Bestselling author Ranya Tabari Idliby of The Faith Club has raised her children to be proud of their Muslim faith while fully embracing their American identity. However, talking about 9/11 can be difficult for American Muslims of any age, and plenty of ignorance about Islam still exists.
She joined HuffPost Live host Ahmed Shihab-Eldin to talk about her latest book, Burqas, Baseball, and Apple Pie, and to share some anecdotes about the ups and downs of being a Muslim mom in a post-9/11 world.
Idliby explained that her children "always approach the anniversary of 9/11 with a heavy heart," due in part to teasing at school. She was surprised when her son came home and told her, "Tomorrow is 9/11, and I told my friends they have a 'free pass' at the lunch table."
She was moved when he explained, "Well, they get to say anything they want, anything bad about Islam, and I won't answer back."
Idliby went on to address the persistent characterization of Islam as a violent religion, saying, "It's such a futile question to say, 'Is a religion peaceful or violent?' It is only as peaceful or as violent as the hands it finds itself in. And within every religion, there's a capacity for violence and a capacity for peace. And it's incumbent upon us, as American Muslims, to move forward, in that non-violent, open, embracing, pluralistic way."
Watch the segment above, and don't miss Idliby's amazing response in the clip below when her daughter asked her if she could marry a Jew:
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