Facing Bias, Pakistanis Pretend to Be Indian

Times Square bomb scare boosts anti-Pakistani sentiment
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted May 7, 2010 4:50 PM CDT
Pakistanis pose as Indians after NY bomb scare | Reuters
This undated photo from the social networking site Orkut.com, shows Faisal Shahzad, right, and his wife Huma Mian.   (AP Photo/Orkut.com)

Pakistani immigrants are again feeling prejudice after the attempted car bombing in Times Square, and they're resorting to an old tactic to avoid discrimination: pretending they are Indian. After September 11, with anti-Pakistani sentiment in the US peaking, merchants and job seekers learned quickly that identifying with their homeland's archrival can make life easier, Reuters reports.

Now, instead of feeling ashamed of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Pakistanis are attempting to escape the shadow of Faisal Shahzad. "A lot of Pakistanis can't get jobs after 9/11 and now it's even worse," said the chairman of a Pakistani merchant group in Brooklyn. "They are now pretending they are Indian so they can get a job."
(More terrorism stories.)

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