Shaykh Uthman

None of that.

Basically, and I just wanted to go to school, get a good education, make my mom proud.

But, you know, Southern California in the 80s and 90s was, as Ice Cube would describe it, hell on earth, right?

I mean, it was rough.

A lot of gangs, a lot of shootings, a lot of drive-bys.

I mean, you know, when you go to places, people talk about stabbing.

Stabbing were a joke to us, you know?

So...

You know, it was rough, so I knew a lot of gangsters, but I didn't get involved.

But one of my friends got into a fight, and basically, you know, being Pashtun and all this stuff, you know, being macho, raised like that, I went to help him.

When I jumped in to help him, he ran.

He ran, I got jumped.

And when I got jumped, my parents were divorced, but my father, when he heard about it, my mom, when she saw me all busted up, she called my father.

He came and he was like, I still remember very vividly, he told me, I have two questions.

One, did you run?

I said, no, I stood my ground.

He said, did you cry?

I said, no, I didn't cry.

He was like, all right, no other questions.

That's it.