Wednesday, November 4, 2009
How Does It Feel To Be A Problem? By Bayoumi
This reading by Bayoumi talks about the many Arabs and Muslims that are living in the United States and how they are treated since September 11, 2001. Since the attacks of 2001, many muslims have been the new "problem" in the United States. This article basically focuses on the many innocent arab muslims who were mistreated judging by thier religion and culture. A fine example was a girl named Rasha. Rasha was an arab muslim who was born in Syria. Rasha and her family moved to the United States through a tourist visa and she was raised here with her other siblings. From the reading, you can see that Rasha as well as her family were innocent people who had been living in Brooklyn for a while and they were picked upon just because they were muslims. Rasha and her family faced many problems as the FBI agents and the INS officials raided thier house. They had to go through many moments where they were mistreated very badly and forced to stay in harsh conditions until problems were resolved. I think that it is the right thing to make sure that the citizens of the United States are safe but it is also the wrong thing to just hold custody of someone who you dont even have proof of. Since the attacks of September 11, I have seen many issues in my life. I am also a muslim and I have also faced some similar problems in my life. I remember everytime I leave this country to visit back home or go to Europe, I am picked upon and called to a room, where I have to wait for hours to be interviewed and then released. I think it is the right thing to make sure that our nation is safe but it is a very harsh thing to pick upon a citizen like me just because I am a muslim. I think that picking on innocent people and putting them through harsh moments in their life wouldn't solve the issues that this nation has, but it would eventually make it worse for the people to live in this world.
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As I was reading the story by Bayoumi, I came across the section where he discusses how the main character in his book is youth. He explains how being young and preserving one's youth is very difficult to do in a world where young poeple fear to grow up. Being young is a time where you are given the opportunity to discover who you are, but for young Arab-Muslims in America today, they are forced to live in frustration and fear while dealing with all different types of discrimination. I liked how Bayoumi chose Brooklyn as the setting of his book, not only because Bay Ridge happens to be the neighborhood with the highest concentration of Arab-Muslims in Brooklyn, but because it made it more interesting for me to read. The author discusses how Brooklyn has become a "melting pot" when he refers to the different ethnicities that make up each neighborhood. For example, he talks about the "slowly dissolving Italain hub of Bensonhurst", the "Syrian Jews of Ocean Parkway" and the "Pakistanis of Coney Island Avenue", which shows how each section of Brooklyn is labeled with different groups of people.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting excerpt. Rasha's story really opens your eyes to how corrupt this government/country is. This story makes me glad to not be an immigrant living in this country. It's hard to live here being born here i couldn't imagine living here being an immigrant. I don't know how Rasha could still like this country after what happened to her and her family. I understand that her country was bad that's why she didn't want to go back but i would have hated living here also.
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