How do Arab American children cope with being raised biculturally in Essay

How do Arab American children cope with being raised biculturally in America today - Essay Example Being an Arab child brought up in America, I have lived in troubled times and faced such troubling questions. But my attempt has always been to take that question as an inspiration, not a provocation. I have spent more consistent time in the United States, receiving my education in the U.S., being raised by an American mother and I have stronger roots in the American culture. My first language is English, and I am like any other American youth in my taste selections of food, clothing, music and even romance. When looking back, I wonder how it would have been, if I were equally immersed in the culture of my father’s place of origin, Qatar. I have a friend, half-German and half-Indian, who is a passionate nature lover and who says, â€Å"My roots are in nature.† And I thought, what a beautiful concept! Thinking on similar lines, I also would like to say, â€Å"My roots are in humanity,† but I find it is not so simple as that. The underlying theme of nature is harmo ny while that of humanity is checkered with conflicts. We, humans have been defining our self more based on differences than on similarities. I realize that many Arab children who have been brought up in Germany might be having similar thoughts. My life started soon after the Gulf war of 1990-91 ended and I have grown up through the period that hosted Afghan war, the September 11 tragedy and the Iraq occupation by US forces. Leading a normal life in America, far away from the geographical and even emotional coefficients of the conflict zone, I could see a historical human drama unfolding. As a child, I had only a vague sense of being part of that drama. I was moreover insulated by the secular ambience that my parents constructed for me. Research has indicated, â€Å"religion is an important factor in Arab American families, but not in the way American media and cynical politicians have portrayed it† (Lamanna and Riedmann, 71). The western stereotype of Arab families is busted in such research as they show that â€Å"religion is important to Arab Americans, just as it is to the majority of Americans† (Lamanna and Riedmann, 71). My father is from Doha, Qatar and my mother is American. They met while they were at University. Shortly after graduation, my father took a job in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), and my mother went with him. After about a year, transferred to London, he settled with my mother in England where they lived for the next three years. Then my father had a job opportunity in his home country and went to Doha, again with my mother. That is where I was born on July 9 1991, just after Operation Desert Storm had concluded. My family remained in Doha for the next several years until my mother wanted to return to the United States, mainly for the purpose of education for my siblings and me. Our family would make the long trip back and forth to Doha many times throughout my childhood and teenage years. That is when I began to feel that I w as not Arab enough in Doha and sometimes not American enough in America. I have dual citizenship, an American passport and Qatari passport. I look more Arabic, but I cannot speak Arabic fluently. I even took Arabic language class in college and studied politics of the Middle East in college, just to fill in the cultural gap, to understand things better. But it is a sad fact that Arab language is taught in only a few schools in America. People would always ask me where I was from. And people in