Omar Suleiman
speaker
1,922 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Jan 2023
last heard Feb 2024
Omar Suleiman’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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that sounds so radical, you know, when you compare them to the image of MLK. And Malcolm is, of course, turned into this militant, angry Muslim who just wanted violence and was seeking chaos here in the United States. So let's be clear about something here that Malcolm never himself was part of any violence. Malcolm never did anything violent.
Malcolm found it hypocritical to commit the oppressed people to nonviolence while not restraining the oppressor from its violence. And I agree with Malcolm. It is absolutely hypocritical to focus your attention and your energy on the oppressed people and committing them to nonviolence while not directing your attention to the oppressor.
When you have such asymmetry, when you have a clear aggressor and aggressed upon, you have a clear colonial entity and a clear colonized people You focus your energy on restraining the colonial power. You focus your energy on restraining the oppressor, not the oppressed.
And so that was Malcolm's point, and it's clear in his messaging throughout his religious growth, because of course Malcolm did evolve as a person. But Malcolm found it deeply hypocritical to commit the oppressed to nonviolence.
Malcolm also had a deep understanding of the way that brutality here, state violence in the United States was connected to its state violence abroad and American imperialism as a whole. Malcolm was the first to speak on Vietnam, the first major African American leader to speak on Vietnam. Martin followed. Malcolm also went to Gaza in 1964.
1964, went to Khan Yunus, which is now under heavy bombardment, and Malcolm penned an essay on Zionism and connected Zionism to American imperialism and the broader implications of America's foreign policy. So Martin and Malcolm, if you look at them in the capacity of what's happening right now, Where I would say you can find something that is deeply profound.
James Cone wrote a book called Malcolm and Martin Dreams and Nightmares. And he wrote something profound to the effect that Martin tried to liberate white people from their own racism. Whereas Malcolm tried to liberate black people from the effects of that racism on them. And so they both played a deeply important role. Self-determination is crucial to maintain the fuel of a movement.
And I think one of the things that probably deeply frustrates those that have sought the erasure of Palestine is that Palestinian consciousness has only continued to grow after 75 years. Palestinians in diaspora and Palestinians within occupied territory all are deeply rooted in their Palestinian identity and existence, and they're not going away.
So I think that that's where the function is important of this, whereas those that are complicit in the oppression need to be liberated from their own oppression, and liberated from what they're participating in. Most Americans that I talk to that have absolutely no idea about what's going on,
When they come to hear just a few stories of the plight of the Palestinian people and the types of brutality that we have encountered, wake up to this and say, oh my God, this is what my tax dollars go to. This is what I'm a part of, right? So we have to liberate people across the board from being oppressors or from being oppressed.
You have to see the world, their world, through their eyes. You can't try to see their world through your eyes. If you live under occupation, you're routinely harassed at Israeli checkpoints. The occupation is expanding into your territory. You're meeting families regularly that have been thrown out of their homes and that are looking for a new place in the shrinking territory.
You deal with routine airstrikes. You have no way to get out. You have no way to grow. You don't even have a passport. Your education is subpar. Your standards of living are lower than the rest of the world. And all you hear from the other side, which dominates the discourse and dominates every element of your existence, are promises of erasure, of complete erasure.
13,000 people I mentioned, 2023, 13,000 new settlement units being advanced. If that happened anywhere, right? Just think about what that means, right? When you clear out a village or two, And it's not that big of a territory, right?
When you know that that's happening and when you have been subjected to that, anyone that claims to be supporting you or uplifting you from that state of misery is going to have sympathy. Whether you agree with their mission or their methods or not, it's human. It is human. That if anyone says that they are going to get you out of this misery,
and inflict pain on those who have given you a life of pain and promised you a future of pain, you're going to have sympathy to that group, whether you agree with them or not. I think that the question also has to be asked. What about the Israeli public?
Israel holds all of the power in that region, holds all of the power over that territory, is able to dominate the expansion of its own territory and diminish any Palestinian territory, is able to place restrictions whenever it wants on Palestinian movement, trying to get to their holy sites or otherwise, whether it's Mezz Al-Aqsa or the Holy Sepulchre or the Church of Nativity, right?
The majority of the Israeli public Before October 7th, unfortunately, according to all polls, favors a non-democratic regime, the end of a two-state solution, does not care about the plight of Palestinian people, the majority of the Israeli public. Why is that? And what does that mean for Palestinians, right?
Especially now after this genocide, the vast majority of the Israeli public does not favor a ceasefire, right? what are we supposed to do when we see mainstream media coming out of Israel, pop culture, TikTok videos that only speak to a greater desire to eliminate the Palestinian people, right? So anyone that says that they are going to support your plight
whether you agree with their mission or their methods, is going to resonate with that child that has grown up in those desperate circumstances. You know, Bassem Youssef had an interview with Piers Morgan and he was talking about this. I mean, he literally gave it a human story.
If you're a child that's grown up, you've lost limbs, your parents are dead, your friends are dead, you have been made a refugee two or three times already, you have no future in sight, And then someone comes to you and says, I'm going to help you. And I'm going to fight back on your behalf. Of course it's going to resonate. It's human, right?
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