Knock! Knock! Who's there? It's Me!

"Lady, if we don't have it on the shelves, then we don't have it at all," the saleswoman at the luggage department slowly spelled out the words out of her mouth.

"But can't you check the backroom for more? I really need two identical suitcases."

She stared at me and repeated: "If we don't have it on the shelves, then we don't have it at all."

I froze and she thought I still did not understand. But I understood every word she said and even every word she did not say. I smiled, thanked her, and left.

That was a snippet of one of my shopping adventures while preparing for my yearly visit to the Middle East. Every summer for the past seventeen years, I have been taking an across the oceans trip to Egypt where my parents live. Two weeks after I settle, I start whining about going back home to Texas. I would soon forgive people like the saleswoman at the luggage department and long to go back to my routine life.

True! I am a Muslim woman who lives in America, I wear the Muslim head covering "hijab" while going around town running my daily errands. When people give me "the look," I smile and shy away. Who am I? I'm Muslim by birth, American by choice.I'm an American Muslim.