Muslim Candidate For Florida House Is Keeping the Faith | TheLedger.com

Muslim Candidate For Florida House Is Keeping the Faith | TheLedger.com: "People often ask, 'Are you American?'

'I tell them I'm American,' Hafeez said. 'And then they ask where are you from, and I say the Tampa Bay area. And then they say, 'No, no. Where are you from?' So I say, 'OK. I was born in England.' '

He said he knows what they're really asking: What is your ethnicity or religion?

For the record, Hafeez, 26, is a Muslim of Pakistani descent. He moved to Florida when he was 3 with his parents, both physicians, who were born in Pakistan.

He attended public schools, earned a law degree at Georgetown University and now works as a lawyer for a health insurance company.

He describes himself as religious, attending a mosque at least once a week and following the Muslim tradition of praying five times a day.

He also is a rarity: a Muslim running for public office in Florida during an election season marked by seething anger over a planned mosque near ground zero and a controversy about burning the Quran."