In the past month since the Islamic Center of Saginaw has been opened to the public, I have been there twice, both times out of curiosity in Islam and at the urges of some of my Muslim friends. The first time I went was a few weeks earlier in October, when an openhouse was being held for the benefit of unbelievers and those interested in Islam, including myself and one of my professor friends. But my second visit gave me a second view of the local Islamic community without having to read the beatific and reader-friendly exhibits, allowing to see how they practice and preach.
I'd come due to a few of my friends urging me to come after I'd expressed a desire to watch the regular Friday prayers. One of them, a white girl who had converted to Islam a few years ago, particularly wanted me to come, which I did. Though I am a Christian, I am not adverse to Islam, unlike many other Christians that I know, and I was happy to experience the Jum'a prayers so long as I didn't worship along with the other Muslims. So I came to the mosque, dressed in my usual modest way, this time with a keffiyeh slung over my shoulders, and happened to meet the Imam, who was among the many Pakistanis in the congregation. Immediately after I began speaking in Urdu with him, he told me he was very impressed, and that I was welcome to stay to watch the prayers.
After removing my shoes, I ambled into the prayer area, sitting at the back, where I thought I would not be a disturbance for anyone. I listened to the azaan and the beauty of the muezzin's voice, which floated, I noticed, through the building's entire sound system. Not long after the Imam had begun his sermon on the importance of repentance, I realized, after women were gathering in the back, that I should really be up in the front with the men; I had committed a minor faux pas in violating common Islamic practice. Though nobody really seemed to mind, I got up and moved to the front, sitting on the ground with other Muslim men and listened to the sermon. After the final prayers had begun, I moved into the men's shoe-rack area and watched, while latecomers hurriedly snatched their shoes from their feet and got into formation with their brethren, some of them pausing to give their salaam to me.
I hadn't thought that I would be too much of a presence, but after the service, when the Imam began to converse with me in Urdu and Panjabi, I found the Pakistani presence in the mosque was more than I thought. Interestingly enough, many others after my visit seemed to assume that I was a Muslim, despite my not joining them in prayer and keeping myself erect and in the men's shoe-rack area while the congregation bowed towards Mecca; even today my local Indian Gujarati grocer friend, a Muslim, always greets me with "As-salaam aleikum." And the muezzin, also a Pakistani, grilled me in Panjabi for a few minutes to see how well I spoke. When I told him my name, he said, "What? Christopher? No Aziz-Hamzah-Hamid?" Meaning that he thought I was a Muslim, that I would have an Islamic name, and was soliciting a name change from me. Only the Imam and a few others knew that I was a Christian, but were very friendly about me being there, especially since I fit in well with the desi crowd, with my Urdu and Panjabi small talk.
I am looking forward to returning to the masjid soon, to get to know some of the local Pakistanis better, and also possibly to work on a project with one of my professors, who has proposed a study of the immigrants and their roles at the mosque. A bit of sociology to add in perspective to the religion. Until then, I will be studying Islam further to make sure I can better understand my similarities and differences.
In the wake of 9/11, many Muslims have undergone persecution for their religion, seeing as it was that Islam was a part of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center buildings, and this has also changed the way that Americans in general perceive Islam. In earlier times, during the Cold War, Islam was seen as a weapon against the Communist ideology that was perceived for years as a threat to the Capitalist system, and American forces worked through Pakistani and Afghani forces in order to crush the power of the Iron Curtain. Later, after the fall of the Soviet Union, it wasn't seen as much of a threat, and it was only about ten years ago, when the terror attacks took place, that the image of Islam became tarnished in American eyes. Muslims suddenly gained the ire of Americans and were branded with the image of self-detonating fanatics, which still remains with us today. But though there are forces that continue to portray this image, there are currents of resistance to this unjust branding of Islam as an entirely violent religion, including the recent Bollywood film My Name Is Khan.
The story of My Name Is Khan ( abbrieviated to MNIK) is about an Indian Muslim man (played brilliantly by Shah Rukh Khan) named Rizwan Khan who moves to the United States. He is a high-functioning Apsberger's patient who comes to San Francisco to work for his brother Zakir as a salesman for Mehnaz Herbal Beauty Products, and this takes him one day to a hair salon, where he falls in love with a Hindu hairdresser named Mandira (played by Kajol). After marrying Mandira (with resistance from his brother Zakir) and bringing into his life Mandira's son from a previous marriage, Sameer, things begin to appear all right, but only for a short while. Not much later, the attacks of9/11 occur, and there is persecution of Muslims in America shown ( including a TV salesman in Dearborne whose shop is broken into and all of his merchandise destroyed). The beuaty palor that Mandira and Rizwan own gets less customers because of the "Khan" in the title. In Sameer's classroom, a teacher calls Islam "the world's most violent religion", teaching that jihad is "killing people in the name of God." When he opens his locker, an avalanche of Osama Bin Laden pictures fall out, much to the laughter of those standing by. Zakir's wife, a psychologist at a university who wears a hijab, has her headscarf ripped off and the words "Get out of my country!" screamed at her, causing grief for the family. And then the unthinkable happens: Sameer is killed by some teenage boys on the school soccer field, and this brings havoc to the lives of Rizwan and Mandira. Mandira blames the death of her son on her husband, who has the last name Khan. In her anger, she suggests that Rizwan go and say to the President, "My name is Khan, and I'm not a terrorist." Rizwan, being an Apsberger's patient who thinks literally, leaves not much later and goes all over the country in order to track down the President in order to say those lines to him, while Mandira searches for Sameer's killers. On Rizwan's adventure through America, he meets all kinds of people, gets into jail because of a misunderstanding that he is a terrorist (and gets out of jail thanks to two young desi journalists who happened to have recorded his exact words and bring all of this to the media), and in the end, after demonstrating to the entire nation via media that he is not a terrorist ( that too by helping victims of a hurricane in Georgia recover from disaster), he finally gets to meet the President and is reunited with Mandira.
One of the recurring themes of this film is a simple dichotomy of humanity, a lesson that Rizwan is shown by his mother in the beginning of the film. During the riots of Bombay, his mother hears him repeating some things that other Muslims underneath their chawl window mutter about killing Hindus, and she brings out a pen and a piece of paper before him. She draws a stick figure of Rizwan with another stick figure holding a lollipop, and then another stick figure of Rizwan with another stick figure, this time holding a gun. She says to him "Tell me which one of these is Hindu and which one is Muslim." After a minute, she says to Rizwan that there are only two types of people in the world: good people and bad people. The film runs forward on this theme, and Rizwan uses the same line when his brother gets upset that he intends on marrying Mandira: "Meri ammi kehti thi ki is duniya mein sirf do kisam ke insaan hain: achche log aur burre log." This shows the message of the film as being ecumenical when it comes to religions, meaning that since there are only two types of people in the world, it doesn't matter whether or not you marry outside of your own religion. Humanity is more important.
This theme becomes more important and more controversial when Rizwan reports to the police, after visiting a mosque, a man named Faisal Rehman, a fellow Muslim, who intends on committing terrorist acts in the city. More poignant is the scene beforehand, when Rizwan listens to the conversation of Faisal Rehman with other Muslims who support his cause, and Faisal Rehman begins to liken his situation of being called to acts of terrorism in the city to Ibrahim being called by Allah to sacrifice his son Ishmael. Rizwan intervenes and says that Allah didn't call Ibrahim to sacrifice Ishmael because Allah is a merciful God who would never do such a thing. He tells them again about the dichotomy ofhumanity and of what his mother said, and noted that committing acts of terrorism in the city was absolutely unnecessary and wrong. Faisal Rehman begins to get angry, but the real symbolism of the moment comes when one of Rehman's listeners asks, "So then who called Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ishmael?" To which Rizwan replies, taking his prayer stones from his palms, " Shaitaan tha, Shaitaan tha! It was the Devil !" Meanwhile, he throws the prayer stones at Faisal Rehman as he announces it was the Devil. The real symbolism being, of course, that the stoning is the same as stoning the pillar of the Devil in Mecca and equating Faisal Rehman to Satan. After leaving ( Faisal Rehman doesn't follow), Rizwan reports Faisal Rehman to the police. All of this is controversial because it emphasizes that true Islam is peaceful and doesn't promote violence, meaning that Muslims who commit acts of terror are not true believers. Unsurprisingly, Shah Rukh Khan got death threats after this film was released from militant Muslims.
There are othermarks of this belief in peaceful Islam. The main saying of the film, "My name is Khan, and I'm not a terrorist," depicts that a person can be a Muslim and not be violent at all.There is also the chanting of "Allah hi Rehm" or "Allah is mercy" in one of the film's main songs. It seems that one of the aims of this film is to give the world a view that Muslims are not all terrorists, that most of the world's Muslims are tolerant and peaceful. As Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid states in National Geographic, "Yes, there are extremists here (in Pakistan). But most of us want nothing to do with violence." In the wake of 9/11 and American views of most Muslims as radicals, this film is an act of moderation on those harsh views, which are not entirely baseless but often ignore the Islam of the masses.
Here is the URL for a song clip from My Name Is Khan, a soulful, heartfelt song called Noor-e-Khuda (Light of God). The lyrics break my heart every time I listen and the tune remains in my ears long after I've listened to it.
