The marginal impact of marginalization; why anti-semitism and Islamophobia are ultimately irrelevant and meaningless.

In response to the Haaretz article "Franklin Foer: 'Everyday Jewish Life in the U.S. Will Be Punctuated by Antisemitism'"

I'd be more sympathetic to the "plight" of American Jews having to deal with a resurgent "anti-semitism" if I didn't have to grow up in post 9/11 America and be openly abused and ridiculed by people of every race, religion and political persuasion.  

 

Because that's how it worked; 9/11 made it OK to denigrate and abuse Muslims collectively. It was not only an acceptable part of discourse, it was encouraged by the powerful political forces who had a vestd interest into turning Muslims into scapegoats to justify bombing and invading our countries to steal our oil or land or holy sites.  

 

White, black, Hispanic, everyone felt it was okay to call us terrorists.  

White liberal law school classmates would stand around me and joke about whether I chained my wife to the stove.  

 

White conservative colleagues in Houston would refuse to make eye contact with me or direct questions or responses to me.  

 

Graduated law school with honors only to end up driving Uber because I got ghosted from even the lowest level PD or ACLU jobs. Classmates who had flunked Torts got cush IRS internships before graduation while angry drivers in Brooklyn were yelling at me to "get the f*** out of the way you f***ing terrorist".  

  

One time, during a debate in class on the Patriot act, I said "under this law the President could walk into though that door and send me to Guantanamo". The Jewish girl I was debating with looks me dead in the eye and says "he should". The determination and desire in her eyes to see me waterboarded was more troubling than the actual prospect of being tortured. 

And after class, taking the train home only to see posters calling Islam "savage" plastered on the trains courtesy of Zionist ideologues and hatemongers like Pamela Gellar and David Yerushalmi.  

I'm not saying all this to get sympathy or say it justifies actual anti-Semitism. I was honestly never really as bothered with it as you'd think.  

I think it's because I grew up in a privileged, upper middle class household in Lahore and hated the social dynamics I found myself in. The pretentious bourgeoise elitism was nauseating to me, and I preferred to pal around with the servants and sneak off the the villages outside the walls of our subdivision in Defence. I always rooted for the underdog, identified with the marginalized and dreamt of joining their ranks.  

Guess that's why they say be careful what you wish for, because at age 16 I found myself moving to NYC and becoming a member of arguably the most marginalized group in America at the time.  God must have heard my prayers and decided to have me live through interesting times.  

I spoke out against it, fought, took my stand and died on my hill. But never out of anger, only duty.  

Frankly, complaining about Islamophobia (or for that matter, anti-Semitism of which arguably Islamophobia is just a variant, a subcategory)  in America feels kind of pathetic and self centered   

Especially when I see videos of Gaza children with their skulls caved in being dug out of the rubble of their homes by their own parents.  

Or stories of Rohingya mothers whose babies were thrown alive in bonfires while they were gang raped to the sound of their shrieks. 

Or Hindutva fascists force feeding gasoline to a Muslim child and setting him on fire. 

Or the systematic execution of Bangladeshi  teachers, doctors, professionals and students in university quads by the Pakistani army to deny any potential Bangladeshi state a capable intelligentia and sabotage their future growth.  

Or Egyptian prison wardens torturing political prisoners by sodomizing them with broken chair legs. 

Or Uyghers being forced to eat pork. 

Or Yazidi women being sold as sex slaves. 

Or Syrian children dying purple faced in the back of a pickup truck, gasping for their last breaths like dying fish from Assad's chemical attacks. 

Or SAVAK torturing Iranian dissidents using electroshock techniques they learned from the CIA. 

Or German Concentration camp prisoners being forced to dig ditches until they died of exhaustion. 

Or black men getting lynched on oak trees while white people gathered around their twitching feet eating sandwiches. 

Or Bosnian Muslim women being herded into rape dorms. 

Or Jordanian pilots being burned alive in cages. 

Or pious French Muslims and Jews being forced to uncover their heads. 

Somehow, all of that makes my troubles as a poor persecuted minority in America seem kind of stupid to feel self pity about. And I'm not even in a minority that enjoys disproportionate wealth and social influence that can shield me from the worst manifestations  of America's built in racist tendencies. 

Suck it up, buttercup. At least you are more culpable for the crimes of your compatriots that are imputed to you than I was. I never went on a birthright trip to Afghanistan or donated to ISIS lobbyists in DC.