Please sir, I don’t want your identity

A dark skinned, heavily bearded, middle-eastern man walks into the departure gate of Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris to board a flight to New York. He is loosely dressed in black, with a bracelet of a cross tied to his wrist and a Jewish skull cap on his head. He carries a heavy bag marked with the initials OBL embossed in gold. He also carries with him a first class ticket.

Imagine the conflicting images faced by security at the airport. The individual painted above does not conform to any marked boundaries of someone who might pose a terrorist threat. Could he be a terrorist? Could he be the elusive OBL that the Americans have been searching for? Or could it just be a conflicted individual who has no clear definition of who his identity is coupled with a strong interest in religious fashion? It is likely that the members of the airport security will proceed to ascertain further if this individual does pose a threat to the security on board the plane, especially since the origins and motives of the individual could not be ascertained without a shadow of a doubt. However this scenario regardless of the result will present a discourse amongst the airport security officials at least, on the superficial attributes that would point out a person’s identity.

Identity is something that is very fluid in nature. With the socialization of each individual different situations relating to his affairs with others, technically everyone would have a different identity or set of principles. There is however a peculiarly strong tendency to lump many similarities between identities together into one group of individuals. With this characterization come the political, economic and social implications for that particular individual or that particular group. When the group is characterized externally in order to fit pre existing models or stereotypes would it become fair for the unfortunate individuals who are lumped in that group to begin to subscribe to the stereotypes themselves? A moderate Arabian man for example, having been heavily prejudices in the Western world for being of Arab descent is pushed to consider the extreme views of his brethren seriously. Having found a source to affiliate with the entire group would it not mean that the binding principle of the group, be it fundamentalist or otherwise, become acceptable to some degree to the members within irregardless of the inclinations of the majority of the group before the lumping process. Would we have not created a new batch of sympathizers or worse still extremist fundamentalists itching to further strengthen their beliefs?

This is a highly likely scenario when one considers the prejudices that are faced by individuals who are scrutinized for just the simplest of similarities. In cases where it is dismissed as mistaken identity it would probably not cause such a heavy grievance as compared to an innocent individual who is placed to be persecuted with those who are perceived as threats even when they are innocent to begin with.

In a world where religious fervour and fundamentalism is becoming more prominent, perhaps its rise is not more so of strong political unhappiness but rather the cases of persecution from a set of perceived notions based on the labeling of ones identity by others.