Ibrahim Jadoon will graduate with honors this weekend from Centre College in Danville. His family left Pakistan and moved to the U.S. when he was three. When Osama bin Laden was captured two years ago just blocks from Jadoon's former home, he did a lot of reflecting.
"It was disappointing because, if people don't know, Pakistan is a relatively new nation," explained Jadoon. "I realize it was the Pakastani government's poor border security, it's inability to remove extremist militant groups like the Taliban, and it's general dysfunction that enabled bin Laden to stay hidden for so long."
Jadoon often thinks about how his life would have been different had his family stayed in Pakistan.
"The United States, for all of its faults we sometime talk about in the news, unequivocally houses the best institutes of higher education in the world," said Jadoon. "I feel lucky just to be in the U.S., but in about four days when I graduate, I will join the surprisingly seven percent of the world that actually has a college degree."
The Pakistani-American spoke to Lisa Autry about how his life may have turned out had his family had not left Pakistan, and what he thinks are the prospects for a democracy in his home country.
