Who am I?

To dwell on this topic I will take you back to 1986. It was my first day in the United States, and I was at the Atlanta airport where I asked a person, named James Howard, how to get to the University of Georgia campus. When Howard finished his orientation lecture, he asked me about my nationality. I replied, “I’m an Indian.” He said, in jest, “You cannot be right.” Mr. Howard advised me to call myself an “Asian Indian.” But it was very difficult for me. Until now, I had identified myself as an Indian, and I was proud of it because I was a patriotic Indian. Despite being a Muslim from a majority Hindu country, I was always involved with the mainstream issues and organizations and disliked the identity of either Muslim first or Indian first label.

Next day, I was at the university’s admission office, filling out various forms. There, I was advised to declare myself as Asian. Later, my friends suggested me to go to University’s International Students Office. I could not comprehend how a foreign student became an international student overnight. At ISO, I was advised to get in touch with the officers of the South Asian Students Association, which would help me find an ethnically suitable roommate. People and governments of these countries don’t get along very well. I started wondering how people of these countries lived together here.

To my surprise, I got accommodations in a building where students from more than two dozen countries were living together without any obvious signs of animosity. It was a place where you could find salsa, gyros, rye bread, humus, egg rolls, sausage, pizza, apple pie, and chutney.

Since my arrival, I have been evolving my identity. In fact, I look for unity in diversity. I am Indian by birth, American by choice, Asian by legal classification, and Muslim by faith. All these identities are part of my comprehensive ethnicity.

Unlike other countries, ethnicity is constructed and evolved in the United States. Despite they speak Spanish, Puerto Ricans may be Hispanics but not Latinos. African Americans can be black but they are no longer called Negroes. Tiger Woods can be black as well as Asian. Muhammad Ali can be American, black and Muslim. My son can be American, Asian, and Muslim.

I don’t see any problem in having several layers of identities. When somebody asks me who am I – either an American or a Muslim? I feel that the person is either confused, or depressed, or have some kind of ulterior agenda. This question generates the same annoyance in me as somebody will ask me do I like my father or my mother; or my mother or my wife, or my left eye or my right eye or my liver or my kidney, or my hands or my feet?

I don’t understand why is it important to select between faith and nationality? I wonder what will be the general reaction if all the Christians of the country of George Washington, Albert Einstein, and Muhammad Ali decide to project themselves as Christians first or Christians only.

Let’s stretch the issue further. Do the inhabitants of South America call themselves as Catholics first and then Latin Americans? Are the civilians of Africa identifying themselves as black first and then Africans? Do the Muslims of the Middle East call themselves Muslims first and Arabs later?

About two decades ago I was in Saudi Arabia when the first Arab boarded on a spacecraft. My Muslim friends from South Asia were elated to hear the news of a Muslim Astronaut. A few weeks later, the Saudi government released a stamp commemorating the space trip of an Arab, and not a Muslim. My friends got sad and mad.

In the Middle East, there is no strong yearning of being first Muslim and then Arab. I found them more Arabian than Islamic. They have special words for Arab friends and non-Arabs irrespective of their religions. Rafeeque and Siddique are the two words for two ethnicities. Also, they take pride in being from Shaam or from Misr, or from Mashriq or from Maghrib. The same way Pakistanis are divided among Punjabis, Sindhis, Muhajirs, and Pathans. The chasm between Shias and Sunnis is well known. The ancient animosity between Turks and Kurds is as intense as the antagonism between Pashtoons and Pakhtoons and among other tribes of Afghanistan. During the recent Iraq war, we learned about the bitterness between Qataris and Iraqis. The rivalry between Iraq and Iran and Iraq and Kuwait does not need any introduction here.

On the contrary, there is more understanding and respect among Muslims for each other in the United States than overseas. Aside from the Hajj time in Mecca, when Muslims from world over gather, America is the only place where one can meet Muslims from every stripe of the universe – a virtual Umma really exists here.

To me, I feel blessed and proud to be a citizen of this country. I don’t experience any problems in being Muslim and American. It is like having two gorgeous eyes of a beautiful bride. By being Muslim, I am connected with more than 1 billion Muslims all over the world. By being an inhabitant of this country, I am a citizen of the super power, which is not only big in its size, wealth, and technological resources but it is the only country on earth where most of the Islamic values are implemented without the fear of the vigilantes or coercion of the government, i.e. a day to today life without bribe and corruption, free education up to high school, a chance to start a second life, equality before law, right to vote, freedom to practice religion the way I want, etc.

In my daily life, I don’t encounter any problems. I live at an equal distance between two Islamic full-time schools. But my son goes to a public school, and later, he goes to a mosque to read the Holy Quran for two hours daily. He is a member of Boy Scouts and also goes to the Sunday’s Islamic School. His name is Shaan, a very popular Irish and African name. But when his first and middle names are combined, it means Glory of Allah. In front of my house, an American flag unfurls on a large post, but I also have a big placard sign like a welcome logo that reads Mashaa Allah. I wear a tie that symbolizes America but I use a tiepin that reads the Kalima -La Illaha Illallah Muhammad ur Rasool Ullah.

Being Muslim and American, I hold the prestigious and honored Dual Nationality status, which is Muslim by faith as well as by birth and American by nationality as well as by choice. Shouldn’t I be proud of who I am?