On behalf of all Muslims, we would like to thank PRI's The World for inviting us on to talk about our new #GoodMuslimBadMuslim podcast! We had a lot of fun recording out of an actual radio studio - it gave us something to aspire - real mics and a soundproof studio.
Check out the audio of the interview below and be sure to read the article connected to our audio interview (excerpted below)!
““When people hear I drink and eat pork but still call myself Muslim, they saw me as someone who is quote un-quote ‘assimilated’ and referred to me as a ‘good Muslim,’” Noorbakhsh says. “I thought that was hilarious, because both those things make me technically a ‘bad Muslim.’”
Noorbakhsh’s definitions of a “good” Muslim is pretty standard: someone who prays five times a day, fasts and observes Muslim holidays instead of discovering them through Twitter hashtags.
It wasn’t that clear for Ahmed. She never drank or got involved with drugs as a kid, but she loved going to punk shows. “In my parents’ eyes, that made me a terrible Muslim daughter,” she says, “and I think that’s kind of the contradiction: All my friends considered me the good kid in school and at home I was considered the bad kid.”
The two women play up that ridiculousness in their podcast. For instance, Noorbakhsh’s husband is an athiest, but he doesn’t drink or eat meat “In a lot of ways, he’s more Muslim than I am,” Noorbakhsh says.”