AVI YEMINI | The Yemini Report — Ep 27
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 9 minutes
Words per Minute
175.84604
Hate Speech Sentences
119
Summary
Joseph Yitzchak shares his story of growing up in the UK in the 80s and 90s, and how he went on to become one of the most prominent anti-Zionist voices in British Jewry.
Transcript
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00:00:46.680
Welcome back to the Yamini Report, where you never know where our guests come from.
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And this time it's confusing, because this is somebody that I've met before in the United Kingdom, probably in my most cringy days, but has since moved to Israel.
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Joseph, welcome to the show. It's Joseph Yeo, or do you call yourself Yosef? I'm pretty sure it's Joseph. Did I get it wrong?
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So it's Joseph online, but we had the question when we hit immigration, are you going to be a Yosef, or are you going to be a Joseph?
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And my wife pointed out, I would regret if I remained Joseph.
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So here I'm Yosef, online I'm Joseph, or Joseph the Zionist amongst certain circles.
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Yes, well, look, there's a long history here, because I remember the last time I met you, I think I saw you when you were hanging around the streets of, actually, Speaker's Corner, around there, probably 2017, 18, if I'm not mistaken, around that period.
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I've got to say, when I watch back some of those videos from that period, I can't help but curl up into a little ball and just feel, take in the embarrassment.
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And a lot of that has to do with watching somebody like you nowadays and the way you handle almost the same sort of conversations in a much better way than I ever did.
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So tell us, firstly, before I get into that, because I do love the work that you're doing at the moment, I'm obsessed with a few people who do those.
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I've been trying them out myself because you guys have inspired me, those kind of online debate, discussions, whatever.
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But before we get to that, I want to know what happened, because the last time I saw you, like I said, was in Britain, and now you've moved.
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The UK is not safe for Jews, and particularly Jews who have any sort of profile.
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There is not a day goes by when I don't receive a death threat.
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I've had knives pulled on me, physical altercations, people trying to dox me, and I've got a family.
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With the trend of the West, I think I'm one of the early adopters.
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I think many, many Jews will be following, unfortunately.
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Sorry, I was just going to say, maybe you could even call me a Jewish refugee from the West.
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But I, listen, I understand, I get these dramas here in Australia, and I, back then when I saw you, you know, I was hanging around somebody like Tommy Robinson, and in the Jewish community, especially within the establishment, he was like the worst person on the planet.
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And they often even cuddled up to some of the people who today were a far greater threat, especially to the Jewish community than Tommy ever was.
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But I experienced kind of that hate early on, especially from the same parts of the community in which the broader community is now finally waking up and realising we're always a threat.
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Has something shifted in the UK in that aspect?
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Because back then, I don't think you... Were you getting hate back then?
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I was considered moderate, but a moderate Jew is still a Jew.
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And so I was still getting hate even back then.
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I think the most sensible strategy the Jewish community could have had in relation to someone like Tommy Robinson is if you don't agree with everything he says, then let Tommy be Tommy.
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My strategy is I work with the same problem that Tommy works with.
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I work with the same problem that you used to work with and still I'm showing a huge spotlight on.
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My strategy is extend the arm of peace to those Muslims that you can make peace with.
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And those that want to raise the sword, then it's on.
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But I believe one of the mistakes that people like Tommy Robinson make, people in this space make, is they at times go to war with 2 billion Muslims.
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I would much rather make friends with and amplify voices in the Muslim community that we can coexist with.
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From a Jewish perspective, if you were to tell my ancestors 500 years ago that the closest friends that the Jews have today are the Christians,
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they would look at you like you were crazy because back then Christians were slaughtering us.
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And today we could not ask for better, closer friends.
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The Christians are often more pro-Jewish and more pro-Israel than many of the Jews are.
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And I think we can get to the same place with Muslims.
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And I think it's where the community has gone wrong with someone like Tommy Robinson is they've just only focused on the negatives
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and not focused on the positives and created a division between these two communities that doesn't need to exist.
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Look, Tommy, to be fair, is not coming at it from the Christian perspective.
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And that's probably not the reason why they don't like Tommy.
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It's the persona, the football hooligan, the Tommy Robinson, what the media have created of this person
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in which the mainstream Jewish community establishment has always just latched onto that,
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hoping that if, I don't know, I actually don't know.
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I have theories as what they're hoping because, you know, even back then,
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the Jewish community leadership here in Australia used to put out statements against me.
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And suddenly, fast forward to today, they're literally saying the exact same things
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that they condemned me for saying back in 2017.
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And I kind of have a laugh with some of those leaders now going,
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Isn't it weird that now you're finally saying what you were condemning me for saying
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because they realised all that interfaith work that they've been doing was for nothing
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because the people that they did that interfaith work with just turned on them as soon as October 7 hit.
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But I think the thing that's interesting to me is back then,
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I would have never looked at what you're doing and said, there's something in it.
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I like it, right, because I just didn't believe it was possible.
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It was actually for me the Abraham Accords that changed something that I realised,
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hold on, you know, you don't just have to read the Quran, you know,
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from cover to cover and pick the bits that are clearly hating of me
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because there is a chance here that people who do identify as Muslims
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I felt like, in fact, today, if I go to the UAE,
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it is one of the only places on the planet that I feel you can show a Star of David
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without a worry, in fact, many people will show you, like, genuine respect for it.
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I've been to places where Israel made peace with, as well, like Jordan and that,
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You're not safe there if you show your Star of David.
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And that's why when I even engage with people on it,
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I don't argue with them on the religion like I used to.
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You know, I did all these courses when I was younger to study the religion,
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So I don't actually understand both our religions that well.
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I was just seeing what many people who practice their faith were saying about me,
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Now that I do see that there is a chance for peace,
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but how you approach the discussion when it comes to dealing with Muslims in general?
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So I think Islam has been politicized heavily since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
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The Ottoman Empire was the last major caliphate that stood.
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which has taken many Muslims away from what their text actually says,
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in the same way that Christianity went through a reformation.
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most Christian Zionists come from Protestantism.
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there was Christian preachers like Thomas Brightman,
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who started reading the scripture and realizing that the Catholic church had had a monopoly
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And they began to think that returning the Jews back to Israel was actually part of biblical prophecy.
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Those British Christians then went to America and exported that mentality there.
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how many times does the word Palestinian appear in Al-Quran?
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I've used it so many times and it's such a good argument,
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but do you know what they all counter back with,
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I would imagine that the major answer they'll give you is that the,
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the simple answer is the word Quds comes from Holy,
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But if they actually sort of trace that back to its roots,
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So this is Moses talking to the children of Israel.
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Al-Quds gets its name because the Jewish temple stood there.
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Bait Al-Makdis comes from the Hebrew word Bait HaMikdash.
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I am going to use that one because that's like,
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it just seems so ridiculous when they say it to me,
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Are you telling me that Muhammad didn't know what Palestinians were?
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And there are Hadith and later commentaries that are,
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the mosque that now stands on HaHa Bayit on the Temple Mount.
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it's not my place to come in and tell Muslims what their religion are.
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Many people will argue that's not really Al-Aqsa.
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But that's an argument I'll let other people have.
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I'm happy to work with their scripture because the way they interpret it,
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The way that Muslims interpret their scripture is Zionist.
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there's a very simple get around and that is skip.
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But when you put this argument to somebody like,
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So Mohammed hijab would first have to like hide his muata wife,
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he would probably say that the children of Israel then are not the Jews that
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the Jews of that period are mentioned in the Quran.
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And it says that the Jews should be judged for the Jews should judge from their
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And so those Jews that lived in the Hejaz in Arabia,
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Most of them went either to Yemen or to Israel or to Iraq.
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They've even preserved the surnames in Israel today.
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And so we can very easily draw a line from those Jews to the Jews that live in Israel
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They have to come up with a whole script of how the Jews that Allah promises the land
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The Jews in Israel today are because they're Europeans.
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And most Jews that live in Israel never steps foot in Europe and their ancestors never
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I always find that in that conversation interesting when it comes to every expert now on the street
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who knows everything about Israel and are convinced that Israel is a European colony and everybody's
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Israel and they're literally looking at me in my face and telling me that Israel is a European
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country is a country that was colonized by Europeans only.
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And it's just they just assume everyone's white there.
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I guess I want to go back to your period, the period of time that I knew that I met you.
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And I vaguely remember, I think that that horrific debate.
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I did it in in Speaker's Corner that day with Ali Dawah and and Mohammed Hijab.
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And I'm just wondering because you were I think you were always I don't I don't know if you were
00:16:43.760
arguing or you were debating Islam with where you debating Islam with them then.
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I went to the park over a decade ago, maybe closer to 15.
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And when I first started going, there were no cameras.
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And back then, every Muslim in the park, they'd see me.
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And then somebody brought a camera and started filming.
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Then another person brought a camera and suddenly the the atmosphere changed and it became much
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So you came in the in-between period where it used to be all love and peace.
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We all descend from Ibrahim, alayhi salam, Abraham, the patriarch.
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And then you came and Tommy came and boom, it exploded.
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And you guys tarnished it for me because suddenly I'm the public enemy number one as well.
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I'm sorry, but look, we ended up accidentally exposing what it actually was.
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But more than that, you actually, you were ahead of the curve.
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I remember one time there was a guy there called, what was his name?
00:18:12.160
And every time he saw me, I mean, this guy looked big.
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He looked like he was, I mean, he definitely was.
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He was the guy that had the chain, the metal in his gloves.
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I know he was, he was a Shia that apostated to someone.
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Well, I was going to get to that with you in a second, but go on.
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And so, the, so this guy, every time he saw a big hug, Yusuf, I love you, Habibi, he was
00:19:03.720
And then one time I noticed a comment under one of my videos, and he'd forgotten he'd
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Because he obviously had his normal name, and then he had his jihadi name.
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And it was like, Zionist, your days are coming.
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And I was like, bro, you told me this is your name.
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And then online, you're sending me death threats.
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And so, you saw the reality that optimists like me were unable to differentiate.
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Because I fell into the trap that most liberals fell into.
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And I'd say Tommy Robinson fell into the other camp.
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So, I would cluster all Muslims together and say we can make peace with all of them.
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It's just this big homogenous block of Muslims that if only you speak to them correctly,
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they'll see it beyond their bigotry, their prejudice, and they'll be your best friend.
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And I'd say on the other side, the activists who were on the count of the jihad side,
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they did the same, but we can't make peace with anyone, any of them.
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I think one of the reasons why Tommy is toxic to the Jewish community today,
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I'm from a working class community in the north of England.
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He's from a working class community in the south.
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And he said things that if someone said them about Jews, it was beyond the pale.
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I remember one time he tweeted, he called Muslims musrats.
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Maybe he's not going to be as sophisticated and nuanced in his thinking as a kid as he would be as an adult.
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And I think the Jewish community falls into the trap of viewing him by maybe things he said 20 years ago,
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And to bring it back to us in Speaker's Corner,
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I think people like you and Tommy were just, okay, this is a problem.
00:21:12.040
Honestly, it's just a way to get around censorship, to be fair.
00:21:17.320
It's a word that describes Muslims that I don't like.
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And you cannot define one because is it a Muslim that supports the caliphate?
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Well, all Muslims support the caliphate in theory.
00:21:30.580
Well, to me, it's just a Muslim that is not willing to ignore the parts of his faith,
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Look, and that's the argument that Tommy Robinson has always made.
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Like, you're not actually practicing what it's telling you or what it says in the scripture.
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And I know that the scripture itself is so contradicting, like probably most scriptures.
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The difference is that there are so many more of them that act out on it.
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But this goes back to that conversation that we said before, that there is clearly a progressive
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part of the Muslim community that is willing to ignore the hateful parts towards us
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and want to build, you know, build bridges and, you know, want to focus on the good parts
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of the Quran that talk about the people of the book, not the ones that's telling them
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So I guess you have that in any faith, but it's a bit more pronounced in Islam just because
00:22:34.500
And it's probably, like people ask me, why do they hate us?
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And I'm like, it's probably also chronological.
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Like we had, in the Torah, like who do we hate?
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So if there was a malik today, would some nutcase settler groups want to actually hunt and kill
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If we knew that, like any ultra-Orthodox would want to kill them.
00:23:14.720
It's, imagine if the Jewish religion depended on a malik recognizing their religion.
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And it was the same with Christianity, truthfully.
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You struggle to find anti-Semitism in lands that weren't Christian or Muslim.
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And though, where you do find it, they were influenced by Christian and Muslim anti-Semitism.
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And the reason for that is, the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah.
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So that was a problem for some Christians historically.
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There we were accused of killing Christ, killing God.
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And in Islam, we rejected Muhammad as the prophet.
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And so the rejection, and with Islam, it's even more.
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If Islam says it came to affirm the Jewish tradition, it came to affirm what Moses said,
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And the Jews rejected, and that causes resentment and anti-Semitism.
00:24:20.520
We would have a very different relationship to religions that came after us that we were born out of if those religions existed today.
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I would say when it comes to violent sentiment in scripture, you can make the same arguments against the Torah and the Old Testament that you could make against the Quran.
00:24:51.700
But our escape from that is that the people it's talking about no longer exist.
00:24:58.820
No longer, but that's exactly what I just said.
00:25:01.800
I know for sure if there was still Amalek today, which is why the Islamic community was so smart in jumping on the Amalek comment from Bibi Netanyahu,
00:25:21.920
because they just wanted to tie that genocidal kind of language from the Torah to the aftermath of October 7.
00:25:38.500
And also, though, knowing the context matters as well, because the way I view words like Amalek and Edom are almost like the way that when Chazal use these terms today, when Jews use these terms today, we use them in the same way that liberals use the term Nazi.
00:26:00.900
How many times is someone that's described as a Nazi actually a Nazi?
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And with the Nazis, like we had the biggest war that the West has ever experienced to end this regime.
00:26:13.940
When you call someone a Nazi because they're eating meat, do you really want to end them in the same way?
00:26:22.440
Being on the receiving end in real life of the people chanting Nazi, I wouldn't be surprised, especially after what I've seen in the last couple of years, I wouldn't be surprised if they would want to see a similar end to me in the way that the Nazis, what the Nazis did and how we dealt with the Nazis at the end of it.
00:26:45.540
But let me ask you, so you were saying in that period so that I did see you, because I was thinking about this with my brother.
00:26:58.220
And I go to him, I really wonder, so now it's interesting because you told me the progression for you, going from a liberal to somebody, from a liberal to a realist.
00:27:10.640
Where were you in that period that, so that day on Speaker's Corner, I don't know if you remember it, but that day on Speaker's Corner, do you remember being there?
00:27:21.660
So that day on Speaker's Corner, where were you on your journey?
00:27:26.660
How were you used to, because you didn't get involved in the conversation.
00:27:29.200
You said hi to me and you said hi to me a couple of times.
00:27:31.740
Like in that period, I was coming to London, to England a lot.
00:27:36.980
So every time I did see you, you came and said hi and whatever.
00:27:39.480
But I really want to know how you actually viewed what was happening.
00:27:48.100
And what was going on at that time was, I recognized there is a real threat of jihad.
00:27:58.600
There's a very, I mean, Muslims, extremists have been killing Jews for a long time.
00:28:05.180
And you have to be naive to not recognize that.
00:28:12.520
So I recognize that Muhammad Hijab, Ali Dawah, at that point, I thought we could still work with them.
00:28:22.400
So I remember at one point there was a call to ban prayer at Speaker's Corner because you're not allowed to pray in public.
00:28:30.260
And I was going to gather a minion of 10 Jews to pray in support of the Muslims being able to pray there.
00:28:37.580
Because I thought that was a violation of freedom of speech.
00:28:40.600
With hindsight, I recognize that was a strategy of dominance rather than, and as a minority, as a much smaller minority.
00:28:48.760
Which is what the argument was from the Tommy camp.
00:28:53.280
And if I'd have brought an army of 10 Jews to pray next to the Muslims, all we would have been doing was propping up and supporting an assertion of Islamic dominance in Speaker's Corner, which would have been a naive thing to do.
00:29:08.800
But likewise, I think you guys made mistakes as well, which is why we recognize the value that we were both bringing.
00:29:16.120
But at the time, we didn't really work together so much because I would, Tommy's the best example.
00:29:23.640
I think Tommy has done more to combat, and I've been saying, I've been saying this for years.
00:29:31.140
Tommy did more than anyone else in the UK to combat the grooming gangs.
00:29:34.720
When they were coming over with the bodies of dead British soldiers, it was Tommy that was jumping over the barrier and giving Arnold Juharun a slap.
00:29:43.020
But yeah, and so for me, Tommy, I always said he did a lot of good, but then he'd always go too far.
00:29:49.500
And I think the counter-jihad side would take it too far, and the liberals wouldn't take it far enough.
00:29:58.200
And so I would mistake enemies as friends, and I wouldn't be able to differentiate between a more moderate, in terms of their political outlook, a more moderate Muslim, and one who would stab me in the back, giving half the chance.
00:30:16.460
And it's not just you, I think the examples are far more, and not even just the Jewish community, I think it's far-reaching.
00:30:22.140
You look at even social media platforms, they listen to people like Muhammad Hijab and Ali Dawah in their campaigns to have people like Tommy Robinson kicked off.
00:30:31.060
And then fast forward to October 7th, they were preaching far worse, and still till today, their content is far more direct, dangerous, hateful, all of that, than Tommy ever was.
00:30:46.300
Tommy was probably, I think, Tommy didn't try to dress it up as anything.
00:30:51.780
He would, yeah, probably the worst part of it is, and it's something that I can recognise in myself as well, is back then, is just kind of say it in the most outrageous way, just to say it in the most outrageous way.
00:31:03.280
Whereas today, you can actually just have, but that means the conversation ends there.
00:31:07.420
You can't actually go further than that, because already the person is super defensive, because you've just called them essentially a name, right?
00:31:14.400
But what they do is, I feel, is far more dangerous, because they don't dress it up as anything.
00:31:20.260
They pretend like they're actually, you know, good, decent, moral people, but they're actually, when you're listening to what they're saying, it is far more insightful.
00:31:32.200
They're inciting people in a far more dangerous way than Tommy ever did, and they were still, not only did they never lose any platforms, they were paid to do it.
00:31:41.400
Like, if you look on YouTube and that, these guys made big money while they were the leaders and the Jewish community got behind their campaigns to, to basically de-platform people like Tommy Robinson, who I feel in all this period of time, think what you want about Tommy Robinson, he's been the most consistent.
00:32:03.020
Actually, no, I don't think he's been consistent.
00:32:06.260
No, no, no, but I think he's probably, I think the, true, but you can say that about me.
00:32:12.200
I, maturing doesn't, he didn't change his fundamental beliefs.
00:32:16.300
You look at so many people in this space and you see, you know, the best example is like the Christian, the, the Christ is King group of fake Christians, not like the real Christians that are actually our friends.
00:32:27.020
I'm talking about the ones that, you know, publicly go and baptize and suddenly, and then the next day they're, they're full-blown anti-Semites.
00:32:33.840
Those guys, um, if you look at them five years ago, like Candace Owens is a great example.
00:32:38.900
You look at her, uh, 2017, when, when, when, when did they move the embassy to Jerusalem?
00:32:48.740
Yeah, it was around 2017, 2018, it was around then, right?
00:32:52.500
And she was there, part of it, championing it, making all the, doing all the talking points against herself, Candace Owens today, right?
00:33:00.780
All the same talking, nothing changed, but she shifted her political views because it suited her, right?
00:33:11.780
Whereas when you look at somebody like Tommy Robinson, I always knew it when I spoke to him and I was friends with him because I could see it was, he was, he had every reason to turn against the Jewish community.
00:33:22.000
The Jewish establishment did not, they, they can, they called the police on him at one point at the rally in London and since October 7th, they literally called the police on him.
00:33:33.680
So that guy had more incentive to turn on the Jewish community than anyone, but didn't because his ideology was always consistent.
00:33:42.440
His delivery has changed and matured, but I think his ideology, his belief in what he witnessed happen in Luton was always the same problem.
00:34:00.740
I think most people, so I think Candace turned on the Jews when the Jews called out, I think the first thing she made, she went to the UK and she made a conversation,
00:34:11.320
so a faux pas, when somebody asked her, should they rebrand nationalism?
00:34:17.520
And she said that the Austrian painter is the right, call him, the far right, the Austrian painter was a nationalist.
00:34:26.360
And if it wasn't a nationalist, he was an internationalist.
00:34:29.160
If he hadn't invaded other countries, it would have been fine.
00:34:32.600
And so Jews took on bridge and said, well, well, like you kind of killed 6 million of us.
00:34:41.940
So when the Jews, Jewish community said, you can't say that, her response was gradually to get more and more anti-Semitic.
00:34:50.540
Whereas Tommy, I think you're absolutely right.
00:34:53.020
The Jewish community has not been a friend of his, but he has been a friend of the Jewish community.
00:35:01.080
And I'd be interested to know if he's changed in respect to how he views Muslims, because I can remember him going to Manchester and looking around and saying, every one of these people are enemy combatants.
00:35:21.340
And there are Muslims that sacrifice their lives to keep my family safe in the IDF.
00:35:28.340
When they joined the IDF, they swearing on the Quran.
00:35:31.820
And there's, he's definitely been consistent, Tommy, with his view of the Jewish community, with his view of radical Islam, with his view of extremism within the Muslim community in the UK, with his view on the demography and how changing demographics impacts the indigenous population.
00:35:53.720
My question would be, has his view of Muslims matured?
00:35:59.040
Or would he still view everybody living in a Muslim neighborhood in Manchester or wherever as an enemy combatant?
00:36:08.620
Honestly, even back then, I thought it's often was hyperbole.
00:36:12.700
It was just like a way of delivering a message saying, if you actually believe this, then you are an enemy combatant because you're believing this scripture that says that.
00:36:21.400
I think, like, I was around him enough on the streets day to day to see anyone would come up to him.
00:36:27.940
So many Muslim lads would come up to him for photos and, you know, they weren't even necessarily fans.
00:36:32.960
They just wanted to, like, show the boys in the WhatsApp group, look, I've got Tommy Robinson on a photo and he would make a video for him.
00:36:45.940
When I say consistent, it was always about the threat, the threat that's underlying everything.
00:36:51.460
And that if we can't actually talk about it, even with this person in front of me, then that's a problem.
00:36:58.220
So going back to that day, so how did you view...
00:37:01.220
Because you were watching that interaction, which I'm super embarrassed about, right?
00:37:09.720
From my view, I love seeing brave Jews, particularly in Chutzler.
00:37:15.740
In Israel, there's no shortage of Jewish heroes.
00:37:18.520
You walk down the street here and you recognize that this is a nation of warriors.
00:37:24.080
On my street, I live on one road, two people have fallen in the war.
00:37:31.520
You walk down and there's people who've been trained to defend our people.
00:37:35.940
Armed and totally willing to sacrifice their lives to save their neighbors, their families.
00:37:50.580
But the Jew of Chutzler, the Jew outside of Israel, they're terrified.
00:37:57.020
And so when you see a Jew that goes and confronts those that speak out against our people, and
00:38:05.740
Remember you wore kippah when you went there to speak as kippah?
00:38:10.560
I used to wear a dafka because they used to call me a Nazi.
00:38:16.140
It was my prop that the only people that were offended by it were liberal Jews.
00:38:19.280
Because every orthodox Jew I knew were just happy that I wasn't walking for Amos without it.
00:38:30.420
I would have disagreed, or I did disagree with the delivery.
00:38:34.160
But the action itself, nothing but respect for...
00:38:42.280
Because I know I look back at it, and I wish I had the chance again to do it in a much,
00:38:47.660
Because I think the best antidote to that group is actually staying calm.
00:38:57.600
Let them look like the nutcases, where I almost fell into it.
00:39:00.120
I know it's hard, like when you look at the video, it's hard to see that you're actually
00:39:03.240
just surrounded by a mob of them, and like the adrenaline dump you get, and like this
00:39:10.480
But put that all aside, like I would have loved to be...
00:39:13.980
Like I was never consciously calm in any kind of interaction.
00:39:20.940
But if we apply what you're saying, I understand what you're saying, but if you apply that to
00:39:26.600
someone like Rabbi Shmuley, I look at that, and I think that guy generates anti-Semitism.
00:39:34.520
But if I'm applying your logic now, you would say, well, no, he's actually...
00:39:40.240
He's walking up, and he's literally picking fights with innocent people, but he's also
00:39:48.220
I sometimes, like even with Candace Owens, I watch it, and I think, gosh, I can feel myself
00:39:54.380
So I can't imagine somebody who doesn't feel strongly about this issue not being a bit
00:40:01.320
So I don't know if necessarily that logic would follow through there.
00:40:06.780
Like, do you think Rabbi Shmuley is a good example of somebody that's brave in Chutzlaire
00:40:13.420
So I think with any activism, you have to know who your target audience is and the message
00:40:21.520
And so your audience, when you were confronting Ali Dawah, wasn't Ali Dawah.
00:40:32.720
You were speaking to working class, or not even working class, just British people, Australian
00:40:40.560
And so the message that you were saying will have resonated.
00:40:45.100
That's why you grew in popularity in the way that you did.
00:40:49.740
The way you described it was you need to be hyperbolic to get that momentum.
00:40:55.700
But that's because you understood which message would resonate with the target audience.
00:41:02.040
I think, and I don't like to speak ill of another Jew, so I'm not going to speak ill of Rabbi
00:41:08.260
But I think one of the tropes he falls into is he's speaking to an audience that doesn't
00:41:16.620
And so you see him when he's on with Piers Morgan.
00:41:26.020
So when he's speaking to Muhammad Hijab, and Muhammad Hijab's going hard at him, Rabbi
00:41:31.360
Butteik's complimenting Islam, complimenting Muslims, and his message isn't going to land
00:41:39.300
His message isn't going to land with any ordinary Americans.
00:41:41.860
His message isn't going to land with the Jewish community, and it isn't going to land
00:41:46.940
So it's about understanding who your target audience is.
00:41:49.520
So with the content I make, I've got two audiences.
00:41:53.220
Jews like to see, or Zionists, not just Zionists, people who like Israel, because they like to
00:41:58.060
see someone who can hold their ground in these conversations.
00:42:08.900
I've got a video going on at the moment, spoiler alert, but I approach Muslims and I say, I've
00:42:23.300
And so I sing the verse and I say, can you tell me what the words are?
00:42:30.300
And the verse I sing to them is, when you meet the kuffar, strike the neck, which is
00:42:38.820
And I'm doing that to highlight, as you were saying, how do Jews, how do Muslims interpret
00:42:48.540
And so what I'm hoping for in this exchange, I haven't finished it yet because I'm going
00:42:51.860
out and I kind of have an idea of how people are going to respond.
00:42:54.480
I'm hoping I encounter one sheikh, one knowledgeable Muslim who's able to give a very good answer.
00:42:59.320
You're going out physically or you mean online?
00:43:06.360
And so there actually are some knowledgeable Muslims on there.
00:43:10.160
But with that, you've got to be, for me, I've got to be very careful how I present that
00:43:14.480
message because I don't want to alienate Muslims.
00:43:16.540
I want to show them, here's why Jews have a problem with this scripture.
00:43:19.620
And here's a way that you, as a Muslim, listening to this wise sheikh, can reconcile this verse
00:43:31.300
You have to, and maybe someone like Rabbi Batek, he's speaking to an audience that doesn't
00:43:37.620
That would be the polite way I would try and deal with.
00:43:41.840
I can tell you right now, if I came across him, I would probably, I know I say that I
00:43:47.860
would go in calmly, that's the new me compared to 2017, but I think with Shmuley Batek, I
00:43:56.820
He was doing a tour here only a few weeks ago for the Jewish community.
00:44:02.440
He started in Sydney, uh, of how the irony of the, of this tour, it was called, um, how,
00:44:10.840
how to, uh, how to combat antisemitism effectively.
00:44:16.600
And I'm just, you're giving that because Bate, unless you're getting up on a stage and saying,
00:44:22.300
do everything the opposite to what I do, there's nothing you could teach us.
00:44:28.060
And, and, you know, it became quite clear that nobody in Australia was seeing, he got
00:44:31.740
booed out of synagogues and he, he never ended up coming to Melbourne because I was,
00:44:36.120
I was planning to have a chat to him when he got to Melbourne.
00:44:39.520
And when I, when I saw that all got kind of canceled, fizzled out and canceled, I emailed
00:44:45.180
I just, I, I just, to me, I feel like there's so many times, even me as just one content creator
00:44:53.640
I feel like I'm picking up the pieces of someone like that.
00:44:56.740
And I've never, I've never experienced that before.
00:44:58.980
There's, of course, there's lefty Jews that I disagree with most of their politics on most
00:45:02.620
issues and on Israel, we somewhat agree, you know, to varying degrees, especially since
00:45:08.660
October 7, I think everyone's sort of shifted to a, to a place where we can mostly agree
00:45:17.740
Uh, you know, I got one brother that goes to anti-BB protests and my mom goes to pro-BB
00:45:21.940
protest, but outside of Israel, like we don't even really, it's not really about whether
00:45:35.080
I wanted to ask you more about the British establishment, the Jewish community establishment
00:45:40.440
How we, cause I always looked at you as like a British Jew and obviously now you've moved.
00:45:45.480
I think most people still perceive you as that in, in a way, what was your relationship
00:45:55.620
So with the Jewish establishment, the Jewish community I'm part of, I was part of, um, I'm
00:46:01.520
a synagogue attending, lived in the Jewish community, relatively well known.
00:46:07.420
With the establishment, there was a, almost a bit of a Tommy thing.
00:46:10.660
Um, so I think one of the reasons the British establishment has rejected Tommy, but accepted
00:46:18.640
Douglas Murray says the same thing in a posh accent.
00:46:21.600
They're friends, but that's the funniest part to it.
00:46:31.740
And, and I think that's one of the, the, the, I think I saw for the same, the Jewish
00:46:36.280
establishment is, they tend to, uh, come from a similar, similar, um, pool of people.
00:46:44.100
I was raised in a working class village in the North of England.
00:46:48.480
We put marks on our conflicts in the morning, um, very different experience.
00:46:52.700
Um, didn't go to university, very rough around the edges.
00:46:55.600
I was on the street campaigning against jihadis while they were trying to knock on the doors
00:47:03.920
And so the Jewish establishment never accepted me.
00:47:07.060
Um, I was invited and I still am invited to their, to their, their annual meeting.
00:47:12.580
They have regular meetings to discuss how we approach certain strategies with, with anti-Zionism,
00:47:24.900
Um, so I've like set up serial organizations that have gone on to do good things in the Jewish
00:47:30.060
So the campaign against anti-Semitism, that organization, you were part of founding that.
00:47:36.860
Oh, that's the, because that's the organization that ended up kicking Tommy or calling the police
00:47:43.200
Yes, that is the very, are you friends with the guys that run that or not?
00:47:48.960
Um, I'm friends with like most organizations, but particularly that one, cause I founded it,
00:47:54.220
but I have nothing to do with this and had nothing to do with the.
00:47:57.620
No, no, no, I know, but I'm just, I just wonder if.
00:48:00.060
Do they regret, like they realize what they did that day was wrong?
00:48:10.120
I think they made a mistake if they were the ones that I don't know if they were the ones
00:48:13.620
that called the police, but if they were, um, I'd say that, that I'd say that would
00:48:19.680
be, I mean, I don't know how much I trust the police.
00:48:23.280
If it wasn't then, then you would think they would say they didn't, but they didn't, they
00:48:27.200
Well, I would, if it was the campaign, I'd say that was a mistake.
00:48:31.160
I think if you have an issue with Tommy or his message and you're a Jew in the UK, just
00:48:36.380
Don't make an enemy of someone that's a friend.
00:48:38.300
Don't make an enemy of someone that's a friend.
00:48:39.720
If someone's showing up to your march to express solidarity with your cause in terms of there
00:48:44.980
is rising antisemitism in the UK, if you don't want them there, fine, but don't, don't make
00:48:55.460
But especially today when there is clearly grassroots support today compared to a few
00:49:00.520
years ago, there is clearly grassroots support for Tommy Robinson within the Jewish community.
00:49:04.680
There's always been grassroots support for Tommy Robinson in the Jewish community.
00:49:08.380
The Jewish establishment and the Jewish community are two very different functions.
00:49:12.460
And the campaign against antisemitism was actually a disruptor that these Jewish, the Jewish
00:49:16.080
establishment don't necessarily see it as an integral path.
00:49:20.500
But many of the, so my issue with the Jewish establishment is most people that are involved
00:49:29.040
And by the way, just to clarify, I'm pretty sure I remember them putting a statement against
00:49:36.340
Because that became, what's that, what's that, the British guy that lives in Israel that was
00:49:46.920
I remember him fighting with them publicly on, on, on X.
00:49:52.120
So, so, so I'm, I can almost a hundred percent sure.
00:49:56.340
And I know where the temptation comes from to do that.
00:50:00.940
So the, the establishment, I just, I think that the Jewish establishment is like at that
00:50:05.820
level is most interested in, and it's sensible is making sure that their values align with
00:50:11.720
the, with the government, with the, because as a minority, you don't want to be in opposition
00:50:18.360
to whatever the zeitgeist is, whatever the government is.
00:50:21.580
And so the government has always been very hostile, be it a right wing or left wing government
00:50:27.140
And so I think most in leadership positions in the Jewish community see it as dangerous
00:50:35.580
And you kind of see that, you see that you saw in the, the, the riots recently, they just
00:50:43.480
Anyone that so much as sneezed at one of those protests got a six year jail sentence.
00:50:49.680
And so there is a level of toxicity, which is a minority.
00:50:52.280
But then the gangs of Muslims with big bats were told to just put down your weapon.
00:50:58.340
What was it where they said, yeah, put your, leave your weapons in the mosque.
00:51:06.400
And so I think the Jewish leadership is very fearful of associating with anything toxic.
00:51:16.860
And I think rightly or wrongly, most, a huge section of Britons, particularly those of the
00:51:32.580
I mean, you could say he's got prejudices against Muslims, but I think it's hard to say
00:51:36.380
he's a racist when some of his best friends are, as an example, the darker skinned Jew.
00:51:42.520
He's literally like, I know people say that, like I have a friend, but he's genuinely the
00:51:49.480
And it's like, and the funny thing is, he knows, like, I talk about a lot of my podcasts
00:51:54.760
at the moment because it's, because this has become the conversation since October 7th,
00:51:58.060
but like my own stepkids are Muslims and Tommy's always known as well.
00:52:02.720
Like he's, he does not, it's not an issue about the person as an ethnicity, which is what
00:52:10.300
He has a problem with the ideology and all those things that you mentioned before, what
00:52:17.580
You're what, what we call a baltruva, I think in the, in the Jewish community.
00:52:22.500
And, and, and what I find interesting is when you talk to Muslims about Islam, you're, I
00:52:31.260
can see you actually are seriously knowledgeable on intricate parts and specific, you've clearly
00:52:37.680
like studied up and honed in on certain points so that you can discuss them in it from an
00:52:45.200
But what I do know, notice is that when you talk like Arabic or even Hebrew, I can hear
00:52:51.020
that you're, um, like about somebody that didn't come from speaking in that tongue.
00:52:57.620
Your Hebrew is, uh, and I, and, and I can even, I can even, um, resonate with the Muslims
00:53:05.060
that I see you sometimes debating online where they're like, they're so confused because
00:53:10.860
well, first you've got big Zionists, then you're, you're, you're reading or you're reciting
00:53:15.620
by, by heart, a part of the Quran, which they know is true.
00:53:19.620
They couldn't recite it, but you've got this little twang in your accent, which doesn't
00:53:26.160
Um, how did you, so how did you go firstly to become a religious Jew, then educating yourself
00:53:32.260
on that and then going to study Islam to be able to actually debate it to a point where
00:53:43.780
And did the first part help you get to the second part?
00:53:47.620
So my journey is like, I think I was a, I was an early adopter of wokeism.
00:53:54.260
And so our, we were, our only Jewish identity was antisemitism.
00:54:01.000
My father couldn't tell you the difference between a Hasidic Jew and a reformed Jew.
00:54:05.480
But the national front, um, still, which is a neo-Nazi organization in the UK still smashed
00:54:13.100
And so our only identity was one of antisemitism.
00:54:16.480
Now, for those that aren't Jewish, the Jewish contribution to humanity has been phenomenal.
00:54:20.720
We, we helped shape the, the, the values that the West is based on.
00:54:25.120
We've contributed to the sciences, the arts, et cetera.
00:54:28.120
And so there's so much to be proud of as a Jew.
00:54:30.960
And yet the only identity we had was antisemitism.
00:54:40.640
And I realized that the only place that Jews would be safe is here where I am today, Israel.
00:54:47.360
And so I thought, I've got, I've got a little, um, I've got to learn the language.
00:54:50.720
The only place that taught the language in the North of England, where I came from, was
00:54:56.440
So reformed Jews are Jews that don't see the Torah and the oral law is necessarily divine.
00:55:04.240
Um, but they still keep many of the traditions in, albeit slightly modified form often.
00:55:10.180
And so I started with them and that introduced me to the religion.
00:55:16.980
And I started reading a guide for the perplexed where he lays out the, why one should be monotheist.
00:55:22.780
If you're coming from a more philosophical or academic background, it resonated with me.
00:55:28.300
And so I started becoming Torah observant and it was, I then thought, okay, I can't, I can't,
00:55:37.000
I lived in a village, a pit village in the North of England.
00:55:39.980
And so there were ex-miners and farmers, that's all that lived there.
00:55:44.740
And there wasn't a synagogue, there wasn't kosher food, there wasn't anything.
00:55:47.720
So I moved to London to, to, to live a kosher and observant lifestyle.
00:55:53.920
And I encountered anti-Muslim bigotry in the Jewish community.
00:56:00.740
And so I launched a website called judaismislam.com, which promoted the commonalities between the two faiths.
00:56:09.600
And that put me in contact with the Muslim community.
00:56:13.220
I thought, boy, if I thought it was bad in the Jewish community, the prejudice against Jews and the Muslim community,
00:56:19.920
as a little, they've turned it up a notch more than we have.
00:56:25.020
And so I launched a campaign against anti-Semitism.
00:56:26.700
And so my journey came from one of interfaith and coexistence.
00:56:33.560
And yeah, and that's how I became more versed in God, relatively well versed in the Quran and then the Sunnah, as well as, as well as my own tradition.
00:56:48.960
I was, I was, I was wondering, how did you end up?
00:56:52.380
Because you sound like a yeshiva boy when you approach the conversation.
00:56:58.340
And the thing that baffled me is that it was clear that you didn't grow up with it.
00:57:03.920
Like I could imagine my rabbi brother, Chabad rabbi brother, just, you know, he would have all the hand signals when he's talking to her, to these guys.
00:57:18.140
And then we take that, I don't know if that's relatable to Muslims.
00:57:22.260
But that's, but yeah, it's, it's a great story.
00:57:26.080
Anyways, where can people find you when they want to see these, especially those who have never seen it?
00:57:33.480
Yeah, if you want to watch neo-Nazis pull guns on me, if you want to watch jihadis threatening to set me on fire, if you want, if you, if that's the kind of content that floats your boat, then you can find me on the Israel advocacy movement.
00:57:58.260
I just had the most surreal experience with TikTok a few weeks ago.
00:58:06.540
So my logo was IAM for the Israel advocacy movement.
00:58:24.720
They deleted my bio, like my bio, and they deleted my profile picture because I said, we do Zionism.
00:58:31.660
Now, the insane thing about that is a Zionist is anyone who supports a Jewish state.
00:58:35.920
Habibi, if you support Palestine and Israel coexisting alongside each other, you're by definition a Zionist.
00:58:45.060
And they literally nearly took down my entire account.
00:58:53.140
Yeah, because I lost my account there years ago.
00:58:56.840
And actually, some Jewish kids started up a new one for me.
00:59:02.580
And now they've got this new thing where you can do content checks for you.
00:59:10.860
Like, Facebook, I remember, banned me for hate speech or whatever back then in that period we were talking about.
00:59:17.080
But TikTok banned me for, like, just ridiculous automated content.
00:59:23.820
Like, it just, nobody could watch the content and say it was hateful.
00:59:27.720
It wasn't even about any of this type of stuff, Islam, Judaism.
00:59:31.520
It was about my life was the last post that got banned for hate.
00:59:35.720
And I just don't know how people succeed on there.
00:59:39.220
Although now they've got that new button where it checks your content.
00:59:55.820
Converting to Islam and throwing in some anti-Jew,
00:59:58.640
either direct hateful slurs or even just, like, an undercurrent of anti-Semitism.
01:00:04.760
Depends how quickly you want to rise on those platforms.
01:00:07.820
I mean, it's worked for Sneeko and it's worked for Andrew Tate.
01:00:14.500
That's probably one thing I vehemently disagree with Tommy Robinson about.
01:00:21.680
And just like no one will convince Tommy Robinson to hate the Jews,
01:00:26.920
they also won't convince him to hate his buddy from school that he absolutely thinks is the fakest Muslim on the planet
01:00:34.660
because he's not an idiot and he knows that Andrew Tate doesn't even know anything about Islam,
01:00:45.000
It was just like his desperate attempt at a point where he got cancelled to not end up like Tommy Robinson.
01:00:56.960
He picked up billions of followers and he upped his anti-Semitism.
01:01:01.340
And even when the Muslims realised he wasn't real,
01:01:04.920
he continued with the anti-Semitism because they'll still play along as long as you do that.
01:01:11.920
And mate, thank you so much for joining us today.
01:01:18.000
I encourage anyone, all of you viewers out there, go check out some of the content.
01:01:22.420
It's stuff that I put it on while I'm in the sauna and I just listen to the debate and I think,
01:01:28.640
I don't know if that's an image I want in my head after you in the sauna watching my content.
01:01:33.460
I don't know why I was so honest about it, but that's the truth.
01:01:37.480
It's the place where I get time just to listen to, and it's the best place to listen to debates
01:01:42.880
because you've got to be in there, you've got to burn half an hour, 40 minutes.
01:01:48.880
There are different people doing different styles.
01:01:50.820
You know, there's a few Israelis I've been following, that's Saha.
01:01:53.860
And there's a couple of guys that are doing some really cool work and they're engaging
01:02:01.780
It's a completely different game than I'm used to doing.
01:02:04.500
And my followers, I don't think they're used to it because they're used to seeing me on
01:02:08.540
the street, some, my security jumping in, a fight happening and some funny jokes in the
01:02:14.280
So now they've got to get used to seeing me in this place.
01:02:17.100
But I think that you can get to a lot more substance when you're not fighting with the
01:02:22.220
person to just be there, they choose to be there.
01:02:25.540
But when we watch yours in comparison to many others, you actually come from a really interesting
01:02:31.620
angle, which is like, I'm not just going to fight you for, and I'm genuinely inspired.
01:02:36.200
If you watch my conversations now online, you will notice some of your lines because I'm
01:02:42.620
like, that is a brilliant way to engage with that point.
01:02:47.620
And it doesn't have to be Tommy Robinson and Avi Amini, me against the world kind of interaction
01:03:00.160
I think we need you on the streets when they're on the streets.
01:03:03.000
And we need you online in the more calm, considered conversations where people can actually grow
01:03:12.860
No, I mean, interesting, like yesterday, let's end on this point, is that I had the
01:03:17.240
jizzier conversation in my live, because I've been live streaming the thing, because I thought
01:03:25.520
So I live stream it and delete straight away, because there's always people, Hail Hitler and
01:03:28.840
all this stuff that I think is going to get me banned.
01:03:31.360
So even though they're saying it at me, but there was a guy trying to, it was funny because
01:03:38.720
he started with, you know, Hitler was good and all this, and then he goes on to, no,
01:03:43.540
Jews were, he was a Muslim, that Jews, the narrative is Jews have always been protected
01:03:48.560
by Muslims in every Muslim land, and no Muslims have ever turned on Jews, it's complete nonsense.
01:03:57.240
But then, you know, we get onto the conversation of, they talk about Zakat, they're 2.5%, whatever.
01:04:03.540
And then he goes, and I say, you know, what about the jizzier, we have to be the dimmies
01:04:09.160
And he goes, oh, go look it up, the jizzier is actually less than the zakah.
01:04:13.920
What would you say to that when they tell you the jizzier is less than the zakah, then
01:04:19.740
I'd ask for a source, because there is no source.
01:04:22.720
In the Hadith, you mentioned Kaiba, the Jews of the Hejaz had to pay 50% of their produce,
01:04:28.960
which they did, in the Hijaz, in the entire, so Kaiba, Medina, Mecca, so that region.
01:04:37.520
And they paid 50% to remain in the Hijaz, and then Umar ibn al-Khatab, the guy that they
01:04:44.420
will say let the Jews back into Jerusalem, which is true, he did, so thank you Umar ibn
01:04:48.740
al-Khatab, he also ethnically cleansed us from the Hijaz, because there's a Hadith that
01:04:54.840
said it was one of Muhammad's dying wishes, that two religions couldn't coexist in the
01:04:59.740
Hijaz, and so Umar ibn al-Khatab saw that through, and ethnically cleansed every single Jew, and
01:05:05.900
so there is no, there is no, in the Quranic, sorry, in the Hadith.
01:05:09.760
I did look it up while we were live, and I'm like, I'm like, actually, no, like, I couldn't,
01:05:15.620
I could find that the Zakat was 2.5, but I couldn't find any, they said it's often less
01:05:23.260
than the Zakat, but I couldn't, it was, it said that they could choose, the leader could
01:05:29.820
No, so this is all lies, if you go to Jewish sources, and you read what you pay, you'll
01:05:33.460
find that there were women in hiding, peasant women in hiding, because they couldn't afford
01:05:39.720
What I always bring it back to is the foundational text, so in Al-Quran, in the Quran, and the
01:05:44.800
word Jizya is mentioned once, it's in Surat Yunus, 29th ayah, the 29th verse, and it basically
01:05:53.280
says, fight the Jews and Christians until they pay the Jizya, until they are humbled, humiliated,
01:06:05.440
and when you read the tafsir, the commentary by Ibn Kathir, he says, this is a tax of humiliation,
01:06:11.640
persecution, because they refuse to accept Mohammed as the message of Allah.
01:06:16.440
Where is the best, where is the best, look, at the end I came back to him with, listen,
01:06:21.060
I don't know your religion that well, but all I can say is it sounds like a bikey gang who's
01:06:26.960
extorting businesses to pay a tax for them to protect them, usually from themselves, which
01:06:34.920
which I think is the valid argument as well, but it is great to be armed with these points.
01:06:41.120
What are the best places to search, in your opinion?
01:06:46.740
Because when you Google it, Google automatically takes, I can see it's all the Islamic sites,
01:06:52.160
which are Dawah sites, or they're literally twisting everything in the best possible interpretation.
01:06:57.980
So, I'll give a shout out to my friend, Apostate Prophet. So, if you go to people like Apostate
01:07:04.320
Prophet, David Wood, the Christian apologists, they have extensively documented almost every
01:07:11.540
source you could possibly want when exploring subjects like the Jizya.
01:07:19.020
These are all YouTubers, they've got a million videos on these subjects.
01:07:23.120
Well, I'm trying to find it, like, in that moment.
01:07:27.100
But what they will do, so what they will do, they will tell you which, so the way that
01:07:30.580
Islam works is you have the Quran, which is the foundational text. So, they will provide
01:07:35.720
you the sources from the Quran, which are of interest to you, and then just go to Quran.com,
01:07:41.420
read the, well, in Quran.com, it has the tafsir of Ibn Qatir, who's like the Rashi, he's like
01:07:47.520
the main commentator to go to. And so, you get the traditional Sunni Islamic understanding,
01:07:53.120
understanding of the Quran. But the, like in Judaism, we have the Talmud, which is,
01:07:57.860
that contains the oral law. They have the Hadith, which are the sayings of Muhammad and
01:08:03.640
the companions, the Sahaba. And there's many problematic, much problematic content there.
01:08:09.660
So, for instance, if someone tells you, how could Muhammad be anti-Semitic? He married
01:08:14.980
a Jewish woman. And so, if you go to the Hadith, you understand who she was, and how he
01:08:20.460
married her, and how he had her father, and her husband, and her father, who was the chief,
01:08:26.880
yeah, the chief and the treasurer of Banu Nadir, one of the Jewish tribes of the Hijaz.
01:08:31.680
And then there was a whole conversation amongst the Sahaba. They didn't know whether she was
01:08:35.900
going to be Sabaya, a slave, or she was going to be his wife. And she came out wearing hijab,
01:08:40.980
which meant that she was his wife. But it's not your typical romantic story. It's not even
01:08:45.120
a Tinder story. This wasn't a Tinder date. This was a little bit more extreme. And so,
01:08:50.720
people like Apostate Prophet will give you these Hadith, and you can just go to sunnah.com,
01:08:55.600
and you can read the Hadith in detail. So, it's quran.com and sunnah.com.
01:08:59.780
Yeah, sunnah for the Hadith, quran for the quran. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got you.
01:09:02.920
Yeah, no, I would wonder if you can. And just use the search as well. Just type in
01:09:07.220
you into sunnah.com. It's always funny and interesting reading. Like, just think of a
01:09:11.680
crazy keyword, type it into sunnah.com, and you'll find some fascinating things. Like,
01:09:17.180
here's one for the audience. Go to sunnah.com and type in camel urine. You'll be surprised
01:09:21.360
at what you find. On that note, thank you, brother. I appreciate your time, and keep up