There he is. There he is, Austin John. Can you hear me? I can hear you, Massih Alinejad. Thank you very much. Fantastic. We're glad to have you. I finally figured it out. I finally figured it out. >> much. Yes, absolutely. I'm always on YouTube, man. I rarely come on Instagram, but I have more followers here on Instagram, and that's why I wanted to do this interview with you, with everyone. As you know, I'm standing here at Russell Senate Building. Symbolically, this is the place that, hopefully one day, we will see more Iranian Americans to join, including yourself. So, I went through your website. I'm just giving you a day generic introduction about who you are. Um, you are um, an Iranian born conservative Republican, strongly anti-Islamic Republic, pro-border security, pro-American nationalism, and openly warning Americans about what might happen in the United States after 1979 in Iran. So, um, you skipped post-revolution Iran. Um, do you genuinely believe that America could face a softer version or a harder version of what happened in 1979 in Iran? Uh, absolutely. And Arissa, thank you again for inviting me. I mean, that's the reason I ran for politics. I'm not a politician. You know, I've been in business for 47, you know, 47 years now. I've been in business for 20 plus years. I actually work in investment immigration. I help a lot of high-net-worth investors move to the United States through the EB-5 program. And as part of that, I've been to 42 different countries. I've been to China 30 times, 20 different cities, cities that most people probably never even heard of. Been to Korea five or six times. Been to, you know, Turkey. Been to India five times. I've been to a lot of countries. Right. And and I've been seeing now the the battleground here in Texas. I mean, the number of mosques that are popping up here and the number of the amount of foreign influence that we're getting here, it's it's dramatic. In fact, as part of what what I did running for Congress, a lot of Republicans are calling me and asking me for help. They're like, there's a they're building a 400, you know, acre epic mosque here. They're opening an Islamic center here. They're doing an Islamic center. The exact same playbook that happened in Iran is not only happening in the United States, but it's happening here in Texas where it's, you know, if if Texas falls, the United States will fall. And I've been ringing the alarm bells because you and I have seen this movie and a lot of Americans are being intimidated under the guise of Islamophobia or not being pro-First Amendment, all these different fake things. And these fake charities are setting up everywhere and they're trying to take over Texas. If Texas falls, the United States falls. So, let me ask you a little bit about these statements that you made. Who is funding these organizations? Who's funding Who's behind these mosques? It's a great question. Uh there's actually different factions. There There are There are Sunni mosques that are popping up and usually Qatar and Turkey and others are behind them. And then there's Shiite mosques that are popping up and usually it's the Islamic Republic and through proxies. It's not always directly the Islamic Republic, but they are popping up and they're they're setting up, you know, Sharia-compliant charities, Sharia-compliant banking, hijab centers, and then now they're showing up to schools in Wylie ISD, they showed up and they're giving out these pamphlets that said why Islam. And then they talk about two or three good things about Islam and then they don't talk about the hundred bad things about Islam. So, they whitewash oh, you know, fasting is great or, you know, and then they come up with these fake things that you know, Islam has somehow built the the Alamo where Alamo the the, you know, the architecture is Spanish architecture which came from, you know, their Islamic roots, but it's actually Persian architecture, but they claim that that it's, you know, the Arabs built the Alamo, which is not true. Yes, I last time I was in Texas, I heard that from a lot of Iranian-Americans that they were worried. I've heard that parts of Texas they were trying to Muslim communities were pushing to adopt Sharia law, especially during the month of Ramadan. Can you tell us about that? I've I hear I will I I read a few pamphlets trying to raise awareness about parts of Texas trying to adopt Sharia law. What was that about? Well, the governor's office actually figured out that there are already Sharia courts that are operating in Texas, in Plano. And they're they're they exist today, and they're basically a parallel justice system where imagine, you know, you and I know that women are worth half as much as men in matters of Sharia, right? So, if you go to divorce, you go to court, and the [snorts] the judge splits your assets 50/50, they're going to Sharia court, and the Sharia court says the woman's worth half as much as men, they get nothing or they get a quarter what they're going to get. So, these these courts are illegally operating right now in the state of Texas. Wow. Um yeah, nothing surprises me anymore in this culture war that's happening. One thing that I as an Iranian-American, and I'm sharing this with you, maybe we can talk trying to raise awareness to some of our American friends who've never lived the life that we lived in the Middle East. So, when you when I come to America, since day one they've always had freedom of religion. We've never had freedom of religion in that region at all. There's this kind of respect for other religions in in the United States that is enshrined in their Constitution. So, they don't want to get into religious wars when they when you you tell them you say, "Oh, we don't want to get into it." But, what if the other part starts waging war, jihad against you? You can't You can't just ignore them forever. If they wage a jihad against Americans, especially because they don't see America as a country. They see this as another Christian country. Do you agree with that assessment? 100%. Listen, there there was a lawsuit here in Texas. That was a very famous lawsuit. The Holy Land Foundation lawsuit happened in Richardson, Texas, right? Under that lawsuit, a piece of a document that was actually uh became part of the evidence and and and and this document was widely shared and Brigitte Gabriel actually shared that. I have a copy of this document. It's a document that was dated the May 22nd, 1991. In that document, it lists explicitly the Muslim Brotherhood's plan on how they're going to take over America and make it under the Islamic caliphate. And they start with the NGOs, they start with the Islamic centers, they start with the mosques. And right now what's happening, it's going word for word from this document. And I'm not saying, you know, something that's a that's a you know, a rumor. This is an actual document that was released that was published by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1991. All I'm saying is, guys, when they're telling you they're going to do this, don't think they're joking. They're actually doing this. Wake up. Wake up because you and I who who immigrated or families immigrated from Iran, one day our families woke up and we're in Islamic country. We didn't even get to vote. We didn't get to pick. And it happened so quickly. And today, after millions of people have died in Iran, just just recently, 45,000 people were slaughtered by their government. And every Iranian goes back and thinks, "In 1957, if only I would have spoken up. If only I would have spoken up." Well, here in Texas, right now is your time to speak up cuz if you don't, what happened in in Iran is going to happen here. And this year is the 250-year anniversary of the United States, right? Right. We've had 250 years of freedom in this country. And we've had to fight for it. We've had to go to wars, we had to fight for it. And people in New York are so complacent, they think we've had peace for 250 years, we're going to have peace for 250 more years. That's not true. There's a lot of people that are trying to take your freedoms away. And my job is to make sure I wake these people up. Wake up. So, let's move on to Donald Trump and his plans about Iran. Do you believe that Donald Trump firmly believes in regime change in Iran, yes or no? 100% yes. And And you know And you know how I knew? Uh first of all, I think a lot of Iranians, you know, one day they love Donald Trump, one day they hate Donald Trump. And a lot of Iranians have been scammed into this um political ideology or into this, you know, racial gap that if you're, you know, from another country or if you're brown, somehow you should be a Democrat. And they've been fooled into the Democratic Party, which doesn't represent their values. Iranians are business owners, they're family oriented, they're conservative, so their values really match with the Republican Party, especially today's Republican Party, the modern Republican Party. Donald Trump, I've heard in before his first term in 2015, when he was running for office, he visited with the Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi six times before he even became president. I know they don't talk. A lot of people think they don't talk, but I promise you, behind the scenes, they talk. Yes. Donald Trump, last year when he became president for the third time, some argue second time, the first thing that he said is, "I'm not interested in regime change in Iran." And I got super excited. Because when he says, "I'm not interested in regime change in Iran," I know that's exactly what he's interested in. >> says he want to do, yes. >> Because former presidents have been so naive, putting all their cards on the table and letting the mullahs know their game plan. Donald Trump, even today, every time he says, "I'm not interested in We'll we'll we'll deal with these people." He just loves to treat them like the mullahs that they are. And he's dealt with the mafia when he was in the real estate in the early '80s, when the mafia controlled all the labor unions and they controlled all the concrete. Right. He knows how to deal with mullahs, which are essentially mafia. So, I'm glad that you come from business background. You're running for Congress. That shows the level of your commitment to this country. We need more people like you who've been in business and you know if you are if your information about Iran is first hand. You've lived in Iran, you escaped in Iran, your family has gone through it. I'm glad to have known you. We bumped We kind of bumped into each other in CPAC. That was a great gathering. You were there to support Reza Shah Pahlavi, of course. And that's maybe a good segue for us to go to the topic of Reza Shah Pahlavi. Um so, do you recognize him as the legitimate leader of a transitional government in Iran? I recognize him as the only legitimate leader of a transitional government in Iran. I met I met Reza Shah Pahlavi when I was 18 years old. I was part of a you know, this is We've been in this fight for many, many years. Right. >> And I was very impressed by how he dedicated his entire life to this cause of bringing democracy to Iran. I think, you know, he he's been at this for 47 years. He could have went and lived a life of luxury, but he chose to stay in this fight. He's articulate, well-spoken, his family's never said a bad word about anyone, even though his family's probably been screwed over the most screwed over family, the most backstabbed family Yeah. in the entire universe. Right. I equate it I equate it to the Stark family from Game of Thrones because Ned Stark essentially was was the Shah. God bless him. Rest in peace. The father and mother in Iran who, you know, increased Iran's economy a hundredfold and then another twentyfold and brought Iran to a a world power. And And what what I would say is the reason Reza Shah Pahlavi is so because there've been a lot of factions and some of the factions are the controlled opposition by the government of Iran. These are Soviet-style planning, Soviet-style you know, the KGB was was an expert and taught these people like Yasser Arafat, Rafsanjani, Khomeini. It taught them how to create your own opposition. By creating your own opposition, you control your own opposition and you stay in power. They've been doing this for very, very many years and even people that were not controlled opposition, people that generally were in opposition, they either killed them, tortured them and turned them, or bought them off. And Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince, is not somebody that's going to be bought up because of the injustice that's done to him and his family and to Iran. He's the only leader that I know that when he talks about Iran, he talks about the people in Iran dying, he actually sheds a tear. I've never seen Maryam Rajavi shed a tear for Iranis. I've never seen any of these other so-called people who shed a tear. And right now, it's important because for the first time ever, Iranians have all gotten behind him. And it doesn't matter and by the way, the other analogy I make to Game of Thrones, he's like Jon Snow. Why was Jon Snow so amazing? Because he didn't want power. He just wanted to overthrow the evil forces. He said he didn't care who became in power. That's Reza Pahlavi. Reza Pahlavi is not power hungry. He just wants freedom. He wants to transition into a government that he wants to hand to and he says, "Whoever the people vote to, they got my respect." That is why it's so important and then more importantly, people are willing to die, to go in the streets, and take bullets, unarmed, to shout his name. And that's better than any poll and I think he's got north of 80% popularity inside and outside in Iran. And he's the only legitimate leader that people recognize that he's going to be able to get us to to, you know, to this place where we have a referendum and the people decide their form of government and who's going to be in charge. Um speaking of Game of Thrones, Jon Snow and his character and how similar his character is pretty much to also Shah Sade. And I've been doing my research in the United States and when this country was being born, the founding fathers when they got together, they were thinking about the first president. And then the the most important thing for them, in order to find the first president was who is less power-hungry. Who's the person who's going to say, "Oh, I don't want to be the leader." But they have all the all the characteristics. And that's why they went to George Washington. They picked him because George Washington didn't want to be the leader. He was already rich. He had he don't house in Virginia, Mount Vernon. He had everything. He really and he was accomplished. He was an accomplished general. You know, he basically he kicked He was the one who kicked out the red coats. And the more he said, "I don't want power." the more the founding father were more interested in his character. Very very much the similarity between Shah Sade and also the And [clears throat] don't forget the the first Reza Shah was also George Washington. He was He was the leader that people trusted and he kicked out the Qajar dynasty that was corrupt. And the argument that I make is that the mullahs in Iran are continuation of Qajar dynasty because they're owned by the British. Yes. Well, they want to say they're the continuation of Safavids. Safavids, too. But they're not. They're absolutely not. The The Safavids were the beginning of the end for Iran because the Brits basically imported the Shiite ideology during Safavid, but culturally >> And they're a work for the Ottoman Empire, right? Right, exactly. But um now, you mentioned briefly about MEK and Maryam Rajavi. Mujahedin-e Khalq, they have an office here in US Congress and they openly communicate and lobby here in US Congress. If you are elected as a the representative for Republican Party the What would be your dealings? What would be your reaction if any with MEK here in US Congress given the fact that they're the ones who have the blood of Americans on their hands as well? So the MEK is is it's even worse. Remember the MEK is who took the embassy hostage, the MEK is who killed Americans, and the MEK is who put these mullahs in power, all right? So what I give what I give an example to the Americans is that remember the the merger between the green and the red, some say the red and the black, is the Marxist and the Islamist. That's exactly what happened in Iran. These Marxist, by the way, they were all trained by the Soviet Union. They were trained alongside terrorists like Yasser Arafat, and they're the ones that they did this to us. They're the ones I think I just lost your audio. I think I still lost your audio if the audience cannot hear you. 1 2 Can you hear me? Did you mute yourself by accident? Now I got you back. >> Okay. Sorry, my my my headphone cut out. That's fine. >> [snorts] >> you know what what I was trying to say is that the MEK not only fought against Iranians, joined on the side of Saddam Hussein and killed Iranians, and they have very little support, and then most importantly, they hide under this whole feminist movement Maryam Rajavi, but Massoud Rajavi behind the scenes is a terrorist, and more importantly, these people are Marxist Islamists. Why would the United States or the free world want another regime that's even worse than the existing regime that helped put the existing regime in power? The only reason they're even relevant is because of 50 million a year that Saddam was paying them and the 100 million a year that CIA put them gave them and put them on ice, and they've got a lot of money and they're using this money to try to buy power, but they have very little legitimacy, probably less than 2% of people in Iran would even consider them. And if they ever came to power, Iranians would kill them and overthrow them. So, they're they're they're not even close to a legitimate, but they've unfortunately paid off a lot of Republicans. I know Republicans here from Texas 5th District Lance Gooden went to the terrorist camp Ashraf camp. I saw videos of him being at that Ashraf camp. He was there with John Bolton, with with Mike Pompeo. Luckily, the it was Rudy Giuliani. Luckily, these Republicans that are no longer in power, but they've been trying to buy influence and they've been choosing the Republican route. And a lot of Republicans have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, to go and, you know, pretend like they're the the the opposition, but they're not, you know, they're they're they're a joke. They're not a real opposition. So, this of course pretty much an initial intro of course for you, Opti John. I'm glad that we um connected. I'm glad that we did this. We're going to do this more often. If people in Texas want to follow you, if people in Texas want to support you or volunteer for your organization, what should they do? And what is the next public event that you would have if you where you want people to come and support you? Sure. So, I I you know, I I did an interview with Tommy um Tommy Robinson when he's here with with Keith Self and Congressman Chip Roy and Congressman Keith Self who started Sharia Caucus. I was MC of the event. We have another event um on the 18th with with a pro-Israel Jewish organization about the Islamification of Texas. That's in Rockwall. I'm very involved with the local Republicans. And one of the things that I think is really important and finally, a lot of Republicans are paying attention because of so many thousands of Iranians showed up to CPAC. That was unexpected. It was very well received by the Republicans. So, I'm trying to go and and and like listen, we have we have a lot of Iranians in Frisco. There's a mayoral race in Frisco. I'm going to interview both candidates next week that are the Republican candidates and try to make an endorsement that makes sense that, you know, fits the values, the conservative values, the values that Iranians have, people that are against Islamic Republic, people that have values that want regime change, and care about the Iranian Americans. And and and you know, we're going to interview Ken Paxton. I just had an interview today with Abraham George, who's the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. They are paying attention to us. But one of the most important things, I think Arash, and you said that I don't think the Iranian people understand how important it is. Instead of going to rallies, instead of you know, Iranian Iranians are very motivated. They're very frustrated. Their their emotions of 47 years of Islamo-trauma is just overhanging us, and they don't know what to do. Let me explain, and you've explained this, and President Trump explained this. We have a midterm election coming in Texas on the 26th of this month, we have runoff elections. It is absolutely important for Iranians to get involved. You said it best on a on a live the other day, less than 4% of Iranians vote in the midterms. Less than 8% of Iranians in Texas vote in the midterms. We have 200,000 Iranian American citizens in Texas. We have 2 million Iranian American citizens in the United States. I'm going to focus on Texas. I I started an organization called Iranian American Republican Council, Texas Chapter. The website is actually, believe it or not, lionandsun.com. I bought this domain name 22 years ago. I'm using it now. iarctx.com or lionandsun.com. Go there, join. If you join, I'll give you a lionandsun.com email address so you can meet arash.la@lionandsun.com. You can use that email. I'll send you a Islamo-trauma t-shirt, but more importantly, I need people to show me proof that they're registered. So, my goal is, and I've been working with the Republican Party, I got to get 200,000 Iranian Americans between now and November election to to register to vote. It's a shame. It's an embarrassment that Iranians are not voting. It's like people in Iran, your cousins, your family members are risking their lives, going out with no guns in the street getting shot at. They dream of one day living in the United States. They dream of one day even having access to Starlink satellite so they could just be connected to the rest of the world. And you're sitting here and you're not going and voting because oh, I'm busy with work. Oh, you know, my vote's not going to count. Oh, Republicans are too many of us here so they're going to vote anyway. No, it's your duty. If you don't go and vote, if you don't go register or vote, you're you're you're you're backstabbing these Iranians in Iran that are going and giving their life. If you don't vote, you're literally backstabbing Iranians. So, I beg you. I beg you. I beg you. Join my organization. There's some sister organizations uh the the John Adams Initiative PAC in Houston by a gentleman named Brian Tave. They started organization called We Are Cyrus also trying to help me get Iranians registered. We need to get 200,000 Iranians registered. No excuses. Iranian Americans all told me they've voted for me and then I would ask them where they live. Oh, they live in McKinney. They live in, you know, places that were not in my district. They were lying because they're intimidated. They're not understand They don't know the the the the primary process. They don't know the civic act process. I will help them. I will If I have to bust them to the polls, I will bust them to the polls. But if if you can't take the day off from work, there's early voting. If you can't show up, we have a website you can register to vote. But go to lionandsun.com. God bless you. Thank you. >> Go to lionandsun.com, join us and I'm going to organize and with the budget that we're going to have with Iranian American Republican Council, so we're going to set up tables at every event. We're going to have our own CPAC-like event and get as many Iranian Americans there and try to organize them. We have political power. Iranians are some of the most successful business owners in the United States, but they don't vote. We need to change that. I'm going to change that and and thank you so much for helping me getting this message out. The most important duty Iranians can have is not going to rallies, but getting registered, showing up in the midterms, protecting President Trump. If the Democrats come in power, they're going to impeach him and this game is over and and they're going to have nukes again to the Islamic Republic, which right now the the IRGC that's running the Iran is much worse than the IRGC of of of 6 months ago cuz now they're even more bloodthirsty. >> You were totally on the same page on that, Obteen John. Thank you so much for joining me again and the crowd, of course. Um we will save this live and my colleagues will translate it into Farsi. So we will have a Farsi version for everyone, all of you who watched this video. Thank you so much for joining this live and follow Obteen and his Instagram channel if you want to get updates. If you live in Texas and you want to find ways to join the cause, Obteen is your man. His his website obteenazee.com and also his Instagram is the account. Thank you again, Obteen John. Thank you so much and thank you for everything you do because everything you say is exactly what we need to do and we need to help educate Iranians on the civil process. Voting is the most important thing you could do to try to save Iran and save the United States where you live. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Have a great day, Obteen John. God bless you. Thank you, Arash John. God bless you. Bye.