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In the last episode of Let’s Talk Local, Sam Westrop shared his deep knowledge of Islam and Islamism, breaking down the sects, beliefs, and cultural framework behind the conversation.
In this episode, Sarah continues that discussion by sitting down with individuals who have lived under Islamic rule and are now building new lives as Christians in America.
Sheri Shamsi fled Iran in 2017 after realizing she could not raise her children under Sharia Law. Abteen Vaziri was born in Iran and lived around the world before eventually settling in Dallas, where he now works as an attorney and is active in politics. Aleksey Yusupov, who was born to a Christian mother, Muslim father, and Jewish grandmother, shares a powerful story of survival that includes witnessing executions for faith and narrowly escaping one himself.
These are not secondhand perspectives. These are lived experiences.
You heard the facts in the last episode. Now you will hear the stories behind them.
Creators and Guests
What is Let's Talk Local?
Join host Sarah Zubiate Bennett on Let’s Talk Local as she uncovers the stories, people, and places shaping Dallas, fostering a stronger and more connected community—let's get to know the real Dallas!
In the last episode of Let's Talk Local, I sat down with Sam Westrop to talk about the growing conversation around Islam in America. He brought a depth of knowledge that really just scratched the surface of something much bigger. That led me to a bigger question. What does this look like in The United States through the eyes of those who escaped the Iranian regime? In this episode, I'm talking to the people who can actually answer this from lived experience.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:First, you'll hear from Sheri Shamsi, a salon owner here in DFW who fled Iran and Turkey with her husband and children just ten years ago. Then my friend, Abteen Vaziri, who's an Iranian born attorney who ran for congress in the last election. And finally, Aleksey Yusupov, a forensic specialist with a unique background raised between a Christian mother, Muslim father, and Jewish grandmother. Each of their stories brings a different perspective, and there's a lot to unpack. I'm glad you're here to listen.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Hello my friends. Thank you so much for being here. We are here today with Sheri Shamsi and Abteen Vaziri, who's actually a good friend of mine. Thank you both for being here today. I'm eager to dive into this topic that kind of follows my last interview with Sam Westrop and your stories as Iranian Americans are are very unique and interesting to me, and I know that a lot of our viewers and listeners will also find them interesting.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Would you mind sharing a bit about your background so that people have a better understanding of Sure. The
Sheri Shamsi:Thank you for inviting me. Let me explain myself. I was born in 1982 in Iran, in mid class family, and I was grown there. I was happy person till 18. When I was 18, I get friendship with my husbands, and we fall in love.
Sheri Shamsi:And that's a start problem because under the Sharia law, neither a woman or girl, they are allowed to get any friendship or relationship with the man before marriage. So, that's the sort of big problem. Because I broke the Sharia law, so they have to get some action to me. And one of my cousins, he make a plan to kill me because I brought the Sharia law in the family. So my parent, they forced me to get married with the guy because of my safety.
Sheri Shamsi:That was so early for me to get married at this age, and I wasn't ready for a starting new life at this age, but no other way. This is my safety. I have to do it. I started my life with many, many challenges, but we handled it together. We loved each other.
Sheri Shamsi:And we was together we are together, actually. And till we get the two kids, Everything was so, so normal. But all the time, the other problem when it started, because I feel all the time I have a big impetty part in my life, even with my husband who I love him, with my kids. But I was searching about the gods all the time. For this reason, I learned the Quran.
Sheri Shamsi:I learned Arabic to see what is writing in the Quran. And but I couldn't find the true God. And all the time when I'm asking the mommy who is the God, She told me, don't think about the god all the time. You will be crazy one day. But nothing can stop me to search about the god.
Sheri Shamsi:Anyway, one day I saw a dream. On my dream, I was in the church. The church has a paint wall, pink, and wood floor, wood chair. And on the church, I talked to one of my friend and I tell him, hey, friend, I'm so happy I became a believer to the Jesus Christ. He changed my life and my family.
Sheri Shamsi:They are with me also. But I didn't know what's that dream. And on the next day, I had a friend. He was before convert to the Christian, and he invite me all the time to become a Christian, but he couldn't explain for me who is the Jesus Christ. And so I didn't hear him so clearly.
Sheri Shamsi:Mhmm. And then I explained for him what happened on my dream, and he tell me that God has a plan for you. And after that, something's happening on my life. That was the so big big problem, and I couldn't to handle it. We me and my husband, we are so sad.
Sheri Shamsi:I don't want to get it the long story for you. So long story short, that was the worst thing is on our life. And I was so worried about our future. I quit. And, again, I talked to my friends, and I tell him, we don't we don't know what we have to do, me and Roni.
Sheri Shamsi:We are so disappointed right now. And he told me all the time when you need something, call the Jesus. He is in the life and he can help you. So from deep of my heart, I called him. And I promise when I If you help me, I will come to search about you.
Sheri Shamsi:Who are you? Because, you know, they don't teach through Iran in schools. This is the total different story about the Jesus Christ in the book in Iran, and that's all of them is fake. And then after a few days, there's a miracle happening on my life, and everything is changing, and my life again came back to the normal. That was miracle.
Sheri Shamsi:That was impossible to happening. Mhmm. And I promise I I will come and find you. You know, in Iran, the Iranian, the Muslim people, they are not allowed to go to the church and join their ceremony or pray or something like that. They don't let you to even enter to the church.
Sheri Shamsi:That's right. But one day, we go to the other city as a vacation, and one of my friends, she told me, would you like to join the Christian ceremony? I told her, oh, for real? But this is illegal. We cannot go there.
Sheri Shamsi:They don't let us to enter. She told me, let's come. I will hide you. Oh my gosh. And she invited me to the to the church.
Sheri Shamsi:The church was an old building. Mhmm. And when the door is open, that was the paint wall pink and the wood floor, wood chair. That Oh my was my dream. My eyes are getting watery.
Sheri Shamsi:When the door is open, I became on my knee. And I I don't know if that's look like someone's hit me to become on your knee. And I feel I couldn't stop my crying because I couldn't explain my feeling to someone and tell them what's going on on my heart. I feel this is the right place Mhmm. I have to be, and he is the right person.
Sheri Shamsi:I have to give my life to him. And I become a believer. I read the new testimony in one week. All the night and morning, I just reading the book with my phone light Mhmm. To see what's going on and who is the Jesus and what happened to him.
Sheri Shamsi:And when I when I was reading this book, I feel I'm in past, and I can see everything what's going on to these people. And I was so happy, but I don't have any bible study. Just the Holy Spirit is behind of me, and he teach me. And I have just a TV channel, like a SAT seven TV, Mohabbat, few of the Persians Christianity. I can watch them a little bit on the TV.
Sheri Shamsi:And there is no there is no place to join me. I cannot join them. It's too hard to find the Iranian Christian Christianity. And then I found a few friends. They like me.
Sheri Shamsi:They was convert to the Christian. And then I was so happy. Right now, I find it through God, and I don't want my kids. They learn the Quran and practice the Sharia. So I stopped my daughter to learn the Quran and Arabic.
Sheri Shamsi:Oh, She was just first grade at school.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:But it was required in school.
Sheri Shamsi:Right? Yes, ma'am. And they you know, you ask about the word, the writing. Farsi and Arabic, they are same word, but different meaning. And it's too hard for the kids to managing and understand which is the Arabic, which is the Farsi.
Sheri Shamsi:That can confuse them. In on first grade, that was so early to push them to learn the Quran. Mhmm. And I couldn't I I I didn't like my kids learn the Quran because I know right now is not right. Actually, I couldn't like my kids I I didn't like my kids to do any practice before they are grown and they can find their own way.
Sheri Shamsi:I didn't push them. Even right now, they are free to go and search and find their own way. But there are some few several times the teachers called me to the school and come. She doesn't practice her listening, and she doesn't practice the Quran, she doesn't practice the Arabic. And I tell her, yes.
Sheri Shamsi:I told her to do not do that. Why you force my kids to teach to learn the Quran? Mhmm. Why you force her to do some things even she doesn't know what's that? And that was the problem.
Sheri Shamsi:Anyway, they kicked my daughter from the school when she was just seven years old. Wow. And on my workplace, I had a problem also with the customers. I have a beauty salon. I was in this job for many years.
Sheri Shamsi:And according to the Sheri Aleksey, who is convert, like me, you know, coverings of women, they don't go to the men's or open beauty salon.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Sheri Shamsi:They are going to the private room, and they open their hair just in front of the women's. But if the woman convert to the Christianity under the Sharia Allah is look like a man, so you are not allowed to open your hair in front of them.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Oh, I wasn't aware of this.
Sheri Shamsi:Yes. Okay. This is true. I didn't know that, but after I'm losing a lot of customers, a lot of people, they don't accept that, but some of them accept that, yeah. And I understand what's coming up because I didn't know clearly the whole of the Sharia law.
Sheri Shamsi:And then, long story short, there was many problem because I became a believer. That's me. Me and my husband, we was together all the time in any situation. It was in the same line. And for our kids' safety, we leave the country.
Sheri Shamsi:And I says all the time, no one likes their home and homeland, even if their home is in water. But for my kids and their safety and because we want to grow them in a safe place and in liberty and freedom, we make a decision to leave the country and we go to Turkey. It was so hard. We didn't know the Turkey. We don't have someone there to help us.
Sheri Shamsi:But we thought maybe here is more safe place. But we was wrong because Turkey is under the Sharia law. And had the same problem in Turkey also. But on Turkey, I was happy. Why?
Sheri Shamsi:Because there is the Iranian church, and I can go there and I can search more about the gods. Oh, okay. And I joined the bible study. I have to work twelve to fifteen hours a day, but nothing can stop me after the work, just running to go to the church and hear about God. I was the happiest person in the world at this time, even in so hard situation.
Sheri Shamsi:And I saw a lot of miracles in my life. After we became a believer, all of our family, they became believers. Even my parents, my siblings, my family-in-law, and a lot of many more people. And finally, the USCIS We opened the case in USCIS, and they transferred us after four years to here. And we joined to US on 2017.
Sheri Shamsi:Before coming, the other miracle happening for me again, because on 2017, we had a flight ticket on February 6. And February 1, the president Trump took the travel ban, and they canceled my flight. But right now, I'm in the right place with the right person, and I know if it is his plan, I will come. If not, whenever he chosen for me will be great. I talk to God, cut no matter for me, US or Turkey or whenever at the world.
Sheri Shamsi:I trust you and I follow you. And then on February 5, as an emergency, they give us a ticket for next forty eight hours, and we came here. And after I came here, even when they canceled my ticket, I was so mad. I know that was the saddest story. Mhmm.
Sheri Shamsi:And but I didn't know what's the reason because I told you I'm not politically person. After I came here, I I saw what what was the reason president Trump took the travel ban. Mhmm. Of course, if I was the president, I will do it because he's thinking about his people first, his country, their safety, because you don't know who is who's this person is coming. Yeah.
Sheri Shamsi:I wasn't a bad guy.
Sheri Shamsi:I'm not a bad guy, but you don't know them. After I came here, I saw a lot of people. They come like me, and they totally forget who is the Jesus Christ. You never saw them again in the church. And that was the reason.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Got it.
Sheri Shamsi:Yeah. Because of safety, he's taking the travel ban. I see.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And that I very much understand, and I appreciate you sharing that background. It's beautiful, it's compelling. For a minute, I'm going to toggle over to Abteen, so that you can share a good amount of your background as well to paint a picture of who's made you who you are today. If you would, please.
Abteen Vaziri:So my story is a little bit different. So my father was the youngest of six kids, grew up in a middle class family where you have three older brothers and two older sisters and his entire family, they were in the leather business. Know, they like made luggage and you know, leather goods. And so my dad as a kid, you know, worked and and you know, he lost his father when he was four. So his oldest brother, it kind of took him under wings and you know, he worked in the leather business.
Abteen Vaziri:And then he went to college, he went to the military academy in Iran where, you know, the first one in his family to go to college and then the first one in his family to get a master's degree.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Mhmm.
Abteen Vaziri:So my father was in the Air Force. Know, he was an officer in the Air Force. He was the top of his class in the academy. He got selected to be an F-fourteen pilot.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Abteen Vaziri:The brand new F-fourteen, 80,000,000 plan that the Shah of Iran had ordered from back then Grumman to Northrop Grumman. Anyhow, so he you know, he came to The US back when Iran and US were allies. He came to San Antonio '72 '74 '76 for his Air Force training. He ended up actually taking a different path instead of becoming a pilot. His mother told him she would disown him if he went to fly.
Abteen Vaziri:So and that was always his dream. He ended up going to logistics, which funny enough, it's what saved his life. So my father came here and and even though he got married to my mom, came here in '76. And they were here for a couple years. They were in Texas and then they're in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Abteen Vaziri:They get pregnant with me, they go back to Iran October, I'm born. And then the revolution happens three months after I'm born. Shortly thereafter, my father was arrested, court martialed and given a death sentence. So, I remember being a kid and I have this crazy memory. Remember stuff vividly from when I was two, three years old.
Abteen Vaziri:I mean, I have some very vivid memories that I'll share with you from Iran, you know, and I haven't been there since '89. So that's crazy that you know That you can remember it. That I remember. Some stuff I remember very vividly. But you know, my my father was on death row and the Iran Iraq war started.
Abteen Vaziri:And what actually ended up saving his life was because he was in logistics, they needed to move troops. And people don't know it. Iran had some of the one of the most advanced air forces in the world. Sure. Much more advanced than Israel.
Abteen Vaziri:Mhmm. Probably the second or third most advanced in air force in the world after The US and The UK. And all of those, you know, all of the, you know, the top jets, the top equipment, things that The US never sells to anyone like tankers, KC-one 130 tankers, f fours, f fives, f fourteens that US never sold to any other country in the world. One of the reasons they sold it to the Shah of Iran is that Shah of Iran invested and saved that company out of bankruptcy. Funny enough, that same company today makes the b two bomber that's bombing Iran.
Abteen Vaziri:But the Shah of Iran saved that company out of bankruptcy. Anyhow, like c one thirties and, you know, f fours, f fives, they ordered f sixteens that they never delivered. Those f sixteens that were that were, you know, Pakistani air force that were watching the Iranian delegation go back, those are the same f sixteens the Shah of Iran ordered paid for, never took delivery, and those got rerouted to Israel and Pakistan. So anyway, my dad was in logistics. They needed them.
Abteen Vaziri:They said, here's your pardon, but the only caveat is you have to come back and serve. We need you because you're in logistics. So he went back and served in Iran Iraq war. Remember I was a kid. He would go on different missions to Chabahar or Hamadan, all these different Shiraz, all these different air force bases.
Abteen Vaziri:And then, know, growing up it was just, you know, like my my parents would tell me one thing and I go to school, you know, hardcore propaganda and try to brainwash you and I would go home. My dad's like, don't listen to any of that stuff. My mom's like, be careful what you say, you're gonna have to get us thrown in jail. Something as simple like, you know, chess became illegal. They're like, oh, that's gambling.
Abteen Vaziri:So they just made everything. All the beer factories got closed down and turned into mosque. Iran was one of the biggest wine producers in the world. All the wine companies got shut down. In fact, one of the Iranian Jewish families took their wine, the Shiraz wine, took it to Australia, now Shiraz wine is a The end grape is the Syrah grape because in France, they they took the same grape they called Syrah, but it's really from Shiraz and the Jewish Iranian family took it in Australia and revitalized it.
Abteen Vaziri:But anyhow, '89 and and and one of the other things is when my dad was in was in military jail, my my aunt and uncle were students at UCLA, they were engineering students. And then the borders got shut down, kinda like today. They were forced to basically pay smugglers to exit through Pakistan. And then right in the beginning, even though my dad was in Air Force, we were trying to smuggle out. So we sold all our assets, gave all the money out, it was like $15,000 cash plus our passports to the smugglers.
Abteen Vaziri:My aunt and uncle, their son who was a month younger than me, they went through Pakistan. My aunt drank the water, got malaria, they came to UCLA and she passed away. And UCLA, couldn't figure out what malaria was because I've never seen malaria, you know, from the third world Pakistan that she had to go by horseback. So my mom and dad, my grandfather, grandmother were devastated. We didn't know what to do.
Abteen Vaziri:We just didn't go. The smugglers took our passports and money and fled. So we got stuck in around till '89. '89, I remember Dubai, there was a plane there was a flight from Tehran to Dubai that there was an incident where the US military shot it down. And by the way, the story was two Iranian f fourteens were hiding under the wing of that aircraft trying to get close to a US aircraft carrier, so The US shut them down.
Abteen Vaziri:A month or like a few days or a month maybe after that, we were on that same exact flight to Dubai to try to get visas to The US. Mhmm. So we went to Dubai. I remember sitting on that plane the whole time I'm looking out for missiles. I mean Mhmm.
Abteen Vaziri:Imagine I'm like an eight, nine year old scared. Anyway, we go to we go to Dubai. We go to Abu Dhabi to get US visa that we get rejected. So we ended up having to bribe embassy employees at the Austrian embassy and the French embassy to get visas. My dad had to go get a fake passport.
Abteen Vaziri:He couldn't say that he was a colonel on the air. So by the way, he tried to resign. They wouldn't let him resign, so he put him for retirement. They had to take his retirement. So then he went to the passport office and gave him a fake job.
Abteen Vaziri:He said he worked at a metal shop and Mhmm. He got a passport and you know, he fled to Austria. And for my dad's seventieth birthday, he came to New York. We went to Peter Luger steakhouse. Gave him a big glass of scotch and he told me that story for the first time.
Abteen Vaziri:Wow. Anyway, so my mom and my sisters, we went to and he ended up being able to get to Germany through one of his air force friends, this air force friend of his, which is the reason we moved to Dallas, Aleksey Yusupov, his parents, Adrian's friend. His his father was a c one thirty navigator, and his brother was also an air force pilot that become a Iran air pilot. He was one of the pilots that took the shah out, so they threw him to jail. Oh.
Abteen Vaziri:And then they threw Ali's father in jail for being the brother of the pilot that I mean, just like stupid reasons. Right? So they fled to Germany. They helped us. We came to or me and my mom's and sisters went to France, went to Belgium, stayed with their family for a week, then ended up in Germany.
Abteen Vaziri:So we lived in Germany for a couple years, like two days after we landed in Germany, the Berlin Wall came down, and that was interesting to experience. We're like, wow. Communism is about to fall. Yes. And then we, you know, we applied for residency for US green card and came to The US with a green card in 1991.
Abteen Vaziri:First Los Angeles, you know, they're called Tehranjula, so all the Iranians are And then my my father's like, you know, these these these crazy Muslims are here. I don't want to be here. Let's go to Dallas. And because of Ali's parents, that's how we ended up in Dallas. And we came to Dallas and my dad's like, alright, this is great.
Abteen Vaziri:There's Christians here. We don't have to worry about, you know, the radical Islamists here and this is where I want my family. And and then, know, I didn't even know till when I moved to New York when my dad drove with me. My mom made him drive with me. One night we spent the night in Nashville at a hotel and my dad was like just screaming in his sleep.
Abteen Vaziri:And that was something I never knew. And I asked my mom, said, she goes, yeah, he's been doing that for like five, six years now. So, well, why didn't you tell me, oh, I don't want to bother you. What is this PTSD?
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Tortured Of
Abteen Vaziri:course. They tortured him a lot. And we just have this PTSD. And then, you know, a couple years ago, you met my dad actually.
Sheri Shamsi:Yes.
Abteen Vaziri:When when I was living in New York, I moved back and, you know, he just his PTSD had like really helped him get dementia, Parkinson's, and he just fell apart, passed away in 2023. But he was fortunate. He got to see three of his granddaughters. He got to see both his, you know, his daughters get married. He got to see his daughter become a doctor.
Abteen Vaziri:So Mhmm. You know, he got to live forty years past when he was supposed to be executed. So, you know, it was it's an interesting story, but everybody, every Iranian has stories like that where people got killed, people got murdered, they had to escape. So I tell my story and people are like, oh, your story's fascinating. I'm like, no, really, it's not.
Abteen Vaziri:90,000,000 people that have similar stories and twenty, thirty million that live outside Iran, all had to escape that have very similar stories.
Sheri Shamsi:Yeah. And it's
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:it's difficult for me because over here in America, we've lived a life of freedom and liberty, and there is much that is taken for granted because people live in such a bubble. And for me, I think about both of you and your families and the pain involved with it. And you know, I asked myself as I'm studying because so many people in The United States are not familiar with what Iran is experiencing. How people have had this these forms of of experiences for decades and decades and decades. And now people are still misinformed.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Very, very uninformed. It's very devastating to me. And so now, as I sat with Sam Westrop just a few weeks ago, and I was asking him questions about my understanding and interpretation of what how Iran and Muslims their practice. Because what I've understood is that right there's in Iran 98 to 90% of the population are Muslim. And from trying to understand, you know, the majority, I believe, are Shia Muslims.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And what I gathered from Sam is that only a small portion are Sunni Muslims. But what I gathered from the conversation with Sam is that Sunni Muslims are where the the the more dangerous sects of practicing Muslims are are found. But since Shia seems to be the more popular, practice of Islam in Iran, how is it that there is still such persecution and danger, because he did seem to explain that there was less of the dangerous practicing Muslims in that particular area? If you could both expand upon that and help me help me understand.
Abteen Vaziri:So you're right. I mean, listen, Iran's population was very secular before the revolution. Mhmm. Something like 10% of the population was Jewish. Of A people don't know during World War two, when a lot of Jews were being expelled from Iraq and from places like Egypt and all of the Middle East, the Shah of Iran opened the Middle East to Or I'm sorry, Iran to the Jewish population.
Abteen Vaziri:There was a huge Jewish population that originated in Iran, that had been there generations and generations. That's right. But he allowed a lot of Jews from other countries, a lot of Arabic countries to come to Iran. So Iran had a big flourishing Jewish population. You know, a lot of other ethnic religions, you know.
Abteen Vaziri:Aramaic is the language that Jesus spoke. That's There's still people in Iran that speak Aramaic. It's almost extinct. There are Armenians or Syrians, you know, for example, Patrick Bet David, he speaks Aramaic. Aramaic is the language that Jesus spoke.
Abteen Vaziri:Right? But it's it's it's, you know, not very much practiced, very small few very small populations still have it. I remember my dad loved pork. He loved he loved Jamboi, which is like, you know, a prosciutto. Yes.
Abteen Vaziri:And the only place that you could get it, you know
Sheri Shamsi:You cannot find it.
Abteen Vaziri:Well, yeah. You You actually can. Oh. The only place you could find, you have to go to Armenian neighborhoods where it's allowed. So my dad, I remember we had to go to Armenian neighborhood to get Martadella that had pork in it and Jamon because he just loved it.
Abteen Vaziri:That was that was his favorite thing in the world. And so, you know, in in in Iran, the the the ethnic minorities, you know, obviously the Jewish population was decimated, a lot of them left, some of them are still left. I have a lot of friends that are in LA or in New York that are Jewish Iranians that, you know, their family escaped very early on because they saw Islamic Republic, this is not gonna be good for us. Mhmm. But a lot of people don't know a big chunk of Israel's population are Iranian.
Abteen Vaziri:Yep. A lot of Israelis are Iranian Jews. Mhmm. And and by the way, not just Iranian Jews, there's a lot of Iran Baha'is that it's another Baha'is actually a subsect of Islam, but then for whatever reason is a threat, it's a huge threat to the Islamic Republic. So they actually decimated that population, killed, tortured, and and and really treated and by the way, they're they're subsect of Islam.
Abteen Vaziri:They're not Jewish. They're not Christian.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right. That's right.
Abteen Vaziri:But but they just
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Like Ismaili.
Abteen Vaziri:Yeah. They just there's like Ismaili. They're also subsect of Islam, and they're very peaceful. Right? Yep.
Abteen Vaziri:So, you know, what what what what you say is actually correct, and what you're saying is my my dad used to always say the worst religion in the world he was an atheist. He said the worst religion in the world is Islam. The worst part of Islam is Shiite Islam. And Yep. Because of the torture and, you know, the pain that he suffered and the the the atrocities he saw happening in the name of
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Under Shia.
Abteen Vaziri:Under Shia. But, you know, there's there's definitely both Shia and Sunni have have very extremists. The world has, you know, 2,000,000,000 plus Muslim population. The most majority of Muslims are great people. Some of them are brainwashed and, you know, they look the other way when the the the small population, let's say there's two three hundred million, you know, extremist Muslims out of 8,000,000,000 population.
Abteen Vaziri:They're very small. But that small population is controlling and making the rules for the rest of them. And because they're violent and because they're, you know, they they feel like a threat, most of the good Muslims don't say anything. And that's that's what I think where our job is. A lot of us Iranians have woken up.
Abteen Vaziri:But but the other question you asked, sure, 98 today on paper is Shiite Muslim. The actual percentage of people that are actually devout Muslims that actually practice it, the numbers I'm hearing is less than 5%.
Sheri Shamsi:Really?
Abteen Vaziri:Yes. Yes. So 98% on paper are Shiite Muslim, 5% are actually hardcore believers of
Sheri Shamsi:So you're
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:saying 98% are Shia?
Abteen Vaziri:98% of the entire country is Shiite Muslim.
Sheri Shamsi:Yep.
Abteen Vaziri:Yep. Yep. Out of the entire country, 90,000,000, less than 5% are devout Muslims that actually believe it.
Sheri Shamsi:Interesting.
Abteen Vaziri:The rest either are atheists, come back to Zoroastrianism Yes. A big chunk is Christian. That's the the fastest growing Christian country.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Abteen Vaziri:This has been eye opening. You were there when I got baptized, so I'm
Sheri Shamsi:a new Christian.
Abteen Vaziri:And we'll talk about that, but but you know, the majority of the Iranians are Christian like she said, you get persecuted. There was a woman that passed out 20,000 Bibles, she's on death row right now. I know. There's couple other people that have been executed. I know.
Abteen Vaziri:So there's an underground church. I actually was on a TV show called Iran Alive Ministries Mhmm. And it blew my mind. They have a 120,000 people in their ministry that they minister to on satellite and on internet Mhmm. Inside Iran.
Abteen Vaziri:They have another 7,000,000 Iranian Muslims that are watching their show that are on the fence. I've had so many Iranians that are either Bahai or Muslim that are trying to convert and they're coming to me, they're just on the fence and they're like not sure. And they're like Wow. There's like, you know, there's like they're just like culturally they just think there's a little stigma and they just need that little push. But the the reality is is Jesus was from our part of the world.
Abteen Vaziri:Jesus was from Jerusalem. That's right. Three wise men were Persian. Mhmm. What's what's actually what's actually a big crazy part is that, you know, this is this is, you know, the two most common names in Iran, unfortunately, are Mohammed and Ali.
Sheri Shamsi:That's right.
Abteen Vaziri:Mohammed was Saudi Arabian prophet. Yep. And they hate Saudi Arabia. They're at war with Saudi Arabia. By the way, Saudi Arabia is actually helping the people in Iran.
Abteen Vaziri:Saudi Arabia is like, we need regime change. Yep. Even though they're Wahhabi and you know, supposedly, you know, not not, you know, they're you know, crazy. It's like, they're not. They're actually just they just want life.
Abteen Vaziri:The problem is you have this death cult in Iran and the the Shiites are actually a worst part of the just regular Shiites. They're called twelfth imamers. Twelfth imamers Mhmm. Think the world is gonna end That's right. And they want the world to end.
Abteen Vaziri:So you're trying to go to nuclear war with somebody that wants to die.
Sheri Shamsi:The world to
Abteen Vaziri:end. And so so they brainwash these children and she could tell you from the time you're a child, they brainwashed you. They said the biggest glory is not, you know, going in in the Nobel Prize or you know, going to school and graduate. Biggest glory being a martyr and dying and
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Abteen Vaziri:And blowing yourself up. And even like when Ayatollah was killed, they're like, oh, I'm so jealous that you get to go get yourself Yep. I mean, they're just brainwashed. In the beginning of the revolution when, you know, the the Islamic Republic essentially screwed Iran by not allowing the military to go to Iraq, so what because they were afraid that the military was gonna turn on them. So what did they do?
Abteen Vaziri:They got a bunch of 14 year old kids, they gave them a plastic key and they said this is the key to heaven and sent them on the front lines to go blow themselves up in the mines and that's how they opened the minefields to get into I mean, this is crazy. Today, the way that, you know, the the the terrorists and by the way, like, have a lot of Arabic friends and the things that have been outspoken, I'm like, I'm gonna close down every mosque. Some of my Arabic I have a lot of Palestinian friends, a lot of Palestinian Christian friends, Palestinian Muslim friends. I have friends that were Iranian whose wives are Palestinian. They're having a hard time.
Abteen Vaziri:They think that we're like spitting hate against Palestinians. That without that's not what we're saying. Palestinians are huge victims.
Sheri Shamsi:Right.
Abteen Vaziri:And but their but their oppressors are not Israel. Their oppressors are the Islamic Republic around the death cult that is using them as body shield to get them killed. And so, you know, when I did this shooting of this movie, Don't You Are Here in My Texas Yeah. The documentary, we went to the epic church and they called the cops on me because I was on the sidewalk and I had a handgun. Yes.
Abteen Vaziri:They called nine plainer police department officers and I wanted the guys that that shot the documentary to know that Arabic people are great people. Yeah. They have amazing culture. Lebanese have great food and culture. We don't have any issue with Arabic people.
Abteen Vaziri:We don't have any issue with the We have an issue with this backwards ideology
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Abteen Vaziri:And not everyone prescribes to this backward ideology. But the ones that do Mhmm. We need to stand up to them. We can't be afraid anymore. So what did I do after we got almost arrested at Epiq Barsque?
Abteen Vaziri:I took the entire crew to Alibaba restaurant and we had the most amazing Lebanese food. I was like, I want you guys to experience this side of it too, you know?
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yeah. Yeah. The beautiful side of it. And it Yeah.
Sheri Shamsi:We have to mention the Iranian, they was born as a Muslim, but they are not real Muslim. They are scared of government. For this reason, do some of them, do the practicing because they are scaring so much, even in the school. If they can report it to the police, The teacher will report you if you don't practice it. That's right.
Sheri Shamsi:And this is one of the listening. If you don't pass it, you cannot go to the next grade, you know? Everything is together to push you to become a Muslim. But in reality, they are not Muslim, especially right now after the January, we don't have so much Muslim in Iran. They rejected because they saw under the according to the Sharia Allah, what happened to our people.
Sheri Shamsi:I think right now all the world knows what happened on January in Iran.
Abteen Vaziri:And Sarah, one thing that's important is that what you're doing as podcasters and really covering the actual news is so important because my dad used to hate Barbara Walters because she would go she he just absolutely there's there's three names that he would always just he hated Brzezinski
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Mhmm.
Abteen Vaziri:Carter's security adviser who orchestrated this coup against Iran, put the mullahs in power. He hated Carter who was just dumb and, you know, didn't know any better. Mhmm. And then he hated Barbara Walters. He's like Barbara Walters would come to Iran, interview the Shah, and then make him look bad.
Abteen Vaziri:Oh, political prisoners and you're a dictator and you're this. Till this day, they call him a dictator. Why why would so many people cry when they watch a video of a dictator? Yep. Like 90,000,000 people, every time they watch a video of the Shah of Iran, the guy who spoke six languages, the guy who was a fighter pilot, not just a fighter pilot, a test pilot.
Abteen Vaziri:Yep. When when Iran bought the f fourteens and when they were looking at the f fifteens and f sixteens, he personally would fly. Imagine a king personally flying the jet as a test pilot. You know how hard it to be a test pilot? Of have know how to inject
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I didn't even realize this.
Abteen Vaziri:He was
Aleksey Yusupov:a test pilot.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:He I had no idea.
Abteen Vaziri:He was a helicopter, but when he would fly a helicopter, he would fly helicopters himself. I mean, he did everything. This guy was just he was a workaholic, kinda like your husband. He studied like My husband. Fourteen fourteen hours fourteen hours a day.
Abteen Vaziri:He read he is the one that showed Richard Nixon to create the strategic petroleum reserve because what happened with the Arabic embargo in 1973, he said, you guys need about 2,000,000,000 barrels of oil, you need to have a reserve, you know, and and I'll help you fill it at a dollar a barrel below our cost to make sure The United States controls the oil market, so that price shock doesn't destroy the world. And Richard Nixon wasn't able to get it done. He had to go to congress. He got approved in 1975 in the strategic petroleum act of 1975 after Nixon came out of office. But this is a guy who's a genius.
Abteen Vaziri:He created OPEC, which was also he ruffled a lot of feathers by creating OPEC. By the way, we saw the other day that, you know, President Trump talked to The UAE and they got out of OPEC. And now they put a lot of pressure on Iran. The oil prices are gonna come down, so we can continue the, you know, continue the conflict and get the regime changed. But but, you know, the the the amount of these people like, there's two reasons that Ayatollahs, with the help of, by the way, the British, the French, and the Carter administration, did this coup and they put, you know, this death and misery on our people, we've been silent.
Abteen Vaziri:We're not silent anymore. But the reason they did it, the two things that these crazy Ayatollahs hated about the Shah. He issued, know, land reform and a bunch of land that was owned by the government, he basically privatized and gave to farmers so they could, you know, improve the economy. They didn't like that. Two, they didn't like that he gave women the right to vote.
Abteen Vaziri:And today, those same dumb Democrats that are CNN, they're glorifying this regime. The reason this regime came into power because they didn't want women to have the right to vote. They're like the Taliban, and the Democrats were siding with them.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:So let let's let's spend some time on that if we can. So now your families are in Texas. Right? There's Republicans, independents, Democrats. Right?
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Everyone's divided. But there is severe disinformation being fed to many people, all people. Algorithms are shaping everyone's views. So in Texas, we see that there's been a surge, an increase in our Muslim population, which is why I was really trying to dig deep with Sam and kinda helping form this framework. Because as Texans, I wanna know your opinions.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Where are we today? What do we risk by continuing to allow certain types of immigrants into our country? Is there even a risk? Is there something that you all believe that we as Americans and as Texans should be paying attention to?
Sheri Shamsi:There's many people people like me and Abteen. They are come from the Sheri Allah. Mhmm. And I told you on the beginning, no one love to leave their country, their homeland, even if their home is in the water. But for Sharia, we forced to leave our people, our family, our home, and became here to live in liberty and freedom.
Sheri Shamsi:Mhmm. The American people, I think they don't know how the freedom is expensive and valuable. Because they was living in freedom, they never pay for it. They're worried just what for eating and Party. Party, weekend vacation, something like that.
Sheri Shamsi:Mhmm. The life is not like that. We are so we are in so sensitive time, and it's time to be wake up, open your eyes, open your earring, and see, search around you what's going on. When I took my kids and left my country, I was 28. At this age, at this time, we didn't have so much social media, but right now we have a social media.
Sheri Shamsi:There is many, many page you can follow and see the reality and the true history and the real news. I'm talking about the real news, not the fake one. We have a lot of fake one also. Mhmm. But if you're searching, just search for 2,026.
Sheri Shamsi:You can see many things happening for my people just because of the Sharia law. I says all the time, the Muslim people, they are not our enemy. The Sharia Allah is our enemy.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right. Absolutely.
Sheri Shamsi:Any Sharia Allah Mhmm. Can be the humanity enemy. Mhmm. So why we have to took the Sheri Aleksey? When when you are living in peace and freedom, why you wanted to damage that?
Sheri Shamsi:Why you wanted to broken that? Let it be. So you have to start standing for your here is your country. Here is for citizens' country. You have to stand for your country.
Sheri Shamsi:Look at us. We lose our country, but we don't let them to do it again. We are here to standing for our people. Right now, me and Abteen, we are Iranian American. So both side is our country, and we are standing for both sides.
Sheri Shamsi:Why they have to be separate for forty seven years? Because of IRGC regime And according to the Sharia law, we don't we we don't silent anymore. We are here to talk about that and getting together again. It's time to befriend Iran the Iranian people, they love the American people. They love the Israeli people.
Sheri Shamsi:Just because of the governments, they cannot to be together. Why? This is not humanity because under the Sharia Allah, and there's many, many more things. If you're searching in the Quran, you can see what is the exactly Sharia Allah. It's not time to be silent right now.
Sheri Shamsi:It's time to be standing for our country, to talk about the Sharia Allah, to talk about the freedom to our kids, to our friends, to our family, in community, in your friend, any of around you, you know, and standing for it. Do not let your country becoming like Iran enduring this forty seven years. This is my recommendation. Thank you. Thank you for that.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Abteen, do you have stuff to
Sheri Shamsi:add?
Abteen Vaziri:Yeah. You know, in in 1980, when in with the Shah of Iran, when he was in, when he was in exile in Panama, I believe. And he coined this term, the silent majority. And he said, do you regret your what you did? Do you regret what your people did to you?
Abteen Vaziri:He said, I don't regret my people did to me. It wasn't the majority of people. The majority was silent. And doctor Sheri Shamsi Sheri and she said something beautiful. She said, when they obviously the Jewish Iranians escaped because they're like Islamic government, this is gonna be They're good for gonna kill us.
Abteen Vaziri:And sure enough, they killed many. They stole a lot of their properties and many fled you know, LA, you know, Beverly Hills, LA and and and New York and and Israel. And but but, you know, the Muslims just stayed silent. And most of most of the Iranians, the Shah of Iran was Muslim. You know, he was a practicing Muslim and he wasn't, you know, a radical clerk like these guys.
Abteen Vaziri:Yeah. But, you know, they're all the the money they're like, oh, you know, I'm gonna go to work tomorrow. I'm gonna go to my cafe and my disco, everything's gonna be fine. And then one by one, the rights started disappearing, you know. You know, women had to go in different parts of a bus than men, you know, you're not allowed to be in the same room as men, you know, beers illegal, all wine, you know, alcohol is illegal, something as simple as chess became illegal, just everything.
Abteen Vaziri:All your rights just overnight went away. And the majority of people didn't even know what happened. They're just silent. One day, they go to sleep, they wake up and now they're in a totalitarian government that they didn't vote for. And the the the I think what we need to be very vigilant about, this is when I ran for Congress, on my cards, it said, stop radical Islam.
Abteen Vaziri:By the way, many print shops and many companies that did artwork refused to print my cards here in Richardson, Texas. So we think we have freedoms here in Texas, but we don't. I said, why won't you print my artwork? Well, we, you know, we we have to export it to Pakistan. It's illegal there.
Abteen Vaziri:I said, I didn't say stop Islam. I said stop radical Islam. People in Pakistan don't agree with stop radical Islam? They said, yes. And I was like, well, so we the freedoms that we think we have here, don't really have, they're just slowly eroding.
Abteen Vaziri:I went to the Texas Board of Education meeting three weeks ago. I went to go there testify because they have care and some of these Palestinian terrorist organizations essentially that are, you know, raising money for terror groups are showing up there and they're trying to change education and say, but the Alamo was was because of the, you know, because of Muslims and the Muslims helped create The United States and the constitution, all this crazy stuff. I remember the propaganda. These guys these guys are like totalitarian regime. They learned the propaganda from the Nazis.
Abteen Vaziri:The propaganda is stronger than the Nazis. When I was a kid in school, in my and I told this to my buddy Casson, who's writing, you know, writing for board of education. I said, when I was a kid in school, in my Iranian textbook, it said, you know, you're learning about history, right? It said the Wright brothers didn't actually invent airplanes. Some Muslim named blah blah blah, I blew something, you know, and show the guy with the with chicken wings and he's the first one to create the airplane.
Abteen Vaziri:So they try to change history and they're doing that here. And they're trying to just just, you know, bypass and just make things up and and brainwash people and they're doing that here. And what I said to people, I sent 42,000 text messages. I said I'm gonna close down every mosque in The United States. I only got 4,000 people that sent me texts said to go to hell.
Abteen Vaziri:And they were Americans and they're like, well what about the first amendment? I'm like, listen, I'm a lawyer of two states.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I'm a Mhmm.
Abteen Vaziri:I took advanced constitutional law. I'm a constitutional lawyer. I'm not saying ban your first amendment. Your first amendment guarantees you the right to to pray to whatever God you want. You want to pray to a God, you have the right to do that.
Abteen Vaziri:You want to pray to no God, you have the right to do that. You want to pray to Islam or Christianity, whatever, you have the right to do that. That's what the First Amendment guarantees you. But before you get to the First Amendment, Article three of the constitution, Article six, the supremacy clause says, there's only one court that are supreme, it's called the Supreme Court. And all the courts that Congress set up, These Sharia courts that are operating right now here in Texas
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:In Texas on
Abteen Vaziri:Texas and on they're backwards. They're these are backwards Sharia courts. Why do I say mosques? I didn't say stop all Islams. I didn't say burn down the Koran.
Abteen Vaziri:I mean, like Valentina Gomez, she's a little cuckoo, you know, kill all the Muhammads, kill all the Muslims. That's just bigotry. That's racism. But but but what I'm saying is, do you even know what a mosque is? I when I went to the Epic Mosque, a gentleman here from Dallas Express came and interviewed me.
Abteen Vaziri:He was visibly scared when he was inside that mosque. But I also wanna say, as someone whose entire family is Muslim, I'm not down to Sharia Law. Sharia Law says that women on that side of the room are worth half as much as men. Do you all agree with that? And we were in the waiting room, he's like, oh, look, there's a there's a spa there, it says body washroom.
Abteen Vaziri:I was like, no, that's a mortuary. Yeah. And most of them, by the way, are illegal because they're not, you know, allowed to operate a mortuary inside a mosque. But in Iran, during this revolution, and when she said in in two days, literally from 8PM to 12PM, people would go demonstrate. So four hours.
Abteen Vaziri:And four hours and four hours, eight hours total. In eight hours total, the government of Iran killed almost 50,000 people, 50,000 unarmed civilians, blinded another 10,000. Some of the people that they just put, you know, poke them out with with with dark with hot rods and blind them. Mhmm. And then another three hundred thirty thousand people were injured.
Abteen Vaziri:And then when those people that were injured, they were in the hospitals trying to get care, they would show up to the hospital beds one by one, execute them. There's bodies that have IVs in their hand and a bullet hole in their hand. Why would somebody with a bullet hole have an IV? That means they were on IV first, then they got killed. So they were going hospital by the hospital, execute her.
Abteen Vaziri:And then the nurses that were helping these people, they took the nurses and they told them not to do it. They kept they're like, our duty is to treat patients. Those nurses, they gang raped those nurses to teach them a lesson. There was a nurse that the story came out just recently, she was one of those nurses that treated the patients. They showed up to the house, the IRGC showed up to the house.
Abteen Vaziri:She they were trying to, you know, her husband was trying to defend her. They shot the woman that was the nurse, and then they took her dead body and they used her fingerprint to get in her phone. They gang raped her dead corpse
Aleksey Yusupov:Yep.
Abteen Vaziri:And videotaped it and then sent the video to her husband. I mean, these are animals. These are not human beings. When when president Trump says, you know, we're gonna decimate these people, this is not this is a death call. These are animals.
Abteen Vaziri:These people can't live. They can't live among us. They don't want peace. They want they want end of the world and we all gotta stand up to them. And that husband by the way committed suicide.
Abteen Vaziri:Imagine watching your your wife's dead body get gang gripped and then they're sending you the video.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I I can believe it and
Abteen Vaziri:And by the way, the media, silent.
Sheri Shamsi:Silent.
Abteen Vaziri:All Of they talk about is a hundred sixty six people that died in the school, which by the way, I have pictures of those missile that hit that school, that's not a Tomahawk missile, that's a US that's a that's a Iranian made missile. There's proof of it. The IRGC has claimed responsibility, but the the media, all they talk about, oh, you killed students, they killed. No. The IRGC killed students, but silent about the fifty thousand people that were killed, ten thousand that were blinded, and three hundred thirty thousand that were injured.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And That's
Abteen Vaziri:a massacre.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:It's horrible. It's horrific. I mean, what's happening in Nigeria, everything, and no one's covering this. So I have some videos here. This is the Kalam Institute in Carrollton.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:It's right by Prince of Peace Catholic School. And as you can see, you know, it just looks like a regular building along the side of the road. Here, I think this one is in Plano. There's schools, right this is right off Centennial Boulevard, there's a Dallas Central Mosque in Richardson here. So this this is all here, and this is huge.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Right? This is I mean, it's enormous. It's under construction, and it's expanding. And then there's another one where this is Valley Ranch Islamic Center. And I so these videos will be showing, kind of overlaying certain parts of these videos as you all comment on them.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:But look at look at how large no. It's the Valley Ranch Islamic Center that's under construction. It's huge and it's it's expanding. So this is right here in Texas. What do people not understand about these schools, about these Islamic centers?
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Sam Westrop did comment a good bit about a lot of dangerous groups that are actually within a lot of these particular spaces. What color can you all add to that conversation?
Sheri Shamsi:The Optin explain how the kids, they are brainwashed. Yes. And we have brainwashed, radical Islamic people.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right. Especially in Houston, right?
Sheri Shamsi:There is a lot of Muslims people who they are real believer in God by the Islam way. Mhmm. They don't force the kids to do it. Absolutely, under their house rule, no one can convert. But on like, they don't force, like, the kids to go to the Muslim school.
Sheri Shamsi:But who is the brainwash? They will send their schools. They will send the kids to their Muslim schools because they want grown some people like themselves. Yep. What's the difference between the public school and the Muslim school?
Sheri Shamsi:Well, there were Because they are history. Right. They are learned to be covering from the when they are just five to six years old, whose at this time they have to enjoy than childhood time, not to be covering and thinking about the some things you cannot to control it. You know? Yeah.
Sheri Shamsi:That was the reason I took my kids and run from my country because I saw it's not safe place. They will be washing my kids' brain. And this the religion is totally privacy. If you wanna do practice, go to your home, do your practice. Why are you pushing the kids to do it?
Abteen Vaziri:I think everyone here in Texas needs to wake up. And that was that was my whole goal running for Congress. It wasn't a great time for me to leave my business while I'm trying to create a business Mhmm. To take three, four months and run for Congress. But I just think there's a lot of similarities between what happened in Iran and what's happening here.
Abteen Vaziri:Know, Mamdani, that was a wake up call. You know, Charlie Kirk getting this accident, that was a wake up call. Mamdani, I call him Ayatollah Mamdani because you know, his family was essentially kicked out of India. Muslims from India. Same thing with Ayatollah Khomeini's family.
Abteen Vaziri:There were Muslims that got kicked out of India and very radicalized and they're twelfth Amamers. They believe, you know, the the Mahdi's, the, you know, the twelfth imam is gonna come, the world's gonna end, and they're gonna go to Jerusalem, kill all the Jews.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Mamdami's family. Yeah. Family.
Aleksey Yusupov:That's right.
Abteen Vaziri:And and he he says his aunt reads Khomeini and praises Khomeini. They're the same people. Right? Yep. So when you have people like that, you know, in New York, why would the Muslim Brotherhood or whoever's behind them, you know, Soros Foundation, all these people that hate America, why would they put him there?
Abteen Vaziri:New York, it's not like he's got any political power or military power. Well, New York City has a budget of a $127,000,000,000.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's
Abteen Vaziri:right. It's bigger than some most European countries. Mhmm. And right now, all of a sudden, he's just got a $6,000,000,000 shortfall. He's skimming money and sending it to Democratic Socialists of America, and they're using that money to try to steal elections.
Abteen Vaziri:That's if you look at the Holy Land Foundation lawsuit, which happened here in Texas, there's a document from the Muslim Brotherhood that was written, stated 05/22/1991. If you read Bridget Gabriel, she has a copy of it.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:She's incredible.
Abteen Vaziri:She's amazing. I actually have I have a copy of that document. Uh-huh. It shows the playbook exactly how to bring these mosque, grow the community, make everyone think Islam is just like any other religion. And by the way, this the radical part of Islam that they're preaching.
Abteen Vaziri:And then once they get into power, then the second phase is like England where they're gang raping women, you know, these Pakistani gangs and these these crazy Islamic gangs are gang raping people. And now, it's complete chaos. Europe is gone.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I know.
Abteen Vaziri:There's 50,000,000 Muslims in Europe and you know, I don't know what total population of Europe is three, four hundred, 500,000,000, whatever it is. Those, you know, 6% of population is strong or I mean the rest of the population. Like, so they don't need to have critical mass. They don't need to have half the population. 6% of the population in Europe, Europe's finished.
Abteen Vaziri:So why did they choose Iran? Why did they choose Lebanon? Brigitte Gabriel talks about Lebanon. Right? People don't know.
Abteen Vaziri:You know, this this war between Iran Who why did who choose? The Islamist.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Oh, why did they
Abteen Vaziri:This this war in Iran really started fourteen hundred years ago. I wrote an article in the Freedom Talk magazine that talked about that. You know, Persia and Rome were the two superpowers in the world fourteen hundred years ago. And they were back and forth going to war with each other and these wars weakened both of them. Mhmm.
Abteen Vaziri:Where Rome was fine and you know, eventually fell, but Persia got weakened and then the Islamic caliphates came and destroyed Iran. When they came this Omar Abbein, you know, the leader of the
Sheri Shamsi:Zubay Yes. Yes.
Abteen Vaziri:In fourteen hundred years ago when he came to Persia, he said, oh, we're gonna, you know, bring you Allahu Akbar, we're gonna bring you this whatever. And the king of Persia said, listen, we've had art and history and, you know, and religion and, you know, we created the first monotheistic religions of Ashtion. We don't need you to come. You guys bury women in the desert and you're you're you're bandits or robbers in the desert, in lizard infested desert. You don't need to come here and teach We we created art, we created culture, we created all this stuff.
Abteen Vaziri:Well sure enough, they came and won the war, they killed 400,000 men, they took a 130,000 Iranian women and they took took them as concubines and sold them to sex slavery in Medina and Mecca. So this started this happened fourteen hundred years ago. But Persia was the only place that the they took over where they refused to take the Arabic language. In fact, they ended up exposing their culture to them. They gave them the alphabet they taught them.
Abteen Vaziri:So this this war has really been going on for fourteen hundred years between Iran who was a Zoroastrian and and you know, this Islamist. Fourteen hundred years. And then in 1979, when Iran had the fourth largest military in the world, one of the most advanced air forces in the world, you know, one of the highest economy, like ninth or thirteenth largest economy in the world. So there were Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Impenetrable.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Sounds like The United States beat
Abteen Vaziri:Iran? How did they beat Iran? From the inside.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:From within it.
Abteen Vaziri:Just like that. And that's what they're doing here. They can't beat The United States. We're a nuclear power. But how did they beat us?
Abteen Vaziri:With the Mamdani. And when I ran for congress, people were like, oh, you're a liar because you used to be Muslim, now you're Christian, Taqiyah, whatever it is. You know, you're gonna wanna be those people that, you know, it's like a Manchurian Oh,
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:they were accusing you
Abteen Vaziri:of People were accusing me of that. I said, listen, I like the way you're thinking. Yep. I like the way you're thinking. If you promise me that you're not gonna vote for me because I used to be a Muslim, but you also promise you will not vote for any Muslim candidates in The United States, not to city council, not to water district, not to school board, not to mayor, nothing nothing.
Abteen Vaziri:Even the tiniest little bit of power, you promise not to elect a Muslim who's gonna turn and then you're gonna use that office to advance their causes, then I won. Don't vote for me, but promise you'll never vote for a Muslim.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Explain if you can. Taqiya, what what is it? I mean, I and and explain it as if you were explaining it to a 10 or 13 year old. Like, very basic because you have firsthand understanding of it.
Abteen Vaziri:Religion is supposed to teach you to not kill, steal, you know, the 10 commandments in every religion. Right? But Islam and Sharia law basically says and that's why I don't think it's a religion. It's a cult. The religion is more important than anything.
Abteen Vaziri:Killing, raping, chill you know, stealing, even, you know, anything that's even even eating pork and and and and drinking alcohol, which is supposed to be very against the religion, as long as you're doing to export the religion, it's okay. So right now, though, they're raping and killing Islam, they're like, we're doing it for Islam, so it's okay. So it's just like, it's just a blank check. So that's what Taqiya says. Oh, you you could go pretend to be a Christian.
Abteen Vaziri:You could go and, you know, pretend to be one of them and then use that to advance Islam. That's a cult. That's a cult mentality.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And where does this doctrine lie? Is it the current is it within the Quran? Because I have read parts of the Quran, and I do understand parts of this, not the way you all do. Where in the Quran is this stated? And I understand that it's when Mohammed was at his weakest and needed to mask his, right?
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:He wanted to expand his religion, and because of that, this was written. But maybe there's a different interpretation that you all can share.
Sheri Shamsi:There is many example in Quran. If you need the right address, I have to search my phone and I will give you. But I will give you this short example. On NESA, or on NESA, number 24 34, You cannot get the sex with any woman who they are married, except when you attack them and you kill their husbands, they are yours. So you can do whatever you want with them.
Sheri Shamsi:The Abteen tell you about the story of the nurses and the hospital.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Sheri Shamsi:And the iorgesis regime's people, they go to the hospitals and they rape their nurses and the doctors.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Sheri Shamsi:Because this is according to the Sharia law. This is bar in Iran. They broken the Sharia law. So under the Sharia law, if they broken the law, they are enemy, so you can do whatever you want with them. Yeah.
Abteen Vaziri:You steal their property. You can rape their I mean, like
Sheri Shamsi:If just if just searching for the Nessa number 24 or and 34, you can see exactly the number.
Abteen Vaziri:And there's a you know, there's some of it is in Koran, and then there's also another document. I can't remember the name of it, but it's a book that basically teaches the Sharia teachings. It's in there. All of it is in there. You know, I was talking to some Iranians and, you know, some people that were, you know, against Islam, and they're like, you know, we need to burn out every single Quran.
Abteen Vaziri:I was like, no. Let me explain something to you. I think you need to translate the Quran and everybody should read the Quran out loud
Sheri Shamsi:Absolutely.
Abteen Vaziri:And tell people the garbage that's in it. No. And it's not all garbage, but there's a lot of garbage in there. And most people, the 2,000,000,000 or so Muslims are in the world, probably three, four hundred million of them only speak Arabic. The rest of them don't speak Arabic, including 90,000,000 people in Iran that don't speak Arabic.
Abteen Vaziri:They memorize a bunch of mumbo jumbo that they don't even know what they're saying. They're sitting there five times a day praying in gibberish. Yep. Most people like, I memorize these verses that for their prayers, I have no idea what they mean. Just gibberish that I memorized.
Abteen Vaziri:So when you're memorizing gibberish, don't know what it means. Why I'm a threat, why Sheri's a threat is because we can, you know, read the Koran. We we know what's in it and you know, when I went to the the Epic Mosque, I said women are worth half as much as men. They're like, you're lying. I was like, oh, I got receipts.
Abteen Vaziri:I could show you where it says women are worth half as much as men. Well, they intimidate Americans because Americans can't
Sheri Shamsi:Don't know.
Abteen Vaziri:Show the receipts. I couldn't show the receipts.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:So help me understand because so many of my family, much of my family are are are Democrats. Wonderful, beautiful people. But we view the world differently with respect to our understanding of history. How is it that you believe that the Democratic Party has gotten to this point of belief and system and ideology? How is this happening and why do you
Sheri Shamsi:believe it's more prevalent in the Democratic Party? Until now, until this January, I didn't know what's the difference between the Democrat and the Republican. Mhmm. But after that happening, when I voted to president Trump, I wasn't sure I was in right part or not. Sure.
Sheri Shamsi:But my
Aleksey Yusupov:heart feel that
Sheri Shamsi:my heart, it doesn't tell me the lie. All the time I hear that. And You have discernment. President Trump was just our Iranian hope because I saw in 2017 how the president Trump shows the IRGC's regime faces to the world, but they didn't let him to finish it. When he start, the China comes in front of the American and goes to the Cold War by the COVID nineteen.
Sheri Shamsi:Mhmm. So and he lose the time. And all of us, we know what happened after that. And that wasn't a true story, and they still learned everything. So, anyway, I don't I want to
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:agree with you on Yeah.
Sheri Shamsi:And they stopped him. Yep. And after that, after the changing to the Democrats part, I I understand what's the difference between these two sides. And that was just Iranian hope to the president Trump become a president and can stop the IRGC's regime. For this reason, I think they stop him.
Sheri Shamsi:But right now, we are open. We have a social media. I search it, and I see and that was just my hope. You know, the president Trump world is changing all the time. Mhmm.
Sheri Shamsi:But this is political. You have to. When you play, if you tell them what's your what's your role and what you wanna do, of course, they will be raising your hands. They will do whatever else you want to do. So this is the political.
Sheri Shamsi:Absolutely, the normal people, they don't understand, and they will be getting sad, sometime mad. They will be angry. Oh, he doesn't do nothing. He doesn't keep the promise. But, after I voted the president Trump, I talked to myself.
Sheri Shamsi:Hopefully, I'm not wrong, he can save the American, and he can, help the Iranian to become free of the dictator regime. And after the war starts between The US and IRGC regime, absolutely, this is war is not between the Iran and The US. The US. This is between The US and IRG's dictator regime terrorism regime. And that was just our hope.
Sheri Shamsi:And I see, what is the difference? And I promise to myself till the rest, I'm not gonna be, leave my sides to the other sides because I saw what is the difference. When the Democrat pirate part came up, they support the terrorists. Mhmm. They released the $7,000,000,000 of the dictator regime to them on the Biden's time.
Sheri Shamsi:Oh, that's right. That's right. So what is this meaning? This meaning you support them. You give them the courage.
Sheri Shamsi:You know? So and and I saw, oh my god. How can be dangerous for both sides? Especially here. Sometime you think you are in safe place.
Sheri Shamsi:Nothing happening for here, but you are not in safe place right now. I know.
Abteen Vaziri:One one oh, sorry.
Sheri Shamsi:No. No. No problem. When the the the Iran regime, the IRGC regime is a big terrorist organization. And they're supporting all the terrorist organization in The Middle East, Hamas, Hezbollah, Zayn Abiyon, Fatimiyon, many, many more of them, they are are getting support from the IRGC regime.
Sheri Shamsi:And when you release their money, that means you will support the bank too. And they are in process to build the nuclear bomb. Thanks got the president Trump act Precisely. At the time he have to act because the IRGC's regime is wishing the death for The US and Israel for forty seven years. And you are hearing right now what they did for their people.
Sheri Shamsi:Who they don't have a mercy to their people, they will be mercy to you or your country? They says all the time, if the nuclear bomb will be done, we will be shooting, attacking to The US on mid of the California, so you are not in safe. President Trump is front of the war right now, in front line to fighting for me and The US safety. So this is the difference between the Democrat and the Republican. I think it's a time to talk about that.
Sheri Shamsi:We we love each other. We love our family. We don't want to, yelling and involving to the political to, damage the relationship and friendship, but this is our job to open their mind. I'm gonna wrap this up because I I wanted to
Abteen Vaziri:If I may just talk about the lobbyists.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's what I was gonna draw draw back to. You really beat me to it. It's
Abteen Vaziri:really important.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Abteen, if you can, draw before we wrap up, draw the connection for me regarding just not the lobbyists for Republicans and Democrats, but how they have strongly infiltrated so much corruption. And, yeah, we're we're here because of these lobbyists.
Abteen Vaziri:So the way that it works and by the way, all of these people have gotten money from governments like the MEK have. Right? And so the they're on the Democrat side, you have three lobbies by the Islamic Republic. On the Republican side, you have these lobbies by the MEK. Both of them are the enemies of the people.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Abteen Vaziri:So the the you know, they by the way, MEK used Hillary Clinton and Obama, but now the people that they're influencing given a large amount of money to the Republicans. That's right. But these are Republicans that fallen from grace that are broke, like Giuliani, like Pompeo, like, you know, they they Bolton. Everyone that's fallen from favorite, they brought them and in in Iran, they have this obsession with Pompeo and with Bolton. So those are the two people that they took.
Abteen Vaziri:Anyway, but on the Democrat side, more dangerous, much more sophisticated, and the money is coming from Iraq. So there's so funny enough, there's an organization started here in Dallas in 2002 called NAAC. I was a dumb student and I've sent them a $25 check. I joined. It was supposed to be a student organization.
Abteen Vaziri:Few years later,
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:it's Spell it.
Abteen Vaziri:N I a c, National Iranian American something council. NIAC. And then they they created NIAC action as a pack. And the guy that started it is a guy named Chito Parsee who claims he's a Rastrian. He came here as an exchange student from Sweden.
Abteen Vaziri:He was doing all this crazy stuff. He's, by the way, Muslim and a child of Mullahs.
Sheri Shamsi:Okay.
Abteen Vaziri:Allegedly.
Sheri Shamsi:Okay.
Abteen Vaziri:But he claims that he's a Rastrian. The name I think he changed his name. Trita Parsi sounds like he's a Rastrian name. Anyway, he came here in 1991 as an exchange student. He didn't like the family that he was with.
Abteen Vaziri:And so and this is all an article. So he befriended this guy named Bob Ney who was a state senator or state congressman in Ohio, so he lived with this guy and this guy was his mentor. Who's Bob Ney? Bob Ney was a guy who lived in Iran and taught English in the seventies and spoke fluent Farsi. Basically, probably CIA.
Abteen Vaziri:Right? Mhmm. So this guy took him under his wing, spoke fluent Farsi, and then taught him everything. Bob Ney became later on a congressman from The United States and then went to prison for thirty months. He was involved in the Jack Abraham scandal.
Abteen Vaziri:Oh, He was the king of getting money under the table and doing all kinds of bribery and illegal stuff. This guy trained Trita Parsi. Imagine a US congressman trained him. Right? So he created this organization called NIAC in 2002 and then NIAC has been doing all the lobbying for Islamic Republic.
Abteen Vaziri:There's videos of the Islamic Republic government, RGC in Iran saying, we created NIACC as a lobby in The United States to fight APAC. Oh. To fight APAC. That's that was the goal. So there was a lawsuit.
Abteen Vaziri:There was a guy who was I think Washington Press or Washington Beacon, one of these organizations. NIACC sued them. They went to discovery. Under discovery, they had to expose some emails. They saw that there was an email between Trita Parsi and the NIAC people and Jawad Zubiate Bennett who was organizing the nuclear negotiations.
Abteen Vaziri:They're the ones that helped organize the nuclear negotiations. So Iran almost had nukes when the JCPOA.
Sheri Shamsi:That's right.
Abteen Vaziri:So Obama administration gave these guys a lot of, you know, street cred and then and then they became huge. They almost got in trouble for far. Far as foreign, you know, registration act or whatever. Like, if you're doing lobbying for a foreign government, you have to
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Abteen Vaziri:So then he left that organization, created another organization called the Quincy Institute in 2019. The Quincy Institute, along with NIAC and another organization called PAAIA, p a a I a, these three are openly organizations that do lobbying for the for the Iranian government. Now, they're hiding it. A lot of the people that are behind them She is basically has ties to these people. Guess what she did?
Abteen Vaziri:She she's on the organization that enacted the twenty fifth amendment against president Trump to remove him from office, and she filed six articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth. Imagine, you're Democrat senator that you may have ties to Iran, and then in the middle of armed conflict with Iran, you're trying to get rid of the president and the secretary of war. It happens to be your families from out of all 196 countries, the same country that we're in a conflict with. If that's not a conflict of interest, I don't know what is. But but here's the crazy part, everyone's so focused on on on Trita Parsi and Yusupov, I'm sorry, but there's a lot of billionaires that are here that I suspect are managing money for the Islamic Republic.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I wanna continue having these sort of conversations because I understand where your passion comes from. I understand that your background and your history is littered with pain and tragedy and truth, and that's your truth. And so because of that, I I wanna help continue share it because it must be shared. So thank you for your time today. Look forward to circling back with you both and learning more about this organization, Abteen, and thank you for being here.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I know that you and I had not met before, but it is so nice to meet you. Me too. And thank you, and God bless you both.
Abteen Vaziri:God bless you.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:God bless you.
Sheri Shamsi:God bless you, Yusupov. Thank you for inviting us.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Of course, of course. Hi, Aleksey. Thank you for taking time to be here My pleasure. I am I feel like not I feel like, I was just drinking through a fire hose with Sheri and Abteen, And so my brain is it feels like it just was expanded a lot just a few moments ago. And now, I asked you to be on because your background is exceptionally interesting.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Unique. It's a very different experience from both of them who were just sitting with me. But what I'm really trying to understand are shared perspectives. It's very complex, people's lives. But I'm trying to better understand your and their points of view, how you've come to be in The United States.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I wanna hear about your childhood, the exposure from your Muslim father, your Christian mother, your Jewish grandmother. Tell us who you are and what brings you to not just The United States, but Texas.
Aleksey Yusupov:As I was growing up, I My dad, he he was born his entire family on his side, they're all devoted Muslims.
Abteen Vaziri:Mhmm.
Aleksey Yusupov:Mhmm. So, he was born in the Muslim family, but because the country where he grew up in, the country that he was born at is no longer in existence, it's the Former Soviet Union.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Oh, got you. Okay.
Aleksey Yusupov:Yep. So, same thing goes for my mom, before my grandmother converted to Judaism, she was she was religious Mhmm. But she never followed a specific set of of of religion. She was very spiritual.
Aleksey Yusupov:She believed in God, there's someone or there's a being above us, controls us and tells us to be good. Mhmm. And she taught me since I was a little child how to be a normal human being. Mhmm. With all my flaws and, you know, she wanted for me to be great.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Mhmm. And you are. No, thank you.
Aleksey Yusupov:So, as far as when my dad and my mom decided to have a family, was never a part of the conversation.
Aleksey Yusupov:Because my dad was in the he was part of the Soviet Army and he was part of the Communist Party. So, religion was religion was kind of frowned upon to be religious. Yep. It's not like people were prosecuted like the way it was back in the days, but it was frowned upon. Sure.
Aleksey Yusupov:So, we never discussed anything religious. But, whenever there was a problem and I remember that vividly, my mom would turn to to God. Mhmm. And, she always she well, still, she wears a cross. Mhmm.
Aleksey Yusupov:And, my dad was more of a harsh man Mhmm. And you know, his rules were, you know, rules of the house, you know, I'm the man and you know, if you disobey me, you know, I will punish you, you're not gonna get to God, I will crush you where you stand. So, to me that was a little bit intimidating and, I guess later on, in the story, we'll, we will touch upon why I chose Christianity. I guess, because of the way I saw my dad being this cruel dictator in my house. I was like, hey, you know what?
Aleksey Yusupov:I'm gonna go with the softer side of the family. But just joking. But, growing up as a child, because of my dad and because he was in the military, we had to travel a
Abteen Vaziri:lot. Mhmm.
Aleksey Yusupov:So, most of our traveling was done through Middle Eastern countries.
Aleksey Yusupov:We spent some time in Afghanistan, in Kabul before it came down, it became what it is today. Mhmm. And I I remember as a child running through the streets of Kabul and it was a gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous city. Mhmm. Very modern, people were extremely uplifted, they they were educated, schools were everywhere, girls, boys, everybody was the same.
Aleksey Yusupov:There was no subjugation, there was no, there was no total control Mhmm. By the government or by the Islamic organization. People thrived and then all that came to to a halt.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:A halt. Yeah.
Aleksey Yusupov:And then, when we went back to the country where my grandmother lived, in the name of the country, Tajikistan, it borders Afghanistan, same sets of rules. It's predominantly Farsi speaking population.
Aleksey Yusupov:again, as a child, I never felt threatened, even though people knew me as non Muslim. Mhmm. Even though I look Oh, I mean, people knew my dad, he was a very famous figure in the city. Yep. I had friends
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:In which city?
Aleksey Yusupov:That was the capital of Tajikistan is called Dushanbeh. From Farsi, it's called Monday.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Okay.
Aleksey Yusupov:I never felt threatened. People lived as one gigantic family.
Abteen Vaziri:Mhmm.
Aleksey Yusupov:I would say 90% of the population in that time were predominantly Muslim.
Aleksey Yusupov:They went to to their mosques, people Christians went to church and we all gathered to celebrate all the holidays.
Abteen Vaziri:Mhmm.
Aleksey Yusupov:Whether they were Muslim holidays, Christian holidays, people were always celebrating holidays together.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's a lot.
Aleksey Yusupov:That's a lot
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:of holidays. We
Aleksey Yusupov:lived in a building, I would say, there were 80 families in that building. We all knew each other.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Mhmm. It's beautiful.
Aleksey Yusupov:We all knew each other.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yeah.
Aleksey Yusupov:I could open any door, knock on the door, I was thirsty, my dad was always away, my mom was at the hospital, my grandmother would be at work, I would come from school and I would be fed, by by the by the neighbors. Yeah. We all took care of each other. Uh-huh. And that's how it was.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yeah. It's like Latin families. Yeah. We're very yeah. Same way.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Always walk in.
Aleksey Yusupov:Knock on any door. It didn't matter.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yep.
Aleksey Yusupov:And there's another thing that people should know and especially guys who served in Afghanistan during the war and they will agree with me. As long as you are a guest in somebody's home and especially it's a Muslim home, you will be treated like guests, you will be treated like royalty. It's part of Koran. Mhmm. It is it is the law.
Aleksey Yusupov:You cannot disrespect your guest because you will be punished. I can't think of any other religion which has the same sets of rules or values.
Sheri Shamsi:Mhmm.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I would agree with you on
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:that. Mhmm.
Aleksey Yusupov:So, Islam, to me, it's a very beautiful and very unique religion when it is practiced as it is written in Koran. Okay. And how it so once you start deviating from from the principle, that's when things go astray.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Okay.
Aleksey Yusupov:And then, certain things happen, that's, that was kinda where I was going with it. It was 1992 when it was right after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mhmm. So that's when the radicals from Afghanistan decided to take over Tajikistan and expand its territory and to expand its production of hashish. So drugs would be flowing freely into into Russia through through Tajikistan.
Aleksey Yusupov:And Tajikistan had a major airport and that's what they wanted to take over. Okay. And that's when radical Islam actually entered, the city and a national wall broke out.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Mhmm.
Aleksey Yusupov:I came very close to being executed. Yes. I was in the line lineup of people. At that time, I was attending a medical, medical school. First year, just finished it and it was ten ten people.
Aleksey Yusupov:It was me and, all my other classmates who just finished our studies and we're coming back in this little mini bus that took us to where we had to live. It was very dangerous to be outside. So, the bus was stopped and they the radicals took us outside and put us against the wall and I was lucky enough by the grace of God to escape. Wow. I pushed through the fence and I hit the floor and
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Did some of them die?
Aleksey Yusupov:Just all of them. They shot all of them. So, I was the only survivor.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Oh, my gosh.
Aleksey Yusupov:Yeah. So, shortly after that, my family, we had some, relatives already in New York, So they, my family decided enough is enough, so they send me off. Yep. So, here I am. I was 18 years old when I came to United States.
Aleksey Yusupov:Mhmm. So, it was definitely interesting acclamation and had to start brand new. Yeah. Still still a kid. Yep.
Aleksey Yusupov:Had no idea what I was facing. But, at the same time, I remember that was the first time when I started, witnessing differences amongst three religions Mhmm. Especially being in New York. Yeah. This That's is where I came.
Aleksey Yusupov:Yep. Brooklyn, New York
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Mhmm.
Aleksey Yusupov:You know, where Jews, Muslims, and Christians existed, like, literally could walk the street Yep. And you go to to the mosque, you can go to to church right next door. Synagogue. Synagogue. Yeah.
Aleksey Yusupov:And, still, I have friends who are Muslims and have friends who are Jewish and Christian friends, and again, we kind of follow the same protocol. Certain holidays, we all get together. We never discuss religion, we never discuss sports.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Sports? I thought sports was a neutral ground. Nope.
Aleksey Yusupov:Three things we never discussed. Politics. Politics, sports, and religion.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Sports?
Aleksey Yusupov:You have no idea.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Okay. Especially
Aleksey Yusupov:being in New York when the Yankees played the Mets.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Oh, I see.
Aleksey Yusupov:Got you. Okay. Sports teams. Yeah. Sports teams.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Got you. Okay.
Aleksey Yusupov:It didn't matter. Okay. Entire city was split in
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:half. Sure.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yes.
Aleksey Yusupov:Animosity to to its fullest. Yep. Yep. Those three things we never discussed and we all love each other and unfortunately what's going on right now, it's it's difficult to stay in touch with them and some people kind of
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Pull back.
Aleksey Yusupov:They pull back, we grew apart with certain things we definitely disagree, but you can't push your
Abteen Vaziri:Of course.
Aleksey Yusupov:Opinion on people.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Your beliefs and yep. So,
Aleksey Yusupov:my grandmother and my well, the rest of the family followed and how I came to Christianity and why I chose Christianity over over Islam.
Abteen Vaziri:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Aleksey Yusupov:Since well, since I was a since I was a little boy, I always remember kinda looking over and reading bible. Quran, I did not understand because it was written in in Arabic and I did not want to learn
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Arabic. Yeah.
Aleksey Yusupov:Yeah. That was very it was it was a very difficult language. My dad tried so many times and I still blame myself for not giving it a shot. Oh. It's it's it's an amazing language.
Aleksey Yusupov:So much is being lost in translation.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I know.
Aleksey Yusupov:Certain things that my grandmother, she read me, poems written in Farsi and I could understand it well, I used to understand a lot better back in the days, like now I don't. I go back to exactly the same poems and I read them in Russian or English and it's not the same. Mhmm. It's the translation is lost. Mhmm.
Aleksey Yusupov:Same thing if you read Quran, and and I know Quran was translated to many different languages, the translation is not the same. So, in order for you to actually follow the Islamic religion or Muslim religion, you have to know Arabic by heart. Yeah. And you have to read Quran the way it is written. Mhmm.
Aleksey Yusupov:You can use translations. And So, going back to Bible, I was able to understand it and kinda it connected with me. Mhmm. My my mom was an orthodox well, she's still an orthodox Christian.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Okay.
Aleksey Yusupov:So, you know, the whole Russian room
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Sure, of course.
Aleksey Yusupov:So Orthodox. Went to church a couple of times, I liked it, it was more of it was more it was geared more toward, the spiritual, understanding of the religion. I like the fact that it was kind of old school. You sat there and well, you stood there, you never sit for two hours Yeah. And you listen to people praying to God.
Aleksey Yusupov:Mhmm. And, it spoke to me Mhmm. But I never I could never make that leap. I knew something was missing. Like, I did not something wasn't connecting with me.
Aleksey Yusupov:And then, I think at that time, my grandmother was already gravely sick. She had CHF and I remember one night when she had her first heart attack. We brought her to the hospital and five minutes later the doctor came out and he told me to pretty much go and he told me to go and say goodbye to pretty much say my goodbyes because she had five minutes to live. My god. So this was the first time I openly spoke to God.
Aleksey Yusupov:I prayed to God to spare her life and I believed in miracles that could be performed. And she she lived ten years after that.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Oh my gosh. Wow.
Aleksey Yusupov:She lived ten ten years.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Wow. That's incredible.
Aleksey Yusupov:Yes. I remember vividly, after I was done praying, I went back to her and I held her hand. And first time, she was in pain for like two hours. That was the first time she was able to smile. Oh.
Aleksey Yusupov:And she pulled through. That that first night she pulled through and she's gotten better. She was getting better like day by day. And, after a month, we were able to take her home. Mhmm.
Aleksey Yusupov:And my mom, you know, thank God she was a cardiologist, she was able to help her through. And so, this is when I was convinced that something this was the missing part of the puzzle. Mhmm. And, walked myself into Orthodox Church and
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Oh my gosh.
Aleksey Yusupov:Got baptized. Interesting. Yes. And so,
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:where does your family live?
Aleksey Yusupov:My dad is in, he is in between, Dubai and Tajikistan. Uh-huh. My mom decided that she had enough of this, beautiful life in The United States and she went she went to Bulgaria and that's where she resides now, city of Varna.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Okay.
Aleksey Yusupov:So, they're all over the place. But, I went to see my dad, it's been I haven't seen him, I talked to him briefly Mhmm. After I left, but our conversations were always kinda shallow. Mhmm. We never touched any any religious stuff because after that, he became a devoted Muslim.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Got you. Okay.
Aleksey Yusupov:And it was so difficult for me to see that part of
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:him. Mhmm.
Aleksey Yusupov:Because I still had that image in my head of this tyrant.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yes. Yeah.
Aleksey Yusupov:Always yelling, always pushing.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Mhmm.
Aleksey Yusupov:It was always my way or the highway, and even the highway you have to pay tolls because it belongs to me. That was my dad.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yeah. And what sect or space within Islam does he practice?
Aleksey Yusupov:That's a good question. He is not radical for sure. He doesn't I so a couple of years ago, went back to Tajikistan, we went to Dubai together Mhmm. Where at some time, and then I went back to Tajikistan and that's when I noticed this tremendous change in his attitude. He became more connected with the world, like he became more humble.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Okay.
Aleksey Yusupov:And I couldn't understand that. Mhmm. And so, finally, one day I sat him down and we started talking like men to men as as equals. Mhmm. And he told me that he found his calling in God, that he he's a devoted Muslim, he speaks Arabic, he
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Oh, your father does
Aleksey Yusupov:speak He Arabic, actually I think he
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Oh, yeah, you said he tried to teach you.
Aleksey Yusupov:Yeah. He completed his Hajj twice, where he traveled to Mecca. Yep. So, a Muslim, that's a big
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:The whole area.
Aleksey Yusupov:Yeah. It's a big thing. And so, he was able to tell me stories about his travels and it sounded amazing. Mhmm. And it was so peaceful, surrounded by people from all over the world, everybody worldwide and it was just an amazing experience and but I was seeing him from from a completely different light.
Aleksey Yusupov:This was a man, older man, but I did not see that brutality in him anymore. He became so much softer and he spoke with dignity and still with authority of the subject that now he knew. Mhmm. And this is when I started paying attention to what he has to say about Islam because I still remember that day when I was in that lineup and AK forty sevens were staring at my face. Yep.
Aleksey Yusupov:Yep. And I was blamed for not being Muslim Mhmm. Even though every single person that was in the lineup were Muslim. Every single person was Muslim, but they were from a different part of the country. Yep.
Aleksey Yusupov:And those people were being annihilated because they did not belong to the radical Islam.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Oh, my gosh.
Aleksey Yusupov:And
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And they all died?
Aleksey Yusupov:All of them.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Oh my gosh, Alex.
Aleksey Yusupov:All of them.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:So, have you ever spoken to your father about that? About that experience? I did.
Aleksey Yusupov:He was horrified. Yeah. He was horrified. I was able to talk to him about, what had happened after nine eleven Mhmm. Because that's when the world started targeting Muslims.
Aleksey Yusupov:Mhmm. And I remember what happened in Brooklyn Mhmm. Two days after the towers went down. I mean, we're talking about neighborhoods being burned to Sure. To the ground.
Aleksey Yusupov:Yep. People were beaten to death with baseball bats.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Oh, god.
Aleksey Yusupov:I mean, I understand people were upset, but you cannot
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:No. That's evil.
Aleksey Yusupov:You can't exactly you can't exhibit your hatred
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:in Yep. That That's right. Yep. We're not called to do that.
Aleksey Yusupov:People have to realize that hatred begets
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:hatred. Mhmm.
Aleksey Yusupov:And that's what the radical Islam wants. Mhmm. Is for for us to, well, for the Western world to, to be opposed to their way of thinking. The biggest problem with that world especially with Afghanistan, poor countries, Afghanistan right now is back in the stone age.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yep. That's right.
Aleksey Yusupov:There's lack of education. Mhmm. There's no education to speak of.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:At all?
Aleksey Yusupov:At all. The only education that you could get as a boy is for you to go if you are privileged enough, if your family has No. Well, if your family has money, they can send you to school Oh. To learn Quran even though nobody in Afghanistan, maybe a small amount of people and they already assumed the roles of religious leaders. Okay.
Aleksey Yusupov:Everybody speaks Farsi.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Aleksey Yusupov:So, you know, in order for you to study Quran, first they they learn how to recite it
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I see.
Aleksey Yusupov:Yeah. Without even understanding what they're reading.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yeah. That's right.
Aleksey Yusupov:And they they learn after they learn Quran, only later they learn Arabic. Now, for example, if that school is being run by a radical Islamist whose interest or he was given a task to to produce as many soldiers as possible and that's what radical Islam needs, needs more soldiers. They don't need thinkers.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Aleksey Yusupov:That's why they don't educate women. Mhmm. There's total control
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yep.
Aleksey Yusupov:Of the population. And those those boys, if are being taught by a religious leader who they swore to to love and believe unconditionally, what those people say follows. And again, we're going back to that sort of word Islam, it's total devotion to God. Mhmm. So, if this person was put on this planet by God to represent him
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I must follow.
Aleksey Yusupov:I must follow Yep. Without asking questions.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I've read about military outposts in Afghanistan that are educating children. Is that so that's just not the case?
Aleksey Yusupov:That's not the case. That's not the case. Interesting. That's not the case.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Okay.
Aleksey Yusupov:The real, those military outposts, those were the most, corrupt people I've ever met in my life.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Sure.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Sure. I'm I'm not saying that they're not corrupt, but I still thought that that was an education system available there.
Aleksey Yusupov:Not anymore. Maybe back in the days, but not anymore.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Okay. So do you have anything that you would like to share with the youth of Americans who haven't experienced a lot except for what they're learning vis a vis social media. Their minds are being curated by
Aleksey Yusupov:Relate it.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Algorithms and they don't have a fully formed brain to agree to disagree. Do you have anything that you would like to share with them?
Aleksey Yusupov:Well, get off the social media to start
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yeah. With. That's wise.
Aleksey Yusupov:Yes. Pay attention to what's going on around you versus what's in front of
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:you. Mhmm.
Aleksey Yusupov:Expand your horizons. Mhmm. Travel. Definitely stay healthy and fit. Choose sports over phones and politics and definitely say no to drugs.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I love that, I love that so much. Oh
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:my gosh.
Aleksey Yusupov:Things will get worse before they will get better, but it's it's up to it's up to them, unfortunately, to, to lead this world to to a better place. Yep. If they don't realize that this is it's it's going to be up to them, they cannot rely on their parents, and unfortunately, they cannot rely on their leaders. Yep. To lead them, they have to learn how to be leaders.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right. How do you suggest they learn how to be leaders, besides the few things that you shared, which are gold, by the way, but aside from that, how can they really learn how to be leaders?
Aleksey Yusupov:Learn history. History is extremely important, I cannot advocate enough for the proper education, and it has to put a gigantic emphasis on the history of the world, why empires came to power and how they crumbled. Mhmm. That needs to be studied in detail. Yep.
Aleksey Yusupov:I was fortunate enough to go to school when I went to school and where I went to school. History was such an important subject. And again, it depends on the teachers as well.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's the whole thing.
Aleksey Yusupov:That's the whole thing, you have to have the right educators.
Abteen Vaziri:Unfortunately,
Aleksey Yusupov:human beings will be, especially human educators will be replaced soon.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yeah, that's right.
Aleksey Yusupov:That's where it's going.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Aleksey Yusupov:You cannot Yes, definitely AI will be a helpful tool, but it will not replace the human interaction with the students. I remember pretty much every single history class with my teacher and she was kissed by God to become a teacher, an incredible person.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:In Russia?
Aleksey Yusupov:In Russia.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yeah. What books would you recommend to the youth besides Art of War, Sun Tzu, you know, just what other books?
Aleksey Yusupov:Any historical books starting with Rise and Fall of Roman Empire, that is my go to.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Okay.
Aleksey Yusupov:Not the abridged version. Yep. It's a gigantic book, but it's worth every single moment.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I agree.
Aleksey Yusupov:Definitely read your Bible, or any religious book that you can find. History in itself.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:It is history, and that's what I try to I I constantly explain that to my kids. I'm like, listen, if you're
Aleksey Yusupov:going It's historical
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:book. Practice Christianity, you need to understand which books are the Torah, what comprised it, the history that came with that, the Quran, we need to read the Quran together and here's why, and da da da da, because it's it's a must.
Aleksey Yusupov:It's a must.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:It's a must.
Aleksey Yusupov:But then you have to go and visit those places Exactly. So you will connect on a physical, not just on
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Aleksey Yusupov:On emotional level, but you have to connect, but a place physically is to touch the stone, is to actually go into the cave where Jesus was buried. It's it's an ultimate experience, travel as much as you can. Forget about fancy cars, spend up money on education and books. Yep. Invest into yourselves.
Aleksey Yusupov:Books, any type of educational source that you will find which will make you a better person. Now that's just don't concentrate on a certain unique of skills which is needed to survive in this world. Broaden your horizons.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And you're in forensics, so you are in medicine. Yes. And so you understand not just history, but scientific backing of what makes humans humans.
Aleksey Yusupov:And
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:so you haven't stopped at just history, which is important. I can't. Me either. No. Well, thank you for being here.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Thank you for sharing your story.
Aleksey Yusupov:It's been nothing but pleasure.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Thank you. Thank you so much.
Aleksey Yusupov:You for inviting.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yes. And again, I love that you know, we agree on so much, you and I. And then, I think I found like the one or you know, one little area where we might not entirely agree.
Aleksey Yusupov:No, it's fine.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:No, no, but it's it's great. Yes. Because for me I'm like, okay, we're gonna talk about this at the ranch, we're gonna you know, we're gonna dig deep into it because I love spending time with you and Yulian, so thank you for
Aleksey Yusupov:Oh, looking sharing forward to it, trust me, this is just the beginning.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:It is.
Aleksey Yusupov:We scratched the surface.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yes, have, so thank you for being here.
Aleksey Yusupov:Thank you.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Okay.