I think it’s fair to say that today, being brown or of Muslim descent (whether you are religious or not) is the equivalent of being Japanese or German in the 1940s and 50s: you are seen as a threat. We have come to represent bombers, mass murderers, fanatics and evil plotters.

But there are over one billion Muslims on the planet and a few thousand crazies, so I think the strategy of ethnic profiling may not be the best way to find the needle in the haystack. However, since political analysis is not the name of my game, I won’t get in to all of that.

What I am all about is image and feeling good, so I find it extremely disturbing to be viewed as any part of the scourge of civilisation. I refuse to wear that badge because I have a different identity — an identity that no one is interested in seeing. Like George Clooney’s character says in Up in the Air when refusing to get in line behind some brown-looking guys for fear of being kept waiting while they are being questioned:  “Yeah, I’m like my mother. I stereotype. It saves time.”

But how did we get here? Surely we have a rich history that has more to it than veils, beards and militancy. This led me to explore the history of Muslims, Indians and our side of the world in general, and I was relieved and proud to see that we have been pretty cool for a very long time — until quite recently. This past decade has all but erased over a thousand years of exchanges and contributions, minor and major, to the world.

If you look up lists of inventors, you will see that between the 7^th and 15^th centuries there are many contributions by people with names that now sound like they should be on a terror watchlist. Though it is often impossible to conclusively prove who invented what, many sources claim the following inventions belonged to the East: general anaesthesia, cosmetic dentistry, the three-course meal, the precursor to the modern cheque, carpets, pleasure gardens, tooth bleaching, hair care, hair dye, solid lipstick, hand cream and lotion, suntan lotion, roll-on deodorant, the pointed arch, nasal spray, topical cream, adhesive bandage and plaster, sutures, chess, soap, clinical trials, cancer surgery, cancer therapy, rose water, public hospitals, medical schools, automatic flute players, gas masks, pure distilled alcohol, the decimal system (zero and infinity were ancient Indian concepts and Indian mathematics was way ahead of its time), philosophical novels, bell-striking clock towers, erectile dysfunction drugs (around 900AD), lamination, the pinhole camera (qamara means a dark room in Arabic), the magnifying glass, homing pigeons and air mail, ventilators (in the 1200s), coffee . . . and the list goes on. Obviously, empires have the finances for pursuits of this nature: there is the need and incentive to experiment and improve, thus things get invented. My point here is that when half the world was ruled by those of the brown persuasion (who were seen as a subhuman threat even then) civilisation and human endeavour barrelled on just the same. I am not one of those who say that Islamic or Indian invention is the basis for all civilisation as we know it: everyone has their place. I just want to know the good bits of my history.

There were two people in my search who particularly impressed me (and had something to do with my field). A gentleman by the name of Al-Zahrawi (a name that sounds ominous now due to more recent associations) was a famous surgeon and physician who lived in Spain (936-1013AD). He wrote a 30-volume medical encyclopaedia that was used worldwide as the basis for all medicine up until the 17^th century. Believe it or not, one of these 30 volumes had a section devoted to cosmetology! Other than the more obvious cosmetic topics, Al-Zahrawi had a method for taming kinky hair, strengthening gums and freshening breath; he introduced the earliest antecedents of deodorants and lipsticks; he suggested keeping incense where you store your clothes; and it is believed he even started the tradition of taking flowers when visiting the sick.

Another fascinating gentleman is Sake Dean Mahomed (Shaikh Din Muhammad), who hailed from an elite family in Bengal. He (like my grandfather) was an officer in the army of the British Raj in India. He decided to follow his superior officer to Ireland and after marrying an Irish girl there, opened Britain’s first Indian take-away, which has subsequently been commemorated with a plaque by the city of Westminster. This is all the more surprising given that the venture was a failure. His next endeavour, in Brighton, was a bath house called “Mahomed’s Baths,” where the art of champi claimed to cure arthritic and rheumatic problems. So successful was this idea that Mahomed was appointed “Shampooing Surgeon” to King George IV and William IV.

On a more contemporary note, we have a huge music star of Pakistani origin in the UK to be proud of, Natasha Khan. The niece of Jahangir Khan, the world-famous squash champion, Natasha is known for Bat for Lashes, her stage name. She has been nominated for two BRIT awards and her video “Daniel” (below) was nominated for an MTV video music award as breakthrough video of the year. She has opened for both Coldplay and Radiohead, while Ringo Starr has called her one of his favourite new artists and even Bjork has been spotted at her gigs. Her musical style is beautiful and haunting and her rendition of the famous Springsteen “I’m on Fire” (which you might have heard playing at my salon!) is truly spectacular.

The history of our people, sub-continental or Muslim, recent or ancient, elite or humble, is far from nefarious or no more nefarious than any other history of a people. I, for one, need to flesh out my identity as a Pakistani with histories and views that are very different from those that are being constantly highlighted. And I hope that in my own small way I am representing an equally real and present version of my city, my country and my part of the world that is pretty, witty, creative and joyous. It’s as real and as close as the bombs and the tears are.

Bat for Lashes

“Daniel”