Complaints, Complaints.

Liaquat Ali

According to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis the per capita income in the United States went from $1510 in 1950 to $29,451 in 2000. That is an almost 20 times increase.

Although I have not applied any corrections for inflation, the trend is pretty clear. Only a few other countries may claim similar kind of economic performance, and hence quality of living for its citizens. Some may ask why am I showing this chart? The reason is that I am genuinely concerned about immigrant Muslims – or any other immigrant for that matter – talking about America’s foreign policy at this moment of crisis. I was especially ticked off by reading the results of a recent poll, by Zogby International on behalf of Project MAPS, where 79% of Muslims said “American foreign policy in the Middle East led to the attacks”

Regardless of who done it, regardless of why it happened, and how it could have been prevented the incidents on September 11, my fellow citizens, especially the one’s who don’t have a whole lot of exposure about the rest of the world and about Islam, need to feel secure. Their sense of security, by being located between the two mighty oceans and friendly neighbors, has been shattered. They want to make sure that the people who they share this great country with are not “enemy agents.” It is natural, and I respect that.

Does that mean that I am willing to give up my civil liberties just because I am a Muslim with South Asian origins? Absolutely not. Does that mean that I am going to put up with any kind of discrimination at job? Forget it. Does that mean that I am not going to fight back if someone tries to hurt my loved ones? You bet I won’t. Although I don’t have too much control on involuntary usurpation of rights, I am not about to give up any of my rights voluntarily.

Then why am I complaining about people who talk about foreign policy? Isn’t this their right to express themselves? I know that it is their right to express themselves. However, I strongly believe that not many people have thought their “right” to self expression through.

A country’s present state is defined by all of the decisions its governments and people take. Therefore where America is today is the result of all of the good or bad decisions we have taken, as a nation, in the near and distant past. Just about the time America got involved in the Middle East in a big way, the per capita income was $1510. Today it is in the neighborhood of $30,000. Most of the people who complain about America’s foreign policy immigrated to this country in the past 50 years. Why did you not think about the foreign policy when you were applying for your visas?

I don’t claim to know where America would be if it had not made the foreign policy decisions that it has made in the past 50 years, but I am sure that if America’s per capita income were not increasing the way it has increased during the same period, especially since 1970, then most of these immigrants won’t have come to America anyway.

Fellow Muslims, we have a few major and minor choices:

Quickly learn the real message of Islam, and work really hard to educate our fellow citizens about that message of Islam. Many of us already know that the people, who claim to represent Islam today, are not working with the real Islam. They are working with, what I call the Number 2 Islam or N2I. This version of Islam is dogmatic, violent and repressive, and is not the Islam that the Exalted Prophet Muhammad brought for humanity. This Islam is not good for Muslims, and it is definitely not good for non-Muslims.

Make friends with some of the Jewish Americans who are joining forces with Muslims around the country to send a message to the Israeli and Palestinian governments that they need to work on peace, not on blowing each other up.

Decide to live as a marginalized community because we refuse to make our fellow citizens comfortable about our loyalty with the country. Perception is as important as reality.

Regardless of which choice you make, don’t complain about America’s foreign policy as long as we are officially at war. This is the time to make friends with Americans of all faiths, to engage with our compatriots at a high intellectual and a deep emotional level. Your untimely complaints about the foreign policy will only intensify scrutiny of Muslims. On the other hand, if you really want to complain, then raise your voices against the racial profiling of Muslims, African-Americans, Latinos and others, and complain against the Prison-Industrial Complex that is gearing up to swallow more and more teens and immigrants of color.

We have problems at home. We cannot afford to talk about foreign policy at this time. As a matter of fact, we should be putting all those Muslim extremist groups on notice. If they didn’t stop blowing things up, right away, we should just forget about all foreign causes, and mind our own business right here at home.

Project: MAPS: American Muslim Poll: http://www.projectmaps.com/PMReport.htm