From Michigan to Iran

Transcript

Foad Mahdavi: In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, hello everybody, hope you are doing great, welcome back to FoaDebate. We are witnessing a political realignment in the United States, coming off a historic blue tsunami in the midterms. The Democratic base is clearly demanding a new direction. And perhaps nowhere is this shift more evident than in Michigan, where Abdul El Sayed, a progressive Egyptian-American and practicing Muslim, just won a Senate seat. The big questions are, how will his presence in the Senate challenge the status quo? And what does his victory tell us about the changing face of American society and its appetite for endless wars?

To help us unpack all of this, I am absolutely honored to welcome our guest today, Dr. Kevin Barrett. He is an author, political analyst, and Islamologist, and has spent decades analyzing U.S. foreign policy and the intersection of religion and politics. As a Muslim American himself, and a fierce critic of the war on terror and Washington’s military adventurism, he brings a wealth of knowledge and a highly critical eye to today’s discussion. Dr. Barrett, welcome to the show and thank youso much for joining us today.

Kevin Barrett: Good to be back with you, Foad.

Foad Mahdavi: Let’s start with the social dimension. As an Islamologist and a Muslim American, what did you feel watching Abdul El-Sayed win? Beyond the historic nature of it, what does his election actually mean for the Muslim community in America, which has faced decades of Islamophobia and marginalization?

Kevin Barrett: Well, it was at least qualified good news, of course. I was particularly happy about it because my friend MD Alam has been a Muslim American activist in the Democratic Party going way back to, oh, I don’t know, 2010 or something like that. And he’s in Michigan now and he’s part of this movement that’s empowering Muslims to run for political office in Michigan. And so this is definitely a big achievement for those people. And so I’m happy to see that my friend MD Alam and his friends have actually made something big happen. And that’s great.

Of course, we’ve seen massive Islamophobia, scapegoating of Muslims, and US domestic and especially foreign policy shaped around wildly irrational fear and hatred of Muslims over the past 25 years—since the Zionists blew up the World Trade Center and blamed Muslims in a false flag operation designed to launch a new era of scapegoating Muslims. And it’s still going on. But there’s been pushback all along the way.

Some of the pushback has downsides as well as positive sides. And I can go into that more if you want.

Foad Mahdavi: Okay, he’s a progressive who defeated establishment-backed candidates. Does his victory represent a permanent shift in the Democratic base toward progressive grassroots politics, or is the establishment going to find a way to co-opt this movement?

Kevin Barrett: There has been a back and forth between the mostly Jewish-Zionist funded so-called centrist wing of the Democratic party, which controls the party itself—they control the bureaucracy—and the actual voters, who tend to be much more progressive, especially the organizers. And so Abdul El-Sayed is part of that so-called left-wing group. He worked with Bernie Sanders in past elections.

That struggle will continue. But the so-called progressive forces are winning. They’re gaining ground on various issues. And one of the most important, of course, is foreign policy and specifically West Asia policy, specifically policy on this insane war on Iran and this insane support for genocide in Palestine. And Abdul El-Sayed has been able to be more outspoken about those issues, especially with the Palestine issue, than most candidates who would stand a chance of being elected to the Senate. And so the progressive wing of the Democrats can actually stand against genocide, and be more critical of the war on Iran, than anybody else in the Senate. That struggle between the two wings of the Democratic Party will continue, but the progressives are gaining ground.

Foad Mahdavi: El-Sayed has been openly critical of unconditional US support for Israel and the blank checks given to the Pentagon. With his seat in the Senate, how much influence can he actually have in shifting the U.S. narrative and policy in West Asia?

Kevin Barrett: Well, he’ll have some influence because it’s not just that he got elected, but that his election was a symptom of a larger change in public opinion across both the left and the right, the Democratic and Republican parties, that’s being led by younger people. These past three years of live-streamed genocide have awakened the new generation, and even some older people, to the horror of this genocidal apartheid regime in occupied Palestine. And because Abdul El-Sayed is willing to be reasonably outspoken about that, and because he’s a lightning rod for talk about that issue because of his Muslim name, he will clearly have a very strong effect on the discussion, and he’ll help move it forward.

And it’s moving forward not just in the Democratic Party, where now 80% of Democrats view Israel unfavorably, but also in the Republican Party, where the younger voters have turned against Israel as well. J.D. Vance, the Vice President, just tweeted a tweet saying that this catastrophe for the Republicans happened because of the war on Iran, which was driven by Israel. He sees it too, and he knows he has no political future if he continues to go along with this traditional blind American support for the