By Mohammad Salama
Inthe wake of the Muslim Ban, I’ve struggled to find words adequate enough to express my dismay as a long-term resident of the US and someone of the Muslim faith whose intentions towards my chosen home are far from sinister.It is not that Muslims havent had their challenges in the United States evenbefore 9/11. The uphill struggle Muslims and other minority groupscontinue to face in this country appears endless.Imagine having to go to work knowing that you must challenge or prove wrong misconceptions that daily tweets from the president’s office and a steady drip of Islamophobia from Fox News are helping to crystallize in the American population.
We dont want them here, said the President decisively after signing the Ban. I thought the vapid ideology of usvs them and the Machiavellian clash of civilizations thesis of the Bush era, pittingChristianity or Europe against Islam, hadlong been exposed and defeated. I thought that after anincalculableloss of innocent lives as a result of belligerent policieswe are heeding the lesson and on a sound tracktowardspluralism and inclusivity.I thought we agreed that invading Iraq had beena mistake, that accusing all Muslims of terrorism because of a wanted fugitive trained by the CIA to fight the Russians in the Cold War was the worst and most tragic generalization in recenthistory.
The position of Muslims in America
How does a Muslim living in the USA today feel about the Muslim Ban and Presidents tweets?Defeated? Depressed?Indignant? Resigned? Or optimistic that the resistance is going to make some headway in pushing back againstthis tidal wave of hate?Isay hate because I cannot find any other explanation for theunprovoked suspension of sevenMuslim countries. The hate part is what kept agonizing me since I arrived here. It is almost as if there is an inherent tendency ora recessive autoimmune genethat makes America hate. Take a look at the last century: hate has managed to live with and through Americas presidential history from Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1908) to Donald Trump (2017-), from the Segregation Era (1900-1939)to anti-Semitism, fromWorld War IIto the horrific internment of Japanese-Americans,fromthe constant persecution of Black Americans to the Cold War, fromthe hatred of Russiaand everything Russian to the hatred of Muslims. Hate is a tenacious virus that never dies but always metamorphoses and replicates itself as itfinds new hosts to feed on. Hate is the enemy of America.
Dont get me wrong. Hate is the enemy of ourspecies. Racism for instance is a human disease that knows no bordersand canbe found anywhere on earth. It is also the most difficult act of wickedness to acknowledge.Despite all this, the promise of living in a democratic society has rekindled in me the desire to persevere. My hope in democracy has never dwindled. I survived the Bush years by finding consolation in Reinhold Niebuhrs beautiful words: man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. When I made the choice to immigrate and make America home, I left behinda hopeless despotic regime in a developingcountryand sought solace in a democratic system that does not know or understand hate or malice. But I also left behind myailing parentsnow deceasedmy family, my familiar Arabic tongue, my childhood memories, my favorite beach and thefeeling that I am not a foreigner. All in all, arift that cannot really healbut that I managed to endure. These feelingswerecompounded by acreeping sense that someonewill always reject mein my new home:a stare on the bus or at a restaurant, a joke in the workplace corridor. Regardless,I have learned toignore and move on because despite it all, the pleasure of the promise is much more rewarding than the dissatisfaction of the present.
Hope has beenand continues to bethe principle that governs my life. When you have children, you see things differently:this is not about inheriting the earth from your fathers, but aboutborrowing it from your children. Ihope that they will be alright, that they won’thave to change their last names to guaranteeequal opportunitiesin education and work, that they willcontinue to livein a system that rejectshate and that will be kind and fair to all of them, that they will continue to live in a land wherethe rule of the people by the people and for the people governs through direct voting and electoral representatives.As someone who grew up and lived under shameless tyranny, the mere prospect of moving to America was my American Dream, just being here and living in a society that honors hard work and uphold the rule of law wasits own reward.
Bringing the nation together
I was all alone when I arrived at San Francisco Airport toresume my job after being barred from entry and forcedto spend90 days in Canada because of my religion back in 2006.I am not alone now. Last week,there were close to 2,000 people at SFO protesting the ban. People fromall walks of life in the Bay Area gathered tosupporttheir Muslim fellow citizens, refugees, immigrants, students visa workers, who were detained andunable to enter the country. Protesters did not leave until the last detained Muslim person was released. There were public figures in theaudience alongside youths and children. The energy was beautiful and contagious. Peoplebrought food and fruits and water foreveryone to share. This peaceful gathering represented what isbeautiful and humane about American democracy. The chants were mesmerizing aspeople cametogether and formed one big heart. This is the spirit of America. I felt hopeful, grateful,and proud ofeveryone chanting beside me whether they were Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists,agnostics, LGBTQ, white, black, Latinos,Asians:they all sing America!
Despite its divisive intent, the Muslim Ban has brought this nation together even closer than before,awakening shameful memoriesin our recent historythat we never wish would come back and haunt us again.At stake is not theostracizationofMuslims, but alsothe expulsion ofHispanics, thedemonization of Jewish Americansand the shunning ofLGTBQ communitieswho now join withorganizers of BLM and the Womens March. These communities won’tallow themselves to be cornered, defined, dehumanized, or effaced by an alt-right ideology that is too afraid to face its fears head-on and actually look into the face of the “other” it so reviles.This unprovoked order has created nothing but disorder and turnedtheMuslim story into anAmericanstory. There is no question that it has to be an American story. From the momentoneconstitutional pillaris undercut, know that undermining the rest of it isnot far from possible. That’s why an overwhelming and strongsense ofresistance hastotake place.It hasto take place not out of biasorpartisan discontent; it hasto take palce not out of intractability; it hasto take place becausein the face of contravension, those constitutional values are all we have to hold on to in order to steer us away fromtyranny andinjustice.
Mohammad Salama has received his PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005, with a focus on Arabic literature.
This article was originally published on Arcade.
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