Social Impact Authors: How & Why Sumbul Ali-Karamali of “Demystifying Shariah” Is Helping To Change Our World
An Interview With Edward Sylvan
I want my readers to understand what’s happening when they see superficial news stories. I want to dismantle the tall tales about Muslims that have been with us in Europe and America for centuries. Negative stereotypes lead to hatred, which can lead to violence; that’s not healthy for our country or for any of us, whether we’re Muslim or not.
As part of my series about “authors who are making an important social impact” I had the pleasure of interviewing Sumbul Ali-Karamali, author of Demystifying Shariah: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It’s Not Taking Over Our Country.
Sumbul Ali-Karamali is an award-winning author and popular speaker whose books, articles, blogs, and speaking events are her way of promoting intercultural understanding in the world. Sumbul — her name is the Persian word for “hyacinth” — grew up in Southern California, answering questions about Islam and Muslims. With her degree in English (from Stanford University), her law degree (from the University of California at Davis), and her additional law degree in Islamic law (from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies), she left the world of corporate law to start writing books to answer those very questions. When not writing, Sumbul is a fiction and nonfiction judge, a board member of nonprofits dedicated to multicultural education, and a member of both the steering committee of Women in Islamic Spirituality and Equality (WISE) and the Muslim Women’s Global Shura Council, both of which aim to promote women’s rights and human rights from an Islamic perspective. And when she’s not doing any of that, either, she’s listening to opera or watching Star Trek reruns with her family.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
Thank you for inviting me! I grew up in Southern California, where — at that time — I was usually the first Muslim that those around me had ever met. Consequently, I grew up answering a lot of questions. Usually, the questions arose when I was served pork and I had to, apologetically, say I couldn’t eat it. But as I grew older and started fasting during the month of Ramadan and refraining from alcohol when my friends were discovering it, more questions came my way. When I went off to college and lived in the dorms, my life became sort of an “Interfaith 101” experience on a daily basis. By the time I began working as a corporate lawyer, my colleagues had begun asking for book recommendations on Islam, but nothing was available — at least nothing that answered the kinds of questions that I’d been asked all my life and were never answered by our media. When my husband’s job took us to London, I earned an additional degree in Islamic law and began to write books to answer the kinds of questions I knew people wanted to ask.
When you were younger, was there a book that you read that inspired you to take action or changed your life? Can you share a story about that?
When I was a child, I read so many books (mostly fiction) that my parents and teachers were always frustrated with me. My parents were frustrated because I would read in bed after I was supposed to be asleep, in our one bathroom, on family trips, at dinner parties, etc. My teachers were frustrated because I’d become so deaf to the world during the free reading period that I’d never hear the teacher transition the class to math or history or whatever else we were supposed to be learning. You might say that books as a whole changed my life; I read them so intemperately that becoming a writer was almost a foregone conclusion.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?
When I was starting out as a lawyer, long before 9/11, a partner at my law firm sat me down and asked me, “Why are Muslims more violent than other kinds of people?” I was stunned — this was at my workplace, where I was extremely junior, and there I was, a fresh new baby lawyer, looking peaceful enough in my new suit and new pumps! But I tried very hard to answer the question. That was my mistake. The partner didn’t want an explanation or information but an opportunity to rant and rave to an underling. I’ve since learned much more about why people ask the questions they do and how to look beyond their words to what they’re really asking. I’ve also learned much more about why those misconceptions fester in the first place. (Some hints about why: confirmation bias, the long Western historical tradition of viewing Muslims as the enemy, the media perpetuation of this tradition, and the well-documented Islamophobia industry in our country.)
Can you describe how you aim to make a significant social impact with your book Demystifying Shariah?
I’m trying to build cross-cultural understanding. I wrote Demystifying Shariah to be academically reliable but a page-turner. It’s an introduction to Islam and Muslims, with a focus on shariah — the development and history of shariah, of course, but also how Muslims engage with shariah today. (What do we eat? What do we think of LGBTQI issues? How are we supposed to dress? Does shariah really include all those horrible draconian punishments we hear about?) I want my readers to understand what’s happening when they see superficial news stories. I want to dismantle the tall tales about Muslims that have been with us in Europe and America for centuries. Negative stereotypes lead to hatred, which can lead to violence; that’s not healthy for our country or for any of us, whether we’re Muslim or not.
Can you share with us the most interesting story that you shared in your book?
I think there are too many to choose the most interesting! But here’s one of them: in the year 859, a Muslim woman named Fatima al-Fihri gave what money she could to found the oldest university in the world still operating today, the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Morocco. Fatima founded it by establishing a waqf charitable endowment, a charitable contribution given for the sake of God. In Islam, the pursuit of knowledge is a religious duty, so a charitable contribution for education counts as “given for the sake of God.” I love that the oldest university in the world was founded by a Muslim woman!
What was the “aha moment” or series of events that made you decide to bring your message to the greater world? Can you share a story about that?
I’ve had to answer questions about Islam all my life — in written form since 2008 — but this latest book, my third, came about because of an incident that occurred at one of my Stanford reunions. I stood in the campus bookstore for an alumni author event, next to a table piled high with my books, when a couple sporting “50th Reunion” badges on their shirts approached me to say politely, “We’re very much afraid shariah law is taking over the United States.” This statement silenced me for a moment — it was problematic on many levels — but then I assured them brightly that no religious law could take over our country because of our Constitution. Their brows remained furrowed, their eyes troubled, as they replied, “But Rush Limbaugh said it could.” They left without buying a book, of course! That’s when I realized I needed to take the shariah hysteria in hand and write about it to clear away the tangled tall tales.
Without sharing specific names, can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
It’s easy to get discouraged sometimes (I’ve had my share of haters), but what keeps me going are the readers, Muslims as well as others, who contact me to tell me that my books changed their worldviews or dissolved the prejudice they were feeling in their hearts. I particularly remember two letters I received from a student at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis. She had gotten to know Muslims on a rotation in Bahrain, and she felt that she was the only person at the Academy who was trying to contradict negative stereotypes and false assumptions about Muslims. She told me she’d found my books to be invaluable in educating (and sometimes arguing with) her fellow students. This moved me a great deal, and it illustrates how much minority groups need allies. I’m never more rewarded as when people use my books as tools to bridge cultural divides.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
Yes! Thank you for asking! First, we can stop hiring Islamophobes to “teach” about Islam. It’s like hiring Nazis to teach about Judaism. Yet, our police forces and government offices (including the FBI) have repeatedly hired Islamophobes for training. We can stop buying Islamophobic books, too, many of which are best sellers. You can look at the Center for American Progress’s report, “Fear, Inc.,” to see the identities of the people who make big bucks spreading fear and misinformation about Muslims. Second, we can object to Islamophobia by objecting to those who hire Islamophobes and who say or write anti-Muslim statements — just as we should stand up against prejudice directed toward any group. Third, we (including Muslims) can educate ourselves about facts regarding Muslims and about the wide range of beliefs and practices comprising Islam. Knowledge is power!
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Leadership means bringing all invested parties on board and building consensus and respect between different views, factions, and backgrounds. It’s the opposite of divisiveness. Muslims consider Prophet Muhammad to be the model of a leader: he was the political leader of a city populated by Muslims, Jews, Christians, pagans, and other monotheists, and he entered into a contract with the leaders of all the groups, in which they all agreed to be allies and to defend the city. He could have been autocratic, but he wasn’t, instead of consulting with all Muslim and non-Muslim communities. Although he was the political leader for everyone, he was the religious leader only for the Muslims; the other religious groups followed their own religious laws and culture. Not bad for the seventh century!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
When I was in middle school, a family friend gave me a book of quotes. I remember a proverb that read, “If you hate someone, the way they hold their fork will drive you crazy. If you love someone, they can overturn their whole plate into your lap, and you won’t care.” As Muslim American, the way I hold my fork will drive some people crazy, even if it’s the same way others hold their forks. This quote illustrates the simplest form of a framework, a way of processing facts through a lens. Holding a utensil (the fact) is being processed through a lens of hate or love. Frameworks exist in history and culture, too, and there’s a long-standing historical framework in the West of viewing Muslims through the lens of the enemy. Although the world has changed now — for example, Muslims are now part of the West — the framework hasn’t changed. That’s something that must change if we are to truly understand what’s happening in the world and even in our own country. There are other frameworks, too, of course: anti-Semitism and anti-Black frameworks, for example. But, the anti-Muslim one hasn’t been generally acknowledged.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I really want to say I’d like to have breakfast with Captain Picard of the Enterprise, but I suspect you’re not asking about fictional characters! In that case, I’d like to have lunch with Queen Noor, the American-born, Princeton-graduate former Queen of Jordan. I’d like her perspective as someone straddling and building trust between multiple cultures, but in particular, I’d like her American-Muslim-Jordanian-woman’s perspective on politics, culture, misconceptions and confirmation bias, and the state of the world in the late 1970s when she moved to Jordan and the Iranian revolution was imminent and set to change not only the Middle Eastern landscape but how Americans viewed Muslims.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Please visit my website! It’s at https://sumbulalikaramali.com. It features a blog, recent interviews and podcasts, informative essays, and descriptions of my books and other work.You can also contact me through my website if you’d like me to come speak to your group — I’ve given talks for all ages and at hundreds of venues.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Social Impact Authors: How & Why Sumbul Ali-Karamali of “Demystifying Shariah” Is Helping To Change… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.