Shaun Newman Podcast - #1030 - Isik Abla

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

Işık Abla is a Turkish-born Christian minister, author, and evangelist. Raised in a devout Muslim family in Istanbul amid verbal and physical abuse, exposure to violence during civil unrest, and a later violent marriage, she fled to the United States in 1996 after her husband tried to kill her. Struggling with deep depression in a new country, she planned to commit suicide but had a dramatic supernatural encounter with Jesus Christ that day, leading to her conversion, healing, and transformation.She founded Işık Abla Ministries in 2011 after beginning satellite TV broadcasts in Turkish and Farsi in 2009, reaching millions across the Middle East, Europe, and beyond. Her ministry focuses on sharing the Gospel—especially with Muslim-background audiences—through TV programs, digital media, books, and teachings on redemption, freedom from trauma, and spiritual warfare. Watch the Cornerstone Forum 26’https://shaunnewmanpodcast.substack.com/Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionBitcoin: www.bowvalleycu.com/en/personal/investing-wealth/bitcoin-gatewayEmail: [e-mail] Get your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500

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Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast today. I'm joined by Dr. Ashik Abla. Ma'am, thanks for hopping on. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Now, it's your first time on the podcast. So what I do with everybody is, you know, for the audience for myself, I'd love to just hear your story.

And then people can understand who they're listening to as we get into maybe some more current events. Yes, absolutely. I was born and raised in Turkey in a Devant Muslim home. I grew up with a lot of abuse and, of course, trauma during the Civil War years of Turkey. As a little girl, I saw arms and legs were flying in air, bombings, and people killing each other in front of my eyes. So without even knowing, develop complex PTSD. My father was a womanizer. My mother was a housewife, always in depression, suicidal, living on pills.

So to say, it wasn't a very healthy environment, fragmented in the mind at early age. And I started looking for answers, like a lot of people trying to survive, same time looking for answers. and I thought I found my answers in Allah, the only God was presented in a Muslim country. My great-grandmother was an authority in Islam. She made me memorize most of the Koran. I was going to the mosque, starting at age 5, memorized most of the Koran. And then age 12, I went to a Koran course that brainwashed me and the other students in the classroom. about jihad.

How important it was to die and kill in the name of Allah. This is what we learned. And we were programmed to hate Jews and Christians, all infidels, mainly we were told that all the world problems were originated because of Israel and America. So I grew up with that kind of mindset,

not always look very Islamic on the outside, but on the inside, very radical, believing that we had to do ethnic cleansing of the world to make this world to a better place. Then I was in a marriage with a radical Muslim man who was beating me up almost every other day. And when he put a knife on my throat, I decided to flee to America for my freedom. By that time, I wasn't completely believing in physical jihad. I was believe in different forms of jihad. I learned from him, from this man.

Those types of jihads were political jihad, educational jihad, population jihad, media jihad, which we are seeing right now in the Western world, especially in America. I was part of those jihad's educational jihad. We were paying some tuitions of Muslim students coming to America and going to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, so they could become prominent leaders in the United States, part of educational jihad. And then all these things that I studied, I was highly educated when I came to America, didn't help me. My education didn't help me with my depression and suicidal thoughts.

On the day I was going to commit suicide, my Christian boss led me to Christ. And I met Jesus in a miraculous way. And everything changed in my life and in my heart, of course. Before I ask you about running into Jesus, I want to go back to Civil War in Turkey. I don't mean to date a lady, but I'm curious, when was Turkey's civil war going on?

And could you just walk me through a little bit of that? Sitting here in Canada, we've never had a civil war. And when you talk about that, I hope you just expand on it, maybe just a touch. Sure, of course. This war was in early 70s when I was born. and it was early 70s, I was probably until 7, 8 years old I saw this war. Even afterwards, war ended because of the Turkish military step in to stop the war. It was between left and rights.

Left represented socialism and communism, and the right represented radical Islamist. So families were divided, country was divided. There were a lot of killings on the streets. Bloodshed. I walked through lakes of blood with my mom. We were stuck in a battlefield. Two groups were coming against each other with knives, swords, and spears and guns. So this was a very brutal, physical war on the streets of Turkey.

When you're sitting in the United States and people talk about, civil war, having lived through it, I assume you're like, do not go to civil war. No, absolutely not. And I want to remind them, you know, in September, during, after September 11, we said, we will never forget. And then another thing, united, we stand. And that is, that is my always encouragement and message for Americans. United, despite of our differences, This country is very divided right now But we need to unite against our real enemies When you come

When you're talking about the Quran You mentioned at age five You memorized the Quran, correct? Most of it I started memorizing it, yes And then by age 12 you were being instructed on jihad And then you rattled off I wrote down three of them There's different forms, media, educational, spiritual

I assume there's about five others that I missed. Yes. Regardless, sitting here in the West, I have people who are Muslims around me, I don't want to say all the time, folks, but certainly like they're on the streets and everything else. I never, I feel like they're peaceful, but then I get told by others that they're not and that the Quran instructs them. Can you make that make sense in my head? Absolutely. I hear Muslim friends. Muslim family members that they are, they don't believe in jihad. They don't believe in Western

world is evil. But Koran calls them basically not good Muslims. They are Bexelian Muslims. They are not following the orders of their Prophet Muhammad and what it says in the Quran. So we can see it in the Christian world as well. We call them Bexilden Christians. So they have double standards and they don't follow the standards of God. It same concept applies to the Muslim world. There are a lot of Muslims they don't believe in jihad in any form that I am talking about. And when I talk about radical Islam, it's an ideology. It's not only a spiritual exercise of one person professing and practicing their faith in their privacy. We are talking about 20% of radical Muslims who are thinking that all the world must come into a submission of Islam. So there's

There's a different group of Muslims we are talking here. When you talk about radical ideology, that group of Muslims then. Yes, absolutely. What percentage of Muslims is that? This is about 20, 25% of the entire Muslim population, which is 1.8 billion Muslims today around the world. But here's the thing. It didn't take so many Muslims, millions of Muslims or even hundreds to do September 11, terrorist attack. It doesn't take a lot. 20% out of 1.8 billion represents a very threatening and serious number.

When it comes to 9-11 then, you believe it is strictly the radical ideology of these Muslims that perpetrated it, that they had zero help from anyone in a three-letter agency that would have wanted to inflict damage on the United States that they go off and do war. There are, of course, other enemies of America and Israel and other enemies of the Western world, definitely. But I can go a lot of other deeper details of the terrorist groups, their partnership with the drug cartel. I mean, this is really wide. But when we go to the bottom of it, this is radical Islamists doing this. However, when September 11 happened, including in Turkey, including, including in other Muslim countries,

mosques were celebrating. Other Muslims were celebrating. Some Muslims, they don't participate, radical jihad, doesn't mean that they are enjoying and celebrating what they see, which is a collapse of the Western world. Walk me through then,

going from being, I'm going to call it devote Muslim at that time. You're married to a Muslim man, you've grown up in, and then you come to the United States fleeing an abusive. of relationship. Why did you pick the United States?

And then where did you start working? And what happened when you run into Jesus? Well, it's made a long story short. First of all, America represented freedom to me. And the second, I had friends coming to America. And they were telling me that I should run for my life to America. So, and then I came to America through work. for the corporation that I was working one year before I fled to America.

And when I saw how women were treated in America, when I saw the rights of women, I thought as a highly educated woman, I could have a chance here. I wasn't less than a cow in America. I had rights, and I could become someone that I dreamed of in my wildest dreams. And that was the reason I picked America. otherwise I was going to Europe before I came to America. And Europe was a very safer place than Turkey.

However, in Europe, already a Muslim invasion started happening. I'm talking about 30 years ago. I could see in Germany, in other countries, a lot of Muslims already invading Germany, England, and other nations in Europe. And I wanted to run away as far as I could. And that was America. You know, when people bring up what's happening, and let's pick on the UK for a second, or we could, you know, I've interviewed different people from Germany as well. When they bring this up, they're labeled a ton of different things.

Yet everybody can just see the population changing right in front of your eyes. You're talking about 30 years ago, you're like, I can already see what they're doing. Oh, absolutely. 30 years ago, I was part of the ideology. And also 10, 12 years ago, I went to British Parliament, and I talked with the lords and the ladies of the British Parliament. I told them Sharia law is already in the UK. And they were part of British Parliament, and they did not even know that Sharia law was already activated in their midst. It was happening.

And everybody turned their blind eye to this. And they told them, oh, they are over there. They are not here. And it's happening in America right now. It's happening in Canada right now. When you talk about the different forms, sorry, I'm going to pull us back here of jihad, media, educational, spiritual. When I hear GHA, I don't know, maybe you could just explain a jihad to me. If that's as simple as it gets, it probably it's way more complex than that.

But essentially a jihad on, say, media, what we're doing right now would be a takeover of the institutions that control what media is saying in the narrative, correct? Yes, correct. Jihad means holy war, holy struggle. So it doesn't only include physical jihad, but that holy war, holy struggle, let's talk about this. Why you need to say struggle to struggle against something else, right? So anything is non-Muslim. So sometimes people confuse and they think this is a war between Jews and Christians. No, if you are an atheist, you are agnostic, you are Buddhist, Islam cannot coexist with it.

any other beliefs. We are talking about real Islam here. Islamic radical ideology of jihad here. Jihad ends only when the entire world becomes a Muslim. If entire world doesn't become Muslim, still there is going to be jihad. Jihad believes we should in America, I'm talking from this perspective, we should replace our constitution with Sharia law, which is the law of Islam. steals, you cut their right hand. If woman gets rape, they go to jail for getting rape. This is Sharia law. If your little hair shows outside of your burqa, you will be branded on your forehead as, excuse my English, as whore with hot iron, and you will be beaten up and rape like an infidel. So we are talking about this extreme law that needs to come to these countries that they are

pushing. And if you watch enough, videos that we have because this is what I do. This is my life. And I'm not speaking through an information. I lived it. This is a memory. Not for me a theory. And they are pushing this. That's Sharia law. If a woman is beaten up by their husband, she's in a coma. And if she recovers, she cannot go to a U.S. court or Canadian court. She needs to go to a Sharia court because on her ID, her address is linked to a Sharia court. This is what we are talking about. And until that happens, they are not going to rest. So when people tell me in 80s, I'm in 80s, this is a Christian war. It's not a Christian war. When they put a gunpoint at your wife's head and say, you're going to wear a

hijab or we are going to treat you like a prostitute, then that is everybody's war, except Muslims. I've had different people talk about the Quran and Christianity and the Jewish faith or Muslims I guess not a Quran sorry those three that they come from Abrahamic faith that they can coexist what would you say to that I mean I think you just did but I'm going to pull it back there anyways because that has been we can all come together under these three because they all stem from the same place and that there is a way we can coexist. We can absolutely coexist. We can not with radical Islam.

We can coexist with nominal Muslims. They don't believe in jihad. We can. We can coexist with people that they want to have peace. True peace. We can. But we cannot coexist with Quranic jihadist beliefs that follow Muhammad. We cannot

I mean, we want to coexist, but they don't want to coexist until we become like them. We cannot coexist. So you've been in the United States for how long? Almost 30 years. Okay. In your 30 years, you know, when you talk about Sharia law and what they

do to women in particular, when you're staring around at Americans trying to get them to understand this, I assume there's a whole bunch of people. What are you talking about? I don't see any of this. We still have, you know, forgive me folks, the rule of law here in Canada. Maybe I don't entirely agree with that.

But I mean, for most people are like, what do you? I don't, I don't see any of this. I don't see any of this violence. I don't see any. What would you say to North Americans that are, you know, over your 30 years, I assume you've been seeing more and more of it start to enter society. Do you look and go, like, listen, in the next 20 years, in the next your child's lifetime, There will be such a change, or is it faster than that?

How do you try and wrap North Americans' Western's brains around what you're trying to warn them about? It is almost like cancer. You know, some people go to the doctor and doctor says you have stage four cancer and you have three months to live and they are shocked because they never saw the evidence in their lives when they went to the doctor. Right now, Europe has stage four cancer. And they didn't see that it was coming, even it was in their backyard. Now, America, Canada, they have stage one, stage two cancer. And you don't see it.

It doesn't mean that it's not growing in your body. And this is exactly what is happening. That is their agenda. Their agenda is through the mainstream media to say, Islam is a peaceful religion. Islam is a, if you repeated a lot, Hitler said they will believe it lie. And this is exactly what is happening. This is actually our biggest mistake is we are seeing this as a political game. Right and left thing.

It is not. We are not seeing, I am not seeing this as a political fight. I am seeing this completely outside of the politics, ignorance of Americans, ignorance of Canadians, believing that this is not spreading, but it's like a cancer. One day it's going to be too late. And when they start their agenda, just like when I went to the British Parliament, they said, no, it doesn't exist. I'm like, Sharia law courts are already established in England. And they are like, no, it doesn't.

And these people were prominent leaders in the UK. They didn't even know what happened. I think our biggest problem is not even the invasion of Islam. Our biggest problem is ignorance. This ignorance, right? this has been an interesting question an interesting problem right

yes so how do you address ignorance the only thing that you can do is first of all I am not talking from books I am not talking about something that I didn't

live but I just learn it from somebody else as a head knowledge people like me when they stand up so to say in America we say from the horse's mouth, we start speaking what we live,

I think people pay attention even they are ignorant. You cannot make people see it until they really start engaging with someone who live through this. We are seeing in Canada right now, thousands of Iranians are, they are supporting this freedom that is coming to Iran. They are going on the streets and walking, and even in Canada, even in America, It's a risk of life.

What I am doing is risking my life. When people start seeing this, I start to seeing people's hearts are changing, whether they are liberal or they are conservative. I start seeing right now, people are believing in my message. Speaking of Iran, then, your thoughts on, you know, like, I think I can say, I just had my annual event in Calgary. Yes, 700 people came and the conversation of Iran was, prevalent. It was, and very divided, right? You had one man on stage say that the U.S. is similar to Germany in

1939. He, you know, what you're doing to another population is horrific. It is, you're destroying a civilization. If I may, to go online with that, you got Donald Trump saying, and part of my French here today, folks, but this is what he said on April 5th. Tuesday will be power plant day. as we record that, that is today, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one in Iran. There will be nothing like it. Open the fucking straight, you crazy bastards, or you'll be in living hell. Just watch, praise be to la la la, President Donald J. Trump. And then, as I'm recording this with you this morning, a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.

I don't know what happened. I don't want that to happen, but it will probably will. However, now that we have complete and total regime change, we're different, smarter and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionally wonderful can happen. Who knows? We find out tonight one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world. Forty-seven years of extortion, corruption, and death will finally end. God bless the great people of Iran. So one side is very against what Donald Trump is doing. One side would probably be on the flip side, that the U.S. is doing the right thing. When you sit and

look at this and hear Trump's statements. What do you think? Well, I may, I may look political here, but I do believe that you enter into some wars and it's not your choice. It happened in the past Cold War with Soviet Union. You know, we thought Soviet Union was the second big power against America. Then they came out to be a paper tiger, you know, nothing. And we are seeing the same thing is happening with Iran. Before, there was a declare war. there was a war. Before we said anything, yes, there were nuclear weapons. Iran was a threat. Iran has been feeding the all terrorist groups, you know, especially his bullock. We were seeing what Iran was doing. Already there was a war. Oh, okay, somebody with a titanium backbone

stood up against the extremists because he's also as radical as they are on the other side. Now we are like pointing fingers. No. And I have friends in Iran. I have. I have. underground church leaders in Iran. I have done, this is my primary ministry to Iranian people and also Turkey, obviously, because Iranian people also speak Turkish language as well, most of them. And so when I look at it and they say, please do not blame Trump, let him bomb here, because we refuse to live like this. We prefer to die. When people are saying like that, they are already living in health in their own lives. And in America, it's so easy.

In Canada, we can just sit and judge a political leader is doing this. But this is bigger than more important for human lives than us. And when Trump says this, he's not only saying this. Iranian people are saying that too. I have a friend, all her family. She's in America. All her family is in Iran. And she said, please do not get me.

mad at Trump. My family is ready to die for their freedom. When you hear truth stories, through life stories from Iranians like this, you say, let's do it because it's time. In Iran, before any of this went on, has come to pass. It's like the last, well, like 47 years has been the number that has been prevalent since they had the Aitola come in. And, you know, you probably having underground churches and everything else, understand this better than I ever will. What have they been living under that they'd be willing to die for for freedom? You talk about they're ready to die for freedom. Is it been Sharia law?

It is Sharia law. It is government being worse than a terrorist organization. They are terrorists, they are government. I mean, it is tyranny. It's oppression. That is exactly what happened with Israelites. they were walking out of Egypt because they were beaten up, they were being killed, and they are like, okay, we're going to do this or we're going to die.

Breathing doesn't mean you are still humanly treated. They are only breathing. They are not living a life of any human being should be living. And under that circumstances, they would say, I want my freedom or I die. I was at that place. I know personally, that is not their story. This is also my story. They are my people.

I know how it feels. When I walk out of that relationship that I had a knife on my throat, put by a Muslim man, and told me to jump from a building, I prefer to die than live like that. And they are living this every single day of their lives. Can you walk me, you've painted a lot of different pictures for me with Sharia Allah. I'm like, living under that as a woman, walk me through some of the things that Westerners can't even probably comprehend. Right? I mean, as a where you sit today, right? You talk about like the freedom.

I couldn't even comprehend the freedom I gain as a woman coming to America. Maybe let's flip it around. If you were an American woman going to Asharia, am I saying that, Sharia, Sharia. Korea, a law, country. What would you expect? Well, if you go as a tourist, you know, if you are not alone,

you shouldn't be going anywhere alone as an American woman in any Muslim country. I don't recommend that. And I am a solo female traveler in the Muslim world, by the way. And I do, you know, street evangelism in the Muslim countries. But it's a completely different situation. But if you go as an American woman,

cannot survive in a Muslim country if you are going by yourself. You need to have some protection. You need to have men. We cannot be safe without a man. And as a matter of fact, in Pakistan, in other countries, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, if you get raped, it is your fault. They put you in jail, not only the people that who rape you because you were by yourself without man's protection. And Wait, let's hold on this for just one second So if you're a woman You get raped

The law there would say It's your own fault Because you didn't have protection So therefore you go to prison Yes Yes I have friends They went to prison

They were rape victims They got pregnant from Rape And they gave birth to their child In prison Because they were raped and their families shame them and disown them. We are not only talking about women.

Let's talk about liberals. Let's talk about gay rights. They have no rights under Sharia law. If they openly profess they are gay, they will be executed in some countries right there. People don't know what they are talking about. We did a one million march for children. This was a few years ago. and it was about the LGBT stories entering into our schools.

And one of the things that I noticed was how many people from the Muslim faith came out alongside Christians. And we're just like, this is not okay. Like this isn't okay to go into schools. And it was a very an interesting thing to see because normally Christians and Muslims don't come together like that. Yeah, there are so many interfaith relationships between Muslims and Christians and even sometimes with Jewish people. But again, these are not the groups that we are talking about. You're talking about the extreme side of it. We are talking about the extremes.

I'm not talking about the Muslim. They just memorize few Arabic verses and they are just exercising their faith. We are not talking about that. We are talking about people that you cannot coexist with them. If they are coexisting, there may be two things, because Muslims under Takia, they can lie. They can say, I don't believe in jihad, but they do believe. So you're going to watch that too. Oh, I am a peaceful Muslim.

I don't believe in killing. They do believe. So they can lie. But also, there are Muslims. I have those kind of Muslims in my family. They don't believe. I have Muslims in my family. they support ISIS because ISIS is against Christians and Jews. So there are different groups of people

and it's very hard for Westerners to identify and understand it. Sometimes it's very difficult for me to identify them because there are Muslims. They look like me right now, but they are radical. And I was. I looked like this and I was going to not see meetings in Istanbul, Turkey, because I believe in ethnic classing of Jews. So how does this all change for you? It changed in what way? After my salvation or? After your salvation, yeah.

Yes, it didn't change in one day. It changed in layers because I didn't know the word of God. All I knew was Jesus was real. I didn't know any doctrine. I didn't know any theology. I didn't understand how Trinity could happen or Jesus, a man could be son of God. It is blasphemy in Islam. I didn't understand anything.

but I knew that Jesus was real. He was in that room when my boss was speaking to me about my life, that he didn't know prophetically. I knew that there was a divine revelation in the room. And I believe in Jesus, being Son of God without understanding. Logically, how could that be? I understood it, and my life changed completely. But from that moment, it was layer by layer.

I didn't care for Israel. I became indifferent. I didn't hate them anymore, but I didn't care. Then I went to Israel and my friend brought me to Israel. I didn't want to go. I didn't care. But then my eyes opened because God showed me his heart towards Israel. Then I started seeing my people how they were seeing the Western world, how they were hating the Western world. And all these things started happening layer by layer. God started dealing with my heart and changing my heart. It took me since 2000, I received Christ. So we are talking about 20 years of faith that God process and progress and refinement brought me today.

What I preach is the truth. It didn't happen over a night. Well, I like the layer analogy because that's been my walk as well. It hasn't. I had a man on the podcast, although listeners wouldn't heard it because it was after we'd finish. we talked for probably an extra hour after the show it ended. And I don't know what I said, but he'd stopped me and said, don't race. It's not a race.

It's a journey. It comes, you know, at God's time and his pace. And ever since then, I'm, oh, the layer analogy is a very apt one, right? It's very, you know, some people, it's just like bang and it changes. But even when it changes, that's the beginning of the journey, right? Like now you have to go, you have to go searching. I assume that was the unwinding of what you'd been instructed for the first chunk of your life. That must have been eye-opening.

And then I assume an internal struggle of like, oh man, how do I make this piece together so that I can move forward? Absolutely. You are, you just nailed it because that was happening in my heart. every single day there was that struggle. It was a struggle, me being a woman and even speaking. I was spreading the gospel on TV and I'm still doing it. But at the beginning, I was almost committing unpardonable sin being a woman and talking because I had no voice in my own country, Turkey.

So it was like, and I was going to a church at the time that they didn't believe women should speak. And I was okay with that. So everything was an inner struggle, inner conflict. And they call it an inner jihad. I had to go through that inner war in me every single day. And there are still some things. I don't know right now what they are, but God highlights during my time. Oh, you have a problem with this because you still have a problem with your gender.

And he sets me free. I was very intentional with my growth. I was intentional with my freedom because I knew that I was a basket case. I was a mess. Well, aren't we all messes? We all are. When I first went to church, I told everybody put it all together in the church, but it is far from the truth. Yes, it is very far from the truth.

You know, in a world today, the information coming out is, you know, I read two of Trump's tweets. You can go and like, I was saying to a friend earlier, and maybe this is a poor, poor idea. But you know, when it comes to Iran, I'm having lots of discussions about this off-air folks and on air too. But I'm like, you know, if I didn't have a wife and children, as a journalist, I think the place I'd be going is Iran. Because I want to, I want to understand. Like, I don't know how to, I sit here and I talk to you. And I hear, oh, my, oh, man, this is, right? I had a, I, you can probably unpack this a bit more for me.

I had a guest on here to talk about no country is a monoccur. No country believes all the same thing every step of the way. We can see that in the United States. We can certainly see that here in Canada. And I go, well, if it's here, true, that is true in Iran for sure, or any other place you pick, right? That's why you have a political left and a political right and you can go down any path you want on that. But one of the things that I struggle with sitting in Canada is when you haven't gone and seen these places and understood, you can't, it's, it's, be very difficult to break down what is actually going on in the world. Absolutely. I mean, I do my broadcasting from America and when people start working for our ministry, one of the first things I would, I do is to take them to the Middle East Muslim world, Middle East and North Africa. Because if they never been, they are never going to understand. And even being there like a tourist or a missionary in a short period of time, it's not good enough.

They really need to break bread with people to understand their culture, how things are. And they will understand the Bible better because 90% of the Bible, until Paul came and mission started written in the Middle East and for the Middle East. And so for entire human race, but also for the Middle East.

But, yeah, you cannot understand unless you, you being in their shoes. When you see, I'm going to assume then, you follow people like Tucker Carlson or Canis Owens or, I'm sure there's five others folks, those two come to mind off the top of my head, who believe, and once again,

I hate to say what another person believes. The conversation they're broaching is Israel is controlling the United States. That's the only reason they went into Iran. And, you know, you play out this thought, that the USA is not where they should be. What do you think? Well, I am not going to reflect on their faith,

but they are representing certain beliefs, of course. Here's the thing. Israel is not dictating anything to the United States. United States have been always defender of the victims, defender of the weak. That is who we are. I consider myself an American, not only Turkish American.

I am an American American because this country gaming, my freedom. I found truth and my identity in America. So I appreciate it. I don't take it for granted. We got to understand, yes, I mean, there are things we look at Trump. He's not an easy person to like. He's not a... That's putting it lightly. Let's put it lightly. You know, like, but you see, where I am coming from, we don't focus on those things that people are walking on eggshells and we have a very fragile generation right now that we are raising. Everything he says is an offense and hate crime. You know, like, we don't look at this.

I mean, I voted when I was an immigrant in this country for Democrats. I voted for Republicans. I would look at their foreign policies. I will look at how somebody is going to protect this nation, protect my borders, protect your borders as well. It's not only America we are talking about. What he is doing is reflecting. I will look at the things.

from an outsider, from my perspective, is completely different than other people. I'm not even focusing on his jokes or his arrogance or his this or that. People are picking on the things because, tell you the truth, Americans are very emotional people. And they are really bothered and offended by Trump's mannerism. That doesn't bother me. Because I am coming from the mannerism of terrorists. I am coming from the mannerism of people that they call me a cow.

openly, I'm coming from that kind of mannerism. What I am looking for who is going to protect me, my rights, and I will have better living conditions and freedom in this country. That is what I am looking for. People are looking and picking on the wrong things. And that is why they are against Trump. That is why? I am not.

Because why? Because this world, this world that I live in will be a better place when I have a president with a titanium backbone. This is what we need. When you look at, I mean, obviously Iran is the place of today. But there's been other places the U.S. has gone into. Yes. This idea of going into other countries to set them free.

Is that even possible? Yes and no. Let's talk about what happened in Iraq, right? What happened in Afghanistan? We had U.S. troops. Iraq got freedom. But why did ISIS came right after? Because, you know, government change, political games change, and they immediately took the troops. Why? Because it was a popularity thing. Oh, I'm bringing U.S. troops back home. All these things are political games on the media. And when we left Iraq, what happened to Iraq? You know, because these people don't know how to live in freedom and democracy as a republic. They don't know these things. It is going to take few generations for them to adjust.

You can take people out of slavery, but you cannot take slavery out of their mindset. And they needed that help. We weren't there. Same thing happened in Afghanistan. We left it billions of dollars of equipment and technology there behind us. It was another political game. If we enter into Iran the way that we are entering right now. And next government is a different government.

Let's say liberals. And they say, we are ending this war. We don't want war and everybody's yay and amen. We are not doing a good thing. Yes, they can live in freedom. If we supervise them and guard their freedom. Freedom is not a one-time thing. Freedom is established over time with boundaries.

If you just say you are free and we let them out there as victims, another terrorist group is going to form and they are going to be under another dictator. We cannot do that. So then you would suggest or be in favor of U.S. troops being in Iran? Yes. They need to be in Iran and they need to also ensure for years. We are talking about decades. We are not talking about a few years of war. We are talking about decades here. They need to be there and they need to establish and ensure. Otherwise, what we are doing is Iran is right now temporary.

The last poll I saw on Americans, vast majority of them did not support what's going on in Iran. And I think when I go back to any of the places you mentioned, they wanted the troops out. They wanted us to end the forever wars. If you go into Iran the same way, don't you see the end of Donald Trump's era coming very quickly and probably anyone after who supports what he's doing? Absolutely. Absolutely. Here's the thing. When Iraq war happened and Bush did what he did, what happened here? A real estate market crush, right? And then we saw the recession came, people committed suicide because they lost everything.

War is never a fancy thing, popular thing. Because it's going to... One thing that happens that affects people's pockets and hurts people's finances is immediately going to be a wrong thing. But it's not true. This is an opportunity also, controlling world oils and gas and sources. This is not a one dimension. We are talking about multidimensional factors that we are talking about. We are talking about nuclear weapons.

We are talking about oil and reserves that are controlled by Iran. We are talking about terrorist groups that are being in partnership with drug cartels that bringing drugs into America. So if you are not seeing this and you are only seeing this, oh, it's going to affect our pockets. It is going to affect our pockets whether we are in a war right now or not in the long run. But Americans or Canadians, they are not seeing this. Actually, this is an opportunity for Trump, and he's taking this opportunity right now, to make the record straight and get to the bottom. He's a bottom line president.

He's getting to the bottom line. And if you don't get it to the bottom line right now, we're going to get to the bottom with American balloon economy sooner or later. He's just taking the opportunity right now. You may think me naive. So I'm going to throw a question at you. I'm curious your thoughts, obviously. In my brain, I've thought and been very anti-war that we can coexist peacefully, whether it's Russia, right, what's going on there, whether it's honestly, Iran or wherever else, that the people, of Iran, if they want regime change, want to get out from underneath Sharia law, that they can do that

and they don't need our help. That we need to take what's happening and you're in the states, I'm in Canada, what's happening in Canada and going on with everything politically and culturally, that we need to fix what's happening here in order to be better for the world. Why isn't that possible in Iran? Or is that just a naive thing to say? I don't fully understand Sharia law. You don't understand the oppression that is happening there and that they can never come out of it. Can they never get out from underneath? That I don't fully understand the Turkish Civil War. But isn't there a way for these countries to take back their countries?

Well, of course, and all these years, they had that opportunity, obviously. They could take, if we can't talk about Cuba, Fidel Castro, why they couldn't do anything about it? because people are under oppression only know one thing, fear. Operation comes, tyranny comes, creates fear. And these are fear-based dictatorship governments and fear-based governments. Another question in the question that you're asking is, I don't like war either. I am coming from war.

I dealt with complex PTSD, fragmented mind. I should have been locked in a mental institution, all these things, but I work through stuff, trauma, and I do trauma healing for nations right now, Muslim nations right now. But here's the thing. Sometimes you don't want to be in war, but you're in a war. Here is a simple, simple form of example to you. You are in your house, you are with your family and your children. You are a very peaceful person. You don't believe in war.

Somebody breaks your door and comes and rapes your children and then kills your wife in front of your eyes and completely destroys your family. In one day, your life is turned upside down. Let me see if you believe in a war or not. We are talking about that kind of push that people have been going through. You know, everybody is blaming Israel.

Israel is so controlling. Israel has been trying to survive. 70 million Jews amongst 1.8 billion Muslims trying to survive. Of course, you become controlling after experience and experience. You know, sometimes you go to places, I go to places, and I speak at conferences, and I see this incredible, maybe sometimes unnecessary security measurements. And I'm like, why are they doing this? Why is so harsh and so rigid? Everybody's security measurements come from an

experience that they lived through in the past. It's easy to judge it right now until they violate your kids. they come into your house. You will put an extra door. You will take, I promise you, guns and weapons to protect your own family. This happened to Israel in the history. Generations after generations, centuries after centuries, they know the entire world want to get rid of them. With that kind of fear that they are living every single day,

every single day survival mentality that I live with, Yes, you will weaponize everybody. I know a leader in Israel that people have more tanks in their driveways than cars. And in four hours, Israel can get ready and take their position for a war. Why? Because they've been in war all their existence. And once you live like that, once you live like me, you know immediately what kind of survivor mode you can turn into. We don't live in the movies, American movies.

This is a real life for me. This is a real life for Middle Eastern person. So we are talking about different people groups, different mindset, different DNAs. I go somewhere, the first thing, I just count the exits and where the restroom is. Why? I didn't watch enough James Bond or Jason-born movies. It has nothing to do. I live this.

That is how I am trying. When I was seven years old, my father, when I saw a man cut on the throat in front of my eyes, bled to death, my father said, don't you cry, don't you be afraid. If your right arm falls to the ground, your left arm, you put it back and you saw it yourself. How this can register to a seven-year-old? In Gaza, kids are getting trained to how to walk in a minefield, how to hold a gun, how to hate Americans and Jews. We are talking about different people groups. That is why Western world cannot understand what's going on in our world. You go back, forgive me, I think early in the conversation, you talked about going back to the streets and evangelizing now in the Middle East, correct? Yes, yes. Yes, I still do. I have to assume that's an intense experience to go back to the land, or obviously, I don't know, do you do it in Turkey as well? I do it. Yes, I do it in Turkey. I do it. I had arrest warrant in Turkey for 10 years after that was lifted. I still went to Turkey and I did that.

How have those experiences been for you? Wonderful experiences because I don't do it evangelism the way that Americans do or the Western world. I don't hit people with the Bible in their hands. I just engage in a conversation following Jesus' example. And I ask them questions. I just ask them questions about their lives. I am interested in their pain. I am interested in their world. I am not shoveling what I believe into their truth. I am just very interested because I care for their soul. And this is what I do for living. And I tell them afterwards what I believe, because they are interested.

If we are not interested in their story, in their life, in their pain, why should they be interested in my faith? I create that hunger and thirst in them. I asked them, do you believe you are a good Muslim? Are you happy with your faith? Is your faith making a difference in your life? If there was one miracle that you could ask Allah for, what would it be? A lot of questions, and they are so happy to tell me the answers.

Until the point that it comes, they ask me what I believe. So it is a very inviting situation I create for me to share what I believe. And when they ask me what I believe, it is not anymore. I am a criminal there as a missionary. I'm a friend. So without breaking the bread, without talking, without putting my hand on their shoulders, I am not going there and just quoting John 316 to them. You talked about, or you brought up underground churches in Iran, correct?

Yes, yes. I feel like, and forgive me folks, I don't know where I heard this, that Christianity is accepted in Iran, it's like they're living peacefully. But you're talking about underground churches. If there's anything I know about underground, that means that they have to do it in secret. Why is that?

I don't know. I don't understand your statement about in Iran, Christianity is accepted peacefully because Christianity is not accepted in Iran peacefully. However, there has been a great revival, underground revival for Christian world is going on in Iran. And I do believe today what is happening in Iran

is answered. Even though it's a war, even it's a bloodshed, God is allowing this to happen as answers to those prayers. I guess the un... Well, I guess I just, when I say peacefully, you know, here in the Western world,

you can go to a church on Sunday and get dressed up and go listen to a sermon and see the community and It's all out in the open and there's nothing to hide from, although in fairness here in Canada, you know, there's more and more things happening on the Christian world every week. That's how my brain looks at Iran when I hear that you can peacefully be a Christian. You can actually go to church on Sunday.

That is not the case. Oh, this is not the case. Iran is the highest percentage of Christian persecution in the world. So only top few countries, if you look at the statistics from the voice of tomorrow, Iran is one of the most red flag countries in the Muslim world. You cannot exercise your faith peacefully in Iran as a Christian as any other religion. You have to be a Muslim to exist in Iran. All these churches that you see or you hear, you know, they are worshipping to, you know, Jesus in Iran, these are all underground.

You cannot exercise your faith in Iran without being harmed. persecution is at the highest level in Iran for Christians. When you say underground in the middle of COVID up here, we used to meet secretly in undisclosed locations because we weren't supposed to meet as a group of people more than I think at the time, folks, at what was at 15. And so we'd meet that way. When you say underground, is that what you mean for Christians in Iran?

Is that in order to hold a church service, They have to meet in an undisclosed location at different times, on different days of the week, let's say, so that they're never found out. And if they are found out, what would happen? Yes, absolutely. And I have missionaries in North Korea, North Korea. It's the same way. There's a growing church in North Korea. Same way.

These are all underground. You cannot even carry your Bible with you. You cannot even say the name of Jesus. Jesus, a son of God. If people wanted to, I know you've, I think you've written books, and you obviously, how can people find you? I guess is what I'm trying to spit out. Where can they find you, Ashik?

They can find me on major social media platforms. I have millions of followers from all over the world and primarily from the Muslim world. But right now from Canada and in America, there's a big rising group of people. supporting against Sharia our ministry. We have freedom for America from Sharia initiative right now. It is my name, I-S-I-K-A-B-L-A dot com, or I-S-I-K-A-B-L-A. If they put in any search engine, they can find me on social media. And then are your books as well on, like, Amazon?

Is that the safest way to, if somebody was interested in going, you know, reading something you've written. Absolutely. Appreciate you hopping on and doing this today. Thanks for giving me some time. Of course. Thank you so much for having me and thank you for what you do.