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The Rohingya Don’t Need Our Volun-Tourism, by Rahima Begum

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In times of human devastation and horror, like the situation faced by the Rohingya community in Myanmar, it is absolutely vital that our compassion translates to effective solutions and not just volun-tourism, writes Rahima Begum.

It’s crucial that what we do is also useful, directed and managed properly and comes with the right intention and preparation.

Volun-tourism. At RestlessBeings, we have been contacted by up to a dozen plus people on a daily basis in the last two weeks – individuals who are planning to make a trip to Bangladesh right now to help the community. These calls are from people who are not affiliated with any organisation. They want to go with their friends or by themselves to support those in need. Some are from newly-formed organisations that have never been on the field and have no experience working with the Rohingya. They tell us that they want to go and just ‘see’.

As much as the intentions and passion is sincere and they are keen to do more than just sit online and share news and make a little donation, it is very difficult as directors of an organisation that has been campaigning for this community for a decade now, to say, “Sure, go ahead.”

RestlessBeings have always had an upfront approach. We are ready to help those who want to make the journey but we have to be frank about the potential obstacles and sometimes, irrelevance of such efforts. If you are not an NGO worker, nor belong to a registered charity, nor from the press or major agency like the United Nations or Human Rights Watch or World Food Program, please stop and reconsider.

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There is no shortage of manpower on the ground. In fact, many of our own team members, personnel from other charities and  journalists whom we have assisted recently, have said that the Bangladesh border is heaving with people who have no relevant experience.

Money well-spent? Why not put the cost of your plane ticket toward a donation instead? This can amount to £600-£1,500 just for the flights, accommodation and food, for just one person. Multiply that figure by ten, if not hundreds, of volunteers. That money could amount to a sizeable donation. Volunteer-run organisations like ourselves are present on the ground, with teams made up of the Rohingya community members and Bangladeshi trained staff.

Do not add to the chaos, unless you find a charitable organisation which needs you there.

Check your intentions. If you’re going for research purposes or with the support of an organisation, fair enough. Prepare well and keep your intentions in check. Don’t do it because you want to feel like a hero and bask in the glory of your Facebook friends asking you to ‘stay safe’.

Your presence and lack of adab is counter-productive. Many Rohingya refugees have expressed their discomfort at the sight of so many international visitors. Women-refugees are particularly deprived of privacy – including opportunities to shower, change or relieve themselves. Unauthorised volunteers do not come with the police check certificates, which are normally mandatory in the United Kingdom when working with vulnerable adults and children. It is thus, difficult to protect women and children refugees. We have found volunteers taking pictures of and touching women and children. The intention may be good, but many of the refugees find it uncomfortable and overwhelming. They are not a spectacle – theys need peace, rest and sleep. They do not want cameras in their faces, volunteers seeking selfies and random individuals or groups peering into their temporary tarpaulin shelter.

Let’s pace ourselves. The Rohingya people have suffered for decades. In a few months, when the story disappears from headline news, when the online buzz dies down, we would encourage individuals to visit. That is the time when the refugees will want to see that they are not forgotten, but right now, we have an emergency relief situation. The distribute of aid and support needs to be organised and structured.

Deepen your knowledge of the Rohingya. The images of suffering is enough to make us want to dig deep and donate but there is much to learn about this community. Read up and then educate those around you.

  1. Rohingya is the name of their community, not where they live so let’s all use the right terminology. Don’t say “Take me to Rohingya.” There is no place called Rohingya. The Rohingya community are one of the many ethnic groups of Burma. They live in Rakhine, which was once Arakan (Kingdom of Arakan)
  2. The Rohingya have been suffering for the last 60 years. There are waves of violence every few months followed by a burst of social media activity, so global support has not been consistent. Recently, the attacks on the Rohingya have been particularly horrific. The majority of the population have now fled toward the border of Bangladesh, which is currently open. While the leader of Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been widely maligned for her approach to this crisis, our team’s report from the ground is that the refugees are not being turned away.
  3. Not all the Rohingya are muslim. A large majority are but not all. Regardless, they have been heavily affected. This is more than a religious attack. It’s a geo-political, economic crisis. The land that the Rohingya occupy is well-sought after.

Getting aid through. The UN and World Food Programme, amongst other major agencies, have no access to Myanmar right now. Some charities have managed to get through but with limited, restricted operations in towns and villages where both the Rohingya and Rakhine live so understandably some of their aid has gone on to support both. Different charities, including RestlessBeings, manage to gain access at different times and this remains an unpredictable and complicated process.

As donors, it is vital that we all understand the ebb and flow of the work done by charities on the ground. Sometimes we are needed most inside Myanmar and at other times, we are needed most in neighbouring countries, such as Bangladesh, because it is too risky to work inside Myanmar, where the military is ransacking and burning down entire villages. This is why the monetary donations we make can’t just be ringfenced for distribution in Myanmar.

Imagine this – the 500,000 Rohingya who have fled into Bangladesh are living in unimaginable conditions. They will die of disease, starvation and thirst, unless charities and aid organisations have the funds to support them. So pick a charity you trust and support. Donate to them. Check if they are on the ground and have access. Some charities like RestlessBeings have a 100% donation policy because we are voluntary run while other charities don’t(they take a small percentage for administrative costs or to pay their staff). Whatever and whoever you choose does not matter because if the charity is honest and dedicated to the cause, they will ensure your donations reach those who need it most. But be vigilant and do your research always.

RestlessBeings work in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and other parts of the region where the Rohingya have fled to. Support their efforts here.

Photo credit: Steve Gumaer

To the Young Men: Keep Your Heads Held up High

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By Hina Khan-Mukhtar
About a week or so ago, I was positioned in between my son and his friend as we walked to a mosque on a dark street when a passerby suddenly and aggressively yelled something out-loud at us. I didn’t catch what he said, but he was obviously mentally ill and was trying to provoke a reaction from us. Neither of the young men looked left or right; neither of them acknowledged him; instead, with shoulders back and spines straight, they just continued striding forward at a steady pace, and — although I was a little rattled — I decided to follow their lead.
My son later told me that he was walking with this same friend another day (they were both wearing thobes — the long Middle Eastern gowns worn by both men and women — and kufis/skullcaps) when a driver passed by them and they heard someone yell out the car window, “F*** ISIS!”
Remembering him as a little boy who wouldn’t have let anyone even look at him the wrong way, my heart skipped a beat, and I asked nervously, “What did you do?”
“Nothing. We both just looked at each other and started laughing.”
Keep your heads held up high, my sons. There’s a part of me that wants to beg you not to go out in religious or ethnic garb anymore, but then I realize that I don’t have that particular luxury for myself, and maybe — just maybe — you’re learning some empathy towards your Muslim sisters through this painful process of shedding the privilege of anonymity.
I hope I can learn from your calm and from your restraint and that you always maintain those two traits, insha’Allah (except for when “action” is truly called for of course). I hope you can always tell the difference between brashness and bravery, between cowardice and caution. I pray you are never tested beyond your limits. I pray you know how and when “to be a man”. I pray you — and those with you — are always safe. Aameen.

The Importance of Being a Very Public Muslim – Imam Zaid Shakir

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The Importance of Being a Very Public Muslim

This post first appeared on Imam Zaid Shakir’s facebook page.

In the climate of fear and mistrust of Muslims being carefully cultivated by some elements in this country it is extremely important to be a very public, very visible, very talkative Muslim. Some Muslims would tend to shun this advice thinking that by “laying low” and being almost invisible they can get by or pass unnoticed.

This is exactly what the anti-Muslim forces want. They want Muslims to disappear from our society and when sisters take off hijabs, brothers take off their kufis or shave their beards and everyone silences themselves they are actually advancing the program of the racists by helping to create a society “without” Muslims.
As people become accustomed to not seeing Muslims, not hearing from Muslims not sensing a Muslim presence in their lives or communities, it becomes easier for the racists to enact policies that lead to the actual eradication of Muslims. This is a lesson history has taught us concerning the ways tyrannical regimes are consolidated. Hence, be very visibly Muslim!
Some will argue that it is very dangerous to be very assertively Muslim right now and will point to the recent attack on the Muslim girl and her friend on the Portland MAX. That incident supports rather than argues against the point I am making. To clarify, because one of the girls was identifiably Muslim, there was a massive public rallying to defend her right to be herself, a valued member of her community. If Muslims “disappear” what is the basis for anyone rallying on our behalf?
Challenging times are always fraught with danger, however, heroes are those who face the danger of their time and by so doing represent a challenge in their own right which others must respond to. Now is the time for heroes not cowards. Tyranny draws its life from a society of cowards and is eradicated by the courageous.
As the warning signs of tyranny begin to rear their despicable heads in our society let us starve them of air, cut off their roots. For insight into the nature of tyranny, I encourage everyone to read Timothy Snyder’s brief but very insightful book, “On Tyranny.” May these middle days of Ramadan be blessed.
Imam Zaid Shakir

Imam Khalid Latif On Faith, Fear And Getting Stopped By Airport Security

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Imam Khalid Latif is one of the people profiled in The Secret Life of Muslims, a digital series about Islamophobia. He is also the first Muslim chaplain at New York University. Our thanks to NPR’s Fresh Air for this interview.

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I’m Terry Gross. My guest is the second ever Muslim to serve as a chaplain in the NYPD, Imam Khalid Latif. When he took the job 10 years ago, he was also the youngest person ever to serve as an NYPD chaplain. He’s also the executive director and chaplain for the Islamic Center at NYU. He’s done a lot of interfaith work, and has shared the stage with the Dalai Lama and the Pope and has met with President Obama. Latif’s parents are American citizens who emigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan. Latif is one of the people featured in the new digital series about Islamophobia called “The Secret Life Of Muslims.” The series is on multiple platforms, including Vox, the USA TODAY Network, “CBS Sunday Morning,” the public radio show “The World,” and the “Secret Life Of Muslims” website.

Khalid Latif, welcome to FRESH AIR. So you’ve been working with police officers and with students. Give us a sense of the range of reactions you’re seeing in the Muslim community that you work with to the election and imminent inauguration of Donald Trump, who has proposed a registry for Muslim immigrants and a ban – he’s spoken of a ban on Muslim immigrants coming to America. He’s used the phrase a total and complete shutdown of Muslims coming to the U.S.

KHALID LATIF: You know, I think a lot of Muslims are very scared, and I think they’re valid in that fear. The reality, unfortunately, is such that even leading into the elections we saw a gross increase in anti-Muslim bias and incidents. In New York City, where I live, leading into the elections, just in a matter of weeks you had two imams – religious leaders of a Muslim community in Queens – who were shot in the back of their head and passed away subsequently. Following afternoon prayers, a 60-year-old woman of Bengali descent was walking home one evening in Queens as well with her husband who is asthmatic, and she had moved a few blocks ahead of him to get home quicker to get dinner ready. And he said later at a press conference that I was at that he heard her screaming and came upon her and found her stabbed and had eventually succumbed to the wounds just a couple of blocks away from their home. There was two mothers strolling their babies in Brooklyn who had been assaulted. A woman wearing a headscarf in Midtown Manhattan had been set on fire. These were all things that happened prior to the election.

Post the election, you know, I think what hit me hard, being at New York University, we have various prayer rooms that Muslim students use on our campus. And the day after the election in our school of engineering in Brooklyn, Muslim students walked into their prayer room to find the entrance with the word Trump written across it and an exclamation point. About a week later, there was Jewish students who on their dorm room door found swastikas, the words make America great again, white pride, make America white again on their doorways. And these were realities that I think evoked a lot of different emotions understandably.

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GROSS: Do you have any personal concerns about how you or your family will be affected by President Trump?

LATIF: You know, I mean, I find myself in a lot of unique positions. And I could tell you as somebody who has traveled on behalf of the State Department, met with the heads of Homeland Security, interacted with senior White House staff and the president himself on numerous occasions, I’ve also been visited in my home by the FBI multiple times. Getting on and off of planes is not really a fun experience.

GROSS: Wait, wait. Just to clarify what you’re saying, the first set of meetings you had were to find out your opinions and to work with you. When you’re talking about the FBI, they were thinking of investigating you. So (laughter) you’re getting it from both ends, cooperation from – like…

LATIF: Well, I think, you know – yeah.

GROSS: …We want your opinion, we’re the government, we want your opinion. At the same time, people are treating you with suspicion from the government.

LATIF: Well, you know, I mean, to give you an example. John Brennan, who is then the Homeland Security head, had visited our Islamic Center at NYU in an event we had done with the White House. And after a private meeting, there was a public gathering. And in that, he addressed the audience saying that Imam Latif, President Obama, thinks of you as a great American citizen and a role model, an example, et cetera, et cetera. And a week later was the first time I started getting detained coming into the country that I have a passport of – off of international flights. And so to just understand and recognize that even someone like me who has the connections that I do finds themselves in these places.

GROSS: So I’m going ask you to describe your job as an NYPD chaplain.

LATIF: So I started working for the NYPD in 2007. There’s about eight chaplains now at the police department of various faiths – Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, there’s a rabbi and myself, an imam. We do a lot of counseling. We do a lot of religious services for officers – uniform and civilian. Our role is to not cater simply to our specific faith community, but to serve as a resource for the 53,000 people who make up the police department, and by extension their family members. We’re on call one day a week if, God forbid, there’s some kind of emergency – somebody gets shot, somebody dies in the line of duty. We’ll go to the hospital to be with the officer, with their fellow officers, their family members.

There’s a lot of ceremonies that start and end with invocations and benedictions. And we can do advocacy work on behalf of other officers. We’re given the appointed rank of inspector, which is one rank below a one-star chief. It’s a fairly high rank in this military-esque institution, and it allows for us at times to utilize and leverage the rank to speak on behalf of those who are of a lower rank just to be able to amplify their voices a little bit more.

GROSS: How many Muslim police officers are there in the NYPD?

LATIF: We estimate that there’s probably about 2,000 to 3,000 Muslims who work in the NYPD, both uniform and civilian, and that includes traffic cops as well. But there’s been Muslims in the police department for quite some time now, and they come from very diverse backgrounds, pretty much every race, ethnicity, culture that you could think of, men and women, different levels of religious observance as well.

GROSS: So when you’re dressed in civilian clothes you wear a kufi which is a Muslim skull cap, and you have a fairly short beard. So people might recognize when they see you that you’re a Muslim. When you’re in your uniform – because you do wear a uniform when you’re on duty, right?

LATIF: I do, I have an inspector’s uniform.

GROSS: So are you wearing like a police hat or a kufi?

LATIF: I still have my skull cap on – my kufi – and I wear my beard as well.

GROSS: Right. You don’t take it off when you’re on calls?

LATIF: It’s not coming off.

(LAUGHTER)

GROSS: So when you’re on call and you’re working with officers who aren’t Muslim, do you ever get faced with any stereotypical preconceptions or any, like, negative vibes because you are Muslim?

LATIF: You know, I mean, the interactions that I’ve had that kind of affirm the fact that people see me through my faith when I’m in uniform hasn’t really come from within the police department. But unfortunately at times when I’m kind of outside of the department but still in my uniform, I’ve had people when I’m walking down the street ask me if I’m dressed up for a costume party. People who have asked me, how is it possible that someone like you could work for the police department? I think one of the most striking experiences for me came when I attended one of the ground zero memorial services on September 11.

So one of the things that we do as police chaplains is attend the 9/11 memorial every year on September 11. We start out by having breakfast at police headquarters with family members who lost loved ones on that day. We then take a bus down to the ground zero site and participate in the ceremony. On the ninth anniversary of the attacks, Vice President Biden was there. And the ceremony was a little bit more closed off because the current memorial structure that exists there now was still being built.

And so I’m in my police uniform. It’s an inspector’s uniform. I still have my beard. I’m wearing my kufi, my skull cap. I’m talking to people as we’re waiting for the ceremony to start, and three men approach me wearing suits. And they say that Secret Service has spotted you from the top of a building. They want us to check your credentials just in case. And I said to them, just in case what? And they said, we’re sorry that we’re doing this to you. I said, then why are you doing it? And to be able to understand what they’re questioning at that moment isn’t really my physical presence at that location, but the entire validity of my emotion tied to that space.

When I was an undergrad at New York University on September 11 in 2001, I stood with about 15,000 of my classmates in Washington Square Park in the middle of our campus as we watched the second plane fly into the towers. We faced a lot of backlash as students at that time. The day after, there was a young woman who tried to push me down the staircase of our dormitory. We had to answer a lot of requests for media from all over the world because we were arguably the closest Muslim group to the ground zero site. And we had no established chaplaincy or Islamic Center at that time, so we just had to do what we could.

I went to a lot of funerals for people of my faith and other walks of life who died on that day. And so much of the work that I do until today is informed by the atrocities of that day. And in that moment, these men are questioning the validity of all of it. And the frustrating thing isn’t that I’m going through it, but I can’t really do anything about it.

And so where I couldn’t say anything and there was hundreds of people who were watching and they said nothing, there was a woman standing next to me who lost her son on September 11. And she said to those men that what you are doing right now is more dishonoring to the memory of our loved ones that we lost on that day than anything else. That here this young man is standing with us in our moment of need, and you’re making it seem as if he’s doing something wrong just because he’s Muslim.

GROSS: And what was the response to that?

LATIF: Well, they got very uncomfortable (laughter) and kind of just…

GROSS: The FBI agents?

LATIF: …Trickled away. Yeah. And, you know, I say this, again, as somebody who – I’ve shared the stage with people like Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama. I’ve met with the president. I’ve been interviewed by a lot of different media. And I’ve still found myself as an individual who has dealt with the realities of being profiled, detained, surveilled, visited by federal law enforcement who, when I’ve asked them after they’ve talked to me multiple times, what do you really want from me, they’ve said, you’re just too good to be true and know that we’re watching you.

When I think of a good person, I think of this woman who simply did the right thing because it was the right thing to do. She leveraged her power and her privilege in a unique way to help somebody who was underserved and underprivileged. And I think that’s how we challenge systemic mechanisms that infringe on the rights of minority populations who don’t have the power dynamic in their favor.

Because really, who in their right mind is going to say something to a mother who lost her son on September 11 while she’s standing at the ground zero site on the anniversary of September 11? And she knew that. And she understood that. And she was the only one who could have said what she said. And she just did it because it was the right thing to do.

GROSS: So you said that the FBI agents at this 9/11 memorial service said to you, you seem too good to be true. Just know we’re watching you. So do you feel like…

LATIF: They said that to me in my office after they had visited me in my home (laughter).

GROSS: Oh, OK. OK. OK.

LATIF: So that was on another – we’ve had a lot of different interactions. I have some friends there now who’ve seen me quite often in different places, but (laughter).

GROSS: So do you feel like you are – do you fear you are under surveillance now? Do you know if you are?

LATIF: Yeah, I mean, it’s tough to understand how it’s like to go through it. But the first time the FBI visited me in my home, I was actually asleep in my bedroom. And a friend of mine was staying over. He knocked on the door to my bedroom and I said, what’s going on? And he said, the FBI is here. They walked into my living room. I sat down and had a conversation with them. I live in a New York University building, so I had reached out to our university’s senior leadership, the head of public safety, to let them know what was going on.

A lot of the questions that they were asking me in my home were tied to just other people, ideas, Muslim organizations and institutions. And a public safety officer then knocked on the door and told them that they needed to leave, that they didn’t have permission to be there. The next day, when I left from my building to go to my office, I walked a couple of blocks to where my car was parked and both of the agents were standing next to my car. And they said, please, we’d love to continue our conversation. Why don’t we go to the federal building?

And I said, there’s no way I’m going with you to the federal building. They then followed me to my office. We had a conversation for a few hours. The conversation shifted from talking about things more generally to me in specific, at which point I said to them, you know, what is it that you’re really looking for? What do you want from me? And one said to me, you’re just too good to be true. Just know that we’re watching you.

And in the weeks after, I found myself in a place where I was constantly looking over my shoulder, seeing if someone was driving behind me. I didn’t go to see my parents in their home for quite some time, didn’t really see my siblings because I didn’t want to bring somebody to where they were. And there was kind of this fear.

GROSS: So you were the youngest chaplain in the history of the NYPD. So you were – what? – 24 when you started on the job?

LATIF: I was 24, yes.

GROSS: I’m just trying to imagine what the reactions of officers were – what their reactions were when they first met you. I know when I started doing interviews and I was around 24 – and I’m shorter than you are – people would be almost panicked at the beginning, like, you’re so young, like, really, they’re letting you do this, you know (laughter). So what kind of reactions…

LATIF: I’m actually pretty short, so…

GROSS: Are you?

LATIF: …I might be shorter than you.

GROSS: So what were their reactions that you were supposed to be guiding them, ministering to them? And these are cops who see everything – life and death and suffering and crime and – so tell us.

LATIF: But, yeah, early on it was pretty interesting. I had to get accustomed to just the uniform and the rank of inspector and what that meant. And I think what was more of a challenge in overcoming was not my age alone, but really kind of the hierarchy to authority. At 24, to have a lot of grown men who were at times, you know, 10 years older than me, 20 years older than me calling me sir, saluting me. And, you know, it wasn’t even always in the most opportune times. There was times I would walk into the restroom and there would be men who would be standing at a urinal, and they would stop and salute me. And I would tell – you guys, you don’t have to do that, it’s OK. But where people were looking at me by my age, they then weren’t necessarily identifying me through the prism of my faith. And I think the combination of the two factors, you know, led towards a lot of deep relationships being built that now at 34 I recognize the importance of in retrospect.

GROSS: Can you give us an example of a time early in your career as an NYPD chaplain where you felt really unprepared to deal with the kind of, you know, emotional turmoil that you were faced with after one of the officers went through, you know, a terrible experience on the job?

LATIF: Yeah. I mean, I think one of the heaviest experiences for me was probably the first time I had to go to the hospital after somebody was shot. And I think at that moment it really dawned on me what it’s like to be a police officer, to be in a place where you were moved and motivated to your best to literally give everything that you have of yourself for the sake of somebody else. And now sitting in a hospital where I see somebody who’s been shot, I see the officers and how they have this sense of not even camaraderie but real brotherhood and sisterhood, and a recognition that in their minds – you can gain an insight by looking in their eyes and seeing that they’re thinking that could have been any one of us. And I think it created a really unique opportunity for reflection and introspection for me in terms of just, you know, what are the values that I live by? And what does real selflessness mean to me? And, you know, what does it really mean to serve those that you’re serving?

GROSS: Are Muslim police officers concerned that if Donald Trump does enact an immigration ban on Muslims or if he requires Muslims to register with the country that the officers are the ones who will have to enforce it?

LATIF: You know, I’ve had a lot of conversations with different governmental agencies in the city. And I think New York City has taken a stance, as well as New York state, seemingly, that if at a federal level there are iniquitous and unjust law enforcement policies that are going to be enacted that New York City is not going to abide by those. Mayor Bill de Blasio has taken a very forceful stance on that, addressing the city in public gatherings as well as through kind of media interaction and saying that there’s no way he’s going to allow for that to be something that happens in New York City.

I’ve had similar conversations with the New York attorney general, Eric Schneiderman. He’s a really great person that is also a voice that’s speaking against policies such as this. And so I think that’s kind of where New York is at. And hopefully that’s something that’ll stand.

GROSS: So you work with a lot of students and police officers and, as I said, do a lot of public speaking around the country. So in many Muslim countries – and I’m not talking about America here. But in many countries that are, you know, predominantly Muslim, women don’t have full rights. Gay people don’t have full rights. Not that gay people have full rights in the U.S. either. Or maybe women, for that matter. But, I mean, for instance, like, in Saudi Arabia women can’t even drive. In many – in some countries and in some parts of some countries, women can’t show their faces. They have to wear a full-body veil.

So do you find that, like, some students, for instance, like, younger people who are trying to figure out what their own identity is and what they – you know, who they want to be are confused about what it means to be a Muslim because they see what it means in primarily Muslim countries, which can be much more limiting and restrictive than it is in the United States?

LATIF: You know, I think the identity issues that young Muslims and older Muslims have around what it means to be Muslim, those exist. But I wouldn’t say that they exist because of how cultures distinct from one’s own culture chooses to practice faith or at times restricts one from practicing faith in the way that they would want to. And there’s a billion and a half Muslims in the world, and their relationship to faith is heavily influenced by kind of the culture in which faith is practiced.

So, you know, I think one of the best ways it was described to me is that the relationship that Islam has to culture is similar to the relationship that water or a stream, a river would have to the bedrock that it flows over in the sense that the water takes on the color of the rock that it’s passing over. And so, too, Islam looks like the culture that it’s practiced in. So Islam in China looks Chinese. Islam in Malaysia looks Malaysian. Islam in Turkey looks Turkish. Islam in Singapore looks Singaporean.

What I’ve seen in terms of traveling around the world, visiting Muslim majority countries as well as countries where Muslims are a gross minority, is that a lot of people live very differently from the way that we live in the United States. And for us to be able to understand the complexity as to why certain places are the way that they are necessitates at times for us to kind of be with those people rather than just being with our preconceived ideas and notions of them.

And that’s by no means to justify or to pretend like there aren’t inequities, gross oppressions and injustices that exist, but to be able to understand then, well, what do we do with the recognition of those? And how do we create an understanding as to how we can build real remedies to those things?

GROSS: Was being Muslim an important part of your identity when you were growing up?

LATIF: You know, as a young person, I didn’t really have any Muslim friends. I went to a school where I was one of two Muslim students. And I had a relationship to Islam, but I don’t think I necessarily had so much of a sense of ownership over it. I’ll give you an example anecdotally. My brother and I, we went to visit my grandmother in Pakistan, where my family’s from, when I was around 12 years old. It was after my grandfather had passed away.

And I was walking through the streets of Pakistan with my brother, and I was wearing these really baggy jeans and I had on Timberland boots. Back then, I had this really long Pantene Pro-V kind of hair – it was very wavy and shiny – that I miss very much these days. I was wearing a baseball hat backwards. And to say the least, I wasn’t really dressed the way everybody else was dressed.

And there was a boy that I saw as we were walking down the street who was probably about 4 years old. He was wearing cultural attire called a salwar kameez, a very loose shirt that went down below the knees and matching pants. It was, like, a greenish color clothing that he was wearing. And he was just staring at me. And when I got really close to him, he kind of craned his head backwards and screamed on the top of his lungs in Urdu, the language that’s spoken there, (speaking Urdu) that Michael Jackson is here. And then he and his friends started chasing me up and down the street because they thought I was Michael Jackson.

But I think, you know, in retrospect, I didn’t really fit in there. The place where my parents were from, the place where my grandparents lived is a place I had a connection to. I had a certain affinity to it. But it still wasn’t my space, so to speak. And the challenge was in trying to reconcile that with the idea that so many people also felt that someone like me didn’t belong in the country that I was born into. And if I didn’t fit in where my parents came from and I was made to feel as if I couldn’t be myself in the country that I was from, where would I really go?

GROSS: So your parents immigrated from Pakistan. My impression is that they were relatively secular when you were growing up. You can correct me if I’m wrong.

LATIF: No, no. They – I mean, my father prayed. My mother prayed. You know, they taught us how to read the Quran. We fasted in our month of fasting. So I wouldn’t say that they were secular.

GROSS: Do you feel like your approach to practicing Islam is different from how you were brought up? And I guess what I’m trying to say is do you feel like you’ve found a way of practicing Islam that speaks to your generation, that speaks to who you are as, you know, American-born and as somebody who grew up – what? – in the ’80s?

LATIF: Sure.

GROSS: ’80s? ’90s?

LATIF: I was born in 1982.

GROSS: Oh, OK.

LATIF: But, you know, I think what’s embedded in this is one of the problematic narratives that Muslims face, right? My parents were still practicing Islam even when my mother didn’t wear a headscarf or my father didn’t have a long beard. And I think what we see is the shaping of who Muslims are in this kind of very homogenous way that says a practicing Muslim only looks like this. That’s why I think a series like “The Secret Lives Of Muslims” is so important is because it gives us insight into multiple narratives that help us to think much bigger than a Muslim is somebody who lives 500 miles away or 500 years in the past.

I mean, I think when we’re able to convey to people in general – Muslims included, as well as people who come from different backgrounds – that Muslims are pretty much everything that you could think people would be. So politically Muslims are Democrats. They’re – for some reason – Republican. They’re independents. You know, they’re people who are young and old, male and female, every race, every ethnicity, every profession that you could think of. They’re wealthy. They’re poor. They’re in between. And so it’s hard to say that there is an Islam that somehow indicates somebody’s level of commitment to the religion or will somehow suddenly be something that can speak more broadly for all Muslims because Muslims are just so different from one another.

GROSS: Can you mention one of the passages from the Quran that really resonates with you as a – you know, as an American-born Muslim who really came into your faith when you were a student? And now you’re an imam and a chaplain, so, like, you’ve grown deeper into your faith, but you live in a very, like, contemporary American world.

I mean, from what I know of you, you love hip-hop. You and your wife – when she was pregnant – watched “The Walking Dead” a lot and caught up on the series when she started to go into labor (laughter), when you were waiting to actually get to the hospital. So, I mean, you know, you’re certainly not turning your back on American popular culture. Like, you’re in it. You’re interested. You don’t see that as being antithetical to practicing your faith. So give us an example of a passage from the Quran that you feel speaks to you as a contemporary American that – you know, living in the world.

LATIF: Yeah, I mean, there’s so many. You know, I think one of the passages when I was younger that really spoke to me in terms of just shaping for me an understanding around diversity says – addressing all of humanity – it says, oh, humanity, we – meaning God – have made you as male and female and created you in nations and tribes so that you might know one another. Indeed, the most elevated of you is the one who has the most kind of mindfulness and consciousness of God. And I think as I go back to that verse, you know, a lot of words get lost in translation. The part that says to know one another as distinct nations and tribes uses the Arabic word – it says (speaking Arabic). And in Arabic, you have a lot of words that mean know and think.

So one of the ways you could tell that something’s important to the Arab people is just the number of different ways that they have to say a certain word. There’s, like, a hundred different ways to say the word horse and camel. There’s a lot of different ways to say the word love. And thinking, knowing, reflecting has a lot of different words in the Arabic language.

And so, you know, to know something in terms of knowledge, you would use the word (speaking Arabic). Understanding – if, you know, I said to you, do you get what I’m saying, you would use the word (speaking Arabic). And here the word (speaking Arabic), you know, it’s not just I know but I have, like, a deep acquaintanceship, a familiarity, you know, an understanding that is experiential. And that’s the way the Quran is telling us that we should know people who are different from us, not just through kind of simplistic understanding but to have some semblance of knowledge that is tied to actual interaction.

GROSS: Well, Khalid Latif, thank you so much for talking with us.

LATIF: Thank you for having me.

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Donald Trump and the Triumph of Islam, by Shaykh Abdal-Hakim Murad

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In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s shock election, Shaykh Abdal-Hakim Murad urges us to consider where this dramatic shift in global politics is headed.


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Soul Searching in the Hour of Chaos, by Shaykh Jihad Brown

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In the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the surprise victory of Donald Trump, Shaykh Jihad Brown asks some tough questions and paves a way forward for American Muslims.

Its 3:00 a.m.; there is a hollow feeling in the chest, but I have family, I have students. We all knew this could very well be a possibility—never inevitable but certainly possible. While there is a silver lining up there somewhere, make no mistake, it is a rain cloud. Inclement weather does not deter the “deadliest catch”. It is what we signed up for, no? Did the believers think they had yet tasted the surat ankabut that we so relish citing from the manabir for years now? Let’s find our hearts in the resolve that has led even some Alaskan and North Pacific fisherman to embrace the Deen of Islam. The job must get done and the Prophet (Allah bless him) never promised you a rose garden.
Make no mistake; this has been a victory driven by a fear for loss of white privilege. A comforting imperceptible entitlement that seems to be slipping away with a nostalgic ‘Norman Rockwell’ America that ceased to exist long before the canaries keeled over. For some Americans it certainly never existed; and Rockwell himself—as he painted—seemed to realise that in his later years. But our question must be this, will the ‘Muslim establishment’ take this moment to realise this and reconsider their taking ‘white upper middle-class suburbia’ as their ideal? Will they address the disconcerting racism and classism so prevalent in our mosques? It is a victory made possible by a regime of dumbing down the electorate. Will Muslims reconsider their more recent insistence on dumbing down all and every aspect of Islamic discourse? An electorate devoid of critical acumen will buy anything offered as panacea; as will a Muslim community believing themselves nourished by slogans and spectacles.
Yes, the ‘elites’ of Spiro Agnew and the Editor of the Harvard Law Review have been defeated. But don’t think that this is a cattle call that the ‘herd’ shall inherit the earth. Now more than ever, intelligence is important. But it will be a grounded intelligence coupled with empathy that only Islam can bring. Wisdom, hikma and a kind word, is never data, never rhetoric. An ‘information age’ is dangerous at worst, empty at best, without the third dimension. Let us desist from our cheeky courtship of post-modern nominalism—that reality and truth lies only within the words we utter. Let us consider the compelling merit of the realism offered by a human rational soul—that principles have meaning and there is a reality independent of our thoughts and language. That Allah and truth is, regardless of whether there is a human mind to conceive it.
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What our Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him) wanted for new shores

We are on the cusp of a period of intense soul-searching for this country. Muslims now have an opportunity forced upon them to begin a process of soul-searching as well. Will they be able to find the authenticity of perspective, direction, and contribution this society needs so deeply from them? The programme moving forward will be to ask ourselves what our Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him) wanted for new shores; and what healing the Deen of our Creator would bring to a new society that is thirsty and suffering from its own particular forms of pain. Can we also be physicians of hearts and minds. As well as honest custodians of truth and fidelity for our own children and families?
The modern Muslim community has been one of extremes to this point. Now more than ever before we need engaged participation without assimilation; care, concern, and empathy, without sentimentality and emotionalism; authenticity and leadership without triumphalism. Here is a mā’idah disguised as a disappointment; a pasture of opportunity disguised as a tragedy. A call to what will give you life—for those who would respond. Every path to the mountain top can only begin with, “physician heal thyself.” Let’s invite one another to discover Islam as it is and not as entertaining or self-congratulating ideal; bismillah People.

Silver linings

The expectation is that matters should—in general—be safer than assumed for minorities, in that the Right Wing got what it wanted. There would have been more danger on the streets in the case of a Hillary win. Will xenophobes be emboldened—it is possible. Will there be new unfair policy initiatives, maybe. These things are uncertain still. But there will be no barrel-bombs. Rather than looking for the sky to fall just yet, let us focus instead on strengthening our hearts. Muslims will have to explore the merits of real, tangible, and true fraternity, solidarity, and community, not just as cozy buzz words and idealistic slogans—the furniture of our own form of jingoism. If you haven’t understood this then know that the 1980s called and said it wants its 1950s dinosaur figures back.
We all know privately, that there is a more privileged segment within the American Muslim community that has always leaned Republican; conflating economic conservatism with moral conservatism. Conflating prophetic istiqama with evangelical ‘moralising’. This ‘kool-aid’ of uncritical Muslim-establishment faith in the mythology of a Protestant Work Ethic will be a major obstacle to authenticity; if decision making weight on matters of theology, social well-being, and community direction continue to remain in such hands.

The need for real humanity

If ‘new Americans’ want to participate in basic mainstream American conversations—as ‘basic’ Americans—by all means, welcome. But Muslim please, don’t do so on the dime of ‘Islamic daawa’. Americans have historically been hopeful in the healing and uplifting promise in the Deen of Muhammad (Allah bless him). Take it outside if you don’t mind—get a room if you must—but  please don’t deny us that. Americans ask—explicitly or with the tongue of their condition—for that enrichment and sophisticated depth and warmth of real humanity and godly, rabbani, insight that only you can offer; not for the cold technology or mechanical management techniques that they already have. We do not tend to expect that working class Americans are going to be saved by this enterprise they have sunk their votes into. Do you have the respect, compassion, integrity, and resolve your neighbours hope for? I still find that I am unable to relinquish my hope that you do; even though its been hard. Just really, really hard.
Know that the world turns for people who put impressing Allah and His messenger first. Everything else is window dressing. Don’t get side-tracked. The ‘labeeb’ understands that when we say we dig your taste in drapes, that we’re just making small-talk to keep it down to earth.
For those who have been optimistically looking toward ‘hope’ and ‘change’, then know that it comes in phases—and recognise phase II for what it is. Take a moment, take a deep breath, and then put on your rain poncho, grab your galoshes, and be a part of building phase III. Inclement weather doesn’t prevent the fisherman from going out on deck when the job must still get done. Look up. Downpours are an inevitable part of the open seas and the waves will get rough, and the tumult of the ocean intimates uncertainty. But look up, the constellations continue to shine with their reassuring serenity and constancy; and the heavenly bodies continue to swim in their orbits—and by the stars they are guided.

Rethinking Our Identity as Western Muslims: A Black-and-White Dichotomy?

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As turmoil increases around the world, the identity of Western Muslims is increasingly being called into question. On one hand, some people have little interest in their religious or cultural identities and are eager to assimilate into the monoculture. On the other hand, there are people who believe that contributing to mainstream society, such as through social concern or involvement is not possible.

Shaykh Dr. Ridwan Saleem of Ha Meem College in Hounslow, England, talks about political, social, and religious identity. He refutes both extremes, and proves that being involved in the good of the wider community is a part of Prophetic Practice.

Can’t get enough? Sign up for SeekersHub’s FREE course “Being Muslim: A Clear Introduction to Islam”, taught by Ustadh Amjad Tarsin, chaplain at the University of Toronto.

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We are grateful to the Ha Meem Foundation for this recording.

 

Black Lives Matter: If You’re Right With God, You’re Right – Imam Zaid Shakir

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Imam Zaid Shakir has had to bury people who were shot by cops and those who were shot by their peers – predominantly young, African-American men. He concludes, if you’re right with God, you’re right. If some racist thinks you’re not right that’s their problem.

Black history is filled with injustice. The actions of Rosa Parks, Brown vs. Education, and Malcom X all are long-standing proof of that. But, Imam Zaid explains, we don’t need anyone external to tell us that our lives matter.

The internal dignity that tells us that we do matter, is what can get us through anything. That was what enabled generations upon generations of African slaves to love, to laugh, and to enjoy life with their families,  even knowing that their happiness was temporary. It was what taught black labourers working menial jobs, that their lives mattered.

Dignity can’t be taken, he says. It can only be forfeited.

We are grateful to Festival of Faiths for this recording.

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When Will Muslims Take Back Jerusalem? Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

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When will Muslims take back Jerusalem? This question has been asked over and over again during the last few decades…but the answer has always evaded us. Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, however, has the answer.

Throughout his life, he has seen Muslims reacting to their situations with radicalism, anarchy, horror, and bloodshed. He doesn’t see them emulating the glory of Islam.

When he looks at them, he doesn’t see the character of the Prophet Muhammad, Salah al-Din, and other heroes of Islam, who treated others so well that they were praised by even their prisoners.

The problem, he says, is that Muslims are reacting too much like the ones that hurt them. We react to evil in kind, forgetting that those people who hurt us are not our teachers. He gives the examples of Imam Ghazali, who was ostracized for his teachings, and Imam Ahmad Zarrouq, who fought for the rights of the Jews, but whose teachings carried far into the future.

Now, left to represent Islam are beautiful stones like the Taj Mahal and the Blue Mosque, but the hearts that built them, are long gone.

Cover photo by Asim Bharwani.

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Why the Lahore Bombings Show that Ignorance is Folly

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A proverb reads, “Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.” In the wake of the Lahore bombings, Imam Zaid Shakir argues the opposite; that an age of rampart confusion, this ignorance can become the cause of religious extremism. the cause of religious extremism

We are grateful to the Islamic Centre of Irvine for this recording. Cover photo by Shawn Carpenter.

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