Meet Ali
Interviewed by Johns Hopkins University students supervised by Dr. Homayra Ziad.
Interviewers: Ashraf, Lubna, Bonnie and Alexis
About the Interview
This interview was about the experiences of Ali Faruk from before 9/11, around the time of 9/11, and afterward. Ali discusses his earliest memories with Islamophobia as well as how that played out in his college life. He then mentions his work in advocacy and community organizing in the Muslim communities of Prince William County. Many of the realities of the impact 9/11 had on that community were brought to light in this interview.
The major themes discussed in the interview were those of state violence, responses to 9/11, interpersonal Islamophobia, advocacy & community organizing focusing on allies, institutional Islamophobia, and institutional racism. Aspects of state violence, especially as they relate to immigration, are mentioned in the interview when Ali discusses his experiences with Muslim communities’ alignment with the state. This also plays into the theme of responses to 9/11, which Ali describes in certain points as a sense of patriotism and alliance with the U.S by mosque leadership in order to “gain benefits” for their areas. The theme of advocacy and community organizing with a focus on allies come about through this specific type of response to 9/11, where Ali mentions his work in various organizations (interfaith and non-faith based) that have focused on immigrant and minority communities.
Guiding Questions
How do you think 9/11 shaped Muslim communities’ self-identification as an American?
What role does internalized Islamophobia have in a Muslim or community of Muslim’s alignment with the state?
What about Virginia’s politics and landscape shaped a unique experience for Muslims post 9/11?
“They put every single Muslim organization on there. I think the only one that wasn’t on there was Islamic Relief. But like, ISNA, ICNA, MSA National, all of them. Holy Land foundation like all these others were you know all the Palestinian charities were on there. Islamic relief was the only one, and they call them just unindicted co conspirators and I told you that you know, being unindicted. So every case every major case always has a list of unindicted co conspirators there’s always a list that they’re like these people could have been involved, but they made it public, which was a huge deal it’s a huge deal to have this public list to be like these people could have had a hand in 911 like, you can’t do that, not without some way to being like hey man, where’s the evidence, allow us to challenge this in court, and have our data be like that’s not us, bro. But, you know, there was no way to do that. And so it took years and years and eventually Supreme Court ruled and they had to. I don’t know if they had to provide restitution, they probably didn’t, but they did have to take the list down, and that was a huge deal. That gave us a little bit of grief. But yeah, after the Kerry election it got much worse, and we had to do a lot more. We started getting a lot more. I remember the. What year was it… 2004 2005. It was maybe it was right before 911, and I was invited to speak as the MSA president at some sort of event, commemorating 911. And every Monday, the MSA used to send out just “here’s the events of the week.” And it’s your generic newsletter right, you’re, you know, first of the day, the prayer times for the week. Because back then people didn’t have like smartphones where you could just get, you know the prayer time. So that’s where everyone found out the prayer times, was posted in the MSA office and you send out an email and include all the events we’re doing, and and I think it happened to be the morning of 911 that Monday I think it was that or maybe the day before, but. And back then, it listed me as the contact for MSA including my cell phone, because you know back then there just weren’t telemarketers so like my cell phone was everywhere, which happens to be the exact same number I still have to this day.
I sent the email and like 10 minutes later I get a call from some dude, I don’t know if it was a student or teacher I have no idea. Some dude, he was angry. He was like, “I can’t believe you guys doing this” and I’m like, “What are you talking about”, he’s like, “I can’t believe that you’re celebrating 911”, like, “What are you talking about”, and he’s talking about the email we had sent out, because our MSA list again we had put ourselves out there. So, anyone could go to the MSA website and subscribe to the MSC, you know, and we had. We actually had two lists, one that was for everybody. And we then had a separate list that was just Muslims and that was that was for things that were like, very Muslim, specific right so like prayer times and things like that or. Eventually we got rid of that because it just. But anyway, so it went up to the big list, and this guy was really upset because he was like, “I can’t believe you” and I tried to explain to him I was like “No, that’s a weekly email that we send every Monday. And we’re not celebrating 911. The events you saw, we’re like, we have, we, we reserve rooms in the commons for the salahs. Every day” Every day there is a room that you could go to to pray. So I think that’s what he was referring to, and I was like “no those are the weekly prayer rooms we reserved those every week for anyone that wants to pray.”
“So fast forward to 9/11. Again, my dad was in the Air Force, and he actually worked in the Pentagon sometimes, and in Crystal City at other times. He was one of those beltway people that kind of bounced around. And I remember, and also like growing up in Prince William County, everybody’s like two thirds of people that I knew their families either were military or their families worked in government. So, when 9/11 happened. I remember initially being confused, thinking, how could a plane just hit a tower, like aren’t there all these protections to help pilots make sure they don’t hit a tower, and like it didn’t even occur to me that it was a terrorist attack. Then when we heard that the Pentagon was hit, I remember being absolutely shocked because I just assumed, as a kid. But even though, then I was a high schooler. I just assumed that there were like, super weapons around the Pentagon that would shoot down anything that got close, because to us. Everybody knew, even if you didn’t know anything about government, what you knew was like the Pentagon was where the military headquarters work right. So that was just shocking and also a lot of our families worked in the Pentagon, including my dad. So I remember back then we didn’t have cell phones. We all had to line up outside the principal’s office, because they immediately made an announcement. When the Pentagon was hit that the that the counselors were standing by for anyone who needed to talk but also that anyone who needed to call their family to check if they’re okay, can line up at the front office. And I remember doing that, I remember waiting in line to use the phone at the front office, I remember dialing my house number and calling my mom and my mom picking up and saying that that particular day my dad happened to not be in the pentagon, but he just as easily could have been there that day, he happened to work in Crystal City that day, but the part of the Pentagon that was hit was where my dad worked. I mean a lot of people work there.”
“ My vision is we can absolutely create a world where we honor the dignity of every person. If we focus, instead of spending all that money to punish people, if we spent that money nurturing them. And that’s not a crazy utopian vision of the world.
We incarcerate more people than anyone else in the world. Per capita, taking into account our larger population. And that means that either Americans are inherently more evil than other people, which I don’t believe, or maybe we’re overcriminalizing people. Maybe we’re overcriminalizing behavior which really needs support and nurturing instead of punishment and incarceration. And, boy, wouldn’t it be nice to invest in healing and wholeness instead of punishment and trauma. And what a world that would be.”