Thread by @bznotes

1/ I give a lot of public talks. But I never choke up. But today I choked up as tears filled my eyes. I don’t know if audience could tell.

2/ I was speaking to 120+ Muslim urban professionals in San Francisco. These were all really well educated, well settled young professionals. They will no doubt kick ass in their careers and lives.

3/ Somebody asked me a question about our responsibility as Muslims and Muslim immigrants in America. And when I talked about the immense responsibility we have to give back, and to stand up for the disenfranchised here and in countries we come from, my eyes teared up.

4/ We are all lucky to be able to come to this country, and be so successful here. But so many people are not so lucky. People are coming to this country escaping genocide and extreme oppression/violence. And are now suffering at our borders. Muslims must stand up for them.

5/ We work at companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google etc. We can ignore the ugliness of life elsewhere, but if we took responsibility, raised our voices within those orgs, our actions might just mean the difference between life and death for people in Syria, Yemen, Rohingya etc

6/ ...and so on.

As we become more and more successful, it becomes easier to just be absorbed in our own lives and our first world problems. But that would be shirking our critical responsibility to stand up for others, and to help others improve their life situations.

7/ After the talk a man came up to me all emotional. With tears he told me “I am from Yemen, and wallah I don’t know why I was lucky to leave the country because I survived. So many didn’t. Thank you for reminding me of the burden and responsibility I carry.”

8/ My eyes teared up again. And I told him: “You and me both, brother. I hope we never forget where we came from.”