Happy Thanksgiving, Pakistan?

So Dawn, Pakistan’s largest daily paper, picked up on my piece, Thoughts on Thanksgiving. Evidently, the Dawn Op-ed  columnist, Irfan Husain, writes regularly for the pro-government daily. Amusingly, he is an old friend of my family, a testament to the variegations in mindset within a single family.

Husain’s December 1 Op-ed begins with a detailed description of his family’s thanksgiving turkey preparations, a practice they adapted during time spent stateside. He brags about serving the turkey to a Thanksgiving party. All of this occurs in Karachi, a Muslim city, in a Muslim land, whose very raison d’etre is Islam, and where the holiday does not exist. It is similarly absent from all neighboring countries, indeed from all of Asia. Amazingly, Husain claims Thanksgiving “is an entirely secular holiday, with no religious overtones.” He appears woefully ignorant of the identity of the colonists who initiated White celebrations of Thanksgiving in New England (the northeastern part of the U.S.). The colonists were Puritans—men and women who attempted church reform in Britain. Unsuccessful, they emigrated to what later became Massachusetts Bay Colony (the site of many massacres of Native people). They were devout Christians (according to their understanding of Christianity) who emigrated for the sake of their religious faith; to characterize a holiday of their initiating as “secular” is simply inaccurate.

Husain’s description of Thanksgiving? “A day that commemorates the feast provided to the early colonists by Native Americans, and is modelled [sic] after European harvest festivals.” He neither disputes or confirms the central idea of my piece, i.e., the coincidence of the holiday with massacres of Native people, for which there is overwhelming evidence, leading to the necessity for people of conscience to disassociate from it.

Bizarrely, he claims to feel strongly about the plight of Native people, and does not take issue with any of the historical facts I bring forth in my article, writing rather eloquently that, “White colonists have an appalling record of virtual genocide in the lands and continents they conquered since the 16th century. Indeed, the history of every country in the Americas, as well as of Australia, is written in blood.” But—he still insists on celebrating the holiday!

He delivers the rank old “If-you-don’t-like-it-then-leave.” In his words: “But surely Ms. Siddique should not be in America at all if she feels so strongly about the Native Indians, and what was done to them.” It reminds me of the daily redneck cries at the sight of my hijab during the Iranian hostage crisis. “If you don’t like it here, go back to Iran!” they would fling, not bothering to ask whether I was Iranian.

I wonder at such mindless response. Irfan Husain must have been sleeping in history class, when Emerson, Thoreau, Thomas Paine, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others were discussed. Even in the slanted dominant culture version of history currently taught, the tradition of dissent is extolled. Husain misses the boat on the abolitionist movement, the civil rights movement, the Underground Railroad, Seneca Falls, and many other movements throughout U.S. history which chose dissent over emigration (although there were some which encouraged followers to emigrate). Husain and others of his ilk should stop and think about what he propounds: Country X hosting only people of Creed A; Country Y populated with only those of Creed B. What an odd world his would be, of homogeneity of thought within national borders.

The idea that a Muslim, propelled by the command to amr bil mauroof and nahi unal munkari, should feel strongly about injustice, and should not leave but rather work for change, seems not to enter his mind at all.

He ridicules the idea of politely deflecting Thanksgiving greetings. I’ve done it plenty of times, taking care to employ a gentle, polite, friendly manner. It’s fruitless to be acerbic or use charged terms like “genocide” (as he facetiously suggests in his ridicule), since the aim is to convey one’s heartfelt sentiment, not denigration of the other. My deflection of the greeting is frequently met with questions as to why I don’t celebrate the holiday, appreciation, or an apologetic “Oh well I don’t really celebrate it either, it’s just a time to get family together.” The objective, to encourage thought—about popular celebrations and practices—is achieved. It is merely a starting point to get people thinking about injustices within society, and what can be done about them.

He claims that given the climate of Islamophobia in the U.S., Muslims should not be withdrawing from mainstream practices such as Thanksgiving. Husain continues, “Ms. Siddique should not then complain of not being accepted as Americans [sic] if they [sic] deliberately spurn American traditions.” To me, his assorted apologia for Thanksgiving indicates a hopelessly colonized mindset. As a friend in London commented upon reading the op-ed, “People like Husain are importing the totalitarian petty tyrant mindset from banana republics into western states.”

Irfan Husain and the ruling class of Pakistan should be aware that not all Pakistanis and Muslims living in the West yearn to blend into the woodwork, or to become groveling sycophants for the U.S. power structure. It is a matter of shame that my Pakistani “brothers,” whose country is being bombarded by U.S. missiles, exhibit such servility to the U.S., while increasing numbers of Black and White Americans question the holiday, (as they question aspects of U.S. foreign policy). Many of my American friends refuse to celebrate Thanksgiving to show solidarity with Native People. The Native people themselves gather at Plymouth, Massachusetts, near the site of the early Puritan landings, for a “Day of Mourning.” It is a gathering in which I’ve participated in previous years, and encourage others to do so as well. Pakistan’s great revolutionary poet, Allamah Iqbal, wrote about the indelible concepts of self-identity and self-love. His writings challenge the “love your slave master, more than yourself” paradigm promulgated by Husain. Although I’m no expert in Iqbal, I’m quite sure he would never be an apologist for “Thanksgiving.”

Husain’s comments exemplify the attitudes of Indo-Pak elites who visit or emigrate to the U.S. They ally themselves with the ruling class, insisting on self-delusion about American history, minimizing, denying, or overlooking the horrors of slavery, Jim Crow, and lynchings of Blacks. They are oblivious to Native peoples, whom they recall quaintly as noble savages seen in Westerns (popular in Pakistan), or spectacles to be viewed in a museum. These elites behave in arrogant and racist fashion, viewing themselves as superior to Black people, whom they view through the lense of Hollywood or corporate media, turning a blind eye to genocide, broken treaties, and treachery against Native People. As Steve Biko, the great South African freedom fighter said, “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” By ruling class measure, at least, the weapon is already had.

Thoughts on “Thanksgiving”

As readers may be aware, "Thanksgiving" as it’s celebrated today has little or nothing to do with its historical reality. For time immemorial, Native people held feasts to give thanks to the Creator for all they had. So, the claim that the first Thanksgiving occurred only after the colonists arrived, is a racist statement from the outset, writing off Native celebrations. It is akin to saying that 9-11 was the first terror event on U.S. soil—never mind the many massacres of Native people, and lynchings of Black people. As the link at the end of this piece illustrates, the precise date of the first Thanksgiving was not 1621, as is claimed. It is unknown. However, numerous colonist-initiated thanksgiving celebrations were held in the Northeastern U.S. (in the area now known as New England), usually following a massacre of native people.

Among the more well-known of these was the “Thanksgiving” which followed the massacre of Wampanoag people (Native American--or Red Indian, per the Indo-Pakistani misnomer--tribe) and the butchering of their leader Metacomet (known to the Whites as King Phillip), his head hung from the village square by the colonists. Plymouth Colony then called for a day of thanksgiving for their “victory” over the Native people. The perfidy of the incident is particularly horrifying when one considers that Metacomet's father, Massasoit, had only a generation earlier hosted the White settlers who landed near Plymouth Rock, saving them from famine.

As Muslims, we are often in the difficult position of having to respond to a greeting such as "Happy Thanksgiving." Some Muslims feel that it necessary to return the greeting out of concern for adaab (Islamic etiquette), or to be in compliance with the Qur'anic injunction to return a greeting with one better.

But words are powerful. They are essential in the colonizing of minds. And they can help perpetuate a myth, in this case, that of a warm fuzzy Thanksgiving, in which Native people and White settlers feasted and cavorted in friendship. But Islam teaches us to stand with the oppressed, against the oppressor. As aware Muslims we have the option to politely deflect the greeting, then briefly explain why we do not celebrate it. It is an opportunity to educate people, and bust some myths.

It's odd how sensitivities of some groups in society are paramount, while others are completely disregarded. Why, for example, don't people who embrace "Thanksgiving" consider how a Native person would feel on an occasion commemorating the massacre of his ancestors? Carrying this point further, why is there not a public furor at such a celebration? In my opinion, there should be.

I’m almost certain a furor would result, if, for instance, there were a festive holiday commemorating/coinciding with the deaths of Europeans (this would be nothing more far fetched than what occurs on Thanksgiving). On the other hand, the near coincidence of Eid ul-Fitr—determined by the moon, not an invention of individual Muslims—with September 11 was a cause for major brouhaha (not to intimate that all the victims of that sad event were Caucasian, or that suffering did not occur on that occasion). But Thanksgiving—despite the fact that its celebrations throughout U.S. colonial history were nearly always announced or correlated with a massacre of Native people—seems to raise no such concern. This is part of the dehumanizing of Red, Black, and Brown Peoples, that their graves may be trampled upon at will, their genocide mythologized into national celebrations. So, clearly the desensitization alluded to earlier has been effective across broad sectors of the society.

Finally, the crushing of public sensitivities to a targeted population (in this case Native people) is a crucial part of a propaganda war, which allows their genocide to be perpetuated, or at least not redressed. It is up to us to decide if we wish to participate.

With thanks to L.C. for this valuable link:

http://oyate.org/resources/shortthanks.html