“Peace Be Upon You”
Today’s incredible story was contributed by none other than my dear friend, colleague, and scholar Dr. Akbar Ahmed. Dr. Akbar Ahmed is a highly accomplished man whose entire life is dedicated to Interfaith reconciliation and teaching the Christian West about the goodness of Islam. Naturally, I should call this veritable tale he shared with me titled “Peace Be Upon You”
Being a Muslim in the United States was and is not easy. It really does not even depend on his or her stature as this story of my friend Akbar Ahmed testifies to. Akbar is a social scientist; writer of many books; playwright; mystic; poet; professor in Islamic Affairs; former ambassador of Pakistan in London; Interfaith Leader in the US and beyond; commentator on BBC and CNN; etc. and a father and husband of a very nice and accomplished Pakistani family. Too much to cover about him here, but he should be on the Nobel Prize list.
Obviously, he flies in and out of the US often and has told me of the mental anguish, if not humiliation it causes him every time he checks in or passes the US immigration service. He has told me that numerous times after he presented his name, he would receive glazed looks from counter personnel and subsequent discreet phone calls to have him checked out.
Here I should note that as a white Caucasian Dutchman I have flown as much as Akbar with my 1.5 million miles on United Airlines alone and having visited 89 countries to date. I have only once been interrogated beyond the typical questions of destination and where I had been on my travels, plus the usual fingerprints and paperwork. Even when my ‘green card’ had expired unbeknownst to me, the US immigration service processed me back into the country in less than an hour without any type of discriminatory signals – verbal or nonverbal. After all, I am white and look like a Christian?
Akbar told me of an incident at Reagan Airport. Already having been pre-checked and with his boarding pass in hands, he was called back by the friendly African American woman at the counter because she had seen his name being Ahmed. He also sensed this kind woman was embarrassed by the security procedures she was required to follow, just because of his name. Making sure Akbar was not some terrorist or so.
After having endured this again, I can hear him say in his fatherly and friendly voice explaining to the young woman: “Ahmed is a derivative of Muhammed and means ‘highly praised’ and in the Quran is called ‘mercy onto mankind; peace and blessings be upon him.“ Being a minority herself, she empathetically nodded and apologized to Akbar. Shouldn’t we all?
Shouldn’t we all, indeed. Thank you, Dr. Ahmed for sharing your memories with us for today’s episode! Next week, I’d like to take us to our planet’s compatriots, the animals of the Serengeti. They have their own world there and visiting their domain is not without danger. See, the free-ranging animals there don’t discriminate at all and have only one goal in life: eat meat and stay alive. Sherry and I had the experience of our lives at the Grumeti River, a story that should be called: “Hakuna Matata.” See you next week!
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