They Are American Too...

This morning when driving the boys to school I was listening to the news on NPR and I was just thinking -- why, oh why, do they have to publicize so much this one guy's decision to burn the Koran? When I got home and checked my blogroll I saw that Laura (Apt. 11D) has been thinking on the same lines and forcefully wrote about it in latests post, aptly titled The Media is Feeding the Flames of the Koran Burner. I've also been thinking a lot about the issues surrounding the Mosque in NYC.

I think my first close contact with the Muslim faith came in 8th grade (in Brazil), when this bright and young new student came to join our class. She was two years younger than us and what they'd call here in the U.S. a "gifted student." She sat right next to me and we became good friends in that year and the next two years she remained our classmate. During Ramadan she would not participate in the physical education activities because she was fasting. I thought that was very interesting and asked her more about it. In the middle of 11th grade she decided to go to Lebanon to learn the language and live with her grandmother (her dad was Lebanese, her mom Brazilian) and she ended up staying for a year, so she graduated two years later than our class, after she came back.

I'd last seen her back in 1997, at a mutual friend's wedding, but a few weeks ago she found me on facebook! I was elated to get back in touch with her. She married a Palestinian-Brazilian and has two boys, just like I do (only younger). She has been posting on fb about how she loves Ramadan and I am just so glad that she's back in my life.

It was also on facebook that I first saw this recent and powerful video, and I wanted to share it with you today.

The first thing I thought when I saw it was that it seems unfair to me that people who were born here and, in some cases have been Americans for generations, are discriminated against. (I kn0w that this happens with Asian Americans a lot too, people just assume, because they look different, that they are immigrants. Whereas I -- who am an actual immigrant -- am rarely asked upfront where I come from because I blend in well).

Right now I'm sharing an office with three Arabic instructors. One of them is a woman who left Iraq 11 years ago. I want to take some time to ask them about their heritage and whether they've suffered discrimination. I imagine it must have been tough for them after 9/11/02, if they were already in the country (she was). It was hard even for me, since I was on a student visa (until 2008, actually!) and it became harder to renew the visa, etc.

It is very sad that a group of people have to be singled out like that. I don't even know what to say. Except that as an immigrant minority, these things are always unsettling for me.