Ammar Alshukry – Ridealong – How to Be Unawkwardly Muslim with Belal Khan

			Do you want to start this off? Recording? Yes, we are recording live or not live, but on the go. So
we're on the way to Corpus Christi, Texas for a helping hand event. And it's it gets it gets pretty
redneck out here, I wouldn't call them pretty rednecks.
		

			Like there was a guy with a pickup truck. And it was just like four dogs on the pickup truck. And he
parked it into a gas station. And the dogs
		

			like they couldn't they look like they could just jump off and run up on you at any second. There
was nothing to stop them. But anyway, I was just telling, beloved that I you know, I was
		

			I was on a flight a
		

			couple of weeks back, actually, it was on the way to mist. And
		

			a lady was sitting next to me. She was an older lady, but she you know, she was very friendly. This
is from Texas, southern hospitality type thing.
		

			And she was asking me like, What do you do and
		

			where are you going? And so in those moments, like I had, like a split second hesitation, like do
you?
		

			Do you tell her?
		

			We got to retake it. Why? Because you're not responding at all. Like it's Oh, I'm making it a
conversation, or you're listening to me like a lecture.
		

			We're gonna keep this rolling. Oh, man. No, but I mean, here's the thing. I mean, my typical
response is that we have to restart the whole thing. Why we're doing it. Let's keep it wrong. Oh, do
it this hour. Don't get me wrong. Just trust me on this. Trust me. We started here, just all
listening. Like listen mode. Alright, so anyway,
		

			you know, my, my response would be typically, and maybe this is just, I don't know if it's my own
insecurity or just out of habit. But so Aman was going to the mist tournament to do some performance
and stuff, which is
		

			Muslim interscholastic tournament. So when the lady asked him where you go, and now if I were asked
that question, I'd be like, I'm just going to a high school interscholastic tournament. Yeah, like
that's the thing that you're, you know, you kind of think about, it's like, do I mentioned the fact
that it's Muslim? Or do I just kind of leave that alone? What about her own judgment or what have
you? And so right away? Like I had that thought, and then I said to her, like, I'm going to a Muslim
interscholastic tournaments. You have your fulfill? Yeah. Well, I guess you can't really get away
from that. No, because you don't know. Like, sometimes people don't even connect that when I told
		

			her that. And I told her, she was like, what do you do? And you know, again, some people they give
very vague responses, right? It's like, oh, I'm
		

			an artist. Oh, um, you know, I'm a marketing person. Oh, I'm a this some of that. You know, they
just play it all. I'm a professor. What?
		

			No, but whatever. I just whatever. I told her. She was like,
		

			she didn't bat an eye. Like, she's an older lady. She didn't bat an eye. She's just like, that's
incredible. That's amazing. I in fact, just came back from Iran. She was his geography teacher.
Turns out she's a retired geography teacher. She's like, I just came back from Iran. And did you say
what she was doing? She was doing some sort of tour like she, she's conducting or taking notes. She
was doing some sort of tour. She was, I guess, learning about Iranian culture. She loves going and
traveling all over the world and miserable. She's like one of those people who's very passionate
about geography. Okay. And so it was she was like, it was hot. And I'm over there. And it was wild.
		

			I was like, Yeah, believe it.
		

			Or whatever. When I was, when I was younger. I visited India one time. Yeah, one of my uncle's was
asking me, Hey, do you guys celebrate Muharram in America? And I'm like, celebrating the huddle.
		

			What does that mean?
		

			Like we fasted Ramadan.
		

			We mix it up the month is like, no, no, you know, the swords and stuff.
		

			But they didn't know what they're doing will know. Yeah, you have actual, actual present day. So all
of that nobody did. Does she describe what that was?
		

			But she was she was more asking me about me. And so you know, she was like, you know, you're from
Sudan. That's great. I'd love to be able to, you know, when she was started giving me all of these
different connections, these different professors that she wanted me to meet and all that. And so I
was just thinking to myself, you know, subhanAllah there's so many people. You know, they say that
the majority of Americans say that they've never met a Muslim. Right. But how many people may have
met a Muslim and they just didn't know. And so the question then becomes, you know, is it
appropriate that we, you know, we kind of play that or that we out or shut that down or shy away, or
		

			we, you know, we hide it.
		

			And even better than that is, you know, do we have the right to do that.
		

			I guess the other question also comes into play. I think sometimes we're taken to the further
extreme. Where, I mean, it's like you showcase
		

			You're a Muslim this everywhere. Well, I see we have on both sides expect, right? You have people
who like showcase their Muslim on the on one extreme, where they'll always be walking like the white
though and Kofi and like, like the kind of like, awkwardly or not awkwardly, but
		

			annoyingly Yeah. And then you have the other extreme where it's like, they don't want to, like I
don't know these guys.
		

			No, I hear you. I remember I had one time a very beloved
		

			very passionate high school kid wanted to wear soap to a public school. And he wanted to like you
know, make it a big deal and go to his like, you know, principle and assert that this is his right
and religious freedom and I want to wear a tube and all that. So I was I remember telling him like,
Listen, man, it it's not an obligation on YouTube. So you don't have to like push those types of
boundaries and imagine unless you're a straight up FOB. Even just straight up off. It's not it's not
fun upon you to wear it, though. So don't. So don't you have to pick your battles. Because imagine
if the the high school had pushed back and said, Okay, you know what, we're banning all religious
		

			clothing.
		

			Or we're just not allowing to keep it unified so that we don't get a headache, we're gonna ban all
religious clothing. So now, because of your, you know, impressing upon them that you need to wear.
So, you know, you've then blocked your sisters from wearing hijab.
		

			So it's, it's definitely something that people you know, it's an it's an art, it's something that's,
		

			you know, you kind of have to gauge you have to measure. Here's another thing. As young
professionals, I think one of the bigger challenges for them
		

			is I think they're more shy
		

			to showcase their Muslim identity. Like in the corporate worker, yeah, the corporate worker, I
think, because here's the thing, there's two scenarios
		

			where this stuff is going to always come about, right. So scenario number one, is for those people
who actually make it out to drama.
		

			And make it clear that no me doesn't matter if there's a meeting or whatever. They're gonna go for
Friday prayer services. Yeah. And the other scenario is Ramadan.
		

			You know, like, where people are not fasting? Because I mean, here's the here's the reality some
people might be drinking or whatever but
		

			and they might have been enjoying the happy hour stuff.
		

			Happy Hour culture, yeah, the whole Happy Hour culture. But if but most Muslims
		

			if they I at least internally identify with the whole idea that you know, they are Muslim, and
they're gonna adhere to at least the five pillars as best as possible. In terms of what they deem to
be their best effort. They will at least go for Gemma. Yeah, they will fasten and I thought, What
are your thoughts? Have you ever been in a situation where you felt like you had to hold back on
your own?
		

			Outward Muslim this