Oral History Program Aurangzeb Akbar Interviewed by Usman Javed 9 April 2016 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Aurangzeb Akbar Interviewed by Usman Javed 9 April 2016 Copyright © 2023 by Weber State University, Stewart Library Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description The Weber State College/University Student Projects have been created by students working with several different professors on the Weber State campus. The topics are varied and based on the student's interest or task for a specific assignment. These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Akbar, Aurangzeb, an oral history by Usman Javed, 9 April 2016, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, Special Collections and University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Aurangzeb Akbar, conducted on April 9, 2016, in his home in Salt Lake City Utah, by Usman Javed. Aurangzeb discusses his life and his experiences serving as a leader for the Islamic Center in the Greater Salt Lake area. UKJ: Please start by telling us about your background. AA: My name is Aurangzeb Akbar, as Usman mentioned. I grew up in Lahore, Pakistan and it is one of the biggest cities in Pakistan. I went to Aitchison College and was very lucky to go there as it is one of the best schools within Pakistan and India. Then, I moved to Denison University after graduating from Aitchison. Denison is a small liberal arts school located close to Columbus, Ohio. I did my undergrad in Economics from there. From there, I moved to Buffalo, New York, where I was lucky enough to finish my MBA in finance from D'Youville College, which is another small liberal arts school. Then seven years ago, I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where I live now and where my family lives and I love living here. Also, as far as my passions and hobbies go, I love studying religion and not only my Islamic religion but all types of religions out there. Because to be honest, all religions have very common basic values that one need to adopt to lead a very good and meaningful life. My passions and hobbies revolve around studying religions and spreading the word of God and spreading good amongst people. 1 UKJ: Can you tell me what experiences you had growing up that lead you to believe that you were or could be a leader? AA: Yes, so my experience started at a very young age back in my high school, Aitchison College in Lahore, Pakistan. I was a great athlete and I was a part of the cricket and soccer teams. By the end of my junior year of high school, I became the captain of both teams. In my senior year of high school, I also became a prefect. Prefect is where you lead 200 kids who look up to you and you lead them from the front in school. Being a prefect helped me understand that to be a good leader you have to lead by example. There are people who look up to you and that's a lot of responsibility on your shoulders. And also, I was pretty good at public speaking, so coming from that perspective, I think I always had the ability to become a good leader and lead from the front effectively and perform under stress. This is one of the big things that was instilled in me as a young child and it is something that has helped me a lot throughout my career and helped build my leadership skills. UKJ: What are your core values? How have they influenced your leadership skills, abilities, and experiences? AA: Being a Muslim, our core values are to be honest, integrity, and love for your fellow man. Coming from Pakistan, we have a very family-oriented culture, hence that has always helped influence my decisions as a leader. What we do here in Utah and Salt Lake City in general is to try to get families involved in small activities—just to increase the love and brotherhood amongst the families. So that we can always be there in the times of happiness and times of sorrow. 2 Also, when new families move from outside of Utah to Salt Lake for the first time or if they are coming from a different country and are settling here in Salt Lake for a better life and opportunities, we try to make the transition phase for them smoother. We do this by providing all types of support to them so that they feel like Salt Lake is a second home for them. These are our primary goals that we help other people in need. UKJ: Can you name a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader, maybe someone who has been a mentor to you? Why and how did this person impact your life generally, and your leadership abilities specifically. AA: I have had many people I look up to throughout my education. Inspiring personalities such as the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Allama Iqbal, the person who brought the idea of making Pakistan a separate homeland for Muslims. And obviously Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Malcolm X. All these people never put their self-interests first and always fought for a cause and that's why they had such huge followings due to their leadership skills and their selfless ways. But in my life, it would have to be my father who I have always looked up to. He has given me the best possible advice whenever I have been confused in making life decisions. I always seek advice from my father. He has taught me everything I know. He raised me to know to do good to others, spread love, and spread the word of God. His ability to perform and make rational decisions under pressure and stress is one thing that I took from him. He has been a very big part of my life and all my core values are because of him. Still, to this day, I seek 3 his advice and he has been there for me through thick and thin. I always look to him in times of need. UKJ: What do you see as the biggest challenges of being a minority leader in Utah, which is predominantly white? What do you do to overcome these challenges? AA: The biggest challenge I can think of is religious intolerance, don't take me the wrong way but the reason I say this is that after 9/11—which was a very tragic incident that happened in New York—discrimination against Muslims has increased exponentially. The media has been portraying Islam in a very negative way. Through this, there was hatred that was being spread towards our religion. That often creates problems for us, as we are a peace-loving people and we strongly reject all forms religiously motivated by violence and intolerance. These people who are spreading hate and violence in the name of religion, have no religion. Through their acts, actually defame the religion. I feel all religions are beautiful and no religion teaches violence or intolerance. So my family is here, I have a small business here, my kids go to school here and we are a totally peace loving people. And we’re actually thankful that we were given the opportunity to come to the U.S. and live amongst all sorts of people here. Just recently, attacks in Brussels show us how religious violence is on the rise. However, there were also attacks in Pakistan where there was a bomb blast that happened on Easter that was targeted towards children and women. Both Christians and Muslims lost lives and approximately 75 people were killed. So my point here is that religion is not violent, no religion teaches violence, and all religions teach love, peace, and brotherhood. 4 From our end, what we try to do is invite people to our mosques so that they can get to know us better, they can get to know our faith better and we can clear the confusions in their mind about our religion. This is my primary goal these days and whenever I have time, I hold gatherings at my mosque so that all types of people can stop by and we can clear any misconceptions they might have. Me and the rest of the committee are more than happy to clear any confusions about our religion. UKJ: What advice would you give to emerging young minority leaders in order to be successful? AA: So my primary advice would be to be confident in what you do have your core set of beliefs, stick to them, and never give up. The thing is there are times you won't be able to succeed in your goals, but you have to keep trying and be persistent. God has a plan for all of us and no matter how hard something seems, there is always light at the end of the tunnel and remember to preach love, harmony, and the name of God. UKJ: What other insights can you share about being a minority leader in Utah? AA: To be honest, Utah is a very peace-loving state—especially Salt Lake City. It gives me great happiness when I think that I am a leader of a minority religion in Utah. The people of Utah have been very welcoming to us. We have a mosque here and we get donations for our mosque from different people of different faiths, which is a very welcoming thing. I feel Utah has many opportunities for minorities to succeed and be part of the community. I mean, just me for 5 example, I run a successful small business that is flourishing and it gives me great happiness because it's all due to the welcoming people of Utah and it gives me great pleasure to be a part of this community and be a leader for a minority. 6