arriving late in New York city. the drive through the city at night from La Guardia to Washington Heights is a gentle announcement of more familiarity to come. sahar picks me up at the Presbytarian Hospital. in her new home i find nadia all sleepy on the couch.<\/p>\n
buzzing with the story of nadia’s entry into the country, earlier today… it’s funny how quickly one gets used to quotidian environments, and how a visiting friend makes one’s eyes widen once more. the high securitarian character of the country that strikes and repulses nadia. and then, of course, the refrain of her first-day-of-NYC stories: “juist zoals in the film!” (just like in the movies<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" arriving late in New York city. the drive through the city at night from La Guardia to Washington Heights is a gentle announcement of more familiarity to come. sahar picks me up at the Presbytarian Hospital. in her new home i find nadia all sleepy on the couch. buzzing with the story of nadia’s entry … Continue reading “arriving in the city”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21,34],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarah.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– “What kind of name is this?”
\n– “Arab,” she says, with pride. (must have been the first red flag in the guy’s mind)<\/em>
\n– “What is the purpose of your visit?”
\n– “I’m going to present a paper at a conference.”
\n– “What kind of conference?”
\n– “About the Middle East.” (oops, second red flag…)<\/em>
\n– “What will you talk about?”
\n– “My research on religious experiences of second generation Moroccans in Belgium.”
\n– “Are Moroccans Muslim?”
\n– “Yes.” (hm, third red flag…)<\/em>
\n– “So tell me, what do you think of jihad.” (yep, the question that inevitably, let’s say logically, follows the red flags…)<\/em>
\n– “Well, I understand jihad as an inner struggle…”
\n– “Yes, I know (!!)<\/em>, but most people understand it as killing people.”
\n– “It’s a complex notion, we would need some time to sit down and discuss more…”
\n– “We’ll have this discussion right here and now, because I have to decide to let you in the country or not.”
\n– “Oh. Well, if by jihad you mean the killing of innocent people, I am against it.”
\n– “Good. Enjoy your stay in the US.”<\/p>\n