“Why exactly are you here?” This is the question I was asked by a UK Border Control official at Heathrow Airport last year, on arrival in London. Now you would think that that’s a pretty reasonable question to ask a foreigner visiting your country right, after all it is standard practice all over the world isn’t it? Except, I’m not a foreigner, I’m British – born and raised in the UK and I was coming home. Was the official already aware of this? Of course he was. He was holding my British passport in his hands. None of the other Brits returning home around me were asked the same question. Why did they have a greater entitlement to be there than I? Could my unmistakingly Muslim name and Pakistani origins have anything to do with it? To be honest the official’s question didn’t come as much of a shock at the time given that I always have ‘random checks’ done on me by airport security every time I fly out of the UK. It can’t surely be just sheer coincidence. My airport experiences are not unique, it’s something that a…
