17 January 2008

One religion, two countries: differences in national identity between British and American Muslims

One religion, two countries

"Baby, listen to me, I came here and I like to live independent," said Akhtar Mamood, his Pakistani-New York accent coming out staccato. "This country gave me food, money, respect - I love this country."

Mamood, who immigrated to the US more than 30 years ago, is proud to call America home. He talked to me during break at his favorite Pakistani lunch spot. "We make money independently here and we're free to do what we want," he said. "We're proud to be American."

2 Comments:

darvish said...

The difference is Britain's colonial racism, which it never really got over. No wonder Muslims feel alienated there.

Ya Haqq!

Anonymous said...

i think it has to do with the socio-economic profile of the muslims in the tw countries.

~ Vinod