11 --> 00:28:13
			against Assad, he would always be met by
		
00:28:13 --> 00:28:15
			the Europeans and the Americans who would tell
		
00:28:15 --> 00:28:17
			him, we're not supporting a terrorist group.
		
00:28:17 --> 00:28:18
			We're not supporting Jolani.
		
00:28:18 --> 00:28:19
			He used to be with Al-Qaeda.
		
00:28:20 --> 00:28:21
			Even if he left them, we're not supporting
		
00:28:21 --> 00:28:21
			him.
		
00:28:21 --> 00:28:23
			So Erdogan's plan was, and this is why
		
00:28:23 --> 00:28:26
			it's not as Machiavellian as it sounds, Erdogan's
		
00:28:26 --> 00:28:27
			plan was, why don't I create an alternative
		
00:28:27 --> 00:28:30
			entity that is not on a terrorist list,
		
00:28:30 --> 00:28:31
			that's not composed of people that the Americans
		
00:28:31 --> 00:28:33
			don't like, and we can make this the
		
00:28:33 --> 00:28:36
			Syrian National Army, let's remove the legitimacy from
		
00:28:36 --> 00:28:38
			Bashar al-Assad, and this way the Syrian
		
00:28:38 --> 00:28:40
			opposition will have a leg to stand on
		
00:28:40 --> 00:28:43
			internationally because they need international support in order
		
00:28:43 --> 00:28:45
			to be able to fight with Bashar al
		
00:28:45 --> 00:28:45
			-Assad.
		
00:28:46 --> 00:28:47
			Where Turkey had a problem was, when they
		
00:28:47 --> 00:28:50
			established the Syrian National Army, Hayy al-Tahiyy
		
00:28:50 --> 00:28:52
			al-Sham were able to impose themselves in
		
00:28:52 --> 00:28:54
			Idlib and in other areas in a way
		
00:28:54 --> 00:28:56
			the Syrian National Army could not.
		
00:28:56 --> 00:28:58
			And despite certain clashes between the Syrian National
		
00:28:58 --> 00:29:01
			Army and Hayy al-Tahiyy al-Sham, Erdogan
		
00:29:01 --> 00:29:03
			eventually came to the conclusion that we'll keep
		
00:29:03 --> 00:29:05
			the SNA, the Syrian National Army as a
		
00:29:05 --> 00:29:08
			group, but work with HTS and try to
		
00:29:08 --> 00:29:10
			keep the peace between them and try to
		
00:29:10 --> 00:29:12
			have this sort of broad coalition between the
		
00:29:12 --> 00:29:12
			two itself.
		
00:29:13 --> 00:29:15
			SNA is considered Turkey's arm, and this is
		
00:29:15 --> 00:29:17
			why when people are talking about where does
		
00:29:17 --> 00:29:20
			Turkey actually stand, was it taken by surprise,
		
00:29:20 --> 00:29:21
			did it support the initiative?
		
00:29:21 --> 00:29:23
			The deployment of the SNA is what gives
		
00:29:23 --> 00:29:25
			you an indication that even if Erdogan may
		
00:29:25 --> 00:29:27
			not have wanted this offensive in the beginning,
		
00:29:27 --> 00:29:29
			certainly let's see how far it goes and
		
00:29:29 --> 00:29:30
			let's support them.
		
00:29:31 --> 00:29:35
			HTS, al-Qaeda links, talk to us about
		
00:29:35 --> 00:29:35
			that.
		
00:29:36 --> 00:29:39
			So Jolani in about 2016, 2017, the years
		
00:29:39 --> 00:29:41
			might be off maybe by one or two,
		
00:29:42 --> 00:29:44
			he sets up this Hayy al-Tahiyy al
		
00:29:44 --> 00:29:45
			-Sham, bear in mind the Free Syrian Army
		
00:29:45 --> 00:29:50
			after 2014, 2015, the people who defected from
		
00:29:50 --> 00:29:52
			the Syrian Army after the revolution and the
		
00:29:52 --> 00:29:54
			Syrians who got together to form behind the
		
00:29:54 --> 00:29:56
			Free Syrian Army, when they were marching on
		
00:29:56 --> 00:29:59
			Damascus, Hezbollah crossed over from Lebanon at the
		
00:29:59 --> 00:30:02
			request of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei,
		
00:30:02 --> 00:30:04
			they crossed over, they hit the Free Syrian
		
00:30:04 --> 00:30:06
			Army from the back and they essentially managed
		
00:30:06 --> 00:30:08
			to break the back of the Free Syrian
		
00:30:08 --> 00:30:11
			Army, which meant that the, I don't want
		
00:30:11 --> 00:30:12
			to use this term, but I'll use it
		
00:30:12 --> 00:30:14
			just because it's the way it's used in
		
00:30:14 --> 00:30:17
			mainstream, the more moderate forces had their backs
		
00:30:17 --> 00:30:20
			broken, which allowed more extreme, I don't like
		
00:30:20 --> 00:30:22
			to use this language, but what specifically more
		
00:30:22 --> 00:30:24
			extreme forces to emerge.
		
00:30:25 --> 00:30:27
			Jolani had a small group, Hayy al-Tahiyy
		
00:30:27 --> 00:30:29
			al-Sham, and at that time ISIS, Al
		
00:30:29 --> 00:30:30
			-Qaeda, all these other, it was a free
		
00:30:30 --> 00:30:33
			for all Syria basically, and everybody announcing their
		
00:30:33 --> 00:30:34
			own groups here and there.
		
00:30:34 --> 00:30:36
			Hayy al-Tahiyy al-Sham was a small
		
00:30:36 --> 00:30:38
			group, so it decided let's try to form
		
00:30:38 --> 00:30:40
			a broad coalition, and amongst those to which
		
00:30:40 --> 00:30:43
			it declared allegiance to or coalition with, was
		
00:30:43 --> 00:30:43
			Al-Qaeda.
		
00:30:44 --> 00:30:47
			When it became a bit toxic and they
		
00:30:47 --> 00:30:48
			fell out with Al-Qaeda, it was Jolani
		
00:30:48 --> 00:30:51
			who led the force against Al-Qaeda to
		
00:30:51 --> 00:30:54
			wipe them out from that particular area itself,
		
00:30:54 --> 00:30:56
			and he separated from them in 2016, in
		
00:30:56 --> 00:30:59
			2017, but that has stuck with him, that
		
00:30:59 --> 00:31:01
			sort of tainted the manner in which people
		
00:31:01 --> 00:31:03
			tend to work with him in and of
		
00:31:03 --> 00:31:03
			itself.
		
00:31:04 --> 00:31:06
			So people are repeating it, certainly again especially
		
00:31:06 --> 00:31:08
			the pro-Assad lot that Jolani was also
		
00:31:08 --> 00:31:10
			Al-Qaeda and the like, but it is
		
00:31:10 --> 00:31:12
			worth noting the reason Al-Qaeda don't operate
		
00:31:12 --> 00:31:14
			in Syria anymore in the way that they
		
00:31:14 --> 00:31:16
			used to, or even ISIS or the small
		
00:31:16 --> 00:31:18
			groups that call themselves ISIS or the like,
		
00:31:18 --> 00:31:20
			is because Jolani is the one who got
		
00:31:20 --> 00:31:20
			rid of them.
		
00:31:20 --> 00:31:22
			So yeah, they used to have ties with
		
00:31:22 --> 00:31:23
			Al-Qaeda, but not anymore.
		
00:31:23 --> 00:31:25
			I think they've rebranded to something much different,
		
00:31:25 --> 00:31:26
			and I think when you look at the
		
00:31:26 --> 00:31:29
			factions that make up Hayat al-Tahir al
		
00:31:29 --> 00:31:31
			-Sham, they are much more diverse than they
		
00:31:31 --> 00:31:33
			used to be in the past, and I
		
00:31:33 --> 00:31:36
			think that shows a reflection upon Jolani, and
		
00:31:36 --> 00:31:37
			this is just analysis, not a statement of
		
00:31:37 --> 00:31:38
			support for anyone.
		
00:31:39 --> 00:31:41
			I think it reflects a reflection upon Jolani,
		
00:31:41 --> 00:31:43
			that if I'm going to go and march
		
00:31:43 --> 00:31:45
			with these forces to take Syria, I need
		
00:31:45 --> 00:31:47
			it to look Syrian, I need it to
		
00:31:47 --> 00:31:50
			look inclusive and more encompassing, and I think
		
00:31:50 --> 00:31:51
			that's what we're seeing today.
		
00:31:52 --> 00:31:54
			Who now runs Al-Qaeda?
		
00:31:55 --> 00:31:58
			Al-Qaeda now is not particularly a prominent
		
00:31:58 --> 00:31:58
			institution.
		
00:31:58 --> 00:32:00
			I'm not sure who's running at this moment
		
00:32:00 --> 00:32:00
			in time.
		
00:32:00 --> 00:32:02
			Their leaders keep getting assassinated one by one,
		
00:32:02 --> 00:32:05
			but they're a negligible presence.
		
00:32:06 --> 00:32:09
			What I fear is that what we often
		
00:32:09 --> 00:32:10
			see is the Al-Qaeda and ISIS card
		
00:32:10 --> 00:32:14
			is often thrown at the people whenever they
		
00:32:14 --> 00:32:16
			want to topple dictators or regimes.
		
00:32:16 --> 00:32:20
			It's used as a card or argument through
		
00:32:20 --> 00:32:22
			which to sort of taint the brush of
		
00:32:22 --> 00:32:24
			the Syrians who are marching on Aleppo and
		
00:32:24 --> 00:32:25
			on Hama.
		
00:32:25 --> 00:32:26
			I'm not implying that's what the question implied,
		
00:32:27 --> 00:32:28
			but it's a very valid question to ask,
		
00:32:28 --> 00:32:29
			100%.
		
00:32:29 --> 00:32:31
			But I do think that their role now
		
00:32:31 --> 00:32:33
			is negligible, which is why I'm not sure
		
00:32:33 --> 00:32:34
			who the leader is.
		
00:32:34 --> 00:32:35
			Neither are many of the Syrians themselves.
		
00:32:35 --> 00:32:37
			But I do think we will hear much
		
00:32:37 --> 00:32:40
			more about them as the Syrians advance because
		
00:32:40 --> 00:32:43
			the reality is Assad was able to garner
		
00:32:43 --> 00:32:46
			international support to stay in power by arguing
		
00:32:46 --> 00:32:48
			that the other side were terrorists and the
		
00:32:48 --> 00:32:50
			Al-Qaeda and ISIS were among them.
		
00:32:50 --> 00:32:52
			And this is what hurt the Syrian revolution
		
00:32:52 --> 00:32:52
			a lot.
		
00:32:53 --> 00:32:55
			When the Syrian revolution began and it started
		
00:32:55 --> 00:32:57
			to be armed, Bandar bin Sultan, who was
		
00:32:57 --> 00:32:59
			the head of the Saudi intelligence, had a
		
00:32:59 --> 00:33:01
			policy of giving weapons to anybody who would
		
00:33:01 --> 00:33:02
			fight Bashar al-Assad.
		
00:33:02 --> 00:33:04
			And some of those weapons did find their
		
00:33:04 --> 00:33:06
			way into the hands of some terrorist groups.
		
00:33:07 --> 00:33:09
			And I think that when people were saying
		
00:33:09 --> 00:33:11
			that, look, it doesn't affect the morality of
		
00:33:11 --> 00:33:13
			the Syrian revolution, it did make it hard
		
00:33:13 --> 00:33:16
			for those who sympathize with the revolution to
		
00:33:16 --> 00:33:19
			be very all in with regards to the
		
00:33:19 --> 00:33:20
			revolution itself.
		
00:33:20 --> 00:33:21
			And you saw it when the Free Syrian
		
00:33:21 --> 00:33:23
			Army broke apart later on.
		
00:33:23 --> 00:33:25
			It was these more extreme groups that sort
		
00:33:25 --> 00:33:28
			of emerged into the limelight and emerged to
		
00:33:28 --> 00:33:29
			the fore of what happened, etc.
		
00:33:30 --> 00:33:31
			I think this time that won't happen.
		
00:33:31 --> 00:33:33
			I think this time is different because a
		
00:33:33 --> 00:33:34
			lot of these groups have been taken out.
		
00:33:35 --> 00:33:37
			What I fear, however, is that as Assad
		
00:33:37 --> 00:33:40
			stayed in power by arguing the other side
		
00:33:40 --> 00:33:42
			were terrorists and therefore there will be an
		
00:33:42 --> 00:33:45
			increased focus on al-Qaeda and ISIS, even
		
00:33:45 --> 00:33:49
			though their de facto effect is negligible and
		
00:33:49 --> 00:33:51
			non-existent, I think they will be inflated
		
00:33:51 --> 00:33:54
			in the coming few days to justify Assad
		
00:33:54 --> 00:33:56
			bringing in troops from the Iranians.
		
00:33:56 --> 00:33:58
			Iran's foreign minister today said that if Assad
		
00:33:58 --> 00:34:00
			makes a request for Iranian troops, we will
		
00:34:00 --> 00:34:02
			send them immediately.
		
00:34:02 --> 00:34:05
			We're seeing Russia coming in and preparing, doing
		
00:34:05 --> 00:34:08
			some military drills off the Mediterranean coast, sort
		
00:34:08 --> 00:34:10
			of suggesting that there is this sort of
		
00:34:10 --> 00:34:13
			PR narrative being pushed to prepare for a
		
00:34:13 --> 00:34:16
			new offensive against these Syrian rebels, against the
		
00:34:16 --> 00:34:16
			Syrians.
		
00:34:16 --> 00:34:18
			And that's why I fear that focusing on
		
00:34:18 --> 00:34:20
			al-Qaeda and ISIS might actually be something
		
00:34:20 --> 00:34:22
			that might hurt those who are marching in
		
00:34:22 --> 00:34:22
			Aleppo and Hama.
		
00:34:23 --> 00:34:25
			We used to hear Jabhat al-Nusra, that
		
00:34:25 --> 00:34:26
			name.
		
00:34:26 --> 00:34:27
			What happened to them?
		
00:34:27 --> 00:34:27
			Who are they now?
		
00:34:28 --> 00:34:30
			Jabhat al-Nusra rebranded to Hayat Tahiyyat al
		
00:34:30 --> 00:34:31
			-Sham.
		
00:34:31 --> 00:34:33
			Jabhat al-Nusra, when Joulani allied with al
		
00:34:33 --> 00:34:36
			-Qaeda, he did so under the brand of
		
00:34:36 --> 00:34:36
			Jabhat al-Nusra.
		
00:34:36 --> 00:34:39
			And as part of the rebranding, after the
		
00:34:39 --> 00:34:41
			cutting ties with al-Qaeda and the like,
		
00:34:41 --> 00:34:43
			they became Hayat Tahiyyat al-Sham, which is
		
00:34:43 --> 00:34:44
			a much better name.
		
00:34:44 --> 00:34:46
			Hayat, you know, a council for the liberation
		
00:34:46 --> 00:34:47
			of Syria.
		
00:34:47 --> 00:34:48
			And I think that kind of name allowed
		
00:34:48 --> 00:34:50
			other groups to come and join in himself.
		
00:34:50 --> 00:34:52
			It's not to say his rule has been
		
00:34:52 --> 00:34:52
			perfect.
		
00:34:52 --> 00:34:54
			There have been quite a few for those
		
00:34:54 --> 00:34:57
			who follow Bilal Abdelkarim, you know, the brother
		
00:34:57 --> 00:34:59
			from New York or from America who lives
		
00:34:59 --> 00:35:00
			in Syria itself.
		
00:35:00 --> 00:35:02
			He's done a lot of documentation about some
		
00:35:02 --> 00:35:04
			of the abuses under Joulani's rule in Idlib.
		
00:35:04 --> 00:35:07
			But overall, I think Hayat Tahiyyat al-Sham
		
00:35:07 --> 00:35:09
			and the way that they've managed Idlib itself
		
00:35:09 --> 00:35:11
			has been much more inclusive than it has
		
00:35:11 --> 00:35:12
			been in the past.
		
00:35:13 --> 00:35:14
			Mossad involvement.
		
00:35:15 --> 00:35:18
			Everyone is, a lot of people are talking
		
00:35:18 --> 00:35:22
			about this being a Mossad, an Israeli play
		
00:35:22 --> 00:35:27
			for an endgame that involves dividing up Syria
		
00:35:27 --> 00:35:28
			completely into three parts.
		
00:35:29 --> 00:35:32
			How can we ever be, have any certain
		
00:35:32 --> 00:35:34
			knowledge on these claims?
		
00:35:34 --> 00:35:35
			What do you know about that?
		
00:35:36 --> 00:35:42
			I think that if you look at where
		
00:35:42 --> 00:35:46
			Israel stands, Israel does not want a strong
		
00:35:46 --> 00:35:47
			Syria.
		
00:35:47 --> 00:35:49
			It doesn't want Assad to be entirely in
		
00:35:49 --> 00:35:51
			control, but doesn't want the rebels to take
		
00:35:51 --> 00:35:52
			over Syria either.
		
00:35:53 --> 00:35:57
			So I think that it is legitimate to
		
00:35:57 --> 00:36:00
			say that Israel would want to see Assad
		
00:36:00 --> 00:36:01
			in trouble.
		
00:36:01 --> 00:36:05
			But it is also legitimate to say that
		
00:36:05 --> 00:36:07
			that has no bearing on the Syrians' desire
		
00:36:07 --> 00:36:08
			for freedom.
		
00:36:09 --> 00:36:12
			Because what Israel wants is that there is
		
00:36:12 --> 00:36:14
			a stalemate between the rebels and Bashar al
		
00:36:14 --> 00:36:14
			-Assad.
		
00:36:14 --> 00:36:16
			And given that it was too in favor
		
00:36:16 --> 00:36:19
			of Assad, it is true that there may
		
00:36:19 --> 00:36:20
			be a case to be made that the
		
00:36:20 --> 00:36:23
			Israelis would like to see the rebels push
		
00:36:23 --> 00:36:25
			Assad back to a 50-50.
		
00:36:25 --> 00:36:27
			So if someone wants to argue that Mossad
		
00:36:27 --> 00:36:29
			is watching the rebel advance on Aleppo and
		
00:36:29 --> 00:36:33
			on Hama and doesn't mind that advance, there
		
00:36:33 --> 00:36:34
			is an argument to be made for that.
		
00:36:36 --> 00:36:38
			But I don't think that that affects the
		
00:36:38 --> 00:36:42
			Syrian legitimacy in terms of demanding the liberation
		
00:36:42 --> 00:36:43
			of Damascus.
		
00:36:43 --> 00:36:45
			Because I think that what the UAE are
		
00:36:45 --> 00:36:48
			pitching to the Americans and the Israelis is
		
00:36:48 --> 00:36:50
			that, yes, Assad is being pushed back, but
		
00:36:50 --> 00:36:51
			you don't want Assad to fall.
		
00:36:52 --> 00:36:54
			And I think where Israel is concerned is,
		
00:36:54 --> 00:36:57
			OK, they're marching, but a bit too rapidly
		
00:36:57 --> 00:36:57
			for my liking.
		
00:36:58 --> 00:37:00
			They're marching a bit too fast, and Assad
		
00:37:00 --> 00:37:02
			is falling a bit too easily for my
		
00:37:02 --> 00:37:03
			liking.
		
00:37:03 --> 00:37:05
			So right now I'm happy to watch Assad
		
00:37:05 --> 00:37:08
			lose, but if they march on Damascus, I
		
00:37:08 --> 00:37:10
			might intervene to rescue Assad.
		
00:37:11 --> 00:37:13
			Israel's interest is not in the rebels or
		
00:37:13 --> 00:37:13
			in Bashar al-Assad.
		
00:37:14 --> 00:37:15
			It's in the stalemate itself.
		
00:37:16 --> 00:37:17
			And that's why I think that when people
		
00:37:17 --> 00:37:19
			say that Assad was the bastion against the
		
00:37:19 --> 00:37:21
			Israelis and Israel wants to see Assad fall,
		
00:37:21 --> 00:37:23
			I don't think the Israelis want to see
		
00:37:23 --> 00:37:23
			Assad fall at all.
		
00:37:23 --> 00:37:24
			They want to see him weak.
		
00:37:24 --> 00:37:25
			They don't want to see him fall.
		
00:37:25 --> 00:37:28
			I don't think that Saudi Arabia or UAE,
		
00:37:28 --> 00:37:30
			Israel's allies in the region, at least UAE,
		
00:37:30 --> 00:37:32
			which has normalized ties and the views expressed
		
00:37:32 --> 00:37:33
			on my own don't reflect anybody else.
		
00:37:34 --> 00:37:35
			But in any case, the idea that they
		
00:37:35 --> 00:37:37
			don't want to see Assad fall as well
		
00:37:37 --> 00:37:39
			is because they're aware if Assad falls, it
		
00:37:39 --> 00:37:41
			will cause a domino effect that will hurt
		
00:37:41 --> 00:37:42
			the regimes and hurt Israel, too.
		
00:37:43 --> 00:37:45
			And that's why I don't think necessarily Mossad
		
00:37:45 --> 00:37:46
			is working with the Syrian rebels.
		
00:37:46 --> 00:37:49
			I think more that Israel has an immediate
		
00:37:49 --> 00:37:53
			interest in seeing Assad weakened, but no interest
		
00:37:53 --> 00:37:54
			in seeing him defeated.
		
00:37:54 --> 00:37:56
			And I think that's where people sometimes get
		
00:37:56 --> 00:37:57
			confused.
		
00:37:57 --> 00:37:59
			They assume that support for the Syrian rebels
		
00:37:59 --> 00:38:01
			means you're supporting the Israelis.
		
00:38:01 --> 00:38:02
			No, that's not true.
		
00:38:03 --> 00:38:05
			Supporting the liberation of Syria is what the
		
00:38:05 --> 00:38:08
			Israelis are terrified, Israelis are terrified of.
		
00:38:08 --> 00:38:10
			And I do think that when you look
		
00:38:10 --> 00:38:12
			at the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, and again,
		
00:38:12 --> 00:38:14
			this is speculation, but I think the timing
		
00:38:14 --> 00:38:17
			of the ceasefire and the humiliating terms that
		
00:38:17 --> 00:38:19
			Hezbollah accepted, which is the idea of allowing
		
00:38:19 --> 00:38:21
			the Israelis to enter Lebanon whenever they wish,
		
00:38:21 --> 00:38:24
			terms that they weren't willing to accept beforehand.
		
00:38:24 --> 00:38:26
			I think it does have a lot to
		
00:38:26 --> 00:38:28
			do with the idea that Hezbollah realized Syria
		
00:38:28 --> 00:38:30
			is in trouble, and Syria is the greater
		
00:38:30 --> 00:38:31
			priority than Gaza.
		
00:38:32 --> 00:38:34
			The idea of establishing that Shia crescent that
		
00:38:34 --> 00:38:36
			goes from Iran to Lebanon is the greater
		
00:38:36 --> 00:38:36
			priority.
		
00:38:36 --> 00:38:38
			So make a deal with the Israelis and
		
00:38:38 --> 00:38:39
			go and save Syria.
		
00:38:39 --> 00:38:42
			And I do think that Erdogan, he didn't
		
00:38:42 --> 00:38:45
			act on Gaza, but he's acting on Syria,
		
00:38:45 --> 00:38:47
			I think because from Erdogan's perspective, and indeed
		
00:38:47 --> 00:38:50
			Saudi, and indeed many in the region, Iran
		
00:38:50 --> 00:38:52
			is currently perceived as the greater threat because
		
00:38:52 --> 00:38:54
			of what it did in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon,
		
00:38:54 --> 00:38:54
			and Yemen.
		
00:38:55 --> 00:38:57
			And ignore what that might mean when you
		
00:38:57 --> 00:38:59
			put Iran and Israel in the same bracket.
		
00:38:59 --> 00:39:01
			The reason people say that is, and this
		
00:39:01 --> 00:39:05
			is the point, people often say that Syria
		
00:39:05 --> 00:39:07
			is in a mess because Israel and the
		
00:39:07 --> 00:39:09
			Americans and the Western powers conspired against Syria.
		
00:39:10 --> 00:39:11
			This is a half-truth.
		
00:39:11 --> 00:39:13
			It's a half-truth because after the 1967
		
00:39:13 --> 00:39:17
			war and 1973, the Americans and the Israelis
		
00:39:17 --> 00:39:19
			believed that there needed to be a dismantling
		
00:39:19 --> 00:39:21
			of the Iraqi army, the Syrian army, and
		
00:39:21 --> 00:39:22
			the Egyptian army.
		
00:39:22 --> 00:39:25
			Americans began to donate heavily to the Egyptian
		
00:39:25 --> 00:39:26
			army and to train them in order to
		
00:39:26 --> 00:39:28
			keep them focused more on their people than
		
00:39:28 --> 00:39:30
			on outside, and they succeeded in that.
		
00:39:30 --> 00:39:32
			Iraqi army, they went in, they brought down
		
00:39:32 --> 00:39:35
			Saddam Hussein, and they destroyed the Iraqi army,
		
00:39:35 --> 00:39:37
			and now you've seen it's all militias that
		
00:39:37 --> 00:39:38
			are roaming around in Iraq itself.
		
00:39:39 --> 00:39:40
			And in Syria, indeed, I do think that
		
00:39:40 --> 00:39:42
			the Israelis and the Americans want to see
		
00:39:42 --> 00:39:44
			the Syrian army destroyed.
		
00:39:44 --> 00:39:45
			That's a half-truth.
		
00:39:45 --> 00:39:47
			The other side of the truth is that
		
00:39:47 --> 00:39:50
			none of the Israeli or U.S. machinations
		
00:39:50 --> 00:39:53
			are possible in Syria without the oppression of
		
00:39:53 --> 00:39:53
			the Assad family.
		
00:39:54 --> 00:39:57
			Ibn Khaldun says, العدل أساس الملك Justice is
		
00:39:57 --> 00:39:59
			the foundation of all dominion.
		
00:39:59 --> 00:40:03
			والظلم مؤذن بخراب العمران Oppression is what destroys
		
00:40:03 --> 00:40:04
			the civilization.
		
00:40:04 --> 00:40:06
			We have famous stories in Islamic history.
		
00:40:06 --> 00:40:09
			Umar ibn Abdulaziz was sent a letter by
		
00:40:09 --> 00:40:11
			his governor who said to him, I've got
		
00:40:11 --> 00:40:13
			unruly tribes in my area.
		
00:40:13 --> 00:40:15
			I need you to send more forces for
		
00:40:15 --> 00:40:19
			me to حصنها, to fortify it and keep
		
00:40:19 --> 00:40:19
			it under control.
		
00:40:20 --> 00:40:22
			Umar ibn Abdulaziz responded and said, You don't
		
00:40:22 --> 00:40:23
			need more forces.
		
00:40:23 --> 00:40:26
			حصنها بالعدل Fortify it with justice.
		
00:40:26 --> 00:40:29
			Fortify it by giving people their legitimate desires.
		
00:40:29 --> 00:40:31
			And that's why it's a half-truth that
		
00:40:31 --> 00:40:33
			Israel and America are conspiring against Syria.
		
00:40:34 --> 00:40:36
			It's a half-truth that Israel doesn't like
		
00:40:36 --> 00:40:36
			Assad.
		
00:40:36 --> 00:40:39
			It's a half-truth that Israel, perhaps, is
		
00:40:39 --> 00:40:43
			happy to see Assad reeling, even if it
		
00:40:43 --> 00:40:44
			doesn't want him defeated.
		
00:40:44 --> 00:40:45
			But the other side of the truth is
		
00:40:45 --> 00:40:48
			that it's the zulm in Syria itself that
		
00:40:48 --> 00:40:51
			allowed the window for the international powers to
		
00:40:51 --> 00:40:51
			come out.
		
00:40:51 --> 00:40:53
			And I give you an example in not
		
00:40:53 --> 00:40:53
			so recent time.
		
00:40:53 --> 00:40:56
			In a recent time, 2016, when the army
		
00:40:56 --> 00:40:58
			tried to coup on Erdogan, why were the
		
00:40:58 --> 00:40:59
			army unable to do a coup on Erdogan?
		
00:41:00 --> 00:41:01
			Because the people took to the streets.
		
00:41:01 --> 00:41:02
			They took to the bridges.
		
00:41:02 --> 00:41:03
			They took to the streets.
		
00:41:03 --> 00:41:05
			And they said, We will not allow you
		
00:41:05 --> 00:41:08
			to topple Erdogan because he built the southern
		
00:41:08 --> 00:41:09
			cities.
		
00:41:09 --> 00:41:10
			He renovated them.
		
00:41:10 --> 00:41:11
			He built the roads.
		
00:41:11 --> 00:41:12
			He built the hospitals.
		
00:41:13 --> 00:41:13
			He built.
		
00:41:13 --> 00:41:15
			There was a famous pole after the earthquakes
		
00:41:15 --> 00:41:16
			in eastern Turkey.
		
00:41:16 --> 00:41:18
			Who do you blame for the destruction of
		
00:41:18 --> 00:41:19
			the buildings?
		
00:41:19 --> 00:41:19
			They said, Erdogan.
		
00:41:20 --> 00:41:21
			Who do you trust to rebuild it?
		
00:41:21 --> 00:41:21
			Erdogan.
		
00:41:22 --> 00:41:24
			Erdogan built a record whereby the people genuinely
		
00:41:24 --> 00:41:26
			saw him as somebody who builds.
		
00:41:26 --> 00:41:29
			Ignore whatever grievances we have over his foreign
		
00:41:29 --> 00:41:29
			policy.
		
00:41:29 --> 00:41:32
			Assad's dhulm is what led Syria and ripped
		
00:41:32 --> 00:41:33
			Syria apart.
		
00:41:33 --> 00:41:35
			Because dhulm moodum bi kharab al-Oman.
		
00:41:35 --> 00:41:37
			And that's why when people say we need
		
00:41:37 --> 00:41:39
			Assad to stay in power to facilitate Palestinian
		
00:41:39 --> 00:41:41
			liberation, I argue differently.
		
00:41:42 --> 00:41:44
			We need justice in Syria to liberate Palestine.
		
00:41:45 --> 00:41:47
			Assad has failed in delivering that justice.
		
00:41:47 --> 00:41:49
			That oppression needs to go quickly so that
		
00:41:49 --> 00:41:52
			we can create an environment of some justice
		
00:41:52 --> 00:41:54
			or reconciliation so we can focus on liberation
		
00:41:54 --> 00:41:54
			of Palestine.
		
00:41:54 --> 00:41:56
			Which is why Salah al-Ayyubi goes to
		
00:41:56 --> 00:41:59
			Syria and Egypt first before he's able to
		
00:41:59 --> 00:42:00
			go and liberate Al-Aqsa afterwards.
		
00:42:00 --> 00:42:02
			I mean, we can also ask the question.
		
00:42:02 --> 00:42:05
			We just had war in Gaza and Assad
		
00:42:05 --> 00:42:05
			had Syria.
		
00:42:06 --> 00:42:07
			Where was the help?
		
00:42:08 --> 00:42:08
			Right.
		
00:42:08 --> 00:42:10
			We literally had a live demonstration over two
		
00:42:10 --> 00:42:12
			years, almost two years now.
		
00:42:12 --> 00:42:15
			And the impact was negligible.
		
00:42:16 --> 00:42:16
			Right.
		
00:42:17 --> 00:42:19
			So that argument is going to be weak,
		
00:42:19 --> 00:42:21
			that we need him to help with Israel.
		
00:42:22 --> 00:42:22
			No, entirely.
		
00:42:23 --> 00:42:23
			It's very true.
		
00:42:23 --> 00:42:26
			And also, when you look at Assad's position,
		
00:42:27 --> 00:42:30
			the reality is that, you know, there are
		
00:42:30 --> 00:42:32
			reports coming out suggesting that the deal that
		
00:42:32 --> 00:42:34
			the Americans want to offer Assad is abandon
		
00:42:34 --> 00:42:36
			the Iranians and we'll come in and rescue
		
00:42:36 --> 00:42:37
			your regime as well.
		
00:42:37 --> 00:42:39
			Assad is able to be useful to all
		
00:42:39 --> 00:42:40
			of the international powers.
		
00:42:40 --> 00:42:41
			He's able to shift and align.
		
00:42:42 --> 00:42:44
			If Iranians are angry with him, he goes
		
00:42:44 --> 00:42:44
			to the Russians.
		
00:42:44 --> 00:42:45
			Russians are angry with him.
		
00:42:45 --> 00:42:47
			He's able to recognize Bin Salman.
		
00:42:47 --> 00:42:48
			Bin Salman is angry with him.
		
00:42:48 --> 00:42:49
			He's able to talk to the Americans and
		
00:42:49 --> 00:42:51
			say, I need you to fight against terrorism.
		
00:42:51 --> 00:42:53
			And this is why people who are saying
		
00:42:53 --> 00:42:55
			that we need Bashar al-Assad, the reality
		
00:42:55 --> 00:42:57
			is they are accepting for themselves what they
		
00:42:57 --> 00:42:58
			would not be accepting for others what they
		
00:42:58 --> 00:42:59
			would not accept for themselves.
		
00:43:00 --> 00:43:01
			And here is the tragic irony.
		
00:43:01 --> 00:43:03
			And here I talk about those from the
		
00:43:03 --> 00:43:05
			Shia who support Bashar al-Assad.
		
00:43:05 --> 00:43:07
			The Shia tell the story of Sayyidina Hussain
		
00:43:07 --> 00:43:11
			going against Yazid, who they say is a
		
00:43:11 --> 00:43:12
			dictator and a tyrant.
		
00:43:12 --> 00:43:14
			And they say this story about somebody who
		
00:43:14 --> 00:43:17
			valued the freedom and justice of the Muslims
		
00:43:17 --> 00:43:20
			so much that he sacrificed himself against the
		
00:43:20 --> 00:43:21
			brutal dictator Yazid.
		
00:43:22 --> 00:43:24
			How is it that in Syria they flipped
		
00:43:24 --> 00:43:25
			it the opposite way?
		
00:43:25 --> 00:43:27
			With those who are much more similar to
		
00:43:27 --> 00:43:30
			Sayyidina Hussain going out and marching for the
		
00:43:30 --> 00:43:32
			sake of justice, for freedom, for righteousness.
		
00:43:32 --> 00:43:35
			How have they mistook Bashar for Hussain and
		
00:43:35 --> 00:43:38
			Yazid and made him the rebels when in
		
00:43:38 --> 00:43:40
			reality the story logically should be implemented in
		
00:43:40 --> 00:43:41
			the opposite way.
		
00:43:41 --> 00:43:43
			And that's why I'm not a sectarian in
		
00:43:43 --> 00:43:44
			terms of calling, you know, this is against
		
00:43:44 --> 00:43:45
			anti-Shia.
		
00:43:45 --> 00:43:47
			I'm saying to those who believe in the
		
00:43:47 --> 00:43:49
			Shia thought, if you look carefully at your
		
00:43:49 --> 00:43:51
			books, if you look carefully at your story,
		
00:43:51 --> 00:43:54
			you will find that Ali ibn Abi Talib
		
00:43:54 --> 00:43:57
			and Hussain and al-Hassan.
		
00:43:57 --> 00:43:59
			All of those from Ahl al-Bayt, in
		
00:43:59 --> 00:44:02
			my opinion, their stories resemble much more closely
		
00:44:02 --> 00:44:05
			the Syrians fighting against Assad than Assad fighting
		
00:44:05 --> 00:44:06
			against the Syrians themselves.
		
00:44:06 --> 00:44:07
			And that's why I think even as we
		
00:44:07 --> 00:44:10
			talk to, you know, the Shia groups and
		
00:44:10 --> 00:44:12
			the like, it's important that we talk about
		
00:44:12 --> 00:44:14
			it from the door of dawah that guys,
		
00:44:14 --> 00:44:16
			you know, Assad is not as good as
		
00:44:16 --> 00:44:17
			you think it is.
		
00:44:17 --> 00:44:18
			And I think a lot of it and
		
00:44:18 --> 00:44:19
			I finish on this point.
		
00:44:19 --> 00:44:21
			I think a lot of the support for
		
00:44:21 --> 00:44:22
			Bashar al-Assad that comes from the Shia
		
00:44:22 --> 00:44:25
			is out of fear of what Sunnis will
		
00:44:25 --> 00:44:27
			do to them afterwards, out of fear of
		
00:44:27 --> 00:44:28
			some sort of vengeance.
		
00:44:28 --> 00:44:30
			It's almost Zionist in the sense of we're
		
00:44:30 --> 00:44:32
			not going to leave Israel because these Palestinians
		
00:44:32 --> 00:44:33
			come in, they will do this to us,
		
00:44:33 --> 00:44:34
			they will do that.
		
00:44:34 --> 00:44:35
			It's like when you talk to a Jew,
		
00:44:35 --> 00:44:38
			I sympathize with the Palestinians, but imagine what
		
00:44:38 --> 00:44:39
			they will do to us because of what
		
00:44:39 --> 00:44:40
			we did to them.
		
00:44:40 --> 00:44:41
			And that's why I think that a lot
		
00:44:41 --> 00:44:43
			of the hysteria in Shia support for Bashar
		
00:44:43 --> 00:44:46
			al-Assad can be rectified, can be pushed
		
00:44:46 --> 00:44:48
			back against with a bit of dawah, using
		
00:44:48 --> 00:44:50
			even some of their own books to highlight
		
00:44:50 --> 00:44:53
			that what they celebrate is in the Syrian
		
00:44:53 --> 00:44:56
			rebels and what they hate, what they preach,
		
00:44:56 --> 00:44:58
			what they hate is in Bashar al-Assad.
		
00:44:58 --> 00:44:59
			That's a great point.
		
00:44:59 --> 00:45:01
			And also Assad, he's not even managing his
		
00:45:01 --> 00:45:05
			own country, let alone helping and facing a
		
00:45:05 --> 00:45:07
			huge enemy like Israel.
		
00:45:08 --> 00:45:10
			He's an incompetent dictator.
		
00:45:12 --> 00:45:15
			Hafez al-Assad was a competent evil dictator.
		
00:45:16 --> 00:45:19
			No one messed around in Syria except him.
		
00:45:19 --> 00:45:21
			Only – no one oppressed in Syria except
		
00:45:21 --> 00:45:22
			him.
		
00:45:23 --> 00:45:25
			Today everyone's meddling in Syria.
		
00:45:25 --> 00:45:27
			There are so many hands in Syria just
		
00:45:27 --> 00:45:31
			indicating his pure incompetence as an evil dictator.
		
00:45:31 --> 00:45:33
			He's a sloppy, evil dictator that can't even
		
00:45:33 --> 00:45:36
			manage his own home and his own country.
		
00:45:36 --> 00:45:39
			There's a youth that's in Syria, and he
		
00:45:39 --> 00:45:41
			tweets by the name of Tawseef Sharif.
		
00:45:42 --> 00:45:44
			And he tweeted recently today saying that the
		
00:45:44 --> 00:45:47
			powers that be – I'll let you define
		
00:45:47 --> 00:45:49
			who that is – are now trying to
		
00:45:49 --> 00:45:53
			carve up Syria into a Sunni portion, a
		
00:45:53 --> 00:45:55
			Kurdish portion, and a Shia portion.
		
00:45:56 --> 00:45:58
			Tell us, number one – I have three
		
00:45:58 --> 00:46:00
			questions here – the Sunnis – I mean
		
00:46:00 --> 00:46:01
			the powers that be, who are they?
		
00:46:02 --> 00:46:04
			Who would be the leaders of these three?
		
00:46:05 --> 00:46:06
			So when he says Sunni, what does that
		
00:46:06 --> 00:46:06
			mean?
		
00:46:06 --> 00:46:08
			When he says Shia, does that mean Assad?
		
00:46:09 --> 00:46:10
			What does that mean exactly?
		
00:46:11 --> 00:46:14
			And then number three, your thoughts on the
		
00:46:14 --> 00:46:18
			actual truthfulness or accuracy, I should say, of
		
00:46:18 --> 00:46:18
			the report.
		
00:46:19 --> 00:46:23
			I think that, first of all, the idea
		
00:46:23 --> 00:46:26
			that the Israelis are happy with what's happening
		
00:46:26 --> 00:46:27
			– and this links directly to your question
		
00:46:27 --> 00:46:30
			– the argument is that as a result
		
00:46:30 --> 00:46:32
			of Iran being weakened in Lebanon and Iran
		
00:46:32 --> 00:46:34
			being weakened because of its support for Gaza,
		
00:46:35 --> 00:46:37
			that means the Israelis are now capitalizing to
		
00:46:37 --> 00:46:39
			remove Iranian influence in Syria.
		
00:46:39 --> 00:46:40
			And that's, again, a half-truth.
		
00:46:41 --> 00:46:44
			The other half-truth is that the reason
		
00:46:44 --> 00:46:47
			Syria was unable to act against Gaza or
		
00:46:47 --> 00:46:49
			against Israel in favor of Gaza is because
		
00:46:49 --> 00:46:52
			Iranian militias are the only forces that are
		
00:46:52 --> 00:46:55
			keeping Assad going, and Russian airstrikes are the
		
00:46:55 --> 00:46:56
			only forces keeping Assad going.
		
00:46:56 --> 00:46:58
			It's not the Syrian army.
		
00:46:58 --> 00:47:00
			Which is why Assad, in his bid to
		
00:47:00 --> 00:47:03
			stay in power, essentially made the state impotent,
		
00:47:03 --> 00:47:03
			as you said.
		
00:47:04 --> 00:47:07
			Because the state is impotent, there is this
		
00:47:07 --> 00:47:09
			suggestion that given that there can be no
		
00:47:09 --> 00:47:12
			military victory in Syria because the Russians won't
		
00:47:12 --> 00:47:14
			allow the rebels to go to Damascus –
		
00:47:14 --> 00:47:16
			this is according to the ones who are
		
00:47:16 --> 00:47:18
			doing the plan – the Russians are saying,
		
00:47:18 --> 00:47:20
			we don't want the rebels to enter Damascus.
		
00:47:20 --> 00:47:22
			We're willing to entertain a deal to split
		
00:47:22 --> 00:47:24
			Syria, but we don't want the rebels in
		
00:47:24 --> 00:47:24
			Damascus itself.
		
00:47:25 --> 00:47:27
			The Iranians are saying, we won't allow the
		
00:47:27 --> 00:47:29
			rebels in Damascus itself because we want that
		
00:47:29 --> 00:47:31
			bridge that goes from Tehran through Iraq, through
		
00:47:31 --> 00:47:33
			Syria, all the way to Lebanon, because we
		
00:47:33 --> 00:47:36
			believe in this Shiite crescent that we're making.
		
00:47:36 --> 00:47:38
			Which is why Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian general
		
00:47:38 --> 00:47:41
			killed by Trump in 2019, you'll see Syrians
		
00:47:41 --> 00:47:43
			online on Twitter, they make references to green
		
00:47:43 --> 00:47:46
			buses, and those who haven't followed Syria won't
		
00:47:46 --> 00:47:46
			know what they're talking about.
		
00:47:46 --> 00:47:49
			The green buses were buses that Qasem Soleimani
		
00:47:49 --> 00:47:52
			used to load Sunnis on from the southern
		
00:47:52 --> 00:47:54
			villages and transport them north and bring Shia
		
00:47:54 --> 00:47:56
			from the north and make them live in
		
00:47:56 --> 00:47:58
			their homes in the south in order to
		
00:47:58 --> 00:47:59
			demographically change those areas.
		
00:47:59 --> 00:48:01
			Because he believed that if I brought –
		
00:48:01 --> 00:48:02
			and that's why when you go to Damascus,
		
00:48:03 --> 00:48:04
			you will see a lot of Farsi on
		
00:48:04 --> 00:48:06
			the streets, you'll see Latam now on the
		
00:48:06 --> 00:48:07
			streets in the way you did before.
		
00:48:07 --> 00:48:09
			Iran really pushed demographic changes.
		
00:48:10 --> 00:48:11
			A lot of what Israel did in Palestine,
		
00:48:12 --> 00:48:14
			Iranians took a lot from that playbook, the
		
00:48:14 --> 00:48:16
			idea of displacing and then bringing people from
		
00:48:16 --> 00:48:19
			India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Shia in these places and
		
00:48:19 --> 00:48:20
			putting them in those places itself.
		
00:48:20 --> 00:48:24
			Because of these demographic changes, it's been set
		
00:48:24 --> 00:48:26
			up whereby there are many Shia now in
		
00:48:26 --> 00:48:28
			the south, there are Sunnis now in the
		
00:48:28 --> 00:48:30
			northwest, and there are Kurds in the northeast.
		
00:48:31 --> 00:48:33
			The American plan initially was given that the
		
00:48:33 --> 00:48:35
			south has now gone to the Iranians, we've
		
00:48:35 --> 00:48:36
			been outplayed by the Iranians, there's all these
		
00:48:36 --> 00:48:39
			demographic changes, we need the Kurds as a
		
00:48:39 --> 00:48:40
			bulwark so we still have a state.
		
00:48:41 --> 00:48:42
			The same way the Americans did in Iraq.
		
00:48:42 --> 00:48:45
			In Iraq they went in, they were outplayed
		
00:48:45 --> 00:48:46
			by the Iranians who set up all these
		
00:48:46 --> 00:48:47
			Shia militias and the like.
		
00:48:47 --> 00:48:49
			And Obama when he wanted to do a
		
00:48:49 --> 00:48:51
			nuclear deal because the American people no longer
		
00:48:51 --> 00:48:53
			had an appetite for war, Obama said to
		
00:48:53 --> 00:48:55
			the Iranians, I'll make you a deal, we'll
		
00:48:55 --> 00:48:57
			do a nuclear deal, we'll share power in
		
00:48:57 --> 00:48:59
			Iraq, I'll let your militias become part of
		
00:48:59 --> 00:49:00
			the Iraqi army.
		
00:49:00 --> 00:49:02
			And meanwhile the Americans in the northern area
		
00:49:02 --> 00:49:05
			where the Kurds are, America established a stronghold
		
00:49:05 --> 00:49:07
			there that would always antagonize the central government
		
00:49:07 --> 00:49:08
			in Baghdad.
		
00:49:08 --> 00:49:10
			The Kurds were not allowed to become independent
		
00:49:10 --> 00:49:13
			because then they lose leverage in Baghdad, the
		
00:49:13 --> 00:49:15
			Americans lose leverage, but they were given almost
		
00:49:15 --> 00:49:17
			complete autonomy to do what they wish.
		
00:49:17 --> 00:49:18
			So the Americans want to set up like
		
00:49:18 --> 00:49:20
			the same way they did in Iraq, a
		
00:49:20 --> 00:49:21
			Kurdistan in the north, they want to set
		
00:49:21 --> 00:49:24
			up a Kurdistan in northeastern Syria which is
		
00:49:24 --> 00:49:25
			not independent but autonomous.
		
00:49:26 --> 00:49:29
			So it's independent enough to run itself but
		
00:49:29 --> 00:49:32
			remains autonomous so it can impact Damascus.
		
00:49:32 --> 00:49:34
			So for example in Iraq you'll know that
		
00:49:34 --> 00:49:37
			the president has to be Kurdish, the vice
		
00:49:37 --> 00:49:39
			president has to be Sunni, the head of
		
00:49:39 --> 00:49:40
			parliament is Shia.
		
00:49:40 --> 00:49:42
			They want to do a similar thing whereby
		
00:49:42 --> 00:49:43
			in Damascus you have the Kurdish portion, the
		
00:49:43 --> 00:49:44
			Shia portion, Sunni portion.
		
00:49:44 --> 00:49:50
			So for the south Iran, northeast America, and
		
00:49:50 --> 00:49:52
			northwest the Sunnis reference Turkey.
		
00:49:53 --> 00:49:56
			The idea of Erdogan supporting Hezbollah, supporting these
		
00:49:56 --> 00:49:58
			rebel groups, those who went to Idlib, you'll
		
00:49:58 --> 00:49:59
			carve that area out, that might be its
		
00:49:59 --> 00:50:01
			own nation or its own autonomous region.
		
00:50:01 --> 00:50:04
			The Turks, there will be proxies for Turkey,
		
00:50:04 --> 00:50:07
			northeast proxy for the US, and south proxy
		
00:50:07 --> 00:50:07
			for the Iranians.
		
00:50:08 --> 00:50:09
			Russia is the only one uncomfortable with it
		
00:50:09 --> 00:50:12
			because Russia believes that although it rescued Assad
		
00:50:12 --> 00:50:15
			by bombing and the like, the Alawi connection,
		
00:50:15 --> 00:50:17
			the Shia connection is stronger than the pragmatic
		
00:50:17 --> 00:50:17
			connection.
		
00:50:17 --> 00:50:19
			And therefore the Iranians are the ones who
		
00:50:19 --> 00:50:21
			will be on the ground and benefiting the
		
00:50:21 --> 00:50:21
			most.
		
00:50:21 --> 00:50:23
			Which is why Russia prefers to keep a
		
00:50:23 --> 00:50:25
			stalemate in Syria where it doesn't split but
		
00:50:25 --> 00:50:27
			it doesn't unite until it's able to establish
		
00:50:27 --> 00:50:30
			its military bases on the Mediterranean and these
		
00:50:30 --> 00:50:30
			areas.
		
00:50:30 --> 00:50:35
			And the Israelis, I think that they're unsure
		
00:50:35 --> 00:50:37
			what scenario they want.
		
00:50:37 --> 00:50:39
			Because even if you have a divided Syria,
		
00:50:39 --> 00:50:41
			suppose you have a Sunni north and a
		
00:50:41 --> 00:50:43
			Shia south that decide to unite, they assert
		
00:50:43 --> 00:50:46
			their masters, assert and decide to go after
		
00:50:46 --> 00:50:46
			the Israelis.
		
00:50:46 --> 00:50:49
			It's very difficult that Sunni Shia unity might
		
00:50:49 --> 00:50:50
			actually come about and the Americans will have
		
00:50:50 --> 00:50:52
			to attack them from behind by the Kurds.
		
00:50:52 --> 00:50:54
			What happened if there's a Dawa to those
		
00:50:54 --> 00:50:56
			leftist Marxist Kurds?
		
00:50:56 --> 00:50:58
			Because in Turkey, for example, you have half
		
00:50:58 --> 00:50:59
			the Kurds religious, half the Kurds leftist.
		
00:51:00 --> 00:51:01
			What happens if there's Dawa and they suddenly
		
00:51:01 --> 00:51:02
			become religious too?
		
00:51:02 --> 00:51:04
			They will have a greater affinity for those
		
00:51:04 --> 00:51:05
			groups and then Syria unites on its own
		
00:51:05 --> 00:51:07
			after splitting it into three.
		
00:51:07 --> 00:51:08
			There are many scenarios at play.
		
00:51:08 --> 00:51:11
			But the reference that Turkey was making is
		
00:51:11 --> 00:51:15
			this idea that Turkey does not believe the
		
00:51:15 --> 00:51:18
			rebels can go and take Damascus and therefore
		
00:51:18 --> 00:51:21
			their support is limited to perhaps the outskirts
		
00:51:21 --> 00:51:24
			of Damascus and Turkey will agree on a
		
00:51:24 --> 00:51:26
			negotiating table, give me this part of Syria
		
00:51:26 --> 00:51:28
			and these are the proxies I'll put there.
		
00:51:28 --> 00:51:31
			The Iranians will say we're tired.
		
00:51:31 --> 00:51:33
			We've been smashed in Lebanon by the Israelis
		
00:51:33 --> 00:51:36
			and under sanctions and Trump might come at
		
00:51:36 --> 00:51:39
			us very hard and we want to cement
		
00:51:39 --> 00:51:41
			our gains in Yemen through the Houthis, cement
		
00:51:41 --> 00:51:43
			our gains in Iraq and the like.
		
00:51:43 --> 00:51:45
			So we're willing to make a truce.
		
00:51:45 --> 00:51:47
			Give us the southern portion of Syria and
		
00:51:47 --> 00:51:49
			they put the story to go.
		
00:51:49 --> 00:51:51
			She a demographic now that the Iranians brought
		
00:51:51 --> 00:51:51
			in.
		
00:51:51 --> 00:51:53
			We'll put our proxy there and the Americans
		
00:51:53 --> 00:51:55
			will say have it.
		
00:51:55 --> 00:51:56
			Turkey's a NATO ally.
		
00:51:56 --> 00:51:57
			We can work with the Turks.
		
00:51:57 --> 00:51:59
			Iran, we can make a deal with them.
		
00:51:59 --> 00:52:00
			And then Trump will say to the Americans,
		
00:52:00 --> 00:52:03
			I brought peace to the region and northeast.
		
00:52:03 --> 00:52:04
			We have the Kurds.
		
00:52:04 --> 00:52:06
			If any one of the two play up,
		
00:52:06 --> 00:52:08
			we will mobilize the Kurds against you and
		
00:52:08 --> 00:52:10
			discipline you and keep that separation here and
		
00:52:10 --> 00:52:10
			there.
		
00:52:10 --> 00:52:12
			And that's why I know it's I don't
		
00:52:12 --> 00:52:13
			want to be the one to put the
		
00:52:13 --> 00:52:14
			dampener as it stands.
		
00:52:14 --> 00:52:16
			It may well be that is the more
		
00:52:16 --> 00:52:17
			likely scenario.
		
00:52:18 --> 00:52:19
			And I think some of the Syrians might
		
00:52:19 --> 00:52:22
			say they could say that it's better than
		
00:52:22 --> 00:52:24
			being under Bashar Assad.
		
00:52:24 --> 00:52:25
			But we wait to see how fast or
		
00:52:25 --> 00:52:27
			how how far these rebels can go.
		
00:52:32 --> 00:52:35
			I think that the Iranians, if Bashar al
		
00:52:35 --> 00:52:39
			-Assad is if it's untenable to use Bashar
		
00:52:39 --> 00:52:40
			al-Assad, they can use others as well.
		
00:52:40 --> 00:52:43
			Iran always has a roster of leaders it
		
00:52:43 --> 00:52:43
			can use.
		
00:52:43 --> 00:52:45
			In Iraq, for example, it had Nouri al
		
00:52:45 --> 00:52:48
			-Maliki, Haider al-Abadi, Muqtada al-Sadr, Adil
		
00:52:48 --> 00:52:48
			Abdel Mahdi.
		
00:52:49 --> 00:52:51
			It had all of these various different individuals
		
00:52:51 --> 00:52:51
			that it could use.
		
00:52:52 --> 00:52:54
			Same trend, same issue, but just different faces.
		
00:52:54 --> 00:52:57
			I think in Syria it's been harder because
		
00:52:57 --> 00:52:59
			Bashar al-Assad, the Assad family has been
		
00:52:59 --> 00:52:59
			so entrenched.
		
00:53:00 --> 00:53:03
			And also the legitimacy of Iranian presence in
		
00:53:03 --> 00:53:05
			Syria was built on the idea that the
		
00:53:05 --> 00:53:07
			Syrian president invited us.
		
00:53:08 --> 00:53:11
			And as a as a recognized government, we
		
00:53:11 --> 00:53:12
			are the ones legitimate who are here helping
		
00:53:12 --> 00:53:14
			him against a rebel group.
		
00:53:14 --> 00:53:16
			So it may well be that the Iranians
		
00:53:16 --> 00:53:18
			keep Bashar al-Assad, not because they like
		
00:53:18 --> 00:53:20
			him, but because technically internationally, he's still the
		
00:53:20 --> 00:53:23
			president of Syria and Iran can play the
		
00:53:23 --> 00:53:25
			idea of international law.
		
00:53:25 --> 00:53:26
			And even when you look at the language,
		
00:53:26 --> 00:53:28
			we're still talking about the displaced Syrians as
		
00:53:28 --> 00:53:32
			rebels and Assad almost as the Syrian state.
		
00:53:32 --> 00:53:34
			And I think that language needs to change
		
00:53:34 --> 00:53:35
			a bit, which is why, you know, in
		
00:53:35 --> 00:53:36
			my opinion, I think that at some point
		
00:53:36 --> 00:53:38
			we need to start calling Assad the rebel
		
00:53:38 --> 00:53:40
			because it's Assad who rebelled against the Syrian
		
00:53:40 --> 00:53:41
			people.
		
00:53:41 --> 00:53:43
			The Syrians had very basic demands.
		
00:53:43 --> 00:53:43
			They said, we don't want to live in
		
00:53:43 --> 00:53:44
			oppression.
		
00:53:44 --> 00:53:45
			For those who've been to Syria, I tell
		
00:53:45 --> 00:53:48
			you, interesting, Dr. Shadi, I remember in 2008,
		
00:53:49 --> 00:53:49
			we went to play.
		
00:53:50 --> 00:53:52
			I went to Soas University.
		
00:53:52 --> 00:53:53
			Actually, you went to Soas too, yeah.
		
00:53:54 --> 00:53:55
			I played for the football team.
		
00:53:55 --> 00:53:58
			So in the summer break, we raised money
		
00:53:58 --> 00:54:00
			in the university, sent us to play against
		
00:54:00 --> 00:54:02
			different universities in Turkey, Syria and Lebanon.
		
00:54:03 --> 00:54:04
			I didn't go to Syria and Lebanon at
		
00:54:04 --> 00:54:04
			the time.
		
00:54:04 --> 00:54:06
			My father was lambasting them on TV and
		
00:54:06 --> 00:54:08
			he said, don't put yourself under Assad's risk.
		
00:54:08 --> 00:54:10
			But I remember we had to have a
		
00:54:10 --> 00:54:13
			briefing before we went, where the British embassy
		
00:54:13 --> 00:54:14
			would tell us, if you go to Syria,
		
00:54:14 --> 00:54:16
			do not talk politics.
		
00:54:16 --> 00:54:18
			Don't talk to the Syrians about politics.
		
00:54:18 --> 00:54:20
			And remember, the walls have ears.
		
00:54:20 --> 00:54:22
			And I remember the students who were with
		
00:54:22 --> 00:54:24
			us, you know, my co-students, before they
		
00:54:24 --> 00:54:26
			went to Syria, I was like to them,
		
00:54:26 --> 00:54:27
			guys, I think you should take that advice
		
00:54:27 --> 00:54:27
			seriously.
		
00:54:27 --> 00:54:29
			But of course, they were Soas students, you
		
00:54:29 --> 00:54:31
			know them, rather than, you know, like occupying
		
00:54:31 --> 00:54:32
			their own buildings and stuff.
		
00:54:32 --> 00:54:34
			So the story goes, they went to play
		
00:54:34 --> 00:54:35
			against Damascus University.
		
00:54:35 --> 00:54:37
			So they're having dinner in the canteen.
		
00:54:37 --> 00:54:39
			And then they're talking to one Syrian youth.
		
00:54:39 --> 00:54:41
			And they managed to get him to speak
		
00:54:41 --> 00:54:44
			passionately about the reality of Syria, that this
		
00:54:44 --> 00:54:46
			government is a dictatorship, it's corrupt, etc.
		
00:54:46 --> 00:54:48
			The next day, they couldn't find him.
		
00:54:48 --> 00:54:49
			And to this day, no one knows where
		
00:54:49 --> 00:54:50
			he is.
		
00:54:50 --> 00:54:53
			He disappeared just for talking to those students.
		
00:54:53 --> 00:54:55
			And I think some people tend to underestimate
		
00:54:55 --> 00:54:57
			what life in Syria was like.
		
00:54:57 --> 00:54:59
			When people say that it was good before,
		
00:54:59 --> 00:55:01
			what they're not saying is, it was good
		
00:55:01 --> 00:55:02
			when I kept my head down.
		
00:55:02 --> 00:55:04
			It was good when I was humiliated.
		
00:55:04 --> 00:55:05
			It was good when I had no dignity.
		
00:55:06 --> 00:55:07
			It was good when I didn't ask for
		
00:55:07 --> 00:55:09
			things when I just settled for what was
		
00:55:09 --> 00:55:10
			given to me.
		
00:55:10 --> 00:55:12
			It was good when I lived like cattle
		
00:55:12 --> 00:55:13
			when I lived like sheep.
		
00:55:13 --> 00:55:15
			But when I wanted to assert the dignity
		
00:55:15 --> 00:55:18
			that Allah gave me, when I wanted to
		
00:55:18 --> 00:55:20
			assert my dignity, I look at this mess
		
00:55:20 --> 00:55:22
			that I've caused.
		
00:55:22 --> 00:55:24
			I think it's very wary when people talk
		
00:55:24 --> 00:55:27
			about nostalgia for times that looked stable, but
		
00:55:27 --> 00:55:29
			actually were not peaceful.
		
00:55:29 --> 00:55:31
			They were stable, but they weren't peaceful, because
		
00:55:31 --> 00:55:32
			you talk about something and you get carried
		
00:55:32 --> 00:55:33
			away.
		
00:55:33 --> 00:55:34
			And that's why I go back to this
		
00:55:34 --> 00:55:34
			point.
		
00:55:34 --> 00:55:36
			It's like there are some masheikh in America,
		
00:55:36 --> 00:55:37
			prominent ones, we don't need to mention them
		
00:55:37 --> 00:55:39
			here, who used to say the Syrians were
		
00:55:39 --> 00:55:41
			wrong to rebel, they were wrong to go
		
00:55:41 --> 00:55:42
			against Bashar al-Assad.
		
00:55:42 --> 00:55:44
			But my problem with that narrative is, you
		
00:55:44 --> 00:55:46
			imply that the Syrians had a choice.
		
00:55:47 --> 00:55:48
			The Syrians were living in Qahar, they were
		
00:55:48 --> 00:55:49
			living in zulm.
		
00:55:49 --> 00:55:52
			And I don't think that the one who
		
00:55:52 --> 00:55:54
			causes fitna is the one who stands against
		
00:55:54 --> 00:55:55
			zulm.
		
00:55:55 --> 00:55:57
			I think fitna is the one who causes
		
00:55:57 --> 00:55:57
			zulm.
		
00:55:57 --> 00:56:01
			The reason why the dictators have held on
		
00:56:01 --> 00:56:03
			to power so long is because the quietism
		
00:56:03 --> 00:56:06
			that allowed them to get away with literally
		
00:56:06 --> 00:56:10
			murder meant that they went so far that
		
00:56:10 --> 00:56:12
			now that they've gone far, only an extreme
		
00:56:12 --> 00:56:13
			reaction can push them back.
		
00:56:13 --> 00:56:15
			And that's why I think that if you
		
00:56:15 --> 00:56:17
			really care about the ummah and you care
		
00:56:17 --> 00:56:19
			about stability, you care about peace, then uphold
		
00:56:19 --> 00:56:21
			what is right and forbid what is evil
		
00:56:21 --> 00:56:23
			the moment that you see it.
		
00:56:23 --> 00:56:25
			Don't let it grow the way you're seeing
		
00:56:25 --> 00:56:27
			it in a land with holy sites.
		
00:56:27 --> 00:56:28
			Don't let it grow.
		
00:56:28 --> 00:56:30
			Don't be quiet now because it will get
		
00:56:30 --> 00:56:32
			to a stage where you will end up
		
00:56:32 --> 00:56:34
			like Syria, where Assad will mobilize the whole
		
00:56:34 --> 00:56:34
			state.
		
00:56:34 --> 00:56:37
			Not because he just because he wants to
		
00:56:37 --> 00:56:40
			stay in power because he's been taught he's
		
00:56:40 --> 00:56:42
			in what's been normalized is if I use
		
00:56:42 --> 00:56:44
			brute force, these people go quiet.
		
00:56:44 --> 00:56:47
			If I use brute force, these people don't
		
00:56:47 --> 00:56:47
			do nothing.
		
00:56:48 --> 00:56:49
			They're just content to live.
		
00:56:49 --> 00:56:50
			And that's why I argue that and I
		
00:56:50 --> 00:56:51
			finish on this point.
		
00:56:51 --> 00:56:55
			Beware of justifying zulm under the pretext of
		
00:56:55 --> 00:56:56
			avoiding fitna.
		
00:56:56 --> 00:56:59
			For Allah hates zulm more than zulm or
		
00:56:59 --> 00:57:01
			zulumat yawm al qiyamah.
		
00:57:01 --> 00:57:04
			Zulm is the thing that Allah hates the
		
00:57:04 --> 00:57:06
			most, which is why Ibn Taymiyyah said that
		
00:57:06 --> 00:57:09
			Allah will give victory or prosperity.
		
00:57:09 --> 00:57:14
			Allah will give victory to a just state,
		
00:57:14 --> 00:57:17
			even if it doesn't believe, but will destroy
		
00:57:17 --> 00:57:20
			an unjust state, even if it believes.
		
00:57:20 --> 00:57:25
			For Allah can tolerate justice without Islam, but
		
00:57:25 --> 00:57:27
			will not tolerate Islam with injustice.
		
00:57:27 --> 00:57:29
			Allah doesn't want his name associated with injustice.
		
00:57:30 --> 00:57:31
			Allah hates it more than anything else.
		
00:57:31 --> 00:57:33
			And I think as an ummah, and I
		
00:57:33 --> 00:57:35
			think this applies in American context, sometimes in
		
00:57:35 --> 00:57:37
			our comfort, we assume we have the world
		
00:57:37 --> 00:57:38
			figured out.
		
00:57:38 --> 00:57:40
			We haven't been tested with that pressure.
		
00:57:40 --> 00:57:41
			And that's why I think we should be
		
00:57:41 --> 00:57:44
			wary of lecturing those Syrians who lived in
		
00:57:44 --> 00:57:45
			circumstances that I don't think any of us
		
00:57:45 --> 00:57:46
			would tolerate.
		
00:57:46 --> 00:57:50
			I mean some messes are actually good and
		
00:57:50 --> 00:57:51
			they're in the process of cleaning up.
		
00:57:51 --> 00:57:54
			Anyone who's cleaned anything in their house, you
		
00:57:54 --> 00:57:57
			know that the first phase of cleaning, it
		
00:57:57 --> 00:57:59
			looks like a disaster, but you're actually cleaning.
		
00:58:01 --> 00:58:05
			Even in matters correcting wrongs in the community,
		
00:58:05 --> 00:58:06
			it looks like a fitna.
		
00:58:07 --> 00:58:09
			You caused a ruckus and you upset a
		
00:58:09 --> 00:58:12
			lot of people, but you actually took out
		
00:58:12 --> 00:58:13
			something very bad for the community.
		
00:58:13 --> 00:58:15
			I'm very good at that.
		
00:58:15 --> 00:58:16
			I'm like a specialist.
		
00:58:18 --> 00:58:21
			And it's all about honestly people that don't
		
00:58:21 --> 00:58:22
			know how to handle pressure.
		
00:58:22 --> 00:58:24
			They don't know how to handle the incoming
		
00:58:24 --> 00:58:25
			that's going to come, but if you can
		
00:58:25 --> 00:58:26
			handle that, you can do a lot in
		
00:58:26 --> 00:58:27
			life.
		
00:58:27 --> 00:58:29
			And it seems to me a lot of
		
00:58:29 --> 00:58:32
			Muslims, especially our ilk, they just don't want
		
00:58:32 --> 00:58:33
			to come near any pressure.
		
00:58:34 --> 00:58:35
			They don't want to rock any boat, even
		
00:58:35 --> 00:58:37
			if the boat's going off a cliff and
		
00:58:37 --> 00:58:39
			is going down, don't rock it.
		
00:58:39 --> 00:58:42
			It's like the Titanic is sinking.
		
00:58:42 --> 00:58:43
			Don't rock the boat.
		
00:58:43 --> 00:58:45
			Well, rocking the boat may save our lives,
		
00:58:45 --> 00:58:45
			right?
		
00:58:45 --> 00:58:48
			So sometimes you need to handle some pressure
		
00:58:48 --> 00:58:51
			and you need to handle the reactions of
		
00:58:51 --> 00:58:51
			people.
		
00:58:52 --> 00:58:57
			And even on this point, even during the
		
00:58:57 --> 00:59:00
			whole campaign, you know, like to punish genocide
		
00:59:00 --> 00:59:01
			and punish Harris.
		
00:59:01 --> 00:59:03
			One of the things that I struggled with
		
00:59:03 --> 00:59:06
			was I could accept a rational argument for
		
00:59:06 --> 00:59:07
			why Democrats might listen to us better.
		
00:59:08 --> 00:59:10
			What I didn't accept was the argument that
		
00:59:10 --> 00:59:12
			AIPAC and these other sides, they're so strong.
		
00:59:13 --> 00:59:14
			So we should not rock the boat.
		
00:59:14 --> 00:59:16
			We should not shake the status quo because
		
00:59:16 --> 00:59:17
			of what they could do to you.
		
00:59:17 --> 00:59:19
			And my issue with it was it reminded
		
00:59:19 --> 00:59:21
			me of when Quraish came to Medina in
		
00:59:21 --> 00:59:21
			Badr.
		
00:59:21 --> 00:59:23
			And what did they say in Medina?
		
00:59:23 --> 00:59:27
			Some people, they said, They've all gathered against
		
00:59:27 --> 00:59:27
			you.
		
00:59:27 --> 00:59:27
			They're so powerful.
		
00:59:27 --> 00:59:30
			Are you stupid going against these people or
		
00:59:30 --> 00:59:31
			the like, you know, you're rocking the boat
		
00:59:31 --> 00:59:32
			and the like.
		
00:59:32 --> 00:59:33
			And they said, it is what it is.
		
00:59:33 --> 00:59:34
			And we go out.
		
00:59:35 --> 00:59:37
			And even those who, you know, and perhaps
		
00:59:37 --> 00:59:39
			in preparation, now we have a Trump administration
		
00:59:39 --> 00:59:40
			coming in and the like, or you have
		
00:59:40 --> 00:59:42
			a Trump administration coming in.
		
00:59:42 --> 00:59:44
			In any case, with Trump administration, there are
		
00:59:44 --> 00:59:46
			some who are saying, Sammy, you know, we,
		
00:59:47 --> 00:59:48
			okay, we punish genocide.
		
00:59:48 --> 00:59:50
			But what comes might actually be worse.
		
00:59:50 --> 00:59:52
			And we might, it may well be that
		
00:59:52 --> 00:59:54
			what comes next might be an Uhud moment.
		
00:59:54 --> 00:59:56
			Maybe, maybe I'm just saying because the series
		
00:59:56 --> 00:59:57
			is a guide for life generally.
		
00:59:58 --> 01:00:00
			But when the defeat of Uhud came, some
		
01:00:00 --> 01:00:02
			in Medina said if they hadn't gone out
		
01:00:02 --> 01:00:04
			and shaken the status quo, if they hadn't
		
01:00:04 --> 01:00:07
			gone out and actually defied them and just,
		
01:00:07 --> 01:00:08
			you know, kept their heads down and did
		
01:00:08 --> 01:00:11
			things in a different way, They would not
		
01:00:11 --> 01:00:13
			have suffered the fate that they suffered.
		
01:00:13 --> 01:00:15
			But what did Allah respond to these people?
		
01:00:15 --> 01:00:17
			He said, try and avoid those consequences.
		
01:00:20 --> 01:00:23
			And that's why I always say to, you
		
01:00:23 --> 01:00:25
			know, amongst my own friends, or they say
		
01:00:25 --> 01:00:27
			to me and these others, sometimes we think
		
01:00:27 --> 01:00:29
			we say something from Iman, but it resembles
		
01:00:29 --> 01:00:31
			the hypocrites more than it resembles the sahaba.
		
01:00:31 --> 01:00:33
			We think, and I know it comes from
		
01:00:33 --> 01:00:34
			a good place.
		
01:00:34 --> 01:00:36
			But when you read the Quran, you realize,
		
01:00:36 --> 01:00:37
			wait, that sounds far more than what the
		
01:00:37 --> 01:00:39
			hypocrites in Medina said and what sahaba said.
		
01:00:39 --> 01:00:40
			I think that applies here when we talk
		
01:00:40 --> 01:00:41
			about the fitna issue as well.
		
01:00:41 --> 01:00:44
			Those types of people, Yanni, you're free to
		
01:00:44 --> 01:00:47
			be, I would say, maybe cowardly, but don't
		
01:00:47 --> 01:00:48
			lead them.
		
01:00:48 --> 01:00:50
			We can't have you people as leaders, like
		
01:00:50 --> 01:00:52
			we need people who have courage.
		
01:00:52 --> 01:00:54
			And it's not for me to tell people
		
01:00:54 --> 01:00:55
			to go have uprisings.
		
01:00:56 --> 01:00:56
			Right.
		
01:00:56 --> 01:00:58
			But it's also not for me to say,
		
01:00:58 --> 01:01:01
			hey, these Syrian people want liberation of their
		
01:01:01 --> 01:01:01
			country.
		
01:01:01 --> 01:01:03
			They want to live freely again and they
		
01:01:03 --> 01:01:04
			want to live well.
		
01:01:04 --> 01:01:05
			It's not for me to tell them, no,
		
01:01:05 --> 01:01:06
			go home and don't cause fitna.
		
01:01:07 --> 01:01:07
			Right.
		
01:01:08 --> 01:01:10
			And so let's go back to this three
		
01:01:10 --> 01:01:11
			part division.
		
01:01:11 --> 01:01:16
			So Turkey would manage the Sunni quarter, so
		
01:01:16 --> 01:01:16
			-called.
		
01:01:16 --> 01:01:16
			Right.
		
01:01:16 --> 01:01:18
			Who would they put in charge, you think?
		
01:01:20 --> 01:01:22
			The suggestion in the question is that Turkey
		
01:01:22 --> 01:01:24
			has the power to put someone in charge.
		
01:01:24 --> 01:01:26
			I think Turkey would make an agreement with
		
01:01:26 --> 01:01:28
			those who are on the ground and try
		
01:01:28 --> 01:01:30
			to influence proceedings on the ground, because I
		
01:01:30 --> 01:01:32
			think that it's important we don't take the
		
01:01:32 --> 01:01:33
			agency away from the Syrians.
		
01:01:33 --> 01:01:35
			I genuinely think that Jolani acted on his
		
01:01:35 --> 01:01:37
			own and Turkey is playing catch up, that
		
01:01:37 --> 01:01:39
			they work together, but it's a difficult relationship.
		
01:01:39 --> 01:01:41
			It's not a relation of I order you
		
01:01:41 --> 01:01:41
			when you do this.
		
01:01:42 --> 01:01:43
			It's more these are my interests.
		
01:01:43 --> 01:01:44
			These are my interests.
		
01:01:44 --> 01:01:46
			You need me, but you need me, too.
		
01:01:46 --> 01:01:47
			How can we work together?
		
01:01:47 --> 01:01:49
			Because there's an open enemy there.
		
01:01:49 --> 01:01:51
			We won't fight each other openly, but, you
		
01:01:51 --> 01:01:53
			know, you need to respect me.
		
01:01:54 --> 01:01:55
			You need to respect me.
		
01:01:55 --> 01:01:56
			But on this.
		
01:01:56 --> 01:01:58
			So I think that it's it's not about
		
01:01:58 --> 01:01:59
			Turkey putting someone.
		
01:01:59 --> 01:02:00
			I think Turkey will do what it's been
		
01:02:00 --> 01:02:03
			doing for the past 10 years, making relationships
		
01:02:03 --> 01:02:05
			with different groups, trying to organize them into
		
01:02:05 --> 01:02:07
			a coalition, respecting the local dynamics.
		
01:02:07 --> 01:02:10
			But occasionally saying this is our preference here.
		
01:02:10 --> 01:02:11
			This is our preference there with a bit
		
01:02:11 --> 01:02:14
			of with a bit of lash with a
		
01:02:14 --> 01:02:16
			bit of lashing out from, you know, a
		
01:02:16 --> 01:02:18
			bit of lashing out from the groups here
		
01:02:18 --> 01:02:19
			and there, you know, love, hate relationship, things
		
01:02:19 --> 01:02:20
			like that.
		
01:02:20 --> 01:02:22
			So I think that Turkey, as it stands,
		
01:02:22 --> 01:02:24
			Jolani will most likely be in charge of
		
01:02:24 --> 01:02:26
			that particular area in and of itself, unless
		
01:02:26 --> 01:02:28
			there is some sort of skirmish between them
		
01:02:28 --> 01:02:29
			and the Syrian National Army.
		
01:02:29 --> 01:02:30
			But I don't see that happening.
		
01:02:31 --> 01:02:32
			I don't think Turkey will allow the SNA
		
01:02:32 --> 01:02:35
			to clash with Jolani, SNA being the group
		
01:02:35 --> 01:02:37
			that the Turks, you know, established Syrian National
		
01:02:37 --> 01:02:37
			Army.
		
01:02:37 --> 01:02:38
			I think they will want to keep the
		
01:02:38 --> 01:02:40
			peace and keep that there itself.
		
01:02:40 --> 01:02:42
			But it's unclear if Erdogan will accept the
		
01:02:42 --> 01:02:43
			partition, by the way.
		
01:02:43 --> 01:02:45
			I think Erdogan would prefer a united Syria
		
01:02:45 --> 01:02:47
			because a partitioned Syria makes it harder to
		
01:02:47 --> 01:02:49
			get the refugees out of Turkey, which is
		
01:02:49 --> 01:02:50
			one of the key things that he wants
		
01:02:50 --> 01:02:51
			to achieve itself.
		
01:02:51 --> 01:02:53
			And also Erdogan, I think, can find room
		
01:02:53 --> 01:02:55
			to make agreements with Assad and with the
		
01:02:55 --> 01:02:56
			Iranians themselves.
		
01:02:56 --> 01:02:58
			I actually think a united Syria is more
		
01:02:58 --> 01:03:00
			likely than a divided Syria because a divided
		
01:03:00 --> 01:03:02
			Syria brings its own issues.
		
01:03:02 --> 01:03:04
			But to answer your question directly, I think
		
01:03:04 --> 01:03:05
			the Turks will keep Jolani there.
		
01:03:06 --> 01:03:08
			OK, so that means the SNA and the
		
01:03:08 --> 01:03:10
			HTS would essentially unify.
		
01:03:11 --> 01:03:12
			Potentially.
		
01:03:12 --> 01:03:15
			I mean, sometimes, you know, it's some of
		
01:03:15 --> 01:03:17
			the darker chapters of the liberation movements in
		
01:03:17 --> 01:03:18
			our Ummah against colonization.
		
01:03:19 --> 01:03:21
			They are united against the colonizer and then
		
01:03:21 --> 01:03:23
			kill the living daylights out of each other
		
01:03:23 --> 01:03:26
			after the colonizer leaves without any egging on
		
01:03:26 --> 01:03:27
			from the colonizers.
		
01:03:28 --> 01:03:29
			And, you know, it's the part of the
		
01:03:29 --> 01:03:31
			story that I tend to skip over when
		
01:03:31 --> 01:03:32
			I talk about the last few years.
		
01:03:32 --> 01:03:34
			But it may well be that instead of
		
01:03:34 --> 01:03:36
			uniting, they've established a new state.
		
01:03:37 --> 01:03:39
			They've, you know, Assad no longer has power
		
01:03:39 --> 01:03:39
			there.
		
01:03:39 --> 01:03:41
			The Americans have gone off to the northeast
		
01:03:41 --> 01:03:42
			of Syria with the Kurds.
		
01:03:42 --> 01:03:43
			Iran is staying in the south.
		
01:03:44 --> 01:03:45
			They're just Turkey there, which is unable to
		
01:03:45 --> 01:03:46
			impose itself.
		
01:03:46 --> 01:03:48
			And Turkey will recognize the winner.
		
01:03:48 --> 01:03:49
			Let's fight it out.
		
01:03:49 --> 01:03:51
			And, you know, Turkey will recognize the winner
		
01:03:51 --> 01:03:51
			itself.
		
01:03:51 --> 01:03:53
			You know, I know it's not that I
		
01:03:53 --> 01:03:55
			want to predict bad scenarios, but I do
		
01:03:55 --> 01:03:58
			think that it's much harder to unite than
		
01:03:58 --> 01:03:59
			it is to fight each other and try
		
01:03:59 --> 01:04:02
			to, you know, settle the scores and the
		
01:04:02 --> 01:04:02
			like itself.
		
01:04:02 --> 01:04:04
			So that's why I think the division might
		
01:04:04 --> 01:04:06
			lead to more fighting than than keeping it
		
01:04:06 --> 01:04:07
			unified.
		
01:04:07 --> 01:04:08
			We have a common enemy.
		
01:04:08 --> 01:04:11
			The Kurds, are they purely secular Kurds?
		
01:04:11 --> 01:04:14
			Because Sunni, Shiite, these are religious groups.
		
01:04:14 --> 01:04:16
			Kurdish is a nationalist group, but Kurds are
		
01:04:16 --> 01:04:17
			Sunnis.
		
01:04:17 --> 01:04:19
			So are these are you talking about secular
		
01:04:19 --> 01:04:20
			Kurds?
		
01:04:21 --> 01:04:26
			So the SDF or Syrian Democratic Forces, they
		
01:04:26 --> 01:04:27
			are leftist Marxist Kurds.
		
01:04:27 --> 01:04:29
			Erdogan used to dominate in the Kurdish areas
		
01:04:29 --> 01:04:32
			in the elections in eastern Turkey because his
		
01:04:32 --> 01:04:36
			Islamic rhetoric and Muslim identity meant that most
		
01:04:36 --> 01:04:39
			of the Kurds or a significant chunk of
		
01:04:39 --> 01:04:41
			the Kurds who are religious identified more with
		
01:04:41 --> 01:04:44
			Islam than the nationalist identity that the PKK
		
01:04:44 --> 01:04:46
			were professing and the like.
		
01:04:46 --> 01:04:49
			The relationship actually broke between a lot of
		
01:04:49 --> 01:04:51
			the Kurdish groups and Erdogan when Erdogan became
		
01:04:51 --> 01:04:52
			more nationalist.
		
01:04:52 --> 01:04:53
			They said we can relate to Islam.
		
01:04:54 --> 01:04:55
			We can't relate to Turkish nationalism.
		
01:04:56 --> 01:04:57
			And I think that's why Erdogan had a
		
01:04:57 --> 01:04:58
			different relationship with them here.
		
01:04:58 --> 01:05:00
			When we mentioned the separatist Kurdish groups, we're
		
01:05:00 --> 01:05:03
			talking about the leftists, you know, people who
		
01:05:03 --> 01:05:06
			aren't necessarily particularly religious and don't necessarily see
		
01:05:06 --> 01:05:07
			a role for Islam there.
		
01:05:07 --> 01:05:09
			Which is why I'm in Idlib amongst the
		
01:05:09 --> 01:05:12
			Hezbollah and the Syrian National Army.
		
01:05:12 --> 01:05:13
			There are a lot of Kurds, a lot
		
01:05:13 --> 01:05:16
			of religious Kurds, Kurds who cannot identify with
		
01:05:16 --> 01:05:18
			the leftist nationalist identity and still believe in
		
01:05:18 --> 01:05:19
			the Ummah.
		
01:05:19 --> 01:05:21
			And I think people sometimes neglecting Kurdish history
		
01:05:21 --> 01:05:23
			that when the Ottoman Empire fell, the first
		
01:05:23 --> 01:05:27
			group to rise to fight Ataturk to reestablish
		
01:05:27 --> 01:05:30
			Islam, not a national state, were the Kurds.
		
01:05:30 --> 01:05:33
			They fought to reestablish Islam with the help
		
01:05:33 --> 01:05:35
			of some Arabs and these other places as
		
01:05:35 --> 01:05:35
			well.
		
01:05:35 --> 01:05:37
			So I think that when we talk about
		
01:05:37 --> 01:05:39
			the Kurds, we're talking about the separatist minority
		
01:05:39 --> 01:05:43
			portion that America has given them disproportionate support,
		
01:05:43 --> 01:05:46
			loads of weapons, loads of support, loads of
		
01:05:46 --> 01:05:46
			ammunition.
		
01:05:47 --> 01:05:49
			This group can't exist without the Americans in
		
01:05:49 --> 01:05:51
			the same way that Assad can't exist without
		
01:05:51 --> 01:05:52
			the Iranians.
		
01:05:52 --> 01:05:54
			That can't be said, though, for the Sunni
		
01:05:54 --> 01:05:58
			groups in the northwest who enjoy relatively to
		
01:05:58 --> 01:06:00
			some extent popular support, not necessarily because of
		
01:06:00 --> 01:06:02
			who they are, but because of their willingness
		
01:06:02 --> 01:06:03
			to fight Bashar al-Assad.
		
01:06:03 --> 01:06:05
			So the Kurdish groups, I think that or
		
01:06:05 --> 01:06:08
			the separatist Kurdish groups, separatist Kurdish groups who
		
01:06:08 --> 01:06:09
			tend to be Marxist.
		
01:06:09 --> 01:06:11
			The irony is that America, which hates communism,
		
01:06:11 --> 01:06:13
			is supporting the communists in Syria.
		
01:06:14 --> 01:06:16
			But I think that if they establish a
		
01:06:16 --> 01:06:17
			state, it will be because of the American
		
01:06:17 --> 01:06:19
			military base, not because of the power that
		
01:06:19 --> 01:06:20
			they have indigenously.
		
01:06:20 --> 01:06:21
			OK.
		
01:06:24 --> 01:06:27
			People's everyone's eyes off of Gaza right now.
		
01:06:29 --> 01:06:31
			What is happening right now?
		
01:06:31 --> 01:06:34
			There probably could be, you know, things happening.
		
01:06:34 --> 01:06:35
			Nobody's paying attention.
		
01:06:36 --> 01:06:38
			Tell us about that.
		
01:06:38 --> 01:06:40
			What is the status going on in Gaza
		
01:06:40 --> 01:06:42
			and to the Palestinians right now?
		
01:06:43 --> 01:06:45
			I think Netanyahu is making an attempt now
		
01:06:45 --> 01:06:46
			to get settlers into northern Gaza.
		
01:06:47 --> 01:06:49
			And I think there are reports that some
		
01:06:49 --> 01:06:50
			settlers have made some attempts to establish some
		
01:06:50 --> 01:06:52
			homes there, but they've been scuppered by the
		
01:06:52 --> 01:06:54
			local resistance in Gaza itself.
		
01:06:55 --> 01:06:57
			Israel is still bombing, but I think there
		
01:06:57 --> 01:06:58
			is a move or talks to try to
		
01:06:58 --> 01:07:00
			achieve some sort of ceasefire.
		
01:07:00 --> 01:07:01
			And I think that the reason why I
		
01:07:01 --> 01:07:04
			say this is not because of anything the
		
01:07:04 --> 01:07:04
			Israelis said.
		
01:07:04 --> 01:07:07
			If you saw Trump's tweet where he said
		
01:07:07 --> 01:07:08
			that, you know, if they don't release the
		
01:07:08 --> 01:07:11
			hostages by 20th of January, all * will
		
01:07:11 --> 01:07:12
			will come upon.
		
01:07:12 --> 01:07:14
			I don't think Trump is saying that I
		
01:07:14 --> 01:07:15
			will actually bring all *.
		
01:07:15 --> 01:07:17
			I think that Trump maybe has information that
		
01:07:17 --> 01:07:20
			Biden is going to negotiate a ceasefire agreement
		
01:07:20 --> 01:07:22
			to take credit before he leaves so he
		
01:07:22 --> 01:07:23
			doesn't go out as Genocide Joe.
		
01:07:24 --> 01:07:26
			And Trump wants to set up a narrative
		
01:07:26 --> 01:07:28
			whereby they were so scared of me, they
		
01:07:28 --> 01:07:30
			decided to negotiate a ceasefire beforehand.
		
01:07:30 --> 01:07:32
			I actually think the Israelis are the ones
		
01:07:32 --> 01:07:32
			who are in trouble.
		
01:07:32 --> 01:07:34
			They haven't been able to annex any land.
		
01:07:34 --> 01:07:36
			They haven't been they haven't made much advancement
		
01:07:36 --> 01:07:36
			in Lebanon.
		
01:07:37 --> 01:07:39
			Yes, they smashed a lot of Hezbollah leadership,
		
01:07:39 --> 01:07:40
			but they are unable to actually take a
		
01:07:40 --> 01:07:42
			lot of remember a lot of Palestinians in
		
01:07:42 --> 01:07:44
			southern Lebanon itself, one allowing the Israelis to
		
01:07:44 --> 01:07:46
			advance and Lebanese as well.
		
01:07:46 --> 01:07:47
			So we don't take credit away from them
		
01:07:47 --> 01:07:49
			on the West Bank.
		
01:07:49 --> 01:07:50
			The Israelis are struggling.
		
01:07:50 --> 01:07:51
			Biden doesn't want them to take the West
		
01:07:51 --> 01:07:54
			Bank because part of Saudi Arabia's conditions for
		
01:07:54 --> 01:07:56
			normalization is the recognition of a Palestinian state.
		
01:07:56 --> 01:07:58
			However tiny that state might be.
		
01:07:58 --> 01:08:00
			And even if it's de facto under Israeli
		
01:08:00 --> 01:08:02
			control, I think Gaza is still being bombed.
		
01:08:02 --> 01:08:04
			The humanitarian situation is really terrible.
		
01:08:04 --> 01:08:06
			And I think that a lot of the
		
01:08:06 --> 01:08:08
			reason why it's slipping out the news is
		
01:08:08 --> 01:08:09
			not because of Syria.
		
01:08:09 --> 01:08:11
			It's because we're still in the process as
		
01:08:11 --> 01:08:13
			Muslims of building infrastructure whereby we can actually
		
01:08:13 --> 01:08:16
			push narratives and actually keep these narratives in
		
01:08:16 --> 01:08:17
			the news itself.
		
01:08:17 --> 01:08:19
			Gaza did not become mainstream news because of
		
01:08:19 --> 01:08:20
			mainstream media.
		
01:08:20 --> 01:08:23
			It became mainstream news because ordinary people were
		
01:08:23 --> 01:08:24
			talking about it.
		
01:08:24 --> 01:08:25
			And I think it's the duty of podcasts
		
01:08:25 --> 01:08:27
			like yours, and I'm not saying you're not
		
01:08:27 --> 01:08:27
			doing it.
		
01:08:27 --> 01:08:29
			You are doing it, whether it's thinking Muslim,
		
01:08:29 --> 01:08:31
			whether it's Yaqeen, whether it's all these others
		
01:08:31 --> 01:08:33
			as well, to continue to make sure that
		
01:08:33 --> 01:08:34
			if we talk about Syria in the morning,
		
01:08:34 --> 01:08:36
			we're talking about Gaza in the afternoon, and
		
01:08:36 --> 01:08:38
			we're talking about Sudan in the evening.
		
01:08:38 --> 01:08:40
			We are becoming, you know, the portals through
		
01:08:40 --> 01:08:41
			which people are learning about what's happening in
		
01:08:41 --> 01:08:43
			the Ummah, not on the basis that we
		
01:08:43 --> 01:08:45
			believe the West is going to deliver the
		
01:08:45 --> 01:08:47
			solution, but that we have agency to impact
		
01:08:47 --> 01:08:50
			decisions that are taking place on the ground
		
01:08:50 --> 01:08:51
			itself.
		
01:08:51 --> 01:08:52
			And I think that with regards to Gaza,
		
01:08:52 --> 01:08:55
			if that public pressure helped to force shifts
		
01:08:55 --> 01:08:57
			in global public opinion, and indeed in the
		
01:08:57 --> 01:09:00
			decision-making process of many policymakers, it makes
		
01:09:00 --> 01:09:02
			sense that we should keep the light on
		
01:09:02 --> 01:09:02
			Gaza itself.
		
01:09:03 --> 01:09:05
			And if it's any consolation to those who
		
01:09:05 --> 01:09:08
			are listening, the liberation of Syria is connected
		
01:09:08 --> 01:09:09
			to the liberation of Gaza itself.
		
01:09:09 --> 01:09:11
			I think one of the reasons that a
		
01:09:11 --> 01:09:13
			lot of the states couldn't go to Gaza's
		
01:09:13 --> 01:09:15
			aid, and to be brutally honest about this,
		
01:09:15 --> 01:09:19
			is that we still haven't resolved the internal
		
01:09:19 --> 01:09:19
			differences.
		
01:09:19 --> 01:09:20
			And I don't mean between politics.
		
01:09:21 --> 01:09:22
			I mean, in the way the region is
		
01:09:22 --> 01:09:24
			carved up and the way the region is
		
01:09:24 --> 01:09:25
			mobilizing.
		
01:09:25 --> 01:09:27
			The reality is Syria is mobilized between, you
		
01:09:27 --> 01:09:28
			know, the Iranian militias.
		
01:09:28 --> 01:09:31
			Lebanon is mobilized by the Iranian militias.
		
01:09:31 --> 01:09:32
			And this isn't sectarian talk.
		
01:09:32 --> 01:09:34
			This is the reality of what's taking place.
		
01:09:34 --> 01:09:36
			As said in the Iranians, and I always
		
01:09:36 --> 01:09:37
			say this, in Iraq when the Americans went
		
01:09:37 --> 01:09:39
			in, they agreed with the Iranians and the
		
01:09:39 --> 01:09:42
			Shia became the heads of government and heads
		
01:09:42 --> 01:09:43
			of interior ministry, heads of security.
		
01:09:44 --> 01:09:46
			They had a chance to show us what
		
01:09:46 --> 01:09:47
			the governance looks like.
		
01:09:47 --> 01:09:49
			They had a chance to try to give
		
01:09:49 --> 01:09:51
			prosperity, to try to develop and the like.
		
01:09:51 --> 01:09:53
			Instead, all we saw was, you know, the
		
01:09:53 --> 01:09:55
			banners of Ya Hussein and Ya Fatima and
		
01:09:55 --> 01:09:56
			sectarian killings.
		
01:09:56 --> 01:09:57
			It's not the Sunni being sectarian.
		
01:09:58 --> 01:10:01
			It's the Sunni saying, Ya Ikhwati Shia, please
		
01:10:01 --> 01:10:03
			stop with the massacres in Syria.
		
01:10:03 --> 01:10:05
			Please stop with the massacres in Yemen.
		
01:10:05 --> 01:10:07
			Please stop with the massacres in Lebanon.
		
01:10:07 --> 01:10:10
			Please stop coming with the Iranians and slaughtering
		
01:10:10 --> 01:10:11
			our population and doing demographic change.
		
01:10:11 --> 01:10:13
			We want to focus on Gaza, but you
		
01:10:13 --> 01:10:15
			keep hitting us from behind, not the Shia,
		
01:10:15 --> 01:10:16
			but the Iranians.
		
01:10:16 --> 01:10:17
			You keep hitting us from behind.
		
01:10:17 --> 01:10:19
			You keep digging those knives in, and we're
		
01:10:19 --> 01:10:22
			bleeding profusely because you claim to be killing
		
01:10:22 --> 01:10:24
			us in the name of some 1,400
		
01:10:24 --> 01:10:26
			-year-old in Yarmouk in 2014 when Hezbollah
		
01:10:26 --> 01:10:27
			surrounded it.
		
01:10:27 --> 01:10:29
			When they were bombing the daylights out of
		
01:10:29 --> 01:10:30
			Sunni in Yarmouk, they were saying this is
		
01:10:30 --> 01:10:32
			revenge for what Yazid did to Hussein.
		
01:10:32 --> 01:10:33
			Ya Ikhwi, what did I have to do
		
01:10:33 --> 01:10:34
			with what Yazid did to Hussein?
		
01:10:35 --> 01:10:37
			And that's why I'm saying that beware of
		
01:10:37 --> 01:10:39
			being dragged into sectarian talk from the angle
		
01:10:39 --> 01:10:42
			of being told to neglect the Syrians for
		
01:10:42 --> 01:10:43
			the sake of Gaza.
		
01:10:44 --> 01:10:45
			We are one Ummah.
		
01:10:45 --> 01:10:46
			The liberation of Syria affects the liberation of
		
01:10:46 --> 01:10:47
			Gaza.
		
01:10:47 --> 01:10:48
			So I would say for those who are
		
01:10:48 --> 01:10:50
			worried that Gaza is falling out of the
		
01:10:50 --> 01:10:52
			news, I would say focus on Syria, focus
		
01:10:52 --> 01:10:54
			on Gaza, and don't feel too bad about
		
01:10:54 --> 01:10:56
			it because Syria may lead to the liberation
		
01:10:56 --> 01:10:57
			of Gaza itself.
		
01:10:57 --> 01:10:58
			And those who are following Gaza, the Gazans
		
01:10:58 --> 01:11:00
			are talking as well, and inshallah we'll see
		
01:11:00 --> 01:11:02
			you hear good news from both fronts soon,
		
01:11:02 --> 01:11:02
			inshallah.
		
01:11:27 --> 01:11:31
			Which journalists, which sources, Twitter accounts, websites, what
		
01:11:31 --> 01:11:31
			have you?
		
01:11:32 --> 01:11:35
			I think that Twitter is wonderful in terms
		
01:11:35 --> 01:11:39
			of ascertaining the trends from the different sides,
		
01:11:39 --> 01:11:41
			and the commonalities will tell you what facts
		
01:11:41 --> 01:11:42
			are taking place on the ground.
		
01:11:43 --> 01:11:45
			For example, if a pro-Iranian tells you
		
01:11:45 --> 01:11:47
			that forces are marching out of Damascus and
		
01:11:47 --> 01:11:50
			heading towards Aleppo, it means there's a crisis
		
01:11:50 --> 01:11:51
			in Aleppo.
		
01:11:51 --> 01:11:52
			Even if you're reading on the other side
		
01:11:52 --> 01:11:54
			that we've liberated Aleppo, it shows you that
		
01:11:54 --> 01:11:56
			something is happening there in Aleppo itself.
		
01:11:56 --> 01:11:58
			I think that politics can often be understood
		
01:11:58 --> 01:11:59
			by trends.
		
01:11:59 --> 01:12:00
			What does Turkey want?
		
01:12:00 --> 01:12:01
			That doesn't change overnight.
		
01:12:02 --> 01:12:03
			That's a consistent trend over the past 10
		
01:12:03 --> 01:12:03
			years.
		
01:12:04 --> 01:12:06
			Read what Turks are saying, read what Syrians
		
01:12:06 --> 01:12:08
			are saying, read what Assadists are saying, read
		
01:12:08 --> 01:12:10
			what the Iranians are saying, read what UAE
		
01:12:10 --> 01:12:11
			are saying, read what bin Salman is saying,
		
01:12:12 --> 01:12:13
			read what the Saudis are saying.
		
01:12:13 --> 01:12:15
			You will find the commonalities and the thread,
		
01:12:15 --> 01:12:16
			and you can put it on a whiteboard,
		
01:12:16 --> 01:12:18
			and you'll be able to see what's happening
		
01:12:18 --> 01:12:20
			in terms of where the interests lie and
		
01:12:20 --> 01:12:21
			where things are going itself.
		
01:12:21 --> 01:12:23
			If you want briefs or general just overviews,
		
01:12:23 --> 01:12:24
			you don't have the time.
		
01:12:24 --> 01:12:26
			The reality is that you've got things like
		
01:12:26 --> 01:12:29
			the other journalists or outlets, whether it's the
		
01:12:29 --> 01:12:32
			New Arab, whether it's even reading things like
		
01:12:32 --> 01:12:33
			the New York Times.
		
01:12:33 --> 01:12:34
			I know that there's a lot of misinformation
		
01:12:34 --> 01:12:36
			there, but it tells you how the Americans
		
01:12:36 --> 01:12:38
			are viewing what's happening too.
		
01:12:38 --> 01:12:40
			I often think the issue is not sources.
		
01:12:40 --> 01:12:41
			The issue is the lens through which you
		
01:12:41 --> 01:12:44
			interpret the information that you're getting.
		
01:12:44 --> 01:12:45
			And I think a lot of that has
		
01:12:45 --> 01:12:46
			to do with memories of the Ummah.
		
01:12:46 --> 01:12:47
			And the reason why I say this is
		
01:12:47 --> 01:12:50
			that if you sit with Syrians and hear
		
01:12:50 --> 01:12:51
			their stories, you mentioned Hafez al-Assad.
		
01:12:52 --> 01:12:54
			Chances are you got those stories from Syrians
		
01:12:54 --> 01:12:55
			and sitting with them, and they poured their
		
01:12:55 --> 01:12:58
			memories into your head, and they gave you
		
01:12:58 --> 01:12:59
			a glimpse of what the world looks like
		
01:12:59 --> 01:13:00
			through their eyes.
		
01:13:00 --> 01:13:03
			The more you inherit those lenses, the more
		
01:13:03 --> 01:13:05
			you're able to interpret the information that comes
		
01:13:05 --> 01:13:05
			out.
		
01:13:06 --> 01:13:07
			Ten different people can pour out the same
		
01:13:07 --> 01:13:08
			information.
		
01:13:08 --> 01:13:09
			Ten will interpret it differently based on the
		
01:13:09 --> 01:13:10
			lens that they have.
		
01:13:11 --> 01:13:13
			Learn the history of Syria and the memories
		
01:13:13 --> 01:13:13
			of Syria.
		
01:13:13 --> 01:13:15
			You'll interpret Syrian news easily.
		
01:13:15 --> 01:13:17
			If you don't have those memories, you'll apply
		
01:13:17 --> 01:13:20
			a memory that's unique to a different country
		
01:13:20 --> 01:13:21
			to a country where it has no relevance.
		
01:13:21 --> 01:13:23
			Like the people who say that in Bangladesh
		
01:13:23 --> 01:13:25
			we're worried what happened in Egypt will happen
		
01:13:25 --> 01:13:26
			in Bangladesh.
		
01:13:26 --> 01:13:27
			There are two different memories.
		
01:13:27 --> 01:13:29
			You say that because you don't know the
		
01:13:29 --> 01:13:30
			Bangladeshi memory.
		
01:13:30 --> 01:13:32
			Inherit those memories and you'll find the moving
		
01:13:32 --> 01:13:34
			pieces might not be the same moving pieces
		
01:13:34 --> 01:13:35
			in Egypt.
		
01:13:35 --> 01:13:36
			I know that sounds vague.
		
01:13:36 --> 01:13:37
			It's much easier when you have like a
		
01:13:37 --> 01:13:38
			clear case example.
		
01:13:38 --> 01:13:40
			But with regards to Syria, follow those who
		
01:13:40 --> 01:13:43
			are supporting this push towards Aleppo.
		
01:13:43 --> 01:13:45
			Follow the Assadists, see what they're saying.
		
01:13:45 --> 01:13:47
			The more they panic, the more they're actually
		
01:13:47 --> 01:13:47
			in trouble.
		
01:13:48 --> 01:13:49
			Follow what the Iranians are saying when they
		
01:13:49 --> 01:13:51
			say that if Syria asks us for troops,
		
01:13:51 --> 01:13:52
			we will send troops.
		
01:13:52 --> 01:13:54
			That means that they're preparing for something.
		
01:13:55 --> 01:13:56
			Follow what the Russians are saying.
		
01:13:56 --> 01:13:58
			For example, one of the spokesmen said that
		
01:13:58 --> 01:14:00
			it's Assad's fault because he refused to agree
		
01:14:00 --> 01:14:02
			with the negotiations, which tells you the Russians
		
01:14:02 --> 01:14:04
			are frustrated, which means they might allow the
		
01:14:04 --> 01:14:05
			rebels to get to the outskirts of Damascus,
		
01:14:06 --> 01:14:07
			but not into Damascus itself.
		
01:14:07 --> 01:14:09
			All of these give various hints here and
		
01:14:09 --> 01:14:09
			there.
		
01:14:09 --> 01:14:12
			And don't forget, Allah created an ummah, not
		
01:14:12 --> 01:14:12
			an individual.
		
01:14:13 --> 01:14:14
			We have to keep talking to each other,
		
01:14:14 --> 01:14:17
			bouncing the ideas off each other, because often
		
01:14:17 --> 01:14:19
			you find you have half the information and
		
01:14:19 --> 01:14:20
			Sheikh Shady has the other half of the
		
01:14:20 --> 01:14:20
			information.
		
01:14:21 --> 01:14:22
			Bring them together, it becomes whole.
		
01:14:22 --> 01:14:25
			Talk to each other because politics ultimately is
		
01:14:25 --> 01:14:26
			the science of human relations.
		
01:14:26 --> 01:14:28
			It's a human science, so it's humans who
		
01:14:28 --> 01:14:29
			should be the sources.
		
01:14:29 --> 01:14:31
			And just go out and see, and I
		
01:14:31 --> 01:14:32
			think that's the best way to do it.
		
01:14:32 --> 01:14:33
			Wonderful answer.
		
01:14:33 --> 01:14:34
			Last question.
		
01:14:35 --> 01:14:36
			Let's come back to the United States for
		
01:14:36 --> 01:14:37
			a second.
		
01:14:38 --> 01:14:40
			Going forward, there was a lot of momentum,
		
01:14:40 --> 01:14:42
			but now that the election is over, that
		
01:14:42 --> 01:14:43
			momentum has got to stay.
		
01:14:43 --> 01:14:47
			I had an idea that, in terms of
		
01:14:47 --> 01:14:50
			American elections, one of the quickest ways to
		
01:14:50 --> 01:14:52
			figure out which one should be voted out
		
01:14:52 --> 01:14:54
			is just look at the AIPAC numbers for
		
01:14:54 --> 01:14:55
			each candidate, right?
		
01:14:56 --> 01:14:59
			Any race that's going on, whoever has more
		
01:14:59 --> 01:15:00
			AIPAC money, vote for the other guy.
		
01:15:00 --> 01:15:01
			Go the other way.
		
01:15:01 --> 01:15:02
			What do you think of that strategy?
		
01:15:03 --> 01:15:04
			And I think it's something people should plan
		
01:15:04 --> 01:15:05
			for the next two years.
		
01:15:06 --> 01:15:07
			I actually think, and I just throw this
		
01:15:07 --> 01:15:10
			idea out there, in January and February, there
		
01:15:10 --> 01:15:12
			are delegate elections for the Democrat Party.
		
01:15:12 --> 01:15:14
			And I think that Democrats, in this period
		
01:15:14 --> 01:15:16
			of reflection, it's worth sending people to engage
		
01:15:16 --> 01:15:17
			in that debate.
		
01:15:17 --> 01:15:19
			People that you can trust in the community.
		
01:15:19 --> 01:15:20
			The delegate is the one who goes to
		
01:15:20 --> 01:15:22
			the party, they talk about policy, and they're
		
01:15:22 --> 01:15:24
			like, they may have no influence on the
		
01:15:24 --> 01:15:27
			eventual policy, but they can ensure that the
		
01:15:27 --> 01:15:29
			debate continues, because if they're pushed to do
		
01:15:29 --> 01:15:30
			something that is against their values, they can
		
01:15:30 --> 01:15:31
			just resign.
		
01:15:31 --> 01:15:34
			But it's worth being in that space, not
		
01:15:34 --> 01:15:36
			to support them, but to ensure that, because
		
01:15:36 --> 01:15:38
			I saw today that one of Harris's campaign
		
01:15:38 --> 01:15:40
			managers is trying to downplay the role of
		
01:15:40 --> 01:15:40
			Gaza.
		
01:15:40 --> 01:15:43
			Bernie Sanders didn't, neither did Rohana, neither did
		
01:15:43 --> 01:15:44
			the Hill, neither did AOC.
		
01:15:45 --> 01:15:46
			They're all saying that Gaza played a major
		
01:15:46 --> 01:15:47
			role.
		
01:15:47 --> 01:15:48
			Why not get a few delegates to go
		
01:15:48 --> 01:15:51
			into that Democrat Party when they have their
		
01:15:51 --> 01:15:52
			period of reflection, and say, guys, if you
		
01:15:52 --> 01:15:54
			ever want to win an election again, you
		
01:15:54 --> 01:15:55
			can't.
		
01:15:55 --> 01:15:57
			And bear in mind, Michael Moore, who was
		
01:15:57 --> 01:16:00
			telling Muslims that don't punish Harris because of
		
01:16:00 --> 01:16:01
			Gaza, because Trump will be worse.
		
01:16:02 --> 01:16:03
			Michael Moore has an article from two days
		
01:16:03 --> 01:16:04
			ago.
		
01:16:04 --> 01:16:06
			He says, I am telling the Democrats today
		
01:16:06 --> 01:16:08
			that maybe we should no longer be seen
		
01:16:08 --> 01:16:09
			to be too close to the Zionists.
		
01:16:09 --> 01:16:10
			I don't know if you've seen it.
		
01:16:10 --> 01:16:11
			Wow.
		
01:16:11 --> 01:16:13
			He said, I'm telling the Democrats that it
		
01:16:13 --> 01:16:15
			might be a liability to be seen to
		
01:16:15 --> 01:16:16
			be too close to the Zionists.
		
01:16:16 --> 01:16:18
			This is happening in a period of reflection.
		
01:16:18 --> 01:16:20
			Why don't you send in a few delegates
		
01:16:20 --> 01:16:21
			to tell them Michael Moore's right.
		
01:16:21 --> 01:16:22
			Michael Moore's right.
		
01:16:22 --> 01:16:23
			Michael Moore says it.
		
01:16:23 --> 01:16:25
			And that's why I think that that could
		
01:16:25 --> 01:16:25
			be the next year.
		
01:16:25 --> 01:16:26
			And then the midterm elections, when they come,
		
01:16:27 --> 01:16:28
			we do the shared strategy.
		
01:16:28 --> 01:16:31
			We say, guys, where AIPAC is, go the
		
01:16:31 --> 01:16:31
			opposite way.
		
01:16:31 --> 01:16:32
			Just put that power in.
		
01:16:33 --> 01:16:34
			By the time the third year comes and
		
01:16:34 --> 01:16:36
			elections are around the corner, presidential elections, I
		
01:16:36 --> 01:16:38
			think the parties will treat you very differently.
		
01:16:38 --> 01:16:40
			And I even with those who endorse Trump.
		
01:16:40 --> 01:16:42
			It is worth going to Trump and telling
		
01:16:42 --> 01:16:44
			him, Trump, you said it yourself.
		
01:16:44 --> 01:16:46
			You won this election because of the way
		
01:16:46 --> 01:16:48
			we swung some of those swing states for
		
01:16:48 --> 01:16:48
			you.
		
01:16:48 --> 01:16:50
			Now, you have a chance to keep it.
		
01:16:50 --> 01:16:51
			The Republican Party has a chance to keep
		
01:16:51 --> 01:16:52
			some of those votes.
		
01:16:52 --> 01:16:53
			But there's going to need to be some
		
01:16:53 --> 01:16:54
			sort of concessions here and there.
		
01:16:55 --> 01:16:56
			There's nothing wrong with Dawa.
		
01:16:57 --> 01:16:59
			I'm not talking about concessions to values that
		
01:16:59 --> 01:17:00
			we don't like here.
		
01:17:00 --> 01:17:03
			I'm just talking about Dawa that we supported
		
01:17:03 --> 01:17:03
			you here.
		
01:17:03 --> 01:17:04
			We want this.
		
01:17:04 --> 01:17:06
			There's nothing wrong with doing it, even if
		
01:17:06 --> 01:17:06
			it doesn't succeed.
		
01:17:06 --> 01:17:09
			That doesn't defeat the purpose of Dawa in
		
01:17:09 --> 01:17:11
			its essence, in terms of being participants in
		
01:17:11 --> 01:17:12
			that debate.
		
01:17:12 --> 01:17:14
			Because if we could convince 10 million Americans
		
01:17:14 --> 01:17:16
			to sit out the election.
		
01:17:16 --> 01:17:17
			Remember, Trump didn't increase his vote.
		
01:17:18 --> 01:17:20
			Trump got 74 million in 2020, 75 million
		
01:17:20 --> 01:17:21
			in 2024.
		
01:17:22 --> 01:17:24
			In 2020, Biden got 81 million.
		
01:17:24 --> 01:17:26
			Harris got 71 million in 2024.
		
01:17:27 --> 01:17:28
			Which means Trump didn't win.
		
01:17:28 --> 01:17:29
			Democrats lost.
		
01:17:30 --> 01:17:31
			What made those 10 million stay at home?
		
01:17:32 --> 01:17:33
			Don Lemon and other journalists went and asked
		
01:17:33 --> 01:17:33
			them.
		
01:17:33 --> 01:17:35
			They said, I didn't want to vote for
		
01:17:35 --> 01:17:36
			a fascist or a genocider.
		
01:17:37 --> 01:17:38
			Where did they get genocider from?
		
01:17:39 --> 01:17:40
			Who told them they were genociders?
		
01:17:40 --> 01:17:42
			It was Dawa.
		
01:17:42 --> 01:17:44
			It was literally Dawa in the full meaning
		
01:17:44 --> 01:17:45
			of the word.
		
01:17:45 --> 01:17:46
			I don't call it political Dawa.
		
01:17:46 --> 01:17:47
			I don't call it spiritual Dawa.
		
01:17:47 --> 01:17:49
			It was Dawa in its full meaning of
		
01:17:49 --> 01:17:49
			the word.
		
01:17:50 --> 01:17:52
			Why not push that Dawa further forward?
		
01:17:52 --> 01:17:52
			And I agree.
		
01:17:52 --> 01:17:53
			I think that's a very good strategy.
		
01:17:53 --> 01:17:55
			And I think there are a few people,
		
01:17:55 --> 01:17:56
			you know, moving around on the ground, you
		
01:17:56 --> 01:17:57
			know, trying to organize stuff here and there.
		
01:17:57 --> 01:17:59
			I'm just a guest, you know, a foreigner
		
01:17:59 --> 01:18:01
			who's just providing analysis here and there.
		
01:18:01 --> 01:18:03
			I don't have no involvement.
		
01:18:03 --> 01:18:04
			You asked the question.
		
01:18:04 --> 01:18:05
			I just answered.
		
01:18:07 --> 01:18:09
			The strategy has got to be simple, right?
		
01:18:09 --> 01:18:11
			And someone's got to be punished.
		
01:18:11 --> 01:18:13
			We're not going to have anyone doing bidding
		
01:18:13 --> 01:18:14
			for us.
		
01:18:14 --> 01:18:16
			But we can knock people out if we're
		
01:18:16 --> 01:18:18
			swing boats in different states.
		
01:18:18 --> 01:18:19
			You're in Dallas right now.
		
01:18:19 --> 01:18:20
			Does that mean you're doing a U.S.
		
01:18:20 --> 01:18:21
			tour?
		
01:18:21 --> 01:18:22
			Are you going to come to Jersey?
		
01:18:22 --> 01:18:23
			I'm going to Michigan.
		
01:18:23 --> 01:18:24
			And then I have a final.
		
01:18:25 --> 01:18:26
			And then I'm supposed to go Atlanta, Houston,
		
01:18:27 --> 01:18:28
			and then head off back to London.
		
01:18:28 --> 01:18:28
			Oh, okay.
		
01:18:28 --> 01:18:30
			How did we miss out on this tour
		
01:18:30 --> 01:18:31
			that we didn't have?
		
01:18:31 --> 01:18:33
			I'm waiting for you to come to London.
		
01:18:33 --> 01:18:34
			You need to come to London.
		
01:18:34 --> 01:18:34
			I'll come to London.
		
01:18:35 --> 01:18:36
			It's about the U.S. experience.
		
01:18:36 --> 01:18:37
			And I'm waiting for you in London.
		
01:18:38 --> 01:18:39
			I will come to London then.
		
01:18:39 --> 01:18:41
			I will come and we'll get an auditorium
		
01:18:41 --> 01:18:43
			and we'll have two chairs and we'll talk.
		
01:18:43 --> 01:18:43
			Inshallah.
		
01:18:44 --> 01:18:45
			Thank you so much for everything.
		
01:18:46 --> 01:18:46
			Jazakallah Khairan.
		
01:18:46 --> 01:18:47
			Thanks for coming on.
		
01:18:48 --> 01:18:49
			Barakallah Fiqh as usual.
		
01:18:49 --> 01:18:50
			And may Allah give you success in your
		
01:18:50 --> 01:18:51
			tour.
		
01:18:54 --> 01:18:56
			All right, there you have it.
		
01:18:56 --> 01:18:58
			That was a really good analysis.
		
01:18:58 --> 01:19:00
			And we're going to keep our eyes on
		
01:19:00 --> 01:19:03
			whether Syria will be divvied up into these
		
01:19:03 --> 01:19:08
			three groups as Tawqeer Sharif, who is a
		
01:19:08 --> 01:19:12
			British—I don't know if he's—he doesn't live in
		
01:19:12 --> 01:19:14
			England anymore, but he lives in Syria.
		
01:19:14 --> 01:19:17
			And I just discovered his—people sending me his
		
01:19:17 --> 01:19:18
			Twitter account.
		
01:19:19 --> 01:19:21
			And because he's in Syria, that tends to
		
01:19:21 --> 01:19:23
			lend some legitimacy to what he's saying.
		
01:19:26 --> 01:19:28
			Sunnis in the north, northwest.
		
01:19:29 --> 01:19:31
			Kurds in the northeast, I think, if I
		
01:19:31 --> 01:19:32
			got that right.
		
01:19:33 --> 01:19:36
			And Shia in the south, which is more
		
01:19:36 --> 01:19:39
			like Iran, America, Turkey.
		
01:19:39 --> 01:19:41
			Those are going to be the ones, the
		
01:19:41 --> 01:19:41
			proxy.
		
01:19:42 --> 01:19:43
			And you want to see when someone's weak,
		
01:19:43 --> 01:19:46
			see how many people are pulling strings.
		
01:19:46 --> 01:19:51
			Like in a household, if you got the
		
01:19:51 --> 01:19:53
			mother-in-law pulling strings, and then you
		
01:19:53 --> 01:19:56
			got the friend pulling strings, and then the
		
01:19:56 --> 01:19:59
			dad pulling strings, and meanwhile the husband is
		
01:19:59 --> 01:20:02
			there, he's just—it's got chaos in his house.
		
01:20:03 --> 01:20:03
			He's a weak man.
		
01:20:04 --> 01:20:05
			Same thing is happening in Syria.
		
01:20:06 --> 01:20:07
			Everyone's got a hand.
		
01:20:08 --> 01:20:10
			So there is a dictator, and then there's
		
01:20:10 --> 01:20:15
			the incompetent, pitiful, pathetic dictator, which is why—
		
01:20:15 --> 01:20:16
			the guy was an optometrist.
		
01:20:16 --> 01:20:18
			You know, I think he went to SOAS,
		
01:20:18 --> 01:20:18
			too.
		
01:20:19 --> 01:20:20
			Bashar al-Assad, I think he went to
		
01:20:20 --> 01:20:21
			like University of London.
		
01:20:21 --> 01:20:22
			Look at his back.
		
01:20:22 --> 01:20:23
			The guy's an optometrist.
		
01:20:23 --> 01:20:24
			The guy's an eye doctor.
		
01:20:25 --> 01:20:26
			You look at his face, he looks like
		
01:20:26 --> 01:20:28
			he should be an accountant, an insurance adjuster,
		
01:20:28 --> 01:20:28
			a dentist.
		
01:20:29 --> 01:20:30
			This is not a dictator.
		
01:20:30 --> 01:20:31
			No, this is not a strong man.
		
01:20:32 --> 01:20:34
			And clearly, you see his country now.
		
01:20:34 --> 01:20:35
			Everyone's got a hand in it.
		
01:20:35 --> 01:20:37
			And they're going to divvy up his country
		
01:20:37 --> 01:20:38
			under his own watch.
		
01:20:40 --> 01:20:41
			Bilal Abdelkarim.
		
01:20:42 --> 01:20:43
			I saw that.
		
01:20:44 --> 01:20:45
			I saw that.
		
01:20:45 --> 01:20:47
			And yes, maybe I will have him on
		
01:20:47 --> 01:20:49
			and have his opinion and have his— because
		
01:20:49 --> 01:20:51
			it's all pieces of information.
		
01:20:51 --> 01:20:54
			He's very dead against al-Jawlani.
		
01:20:54 --> 01:20:56
			According to his visit on Mad Mamluks, he
		
01:20:56 --> 01:21:00
			says al-Jawlani is not an Islamic approach.
		
01:21:02 --> 01:21:04
			But that's a judgment based on what he's
		
01:21:04 --> 01:21:06
			seen, Bilal Abdelkarim.
		
01:21:06 --> 01:21:09
			And I'll follow some more of his interviews
		
01:21:09 --> 01:21:10
			out there.
		
01:21:11 --> 01:21:13
			Yeah, it's one of the biggest streams we've
		
01:21:13 --> 01:21:13
			ever had.
		
01:21:14 --> 01:21:17
			And have we done something—we have an opportunity
		
01:21:17 --> 01:21:18
			to do something physical.
		
01:21:19 --> 01:21:20
			Yes, we can't go in and fight.
		
01:21:20 --> 01:21:22
			I would love to go in and fight.
		
01:21:23 --> 01:21:26
			I'm telling you that I want to—I love—you
		
01:21:26 --> 01:21:27
			have to have influence.
		
01:21:27 --> 01:21:28
			You have to have impact.
		
01:21:28 --> 01:21:29
			I don't like to just be a citizen
		
01:21:29 --> 01:21:32
			here having— Did not the Prophet ﷺ say,
		
01:21:33 --> 01:21:35
			change it with your hand?
		
01:21:36 --> 01:21:37
			When you see a munkir, change it with
		
01:21:37 --> 01:21:37
			your hand.
		
01:21:37 --> 01:21:39
			I just read this hadith and the sharh
		
01:21:39 --> 01:21:40
			of Nawawi on it.
		
01:21:41 --> 01:21:42
			You see a munkir, change it with your
		
01:21:42 --> 01:21:42
			hand.
		
01:21:42 --> 01:21:44
			That's, of course, if you have legal authority
		
01:21:44 --> 01:21:45
			to do so.
		
01:21:46 --> 01:21:48
			I'm going to stick the GRT thingy on
		
01:21:48 --> 01:21:49
			so we can see how we're doing there.
		
01:21:50 --> 01:21:52
			If you can't change it with your hand
		
01:21:52 --> 01:21:54
			because you have no legal authority, as we
		
01:21:54 --> 01:21:54
			do.
		
01:21:55 --> 01:21:55
			We don't.
		
01:21:56 --> 01:21:57
			You go and they're going to say you
		
01:21:57 --> 01:21:59
			joined a terrorist group, unless you actively give
		
01:21:59 --> 01:22:00
			up your citizenship.
		
01:22:01 --> 01:22:02
			That's an option.
		
01:22:03 --> 01:22:03
			Become stateless.
		
01:22:03 --> 01:22:05
			Tell the U.S., hey, U.S., could
		
01:22:05 --> 01:22:08
			you cancel my subscription to U.S. citizenship?
		
01:22:09 --> 01:22:09
			Right?
		
01:22:09 --> 01:22:12
			And be stateless like some of these British
		
01:22:12 --> 01:22:12
			guys are.
		
01:22:14 --> 01:22:15
			And go fight.
		
01:22:16 --> 01:22:16
			Right?
		
01:22:17 --> 01:22:18
			If you're going to do that.
		
01:22:18 --> 01:22:20
			But we don't—we can't advocate doing something illegal,
		
01:22:21 --> 01:22:24
			which is being a citizen and then being
		
01:22:24 --> 01:22:25
			part of these other groups.
		
01:22:27 --> 01:22:29
			But if you can't do that, change it
		
01:22:29 --> 01:22:30
			with your tongue.
		
01:22:30 --> 01:22:31
			If you can't do that, change it with
		
01:22:31 --> 01:22:31
			your heart.
		
01:22:31 --> 01:22:33
			What Imam al-Nawawi says, when the Prophet
		
01:22:33 --> 01:22:36
			says that is the weakest of faith, it
		
01:22:36 --> 01:22:39
			doesn't necessarily mean that that person's faith is
		
01:22:39 --> 01:22:40
			weak.
		
01:22:40 --> 01:22:42
			What he means is that that's the weakest
		
01:22:42 --> 01:22:46
			expression of faith, the weakest impact of the
		
01:22:46 --> 01:22:46
			mu'min.
		
01:22:47 --> 01:22:48
			And that's really where we are.
		
01:22:48 --> 01:22:50
			Where our impact is, who wants to have
		
01:22:50 --> 01:22:51
			a weak impact?
		
01:22:51 --> 01:22:53
			And I've said it earlier in the stream,
		
01:22:54 --> 01:22:55
			and I talked to my Shaykh about it
		
01:22:55 --> 01:22:57
			today in fiqh, and we were talking and
		
01:22:57 --> 01:23:00
			saying, why is it that our group doesn't
		
01:23:00 --> 01:23:01
			have any presence in this?
		
01:23:02 --> 01:23:06
			Our aqeedah, our manhaj in the four madhhabs
		
01:23:06 --> 01:23:09
			amongst the Asha'ira and amongst the people
		
01:23:09 --> 01:23:11
			of al-Ghazali and Tasawwuf who love these
		
01:23:11 --> 01:23:11
			things.
		
01:23:12 --> 01:23:15
			I don't see an Asha'iri brigade out
		
01:23:15 --> 01:23:15
			there.
		
01:23:16 --> 01:23:16
			Right?
		
01:23:16 --> 01:23:17
			I wish I did.
		
01:23:17 --> 01:23:18
			I had to tell you.
		
01:23:18 --> 01:23:19
			I mean, I don't want them to be
		
01:23:19 --> 01:23:20
			terrorists or doing anything illegal.
		
01:23:21 --> 01:23:23
			But, I mean, I don't like to be
		
01:23:23 --> 01:23:23
			impotent either.
		
01:23:24 --> 01:23:25
			Right?
		
01:23:26 --> 01:23:27
			But, by the way, he did say, you
		
01:23:27 --> 01:23:28
			know what?
		
01:23:28 --> 01:23:29
			There are.
		
01:23:29 --> 01:23:30
			You just don't know about them.
		
01:23:31 --> 01:23:34
			He told them about the Naqshbandis of Iraq.
		
01:23:34 --> 01:23:35
			They're the ones who did Fallujah.
		
01:23:35 --> 01:23:37
			We're not supposed to celebrate that because they
		
01:23:37 --> 01:23:38
			did it against the Americans.
		
01:23:39 --> 01:23:43
			But, you know, King George did far less.
		
01:23:44 --> 01:23:46
			And then George Washington, T.J., and all
		
01:23:46 --> 01:23:48
			these other guys, they went out there and
		
01:23:48 --> 01:23:49
			did the American Revolution.
		
01:23:49 --> 01:23:50
			For far less.
		
01:23:51 --> 01:23:52
			We're a culture of revolutions.
		
01:23:53 --> 01:23:54
			And, you know, in Asha'iri, we know
		
01:23:54 --> 01:23:55
			we have rules on revolution.
		
01:23:56 --> 01:23:56
			We know that.
		
01:23:57 --> 01:23:58
			Rebellion, there are limits.
		
01:24:00 --> 01:24:05
			But the American spirit alleged, supposedly, you know,
		
01:24:06 --> 01:24:07
			it's changed now.
		
01:24:07 --> 01:24:11
			The American spirit was, don't come near my
		
01:24:11 --> 01:24:11
			rights.
		
01:24:11 --> 01:24:13
			Don't come near my freedoms.
		
01:24:13 --> 01:24:14
			That was the American spirit.
		
01:24:14 --> 01:24:16
			Now I think the American spirit is, don't
		
01:24:16 --> 01:24:17
			come near my Wi-Fi.
		
01:24:17 --> 01:24:18
			Don't come near my *.
		
01:24:18 --> 01:24:19
			Don't come near my drugs.
		
01:24:20 --> 01:24:21
			Don't come near my abortion.
		
01:24:21 --> 01:24:24
			That's what the American spirit is now, right?
		
01:24:27 --> 01:24:30
			But don't you want agency?
		
01:24:31 --> 01:24:33
			Why do we sometimes treat Israel as if
		
01:24:33 --> 01:24:35
			it's an omnipotent force in the world?
		
01:24:35 --> 01:24:37
			You can't do anything.
		
01:24:37 --> 01:24:38
			The Zionists will shut you down.
		
01:24:38 --> 01:24:41
			Even when he said Michael Moore said, you
		
01:24:41 --> 01:24:43
			know, maybe the Democrats shouldn't be so close
		
01:24:43 --> 01:24:47
			with the Zionists, I thought the first reaction
		
01:24:47 --> 01:24:49
			was like, all right, that means Michael Moore
		
01:24:49 --> 01:24:50
			is going to have a scandal in two
		
01:24:50 --> 01:24:50
			weeks.
		
01:24:51 --> 01:24:52
			Some video is going to pop out of
		
01:24:52 --> 01:24:54
			Michael Moore doing something wrong, right?
		
01:24:55 --> 01:24:58
			That's the immediate knee-jerk reaction you get
		
01:24:58 --> 01:25:01
			because of this belief that these guys have
		
01:25:01 --> 01:25:05
			so much power and they're such an evil
		
01:25:05 --> 01:25:06
			empire and a dark force, you can't even
		
01:25:06 --> 01:25:07
			say anything.
		
01:25:08 --> 01:25:10
			You can't treat people like they're omnipotent.
		
01:25:11 --> 01:25:13
			And you'd rather go down putting up a
		
01:25:13 --> 01:25:13
			fight.
		
01:25:14 --> 01:25:17
			But I'm telling you, if it was some
		
01:25:17 --> 01:25:21
			way illegal, somewhere lawful, and then lawful in
		
01:25:21 --> 01:25:22
			whose world?
		
01:25:22 --> 01:25:25
			In Syria, is there a law that's legitimate
		
01:25:25 --> 01:25:27
			to be respected in Syria?
		
01:25:28 --> 01:25:30
			In Iraq, what's going on?
		
01:25:30 --> 01:25:32
			In Libya, what's going on?
		
01:25:33 --> 01:25:34
			I'm telling you, we need the Ash'ari
		
01:25:34 --> 01:25:35
			Brigade.
		
01:25:38 --> 01:25:42
			A-S-J, Ahlus Sunnah, and you know
		
01:25:42 --> 01:25:43
			what the J stands for.
		
01:25:45 --> 01:25:47
			Ash'ari Sufi Brigade.
		
01:25:49 --> 01:25:51
			Anyway, and let me tell you something else
		
01:25:51 --> 01:25:52
			too, something that I tweeted out.
		
01:25:52 --> 01:25:55
			As a policy, in these matters, the identity
		
01:25:55 --> 01:25:56
			is Muslim.
		
01:25:57 --> 01:25:59
			That's the number one identity that matters.
		
01:25:59 --> 01:26:01
			And when I mean Muslim, not as an
		
01:26:01 --> 01:26:01
			identity.
		
01:26:02 --> 01:26:03
			Let me rephrase that.
		
01:26:03 --> 01:26:04
			The agenda.
		
01:26:05 --> 01:26:05
			Islam.
		
01:26:06 --> 01:26:07
			In the broadest sphere.
		
01:26:08 --> 01:26:10
			If someone is directionally honoring Allah and His
		
01:26:10 --> 01:26:12
			Messenger and the Prophet and the Quran and
		
01:26:12 --> 01:26:15
			Islam, he may be of a whole other
		
01:26:15 --> 01:26:15
			marriage.
		
01:26:17 --> 01:26:18
			I don't care.
		
01:26:18 --> 01:26:21
			But if he's generally there, and he's opposed
		
01:26:21 --> 01:26:26
			with atheists, Marxists, Zionists, Israel, US, Russia, whatever
		
01:26:26 --> 01:26:26
			it is.
		
01:26:27 --> 01:26:28
			I mean, I can't say US.
		
01:26:28 --> 01:26:29
			Delete.
		
01:26:30 --> 01:26:31
			Highlight, delete that.
		
01:26:31 --> 01:26:32
			I've got to keep my citizenship for now.
		
01:26:33 --> 01:26:35
			But, yeah, we've got to stream.
		
01:26:38 --> 01:26:39
			I'm also selling the house.
		
01:26:43 --> 01:26:45
			But that's who I'm siding with.
		
01:26:46 --> 01:26:49
			I don't care if, like, locally in our
		
01:26:49 --> 01:26:51
			ummah, I don't talk to him.
		
01:26:52 --> 01:26:53
			You've got to have a brain.
		
01:26:53 --> 01:26:55
			You can't fight two wars at the same
		
01:26:55 --> 01:26:55
			time.
		
01:26:55 --> 01:26:59
			I can't go having an internal dispute that
		
01:26:59 --> 01:27:03
			I have with someone on aqeedah, on different
		
01:27:03 --> 01:27:08
			menhaj things, and take that to the arena
		
01:27:08 --> 01:27:10
			of international politics.
		
01:27:10 --> 01:27:11
			It makes no sense.
		
01:27:12 --> 01:27:13
			Tell me I'm wrong on this subject.
		
01:27:15 --> 01:27:17
			So in Egypt, I know they go crazy
		
01:27:17 --> 01:27:18
			when I say this, but I don't care.
		
01:27:19 --> 01:27:22
			In Egypt, I don't know the people down
		
01:27:22 --> 01:27:22
			there.
		
01:27:23 --> 01:27:24
			I don't have any beef with anybody in
		
01:27:24 --> 01:27:25
			Egypt.
		
01:27:25 --> 01:27:26
			I don't even know the people.
		
01:27:26 --> 01:27:29
			But the secularists and the ikhwan.
		
01:27:30 --> 01:27:31
			Afghanistan.
		
01:27:31 --> 01:27:31
			Afghanistan.
		
01:27:31 --> 01:27:34
			The Taliban and the Americans.
		
01:27:36 --> 01:27:37
			Israel.
		
01:27:38 --> 01:27:38
			Gaza.
		
01:27:39 --> 01:27:42
			Hamas versus Israel.
		
01:27:43 --> 01:27:44
			I'm not part of any of these groups.
		
01:27:45 --> 01:27:46
			I probably may not even agree with any
		
01:27:46 --> 01:27:49
			of these groups on major things.
		
01:27:50 --> 01:27:52
			But at that moment, at this arena, that's
		
01:27:52 --> 01:27:54
			who I'm supporting that cause.
		
01:27:55 --> 01:27:59
			Generally, people who respect God and his prophet,
		
01:27:59 --> 01:28:02
			and honor Allah and his messenger, we can't
		
01:28:02 --> 01:28:03
			just dismiss that.
		
01:28:03 --> 01:28:05
			Yassin, why are you looking so hip today?
		
01:28:06 --> 01:28:07
			What's going on with you?
		
01:28:07 --> 01:28:08
			Who dressed you up today?
		
01:28:09 --> 01:28:10
			We got two Moroccan Yassins here.
		
01:28:11 --> 01:28:13
			We got two Moroccan Yassins here.
		
01:28:13 --> 01:28:14
			Mashallah.
		
01:28:15 --> 01:28:17
			He came back from California, and he's looking
		
01:28:17 --> 01:28:18
			like a hipster.
		
01:28:19 --> 01:28:19
			Completely.
		
01:28:20 --> 01:28:23
			But you see, that's sort of my leaning.
		
01:28:23 --> 01:28:25
			And I don't say I affiliate myself with
		
01:28:25 --> 01:28:25
			any group.
		
01:28:25 --> 01:28:26
			I don't believe in that.
		
01:28:27 --> 01:28:30
			But that's the approach that I'm trying to
		
01:28:30 --> 01:28:30
			say.
		
01:28:30 --> 01:28:33
			In Turkey, Erdogan versus the secularists.
		
01:28:35 --> 01:28:37
			So my heart is going to lean towards
		
01:28:37 --> 01:28:37
			that group.
		
01:28:38 --> 01:28:40
			I'm going to want them to see.
		
01:28:41 --> 01:28:43
			Even if I say they're terrible, right?
		
01:28:44 --> 01:28:46
			But are they as bad as kuffar?
		
01:28:46 --> 01:28:48
			Are they as bad as atheists and Marxists
		
01:28:48 --> 01:28:50
			and secularists and Ba'athists and all these
		
01:28:50 --> 01:28:50
			things?
		
01:28:52 --> 01:28:54
			Now, it's a principled approach.
		
01:28:54 --> 01:28:57
			So, yes, they may be pious Muslims, but
		
01:28:57 --> 01:28:58
			now they're acting impiously.
		
01:29:00 --> 01:29:03
			As Bilal Abdelkarim, I think you just said
		
01:29:03 --> 01:29:03
			his name was.
		
01:29:03 --> 01:29:04
			I saw his clip.
		
01:29:04 --> 01:29:09
			Says that, yeah, the HTS came with an
		
01:29:09 --> 01:29:10
			Islamic spirit.
		
01:29:11 --> 01:29:13
			But they oppressed a lot of people in
		
01:29:13 --> 01:29:14
			the jails.
		
01:29:14 --> 01:29:15
			Their prisoners are tortured.
		
01:29:16 --> 01:29:17
			And that's really the judgment.
		
01:29:17 --> 01:29:22
			The judgment isn't they treated an irrelevant minority
		
01:29:22 --> 01:29:23
			group well.
		
01:29:23 --> 01:29:26
			Or that they treated the kids well and
		
01:29:26 --> 01:29:27
			the streets.
		
01:29:27 --> 01:29:28
			Yeah, the kids don't harm you.
		
01:29:29 --> 01:29:31
			Your weakest link are the prisoners.
		
01:29:31 --> 01:29:33
			And Bilal Abdelkarim, he said that they treat
		
01:29:33 --> 01:29:34
			them terribly.
		
01:29:34 --> 01:29:36
			So the point being, it's principled.
		
01:29:37 --> 01:29:41
			If you're directionally in that position where you're
		
01:29:41 --> 01:29:44
			honoring God and his prophet, that's the group.
		
01:29:45 --> 01:29:47
			But if you start misbehaving, then I can't
		
01:29:47 --> 01:29:48
			support you.
		
01:29:48 --> 01:29:50
			Because he said earlier, and that's the position
		
01:29:50 --> 01:29:50
			we believe in.
		
01:29:51 --> 01:29:53
			If you're a believing people, but you're unjust.
		
01:29:55 --> 01:29:59
			And the unjust cannot be a soldier did
		
01:29:59 --> 01:29:59
			this.
		
01:30:00 --> 01:30:01
			No, the injustice has to be that which
		
01:30:01 --> 01:30:03
			is ordered from the top.
		
01:30:05 --> 01:30:06
			Organized injustices.
		
01:30:07 --> 01:30:09
			Or they're letting them go.
		
01:30:09 --> 01:30:10
			They're letting them do these things.
		
01:30:10 --> 01:30:13
			Then at that point, we retract our support.
		
01:30:13 --> 01:30:14
			It's as simple as that.
		
01:30:14 --> 01:30:15
			You retract it.
		
01:30:16 --> 01:30:18
			It's simply a matter of principles.
		
01:30:18 --> 01:30:19
			You abide by these principles.
		
01:30:20 --> 01:30:22
			But at the arena, in the world arena,
		
01:30:25 --> 01:30:27
			you're just going to go with that which
		
01:30:27 --> 01:30:28
			is closer to you.
		
01:30:28 --> 01:30:32
			Even if within our ummah, we have nothing
		
01:30:32 --> 01:30:33
			to do with each other.
		
01:30:35 --> 01:30:36
			Swallow your pride.
		
01:30:37 --> 01:30:38
			Be pragmatic.
		
01:30:39 --> 01:30:40
			Follow priorities.
		
01:30:41 --> 01:30:43
			And also blame yourself.
		
01:30:43 --> 01:30:44
			Why don't you have any players?
		
01:30:45 --> 01:30:45
			Right?
		
01:30:46 --> 01:30:49
			Why don't you have any people who are
		
01:30:49 --> 01:30:51
			with the aqeedah that you...
		
01:30:51 --> 01:30:53
			That's tough luck for you that you're doing.
		
01:30:54 --> 01:30:55
			Blame yourself.
		
01:30:56 --> 01:30:58
			Instead of sitting out and saying, Oh, he's
		
01:30:58 --> 01:31:01
			not from my menhaj, so I'm just not
		
01:31:01 --> 01:31:02
			going to support him at all.
		
01:31:03 --> 01:31:04
			Okay, so you're going to support the Ba
		
01:31:04 --> 01:31:07
			'athists, the Marxists, the secularists, the atheists, what
		
01:31:07 --> 01:31:07
			have you?
		
01:31:14 --> 01:31:17
			And none of that means that you support
		
01:31:17 --> 01:31:18
			everything that that group does.
		
01:31:18 --> 01:31:19
			None of it means that.
		
01:31:19 --> 01:31:24
			It just means in their battle between the
		
01:31:24 --> 01:31:26
			kufr or the evil, that you're going to
		
01:31:26 --> 01:31:27
			support one over the other.
		
01:31:27 --> 01:31:29
			And the qiyas on that is the companions
		
01:31:29 --> 01:31:33
			themselves who supported a Christian nation, which were
		
01:31:33 --> 01:31:35
			the Byzantines, over a pagan nation.
		
01:31:35 --> 01:31:40
			Obviously, they don't actually support 100%.
		
01:31:40 --> 01:31:43
			No, in this battle, they support.
		
01:31:43 --> 01:31:45
			In this face-off, that's who they supported.
		
01:31:45 --> 01:31:47
			So I take the same qiyas.
		
01:31:48 --> 01:31:49
			If right now there is a war between
		
01:31:49 --> 01:31:52
			Israel and Iran, I'm going to be with
		
01:31:52 --> 01:31:52
			Iran.
		
01:31:53 --> 01:31:54
			You could say nobody.
		
01:31:54 --> 01:31:55
			You could say stay out of everything.
		
01:31:56 --> 01:31:57
			That's an option too.
		
01:31:57 --> 01:31:59
			But no, I would go with Iran, right?
		
01:32:01 --> 01:32:05
			Then that's with so much difference between...
		
01:32:05 --> 01:32:06
			This is situational.
		
01:32:06 --> 01:32:08
			I'm not supporting them mutlaqan.
		
01:32:08 --> 01:32:09
			I'm not supporting them absolutely.
		
01:32:10 --> 01:32:11
			I'm not like with them.
		
01:32:11 --> 01:32:13
			But in this situation, just as the Prophet
		
01:32:13 --> 01:32:15
			sallallahu alayhi wa sallam supported.
		
01:32:16 --> 01:32:18
			And the Sahaba, I don't know if the
		
01:32:18 --> 01:32:19
			Prophet spoke on this, but we know that
		
01:32:19 --> 01:32:23
			the Sahaba were pulling for the Byzantines over
		
01:32:23 --> 01:32:25
			the Persians, Christians.
		
01:32:25 --> 01:32:28
			At least they're within the realm of prophets,
		
01:32:28 --> 01:32:32
			God, angels, heaven, *, versus the pagans who
		
01:32:32 --> 01:32:34
			are in a whole other world.
		
01:32:34 --> 01:32:35
			So that's the idea that you're going to
		
01:32:35 --> 01:32:36
			go with.
		
01:32:38 --> 01:32:39
			Americans, communists.
		
01:32:39 --> 01:32:40
			I will go with the Americans.
		
01:32:41 --> 01:32:43
			Communists are complete Marxist atheists, and the way
		
01:32:43 --> 01:32:45
			they treated Muslims was far worse.
		
01:32:46 --> 01:32:48
			They just had no problem wiping everyone out.
		
01:32:48 --> 01:32:50
			And then belief in God, setting up any
		
01:32:50 --> 01:32:53
			churches, anything was completely out of the question
		
01:32:53 --> 01:32:53
			for them.
		
01:32:55 --> 01:32:57
			It was something they fought openly.
		
01:32:58 --> 01:33:03
			Whereas the Western civilization, yeah, they got their
		
01:33:03 --> 01:33:04
			issues.
		
01:33:04 --> 01:33:11
			But at least their approach towards these things
		
01:33:11 --> 01:33:13
			was not as aggressive.
		
01:33:13 --> 01:33:14
			They weren't officially atheists.
		
01:33:14 --> 01:33:15
			And that's the difference.
		
01:33:15 --> 01:33:18
			So if someone wants to refute that, if
		
01:33:18 --> 01:33:20
			you want to refute that, it's a matter
		
01:33:20 --> 01:33:21
			of opinion.
		
01:33:21 --> 01:33:24
			And I've shared this opinion with many scholars,
		
01:33:24 --> 01:33:26
			and they said, yeah, it's called the fiqh
		
01:33:26 --> 01:33:27
			of priorities.
		
01:33:27 --> 01:33:30
			And it doesn't mean, you know, retweet doesn't
		
01:33:30 --> 01:33:31
			equal endorsement.
		
01:33:31 --> 01:33:34
			On this moment, at this moment in time,
		
01:33:34 --> 01:33:35
			this is who I'm going with.
		
01:33:35 --> 01:33:37
			At this moment in time.
		
01:33:38 --> 01:33:39
			And you can stay silent too.
		
01:33:40 --> 01:33:42
			Ladies and gentlemen, we've got to stop.
		
01:33:42 --> 01:33:43
			Unfortunately, we have to go.
		
01:33:43 --> 01:33:44
			We've got class.
		
01:33:44 --> 01:33:47
			If you want to take classes with me
		
01:33:47 --> 01:33:51
			and with other scholars, I'm not even a
		
01:33:51 --> 01:33:51
			scholar.
		
01:33:52 --> 01:33:54
			But I can say I'm a teacher, and
		
01:33:54 --> 01:33:58
			I'm teaching some fundamentals here of aqidah, fundamentals
		
01:33:58 --> 01:34:01
			of fiqh, fundamentals of tasawwuf, fundamentals of uloom
		
01:34:01 --> 01:34:02
			al-hadith and uloom al-Qur'an.
		
01:34:02 --> 01:34:03
			That's what I teach.
		
01:34:04 --> 01:34:07
			Been doing that for many, many years.
		
01:34:07 --> 01:34:09
			And I am a student of knowledge.
		
01:34:09 --> 01:34:12
			I'm a student of three different shuyukh at
		
01:34:12 --> 01:34:13
			this moment of time.
		
01:34:13 --> 01:34:15
			And I encourage everyone to live and die
		
01:34:15 --> 01:34:16
			as a teacher and a student.
		
01:34:16 --> 01:34:17
			As soon as you learn something, teach it.
		
01:34:18 --> 01:34:19
			And never stop studying.
		
01:34:20 --> 01:34:22
			But you can go to arcview.org.
		
01:34:24 --> 01:34:26
			arcview.org and sign up.
		
01:34:26 --> 01:34:28
			And alhamdulillah, we did reach our goal, and
		
01:34:28 --> 01:34:31
			we passed the 6,500 pounds that we
		
01:34:31 --> 01:34:32
			wanted to reach.
		
01:34:32 --> 01:34:35
			We got it to 6,700 pounds.
		
01:34:35 --> 01:34:39
			6,700 pounds is going to the winter
		
01:34:39 --> 01:34:41
			drive in Syria.
		
01:34:41 --> 01:34:44
			Brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen, Jazakum Allah
		
01:34:44 --> 01:34:45
			khairan.
		
01:34:45 --> 01:34:47
			Subhanaka Allahumma wa bihamdik.
		
01:34:47 --> 01:34:49
			Nashhadu an la ilaha illa anta.
		
01:34:49 --> 01:34:51
			Nastaghfiru quran tubu ilayk.
		
01:34:51 --> 01:34:52
			Wa al-asr.
		
01:34:52 --> 01:34:53
			Inna al-insana lafee khusr.
		
01:34:53 --> 01:34:56
			Illa allatheena aamanu wa aamilu al-salihat.
		
01:34:56 --> 01:34:56
			Wa tawassu bil-haq.
		
01:34:57 --> 01:34:58
			Wa tawassu bil-sabr.
		
01:34:58 --> 01:34:59
			Wassalamu alaikum.
		
01:35:33 --> 01:35:37
			Allah.
		
01:35:39 --> 01:35:40
			Allah.
		
01:35:42 --> 01:35:46
			Allah.
		
01:35:46 --> 01:35:46
			Allah.
		
01:35:46 --> 01:35:46
			Allah.