Reviving Tradition, Museum Hosts Afghan American Oral History Night Written by Sufia Alnoor Muslim Link Contributing Writer Thursday, 27 October 2011 10:36
On Saturday October 22nd, 2011 America’s Islamic Heritage Museum and Cultural Center hosted its Afghan American Oral History Night. The event is the second in the Museum’s oral history series, which aims at documenting the oral history of America’s diverse Muslim population. The first event in the series, held on September 18th covered the “early Muslim pioneers of Washington, DC” who helped build Masjid Muhammad during the 1950s. Amir Muhammad, the Museum’s president noted that the museum is “beginning with AF, the Afghan American community’s initials are AF and the African American community’s [initials] are AF.” And with oral history nights already scheduled for the Turkish community and one in the works for the Somali community, it seems Mr. Muhammad intends to go through the whole alphabet of America’s diverse Muslim subgroups. Qari Zia Makhdoom began the night with a heart felt recitation of verse 13 from Surah Hujurat declaring that “O mankind! Lo! We have created you from male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. Lo! the noblest of you, in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Lo! Allah is Knower, Aware.” (M. Pickthall Tanslation). He then thanked the museum’s founders and the organizers of the event for this “much needed effort especially given these times that we are living in where a large portion of the population in this country view Muslims as a monolith and that too as a bad evil monolith unfortunately.” He continued that “this idea of oral history is something that is very much a part of our tradition as the way the Qu’ran was initially transmitted, the way our history was transmitted to us, the way the ahadeeth were transmitted to us. It was all done orally. We have a strong tradition and [with] this [event] Alhamdulillah, we are in a way reviving that.” He closed his remarks with a reflection on hijrah, recalling being “part of a caravan with [his] family crossing the border” to Pakistan and how that experience gave him a very “deep connection with the Qur’an.” Hijrah became something that he “could very much relate to, that [his family was] doing right there and then.” Mr. Wali Haidar, the president of the board at Mustafa Center spoke next and his remarks covered the early immigration experience of the Afghan American community and institution building. He first came to the United States as a student to study engineering. After returning to Afghanistan, he was teaching at the University of Engineering when the Communist coup and the subsequent Communist invasion of Afghanistan occurred. “It was a time of great turmoil and upheaval and uprooting in that country. Families lost some of their members, some of the families were eradicated all together and the whole society was uprooted.” He recounted how early Afghan immigrants rented “a little apartment on the second floor of an apartment building” in Alexandria, Virginia to provide a space for prayers and memorial services for the deceased. It was an inspiring narrative ending in the eventual establishment of Afghan Academy and Mustafa Center in Annandale, Virginia. The director of Washington DC’s Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) office, Mr. Haris Tarin, spoke afterwards discussing narratives and narrative building. “The tragedy of the Muslim American community …is that we haven’t told our story. Why should
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Reviving Tradition, Museum Hosts Afghan American Oral History Night Written by Sufia Alnoor Muslim Link Contributing Writer Thursday, 27 October 2011 10:36
there be Islamaphobia in this country? Why should people fear Muslims? Why should people see Muslims as foreigners? There’s no reason if you look at what Muslims have done since the inception of this country there shouldn’t be any Islamophobia in this country,” said Tarin. Remarking on the uniqueness of the Afghan American Oral History Night he said “as someone who travels across the country frequently for work … this is the first time I’ve seen something like this happen … I don’t see communities coming together and telling their story.” He then suggested creating a “StoryCorps” to record the Muslim American communities’ stories. Before breaking for prayer, Dr. Daoud Nassimi spoke regarding the yearbook that his father helped publish documenting the early members of the Muslim Student Association in 1961, which contained biographies of all the students with their pictures. Such a document would make an excellent addition to the museum’s archives. The event concluded with a youth panel consisting of two graduates from Afghan Academy recounting their experience in the school and at George Mason University. Videos from the event will be made available soon online on the museum’s YouTube channel “IslamicHeritage”. America’s Islamic Heritage Museum and Cultural Center is located at 2315 Martin Luther King Ave. SE Washington, DC 20020. The museum is open Tuesday - Saturday from 10:00 am 5:00 pm, Sunday 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm and closed on Monday.
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