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Courage in the Face of Israeli Censorship | Imam Tom Live
This week, Imam Tom is joined by CUNY graduate Fatima Mohammed as they shed light on the critical issue of censorship in educational settings while exploring how anyone can become trailblazers in the fight for free expression.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Everybody to our live stream show Thursday nights at 9 p.m. New York time and every week every week has been full of both heartache and pain and anger and activity Our hearts and minds are still with the people of Gaza and Philistine. We've seen some very interesting developments. We've seen Temporary ceasefire then it's been extended. We've seen the exchange of hostages and Many moments many moments that are that are going viral and spreading all across the world But before we get into it Make sure that you interact in the comment section. We'll be selecting questions whether for me or for our guest a very special guest again tonight So send us your questions, or if you just want to pop it and say hi and let us know where you're tuning in from Some of the things one of the things that we've noticed in the past week is the difference Between the way that the hostages on each side have been treated we have seen the Israeli hostages that were captured and actually not all of them were Israeli some of them were migrant workers from Thailand or from other places and we saw how their interactions with their captors were largely positive even to the point where You know, some of them seemed like old friends they were high-fiving and they were shaking hands they were giving hugs there were smiles on The other hand we see unfortunately heartbreaking moments heartbreaking moments from the Palestinian captives and hostages who were released most of whom were in the West Bank and We've seen some kind of love. There were a pair of teenagers Right that were abducted by the IOF when they were
little boys boys of five six seven years old and they spent so much time in Israeli prisons that you could see the horror on their mother's face looking at them in disbelief She's happy that they've been released, but she has such disbelief On her face that her boys grew up in a jail cell Now, of course the way that the for the released captives have described their treatment in the Israeli jails is completely different from from the The other experience that they have been subjected to a horrible treatment torture beatings and worse denied medicine denied food Sleeping on the floor sleeping without blankets right kept in the same clothes So we've seen horrifying stories on one side and Surprising surprising humanity may be surprising for some from the other side which is a very very Interesting point and I think a significant point because when it comes to this entire situation, right? What's been going on in Philistine? We're going to be talking with a guest that Throws into relief the sad fact that for many people Philistine had been off their radar and a forgotten issue up until very very recently so we see how this is something that the How people react to these tragedies and how people are suddenly becoming aware? This is something that there are powerful tools at our disposal. We've talked a lot about Powerful tools at our disposal. We've talked a lot about the reach of social media and sharing these stories side-by-side videos of The hostages from both sides being released to demonstrate first of all to poke holes through the official narratives that we're seeing from the media the mainstream media
Especially the ones influenced by the Zionist propaganda machine that want to make it seem like everything started on October 7th When Israel started releasing children out of their prisons some people started to ask wait a second why are their children in their prisons in the first place and Only to figure out that they had been abducted by the IOF before October 7th So these sorts of things in addition to seeing how the different captives on either side were Were treated is something that is bucking the official narrative and it's something that's an extremely important thing to share and to educate people Who unfortunately the people who are still who are still unaware and still ignorant now? We've got a special guest with us tonight And her name is Fatima Mohammed and Fatima Mohammed is somebody who is an aspiring lawyer who graduated from the CUNY School of Law which is the City University of New York system and we welcome her to the to the program now and G is somebody Who Gave a graduation speech and it was honored to give us She was however some of the things that she said in her speech did with a reaction that Got a lot of bad press and backlash for her real time now we see people trying to That Box other people for standing up for Philistine. We see there financially for speaking up for Philistine We have someone with us who expect before and she's not the first quote for a long time So we'd like to we'd like to welcome Sister Fatima Mohammed to the program. So I'm like I'm sister welcome
I'll make a mistake. I'm gonna come to life, but I got to thank you so much Ma'am, Tom and the entire up being seen for inviting me. It's truly a privilege. I'm didn't know Thank you for joining us so I first got you know sort of exposed or aware of your situation and through some articles that I read and I'm a situation Happened, you know your graduation speech which was back in May I believe what were some of the things that you included in your speech that had that were relevant for Philistine and Did you ever imagine and that it was going to? give you to Result in the best that you experienced Yeah, so before I begin So now it's a lot of salami. I have even our soul in there, but be sure he's not really a silly I'm rewatched a lot of the same in this any of our body I Will explain my trust and allow everything I say to be truthful and to be useful inshallah So you're correct. I did give my speech back in May I'm doing that and I was elected by the graduating student body to get this speech And I think important context to sort of start with is that during my time at CUNY law as a student I was a very active student organizing for Palestine and humbling that and That was sort of like I was known amongst the student body that you know this is a cause that I deeply care about and something that I organized for at my time there and so in In light of that my classmates elected me to give this commencement speech and I delivered a speech that I'm doing now was met with heartfelt applause Enthusiastic applause tears and you know in that speech. I spoke about Not just fellow steam But I spoke about sort of the intersectionalities of different communities and marginalized communities and the shared struggles that we face
Specifically I addressed the Israeli entity and the human rights violations it consistently Causes or inflicts upon the Palestinian people and I criticize the Zionist entity for what it is. And in my speech I Sort of put a vision of a world where all systems of oppression fall and including in that in that realm Zionism and sort of that got a lot of attention in the media and Conflations predictable conflations. I'm conflating that my critique of Zionism with Antisemitism was sort of the framing that right-wing pundits and Zionist Organizations and politicians sort of used as the framing which is very predictable. I think as we see it play out today I spoke about the murder of children the murder of women men in Philistine and the ongoing neck but that has been happening since 1948 and sort of you know as you speak situating what what happens in Philistine not in a vacuum But it has a starting point right and the starting point is with the creation of the Israeli entity, which is Israel the Zionist entity which is Israel and Two weeks after in that two weeks the school had originally took down the speech and there was organizing amongst the student body and did several different organizations including pal legal and care in New York and Really led by within our lifetime a grassroots organization to bring back those videos They had deleted my video and a comrade of mine Nadine Kaswani who had also given a pro-palestinian speech the year prior Two weeks after I Quite literally was with family celebrating didn't really expect much I thought I'd get you know a couple of messages here there just as I had been throughout my time at organizing and
I woke up one day and your post was at our door and I was like, okay. Well, this is interesting So my dad calls me he's like Fatima Tali and I knew that wasn't like a regular false mentality What happened and so I he shows me His phone he's like Why is your face on your post and it was honestly at that very moment that it was confronted with what? I've been building up as a smear campaign and I found myself in the middle of a national smear campaign Of course, I expected pushback and I expected that the Zionist Lobby would you know? Place me on canary or do their very typical doxing bullying methods to stifle students But I do think that they took it to such an extreme that it did catch me off-guard To be just thrusted in the middle of a national smear campaign Yeah, certainly one of the things think that I appreciate it's about when I started to when I came across your story is That you you just touched on which is that your time or someone who always was active and I just think that that's such an important component and part of what I want the audience to take away because there are a lot of um, and that are maybe Great of speaking up and maybe tell okay. Well once I get more secure position Then I will begin to speak up or once I get this job or get this promotion or land this sort of situation And then I'll have the security That's never been hedge for my life Who has always? Attempted to put what you're learning into practice and even even if you don't have you know, so Well The the people who were against you who participate organization
But the mayor of New York City himself right in the news This is something that Would be psychologically very very hard for you it But you didn't seem don't in fact I you know read you have an article in the nation that I recommend everybody read about Doubling down and saying this is I believe in every single word that I said I'm not going to issue a false apology Right, like I'm seeing a lot of people do people who are celebrities or people who are you know artists or something like that? They usually issue a fake apology is like oh, I'm sorry for offending people. You misunderstood my words You didn't have that reaction you said no, I meant every single word that I said that it was true and if the truth gets me in trouble then So be it and I respect that tremendously and I think that's that's the attitude that we all have to have How is that process for you? like how did you how do you psychologically deal with becoming a national news story overnight and Knowing that there are some very very powerful people that are trying to punish you Yeah, I'm just a colloquium I think they're like two two Parts that I want to talk about the first being that Eric Adams the mayor of New York City and politicians like Ted Cruz politicians like Ritchie Torres earn a vernacov councilwoman all these politicians leveraged their social media platforms to as a place to incite harassment against me and Eric Adams was actually at our graduation. He was booed off the stage. And so he went he later went on TV national TV to say that he would have Interrupt, I think I I don't remember verbatim what he said, but something to the effect of taking the mic away from me and what we see sort of is politicians who are
Invested in the Zionist entity politicians who quite literally get money from AIPAC and other lobbying groups Huddling together like birds of a feather to protect their interests amongst both Democrats and Republicans so we see both aisles of imperialism sort of joining in on the one issue that unites Democrats and Republicans, which is Palestine and smearing pro-palestinian voices and I think when once I saw that sort of playing out It put into perspective really just the power that I held. I wasn't so much Shocked as somebody who's been immersed In sort of learning about the Zionist lobby and learning about sort of just how Powerful it is in US politics I wasn't shocked that they would go to those lengths in that sense But it really reaffirmed to me the power of the truth and the power of our voices and in that moment I really had to sit with myself and be like wow like Saying the truth can make the Zionist entity crumble and each time one of us speaks up We chip at the Zionist entity little by little and if enough of us speak up we can you know We can dent it like we can create a crater that really That really brings this Zionist entity to its feet and on the point of apologizing. I think as Muslims I grew up post 9-11 A very visible hijabi Muslim woman from Yemen I understood very well that my identity is racialized and it's sort of been Politicized in a way that I don't consent to and I'm asked to condemn Myself over and over again for things that I don't believe in for things. I haven't done for things I have no business condemning as a US citizen And so the the question of condemning or the question of apologizing For the truth was not even on the table at the end of the day I am a Muslim and I think Islam is like the compass that grounds me grounds my organizing work
It grounds my work and it grounds my perspective in life and I think There's a reason why in Islam One of the best forms of jihad is speaking a word of truth to an oppressor I think it's because if enough of us are silent we can enable atrocities and we can enable such heinous crimes that are not Representative of our faith or of our of our Dean and Islam is a dean of acting. It's a verb. It's not an Adjective it's not a Dean that we can just sort of you know, sit at home make our Salah and do and go about our Days. No, it's a it's a Dean that asks for us to act to get up to speak and handle in that I had that sort of grounding growing up. And so when this happened, it was more so like wow This is a lot But it just reaffirmed to me and it honestly tested my convictions if I really believes what I'm speaking about and I think We don't need to apologize there is nothing to apologize for the only people we should be apologizing to are the people of Palestine Who we've neglected who we aid and abet with our tax dollars They are genocide who we continue to ignore whose voices We don't amplify and who we wait until we are met with images of carnage images of destruction We wait until we're met with genocide at its fastest pace that we speak up and I speak as like this is self critique to Myself, it's not Sort of me projecting. It's really as a community as a Muslim community We have been sort of in this defense position, which is an understandable position post 9-11 But I think it's time that we sort of really hone in on our power It's time that we acknowledge that we are powerful and it's time that we acknowledge the power of our voice Specifically and that collectively if we all speak up the Zionist lobby does not Have the time and the resources to do a national smear campaign for each and every single one of us I think I'm inspired by the youth and I'm inspired by not just the youth but a generation that has woken up
I think a generation that understands that there is no going back to the status quo a generation that is very bold very Unapologetic and I think that's really what we need to carry with us. There is no going back There is no going back to the status quo. We have nothing to apologize for In fact, we have a lot of work to do and I think we need to focus on the work that needs to be done Inshallah and just to add sort of to what happened after the speech the CUNY Institution itself came out with a statement Mislabeling my speech as hate speech. I'm using an incorrect legal definition. That does not meet any legal standards Sort of asserting that my critique of Zionism my critique of Israel amounts to hate speech and after that Councilwoman, Erna Burnett Cobb and Zionist lobbying a Zionist law group employed lawfare as they so they use sort of the court system to try to stifle and Censor people and so they petitioned the New York Supreme Court to have me removed From the New York bar or not have me admitted as a matter of fact because at that point I hadn't even sat for the bar exam yet and so they're petitioning the state Supreme Court to get me removed on the basis of Unfit character and fitness and this just goes to show sort of to map out The lens the Zionist lobby is willing to go to silence people I think it does it's such a disservice to our community when we convince ourselves or when we tell ourselves That our words are not powerful that speaking up is not powerful that it is useless that posting is useless that protesting is useless Because if it were useless if it didn't matter what I said at that speech if it didn't matter for us to speak up They wouldn't go to such lengths to silence us And I think that's a really important point is that we are not we can no longer remain victims We have power and we need to hone in on that power and collectively as a umma really acknowledge our
Responsibility to others and those people are the people in Palestine MashaAllah, that's a that's an extremely powerful message and very eloquently stated. I'm really glad that you that you Everybody Left everybody with that message, you know, you mentioned so much I'd like to touch on one of which is a really really important point, which is this generation so many people are saying Things feel different. All right, obviously the oppression of Philistine has been going on for a long long time Post 9-11 right people kind of go into mode and defense mode and we've kind of Not done much to build our capacity and now all of a sudden it seems like We're on the offense. It seems like we have opportunities to really change things And the courage to do it and a part of that and I think that it's a tremendously hopeful time to to be alive Despite all the carnage that we see I think that we're starting to wake up and realize You have our we do have an ability you Mention something else that I'd like to get more on which is the implication of the universities the implication of the institutions of education We know very well Politicians are bought with Zionist money. But one thing that we've seen recently, especially in New York City where where you've been on the ground with a lot of great organizing that's been going on is that we've also seen the Educate the educational institutions implicated by this. What are what's been going on in New York City? Not everybody sort of is aware of what's been going on there with the suspension of SJP chapters and sort of the basically
universities and colleges stiflings free speech and attempting to punish pro-palestinian activism Yeah, thank you for pointing that out I think it's crucial that we sort of look at institutions like universities and places of higher education Through a lens that is political because these institutions are political There is no such thing as an apolitical institution or an objective space where people go to learn every Institution is political and we see it play out right now, right these institutions claim to want to not be political by Making very political choices like suspending SJP's and when we talk about the City University of New York the CUNY system Which is a public system that was created to serve brown and black people in New York City We've seen over the years. It's become more privatized and as it became more privatized. It became more invested in In different areas in different spaces like like the war Industry complex and the prison industry complex and as these institutions profit off of our off the blood that's being spilled They start to have interests that don't align with the students that they represent at CUNY There are cops at John Jay School of Law and at John Jay not John Jay School of Law John Jay College of Criminal Justice They train IDF soldiers and so you see sort of this inter this this reliance on different institutions to further design its entity to further its goals and you see our institutions caving to Zionist pressure Through external forces, but also because they are materially invested in the blood that's being spilled They're materially invested in every bomb that's being dropped. They have shares and profits in these institutions, Columbia That suspended SJP Has interests that are being protected when it favors Zionists over their Palestinian students when it favors genocide
It is profiting off of that and I think it's really important because it divorces it from it being like a personal thing It's not that they don't know. It's not that they don't understand They know they understand but they're choosing to align with what with what aligns with their interests and their interests Aligned with capitalism and capitalism will always favor war because war makes money and I think once we see that bigger picture We understand what we're up against but we also remind ourselves that without the students these institutions crumble that we make these institutions that the City University of New York is serves brown and black people and those students if they Divest if they place pressure if they collectively mobilize can bring these institutions to their feet and I think seeing how these institutions sort of Align themselves with the systems of oppression over those who are being oppressed is symbolic of the larger government system It's symbolic of mainstream media It's symbolic of medical institutions that have failed to you know Show any regard for Palestinians and it paints to us a very clear image that the revolution will never be won by these institution Institutions the revolution will not be won by politicians the revolution will be won by the people by the people in Palestine and by the people here who continue to resist these Institutions who continue to test the boundaries who continue to speak up who continue to to say not in our name We continue to say we are not scared and you cannot bully us And I think it's time that as students you have protections that once you graduate you might not have and so it's really crucial When you're a student at an institution When you have a right to be on that campus when you have a right to speak up You it's so important that you use that right because once you graduate that right is curtailed, right? like I can't go back in a kidney institution and
Demand anything from that institution in the way that I could back in May or in the way I could back in January. And so Really understanding like if you're a student and you're listening right now See where your institution is invested in where is it invested in which companies and do those companies aligned with who and Divest ask BDS boycott divestment sanctions. This is all possible. This is this is not myopic It's not immature It's not naive for you to have a vision of a world that is free of Zionism and I think for so long we've been taught that because these Institutions and these systems are so powerful that it somehow means that It's impossible to get anything done that somehow it means that organizing is useless and that is just simply not the case We just have to hone in again We have to realize the power that we have in these situations and call out injustice wherever we see it and from whatever institution We see it That's a fantastic point one of the things that I think a lot of people have realized over the past six weeks or so is That a lot of power or at least the institutions and the governments that we assume are so powerful are Really? They rely upon the perspective and the projection of power But once that's pushed you actually identify and see that it's mostly smoke and mirrors And I think that college as an institution is the university system is a similar thing. There are certain Performative, you know things that go on that you think that this thing is untouchable you think that this thing can't You know be changed at all but in reality they depend upon you far more than you depend upon them and the student as you know, the students literally do make up the the entire university and college experience if We were to organize properly and leverage that power then we could change things very very dramatically
I also like that you talked you touched on capitalism in particular neoliberal capitalism because the shifts that have happened within higher education and the university system Can't even be made sense. Like it's like some people are you know, they're really They've discovered an iceberg right they they just start peeling back the layers of the onion and you keep on peeling back the layers and It's like okay. This thing's pretty deep because from a certain point or at a certain point in history US educational institutions started becoming more about profit than about education and that's just you know a plain fact once it became more about profit than education now you have a vulnerability that that creates and part of that vulnerability is Being at the behest of those who are growing your endowment or who are paying the highest donors and we've seen in the in the last six weeks the big donors from several education institutions threatened to Withdraw their their donations or actually, you know Stop donating to major institutions that do the right thing and take a stand for what is just and what is right? So this is who we're up against It's very important to understand who exactly we're organizing against who we have to outmaneuver That there is going to be people with deep pockets that have a lot of money that can write very big checks That are basically going to say you have to say this you have to disband this group You have to stop this conversation from happening or else I'm not going to give you my check and you're gonna have to take my name off of your gymnasium or whatever it is and we have to be able to put the Colleges and the universities and in a position where they have to listen to us and they have to actually be accountable to us rather Than the people writing the checks. So I'm very very grateful that you that you brought that up What are some other things on you know on on your minds things that you know, if we're talking to students or we're talking about
Let's chart the path forward like where are we at right now? What are we looking at getting our institutions to divest from? The military-industrial complex in general and the Zionist entity in particular is something that's extremely important What are some of the other things that you've been sort of? Organizing for and calling for that you think that we should also be doing Yeah. Well, I think there can be no business as usual. I think what we've witnessed This genocide that we've witnessed before our very eyes Should really transform each and every single one of us into action and I think now I have my friends who are probably watching I've heard me say this multiple times and it is that the Palestinian people do not need our sympathy. They need our age and Sympathy is not solidarity Solidarity is to be in struggle and I think as a community whether we are students organizers Professionals, I think we have to reckon with the fact that This is not a moment that should center us and that in our work we should not be cornered into defending ourselves Which I think is a very brilliant Zionist tactic is to take these organizers take these Really brilliant young students attack them defame them and then have them spend the entire Time they're all their energy all their resources Defending themselves and then in that they forget the cause that they were working for in the first place and it's not done in bad intention It's a very normal reaction that if someone slanders you someone defames you calls you something you are not that you will defend yourself against it, but I think Taking a moment to acknowledge that we have nothing to apologize for that We have clarified our position time and time again that we are at a moment where we are past an awareness stage We have seen Palestinian fathers and mothers
Stop for their children from beneath rubble we have seen a Children with no family left behind Some of us for the very first time learned what it means to be a wounded child with no surviving family WC NSF that needs to radicalize us in ways that move us beyond Beyond sympathy that move us beyond feeling bad that move us into action and that action is gonna look different for each and every single Person, but it's realizing that there cannot be the separation between your identity as a Muslim or your identity as a believer From your activism that we are, you know, I saw this post and it really like I really appreciate it Which is like we don't need activists We just need people who understand that in order to change this world in order to bring about justice in different ways We have to implement this practice into our daily life. So if you're a teacher at a school Don't don't regurgitate Zionist propaganda push back if you're a parent make sure that your child at school is not being fed Propaganda make sure they're being taught the truth Make sure that your child feels comfortable speaking up and that if they're ever made uncomfortable that you are the first To come to their aid if you're a student make sure you're passing or pushing to pass BDS at your institution Make sure you're creating cross-solidarity Connections make sure that you're making this everyone's business and if you're an organizer in the street You must be shutting the streets every single day and I don't mean this Figuratively, I don't mean this in a way that is not realistic There cannot be business as usual. There just cannot be we're nearing 20,000 people who have been murdered right before our eyes We've watched we are witnesses on this day of the murder of over 20,000 people and many of them are still under rubble and as you and I imam speak there is probably a child That is screaming Under rubble right now who probably needs help and they have no one to aid them
but Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and I think so long as we take a Position of silence a position of cowering a position of protecting our own interests We will just aid and abet further and further and further and I think you know This temporary humanitarian pause which is not a ceasefire is not enough, you know we it should really bring people a sense of Just utmost rage that we have been begging for a ceasefire. That is the pausing of this genocide We have begging and we still could not even get these spineless politicians to agree to that That people you you give a people Number days where bombs are not raining on them where they don't have to worry about you as drones shredding off their limbs Where they don't have to worry about their homes collapsing on their lungs You give them several days and you expect that to be enough That should not be enough. We should be enraged. We should be upset and we do not need to sanitize our rage We do not need to make those who are invested in corruption or invested in oppression It is not our business to make sure they're comfortable. It is not our business to make sure their interests are not Are not protected that is not our business as Muslim mean as people of consciousness from all over the world we should be enraged in ways that we have never been before because what we have seen is something we have never seen before and it I Every time I wake up. I Think of the team and I think of a little head rule the soul of souls and I think of her grandfather And I think of him Brushing her up and saying alhamdulillah and Being and being so content with Allah's mother being so content with Allah's plan and still in his eyes You know that that man believes that liberation is near You know that that man that grandfather who let go of two of his
Two of his children, you know that he believes in a liberated Palestine So as people inside the belly of the beast as the people funding this violence as the people whose tax dollars are Paying for every drone that's dropping. Who are we to fall into complacency? Who are we to fall into despair? Who are we to put our hands up and pretend like there is nothing to be done? There is so much to be done and that might be overwhelming and I agree it is and it might be and in fact We all need to grieve and I understand that we do but it's de-centering ourselves It's realizing that in the same way. We want good jobs in the same way We want safety for the same reason our parents came to this country in the same way We want educational prospects that the people in Gaza deserve it that the people in the West Bank deserve it that those children deserve to live that just because the Palestinian people Have passed the test of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala has given them that they are Content with his father that does not absolve us of the responsibility that we have to them that every single Palestinian child who was murdered At the hands of the Zionist entity whether it's in Gaza the West Bank or any part of Palestine from the river to the sea Every child we had a responsibility Towards and on the day that we meet Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala on the day where he is the judge on the day Where the most just is the judge we will have to answer to him and I hope that when people wake up in the morning They realize that I wanted a great job is not an excuse. I Wanted to be safe is not an excuse I Needed to provide for my family is not an excuse because what makes our blood more beloved than theirs What makes our jobs more beloved than theirs? Do they not have aspirations like we do they do? And I think we forget we're met We're seeing these images of carnage play out again and again and again and a lot of people are becoming
Desensitized you scroll through and it's a dead child a dead mother a dead father a dead family a murdered families and the next post Is business as usual and I think we really need to wake up as an umma I'm with Muhammad alayhi salatu assalam may peace and blessings be upon him. We need to make him proud So that on the day of judgment When we are met with the martyrs of Gaza when we are met with the martyrs in Palestine We can give an answer worth giving we can say we tried everything we gave it our all That in that we lived with them that we grieved alongside them But that our grief did not paralyze us because we are not in the position to be paralyzed We are not in the position to be afraid. We are not in the position to just say, you know, what let's give up Because a lost panel is how to placed us inside the belly of the beast for a reason He gave us the privilege of being in this country to have certain freedoms for a reason He allowed us the ability to speak for a reason. He put you whoever is listening to me He put you in that institution for a reason. He put you at that job workplace for a reason He gave you those kids to inspire for a reason. He blessed you in ways in infinite ways that cannot be counted Because there is a reason and I hope that people listening to me Don't think this is just an emotional speech that you don't just log off and you listen and you just move on We have a responsibility We have a responsibility to the children of Gaza to the children of Janine to children all over Gaza but not just the children to the mothers the fathers the men and the women the men and women who are in Torture sites inside Israeli dungeons being assaulted and abused We have a responsibility to the children who are starving of hunger under the siege and in that responsibility we acknowledge that it is not merely a ceasefire that we are asking for that we are not just asking for the bombs to stop raining that we are asking for the dismantling of the Zionist entity for the
Dismantling of all systems of oppression which include the Zionist entity and we will not cower We will not apologize and that this is literally our responsibility Oh Extremely well said I couldn't agree more so panel I Am afraid honestly when I think that we might have the greatest responsibility of all With where we're positioned in this and it's the enormous test But I think about one thing that I think about and for those in New York City I'll actually be at Columbia University tomorrow giving the khutbah and then a talk later And one thing I'm going to talk about is the magicians that worked for Firaon and at a certain point even the magicians who worked for Firaon they had to reconcile with the truth and they had to put their neck on the line and you see how they Because they saw something they're thrown down Worshiping right in sujood and then sit down. Of course, what does he do? He threads them. He says, alright, I'm gonna crucify you guys I'm gonna cut up all these gruesome barbaric things. He's gonna do to them and They basically say look, okay, if you want to do it, you can do it, but we can't go back. There's no going back and that's one of the Messages that you're giving us that I want everybody to make sure that they they register and walk away with there's no going back Right, we've seen everything or everything that we have seen over the past six weeks It's not business as usual there is no going back we have to we have to figure this out and we have to win We have to figure out, you know, whatever it takes We need to prepare ourselves to sacrifice in the same way that the magicians of Firaon were willing to sacrifice They were willing to be you know, they were willing to die They're willing to die for the issue and you know, hopefully, you know, it doesn't come to that but just like In the 60s in the civil rights movement and we're looking for an American analogy
There were people that had to get bit by dogs. There were people that had to get beat up by the cops There were people who had to get acid thrown on them. There were people who had to get who had to go to jail for what in order to make the truth manifest and to try to write a wrong and we might be in another one of those moments where those now they might be us where we have to Stand up and be counted and do what's right. No matter what the cost is Any last words that you'd like to leave our audience with today Fatima. You've been a wonderful guest. Thank you so much for sharing Just that like that the tide is shifting That just as there is despair rightfully So and just as we grieve and we mourn that there is hope that for every Palestinian political prisoner that was freed from an Israeli dungeon. There is hope that we understand that Nostril like a leave and that in the nostril like it will be barely victory is near that we should not become so preoccupied with the one but that we should live every single day as though we believe and we should believe that victory and Liberation will be within our lifetime and living that is so important because they are terrified the Zionist entity This is the beginning of the end for them They have been exposed in ways that they cannot they cannot conceal you cannot conceal genocide It's been live streams on every almost every social media platform. They cannot conceal it So do not aid the Zionist entity with despair. Do not discourage folks who are speaking up Elevate elevate those who are speaking up elevate the Palestinian voices that are Documenting everything for us for us to repost to share to speak about continue speaking about Palestine if the ADL director
The big the big boss of Zionism if they and I'm sure I hope folks have heard the director speak over the phone saying There's a generational crisis and that they are scared. I hope that folks get some encouragement from that I hope that people understand that the tide is shifting that it is changing that will lie he like every single morning I wake up and I'm saying one day closer to liberation and maybe we might not see the fruits of the seeds we plant but Another generation will and we Lena Lena if you thought we will all meet There is no my father people cannot escape. So I hope that Anything anything I've said inspires someone to join this movement in any way they can if you're in New York City Follow us on WL Palestine. That's where we organize a lot of protests that are happening in the New York City area we have an upcoming protest on Saturday and shot a lot and The the posts are being updated in shallow. So you'll see the post almost every day We're shutting down the streets of New York City and we will continue to shut them down Today tomorrow and every single day until we see victory But in the last such as a colloquial amount and just act like the entire Yemen Institute team May Allah reward you all you've all been so amazing during a time like this during a time where unfortunately a lot of religious institutions Tend to step back, but this is the time for us to step forward This is the time for us to practice allahu akbar because Allah is truly the greatest and we have Allah so Who can be against us whoever they are we have a loss of Hanukkah Allah and just as they They say alhamdulillah. We say this Mila Ismillah alahaza what we see in the other Philistine what we see in a lot of infusion I had to know Scott and we are awakening and we will wake up and I think a lot of us have and we will Not go back to sleep. We will not step back. We will not sit down until every Palestinian gets the right to return home. There's new love
I mean such a Fatima. Thank you so much for joining us today. It's a colloquial check marking So panel One thing that such a part of my said that I hadn't thought before but if I think bears Keeping in mind, especially if you're still on the fence or if you're trying to find your voice Many of us have already found our voice humbly that and we see the road clearly and we see what to do But I got chills to be honest when such a Fatima brought up the the possibility of imagine those people all the people that you've been seeing on social media Khalid Nabhan and His granddaughter Reem and his grandson Tariq imagine seeing them in the afterlife imagine meeting them in Jannah and Imagine them asking you What did you do? Did you try? Did you do what you could? For our people for the Ummah for what was right It's a chilling thought It's a scary thought But I think if every single one of us sits down with that thought about that accountability, right? This person subhanAllah you think about how Allah How Allah works it's it's really amazing because somebody like let's take Khalid Nabhan two months ago Who knew about him, right? I'm sure he had a Strong impact in the place where he lived, but now this man's face has spread across the world the man has so much acceptance for his manifestation of the character of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and His patience in hardship and just the beauty of his soul and his manners Allah subhanAllah truly raises who he wills and Debases and humiliates who he wills so imagine that
The end is done and you've made it inshallah to Jannah, but you have to you have to meet this man You have to meet Khalid and you have to meet Reem and you have to meet Tariq What's that conversation going to be like and then of course much greater than that, which is always on our mind is meeting the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and Him asking us, what did we do? Did we do what we could? Did we use our leverage? Did we use our privilege? Did we use whatever ability we had to do whatever we could? In the end of the day, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is responsible for the results but we have to focus on our intention, our mutaba'ah, how much our actions adhere to the guidance and wisdom of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and and Really giving it our all doing as much as we can and we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to accept from us So thank you all so much for tuning in tonight. We're going to cut it out here You probably noticed that there's some differences in the set We had a little bit of technical difficulties tonight because we've changed locations next week inshallah will be much smoother We'll have everything streamlined But we'll leave it off for there and we thank everybody for tuning in until next week assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Al Fatiha
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