Since 9/11, Pakistanis living in the US have been finding it difficult to exist in the so-called land of dreams
WHO’S looking out for the Pakistani-Americans? While the well-heeled, hoity-toity specimens are cozily ensconced in enclaves earmarked for people of colour in the watering holes of wealthy America, there are no brownie points for the other half living in leaner dwellings and meaner times, three years since September 11.
Unlike the Indians, trawling all over the American continent, crabbing career opportunities in an ocean named the American Dream, whaling a common agenda of action to appear united and therefore strong, Pakistanis are a helter-skelter bunch with ambitions that are stillborn and terribly frayed.
We don’t even have an ambassador in Washington DC. Not that the last one, Ashraf Jehangir Kazi, was a good glue for disarrayed Pakistanis in need of a quick fix before the November elections, still he was a presence. Gone to Babylon, leaving baby and daughters behind, the arrival of another ‘Jehangir’ is awaited, according to the last reports reaching us in America.
But then, who knows what’s the dish of the day in the menu prepared by Musharraf and Aziz? Perhaps it’s not Jehangir Karamat, the general, after all. Though some vouch his Agriment is already with the State Department. We’ll have to see.
Meantime, who then is the monitor, who collects complaints from compatriots and duly demarche them to Uncle Sam? Take note: according to a national poll, Pakistani Americans report the highest levels of discrimination and US government targeting — more than Americans of Arab descent.
In a survey conducted by the Florida-based Bendixen and Associates, about 31 per cent of Pakistani Americans say they have experienced discrimination in their schools, workplaces or neighbourhoods since 9/11.
As for profiling, 16 per cent of Pakistani Americans declare they have been mistreated or targeted by government officials because of who they are.
The local police is the main profiler — according to 63 per cent of Pakistani Americans, while 36 per cent say they have been targeted by airport security.
Sergio Bendixen, the chief of the polling firm, thinks Pakistanis are targeted by police because, they “tend to have darker skins than Arab Americans”.
Dismissing such a premise is Haaris Ahmad, an attorney of Pakistani descent who is a board member of the Michigan chapter of the Council of American Islamic Relations, “I think it has more to do with faith rather than ethnicity”, he insists, “it clearly shows that being Muslim is more of a liability rather than being Arab per se.”
Meanwhile, the “Terminator”, whose accent is gutturally European, and whose last name is an absolute pain to spell, was President Bush’s star exponent of an immigrant’s dream at last week’s Republican National Convention in New York. Said Arnold Schwarzenegger, “as long as I live, I will never forget that day 21 years ago when I raised my hand and took the oath of citizenship ... I can tell you that there is no place, no country, more compassionate, more generous, more accepting and more welcoming than the United States of America.”
Well, let’s just say, that this “scrawny boy from Austria” got lucky and grew up to become governor of California. Don’t forget, he’s white, very muscular and carries no ‘extra baggage’, say ... such as being a Muslim. And oh, did I mention, his wife is a Kennedy?
Ever heard the term girlie-men?
Arnold called the Democrats “economic girlie-men” because they fret too much over the US economy, when in fact, the “economy remains the envy of the world. We have the highest economic growth of any of the world’s major industrialized nations,” said he and made Kerry look like a joker.
True Lies. Does the filthy rich film star think that a pink slip that tells you you’re fired, makes an ordinary American a girlie-man? Ask the eight million jobless, who struggle forever on food stamps and the dole for survival.
While Arnold S waxed eloquent, there was a three-mile long line outside the conference hall of protesters without a job in a city made up of 40 per cent immigrants, with discrimination writ all over their faces.
Ask Sabir Rahman. Moving to the US from Pakistan 40 years ago, his fear of flying is a post-9/11 phenomenon. He thinks he stands a good chance of being frisked, patted down, even put in secondary questioning by airport security on suspicions of being a terrorist. Racism “is something you can’t control or legislate”, says the home builder, “it’s something that has to be tackled in a systematic way.”
Well, not only air but road travel poses an occupational hazard for a Muslim. Road rage is quite the ‘in’ thing here. Your colour and a Pakistani face that goes with it, can invite truckloads of trouble for you: they may honk, make obscene signs and even yell at you. Especially if you happen to be driving a better car than the “white trash” or the “red necks” — the two varieties of Americans who dislike immigrants.
Mohammad Farooq, 32, motoring a Mercedes S 500 became the victim of a hate crime when he ran into “white trash” called Jeffrey Shourt, 35, who assaulted him and later complained to the police that Farooq got out of his car and spit at him on the New Jersey highway.
Farooq, a US citizen who came from Pakistan 20 years ago, tells a different story. “I never left my car.” He and his mother were driving when Shourt, who was 50feet behind him, began flashing his headlights. When both men stopped at a traffic light, Shourt got out of his car, walked up to Farooq and hurled ethnic slurs at him, calling him a terrorist.
“I kept on apologizing, what else could I do?” Farooq says, claiming that Shourt slapped him across the face and when he tried to call the police on his cell phone, he knocked his cell out of his hands and broke it.
Such assault is a serious crime in America. Had Farooq been the aggressor, the FBI would probably have nabbed him, thrown him in a detention centre (there are many Pakistanis still rotting in them) and started the deportation process against him. The Patriot Act (which Bush passed and now wants made permanent) is stone deaf on the rights of immigrants who hold an American passport.
“Muslims are terrorists; Islam is a religion that promotes violence; women are oppressed or submissive to men; Islam is un-American and it’s foreign.” Myths like these are difficult to delete here.
As for George Bush and John Kerry’s interest in Muslims: well, there will be a no-show by both at the biggest Islamic convention in North America at Chicago next week, but their non-entity proxies will be there. You guessed it ... they are Pakistanis.
Slugging it out with each other in cyber space, MuslimsForBush.com has the Hasan family from Colorado (mother and son) floored over Bush and poring money on him. As a reward, they have been invited to the White House for a meal, even to the boring Bush farm in Texas, while MuslimsForKerry.com has the noisy Shahid Khan, a pharmaceutical salesman scampering all over collecting money for the millionaire Kerry.
But you know what? Both Hasans and Khan are people driven with their personal agendas and ambition. I have no problem with that. One is told that our own Syeda from Jhang, who passed her BA exam to overcome her ineligibility to fight the October 2002 elections and still lost, travelled all the way from Pakistan to attend the Democratic National Conference last month. Wonder whether Abida Hussain got noticed by Kerry or even Edwards or Teresa?
Thumbs down for those responsible for the two Americas.
Since 9/11, Pakistanis living in the US have been finding it difficult to exist in the so-called land of dreams
