Glimmers Of Hope in 2024: An American Road Trip
Last week I drove a lot. Too damn much. Things began with me leaving St. Louis in order to take my wife to Chicago on some business. Instead of making it a one-day back and forth trip to Chicago, which I've done many times over the years, I decided to rent a hotel in suburban Des Plaines for a couple of days and do some exploring.
Chicago
Why Des Plaines? I didn't choose it in order to be close to the masjid notorious for a recent Ramadan brawl over Dunkin Donuts. I wanted to be in the middle of the halal food scene. Like many Muslims in America, I'm on and off in regards to my strict observance of a Zabihah halal only diet, and currently I'm trying to stay on it.
Des Plaines turned out to be a good choice. I visited the Dunkin Donut masjid for prayer and found it to be lovely. As a bonus I met a college wrestler from Dagestan. Unbeknownst to me, there is a large Central Asian and former Soviet Muslim community in the northern suburbs, and they operate some of the halal restaurants. We went to an excellent Italian restaurant and a Central Asian place both operated by immigrants from Kyrgyzstan. In addition to that, I hit up a 24-hour halal fast food spot and a Korean place in Lombard.
I met Muslims everywhere I went in Chicagoland, saw numerous suburban strip malls populated by Muslim businesses, and ended up in a long conversation with Muslim students in Schaumburg, outside of an Indonesian grocery store, as they were lining up for halal burgers next door.
In addition to gorging my post Ramadan self with halal food, we hit up a Puerto Rican museum in Humboldt Park, and attempted to visit a museum commemorating the Cambodian Genocide (one I'm sure Noam Chomsky and many of your favorite lefties would never set foot in). I missed Ustadah Ubaydullah Evans (my scheduling error), but was able to meet podcast guru Mahin Islam for lunch. My Buckeye brother from Bangladesh informed me he policed his own speech in order to not end up a subject in my newsletter.
I left Chicago, just as I did in July when we visited Skokie, with a feeling that our diverse and prosperous suburbs are the most interesting places in America.
Dallas
After a day of rest in St. Louis we headed to Texas to see my daughter. We got a room in Richardson, which is in the heart of the suburban Dallas halal scene and Muslim community. While Dallas has become the hot place for Muslims around America to relocate to, very few are moving to the city, and nearly all are moving to the suburbs to be near the large mosques and halal scene. In Texas, we opted for halal burgers, chicken, and Mexican.
My hotel was crowded because there was a Nigerian wedding and an Indian beauty pageant. We left the hotel early on the last day to go to a Yemeni coffee shop in Richardson, which is next door to a Muslim clothing shop and travel agency, which is across the street from another Yemeni coffee shop, which is next door to a halal restaurant and market.
When I was growing up suburbs were seen as uniformly boring, and they kinda were, although we are now nostalgic for malls, riding bikes outside, and the sports culture the 1980s provided to a kid.
The gentrification of American cities has largely been driven by college-educated whites rejecting the boredom of their suburban upbringing and recreating urban neighborhoods based on their cultural sensibilities, lifestyles, and politics. The combination of this gentrification, and other urban neighborhoods becoming violent and lawless, has meant cities have become less attractive to family-oriented Muslims seeking community, good public schools, and safety. This is also true of other segments of the American population (Black Americans, Latinos, Asians, etc.). It is in these suburban communities, which are increasingly dominated by immigrants and their children and grandchildren, where you can see the road map for a brighter future for America and a more vibrant culture. Communities rooted in faith, family, and more traditional values, and you're as likely to see an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian, or Peruvian Catholic, as you are to see a Muslim.
The American 2024 Dilemma
In 2024 it is easy to feel down in America as we look towards a November presidential election between two 80-year old men who ran against one another in 2020. Many of us lifelong Democrats are feeling uneasy and uncomfortable with the state of the party. Obama promised us hope and change and we never got any. The COVID-19 pandemic came, we wore masks and got vaccinated and did what we were told, and many of us now feel we were taken for a ride and our children suffered the most due to social isolation. We protested police corruption and killings and were given a set of hairbrained ideas from academics and nonprofits that has led to our most vulnerable communities and populations being less and less safe. We were inspired by abolition and the Civil Rights Movement only to see a neurotic obsession with identity, a new caste system, gender ideology, climate alarmism, and racial essentialism being sold to us in what can only be described as a new religion inspiring fundamentalist fervor.
Then we look to the other side and we have a presidential candidate who is not committed to democracy or the rule of law, and has a violent cult following, often aimed at religious and racial minorities, and realize there is only one real adult choice if you are in a swing state.
I'm in Missouri, thoroughly red, so my inclination is to spend election day in the masjid. Not that I want to discuss politics there either as the community has largely been guided by a collection of Ikhwanis, leftists, and outright tankies, with bad behavior in public and private, no concern for deen, and no concern for human rights anywhere in the world other than one place. The best masjid is one where politics aren't discussed and I'm fortunate to have a group of Muslim friends who seldom discuss political matters.
Audiobooks I listened to?
LatinoLand: A Portrait of America's Largest and Least Understood Minority by Marie Arana
God Save Benedict Arnold: The True Story of America's Most Hated Man by Jack Kelly
Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr by Gerald Posner
Fear is Just a Word by Azam Ahmed
New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West by David E. Sanger
Bonus fight content….
I thought Devin Haney would easily outbox and defeat Ryan Garcia. Wasn't the first time I've been wrong about a fight. This fight wasn't a battle between Islam and Christianity, despite idiotic social media jostling between rival fans, and it should only be viewed as an athletic competition. Haney has superior boxing skills, but a weak chin and Ryan has dynamite in his left hand. It's that simple. If he gets caught by Tank or Teofimo he's going to sleep. Devin has been exposed and will have to spend the rest of his career on his bicycle.
Olympic Trials for wrestling? Many great matches, but few real surprises other than Aaron Brooks taking out David Taylor. Team USA will be well represented in Paris.