Confronting the Other

They are the newest group of unwilling victims. Muslim Americans and Arab-Americans, and even some Southeast Asian Americans, have rapidly become targets of misguided, ignorant zealots. Here at Harvard, Muslims and Arab-Americans have taken note of a changing political and social climate. No matter how strong of a connection these students felt to their religion or ethnicity before, the collapse of the World Trade Center gives them no choice but to reconsider what it means to be Muslims and Arabs in America.

What do Muslims and Arabs at Harvard have to say about this tragedy and their being thrust into a contemptuous limelight? Fifteen Minutes gathered a group of eight Muslim Americans and Arab Americans from across the Harvard community to find out. The eight consisted of: Saif I. Mohammed Shah 02, President of the Harvard Islamic Society (HIS); Zayed Yasin 02, former president of HIS and president of the Harvard Friends of the American Red Cross for the past two years; Rita Hamad 03, president of the Society of Arab Students; Yassine Daoud, second year student at Harvard Medical School; Laila El-Haddad, graduate student at Kennedy School of Government; Sheila S. Akbar 02; Tawfiq Ali 03, the secretary of HIS; and finally, Laura Cohon 02.

After the Attack

Since that Tuesday, news of hate crimes poured in from across all 50 states. While a Sikh was killed in Arizona, shot to death presumably for resembling a Muslim, many other Muslim and Arab Americans were physically and verbally harassed. Innumerable others decided to simply stay home rather than risk a world that had suddenly and immediately turned hostile.

That fateful day, Saif received his first hate mail. For Yassine, it was an epithet later that day at a soccer game where he was harranged with the slur motherfucking terrorist by the opposing goalie. This was after Yassine himself had called for a prayer at the beginning of the game to remember victims of the tragedies. I ignored it, and told the captain of the other team about it, Yassine said.

Shared Values

It is because there is an us vs. they dichotomy that hate crimes are on the rise, Saif explained. But to him, it simply doesnt make any sense. Political beliefs and family ties are as irrelevant as fashion taste. Zayed made the comparison to other kinds of international terror. When a bomb goes of in Belfast, do they go to Southie? When the Italian Mafia murders, do they immediately go after Italian Americans here? Zayed asked.

Saif expressed that the sentiment is that because youre an Arab, you have an intimate connection. He shakes his head. I find that very surprising. All [the Muslims and Arab-Americans] Ive known have been very peaceful people.

Laila El-Haddad would be such a person, and she is a Palestinian Muslim who wears the traditional hajib to cover her head. However, being a Palestinian doesnt preclude her for feeling sympathy and empathy for the American victims.

Whos to blame for this schism? Yassine pointed to the media as the culprit for this blindness toward the shared values and sympathies that Muslim and Arabs share with their neighbors, both domestic and international. There are a lot of people misiniformed in this country, Yassine says. The media broadcasts Palestinians celebrating on TV but never shows the Palestinian vigils.

Confronting an Old Problem

Columnists and pundits alike declare that clashing values and narratives are at the root of this conflict. President Bushs first address to the nation stated that it was because America is the brightest beacon for freedom and staunchest advocate for individual liberties that it was attacked. But if it is values and narratives that clash, the eight students profess that they are not Judeo-Christian values clashing with Islamic ones.

Islam, these students declare, is misunderstood. Young to this country and blemished by the publicity of repressive theocratic regimes abroad, few people understand its message of peace. As Tawfiq Ali said, Islam does not want innocent people to die. Those terrorists involved gave up the peace of Islam, something that is sinful to our faith.

No matter how much we put it out there Sheila explained, Islam remains misunderstood. [People] see Islam as this black fog that no one can understand, and it seems to me that Americans are falling into the trap that the terrorists want us to fall into Sheila said. They wanted to polarize the issue into Islam vs. America or even foreigners vs. America, they want to see us fighting each other, and our country divided.

Indeed, Islams voice has been soft in comparison to other religions on the Harvard campus. In the case of last Spring, when violence flared again around Israel, Islams voice and the Arabs voice was literally nonexistent. While a pro-Israel rally was held on the steps of Memorial Church, scores of individuals clad in black and holding signs of Palestinians killed in the recent fighting held a silent vigil directly across from them, on the steps of Widener library.

However, simply getting ones voice heard may not be enough. Yassine worries that there will be those who know and respect individuals, but still see Islam as barbaric. The message commnicated to him might be, youre a good Muslim, but everybody else isnt. America is a place to be an individual, Sheila said. Now were being forced to hide under this blanket of ambiguity.

Such a blanket may not yet exist at Harvard but the threat even on such a progressive campus leaves these eight with a sense of foreboding not so much for their lives as for their way of life. At Harvard, Im not afraid. What I am afraid of is out loss of voice. There will be a percieved lack of legitimacy, Zayed stated.

Most panelists agreed that, again, the media is in part to blame for a prejudiced view of Islam. Laila said she found the rhetoric spewed from CNN and Fox reporters to be very scary. She also noted that a C-SPAN reporter randomly accosted a man who appeared to be Muslim in order to question his patriotism. The idea behind the question, Laila said, is that it follows that if you dont respond, you support what happened.

Yassine had the most hard-line view of the media. If anything happens, I think the media are committing criminal acts by dehumanizing Muslims and Arabs, and furthermore in preparing the American nation to accept another peoples probable devastation.

Patriotism

Laila el Haddad put it succinctly: Im Palestinian. I dont have to be American to sympathize with these people. Moreover, you dont have to be an unhyphenated American to be patriotic. Muslim and Arab Americans, the panelists stated, want justice and peace as much as anyone. Zayed pointed to his presidency of the Harvard Friends of the Red Cross.

Yassine sees the misunderstanding of Islam as a main obstacle to Muslim and Arab Americans becoming accepted as equally patriotic and equally outraged. Were even being judgmental when we say its a Muslim [who was behind the attacks] Yassine declared, noting that it hasnt been proved that it is Osama bin Laden, only that there are links.

Tawfiq explained the situation as sparking two types of pariotism. On one hand is the I want to fight to make sure that this never happens again in the world sentiment and on the other side is nationalism as a kind of superiority over the other.

Past Lessons

These eight grieve while watching over their shoulder. They are, in Yassines words, doubly affected because Muslim and Arab Americans have not only lost loved ones but that, as he said, I feel what is coming is worse.

Many of the panelists did not see so much the comparison to Pearl Harbor as the internment of Japanese-Americans. They worry that a war with countries in the Middle East may prompt the scaling back of individual liberties specifically for Americans of Islamic faith or with darker skin. I hope that the United States learns from its mistakes with the Japanese-Americans, and that were able to overcomethe misunderstanding of other cultures, says Rita.

Looking Forward

Rita, the president of the Society of Arab Students, thinks that the Muslim and Arab American communities will be pushed back because of this...[and] I dont know how we will overcome that. She worries about navigating the space between her Muslim and American identities. I dont want anybody to tell me I have to choose between them.

For now, it seems Rita wont have to choose. Tawfiq says, the change Ive gotten is quite positive on this campus. Saif received an unsolicited apology from the same individual who sent him his first piece of hatemail. For every one or two e-mails Ive received [that are negative], Ive received 50 to 60 or so e-mails from kind people telling me thtat they have me in their thoughts, he says.

Laura believes that the events in the wake of the attacks in New York and Washington could become a stepping stone to come to believe that Muslim and Arab Americans are like everyone else. Saif seemed to agree, hoping that in time America can realize that the values that Islam preaches are values that we all recognize

Saif may have summed it up when he said Im hopeful, Im fearful. To him, the President of HIS and suddenly a spokesperson for the Muslim community at Harvard, he hopes that any coming conflict would be a war to reunderstand our values.

One of the top three items bought at Wal-Mart following Tuesday was the American flag. Nationwide, American flags have, among other things, become symbols of solidarity, defiance, rememberance. We must hope that they will not turn into symbols of repression and destruction for the millions of Muslim and Arab Americans, many of whom are purchasing and proudly displaying those flags. The Koran reads Assalam AlaykumMay peace be upon you. May it be upon all of us.