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Baraka’s counter‑thesis was simple: fight for them, and they’ll fight for you.

When Baraka arrived in the room where we waited, it was just after 8 a.m.

Five days before this gathering, Baraka had joined three members of Congress at Delaney Hall, the recently re‑opened ICE detention center in Newark, the city he governs.

The whole thing had been a jarring experience, about which Baraka has been blunt: “It’s just authoritarianism … These people are committed to this foolishness. They’re going to go as far as they can to not look completely ridiculous because what they did was wrong. They had no jurisdiction over there in the first place.”

When multiple attendees referenced student sanctions and job‑losses across industries in response to their stances on Gaza, Baraka replied that Muslims should criticize U.S. or Israeli policy without being labeled unpatriotic or antisemitic.