The changing face of America

I was In Rome when 9/11 happened. At that precise moment when I got the news I was touring the Coliseum, looking at the gladiator chambers and thanking Allah that the days of paganism and gross injustice are long over. When we stepped out of the Coliseum, the news of planes crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was spreading like a wild fire. The rest is history with the Afghanistan campaign, the PATRIOT Act and the latest episode being the Iraqi misadventure.

I came to the US for the first time in the year 2002. I came to a post 9/11 America and was expecting a wave of resentment owing to my religion and origin. Getting a student visa was surprisingly easy, especially since my visitor visa applications had been rejected before. My visa arrived through Gerry’s Courier Service and this time, I didn’t even need to make the expensive trip to Islamabad from Karachi. I traveled with my family and found the customs staff to be quite courteous and humorous. The year passed uneventfully as I pursued my first year of the graduate program.

During the summer I returned home for a vacation. In August I came back to the US to start my new academic year. This time the story was different. I experienced the growing wave of racial profiling and discrimination and was amazed at how much things changed in this one-year time span.

It all started with my flight. I was traveling through Gulf Air from Karachi to Washington. before landing at London, the journey was quite placid and routine. From London onwards I was scheduled on board a Virgin Atlantic Flight. I was one of the few desis on the flight, with the rest being goras.

It started with the aircraft being very cold. I was literally freezing and I asked the airhostess to give me an extra blanket and I was told that there were none available on the plane. This incredible statement was made as other passengers were being handed blankets. I decided not o create a scene and ask another stewardess who had a more benign appearance. She did oblige me so I didn’t think much of the episode.

At lunch a steward asked me if the “Halal Meal” was mine? Without waiting for my answer he dumped the food on my table, took two giant leaps and disappeared to the next section of the airplane. I was one of the first people to be served a meal, the rest were served significantly later. The meal itself was quite Spartan, being devoid of the little chocolates that other meals had. It took three requests to get a soft drink. The passenger sitting next to me on the window seat was not having lunch so it was convenient for the crew to avoid serving me a drink.

After a while the trolley passed by with the ice cream and they avoided me like a bad case of the plague. It was already freezing on the plane so I was not missing much either. The final episode came with the serving of the evening tea and snacks. A ‘halal snack” was again dumped at my table and I was not offered a drink as the drinks trolley sped past me. This time the Brit seated next to me wished to have a snack too. Funnily enough they couldn’t very well serve him while avoiding me so they were avoiding him too. He asked twice for a sandwich and they told him they would be back with it. Eventually he and I did get served, although after a persistent demand by the two of us.

The point of relating this rather long travelogue was that in a nutshell my flight was not the least enjoyable. I am one of those idiosyncratic creatures who love long hauls, but because of the attitude of the aircrew my trip was not a particularly joyful one.

At the customs I was treated like a marginal-criminal. The listed place of my birth (Peshawar) invoked suspicion. In a never-before seen-but-now-operational Baggage Check, both my suitcases were inspected, as were of all other foreigners. The female customs official had the audacity to look at each one of my papers, including those inside my wallet. Arriving in DC put me in a sullen mood and that is how I greeted the relatives who had come to pick me up, although it was no fault of theirs.

America has changed, is changing and will change even more thanks to the successful smear campaign directed against Moslems, especially the Arabs and Pakistanis. Who says the age of racism is gone? It may be subtle now but it surely is there! I feel it when I visit the dentist’s office when the receptionists have big smiles to greet all other patients and a reluctant hi! for me. Its almost routine to have everyone ask you if you would be staying in America or going back to “your country”. You can keep harping on how “Eid” is coming and yet there would be no one wishing you on your festivals, even if you send them Christmas Greetings every year.

USA was a land that was created by immigrants, where the statue of liberty welcomed all the immigrants with open arms. The American nation one time boasted of the freedom of speech. Today, America is retrogressing into an intolerant society that looks at the Moslem world with suspicion and growing hatred.