I usually don't trust my dreams credulously, nor do I take them seriously. Sometimes, they're so lucid and pictorial that I cannot easily ignore them; maybe they portend something that I need to be cautious about, but they're not a determining element in the decisions I make, as I just contemplate over them briefly and then consign them to oblivion. However, most of the times, my dreams are a reflection of what absorbs me and engages me deeply, and predominantly, they have a political undertone. Whenever I retell my dreams to my wife, she complains that I cannot detach myself from politics even when I'm asleep!
A dream I had about two weeks ago was perhaps the most immediate translation into action of the threats made by the Republican contender of the U.S. presidential race Donald Trump, who had said he would push for banning all the Muslims from entering the United States: I dreamt of being deported from the U.S. at one of its airports!
Earlier in 2015, I was honored by the Hawaii-based East-West Center to be named the recipient of the prestigious Senior Journalists Seminar 2015 Fellowship. As part of this fellowship program, I traveled, along with a cohort of 15 noted international journalists, to the United States, as well as Malaysia and Pakistan, to explore the venues for the promotion of the U.S. relations with the Muslim world. The SJS 2015 marked my first experience ever in the United States, where I met so many great people, including a handful of accomplished American journalists and public policy experts. Everything went right, and I, a Muslim journalist, was warmly welcomed in the States. After all, at that time (mid-July), Donald Trump had not come up with the idea of expelling all the Muslims from the United States, and Islamophobic sentiments were not as intense as they're now - they got dramatically deepened following the Paris attacks. But, however far-fetched and impracticable his proposal might sound, I have to confess that I was so disturbed and shocked at the depth of his cruelty that his warning haunted me in the midnight and when I was having forty winks.
The dream, or better, the nightmare, went on like this: I got a U.S. visa to attend a conference somewhere in the States - let's skip over the tribulations of getting a U.S. visa for Iranian citizens, as they need to travel to a third country to apply for it, thanks to the absence of a U.S. embassy in Tehran since 1979. I boarded the plane, and after a long trip, arrived at one of the U.S. airports - I don't clearly remember which one it was. I remember the long passageways I went through before getting to the immigration police section. The TSA officer took my passport, and upon recognizing my nationality, scowled at me sternly, and came up with a question abruptly, "You're Iranian. Eh? So, you're a Muslim."
"Yes, madam," I answered meekly. And you know what she said in response?
"Since you're a Muslim, your U.S. visa would be valid until arrival at the airport, and then it would automatically expire. So, you don't have the authorization to enter the U.S. soil with this visa. You will be repatriated to your country with the earliest flight."
It was so bizarre: a visa that is valid only for arrival at the airport! I was trying to figure out what's happening around, when I agitatedly woke up and found myself in the bed, instead of the undisclosed U.S. airport. I was sweating unusually. Ultimately, it was relieving to find out that the whole scenario was a dream, but I couldn't push away the lucidity of the dream, and even now that I'm penning these words, it is parading so perceptibly before my eyes.
Normally and consistently, I've been - or at least strived to be - a law-abiding and respectful citizen, whether while walking downtown in my home city of Rasht in northern Iran, or while strolling, shopping or doing business in the places I've traveled to outside Iran. I can firmly assert that I never ran a single red light as a pedestrian. No street sweeper can complain that I've added a single garbage particle to the environment. Additionally, as a journalist, there's no crime I might be inclined to commit. My job is to write and report. So, I don't see any reason for being deported from any country. However, what frightens me is that if this growing trend of anti-Muslim, anti-Iranian prejudice continues taking momentum in the United States, all of my fellow citizens and fellow Muslims who wish to travel to the United States would be subject to an undue discrimination that not only torments them psychologically, but undermines their dignity and irreparably widens the rift between the United States and the Muslims worldwide, rendering futile the efforts of those who're struggling to bridge the gaps between the United States and the Muslim world.
Many Muslims immigrate to the United States in search of the lost values and freedoms they had been denied at home. A good example is Tayyib Rashid, a Pakistani-American Muslim who came to the States at the age of 10 to avoid the persecution of Ahmadi Muslims in his home country and settle in a new land which was lauded for its tolerance of the minorities and the liberties it conferred on the immigrants. Tayyib Rashid joined the U.S. Marine Corps and served five years in uniform faithfully to pledge allegiance to his new homeland. Would it be really equitable to call for the expulsion of this devoted American citizen from his land, simply because he is a Muslim?
Those who sympathize with the bigoted convictions of Mr. Trump and people like him who simply hate the Muslims are perhaps unable to grasp the magnitude of anxiety and distress which we feel whenever such pejorative statements are made publicly: profile Muslims in national databases, ask them to carry special ID cards, drive them out of the United States forever, etc. To some, these statements are simply campaign slogans to appeal to voters, but to me and millions of peaceful Muslims across the world, it's like paying the cost for practicing a faith that the hardliners like Donald Trump detest. If I want to travel to the United States, which I consider a privilege, it's not because I want to explode a bomb somewhere in Manhattan or instigate a shooting spree; it's because I want to enjoy the benefits of journalistic, academic excellence in a country with long-standing, deep-rooted cultural institutions and a tradition of hard work, punctuality and diligence: these are the things that I definitely cannot learn and embrace by confining myself to my working room. Many of the most brilliant university professors, scholars and journalists in the United States are Muslim immigrants. They didn't go there to threaten the national security of America or undercut its democratic values. They went there to thrive in an ambiance suitable for making scientific, scholarly progress - something they can't find in other parts of the world. Quite honestly, many of these people are questing for their ambitions in the United States. Then, why should people like Donald Trump damage the reputation of the United States as a tolerant, plural and multicultural society through their outlandish machinations?
I still cannot forget the nightmare. It was the mental scourge that Donald Trump inflicted on me when he said all of us need to be barred from entering the United States, complemented by Ben Carson who likened us to rabid dogs.