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Al-Talib interviews Alaa Koleilat, a 3rd year Neuroscience major at UCLA, about her experience living in North Dakota after 9/11.

A-T: What was it like living in North Dakota as a Muslim?

Koleilat: So we have about 50 Muslims tops. For me, I didn’t feel the effects of the way Muslims were viewed in the US until later on. It wasn’t immediately after 9/11 because not everything about that, in terms of Osama bin Laden and everything, didn’t come out until later. So we weren’t as affected right away, but later on we really became affected.

I didn’t have any trouble wearing hijab until I got into high school. This is an incident that is really important for people to know about. When we went to take our younger sister to band camp, we took her to the International Peace Gardens in northern North Dakota. And to go there we don’t need to cross the Canadian border, you are still in North Dakota.

Coming back after dropping her, we stopped at a station where they just needed to check your ID. So what happened was that they asked us for our ID and then they told us to pull over.

So we pulled over, they opened up our trunks, looked through our bags and they asked us for our passports. Even though we did not cross the Canadian border they still asked us for our passports.

We were just like, “Why do we need to have our passports?” We gave them the passports and just waited there outside in the heat, waiting and waiting. We were asking one security guard questions, “Why did they stop us? What’s so different about us? They don’t need our passports to go through.”

The security guard told us straight up: “We are told to look for people that look for you. We are told to look for people that are Muslim, and to stop them.”

That is exactly what racial profiling is except that it’s not out in the open, it’s ‘hush hush’.

Even when we travel –at the Bismarck airport –even though people know me and my family, they still look at me really weird when I go on the plane and when I have a carry-on.

Most people just ask me question like why I wear hijab. But you do get those ignorant people that don’t know and that don’t want to know. My mom gives presentations at elementary school and one kid asked her later if she was related to Osama bin Laden. It is ignorance to certain extent.

A-T: What does 9/11 mean to you as a Muslim American?

Koleilat: To me, it’s a turning point, definitely a turning point. The way people view Muslims is definitely different. The way Muslims view themselves is definitely different. Because Muslims question each other, “Who is extreme who is not extreme. Who is your teacher? What are you guys learning?” They can’t trust each other anymore…

And then also a turning point in terms of that now we have a bigger responsibility to represent Islam in a right fashion. And to show people that look, as much as you may generalize, not all Muslims are like this, not even the majority of Muslims are like this, this is a small minority of people.

So it’s a turning point for the better, the way people view us is different but that just gives us a bigger role and will force Muslims to be active in community, to be active in schools and the public schools especially…to not stick within our Muslim bubble, our own community. We need to branch out, we need to expose the United States –Americans –to the good in Islam. They’ve only seen certain people twist certain things and justify it and then people will take that for Islam.

A-T: What about the future. Where do you think things are headed for Muslim Americans?

Koleilat: I think we have a bright future but I think we also have a lot to live up to. I don’t know if we have seen the worse of Islamophobia or not. You think it would not get any worse and then a guy wants to burn a Quran. So I think we have a lot ahead of us and everybody needs to step it up. Muslims need to wake up and realize that we live in this country and that these problems aren’t going anywhere. Bridge the gaps. Give more presentations about Islam. Be more active in community.

I know this is weird coming from a pre-med student. We need to branch out to different avenues. We really need to encourage our youth that want to pursue different things. We need Muslims in the media, more Muslim journalists. We need to encourage people that are doing that.

Being away from home for the first time, many other Muslim students face the same unexpected challenges of having to wake up for suhoor on their own without a parent to drag them out of bed or making it through an exhausting day on campus only to come home to no food to break their fast with.

Yet for Teebi, the hardest part is being away from family.

“It’s difficult to be away from your family, especially during Ramadan. It’s a time where everyone always eats together and everyone gets ready together and goes to the mosque. It’s the small stuff.” Teebi said.

And the food situation?

“Food, that’s a big thing,” she says with a laugh, “usually in Ramadan there will be something prepared for you. Sure you might help out in the preparation but it’s not completely on you. Over here when I’m on campus, sometimes I come home and it’s already 8:30- past iftar- and I don’t have anything prepared and I’m just really tired after a long day.”

So what does she do to feed herself?

“I think if I’m making something for myself, it would probably just be a sandwich. I mean I made one really gross sandwich, something I just threw together, and I tried to make it more ‘meal-ish’ but it was a fail.”

For many Muslim students at UCLA, the Muslim Students Association (MSA) helps to fill the void of being on your own during Ramadan to a certain extent.

Prayer mats are set out at MSA UCLA’s community iftar. Photo by Asmar Ghani

“The MSA is a really good support system, like with the communal iftars and people going to prayer together, so I think that’s cool. I think that helps distract you from your loneliness I guess.” It also helps to feed college students who have not been in the practice of cooking.

Despite the challenges of being on her own this time of year, Teebi is finding a way to make it through.

“…It’s manageable,” she says, taking it all in stride.

1. LA County Probation Department will allow IYTP volunteers under the age of 21 to attend a Juvenile Facility site.
2. The background checking process for every new volunteer will be changed from 3 months to 1 month. IYTP will have its own liaison who will ensure that our applications have priority when been filed.
3. IYTP can attend any site of their choice in LA County and the LA County Probation Department will help IYTP attend that site.
4. IYTP volunteers will get their own badges when attending site to distinguish them from other students.

IYTP volunteers tutor juvenile inmates that usually fall under the 16-19 years age group. Volunteers provide tutoring services in Math and English in order to help inmates get their GED.

IYTP was founded in 1988 and was MSA UCLA’s first project. However, this project also has had a long history of inconsistent sites due to red tape that disabled volunteers to attend site. The project was feared to be shutdown in the future if the situation remained the same.

IYTP admin members are hopeful that the changes listed above can resolve these problems. These new changes will allow IYTP to have a consistent site where members can develop a long term relationship with site leaders. This will hopefully allow a larger number of UCLA students to attend site and increase volunteers.

Having grown up in Southern California, having gone to both a high school and university with a strong MSA, and having a large array of Masjeds and mimbars to choose from in my immediate vicinity, I feel almost sheltered from this part of society that so openly and bluntly expose their true thoughts about their fellow Americans.

I say true thoughts because it’s rather obvious these people find the “courage” to say these things when they are strong in number, when the common enemy is an abstract “Muslim” or “Islam” as opposed to Ahmed who works at Trader Joes, or Fatima the receptionist at the doctor’s office.

Even the crazed Orange County councilwoman Deborah Pauly, who in her own words admits “she doesn’t even care if we think she’s crazy anymore,” would have a hard time looking someone in the eye and telling them their prophet was a pedophile.

As rational and stable members of society, we need to understand that these people aim to instigate, therefore responses that feed the stereotype they wish to push forward as part of their agenda will only make matters worse.

At times like these I can’t help but remember the fiasco that surrounded the Danish cartoon series aiming to defame our beloved prophet. Many campus conservative groups and atheist clubs further instigated the situation by holding events exhibiting the prints and inviting the campus to share in the expression of “freedom of speech.”

I regret to admit that many Muslims, including myself, initially acted outside the akhlagh of even our own prophet, the one we were trying so desperately to defend. We lost sight of the Prophet’s example, of his story expressing how he cared dearly even for the sick woman who dropped garbage on his head every time he passed through her alleyway.

The fruit of his actions were quite clear, for as we all know she embraced Islam on her deathbed, claiming she wished to follow the religion of the man who cared for the needs of a wretched old lady who had shown him nothing but evil, the man who had come to her aid when no one else had.

Although we shouldn’t express anger or feed into stereotypes, we should also fear complacency. It is fairly evident from the comments surrounding these events that we have no choice but to speak out against these views, but the methods we choose are equally as important.

Back when the Danish cartoons first came out, the Atheist, Agnostic and Humanist Association at the University of Wisconsin decided to join the melee by drawing chalk stick figures all across campus walkways labeling them “Muhammad.”

What did the MSA do? They didn’t invite passionate speakers to start a shout-fest, they didn’t chant ‘Allahu Akbar’ in front of the student union, heck they barely even let out an official statement.

So what did they do you ask? Nothing short of simply walking out on campus that morning and drawing two boxing gloves on each hand and adding “Ali” to the end of each “Muhammad.” Genius, no? Well it goes to show that sometimes it takes pure genius to combat such blatant ignorance.

Guest speaker was current UC Riverside SJP President Taher Herzallah, who is currently working as a Campus Coordinator for American Muslims for Palestine

Another important topic I feel I must take the opportunity to comment on, relates to the events which took place at the University of California Irvine’s campus. 11 members of our Muslim community were improperly treated and unjustly dealt with for practicing a constitutional right, of all Americans. I know that the event I’m talking about has been mentioned many times before and you may be overwhelmed with the plethora of opinions about it, but unfortunately here’s one more.

Whether you agree with the approach or not you must admit that the actions taken by the 11 UCI students accomplished an increased awareness of the current situation on the UCI campus, regarding the Palestinian Israeli conflict. It has been brought to light how UCI has become a hotspot for the issue. I not only agree with how they dealt with it I feel it is our duty to support them. Remember, as a Muslim you should always give your fellow Muslim brothers and sisters at least 70 excuses before reaching your final opinion, and you should never pass judgment on anyone for that is not your right, judgment of intention is only determined by Allah(swt).  So for all those who feel this event has caused for us to take two steps back, I recommend for you to reassess your opinions and determine whether it is opinions against our fellow brothers and sisters which will cause for us to stand still.

Salaam Walaikum,

Mohammed Raouf Iqbal

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

     The 11th Annual MSA West Conference was recently held at UC Riverside. For me personally, it was my first annual MSA West Conference, and to be perfectly honest, I was not as excited before the event as I should”ve been. When I had first registered for it, I was thinking, Man, a whole weekend wasted (stakhfar”Allah)¹?, and I was arrogant and ignorant enough to believe that it really was not going to benefit me”I mean, what more could the speakers and various workshops tell me, that I didn”t already know? Subhan”Allah²,  this train of thought quickly changed.

     One of the Arabic words used to describe human beings in the Qur”an is insaan. It comes from the verb, nasia, which means to forget, and, subhan”Allah, we truly are forgetful. This is exactly what happened to me, because what I thought I already knew, I had actually forgotten. This sounds a bit complex, but it isn”t. For example, I know that there is oppression and an illegal occupation taking place in Palestine right now, but I forgot that I could make others aware and write letters to our political leaders; I know malaria is infecting and killing countless Africans, but I forgot that it was easily preventable and that I could do something to help. See the pattern? It is always easy to gain knowledge and to know, but it is so much easier to forget the potential of that knowledge to do some good. We are so focused on our lives that the problems plaguing this world seem to wander off into the dark cellars of our mind. We are aware of the problems, we just choose to not to do anything about it. Thus, we need constant reminder that they still linger and that there are a myriad (word of the day) of options and resources we can utilize to help those in need. After the reminder, we get pumped up and inspired, but then, weeks later, we forget again. Then we are reminded again, then we feel inspired again, then we forget again, and so forth, and so forth. But when is this cycle going to stop dragging on? When are we going to stop waiting for the reminder, and instead, be the reminder? I know we are called insaan, but this is just one of the words Allah uses to describe us. You know another one? I”ll give you a hint”this word refers to a certain group of people, specifically the believers. Exactly”Muslims. We are Muslims, and as Muslims we are obligated to gain knowledge and transform that knowledge into action, instead of harboring it inside. After all, Islam, when practiced properly, is the only way of life that is immune to forgetting, as we are constantly in a state of dhikr³ of Allah and our Ummah⁴.  It is the foundation which cannot crumble and it is the best foundation to begin taking action from.

     Brothers and Sisters, the most important lesson I learned from MSA West Conference is that before 9/11, we were so active, but ever since that fateful day, we have been too afraid to step up and be the voice this world needs. We are all capable”we all have Allah, and from Allah, we are blessed with resources, like schools and masajid. It is just a matter of understanding and utilizing that knowledge, and serving as that constant reminder for the entire world to see.  

     Anything I said that you agreed with or liked”that is a blessing from Allah, and anything I said that you disagreed with or did not like”that from my own shortcomings. Jazakum Allahu Khairan.   

¹I seek forgiveness from Allah.
²Glory be Allah
³Remembrance
⁴Muslim community