I was pleased and overwhelmed to have completed the defense of my Master’s thesis – “The Muslim American Fight for Social Justice: From Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter.” It came at the end of months of research and interviews, but was also the culmination of so many important courses I had taken at AIC. From Islam and the West, History of Islamic Civilization, Islam and the African American Experience, Islam and Gender Studies, Quranic Studies, Islamic Ethics and Spirituality, Islamic Political Thought, Prophetic Biography and more – all were courses I drew upon to tell a history and provide an analysis of the Muslim American community that has an untold history of fighting for social justice.
The professors I had were all leaders in their fields and conveyed deep knowledge of their subjects while challenging me to grapple with the material in new ways.
My experience in completing the thesis reflected my experience at AIC. I was accepted and challenged to embrace both a wide body of knowledge in the Islamic world and the diverse cultures in which that knowledge can be found, even here in our own country.
I would not have been successful at completing my degree without the warm, welcoming, diverse, academically challenging, and Muslim American centered atmosphere and staff at AIC. The only regret I have is that I can’t do it again.