My father was in the American military, my mother is Turkish. I was born in Incirlik, Adana, where the American base is located. After the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, we went back to the US. I was going back and forth between Turkey and the US, just like a modern bedouin, until high school. I completed high school in the US, then went to Texas in order to study International Relations.
All my friends in college were Saudi. One morning in 2012, I realised that I became famous in Saudi Arabia as nearly 2 million people watched my YouTube video! My friends shared the video where I was talking about Saudi culture in Arabic. It all happened within a few days. YouTube is not like TV, especially in Saudi Arabia. That time it was insane.
It is the nickname of the late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz. My Saudi friends in the US started calling me this, and since then it remained so.
I never studied Arabic. It is not my native language. We speak Turkish and English at home. I shared the same flat with my Saudi friends for 6 months. I started picking up the Saudi dialect, just by practice. I learned to read and write only after I became a star in the kingdom!
Actually my father was more OK, he did not make a big deal out of it. My mother was also fine, but she was advising me to hang out with people of other nationalities as well, and not only Saudis, because I was only hanging out with the Saudis!
They came from the holy places, Makkah and Madina. It was a big thing for a young American Muslim like me. I was not a very pious person, even though I had been praying and practicing other rituals. I learned about Islam from the holy book, Quran, not from a nation. I am more into the cultural side of the religion, than the practising part. I like the history and culture of Islam. That is why I had this particular interest in Saudi Arabia. I wanted to learn new things about their culture and understanding of religion.
My understanding of Islam has not changed. However, I started living Islam in my daily life. For instance, most Turks realise they are Muslim in Ramadan or on Fridays, but Arabs, even the less pious ones, are Muslim everyday. They pray five times even if they are not that religious — Islam is part of their daily lives. This was the contribution from hanging out with Saudis. Otherwise nothing has changed, as I was already not drinking or eating pork.
As American Muslims, we have never enjoyed the same privilege or comfort as others. When I was a child it happened a lot. I was not very welcome, especially in high school. They were always suspicious of us. After 9/11 it has only worsened. I faced lots of difficulties in school, but we eventually got used to it. American Muslims are used to the fact that the society does not love them. It is very normal for us. It is like, if they love us there is something wrong! As a young Muslim, I was looking for other Muslims, wishing to hang out with them, as they were the only ones who understood and respected me.
The problem is that American people think all Muslims are same — same nationality, same language, same skin colour. That is how the mainstream media portrays Muslims. For example, they do not know that the largest Muslim population lives in Indonesia. They would be surprised that an Asian can be Muslim; because for them a Muslim is either Pakistani, Afghan or Arab.
Due to all those reasons, I wanted to leave the US for a while. Of course I love my country, but in order to understand the US you should look at it from afar. Americans are good people, but they do not know the world. They do not understand human nature, they see themselves prior to the human being. Sometimes they even forget that they are human, and they act like robots! Arabs are the opposite. They have lived in the desert for long, and had nothing else to do but observe people. That is why I found sincerity in the Arab world. They know human nature very well, what a person wants, or wishes.
After my YouTube post went viral, in 2012, one Saudi prince invited me to the kingdom. He said come and see it here. If you like, stay. If not, go back to your country. I stayed there for four months. I liked Saudis even more! But to complete my university, I went back to Texas. However, I got a job offer then from the Saudi Ministry of Education. I left university and went back to Saudi Arabia. I thought I would continue my studies while working under the Ministry of Education, but it did not go as I planned. We established a TV channel, only for educational purposes. My own education was interrupted, but I have a good job.
I have been travelling a lot to help different countries in marketing or advertising. Recently, the government of Texas asked me to promote the state in the Arab world. I came to Qatar before, but only for tourist purposes. I came again recently on the invitation of a friend. It was during the National Day celebrations, and I got to help cover the celebrations for the state TV. Now we have some projects, I am planning to start a TV and radio programme here. In the meantime, I want to study Media at Northwestern University in the Education City. I am obsessed with Saudi Arabia. It is our Holy Land. There is no other country in the world that has a flag with “La ilaha ila Allah Mohammad Rasul Allah” written on it. But Qatar is a better place for my career.
My dream is to change the perception of Arab and Islamic culture abroad. If I achieve this, in the long run I would love to be an adviser to a prime minister, or president in the US, Turkey or any Arab country.
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