Personal Narrative: ABCD-American Born Confused Desi

In the airports, Muslim people became “the usual suspects”, were thoroughly searched and often interrogated. In her article, O’Connor claims that the lives of American Muslims changed forever, and the statement is hard to disagree with (“How 9/11 Changed These Muslim Americans’ Lives Forever.”) Those who had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks, their children and grandchildren were sentenced to face racism, hate and violence.

As a first generation Indian-American, I am no stranger to being a part of a distinct community while observing two unique cultures. Traveling to India exposed me to a dynamic population with rich diversity comprising of numerous languages and differing religions. Though these individuals may have had differing customs from their neighbors, there were similar ambitions to conquer grinding poverty. This poverty can be clearly noticed by seeing citizens sleeping on floors of a railway station, or the lack of air conditioning in searing hot weather. The frailty and mortality of the human condition was starkly visible in India. As a fellow human, I was humbled not only by the lack of privilege and opportunity of many citizens, but also by their

As a child, I didn’t think my life’s situations and experiences were too different from others being a Muslim in Canada. I only came to the realization of this as I grew older. Living as a Muslim we celebrated different holidays, wore different types of clothing, and valued things differently. I grew up in Cambridge, Ontario, and only moved to Mississauga in the ninth-grade grade where I realized how much differently I was treated. It wasn’t always ignorance; they were just unknowledgeable and unaware and I couldn’t blame them as I was apart of a religious minority. I looked at the understanding of my life’s events being apart of an Islamic subculture from a conflict theorist’s perspective where social life was looked at as “privileged groups

The “mold of a Muslim post 9/11 was anyone fitting the description of a Muslim, which was wearing a hijab for women and wearing a turban for men. If you went to a mosque, which was the Muslim house of worship, you were considered a Muslim. Anyone who fit that “mold” had a red flag put on them. For example, Rasha and her family were arrested and detained by the FBI in the middle of the night, “because they were being investigated for possible terrorism connections” (21). Due to the heightened level of security after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 committed by Muslim extremist; this family was targeted because of their religious beliefs. Ironically, the Muslim extremism that the terrorists of 9/11 depicted was a direct contrast of the true core Muslim values of honesty and compassion that Muslims are taught in their families. For instance, when she was young, Rasha’s parents taught her “the simple values of honesty, compassion and protecting her honor” (17). Readers can see that Rasha’s family valued their Muslim heritage and brought her up to value them as

Being a Muslim-American in post 9/11 America has been turbulent. Like most children, I longed to fit in and be accepted, but I also wanted to preserve my native cultural roots. The odds were against me as I struggled to find balance in a place that could barely tolerate me as a child, and would hold deep seated fear of me as an adult. In an attempt to combat this growing reality, I tried looking to the mosques. However, the local mosques were, instead of religious areas, cultural centers, and when the Afghan community in Chicago is non-existent, I remained confused as a Muslim in and out of the mosque.

student to a loathed enemy. My peers called me names like "terrorist" and "bin Laden's son,"

September 11th holds many hard and upset feelings around the world today. The harsh actions of Muslim extremists unfortunately completely changed the way Muslims are treated, especially in the United States. These events, exacerbated islamophobia. Unfortunately, “the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, connect Muslims and Islam to terrorism within the geographical borders of the United States.” (Byng) Although it has been over a decade since the attack, many still feel racist and discriminatory attitudes towards Muslims. Muslims are the targeted minority in the United States, “the 9/11 terrorist attacks shifted the social and political context for Muslims in the United States. Terrorism within the geographical borders of the United States carried out by Muslims places an identity at the center of national and global politics.” (Byng) The blame of the horrible terrorist attacks, rather than be placed on terrorists or religious extremist, has been placed on Islam in America. After September 11th, hate crimes towards Muslims skyrocketed, “the most dramatic change noted by the report was a more than 1,600 percent increase in reported hate crimes against Muslims -- a jump from 28 hate incidents in 2000 to 481 last year.”

Many people can mostly likely recall learning about McCarthyism, the making of false accusations of treason without proof generally focusing on the topic of communism. However, over the years that fear of communism, also known as communism under the bed has mutated to an entirely different but similar beast, Muslim-under-the-bed paranoia. This paranoia expresses the large growing issue of intolerance against those who follow the religion of Islam. Over the years due to a series of unfortunate events the peaceful religion of Islam and its followers have faced discrimination, danger, and disrespect. Fifteen years, six months, and seventeen days ago a tragedy struck new york when four members of an Islamic terrorist group known as al-Qaeda flew a

Precious Rasheeda Muhammad faced the struggle of being a black Muslim with family who were Christians pitying them for not being able to live Jesus “the Christian way”, Muslims say women are not Muslim if they do not cover, and Americans ask why she still wears a hijab if she is American and “free here” (Abdul-Ghafur 41, 44-45). However, Rasheedah let none of this get to her by recognizing that Muslim women have rights and having a community where women were leaders, people were not separated by gender, and more by living as American with her rights but using those to make her choice to do things like wear a hijab (Abdul-Ghafur 44-47). This is not the only example or form of hybrid identity. Khalida Saed had a hard time figuring out how to live her multiple identities at once, especially because she was told you can’t be gay and Muslim since gay was a sin, but she found a group of gay Muslims who helped her become who she is now within the Progressive Islam movement (Abdul-Ghafur 86-92). The magnitude with which not only Americans but other groups, especially religious ones, work to pressure people into deciding one or the other is an outdated perspective with the world we live in now when nothing is only one identity, from one

Many people are now afraid of being involved in a terrorist attack due to these memories because these events plague the nation and leave people feeling helpless. And yet, as a society, we are also afraid of forgetting these events, which is why we create memorials, build museums and have days designated to the remembrance of historical events. Huyssen addressed this in his reading by stating, “We try to counteract this fear and danger of forgetting with survival strategies of public and private memorialization” (28). The globalization of memory has impacted numerous people and not just those affected by tragic events. We see this fear and desperate need for order in the way certain countries invade others because they feel they are now obligated or have the right to put a stop to terrorist attacks. As a matter of fact, politicians who support a tough on crime approach are now more likely to get elected because of this concept and fear. An example of this is the American public favouring Trump’s campaign because of his claims to invade countries, as well as stop ISIS by preventing Muslims from entering the country. However, due to the globalization of memory, some people are finding his actions troublesome because they believe his hatred for Muslims is awfully similar to Hitler’s hatred for

Terrorism is a political action ensued using violence and intimidation, yet has no correlation with race or religion; therefore, the assumption and stereotype that terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda and ISIS are fueled by a ‘violent’ religion, Islam, is false. In actuality, Islam is built on altruistic and nonviolent principles, and unfortunately the majority of people seem to have unfairly institutionalized all Muslims as jihadists and anti-Semitic, even going as far as to deduce all individuals practicing their faith as terrorists themselves. This often bigoted and racist presumption had led to further conflicts, and ultimately terrorism coupled with the parochial views of many has made life particularly arduous for the peaceful Muslim Americans

The son of Pakistani immigrants, Khalid considers himself a New Jersey native. When he was young, his parents taught him to read the Qur’an and to say his prayers, but the significance of his faith was partially lost on him. Most of Khalid’s peers in middle and high school were non-Muslims, and most of the Muslims with whom he interacted were other Pakistani immigrants. Thus, Khalid grew up in two separate worlds, the Pakistani Muslim world of

When I chose the topic of Americanization of immigrant Muslim women, I think I expected a straightforward, easy to categorize, research project. On the contrary, what I found was surprisingly different. While I think of myself as a liberal, open-minded female, this project gave me a very new perspective on myself and many of my views as well. Muslim women living in the United States are quite honestly more diverse, more complex, more structured, more contemplative, and more culturally intuitive than I could have ever imagined in my limited experience and knowledge of them. The ‘Americanization’ I sought to illustrate turned out to resemble something closer to a religio-cultural tug-of-war than the predicted homogeneous

The movie “East is East” written by Ayub Khan-Din and directed by Damien O'Donnell in 1999 will be used to illustrate this point with a focus on the figure George Kahn. George Khan is portrayed as the pigheaded conservative and at times highly temperamental father figure who is seemingly desperately attempting to raise his family as what he believes are good Pakistanis. On that account George Khan could be perceived as the diaspora father who is forcing his unwilling family to abide by the cultural rules of his origins thus preventing them from fully joining the western lifestyle that they crave. And as a consequence thereof letting the movie viewers leave with a reinforced stereotypical image of the “Other”. By applying postcolonial and linguistic

5. We cannot allow a collective history of brutal memories to develop. When the mother in MNIK says “there is only a good boy and a bad boy” i cringe at that. Maybe it is our collective duty to ensure that the generation growing up now and preparing for the future is not fed with hatred and vengeance. Exchange of ideas, opinions, and perspectives in the youth has to be ensured. Allowing more and more students from these terror prone areas to assimilate in the mainstream cities and ensure that the youth is not brought up with a tormented history in their system. One essential thriving point of fundamentalism is the target audience that it holds and it is essential that we break that cycle. It is our collective responsibility that a Muslim boy does not grow up resentful or that he is not brought up with a museum of collected horror stories. The generation bringing up its children has to move ahead with a resolve that the children grow up loving and