First Contact MUNIRAH MACLEAN
From The Muslimah Who Fell to Earth. Published by Mawenzi House in 2016. Munirah Maclean studied comparative religion, philosophy and education in London, England. She moved to Canada in 1985. She runs a daycare and conducts mindfulness workshops.
T
his story begins at Mirabel Airport, a lofty, light-filled white albatross of a place in the middle of snowy, white fields not too far from Montreal. I arrive. I get to Customs; I’m a small white British girl wearing a grey duffle coat with a Turkish kerchief on her head. My passport is stamped
full: Europe, Turkey, Cyprus, India, Syria, Greece, and Bulgaria but (oops) I don’t have a visa for Canada. I didn’t have enough time on my last visit to England to get one. So I make duas. I learned the fatiha and several of the short surahs from the wife of Sheikh Nazim, Hajja Amina Hatun (May Allah sanctify her). I have been a Muslim
HATE: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE The table of contents from The Opposite of Hate by Sally Kohn. Published by Algonquin Books in 2018.
INTRODUCTION What Is Hate | The Bully ONE Why We Hate | The Trolls TWO How We Hate | The Former Terrorist THREE Hating Is Belonging | The Ex-White Supremacist FOUR Unconscious Hate | The Trump Supporter FIVE When Hate Becomes Pandemic | The Genocide SIX Systems Hate | The Big Picture CONCLUSION The Journey Forward
for six months, I took Shahada and a pledge of allegiance to my sheikh of the Naqshbandi tariquat and got married all on the same day. I don’t have a marriage certificate because I had a Turkish Sufi wedding in a mosque in Nicosia, Cyprus which wasn’t even recognized as a state at that time. “Hmm,” says the official. “Bonjour,” I say with a bright smile, then more duas and fatihas under my breath. I have come in on a one-way ticket. Naïvely, I tell him the truth. My Canadian-born husband of three months is on the other side of the gate waiting for me. The official sighs. “I’m not going to stamp your passport, you have to go to the British Consulate downtown right away.” Alhumdulillah! Thank you Allah! I have never heard of anyone getting through international customs without a passport stamp before or since. I’m through! Welcome to Canada! Big Sky! Ibrahim is gorgeous! He is wearing a big fur hat and has a bushy Naqshbandi beard and warm brown eyes. He looks like a teddy bear. And on the subject of bears... yes, there is snow but I don’t see any polar bears out of the car window on the drive to Parc Extension. I meet Davy, my new father-in-law who has come along to collect his son’s newest bride. His car has a hole in the floor, but I don’t find that unusual because in Margaret Thatcher’s Britain, where I have come from, you are rich if you have a car at all. “All the other Jews have Cadillacs,” he tells me earnestly, “but I was just a cutter so I worked for the money.” Davy is gentle and humble but confused about his eldest son, who went to Jerusalem and returned a Sufi. After we arrive at the family duplex I meet Sylvia, my mother-in-law. She is wearing a coral pink velvet jogging suit and has come home from her second job. She doesn’t like to sit still,
that sexist men feel threatened by women no matter how much they deny it. MCWILLIAMS: IN LITERATURE, IT IS PROBLEMATIC TO HAVE SEXUALITY AS A MAIN IDENTITY: In 2007, JK Rowling revealed that Albus Dumbledore, Harry’s mentor, was gay and was in love with the new franchise villain Grindelwald. A FEMINIST’S GUIDE TO
28 Geist 108 Spring 2018
