Lynne
My name is Lynne and I work in the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships here at Purdue. I also teach classes in Arabic culture and literature in the School of Languages and Cultures. I am a 47 year old mother of two and I’m married. My husband is Moroccan and Muslim, and my family and I practice the Islamic faith . I did not grow up as a Muslim American at all. I grew up on the East Coast and I was raised Roman Catholic.
A Day in the Life
Not eating pork is a challenge. It sounds silly, but in America, you have to consciously make a decision. In other parts of the country where there’s a larger Jewish population, people get it. The default mode for feeding people in Indiana seems to be feeding them pork products. At the salad bar, they put bacon all over the salads. “Oh, well, you can have some salad.” Really? There are other things to eat besides salad.
I was principal of the Sunday school for several years and I’m still on the board of education for the weekend school. I think my contribution to the community in West Lafayette is that I cross a lot of different populations. I am faculty. I am administration. I have kids in the community.
In some families, there’s a lot of pressure to behave a certain way. In our family, my daughter will always want to wear shorts to school, and I’m like, “In the summertime, it’s ok.” I emphasize that they know enough. It’s would be an embarrassment if they didn’t know how to pray or that they didn’t know the Pillars. They know why we fast and how we fast, and when they’re older, they’ll have the choice to pursue it or not. If you remember, when you were twelve and thirteen, you’re not necessarily interested in what your parents passed on. Model for your kids what you think is good behavior and teach them being kind to others and, one of the most important aspects of Islam to me, be investing in working for social justice.
I have two kids. I got married. I live in a suburban house. We both have jobs, you know what I mean? I have four brothers and sisters. Out of all of them, my life with my husband is the most American traditional of any of us.
Converting To Islam
My family wasn't particularly religious, and on the East Coast, there’s a lot of variets. There's some identity politics about what religion you are to a degree because you go to Sunday school just like you do here in the Muslim community. Where I grew up there were lots of Catholics and Protestants, and unlike here, a large Jewish population too, so we saw a lot of different practives. I went overseas to Morocco in the Peace Corops, and eventually I married my husband, a Moroccan man who practiced the Islamic faith, and we started our family.
In Islam, according to the rules, if a non-Muslim woman marries a Muslim man, she does not have to convert. As long as you were Jewish or Christian or Muslim as a woman, you were fine to marry a Muslim man. So there was no pressure on me to decide one day “I’m going to have to convert.” It was more of a gradual conversation, like “What do we want for our kids? What kind of unified household do we want?” If I wasn’t married to my husband, would I have converted? Maybe, maybe not.
Luckily, my parents were really open-minded. When I lived in Morocco, they met my future husband, and they were fine with it. They knew my husband as a person more than as a Muslim.
Since I wasn’t raised Muslim, one thing that I think is important to think about is how even with Muslim Neighbors, there tends to be a focus on people who fit the part or who “look Muslim” or who fit that kind of stereotype, particularly for women because you don’t know they’re a Muslim unless they wear a hijab, right?
The Muslim Community at Purdue
I think in general, the Muslim community here at Purdue and in West Lafayette is relatively privileged, generally educated. A lot of the foreign students here are here for graduate school, which means they’re highly educated. They have enough financial means to be here, so it’s easy to fall into this idea that everyone’s nice to each other. There’s not a lot of vandalism. There’s not a lot to oppress.
There might be microagressions, but I think it does raise consciousness, particularly among my white liberal friends. Like, “Wow, this diversity is at risk in a very real way.” Then my non-Muslim friends being more interested in getting involved serves that larger purpose of making the community stronger and more tolerant.
Obviously, some women in the Muslim community were very suspicious of who I was. “Who’s this white girl who speaks Arabic and she doesn’t wear a hijab when she’s not in the mosque?” Ironically, because I don’t wear the hijab, most people have no idea of my faith or politics. I don’t think my relationship to my faith is particularly a public discussion point. That’s one of the reasons I don’t cover. I don’t think it’s necessary, probably because I’m an American. I’m used to a more secular culture. Even women who veil or who are Muslim have preconceptions about other women about how they dress. It’s not just Muslim versus not Muslim, but even within the community, there’s all sorts of politicking that goes on or what people think of each other.
I think one thing that I see in the community is that often, you only see the very religious individuals who are very visually active and demonstrate their religiosity, wear it on their sleeves. I think it’s important just to have a different understanding that it’s much broader than that. Even if you’re not dealing with someone that you know or you think of in a certain way to be open-minded and ask questions.
In many communities, you just have to show what you can do and how you’re willing to serve. I’m often tapped to speak and I choose to tap myself because I feel very strongly that people should understand that there’s a huge diversity. One person who converts and wears the hijab does not a Muslim American make, so having those different voices out there is important. Likewise, there can be a type of ‘monovision’ about types of Muslims as I think most of the Muslim women you talk to are Sunni, and many don’t even want to talk about Shi’a Islam; they’re a very small minority. It’s harder to find them on campus and sometimes, they’ll choose to pass as Sunni because they don’t want to be identified and called out as being Shia. There’s not a formal place for Shi’a to worship.
One thing that you see at Purdue is a lot is Muslim women who aren’t American, obviously Muslims coming to the United States are from all over and their world views of being Muslim can reflect a specific worldview ranging from Malaysia to Saudi Arabia. For example, I led a book club for Muslim women, which was fantastic, and we would talk about life in America and life elsewhere in the Islamic world through the books. What was often interesting was that we had different ideas about what we read about, and we talked through many cultural differences, some of which overlapped with ideas about religion. Often, different people in the conversation were like “Oh, that would never happen where I live,” or “Oh, that would definitely happen where I came from.” So understanding for all of us that it’s actually a multiplicity of visions was always interesting.
The Global Muslim Community
It’s often a question of continuing to talk and understand. For example, one of my friends grew up in the Guld, so she wears an abaya. All black and her face covered, which is not required in Islam but very related to cultural norms where she grew up, and can also be read elsewhere as being a political act, indicating a religious point of view? Once we discussed how people viewed women wearing niqab. While she argued that Muslims would understand that she’s not religiously “extreme,” I argued that it is not that simple. I gave her this example: In Morocco, they’ve recently outlawed the sale of abayas and niqab. You can’t buy them because the king believes it is a disruption to Morocco’s version of Islam. They gave all the marketplaces and merchants two weeks to get rid of their stock and now they can no longer sell it anywhere in the country. That’s an example of suspicion in a Muslim country of other Muslims. If you walk around Morocco dressed in this way, the way my friend was dressed, you might get harassed and potentially arrested. So, it’s complicated, and not just in America.
But on the American side, I think it’s just asking questions. For example, even this guy who attacked Westminster yesterday, he’s had a criminal record for over 25 years. It’s just so easy to say he was radicalized by Islam. For these situations you’re always looking for what their faith is and if they’re radicalized. You look for a scapegoat without understanding even the most basic concepts about the faith, so I think asking questions and learning a little bit can go a long way.
A Day in the Life
Not eating pork is a challenge. It sounds silly, but in America, you have to consciously make a decision. In other parts of the country where there’s a larger Jewish population, people get it. The default mode for feeding people in Indiana seems to be feeding them pork products. At the salad bar, they put bacon all over the salads. “Oh, well, you can have some salad.” Really? There are other things to eat besides salad.
I was principal of the Sunday school for several years and I’m still on the board of education for the weekend school. I think my contribution to the community in West Lafayette is that I cross a lot of different populations. I am faculty. I am administration. I have kids in the community.
In some families, there’s a lot of pressure to behave a certain way. In our family, my daughter will always want to wear shorts to school, and I’m like, “In the summertime, it’s ok.” I emphasize that they know enough. It’s would be an embarrassment if they didn’t know how to pray or that they didn’t know the Pillars. They know why we fast and how we fast, and when they’re older, they’ll have the choice to pursue it or not. If you remember, when you were twelve and thirteen, you’re not necessarily interested in what your parents passed on. Model for your kids what you think is good behavior and teach them being kind to others and, one of the most important aspects of Islam to me, be investing in working for social justice.
I have two kids. I got married. I live in a suburban house. We both have jobs, you know what I mean? I have four brothers and sisters. Out of all of them, my life with my husband is the most American traditional of any of us.
Converting To Islam
My family wasn't particularly religious, and on the East Coast, there’s a lot of variets. There's some identity politics about what religion you are to a degree because you go to Sunday school just like you do here in the Muslim community. Where I grew up there were lots of Catholics and Protestants, and unlike here, a large Jewish population too, so we saw a lot of different practives. I went overseas to Morocco in the Peace Corops, and eventually I married my husband, a Moroccan man who practiced the Islamic faith, and we started our family.
In Islam, according to the rules, if a non-Muslim woman marries a Muslim man, she does not have to convert. As long as you were Jewish or Christian or Muslim as a woman, you were fine to marry a Muslim man. So there was no pressure on me to decide one day “I’m going to have to convert.” It was more of a gradual conversation, like “What do we want for our kids? What kind of unified household do we want?” If I wasn’t married to my husband, would I have converted? Maybe, maybe not.
Luckily, my parents were really open-minded. When I lived in Morocco, they met my future husband, and they were fine with it. They knew my husband as a person more than as a Muslim.
Since I wasn’t raised Muslim, one thing that I think is important to think about is how even with Muslim Neighbors, there tends to be a focus on people who fit the part or who “look Muslim” or who fit that kind of stereotype, particularly for women because you don’t know they’re a Muslim unless they wear a hijab, right?
The Muslim Community at Purdue
I think in general, the Muslim community here at Purdue and in West Lafayette is relatively privileged, generally educated. A lot of the foreign students here are here for graduate school, which means they’re highly educated. They have enough financial means to be here, so it’s easy to fall into this idea that everyone’s nice to each other. There’s not a lot of vandalism. There’s not a lot to oppress.
There might be microagressions, but I think it does raise consciousness, particularly among my white liberal friends. Like, “Wow, this diversity is at risk in a very real way.” Then my non-Muslim friends being more interested in getting involved serves that larger purpose of making the community stronger and more tolerant.
Obviously, some women in the Muslim community were very suspicious of who I was. “Who’s this white girl who speaks Arabic and she doesn’t wear a hijab when she’s not in the mosque?” Ironically, because I don’t wear the hijab, most people have no idea of my faith or politics. I don’t think my relationship to my faith is particularly a public discussion point. That’s one of the reasons I don’t cover. I don’t think it’s necessary, probably because I’m an American. I’m used to a more secular culture. Even women who veil or who are Muslim have preconceptions about other women about how they dress. It’s not just Muslim versus not Muslim, but even within the community, there’s all sorts of politicking that goes on or what people think of each other.
I think one thing that I see in the community is that often, you only see the very religious individuals who are very visually active and demonstrate their religiosity, wear it on their sleeves. I think it’s important just to have a different understanding that it’s much broader than that. Even if you’re not dealing with someone that you know or you think of in a certain way to be open-minded and ask questions.
In many communities, you just have to show what you can do and how you’re willing to serve. I’m often tapped to speak and I choose to tap myself because I feel very strongly that people should understand that there’s a huge diversity. One person who converts and wears the hijab does not a Muslim American make, so having those different voices out there is important. Likewise, there can be a type of ‘monovision’ about types of Muslims as I think most of the Muslim women you talk to are Sunni, and many don’t even want to talk about Shi’a Islam; they’re a very small minority. It’s harder to find them on campus and sometimes, they’ll choose to pass as Sunni because they don’t want to be identified and called out as being Shia. There’s not a formal place for Shi’a to worship.
One thing that you see at Purdue is a lot is Muslim women who aren’t American, obviously Muslims coming to the United States are from all over and their world views of being Muslim can reflect a specific worldview ranging from Malaysia to Saudi Arabia. For example, I led a book club for Muslim women, which was fantastic, and we would talk about life in America and life elsewhere in the Islamic world through the books. What was often interesting was that we had different ideas about what we read about, and we talked through many cultural differences, some of which overlapped with ideas about religion. Often, different people in the conversation were like “Oh, that would never happen where I live,” or “Oh, that would definitely happen where I came from.” So understanding for all of us that it’s actually a multiplicity of visions was always interesting.
The Global Muslim Community
It’s often a question of continuing to talk and understand. For example, one of my friends grew up in the Guld, so she wears an abaya. All black and her face covered, which is not required in Islam but very related to cultural norms where she grew up, and can also be read elsewhere as being a political act, indicating a religious point of view? Once we discussed how people viewed women wearing niqab. While she argued that Muslims would understand that she’s not religiously “extreme,” I argued that it is not that simple. I gave her this example: In Morocco, they’ve recently outlawed the sale of abayas and niqab. You can’t buy them because the king believes it is a disruption to Morocco’s version of Islam. They gave all the marketplaces and merchants two weeks to get rid of their stock and now they can no longer sell it anywhere in the country. That’s an example of suspicion in a Muslim country of other Muslims. If you walk around Morocco dressed in this way, the way my friend was dressed, you might get harassed and potentially arrested. So, it’s complicated, and not just in America.
But on the American side, I think it’s just asking questions. For example, even this guy who attacked Westminster yesterday, he’s had a criminal record for over 25 years. It’s just so easy to say he was radicalized by Islam. For these situations you’re always looking for what their faith is and if they’re radicalized. You look for a scapegoat without understanding even the most basic concepts about the faith, so I think asking questions and learning a little bit can go a long way.
