The presidential
debates dominating the current political scene have
relayed disconcerting messages to the segment of American
population that has suffered the major after-shocks
of the 9/11 tragedy. There is little hope that the
Patriot Act would be repealed or drastically altered
to guarantee the rights provided to them under the
Constitution.
During the course
of the second debate President Bush stoutly defended
the Act: “As a matter of fact, the tools now
given to the terrorist fighters are the same tools
that we've been using against drug dealers and white-collar
criminals. So I really don't think so.
I hope you don't think that. I mean, I -- because
I think whoever is the president must guard your liberties,
must not erode your rights in America. …The
Patriot Act is necessary, for example, because parts
of the FBI couldn't talk to each other… The
intelligence gathering and the law-enforcement arms
of the FBI just couldn't share intelligence under
the old law... And so, I don't think the Patriot Act
abridges your rights at all…”
John Kerry struck
a different note: “A whole bunch of folks in
America are concerned about the way the Patriot Act
has been applied. In fact, the inspector general of
the Justice Department found that John Ashcroft had
twice applied it in ways that were inappropriate.
People's rights have been abused. …. I believe
in the Patriot Act. We need the things in it that
coordinate the FBI and the CIA. We need to be stronger
on terrorism. But you know what we also need to do
as Americans is never let the terrorists change the
Constitution of the United States in a way that disadvantages
our rights.”
His choice of words
and diffident approach made the inference too obvious
for Muslim Americans: They will remain precariously
perched as the Act is likely to remain in force whoever
wins the forthcoming election. For the present, their
political clout hardly matters.
And this became all too apparent from the American
Muslim Taskforce endorsement of Senator Kerry on
October 21 “Following careful consideration
of overall US interests, interaction with presidential
campaign officials and extensive input from the
Islamic community, the American Muslim Taskforce
on Civil Rights and
Elections - Political Action Committee (AMT-PAC)
is calling on Muslims nationwide to cast a protest
vote for Sen. John Kerry.”
AMT-PAC is an affiliated political action committee
of the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights
and Elections (AMT). AMT is an umbrella organization
representing American Muslim Alliance (AMA), Council
on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle
of North America (ICNA),Islamic Society of North
America (ISNA), Muslim Alliance in North America
(MANA), Muslim American Society (MAS), Muslim Ummah
of North America (MUNA), Muslim Student Association-National
(MSA-N), Project Islamic Hope (PIH), and United
Muslims of America (UMA). SEE: http://www.americanmuslimvoter.net
In its statement, AMT-PAC said: "We acknowledge
the considerable outreach to our community by Sen.
Kerry's campaign, particularly by his campaign co-chair
Sen. Edward Kennedy. We also appreciate the ongoing
dialogue with Muslim leaders about problems posed
by the USA PATRIOT Act.
"While the Kerry campaign has critiqued a number
of Bush administration polices, it has so far failed
to explicitly affirm support for due process, equal
justice and other constitutional norms.
We are also disappointed that his campaign has
shied away from expressing unambiguous support for
principles enshrined in the US Constitution that
prohibit use of ex post facto laws, secret proceedings
and secret evidence.
"Because pluralism is based on partial agreements,
support for Sen. Kerry is premised on our overall
effort to help restore liberty and justice for all.
"Mindful of disagreements with Sen. Kerry on
some domestic and international issues, including
the war in Iraq, we are willing to work with him
to help
restore due process and equal justice in accordance
with the US Constitution.” The muffled tone
reminds one of the couplet:
Khamoshi guftago hae bezabani hae zaban meri
Jahan maen har taraf pehli houi hae dastaan meri
That the priorities of the Muslim world are seriously
misplaced was also subtly brought home by a remark
of the Democratic candidate during the course of
the second debate – the US must match the
trained manpower of China and India. One should
not begrudge the tribute to Pakistan’s immediate
neighbors but one must ungrudgingly bemoan the low
priority accorded to education and science in the
Muslim countries.
Nuclear proliferation
is another issue that has dominated the political
scene and is likely to figure in the dialogue. As
time passes, the focus might shift from Iran and North
Korea with a plea to other countries to abdicate their
nuclear power status.
How does the Pakistani-American
community respond to the present situation? For an
answer, let’s start on an optimistic note. The
formation of the Pakistan Congressional Caucus is
a timely initiative, thanks to the enterprise of Embassy
Deputy Chief of Mission Mohammad Sadiq and prominent
community activists. Equally important are the singular
initiatives of APPNA, NCHD, HDF, SQF, DIL, and others
that have produced consistently tangible results over
the years. Yet a lot more needs to be done. Is the
Pakistani-American community fully seized of this
responsibility? It is the nature of the task, truly
elephantine and Herculean, that warrants a reiteration
of some earlier observations.
First, the complexion
of the Pakistani community in the United States. There
are those who make it to the new world in search of
a better life - those who work in dingy factories
or corporate ventures at a low rung and are content
with sputtering a few incoherent words of American
English, a sub-standard, pedestrian form of language
in such workplaces with funny usages, and worse, funnier
accents and pronunciations, to qualify for a vehicle
of scholarship of higher learning.
One must unreservedly thank the US academic and high-tech
advances and their corporate spin-offs that make up
for the misplaced stress on syllables which is jarring
and more than a trifling annoyance on one’s
ears. Such Pakistanis, or ‘Pakistani Americans’
as they pride on being called, have two obsessions:
to loathe everything that is Pakistani and to praise
anything that is American. The razzle-dazzle of posh
malls impresses them, rather than the inspirational
vision of America’s founding fathers which finds
a vivid manifestation in the dynamic of Cornell, Yale,
Princeton, Pennsylvania, Brown, Dartmouth, Woodworth,
Columbia and Harvard. They miss the finer values and
essential features of this great country, features
that accord the United States of America the enviable
status of being the world’s only super power
deserving the best superlatives for sustained strivings
in challenging fields.
Then there are those
Pakistani Americans who have obtained higher education
and struck gold in an entrepreneurial undertaking
- wealth quite disproportionate to their academic
or personal attainments - and who have generously
and laudably contributed to community causes. Yet
their corporate-tinged outlook lacks the perspicacity
of the visionaries of Aligarh where the two-nation
theory was enunciated and led to the creation of Pakistan,
or the bright minds of Hyderabad where Urdu, a cultural
entity of pre- and post- independence Muslims, was
religiously accorded the status of medium of instruction
to strengthen the Muslim identity. English did not
suffer in that great seat of culture and learning,
where the quintessence of both, testifies to the richness
of the past and a commitment to the future.
And if individual
vision is to be cited, the name of Dr. I H. Usmani
spontaneously comes to mind who as early as the 1960s
drew the blueprints of a nuclear power program for
Pakistan. Thanks to his foresight and the establishment
of centers of excellence like the Pakistan Institute
of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH) - described
as ‘best of both the worlds’ by TIME magazine
- Pakistan succeeded in joining the exclusive nuclear
club, and, more recently, in warding off Indian military
adventurism.
Another visionary
who deserves to be mentioned is Professor Abdus Salam
who not only won the coveted Nobel Prize but, more
importantly, set up the UN International Center of
Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, to act as a
one-man multinational corporation busily transferring
intellectual technology to the less developed countries
of the world. “Salam’s strength is that
he believes that miracles are possible provided one
goes out and helps them on their way,” Nigel
Calder said of the eminent Pakistani in 1967. It is
a pity we don’t have someone quite like him
in the community of Pakistani Americans though there
are many who are many times richer than him. The inference
is obvious: richness of imagination and vision impacts
the social scene rather than the opulence of money.
And that explains
why the singular obligation of the affluent business
class of Pakistani Americans to the community is restricted
to the construction of buildings. But do bricks and
mortar create institutes pulsating with the creative
impulse? And can schools established by the rich for
the children of the rich be anything other than a
self-defeating exercise? How many Pakistanis can afford
to send their children to the schools set up by the
community’s ‘philanthropists’?
One may also ponder
the serious question: Are the more affluent among
us conscious of the obligation thrust upon the community
in the post-9/11 period? The Muslims took, and continue
to take, a terrible bashing at the hands of the media
because their own press was too fragile, nay, almost
non-existent. Has anyone - anyone - done anything
to support the fledgling Pakistani and Muslim media?
Barring exceptions, our papers continue to be mere
rags and TV programs a theatrical portrayal of our
strivings. A sorry spectacle resulting from the indifference
of the community’s well-to-do ignoramuses.
Finally, there is
the younger generation - the ABCDs (American Born
Confused Desis) aping the Amisha Patel-Hirthik Roshan
duo and merrily humming “Dil mera milnae ko
beqarar hae, Kaho na piyar hae, Kaho na …”
as they dash on the criss-crossing freeways to and
fro schools. The more extrovert among them dote on
Jennifer Lopez and Jay Leno or fancy the characters
of Practice and Charm. Earning grades and counting
units, they seem to drift listlessly while yearning
for an intellectually stimulating environment that
could lend meaning to the newly found Pakistani-American
identity with a wholesome Pakistani input.
Prominent Pakistani
Americans have to seriously attend to the social and
cultural issues touching on the lives of the Pakistanis
in the United States. They should make an earnest
effort to blend values that could be truly representative
of the best of both the worlds. Arriving in the US
is not an achievement; honorable survival is. And
in the ensuing process the ‘melting pot’
experience does not have to be a wholly one-sided
affair.
