The Submission - Amy Waldman [39]
“We’re far afield,” Malik murmured.
“No, this is the field,” Ansar said. “The attack here becomes no less tragic if we acknowledge these other tragedies and demand equal time, equal care for them. They say that when you watch the movies, you root for the cowboys, but when you read the history, you root for the Indians. Americans are locked in a movie theater watching Westerns right now, and we’ve got to break down the walls.”
“I’m an architect, not a politician,” Mo said, hoping to redirect the conversation. “And I’m an American, so it was the attack on America I was moved to commemorate. The Afghans, the Iraqis, the others you mentioned—they are free to design their own memorials.”
“It’s hard to think about memorials when you’re under occupation or bombardment,” Ansar said.
“We can’t ask Mohammad to carry water for every Muslim cause, or country,” Laila Fathi, the bareheaded woman, said. Her voice had a lilting quality that Mo suspected made people underestimate her. “Right now, he is the cause. If they take away his victory, which is clearly what they want to do, or if his opponents pressure them into taking it away, the message is that we’re lesser Americans.”
“We are lesser Americans,” a man in a djellaba said. “Eid is not a school holiday.”
Malik turned on him. “Do you have to bring that up at every meeting?”
“As a matter of fact I do, until it changes. I’m guessing Mohammad doesn’t want to speak out on that issue, either.”
“I’m basically secular,” Mo said.
A woman in a tightly wrapped beige headscarf looked at him curiously, then raised her hand. This was Jamilah Maqboul, MACC’s vice president. “I just wonder if we have considered whether Mr. Khan’s battle is productive—or constructive—for the Muslim community. He’s shown no interest, here at least, in taking on issues that matter to Muslims. All he’s done is remind us that he’s not particularly interested in Islam—that he’s not political, that he’s secular.”
“Exactly,” Ansar said. “Do we use our limited capital to fight for his right to design a memorial that, by ignoring the far greater death toll in the Muslim world from American actions, obscures America’s complicity in its own tragedy?”
“All the while picking an unnecessary fight with the families of victims, a constituency we gain nothing from offending,” Jamilah added.
“This is about amassing capital, not squandering it,” Malik said. “We’re just starting to see the polarization from this, and to be blunt that’s when you need to rally your base, do fund-raising, make the apolitical majority of our brothers and sisters realize that their rights are at stake, that they need to organize, and that they need us to defend them. The media attention allows us to talk about other issues that impact Muslims. And how can we ignore the Islamophobia this has touched off?”
“He won,” Laila Fathi said. “And if this organization is just going to sit back and leave him twisting in the wind like some … some piñata for people to take whacks at, then this isn’t the organization for me.”
Mo saw looks pass among some of the men.
“This is how history works,” Malik picked up. “Cases—battles—emerge from unexpected places. Rosa Parks was tired. Mohammad Khan was inspired.” He paused. “Tired, inspired. Not a bad slogan.”
“But that story’s not true, about her just being tired. She was chosen to be the face of a movement,” said Aisha, an African American woman, also in a headscarf.
“You all can work out the historical verities,” Malik said. Having checked his watch and his BlackBerry, he was all business now. “As