- How do you feel about the concept of arranged marriage?
- I feel like let the person
have a freedom of choose who they want
'cause then that's how broken homes, bad,
all that stuff happens.
- I feel like actually it's the opposite.
I feel like that arranged marriages-
- Really, it helps? - Are the ones that last.
(classical music)
- [Interviewer] Hi.
- Hi. - Hi, how are you?
- [Interviewer] Tell me your names.
- My name is Abdi.
- My name's Amir.
- My name is Marwan Mohammed.
- And my name's Kareem.
- Are you Somali?
- Yes I am, what about you?
- I'm Palestinian.
Somalis are the backbone of the Muslim community,
so I'm excited.
- [Interviewer] What are you two doing here today?
- Truth or drink, Muslim edition.
- We're drinking hot sauce.
- [Interviewer] Why not alcohol?
- Muslims don't drink alcohol.
Well, you're not supposed to.
- [Interviewer] You feeling nervous?
- Nah. - Okay, I gotta preface this
because I'm very active on Muslim social media.
I'm scared for my life, the comments section!
- You say one thing wrong.
- We gotta make sure-
- Everything's on point?
- We are halal, 100%. - You stalling now, brother.
Come on! - Okay, okay okay.
What's your halal to haram ratio?
100% being, I catch my five daily prayers,
I'm at the mosque every single Friday.
Then you got the haram ratio, right?
So on that scale-
- Of the scale, okay. - Where are we?
- Oh, dang.
- I think I'd give myself 60% halal, 40% haram.
- [Interviewer] What's that 40%?
(both laughing)
- Fuck, if I don't say it, I have to drink hot sauce?
- [Interviewer] Well, I mean, you haven't answered.
- You don't wanna answer it- - Oh, okay.
- Good luck.
- You wanna drink one in solidarity?
- No. - Come on,
we gotta start off strong,
do it. - Okay.
Did not expect to be drinking hot sauce-
- Cheers. - Before answering a question,
but cheers. (glasses click)
- Ooh! Mm-hmm.
- That's spicy. (contestant coughing)
- So what's your halal to haram ratio and be honest.
- I would say maybe like 60:40.
- I'm a revert, so my parents are both Christian
and on top of that, they're both pastors.
- [Interviewer] Whoo!
- So I made a big switch.
So when you come from, let's say my culture,
it's heavily based on showcasing your beauty.
But Islam is the complete opposite of that
when it comes to women and hijab and covering our aura.
So I feel like that's what I struggle with sometimes.
It's like an identity crisis for me.
- Mm-hmm.
- What's your least favorite thing about being Muslim?
- Maybe how people react to it sometimes.
People are sometimes disgusted.
- Yeah.
- It like hurts,
but at the same time I do understand
that it comes from a place of ignorance.
- Yeah, just not understanding.
- So I'm somebody who
loves cooking and loves trying out food.
- Mm-hmm.
- And pork is haram and so I wanna try bacon.
What about you?
What is your least favorite thing about being Muslim?
- The haram police.
- Haram police.
- [Interviewer] Who are the haram police?
- The haram police are people that
take it upon themselves to judge you and try to correct you.
- It can be very overwhelming,
especially when you're in a new religion and it feels like,
oh, this is not hijab.
Oh, this not not how you do it.
- Oh, you have a little bit of hair showing.
- A little baby hair.
Oh my gosh! - Its so dramatic!
- What is your favorite part of being Muslim?
- Just the overall community aspect of things as well.
- Yes.
- I love that you walk down the street,
you see another hijab and you're like, "As-salamu alaykum."
My friends are like, "Do you know that person?"
I'm like, "I have no idea who that is."
- No idea, yeah.
- But the fact that if something happens overseas
in a Muslim majority country, we're donating.
- All these Muslim charities are first ones on the ground.
- I think it's the connection with God for sure.
When I first moved out to college,
it was my first time I had to seek the religion for myself.
- Mm-hmm.
- And there was points where I was thinking,
"I'm never gonna make this," but then I pray
and then just God will give me signs.
- Yeah, no, it's a beautiful story.
Thanks for sharing it.
- Is there one thing you'd do immediately if it was allowed?
- One thing I would do immediately if it was allowed.
- Think this through, think this correctly.
- Right, we're gonna do a shot of hot sauce.
- I'll take one with you.
- God is watching right now.
- Yeah.
- I'm not gonna say anything about it.
- Yeah.
- Can I do it in something other than a shot glass?
- He's trying to get his way out of the shot,
that's why he doesn't want the whole hot sauce.
- I know but this is imitation haram.
- Yeah, no it definitely is.
- Bismillah, bismillah, bismillah.
You didn't say, "Bismillah!"
- Oh my God, it's reminding me of Chuck E. Cheese
but it's spicy.
- Is there one thing you'd do immediately if it was allowed?
- I'd have sex.
- Ooo!
- What, you don't agree with me?
Don't you want to have sex?
- I mean, yeah, but I don't know
if I would do that immediately.
For me, sex is still a thing
where I do want to have it with the person
that I want to spend the rest of my life with.
- Yeah.
- Oh.
- Oh no.
- Think wisely, okay?
- I cannot take another shot.
- Do you listen to music?
- Oh my God.
- Do you listen to music?
- No, I'm trying my best to stop.
- Mm-hmm.
- Muslim scholars agree that music is haram.
- Music is haram.
- Well, no, that's debatable.
- To some people.
I go to a concerts all the time.
I've been to like 141 at this point.
- What? You're counting, you have a-
- I have an Excel sheet.
Music keeps me happy, it's my favorite thing.
- I mean, I do listen to music.
That's where my halal, haram ratio comes in.
- Let me think this through.
Hold on, let me...
- So you ride in a car in silence?
- (laughing) Why don't you answer?
- I listen to music, I'm telling the truth.
- You're good, we know you listen to Drake on the weekend.
Say it with your chest.
- [Interviewer] I feel like you might have to take another
shot of hot sauce.
- You and that bathroom
ain't going to be friends after this.
- I'm about to throw up.
This is Islamophobic.
Oh my God, Allah, Allah, Allah.
- Have you ever felt peer pressure to drink?
- I'm going to say hot sauce for this one.
- Bismillah. - Bismillah.
(both laughing)
- Sometimes employers will award you, right?
'Cause, "Oh, you did a good job at work."
You know what they award you with?
Alcohol. - A shot.
- And it's like,
"What am I gonna do with this bottle, Penny?"
Because I don't know anyone to give this to.
- Hey, giving it would be another haram.
- Sin, right?
- Like that's fair, haram things.
- So you are wasting money on this thing
that I have to throw away to reward me.
So I was like, just give me a gift card.
- How do you feel about the concept of arrange marriage?
Would you be okay with one
or would you want to find your own partner?
- (speaking foreign language)
No, I'm not doing no arrange marriage.
- I want to find my own partner.
But if I'm still single in five years,
I'm gonna consider an arranged marriage
because the streets are getting cold.
- If you got to 35 and you can't find anybody yourself,
would you just be like, "Mom, please?"
- Yeah, of course I'd ask my mom.
My mom knows me better than I know myself
and she knows what's better for me.
- Uh-huh.
- I feel like let the person have the freedom
of choose who they want
'cause then that's how broken homes, bad,
all that stuff happens.
- I feel like actually it's the opposite.
I feel like that arrange marriages-
- Really, it helps? - Are the ones that last.
- Yeah- - That's crazy.
- I want to be honest with you.
- Imagine your pops just comes home one day.
"Amir, I got somebody for you."
- I would be interested.
- You don't even know the person.
- There's a difference between arranged marriage
and forced marriage, right?
It's as if someone so close to you.
- That part, okay. - And they go
out of their way to be like,
"Oh, I know the right person for you,"
and then introduce me.
- I bet. - Yeah.
- Have you ever been discriminated against
because of your faith?
- Yeah, you know- - Right.
- It's just like stupid middle school jokes
that everyone kind of goes through.
- I did notice the day that I put on hijab,
I was looked at a lot more differently.
- Mm-hmm. - And I felt
like a new insecurity came across me
every time I would leave my house.
- I don't know if it's discrimination,
but there are a lot of random TSA checks.
- You gotta invest in TSA pre-check.
That's when they'll stop.
- I've been called a terrorist for having my turban,
the way I looked.
Allahu Akbar and make the boom.
- You got called a terrorist?
- Yeah, of course, for wearing a turban.
- Yeah.
- What's your favorite holiday?
- I think Ramadan.
Everything is just calm, you're fasting,
your family is here.
- Obviously it gotta be Eid.
- So I'm going to have to go with Eid.
There are two Eids.
My favorite one is the first one,
which is after the month of Ramadan
because you're fasting for the whole month
and then finally you can you can eat whatever you want,
it's a feast, people get new clothes, it's a vibe.
- Ramadan is a lot like,
we love it, but it's the love and hate relationship.
Waking up 3:00 in am, 4:00 AM to eat,
then having to go to work the next day, all day.
- I love it, I love it.
Muslims need to step it up because Xmas in the US.
- What, how come you guys get like two weeks
or something and we only get a day or two?
- Yeah, my mom gotta go make a phone call at school
to get me off.
- I gotta be like, yeah. - You mean to tell me
I gotta take this exam while I'm fasting during Ramadan.
- Ooo, would you marry someone
outside of your faith or culture?
- Culture, yes.
You're Mexican, you're Italian,
come here, let me learn, right?
But outside of my religion, I can't.
- I'm Arab and I don't mind if I marry
someone outside of my culture at all.
I would like to marry someone who's within my faith.
- Mm-hmm.
- But let's say I marry someone outside my faith
who shares very similar beliefs, then I wouldn't mind that.
- I don't think for me personally,
it would work out to marry someone who does not speak Urdu.
- Mm-hmm.
- That's my primary, first language.
If you have the same faith, if you have the same language,
I think that simplifies a lot of life.
- If we're being honest, we were taught to never judge
and be open-minded.
- So you are open to it,
but would your family be open to it?
- Is it their relationship or mine.
- Okay. - What about you?
- I see myself being arranged.
- What is up with you and this arrange marriages?
- Yeah, I'm about it.
I don't want to do no dating apps.
- Even on that arrange marriage,
would you marry someone outside of your faith or culture?
- If my soulmate is in front of me
and they're not Muslim, I would.
- How would you know though?
- [Interviewer] A friend arranged it.
(both laughing)
- Do you think I'm gonna get canceled?
- A little bit.
- Are you afraid that the haram police will cancel you
for being here?
- No. - Why?
- I don't care.
- Slay.
- I cannot represent all Muslims,
I'm not a perfect Muslim, you're not a perfect Muslim,
but we're both voices in the world of Muslim people.