are these kahanists in the room with us now?

1. trade routes existed, bitch. which is why baklava is all over the region.

but:

2. jews were in the levant longer than arabs, as we are the actual indigenous people. much longer than 634 CE. judaism is older too. the jewish state, the jewish kingdoms, are much older. certain ingredients you all claim are in OUR ancient holy books that predate quran.

Before Arabs named it Hummus, Jews called it Himtza.

Before Arabs named it Tamr, Jews callled it Tamar.

To anyone who isn’t an Islamist (so, AES and most of his audience in the West), sharia has nothing to do with trying to implement Taliban-style control or Islam on a local/state/national governmental level; it’s just the religious commandments of Islam. It is to Islam what halacha is to Judaism. US muslims have sharia courts like we beit din, to make religious judgments and settle intracommunity disputes.

The law in question was extremely vague, completely useless, & unnecessary. We already have laws that prevent the establishment of religion. It’s called the 1st amendment. The only thing the law accomplished was encoding in law a disdain & fear of Muslim religious doctrine—itself a violation of the 1st amendment—and it was struck down for exactly that reason.

You do have to be perfect all the time though. And this is something he and the DSA and a bunch of their blorbo politicians never fucking learned because they haven't tried to contest general elections outside sapphire cities against a functional GOP media machine. And it doesn't matter because he's a public figure, he said it as a public figure, and the GOP media machine is hungry and knows what normies will bite on. You always assume cameras are rolling, you refer to it as 'religious tradition' and you vehemently deny that you are trying to supplant any civil law in the nation in which you reside and are a proud citizen of because you are running for office.

If you are playing a rigged game, you play it to the best of your ability, and you assume that anything you say will be taken out of context and used against you at all times. You don't swagger around like a fratboy fuck. And that's what he's doing. He's acting like he's the default and he doesn't HAVE to be careful and that shit is like crack for him and his fanbase while making him look like a liability or a lunatic to rando voters.

Expecting that a persecuted religious minority never speak the name of any part of their religion because bigots have decided to vilify its existence isn’t “playing to the best of your ability in a rigged game” or being camera-ready as a public figure. That is the expectation that a minority never be publicly a member of that minority, never talk about their own culture in their native tongue, never call out the bigotry for what it is, and treating any instance of that happening as de facto disqualifying. That’s not simply being tactful or having to work harder to cover the same distance as those with privilege; that’s cutting apart a religion and culture to appease bigots.

“As a _” does not change the fact that this is a bigoted standard, and enforcing it against another minority is bigotry. It doesn’t help that this is a standard you clearly do not adhere to here (and you shouldn’t have to), because your words could easily be taken in the wrong way, as defending Islamophobia or saying he’s “uppity”.

There’s a difference between a specific political slogan being toxic, where slogans are inherently about messaging and appeal, and the mere existence and central tenets of a religion, which is a protected class of people in America, being treated as politically toxic.

Being Jewish is also a political liability right now. Any Jew, especially any Jewish Zionist or a Jew who has any relationship to Israel, who runs for office is going to be subjected to a certain perception as well. We all agree that catering to the Anti-Zionist voices in America who believe that a) disenfranchises Jews, b) emboldens & enforces that perspective as the norm in politics, and is thus destructive to us both as a minority and to democracy as a whole.

This same exact logic of the optics being “too risky” is currently being used to justify excluding Jews from politics and social life as a whole, silencing Jews, making Jewish public figures too afraid to speak out, etc. Because any Jew will be perceived as having “dual loyalty” or “supporting genocide” by default, should Jews not run for office in America?

Yes, it is a liability to be a Jewish politician (or Jewish in general). But a) the term "halakha" simply does not have the same political baggage as "sharia law" in the US. AES and team could try and educate people, or they could disavow it, or they could ignore it, but saying "median voters in Michigan will react negatively to that statement" doesn't reinforce it.

B) i think you are being pedantic by focusing on "well, a slogan isn't the same as a religious tenet" (even though people will treat them the same; ex: intifada). Another example: Barack Obama's middle name is Hussein. The right used/uses that to stoke negative sentiment. It doesn't matter that it is just a name, and has nothing to do with his religion, and it's bigoted to suggest a "muslim-sounding" name denotes nefarious intentions. But Obama's team knew that and was ready for it with different strategies.

This whole post started from the context that AES was (according to his supporters) be able to appeal *to the exact kind of voters* who have negative associations with the term "Sharia law" (and the name "Hussein).

plusss: halacha affects jews and sharia affects muslims. living in a democratic society means you can choose to live under your own religious laws in your own home or community while NOT affecting or infringing on others’ freedoms. separation of religion and state.

based on el sayed’s own history and family, he is an obvious extremist. he also speaks at extremist mosques and events through CAIR. that’s why he’s talking about this, and if you know the things people at these “mosques” say about conquering the US and implementing sharia law, you know this is purposeful messaging.

it isnt islamophobia to call out extremism. ask noor dahri and other moderate muslims who do just that.

a few more moderate muslims who have called out this exact brand of islamic extremism and even el sayed himself:

Amjad Taha

Khaled Hassan

Asra Q Nomani

Luai Ahmed

Loay Alshareef

Dr. Ali Alnuaimi

Tamer Masudin

Amjad Taha

Hussain Abdul-Hussain

Center for Peace Communications

Fares Saeb

Jasem Aljuraid

Dalia Ziada

Hussein Aboubakr Mansour

Yasmine Mohammed

Imam Tawhidi

Nervana Mahmoud

Elissa el hachem

Sana Ebrahimi Ledene

Faezeh Alavi

and here:

“Opposition to Sharia law bans is not uniformly motivated, and opposing the incorporation of any religious legal system into American courts is not synonymous with opposing Muslim Americans or Islamic faith. Many legal scholars, including Muslims, have defended state restrictions on foreign and religious law as consistent with constitutional structure, not as expressions of white supremacy”

when it comes to archaeological evidence connecting jews/israel/and a distinct jewish society though, the dating starts roughly around the 10th century CE with the steles like merneptah and tel dan, the mount ebal curse tablet, highland pottery sherds, khirbet qeiyafa ostracon, ketef hinnom silver scrolls, ophel pithos in jerusalem, solomon’s moat, etc.

when it comes to archaeological evidence connecting jews/israel/and a distinct jewish society though, the dating starts roughly around the 10th century CE with the steles like merneptah and tel dan, the mount ebal curse tablet, highland pottery sherds, khirbet qeiyafa ostracon, ketef hinnom silver scrolls, ophel pithos in jerusalem, solomon’s moat, etc.

when it comes to archaeological evidence connecting jews/israel/and a distinct jewish society though, the dating starts roughly around the 10th century CE with the steles like merneptah and tel dan, the mount ebal curse tablet, highland pottery sherds, khirbet qeiyafa ostracon, ketef hinnom silver scrolls, ophel pithos in jerusalem, solomon’s moat, etc.

when it comes to archaeological evidence connecting jews/israel/and a distinct jewish society though, the dating starts roughly around the 10th century CE with the steles like merneptah and tel dan, the mount ebal curse tablet, highland pottery sherds, khirbet qeiyafa ostracon, ketef hinnom silver scrolls, ophel pithos in jerusalem, solomon’s moat, etc.