One of the problems in Islam is Muslim women. Frankly, they're too damn submissive, and as a Muslim man, I can't stand that type of behavior in a woman. That's why I married a bossy Muslim woman. Let me tell you how we met. My name is Ali Mustapha and I'm a black man of Somali descent living in the City of Ottawa, Ontario. I was born in the City of Cornwall, to a Somali immigrant father and white Canadian mother. My parents, Yousef Mustapha and Kathleen Saint-James have long since gone their separate ways. I remain a son of two worlds, of Canada whose history is an open book and of Somalia, whose past is shrouded in mystery.
I moved to Ottawa in 2011, after graduating from Saint Lawrence College in Cornwall with a diploma in Police Foundations. I applied to Carleton University and got accepted into the Criminology program. Originally I wanted to be a cop but after a nasty encounter with the Ontario Provincial Police on the 417 Highway, I realized that all cops are racist dicks and I cannot in good conscience work with or for such people. Nor am I willing to be the lone voice for justice and progress in a prejudiced organization. I want to be a lawyer instead. One that specializes in suing the lads in blue for misconduct.
Ottawa is a boring town, but it's leaps and bounds ahead of Cornwall in terms of racial diversity. I was one of maybe ten to fifteen black students at my old college. I got the heck out of dodge as soon as I could. In Ottawa I ran into so many people from distant places. Arabs, Somalis, Turks, Chinese, Hindus and others. In Cornwall, we have lots of white folks and a few Natives. Not a lot of Africans, Arabs or other races. Cornwall represents what Canada was like back in the old days, Natives and whites living on the same land and disliking each other immensely.
To me, even though Ottawa is full of bigots, especially among government workers and academics, I think it's changing for the better due to the increasing number of visible minorities who make it their home. The growing population of Arabs, Somalis, Haitians, Chinese, Hindus, and Hispanics in Ottawa are changing the town's demographics rapidly, and it's a wonderful thing to behold. When I arrived here, I sought out the Somalis, my father's people. My father is Muslim and a devout one at that. We communicate via Skype nowadays because he lives in the City of Calgary, Alberta, with his new wife Yasmin, and my half-sister Mona. I don't know much about Islam because I grew up in a secular household. My mother is a lapsed Catholic flirting with atheism and I've always found religion to be more trouble than it's worth.
In Ottawa, surrounded by Muslims of all colors, I began to realize that I needed to reconnect with my heritage. Somalis are Muslim for the most part and it affects every aspect of our culture. I met a guy named Rashid at Carleton and he and I became friends. We'd read the Koran together and discuss it. The more I learned about the Prophet Muhammad and the Koran, the more fascinated I became. That's why, six months after I met Rashid, I accepted Islam. My father was overjoyed when I shared the news with him. I promised to visit him next time I was off from school. Perhaps over the summer.
I was off to a good start in Ottawa, I guess. My studies were going pretty good, and I even got myself a job working security at a building downtown. Yeah, things were going pretty good. The only snag is that I didn't have a girlfriend. Seriously, man, it bugged me because I was twenty one years old and still a damn virgin. Rashid used to tease me about it, how in hell he guessed that shit I'll never know. I must have had it written on my forehead or something. Whatever.
I'm not exactly a hit with the ladies at Carleton University, to tell you the truth. Kind of puzzles me because I'm not a bad-looking man. I'm six-foot-one, lean and athletic, with light brown skin, curly black hair and light brown eyes. I've always been a solitary guy, it stems from my days in Cornwall. Seriously, why did my father leave me behind in that all-white town after divorcing my mother? Cornwall is no place to be if you're black or brown, that's for damn sure. I learned to keep to myself because I got teased and bullied in that racist small town.
