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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistanis pose as Indians after NY bomb scare |
| 2010-05-08 |
| Pakistani merchants and job seekers in the United States, still reeling from economic hardship since the September 11 attacks of 2001, are posing as Indians to avoid discrimination in the wake of the Times Square bomb attempt. Once again, a man of Pakistani descent is at the center of a security story, leading to backlash against the Pakistani-American community. Faisal Shahzad, 30, a naturalized American born in Pakistan, was arrested on Monday, two days after authorities say he parked a crude car bomb in New York's busy Times Square. Suspected September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and convicted 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef are also of Pakistani decent, and anti-American militants fighting U.S. forces in Afghanistan take refuge in Pakistan. In Brooklyn, home to one of the largest Pakistani populations in the United States, business is scant at the various grocery, halal meat and sweet cake shops since a Pakistani-American was suspected in the Times Square plot. More than 100 businesses along Coney Island Avenue have closed due to a 30 percent drop in business since 2001, a merchants' association said. In Washington, an American man of Pakistani descent told of coming under suspicion this week when he tried to buy garden fertilizer. The Times Square car bomb contained a non-explosive type of fertilizer. While there have been no reported incidents since the failed car bomb attack last Saturday, some Pakistanis are bracing for reprisals. Police have increased foot patrols. "A lot of Pakistanis can't get jobs after 9/11 and now it's even worse," said Asghar Choudhri, an accountant and chairman of Brooklyn's Pakistani American Merchant Association. "They are now pretending they are Indian so they can get a job." India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, creating hostilities that ordinarily would lead a Pakistani to resent being mistaken for an Indian. According to the latest U.S. census data, some 210,410 people of Pakistani origin reside in the United States. Nearly 15,000 Pakistanis received U.S. immigrant visas last year. "I want to make clear that we will not tolerate any bias or backlash against Pakistani or Muslim New Yorkers," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said this week, noting there are always "a few bad apples." New York is "the city where you can practice your religion and say what you want to say and be in charge of your own destiny and we're going to keep it that way," Bloomberg said. In Washington, an American of Pakistani heritage who would only be identified as Farhan, said a manager of a suburban home-improvement store prevented him from buying two bags of fertilizer for his family's lawn on Tuesday. Farhan, who was born in northern Virginia, said police arrived soon after, investigated and allowed him to buy the fertilizer. "What kind of a country are we living in when a 22-year-old male can't buy fertilizer?" Farhan asked. "I'm American. I'm not Pakistani." Farhan said the store had subsequently apologized and the case appeared to be one of an overzealous manager rather than store policy. Merchants in New York, many of whom declined to be named, still remember reprisals after September 11. Soon after the attacks, there was a drive-by shooting in Brooklyn at a Pakistani restaurant, which is now closed. The local merchants association has shrunk to 150 members, from about 250 merchants almost a decade ago. The FBI also arrested many undocumented workers in the neighborhood, leading to a wave of deportations, and residents would call law enforcement to make claims against their neighbors, including many false claims, Choudhri said. "After 9/11, we took much pain," he said. "After that, a small beating is nothing. Now the Pakistanis are not so much scared but we are ashamed. We are embarrassed that the name of Pakistan came up." |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #8 The FBI also arrested many undocumented workers in the neighborhood, leading to a wave of deportations, and residents would call law enforcement to make claims against their neighbors, including many false claims, Choudhri said. I remember that. After 9/11 a law was passed requiring all Muslim men to register with the government. The Pakistanis were stacked up at the border fleeing to Canada or back to Pakistan, because so many were in America illegally. Mostly they'd come as students, and then stayed on, either marrying fellow students or importing wives from back home. NPR had a series of reports at the time, of the hardship these people faced, uprooted from home and business, facing an uncertain future, their children knowing nothing but America, how were they to cope in the Third World conditions of the Olde Countrie? Not to mention those who'd been caught by immigration and were impounded, awaiting deportation in barracks filled with old army bunkbeds and little else, filling their despairing days with playing cards and tattered paperback novels passed from hand to hand as cases were resolved, always with summary deportation, while their desperate families tried wile after wile in an attempt to find a way to persuade someone to let them stay here. I always wondered how many plots were disrupted by the response to the order of registration... |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-05-08 19:13 |
| #7 Let our trained MonkeyMen decide who is who. Sahib! that one! checker nao! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2010-05-08 14:51 |
| #6 It often is difficult to tell Indians from Indians. North of India natives tend to look somewhat different than south of India natives. More than 100 businesses along Coney Island Avenue have closed due to a 30 percent drop in business since 2001, a merchants' association said. I wonder who many non-Pakistani businesses failed in this country during the same period? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-05-08 14:27 |
| #5 Where are they doing the posing? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-05-08 14:23 |
| #4 How many Americans can even tell the difference between an Indian and a Pakistani just by looking at them? |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2010-05-08 13:55 |
| #3 Farhan said the store had subsequently apologized and the case appeared to be one of an overzealous manager rather than store policy. Actually, the store manager did the right thing. He should report everyone who buys large amounts of fertilizer without an obvious reason. |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2010-05-08 11:50 |
| #2 Not one word indicating the actions of Pakistani terrorists are wrong. Not one word indicating that Pakistanis need to speak out against their islamist brother, to turn in their shrieking nutbars. Not one indication they will take action to prevent future incidents. Police the speakers at their mosques. Turn in those they KNOW are violence-prone. if they are that embarrased and ashamed then bloodywell do something about it. Until then, we want nothing to do with them. As their failed businesses and employment difficulties demonstrate. Pretending they are Indian only confirms the perfidity, duplicitousness and dishonour of Pakistanis. STFU. |
| Posted by: Swanimote 2010-05-08 09:48 |
| #1 Paks playing the victim card. Nothing new |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-05-08 09:44 |