Usually, I post things with a light-hearted spin. However this post will not be of such nature, I base it on history, this post is triggered by my first experience of going to the U.S.
[I'm pretty sure we believe in the same God...so they believe in not prejudging?]
Being a child of Britain I have grown up with many American exports influencing me from day one, I grew up watching Saved by the Bell, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, WCW and Hollywood has provided me a constant stream of movies. I have listened to R&B and Hip Hop/Rap music and I can cite some of my greatest influences for their words and achievements as being Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Will Smith and Stephen King…all Americans. The cars are iconic, as are the famous landmarks. It was inevitable that one day I would want to go and see everything that I’d seen on TV, heard in music and read in books and magazines.
So prior to me going to America, I have spent 23 years as a British child and I took my first breath in a town situated in the South East of England. I went to school, went to university and have worked since the age of 16 and always paid my taxes and bills. Not once have I had any criminal proceedings bought against me.
It comes to the 13th May 2011, having had a pleasant journey so far I land in Miami International Airport. Everyone is queuing with their passport and eventually it’s my turn. Everyone before me has scanned their hand, and then been given their passport back and told to follow the path round to the left to the baggage reclaim area. I get to the counter, the lady looks at my passport a bit longer than she did at the guy who went before me. She then doesn’t hand it back to me, but starts walking and says ‘follow me’ so I do to a counter which is along the way to the baggage reclaim and has a seating area next to it. I’m told to sit down, so now I get to watch the rest of the passengers getting off the same flight as me walk pass and through to baggage reclaim, my friend stops to ask why I’m sat there and he is told abruptly to keep going. Only 2 other people are sat by me, and I ask them their names and what I already know is confirmed…I’m being targeted for being a Muslim.
The 2 people get escorted away, they had very blatant Muslim names, but are elderly so I’m partly furious at them being treated like this, they can hardly walk. Eventually once all the passengers have gone through to baggage reclaim I am taken by a member of security on a long walk through Miami International.
‘First time in Miami?’ she asks
‘First time in America’ I reply ‘do I go the normal way everyone else went when you’re done with whatever you need to do?’
She then gives me a look as if I’ve admitted to being a Soviet spy ‘thought you said it’s the first time you been here? So why do you know the normal way?’
I’m close to losing my rag as I know she’s trying to catch me out ‘I was sat on that chair for 40 minutes watching 200 people go down a hall, so obviously based on that, that’s the normal way to me…you agree?’ To which she shut up.
Eventually we get to a part of the Airport which has a few more security staff, and there’s a group of them walking in front of me and to the left I see a room with a large glass window. I hear one of the security staff having a banter with his security friends ‘we’re sending the terrorists home’ and he points to that glass room whilst smiling like the dope he is, so I assume it’s the people being deported on arrival. Guess what I see when I look in that room? Families. Children. People who if you used common sense rather than a tick sheet, you’d know they couldn’t have come to the U.S. for any form of that agenda. I also notice beards and head scarves in that room. Obviously if these people had different names they wouldn’t have been sat in that very room right now.
So I get led passed this room, and into another room which is full of people. Some of them aren’t Muslim as I start chatting to a few only to be told no talking in the ‘special room’ for suspects. Not talking doesn’t stop me from seeing symbols of Islam on some of the people in this room, the hats, the beards, and various other cultural signifiers of the religion.
Now when I get to the counter for questioning, the guy tries catching me out numerous times. I had been to Pakistan to attend my sister’s wedding in 2007 for 2 weeks. The guy asked several questions, and then re-phrased the questions to see if I gave him the incorrect answer. Now I was as cool as a cucumber, I even had a plan that if I get told I’m not allowed in the country I’ll fly back to the UK and onto Dubai...where humans are treated as humans regardless of religion. I get told welcome to America, and then released from the room.
[Miami...it's a beautiful place full of beautiful people once you leave the people of the airport]
Now I arrive into the baggage reclaim area and see my friend who is not a Muslim, and therefore automatically exempt from the U.S. border controls questioning is waiting with our bags. We have one final passage to go through, the lady takes my customs card. One look at it and instead of go to the second queue on the left, it’s go to the first one. What’s the difference? Queue 2 puts your bag through a scanner, queue number 1 means more questioning and someone physically raiding a bag which has already gone through security scanning in London. She then sees my friend standing directly behind me and when she finds out he’s travelling with me, sends him into the same queue as me. No more detail required…so eventually, a little over 2 hours later I step foot into Miami.
I enjoyed my time in Miami, and when I got back I spoke very fondly of the place. Speaking to other Muslims when I got back, they all have gone through the same thing only when visiting America. Now as I described before, I am British. I have Pakistani parents. I’ve been raised a Muslim, I am very proud of my cultural variance and my religion. My friends know me, and people on the street probably wouldn’t know I’m a Muslim just by looking at me. I dress and style myself as if I am British. I wouldn’t ever harm anyone because that is not in my nature and my religion teaches forgiveness, patience and peace. What was it that made me someone to suspect and question? My name.
So why have I based my one experience and made the statement that everyone knows but few would admit so openly?
Look through history. You see the USA has a habit of institutionally targeting a group of people different to themselves. The lyrics to the song may change, but it’s the same harmony (or lack of) playing away.
The Native Americans occupied the land for centuries. Through exploration a new nation was formed and this resulted in the Natives being forced onto reservations through mass killings. They were banned from practicing their culture in forms such as ‘the ghost dance’ and were given a part of America as Indian Territory. This government that preached equality and freedom for everyone slowly took this Indian Territory too, and demonstrated the beginnings of an ingrained need to belittle and persecute at least one group of people to strengthen its own premature identity. If you think I’m talking rubbish, go read a little about Psychological studies into group identity and try to understand how the above statement slots into an academic discipline.
Next we move onto Black history. I am going to assume here that everyone knows of the slave trade, the animalistic treatment and how prejudice against the Black people of America still exists. Even after the slave trade was abolished in the late 1800’s there was still a long way to go for Black people in America. I saw a documentary a long time ago about Jesse Owens going to the Berlin Olympics in 1936 and having to break racial stereotypes in both Nazi Germany and in the nation he was representing and winning 4 gold medals for. Yes! He was winning gold medals for America, and still being treated as a second class citizen by that very nation.
1965, Malcolm X assassinated, his crime…no longer preaching Black supremacy but now working to heighten the political consciousness of Black people. He also spoke negatively of prejudice and racism.
1968, Martin Luther King assassinated, his crime…effectively campaigning for equal rights.
The Civil Rights act of 1964, declared discrimination against women and Blacks to be outlawed yet we still can find news reports in the modern age, even today in 2011 which demonstrates this.
So we come to 2011, the latest group in the ever growing list of open prejudice by the government and media of the U.S.A. is Muslims.
[IRA - Belfast]
From 1970 to 2001 there have been attacks on the UK from a terrorist group called the IRA. I’m pretty sure that every Patrick and O’Sullivan wasn’t pulled over at the height of the IRA terrorist activity. They weren’t subject to 2 hours of questioning when going on a holiday. I’m pretty sure if a centre for Catholic studies was planned to be erected next to a former target site of the IRA there wouldn’t be a mass burning of the Bible.
Why is this? It’s easier to create the ‘us against them’ mentality when a large minority is obviously different to the group you’re trying to unite.
No need for me to summarise and conclude this, it was not an article, but rather a rant!
