Wisconsin Life

[bright, cheerful instrumental] - Asafa Quraishi-Landes: I've always liked learning.

So, education, for me, is something that gives people tools to be better.

My name is Asafa Quraishi-Landes, and I'm a law professor at the University of Wisconsin.

So, I'm kind of famous in the law school here about using characters.

So, my Constitution Law class, I actually have people sign up to be Hamilton, Jefferson, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

I have them play those characters in class, and I ask them questions in those characters just to bring it a little bit to life.

It allows the students to see things from a different perspective.

I'm biracial.

I come from two different racial backgrounds.

My father was born in Jaipur, India.

He moved to Pakistan and partitioned.

So, his goal was to become this genius economist.

So, he ended up in California.

There, met my mother.

She's raised Methodist, and had tried out all the different Christian denominations, and ended up trying out everything else.

She read all the stuff and had never heard of Islam.

And said, "Oh, what's that?"

There's very activist personalities on both sides.

So, they started lots of institutions for American Muslim experience, starting in the '60s before they had any kids.

I grew up thinking about how to make a difference for a community that was just trying to figure out how to fit into this world of being a minority religion, but also American.

And what does that mean?

[piano] My journey to Wisconsin was very unexpected.

I knew I wanted to teach constitutional law, and I also teach Islamic laws.

And when I got here, I really, really was impressed.

So, it felt like the kind of social justice awareness issues on campus and in town was something people generally cared about and you could talk about it.

So, the Wisconsin Idea-- when I first heard that, I was so inspired.

The knowledge built at the university is a trust that is owned, really, by the people of Wisconsin.

I owe something back to the people of Wisconsin.

And that's a beautiful idea that knowledge is a trust.

It's actually quite an Islamic idea that it's something to be shared and has to be shared with people.

As things happen over time in the United States, things like Islamophobia ramps up, things like anti-sharia legislation around the country, I started to realize that there's a real need for some of the work that I'm working on.

Unfortunately, "sharia" has become a bad word.

It's like a scary word to many Americans, including those in Wisconsin.

And it's just a series of guidelines on how to live my life.

Sharia literally means 'street' or 'way.'

So, way to go.

So, the way I like to say it: it's, like, God's way to live.

So, for a Muslim, it's like, that's how God wants me to live.

I've been very interested in "How do you connect "with young people at all ages "and get them inspired by knowledge and interested in doing something productive?"

It gives me a real window into what's going on with, you know, twenty-something Muslims in the United States.

The model is: we meet every month in somebody's house.

Locally, I've been involved in an organization called Oasis or Madison Oasis, which is sort of like a third space.

And so, we had the model of you'll have monthly meetings in people's homes.

It's a potluck dinner, so everyone comes to eat.

And then, you have a topic of conversation or a speaker.

And so, we named it Madison Oasis instead of Amela 'cause some of the members wanted to call it that.

It's a really cross-section of lots of people's interests in the American Muslim Community.

We're all Muslim together, but we're also all these other things.

Let's bring all of that together and learn from each other.

Again, I grew up with, like, opening my house to as many people as possible, and that makes me feel really, like, I'm connected to the community.

So, I like that.

There's this other organization that my parents started called the Muslim Public Service Network.

Let's try to help Muslim Americans to have that role in policy-making by giving them free room and board for two months while they do an internship on the Hill.

It is your responsibility as an American Muslim living here to do something to help the greater good of the country that you're living in.

You follow the law of the land where you are.

That's our Islamic responsibility.

I would love for American reaction to be, "Oh, good, the Muslims are here!

They're always caring about everybody."

And I think that we'd be really better understood as citizens of Wisconsin, as citizens of the country, if that was more well known.