I have been thinking about this all weekend. Read this post from an aptly titled blog, Suspect Paki on Friday and am still haunted by some of the lines.
Immigrants and immigration debates aside, when a forty year old British born and bred Muslim is a “suspect”, the world needs to take notice. Of course, we are all too aware of the re-construction of the [Pakistani] Muslim identity in the name of world security and freedom. Many overlooked the soft racism of the media exemplied by the term British born Muslims. Robert Fisk was quick to complain about it when the so called terror plot was revealed recently.
Here are a few excerpts from the post “May I Live In Interesting Times” from Suspect Paki:
“The journey to work is interesting. The really young kids still smile back when I smile at them. The slightly older ones retreat back towards the arm of a racist parent – black or white. Like this evening on the way back from work. Yesterday was a result. A kid smiled back at me. He was white. His mother was too. She looked at me like I was a piece of shit. If you are not a paki, you will never understand”
