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I was born in Beirut, Lebanon, a fact that is clearly stated on my Canadian passport. My last name is Saad, which happens to be the first name of one of Osama Bin Laden's sons. Would you like to take a guess about the level of scrutiny that I receive when crossing into the United States? Oh no, the horror. I am being racially and ethnically profiled. I am also Jewish albeit few immigration officers are aware of this fact. Whenever I have traveled to Israel, I have been detained for a while and questioned repeatedly by the Israeli military, as they immediately assumed that I am a non-Jewish Arab. Oh no, the travesty. More profiling hurled my way.
We left Lebanon and moved to Canada in 1975 under the persistent threat of being executed (as a result of our being Jewish during the astonishingly brutal Lebanese Civil War). I am not talking about being stopped by a policeman and questioned, perhaps inappropriately, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. If any one of endless militia found out that we were Jews (as was written on our internal ID cards in Lebanon), we were guaranteed one outcome...death. How is that for intolerance? A bit rougher than the "horrifying and unfathomable racism" faced by Dr. Henry Gates, the "oppressed" Harvard professor.
My parents kept going back to Lebanon for the next five years until 1980. They were kidnapped by Fatah and spent eight days under very unpleasant conditions (think about the torture debate that pervades the American discourse and you'll get the idea). With much help from many very high-ranking friends, they were finally freed and they left Lebanon to never return again. We lost our home, our family businesses, much of our money, our friends, our lives. A bit rougher than the "devastating ordeal" faced by the "victimized" Dr. Gates no?
On endless occasions, I have been privy to the most virulent forms of anti-semitism that are imaginable. As a young pupil in Beirut, I remember our teacher instructing us to stand up and state what our future career aspirations were. One child stood up and proclaimed to thunderous applause (and no intervention from the teacher): "When I grow up, I want to be a Jew killer." In my adult life, I have often interacted with people who assumed that I was an Arab (but certainly not a Jew) and hence they let down their guard and spoke freely about the "evil Jews." This has happened even within the glorious halls of the Ivy League at Cornell University where I obtained my M.S. and Ph.D.
Accordingly, given my personal history that I have shared with you, I hope that you'll take stock of the following words: Enough with the whining about profiling. There are people (myself included) who have faced forms of intolerance that are extraordinarily more brutish, serious, and life threatening than that faced by the "oppressed" Dr. Gates of Harvard. I am certainly not arguing that racism does not exist in the United States, as it obviously remains a serious social problem. However, the "victim race peddlers" who have built careers on crying racism at every social interaction are tiresome. Yes racism exists but we all have the moral obligation to refrain from levying accusations of racism in frivolous and irresponsible ways.
In a sense, I am the perfect guy to play the "victim" card. Next time that a bank teller speaks to me rudely, a student challenges me in an inappropriate way, a US immigration officer interrogates me, or a PT reader posts an impolite comment, I could hurl one of several possible accusations: (1) racism (I am semitic); (2) anti-semitism (I am Jewish); and/or (3) xenophobia against Arabs (I am an Arabic speaking man from the Middle East). However, I won't because I recognize that to accuse someone of being guilty of such reprehensible attitudes is a serious matter.
Enough with the whining. It's time to recognize that of all forms of intolerance that exist around the world, Dr. Gates' "horrifying" experience does not rank very high on the "oppressed" hit list. In light of all of the atrocities and injustices that are being committed around the world, did we really need to waste so much time on this incident? Did the President of the United States really need to weigh in so proactively in the debate? Dr. Gates and Mr. Obama might have been wiser to spend their time and energies worrying about the truly horrifying genocide that is being committed in Darfur. We all have fixed pies of time and energies in our quest to contribute in making a better world. I venture that this is not the best use of our collective energies when there are so many people around the world truly suffering in ways too unimaginable to enunciate.
To conclude, please understand that I am not trivializing the damage that can be caused by various forms of racism. I would be the last person to do so. What I am bringing to light is the disproportionate attention that the Henry Gates saga has garnered, in a world replete with shades of intolerance and hatred of an infinitely greater magnitude.
Source for Image:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Lebanon_Israel_flags…
