Just recently listened to this podcast:
I couldn’t help but notice how much of the vision still feels biomass coded. You have big ummatic slogans, collectivist optimism, and vague faith in “unity” rather than hard analysis of what actually creates durable power. I mean it sounds attractive on the surface but it risks repeating the same patterns of fiat thinking that got us here in the first place.
Like the “subscription model” idea (100 million Muslims paying $1 a month) is essentially fiat logic. It presumes centralized fees, fiat rails, trust in bureaucratic management. It's not really a meaningful parallel system. If anything, it reinforces dependency on fiat jurisdictions, regulators, banking systems, etc that can, and will, shut us down the moment they feel threatened.
And there’s also the predictable dismissal of “crypto” as if Bitcoin were just another speculative casino coin. No need to comment on this as we've already done that hundreds of times.
But even more concerning is the call for Muslims to avoid wealth accumulation, as if piety means rejecting material leverage. But history shows that every functioning civilization had elites who accumulated and deployed capital strategically. Without Muslim elites building deep reserves of hard money, and creating independent financial infrastructure, any talk of digital nation-states is just hand-waving. Power requires concentrated capital! Not just collective sentiment.
What we actually need is not another ummah themed subscription NGO, but a hard pivot toward unapologetic/toxic Bitcoin adoption, elite wealth formation, and (actual) parallel institutions. Sacrifice has its place yes, but sacrifice without strategy just leaves us weaker.
If Gaza taught us anything, it’s that fiat boycotts are fragile victories (if we can even call them that). If we are serious about sovereignty, then the real “digital caliphate” begins with doing the hard work of lowering time preference and sacrificing consumption today in order to accumulate the capital needed for a future of genuine empowerment.
