The Madiha Katao Interview.

🌍📚 In this powerful author conversation, Madiha Katao joins Vigilantes Radio Live to share the story behind The Daughter of the Golan Heights. From Circassian agricultural life to forced displacement, from ancestral memory to spiritual revelation, this episode explores faith, heritage, and identity through lived experience. This is not just a memoir — it’s a preservation of history, a voice for the displaced, and a reminder that roots run deeper than borders.

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Produced, edited, mixed, and written by Demetrius "Whodini Blak" Reynolds, Sr.
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are now listening to Vigilantes Radio, presented by the
only One Media Group. This is the people's choice but
quality interviews celebrities and special guests, hosted by Demitrius Denny Reynolds.
Call in to join the mix at seven oh one
eighth one, nine eight one three. For the complete archive
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(00:24):
like us on Facebook at Vigilantes Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
We welcome all.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Enjoy the show. Ladies and gentlemen. Please welcome your host
Demitrius who Denie Black Reynolds.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Enjoy the show.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Hey, Hey, Hey, what's going on?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Guys?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Welcome to another incredible episode of Vigilantes Radio Live writer
on iHeartRadio and I am your host, Deanie. We have
a very special guest for you. Guys. You could definitely
want to stick around for that. And as a matter
of fact, text your buddies, text your family members and
let them know that we are about to dive deep

(01:08):
into another interview. Before I bring my guests on, I
do want to say that don't lose sight. This is
the frequency of the fearless. You know, some stories are
not written or written with ink alone. They are written

(01:31):
with soil under the fingernail, prayers whisper before dawn, and
footsteps taken in the dark with nothing but faith as
a compass. Tonight's conversation is about roots that refuse to
be uprooted, about identity that survives exile, and an about

(01:52):
the quiet strength it takes to carry memory forward when
history tries to silence it. You're not just here for
a talk show. And this isn't just radio. This is
revival for your mind, body, and spirit. This is Vigilantes
Radio Live. My name is Coach Deani, and change is possible.

(02:15):
Are you ready?

Speaker 4 (02:23):
Are you ready? Are you ready radio? Are you ready? Well,
let's go, don't go?

Speaker 5 (02:41):
Then?

Speaker 3 (02:43):
All right, all right again, you're listening to vr L.
That's Vigilantes Radio Live right here on iHeartRadio, and I
am your host, Deani. Our interviews are designed to go
beyond the music.

Speaker 5 (02:57):
News, books, art, acting, films, technology, education, under renewurship, entertainment, spirituality,
and sometimes.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Even past that thing that we call the ego. Our
interviews are designed to go behind the scenes and into
the minds of these brilliant people, you know, the ones
who were out there giving it. They're all for me,
for you and for the world.

Speaker 6 (03:22):
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I want you guys to please
join me in saying welcome friend to Mydja Kato. She
was our special guest tonight and she is the author
of the Daughter of the Golan Heights, a memoir grounded

(03:43):
in our heritage, faith, and the enduring bond between land
and identity. Raised in Golan Heights, her life was shaped
by agricultural traditions, family legacies, and spiritual resilience, and through
her writing she preserves memory, honors displacement, stories often left

(04:07):
untold and illuminate how faith.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Continues to guide her path. So with that, let's say
welcome friend to my Dia. Hey, hey, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Hey, welcome. Thank you so much for having made Danny. However,
what a beautiful program you have. I've been watching you
chatting on for the past week.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
Thank you so much. Thank you, lovely. I really appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
How are you today, I'm good, I'm here in dais all.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
Right, yes, right, all right, great? Great. So before we
really kick off everything, I like to know what people
think about, you know, what's been weighing on their heart
and their minds, especially with the world how it's going
and things of that nature. So what's been on your
heart and mind lately as this memoir makes its way

(05:06):
into the world.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, my memoir made December ten, So it's very very
baby hopefully with the help of all these people trying
to pick up and spread the world. And I really
want everyone to understand the culture the Circasian. Probably you
never heard about the Circasian community. We are like assault

(05:33):
spreaded all over the world. All together, probably will make
six million or less. But yet I speak slunky my language.
I have my cultural because the way I was brought
up as a child and travels of law. Sometimes I
was kicked out from the land I grew up and born.

(05:56):
Sometimes I was forced to really really caught because the
conditions of the area we lived. Then finally when I
came to the States, I had to run away for
my life. It's all this happened. I'm still standing on
my two feets and holding myself myself up.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
Wow. So yeah, so you've taken all of these memories
and experiences and put them in a memoir. Your your
story sounds like it needs a Netflix series or or production.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
I never sawt to write a book, but my colleagues,
my friend. When I need to stranger, we'll start talking
about you know, life, and stories pop up. Everyone will
tell me if I do not write a book, I said,
I can't speak a proper English. So they gave me
the solution to write and let the editor do the job.

(07:07):
Thanks to a Tichus, they did this work for me
after I wrote and took three and a half years
putraying my stories to be the eyewitness how my land
where I was born in Golden Heights, it was stolen
and promised to give it back to us in a

(07:31):
few years. And almost sixty years, we're still waiting. We're
still holding on our house skis Land deeds. We still
have them written in the language you cannot read. We
still have the original authentic deed for the land. The

(07:56):
land stolen by the Israeli after nineteen sixty seven, and
that land in Bulenheights was established beautifully by the Circassian
who they were genocided. I lay eighteen sixty by the
Russian Chaisterrism. Then the Russian Communism completed the genocide. So

(08:22):
my grandfather survived that genocide and very agents five percent
only were saved in the Caucasus Mountain by the Russian.
Very little story written about that because after the Caserism,
Communism forbid to write anything. So after the Communism fall

(08:47):
down nineteen ninety one ninety four, do you remember, so
Berlin Wall brought down and the Communism fell, many books
dig from the grounds in our homelands. In the Coca source,
people wrote down their stories and they were scared someone

(09:10):
will know about it. They varied in the ground and
the new generation digged out. Some of them now start publishing.
But my grandfather was telling stories how he was the
only one from his own family, the Ketau family in

(09:30):
Circasian Chetau family where my father comes from. My grandfather
the only one who survived. But then when they came
all the way, they were shipped by boats through Stamboul, Turkey,
from the Black Sea. They came through Syria. They gave
them this land called Girl and heights. Half the area

(09:52):
were resident the valleys by the Bedwin and by the Arabs,
and the mountains and the top hell was given to
the Purcasion and they established almost thirteen villages. Helped us
to preserve the language, the culture, the beauty of the music.
We have the dance, folklore and the characters, the food.

Speaker 3 (10:19):
Of course, Wow, that is amazing, That is so amazing.
When you think about the generations before you, your father's
hands and the soil, your ancestors from Caucus and the
faith that carried them, what do you feelish your responsibility

(10:43):
in carrying their story forward?

Speaker 2 (10:47):
We have a heavy, heavy loaded responsibility on our shoulder Alphacation.
First of all, when we know why we were replaced
from the Caucasus Mountain, the beautiful land in the Caucasus
mount it's a very beautiful I hope your visitor one day.
The dastand land, the Chechenian land, the Adiga. I come
from the Adiga area, and that land when our grandparents

(11:12):
and ancestors struggle to survive, then they put their blood
into that dirt. And those few percentage who run away
with their life to preserve their religion because they were
Muslims and that Tayphrism wants them to be forced to

(11:33):
enter their religion is refused. The Circasian Caucasian Mountain were paganists,
paganism before they enter Islam a thousand, two hundred and
three hundred years ago, and they hold it so deep
because it's fact, the culture, the behavior, the respects of

(11:55):
the women and the children received through that culture. It's
exactly what Islams teach. So they accepted Islams to the
visitors and the travelers, the people who come to do
the business. And then now when we were replaced in
the goal and height, it was very big responsible to

(12:17):
hold both the language, the dignity and the head up
and the hands and the stand to preserve the Circasians
at the same time carrier with the religion of Islam.
So we were happy and lucky that we were able
to learn the Arabic language, which is the language of

(12:40):
the Holy Book al Koran. You know that this word. Yes,
you could read it and translate many other languages, but
it's not the same when you read the other's worlds
in the Arabic language, where you know revealed on the
perfect Muhammad in that preserved language. My parents could not
speak the language, but they could read the Holy Book

(13:01):
because of some scholars. We'll come to the village and
that we'll teach how to recite the Holy Book. So
they could read it, but they couldn't understand what they
were reading unless a little bit of translation here and
transition there, and then we grew up in that environment,
like you said, making the deals go under our nail,

(13:23):
because all what we learn in a golden hide is
to farm your land. There raised cows, chickens and farming.
We farm corn, verramelons, linten wheat and great fig tree.
It was a beautiful golden heide. It had the highest

(13:46):
mountain they call it that Hermone Mountain, which is five
thousand meters above the sea. And if you're on the
top of that mountain, there is nothing Middle East block.
This is a view. So the Israelian eyes the Tipisle
of Palestine. Their eyes gazed the law on the Heramone

(14:10):
Mountain because it's the view they can capture if they
have a base there. Secondly, the water, the sweet fun
snow milted water running and creating springs running through my
village Mansoura. If I put the watermelon in the spring

(14:30):
river in the summer, the watermelon will crack because of
the coldness of that water, and we drink straight from there.
The village did not have running water. They did not
have electricity for twelve ls when I was blowing up there.
Yet my parents never complain about hunship are working where

(14:55):
my mother gave a birth to ten children, milking the cow,
taking care of them milks. Because we didn't have refrigerator.
To save the preserver, you have to turn into cheese yogurt.
Borro I was there to him. Every member of the

(15:17):
family have, of course to do from raising the door,
keeping your eyes on the door, because there is no
place to buy breads. Your mom, your parents has to
make the bread daily, not only for the family, but
the traveler who they will pass, specifically our house because
the place of my house was the end of the village.

(15:40):
When you go to the north, then you have the
traveler who they come through the village to go to
different cities, even to go to Palestine. Forty five kilometers
from my village, you will reach Celebs today. So it
was a very beautiful connection between the city of Damascius,
the city of Bairut, from Lebanon to Palestine to Jordans.

(16:07):
I mean, we were a page. So when sixty seven
war happening, it was a preparation for the war. A
month before we knew that something about to happen, because
the government of our own government, stealing government told us
to dig a trench that you can and that each

(16:28):
village is not in your backyard, to find a safe
heaven for you in case the plane come and the
tank comes, whether Selian army and Israelian army going to
engage in the area or the civilian. And he lived
that senior for one month. Specifically when my own father

(16:50):
was in Palestine as a volunteer nineteen forty eight, and
he witnessed the war between Israeli and the Palestinians. And
in the middle of that of that war was remembered
the occupation of the British in that land. So my

(17:13):
father saw with his eyes the genocide happened in a
city called Daire a scene he was in juralism. He
was wounded. His job was just to help others because
he had no idea about fighting or holding guns. But
they went him and many young men from the village

(17:34):
to give help to the Arab Palestinian there. And after
six months my father returned safe. But he told us
story terrifying story. When sixty seven happened, all he care
is to send the women and the children to be
in safe place because he was so afraid that if

(17:56):
the army attack us, women go through what Rasda went through. Today.
We were picked out running because we have no rights.
We ran, and there's a dance whispering. We were so
scared to speak loud or to cry, because the enemy

(18:19):
will heal us in that moment. After twelve hours, we
did not even know the direction because Norman Pere was
us except strangers, because their wife went to different directions
and they left children behind. That strange man came with us.

(18:41):
I wrote that, and this boy and my mom and
my sibling from six years old I was thirteen, and
go up to twenty. Finally, when we reached the border
of the mactives, the government will come to us to
care of us andress and the book these stories, I

(19:03):
will never forget them. Is the shortest life of my life,
twelve years comparing I am seventy today. It was the shortest,
but it was the deepest routes within me. And I
refuse and roots from my life. I figure I have
to tell my grandchildren, and they never seen. Maybe they

(19:26):
will see soon. Maybe maybe, hopefully Goal and Heights will
be returned to serious signs, to the real owners. We
still alive here, still have brothers and sisters. We have
a proof that the stands belongs to us. Hopefully that
will come true one day. I have to tell my family,

(19:46):
I have to tell my grandchildren, and I have to
tell the world. Where is Golden Hid? What was it
who established these cities, including the bisul who they were
living there for hundreds and hundreds of meals, but thousands
of years they lived really there, They lived as no man.
That was a lifetime traveling going after who is cow?

(20:10):
So they can buy the milk, they can make the cheese.
Then there were slit to the cities. So this bed
when we're a beautiful, generous people who they all so
kept their own culture, their dignity, the respect within themselves,
just like the Circasian. We were absolutely separated and two

(20:32):
different language in the same land, but two different cultures.
But we were a very good neighbor, expecting one another,
doing business to each other. We all lost that land.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
Yeah wow, all right, so the memoir begins with the
land itself. Why did Golden Heights need to be foundation
of this story even though there was more to the
story with your great grandfather.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
Absolutely, because I was born in Gonneheiss, and I am
speaking as eye witnessed and as to God. I put
what I know, I wrote what I heard. The story
never stopped when we lost the land. It was the opposite,
my father. If they have company, you know our house always,

(21:28):
you know this is a neighbor who was a relative.
And they never told us children stay away, go to
your room, play or sleep or do something. Then you
will call us to be the one honor of the host.
Honor the guests. Bring them the tea, bring them the food,
take care of the daily dishes in and out. We

(21:51):
will listen. I will pay attention, and when the guests
leaves my parents, they will ask us what was the mess,
what was the letter? What was the story you heard?
What are the things you can talk about in the future.
Don't play sad story, destroy you, make you depressed, make

(22:12):
you sad, shed your tears. Now we learn how to
survive as our ancestors survived in the Caucasus mountains. We
learn how to stand straight on your feet and be
tall and speak up the truth. These are the things

(22:34):
I learned from my parents, from my elderly brother and sister.
So when we came to Damascus, I have to earn education.
All my siblings went to college, including myself, and I
choose a career. No other girls thought about in the
Masters before I was number five in my year graduation

(22:56):
versus three hundred miles seven engine nineteen eighties in the Masters,
and I struggled because the boys don't want me to
be there. They will tell me this is not your field.
Go to somewhere else. You want to study, you want
to do college, This is not where you're supposed to be.

(23:20):
I faced that challenge. After two or three years, we
became friends. After we graduated, we worked together, We shared compla.
You know, we proved. I proved for myself as a woman,
as a female, I can't do this just as good
as any male can do it. The journey stayed there,

(23:44):
and I worked on the border of Israel, on the
Golden Heights, because that was the reason I want to
rebuild those religious When Israeli took them over and he
has to pull out by the United Nations Resolution nineteen
seventy four, he did not save a building, but knock

(24:09):
them down, just like what he did Braza today, not
one building, my village still under the occupation. Three years ago,
before October seven, twenty twenty three, I visited I'm gonna
say Palestine, Israel I visited through Tel Aviv was my

(24:32):
American passport to go and kiss my land in gold
and height. My house not exists. I went through. I
was afraid to put my fit my feet on my land,
which I looked at from the road. But they told me,

(24:53):
the driver told me they might have minds, which is
the border Golden Heights. I wrote, and my story had
thousands of thousands of minds. It will explode a fifteen kilogram,
which is thirty pounds, maybe something heavy thirty pounds step

(25:16):
on that mind will explode and in my make you
handicaps or kill you. So I was afraid to really
stand on my property, which is just empty land by
the way. But I stood there and I prayed, and
I wish my parents were alive. He gives them a

(25:37):
phone call on what's up and tell them, look, dad, mom,
look where I am. You're going to be proud of
your daughter while they were dead. Ah, this story should
not repeat for anyone. We should not have any occupation
in the twenty first century today. I thought this occupation

(25:59):
and trying and war to be illegal. After the Second
World War, Europe learned in a hardship way they went
through First World War Second World War that they said,
we should know any nation occupied Steel, any other nation
lands still israeliqueped in Palestine, and a big part of

(26:24):
Razda which belonged to Egypt, and a big part of
Syria they call it Gollen Heights, and the West Bank Jordan.
You will extend to the West Bank before nineteen sixty seven.

Speaker 3 (26:41):
D wow. So how did your father influence your world view?

Speaker 2 (26:54):
My father was a man. When my father came to
America visited me. If you walk on the street in
New Jersey, in Clifton, I will be watching him from
the window. He will love to walk. Did not speak English,
but he spoke French because he grew up in the
occupation of the French to Syria. And people will stop

(27:20):
him and the woman will tell him can I give
you hug? Well, my father was a religious you won't
touch any strange woman. He will hug himself as a
sign language, and he will try to speak French to them.
Then they will understand that okay, this man. But my father,
he set up a very good example. In nineteen sixty seven,

(27:42):
when the entire village has to run away with their
men and women. My father kept my seventeen year old
brother with him, and he took upon him to protect
the life stacks of the village. For the entire village.

(28:04):
He will keep his eyes on the cow. If the
chicken or you know, run around because they're scared, but
the cow, he will bring the entire village cow into
one area and in the morning he will take the
cow out to let them eat from the grass, and

(28:25):
he will bring them at night and he will put
them inside the pen we had. We had a huge land,
we had more than three acre where the our cow
alone will be there. But he will bring the rest
of the cow and take care of them. Why because
he said, I am not afraid they're gonna If they is,
they're gonna kill me, and let him kill me. I

(28:45):
will stay here with my son till my family returns,
because the promise was the family and all the civilians
will return the minute the war will end by the
order of the United Nation or America. Back then, but
six months past and my father was interrogated by the

(29:08):
the the army will come. They will bring someone who
speak the Arabic language or the Circasian language, because in
plast time there will three villages also who they preserve
the Circasian language, and they will bring people from them
for translation because they know big part of Gur and
high Probably if anybody stay there, they just speak Arabic obviously,

(29:32):
and they will talk to my father to convince him.
Say here, the Red Cross will bring your family back
to you. We need you, we need your health. We
will hire you and will bring you food. We will
take care of you, we will let you farm. And
my father will say not by myself and my family,

(29:54):
I want the entire village to return six months past.
He knows that's not gonna happen. Meanwhile, my mom will
hide her tears without sharing why she's crying till we
find out that. Well, we don't hear any news from

(30:16):
my father. Maybe he's dead, maybe he's killed. And my
brother seventeen years old. Finally we were chucked. They sneak
out at night and my father requested from the Israel
army at least let me take all the cow, the

(30:39):
cow from the village to the border of the Mascus,
so oill return to the owner. I'll keep mind. They said, no,
take fundly your cow, and my father was honest. He
took his own counts. He brought them to the border
and of course there's business people. They came there. He

(30:59):
had to sell the count because we have no place
to bring cout. We were in the shelter and thank god,
you know, we made living all over again without accepting
a dime of charity. Three months six months. After six months,
my father start working construction. Could not speak Arabic fluently,

(31:23):
but he started working construction and we learned, me and
my siblings, we learned that type of business with him.
After school, we will go and help him and he
will take subcontract. He will rebuild some small houses. He
would work in the concrete cenent or something like that.
And until he died, that was his job. And he

(31:48):
sent us over to college. And my father saw the
thirteen villages rebuilt in Gondham Heights and he lived do
with me in one of this house for one years.
Looking over the border, you will see my village. The

(32:10):
Israeli can will parents back and forth, and what protects
us from the area the United Nation army. But nineteen
aighty six, the end of the eighty six, I faced
a lot of pressure politically from my aggressive own government

(32:34):
that the father of the chat Assat. Everybody know who's
the Chad Assaid his father regime. The albas Pari region
half is Assat. He was evil. He starts going after
every individual Syrian who does not join a vast party,

(32:55):
whether you lose me or you are against me and
us to join any any party. In my life, I
just want to be a good citizen. But yes, uh,
what we call muhabarat. The people who intelligence will go

(33:16):
after you because you're not abat party. I'm practicing religion.
They will accuse me with brotherhood, sisterhood. I don't know
a name. I've never heard of. Report after report after report.
The last year at my work was held for me.

(33:37):
The head of the instligence. He gave me advice. You
have two options. Join albath party. This is where you rest.
You will get to salary with salary as engineering and
the other salary as a member of Albath party. You
will start writing liquors against somebody. I said, I want

(33:58):
to do that. Then he told me be careful if
you come back to my office one more time, I
don't know if you're going to go home. I took
that curiously. The second day I went to the American
embassy and I was granted visa without telling my father
I prepared all my paper documents, college paper to come

(34:23):
to this land to practice my freedom and pursue my education.
All I have in my luggage three hundred dollars cash
and my transcript of my bachelor's degree in engineering. When
I was ready, I have to face my father and
my mother. Of course, they were happy for me because

(34:47):
they knew I was going through was not easy. They
were scared, if I will will go to jail, I
will never come out life. They told me goodbye. When
I came to the state through Jeff Kennedy, in three months,
I met my beloved husband. We're still together. And I

(35:09):
reminded I stood because you know, you have to have
a faith in God. When you trust in God, he
will help you all the time. And this is why
my life is based on spiritual dignity and attribute. My
attributes my character always to see the truth, to speak

(35:36):
the truth, and to follow the truth. Doesn't matter where
the truth come from, how long it's the truth. And
that's I think what kept me, you know, alive, kept
me happy woman. No story, no challenge will bring me
down on my knee. I never went to the battle

(35:58):
of alcohol or cigarette or anything because I'm depressed. Never. Instead,
I would run to the hollybook by need and going open,
I will pray, I will do supplications, and I'll find
the answer right there. And I received help from people.
They can't even see my name. Maybe you hand it out.

(36:19):
They can't even they don't even know where it's gone
and highool. But I would get the help from them. Now,
my first job I got it was because of the
principal principle of the elementary school my children went through.
When he met me in the hallway, talking, chatting. You know,
I'm a chatty. Then he goes, if you have a

(36:41):
high school degree, I will offer you a job in
the cafeteria. I didn't laugh. I told him, yes, I do.
I have high school. And a little bit further, because
how far, I said, I have Bachelor Delien civil Engineering.
You know what he told me, doctor doctor Brown. I

(37:02):
never forget his name. You know when he told me
I never met a seven engineer woman. I cannot believe
you have a degree in seven engineering. I cannot. You
gotta get a job right now, right now as a teacher.
I was like, how how helped me? I still have
a recommendation that he wrote it she's a super attendance

(37:23):
of the department in Paris and public school in New Jersey.
And he wrote them, this young lady must get a job,
whether a math teacher or any other area. She will
choose my bachelor degree. Allow me to become a math
teacher only if I go back to school and have

(37:45):
three credits in math, because my subject area, I had
a twenty seven credit hours in mathematics. To me, math
was like, you know, drinking water. And I went straight
to William Person. I signed up for one class and
I was certified to become a math teacher. Immediately I

(38:07):
got the job. I mean, that's why, you know, I
believe and I trust in America. It's a great country.
We're going to keep it as a great country. I'm
a citizen paying tax. I did not go on wilfare.
I did not go to collect food staff. I could
sit there and says, you know what, English is not

(38:29):
my language. I don't care. I would beg my husband
to spend money on me. I'm not that woman. I
always learned from my parents to teach your hands the
upper hand, the giver, not the taker. Even your son,
your father, if you know that forbid something wrong happened

(38:55):
with me. That's a different story. You know, physically or
sickness could be, but the grace of God eating healthy
for a reason. Indeed, I'm enjoying to be a teacher
and back to the classroom as a substitute. Liking in Dallas,

(39:17):
I want to set up all the time that lantern
for anyone who's facing hardships to follow my footsteps or
read my story. You don't have to follow my foot steps.
Everybody have their own past. But when you hear somebody
else's story, I think that empowers us, empower each other.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (39:41):
I have one final question for you. Your memoir hosts
deep spiritual reflection. How does your relationship with God evolve
through these hardships?

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Without God, without the religion I practiced since I was young,
I would be indeed very very lost when I was
working at the Golden Heights as a single woman around
me all men. Then on the top of that you
have the United Nations Army, who they have no clue
about Islam. When the time of prayer comes, I will

(40:16):
pull myself out of the street where the tractor and
spills going door because I work on goods roads and bridges.
I will take my place and I will pray. I
will do my fight daily trail when the time comes.
I did not care where I was. I remember many
times when I came to this country. My cousin took

(40:39):
me to Atlantic City first visit. He showed me, oh,
this gambling area and the casino. And in a minute,
I said, Lien, cousin, I have to pray.

Speaker 7 (40:50):
People don't worry about praying when you go home. Where
are you going to pray? Look at the music, Look
at it now, look at the people. I said, no,
I'll find a stop. I went second floor and you
know what, this was my teen eighty four, my first
visit as a tourist. I played in the empty land,
on an empty spot in the second floor.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
When I was done, you know, back then, people used
to carry camel and not the cell phone. You know,
when the people were shooting at pictures and I smashed
their face when I was done, because while I'm playing,
I can't pray. I can't talk at a Muslim. You know,
when we come to take two three minutes only we
go up and down on my head on the floor.

(41:33):
When I finished, they asked me question what I was
doing is this meditation? Is this because you know, Islam
was like a strange in this lands was a pan
of time. Now it's growing because you know that it's
the fastest glowing religion. Actually, and of course our deeply
said that, you know, African brother, whod they shipped them

(41:56):
from Africa? Two thirds of them were Muslims, but they
didn't have the right to practice their religion. They made
them to forget their name, you know, so iflaw was here,
but at the same time was not here. But I
think since nineteen eighty six when I came back my
second trip, till now I see the population and the

(42:18):
place of center. Of course, the media, the YouTube, the scholars,
the language. People who born here and they speak the
language and then they learn the religion. They will, you know,
be the one who delivered the message better than me,
because an other one who come from oversea, and maybe
we carry a lot of you know, pollution with us,

(42:41):
or we carry some mistakes, or culturally we're wrapped with
something we don't one hundred percent. I cannot say the
American culture right. But the one like my children who
born and raised here, they will be different, you know,
they're the one now they're carrying the religion. Because with
Altice religion, I will many times I will full off

(43:03):
my head and then probably will meet someone who will say,
come on, come on, let's have fun. Let's go there,
let's dance, Let's go drink, let's go smoke. I mean,
I was in parison. My brother used to tell me,
if you extend your hands from the car, will get
free drug. I mean, you know, one section is bad,

(43:24):
but vers of the section used to be. But now
it's a lot better. You know, education helps people to
stay away from illegal substance or smoking or novel music.
It's a beautiful new durality. Beautiful now, you know verse
eighty six. When I can. When I told my husband

(43:44):
and when I really live in an area where to
be close to the Circasion neighborhood, he told me they
live in a very very poor neighborhood because they're all
immigrants and they don't speak the English appropriately, so they
have to go to actually Is and a New Jersey.
The Paris and area had a lot of factory back then.

(44:06):
And when he took me for life, he took me
at night and he showed me how at night people
in summer of you know, partying, and you want to
live here. That's why he told me. I told him yes.
I told him, yes, move because we have to be
part of the one who helps to clean the neighborhood.

(44:28):
Educate the people, you know, talk to them, give them hope,
Explain to them. I walked in New Jersey twelve years
in the Say County jail as a math teacher for
gg program for the inmates. And what put me in
that environment to just give hope for the inmates because

(44:50):
they were misguided once upon a time, and many of
them may be innocent, I don't know. It was not
my job. My job was just through teaching them math.
Many of them earned their high school diploma while they
were there for twelve years. It was a contract between
the school I was working for and the secunty jail.

(45:12):
It was not the money, because I could do two
turning out, you know, after school to make the same
amount of money. But I chose to, you know, work
in that jail to give hope and talk to this
inmate in a different ways month face, tell them stories.
They used to tell me. We have a war every day.

(45:33):
If you lived in nineteen sixty seven war, one time
in your lifetime. We have a war and our never
never dood every day and those things will break my heart.
Hopefully you know, people will support each other. The community
in America very diverse, but we need to know each other,

(45:54):
to support each other, to extend our hands, and to
share our story. I find out tracking your book is one.

Speaker 3 (46:01):
Way and date in d Where can our listeners pick
up a copy of your book?

Speaker 2 (46:10):
Oh yeah, Amazon is the way to go. And if
you have a prime Amazon flee should think Barzan Novel.
Many other bookstores also available. You can download the Kindle
version and to get a heart copy. And please, if
you read my story, get me out.

Speaker 4 (46:29):
Of you.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
All right? All right, and listeners, just in case you
need the link to Amazon, I will have that link
available in the description of this episode and in the
show notes, So all you guys have to do is
just click the link, all right. The Daughter of Golan
Heights is more than a memoir. There's some memory preserved, face,

(46:53):
the firmed, and identity reclaimed. This conversation reminds us that
even when land is taken, roots remain, So make sure
you connect to Mada.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
Got to uh get out to get that, get that?

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Yeahs and explore yes and explore this powerful work that
carries history forward with courage and clarity. Thank you so much, Media.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
Many thanks to you, and happy holiday.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
To you and all your listeners and the have holiies
to you as well. Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 4 (47:30):
Much piece to all. My name is Deni and I
am the host of Vigilantes Radio Live. I think that
we are beyond just asking cool questions and getting cool responses.
I think that we are here as creatives to provide

(47:53):
an example that you can do things different outside of expectations,
because some of us simply were not born into the club.
But there is perhaps a door window or backgate that
we can leave a clue for you to get into.

(48:13):
Life is short, but there are plenty of moments to
try and get it right. Pursuing your dreams and learning
from mistakes may be tough, but regret it's tougher to
book your interview. Email us at v radio at only
onemediagroup dot com. That's a v as a victorious or

(48:36):
visit only onemediagroup dot com. I'm counting on you, Heaven.
We all are counting on you to step into your
purpose and your passion. You are listening to Vigilantes Radio
live on iHeartRadio, providing you with an opportunity to dive deeper.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
You And now listening to vigil Lances Radio, the people's
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