Identity crises or opportunism?

What do you guys think about the following article?

'Pakistanis are posing as Indians to escape discrimination'

Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN, May 8, 2010, 09.58pm IST

WASHINGTON: In a remark that has caused resentment and mortification among many Pakistanis, a Pakistani-American community leader has said Pakistanis are posing as Indians in the US to escape discrimination.

''A lot of Pakistanis can't get jobs after 9/11 and now it's even worse,'' Asghar Choudhri, an accountant and chairman of Brooklyn's Pakistani American Merchant Association was quoted as telling a wire service on Friday in the aftermath of the failed Times Square bombing. ''They are now pretending they are Indian so they can get a job.''

The comment has angered some Pakistanis. ''I'd rather be called a terrorist than an Indian,'' one Pakistani blogger fumed, even as the American media was filled with self-lacerating laments from Pakistani-Americans about their future in the US.

Although they were generally as well-regarded in the past as Indian immigrants, coming as they do from similar upper-middle-class backgrounds with professional career yearnings, the reputation of Pakistanis has lately been undermined by multiple terrorist plots across the world, most of them traced back to Pakistan. Permissive military-dominated governments have been accused of allowing foreigners and emigrants with extremist impulses to scout for terror training in what is now being referred to in intelligence circles as ''jihadi tourism.''

The case of Faisal Shahzad, now dubbed the ''idiot bomber,'' was preceded by those involving Richard Reid the ''shoe bomber,'' Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab the ''undie bomber,'' Daniel Pearl stalker Omar Saeed Sheikh, the London metro bombers, paintball jihadists from Virginia, truck and cab drivers Najibullah Zazi from Denver and Raja Lahrasib Khan from Chicago, all of them involved in terror plots that typically has a Pakistan connection.

The Pakistani trail goes back even further to the early 1990s, well before the Osama bin Laden/Khalid Sheikh Mohammed inspired 9/11 tragedy, when World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and CIA shooter Mir Aimal Kansi emerged from the country's badlands to inflict the first terrorist attacks on mainland America.

Pakistanis in the US are now experiencing the blowback for their homeland's permissive track record of terrorism that has long been an Indian grievance.

Earlier this week, a Pakistani-American complained that a manager at a suburban home-improvement store prevented him from buying two bags of fertilizer for his family's lawn. Farhan, who was identified by a single name by a news agency, said police arrived soon after, investigated and allowed him to buy the fertilizer.

''What kind of a country are we living in when a 22-year-old male can't buy fertilizer?'', the Virginia-born Pakistani-American asked. ''I'm American. I'm not Pakistani.'' Farhan said the store had subsequently apologized.

Other Pakistani-Americans have spoken about how on learning of the Times Square incident, their first instinct was to pray that it was not a Pakistani or a Muslim.

''Sometimes, I long for the blurry cultural identities of the 80s, when elementary school friends lumped all Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan and Egyptian immigrants in one brown-hued bucket: "India." Who wouldn't rather be affiliated with Slumdog Millionaire, Metro PCS's Ranjit and Chad, Chicken Tikkah Masala, Bhangra remixes and Bollywood instead of religious extremism and Al Qaeda?'' writer Wajahat Ali said in another lament on Salon.