Saddam Banjara, offering namaz at the Sarkhej Roza in Ahmadabad, says he is proud of his name and will live with it.
For Muslims across the world, life changed drastically, and in many ways, after 9/11. Finding rented accommodation became increasingly difficult, a beard and skull cap invited wary stares on buses and trains, and the police randomly picked up innocent Muslim youth on suspicion of being involved in terrorist activities. It's the unfairness of the entire situation that makes Shah Rukh Khan's character in My Name is Khan repeatedly clarify: "My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist."
But leave Khan aside. It's a movie, after all. What if your name is Osama, Saddam or Dawood in real life and you live in communally sensitive Gujarat? Do people immediately see the shadow of a terrorist lurking behind the name? These names had become popular at different points of time in the past. For instance, many children were named Saddam immediately after the first Gulf War in 1990, when the former Iraqi dictator was hailed as a hero in the Muslim world for taking on the might of the Western armies. These children have grown up today and what should have been just a name, suddenly isn't.
There's the baggage of ideology and an unhappy modern context to deal with. Muslims will tell you they don't face any problem with such names as long as they are confined to their ghettos. But step out of the ghetto and a name like Osama or Saddam raises eyebrows, leads to subtle ostracism and excessive questioning at high-security zones like airports. Life is a struggle for these people, and they don't have a film's poetic licence to fall back on for a happy ending.
http://newageislam.com/living-with-a-name-like-osama/islamic-society/d/2531
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3:32 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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