Neomi Alam

Um I think working with Exeter Mosque, umm… I realised that part of the problem was that communication does have to be really crystal clear, umm, we… and we have to be really careful about the words that we choose when we speak to people. So, for example there was, I think it was back in 2014, there was um… an attack on Gaza. The atrocities at the time were you know, the… the details that were coming through in the media was just, it was heart-breaking. I realised, not at that point but… but that’s an example, I realised that actually communication is key. It’s really important we are crystal clear on the message that we want to give and um I’d… I’d learnt that people listen to you actually when you’re not shouting and people do kind of, when you shout at people they kind of switch off, umm and so when you speak there has to be strength and authority. You have to have conviction in your own words before other people can accept what you are saying. Umm… and when I was working with Exeter Mosque um, one of the things that Exeter Mosque would help… would need help with was um speaking out um and um putting together the right words for the right message. So, I’ve kind of… whether I sometimes did it subconsciously um but at a later stage I think I became much more aware that the way that I speak and the words that I use have an impact on the people that are listening to me. Umm, and so when I stood up and I talked about Gazans in Palestine and what they were going through, umm it wasn’t just my own conviction, it really affected me. Umm I felt not just moved, I… I felt like… I remember at the end of the… the… the talk that I’d given with the megaphone in my hand I’d realised that I was… I was in tears and I was… I was moved to the point where I was slightly shaking. And that does happen very often when it’s something that really affects me, um but I think that’s the beauty of activism. You have to be empathetic. You have to be, um you don’t have to be… a lot of people will come across this, that you don’t have to be a Palestinian to understand the plight of Palestinians. And that goes across the board with any form of activism – you don’t need to be somebody who is oppressed to understand what oppression can do to people. Umm and it’s something really powerful when umm… when somebody who isn’t directly affected goes and stands next to the person who is directly affected because it does give them the conviction that yes umm, I am in the right by speaking out umm, and that’s really important.