5 Muslims who helped make America great

Donald Trump, the controversial US presidential candidate and business magnate, has once again been making headlines across the world. This time, it’s in response to his call for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”.

Statement on Preventing Muslim Immigration: https://t.co/HCWU16z6SR pic.twitter.com/d1dhaIs0S7

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015

When he first announced he was running for president, some treated him and his outlandish plans for making America “great again” as a bit of a joke. Back in July, for example, Huffington Post said they would be covering Trump’s campaign in their entertainment section instead of their politics one. But as the company’s editor-in-chief wrote in an op-ed this week: “We are no longer entertained.”

Trump’s hateful rhetoric against Mexican immigrants, rival female candidates and now Muslims, when combined with his high approval ratings, has got many people worried, including President Barack Obama. Speaking out against the attempt to turn certain groups into scapegoats, he pointed out that “Muslim Americans are our friends and our neighbours, our co-workers, our sports heroes”.

Indeed, as these five people from across entertainment, politics and technology have shown, Muslim Americans are a perfect example of what makes America great.

Muhammad Ali

The former boxer is widely considered one of the greatest heavyweight fighters in the history of the sport, and was even named the BBC sports personality of the century. He is respected as much for his skills in the ring as he is for his social activism outside of it.

He converted to Sunni Islam in 1975, and in 2001, he spoke to Oprah Winfrey about the misconceptions many Americans have about his religion: “The word Islam means peace. The word Muslim means one who surrenders to God. But the press makes us seem like haters. Christians are my brothers, Hindus are my brothers, all of them are my brothers. We just think different and believe different.”

Yasiin Bey

You might know him better as Mos Def, the Grammy-nominated hip hop artist. Or perhaps you know him from his acting days, when he received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. The multi-talented artist is better known nowadays for his social activism, particularly on issues related to police brutality and human rights violations.

When asked by Bill Maher whether his religion of Islam was one of hate and violence, he pointed out that these two tendencies were human failings found everywhere: “There is terrorism that comes from every religion. It is not about the division of Muslims and Christians, Democrats and Republicans, Autobots and Decepticons, black and white, and Bloods and Crips … Islam is not the threat. There are crazy people everywhere, in churches, mosques and airports.”

Huma Abedin

In the world of American politics, Muslims are rare. There are, for example, just two Muslim members of Congress. Women aren’t quite as rare, but they’re still under-represented. That’s why Huma Abedin, the Muslim vice-chair of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, really stands out for all she has achieved.

This week, in an email to supporters, she spoke out about Trump’s latest comments against Muslim Americans: “I’m a proud Muslim – but you don’t have to share my faith to share my disgust. Trump wants to literally write racism into our law books.”

You can be a proud American, a proud Muslim, and proudly serve this great country. Pride versus prejudice.

— Huma Abedin (@HumaAbedin) September 21, 2015

Fareed Zakaria

Fareed, an Indian-born American journalist, has had a distinguished career, working as an editor with Time and Newsweek International. The award-winning columnist now hosts his own politics show on CNN and writes a weekly column for the Washington Post.

He too has taken to Twitter to speak out against Trump’s anti-Muslim vitriol.

My take: https://t.co/IX6kcAiAv5 + https://t.co/27NLgLptGf pic.twitter.com/71qQFYBSyh

— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) December 9, 2015

Salman Khan

When this entrepreneurial American Muslim was working as a hedge fund analyst, he had one dream: to make education more accessible. In 2006, he started to make that dream a reality when he launched Khan Academy, an online learning tool that allowed people to study everything from maths to programming.

In 2012, Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Have you read?
5 refugees who changed the world
Europe’s misconceptions about its Muslim population
How Islam can help combat climate change

Author: Stéphanie Thomson is an editor at the World Economic Forum

Image: US President George W Bush awards Muhammad Ali with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, November 9, 2005. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque