Tom Facchine – Live Revolution – The West Rallies for Gaza
AI: Summary ©
The recent protests in London have caused negative reactions on the faith community, including the use of deadly injection and police use of force. The community is being pressured to speak truth and show support for Muslims, but the movement is on the right track to achieve justice. The university is focused on protecting students and creating a dual degree program to encourage others to participate in social movements. The community is working to figure out ways to contribute to social movements like the SJPs and encourage those who are isolated to stay safe.AI: Transcript ©
Welcome back to Yaqeen Institute's weekly livestream.
We've been off since Ramadan. I hope everybody
had a blessed Ramadan. May Allah accept your
worship and had a happy Eid.
And now we're back at it. I'm your
host, Imam Tom.
Obviously, a lot has been going on across
the nation and across the world. Gaza still
bleeds, and we're here right across from Columbia
University,
perhaps the the hot spot or the epicenter
of the student encampment movement. Now, as it
so happens, we were actually planning on going
live from inside of one of the encampments
today. We had planned to set up at
just up the road of the City College
in New York. However, the context that we
had on the inside stopped responding and by
the time that we realized that they had
been arrested, that the cops had moved in
and cleared the encampment,
and arrested, I believe, over a 100 students.
And a very similar thing happened right here
at Columbia University last night as well. So
we had to
move on the fly, and we're here, across
the street in the cold with some of
the student organizers,
of the encampment at Columbia University who can
tell us a little bit about what's been
going on, especially what's been going what happened
last night?
Yeah.
So what we've seen over the past 2
weeks, honestly, from our side and on the
Encampment side has been nothing short of beautiful,
in my opinion. I think we've seen a
great coming together of a lot of, different
diff different people of different backgrounds, different
faiths. And at the same time, we've seen
a contrasting,
reaction and contrasting,
response from the university, from administration,
from the people in power. And I think,
last night, what we saw was the,
maximum
of this that we've see the the peak
of all of this,
when 100 of,
I would say around 500 to 800, NYPD
officers came in and moved everyone out from
the encampment, which was a completely peaceful
demonstration, moved people out from the Hamilton Hall,
which is also a peaceful demonstration,
and essentially brutally and,
very, very roughly attacked and arrested,
many of our personal friends, our personal, brothers
and sisters within the Muslim community,
and just peaceful demonstrators
with one common goal, which was to speak
out against the injustices that have been happening
in Palestine, happening in, Gaza. And I think
that's quite atrocious. Yeah. So, So, yeah, so
that's one really important thing because some of
the mainstream media is painting it as, you
know, these are sort of hate speech or
this is, you know, the encampment movement or
the protests that are going on,
is anti Semitic. And you're saying it wasn't
like that at all?
No. In my opinion, I think it was
quite beautiful what we've seen out of the
encampment. I think that
in in in honesty, it's probably had the
opposite effect. From what I've seen, people in
the encampment are coming together,
Jewish students, Muslim students,
Christian students. I think we had all 3
of these, different faith backgrounds come and hold
different forms of worship on the very same
ground.
So I think from that perspective,
it's actually had the opposite effect where it's
brought together different people,
from different faiths in a setting that, quite
frankly never existed on this campus prior to
this, encampment.
I learned more about the,
about Judaism, about the Jewish religion from this
encampment than I had,
ever previously.
I've talked to more Jewish students than I
had previously. So I think this had an
opposite effect where I actually go closer to
the Jewish community. And, actually, within the Jewish
community itself, a lot of the Jewish students
that I've spoken to actually say that they
face more antisemitism antisemitism
and more,
hateful rhetoric from people within their own community
where they say that people within their own
community are attacking them and saying they're not
Jewish,
and they're not from this community. So I
think it's actually have an office effect opposite
effect where we actually have gotten closer as,
faith backgrounds and different faiths,
and it's actually
shown who is really on whose side.
So despite the sort of protests, the encampments
being not just peaceful but also multi faith,
also with, people, the Jewish faith, Christians, other
people, along with Muslims that
the response that has been garnered by the
universities and Columbia University, sort of, at the
head of them, has been particularly brutal. Like,
you know, for people who don't understand, like
like, universities and colleges, they have their own
sort of security forces.
And then the cities in which they reside
also have more sort of,
stronger
or more well armed security forces. And for
a university and a college to sort of
skip over sort of the
the the localizer of security forces and go
right to basically,
you know, from what I understand,
NYPD officers in riot gear and using sort
of brute force,
to uproot their own students
shows
a major disconnect. I was wondering if you
could give us a little bit more background
on specifically the the police reaction and the
administration reaction to the incumbents and the protests.
Absolutely.
So last night, we had video footage of
police throwing protesters down the stairs. They used
tear gas. They, came up to Hamilton Hall
with their guns drawn.
They completely locked down the entire vicinity. That
includes the surrounding streets, and people were not
allowed to get back to their apartments.
I was not allowed to get back to
my dorm until maybe a little later when
police were a little hesitant
before me probably because of either, like, or
because of my race.
The police on obviously, Columbia also added private
security. Private security are sexually harassing students. They're
not trained. They don't know what they're doing.
And that's,
a little bit of the response. Give us
what do you mean by sexually harassing students?
How especially, you know, we've heard things about
Muslim sisters who have been stripped from their
hijabs and held in in detention without their
hijabs on for hours. Like, what exactly do
you mean?
Absolutely. So last night,
many of our Muslim sisters have been released
from prison, and they were saying that sisters
Muslim sisters were forced to go to, they
were for their hijabs are forced off of
their heads. And the sisters are chanting, let
their hijab, put her hijab on, put her
hijab on. And the police offered I think
the police,
threatened to, I guess, attack or beat out
the sisters.
And last 2 weeks ago, I was in
jail, and the police forced sisters to undress
in front of other male officers. And, sister
told me later that the police were staring
at her while she was being undressed.
So this is an issue for all Muslims,
and this is one of the important things
because one thing that I've noticed is that
different media crews have attempted to spin certain
narratives that are going to basically try to
prevent the broader
American community and also the broader Muslim community
from getting involved. Right?
And so when we're talking about, you know,
these sorts of things don't make the light
of day or they only make the light
of day on social media,
then the picture that's being portrayed is, oh,
it's a bunch of sort of radical youth.
They're saying, like, very sort of problematic things.
They're sort of tempting, like, the the police
presence to sort of intervene in a very
brutal so they got what was coming to
them sort of thing. And really what you
guys are saying and every single student activist
that I've talked to is saying is the
complete opposite. UCLA was a prime example where
actually the police were allowing
counter protesters
to viciously attack pro Palestinian students, Muslims, Jews,
and otherwise.
Right? And so actually what we have is
a situation in which
universities and college are
calling on law enforcement, and basically
using them as a shield to allow their
own students to get pummeled, and then sometimes
actually be the ones themselves that are actually
brutalizing students, arresting them, sexually harassing them,
not protecting them. I think that probably everybody
in the world can agree that a university
has the the responsibility
to protect its students more than anything. And
all we see is that universities use the
language of protect our students in order to
actually brutalize them. This is something we've seen
over and over again in the last 6
months, with the Zionists, with other sorts of
forces, using a word and completely emptying of
its meaning, flipping upside down, and basically,
being guilty of the very thing that they're
charging other people with. So maybe I mean,
we were talking off off camera about sort
of the history of the encampments, and you
actually told me something that I hadn't known
before was that at Columbia, there was actually
2 encampments. There was a first encampment and
then a second encampment. Tell me about sort
of how that happened and how this sort
of thing sort of unfolded.
Yeah. Essentially,
there was a initial encampment which started on
Wednesday, April 17th, I believe.
So that was started in the early mornings
of Wednesday, and that lasted for about a
day until
immediately,
Columbia called on,
NYPD to come and bring, to come and
arrest these students signed was part of this,
and, that,
essentially, they were arrested and taken to 1
Police Plaza. And at that same time, students
then rushed to the 2nd lawn on our
campus and started an encamment there. So this
was the 2nd encampment that we saw where
we saw kind of an increased,
Islamic presence, an increased presence of Muslims where
Muslims were praying together 5 times,
establishing their, Friday prayer.
I like
sort of the double standard in which the
how the university immediately deal with, our initial
peaceful protest with police versus how they deal
with some other acts of violence,
within the campus.
For example, at one of the protests earlier
this year,
several attackers,
on the pro Zionist side actually attacked several
of our students with chemicals, and this resulted
in the hospitalization of, like, I think, 8
to 10 students. I don't know the exact
number, but regardless, it was harmful, and it
led to their, going to the hospital. No
police was called for this. Nope, investigation,
was,
really put to any effort or put to
any,
established against these students. And even in the
congressional hearing, we heard, Manoush Shafiq,
justifying some of these actions, saying that it
was only odorous chemicals. It wasn't really anything
that harmful when 10 of her students were
hospitalized and the administration never reached out.
And we saw no police reaction, on these
students. So the fact that the administration chooses
to call on NYPD
immediately
on on our, peaceful demonstration,
whereas they do not actually address public acts
of violence, is quite concerning. And whether they're
actually concerned about our safety or certain group
safety is what I'm really asking. But
our demonstration and our encampment was a very
beautiful demonstration of how when people come together
under one common goal, they put their political
and religious differences and cultural differences aside and
come under one common goal of justice. And
for, us as Muslims, this this idea of
justice is very clear. Allah makes it very
clear for us in the Quran what it
means for
us to be just. And, alhamdulillah, that gives
us the clarity,
to act justly in this situation. And, of
course, all human beings have a natural fitra.
So this brought us together in this one
common goal to
act justly and act in a way that
we are calling,
on our university
to
divest from this this the system of oppression,
to divest from this,
the role that they play in the slaughter
of children within, in Gaza, in of our
brothers and sisters in Gaza.
And we did this peacefully, whereas other people
have not done this peacefully, and they received
a much softer response in my opinion.
Yeah. Yeah. That's excellent. So let's talk about
that specifically. So the demands are,
to have the university divest from sort of
any investments that are going on to participate
in the genocide. What are some of the
other concrete things that the students are looking
for,
from Columbia University?
So Columbia University is holding a dual degree
program with Tel Aviv University, and our argument
is that this is discriminatory towards Arab and
Palestinian students.
Palestine, Israel is an apartheid state. How are
Palestinians supposed to live in Israel when there
are discriminatory laws and the fact that their
pet family is being killed across the border.
Additionally, there's also going to be a new
campus in Israel that Columbia will be funding,
and our argument is the same. How can
Polite Palestinians
attend that when there are checkpoints, borders, and
the fact that Israel
is very, very clearly violates people if they
try to get into the state of Israel.
Excellent. So what's next now that the incumbents
have been sort of, removed. Like, where does
the student movement go from here? Is there
anything that you can sort of,
give us? Or if not, then at least
how can people support? We've got a lot
of people outside,
you know, whether they're Muslim or non Muslim
that want to know how to help the
student movements. What sort of support are you
looking for?
Yeah. I mean, at at this stage, it's
kind of like we're all in a state
of shock after the events of yesterday. I
think it's we mobilized so quickly. We mobilized
and planned out and strategized,
for so long. And, like, after the events
of yesterday, we're all kind of we never
thought it would get to this point. We
never thought it would come to the point
where not once, but twice, the university has
called,
NYPD forces armed,
with intention of
arresting us
and disrupting our, organize our peaceful organizations.
So at this stage, we're not not really
sure what to do, but I think what's
important for all student movements,
across the world this is spread to many
different countries, many different campuses across the country.
I think it's for the Muslim community, especially,
is to show up. I think numbers are
incredibly important.
I think it's important for us to come
together under
this one common goal of fighting this injustice.
I was watching this lecture, by, doctor Shadi
Al Masih. He mentioned,
who said that if you want to see
where the truth is, look where the sword
of the disbeliever is, pointed.
So I think we all can agree that
if if all these administrators and all these,
people in positions of power, these systems of
oppression are trying to attack us, are trying
to,
smash us before we can even get running.
We have to ask ourselves, why are they
doing that? What is our crime? What was
our,
crime that resulted in these arrests? What was
our crime that resulted,
in these mass arrests of 100 of students?
And I think when people ask this, I
think that's one of the main goals in
the Encampment and one of the main things
that the Encampment has done is that it's
made people ask this question.
And once people start to ask this question,
I think it's
it's it's very important that they kind of
come together under this
this this common goal of answering,
well, we're not actually they're not actually doing
anything wrong. It's actually that they're on the
truth, that they're on the right path.
And I think anytime you've seen a message
of truth, people
automatically just try to face face it with
some kind of, violence or some kind of
oppression, and I think that's what we're seeing
here. So I think we're all on the
truth. I think we need to come together
on this truth and continue to mobilize. There's,
4 or 5 other incumbents across, New York
City. I think it's time we continue to
support them, while Columbia reorganizes and Columbia re,
regroups and MSA,
and SJP kind of comes together and,
figures out what to do next. But I
think there's many ways where people can show
up, support, especially as Muslims establish prayer, establish,
just a presence so that Muslims are not
tossed to the side, in these kinds of
social movements where Muslims kind of have this,
this presence where they can talk about these
things with other people and have a
a real community within the community,
so that people know that Muslims are here
to stay and Muslims are a part of
this movement.
Absolutely. And this is a crucial time, I
think, in the history of of the Muslim
community in the United States of America and
even across the world, but especially United States
of America where this is an easy sort
of opportunity, like, get off your phones, get
off your you know, watching your television sets,
and actually try to reach out. Try to
find a way to contribute, and show up.
Right? That if you're isolated, or if there's
your Muslim students are isolated at university, they
are in danger. Right? And that by showing
up and, you know, demonstrating the amount of
support that they have behind them, that this
actually will keep them safe. Right? This is
something we've talked about for the last 6
months that being that, you know, the the
wolf preys on the lone sheep. Right? If
you've got, just a couple people here, like,
it's very easy to intimidate. People are emboldened.
People try things they might not be able
or be willing to try,
if you have a large mass of people
that are well organized and understand,
and and understand sort of what the objective
is. So I want to,
just a final thought.
Imagine that you're talking to the other youth,
across the country. You've got young people, young
Muslims that are on one hand, they're worried
about their own personal safety. On the second,
we live in a very historical moment,
and a moment where
we're called to do something
greater than just live for our own personal
safety. What would you tell the other young
Muslims across the country?
I ask all Muslims across the country, young
Muslims, to please engage in these encampments. Please
assist your local SJPs. I understand there may
be some problems between as messian and SJPs,
but I ask you to please work them
out. I want you to ask yourselves, I
want you to ask yourselves truly, What will
differentiate you on the day of judgment between
you and other Zionists or other people who
are silent, who are scared for their futures?
What will differentiate from you for you from
them? And how can you stand besides the
Palestinian people on the day of judgment?
Brothers, thank you so much for joining us
tonight. May Allah be with you, and, we'll
be in touch. Yeah. Thank you so much.
Yep. So
so one of the things that we've seen,
and what makes this particular moment different and
special is that a lot of the religious
leadership across the Muslim community has stepped up
to lend their support. Right? They're not necessarily
leading the movement, but they are certainly supporting
it and they are giving guidance
to, to Muslim students as they reach out.
We've actually seen new connections that we've never
seen before. We've seen,
you know, imams showing up to campuses, giving
speeches,
leading prayers,
taking questions,
Right? And trying to
engage and support in the encampment movements
in any way possible. And
despite this, you know, you've seen this sort
of beautiful organic movement. We've seen again camp
from campus to campus to campus, a brutal
crackdown, an undemocratic crackdown,
a vicious crackdown against, basically, what is a
common sense demand? Now the claim is that
these are outside agitators, and that's just completely
false. In fact, again, this is something that
that often the other side is guilty of,
of outside agitators showing up to try to
make trouble with the students and attack the
students that are showing up for Palestine.
So again, we encourage people
to reach out to your local, college students.
See what's going on. See what they need,
to do for help, and to know that
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has made us for
moments like this. That when it comes to
your safety and security, one of the reminders
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala often gives in
the Quran is that these things are all
ready written by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Remember
the hadith
of the Ibn Abbas, radiAllahu anhu, where the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam told him. He
said that if the entire world were to
gather together to help you with something,
they would not be able to help you
with anything other than what Allah Subhara had
already decreed. And the opposite is true. If
the entire world, that means all the nations,
all the groups, all the lobbies, all the
everything,
gathered together to harm you, that they would
not be able to harm you with anything
other than what Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala already
decreed. So if you think about, oh, well,
my personal safety, and I've got this job,
and I don't want this to happen to
me. I don't wanna get docs. I don't
want someone people have been taking our pictures
here in the last 3 hours. We've been
sitting here on the street corner. Right? It's
like these things are all in the hands
of Allah. He's already decreed what's going to
happen. He's already decreed how long your life
is going to be. He's decreed, you know,
your safety and and and your risk and
everything else. So really, it's just a test
of how are you going to react. Are
you going to be a moral actor? Are
you going to do something that you're going
to be proud of, that you can look
back on the day of judgment and say,
yes. I did what I could.
And
another beautiful thing, and another important aspect to
this that we can't forget is that this
is actually what the people of Gaza are
asking for. We have some images. I'm sure
Studio can bring them up, where the people
in the Gaza themselves
have been supporting this movement, and the movement
of the students in the United States, and
the movement of the encampments,
or you have people who have written messages
of solidarity in English, in Arabic, and other
language,
basically saying that
we've received your message, that we know that
we're not alone, that we know that the
people, the Muslims in the United States, and
their allies, the people are doing what they
can,
in this horrible dark moment that we live
through.
And so, if for nothing else, know that
the people of Gaza are also hoping that
you step up, and you're able to lend
support to this movement, and do whatever it
is that you possibly can.
That being said, it's getting late, and it's
getting cold, and there's other sort of things
going on we're probably going to head to
tonight. So this was a very, very special
and different livestream. I think we're going to
sign off here, and we'll come back again
next week, same time,
8 PM EST. That's New York time, 8
PM, And we'll see you there. Until
next time.
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