What Muslim students think about terrorists and war.

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Muslim Students in New York: Afraid, but Hopeful
September 26, 2001

"All Muslims are not terrorists."

Those are the words that a frightened Muslim teenager in New York City shouted in the hallway of her school soon after she heard news of the attack on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon.

There are an estimated 3 million Muslims living in the United States. Many of them are afraid of being harassed, hurt and discriminated against because they share the religion of Islam with terrorist organizations led by Osama bin Laden, the Saudi militant who is the primary suspect behind the September 11 attacks on America.

More than 200 cases of hate crimes and harassment have been reported to the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee since the attacks. Arab-American passengers have been kicked off of airplanes because of the way they look.

People who look like Muslims have been murdered in Michigan, Texas, and Arizona. Muslim places of worship, mosques, have been vandalized in many places around the world.

Tensions after the attack

For several days after terrorist attacks, 17-year-old Kashim, of Queens, New York, escorted his mother shopping because she was afraid to walk alone.

Some of his classmates thought it would be funny to point a finger at him and claim that the attacks were his fault, but he didn't find it funny.

Kashim wrote about his concerns in his school newspaper, thanking other students and teachers for going out of their way to show him support. "We cannot allow those [behind] the attack to see our hatred against ourselves," he wrote. "We must show them strength, brotherhood, love, and hope. Remember, united we stand, and divided we fall."

Students at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan were particularly affected by the attacks on the World Trade Centers, which once stood a few blocks away from their school.

Witnesses to the terror

Rafee, 17, is a senior at Stuyvesant. He saw people fall out of the buildings after the planes hit. He also saw a Muslim classmate who was wearing a traditional scarf on her head burst into tears after a man on the street verbally assaulted her.

Fatima, 14, is a sophomore at Stuyvesant. She witnessed the horrific smoke clouds and hundreds of fleeing people when the buildings collapsed, and was forced to evacuate the school with her 3,000 classmates. But what frightens her the most now are hate crimes.

"For the first week I didn't even leave my house," Fatima says. Her parents came to America 30 years ago from the former Pakastani area now known as Bangladesh, and follow the Bengali traditions. "I wear a scarf over my hair," she says. "My mom covers her face. My dad goes regularly to the mosque. I'm still nervous that when my parents go out they might not come back. That kind of discrimination isn't supposed to happen in America."

Fatima's cousin, who worked in the World Trade Center, was one of the lucky ones who escaped. At last count, more than 6,000 other people-including many Muslims-were trapped and killed when the planes crashed and the buildings fell.

"The people who did this, I don't know what their justification is," Fatima says. "People in the Muslim community are grieving too. There's been so much suffering because of this. I pray for the victims. And while grieving the losses, I have to fear as well because I wear Islamic clothing. Some people on the subway now look at me differently. I don't want to have to worry about that now, too, but I do."

Zahira, 14, is a freshman at Stuyvesant. She was in English class when a shocked classmate arrived late, saying that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. Zahira and her fellow students laughed, thinking it was an excuse for being late.

"But then the principal made an announcement and we all sat in silence," she says. During the next period, she was looking out the window when the first building collapsed. "I saw this huge cloud of smoke, I felt our building shake a little, and the lights started to flicker."

During the evacuation, members of the school's Muslim Student Association told her that if anyone harassed her she should let them know.

"It made me angry and sad, to think that people might make judgments against Muslims," Zahira says. "To think that the people who did this reflects all Muslims-I don't get that. Whoever did this, I don't consider them to be Muslim. What they've done is against the religion. Islam is a religion of peace. We don't believe in murder or suicide. God made you, and it is not your choice to take it away."

Overcoming fear

Like Fatima, Zahira stayed at home for the first week after the attack. "My mom told me that if I did go out, I shouldn't wear my scarf. But I couldn't do that. Without it, I don't feel right. I feel naked."

Zahira wants to join her school's debate and track teams, and is a member of the math team. She is starting to feel more secure at school and on the subway. But as a freshman who doesn't know many of her fellow students yet, she feels alone and thinks people are afraid to even say hello to her.

Zahira hopes the fear will end soon--students fear of her, and her fear towards non-Muslim strangers. "I love America, and I don't want to leave America," she says.

Like the other students interviewed for this article, Zahira was born in New York and is an American citizen. One of her hopes is that non-Muslims will learn more about Islam-"not base their opinions about the religion on what a few Muslims seem to do. I want Muslims to be respected, and I think that it will happen. America is a strong country."

Kashim, too, is optimistic about America's future. He sees hope in what has happened in the multi-ethnic communities of New York City. "People joining hands, regardless of religion or color."

His father, a retired restaurant manager from Bangladesh, lost a friend in the World Trade Center.

But even his father's tears are shed in hope, Kashim says, "that God is bringing us together. He thinks this is a test, and we're on the verge of passing it. It's important that everyone recognize that this is about the action of terrorists, not about a religion."

To read about what Muslim students think about the terrorists and war, click here.

To read more about the religion of Islam, click here.

By Mikki Morrissette

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