[indistinct chatter]
[bright, cheerful music]
- Asifa Quraishi-Landes: I've always liked learning.
So education, for me,
is something that gives people tools to be better.
My name is Asifa Quraishi-Landes,
and I'm a law professor at the University of Wisconsin.
So I'm kind of famous in the law school here
about using characters.
So my Constitution Law class,
I actually have people sign up
to be Hamilton, Jefferson, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
I have them play those characters in class,
and I ask them questions in those characters
just to bring it a little bit to life.
It allows the students
to see things from a different perspective.
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I'm biracial.
I come from two different racial backgrounds.
My father was born in Jaipur, India.
He moved to Pakistan in partition.
So his goal was to
become this genius economist.
So he ended up in California.
There, met my mother.
She was raised Methodist, and had tried out
all the different Christian denominations,
and ended up trying out everything else.
She read all the stuff and had never heard of Islam.
And said, "Oh, what's that?"
There's very activist personalities
on both sides.
So they started lots of institutions
for American Muslim experience,
starting in the '60s before they had any kids.
I grew up thinking about
how to make a difference for a community
that was just trying to figure out
how to fit into this world of being a minority religion,
but also American, and what does that mean?
My journey to Wisconsin was very unexpected.
I knew I wanted to teach constitutional law,
and I also teach Islamic laws.
And when I got here,
I really, really was impressed.
So it felt like the kind of social justice awareness issues
on campus and in town
was something people generally cared about,
and you could talk about it.
So the Wisconsin Idea--
when I first heard that, I was so inspired.
The knowledge built at the university is a trust
that is owned, really, by the people of Wisconsin.
I owe something back to the people of Wisconsin.
And that's a beautiful idea
that knowledge is a trust.
It's actually quite an Islamic idea
that it's something to be shared
and has to be shared with people.
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As things happen over time in the United States,
things like Islamophobia ramps up,
things like anti-sharia legislation
around the country,
I started to realize that there's a real need
for some of the work that I'm working on.
Unfortunately, "sharia" has become a bad word.
It's like a scary word to many Americans,
including those in Wisconsin.
And it's just a series of guidelines
on how to live my life.
Sharia literally means "street" or "way."
So, way to go.
So the way I like to say it: it's, like, God's way to live.
So for a Muslim, it's like, that's how God wants me to live.
So that's why...
I've been very interested in
"How do you connect with young people at all ages
"and get them inspired by knowledge
and interested in doing something productive?"
It gives me a real window into
what's going on with, you know,
twenty-something Muslims in the United States.
[indistinct chatter]
The model is: we meet every month in somebody's house.
Locally, I've been involved in an organization
called Oasis or Madison Oasis,
which is sort of like a third space.
And so we had the model of
you'll have monthly meetings in people's homes.
It's a potluck dinner, so everyone comes to eat.
And then, you have a topic of conversation or a speaker.
And so we named it Madison Oasis instead of Amela
'cause some of the members wanted to call it that.
It's a really cross-section of lots of people's interests
in the American Muslim Community.
We're all Muslim together,
but we're also all these other things.
Let's bring all of that together and learn from each other.
Again, I grew up with, like, opening my house
to as many people as possible,
and that makes me feel really, like,
I'm connected to the community.
So I like that.
There's this other organization that my parents started
called the Muslim Public Service Network.
Let's try to help Muslim Americans
to have that role in policy-making
by giving them free room and board for two months
while they do an internship on the Hill.
It is your responsibility
as an American Muslim living here
to do something to help the greater good
of the country that you're living in.
You follow the law of the land where you are.
That's our Islamic responsibility.
[bright music]
I would love for American reaction to be,
"Oh, good, the Muslims are here!
They're always caring about everybody."
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And I think that we'd be really better understood
as citizens of Wisconsin, as citizens of the country,
if that was more well known.
*