Navigating Activism | Excerpt from Members Only Livestream

There's a political concept in Islam, the the people in society who really are the movers and shakers who make the decisions. This is an absolute truism across all societies, across all political systems, everywhere in the world and it always will be.

Yeah. Throughout time.

Throughout time. This will never not be the case. So any political theory that anyone ever comes up with whether it's democracy or it's anarcho syndicalism or whatever you wanna come up with, at the end of the day, you're going to have a group of people in the society who qualify or who you could categorize or who could be characterized as the the people who make the decisions, the people who have the most power and influence in the society. And that is at least partly determined by the society themselves. That's at least partly determined by the people themselves, by who you accept to be influenced by.

You can give influence to people, especially these days with social media and and the Internet. That number we have the term influencer. Mhmm. An influencer that that's now it's it's if we're if we're if we're speaking frankly, the term influencer these days just means someone who can sell product, someone who can who can who can get a lot of people to yeah. By their endorsement, they can they can put products in front of people.

That's the new word for influence. That's the new meaning really of influencer, but influencer also means influencer. Someone who influences opinion, someone who is respected, someone who people listen to, and there are people like that. Are they people who are worthy of being listened to? That's a question.

Like someone like Joe Rogan. He is a person of considerable influence. Should he be? Does that actually make sense that he should be? Someone like Ben Shapiro is an influencer.

He influences public opinion. Jordan Peterson, I think it's decreased considerably. Yeah. He's had a bit of a downfall, but I mean there was a time when when he was highly respected and people listened to him. Should you?

You decide that. The people decide that. So to a certain extent, there is a there's an element within the that is determined by the population themselves about who they will be influenced by. I mean, Beyonce, you know, pop singers, do they deserve to be influential in public opinion that if they endorse this candidate or that candidate or this policy or that policy? Like like for example, a good example is Mark Ruffalo, the actor.

He's pro Palestinian. Who cares? You're an actor. Who cares? Nevertheless, he's a celebrity and he has influence.

He has broad reach. Yeah. He has broad reach because of that weird the weird dynamics of social media. You have gravitas just because you have a lot of followers. You can be a complete moron, but if you have a lot of followers, you have sway, you have influence, you're important.

Mhmm. You're someone who needs to be listened to because you have a lot of followers. And that's partly related to the fact that that the whole that the this whole type of a culture is dominated by now we get into into into psychological decolonization, to be honest, because now you're talking about a whole culture that's dominated by the advertising industry Mhmm. Which means the most important person is the person who can get our product and our advertisements in front of the most people. Mhmm.

It doesn't matter how stupid they are, how ridiculous it is that what they're saying or how degenerate it is that they are or what they're saying, doesn't matter. We know that they can get millions of eyeballs Mhmm. For our ads. So you give them legitimacy and validity. But again, this comes down to you.

This comes down to the to the to the people themselves. You need to, you know, like like for example, people people for for a period of time, more or less stopped. But for a period of time, so many people were telling me, we wish you would be on Piers Morgan. I wish you wouldn't watch Piers Morgan. Yeah.

That's what I wish. If you if you if you if you hate Piers Morgan and you would like him to be taken down a notch or two, yes, I could do that, but you can do it as well just by not watching him. Yeah. It's very simple. Trying to protect yourself against American interference.

You have to have strong who are people who care about your society, who care about your community and part of that is determined by you and who you allow to have influence. And then you have to build a relationship with the a relationship of mutual respect and to some degree accountability and not one of envy and bitterness and resentment and jealousy and always calling them this, that and the other and hypocrites and so on and bringing them down and that includes again the leaders. You have to have a good relationship with your leaders whether those are leaders in the government or whether or those are leaders just in society. And unavoidably, it may not be it may not seem fair, but unavoidably, the an automatic category from the will be the rich people. Yeah.

The people of wealth.

So first, you need to identify in your society who are who who constitutes the Ahlul.

Yeah. And

frame within yourself and your group of activists how you wanna engage, how you wanna approach. It shouldn't be antagonistic on the get go, you know, you need to communicate.

Yeah, anything, you know, and this is even what I've talked about many times also with, in terms of corporate democratization. You should you should approach anything like that with a with a negotiating mindset. That's what you're doing. You you you need to negotiate with power. Don't just try to like, for example, with corporations.

Okay. We none of us like corporations, but the problem actually isn't a corporation. The problem isn't actually some large business. The problem is how they behave. The problem is how they conduct themselves, how they and how they run their business, and how they do business, and and how they and how they interact with the communities where they operate, and of course their supply chain and all of that.

So the problem isn't the institution itself necessarily, the problem is how it behaves. So you have to determine, you have to change that by your interaction with them as a consumer.

So how should activism in the West be conducted when there is a state when there is state oppression and real life consequences as of being banned to work somewhere just because of one whole certain beliefs?

Well, I mean, there there's there's a few there's a few issues with the question. Not that there's anything not that I don't mean that the question is wrong, but I mean there's more than one thing to point out about the question. One is you you either you're talking about strategy, what's the strategy for what should be the strategy for activism? And then there's the question about because you might be punished. Mhmm.

Well, this is where conviction comes in. This is where you have to mean it. We know that as most of us, there's no reason for us to expect not to have to face consequences for standing for justice in especially in those countries where we know that their concept of justice isn't is nowhere near it doesn't resemble actual justice. Their their concept of justice is compliance with with the state. Their compliance with power means justice.

And so if you're going to stand for Palestine, then you have to be willing to be beaten for Palestine. You have to be willing to lose your job for Palestine. You have to be willing to suffer the consequences for Palestine. If you don't believe for a second. I mean, you you by the by the question itself, you already indicated that you're aware of this, that the freedom and democracy and liberty and all of that is meaningless.

That it's it's false. They don't mean it. That you're not free, there isn't liberty and there isn't democracy and so on and there's no protection for your for your right to free speech, your right to protest and all of that if it's not something that's sanctioned by the state. So if you already know that's the case, then you have to make a decision whether or not you're going to still do what you think is right, whether or not you're still gonna take a stand, whether it's for Palestine or anything else. If you're taking a stand for something that isn't already approved up by the state, I mean, like, example, you can go on a you can protest as much as you want.

You can be as radical as you want if you're protesting against Russia, or you're protesting against Iran, or you're or if you're protesting against Hamas, you know. If you're if you're doing any of those things, you can be as radical and as as over the top as you want.

Because it's all within

the But if but if you're if you're protesting something that's against American policy, then obviously, you need to be ready and willing to bear the consequences of that and fully expect to. You should fully expect to have the consequences brought down on your head. And if you're not ready for that, then I don't suggest that you should do anything. You shouldn't you shouldn't do whatever it is that you're planning to do. And at that point, then you need to start thinking about your strategies of what you can do to try to navigate.

And here again, I'll bring this up again, I know I keep bringing this up. Why, for example, when you talk about the leaders, you need to understand about the leaders in the Arab world and in the Muslim world. And if you put if you put if you think about just the question that you asked, they're thinking the same thing. The rulers and the Muslim rulers, the Muslim governments and all of the governments in the global South to be honest, not just not just the Muslims, but all of the governments in the global South that are trying to liberate themselves from American domination and also trying to avoid American reprisals and punishment. You have to be incredibly strategic.

You have to navigate very carefully if you don't want that truncheon on the back of your head. If you don't want to lose your job or you don't want to lose your whole economy, you have to be very careful. They're thinking about the same thing that you're thinking about. They're in the same position that you're in. They're all under the threat of power, of the power of The United States, the power of the neocons, the power of those in power.

Everybody has to think about that Whether whether it's whether it's a protester on the street or or a king in a palace, you know, or a prime minister or a president in the global South, in the so called developing world or in the Muslim world. Everybody has to think about that. So if you're not willing, and frankly, I would say that you you if especially if you have a family, if you're a man and you have a family, your father, your husband, your first responsibility is to your wife and your children. That's your first responsibility. Don't do anything

To compromise.

For the greater cause of Palestine that's gonna hurt your the ones that for whom you are directly responsible. The ones over whom you have direct authority are the ones also for whom you are directly responsible and who you will be questioned about whether or not you did right by them. So don't put anyone first above those over whom you have been given authority and about whom you will be questioned directly with regards to how you use your authority. So you have to take care of your family first. So don't do anything that's gonna endanger your family or impede your ability to take care of your family.

So Then then the issue becomes figuring out what sort of activism can you engage in for the sake of your own conscience and and and trying to be useful and helpful for Palestine or whatever the issue may be. And then that's going to come down to really a personal evaluation of what is within your capacity, within your capacity to do. I mean in some places you can go to marches, can go to protests. I mean I've given a number of ideas and we have the article six campaign and so on. We have a number of things that I encourage people to do and that I think in most countries you can do relatively safely.

But it's not gonna be the same in every country. Mhmm. So you have to you have to know where you are and what the what the rules are, where you are and what the likelihood is of of a disproportionate punishment for anything that you might do.