It could be a call about a patient in crisis. Or a member of the local
Muslim community in need of help. Or a reporter seeking comment after
another public official has accused local Muslims of being a threat to
America.
Arain takes a deep breath and then responds in a calm, clear manner,
no matter what the crisis. It's a trait his colleagues noticed years
ago.
"He is pretty unflappable," said Dr. Tom Davis, who works with Arain
in the neurology department at Vanderbilt University. "I don't think I
have ever seen him lose his cool."
The past few years have been a handful for Arain, an associate
professor of neurology and the spokesman for the Islamic Center of
Nashville. Local Muslims have faced an organized campaign that has
accused them of having ties to terrorism and that claims their faith
should be illegal.
His response to critics is calm and straightforward: Nashville's
Muslims love America and are law-abiding citizens. Their faith teaches
them to respect their neighbors and be good people.
Arain believes Christianity, Islam and Judaism share common values
about how to live as good citizens.
"I don't think there is a race or competition between our faiths," he
said. "The only competition is to do good to others."
That's a lesson his father, a civil engineer, taught him early on.
When Arain was growing up in Pakistan, his parents respected their
Hindu and Christian neighbors and taught their children tolerance.
They also taught Arain and his four siblings — two brothers and two
sisters — the value of education.
Arain and his brother Fazal, a doctoral student at Vanderbilt, are
both neurologists. Another brother, who lives in Calgary, Alberta, is
an architect. One sister is a geneticist in Oman, and the other is a
biochemist in Pakistan.
His wife, Aneeqa, has a master's degree in sociology. She hopes to get
a doctorate once their children — Jinan, 7, and Nidal, 11 — are a bit
older.
Arain's interest in neurology also started at a young age. His aunt
had epilepsy, and he first saw her have a seizure when he was about 7.
He studied medicine in Karachi, Pakistan, and did a yearlong residency
in Flint, Mich., before moving to Nashville in 1995. Michigan was too
cold, he said. He finished a residency and then a fellowship in
neurology at Vanderbilt before joining the faculty in 2000.
Today, he studies the disparity in care for epilepsy, especially for
patients who don't have access to medicine, and how the disease
affects people with developmental disabilities.
As a fellow, he began caring for patients with epilepsy at Clover
Bottom Development Center in Nashville and continues to do so today.
"That's been a very humbling experience," he said. "I feel like I can
contribute to their quality of life."
An arranged marriage
Aneeqa and Amir Arain first met on their wedding day back in 1997.
Their parents arranged the match, and the couple hadn't so much as
spoken to each other before that day.
"All my friends were shocked," Aneeqa Arain said. "They asked me, 'You
didn't even talk?' "
The couple say their parents did a good job in matching them up.
Before their wedding, Aneeqa lived in Karachi, not far from Amir's
hometown. Her aunt knew Amir's family and recommended the couple's
parents to each other.
Aneeqa said her husband is a giving man who never says no to anyone
who needs him. Sometimes that means taking late-night phone calls
about patients or being out in the evenings at interfaith events.
"He's always ready to help anyone," she said. "If someone tells him
they need help, he will go."
Finding balance is not easy for Arain these days. Along with his
teaching and clinic duties at Vanderbilt and volunteering at the
Islamic Center, he serves on the board of the Epilepsy Foundation of
Middle and West Tennessee and volunteers for regular medical clinics
at a local mosque. Weekends are for his son's soccer games and
spending time with his wife and daughter.
His face lights up when he talks about Jinan and Nidal.
The walls of his basement office at Vanderbilt Medical Center are
covered with drawings from his daughter. There's a castle straight out
of a fairy tale, a heart that reads "Dear My Family, I love you guys,"
and a smiling portrait of Arain.
"If you ask her what she wants to be in her life, she says she's going
to be an artist," he said, smiling. "I am OK with that, but my son
tells her that she cannot take art history as a profession because you
won't earn much money."
He hopes his son will follow in his footsteps as a doctor, but Arain
won't push him if he chooses a different career.
"That main thing is that he is a good human being," Arain said.
Interfaith curiosity
The Arains' home is filled with books on politics, poetry and
religion, many in Urdu, one of five languages that Amir Arain speaks.
His library includes copies of the Bhagavad-Gita, a Hindu scripture,
along with Christian and Jewish versions of the Bible.
Those books and his own curiosity about the beliefs of the other
people also drive his interest in interfaith issues. He and some
Jewish friends have studied the Jewish and Muslim scriptures together
and a few years ago shared an interfaith Seder meal at this house —
served on the first night of Jewish Passover.
Donna Whitley, a retired neurologist and a member of Congregation
Micah in Brentwood, calls Arain one of the kindest people she knows.
The two have been friends of years, and Whitley lent Arain her
father's kiddush cup —– used on the Sabbath and other Jewish
observances —– for the Seder.
"If I have ever been to a better Seder, I don't know when it was," she
said.
Davis, Arain's colleague, has taken part in interfaith events with
Arian. He said he respects Arain for both his clinical knowledge and
his calm demeanor.
Davis said he is most impressed with how Arain lives his faith and
values in day-to-day life.
"He's like the church member who taught Sunday school and volunteered
for everything, and who is big on believing that the best witness to
your faith is how you live, not what you say," he said.
Contact Bob Smietana at 615-259-8228 or bsmietana@tennessean.com, or
follow him on Twitter @bobsmietana.
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