Muslim Youtube Instagram Influencers who use the Muslim Community
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Channel: The Deen Show
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AI Generated Transcript ©
was the trend that you were seeing again? I was seeing a lot of like Arab or Muslim
social media influencers yeah
driver's license I look at the sun I see it on the years I play this
I don't know
this is the
visa piece Welcome to the D show and in the D show studio probably heard that Muslim guy who's that Muslim guy? Well, he's right next to me Mohammed salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah. How you doing any kind of Salam wa Rahmatullah QCAT How you doing? Muhammad handler so far, so good. My first time in Chicago, and so far, it's been great. You're all the way coming in from Canada. That's right. That's right. from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, all the way in the East first time, Chicago. First time, yeah, first time and try to do all the tourist activities. I travel out today I was doing the ANP American Muslims for Palestine event for pals for Palestine activism, raising awareness. And I had a
little bit time today to do some, some tourism, and did all the typical stereotypical tourist things, the millennial Park, get deep dish pizza. Our Uber driver told us that that's a stereotype and pickup people from Chicago don't actually like deep dish pizza. So but had to do it. You know what I mean? So, so far, so good. Hamdulillah, it's been very nice. How'd you come up with this net, that Muslim guy, what made you it really took me a few months when I was still trying to figure out what to call myself what to call the channel when I first came up about five and a half years ago or so. And there are a lot of names are trying to go through my head and I had like a list of 5060
names. And subhanAllah somehow, like that Muslim guy is what is what came out. And I really liked it, and just, you know, popped up and I was like, You know what, this is a great name. And a lot of people told me to perhaps use my name. But I've seen a trend where people come up using their own names, they start talking about Islam to talk about Arabs and Islam and Middle East etc, and stereotypes. And then when they build a following, they start shifting away from Islam and doing other things that as Muslims, we probably should not be doing. So I figured that would also be a great control in place where if the name Muslims in my name, I would feel way more accountable. To
make sure any content I talked about still pertains and relates to Islam backing up a little bit. What did you mean? So what's the trend that you're seeing? Again, I'm seeing a lot of like, Arab or Muslim us social media influencers?
Because of you you fasting, do you mean you can't eat anything? Nothing. Just eat one I can't. I know you want some of these?
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Allah.
And they would start off appealing to the Muslim community, the Arab community doing via interviews and comedy skits and really growing with the community support. And then once they reach out to a broader community, not just the Muslim community, and they become way more well known.
I would see a shift from Islamic content and more towards just other mainstream content. And then they'll start getting into other avenues that are not more or less Islamic, the country that caught my attention. And so it wasn't it was it was kind of a trend you said. So it wasn't one two, it wasn't just multiple accounts that are used to follow. Yeah. And I saw that trend. And I had good friends with handler who also told me, like, make sure that you don't fall into that trend. So have some controls in place. So one of the controls I thought about was if the name Muslim is in my name, that I will immediately feel that responsibility of making sure anything I do, which will be
representing Islam must be presentable and in accordance with this noun. And then I figured that Muslim guy has a nice comedic tone and also a Muslim tone and kind of catchy as well. Yeah. And I liked it. What do you think just just to touch on that a little bit more? Do you think sometimes there's a systematic attempt by some of these people out there to go ahead and target let's say, the Muslim community, and then you know, come on, make some videos in sha Allah Subhan Allah, Allahu Akbar bird and then you know kind of gets you all excited and
gets you. And then once you're laid out there, you know, I believe there's that that definitely does happen. I try not to assume malicious intent by anyone, I just assume you know, husband of one, I will assume that they started off with great intentions. And once they grew a fault, they got a really large following money started flowing, start running out of content, and then you got to start having to expand, and then they start falling into just that trap. Shetlands, very smart. And slowly but surely start falling into that trap. Of course, there are people out there and don't want to drop any names. But I remember there was a while where there were some people who are doing
things, the name of Islam, but they're only doing it as a form of entrapment to get people to detour away from Islam. And I believe that does happen. But I think for the most part, people do start off innocently with good intentions. And slowly they get pulled up pulled away. And I pray that that does not happen to me and many other people out there. I mean, all of us. Yeah, this is very important intention. That's why intention is important. Always checking our intention. And just speaking of intentions, I think the most important thing about the intention is, when you don't see results, it really comes down to your intention. So if you put because I was putting, maybe, because
I have a full time job, and I'm an accountant by trade. And I would work in a full time job hours, we have busy seasons, we could work, you know, nine to 12 hours a day sometimes. And then I'll go home and put another two three hours in videos and cotton and script writing and editing. And then could only get 50 views 100 views. I'm like, Wow, is this even worth it? But then it comes down to your intention is your intention to just get views and eventually make money? Or is your intention to educate people about a topic or passionate about like Islam, like activism, or Palestine or any other, any other country. And once you remember what your intention is, then it doesn't matter what
the results are, because you can't control the results, you can just control your intention and the amount of work you put in. And there's many, many examples of of numerous prophets and messengers in the Quran, like Prophet, no mystery partner, where he dealt with his people over 950 years and still had a handful of followers. So we don't control the results. But we can control our work and our actions and our attention. I think that's always important to remind ourselves of, yeah, this is really important. Tell me at what point Muhammad did you? Did Muhammad start actually following? Or were you always a practicing Muslim? Were you did you grow up in a Muslim household? At what point
did you realize, okay, this is my purpose in life, you know, Islam? And what convinced you about Islam also to have you practicing it to where you're doing what you're doing today? Also? Well, that's a very good question. And that's a very deep question. And Hamdulillah I grew up in a Muslim family, a practicing Muslim family. And I grew up between I'm a Palestinian originally, but I was born in Kuwait. And I grew up between Kuwait and Canada. So when I was a very young kid, we migrated to Canada. And then I lived there for quite a while then migrated back to Kuwait, graduated high school from there and moved back to Canada did my university and been there ever since. But
hamdulillah my, when I was in Canada, we always went to Islamic schools on the weekends.
Later at night, we always had to learn to put on and meet our parents made sure that we at least knew the basics of our religion. And we always had to learn Arabic on the weekends. So other kids would be going out playing outside on a Saturday or a Sunday. And we're just studying Arabic they have IV you're in the habit of you remember the city the habits anyone no matter the city, we're just learning Arabic.
And as a kid, you don't really see that big picture of how that's important. Just want to go out and play. And now I see the importance of that. So growing up and Hamdulillah we had my family always made sure that we were immersed or at the very least, well educated in our religion.
But I only really saw the need and necessity and saw myself doing this in the future for the foreseeable future started in university
and because around High School University time, I still like watching stand up comedy. Do you have any favorite stand up comedians that you like back in the day? Yeah, Eddie Murphy maybe crazy Murphy Okay. Before they became famous actors and Hmm. Before they became famous actors there were no back. I mean, this is back you know, before I start practicing Islam, you know, okay, you know, a lot of the stuff that these comedians lot of is is not proper things to kind of words they use in this and the stories that makes them I can get R rated you know, yeah, that's right. That's your earlier Yeah, that's right. That's right. And yeah, and I there was a lot of communities I used to love
listening to. And now my favorite is probably well, your your so you do comedy, too. Also, I do some comedy as well. Yes. Probably like Bob Ali now. Okay. That's not a bad. It's very PG rated.
Family friendly, family friendly and Hamdulillah. And that's what I tried.
So keep it family friendly. Because if the kids can't watch it, then you're probably doing something wrong, right? And I got, I started really liking comedy. And I realized, Oh, that's a great way to express yourself and making people laugh. And I realized they could talk about anything. But if people are willing to laugh, they're willing to listen. They're willing to learn. And that's like the first seed that came into my mind. And then in university, I started getting into politics. Now politics is kind of boring, right? Nobody likes politics. Nobody understands politics. And then I started watching like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I was like, wow, this is entertaining. I'm
learning without even knowing I'm learning. It's just like a whole satire, skit, comedy skit, and I'm learning from it. So I said, why can't we do that with Islam? Why can't I use comedy to educate people about Islam. But then I'm still in university, I have to get, you know, 4.0 GPA, because I'm Arab. My parents want me to be an engineer and a doctor and a pharmacist and a lawyer. So I was like, I don't got time for this. I need to I need to study.
And then one day, I went to a Friday Sermon, during Friday prayers, and one of the Imams who was saying this was at a time when there was some Slama phobia happening in Halifax, whereby some newspapers were writing some pretty, you know, unfortunate things about Muslims in Islam.
And the Imam, he said, he said, You don't have to be a scholar to stand up to Islamophobia. You don't have to be a scholar or someone who has years in Dawa, to be able to do anything. What are you good at? And use those skills for the benefit of Islam? Are you are you a great writer, beautiful, write an article, write a book, defending Islam, expressing your opinion, expressing your perspective.
You're a great public speaking, great leader, rally, make a video, use your public speaking skills. You're not great at writing, you're not going to speak and you're good at editing, great, get together with people and edit videos, do what you're good at, for the benefit of Islam.
And that's when it hit me. I said, I like comedy. I think I think I'm kind of funny. So I've been told, I don't know. So I was like, why not? What do I got to lose? And subhanAllah after I graduated university, when I was started doing my CPA, my Chartered Professional Accountancy, I started that Muslim guy, and 100 lessons, then it's been a long, five and a half years. But hummed it has been very rewarding, and definitely at the very least, keeps me productive in my free time, and will be able, I'm able to utilize my time productively. And I'm able to also help do my part to try to educate people about Islam, using comedy and talking about taboo topics that they wouldn't otherwise
want to talk about. Help us understand like at that phase in your life, because university can be a playground for so many destructive things. So what at what point are you reflecting thinking like, Okay, what's the purpose of my life? And then you have so many different religions. And then you also have a lot of Muslims who go through the motions of Islam because Okay, daddy, mommy told me, you know, I should pray I should this, but then they're not well grounded in the deen. And then they take a philosophy class. And they get into this secular institution, which is pushing and pumping atheism. Right. Yeah. And you get lost? Yeah, what kept you well anchored? SubhanAllah. And I feel
like that's a very complex and nuanced topic as well, because it's different from one person to another, right. And I remember I live you've had a job on the show before, right. I remember watching that, I think replying to some of the things that Joe Rogan said, and when I was, so I was listening to a few other Muhammad hijab lectures, and he was talking about philosophy, and there's, and he mentioned something, I believe it was him, mentioned something about, most Muslims should not be studying philosophy, for example, they should just know enough to be able to, you know, to protect themselves. So it's kind of like a vaccine in a way where you just getting a small dose of
the virus, just to be able to build that immunity, but met so many Muslims in university try it out. And they get into it, and they don't have a strong Islamic knowledge or background, and then they just get confused.
It does depend from person to person. And I think the very, very first thing is, who are your friends? Who are you hanging around with? Once you go to university? What are you doing? So that's one key thing. Yeah. Being around good friend you around good company. 100. Yes. And I understand some people gravitate towards certain people, if you have a few are used to going to the masjid used to meeting people at MSA is and unless some sort of associations and all that then you're going to meet good people. Some people are just more inclined to go try out the other things later at night at 11pm or 12am. So you're going to meet you know, not I guess the best people from an Islamic
perspective.
So it does depend on people's personalities, but I think the very first thing is who are you hanging around with because your friends will pull you in Arabic will say a slob said
Write Your friend will pull you. So sometimes you think you're the one pulling, but if all your friends are doing one thing you're doing the other, they will slowly but surely pull you in that direction. So you'd really need to be aware of who you're with. What had what had you? Who was your mentor who was, you know, to have you at that young age to be like, Okay, I need to have good friends. Like, what's what's, you know, we need mentors, like, was it your family? Did you have, like, was this friend all along? Like, how did you understand that at that young age? Was this your upbringing, too, as when your parents sent you off to or you went to university that you already had
this? You had the game plan? Or
very interesting question. I guess I'll just always wise, you know,
I think it is a combination of the two. It was a combination of my parents always giving me advice going like, you know, now you're on your own, and we trust you, we've raised you, we've sent you we're giving you Islamic education. Now we trust you as a fully grown adult to do what's right. Yeah. And fear Allah. Are you so now being done with university? What? Because as we go on, we're seeing with one generation to the next for my generation, we were thinking like, our parents were thinking, hey, you know, this is crazy, what? Everything that we're being exposed to, and now your generation, but you're seeing people now who are in university. So from your experience, what are
some of the things that you would warn or advise, we got one, good companionship good friends, ship. Other things. Now that you have a couple more gems, you know that you if you can go back? Let's say you would advise someone who's in university right now, maybe struggling, male or female doesn't matter. And now you got all of these temptations, all of the things that are just being you know, the trap Shakedown is setting. Yeah, what what advice would you give? The second thing I would advise, is,
what are you actually looking for.
And I'll elaborate more on that. I can tell someone, you know, have good friends get Islamic education. If they don't want that. They're not going to do it. I've met many Muslims.
Many people I knew back in Kuwait, actually. And then we all went to I went university, they came to university as well. And we were in the same city.
And they turned to 180 degree one at a full 180. In Kuwait, like there would be a certain type of person, because Muslim country, I guess the norms are in a certain way. It's difficult to access certain things that are illegal. And then you come to Canada. And everything's available. Everything's legal. Everything's encouraged. Rather, it's not just legal to encourage if you're not doing it. What, why don't you come out to party with us? Come on, there's a huge party at the dorm. That's still happening. Oh, yeah. I wouldn't know.
But yeah, and I guess now social distancing parties, right. Just gotta keep six feet, you know. And
some people want to try that. No matter what you say to them. And you tell them you know, your Allah. You came from you have you come from a Muslim background, you understand how that and haram.
And I've had people tell me, I went out with a friend once. And he's Muslim, and he orders a beer. And as we're eating, now, there was a non Muslim, I would understand, but as a Muslim, he sat down, just ordered a beer. I was kind of confused, like, okay, all right. I'm gonna say anything. I was like, Oh, let me see. Let's see where this goes. And then he goes, like, aren't you gonna get one? Like, whoa, hold up. So now it's on me. Wait, what? I should be questioning you. You're questioning me. I was like, dude, like, why are you ordering a beer? Like, I don't know if you're practicing or not. But why do you order a beer? And he said,
Because It's haram. And I want to know why. So I was like, Whoa, how do you how do you? How do you comprehend that? and converse with this person, right? So it's all about what do you want? If someone does not want anything to do with this now, then you you can keep giving them advice, whenever you know it comes up, but you can't really change them. Right? You just have to do your part. To respectfully and using wisdom try to bring them towards towards them and doing what's systemically correct. But if they don't want to, you can't do anything at the end of the day. It's all it's on them and only luck and change their hearts. But I would say be honest with yourself. So
first of all, have good company. Second of all, it is important to be able to be well educated in Islam, even if it's just the basics. A little on Phil, aka what is our core belief, the major what is halal and haram major sins.
But the last thing is, be honest with yourself. Be honest with yourself, what are you what are you trying to do? And because everything you do will be based on your intentions if your intention is to try to do what's right and try to have better
You will solely make decisions that work towards that you will seek help, you will seek advice, you will take the advice and try to work towards that there will be trial and error. But you will work towards that gradually. Versus if you don't want to doesn't matter how many people come at you and try to talk to you, you're just going to blow them all away, and go do whatever you want. So the last thing I would say is be honest with yourself. Yeah. 100.
And at the time you were in university was the hate propaganda. Was it the same? Or have you seen it revved up?
Compared to then, and now with the whole Islamophobia with the whole propaganda against Islam? How was it back when you remember University compared to now because you cover a lot of different topics? You talk about different, you know, things are happening in the news, and were you paying as much attention? Was it affecting you?
Definitely. And I would say, I guess, I guess we can bring that having, having the name Muhammad lane. Yeah. After the last in front of messengers sent demands upon him, yes. And all the messengers. So having that name was just some bullying, where there's like, you know, terrorist, Muhammad. You know what,
interestingly enough, I've dealt with some comments, but not as much, it was mainly more subtle racism. So for example, I could have I would be Muhammad, there could be Ahmed, there could be someone who's not even Muslim, but it seems appropriate, right. And you can all apply to a job and you all have like a 4.0 GPA. And then someone else applies like a 3.0 GPA and less job experience. And only he gets sick. And he's because his name is John. So there is that subtle racism that I did notice, and it's slowly fading away, because now there's, like, where I'm from, because now there's a lot more immigration towards Nova Scotia. And you can see Muslims and just, you know, brown people
in general from the Middle East from South Asia.
Now they're becoming a little more prominent, so that slowly will, will decrease but I think the second thing is the Muslim communities, once the Muslim community has a presence,
and they make their presence known
than the Islamophobia somewhat decreases, depending on where you're from, it might be different in Texas than it is in you know, Toronto, right.
What I've noticed is when the mosques became more out there, they would do multifaith conventions, multifaith events, interfaith harmony, weeks, they would invite people to the masjid, we have food, come listen to our Friday lecture. If a newspaper says something wrong, people message them email that make videos about them, hold them accountable, that has somewhat also controlled and limited the Islamophobia, for example. But now with the rise of social media, anyone can create 10 accounts and send you 10 hate messages, right. And on social media now that people are less accountable, they're hiding behind a screen, it's easier to spread hate sound phobia, racism, etc. So I believe
from one end, it has been controlled but from another and social media has opened up a whole new avenue as well. You talk I'd look at some of the videos topics you cover is interesting. What happened if you bring us up to speed for those people? It was trending news. You had the cartoonist cover that, yes, they believe a Swedish person has large wicks Yes. And I believe I heard of him a while back. And I don't remember until recently when he passed away. And that I just covered that. In regards to, you know, this is the legacy this man left behind the only thing he left behind. No one says, Oh, this man was a visionary who had these 10 projects and did this for humanity. And did
that. Know the only thing he's going to be remembered for? Oh, yeah, he's that guy who mocked the profit of 2 billion people and got a bunch of people angry.
And it really got me thinking,
if that's the only legacy you can leave behind, you've got you've done something terribly wrong, you've done somewhere, you've gone wrong somewhere in your life. And it got me thinking, what kind of legacy do I want to leave behind, for example, because we all understand the concept of sadaqa jariya and ongoing charity. Once you once you're gone, you want to make sure your actions and everything you did in this world can continue building up your deeds and benefiting you and the hereafter once you're gone. And that just really got me thinking about that. What do I want my legacy to be? What do I want people to remember me for? When people remember me? Will they be you
know, cursing me? Or will they be making dua for me? Or will they be watching content benefiting and I can get a sense for that as well. So that just got me thinking and and I hope that
I can also we can also educate people in the sense where if someone does mock our Prophet, peace be upon him. Someone doesn't mock a religion happens all the time. Unfortunately. No
Many people that's their claim to fame, like a certain French media company as well. They they're never known until they do that and from because of our reaction, they become famous.
And then the way we react sometimes as Muslim, sometimes you'll have very emotional Muslims. And the way they react is very out there because you insulted someone they love very much. Many people don't understand how much we love Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, some people can't comprehend it. So they just go all these crazy fanatics so I think it is important and I made a couple of videos about this I will continue in sha Allah talking about this.
If you love Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him as much as you say you do, then react the way he commanded you to react, react in the way that Islam tells you to react when someone mocks you or box your religion or mocks your prophet, react our Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him react, reacted with wisdom. And that's where having the Islamic knowledge comes in play and understanding that understanding the Sierra and the story of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. Yeah, many people don't know that we also we wouldn't be too fond of would be very upset and angry if Jesus was insulted or Moses, Abraham and he the prophets, they got all mighty sent for that's right and of
humanity. So this is something that obviously, when you look at that's interesting, this person's legacy, what he leaves behind, you know, just making a mockery of the greatest man to walk the earth and then also
youth think, at the end, what do you got, you know, what did you leave behind? Did you start some charity organization? Did you commit your life to doing good change? You know, making a change for you just made a mockery out of yourself and your life? And
it's just interesting how that's right at the end, how it all came to an end. Yeah, yeah. And And just to add to that, it's like you said, many people don't know that Muslims believe in almost in all the Prophets and Messengers sent by God, from Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to Jesus to Muhammad peace be upon him.
And I just also noticed that some Muslims, we do have some hypocrisy in this whereby there could be a movie done about profit. No, there could be like a parody mocking Jesus peace be upon him.
Or Ibrahim Ibrahim peace be upon him. And we're like, oh, but then democra. Muhammad is prime and we get outraged. And then once asked my friend about that, I said, Why are you so outraged? I understand why you're outraged when Prophet Muhammad Hassan gets mocked. But why don't you have a similar reaction when he said alayhis, salaam Jesus peace be upon him gets mocked, or Adam peace be upon him? Or any of the prophets? He said, don't I do I do get angry? I said, Okay.
I don't see you saying anything about those. So we also do have that hypocrisy where we need to understand that any prophets and messengers of God should not be mocked just out of moral principles should not be mocked, and we should also feel we should hate it in our hearts, when anyone marks one of the prophets and messengers and also vocalize it make it known, but make it known in a wise manner. And that's the most important thing. He also talked about. What was the story behind this? Singer rapper? Was it Rihanna? And yes, had a Hadith from Prophet Mohammed in what was it her song? Yes, so I believe Rihanna, she Rihanna had a fashion show featuring someone else called Cuca. Chloe,
I think or something like that. And it was an Armageddon themed fashion show. And in one of one of the, one of the songs they had, they also had an extract of a hadith about the days of judgment, and profit, and I think who it was recited by shadow Russia OFSC.
And of course, that caused outrage. And a lot of people were angry about that, like, how dare you use a hadith something that the saying and teaching Muhammad peace be upon him and of all things, turn it into music, and then put it in a fashion show like vulgarity over vulgarity.
So I understand where the outrage came from. But then people also resorted to the things that I hate the most. And that's the violence, death threats. And that's the internet for you, you look at anyone's comments section. It's just, it's just the worst of humanity sometimes. So I made a video explaining, first of all, I agree this is wrong, and here's why it's wrong.
And then I ended off with however, here's how we should react to someone who has made this mistake, if we just hate on them, and alienate them. And it's unforgivable, and you're cast off from society and will never ever look at you again. Number one, you're not giving them a chance to apologize, and to rectify that mistake. And number two, you're pushing them in the opposite direction. Now you're pushing them towards the Islamophobes who liked this kind of content. They like it when you mock Prophet Muhammad and and make fun of Islam.
So it's important to be able to hold people accountable number one, to make sure that they don't get away with just mocking Muslims or using what
They want for Muslims. Number two, give them the opportunity to also publicly apologize. So then even their followers see that this was not the best move this was this was a mistake. Then third of all, give them a chance to learn why you're outraged. And then hopefully they can also become an ally versus an enemy. And I think that's what I was trying to do in that video.
Today, do you think that was a? How would they come across with the US this? Was it her that was using it how it was in a song? Hadith? Yeah, so that was used in a song by one of the other performers in her fashion show. Yeah. So they were just saying, you know, Rihanna, in her manager should have known better. And the performer herself should have known better and it's like, Where'd you even get this from? You must have known it's a hadith because you're probably looking up, you know, Armageddon themed anything. And then you found this, no one really fact checked it, or no one checked, you know, Who does it belong to? Is there even a copyright issue now? Because it using the
voice of someone like him shared it? I should FSC? Right. So there's a lot of a lot of things going on
his voice in it? What because I think he had a video on YouTube and reciting the Hadith. And they actually use him they use voice in the song. Yes. And they kind of tweak the sound to with the background music and everything you think is a mistake, or this was some systematic setup like that. What do you think? That's a very interesting question. And I don't know and I'm, a lot of money goes into these things. So they got to cover all avenues. You know, what's gonna push to get the most reaction? Most attention? Yeah. Like the guy. What's his name? He had those blood sneakers. Yeah, yeah, it was a little nah. So who was the big sneaker? Guys? Guys? Yeah, yeah. Okay. They like this
kind of, you know, hype. It gets free publicity sometimes. Right? And yeah, it could be number one, an innocent mistake. But I think when too many innocent mistakes happen, sometimes it's that trend indicates that there might be more of an agenda. And even if it's not a, you know, an agenda against Muslims, it might be more of an we don't care who you are, or what you are, we don't respect you, we're just going to use whatever we can for free media and free publicity. outrage is my immediate media, right? Publicity is publicity. So that could also be it, a lot of them. But at the end of the day, regardless of what it is, it is important to be able to stand up to it in a correct and wise
manner, whereby we represent ourselves in STEM appropriately, but we also hold everyone accountable.
The last thing I want to talk to you about was this convention you went to, and the message and education now that's so important out there for people who are kind of ignorant on what's going on in this part of the world where you're, I mean, this were your parents from from Palestine? Yes. Right. So can you give us an update? Like, what's the latest what's happening? Because a lot of times, I think it was several months back, you know, there was a lot of headlines, but it kind of died down now. Yes. Is there?
What's changed? Is there anything different that it's not in the media now? The only thing different now is that the energies down and the trend is gone. And with the approach that everything is continues, as was if not worse, if not worse, yes. So the way the way it is, so I was at the ANP American Muslims for Palestine convention and they bought a lot of speakers like makeup OLED, and I'm gonna say man and a lot, a lot of people they've been they wanted to bring Hamad Al COVID, who's from East Jerusalem. And he was him and his sister when they were essential in using social media to raise awareness about what was happening in East Jerusalem.
And I can give a quick overview as to what happened just this year alone, we're gonna have to talk about the 70 year history of Palestine and what happened to the Palestinians by by Israel, the oppression just this year alone. In around Ramadan time, Israel was sort of bombing Gaza.
And there was just media silence.
Before that, there was a parade or a group of extremists Zionist in Israel in Jerusalem, marching through the streets, chanting death to Arabs.
And there's no media coverage at all a few Muslim outlets here and there, but no mainstream media coverage.
Then there's a parade, a Zionist parade, where they're threatening of, of the second Nakba. For those who don't know the Nakba is, what 1948, Israel was created and it was created by committing math, ethnic, ethnic cleansing, and a mass exodus of over 750,000 Palestinians out of their homes, kicking them out creating refugees, and up to this day, there's millions of refugees, Palestinian refugees outside of Palestine who can not return home. So that was the first Nakba.
There are parades threatening of a second Nakba, to say we're gonna finish the job now, when you say neck bow for people that don't know what that what does that mean, so the neck of me is the catastrophe, great catastrophe, which is the mass exodus, the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes when Israel was
created. So Israel denies this ever happened. But then they have extremist Zionist parades threatening of a second Nakba, while denying the first one ever existed. So there's a lot of hypocrisy in the way is real, does this propaganda
but then again, no media coverage.
And then there's the attacks in East Jerusalem whereby the IDF, the Israeli Defense Force, or the occupation force, rather, they would go in and invade that Aqsa Mosque, they would be a protesters, shoot tear gas, shoot rubber bullets, or rather, rubber bullets is a very nice way of saying it, they're steel coated, or right rather rubber coated steel bullets. So they can still cause a lot of damage and internal damage, they can cause blindness to hit your eye that can give you brain damage that you in the head. They can break bones and cause paralysis that you in the spine. So they're just bullets that they might not kill you, but they'll kill your ability to live. They'll cripple
you that will cripple you for life.
We're thinking when you think like the kids are playing with those rubber, you know, yeah, the Nerf guns. It's not a Nerf gun. Yeah, it's not a Nerf gun. It's a it's an adult Nerf gun that can cripple you for life. And again, no media coverage.
The only time media coverage happened was when Hamas which is the government and of Reza, they said, If you keep doing this, we're gonna have to fire back. We're gonna have to defend ourselves, we have to do something. Israel was like, Oh, really? Okay, cool. And they did another attack. And they invaded the mosque again. And they kept doing that. And then Hamas fired a few missiles,
which were obviously intercepted by the Israel's Iron Dome, Israel's nuclear state. It's one of the strongest, strongest militaries in the world. Hamas can't do anything to them. But Hamas through few missiles just in retaliation to everything you're doing, and just like that, the mainstream media covered it like there was no tomorrow.
It's like they only the time started, the watch started.
As soon as Palestinians reacted to all the oppression, they start on their own time. And that's what happened. And then all over the media was like, it was it was Palestinians attack Israel, Hamas fires missiles that Israel, Hamas terrorist organization doing this doing that, but no one ever mentioned anything about the months of just constant attacks of Palestinians happening right before that.
And that's the problem. The way the media has started was covering it was Israel has the right to defend itself. against Hamas, a nuclear state has a right to defend itself against people who are making you know homemade rockets and are resisting an occupation.
And then the way the media covered it was that words matter. And I made a video called Words matter. And the media hypocrisy is so it's so blatant whereby when a Palestinian dies, they called it Palestinians dead. Palestinian died. When Israeli died, they called it killed, passive Israeli was killed was murdered, because those words invoke two different emotions. When I said someone died, you're like, oh, he probably had a heart attack. Did he have COVID? Right? When I say someone was killed, you know, that there is some sort of oppression happening, some sort of violence took place. So they were using that as well, as part of their their war onwards, I guess, their propaganda. And
furthermore,
in East Jerusalem, and places like beta said, one shot
there was there's a continuous ethnic displacement of Palestinians, whereby Israel will take homes away from Palestinians. And they will give it to any person who they claims to be Jewish from any place in the world.
And the most famous, most famous scene, I don't know if you saw this, but it was where Manuel COVID was confronting a, a Zionist Jew from Brooklyn, I believe, are from Long Island, New York.
And she was like, What are you doing in my house? And he just blatantly said, Well, why are you? Why are you blaming me? If I don't do it? Someone else will do it. If I don't steal it, someone else will steal it. Yeah, that was the video that went viral. Yes. And that's when people like they just pump the brakes. So look, what the record crash is like, what? What happened? Hold up the diamond just actually say that, if I don't steal it, someone else will steal it. And then that expose those happening and shut it off, whereby the government and the and there's really Supreme Court just issued orders in order to get any Jew from any Jewish person from any place in the world to take
over the home of a Palestinian as part of a larger ethnic displacement program. And then that is just simply what's happening and then some, as well in the West Bank settlements are over illegal settlements, by the way, which are illegal by international law are being built
throughout the West, banked military checkpoints everywhere to ensure that Palestinians will never, ever be able to have, you know, a state to make sure that Palestinian Palestine will be annexed slowly but surely until there's absolutely no other option. But for Israel just take over all of Historic Palestine. And in a nutshell, that's what's happening in, in Palestine. And the only thing that as powerful as people outside of Palestine, Palestinians and pro Palestinians, the only thing we can do at this point, is the most important thing. And that's raise awareness. Give, give them a voice, when the media sensors, sensors them
to be able to speak to pressure our politicians, our elected representatives were by in Canada and the states can the states are one of the biggest sponsors of Israel, be the United States giving Israel $3.8 billion a year in Canada, selling Israel hundreds of million dollars in military technology. So it is on us as Canadian citizens as American citizens to be able to stand up for Palestinian human rights and pressure our own governments to stop funding oppression. Because we need to remember, Palestine is not just a Palestinian issue. Palestine is not just a Muslim issue. Palestine is not just an Arab issue. Palestine is a humanitarian issue. And if you claim to care
about humanitarian issues about human rights about justice, then you have to also care about Palestine. And you also had a lot of how many this year you have a lot of rabbis you have Israelis at this convention, like Mikko Pillard he's there. You had the rabbi wise. Yeah, yeah. And there's a lot of I don't believe,
sir, remember how many more there were. But there are quite a few either Palestinians who lived in Palestine, or Israelis who also saw what Israel is doing. They grew up like a polite who grew up in the Israeli system, thought that these passengers were savages and then slowly realized when started talking to them, that it was actually the other way around, and that Israel's oppressing Palestinians. But it was definitely very insightful. And it's very, very important that people don't don't always see this is that Jewish allies for the Palestinian cause are some of the most important allies. And that's because when people just see Palestinians or pro Palestinian talk about
Palestine, they just you they assume, Oh, it's so Muslim thing. Oh, these Muslims, these Arabs, right. Obviously, it's Jews versus Muslims. When that is not the case. It's as Palestinians we understand, pro Palestinian activists, we understand it's not Judaism, the strongest in Palestine, it's Zionism. And many Jews oppose Zionism. And Zionism is the political movement, the political ideology that has hijacked Judaism and used it in order to further their own political agenda. And it's important to able to differentiate between these two so when people see a Jewish rabbi speaking against Israel, it really causes them to to think and rethink their stance. Now, here's a good book
i If anybody wants to get more informed, somebody who doesn't really know what's going on, this is called the general sun. Yes, yes. Yeah, that's my Mikko Pillet and
yeah, so it's really nice talking with you. Yeah. Thank you very much for having me. Very nice being here. Yeah. A lot. protect you and preserve you and get your home safe and inshallah inshallah inshallah we can hook up against some time. Sounds good. If you're in Canada, let me know. Likewise, shall love Congo. Definitely. I'll keep it gonna set up. Thank you.