Fiction: Professor Nurul Islam’s outspoken views earn the ire of Pakistani fundamentalist preachers

“I told them that you were perhaps one of the world’s greatest physicists,” Abe Rosenfeld said very casually to Nurul Islam, when they were settled in the car heading out from Boston’s airport.

Nurul Islam raised an eyebrow at him.

“I had to tell them something,” Abe explained apologetically, to Nurul’s broad amusement. Abe Rosenfeld was not one for superlatives or even the mildest flattery. Not even for Einstein, going by a famous instance at Princeton, and who was Nurul Islam of Pakistan in comparison to him?

“Well, thank you, even if you didn’t mean it,” Nurul replied. “But why would immigration detain me? Do I look like a radical to you? Don’t I look respectable, a middle-aged professor in my tweed jacket and tie, my fresh haircut and half of an English accent?”

Not quite accurate, of course. His passport and his features often provoked England’s gatekeepers at London Heathrow to detain him a mite longer than normal, and a lot longer when a fresh batch of immigrants arrived from the former colonies. He’d never had a problem entering the United States before.

It took a moment before Abe said with a wry smile, “Could be that wild mustachio of yours.” Then he added, “Or it...

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