Navigating Islam in America

Abstract

I will never forget that beautiful summer night, in the elegant Hollywood Hills eatery, where I first met a Saudi prince. Having grown up in a staunchly secular, yet culturally Muslim family, it was fascinating for me to meet an official member of the Saudi royal family. That title carries a mystique and an air of superiority, conferring on its holder the role of official representative of Islam, a topic I then knew very little about. The night progressed, with countless bottles of champagne and unimaginably priced bottles of wine, until I could no longer restrain myself from posing the question that had been on my mind all evening: “Sorry to ask this,” I turned to my gracious host and said, “but isn’t it forbidden to drink alcohol?” With a coy smile, and the utmost seriousness in his voice, Prince Ahmed responded, “Oh Hedieh, don’t you know? Allah doesn’t live here. This [America] is dar al-har? [land of war], and Allah doesn’t turn his gaze to this land.” That statement thrust me directly into the curious and contentious debate over the true understanding of Islam, an issue that I—and many others—would spend the next decades trying to decipher.