I'm Chris DeTippet. Today, living is long. The nature and meaning of

Muslim identity in nine very different American lives.

We skate, we snowboard, we make art, we make music, we fall in love, we slam

poetry, we go baggy, we go skinny, but we also pray, we memorize Quran, we fast,

we give in charity, we educate and we represent.

Personally, I have lectured the thousands of Americans. No one has ever asked me a

question about science. As this, all that Islam has given to humanity is a bunch

of not-case terrorists. But also being Muslim in America makes me a better

Muslim. One with more hope for the future.

My journey as an artist has been fortuitous, touched by an era of

serendipity and also has been very random and that just goes to show you

sometimes. I love works in mysterious ways as we say.

This is Speaking of Faith. Stay with us.

This public radio podcast is supported by the Fetzer Institute as part of its

campaign for Love and Forgiveness online at loveandforgive.org.

I'm Chris DeTippet. In Western public discourse, we use terms like Islam and the Muslim world

as though there is a monolithic reality behind them. This hour, we draw out a

range of voices and stories that embody the breadth of this faith of 1.5

billion people, which is often obscured by both violent headlines and

unconvincing platitudes. These voices also reveal a creative convergence of

Islamic spirituality and American identity that is unfolding largely

unnoticed in the US. From American public media, this is Speaking of Faith.

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