His experience at Harvard, where he has been for almost 25 years, convinced him to develop a specialty in Islamic studies.
"I was, and still am, shocked by the stereotypes and prejudices in American society against Muslims and Islamic culture," Asani says. "There were people who, when you tell them you're a Muslim, think you're a fanatic or a terrorist. This is based on ignorance. I thought I wanted to dispel stereotypes through my teaching."
"I think stereotypes have very dangerous implications for society. You know, when the Oklahoma bombing took place, everyone thought it was the Muslims. There was a great sense of paranoia. There were individual families who were attacked, mosques defaced by graffiti. I even had a student ask me once, 'How can a rational and intelligent person like you be a Muslim?' It tells you a lot."
Asani says that growing up removed from the events in the subcontinent gave him a more unbiased perspective on South-Asian affairs, which is reflected in his teaching of Urdu-Hindi.
"I teach them together; this [combined language] is what Gandhi called Hindustani. It's a very unusual language situation--the spoken language is almost identical," he says. "But once you get to classical literature, Hindi becomes Sanscritized and Urdu becomes Arabized or Persianized, so the languages become mutually incomprehensible.
"Hindi uses Indian script, Devanagari, and Urdu uses a form of the Arabic. In my intro courses, I teach people both script systems, an unusual technique. Most schools teach them as separate languages. But I don't think that language instruction should become politicized."
Asani also remarks that his teaching methods have changed to accommodate the recent increase in Americans of South Asian descent.
"When I first came to Harvard, the people of South Asian descent were international students directly from the subcontinent, and very few. Now, predominantly people born in the U.S., first generation, second generation," Asani says.
"That, interestingly, also affects how you teach. When I first started teaching students taking Urdu-Hindi, there were only a few undergraduates, about ten a year, and they were mostly white. Now, 70 percent are of South Asian descent, and they're familiar with a little bit of South Asian culture. Teaching them is a bit different from teaching non-South Asians. So now I have to balance the needs of two different groups. This year, the intro class has 55 students, ironically as resources to teach have shrunk," he adds.
Asani says he wants to increase course offerings in introductory Islam to combat the ignorance many students have.
"I think there is a dire need in this university for more courses on Islam for the non-specialist who doesn't have knowledge of languages or prior study." Asani says.
In his attempt to help the American Muslim community, Asani helped found a summer program, Al-Ummah--Arabic for "the community"--aimed at giving immigrant Muslim youth a positive identity, both as Americans and as Muslims.
When he gained his citizenship in 1991, Asani's own identity became even more complex.
"I think that now it's even more complicated to answer the question, 'where are you from?' because now I'm an American." Asani says. "So now I have this weird identity: African-Asian-American. The categories have so broken down that I wonder if it's at all meaningful to use these labels."