Haroon
A Day in the Life
If it's a typical work day, I get up in the morning and get ready for work. I head into work 8, 9, 10 o’clock sometimes depending on how late the previous night was in the lab. I try my best to take my lunch break during the noon prayer so I can go to the mosque, pray, and then head back and finish whatever I need to finish in the lab an experiment or a paper. Life of a graduate student. In between I may have meetings or I may have a session that I am planning for a service event. I go home, eat dinner. If time permits, I will work out for a little bit, or go for a run. Then usually in the evenings I try to reserve that time for anything community based, planning the weekly discussions for the Saturday Fajr Group or service events. For example, a few weeks ago we were doing a major service project called Restaurant Hope where we were feeding meals to the homeless community. If I have a free night, I will try to use that as self-development in terms of reading or watching a lecture. Weekends unfortunately now are taken up by a lot of work. On Saturdays, I have the Fajr program around 7:30 am and once I’m finished with that I will head to the lab and get some work done. Then, I head home to spend some time with my parents, especially my dad, because he works in Indianapolis. I try to make sure I’m home for dinnertime so we can have dinner together on the weekends. I try to make a point to go to the mosque as much as possible during the day for the prayers and I try to set my schedule accordingly based upon that. That's generally what a typical day is like, but it varies because you have meetings now and then or events going on. |
My parents are both originally from India from a region called Punjab. Both my parents are well educated; my father completed his PhD in India and my mother has her Master's degree from India in English literature. My father moved to Canada in the early eighties because he had an opportunity to do a post-doctoral training in Saskatchewan, like one of the coldest parts of Canada. My mom came with him. She gave birth to both my older sister and myself in Canada, so technically I’m Canadian by birth.
When I was a year or so old, my father got an opportunity to come to Purdue as a research scientist so we moved to Lafayette and have been here ever since. I was raised in Lafayette. I went through the Lafayette School Corporation until the third grade when my family moved to West Lafayette. My parents were hoping that my sister and I would go into the West Lafayette School Corporation because they had heard a lot about the schools. But the funny thing is they bought their house and forgot to check where the property was located. They thought it was in West Lafayette but it was actually designated as part of Tippecanoe County, so we went to Tippecanoe School Corporation instead. I went through Klondike and Harrison High School and enjoyed my experience there. It was a diverse community and looking back at it that I would have much preferred going to Klondike and Harrison because of the diversity of the student body. I graduated from Harrison High School in 2004 and decided to stay in West Lafayette for my undergraduate degree. I did a dual bachelor’s in Biological and Food Processes Engineering and Pharmaceutical Sciences and I graduated in 2008. That's when the economy went down south. I actually had a job opportunity lined up and I was told that, because of funding issues, they weren't going to hire as many people as they wanted. So that job went away. For the next two years I was applying left and right trying to find a job and working odd jobs here and there. Then, in 2011, my current PhD advisor moved to West Lafayette from Virginia Tech and was looking for students to join his lab. I joined his lab in 2011 and have been a PhD student there ever since. Hopefully I’ll be graduating in fall of 2016. My area of focus is antimicrobial drug development. I've always had a passion for medicine, but I realized that I didn't want to become a medical doctor. And if you know the Asian American community, you literally have to become a doctor. And if you're not going to be a doctor, be an engineer. I did undergraduate research for one of my professors who taught me thermodynamics. I just loved his mentorship, and how exposed me to research in a university setting. That's what triggered my interest to go into graduate school and do research, but I wanted to connect it to medicine, because I loved medicine. My current advisor had a project on antimicrobial development and I had a background in pharmaceutical sciences. He was like, “I need your background and your skills to join my lab and I’ll teach you the biology.” I’m still trying to figure out my next step. I enjoy making an impact in people's lives, which is one of the reasons why I’m involved in drug development. Millions of people are affected by bacterial infections every day around the world, some in impoverished regions that have no access to health care. So, I want to figure out a way to become part of that solution. Staying and trying to develop more cost effective drugs? Perhaps. Maybe it's being more involved in policy and trying to change policy and bring about policy that's beneficial to more people even in the United States of America. That might be one way to go about it. Or maybe it's a dream that I have to bring together free medical and social services under one umbrella, one organization, in one facility. Bringing together individuals with so many dynamic skills, bring them together to address these complex social-economic problems that affect our communities and make a multi-faith, multi-disciplinary approach to bring about a better change for our community. But then again, I could do a post-doc and become a professor. You might want to check in again in five years. |
"Why Is This Happening?”
One lesson that I've learned recently is having trust that everything happens for a reason, and ultimately, for everything that happens in life, God has a bigger plan for us. That has been very important to me. When I graduated from Purdue with my bachelor's degree, I was under the impression that because I did a degree in engineering and pharmacy from Purdue, I would be able to find a job easily and everything would be gravy. It didn't happen. I had to struggle for two years, and I just didn't understand why this was happening to me. I tried to keep a clean nose. I tried to be good to people. I don't know why this is happening to me! Two years unemployed. And imagine your family, who was like, “What are you doing? Why are you being such a lazy person? Why aren't you finding a job when everyone is finding a job?”
My mom was my biggest supporter because she understood. She lost her job herself at that time. She saw me making an effort to apply and send resumes and I was just thinking to myself, “Why is this happening?” I put so much effort into getting those degrees and I was praying and everything was going on and I just didn't understand it. I was trying to be a good person and why was this happening to me?
During that time period, looking back on it, so many good things happened. One is my bank account got really low, so I really learned how to value money and budget better and to really appreciate money and what it can do, but not be a slave to it. Also, I remember during this time period I really wanted to go to the pilgrimage, the hajj that all Muslims are required to do once in their lifetime if they have the financial and physical means to do so. Obviously, I was in no position to go financially, but it was a dream that my mom and I had. Meanwhile, my sister was also trying to get married and this was a big struggle for her - trying to find a spouse and my parents trying to get involved and so forth.
It just seemed that everything was going south, and then in this process, one of my closest friends said, “Hey, why don't we start a youth group for the youth?” We saw a lot of issues with the youth and there was not a forum for them. If I was at work, I wouldn't have had time for them. And honestly, that would have been a challenge to do because finding the time to set up an organization is really challenging. My friend was already in graduate school and I was trying to figure out my next step at that stage. So, we started a youth group and it has succeeded for six years now. I think the infrastructure is there only because the situation we had. He was in school and had access to Purdue and I was not in school, so I could invest my time in it.
My friend, he also knew I was struggling to find work so, he offered me a job. He had purchased two properties in Lafayette and wanted to renovate these two houses for rental properties. I’d never done construction in my life. I couldn't hammer a nail to save my life. But, he and his father patiently taught me and let me work there for almost two months to do a lot of the demo work and the physical labor. I used to come home dirty with soot all over my face and my mom was like, “What are you doing?” But it was good for me, because I gained an appreciation for the trades. I used to complain that electricians and plumbers just take a lot of money and don't really do anything. But I worked with individuals and gained an appreciation that every person is contributing whether I understand what they do or not. Down to the sanitation engineer picking up our trash or recycling, every person has a purpose and a role to play in society. I think those were lessons I need to learn for my personal development.
Then 2011 comes around and I get an opportunity to go to graduate school and to study with an advisor who is Muslim, so he understood me as a Muslim and my needs. It wasn't awkward to ask to leave work to go to a Friday prayer or during lunch break to go to the mosque. He knew when it was Ramadan and that I would have to adjust my schedule. It was perfect. It was literally a godsend. It was meant to happen. I got into an area that was completely different than what I did my undergrad in, but it was an area of medicine that was something I was passionate about and interested in researching. Everything just lined up. Then, two years later, in October 2013, I saved enough money and my mom, my sister and I were able to go on the pilgrimage, which is not something that I would have been able to do had I not had the salary from graduate school, living at home and saving up money. Finally, literally one year after we got back from the pilgrimage, my sister got married.
So in life now, I would say a lot of the times when I’m going through a struggle, whether I hear a racist comment or I hear someone say a negative thing about Muslims, I think, “You know what? Each of these are individual life experiences that I have to go through, that are going to sharpen you and make you into the person you are going to become. And how you deal with those situations is how you ultimately define who you are as a person.” For me, I want to be an individual who is positive and always looks for positive solutions for a problems and not just complain. Like, “You know what? I can't believe someone said this. I can't believe that Donald Trump just said ‘Islam hates America.’” Instead, I think, “How can I be more proactive and find a positive solution to this issue?” For example, this project, the photonarrative exhibit. Or, for example trying to establish the dialogue with the different churches and community organizations. Finding ways, not as a PR strategy but because it's the right thing to do, to have a conversation and address the fears and stereotypes that people have about Muslims or about me as an individual, as their neighbor, as their coworker, as their friend. I think that is very important.
I think that experience in 2008 when I wasn't able to find a job up until now is a reminder that in life, everything that happens to you, happens for a reason even if you don't understand it in the moment. Hopefully down the road, when you look back at that experience, you would think, “If I didn't have that experience I wouldn't be who I am today.” And the experiences I have had that have made me who I am now have made me be able to empathize with others.
One lesson that I've learned recently is having trust that everything happens for a reason, and ultimately, for everything that happens in life, God has a bigger plan for us. That has been very important to me. When I graduated from Purdue with my bachelor's degree, I was under the impression that because I did a degree in engineering and pharmacy from Purdue, I would be able to find a job easily and everything would be gravy. It didn't happen. I had to struggle for two years, and I just didn't understand why this was happening to me. I tried to keep a clean nose. I tried to be good to people. I don't know why this is happening to me! Two years unemployed. And imagine your family, who was like, “What are you doing? Why are you being such a lazy person? Why aren't you finding a job when everyone is finding a job?”
My mom was my biggest supporter because she understood. She lost her job herself at that time. She saw me making an effort to apply and send resumes and I was just thinking to myself, “Why is this happening?” I put so much effort into getting those degrees and I was praying and everything was going on and I just didn't understand it. I was trying to be a good person and why was this happening to me?
During that time period, looking back on it, so many good things happened. One is my bank account got really low, so I really learned how to value money and budget better and to really appreciate money and what it can do, but not be a slave to it. Also, I remember during this time period I really wanted to go to the pilgrimage, the hajj that all Muslims are required to do once in their lifetime if they have the financial and physical means to do so. Obviously, I was in no position to go financially, but it was a dream that my mom and I had. Meanwhile, my sister was also trying to get married and this was a big struggle for her - trying to find a spouse and my parents trying to get involved and so forth.
It just seemed that everything was going south, and then in this process, one of my closest friends said, “Hey, why don't we start a youth group for the youth?” We saw a lot of issues with the youth and there was not a forum for them. If I was at work, I wouldn't have had time for them. And honestly, that would have been a challenge to do because finding the time to set up an organization is really challenging. My friend was already in graduate school and I was trying to figure out my next step at that stage. So, we started a youth group and it has succeeded for six years now. I think the infrastructure is there only because the situation we had. He was in school and had access to Purdue and I was not in school, so I could invest my time in it.
My friend, he also knew I was struggling to find work so, he offered me a job. He had purchased two properties in Lafayette and wanted to renovate these two houses for rental properties. I’d never done construction in my life. I couldn't hammer a nail to save my life. But, he and his father patiently taught me and let me work there for almost two months to do a lot of the demo work and the physical labor. I used to come home dirty with soot all over my face and my mom was like, “What are you doing?” But it was good for me, because I gained an appreciation for the trades. I used to complain that electricians and plumbers just take a lot of money and don't really do anything. But I worked with individuals and gained an appreciation that every person is contributing whether I understand what they do or not. Down to the sanitation engineer picking up our trash or recycling, every person has a purpose and a role to play in society. I think those were lessons I need to learn for my personal development.
Then 2011 comes around and I get an opportunity to go to graduate school and to study with an advisor who is Muslim, so he understood me as a Muslim and my needs. It wasn't awkward to ask to leave work to go to a Friday prayer or during lunch break to go to the mosque. He knew when it was Ramadan and that I would have to adjust my schedule. It was perfect. It was literally a godsend. It was meant to happen. I got into an area that was completely different than what I did my undergrad in, but it was an area of medicine that was something I was passionate about and interested in researching. Everything just lined up. Then, two years later, in October 2013, I saved enough money and my mom, my sister and I were able to go on the pilgrimage, which is not something that I would have been able to do had I not had the salary from graduate school, living at home and saving up money. Finally, literally one year after we got back from the pilgrimage, my sister got married.
So in life now, I would say a lot of the times when I’m going through a struggle, whether I hear a racist comment or I hear someone say a negative thing about Muslims, I think, “You know what? Each of these are individual life experiences that I have to go through, that are going to sharpen you and make you into the person you are going to become. And how you deal with those situations is how you ultimately define who you are as a person.” For me, I want to be an individual who is positive and always looks for positive solutions for a problems and not just complain. Like, “You know what? I can't believe someone said this. I can't believe that Donald Trump just said ‘Islam hates America.’” Instead, I think, “How can I be more proactive and find a positive solution to this issue?” For example, this project, the photonarrative exhibit. Or, for example trying to establish the dialogue with the different churches and community organizations. Finding ways, not as a PR strategy but because it's the right thing to do, to have a conversation and address the fears and stereotypes that people have about Muslims or about me as an individual, as their neighbor, as their coworker, as their friend. I think that is very important.
I think that experience in 2008 when I wasn't able to find a job up until now is a reminder that in life, everything that happens to you, happens for a reason even if you don't understand it in the moment. Hopefully down the road, when you look back at that experience, you would think, “If I didn't have that experience I wouldn't be who I am today.” And the experiences I have had that have made me who I am now have made me be able to empathize with others.
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Growing Up in Lafayette
My parents came from a conservative culture, so that played a very big role in my upbringing. For example, since my parents were new to the United States of America they brought a lot of ideas of what America was based upon their upbringing in India. They were scared about the society. They were scared about being Muslims as well because they lived in a community that was primarily Muslim in India. So being in a society that was primarily non-Muslim, or non-Hindu even, was a challenge for them. There was a language barrier because my mom primarily speaks Urdu. Even to this day, when she talks to me, she speaks in Urdu. I learned the language but lost it when I started going to school because we speak English in school. I understand it but I couldn't really speak it. I identified more with the American society than Indian society, but I did appreciate a lot of the culture like the clothing. The clothing is amazing; it's very comfortable. I find the language beautiful and there are certain customs, like how you deal with your relatives, that I find very beautiful. But then there were aspects of it that were challenging as well, that I didn't agree with in terms of how people were seen. They have this caste system in India that, depending on what your family name is, automatically locks you in for what kind of jobs you can apply for and if you can move up in society. I liked that with the American system you can have that American dream if you work for it. Sometimes there were communication issues with my mom, and also the fact that she grew up in a different culture. She spent her entire life in India before moving to the United States, and she still has the mentality of being in India. We can communicate; she speaks in Urdu and I respond in English. She understands it but she doesn't have confidence I guess. Sometimes it creates a conflict when she expects me to do something because culturally it’s the way you do it but I would disagree with it. So for example, being a graduate student in the life sciences, you have experiments that are running all the time. Sometimes I will be out late at night or until early morning running experiments. You can't help it, so trying to have those conversations with my mom to explain to her, "Listen, I’m not going to be home until 3 AM today or 11 PM. I’m not going out to party or going crazy with friends, I’m just stuck at the lab." I’m trying to explain that I can't leave until I can leave. It's the bacteria that determine when you get to go. I remember when I was doing a summer internship on campus during undergrad and I would come home from school by 10 PM at the latest because I knew my mom would worry if I was out later, which is the rough part of living at home with your parents. If I’m not home by 9 PM, she'll get worried and call, "Where are you, what are you doing?" She's afraid that I’m doing something bad, just the concern of a mother. Trying to explain that I’m out because of work or a community service project is sometimes a challenge because she doesn't really understand and I think that’s where the communication hurts. The communication I would say tends to become an issue when you're trying to explain what you do and why. For example, my mom doesn’t always get my passion for community service and why I would sacrifice personal time or time with my family to do it. She came from a system where you get up, you get ready, you go to work, you do your work, you come home, you're with your family, you take care of family stuff, you go to sleep and then you repeat the whole cycle. It's very rigid, very systematic. For me, if I have to do a community service project, I’m going to give my whole weekend up for it because it matters to me. It's important to me. That's something that eventually over time she's come to accept, but it's been very difficult. Especially when I was in undergrad, she was like, “Just go do your studies. Don't worry about your community. Just do your studies because you'll be a bigger benefit if you have your education and you're working full time than doing all these side projects.” She's coming around because she sees how much of a passion it is for me and she now sees the benefit. She'll have a friend come up and tell her, “I saw your son at this thing and it was a really cool thing.” That will make her happy. That was definitely a challenge and part of that was a cultural clash as well as a communication barrier. One of the things that I think was challenging for my mom growing up was when I transitioned to really become a practicing Muslim. I think she was happy with that initially. But, for example, the beard. My dad does not have a beard. He grew up where in a time being clean shaven was considered being presentable whereas when you have the beard you don't look as dignified as if you don’t care about your appearance. I was trying to explain to them, “No, I do care about my appearance but I’m doing it for a particular reason.” He got over it very quickly, but my mom had a little more of a struggle with it. My mom never wanted me to have the beard. That was something that was very scary for her cause she thought I would be targeted or she was afraid that I would never get married because no one would find the beard attractive or all these sorts of crazy things. But eventually she came to accept it, like, "As long as you groom your beard, as long as you maintain it, do whatever you want I don't really care anymore." It's just things like that because of the cultural upbringing she came from and where I came from, my background, it sometimes creates a little bit of a clash. Those I would say tend to be pretty minor rather than major issues. It's difficult for people to see me as an American because of my name, how I look, because of different skin color, the fact that I’m Muslim. I’m still looked at as the other. How to break that is the challenge. I could tell you a story - once I was in a sign shop in Lafayette because we needed to make a sign an event at the Islamic center. We were doing an open house where people could come in and ask questions, so we printed signs from the facility. I called the gentleman. I made the order and asked him what time I could come in and pick up the sign. He told me, "Oh, come in around 4 or 4:30, it will be ready." I walked into the door and the guy did a double take. He asked me what my name was. I told him, "I'm Haroon. I'm the one you talked to on the phone about the sign." He was shocked, like, “Wait, you speak English.” And then he said, "You speak really good English." Without an accent is what he was basically saying. When I told him that I grew up in Lafayette, he was just shocked. Experiences like that that are kind of humorous on one end and also kind of painful on the other. The challenge is being able to come to terms with the fact that you almost always feel like you don’t quite belong and help the next generation of Muslim youth understand how to deal with that and cope with that. It does give you an appreciation for other minorities (racial minorities, ethnic minorities, and so forth) and what they go through and what they've been going through for many years in the United States. You can empathize a lot more with minorities who are going through issues and support them when they’re experiencing similar levels of discourse, or hatred, or misunderstanding. It forces you to think very critically. And it forces you to not just paint people with one brush but think about every individual as a human being and that their ideals and their values are shaped by their experiences and their cultural and religious upbringing. You have to respect that and understand that in order to really I think to create a better community. |
Muslim in America
From September 11 until now, Muslims have basically been painted at as the other. It has gone through peaks and cycles. It was really bad after September 11. It was bad during the Iraq War. And then it started to settle down because there wasn't another significant terrorist attack on American soil for a while. Then, after the Paris attacks and the San Bernardino attacks and a lot of the Republican candidates making very dangerous statements about Muslims, like when Donald Trump was asked his position on Muslims in the CNN debate and he responded, "Islam hates us, hates America." No scriptural text I’ve ever read mentioned the United States of America and that Muslims are required to hate America. I mean it's foolish because a lot of us call America home. We identify as Americans, and we're Muslim. It's almost as if you're being asked to choose between being Muslim and being American and I don't think that's a fair question to ask somebody because both form our identity. In college, that's where I really started making an effort to learn about my faith. I think I was 17 or 18 and I really didn't want to be a silent practicer. I couldn't follow something I didn't know. In 2004, I began studying with AlMaghrib Institute. One of my friends and I went to Chicago and Houston, Texas to attend seminars on the fundamentals of Islam and learn from the Muslim scholars. A lot of these scholars grew up or had spent a significant time in the United States and also studied classically with Islamic scholars, so they were able to help us deal with the issues we were dealing with and also teach us the fundamentals of our faith. That's what made me connect as a practicing Muslim at that time. No longer was I praying because my parents taught me to pray, but I was praying because I want to pray and because it helps me establish a strong relationship with my creator, with God. That's really spurred my personal development as a Muslim. The more I learned, the thirstier I was to learn more. So it sparked a powerful transition in my life from being someone who was practicing their faith because their parents told them to practice it to practicing it because I made a conscious decision that I wanted to be a practicing Muslim. To this day, I value those friendships that triggered that development. There are definitely challenges in being a religious minority, compared to if you grew up in an environment where you're the majority. So, in India, they make the call to prayer on the loudspeakers. It's a normal thing. Business shuts down, everyone goes the mosque to pray, and then business resumes. You know when there are religious holidays; everything shuts down and there's a big celebration. You miss those. In the United States, when we have our religious holidays, it's oftentimes during a work day or a school day. You can take the day off, but you feel guilty because you might miss something important. Or, even if you have this school day off, the teachers are still giving you homework to finish, so it doesn't really feel like a holiday. My parents didn't really like us to take the day off. They'd take us to the morning prayer and after that, drop us off at school just like a normal day. That's something, for the kids growing up now, we're trying to change. It's your special holiday; you should be allowed to get something special, something different. Otherwise, I think that tends to erode your identity as a Muslim. It's the same thing with prayer. We talked to the principals to create a space where anybody - Christian, Muslim, Jew, whoever who would like a meditation - could go to pray so they don't feel like they're disconnected because those things are foundational in your development as a religious individual. I do think, as a religious minority, it does make it difficult. But, at the same time, I’ve noticed for me personally, being a minority has forced me to have to learn my religion. In a lot of Muslim majority countries, Islam is more of a culture than a religious practice. You have people who go to the mosque because that’s where all your friends are going. It's an accepted custom. You're not necessarily going because it's a place to worship or because its where you feel closest to God. In the United States, because of the fact that the mosques are kind of spread out, if you go, you're making a serious effort. You're taking time out of your schedule. You have to go from work or take time off during your lunch break, drive 10, 15, 20 minutes to get the mosque, you pray, and then you go home. You're making an honest effort. You feel like you can connect with a group of individuals who identify with you as Muslims. You can either say, “It really stinks to be a minority, all these people are saying things about me or have these conceptions.” Or you can say, “You know what? This is an opportunity for me to learn more about my religion and to become strong.” That was the route I took when I was 17 or 18. I didn't want to be a victim any more. I didn’t want to be an individual who basically went with the flow. I wanted to know what I believe in and what Islam actually does say. If people had a question, I wanted to be able to answer it. It helped me know how I should interact with my neighbors, be more friendly, be more outgoing, have concern for them. It taught me how to interact with parents better, how to interact with my sister better. How to interact with my friends in a better way. How to interact with people who disagree. All these lessons came out from me studying my religion, especially character and lessons from the Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, the messengers who came before him and how they dealt with those in their community, especially those who disagreed with them. That was the biggest development for me - how to interact with people. |
Super Saturday Fajr Program
Initially, when we started the Super Saturday Fajr Program, our goal was to meet right after the morning prayer, which happens before sunrise by about an hour. For the first semester, we met right after prayer at the mosque. We'd pray as a group, and then we'd go in the multipurpose room and we'd have discussion and a breakfast. We moved it to the graduate student center last fall because we thought it would be a more comfortable space and we could watch videos more easily. It’s also more comfortable in terms of the space because our members are at different levels in their faith. Some members might not be as comfortable in the mosque.
The whole goal is to meet the social, spiritual and education needs of the group. So the spiritual part of it was come and pray as a group the morning prayer at the mosque. The education component is that we always have a discussion or watch a video followed by dialogue about what we saw. We have a discussion topic and then open discussion. Quite a bit of the presentation comes from scriptural texts - the Quran, the teachings of Mohammad, peace be upon him – and also from Muslim scholars, usually American scholars. And then socially, Fajr Club provides a chance for the Muslim graduate and professional students to get together because we don't have an organization on campus. So we prepare breakfast, eat, and catch up on what happened that week, anything that we'd read in the news that was interesting, or just have a general social gathering. And then we also like to do a lot of community service. Many of our topics center around service initiatives in our community like homelessness, hunger, children needing mentorship and so forth because we want to be productive members of our community. So knowing what the issues are and playing a role in addressing them is very important to us as well.
We like to cover topics that are current or relevant to our particular group. So, for example, we talked about racism when it came up in the news with the whole Black Lives Matter movement. We've talked about Islamophobia and how it is impacting us on a personal level and on a community level. We talked about what can we do to be proactive about handling issues if they happen to us and how we can be positive members of our communities so if our non-Muslim neighbors have questions, concerns, or fears, we know how to go about addressing them. A lot of us, based upon our professions, interact with a lot of individuals who are not Muslim, and as we get to know our colleagues, they approach us with questions like, "I saw ISIS, and I saw this in the news that Muslims are angry towards us or they hate us. Should we be scared or worried? Is this a religious thing from the faith? Is it individuals who are Muslim who are acting out irrationally?" So, by having a chance to come together as a group of Muslims and sharing those experiences and having a dialogue, we come with ways to deal with those questions when they're brought to us.
Initially, when we started the Super Saturday Fajr Program, our goal was to meet right after the morning prayer, which happens before sunrise by about an hour. For the first semester, we met right after prayer at the mosque. We'd pray as a group, and then we'd go in the multipurpose room and we'd have discussion and a breakfast. We moved it to the graduate student center last fall because we thought it would be a more comfortable space and we could watch videos more easily. It’s also more comfortable in terms of the space because our members are at different levels in their faith. Some members might not be as comfortable in the mosque.
The whole goal is to meet the social, spiritual and education needs of the group. So the spiritual part of it was come and pray as a group the morning prayer at the mosque. The education component is that we always have a discussion or watch a video followed by dialogue about what we saw. We have a discussion topic and then open discussion. Quite a bit of the presentation comes from scriptural texts - the Quran, the teachings of Mohammad, peace be upon him – and also from Muslim scholars, usually American scholars. And then socially, Fajr Club provides a chance for the Muslim graduate and professional students to get together because we don't have an organization on campus. So we prepare breakfast, eat, and catch up on what happened that week, anything that we'd read in the news that was interesting, or just have a general social gathering. And then we also like to do a lot of community service. Many of our topics center around service initiatives in our community like homelessness, hunger, children needing mentorship and so forth because we want to be productive members of our community. So knowing what the issues are and playing a role in addressing them is very important to us as well.
We like to cover topics that are current or relevant to our particular group. So, for example, we talked about racism when it came up in the news with the whole Black Lives Matter movement. We've talked about Islamophobia and how it is impacting us on a personal level and on a community level. We talked about what can we do to be proactive about handling issues if they happen to us and how we can be positive members of our communities so if our non-Muslim neighbors have questions, concerns, or fears, we know how to go about addressing them. A lot of us, based upon our professions, interact with a lot of individuals who are not Muslim, and as we get to know our colleagues, they approach us with questions like, "I saw ISIS, and I saw this in the news that Muslims are angry towards us or they hate us. Should we be scared or worried? Is this a religious thing from the faith? Is it individuals who are Muslim who are acting out irrationally?" So, by having a chance to come together as a group of Muslims and sharing those experiences and having a dialogue, we come with ways to deal with those questions when they're brought to us.
