We don't look Muslim to a lot of people
and that's something that people, I remember people saying to me
when I was in high school and college, they're like "Oh,
you don't look Muslim." I'm like "Don't say it like a compliment dude. Like
that's... Are you complimenting me that I don't look Muslim? Because that's
a weird thing to say."
and so I think that that definitely changes
our experience of the whole thing, of coming to America,
of proving ourselves as a Americans and not just like...
Every culture got pooped on when they came to America. So being white
definitely helped with that. How did your life personally, being Muslim
living in areas where you may have been the only Muslim family,
how did that go for you in the different phases of your life?
Were you living out and proud? Were you talking to your friends about
it? What did you decide to do?
Well, when I was little, like in elementary school, I didn't know that
it was a thing. I didn't even know that it was a different
thing.
When I was in kindergarten...
I would say probably the community that I grew up in was probably,
my friends were half Christian and half Jewish
and that was always the question around December was like, "Are you gonna
celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah?" And I'd be like "I'm not gonna celebrate
either, huh." And I thought that made me cool, like it made me
special and different and I suppose it did but I was like,
"We have a holiday called Ramadan." 'Cause it happened to land in December
around that or in the winter time anyway around that time
so I'm like, "I get to not listen to music or eat for
30 days.
But afterwards, there's a party."
But yeah...
My friends and my friends' families were all very accepting. There was never...
It was never even weird, it was never a thing. I remember,
as kids my parents were a bridge what Ramadan is for us
so we didn't listen to music for 30 days. That was the thing
that we... That was our fasting so to speak. So
I remember being in, I think it was third grade and we were
watching a movie in class and I excused myself. I'm like, "There's... "
I think it was a sound of music or something like that.
I'm like "I can't watch this." And my teacher was like...
She felt so bad because didn't know... She's like "I didn't know that
was part of it." And I'm like "Oh, it's okay." And she was like
"Okay, come... " And I just hung out in the teachers lounge and
sat on the couch and ate cookies.
'cause she felt so bad that she wanted to be sensitive to our
needs and she's like "Oh, I didn't even know that was a part
of being... Part of Ramadan." I didn't even know to tell her I'm
like "It's not, my parents just made it up." It was just like
"That's how we're gonna do it." Because I wasn't gonna fast as a
third grader and they wanted me to do something
but yeah, everybody was... I'm really lucky because it could have gone,
now in retrospect, I see it could have gone a much worse route
and I think it was good because people got to know us before
they knew we were Muslim.
Like "Oh yeah, Steve and Aisha, they are great. Yeah, Aisha is kind
of a weird name but whatever, just like look past it."
And then it would come out as a nonchalant thing like,
"Oh yeah, we're good. It's a Muslim holiday." Or it's like "One of
my holidays is... " I'm like, "I'm gonna come in late today because
it's a holiday. I have... " What did I used to say?
I don't know. I remember I used to say... There was some phrase,
It was like "I have prayers or something like that." I'm like "One
of my holidays, I have to go do."
And
yeah, I think that also goes back to the fact that we don't
look like what people think Muslim people look like so we did... We got
that first step in of like "Oh, you get to meet us and
know that we're nice." And then this other piece of,
which should be irrelevant information, comes in, as opposed to like "Oh,
the first thing you know about me is my religion."
So I think that was definitely, again,
helped us integrate as a community.
As I got older...
Really didn't... It was a pretty,
not so bad. There's always stupid high school people
but I think there's just dumb boys in every high school who will say
stupid things and nobody ever said anything to me, ever threatening or ever
in any way like that, they'd be like "Oh yeah, Muslim, you're a terrorist."
Not... No, none of that but it was like it'd be like some
Muslim joke can be like "Hey, moron." "Is that what you think of me"
And they're like "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't... Not you, not you, not
you." I'm like, "Yeah?"
So that's that kind of conversation where it's like not directed but just
a stupid thing and the more that I
talk and the more people I meet, then you're like "Oh,
not you." I'm like "No, no, that's not just it's not me.
You're just wrong.
It's not anybody." So
I think that overall it was not a bad experience.