YouSaid · the spoken record

Omar Suleiman

lines on the record: 194
first: 2023-01-17
most recent: 2023-01-17
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“That is absolutely committed to uplifting his people and bringing about a change, being responsible for the plight of his people. And so when I look at any section of devastation in the world, you never know which part of it that you're going to touch that's going to change everything, by the grace of God, by the help of God. So you keep trying to do your part, you know, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said that the most beloved of deeds to God are the consistent ones, even if they're small, that small act of charity, that small smile, that small act of kindness, that small prayer might go a long way if he blesses it, so keep chipping away, chipping away, chipping away.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This deeply human way. For me, the most clarifying parts of the world are the refugee camps. It's where I feel the most clarity in life about what I'm supposed to be doing and life. You go to the refugee camps and then after you're interacting with these people and maybe giving a few people some trailer homes and some food and something to sustain themselves, some coats and blankets, you drive out of the refugee camps, back to where you're staying. And the camps get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and the people get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. But then you realize that it might be that that small section that I touched. Is going to be the change that affects all of them. Going to happen to that? Twelve year old boy that has seen the horrors of this world.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Bring it back to something else. So here's the thing we live in a time of hyper exposure. That hyper exposure could paralyze you, or it could empower you. It could make you completely shut down and say, what's the point of even trying? Help these people out? Why even talk about the Palestinians? Well, you got these people here, the Uyghurs, the Rohingya, you got what's happening in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Brazil, South America, Africa, Ethiopia, Somalia, it's so much and it can be overwhelming to a person who cares. But you ultimately realize that that the difference that you can make Can become a much greater difference even if it's after your lifetime. I'll tell you actually a story that I remember the first time I went to Syria, Syrian refugee camps. You deal with people”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that if you look through history, we have been through points as a world where we almost were not going to exist anymore. If you lived in the time of the Crusades, if you lived in some of these darker moments of history, World War I, World War II, you probably thought you weren't going to come out of this as a world. I have hope in God And I have hope that godly people, people that are devoted to God and people of righteousness. Shift things with his help. I also believe that younger people, I hope they'll be different. I think younger people, ah, Hopefully, you're using the word hope a lot, you know, you might hear it, inshallah, God willing. See the path that we're heading and Will seek to disrupt. This bleak trajectory”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To where Palestinians are just an inherently disagreeable people that don't want peace. They just want to live in their homes. They just want to live as full, equal human beings. They want the things that everybody wants. And they're only being further disenfranchised in the name of peace now because voices are being amplified in the name of peace that are suffocating voices for justice.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And we've come to a point where we both agree. Everyone deserves to be, everyone, not everyone deserves to be, but I think there's great value and benefit. Let me say I agree with you in hearing people, even tyrants, hearing them so that you can properly deconstruct and decipher what you're hearing. But just think of the voices that don't get hurt. And a lot of times what's been done to the Muslim world is, and what's being done right now in the name of the Abraham Accords, what's wrong with the Palestinians? The other Arabs are making peace with them. Let me tell you something. Those regimes that are signing on to the Abraham Accords, the people are not happy, but they're terrified of challenging those regimes. So if you go talk to the leaders of some of these countries that have signed on to the Abraham Accords and that are, you know, in some twisted way making this about religion and peace, you can greatly skew the narrative.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Talk to those people that are being thrown out of their homes and subjected to the daily humiliation. Go to a checkpoint and walk through the checkpoint the way that a Palestinian walks through a checkpoint and tell me that's not apartheid. Walk through that checkpoint crammed in cages and tell me it's not apartheid. So I think you're a very sincere person. I think you're going to do your best. I'll be praying for you.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, if you plan to talk to right wing, the current leadership of Israel, my only request to you? Is talk to the victims themselves, not the Palestinian Authority, talk to the victim. I know you want to, right? So I appreciate that.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Present themselves in English. Hanan Ashrawi is a very eloquent person, for example. I don't know if you're going to have any luck getting into Gaza, but I'll pray for you if you do. But obviously, you know, if you want to talk to everybody, you got to talk to everybody, man.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People that have been erased talk to the families that are being displaced. I don't care about the political leadership. I'd much rather you talk to the people on the ground in East Jerusalem that have been displaced, the families, talk to Palestinian Christians, talk to the sister of Sharina Baqla, Lina Abu Akla, who was extremely disappointed and let down when Joe Biden went to the region and did not take her calls, did not meet her, which was an absolutely disgraceful move. He should have met with her. She's the sister of an American journalist who was murdered in cold blood. Talk to Lena Abu Akla. Talk to Mitri Rahit. Mitri, interesting person, for example. He's a Lutheran. He's the head of the Lutheran Church in Palestine. He comes to Dallas sometimes and talks about the plight of Palestine and Christians. I think if you're talking to people in leadership, you know, obviously there are some that will be able to represent.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“From a place of inquiry, I would say talk to people more so than leaders, and especially some of those who have been erased from the media commentary. Benjamin Netanyahu gets a lot of airtime here in the United States. He's well-spoken. He speaks perfect English. He's an American as well. I would challenge him on some of the things that he has said and done. He has an ongoing corruption case. I think that he's a fascist. I think that he's a person who has done much evil. I think that he has a lot of blood on his hands. And I think that one day he will be prosecuted for that. But I'd say talk to people on the ground.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, it is difficult. It's very difficult and it's hurtful, especially when it comes from quarters that you would hope that it doesn't come from. But you take a step back. You lean into your faith and you lean on the people that are closest to you and then you keep going. You learn the lessons. Could I be doing something better? Could I be doing something different? Could I be saying something better? Could I be saying something different? Are the noble causes that I want to achieve? Am I doing justice by those causes? How do I grow out of this, right? You become wiser through these things as well. Second part of your question, though, about what you should do if you're going to talk to people, talk to people.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When people slander you, and it kind of comes with the territory of a public figure, it's not going to stand throughout time because eventually any sincere person will find the truth. And the only people that will regurgitate that will continue to do so. So when I get portrayed as an anti-Semite, Because of my strong takes on Israel and challenging Israel. And I will continue to do so. It takes just people in Daosh, like, we know him. What are you talking about? So slander doesn't stand, at least with the people that are important to you. It might reside on the internet. It might have great rankings and social media bots that give it traction. But ultimately,”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's the second thing I was going to mention, a supportive family. You know, my dad's 80 man, and he's been through a lot. He was born in 1943, five years before Israel was even created. He was born in Palestine. He suffered displacement. He has been around the world and somehow built himself up to be a distinguished professor of chemistry, an author, an inventor, you know, grew up taking on some of the most difficult challenges and was just always a man of principle. I always admired my dad being a man of principle. And like he just tells me, man, stay the course, stay the course, don't be afraid. Don't back down. I have a supportive family. I have a supportive wife. I've got supportive kids. So I have amazing people around me that keep me grounded for sure. And ultimately, obviously faith.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All right, well, let me tell you from now first and foremost the first part, because I don't want to lose the first part of your conversation. Is it psychologically stressful? Very, very But You're a person of faith and you believe that. Work will always be rewarded, and that doing the right thing will always be rewarded eventually. You're able to weather that storm. Quite”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But there are people now that are clinging on for dear life. Access to their places of worship, access to their generational homes. Right now at this very there are children that are in detention, and there's a bill in Congress to just stop. I mean, Wherever you stand on this issue, child detainment, child detainment, child detention should be a red line, right? Congresswoman Betty McCullum has put this bill on the floor of Congress. She can't even get that passed, right? Just to at least censure child detainment by the IDF. So People need to look into this deeper. They need to consider the human element of this and consider the urgency of it as well with this new regime. It's only going to unfortunately get much worse in the immediate term. And so we have to do something about it.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Malcolm X would say you clip the bird's wing and then fly and then blame it for not flying as high as you do. You can't do that to a people and just equate them with their occupier. It's an atrocity. It requires us to challenge it. And I'm hopeful at the current movement of Muslims, Christians, and Jews, and people of all faiths that are saying enough is enough that thresholds have been crossed here, that this is an atrocity that cannot continue. This is very personal to me because this is happening now. I anticipate, and this is what America did, this is what Nelson Mandela actually predicted with the United States, what I anticipate is that 10 years from now, 20 years from now, every American will say, how could we have supported this? And this was terrible, and we'll pay symbolic homage to the Palestinian cause.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That enables the viciousness towards Muslims here and Palestinians over there that they do not deserve to be treated like equal human beings, like full human beings. And that based on historic claims, a guy can fly from New York into a historic neighborhood in Jerusalem and kick out generational families with military guns next to him. What does that sound like? How is that normal? And so I think that if people take the time to read, people take the time to investigate, then they come to this conclusion themselves that this is unacceptable and that you can't put, and this is one of the problems with the framing of Israel-Palestine, is that you're equating occupier and occupied. You're equating the two sides of the conflict. And it's not a conflict, it's an occupation. There is such a disparity of power here that you cannot equate the two sides.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right? Fly into Tel Aviv and walk into a home that's been occupied by families for generations and throw the people out under the full protection of the military there, and spit on them, historic homes. And when people come up to me and say, We're opposed to Islamophobia, we're opposed to Islamophobia, but they support that. You're not opposed to Islamophobia. How can you be opposed to Islamophobia when you traffic in the same framings and dehumanization?”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“As much hope as I have. I think there's a great sense of urgency for people to open their eyes. Learn what's actually happening on the ground. Read the reports. Stop letting these commentators and these companies that are able to generate propaganda own the narrative. There are objective standards here. There are objective measures of oppression that need to be considered here. What's happening to Gaza is one of the greatest atrocities of our time. Learn about it, right? I tell people to just watch the Weiss documentaries, for example, the mini documentaries I'd sent them to you as well inside the battle for Jerusalem. I mean, think about it. A guy from Long Island, New York can fly to Israel.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“American evangelicals have this ironclad support for the occupation and have ignored the plight of Palestinian Christians. Course, I believe Muslims, Christians, and Jews can coexist. Course, I have hope because I have to have hope as a person of faith.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's not the correct question. This is not a religious conflict. Yes, religion is invoked. Yes, there are religious elements, but there are many Jews. Opposed to what is happening right now towards the Palestinians. Many. And I would recommend. A serious discussion with even people whose perspectives have grown. Peter Binertz being an example, Rabbi Simone Zimmerman started, if not now. Bethislim, an Israeli human rights organization that also classed it as apartheid recently. There are many Jews that are opposed to what is happening right now. Palestinians are also not exclusively a Muslim population. Sharina Baraklah was Christian. There are many Palestinian Christians that are also being denied entry into their historic churches and that are completely bewildered or absolutely lost in regards to why”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sake of American arms deals and security and economic benefits, it's despicable, it's repulsive. Talk to the people, speak to people on the ground there, see what's happening with your own two eyes, and think about the injustice where the Taxpayer dollars are being used to suppress a people in what legally meets the definition by every objective standard of apartheid, of occupation, of ethnic cleansing, and its ongoing and its happening in real time, and it's becoming more blatant. With a regime now that's unapologetic of even expressing what the policies have already done. And that is the removal of a people, forcible removal of a people because they are The government knows that the United States support is unconditional.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We see that happening, and I'll say this as well People ask me about the Abrahamic courts. They say, you know, you are talking about faith between, or you're talking about peace between communities of faith and protecting communities of faith. Why are you opposed to the Abraham Accords? I think that the name of Abraham. Should not be used, and I wrote an article called Why I Opposed the Abraham Accords. The name of Abraham should not be used to justify arms deals. Then only further disenfranchised the abused population of the Palestinians, where, you know, you have quote unquote Muslim regimes making peace with Israel and that's being used against the Palestinian people who are only further disenfranchised from having a voice in their own fate.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Far right leaders now taking the government and the so called only democracy in the Middle East, prohibiting a Palestinian flag being raised anywhere around. American reporters. Palestinian American Christian reporter Talstan American Christian Reporter, one of the most prominent journalists in the Middle East, shot in the face plain sight, and all America could say was all the American government could say was If it turns out that it's indeed Israel, that Israel is responsible for the death of an American journalist, then we will hold them accountable. Nothing, not a peep. It was a shame to see that happen, and it just solidified to us that whether it's a Democratic president or a Republican president, unfortunately the support for Israel is enabling it to continue to wipe out the Palestinian population from its historic land.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“America and many parts of the world are now seeing it. We have been saying for a very long time this is apartheid, this is an occupation, this is an injustice. The world needs to check it, hold it accountable. South Africa, which experienced apartheid, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, all of those that fought apartheid in South Africa said that Palestinians are living under apartheid, and that the same strategies that check the apartheid in South Africa need to be used to hold Israel accountable for apartheid with the Palestinians. It's impossible for us Palestinians, to simply say that we should give up on this cause because all the odds are stacked against us. But when you have videos coming out of these army spewing skunk water, skunk water, sewage water on worshippers leaving Aqsa. Um...”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Completely undermines any of its claims. To being a beacon of freedom in the world, because it is in plain sight now that the world can see what is happening in Sheikh Jarrah, what is happening in Jerusalem, what is happening with these expanding settlements, everything that flies in the face of any claim to wanting a peaceful solution, the children in Gaza, when I talk about dehumanization, the children that were on the face of the New York Times, which is historically one of the most anti-Palestinian newspapers in America, the faces of the children of Gaza.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When Israel was created in 1948, you will find many Jews who are opposed to Zionism, and I think this is important to talk to Jews who are opposed to Zionism, and they are many that will say that we were told that it was a land without a people for a people without a land. The problem with that was there were people there, our ancestors, seven hundred fifty thousand pounds expelled in the Nekbah, and many Palestinians that have been removed and harassed, and that are treated in horrific ways, and the occupation is expanding. It is an illegal occupation, the settlements are still expanding. And the United States enables that occupation with its funding, with its unconditional support, unwavering support of Israel. And it does so in a way that”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Can read those reports on apartheid and the threshold crossed for apartheid and walk away from that and say that this is just Jews and Muslims that don't like each other. There's a legal definition here. Occupation.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Multiple, the most respectable human rights organizations in the world. These are the organizations that you will champion and that you will use in every single other conflict to justify your own policies. But that threshold of apartheid has been passed, according to Human Rights Watch, according to Amnesty International, according to the Harvard Law Review, the threshold of apartheid has been crossed. There's a legal terminology there. Two sets of laws for two separate people. You have a displaced people that are forcibly being removed, that are being treated differently, that are stateless, that undergoing daily humiliation, that live behind an apartheid wall, that live under a different set of policies, that are routinely bombarded, that have lost their ability to free movement, that have lost their ability to access, to basic necessities of human life. There are legal definitions here. I don't see how any objective human”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Are important here. So I'm going to throw out these big terms apartheid, occupation, ethnic cleansing. These are terms that are legal terms. There are objective thresholds here. For apartheid occupation, ethnic cleansing. The threshold of apartheid has been crossed according to”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Never been able to see that land. I've never been able to access that. I have cousins that I'll never be. Well, I shouldn't say never. Inshallah, God willing, I will meet them, but that I've only been able to speak through a phone, FaceTime, Zoom I think that it's important for us to separate criticism of Israel's policies from anti-Semitism. In fact, it's an injustice. It cheapens antisemitism. When you throw every person who is opposed to Zionism or opposed to Israel's policies in the bucket of being anti-Semites, It's wrong. It cheapens it. It doesn't do justice to it. And I think it's important for us to have a meaningful conversation about America's support for Israel. Listen, there are terms.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The religion, it's the great complexity like to a lot of people. Like, wait a minute, right? And you got to take a step back and wonder why there are so many Zionist anti-Semites in America. And there are so many anti-Zionists who are far from being anti-Semites, anti-Zionism that are opposed to the ideology, that are opposed to the implications of it. I think that it's fundamentally secular when you think about it. There is an ethno-supremacism. There is. I am the child of Palestinians that were forcibly displaced from their land. I've never been able to go to where my parents, my grandparents are from.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Where you can reduce them to chalk, casualty counts and not be able to recall a single story. Then you have to take a step back and ask yourself what are we becoming, right? What are we becoming? Not a single victim of Afghanistan or Iraq. Millions of people, not a single person can the average American conjure in their head.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“An American. I think that I'm responsible to the extent that I have to critique these policies and I have to try to challenge America to deal with the world differently. And when I go overseas, When I'm around Muslims in the Muslim world, right, in the Middle East and in the Muslim world, I'm speaking as a Palestinian American Muslim who grew up in South Louisiana. I've got a complexa. Background here, right? A lot of experiences here that I'm grateful for because they all contribute to who I am and what I know and what I've been able. I think they're all enriching. I wouldn't relinquish the Palestinian part. I wouldn't relinquish the American part. And I certainly wouldn't relinquish the Muslim part. It's helping people consider. They're not seeing. And when you can dehumanize entire groups of people.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Should be thinking about what was done to them and hate that, despise that, that it's ugly. You see, when people carry out a terrorist attack, they're not considering the lives of the civilians in these places, so those that perpetrate the 9-11 attacks are not seeing the thousands of people that they killed, the human beings, the lives, many of whom are Muslim, by the way. Actually, no. One of them was a very active Muslim in Islamic circle of North America. Didn't see those stories, right? When you drop a bomb on this many people, when you drone people, and you say, oops, collateral damage, we were looking for one person, killed forty people, and there's no count, no names, nothing that can be recalled in the American memory. That's a problem, a fundamental issue with how we treat the rest of the world, right?”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, look. You think about this, you know, if your grandparents Brothers, your sisters, all of your loved ones, and you're missing a leg and an eye And the world does not take you into consideration. You'll never be seen or considered in the halls of Congress or discussed. What are you going to grow up with, right But the thing is that we should not be speaking about this only from the standpoint of, oh, shoot, they're going to grow up and hate us.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That they're not even relevant to our discourse until they become able villains to our story. And then now they're attacking us because they hate us. Now they're blowing us up because they hate us. Their religion tells them to do this to us. What have we allowed to be done to them using our tax dollars in our name? the political chaos that was caused not just free religion from the groups that were created, but what was done to those countries and what continues to be done in many of these places.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is there a picture that comes to your mind? Is there a person? Absolutely not because that's the dehumanization. Now I often talk about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his progression as a faith leader in America, as a political leader in America. Dr. King was deeply unpopular when he took his stand on Vietnam, and he mentions how first he had to see Vietnam through the lens of the soldiers because many of the soldiers that were lost American soldiers, right? That was a crime that they were sent to fight a war that they should not have been sentenced to fight. And there was an injustice that was done towards them. He said, but things really changed when he started to see it from the other side of the bullet, when he started to see the world through Vietnam, through the Vietnamese child. And that's where he resorted to breaking the silence. That's where he changed his tune because we dehumanize our victims so much.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The responsibility from having to bear the responsibility of much of the hatred and violence, but we have to interrogate the political instability that was caused. Were we justified? As Americans, these are taxpayer dollars where we justified with what was done in Iraq. Do we even know what was done in Iraq and Afghanistan? These drones that drop using our tax dollars under Democratic and Republican regimes. And kill. Thousands of innocent people in weddings in Yemen and Somalia are these justified, and when you think about dehumanization. Can the average American name a single victim of the Iraq War?”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. Look, when you talk about a group like ISIS Islam has been in Iraq for a very, very long time. Iraq has been bombed by now five consecutive presidents or four. It's been bombed into the Stone Ages. There is no political infrastructure, its devastation and destruction, and desperation as a result of that. Many of the old Saddam loyalists and Saddam's regime was a secularist regime are now heads of ISIS, right? It just moved into that. When you create that type of chaos, you generate an environment where groups like ISIS are bound to rise out of. And so Islam did not, you know, cause this. People didn't wake up in Iraq one day and say, hey, let's create a group called ISIS because Islam tells us to, right? Iraq was bombed into this place. And we have to not just free religion from”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Myanmar and the Rohingya today is about Buddhism, so I think that these are essentially political issues, political causes, where you have people that rise up and that use religion to disguise things that are far, far, far from religion. And if you want to manipulate a religious scripture, you could turn any book, any scripture into a violent scripture if you have a violent aim. So I think that that's where you find people manipulating verses, manipulating religion to justify sick ideologies that are based on And thrive in political instability.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Listen, I think at the essence of it Is always some sort of political instability that leaves behind a brutalized population and vulnerabilities that can be exploited. As I said in the 20th century, With the bloodiest century that we've had to date. Does religion fall in any of that? Where does religion fall in the isms? Where does religion fall in the world wars? Where does religion fall? And much of that, even when we talk about things like the Crusades, remove the Islamic framing, the crusades. The crusades, were they really about religion, the Mongols and the destruction of the Mongols? Was it about religion?”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's the beauty that you don't just want to see, but you also want to be. You know, we're living in a climate where There's a lot of that, right? So, how do you actually get through that and actually Not allow yourself to succumb to that. and be another voice in that polarization.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Look, I don't think. I don't think I did much, I'm being really honest. This is not me trying to be humble here. I don't think I did much. I think I did what I was called to do. I wish that it never happened, right, as a whole, but I'm glad that the relationships that have been built over time came into being in that day, right? We could call upon people that we knew, call upon each other, and as a community really come together. You know, Dallas has been through a lot, a lot of pain. But we've come together through a lot of pain as well. So it's kind of one of those things where we're united in our pain. You know, when you suffer together, you build certain bonds together. So Dallas has been through a lot as a community. But we've come together through a lot as a community.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Many lessons just Be indifferent. Don't be indifferent to the suffering around you, or even that's distant from you because it's somehow related to you. So just don't be indifferent.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Wondering if they're going to get their dad back. Kind of see yourself there, and so I just saw myself in that situation. What would I want people to be doing for me in that moment? What would I want people to be telling my family in that moment? So that's really where I went to and that's really where I dug into and I prayed a lot that day, a lot, a lot for the right words, for the right actions, what I could do to just help.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I don't see, I can't separate anything about myself in that situation, right? So when I had to pray, I had to pray to help people out, to give people words of comfort, to try to appeal to the senses of whoever I could at the time. I didn't see myself as a guy trying to. Trying to show a particular part of Islam in there. I just saw myself as someone that was trying to help a family get their husband and father back, right? And so it was more of just like that part of me was there. You know, you can kind of see yourself, right? And this is the irony of it. When Christ Church in New Zealand happened. That was kind of our worst nightmare as Texas Muslims because we've had armed groups in front of our mosques threatening to do what that man did in Christchurch. And so, when you see a wife and kids”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We're calculated when we shouldn't be, and that's when that good instinct comes in where you're called to do something else.”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And eventually I had to wait outside until I got clearance to come through and to just offer whatever support I could, pastoral support, support with trying to free the hostages of the synagogue at the time. It was operating out of a church right across the street from the synagogue. A day long, just wondering what was going to happen, looking at the family of the rabbi at the time, wondering what was going to happen. Trying to just be as supportive as I possibly could at that time. Thankfully, they all got out in the evening. And I think that Looking back on that day, My wife actually asked me, said, Would you have done it differently? And I said, No, I really wouldn't because I think that things happen sometimes. You've got to act on your good instinct sometimes, right? When you talk about like being calculated I think sometimes”
2023-01-17 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #352 – Omar Suleiman: Islam · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source