When my family decided to leave Pakistan, it was a bittersweet moment.  Even though I was only 10 years old, I could feel the internal struggle within me and the mixed emotions I had as I rode in the back of a horse carriage watching my home slowly disappear as it turned on to the main road in Rabwah, Pakistan.  I could sense the feeling of loss for what I was leaving behind pull at the feeling of excitement of living in America, the land of freedom and opportunity.  We packed up, leaving the only life we'd ever known to emigrate to the United States. The United States became my country.  More than that, it became my home, one that I grew to want to protect and serve in accordance with the true teachings of Islam.  

Sadly, I sometimes wish that I could have served my birth country of Pakistan like I have served my adopted country of the United States of America.  But Pakistan did not want me. It does not want many others like me because I am an Ahmadi Muslim.