Try the political quiz
@ISIDEWITHAnswers8mos ago

Al Jama-ah

The South African Al Jama-ah political party is a relatively small but notable political entity within South Africa's diverse political landscape. Founded in 2007, Al Jama-ah seeks to represent the interests of the Muslim community in South Africa, although it positions itself as inclusive, aiming to appeal to all South Africans regardless of their religious beliefs. The party's foundation is deeply rooted in Islamic principles, and it advocates for policies and legislation that it believes are in harmony with Islamic teachings and values.

Al Jama-ah's values are center…  

Read more

20 Replies

 @ISIDEWITHasked…6mos6MO

Have you ever faced a situation where you had to stand up for your beliefs against popular opinion, similar to a smaller political party advocating for specific values?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…6mos6MO

Can a political party's focus on specific community interests lead to greater societal unity or division?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…6mos6MO

How do you think your own values align or clash with the principle of ensuring social welfare for all?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…6mos6MO

What are your thoughts on balancing religious principles with the need for a party to appeal to a broad electorate?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…6mos6MO

In what ways have you observed the impact of economic policies aimed at reducing inequality in your own community or country?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…6mos6MO

What experiences have led you to value, or question the importance of, multiculturalism and diversity within your own community or nation?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…6mos6MO

Can the emphasis on family values and moral governance by a political party influence broader societal norms and behaviors?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…6mos6MO

How does the concept of a political party advocating for both specific community interests and general societal welfare resonate with your understanding of effective leadership?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…6mos6MO

Reflecting on the idea of 'moral governance', how do you perceive the role of ethics and morality in politics and leadership?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…6mos6MO

How important is it for political entities to take a stand on international issues that may not directly affect their immediate constituents?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…4mos4MO

How do you feel about the idea of a political party being deeply influenced by religious values when aiming to appeal to everyone in society?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…4mos4MO

What role do you think political parties should play in addressing poverty and inequality in your community?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…4mos4MO

Can you think of moments where you've seen multiculturalism strengthen or challenge unity in society?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…4mos4MO

How do you believe South Africa can best strike a balance between protecting religious freedoms and promoting secular policies?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…4mos4MO

Do you think parties that focus on specific community values, like family and faith, are effective in addressing broader national challenges?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…4mos4MO

What are your thoughts on political parties taking strong stances on international issues, like conflicts outside of South Africa?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…4mos4MO

How would you feel if a political leader’s policies were based on a religious framework that differed from your own beliefs?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…4mos4MO

In what ways do you think a commitment to social justice can influence the policies political parties promote for vulnerable groups?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…4mos4MO

Could advocating for the interests of a specific religious group also benefit those outside that group, in your experience?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…4mos4MO

Have you encountered or witnessed examples where a political party's emphasis on moral governance impacted real-life issues in your community?

More conversations

Join in on more popular conversations.

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…2mos2MO

Kamala Harris is considering running for president again in 2028

Kamala Harris has been lying low since her defeat in the presidential race, unwinding with family and senior aides in Hawaii before heading back to the nation’s capital.But privately, the vice president has been instructing advisers and allies to keep her options open — whether for a possible 2028 presidential run, or even to run for governor in her home state of California in two years. As Harris has repeated in phone calls, “I am staying in the fight.”She is expected to explore those and other possible paths forward with family members over the winter holiday season, according to five people in the Harris inner circle, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. Her deliberations follow an extraordinary four months in which Harris went from President Joe Biden’s running mate to the top of the ticket, reenergizing Democrats before ultimately crashing on election night.“She doesn’t have to decide if she wants to run for something again in the next six months,” said one former Harris campaign aide. “The natural thing to do would be to set up some type of entity that would give her the opportunity to travel and give speeches and preserve her political relationships.”“She doesn’t have to decide if she wants to run for something again in the next six months,” said one former Harris campaign aide. “The natural thing to do would be to set up some type of entity that would give her the opportunity to travel and give speeches and preserve her political relationships.”Harris concedes: 'We must accept the results of this election'SharePlay VideoMost immediately, Harris and her advisers are working to define how and when she will speak out against Donald Trump and reassert her own role in the Democratic Party. Closing out her term as vice president, she’s set to preside over certifying the November election she lost to Trump, and then appear at the once-and-future president’s inauguration on Jan. 20.“There will be a desire to hear her voice, and there won’t be a vacuum for long,” a person close to Harris said.At the same time, Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will have a long checklist to plow through before they leave the Naval Observatory for good.They have to decide whether they’ll take up permanent residence at their home in Los Angeles, or establish a base elsewhere. No matter where Harris and her family live, some around her have expressed concerns about safety, as her Secret Service protection expires six months after stepping away.

▲  1023 replies

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…2mos2MO

Israeli prime minister approves Lebanon ceasefire deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the emerging ceasefire deal with Hezbollah “in principle” during a security consultation with Israeli officials Sunday night, a source familiar with the matter said.Israel still has reservations over some details of the agreement, which were expected to be transmitted to the Lebanese government on Monday, the source said.Those and other details are still being negotiated and multiple sources stressed that the agreement will not be final until all issues are resolved.A ceasefire agreement will also need to be approved by the Israeli cabinet, which has not yet occurred.Sources familiar with the negotiations said talks appear to be moving positively toward an agreement, but acknowledged that as Israel and Hezbollah continue to trade fire, one misstep could upend the talks.United States envoy Amos Hochstein said in Beirut last week that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon was “within our grasp,” but that it was ultimately “the decision of the parties.”He met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, the interlocutor with Hezbollah in the talks and said there had been “constructive” and “very good discussions to narrow the gaps.”“We have a real opportunity to bring conflict to an end,” he added last week. “The window is now.” He departed Lebanon for Israel on Wednesday to try to bring the negotiations “to a close.”The US-backed proposal aims to achieve a 60-day cessation of hostilities that some hope could form the basis of a lasting ceasefire.On Sunday, CNN analyst and Axios reporter Barak Ravid cited a source as saying Hochstein had told the Israeli ambassador to Washington on Saturday that if Israel did not respond positively in the coming days to the ceasefire proposal, he would withdraw from the mediation efforts.Hochstein’s trip to the region followed Beirut responding “positively” to a US-backed proposal to stop the war, Mikati said last week, adding that large parts of the draft agreement were resolved.

▲  268 replies

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…3mos3MO

Harris’s Fatal Shift: Abandoning the Anti-Trump Playbook for CEO Approval

Earlier this fall, one of Joe Biden’s closest aides felt compelled to tell the president a hard truth about Kamala Harris’s run for the presidency: “You have more to lose than she does.” And now he’s lost it. Joe Biden cannot escape the fact that his four years in office paved the way for the return of Donald Trump. This is his legacy. Everything else is an asterisk.In the hours after Harris’s defeat, I called and texted members of Biden’s inner circle to hear their postmortems of the campaign. They sounded as deflated as the rest of the Democratic elite. They also had a worry of their own: Members of Biden’s clan continue to stoke the delusion that its paterfamilias would have won the election, and some of his advisers feared that he might publicly voice that deeply misguided view.Although the Biden advisers I spoke with were reluctant to say anything negative about Harris as a candidate, they did level critiques of her campaign, based on the months they’d spent strategizing in anticipation of the election. Embedded in their autopsies was their own unstated faith that they could have done better.One critique holds that Harris lost because she abandoned her most potent attack. Harris began the campaign portraying Trump as a stooge of corporate interests—and touted herself as a relentless scourge of Big Business. During the Democratic National Convention, speaker after speaker inveighed against Trump’s oligarchical allegiances. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York bellowed, “We have to help her win, because we know that Donald Trump would sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends.”While Harris was stuck defending the Biden economy, and hobbled by lingering anger over inflation, attacking Big Business allowed her to go on the offense. Then, quite suddenly, this strain of populism disappeared. One Biden aide told me that Harris steered away from such hard-edged messaging at the urging of her brother-in-law, Tony West, Uber’s chief legal officer. (West did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) To win the support of CEOs, Harris jettisoned a strong argument that deflected attention from one of her weakest issues. Instead, the campaign elevated Mark Cuban as one of its chief surrogates, the very sort of rich guy she had recently attacked.

▲  2518 replies

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…4 days4D

TikTok Goes Dark for 170 Million U.S. Users

TikTok went dark for American users in an unprecedented display of the U.S.-China divide over technology and national security.The app started halting service Saturday night for 170 million users in its most important market shortly before a law took effect requiring it to shed its Chinese ownership or close in the U.S. It marked the first time the U.S. government has compelled the closure of such a widely used app, and disrupted millions of American businesses and social-media entrepreneurs who use TikTok to connect with customers and fans.TikTok users started seeing a message late Saturday saying, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now.”“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!” There is an option under the message to get more information, and clicking brings users to a link to download their data. The app wasn’t available to download from Apple or Google’s app stores.TikTok’s disappearance could be brief, however. President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday said he would likely give TikTok a 90-day extension from the potential ban after he takes office Monday. On Sunday morning, Trump posted on social media in all capital letters, “SAVE TIKTOK!”TikTok Chief Executive Shou Chew is scheduled to attend Trump’s inauguration, along with U.S. tech luminaries including Mark Zuckerberg, whose Meta Platforms owns TikTok rival Instagram.Trump’s comments were the latest in a flurry of last-minute statements that capped a yearslong saga complicated by U.S. presidential politics, conflicting geopolitical interests and the ambiguities surrounding enforcement of the law, which outlines hefty penalties for noncompliance. Before positioning himself as TikTok’s potential savior, Trump tried to ban TikTok in his first term. President Biden, who signed the bipartisan law last April, ended his term with aides saying he wouldn’t enforce it on his final day in office.TikTok and parent ByteDance have portrayed themselves as independent of China, but their ability to do any divestiture deal to satisfy the U.S. law has been constrained by Beijing. In recent days, Chinese officials have internally discussed options including allowing a trusted non-Chinese party such as Elon Musk to invest in or take control of TikTok’s U.S. operations.

▲  1214 replies