(bright music) So my dad got to Detroit in I would say in the early, early nineties, late eighties.

Originally, he's from Somalia, but he was living in Harlem, in actually Manhattan, New York.

For the most part around that time, my dad was traveling around.

He was a preacher, so he's Muslim.

I'm Muslim, and he would be going to different masjid, mosque, and just preaching the good word.

And when it came to Michigan, he said, "Wow, there's so much Muslim people here, a lot of different mosques here."

And the cost of living was like great.

So he saw opportunity for him to enroll his kids in a Muslim school, and just saw something that he could build on that he didn't have in New York.

And it meant the world to him because at that time, my dad valued his kids getting an education from like a Muslim private school and having a house that he owned with a backyard and a front yard and be able to walk outside and walk to the mosque and go shop at his local store and see people that he's friends with, familiar with, and have that same culture with.

Even though we're Somali, our community was filled with Muslim people, but they're mostly from Yemen, and they're very good people.

So he saw something that he could, you know, build within that community.

I felt like I had the best childhood.

Waking up every day and hearing the mosque, the adhan, the call to prayer, and just walking out and that was a normal thing.

(bright music)