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Dr. Babar receiving an award from FBI Director James Comey
With his family in Florence, Italy
Registration System, and have my fingerprints taken even as a young physician. We talk about profiling not being done in this country, but profiling was done. I went to register as a legal person in this country, and the officer was kind of embarrassed. He said,‘ Oh doc, I don’ t know why you have to come here,’” Dr. Babar said.
“ I have 9-year-old twin boys, and I wish I could show them the America before 9 / 11. That was what society should be like. We were open. We were welcoming. Even after I registered, I thought this fear was a temporary thing and shall pass. Meanwhile, I moved to Louisville and had kids. I thought,‘ Man, it’ s not getting better, it’ s getting worse. Maybe I need to play my role as a citizen '.”
A friend from Pakistan, Dr. Waqar Saleem, called Dr. Babar to offer him an opening at the medical school in Louisville. Dr. Babar welcomed the opportunity, moving to the city in 2004 with his wife, Suri. The two had met in Buffalo during Dr. Babar’ s residency and were married in 2002.
Once they arrived, Dr. Babar’ s work grew in countless different ways. First, he completed a fellowship in Geriatric Medicine, followed by a Master of Science Degree in Public Health. He would also complete an MBA degree online from the University of Massachusetts. He took a position at Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital then began his own geriatric practice. Soon, Dr. Babar was acting medical director at several nursing and rehabilitation centers across the city.
But he hasn’ t let the studying distract him from the real job of helping his fellow human beings. Of that duty, he stays painfully aware.
“ I still remember my first patient as a resident, a 17-year-old girl diagnosed with lymphoma. After that, when I went back to my apartment I cried like a baby. Then a few months later, I had a 35-year-old with a breast metastasis, and I hugged her mother-in-law, and we both cried. That makes this a special profession. It keeps you humble. It keeps you close to God and your fellow human beings.”
The Babar family grew in 2007, as the couple’ s twin boys, Adam and Harris, were born.“ That’ s when things changed for me, I’ ll be honest,” Dr. Babar explained.“ I was still happy in my little cocoon. Weekends watching football … Then I had kids, and I thought‘ What kind of world is this?’ We were seeing a lot of islamophobia. My family, my friends, we were trying to be invisible. How long could we live like this?”
Dr. Babar recalled seeing the tactic of dividing people through fear as
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he grew up in Pakistan. Now in America, he had a horrifying sense of déjà vu.“ The beauty of America is that America welcomed everybody irrespective of their faith, their ethnicity, and then those people give their best to the country. The uniqueness that America had, we’ ve lost.”
To combat the concern he felt inside, and the fear he was seeing from family and friends, Dr. Babar was called to action internally. As President of the APPKI, he guided local efforts to distribute and install 100 water purification units in Pakistan after a devastating flood in 2010. That same year, he collaborated with interfaith initiatives to provide disaster relief in Haiti following their earthquake.
“ It was very humbling to see all these people step up and help. It reaffirms your faith in humanity when you send out a call and people are ready.”
His community service continued as he helped plan relief after tornadoes ravaged Southern Indiana in 2012. Dr. Babar also worked to forge a collaboration between Louisville Jewish, Catholic and Muslim communities to build two houses for Habitat for Humanity.
“ That was a great experience,” Dr. Babar recalled.“ Not only does service make you a better human being, it helps a fellow human being. And, when you’ re in the act of service, you understand more about the people around you in a practical way. Just through that experience, we knew more about each other’ s faith, traditions and backgrounds. It was humbling and very spiritual.”
In the last three years, Dr. Babar has worked to establish three non-profit organizations: Muslim Americans for Compassion( to engage the community through outreach initiatives and educational events), Doctors for Healthy Communities( to help fight epidemics of addiction and childhood obesity) and a multi-ethnic engagement committee that is getting off the ground.
“ That organization has been approved but we’ re still getting started. The goal is to reach immigrant communities, help them integrate into
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