Twin Cities Muslims mourn Reda, a respected activist and leader
Nolan Zavoral/Star Tribune
April 5, 2000
Twin Cities Muslims, hearing of the death Sunday of Hesham Nasser Reda, immediately prayed on his behalf at the Islamic Center of Minnesota in Fridley.
Reda, 47, who died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, where he was buried, spent 26 years in the Twin Cities, bringing Muslims into the loops of inter-faith dialogue and political action. As the founder and first president of the American Muslim Council of Minnesota -- the first such chapter in the country -- he organized voting drives in the diverse Muslim community and became a respected activist within their swelling ranks
"The important thing about him was that he saw Muslims in this society as being more involved in the political life of America," said Matthew Ramadan, who succeeded Reda as state council president after Reda left in 1998 to head the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Washington, D.C.
"He worked hard to have Muslims put roots where they are, to make an impact on American society. The success we've had, the foundations were laid by him."
Jay Tcath, former executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas who now holds a similar position in Chicago, worked closely with Reda to build relations between Jews and Muslims.
"Along with Matthew Ramadan, he [Reda] was one of the key contacts and best friends of the Jewish community within the Muslim community," he said, adding that Reda "greased the wheels" for the state Muslim Council to work with the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition, an interfaith alliance that lobbies the Legislature on issues ranging from social justice to hate crimes. "He and I spoke privately at some length about the valleys of our great difference regarding the Middle East," Tcath said. "And at the end, we shook hands, and we decided that we were not going to let those harm our cooperation in other areas of common good and shared values."
Born in Cairo in 1952, Reda came to the United States in 1972 and received a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Minnesota. He ran a family electronics business in St. Louis Park and lived in Maple Grove.
Friends and associates described him as self-effacing and determined. In a 1998 story in the Star Tribune, Reda spoke about the difficulties he initially faced while organizing Muslims in the Twin Cities who may have arrived from India, Egypt, Somalia, Pakistan or another country.
"Most Muslims grow up in an environment that's quite homogeneous," he'd said. "But the situation we have here, we've kind of been thrown together and all come with different ways of approaching Islam."
Overall, he said, "the problem is striking a balance between assimilation and maintaining our identity."
Approximately six months ago, Reda notified friends and colleagues that he would take an indefinite leave of absence as director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Washington, because of illness. He went to live with relatives in Los Angeles.
Survivors include his wife, Katam, and their two children, Omar and Rima.
