"Islam is basically decolonization on crack."
That's how this conversation opens — and what follows is the history
lesson most of us never got.
Palestinian life and purpose coach Meha Siyam sits down with Dr. Sarah
Nasir for Part 2 of a conversation that moves from the Crusades to your
kitchen counter. Meha grew up in a village northeast of Al Quds. She
spent years as a human rights attorney in Palestine before becoming a
coach for Muslim women. She knows this story from the inside.
She walks us through the chapters that get skipped: that Palestinians
were a predominantly CHRISTIAN population when 'Umar bin al-Khattab took
Jerusalem without spilling a drop of blood. That they still hadn't
converted when the Crusaders arrived and killed them anyway — same faith,
wrong ethnicity. That mass conversion only came generations later, after
Salahuddin. And why she calls what's happening now "phase three."
Then Sarah pulls on a thread from her own linguistics background: there
are three Semitic languages — Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic. Three sister
languages. So who exactly are the Semitic people? And what happens to the
word "antisemitism" when we look at it honestly?
Two Muslim women. One history that connects the Aryan myth, the
Holocaust, colorism in South Asian homes, Shakespeare's Shylock, and the
headlines you scrolled past this morning. Not a political problem, Sarah
argues. A man-versus-Shaytan problem.
And then, because this is Masala Muslima — a salad.
Meha teaches us Fattoush: cucumbers, tomatoes, stale pita fried in olive
oil, and a dash of sumac. Which comes with its own story. An Indigenous
researcher found that sumac processes differently in colonizer bodies
than in Indigenous ones. It grows on Turtle Island too. It just isn't
popular here — because, as Meha puts it, what we eat in America is
colonizer flavors.
The land always shows itself.
Meha's parting reminder — even if the world is falling apart, if you have
a seedling, plant it anyway.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🥗 FATTOUSH SALAD — Meha's Recipe
Salad:
- Cucumbers, cut into small cubes
- Tomatoes, cut into small cubes
- Onions, sliced very thin (cubes or wedges both work)
- Stale pita bread, broken into squares and fried in olive oil
Dressing:
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Fresh lemon juice
- Olive oil
- A dash of sumac
Method: Fry the pita squares in olive oil and set them aside. Mix the
dressing in a cup with a spoon. Pour over the vegetables, toss in the
fried bread LAST, and eat quickly — that's how you keep the crunch.
Sumac note: it grows on a tree in little balls, gets ground into a deep
purple powder, and tastes zesty and lemon-tangy. It makes the whole dish
prettier.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CONNECT WITH MEHA SIYAM
Life & Purpose Coach for Muslim Women | Former Human Rights Attorney
She offers free consultations as her way of giving back.
💼 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mehasiyam
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode
🌐 transcendantyou.com/masala-muslima
Masala Muslima: Faith Flavored Living — conversations with Muslim women
about how they flavor their lives, their work, and everything they love
with faith. New episodes with real stories and real recipes.
#Islam #MuslimWomen #Palestine #Muslima #MasalaMuslima #IslamicLiving
#Fattoush #Sumac #Decolonization #AlQuds #Salahuddin #Spirituality
#PalestinianFood #MuslimLifestyle #SarahNasir
00:20:21
Welcome to Masala Muslima: Faith Flavored Living - Our Very First Show! (Part 1)
Introducing the premiere episode of Masala Muslima: Faith Flavored Living! Hosts Sarah Nasir and Nida Shaikh kick off their show filled with fun, energy, and engaging conversations. In this episode, they share their long-awaited journey to starting the podcast, discuss the importance of community, and dive into the significance of family and faith. Plus, they reveal a special 'Masala Chai' recipe from the kitchen. Join Sarah and Nida as they blend daily experiences with their faith, bringing a flavorful twist to your life. Stay tuned for more episodes where they'll continue to masala your life with wisdom, recipes, and spirited discussions! This is part 1 as the first episode is being split into 2 parts.
00:00 Welcome to Masala Muslim: Faith Flavored Living
00:40 The Journey to Starting Our Podcast
02:29 The Story Behind the Podcast Mic
04:52 Embracing Life's Chaos and Joys
09:08 The Beauty of Creation and Life's Journey
15:31 Masala Chai Recipe and Cultural Reflections
19:32 Wrapping Up: Bringing Our Flavors Together
00:33:18
Embark on a heartfelt journey of faith, fear, and growth in the second part of our first podcast episode, "Struggle, Strength & Masala Chai."
Join hosts Sarah Nasir and Nida Shaikh as they dive into the beauty of life’s challenges, the power of community, and the spiritual connection that helps us transcend. From overcoming imposter syndrome to finding joy in the mundane, we explore how faith guides us through life's ebbs and flows. Discover personal stories, discovering Allah in our lives, and actionable insights to enrich your spiritual path. Whether you're seeking inspiration, empowerment, or just a moment of connection, this episode is filled with warmth, wisdom, and masala-flavored discussions. Tune in and let’s grow together!
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Intro
03:24 - Allah Al-Khaliq and Al-Musawwir
10:57 - Imposter Syndrome and Riyaa
15:47 - Humility in Faith
18:11 - Quran 4:34 - Gender Roles in Islam
22:19 - Personal Responsibility in Life
27:10 - Authentic Masala Chai Recipe
30:13 - Final Thoughts on Discussion
33:00 - Outro
#fear #motivationalvideo #anxiety #mentalhealth #personaldevelopment
#quran #podcast #podcastmuslim #dawah #community #cooking #womeninislam #muslimwomen #muslimah #lifestyle #masala #masalamuslima
00:27:51
"What happened to indigenous people in the dark — is happening
to me in the light."
Palestinian American attorney-turned-life coach Meha Siyam joined
host Sarah Nasir on Masala Muslima and did not hold back. She broke
down why international human rights bodies are designed to fail, drew
a chilling parallel between Palestinian erasure and the genocide of
indigenous people on Turtle Island — and then she made Maqluba.
In Episode 03 Part 1, Sarah and Meha move from courtrooms to olive
groves, from settler colonial roots to the Arabic word nifas —
cooking with a piece of your soul. Rights. Roots. Maqluba.
This is Faith Flavored Living at its most raw, most honest,
and most nourishing.
─────────────────────────────────
🫙 RECIPE: Palestinian Maqluba (Upside Down Rice)
─────────────────────────────────
Bone-in chicken or lamb · whole spices · fried vegetables
(potato, carrot, cauliflower, eggplant) · jasmine rice cooked
in spiced broth · flip & serve with cucumber-tomato salad
+ plain yogurt
─────────────────────────────────
🌿 CONNECT WITH MEHA SIYAM
─────────────────────────────────
🌐 Website: https://www.mehasiyam.com
💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mehasiyam
📞 Free consultation: DM Meha on LinkedIn or Register on her website
─────────────────────────────────
📌 IN THIS EPISODE
─────────────────────────────────
→ Why Meha left human rights law ("It's designed to fail")
→ Working for Scandinavian governments in occupied Palestine
→ Palestine erased from Muslim memory — and why that's intentional
→ The terrifying parallel: Turtle Island & Palestinian genocide
→ "The criminal justice system isn't broken — it's working perfectly"
→ Islam as decolonization
→ Maqluba recipe + the olive grove tradition
→ Nifas: the untranslatable word for cooking with your soul
─────────────────────────────────
🔔 SUBSCRIBE so you never miss an episode →
🌐 transcendantyou.com/masala-muslima
─────────────────────────────────
Sarah Nasir Sarah Nasir
"Islam is basically decolonization on crack."
That's how this conversation opens — and what follows is the history
lesson most of us never got.
Palestinian life and purpose coach Meha Siyam sits down with Dr. Sarah
Nasir for Part 2 of a conversation that moves from the Crusades to your
kitchen counter. Meha grew up in a village northeast of Al Quds. She
spent years as a human rights attorney in Palestine before becoming a
coach for Muslim women. She knows this story from the inside.
She walks us through the chapters that get skipped: that Palestinians
were a predominantly CHRISTIAN population when 'Umar bin al-Khattab took
Jerusalem without spilling a drop of blood. That they still hadn't
converted when the Crusaders arrived and killed them anyway — same faith,
wrong ethnicity. That mass conversion only came generations later, after
Salahuddin. And why she calls what's happening now "phase three."
Then Sarah pulls on a thread from her own linguistics background: there
are three Semitic languages — Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic. Three sister
languages. So who exactly are the Semitic people? And what happens to the
word "antisemitism" when we look at it honestly?
Two Muslim women. One history that connects the Aryan myth, the
Holocaust, colorism in South Asian homes, Shakespeare's Shylock, and the
headlines you scrolled past this morning. Not a political problem, Sarah
argues. A man-versus-Shaytan problem.
And then, because this is Masala Muslima — a salad.
Meha teaches us Fattoush: cucumbers, tomatoes, stale pita fried in olive
oil, and a dash of sumac. Which comes with its own story. An Indigenous
researcher found that sumac processes differently in colonizer bodies
than in Indigenous ones. It grows on Turtle Island too. It just isn't
popular here — because, as Meha puts it, what we eat in America is
colonizer flavors.
The land always shows itself.
Meha's parting reminder — even if the world is falling apart, if you have
a seedling, plant it anyway.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🥗 FATTOUSH SALAD — Meha's Recipe
Salad:
- Cucumbers, cut into small cubes
- Tomatoes, cut into small cubes
- Onions, sliced very thin (cubes or wedges both work)
- Stale pita bread, broken into squares and fried in olive oil
Dressing:
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Fresh lemon juice
- Olive oil
- A dash of sumac
Method: Fry the pita squares in olive oil and set them aside. Mix the
dressing in a cup with a spoon. Pour over the vegetables, toss in the
fried bread LAST, and eat quickly — that's how you keep the crunch.
Sumac note: it grows on a tree in little balls, gets ground into a deep
purple powder, and tastes zesty and lemon-tangy. It makes the whole dish
prettier.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CONNECT WITH MEHA SIYAM
Life & Purpose Coach for Muslim Women | Former Human Rights Attorney
She offers free consultations as her way of giving back.
💼 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mehasiyam
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode
🌐 transcendantyou.com/masala-muslima
Masala Muslima: Faith Flavored Living — conversations with Muslim women
about how they flavor their lives, their work, and everything they love
with faith. New episodes with real stories and real recipes.
#Islam #MuslimWomen #Palestine #Muslima #MasalaMuslima #IslamicLiving
#Fattoush #Sumac #Decolonization #AlQuds #Salahuddin #Spirituality
#PalestinianFood #MuslimLifestyle #SarahNasir