Courage in the face of Israeli Censorship

everybody to our live stream show Thursday nights at 9pm New York time. And every week, every week has been full of both heartache and pain and anger and activity. Our hearts and minds are still with the people of Gaza and Philistine. We've seen some very interesting developments. We've seen temporary ceasefire, then it's been extended. And we've seen the exchange of hostages,

and many moments, many moments that are that are going viral and spreading all across the world. But before we get into it, make sure that you interact in the comment section, we'll be selecting questions whether for me or for our guests, a very special guest again tonight. So send us your questions. Or if you just want to pop in and say hi, and let us know where you're tuning in from.

Some of the things one of the things that we've noticed in the past week is the difference between the way that the hostages on each side have been treated. We have seen the Israeli hostages that were captured. And actually not all of them are Israeli. Some of them were migrant workers from Thailand or from other places. And we saw how their interactions with their captors were largely positive, even to the point where, you know, some of them seemed like old friends, they were high fiving. They were shaking hands, they were giving hugs, there were smiles.

On the other hand, we see unfortunately, heartbreaking moments, heartbreaking moments from the Palestinian captives, and hostages who were released, most of whom were in the West Bank. And we've seen Subhanallah there were a pair of teenagers, right that were abducted by the ioof when they were little boys, boys of 567 years old. And they spent so much time in Israeli prisons that you could see the horror on their mother's face looking at them in disbelief. She's happy that they've been released. But she has such disbelief

on her face that her boys grew up in a jail cell. Now, of course, the way that the for the released captives have described that treatment in the Israeli jails is completely different from from the the other experience that they have been subjected to a horrible treatment, torture, beatings, and worse, denied medicine denied food, sleeping on the floor, sleeping without blankets, right kept in the same clothes. So we've seen horrifying stories on one side, and surprising, surprising humanity. Maybe surprising for some from the other side, which is a very, very interesting point. And I think a significant point, because when it comes to this entire situation, right? What's been going on and

Phil Steen, we're going to be talking with a guest that

throws into relief. The sad fact that for many people Philistine had been off their radar and a forgotten issue, up until very, very recently.

So we see how this is something that the how people react to these tragedies, and how people are suddenly becoming aware, this is something that there are powerful tools at our disposal. We've talked a lot about the reach of social media and sharing these stories, side by side videos of the hostages from both sides being released to demonstrate first of all to poke holes through the official narratives that we're seeing from the media, the mainstream media, especially the ones influenced by the Zionist propaganda machine that wants to make it seem like everything started on October 7, when Israel started releasing children out of their prisons, some people started to ask

Wait a second, why are their children in their prisons in the first place, and only to figure out that they had been abducted by the ioof before October 7. So these sorts of things, in addition to seeing how the different captives on either side were were treated is something that is bucking the official narrative. And it's something that's an extremely important thing to share and to educate people who unfortunately the people who are still who are still unaware and still ignorant. Now we've got a special guest with us tonight. And her name is Fatima Mohammed and Fatima Mohammed is somebody who is an aspiring lawyer who graduated from the CUNY School of Law, which is the City

University of New York system. And we welcome her to the to the program now. And she is somebody

She gave a graduation speech and it was honored to give us

she was however, some of the things that she said in her speech and with a reaction that

got a lot of bad press and backlash for real time now we see people

tend to

ask other people for standing up for first thing is either financially for speaking up for hosting.

We have someone with us who expect before, and she's not the first quote for a long, long time. So we'd like to, we'd like to welcome Sister Fatima Mohammed to the program. So sister welcome.

Malika Salama into labor. Thank you so much, man, Tom and the entire community for inviting me. It's truly a privilege to have to do that.

Today, thank you for joining us. So I first got,

you know, sort of exposed or aware of your situation. And through some articles that I read, and I'm the situation what happened, you know, your graduation speech, which was back in May, I believe, what were some of the things that you included in your speech that had that were relevant for the scene?

And did you ever imagine that it was going to give you to result in the best that you experienced?

Yeah, so before I begin, slough, salatu salam, ala have even Ursula, a be strategist on through yesterday, I'm gonna send me miss any of our body.

All expand my chest and allow everything I say to be truthful and to be useful. Insha Allah. So you're correct. I did give my speech back in May Hamdulillah. And I was elected by the graduating student body to get the speech. And I think important context to sort of start with is that during my time at CUNY law, as a student, I was a very active student organizing for Palestine and Henry law. And

that was sort of like I was known amongst the student body that, you know, this is a cause and I deeply care about and something that I have organized for my time there. And so in light of that, my classmates elected me to give this commencement speech and I delivered a speech that Al Hamdulillah was met with heartfelt pause, enthusiastic applause, tears. And in that speech, I spoke about not just philosophy him, but I spoke about sort of the intersectionalities of different communities, and marginalized communities and the shared struggles that we face. Specifically, I addressed the Israeli entity and the human rights violations, it consistently causes or inflicts upon the

Palestinian people. And I criticize the Zionist entity for what it is. And in my speech, I sort of put a vision of a world where all systems of oppression fall, and including in that, in that realm, Zionism and sort of that got a lot of attention in the media.

And completions, predictable completions. I'm claiming that crit my critique of Zionism, with anti semitism was sort of the framing that right wing pundits and Zionist organizations and politicians still reviews as the framing which is very predictable. I think, as we see it play out today. I spoke about the murder of children, the murder of women men and Philistine and the ongoing Nakba that has been happening since 1948. And sort of, you know, as you speak, situating what happens in philosophy not in a vacuum, but it has a starting point, right. And the starting point is with the creation of the Israeli entity, which is Israel, design, this entity was to Israel, and two weeks

after, in that two weeks, the school had originally took down the speech, and there was organizing amongst the student body, and several different organizations, including paralegal and care in New York, and really led by within our lifetime, a grassroot organization to bring back those videos. They had deleted my video and a comrade of mine, new DECA sweni, who had also given a pro Palestinian speech the year prior.

Two weeks after I quite literally was with family celebrating didn't really expect much. I thought I'd get you know, a couple of messages here. They're just as I had been throughout my time at organizing, and I woke up one day and your post was at our door, and I was like, Okay, this is interesting.

So my dad calls me he's like Fatima Talley and I knew that wasn't like a regular foster Metalia like, what happened? And so I he shows me his phone he's like,

It was your face on your posts. And it was honestly at that very moment that I was confronted with what had been building up as a smear campaign. And I found myself in the middle of a national smear campaign. Of course, I expected pushback. And I expected that the Zionist lobby with, you know, placed me on Canary or do their very typical Daxing bullying methods to stifle students. But I do think that they took it to such an extreme that it did catch me off guard to be just thrusted in the middle of a national smear campaign.

Yeah, certainly, one of the things that I appreciate and about when I started to when I came across your story is something that you you just touched on, which is that your time and we're someone who always was active, and I just think that that's such an important component. And part of what I want the audience to take away, because there are a lot of and that are maybe

afraid of speaking up, and maybe tell Okay, well, once I get more secure position, then I will begin to speak up, or once I get this job, or get this promotion, or landed this sort of situation, then I'll have the security, security.

That's never

meant hedge for my life.

Who has always to put what you're learning into practice. And even if you don't have, you know, Subhan, Allah,

the the people who are against you who participate in the organization,

but the mayor of New York City himself, right, in the news, this is something that

would be psychologically very, very hard for you with but you didn't seem daunting. In fact, I, you know, read you have an article in the nation that I recommend everybody read about doubling down and saying this is I believe in every single word that I said, I'm not going to get to a false apology, right? Like I'm seeing a lot of people do people who are celebrities, or people who are artists or something like that. They usually issue a fake apology. It's like, Oh, I'm sorry for offending people. You misunderstood my words. You didn't have that reaction? You said no, I meant every single word that I said that it was true. And if the truth gets me in trouble, then so be it. And I respect

that tremendously. And I think that's, that's the attitude that we all have to have. How was that process for you? Like, how did you? How do you psychologically deal with becoming a national news story overnight, and knowing that there are some very, very powerful people that are trying to punish you?

Yeah, I'm just gonna say, I think they're like two parts that I want to talk about the first being that Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, and politicians like Ted Cruz, politicians, like Richie Torres,

are never in a car of council women. All these politicians leverage their social media platforms to as a place to incite harassment against me. And Eric Adams was actually at our graduation, he was booed off the stage. And so he went, he later went on TV national TV to say that he would have

entered, I think, I don't remember verbatim what he said, but something to the effect of taking the mic away from me. And what we see sort of is politicians who are invested in design this entity politicians who quite literally get money from AIPAC and other lobbying groups, huddling together like birds of a feather to protect their interests amongst both Democrats and Republicans. So we see both aisles of imperialism sort of joining in on the one issue that unites Democrats and Republicans, which is Palestine and smearing Palestinian voices. And I think when once I saw that sort of playing out, it put into perspective, really just the power that I held, I wasn't so much

shocked as somebody who's been immersed

in sort of learning about design of slavery and learning about sort of just how powerful it is in US politics, I wasn't shocked that they would go to those lengths in that sense, but it really reaffirmed to me the power of the truth and the power of our voices. And in that moment, I really had to sit with myself and be like wow, like, thing the truth can make the Zionist entity crumble and each time one of us speaks up we chip at the Zionist entity little by little and if enough of us speak up we can you know we can dent it like we can create a crater that really, that really brings this Zionist entity to its feet. And on the point of apologizing I think as Muslims I grew up close

now

I live in a very visible hijab, a Muslim woman from Yemen, I understood very well that my identity is racialized. And it's sort of been politicized in a way that I don't consent to. And I'm asked to condemn myself over and over again, for things that I don't believe in for things I haven't done for things that have no business condemning as a US citizen. And so the question of condemning or the question of apologizing for the truth was not even on the table. At the end of the day, I am a Muslim. And I think Islam is like the compass that grounds me gone to my organizing work. It grounds my work and the grounds my perspective on life. And I think there's a reason why Islam, one of the

best forms of jihad is speaking a word of truth to an oppressor. I think it's because if enough of us are silent, we can enable atrocities. And we can enable such heinous crimes that are not representative of our faith, or of our of our dean, and Sam, as a dean of acting, it's a verb, it's not an adjective. It's not a dean that we can just sort of, you know, sit at home, make our Salah and dua, and go about our days. No, it's a, it's a dean that asked for us to act to get up to speak, and Hamdulillah, I had that sort of grounding, growing up. And so when this happened, it was more so like, wow, this is a lot. But it just reaffirmed to me and it honestly tested my convictions, if I

really believed what I'm speaking about, and I think we don't need to apologize, there is nothing to apologize for, the only people we should be apologizing to are the people of Philistine who we've neglected, who we aid and abet with our tax dollars. They are genocide, who we continue to ignore whose voices we don't amplify and who we wait until we are met with images of carnage, images of destruction, we wait until we're met with genocide at its fastest pace that we speak up. And I speak as like this is self critique to myself, it's not sort of me projecting it's really as a community as a Muslim community. We have been sort of in this defense position, which is an understandable

position post 911. But I think it's time that we sort of really hone in on our power, it's time that we acknowledge that we are powerful, and it's time that we acknowledge the power of our voice specifically, and that collectively, if we all speak up design, a sloppy does not have the time and the resources to do a national smear campaign for each and every single one of us. I think I'm inspired by the youth. And I'm inspired by not just the youth, but the generation that has woken up, I think a generation that understands that there is no going back to the status quo, a generation that is very bold, very unapologetic. And I think that's really what we need to carry with us. There

is no going back, there is no going back to the status quo. We have nothing to apologize for. In fact, we have a lot of work to do. And I think we need to focus on the work that needs to be done in sha Allah. And just to add sort of to what happened after the speech. The CUNY institution itself came out with a statement, mislabeling my speech as hate speech, I'm using an incorrect legal definition that does not meet any legal standards, sort of asserting that my critique of Zionism my critique of Israel amounts to hate speech. And after that, Councilwoman Erin O'Brien, niqab and Zionist lobbying Zionist Law Group, employed lawfare as so they use sort of the court system to try

to stifle and censor people and so they petition the New York Supreme Court to have me removed from the New York bar or not having admitted as a matter of fact, because at that point, I hadn't even set for the bar exam yet. So they're petitioning the state Supreme Court to get me removed on the basis of unfit character and fitness. And this just goes to show sort of to map out the lengths the Zionist lobby is willing to go to silence people, and I think it does, it's such a disservice to our community, when we convince ourselves or when we tell ourselves that our words are not powerful that speaking up is not powerful, that it is useless, that posting is useless, that protesting is

useless, because if it were useless, if it didn't matter what I said at that speech, if it didn't matter for us to speak up, they wouldn't go to such lengths to silence us and I think that's a really important point is that we are not we can no longer remain victims, we have power and we need to hone in on that power and collectively as a OMA really acknowledged our responsibility to others and those people are the people in follow seen

mashallah, that's a that's an extremely powerful message and very eloquently stated. And I'm really glad that you that you

everybody left everybody with that message. You know, you mentioned so much. I'd like to touch on one of which is a really, really important point which is

This generation, so many people are saying things feel different, right? Obviously, the oppression of Philistine has been going on for a long, long time.

Post 911, right, people kind of go into a mode and defense mode. And we've kind of not done much to build our capacity. And now all of a sudden, it seems like we're on the offense, it seems like we have opportunities to really change things, and the courage to do it. And you're part of that. And I think that it's a tremendously hopeful time to be alive. Despite all the carnage that we see. I think that we're starting to wake up and realize, ice, you have an hour, we do have an ability. You mentioned something else that I'd like to get more on, which is the implication of the universities, is imploding implication of the institutions of education. We know very well, the politicians are

bought with Zionist money. But one thing that we've seen recently, especially in New York City, where you've been on the ground, with a lot of great organizing that's been going on, is that we've also seen educated education institutions implicated by this, what are what's been going on in New York City, not everybody sort of is aware of what's been going on there with the suspension of SGP chapters and sort of the basically, universities and colleges stifling free speech and attempting to punish pro Palestinian activism.

Yeah, thank you for pointing that out. I think it's crucial that we sort of look at institutions like universities and places of higher education, through a lens that is political, because these institutions are political. There is no such thing as an a political institution or an objective space, where people go to learn every institution is political. And we see it play out right now. Right, these institutions claim to want to not be political by making very political choices like suspending as JPS. And we were talking about the City University of New York, the CUNY system, which is a public system that was created to serve brown and black people in New York City, we've seen

over the years, it's become more privatized. And as it became more privatized, it became more invested in in different areas in different spaces like,

like the war industry complex, and the prison industrial complex. And as these institutions profit off of the blood that's being spilled, they start to have interests that don't align with the students that they represent. at CUNY. There are cops at John Jay School of Law. And at John Jay jonji School of Law, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, they trained IDF soldiers. And so you see sort of this inter this this reliance on different institutions to further design this entity to further its goals. And you see our institutions caving to Zinus pressure, through external forces, but also because they are materially invested, and the blood that's being spilled, they're

materially invested in every bond that's being dropped. They have shares and profits in these institutions, Columbia, that suspended SJP has interests that are being protected. When it favors Zionist over their Palestinian students. When it favors genocide, it is profiting off of that. And I think it's really important because it divorces it from being like a personal thing. It's not that they don't know it's not that they don't understand. They know they understand, but they're choosing to align with what what aligns with their interests, and their interests, aligned with capitalism and capitalism will always favor war, because war makes money. And I think once we see that bigger

picture, we understand what we're up against. But we also remind ourselves that without the students, these institutions crumble, that we make these institutions that the City University of New York is, serves brown and black people. And those students, if they divest, if they place pressure, if they collectively mobilized can bring these institutions to their feet. And I think seeing how these institutions sort of align themselves with the systems of oppression over those who are being oppressed, is symbolic of the larger government system. It's symbolic of mainstream media. It's symbolic of medical institutions that have failed to, you know, show any regard for

Palestinians. And it paints to us a very clear image that the revolution will never be won by these institution. Institutions. The revolution will not be won by politicians. The revolution will be won by the people, by the people in follow seen, and by the people here who continue to resist these institutions, who continue to test the boundaries, who continue to speak up who continue to say not in our name, who continue to say we are not scared and you cannot bully us and I think it's time that as students, you have protection

is that once you graduate you might not have. And so it's really crucial when you're a student at an institution, when you have a right to be on that campus, when you have a right to speak up. Yeah, it's so important that you use that right? Because once you graduate, that right is curtailed, right? Like, I can go back in a kidney institution and demand anything from that institution in the way that I could back in May, or in the way it could back in January. And so really understanding like if you're a student, and you're listening right now, see where your institution is invested in? Where is it invested in which companies and do those companies aligned with who and diverse as BDS,

boycott, divestment, sanctions, this is all possible. This is a this is not myopic, it's not immature, it's not naive for you to have a vision of a world that is free of Zionism. And I think, for so long, we've been taught that because these institutions, and the systems are so powerful, that it somehow means that it's impossible to get anything done, that somehow means that organizing is useless. And that is just simply not the case, we just have to hone in and again, we have to realize the power that we have in these situations, and call out injustice wherever we see it, and from whatever institution we see it.

That's a fantastic point, one of the things that I think a lot of people have realized over the past six weeks or so, is that a lot of power, or at least the institutions and the governments that we assume are so powerful, or really, they rely upon the perspective and the projection of power. But once that's pushed, you actually identify and see that it's mostly smoke and mirrors. And I think that college as an institution is or the university system is a similar thing. There are certain performative, you know, things that go on, that you think that this thing is untouchable, you think that this thing can't

be changed at all. But in reality, they depend upon you far more than you depend upon them. And the student, as you know, the students literally do make up the, the entire university and college experience. If we were to organize properly, and leverage that power, then we could change things very, very dramatically.

I also liked that you talk you touched on capitalism, in particular, neoliberal capitalism, because the shifts that have happened within higher education and the university system can't even be made sense. Like, it's like, some people are, you know, they're really,

they've discovered an iceberg, right? They, they just start peeling back the layers of the onion, and you keep on peeling back the layers. And it's like, okay, this thing's pretty deep. Because from a certain point, or at a certain point in history, US educational institutions started becoming more about profit than about education. And that's just a plain fact, once it became more about profit than education, now you have a vulnerability that that creates, and part of that vulnerability is being at the behest of those who are growing your endowment, or who are paying the highest donors. And we've seen in the, in the last six weeks, the big donors from several education institutions

threatened to withdraw their their donations, or actually, you know, stop donating to major institutions that do the right thing. And take a stand for what is Justin, what is right. So this is who we're up against, it's very important to understand who exactly we're organizing against who we have to outmaneuver, there's going to be people with deep pockets that have a lot of money that can write very big checks, that are basically going to say, you have to say this, you have to disband this group, you have to stop this conversation from happening, or else, I'm not going to give you my check, and you're going to have to take my name off of your gymnasium or whatever it is. And we have

to be able to put the colleges and the university isn't in a position where they have to listen to us. And they have to actually be accountable to us rather than the people writing the checks. So I'm very, very grateful that you that you brought that up. What are some other things on, you know, on, on your mind is things that you know, if we're talking to students, or we're talking about, let's chart the path forward, like, where are we at right now? What are we looking at getting our institutions to divest from the military industrial complex, in general, and the Zionist entity in particular is something that's extremely important. What are some of the other things that you've

been sort of organizing for and calling for that you think that we should also be doing?

Yeah, well, I think there can be no business as usual. I think what we've witnessed this genocide that we've witnessed before our very eyes should really transform each and every single one of us into action. And I think no, i My friends are probably watching have heard me say this multiple times. And it is that the Palestinian people do not need our sympathy. They need our

Rage. And sympathy is not Solidarity. Solidarity is to be in struggle. And I think as a community, whether we are students, organizers, professionals, I think we have to reckon with the fact that

this is not a moment that should center us. And that in our work, we should not be cornered into defending ourselves, which I think is a very brilliant Zionist tactic is to take these organizers take these really brilliant young students, attack them, defame them, and then have them spend the entire time they're all their energy or their resources defending themselves, and then in that they forget the cause that they were working for in the first place. And it's not done in that intention. It's a very normal reaction that if someone slanders you, someone defamed, you cause you something, you're not that you will defend yourself against it. But I think, taking a moment to acknowledge

that we have nothing to apologize for that we have clarified our position, time and time again, that we are at a moment where we are past an awareness stage, we have seen Palestinian fathers and mothers show up for their children from beneath rubble. We have seen

children with no family left behind. Some of us for the very first time learn what it means to be a wounded child, with no surviving family, WC nsfx, that needs to radicalize us in ways that move us beyond, beyond sympathy, that move us beyond feeling bad, that moves us into action. And that action is going to look different for each and every single person. But it's realizing that there cannot be the separation between your identity as a Muslim or your identity, as a believer from your activism that we are, you know, I saw this post and it really like, I really appreciate it, which is like we don't need activists, we just need people who understand that in order to change this world, in

order to bring about justice in different ways. We have to implement this practice into our daily life. So if you're a teacher, out of school, don't regurgitate Zionist propaganda, push back. If you're a parent, make sure that your child at school is not being fed propaganda and make sure they're being taught the truth. Make sure that your child feels comfortable speaking up and that if they're ever made uncomfortable, that you are the first to come to their aid, if you're a student, make sure you're passing or pushing to pass BDS at your institution, make sure you're creating cross solidarity connections, make sure that you're making this everyone's business. And if you're an

organizer industry, you must be shutting the streets every single day. And I don't mean this figuratively, I don't mean this in a way that is not realistic. There cannot be business as usual. There just cannot be we're nearing 20,000 People who have been murdered right before our eyes. We've watched we are witnesses on this day of the murder of over 20,000 people, and many of them are still under rubble. And as you and I Imam speak, there's probably a child that is screaming under rubble right now who probably needs help, and they have no one to aid them. But Allah subhanaw taala. And I think so long as we take a position of silence, a position of cowering, a position of protecting our

own interests, we will just aid and abet further and further and further. And I think, you know, this temporary humanitarian pause, which is not a ceasefire is not enough, you know, it should really bring people a sense of, of just utmost rage that we have been begging for a ceasefire, that is the pausing of this genocide. We have begging and we still could not even get the spineless politicians to agree to that. That you give people number days were bombs are not raining on them, where they don't have to worry about you as drones shredding off their limbs where they don't have to worry about their homes collapsing on their lungs. You give them several days and you expect that

to be enough. That should not be enough, we should be enraged. We should be upset, and we do not need to sanitize our rage. We do not need to make those who are invested in corruption are invested in oppression. It is not our business to make sure they're comfortable. It is not our business to make sure their interests are not are not protected. That is not our business, as Muslimeen as people of consciousness from all over the world, we should be enraged in ways that we have never been before because what we have seen is something we have never seen before. And I every time I wake up, I think of dream and I think of blue headrow The soul of souls and they think of her

grandfather.

And I think of him

brushing her up and thing Alhamdulillah and being and being so content with Allah's mother being so content with Allah's plan, and still in his eyes, you know that that man do

Leave that elaboration in sneer, you know that that man, that grandfather, who let go of two of his two of his children, you know that he believes in a liberator Philistine. So as people inside the belly of the beast, as the people funding this violence, as the people whose tax dollars are paying for every drone that's dropping, who are we to fall into complacency? Who are we to fall into despair? Who are we to put our hands up and pretend like there is nothing to be done, there is so much to be done. And that might be overwhelming. And I agree, it is. And it might be an event, we all need to grieve, and I understand that we do. But it's decentering. ourselves. It's realizing

that in the same way we want good jobs, in the same way we want safety. For the same reason our parents came to this country, the same way we want educational prospects, that the people in the USA deserved it, that the people in the West Bank deserve it,

that those children deserve to live. That just because the Palestinian people have passed a test that Allah subhanaw taala has given them that they are content with his mother, that does not absolve us of the responsibility that we have to them, that every single Palestinian child who was murdered at the hands of the Zionist entity, whether it's in Gaza, the West Bank, or any part of Palestine, from the river to the sea, every child we had a responsibility towards and on the day that we meet Allah subhanaw taala. On the day where he is the judge on the day we're the most just is the judge, we will have to answer to him. And I hope that when people wake up in the morning,

they realized that I wanted a great job is not an excuse. I want it to be safe is not an excuse I needed to provide for my family is not an excuse. Because what makes our blood more beloved than theirs. What makes our jobs more beloved than theirs? Do they not have aspirations like we do? They do. And I think we forget where we're seeing these images of carnage play out again and again and again. And a lot of people are becoming desensitized. You scroll through, and it's a dead child, a dead mother, a dead father, a dead family, a murdered families. And the next post is business as usual. And I think we really need to wake up as an Omar Ahmed Muhammad Ali salatu salam, may peace

and blessings be upon him. We need to make him proud. So that on the Day of Judgment, when we are met with the martyrs of Gaza, when we are met with the martyrs and posting, it can give an answer worth giving, we can say we tried everything, we gave it our all that in that we lived with them, that we grieved alongside them, but that our grief did not paralyze us because we are not in the position to be paralyzed. We are not in the position to be afraid. We are not in a position to just say you know what, let's give up. Because Allah subhana wa Tada placed us inside the belly of the beast for a reason. He gave us the privilege of being in this country, to have certain freedoms for

a reason. He allowed us the ability to speak for a reason. He put you whoever is listening to me, he put you in that institution for a reason. He put you at that job workplace for a reason. He gave you those kids to inspire for a reason. He blessed you in ways in infinite ways that cannot be counted. Because there is a reason. And I hope that people listening to me don't think this is just an emotional speech, that you don't just log off and you listen, and you just move on. We have a responsibility. We have a responsibility to the children of Allah that children are Janine to children all over Alaska, but not just the children, to the mothers, the father's the men and the

women, the men and women who are in court, your sights inside Israeli dungeons, being assaulted and abused, we have a responsibility to the children who are starving of hunger under the seat. And in that responsibility, we acknowledge that it is not merely a ceasefire that we are asking for that we are not just asking for the bombs to stop raining, that we are asking for the dismantling of the Zionist entity for the dismantling of all systems of oppression, which include the Zionist entity and we will not cower, we will not apologize, and that this is literally our responsibility.

Hello, extremely well said I couldn't agree more. So Pamela, I am afraid Honestly, when I think that we might have the greatest responsibility of all with where we're positioned in this. And it's an enormous test. But I think about one thing that I think about and for those in New York City, I'll actually be at Columbia University tomorrow, giving the HIPAA and then a talk later. And one thing I'm going to talk about is the magicians that worked for Fidel, and at a certain point, even the magicians who worked for funeral home, they had to reconcile with the truth and they had to put their neck on the line. And you see how they because they saw something. They're thrown down,

worshiping right and sued you and then sit down of course what does he do? He

threaten them. He says, All right, I'm gonna crucify you guys, I'm going to cut off all these gruesome barbaric things that he's going to do to them.

And they basically say, look, okay, if you want to do it, you can do it. But we can't go back, there's no going back. And that's one of the messages that you're giving us that I want everybody to make sure that they, they register and walk away with, there's no going back, right? We've seen everything, everything that we have seen over the past six weeks.

It's not business as usual, there is no going back, we have to, we have to figure this out. And we have to win. We have to figure out, you know, whatever it takes.

We need to prepare ourselves to sacrifice in the same way that the magician's of fit around, were willing to sacrifice. They were willing to be, you know, they were willing to die, they're willing to die for the issue. And you know, hopefully, you know, it doesn't come to that. But just like, in the 60s in the civil rights movement, and we're looking for an American analogy, there were people that had to get bitten by dogs, there were people that had to get beat up by the cops, there are people who had to get acid thrown on them, there were people who had to get who had to go to jail. For what, in order to make the truth manifest, and to try to right or wrong. And we might be in

another one of those moments where those now they might be us where we have to stand up and be counted, and do what's right. No matter what the cost is.

Any last words that you'd like to leave our audience with Today felt to me been a wonderful guest, thank you so much for sharing. It isn't just that, like, the tide is shifting, that just as there is despair, rightfully so. And just as we grieve and we mourn, that there is hope, that for every Palestinian political prisoner that was freed from an Israeli dungeon, there is hope, that we understand that. No, through LA Hikari, Allah in the most reliable he barely victories near that we should not become so preoccupied with the one, but that we should live every single day as though we believe and we should believe that victory and liberation will be within our lifetime. And living

that is so important, because they are terrified. The Zionist entity, this is the beginning of the end for them, they have been exposed in ways that they cannot, they cannot conceal, you cannot conceal genocide. It's been live streamed on every almost every social media platform. They cannot conceal it. So do not eight designs entity with despair, do not discourage folks who are speaking up, elevate, elevate those who are speaking up, elevate the Palestinian voices that are documenting everything for us, for us to repost to share to speak about continue speaking about Palestine. If the ADL director, the big the big boss Zionism if they, I'm sure I hope folks I've heard the

director speak over the phone saying there's a generational crisis and that they are scared. I hope that folks get some encouragement from that. I hope that people understand that the tide is shifting that is changing. That was lucky. Like every single morning I wake up and I'm saying one day closer to liberation. And maybe we might not see the fruits of the seeds we plant but another generation will. And we live in Atlanta, if you're part we will all meet. There is no method people cannot escape. So I hope that anything, anything I've said inspire someone to join this movement in any way they can. If you're in New York City, follow us on W O L Palestine. That's where we organize a lot

of protests that are happening in the New York City area. We have an upcoming protests on Saturday in sha Allah, and

the posts are being updated in sha Allah. So you'll see the post almost every day we're shutting down the streets of New York City, and we will continue to shut them down today, tomorrow and every single day until we see victory Bismillah so just like a love hate a man and just like the entire European Institute team. May Allah reward you all. You've all been so amazing during a time like this during the time where unfortunately, a lot of religious institutions tend to step back, but this is the time for us to support. This is a time for us to practice Allahu Akbar, because Allah is truly the greatest and we have a law so who can be against us? Whoever they are, we have Allah

subhanho wa Taala just says they, they say Alhamdulillah we say Bismillah Bismillah Allah Azza wa obviously Allah Allah Philistines always obviously Lala on fusina heptane us and we are awakening and we will wake up and I think a lot of us have and we will not go back to sleep. We will not step back. We will not sit down until every Palestinian gets the right to return home Bismillah

such a foreigner thank you so much for joining us today.

Anyway

so Pamela, one thing that surprised them I said that I hadn't thought

before, but if I think bears keeping in mind, especially if you're still on the fence, or if you're trying to find your voice, many of us have already found our voice hum to do that. And we see the road clearly and we see what to do. But I got chills to be honest, when such a thought brought up the possibility of imagine those people, all the people that you've been seeing on social media, Holly had never had, and his granddaughter Rheem and his grandson thought ik, imagine seeing them in the afterlife. Imagine meeting them agenda.

And imagine them asking you, what did you do? Did you try? Did you do what you could? For our people, for the OMA for what was right?

It's a chilling thought. It's a scary thought. But I think of every single one of us sits down with that thought about that accountability, right? This person Subhanallah you think about how Allah

how Allah works, it's really amazing because somebody like, let's say, caught it in the past two months ago, who knew about him? Right? I'm sure he had a strong impact on the place where he lived. But now this man's face has spread across the world. The man has so much acceptance for His manifestation of the character of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam, and his patience and hardship and just the beauty of his soul and his manners. Allah subhanaw taala truly raises who he wills and the bases and humiliates who He wills. So imagine that the end is done and you've made it in sha Allah to gender but you have to you have to meet this man, you have to meet Khalid and you

have to meet rain, you have to meet Dodik.

What's that conversation going to be like? And then of course, much greater than that, which is always on our mind is meeting the prophets of Allah what it was.

And him asking us, what did we do? Did we do what we could? Did we use our leverage do we use our privilege that we use whatever ability we had to do whatever we could? The end of the day, Allah subhanaw taala is responsible for the results. But we have to focus on our intention, our metabo the how much our actions adhere to the guidance and wisdom of the Prophet Mohammed, Salah Sena and really giving it our all doing as much as we can. And we ask Allah Subhana Allah to accept from us. So thank you all so much for tuning in tonight. We're going to cut it out here, you've probably noticed that there's some differences in the set. We had a little bit of technical difficulties

tonight because we've changed locations. Next weekend shall be much smoother, and we'll have everything streamlined. But we'll leave it off for there. And we thank everybody for tuning in. Until next week, I said Mr. Aiken went off to La Hebrew Academy.