1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,920
Kado Mills is a one-horse town on Route 66.

2
00:00:11,820 --> 00:00:17,940
It's got one gas station, one grocery store, six churches, and one white Muslim, David.

3
00:00:20,020 --> 00:00:24,800
Islam emphasizes a lot of the same ideals that this country was actually founded on.

4
00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:30,780
Ideals of individual rights for all people, equality under the law.

5
00:00:33,780 --> 00:00:39,720
I would say that being a Muslim has helped me to better appreciate the values on which the country was founded.

6
00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:44,080
And I think to a certain extent, the country has forgotten.

7
00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:51,660
At this point, I couldn't actually even conceive of not being Muslim.

8
00:00:51,660 --> 00:00:58,980
I think it would, it's kind of like the idea of thinking about, you know, not breathing.

9
00:01:04,540 --> 00:01:08,200
There's a lot of pressure to not convert to Islam.

10
00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:14,440
But on the other hand, there's always been an undercurrent in American popular culture

11
00:01:14,440 --> 00:01:20,900
of supporting the underdog or, you know, not going with the herd.

12
00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:24,140
There's plenty of people still in this country that are willing to say,

13
00:01:24,260 --> 00:01:28,180
well, I believe this is true and I'm going to go with that, you know,

14
00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:30,040
and if anybody doesn't like it, well, nuts to them.

15
00:01:31,300 --> 00:01:36,200
Like the other white converts, David actually thinks being Muslim makes him a better American.

16
00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:41,840
With his wife Najma and their two daughters, he's living his version of the American dream.

17
00:01:44,440 --> 00:01:50,820
But is it tough being the only Muslim family in town?

18
00:01:51,500 --> 00:01:53,800
Do people look at us? Yeah, they do.

19
00:01:54,640 --> 00:01:58,020
It's so common now that I really hardly even notice it.

20
00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:02,740
We actually get stared at by, on all sides.

21
00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:05,740
When we're in the larger non-Muslim society,

22
00:02:05,980 --> 00:02:10,140
people stare at my wife or my daughter because they're wearing the hijab

23
00:02:10,140 --> 00:02:15,680
and then they realize they're with that, hey, they're with that blonde white American guy.

24
00:02:15,920 --> 00:02:16,840
Well, what's up with that?

25
00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:19,980
So they, you know, they, after, then they're, instead of staring at them,

26
00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:21,940
they start staring at me and then they start staring at all of us.

27
00:02:22,980 --> 00:02:25,740
And it kind of goes the other way in the Muslim community, you know,

28
00:02:25,860 --> 00:02:29,080
here's this blonde white guy and, you know, well, who's he?

29
00:02:29,500 --> 00:02:30,160
He's with her.

30
00:02:30,760 --> 00:02:31,680
What's going on there?

31
00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:35,080
So we kind of get stared at from all sides.

32
00:02:35,380 --> 00:02:38,800
But most people are pretty polite about it.

33
00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:39,900
You know, they try not to stare.

34
00:02:40,580 --> 00:02:46,740
People out here, if anything, are more tolerant than the people in the city.

35
00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:52,000
The stereotype of the, you know, the southern bigot is really pretty unfair.

36
00:02:53,060 --> 00:02:53,560
Thank you.

37
00:02:53,700 --> 00:02:54,080
Thank you.

38
00:02:54,580 --> 00:02:55,220
So have a good day.

39
00:02:55,360 --> 00:02:55,900
Thank you, too.

40
00:02:56,900 --> 00:02:57,720
And then in the back.

41
00:02:57,920 --> 00:02:58,720
In the back, yeah.

42
00:02:58,860 --> 00:02:59,500
Thank you.

43
00:02:59,500 --> 00:02:59,540
Thank you.

44
00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:07,680
David spent eight years serving his country in the air force.

45
00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:09,760
He's proud to be an American.

46
00:03:11,980 --> 00:03:16,580
I think in a lot of ways that Islam could save Americans from themselves.

