Peeping into Muslims’ lives

THE news item, ‘FBI investigates lives of Muslims in US’ (Oct 7), did not surprise me as I have a personal experience of such an investigation.I was working with one of NASA contractors at Johnson Space Centre when I was asked to see two special agents. They wanted to know about my link with Bashiruddin Mahmood, a scientist who retired from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.I told them that I had met him in the biennial conferences of Pakistani scientists held in Islamabad in 1998 and 2000 and that I had found him to be a man of integrity.Though they were quite respectful to me throughout the interview, they told me at the end that my e-mail and telephone conversations will be under surveillance. They also asked me to inform them in advance about my trips to Pakistan.Later, I learnt that other members of Association of Pakistani Scientists and Engineers in North America (APSENA) were also visited by the same people. The owner of the building in which the office of the Apsena was located, a Muslim, got so scared that he asked us to vacate the premises.Although I am a US citizen since the early seventies, we are being constantly watched. We feel as if we are living under the Russians in the former USSR.A Pakistani American, who is married to an American, often threatens those of us who write about foreign policy and history and differ from the establishment’s views. He posts around 20 messages daily, criticising Muslims and degrading Islam. Thus, the current climate in the US is dividing the Muslims among themselves and creating a class of quislings in their ranks.Postscript: About two weeks ago, my job was terminated. Although the excuse given was shortage of research funding, the truth lies somewhere else.