Indian, Young and Muslim!

A-A Khan is standing right in the middle of the street waving to me. He has asked me over to his house to conduct the interview as opposed to the coffee shop on campus I had previously suggested. He is lanky and visible on the street in his jeans and t-shirt more so for the fact that he is without an umbrella on this wet November morning. Unlike him I am huddled under my little umbrella trying to keep my ipod and man bag from getting wet. I try to asses his person as I walk up to him. Should I be cautious so as not to offend his religious sensibilities or am I being paranoid? I am unable to neither decipher this young man nor place him in any category whatsoever. Entering the house is welcoming considering the warmth as against the dampness of the showers outside. He offers me tea or coffee which I politely decline in embarrassment as I remember the gluttonous breakfast I had had some minutes before. His bedroom is busy but tidy with books that look like they have been read; his spanking new laptop is buzzing with msn windows and loads of DVD’s including the lord of the rings trilogy. I ask if he is a fan and he admits that he is. I also notice the prayer mat at the top of his cupboard and ask him why he has decided to come to university here, so far away from home. “Oh it’s funny because I was initially going to Edinburgh but by chance I noticed a map of this university and it had a mosque in it and then and there I changed my mind” he replied. “Of course I didn’t know how the U.K worked so I had to go on the barest information I had”. Fair enough, I thought. But very obviously his faith plays an important role in his life; perhaps this is typical of all Muslims? He tells me that One’s faith is from within; therefore there should be little or no interference in life’s activities. He points out that whilst some Muslims drink and do other things, others don’t. He admits that he goes to the university union, but only to listen to music, socialize and play pool; suggesting that religious interpretations are subject to perspective. I ask how he relaxes, if he does at all. He laughs to this and points to his DVD’s. “It is only because I currently live in a university town which is entirely boring in other aspects but back home I love to drive…fast”. He smiles as I bury my face in my notepad scribbling furiously. A speed demon and a Muslim at the same time? That will take some reconciling! Perhaps he has a point about religious perspective being subject to interpretation…and perhaps a little explaining. This leads me to ask about “back home” and he lights up to this. “Oh that’s everywhere” he replies. He goes on to explain that his family has always moved around from his native country of India to Dubai and so on. He asserts that he is Indian first with close ties to Afghanistan and celebrates this identity but admits a certain fondness for Dubai. “Dubai for me is a fascinating mix of east and west which is refreshing, I believe it has a beautiful multicultural future” he states. He had told me earlier that he worked in IT in Dubai before coming down to university and often shuttled between India and Dubai. His sisters still live there and work as models and event consultants. I glance quickly at the pictures of his family on the side table and can see why how it can be as his sisters are beautiful. I voice my difficulty in understanding how modeling works in the Middle East; when one considers the perceived representation of women in that part of the world. “there is a female bus driver in Sheffield” he says, “she still drives a bus till date and wears her hijab; it does not affect her work in anyway”! It turns out that his sisters are still cosmopolitan businesswomen who are successful despite the perceived constraint. I think back to a story from the BBC in 2005 which explored how women in Dubai were breaking the “patriarchal mould” of Middle East society with recent achievements. According to statistics, 65% of all university students in the UAE (United Arab Emirates where Dubai is situated) are female. 15% of the work force in the UAE is female; the irony is that the figure also considers expatriates; many of whom are men. However according to the BBC, it is generally considered to be inappropriate for women to speak to men they are neither married to nor related to in public amongst UAE nationals; although it is increasingly becoming acceptable. No doubt about it, things are changing in the Middle East; but these changes are in accordance with acceptable cultural references. I tax him on the possible interpretation of my findings as possibly sexist? “This is clearly not sexism” he replies. He insists that women are respected and maintains that conformation is about choice. I wonder if this choice is subject to conditioning, but I choose not to pursue it further.

Recently the BBC conducted a poll on young people around the world and from its samples, it was deducted that although most of the respondents see religion as a force of good, the greatest percentage thought terrorism was the most pertinent issue in the world and did not think that the American led ventures in the middle east would make the world safer. “So is there a certain animosity towards westernization then”? I ask my interviewee. “Like everything else in the world, westernization has its good and bad points” he replies. He goes on to explain his thoughts on the Bush war in the middle-east, stating his opposition to it. He points out that Bush (U.S president George W. Bush) was very adamant about his ideas on Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda but still the world is not a safer place. He believes that Islam is not the issue that needs to be sorted out but the surrounding factors around it. “If you threw a book away without reading it, you wouldn’t know what was in it, would you?” Food for thought! I decide to tax him on terrorism asking “taking into consideration 9/11 in New York and 7/7 in London, do you think Islam is doing enough to counter terrorism and in effect; does Islam need a revamp of sorts? He replies that Islam completely dissociates itself from extremism and points out that suicide for example is not a part of Islam “so how can these people represent a religion they do not practice”? He goes on to point out that as Islam is a way of life, the religion is not about it looking after people but people looking after it. He genuinely is baffled that assumptions are made on a culture through the actions of individuals.

I move on to easier subjects at this stage. Bollywood superstar, (The big B) Amitabh Bachnan is in the U.K to promote bollywood movies, something I am personally passionate about. There is also talk of the rapid increase in India’s status on the world stage, India is getting richer. I ask what all this means to A.A. “turns out my entire family are in the movies in one way or the other” he returns with a smile. He loves bollywood movies and the very concept surrounding its success, this is something I can understand! He is not sure what he will do next after his course here. He is young, Muslim and Indian and he is not going to let something trivial like identity boxes stop him from getting where he wants to be.

A.A Khan Is currently studying for a masters degree in wales.