So we LOVE all of our episodes, but there are some that are near and dear to our hearts (and we think yours, too).
We started this podcast on January 11, 2016 and now we’re at 11 episodes as we close the year (look for episode 11 to be released this week). We journeyed from Haya wa Iman: a blog on race, gender and Muslims in America to our new home at altMuslimah as Identity Politics: a podcast on race, gender and Muslims in America. This year has brought new insight, new questions and new ideas fueled by you—our loyal listeners working with us to bring Identity Politics to new heights.
We’ve had several thoughtful, funny and challenging conversations this year from trying to find love in the club within the Muslim community, to the presence of Muslims (particularly Black Muslims) in film, sharing the sorrows and hope of young Muslims across the country in light of the presidential election results and sitting down to chat with and learn from those who love us most—our parents.
Here are 5 episodes that we couldn’t stop thinking about in 2016:
- Umi Says
Three things happened before this episode was published: 1) Makkah was tired of hearing Ikhlas talk about starting a podcast for an entire year and told her to just do it. 2) Joshua, Ikhlas’s now husband and at the time boo thang, put a date on the calendar for her to release her first episode. 3) Ikhlas needed her first guest and her mom reluctantly, but supportively, agreed. Ikhlas’s mom told a story about her conversion that Ikhlas nor any of her five siblings had ever even heard. This is the moment where Ikhlas knew the podcast served a sincere purpose: putting a mic in front of folks to share the stories and experiences that too often go unheard.
- Are All My Skinfolk My Kinfolk
This is a conversation we had been dying to have with fellow members of the diaspora: African-American Muslims, Black American (“Blackamerican”) Muslims, African Muslims—are we all the same? Of course not! Diversity within the Black community is not something we often hear about, so we got a couple of our friends together and talked about what it means to be “Black” and Muslim in America. And chiiiile (or chale) did we learn some things.
- Muslims in Love (with Ihssan Tahir)
When we recorded this episode it was spring and you know what was in the air: love. But it always seems so hard to find, right? We wanted to know how folks find it, keep it, and what happens when you lose it. In this episode we talked to Muslim n’ Love blogger Ihssan Tahir and Makkah’s parents about love, relationships and marriage. Oh, and you also hear from Ikhlas’s husband Joshua about their love story.
- My Body Is Not the Party (with Asma Uddin)
We’re probably two of the least “shoppinin,” “make-upin” girls you will ever meet, but the media can’t get enough of what Muslim women are and are not wearing. We sat down with Asma Uddin, founding editor-in-chief of AltMuslimah (our new home!!) to talk about hijabis on Instagram, exercising our religious liberties and what it means to aspire to be the “first hijabi” anything.
- Muslim Cool (with Dr. Su’ad Abdul Khabeer)
In Kanye West’s song So Appalled from his album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy he says: “That was a little joke, voila, Praises due to the most high, Allah, Praises due to the most fly, Prada.” Wait, what? Dr. Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, author of Muslim Cool came on to tell us why this line shouldn’t be surprising because of the long history between race, religion and hip hop. She talks about what she calls “Muslim Cool”—a way of being Muslim in the U.S. that explores the relationship between Islam, hip hop and popular culture.
