00:00One of the customers said, why aren't you serving pork?
00:03Because I don't do pork.
00:04He said, but this is Iowa.
00:05I said, but this is me.
00:13It's affordable.
00:14That's what we want.
00:15You know, the American consumer, cheap, cheap, cheap, right?
00:18And I'm not saying that's wrong.
00:20I'm not saying that.
00:21It is just it.
00:22I'm not dissing on McDonald's.
00:25I am.
00:26I think maybe I was the second Muslim to even set foot in Grinnell.
00:32So are there more Muslims in Grinnell now?
00:35There's three.
00:41I lost a great deal of money with my first establishment, but it didn't detract me.
00:48Unfortunately, I had a crazy wife that stuck by me.
00:51One of my favorites is definitely the hot steak salad.
00:56My objective was making money.
00:58And I failed miserably.
01:03Only they can decide if it was worth it.
01:05You know, this is a really hard business.
01:08It was so successful, but by 9-11, business fell by half.
01:15There have been multiple times I've watched it almost go under.
01:18I've watched it eat my parents up, eat their relationship up.
01:21I think before that, it was less like any acute bigotry and more just sort of the low-grade
01:27awareness of not being exactly a part of the community.
01:38My name is Kamal Hamouda.
01:40I live in Grinnell, and I'm running for the State House in 2020.
01:48I know how proud Kamal was to become a naturalized citizen, and he takes that quite seriously.
01:55And the boys were like, Dad, if you're gonna run, at least run as a Democrat.
02:01And he's like, no.
02:03It's cool.
02:08In the darkest moment, we found that there is love to be had and cared to be shared.
02:18We wouldn't be here without you.
02:20We've been reminded of how much we owe to the people.
02:26And thank you so much for being here.
02:30Until that moment, let me cook a meal for whoever comes to visit.
