Being Muslim in the Americas
Aga Khan podcast digs for oft-missed nuance.
The Aga Khan Museum, North America’s only museum dedicated to the arts and contributions of Muslim cultures, has just launched a podcast titled “This Being Human” — and it is terrific, full of insightful interviews with interesting guests, most of whom happen to be Muslim.
As podcast host Abdul-Rehman Malik explains it, “Muslim stories are human stories and that’s the way we should seek to present them, without taking away any of their Muslimness.”
“This Being Human” is named after “The Guest House,” by famous mystic poet Rumi, which is an unofficial anthem for mindfulness. The poem encourages people to view the joys and sorrows of life as a fundamental part of the human experience. It gives us a clue as to how Malik, an expat Torontonian who is also an award-winning writer and filmmaker, approaches each episode, which runs between 20 and 40 minutes.
The diversity of the Muslim community and of the range of human experience is approached by focusing on extraordinary individuals and their unique experiences, which in turn are informed by their culture and identity. Recent interviewees include New York Times contributing op-ed writer Wajahat Ali and documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, for example.
“There are an incredible variety of people who are Muslim and who are shaped by their connection to their spiritual traditions. And there are those who might not call themselves Muslim but who have emerged from Muslim cultures and civilizations. We need to expand the envelope of ‘Muslim-ness,’ to expand our imaginations of what Muslim means,” Malik explains during our interview from his home in New Haven, Conn.
It also serves as a response to negative Muslim stereotypes that are so prevalent in mainstream media.
“An intention and aspiration of this podcast is to contribute and expand what Muslim is, to find the ways Muslim cultures and civilizations have nourished and continue to nourish people. I think one of the failures of the imagination, when it comes to Islam and Muslims, is to see us as something ossified and fixed, when in fact we are alive, changing, organic and struggling,” he said.
Malik shared an amusing story that exemplified this idea. “Now ‘halal’ is a thing (in New York City) … Wajahat Ali told me a story about how at one point, he was with a friend, they were working on something and they went out for lunch. He asked his friend, ‘What do you want to get?’ His (non-Muslim) friend said, ‘I’ll get a halal and a beer.’ And I laughed because that becomes such a ubiquitous part of the landscape.”
Malik further explained that he sees Muslim cultures as an “integrated system of organisms” that do not always agree. “There’s elements of that ecosystem that don’t get along; they sit at opposite ends from each other. There’s some that sit at the margins and some sit closer to the centre, but each one is alive in its own ways. That is what it means to be human, but we do that in a unique way, just as other identities and communities and experiences do.”
While podcasts have become an increasingly popular vehicle used by individuals and organizations to entertain and educate listeners, “This Being Human,” which consists of 26 episodes and airs bi-weekly, hopes to provide nuance often lacking from overly simplified depictions of the Muslim experience.
“We hope that this podcast will have broad appeal. We have a number of guests who are not Muslim … I also hope that people who love the idea of exploring new cultures, who have experienced the Aga Khan Museum, who are looking for a great interview, will tune in.”
Our interview ends with a meditation on legacy — an issue that the Muslim community in Canada and abroad have long grappled with, along with the rest of the world.
“Our Muslim culture on these colonized lands goes back to when people were brought here in chains. Islam has been in the soil of this place for 400 or 500 years. That legacy, which is largely a Black legacy … is connected to Africa, which we as the children of immigrants must continue to remind ourselves of. We are standing on the shoulders of millions of people whose lives were stolen from them and who were resilient. We are Muslim today in this land because of their resilience.
“This is the real story of Islam in the Americas. We can’t forget that.”
“This Being Human” is available to stream free on the Aga Khan Museum’s website, www.agakhanmuseum.org, or via your favourite podcaster. Each episode is produced by Toronto’s Antica Productions.