The Freedom Trail, by KA Dilday (An American writer's journey of exploration through the ideas and cultures of the Muslim world)
www.opendemocracy.netThe freedom trail
KA Dilday
4 - 8 - 2005
KA Dilday sets out from an intrusive, surveillance-obsessed United States, on a journey of exploration through the ideas and cultures of the Muslim world.
As I prepare to leave New York and my position at the New York Times for a self-imposed exile, I wonder whether my time abroad will be longer than the two years I’ve planned – whether there will be a forced extension.
I have been awarded a fellowship to research and write about north African immigration and integration in Europe. I will be based in France and will travel frequently to north Africa. I have prepared intensively: by exploring the online umma (the transnational Muslim continuum); visiting websites that are gathering-places for the Islamic world and for people like me, non-Muslims interested in Islamic culture; ordering books by influential Islamic theorists like Sayyid Qutb, Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, and Muhammad Abduh; exchanging emails with people in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia.
“What will the government think of your activities?” my mother asked, “Will you be able to come back?”
It is quite possible that the government knows of my recent activities. We’ve known for years that the details of our lives are easily accessed by the technologically proficient, but I have always felt cloaked by my insignificance. I am far too inconsequential to catch the interest of Big Brother – corporate or governmental. But times are changing. Recent history has shown that it is precisely those deemed insignificant who present the greatest threat.
The July bombs in London and Egypt have prompted heightened tension in the west and in north Africa alike. World public opinion is thinking fearfully.
*** To read the rest of this poignant article, please go to: www.opendemocracy.net
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