By Amenah Charani
Muhammad Rasul moved to Tallahassee from Pakistan when he was 11-years-old. Rasul overcame discrimination when he moved to the U.S. and now uses his experiences to spread open-mindedness and acceptance throughout society.
“I would like to make this world a more tolerant and nicer one,” said Rasul. “I would love to remove barriers that inhibit intercultural interactions.”
Although fluent in Urdu, Arabic, Hindu, Spanish and English, Rasul still struggled with language barriers and the discrimination that comes along with them.
“I’ve been discriminated against ever since I got here… at first, people wouldn’ t talk to me,” said Rasul.
However, it was because of the practice he received throughout high school that he grew talented with the English language and fell in love with public speaking.
“I’m really good at public speaking. My mom was a really great public speaker so she’d force me to do public speaking in high school,” said Rasul. “So I stopped caring what people thought.”
Rasul created the Cricket Club of Florida State University. Cricket, which is the second most popular sport in the world has held the key to Rasul’s heart ever since he started playing when he was four-years-old.
“I don’t like to brag,” said Rasul. “But, I’m pretty good.”
In fact, the team recently made it to the American College Cricket Nationals!
“Cricket has affected my life by increasing my interactions with people of different ethnicities and cultures. It has made me tolerant to all types of people,” said Rasul, “Cricket has also taught me how hard life can be due to the grueling nature of the sport.”
Though playing cricket for as long as he can is a goal, Rasul hopes to one day move back to Pakistan and become the Ambassador of the United States. Determined and passionate to reach this position of esteem, Rasul admittedly is mainly thrilled to be referred to as ‘Your Excellency.’
“I want to let the people of TCC know how diverse their campus is and how much they can benefit from that as a person,” said Rasul. “As you meet new people, your outlook on life changes and you start to think in a more positive way about people that you might have had stereotypes about in the past.”
