And one day "Que Sera Sera' suddenly vanished from Blogosphere.
Now I consider myself American and I exactly understand the meaning and importance of "war on terror". But the way this 'war on terror' has been executed has done more harm to the image of America worldwide. It has made more enemies than friends. Its unfortunate that many innocent people who has nothing to do with politics and are only interested in the welfare of their family has been punished for no reason. Particularly at airport and immigration, it was not only limited to muslims but people from every country, race and religion has been treated as 'suspected proved otherwise'. Now here read the story what happened to 'Que Sera Sera' and her family (with her permission):
"....In April 2007, my husband and I came to Qatar for a 4-day recruitment interview for a job, leaving the kids with my sisters in the US. On our way back, at Houston Airport, we were denied entry and our visas were revoked. Why, how, no one knows and it is still a mystry to us. We were in status, our papers were complete but as my sis-in-law says they did not like the color combination of the clothes we were wearing so they decided we should not be allowed to re-enter. Anyway, the homeland security people decided to deport us back home without our kids. Only 15 minutes before the departure of the flight back home they decided to give me a months time to get the kids and then leave for home. My husband went back and I went to our town. Disposed off all the stuff in a week and took the kids and came back to Pakistan in less then 2 weeks.
My husband got the job and we moved to Qatar in July 2007. We had to come here by August anyway, but the homeland security people pushed us to come here early. It seems so easy to write it all now but at that time it was worse then a nightmare. And we found out later that we are not the only ones who had to face this, there are thousands of people being detained and deported without any reason. Because of all this my husband's Phd got delayed. He was to defend in the Summer of '07 and thanks to the homeland security it will now be later this year inshallah.
I am extremely grateful to my family and friends in the US and ofcourse to my husband's freinds at the university, who were there with me during that horrible time."
2 comments:
I would say that it is still a lot better than a friend of mine who was detained for months at NYC jail and then deported, after he was returning from a trip to Pakistan to admit her daughter in a medical school while two of his very young sons were here and his wife who had traveled with him and daughter originally decided to stay back in Pakistan for some more or she may have rotted too God knows where. They were not allowed any time in to dispose of their property or belongings, so I would say that it was only due to Allah SWT that you had a chance to come and stay even for a very short time be with your kids and get rid of belonging one can do at best in such a distressing situation.
I do ask myself many a times where should I go now that this not such a homeland has been my home for over 3 decades.:(
Thousands of such stories told. I remember 2001-2003 was nightmare for many ppl. Things have improved in last 2/3 years and hopefully common sense will prevail.
Being an american, I still think, its one of the best country to live and make my kids grow here. But it is a nauseated feeling every time you hear such thing.
I always wondered, what happened to Que Sera Sera and here is the answer.
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