Book "Still Moments": Moments of clarity

Last updated on: April 16, 2008 at 8:28 pm by Irfan Yusuf

Book "Still Moments": Moments of clarity 2008-04-16T20:28:00-04:00 Irfan Yusuf

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A personal profile

“If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” These words of James Madison, who served as US President from 1809-17, would now seem almost prophetic. If you were to believe your average columnist from the New York Post, America is at war with a foreign enemy represented domestically by millions of Americans who have some link to Islam. You would also read all kinds of justifications for American lawmakers to curb civil rights of some with a view to protecting the freedoms of others.

The rhetoric is well-known to us all. Muslims flew two planes into the World Trade Centre in September 2001. Muslims blew themselves up and killed over 50 people in London in July 2005. Muslims are threatening terrorist attacks to disturb the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It’s always the Muslims, you know. OK, so not all Muslims are terrorists. But that fact is that all terrorists are Muslims. The veritable tsunami of hatred has but one goal – to justify racial and ethnic profiling. We have to profile these Muslims so that we can catch terrorists. Since virtually all terrorists are Muslims, the best way to stop terrorists is to profile Muslims. If that means making them feel uncomfortable and insecure, so be it.

But exactly how does it feel to be profiled? And what impact does such profiling have not just on those being profiled but also on those doing the profiling? These are the issues raised in Dr. Zighen Aym’s short book Still Moments. In a mere 65 pages, Aym educates us on a range of issues. This isn’t just a book about racial profiling. It’s a book with numerous themes which reflect the experiences of so many migrants to the United States and other Western countries.

Aym first arrived in the United States in January 1977, an engineering student of Algerian nationality and Berber ancestry. He returned to Algeria in 1982 before returning with his wife to the United States in 1990 to commence his postgraduate studies. We often read about Algeria, though usually in the context of terrorist acts committed by various extremist groups. So often is the conflict in Algeria simplistically described as one between an (allegedly) moderate secular government and (allegedly) typically violent religious fundamentalists.

Aym’s book provides a context to the Algerian conflict rarely discussed by Muslimphobic pundits and supporters of political Islamist groups such as the Algerian FIS. Aym provides us with a glimpse of how many ordinary Algerians viewed the political situation in their country – critical of the incumbent FLN regime’s corruption and despotism but ill-disposed to ex-FLN officials who aligned themselves with a modernist form of political Islam. Aym and his family lived through these troubled times. Like so many Algerian families, Aym’s family suffered its own casualties in the crossfire between militant supporters of the regime (most often in the army) and militant opponents. A photograph of Aym’s 19 year old sister-in-law Fatima appears. She was killed in a car bomb in Algiers in 1977.

How did Aym compare America with his homeland? We get a glimpse of this in the beginning of the second chapter:

“I dreamt of America when I was in North Africa in the early 1990’s. ‘You will see. Our life in America will be so different from here,’ I remember telling my wife as we stood on the balcony of her parents’ home in Notre Dame d’Afrique, a hilltop suburb of Algiers overlooking the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. ‘Laws protect people and dreams come true,’ I explained to her … [W]e wanted to shield ourselves from the violence, repression, and injustice that had been plaguing Algeria for the last fifteen years. In America, we wished to find freedom, tranquillity, and plenty of opportunities to pursue our dreams.”

Such visions of the West are shared by migrants and asylum seekers of all faiths and nationalities. One of my own colleagues, a middle-aged lawyer of Vietnamese background, once told me of how he fled Vietnam to avoid the wrath of communist forces from the north. In Australia, he was able to pursue his legal studies after working for years as an interpreter.

Liberal democracies provide millions with opportunities that many more millions living in despotic regimes could only dream of. But what happens when liberal democracies see despotism as the only way to fight perceived external threats?

Aym’s book describes two incidents of such despotism which directly affected him. Both were triggered by his interest in photography. One is in Algeria in 1986, when he was with a friend in the Algerian coastal city of Bejaia. His friend had left to buy a newspaper when Aym took out his camera and aimed at cargo ships as they were being unloaded at port. Aym was soon stopped by a policeman who reminded him of the alleged external threats Algeria faced from “foreign powers, especially the imperialists and the old colonialists.” Aym was taken to the police station for questioning.

The incident in Bejaia is mentioned in the context of another brush with police, this time as Aym was getting his kicks whilst photographing railway tracks, spider webs and barns along the famous Route 66. Aym’s wife warns him that his photography hobby might land him in the same sort of trouble in the United States as it often did in Algeria. It turned out she was right.

Aym is first interviewed by a police officer on Route 66. He was then contacted by an FBI agent. Aym describes both processes in great detail, perhaps too much detail for some readers’ liking. Aym was fortunate enough to have a lawyer with him during his FBI interrogation. Apart from some flashbacks to late 20th century Algeria and a solid dose of disillusionment in the entire law enforcement regime of the Patriot Act, I wasn’t exactly sure what damage Aym suffered by the time I had finished the book.

Then again, perhaps I am being too cynical. Perhaps it isn’t fair to compare the experiences of Dr. Aym to, say, those of former Guantanamo inmates such as Australia’s David Hicks and Britain’s Moazzam Begg. Perhaps I, unlike Dr. Aym, have been fortunate enough to have been sheltered (thus far) from the ignominy of being grilled about why I attended a rally protesting against the visit of a visiting dictator.

Despite the frustration I felt on searching in vain for a climax to the sudden and anti-climactic end to Still Moments, I still felt the book was well worth reading if for no other reason than that it provided me with an important window into Algeria’s modern history and politics. It’s good to know that the only real opposition to Algeria’s murderous generals were the equally murderous “Armed Islamic Group” (GIA).

And certainly Dr Aym is a superb photographer. He isn’t a bad writer either. I hope he writes and publishes more on Algerian ethnic politics.

Irfan Yusuf is an associate editor of altmuslim and a Sydney-based lawyer whose work has appeared in some 15 mainstream newspapers in Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia.

Irfan Yusuf

Reviews

Previous Post

April 14, 2008

Criticism of Islam: Islam, the new Israel

Next Post

April 17, 2008 Director Morgan Spurlock: “There is a vast majority you don’t hear from”

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2012 Elections 30 Dayd 30 Writers (2017) 30 Days 30 Writers 30 Days 30 Writers (2015) 30 Days 30 Writers (2016) 30 Days 30 Writers (2018) 30 Days 30 Writers 2017 Ali Asadullah Ali Eteraz Alper Bilgili Arthur Richards Asides Asma Uddin Black History Month Briefings Charles Turner Commentary Cyrus McGoldrick Eman H Aly Fatimah Popal Hajj Hajj and Dhul Hijjah Hesham Hassaballa Hisham Hellyer Ibrahim Abusharif Inas Younis Irfan Yusuf Jalal Baig Junaid Afeef Laila Alawa Laila Alwala Mas'ood Cajee Muqtedar Khan Nakia Jackson Newsmakers Parvez Ahmed Podcasts Rabia Chaudry Rafia Zakaria Ramadan Reviews Safiyyah Ally Saud Inam Shahed Amanullah Svend White The Opinionated Oncologist Visions Wajahat Ali Zahed Amanullah Zahir Janmohamed Zainab Khan

Select a Month November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the ____ and the End,” says the Lord God.

Select your answer to see how you score.

Beginning Truth Eternal Light