Even though there are a lot of posts regarding Ahmed framed around race and religious biases, ironically, the same people who complain about race and religious biases against Muslims on facebook, have asked me, ‘so where are you from? and are you shia or sunni? or what kind of Muslim are you and which part of India/Pakistan? are you liberal, or religious or progressive or neanderthal?.’ The ingrained suspicion of the ‘other’ is part of the psyche.
I have learnt over the years that some people want to know, if I am ‘Muslim’ enough or can I be trusted. Do I pray or read the Quran? how often? and do I believe in the Prophet or do I do idol worship? Am I a crazy feminist, or am I good Muslim girl? do I believe in sex before marriage? Others want to know, how Muslim am I? do I hate Jesus, Hindus or do I even respect or like Ganesh enough? If I am Pakistani, how much do I hate India? And most of all, if I am what I am, will I be successful at it? Can people possibly like me?’
In moments when my integrity is questioned–which happen quite often given the work that I do, one can only watch. What I am, God only knows. I am human, first, last and in-between. Sometimes the questioning and sub-conscious thoughts directed amuse me, but I rarely have the desire or energy to poke around in someone’s head. Also, I often miss tons of stuff if I am distracted with my own stuff, and unless they hire me to help them, I respect their pain body…:) and mostly leave it alone.
A dear friend of mine, said something that brought tears to my eyes. Because by saying this she reached out to the divine in us. She said to me, ‘I feel intimidated, because you hear me so closely, I am afraid of thinking something and you picking up on it. I know you will still love me, no matter what nasty thought I think, but I just worry about you.’
When god gives awareness, god also gives faith, and the sheer foolish tenacity to love for no reason. Thus, I feel quite upset when people take religion as an excuse to be jerks. Religion is supposed to give faith, tolerance and love. It isn’t an identity to shrug behind–but a path to follow.
How can complaining over race or religion engage trust and support in an open society? And most of all can this kind of thinking create opportunity?
The thing gave me pain about the Ahmed Clock issue was that school teachers were so ignorant that they couldn’t recognize a clock and assumed something without knowing anything about the values of a certain community.
I think that this in part has also got something to do with how activism against racism is approached by the Muslim community.
Instead of race if the Muslim community could rally around quality education–and their desire to excel and have college educated kids, then they would be associated with those values by the larger community. I personally know hundreds of Muslim families who sacrifice a lot so that their children can have the best education. I personally know of dozens of Muslim families where parents eke out lives they don’t like or didn’t choose for the sake of the children. Their patience and spiritual heroism must be commended.
But instead of engaging with world with candid, open conversation, I find that the activism rallies around a slightly immature branding of Muslims or Islam, rather than a true practice of the faith.
“We WILL wear the Hijab! It is our right!.” This is a rally cry coming from young Muslims. But, to me it looks more like politics. The beauty, depth and solidity of your faith is profound and real. You don’t need the hijab to have that. You are already ok. As a spiritualist, I feel wary of politics in the name of religion. It can’t ever lead to good, at least I don’t think so. Religion is for the individual to find inner fortitude and strength, not a means to separate people.
Instead of rallying around, ‘what we are not!’, lets try rallying around what a Muslim is!
That’s the hard part, isn’t it? Because even inside a Muslim, there is doubt and confusion–there is a profound lack of intelligent leadership within the faith and Saudi wahabism and salafi movements have broken Muslims even more.
Perhaps Muslims can say to the world, how confused we feel. How hard it is to see the injustice. How painful it is to realize that some people can hijack our scriptures and make them an excuse for violence.
How difficult it is to see that some of our community take up arms and shoot cartoonists. How incredibly heartbreaking it is to see Syrian refugees wash up ashore. How painful to see the cruelty in Gaza. And everywhere we look, we see little hope for our way of life. We feel afraid. But we are warriors. We won’t give up our causes. We won’t give up our values.
We will teach our children our ethics and our way. We are persistent in our faith, even though religion is not fashionable in the world, we believe it is important.
Most of the practicing Muslims I know feel a deep love for their way of life. Then there are others who confuse loving their faith with controlling other people.
A few months ago a Muslim taxi driver went after me for practicing meditation, rather than Islam– he had no idea what he was talking about, I let it go– He complained that even though in Canada, there is peace and order, there is no religion and he misses his religion. I told him that he has the opportunity to go to any of a dozen mosques in the lower mainland. But he was upset at other Pakistanis who, ‘have left their religion.’ He looked at me in the mirror for a while to see if I showed guilt. I realized that his problem was that he couldn’t tell others what to do, as easily as he could in a more dogmatic world!.
How does one engage with ignorance? In those moments in the taxi, I felt afraid, because this man was angry and judgemental. I have seen similar fanaticism in other forums including social media also. I don’t want to be exposed to the kind of religion I have seen, which was about domination, guilt, exploitation and control. It was about patriarchal privilege, not justice or equality. It was all about power.
What is the government supposed to do about people who are unaware? When the government become extra cautious people call it racism. If they don’t, then people will call it government failure to protect against domination. But quite clearly the government has no idea what to do.
It is a bit mad, that a kid who makes a clock is thought to be making a hoax bomb for the fun of it. Or like what happened recently, where I went through some grief because I laughed at a cat joke, where a cat was shown wearing a hijab and was being congratulated for being now one of ‘us’ more pure and holy people.
They are both similar incidents in that they show incredible mistrust of the Other.
Every time someone chooses to dress like a Ninja, covered in black head to toe, it scares me because I can’t see who it is! I feel like that person can’t be trusted because their body is hidden and it feels vaguely threatening. Why can’t the differently clad be mindful of how they may appear to others, instead of demanding that they be treated with ultra sensitivity?
I really don’t want to be controlled or dominated by someone’s interpretation of scripture or people wanting to exploit the situation of mistrust for their own gain–for example corporations who monitor conversations or weapons manufacturers. It is scary for me to think that similar techniques (fear based) that led to domination and control through a fanatical interpretation of scripture in Pakistan, could be used elsewhere. I want protection from all such forces of control. Whether they arise in Government or in Society. Whether they are Muslim or Non-Muslim.
Muslims are by and large innocent- people trying to make a living just like anyone else. But, people so far they haven’t done a very good job of controlling the fanatical interpretations. Perhaps they just can’t, because it really isn’t controllable except by a tremendous amount of consensus and agreement about the scriptures. Which, quite likely isn’t happening very soon.
Are most governments corrupt and incompetent like the George Bush Government? No. But we, the people have seen incredible violence unleashed on this planet in the last 14 years, so it doesn’t seem like the governments are doing their job very well.
We–regular people seem to be caught in a power struggle between empires. And power rarely cares who gets slaughtered in the middle–as we see with the Syrian and Gaza humanitarian crisis. Those who play with power, often don’t give a damn, for their own selfish interests.
The question is, how do we resist the great power game? Through discourse, through candid honesty, and through love. By remembering who we really are–we are simply, first and last, human beings who want peace. Perhaps the Ahmed issue will spark some real examination. A clock seems fitting as a symbol The time is now. #Istandwithahmed
Behind The Veil 