“We took a selfie together and we just said, ‘Love and peace from Miss Iraq and Miss Israel.’ And we posted it and we went to sleep. And then, the next morning when I woke up, basically my phone was blowing up with messages from the Miss Iraq organization, from my family, from strange numbers, and I didn't know what was going on.”
Sarah Idan grew up an Iraqi Muslim under Saddam Hussein and represented Iraq in the Miss Universe beauty pageant in 2017. She never imagined that a photo would ultimately force her family to have to flee the country.
“During that time, I was getting all the antisemitism, all the hate that you would get if you're a Jewish person. And I had no idea what the Jewish people had to deal with until that moment,” says Ms. Idan.
Today, she is a human rights activist who speaks out against antisemitism and Islamic fundamentalism.
Watch the clip:
“They do not seek to free the Palestinians. They seek to eradicate the Jewish people. They seek to eradicate Israel. And then after that, they would come after Christians, they would come after everyone, because this is the mentality of radical Islam. They want to take over the world, and we keep saying that. And when we say that, we get labeled as ‘Islamophobes,’” says Ms. Idan.
🔴 WATCH the full episode (55 minutes) on Epoch Times: https://ept.ms/S1107SarahIdan
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Jan Jekielek: Sarah Idan such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders.
Sarah Idan: Thank you for having me.
Mr. Jekielek: We wanted to set this up for quite some time before this Israel-Hamas war broke out. You have an absolutely fascinating backstory and a lot to speak to on this topic. I want to start with your childhood. You grew up in Iraq, and spent some time in Syria. What was that like?
Ms. Idan: I was born in Iraq in 1990. From 1990 until 2003, it was a very different era than what came later. That was the time I lived under the Saddam Hussein dictatorship, and the whole country was indoctrinated by the Ba'ath Party. Every day we heard “Death to America. Death to Israel,” from Saddam on TV. Even when you go to school or with the graffiti in the streets, it says that everywhere.
It was so much propaganda that was against the U.S. and Israel at the same time. In school it was the same thing. Whenever the teacher walks in and instead of saying, "Good morning," we all get up and we say, "Live long Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq." That was our greeting to each other in class.
It was the same thing when we raised the Iraqi flag on Thursdays. Every Thursday in school, we had to sing all these songs about liberating Palestine and defeating Israel. It was a crazy time. Of course, under the sanctions and all of that, life wasn't easy. We had an electrical power schedule and a water schedule. We would go for days and not have any electricity and not have any water, so we had to conserve. It was just a really difficult life under Saddam.
On top of all of that, you didn't have freedom of speech, and you didn't have freedom of thought. You basically had to worship Saddam and love Saddam. Anything that you would say against him could get you in trouble. Even if a child tells a joke about Saddam and someone hears it, then they would tell the intelligence services. Then the intelligence services would go to the family and interrogate the family, "Why is your child telling jokes about Saddam? Are you against Saddam?”
That happened to my family because my dad used to be a part of the Ba'ath Party until 1990. He was a military engineer and he built many bases around Iraq. He was a high senior official in the Ba'ath Party. But during the Iran-Iraq War my dad started having different opinions. He felt like Saddam was going into a different direction. When the Halabja bombing happened, my dad started looking for excuses to leave.
When Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990 my dad said, "That's enough. I'm not invading another country. I'm not going there." He spoke to a couple of his close friends and they were able to come up with an excuse, saying that he had back problems and he couldn't serve anymore.
But from that time until the moment when Saddam was taken out by the U.S., we were interrogated every now and then. Saddam was really tight in the way that he ruled Iraq. In every neighborhood and on every street there was an officer who lived on that street. They had a list of every family, how many people were living there, what year they were born, and what they did for a living.
They used to come to us every month, kind of like the census, to check on us and talk to us. I remember one of our neighbors used to hate us and always ask my dad, "What's going on? Are you against Saddam?” They went through all of that. When the U.S. came in, my family, along with many other families, were so happy because it was the moment of liberation.
To be honest with you, no one thought it would happen. Even when the U.S. came in and was bombing Iraq, we thought this was just going to be another bombing, and it will end with nothing, because we know how powerful Saddam was at the time. No one believed how easy it was to invade Iraq.
I remember the day I was playing soccer with my friends on the freeway and all of a sudden, I saw this convoy come in. I am saying on the freeway, because no one was moving around, there was nothing happening. It was wartime. It was just us kids playing soccer in the street. Then I saw this U.S. convoy come in and my mind couldn't even register what it was. We thought it looked like an alien invasion or something.
They got out of their tanks and started giving us flowers and candy and pamphlets saying, "We're here to help you. We're not here to kill you." One of the funny things on the pamphlets was, "If you know any Ba'ath Party member, you need to turn them in."
I took the pamphlet to my family and we all just bursted into laughter, because all Iraqis were Ba'ath Party members. I was the only one in my family who was not. Because after age 13, you have to register in school, and they came in before I was 13-years-old. I was the only one not registered as a Ba'ath Party member. We were making jokes that I was going to turn them all in.
That should tell you how much the U.S. was not prepared and how much they didn't know about what was going on in Iraq. That was one of the mistakes that led to the civil war and why Iraq was in such trouble when the U.S. came in, because they didn't even know the simple information on the ground.
Mr. Jekielek: You mentioned the sanctions were really difficult. You often hear these sanctions caused perhaps hundreds of thousands of deaths, and they were actually war crimes committed by the U.S. How do you view that?
Ms. Idan: I view it differently than most people. I think that Saddam was a monster. He was killing his own people and he was threatening the entire world. He was threatening to invade other Arab countries. He was committing genocide and using chemical weapons against the Kurdish people.
The mass graves that he hid and we found out after the war had thousands of families and children buried alive. It was anyone who opposed him. It wasn't just the U.S. that put sanctions on Iraq, it was also the UN. Many countries did that to curb his behavior to get him to stop, but it didn't stop him.
Sadly, the Iraqi people were paying for that. But what else can you do? How can you stop someone from gaining more power? You cannot feed the monster. You have to cut off the supplies and you have to fight them.
To me, this is very similar to what's going on right now with Hamas and Gaza. People are wondering, "Why is this happening"? It's literally the same situation. Whenever Hamas gets funding from anyone, they don't even give it to the people of Gaza. They use it for weapons and they use it to become more powerful. It was the same situation with Saddam.
Mr. Jekielek: In these authoritarian regimes, there is always a portion of the population that has this freedom bug, like your family. They decided, "No, this isn't for us,” and tried to figure out how to deal with it." But there are also a lot of other people that go along with it. Then there are some that are actively involved and enthusiastic about it.
Ms. Idan: That is true. But in Iraq, the majority did not want Saddam, and this is something that we all knew. It was a very small portion that wanted him, and they were the people who felt protected by him. They were mostly the people who worked for him. Normal Iraqis didn't have any rights, didn't have any freedom, and lived in poverty.
We were watching this dictator on TV wearing fur, smoking his Cuban cigars, and living the good life, while we were starving. How can you respect such a person? This is not like in some countries where it's half and half. In Iraq, the majority definitely did not want Saddam Hussein.
Mr. Jekielek: Eventually you made it to the U.S. and you also were involved in the Miss Universe competition. Please tell me about that whole picture.
Ms. Idan: I came to the U.S. when I was 19. When I was in Iraq, I worked for the U.S. military as a translator. When you work for the U.S. military, they give you a special immigrant visa. That means once you arrive in the U.S., you will receive a green card that is valid for 10 years. After five years, you automatically become a U.S. citizen.
While I was in the U.S. I participated in one local pageant that was for the Iraqi community. It caught the attention of the Miss Iraq Organization in Iraq and they called me back to participate in Iraq. At the time, I was already going back and forth to see my family. After that, I went on to the Miss Universe competition.
In the beginning, I was so happy, and I couldn't believe it. I knew the only reason I won the pageant was probably because I spoke English, and they wanted someone who could speak English and answer questions. At the time, there were about 93 countries represented. The year I went was the first year for Iraq to come back to the Miss Universe pageant after 45 years.
It was a big deal for all the fans, for the Miss Universe staff, and all the people involved. All the girls would come to me and say, "Oh, my god, Ms. Iraq, that is so amazing." Ms. Israel was maybe one of the only people that did not approach me and speak to me.
One day we had a photo shoot and she saw me. I waved at her to say hi and she just stood there awkwardly. After that, she came to say hi and she said, "I'm sorry, I wasn't sure whether I could speak to you. They told us not to approach the Arab countries." I said, "Who told you?" Then she showed me her sash and it said, "Israel."
I said, "Why?" She said, "I don’t want to get you guys in trouble, or maybe you don't want to talk to us." I said, "No. I have no problem with you being from Israel. If anything, we're all here together. We're setting a good example for the young girls around the world. We need to take pictures and show them that we're ambassadors for peace."
That's what we did. We took a selfie together and said, "Love and peace from Ms. Iraq and Ms. Israel." We posted it and went to sleep. The next morning when I woke up my phone was blowing up with messages from the Miss Iraq Organization, from my family, and from strange numbers.
I didn't know what was going on. I had posted on Instagram and then I had just gone to sleep. They kept us really busy at Miss Universe. We would wake up at 5am and be on our heels, not even our feet, from 7am until sometimes 11pm.
I woke up that morning and started reading the messages. One was from the Miss Iraq Organization, saying, "What did you do? Delete the picture. Delete it." I got tens of calls from them and from my family. My family had already received death threats. I spoke with the director of the Miss Iraq Organization and told him, "I did nothing wrong."
He said, "That's not how people see it. You don't represent yourself. You represent Iraq, and Iraq doesn't have diplomatic relations with Israel, so you need to delete the picture. You are sending a message that you are against Palestinians." I said, "That is not true. We need to show that there should be peace between our people."
I said, "I'm positive there are many Iraqis who believe in what I believe in." He said, "Okay, if you don't delete the picture, then I'm going to talk to Miss Universe right now and have them fire you from the competition. We will tell them that we took the title from you so that you can't compete."
At that moment, I had to basically negotiate a way to keep the picture and stay in the pageant. In my life there's one thing I have learned, if anyone tries to force you to do something, that's always evil. If they try to force you to be quiet about your own beliefs and ideas, that's very evil. That's fascism and dictatorship. That is why I left Iraq and why I came to the United States.
I was very angry and I did not want to be silenced when he was telling me that. I told him, "Listen, the picture has been posted. If I delete the picture right now, people will think that I have a weak character and that I do not stand behind my own beliefs, and it will send a bad message.
I will probably not even make it to the top ten in Miss Universe, so I need to stick with my message. But what I can do is make another post and say, 'I do not support the Israeli policies in the Middle East, and this is not political statement.'"
He said, "Okay, let me write down this statement for you." It was that I support the Palestinian cause and all of that. That's proof of how in the Middle East, if you go against what you are being told, they will fight you and force you into compliance, while pushing their own narrative.
At the time, when I made that post, my family had to leave Iraq after three days. I remember speaking with them and crying. I was telling them, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for anything bad to happen to you." They said, "No, Sarah, it's okay. You're doing amazing, and keep doing what you are doing. This is not about you. This is literally about our people and our country. We're just going to leave. We're going to go somewhere safe, and just keep doing what you are doing."
Thank god, if it wasn't for my family being so supportive, I wouldn't even be able to continue. But my family left Iraq, and I continued with Miss Universe. The day we finished filming with Miss Universe, I went back to LA and deleted that statement they had forced me to post.
In my life, I had never experienced anything like this. I've only felt danger when I was in Iraq during the Iraqi Civil War. While working with the U.S. military, I felt danger. But I had never felt danger in the U.S. That was the first time in my life I felt danger in the U. S., because I had messages saying that people would find me and they were also making death threats. That was definitely scary.
At the same time I was receiving all of that, it became not only about me, it became about the Jewish people as well. All of the sudden, people started their conspiracy theories by saying, "Her last name is Jewish. Her first name is Jewish. She was born in Tel Aviv. She served in Mossad and she worked for the CIA." They started posting pictures of me in the U.S. military uniform.
During that time, I was getting all the antisemitism and all the hate that you would get it if you were a Jewish person. I had no idea what the Jewish people had to deal with until that moment. After that, I was invited by the American Jewish Committee to go to Israel. That was the first time I was exposed to Israel. It was definitely an eye opener for me when I went to Israel, because I realized that everything I had been told about Israel was a lie.
I didn't even know they had Muslims, Christians, and people from all over who all coexisted peacefully. When I looked at Israel, I felt it was like a mini-United States in the Middle East. It is amazing, because you have mosques next to synagogues and churches. I just wish that we had the same thing in other Arab countries.
Mr. Jekielek: You mentioned that the vast majority of the population was against Saddam and that type of rule. But when you took a photo with Miss Israel and posted it with a message of peace, that led to threats to your person and all sorts of denouncement. Why do you think that happened?
Ms. Idan: To be honest with you, in the beginning, I couldn't understand why, and I was trying to figure it out. I came to realize that many Arabs and many Muslims were brainwashed that the Jewish people are inherently evil and that they were cursed. They keep quoting chapters from Hadith or from the Quran that said they were cursed by God. They are descendants of pigs and monkeys, just horrible, horrible things.
During that time, I felt it was definitely political and came mostly from people who supported the Iranian regime, or Sunni radicals who supported the Muslim Brotherhood. But after the events of October 7th, now I see what's going on. I realize this is worse than what I thought before.
Before, I was more hopeful and I just thought it came from extremists. But from what I see today, it's coming from almost everyone, and it's a really frightening time. Since I've posted about the massacre that happened in Israel, I have lost all of my Iraqi friends on social media. They all unfollowed me, and they all attacked me. Some of them launched campaigns against me. They are Iraqi activists who have millions of followers.
The funny part is that those people are not even allowed to go back to Iraq, just like me, because they speak against the Iranian regime. They are secular Muslims, but they still post horrible things about the Jewish people. I never understood the extent of antisemitism in my community until these recent events.
Mr. Jekielek: We can talk about what happened on October 7th and its aftermath in a moment. Before we go there, let’s talk about the time you spoke at the UN, because the UN plays a strange role in all of this. Please tell me about that.
Ms. Idan: I was invited by an organization called the UN Watch. They asked me if I wanted to speak about what's going on in Iraq and I said, "Yes." At the same time, I asked, "Can I also speak about what's going on with Israel?" I felt these two messages were equally important.
When I went to the UN, it was at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, and I sat there for hours. I was listening to what the other countries were saying, and what they were discussing. The entire time, I couldn't believe what I was hearing, and I was just laughing. I said, "Is this serious"? I was asking the organization that brought me, "Are those people serious"? And they said, "Yes, this is the United Nations."
The level of corruption that's going on inside the UN is just crazy. Because I am Iraqi, I know exactly what's going on in my country. To hear what the Iraqi, Arab, and other representatives were both saying and denying in front of me was just appalling.
I thought, “What is the point of speaking here, if I feel like the body of the whole United Nations doesn't care? I felt like it's just to show that they are voting. But the whole thing seemed like a joke to me. I felt that most people didn't even want to be there and it was all just acting for them.
It was definitely disappointing when I was talking about the issues, not only about Israel, but also when it came to Iraq. Because at the time, we had the Iraqi Revolution, which was also called the October Revolution. This was the Iraqi people protesting that they wanted clean water to drink, jobs, and a normal life. Iraq gets hundreds of millions of dollars a year from humanitarian aid from the UN and other countries, but the Iraqi people don't see any of it. It goes directly into the pocket of the Iraqi government that is actually working for the Iranian regime.
Those are the issues that I was speaking about, and the Iraqi representative denied everything, and then their motions were carried. They are taking money from China. You have China and Iran sitting there, who used to be the head of women’s rights. That's my experience.
Mr. Jekielek: What was the message you wanted to convey?
Ms. Idan: I just wanted to relay the voice of people like me. I just wanted to relay the voice of the Iraqi people who are fighting to get basic human rights and better living conditions. I wanted to convey as well the voice of the Arabs and Muslims who wanted to end the war with Israel and who wanted to establish peace with Israel.
Secular Muslims who don't want to live under Islamist rule and the Israeli people share a lot in common. We share the same views for democracy and for the future. We also share the same enemies. I wanted the world to know that we support peace with Israel for these reasons.
In my speech at the UN I said, “Iraqi migrants believe that their government shows more loyalty to Iran than its own people. It named streets after Khomeini, who murdered hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. I ask the UN, why has this council never adopted a single resolution for the human rights of the Iraqi people? How could you elect a government that oppresses its own people as a world guardian of human rights? Thank you.”
Mr. Jekielek: We're almost getting up to the present here. What did you think of the Abraham Accords?
Ms. Idan: When the Abraham Accords happened, I was at the White House, and I watched the signing. When I received an email from the White House saying, "We are inviting you for the Abraham Accords," I cried and I couldn't believe it. I did not expect that it would happen so soon, but I was so happy.
Just being in DC at the time and speaking with representatives from the Emirates and from Bahrain, and watching everyone sitting together at the same table speaking about peace was so amazing. Some of our media tried to distort that image and try to make it seem like it was about an arms deal and about money, which is insane.
They don't understand the significance of establishing peace between the Muslims and Jews, especially after hundreds of years of war between us, if not thousands of years. It was the first step for the Arab countries and Israel to come together to try to build a new generation, a new future for the entire area, and to fend off the enemies and the radicals.
With the massacre that happened on October 7th in Israel, Hamas admitted they've been planning it for two years, and I think it was because of the Abraham Accords. They realized that if the Arab countries and Israel came together, there is no way that they could spread their hate for the Jewish people and that they could never end Israel.
They also realized that this would probably be the beginning of the end for the Iranian regime. This is why Khomeini supported them with weapons, with intel, and with everything. They did this on purpose. They wanted to do something giant like 9/11 that would provoke the Israelis, so that the Israelis would respond and try to take them out.
When the Israelis responded like they did, and they bombed Gaza and they sent their military inside Gaza to go after Hamas, this is exactly what they wanted. They wanted to show Israel in a bad light, not just in front of the world, but in front of the Arabs and Muslims. They could then say, "Look who the Saudis and the Emiratis and the Bahrainis are trying to make you be friends with. They are your slayers. They are the people who hate you and want to kill you."
They succeeded with the current campaign that I see right now on Arab media like Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera is even paying influencers with millions of followers to post propaganda, even fake videos changing the narrative, and denying that the massacre happened in Israel. They definitely succeeded in convincing the average Arab and Muslim that this is Israel's fault, and let's try to stop the Abraham Accords.
Mr. Jekielek: How do you explain all the video that we have that was actually taken by the Hamas terrorists themselves? Why would people think that?
Ms. Idan: Why would Hamas murder Jewish people in cold blood? Why did ISIS murder Yazidis and Syrians and even Muslims in cold blood? It's literally the way that they were brainwashed to follow their leaders on the road of Jihad. They see it as Jihad. "If I kill for the sake of Jihad and the sake of Allah, then I will go to heaven."
It's even worse when it comes to the Jewish people. I know the mentality of the Islamists because I lived with them when I was in Iraq. Even though they hate Christians and believe they are infidels because they worship God and the son of God, their hatred for the Jewish people is more than their hatred for any other religion. They truly believe if they kill a Jewish person, they will go to heaven for killing that Jewish person.
They have this ideology. I keep seeing this everywhere in comments and videos and with people speaking that this is a prophecy, that in order to bring the Messiah, which is the Mahdi for them, they have to kill every Jew. They have to end Israel.
Mr. Jekielek: Why the humiliation? I'm not even going to describe the things that were caught on camera, but it seems like a step beyond killing.
Ms. Idan: Yes. When I posted about the Israeli women being raped by Hamas, the messages that I received and the comments were saying, "You are next. We will do this and that to you," and they were very explicit in their description. In the beginning, I couldn't understand.
How can you be a Muslim, but then excuse raping women? But then I understood, after reading message after message, that for them, it is part of Jihad to take sex slaves. They believe that women represent honor. They think, “If I rape your women, then I take your honor away.”
This is what I understood, because they were telling me that in their messages, "I will do this and that to you." I thought, "What do you get out of this? How can you hate me? How does that make sense"? But then I understood from their context, they believe that they will take your honor by doing that and break you spiritually and mentally. It's a very barbaric and monstrous ideology. That's just the sad reality of it.
Mr. Jekielek: Since we're talking about ideology, let's talk about what is happening on campus in the U.S. now. You hear the chants, "From the river to the sea." We've heard, "Gas the Jews." A lot of these people that are chanting these things are not Islamist.
Ms. Idan: What is happening on campus has been going on for a while now. Basically, a lot of these groups are supported and funded by the Muslim Brotherhood and by people with a lot of money. These are not just movements on campus. I actually went to one of their meetings at UCLA and they kicked me out, but I just wanted to observe and see who attended these meetings.
It was people who were 40 to 50-years-old. Some of them looked like they were Salafi Jihadists, with the beard and no mustache, and bringing their wives. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. If this is about people on campus, who are these people that are coming on campus? Why are they holding these meetings in secrecy and not allowing other students to come in? It is only for the people who belong to this movement.
Sadly, they are using the pain and the tragic history of many Americans. They are mostly people on the Left who stand against racism and who support movements like Black Lives Matter. Those people feel like they have been oppressed for a long time in the country.
They tell them the same thing, "We are being oppressed in Palestine by those European Jews who came from Europe. We share the same pain, and we share the same history." They tell them that there is segregation and apartheid.
Sadly, they managed to convince many people who are just filled with anger who want to have a cause to support and believe in. But they haven't really spoken to people from Israel. They have never been to Israel. They keep shouting, "Apartheid, apartheid." When they say that, I think, "You've never been to Israel. Because if you had been to Israel, you would know there is no apartheid. When you see Muslim women wearing a hijab walking besides Jewish men wearing a kippah, you know there is no apartheid."
But sadly, they have convinced them somehow. But it has gotten to a really scary level right now. I've been watching videos. In one of them, every time I see this image, I get so angry. There is a woman holding a sign that says, "We want the caliphate back," which means the Islamic state of ISIS. They are holding these signs on U.S. campuses. Women who are not wearing a hijab are cheering. Women who have full freedom here are holding these signs.
Do you know what women went through in our countries? You have full freedom here in America, and you support the genocide and you support the oppression of our women. Thank god I was not on campus that day. If I had seen those women I would have picked a fight. I don't think I could even contain my anger if I saw women wearing whatever they choose to and having full freedom, and then holding signs supporting Hamas, and holding signs supporting radical Islamists.
They come from a place of privilege and ignorance, and they are in denial. They need to speak to people who have experienced radical Islam—people like me, not those people who are born and raised in the United States, and believe that Hamas is a Palestinian freedom movement.
They need to speak to people who know Hamas, who have lived with the mentality of the people of Hamas. We know what they stand for. Because we know the name Hamas, Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamia, means the Islamic Resistance Movement. It's not the free Palestine movement.
The same thing with the group called Islamic Jihad. It's called Islamic Jihad, it’s not called Free Palestine. They do not seek to free the Palestinians. They seek to eradicate the Jewish people, and they seek to eradicate Israel. After that, they would come after Christians and they would come after everyone, because this is the mentality of radical Islam. They want to take over the world, and we keep saying that. When we say that, we get labeled as Islamophobes.
We are just fed up at this moment. But I hope after what's going on right now and they see how the Jews are being attacked in the U.S., in Europe, in the airports and everywhere, I hope that somehow, they will wake up and finally listen to us.
I am Muslim. I just don't believe in radical Islam, because radical Islam had me displaced from my country. For two years, I had to live in Syria when radical Islamists took my home, because we were not the right kind of Muslims for them. This is what people here don't understand. They've lived their whole life in the U.S. and they believe they know what oppression is.
It's time that people like me and Muslims who really know the danger of radical Islam, it's time for us to speak out. We need to speak out and we need to look after the Jewish people. We need to tell them that we are with them. We will support them because we both share the same fight. If they come after the Jews, then they will come after every single one of us who will not bow down to them and obey.
Mr. Jekielek: You're a Democrat and I know you've been critical of congressional members like Ilhan Omar or Rashida Tlaib. What is your reaction to how they're treating the situation?
Ms. Idan: First of all, I knew that they were going to be against Israel. Their money comes from the same people who support Hamas. On the Right, they're against the squad. They're against the squad, because they're on the Right. But when it comes to those on the Left, they don't know about this. They don't understand the geopolitics, and they don't understand the history of the Middle East. When I say Muslim Brotherhood, they don't even know what the Muslim Brotherhood is.
There needs to be an education about all of this. Maybe it's time to educate and add these classes in our schools in the U.S. to teach the people about the history of the Muslim Brotherhood and about the enemies of the United States, so that people can make informed decisions before they blindly support politicians because of identity politics.
They look at Ilhan Omar and Rashida and they see women of color. They see Muslim women and they think we need more of those people in our government. I completely support that. We just need people who actually represent the United States.
The majority of Americans don't know about this. They don't speak Arabic and they don't watch the Arab news. They don't understand what Al Jazeera is saying about the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, about the Qataris, or about Erdogan. They have no idea what is going on. They only see someone who represents a minority and then they support them.
When this minority person says something and then the Jewish people speak against them, they think, "They're just attacking her because she's Muslim and she's a woman of color." That is not true. There are many people of color in Congress like Ritchie Torres who support Israel, because he knows the real story.
I decided to run for Congress because I felt we need that sane voice, the voice who actually cares about America, the voice that loves this country and doesn't want to see us divided, and doesn't want to see us being torn apart or infiltrated by Islamists.
In the last couple of months, many of my Democrat friends, some of whom said they would vote for Biden, are now saying they're not going to vote for Biden because of what happened, not only with Afghanistan, but what happened with Iran and sending $6 billion to free the hostages.
It's really sad, because we've been warning the Biden administration. We know the same people who worked for the Biden administration are the same people who worked for the Obama administration. The Obama administration made the same mistakes.
Thank god some of them got caught, like Rob Malley. He's under investigation right now. He's on vacation, as they say, but it's way deeper than that. It's time that we do more digging to see why a party that cares so much about personal freedom and supports LGBTQ rights would give money to the Iranian regime, who stands against all of that.
On top of that, a government that literally threatened to wipe out America and Israel is just an evil government. Today, more Democrats are waking up, as they see how all these bad policies in the Middle East are unfolding right now into a bigger and bigger disaster.
I watched an interview of one of Hamas leaders. I believe it was translated by memory, and a lot of people saw that. They asked him, “Why did Hamas take American hostages and not just Israeli hostages?” He said, "Why not? The U.S. is our enemy. Biden just gave $6 billion to Iran, so why not? That's a good thing for us, and maybe we'll get some money."
This was all over social media and everyone saw this. This is the result of bad policies. You should not be negotiating with terrorists. You should be fighting terrorists. I hope it will be a wakeup call for the people in the Biden administration, whether they're doing this being aware or unaware.
I hope this will be a wakeup call that we cannot continue with the soft approach in our policies to the Iranian regime and to radical Islamists. The more that we show we are ready to have a conversation with them, the more they feel they are empowered. Then they want to make more demands and they want to make more threats.
Mr. Jekielek: There's a number of Muslims and prominent people that are saying they are now experiencing Islamophobia in this current environment. You mentioned that word before. Do you agree with that?
Ms. Idan: I honestly don't see any Islamophobia going on right now. If there really is Islamophobia, then you need to blame it on the source, and the source is radical Islam. If you are a Muslim and you're experiencing Islamophobia, that means you need to stand up right now and say, "I do not believe in Hamas and I do not support Hamas. I do not support the ISIS ideology and mentality."
If you are storming airports and attacking Jewish communities and having riots in front of the Israeli embassies, you are sending a message that you are pro-radical Islam. When you shout, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," that means the eradication of the Jewish people.
When they shout, "Ya Yahud Khaybar Khaybar," and all of these radical Islamist terms that they use, fight the source, and show that you are against radical Islam. It's time right now. It's time for you to speak and say, "I do not support Hamas. I support the Palestinian people. I support their right to exist and to reach a two-state solution."
Stop saying that Hamas are freedom fighters. Stop excusing their behavior. Stop excusing the genocide that happened on October 7th. Don’t pretend that it didn't happen, and this was all AI images, and deny that there were 40 babies murdered.
Of course, you'll have Islamophobia if this is your approach. The American people and the world are watching your behavior. Everyone is scared of you right now because of your behavior when you are shouting and when you go on the streets wearing masks covering your face. Why do you need to cover your face? Show your face. If there is nothing criminal about you and you feel you are righteous, show your face.
Mr. Jekielek: In these authoritarian societies, there is always a group of people that are against the regime, some people that just go along, and some people who are enthusiastic supporters.
There are a variety of views around Gaza, for example. Some people will say, "The Palestinians are all Hamas." Other people will say, "Hamas has 30,000 fighters and they're actually oppressing the Palestinian people." There are also variations on that. Can you speak to this?
Ms. Idan: In the beginning, I thought that Hamas was oppressing the Gazans, and that there were people in Gaza who were against Hamas. I thought it may have been 50-50, as the research has shown. It's kind of strange, because what happened in Gaza with the bombing and all of that, Hamas is weakened right now.
This is the moment for the Gazans who are against Hamas, against the eradication of Israel, and who are against the ISIS mentality. This is their moment to have a revolution. You literally have the Israeli military on the ground and who can have your back. You are no longer isolated. If they are truly against Hamas, then this would be the moment to be against Hamas. But sadly, maybe the majority is not. Maybe the majority does support Hamas or wants Hamas around. This is just what I think. I'm not on the ground in Gaza, but this is what I am seeing.
Mr. Jekielek: These are complicated realities because there is always this indoctrination that is constantly happening. A lot of people in Gaza are dying now because of the Israeli attack and the ground offensive. That's not going to create a lot of sympathy for Israelis.
Ms. Idan: But that's the thing, this is war. Israel went to war. We've seen it over and over and it has happened in many countries. We've never seen an outrage about civilian casualties. This happened in Syria and Iraq under ISIS. The U.S. bombed many areas, and so did the Iraqi army and the Syrian army.
Bashar al-Assad killed maybe half-a-million of his own people in the war against ISIS, but we did not see any outrage about that. It is because they don't want to tell the world about what really happened. For example, when the Israeli Defense Forces [IDF] attacks Gaza, they throw out pamphlets. They tell the people, "Leave this area." They say on loudspeakers, "Leave this area." They always give them time to leave. But we've also listened to recordings of people from Gaza telling the IDF that Hamas would not let them leave. They were being held there.
It's a really sad situation. At the same time, I can see why Israel had to go to war. They cannot just keep quiet, and they cannot just allow Hamas to bomb them every week with thousands of rockets, because the world doesn't want to see Israel go to war with Gaza.
There is an outrage, but the outrage is misplaced. Instead of directing your outrage against Israel, who is trying to rid the world of Hamas and these evil people who are oppressing and hurting not only Israelis, but also Gazans, you need to direct your anger to Jordan and Egypt who are not allowing Gazans to come to their country. These are Arab Muslim countries. Why aren't you demanding for Hamas to step down?
When you keep showing solidarity for the people in Gaza and attacking Israel, that empowers Hamas. They know exactly what they are doing. They're using their civilians. There was even an interview in Qatar of the main leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, saying, "Yes, we will sacrifice our women. We'll sacrifice our children. We'll sacrifice our blood to hold Israel accountable." They don't care about killing their own people.
It's a very tough situation. But then again, the same thing has happened over and over in history. When there is war, there are casualties of war. People need to look at this logically, and they need to look at the greater good, which is to remove Hamas from Gaza.
This is not about the displacement of Gazans like many fake activists and many corrupted Arab news media are claiming. It’s like Al Jazeera saying, "This is Netanyahu's or Israel's attempt to remove the Gazans, so they can take over Gaza."
Israel was never interested in Gaza. They gave Gaza back in 2005. But because of these constant attacks and the danger that is growing, they cannot keep living in fear just to please the world, so they have to eradicate them.
Once Hamas is removed, then Gazans will go back to their homes. If Hamas doesn't exist in Gaza, it will be even easier to get humanitarian and financial aid, because then many countries and organizations will know their money is not going to radical Islamists. It's actually going to rebuild the city, and it's actually going to the Palestinians.
Mr. Jekielek: Sarah, this has been a fascinating conversation. Any final thoughts as we finish up?
Ms. Idan: Some people were warning about World War III. Yes, that is a possibility, but I don't think we should live in fear. It's time that we stand up for the Jewish people and for the minorities. It’s time that we stand up for people like me who are Muslims that are being threatened by radical Muslims. It's time to say enough of living in fear. We need to have the courage to fight those people, and that's what the American people and what any nation should focus on.
You can look at what's going on in Europe with all these riots, with people being masked and attacking government institutions. We just have to fight for the greater good. We have to preserve democracy. We have to preserve national security. This problem has been going on for many years, and we have been warning about it for many years. Activists like me have been warning about the danger of radical Islam, and now we're seeing it.
Mr. Jekielek: Sarah Idan, it's such a pleasure to have you on the show.
Ms. Idan: Thank you.
Mr. Jekielek: Thank you all for joining Sarah Idan and me on this episode of American Thought Leaders. I'm your host, Jan Jekielek.
🔴 WATCH the full episode (55 minutes) on Epoch Times: https://ept.ms/S1107SarahIdan
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