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89 Rose Hamid God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference. I’m not sure of the origins of this prayer, but it appeared in many places in my childhood home as it was one of my mother’s favorites. This prayer could be the inspiration for all activists. My mother was raised Catholic in South America and my father is a Palestinian and is Muslim. After meeting in South America, they came to the United States in 1956 to seek their fortune. I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, in the midst of an extended Palestinian family. What I learned about Islam was heavily mixed with cultural traditions. At the time, there wasn’t a place to get a formal Islamic education. My father thought that learning about Catholicism was preferable to no religious education, so we attended the Catholic Church. Once the Islamic Center was established we went there as well. My mother taught us to have faith in God and to stand up for what was right. She told of how, shortly after her arrival in the States, she had to obtain a Social Security card. Since she spoke no English, she went door to door in the neighborhood in search of a Spanish-speaking neighbor who could help her get the forms. This story is a small example of the bravery and tenacity that she has demonstrated throughout her life. I guess I get a lot of my “fight” Rose Hamid 7 Rocking the Boat and Stirring the Pot 90 Rocking the Boat and Stirring the Pot from her. But then, I’m not sure if people would think of her as an activist or not; just what is an activist, anyway? I balked the first time I was referred to as an activist. Activist? Me? When I heard the word it conjured up images of radical protest groups marching into the night with torches ablaze. Activists have political agendas and aim to topple governments. Don’t they? An activist is someone who “stirs the pot” or “rocks the boat.” These are negative things, aren’t they? I’m not an activist. Or am I? I didn’t consider myself to be an activist, but after hearing someone describe me as such, I began to reconsider. I realized that I am someone who likes to get things done, to take action when necessary. One of my most challenging undertakings came as a result of a situation at my workplace. I had wanted to be a flight attendant since I was a little girl. I achieved my goal in 1985 when I was hired as a flight attendant for a major airline. At the time I was hired I was not a practicing Muslim. Although I had attended the Catholic Church, I was disillusioned by the many things that to me seemed illogical and that were to be accepted “on faith.” My father had tried to teach us about Islam, but as a teenager I was not interested in learning about religion. It was not until my husband, a Palestinian, and I began our family that I began earnestly to study Islam. I realized that Islam answered the questions about faith I’d been asking all my life. After working happily as a flight attendant for ten years, I suffered injuries in an auto accident and had to be out of work for two years. As Allah would have it, there was a new imam in my city (Charlotte, North Carolina) who inspired and motivated me. During that time I had the opportunity to study even more about Islam. I started wearing hijab in late 1995. The doctors telling me that my foot was damaged, to the degree that I might never be able to return to my position as a flight attendant, was one of the factors that helped me decide to start wearing hijab. Eventually I underwent a surgical procedure that allowed me to return to work in 1997. By then I’d been wearing hijab for almost two years. I was familiar with the work being done by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) to help Muslim women keep their jobs while wearing hijab, and their work inspired me. I felt certain that once my company understood the rationale behind hijab, I would be allowed to return to my position as a flight attendant. Rose...

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