The Night Counter explores what it is to live a life away from home. Throughout the novel, the separation of the Abdullah family became ever so evident through the many perspectives and secrets exposed in the novel. Fatima the mother of the separated children continues to live in the past as she tells stories of her time in Lebanon, her home country, and her early American life to the immortal being Sherhazad. The main focus of this novel is what separation and distance can do to familial relationships, but, what is also important to explore is the significance of the FBI agents as they infringe upon the Abdullah family. The FBI’s involvement with the Abdullah family mirrors and exposes societal implications of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism that have affected the Abdullah family in various ways.
As history continually repeats itself the implications of the Patriot Act after 9/11 mirror legislation after World War II with the purpose being, “to intimidate, harass, and discourage Arab American resistance to U.S. policies in the Arab world” (Jamal and Naber, 34). As the United States sought revenge for 9/11 they needed to have the least amount of public backlash as possible, leading for the US government to control Muslim, Arab, and South Asian Americans through various policies like the Patriot Act. Within the novel, we see this first hand through the investigation of the Abdullah family. Throughout the novel we are keenly aware of the FBI’s presence through the perspective labeled “SUV people” later on they continue to investigate and surveille the Abdullah family by fallowing them, tapping phones, coming to various houses, and investigating members of the family, as well as investigating bosses which results in Amir losing his role as Jesus, and makes it so Ibrahim and Fatima are unable to communicate with one another over the phone. Though this is an awful experience, this is just the tip of the iceberg, from a report taken from the ISPU which stated “numerous claims from Muslims and Arabs that were beaten or verbally abused while being detained by government officials. In other cases, financial institutions have used extreme interpretations of the Patriot Act to justify blacklisting Muslim account holders simply because their names matched those on a master government list” (ISPU, 4). The United States government expanded its breach and used this legislation to infringe upon the rights of predominantly Arab, Muslim, and South Asian people, resulting in the loss of life, careers, and made it so these people had to live a new way. This claim and the experience of the Abudullah family backing Jamal and Nabers argument that the intent or reality of such policies was to “intimidate, harass, and discourage” Arab and Muslim peoples, this making the legislation is both based on Islamophobic and anti-Arab ideals. Within the novel Sherri Hazad makes it evident and acknowledges how widespread the Patriot Act is, she states “it’s called the Patriot Act, and it’s as legal as, say, changing your name from Bushar to Bud… The Patriot Act gives us the right to question and conduct sneak-peek searches. Even if all we find is undocumented domestic help” (Yunis, 346). By exposing well-kept secrets between the Abdullah family along with having no legitimate merit to investigate the entire family, Sherri Hazad, with the help of the Patriot Act was able to harass, intimidate, and discourage the Abdullah family by compromising their rights to privacy and using this legislation to interfere with the Abdullah families daily lives.
The Bush Administration was known for its mixed messages as it related to Arab and Muslim Americans. This being so the administration could push their agenda without receiving backlash from disagreeing opinions. Within Curtis’s piece, he chooses to highlight a quote from former President George W. Bush reading, “Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don’t represent the best of America. They represent the worst of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior” (Curtis, 99). Curtis goes on to say how Bush’s messages were mixed, simply making any encouraging words to the Muslim, Arab, and South Asian community and not following up your words with action is evidently just lip service. Bush’s policies proved to perpetuate and feed into Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism, leaving these people to suffer at the hands of hateful Americans and the American government. What is further detrimental and unconstitutional about the Patriot Act, which was passed under the Bush administration, is that it was used further to round up some 1,200 Arab, Muslim, and South Asian men on suspicion of terrorism, this mirroring the situation the Abdullah family had found themselves in (Curtis, 100). Sherri Hazad continues and says “we had a report of suspicious behavior from his residence, some speculative information on a young Arab male… The source said they had seen comings and going‘s at strange times by Mr. Abdullah in various disguises and of Fatima Abdullah, sometimes wearing a scarf, sometimes at night, talking in the garden to an unidentified individual, possibly under the influence of cocaine and other unidentified narcotics. That’s something we need to be looking into this day of terrorism, you understand.” (Yunis, 346-7) As the quote proves the agents’ evidence is unsubstantial at best with the only suspicious terms being “cocaine, disguise and Arab” the last one being the only true term but the biggest red flag to the government at this time. That shows that there is a trend outlined within this act that has been exposed to be racially targeting. The entire basis of this claim could have been explained through simple research of the family that did not infringe on the family’s rights. This situation highlighting a common situation for many Arab, Muslim, and South Asian families at this time.
Within Sherri Hazads previous statement written, her last sentence reads “That’s something we need to be looking into this day of terrorism, you understand” (Yunis, 347). Given the United States’ previous history as rendering perceived Arab, Muslim, and South Asian men as less than and later “potential terrorists” this gives further thought and proof that these investigations were racially targeting. By Sherri stating “terrorism, you understand” this allocates a redemption or an excuse for herself and the agency she works for. While the Patriot Act allocated room for the United States government to be cautious it resulted in the government being cautious of a specific group of people, by Sherri expecting the Abdullah family to understand this comes from the racially targeting nature of the Patriot Act.
Time and time again, within the aftermath of 9/11 Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian men are labeled as “white, but not quite” (Jamal and Naber, 39). The concept of otherness reigns high as an implication of societal constructs that have been perpetuated in the midst of 9/11 that have in turn been molded to be divisive and discriminatory. Even if the intention of non-Arab, Muslim, and South Asian people is to be inclusive, it is dependant on where that inclusivity stems from as outlined by Rock when stating “ Until 9/11, they have been no mostly as a military family. However, for a few weeks after that day, people who have never invited Miriam and Rock over before I asked them to Sunday dinner and other neighbors came over with cakes to show that President Bush was right: Arab Americans and Muslim Americans were Americans period. That very support made them aware that they were no longer just Americans” (Yunis, 252). What Rock speaks on is the concept of otherness as outlined by Jamal and Naber being defined as “The process by which the “Arab,” who was once positioned as white, but not quite, has come to signify Otherness more than ever before” (Jamal and Naber, 39). Rocks’ experience outlines a change in behavior as a result of 9/11. With the influx of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism, his neighbors were trying to prove that they thought Rock and his family were “good Arabs” these thoughts and the actions that emerged because of 9/11 are Islamophobia and anti-Arab because they were treating Rock and his family differently based on their race. Though this is not a direct result of the FBI and Patriot Act it is a direct effect of 9/11 and discourse surrounding Islamophobic and anti-Arab tendencies within society, which were in part a result of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim discourse and legislation such as the infamous Patriot Act.
Much of the Patriot Act was a result of ignorance resulting from societal implications of ingesting a negative representation of Arab and Muslim peoples. When ingesting a multitude of bad representations you lose focus on the true culture of Muslim and Arab people thus leading to hate crimes, dehumanization, Islamophobia, and racism. By changing and altering the narrative through cultural literature and media told by a Muslim and Arab perspective you have therefore added a new view and have educated non-Arab and non-Muslim people who are otherwise would be ignorant. Though this does not reverse the implications of bad representation it evidently prevents further effects of bad representation if it receives validation and eventually becomes mainstream. The text highlighted the effects of the Patriot Act through an Arab and Muslim perspective, thus educating and humanizing Arab and Muslim people and exposing the negative effects that 9/11 has had on Arab and Muslim people.
There will always be a struggle for mainstream true representation as long as there are Islamophobic and anti- Arab ideologies. By including real experiences and depicting the implication that 9/11 has had on the Abdullah family this has allowed for true representation to exist without Islamophobic and anti- Arab ideals being the root of the representation, instead, the novel shifts the focus on the Muslim and Arab experience which hopefully will act as a cue for the United States and all of its people to do the same. (1669)
Bibliography
Curtis, Edward E. Muslims in America. Oxford University Press, 2009.
Yunis, Alia. The Night Counter : A Novel. Vol. Unabridged, Crown, 2013. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com.proxy-bc.researchport.umd.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=nlebk&AN=724198&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Jamal, Amaney A., and Nadine Christine Naber. “Race and Arab Americans before and after 9/11: From Invisible Citizens to Visible Subjects.” Amazon, Syracuse University Press, 2008, www.amazon.com/Race-Arab-Americans-Before-After/dp/0815631774.
“THE USA PATRIOT ACT IMPACT ON THE ARAB AND MUSLIM AMERICAN COMMUNITY ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.” Ispu.org, The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, 2004, www.ispu.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/the-usa-patriot-act_farid-senzai.pdf.