about myself...i am not muslim. i am not against it; i am just not part of that religion.
you maybe asking yourself; 'why does he bring this up?'
well let me tell you...
the other day i took a trip to my mailbox and found this amongst my mail. i asked my wife if her mother signed me up for this magazine, and she said no (her mother knows that i'm interested in religion and the current climate of such). the magazine focuses on being muslim in a modern world and such. as i'm sure there are difficulties that muslim face (art, being gay, etc.)...i'm not interested.
and this is what pisses me off...just because of my last name i get all sorts of this shit sent to me. it happens in my school mailbox, and now at home. great.
the last name is lebanese, correct. however...a little family tree history: i am also part polish, hungarian, english, irish. i was born in america. i am an american. i have no interest in 'family roots' in the old country. why don't i get invites to join the i.r.a.?
a few stories:
i worked at a pharmacy through college, and i once worked with a pharmacist a couple times who was lebanese (straight from the 'old country'), and when he found out my last name, he acted like we were long lost brothers. saying that i should go to the 'old country' sometime. what are you nuts? they're killing each other over there. i ain't going. besides...i'm an american.
i taught a world religions class once. and the students wanted to know what my religion was. i never tell. for a lot of reasons. but one student said i was muslim (i heard this from another student). i asked why this other student thought so, and this student told me, it was because of my last name. and that's it.
so, in this 'post nine eleven' world i too feel the stigma. i'm not being a 'baby' about it, because in some sense i accept it. i don't do anything 'odd', or that would warrant a 'check-up'; but i am aware. this often happens on my trips up north. often getting pulled over, or asked really odd questions from the boarder patrol. but it's their job. don't be a fuck, and everything will be o.k.
and for the record...a couple of weeks ago i took my five precepts in buddhism; therefore i am a buddhist. that is my religion. not muslim.
with palms together...amitabha...
9.6.08
public announcement...
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3 comments:
Stereotypes will never go away. Name, hair color, dress, whatever. This sucks but it is a fact of life. People are too stupid to trust their own instincts. They have to believe what they have been told. I wish it was otherwise...
you're right...but the thing that bothers me is that i am being stereotyped by 'the muslims' (who ever that is that keeps sending me this stuff) just because of my name, and they think that i am 'one of them.'
conversely i am able to 'take' the 'stereotype' from the boarder patrol much easier, because i understand that they are just doing their job.
it's the former that bothers me.
Any of the Lebanese friends I've had in my life have been Catholic, not Muslim. Hmmm....
I think if you're the least bit 'dark' in skin/hair color they'll stop you at the border or in the airport. I went to Phoenix with a coworker and she's half Irish and half Italian and was carrying a backpack. I guess the airport security thought she was a curly-haired middle eastern terrorist because boy did they pull her aside fast.
I used to work in a very Jewish neighborhood. All of our customers automatically assumed I was Jewish because of my dark hair and Roman nose. I always felt like saying, "I'm Irish and German you half wits, haven't you ever heard the term Black Irish before?" Of course I didn't say that but I would say, "Actually, I'm Irish." They didn't seem to like that.
Long lost brother, my ass! ;-)
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