The Muslim Experience in Minnesota project aims to capture and convey the Muslim experience in Minnesota through oral interviews and photographic portraits. This Minnesota Historical Society funded project documented 40 Minnesota Muslims chosen carefully to represent a diverse collection of experiences. Continuing in the series of interviews from the Muslim Experience in Minnesota project, in this entry, I feature Ziad Amra, a Palestinian American born in Shakopee and raised in Chaska.
Transcript of Ziad Amra Interview: My name is Ziad Amra. I am a Palestinian American. I was born in Shakopee and raised in Chaska. Then I went to the University of Minnesota as an undergraduate in Minneapolis where I graduated with a political science major. Then I went to law school after that, William Mitchell. I worked for five years, and then I went and got my... back to the University of Minnesota and I got a masters in business and I started working for a bank, US Bank where I have been for the last ten years. My grandparents on both sides actually are American... have American citizenships. They had come to this country, you know many, many years ago. My grandfather on my father's side was an orphan and came here when he was a teenager. Sort of a typical boat ride, you know, to Ellis Island, kind of story. As the story goes, I mean he was an orphan. He had a brother, they were both orphans. Then his brother died very young, as a teenager. So he, my grandfather, sold... he was kind of a watchman at an olive grove, and he had a donkey. He sold the donkey and bought passage on a ship and came to the United States as a teenager. [He] basically became a traveling salesman. He would travel around the country, basically... you know, what at the time would probably be called a "carpet bagger", and sell things and trinkets, and you know, assorted things to people door to door. My grandfather on my mother's side also came to the United States and worked at the Wonderbread bread factory in the Chicago area for many years. My mother and father met in Palestine. My father was in the US Navy during Vietnam as a medical officer operating on wounded soldiers from Vietnam. Actually, when my parents got married, they lived in South Carolina on a US Naval base for, I think the one year that he had left. Then they moved to Minnesota, to Shakopee first and then Chaska. Then he went to medical school at Vanderbilt and did residencies at different places around the United States, and enlisted in the US Navy, and worked as a medical officer, as a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy. he was a surgeon at Saint Francis in Shakopee and became the chief of surgery there. Which is interesting because you have a Muslim chief of surgery at a Catholic hospital where the nurses are nuns. Being Palestinian was definitely a tangible part of our identity. Being Palestinian... it's a place that's still in conflict with the injustices meted out to the Palestinians that... we all have grown up to learn about and appreciate, as well as our culture and our heritage; so it was definitely part of our identity. Even more so, maybe, because... The fact that growing up in Chaska, at that time was a town of about 7,000 people, so there were no other minorities there. there was nobody else with an ethnic name, or had relations that are in some other foreign country or anything like that. So... we have the unique aspect I guess, growing up, to our identity. Well, I can say that growing up... being different... there wasn't anybody else that could relate to us. Whether it be, being Muslim or being Palestinian; whether that made it difficult or not. I do remember some negative experiences with... in late elementary school and in middle school with the social studies teachers trying to talk about different areas of the world and giving, what I felt even at that young age, is a totally distorted view of Arabic culture. Even going home and complaining to my parents who would say "no you should go and correct them" and so on and so forth. Maybe a feeling of being an outsider, I felt like that in the early years and into middle school, but somehow it changed in high school. People got to know us, me, my brothers and sisters, and we made more and more friends. Such that I was eventually elected Winterfest King in my senior year, which is essentially a popularity contest; which I think is funny when I look back on where I was in elementary school and middle school, that kind of thing. We were just involved in our community in terms of playing sports and hockey... I grew up playing hockey, probably the only Palestinian playing hockey in the 1970's and '80s, doing all those fun things. There were challenges, there's no doubt, whether it's an Iranian hostage crisis and getting ethnic slurs or that kind of thing because people just lump everything together. Even in college there was, during the first Gulf war, there was somebody, a total stranger basically came at me with a hammer and said that, called me an Iraqi. I didn't know him so I don't know why he... maybe it was my looks or something. Luckily he didn't hit me with it. So you know, you have those things happen but by and large, it was a good experience. Was the Muslim faith an important part of your family life growing up? Yeah, it was. We went... growing up there was, as I recall it, only one Islamic center that, well there was two. There was one that was by the University of Minnesota, it was in a house; and then there was one... it's the Islamic Center in Fridley, which was the first bona fide Islamic Center with Sunday school in it. We would go every Sunday through high school, for Sunday school. It was definitely a part of our life, something our parents took us to every Sunday, for as long as I can remember, even when we didn't want to go maybe. .. because there is a larger Muslim community here now. How do you imagine your children's upbringing will differ from your own experience? You know, in some ways it won't be so unique. Which is a good thing because there are a lot more mosques. There are a lot more Muslims then there was when I was growing up. So, they will have more people to relate to, maybe more friends to have and share their experiences growing up. I think that will be significantly different. So there's that, sort of, deeper community from which to draw on. Well, how I feel currently plugged in to that community is... I can't get away from my own background and being a Muslim. But I feel that a lot of my being plugged in to the Muslim community has changed actually and it's more in terms of, the challenges faced by the Muslim community here, and in some ways that started in 2001. . In many ways that is how I feel plugged in with the Muslim community, because it seems a community that's under assault by the larger forces in society, I guess. It needs people to stand up for it. It needs people to work for its benefit within the context of our government here and our political process, and being involved, and being involved with your neighbors, and your PTA, and your school, and everything. It just requires, maybe, an additional... everything requires more work these days it seems like, and that's how I have been mostly involved... it's on the political challenges faced by our community. Well, some of the things that I've been involved in were early on, there was.... working with a variety of local grass roots organizations on getting Minneapolis and Saint Paul to enact some regulations against the police assuming the role of immigration authorities. So this was back in 2001-2003. There was basically a national push, and there still is, for local police to take on immigration policing policies. In many ways that was directed at a variety of communities, but also at recent immigrant Muslim community. We thought that was negative because what it did was... if it would have come to pass, it would have discouraged people from approaching the police regarding crimes because they could also be asked about their immigration status. the police were actually supportive of the work that we were doing because their work is totally, in many ways, dependent on community involvement, community support, community communication. another way is... 2001 through the present, the Muslim community has been under assault, whether it be from, what I will term "right wing commentators" and "media pundits" who have raised a specter of Muslims, in general, in this country being a fifth column or some kind of threat, and spreading distortions and disinformation about the Muslim faith to begin with, and then about Muslim people in general and creating the specter of fear. I just can't think in history now, at least in our modern history of politicians and media constantly rampaging against a religious group as much, and getting away with it, and having it not questioned as much as what's happening to the Muslim community. If it was being said about, on a regular basis, about Jews in this country or some group of Christians or Buddhists, it would not be tolerated, it would be shut down. But it seems, unfortunately, more and more tolerated these days. I work for basically a large corporation. It is almost like a truism, at least in corporate America, there are two things that you should not talk about at work and it's religion and politics. Although, I have, if asked, or if it comes up, I take that opportunity to educate. For example, during the month of Ramadan I'll be fasting for a month, and people may ask "Do you want to go and get lunch". , if given the opportunity, or if they are curious they can ask and I am totally willing to educate them, basically, on the tenets of Islam or Islamic beliefs. One of the things I am fond of doing when I get into those conversations is letting people know how similar Islam is with Christianity and Judaism, that they basically had no idea. I think probably the biggest difficulty, and one of the things that would go the longest or furthest to sort of... creating understanding here at least in America and our community here in Minnesota would be... if we could let people know how similar Islam is and how its belief system is with Judaism and Christianity, the Holy books and the angels and the prophets and the biblical stories. All of those are part of Islam too; Noah and the Ark, Abraham and the sacrifice of his son, Adam and Eve, Moses wandering the desert, all of that is part of Islam too. Muslims, I think are unique in that they recognize and hold dear the tradition of Judaism and Christianity and essentially feel that it's a following through of those traditions once people learn about it and if you are given the opportunity, they're always struck by how similar it is really, to their own beliefs. Well, it's hard to imagine things getting much worse, although they could I guess. I guess where I would like to see them go, is for the negative rhetoric to pipe down in this country and for the insidious and vicious and constant attacks against Muslims in general, and Muslim Americans here and the media here, by politicians to stop. For us to stop being the beating boy. It has reached historical, or hysterical... the levels are just hysterical, not in a funny way, they're just... people are being hysterical about this. ... there are Muslims out there that are working to educate and to try and change a conversation, but really it's incumbent upon our fellow citizens that are reasonable and well informed to stand up as well. To say that this is nonsense and to call out people that are saying and doing these kinds of things. That's what we need in this country and in this state. Then I think, in the broader world, we need to see, instead of more wars we need to see a little bit more peace in the Middle East, although that's easier said than done. All I wanted and still want, really, is for me and my kid now, my kids to fit in and have a normal existence here and be part of the community, be involved. To the extent hopefully that when they're older that they don't have to address these same issues that we're addressing now here in the year 2010, that are just constantly popping up about attacks against Muslims, and racism, and prejudice and those kinds of things. I hope it's less, so that the energy that they spend... that they may have to spend on defending themselves could be better spent in a different productive way for themselves and for the community. Well, I am hopeful. There are always things that happen that give you hope, so whenever you think it couldn't get any... is going to get worse or it's crummy, there is always somebody that does something or that surprises you. Whether it's your neighbor, or whether it's some national figure who says or does the right thing or organizes something that gives you a warm feeling, and lets you know that there are other people out there that are reasonable, and can give you hope, and that they're working for a brighter future for everybody and not just playing politics for the moment. No, I do have hope because you know, what's the alternative?