Latest / After Maghrib 🌙 / Lebanon on the Frontlines (Ft Batool)

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Lebanon on the Frontlines (Ft Batool) · After Maghrib 🌙

• 0:00
  So now live. OK, so welcome back to the
• 0:02
  Aftermarket podcast this week Run sisters.
• 0:04
  We are talking about the atrocities that are taking place
• 0:07
  in Lebanon, of course, over the last few days, but also the last
• 0:11
  year. Of course, as we approached the
• 0:12
  one year mark since the beginning of the genocide in the
• 0:16
  Gaza, we are seeing death, destruction in in numbers we
• 0:20
  can't really comprehend. Of course, in the last few days
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  alone, at least 500 lives have been lost in Lebanon, thousands
• 0:26
  injured, destruction rampant across the country.
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  And we don't really need to tell you the situation in Ghaza, but
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  that is ongoing as well. So we feel that it's very
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  important to discuss this brothers and sisters, it.
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  I think it's only right really to begin this podcast with
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  firstly, a message of condolence to the family, to the loved ones
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  of anyone who's lost their lives, all of the martyrs in the
• 0:49
  NAN and in the FAZA. And secondly, of course, to pray
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  and yearned for the hastening of the reappearance of Ahdi Imam
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  Arjala to Allah followed you Sharif.
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  So we can await his presence here.
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  We can follow him and he can lead us into strength and into
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  guidance and with with leadership that is divinely
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  appointed and that is inshallah what we are aspiring to see and
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  aspiring to be a part of as well.
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  So we have a fantastic guest today as always.
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  But before we introduce our guest, as always, Sam Ali.
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  How you doing bro? Hamdallah, Allah.
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  But in all honesty, I'm not that great.
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  You know, seeing what's happening now in, in Lebanon
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  has, I think, hit me hard. And that's because I, I've, I, I
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  have this sort of connection with our brothers and sisters in
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  Lubnan, especially there in the South.
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  And you know where I feel like what hurts them hurts us, what
• 1:57
  pains them pains us. And I'm really looking forward
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  to this conversation we're going to have now because I'm going to
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  get to learn more about the struggles they face, the
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  occupation they faced, and what the realities on the ground
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  today. Absolutely, absolutely.
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  I think that's why we wanted to do this today, brothers and
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  sisters, because although we don't discuss geopolitical
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  matters on a week to week basis, and there are times where it's
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  it's incredibly important and it affects us as a community and as
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  human beings. So in order to help us
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  understand this better, we have none other than our dear sister
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  Batul Sabeti's son Walaikum's sister Batul Salam.
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  Alaikum. How are you?
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  Angela, thank you so much for having me.
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  Thank you for. Coming on last minute and at
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  short notice. For those who don't know, you
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  are a political analyst and an activist.
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  Your calendar has been jam packed I'm sure, but I think a
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  good place to start really is to understand how you feel.
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  You are someone of Lebanese origin, you have family home and
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  inshallah we pray they're all OK.
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  Hamdallah. Hamdallah, how has the last,
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  especially the last couple of weeks been for you from a
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  personal perspective and for for your family and your community?
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  Yeah, so Bismillah, Bismillah Hamarahim.
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  Ultimately, this is a price that needs to be paid, especially
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  when you have a bloodthirsty, ferocious criminal occupation.
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  There are no red lines, you know.
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  This was expected, like this wasn't outside of the scenario
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  of expectation. I am very thankful to Alas
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  Apartmentala though, and I consider it a great mercy that
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  the people of Lebanon are up to the sacrifice and they've
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  demonstrated that they will never leave their husband,
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  brethren alone. And in actual fact, Hazard's
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  blood, Ulayad blah, is no way cheaper than Lebanon's blood.
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  You know, it is one blood, it is one brotherhood.
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  We are all Muslims. This is Muslim blood that's
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  being shed. Ultimately, this is oppressed
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  blood that is being shed. And there is no liberation
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  without blood. You know, that is the equation.
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  The more blood that's given on the ground, the more that
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  hastens the liberation. And that's there was a statement
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  that was said by a great scholar where he said Demo Shahidi da
• 4:13
  Sakata Fabia de Lahiya Scott with a Sakata BIA de left in the
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  Hoyenmo. When the blood of the martyr
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  falls, it falls in the hands of God.
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  And if it falls in the hands of God, then it grows.
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  So that is God's divine equation in front of us.
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  This blood is not in vain because as Brother Ali
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  mentioned, this is blood in the path of resistance.
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  You know, if this was blood where you are surrendering to
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  the enemy, not resisting, not rising up, then in that case you
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  might look at that blood and say, OK, that could very well be
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  in vain because the occupation entity is further entrenching
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  itself. But if you're rising up in arms
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  and you're fighting and you're directly confronting it on the
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  ground and you're weakening it in the process.
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  And that's exactly what's happened in the past year.
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  Then no, that blood cannot be in vain.
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  That is as the Quran describes it as our Akrita describes it as
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  eh del Husnain. You know, one of the two good
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  things in my muscle all is the shared.
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  So that Shahad, that martyrdom is very much a part of that
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  victory. It's one and the same.
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  So I feel a sense of great pride and honour.
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  Of course there is pain, but with that pain there is that
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  beauty as well. There's that beauty when you see
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  the human potential reach its peak.
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  So when Pedro attacks are designed to terrorize you, to
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  make you feel afraid, the whole objective is to make the
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  Lebanese people say the policy, We don't want to support Husser
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  anymore because now it's coming to our homes.
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  The idea is to turn Lebanon into Husser so that Lebanon stops
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  supporting Husser because Lebanon has been such an
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  important and powerful part of the whole equation.
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  And so when they're saying, actually, no, may we sacrifice
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  our eyes for us? I was hearing a WhatsApp message
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  that was sent of a brother saying he was crying.
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  He was saying about Abdullah. I want to give my eyes, I want
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  to have a share in this reward. People are running towards
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  martyrdom. That's that's the phase that
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  we're finding right now. People are saying I want to be a
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  part of this. They're asking if if they're
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  left behind, if, if something doesn't happen to them, it's
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  like, am I not worthy? But how?
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  How can you beat the one who thinks like that?
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  The one that actually is looking not for comfort.
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  They're looking for contentment. And it's that kind of equation
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  where the more the discomfort increases, the more the
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  contentment increases. And that's something that God
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  promises us in the Quran when he tells us, well, in a blue and a
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  combische, in mineral coffee. What's your well that's in minal
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  Amwali will ampus with Tamarat. I will bring those tests to the
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  mutt. Meaning.
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  So if you decide as the muttman to take matters into your own
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  hands and as a result of fulfilling your divine objective
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  to subjugate yourself to that fear, to that loss of life, to
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  that loss of job, stop. You're going to see God
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  conspiring here. You're going to see God's
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  Immaculate hand. You're going to see the miracles
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  right in front of you. And I kid you not, I've been
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  reading so beautiful. They've been saying in our
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  dreams, say there's the Harat Salam Allahaliha.
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  Those who were, you know, those who got harmed in the Pedro
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  attack. This, this, this one brother
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  said, I swore in my dream, say there's the Harat going from
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  house to house kind of like distributing sweets, you know,
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  distributing food, you know, wiping the heads of the what we
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  need. And then this Pedro attack
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  happened like this is the unseen is working here as well.
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  So there's that immaterial spiritual equation.
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  And then there's obviously on the military scale on the
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  battlefield when it comes to morale, what we're seeing in
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  terms of the shrinking of this entity and ultimately it
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  manifesting itself in the craze that we're seeing this crazy
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  wanting to expand, to bomb, to expand the fire of conflict and
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  to not care about the repercussions because the entity
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  is hurting itself, which is something that we can discuss.
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  That is a sign of its desperation.
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  That's a sign of its demise. It's like, I don't know what to
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  do anymore. And when you're so constricted
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  and you have no solutions in front of you upon us, you know
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  you're willing to cross every red line.
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  Yeah, I mean, there's, there's so many angles to talk about
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  this. And I think what you mentioned
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  about morale is very important because it's, it's clear that
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  the occupation entity are looking to fight a, a mental
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  war, like a psychological war on, on the people of Libnan and,
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  and kind of indicating to them that their involvement in Gaza
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  will be punished. And you better stop right now
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  and you better stop your interference in now because we
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  will come at you. But I think what they failed to
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  understand is that, as you mentioned so rightly, people are
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  the followers of Amira Mahmudin Aliabdin Ali, but Mahmoud
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  Hussein Ali Salam. And these are the days now where
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  we have come out of the mourning period, the, the, the period of
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  reformation and revolution, where we learn to understand
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  more about martyrdom and, and year on year we learn about
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  martyrdom and we learn about sacrifice.
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  It's so inherent in our DNA and it's something which which
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  creates the fabric of our community.
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  And like you said, the blood which is spilt is not spilt in
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  vain. We see that in the hood of
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  Kalahana. We see that in the hadith and
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  the thousands of a hadith which talk about the divine gift of,
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  of becoming a shaheed. And that is something which we
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  honour and we are grateful for if, if that's something which we
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  attain ever, I said. Anything to add?
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  Just want to say that the point you mentioned was so beautiful
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  because you managed to link like the resilience of let's say the
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  resistance to spirituality. And I'm sure we'll get into
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  spirituality during the conversation or perhaps there
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  towards the end of today's conversation.
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  But I want to know like where does where did this all stem
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  from? Like when we look at the
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  resistance in Lebanon or the resistance in Palestine, because
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  people say today the Israeli occupation on the OR the Israeli
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  aggression, the genocide that's currently taken place in Gaza
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  today, for example, would it have taken place had there not
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  been for October the 7th? Did it start before or did it
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  start on October 7th? Because I think more than half
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  the world don't know the true story behind it all.
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  But I want to know myself, where did this all truly begin?
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  And I think you're going to that's.
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  A very good question. It's a very good question
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  because you're absolutely right. This past year, the significance
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  of it is that it has completely removed the masks of deception.
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  So those who didn't exist in 1948 and didn't see the Nakba
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  now know the reality of the ferocious occupation and what
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  they actually did there. They can envision the Nakba,
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  those who weren't there for the Nexa of 1968.
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  So that's essentially when the occupation entity decided to
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  occupy Gaza and the West Bank. So all of historic Palestine was
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  under illegal Israeli occupation.
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  So in 1948, just for some context, they occupied 80% of
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  the land except Gaza and the West Bank.
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  In 1967, the occupation entity went into Gaza, into the West
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  Bank. They didn't stop there though.
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  They went into Syria. They occupied the Jhulan, the
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  Golan Heights, that's still occupied.
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  They went into Egypt, they occupied the Sinai.
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  So again, this occupation entities inherently
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  expansionists. We were discussing this before
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  that It's slogan is from the Nile to the Euphrates and then
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  nearly in Al Farad. So if it can, you know, if it
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  was able to, it will, it will expand not just to occupy all of
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  historic Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, as it has into Iraq as
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  well. So Iraq is to take this entity
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  as an existential threat into Saudi if it could, because in
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  order to guarantee its security, it needs to expand in this kind
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  of way because it's existence is artificial.
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  It's existence was built upon the ruins of the ethnically
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  cleansed Palestinian people. That's the reality of this
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  entity. It came about through massacres.
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  It only survives through massacres.
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  So, and that was what was the significant turning point in
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  this year is that the world got to know that actually you cannot
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  negotiate with this entity. The word peace has no meaning.
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  They've seen that for themselves.
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  Not only have they seen that for themselves, people are now more
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  historically literate. This is what you were talking
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  about, that historical literacy. When you understand what
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  happened in Oslo, for example, 1990s when Yasser Arafat shook
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  hands with Yitzhak Rabin, you know the greatest amount of land
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  theft and annexation happened during the Oslo Accords during
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  the so-called peace. OK, so you look at that and you
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  think OK, so the whole so-called peace negotiations was all about
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  giving a cover for the occupation and sea to commit
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  more crimes. But what's the solution then?
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  You've only got 2 solutions in front of you.
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  If you cannot negotiate with this entity, if it is a settler
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  colonial apartheid entity, the solution, if you want to live in
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  peace, the equation for peace is to abolish it.
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  You need to abolish that entity. OK, so if you want to abolish
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  it, when we say free Palestine, we're very good at seeing
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  slogans, but when it comes to understanding what that slogan
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  means, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
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  That requires structurally shifting the power balance on
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  the ground. Maps are carved out of wars.
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  That's the reality. So if we go back to the region
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  itself, World War One was so important for the West.
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  World War 1 is what enabled the West to colonize the whole
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  region, to colonize Iraq, which was under the British mandate.
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  Palestine was also under the British mandate.
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  Lebanon and Syria were under the French mandate.
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  That was only possible when the Allied powers won the war
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  against the Ottomans and the Ottomans were the ones who were
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  in control. So their strategy, the whole
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  Sykes Pico agreement that happened, splitting and carving
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  up the region, the simultaneous strategy was to get the Arabs to
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  fight the Ottomans again. They relied on splitting us and
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  them having the upper hand, you know, and giving us false
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  promises and the city Arabs fall for it.
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  That is what enabled them to consolidate themselves in the
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  region. Now this all began.
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  I would argue that was the turning point in World War One.
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  That's when Britain gained mandate over Palestine and and
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  Palestine was that central strategic point for the British
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  colonial empire. America today is that colonial
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  empire of the world, which is obviously dwindling now.
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  But for the past three decades it's been America that's been at
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  the helm. Prior to that, it was Britain,
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  you know, so Palestine has always been important for
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  Britain. And so the idea of Zionism, they
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  used Zionism as that structural vehicle for them to achieve
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  their goals. It's like this area is so
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  important. If we control this region, we
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  control the oil type of the world.
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  That's why colonizing Palestine is super important for us.
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  So as I've mentioned, maps get carved out of wars, which means
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  what the victors of the wars are the ones that have the safe of
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  the region moving forward. So if we're talking about
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  Palestine's liberation, that can only happen through direct
• 15:10
  confrontation on the ground that we can see Israeli occupation
• 15:13
  entity and strips away the components of the country that
• 15:16
  gives it life, the capability of survival.
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  What are those components today? The settlers, despite the fact
• 15:23
  that the resistance is very careful about not targeting
• 15:28
  settlers, the settlers or the civilian population of the
• 15:31
  entity are not the target. If we've noticed the kind of
• 15:34
  strikes that they've been hitting, it's like Mossad's HQ
• 15:37
  Unit 8200, the espionage, the Ramat's David Base, you know,
• 15:42
  sensitive strategic areas. Surveillance and things.
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  Like that. Despite that, though, the
• 15:47
  settlers are rattled. This idea so that they can just
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  penetrate, you know, obviously they don't trust the resistance,
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  and they don't trust the resistance is morality, although
• 15:55
  they've displayed that morality. But the settlers are afraid
• 15:59
  every time those sirens ring. I was reading about an Israeli
• 16:02
  soldier who was saying, I don't want to live here anymore
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  because I don't feel safe. The values that Israel was
• 16:08
  created upon no longer exist. So you have that aspect of
• 16:12
  security that's no longer there. You have the aspect of the
• 16:15
  economy that's completely dwindled.
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  So you have, you know, the Iraqi resistance and you have the
• 16:20
  Yemeni resistance that have been striking elats, which is a major
• 16:24
  port in the entity, which is now effectively bankrupt.
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  You have the high for port where the majority of imports and
• 16:29
  exports come in. So on that metric of economy, a
• 16:33
  stable economy requires a stable status quo, not a security, high
• 16:40
  risk security area. Companies are starting to think,
• 16:43
  Oh my God, if we deal with this entity, we're going to be on the
• 16:45
  boycott list. That's another thing.
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  Israel's now become a pariah in the global sense where the world
• 16:51
  has awoken. So companies are scared of that
• 16:54
  aspect of boycott military. We discuss morale.
• 16:57
  They have no morale on the ground.
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  The reason that they're losing in Hustler right now is not
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  because they don't have the abilities or the manpower.
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  They have a 300,000 reserve force of of men that far
• 17:09
  outnumbers the husband resistance on the ground, but
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  they're scared. It's like the Quran describes
• 17:15
  that heart, you know, fearful, always looking around, not
• 17:20
  knowing when the ambush is coming from because the way that
• 17:22
  the resistance has been operating, they've been using
• 17:23
  guerrilla warfare tactics. They've even been coming at 0
• 17:26
  distance. So by December, the spokesperson
• 17:29
  for the husband resistance, this was literally 2 months into the
• 17:31
  war amounts that 1000 Merkava tanks were set on fire.
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  Can you imagine the amount of Israeli soldiers that were
• 17:36
  sitting on those tanks? And that's because those tanks,
• 17:39
  the resistance fighters would put the explosives on the tank.
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  So they're running towards the tank, they're putting it there,
• 17:45
  and then they're running back. When you have that level of
• 17:48
  fearlessness, but those settlers are not coming to die.
• 17:52
  These settlers, mother definition of settlers, they're
• 17:55
  coming from across the globe. They have European citizenship,
• 17:58
  you know, so they're coming there for a better life.
• 18:00
  So, but if you remove the aspect of security, they're going to
• 18:02
  leave. So by the first three months, it
• 18:04
  was said that over a million settlers had fled from the
• 18:07
  entity. A lot of these facts regarding
• 18:08
  the weakness of the entity we don't know about because they
• 18:11
  actually impose censorships. So there is right now a complete
• 18:14
  military censorship within the entity itself.
• 18:17
  Not so obviously the settlers, they hear the sirens and that's
• 18:20
  how they know, but they try to censor from a media sense what
• 18:23
  is happening because they don't want the settlers to feel so
• 18:26
  afraid. At one point that Thali Bennett
• 18:28
  was begging the settlers saying please don't leave.
• 18:30
  Like just just don't because there's no country without a
• 18:32
  settler, you know. So that's the reality.
• 18:35
  All of this was only possible due to the war.
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  And if the war didn't happen, if October the 7th didn't happen,
• 18:42
  the Palestinian cause would be Nessie and Mencia.
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  Because the same West that brokered the Oslo Accords in the
• 18:49
  1990s is the same W is the same America that allowed the deal of
• 18:55
  the century and the Abraham Accords to go forward in 2020
• 18:58
  that was brokered by Trump. The deal of the century said we
• 19:01
  forego the idea of Palestinian statehood.
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  So even America itself, you know, all these so-called UN
• 19:06
  resolutions that get placed on the shelves, like, you know, the
• 19:09
  West Bank's occupation is illegal.
• 19:13
  It amounts to nothing because the West itself changes its
• 19:15
  position and its strategies based on the power balance on
• 19:18
  the ground. So you have to impose about the
• 19:20
  power balance on the ground. We can't keep crying about the
• 19:22
  status quo. We can't keep being upset about
• 19:25
  it. It needs to change.
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  The only way it's going to change by forcing that, because
• 19:28
  the world will not force that. The West itself is responsible
• 19:31
  for the entity. It is America today that gives
• 19:34
  the Israeli occupation entity the oxygen to breathe.
• 19:36
  America's the one that gives them all of the weapons of mass
• 19:39
  destruction. Israel couldn't survive one day
• 19:41
  without the American command. I always think of Israel not as
• 19:45
  this independent entity, but as America's project for the
• 19:47
  region, America's dealing with it.
• 19:49
  So even if America post war decides that it wants to hold
• 19:52
  Israel to account and it wants to shrink Israel, they could
• 19:55
  very well do that. They they can use 101 cards
• 19:57
  against the entity right now. They sanctioned Netanyahu and
• 19:59
  they put him on the terrorist list and they put Bengavira and
• 20:02
  Smart Rich on the terrorist list.
• 20:04
  The whole of the government will fall.
• 20:05
  It's interesting you say that. I was thinking today that the
• 20:08
  whole, my opinion, this is my opinion, the whole existence of
• 20:11
  Israel there, it's that to protect the US assets that they
• 20:15
  see in the region, right themselves or how they want to
• 20:18
  control the things. And now they've reached a point
• 20:19
  where Israel's no longer protecting them.
• 20:22
  They have to now protect Israel at any cost, even if it means,
• 20:26
  of course, our citizens in the United States can see the lies
• 20:30
  and deceptions of our government do at any cost.
• 20:34
  And now we're seeing, obviously it's manifesting in so many
• 20:36
  different forms. In the beginning, you mentioned
• 20:38
  about the, the, the even, even people who are Iraqi should take
• 20:43
  note of, of the existential threat of Israel.
• 20:45
  But forget even that, like from a Western perspective, we are
• 20:48
  now seeing our government take part in what is recognized to be
• 20:53
  a genocide, a genocide campaign in Palestine and now obviously
• 20:55
  an offensive towards civilian neighbourhoods in Lebanon.
• 20:58
  And this is something which unfortunately we're seeing
• 21:00
  British bullets and British bombs participate in these wars.
• 21:04
  There was a guy who was thrown out of, of Keir Starmer's
• 21:07
  speech. And did you see that?
• 21:09
  And he basically was, he came out of the police van and he's a
• 21:13
  Labour Party delegate. And, and he actually said that
• 21:16
  this is something I wasn't planning on doing.
• 21:18
  I'm not like a, a Palestine action campaigner or something
• 21:22
  like that. He goes, I'm a Labour Party
• 21:23
  delegate. I just thought it's absurd to
• 21:26
  see that the Prime Minister of this country is calling for a
• 21:28
  ceasefire, but at the same time is is sending British bombs and
• 21:31
  bullets to Israel and unfortunately allowing the war
• 21:35
  to continue without sanction or embargo.
• 21:37
  And you know, we hear a lot about a lot of the time about
• 21:40
  the two state solution, which I feel is a very neutral,
• 21:44
  diplomatic and easy thing to say to try and see Mike, someone is
• 21:49
  on the middle ground and someone is is protecting themselves.
• 21:54
  Obviously. I think you mentioned very well
• 21:56
  that understanding what it means to say free Palestine is
• 22:00
  important to understand that that means that the, the
• 22:03
  existence in itself of the Israeli occupation entity is
• 22:07
  illegitimate. It just is not legitimate from
• 22:10
  its core until now the spread of their colonialist wings across
• 22:13
  the region and their intent to now, you know, advance and like
• 22:18
  we see their attack on, on Lebanon is, is strategic.
• 22:20
  So of course, like you mentioned what Naftali Bennett said, which
• 22:25
  was very pertinent and obviously he also made a comment a couple
• 22:28
  of days ago about the Shia of Lebanon, which I found was
• 22:31
  hilarious. You would love that, said Ali.
• 22:33
  He said that the Shia of Lebanon are giving their homes basically
• 22:37
  for for the Lebanese resistance to to put rockets and in
• 22:41
  specific rooms he goes. Have you ever seen a war where
• 22:44
  homes are giving specific rooms to be like a rocket launcher
• 22:47
  room? By the way, I so I came across
• 22:49
  and I tried to imagine my living room with like a missile, but I
• 22:54
  is is laughable, of course. And half the time that they
• 22:57
  release, yeah, things like this is like, bro, it's all CGI
• 23:00
  based. Yeah, of course the colour.
• 23:02
  But what was interesting in that note is at least from from my
• 23:05
  perspective, the first time which you have an Israeli
• 23:08
  politician publicly and you see like an introduction of the term
• 23:12
  Shia, yes, which is very interesting.
• 23:14
  And of course. Losing to this, by the way,
• 23:15
  before the podcast to the sister, yeah, but I've seen an
• 23:17
  uptick in the retro 100%. You mentioned Shia to
• 23:20
  everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100% so.
• 23:22
  That rhetoric has always been there, though, if you've been
• 23:24
  closely looking at the way the Western, the strategy of the
• 23:28
  Western media. But the past, I would say decade
• 23:30
  and a half since the war of terror, has been to use the
• 23:33
  Sunni Shia card. I think so to.
• 23:35
  Weaponize sectarianism to turn the Muslim ummah, effectively
• 23:38
  the majority of which are Sunnis, against this core
• 23:42
  powerful resistance group. It's not like they care about
• 23:44
  Sunni Shia though. So even if let's say the country
• 23:47
  is involved in the resistance axis were Sunni, it would be
• 23:50
  vice versa. It would be like the Sunnis that
• 23:52
  would be on the target. It's very political.
• 23:55
  I would argue that even Islamophobia, it's not like an
• 23:57
  inherent contention with Islam per SE.
• 24:00
  It's the active and effective Islam that is manifesting itself
• 24:05
  on the ground due to the opposition to goals.
• 24:07
  Because if you look at someone like, I don't know, Julian
• 24:10
  Assange, he's white, he's atheist.
• 24:12
  They imprisoned him in Belmarsh for how many years?
• 24:15
  You know, if you look at the crackdown that even we're seeing
• 24:17
  on the UK, you've raised a very important point about the threat
• 24:20
  here. Yeah.
• 24:21
  Like, if they're able to do that there, they're able to do that
• 24:24
  here. And they don't care about their
• 24:25
  own citizens even. So someone like Sarah Wilkinson
• 24:27
  or Richard Medhurst, Yeah. You know, these are activists
• 24:30
  who are British citizens. They're white.
• 24:33
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 24:34
  Effectively they're being terrorized essentially in
• 24:37
  airports, their homes raided, put in cells, you know, white
• 24:40
  people. So it's not their contention is
• 24:43
  not your acqui, it's your acqui they're manifesting.
• 24:47
  It's, it's look, it's ironic because the whole, you know,
• 24:50
  facade of freedom of speech does not manifest in these times.
• 24:53
  Do you know what I mean? And it's, you know, there's one
• 24:56
  rule for someone, another for others.
• 24:58
  And we've seen that in the last few months with the protests,
• 25:00
  with the demonstrations that we've seen obviously in on
• 25:02
  social media. We can't say things without
• 25:06
  being shadow bound or suspended on, on Twitter.
• 25:09
  And we've seen like just how like you've, you've, we've lost
• 25:12
  count on the number of people which have been just basically
• 25:15
  exiled online based on, on voicing their opinions.
• 25:18
  Richard Medhurst and and Sarah Wilkinson as examples,
• 25:21
  journalists, people who who are well versed in their, in their,
• 25:25
  in their field and they've been doing their craft for many years
• 25:27
  and reporting for many years. Of course, they'll come from a
• 25:30
  perspective, but their perspective is usually backed up
• 25:32
  factually. And you know, in, in the Western
• 25:35
  world, in a, you know, 2024 society, one which claims to be
• 25:40
  civilized and advanced and, and whatnot, to then crack down on
• 25:43
  people for, for, for doing their job is absurd.
• 25:47
  And that's in the West. We're not even talking about
• 25:49
  Shrini, but Akala. And we're not talking about
• 25:51
  journalists who visit Palestine or who visit Lebanon.
• 25:55
  You know, we're talking about people who are here inherently
• 25:57
  British passport holders. It's absolutely insane.
• 26:00
  It tells you how important the information war is as well.
• 26:03
  For me, sometimes when I feel so like not helpless, but I'm not
• 26:07
  doing enough, I sit down and I remind myself and I'm like, hold
• 26:10
  on. Look at the amount of censorship
• 26:12
  they impose on social media. Look at the billions of dollars
• 26:15
  that they spend on lobby groups just to penetrate the narrative.
• 26:20
  And then I think, OK, this is so important because because
• 26:24
  imagine what we heard on the ground in Palestine was why did
• 26:28
  October the 7th happen? Imagine in Lebanon right now if
• 26:31
  we heard those who are under the Israeli bombs saying the
• 26:34
  resistance is bringing this up on us.
• 26:36
  I guarantee you the resistance will be severely, if not
• 26:39
  existentially weakened. That morale is everything.
• 26:43
  And that morale, the moment you start feeding lies and you twist
• 26:47
  the realities for what they are. And this is exactly the strategy
• 26:50
  they've used to fight the resistance axis, to turn people
• 26:53
  against it, to say that, you know, this is a this is I was
• 26:55
  speaking to the brother and met the Shiite, you know, they, they
• 26:58
  describe it as like the spread of like the Shiite Crescent.
• 27:00
  This was the first term that was coined by the king of Jordan in
• 27:04
  2004 in the wake of the war of terror because the idea was to
• 27:09
  target the summer, the summer Republic of Iran.
• 27:11
  So, so we need to go in, we need to invade and occupy Iraq and
• 27:13
  Afghanistan and stationary troops in Pakistan and go into
• 27:16
  Lebanon, you know, invade and get rid of the resistance there
• 27:20
  and then go into Syria, you know, top, top, top of Bashar
• 27:23
  al-Assad. So they use that sectarian card
• 27:26
  to get the people to hate the resistance axis, not because it
• 27:30
  has anything to do with Sydney or Shia or further on launching
• 27:33
  Daesh, the best candidate to fight that, the version of Islam
• 27:37
  that's a threat to them, you know, weaponizing that card.
• 27:41
  Result of that, yeah. The creation has to be yeah.
• 27:43
  There you go, the creation has to be and, and the unity that we
• 27:47
  saw, the number of mobilisation units that we saw in Iraq 10
• 27:50
  years ago, the number of Sunni Mokib's, as they say, that came
• 27:53
  forward and, and supported the, the fence of the Shia.
• 27:56
  And of course the, the statement of Said Ali Sistani and, and
• 27:59
  these kind of actions which brought people together.
• 28:02
  And of course now what we're seeing Lebanon, let's let's just
• 28:04
  remind people at home is not a Shia dominated country.
• 28:07
  So population wise, the Shia are a third give or take some say
• 28:12
  and we are now seeing our Maraja.
• 28:15
  So from a from a religious perspective, the religious
• 28:17
  authorities come out and say that it is wajib on what many to
• 28:20
  stand up and to do whatever possible to alleviate the
• 28:23
  suffering of Lebanese people. And that could be through
• 28:25
  humanitarian means. The information as you said and
• 28:28
  much more. I think just to touch on
• 28:31
  something you mentioned earlier about the demise, the long term
• 28:34
  demise of the occupation entity. I don't think anyone could say
• 28:37
  that that they are edging towards winning a war.
• 28:41
  OK, we're approaching the 12 month mark of, of the invasion
• 28:44
  of Gaza and we are now seeing from APR perspective and
• 28:50
  annihilation of their public reputation.
• 28:52
  We're seeing absolute anarchy when it comes to the economic
• 28:56
  repercussions that Israel's facing internally, of course,
• 28:59
  that the cabinet riots, the, the, the interior ministry just
• 29:05
  all over the place, the, the Poles, even within Israel, which
• 29:08
  are calling for Netanyahu to, to leave because of the lack of
• 29:13
  ability to release hostages, the number of hostages which have
• 29:16
  been killed by Israeli air strikes themselves.
• 29:18
  And then of course, on a global level, you know, one would
• 29:21
  assume that their goal would be to remove Hamas, which of course
• 29:25
  has not happened. And now the, the attack on
• 29:28
  Lebanon is for what purpose? It's it's of course for them to
• 29:31
  to, to get Hezbollah or the Lebanese resistance to stop
• 29:34
  attacking the north so that settlers can reconvene in their
• 29:38
  day-to-day lives. And we have to be very specific
• 29:40
  about using the term settlers are not, you know, people's
• 29:42
  homes because these are settlements, because that's the
• 29:44
  minute you call it homes, you're validating their right to be
• 29:47
  there. You're saying that this is
• 29:48
  hereditarily their possession. These are these are properties
• 29:52
  which have been handed down through generations and it's
• 29:54
  part of their DNA. It's not OK.
• 29:56
  We'll say it as black and white as it can be, but you know,
• 30:00
  we're now 12 months in, we've seen 10s of thousands of lives
• 30:03
  been lost. We've seen, I, I think I saw a
• 30:05
  stat today like 90% of the mosques in Palestine have been
• 30:09
  destroyed. Now we're seeing, of course, the
• 30:11
  attack on Lebanon, specifically in residential and civilian
• 30:15
  areas. Can anyone, even in terms of the
• 30:19
  opposition forces, can they argue that we are edging closer
• 30:23
  towards the success and the victory that we're looking for?
• 30:26
  No, and I would refer everyone to what the Israeli military
• 30:29
  strategists are saying. That to me is my source.
• 30:32
  So when? Demise.
• 30:34
  Is that? Yeah, yes.
• 30:35
  So when the Reserve Army General Yitzhak Brick comes out and
• 30:37
  says, you know this entity, if the war continues, you will not
• 30:41
  survive for more than two years. Yeah, yeah, you have a maximum
• 30:43
  limit of two years. And so now it is unanimous that
• 30:47
  the occupation entities held hostage to Netanyahu and his
• 30:50
  right wing cabinet. So Ben Gavir and Smart Rich,
• 30:52
  even if you look within the top echelons of those who are
• 30:55
  decision makers, if you look at someone like Yeryl Lapid for
• 30:57
  example, who is the the oppositionist, If you look at
• 31:00
  Benny Gantz, who again is a military strategist.
• 31:03
  If you even look at Gallon, who is the minister of defence, they
• 31:07
  all in actual fact support the idea of a ceasefire, not because
• 31:11
  they want to stop a genocide, but because they're saying, hold
• 31:14
  on, we are edging closer to our own demise.
• 31:18
  We are shooting ourselves in the foot.
• 31:20
  This is not in our interest. So even America itself, believe
• 31:24
  it or not, America wants to stop the war.
• 31:26
  America's serious when it says I want a ceasefire.
• 31:28
  The only reason it hasn't pushed the ceasefire is because it
• 31:31
  doesn't want to pressure the occupation entity at a time of
• 31:34
  real emergency. It's like when the house is
• 31:36
  burning right now. The house is burning.
• 31:38
  It has to walk with the occupation entity.
• 31:40
  If it decides to take measures against it like muscle and
• 31:42
  suppose it decides to halt weapons shipment.
• 31:46
  Suppose it decides to put Netanyahu on the terrorist list.
• 31:48
  What's that going to do that's going to weaken Israel further?
• 31:51
  If Israel weakens at the expense of what?
• 31:55
  At the expense of the resistance axis getting stronger, That's
• 31:58
  the red line for America. America has to walk with its
• 32:01
  projects, even sovereignty, even if there is a difference in the
• 32:06
  view and the direction of America and Israel.
• 32:09
  So what I would say is strategy is one thing during war and
• 32:12
  emergency post war is a completely different ball game.
• 32:16
  So expect that once the ceasefire happens, and it's
• 32:18
  going to happen because no war goes on forever.
• 32:21
  And also another reason that Netanyahu wants this war to
• 32:23
  continue is because he has no solution.
• 32:25
  So you describe the two state solution.
• 32:27
  One of the things that fascinates me about the two
• 32:29
  state solution is that it's not even a matter of justice.
• 32:31
  Like is this just or is it not The Israelis themselves see that
• 32:35
  as a suicide? Israel itself says we cannot
• 32:38
  have the two state solution because imagine we need to
• 32:42
  expand to ensure our continued survival and security.
• 32:46
  You're telling us right now we're supposed to remove our
• 32:47
  settlements from the West Bank. So you've got groups like the
• 32:50
  Lion's Den and other resistance groups that are forming there.
• 32:52
  We're supposed to remove our occupation from the West Bank.
• 32:55
  That's huge landmass. So the moment you have a strong
• 32:59
  and powerful resistance in West Bank, that's a bigger threat
• 33:02
  than Gaza. The West Bank Bank is scarier to
• 33:04
  the occupation entity than a HASSA is.
• 33:07
  That's why it's not willing to get rid of its occupation in the
• 33:10
  West Bank, despite the fact that they're really feeling the heat
• 33:13
  from the resistance there. You know, a HASSA is a different
• 33:15
  story. A HASSA is 362 square
• 33:18
  kilometres. It's tiny landmass, you know, So
• 33:21
  they had to withdraw in two in 2005 because they sustained
• 33:24
  really high losses. America's strategy right now is
• 33:26
  Pro 2 state solution because America thinks in terms of
• 33:29
  interests. America thinks, OK, Israel,
• 33:32
  we've given you a whole year. We've given you the weapons of
• 33:34
  the world. We've given you everything.
• 33:35
  We've just given you the space to do your job.
• 33:38
  We said she finished them. Finishing Hamas is more
• 33:41
  important for you to finish them is more important for us than it
• 33:44
  is even for you. You know, we don't want the
• 33:46
  resistance axis to be strong, but you failed.
• 33:48
  But what happens if you're a failing entity?
• 33:51
  Politics runs on power and ability, you know.
• 33:53
  So at the end of the day, Israel's going to shrink to
• 33:56
  match its true size, its true ability on the ground.
• 34:00
  So that's why America's saying even the US itself, you cannot
• 34:03
  control Raza. Remove the idea of you
• 34:06
  stationing your troops around the Philadelphia corridor and
• 34:08
  forming a security belt. You can't have you defeated the
• 34:11
  Hudson Resistance. If you're not able to to
• 34:14
  sustain, then it's going to be a continued confrontation because
• 34:16
  they're not going to allow you there.
• 34:18
  So tell us you need to remove yourself from Raza and also from
• 34:21
  the West Bank as well, and we'll put a Western friendly entity in
• 34:24
  power. When America says 2 state
• 34:26
  solution, of course, it doesn't mean we want the Hudson
• 34:28
  Resistance to be the ones that are.
• 34:30
  They have to. Choose.
• 34:31
  Yeah. So at one point they were even
• 34:33
  talking about the UAE, they were even saying the Khalid, the
• 34:36
  Khalidi is the Gulf, have to be the ones that administer the
• 34:40
  affairs of Razza. So the two state solution is a
• 34:43
  logo. OK.
• 34:44
  Can the occupation entity accept the one state solution?
• 34:47
  No way. That means recognizing
• 34:48
  Palestinians as humans, the human, animals.
• 34:50
  Of course not. You know, can they continue
• 34:53
  controlling Raza? No, because the power balance is
• 34:56
  not in their favour. But you, you cannot continue
• 34:59
  controlling Hustler. One state solutions are the
• 35:01
  equation 2 state solution. What is your only solution?
• 35:04
  Create the most unbearable conditions that you can
• 35:07
  facilitate a second Nakba, the population transfer of the
• 35:10
  Palestinians. I was reading an estimate, 15%.
• 35:14
  They're saying now, now you know The Lancet report that said it
• 35:16
  was up to two 200,000. Now they're estimating over
• 35:20
  350,000 and most likely martyrs. And Gaza, you're talking about
• 35:24
  15% of the population. So from Netanyahu's perspective,
• 35:27
  the more he elongates the war, the more I'm getting rid of
• 35:31
  these human animals. The way that he sees it is that
• 35:33
  I have a problem right here. I have a problem with these.
• 35:36
  What are we going to do with them?
• 35:37
  Perhaps post war? What we can do is we've
• 35:39
  inflicted so much damage, death and destruction that we can open
• 35:42
  the borders and we can get our Western counterparts to start
• 35:45
  absorbing the Palestinian refugees.
• 35:48
  That was the idea in 1948. Terrorize the Palestinians in
• 35:51
  their lands so that they're going to Lebanon and they become
• 35:53
  refugees. They go into Jordan.
• 35:55
  You know, the world can accept them.
• 35:57
  And so the old will die, and the young will forget.
• 35:59
  That's the truth. Like I remember when they
• 36:00
  cornered them in Rafa. Yeah, yes, Egypt.
• 36:03
  Open your. Yes, OK, You hit the nail on the
• 36:06
  head. The idea of Rafa, Yes, the idea
• 36:09
  of controlling them in one specific area.
• 36:12
  It's like the final solution. We've controlled you that the
• 36:15
  what can we do with you now? Maybe now we can start
• 36:17
  pressurizing America to allow their population transfer, but
• 36:20
  America doesn't see that as a viable solution either, this
• 36:23
  idea of population transfer, because it will create too much
• 36:26
  agitation and reaction globally. And that's another metric that
• 36:30
  America considers that Israel does not give 2 Dimes about.
• 36:33
  Israel doesn't care about what the world thinks about it.
• 36:35
  I'm a pariah, so be it. It has 0 red lines.
• 36:38
  It's not trying to impress anyone.
• 36:40
  It's America that goes out and tries to cover those crimes.
• 36:43
  Otherwise, Israel's crimes are in out in the open.
• 36:46
  So that's the reality that we're seeing before us.
• 36:48
  They're killing themselves with with the passage of time and in
• 36:52
  this war, which is why the Americans and even the Israelis
• 36:55
  themselves want this war to end. But Suhan Allah, it's like
• 36:58
  they're getting into a further. They're taking their grave
• 37:02
  literally. They're.
• 37:03
  Taking their own grave. Yeah, literally the same.
• 37:07
  This is what we mean now in the whole world they are discussing
• 37:10
  the prospect of A2 state solution.
• 37:11
  Spain comes out and says we need to recognize the Palestinian
• 37:13
  state, even Saudi Arabia in exchange for normalization
• 37:16
  because that was going on last year.
• 37:17
  This was pre October the 7th. This idea of of Saudi de
• 37:20
  normalizing with the entity, the idea of A2 state solution wasn't
• 37:24
  put on the table. Now Saudi comes and says we will
• 37:26
  only normalize if there is this 2 states.
• 37:29
  So Palestine has imposed itself. There's no other way than them
• 37:35
  imposing themselves. So I would question even what
• 37:37
  happened on the day. Yeah, there was Spain, Ireland,
• 37:40
  there was another Scandinavian nation as well, I think.
• 37:42
  But there's but we're seeing more global recognition and of
• 37:45
  course the ceasefire narrative has of course in the last six
• 37:48
  months or so, I think. Because Norway.
• 37:50
  Norway, perhaps, and. That's due to October the 7th.
• 37:52
  Yeah, yeah. And I think it's interesting
• 37:54
  because this, this, this, this, the narrative has been pushed
• 37:58
  more and more. And I think the more information
• 38:00
  there is, the more like absolute atrocities that we've seen.
• 38:05
  You know, you can now live somewhere like the UK.
• 38:08
  You'll have Keir Starmer come out and say, yeah, we support a
• 38:10
  ceasefire of all those of this course, you know, strategic and
• 38:13
  there's reasoning behind it, but it's there.
• 38:16
  I want to kind of move the conversation forward to talk a
• 38:18
  bit about the the responsibility of us.
• 38:21
  OK, can. I just have the point before we
• 38:23
  go there because we were talking about like, has the Israeli
• 38:26
  government achieved this aims? And I think the world would
• 38:30
  agree that rather than achieving any aim, it's actually done the
• 38:34
  very opposite and from the very, very, very beginning.
• 38:38
  And if let's go back to October, October the 8th or the 9th,
• 38:41
  whether they all the media out there start showing the footage
• 38:45
  of the the attack inside outside Gaza when they went be at the
• 38:51
  music festival. What the settlements, that's
• 38:55
  what we call them, right? They showed footage of houses
• 39:01
  literally being destructed, like completely gone, like
• 39:05
  demolished, destructed, right? And they were saying this is all
• 39:07
  by fire. So the average human being, the
• 39:11
  average human with an intellect handle Allah has given us some
• 39:14
  intellects. They applied to him and they
• 39:16
  were like, how does a fire make a house collapse?
• 39:22
  How does a fire, for example, create like a explosion sort of
• 39:29
  vision? So people start asking, you
• 39:31
  know, did did these not Hamas spokesperson, but did Hamas
• 39:36
  really commit such crimes, right?
• 39:40
  And that's where it all became fall apart.
• 39:42
  It was like they created their own spider web where whatever
• 39:45
  they said sort of now became any accusation was like a
• 39:51
  confession, right? So when they said, for example,
• 39:54
  there were beheaded babies, my God, and the world went crazy.
• 40:00
  The normal ones were like, where's the evidence when they
• 40:03
  were said they were raping Israeli citizens?
• 40:08
  Until now, there hasn't been a single case.
• 40:10
  The audio tapes, the fake, the fake translations.
• 40:13
  And from the hospital to the CGI of the Hamas HQ on the Shifa
• 40:17
  hospital, it's still on. It's.
• 40:19
  Like they're having a civil war and they're having a civil war
• 40:22
  to discuss whether rape is legitimate or not within the
• 40:24
  entity and. Speaking on that point, there
• 40:27
  was a point, I don't know if you saw.
• 40:28
  Yeah, I mean, there was this one, I think Israeli soldier who
• 40:33
  raped a Palestinian NGO and he was taken as a hero.
• 40:38
  All there are on Israel, on TV. They were practicing as the hero
• 40:40
  of Israel. By the way, if this is what
• 40:42
  makes them a hero, that's them. Hamdallah.
• 40:45
  We have our principles, we have our morals, right?
• 40:48
  But the point I'm trying to make is that while we saw the lies
• 40:51
  that were being stared and brewed for Gaza so that the
• 40:55
  genocide can start, I'm seeing it now happening in Lebanon.
• 40:59
  When they say the homes they are bombing, there's a point I
• 41:02
  allude to in a second when they say we are bombing the homes of
• 41:05
  Hezbollah, correct? Which is what they're claiming
• 41:08
  right now. Today I was on, on the radio, I
• 41:10
  was listening, I went on a long journey today.
• 41:13
  I had a 2 hour drive, a British man called a British man from
• 41:17
  Lubnan. He's British, he's Christian,
• 41:21
  he's white born and bred. And he was like, this is going
• 41:24
  to be very shocking because it was a very intense discussion
• 41:27
  happening on the radio and LBC. And he was like, look, I'm a I'm
• 41:30
  a white guy. I'm a British guy.
• 41:32
  I'm married to a Lebanese or both Christian.
• 41:36
  And believe or not everything you're saying about these areas,
• 41:38
  I walk on them every single day. I walk past them every single
• 41:41
  day. I am neighbors with these
• 41:43
  people. You are saying they are so and
• 41:45
  so I'm sending you, you are lying.
• 41:48
  And when you have a British guy, a white guy, come out and say
• 41:52
  no, no, you British commentators, you're British
• 41:54
  media. You guys are lying.
• 41:56
  That play to him, man, that. That no one would ever think
• 42:00
  that, right Danny? The the perception or the game
• 42:04
  or the narrative. I think it's the work here to
• 42:06
  use the narrative that the media has tried to push against, be it
• 42:09
  Lebanon OR Palestine is changing because the hypocrisy is now
• 42:14
  exposed in in a sense. And it's made me realise
• 42:18
  something. And I was telling say, Mujtaba,
• 42:20
  who's producer here after Muhammad knows me very well as
• 42:22
  well. I, and I, and I mentioned this,
• 42:24
  I reference to this early on. I really didn't care about the
• 42:27
  Palestinian course many years ago because it had nothing to do
• 42:30
  with me. I, I didn't know, you know, why
• 42:34
  I should care, why I should bother.
• 42:35
  But then it was only, I think since October that my eyes
• 42:39
  opened and I was like, OK, no, no, there's innocent life being
• 42:41
  lost here. There's children going to
• 42:44
  hospital with sniper bullet wounds for what reason, right?
• 42:48
  And we saw limbs, body parts, refugee camps being burned, all
• 42:52
  of this. I was like, no, no, no, no, I'm
• 42:54
  Muslim, I play, I'm from the. How can I not give AI have to
• 43:01
  care and I think your open mind this one I say like lying and
• 43:04
  hypocrisy. It's hard for me to say this
• 43:06
  because I don't. It's not something I want to
• 43:08
  admit, but this is the reality and conversation like this are
• 43:11
  important. Well, how many people in the
• 43:12
  community feel this way? Because I think over the last,
• 43:15
  we're, we're in a generation where I remember 2006.
• 43:19
  Well, I remember the, the aftermath of it and I remember
• 43:22
  the mood in the community. And then I, I, I was in that
• 43:25
  phase like that generation where I was doing my GCSE 2010 eleven.
• 43:31
  And I remember vividly there was a surge of Palestinian rhetoric
• 43:38
  in the UK And we had like activists here or musicians like
• 43:42
  Loki, who of course is, is such a key and critical voice right
• 43:46
  now in, in in the UK and worldwide actually for his
• 43:49
  activism. And guys like him educate us, me
• 43:53
  and most of us talk about him a lot.
• 43:55
  He's like a an uncle to us in many, in many ways.
• 43:59
  But like, you know, that kind of education at it comes at a
• 44:02
  certain point and I think for a long.
• 44:03
  I didn't want to mention that. It's difficult to share it,
• 44:05
  right? There's a lot of views.
• 44:06
  I think rather he doesn't care, baby.
• 44:08
  That's the reality. And no, no, no, no.
• 44:09
  And at the very beginning, sorry, there's a point I
• 44:11
  mentioned. It's very important to me
• 44:13
  personally, at the very beginning when this happened and
• 44:15
  the protests happened and people start going to the streets, I
• 44:18
  looked at my 2 little girls, my children.
• 44:20
  I was like, they're coming with me.
• 44:21
  Yeah, yeah. Because if they don't know
• 44:23
  what's happening now and God forbid this loss until they're
• 44:25
  adults, they get married and move on and you're to blame.
• 44:28
  It's my fault. Just like I I had no education.
• 44:30
  And This is why I say conversation like it's important
• 44:32
  because I wouldn't have, you know, understood right from
• 44:36
  wrong how to be sparkling. And this is important to.
• 44:38
  Us how many 16/17/18 year olds who are listening now their
• 44:42
  first exposure and experience to major war?
• 44:45
  I mean, even when we're talking about Yemen, which its peak was
• 44:49
  only a few years ago, a lot of the people now who are at a
• 44:52
  stage and age and, and smart enough and they've got the
• 44:54
  intellect to kind of digest this information and process it at
• 44:57
  that time were, you know, kids, do you know what I mean?
• 45:01
  So for a lot of youth, this is their first, first exposure.
• 45:04
  And I think look, we we have to recognize that we believe that
• 45:08
  we are the followers of hack like we are followers of a large
• 45:12
  Dean on earth. We follow not just the the
• 45:14
  religion that was brought down, but the religion that was
• 45:16
  preserved by the act of Beta name of Salaam.
• 45:19
  And we believe in divine justice.
• 45:21
  We believe in Al Qaim, and we believe in this whole notion of,
• 45:24
  of divine justice. And we believe in, you know,
• 45:28
  vengeance. From love, culture will come for
• 45:31
  humanity as well. I always tell myself that like
• 45:34
  Imam, he's gonna build a worldwide government so no one
• 45:41
  will be under oppression. And what I've seen in these past
• 45:44
  four months has convinced me that actually we might find more
• 45:48
  non-muslim justice seeking people with the Imam then you
• 45:52
  would potentially find Muslims who are sleeping.
• 45:55
  Because it's the futra that wants that justice, that wants
• 46:00
  that oppression to end. And it's the enemy that sows
• 46:03
  those seeds of sedition and that fitna in the hearts.
• 46:07
  It's like what Imam Ali says, Lana Laman and other.
• 46:11
  So the fitness sleeping, may Allah curse those who awaken it.
• 46:16
  So when you hear those types of people that try to make the
• 46:19
  Sunnis hate the Shias, for example, you know, that's the
• 46:23
  most potent card that they use. So the scholars for dollars, you
• 46:25
  know, they'll bring like the Wahhabis and the Salafis to go
• 46:28
  out and, and to say all this nonsense.
• 46:29
  They'll do the same with the Shias, by the way, they'll bring
• 46:31
  the scholars for dollars who they will nurture to kind of
• 46:35
  ethereal, sectarian in kinds of issues that have no place right
• 46:40
  now. You know, so let's talk about
• 46:42
  things of the past. Let's, I don't know, let's cast
• 46:45
  revered figures for the Sunnis, for example, that creates a real
• 46:49
  psychological impact within Sunnis that the vast majority of
• 46:51
  the Sunnis that you meet might tell you, Oh, but she has cast
• 46:54
  that's that's the only thing they know, you know, And so
• 46:57
  actually, this concerted strategy and effort of, of
• 47:01
  causing divisions in this kinds of way, rather than, you know,
• 47:05
  the enemy is trying to kind of break your hands, you know, and
• 47:09
  you're worried about whether you're praying like this or like
• 47:11
  this and your enemy wants to cut your hands.
• 47:12
  This is the famous mock all of your Khomeini, you know.
• 47:15
  So focus on the common enemy, you know, and focus on the
• 47:20
  common book, which is the Quran and focus on the common God and
• 47:23
  focus on the common goal. And as human beings, when we
• 47:26
  talk about the aspect of responsibility, it's like the
• 47:29
  human being exists on many different stratas.
• 47:32
  As a human at the top level, as a citizen of this Earth, there
• 47:36
  is a common struggle between every single human being.
• 47:39
  We should unite with every single individual against the
• 47:41
  global structure of capitalism. Doesn't matter what your
• 47:43
  background is, that is a threat to everyone.
• 47:46
  The mass people need to unite on that.
• 47:48
  Then there's a certain level of unity within the Muslim Ummah.
• 47:51
  It's a matter if you're Sunni or Shia.
• 47:52
  It's like what Imam Khomeini also said, if every individual
• 47:55
  was to just put a drop of water into the occupation entity, the
• 47:59
  Zionist occupation entity, it would cease to exist if you just
• 48:02
  put a drop of water. You know, But again, you
• 48:05
  described when this resistance all began, began for four
• 48:08
  decades ago in the advent of the Islamic Revolution.
• 48:11
  And then when it went and it supported Lebanon and its
• 48:13
  liberation against the occupation entity, it supported
• 48:15
  the unsought against the Saudi blockade.
• 48:17
  You know, it supported again, Iraq in the fight against Daesh
• 48:20
  and American terrorism in the early 2000s.
• 48:23
  You know, if imagine just today, if the Arab regimes and rulers
• 48:27
  decided to all their efforts to fight the occupation entity, it
• 48:31
  would cease to exist. So that unity on the Muslim
• 48:34
  Ummah. Then you have the aspect of the
• 48:37
  community, for example, which is the kind of stuff that you guys
• 48:39
  focus on the more local community.
• 48:41
  Then you have your responsibility as a citizen of
• 48:43
  the country as well, you know. So as a citizen in the Uki
• 48:48
  think, what is my responsibility living here?
• 48:51
  I'm in the belly of the beast. The expectation is not for me to
• 48:53
  be in Lebanon right now as a Lebanese, you know, as much as I
• 48:56
  think, yeah, Later, Nakuna Malcolm, I think exactly.
• 49:00
  My job is here. And I actually believe my job
• 49:02
  here is more effective and more powerful because if I go there,
• 49:05
  I'm not really going to influence hearts and minds
• 49:07
  there. They're they're influencing me,
• 49:08
  to be honest. They're.
• 49:09
  Already. They're giving me the strength.
• 49:12
  They're the strong ones. My job over here is to echo what
• 49:16
  is happening on the ground. So sometimes we underestimate
• 49:19
  the importance of the information war.
• 49:21
  But for me, when I look at the fact that not only are there
• 49:24
  billions of dollars spent on the information narrative, but also
• 49:26
  coups and color revolutions that occur if the West is successful
• 49:31
  in cooing a certain, I don't know, Ukraine, for example, they
• 49:34
  were successful in two in 2014 in getting in getting rid of
• 49:37
  that neutral guy that that I think his name was Yanukovych.
• 49:40
  Like he wasn't pro NATO and he wasn't pro Russia.
• 49:42
  It was neutral. They wanted someone who was, you
• 49:44
  know, pro NATO and anti Russia. Exactly.
• 49:47
  They succeeded in the coup because the majority of the
• 49:50
  Ukrainians couldn't really give a toss about the leadership.
• 49:52
  Like, it wasn't, there wasn't a hearts and minds attached to it.
• 49:56
  But for example, you see, with the Islamic Republic of Iran,
• 49:58
  they've spent the past four decades trying to COO the
• 50:00
  Islamic Revolution. That's been their top priority.
• 50:02
  That's why they got Saddam to wage a war on Iran.
• 50:06
  That's why they've been imposing embargo sieges and sanctions on
• 50:09
  Lebanon. That's why they're doing that
• 50:11
  with Lebanon right now. You know, since 2019, since
• 50:14
  Trump ramped up the maximum pressure campaign on Lebanon,
• 50:17
  halting the economy effectively, where in Lebanon, you know, you
• 50:20
  barely earn right now because the inflation is so high, It's
• 50:23
  to get the people to abandon the resistance.
• 50:25
  Likewise in Syria with the Cesar sanctions that exist as well, to
• 50:28
  get the people to overturn the people against the government.
• 50:31
  Yeah. So that information war is super
• 50:35
  critical and important in aiding them in being able to carry out
• 50:38
  these kinds of covert regime change operations.
• 50:41
  There's a reason why, you know, there's hadith from Miramot
• 50:46
  Manin where he says that as it's as if I can see that between the
• 50:51
  Rukan and the Mccam and he says he's there and he's abandoned by
• 50:54
  the Arabs and he says well, onto the Arabs, well onto the Arabs
• 50:57
  he goes, they are people of deceit and cutting this.
• 50:59
  Sorry to you both, but that's why I'm obviously.
• 51:02
  Reality. No, I'm sorry.
• 51:03
  I'm not. I'm joking.
• 51:05
  No, because like you said, if there was a cohesive
• 51:10
  collaborated effort to stand up for humanity, like we're not
• 51:14
  even talking about something difficult.
• 51:15
  We're talking about standing up for human life.
• 51:18
  The sanctity of human life, which we know from the Quran is
• 51:22
  just precious. It's, it's something which is
• 51:24
  divine gift from Allah, Spalo to Allah, then so many of the
• 51:28
  world's issues would be alleviated.
• 51:30
  So many of the world's issues and look at times like this
• 51:33
  we're seeing as we speak right now.
• 51:35
  I wish we could. I could have been there, but
• 51:37
  there's different events in the community as we speak this
• 51:39
  evening, which are doing kind of like communal gatherings to pray
• 51:46
  for the the safety and the security of people in Lebanon,
• 51:49
  specifically those who are in the South and those who have
• 51:52
  been affected. I have a lot of friends who have
• 51:53
  lost their villages. A friend, a family friend
• 51:57
  messaged me like an hour ago saying that their whole village
• 52:00
  has been raised to the ground. And luckily at Hamdullah today,
• 52:02
  their father left the village and and just before the attack
• 52:06
  happened. So just made out on time.
• 52:08
  But you know, we can look at I think 27 of Sahifa Sajadiya by
• 52:12
  mum Sajad Leh Salaam, which at times like this is so important.
• 52:16
  You know, there's so many dots which you can do, Ziad Ali are
• 52:18
  seeing. And by the way, our problem is
• 52:20
  we underestimate the art. Sometimes we say like we really
• 52:24
  want to be there for if. We understood the salawat we
• 52:27
  would be sometimes. The art is great, yeah.
• 52:29
  And we haven't understood it only requires is us to, you
• 52:31
  know, raise our arms and extend our hands and make that to our
• 52:34
  to our last one or to Allah to really alleviate sorry, their
• 52:38
  suffering. Yeah, their pain to give them
• 52:40
  victory. And I think and I and I and I
• 52:42
  think, you know, being Shia, by the way, and being a Shia Muslim
• 52:44
  podcast. I have your opinion this by the
• 52:47
  way, I I'm not saying I can I can see the future, but if we
• 52:51
  believe in the the return of a time.
• 52:53
  I don't love Al Sharif. I really think this is all
• 52:56
  connected. And to say the number of a
• 52:59
  hadith, OK, that are there and we've seen this like we we we
• 53:03
  have a WhatsApp group and we just bam hadith at each other
• 53:08
  said Ali will come on like after a long day work.
• 53:10
  You'll be like, why is that? How's our class going on on our
• 53:12
  group? Do you know why?
• 53:13
  Because I have to spot 500 method.
• 53:16
  We see so many hadith about the yellow flags coming from from
• 53:20
  from a certain area. And do you know what I mean?
• 53:23
  Yeah. But, you know, it's also the
• 53:25
  logistical preparation for that, of course.
• 53:27
  So that's something that we sometimes tend to overlook.
• 53:29
  Something we don't think about. When we think about the imam, we
• 53:32
  think, OK, we are awaiting him. We don't think of the the aspect
• 53:35
  of agency that's involved. So one of the interesting things
• 53:38
  is that every single one of our Imams was supposed to be in
• 53:41
  power, was supposed to be ruling, was supposed to be in
• 53:45
  government and Sharia is meant to rule.
• 53:47
  That's that's God's plan for humanity.
• 53:50
  But why did they not We know that Imam is a political
• 53:52
  position. You know, the idea was for the
• 53:54
  imams to be in a position of power, But why did that not
• 53:57
  happen? You see even some of the imams
• 53:59
  that you know, well, I have the beloved, but we have this
• 54:01
  perception that some of them might have been, quote UN quote,
• 54:03
  passive or like didn't rise in armed struggle.
• 54:06
  So you look at someone like Imam Asada Salaam Alayhi, when his
• 54:09
  companion says, why didn't you rise against Ben or mayor?
• 54:12
  He takes them out to a village and says, count the number of
• 54:15
  sheep. One of you.
• 54:16
  He counts them. And he's like, if I had this
• 54:18
  number of followers, I would have risen up in armed
• 54:20
  insurrection. Is it?
• 54:21
  Would it be a wide? Yeah.
• 54:23
  And then he counts and they're seventeen.
• 54:25
  Yeah. So it's like if the Imam had 17
• 54:26
  that could go into an oven and literally sacrifice their lives.
• 54:29
  I was easy. I was even reading how Imam
• 54:31
  Sajad Salaam Alayhi said I only have 3 companions at one point
• 54:36
  that would sacrifice their lives.
• 54:38
  But if that's your Haile, what are you able to do?
• 54:41
  You have to focus on building the right people from the ground
• 54:44
  up, which is why he focused exactly as you said on the
• 54:46
  ethical aspects, Sahi for sajidiya dua, the human
• 54:50
  component, not making them fear, which is why even a Sai for
• 54:53
  sajidiya, we have so many duas about the oppressors, victory
• 54:56
  over the oppressors. The word for example, many of
• 55:00
  those even in Mccarmon o'clock, a lot of it is is like political
• 55:03
  statements, like you look at it and you think oh that might be
• 55:05
  secular. It's not secular, it's
• 55:07
  inherently political, even the nature of the doors.
• 55:11
  So that makes me think, OK, they, those imams, they weren't
• 55:14
  in positions of power because they didn't have the people.
• 55:16
  So why is Sahasha not here today?
• 55:18
  Because there's not enough preparation on the ground for
• 55:21
  him to build up on. So when I see the resistance
• 55:24
  axis on the ground, when I see governments, they all of the
• 55:28
  axis, they represent governments, they represent
• 55:31
  militaries, they represent economies, they represent
• 55:34
  structures of power. That's what the imam needs.
• 55:37
  It's not about each individual just being a good person on
• 55:41
  their own capacity. He needs something that he can
• 55:44
  build on. What this war has done is it's
• 55:48
  provided the unity of the fronts when it comes to the resistance
• 55:50
  axis, and we've seen how that's logistically materialized.
• 55:54
  I can't help but look at that and think that is tem heed for
• 55:57
  the Imam like in the practical sense of the world.
• 56:00
  Because also look at how hots and minds have changed.
• 56:03
  Communities. And look at how hots and minds
• 56:05
  have changed. Like even globally, people are
• 56:09
  picking up the Quran. People are saying where is the
• 56:11
  strength coming from? You know the strength that we're
• 56:13
  seeing on the ground. It's it's, it's, it's not like
• 56:18
  it's like from another dimension.
• 56:19
  Where is the strength coming from?
• 56:21
  Like you say, there's something deeper and greater.
• 56:25
  It's more than just who owns the house and who owns the land and.
• 56:28
  People are finding a slam. And like I saw today, I sent you
• 56:32
  this video said and you saw that which someone who accepted
• 56:34
  William in because they are just seeing the the absolute sheer
• 56:41
  courage and. I mentioned this before the
• 56:43
  podcast. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 56:45
  People who are embracing wilaya and they're understanding that
• 56:48
  we are rooted in this belief because this is what we're
• 56:51
  raised on, and this is what we aim to die on.
• 56:53
  And when we say live like Ali and die like Hussein, it's more
• 56:56
  than just a slogan. This is an aspiration for us
• 56:59
  like you know, we pray for this day and night.
• 57:02
  You know, this is what we are raised on.
• 57:03
  This is what our tat wheel of the Holy Quran teaches us about.
• 57:06
  The tat wheel that comes from the Ahlu Beta name of Salaam and
• 57:09
  that's not to seal from random Balaamada came hundreds of years
• 57:12
  later, rather from the sons of Salah Muhammad, Salallahu Salam.
• 57:16
  And we believe that that a wheel is taught to us through the
• 57:19
  knowledge that Allah give to the Holy Prophet, and that will
• 57:22
  tells us that we should give ourselves for the cause of a lot
• 57:25
  it's. A panel, it's like the
• 57:26
  resistance axis have been out on Sam Mateen, in my opinion, like
• 57:30
  they don't like they're doing so it's political strategy on the
• 57:33
  ground. It's military strategy on the
• 57:35
  ground. But every now and then you hear
• 57:36
  the word imamahdi. You hear the word you know the
• 57:39
  yeah. Congratulations to all on the
• 57:41
  birth of Imam Asada. Now I will begin my speech you.
• 57:44
  In the freshest you have their goal as yeah yeah, underlying.
• 57:47
  That is worth shifting hearts and minds.
• 57:49
  People are looking at that and saying whoever that they follow,
• 57:53
  I want to follow, you know, So it's that's how they're coming.
• 57:57
  A lot of people's religious closeness to religion is
• 58:00
  happening from the political realities on the ground that's
• 58:02
  unfolding that they are coming to see who is walking the talk.
• 58:06
  What's those are? What's the other Arab rulers and
• 58:08
  regions are lowering their heads in shape.
• 58:10
  Can I ask, Yeah, for just from like a like from a perspective
• 58:14
  of Lebanese and the people who are living there.
• 58:17
  Of course it's a pluralistic nation.
• 58:18
  Like it's very pluralistic and it's very diverse to people who
• 58:23
  are non Shia and who are just like ordinary Lebanese
• 58:27
  civilians. Do they align when it comes to
• 58:30
  the resistance and the Lebanese resistance in terms of do they
• 58:33
  support? What's their position?
• 58:35
  It's a good question because as we were discussing the card of
• 58:37
  sectarianism, the very much the West, particularly France, use
• 58:41
  that card and strategy in Lebanon.
• 58:43
  So Lebanon is very much divided along sectarian lines.
• 58:46
  So even in positions of power, for example, the parliamentary
• 58:49
  speaker has to be a Shia, you know, the Prime Minister has to
• 58:52
  be a Sunni. Like that's the condition in the
• 58:54
  constitution. The president has to be a
• 58:56
  Christian, for example. So this idea of like
• 58:59
  sectarianism is so inbuilt. So there are loads of NGOs in
• 59:03
  Lebanon and actually you'll probably find the most well
• 59:07
  paying job is to work for an NGO in Lebanon that's supported by
• 59:10
  Washington, that's supported by America.
• 59:13
  And their whole strategy is exactly as we've been
• 59:16
  discussing. It's to basically turn the issue
• 59:18
  on its head and to make the people see the resistance as the
• 59:22
  cause for all of Lebanon's issues.
• 59:25
  So Lebanon right now is under sanctions.
• 59:27
  The economy is very bad. Oh, it's the resistance's fault.
• 59:30
  Once the resistance gives up arms, then America will remove
• 59:33
  its pressure because even the mechanisms that America put in
• 59:36
  place was so inherently political.
• 59:38
  So for example, in the 1990s, they supported these like the
• 59:41
  billionaires to to come to Lebanon essentially and to debt
• 59:46
  trap it. So Lebanon was debt trapped
• 59:47
  after the civil war. You know, Lebanon used to be a
• 59:50
  self-sufficient country prior to the civil war.
• 59:53
  After the civil war, Hella, you barely get anything that's
• 59:55
  manufactured in Lebanon. You know, it has no real
• 59:57
  components for an economy. The leader was pegged to the
• 1:00:00
  dollar essentially, which allowed America to basically
• 1:00:03
  blackmail Lebanon through political decisions.
• 1:00:05
  So if you guys continue to support the resistance, we're
• 1:00:08
  going to remove our support from the economy.
• 1:00:10
  So obviously there's a. A lot of people who are
• 1:00:12
  brainwashed is what I'm trying to say, because of the reality
• 1:00:15
  of the hardship on the ground that they are experiencing in
• 1:00:18
  terms of the really high inflation.
• 1:00:19
  So, for example, my auntie's a teacher.
• 1:00:21
  She used to earn $700 in a month.
• 1:00:23
  Now that's the equivalent of $40.
• 1:00:25
  And she's. Yeah.
• 1:00:26
  Yeah. That's the level of inflation
• 1:00:27
  that was talking about. I think it's the worst inflation
• 1:00:29
  in the history of mankind ever. Yeah, it's really bad.
• 1:00:33
  And if you're still earning, I'll tell you something that's
• 1:00:35
  very, very funny. The only ones on the ground who
• 1:00:39
  are earning in dollars are those who work for the resistance.
• 1:00:42
  So. That's really funny.
• 1:00:44
  The only ones that are actually still earning their salaries
• 1:00:47
  that are not pegged on like, you know, the Lebanese lira, are
• 1:00:51
  they to work for the resistance? The irony, the irony, right.
• 1:00:54
  So you're so you're actually so so, so you're actually better
• 1:00:57
  off working for them in terms of monetary terms than than you are
• 1:01:01
  working for, I don't know, the state or any kind of other civil
• 1:01:04
  structure that exists within the society.
• 1:01:06
  So yes, many people are brainwashed, but at the same
• 1:01:09
  time, crucially during these events where they see their
• 1:01:11
  palace, when they see their Lebanese brethren being bombed,
• 1:01:15
  from a human perspective, just the human foot throat awakening.
• 1:01:19
  These are your countrymen. For the longest time, even South
• 1:01:22
  Lebanon, they call it Schnop Lebanon.
• 1:01:24
  Like it's separated from the whole of Lebanon.
• 1:01:26
  Like it has its own technology. Like, oh, that's the South.
• 1:01:28
  Culture. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:01:30
  Or like this idea that like, these are like weak people.
• 1:01:33
  You just find old villages there.
• 1:01:35
  They're kind of backwards. We're the ones that speak
• 1:01:38
  English and French. We're the ones that are educated
• 1:01:40
  in institutions that are just colonized, civilized, civilized.
• 1:01:44
  Exactly. So you, you do get that kind of
• 1:01:46
  complex that exists in Lebanon as well, where you, it's, I, I
• 1:01:49
  guess it's the complex of being someone who's here, like Lebanon
• 1:01:52
  is very pluralistic, very diverse.
• 1:01:55
  But the effect of blood on the ground because as we've been
• 1:01:58
  mentioning, has changed the landscape of the whole world.
• 1:02:01
  So now when it's coming to Lebanon, there's a real sense of
• 1:02:05
  you're seeing footage of like, Sunni scholars who are coming
• 1:02:10
  out on the streets. I saw this.
• 1:02:11
  Helping their Shia brethren in Lebanon, for example, you're
• 1:02:15
  seeing the same with churches opening you know, churches have
• 1:02:18
  opened, Christian schools have opened to receive those Lebanese
• 1:02:22
  who are coming from the South. So I think naturally during war,
• 1:02:25
  the effect of war is that it overcomes all of that sectarian
• 1:02:30
  narrative that's been spewed for so long, internalized the war
• 1:02:36
  like there is there is a reality on the ground that is overcome
• 1:02:40
  when there's blood that's being shed and when there's sacrifice.
• 1:02:42
  And everyone knows the only reason level in the shedding
• 1:02:44
  blood right now is because of its steadfastness with Plaza.
• 1:02:47
  These people might look at it and think, actually, I wish I
• 1:02:50
  had a share in that, you know, and I'm I'm feeling that like
• 1:02:53
  I'm this time around, I'm feeling it.
• 1:02:55
  So the status quo pre October the 7th might have been more
• 1:02:58
  like the resistance is kind of like jeopardizing the Lebanese
• 1:03:01
  economy. But no, people are coming to
• 1:03:03
  understand now. So I'd say now it's different to
• 1:03:06
  what it was before. Our love, our support for
• 1:03:09
  everyone there and like I, I can't tell you without trying to
• 1:03:13
  sound facetious, but I really, I really pray that they have
• 1:03:17
  success and victory and I wish that there was something more we
• 1:03:19
  could do. And it's infuriating, it's
• 1:03:22
  frustrating, but ultimately, like you said, say the dua is
• 1:03:24
  the weapon of the believer and that is what our like a
• 1:03:28
  day-to-day is right now. But of course, beyond that as
• 1:03:30
  well, the humanitarian. In fact, this is a question
• 1:03:32
  probably I should ask you, but what could we be doing here from
• 1:03:35
  here? Yeah, it's a good question.
• 1:03:37
  Sharing and donations. Is there anything else we can
• 1:03:40
  do? Absolutely.
• 1:03:41
  I, I, well, I mean, I mean, it's a big ask, right?
• 1:03:44
  Like it's not a so, so everyone according to their capacity,
• 1:03:48
  obviously, but I think it's about time we looked at how the
• 1:03:52
  enemy organizers and we think about how to organize in a more
• 1:03:55
  structured fashion. So for example, they have their
• 1:03:58
  own institutions and organizations that are so
• 1:04:00
  inherently entrenched. Like if we're talking about
• 1:04:02
  universities, for example, you know, they have their groups
• 1:04:05
  that back the more pros of Zionist groups in universities.
• 1:04:09
  When it comes to the information war, I think our focus in the
• 1:04:13
  West should be the information war.
• 1:04:15
  So setting up, you know, structured organizations that
• 1:04:18
  can support everyone on the ground, you know, whether that's
• 1:04:21
  people in schools, people in universities, people, everyone
• 1:04:24
  has a front that they can fight in.
• 1:04:26
  So if you're a university student, this was something that
• 1:04:29
  actually say Ali Harmony was really interesting.
• 1:04:32
  He said that those who are doing the encampments for Haza, that's
• 1:04:36
  its own resistance front. There's a resistance front on
• 1:04:39
  the ground, but those who are encamping at the universities,
• 1:04:43
  that is your own front in the West.
• 1:04:46
  So I mean, those were quite powerful words, you know.
• 1:04:49
  Likewise, whatever company you work for, you can push for
• 1:04:53
  divestment, you know, from the entity.
• 1:04:55
  If you're a part of, let's suppose you don't, you don't
• 1:04:58
  have a job. You're you work in the mosque,
• 1:05:01
  you work in the committee, for example.
• 1:05:03
  You can push to have more events where you bring scholars who can
• 1:05:07
  discuss these issues, you know, in a way that's uncompromising,
• 1:05:10
  that's discussing the realities on the ground, you know, so
• 1:05:13
  every person can look at their sphere of influence and see what
• 1:05:18
  they can do within that. Your to cleave is according to
• 1:05:21
  your conditions and your circumstances is not expected
• 1:05:24
  for me to go to Lebanon and to be with Lebanon right now.
• 1:05:27
  I think and likewise, even if you look at how the resistance
• 1:05:29
  axis operates, Lebanon has always come to the defence of
• 1:05:33
  Aza. It never, it's always a
• 1:05:35
  supporting front for Aza. It never fought on behalf of
• 1:05:37
  Aza. You know, on October the 8th
• 1:05:39
  when the Lebanese resistance entered the equation, it was
• 1:05:41
  like we're going to support you, but the job of us is not to
• 1:05:44
  fight on your behalf. You know, you guys are the ones
• 1:05:46
  fighting on the ground. If you guys existentially
• 1:05:49
  weaken, then we'll get directly involved.
• 1:05:51
  Likewise, we should think of the way that we operate as like, OK,
• 1:05:55
  what is my direct responsibility?
• 1:05:57
  No one can fill the tech leaf that I have.
• 1:05:59
  But I think more on a community level, what we can do is we can
• 1:06:02
  focus more on having organizations that focus on
• 1:06:06
  winning the information war through resources, through legal
• 1:06:10
  support as well. So if you speak out and you get
• 1:06:12
  implicated in any way or they try to take you to court, there
• 1:06:15
  are mechanisms of defence. I think it's.
• 1:06:17
  What many fear because many have much to say, right?
• 1:06:20
  And there are people, Mashallah, very eloquent in the way they
• 1:06:22
  discuss things and allow people to be aware of, but they have
• 1:06:25
  this fear of being implicated by, called against the law,
• 1:06:28
  impossible, of being prosecuted, arrested, put behind bars.
• 1:06:31
  Like when you say there should be people out there who can look
• 1:06:35
  at it from a legal perspective and give aid, legal aid, I think
• 1:06:37
  that's what it's called. How does one access such
• 1:06:41
  services? Legal aid, yeah.
• 1:06:42
  I mean, there's, there's, there's obviously, I mean Hod
• 1:06:45
  Jones and Allen, there's like firms here, which of course are
• 1:06:47
  are there for. Left Legal Fighting Fund is
• 1:06:49
  really good. That's legal.
• 1:06:50
  They won their recent case with David.
• 1:06:52
  I just. He's amazing.
• 1:06:53
  Yeah. There's, there's, there's
• 1:06:54
  different organizations which are there and there's obviously
• 1:06:56
  there's people in our community who are expert at that as well.
• 1:07:00
  And I think, yeah, there's, there's a lot of that.
• 1:07:02
  And I think just generally speaking, like political
• 1:07:05
  pressure, think tanks and just being able to to mobilize a
• 1:07:08
  voice has been something which and we've discussed it before on
• 1:07:11
  the pod, I think probably around general election time.
• 1:07:14
  But that's, in my opinion being our biggest, like failure,
• 1:07:18
  really. Having been a diaspora Muslim
• 1:07:22
  community in this country now for 50-60 years, or at least for
• 1:07:26
  my family at least. And to still at this stage not
• 1:07:29
  have a really formidable voice is shocking.
• 1:07:33
  Like, yeah, we we've started to get the hang of like social
• 1:07:36
  media and stuff, but. It's all individual though,
• 1:07:38
  isn't it? Like it's ad hoc educational
• 1:07:40
  sessions here and there. So, so like something happens,
• 1:07:43
  let's react to an emergency. Shop Yeah, yeah.
• 1:07:45
  Like it's always like, OK, something's happened in Lebanon,
• 1:07:47
  now we'll bring someone to come and talk about Lebanon.
• 1:07:49
  It's not like it's distant. I know.
• 1:07:52
  What you mean? Yeah.
• 1:07:53
  No, I really appreciate today, but but it's it's there's
• 1:07:57
  nothing that's continuous. Of course, Yeah.
• 1:07:59
  It's like, yeah, we have. We have a, a very much a
• 1:08:02
  scattergun approach to these things.
• 1:08:04
  And and that's obviously there, there's a, you could say that
• 1:08:07
  it's a top down. It's got to be a top down
• 1:08:09
  effort. So we look towards our mosque
• 1:08:11
  leaders and the mosque leaders look towards like, I don't know,
• 1:08:13
  like the organizational leaders who, who are, you know, the
• 1:08:17
  encompassing bodies for, for Jemaah across the UK.
• 1:08:20
  But these kind of things have got to start from someone.
• 1:08:22
  So in many ways it's bottom up as well.
• 1:08:24
  So, and, but when it comes to talking about teenagers or like
• 1:08:28
  university students, because I think that's where a lot of our
• 1:08:31
  listeners are coming from, at least from my perspective.
• 1:08:36
  The first one is literacy, which we talk so much about doing your
• 1:08:39
  research, doing your fact checking, knowing your A-Z,
• 1:08:42
  knowing your terminology, knowing who's who's who and
• 1:08:45
  what's what and when, what happened and where.
• 1:08:48
  Like these are the basic kind of factual, foundational level
• 1:08:51
  pieces of information which we need to know to hold up your
• 1:08:54
  case if you're ever confronted. And then when it comes to when
• 1:08:58
  you the more you learn about the injustices which take place,
• 1:09:01
  naturally, your interest and your desire to support what's
• 1:09:05
  right and what's Huck will continue to thrive.
• 1:09:08
  And you know, then we have to invest and we have to put money
• 1:09:11
  to organise that kind of stuff. But there's that is a whole
• 1:09:15
  conversation for. Our knowledge and it's relying
• 1:09:17
  on the promises of God as well. So it's those two things.
• 1:09:20
  So like you need to have the Quran with you.
• 1:09:22
  Always remind yourself of what God himself says in the Quran.
• 1:09:25
  What is His promise? The idea that victory is closed.
• 1:09:28
  The idea is you should not fear, you should not don't worry.
• 1:09:30
  Even if they try to go after your job, Allah will take care
• 1:09:37
  of you because you're doing your duty.
• 1:09:38
  Having that side like the uptake in spirituality, that's then
• 1:09:41
  coupled with the practical side, because if when people become
• 1:09:45
  knowledgeable, they can influence in their sphere,
• 1:09:48
  that's whatever their sphere is that that's how change happens.
• 1:09:51
  It happens. Each individual cannot
• 1:09:53
  underestimate the tentacles that they can reach, whether that's
• 1:09:58
  your work, whether that's your mosque, whether that's, you
• 1:10:00
  know, your friends, your local community.
• 1:10:02
  So when I'm sharing information, I'm like, okay, this person
• 1:10:04
  that's getting educated, they will become that vessel.
• 1:10:07
  So maybe rather than asking what can I do, it's a question of
• 1:10:09
  where is there a gap? You know, understanding what
• 1:10:13
  that gap is, I'm understanding what the problem is.
• 1:10:14
  So if I understand that in the West there is sheer and utter
• 1:10:17
  propaganda. OK, so the information more is
• 1:10:19
  important. Now, how can I strategize?
• 1:10:22
  Before I strategize, there needs to every single day be an uptake
• 1:10:26
  of knowledge of some kind. I need to follow the news.
• 1:10:29
  Like if I'm not following the news and I'm unaware of what's
• 1:10:31
  happening in the world, I'm sorry.
• 1:10:33
  But as you know, my Ali Islam says if you're not aware of
• 1:10:37
  what's happening around you, you'd be surprised by the events
• 1:10:39
  that happen. You know it will take.
• 1:10:41
  Thank you by surprise. How did this happen?
• 1:10:42
  Why is that happening? No, but when you know the
• 1:10:44
  reality of your enemy. So it's it's bombing and it's
• 1:10:47
  invading Lebanon. That's what it is.
• 1:10:49
  It has 0 red lines. Am I surprised?
• 1:10:51
  No, I'm not surprised. Is there a price that needs to
• 1:10:53
  be paid? Yes.
• 1:10:54
  OK, so I won't be hopeful. I mean, I won't be hopeless, but
• 1:10:57
  hopelessness is taken out of the equation because I realized that
• 1:11:00
  blood needs to be paid for this liberation to happen.
• 1:11:04
  So I'm pumped. I'm determined.
• 1:11:06
  What can then I ask what can I do now?
• 1:11:10
  I want a share in this room reward, you know, so where is
• 1:11:13
  the gap? What is my role?
• 1:11:15
  And then it becomes a question of tech leaf in terms of your
• 1:11:17
  capacity, but also the natural constraints of the environment.
• 1:11:20
  You know, what is my workplace, What is my mosque?
• 1:11:22
  Whatever that is actually hating in every way, shape or form that
• 1:11:25
  you can like. Resistance is an everyday thing.
• 1:11:27
  Yeah, yeah. But I'll give you more tall feel
• 1:11:31
  and thank you to keep inspiring, to keep educating, to keep
• 1:11:34
  informing. And you are doing incredible
• 1:11:37
  work. Long may continue, and shall.
• 1:11:41
  Just want to say, may Allah protect Lubnan, Shab Lubnan from
• 1:11:46
  all the more evil, from all, you know, evil governments and
• 1:11:50
  monstrous governments, suffering bloodthirsty governments.
• 1:11:53
  And, and I, I really mean that when I say that.
• 1:11:55
  And I, and I see like that our Lebanese brethren, our brothers
• 1:11:58
  and our sisters as one of us, like part of us 100%.
• 1:12:01
  And every time, like I see like the Qurban, they've given the
• 1:12:04
  way of a lost Panhu Attalla, right?
• 1:12:07
  It's as if when I see the mother mourn her mother, I feel like
• 1:12:13
  that's my mum and that's my brother, right?
• 1:12:16
  Like that, that's the sort of relationship I have.
• 1:12:18
  And, and, and the reason why I say that is because in
• 1:12:21
  particular they are Shia, the Lebanese resistance, and this
• 1:12:25
  majority is Shia Ahmed. So they hurt, we hurt, they're
• 1:12:29
  in pain, they're in pain, right? And the reason why I don't
• 1:12:32
  mention that is because I was having this convo 2 days ago
• 1:12:34
  with a brother and he was like, you know what?
• 1:12:38
  I think like the Lebanese resistance use hossein to their
• 1:12:42
  game. I was shocked, right?
• 1:12:45
  And then I was, I was like Khabib, Hossein is not just for
• 1:12:47
  you, it's not just for me, it's also for them.
• 1:12:51
  And if we want to say who uses Hossein for their game, this is
• 1:12:54
  from my perspective right? When Imam Hussein says, hey
• 1:12:59
  Hartman at Villa, they understood it, not me, Muhammad
• 1:13:03
  Hussein said Nathaliya by our Muslim, they understood it of
• 1:13:06
  me, right. So I think we have to end this
• 1:13:09
  whole, you know, let them do what they do.
• 1:13:15
  We don't care. We're not involved.
• 1:13:16
  No, if we're Shia, we have to be involved because there is a
• 1:13:18
  shared goal, which is the preparation, the ground for the
• 1:13:23
  arrival of Imam Sahab Ali, Saddam.
• 1:13:27
  But more importantly, there is this enemy working to divide us.
• 1:13:30
  There is this, right? And and I've only realized that
• 1:13:33
  who has since October, believe it or not.
• 1:13:36
  And I said this early on to the sister that this I'm, I'm part
• 1:13:41
  of, you know, many circle of friends, many groups.
• 1:13:44
  I know many communities across even global, not just here in
• 1:13:47
  the UK where what happens in Lebanon, perhaps in Palestine
• 1:13:50
  doesn't concern us, right. But that's wrong.
• 1:13:55
  What lot that is so wrong. I swear to God, that's Sora.
• 1:13:57
  Because where the Shih Abdul Ali Abdul Ali Saddam, we should be
• 1:14:04
  victorious, not just in battle. We should be victorious in
• 1:14:06
  Ahlah. We should be victorious in how
• 1:14:08
  we deal with people, how we bring them to the path of Haq.
• 1:14:12
  There is a responsibility. And I was really thinking, you
• 1:14:14
  know, Marshall Akbar, as we say in Iraqi tomorrow, the day after
• 1:14:17
  and Nassar and Ektar and the cover, we have a grave.
• 1:14:20
  We have a day where a lot of planet is going to ask us.
• 1:14:23
  You know, you saw, for example, these people die on the path of
• 1:14:28
  Allah, for example, right? And love of Rasul Allah and in
• 1:14:32
  love of Aliyah Salaam, that's the road.
• 1:14:35
  I'll admit it, right? You just stood there and just
• 1:14:38
  done nothing. You can even raise your hands
• 1:14:40
  and ask Allah to ease their difficulties.
• 1:14:43
  That's the most basic level. That's why I mentioned art and I
• 1:14:45
  say this. It's not easy for me to mention
• 1:14:47
  this, by the way, but I think it's a point.
• 1:14:48
  I do mention it and inshallah people can benefit from this
• 1:14:52
  because I know many people that don't care and that's the
• 1:14:56
  reality, 100% reality and it's really bad.
• 1:14:58
  One last set. Can I just end up by saying that
• 1:15:01
  Palestine is literally God's issue because God takes issue
• 1:15:04
  with Palestine in the Quran when he says pan ladi asrabi abdihi
• 1:15:07
  lailan masjidi harami ilal Masjid al aqsa.
• 1:15:12
  So this arid is Mubarak, this arid is muqaddis.
• 1:15:15
  So it's occupation for 7.5 decades is really a challenge
• 1:15:18
  against God's will. I think it comes to the core in
• 1:15:20
  the heart of that. So for me, when I look at
• 1:15:23
  Palestine, to me Palestine is Islam.
• 1:15:27
  This is this is Allah's arid, this is the arid of the NBA,
• 1:15:30
  this is the arid of the husha. So this is Masjid laksa, this
• 1:15:34
  was our kripla as Muslims and this adult is usurped.
• 1:15:41
  Exactly. It's.
• 1:15:43
  Exactly that. So this is the issue of every
• 1:15:49
  single Muslim period. I don't recognize the idea of
• 1:15:54
  Sunni versus Shia here at all. To me, my Muslim brethren
• 1:15:59
  shedding blood, the way that you feel about Lebanon, Lebanon
• 1:16:02
  feels about hazard, you know, and even, you know, the
• 1:16:05
  secretary general of the resistance said, you know, we
• 1:16:09
  the Shia have you. Armani will never leave
• 1:16:11
  Palestine alone. Not that he wants to get into
• 1:16:14
  this kind of sectarian that, you know, where Shia, but he's
• 1:16:16
  trying to make a point of here that you use the sectarian line
• 1:16:19
  all the time to separate the Sunnis and Shias.
• 1:16:22
  We, the Shias will not leave them alone.
• 1:16:23
  Of course you. Know our principle.
• 1:16:25
  That's our principle. Foundation.
• 1:16:27
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. 100% as we said, Well not like I mean Nami
• 1:16:32
  Mohammed is for humanity, the hood just for humanity.
• 1:16:34
  So as Muslims we have a resella. That resella should be
• 1:16:38
  implemented for all of humanity. It goes so much more beyond our
• 1:16:42
  own circle, our own mosque, our own community, the more open we
• 1:16:47
  are. And hearts are receptive.
• 1:16:48
  And that's another thing. Hearts and minds are awakening.
• 1:16:52
  What a better time to use that opportunity to continue to wake,
• 1:16:56
  to awaken the hearts and minds. All the theory, we can discuss
• 1:16:59
  theory until the cows come home. When hearts and minds are awake
• 1:17:02
  because of the blood that's given on the ground, that's when
• 1:17:06
  real effect can take place in that.
• 1:17:07
  You know what? It's that the ruffler that we
• 1:17:09
  have now is is clouding our minds that Coatil and the fog
• 1:17:13
  that we have in our brains and middle.
• 1:17:14
  What minion says that you are asleep and it's only until you
• 1:17:18
  die that you're awake and is a lot of what we're trying to do
• 1:17:21
  is awaken ourselves now that before we get into the the the
• 1:17:24
  next realm and the next World. We we know what's coming and we
• 1:17:27
  know what where we are. We we're not clouded by that
• 1:17:30
  ruffler like our bodies are emotions, but our minds are are
• 1:17:32
  stuck and stagnant. And I feel like we we are that
• 1:17:35
  we are personification of that stagnancy.
• 1:17:38
  We need to reflect. Do you know what I mean?
• 1:17:39
  So we, we, we get stuck in that, that, that like aimlessness.
• 1:17:43
  And we talked about this with a couple of weeks ago with, with
• 1:17:46
  brother Sadiq Domani. But that purposelessness and
• 1:17:50
  that aimlessness that we feel on the day-to-day basis, a lot of
• 1:17:53
  it comes back to the Ratla that we feel and, and the, the, the
• 1:17:57
  veiling of our true goals and our intentions and misdirected
• 1:18:03
  Ames as well. Do you know what I mean?
• 1:18:04
  And I fully agree with you. And I think we, Mashallah, have,
• 1:18:07
  have made a lot of amazing progress today.
• 1:18:10
  And we've discussed a lot. I think we've we've learned a
• 1:18:13
  lot. And we couldn't have obviously
• 1:18:16
  done it without you, sister. So please keep us, your
• 1:18:18
  daughter. Hopefully we'll have you back
• 1:18:20
  again, Charlotte, you'll have us as well.
• 1:18:23
  And yeah, brother, sisters, please leave your comments
• 1:18:26
  below. Hopefully you've made it this
• 1:18:27
  far into the podcast. Where can people follow your
• 1:18:31
  work? Yeah, so I'm on social media, on
• 1:18:34
  Instagram and Facebook. I'm sorry, not Facebook, not no
• 1:18:37
  one uses that. A long time ago, yeah.
• 1:18:43
  I'm not. I'm not giving that guy no
• 1:18:45
  legitimacy. Yeah, so mainly Instagram and
• 1:18:48
  and Twitter. Twitter, yeah.
• 1:18:49
  Yeah, you still did you? Call it used to X now.
• 1:18:52
  No problem, I don't like that guy.
• 1:18:54
  Anyway guys we will see you next week in Charlotte.
• 1:18:57
  Take care of some Alec home lock to live account.