Propaganda: An Art of War

Racism and Our Culpability:

The killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis has stirred a reaction in  every avenue of our country, whether an urban boulevard or a suburban orchard. One would think that each and every American was an angelic anti-discrimanionist. But we know that it is not the case. Racism, when it is not manifest, hides behind a variety of facades and in many innovative disguises. As racism is systemic, its progenitor is prejudice, which could be innate or induced. Prejudice is a manifestation of ignorance, which is  the root of the problem and the only way to deal with it is to educate the populace and dispel misinformation at every corner of society. This is a painstakingly slow process but we must not relent.

Education starts right from the cradle. A lazy, prejudicial talk at home leaves a lasting impact on a child’s mind. I know a child with an Indian father and white mother, who, when reprimanded by his father on a mischief, retorted: “you f*****g black bastard”. Children pick up the n word or in the case of South Asians the k word either from the elders’ conversations at home or from their peers at school. If the parents themselves are not suffering from this malady, they should hear the alarm bells ring and take action.

This brings me to the subject of this discussion: racism among Muslims. To many of our religious leaders the phrase itself is preposterous because they are resting on their own oft- repeated axiom that in Islam there is no racism. To them, belief is all that there is to it. Action is in another world, on an exoplanet. In the United States, Da-ees (proselytizers) have been telling the Blacks that the mosque guarantees Islamic brotherhood. They are never tired of referencing the Prophet’s last sermon, in which he said  ---- “there is no preference of Whites over Blacks and Blacks over Whites”. The Prophet had also said that those who were present should carry the word to those who were absent and by implication mandating transmission of the word to the subsequent generations. Well, the preacher has fulfilled his responsibility; that is where his job ends and he has secured himself a place in the jannah. But our job has just begun. For centuries, hypocrites have been desecrating the mosque space with abstract pollutants, foremost among them being racism. This abomination is not tolerable, at least not in America.

We immigrants come from racially homogeneous societies. We have never experienced racial and cultural diversity, which is the hallmark of America. We are more comfortable sitting under the canopy of uniculture, eating biryani or maqluba. Cross cultural socialization takes a lot of effort and consumes a lot of energy. We neither have time nor the requisite training for that. In educated Muslim culture in the subcontinent, there are two things, which are considered to be the traits of good upbringing: akhlaq (good behavior) and aadaab (netiquettes). To some people, they may seem to belong to the bourgeoisie but read the Prophet’s seerah before deprecating these qualities.

An African-American Muslim physician told me that once he was invited to a weekly social get together of Desi Muslim doctors. He sat there dumbfounded as nobody talked to him. Why should this kind of gross antisocial behavior not be taken as racism?

You go to a masjid dinner on invitation and sit down at a table, where the top echelon of the administration are sitting. You may be the most senior person there and no less in articulation and education than any of them but they would all try to avoid you as if they were afraid of each other. They would keep talking to each other and placating each other. This kind of behavior indicates a psychological underpinning of inferiority.

I spent fifteen years in England, working and studying. That is where my manners and behavior were molded. The English are against everything non-British, antiforeign but ask an Englishman for guidance and help, he/she will be an embodiment of cultured politeness and excel in helpfulness. I suggest you hate their politics but adopt their manners.

So, to us who have been working in the Muslim community for eons, the question of whether or not there is racism among us, is redundant. There is and it is not even subtle like in England. Time has now come to address this question face on. We are in America and America is in racial turmoil and wrangling with this problem. Those of us who are in the Old World mindset and are unable to change should step aside so that the younger generation of leaders takes over. They are best equipped to deal with this problem.

Waheeduddin Ahmed

June 2020