Who is WE?!

Who is WE

[00:00:00] El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, better known to the world as Malcolm X, was assassinated in 1965. In the years leading up to his death, his understanding of his religion Islam and of the people, the followers, Muslims expanded beyond the myopic view of his former organization, the nation of Islam, the nation of Islam.

He traveled to and toward, he traveled to and toward parts of the world where Muslims existed, where Muslims exist in abundance. The so called Muslim world, parts of Northern Africa. The Middle East. He performed hajj alongside Muslims of many ethnicities and nationalities, and in his autobiography said this, America needs to understand Islam [00:01:00] because this Is the one religion that erases from its society, the race problem throughout my travels and in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white, but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam.

I have never before seen, I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color. But America in the years since brother Malcolm passed, America does not understand Islam. And in fact, despite fighting several wars in Muslim majority countries and allowing refugees from war torn Muslim countries into the U.

1. Americans do not understand Muslims [00:02:00] or the Islamic way of life, or even the culture and nationality of the people who comprise nearly half of all Muslims in the United States. But this is not a primer on Muslims or Islam. This is a scrutiny. This I'm not here to give you a primer on Islam or Muslims.

I'm here to talk to Muslims about what we are doing,

but America, despite fighting wars in Muslim majority countries for the last 30 plus years, and despite having large refugee populations and immigrant populations from the Muslim world. United States citizens don't understand [00:03:00] Islam. They don't understand Muslims. They don't understand our culture, our language, our daily rituals.

But they're not the only ones. I've got some explaining to do. Let's get into it. What we value, what is important to us. What goals we should have for our communities and they're not the only ones I've got some explaining to do. Let's get into it Hey all the ends and new listeners Welcome back for a another episode of Ayana explains it all the podcast hosted by me Ayana Fakhir A black Muslim lady lawyer living in the suburbs of Northeast Ohio.

It is winter time here. I am recording this on Sunday, December the 3rd, 2023 at 4 53 in the afternoon. Well, evening here [00:04:00] because the sun starts going down at four,

but, um, Ayana explains it all is the podcast that is available. On 14 different streaming platforms. I think it's still 14. Some of them have been shutting down. Ayanna explains it all bridges the gap between current events and human behavior. And we have our own website. Go to www. ayannaexplainsitall. com and you can find all the information you need to know about the podcast, how to listen, where to listen.

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and yes, I'm a lawyer, but I talk about all kinds of things. I talk about the law, I talk about technology, I talk about history, I talk about religion, [00:06:00] sociology, economics, as much as I can because I'm not good at math. I talk about all things. I scrutinize things. I analyze things, I explain things. I am the explainer in chief.

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So the past, uh, it's, uh, it's been almost two months now have been, um, exhausting. Very, it's the past two months have been exhausting. And if you've been hanging around here for a while, you know what I'm [00:07:00] talking about. I'm talking about the genocide against the Palestinians in the occupied territory of Gaza.

But for some reason it has seeped into the West Bank too. I didn't, I didn't realize that. Um, Israel was also attacking the West Bank while we were all focused on Gaza. They're over here bombing the West Bank too, rounding people up indiscriminately, putting them in jail because, uh, well, we want to question them or somebody threw a rock.

I saw a report that said that they had arrested, uh, kids who were three and four years old. Like, what? We don't even do that here. We don't even do that here in the United States. Y'all are nuts. Y'all are nuts. And the past two months have been absolutely, it's just been insane.

It's been insane. It's, it's been, the thing, the difference between [00:08:00] now, because this has been going on my entire lifetime. I'm 45 years old. This has been going on for my entire lifetime. This has been going on since the 1920s really, and it got ramped up in the 1940s and then the 1960s. I've been looking at Reading, seeing stories, seeing news reports since I was a little girl about a two state solution, conflict, Palestine, Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, the, the walls and the surveillance.

But the difference with now is that I can see these, I can see this in real time. I see these things happening in real time. Like I've stayed awake one, two, three o'clock in the morning watching the news reports. On Al Jazeera, they have it in Arabic and English on YouTube. You can watch it live and seeing this in real time has just spun me around.

It has upended [00:09:00] me. It has,

I'm outraged and I will never stop being outraged about it. I will never, I will never get comfortable with this. I will never, this will never, never sit right with me. Not just as a Muslim, but as a human being, because there aren't, there's more than just Muslims out here dying, being murdered. It's not about Islam.

It's not about Muslims, but people for some reason have, have made it about that. Christians are being murdered. They're essentially being wiped out in Israel. They aren't wanted, they aren't liked, they're being used, essentially, but seeing, seeing the bodies, the bodies, the, the face is blown off, the, the limbs torn off, people under the rubble, and they die under the rubble because the, the rescuers have no mechanisms to clear out [00:10:00] the rubble that's lying on top of them, that's pressing on them and smothering them, people, you know, they, the, They went into a hospital where the IDF allegedly said they had nothing to do with it.

And there were bodies, carcasses, corpses, rather, of babies because they had to be left behind when people were fleeing to the south. When they were ordered to flee to the south, these babies had to be left behind. They were on ventilators. There weren't enough ventilators. These babies, newborn babies, babies who were premature, they had to be left behind.

They were dead. In these beds and these hospital beds.

I don't know how anyone can sleep at night knowing that this is happening. It doesn't matter what you believe. If you follow a school of thought or religion, if you follow a church, if you follow a [00:11:00] masjid or a synagogue or anything, this should not be happening. And the fact that it continues to happen over the course of the last two months, but really.

It's been happening. This isn't the first time that Gaza and the West Bank were bombed by Israel this year, even not the first time, not the first time, and it's so visible now, which I think is great because for some reason people need to see your suffering to believe you, you can defend your victimhood All you want, but people actually like seeing your suffering.

They see it. It's real to them. They want to do something about it. The problem is that people get tired. They get weary. They don't, after a couple of weeks, a couple of months, they, they are disillusioned. They are tired of [00:12:00] talking about it. You cannot get tired of talking about this because this does not stop.

You can't get tired of talking about any injustice or oppressed or oppression because these things don't stop. As long as we are on earth and we're humans and we're vying for power, and there's always some power to be had or some natural resource somewhere to be had, there will be these struggles.

There will be these wars, there will be oppression, as long as white supremacy exists, and it exists all over the world, as long as that continues to exist, there will be people who suffer, there will be, and I had this conversation with someone the other day, I don't even remember who it was, but they were trying to make the point to me that white supremacy is for white people, like, It has nothing to do with black people.

It has nothing to do with Latinos. It has nothing to do with Arabs. And I said, [00:13:00] what, what are you talking about? You'd think that oppressed people won't participate in white supremacy. You think that oppressed people will not chase white supremacy, the ideals of white supremacy. Of course they will. Black people participate in it.

Arabs participate in it. Asians, other Asians participate in it. Hispanics participate in it. Why? Because it is the power. That's the power structure. Those are the people who are in charge. Those are the people who have most of the wealth on this nation. I mean, on, on earth, those are the people who have the wealth and the power.

Those are the people you see on TV. When you're oppressed, you want to be a part of that. Sometimes, sometimes you don't want to fight it. You want to be a part of it. You want to latch onto a piece because when these people win, you strongly believe that when these people win, that they're [00:14:00] going to break you off a piece of whatever it is they want.

They're, they're going to distribute it to you. And that rarely happens. It rarely happens. What happens is that when they get more, they keep it for themselves and they give a little bit to their friends, maybe like a George Clooney. When he got that Casamigos, he broke off. A million dollars for each of his friends.

He didn't give a million dollars to me,

but they give the money to their friends. They're not going to give it to you. Proximity to whiteness people believe is whiteness and they think if they align themselves with this whiteness, with this supremacy ideal that they will also benefit from the power that rarely happens. It rarely happens. Just ask all of the Americans who are living in the rural.

Areas. The rural towns of the United States. Are they winning? And they continue to align themselves with the [00:15:00] party who's promising an increase, an increase in the things that white people like the factory jobs, right? And the no immigrants, keep all the immigrants out, keep the Mexicans out, get rid of the fentanyl.

Fentanyl is poisoning our children. Meanwhile, they're suffering because they're farmers and they're factory workers and they're living in areas where there is high unemployment. Where people are reliant on government entitlements to get by and they continue to vote against their interests because again Proximity to whiteness proximity to white supremacy.

They are chasing white supremacy And this is what they believe will save them. So they're not gonna care about your things They're not gonna care about your oppression. They'll dispense with it people who are trying to get a piece [00:16:00] of that power They don't care. They don't care. They don't want to be bothered And so there are still a lot of people who are have been silent On this genocide.

In Gaza, they have been silent or they'll deflect and say, well, this is not our struggle. I see that a lot from black people. This is not our struggle. We need to concentrate on police brutality in the United States or what's going on in the Congo and in the Sudan. And my response to that is, is your brain small?

Is your heart small? Can you not make space for all of these things? Can you not make space to care about and speak out against all of these things? When you see something wrong happening, you have to call it out. You can't be like, Oh, that's not my fight because all of these things will come to bear on all of us.

And why is that? Because they're allowed to happen. What makes you think it will not happen to you when it's allowed [00:17:00] to happen, period.

And so, when people become disenchanted and disillusioned, my answer to them is always, if you don't speak against this, you are complicit. Your silence is acceptance. Your silence is acceptance.

And what did, uh, the brother, a Randolph, a Philip Randolph say about oppression. If you are comfortable with my oppression, then you are my oppressor. You are complicit in it. And so a lot of Muslims naturally are outraged about what's happening, not just because it's happening to Muslims, but. Because we've seen year after year [00:18:00] after year, these forces invading our spaces, our, our holy sites and our land.

And we're just seeing refugee populations being created all over the world and Muslims suffering because they're being bombed for whatever reason. They're being robbed of their natural resources. And we see this all over the world and it keeps happening. And now we are done. We are done. We are done supporting the establishment that's sending money to all of these different areas that sending arms and bombing all of these different areas.

We're done. If you weren't already done after this year, you are finished. You are finished. You're finished with government. You're finished with voting. You don't care about politicians. You think it's all a fraud. You think these people aren't helping, that they're the source of the problem. You're, you know, you're chanting genocide, Joe.

You're doing, you're done. You're done.[00:19:00]

You start to realize things about the place that you live in. If you're in the United States, you start to realize some things about the United States. And they're not good things. You don't want to, you're not proud. You're not proud to be American anymore. And, and I mean, congratulations for finally coming around.

I have felt this way for a very, very long time. The United States has been A committer of genocide since the inception of this country, we have never stopped. We have never stopped each decade. You can point to some place each decade since we became a nation, you can point to some place on this earth where the United States went and occupied, stole land, killed the people, pushed them off their land, [00:20:00] committed genocide, forced them further and further and further out into the wilderness.

You can point to some place where we still are the occupying force. You can point to some place where we still have territories, territories where these people are not, they're under our umbrella, but they're not represented in our government in a significant way. They don't have voting power. They can vote, but they don't have voting power.

Puerto Rico, Guam, the U. S. Virgin Islands. It's great that, you know, they can, hey, vote for president. So it doesn't mean anything. It's meaningless. They don't have electoral votes. Puerto Rico is an estate. I'm sorry, Puerto Rico. It's not a state, but we take care of it because it's our territory. We are still ravaging earth.

We have not stopped. [00:21:00] And this 75 year long partnership that the United States has with Israel has become kind of a cuckolding and the United States is just sitting back and watching Israel do whatever it want has have its way with The Palestinians and the territories, it used to be two states. Now it's just two little territories have its way with it.

And we're just sitting back and watching it. We're supplying it with the tools it needs to get its job done. We're giving it money and we're giving it arms and we're giving it permission. We're giving it permission to do these things.

So yeah. Muslims in America see this, Muslims around the world see this, but particularly in America. And we're like, fuck, fuck this. We're done. No, we are finished. We are finished. We are finished with all of you, all the politicians. We're not voting in 2024. We're not voting ever again. We don't [00:22:00] care. We're going to march.

We're going to tear you down. Great. People are really feeling empowered by swinging their thought by, by swinging their, their action in the opposite direction. Notice how we never can seem to stick to that middle path Muslims that Allah tells us to stick to, you know, it's always all or nothing black or white.

And there are. In Islam, there are matters for which we cannot differ. They're established. You don't bicker over them. You don't differ on these matters. Because when you do, that's, that's veering off the straight path. Belief in Allah. Belief in the oneness of Allah, right? That's one of those things. You don't argue about that.

You don't bicker about that. That's established. But then there are these matters over which people can differ. And we do. And [00:23:00] voting is one of those things. Voting in any election is one of those things. And if you look at Muslim countries around the world, or Muslim majority countries, people are voting.

They're having elections, and they're voting. And people will say, well, yeah, but they're voting for, you know, issues affecting Muslim communities. They're voting for Muslim candidates. Listen, there's corruption everywhere. If you think by voting for a Muslim that you're going to avoid some corruption, You're wrong.

You're wrong. There are mean, nasty, evil people everywhere, even within our own communities. There are people who have ill intentions, people who oppress within our own communities. You think your chances decrease because you're voting for a Muslim? It's just not true. In my opinion, that is not true. But you have to use your discretion.

You have to use your discernment. But here, in the United [00:24:00] States, we assume that anytime we're voting for a non Muslim, that we're voting for some kind of corruption. But even when we're voting for Muslims in office, we think that there's some kind of corruption involved. Because all politicians are corrupt.

Which is not true. All politicians are not corrupt, but you will find corruption in politics. You will find corruption in government. Absolutely. That's why there are all these oversight committees and ethics, uh, organizations you can report things to and their checks and balances. Absolutely. But you cannot assume right off the bat that this person you're voting for is going to use.

The power that you give them for evil, even though in the United States politics, money is tied to politics so tightly. I can't figure out which one is, is it money that's up the ass of the politicians or is it the politicians who are up the ass of the money? I don't know. I can't tell. That's [00:25:00] how intertwined they are.

You know, one could be the large intestine and one could be the small intestine, but that's how they are. That's how entangled they are with each other. But the Supreme Court of the United States allows it. As long as there's money in politics, as long as money is allowed to speak, as long as money is free speech and politicians can be bought, they will be.

Israel has bought a lot of politicians in the United States. There's special interest groups in the United States who are fully supportive of Israel and the goals of Israel. And they have bought a lot of politicians here. So I can understand when people, when Muslims are voting, they're fully aware that the person they're voting for is probably a supporter of Israel and the goals of not just Israel, but the goals of Israel.

Of the Israeli government of the IDF,

there are people who who don't want [00:26:00] Palestinians to exist. There are people who do not want a free Gaza and a free West Bank. They don't want a free Palestine. They don't want that flag to fly ever again. And when we are here voting and we are here paying taxes, we, we start to think about that. What if I'm voting for someone who is trying to get rid of my people?

What if I'm voting for someone who is going to put in place a system that is going to see the end of people who look like me and who worship like me? What, what if, what if, what if, what if, what if? And we're here and we're mourning. We see all of this death and destruction daily and we're mourning and we're mourning and we're mourning and we get so weary and tired of it that we just give up.

We give up. We become disillusioned. We become disenchanted and we give up. We become so traumatized. [00:27:00] That the thought of supporting any form of government whatsoever, no, we're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not participating. We're withdrawing our support from all of it. And I have, I've had this conversation with so many Muslims.

Oh my gosh. And, um, and making this episode. Um, I had really robust conversation with a Muslim sister who lives in Michigan and her name is Farah. As salamu alaykum. And I spoke to another Facebook friend of mine. His name is Yasin and he's very actively involved in the polit in the political scene in his city in New Jersey.

And he's a Moroccan immigrant. And Farah is a Pakistani immigrant, but they're both, they're both us citizens. And I also talked to another friend who is a black American Muslim. And I also spoke to another friend who is an American, [00:28:00] who is a non immigrant. Black American Muslim just a black Muslim just like me and these conversations I had I I mean, they've been they they were so Thought provoking for me and I'm so glad that I was able to have them because it helped me to understand how I wanted to Focus this episode.

I was gonna come in here and just read people the riot hacks What do you mean? You're not voting. Don't you know that that's your voice you vote You'll uphold your civic duty. You know, all the black people had to fight for you to have the right to vote, and you would dare not vote. I was going to do it in that voice too.

It would have annoyed the crap out of you, but I decided to change the direction of this and make it about educating people on why their vote, why their civic participation is important, because I think we have lost sight of this [00:29:00] in all of these events that are happening around the world. We don't know where we fit in.

We don't know what our role should be. And instead of, um, holding on tighter to our purpose, we're starting to kind of fall away. We're falling away from our purpose. We've become impatient. And so we're falling away. We're caring less. We're doing less. We're not as visible. And we think that this is the right thing to do.

Or we, this is just how we feel we're, we're tired and we're, this is just how we feel. And I get it. I understand. You know, when you vote for a politician, there are, there have been four, there have been four Muslims elected to the U S house of representatives, right? One is Keith Ellison. We know what happened with him.

One, uh, Ilhan Omar, but Keith Ellison was the first black American Muslim elected to the U. S. House of Representatives. There are none in the U. S. [00:30:00] Senate. There are some at the state level in the state houses, but at the federal level, there have been four Muslims. Ilhan Omar is another one. She's a Somali immigrant and Rashida Tlaib, who is the child of Palestinian immigrants.

These people, when you vote for them, you think, Oh, gosh, it's so great to see our people in government. We're visible. That means we're going to get some things done, some things that are important to Muslims. We're going to You know, protect the Islamic community and it's so great to see Muslims in these positions of power and the shit just falls flat.

It just falls flat like what has happened to Rashida Tlaib in the U. S. House of Representatives is incredibly sad. The fact that she's been since censured for supporting where her people are from for telling [00:31:00] the truth about what has happened to Palestinians is to me despicable.

But what has happened to her being silenced at her job is something that has happened to dozens and dozens of people. They speak out against the genocide. They're told to, Hey, you need to remove our name from your LinkedIn. You need to remove our, our company name, our business name from your bio. Or, even worse, you need to not show up here ever again.

You're fired. And it's, it's sad. It's sad when, that we have gotten to the point as a world, as a planet, as a people of Earth, where saying you're against genocide can get you fired from your job. Do you all know how many genocide campaigns are going on currently around the world? I think there's something like 15 I saw the other day.[00:32:00]

It's at least a dozen campaigns and two of them are major and involve Muslims. One of them no one has seen fit to do anything about because the oppressor is someone that Everyone is afraid of, but also everyone relies on, but also nobody wants to do anything about because they have a large population and a huge ass army and they would probably crush the fuck out of anybody who tried to stop them from doing what they're doing.

I'm talking about you, China, China, China. Fuck you. Fuck you. I said it there. Fuck you. I don't care what you have done to the Uyghur Muslims. The fact that even Muslims living in China, if you work in the government, you cannot fast. You can't, you cannot observe Ramadan if you work in any capacity for the Chinese government.[00:33:00]

You can't even practice your own religion. There's no freedom of religion in a communist country. You can try it. Oh, you can try it. They don't want you there. And if you're there, you're going to be doing exactly what they tell you to do. You're going to be living exactly how they want you to live. You're going to observe how they want you to observe.

These people have been put into deprogramming camps, concentration camps, where they're forced to renounce Islam, where they're forced to drink alcohol, they're forced to marry. Non Muslims, they're forced to be non Muslim. The language, even, that they speak is removed from them. But hey, nobody's gonna do anything about that!

Even though we've been talking about this, I've, I've been talking about it for years. Who is doing anything about it? If you speak out [00:34:00] against this, if you say anything about it, especially if you are a celebrity, especially if you are an athlete, you're immediately knocked down. You're immediately knocked down and told to be quiet.

If you're an entertainer, if you're in the NBA, which does a lot of business in China, you're silenced. You are silenced. You are told, told to change your tune or you will be punished. You will be penalized. Because these corporations, these organizations have interest in China and of course the United States has interest in China, but we also take money from China.

We also have a lot of our goods made in China. So what are we going to do? We're going to go there and tell them, Hey, maybe you don't want to do that. The United [00:35:00] States has tried that with Israel. Various presidents have tried that and you know what happened to them? They lost that precious money that I spoke about earlier, that money in politics.

They lost the support of the organizations who have the most money to donate to them when they are running for office.

Jimmy Carter tried to broker peace between Israel and Palestine and he suffered greatly for it. President Obama.

For better or worse, he's really on my shit list now, but for better or worse, he was against the settlements. And they were like, listen, MFR, this is what we're going to do. And we're going to do it whether you like it or not. And he hasn't said anything else about it. He's recently come out and said, well, the babies are dying.

So maybe you guys want to let up a little bit. And a lot of them are starting to change their tune because Israel is [00:36:00] losing the propaganda war. They have tried so hard to turn opinions against Palestinians. They create false narratives, false stories, false news stories. They plant things. They have actors acting out fake scenarios and fake hospi I mean, it's just ridiculous what they're trying to do.

But the people, the people who know, know, okay? You talk about woke culture, there are a lot of woke motherfuckers out here who know and who are not falling doke. Even those people, social media is trying to silence those people. Shadow banning them, banning them. Taking away their accounts. It's incredible what's happening.

It's incredible what's happening. And you know why I mean, one of the reasons why is because people are so afraid, deftly afraid of another Holocaust happening because they [00:37:00] know how easy it was to convince Germany, they know how easy it was to convince Germans and other Europeans to turn on Jewish people.

They know how easy it was. So they know that it could happen again. It absolutely could happen again. But it's, it's happening. It's happening all over the world. It's not that it's not happening. It's fucking happening. But because it's not happening to Jewish people, maybe you don't really care. Because apparently they're the only ones who are allowed to be victims of genocide.

Genocide is happening all over the world right now, right as I speak, right as you are listening to this. Maybe you'll listen to it next year. It's still going to be happening.

The superpowers, the great powers, the great nations know how easy it was for people to be convinced to turn on Jewish people. And they want to prevent that as much as possible. They want to protect those people, [00:38:00] protect that class of people that they're censoring everything. Censoring, firing, there are people, you know, celebrities who are afraid to speak up.

There are, you know, despite our efforts to get people to change their minds, some people are changing their minds, but there are people who are still scared.

Even, even there's this house bill 888, I'm sorry, house resolution 888, which was recently voted on. I mean, it was last week in the U. S. House of Representatives. If passed into law, it essentially penalizes anything seen as anti Semitic.

It, it, it's the preamble to it. You guys have to find this document. I'll [00:39:00] link to it in the, um, in the description of the podcast, but the preamble to this document is it's, it's incredible. It's incredible because it's convoluted jack shit, right? It says, um, it, it, it essentially affirms Israel's right to exist, which who is denying Israel's right to exist?

Who, what power is denying Israel, Israel's right to exist? That right there is some made up shit. There is no superpower. There is no power. There is no one who is able to do anything substantial denying Israel's right to exist. I could say it. You could say it. Somebody down the street can say it, but it doesn't matter.

Because we don't have any power. We, we are not in charge. We are not in charge. We are not denying Israel's right to exist. We are affirming Palestine's [00:40:00] right to exist. And for some reason, when you affirm The oppressed party's right to exist when you affirm their humanity, that means that you're denying the humanity and existence of their oppressor.

And are you fucking dumb? Are we on bath salts? Are we all sniffing bath salts? Like, the correlation is not there, honey. The correlation ain't correlating, okay? When, and I've said it before, when I say black lives matter, it doesn't mean that your life does not matter to me. It means that I want my life to matter to you.

And I am in the minority and I am being oppressed and you telling me that I don't care about your life. Honey, it ain't about you. It's about me. Because you have shown me through systems of oppression, through systems of white supremacy, that maybe my life does not matter to you and your organizations and your, your employers and your corporations, [00:41:00] that maybe my black life does not matter.

And this is how Muslims feel. This is how we feel when we see things like House Resolution 888. Let me, let me read a bit from it. It says, um, it says, whereas the Jewish people are native to the land of Israel. First of all, come on now.

I mean, lots of people are native to the land of Israel. Lots of groups, lots of groups, lots of languages, cultural backgrounds. Christians, Muslims, uh, people without any religion, they're native to Israel, they're native to what was Syria, they're native to Western Asia, I mean come on now, are we stupid?

Whereas throughout history and across the eight, [00:42:00] and across the eight multiple kings, Listen, I'm sorry, whereas throughout history and across the multiple kingdoms, the Jewish people were persecuted and expelled from the land of Israel. First of all, did I say first of all, second of all, a lot of them left, a lot of them left.

But they were not the only group that were expelled from the land of Israel. Arabs were expelled. Christians were expelled. Christians continue to be expelled and for some reason want to go back. They go back and they're treated poorly. If you're an Orthodox Christian and you're in here in Israel, good fucking luck.

They don't like you. They're pushing you all out. They're pushing you off of your land. They're destroying [00:43:00] your houses of worship.

They're essentially, they're killing you. They're trying to eradicate the Orthodox Christian celebrants, worshipers from Israel. They don't want you there. The only reason why evangelical Christians are lending their support to Israel is because they think Jesus is coming back and he's going to be there and they want a seat.

It's like it's going to be the fucking Renaissance movie and they want a seat. They want Jesus. They want to see Jesus. Let me tell you something. Most of you motherfuckers, when Prophet Isa Alayhi Salam comes back, you're not going to recognize him. You're not going to know who it is. You're going to walk right past him because you have in your mind an idea of what Jesus looks like.

You think he's going to be some white dude with long hair and I don't [00:44:00] know, was it woolen feet or whatever the fuck and you're not going to know. You're not going to know and because you're not following him. Because you're allowing these systems of oppression to permeate the earth and to, and be maintained.

You're not gonna recognize the dude. You're not gonna recognize him. What are you gonna do then? Who was going to save you then? If you, when you first see Jesus, you don't know that's Jesus. It's a rap. It's a rap. You're not one of his followers. You're, it's a rap, honey.

So yeah, it goes on to say, whereas the Nazis attempted to annihilate the entire Jewish population of Europe. Absolutely true. That's what the fuck they tried to do. They had help too. They had help. They had parties that were complicit because they didn't do anything when [00:45:00] they knew what was happening. And I'll leave you to guess who those parties were, but I'll give you a hint.

It begins with the letter U. And ends with the letter S. Two words.

They had help. Complicity. Silence. Silence is agreement. Silence is complicity. They were not able to do that alone, but you know, we've all made up since then. Whereas the modern state of Israel was established in 1948, listen, I don't know how to break this to you. But the land that is now the modern state of Israel that was given to them in 1948 Palestinians, they were pushed off the forest out of there was their leg was Jewish people, [00:46:00] Christians, Muslim.

They were all coexisting peacefully until the United Nations decided. Until the United Nations, plus England and the United States pushed them into that treaty that said, this is going to be Israel, the land of the Jews, and oh, look, we're going to justify this by saying that it's because God wanted them to be here.

I've said this to so many people, but I cannot believe you all think that God would give any piece of real estate of his, one of his planets to a people because of their religion. There's just no way you believe that. But, but you do. So who's the fool? I guess it's me.

There are people who belong in certain places. Absolutely. Because that's where they're from. Not because they're the only ones who get to exist there and no one else gets to [00:47:00] exist there. And if you go there and you find someone, you kill them off of their land, you push them off of their land and tell them they can't come back.

No. No, but hey, what do I know? I'm just a woman who lives in the Midwest. I'm just a single mom, just black, a black single mom. But it goes on to say, uh, whereas the United States immigration policy locked European Jews out of immigrating to the U. S. while fleeing persecution in Europe. But, but I, I want to add to the preamble.

But it's too late because it's already cemented, but I want to add, whereas the United States immigration policy locked European Jews out of immigrating to the U. S. while fleeing persecution in Europe. Whereas you motherfuckers closed the door because you didn't want Jews in the United States. I'm sorry, you didn't want more Jews, but the truth will hardly be found [00:48:00] in this resolution.

It also calls for a condemnation of Hamas. I mean, okay, okay, but did you really have to pass a bill to do that? I mean, people get on TV every fucking day and you're doing it and you're trying to force other people to do it. You're trying to force people don't even know what the hell Hamas is. They, they don't know that the United States played a role in creating Hamas, that Israel played a role in creating Hamas.

They don't know that. I bet you if they knew that they would pause. Absolutely. These countries are playing a role in the creation of these so called terror groups. And then when they get too big for the britches are like, Hey, now you got to reign that in. You got to stop. And they're like, no, we like this freedom, honey.

We like this. We like this. And so Muslims, we see this and we're like, damn, [00:49:00] there really ain't nobody for us. Because even Ilhan Omar signed on to this bill. Rashida Tlaib abstained and one member of the GOP, and one member of the GOP voted no. So there were two people who voted no. But an abstention is, but abstaining really isn't a no vote.

It's just like I ain't, I ain't participating in this shit. But Ilhan Omar, she's Muslim. What are you doing, honey? What are you doing? What are you doing? You think that if you're doing this that means you're going to save your seat, honey? It's not that important. It's not that important. What you need to go do is go out there and spin around and go back in time and undo this.

And not vote for this resolution. That's what you need to do. Ridiculous. I can't. AOC? Ayanna Pressley? [00:50:00] What the fuck? I, I championed these people. I supported them. I've given them money to their campaigns. Is this what you're doing? Cori Bush? I was just saying the other day how I think you're the next.

You're the next rising star in the house. What are you doing? I'm never voting again. See

Chantel Brown. I'm never voting again. See how easy it is. See how easy it is to say I'm not voting again. I'm not doing this. I'm not voting for these people. I'm not voting in an election. Look at what they've done there. They turned their, their, their turncoats. They turned their backs on us. They're not championing any championing any of our causes anyway.

I'm not doing this. What a statement of privilege. That you even get to say you're not going to [00:51:00] vote. Let me tell you something. There are millions, millions of United States citizens who, if they wanted to, could not vote anyway because the government takes their right to vote from them when they have been convicted of a felony.

This happens at the federal level, and this also happens at the individual state levels, although a lot of states might reinstate your voting rights after you've paid all your fines and fees and you've served your, uh, probation and your parole period has expired. They might give you your, your rights back.

You can apply to have your rights reinstated and you might get them back or you might not, but a lot of people can't because they can't afford to pay the restitution costs.

But it would be nice if they did, then more millions of people could vote, but they don't [00:52:00] want to because well, that's one of the chances you take when you commit a crime. Nevermind that a lot of the people who are in prisons now were rounded up as part of the war on drugs. They got caught up or they had drugs planted on them or they were given hefty sentences.

Hefty prison terms when they only had a little bit of weed, little bit of marijuana, little bit of cocaine, but it was crack. Ooh, can't have crack. You can have cocaine but crack. No way, no how? Nevermind it was for just something small or nevermind that it was a nonviolent crime. You should never be able to vote again because of a non violent crime.

It's ridiculous. But the privilege to be able to say, You know what? I got this right to vote over here. I got my little, uh, my little voter registration here [00:53:00] printed out. And just take a lighter and just burn it. And be like, Nah, I don't think I'm going to use this again. What privilege! What amazing privilege you have!

And you're just like, fuck it, fuck it. I don't want to be a part of this anymore. I'm withdrawing from society. But guess what? You still have to pay taxes. So you're not really, really withdrawing because if you stop paying taxes, guess what's going to happen? Yeah. You're going to be one of those people who are in prison who wish they could vote.

who no longer have the right to vote because they were convicted of a felony. Maybe you will, maybe you won't, maybe you won't give a fuck, but they're still going to take your tax money. They're still going to levy those taxes against you. You're going to pay property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes.

You're still going to pay them, honey. Even if you don't vote, they're still going to find a way to take from you. They're going to get something from you.[00:54:00]

But what Muslims are seeing in the U. S. government and local governments is people are not standing up for us. You know, back when Trump was in the White House, a lot of us came together. We banded together to defeat this guy. Like voting numbers. For Muslims in the United States went up because we had to get this motherfucker out of office and we did and why it wasn't just because of the Muslim ban, it was because of the, the Islamophobia and racism, these, these.

Ugly, ugly, pervasive attitudes in the United States were crushing us. They were crushing [00:55:00] us and oppressed people. We band together, oppressed people band together. This is what we do. So when people come out and say, we're not voting, that's antithetical to this. We oppressed people stay together. We, we, we, we rise together.

We band together to defeat systems of oppression. We don't sit out. We don't sit in, we don't sit in the stand on the, we don't sit on the stands. We get in the game, honey. We get in the game. But for Muslims, we do this with patient perseverance. The reason why, when you look at,

Muslims have a belief in divine justice, a strong belief. That is why we can endure 70, 80, 90 years of war and oppression [00:56:00] and still have strong faith. People want to know why the Palestinians are resilient. And I'll tell you Muslims, at least the Muslim ones have a belief in divine justice. We know that a law will fix this either on earth or in the afterlife or both.

We believe that strongly. That's why when you see people on TV and the, and the, the guy, the guy who was holding his granddaughter and she was dead and he was trying to open her eyes and he was kissing her, he was still, his light was still there. He was still smiling and he was still praising God because he know that he knows that because he believes.

That God is the best disposer of our affairs. He is the best of planners. He has a plan and his plan includes justice. There is nothing that happens on this earth that is not answered for good or bad. [00:57:00] Good deeds are answered with good things. Bad deeds are answered with bad things. It's justice. That's, that's a theme in the Quran is justice, justice, justice, justice, justice, justice.

It's justice first and then peace. You cannot have peace until you have justice. So Muslims have this strong belief in divine justice. So why now we're just giving up on our communities and ourselves and upholding our, um, Our civic duty. Why? Why? We're just be like, I'm not doing this is is it's because we're traumatized right now.

We're hurt. We are hurting a lot right now. And we have forgotten. We have forgotten our purpose on earth in serving and remembering a law. It's serving and remembering a law and trusting a law to do right by us. We're not [00:58:00] trusting him. That he knows he sees and he's going to rectify this for us that even if we take a chance and we use our vote for systems of social justice and upholding civil rights, that even if something errant happens, that a law is going to rectify it for us.

There will be justice for us. Even if we feel like our votes are being wasted, Allah will make it right for us because we did what we thought was the right thing to do. There are things that can only be helped by voting. And what do I mean by that? If you want money coming into your community. To help your nonprofit organizations, to help get roads repaired, to help get schools, build, build new schools, build new schools or, uh, increase programs and teachers [00:59:00] in the schools.

If you want health clinics, if you want headstart, if you want,

if you want clean air, clean water, which we're all entitled to, we're all entitled to these things. But we cannot get them without government. We cannot get them without government because we're not ourselves able to raise the millions and millions and billions and billions of dollars it takes to sustain and grow these systems and fix this infrastructure.

We cannot do that without government. And so when we say we're not going to vote, that means you're not going to vote for the city council, the state legislature, the governor, the local ordinances, the state. Uh, amendments to the constitution, you're not [01:00:00] going to vote for the people who are going to make things better for your community because you don't believe that that is going to happen.

You don't see that things are happening, especially for black voters. We get so disillusioned in our communities. We're looking around and we're like, shit, where are the jobs? Where are the jobs? And you're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. Job growth, especially in big cities, slow, slow, honey, slow.

And I've did episodes on health equity, especially in minority majority neighborhoods. If you're able to find proper care where you live, it's a miracle. It's miraculous. And if you don't have insurance, good luck. And if you're someone who's disabled, good luck. If you're someone who's elderly, good luck.

Your, [01:01:00] your health insurance, your health care is good luck. It's relying on the kindness of strangers in a lot of places in the United States. And so when we see that, it's easy for us to become disconnected from the systems that create that problem. It's easy for us to say, well, things haven't changed.

It's 2023 and nothing's gotten better. It's only gotten worse. So what makes me think if I vote for these people that it's going to get better? You are wrong. Not trying. It ensures that things aren't going to get better because when these people who are in charge don't see your face, they don't hear your needs because guess what?

These people are, are not coming into our communities unless it's election time and they want to take some pictures. These people are not coming into our communities unless it's time for them to be elected and they want to be seen as reaching out to the people being a man or woman of the people. They want to be seen.[01:02:00]

They're not. Once that election is over, especially if they win, then they're not coming back. They're not coming back. And then the faith leaders, the imams of these mosques, they're not discussing these topics that are affecting our communities. They're allowing these false narratives. To be permeated the, they're allowing these narratives about Muslims and Islam to permeate.

They're allowing these outside influences to permeate our communities and they're not saying anything about it. They're not doing anything to stop it. They're not providing resources to people who want to vote. They're saying, yeah, you should vote, but they're not providing the resources to voters and they're not talking about these issues, these social issues.

Civics, immigration, Islamophobia. They're not talking about the solutions. One of the solutions [01:03:00] is to have people who look like us in government. First of all, not just that, but ethical, ethical candidates. running for office who are Muslim ethical politicians being elected who are Muslim ethical and Islamic ethics are a little bit different than regular ethics.

But when I say Islamic ethics, people know what I'm talking about. We don't need someone who's going to go there and yeah, yeah, Muslim. Hey, first Muslim woman elected to Congress. And then press the yes vote on a bill that essentially ensures that Muslims will be destroyed in a particular section of the world.

No, we don't need that. We don't need that. That is not what we need. We don't need people who are afraid to lose their position because that position makes them powerful. Because being [01:04:00] seen. Mean something. Meanwhile, they have no ethics. They have poor ethics. Meanwhile, they're so afraid to speak on matters that are important to Muslims because they don't want to be censured because they don't want to be hounded.

They don't want to be as, as people will say on Twitter, they don't want to be primaried. They're afraid to speak, so they say nothing. They allow themselves to be led astray and bullied. But see, but this is what I'm talking about. If we had more powerful coalitions in government, this type of thing wouldn't happen.

But you know, when you get into government, when you are a politician, you get into government, you just become a part of the establishment. Because again, Money, the money has, the money is how you got there. So the money is how you're going to stay [01:05:00] there. And unless you're doing things for the people who are giving you the money, you're not going to be reelected.

The people don't even care. The people don't think that the Congress, what are they doing? The Republicans have had the majority for how long now? And they've done absolutely nothing. They've done nothing except that they got this resolution passed. With almost every member of Congress voting for it. What meaningful piece of legislation have they introduced and gotten support in the Senate for that has made it to the desk of the president that the president has signed into law?

None. None.

So yeah, Muslims see what's happening around the world. We see what's happening, the genocide. We see that it's going unchecked by world powers. [01:06:00] We see that it's going. Unanswered for the women and children, the babies, they're dying and there's no answer for the four day ceasefire for what? Because as soon as that ceasefire expired, they went back to bombing and killing people, children, still killing children.

We see that and we're like, fuck, if you think I'm ever going to be a part of this again, you are incorrect. And how many of us, I say us, Muslims, are expressing buyer's remorse with Joe Biden right now? A lot. A lot. According to statistics, there are 1. 5 million registered voters in the United States who identify as Muslim.

And that's not the total number of Muslims living in the United States. There are approximately 3. [01:07:00] 45 million Muslims in the U. S. 41 percent of Muslims living in the U. S. are registered to vote in our first or second generation immigrants or second generation Muslim. There are 3. 45 Muslims in the U. S.

and 41 percent of Muslims living in the United States who are registered to vote are first or second generation immigrants. But the majority of Muslims living in the United States are black Americans.

The Islamic community can essentially be just be separated into three parts, black, white, or Arab and Asian. That means Indian, Pakistani, Malaysian, uh, Indonesian. And then there's the exclusively immigrant population. [01:08:00] But black includes Somalian, Kenyan, Senegalese, but then those people can also fit into the immigrant population.

And all of these different groups have different interests, things that are important to them. And especially when they become citizens. People who are not citizens, when they become citizens and they finally figure out what it is they want to do here in this country, and they align themselves with a particular political party, most of the Muslims who vote in the United States are Democrats.

Is that going to change in 2024? I think so. I think so. And so this has led a lot of Democrats to essentially threaten Muslims with a Trump dystopian nightmare of a Muslim ban. I mean, they've, they've, they've just gone under a hair of suggesting that we would be put in [01:09:00] internment camps. A Muslim ban is horrible.

Horrible. Banning immigration from Muslim countries is essentially what that is. That's horrible. But I'm, I'm a citizen. I was born here in 1978. My parents were born here. Their parents were born here. I'm the descendant of American slaves. You ban muslim, immigration from muslim countries is not going to do anything to me.

But because it hurts my people, it hurts me. But you threatening me with a ban. Okay, I'm still get up and go, go to work the next day. What the fuck? Most of the muslims living in the United States. We're here. We're citizens. We're lawful, legal, and, and your Muslim ban can't stop people from, from converting to Islam, [01:10:00] reverting rather.

You can't stop people from embracing Islam either. The religion of Islam is going to continue to spread in the United States, no matter who is president. So you threatening us with an immigration policy that's going to exclude us. Oh, where did, where, where, where did we hear that at? Didn't I mention an exclusionary immigration policy that resulted in the death of millions of people?

Where did we, was that World War II? World War I? The Holocaust? Sounds very familiar. And see how easy it is for the oppressed to become the oppressor. See how easy it is for people To align themselves with the system of oppression when you're not giving them what they want. Fine, then we're going to turn our backs on you.

And I have more, more than I probably should have, have told many people to F off. [01:11:00] F off completely. We, we see now who's messed up in the head. It ain't us. You don't see us threatening people with exclusionary immigration policies. Again, we have a belief in divine justice. You can threaten us with whatever you want.

We going to get our lick back.

But Muslims, we seek divine help with patient perseverance and prayer. This is this, this is what we do. This is how we're able to be resilient. We're patient. God tells us to be patient. And so we are. God tells us to trust him. And so we do. He tells us to follow him. And so we do. But following him. It [01:12:00] means that we seek justice and what is right for everybody, everybody, not just people who look like us, not just people who talk like us, not only Muslims, but everyone, everyone that's Islam.

You cannot change that. And I feel like there are Muslims who forget that. I feel like there are Muslims who forget that

you cannot change that

because even if these people are practicing Christianity. I mean, one God, honey, one God, one God, it's the same God, God of Abraham and Moses and Jesus, same God, one God,[01:13:00]

eventually we differ on the oneness of God. So maybe these people are astray, but justice is for everyone. Divine justice is for everybody. And only Allah can guide people. Only Allah can guide people. You can't tell people what to think, how to feel, how to be. You can instruct them, you can show them, but ultimately people are going to do what they want.

You have to stay on the straight path and maintain. You cannot deviate. You cannot fall into disbelief because things are getting hairy, scary. Even though this is what Allah has told us is going to happen. This is what he has told us is going to happen. Why are you scared? He already said this was going to happen.

Why are you scared? Not only did he say it was going to happen, but he related to us when it happened [01:14:00] way back in the days of Moses and David and Abraham. What happened to people who believed and who disbelieved? What happened to people who became disillusioned? And fell into disbelief, what happened to people who didn't uphold their agreement, their covenants, what happened to people when they didn't trust God?

He has, he, I mean, you read it, read the text, read the Quran. A lot of people are reading the Quran who have never read the Quran before. I feel like Muslims need to revisit the Quran to visit the Quran outside of Ramadan. All of the stories are in there. And then the teachings of our beloved prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam.

They're all the Hadiths, the stories of the companions of the prophet. Revisit these things, listen, understand, [01:15:00] and don't be scared. A lot of us are scared. We're just, what are we scared of? If we believe that we are right, there's no reason for us to be scared. No reason for us to be scared. I feel like we forget this.

We forget these things and we need to be reminded. We need to understand what our role is here. Why our voices are important. Even if you don't want to participate in the larger society because you think, Oh, they're committing sins and they're doing the, what are you doing to help your community? Are you speaking out against the ills of violence and substance use and, uh, adultery and participation in, in gangs and, and gun violence?

And are you speaking out against these things? Are you guiding the youth? Are you saying things to them to [01:16:00] ensure that when they, you know, turn 18, that they're coming back to the masjid? Are you providing resources for people? to maintain their lives, or are you allowing people to languish? Are you letting people fall into poverty and not giving them the zakat that you're supposed to give them?

Are you not supporting single moms, single dads? What are you doing for your community? Since you don't want to be a part of the larger community, just tell me what you're doing for the Islamic communities.

Because a lot of you are not doing anything. A lot of you are doing nothing. You're not even making dua. But some of you, all you can do is make dua. And that's fine. Because we trust that [01:17:00] Allah will answer every prayer. There is no dua that's wasted. So that's fantastic. But there are a lot of able bodied, competent, astute, intelligent people who are not doing a fucking thing.

And it disturbs me to my core. Because we know why we are here. And as long as we are here, we have to support and uplift each other. And it's not just with words. It's not just with words. It's with resources. And those resources are coming from the government. And unless you're voting to put more resources into the pockets, into the hands of our people, what are you doing?

What are you doing?

What are you doing?[01:18:00]

There's a place for Muslims to participate in the creation of legislation in Ohio. We see how. amendments get put on the ballot. What are some issues that are affecting Muslims where you live at that you think should be addressed by the state legislature and one of the largest communities of Muslims in the country?

New York City crime. Crime is a biggie. Social services, education, education, paying for higher education so our kids can go to [01:19:00] college. You know, when I went to college, I was able to take Arabic, intro to Arabic. I had learned to read Arabic when I was, um, seven, eight years old when I went to Islamic school when I was younger for two grades.

And I, of course, knew different phrases here and there that Muslims use, inshallah, mashallah, allahu akbar, but I could learn conversational Arabic in college. It wasn't free,

but creating initiatives that become legislation that eventually become law that help our communities is important for Muslims to do. You are not powerless, but what are you doing with your power? Are you sitting on the sidelines? Are you [01:20:00] belly aching? Are you be moaning? Are you, are you sullen? Are you sunken?

You're thinking that no one is listening, that you're not important. It's not true. It's all in your head because you're traumatized. Because you're traumatized, you're numb to so many things, you're not seeing where you fit in. You don't find hope in anything. And to become hopeless, to become hopeless when you know that you have a law, what do we call that?

That's disbelief. Allah is always available. He expands to help us. He expands to help us. You might not think that, you know, you'll ever live in a 36 room mansion with a large pool on a seaside cliff. You might not think it, but hey, you pray for it. Maybe you'll get it, maybe you won't. No prayer is wasted.

None. Not one single one. Even [01:21:00] ones you make when you're just sitting like I'm sitting here right now. I'm thinking, y'all, please help me to get through this. I have such anxiety when I, when I go to record because I'm like, I know I talk a lot. And I want to get my message across without being long winded.

And I want people to hear me and understand me. And I want people to get what I'm saying. And I don't want people to be offended. And I did, I want to be, I want to educate, but I also want to help people to understand. I want to present the facts. And if I talk about religion too much, is that going to turn people off?

If I talk about politics too much, is that I cannot be concerned about all of that. So I make du'a I cannot be concerned about all of that when I'm presenting these very important issues that are affecting all of us. Provide the facts. When you cannot march, when you cannot lay down your life, how do you participate in the struggle?

How do you participate [01:22:00] in helping people? You present them with the facts. That's Ida B. Wells. Tell them the facts.

But subjects of, one of my friends mentioned to me, subjects of community justice. And of community justice, judges, prosecutors in my state where I live, Ohio judges are elected the district attorney, the head prosecutor, the sheriff, those positions are elected positions. These are the people who are, uh, dealing out justice when we are wronged in society.

How are we sitting back and not giving them a grade report? How are we [01:23:00] allowing people who have turned their backs on us in this regard and in the criminal justice field, in the civil justice field? How are we? Allowing these people to keep, to keep their jobs and we're not saying, Hey, you know what? Yeah, you've been, uh, you're, you're, you're policies.

You're the sentences. You've been, it seems kind of lopsided. It seems like you're against this particular group of people. It seems like you're letting this particular group of people off. And I don't like the way you ruled in this particular case. I, you know, you're sending too many black people to prison.

These things are important to Muslims, especially black Muslims. These things are important to us. And when these positions are elected, oh, you can get those people the fuck up out of here. You can get them up out of here. You can. Time after time, we see the same people getting re elected. These people [01:24:00] are in these positions for 30, 40, 50 years sometimes.

Why? There's no way. There's no way because when there are elections, when there are elections, because when there are elections, people are not showing up to vote. People are not appearing at their voting precincts to vote.

Recently, Philadelphia, which also has a large, one of the largest populations of Muslims in the United States. They. The people, well, I, I guess the majority of people who decided to vote that day, they elected their first black woman mayor, the city of Philadelphia, big accomplishment. Yeah, because first [01:25:00] black woman, blah, less than half, less than half.

And such a small majority. I think it was something like 150, 000 people. It was such a small number that it was almost a joke, but she won anyway because she got the majority of the votes. Less than half of people of the people of Philadelphia voted in the mayoral race. So to say that she represents all of the people, no.

Is she going to help the Islamic community? Remains to be seen. Remains to be seen. Are Muslims going to be visible at the city council meetings? Are they going to be visible in her government? Are they going to ensure that their community needs are being met, are being addressed, that their grievances are being addressed?

It remains to be seen. [01:26:00] She isn't even someone that most of the people of the city of Philadelphia thought should be mayor. She's just the person who won because it happens to be that a certain number of people showed up to vote. Not even the majority of voters showed up to vote. In that race. Not even the majority, not even half.

It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. But this is how politicians win. They get out and they engage with voters and all of those people, they get to vote for them. They don't worry about people who they know are not going to vote for them. They don't worry about you.

But then. They show too much attention to you when they need your vote. They know they can't win without you. Why aren't we [01:27:00] making these people earn, earn their votes from us? Joe Biden is somewhere thinking right now, I mean, 5 million votes. What is that going to do for me? It's not going to make a difference for me.

But what if. You know, 500, 000 of those are in a particular state where a lot of Muslims, a lot of Palestinians live and they don't vote for you, which means that the other guy wins the popular vote in that state and he gets the electoral votes. He gets the majority of the electoral votes and he wins that state.

Collectively, maybe you don't give a fuck, but individually, because each state has a certain number of electoral votes individually, honey, come on now, come, come, come, think about it. It matters. It matters. Young people, black people, Muslims. We're the reason that Joe [01:28:00] Biden is president. We are. Black women specifically are the reason Joe Biden was even the nominee, the Democratic nominee.

So to say that we can't make a difference, we don't make a difference, we're invisible, our votes don't matter, is bullshit. It's bullshit. And you know it is. It's a cop out. You need to see how you are important, why you matter, where your voice can be used, how you can be useful. And this starts for especially black Muslim men, for especially Muslims.

This starts in the Masjids It starts in the Masjids imams, faith leaders have to be more vocal about civic participation and why it is important for Muslims to be in government, to run for offices, even for school boards. School boards, city council, uh, [01:29:00] aldermen, mayor, it's important because these people are probably also living in communities that are majority Muslim and the needs of these Muslim communities can be addressed when they have someone who is advocating for them, who understands their particular needs.

Who understands their particular desires, but there are, you know, in a lot of Muslim communities, we don't even know what the fuck we, we don't even know what do we value? What do we value? I already told you justice, justice, justice. Doing what is right. We see a lot of wrong things happening in our communities.

We see a lot of injustices happening in our communities. What we value is what is right. We value justice.

So when you see that you can make a difference in that regard, in that [01:30:00] respect, then you need to do it. Be the change maker.

So I, uh, I asked, uh, I asked, uh, my, my friend Yassine El Karyani. I asked him, I said, what, what. is happening in the mosque is because he's very active in his local mosque. What is happening in the mosque is that is either getting people to the polls or keeping them from the polls. And he said, um, and this is a direct quote, he said, most, most mosques advocate for voter registration and encourage people and encourage people to vote, but they do so by paying lip service to the whole notion of voting and democracy, because there is rarely.

Any actual mechanism or resources provided to political engagement, to political engagement or voting inside the mosques. [01:31:00] So the discussions about voting, the general discussions about voting are happening is what I'm hearing him saying. The general discussions are happening, but the follow through is not.

The investigation of issues and candidates and reflections on the needs of the community that may be helped by a particular candidate or a particular issue are not happening. Helping people to the polls, ensuring that people are registered to vote, properly registered to vote. Educating voters about particular issues and the pros and cons of particular candidates is not happening.

And in some cases, people who are attending the mosques, they're not concerned. They're not discussing it either. In some cases, but there are other places where this is happening and there are people who have the boots on the ground and they see what their community needs are and so they're talking about these things amongst their, their, [01:32:00] um, is amongst their friend circles, especially men.

Men spend a lot of time, men and women spend a lot of time separately together. And I know among my friends, my Muslim women friends, we're talking about politics. We're talking about politics, politicians, government. I work in the government. So I'm always talking about the motherfucker.

But it's good to know that men are doing this too. I don't have, I don't have a man in my life. But it's good to know that these conversations are happening with men too. But it needs to happen at that most important place, the pulpit. And it's not that you're telling people who to vote for. No, you're Helping them to see why voting is important and what the needs of the community are, what things need to be addressed.

You're [01:33:00] not selling a candidate, you're doing the pros and the cons and you're saying, Hey, you know, on Fridays we need police protection during Juma. There are people who are just kind of, uh, ruffling our feathers about the parking and about, uh, the people being all over the place and, and, and we need, we need something, we need help from the city.

Do you know someone in the city who could help or are you so disillusioned with government that you haven't bothered to reach out to these people? You haven't followed up. You haven't followed through. And now it's election time and these candidates are coming into the masjid saying, Hey, let me get a picture with you.

You Muslim. Let me get a picture with you. Do, do, do, do. But these people have done nothing for the community. And faith leaders are allowing this to happen. No, you're not, you, you're, you're not getting my vote. You have to earn my vote. My boat has to be [01:34:00] earned for every piece of everything. My boat has to be earned.

And maybe we need to start seeing our boats as precious commodities. The way we see our precious cars and clothes and smartphones, even we need to see these as precious Commodities that have to be earned from us like trust like respect

Muslims care about more than immigration. Come on now. Come come now, especially black Muslims We've been in this country since these 1600s The first Muslim to come to the new world to the Americas was a black Muslim slave. We've been here. We've been, honey.

Immigration? We were forced to migrate.[01:35:00]

We were forced to migrate. Shit. Give me a break. We should be doing something with this power, people. Come on. We have been here. What are we doing with our power? What are we doing with ourselves? Are we just so I know we're hurting. We are hurting. We are hem hem We are hemorrhaging. We're hurting. We're disillusioned.

You gotta snap out of it. I'm sorry. You just gotta fucking snap out of it. You do. You get like five seconds to feel sorry for yourself, and then you gotta go handle business. You gotta stand on bended. You get five minutes to feel sorry for yourself and then you got to be like, you know what Allah got me.

Allah got me. He has me. He has promised. He has made promises to me. He has said he will do things for me. He has said all I need to do is trust in him, [01:36:00] believe in him, believe him

and everything will happen, unfold as it is supposed to. Because he enjoins what is right and he refute and, and he condemns what is wrong. So if this is what is right, this is what I'm doing and it's right, then things will be okay. It's not that you never suffer. It's not that you never experience a hardship.

It's not that you never have anything bad happen to you is that he pulls you through it. He pushes you through it. He walks you through it. He makes you get through it. I had one of the worst things happen to me this year, just completely awful. I, I didn't think that I was going to recover from it. It was devastating.

Look at me now. Oh, but you know what? I had people in my ear. [01:37:00] I'm about to cry because I'm a little wimp, but I had people in my ear reminding me that Allah would, would, would help me that he would get me through it, that he would help me through it, that I would recover, that I would be redeemed, that everything would be okay.

And I trusted it. I believed it. I prayed for it. And I knew that it was right, but it is right. That is correct. But you know, some of the shit that we go through is self inflicted. Some of this stuff is self inflicted. Some of it, like what's happening to the Palestinians is no fault of our own, but some of it is self inflicted and we have to be real about that.

We have to help ourselves. You pick and choose your battles. You know, you pick and choose your battles. But some battles require you to be really tough, really courageous. And I feel like in this moment, voting for Muslims in the United States of America is one of the most courageous things we're going to have to do next year.

One of the [01:38:00] most courageous.

And I hope that we will do it and use our votes effectively and that we will be catalysts for changes in our communities for the better and not sit this out and not be disillusioned any longer and not let these people get the best of us. Take our power. We're not going to give them any more of our power.

We're not going to, they can take our blood. They cannot take what has been promised. To us, they cannot take our belief from us. We are resilient people. We are resilient people. And we need to believe that we need to be reminded of that. We need to own it. We need to believe it.

And this has been Ayanna Explains It All brought to you by Facts, Figures, and Enlightenment. Take care.