Desi Manifesto Blog: The Forum for South Asian American Men

[Blogger: S.I.] UPDATE: The original AOL article seems to have disappeared from their site, so I’ve used a subsequent substitute. Of course, this throws off all my responsible quoting below, but you’ll just have to trust me.

California love is alive and well.

This wonderful idea was brought to you by our beloved LAPD. Need we really go into detail about their exploits?

Now, if you’re a typical Desi, you’re Hindu. And you’ve grown up with plenty of relatives badmouthing the Muslims. These same relatives may have Muslim friends, but the sentiment is that the decent ones are the exceptions. To my surprise, this sentiment has recently manifested itself even in ABCDs, who, especially after 9/11, have combined their Hindu resentment of the Muslims (invaders, dividers of India) and the American resentment of the Muslims (terrorists) to take a stance just as strong as, if not stronger than, their parents’ and relatives’ views regarding the followers of Islam.

All that is to say, some of you may think that this is actually a good plan.

I think you’d be wrong.

Various cultures have tried isolating those who are “different.” They’ve all claimed it was for benign purposes, some going so far as to say it was to benefit the minority group. In recent history, the Nazis made the Jews wear “pieces of flair” (thanks, Office Space). The Americans sent anyone of Japanese origin into camps during WW2. The Taliban made the Afghani Hindus wear patches. The Americans made blacks live in separate areas of the country when they tried the “separate but equal” debacle.

Rather than protecting the smaller group’s members, these plans simply divide them from the majority, destroy the bonds that have integrated them into society, and make it easier for the majority to view the smaller group as a foreign entity, a “them” vs. “us” scenario. And once the minority is sufficiently dehumanized, it’s only a matter of time before they lose their rights, their freedoms, and as recent decades have demonstrated, even their lives (and this merely scratches the surface of history). If you can find an example that proves otherwise, please enlighten me, and I’ll amend this post.

But the 2007 LAPD does things differently. One, they’re much more clear: this legislation is to protect us from the Muslims and their terrorist buddies. At least they didn’t split hairs on that one:

“The LAPD planned to have its counterterrorism bureau identify Muslim enclaves to determine which might be likely to become isolated and susceptible to ‘violent, ideologically based extremism.’ ”

Now, I’m not saying I don’t get the idea that drives them. It’s almost never the Hindus, Christians, Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Zoroastrians, Pagans, or Wiccans who are blowing up planes and US structures domestically and abroad. The vast majority of these acts have been perpetrated by Muslims.

If you find Snopes to be reliable, you’ll see that even the Australian government has made its feelings clear. I’m with them on that. If one chooses to live in another country, one must be willing to adapt to, or at least be accepting of, that country’s ways. You don’t go to someone’s house as a guest and crap on the table, even if that’s what you do at your own house. A new country is merely an extension of that.

I am by no means a Muslim pacifier. While I have moderate Muslims who are my friends, I think much of the blame falls on them for not speaking out about how wrong the terrorists are. Sure, the moderates wouldn’t do these evil deeds, but their silence is merely appeasement. Have the Muslims been screwed many times over throughout history? Yes. Have they screwed other people throughout history? Yes. Is killing innocent people okay? No. We need the intelligent moderates to speak up.

BUT. Back to the point. This mapping idea? Bad. The LAPD “planned to have its counterterrorism bureau identify Muslim enclaves to determine which might be likely to become isolated and susceptible to ‘violent, ideologically based extremism.’ ”

Key word is “isolated.” Not only does this mapping idea go against what the US stands for, but it also, in my humble opinion (editorial), will create terrorists where there were none before. By implementing the plan, you’re identifying the people within the selected regions as “Muslims.” Whether they think of themselves as Muslims first and foremost or not, the mapping plan says “We see you as a Muslim first, everything else second.” I don’t think of myself as Indian every second of every day. But if people labeled my apartment “brown” or my work “brown” because of me, how else could I see myself? I know that after 9/11, I got stared at so much that I began to feel like “one of them,” though I’d never felt that way before. And I didn’t have negative influences within arm’s reach in my neighborhood, my family, my religion, etc. What if I had?

Let’s say that the LAPD was really trying to establish roots and connections with the Muslim community. The LA Times makes it seem a bit more noble than racial profiling. However, with authority figures like the police identifying these regions and their inhabitants by their religion, then revealing that it’s in any way about stopping terrorism, I think many innocent Muslims will see themselves forcibly grouped with potential extremists. Essentially, they’ll feel unfairly persecuted by the cops, and they will see themselves associated with extremists, who will then be the only people who understand their plight. Moreover, everything the extremists say about how biased the West is against Muslims and how they must stick together, lean on religion, consort with other Muslims with more fundamental ideas from countries where Muslims are accepted…all that talk becomes relevant.

We live in a country where, unlike the UK for example, Muslims feel accepted. Our home-grown Muslims are good Americans. And it’s because the US allows people to be people first, Americans second, and Muslims third, if it matters at all (disclaimer: I’ve only lived in areas adjacent to cities, never rural areas and never the South. And I’m thankful for that). If we lose that, we’ll create terrorists from within. We’re already having enough trouble dealing with them from the outside. Should every group be willing to be monitored and sacrifice freedoms and privacy for greater protection for all? Sure, I guess. But they didn’t propose mapping a Hindu neighborhood. I feel that I wouldn’t care, because we don’t have anything to hide. But how would I really feel if it were proposed? I can’t know that just yet.

So, in summary, mapping = foolish and potentially incendiary. Make sense? Well, I wish it did to more people. Go back to that first link and take the poll. View the results. See the percentage of people who think Mughal Mapping is a good idea? If you feel like killing a few brain cells, read the comments underneath. I did, and there will be a noticeable decline in the quality of my blog henceforth.

Thankfully, the LAPD recanted this idea. As fellow minorities, we should support the Muslim community here. Even if you think this is a good idea, you’re not the one in charge when it comes to making these choices. And do you think the people in charge know where to draw the line? Muslims, then Hindus, then all brown people?

Then what?