Are you related to Osama Bin Laden?

A couple of years back my mother and brother and I were taking a trip to the Americas to Los Angeles to be precise. Done this before so no hassle, at least thats what we thought... Even though after 9/11, and being Persian we should have known better.

So after I don't no how many hours the plain landed in Houston Texas, and the airport was called, guess this one kids “George Bush International”. WARNING, WARNING if you are from the Middle-East run out of there as fast as you can!

Anyways we get to customs, and the immigration officer looks at all three passports before he gives a nod to one of the other immigration officers who then followed us to the little room in the corner, (where by the way nobody wants to go). So we're sitting there waiting for somebody to come in and talk to us. I'm having all these different thoughts. Why did they stop us? Do they actually think that we''re terrorists? No it couldn't be...

After I don't remember how long, a lady came in with some forms for us to fill out. The first page was fairly basic stuff, name, address and so on, but when we turned the page we got the shock of our lives.

The questions read as following:

• Are you a terrorist?

• Are you related to Osama Bin Laden?

• Have you seen or done any terrorist activities lately? And so on...

I was actually loosing my mind while reading the questions, and was sure somebody would appear out of nowhere and say, “just kidding , you're on Americas Funniest Videos”. But nope, that didn't happen. After about ten minutes the same lady came into the waiting room area, and told my mother and me to stop answering the questions. But my poor brother had to continue answering them. The immigration officer asked him to follow her into the little room. My mother was in shock, and couldn't move an inch. So I asked the immigration officer if I could come and help my brother fill out the rest of the form.

I remember that the experience was so surreal at the moment, that we actually started laughing. We were in shock! I 'd read about stuff like this happening to other Middle- Easterners, but I don't think I ever imagined it happening to me our my family.

After we were done filling out all the forms, they took his picture, and some sort of fingerprint. The immigration officer told us that my brother was only allowed to stay in the US for 30 days, and that he had to talk to immigration before he left the States.

We left the little office and we were hoping to catch our plain to L.A, but no luck there either, it was so late that the last plain had left. We were offered a hotel -room for the night and a phone card. Right after we had received a key for a hotel room, a Danish mother and her three small children appeared. They too had missed their flight, (but obviously for very different reasons). There were no rooms available at hotels near the airport, so my mother offered her our room.

Our plain left 6 am. bright and early the next day, so now we had six hours to kill at the airport. I remember almost starting to cry, when I realized what had just happened to us. Being Persian we're proud and don't compare our selves to Arabs. We are proud of our history with the great Persian kings like Darius and Cyrus. I was mad at the few stupid and ignorant people of what they had done to thousands of innocent Americans. And by doing what they did, they put the rest of us in an unfortunate position and situation . But mostly I was mad at George Bush and the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. I was mad at being judged for being a Muslim, for people not having enough understanding of the religion and thinking that we're all a bunch of terrorists. I bet a lot of you out there don't even now that Islam actually means peace.

But yes, I'm still mad, mad at all the ignorant people brain washing innocent kids thinking that if they blow them selves up, commit suicide which is not allowed in Islam they''ll go to heaven. I'm mad at judgemental people thinking that all Muslims are alike. Never considering to read a little and understanding the history. I'm mad that everybody thinks that the Middle-East is just one country and the capital is Saudi Arabia.

I feel the constant need to defend my country and my religion. I always feel the need to try and educate others whenever I can. Make them understand that there is a difference between fundamentalist Muslims and regular Muslims. Not every Middle-Easterner hates every American he or she sees. That we too want peace between the western world and the Middle-East. I hope it happens soon cause I'm sick of explaining to people the difference, and i actually sometimes think I shouldn't have to.

Over and out for this time!