I was recently watching the film “My name is Khan” starring ShahRukh khan and found it depressing. I am not into watching bollywood films but found the muslim-theme of this one interesting.
There was obviously a backlash against american muslims and rising Islamophobia after 9/11/2001. My question for pakistanis and other muslim forum members residing in USA is that have they themselves ever experienced this kind of overt racism/islamophobia/bigotry post 9/11?
Do you see the muslim community of USA as a “persecuted minority”?
My own experience is that living in Canada as a high school student post 11/9/2001, once in a while i faced verbal racial slurs like “p@ki boy” from white kids at school but never any violence. But as an adult no one ever said anything blatantly racist infront of me. Also while travelling to America, i rarely faced any racial profiling at airports or border crossing, even though i have a muslim-sounding name.
From what i have seen i think the film “My name is Khan” exaggerates the plight of muslims in america. Pakistanis and other muslims still want to migrate to US cause they are excited about the opportunities and first world amenities that USA has to offer. If american muslims were a persecuted minority then they would be moving out of USA
What has been your experience as a muslim living in USA or any other western country in a post 11/9/2001 world??
Not an American, but I have visited the US several times in my life, going all the way back to the 90's, and I must say that the US border protection folks certainly have changed quite a bit since 9/11.
Pre-9/11 times were much simpler, all you needed was to prove that you have a return ticket to anywhere out of the US and you were good to go, nowadays its like sitting a political sciences paper at an extremely Christian-centric school. In other words, the questions can be quite discriminatory and infuriating, I was once asked by a CBP agent what I thought about the US bombing the sh!t out of my country, this was back under the Obama administration, when the US military was carrying out drone strikes on Pakistani soil.
On the other hand, I spent 6 months in the US for work related reasons, between NYC & Waco, TX and not once did I feel discriminated against.
If you ever happen to visit Gujrat in India, you will not find any discrimination against Muslims there during your visit. Rather you will find many Muslims actually supporting BJP and are big fans of Narendera Modi. Your short visit might even convince you that Gujrat is the best place for Muslims to live in India. And those few who still complain may make you wonder as to why they would not leave and live in any other state in India.
The truth however is that the majority of Muslims in Gujrat suffer from learned helplessness and other psychological traps. That community has witnessed how their cries for help not only solidified their tormentors in Gujrat but nationwide. When you are overpowered by such an overwhelming force, it makes no sense to offend the force by complaining about it. Basically they’ve figured out the more you complain, the worse it gets.
American Muslims are twice as likely to commit suicide according to a study due to social attitudes toward them. Yet you will not hear complaints from them due to similar reasons as those found among Muslims in Gujrat. In both places, opportunists among Muslims try to butter up those in power for their own benefits by pinning blame on Muslims themselves for not assimilating and being difficult.
I have travelled to US before 9/11 as well, but my experience even back then was not at all pleasant as it took me almost two hours to get through immigration. That is something that one can never get used to. US government has long tried to introduce elements of unpredictability for international travelers. I think that has more to do with American arrogance. Those questions are basically to push you to say something that could be used to prosecute you. A few friends of mine were asked about ISIS and how they felt about certain things. All those “how you feel?” questions are more to intimidate and showing who’s the boss around here. But the worse is when you get your boarding card marked with “SSSS”. Land of the free takes on a whole new meaning, it starts to mean they are free to do whatever to you.
Answer to your question in subject is a straight NO. They are not persecuted at all. But when you brought a historic tragic incident 20 years back we have to go back in time so right after that, yes there was a surge of such events which looked like a persecution but as time passed its proven America is one of the best western countries for any muslim to live freely.
I may come back to go in detail if anyone is interested.
In my experience, America is a lot less racist than you’d expect from the media. I walked past a literal nazi rally in 2017 and was struck by how most of the nazis didnt even look full white lol. America’s anti-immigrant groups are all fairly equal opportunity grifts at this point - the MAGA crowd has every minority loudly represented including transgender.
Americans dont have a good understanding of who is what visually even if they wanted to be racist - usually they think sikhs are the muslims. If you dress well in western clothes, you’re pretty much the elite. Race is a complicated idea - where i am, the primary minority are persians, and they self-identify as white on census forms and in public, and are wealthy, a large number are traditionally republican voters.
If you are poor, you have it hard in the US no matter what race. If you wear clothes that make you stand out - you will draw attention from xenophobes - be it burqahs or turbans or lungis. But if you pop a MAGA hat on, it’ll make them instantly love you. America is easy.
Depends where you are. I grew up in Brooklyn. so dont really see/ feel any direct racisim. I see muslims literally everywhere to the point you cant go anywhere now without a healthy number of Muslims around. You dont feel out of place at all. Queens is the same. Nort East generally is decent. You can a racist person anywhere, but in NYC is it not an issue at all. There are simply too many of us.
^^^ Shehryar Khan Afridi was mistreated by US officials BEFORE he said anything in the US. Actually I'm glad that the mistreatment triggered him and he went ahead to criticize US duplicity domestically and internationally.
These three are pretty much elites in the west. Amir Khan got kicked off the flight coz he and his buddy refused to wear masks. Sadiq Khan is mayor of London - i doubt he's going to see any discrimination in the US when compared to the UK if it isnt for his getting into public yelling with trump, but I could be wrong. Shehyrar khan is an uncouth nobody to anyone outside of pakistan. He'd be doing meth and running around naked in a week if he was left alone in san francisco...
Pardon US officials for not treating Pakistani minister as VVIP. They treated him same way as any Green passport holder landing at JFK on a visit visa.
That reminds me of Rahman Malik’s visit as interior minister when his limo driver tried to rush out of times sq. driving crazily and cops pulled to give a ticket, he got out and told cop how “big deal” he is showing credentials as minister, but the cops asked him to shutup and get back in the car.
And then what Afridi did was the worst, running into an assembly man’s office pulling into argument, the same congress member who is taking care of the bill for Pakistan’s aid. Sooooo diplomatic! no wonder Pak’s relations with almost all countries are rock bottom.
I wouldnt be surprised if next year IK admin sends Sheikh Rasheed to address UN. If the purpose is to pick a fight, then i’m sure he can throw some curses as well. Way to run foreign policy missions by dharna mentality.
^^^
It is not about VVIP treatment. It is about treating Muslims on visit visa the same as non-Muslims on visit visa. Or at least US should declare the discriminatory policy. Using country to obfuscate discrimination needs to be called out rather than justified. Every list of Muslim countries has North Korea added to it for the same purpose. That is just like every racist white man keeping one black friend. Naming and shaming such obfuscators is what I admire.
