From Baghdad to New York: Young Muslims On War and Terrorism

Summary

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Abraham addresses young Muslim's responses to the terrorist attacks of Sep 11, 2001, and the war in Iraq. The views presented of Arab Muslim youth in Detroit, including young Iraqi Shi'i students, again call attention to the array of identities amoung young American Muslims.

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Extract

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From Baghdad to New York: Young Muslims On War and Terrorism

Shock & Awe

At the height of the bombing of Baghdad in March and April 2003, a Muslim student from Lebanon told me in confidence that he was no longer planning to remain in the United States after completing his studies. "Better to die poor with dignity in one's homeland than live well-off without dignity in America." All his friends, foreign students like himself, he added, shared this sentiment. "We once believed America was the land of freedom and advancement, but we now know it as a land of arrogance and hatred toward Arabs and Muslims." Looking over his shoulder at the train of students walking out of the building in which we were standing, Ai whispered: "We have to keep our mouths shut here," drawing his hand across his mouth for emphasis.1

Ali made his unsolicited remarks during the heat of the war, so his sentiments were not altogether unexpected. I was skeptical that he and his friends would stick to their resolution to return permanently to their native lands. I had grown up hearing similar resolutions made by my own parents only to see them crumble as time wore on. During my college years I saw dozens of Arab students settle permanently in the country they had once said they were in only temporarily. To be fair, a small number did return "home," compelled by a combination of family pressure and the promise of a bright future. They were mostly from the well-heeled elite of Lebanon, Egypt, and the West Bank, or from the privileged classes of the oil-rich states. That was back in the 1960s and 70s, at the height of post-colonial revolutionary exuberance and nation building. In the interim, prospects for even the eli...

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