"Justice has been done," President Barack Obama said in a dramatic announcement at the White House while a crowd cheered outside and hundreds more gathered at ground zero in Manhattan to celebrate the news. I still remember watching the news on that particular morning and listened to Obama speech saying that the war against terrorists has nothing to do with Moslem as Americans were never having any issue with Islam whatsoever. Islam was never considered as terrorist as Obama emphasized in his statement on that so called glorious day.
Then last weekend on Saturday morning, I was shocked by an early morning headlines on CNN talking about two Imams from Memphis Arabic University had been discharged from their flight for security reason. The incident occurred Friday on an Atlantic Southeast Airlines flight from Tennessee to North Carolina and it involved Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul were wearing traditional Muslim dress, CNN affiliate WCNC reported. The two -- who hold high religious positions in the Muslim community -- were headed to North Carolina for a conference on prejudice against Muslims, or Islamaphobia. The meeting is sponsored by the North American Imams Federation. An airline is investigating the removal of two imams from a flight headed to North Carolina, ostensibly because passengers felt uncomfortable with their presence of the pair -- both clad in Islamic attire.
I mean, seriously...this should not happen to anyone in any reason. Especially in a country who claimed themselves as a free country as the United State of America. These two guys went passed security checked, even went through a secondary security, got on the plane but then taxiing out as the authority of the airport who escorted them explained that the pilot the pilot refused to fly with them because passengers were uncomfortable with them. Then the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) pulled them off to re-screened them again just to found that they were no threat whatsoever for the flight. The officials then spent literally more than ten minutes tried to convinced the pilot to let the men back into the plane but he absolutely refused and ultimately took off. The Atlantic Southeast Airlines did not say why the two men were taken off the flight, but said they were given the opportunity to fly on a different flight. I was like, REALLY? Does that solve the problem? Na-ah…I don’t think so.
Now, here is the thing, referred to President Obama speech a week before the incident, he was clearly said that this was not a war against Islam but a war against terrorists. But, one thing the President probably didn’t realize that the prejudice about Islam was there to deal with. Many people, especially Americans, have their own impression whenever they saw people in Moslem attires, for example those two Imams. They had been accused to cause an uncomfortable feeling for other passengers because of their outfits. And that only happened because of their Moslem gears. Seriously, if a monk also joined the flight that day with his Buddhist outfit, trust me, no one would even bother. Am I over sensitive about this religious issue?
Maybe. But ever since 9/11, U.S. Muslims, estimated between six to seven million, have become sensitized to an erosion of their civil rights, with a prevailing belief that America was stigmatizing their faith. And as for me, this incident with two Imams actually remind me to my own experience when I tried to get my American visa a few years back then. As everyone aware that it was a little bit a challenge for a Moslem to get an American visa after the 9/11 incident. As I went to the U.S embassy in Surabaya to applied for mine, the security procedures were beyond believe. Among other applicants, I wasn’t allowed to bring anything apart from the documents I need to apply for my visa. Everything stayed at the security’s counter. And when the guy in the counter refused my application, I was like, yeah…just because am a Moslem, they refused to give me a visa. But of course, my curiosity leaded me to question him what went wrong with my application. He then mentioned a particular document that I failed to showed him. When I explained to him that I actually have the document with me, he then suggested me to re-apply again the next day, which I did, then get my visa smoothly. This thing was actually embarrassing for me, as I was ashamed of myself by jumped into an unreasonable conclusion and accused the guy as a racist when he rejected my application. Turned up it was my fault by not giving him my complete documents. Sigh!
Then what is my point for all of these incidents? That everything is actually inside people’s minds. A poll conducted by Bendixon & Associations and co-sponsored by Amnesty (International) in 2004 found that Arab-Americans were found three times more likely to have experienced racial profiling than the rest of the non-Hispanic white population and that Moslems were more likely to have experienced profiling since 9/11. Nearly half of Arab- and Moslem-Americans said they believe the government is using racial profiling to screen individuals for security purposes. In Georgia a Moslem man said he was barred from a county courtroom Thursday (May 5th) because he refused to remove his Moslem head covering, nearly two years after Georgia's judges voted to allow religious headwear in all state courtrooms. In the United States, 73 percent of young people aged 18 to 29 say Moslems are the most discriminated against. So it doesn’t matter what the President said about the Osama’s death, but the fact was there for people to see. Forgive me if I was misunderstood of the whole things. Maybe my English was not that good as I no speak Americano. But shortly after the news on Osama Bin Laden's death was announced inflammatory graffiti was spray-painted on a mosque in downtown Portland as an act of "hate and bias." The graffiti included comments like "Go Home" and "Osama Today Islam Tomorrow." Please, explain that Mr. President?
^_^
No comments:
Post a Comment