Source: Huffington Post
Common media representations and political rhetoric would have us believe that the roughly 1.7 billion Muslims on the globe are a homogenous, monolithic group. And this couldn’t be further from the truth.
In the latest episode of “The Secret Life of Muslims,” a web series directed by Joshua Seftel and featured on Vox, 15 prominent Muslim Americans explain why no single definition of what it means to be Muslim can account for all 1.7 billion faithful.
The episode features Aman Ali, Wajahat Ali, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, Reza Aslan, Negin Farsad, Mona Haydar, Maz Jobrani, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Zahra Noorbakhsh, Omar Regan, Sebastian Robins, Linda Sarsour, Layla Shaikley, Dena Takruri, and Iqbal Theba.
“I found it so interesting to hear the array of answers we got from this amazing and very funny group of people,” Seftel said in an email to The Huffington Post.
At its most basic, the term “Muslim” applies to anyone who follows the Islamic religion, says author and entrepreneur Amani Al-Khatahtbeh in the video. Even more stripped down, author Reza Aslan puts forth: “A Muslim is anyone who says he’s a Muslim.”
In Arabic, the word “Muslim” means “one who submits.” Many take that to mean submission to Allah or to the faith, but some define it more broadly.
Categories: Islam, Religion, The Muslim Times