Shahrukh's Newark Row

Wanted to get certain things out there about the Shahrukh row:

1. Shahrukh appeared on Newsweek as one of the 50 most powerful people in the world – NOT because he is “powerful” in the US.. but of his power in INDIA!  90% of the people in the US won’t even care about India anyways.  That doesn’t make us irrelevant, but just that the perspectives and standpoints are different of different people.

2. Detained for 2 hours.  Has any one ever been through the paper check etc.?  It does take that much time.  You can fault the system but you cannot ascribe intentions to the system.

3. Profiling (religious, racial or otherwise) is a NATURAL instinct of Human Beings.  We take tests, we hire people of certain institutions, we suggest people of certain political parties will behave in a certain way…people of certain professions “ought” to be so-and-so (Doctors noble, Army men fearless, etc etc.); people of certain geographies will have certain qualities (German precision, French cuisine, Italian art etc)… and people in such categories have even the pressure to “live upto” a certain categorization.

You may not like it.. but its a fact. Human mind is prone to categorization. It cannot live without creating CONTEXT to any event. That’s how mind THINKS!  We are human because we DIFFERENTIATE. If we could TRULY.. not verbal.. not semantic.. not just for effects.. BUT TRULY experience EQUALITY.. we would be GODS. 🙂

Religions are BASED ON PROFILING.  Someone is a “Believer” and someone is a “Non-Believer”.  One gets something.. other doesn’t on a certain “Day”.  Atta came to US in a plane just as Shahrukh did.  Both professed to identify with a certain “organized ideology”.  While Shahrukh and MAJORITY of those who identify with that “organized ideology” are NOT Atta….

… but there is no machine, no mantra, no majic pill.. no way as yet invented by the scientists.. to distinguish an Atta from a Shahrukh!

In matters of National Security, PROFILING IS CRITICAL.  If you think I am talking nonsense.. try going to the Mecca for a stroll.  Non-Muslims are FORBIDDEN BY LAW to enter Mecca.  Why?  Because of this:

“O you who believe(in Allâh’s Oneness and His Messenger Muhammad صلي الله عليه و سلم)! Verily, the Mushrikun(polytheists, pagans, idolaters, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allâh, and in the Message of Muhammad صلي الله عليه و سلم) are Najasun (impure). So let them not come near Al-Masjiadal-Harâm (at Makkah) after this year; and if you fear poverty, Allâh will enrich you if He wills, out of His Bounty. Surely, Allâh is All-Knowing, All-Wise.” — Qur’an, 9:28

Of course, Mecca’s forbidden entry is not as much about “security” as it is about discrimination.  But that’s another matter.