U.S. President Trump on Wednesday met with a Pakistani Ahmadi man who spent three years in prison for his Ahmadiyya beliefs.

Pakistanis Abdul Shukoor and Shaan Taseer were two of the 27 participants in the Oval Office meeting with President Trump. During the brief interaction 83 year old Abdul Shukoor prayed for President Trump and said:

“I pray that may Allah reward you, protect you and give you a long life” “I can call myself a Muslim in the United States but not in Pakistan, otherwise I will be punished” “We (Ahmadis) were declared non-Muslim in 1974, our shops and houses were looted and many houses were burnt down, I then relocated to Rabwah along with kids, where I had a shop selling books, and was given a 5 year sentence and a 600,000 PKR fine, now I have been released after three years”

Responding to Shukoor’s comments President Trump said:

“So you see the world is a tough place, and we are making strides and we are making some good strides”

The American administration under U.S. President Donald Trump has made religious freedom a centerpiece of its foreign policy.