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I’m going to be honest with you guys. This magazine was a complete accident.

I was given an assignment in a media literacy class to design an imaginary magazine cover that targets a certain demographic. The first idea that popped up in my head was a magazine for Muslim women in the West. I posted the cover up on my blog and, alhamdulillah, it got amazing feedback. I thought that would be the end of it.

Then Areeba messaged me.

“I saw that magazine cover you made. You wanna make it?”

And with that nonchalant sentence, Areeba had me diving head-first into this project that I would’ve otherwise been too afraid to pursue. After four months of putting together a team, advertising, studying publications and layouts, and hunting down interviewees, here we are.

It is obvious that this magazine is for Muslim women, but I don’t want it to be like anything out there that‘s targeted towards us. As in, I don’t want it to be the typical mélange of hijab styles, marriage tips, and gener-ic Islamic advice. We have plenty of that out there, alhamdulillah. I want Identity to be able to really speak to people and listen when they respond. I want it to be a dialogue. A complex dialogue. I want it to be about things relevant to us, large and small. Whether that is soul-searching, places we want to go, people we want to meet, clothes we want to wear, or who we are and who we want to be, Identity is an attempt at reflecting every intricate layer within us. We are far more than what other people see in us – our religion, our headscarves or lack thereof. We are daughters, students, professionals, mothers, wives, and most importantly, human beings. We are even beyond both of those lists of definitions and what we simplify ourselves to be. This is why I could never pinpoint to you exactly what Identity is about. Because how do you simplify the life of a diasporic Muslim woman? You can’t.

This magazine is an expression of something I longed for growing up. Something that reflected my identity in a way that made sense to me instead of trying to speak for me. Something that I knew was made for me and others like me. Something for us by us. This is what we hope to provide, if God wills, in this and future issues.

Sajida H. Editor-in-chief

SALAAM

SAJIDA H.editor-in-chief/founder

executive editor/co-founderAREEBA TARIQ

WRITERSsana ginawi, aaleen anjum,

samreen anwar, ladan kay, aisha ali

remona kanyat, sarah amato, zahrah rashid, taimur mahmous

PHOTOGRAPHERS

nuha elidrissi, jamil alghoussain, uzma sandhu LAYOUT+GRAPHICS

deena mohamed, miriam pethania, christina samurkasCONTENT CONTRIBUTORS

yusra islam MODELS

VOLUME N°I FALL MMXIII

www.identityzine.com

CONTACT USstaff@identityzine.com

contribute@identityzine.comadvertising@identityzine.com

SOCIAL MEDIA /identityzine

@identityzine/identityzine

All rights of this publication are reserved by IDENTITY or third parties. All artwork is copyright of the contirbuting artist-s/photographers or of the sources stated. We do not claim rights to any of the photos that were not contributed directly to us. Every effort has been made to contact and properly credit copy-right holders - please contact us regarding correction or omissi-ons. This publication cannot be reproduced electornically, digitally, in print, or any other form without the explicit written per-mission of IDENTITY and approval of the copyright holders.Copyright ©2013 IDENTITY Magazine. All rights reserved.

contentsVOLUME No1 FALL MMXIII

AL - FATIHAphilosophy

FALL IN REDautumn wardrobe

DR. HASHMIal-huda international

LADY AISHAa legacy

I PARTIED TIL FAJR

imam osama

DECÓRliving space

WINNIE#turbanation

HALOODIEeat clean

MASJID POLITICSthe prophetic solution

TESTING THE WATERS

mongolia

ONE DIRECTIONcomic

10 20 42

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SAJIDA H.editor-in-chief/founder

executive editor/co-founderAREEBA TARIQ

WRITERSsana ginawi, aaleen anjum,

samreen anwar, ladan kay, aisha ali

remona kanyat, sarah amato, zahrah rashid, taimur mahmous

PHOTOGRAPHERS

nuha elidrissi, jamil alghoussain, uzma sandhu LAYOUT+GRAPHICS

deena mohamed, miriam pethania, christina samurkasCONTENT CONTRIBUTORS

yusra islam MODELS

VOLUME N°I FALL MMXIII

www.identityzine.com

CONTACT USstaff@identityzine.com

contribute@identityzine.comadvertising@identityzine.com

SOCIAL MEDIA /identityzine

@identityzine/identityzine

All rights of this publication are reserved by IDENTITY or third parties. All artwork is copyright of the contirbuting artist-s/photographers or of the sources stated. We do not claim rights to any of the photos that were not contributed directly to us. Every effort has been made to contact and properly credit copy-right holders - please contact us regarding correction or omissi-ons. This publication cannot be reproduced electornically, digitally, in print, or any other form without the explicit written per-mission of IDENTITY and approval of the copyright holders.Copyright ©2013 IDENTITY Magazine. All rights reserved.

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“You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help”

Al-Fatiha is the one surah we’re all pretty fa-miliar with, given that we recite it every single day. Al-Fatiha is also the litmus test for a lot of things in life, but we’re rarely conscious enough to actually acknowledge those things. People talk about the meaning of words, how they’re worth-less unless they’re acted upon. Essentially, we’re told to practice what we preach. We stand in front of our Creator and we say that we only worship Him and that it is to Him that we turn to when we are most in need of guidance and help, yet once we wipe our hands over our faces and wrap up our prayer mats, we somehow manage to forget. We forget that we’re human, and weak and prone to attachments and addictions and unhealthy obsessions. We forget that we waste time doing trivial things and neglect that which truly mat-ters, we forget that He is more worthwhile than he, she or they will ever be.

Al-Fatiha is a pledge and a plea. We affirm that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah, Master of all the realms, the Sustainer of all life and we call upon Him to grant us nearness to-wards Him and His guidance. Yet, many of us, on examining our day-to-day lives, will notice that hypocrisy is a subtle thing that we all embody to some degree. Whilst proclaiming the utmost will to only worship Allah alone, we get more and more attached to the people in our lives, to our jobs, our material goods, our health, our wealth, everything. So many of us go about our day worrying about the prospects of our careers and relationships, whether we’ll get that raise or whether he’ll text us back, we rarely ever take a step back and analyze where we stand in life.

Moderation is healthy and all things in modera-tion is how the saying goes. So it’s also true that the opposite would be that anything in excess is not healthy. Food, emotional attachments, ambi-tion, the love of something or someone, in ex-cess, can lead to one’s inevitable collapse.

When we over indulge in our desires, in our goals and in people, we forget the temporary nature of this life and the things that are more worth-while. Our utterance of “You alone we worship, You alone we ask for help” becomes redundant and rather than refining our intentions, it makes them more hazy.

All it takes is some mindfulness. If you take a step back and look at your life, and if you ask your-self the following questions, you’ll get an idea of whether or not you really mean what you say to your Creator and where you stand in terms of being true to yourself and to Him.

How to apply the philosophy

Who or what makes you most happy and why?

Who or what has the most ability to make you sad?

Who knows the most about your issues/life stressors?

Where does your mind most often go to when it wander during Salat?

What do you find yourself thinking about at night/looking forward to

during the day?

There are no right or wrong answers but when you talk about human emotions, yes, it’s natural to want to love and be cared for in return and to want to invest parts of yourself in certain things to get the results you so desire, but again, all things in moderation is key.

Remember that even though our hearts may have been reinforced on a daily basis to be somewhat unmoved when we say that line every day in our salat, it doesn’t make it any less true. Our innate tendency to ask for help when we need it means that we seek assistance when in difficulties and we build connections and develop links with people and things. However, we have to keep in mind that, “You alone we worship, You alone we ask for help”, goes far beyond the worldly mat-ters we’re so preoccupied with. When both our mouths, and our hearts utter this phrase, with the utmost certainty and Yakeen (highest form of belief in the omnipotence of Allah), then we’ll be less likely to over indulge in the material world but rather, start paving our way to the best place in the hereafter inshaAllah, God willing.

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Veiled Woman by Lita Cabellut7th century Bedouin woman, not a depiction of lady Aisha.

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MThe legacy of Lady AishaMy parents named me Aisha. For the first twenty years of my life, I couldn’t understand why they had given me such a common and boring name. I wished for something more romantic and literary. However, my feelings changed when I read about the woman who inspired my parents to give me her name.

Lady Aisha, fourth wife of the Prophet (S) was one of the most remarkable women in Islamic history. Yet, in recent years, everyone’s focus was on her age when she married the Prophet. Instead, it would be more produc-tive to understand why she was so young and how it affected the whole Muslim ummah forever. She was not only one of the first Muslim scholars but also a strong role model for women of all generations

From a young age Lady Aisha’s father Abu Bakr encouraged her to use her intellect by sending her to a special school. This ability was essential for the transmission of Islamic traditions and more specifically the hadiths. Being the wife of the Prophet, she was privy to his life from intimate de-tails to his public life. Her impressive memory was truly a gift as without it we would not know most of what we know of our beloved Prophet’s life. After his death, she was sought out for information about Prophet Muhammad’s daily life. She would answer the questions of both Muslim men and women, giving remarkable insight into the life of the man they aspired to.

Lady Aisha was childless and yet she still had a remarkable life. In that time and even long after, a woman was judged and defined by her ability to bear and raise children. Despite the scrutiny, she didn’t let this define her life and instead used the other gifts that God bestowed upon her: her sharp memory, closeness to the Prophet, and intellect. Long after her esteemed husband had left this world, she was a source of knowledge for all. And more than this, instead of becoming hard and closing her heart, she taught to the children, women and men around her until the end of her life.

Her behavior when she was falsely accused of indiscretion is also very inspiring. When all of the world, her father, and even her husband the Prophet were doubting her, she still claimed her innocence and turned to God. And of course, God cleared her name and the Prophet was apol-ogetic.

What amazes me is that she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind to the men in her life and more specifically the Prophet. At the heart of Islamic history, we have the example of a woman who didn’t let men run her life, but

instead leaned entirely on God. In the lifetime of the Prophet, she would often accompany him to the bat-tlefront. And after his departure, she even led battles herself. Indeed, she realized that one of this battles occurred because of a mistake and spent the last years of her life asking God for forgiveness. Through this we can perceive that Aisha was a woman who wasn’t afraid to act in accordance with her beliefs but also humble enough to admit her own mistakes.

Lady Aisha’s life wasn’t an easy one. She was a widow at eighteen and spent the rest of her life sharing and correcting hadiths, instigating di-alogues within the community and generally sharing her knowledge of fiqh and medicine among other disciplines. Although she must have been a beautiful lady and had the power of one of the widows of the Prophet, she was humble and fulfilled her duty to God.

In the recent years, many books about Kings and Queens and their courts have been popular with stories of jealousy and intrigues and yet when we look at the story of Lady Aisha or any other companions of the Prophet, we see women and men overcoming human frailties like envy or greed.

Let’s consider how far this example is from the common misconception about Muslim women. It’s difficult to coincide the example of lady Aisha and the much-pushed idea that Muslim women are submissive to men. In many of her biographies, we are told about an outspoken woman. As we look back at her life, we wonder why so many women give up and are afraid to ask questions, speak up or even seek for more knowledge. Lady Aisha and the other Muslim women of her time showed us how to be an active part of our society to make it better. It’s easy to point fingers for why some women are repressed in Muslim communities but what truly makes a difference is emulating the liberated women of the Prophet’s lifetime.

I have often read or heard that we should go back to the original practice of Islam where women had more rights, freedom and respect. Perhaps they are right but I’m not sure how we could do this. But instead, what we can really do as women is to imitate the example of noble women such as Lady Aisha by increasing our knowledge, intellectual abilities and speak-ing up for what is right within and outside our communities.

-----------------------------------For further reading:Women & Islam by Fatima MernissiAisha l’épouse du Prophète ou l’Islam au féminin by Asma Lamrabet

By Aisha Ali

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Masjid Politics:

The Masjid or Mosque, is the communal hub for Muslims. Ev-ery community, regardless of its size or population will have a masjid that caters to their spiritual, social and educational

needs. It’s where we would go as children on Sundays to learn more about our faith, where we flock every Friday to be part of the blessed day of Jumuah, where we stand side-by-side and offer our prayers to our Creator. The Masjid is at the core of our community and it is exactly this kind of bondage, of meeting for the sake of our Lord, which makes it such a pivotal part of our lives and such an import-ant facet of our identity as Muslims living in the west.

Although the Masjid is one of the most invaluable links we have as a community, especially whilst practicing in strange lands that are much different from our own, and although masjids offer us a spir-itual sanctity to develop healthy relationships with people for the sake of pleasing Allah, it’s interesting to see that the masjid is also home to many different types of waging politics and is festered with internal brawls and disputes. All of which, eventually start seeping through the interior of the meeting rooms and start ruining the atmosphere of the masjid and starts brewing unnecessary hostility between people.

It’s not unheard of either. We all are part of our respective commu-nities and we’ve all heard of different situations where there have been disagreements on certain topics amongst the council members. We’re all also quite familiar with how stubborn our fathers, mothers, uncles, brothers and sisters can be when it comes to dealing with issues in the masjid. Regardless of the depth and seriousness of the issue at hand, the manner in which we, as a community deal with said issue is far more important than the actual end product.

The different arguments that go on within the mosque and amongst its people say a lot more about the state of our own psyches and where we stand in terms of our faith, than it does about anything else. How many minute disputes have led to brothers not talking for weeks? How many arguments have caused sisters to become distant from one another? How many petty issues have we allowed to brew unwarranted hate and feelings of malice within our hearts for our fellow brothers and sisters? How often do we stand back and push our egos to the side and simply ‘be the bigger person’ and leave the politics in the boardroom?

The greatest example we strive to live by, is our beloved Prophet Muhammad, may Allah’s peace and mercy be upon him. We study

his life in an attempt to foster a genuine love and appreciation for him, we look up to his morals, his way of thinking. We regard his ac-tions and mannerisms to be the highest form of perfection. We claim to love him and yet when the time comes to put our love to the test, we fall short. When you love someone, or claim to love them, your admiration for them manifests into your own way of being and thinking. It seems we have yet to understand this.

Disagreements are bound to arise every now and then and although they should be avoided, sometimes they are inevitable. Hence, how we deal with them comes into play and looking at some of the neces-sary etiquettes associated with disagreements is essential also.

One thing we should try our utmost to refrain from is having negative thoughts. In Hamza Yusuf’s ‘Purification of the Heart’ he mentions

“This is very easy to have but is harmful to brotherhood and injurious to one’s own spir-itual growth. It is having a bad opinion about others, baseless assumptions and suspicion. This is allowing conjecture into one’s heart without having any facts, which is especial-ly harmful when one harbours a bad opinion about people.”

Allah even mentions in the Quran, “O you who believe, avoid sus-picion, for some suspicion is sinful” (49:12). Having bad opinions of people creates futile negative thoughts against another person. Think about how the Prophet would deal with those people that disagreed with him, the immense respect he had amidst everything that was going on around him. We need to be more conscious of the way we perceive others and try our best to not harbour hostile feelings for others in our hearts.

Anger is something that is naturally a part of the way we were created. And some forms of anger are necessary tools in life. But for the most part, we should try to guard ourselves from the other type of anger. The anger that has the ability to consume us and become the sole cause of our downfall. There are so many cases where the Prophet would advise people on the importance of protecting one-self from their own anger and the benefits of not getting angry. We

The Prophetic Resolution

should not become our anger, we shouldn’t let it overpower us to the extent that it blinds us and paralyzes our ability to make amends for the sake of keeping ties and pleasing Allah. Many people will act rashly, say something with haste and anger, and will end up dishev-elling their friendships and bonds. Anger needs to be trained and it requires conscious efforts to do so, mindfulness of the repercussions of misdirected anger should be remembered during disagreements and times of frustration.

Perhaps the most problematic of traits that we neglect to recog-nize during these times of flustered emotions, is that of our own arrogance. The Prophet said that “no one with an atom’s weight of

arrogance in his heart will enter paradise” and Allah mentions on numerous occasions throughout the Quran about how displeased He is with the one who is arrogant. What usually happens is that we assume that we know better, that we are right and we find it diffi-cult to understand how the other person could have the audacity to think otherwise. We’ve nurtured our egos and become complacent in our way of perceiving things. We’ve allowed ourselves to think too highly of ourselves. The beloved Prophet was revered by so many of his followers and companions and his high status in the eyes of Allah is known to us, yet he remained humble and sincere and never once made anyone feel subordinate to him. Reminding ourselves that we all have the same fate, that we all have our own circumstances and having a little bit of empathy, can go a long, long way.

The masjid is a symbol of brotherhood and community, of effort and of the purest struggle for the sake of Allah. It’s fundamentally one of the most important aspects of our faith and our lives, and its role in shaping our hearts and bringing us together as one ummah is un-fathomable in terms of its benefits in the community. Yet, there are plenty of issues inside this little hub of ours and although progress involves active discussions which sometimes lead to active disagree-ments, it’s of vital importance that we do not lose touch with the etiquettes and manners with which we deal with such problems.

The Prophet Muhammad (S), was most gentle with his words and most conscious of his actions and thoughts. During times of hostility and during moments when clouds of frustration seem to be linger-ing over the masjid, we must revert back to the way of our Prophet. We must guard our thoughts and our words, embodying the best of ourselves even in heated times, simply for the pleasure of our Cre-ator and for the betterment of our community.

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TURBANATION:

WinnieDétwa

We met up with Winnie Detwa at the ISNA con-vention in Washington, DC. Winnie is a prominent Egyptian-America fashion Youtuber and blogger in the Muslim world that continues to inspire people with her vintage, classic style and bubbly personal-ity. She is based in Michigan but has reached Mus-lim women all over the world. If her fashion sense doesn’t get you, her smile and persona definite-ly will. From her Modscarfie days to her re-newed self, we have watched Winnie become an imagina-tive and creative individual, continuously showing others that fashion is truly an art. She describes her world as ‘whimsical’ and allows a glimpse through her pictures, unique and evolving style, videos, and social media interactions.

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Winnie’s blog has helped Muslim and non-Mus-lim women feel comfortable with their identities. She has always been honest with her audience about problems she has faced throughout her life and openly uses her obstacles to advise and guide others. No doubt, Winnie’s style has evolved, but only for the better. Everything is bigger, brighter, classier, and printed. Her polka dots and over the top bows send a clear message; be who you want to be, do what you want to do and you will always glow. Her decision to take of her hijab was public-ly criticized, of course many people looked up to the turban-wearing bold Winnie, but hijab or no hijab, Winnie has and will always be modest. She has showed us that even those in the spotlight can struggle but it is important to get up after that hard fall. I personally enjoy Winnie’s honesty. Many peo-ple would have stopped blogging after such a bold decision but she carried on. It makes her seem a little more normal, a little less famous, a little easier to relate to.

Here’s an interview Riham Osman did to catch up with Ms.Detwa.

What inspired you to start designing?Well, I don’t exactly design. Right now I’m actually just selling vintage pieces but I would love to be a designer. I was always interested in fashion from a young age but my parents always told me that I can only pursue that as a hobby and I saw my eye for fashion to be something more than just a hobby. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I started fash-ion blogging roughly two years ago and ever since then that’s what I’ve been doing. How did you get your idea for your booth?Well my booth primarily focuses on following your dreams and if you take a look at that board, I’ve actually been taking polaroid’s of people and get-ting them to write their names and their dreams at the bottom. I feel like when I was growing up I never really had a prominent Muslim example that un-derstood the same struggles that I go through and understand that I have a different dream than just pursuing something super professional. All the peo-ple that I grew up around and all of my leaders were basically doctors, lawyers, engineers and from a young age I thought “oh this is what I’m supposed to do. I have to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer.” I was actually studying political science and I didn’t love it all and I just thought that by starting this dream project, and pushing people to pursue their dream, it would lead people to actually follow their dream.

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Ok so let me get this straight – you don’t design?I don’t have a line. I just fashion blog for right now and I advertise for a lot of companies. I’ve advertised for Abaya Addict, Inayah, Sotra Bou-tique, I’ve collaborated with K-mart recently. Their fall style add, Money can’t Buy Style is out now. Do you want to start your own line?I do, but I have to build my brand. That’s why there is Zaman and col-laborations. Did you design the turbanation T-shirts?Well actually Siraj Usmani from Re-turn of the Strangers decided on the turbanation t-shirt. He did the de-sign on the shirt. I told him I wanted a turban, polka dots, and a bow, but he drew the design out for me.What advice would you give to the young women who look up to you?

I want to encourage young women to follow their dreams- whatever they may be, and to always chase what makes them happy. There is nothing in this world that is impossible for a woman to do, and if you put your mind to it, you can be the best you can be.

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How has the spotlight affected your personal life?It hasn’t really affected my life, ex-cept for the fact that I have made SO many new friends! I was also a social butterfly, but now I get to enjoy new friendships that I have made across the world!

What exciting projects can we look forward to seeing from you?I’m working more and more on my #turbanation project, and I am releasing two new tshirt lines very soon! So, keep an eye out.

Winnie is still on the rise with her recent release of ‘Zaman’, a collec-tion of vintage clothing and jewel-ry hand-picked by the fashionista herself. She has also released her Turbanation t-shirts which are expressive of her girly style. I know there will be more from Winnie and I’m personally excited to follow her on the journey.

#tur bana tion

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The Fall Red Line represents the transition of seasons through the perfect use of a warm yet fierce color. It’s the perfect time to catch up on the new trends and do so in a bold way. Find your own style this fall

by using these trends as inspiration. Two favorites for this fall would have to be a head-turning lip color and boots. Wear a t-shirt and jeans but if you put on some lipstick and knee-high boots, it’ll be a good day. Red is the color for this season, a hint of it in your outfit is going to make you standout. Don’t be afraid to play around with patterns and other colors; red doesn’t have to be the focal color but it will up the amp. Shades of red like, burgundy, deep red, and cherry red are all go-ing to give you that self-assured, regal look.

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RED

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Printed pants & Neutrals Printed pants are always going to make a fabulous statement; printed pants with a red pattern will just be that much better. Pairing the pants with neutrals and a red lip will complete the look.

Pants | Forever 21 Lips | MAC Ruby Woo

RED

TurbanIf you can Rock a turban, you know you’re a diva. This fall look is very mod-est and comfortable. A large comfy jacket, a skirt and some combat boots will help create this look.

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Lips | MAC Ruby Woo

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“No Smoking”Scientists have yet to find anything that a leather jacket doesn’t go with. Matching a black leather jacket with a feminine skirt will help create an edgy look. Skirt | Forever 21

Jacket | Aldo

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RED

BlogCDNChristian Dior

MAC Temptalia

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“I Partied til Fajr!”

by Sana Ginawi

I had the privilege of sitting down with Imam Osama, commonly known by the young folk as Par-tytilfajr. No he is not a random in-ternet sheikh; he is someone with an extensive education in Islam, specifically the history of Sharia law and has quite the fan base. Imam Osama is now involved with Makespace, an organiza-tion based in the DC area founded on the concept of “tafasuh”, or to make space.

Here is what he had to say:

Who are you?My name is Osama and I am an Egyptian. I teach Is-lamic studies. To be hon-est, I don’t know what to call myself. My goal is to educate people on Islam and the Middle East. I want to be an intellectual that engages with Muslims be-cause Muslims no matter where they are from only speak amongst themselves. I’m just a guy who has an education and wants to teach people about it. To give myself a title or label would be self-promotion and I genuinely have no in-terest in that.

How did you get involvedwith Makespace?I went all the way to MSA West and I met a friend there named Ali who is originally from the DC area and he told me about Makespace. I went to Makespace for Suhaib Webb and met Imam Zia who asked me to give a khutbah the following Friday. I got involved with Makespace in such a nonchalant way but they are so engaging and they’re so willing to let you do what you do best.

What’s so special about MakeSpace? We have so many intellectuals in our area but they don’t engage with the Muslims they complain about. It’s the one organization saying “let’s stop this cycle, let’s bring people in.” Makespace pro-vides young Muslims a space to

be involved islamically and not in a judgmental space. What young Muslims need is a place to learn about Islam intellectually. I guess my role in Makesepace is to cre-ate an educational curriculum, I taught a class over Ramadan. I was taken a back, I thought these kids would come and casually sit there but they came prepared with notebooks they came to learn, and I saw a reading group called Readingtilfajr that had notes for the class.

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“I want to be an intellectual that engages

with Muslims be- cause Muslims

no matter where they are from only

speak amongst themselves”

Is it trendy to be a little more religious now?It’s not a matter of trendy, its required. Do you know why? You’re in fourth grade and a teacher says, “ Can you tell me a little more about Islamic just war theory, 50 words or less, GO!” Muslims in America have to know the why to everything. To a certain extent this is very draining but when you think about it, how much deeper into your faith do you get be-cause of that. The other thing is that we need to realize that there has to be an education into Islam. We

get educated on how to be Ameri-can citizens, we have civics class, we know what congress does, we watch I’m a bill on capitol hill so why is it suddenly surprising that you can need this when it comes to religion. Islam is a paradox, its elegantly simplistic but if you look a little deeper it has snow flake level complexity. The problem is just that we approach Islam with-out a foundation. You can’t go to med school without chemistry or biology.

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How do we get a foundation?People are not familiar with the Quran. Half the questions I get only need a passing familiarty with the Quran. People are not introduced to the Qu-ran in a way that is digestible. You have a problem, people read a lot about the Quran, so the atten-

tion span is there but they don’t read the actual source text. They are struggling with other

people’s interpretation. When you don’t go to the direct source, you will always

have a problem. A big hurdle is over-coming our fear of the Quran, we are

afraid to read something we don’t understand.

How has Makespace impacted you on a spiritual level?I grew up in India, in the early 90s. That’s when they were killing Muslims like no body’s business so there was a strong sense of community among the Muslims, which was nice. Here in America I never grew up around a mosque. Makespace’s im-pact on me personally is that I see what communi-ty can be in America. I never had that; I was never

a part of anything. Makespace provides a sense of community that isn’t my cousins and people who were not my cousins have become my cousins be-cause of that environment.

So if you had Makespace in your teens how would it have been different?I don’t know. A big part of my mindset was de-fined by a very aggressive and combative approach to my identity. I went to a majority white school. There is this fiction that if you are white passing then you have this free pass to lala land and joy. Sure, when I’m walking down the street I do, but the moment you’re identified that’s done. That didn’t prevent people from beating me up for my name. Muslims, especially when we are visible minorities so we think that if a racial element was removed then things would be better. That’s something that MakeSpace could’ve done for me.

How can the youth change? Youth can make a decision whether they want to take part in mosque politics or not. This is our choice. When the youth face prejudice is that your reaction is to stick with your “own” but what we don’t realize is that by doing that we turn many

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people away from Islam as a result. People have come up to me and asked if I’m allowed to be Mus-lim? We are talking about heaven or hell here. What kind of Islam are we creating when we are excluding entire groups of people from approaching Islam as a result of the way we form our identity as Muslims?

How can other communities be like Makespace?Depends on the environment. Some mosques have a youth director and some mosques don’t care about the youth at all. What the youth can do depends but what the mosque can do is realize something very quickly. You’re all going to die, there are people who are going to sit and takeover what they are doing so they need to give people the opportunity to do that work. We discount their voices, we don’t listen to them, we tokenize, and our mosques are based on themes. Are you conservative are you liberal, are you Hanafi, are you Shafi’i. And then there are ethnic divides. Albanian mosque, Syrian mosque, Egyptian mosque. How can we improve the Ummah if every mosque is divided? Our inclination to division is to create a new exclusionary space.

Another big thing is that you have to include women more. Muslim women are engaged in their Islamic organizations much younger but they are not al-lowed to take public roles. Here they are doing all this groundwork and we are not engaging our sis-ters. All our sisters who become educated in Islam become professors and none of them come back and teach young girls.

We also have to have a space that gets young Mus-lim boys involved in Islamic organizations before they go out and destroy themselves by getting drunk and high and getting a girlfriend. These boys are

damaging themselves. I cannot express to you the damage they commit until they come back to their communities as broken men. We don’t know how to deal with it. If we change the way we approach it by saying you’ll be hurting yourselves we’ll have a really different outcome. We shouldn’t allow either gender to be getting into spurious relation-ships, to be drinking, doing drugs. All these things need to be off limits.

We are destroying the foundation of our commu-nity. With women because we don’t give them a chance or space and we don’t involve them in the process, with boys, we ignore all the stuff they go through and expect them to get over it.

And it’s because we don’t understand our religion. Its like we have this amazing power tool, we don’t want to read the directions but we’re confused as to why its not working. If you don’t know the Quran it can be misused easily. We need to stop looking at Islam and our problems with Islam as being solvable through singular solutions. There are multiple facets to an issue. There is no silver bullet that will solve it all.

We must realize that any foundation of any society is ourselves.

“ We need to stop looking at Islam

and our problems with Islam as being

solvable through singular solutions. There are multiple facets to an issue.

There is no silver bullet that will

solve it all.”

30 | IDENTITY

Testing the

Waters in

Mongolia

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Getting a paid research opportunity in public health as an undergradu-ate student would be like finding the Holy Grail with your name engraved in gold. When the opportunity came

to me to work on a project investigating arsenic levels in groundwater, I jumped at the chance.

This project happened to be located in south-eastern Mongolia, in the middle of the Gobi Desert. My friends were working in Ghana, Chi-na, and Jamaica, places I knew something of and knew people from. Mongolia might as well have been the moon. No one could definitively tell me what it was like, what to pack, what to wear, what to expect. I was very much going in blind, armed with a passport, two hundred and fifty pre-prepared sample collection bottles, and a 26 year old research partner named Josephine.

We left in May, flying from Detroit to Seoul to Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia and home to over half of its three million people. We landed at night and the city looked like nonde-script darkness dotted with the floating lights of apartments. Then a Lexus dealership whizzed by us as we drove down the Bogd Khan moun-tains and I relaxed. We weren’t completely in another world.

The next morning we walked twenty minutes to the Health Sciences University of Mongo-lia (HSUM) along one of the two main roads, Peace Avenue. On the way there, a group of men approached us from behind and pulled up the back of my skirt and started laughing hyster-ically as dozens of people walked by. This was the first time someone physically harassed us: it would not be the last, particularly for Josephine, who is black.

Testing the

Waters in

Mongoliaby Christina Samurkas

A door knocker in Shaisand, Dornogovi

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We spent two weeks in Ulaan-baatar, meeting the small, but growing, public health profession-al community, getting lost repeat-edly, and preparing for our journey to the hundreds of scattered, un-marked collection sites. We needed a driver from Ulaanbaatar to the southeastern province, Dornogovi, and then to the hundreds of wells and water sources we would col-lect from. We also needed a guide, a way to store the samples at 4ºC, a comprehensive map of the area, and enough food to last five people about a month. On June 2nd, at 8 am, we said goodbye to our apart-ment and drove five hours south through pouring rain, the trunk packed with coolers, clothing, and dried food. Our last hot meal was heaping plates of tsuivan (цуиван), fried noodles with meat, onions, and salt, in a dingy restaurant in a mining town called Choyr (Чойр). It was, unquestionably, one of the best meals I have ever had.

We spent a month in the Gobi, driving through Dornogovi’s fif-teen districts (soums) and stop-ping at countless wells, houses, and meeting thousands of people who made our project a success. But being in Mongolia was about more than just measuring pH and accidental nitric acid burns: it was racing on half-wild horses across the sand, making dumplings at sunrise in Ulaanbadrah, watching boys in boots with turned up toes wrestle in the middle of a sandstorm.

We lived like nomads for that month, relying on charity and plain curiosity for accommoda-tions and information, two for-eigners in the middle of the most vacant, passed over province in the country. There were no natu-ral wonders, no huge deposits of copper or iron, no ancient his-torical carvings. There were peo-ple, poisoned water, and the sun, following us.

Dornogovi stretches north to south, from the northern tip of

Ihhet to the southernmost desert of Khatanbulag. Each soum had a personality, a distinct smell, texture, to differentiate it: Man-dah was desolate and barren with storming rains flooding into cracked earth, the sun baking over the white sutpas in southern Zu-unbayan, the shock of paved roads in Zamyn-Uud.

We had a mostly wonderful month in the Gobi, finding wells dug straight into the ground and ringed with tires, meeting hun-dreds of soldiers at outposts scat-tered along the vast Chinese-Mon-golian border, failing to impress

children with our atrocious at-tempts at Mongolian. Dornogovi was beautiful and fun, but also harsh and unforgiving: driving to-wards a well we found the body of a headless camel, an eagle eating the meat from the rotted, festering stump, a woman and her infant daughter lived in a two room shack and invited us in for tea. A preg-nant woman waved to us as she hauled water we had just tested—the pH was roughly that of vinegar, with uranium levels explosively high.

Driving back to Ulaanbaatar, see-ing rain and trees and buildings,

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there are BUILDINGS. It poured as we drove into the city, smashing into potholes and blasting pedes-trians with dirty rainwater. We planned to survey water sites in the city, starting with one of the city’s largest slums, known as the ger districts. Populated largely by herders whose animals were killed in a succession of progressively worsening winters, these ger dis-tricts are teeming with hundreds of thousands of people living in single room felt houses, most of whom burn raw coal for heat and power in Mongolia’s -40º winters. Water access is small and restrict-ed, air quality is nonexistent due

to the sulfur-packed cheap coal, sanitation is abysmal, and job prospects are next to nothing with high competition and lack of skills. The six ger districts of Ulaanbaatar are home to an estimated half of the city’s population: this is one fourth, 25%, of the entire country.

Josephine and I interviewed the sister of our colleague who lived in the Chingetei district with her husband and two sons. The bound-ary of Chingeltei was on the oppo-site side of a huge temple complex donated by a Buddhist association from India, glittering with gold and polished wood. Erkhee, the sister

of our colleague, offered us rock-like crackers and cheap Russian vodka as the temple bell clanged periodically through our conver-sation. We asked her about the ger district’s water system, the ease of getting water, how it was stored, who transported it from source to the many homes. When we had filled our book with scribbled an-swers, we tentatively asked Erkhee what she disliked about Chingeltei. It was the lid off a volcano: she disliked everything, the food, the people, the dirt, the smell.

We asked her what she did like about the ger district. Her sister

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translated our question and looked uncom-fortable. Erkhee answered flatly: “Nothing. I don’t like anything here.”

We explored the city’s medical resources and were stunned: one maternal and pediatric clinic on the west side of the capital had sev-en doctors, seven nurses, and anywhere from seventy to one hundred and fifty patients per day. After a few mornings of interview-ing harried nurses who frequently ran out of their offices to attend to patients, we would stop at the cafe set up by guitar strumming missionaries and gorge ourselves on the only French fries in the city.

After spending ten weeks in sandy, barren wastelands, and miles of cement, Josephine and I spent our last long weekend in Mongo-lia in the northwestern province of Khövsgöl, which shares a large border with southern Siberia. After a harrowing, we-don’t-need-no-safety-equipment flight on a rickety propeller plane which frequently stopped in midair, we landed in the provincial cap-ital Mörön. For a minute, I thought we had flown to a different country: the dirty grey buildings of Ulaanbaatar and unending sands of Dornogovi were replaced by mountains, trees, and a sprawling town painted in bright primary colours. After two months of not seeing trees, water, or bread, we kayaked on Lake Khövsgöl, waded through fields of edel-weiss, and ate smoked fish sandwiches.

This is Mongolia: clear lakes ringed by mountains and families of reindeer herd-ers, oceans of empty sand, crowded slums surrounding skyscrapers built with corrupt mining money. Maybe it’s the constantly touted blue sky, or the ability to eat nothing but meat and milk for months, but the peo-ple I met in Mongolia, especially Erkhee, and the isolated too-young men at military bases gave me an overwhelming feeling of hope, of an infinite, limitless future.

When Josephine and I boarded our midnight flight to Seoul, the only international flight out of the country, we waved to the face of Chinggis Khan carved into the northern mountains. He had welcomed us and now he watched us fly away into the night sky.

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Prayer wheels at the Pethub Monastery

in UlaanBataa

40 | IDENTITY

BOOSTING“BRAND HALAL”

Photo from: London 24

WHY HALAL FOOD IS TAKING CENTER STAGE

For a British-Asian like myself, until recently, eating halal meant sticking to a narrow scope. Trying to describe what ‘halal’ meant to your friends often ended in puz-zled scowls and becoming a part time vegetarian instead. Shopping halal was a monthly haul from your local halal butchers and ethnic supermarket – a world away from the High Street. School lunches were soggy tuna sandwiches, and gazing wistfully at your friends’ forbidden gelatine-laden sweeties. And eating out was restricted to a

strict ‘desi food only’ policy – or if you’re desperate, one of the many grease-laden fried chicken and kebab joints. In short, if your mum wasn’t cooking, the menu looked pretty dismal.

While our parents and grandpar-ents may once have been amply satisfied to find a butcher and a corner shop hiding the famil-iar taste of goods imported from home, a younger, affluent and culturally articulate generation is hungry to try out new experi-

IDENTITY | 41

WHY HALAL FOOD IS TAKING CENTER STAGE

Photos from: C

innamon K

itchen

ences and flavours. We no longer want the “safe” option of your local Indian restaurant or to pick away miserably at the sole vegetarian offering listed at the bottom of the menu – we want sushi and teriyaki, beef bourguignon, Sun-day roasts and Yorkshire puddings with all the trimmings – we want to dive in, like Augustus Gloop, into a menu full of tastes that have too long been forbidden. And it looks like we’ll get it.

Halal food is now predicted to be one of the biggest trends in cuisine for the com-ing years – knocking out the whole “or-ganic, grass-reared, happy chicken with a penthouse and a pool from the farm down the road” trend off the top of the list. But it’s not halal food as you know it. As gen-erations of Muslims have evolved in the West, so has the food we choose to eat.

The halal food industry has seen a boom that’s been simmering below the surface for a number of years – coming out with an explosion of variety and diversity, across tastes and cuisines. But it hasn’t come out of nowhere – halal artisans have long been waiting in the wings, refining the skills, passions and knives, to open doors to a new universe of taste.

It’s not enough anymore to find a pack of halal chicken samosas in the frozen goods aisle of your local supermar-ket – this is about discovering gourmet,

artisanal cuisine, that’s on par with any leading fine dining restaurant. A grow-ing number of restaurants across major cities in Europe, already bestowed with the glowing credentials of a Michelin star or two, now happily offer halal menus, or will incorporate halal ingredients into a standard dish, and the variety of choice makes a night out or a celebration with non-Muslim friends much more easier to navigate. No longer do you need to pick out those suspiciously chicken-y bits from your ‘vegetarian’ stew.

And it’s not just Muslims who are spur-ring on the halal food trend. For many non-Muslim foodies, halal is perceived to be better tasting (flash fried halal chops are apparently much more full of flavour) and hygienic. Halal is no longer “just” a religious distinction – instead, “Brand Halal” represents an assurance about the quality of your food that simply choosing organic and free-range cannot provide. When you can trace your meat’s origins – not only to the field, but also to the slaughterhouse, it offers a level of confidence that is invaluable. In the wake of the still-fresh horsemeat scandal that rocked European supermarkets, knowing who wields the knife is reassuring.

And for some food businesses, it’s sim-ply a case of following the money. More and more restaurant chains are adding separate halal menus, or just use only halal meat – to meet the rising demand and compete with the number of knock-off halal alternatives. With the market for halal food accounting for more than 11% of all meat sales in the UK alone - and growing, halal is set to be a far more commonplace item on the menu.

By Miriam Pa

42 | IDENTITY

Dr. Hashmiby Areeba Tariq

Q: Dr. Hashmi, first of all I know that you were a respected figure in Paki-stan, and the first time you came to Canada was just to offer a Ramadan program. However, what inspired you to move to Canada permanently?

A: I went to Canada for the first time in Summer of 2001 for a short time, then on invitation of the local community I went second time in 2004 and delivered lectures on various topics. Similarly on their invitation I went again for Ramad-han programme.

Q: Speaking from an immigrant’s point of view, did you personally find it hard to adjust to Canadian life? Do you ever find yourself wishing you were still back home?

A: I do not live in Canada, I came back in 2009 after completion of my work.

Q: How do you find the madrassa environment in Canada different from the one in Pakistan? Do you think that more women are willing to come out for dars and programs in Canada

because there are lesser opportunities here to learn about your deen? Or do you feel that the turnout is equal no matter where you are?

A: I do not know any madrassah in Can-ada. Women come to mosques for gaining knowledge. Religion is woman’s need everywhere.

Q: Masha Allah, you have a PhD in Hadith Sciences from the University of Glasgow. How was your experi-ence learning in Glasgow? I think this

was the first time you had a long stay outside of Pakistan, so how did you find the environment for yourself as a Muslimah and as a Pakistani woman?A: I was like any other student. I had freedom with full cooperation and I faced no problem.

Q: Al Huda Institute was one of the first ones Islamic institutes to use the internet and computer technology to deliver lectures and learning to the community. Do you think that ulti-mately, with the use of such technol-ogy, we can ensure that everyone has learning of the Qu’ran and its mes-sage? Or do you think such technology is limited and the best learning can only occur in person?

A: Al Huda was not the first organiza-tion but rather first women organization to use this technology.It is a big facility. Every woman is not in a position to leave her house due to children and other responsibilities. No doubt there is no alternate to in person learning.

Q: You grew up in Pakistan, but your children are growing up in Canada. Do you think that the challenges they face as children growing up in a non-Mus-lim environment are significantly dif-ferent than the challenges you faced? How do you help your children deal with these challenges, and how do you deal with the challenges you face when it comes to instilling Islamic values in your children?

A: My children grew in Pakistan. The role of mother is important in educating and training children. There is hardly any difference in challenges which muslims are facing whether in Pakistan or over-seas.

Q: You are the CEO and founder of the Al-Huda institute, which is a rath-er large organization. How have you found the time to manage both your family and professional life? Are there any particular challenges which you have had to overcome?

A: I think if you manage your time well it is possible to manage life both at home and work.

Q: You have travelled to a variety of countries to spread knowledge of the Qu’ran, has there been a particular instance which has always remained with you? Something inspiring or eye opening perhaps?

A: Every journey is unique in certain ways but in this busy life, there is hardly time to remember particular instances.

Q: In the Muslim community, it is very important to learn how to read Ara-bic because it is necessary to read the Qu’ran. However, your institute has approached the Qu’ran in a unique way because it stresses the importance of actually understanding what you are reading, and you have made the Qu’ran more accessible by conducting lectures in languages other than English and Arabic. Do you think that in general, there should be more stress placed on the understanding of the Qu’ran by distributing translations in more langues in the world?

A: I think both have their importance. Due to variation in people’s needs, aptitudes and mental levels, particular methodology can be used.

Q: What would be your advice on deal-ing with intolerance in Western soci-ety? There are a lot of sister in different parts of the world, from Switzerland to Australia, especially younger ones, who feel that they have to hide the Muslim part of their identity, or tread lightly, because they face a lot of intolerance and backlash within their communi-ties. Even you have had to deal with being accused of “breeding terrorism” by the National Public Radio (NPR), so what can one do to work against this image of Muslims as terrorists and promote more acceptance of Islam?

A: There is difference in accusation and reality. One does not care about such ac-cusations, if one’s concious is clear. Here-after is a big challenge and we should be

concerned about our own selves.

Q: On the other hand, there is also a lot of internal misogyny in the Muslim community. There are a lot of ulema who have criticized you for trying to take a feminist approach to Islam. Islam encourages women to make their own choice when it comes to things like Hijab, and it is required that a woman’s permission be sought when it comes to marriage. Do you think that the misogyny in the Muslim community is something which holds women back from truly understanding their rights within their deen, and even seeking education about their deen because of such ulemas denouncing women’s education even if it is Islam-ic?

A: Our standard is Qur’an and Sunnah. Whenever someone starts doing a work, should keep doing it if one thinks it is right. We do not give these issues any importance because these are not real issues for us.

Q: In the GTA, where there is a large Muslim community, it is not hard for a young Muslimah to seek Islamic ed-ucation. However there are countries with very small Muslim communities where Islamic education is hard to access. How do you think that other sisters with Islamic education should promote Islamic literacy within their communities?

A: They should identify the needs accord-ing to the situation and make strategies accordingly.

Q: What is your message to young girls who are living in non-Muslim coun-tries but still wish to keep the deen close to their hearts? Not just their deen, but those girls who are trying to balance two or sometimes even three different cultures within their lives?

A: They should rise above the culture. They should be what they actually are (slaves of Allah).

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Photo: Telpo on deviantart

44 | IDENTITY

Are you looking into sprucing up your living space? Maybe you’re tired of your bedroom or want to make your dorm room a little more creative? We have some great styles and ideas to inspire you! These unique styles are great ways to change up and revamp your living area for the fall.

Inspirational Décor for Your Living Space

by Samreen Anwar

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Instead of having just a single frame on your wall, try adding a variety of frames in different sizes and colors. You can include images that inspire you on a daily base. This will create a unique wall feature and will allow all the empty spaces to be filled.

Here’s a cute idea if you are looking for something creative and fun as part of your room. Try stripping an old lamp and creating a shade full of different fabrics. This is an inexpensive and fun project, that’s also great for dorms. You can dedicate a weekend afternoon to this adorable DIY project.

WALL ART

CREATIVE LAMPS

Photo by: Renee Anne (http://www.flickr.com/photos/art4friends/

Photo by: Aarean (http://colorissue.blogspot.com/2011/11/morning-with-queen-bee.html)

46 | IDENTITY

A mood board is a fabulous way to add a personal touch to your desk or work area. You can nail it to a wall and

post up pictures of your family, things that inspire you; colors that make you happy, or even some of your own art work. You can even take it in a different direction and create a vision board. A vision board can be a collage of clippings and sayings of all things that in-spire you and remind you of your big life goals. More than appropri-ate to hand up above a work area to give you that daily motivation.

Mood BoardPhoto By: Tamar Schechner (www.nestprettythings.com)

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There is no better way to brighten up your room than to toss some colorful printed pillows on your couch. Getting some floral prints or even solid colors will change up your room dramatically. You may even find some fab-ric and sew some pillow covers together which is more unique and affordable.

Pillows with Style

Photo By: Tamar Schechner (www.nestprettythings.com)

48 | IDENTITY

Painting the walls in your living space creates a warm and cozy feeling throughout the home. It also allows furniture pieces to stand out. The overall result is a mas-terpiece that you may have never seen with just a plain unpainted wall.

Paint the walls

Photo By: Renee Anne (http://www.flickr.com/photos/art4friends/)

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Open Desk SpaceHaving an open office or desk space is really import-ant because it can make your living space seem bigger and neater. Smaller desk space means more space is used up by things crowding on your desk, and there’s not enough space left for you to do your work. I suggest having a few dec-orative items on the shelves instead of on the top of the desk itself.

Photo by: Aarean (thecolorissue.blogspot.com)

DEENA MOHAMED

50 | IDENTITY

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