Instead of analyzing this book from only Yusef's point of view, one interesting way to interpret the novel would be to view the entire cast of characters as one idea or picture. Then, the story is less anecdotal. Anecdote means that a story is just happenstance, and this novel is not happenstance—there is an implicit argument being made through the characters in the house and their progress and development as people.
Look at Rabeya for instance. She represents something that is true about all the characters, not just herself. Like Yusef himself, Rabeya is culturally conservative, but open-minded and academic when it comes to her faith as a Muslim. Very often, her voice is the one that says the most offensive, liberal, open-minded things, but from beneath a full body burka. This is not just clever writing—it's an argument that people are nuanced, and they reach different conclusions than one would probably guess just by analyzing their appearance or cultural identity.
Then there is the central thematic line, "Mohammad was a punk rocker," which comes in the story as a song lyric, but it happens to be a symbolic reminder of the author's own religious faith. It shows how religion helps us form our identity (for the religious families of our time), as a deeply rooted aspect of our character, but that doesn't necessarily imply anything else about a person. As we see, Muslims can come in all shapes and colors—it's all part of human diversity.
As a person that doesn't align with the white, Christian culture of the American majority, Yusef (and the rest of the characters) represent the fact that their lives are entirely countercultural, not because the religion is inherently offensive, but just because we tend to view each other with stereotypes and assumptions. No one would guess that Rabeya is secretly a rebel, but that's what makes her faith similar to "punk." The comparison is quite savvy.
