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They are students, activists, welders and artists. They've lived in Egypt and Yemen and north Minneapolis. They are daughters and brothers and fathers. Here, they share their experiences of being Muslim in Minnesota.

A light snow falls on the Masjid An-Nur mosque.

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Ali Newman, 38, is a hip-hop artist who performs under the name Brother Ali. He's a member of the Minneapolis-based Rhymesayers hip-hop collective, and the father of a teenage son and a 7-year-old daughter. 

"To me, my faith means connecting to the creator of all people, and thereby connecting to the goodness that's in all people," he said.

Newman converted to Islam in 1993 as a teenager in north Minneapolis. His faith, he said, influences his music, his family and all aspects of his life.

"I'm a hip-hop artist, so becoming a Muslim was just one more thing that ... could make me a complete outsider," he said. "But I did it because I believe in it. I really believe in it, and believe that it's real. And believe that there's medicine in it for the world."

Brother Ali by MPR News

Muna Scekomar, 20, is a junior studying communications and nursing at St. Catherine University in St. Paul.

She is the daughter of Sheik Abdirahman Sheik Omar Ahmad, the well-known imam of the Abubakar As-Saddique Mosque. 

She's also an avid longboarder.

Scekomar is outspoken, sporty, and calls her hijab her super-power cape.

She said she breaks all stereotypes about being Muslim. 

"Being a Minnesotan, and a Muslim in America, to me, is not contradicting at all," she said. "It's more [an] intersectionality of my identity. ... It's my way of life, and how I live, and interact with the world."

Scekomar was born in Italy, but considers Minneapolis her hometown.

"Islam teaches you how to live your life in whatever place you are living," she said, "and that's what I am doing as a Muslim here."

Muna Scekomar by MPR News

Kate Downing Khaled, 33, is an advocate, blogger and the mother of three young boys. 

"Religion is integrated into every part of our daily life," she said.

Khaled, who works at a St. Paul nonprofit and lives in Minneapolis, converted to Islam from Christianity on New Year's Day 2007.

Kate Downing Khaled by MPR News

Hafsa Abdi, 18, is a senior at St. Cloud Technical High School. 

Abdi, whose mother is an active community member and a medical interpreter, was a leader of the students who walked out of Tech in March 2015, when simmering racial tensions at the school boiled over.

Hafsa Abdi by MPR News

Balqiis Hersi, 30, works as an enrollment specialist for Minneapolis Public Schools. 

"Since I've worked with Minneapolis Public Schools, it has been wonderful, because we're surrounded by so much diversity, religion faith, where I am very welcomed and loved and my culture and my religion is respected," she said.


Balqiis Hersi by MPR News

Steve Rose, 35, is from Arkansas. He lives in Bloomington now, and has lived in Minnesota since 2010. He's a mechanic and welder. 

Islam, Rose said, saved his life. 

Steve Rose by MPR News

Seng Khan, 29, of St. Paul, works as an accountant. She is a wife, a teacher, an animator and a Navy wife. She volunteers to design flowers for Muslim weddings and to clean a mosque in town. 

Islam, Khan says, is like the air that she breathes.

Khan, who is Hmong, grew up Mormon, the oldest of six children. She converted to Islam when she was 21. 

Seng Khan by MPR News

Abdishakur Ali, of Brooklyn Park, was born in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland. 

He works for Minneapolis Public Schools, helping families with school placement.

On a trip back home to Somalia last year, he said, he looked around and saw a lot of young people just like him, but without a clear future.

"Here I am, enjoying a better life because of Minnesota," he said.

But the good does come with its challenges, he said. 

For a man who loves to travel, that means factoring in extra time for additional security at the airport. It means navigating the complex racial and religious differences within Minnesota culture. It means knowing that a lot of his white counterparts don't need to think about those things.

"You live with the good," he said, "and the good is the opportunities, but the bad is also these challenges and knowing that there's an extra eye on you just because of your religion."

Abdishakur Ali by MPR News

Jaylani Hussein, 33, is the first Somali president of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a post he holds today.

Hussein, of Roseville, was born in Somalia and arrived in Minnesota by way of Egypt in 1993. He is a community advocate and graduate of St. Cloud State University. 

"The first individual we actually had a conversation with when we landed was a taxi driver who was originally from Egypt," Hussein said. "And so he was almost a God-send to give us an ease, to know that Muslims are living here, and there is a history of American Muslim population."


Jaylani Hussein by MPR News

Asha Wako, 19, has lived in Minnesota most of her life. She is Oromo, a member of an ethnic group from East Africa &madsh; and one of 16 siblings.

Asha works at a Caribou Coffee shop in downtown St. Paul.  

"My religion is everything," she said. "It helps me make the decisions I make in life. Honestly, I'd be lost without it."


Asha Wako by MPR News

Khalid Mohamed, 22, is studying political science at Hamline University. He also works as a security guard.

Mohamed was born in Yemen, grew up in Somalia and came to Minnesota as a teenager. 

The recent arrests of young Minneapolis Somali men on terrorism-related charges has changed how he operates in the world, he said.

"That really puts us at a spot where you have to be extra cautious what you say, what you post on Facebook or what you tweet, what you tell others," said Mohamed, who said he loves to stay up-to-date on current events. 

"Sometimes I'm afraid of viewing videos on YouTube if it has anything related with ISIS. I just stand back because I'm afraid that once you watch it and view those YouTube videos, I'm afraid that the feds might think that I maybe thinking abut joining ISIS, maybe thinking that these acts are OK with me." 

Listen: What it's like to be Muslim in Minnesota

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