Welcome to carry the fire a podcast where we explore the big questions of life through the lens of the good the true and the Beautiful. I'm your host Dustin Kensrue and my hope is that through these conversations with people of diverse and Divergent backgrounds and beliefs. We can Glimpse the world in new through each other's unique perspectives. And to run for office it literally requires you to quit everything you're doing and this pays a whopping 18 thousand dollars a year. Don't talk about serving God and tell you can fulfill your hungry neighbors stomach until you can help the homeless guy on the street and tell you can help the refugee or the prisoner or the orphan. Welcome everyone to episode 3 of the carry the fire podcast. I wanted to preface this episode by saying that everyone is welcome here regardless of your political associations, I as well as many of the guests on the show are going to have opinions and beliefs about ways that we can do life together better and sometimes those opinions will have political ramifications, but the show is not and I am not tied unthinkingly to any particular party as much as I might lean more blue on a number of issues. It doesn't mean that I want to close down discussion with someone. Might lean red for their own reasons. I believe that much of what is missing in the political discourse in our country at the moment is serious and civil engagement about the issues that actually matter to us all so with that disclaimer out of the way. I'm actually really excited that our guest today is a political candidate instantly one who is running for office as a democrat in the Virginia state senate race qasim Rashid is an author attorney and human rights activist. He is a Muslim of a branch of Islam that you might not have heard of before and as a podcast with a friend where one of their goals is to remind us all all that Muslims Christians and Jews used to get along a lot better than we seem to lately on top of that lofty goal the podcast also contains a gratuitous amount of dad jokes overall qasim is a big believer in the power of dialogue between different kinds of people as a means of bringing a better and more loving world into existence which makes it a perfect fit for this show. All right, let's get into the conversation. I grew up in kind of Evangelical Christian world and pluralism was a little bit of a dirty word. I feel like in that that environment it end up being used to mean some sort of nihilistic hedonistic sort of relativism. What it actually means is a lively and a living engagement with those who hold different beliefs than you and I see you as someone who engages in a robust pluralism. Do you find that term helpful? Do you prefer to talk about with different language? And and why do you feel that so important? Sure. I mean, I think that you have to meet people where they are to help them understand where you are and you know what the right word to do that as puller ilysm for other. The right word is fairness. I'll speak to I'll speak to folks who are identified as very strongly Evangelical Christian and we'll talk about something that they find super controversial like lgbtq equality. It often look I'm not going to dictate to you what your faith tells you. That's not my place. That's that's between you and your understanding of God more power to you. But what I will say is that we live in a world where we have to interact with one another. Yeah, we have to live together on some local. So as a basic fundamental human fairness element goes don't you agree that from one should be denied a job or denied equal housing or equal education just because they're they identify as lgbtq like it. From a human fairness standpoint. What do you find objectionable about that and more often than not the answer is like well, I never looked at it that way that actually makes pretty good sense. But that's where I approach a lot of these conversations where people have a discomfort with those who are different than them. I'm not asking you to change who who you are what your religion teaches you but what I am asking you to do is recognize that human dignity and think about whether if human dignity itself is offensive to you the he's really re-evaluate. Wait what your religion is teaching you because I don't know of any religion that denies people human dignity or teaches you to hate people teaches you to look down or discriminate against people that doesn't make any sense to me. So II try to find Avenues where we can have these conversations and it can be difficult. Right? Because when you're a Muslim when you're an immigrant when you're a person of color people have a lot of assumptions about you and they'll make statements out of ignorance. I don't consider ignorant itself necessarily. And evil thing gets when it's compounded with arrogance or with a sense of entitlement of refusing to learn. That's when it becomes dangerous, right? I'm ignorant to a lot of things and I know I've said things to people that they found hurtful but what I always try to remember is that if somebody says to me, hey that's hurtful then it's not my job to tell them why they shouldn't be hurt. Yeah, it might have to understand their perspective and and build from that and apologize and build. From that so that's kind of what I ask of people that ask me whatever you want share with you. Whatever your perspective is. I'll share mine and let's assume positive intent and move forward and and that doesn't mean we agree on anything but it does mean that we recognize each other better and find ways to find Common Ground going forward through other than simply focusing on where we disagree recognize the far greater platforms that we have that we do agree upon and try Try to build a friendship based on that and and for me, it's been a really successful method going forward you start off your book talk to me with a story of your parents bringing you to an Interfaith event kind of a dialogue it. Was that something common when you were kid is was that was that a big value that your parents were installing you? Yeah, and it's something that we've continued with our kids today. My wife was invited to speak at a church a few weeks ago and my my 10 year old son went with and he also spoke and We've taken her kids to synagogues and temples and we want them to understand firsthand the beauty of humanity the diversity of humanity. My parents are teachers the first lesson that I can remember them teaching us was that your responsibility is to serve God and to serve humanity and of these to the greater responsibility is service you Humanity because until and unless you serve Humanity without discrimination without judgment without her. Action, then you can't possibly serve God so don't talk about serving God and tell you can fulfill your hungry neighbors stomach until you can help the homeless guy on the street and tell you can help the refugee or the prisoner or the orphan. These are the kinds of approaches that I take to public service that that religion I think is important for for people if they want to embrace it and let them let that religion would be between them and their understanding of the Creator but the only time religion is valuable to a community is when it exemplifies behavior and a person to serve that community and that service can't have strings attached. It can't be restricted to only your own tribe. It must be for all Humanity without any Asterix next to it kid. So it's a for me, you know, our parents didn't just want us to be exposed to our own faith community. They wanted us to be exposed to all of humanity and that's why Took us to churches and synagogues and goods Waters and let us experience that firsthand because there's no substitute for experiential learning and we're trying to pass that same value on to our children as well. We have three beautiful children. And and that's what I bring to the way I do Public Service as well. I mean, I've said it I'm not running for office or represent Democrats running for office to represent. My neighbor's the people of Virginia. And if and hopefully when I'm elected, I have zero ambition of turning somebody away just because they disagree with me or they have a different world use and I have that doesn't mean that I'm going to agree with everything but it does mean I will equally serve my entire Community because that's I feel like that's my my calling that my purpose that's really beautiful about what your parents were saying about serving. I've been really blessed to read from some different Sufi perspectives recently and it seems like a big idea in that school of thought it would be an idea tied to that where Love of God and love of each other are conflated as one love really that love of God is love of each other of humanity. I thought that was beautiful. There's a great quote by the fourth caliph of my faith community the ahmadiyya Muslim Community where he says that if you love God, you must love the creation. If you love The Artist, you must love his art when you can't profess to love an artist and say well hip-hop artist trash, but I love the artist. It's an inherent. Have you can't say I love this musician but his music is terrible, especially when that is the only way you know them, right? Right, right exactly exactly it so for people who profess to say that they love God but then says, you know God hates acts like I'm not sure who you think God is but you may have missed the mark on that one because that and so again for you know for me, I'm a person of faith. I have strong faith at strong conviction that pray 5 times a day at least as Muslims. We all do my It's fear is that I'll Stand before the almighty one day and look at the way. I live my life and saw that I neglected to help those who are in need due to arrogance or Pride for me a life well-lived is to not to get to e so terracor dramatic, but for me a life well-lived is knowing that I can stand before the almighty and say hey I had countless flaws. There's no doubt about it. But the one thing that I can say with complete honesty is that I gave everything I possibly We could to serve Humanity because that's that's that's the only way I know how to live and so that I don't want to wait to start doing that. I want out. I want to live my life like that my parents, you know, Infuse that in my siblings and I and and I'm grateful for the opportunity to infuse them to my kids and continue to live by that example as best as I can. Despite my many many. Koalas. Most people I think are are some of familiar that there are multiple branches in Islam Sunni Shiite, but I think People probably are not familiar with the ahmadiyya community. I definitely wasn't until I started following your work. Could you just maybe speak a little bit to the uniqueness of your community? Absolutely. The ahmadiyya Muslim Community is a community of Muslims established by a man named Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in 1889 and Theological different that we have with most Muslim communities that there's a Belief among the Orthodoxy that Jesus Christ will physically descend in the latter days and bring about some type of you know end time scenario. Our belief is that this man Ahmad was that spiritual return in that he came to establish a community based on this message of love of God and Love of All Humanity our communities United worldwide where I think in 212 countries are actually the oldest American Muslim organization as well established here in 1920 the next year. We'll get a hundred year anniversary and we're United. Quite under a spiritual caliph and the scallop is a spiritual guide what might shock a lot of people is that this Islamic spiritual caliphate has been at the Forefront of humanitarian service for over a century. It's both Citrus Lee condemns mixing religion and state and seeks a complete separation of religion and state advocates for secular governance Universal human rights will enjoy gender inequality. Racial Justice economic Justice and it's these values that Again had been kind of infused in me going up that this is my purpose to live a life that exemplifies fairness and justice for all Humanity our communities heavily persecuted in many Muslim majority countries and in part it's because of that persecution that my family migrated to the United States in the 1980s. Also a reason why I'm grateful to my adopted country the United States and why as my home why might the home of my children the only home I've ever known and why just you know, promise what I what I mean? Can be it's so important to me because I was born a country that made a promise of religious freedom but has violated its own trust for me. This is an opportunity to ensure here that we maintain these principles of religious freedom. Racial Justice economic Justice. And so the the ahmadiyya Muslim Community here in the US has again been at the Forefront of humanitarian Aid of serving our communities of being involved and I want to be careful because even though I'm running at the Democrat the community itself as a political, you know, we work with Lincoln's and Democrats and independents and photo so forth but that's that's just about community. Of course, if people want to find out more they can reach out to me, but the the bottom line is that our our goal remains to stay focused on this element of service to humanity and that's kind of first and foremost. It's beautiful. You have your own podcast recites Islam. I've been enjoying listening to that and it's you and a friend kind of just going through the Early life of the Muslim Community I started in I don't somewhere in the second season and I finish now I got to go back but what's like the goal behind what you're doing? Just trying to provide a fresh look. Yeah. So the idea is to kind of create something accessible for folks to kind of understand the story of obvious LOM from the beginning to understand firsthand the beautiful alliances that Muslims Jews and Christians had early on receive. So much religious discrimination and infighting between people of these three abrahamic Faith. It's a reminder that at the onset there was actually a great deal of compassion and unity between these two paid communities. It's a reminder of hey, maybe we can go back to that. Maybe we can revive what our ancestors mutually built together and we try to do it in a narrative format. So it's not like academic heavy. We try to throw in some dad jokes and and keep it light-hearted and fun little ordering that we use. A lot of lower the ring references exactly and we have a good time with that. It's a childhood friend of mine Salon but he's a he's a poverty lawyer. See you work with people from lower income communities to make sure they have food access we've done the first two seasons has been on Hiatus because of his campaign. So maybe we'll take up season 3 once we get done with this campaign, but I'm glad you've been listening to it. I'm glad you enjoy it. Yeah, it's great. I was aware of some of those connections or them, but it's been cool to see it in that narrative form. I think I think it's something that the people are generally fairly unaware of I think at least in in the states. I mean especially ideas like was constitution of Medina or you might say the wrong. Yeah. Yeah the customer some of the unit so I'm very very early on you have in Medina. This constitution said fourth that's protecting people of different faiths. I mean even setting up for non-muslims you can have your own courts and so that you're not under the same kind of lot like It seems very Progressive looking back. I'm like, wow. Well, how did we go wrong from this on every side of it? Right? Like sure. Yeah. I mean, it's 1200 years before the US Constitution that the constitution of Medina also known as the charter of Medina was a secular Constitution that guaranteed religious freedom and gender equality and economic Justice. I look at with the majority Nations like Saudi Arabia that are theocracy. And I asked their Defenders. What are you basing this off of there? There's literally nothing in the Quran that validates, you know Theocratic Rule and you're you're speaking in ignorance and arrogance of the very dangerous combination, but we see from the life of prophet Muhammad peace be upon him is when he was a de facto ruler of Medina when he was a head of state. He didn't enforce religion. He protected religious freedom. He didn't enforce, you know, fear mongering from the right is your Sharia law coming you didn't force that he ensured that that Jewish citizens had equality and representation and autonomy both in terms of their religious freedom that economic freedom and in our justice system, and this is I think the part of the lessons that I was fortunate to learn growing up based on history and one of the reasons why we started the podcaster to kind of convey that in a way that was accessible and so for those wondering, you know, No need to have any prior knowledge of what Islam is there isn't because we really try to break it down in a way that you could be a novice coming to the conversation and feel feel included in the conversations. We do try to make sure it is accessible for people all around there is something really unique about that Foundation of Islam that the founder of the religion also was in a position of leadership. Like it didn't build later like whereas like With Christianity Jesus was never in any kind of position of leadership. And then so we have extensive disagreements about what any kind of leadership looks like based on that. But you have this example of like hey, this is this is what I'm doing and so frustrating that still doesn't translate to like, hey look back at where we were it's one of those things where you know, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. Yeah, and so we have in your life of prophet Muhammad. Peace be upon him. And he's called The Walking Quran. He's called the Exemplar because he lived such a unique and well documented and well recorded life that we have every aspect of it and he was he was born after his father had already died. His mother died when he was 6 so by the age of six, he was an orphan his grandfather then took care of him and who died when he was eight years old and so by the age of 8, he had already suffered three, very traumatic loss of loved ones his uncle raised him. He was unlettered. He never learned how to read or write but he is established such an amazing reputation of being trustworthy and truthful his literal nickname was I mean that the the truth that was his nickname mean. I know when I was 15 or 16 people called me a lot of things but truth is not one of them how many teams can make that claim and and we have in his life, you know, he lived in poverty. He was a soldier. He was a general he was you know, a prophet he was philosopher theologian. Scholar and he was a husband. He was a father. You know, he he had children who died in the infancy had children who died in their adulthood and so he lived all these experiences that The Human Condition goes through he presents to us an example of how to behave in these situations and for me in the Contemporary age. Nowhere. Is that more does that resonate more than when you read his Farewell Address his last sermon that he gave before he died. Where he established this principle of economic Justice he condemned usury and the exploitation of the poor. He told men that women are your committed Partners, you know that and that's that word partner is such a key component here because when you're a partner with somebody you're an equal to them if it women I he's recognized the misogyny, but then the patriarchy that men are prone to and he spoke to men that women are you're committed Partners you have rights over women, but they have rights over you as well and And for me, it's such a powerful explanation of the symbiotic relationship that must exist. So that a black is no better than a white nor is the white better than it black. And Arab is no better than a non-arab nor is a non-arab better than an Arab you all equal except in your ability to serve humanity. And so he again he distinguished at the most noble and righteous of you is not defined by your class or your color or your or your Creed but by How you serve humanity and it's just like it's just this amazing summary of a philosophy of life that that if you if you look at how the Muslim empire expanded at the after that it was really due to a reflection of these kinds of values if that message that I hope more people have the opportunity to look into and I think that if they do they'll realize that there's actually a lot more more similarities than differences than other than what they've been led to believe. Yeah. Yeah. Are you doing law stuff right now as well? Yeah, I mean I still have some legal clients. I mean it's an interesting thing that I've learned about running for office in that there's a lot of wealth privilege involved in it and what I mean by that is you would need to have a lot of money they're saved up or a means of self sustainment while you're running for office because guess what your student loan bills don't go away. Your mortgage doesn't go away your car now, it doesn't go away. Yeah, and it's Interesting phenomenon, I'm fortunate to have support from from family for my wife to have a job where I don't have a nine-to-five work day, but it made me realize that so often the people that are running for office aren't the ones who are representative of the working class Americans because to be a working class American and to run for office it Ritter. It requires you to quit everything you're doing on the hope that you might have a chance to win the seat. And and this is a seat. By the way, the state senate seat paid a whopping 18 thousand dollars a year. So not exactly something you can live off of either. So it's a really interesting concept and a lot of Independents. It's no accident that much of the legislature are people who are independently wealthy and that's what allowed them to run and I think that's problematic that needs to be a recovery. Raishin of how we approach this. Yeah, that's fascinating. So clearly you're not going to there's not going to be anyone who's a career politician in that sense at the state level there. But then you have people who are career politicians at a federal level, which has its own problems. I think well, actually, you know, you you actually have plenty of career politicians at the state level because it is a part-time legislature. It's a you have people that have been office for 30 40 years, you know, 15 20 years it brings up another interesting. Question if you're working at the part-time Senator part-time delegate then what kind of conflict does that create with your day job. Let's take my opponent for example, and you know as lawyers, we're taught that judges are required to recuse themselves from a case, even if there's that perception of a conflict of interest not a snotty of that actually is one. But even if there's a perception of a conflict of interest the Integrity should be such that it isn't even a questionable. Well, you have a situation Mission where you have a politician who's heavily funded by developers to build to you know, build more houses build more businesses, which sounds all well and good until you also realize that infrastructure is out of control roads are being overwhelmed the the sewage system is being overwhelmed and you just have the developers funding these politicians to build to get approval to build. Build build build build well, but then you add another wrinkle to it. And you say well who are the lawyers representing these developers in the private sector and it turns out that if the same politician in his day job. So, you know, his part-time job is to be the legislature who passes legislation to help developers and they find it campaign and in his day job is to be the lawyer who represents them in contract negotiations to help them win their contracts. So if Over there were the perceived or real conflict of interest this was it but unfortunately this is kind of what's become the status quo and for me that's just an incredibly frustrating and aggravating reality because the people that went out are the wealthy the wealthy developers the wealthy politicians and the people who lose out are the working class Americans who have a politician who is vested in the success of developers not in the quality of life. Life of working class families and that's really what the core of my message that we need to have public servants who represent the public not corporations. Yeah, and to that end you are not taking money from corporate donors. Correct? Not a single penny of VPAP the Virginia Public Access Project is put out a great report a couple of weeks ago the tabulated all the funds that candidates in Virginia have accumulated this year in 2019. Breaks it down by where the money coming from beautifully and the two things that came out of that that we're really proud of is that 50% of our donations of come from people giving a hundred bucks or less. Nobody else in the Senate is even close to a second place is 25% So the majority of our money significant majority of our money from small-dollar donors and II really cool thing that came out of that is that $0 zero dollars have come from Agra corporations for us from businesses in general info. Transparency will accept donations from small businesses. We're talking people's 5 10 15 20 employees. Yeah, because we want to represent small businesses. We want to make sure that they Thrive but we have zero interest in representing the Amazon. They're the Walmarts of the world. They already have billions and billions of dollars and lobbyists representing them. We don't need to represent them. We need to make sure that we are fighting for Working Class People and that's what's exciting for us that we've been able to uphold that promise without even the Perception of a conflict and and I hope people see that and I think they are seeing that and that's why we're getting so much support. That's very cool. What was the Tipping Point for you to want to get into this race? You have a good friend of mine. He's actually a communications director as you've conned who I think it's his quote was attributed to him cause that's where I heard it from where he says and if it's not his quote, I apologize to vote from stealing it from and I'll give credit when I find out but he said it takes years of all to become an overnight success and it's a for me I've been focused on recognizing that until and unless we tell our own story. Somebody else will tell it for us and they'll tell it to their liking not to the reality of the situation. You know, I was I'm an immigrant to this country, you know came from came from Pakistan. We immigrated here 32 years ago. New country new language new culture new environment new language new school system. I mean a new world literally in every sense of the word. My parents are teachers. They weren't about to let us take a back seat. They push us to be involved to be engaged and we did and we have been and despite that there's been struggle. You know, I I remember growing up living in Section 8 housing requiring snap and tanif to make sure we can make ends meet I've been working since I was 15 years old my first job where the union job at a grocery store in After High School. I'd have cross country and track practice get home by 6:00 and then I go to the grocery store and work till 10 11 o'clock at night and then walk home and just had to do it because we needed to make ends meet and even at that time it was one of those things in my mind that how are we the wealthiest country in the world but people don't have enough to eat. It doesn't make any sense to me. I didn't know how to solve it or how to address it. I just knew something was wrong. And then I was 19 when 9/11 happened and suddenly, you know the country that citizen of that I adored and loved and my brother serving of the US Marine suddenly. There's a question of is there a conflict between my faith and my nation and for me there's never a conflict. I mean we felt as American as anyone and and again to see the demonization of people of color of Mars less communities of Muslims of Hindus of six of Arab Christians of anyone perceived to be No, the other left a deep Mark in my mind and it was then that I began to realize that I need to play a more active role in my community in my society and long story short after getting married a couple years later. My wife encouraged me to go to law school. And that's when I began to really feel like I was more empowered to make a difference and I became an advocate and I've been an advocate for women's rights racial Justice economic Justice and it occurred to me in the early. Thousands that there may be a day that I run for office. I don't know when that day is or what that you looks like or whether it'll ever happen. But let me live my life as someone who's dedicated to the service of humanity and because that's where my passion is and if the opportunity should arrive then I'll go after it and for me the Tipping Point finally to answer your question was when the Equal Rights Amendment wasn't ratified in my house of delegate and my state senators both had voted against it and given my experience in my my work for the last A kid supporting women who are survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence and being an advocate for women in that extremely horrible situation recognizing that advocacy goes far but not far enough. We need actual policy changes and how we how we run this country. And so that's where I threw my hat in the ring. It's become a joke, but it's completely true. Once the ERA with the ratified. I did what I think every self-respecting man would do and then I decide I went to my wife and I asked her permission to run for office. And and my Aisha is amazing. She she said yeah, this is where your heart is. This is where you need to be and so we made the jump and that's what we've been doing the last year close to the last year now and it's been an amazing ride in it's been everything. I'd hoped it would be and more because it's allowed me to really take my ideas on advocacy Khan supporting, you know women Working Families. Black communities and put them into practice and the response has just been overwhelmingly positive and I'm really excited about what we can accomplish under the on Election Day this year. We're caught up in this two party system. It's often with a lot of vicious and unthinking partisanship. But in the midst that you've been sharing a lot of stories of people who have traditionally only voted Republican, but I've decided to vote for you in the upcoming election. What do you what do you attribute that to I think that it comes He's down to restoring Civility and decency in our discourse. There's been a lack of that for a long time and people want to attribute it to the current occupant of the White House, but I think it goes far far before that and it comes from a Detachment but a number of things right there's you can call the rise of the internet where people are just behind computer screen all the time. You don't actually engage and interact you could call it hyper partisanship of a republic of the II actually did it mostly to economic Injustice has I think racism has an element to it. I think then a phobia besides he has an element to it. But I think it's fundamentally the underlying core of all these cancers is economic Injustice right now. We'll open a quality is worse in America than it was right before the Great Depression 90 years ago the canyon between the Haves and the Have Nots is only ever increasing and when you study how extremist groups what does the KKK whether it's Isis? Us how they recruit is they look at places that are economically depressed or economically struggling and they go to what should be middle class people there and say hey you're suffering because that marginalized community over there. They're taking your job. They're taking your opportunity and it's all nonsense. It's trash but it becomes a convenient scapegoat and really when you study how Isis recruits his people and how the KKK or neo-nazis recruit their people. It's like a carbon copy of one another and so My message our message for our campaign has been that this is actually more of a rich versus poor debate rather than Democrat versus Republican debate and the data backs it up. I'll give you some really hard-hitting data on this but the backs that up and why it's been so effective 74% of Virginians want to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, Virginia is now 74 percent Democrat. Yeah. These are Republicans siding with Democrats. Are we Need to raise the minimum wage 76% of Virginia's want to expand health care and and believe in universal healthcare 76% 83% want to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment 91% want Common Sense gun reform you would be a fool to believe that these represent Democrats Envision. These are Democrats and Republicans working together. And and so our message has really focused heavily on this is the fight of Our Lives to make sure that people have basic human dignity people have a place to live that is Affordable people have decent food to eat people have a living wage. I mean, it is immoral and offensive to me that Republicans leadership not Republicans the Republican leadership that selected GOP is forcing. The poverty wage is 725 an hour knowing full. Well knowing full. Well that even a married couple who are both working full-time and earning a minimum wage. Still cannot afford a basic apartment in a single city or town anywhere in Virginia and yet they want to force the poverty wage at 7:25. And I mean they are forcing people to live in poverty at the expense of millionaires and billionaires and this is a conversation that I've had repeatedly thousands of times with Democrats and Republicans. And what's really exciting to me is Republican constituents conservative constituents realize that their enemy. Is not immigrants not people of colors not women. It's not people living for more, you know Asylum here it is this idea that we need to give more tax breaks to the wealthy and demand more accountability of the of the poor. You know, dr. King said it best America had socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor and that's the fundamental problem that we need to fight against. I think that's why we're having so much success in attracting. Licking some conservatives to our campaign people have been sold this this world where the super-rich somehow don't need to pay their fair share. I don't like how do you how does that keep being sold to poor people because it seems to have been effective for a long time. It's a combination of things. I mean one one is a southern strategy the idea that if you could convince the poorest the white that they're still better than then, you know, black and brown people they'll both For you every single time we know this is a real strategy at mixing use and that has been used by Reagan since then and it's been unfortunately perpetuated through out. That's one part of it. The other part of it is you have a systemic approach over decades convincing people of this over decades the point where they're voting against their own self-interest right now. The president wants to cut snap antenna for 3.1 million Americans notwithstanding the last year 14. Households in America didn't have enough to eat. He wants to cut food stamps for 3.1 million more Americans and the lion share. Those people are lower income whites in Red country who voted for Trump. So they're fundamentally cutting out their own base, but they don't care because they've convinced them of this idea this myth that if they give tax cuts to billionaires somehow the money will trickle down to them when I talk to considered of especially at the door and they say well you're just trying And to force this liberal socialist tax policy on to us. I tell them well, actually, here's what I'm trying to do and tell me if you disagree between 1940 and 1970 America has a strongest growth of middle class in our nation's history. And this is predominantly under Republican leadership for president under Republican presidents. We had a marginal tax rate of up to 90 91 percent. And in the 1950s and 60s the middle class represented 65 percent of the u.s. Population right now, since Reaganomics came into effect and we've been slashing the upper the wealthy tax rate every single presidential cycle and / it again massively under this truck president. Now that middle class that was 65% is now down to 40% and it's only getting worse if the minimum wage From the 1960s that increase with the cost of living it wouldn't be 725 an hour right now. It would be between 25 and 30 dollars an hour right now. She's there's a reason why our parents and grandparents could afford a house or afford an apartment on a single full time income 50 years ago and why it's laughable now. Yeah to do such do such a thing. So, you know when you when you look at the systemic propaganda being espoused that we need Need to grow the economy by cutting taxes for billionaires. It is a well-funded propaganda machine because these billionaires are investing in their own ability to keep their own money. If I have to spend a million dollars in marketing to keep a hundred million dollars. I'll do it if I know that if I can just convince them to not vote against me the billionaire but vote against each other. Yeah, I'll do it. This is this is what these billionaires are thinking and so our responsibility the only way we're going to get out of it and My worldview is stop taking money from these Mega corporations who are only invested in their own profit and bottom line if start investing in candidates who are funded exclusively by the American people and I've said this a thousand times on the campaign Trail, I'll keep saying it whoever fund the candidate when he's running for office is who the candidate will find when he's in office. If a corporation is funding a candidate that Canada is going to fund the corporation. Your people are funding the candidate the candidate will find people and that's that's the approach. That we have to take going forward. Yeah. I wanted to touch back on the idea of Sufism which is essentially a it's not one branch in Islam. But more of a school of thought is that how you put it? Yeah. Yeah look like yeah. It's like a mysticism philosophy that mean it actually existed every Faith tradition. Look do you like the mystics right? Yeah, as long as they're known as the sufis, but yeah, absolutely. So do you have much interaction with Sufi writers and and writings as or practices sure. So I mean, I think that a lot of it has I mean there's the the famous Sufi Saints right? Like I've been under be and you're all being roomy and and folks like that and so there's really no like Canon of that right? Yeah, but there's a different Scholars and philosophers of the you you read up on and learn about growing up and the idea in some sense being that there's in any mystical tradition that you you have. Access to God directly that God is near to you. Yeah, are there any contemplatively practices that you engage in or beside? I guess you are telling you you're praying five times a day. Well, that's that's actually I mean it's ingrained in the Islamic core right the in the Quran in the in Chapter 2 of the Quran. God said that and when my servants ask the about me tell them that I'm here and listen to the prayer of the one who cries before me so that he may be teased. Be guided and so when when people ask me, you know prove to me God exists and it's like I can bring like a like a baseball glove tears God my response to them is you actually don't need me to prove to you. God exists. God promised in the Quran. It is his responsibility to respond to those who reach out to him and and the example given to us by The Prophet by the prophet Muhammad the prophet Jesus prophet. Moses peace be upon all of them. It's something very is worth reflecting over that they each reach communion with the Divine when they had probably Muhammad was in the cave of Hira for years on end in reflection and meditation contemplation seeking the Divine and God revealed himself Jesus in the desert for 40 days. And God revealed himself to Moses was in the mount and Mount Sinai for 40 days and God revealed himself. And so there's this process that's refinement the spiritual refinement. Of a tuning yourself with the Divine of reaching out to him pursuing him and then God of his grace and will respond in a way that matters to you in a way that is understandable. And the best analogy I can give is is this is how we live every aspect of our life already if you want to be a physician simply saying, okay. I'm a doctor now doesn't actually make you a doctor. You don't get to walk into a hospital one day and say step aside. I'm going to deliver this, baby. Baby, right. I mean you go to medical school you go to college and then medical school and residency then Fellowship, it takes years and years and years with the chance that you might make it through. It actually become a position you could fail, you know, you could go through the first six years of high school and college and in former years of medical school and then, you know, three years of a residency and then fail in the fellowship not get your license and you still won't be a physician despite all the effort but that's not to say that all those years were wasted. It means you can still try and get that, you know after all. Was yours become a physician and pursuing God as if the exact same way and so that's where the Sufi mentality take it a bit further in that if you truly want to find God then it comes down to pursuing It With all sincerity just like you can't slack off in med school and expect to be successful in law school expect to be successful. You can't, you know, half-heartedly pursue God you have to be all in and I think that's what the stumbling block a lot of people have is that well, I have no proof he exists so I'm not going to been pursuing. Do it like well, that's fine. That's of course your prerogative. But if you want to know how to know God exists, then you have the ability to pursue him, but that's still a decision that you need to make and so for me finally getting to your question the Contemporary contemplative ways is yes, of course praying on a regular basis five times a day and for me it's cathartic on a lot of levels because as hectic as life is as crazy as it is to take 15 minutes aside for 10 minutes aside. Leave the phone turn off the computer and just reflect and focus on my needs my concerns and have that connection with the almighty it powerful. It's it's cathartic and it's also reaffirming its we are showing there's a concept in Islam that that also exists in Christianity and Judaism of God Consciousness in the Arabic word is taqwa, you know, a fear of God in the sense that you know this accountability of God. But you should be God conscious and everything you do in the sense that our responsibility given to us by God. There's a serve Humanity. So every action you take you are God conscious that does this action actually serve Humanity or am I usurping the rights of humanity? Because if I'm you something that I took Humanity I will I will be accountable to God for this. I won't have to answer for this as well. And so the praying five times a day keeps you guys conscious. It keeps you accountable that my responsibility must be the third Humanity. And if I if I falter from that I have to be a come to be speaking to God and a few minutes formally at a better a better view reflective and contemplative know what I'm doing. So those exercises exist and then of course, you know maintaining company with people who are focused on these things is crucial The Company You Keep is absolutely crucial starting the Quran studying the Bible the Torah is crucial because these are all think messages and abilities to connect with the Divine, but for me, honestly the greatest worship for me. This is going to sound like a broken record, but unquestionably for me. The greatest worship is finding ways to make the lives of those around me better to end suffering to the to feed the hungry to clothe the naked and to shelter the homeless vets for me the greatest worship and that's what I aspire to to focus on as much as I possibly can. That's beautiful. I'm curious what ways you best or most readily perceive and experience Beauty in the world. That's one of the things that one of the lenses we can. To look through on the show and I think it's important in a sense because the beautiful in some way it's not it's not accomplishing something but it but it's something that that can be enjoyed on its own like for itself for me. I run and I love running at night under the stars because for me it's it's a combination of just being completely free and disconnected from the world. I don't I don't take my phone with me. I don't have a smartwatch. I have a very basic running watch that. I just picked up in the habitat the young kid and now, you know the nearing 40 and still running on a regular basis, but rain and running under the stars and just looking at the stars in recognizing that these two stars that look like a touching are actually trillions and trillions of miles apart. There's something that's on spying about it and then and then having the knowledge that other than look up at the night sky of the Milky Way galaxy of seeing about 1% of the entire galaxy and and the knowledge that we're in a cluster of galaxies and that there are about a quarter billion stars in our galaxy and that there's about you know, by some estimates that trillion galaxies out there each with up to a trillion dollars and and just kind of trying to grasp the magnitude of creation there and knowing that in all that The creator has promised that if you reach out to him, he will respond. It's in a way all inspiring but also in a way depressing because there's so much out there that we've been relegated to this tiny Speck of dust, right? You know, we you know, we're not in the Star Trek universe where we can go and explore the Galaxy or the you know, the next are over what not. There's a verse in the Quran where God says that reflect. Over the creation of the heavens and earth. Do you see any flaw reflect again and notice how the universe is in complete balance? Look again. You see any qua look yet again in your eyes will only come back fatigue finding no flaw or imbalance better. And so, you know, it just makes you wonder like that this all this universe is out there. All this creation is out there and then in diverse end that reflect that this was not created in vain for that. This is not I accept that there's a purpose behind it and our mission should you choose to accept but to quote Mission Impossible is how do we do we pursue it or not. Do we go after it or not? And that's part of the challenge that I find pretty awe-inspiring. So, I don't know if that answered your question, but that's kind of what makes me kind of contemplative and reflect upon these things now, that's great whenever I go somewhere that's just desolate and actually it Mabel to see everything. I won. I'm bummed that I can't do it every night. But but to I'm bummed that that I feel like if everyone could see that every night without all the lights like I think it would change like I think it changed the way that we live like we're so we're kind of veiled from it so often and it's absolutely mind-boggling as you think about your place in in space it ceases to be just the sky that point and you and you have this sense of oh, I am out here among all of these other stars all of these other things. I'm part of this huge thing helps me connect to the things right next to me too, because it speaks to that interconnectivity. Yeah, I think that that's a great answer. I just want to thank you again for for coming on. I wanted to promote all your things at Casa murshid on Twitter qas. I am are a s hid got the talk to me book talking about a lot of stuff that I might just this idea of how we dialogue with each other got re-site Islam. Your podcast which is great because you are again only raising money from small businesses and individuals where can people go to donate if they want to support your run. I'd appreciate that amassed a just go to our website costume Rashid.com and just click on the Donate button. And yeah grateful for every bit, you know, we're really proud of the fact that we are only focused on fundraising for more neighbors and you guys have come through beautifully every single time and I have no doubt that I will continue to fight for these basic human rights and human dignity that we all deserve so so grateful for every bit of support the people can offer for those of you who don't live in Virginia. I don't either but I do think if you believe in these ideas the Customs been talking about at it's worth giving to make progress towards the kind of world where everyone can support themselves can make a living wage can do all these things that I think are. It's sad that they become partisan issues when they're not at all their human issues. So yeah, that's amen. That's why I have donated to you my friend and I appreciate that about you. Yeah, thank you. I really need that. Thank you. It's and you know people think that they have to donate thousands of dollars or hundreds of dollars and I tell them even if it's five bucks. That's a huge deal because for me, I know you worked hard that five bucks. I cherish every single penny and I am a steward. Every single penny because I just I know how difficult it was to pull together that punishment that Penny and apart from it. So thank you, but I really appreciate that a lot be well and good luck. I think it doesn't to see if you have a moment today. It would help a ton. If you could leave us a review on Apple podcast and share this episode with a friend. Be sure to follow the podcast on Twitter and Instagram at carry the fire pod. If you want to get more involved with the podcast I invite you to check out. Our patreon account at patreon.com forward slash carry the fire pod where you can sign up for as little as $10 a month as a patreon you can weigh in on upcoming episodes interact with me and other patrons and also receive perks and special access to additional podcast episodes and content and if you become a patron before the end of the year, you will be added to the flint and steel Founders Club as a special. Thank you for supporting the show early on you'll receive additional perks beyond the regular tears. Including a limited flint and steel Founders Club enamel pin that will be sending out when the registration stops at the end of the year. I want to thank my producer Andy Lara and all of our executive producers Jonathan Clark TJ doing Mark Francis, Dan Thompson, Mark Redfield Drew para, Colin Hawthorne Nathaniel Bailey Stephen Saucier John Buchan, Denise sugita, Paul Pratt Mark Weiss, Brianna web John angle Tiffany pain, Samantha Simmons, Jordan Goodman lose Enriquez. Brian Weiss Becker Matt Fuchs Jess card, Jeremy Robinson William Gotham as Eric Gonzalez Shawn. Why admire John Paul Diego David cop Jordan Everly Matthew Alcon Joshua molera Max Glaser and Ronelle Becca, and last but not least sign up for email updates about upcoming guests and special show information at www.careerfh.com. Thank you all so much for carrying the fire with me and I'll see you next time.
Welcome to Carry the Fire Podcast. Qasim Rashid is a political candidate running for office as a Democrat for the Virginia Senate. Qasim is an author, attorney, and human rights activist. He is a Muslim of a branch of Islam you might not have heard of before. He also has a podcast with a friend where one of their goals is to remind us all that Muslims, Christians, and Jews used to get along better than we seem to lately. Qasim is a big believer in the power of dialogue between different kinds of people as a means of bringing a better and more loving world into being which, makes him a perfect fit for this show. Disclaimer I want to say that everyone is welcome here, regardless of your political associations. Guests on the show are going to have opinions and beliefs about better ways to do life together, and sometimes those ways involve political opinions, but the show is not, and I am not, tied unthinkingly to any particular party. As much as I might lean more "blue" on several issues, it doesn’t mean that I want to close down discussion with something who might lean red for their reasons. Much of what is missing in the political discourse in our country at the moment is serious and civil engagement about the issues that matter to us all. FEATURED LINKS Qasim Rashid Official Site Re-Sight Islam Podcast Talk to Me Book Qasim Rashid Tedx Talk  SHOW LINKS Carry the Fire Podcast Website Instagram  Twitter Produced by Andy Lara at www.andylikeswords.com 