Community Corner

Pakistan Man Thankful for Second Chance in America

Ahmar Mustikhan shares his beliefs about the Pakistan military and Osama bin Laden, and discusses his 9/11 experience.

When Ahmar Mustikhan landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Oct. 20, 2000, he was so happy, he kissed the ground.

“I cannot explain my joy of landing on the land of the United States of America,” he said in a recent interview.

Mustikhan was safe.

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The man from Pakistan had won a journalism fellowship and was escaping his country, where he felt targeted by the nation’s army for a handful of reasons, including his belief in a separation of politics and religion.

The reporter had written about the idiosyncrasies of jihad, the name for war waged for Islamic religious purposes.

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Mustikhan landed on the eve of his 41st birthday, and 11 months before history’s most deadly jihad — Sept. 11.

Freedom to be Himself

Mustikhan moved to Piqua, Ohio, and wrote for the Piqua Daily Call for some months. He was living there at the time of the 9/11 attacks; he now lives in College Park.

Previously a reporter for newspapers in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, Mustikhan said he was outspoken on his opposition to jihad, as well as a 1998 nuclear bomb test in Pakistan. He also pushed for the independence of Balochistan, his home province overlaping Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.

For his beliefs and advocacy, Mustikhan believes he was blacklisted by the Pakistan Army.

“If I go back, in 15 minutes I will meet my Maker,” he said.

His belief in the separation of politics and religion, his practice of free speech and the fact that he is gay indicate that Mustikhan’s ideals align more with those of his new country than with the nation of his birth.

Mustikhan is South Asian, not Arab or Muslim. In the United States, he embraced Christianity and then secular humanism.

But on 9/11, none of those things mattered.

‘No More Towel Heads’

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Mustikhan jumped into a cab and learned about the attacks from the driver. She warned him to be careful, because people might be angry with Arabs.

Later that day when visiting a bar he frequented, a customer also told him to be careful.

“I would be hiding beneath my bed,” he told Mustikhan.

Despite the warnings, Mustikhan stayed at the bar to watch the news coverage of the attacks. On a subsequent occassion, when he was ready to leave the bar, he said one man who was particularly emotional began screaming at him.

“He was yelling, ‘No more towel heads!’ I was shaken,” Mustikhan said.

“I did not think that people would have that kind attitude, but I was wrong … Because of my accent and brown color, they were associating me with Muslims.” 

He said, however, that it was rare that such slurs were thrown at him, and he does not believe it represents the majority of Americans.

Osama bin Laden in Pakistan

Since his days in Ohio, Mustikhan moved to California, then Louisiana, working for newspapers and wherever else he could find employment. Eventually he came to the Washington, D.C., area, where he has worked for The Gazette and other publications.

It was in his College Park home in May that he watched the jubilation in front of the White House after Osama bin Laden was killed earlier this year.

He wasn’t surprised that bin Laden was found in Pakistan.

“The hiding of bin Laden was 100 percent … 1,000 percent a Pakistan intelligence operation … No doubt about it,” Mustikhan said.

U.S. Navy SEALs killed bin Laden in the city of Abbottabad, home to a range of Pakistan military establishments. Mustikhan believes bin Laden, as a foreigner of Pakistan, could not have hidden on his own so close to what he calls the country’s West Point.

“It is not possible … without the involvement of extremely responsible, very high people in the military,” Mustikhan said.

Still Kissing the Ground

When Mustikhan landed in the United States, it was as if he were reborn at the age of 40.

“I got a new life here. What I am here, I could never be in Pakistan,” Mustikhan said.

Today, he is comfortable living as an openly gay man. He takes pride in being represented in north College Park by an openly gay city councilman and the fact that Maryland is showing signs of moving closer to legalizing gay marriage.

Mustikhan is a human rights activist for Balochistan. He writes on Balochistan and Pakistan issues as a citizen journalist for the Baltimore Examiner.

He has veered away from organized religion, which he calls a weapon of hatred.

He is still waiting on his citizenship to be granted, a process he said was slowed by the attacks, but he is not bitter. In a way, Mustikhan is still kissing the ground. He said he doesn’t have enough words to thank this country.

“I’m extremely indebted to the United States of America for giving me a second chance at life,” he said.

The story has been corrected. A previous version indicated an incorrect number of months Mustikhan worked at the Piqua Daily Call, when he encountered a the man who shouted slurs at him, and a location of employment in Maryland. We regret the errors.


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