Post-911 Story of Little Pakistan in New York

[Zibago]

Yeah right..

Pakistani Christians =/ Americans
They are closer culturally to their Muslim neighbours
I dont know why some folks in America think Pakistani Christians are just like them or very close culturally to them

http://www.riazhaq.com/2016/09/the-story-of-new-yorks-little-pakistan.html

Little Pakistan, a tiny community of Pakistani immigrants located just a few miles away from the World Trade Center, drew a lot of negative attention when the twin towers came crashing down in September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The tragic events of 911 sparked a wave of Islamophobia in America as Muslim and Pakistani immigrants became the latest victims in this nation's long history of persecution of religious and ethnic minorities at different points in the past. Earlier targets of such bigotry included native Americans, Blacks, Jews, Germans, Japanese and various Christian sects like Mormons and Quakers.


Little Pakistan in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York

Little Pakistan is a section of Brooklyn that is home to the largest Pakistani immigrant community in New York City. It was primarily a Jewish neighborhood before the Pakistanis chose it as their home away from home.

Soon after 911, US immigration and law enforcement officials, looking at its Pakistani Muslim immigrants in this neighborhood with great suspicion, began a massive crackdown that induced widespread fear and terror among the residents and drove many from their homes.

At the height of the sweep, over 20,000 people in Brooklyn’s South Asian communities left the United States, a COPO survey found, according to Gotham Gazette, a New York City publication. Many sought political asylum in Canada and Australia, and some returned to Pakistan and other countries. A number of them never returned. Many had their legitimate US immigration applications pending at the time. Others had their cases in immigration courts and they were waiting for disposition by judges.

A year after 911, the newly created Department of Homeland Security launched a special registration system, the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System or NSEER, requiring male citizens over 16 years of age from 25 countries -- mostly Muslim countries in Africa and Asian -- to register with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Although the system was terminated in April 2011, many law-biding Pakistani immigrants fell victim to it, according to Gotham Gazette.

"Before 911, you used to see hundreds of people walking on the streets," said Nadeem speaking to Gotham Gazette. Nadeem is now a store owner of a grocery store at the corner of Coney Island Avenue and Glenwood Road. "The FBI came knocking on people’s doors and asking questions. People were scared. Business dropped more than 50 percent."

Fifteen years later, the residents of Little Pakistan are still haunted by the nightmare of 911. But life appears to be slowly returning to normal, according to media reports. Some of those who fled are coming back. New Pakistani immigrants are also starting to come into the neighborhood. Pakistani food and clothing stores are doing brisk business as are the restaurants, beauty parlors and barber shops.

Off course, this could all change if Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee who has called for a Muslim ban in America, becomes the next president of the United States.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Pakistani-American Demographics

Islamophobia in America

Donald Trump's Muslim Ban

Silicon Valley Pakistanis


http://www.riazhaq.com/2016/09/the-story-of-new-yorks-little-pakistan.html

Pakistani community in America is well off and highly educated

That didn't just happen in this neighborhood but all over NYC and its environs. People of every community and ethnicity stayed indoors. Partly out of fear, partly due to the pollution from the remains of the WTC.

It's tough to argue that Muslim Pakistani immigrants were "persecuted" after 9/11 if you're invoking these minorities as comparisons: Pakistanis and Muslims were not tossed into reservations and camps, hung from trees, declared enemy aliens, subjected to cross burnings, etc. Authorities, both religious and government, took the line that "Islam is a religion of peace" and that the perpetrators and the regime that sheltered them were responsible and no one else.

Criticism about minority rights from those who occupy Palestenian land and in many cases just kickong out Palestinians to make way for Israeli settlers

 

[Indus Pakistan]

Yeah right

Unfortunately the minorities would suffer from massive retaliatory attacks - the state and population would be indirectly responsible. The former for failing to weed out these groups and the latter by creating a pool of acceptability.

There are Pakistani trumps in the dozen who daily ask for or indirectly egg on violence againsat minorities. I would say USA could have done more to protect it's minorities but Pakistan is the last country to preach on that front.

As we speak minorities are being killed as matter of routine. One only needs to look at the attacks against the Hazara communties. Although I must admit the black community in US is only faring slightly better as too many seem to collide into bullets coming from police gun barrels.

Ahmad Khan Rahami

He is not part of the Ummah. He is Afghan.

Cecil Chaudhry, Peter Christy, Mervyn Middlecoat, Noel Israel Khokar....

I would love to see how their grandchildren fare today in todays Pakistan. Most have probably chipped off to Australia or USA.

What most people ignore (by intention) is that this crop of "Cecils or Turowics" lived in a Pakistan of yesteryear which was profoundly differant then today. The pre 1970 Pakistan was almost ran exclusively by officials who were products of the British Empire and they behaved as such. Yayha Khan, Ayub Khan etc were British products and Pakistan as carry on of the British Empire was relaxed, law abiding place with many suburbs resembling Britain. Things began to change in 1970s when it began to go "native".

This Pakistan is dead.

 

[Solomon2]

Criticism about minority rights from those who occupy Palestenian land and in many cases just kickong out Palestinians to make way for Israeli settlers

Note only is your comment off-topic, but as noted many times previously, Pakistanis are ill-equipped to parse facts from lies and make any sensible pronouncement on Israel--related issues.

My statement thus stands uncontested and my moral authority is unchallenged. If you want that to change - if you want your words to have meaning, rather than be dismissed as empty nothings - you're going to have to fight for greater freedom of speech in Pakistan.

 

[James David]

Well said.

Unfortunately the minorities would suffer from massive retaliatory attacks - the state and population would be indirectly responsible. The former for failing to weed out these groups and the latter by creating a pool of acceptability.

There are Pakistani trumps in the dozen who daily ask for or indirectly egg on violence againsat minorities. I would say USA could have done more to protect it's minorities but Pakistan is the last country to preach on that front.

As we speak minorities are being killed as matter of routine. One only needs to look at the attacks against the Hazara communties. Although I must admit the black community in US is only faring slightly better as too many seem to collide into bullets coming from police gun barrels.


He is not part of the Ummah. He is Afghan.

I would love to see how their grandchildren fare today in todays Pakistan. Most have probably chipped off to Australia or USA.

What most people ignore (by intention) is that this crop of "Cecils or Turowics" lived in a Pakistan of yesteryear which was profoundly differant then today. The pre 1970 Pakistan was almost ran exclusively by officials who were products of the British Empire and they behaved as such. Yayha Khan, Ayub Khan etc were British products and Pakistan as carry on of the British Empire was relaxed, law abiding place with many suburbs resembling Britain. Things began to change in 1970s when it began to go "native".

This Pakistan is dead.