“Any true Americans over here?”
-Michael, a man from Boston with a sign
Amidst all the chaos that has been the 2016 presidential election, there is a special group of Americans fighting against the mainstream current—the Trump minority, like actual minorities voting for Trump.
Show Notes:
"And then they came for me."
-Sabri Benkahla
When it comes to the conversation of Islam in America, it can sometimes feel like having a debate where both parties talk over one another, dive into the shallow end of the topic and leave thinking they’ve proved their points—trophies for all.
This self-perpetuating social filter bubble of sorts absolves accountability and fogs up facts—it clouds up the reality of what many Muslim communities in America have actually gone through and are going through.
No place has had it worse than Dar Al-Hijrah, a northern Virginia mosque that sits right outside the nation’s capital. First there was peace. Then there was 9/11. And then there was terror.
This is the story of how one mosque and its community has spent the past 15 years at the intersection of faith, terrorism and liberty.
Show Notes:
56. More at thisissomenoise.com
“Brother, you don’t eat pork do you?” -Man with wine
About:
New York. St. Cloud. Orlando. San Bernardino. Chattanooga. Garland. Boston. Fort Hood. Brussels. Paris. Nice. Kabul. Baghdad. Quetta. Lahore. Istanbul.
It’s difficult to remember what life was like before any of these recent attacks, when there was no YouTube or Twitter and when the Twin Towers were still part of New York City’s skyline.
There wasn’t too much cause for concern about being named Muhammad, wearing a hijab or simply practicing the faith. But times change. Now, two months away from Election Day, a presidential candidate who supports the racial profiling of Muslims and banning their entry into the country is in real contention to be the next Commander-In-Chief.
But before any of that, the vitriol and hate, the radicalization and endless news cycles, the color-coded threat levels and social media jihad, there was a simpler version of Islam in America. In this episode, we dive into what life was like for Muslims around a northern Virginia mosque just eight stoplights away from the Pentagon.
Show Notes:
"You just go again tomorrow."
-Stuart Vorpahl
Stuart Vorpahl is a lifelong commercial fisherman who took pride in providing the fresh produce of the sea. Stuart liked his job. He liked it so much that when regulation and politics threatened it, he ignored the old sayings and squared up against town hall.
On the surface, it might seem as if Stuart was just really passionate about fishing, and he was. But his fight was about something bigger.
We continue the second part of Stuart Vorpahl’s story—how a commercial fisherman in the Hamptons took on the New York State over his right to fish with a 17th century document from the King of England.
Show Notes:
[55:30] “Suzy Textile” by Blue Dot Sessions
"Timeout. If you see a hole, you mend it. You don’t go say I’ll go back and fix it. It don’t work." --Stuart Vorpahl
The story of Stuart Vorpahl involves fishing, the Hamptons and the King of England. Amidst a town where Hollywood's A-list comes to summer, how did a commercial fisherman earn the notoriety of first-name recognition amidst locals, town officials and the conservation police?
Show Notes:
More at thisissomenoise.com/ep-10
"It's just status."
-Buddy
About:
In pockets of America, like those in Oakland and throughout the East Bay of Northern California, the status quo of driving a vehicle is proudly rejected. Take a look at some of the rides out here and you’ll immediately get the sense that a car is more than just a car.
Who are these people and what caused them to decorate Detroit-produced relics with candy-like paint, oversized rims and a sound-system that can probably be heard from Space?
Show Notes:
“Thy will be done. Thy will be done. I don’t know. Please, I don’t know.” -Jessica Ripper
Jessica Ripper is a white American with blonde hair, blue eyes and a home in Northern California. Yet, to many in Pakistan, she’s an Islamic-gospel musician who plays the tabla.
In the 700-year-old sufi-singing tradition of Qawwali, she’s a female trailblazer shattering century-old glass ceilings from sufi shrine to sufi shrine. And everywhere else, she’s a statistical anomaly, a bizarre outlier.
Did fate direct Ripper to her path as one of the world’s only white female western qawwali players? Or was it chance and opportunity?
You be the judge.
Show Notes:
"“People want to see good overcome evil, even though that’s not always the way it plays out, that’s what they’re coming out to see.” --Shane Hanson
Who should you be and what should you do?
Escape all the worries of life with a quick trip to Hoodslam, a wrestling outfit based in Oakland, Calif. It’s an adult wrestling show where other people make that decision for you. At least, you submit yourself to believing in everything around you, like someone getting hit in the face with a chair, seeing the ghost of Charlie Chaplin jump off the turnbuckle or a drug-addicted bunny snort lines off a championship trophy.
You don’t mind that what is fake is actually real and you begin to ask, “If I was a wrestler, who would I be?” (Answer: Super Self-Aware Man, a sure-to-be fan favorite)
This is the story of an alternative wrestling show that boasts slogans like “Fuck the Fans” and “Don’t Bring Your Kids.” Why did it start, who goes to its shows and who are its wrestlers?
More at thisissomenoise.com/ep-07.
Show Notes:
“It ain’t that I don’t care, it’s that I don’t really care.”
-Bishop Glen A. Staples
About:
We live in a strange time, at least that’s what the story of the praise break reminds us.
It’s the tale of an ecstatic dance rooted deep in race, religion and American history. It traveled centuries of oppression and made its way to present times where it’s been rejected by today’s social elites.
Maybe because it looks crazy? Or maybe it’s dismissed because it unearths some dark reality that we’re not comfortable dealing with? You be the judge.
Show Notes:
“To really answer the question, what is a question, is a very good question.”
-Dr. Zeray Alemseged
What we can do?
That question confronts, inquires, investigates and challenges. And it, by no means, is simple to define.
For this episode of Some Noise, we try and get to the bottom of questions and ask a bunch of different people, from a linguistics professor, an experienced LSD taker to a futurist: “What is a question?”
Show Notes:
