Pakistani Americans’
Befitting Response
By Khalid Hasan
Washington,
DC: The Muslim community in Massachusetts is up in arms against
the state governor Mitt Romney’comment that mosques
and Muslim student centers should be monitored and wiretapped
as part of the war on terror.
Taking up cudgels against the governor, Pakistani-American
Shahid Ali Khan, who had an important role in the Kerry presidential
campaign, writes in Boston Globe on Wednesday that Romney
has “demonstrated not only a lack of cultural understanding
and a disregard for civil liberties but also an alarming ignorance
about effective methods of combating radicalism.” The
governor has his eye on his party’s presidential nomination
in 2008. Khan writes that if he really wants to pursue that
ambition, he needs to learn some basic lessons about American
Muslims and about uniting Americans in the struggle against
extremism of every sort.
According to Khan, “Since 9/11, Muslims have been targets
of harassment in the forms of specious investigation, detention,
and suspicion. Our mosques and Islamic centers are houses
of worship and of cultural identity; if there is no evidence
of wrongdoing within them, they must be accorded the respect
due an institution of significance. Based on his recent comments,
it seems the governor is incapable of respecting the dignity
of one of the world’s great religions ... It is unacceptable
for a governor with a self-serving political agenda to suggest
invasively scrutinising the entire Muslim community. Such
a policy is not merely reckless and disrespectful; it is also
unwise.”
Khan writes that by attempting
to further marginalise American Muslims, the governor weakens
the cause of eliminating radicalism. “The incitement
of political violence is abhorrent to Islam, and those who
promote this tactic are rejected by the vast majority of Muslims,
who want the same things as everyone else - a future of peace
and prosperity for ourselves and our families. And so, if
there are indeed radical, potentially violent elements within
our community, who better to expose and uproot them than we?
But instead of cultivating a positive relationship with Muslims,
creating trust and cooperation, this governor and his allies
aim to breed mistrust and suspicion - all in the service of
their own political agenda.:
According to Khan, all Americans, regardless of their origins,
are Americans, deserving of the same respect, the same dignity,
as anyone else. This is the ideal upon which America was founded
and the reason so many immigrants came here in the first place.
He adds, “But unfortunately, too often this ideal is
sullied by those who seek advantage not by striving for greatness,
but by diminishing others. We must not allow our nation to
be shoved down this path of divisiveness, of suspicion, and
of fear. We must present a unified front against the forces
of radicalism that seek to destroy America. If we allow Mitt
Romney to divide us, the radicals will have prevailed.”
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