you
Welcome back.
Welcome back.
Yo, this is the grapevine.
I'm your host, Manon Sabir.
That's right.
We're going to pick some grapes.
We're going to pick a lot of grapes today because it's time.
It's that time to pick those grapes on the grapevine and the award-winning Truth 101.7.
I'm your host, Manon Sabir.
And great afternoon.
Matter of fact,
fantabulous afternoon.
You're on the grapevine.
I'm your host and we're going to get ready to dive into another exciting afternoon.
Meaningful conversations, community voices and stories that deserve to be heard.
Milwaukee, whether you're on a roll, whether you're at work or just tuning in.
Thank you for spending part of your day with us.
With us with me with the rest of our community.
Let's get into it.
This is the grapevine one on one seven Milwaukee a nine year old girl was killed last week sleeping in her own bed and Nope, and nobody's been arrested The world feels like it's one bad week from catching fire Everybody's got an opinion But today Every guest in the studio has a solution
First, we have two law folks from Roanoke, Virginia.
Shout out to Roanoke, bringing the Ignite program to Milwaukee to reach our young people before the streets do.
Then we have the Omde Muslim community been on the North side since 1968, maybe even longer.
They believe in something that'll stop you in your tracks.
I like the fact that we're not afraid.
We're not afraid for things to stop in our tracks.
What's up, Milwaukee?
We have.
We have something good for y'all.
We have.
We have something good for y'all.
It's a it's a solution.
We have a number of people that are willing to take that ride with us to ride down that pathway, that journey of.
trying to understand how we can solve the mysteries, the mysteries within our community.
This is a you're going to be on a great vine with me, with the community.
We're going to look for calls, text messages, and also we're going to let you light up our chat line from the YouTube channel.
So welcome back.
from and thank you to Ray and Shannon.
Thank you.
I really appreciate the lunch break.
Fantastic.
So let's get into it, y'all.
We got our folks on the line.
Okay, I really appreciate it.
One second.
How you guys doing today?
We have Sheriff Antonio Hage.
How are you doing?
I'm doing good in yourself.
From Roanoke, Virginia.
And we also have Deputy Danita Scott.
How are you doing?
She's on the line as well.
We on two different phones.
OK.
So we're trying to hard to connect both of them at the same time.
So she's standing right next to me.
OK.
But it was difficult.
But she is on the call.
And we're
going to work through it.
We're going to work through this.
We're trying to make it work.
Hey, listen.
That's what we do.
We're going to make it work.
And yeah, have her come on in.
It's fine.
It's fine.
We're going to make it happen.
I wanted to also thank you for coming online.
I want to make sure that I want to make sure even right now that we are kind of getting past the technical pieces, though.
Thank you so much for that and being patient with us.
Sheriff Hash, you guys hear me?
OK.
No worries.
So once we get past these, we got a few technical difficulties.
I think we got some folks that have logged out, but we will get them back online.
I wanted to talk to our community about the Ignite program.
Hopefully we can get them back online.
But I wanted to talk to the community about the Ignite program.
We hear?
Okay, all right.
All
right, we're back.
Hey, look, family will work it out, baby.
Hey, we
will
work
it
out.
We're in the middle of the airport, but we started.
We wanted to make sure that we was able to come on and connect with you all.
And so we apologize for the technology issues, but we wanted to still come on and support and have this conversation.
So we appreciate it.
Antonio, don't worry about it.
We are all family.
This is what we're going to do.
We're just going to work it out.
No worries.
And thank you so much for being online with us.
But I want to welcome you guys to the Great Vine.
This is a great honor to have you on.
And I appreciate you for joining us.
Before we dive into Ignite, tell our listeners a little bit about yourselves and your work in growing up.
Shout out to Ronald again
Ronald Virginia on the map.
So
yeah,
so just want to give y'all a brief update My name is Antonio hash.
I'm the sheriff from on the city I've been the sheriff for five years now, but been a part of the agency for 18 years I'm born and raised in the heart of the city.
Yeah
And so my passion is law enforcement.
My passion is the correction side of it as well Making sure that we put people back into our communities better
than the way we found them.
And so I'm passionate about it.
And I'm just appreciative of the platforms that's been given to me as the sheriff, since I took the off of office to stand and protect our community.
Yeah, just real quick, I wanted a side note.
I wanted to find out how far is Roanoke from Richmond?
So it's about three hours.
OK, all right.
Three hours.
Roanoke is three hours west.
On a
good day.
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
Yeah.
OK.
All right.
Cool.
Near the rest of Virginia border, maybe?
Yeah, yes, sir.
Okay.
All right, cool.
So what is Ignite?
For those hearing about it for the first time, what is the Ignite program and what inspired its creation under the National Sheriffs Association?
So Ignite stands for individuals that used to say inmates, but we thought about we're transitioning the mindset of people.
So why keep calling them inmates, right?
So we change it to individuals growing.
naturally and intentionally through education.
Right.
Because what we found out is that majority of people in population, especially in custody and jails across the US, the things that separate them from being successful, it's pretty much the education platform of it.
Right.
And so, so we launched, we launched Rig Night.
Rig Night was launched.
and Genesis County in Flint, Michigan, on the sheriff, Christopher Swanson.
And then the national sheriff's got wind of it, you know, it's always funding this what's needed.
And so they got wind of the platform.
And so once they got wind of it, they took it to another level and end up allowing the platform to be expanded.
And now the program is in 38 counties in 17 states across the US.
That's beautiful.
That's beautiful.
Yes, sir.
Why does this matter?
And why do you believe Milwaukee?
Milwaukee is an important city for this initiative.
And what opportunities do you see here in Milwaukee of all places?
Yeah, absolutely.
So because you got great leadership here, your sheriff said, listen, I believe in my county as well.
I believe in the people that's connected to my county.
And there's a man thinking, so is he.
The mindset never changes.
And they always consistently keep doing the same thing.
So her mindset was, listen, the people who come into our custody at the County Sheriff's Office, they deserve the opportunity as well to go back into their communities to thrive and to be successful.
As you all know, your debt to society is during your time.
If you do the crime, you do the time.
But
still, us as law enforcement personnel, we still have a responsibility of rehabilitating.
and reforming people so that when they get back into our communities, our communities are safe.
And I ask people all the time, you know, how do you want me to return your neighbor back to you, broken the way we found them, or rehabilitated reform so that where they can be thriving people in our communities?
Because you can't have the best of both worlds.
Even you're going to help us, you're going to let us help them and get them back on the right path.
Or we'll constantly have a system that's a revolving door.
And so I think at this point we're Milwaukee.
They stepped up to the challenge, the sheriff heard the call, she heard the conversations inside her facility and she looked us up and she said, you know what, I want this in my county.
And so we came here today to launch Ignite in her facility and just to hear the momentum, see the momentum here, the different people, the stakeholders, the supervisors, those community partners who say, listen.
Let's make this happen for our locality as well, man.
It's a blessing to see it happen today.
Man, that's amazing.
So what makes Ignite different?
So there are many youth programs available today.
But what makes Ignite actually stand out?
See what?
Yeah.
Yes, sir.
So what happens is, typically our program is dealt with them when they come into custody.
We try to have those community engagement projects where the Sheriff's Office go into the community and help people in the community before they get to our facility, right?
But once they get into our facility, now we have to sit them down for six months, 12 months a year, two years while they do time.
And so typically, we don't deal with the youth because this is the adults that we deal with with this program.
And so we try to get them, you know, we try to get them before they come in, which we create opportunities for community partners to tackle some of those issues.
But if they come into custody for whatever they choose, whatever they do, whatever crime, once they get their time, we start focusing on them returning back home to their community in a better place.
And so that's what our focus is.
Man, that's really not, that's one of the, that's really unique.
That's really unique, you know, wow.
And Milwaukee has it right here.
Yeah, so we launched it today.
The
sheriff said, look, so people flew in all over the country.
We got great partnership with Verizon Frontline, Securus Technology.
And so what they said, listen, sheriffs, we hear your ass.
And so what they decided to do was to pour into this program.
And so what they do is they allow sheriffs like my facility
to come in and partner with that particular sheriff to come in and support her.
How do we get this off the ground in your facility?
What do you need?
What classes do you want to teach?
Is it financial literacy?
Is it reading?
Is it the GED?
Is it starting a business while you're there?
As a man, think of sources.
Their mindset don't change.
Then they constantly...
sitting doing time, they become institutionalized.
And that's fine for some people who don't want change in their community.
But I'm tired of people coming to us after the vaccine.
What you gonna do to help them?
Now that we got them in custody for six months to a year, why can't we help them there?
You right?
It seems like
put them on the outside.
But
yeah, I'm sorry.
Yes, keep going.
So we work with them on the outside before they come in with some of our partnerships.
But unfortunately, some of them, they still haven't learned their lessons.
And so while they're sitting down for their time period, the judges give them, we just choose to rehabilitate and restore people.
And you know, as well as I know mental health plays a big part in a lot of it, right?
You
know, your upbringing, you know, your stabilization.
So a lot of these things childhood drama.
and trauma, right?
I
just use those two words yesterday,
right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So relationships, whatever, something got you in custody.
So we sit down, we dissect it, we go through the pieces, trying to figure out where they are.
And then our team puts together a plan to support them so that way we can make sure that we
we categorize or put a plan in place to support the individual, not just ornament to all these programs just to help them.
So we hear anything dealing with mental health or you don't have no financial stability or you had a business on the outside but it failed.
What can we do to support your business so your business can now thrive on the outside?
These are the funding resources that we came up with.
to support you.
There was a federal grant that's out there called Pathway to Home.
They gave $3 million to sheriff's offices who were doing the right thing by restoring people before they go back into the communities.
And a lot of this is not even money out of taxpayers' pockets,
but
it's federal funding that's given to our facilities to do it.
Hey with the signal the signal is froze.
So we what we're going to do is we're going to take a Sheriff Sheriff hash
morality and how we can find a solution in relationship to morality.
When we get back into.
Welcome
back.
Welcome back to the grapevine.
We're about to pick some more grapes with the Amadeus Muslim community.
We have our
guests back in the building.
What I forgot to do is introduce you all because you're all one community.
And that's, I like that.
But before we get to our, before we get to introducing you personally, we are hosting a family fest.
So I would need y'all to get ready for the one-on-one, the award-winning one-on-one truth family fest.
It's back.
It's really, really back.
So join us.
Saturday August 22nd from 11 a.m.
to 2 p.m.
at Riverside University High School for free back-to-school resources, live entertainment, family activities, and community fun.
Vendors and sponsors can reserve a spot by visiting truthfamilyfest.com or you can email sierra.brown that C-I-E-R-R-A.
dot brown at Milwaukee black media.com.
And this is proudly sponsored by educators credit union, American family insurance, Milwaukee public schools and artists working in education and ascension.
Please come out to the family fest, the truth family fest.
As a matter of fact, I think I'm going to get out there and start challenging people to push ups, especially if it's hot.
I want to see if anybody would melt under the
Pressure.
So.
So we are, we are under a moral, we're under a moral cold naturally.
In Milwaukee, in our community, we have kids who are, we have kids who are, um, fighting like I called them fighting like wet noodles at Mayfair.
They go and they, you know, they got pans and tight pans.
And they, you know, onsite, they call it onsite.
Right.
They are on Brady Street.
Fighting, shooting.
In the neighborhoods, taking somebody out, nine year old, another eight year old here.
They hit two individuals, same night, somebody gets murdered.
What is your community saying about the what is your community saying about the the morality the degrade the the decrease in morality and How can we and what are you doing to?
Increase and stop the senseless violence in our in our community
No, that's a great
question.
I just want
to start with this isn't new
Many cities across the
world are facing this type of moral
degradation, as you said.
And everyone's trying to
find a
solution like this is the first time it's ever happened.
It's not new.
This isn't the first nine-year-old girl that has died.
These aren't the first stray bullets that have flown in the city.
And as a matter of fact, the Holy Quran addressed this 1,400 years ago.
This very question.
When this little girl was crawling up to her big sister and said, something's wrong.
That's not the
first time
this was asked.
Those being her last words, something is wrong indeed, but the Holy Quran gave an assimilation of a girl who was buried when she was nine months old.
And during those times in Arabia, it was such a disgrace to have a girl that many people would bury this girl alive because the disgrace of killing this infant child was less than the disgrace of raising a girl.
So the Holy Quran, it went and gave a quote of this girl, what crime did I commit?
And why am I being buried?
Why am I being murdered and killed?
And the Holy Quran said a day will come when this girl will ask that question.
So even before Islam, pre-Islam, two, three thousand years ago, these girls were still being killed in their beds.
This isn't a new phenomenon.
So we don't have to try to find a new answer.
What Islam did, it came.
and changed those animalistic virtues and that degradation and made angels
out of
dogs.
Because these men and women running on the streets, they're a victim themselves.
We are victimized and terrorized.
But those who are committing the crimes are victims also.
Because we gave them our best.
They are Milwaukee's finest.
That's the reality of the situation.
So I'm supposed to go and give more.
So when this girl asks, what's wrong?
Something's not right.
You talk to the blessed parents of any of these children, any of these martyrs.
The parents will say, oh, we'll do anything to get our child back.
We'll do anything to make sure this never happens again.
We'll do anything but try Islam.
You'll do anything but give God a try.
Oh, you'll do anything until it comes time to make a change ourselves.
And I remember I was at, what was it, a public hearing with a seamstall?
Yeah.
These parents for about two three hours were talking about how bad this system is and how corrupted it is and How they want to tell these 14 15 year old kids to stop stealing cars and there's another way try something different That maybe you can get a job and work for something.
You don't have to steal it And they said these kids just won't hear it and we try to tell these kids You don't need to do drugs.
You don't need to shoot but the kids won't listen And I said well the kids are like you guys
I come to the parents and say there's another way.
You don't have to live like this.
You don't have to have these negative coping mechanisms.
You don't have to be lost trying to learn how to raise your kids in today's society.
But the parents ain't trying to hear it.
The parents don't want to do anything different.
And that's why the kids don't either.
And that's why the kids are grown up shooting each other.
Strangers, friends, brothers, when we should be helping and raising each other.
It's
not about
giving a helping hand.
So what does the Ambi Muslim community do?
I'm not talking in an abstract form.
1,400 years ago, that little girl stopped dying.
When the Holy Prophet Muhammad, may the peace and blessings of God be upon him, came to Arabia, there was a solution.
There was game banging back then.
There was people killing infants back then.
There was tribal warfare back then.
There was drug abuse and alcohol abuse back then.
There were domestic violence back then.
But we saw
a
society in which all of that was alleviated.
And the purpose of prophets is for God to let us know that it's possible.
It can happen.
Peace is real and tangible.
And by following the footsteps of those prophets, that's something that I can have.
So
when I
look out in Milwaukee, we're
a
predominantly Christian society.
I don't see the teachings of Jesus out there.
I don't see
these gang bangers turning the other cheek.
And if they're erased by Christian parents, where are these virtues?
Where do these morals go?
So again, parents will say, we'll do anything to save our kids.
and try it.
Give Islam a try.
What are you going to lose?
Give the teachings of God a try.
Does that mean the people have to accept Islam or can they just practice the tenets, right?
So if I'm a parent and I'm listening to this and I say to myself, you know what, let me give this a try.
Fast for for Ramadan.
Let me you know introduce some things some tennis to my to my children What what is that?
What does that do on my day-to-day for for my day-to-day life?
Well when you say do they really have to adopt it if someone's dying as Milwaukee is Yeah, these men and women are dying and someone gives you medicine Are you gonna tell me?
I really don't want the medicine for the rest of my life.
I just want to try it You know, I don't want to feel that good.
I'll just dabble in it
Really, how good are you trying to be?
Are you trying to resuscitate this corpse or are we just playing games here?
I'm sent here into Milwaukee as an Imam to save lives, to raise the quality of life.
That's not a game to me.
So I'm not going to sugarcoat the fact that for generations, we're just
killing ourselves.
I mean,
I grew up, my father grew up on a farm in Ohio where if he drank from a water fountain, kids wouldn't go behind him and drink that either.
My mother comes from a village in India.
When you talk about being a minority, when you talk about the odds, I get it.
But
from
people from such marginalized aspects of society, I've seen success.
From people who are supposed to fail.
I saw 1,400 years
ago and
I see it in 2026.
So fasting for Ramadan would be great, but is that really gonna save your kid's life?
Fasting for 30 days and 365, that's amazing.
But are you raising the spiritual quality of these children?
So they can deal with society.
Are you being an example that they can follow?
Do you have coping mechanisms that your kids can adopt?
My coping mechanism is praying five times a day.
Right.
If a kid follows that, they'll be okay.
But as a coping mechanism, they see drinking, alcohol, domestic violence.
What do they see?
So again, you know, I'll put it in a nutshell.
Somebody asked a Sufi one time.
This is for anyone listening.
What's a Sufi?
A Sufi is an Islamic saint.
a scholar, a Muslim who's very righteous.
So someone asked a saint, well, you converted to Islam.
I'm thinking about being Muslim.
What did Islam give you?
Like he's trying to get sold.
He's trying to
go to the store and get, you know, Tahoe.
Like he's had a car
dealership.
And this Sufi, he said Islam didn't give me anything.
So this guy's about to get up and walk away.
He said, well, I'm going to go somewhere if that gives me something.
And then this Sufi, this saint, he said, Islam didn't give me anything, but it took away my grief, and it took away my pain, it took away the anxiety, it took away the confusion, and it left me with nothing but peace.
It removed all the mess so I could finally see God, and I can finally see things clearly.
What Islam does is simplify and allow me to live my life the way I'm supposed to.
Then that man sat back
down, and he said, well, give me Islam so it can take away all
of
my pains as well.
That's what this medicine can do for you.
And if you really want what's best for Milwaukee, what's best for your children, then give it a try.
