Being Muslim in America

June 29, 2008

Author: Huzir Sulaiman

Source: The Star Online

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2008/6/29/lifefocus/21678970&sec=lifefocus

Muslims in the United States find that hope lies not in assimilating or shedding their identities but in winning over the hearts and minds of their fellow Americans.

Mubarakah Ibrahim is an American woman living in the town of New Haven, Connecticut, where she works as a fitness instructor and personal trainer. Having appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show, she is also something of a celebrity.

She is also a second-generation Muslim. Of African-American descent, her parents both converted to Islam when they were very young – her father when he was 16, and her mother at the age 25.

Her family are all practising orthodox Sunni Muslims. Her husband is in the New Haven police, and her children attend the local schools.

I met Mubarakah last week when I joined her and two other speakers in a panel discussion entitled Muslim Identity: the Personal vs the Political jointly organised by the New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas and the Yale World Fellows Program.

I was particularly intrigued by Mubarakah’s stories as they provided an interesting insight into the everyday situation of American Muslims.