veiled4allah: on Memorial Day

Today is the observance of the Memorial Day holiday in the United States. I felt this would be a good day to write down some of my thoughts about America these days. If I wrote out everything that I think, this blog entry would be as large as a book. I'll try to keep it relatively short, inshallah, and just focus on a couple of things.

First, very few people around the world actually hate ordinary Americans. When they say "America" they mean the government. Some people do have distorted ideas of what ordinary Americans are like because of movies, and TV shows, and pop music, but anybody who's actually lived in America knows that does not represent the lives or ordinary people. When people criticize "America", again, they are making specific criticisms of the American government and its actions. This is an important distinction to keep in mind.

Second, I have found myself since 9/11 becoming increasingly and profoundly alienated from what the government and the media in this country are saying and where things are heading. There have even been times that I have thought that if ordinary Americans start acting in the way that certain pundits and politicians would have them do, this would no longer be the best place for me to live. America is a better place than most of the Muslim world. In Turkey, I could not wear hijab much less niqab if I wanted to get an education or work for the government. In Egypt or Pakistan, I might be regarded as "dangerous" just for being religious as a Muslim. In Syria or Iraq, I would live under an oppressive dictatorship. There isn't any Muslim country that is so much better than the U.S. that I would want to move there. But if America were ever to become a place where I no longer have the freedom to be an observant Muslim, then it makes me wonder how long I could stay, even if I only moved across the border to Canada.

This brings me to the third thing. That is the influence of the neoconservatives and Christian fundamentalists on the American government these days. I could say a lot more about this than I am going to. All I will say, inshallah, is that these people seem to be little better than fascists, they hate Islam, and the amount of power they have since 9/11 is deeply disturbing. If they remake the U.S. in their image... let's just say it frightens me.

America has a very strong and very sound foundation in its constitution. When America lives up to the ideals that it was founded for, it is perhaps one of the best places in the world to live. Not perfect, but what country is? But more and more we seem to be turning away from those ideals. On this day that we think about those who have died in military service, we should reflect on whether we are really honoring their memory and whether we are still a country they would be proud to have died for. Any person who is sincerely religious cannot be a "my country right or wrong" type of patriot. Rather, I say, if you love America you should want it to do what's right, not just to be the most powerful country in the world. It is because I love America that I want it to be a better place than it seems to be these days.