[Reader-list] Go West, Young Muslim

[NAEEM MOHAIEMEN]

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Go West, Young Muslim
by Naeem Mohaiemen

"Go West, young man, and grow up with the country."
[John Soule, Terre Haute Express, 1851]

A few months after the Afghan war, I was sitting in
the Dhaka office of Sajjad Sharif. Sajjad is an art
critic and associate editor of Prothom Alo
(progressive newspaper often under attack from
Islamists). The regular tea cicle was assembled
(artists, poets and journalists all end up in Sajjad's
office), talking about the "Muslim street" (that
elusive beast!).

For years, my personal dual existence between New York
and Dhaka had been fairly unremarkable and unremarked.
Now, there was a desire to boil down everyone to their
"essence". I was supposed to be some sort of stand-in
for "the American street" -- a farcical concept that I
always deflect.

In the middle of a heated debate, Sajjad lightened the
mood with a popular street saying of the time:

"Tomorrow, if Osama said, 'all my jihadi brothers come
and join me!'"
"Yes?"
"10% of Bangladesh would cross the border into
Afghanistan."
"Bolen ki bhai?"
"Yes, it's true."
"But if the next day, Bush announced 'jobs for
everyone'..."
"Hya?"
"90% of Bangladesh would line up in front of the
American Embassy!"

It reminded me of many, more prosaic, encounters, in
"living rooms" of various Dhaka uncles and aunties
that I have to visit as an obligation. The
conversation always veers to, "Oi desh e pore thako
kibhabe baba?' (how do you live in that place?). This
is often followed a little later with the revelation
that their eldest son or daughter is taking the SATs
next month. "Do you have any advice about applying to
American colleges?"

This strand is not to, in any way, minimize or
trivialize the varied oppositions to the new
Imperialism project. But we can at least complicate
the conversation by looking to the revulsion and
fascination projected on the same surface. A similar
sentiment seems to be at play in the European
obsession with the idee fixe vis-a-vis American power
and culture.

Things are not of course quite so simple. Nor will
they stay the same. Obsession with the American dream
will be replaced by other foci, including the idea of
India Shining, China Rising, and all the rest. Al
Jazeera may yet replace CNN as the most watched
channel (actually, CNN is already not the most watched
channel anyway). Then again, certain shifts may be
temporary (recall the total obsession with Japan for a
minute in the 80s). Only a fool or Nostradamus makes
predictions without caveats.

I was thinking of all this as I was reading a new data
released by Homeland Security (they are also
responsible for immigration). It shows that, contrary
to all expectations, Muslim immigration to America has
increased, after an initial drop, since 9/11. In 2005,
more people from Muslim countries became legal
permanent US residents (green card), nearly 96,000,
than in any year in the previous two decade. More than
40,000 arrivals from Muslim countries were admitted
into US in 2005, the highest annual number since 2001.

One of the photos that illustrates the report is taken
on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn, once again a
bustling center of Pakistani and Bangladeshi migrants.
This is the same Coney Island Avenue targeted when
"Special Registration" and Immigration raids went
after Pakistanis (Bangladeshis were lesser targets).
At that time, writers evoked Germany 1939, a
comparison that raised hackles but also pointed to
shared struggles between Jewish and Muslim migrants.
That same Coney Island wears a hopeful look in this
photo. Fluttering American flags in background,
hugging Musollis in the foreground. It looks for a
moment like a moon alignment that brought Eid and July
4th on the same weekend.

Swiss philosopher Tariq Ramadan has explored a new
definition of dar al-harb (also dar al-shirk, but not
to be confused with dar al-kufr). In the older
consensual view, a country is dar al-harb when the
legal system as well as government is non-Islamic. Dar
al-harb translates in one formulation to "Abode of
War". The Hanafi school says that this is a territory
where Muslims are neither protected nor able to live
in peace. If law and political systems define this,
then even a nation like Bangladesh, which is majority
Muslim, is still dar ul-harb (as are Indonesia,
Malaysia, etc).

A competing vision argues that it is the condition of
population, and safety of that same, that defines dar
al-harb. Ramadan argues that

    "Muslims may actually feel safer in the West, as
far as the free exercise of their religion is
concerned, than in some so-called Muslim countries."

Thus America and Europe, having large Muslims
populations that maintain (even after all recent
events) some measure of religious freedom, can also be
defined as dar al-islam.

If Muslims feel safe in the West, Muslim immigration
will continue and will create a new form of hybrid
Islam, as postulated in Ramadan's "To Be A European
Muslim." But there is another aspect to consider. If
the West is not dar al-harb as per the old definition,
militant groups' manifesto to attack the West loses a
key theological underpinning. This is not to say that
militants will read Ramadan and change their key
strategy (and many scholars debate Ramadan on this).
But it can outline the beginnings of a counter-debate,
one that looks at the roots of Islamic theology to
counter the bastardization of the same.

We have two visions on display in this week's
newspapers.

One is the dark, apocalyptic view in Roger Cohen's
essay:

    "But like the world it still claims to lead, the
United States has grown darker. Two wars lurk on a
leafy street. Fear haunts the political discourse. A
century that dawned brightly now offers conflict
without end. Beyond U.S. borders, no longer those of a
sanctuary, the fanatical group called Al Qaeda that
turned planes into missiles has morphed into a diffuse
anti- Western ideology followed, in some measure, by
millions of angry Muslims. They are convinced the
United States is an infidel enemy bent on humiliating
Islam. Anti-Americanism has become the world's vogue
idea."

Now if "millions" had truly joined the jihad, there
would be very few buildings left standing. But never
mind, the man is writing with a flourish, allow him a
moment of hyperventilation.

Let's turn to Andrea Elliott's lead article in
yesterday's Times for another take:

    "[Muslims] have made the journey unbowed by tales
of immigrant hardship, and despite their own
opposition to American policy in the Middle East. They
come seeking the same promise that has drawn
foreigners to the United States for many decades,
according to a range of experts and immigrants:
economic opportunity and political freedom. Those
lures, both powerful and familiar, have been enough to
conquer fears that America is an inhospitable place
for Muslims."

Today is the 5th anniversary of 9/11. In years past,
in a more navel-gazing state of mind, I wrote
pedestrian, sentimental entries about biking down to
Tribeca to look for my then-partner (she had been
evacuated), tracking down Bengali victims' families,
losing a fond memento at airport security, etc, etc.
These are not unique, nor are they (after thousands of
memorial stories) particularly emotive. I wrote as an
ideological naif about the end of technology in the
face of box cutters. It is time to look beyond only
these stories. Time to also feel the pain of others
outside these borders. Time to formulate theory,
trajectory and a vision for a more humane future. 

A shared world beyond wars without end.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Naeem Mohaiemen/Visible Collective
http://disappearedinamerica.org
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Cohen: Darker Landscape
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/10/news/terror.php

Elliott: Muslim Immigration Up Since 9/11
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/nyregion/10muslims.html
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


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