Chimamanda Adichie gave a wonderful talk about how we humans stereotype each other and see the other through our negative single stories or negative personal experiences which not only rob people of their dignity, but also create walls that separate us from each other.

Some excerpts of the talk to reflect on:

“I wrote exactly the kind of stories I was reading.  All my characters were white and blue eyed.”

“I realized that people like me, girls with chocolate skin and kinky hair that could not be formed into a pony tail could exist in literature.”

“Their poverty was my single story of them[Nigerian family].”

“She felt sorry for me even before She saw me.”

“No possibly of a connection as human equals.”

“[Africans]…waiting to be saved by a kind white foreigner.”

“My professor told me that my novel was not authentically African…I did not know what African authenticity is… My characters were like him and drove cars.”

“Show a people as one thing and as only one thing and that is what they become.”

“Stories are defined by who tells them. “

“If you want to depossess a people the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and tell it secondly.  Start the story with arrows of the Native Americans and not the arrival of the British and you have an entirely different story…”

“But to insist on only these negative stories is to flatten my experiences…it is not that they are untrue but they are incomplete…There are other stories that are not about catastrophies…[The single story]It robs people of dignity.”

What Adichie shared about the stereotypes that she faced as an African are true for Muslims, Arabs and Muslim women in particular who are constantly perceived as in need of being liberated by kind white foreigners.

“Stories can be used to humanize.  Stories can be used to repair the dignity of a people…When we reject the single story…We regain a kind of paradise.”

Please visit  Change the Story

By John Noltner, A Peace of My Mind

John Noltner

“A Peace of My Mind” is a documentary project I have been working on for the past half year. It was born out of a desire to give a voice to people who believe in peace. It is easy to become discouraged and even angry when we listen to the shrill rhetoric that can be found in the mainstream media. Complex issues are boiled down to talking points and black and white answers while the true answers are found in the subtle nuances in between.

The premise of “A Peace of My Mind” is simple. To interview individuals from a wide range of backgrounds about their thoughts on peace and what it means to them in their lives, what they do to work toward it and what obstacles stand in their way. Their peace can be a spiritual peace, political peace, inner peace and it is about what moves them. The idea is that the more we can talk about peace and the more we can keep it in the public dialog, the more likely we can achieve it.

The interviews are edited into downloadable podcasts and placed on a website, http://apeaceofmymind.net, where they are combined with a black and white portrait and a short bio of each person.  The website also includes background on the project and a blog.  The subjects are diverse, including a husband and wife who are Holocaust survivors, a retired police officer who works with incarcerated teens, a Buddhist minister, a Muslim woman who runs a law firm, a CEO of a medical company who has built an AIDS orphanage in Africa, and many others.

The goal of “A Peace of My Mind” is to create a community where people can share their thoughts about peace and to create a body of work that can help us understand one another a little bit better. Interviews and blog entries will be updated regularly, and everyone is invited to participate by submitting essays, poems or other thoughts on the subject, some of which will be included in the blog section.

Please take a moment to visit http://apeaceofmymind.net and help me spread the word by telling your friends and colleagues.

Note:   Below are two interviews of Minnesotan Muslims.

Imani Jaafar-Mohammad is a lawyer and partner in a law firm with her husband. Born in the United States to Lebanese immigrants, she feels she has acted as a peace broker for most of her life, both formally and informally.

Imani speaks often to school, business and church groups in an effort to help people understand what it means to be a Muslim woman in America today. She encourages people to get their information first hand and not accept stereotypes about other cultures and religions.

Zafar Siddiqui is an American Muslim, born in India. He serves on the board of directors for Al-Amal School, the first all Islamic k-12 school in Minnesota. He also leads the Islamic Resource Group, dedicated to educating others about Islam and Muslims.

Zafar talks about the peaceful nature of Islam as a religion, and how fringe elements have misused the religion for their own purposes, just as other groups from other religions have done throughout history.

By Brad Robideau, American Public Media

I’m writing to alert you to a groundbreaking special project from American Public Media’s Speaking of Faith unfolding in and beyond Ramadan.

Several months ago, Speaking of Faith extended an invitation to Muslims to reflect on their lived experience of Islam, of what it means—in a daily, particular way—to be part of what is often referred to in the abstract as “the Muslim world.” Responses continue to flow in from people all over the world. They range in age from their teens to their 70s. They are Iraqi-American Californian, but also Mexican-American and Russian-American converts from other faiths. They’ve come from Indonesia, Turkey, England, and from robust Muslim communities in places like Dallas.

Because of the vividness of the stories nearly everyone had to tell about the holy month of Ramadan—which began this year on August 22 for most people in the United States—Speaking of Faith launched a daily Ramadan podcast, “Revealing Ramadan,” which has hit the iTunes top 50. On September 10, a companion hour-long radio production will be available at speakingoffaith.org and will air on public radio stations nationwide in the week following.

And, in a few weeks, we’ll be releasing a second program on the many expressions of Muslim identity in our time – across geography, cultures, and the intimacies of human life. You can get a preview of the hundreds of voices already gathered, including those featured in the radio program and podcast, by way of an interactive map that blends personal photos, audio, and essays.

Find the podcast via iTunes or RSS.

Please feel free to publicize this series and forward this blog to anyone you think might be interested in knowing about or participating in it.

If you wish to receive news and updates from American Public Media, please contact me at brobideau@americanpublicmedia.org.

Note:  Speaking of Faith by Krista Tippett had at least Muslim Minnesotans on the program.

Jennifer Holman, Minneapolis, MN (USA)

Saeed Purcell, longtime resident of  Minnesota, currently residing in Green Valley, AZ (USA)

Also listen to the excellent recounting of Ramadan experience by Br Saeed here.

Nausheena Hussain, Brooklyn Park, MN (USA)

By Engage Minnesota

We need to purify our hearts before we solve the world’s problems.

Tamim Saidi

By Tamim Saidi, Engage Minnesota.

I vividly recall the first couple of years that I fasted as a young teenager.  All I could think about was food.  Even when I took a daytime nap, I dreamt of food.  Ramadan follows a lunar calendar, and when it falls in long summer days like this year, abstaining from food and water becomes more challenging, but Ramadan is not merely about food and water.  For practicing Muslims, it is about righteousness and God-consciousness. It is about making one a better person and a better Muslim.

 Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, taught the Muslims that “God is in no need of someone abstaining from food and drink if they do not abstain from evil deeds and evil words.”  In a different narration he said that there are some who get nothing out of their fast except for hunger and thirst – implying that if they do not abide by good moral character, there is no value in their fast.  Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, taught us to not only abstain from food and drink during the day in this beautiful month, but to also abstain from saying, listening to, looking at, and doing all things inappropriate.

 Thus, for practicing Muslims, the fast of Ramadan is not merely a fast of the stomach, but a holistic fast of the tongue, eyes, ears, limbs, heart and mind.  The fasting person is to control not only his/her actions and deeds, but also his/her thoughts and desires. Therefore, Ramadan is the Month of Self-Discipline.

The Last Prophet, peace be upon him, told Muslims to avoid arguments and disputes in Ramadan even when confronting verbal abuse, swearing, or physical provocation.  In such situations, he commanded us to simply say: “I am fasting,” and to not reciprocate the argument or verbal abuse. This makes Ramadan a Boot Camp Month for practicing Muslims.  A month to train me and another 1.5 billion Muslims around the world to stay away from back-biting, arguments, lies, cheating, dishonesty, miserliness, envy, covetousness and greed.  This is also the month that urges Muslims to be extra generous in giving for the sake of God.  Muslims around the world give billions of dollars in charity to the poor and the needy, to the beggars, the orphans and the widows in need.  Thus, Ramadan is the Month of Generosity.

 For Muslims, this is also the Month of Qur’an, the last revelation from the Almighty God.  Muslims focus on their spiritual relationship with the Creator of the Universe.  They read His (Muslims believe God is beyond gender and not a male god) last revelation and reflect over its meanings and objectives.  I have found myself reading more from the Qur’an during Ramadan than any other month.  In spite of reading the entire Qur’an on a regular basis and numerous times over the years, every Ramadan I come across verses that seem like I have never read before. 

Moreover, Ramadan is Community Month.  I see more of my fellow Muslims in this month than in any other month.  Most masjids (mosques) offer free food for people every night.  It helps the community members catch up with each other and strengthen their bonds.   I also meet hundreds of my fellow MN Muslims in functions and fundraising dinners.  Most Minnesota Muslim organizations hold fund raising dinners and raise money to support schools, mosques, scholarships, education efforts, relief efforts and so on.

This is also Family Month.  I get to have more meals with my family in Ramadan than in any other month in the year.  We wake up together early in the morning, this year around 4:30 a.m, for suhoor (pre-dawn meal), and I make every effort to be with my family and friends for the “breakfast” meal (the ending of the fast at sunset), making sure we break our fast together like we started it together. This is very special for us.

This is the month that helps me realize that: Yes, I can live without coffee, and: No, that extra afternoon snack is not necessary.  This is the month that helps us have more self-control and self-discipline, which leads to more self-esteem.  This is the month that helps me better understand our reliance upon God. So this is the Month of Reflection.

Fasting in Ramadan helps me reconnect with the poor and the destitute.  Without food and water for almost 16 hours a day, I can feel a small fraction of the pain of starving people around world and around the state. I realize that even though I look forward to a meal at sunset, there are millions of people, including young children, who sleep with empty stomachs.  So if I can spare a few dollars and be generous enough to feed a few hungry people, I can look forward to the Infinitely Generous God sparing me difficulties in this life and in the Hereafter.   Ramadan helps us be more sympathetic to those in need.  This makes Ramadan the Month of the Poor.

Ramadan is also the Month of Spiritual Re-awakening.  I have found that in Ramadan, doing good deeds is easier and comes more naturally.  I have seen countless Muslims who are generally not practicing become practicing Muslims during this month. Muslims who smoke give up smoking, and those with other bad habits can drop those habits easier in Ramadan.

Ramadan is considered the Month of Mercy, Forgiveness and Salvation.  So to earn the Mercy of God, God urges us to be merciful to one another.  To earn His forgiveness, God urges us to forgive one another; and to receive Salvation we need to believe in God and to be good to one another, particularly to those in need.

As the main objective of fasting in Ramadan is to achieve piety and righteousness, the saying of our beloved prophet, Jesus, peace be upon him, in the Bible, “Blessed are those who hunger & thirst for righteousness” has an all new meaning for Muslims.

As Ramadan is considered a month in which prayers are accepted by God, I pray that God grants us all His Guidance, Mercy, Forgiveness, Blessing; and the best of this life and the Hereafter.

Tamim Saidi

By Fedwa Wazwaz, Engage Minnesota

Ramadan Mubarak (Blessed Ramadan)

Ramadan is the 9th month in the Islamic Calendar. Because Ramadan follows the lunar calendar, it rotates through the seasons, moving back around eleven days each year. Last year, Ramadan started in September 1st and this year, the Islamic Society of North America, declared Ramadan to begin on August 22nd, 2009.

Read More…

By Luke Wilcox, Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project

On July 31st, 2009 the Minneapolis City Council passed a resolution by unanimous vote establishing Minneapolis, USA and Najaf, Iraq as official Sister Cities. The resolution came after more than a year of work to build support in the two city councils by the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project (IARP) and its partner organization in Iraq the Muslim Peacemaker Teams (MPT). Najaf is now the tenth Sister City for Minneapolis and the first in the Middle East.

Soon after the resolution passed, IARP received the following note from Malka ali Kadhim al-Haddad, Assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Kufa in Najaf:

Dear IARP, Friends and Citizens of Minneapolis,
Warm greetings from Najaf. I’m so glad for the approval of the twining of our two cities, and I’m eager to meet you all in Minneapolis. I hope we will achieve our goals through the Sister City program that makes everyone happy here. I am grateful for your efforts. Looking forward to continuing to work together for peace in the fall. Best,
Malka ali Kadhim al-Haddad

Malka will travel to Minneapolis this September with a delegation from Najaf in the first official exchange between the two cities (see below for more information).

Mariam and Yousif (from Najaf) with artwork expressing excitement for the Sister City relationship.

The definition of a Sister City relationship is a formal agreement signed by the governing bodies of each city committing to long term sharing of cultural, educational, and citizen resources. It is a symbolic statement of friendship and cooperation, but also an official commitment to build tangible connections. A core belief of both IARP and MPT is that close interpersonal and community connections are critical for building international peace.

The new Sister City relationship is important for a number of reasons. Many people, including myself, feel strongly about the past, present and future U.S. relationship with Iraq; beginning a Sister City relationship is a mutual statement of friendship and cooperation between the people of Najaf and Minneapolis. Considering how damaged the U.S.-Iraq relationship currently is, the importance of making this statement official and “legitimate” should not be underestimated. While there is still a lot of work to do, the Sister City resolution is a significant step toward the large goal of reconciliation.

People on both “sides” who have doubts about the other will be exposed to exchange programs and events, in the media if not in person. While media coverage can play a large role in building support FOR war and vilifying the “enemy,” it can also be effective in countering such attitudes. Those in the Twin Cities who are willing and open to listening and participating in exchanges will experience Iraqi culture first-hand, and some will develop long-lasting friendships. Iraqis in the Najaf area will also be exposed to aspects of American culture and community not often seen from an occupying military.

MPT Director Sami Rasouli with students at Dimah Institute for Special Education in Najaf

As Minneapolis City Council Member Cam Gordon points out in his July, 2009 newsletter, the Sister City relationship with Najaf is “the City’s first such relationship in the Middle East, and (it will) help create a positive, peaceful, and non-imperial relationship between Najaf residents and Minneapolitans.” Gordon’s Policy Aide Robin Garwood also reports that “we don’t have any reason to believe that this new sister city relationship will entail any additional cost to the City.”

The first official exchange between the two cities will come during the last two weeks of September, when a delegation from Najaf will visit the Twin Cities for two weeks. Coming as peacemakers and visitors, these professors, former city council members, business professionals, NGO directors and members of the Muslim Peacemaker Teams (MPT) are like us, curious, smart and interested in making friends.

A student in Najaf with her letter that will be sent to a student in Minneapolis through IARP’s Letters for Peace program.

The Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project is working with Friends for a NonViolent World, the University of Minnesota, Meet Minneapolis: Official Convention and Visitors Association, Twin Cities Peace Campaign: Focus on Iraq, Women Against Military Madness, and others to plan an extensive agenda for the visit. Planned events include a trip to a Minneapolis City Council meeting, a talk on the local co-op movement, meetings with local “green” developers, and a Water Symposium at the University of Minnesota. If you would like to participate in the delegation visit, please contact IARP or visit our website and sign up to receive email updates.

IARP is grateful for the many people who worked to get the resolution passed. Council Member Betsy Hodges, the original sponsor of the resolution, took the lead. The final resolution, voted on July 31st at the full Council, was sponsored by Council Members Hodges, Gordon, Hofstede, Glidden, and Remington. IARP also thanks City staff members Jenny Chayabutr, Lauren Maker and “Meet Minneapolis” International visitors point person, Bill Deef. Thanks also to the many others who supported the resolution.

For further information, please contact IARP or visit our website at http://reconciliationproject.org.

Luke Wilcox
luke@reconciliationproject.org

Kathy McKay, Executive Director
kathy@reconciliationproject.org

The Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project (IARP) seeks to promote reconciliation between the people of the United States and Iraq in response to the devastation affecting Iraqi families, society, and culture. IARP recognizes the common humanity of the people of Iraq and the people of the United States.

Feeding the Hungry in the Twin Cities

By Ayisha Yahya.

A quick glance at your grocery bill is evidence that a dollar just doesn’t go as far as it used to – the cost of food is rising. But while some people can still afford to stock up the fridge and pantry, for others, hunger is a persistent problem.

With the ongoing economic crisis showing few signs of abating, the demand for food assistance is mounting. Second Harvest Heartland food bank, which serves the Twin Cities metro, reported a 30 percent increase in demand for emergency food assistance in 2008 with more new first-time users, more repeat visits among existing clients, and more newly unemployed people(1). As more jobs are lost, Feeding America, the national food bank network formerly known as America’s Second harvest, reports that a record number of people are now on food stamps – almost 32 million Americans – and making use of food pantries. Food banks nationwide are struggling to keep up with demand(2).

It is not just the very poor and the unemployed who need supplemental food; many working families face food insecurity because they cannot stretch their income far enough to cover all their rising expenses. Imagine having to choose between buying food and paying for rent or utilities.

Here in the Twin Cities, Building Blocks‘ Food Shelf Program has witnessed first hand the grip of hunger in the community. In a survey we conducted in 2007, 18 percent of the respondents reported not having enough to eat for the whole month(3). Forty one percent said they received food support, and 51 percent knew another family in need of food every month. In Ramadan 2008, we held five special food distributions at different mosques – more than 1,000 families came to get food. In December 2008, 2,000 pounds of meat was distributed to more than 200 needy families after the Eid al Adha celebrations(4).

On a monthly basis, our food shelf feeds only about 60 of the neediest families because of limited resources. Evidently, the need is much greater and we would like to serve more people especially in this uncertain economic climate. This is why we organized a food drive in March, and collected food from 14 different locations (please click here for more details). Alhamdulillah (praise be to God), about 6,000 pounds of food and almost $4,000 was donated. Overall, volunteers spent more than 500 man-hours planning, helping in the collection, and then sorting and creating an inventory of the food. This food will be distributed in these summer months.

It is worth noting that for low-income families that have children who receive free school breakfasts and lunch, food insecurity is even higher in the summer. When school is out for three months, these families have to struggle to provide extra meals. Many food banks report seeing many more children during the summer, according to Feeding America’s “Hunger Fact Sheet”(5). And according to the organization Hunger Solutions Minnesota, more than half of all the hungry are kids(6). Based on our own observations, most of the families in need of emergency assistance are single mothers with children.

No child should have to go hungry if we have the means to help. Every can and box of food makes a difference. Every cent in donations counts too. Tackling hunger here in the Twin Cities requires an outpouring of generosity from those of us who can afford to give.

Islam places great emphasis on feeding the hungry. In a chapter of the Quran called Small Kindness (Surah al Ma’un, 107:1-3) Allah says, “Have you seen the one who denies the Recompense? For that is the one who drives away the orphan. And does not encourage the feeding of the poor.” In another chapter, the “steep path” to righteousness is described as follows: “And what can make you know the path that is steep? It is the freeing of a slave. Or giving food in a day of severe hunger. To an orphan near of kin. Or a Miskin (poor) afflicted with misery” (Quran 90:12-16). And when the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was once asked what qualities in Islam are good, he responded, “To feed the poor and greet those whom you know and those whom you don’t know,” (Reported in Bukhari).

So we urge everyone to give, however much or little that they can, to support the food shelf. Giving will not only alleviate a physical need, but also reassure needy that they are amongst people who share and care. Imagine the comfort you can bring to a child and the relief you can give a struggling family with this small act of kindness.

You can support the food shelf by mailing a check to Building Blocks, 2534 Central Ave. NE Minneapolis MN 55418 (write food shelf in the memo) or donate online at http://www.thebuildingblocks.org/donate-online.html. If you are interested in volunteering, please e-mail info@thebuildingblocks.org.

Apart from Building Blocks, several other Muslim organizations are working to tackle hunger in the community. Islamic Center of Minnesota in Fridley, Masjid Nur in Minneapolis, and Masjid ar Rahman in Bloomington have food shelves and several other mosques are working on starting one. They all need your support.

So please give from your cart . . . and your heart.

 [1]Second Harvest Heartland (2008) Local Impact Survey: Food Bank Response How current economic conditions are impacting the emergency food system served by Second Harvest Heartland

[2] Feeding America (2009). Unemployment reaches record levels, food banks struggle to feed hungry Americans. March 6.

[3] 700 people participated in the survey.

[4] For more information on Building Blocks Food shelf efforts please visit www.thebuildingblocks.org

[5] Feeding America. Hunger Fact Sheet

[6] Hunger Solutions Minnesota. Minnesota Hunger Fact Sheet

Crusaders for Justice book cover courtesy Papyrus Publishing

“Crusaders for Justice: A Chronicle of Protest by Agitators, Advocates and Activists in their Struggle for Civil and Human Rights in St. Paul, Minnesota” will be the subject of book-signing events with the author from 11:30 a.m – 1:00 p.m. Friday, June 5, 2009, at Rondo Community Outreach Library, 461 N. Dale St., St. Paul; and from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. Friday, June 19, 2009, at Golden Thyme Coffee & Cafe, 921 Selby Ave.

By Ann Cader
Papyrus Publishing

…In 1946, the 14th Annual St. Paul Open Golf Tournament barred African American competitors Solomon Hughes and Ted Rhodes…

…In 1968, vandals set fire to the St. Paul house that John McKinney and his family had saved up for 17 years to buy.  Friends and neighbors helped the McKinneys repair their house….

A new book by retired Johnson High School history teacher Arthur C. McWatt relates hundreds of such incidents, big and small. They reveal the dangers, obstacles and humiliations that faced St. Paul’s African Americans over the past two centuries.

In Crusaders for Justice, McWatt gives only cursory attention to the difficulties that challenged the McKinneys and others.  He uses these incidents to set the stage for an amazing chronicle of the St. Paul African American community’s determination, innovation, diplomacy, patience, resistance, mutual assistance and sometimes support from white friends and leaders.

Year by year, the black community and its newspapers chipped away at the barriers formed by prejudice and downright hostility.  As early as the 1890s, the Appeal argued against discrimination in housing and jobs.  In 1915, a year when 100 Blacks in America were lynched, Appeal editor J.Q. Adams persuaded a St. Paul judge to halt local showings of the pro-Ku Klux Klan movie “Birth of a Nation.”  In 1920, Adams criticized the Pioneer Press for frequent use of racial epithets to describe Italians, Jews, Mexicans, Hungarians and Irish—as well as African Americans.

Crusaders for Justice marches the reader through the decades from pre-Civil War to post-Civil Rights Movement, as McWatt summarizes reports he dug out from local newspaper archives and other contemporaneous and historical accounts, as well as from his own personal knowledge.  He and his wife, Katie, have been active in the community for more than 50 years.  As an executive at the St. Paul Urban League and member of the League of Women Voters and the St. Paul NAACP, Katie McWatt has negotiated and fought for housing, jobs, education and civil rights for hundreds of people.  In the 1960s she ran for the St. Paul City Council and the Minnesota Legislature, losing the latter by less than 500 votes.

Author Arthur C. McWatt (Courtesy Papyrus Publishing)

The book tells how other St. Paul African Americans went on to national careers.  In the early 1900s, St. Paul attorney Frederick McGhee helped organize the Niagara Movement, precursor of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.  Later, Whitney Young became chief officer of the National Urban League. Clarence Mitchell III was elected Maryland’s youngest state senator. Roy Wilkins headed the national NAACP for 22 years.

In St. Paul, as nationally, each decade produced gains.  Some lasted; others were too fragile to withstand new setbacks.  McWatt ends the main part of his chronicle at 1980, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against use of racial quotas in college admissions (Regents of the University of California v. Bakke), which led to a 50 percent drop in minority student enrollment at the University of Minnesota.  McWatt notes, “The St. Paul community also faced high unemployment, a rising crime rate and increasing white hostility.”

In an epilogue McWatt states that he wrote Crusaders for Justice “to show that our city has been blessed with a rich heritage of strong and imaginative leadership….St. Paul has often been the training ground for civil rights leaders throughout the nation, many of whom learned their crafts here.”

“Crusaders for Justice” (236 pp.)  was  produced by the St. Paul chapter of the NAACP with assistance from Papyrus Publishing Inc., Brooklyn Park, MN 55428, PapyrusPublishing@msn.com.

Launch events and book-signings are scheduled for 11:30 am – 1:00 p.m. Friday, June 5, 2009, at Rondo Community Outreach Library, 461 N. Dale St., St. Paul, MN, 55103; and 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. Friday, June 19, 2009, at Golden Thyme Coffee & Cafe, 921 Selby Ave., St. Paul, MN, 55104.

Copies are available from the St. Paul NAACP at (651) 649-0502, vkydavis@netzero.net, on Amazon.com, or at Golden Thyme Coffee & Café, 921 Selby Ave., St. Paul, 55104, and Common Good Books (Under Nina’s Coffee Cafe), 165 Western Ave. N., St. Paul, MN, 55105.