Omar Suleiman — Palestinian-American Muslim scholar, Imam, and civil rights leader; president of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research
The gist
Omar Suleiman returns to the Lex Fridman Podcast, this time focused on Gaza and Palestine rather than Islam broadly. He argues that October 7th and the ensuing war cannot be understood in a vacuum, framing decades of occupation, settlement expansion, apartheid determinations, and 'mowing the lawn' bombardment as the root causes the Western media ignores. He shares deeply personal and individual stories, including the journalist Wael Dahdouh and the murdered six-year-old Palestinian-American boy Wadea Al-Fayoume in Illinois, to insist on the humanity of a 'faceless' people. The conversation covers resistance and its moral limits (drawing on MLK and Malcolm X), U.S. political complicity, Netanyahu, refugees, and Christian Zionism. It closes on faith, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, converts to Islam, and Suleiman's enduring hope rooted in his belief in God.
Big reveals
- Suleiman read his own October 9th statement saying Palestinian casualties are treated as 'footnotes' and urging people to dig deeper than two weeks of headlines.
- He recounts journalist Wael Dahdouh losing his wife, children, grandchild, cameraman, and son to Israeli strikes yet returning to report each time.
- He frames Israel's routine bombardment of Gaza as the policy ministers call 'mowing the lawn,' with Gazans hoping not to be 'part of the grass.'
- He tells the story of Wadea Al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian-American stabbed 26 times in Illinois in a hate crime, linking it to Biden's debunked '40 beheaded babies' claim.
- He cites the 2018 Great Return March, where he says Israeli snipers kept 'knee counts' of Palestinian legs they shot during nonviolent protest.
- He rejects the MLK-vs-Malcolm X framing, arguing it is hypocritical to commit the oppressed to nonviolence while not restraining the oppressor.
- He argues 'terrorism' is a functionless word if applied only to non-state actors and not to state violence that kills civilians.
- He recalls the November 4th Free Palestine March of roughly 400,000 people in DC receiving almost no mainstream media coverage.
Things worth remembering
- Human Rights Watch (2021) and Amnesty International (2022) both issued reports concluding Israel meets the legal definition of apartheid.
- Suleiman states over 600 Palestinians were killed in 2023 before October 7th, with 13,000 new settler units planned that year.
- He says over 100 journalists had been killed, more than in any prior conflict, with watchdog evidence some killings were intentional.
- He notes the U.S. voted against 138 states at the UN on Palestinian self-determination.
- He says Israel has violated over 63 United Nations resolutions.
- He cites polls showing 67% of Americans, three-quarters of Democratic voters, and half of Republican voters want a ceasefire.
- He notes Malcolm X visited Gaza and Khan Yunis in 1964 and wrote an essay connecting Zionism to American imperialism.
- He compares the rejection of Palestinian refugees to 1939, when the U.S. admitted only about 10,000 of 300,000 German Jews who applied for refuge.
- He explains converting to Islam takes about 20 seconds via the shahada, then describes the six articles of faith.
- He explains Al-Aqsa was Islam's first direction of prayer (qibla) before Muslims faced Mecca, and is one of three sanctuaries with Mecca and Medina.