Key
Haram- Forbidden in Islam
Halal- Permissible
Ramadan- Holy month in which Muslims fast.
PBUH- Peace Be Upon Him
Being a brown Muslim student in a majority American community gives an opportunity to educate more people about what Islam truly is. The hardest thing about being a brown Muslim in a non-majority Muslim school is: people not understanding some of your religious values. The main one being people do not want to comprehend the fact that I cannot date. That's haram. For some reason I will be asked daily if I am dating one of my female friends. My answer has been no since the beginning. After that question pops up the "why" with the answer being "religious reasons"; yet, they ask if I am dating that same person again. No, I did not change my religious values in the last 5 minutes. Now I have Muslim friends too. I'm not saying I'm the most religious Muslim you'll ever meet because let's be real I'm too halal for the haram but too haram for the halal. I do have some Muslim friends who fit my halal: haram ratio. Most of them from the same background as me (Pakistani); however, I have never been to Pakistan. My parents haven't been to Pakistan in a long time either. So my knowledge of Pakistan, it's culture, and it's language even isn't precisely exquisite. Often it makes me feel left out. They'll be talking about these Ramadan traditions that I'm not familiar with, or they'll be talking about some food (supposedly delicious) that I have never heard the name of, or the best one: they'll speak in the language to each other, and I will have no clue what has just been said. Being a Pakistani Muslim with little cultural knowledge, I don't fit in with the Americans, but I also don't always get to fit in with my Pakistani Muslim friends. I do wish I knew more about the culture I came from. I mean don't get me wrong my friends to make me feel like I do belong with them. They're very understanding of the fact that I don't know much about the culture and they don't treat me any different because of it. They will start explaining things that I don't know. Make me try snacks from Pakistan, showing me Pakistani and Islamic memes, showing me Bollywood movies (we have an entire list of movies for basically the whole summer), making plans to visit pakistan (but also visiting some of the most architectural mosques all around the world) and they try to bring me closer to the culture and even Islam. Which I love and appreciate.
Another thing which is hard about being a Muslim in such a large non-Muslim community are the stereotypes about Muslims. I am bothered by these stereotypes and I've seen people spread things about Muslims that they don't even understand themselves, but they're here informing other people about them. In all honesty, I feel bad for people who don't have a Muslim friend to show them what it means to be Muslim. Moreover, the people who have a Muslim in their life see how beautiful Islam is. I think the most precious people in this world have to be non-Muslims who understand the religious values, appreciate them, support them, and use Islamic Arabic phrases.
I have a friend, and she isn't Muslim, but she cares so deeply about my religious beliefs that it's beautiful. She will stand up to anyone who says something about Muslim being terrorists or anything related to Islamic stereotypes. I mean she will be ready to fight you. So, I am aware that not every American is racist and Islamophobic however, the amount of time I’ve heard “NOT EVEN WATER” during Ramadan speaks for itself. Many people just don't realize who Muslims are because they've based so many things off of biased opinions and stereotypes which do not describe us all. These stereotypes come from Saudi Arabia, and well news flash, not all Muslims are Saudis. Majority of Muslims believes in female equality. The prophet Muhammad (PBUH) frequently counseled Muslim men to treat their wives and daughters well. "You have rights over your women," he is reported to have said, "and your women have rights over you." We are not all here ready to have four wives and refrain them from doing anything at all. Yes, I am a Muslim. No, I am not a Saudi. No, I do not feel that I have the power to control women. No, I am not a terrorist, but I do play the bassoon.
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Musa Jafri
Hafsa Khan
I connected with Musa pretty well. Starting the “interviews” I already knew that this story would be based around Islam or culture. We’re both Muslims and have the similar background of Pakistan. I was born there and his parents were born there. At first I wasn’t really sure how to spin that off but then we talked in a way that we never really had before. I’ve known him for a about a year but talking in this way helped me see a different connection with him. There aren’t that many Muslims at our school to begin with and a lot of them are very distant from Islam. Most people give into the extreme cultural differences. Musa however, he doesn’t have much back knowledge of Pakistan, a Muslim country, where his family heritage begins. Yet he’s a lot more Muslim than some Muslims born in a Muslim country. He talked about the hardships and we came to the realization of how similar some of them are. The stereotypes make it very hard. I think that’s one of the things that only we can understand. That that understand and feeling has a big part in bringing us together. People don’t often understand how the stereotypes often affect people and hurt them. Not until they go through with it themselves. I also would have never known that sometimes he feels left out around his Pakistani friends if I didn’t base this story on him. As one of the friends, it made me want to try harder and make him feel apart of us. I always just thought that he didn’t really consider himself a Pakistani and just didn’t care if he didn’t know. Well apparently he just never got the option to learn. I’m glad I got to write his expanded story. Without it I wouldn’t have learned about some of our connections that are capable of bringing us very close to each other.
