Photo: Daniel Hoherd (Flickr) Faith to me is as dynamic as life and as individual as people. It is a powerful form of self-expression, like a work of art, a manifestation of freedom of spirit.
For the past twenty years Sahar El-Nadi has been traveling the world, seeking to create spaces for cross-cultural dialogue that fosters intercultural understanding.
It’s taken her to more than 25 different countries and lead to the creation of the ‘Don’t Hate, Educate!‘ project, of which El-Nadi is the director.
But creating intercultural conversation is more than just a job for El-Nadi … it’s her life. And she’s written about that life, as well as her own personal experience of Islam, in a new book — Sandcastles and Snowmen.
The book is, in many ways, a travelouge of El-Nadi’s “quest for meaning.” The reasoning behind the title is described this way at her website:
Although sandcastles and snowmen come from two different worlds, they have some things in common: both are a child’s innocent attempt at turning an abstract idea into a tangible reality; just as we do as adults when we try to build a life. Both structures, whether made from sand or snow, create the illusion of permanency, but the truth is, both are only just temporary. No matter how long they live, they will soon return to where they came from: the sand on the beach and the snow in the forest, just like us; just like life.
Sahar El-Nadi spoke with Muslim Voices Managing Editor Rosemary Pennington about her work as well as her book.
Rosemary Pennington: You’ve been involved in educational projects for years now — why? What drove you to that work?
Sahar El-Nadi: Many of us know that the first word and command in the Quran is “Read!” but how many remember the rest of that verse? The part about “teaching with the pen”. When I read this verse I get a strong message that education should be a full circle. First your read to learn, then you teach others what you learnt to learn even more.
RP: You’ve lectured and traveled in a wide variety of settings, are there any commonalities in the things you’re asked to discuss? Any major differences?
SEN: My lectures are about diversity, leadership and change. Sometimes I use the lessons I learnt from taking part in the Arab Spring to discuss these topics. But most of the audiences of my lectures and talks are as curious about me as they are about my topics.
Sadly, there aren’t many Muslim women wearing a headscarf who reach out publicly and offer to discuss and answer questions. I do that all the time everywhere I go. Some of the most interesting conversations of my life I had on trains, planes and sidewalk cafes in all corners of the world.
Most of the questions are about my choice of faith and of clothes and the commonly misunderstood aspects of Islam and Muslim practices. Those are the very topics I discuss in my book through my personal experiences trying to find the answers.
While travelling in Japan for example, I thought that the Japanese people with their self-discipline and dedication to perfection would make ideal Muslims. The same can be said of the Americans, with their dedication to science and exploration; and the Germans, with their excellence in design and innovation; and the Swedes, whose humane attitude is actually described in the Quran.
Each one of those excellent manners is a core Islamic teaching encouraging Muslims to think and behave every day in a manner that would make this a much better world.
Opening up to others and interacting with them positively enabled me to see that vast common ground between Islam and world cultures and learning the deeper meaning of Islam in a more global context.
I see Islam as part of the human heritage, as a source of global wisdom and inspiration, and as a world culture adopted by a quarter of the population of our planet.
Many don’t know that by default, Islam is open to everyone from all backgrounds, even those opposed to the religious ideology, who might like to study or apply some of its principles without committing to being Muslims.
I came to this conclusion from reading the Quran. There are of course messages there for Muslims in specific, but there are also many messages addressed to “all people” or “mankind” and not many books talk about those messages.
And so, I don’t mind questions — I actually invite them to encourage dialogue and to learn about other cultures in the process.
The questions I get are about all sorts of topics related to my faith and culture: women, rituals, clothing style, science, relationships, diversity, arts and culture, inheritance, investment, and of course all the misconceptions that the media plants in people’s heads.
I also get requests from the teachers and students at schools and universities where I speak and from the multi-cultural followers of my social media pages to explain Islam to them in simple terms. Muslim youth in the West also ask me advice on how to introduce their culture to their communities in a more engaging way.
I often found myself limited by the space of an email, a Facebook chat or a Skype conversation. The logical solution was to put those ideas in a book everyone could use at their convenience.
RP: How does your background influence the work you do?
SEN: I’m not a scholar or a religious figure. I’m just a normal person who has gone through intense life experiences that gave me some profound insights. Those insights brought me back to my faith with a new understanding and appreciation.
Although I’m an Egyptian and a born Muslim, I was not too focused on Islam in the first couple of decades of my life. After four years of careful contemplation, I voluntarily re-adopted Islam in my early 30’s.
I grew up in a Catholic school in Cairo, then in an Islamic girls school in Saudi Arabia where I also lived in a multinational gated community. I went to a secular university.
I’ve lived and worked in multinational environments practically all my life. In addition to many years working in journalism, TV, advertising and fashion, I’ve also been very active online since 1998 and then on social media since 2007.
I have two award-winning social communication projects online. I enjoy connecting with international followers on my pages, where my posts often turn into in-depth discussions that everyone contributes to and learns from. More than once I was pleasantly surprised to see my online discussions quoted in traditional media.
As an instructor and public speaker, I travel constantly to different parts of the world and meet very diverse audiences and prominent public figures. When I’m not travelling to speak, I write opinion articles, conduct workshops on soft skills and human behavior, give inspirational talks to women and youth, and engage thousands of global followers on my social media pages.
I also take part in rebuilding Egypt as it struggles to shake off decades of oppression and corruption to transform into a democracy.
While teaching others, I also try my best to learn. So when I come home, I share the lessons I learned abroad with my local audience to inspire them to think of creative solutions for our tough problems. In my spare time I enjoy sports, nature, photography, art and reading, but my biggest passion is people.
RP: Is there anything you’d like to add before we wrap up?
SEN: We live in an overly material world and materialistic living deprives us of a very precious source of empowerment — Spirituality.
When we focus on materialism we live in 2 dimensions — intellect and body, while actually we’re 3 dimensional beings. To be spiritual is to be aware that the self is three-dimensional.
We need to apply this awareness to nurture all three in order to be able to draw on the full range of our human strengths. What we have been doing for so long is stuffing our bodies and starving our souls, although, to heal our troubled world, we desperately need our peaceful, loving and joyful spiritual nature.
That’s why the first chapter of my book is about a very important skill of the 21st century — Spiritual Intelligence.
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