Exploiting the paranoia over “Islamic” terrorism
by Dr. Mazeni Alwi

Bearing a muslim name on one’s passport especially those issued by certain countries can test one’s patience these days. On a recent trip to the United States, I took the family along including my 2 teenaged boys. On the threshold of adulthood, I thought it would be good for them to see a little bit of America and life in a big cosmopolitan city like Chicago. I know of many friends who would rather not travel to the US these days because of the difficulties some people have faced at the immigration counter due to the security measures enforced to prevent suspected, potential or imagined terrorist-types from entering the country. Fortunately I have never had such problems as my travels there have always been for the purpose of attending medical conferences and I don’t have the looks of someone from the middle-east.

Being in the relevant age bracket, I expected my 2 boys would have a little difficulty, just like their visa application which took 2 weeks to be approved. At Chicago’s O’Hare airport they had to register with the Department of Homeland Security, a process that involves filling out a form, making a declaration and answering many probing questions by an DHS official. This included checking out the contents of one my son’s e-mails. The official who interviewed my sons was firm but not at all discourteous, I suppose because they had everything in order – return air tickets, booking confirmation of the serviced apartment where we would be staying, and the scientific program of the conference that had my name as a speaker. But even then, they whole process took more than an hour. Anyway we took it all in good stride, knowing that he had a job to do, and such stringent measures could not be helped given what had happened 3 years ago in September, and most of all we had no more flights to catch. An arab man on the same British Airways flight from London was not so lucky. He missed his connecting flight to Houston because of the registration process and interview. Once passed that, everything was fine and we had a pleasant stay in Chicago. People we met were generally courteous and friendly, and there was not much indication that muslims are unwelcome. But Chicago, like all the big cities, is perhaps among the exceptions. After all, this is the city where Elijah Muhamad’s black muslim movement “the Nation of Islam” began. The city and its environs also has a large muslim immigrant population. Taking a few trips daily by taxi between the conference hotel and our apartment, most of the time the taxi drivers were muslim immigrants. A friend of mine, an Iraqi doctor at the Children’s Hospital affiliated to the University of Chicago, while accepting that there are some difficulties in being muslims in America, he nevertheless recognizes that the notions of liberty, openness and fairness still work for professionals like him in cosmopolitan Chicago. Ever since its founding, that aspect of america has been a source of her vitality – its ability to attract immigrants from all over the world, including muslims, that continue to enrich America with their talent and hard work.

But today much of that benign face of America which has earned it respect and admiration from the rest of the world is sadly overshadowed by the Bush administration’s paranoia over “Islamic terrorism”. It was while we were in Chicago that Yusuf Islam, formerly Cat Stevens, was not allowed entry into the US after his plane was diverted to Maine, away from the densely populated North East, ostensibly to minimize american civilian casualties should the plane be turned into a terrorist weapon. Yusuf Islam, who during his musical career wrote memorable songs that express yearnings for spiritual solace and peace among mankind, since becoming a muslim he has been heavily involved in humanitarian work in the muslim world and establishing Islamic schools in Britain. He is among the high profile muslims in Britain and his views have never been known to be extremist, very much consistent with the theme of peace and humanity that used to be the message of some of his old songs. After the September 11 attacks, invoking his old song “Peace train”, he wrote that Islam is a religion of peace and expressed dismay at how the religion has been tainted by extremists who commit acts of violence with no regard for innocent human lives. At the height of the Salman Rushdie affair in 1989, I saw him on british television as a panelist on a forum wearing a turban and a traditional arab robe. But he has shed that image for some years now, started recording songs again, and in fact he was on his way to Nashville on the occasion that he was denied entry.

It is very puzzling that a high profile muslim with a long history of commitment to world peace and to the alleviation of human suffering is on a terrorist watch list. Is it likely that among its stable of advisers in think tanks and academic institutions across the country, none of them could correctly advise the administration on Yusuf Islam’s background and credentials, that the British Foreign secretary was compelled to raise a mild comment on the incident.

Not long ago, Tariq Ramadan, another muslim public figure well known for his advocacy of moderation and peaceful co-existence was barred from taking up a teaching post at a US university when the US State Department revoked his visa at the last minute. Ramadan is grandson of Hassan Al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt. He teaches philosophy and Islamology in Geneva and Freiburg in Switzerland. His father, Said Ramadan is son in law and favourite disciple of Hassan Al Banna. With Nasser’s crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, the family went into exile in Switzerland where Tariq was born shortly later. Despite his pedigree, Tariq Ramadan is not the typical Ikhwan activist. Growing up in Geneva, he was active in social and humanitarian organizations, and his academic specialization was Nietzche, before he seriously took up the cause of Islam in europe.

One could gain insight into Tariq Ramadan’s ideas on a range of contemporary issues concerning Islam in the book “l’Islam En Questions” (Actes Sud, 2002), where the journalist and expert in Middle East affairs, Françoise Germain-Robin paired him off with Alain Gresh, editor-in-chief of le Monde Diplomatique and passionate defender of the third world against the ravages of globalization, to deliberate on topics from the situation in the middle-east, Islamism, the new international order and globalization, to feminism and human rights in Islam, Islam in Europe etc. The exchanges and outright debates between the two became all the more interesting as each of them have egyptian connections, Tariq Ramadan with Hasan Al Banna, and Alain Gresh is from a bourgeois family in Cairo, the son of Henri Curiel, founder of the communist movement in egypt and a militant activist in leftist liberation movements especially in the arab world and Palestine.

Tariq Ramadan’s book “Les Musulmans d’occident et l’avenir de l’Islam” (Western muslim and the future of Islam – Sindbad – Actes lud, 2003) offers an insight on Ramadan’s thoughts on how european muslims should integrate, engage and contribute meaningfully to europe’s secular society while maintaining their muslim identity and culture, rather than retreating into the ghetto and nursing exaggerated feelings of victimization.

If the Bush administration is serious about seeking a solution to the present problem on terrorism, and about “winning the hearts and minds” of muslims to eschew violence and build bridges between East and West for world peace, the Yusuf Islam and Tariq Ramadan incidents prompt one to question its sincerity. Is the casting of too fine a net to combat terrorism the result of a genuine misjudgment, or is the administration held captive by the policies of Islamphobic neoconservatives, prodded on by rightwing zionists, whose dream is for the “clash of civilization” to become a reality by exploiting and exaggerating the paranoia of terror by a small fringe of extremists on the margins of mainstream Islam? In the long run, it would have a significant impact on america as shown by the rise of anti american sentiments around the world, eroding further remnants of its benign image in the eyes of fair-minded people who still maintain an admiration for the idea and ideals of america’s founding more than 200 years ago.

For muslims, that there is a seemingly deliberate attempt to exclude them from participating in the modern world, means that engagement, dialogue, and the struggle for global justice through shared values is the only realistic, workable way for a dignified place in the world commonwealth. We should not take the Islamphobes’ bait who want us all to become terrorists at the gates of civilization.