Many people have asked me what this trip is about. Truth is, it is about nothing. Then again, maybe it's about everything. Just like when people ask me "Where are you from?" I think I can argue that I am from nowhere and everywhere. American? Pakistani? Californian? Indian? I could throw all of these words into a hat, have a stranger pick one, and then explain to them why that word absolutely defines me. The children of immigrants have always had a tough time identifying their true self, but when your immigrant parents are the children of immigrants themselves, it gets even tougher.

But, there is one thing I know that is relevant to the trip upon which I am embarking: I hold both an American passport and a Muslim name. Lucky me! If I were a pessimist, I could say that I am the intersection of the war on terrorism - people in Muslim countries will think I am CIA, and people in Western countries think I am about to bomb their capitol buildings. I am, however, an optimistic realist, so I don't believe that this is how people will perceive me. What I truly believe is that people will not be so quick to judge, but will listen to what I have to say with clear and open minds, like the gist of my message, participate, and then wish me luck on my journey. The vast majority of people, in my mind, are good. They want to have a job, work hard, eat well, love someone, and die an old and contented being. It is only via misinformation or out and out ignorance that people learn to hate, because it is not a natural state of the human condition. Or, so I think...

So, instead of sitting in a San Francisco skyscraper (as I had the last 5 years), watching the world go to shit, I decided to see if there was any hope. Hope in the sense of figuring out if East and West really is that different, and if warring factions are such different creatures that they will never learn to co-exist. Do people in Egypt know that 100,000 people marched in Washington DC for peace in Oct. 02? Do people in New York know the difference between Wahhabi and Shia forms of Islam? Are Jews and Muslims really all that different? There are so many of these questions it is frightening - how easily people on both sides swallow the propaganda from the TVs and join the cycle of hatred! However, it is not for me to educate these masses - that is a job for greater men. But, I do intend to see just how much I can find out about the wall of ignorance that stands between the two cultures I call home, and post my findings to this lovely site.

I plan on doing interviews with random subjects (and for those who love me, don't worry, I won't force anything) as well as writing of my experiences in these strange lands. Am I looking for anything in particular? I guess the answer to that question will depend upon what I actually find. But, my grandest hope is that I will find that most people back neither Bush nor Bin Laden, that they resent being told they must be with one or the other, and that they see hope for the future. Because, in the end, I want to have some hope too.