Reflections on Exile

In some ways, I suppose, I have always had a fascination with exile. On the wall of my office is an Acadian flag, a reminder of some of the heritage of my own county. But what is my country? I have been struggling with that in the past few weeks.

I was born in Pakistan. I came to Canada when I was four years old and became a Canadian citizen seven years later at age eleven. All of my education—kindergarten to Ph.D.—was in Canada. In 1997, after living twenty-seven years in Canada, I moved to Los Angeles and began my professorship in the Religious Studies Department at California State University, Northridge. I have lived in Los Angeles for almost seven years now— or three years longer than I lived in Lahore. Does that make me more of an Angelino than a Pakistani? Of course, I have always considered myself a Canadian, proud of my home and, er, native land. But my last name is Hussain. And I am Brown. And a Muslim. And I have a beard. And I teach about Islam. Am I a “real” Canadian? If not, who is? Perhaps more importantly, who is an unreal one?