Pakistan-born Islamist scholar and writer Ziauddin Sardar isn’t, of course, half as recognisable as actor Shah Rukh Khan. And yet back in 2002, when the London-based co-author of — among other books — Why Do People Hate America? was asked to step away from the immigration queue at New York and subjected to an identity check, Sardar had a fairly unique experience.
Here’s his account, in his own words: “The book Why do People Hate America? came out in March 2002, barely six months after the 9/11 terrorist attack. It is an exploration of the reasons for anti-American sentiments in many parts of the Islamic world, and I travelled to the US in April 2002 to promote it.
My American publisher came all the way to London to take me back with him. He was understandably nervous, given the atmosphere at that time, and told me, “While at the immigration counter, whatever you do, don’t say you’re the author of Why Do People Hate America?”
We got to New York, and when my passport was presented to the immigration officer, he asked me where I was born. “In Pakistan,” I responded. He said, “Oh! You’ll have to take a bit of a detour, I’m afraid.”
The officer then called someone else, and my passport was put in a bag, and I was marched off to a small room on the side. At the head of a room there was a platform, and there was a big-built guy with a crew-cut, who looked like a caricature of the conservative right-wing nut. Things didn’t look too good.
My passport was given to him, and I was told to sit down. For over an hour he tried to match my photograph against an online database — perhaps of suspected terrorists — but of course nothing turned up. After an hour, another man came in with a wad of photocopies with more photographs of suspected terrorists. I watched helplessly as the big-built man began matching my photos with those on each of those photocopies, one after another.
I realised this could take hours, so I went up to him, and said, “Sir, this could take very long, and you don’t really need to do that. You know, I am a very famous man!” He looked at me quizzically and said, “What do you mean?” I told him that I was an author and media personality and that in London, where I appeared on TV frequently, people would recognise me wherever I went.
He mulled on this, and then asked me if I had a website. I said I didn’t have a personal website, but that if he Googled my name, he would get many results. “How many hits will I get?” he asked me. I responded that depending on the day, he would get up to half a million results. He Googled my name — and of course the first result that popped up said I was the author of Why Do People Hate America?
He asked me, “Did you write this book?” I responded that I had indeed. To which he said: “Why didn’t you say so in the first place? We could have sorted it out rightaway… And as for your book, I can’t believe it has taken so long for people to hate America!”
He then stamped my passport, and said, “Off you go!” and off I went.
