Al Bayan Winter 2016

Winter 2016

AL BAYAN

Q&A with Linda Sarsour

Islam and the

Environment Muslims redefine their image on social media

+

Photo Travelogue: TURKEY

Ahmadi

The perspective

AL BAYAN VOLUME 6 | WINTER 2016

Voicing our Solidarity Contents: TRAVEL Turkey, Qatar, Palestine 6 PERSPECTIVES Terror and trauma in Paris, Ahmadi voices, Destruction of Syrian art, Linda Sarsour on solidarity 12 FEATURES Islam on climate justice, Visibility through social media 20 CULTURE Mainstream fashion borrows from the Muslim runway, A twist on matchmaking 24 REVIEWS Halal Guys, Quantico, Things We Love 29

Mariam Abou-Ghazaleh leads a group of Syrian Americans and allies at a rally in front of the White House on the 4th anniversity of the Syrian Revolution. Photo by Medha Imam.

Front cover photo by Medha Imam | Back cover photo by Naib Mian Thank you to the Muslim-cultural Students Association for supporting Al Bayan.

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EDITOR-IN CHIEF Medha Imam MANAGING EDITOR Naib Mian

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PHOTO DIRECTOR Zahra Haider COPY EDITOR Amal Ahmed WRITERS Sarah Ahmad Nida Bajwa Sameena Khan Zoya Khan Fathma Rahman Maryam Salem Hassan Sayed Umber Waheed

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Note

EDITOR’S Engaging in unity In an era where Trump politics and the extremist ideology of groups like ISIS stoke the flames of Islamophobia around the world, it is imperative that young Muslims unite together to make our statement, the statement: Al Bayan.

We embark on a journey across the seas to the beautiful lands of Turkey, Palestine and Qatar and showcase the markets and landscapes that capture the nations’ chaotic beauty.

We preview fashion’s new Muslim brand and Muslim matchmaking apps that wish to evolve the manner in which young habeebti’s meet their significant other.

Framed by this digital age, we also look at more popular social media like Snapchat and evaluate their role in displaying raw images of Muslims around the globe.

Calls for a free Syria, Egypt and Yemen echo the calls against social injustice in our own country, where African Americans, Latino Americans, Native Americans, Muslim Americans and countless other minorities are fighting against the injustices brought forth by few head figures of these states.

In this issue of Al Bayan, we hope to voice our allegiance to groups that have been persecuted beyond belief. We celebrate the different sects of our faith, factions that have been muddled by the mainstream and institutionally delegitimized. But we also celebrate our sister communities and their quests for justice. We believe that standing in solidarity with others is rooted in our deen, our religion, and that wrongs must be made right.

This Winter, we feature activist Linda Sarsour in an enlightening Q&A about activism and solidarity between different communities. We highlight the destruction of Syria’s legacy through the death of its art and delve into a growing topic of concern for all faith communities — climate change.

We are neither apologists nor rejectionists. We fully embrace our identity and faith and loudly proclaim our Bismillah’s as we enter this new era of anti-Islamism.

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Mainstream Misunderstanding The facts about Muslim-Americans and the rhetoric surrounding them this election season

By Amal Ahmed and Sameena Khan

sl

“

Muslims are currently in Congress

If you’re ever wondering whether you fit in here, let me say it as clearly as I can, as President of the United States: You fit in here. You’re right where you belong. You’re part of America, too.

”

n

2

37% were born in the US

ential e l e esd ct pr io

81% of Muslims in America are citizens

2

of the U.S. population identifies as Muslim

vote in the to 20 1

91% of Mu

ed

1%

ericans int en -Am d im

Most Muslim-Americans don’t like Republicans....

-President Obama, during his first presidential

visit to an American mosque on Feb. 3, 2016

43% of Americans say they have some prejudice towards Muslims

60%

Sources: Gallup, Pew, CAIR, the White House, Politifact

of MuslimAmericans think the general public is prejudiced towards them.

In 2015, more incidents of vandalism, damage and intimidation were reported at mosques across the U.S. than in any previous year.

71 total incidents

66% lean Democrat

16% lean Republican

...and Republican canidates don’t like Muslim-Americans

“We should...identify the evil we are fighting...

President Obama will not utter the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’”

-Sen. Ted Cruz

29 after the Nov. Paris attacks 14 after the Dec. shootings at San Bernadino Donald Trump called for a ban on all Muslim immigrants entering the U.S.

“

I’ve always looked at myself as an American citizen trying to do my civic duty and be active in finding solutions that all communities like ours are facing these days. Those comments and things you hear, it’s not something we talk about or that I concentrate my time and energy on.

”

-Anam Miah, city councilman of Hamtramck, the first city to elect a ma jority Muslim council

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“Of course there’s going to be discrimination in America of every kind.

But the bigger issue is radical Islam.”

-Sen. Marco Rubio

TRAVEL

photo travelogue

TURKEY

By Naib Mian Domes and minarets, ancient towers and modern skyscrapers rise over rolling hills, overlooking the Bosphorus. The narrow strait divides Europe and Asia, and yet within the city on its banks, East meets West.

Emperors, warriors, traders and artists have all shaped the city through the ages. Grand mosques rise over the hills, the number of minarets indicating the stories of their construction and who commissioned them. Endless palaces reveal the splendor of the Romans, the Byzantines, the Ottomans.

Cats meander in dimly lit cobbled alleyways where artisans weave the secrets of generations into their craft, producing tapestries, ceramics, lanterns and the rose-scented Turkish delight.

Coming from around the world, travelers step through history, marveling at the Old City, sipping Turkish coffee and watching the mystic whirling dervishes. In the streets, T-shirts and blouses stroll alongside abayas and traditional tunics.

Young men and women share mint tea in cafes as trams weave through the city, and cars race across grand suspension bridges - Ottoman grandeur on one side and a 21st century commercial landscape on the other.

This is the city that Constantine declared the new capital of the Roman Empire.

This is the city where Justinian had the Hagia Sophia constructed in the splendor we now associate it with.

This is the city where the Ottomans dotted the skyline with domes and minarets and that is now home to over 3,000 mosques.

And this is the city of emperors where today a new generation is taking to the streets to demand a more just and equal society.

Byzantium. Constantinople. Istanbul. Here lies the crossroads of civilization.

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1

2 4

3 1. Honoring the holy wisdom of God, Hagia Sophia served as a place of worship for pagans, Christians and Muslims. Now a museum, it is deeply aware of its long history. A preserved mural of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, settled between the names of Allah and the Prophet Muhammad in Arabic calligraphy, watches over the grand space.

2. Ramparts and minarets of antiquity rise from the waters upon which Istanbul rests.

3. Scarves and lanterns line the alleyways of the Grand Bazaar.

4. Vendors show off their wares and bargain with interested visitors in the narrow markets.

5. In the cool, moist air of a cave, a potter specializes in the crafts of the ancient Hittites who inhabited the caves over 3,000 years ago.

6. Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar hosts goods of every craft and color from glassware to fabric, ceramic pottery to decadent Turkish delights.

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5 7. Tourists flock almost as actively as pigeons in Istanbul. But once they have passed, spaces are rarely left as they were found. A mosque caretaker cleans up after a particular group got carried away with feeding the nearby birds.

8. A man walks his daughter home from school on Istanbul’s Istiklal Street, carrying her pink backpack. Around the world, parenthood doesn’t differ much.

6

photos by Naib Mian

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Souq waqif

photos courtesy of arwcheek and Jan Smith/Flickr

TRAVEL

From the roots of historic Qatar, a modern day market emerges

By Zoya Khan

I

f you go north, you find miles and miles of sand dunes, if you go east you run into the gleaming skyscrapers. But located right in the middle of Doha, you find an old marketplace, snuggled between industrial complexes, still operating the way it used to centuries ago. Over the years, Souq Waqif has garnered attention as one of the oldest markets in the region, modernizing and expanding to include cloth, jewelry and furniture stalls, as well as new restaurants. It blends Qatari cultural and modern-day needs impeccably.

Constructed over 100 years ago, the market was a place of trade and commerce for Bedouins in the region. Livestock, dried fruits and spices were bartered and sold from narrowly built clay stalls, and shop owners would sit for hours in the constant heat. Men would sit in majlises drinking qahwa and smoking shisha as women traded khobz and cloth with each other.

After the region saw an incredible economic growth, the country of Qatar went through an extreme period of development. Qatar had to modernize quickly in order to accommodate for the influx of expatriates moving in to develop

the nation. Historical sites were destroyed to make room for new hotels and malls.

Critics claimed that the region’s culture and traditions were diluted due to extensive Western influences. However, in 2006, it became the goal of the Qatari Government to refurbish its oldest trading ground: Souq Waqif.

Souq Waqif had survived the onslaught of industrial growth, but its market was still limited to livestock and spices. The government decided to redesign the entire market, while renovating the old architecture that still remained standing.

The designers constructed hundreds of alleyways and sorted stores with extreme specificity. These clusters of stores were all built into the limestone roof and clay architecture that had existed in the old Bedouin trading ground.

The souq follows a distinct spectrum of stores: starting with Abaya and Dishdhasha sellers, to Pashmina silk and fabric stores, then continuing on to jewelry crafters that make necklace molds out of gold and silver.

Beyond that are multiple stores selling Moroccan hand-painted lights and Syriandesigned shisha pipes. Farther in, there are

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tea parlors and a kabsa seller serving karak masala chai as tourists stop to get cheap Arab snacks.

An array of modern-day restaurants also populate the bustling market, featuring international cuisines. The award-winning restaurant, the Village, is a top tourist attractor, presenting three unique cuisines: Western, Mediterranean and Asian.

Shebestan, another popular restaurant visited by tourists, serves authentic Iranian dishes in a glamorously decorated room featuring Persian art. The market also has the common food chain franchise, Zaatar W Zeit, for people who need a quicker option.

In the heart of Qatar, Souq Waqif is a historical market with a modern twist. It unites thousands of tourists from all over the world under its roof, bringing together nationalities and people you wouldn’t see mingle daily. Indonesians, Mexicans, Pakistanis, Lebanese, Qataris and Swedes interact in a market that was constructed over 100 years ago for the sole purpose of Bedouin trade. As you sit back and take it all in, you realize you are living in the moment of history. This is where the culture of Qatar lies.

photo by Naib Mian

BETWEEN THE RIVER AND the SEA A visit to the sacred homeland

By Maryam Salem

F

rom the grimy streets of Ramallah to the blessed ground of Jerusalem, the land of Palestine holds a special place in the heart of every Muslim. As the site of the Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) night journey to the heavens and the original qibla, it has both religious and cultural significance.

Like the majority of PalestinianAmericans, most of my extended family lives in Palestine. I’ve spent summers visiting the motherland, reuniting with relatives I hadn’t seen in years, touching base at the holy sites of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock and the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, and eating falafel sandwiches on the steps of the Aqsa. I visited the house that my great-grandfather built and my grandfather and father grew up in, haggled for embroidered pillow cases in Bethlehem, and picked figs as the sun rose. I discovered that a random person I asked for directions was my distant cousin. I climbed to the top of Tell el-Ful near Beit Hanina, the skeleton structure of the summer residence King Hussein never finished building after the 1967 war.

Even after spending two months in Palestine visiting some of the oldest cities on Earth, I still didn’t get to see all it has to offer. You can find a rich history, a whimsical tale, a fantastic story in every nook and cranny. In the gritty ancient seaport of ‘Akka (Acre), the air is heavy with the dank smell of fish, and the narrow cobblestone streets and high sea walls hold a certain timeworn charm. A group of children crowd around a man in a fez cap who charges twenty shekels (about $5) to pose with his snake. Rows of boats are lined up in the harbor, some fishing boats reeling in the day’s catch, and some pleasure cruisers that take groups for a ride a few miles out to sea. In Ramallah, taxis drive opposite the direction of traffic if it happens to be more convenient. In Al-Khalil (Hebron), an old man with a juicer sells fresh carrot juice at a corner for a mere three shekels (less than a dollar) a cup.

Among all the remarkable and captivating cities of Palestine, Jerusalem, the home of Al-Aqsa, the third most holy mosque in the world, is the crowning jewel. As I step through Bab el ‘Amoud (the Damascus Gate, one of the eleven

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gates to the Aqsa compound), I’m immediately assailed with a barrage of different but familiar smells and colors and sounds coming from stalls along the pathway from either side selling any and all wares imaginable, a real life Arab Diagon Alley. Here the mouthwatering scent of shawerma roasting on a spit, there a brilliant array of the latest style of scarves and ‘abayahs, a mountain of spices, an assortment of multicolored gummy candies, an assembly of pastries at a popular knafa spot. One stall displays dozens of aromatic perfume oil decanters, at another a group of old men sit on stools smoking argileh (hookah) and drinking tea or coffee.

When I finally reach the entrance, the peace and serenity of the expanse surrounding the Aqsa mosque meets the bustling chaos of the Old City like an oasis. During the holy month of Ramadan, you can break your fast with a few dates and a cup of Arabic-style coffee leaning against the Dome of the Rock or pray salat el-Taraweeh on the cobblestone ground in the exquisite breeze on the twentyseventh night of Ramadan. The Aqsa is packed inside and out with hundreds of people who crossed checkpoints from the West Bank to take advantage of the multiplying blessings of that holy night.

My first ever experience in Palestine was crossing the jissr (“bridge”) from Jordan. The jissr refers to the border crossing, which is made much more difficult as a result of the occupation. What should only be a half hour long drive actually ends up taking all day. The other option is to fly directly to Palestine through Tel Aviv, which is frustrating and challenging not only for Palestinians, but Arabs and Muslims in general. Palestine, or more specifically, the West Bank, is one of the hardest countries to get into (depending on your ethnicity, religion and nationality of course). But as trying as the journey is, it is truly one of the greatest places in the world to visit.

Despite the rich singular beauty of Palestine, the charm that can be found in every corner is overshadowed by an IDF uniform, a machine gun, a barbed wire fence and other signs of the occupation.

Regardless, the hundreds of thousands of visitors and Palestinians returning to their ancestral land every year are a testament to the enduring nature of this beautiful land.

AF T ER THE AT TACK

By Naib Mian “Are you ok?” The words popped up on my screen as I was riding the Metro to my apartment in Paris on Nov. 13. I was confused at first. But as the news alerts and notifications started coming in, fear took over. Fear of being caught in the middle of the attack, and equally as intense, fear that the perpetrator would be identified as Muslim. As I made my way home as quickly as possible, I was overwhelmed by worry and grief, thinking about friends and classmates in Paris and my family back home who didn’t know if I was safe.

Over the next few days, my fear quickly gave way to anger as the hateful and violent actions of terrorists were met with hurtful reactions from fellow students and citizens.

Paris received an outpouring of love and solidarity in social media, but silence surrounded an attack of similar magnitude in Beirut the day before, even despite a level of press coverage.

What did that say about the value of life outside the Western world?

Right wing pundits inspired xenophobia towards refugees and touted gun freedoms, claiming it could have prevented such an atrocity. But perhaps more hurtful were “liberals” in Paris and even back home who, through the language of respecting the trauma of Paris, silenced the voices of those who were crying out for a broader trauma—those mourning a trauma that recognized both the victims of Paris and the victims of Beirut, those who lost their lives and those who would now live in fear of backlash because of ethnicity, religion or nationality. My own friends discounted people of color begging for their grief to be recognized, and they even went so far as to group us with the pundits and politicians who leveraged the Paris attacks for political gains.

Mourning is not a zero-sum game. We do not have a finite number of prayers to

photo by Naib Mian

offer in the wake of a tragedy. Calling on our friends, on social media or in the real world, to be cognizant of what it means for Facebook to have only a French flag filter, ignoring the simultaneous tragedies in Beirut and Baghdad and beyond, is not conflation. It does not imply that mourning for Paris takes away from solidarity with other places—that is selective mourning. I was told that my statements politicized a tragedy. The irony? These comments came from the very people waving their flags and fueling nationalist rhetoric. Their mourning was political. Their apathy was political.

But why was I the one troubled by guilt?

My coping and mourning in the wake of what happened on Nov. 13 looked and felt significantly different from my white American friends. They were mentally and emotionally shaken up and rightfully so.

But their worries were limited to a random attack and would never extend to a deep rooted fear of being held suspect for their identity. They would never have to fear the attacker in addition to being seen as the attacker.

I lacked the same emotional reaction they visibly showed. The sad truth is that this wasn’t the first time I had experienced such trauma, and it wouldn’t be the last.

When I was 12 years old, I was in Pakistan when a political leader was assassinated. I witnessed the resulting riots and shootings, and I remember the national trauma surrounding the death and ensuing violence.

I have family in Peshawar whose close friends and teachers were slain when the Taliban shot over a hundred school children and teachers in the city. I was shaken,

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knowing my own cousins could have been victims simply for attending school.

No one called the Chapel Hill shootings last year a terrorist attack, but as a young Muslim college student, I walked home alone that night afraid that anyone could pull up and shoot me too. That feeling has remained with me since.

Our collective past and present have been shaped by a history of colonialism and an ensuing institutional violence —our lands occupied, our people abused and killed and instability planted for imperial gain. Following the Paris attacks, I couldn’t help anticipate backlash in a society where 74 percent of the population thinks Muslims are fundamentalist.

As hard of a truth as it is to swallow, it is a privilege that what happened in Paris is not the norm. It is a tragedy defined by its randomness and its shock. In many places, such attacks are simply seen as the norm by the rest of the world. Shootings, murders, bombings—just another tick in the international news cycle, a passing thought of how crazy the world is without a second thought or prayer.

For Muslims, the terror attacks didn’t end on Nov. 13; that night was just the beginning of resurgent Islamophobia and the persistent fear of being marginalized, harassed and terrorized.

My fear lingered as I walked through the Metro in the following days, seeing people visibly uncomfortable with my presence.

Regularly stepping back from the edge of the tracks, even as I hoped and prayed for an end to ISIS attacks, all I could do was think of the random stranger that might act upon their fear.

A

PERSPECTIVES

hmadiyyat

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It feels a little bit like coming out of the closet.

By Nida Bajwa

I

t starts with a puzzled look. And then the question, “What is that?”

Sometimes, my listener will recall some tucked-away piece of information and say instead, “Oh yeah. So you’re like not Muslim then?”

I’m not sure what’s worse—the blank stare or the judgmental side-eye. Should I be happy that you have no knowledge of my beliefs, that you have not been indoctrinated to reject them? Or if you respond with your indoctrination, should I be happy that at least you know? That you acknowledge the existence of a movement that is some 10 to 20 million strong, albeit in your offensive way?

To answer everyone’s question, “What is that?,” Ahmadiyyat is a minority sect of Islam. So no, Islam is not simply the dichotomy you believe it to be: of Sunni and Shia. And yes, I am a Muslim.

Ahmadiyyat formed as a sect of Islam in 1889. In 1835, a man by the name Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born in Qadian, India.

Throughout his youth, and as he grew older, his knowledge and defense of Islam was unparalleled. In 1889, the movement that is Ahmadiyyat was founded under his guidance.

Today, Ahmadis are persecuted around the world. Pakistan has an estimated 4 million Ahmadi Muslims, more than any other country. In the Second Amendment to the Pakistani Constitution, Ahmadis were declared non-Muslims and deprived of religious rights. Ahmadis are banned from attending the holy pilgrimage to Mecca, and it is considered illegal for them to in any way do “Muslim” things, like pray

LEFT: Police patrol the streets of Pakistan. RIGHT: A copy of a Quran on display at a museum in Pakistan.

Although Pakistan is home to a large population of Ahmadi Muslims, the country has strict laws restricting the rights of the faith’s adherents. // Photos by Zahra Haider

in public.

According to Pakistani law, that is “posing as Muslims.” This political idea has led to several hundreds of murders of Ahmadis in Pakistan from the 1900s ongoing today.

Although Pakistan is host to the majority of attacks on Ahmadis, other countries with significant cases of Ahmadi persecution include Bangladesh, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Belgium, and the U.K. Pejorative terms like “Qadiani” are practically built into the vocabulary of many Pakistanis, and in several instances I’ve had to ask people not to use that term as they are unaware of its historical significance.

Ahmadis believe in the five pillars of Islam and the six articles of faith. We read the Quran, and try to follow the Sunnah and Hadith of Prophet Muhammad. We (the good ones at least, not me) pray five times a day. We fast during Ramadan.

Nonetheless, violence against Ahmadis continues as a result of the few differences between us and “mainstream” Muslims.

Ahmadis believe Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was the prophesized Messiah and Mahdi.

Some Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad was the last person who could ever receive divine revelation, due to his title “The Seal of Prophets.”

Thus, they are apt to claim that this acknowledgment of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as the Messiah is contrary to the title of the Holy Prophet as “The Seal of Prophets.” Ahmadis believe, however,

that prophethood continues past Prophet Muhammad, but that there cannot be any law-bearing prophets after him.

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad brought no new teachings to Islam; he simply came to unite the ummah. Those who persecute Ahmadis, thus, do so because they believe Ahmadis counter the finality of Prophet Muhammad and thus are intrinsically “non-Muslim.”

Note, the concept of a messiah is not unique to Ahmadi Islam. Non-Ahmadi Muslims also believe in the coming of the messiah, specifically the second coming of Jesus, but they await this prophecy’s fulfillment. Ahmadis believe Jesus died a natural death and cannot return. Thus, Ahmadi Muslims interpret the second coming of Jesus as a spiritual event that was fulfilled by Mirza Ghulam AhmadMessiah and Mahdi.

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad believed in a “jihad of the pen,” spreading his message through writing, speaking and debating.

After his passing, the institution of Khilafat (different from a caliphate; please do not start imagining ISIS) was re-established, simply to continue uniting Muslims and spreading a peaceful message of Islam.

Today, Ahmadiyyat is the fastest growing sect of Islam, according to the World Christian Encyclopedia. And yet, nobody knows we exist.

Ultimately, this is not an experience unique to me, or unique to Ahmadis in general. This is the experience of the marginalized voice in Islam, anyone who does not fit the Sunni mold. Being Sunni

FUN FACTS ABOUT AHMADIYyAT

By Sarah Ahmad Ahmadiyyat is not defined by persecution. Being an Ahmadi Muslim means so much more than just belonging to another minority group.

Shezan Mango Juice

Anyone who knows me is well aware that I can’t live without my Shezan mango juice and always have one in my bag. But what a lot of people don’t know is that the owners of Shezan International are Ahmadi. This is a cause of conflict in Pakistan; they’ve tried to ban Shezan simply because the owners are Ahmadi, but the mango juice is too delicious, and Pakistanis continue to buy it anyways.

Jadoo TV

Jadoo TV: something else you probably didn’t know was founded

by Ahmadis. As my uncle once said, “Jadoo TV, it’s like magic.”

Bad joke aside, the company Jadoo TV, based in Silicon Valley, provides live and on demand content to viewers via the internet, which means access to all your favorite desi TV shows all the time.

is assumed. Being anything else must be justified. There is a general lack of interest in marginalized voices of Islam. Although the theoretical differences may be small, there are infinite aspects of Ahmadiyyat, infinite ways in which it has manifested itself to me that people do not ask about, that I do not discuss, simply because there is no space.

I cannot lie that I fear the judgment, or the disapproving glare, but I fear the blank look just as much, because it means I must immediately become a scholar on Ahmadiyyat. I am given no room for error, I can make no mistakes in my explanation— the image of my sect is resting on me.

I have never been afraid to talk about Ahmadiyyat, but I have been discouraged.

It is tiring having to justify your beliefs, to attempt to pitch your faith in a way that will lend itself well to your listener.

The persecution of peoples has a certain intersectionality that demands your critical thinking, and a removal of the indoctrination with which you may or may not have been raised. Ultimately, the issue of Ahmadi persecution is less one of religious differences, and more one of institutionally propagated persecution.

We exist, in our own microcosms, within smaller institutions. We can either choose to further or to end these injustices. We must realize the ways in which our own Muslim institutions are hegemonized by ethnicity, sect, and race, etc. in order to create more collective, open spaces for the marginalized narrative.

Dr. Abdus Salam

The first Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize and first Muslim to win a Nobel Prize in physics. Dr. Abdus Salam won the award for his electroweak theory.

Salam contributed to the rise of Pakistani physics but unfortunately could not prevent the hate from those in Pakistan that were anti-Ahmadi. In 1974, whenthePakistaniparliamentmadeaconstitutionalamendmentdeclaring that Ahmadis weren’t Muslims, Salam left Pakistan for London in protest.

Sir Zafrullah Khan

Another notable Ahmadi, politician and diplomat, Sir Muhammad Zafrullah Khan was not only one of the leading Founding Fathers of Pakistan but also a prominent writer of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. He was the first Muslim, Asian, and only Pakistani president for both the UN General Assembly and the International Court of Justice. At the same time, he promoted equal rights for all citizens of Pakistan, regardless of race, religion or background.

Muslim Television Ahmadiyya (MTA)

A global satellite TV network run and funded by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, MTA was actually the first 24-hour non-commercial Islamic television station to be aired worldwide. Even now, you don’t have to suffer through commercials in order to watch the wide number of informative Islamic shows on this network because it is still a non-profit and commercial free station funded solely by the members of the AMC.

Al-Sadiq Mosque

About 20 miles south of Northwestern is a pretty historic mosque, the Al-Sadiq Mosque. Commissioned in 1922 and funded predominantly

by African American Ahmadi Muslims, the Al-Sadiq mosque is one of America’s earliest built mosques. This mosque was named after Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, the first Muslim missionary in the United States, and served as the headquarters of the community until 1994.

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The Erasure of History To preserve Syria’s heritage, we must preserve Syria’s art

By Hassan Sayed

M

achu Picchu, the Mona Lisa, the mask of Tutankhamen: these magnificent works of art and architecture epitomize their respective cultures. Art encodes a nation’s history, signifying ages of growth and prosperity as well as times of revolution and ruin, thereby allowing us to study the ethos of societies past and present.

Today, war-torn Syria dominates the headlines, characterized by images of smoldering rubble, weeping refugees and black flags. Although the Syrian conflict’s human toll is enormous, the slow and steady erasure of Syrian art and architecture is often overlooked. To grasp the emotional plight of the Syrian people, we should not ponder over detached political analysis or statistical figures. Rather, we must closely examine the current state of Syria’s art, considering not only the the grim, postmodern creations of current Syrian artists but also the destruction of millenia’s worth of cultural heritage that has shaped Syrian civilization.

The most prominent example of destruction of ancient Syrian art can be found in ISIS’ explosion of the Temple of Baal Shamin in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. Finished in 131 A.D., the temple provided a window through which presentday society could gaze onto the Syria of a long-gone age. This mass of brick and stone, which architects, engineers and laborers had spent months elaborately constructing, was infused with influences from the Greeks, Romans, Persians and Assyrians.

Within moments, ISIS had reduced all of this to naught but dust.

ISIS’ excuse for this destruction was the temple’s supposed representation of idolatry inconsistent with the group’s narrow-minded beliefs. Yet destruction of art and architecture is neither solely confined to nor primarily focused on ancient locations.

Rather, this ruin

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The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art recreates an 18th century Syrian reception chamber.

photo by Zahra Haider

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PERSPECTIVES

encompasses the pillage and devastation of all facets of Syrian history—Islamic and Assyrian, Shia and Sunni, Yazidi and Christian. Baal Shamin’s destruction represents not a small attack on a certain period of the country’s history but one element of an assault upon the entire cultural heritage of Syria. The looting and destruction of historical lands represents a deliberate attempt to deprive the Syrian people of tangible reminders of their past, even if this history may be preserved in textbooks.

A portion of damage to Syria’s cultural heritage is accidental or collateral. Areas like Aleppo’s Old District, including the city’s Citadel and mosques, or the crusadeage Krak des Chevaliers near Homs have experienced heavy damage due to the battlegrounds surrounding these areas.

However, of larger concern is deliberate destruction, which encompasses not only the ruin of Baal Shamin and similar sites, but also the looting and sale of archaeological artifacts on the black market.

“All of these groups, and mostly ISIS, are also selling antiquities on the international art market,” says Oya Topçuoğlu, a lecturer in Northwestern’s MENA program. “Even though all of their videos and propaganda shows you how they are destroying the idols of the infidels, they actually have a very lucrative trade going on.”

Examining satellite imagery from archaeological sites like Dura-Europos shows hundreds of small holes dotting the landscapes: looter pits from which bandits dig up artifacts. The sale of such antiquities on the black market represents profit from stolen Syrian cultural heritage.

Little is being done on the ground to prevent destruction of cultural heritage.

Laws cannot be enforced in a region where ISIS will disregard them, and mobilizing Syrian archaeologists to protect sites risks too many lives. However, economically manipulating a black market saturated with Syrian artifacts by deterring buyers from purchasing such antiquities could discourage the sale of artifacts through demand reduction. Simultaneously, groups

like the Antiquities Coalition and The American Schools of Oriental Research actively publish reports and data on the state of Syria’s heritage, cataloging sites at risk of destruction. Topçuoğlu works on an Antiquities Coalition sponsored project through The University of Chicago called “Modeling the Antiquities Trade in Iraq and Syria,” or MANTIS. The initiative’s goal is to model the maximum amount of money ISIS could be making, were the group to loot and sell every historical artifact accessible to them.

“We’re looking at this from an archaeological point of view to understand what can be found if you’re looting a site,” Topçuoğlu says. “Then we have an economist team who compiles information from auction catalogs between 2000 and present, identifying price ranges for artifacts.”

One of the most unique methods of protecting Syria’s historical heritage is found in contemporary art. Artists at the Jordanian Za’atari refugee camp are constructing miniatures of damaged or destroyed landmarks, including the symbolic 1927 Deir ez-Zor bridge, Aleppo’s Citadel, the Krak des Chevaliers castle, the Norias of Hama wheel and the Umayyad Mosques of Damascus. These miniatures

Destruction of art and architecture is neither solely confined to nor primarily focused on ancient locations.

Rather, this ruin encompasses the pillage and devastation of all facets of Syrian history.

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both assist in the preservation of Syria’s history and provide an outlet of expression for modern Syrian artists.

In a broader sense, modern Syrian art continues the process of writing Syria’s history. Tammam Azzam’s collages and painting on peculiar mediums such as shrapnel couple bleak landscapes of broken buildings with arbitrary images of oceans and couches to illustrate the scenes everyday Syrians face. Imranovi weaves a strong sense of irony into his works, displaying a dead Syrian wrapped in a Snickers wrapper body bag, a refugee tent inside a snow globe or a rusty boat of Syrians floating upon a grim sea of broken buildings. Whether we examine the haunting, Munch-esque faces of Kais Salman or Iman Hisbani’s warped, fragmented bodies, these artists’ postmodern work reflects their worldview, shaped by their nation’s distorted politics, their society’s decay, their people’s death and their cities’ crumbling facades. Many artists have fled Syria due to violence, others because of their critique of the Assad regime, producing an expatriate Lost Generation of Syrian artists working from Dubai, Beirut and elsewhere to continue chronicling their people’s experiences. Like the ruins of the past, the modern generation of Syrian art is under threat and must be protected and allowed to flourish.

Syria has stood at the historical crossroads of countless empires and societies. The history of Syria and the people who have travelled through the country’s lands has been encoded within the nation’s cultural heritage. At the end of the day, whatever the outcome of this conflict, we must safeguard both historical and contemporary works of Syrian art not just for the Syrian people, not just for the Islamic world, not even just for remembrance by future generations but rather for the preservation of a culture that has played a vital role in the history of civilization. To preserve Syria’s past, present and future art is to allow, even in these dark times, the past, present and future of Syria itself to persist.

&

Q&A

Linda Sarsour

Racial justice and civil rights activist Linda Sarsour is the Executive Director of the Arab American Association of New York and the co-founder of the first Muslim online organizing platform, MPOWER Change. Sarsour is a Palestinian Muslim American and mother of three, who hopes to shatter preconceived notions regarding Muslim women and stereotypes surrounding Islam.

By Medha Imam and Naib Mian

Q: What is our responsibility to other communities?

A: My activism is rooted in Islam. I believe that in order for us to to be public Muslims, we have to demonstrate the values of justice, compassion and love through action. I believe that faith without action is not real faith. For me as an activist it’s manifested in building solidarity with other minority groups, showing up for other communities when they have injustices that they’re dealing with, as well as showing up in communities where there’s a need. That is what true Islam is. That is the way we are going to be able to combat Islamophobia in this country. Not by telling people who we are but showing them who we are.

Q: What’s your take on solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement?

A: One third of the American Muslim community is African American. For me as an American Muslim, I believe that the Black Lives Matter movement is our cause and issue. We march for our sisters and brothers who not only have to be Muslim in the time that we’re in, but also have black skin. I see myself as part of the movement. I go back to the seerah of the Prophet, may peace be upon him, and I always tell people that our Prophet was a racial justice activist. He was an environmental justice activist, animal rights activist, and he was also a feminist. We know this about our prophet. He always chose to be with the most vulnerable, he always chose to be amongst the poor and he always stood up for those who needed it most. If we’re true Muslims and we are really following the seerah of the prophet, then there really isn’t any social justice cause that we can’t be a part of unless it fundamentally doesn’t align with our Islamic principles.

Q: Where do you see room for improvement in the solidarity work between Muslims and other communities?

A: I think that the American Muslim community is facing their own injustices right now, and we’re very preoccupied with injustice against our own community. We have to teach our community that justice is not just about us. Where we need improvement is understanding that our pain, what we’re feeling right now, the fear that we feel, has a context and history in this nation. We are not the first community to face injustice, and the only way we’ll win is if we’re working alongside other communities. We need to stop being selfish and only thinking about the pain we’re feeling. Our pain is connected to the pain of others around us, which includes other minority communities.

Q: Is the current political rhetoric and Trump style politics facilitating more solidarity between targeted groups or pulling them apart?

A: People like Trump, he’s no joke. He’s not something to be laughing off. He actually has the potential to be the next president of the United States of America. Doing media work and putting out our story and countering his hateful rhetoric is very important. I’m very proud of our community. At least in the past year and a half, I feel like we’ve seen many more Muslims and young Muslims and women in particular taking the media by storm, seeking truth and defending

our faith and communities. The story that I want people to tell about our community is that American Muslims were at the forefront of social justice and civil rights during the 21st century. Instead of us being the villain or the victim, I think there’s another story in the middle that no one’s telling about us. We are absolutely part of many civil rights and social justice movements right now, from workers’ rights to environmental justice to racial justice to immigrant rights. I think the more of us that are involved and are visibly involved, that’s a tactic and strategy to counter the hate and the vitriol and the lies and the stereotypes of our community.

Q: What is the role of students in working towards social justice?

A: I always tell people, when you think historically in the United States of America, or even internationally, all the different movements we learned about historically, particularly in the US, have been fueled by students on college campuses. Whether it be the women’s liberation movement or the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee that was working with Martin Luther King, doing the sit-ins, this is all fueled on college campuses. The question I would put out to Muslims in particular, is where is our student movement? And what are we going to focus on, what are we going to fuel for generations to come?

There are a lot of MSA’s that only do things like halaqas or religious based stuff, and they don’t want to get into politics. That really scares me. We could be really chilling the progress of our community from the perspective of civil rights if our college campuses and groups do not see their role as a political revolution. If it’s not happening on college campuses, no matter what we do in the community or masjid, we’re not going to see progress. I hope we can engage in a tangible conversation about that: what does it look like to create a civil rights movement across the country that is led by American Muslims of all backgrounds? What are the barriers and obstacles to young people organizing?

There’s gotta be a reason why, and we have to help break down those obstacles and those walls.

Al Bayan | 19 | Winter

Photo courtesy of the Arab American Association of New York

The Morality of

Climate JUSTICE

By Amal Ahmed

P

oliticians will tell you that climate change is a political problem that must be solved by regulation or policies. Economists might tell you that it’s a textbook example of negative externalities, and that it’s a problem best left to market forces. But scholars of religion say that climate change is one of the most pressing moral issues of our times, and that the solution can be found in collective ethics and values.

“Virtually every religious tradition has a statement about the need to protect the earth, to make sure that the earth is a safe home,” says Laurie Zoloth, a professor of religious studies at Northwestern.

But as human beings continue to burn fossil fuels and release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the Earth could become an increasingly hot and hostile home. The year 2015 was the hottest on record since 1880, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The year witnessed intense droughts in California and deadly heat waves in Pakistan that killed thousands.

While the effects of climate change will be felt globally, scientists and activists agree that the poorest and most marginalized communities will be affected the most—the same communities who contribute the least to global greenhouse gas emissions. The United States, for example, has less than 5% of the world’s population but was responsible for 16% of the world’s emissions in 2011.

“The moral problem of climate change is that the people who bear the burden of the most effects have the least capacity to adapt, and are in the most marginal places geographically,” Zoloth says.

Poor communities will have a much harder

time accessing resources such as water, food and electricity to keep cool on hot summer days, according to the United Nations. People living in these situations are prone to becoming environmental refugees and may be forced to flee their homes if they can no longer sustain themselves.

The humanitarian crisis in Syria is a case in point: the government’s inadequate response to drought-induced water shortages displaced thousands of people and fed the flames of growing social unrest in the country, says Zoloth.

“We should act as if it’s a time of moral crisis. At the core is that we have one world, and we are in the most privileged section of it. And we are using the earth in a way that disadvantages the most vulnerable,” she says.

Dr. Matthew Riley, a professor in Yale University’s Religion and Ecology department, says that all three of Abrahamic faiths—Islam, Judaism and Christianity—present two competing outlooks on human interaction with nature. The first is the concept of dominion, or that nature is there for humans to use, by God’s mandate. The second concept is stewardship, or caretaking.

Although both outlooks are equally valid in the faith traditions, the magnitude of today’s environmental crisis suggests that religious communities need to take a greater role in protecting the earth. This is a view that

Al Bayan | 20 | Winter

aligns more closely with stewardship.

“It’s a much more environmentallyfriendly point of view,” says Riley. “Nature is something God created. God created it not just for humans but the benefit of all living things, and as something that is good. It has an intrinsic value on its own, and a purpose other than human exploitation.”

From an Islamic perspective specifically, the Quran is filled with verses asking readers to consider the environment around them.

“The Quran often uses the environment, the sun, the moon, the cosmos, the water, valleys and mountains as part of this reflection process,” says Tahera Ahmad, the associate chaplain at Northwestern. “The Muslim, in his or her submission to God, is asked to ponder on these signs. But why would you ponder on these signs if you don’t value them?”

The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) would often encourage his followers and companions to use their resources carefully

The Grand Mosque of Paris’ lush courtyard garden is an oasis in the middle of the busy city.

This past December, the U.N. held its annual climate conference just a few miles away, and international delegates reached one of the most comprehensive agreements in climate-talk history. // Photo by Naib Mian

and treat animals and the natural world with respect. In one hadith, the Prophet told a companion to conserve water while making ablution, even if the water was from the banks of a flowing river.

In another narration, referencing the end of times, the Prophet said, “If the Hour starts to happen and in the hand of one of you is a palm shoot or seedling; if he is able to plant it before the Hour happens, then let him plant it.”

But Muslims around the world are working towards creating solutions. This past August, Muslim leaders, representing relief organizations, universities, non-profits and governments met in Istanbul for the International Islamic Climate Change Symposium. The meeting took place a few months before the U.N. conference on climate change in Paris, and it ended with an Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change–a document that decries the exploitation and

destruction of natural resources.

“Our species, though selected to be a caretaker or steward (khalifah) on the earth, has been the cause of such corruption and devastation on it that we are in danger of ending life as we know it on our planet,” the declaration states.

It cites passages from the Quran that praise God’s power and denounces human corruption on Earth. It called on the U.N. Conference to set clear goals but also called on “the well-off nations and oil-producing states” to “recognize the moral obligation to reduce consumption so that the poor may benefit from what is left of the earth’s non-renewable resources” and to “re-focus their concerns from unethical profit from the environment, to that of preserving it and elevating the condition of the world’s poor.”

The statement echoes Pope Francis’ encyclical on climate change. The Catholic Church’s highest spiritual leader reiterated

Al Bayan | 21 | Winter

that the world’s poorest communities will likely feel the worst effects of climate change.

The Pope’s statement and the symposium both advocated for religious communities and individuals to think and act responsibly in their everyday lives in order to curb climate change.

“It’s a kind of rapacious capitalism and gluttony with our resources has led us to this place,” Zoloth says. “Religions talk about sacrifice. Nowhere in capitalism is there the idea that you would sacrifice for justice.”

Does this mean that acts such as driving a car or eating meat are moral acts with theological implications? At the very least, faith communities might have to reconsider the implications of these acts.

“The reason Islam has a huge emphasis on the environment is because we have an afterlife,” Ahmad says. “You’re not being judged on your resource use, but you’re being judged by the overall outlook of what you did to help in a given situation.”

According to Ahmad, this viewpoint demands that environmentalism is incorporated into Friday sermons and mosque events, even though politics are usually taboo in such situations.

But Ahmad says that if congregations avoid talking about simple actions that can impact climate change, it leads to an “outof-sight, out-of-mind” mentality. “One of the most beautiful things about being Muslim is seeking purpose in every moment of my life,” she says, explaining that a Muslim is supposed to recognize the inherent value in all living things. “If you’re aware of these environmental issues, it will help you in your tranquility in this life. You’ll know you’re doing something good to benefit other people and not just yourself.”

GLOBAL SNAPS Snapchat prompts raw Muslim visibility

By Umber Waheed

O

pen Snapchat. Slide right.

There it is, a small image of a black box. Upon closer inspection, you see it’s definitely not just a black box. On July 14, 2015, Snapchat featured a photo of the Kabah on its Discover feature, part of the larger Mecca Live story. On the Day of Arafat, Snapchat’s Muslim and non-Muslim users watched one of Islam’s holiest nights take place with real-time images and videos inside Mecca.

Watching Muslims contemplate their faith, perform Tawaf and participate in other rituals, the world was offered a rare glimpse into the beautiful religious journey all Muslims take part in. It was a powerful and emotional move by Snapchat and one that was uniquely suited to this application.

Snapchat has become one of the

leading forms of social media that celebrates cultures and religions around the world. As a result, the application demonstrates honest and proper Muslim visibility to its 100 million daily users.

With global livestream features from popular cities, Snapchat has focused on a plethora of Muslim-populated nations such as Pakistan, Indonesia, and many Middle Eastern countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Many of these stories focus on the countries’ cultures, allowing one to not judge a state by its ideology but by its traditional music, food and sights instead.

Snapchat’s geofilters played a prominent role for Muslim visibility as well during Ramadan of 2015. When the moon was sighted and Ramadan was announced for June 17th, Snapchat unveiled a globally-available, colorful geofilter

Al Bayan | 22 | Winter

saying Ramadan Mubarak in both Arabic and English. When Eid al-Adha rolled around, Snapchat continued to promote every religion’s significant holidays with an intricately-designed geofilter wishing everyone, “Eid Mubarak.”

In December 2015, Buzzfeed’s Snap Story dedicated a day to Muslims. A diverse series of humorous articles, such as “22 Tumblr Posts About Being Muslim That’ll Make You Laugh Every Time,” images of Zayn Malik, and political essays focusing on Islamophobia spanned the page. By turning a blind eye towards the media’s negative portrayal of Muslims, Snapchat partnering with Buzzfeed defied ignorant stereotypes about the general Muslim population and demonstrated their serious support instead.

The Facebook page Humans of New York also joins Snapchat with this shift in

Muslims took Snapchat and other social media platforms by storm this year, showing off their diversity with no filters.

photo by Medha Imam

social media to offer more raw visibility to Muslims. The page boasts a mere 16 million likes in comparison to Snapchat, but its effects have been monumental.

In July 2015, founder and photographer Brandon Stanton began traveling around the Muslim nations of Pakistan and Iran.

With an image and a quote, Stanton showed Humans of New York’s loyal following an alternative to the negative perceptions of Muslims around the world as he captured people’s struggles, passions and unadulterated truths. The series of photographs and interviews allowed Muslims to speak for themselves.

While such forms of social media have been immensely significant, one must also consider the relative control by its owners in portraying Muslims’ stories.

Stanton manipulated his control in a productive, positive manner by creating

crowdfunding campaigns, raising millions of dollars for his subjects that need it the most.

On the other hand, Snapchat’s control was recognized in its Tel Aviv Live Story controversy in June 2015. Immediately after making the story available for viewers, Snapchat was bombarded with a series of complaints via social media. The story had been revealed on the one-year anniversary of Israel’s attacks on Gaza that killed 1,462 Palestinian civilians and left 500 children orphaned. Furthermore, the flag icon displaying Tel Aviv on the Discover Page actually represented Palestine.

The company soon gave into popular pressure and decided to feature a West Bank Live Story. Even when this feature was made available to the world, some users accused Snapchat of censoring what was being displayed. The reality of

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brutally damaged homes, apartheid walls, and an immensely overpopulated strip of land were erased with neutral shots of the Bethlehem checkpoint, olive trees and dancing children instead. Although Palestinians were able to showcase their culture, their struggle was still censored.

As a result, while Snapchat and HONY have achieved great levels of success, their nods toward Muslims worldwide remains complex. By showing the rituals of Hajj, offering ornate geofilters and sharing stories, Snapchat and HONY demonstrate social media’s power to pave an unbiased path forward for Muslim visibility in the media. However, the path is a winding one, and the complicated political status of Muslims throughout the world needs to be recognized even as our individuality and diverse cultures are celebrated.

THE MUSLIM BRAND

CULTURE

By Sameena Khan

E

LEFT: Hoda Katebi, a fashion blogger, poses in a Moroccan souk. RIGHT: Katebi, a Chicago native, is critical of major fashion labels including Muslims in advertising campaigns, calling them “publicity stunts.” // Photos courtesy of Hoda Katebi

leven Sikh men in multicolored suits and turbans stand next to each other on a billboard in New York City. A woman in a checked hijab (head covering), long dusty pink jacket and sunglasses casually poses in a doorway in a video full of other diverse figures, including the Sikh men. Another woman faces the camera as she walks away, clad in golden high heels and a long white robe covered in black lace. As clothing companies expand their marketing, diverse figures are shining in the spotlight.

Dolce & Gabbana unveiled their newest fashion line on Jan. 3, 2016: The Abaya Collection: The Allure of the Middle East – a line of abayas (long robes) and hijabs – in an online fashion magazine Style.com/Arabia.

The campaign includes women wearing head coverings and long, loose abayas in neutral colors decorated with lace and floral designs. This isn’t the first time a major fashion brand has attempted to market its products towards Muslims — H&M hired a hijabi Muslim woman model for its Close the Loop recycling campaign in the summer of 2015, and brands such as NET-A-PORTER and Moda Operandi released collections in 2015 centered around the holy month of Ramadan.

But why are brands incorporating diversity into their campaigns, and why now? Marketing professor Mohanbir Sawhney at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management says this shift represents the fact that mainstream audiences are more accepting of diverse figures. The effort to include diversity in these marketing campaigns is a recognition of different ethnic and religious market segments.

“The celebrities and models people use in advertising need to reflect the diversity of the marketplace,” he says.

Companies calculate a trade-off, according to Sawhney, when deciding to incorporate diversity into these campaigns.

They may make gains by drawing in Muslim

customers but also may lose profits because diverse campaigns “may create a backlash among the more ignorant set of customers.”

He cites Waris Ahluwalia, the Sikh model whose advertisements for GAP were covered with racist graffiti in 2012, reflecting that some consumers may hold more prejudice than others.

In fact, despite his high-profile status, Ahluwalia was barred from boarding a plane in Mexico City this past February because he would not take off his turban. He described wearing a turban as a “symbol of my faith,” in an interview with the New York Times.

Chicago-based Muslim fashion blogger Hoda Katebi also states that corporations are hoping to profit off of Muslim consumers, especially those in Gulf states where the hijab market is booming. Management consultancy Bain says, “sales of personal luxury goods in the Middle East hit $8.7 billion in 2015 - up from $6.8 billion the year before,” as reported by Forbes. A Thomson Reuters report cited in Fortune showed that worldwide, Muslims spent $266 billion on clothing and footwear in 2013, which is more than the populations of Japan and Italy spent combined. The figure is projected to grow in coming years.

Katebi takes a critical approach towards these marketing campaigns. She says they

Al Bayan | 25 | Winter

are simply publicity stunts where brands are profiting off of Muslims rather than supporting Muslims. Katebi brings into question the treatment of workers within large brands.

“It’s relevant to note that a lot of these companies that are trying to promote women, women’s rights and Muslims are not only profiting off of us through our consumption of their products but on the other end of it, a lot of their garment workers are also marginalized women,” Katebi says, pointing out that they might not be paid living wages.

In Katebi’s opinion, most Muslim women who choose to wear hijab or abaya do it for modesty. This is in direct contrast to the overpriced hijabs and abayas being sold by brands like Dolce & Gabbana. The concept of modesty calls into question the authenticity of the campaigns. Although the level of Muslim involvement is unknown for most of the brands mentioned, media brand Fusion reports that Mariah Idrissi, the hijabi woman involved in the Close the Loop promotion said she was treated with respect during the shoot. She said she was consulted as to how much skin she could show, and that when a watch was set incorrectly on her wrist, the cameramen asked a woman to fix it. In an interview with Fusion, Idrissi said that this “showed that little bit of respect.”

Melanie Elturk, founder of Haute Hijab, an online clothing store which caters to Muslim women, commented on the contrast between the Ramadan collections created by brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, DKNY, and Mango and the Dolce & Gabbana

abaya line. In the aforementioned Ramadan collections, models were dressed in modest clothing, but “none of the models were wearing hijab,” Elturk says. In contrast, the abaya collection featured women who were covered. She describes the collection as “radical,” because they presented women in full hijab, with all skin covered.

Although this campaign featured fully covered Muslim women, Elturk highlights a possible slip-up on the part of Dolce & Gabbana - one image in which a model’s leg is showing. To her, this indicated that the fashion brand had “missed the boat completely” and failed to understand Muslims’ definition of modesty.

Elturk also noted the balance between keeping in mind brands’ desire to profit off of the Muslim market, as well as the positives that come from increased Muslim visibility in the media. “The bottom line is money,” she says, pointing out that the abaya line is marketed toward women in Dubai, which is “one of the last remaining countries in the Gulf where women still adhere to wearing the black abaya and black hijab,” and have the buying power to buy designer abayas.

Despite the aim for profit, Elturk is optimistic about possible effects of the representation of Muslim in the media.

“These mainstream companies catering to that Muslim fashion space, I think is a positive thing, which hopefully will help demystify misconceptions and break down stereotypes,” she says. “I’m optimistic because the end result is a positive one, although I’m very cognizant of the fact that it is motivated by money.”

Al Bayan | 26 | Winter

ABOVE: Haute Hijab markets modest clothing for Muslim women, and its founder Melanie Elturk is hopeful that mainstream companies’ modest lines will help Muslims have greater visibility in culture and media. // Photo courtesy of Haute Hijab.

CULTURE

SWIPE

me maybe?

By Fathma Rahman Illustrations by Amal Ahmed

M

uslim Tinder? Yeah, there’s an app for that. Well, not exactly—but close. Despite the predominance of hookup culture on college campuses across America, there are still young Muslims trying to keep it halal while maintaining both their American identity and the cultural norms set by older generations.

The new generation of Muslim young adults is finding love in the age of online matchmaking through apps similar to Tinder, but have made it less about

finding a one-night stand and more about finding “the one.” Matchmaking apps like ISHQR and Salaam Swipe have blown up in popularity amongst this generation of Muslims looking for a newfound understanding of love and where to find it. Plus, these apps have the added benefits of specific communities that adhere to all and any Muslim individual’s interests and ways to protect identities from trolling aunties and mutual family friends.

“When I was in college, nobody talked about going online and using any sort of platform,” says Humaira Mubeen, founder of ISHQR. “There was a lot of stigma

attached to using an online platform—there was this idea that you only use online dating when you’re super desperate to find somebody.”

In the past, dating websites were a very popular option for young Muslims trying to get married to someone away from their local community. However, as aunties and other overseeing adults took control of the medium, millennials became more grudging to the idea of “settling” online, Mubeen says.

“We had platforms like shaadi.com, but that was mostly run by parents, so it had a very conservative and Easternlike mentality,” Mubeen says. “There was nothing for millennial Muslims—

kids that were born and raised here, that have dual hybrid identities that they can relate to and feel very comfortable with—it just didn’t exist, which was a motivation to starting the platform.”

Khalil Jessa founded Salaam Swipe in an effort to use modern technology to break the taboo in which everybody is looking for a partner but nobody wants to be seen doing so.

“In my own life, I found it easier to meet people who were not Muslim than who were Muslim simply by the nature of where I live and the social atmosphere of our community,” Jessa says. “Meeting someone is not an easy thing to do, so I built the app based off the need for this in my own life as well as others’ lives.”

With the increased popularity of smartphone apps, platforms like Tinder have become a popular way to meet people—though not for the same reasons as places like shaadi.com.

These apps are convenient for hook ups, but not so much for the one trying to find love. In terms of branding, it’s important for Muslim-geared apps to set themselves apart.

“We brand ourselves in a way that is conducive to the Muslim community,” Jessa says. “It’s our users themselves— Muslims are going to be Muslims, and we are unique in the way that we find love and that comes out in the way the app is used.”

While Tinder provides pictures of users to swipe in either approval or dismissal, ISHQR uses a two-part profile—something about yourself and something you’re looking for in a

partner, Mubeen says. A viewer is shown the written profile of a user without a name or picture, and if the viewer swipes in approval of the user, the user has the option to accept or decline the interest. Pictures are displayed only when interests are accepted.

“If you don’t accept, I’ll never see your picture, so there’s a lot of control on photos, whereas Tinder is the complete opposite,” Mubeen explains. “The website has a very lighthearted tone— there’s even an option that says ‘I don’t know why I’m here.’”

Likewise, Salaam Swipe is also uniquely built with its Muslim audience in mind. The app allows users to both categorize themselves as narrowly or as widely as they’d like—and at the same time, filter people as narrowly and as widely as they’d like. As a result, Salaam Swipe gets a very wide range of people who identify in all sorts of ways, Jessa says.

“We have a lot more gender segregation than any other community,” Jessa says. “We’re diverse ethnically, which leads to different ways to deal with things. How a Pakistani family deals with gender relations will be different from the way a North African or Somali family does, even when they’re all Muslim.”

For many Muslim college students looking for love, the dating scene is made even more difficult in that there is less time to go out and meet people. In tight-knit or small communities, young adults may not see each other “that way,” says ISHQR user and intern Samira Elhosary.

“

“

There was a lot of stigma attached to using an online platform — there was this idea that you only use online dating when you’ r e super desperate to find somebody.

“I’ve seen so many people [on ISHQR] looking for so many different things, but one thing I’ve seen is that people like uniqueness,” Elhosary says.

“They’re not looking for a wife who can cook, they’re looking for a best friend to love and hang out with and travel.”

Elhosary described her experience on the ISHQR app as mixed—she had a good experience with people she really connected with but has also had times where someone vanishes with no notice. More than anything, she says that it’s been more effective in building friendship than relationships, but

she also pointed out that as a 20-year-old she isn’t exactly looking for a life partner.

With about 90 percent of users coming from North America, particularly the U.S., the greatest age group is between 25-36, though ISHQR caters to age populations ranging from 18 to 38. The website has about 10,000 users at the moment, Mubeen says.

Currently, ISHQR knows about 16 couples that are engaged after meeting on the website/app.

Three couples have already

gotten married, and the fourth is taking place this summer.

“It’s so interesting that they’re from different cities, states and have different jobs, and sometimes I’m blown away thinking that if this platform didn’t exist, how would these two people have met?”

Mubeen says. “I mean, God creates ways for things to come together, but it just makes you think—wow, I had some hand in this, which is just very beautiful to know.”

CULTURE

The Halal Guys

By Zoya Khan

D

o you want a zesty, hot, $9 meal that is double the size of a regular entree and located right in the middle of Downtown Chicago? Zabiha eaters are raving about this place. Among the chic retailers on West Division Street, The Halal Guys opened their Chicago branch in August.

The tiny food-cart on the east corner of 53rd Street and Sixth Avenue in New York has come a long way since it first reeled in thousands of hungry New Yorkers for a cheap and delicious Mediterranean meal.

The Halal Guys was founded in 1990, when Mohamed Abouelenein, a hot-dog seller, didn’t believe he was living up to his maximum potential. Switching to serving the classic chicken, gyro meat, rice, and pita that we see on the menu today, Abouelenein had struck gold with his food-cart. The Halal Guys now have over 200 restaurants in

development globally. 25 years later, food cart lines have an average wait of 45 minute and serve huge metropolitan areas.

The setup of The Halal Guys in Chicago mimics the New York food stall. It’s a very small location and the customers are packed tightly into the restaurant. It’s simple menu and quick service make it feel like the In ‘N’ Out of Mediterranean food. The food is served in less than 5 minutes, and a long counter allows customers to hang around as they wolf down their tear-worthy meal.

There is always a crowd at this location, whether it is 11 a.m. on a Tuesday or 9 p.m. on a Saturday. And if you are one of those people that has cravings for spicy food late at night, The Halal Guys is open until 4 a.m. on weekends to fulfill your desires.

So why does the world seem crazed about this food? Well, to start off, the meats are freshly prepared, and the generous

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portions of chicken and gyros are served with pita over a bed of orange rice. The chicken is soft and seasoned lightly, and the gyros are crisped to a crunch. If that doesn’t get your mouth watering, the huge dollop of garlic sauce perfectly complements and adds an extra layer of flavor to the rice as you mix it in with the meats. WARNING: Do not use a heavy hand with the hot sauce. It will set even the most spice-attuned desi taste buds ablaze.

The Halal Guys has become the new hotspot for hungry Zabiha foodies all over Chicago, and you don’t want to miss out. If the words cheap, spicy or delicious appeal to you (and I’m not sure why they wouldn’t), then make sure to take a trip down there.

Trust me, it’s better than anything you would get at Potbelly’s or Corner Bakery. Also, just in case you were wondering, The Halal Guys is indeed halal.

photo by Naib Mian

REVIEWS

QUANTICO

photo courtesy of Marco Grob/Variety

By Umber Waheed

O

n a lazy day during Ramadan, I found ‘Quantico’ while scrolling through my Twitter feed. Someone had retweeted an ABC update advertising a new television thriller series premiering in September. I distinctly remember seeing Bollywood starlet Priyanka Chopra’s face staring back at me and promptly feeling shocked. It felt like two worlds were colliding, where the colorful, musical flairs of Bollywood were now being intertwined with the serious, tough environment of cable TV drama. Furthermore, Chopra was now the first South Asian woman, born and bred in India, to headline an American network series. ‘Quantico’ was now on my radar, and I tucked the show in my to-watch list. Later, Chopra would become the first South Asian woman to win a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Actress in a New TV Series.

A couple months passed when I got a Snapchat from my sister. She ditched her night of doing homework for watching five straight episodes of ‘Quantico’ instead. The back of my head ringed in response to the familiar name. That very night, after reading my dose of biology, I watched the pilot for ‘Quantico’ and was instantly enraptured. After watching the first season within a week or two, I can safely say I’m a fan.

‘Quantico’ follows protagonist Alex Parrish (Chopra) who is suspected of committing

the biggest terrorist attack in New York City since 9/11. Realizing she has been framed, Parrish must find out the truth while on the run from authorities. The show conducts flashbacks of Parrish’s story and her fellow recruits at the FBI Academy in Quantico. The dual-running storylines results in a plethora of unique and complex characters. You find yourself second-guessing every recruit and his or her supposed life. A veteran returning from Afghanistan is really an undercover FBI agent. A sweet Southern belle turns out to be sending big bucks to a remote location in the Middle East. An introverted geek has been fabricating his homosexuality for unknown reasons. This structure slightly backfires, as the present terrorist plotline often hits the backburner for flashback emotional scenes, leaving the viewer with many unanswered questions.

Other issues arise as well. Nimah and Raina Amin (Yasmine al-Massri) depict a veiled Middle Eastern recruit at Quantico.

The twins pose as only Nimah, meaning the class has no clue of there being another (although the director does and hopes for it to remain a secret). After watching the season, my biggest gripe was with the show’s depiction of hijabi women. In one romantic scene between Raina and the geek, Simon Asher (Tate Ellington), Raina takes off her hijab. Explaining that a hijabi may do so for

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someone she believes deserves to see her unveiled, Raina blurs the lines of what is usually interpreted as permissible when wearing the scarf. From my hijabi family and friends, I can safely state that veiled women do not reveal themselves to anyone who they love until marriage. However, ‘Quantico’ seems to emotionally bend the rule that is designed to maintain certain boundaries between men and women. I felt even more confused during the same scene when Raina and Simon share a kiss. Furthermore, there is a distinct personality difference between Nimah and Raina.

The aggressive and less religious Nimah constantly rants about escaping her controlled life in the kitchen while Raina does not seem to mind. While I was annoyed by this, I applaud Quantico’s subtle but effective writing of this ideological binary where the harsh, progressive woman is paired against her emotional, subservient twin. Even worse is when Simon reveals his attraction to the former lady, making the audience subconsciously choose the woman who rejects the ideals the show wants to proclaim as “Islamic.”

Despite Alex being the suspected terrorist and the twin’s depiction of veiled women, I still appreciate what ‘Quantico’ is doing.

Throughout the season, there is little inclination to explicitly demonize Muslims despite what we usually see in the media. Nearly every episode implicates someone new as the terrorist, placing everyone in an even playing field for being responsible. Simon, for example, is portrayed to be more responsible than others and is an IDF veteran who secretly spent years in Gaza and is friends with a bombmaker. Perhaps I’m being overly optimistic when I say that the writers of ‘Quantico’ are making an effort in demonstrating that terrorism has no distinctive religion, ethnicity and label. I saw this with Simon and his friend, who both figuratively come from the same Middle Eastern region as ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Yet their Jewish identity remains clear throughout the season, which I personally interpret as ‘Quantico’ suggesting that not all terrorists are Muslims with beards. As a result, I personally find that the show attempts to create a separation from religion and nationality and moves away from the trope that all Muslims are not terrorists. For these few reasons, I appreciate ‘Quantico’ in its diligence to remove the ignorant, anti-Muslim myths that we see throughout the media.

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The Grand Mosque of Paris stands out as a Moorish gem among the surrounding French architecture. Stepping into another world, one is struck by serene gardens and wide courtyards offering a sanctuary from the busy city streets. Worshippers bow in prayer. Guides offer educational tours to visitors. Passersby stop for Moroccan tea and sweets. Founded in 1926 in honor of the approximately 100,000 Muslims who died fighting for France in World War I, the mosque has a long and rich history, serving as refuge for Jews during World War II. On the morning of Eid ul Adha, it opens its doors again, this time as a sanctuary for refugees, welcomed as brothers and sisters in a sermon delivered in both Arabic and French.