Reflections On The Largest Rally For Palestine In Dc

Some of you asked me about the march that took place and the reflections on that I said, I will just then share my thoughts in front of everybody Inshallah, in the end of the day hamdulillah we're one community and inshallah some benefit to reflect and to collectively discuss, as you're aware of this last Saturday Alhamdulillah it was the largest March ever in support of the people the Philistine of Lhasa in Washington DC. And we had a rally It is estimated that around 400,000 people attended this is a massive success of Hamdulillah. This is a very, very unprecedented quantity of people. And as far as the eye could see if you see the video footage, mashallah, it was really phenomenal. And I

would say, it was very heartening to see a good percentage of Muslims, maybe 50% 60% Muslim and a good percentage of non Muslims. So it was a very collective effort in this regard. And Muslims from across the country, fluent in fact, on the flight to Dallas, I would say, at least, not half of the play, but maybe 30% of the plane from here, that is the flight that I took mashallah, so many of us, including members of our community, and buses from across, at least 20 states had traveled to DC, and so on hamdulillah it overall, it was a very massive success. There has not been any rally in our country, with as many people for Fidel stain and explicitly against Israel, as, as we have seen, and

Subhan Allah, that Allah I did not know this on the exact same day, one of the largest rallies took place in London as well. So London and Washington DC, and then was it on Sunday, I think but the same weekend, one of the largest rallies in Germany and across the western world, we're seeing massive support that is unprecedented. So some reflections on this. And as usual, these are going to be sensitive topics. But that's the goal here to to provoke us to make a start thinking.

One question that comes to my mind. We had the largest rally in recent memory in DC, the quantity of people we haven't seen like this in DC for years for anything. 400,000 people, there's not a small quantity.

If you log on to CNN, to BBC to Fox News to any of the mainstream, you will not find a single article about that rally.

You see for yourself, the selectivity of what is reported in the mainstream media. The BBC reported on the London rally 30 pages there, at least the London when the BBC reported in this country, none of the largest organizations, it was reported in The Washington Post, it was reported on NPR, it was reported on a number of websites, the ones that I checked, NPR and the Washington Post, they said 10s of 1000s of people will lie I was there. And I know crowds because I spoken to crowds. This was in 10s of 1000s. This was hundreds of 1000s. The group that said hundreds of 1000 400,000 It was one of the small, non mainstream media. I forgot the organization now but they're not. You know, they're

not affiliated with the mainstream media. And they're the ones that did a overall headcount and said 400,000 and they reported it, but you won't find it on CNN, you won't find it on NPR, you won't find it sorry, NPR has 10s of 1000s, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC nothing, nothing. So the largest news media's did not even have a paragraph.

how frustrated Do you think that makes us feel that we literally took over, I cannot even begin to explain to you half the city was shut down. I was with my wife. We were shocked. We're walking three hours after the the rally. And literally the police cars have blocked everything. Even three hours afterwards. It was the entire area around the White House because of our rally. And we marched from where they allowed us. The permit. We marched from there all the way to the White House for streets of people marching is the video footage is on cell phone. It's on Twitter, it's on. So if this is happening in America, and the mainstream media is not reporting it, what do you think that is

happening in the Middle East? Do you think the mainstream media is going to report it? So we see you align with our own eyes, the selectivity of what is reported in the mainstream? Never ever trust anything that you read or don't read? This is the reality of what we find ourselves in another problematic issue, very troublesome. Subhanallah across the western world, the support for Gaza and Philistine is unprecedented. The support for Israel is not even a 10th of what is for Philistine. So marches for Israel against Gaza will not even get 15,000 People in

DC, right? We got 400,000 They cannot even get 20,000. Right. Yet our policies are reflective of this minority. Is that not the case? Right? The government policies. Our president, I don't want to get too political. But he just released a statement on the 100th. You know, day after the attack, it's all about the oppressed, the oppressor, not even the mention of the oppressed. The word Palestinian is not even in that document. Subhanallah, the same day we're doing the rally, and he releases a statement in support of the oppressor, and not even mentioning the oppressed. So this is a no doubt, it makes you feel a sense of frustration, strong sense of frustration. But this is where

we are tested. As I have said multiple times, this is a long term battle, it's not going to be a day or two. And one of the things that I find very positive, and this goes back as well to the statement of Arabic Grupo Bharata, naffaa, sometimes out of a negative a positive comes after 911. For those of you that are old enough to remember or or hear to remember after 911, no doubt 911. It was a tragedy. It affected our country, it affected us directly. But one of the positives, one of the biggest positives that happened, it forced us as an American Muslim community to become mature.

It was like a punch in the gut. You know, sometimes when a tragedy happens, may Allah protect all of us, if a young person faces a tragedy, it makes him older, right? Maybe a teenager has to face a tragedy or trauma, all of a sudden, he is no longer a teenager, he becomes a young man. For us that 911 moment, it was like that. I know, it was for me, 100%. And I know it was for the doorway in America, those of us that are active and our pre 911 911 changed all of us. And we started realizing that we were in a very much intellectual bubble. We're not thinking critically, politically, we're not engaging, the government cracked down on us. We had no plan. We had no connections with other

organizations. We had no, you know, networking with the with our own government, and therefore the damage done to our community was unprecedented mosques shut down. Misogyny scholars deported, many Institute's people went to jail, all of us including myself, SSS, I remember the ss ss, right. I got that all the time, guess what? We matured, we matured, we realized, hey, we can't just take this lying down. We need to fight back, we mobilized we for the first time realized, hey, we have we have a stake in this country. This is our country, they can do this to us. And all of a sudden the discourse became mature, what are we going to do? Take them to court and guess what, by and large,

we won? By and large, those SSS were removed, right? The NSA wiretaps, and I'm sure they still have it. I'm sure this is being tapped as well. But publicly, at least a lot of changes took place. It didn't. Let's be honest here. The rule of law was manifested here in a way that would never be manifested in many of our countries back home. Let's be honest here. Now, let me be blunt here. Many of us became complacent, a new generation of youngsters have come these youngsters in their even late 20s. They don't remember 911. Right. And so we find that same naivety that same utopian idea of black and white. And we find an appeal to notions of simplistic fundamentalism, that we shouldn't

get involved in politics, we should not be getting involved with people. In the rally politicians came in our rally politicians came very high level politicians. Do you think all of them have views that are 100% Sharia compliant? Of course, not Muslim politicians came. And this leads me to another problematic issue. We have to as a community, mature up and distinguish between a politician and an alum, the Muslim politicians in Congress now all of them have problematic views about whatever LGBT whatever it might be. Yet, all of them without exception, by and large, are standing up against Israel. Some of them there's the Palestinian one Palestinian American in Congress, one, the only

one. And as we know, the Israeli lobby is targeting her $15 million. You know this. Now, if we were to invite her to Epic,

what's going to happen? I'm being brutally honest, my community let me be blunt here. The Israelis want her out. We as a Muslim community are not even mature enough to understand and this is not a blanket endorsement before the youngsters immediately released the YouTube videos so called these, the beloved the the foolishness in this regard. It's not black and white. There is a person in Congress she

can stand up and say My grandmother is getting bombed in Huzzah. Who else can say that? And she's bringing this plight in a humanitarian manner, effectively, what should we do allow AIPAC to kick her out? Well, like I asked you bluntly, this is not an endorsement of everything about her, please, this is our problem. It's not black and white. So we have to mature up as a community, we have to understand she might have a role to play, she is not an angel. She has issues, everybody has issues. Overall, what is her function? And all of the Muslims in Congress? What is their function to establish the Sharia in America to shut down the alcohol stores? Is that work that they're going to

do? Or are they defending the rights of Muslims in this country and abroad, we as a community need to start thinking in not in 2d in 3d, when you start thinking holistically. And these issues like Kazaa, they are for many of our youngsters, a wake up call, because they realize how foolish is it still, some of our some, not all, some of our clerics are discussing, Oh, this guy has beliefs. He believes in this filthy position, he believes in that awkward position, this guy's an enemy. People are seeing through this, we don't have the luxury to be divided amongst ourselves, these petty issues, we need to move past them. We have an one small community in America less than 1%. If we

divide amongst ourselves based upon where I put my hands, or even Of course, I give a simplistic example Wallahi, even bigger issues, the classical controversies over other oversight over whatnot, these issues, let's discuss them in a private room. Let's not bring public division, Let's not break the community up. So we're seeing this one has us being bombed, I don't have the luxury to divide amongst ourselves based upon issues of 1000 years ago. So in some levels, this is a positive, our maturation, politically, our understanding of our communities, what are our pros and cons? What are our overall agendas? How are we how are we protecting our rights. And this leads me to one final

example. Not quite relevant to us, but I want to bring it up again, controversial, but so be it because again, this is where we're heading here. Yesterday, or today, I forgot. I think yesterday, England announced UK announced that they're going to ban a party. Now usually I don't mention groups names today I will. This is his book, The Hadith. Usually, I do not criticize groups by name, right now I will because I need to move to my final point. Me personally, I have never been a fan of this movement. Me personally, since my teenage years, I have been irritated by this movement. I have never agreed with them. If you don't know them. Don't worry about it good for you, whatever. I'm

just telling you, because I'm going to get to my main point here. And in my own preaching and teaching. This movement has criticized me more than any other movement except one. One movement is my main critic, this movement is number two. They have called me sellout multimedia Kaffir American imperialist, even though frankly, listen to my lecture I gave in front of the White House, how can you call me pro American imperialist, but anyway, this is their view, just like every narrow minded group, and they're not the only one my way or the highway, if you don't agree with them. Most of them, if you don't agree with them, they think you become the enemy. And they start labeling you

targeting you again, not all of them, but some of them. And I have found them to be some of them are good people. And some of them are very narrow minded, and I don't like them. And many times I've refuted their ideology two weeks ago, when I spoke about how Africa Africa was recruiting them two weeks ago. Now, why am I saying this? Because usually I don't talk about groups. Listen to me carefully. My preaching is actually meant to convince them and minimize them, right? My preaching, I'm trying to convince them you're wrong. You're fanatical, you're living in a utopia. That's not true. You're disconnected from reality. My preaching is meant to minimize their influence. Now

listen to me carefully, UK just announced they're going to ban the movement. If I were in England, I would publicly stand up and defend them. This is what I'm trying to get at. Because we don't want the government getting involved and banning movements that we don't like this is not a violent movement. There is no killing. There's no bombing there's no it's just ideas that are a little bit you know, fringe this ideas that are uncomfortable ideas that are left wing right wing, they're not harming anybody. They're not physically punching people, but because they have criticized Israel the bid to you know, bully whatever and disregard them they have supported the organization Hamas in

ways that others have not they have been a bit too explicit in this regard. It's freedom of speech, they should not be banned. So my point is, I want to give you an example in my own life, I will publicly support their right to exist

Even as I publicly criticize their views, does that make sense here? In my humble opinion, this is maturity, we have to learn, I would never want the government to start policing. Oh, this is a radical group, because the minute you allow them to be shut up and locked up, who do you think is going to be next? Who do you think is going to come after that? We have to be smart enough to differentiate between internal preaching and even before this, I never mentioned them by name, because I don't want to cause animosity. You know, if you know, you know, if you don't know, you don't know. But now today, when the government has declared them, this is there, in our country, it

will be much more difficult, but it is not impossible. In our country, it will be much more difficult. And by the way, fy 15 years ago, 14 years ago, I took a class with Tony Blair at Yale, I've documented that I talked spoke about that. And Tony Blair brought this up, that I wanted to ban his book.

And I said in class, that if you had done so, you would have gone against your own principles. And I said to him, and I'm saying to you right now, I disagree with his book. But if you're going to ban them, because you think they're offensive, then be consistent and ban so many other groups, including the far right, which is Islamophobic, you should ban them as well, you're not going to ban them. Why are you selectively choosing what you think is problematic, and others are problematic. We cannot open this door. So my point here is that the miscellaneous thoughts,

the political engagement, as Muslim minorities is not a simple binary, black and white. And my goal, especially for my community, is that we reach a level of maturity that we understand as the Arabic saying goes liquidum, accom. And McCall, every platform has a different thing to say, who you invite to give the hotbar, who you invite to be a religious preacher is not the same as the person who's going to benefit in the federal stimulus crisis, not the same as what is happening in Congress, not the same as the PR and media, each one has a role to play. And as a community here as equally the How can Hakuho give everybody the right and their do and if we do so I actually believe in sha Allah

to Allah, we will go leaps and bounds, the future is brighter 400,000 people is no joke. 400,000 people coming together. And even if Ms. MSNBC won't reported Twitter reported it, Facebook had it everywhere. The social media that we used, it was everywhere, slowly, but surely, the narrative will change. And if we are at the head of the curve, and we're managing it shallow to other to think 10 steps ahead, Inshallah, to Allah, we will influence in the end of the day, this is what our religion wants us to do. I can't tell you, it's not my job to tell you specifically what political tactic to use. I'm not a politician. But as a person is Shala, who has studied a little bit of him, I say to

you, you cannot be disconnected from the country you live in from the world you inhabit, you must be involved. This is your country. And if you're not gonna get involved Subhanallah, the other group without mentioning their names is smaller than us. Yet the country is following them, our cousins, the other group, ethnic cousins, their other group is literally smaller than us, yet their influence is much more. Why I'll tell you why. It's not because of quantity is because they have gotten involved in the process. It's not a conspiracy. It's not Illuminati, it's not They control the world. No, they're involved financially. They're involved in the thick of things, and we, as of yet

are on the outside, We're protesting, that's good, step one. But step two, we need to be involved in the process. In the media, again, hockey, so much can be said they just fired two of the senior most Muslim analysts on MSNBC and they literally just got rid of them. Isn't that tragic? What are we doing about it? Nothing. They literally got rid of two of the most prominent Muslim voices on mainstream media. And you know, we all know why they said so is because they were trying to be unbiased. It wasn't even that they were biased. They were trying to present both sides. This is how powerless we are, that our Muslims who are just trying to be unbiased, they get kicked out care,

we're not going to give up at least we got to that level. So we're going to try again and again, and again. We must try. There is no alternative. We must continue to earn at every level. Now those people that get involved in the media, do you think they're going to be like Madonna's and Imams? They're going to do things? I don't do. They're going to say things, interview people. That's the reality of their world. If we allow that. And again, this is the problem because me as a chef saying, this means I'm giving them the green light. No, they've chosen their career. We take the good and ask Allah to overlook the bad bottom line. Everybody has a role to play. Journalists,

media, politicians, shoe 100 I'ma give everybody the role they have to play under

and as a community, we need all of them not everybody is going to be an Imam and Molana some people have to do other things and they will benefit the community. I hope and pray inshallah with frank conversations, frank, open conversations, let us insha Allah to either try to reach a level of maturity where we can stay together and overall try to maximize the benefit and good and with that insha Allah I'll see you next week. Zachman workers and American Library coaches

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