YAHYA FREDERICKSON

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Yahya Frederickson was born on Christmas Day, 1962, in Nashville, TN. He was raised in Moorhead, MN by parents of Scandinavian descent. In 1985, Yahya graduated from Moorhead State University with an individualized B.A. focusing on social sciences and humanities. In 1989, after receiving his M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Poetry) from the University of Montana, Yahya joined the Peace Corps and went to Yemen. In all, Yahya spent six "formative years" in Yemen in which he taught a variety of English subjects, experienced Middle-Eastern cultures, married, and became the father of twins. It was also during these years that Yahya welcomed the Muslim faith into his life. Yahya and his new family returned to the United States in 1996, at which time he began his doctoral studies and poetic works at the University or North Dakota in Grand Forks. He finished his Ph. D. in English in 1999. Dr. Frederickson now teaches English, Multicultural Literature, and other subjects at MSUM's New Center for Multidisciplinary Studies.

This interview includes Mr. Frederickson’s experiences in Yemen, his religious conversion, and his observations on the Muslim community in the Fargo-Moorhead community. He also describes how the events of September 11, 2001 have affected our community.

Yahya Frederickson was interviewed on May 4, 2003 (10:30am) by Lindsay Evenson, Deyon Glaser and Tim Jorgensen.

 

SAMPLES FROM THE INTERVIEW

ON HIS TIME IN YEMEN, AND HOW FAITH DIRECTS LIFESTYLE:

"...the way that people could sit and talk with neighbors. They had time to do that. they weren't running, running, running all day long...there was a social value to sitting with people and discussing things, having conversations and ...again, very intruiging when you look at...when I looked at our culture here, even in a small place like Moorhead where, which is much more laid back than a place like Chicago. Even here you feel like you're running quite a bit...and it was nice to see that there were alternatives to that lifestyle."

ON HIS ROLE AS A MUSLIM IN FARGO-MOORHEAD:

"...I hope I can offer myself to the community as somewhat of a mediator, but I think, on the other hand, that position of being between things, between Islam and the non-Muslim Fargo Moorhead community, I also risk being part of neither. In fact, I can't really know what it's like to be a recent immigrant, a refugee, because I haven't done it. I haven't had the horror that they've lived, and I can never understand it because I haven't done it. On the other hand, I can never be part of the Fargo-Moorhead non-Muslim community because I'm not a non-Muslim anymore. I'm...so, you know, you run the risk of separating yourself from both parts that you're trying to bring together, you know? And that's the position of any mediator, I think: being the person between."

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

LISTEN TO INTERVIEW