COMMENT: The attempted Times Square bombing —Dr Syed Mansoor Hussain

The problem with many Pakistani-Americans is that they still have not been able to decide whether they are Pakistanis living in the US or are they Americans who came from Pakistan. Clearly they are both, but the question is: which part of their identity is more important to them?

The Pakistani-American Muslim
community is in a state of extreme bother about Faisal Shahzad, the alleged Times Square bomber wannabe. The community that I speak of is the one that consists of reasonably successful professionals. Almost all members of this community are going around thinking, if not saying out loud, there but for the grace of God goes my son-in-law.

Terrorism is a serious matter. But for the Pakistani-Americans the Times Square incidence is even more serious. First, of course, the background of the alleged culprit will strengthen existing stereotypes about people from Pakistan and second, those that were thought to be immune from terrorist proclivities among the group will now become more prone to scrutiny. Without doubt one of our rather well to do Pakistani-American doctors would feel extremely disgruntled if his S Class Mercedes was stopped because he looked like a Pakistani!

Any such attempt by the law enforcement agencies will of course be quite difficult to enforce for many reasons, so I do not see an Arizona immigration law like scenario unfolding on a national scale against people of Pakistani origin. But what might happen is that the law enforcement agencies will start looking at all Pakistani-Americans a bit more closely rather than just the ones that frequent mosques and wear distinctive facial hair and ‘funny’ clothes.

Also, the Pakistanis lined up for US visas and waiting to go on to become permanent residents and eventually citizens will face further delays and background investigations. A stricter visa regime will also affect students and physicians who wish to go to the US for higher education and training. And yes, visits from family living in Pakistan will become more difficult.

The most pernicious possibility is if the second generation Pakistani-Americans become victims of discrimination. Personally I am convinced that this will not happen since the safeguards built into the US system make it extremely hard to discriminate against any group based on religion or country of origin. However, if in the future any major terrorist attack occurs in the US that can be traced back to Pakistan, things could get a little hairy for all Americans of Pakistani origin.

That is the conundrum facing the Pakistani-American community. They can disassociate themselves completely from Pakistan and join in the US-led chorus that Pakistan should do more to control the terrorist activity going on within its borders. This attitude has the disadvantage that however hard the Pakistani-American community tries, it cannot change the fact that its members came from Pakistan. The second possibility is to actually do more themselves.

One of the things that I noticed in the US is that the Pakistani-American community is very unsure of itself. Writing for a journal of the Pakistani-American doctors I once said that the problem with many Pakistani-Americans, especially the first generation US citizens, is that they still have not been able to decide whether they are Pakistanis living in the US or are they Americans who came from Pakistan. Clearly they are both, but the question is: which part of their identity is more important to them?

When a discussion like this takes place even in the posh drawing rooms of the Pakistani American elite, it always eventually comes down to the importance of being Muslim. Like most recent immigrants, the Pakistanis are quite insecure about how to maintain their cultural ties to the land of their origin. And for most of them it comes down to their Muslim identity and how to emphasise it and pass it on to their children.

As such, one of the more important problems being faced by Pakistani-Americans is how to teach their children about Islam. While growing up in Pakistan it was customary for the children of the middle class to be taught to read Arabic and the Quran by a tutor hired for this purpose. However, most of the learning about Islam happened within the home with different members of the extended family, including the parents being responsible for different aspects of religious training.

In the US, Muslim parents of Pakistani origin have essentially abdicated their responsibility for the religious education of their children. This has been turned over in most places to ‘Sunday’ schools attached to area mosques and Islamic centres. Without going on a rant about who teaches what in most of these ‘schools’ and where the money comes from to run them, it is enough to say that what is being taught in these places is definitely not the ‘kinder and gentler’ version of Islam.

This has created an unusual situation for the Pakistani-American community. Many of their children are imbibing radical concepts of religion that are far removed from what they themselves learned and practice. Of course the overall ‘liberal’ attitudes surrounding them makes it difficult for these children to become too radical as they grow up, but some of them do become radicalised and will continue to do so over the foreseeable future. And these are the ones we have to worry about.

Therefore, what the Pakistani-American community, especially the Muslims among them, need to do more than anything else in this context right now is to take greater interest in the religious education their children are receiving in the ‘Islamic centres’ around them. The very parents who are entirely consumed by the quality of education available in public and private schools attended by their children are quite happy to let these Islamic centres teach whatever they might. This must change.

As far as Pakistanis living in Pakistan are concerned, the Faisal Shahzad situation will increase the demands by the US for Pakistan to do more. The Pakistani establishment will seemingly comply albeit after much protestation. The usual suspects will insist that it is all a conspiracy to destroy Pakistan, as if we needed any outside help to do that!

Syed Mansoor Hussain has practised and taught medicine in the US. He can be reached at smhmbbs70@yahoo.com