Before I left for Irvine, there were essentially two things on my mind that I had pondered in this blog and elsewhere. The first thing I was considering was where I was going to shop for groceries, and how said grocery store might rip me off. The other thing I was considering was how ridiculous (and, though I rarely use the term, I believe Un-American) the Park51 Mosque Controversy was. After today, however, I am finally able to combine the two. It’s amazing how things come back around.
I arrived in Irvine a little over two weeks ago, and in that time have now tried about four grocery stores. I, of course, tried the Albertsons that was directly across the street from my apartment first. It’s certainly okay, and is a standard generic big box kind of grocery story (though not particularly big by most standards). The prices, after I have now had time to compare a bit, were not exactly perfect either, and the quality style there is certainly generic. I’ll likely continue to pick a few things up there from time to time, just because of the easy access, and occasional deals. I also walked into the Trader Joe’s in the University Center and then walked back out. I still don’t exactly see what the attraction to Trader Joe’s is, but it was crowded and just wasn’t for me.
Once I got my OCTA bus pass however, that opened up several new opportunities. OCTA 79 runs past my apartment, and essentially goes to Fashion Island in Newport (where it links to a lot of other coastal buses) and up Culver Drive eventually into Tustin. Along Culver, there were two stores that caught my eye. The first was 99 Ranch, the Asian supermarket. I liked 99 Ranch (especially the meat and seafood), but it wasn’t general enough and it was farther away than what is now, after today, my ultimate choice. I’d probably only go there again if I needed something very particular that only they would have (which isn’t as much as it might seem, unless I really have a desire to eat some chicken feet).
In a little (by OC standards) shopping area called University Park Shopping Center, there’s a market called Wholesome Choice. I initially thought it might by some kind of organic style Whole Foods spin off type place. So today, I wanted a kinder and gentler body soap because my skin is drying out, so I hopped on the bus after class and headed out to Wholesome Choice. When I got there, I was overwhelmed with how great this market was.
The produce section was full of diverse and fresh foods, at low prices by any standard. There was a variety of fresh cuts of meat, also at great prices, and each of the aisles contained a broad selection of foods. (I found the aisle dedicated to different spices to be something worth another trip in the future.) I walked up and down every aisle, and even though this was not the Whole Foods/Organic market experience I was looking for, they had an excellent soap that was in fact what I was seeking. It also had a gigantic hot deli section that puts Whole Foods to shame (and at such low prices!). As I was checking out, the clerk noticed the big UCI letters on my t-shirt, and in that sort of distant Persian way, asked if I was a student. When I said I was, he looked at my student ID and gave me 5% off while the bagger took care in loading the reusable bag that I brought with me. I was living my ultimate super market fantasy.
However, this particular market experience comes with a profound twist. The excellent meat section that I spoke about served halal meats. The labels on most of the products were written in both English and Arabic. Their specialty house bread is a Persian flat bread. The workers there were Asian, but they weren’t Chinese, Japanese, or Korean like at 99 Ranch. Instead, many seemed to be Pakistani, Indian, Iranian, and so on. On their website, Wholesome Choice claims to be an international specialty market, and it certainly is that with the wide range of foods and spices available. However, it was fairly clear that this was, though not advertised as such, an Islamic oriented super market. Certainly it was not wholly Islamic, and it may be unfair to characterize it as such as it was wonderful outside of whatever orientation it may have, but it was very clear that a very significant portion of its customer base and employees were Muslims.
So, the question remains, should I run terrified out of Wholesome Choice because of their audacity in presenting me with halal foods (at such good prices!)? Does the presence of a mosque near the not-to-far-away and densely used Spectrum center mean that I should be looking over my shoulder for men with bombs strapped to their chests? An organization such as the Islamic Center of Irvine must be evil, right? Especially with it giving presentations about such universally reviled things as “Parenting That Connects” and displaying such hateful Islamic quotes like “If someone does good for / to you, return the favor; if you can not recompense, then (at least) pray for the person. [Nasā‘ī]” How should I feel about all this as I shop for my delicious Persian flat bread? They put a super market and a mosque in my backyard!
In my short time thus far in Irvine, I’ve encountered more diverse cultures than I’ve ever managed to encounter in my entire life. In spite of the conservative, rich, white Orange County stereotype, Irvine is a middle class, cultural tower of babel. In Northern California, and especially back in rural Humboldt County, the people there liked to scream at the top of their lungs about diversity. There were seminars, and talks, and everyone would go marching in the streets to celebrate diversity or pride or whatever the buzz of the day was going to be. This has all covered for the fact that Northern California is vastly segmented, and despite all the talk of diversity is mostly monocultural and segregated. I had been exposed to the theory of living harmoniously with other peoples, but never the reality.
So what is the reality of living with Muslims? Well, first of all, the reality should have an adjective added immediately to it. The questions is then: what is the reality of living with American Muslims? The reality is not the scary, faceless group that we’ve come to despise. Here at UCI, there is a fairly decent sized group of Muslim women students on campus. You can tell that they are Muslims because they are wearing head coverings (though not always and many will occasionally go without). These are not the restrictive, anti-feminine burkas that we’ve been told by the media are being used to oppress the Muslim woman, but are instead beautifully designed coverings with simple patterns in them. It’s true that they are certainly not very flashy, but they do have a certain simple elegance to them that is often missed in the bright, sexualized American style of today. It is, however, a style that states loudly, with its choice of interesting color, that moderate Islam is alive in America today.
So, this is how I came to love Wholesome Choice so much. The faceless, bearded mobs of lurking, sleeper cell terrorists are quickly replaced with model images of good neighbors looking to hold to their values and traditions. Islamic tradition seems to suggest that there is a value in not being too loud or standing out too much. Perhaps this is why so many fail to see what I saw today in Wholesome Choice, a moderate group of people going about their daily lives quietly and in peaceful worship of their god. Here is a truly diverse community that doesn’t even seem to be aware of how lucky they are to be this diverse and benefiting from each other’s separate world views. Strip all pieces of America away that separate us, and all we’re left with is just this market. A market where people from an almost uncountable number of value systems, backgrounds, and races come together and achieve massive mutual benefit.
And if you’re still not convinced that such a world exists in my new favorite grocery, then it is worth noticing that the other significantly sized group that came into the market that day wore yarmulkes. There in the market are two groups that are suppose to hate each other being united unknowingly by the common experience of seeking their daily bread.
