I remember last year ordinary people who had relied on media mostly, asking me if I was from Afghanistan or If I spoke Pushto or Farsi or even Arabic. Some sounded serious and some said casually or out of curiosity. While others were just joking and wanted to see how I would react. Some ignorant ones didnt know the geographic difference b/w Pakistan and Afghanistan.
I would be interested to know if any one else went thru similar experiences or still does. Ive known some Pakistan Americans who were singledout and were scrutinized more than usual at airports while travelling. Even though they were born here or were naturalized citizens, but obviously looked Middle Eastern from their appearance.
**In the land of 9/11 **
Most Pakistani Americans live under the shadow of a constant fear. Something happens somewhere and parents stop their children from going to school, husbands take leave from their jobs, mothers avoid going for shopping. Their worst fear is that if something goes wrong next time, the latent anger might gush out in vengeance
FBI swat teams, laced with latest weaponry and assisted by members of hazardous materials section in moon suits, break into the house of a Pakistani family in Pennsylvania. The FBI sleuths are acting on a tip-off by neighbours that they had seen ‘suspicious looking’ Muslims carrying a silver-coloured canister possibly containing nerve agents. They also reported a woman dumping ‘a cloudy liquid’ in the backyard. The agents not only break the doors down, they smash furniture and keep a female member of the family at gunpoint for two hours.
It later turns out that the suspicious canister is actually a Pakistani pot (degcha) the family had borrowed from friends for cooking biryani. And the liquid? It is laundry water impersonating as anthrax!
This is not a scene from a comical version of a Hollywood thriller. It is a recap of a traumatic experience that a Pakistani went through in Pennsylvania last year. Another tragic twist to the story came when the head of the family lost his job because of the incident. The family has still not recovered from the shock and complains the whole town eyes them with suspicion.
This is the kind of story that you frequently hear in the Pakistani circles in the land of Nine Eleven. They all have a story to tell and each one adds to this Pakistani myth of a mini-holocaust.
Some Pakistani gets dropped off a plane, train or bus just because a fellow passenger did not ‘feel comfortable’. Others get sneered at while eating out with their family. There have been incidents when a mobster shot a Pakistani working at a gas station without any provocation; a passenger refused to sit in a taxi driven by a Pakistani; a WASP seeing a brown face in the next car waiting at a traffic signal, rolled his window down, and shouted, “Why don’t you .go back to your own country.” All this in a country that has traditionally taken pride in being a nation of immigrants.
Now, to be fair, this is not the story of every town in America. In a country of that size there are places where people may not even care if you are a Pakistani, Arab or Muslim. In other instances people may actually go out of the way to help you and assure you that you had no reason to worry.
But, at the same time, instances like the ones mentioned above have also become a reality in the land once known for its racial equality, tolerance and fairness among various communities. History has definitely been divided into two parts, pre and post 9/11, affecting all and sundry particularly in the United States. Pakistanis living in America are among the communities worst affected by that Much more than Arabs and other Muslims.
The Washington Post confirmed last year that the biggest group of suspects apprehended by US agencies like the FBI was of Pakistanis, followed by Egyptians and Saudis. Thousands of Pakistanis have been picked up, probed, even tortured in the aftermath of September 11. They are particularly ‘profiled’ at American airports. It’s quite insulting when the green passport holders standing in passenger queues are asked to step aside for special treatment. The usual drill may go beyond body search and baggage checks. Even Pakistan Cabinet members, visiting Washington as part of the presidential entourage on the special invitation of President Bush, were not spared last year. Sniff dogs were unleashed on Commerce Minister Razzaq Dawood and Rashid Qureshi. They had to remove their shoes to prove that they were not carrying explosives in their heels.
Yaqoob Butt, a Pakistani, died in FBI custody last year. He was picked up on the charge of overstaying his visa and had requested that he be deported. But it was not so simple. He was grilled for days and weeks as to where he stayed, who helped him live in America, where he worked, etc. The poor man, a heart patient, could not take the strain and died. Nobody could learn about his predicament as he waived his rights that required officials to inform Pakistani embassy about his arrest. Most Pakistanis do that to avoid ‘infamy’.
According to rough estimates, there are at least 50,000 Pakistanis, particularly in New York, who face a similar dilemma. Most of them are illegal because they overstayed their visas. They cannot work because the authorities have become strict, particularly in the trades that most Pakistanis are involved in. These include pizza delivery, working at gas stations or departmental stores, taxi driving etc. But they cannot go back to Pakistan either. The journey back home could entail long grilling, intense probes, even imprisonment.
The question that piques Pakistanis is: Why us? Most Pakistanis think that their government is the frontline state in the so-called ‘campaign against terrorism’. They also take the official rhetoric about Pakistan being a close American ally seriously.
One reason why Pakistanis are particularly targeted is that there are more Pakistanis living illegally in the United States than, let’s say, richer Arabs. A majority of Pakistanis interrogated by the US authorities were those living illegally. Another reason is the stereotype about the Pakistanis being ‘religious extremists’ that is constantly shown by the Western media. Finally, to be honest, it’s not just about Pakistan’s image. We definitely have a problem of internationalism terrorism, whatever its causes. Our proximity with Afghanistan, the linkages with international jehadi organisations and the daily incidents of bomb explosions provide justified grounds for the US security agencies to view us suspiciously.
Problem is that in 999 cases out of 1000, it’s the wrong guy who suffers. Most Pakistani Americans live under the shadow of a constant fear. Something happens somewhere and parents stop their children from going to school, husbands take leave from their jobs, mothers avoid going for shopping and fathers stop going to mosques for saying their prayers. Their worst fear is that if something goes wrong next time, the latent anger that Americans are accustomed to keep at bay, might gush out in vengeance. And given the American ambitions in Iraq and the daily media shots about killings in Afghanistan and Palestine, this cannot be ruled out for all time to come.
