IF:  For those who are not familiar with you, especially outside of San Diego, let’s  start with your background.

TH:  I came to the United States in August 2001, three weeks before the tragedy of 9/11.  I was invited to take care of the Colorado Muslim Youth Foundation, where I was a youth counselor.  I moved to San Diego in September 2004, when I was hired as Imam of the Islamic Center of San Diego.

IF:  What are some of the challenges you face in your role as an Imam in the United States, and especially in San Diego?

TH:  One of the challenges I’m facing is how to be able to accommodate my community in the best way. It’s not easy to work with a community that is very, very diverse.  Diversity is actually a blessing, but at the same time, it is a big challenge for an Imam, meaning that you have to be an Imam that is Arab, Pakistani, Bengali, Somali; you have to understand everybody. There some people and some members of the community who do consider their own culture as part of Islam, for example, and when they come to me requesting a service according to their culture, sometimes it’s hard for me to accommodate them because  it’s hard for me to convey that what they think is part of Islam actually is not. The second challenge is the Muslim versus non-Muslim community. Reaching out to the larger society as an Imam is not easy, especially when you know you have within your community some members who prefer to be inside their own bubble. They are isolating themselves. They don’t want to have any kind of interaction with the larger society because they feel that it is a threat to their own identity, to their very existence. The [unwillingness] of the majority of the Muslim community to reach out to the larger society is another challenge. 

IF: When you talk about the lack of openness within the Muslim community, that leads to the importance you place on interfaith work.

TH: I am very involved with the interfaith dialogue. I work with several interfaith groups, like Faith Leaders for Peace, working against the war in Iraq; and with the Interfaith Shelter Network, providing shelters and food for the homeless of San Diego. I also work and cooperate with the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, working for all the rights of workers and undocumented immigrants. We are also trying to establish a new interfaith group, which is the Youth Interfaith Council of San Diego. It’s a unique initiative that involves the youth from the Muslim community, the Jewish community and the Christian community coming together to learn from each other and to interact together in a mature and responsible way.

IF: Whose idea was the Youth Interfaith Council?

TH:  When I came to San Diego, there was a discussion between one of the board members of ICSD and a representative from one of the synagogues in San Diego. I got involved and tried to develop this relationship. Recently, I suggested that instead of just meeting once in a while in the Islamic Center or in the synagogue or in the church, let’s work together, let’s do things together. So, now, we are going to work in three fields with the youth: religious education, civic education and community service. What I mean by religious education is that we are going to have four to five gatherings during 2008. In these gatherings, we are going to have a panel on which there will be representatives from the ICSD youth group, the synagogue youth group and the church youth group.  Each one of them will talk about one of the themes we have suggested. The first theme is God. Who is God from the Islamic perspective, Christian perspective, and Jewish perspective? Each one will present his or her perspective. Then we will open the session for questions and answers.  For civic education, I have suggested that the youth groups meet with some of the officials of San Diego like Mayor Jerry Sanders. In the field of community service, we are trying to get involved with Habitat for Humanity and to participate with the Interfaith Shelter Network. Soon, in sha Allah, all the youth of the three faiths are going to participate together to feed the homeless in one of the shelters.

IF: Do you think that bringing the youth in will help that avenue because the youth are more open?

TH:  Yes. I think one of my duties as an Imam is to start preparing our next generation from now, from this age, because they are more ready than the adults. They were born and raised here. Whether we like it or not, they are interacting with non-Muslims everywhere, especially at school. So, we want to understand their position and we want them to be proud of their identity. We want them to interact with their non-Muslim classmates and co-workers in the proper way. We’re not compromising their identity, their faith, their principles and values. This is what makes me focus more on the youth, because they are the future of our community. They are the future leaders of our Islamic institutions that people have established before us. 

IF: As an Imam in such a diverse community, you have to understand the various cultures in that community. You are not only a religious leader, but in my cases, you have to be a psychologist, marriage counselor, youth counselor, financial advisor and a judge. You deal with social problems in the community like disputes between spouses, parents and children, and business partners.  What’s your approach?

TH:  I try to do my best, and I try to learn more about the skills and techniques I use nowadays in order to combine them with the knowledge of Islam that I have to come up with a better way to do counseling. I took a mediation and dispute resolution, and SubhanAllah (Glory to God), when the instructors were teaching us, I was remembering the teachings of Islam. There is nothing better than combining the teachings of the Qur’an and sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH) and these skills together and implement them to serve your community. I’m not saying I’m professional in counseling. I’m just doing my best.

IF:  Is that something you understand as just part of your role, or are there some things that should be delegated to other people?

TH:  It should be delegated to other people. But, unfortunately, our Islamic institutions, especially the mosques and the Islamic centers, are not developed to the point that we have full-time people dedicating their time and their effort and energy to be specialized in that specific area. We don’t have that yet.

IF:  Is it a matter of not having the necessary people or is it a lack of vision?

TH:  Both. We have to develop the vision of our institutions to accommodate or to reach out to these fields. But at the same time, we are a little behind when it comes to the services that we have provided to our communities. We are acting in a way that is no longer efficient. We have to work hard to develop our institutions and to bring the qualified people who can serve the community in a better way who can specialize in better areas. Now, we are doing this in a very, if you will, primitive way, but in the near future, we cannot afford to do this anymore. We have to go to the next stage, in sha Allah.

IF:  There may be people who are specialized, but they look at the benefits package and it’s not very attractive, especially for Imams, or even young, aspiring Imams.  What should be done about that?

TH:  Unfortunately, most of our Islamic institutions are operating like musallah; the Imam is someone who leads the prayers, gives naseeha (advice) to someone who did something wrong and helps young kids memorize Quran. That’s it.  It’s sad to see. The people who are in charge of our masajid are engineers, PhD’s, have masters degrees in their fields; some of them, they are running companies. But when it comes to running a masjid … I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s all about failure.  Why are we acting and operating like this when it comes to our own Islamic centers? We have to learn from the society we are living in. We have many people working in many well-known and developed institutions and companies. Why can’t we implement these skills and talents and potentials that we have in order to run our own masajid?  Unfortunately, when you talk about the masajid in San Diego, without offending any people from other masajid, we are not on the level of serving our community and reaching out to the larger society as we are supposed to. We are far behind. So, there is a lot of work to be done, and the hope is all in the hands of our future generation, in sha Allah.

IF: So, if you could say one thing to your community in San Diego, what would you tell them?

TH: I would like to tell them we are ambassadors of Islam. We have to understand our deen (religion) properly, and we have to implement the teachings of our deen in our daily lives in a way that can help us deliver the message of Islam and to share this blessing of faith with others in the proper way. The second thing I would like to say is that strength of the community depends on the strength of the institution, not the strength of the individuals. We can have in our community all the engineers and PhDs and doctors … but unless these people come together and establish a strong community, nothing will happen. If there is any energy we have and any money we have and would like to invest in something, let’s invest in strengthening our Islamic institutions. And, by the way, when I say Islamic institutions, I don’t mean the Islamic center or the masjid, I mean the Muslim organizations that are working in the educational field, in civil rights and civil liberties, in media, in social services. We need to have all of these organizations be very strong if we want to go forward with our message and with our mission in this life.

IF: Can you talk about the refugees in San Diego?

TH:  Especially recently, the government brought, through the Catholic charities, a lot of refugee families to the San Diego area. Most of them are Muslims from Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Burma. According to some people – Muslims and non-Muslims – who work with the government to work with the refugees, they have expressed that these Muslim families feel more comfortable dealing with Muslims, especially when they first arrive. They want to reach out to the masjid. They want to meet with Muslim families. They want the help to come from the Muslim community. Of course, the situation is a little bit overwhelming, but at the same time, we are trying to do our best at the Islamic Center of San Diego to help with whatever we can and whatever we can afford. A lot of financial aid from the Islamic center is going to the refugees.  Also, we are helping them through the Muslim Community Services, trying to provide them with some of the necessary stuff like furniture, dishes, clothes and food, and by  orienting them, for example, to the offices and agencies where they can apply for welfare, Medicare and so on. We are trying to provide them with other services, like in Ramadan for example, we try to have volunteers give bring them to the Islamic center to share Iftar with the rest of the community members. Our girl scouts did a toy drive for the kids of the refugee families.