Most Muslims thought, and perhaps still think, that the rising Islamophobia across Europe would never be able to set a strong foothold in the United States. The Cordoba House project controversy (so-called "Ground Zero Mosque") made me realize that Muslims have a long way to acceptance in the American society.
My grandfather, who passed away last year, was always full of wisdom and kind words and prayers for me whenever I went to Pakistan to visit him. On one of those visits he sat me down for a very serious discussion about settling in Pakistan one day. I joked I would think about it if he agreed to give me a spot in the family’s cemetery.
A year later, I am seriously contemplating that perhaps I should have a back-up plan for a worse-case scenario. You never know what life will throw at you. Or when people start calling for you to "go back home." Or when people start blowing up your houses of worship.
After 9-11, many Pakistani-Americans have moved their money to banks overseas out of fear that if there is ever a backlash their families will have a safety net. Many have also built homes which they are either renting or letting relatives use it. For the first time in my life I am thinking about doing same. I don’t have the money right now to purchase property and then build a house on it, but this is something I will be discussing with my six siblings when we gather for Eid at the end of Ramadan.
Meanwhile, I find comfort the the thought that my parents have a beautiful house in Pakistan, sitting atop a hill surround by property that my grandfather left them.
Saleema Gul is an undergrad majoring in corporate communications at the University of Houston.
