Hanadi Chehabeddine understands the worries that many Americans harbor about terrorism and national security. She hopes that they also understand something.

“Muslims are afraid, too,” said Chehabeddine, 39, of Eden Prairie.

Chehabeddine, a Lebanese-born journalist, public speaker, wife and mother of three, has watched the escalating anti-Muslim political rhetoric — Donald Trump advocating banning all Muslims from entering the United States, for starters — with equal parts of heartache and hope.

Heartache because, as a devout Muslim and new American citizen, Chehabeddine agonizes that her Islamic faith has been co-opted by extremists.

“Any close encounter with the prophet Mohammed would create understanding about what a peaceful person he was,” she said.

She’s hopeful, too, because a growing number of Twin Citians are inviting the thoughtful and gracious bridge-builder into their homes, schools and community centers.

Chehabeddine and her beaming mother, Hosn Daaboul, at a recent Building Bridges awards ceremony.

“One of the great things about America,” said Chehabeddine, a volunteer speaker with the educational nonprofit Islamic Resource Group (IRG), “is Americans.

“There’s a sense of goodness in people. It’s amazing to see people of non-Muslim faith stand up for us. For politicians to stand up for us. For women who are not covered to be willing to stand up for women who are covered.”

Still, her mission feels increasingly urgent as the stakes grow distressingly high.

In the past year, three Muslim students were shot to death in Chapel Hill, N.C. A driver tried to run down a Muslim woman in Cincinnati. A customer at a New York City pharmacy called a female pharmacist, who was wearing a headscarf, a terrorist.

In our pridefully progressive Twin Cities, a woman wearing a hijab reported being forced off a light-rail train. Another woman is recovering from serious facial lacerations after being smashed with a beer mug in a local restaurant.

Her “crime”? Speaking Swahili.

“This is the time to start the conversation,” said Chehabeddine, who was honored in November as the resource group’s 2015 Speaker of the Year. “This is the time to step up and let people in. Allow doubters to attend our lectures, witness our prayers and observe our practices. Let’s build those bridges that we never really built.”

‘Just be open’

Chehabeddine grew up in Lebanon, the third of four siblings. Her father died of a heart attack at 52, when she was 13. Her mother, Hosn Daaboul, never remarried.

“My mom raised us as good people,” Chehabeddine said. While the family loved to talk about religion in an Islamic context, “my mother realized that one’s spiritual practice could not be forced.”

A communications major fluent in Arabic, English and French, at 21 Chehabeddine headed to Dubai to work as an English copywriter, then on to London to do postgraduate work in advertising, with clients that included Duracell, Volvo and Nestlé.

She returned to Lebanon to explore her Islamic heritage.

“I never embraced it totally until I indulged in the readings, talked to people and discovered the beauty,” she said.

Around that time, an aunt introduced her to Imad Alassi, who was visiting home from the Twin Cities where he has lived since he was a 23-year-old college student.

They married almost eight years ago and now are parents of a 6-year-old daughter and 4-year-old twin boys.

The move to largely insular Minnesota was a hard adjustment for Chehabeddine, as it is for many transplants. “I’m a people person,” she said. “It was hard to get into the community.”

Plus, she was home with three young children, which made getting out even more challenging. Aside from early-childhood classes with the kids, she spent a lot of time watching television. That’s when she began to grasp how her rich and diverse culture was being misrepresented in much of the media, from dramas to the nightly news.

“It deeply affected me,” she said, “how this great tradition was slandered. Islam has been hijacked.”

The best antidote, she decided, was “just to be open,” one person at a time. She found her way to the Islamic Resource Group, which was created in 2001, and began training to become a certified speaker. She’s now one of nearly 30 speakers, all volunteers, who visit schools, community events and workplaces to educate the curious about Islam.

She doesn’t mind the questions. Once she was asked, “Do you take showers with that [headscarf] on?”

“There is no such thing as an offensive question or a naive question,” she said. “Ask.”

Read more