Dalia Mogahed - Recognizing Muslim American Roots

About this lecture

In this talk, researcher and scholar Dalia Mogahed shares her personal journey from growing up as one of few Muslims in Madison, Wisconsin, to discovering her identity through *The Autobiography of Malcolm X* and the legacy of Black Muslim leadership in America. She presents compelling data on the diversity and economic contributions of the American Muslim community, challenges the flawed "benign tumor" framing of Muslims in public discourse, and outlines three key steps — knowing each other, building common cause, and doing inner anti-racist work — for Muslims to fully live out their faith's call to justice. The talk closes with a moving story about a Muslim woman in Indonesia whose quiet act of kindness became, for a non-Muslim writer, the enduring face of Islam.