A lot of people say that Islam is violent, the religion of extremists and dangerous people. To back up these words, the haters point out to the worst examples of Muslims that the Ummah has to offer. Among all races, all religions and all cultures, you will find both the good and the evil. I am Muslim, but I have many friends who are Christian, Jewish and even Buddhists. I do not consider all my Jewish friends to be Zionist creeps like Israel's very own Benjamin Netanyahu, the great killer of Arabs, nor do I compare my friendly and well-meaning Christian pals to Adolf Hitler, the great killer of Jews. Why then must they compare the average Muslim to that creep, Osama Bin Laden?
I say that these sayings are false, and I would like to use my own husband's life as an example. My name is Faiza Suleiman, and I was born in the City of Thila, on the western bend of the Republic of Yemen, to a Yemeni father and Somali mother. My parents Ali and Fowziya Suleiman moved to the City of Ottawa, Ontario, in the fourth summer of my life, in 1993. We've been living here ever since. I consider myself a proud citizen of Canada and I love this country. I am loyal to it to my dying day, this I swear before Allah. I just want my fellow Canadians to stop making wrongful assumptions about my great religion.
I've always been a devout Muslim, not an easy thing to be in the secular world of Canada's Capital region. I barely remember Yemen, the land of my birth. It's been so long since I set foot there. Also, being half Somali and half Yemeni has given me a unique appreciation for race and culture, for I am the daughter of two worlds. My skin is dark bronze, my hair is long and kinky, like an African's, and my eyes are golden brown. Many don't know what to make of me. People often assumed that I was Hispanic when they met me, back when I went around sans hijab. I always told them the truth, that I have an African mother and an Arab father.
My parents often told me that their parents opposed their marriage, but they ran away to be together. Somalia is right next to Yemen, and although our peoples have historically gotten along, and share ties of blood as well as faith, Arab/African relations can be tense at times. The noble Quran itself decries racism, and proclaims that the African, the European, the Arab, the Asian and all other races are all descended from Adam and Eve, the first people created by Allah, the one true God.
In Islam, the only way one man may be considered better than another is through piety and good conduct. Any man who claims to be Muslim and believes himself superior to another based on his skin color is going against the very foundations of Islam. My parents raised me to be proud of myself, but they also instilled within me the belief that all human beings are Allah's offspring. When my family and I first arrived in Ottawa, we were in awe of the beautiful Capital and the land that welcomed us in the name of multiculturalism and tolerance. And then we learned better.
I saw a lot of racism in Ottawa, as a young woman of color I couldn't evade it. Many young white men I saw had nothing but hatred in their hearts and spewed hateful slurs about those different from themselves. I've been harassed, teased, and even assaulted. I tried to never let them get to me. I'm only five-foot-six and weigh a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet but I carried myself like a queen. You've got to remember that you're made in God's image and that you have worth when you're dealing with white racism and white privilege. You can't let the person making fun of you because of your color or culture get to you. You've got to be strong.
After high school, I attended Carleton University, where I earned a bachelor's degree in criminology. I originally wanted to study law, but Carleton doesn't have a law school and the only law school within Ottawa is at the University of Ottawa. At first I was intimidated at the prospect of attending Ottawa U since I don't speak French and they're a bilingual institution run by French Canadians. You've got to understand that historically, the French Canadian community has been quite hostile to us Muslims.
In Quebec, they're enacting laws to make life very hard for those who follow our religion. Nevertheless, I decided that I would meet this challenge head-on. I am a servant of Allah. I do not fear racists. I do not fear bigots. I do not fear sexists. I fear only Allah, the one true God, Creator of everything we see and everything we don't see. Let the French Canadians come at me if they must. Allah sometimes sends tests to His believers, and we must prove ourselves. I applied to the University of Ottawa School of Law after acing the LSAT the summer after I graduated from Carleton University, and I got accepted. Masha'Allah, it was a happy moment!
My parents took me to East Side Mario's restaurant to celebrate. I was happy, and my parents were proud of me. My little brother Hassan bought me a rose with money from his plastic piggy bank. Such a touching gesture for a lad of only eight summers! As I dined and celebrated with my family, I was aware of people staring at us. An Arab man, his Black wife, and their son and daughter, that's what the mostly white crowd patronizing the restaurant saw. We're the cultural other, because of our skin colors and our Muslim faith. I wear the hijab, but my mother does not. So what? We're just a family like any other, having a good time.
The white people in that restaurant gawked at us, but we refused to let them get to us. Each Muslim knows himself and herself to be a creation of Allah. We have a purpose. We are righteous. We're God's people. How can bigots stand against us? The Persians once believed themselves superior to Muslims, but Islam conquered them. The pre-Islamic Turks also believed themselves superior to Arabs and others, and we taught them humility after conquering them in the name of Islam. We've conquered much of supposedly invincible Europe itself, and even today, many Albanians, Kosovars, Bosnians and other white men and white women living in eastern Europe follow the path of Islam. Let these Canadian bigots smirk at us. God will grant us victory over their bigotry and racism.
