By Dr. K. Sohail

The American Immigration officer looked at me suspiciously, stared at my passport and then asked, ‘ When was the last time you were in Pakistan?’

‘Two years ago’

‘ Why did you go?’

‘I was writing a book about serial killers and mass murderers. I went to Pakistan to interview

Javed Iqbal, in his death cell, as a psychiatrist. He was charged with murdering 100 children.’

‘Why are you going to USA?’

‘To visit my friend Carol Ann and her son Anthony in Florida’.

‘For how long do you know Carol Ann?’

‘Nearly twenty years.’

‘Do you have her address?’

‘No, I don’t’.

‘Why not?’

‘She will pick me up at the airport. I have her number.’ Then she looked at me as if not believing a word I had said and got up from her chair.

‘Follow me’ she said and started walking towards the Customs department. When we entered the office, she asked me to sit down in a chair and went inside to give my passport to an officer for investigations. When I looked around, I saw the signs of Justice Department and the pictures of American flag and the Bald Eagle. When I looked up, I saw a board hanging from the ceiling that stated that all activities in those offices were videotaped and all conversations recorded.

Suddenly I felt a cold chill in my spine and realized that in spite of living in Canada for twenty- three years and having a Canadian passport, I was still perceived more of a Pakistani than a Canadian. And that perceived identity had intensified since September 11^th crisis. Although I had heard a number of scary stories about people from Muslim and Arab countries, but I had not taken them seriously. Somebody once told me that American passengers had refused to board the plane in Los Angeles, after they found out that some Arab men were going to travel in the same plane. I had also read that in Canada the pilot had refused to take a few Pakistani pilots in his plane because they were planning to fly to Florida. The rationale of the fear was that the terrorists who bombed Twin Towers in New York and Pentagon in Washington were Arab pilots who were trained in Florida. In the last few weeks North Americans were getting mixed messages in the media. On one hand, they were asked to be aware of future terrorist attacks, and on the other hand, encouraged to travel and fly because many businesses were getting paralyzed and people in travel industry were losing jobs.  Being an eternal optimist, I had refused to be scared and was leading as normal a life as possible in those unpredictable circumstances. That is why when Thanksgiving Weekend approached and my dear friend Carol Ann, who I had known for twenty years but had not seen for years asked me to spend the weekend with her and her son Anthony, I booked the flight. I asked my colleague Anne, to close the clinic for Friday November 22^nd and Monday November 26^th, so that I could spend a long weekend in the warm and sunny weather of Florida.

While I was thinking about all that, I saw a stern looking clean-shaven young white officer approaching me. He was nearly five feet eight inches tall and was wearing a uniform. I was pleased to see that he was not carrying a gun.

I stood up to talk to him. He looked at me from head to toe as if saying,’ your brown skin and beard remind me of Osama bin Laden. You look like a terrorist’ and then said, ‘ Pick up your bag and follow me’ in a very authoritative voice.

I felt the wave of humiliation rising in my heart because of his arrogant attitude and insulting tone of voice. He sounded like a jail guard ordering a criminal when he said, ‘Follow me.’ I followed him physically while rebelling emotionally.  ‘Why is he so arrogant and insulting towards me? Is it because he believes he is white and I am brown, his name is Robert and mine Mohammad, he is an American and I am a Pakistani, he is from the First and I am from the Third world?  But what happened to common courtesy and decency and respect. Are people in the Government Service hired to serve or to rule?’ I ignored all such thoughts and followed him in a small room. He closed the door behind us. In that cubicle, there was a desk, a chair and a computer for the officer and two empty chairs for me. I could also see a camera on the ceiling recording my activities and conversations.

‘Put your bag on the desk’ he was as authoritarian as before.

I quietly followed his order.

‘Take out all the contents and put them on the desk’ I felt like a criminal doing that.

‘Take off your coat and put it on the chair’ I took off my long leather coat that I had bought to protect myself from the Canadian cold and bitter winters.

‘Take off your sweater’. As I was taking my sweater slowly I was wondering what is he going to ask me to take off next.

‘Do you have any guns?’

‘No’

‘Any knives?’

‘No’ I could feel a cutting edge in his voice.

‘Any narcotics?’

‘No’

‘Do you give money to any charitable organization?’ ‘ No’ I was aware that he was thinking about Al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization lead by Osama bin Laden and in his eyes I was guilty proved otherwise.

Then he sat down in his chair and started looking at the contents of my bag.

The first book he picked up was Beyond the Storm? A Gulf Crisis Reader.

It was the book I had ordered by mail from Chapters bookstore, and received the day I was leaving in the mail. I had put that in the bag hoping that I could read it in the plane not realizing that it could give a wrong impression to the officer on the border. The cover of the book showed flames rising from the oil reserves in Iraq and a Muslim praying by putting his head on the ground. I could see that the picture confirmed in his mind that I was a terrorist. In that book I had also kept a paper with the list of table of contents of my next book.

Some of the titles were:

Killing in the name of God

Psychology of the Modern terrorists

Osama bin Laden, a terrorist, a freedom fighter, a holy warrior?

From Holy War to Holy Oil

Roads to Peace and Humanism.

Then he saw my book From Islam To Secular Humanism that I had kept to offer my friend Carol Ann as a gift. Then he picked up another page with some thing written on it that he could not comprehend.

‘What is this?’

‘This is the alphabet of Punjabi, my mother tongue.’ Then he opened an envelope in which I had a few hundred American dollars and some foreign currency notes from Middle East and Europe.  ‘ Why have you kept this paper money? His suspicion was escalating.

‘They are a gift for my friend’s ten years old son Anthony who collects foreign currency.’

By this time he was obviously perturbed.

He got up from his chair, picked up my passport and some papers and walked out leaving me wondering what was he going to do next.  ‘ Is he not going to let me enter USA?’

‘If I was refused entry once, would I ever be able to enter America?’

‘Would he put me in jail to do the remaining investigations’.  I knew I had entered USA numerous times by road and by air with no problems but after September 11^th, the whole world had changed in general and America in particular. American Government was discussing patriotic law giving the police, immigration and customs officers all the power to hold people in jail who were a suspect for terrorist activities. They were not willing to take chances. One American newspaper had the heading ‘Justice plans to interview 5000 men, mostly Arabs’. FBI was asking police to interrogate these men from Muslim countries. I was impressed to read in another newspaper that many police chiefs in the country had refused to follow the orders, as they were afraid that such interrogation would undermine the trust they had developed with their communities over the decades. That was the first time in the last twenty-three years that I had been living in North America that police was challenging the FBI. Many socially conscious Americans were afraid that George Bush and the Republican Party undermined human rights and civil liberties of all citizens and America was turning into a police state. They were nervous what might be the long-term effects of FBI taping people’s phone conversations and checking people’s private emails. They thought it was not a good omen for the future of America.

When the officer came back, he had gloves with him. It was obvious that he was under the spell of the Anthrax scare.

‘Are you concerned, officer?’ I asked gently, testing waters.

‘Why would I be concerned, are you?’ He still looked agitated.

‘You are the one wearing gloves, not me’

He searched my bag pockets and found a photocopy of my Visa, Master-card and American express cards.

‘Why have you made these copies?’

‘In case I lose my wallet, I have an extra copy.’

By this time I was losing my patience.

‘I might miss my flight, officer.’ I reminded him of time in a respectful way.

‘Don’t worry about it.’

‘It is easy for you to say. I am the one who is going to pay the price for this un-necessary interrogation.’ I thought but kept quiet.

In my bag he found my business card. He stared at it for a few seconds and then

I saw him relaxing. He took off his gloves.

‘What do you do?’

‘I am a psychiatrist. I have a clinic in Ontario, which is called Creative Psychotherapy Clinic.’

‘Where did you go to school?’

‘In Canada. I studied psychiatry at Memorial University in Newfoundland and then passed my Canadian Fellowship Exam.’

‘For how long have you been living in Canada.’?

‘For more than 20 years.’

I could see he was looking more and more relaxed. Then he picked up my book From Islam To Secular Humanism and asked, ‘ When was this book published?

‘A few months ago. In the last couple of months many newspaper, television and radio journalists interviewed me. They showed a keen interest in my book. I was also interviewed by CBC radio.’

‘What did they discuss?’

‘My philosophical journey, psychology of modern terrorists and how Sep 11^th, crisis is affecting Muslims and Arabs living in the Western world.’ He was appearing comfortable now as if he was having second thoughts about my being a terrorist.

‘So what do you think of what happened on September 11^th, 2001.’ ‘ It was tragic. It was sad to see thousands of innocent men and women dying. I have a lot of sympathy for the grieving families. I believe every human life is sacred.’

‘And what do you think of terrorist activities?’

‘I am against all terrorism whether done by individuals, groups or states.  I am in favor of peace at local, national and global level’ As he was talking to me, he went back to the computer and started pressing buttons. Obviously he was searching for something. Finally he found something on the screen that I could not see. He smiled and said, ‘ You have written many books.’

‘Yes, more than a dozen.’

I was sure he had discovered my web-site on the Internet that showed the long list of my publications.

‘What are they about?’

‘Different subjects. About mental health and social justice. They are all about my dream of a peaceful world.’

‘What do you think of the Muslim World?’ For the first time I sensed some genuineness in his voice. He was talking more as a fellow human being rather than an officer talking to a criminal.

‘I am against religious and theocratic states.’

‘Why is that?’ he seemed genuinely curious.

‘In religious states people suffer. In Pakistan and many other Muslim states of the world, children, women and minorities suffer because they do not have equal rights and privileges.

‘Dr. Sohail! You sound like a philosopher.’ It seemed as if suddenly he had an aha experience.

‘I always believed in a peaceful dialogue’.

‘Dialogue between whom?’ Now he was asking me questions like a student asks the teacher.

‘Between East and West, between Muslim and Non Muslim countries and between First and Third World people.’

‘What do you as the first step in that direction?’ ‘ Education. It is unfortunate that a country like Pakistan who is proud of its freedom has a literacy rate of 15 percent. It is tragic that in the last fifty years since independence, the birth rate has gone up while the literacy rate has gone down.. I believe ignorance breads prejudices and prejudices lead to holy wars. We have to teach our children how to think logically and rationally.  We have to educate our adults to think beyond their own tribe, nation and country.’

‘So you are not in favor of Holy Wars?’

‘Definitely not. But there are millions in this world who do, whether they call it crusade or jihad. When I was a teenager I used to believe that Hindus of India were my enemies, as they were non-believers. Gradually I realized that Indians were my neighbors and one should love not hate one’s neighbors. When I traveled in the Middle East and visited Israel, Saudi Arabia and UAE, I realized that Muslims, Christians and Jews were all children of Abraham and had more similarities than differences. And when I traveled in North America, South America and Africa, I became aware that we are all part of the same tribe, the same family, and the Human family. We are all children of Mother Earth.  ‘ You are incredible. I am so impressed. I have never met a scholar like you especially from the Muslim World.’

It seemed as if the arrogant, authoritative office had transformed into a humble gentle human being. He sounded like a disciple asking his guru some thought provoking questions.

‘What are your views about what American Government is doing?’

‘You want a politically correct or an honest answer?’

‘An honest answer’

I felt as if I could trust him by then. I said, ‘ I think America has to review her foreign policy. At the present time I am worried about those millions of Afghanis who are suffering in refugee camps. I am afraid that thousands of innocent children would die in the bitter cold winter of the next few months. I am also afraid that millions of Afghani refugees would be forgotten in a few months by United Nations and the Western world. I have seen quarter of a million refugees in Bangladesh. Those Bihari refugees have been waiting in the refugee camps of Dhaka for quarter of a century hoping that United Nations and Western countries would fulfill their promises.’

Then the officer picked up another letter from my bag. ‘ You are a member of PEN?’

‘Yes, I am, and I believe in freedom of expression.’

‘And you are a Humanist?’

“Yes, I am. I believe that people’s religions should be a private matter and we should keep the religious separate from the political. I believe that in all states of the world people should not only have freedom of but also freedom from religion’.

‘Dr. Sohail! I really enjoyed talking to you. I am sure you are a wonderful writer’

‘Would you like me to send you a copy of my book as a gift’?

‘That would be an honor. I would share it with my colleagues and I am sure they would be educated about the Muslim world.’

‘Can you give me your address’?

And the officer wrote down his name and address on a card and gave it to me.

Then he went out for a couple of minutes.

When I looked at the watch it was 8pm. My flight was supposed to leave at 7.50 pm.

When the officer came back he said, ‘ I am really sorry Dr. Sohail. Your flight has already left. I talked to Air Canada. They booked you for the first flight tomorrow morning. I apologize for the inconvenience.’ ‘ But my friend would be anxiously waiting at the Orlando airport.’

‘You can call her from here if you wish.’

‘No, that is OK.’

‘I have signed all the papers. Tomorrow morning you would face no problems.’

After that he put all my books and papers very respectfully in my bag.  The next morning I flew to Orlando. After spending the weekend with Carol Ann and her son Anthony when I came back, I sent a copy of my book From Islam To Secular Humanism to the officer with the caption, For Robert?A Message of Peace... We Are All Children Of Mother Earth?  sincerely  Sohail. November, 2001.