#afaq mahmoud

[sopalinsopalin]

he asks you what you are and pissed ain't the answer he's looking for but that's the one you throw him so he slides around and catches it asks you where you're from but time has taught you that that question never seems to mean what it's supposed to he doesn't care about el fashir just wants to know who shaped your cheekbones where your borders lay what accent to picture you screaming in you have to choose your battles you weren't built a soldier but you were born into war and can’t always stomach the bloodshed (an excerpt from a warcry not fully formed)

Afaq Mahmoud

[penamerican]

“To be Muslim in America is to strongly believe in what you believe in and constantly have to justify it ... You’ll always have to fight to be recognized as someone who has a right to be who you are.”

Writer and activist Afaq Mahmoud shares her experience with being Muslim in America in this video for The M Word. The M Word seeks to elevate, amplify, and celebrate the contributions of Muslim Americans to our country’s varied and inspiring cultural landscape. To help us, we are inviting audience members, online followers, panelists, and others—both Muslims and non-Muslims alike—to share their personal experiences with what it means to be Muslim in America.

[sopalinsopalin]

who taught you how to worship thunder to bend yourself to iron’s will who sent you off to war with softness and dubbed the battle strength violence is not your first language it is foreign it is fight do not make your body martyr do not treason with yourself walking callouses feel no pain but where’s the life in that dare to be delicate know it is not weakness call it by another name love is also defiance fire too shakes in the wind be radical in your softness be sickly with your sweet to be flower among stone is to have your roots cut daily and to grow anyway your strength is odd and overlooked but it is yours it is you

Afaq Mahmoud

Afaq Mahmoud is a beautiful Black Muslim woman, a poet, a photographer, and an activist. Check her out she is so dope. Facebook : FofoPoet.