by Subhash K Jha

It's not easy being a Muslim right now.

TV superstar Iqbal Khan discovered this when he headed for the American Embassy for a visa to attend a celeb-presence event in the US and Canada between 20 September and 2 October.

Iqbal's request for a visa was turned down.

"Why me?! I've been asking myself this since I was turned down. There were fourteen of us from television, a majority were ladies including Kanchi Kaul and Sakshi Tanwar. I was the first one to reach the Embassy early in the morning. I was the only Muslim. I was the only one denied a visa. Only because my name is Mohammed Iqbal Khan?"

Iqbal tries hard to suppress his emotions. "The lady at the Embassy said there're three bad people (suspected terrorists) with that name and that they'd have to put me through a fingerprint-scan in Washington. She then made took my fingerprint test. My hands were blackened like any suspected criminal."

Iqbal says for the first time he felt isolated as a Muslim. "This event in the US and Canada was supposed to pay for the house that I am buying for me and my fiancée before our marriage. Now I can't afford it.

Why was I treated this way? It's not as if I'm an unknown. In fact when the lady at the embassy asked me if I was a known face I was too embarrassed to say who I was. Some Indians in the room told her who I was. I still had to go through the finger print test, still had to be treated like a suspect."

He says this is his second experience at visa discrimination in two months. "Earlier I was denied a visa to the UK. But I didn't connect it with the situation of terrorism. Now when I think back there were two Muslims in that team to UK and we were both denied visas."

Iqbal admits he's scared. "We're living in troubled times anything can happen. Earlier I used to hear it was difficult for Gujaratis to get visas to the US. I've never had this experience before. Now I wonder when I'd be allowed out of the country! I'm getting married in January. I had big plans for my fiancée and I for a honeymoon abroad. Would we be allowed to go?"