The motivation for creating this website started from my personal discontent on the way Muslims and Arabs continue to be portrayed in the media today.
It is obvious that there is too much focus on the negative stories and not enough emphasis of the positive. So much so that if people form their opinion solely on what they see on the evening news, they would be led to believe that in this entire world, Muslims are predominantly bad.
If their life path crosses a good Muslim every now and then; they would still think it is a drop in a vast ocean.
What kind of message does it send to the Muslim youth around the world to see that the only “Muslims” that are spoken about in the news are terrorists?
Well, the aim of this project is to try to remedy that, even if it’s just on a modest scale.
This project will pay tribute to those so many Muslims that work hard to achieve success and by virtue of their success, qualify to being ambassadors of their religion.
Looking back at my own little experience…
I am an Arab Muslim woman, born and raised in an Arab country. I remember how hard it was to get any place in life. Achieving success comes at the expense of braving many hurdles, all born from tradition and not one justified by the core religion “Deen Haneef”.
When I came to the US for my graduate studies, I recall how depressing it was to turn on TV only to see news of another “Islamic/Ismalist/extremist/Islamic fascist” being caught somewhere. That lexicon was confusing to me as a Muslim, let alone the average American. Afterall, Americans never received a crash course on Islam 101? How are they supposed to make the difference? Don’t they get flooded in the news with pictures of Muslims shouting somewhere against something, blowing themselves up and others with them or "just" burning the American flag in shouts of joy?
I myself often felt the need of having a Muslim role model, someone I could relate to. Unfortunately, there weren’t very many I knew of.
Having a role model that shares your faith can be a true inspiration and a moral boost. It can help you get through the blue days or fire you up to achieve the most challenging career aspirations. What’s even better is when you can read those people’s stories; then their success truly looks like a recipe that can be replicated. You’ll find yourself thinking: “If they did it, why wouldn’t I be able to?”
This website is a tribute to all Muslim role models out there, most important of whom is of course the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.
God bless you all!
N.B. This site is under a genesis phase. If you see that your profile fits the description above and would like your story to be featured, please send your Bio to Director@muslimrolemodels.com. You can also contact the same email address, if you would like to contribute to this project monetarily or otherwise.
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