A new three-part documentary from PBS airing on WKAR-TV follows one Michigan couple as they take a 2,500 mile drive across the country exploring Muslim communities along Route 66.
It’s called The Great Muslim American Road Trip.
Mona Haydar and Sebastian Robins are the show’s hosts. WKAR's Sophia Saliby spoke with Robins about why they took the trip.
Interview Highlights
On what happened on the couple's road trip
What ended up happening was something much more interesting, frankly, than just the two of us, you know, driving and arguing about music and eating potato chips and bad road food. And that was the series of encounters that we had along the way, starting in Chicago, where Route 66 technically begins, and ending on the Santa Monica Pier and meeting academics and historians and activists and restaurant owners and actors along the way, and really deepening our sense of history about not just our faith, but about how our country really came to be.
On what they learned
We did really feel connected both in beautiful, inspiring ways, but also connected to the complicated and contradictory nature of our country. So for example, Dr. Kamau, another professor, who we met in Springfield, really schooled us that, by some estimates, up to a third of the kidnapped and enslaved Africans who were part of the transatlantic slave trade, were, in fact, Muslims. And so, that really expanded both our timeline of how Muslims came to this country and when they came to this country but also expanded the painful and complicated nature of how our country was born and where our prosperity came from.
On their favorite stop along the way
In the shadow of the Las Vegas Strip is a beautiful working class neighborhood where we got to spend time at a place called the Muslim Village. And the Muslim Village was started by a woman named "Mama" Nisaa who you meet in the show. She saw this need, initially, just for fresh fruits and vegetables in her community. So, she went into her pocket. She bought produce. She handed it out out of the trunk of her car for free. And what that blossomed into was this community center where they still do a free farmers market open to anyone in the neighborhood, a job training center, a mosque, a library, housing.
Interview Transcript
Sophia Saliby: A new three-part documentary from PBS airing on WKAR-TV follows one Michigan couple as they take a 2,500 mile drive across the country exploring Muslim communities along Route 66.
It’s called The Great Muslim American Road Trip.
Mona Haydar and Sebastian Robins are the show’s hosts, and Sebastian is here with me now. Thank you for joining me.
Sebastian Robins: Thanks so much for having me.
Saliby: So, where did the idea for taking this huge road trip come from?
Robins: The initial motivation was pretty modest and fairly personal in that Mona and I really wanted an opportunity to spend some time together after being married for almost 10 years and all the pandemic lockdown that all of us have gone through and this chance to explore a part of the country that neither one of us knew very much about.
What ended up happening was something much more interesting, frankly, than just the two of us, you know, driving and arguing about music and eating potato chips and bad road food. And that was the series of encounters that we had along the way, starting in Chicago, where Route 66 technically begins, and ending on the Santa Monica Pier and meeting academics and historians and activists and restaurant owners and actors along the way, and really deepening our sense of history about not just our faith, but about how our country really came to be.
Saliby: Did you feel the trip connected you, both of you, I guess, more to your American-ness but also your Muslim-ness learning this history?
Robins: One of the most powerful voices in the show is a professor by the name of Dr. Edward Curtis, and he takes us really by the hand in St. Louis, and he says something very poignant. He says "American history is Muslim history. And Muslim history is American history." And that sounds very easy to say.
We did really feel connected both in beautiful, inspiring ways, but also connected to the complicated and contradictory nature of our country.
But yes, we did really feel connected both in beautiful, inspiring ways, but also connected to the complicated and contradictory nature of our country. So for example, Dr. Kamau, another professor who we met in Springfield, really schooled us that, by some estimates, up to a third of the kidnapped and enslaved Africans who were part of the transatlantic slave trade were, in fact, Muslims.
And so, that really expanded both our timeline of how Muslims came to this country and when they came to this country but also expanded the painful and complicated nature of how our country was born and where our prosperity came from.
Saliby: What do you hope those who watch the program take away from learning this, experiencing this along with you with this road trip?
Robins: You know, I think one of the powerful elements of this show is we're able to spend enough time with people and enough time with different types of people to get beyond their titles and their accolades and their awards and their accomplishments.
And everybody we've met along the way had those, but towards something that I think is actually more powerful and more impactful, which is, you know, their story, their human story, who they are, whether they're a newly arrived immigrant, whether they're the daughter of Muhammad Ali, whether they're an actor in an August Wilson play in Pasadena, California.
I think the power of stories has the potential, it doesn't always, but it has the potential to break down some of those barriers that we carry, barriers we may not even know exist in our heart.
And I think the power of stories has the potential, it doesn't always, but it has the potential to break down some of those barriers that we carry, barriers we may not even know exist in our heart. Those barriers allow us to see certain people as not human, as not worthy of the beautiful human experience that we want for ourselves. And so, I think that comes through in this series of encounters.
Saliby: Just to end, did you have a favorite spot from the trip that you can share?
Robins: The hands down winner, if you will, was in the most unlikely place you can imagine us to end up, and that was Las Vegas, Nevada. And in the shadow of the Las Vegas Strip is a beautiful working class neighborhood where we got to spend time at a place called the Muslim Village.
And the Muslim Village was started by a woman named "Mama" Nisaa who you meet in the show. She saw this need, initially, just for fresh fruits and vegetables in her community. So, she went into her pocket. She bought produce. She handed it out out of the trunk of her car for free.
And what that blossomed into was this community center where they still do a free farmers market open to anyone in the neighborhood, a job training center, a mosque, a library, housing. They also welcome men back to the community who have been incarcerated. They welcome them back with dignity and community.
And this was almost a year ago that we were there, and Mona and I still talk about this place and still reference this place as a motivation for how we want to do better in the world and make more of an impact, and it really comes through in the show. It's just a bright, beautiful day, and people are hugging each other and "Mama" Nisaa is just this amazing light.
Saliby: Sebastian Robins and his wife Mona Haydar host The Great Muslim American Road Trip which you can watch on WKAR-TV. Thank you for joining me, Sebastian.
Robins: Thanks very much for having me on.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
