SNEAKO - April 23, 2024


INTERROGATION (Letter from Medina)

Topics
Medina interrogation
Hosted by
Nicolas Kenn De Balinthazy
Mentioned
Border Patrol BotTube Patel
Zherka Shows SNEAKO How To Rizz Baddies On Monkey SPIRITUAL WARFARE： SteveWillDoIt Calls In, Muslim Lantern debate analysis

Episode Stats


Length

6 minutes

Words per minute

204.25

Word count

1,233

Sentence count

91

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

10

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, I tell the story of how I was caught by the U.S. Border Patrol in the middle of Ramadan in Saudi Arabia, and how I managed to get away with it, even though I had no idea what I was doing.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.220 All the footage you're about to see is already in the hands of the U.S. government.
00:00:05.520 As I returned to my native country after a month in the Middle East,
00:00:09.040 Border Patrol decided I was randomly selected to download the data on all my devices.
00:00:13.540 Sitting in the interrogation room while a technician wrote down my passcodes,
00:00:16.800 it occurred to me how fortunate I was to not be a terrorist.
00:00:20.540 Imagine how much panic you would be in if you had a bomb in your backpack.
00:00:23.920 In hindsight, wearing an Arabic thobe was not the most strategic decision in an American airport.
00:00:28.500 My bags were inspected and I saw all the gifts from Muslims being carefully manhandled with rubber gloves. 1.00
00:00:34.100 A pretty lady was then tasked to interrogate me while U.S. Customs read my text messages. 1.00
00:00:38.820 She was getting bored with the questioning as it became obvious I didn't have nuclear codes
00:00:42.440 and I thought back to when the Senator of Michigan played my stream in a committee.
00:00:45.960 The spread of the hateful, dangerous, and extremist content that has motivated real-world violence.
00:00:52.180 That was two years ago.
00:00:53.780 A year later, I met the President.
00:00:55.480 Eleven years before, all I had was a dream.
00:00:58.500 Strangely enough, I always knew and perhaps decided I would be exactly here in the interrogation room.
00:01:07.440 The interrogation lady asked about my time in Saudi Arabia,
00:01:10.860 so I politely mansplained the significance of Ramadan.
00:01:13.980 Our charity is required in Islam and how my community raised $100,000 for hungry people.
00:01:18.820 She scribbled some notes in a pad.
00:01:20.480 So the Muslim good deeds act as the sole currency to purchase a spot in heaven. 0.99
00:01:24.840 Her woman brain didn't understand it. 1.00
00:01:26.440 You really had to leave the country for a month to do this?
00:01:29.300 I told her time away from Western distractions allowed full focus on Eastern solutions.
00:01:34.280 For a month, I was only around people who agree with me instead of around people who radicalize me.
00:01:38.960 The trip began in the Mecca of the world.
00:01:41.300 Mecca.
00:01:42.060 Expensive if you like luxury, but the mental clarity is worth the investment.
00:01:45.540 But the interrogator didn't understand why an American would go to Saudi Arabia for one day just to then fly to London.
00:01:51.620 As she kept prying, I realized this definitely wasn't a random selection.
00:01:55.220 So I explained in the most un-terrorist way possible, I simply went to Mecca to make a plan.
00:02:00.280 And within that day, I gathered all the biggest names in Dawah together for the first time.
00:02:04.400 The technician walked in, interrupting or questioning to get the correct passcode for my backup phone.
00:02:10.380 I gave the wrong code, hoping they were lazy.
00:02:12.660 This phone contained the memories of my life in New York City.
00:02:15.540 A time where I had no money, no faith, but ambition and creativity.
00:02:19.200 And the only incriminating information there was maybe pounds of weed and possibly an unlicensed firearm.
00:02:24.700 I was calculating the statute of limitations in my head, then flashbacks of that life hit me.
00:02:29.300 Back in New York City, I would have never been pulled into an interrogation room.
00:02:32.820 A fraction of the popularity, but with access to all the platforms I'm now banned on.
00:02:37.060 A man without faith is simply not a threat.
00:02:39.560 The technician fumbled the phone with his rubber gloves as I handed it back.
00:02:42.860 My co-worker said he's seen you on YouTube before.
00:02:46.380 He pointed a purple finger at me.
00:02:48.140 What do you do?
00:02:49.520 What do I do?
00:02:50.520 I thought about telling him those broke New York City days doing stand-up comedy and random jobs.
00:02:55.200 He was about to see them anyway.
00:02:56.520 He might be so entertained by memories paired with personal context that I wouldn't be convicted.
00:03:01.000 Investigating an intimate life story paired with so much public information, it redefines the term autobiography.
00:03:07.200 What do I do?
00:03:08.500 I thought maybe I'll explain that I've been banned for years on BotTube and my existence is kept alive by talentless haters.
00:03:14.480 Instead, the interrogator just said I stream on Rebel.
00:03:16.840 I didn't correct her, but I still wasn't in the clear.
00:03:19.080 Before the technician left to finish breaching my privacy, he asked how I was trapped in a cage with a tiger.
00:03:24.940 He must have been bored with my phone's lack of terrorism.
00:03:27.500 I relaxed.
00:03:28.280 Hey, maybe the Middle East isn't so bad after all. 1.00
00:03:30.980 They laughed, and I knew I beat the case.
00:03:33.120 You cannot blame employees of the government for holding a bias created by decades of war propaganda.
00:03:38.500 It's easy to forget when an Arab steps in line in airport security, every American still does a triple take.
00:03:44.320 While the download slowly completed, the interrogator made small talk about her job.
00:03:47.900 How usually drug traffickers and pedophiles get caught because of the photos in their phone.
00:03:52.360 About the innocent smile on an illegal immigrant's face when she reads their rights in a language they don't understand. 0.97
00:03:57.820 Because of her job, she knows about Ramadan and the importance of the holy city Medina.
00:04:02.840 One of the few places left in the world where the collective goal is worship.
00:04:06.480 The city where kids are confused why I'm even allowed with arms covered in tattoos.
00:04:10.580 The tranquility drew me there much longer than I plan to stay.
00:04:14.200 Medina is busy enough to be a music festival five times a day, but safe enough for kids to be kids.
00:04:19.840 There is so much paranoia in American air, I had forgotten what it feels like to be comfortable around strangers.
00:04:25.400 It's the perfect place to finish a month of fasting and join a random Indian family for Eid celebration. 0.97
00:04:31.040 Eating there after sunrise with the Patel family, I realized weirdly, I was going to miss fasting.
00:04:36.300 Not the lack of food and water, but the discipline you learn.
00:04:39.360 Hearing the prayer call on the roof alone, yet accompanied by my brothers from around the world in the Middle East.
00:04:44.940 I pray one day the interrogator sees this video and curiosity pulls her to explore the secrets of Medina for herself.
00:04:51.120 From the steps inside the very first mosque ever built, all the way to the mountains where companions seeked refuge in the midst of holy war.
00:04:58.600 Overlooking the beauty of where this religion of Islam began, I was reminded of the domino effect that triggered my eventual presence right here. 0.99
00:05:06.320 The contradiction of a mind carrying youthful ambition amidst the glamorous distractions of America's empty temptations.
00:05:13.740 The interrogator was warming up to the God talk.
00:05:16.080 She opened up.
00:05:17.060 The worst thing she sees on the job are the phones of the Palestinians. 1.00
00:05:20.140 As she began describing what she's seen from the videos on their phones, she cried.
00:05:25.780 I changed the subject.
00:05:26.960 Palestinians have a strength their enemies lack. 1.00
00:05:29.880 She wiped the tear and gained composure.
00:05:31.660 Those terrible videos are of people now in eternal paradise.
00:05:35.740 When a Muslim dies for the sake of God, they attain the highest rank in heaven. 1.00
00:05:40.380 No wonder the enemy is jealous.
00:05:42.420 There is no missile that defeats faith.
00:05:44.840 My privacy was taken and my phones were returned, so the interrogator walked me out the airport.
00:05:51.100 I would shake your hand goodbye if you didn't tell me it's not allowed.
00:05:54.520 I wondered if she was flirting and then prayed to God she never sees my Snapchat.
00:05:57.600 I'll give you everything I've got, a little piece of mine.