{"id":19699,"date":"2013-03-27T07:23:43","date_gmt":"2013-03-27T12:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=19699"},"modified":"2013-03-27T07:23:43","modified_gmt":"2013-03-27T12:23:43","slug":"israel-reflections-2013-too-muslim-or-not-muslim-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2013\/03\/israel-reflections-2013-too-muslim-or-not-muslim-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Reflections 2013\u2013Too Muslim or Not Muslim Enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Easily the worst part of the trip for me\u00a0was at the beginning when one of my students was detained by Israeli immigration upon our entry to the country.\u00a0 Although it was an\u00a0experience that we had discussed as a possibility (she had visited grandparents in Pakistan and had the stamp in her passport), it still came as a scary surprise as it was occurring.\u00a0 To then be bookended by her visit to the Dome of the Rock (where she was forced to prove her religion and fully cover herself in additional clothing) was a learning experience for all.\u00a0 In the words of Nida Shakir:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In 2007, I was detained for eight hours at an Israeli-Egyptian checkpoint for merely wanting to tour Jerusalem, and because I was Muslim.\u00a0 The tour group I was with left early in the morning so that we could pack in as many touristy things in the single day we had in the city.\u00a0 However, upon entering from the southern checkpoint at the Sinai Peninsula, we were held at the border for eight hours.\u00a0 By the time we were allowed in,\u00a0we were only able to see a few sites in Jerusalem.\u00a0 I left disappointed, disconcerted, and vowed that I would never return.<\/p>\n<p>Who would have thought that five years later I would travel to Israel again.\u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After my first experience, I was fully expecting to receive extra questioning.\u00a0 Although my recent trip to Israel didn\u2019t exactly repeat my first, I feel that it is useful to share since I was the only one on the trip that had to endure it.\u00a0 The customs official in Tel Aviv began by looking at my name and asking me questions about my family. \u201cWhere are they from? Where did you grow up? What are your grandparent\u2019s names?\u201d\u00a0 He then proceeded to ask why I was in Israel. \u201cCould I prove I was part of a school group? Where was my itinerary?\u201d He then asked if I was Muslim.\u00a0 Without hesitation I said yes and after another minute of questioning, another customs official escorted me to a \u201cwaiting room.\u201d\u00a0 It was at this point that I began to wonder if my experience this time around would simply be a repeat of my eight hour wait five years prior.\u00a0 What I found out later was that my professor was advocating on my behalf\u00a0and, solely\u00a0due to her efforts, shortened my detainment to an hour.<\/p>\n<p>It is clear from both of my border experiences that my \u201cextra questioning\u201d was directly related to the fact that I\u2019m Muslim.\u00a0 I cannot say I was surprised or that Israel does not have an interest in securing its borders, but what I didn\u2019t expect was then feeling like I wasn\u2019t Muslim enough to enter a mosque.\u00a0 Upon trying to enter the Dome of the Rock only two days later, I was sharply questioned about my faith and in fact had to recite prayers in Arabic before the guard allowed me to enter.\u00a0 The juxtaposition of my border experience with my experience trying to enter the Dome of the Rock left me in a state of confusion that I am still trying to sort out.\u00a0 Too Muslim to be welcomed into Israel but not sufficiently Muslim to\u00a0be welcomed\u00a0at the Dome of the Rock\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>I can say that after an emotional, educational, and personal experience in Israel a fellow student on the trip was able to mollify my emotions a bit by saying this, \u201cNida, I know this was an experience that only you can relate to, but I am happy I was\u00a0<em>present<\/em>\u00a0for it.\u201d If my experiences can help bring conversations to the table that were never had or a different perspective that was never seen, then I am glad I didn\u2019t keep my vow.<\/p>\n<p>Cross posted at Indisputably.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Easily the worst part of the trip for me\u00a0was at the beginning when one of my students was detained by Israeli immigration upon our entry to the country.\u00a0 Although it was an\u00a0experience that we had discussed as a possibility (she had visited grandparents in Pakistan and had the stamp in her passport), it still came [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-law","category-public","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}