Perseverance — Page 37
Part II – My Life as a Muslim 37 who dedicated their lives to serve as missionaries for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. JOURNEY TO PAKISTAN My journey to Pakistan in 1949 was anything but smooth. Instead of the flight landing in Damascus, Syria, it landed in Basra, Iraq. Not thinking anything of it, I left the airport only to be confronted by officers who interrogated me on suspicion of being a spy for the recently created state of Israel. The fact that I did not have an Iraqi visa didn’t exactly help the situation. Needless to say, I missed my connecting flight to Karachi, Pakistan and the grand reception which was awaiting me. The Karachi Ahmadi Jam ā ‘ah was at the airport en masse, eagerly expecting to welcome its American visitor. One can only imagine their anticlimactic surprise of a no-show! Meanwhile, back in Iraq, the wild imagination of the investigating officers was spurred on by the personal gifts I was transporting. These were gifts from my newfound Ahmadi brothers to their relatives in Pakistan. The officers initially contested my identity as an American citizen, claiming that Americans don’t carry two overcoats (I was wearing one and the other was a gift in my luggage). The officers alleged that the second overcoat was for when I would set up shop in the desert and needed something to sleep on. They alleged that the transistor radio I had could be rigged as a wireless unit to communicate to my “contacts in Israel. ” In attempts to explain why I only had $50 cash, the officers claimed my Parker pen could be sold for petty cash.