Quote

I've become a true Muslim. It's giving me happiness. It's made me become content as a man and helped me to grow. I've just got faith in it, and it has definitely helped me become the man I am today.

My identity comprises of more than just my faith. I am a proud Muslim, but I am also a liberal, a Briton, a Pakistani, a Londoner, a father, a product of the globalised world who speaks English, Arabic and Urdu.

I really didn't grow up religious, and I didn't grow up acknowledging my Muslim identity. For me, I was a British Pakistani.

I consider myself to have been formed by a lot of the locutions and aesthetics and principles of the Muslim way of life, and those are an important part of my childhood and my identity.

I became, suddenly, not just a Muslim in faith. I became a Muslim in politics. Somebody whose politics were pre-defined by one interpretation of Islam.

When I started running for Congress, it actually took me by surprise that so many people were fascinated with me being the first Muslim in Congress.

I think the way I am, the way I'm chilled out, has a lot to do with being Muslim and having faith.

It took me a long time to square with the fact that none of my experiences are typical - I'm not a typical American, but I'm also not a typical Muslim.

I don't go by my caste, creed or religion. My works speak for me.

Ever since I became a Muslim, I've had to deal with attempts to damage my reputation and countless insinuations seeking to cast doubt on my character and trying to connect me to causes which I do not subscribe to.