Azmeralda Alfi: In Egypt, my husband was specializing in medical genetics, which was a new branch in medicine. He discovered a new syndrome, and we were at a time in our lives when we had to settle down for our children to build roots. We chose to immigrate to the US as a country that represented freedom. I have never regretted this decision. My husband and I came willing to become part of the society at large, not to be isolated or feel inferior if I was not fluent in English, and to blend in without losing our identity.
The first week after our arrival, we bought a car and checked where the nearest mosque was located. They told us that there was a small building in LA, and I even remember the address—83 St. Andrews Place. The first time we went to the mosque, I met an American lady who welcomed me and my family so warmly. I have spoken to the community several times about this lady, Patricia Awad, and the effect she had on my life with her kind touch. I have done my best until today to greet and welcome every person I meet to give them the sense of togetherness which I received, and I always ask people to perpetuate this kindness to others to make a community of compassionate Muslims.
IF: What were some of the challenges you faced while raising your children in an underdeveloped American-Muslim community in the early 1970s?
AA: We faced the same challenges that any new family faces when moving to a different country with no developed Muslim community. These challenges will exist as long as there is no realization of the need for a mosque and a social life in the mosque. Personally, this is what I felt—I wanted to belong to a place, and when I found that there were people willing to allow me to be a part of them, I had to participate.
This is another point—if somebody doesn’t welcome you, what do you do? In this way, I try to think of solutions for newer communities—do they have a community that helps each other, where somebody calls on you if you don’t show up for a week or two, and do they welcome talk of change to better serve the community? These are important points for young people who leave their families. Now we belong to a strong community, but what about when our kids and the younger generations move to a new place where they feel like they are strangers? At the Islamic Center [in LA], that was what happened to me—ladies engulfed me and made me feel a part of them, even on the weekends, and that was enough for any family.
IF: Mashallah, you and your husband have been married for 51 years, and your love and respect for one another has only increased. What advice do you have for young Muslim couples?
AA: Taqwallah [Consciousness of Allah], and heeding Allah in each other. Also, being just with each other, which is the essence of our religion. We teach our children to brush their teeth up and down, but we rarely teach them how to love and to respect even when you don’t appreciate the other point of view. Every woman and man should understand that we could look to a certain issue and both of us can appreciate it from totally different views because Allah created us to see things differently. The one thing we cannot divert from is taqwallah—caring that Allah would love me more if I don’t make my husband angry, or he wouldn’t like to make me angry or be unjust with me. Part of growing is understanding each other, and not losing the respect and honoring the other person. This is our secret. I love him so much! This is something one cherishes after that many years—that one loves the other.
IF: What prompted you to establish the New Horizon School system?
AA: We had the Sunday school at the Islamic Center, but we felt that it was not giving the children enough of what they should learn to be the seeds for the American-Muslim community. I wanted to start the school with pre elementary to 12th grade, but when we asked around, the advice came to start with pre elementary and to stop at second grade. The reasoning was that this was an immigrant community which didn’t have the resources or means of supporting this financial burden, and in addition, we have good, free education, especially if you live in a good city. So, we started New Horizon up to second grade, and then afterwards, I formed another program, the Noor Foundation, which was to teach the Qur’an and Arabic in four different areas of L.A. as a supplemented after-school program. After a while, the families felt that they wanted an extension of second grade to elementary grades, and that was the beginning of the New Horizon realization.
IF: Have the four New Horizon campuses met your expectations?
AA: I am happy with the continuous teacher development, especially for Arabic, Islamic Studies, and Qur’an, the subjects where we need to present Islam with as little influence as possible from the culture. Also, the Qur’anic studies program—developed by Dr. Aida Osman and Amira Al Sarraf 10-15 years ago—where universal values correspond to verses in the Quran, is a great forward step that now everyone in the U.S. realizes is needed to teach the child how to embody Islam in their hearts.
However, we still need development of an Arabic program. We have a great program for the pre elementary grades, but beyond that, we need a program compatible with our needs in Arabic. Can I say that we have a full curriculum? No, not yet. We need to have more books, more teacher training, more understanding—we need to have a place where students graduate from within our community and become teachers who are able to teach the religion, teach Qur’an while correctly pronouncing it, and teach the Arabic language by studying how to teach it as a foreign language, not as a native language. Alhamdulillah, we have reached very high levels in the past five years, but we need more, and who doesn’t need more improvement?
IF: The BIAE really came out of Dr.Alfi and me, and it was when I started becoming involved in the school. We felt a need for coordination between the education in the four schools and a need to have the teachers feel that all four schools are strong in being one system. If a system is balanced internally, the teachers will be willing to communicate with each other and benefit each other. If you have experience in teaching a certain subject to students, other teachers can gain from it and add to it. The four schools become like one community, which is what we wanted to have between the Islamic Center and other centers around us, like the Orange Crescent School. Our cooperation with OCS is beautiful—we tell them to take whatever they want from our website, where we’ve posted all our material. That way, anyone in the nation can benefit from it. There are very few Islamic school websites that do this. The BIAE is mainly a resource center to unify the way of education and support teachers’ education in cooperating with each other.
IF: Where would you like to see Arabic education in this country ten years from now?
AA: My dream is for Arabic to be offered all over the U.S. in public schools as part of the second language curriculum in each school district. Number one, through education, you enable communities to understand the richness of the Arabic language. This is the only language that has been spoken the same way for the past 1426 years! It’s the closest to the Qur’an, and it has been preserved in the Qur’an. That way, if somebody has the ability to read the Qur’an on their own, they can recognize the wealth of culture that comes from the Middle East.
America is a very young nation—only 250 years—and if I’ve been here for 35 years, it gets me thinking, what did I do for my country, the US, where I decided my husband and I will come and willingly participate? I benefited a lot from the American culture, but how did I benefit America with my rich culture?
IF: What projects are you thinking of taking on next?
AA: One, I would like to form a committee to make our own national curriculum in Arabic so it will fit every school district. Two, I would like to train Arabic teachers who will teach Arabic in our schools or in public schools. Three, we need to develop a full and well-balanced Islamic curriculum for students where they can come to understand their religion in full. God sent the message to the whole world, but we don’t see ourselves as part of the whole world. This is what will make our children feel a responsibility towards the world—not just their local area.
