Another important Islamic Eid. Today was Eid al-Adha, the day after the pilgrims conducting Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, are about to finish their rituals. Like Eid Fetr, it is widely celebrated by Muslims all around the world. And just like the other important Islamic Eid, nobody cared about it in this multicultural liberal school (other than the professor mentioned in my Eid Fetr post).
Personally, I was not much in the mood for celebration after my grandmother having passed away last week. And as her most favorite grandson, I was depressed all over the week. And this was another reminder of being an academic prisoner here on a single-entry visa. When I was in Toledo, two of my friends had lost their father without being able to go back to Iran for the funeral or visitation or anything.
And to exacerbate things, I have to do a lot of grading (final papers of my students) and writing (my own final papers). That's tough even without such a dejected mood. So, when I got to know about the Eid party for the Muslim community in Carbondale, I decided to attend it to alleviate things a bit. Probably, my grandmother's soul would be happier with my doing my academic job instead of mourning and feeling blue (which wouldn't change anything for her).
The party was in the food court of the University Mall. Well, the name is misnomer. The mall has nothing to do with the university. Probably, as the entire town economy revolves around SIU, they've chosen to include the university in its name. But maybe it's not a complete misnomer. As there's nothing for SIU students to do in this depressing small town in the middle of nowhere, these poor souls would have to waste some time with mall-trekking. After all, that would be a healthier alternative to wild-partying.
Our Eid party was mostly about having food. I was not so hungry or not in the mood for feasting, but attending there would give me a sense of community around my Muslim brethren. As Sunni Muslims here follow Saudi Arabia in their religious calendar, they celebrated it yesterday and scheduled the party for last night. Most of Shia Muslims however, believe that the moon crescent (which is the basis for Islamic lunar calendar) should be witnessed locally. So, for me and other Shia Muslims, today was Eid. But as religious occasions actually begin the night before the occasion (i.e when the moon shows up in the sky), I could practically celebrate the night of Eid.
There were all sort of things to eat and we had to stand in line to get our plates filled in one of the eateries at the food court rented for this occasion. While we were standing in line, I noticed two mall security officers appearing. I quipped to the friend on my side, "are these guys here to protect us, or to protect against us?" to which my friend replied, " to protect against us of course, we are in America after all", to which I replied jokingly, "but as alcohol is strictly forbidden in Islam, a Muslim party would never go wild, and there's no reason for us to go on suicide bombing ourselves and our own party". We laughed at the absurdity of the joke (which has been a bitter reality with post-911 Islamophobic mania) and proceeded in the line.
It didn't took long for those mall security officers (who looked liked state troopers or sheriffs with their wide brimmed hats) to answer my joke. One of them took out a camera and started taking pictures from various angles. While it didn't feel alright to me, my initial reaction was simply turning away whenever they changed their position. After all, when you live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, you must get used to racism.
Or maybe not. That's how racism spreads its wings. You don't react to stupidity and it becomes the norm. I remember my Jewish professor at the University of Toledo. Although he's not an Orthodox Jew, he refused to shave his beard after 911. He got strip-searched and detained for 72 hours in one of the East Coast airports (Maine or Connecticut, I'm not sure) because of having a beard. I asked him why he didn't shave his beard, after all he was not an Orthodox Jew. His answer was interesting: "if German people had not caved in to Fascism, Holocaust would not had happened in Germany. We must not cave in to Fascism in this country". And his namesake is one of his uncles who's been a Holocaust survivor. Anyway.
After a while, I felt this photography spree not only offending but also stupid. There are several security cameras in every shopping mall and if we terrorist Muslims went berserk and decided to blow up our own party, the frames grabbed on those cameras would be more helpful than pictures taken like this. Our protectors continued taking pictures laboriously for about half an hour and then disappeared. While we were standing in line again for the dessert (my most favorite part in any party), they reappeared and resumed their job.
At this point, I felt annoyed and couldn't take it anymore and approached one of the community organizers and complained. He tried to comfort me by saying, "they're doing their job and they're probably taking some pictures to show their boss as evidence that they've been here". Knowing that he didn't personally believe in what he told me, I mentioned about security cameras in the mall. Then, I added that even assuming they're taking pictures for such an unlikely reason, why should they take so many pictures from different angles for more than half an hour? Even media photographers wouldn't take so many pictures from an event like this. We Muslims are facing stupidity and bigotry on a daily basis in America. Shouldn't we have some peace of mind at least in a religious party?
By this, other people around me who had been equally annoyed, joined me in protest. And our friend gave up whitewashing our protectors and went to another event organizer and they talked to the security officers and they gave up taking pictures. Interestingly enough, by the end of the party they preferred to do a more enjoyable job and joined us to have some cake. I wish they had done this earlier. By wasting their time taking so many pictures, they lost a lot of good stuff.
But partying was not over for me. There was a Teaching Celebration for our Teaching Sociology Seminar. This was an occasion to celebrate our accomplishments as TAs and also to receive our certificates of excellence for what we had done over the course of semester in this seminar. Oddly enough, the venue for this Teaching Celebration was the bowling alley at the Student Center.
We began our party by signing the frame of a certificate of appreciation for our professor and we received our certificates of excellence in return (this whole certificate business sounded superficial to me). Then, we enjoyed some pizza and punch. Fortunately, the facility is alcohol-free (our professor was very persistent on having some alcohol over the celebration). Then, the Teaching Celebration continued with some bowling. As my hands are hurt in a biking accident long time ago, I wouldn't be able to throw those heavy balls and I just had to watch others play. It was fun to see some of my professors (including our seminar professor) and fellow students jump up and down over their accomplishments in knocking down those pins.
Although I didn't participate in the real fun, I enjoyed my time there. This bowling-teaching celebration didn't provide me with a sense of community as in last night's party, but it gave me enough distraction to set me back on track with the business of grading and writing. That's life at SIU.
Personally, I was not much in the mood for celebration after my grandmother having passed away last week. And as her most favorite grandson, I was depressed all over the week. And this was another reminder of being an academic prisoner here on a single-entry visa. When I was in Toledo, two of my friends had lost their father without being able to go back to Iran for the funeral or visitation or anything.
And to exacerbate things, I have to do a lot of grading (final papers of my students) and writing (my own final papers). That's tough even without such a dejected mood. So, when I got to know about the Eid party for the Muslim community in Carbondale, I decided to attend it to alleviate things a bit. Probably, my grandmother's soul would be happier with my doing my academic job instead of mourning and feeling blue (which wouldn't change anything for her).
The party was in the food court of the University Mall. Well, the name is misnomer. The mall has nothing to do with the university. Probably, as the entire town economy revolves around SIU, they've chosen to include the university in its name. But maybe it's not a complete misnomer. As there's nothing for SIU students to do in this depressing small town in the middle of nowhere, these poor souls would have to waste some time with mall-trekking. After all, that would be a healthier alternative to wild-partying.
Our Eid party was mostly about having food. I was not so hungry or not in the mood for feasting, but attending there would give me a sense of community around my Muslim brethren. As Sunni Muslims here follow Saudi Arabia in their religious calendar, they celebrated it yesterday and scheduled the party for last night. Most of Shia Muslims however, believe that the moon crescent (which is the basis for Islamic lunar calendar) should be witnessed locally. So, for me and other Shia Muslims, today was Eid. But as religious occasions actually begin the night before the occasion (i.e when the moon shows up in the sky), I could practically celebrate the night of Eid.
There were all sort of things to eat and we had to stand in line to get our plates filled in one of the eateries at the food court rented for this occasion. While we were standing in line, I noticed two mall security officers appearing. I quipped to the friend on my side, "are these guys here to protect us, or to protect against us?" to which my friend replied, " to protect against us of course, we are in America after all", to which I replied jokingly, "but as alcohol is strictly forbidden in Islam, a Muslim party would never go wild, and there's no reason for us to go on suicide bombing ourselves and our own party". We laughed at the absurdity of the joke (which has been a bitter reality with post-911 Islamophobic mania) and proceeded in the line.
It didn't took long for those mall security officers (who looked liked state troopers or sheriffs with their wide brimmed hats) to answer my joke. One of them took out a camera and started taking pictures from various angles. While it didn't feel alright to me, my initial reaction was simply turning away whenever they changed their position. After all, when you live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, you must get used to racism.
Or maybe not. That's how racism spreads its wings. You don't react to stupidity and it becomes the norm. I remember my Jewish professor at the University of Toledo. Although he's not an Orthodox Jew, he refused to shave his beard after 911. He got strip-searched and detained for 72 hours in one of the East Coast airports (Maine or Connecticut, I'm not sure) because of having a beard. I asked him why he didn't shave his beard, after all he was not an Orthodox Jew. His answer was interesting: "if German people had not caved in to Fascism, Holocaust would not had happened in Germany. We must not cave in to Fascism in this country". And his namesake is one of his uncles who's been a Holocaust survivor. Anyway.
After a while, I felt this photography spree not only offending but also stupid. There are several security cameras in every shopping mall and if we terrorist Muslims went berserk and decided to blow up our own party, the frames grabbed on those cameras would be more helpful than pictures taken like this. Our protectors continued taking pictures laboriously for about half an hour and then disappeared. While we were standing in line again for the dessert (my most favorite part in any party), they reappeared and resumed their job.
At this point, I felt annoyed and couldn't take it anymore and approached one of the community organizers and complained. He tried to comfort me by saying, "they're doing their job and they're probably taking some pictures to show their boss as evidence that they've been here". Knowing that he didn't personally believe in what he told me, I mentioned about security cameras in the mall. Then, I added that even assuming they're taking pictures for such an unlikely reason, why should they take so many pictures from different angles for more than half an hour? Even media photographers wouldn't take so many pictures from an event like this. We Muslims are facing stupidity and bigotry on a daily basis in America. Shouldn't we have some peace of mind at least in a religious party?
By this, other people around me who had been equally annoyed, joined me in protest. And our friend gave up whitewashing our protectors and went to another event organizer and they talked to the security officers and they gave up taking pictures. Interestingly enough, by the end of the party they preferred to do a more enjoyable job and joined us to have some cake. I wish they had done this earlier. By wasting their time taking so many pictures, they lost a lot of good stuff.
But partying was not over for me. There was a Teaching Celebration for our Teaching Sociology Seminar. This was an occasion to celebrate our accomplishments as TAs and also to receive our certificates of excellence for what we had done over the course of semester in this seminar. Oddly enough, the venue for this Teaching Celebration was the bowling alley at the Student Center.
We began our party by signing the frame of a certificate of appreciation for our professor and we received our certificates of excellence in return (this whole certificate business sounded superficial to me). Then, we enjoyed some pizza and punch. Fortunately, the facility is alcohol-free (our professor was very persistent on having some alcohol over the celebration). Then, the Teaching Celebration continued with some bowling. As my hands are hurt in a biking accident long time ago, I wouldn't be able to throw those heavy balls and I just had to watch others play. It was fun to see some of my professors (including our seminar professor) and fellow students jump up and down over their accomplishments in knocking down those pins.
Although I didn't participate in the real fun, I enjoyed my time there. This bowling-teaching celebration didn't provide me with a sense of community as in last night's party, but it gave me enough distraction to set me back on track with the business of grading and writing. That's life at SIU.
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