City of Residence:
St. Paul, MN
Occupation:
Retired
City of Residence:
St. Paul, MN
Occupation:
Former President of the St Paul NAACP
Excerpt:
Abdulkhaliq:
“When I think back to the civil rights struggle and how we were treated and stereotyped and we’re still going through this to a certain extent; but how now post 9/11, a lot of attention has been diverted from us towards Muslims. It’s unfortunate that we as a country did not learn our lesson from our past and how we as a country have treated people in the past based on perceptions and stereotyping and innuendos and just painting everyone of a certain faith, in this case Islam, with the same stroke of the brush.
I think if people would just take time to seek out folks that are of the faith, many times they work with individuals that are Muslims and don’t even realize it and have a good opinion about them.
I go to Masjid an-Nur in North Minneapolis. And many of us have been together including Sister Anisah since the 70’s. Unlike when we started out it was all black, now when you walk in our masjid it looks like the United Nations. I mean that’s the other beautiful thing about Islam and I’m not saying this to down any other religion or anything, but there used to be a saying in America and it’s still true today that the most segregated hour is Sunday. I travel a lot and it’s just a wonderful feeling to go anywhere in the world where there is a masjid and to feel welcome and love and respected.”
Douran:
“The up and coming Muslims? Well, just be hardworking and take care of your own business and treat people with respect; and that’s all you have to do.”
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