The journey that changed me: Tharik Hussain

The journey that changed me: Tharik Hussain

Kia speaks to author Tharik Hussain and explains why his book about Muslim Europe changed her thoughts about her own religion

If I had read Minarets in the Mountains when I was younger, I almost certainly would have thought differently about my religion. My parents were immigrants to the UK from Bangladesh and, in an effort to hold on to their identity, they followed a highly prescriptive version of Islam that wasn't very funny.

Author Tharik Hussain

Had I—or she—read a book like this, we might have felt more secure about our place in the world. The problem, of course, is that a book like this didn't exist until Tharik Hussain wrote it.

The author and travel writer has written several travel guides, including Lonely Planet Saudi Arabia, which was shortlisted for a 2020 Travel Media Award. He is host of the award-winning BBC documentary America’s Mosques: A Story of Integration and has two decades of experience as a Muslim heritage specialist.

In Minarets in the Mountains: A Journey Into Muslim Europe, Tharik sets out with his wife and daughters through the Western Balkans – home to Europe's largest indigenous Muslim population – to explore a region where Islam has shaped places and people for more than half a millennium.

Tharik and his family visit Islamic lodges clinging to mountainsides, pray in mosques older than the Sistine Chapel, and learn about their own identities as British, European, and Muslim. Here Tharik tells us about the journey that changed him.

We don't often hear about Europe's indigenous Muslim communities. Why is that?

The idea of ​​an indigenous Muslim identity in Europe - an identity born in and from Europe - is to admit that Europe is as Muslim as it is Christian, Jewish or pagan (and everything else).

This refutes the normalized far-right, Islamophobic narratives that claim Islam is something new and foreign, but anyone who knows their Islamic history knows that it emerged in Europe at more or less the same time as it did in the Middle East: the 7th century, and it never left.

Tharik HussainTharik visited the Islamic site of Blagaj Tekke in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Another reason why this is not a normal part of our discourse - particularly in our genre of travel writing in English - is because the authors who wrote historically about these people and this region were not Muslims and therefore viewed them as the 'Other' of Europe; the result of an alien presence, if you will - a nonsensical trope still repeated fourteen centuries later.

What was the most surprising thing you learned while writing the book?

How surprising the idea of ​​an indigenous Muslim Europe is to people, and not just Europeans. I've spoken to people and media around the world and it's a bizarre concept to them - the idea of ​​a vibrant European Muslim presence that is not the result of post-colonial migration.

Mehmet/ShutterstockStari Most, an Ottoman bridge in Bosnia and Herzegovina

I was also surprised at how much of what I discovered challenged my own - admittedly more empathetic - ideas about what this region would look like, as it was a far cry from the popular image of a gray, monolithic former Soviet bloc.

It was rich in different stories, colorful, exciting, creative and extremely beautiful and of course full of Muslim heritage that I had previously missed, be it the region's unique European-Muslim art style or the Muslim tradition of protecting the oppressed (Jews of Europe).

What have been some of the joys (and challenges) of traveling with two young daughters?

The joys are the perspectives they bring to where we go and what we see. I am a middle-aged British man born in Bangladesh. They are two teenage girls of mixed race. They see and experience the world very differently and remind me of privilege and exclusion that I am blind to. They also have that great sense of wonder that many of us lose with age and the accompanying onset of cynicism.

Tharik HussainTharik's family in front of the eco-farmhouse with their hosts in Palamartsa, Bulgaria

The challenges are similar to those encountered when traveling with someone for an extended period of time. The intensity, catering to everyone's moods, putting up with each other's personality traits, etc. - nothing out of the ordinary, because they are truly wonderful company!

Let’s get to the journey that changed you. Which region or journey influenced you the most?

Given the book I've just written, it would probably have to be a stopover in Cyprus on my way to Saudi Arabia. We were about to move there when a young family became convinced we didn't belong in the UK and Europe, so we booked a short trip to do the Umrah (mini-pilgrimage) and effectively 'explore' the country before a move.

With two young parents broke, we could only afford a long stay in Larnaca - about nine hours, I think. To kill time, I looked for nearby attractions and came across a mosque by salt lakes. That sounded tempting and as soon as we arrived we took a taxi for a short day trip.

Vera Larina/ShutterstockThe Tekke of Hala Sultan in Larnaca, Cyprus

I remember arriving at this dilapidated and neglected old place - long before the recent renovations - and the elderly caretaker came out of his dusty and lonely cabin to hand me a small thin booklet entitled The Tekke of Hala Sultan.

I didn't think much of it and put the book in my bag. We strolled around the dimly lit and poorly maintained Ottoman-era mosque, surrounded by palm trees overlooking the salt lakes baked by the August sun. My wife and I were quite upset when we came across a grave in the mosque complex.

Back then we were leaning towards conservative Islam – we were going to Saudi Arabia, after all – and the idea of ​​graves next to places of worship was a no-go.

We walked and pushed my daughter Amani in her stroller, a little disappointed but happy to have killed a few hours. But years later, after leaving life in Saudi Arabia disillusioned, I opened this book and discovered that the mosque and its tomb were supposedly the place where one of the Prophet Muhammad's aunts had been buried.

I realized that one of the Prophet's aunts had come to Europe and no one had bothered to tell me. I came to the conclusion that I belonged here and set out to prove it with the work I've attempted since.

Which trip would you like to repeat?

Backpacking through Indochina – Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia – as a family. My daughters were of an age where they could carry their own backpacks, and although some of our time in Thailand was spent traveling around in a rental car, much of this trip involved wandering around the region on trains, tuk-tuks, buses, boats, ferries, and the odd plane as we properly introduced them to the experience of independent travel.

Yannick Messerli/ShutterstockAngkor Wat in Cambodia

We stayed in huts on stilts on little-known beach islands, hiked through the temples of Angkor Wat, discovered herds of wild elephants in their natural habitats, ate the most delicious local foods, and of course visited sites of Indochinese indigenous Muslim culture throughout the summer. It was just bliss.

Do you still have a dream destination that you haven't seen yet?

Of course. Too many to list! But traveling along the Silk Road and through South America is probably at the top. I rarely want to “do” in one place.

Are you a planner or a spectator?

I'm always somewhere in between. I like a relaxed itinerary, but I also love the freedom of being able to say, “Cancel that” or “That looks interesting, should we stay here a little longer?”

Hotel or hostel (or camping)?

If you travel alone, hostels for the interesting folklore and atmosphere. When I'm just with my wife, they're nice hotels - and mixed when we're all together. I like camping, but she's not that keen.

What was your most important travel experience?

Solo: exploring Muslim Thailand on assignment, being able to truly immerse yourself in the local culture in a way that is impossible on a pure vacation. Finding the physical ruins - Tomb Raider-style - of long-neglected Thai sultanates on overgrown, jungle-covered hills and brushing off with Thai Muslim Sufis during Ramadan are just two moments from this trip that really stand out.

Family: Backpacking through Indochina for the reasons described above.

After all, why travel?

How many reasons do you want? I do not believe it is a coincidence that almost all ancient mystical traditions of all faiths encourage those seeking wisdom to wander the earth. I think traveling has a powerfully transformative effect on our being, whether you believe in a soul or not.

We begin to really know each other; we learn to break away from excessive dependence on the world; we are humiliated; we become more grateful for what we have; we recognize our own insignificance in the larger cosmos... That is the deep answer.

The Flat One: The world and the people in it are just so damn beautiful!

In Minarets in the Mountains, Tharik Hussain travels with his wife and young daughters around the Western Balkans to explore a region where Islam has shaped places and people for more than half a millennium. Along the way, they visit Islamic lodges clinging to mountainsides, pray in mosques older than the Sistine Chapel, and explore the historical roots of European Islamophobia.

Main image: Mehmet/Shutterstock

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