American Muslim Project
Rifelion Media
1 Creator
5.0
(1)
1 Creator
1 Listener
5.0
(1)
All episodes
Best episodes
Top 10 American Muslim Project Episodes
Best episodes ranked by Goodpods Users most listened
A Muslim-Specific Streaming Service with Mir Ali
American Muslim Project
07/28/21 • 34 min
5.0
This week we are joined by Executive Vice President Mir Ali of USHUB TV, a forthcoming streaming service explicitly for Muslim content in the United States.
Growing up in the bubble of Southern California, Mir interacted with his predominantly non-Muslim community the only way he knew how—by showing that he was a friendly, typical, hard-working American first, then revealing his full identity once he’d been accepted. Like most all of our guests, it took effort to maintain his identit(ies) in these disparate circles. Though his passive approach may have successfully changed people’s mindsets about Muslims at the time, he’s now much more proactive.
Tired of our mainstream media “really just messing up Muslim narratives,” Mir decided to take on a side hustle. What started as an idea for an American-based Muslim news station has now morphed into a full-fledged streaming channel delivering the varied, rich, and diverse stories that exist within the Muslim world. Not only will the channel, named USHUB TV, broach Muslim-centered topics; it will also feature work by Muslim directors, producers, and writers across the world. Mir explains the name, which is from the Arabic word aishab meaning friends and companions, and says it’s often butchered; Asad and Rifelion relate. Launching this fall, USHUB will stream Islamic news, TV series, documentaries, and even original content, by and large in English and from a culturally Muslim standpoint over religious. His goal, Mir says, is to provide really relatable and accurate portrayals, something he didn’t grow up with.
Started by Gen Z and millennial founders, USHUB now comprises a team with unique talents, from tech to business to content creation, and a shared commitment to setting the record straight. We learn how Mir channeled his finance and real estate backgrounds into this new venture, and he provides advice about relationship building and how to create a phenomenal team. The motivation behind the project and the impetus for starting it now are discussed. He touches on the gravity of Muslims being favorably regarded in our country. And explains why he didn’t make a fellow Muslim friend until age 25.
Subscribe to USHUB this fall to see their full line of content, including the films Valley of Saints, Bilal: A New Breed of Hero, The Drone and the Kid, and Marjoun and the Flying Headscarf.
See previews, announcements, and their final launch date by following them on Instagram @ushub.tv and Twitter @ushubtv. And see what Mir is up to @mrmirali.
American Muslim Project is a production of Rifelion, LLC.
Writer and Researcher: Lindsy Gamble
Show Edited by Mark Annotto and Asad Butt
Music by Simon Hutchinson
Hosted by Asad Butt
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
07/28/21 • 34 min
1 Listener
1 Comment
1
Recommendations
American Muslim Project
06/30/21 • 29 min
This week’s special episode includes recommendations (and previously unreleased audio) from six past guests about who and what you should be following, listening to, watching, and reading.
From episode 13’s Dr. Shaista Khilji, Pakistani-born George Washington University professor, prolific writer, and cofounder of the Humanizing InitiativeShaista’s recommended books:
From episode 20’s Qasim Rashid, Pakistani American human rights lawyer, writer, political candidate, human rights activist, and author of the recent Hannah and the Ramadan Gift
Qasim’s recommended Twitter accounts:
Salaam Bhatti/@salaam
Simran Jeet Singh/@simran
Lexi Alexander/@Lexialex
From episode 17’s Serena Rasoul, Palestinian American actress, writer, and founder of Muslim American Casting
Serena’s recommended books:
The Woman from Tantoura: A Novel of Palestine
The Butterfly's Burden (poetry)
Films:
Projects/series:
American Muslims: A History Revealed
From episode 8’s Afroz Khan, Indian American engineer and the first Muslim woman to serve on the Newburyport (MA) city council
Afroz’s recommended shows:
From episode 5’s Razi Jafri, Indian American filmmaker, photographer, and co-director and co-producer of Hamtramck, USA
Razi's recommended artists:
Filmmakers:
From episode 2’s Shahjehan Khan, Pakistani American actor, musician, behavioral health consultant, and co-founder of The Kominas. Shahjehan’s recommended shows can be found on his episode page.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
06/30/21 • 29 min
Improving Your COVID IQ with Dr. Mohammed Reza
American Muslim Project
05/26/21 • 37 min
This week we spoke with Dr. Mohammed Reza, a Bangladeshi-American infectious disease doctor in north Florida, where COVID variants and vaccine reluctance both run rampant.
During this pandemic, Dr. Mo (as his patients call him) has been thrust into the local limelight as an unwitting community educator. Despite his schooling, credibility, and experience, he was a bit surprised to become the trusted face of coronavirus intel in his hometown, performing over 100 interviews. Perhaps because the day after Trump took office he was ordered to go back to his country while buying his staff donuts.
Regardless, an authority he is, and he breaks down mutations of the virus, the reason India is currently in crisis, and what we know we don’t know. Myths about vaccines are dispelled. Our government is given a letter grade for their COVID response.
Along with a psychologist and a tech friend, Dr. Mo co-founded CovidIQ early last year—a free tracking system that identified potential hot spots quicker than tests could. Despite the number of physicians involved and time and money they volunteered, politics and cost curtailed the project. Many states didn’t want to know the rate of infection or be told when to wear (or not wear) masks, it turns out.
We speak about minorities having the highest rates of disease and the worst access to care in this country, along with some appalling stats. On the flip side, Dr. Mo shares his approach to patients and bedside manner (will you be our doctor?). Furthermore, we cover poignant anecdotes of his family’s humble beginnings and the reason he decided to go into medicine: a harrowing story about traveling from Bangladesh to Singapore at 18 to try to save his father’s life, which dwarves every challenge we’ve ever faced. Finally, we offer you the lessons his multicultural family preaches: Be good to others, regardless of their background. And celebrate every holiday.
American Muslim Project is a production of Rifelion, LLC.
Writer and Researcher: Lindsy Gamble
Show Edited by Mark Annotto and Asad Butt
Music by Simon Hutchinson
Hosted by Asad Butt
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
05/26/21 • 37 min
Building a World without Hate with Rais Bhuiyan
American Muslim Project
06/16/21 • 36 min
Rais Bhuiyan is a Bangladeshi American who was shot by a white supremacist as retaliation for the attacks of September 11th, four months after arriving in the United States. He joins us on this episode of American Muslim Project to share his remarkable story and mission to promote empathy and compassion.
Rais was thrilled to start his own American dream in Dallas after being granted a visa from the State Department’s lottery. He relays how his life instead became an “American nightmare” as Mark Anthony Stroman went on a killing spree, murdering two other South Asian men and nearly killing Rais in an attempt to hunt Arabs. We talk about that horrific day and how he called out for his mother, like George Floyd. Miraculously Rais lived, but the incident cost him his home, fiancé, job, sense of security, and the sight in his right eye. We learn of the hospital discharging him after he regained consciousness because of insurance and the Red Cross only allotting him a week’s worth of groceries.
Instead of campaigning for personal justice, however, Rais engaged in a fight for clemency for his attacker. Joined by a team backed by Amnesty International, Rais describes why and how he petitioned to save Stroman’s life, going all the way to the Supreme Court and also taking on the lethal injection manufacturer in Denmark. Discover how his request for mediation with his attacker played out and both of their transitions after the crime. At the same time, Rais founded World Without Hate, a nonprofit working to prevent and disrupt the cycles of hate and violence through storytelling and empathy. He shares the promise he made to Allah for letting him live and the Quran verse that inspired him.
Find out how the campaign played out and about the mentorship Rais now has with Stroman’s son. Check out his website and follow World Without Hate @worldwithouthate and @WWHforgive as they work toward a 9/11 hate crime resolution, among other projects. If nothing else examine your own ability to forgive, then spread the ultimate story of compassion to better this country—ours and Rais’s—that he still somehow manages to love.
American Muslim Project is a production of Rifelion, LLC.
Writer and Researcher: Lindsy Gamble
Show Edited by Mark Annotto and Asad Butt
Music by Simon Hutchinson
Hosted by Asad Butt
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
06/16/21 • 36 min
Fighting State-Sponsored Spying and Discrimination with Amira Al-Subaey
American Muslim Project
06/09/21 • 35 min
During the Obama administration (or was it in 1984?), a campaign known as countering violent extremism (CVE, and a profusion of other acronyms since) was initiated by intelligence and federal law enforcement agencies to identify and dissuade those prone to radicalization. The Muslim Justice League was founded in 2014 by Muslim women of one CVE pilot city to defund and dismantle that massive increase in state-sponsored surveillance. The league’s deputy director, Amira Al-Subaey, joins us on AMP to discuss the facts and fiction surrounding still-active CVE policy.
According to the government, CVE would put an end to aggressive law enforcement policies by instead recruiting regular citizens like doctors, imams, and teachers to engage in the “soft policing” of their community. What are some of the risks indicating to informants that a person is likely to become a violent extremist, you ask? Things such as, Amira says, growing a beard, political activism, stated feelings of alienation, or increasing your mosque attendance. The surveillance—no surprise—targets Muslims and other immigrant and POC populations deemed a threat. We talk about CVE’s failures (lack of violence prevention, legitimization of anti-Muslim discrimination, disproportionate spying on and incarceration of Black and Brown people) and successes (this parenthetical intentionally left blank).
Amira enlightens us on the sad reasoning behind surveillants and institutions cooperating with these counterterrorism measures and the lengths those facing the worse consequences have gone to to avoid false suspicion. Asad and Amira both ponder the likelihood that they’ve been put on the FBI or DHS’s radar. We cover the repercussions of fighting the movement and social justice groups like AJL that are doing it anyway. Our government’s historical use of the terms “terrorist” and “extremist” and the lack of scientific evidence for “the indicators” leading to extremism are broached, and better ways to keep society safe are posited. The episode transitions to record-breaking ways Amira challenges herself personally, which produces a fitting metaphor for navigating life. She introduces us to abolitionist organizer Mariame Kaba's recommendation of practicing hope as a discipline.
American Muslim Project is a production of Rifelion, LLC.
Writer and Researcher: Lindsy Gamble
Show Edited by Mark Annotto and Asad Butt
Music by Simon Hutchinson
Hosted by Asad Butt
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
06/09/21 • 35 min
A Focus on Palestinians with Dr. Maha Nassar
American Muslim Project
06/02/21 • 41 min
Dr. Maha Nassar, a Palestinian American professor and expert on Arab cultural and intellectual history, shares her insights on Palestinians.
Naturally, we ask her to address the horrific situation in Israel and the Gaza Strip over the past few weeks. She enlightens us on several key points, including how the conflict is truly an anti-colonialist struggle, how the youngest Palestinians in Israel identify themselves, and how Palestinians have been covered by major U.S. news outlets the last several decades. [Spoiler alert: Very few articles written about Palestinians are actually by a Palestinian.] Find out why bias in major news outlets may matter less now.
Maha shares the impetus behind her award-winning book, Brothers Apart: Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the Arab World, as well as details from her 2007 trip to Palestine that turned “really icky.” After learning of the de facto segregation in neighborhoods and schools in Israel, we dive into a fascinating if not disturbing comparison to Jim Crow laws. You may also be surprised to hear about Black Lives Matter leaders studying structural suppression and institutional violence in Palestine, and American police forces attending trainings in Israel. How murals of George Floyd can be found across Palestine, where they too hope to translate the present online momentum into real change. Naturally, we finish with Maha’s predictions on how this all ends.
Follow Maha on Twitter @mtnassar and read her unsettling article documenting how opinion pieces about Palestinians in the US mainstream media are overwhelmingly written by non-Palestinians. Check out her first book, Brothers Apart, and upcoming book, The Palestinians: A Global History, on the construction of Palestinian identity under statelessness and transnational dispersal.
American Muslim Project is a production of Rifelion, LLC.
Writer and Researcher: Lindsy Gamble
Show Edited by Mark Annotto and Asad Butt
Music by Simon Hutchinson
Hosted by Asad Butt
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
06/02/21 • 41 min
Demystifying Sharia with Sumbul Ali-Karamali
American Muslim Project
06/23/21 • 37 min
This week we are joined by author, former lawyer, and expert on Islamic law, Sumbul Ali-Karamali, to discuss the decidedly unscary Sharia law.
Sharia is essentially a mass of religious guidelines, meaning the path to the watering place literally and the path to righteousness religiously. Essentially, early Muslims interpreted their holy text, the Quran, to determine rules for how to live, called fatwas. The collection of fatwas (fiqh) along with the Quran and Sunnah (practices of Muhammad) equal Sharia. Like many religious texts it is ancient, up to interpretation, and complex, even to our dear host and many other Muslims. Given that scholars interpreting the texts were not governing the people, it was never rigid top-down rules from those in power. (Wager a guess at how often Islamic legal scholars have reached a consensus on the interpretation of religious text as it relates to law.)
Sumbul, who recently published her third book, Demystifying Shari’ah, shares the inspiration for the book (with a cameo by Rush Limbaugh) and the co-occurring explosion of anti-Sharia sentiment in public discourse. She breaks down the key facts in a digestible manner, including the fluidity of Sharia, the five pillars, the immutable goals that every Islamic law has to comply with—which closely resemble our far subsequent Bill of Rights—and the important revelation that no religious law can ever take over the United States because of our Constitution.
We touch on Sharia as it relates to modesty/dress, the colonization of Muslim lands, and behaviors like prayer, divorce, and murder, which are actually ranked by levels of allowance. Asad and Sumbul share the common ground of their parents effectively being the ones to lay down the law when growing up, something most children can relate to. We are surprised to learn that even nonfiction authors can get heckled at public readings. We are not surprised to hear about Fear, Inc., the extreme right-wing lawyer responsible for anti-Sharia legislation in 14 states, and the co-opting of Islamic terms by the mainstream media. Naturally, there’s an aside on Star Trek (check out our most recent blog post for more on that!).
Find out more about Sumbul on her site and get answers to all the questions you’ve ever had about Sharia in Demystifying Shari'ah: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It's Not Taking Over Our Country. Also check our her first two books, the post-9/11 award-winning The Muslim Next Door: the Qur’an, the Media, and that Veil Thing and Growing up Muslim: Understanding the Beliefs and Practices of Islam for ages 10 & up.
American Muslim Project is a production of Rifelion, LLC.
Writer and Researcher: Lindsy Gamble
Show Edited by Mark Annotto and Asad Butt
Music by Simon Hutchinson
Hosted by Asad Butt
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
06/23/21 • 37 min
Telling Our Own Story with Qasim Rashid
American Muslim Project
05/19/21 • 35 min
Qasim Rashid has held many roles—human rights lawyer, prolific writer, media consultant, political candidate, volunteer prison chaplain, avid Tweeter—one of which his wife convinced him to pursue. He joins us on American Muslim Project to discuss his newest book, how he got to where he is today, and advocating for a more compassionate tomorrow.
We dive in with Ramadan 2021, a remarkable one given COVID and the current state of Palestinians and Uyghurs. Shared IHOP reminiscences make an appearance. Qasim outlines the theology behind Ahmadi Muslims, the minority faith he is an active member of. We discuss the motivations behind his long-rejected debut children's book, Hannah and the Ramadan Gift, and the moment his four-year-old daughter saw herself on the cover. Are we any closer to normalizing Islam in the United States?
Qasim touches on other varied topics he’s well-informed on, all with eloquence and humility. How the reality of American Muslims building this country and fighting in every war needs to be more deliberately communicated; the potential positives of being trolled, which he calls collateral education; helping our nation become a more perfect union and making the American Dream accessible to all; the number of times he was pulled over by police post-9/11.... We’re moved by his embodiment of humanity, present in his many, many actions, constantly asserted beliefs, and showing compassion just for compassion’s sake.
Follow Qasim on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook @qasimrashid. Pick up his recent children’s book, Hannah and the Ramadan Gift, illustrated by Aaliya Jaleel. Or check out his numerous articles on https://qasimrashid.com and nonfiction books, The Wrong Kind of Muslim: An Untold Story of Persecution & Perseverance, EXTREMIST: A Response to Geert Wilders & Terrorists Everywhere, and Talk To Me: Changing the Narrative on Race, Religion, & Education.
American Muslim Project is a production of Rifelion, LLC.
Writer and Researcher: Lindsy Gamble
Show Edited by Mark Annotto and Asad Butt
Music by Simon Hutchinson
Hosted by Asad Butt
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
05/19/21 • 35 min
Food and Finding the Spice of Life with Saba Wahid Duffy
American Muslim Project
05/12/21 • 36 min
This week we are joined by Saba Wahid Duffy: chef, media personality, culinary educator, and very recent *Chopped* champion. As an American Muslim raised in a suburb of Boston, she grew up eating Pakistani food nearly exclusively, which left her hankering for any cuisine but.
Despite her strong interest in cooking from a young age, Saba’s traditional Desi parents had other thoughts on their daughter wanting to pursue a culinary career. We discover the idea that truly kicked off her career in food much later in life: a television pilot bridging the gap between her Eastern roots and Western upbringing (which coincidentally our host helped film). The shoot—despite the fact that she forbids anyone to watch it now—landed her a position as a tv host with Dubai One. Saba paints a picture of the food scene in Dubai, where she subsequently lived for four years, as well as the current culinary evolution in the States.
Naturally we quizzed her on her Chopped experience. Hear what it’s like to have Martha Stewart hovering over you while breaking down flounder, and how to sugarcoat the situation with a little light conversation. How might one prepare for such a high-stress competition against three male chefs with impressive industry experience? Try timed test runs in a kitchen under construction with a toddler in tow and a proper-meat-and-potatoes husband critiquing your plating.
We learn about her signature style, an amalgamation of healthy Mediterranean cuisine with the pungent spices of her heritage as well as the global influence of living in the UAE. She enlightens our listeners as well as, ahem, our Pakistani-American host on the differences between Pakistani and Indian food. We talk about wrapping your head around Christmas as adults and her multicultural family creating their own unique traditions. Finally, find out the one thing she won’t ever do foodwise.
Read more about Saba and her unique recipes on her website, take advice from her food blog, Culinary Delights, or follow her on Facebook. And catch her appearances on Food Network’s Chopped: Martha Rules in Round 4 and the Grand Finale (originally aired 5/4 and 5/11 at 9pm).
American Muslim Project is a production of Rifelion, LLC.
Writer and Researcher: Lindsy Gamble
Show Edited by Mark Annotto and Asad Butt
Music by Simon Hutchinson
Hosted by Asad Butt
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
05/12/21 • 36 min
Drawing the Blueprint For Muslim Inclusion with Kashif Shaikh
American Muslim Project
07/07/21 • 39 min
This week we speak with Kashif Shaikh, co-founder and president of Pillars Fund, a nonprofit investing in American Muslim organizations, leaders, and artists to advance equity and inclusion.
Pillars, founded in 2010, aims to take tangible actions to benefit American Muslim initiatives. But rather than supporting, say, mosques or overseas work, their projects often nurture local communities, well-being, and culture. Case in point, their recent pivotal study with the Ford Foundation and University of Southern California Annenberg, Missing & Maligned: The Reality of Muslims in Popular Global Movies. Kashif breaks down the unsurprising but nonetheless disheartening data from 200 top contemporary films across Western countries, revealing the erasure and demeaning portrayals of Muslims. Unlike former studies, which tend to be anecdotal, this project provides current hard statistics on the lack of female or African Americans, animated characters, or nonviolence in Muslim roles. A study on television characters will be next.
Always working to be proactive rather than reactive, according to Kashif, Pillars has already begun communicating the findings to Hollywood studios, agencies, festivals, unions, and philanthropists, to name a few. We chat about the underlying meaning—the seeming unawareness even in progressive American communities that Muslims constitute one-quarter of the world’s population, or that Black Muslims helped shape Islam in this country (not to mention the country itself). Along with the data, Pillars has released The Blueprint for Muslim Inclusion, a concrete plan to remedy the inaccurate portrayal of Muslims in film and a fellowship to build a pipeline of Muslims in the industry. We segue into the root of Kashif’s own activism, which stems from not fitting into the traditional Muslim mold nor his predominantly white community, not to mention his deep affection for his “weird artist dad,” who emigrated from Pakistan to study art. Shout-outs for English majors, Brown rockers, and Muslim wrestlers ensue.
Finally, we cover how terrorist tropes are not just tired but also have harmful real-life implications, and how money breeds influence. Kashif shares the powerful positive responses to the Pillars study, not to mention the general uptick in motivation post-Trump. We close with his vision of the American Muslim world in 18 months, and all the work left to do.
American Muslim Project is a production of Rifelion, LLC.
Writer and Researcher: Lindsy Gamble
Show Edited by Mark Annotto and Asad Butt
Music by Simon Hutchinson
Hosted by Asad Butt
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
07/07/21 • 39 min
Show more
Show more
FAQ
How many episodes does American Muslim Project have?
American Muslim Project currently has 56 episodes available.
What topics does American Muslim Project cover?
The podcast is about Islam, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality and Podcasts.
What is the most popular episode on American Muslim Project?
The episode title 'A Muslim-Specific Streaming Service with Mir Ali' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on American Muslim Project?
The average episode length on American Muslim Project is 37 minutes.
How often are episodes of American Muslim Project released?
Episodes of American Muslim Project are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of American Muslim Project?
The first episode of American Muslim Project was released on Jan 3, 2021.
Show more FAQ
Show more FAQ
Comments
5.0
out of 5
1 Rating