Ep 255. - Sumud: A Global Resilience for Gaza | Muhammad Nadir Al Nuri and Ashraf Khoja
Disclaimer:
Salam! Please note that the Sumud Flotilla Convoy and other humanitarian efforts to reach Gaza are continually evolving. All numbers, figures, and participants mentioned reflect information available at the time of recording and are subject to change. For the most current and accurate updates, please refer to trusted and verified sources.
In this episode of The Thinking Muslim, we explore the Global Sumud Flotilla. A courageous initiative to break the illegal siege on Gaza. We speak with two members of the team about the logistical challenges, the international coalition behind the flotilla, and why this mission represents not just Palestinian resilience (sumud), but also a basic humanitarian responsibility for the world.
You can find more on The Global Sumud Flotilla here: https://globalsumudflotilla.org/ https://www.instagram.com/globalsumudflotilla/?hl=en
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Transcript - This is an AI generated transcript and may not reflect the actual conversation
0:04
So I'm with Ashrav Kha who's uh part of the logistics committee uh of the global Simud flatillaa and with Nadira Nuri who's an organizer a key organizer of the
0:15
global Samud flatillaa and today we're going to talk about uh what you're really seeing on your screens um uh this enormous effort uh to try to break the siege on Gaza
0:27
uh brother Ashraamlaykum and welcome to the thinking Muslim
0:35
for inviting us on this platform. And thank you so much for uh for joining us. Now uh brother Nad,
0:42
I want to um come to you first. Um just tell me what the idea is behind this global summar. First
0:51
of all, thanks also for having me on the show. uh a bit tan boying at the moment because I'm a keen
1:00
person who watches your episodes especially the one uh talking about the modern salah do
1:06
we need it or not and that is something that I think is closely related to what we are doing
1:12
today how we are combining the um combining the people combining the efforts of the people to
1:19
go into one movement to go into one uh efforts to break the siege in Gaza and we know what is
1:25
happening in Gaza. have been hearing about it for nearly two years. Uh 60,000 people martyed
1:34
their children that are going hungry, people, mothers who have gone through cyber for giving
1:42
babies without any anesthetics and so on and so on. And it's such a long list that we have to ask
1:50
ourselves today. The history that we are living inside inside it and what we are seeing in front
1:57
of our eyes is actually the second Nakba that is happening and that is not stopping. Uh I think the
2:04
people listening to thinking Muslim are all people who have you know followed the Palestinian story
2:09
the Palestinian conflict for such a long time and they have been thinking when the Nakba happened in
2:15
1948 why did the Muslim countries not do anything why did the Arab countries stay idle and now the
2:23
same thing is happening in front of our eyes and it's happening uh many times over the DBA
2:30
happened about 50,000 people died was killed and also about uh 600 700,000 people were uh located
2:41
for their homes and forced to move outside of their villages. The same thing is happening but
2:47
it's many many times over 60,000 people are med nearly 2 million people are displaced and it's
2:54
still going on. So history is asking us why is this happening in our time and what are we doing
3:01
to change this? But alhamdulillah uh viewers of the TK Muslim I think is on the part of the people
3:08
that is trying to do something that is trying to make change and the problem now that we are
3:14
facing is change cannot be made because of the incompetence of the leaders of the countries and
3:22
of the powers that are in motion that is stopping our aid and our funds from breaching inside of the
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Gala strip. So that's where the idea of uh global subutila came from. It started off with I think
3:37
stories that can be told by brother Ashov who uh experienced it who tried to move and break the
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land borders and did not manage to do so which created and caused this idea of the breaking of
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the seas through the uh sea corridor come into fruition and we can talk about that a little bit
3:59
later but uh maybe we have to go back to the soft and to the roots what was done by our brothers in
4:07
Tunisia, in Algeria and Libya and how did they not manage to reach uh the endgame of breaking
4:16
the land but they did manage to move the hearts of millions and move the hearts of these tens of
4:24
thousands of people who are trying to find a new way to break this. Thank you very much. Um Ashar
4:32
um fill us in on the background to this uh global simud flatillaa. Uh what led you um from different
4:40
countries in the world? You're from Tunisia and you know brother Nadair is from Malaysia. What
4:46
led you to come together in this global gathering uh in order to um sail the seas and break this
4:53
siege? Thank you Jalal. So it's very interesting you know everything starts from small initiatives
4:59
and we always get bigger and bigger and bigger. So the global as everyone knows it's a global
5:05
initiatives from four uh other global initiatives that have previously tried to break the siege on
5:12
from different methods. So you had the or you have organizers from the freedom fella coalition that
5:17
have tried to attempt to break the sea uh the siege by sea. You had the global movement, the
5:24
Raza, which tried to break the siege on Gaza by going to Egypt through air. And then you had the
5:30
Tunisian or the MB now convoy that tried to break the siege by lat. Uh and all these efforts they've
5:37
all tried from their own method and none of them were obviously fully successful in uh in reaching
5:43
their objective albeit they achieved other objectives which we'll mention. But eventually
5:49
they all came together and decided let's try to create another global initiatives where here
5:55
we're at the point in this time where activists from everywhere in the world it doesn't matter what's your background doesn't matter what's your religion doesn't matter what's your race Palestine
6:04
has become a compass has become the main cause of this world and everyone has decided to come
6:09
together to to go for this issue and so for the Tunisian summ convoy when it first started I think
6:17
uh it started like I think a month before it launched and without getting into too many details it was a small initiatives even a in the beginning the the main organizers they were telling me of
6:28
course I learned that later on that they didn't even know whether they're going to leave from the Tunisian capital itself but alhamdulillah you know Allah opened the roads for them uh we got to
6:39
see the great unity when we were crossing through all the Tunisian cities and then we crossed all
6:44
the Libyan cities and we had Algerians that came to Tunisia, we saw like a great the great unity
6:50
of the ummah that we always dream of. I feel like that was the first time I saw it firsthand. When you have like strangers from different countries, they stop you in the highway just to give you
7:00
food or water. They tell you, "Please take it to Gaza, you know, they give you money. The Libyans
7:06
have been extremely generous in uh in uh in making sure that the Sumud convoy, you know,
7:13
gets to its goal." And I'm happy to talk about the experience even more. But I think the main point that I wanted to say now is that just like brother Nad said um today the Muslims,
7:25
you know, they have a choice to make. You know, it's like we saw it in the neckl before and now we're seeing it again. Today you have a choice to make. Are you going to be a simple observer
7:33
to the events that are unfolding or are you going to be active in the community in the world in the
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um and I feel like as a Muslim this is not just like a humanitarian cause for us it's also it's
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it's a it's a duty it's a religious duty to help our brothers and sisters and uh yeah so so I think
7:51
that we've always had the selfdefeitist mentality over the past decades where we feel like we really
7:58
can't do anything whatever we're going to do is not going to bring any fruits. You know, it's not
8:04
going to be beneficial. It won't be successful. Even a lot of my friends and some family members
8:09
in the beginning when we went to the convoy, they told us, "Don't go. You're not going to make anything." But the beautiful thing about our religion is that you know, you know, for us, we're
8:19
we're required what is required from us is our efforts and not the results. So, what we have to do is do our best and then the results will be as Allah wills. So we will sail the and then whether
8:31
we gather or not it depends on Allah's plans. Uh brother Nadir I think we can pick up on that point
8:37
a very good point that Ashra just mentioned there about uh our efforts. Um of course there have been
8:44
uh efforts in the past to break this siege and these efforts have not completely been successful.
8:49
In fact they haven't broken the siege. uh what is it about this particular uh flatillaa that you
8:57
think is different to these past efforts like what is it that uh you've added you put in addition
9:03
here uh to to uh inshallah break this siege uh it's interesting to uh learn from the experience
9:11
of the people who have done this type of mission before and uh I think more or less the first
9:18
mission started in 2008 when the siege happened on the Gaza Strip in 2007 and amazingly the first
9:26
attempts actually managed to reach the Gaza Strip. About five boats managed to reach the Gaza Strip
9:33
but after that uh the Zionist learned and knew how to stop the ships learn how to stop the ships.
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uh other events happened. 2010 was the most prominent when Mavi Mahamara caused 10 people
9:49
on board to get killed and as you can see nextly uh Anzalah and also Madlin tried to get into shik
9:58
into the gaz and what happened was they were inter intervent inter intervention happened
10:05
and they were stopped by the Israelis and that is the most uh the most usual thing that can happen
10:12
in these types of missions where the Israelis will border ships they will be deported the people will
10:19
be deported and sent back to their home countries or uh uh put in prison for a while before they are
10:26
also sent back to their home countries. So this is what we learned from the past but what we are
10:32
seeing right now is history in the making. What is unfolding in front of our eyes is something
10:38
that has not happened before because the maximum ships as we said maybe five six ships that were
10:45
done in the early days and then other efforts that followed did not be uh 10 ships for example. But
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what we are doing is sending dozens and dozens of ships all at once from more than 50 countries that
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have been participating and organizing uh and have reached uh this fruitful mission. And other than
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those 50 countries, all countries, most of the countries in the world will also be participating
11:20
by sending their delegations uh on the boats. So this is the first time this has been done and
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uh yeah that's the difference between what we are doing and what has been done in the past.
11:34
Never before has this amount of ships been sent with the support of all these countries and tens
11:41
of thousands of people who are trying to make this work and inshallah inshalla and um can you give us
11:48
some numbers how many ships uh are uh sailing and how many uh countries how many participants from
11:56
how many countries are involved? As of uh now we have more than 80 ships that are sailing. Uh
12:04
most of them are sailing from Tunisia and Spain. Others are sailing from uh other ports and uh we
12:14
have more than 1,000 people who are boarding these ships and they come from more than 100 countries.
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either they have funded the ships uh or they have been an active part of organizing the ships or the
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need they have done is to send a representative from their country to be on the ships. So this
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is a globalwide effort and it has not been done before and that's why the chances of success is
12:41
very high in char in Charlotte. But of course we know that from past experience the Israelis have
12:48
um uh have often um uh interceded and and have actually created u enormous challenges
12:56
for any uh uh any attempt any project to break this siege. And um uh do you expect yes you've
13:04
got you've got numbers here and that's mah a fantastic development but do you expect there
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to be a very similar response from the Israelis? Um brother Asher I think that we know what the
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Zionist entity is capable of and we know that they have stopped previous attempts before and
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I think it's very reasonable to expect that they will try again. I think that as brother Nadir has
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mentioned you know this is going to be the largest civilian flutella ever attempted it's something
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it's uncharted territory for everyone for both us and them so I think that even they're probably not
13:41
sure what is their plan yet I think that they're probably raffling their brains to try to figure out of a plan I think that we have put a different scenarios of what could potentially happen the
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first uh scenario is obviously for them to is the interception and them detaining the boats
13:58
Uh the second scenario is obviously a bureaucratic defeat which is either they stop us before we even
14:04
launch the boat or they do sabotages as they've tried with Handala at one of their ports. Uh
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the third scenario is obviously the riskier and more dangerous scenario which is that if
14:15
they see a large number of ships they don't know how to deal with it and they you know um I don't know how to say in English but they they will sink some ships. Uh and obviously the
14:24
fourth scenario which is what we're all hoping for is that we are going to get the inshallah.
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Inshallah. That's good. That's good. And um what sort of organization has gone into uh this effort
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um brother Nadir in particular you you've been organizing uh with people in Malaysia and and and
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uh different parts of the world to bring this uh effort this flotilla together. just tell us the
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u the the breadth of the work that you've been and your uh um your colleagues have been uh doing
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uh for the past uh weeks and months. First of all, what we have been doing is just one month
15:04
ago has not started more than that and the global support uh has crazily not uh happened or not uh
15:15
been planned uh for so long. uh it has been only one month in the works and that is the amazing
15:23
thing because we have provided an a venue for the people to show their support to show their anger
15:30
and their sympathy for what is happening inside of the Gaza state and uh for Sumantara itself
15:37
which controls the Southeast Asian and South Asian countries collaborate with these countries. There
15:44
has been mass movements uh of people literally millions who have supported uh this efforts by
15:52
holding uh campaigns in their own countries. On the 15th of August we had mass events in countries
16:00
that were not so much in support of u Palestine. For example, Sri Lanka, which is a minority
16:08
Muslim country, turned out in the thousands uh uh participating in demonstrations for the people of
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Karispan. We had the same event on the same day in Maldives. We had the same events in Nepal in
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Indonesia uh and uh we are moving towards Thailand before uh we have it in Malaysia as the peak and
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climate of these events. So actually what uh we have been doing alhamdulillah is not just
16:38
uh talking about success of reaching the gather shores but this movement itself is success in
16:46
the making uh bringing these people back to know and read about what is happening inside of the
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Gaza state. bringing the masses to bones and do something after two years of the genocide
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that has been happening there. That is something that is uh that can be applauded and alhamdulillah
17:08
although we are very very tired uh but we see these uh things come into fail in in front of
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our eyes and we are happy and proud that we are not staying silent. Yeah, let's uh because there
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may be some uh Muslims who are pro Palestinian, who are pro Gaza who may say that look, this is
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uh you know a uh uh it's it's fine, but it's it's it may sound to them to be a bit reckless.
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um or it it may seem like it's it's not well fought through like how would you respond to
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uh those Muslims who've now resigned themselves to the uh and you find this by the way amongst
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some even uh Islamic religious um um commentators who argue that Gaza is now lost and there's very
18:00
little we can do as ordinary citizens as of this world as or ordinary people of this um to uh to
18:08
break this siege. Um, Asher, if maybe you want to pick that up. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great question,
18:13
Jalal. I think, yeah, that goes back to what I was saying, mentioning a bit earlier about, you know,
18:18
the self-defeatist mentality that we have. And like I said, when I was going on the Sumud convoy,
18:24
you know, a lot of friends, family, and others were telling us that, you know, you're not going nowhere. You there's a great risk of, you know, not even making it through Libya. If
18:33
you do in Egypt, you know, you you will always keep failing and failing and failing. That's the narrative that we keep telling ourselves because that is what we're used to. But we just have to
18:42
keep trying. I think the beauty of for for me from my perspective from the Sumud convoy, one of the
18:47
objectives it has achieved even though it hasn't reached the the Rafa border is that it allowed
18:54
the people to kind of take things into their own hands. You know, we no longer rely on governments,
18:59
institutions. I used to work with the UN. you know no international organizations no institution no leaders no religious uh leaders who tell us you know just to don't they don't push us into action
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and it has united people from all sorts whether it's you know Muslims whether it's non-Muslims
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you know it's united everyone into action you know I feel like we're the generation of action
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you know we're no longer into talking and how do we do this and okay let's uh let's talk about you
19:29
know ideas and planning we're just into action and the organizers and I have to thank them from Sumud
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Convoy despite all the challenges they've had they've always kept going you know like the the
19:41
the organizers from Libya they kept telling them this will not happen there's this issue uh but they always kept pushing and pushing and pushing even when we got to C and the crossing of Cert and
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we were besieged ourselves for two days we were always resilient we said okay we're not taking
19:57
a step back we're going to camp right here in the middle of the desert Even when they threatened us
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with live live shooting, you know, we always stayed steadfast in front of dangers because
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whatever we go through, whatever sacrifices, whatever the risks and dangers we face is
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nothing compared to what people in Gaza are going through and it's our duty to just keep trying. you
20:20
know we have to keep trying and you know like one of the objectives that it has reached is is
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that it's it united you know part of the um which is the North African um or specifically Algeria,
20:34
Libya and Tunisia because we always used to be you know separated you know even though we feel like
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we're one people we always had we were divided by lines and that was the first time we felt that we
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are one and for me and I may have mentioned this I don't know but we felt like we are one um and
20:51
I think that another thing that another objective that we achieved is that we broke the fear in our
20:57
minds that we cannot do anything because we're all capable of pushing change. You know, it's
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a question of responsibility and we're all capable of doing something. You know, there's from people, you know, the Sumud convoy who donated supplies, there's people who customized entire trucks with
21:13
solar paners and chargers and gave it to us for free. Uh there's a lot of people who gave things for free and they said please just take it to Gaza to even there's an elderly man who
21:22
gave his to one of the organizers and he told her please take this and I think that besides breaking
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that fear what what the Sumud convoy it instilled belief that Palestine which regardless that we're
21:38
all in the Mina region still feels far away in our minds prior to the Sumud convoy whereas after the
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Sumud convoy now Everyone in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya feels that oh I could just start my car
21:50
and go to and that was a whole new like different dynamic and reconfiguration of the brain and gives
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empowers us to feel that we are actually capable as to your questions. Yeah, in the flatillaa
22:04
obviously there are great risks that that are in front of us but also there's a lot of great work
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as Nadiv said a lot of great work behind it to ensure the safety of the flatillaa and obviously
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we can't go through all of it but there's been a lot of training that's been done to the participants when it comes to nonviolence training so that when we're intercepted we don't risk any
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uh any uh lethal casualties or you know any unfortunate uh unfortunate lethal consequences.
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Uh there's a lot of legal training that we're going through. There's a lot of uh sailing
22:43
training that we go through. There's a lot of things that are prepared beforehand even in the
22:48
safety of the boats, the equipments, the the the sailing path that we're taking. So there's a lot
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of things that we're doing behind the scenes to ensure that this flotilla is safe. But even if we
23:01
don't achieve full 100% safety measures and like because when you're facing the Zionist entity you
23:08
can never reach 100%. There's always the risk and dangers. You still have to go through it and uh
23:15
attempt the to break the siege and we always have to keep going. And I think one of the best things about Sumud Convoy and the other initiatives is that it's given these normal everyday people,
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doctors, teachers, uh lawyers, journalists to come together and organize on their own. You know,
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even the funding that we take from global doesn't come from associations, organizations,
23:37
government. It it's it's it's most of it comes from the people you know the people are the ones
23:42
who are funding it the people are the ones who are working on it the people are the ones who are organizing it nothing is has been done at this scale from at least from what I know from
23:52
civilian population and I think it's a great exercise that we have done and we will keep doing this in other future initiatives obviously if we made it this time and we broke the siege ala
24:03
and established humanitary corridor there will still be other initiatives and if we don't make There will still be another initiative. The Zionist entity needs to know we're going to
24:12
come no matter what. We you you'll stop us this time or the next time we'll try again. We'll try
24:17
again and inshallah we won't stop until we reach our goal. And uh Ashra you mentioned there but one
24:22
of the aims is to create a permanent humanitarian corridor. Um how will that be achieved? Explain
24:28
explain the rationale behind that. So as we know the the siege we can be act so we can break the
24:35
siege from two sides really. you can either is from the land crossings or from the uh from the
24:41
sea. The land crossing obviously as we know from previous experience from our land convoy and from
24:46
the global movement the ATM it's much tougher because it's controlled uh through the Egyptian
24:52
borders right when we come to the sea Israel no matter what they say they are really against
24:59
international law so the Zionist entity through the sea what they're doing is an illegal blockades
25:06
and they have no legitimate international law backing their actions. And so our goal here is
25:13
to establish a humanitarian corridor from the sea which is through international waters and then the then shores of and we're hoping that if we allow establish a humanitarian corridor then aid
25:25
can come from everywhere in the world directly to Gaza. And that's kind of the idea behind it. I'm
25:30
not sure if Nadir you want to emphasize on that. Yeah. Yeah. And Nad, I mean building on that,
25:37
why is it that governments have failed to do this so far? What is stopping these governments,
25:43
our governments in the Muslim world from sending uh humanitarian aid via the sea u to to Kaza? Uh
25:52
first of all responding a bit about the question you asked brother Ashro earlier.
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uh you we have to know that when we are looking at these efforts from an eagle view we all we can see
26:05
all the negative uh things that uh is happening but when we are working on the ground we know that
26:12
these efforts actually uh bear fruit for example mi mamara although 10 people were marted managed
26:20
to open the borders uh the m convoy which happened even though was stopped by Egypt
26:28
uh managed to force the Egyptians to open the borders even though it was not announced
26:33
uh through the news and that is what we are trying to achieve and as you said earlier what is
26:40
happening now yes it's not just about breaking the borders it's about uniting the uniting the people
26:48
and saying that this will never happen again so alhamdulillah what we are trying to do as we know
26:56
uh Israelis they are uh have been living in Gaza we know that during times normal times uh they
27:06
tend to put their warships about 12 nautical miles outside of the Gaza shores uh that's uh where the
27:14
international waters start but during the wars the ships comes closer and uh become nearly
27:22
about six nautical miles to the Gaza shores and you can actually see the ships from the shores.
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Uh which means that uh all the fishing boats for example they cannot go out for sea cannot go out
27:34
more than 12 nautical miles and they will be sent back by the Egypt by the Israeli ships either by
27:40
taking their boats or by killing the fishermen on board. So that has been happening outside of
27:46
the wall and inside of the wall of course uh the grip is tighter on the Gaza strip and governments
27:53
cannot enter uh inside of uh in Gaza through the sea. So we know the state of the um today. We
28:02
know how strategically uh Israel has been planning and has managed to take a hold of these countries
28:13
especially those that are around Palestine. We don't have to mention about the Cam David Accords
28:19
or about the Wii Araba uh dealings that have been done with those countries and so and so but
28:27
that is the state that we are facing today. These countries they are taking so much of their thrones
28:33
they are taking so much of their seats that every step that they want to take they are thinking is
28:40
this good for me this good for my country they are not thinking of the um so that's why we have to put things inside our own hands we take action by ourselves we have nothing to lose except our
28:51
dignity if we do not act today and if we do not act out and um really a personal question you're
29:00
going to be on these ships. Like why why do you do this? Like what is the motivation that um makes
29:07
you think that you know you're a former employee at the United Nations, you've worked in NOS's
29:14
like why have you taken it upon yourself u to put yourself in harm's way? You know, I don't really
29:21
think of it as in harm's way. I just think of it as what's right. You know, I feel like I mean part
29:26
of the reasons I used to work at the UN initially was because I wanted to do good in the world and
29:33
uh and this is just another way of doing it. I obviously after October 7th, I've I've lost belief
29:42
in what the UN can do. I mean, I I still believe a lot in what the UN can do in humanitarian efforts,
29:48
but I believe that all of that is more treating a wound and not treating the source of the disease.
29:54
And here the biggest source of the disease that we are facing today is the Zionist entity. And we have to face that head on. And when I left the UN and I left it just a few months ago, I did not
30:06
have any plan in mind. Subhan Allah. I just, you know, I prayed for and I said, I'm going to leave. I'm going back to Tunis. And as soon as I got to Tunis, the Sumud convoy happened. I participated
30:16
in it. And uh luckily now I'm in the logistical committee for the flotillaa. And there's a lot
30:23
of even friends and family that tell me, you know, why do you take this risk? You know, like when we were in search, you know, they they threatened us with life shooting. We could have we could
30:30
have died. Uh you know, they they kidnapped us. Uh they they confiscated some of our passports,
30:36
our phones. uh and and in this the flotillaa the risk are even crazier and the the dangers
30:44
are more real because you're facing the true enemy directly. I think here, you know, there's there's
30:51
a lady uh in the Sumud convoy that said something that really, you know, expressed what we all felt,
30:58
which is that in the past two years since October 7th, we've done everything we can. You know, we've protested, we've boycotted, we've posted on social media, you know, any any initiatives that
31:10
we could try to come up with, we did. But when we went on the summ convoy, it felt more that we were
31:17
healing ourselves rather than we were helping the Palestinians because obviously we knew that the
31:23
likelihood of getting there was very low. But at least we kind of we've reduced that frustration
31:30
that's been in our hearts for the past two years where we feel we are powerless. One of the main reasons I feel like I go is because one this is a responsibility as a human. You know this is and
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this is a duty as a Muslim. You know this isn't my responsibility as a human towards other humans but
31:47
it's even more bigger responsibility as a Muslim because we the reason we are here on this earth
31:53
is to to to create a good world to create a good world for everyone and we cannot stand by watching
31:59
genocides happen whether it was for Palestine or for other and there are other conflicts in the world that we will still need to get to but right now we've all realized I think collectively
32:08
as a human species that a lot of the bad that is happening whether in in in the Middle East and
32:15
Europe, in the US, it all boils down to this one central entity that is at the heart of all these
32:21
issues. And for me, like I said, I don't know if if you caught the part about talking about the the
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women from Simul, but I feel like, yeah, this is this is healing us. The more we do this effort,
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we even feel better because we're like at least, you know, I'm sure everyone has heard what Abua
32:38
has said, you know, in one of his uh in one of his televised speeches, you know, you know like
32:44
another day like you will be our opponents in front of Allah. I don't want to be an opponent of Abu another day. So I want at least the the day I die, you know, when I meet my creator,
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I want to say that I've done everything in my power, you know, at least I've done everything and
33:00
I will no longer be frustrated because now, you know, like brother Nadir said, it's a lot of work, you know, and not a lot of sleep and we're working very hard. But honestly, I feel good in this
33:11
tiredness because at least I am I'm releasing all this frustration out and I'm putting it in
33:18
the right channel energy. And honestly, I would love for everyone in the Muslim um to do this
33:24
because we're we're two billion people. You know, if if if you know if you know if half of us just
33:30
for example donates $100, that's a 100 billion people. If if we all work together like we are
33:36
working right now on the global imagine the things that we can create and I feel like today we have
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to be active in creating a better world whether it's these initiatives or other initiatives and
33:47
I also do want to say you know it's like the people who are going on the boats they're not the only ones that are part of this initiatives everyone can play a role and feel as if they are
33:58
on the boat whoever stays for example on land and organizes a rally in support of this event. He for
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me is as if he's part of the book. The one who's posting something on social media, he is part of
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the book. The one who has donated even a small ads part of the you can do anything. Just do whatever
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you can. That is the only ask is do whatever you can to support this initiative and the next and
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the next and we have to keep going because I I I feel like the there is no other outcome like
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the conflict will end one day and I believe that truth and justice will prevail and the question
34:32
is are we going to be part of that process or are we going to be bystanders and brother Nadir
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you've stayed you've lived in Gaza and you've met with the people what do you think uh the people of
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Gaza are uh what is their state of mind or what do they think about the Muslim Ummah and our lack of
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inaction? Uh you've you've got relations, you've spoken to people in Gaza. Um what's the message
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you're you're hearing from them? Okay. uh although we always hear and see from the gaz people that
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they are posting on the social media that uh Allah is uh what who is left for us the um has
35:18
disappointed us we cannot hope for anything from the people of the world anymore but uh although we
35:25
hear all these statements uh I tend to send uh pictures of me giving lectures to my family of
35:34
what we are doing in their freedom in their Gaza Platila uh efforts. I send them the news that is
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covered by Jazira and those other channels and they sten up and they say, "Ya Allah, someone
35:48
is still looking out for us. Someone is still standing in solidarity for us. We are still people
35:54
who have reconciles to move and do something for the people of Gaza." And that is what pushes us
36:01
and shows us to keep on moving because we know that although we not we may not be able to reach
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Gaza but the idea of moving and doing something and not standing still that has been giving hope
36:16
to the people of Gaza and you know how the people of Gaza think been staying there for 10 years and
36:23
they tend they tend to think like this the mindset that is very very strong the essence
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of itself which is not this difference on sabar. Tabar is when you uh be patient, you accept what
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Allah has given you and you stay puts. But in Tabar staying in puts and taking action and
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that is what the people of Gaza are doing. When their school schools are bombed, universities are bombed. We get proposals from them wanting to open UN online universities. When their moss are
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bombed, they still ask us for carpets to be put under the rubble so that they can during
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Juma. When their homes are bomb, they still do not want to leave their homes and they put uh cloths and uh plastic mats over their heads so that they can still stay inside their those broken
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down homes. That's the spirit of uh so smooth. That's a spirit of resilience and that is what the
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people of Gaza is trying to teach us. We know that they are hearing us. We know that they are looking
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at us and we know that they are still hoping that we move to help them and that is what we are
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trying to do and we will not let them down. Ashad, may Allah subh tala keep you safe and uh allow you
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to break this siege inshallah and give salam to our brothers and sisters in in thank you so much
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for all your efforts and uh the the time you have given to this really noble cause. Thanks. Thanks.
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