Asif Khan Inc.

Terror arrests

I’ve been reading news and comments regarding the arrest and subsequent release of the 12 ‘Mumbai born Indian’ passengers at Schipol airport. It has really made me ask this question to myself again, and which is something I am fairly certain any thinking Muslim bought up in today’s age would be doing too. Being a Muslim, has it become so very imperative that I keep my identity disguised? Have people around become so very skeptical about having ‘men sporting beards, wearing a long kurta & pajama, and speaking in an oriental language’ around them that they raise an alarm at the drop of a hat? Because the way it has been reported, I guess that was the only fault of those men who invited their own plight by spending the night in a detention center getting their cavities searched. This is probably what best exemplifies ‘racial discrimation’ in one of its real life avatars. Something akin to the manner in which the Jews got persecuted by the Nazis, except that there are no gas chambers now…just Guantanamo and et al.

“Asian? Bearded? Traditional clothes? MUSLIM?? Aaaah…please step aside as we frisk your belongings and all orifices in your body for suspected WMDs.” Is this what it means to be part of a world where the ‘so-called’ Big Daddies advocate the supremacy of equality and wax eloquent about making the world a better place to live in?

I do not deny the importance of security aboard public conveyances, nor am I advocating any form of life-taking activities of innocent humans. Everyone today acknowledges the fact that there are forces which are out to wreak havoc on the socio-econo-polit structure of some nations (which I don’t really feel the need to name…). Its high time that rather than looking for the terrorist outside, they start to search for the devil within. Isn’t it something which calls for a soul-searching to understand about what is it that is actually plaguing their nations (when I say nations here, it doesn’t mean the people living within – I imply policy)? If there is actually somebody out there to do harm to you, he is in all probability out there because of two reasons. One, you have wronged him, or second, that your actions have been misunderstood. If its reason number one, then you probably deserve it. But then, men running nations err more often than the men who are being ruled. And due to their fallacies, its the common man who ends up bearing the brunt of the brute. So it is upto the men drafting the policies to explore their faults and then atone. However, if its reason number two, you still need to make the man after you life understand your standpoint in order to make your good intent clear.

In both situations, you would need to reach out to the one who is after you to understand and appreciate his point of view, and to make him understand and appreciate your point of view (where’s the brotherly arm around you to make you feel part of a global fraternity?). That is, if you wish to reach an amicable settlement of affairs. (Else, there would still be many more Lebanons, Afghanistans, Iraqs).

Coming back to the question where I started off, I know a lot of folks would disagree with me on the point, saying that this the suffering you’ll need to go through due to the actions of some ‘similar looking individuals’. I would want to disappoint them by not agreeing to their logic (because, not everything in this world actually works on logic and rationale, and I don’t think I need to delve in details on the cons of generalizations and judgmentalism).

I am a fairly practising Muslim, a thing I was born with, and after discovering whatever I could over the span of my life about my religion, it makes me feel proud and fulfilled. I am your regular guy next door, who enjoys his job, his books and music, his job (plus the occasional date once in a while), just in case you were wondering if I too was the archetypal AK47 toting guy in faded greens. But I do have an amount of respect for the individuals whose visages I’ve mentioned above, and who are being subjected to discrimination for adhering to their faith.

The actions of a non-thinking segment of my community cannot really deter my association with my faith, nor can the vociferations of a cabal out to prove me guilty for adherence to my faith.

Do I hear an accusation…’Islamic fundamentalist’ somewhere?