Being an Arab Muslim Woman in Trump's America feat. Nour Goda of the Between Arabs Project)

In this episode of the Becoming the Alpha Muslim podcast I welcome Nour Goda, founder and editor-in-chief of the Between Arabs Project, which is a website and podcast that brings together Arabs of all faiths and Muslims of all ethnicities to discuss social issues that plague our communities.

What I like about Nour's work and that of her colleagues at the Between Arabs Project, is its ability to take on difficult, polarizing conversations on relevant issues in the Muslim community in a constructive way.

Nour was gracious enough to invite me on her show soon after I launched Becoming the Alpha Muslim, and we recorded one of her best, if not the best, episodes.

So, it's high time I returned the favor.

Show Notes

• What are the essential differences between Western and Eastern Muslims?
  • The relationship between race and religious identity.
  • The myth of freedom of religion in secular societies.
• What's changed for Muslims living in Trump's America?
  • Trump as the continuation of endless imperialism and capitalist domination.
  • Better relationships with non-Muslims at the grass roots level.
  • The Islamophobia/victimhood narrative and hate-crime hoaxes by Muslims.
  • "Breaking stereotypes" and "pushing boundaries."
  •  Neo-orientalist fetishization of the Muslim woman.
• Trump's recent airstrike on Syria
  • The Muslim armchair quarterback - overnight PhDs in political science and foreign policy
  • Forget the politics for a second, are the innocent Muslims safe?
  • What's a more productive way for Muslims to channel their outrage, instead of pontificating on social media?
    • Intellectual empathy, the principle of charity, and husn adh-dhann.
    • Listen more than you speak, ask more questions than you give opinions.
    • "Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change that which is within themselves."
• WTF is Critical Race Theory?
  • How race, power, and law work to maintain "white supremacy."
  • The apex fallacy - do homeless white people have white supremacy too?
  • Is racial discrimination systemic or a reaction to life experiences?
  • Racial stereotypes - Ego Trip's Big Book of Racism.
• Why should Muslims support Black Lives Matter (BLM?)
  • Getting back to the agenda of civil rights.
  • Opportunistic Muslim support of BLM not based on an Islamic paradigm.
  • A branding problem - the linguistic meaning of "black lives matter" vs. "Black Lives Matter" the organization.
  • The BLM organization, funded and led by radical liberals, feminists, and homosexuals - "Herstory," promoting LGBTQ, destroying the nuclear family.
  • The communal obligation of Muslims to invite people to Islam.
  • Secularism is not and has never been "live and let live."
  • Black-on-Black crime - why doesn't BLM care about this?
  • The subversion of movements for social change and the illusion of political protest.
  • Hotep vs. BLM - Hotep is a movement of self-improvement, self-reliance, self-accountability, and refusing to be victims. Shoutout to Uncle Hotep, @handymayhem on Twitter.
  • The two-pronged strategy of working to improve yourself and working to improve the system.
  • "You ain't ready to revolt against s***" - Killer Mike.
• Older Muslim women finding it difficult to get married.
  • The marriage marketplace - men age like wine, women age like milk.
  • The Prophetic model of marriage.
  • How Feminism is destroying Muslim women's ability to find a husband.
  • The practical considerations of male-female attraction are human, not culture, and cannot be ignored.
  • Recipe for disaster - expecting a religious Muslim man in his 20s who has little-to-no experience with the opposite sex to marry an older woman.
  • How some Muslim women are "settling" just so they can have kids or marrying outside the faith.
  • How "I'm a strong, independent Muslim woman who don't need no man" is BS.
  • "The Wall" - the point of no-return for a Muslim woman.
  • What's wrong with marrying young? Don't make the halal so difficult that Muslims are forced into haram.
  • Marrying young needs enlightened, forward-thinking Muslim parents.
  • The current generation of Muslims is part of the global Islamic awakening.
• Nour Goda's own experience as a divorcee trying to get re-married.
  • Marrying up - Nabeel Azeez's experience is not the norm.
  • The late 20s and early 30s are the new mid-20s when it comes to marriage in our times - education and parental pressure causing the delay.
  • Men and women with a "past" finding a partner willing to give them a chance.
  • Muslim women as victims of the sexualization of women in American culture.
  • Religious, virgin Muslim men who have no game or social skills with the opposite gender being brow-beating by the Muslim community to marry women who have previous sexual experience.
  • The nature of the male-female dynamic - how women's nature to let men lead has been beaten out of them by Feminism.
  • She wants to be your wife, not your mother - seduction, passion, romance, etc.
  • Men are not taught how to be men anymore - one of the motivations behind Becoming the Alpha Muslim.
  • Criticizing Feminism does not mean we are against women's rights.
  • Feminism has serious problems with respect to how it views men and masculinity.
  • Masculinity is attractive and should be appreciated.
  • P***y-whipped Muslim husbands are not a good look.
  • An Alpha woman is a beta wife with the right man.
  • Manosphere/Red-pill dating/relationship advice has a lot of overlap with Islam - shoutout to Pat Stedman, friend of Becoming the Alpha Muslim.
• The Between Arab Project's upcoming work.
  • Live event at Connecticut College on April 14th, 2017 - details here.
  • Short hiatus from publishing new content for the past 4-5 months because of Nour's work commitments.
  • More content will be published on the Between Arabs Youtube channel - subscribe here.
• How Feminism enslaves, not liberates, women.
  • Nour has written about this - Did Western.
  • How work-life balance is important for women and stay-at-home moms are looked down on.
  • How Feminism and Capitalism work hand-in-hand - the Corporate Overlords can't have 50% of the population not consuming.
  • The paradox of female happiness - the more liberation and equality women get, the more miserable they become.
  • One-in-four women have mental health issues and are on antidepressants.
  • Feminism encourages women to act against their fitrah (natural disposition.)
  • Allah prescribed different roles and responsibilities for men and women because as our Creator, He knows best how we ought to live so we can be happy.
• Becoming the Alpha Muslim is not a misogynist website
  • Encouragement and support from female readers who, like Nour, have noticed the dysfunctional gender dynamics being promoted among Western Muslim communities.
  • This extended episode is a gift to my female readers, to thank them for their support.
• On Western Muslims attempting to silence others and prevent difficult, yet necessary, conversations from happening.
  • How Nour/Between Arabs Project and the Mad Mamluks podcast take criticism from the community for associating with me.
  • On intellectual honesty, open discussion, exposing yourselves to ideas you disagree with or find offensive, and the spiritual growth that happens as a result.
  • Nour's journey through being an atheist and finding her way back to Islam, and how her faith is much stronger than it ever was. Related reading: Interview with an Ex-ex-Muslim.

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