The community was not hostile. The community was made of neighbors who cared about the community. This is what made the rejection slow and total and structural and without a villain. There were no mobsters and no enemies and no people who actively wanted Dr. Samira Haddad to leave. There were only people who cared about the community and the caring was the immune response and the immune response does not hate the foreign body. The immune response does not have hatred in it. The immune response simply identifies the foreign body and acts to remove it, and the action is gentle and the action is justified and the action is collective and the action is the community protecting itself and the action is love of the community and the action is the rejection of the outsider and the action is total.

Samira was a professor of comparative literature at a small college in the Midwest. She was thirty-six years old and she was Muslim-American and she was born in Detroit and her parents were from Lebanon and Samira spoke Arabic at home and she prayed five times a day and she wore a headscarf and the wearing of the headscarf was the first thing that was noticed, because the community noticed everything about Samira that was different and the noticing was the first step of the immune response.

The noticing happened in September 2005. Samira had moved to the town six months before and she had been going to the grocery store and the coffee shop and the college and the noticing had been gradual and the noticing had been friendly and the noticing had been the kind of noticing that says: you are different and we see you and we are curious about you and the curiosity was not hostile and the curiosity was the beginning of the identification.

The identification happened in October. A woman named Linda saw Samira at the grocery store and Linda saw the headscarf and Linda saw that Samira prayed in a room at the college and Linda saw that Samira did not drink alcohol and Linda saw that Samira's children spoke Arabic at home and Linda understood that Samira was different and the understanding was the identification and the identification was the second step of the immune response.

The community was made of people who had lived in the town for twenty and thirty and forty years and the community had a shape and the shape was the pattern of people and the practices and the beliefs and the community had existed in that shape for decades and Samira was a new element and the new element did not fit the shape and the shape resisted the new element and the resistance was the immune response and the resistance was gentle and the resistance was justified and the resistance was love of the community and the resistance was the rejection of the outsider and the resistance was total.

The rejection was slow. It was not a single event. It was not a mob at Samira's door. It was a series of small actions that accumulated and the accumulation was the rejection and the accumulation was the immune response working at low intensity over a long period.

The PTA voted not to allow Samira to chair the literacy committee. The vote was fair and the reasoning was sound and the reasoning was about availability and commitment and the reasoning had nothing to do with religion and the vote was democratic and the vote was the community deciding and the decision was gentle and the decision was one of the small actions.

The coffee shop stopped ordering Samira's usual. The owner, a man named Gary, had known Samira for six months and Gary had always been friendly and Gary had always remembered her order, and then Gary began to forget and the forgetting was gradual and Gary said he was busy and the busyness was real and the forgetting was real and the forgetting was the immune response working at low intensity and the forgetting was one of the small actions.

The college offered Samira a sabbatical. The offer was generous and the offer was real and the offer was framed as a gift and the offer was love of the faculty member and the offer was the community protecting itself by removing the element that did not fit and the removal was gentle and the removal was justified and the removal was one of the small actions.

Samira understood what was happening. She understood that no one was hostile. She understood that the people who were acting against her were acting out of love of the community and the love was real and the love was the immune response and the immune response was not hatred and the immune response was not personal and the immune response was structural and the structural was total and the structural was the rejection of the outsider and the outsider was Samira and the rejection was slow and the rejection was gentle and the rejection was the community protecting itself.

She tried to fit the shape. She stopped wearing the headscarf to the grocery store. She drank coffee with Linda. She volunteered at her children's school. She attended the community meetings and she smiled and she nodded and she spoke about literature and the literature was shared and the sharing was real and the attempts to fit the shape were real and the shape did not change and the shape was the immune system and the immune system does not change to accommodate the foreign body. The immune system removes the foreign body.

The removal was total. It was the accumulation of the small actions. It was the PTA vote and the coffee shop forgetting and the sabbatical offer and the invitations that stopped coming and the conversations that stopped including her and the friendly nods that stopped and the friendly nods were replaced by polite distance and the polite distance was the immune response completing its work and the removal was total and the removal was gentle and the removal was justified and the removal was love of the community and the removal was the rejection of the outsider.

Samira left. She left in June and she took her children and she drove to Detroit and she went back to the city where she had been born and the city was different from the town and the city did not have an immune response because the city was made of different elements and the elements did not reject each other and the city was a mixture and the mixture was the shape and the shape accommodated the new elements and the new elements were not foreign bodies and the foreign body was the town and the immune response was the town protecting itself and the rejection was total.

Samira wrote about the immune response in a letter to Linda. She wrote: You did not hate me. No one hated me. You cared about your community and the caring was the rejection and the rejection was gentle and the rejection was justified and the rejection was total and I understood this and I understood that the immune response does not hate and the immune response does not need to hate and the action is love of the community and the action is the rejection of the outsider and the outsider is identified and the outsider is removed and the removal is gentle and the removal is love.

She kept the letter. She kept it as documentation. The documentation was the record of the rejection and the record was the proof of existence and the proof was the only defense against the erasure. The erasure was the immune response completing its work and the erasure was total and the documentation was the only thing that remained and the documentation was the proof and the proof was the existence.