September
11 A Year Later American Muslims are determined not to let hostility win
By PAT MORRISON
The Muslim journalism student from Missouri was in New York,
attending a conference of the College Media Association. It was March, and the
young woman was walking with a female friend, another conference participant,
in Central Park. The Muslim woman follows the practice of hijab, or wearing a
headscarf, as part of her religious practice. The rest of her clothing was
contemporary Western dress, just like that of her non-Muslim friend.
While we were walking I noticed a police car driving back
and forth, very slowly. I felt relieved, thinking the officer was keeping an
eye on us, two young women alone, and maybe also in a protective way on me.
Wearing hijab, I know I stand out, and sometimes my scarf invites some negative
comments from people. So it was kind of good to see the police
around.
But her illusions of safety were shattered when the squad car
pulled up alongside her. The police officer rolled down his window and yelled
out You (expletive) American Taliban. Go back where you came
from!
But where Dana Marie Fecho-Al Hilali came from is Wichita, Kan.,
the heartland of America. The U.S.-born young woman wasnt really
raised anything in terms of religion, she said in an interview with
NCR. Drawn by the religions moral code and the importance it gives
to prayer, she converted to Islam almost eight years ago, and opted for the
more traditional practice of wearing a head covering two years ago. It
was totally my own decision, she said. I felt it was a way of
publicly affirming my faith.
But in Central Park she learned that for a Muslim, especially
after Sept. 11, publicly affirming ones faith can be a risky, even
dangerous action.
The incident in New York jolted Fecho-Al Hilali. It pretty
much turned my sense of security upside down, she said. Here I was,
an American, and I had always trusted the police to protect me. I thought I
could always go to them if there was a problem. And now here was a New York
City policeman calling me a terrorist, and telling me to get out of my own
country.
Unfortunately, Fecho-Al Hilalis experience is not an
isolated one. A poll published Aug. 21 by CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic
Relations based in Washington, shows that more than half of Americas
seven million Muslims -- 57 percent -- say they experienced bias or
discrimination since the Sept. 11 attacks, and a majority of the 945
respondents (87 percent), said they know of a fellow Muslim who has experienced
discrimination.
Other survey results showed that:
48 percent of respondents said their lives changed
for the worse in the year following the attacks; and
the most frequent forms of bias reported were verbal
abuse, religious or ethnic profiling and workplace discrimination.
On the upside, the same poll indicates that more than three in
four American Muslims, 79 percent, also experienced special kindness or support
from friends or colleagues of other faiths. That kindness often took the form
of verbal assurances, support during the anti-Muslim backlash following the
attacks and even offers to help guard local mosques and Islamic schools.
Muslims are worried
But as the nation heads into the first anniversary of the
terrorist attacks, Muslims are worried.
The most disturbing aspect of the upcoming anniversary is
that were seeing an increasing level of anti-Muslim bigotry,
Ibrahim Hooper, CAIRs communications director, told NCR in a phone
interview. Hooper said reports of discrimination and harassment had spiked
after Sept. 11, but then waned in the late fall through the winter. But lately,
theyre on the rise again.
Hooper is concerned that without a strong statement from President
Bush, its going to get worse. He needs to come out
forcefully, in a message to the American people and, clearly state
that Islam is not the enemy of America.
Once you start attacking Islam as a religion of
evil as [some politicians and religious leaders have], youre
setting yourself up for unending civilizational conflict that no one wants to
see, he said.
Once that spiral starts, its hard to stop. Once you
start demonizing the other, it reaches its only conclusions. Weve seen
this before, in Nazi Germany, in Bosnia, in too many other countries. We know
what happens when one group of people decides that the other is intrinsically
evil or not worthy of life. Once you say that, then what? Like the Nazis do you
start firing up the ovens?
The mix of politics and religion makes for some strange
bedfellows, and Hooper also worried aloud at the best-seller popularity of the
Left Behind book series. Many in the Christian right are fiercely
aligned with Israel against Islam, for example, actively seeking the end times.
When you have people who are hoping for the end of the world, its
frightening to imagine what theyll be doing, Hooper said.
So totally American
Even people who arent aiming for Armageddon have been making
life difficult for their Muslim neighbors, sometimes in the name of
Homeland Security. (See related stories on Page 8.) An 18-year-old
American Muslim youth from Toledo, Ohio, was pulled off a Delta Airlines flight
from Detroit to New York earlier this summer after the pilot walked down the
aisle and asked him to leave the plane, reportedly because he didnt like
the young Lebanese-American mans looks, and said Im not
comfortable with you on this flight.
The thing is, the youths relative, a Toledo
restaurant owner, told NCR, this kid is so totally American. He
was born here. Hes never been in trouble. Hes was an honor student.
He doesnt even speak good Arabic. We tease him that he just knows enough
to say his prayers, and that not even too well.
Terrorism suspects on the governments radar screen tend to
be Arabs. But American Muslims report that ethnicity doesnt matter.
Just having a Muslim name like Omar or Ali raises suspicions, said
Shaheen Ahmed, a Leawood, Kan., pathologist who was born in India.
Ahmed should know. Last Thanksgiving she was awaiting the arrival
of her oldest son, Farooq, 27, from New York when she received a phone call.
At first I thought it was my son, telling us he was arriving. But instead
it was an FBI agent.
The agent wanted to know how she knew Farooq and why he was
traveling from New York to Kansas City. He seemed surprised when I said,
Why for Thanksgiving of course! My children all come home for the
holidays.
Ahmed and her husband, Iftekhar, a neurologist, later had a visit
from the FBI and were required to produce Farooqs birth certificate. Like
other Muslim Americans, the young man had been forced to get off the plane and
was detained and interrogated because his name is similar to that of a
terrorist on the governments no-flight list (see related story on Page
8). The Ahmeds later learned that the FBI had visited Farooq at his New York
apartment on several occasions to question him.
The profiling appears to be a family affair. The Ahmeds
younger son, Sameer, 22, is a college student. Earlier this year, while working
in an internship program for Secretary of State Colin Powell, Sameer was also
asked to leave a plane because his name was on a no-flight list. He was
interrogated for 45 minutes -- despite showing official State Department
identification.
The Ahmeds have been in the United States 30 years and their three
children were all born here. People ask my kids, Where are you
from? and they say Leawood, Kansas. This is the only country
and the only home they know, Shaheen Ahmed said. How do you think
this makes them feel?
Because of the profiling and examples of bigotry, American Muslims
are living a double terror, Shaheen Ahmed said. We have the
terror of the 9/11 attacks that all Americans lived through, and then we have
the terror within: What will happen next? Will my sons, my daughter be harmed?
Imprisoned? Everything has turned upside down for us.
But despite the stress and humiliation of profiling, bigotry and
surveillance, many American Muslims said the backlash from Sept. 11 has made
them even more determined to show the authentic face of Islam and to
demonstrate that Muslims are loyal, productive citizens who love the United
States.
For Manaz Shabbir, the terrorist attacks made her resolve to do
something positive. The Philadelphia-born wife and mother of four boys is of
Indian descent. Shabbir is vice president for strategic planning and business
development for Carondelet Health System in Kansas City, Mo., a Roman Catholic
health care system with two area hospitals.
We cant control what happens in other parts of the
world, but we can control the approach were going to take, Shabbir
told NCR.
Controlling her approach led Shabbir to launch two Web sites:
americanmuslimwoman.com and communitypeace.com The Web sites are
only her latest form of positive outreach: She is vice president of the
Crescent Peace Society, which aims to raise awareness of Muslim cultures and
foster interfaith understanding.
I was very sad when [Wall Street Journal reporter]
Daniel Pearl was killed, and thats what led me to start community
peace.com, she said. She also coordinated interfaith events in March
for the six-month anniversary of Sept. 11, and was master of ceremonies last
week at another interfaith gathering in preparation for the first
anniversary.
While Shabbir said she has not personally had any negative
experiences as a Muslim post-9/11, her children have, and the realization of
that kind of a world saddens her.
State of paranoia
The country is really in a state of paranoia, she
said, and that makes people do uncharacteristic things. Shabbir is
also concerned about the loss of constitutional liberties and the
governments expanded powers in the name of security.
I have writing and speaking ability, I realized, and I
decided I might as well use these skills in a way that can benefit the
community, the total community. Her skills are being put to good use:
Shes been on numerous radio shows and has been on the speaking circuit at
hospitals, churches and synagogues since last fall.
My main message is that being a Muslim is not equivalent to
terrorism, she said, adding that she has received wonderful support and
interest from the non-Muslim faith communities she has visited, as well as from
her colleagues at work, where she is the only Muslim woman in a management
position.
Abdul Hammuda agrees with Shabbir that the Muslim community needs
to be proactive and focus on the positive. The Libyan-born owner of Toledo,
Ohios, Tiger Bakery was the co-founder of Masjid Saad foundation and
mosque and Toledo Islamic Academy, the masjids elementary and high
school.
Hammuda, who emigrated to the United States in 1974, said he
hasnt personally experienced any negative incidents, although he knows
some who have. On the contrary, theres a little more positive
things happening, and thats good. I think weve got this message
across, that Islam is not to blame [for Sept. 11], and Muslims are as American
as anybody else. Our lives are here. Our kids were born here. And were as
vulnerable as anyone else when some terrorist wants to do something.
Hammuda says Americans have to stand up to bigotry and reject it.
America is a wonderful place, and we cant allow bin Laden or his
guys to change this. We cant fall in the pit he wants us to. If we hate
one another, we lose and he wins.
Young people speak out
Muslim Americans fear more repercussions as the 9/11 anniversary
nears. But increasingly their young people are convinced that speaking out,
witnessing to authentic Islam as a religion of peace and justice, will turn the
tide of bigotry theyve experienced in the past year.
Milia Islam, 23, grew up in the only Muslim family in the small
Missouri town of Fulton, population 10,000. Today shes a masters
degree candidate in theological studies at Harvard, majoring in world
religions.
Islam, who came to the United States from Bangladesh at age 7,
said she believes its up to young Muslims to make a difference. Like many
immigrant groups, Muslims from various countries were previously reluctant to
stand out. The message was blend in, dont be noticed. Dont
let them see youre different, she told NCR.
But young people today have a very important role to play.
How we deal with the current situation will be pivotal. Whats important
is that there be a lot of integration rather than isolation.
Young American Muslims, she said, arent from somewhere
else. We grew up here. We know this society, how it works. We understand the
media, how to use it, how to organize for good, for understanding. We need to
show the true face of Islam, and never to let the negative things bring us
down.
That invitation comes right from the pages of Islams
scripture. At the Muslims for Peace and Justice conference held in Kansas City
earlier this summer, participants were welcomed with a large banner displaying
a well-known quote from the Quran:
O you who have believed, it proclaimed, stand
firm for Allah as witnesses in justice, and never let the hatred of a people
prevent you from being just. Be just! For that is
righteousness.
National Catholic Reporter, September 6,
2002
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