Last bus to Islamaphobia.

Some thoughts on Islamaphobia.

I watched a programme on ABC recently, it was entitled "should America fear Islam" and was hosted by Christiane Amanpour, upon reflection a better title might have been "why does the American media promote fear", or maybe "why are many Americans predisposed to fear". I say this because in truth I am rather fond of Americans (they invented the ice cream sundae), moreover, I know for a fact, several Americans are rather fond of me.

I once travelled across America in a wheelchair (another story), during this time I was amazed at how often complete strangers would come forward with offers of help and assistance. So if you're American and reading this, give your self a big pat on the back. Then again, an Englishman in a wheelchair isn't very frightening, even if I am strange.

The ABC debate bothered me, it was full of the usual purple faced, rhetoric spouting types. One gentleman in particular reminded me of Senator Joseph McCarthy, a rather colourful demagog who scared everyone into thinking anyone who believed in communism was a threat to the united states. (Incidentally, when George Clooney made the film "Good night and good luck" McCarthy's part was played by McCarthy himself. They spliced in actual film footage taken during his speeches. When showed early screen tests of the movie, most viewers found the part played by McCarthy to be none believable due to his over the top performance).

Last week as per usual Im in the middle east (it really doesn't matter where), and I find a bunch of these old American buses parked in the sand. I love to see these big Yellow vehicles in the USA, I have always found them visually iconic, so it was almost surreal to see about fifty of them parked in such unusual circumstances. They still had, "school bus" written in large black letters, and most retained the original notices and signs on them, for example, one said, "hows my driving?" and had a Chicago hotline to call.

I started to photograph the buses and after a few minutes another bus came bowling through the sand and rumbled to a halt in a big cloud of dust. The door opened and out poured the drivers of the buses I was photographing, all of them were Pakistani, dressed in Shalwar Qameez, many of whom wore a topi (skull cap) and most had cool looking little beards.

The drivers then see a strange Westerner, (that would be me) armed with a rather large camera. Moreover he's busy taking photographs of their buses, they wander over and immediately strike poses, hoping to be included in the shots. The atmosphere reminded me of excited school children hoping to be picked for something fun. It wasn't easy to photograph them because they turned out to be habitual gigglers. As soon as I had done a portrait of one I would let them preview the image on the little screen on the back of my camera. This usually invoked more giggles and also a sense of pride on the person photographed. All in all it was a nice atmosphere.

Within a few minutes the drivers had prepped their vehicles and were gone, many of them giving me the thumbs up as they disappeared in a large cloud of dust. Now heres the deal, and the point of my story, lets reverse the situation, imagine a bunch of bus drivers turn up for work in Chicago and find a strange bearded guy from Pakistan wearing a Shalwar Qameez, photographing the vehicles with a large camera,……..you get the picture (no pun intended) ....................Im just saying......................

As that last bus drove off , the impish child in me kept thinking I should dial that Chicago hotline number and scream "oh my lord I just saw your bus full of bearded men dressed in Shalwar Qameez, it was speeding recklessly ". Might set a few pulses racing at Homeland security. But that would be wrong :).

As Franklin D. Roosevelt said in his first inaugural address "So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror".

I have always thought most of us (me included) suffer from a slight touch of Xenophobia (fear of strangers) possibly a throw back in our genetic makeup, I imagine it was once a rather useful phobia especially in neanderthal times. A nifty knee-jerk reaction prompting one to leg it at high speed upon seeing some rather large Neanderthal from a strange tribe. I could be wrong (I usually am) but it would now seem that this throwback phobia blinds us. Or maybe its Optophobia (fear of opening one's eyes) thats causing the problem.

I think my message is this, we probably all suffer from one phobia or another to a lesser or greater degree, but phobias are an irrational fear, they stop us from growing and from living life to the full. My own father was slightly Neophobic (fear of anything new) because of this he went to his grave never having eaten a pizza, imagine that.

I would say more, but cannot due to my own phobic nature, I suffer from Liticaphobia (fear of lawsuits) and Phobophobia (fear of phobias).

Disclaimer:- Any reference to persons or agencies, living or brain-dead is purely cynical.

Photographs courtesy of a rather dashing and wonderful man!