What It Means - Day 41

And now I want to talk about the other Skype session from Friday, the one we had with Qasim Rashid. If you follow me on Twitter, and no one should follow me on Twitter, then you know Qasim Rashid; seriously, I must retweet 90% of his Tweets.  It was through our interaction on Twitter that I was able to reach out to him and, gently, ask if he'd consider Skyping with my Dar al-Islam: India class. He graciously, and instantly, said yes.  Qasim Rashid is a member of the Ahmadiyya community, who are often, sadly and unfairly, discriminated against by some Muslim extremists. His book, The Wrong Kind of Muslim, tells the story of this oppression through the lens of his trip to Pakistan. We're reading the book in class and the students found it both moving and troubling, and, naturally, they were very excited to get the chance to talk to him.  In addition to being an author (he's also working on a children's book on Ramadan) Rashid is also a human rights lawyer and is running for Senate in Virginia.  Clearly, he has a lot on his plate, but he still found time to spend with us. The students asked how they cold make a difference and he gave them some wonderful advice: there are a million problems in the world and don't be shocked into inactivity by the enormity of the challenge; think in the long term, pick out what you're passionate about, study it, become an expert, write some op-eds for the newspaper, publish some articles, write a book, make yourself an authority and get to work.

In addition to everything else Qasim Rashid is an unrepentant teller of bad Dad jokes. This is a picture of him smiling when I put him on the spot and asked him to tell us the worst bad Dad joke he ever told.  Before providing one he did kick back and point out that there is really no such thing as a "bad Dad joke." 

The students were excited to talk to him, and left even more motivated to make a difference.