The teenager from Karachi was one of a group of 675 students participating in a U.S. State Department-sponsored program that brought Muslim students to the United States as part of a post-September 11 cultural exchange.

Nasir, wearing a "Chicago" cap and talking like an American teenager, said he did not mind the questions from people he met during his year in the United States because it gave him a chance to explain his country and correct misperceptions.

"All they really knew was the way the media portrayed Muslims, as extremists," said Nasir, who studied for a year at a high school in Crystal Lake, Illinois.