The recent outbursts by Donald Trump, a Republican front-runner presidential candidate, have created a stir amongst the Muslim expatriate community, including Pakistanis. Trump has called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the US”. Before this, he had suggested the registration of Muslim Americans and strict surveillance of their mosques. In the prevailing atmosphere of Islamophobia, Pakistani Americans feel not only left out from the mainstream but also have the impression that they have been singled out as a religious/ethnic minority. Trump and those who are like-minded in the Republican Party (GOP) keep tagging terrorism to Muslims and can hardly differentiate between an individual act and the entire Muslim community as such. Such a mind-set has pushed the Muslim community towards the defensive as they feel insecure, suspected and, at times discriminated against based on religion and nationality. Under the given circumstances, which ultimately will determine the comfort level of Pakistani expatriates, the complexities of their assimilation within American society need to be evaluated. According to the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service, till late 1960, there were around 2,500 Pakistanis, a number that today has increased to almost 500,000 making them one of the largest growing ethnic minorities in the country.
The majority of Pakistani immigrants in the US are from the urban-based middle-class, especially from Punjab (particularly Lahore) and Sindh (mainly Karachi). In the US, the majority of the Pakistani diaspora resides in metropolitan cities like New York, New Jersey, Houston, California, Washington D C and Dallas (Texas). Depending on how effectively a family is able to transform its values, most of the Pakistani diaspora not only shows the trend to attain higher education but is also ambitious to achieve professional excellence in their chosen fields.
Although the Pakistani diaspora is strongly linked to the cultural traditions and religious values of its native land, simultaneously, they struggle to assimilate in western culture, creating a hybrid between the host and home country. Nevertheless, the assimilation pattern of the first, second and third generation is diversified in terms of cultural adaptation and religious flexibility. The integration process of the second and third generation of this community has been comparatively smooth and quick, as compared to the first because of various reasons. Nevertheless, one fact needs to be reckoned and that is that, across generations, the Pakistani diaspora has maintained its cultural identity and has tried to operate in the middle stream, through which they are capable of integrating. For example, in family related matters, particularly regarding marriage, unlike the first and second generation, third generation Pakistani Americans prefer unarranged marriages (where the potential couple finalise the decision to marry after meeting and talking, irrespective of the family pressure) over arranged marriages. However, the acceptance of love marriage with other religious and ethnic groups is still not fully recognised.
Despite cultural assimilation, Pakistanis, through various means, strongly preserve their religious identity, which is Islam, especially when it comes to religious festivals and matrimonial matters. The religious practices of the Pakistani Muslim population had never been perceived as a threat for the security of the host country before September 11, 2001. Although not a single hijacker was a Pakistani national but the common American citizen, because of lack of information, irrespective of making a distinction between a militant and real Islam, has become suspicious about the activities of Muslim immigrants, including Pakistanis. According to the FBI’s data, the hate crimes against Muslims and their mosques have increased significantly in 2015; there have been 63 recorded attacks on mosques. After November 2015’s Paris attack and December 2015’s San Bernardino shooting in California, within one week of December, 19 hate crimes against Muslims were recorded. This is the reinforcement of Islamphobia in American society to its greatest height, which has not only posed serious threats for the Pakistani Muslim community in the US but also presents a serious challenge for the American leadership.
The American leadership also needs to distinguish between an individual act of terrorism and community conduct as they perceived the shooting by a 23-year-old South Korean citizen on April 16, 2007, in Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, resulting in the loss of 32 lives, as an individual act. An encouraging aspect in this context is that the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, commented, “It is important that we do not listen to the voices, including those coming from Republican candidates for president, who would paint with such a broad brush, who would want us to somehow isolate, register Muslims, go after Islam. Our enemies are these criminal killers, who misuse a religion in order to recruit people, and give them the training to go out and kill more people.” Similar views have been expressed by other Democratic leaders. The most articulate response came from internationally known American former professional boxer Muhammad Ali as he stated, “I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino or anywhere else in the world. True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so-called Islamic jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion. Stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda.”
Assessing the growing hatred against Muslims in the US, the American leadership has a serious responsibility to uphold American values, which vow for it to be a liberal society safeguarding the freedom of religion. It cannot be overlooked that Muslim Americans are a constructive part of American society as successful engineers, doctors, businessmen and philanthropists. It is generally believed that better sense will prevail amongst common Americans as there is a strong likelihood that in the coming presidential primaries, the hard liners and the Muslim haters will be rejected by the electorate.
The writer is an assistant professor at the Forman Christian College, Lahore