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Audio versions of this episode can be found here on Substack, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
My guest today is Qasim Rashid.
Qasim Rashid, Esq. is a human rights lawyer, author, and former nominee for U.S. Congress. He received his BSc from the University of Illinois at Chicago, his JD from Richmond Law, and served as a visiting fellow at Harvard University.
Qasim’s human rights work includes supporting survivors of domestic and sexual violence, representing asylum seekers, and serving as a first responder to global disasters. He has published numerous books, academic law reviews, and articles across the media spectrum in TIME, New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, and USA Today.
Qasim is the Founder and President of Just Win, a creator representation firm focused on social justice and human rights. He runs a popular human rights Substack with more than 165,000 subscribers titled “Let’s Address This with Qasim Rashid,” and has more than 2.25 million social media followers. You can find him across platforms @QasimRashid. Subscribe to his Substack now—trust me, you’ll be glad you did:
Is it okay for those of us on the left to criticize the Democratic Party? Or are we supposed to just accept that they’re the “lesser of two evils,” even as their actions put us in ever more danger?
Qasim Rashid lost thousands of followers because he chose to speak up. When I saw this post, I knew I needed to have him on the show to discuss. As many of you know, I’ve long felt dismayed by the ways the Democratic Party plays the comfortable role of controlled opposition, and that there’s no meaningful leftist party or even coalition represented in national politics. Yes, of course we must rail against the politicians actively promoting the destruction of democracy, but if the Democratic Party is not rising to the occasion in fighting those politicians, well, we simply must rail against them too. It’s not only okay to demand better of “your side” if they’re not advancing justice, it’s your duty.
Of course, that’s easy to say but complex in practice. What strategies can we use to bring about meaningful change? Qasim and I spend some time discussing this—special attention here on Sway and Working Families Party. We discuss what informed, ethical resistance looks like as authoritarianism continues its march into American politics. We also get into Minneapolis, corporate media’s complicity in America’s authoritarian turn, and Qasim’s reading club around his book The Wrong Kind of Muslim (buy your copy here!), through which Qasim shares more about his relationship with his touching relationship with his father and faith journey. To join in the book club, be sure to subscribe to Qasim’s other Substack, Islam Today:
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Find more episodes of Urgent Futures at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures. Past conversations include Taylor Lorenz, Lisa Messeri, Legacy Russell, William E. Rees, Renée DiResta, and more. Here is another recent episode with Roger Berkowitz on what we can learn from Hannah Arendt today:
