Annette and Malik Khan (Photo by Tina Eshleman)
I met Malik and Annette Khan during the summer of 2006, when they visited First Mennonite Church of Richmond, which I attend, to talk about their Muslim faith. It was memorable for me partly because Annette, a Nebraska native, has a Protestant religious background.
They made an effective team. Having practiced both religions, Annette was able to describe her experience with Islam in a way that was easily relatable for people like me. Malik, who grew up as a Muslim in Pakistan, could answer questions about the faith in greater depth.
For the Khans, that visit wasn’t quite as memorable, simply because they made so many visits to churches, synagogues and community groups in the weeks, months and years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“We felt the need, both Annette and I,” Malik says. “We were willing to go out to various churches. We were willing to build bridges, more importantly. We can’t be clones of each other, obviously. There are religious differences, but we must learn to accept those differences.”
For their efforts to build bridges of understanding in the greater Richmond community, the Khans will be honored as 2017 Peacemakers of the Year at an Iftar dinner held by the Richmond Peace Education Center on Wednesday, June 14, at Ginter Park Presbyterian Church. The dinner will follow a 7 p.m. program — after sundown in keeping with the Ramadan practice of fasting between dawn and dusk. (Registration is full, but there is a waiting list.)
The Khans met as students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and married in 1976. She converted to Islam about three years after they married. After living in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Dallas/Fort Worth area, the couple moved to Chesterfield County in 1988. Malik, an engineer, retired several years ago from Philip Morris, while Annette continues to work at the Al Madina School of Richmond, the product of a merger between Iqra Academy of Virginia and Tawheed Prep School.
As president of the Islamic Center of Virginia at the time of the 9/11 attacks, Malik became a spokesman for local Muslims.
“I think I was interviewed on television maybe 40 times or so,” he says at the couple's Midlothian home. “I was thrust in that position.” Reporters asked things such as, “Why did this happen?” and “Are all Muslims this way?” Another frequent question was: “Would you condemn this action?”
Over and over, he answered: “Not all Muslims are this way. Just the opposite. The heavy, heavy, heavy majority of Muslims do not subscribe to such extreme views — which in my opinion are not just extreme views, they’re un-Islamic. The Quran actually says if you kill an innocent person, it’s like killing entire humanity.”
The Islamic Center and other mosques in the area took out a full-page ad in the Richmond Times-Dispatch calling the attacks a barbaric, heinous act. The center held a candlelight vigil, joined by neighboring churches such as Bon Air United Methodist and Unity of Bon Air.
“They realized that while the perpetrators were Muslim in name, they were out on the fringes,” Malik says. “People realized that your average Muslim here is no different than any other person. So they came to show their support.”
The Khans lost count of how many times they spoke to churches after 9/11. Malik says the requests tapered off after a while, and picked up again when the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. Meanwhile, Annette became involved with the Interfaith Council of Greater Richmond and worked to establish the annual RVA Peace Festival in 2004.
Things remained fairly quiet until late 2015. In the wake of December shootings in San Bernardino, California, in which a couple claiming allegiance to the Islamic State killed 14 people and injured 22 others, the campaign of then-presidential-candidate Donald Trump called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on." In June 2016, a gunman who cited allegiance to ISIS killed 49 people in an Orlando, Florida, nightclub. Reports of assaults targeting Muslims spiked.
“You have to look at the bigger picture,” Malik says. “ISIS, of course, has not helped. What has been going on in the Middle East has reached different parts of the world. … There’s no question that Muslims — these Muslims who are out on the fringes, these extremists who have a horrible understanding of Islam — they’re the ones responsible. It is understandable why some people feel unsafe.”
Annette and Malik Khan hold a sign from an anti-bullying campaign led by Holocaust refugee Alex Keisch, who spoke at the Al Madina School of Richmond. (Photo by Alex Keisch)
Muslims such as the Khans, who are just trying to live their lives in peace, feel like their backs are up against the wall.
“It’s a double whammy,” Malik says. “We have these radicals, these extremists on one side, and on the other side, there are people who are Islamophobes. So we are getting crushed from both sides.”
Is it harder now to be a peacemaker than it was in 2001? “Back then, it was just [Osama] Bin Laden,” Annette says, “and it was one isolated incident."
“It’s harder now," Malik says, "because you keep on saying that Islam is a peaceful religion, and you keep on saying this thing over and over again, and yet you see all these incidents, whether it happens to be in the Middle East or whether it happens to be in the West, whether it happens to be in Paris or whether it happens to be here — Orlando or San Bernardino. It keeps repeating itself. So, from that perspective I think it’s a littler harder. How do you explain to people, and how do you convince people?”
So their work continues, but with a slightly different focus. The Khans used to talk mainly about the tenets of the Muslim faith.
“Now we’re finding a discussion about the myths and misconceptions is more appropriate,” Annette says.
Another difference is the connection they’ve developed with other communities of faith and organizations such as Hope in the Cities, the Richmond Peace Education Center and Initiatives of Change.
“If we compare with post-2001, there wasn’t that much going on within the world of interfaith relations,” Malik says. “If you look at what’s happening today, you have inclusive communities ... working closely with each other.”
The Khans are also working to groom the next generation to carry on these efforts. At Al Madina School, where Annette is an administrative assistant, the students participate with other groups in charitable projects such as food drives and providing meals to homeless people through CARITAS.
“It’s been a great experience for my kids, because it’s the Muslim kids packing sack lunches with the kids at Unity Church [or] going to a Baptist CARITAS event and serving food to the homeless,” she says.
“We pick up on these projects — FeedMore or helping clean up the city or adopting a highway or cleaning the James River,” says Malik, who works with youth through the Muslim Community Center of Chesterfield. “We’re getting the kids involved to work for the larger community that we live in. That is what the role of a Muslim is. We owe that to the larger community. We owe that to Richmonders.”
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