“A few years ago, I visited 30 different mosques in 30 days within New York City. Then, my friend and I thought how would it be to visit mosques across the U.S. What we saw and encountered was very different from what we see on television,” said Aman Ali, an Indian origin stand-up comic and storyteller from the United States. He spoke on ‘Growing up as a Muslim in the United States of America’ at Amir Mahal here on Thursday.
At the event organised by Mohammed Asif Ali, Dewan to Prince of Arcot and the U.S. Consulate General, Chennai, the award winning storyteller spoke about his experiences with Muslim communities across the U. S. in the 30 days during Ramzan in 2012.
Interspersing his travel story with anecdotes about growing up in a traditional Indian Muslim family, he said he was surprised to find so much diversity at every step.
“I visited a mosque in Ross in North Dakota of all places, where Muslims have been living since the 1700s. CNN aired a documentary on our trip and I came across a conservative Christian dad living in Nebraska who began talking to his son, who chose to convert to Islam, after about six months,” said Aman.
Answering a question about how Muslims and their religious identities are being seen in United States in the Trump era, he said, “When President Trump banned Muslims from certain countries, there were thousands protesting in the airport against it. I saw at least 15,000 people in John F. Kennedy airport. It did not matter who they were. Christians, Jews, Hindus...women and children were also there and they stood up for Muslims,” he said.
Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali, Prince of Arcot, said he hoped that the bilateral and cordial relations between India and United States of America would grow from strength to strength.
