As someone who is Swiss born, I don't necessarily identify as a European, perhaps Euro-Muslim and still Pakistani.
I hate to burst bubbles here: You will never be European or British etc unless you are willing to totally forget about your ethnicity and religion. The common perception is still based on blood/race over the color of your passport. Sorry to say this but I have countless mates who see themselves as Brits, unfortunately the Pakistani ones are not accepted while the Swiss ones were accepted. It is very easy to see why: The Swiss lads were racially, culturally, and religiously (at least in background) more similar to White-Brits.
One of my friends, a terrific chap named Mohammad (later known as 'Mo') did integrate very well, married english girl, was found drinking pints at the local pub, railed against 'Muzlims,' and gave his kids proper english names. The last time I met up with him, he seemed happy no doubt, but I no longer felt that connection to him either. No salaams, just casual talk. Don't get me wrong, he's a good person, not someone who I know anymore. But hey if that is the price to pay to be considered truly British or Swiss, then just call me a 'Paki' all the same.
Bhai jaan your friend is a chamcha, an arselick. That's not Gorey peoples fault, it's his own kameenapun. Caucasians will respect you more if you respect yourself.
The problem with Pakis is we're either one extreme or the other, either we have a superiority complex or an inferioirity complex... Why can't we just be proud of who we are and also respect others?
I'm proud of being British but I'm also proud of being a Muslim, of being brown and of being of Pakistani descent, I don't reject my Paki heritage but I think it's pretty much irrelevant where our grandparents came from in todays Britain (I have friends whose families came from Poland, France, Bangladesh, Gujarat, Khalistan etc. but we're all British), before Pakistan my paternal lineage goes to Afghanistan, probably Middle-East (lost tribes of Israel) before that (how far back to we keep going? Gets even more confusing if we try tracing the different lineages of all our ancestors: 4-grandparents 8-greatgrandparents and then all their parents and so on) ...
I never tolerate a bad word against Islam or Pakistan, I always have my defenses ready but at the same time I'm British and most white people I know accept me as such.. If we're not accepted by some then that's due to our own faluts, hum apne aap ko iss qaabil banaaen ke log hamari izzat karen.
I have had some negative experienced especially after 7/7, I overheard people talking, even nice people turned nasty etc. but that's to be accepted, unn ki jageh koi bhi hota to aisey hi karta, not fair I know but it's human nature..
I know a lot of white people are very racist without reason and they sometimes make us feel like outsiders and squeeze out all the patriotism from us but when you think of it they're not all like that, most are still good (our co-workers/classmates/neighbours etc.), there's going to be bad apples everywhere...
...At least this country gives us citizenship and equal rights....
...Move to KSA or UAE and see how your beloved Arab brothers treat you!! Citizenship to duur ki baat hai, sunna hai wahaan Pakistaniyon ke saath jaanwaron sa sulook kiya jaata hai. *So please don't be so *ehsaan-faramosh...
...It's not just Arabs, the Afghans who are also our fellow Muslims and with whom we share Pashto hate us and look down on us even though they grew up in Pakistan and fed on it...
...Indians who are our hum-tehzeeb, with whom we share Punjabi and Urdu-Hindi even bring their political differences and hatred of Mussley/Pakis to the West with them and try and poison the minds of the poor naive westerners.
We Pakistanis are just as bad, I'm half Punjabi and half Pashtun and sometimes I feel as though I don't completely belong to either... Not just ethnicity but we have our caste/zaat and sectarian divisions... Being a walaeyti I felt out of place in Pak and I'm even quite multi-lingual (punjabi, urdu, pashto).
As I've mentioned above every community has it's bad apples but I've found white people on average to be the fairest, most level-headed and least racist in the world...
Another thing worth mentioning is you will never find a Muslim, Hindu or Jew etc. admit the wrongs his kind have committed, they're not interested in the truth or fair debate or being objective but rather they just want to advocate their own agenda... White people on the other hand are willing to criticse and condemn their own kind (e.g. my work colleagues always condemn their colonist past), I'm talking about Brits here, the Americans seem as monoscopic and retarted as the rest of them (from bulletin-boards/chatrooms, never met any in real life), they're blinded by the star and stripes (blind nationalism and religious fanaticism seems to have the same effect on people).
To me being British and Muslim are integrated parts of my identity, I think I can fulfill my religious duties with much more ease in this country than I can in Pakistan.. I think this country is more Islamic than Pakistan (in terms of hukook ul-ibad: welfare for the elderly/disabled/poor, womens-rights, animal-rights, freedom to choose life-partner, no caste-system, law treats everyone the same regardless of social status etc.), I know the technicalities are not always according to Islam but the Islamic spirit is there much more than in any so-called Islamic country...
The beautiful thing about this country is that we're not forced to assimilate, just integrate, agree to disgaree, live and let live... After work white people are free to go to the local for a pint whilst the Muslim can go pray at his Mosque, the Sikh can eat his jhatka whilst the Muslim his halal, the Jew and Muslim are free to consider idolatory the greatest sin yet the Hindu is free to consider it the greatest piety, the Muslim woman can wear a veil and the Jewish boy can grow his payot (sideburns)... So you see we don't have to have a pint at the local pub or abreviate our names to Mo to be British.
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