Perseverance — Page 141
Part II – My Life as a Muslim 141 I replied that that means he arrived last night. This illustrates how easily American English could be misunderstood by Pakistanis. There were three other Americans who would visit every year but they were not students in the J ā mi‘ah. They were the children of Syed Abdur-Rahman, who was president of the Cleveland, Ohio Jam ā ‘ah. Syed Abdur-Rahman had a cosmetics manufacturing business. He was originally from India and he immigrated to the United States before the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. Of these five Americans who were residing in Rabwah, only two were enrolled in J ā mi‘ah. I suggested to the Second Khal ī fah ra that we should form an organization to represent American students and I should be appointed as the secretary of this organization. Huzoor ra readily agreed and appointed me as the Secretary of American Students. Huzoor ra was excited about this role and immediately began to dictate to me my responsibilities. He identified who I should contact and dictated what I should say to them. I enjoyed this opportunity as a means of working directly with Huzoor ra without the intervention of any intermediaries. No one knew what we were doing except the two of us. One example of my assignments was to contact Vice President Richard Nixon. Nixon had enrolled his children in a non- segregated school. My letter to him was to applaud him if his actions were to sincerely show equality among the races, but to admonish him if it was done merely for political gain. Nixon acknowledged the letter and expressed his appreciation. There were several other assignments that included contacting senior level American diplomats including John Foster Dulles,