{"id":47,"date":"2001-09-30T22:30:44","date_gmt":"2001-09-30T22:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brucefinley.com\/us-role-in-the-world\/pakastanis-offer-views-on-us\/"},"modified":"2008-07-17T17:46:32","modified_gmt":"2008-07-17T17:46:32","slug":"pakastanis-offer-views-on-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/us-role-in-the-world\/pakastanis-offer-views-on-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakastanis Offer Views on U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Family says America’s government biased against Muslims<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em> ISLAMABAD, Pakistan<\/em> – There’s a mountain bike in the hallway.<br \/>\nThe oldest of Badar uz Zaman’s four children is contemplating<br \/>\ncollege. The parents try to fend off unsavory cultural influences.<\/p>\n<p>This family 11 time zones ahead stayed with friends in Denver<br \/>\nlast year, enjoying the same malls, aquarium and movies that<br \/>\nColoradans enjoy.<\/p>\n<p>The living room of the uz Zamans might feel familiar for<br \/>\nAmericans who also are unsettled, anxious about the recent<br \/>\nterrorist attacks and the possibility that violence will beget<br \/>\nmore violence.<\/p>\n<p>They fear, as many fear, more trouble.<\/p>\n<p>Their lives underscore the forces that connect families<br \/>\neverywhere.<\/p>\n<p>But a visit with the uz Zaman family – in the quiet of a<br \/>\nliving room rather than the tumult of a street demonstration –<br \/>\nalso might help Americans understand how very differently some<br \/>\npeople here view the world that now seems so conflicted.<\/p>\n<p>The children, ages 11 to 16, just returned from<br \/>\ngovernment-organized public rallies supporting Pakistan’s<br \/>\npro-United States position in the war against terrorism. It’s a<br \/>\nstand that has divided the country in part because it aligns<br \/>\nPakistan with a non-Muslim country that may attack Muslims in<br \/>\nAfghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>Sitting on a red Afghan rug in their living room, where a<br \/>\nframed quote from the Koran – “The greatness of God has been<br \/>\nexplained in a beautiful manner” – hangs over a Sony television,<br \/>\nthe children blurt out what they really think: that U.S. leaders<br \/>\nhave insufficient evidence against Osama bin Laden to justify<br \/>\nattacks on Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>That America’s government is biased against Muslim people.<\/p>\n<p>That pro-Israel lobbies guide the campaign against terrorism.<\/p>\n<p>The television on this recent night replays images of<br \/>\nhijacked airliners crashing into World Trade Center towers. Badar,<br \/>\n47, confides he recently dreamed of F-16s flying above a horrible<br \/>\nconflagration.<\/p>\n<p>“World War III?” he says. “Maybe.”<\/p>\n<p>“These attacks may provide the American government another<br \/>\ncause, another excuse, for putting more military weapons in this<br \/>\nregion,” 15-year-old Osama says. “These things scare us. We all<br \/>\nknow the nuclear issue. I want a peaceful world.”<\/p>\n<p><strong>“Enmity in its heart’<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Badar, giving voice to the divide political scientists see<br \/>\nbetween the West and the Islamic world, says he’s convinced that<br \/>\n“the West has enmity in its heart against Muslims.”<\/p>\n<p>And like many on the other side of that divide, this family<br \/>\nwants the United States, beyond smoking out villains, to<br \/>\nre-evaluate policies.<\/p>\n<p>You enter their two-story house through a white metal gate.<br \/>\nHamida, 43, her head covered with a magenta veil, labors out of<br \/>\nsight in the kitchen.<\/p>\n<p>Each day begins with hustle. Badar or Hamida drives the<br \/>\nchildren to school around 8. Hamida runs the household while Badar<br \/>\nbuys and sells real estate, then breaks around 2 to take the<br \/>\nchildren home for a meal before returning to his office.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Badar’s success, the family is preparing to move to<br \/>\na bigger house in neighboring Rawalpindi. Everyone prays daily –<br \/>\nthough not always five times. On weekends, they sometimes pile<br \/>\ninto a black, four-door Toyota to visit the mountains up north.<\/p>\n<p>As a boy, Badar memorized the Koran word for word. Now<br \/>\nMuslims around America – where Islam is the fastest-growing<br \/>\nreligion – invite him to recite by memory during the Ramadan holy<br \/>\nmonth of fasting, a few hours each night.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Frequent trips to Denver<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The family has been to Denver twice and Badar has come 13<br \/>\ntimes since 1985. He speaks fondly of Denver’s gold-domed mosque.<\/p>\n<p>“There are opportunities,” Badar says of life in America.<br \/>\nGood universities. “Freedom.”<\/p>\n<p>He considered moving his family to Denver but decided to stay<br \/>\nin Islamabad, the capital of this country of 141.6 million.<\/p>\n<p>“In America, you are very busy,” Badar says. “Life is more<br \/>\ncomfortable here.”<\/p>\n<p>Americans sometimes felt out of balance, struggling to make<br \/>\nmortgage and car payments without cultivating family life. A<br \/>\n“cruel” interest-based banking system – the dominant global<br \/>\nbanking system – may be part of the problem, he says.<\/p>\n<p>“Islam says man’s life is more than just working and sleeping<br \/>\n– there must be space for the soul.”<\/p>\n<p>Another issue was his discomfort with aspects of American<br \/>\nculture.<\/p>\n<p>“Just watching television in the United States, you could see<br \/>\nit’s not good for the little ones – especially girls. Boyfriends<br \/>\nand girlfriends, those things. After 18, you have no control over<br \/>\nour children.”<\/p>\n<p>Badar is the son of a soldier who became a farmer. He grew up<br \/>\nin a stone house – no electricity or running water – in Waulah, a<br \/>\ntown about 100 miles south of here.<\/p>\n<p>A strict local imam spotted him at 13 and, with support from<br \/>\nBadar’s mother, drove him to memorize the Koran’s words. He hated<br \/>\nthe challenge at the time, reading over and over by the flickering<br \/>\nlight of a lantern. But he persevered.<\/p>\n<p><strong>“We want peace’<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now his children are studying too, not by lantern light but<br \/>\nat an elite public school where seniors aim for Oxford and Yale.<br \/>\nCoursework includes British history in eighth grade and the U.S.<br \/>\nConstitution and legal system in high school.<\/p>\n<p>They adopt their critical posture toward the United States,<br \/>\nBadar says, because they read the two newspapers that arrive daily<br \/>\nat the house.<\/p>\n<p>They also take in television, conversations with teachers and<br \/>\nparents, and words in the Koran that call for defense of Islam.<\/p>\n<p>“It’s not that we hate the American people,” Osama<br \/>\nemphasizes. “It’s not like that. It’s a matter of government. We<br \/>\ncan’t support the stance of the U.S. government. We like the<br \/>\nAmerican people. We want peace. We want peace all over the world.”<\/p>\n<p>Sore spots he and his sisters cite: U.S. policies toward<br \/>\nIsrael, Iraq, Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p>Students perceive a willingness to let Muslims suffer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Breaking down barriers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As the smells of lamb, spicy fish and rice waft from the<br \/>\nkitchen, Sana, 16, says the United States revealed its bias when,<br \/>\nin the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, many people quickly<br \/>\nsuspected Muslims.<\/p>\n<p>She and her sisters – Ifra, 13, and Sundus, 11 – take an<br \/>\nactive role in family conversations. They don’t wear the<br \/>\ntraditional veil. Badar “is pretty relaxed” about that, says Sana,<br \/>\nwho wears traditional loose trousers and a flowing top.<\/p>\n<p>The younger girls play cricket, baseball and badminton at<br \/>\nschool. They’ve grown up at a time when a woman, Benazir Bhutto,<br \/>\nbroke down barriers as Pakistan’s prime minister.<\/p>\n<p>Osama, wearing khaki trousers and a blue T-shirt, talks of<br \/>\nstudying at elite universities in Britain or the United States.<br \/>\nHe’s inclined toward aeronautical engineering, and also is<br \/>\npassionate about politics, devouring this week’s issue of The<br \/>\nEconomist.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Skeptical on terrorism<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A question on this 15-year-old’s mind: “How is terrorism<br \/>\ndefined?”<\/p>\n<p>Without a clear, accepted definition, he says, a U.S.-led<br \/>\ncrackdown might focus too much on Muslim groups. “Why not think<br \/>\nabout Jews, or other people? They could be terrorists, too.”<\/p>\n<p>The United States is trying to assure current and potential<br \/>\nallies in its anti-terrorism campaign that this is not a war on<br \/>\nIslam. Many here are skeptical and say they want the Bush<br \/>\nadministration to show the proof it says it has that bin Laden is<br \/>\nbehind the attacks of Sept. 11.<\/p>\n<p>During the public “solidarity” rallies, for which class was<br \/>\ncanceled and students were enlisted as marchers, some students<br \/>\nspoke in Urdu as foreign broadcast cameras beamed.<\/p>\n<p>“Osama is a star. We condemn the United States,” they say<br \/>\nhalf-jokingly, Sana and Osama say.<\/p>\n<p>The United States, those children say, should apply its own<br \/>\nprinciples. Osama opened a notebook and spoke about the Magna<br \/>\nCarta and U.S. Constitution and due process in the legal system.<br \/>\nAttacking a terrorist suspect in Afghanistan would be “violating<br \/>\nyour own Constitution,” he says.<\/p>\n<p>Sana says: “If America presents evidence, we are with you.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Family says America’s government biased against Muslims ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – There’s a mountain bike in the hallway. The oldest of Badar uz Zaman’s four children is contemplating college. The parents try to fend off unsavory cultural influences. This family 11 time zones ahead stayed with friends in Denver last year, enjoying the same malls, aquarium […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,20,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-counter-terrorism","category-refugees","category-us-role-in-the-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucefinley.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}