It means hearing Imam Sudais and instantly returning to Mecca and later hearing Men at Work and instantly returning to the 80’s.
It means remembering the days when Libya’s Qaddafi was the big bad bogeyman.
It means remembering the days when space shuttle launches actually meant something. The entire country would come to a standstill to watch the take-offs.
It means remembering where I was when the space shuttle Challenger exploded. I faked being sick so I wouldn’t miss the launch on TV and so I saw every tragic second of it live from my family room.
It means wrestling with myself whether to watch Joe Montana lead my favorite football team, the San Francisco 49ers, on the game winning drive in the waning seconds of the 1988 Super Bowl or to catch Isha prayer at the masjid.
It means hearing the name of the Syrian scholar Dr. Ramadan al-Buti and thinking back to the days when childish references to ‘Shaykh Yar Booti’ would always make me and my friends snicker.
It means remembering the days when most Americans believed ‘Moslems’ were stupid desert Arabs or followers of the evil Iranian Ayatollah. Wait, that hasn’t changed much.
It means recalling that I was once the undefeated champion in Atari’s Pitfall right after I recently got my butt kicked in Mortal Kombat 3 by some young punk. In my defense, Playstation controls have like 20 buttons - whatever happened to the simple Atari joystick that had just one red button?! Anyone?
It means loving the granddaddy of Muslim speakers, Imam Siraj Wihaj, who was the first star of the Muslim lecturers’ circuit in the US, back when 'going overseas to study' connotated a student exchange program with some family in Sweden.
It means being blessed to hear Imam Zaid Shakir back when he was a young firebrand speaker, in the mold of Malcom X, constantly talking about revolution. As he matured and stabilized his thoughts (initiated by his overseas studies), I went through a similar evolution where pragmatism began to play a larger role than idealism. Additionally, having kids tends to accelerate that process.
It means thinking that Papa Smurf must've been a good Muslim (due to his full beard) and Smurfette must've been a bad one (due to her revealing outfit), but eventually concluding that none of them were Muslims except for Gargamel who had an uncanny resemblance to one of the uncles at our Masjid.
It means innocently hoping that the Muslims in America will one day play the Moses (pbuh) to America’s Pharaoh, reared and nurtured within the secure confines of his palace only to one day challenge his oppressive ways and bring the taste of freedom to the rest of the browbeaten Ummah. On a related note, did you know that Naeem rhymes with Naïve?
It means remembering Geraldine Ferraro and Jesse Jackson being female and black presidential candidates way before Hillary and Obama came onto the scene.
It means hating myself for ever wanting to dress like Sonny Crockett.
It means loving myself for never wanting to dress like Michael Jackson.
It means convincing myself that one-hit wonder Save Ferris was a Muslim rock band because their famous song ‘Come on Ali’ was about a Muslim. I only recently discovered that the song was actually ‘Come on Eileen’. Hey gimme a break…it really does sound like he’s singing Ali, right?
It means realizing that most of you have no clue what I’m talking about. :-)
It means that despite the undeniable imprint left by American society unto my cognitive DNA, I have grown to despise it. The naiveté of my childhood has been viciously displaced by the repulsive realities governing this society, from the ongoing corporate-sponsored wars for global resources (oil in ME, natural gas in the Caspian, minerals in central Africa, cheap labor in Central America) to the gluttony that spurs these wars (encouraged and sponsored by those same corporations) to the widespread apathy displayed towards the effects of these wars, effects such as gross economic disparities, environmental carnage, and once-healthy societies laid to waste.
It means constantly struggling to reconcile my American side with my Muslim side. And then there’s that pesky Pakistani side that always wants to have its say. God help my kids who now have to navigate through these same murky waters with the added pressure from their Palestinian side. :-)
It means I’m still working on defining what American Muslim means to THIS American Muslim.
Grooming gangs, rape and racism
2 weeks ago
15 comments:
Nice post Naeem. I know exactly what you mean
nice post brother naeem. You bring back a lot of memories to this fellow 30 something American Muslim.
Do you remember...
Friday Night Videos (before MTV came out)
WWF wrestling cartoon with Hulk Hogan, Iron Sheikh, and Junk Yard Dog. it came on Saturday mornings
gas being 80cents a gallon
Michael jackson moon walking at the Grammys
your post was very cool...a trip down memory lane
As-Salaam-Alaikum
asalaam alaikum..
u really thought of papa smurf as a good muslim for sporting the beard?! :-)
may Allah reward imam siraj wahaj totally with you on that..his speeches and presentations brought me to tears many times in my days of confirming this great thing, Islam.
recalling the past does 2 things to me, it either reminds to be grateful towards Allah for guiding me as Muslimah and it humbles me with reminders of the faults i am guilty of.
i grew up with an identity crisis big-time in the US, and the saga continues here in Saudi. people will ask my english speaking kids or me whats our nationality and i have a hard time answering..a woman at the haram asked my son who's just shy of 5, and i told her he's muslim..and that's it! :-)
I'm sensing a trend:
http://tariqh.blogspot.com/2008/03/american-muslim-identity.html
Nice post br. :) Although I am not American (Brit) and wasn't Muslim until I was 18 I can still relate to a lot! (It's an age thing!)
As for gas being 80 cents a gallon brotherdemetric... think it costs about half that here in KSA!
AA-
@Shana, are you referring to wanting to dress like Sonny Crockett? ;-)
@Brotherdemetric, yeah, I remember Friday Night Vids...we would eagerly anticipate their weekly shows. And I remember WWF back when people actually thought it was real! hehe...Thanks for the comment.
@Suhaa, Papa smurf was an intelligent, compassionate leader, always using his wisdom to solve problems, avoiding unnecessary confrontation, and always looking out for his flock of smurfs....now that I think about it, he is so NOT a Muslim leader! :-D
You had an identity crisis? Care to explain?
@SP, thanks for the link bro...how I wish I could write as eloquently as our brother TariqH!
@UmmIbrahim, interesting that you could relate to alot...out of curiosity, did you guys across the pond think the Space Shuttle launches were a big deal?
And yeah, gas here is around 45cents/gallon. Only thing here that isn't going up in price. :-(
Being an American Muslim sucks. I wish I were Canadian.
Going off your last comment br naeem, is it true what they say about Saudi being a place you can save? compared to living in the US for instance?
Also can you perhaps do a post related to saudi, where some of us (cough *me* cough) can ask all their questions about living in saudi.
Like, whats a decent salary? And you can compare the salaries there to the salaries to give us an idea of what is affordable in a said amount of salary there. How much do certain schools cost? How about compounds? What is there for women to do? etc etc. u know the regular tabloid questions :0)
down with america, the great satan.
ALLAHU AKBAR
I "got it" all. I really did. Except for having to catch 'isha prayer or watch Joe Montana, because I was not Muslim then.
Sonny Crockett! Hilarious.
My husband used to watch Knight Rider in Kuwait. It was titled, "Strange Car." What's that? Michael Knight was not from Amman?
maybe 'identity crisis' isnt the correct way to explain it, lets just say- i didnt have muslim friends growing up and the only other muslims i saw were at the 'sunday' school my parents trucked my brother and i up to every weekend. in public schooling i was the one with the quiet ancient egyptian with the weird name who couldn't eat for a whole month. while come high school i was the one without the boyfriend and the so-called ultra-strict parents compared to everyone else..finally i fit in, but i had an itch you know i didnt feel all right..and my parents )father especially, were on my case. "why do u want to go to the mall? who's idea was it?" he always tried teaching me not to be a follower.
come college and Allah guided me to stop trying to please everyone, even with my parents i started saying things like "jazakAllah kheir" with the j and not g sound..and i told them i'm only about halal foods now etc..and even moreso when i began working at 19 as a therapist in rehab hospitals with people who had everything in their donia seemingly perfect one day and the next as if they were a completely different person due to strokes, brain injury and other ailments. i became more confident of my beliefs, questioned everything-even Islam to reconfirm it for myself rather than taking it in because my parents said so..
the more i loved islam, the more alien i became to everyone around me..and i thank my dad for that for telling me to be my own person.
so on a lesser scale when people ask me today at the haram or wherever about my nationality..i really dont know what to say to them..american egyptian..? because ive never lived in egypt, and i dont agree with much of american culture..sorry for this long winded comment, but u asked! :-)
alhamdulilah we are muslims..and may Allah increase the eman of muslims everywhere..
AA-
@UmmFarouq, "I "got it" all. I really did."
Careful now, you're giving away your age. LOL!
@Suhaa, "when people ask me today at the haram or wherever about my nationality..i really dont know what to say to them..american egyptian..? because ive never lived in egypt, and i dont agree with much of american culture"
Yeah, that pretty much sums it up for me as well...I appreciate your comment.
I really think many people share the inner tensions that we go through, but we only hear from those who express their confidence in their dual-identities, as if having this nagging doubt is some dirty little secret, we should be ashamed of.
Wow, this was so funny! I haven't thought about all those little memories in years! LOL I especially remember the Challenger explosion and "come on eileen"....LOL...and more so Mr. Michael Jackson ...ha ha ha. Oh to be 30 something...it's amazing what life has presented. Thanks for making me laugh. :)
keep at it!
...but eventually concluding that none of them were Muslims except for Gargamel who had an uncanny resemblance to one of the uncles at our Masjid.
Heehee :)
Actually, Geraldine Ferraro was the vice-presidential candidate, chosen by Walter Mondale, the 1984 Democratic presidential candidate.
I suppose this is the difference between us 40-something American Muslims and the rest of you youngsters. ;)
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